War on Papers: Global Networked Propaganda in Semi-Colonial China

This article argues that interstate competition over the organization of the world economy shapes the spatial configuration of commodity chains. This departs from much of the literature that emphasizes firm- and sector-level dynamics. To illustrate this argument, we use formal network methods in conjunction with a historical analysis to examine the evolution of the global cotton trade between 1973 and 2012. Through this analysis, we demonstrate that changes in the spatial configuration of the cotton market were shaped by changes in the nature of competition among the most powerful states in the world economy. While the cotton trade was once characterized by a bipolar network reflecting the nature of interstate competition under the Cold War, by the early 2000s China’s accession to the World Trade Organization and the end of the Multi-Fiber Arrangement had dramatically reshaped the global cotton market. The result was a binodal network in which trade flows were increasingly concentrated between China and the United States.

1% Steps for Health Care Reform: Implications for health care policy and for researchers.

Race, Ethnicity, and Socioeconomic Status Are Associated With Prolonged Time to Treatment After a Diagnosis of Colorectal Cancer: A Large Population-Based Study

John Holland Martin From Picograms to Petagrams and Copepods to Climate: <i>The Class of MS 280, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories</i>

Is it better to have a heart attack in the United States or Canada? Ecological studies are epidemiological evaluations in which the unit of analysis is populations, or groups of people, rather than individuals.1 They can answer important questions such as the question posed above that cannot easily be answered using any other form of study design. Ecological studies are conducted by researchers in a variety of disciplines, including outcomes researchers, to study potential causal associations between 1 or more exposure and outcome variables. They are frequently used where alternative study designs are not possible (eg, randomized control trials), such as when investigating the effect of geographical and temporal factors on disease incidence or the effect of a government policy change on health outcomes. In this overview, we provide an introduction to the use of ecological studies in cardiovascular outcomes research, drawing on published examples from our group and others. It is important for clinicians to be aware of both the potential strengths and weaknesses of this type of study design. Because ecological studies are ubiquitous in the medical literature, it is not possible to review all published cardiovascular ecological studies in a systematic manner. Individual-level variables are properties of each person whereas ecological variables are properties of groups, organizations, or places.1,2 All ecological studies are potentially prone to the so-called “ecological fallacy,” which is a term for the biases that may occur when the association that exists between variables at an aggregate level may not represent the true association that exists at an individual level.3 On the other hand, the ecological fallacy may be offset by avoidance of the “individualistic fallacy” whereby one assumes that individual patients are unaffected by the neighborhood in which they live or the setting in which they are treated.4 Complete …

The forum's participants described nanomanufacturing as a future megatrend that will potentially match or surpass the digital revolution's effect on society and the economy. They anticipated further scientific breakthroughs that will fuel new engineering developments; continued movement into the manufacturing sector; and more intense international competition. Although limited data on international investments made comparisons difficult, participants viewed the U.S. as likely leading in nanotechnology research and development (RD the lack of a national vision for a U.S. nanomanufacturing capability; some competitor nations' aggressive actions and potential investments; and funding or investment gaps in the United States (illustrated in the figure, below), which may hamper U.S. innovators' attempts to transition nanotechnology from R&D to full-scale manufacturing.

360 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE factories: increasing production means increasing losses even more. So the firms limp along with underutilized production, performing dismally. The idea of importing flexible specialization may sound attractive, but as Bagchi concludes, it is not likely to succeed without a supporting telecommunications infrastructure, a network of firms capable of supplying one another’s needs, freedom from misguided central control and unnecessary regulation, and a management ca­ pable of seeing new technologies as a means of producing wealth instead of beating down labor. Bryan Pfaffenberger Dr. Pfaffenberger is associate professor of technology, culture, and communica­ tion at the School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Virginia. Engineers as Executives: An InternationalPerspective. By William Aspray. New York: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 1995. Pp. xiii+309; illustrations. (No price given.) Engineers, as well as students of the engineering profession, have long been fascinated by the role of engineers in management. Run­ ning through the history of American engineering professionalism, for example, has been a debate aboutwhether engineering expertise is a crucial ingredient in the management of technology-intensive enterprises. With the rise of international competition, and the United States’ fall from unchallenged economic dominance, has come a growing comparative perspective on this question. Ameri­ cans have begun to wonder whether someone else may have got it right. Maybe the ways in which other countries incorporate technical expertise into the management ofenterprises accounts for their abil­ ity to surpass American business in many sectors of the international economy. William Aspray directed the IEEE Center for the History ofElectri­ cal Engineering when he conducted a set of interviews with leading engineer-managers from the United States, Germany, and Japan and collected them in this volume. His intent was to learn from his conversations with actual engineer-managers about the role of engi­ neering in the management of technical enterprises and about inter­ national differences in how engineering is incorporated into man­ agement. The twelve interviews (apparently reported verbatim) in this volume (four from each country) cover managers from a wide variety of enterprises (from newer high-technology producers such as Ascii and Dataproducts to industrial giants such as Motorola, NEC, and Grundig). Although some interviews are insubstantial and a few interviewees tend to respond in managerial clichés, many interesting moments are sprinkled throughout the interviews. The reader will learn much TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 361 about the history of individual firms and industries, how specific companies recruit and train engineers, how they encourage research and innovation, and the nature of competition and cooperation among technical companies. Among the more interesting interviews are ones with Ernst Denert, one of the heads of sd&m, a German software development company; with Takashi Sugayama and Ta­ kashi Yamanaka of Yokagawa Electric Corporation, a leading pro­ ducer of electric measuring instruments and process control; with Arthur P. Stern of Magnavox; and with Mitchell Kapor of Lotus. Denert provides interesting comments on the role of the 1968 German student protest era in preparing engineers for the “open” world of software development; he is also astutely skeptical of exag­ gerated claims regarding the prospects for mass-produced software. Sugayama and Yamanaka describe the relationship between a Japa­ nese company and its much larger American partners (GE, HewlettPackard ) and indicate the degree to which the American firm tends to dominate and even to Americanize smaller Japanese companies like their own. Stern, a veteran manager of a major defense contrac­ tor, praises the military’s role in stimulating technical innovation but admits that he preferred working in the commercial side of the business because he found the competitive environment more excit­ ing. Kapor describes the meteoric rise of Lotus with the develop­ ment of Lotus 1-2-3, emphasizing the degree to which the com­ pany’s success was a matter of luck and arguing that it is virtually impossible to plan for this kind of “hypergrowth.” Despite the interesting materials contained in the interviews, the book is ultimately unsuccessful in addressing the basic questions it poses. Part of the difficulty is that Aspray provides only the barest of introductions. There is no extended introductory essay to provide a background discussion of the debate over engineering...

Impact of subgroup analysis on estimates of infertility

Defending our nation against its enemies is the first and fundamental commitment of the federal government. Today, that task has changed dramatically. Enemies in the past needed great armies and great industrial capabilities to endanger America. Now, shadowy networks of individuals can bring great chaos and suffering to our shores for less than it costs to purchase single tank. --President George W. Bush, National Security Strategy of the United States, September 2002 Before 11 September 2001, when American leaders prepared for war they envisioned enemies using bombs, tanks, guns, military force, and other traditional armaments. The attacks on that fateful day forever changed the way the United States and the world would view the nature of war. Using four hijacked commercial jetliners, terrorists attacked the United States, killing some 3,000 men and women. This surprise attack was not symmetric attack, but an asymmetric one. Furthermore, non-state entity conducted this attack at relatively low cost of under $500,000. (1) However, that may have been just the beginning. The success of the attack, and the devastation inflicted on the nation at relatively low cost, will doubtless inspire our adversaries to continue to employ asymmetric methods to threaten and weaken the United States. Among those methods may be the introduction of an species, disease pathogen, or some other biological threat. Introducing Invasive Species Presidential Executive Order 13112 defines species as a species that is (1) non-native (or alien) to the ecosystem under consideration and (2) whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health. (2) An species can be microbe, plant, animal, or other organism. These invaders may be moved from their natural habitat and introduced to new environment either purposefully or by accident. The simple act of moving nonindigenous species to new habitat does not make it invasive. For centuries people have moved species around the world for agricultural and other purposes. Examples of noninvasive species are numerous--from livestock to grain crops to ornamental plants. Most of these species are nonthreatening and benign, but some species can be threatening because of their adverse impact on their new environment. Their introduction may threaten the natural balance in the ecosystem because of their competitive nature, may threaten human and agricultural plant and animal health, and may cause economic damage through the cost of controlling or managing the These threatening species are invasive species. Historically, the introduction of an species has not been intentional, nor has it been the purposeful act of an adversary to weaken or attack the United States. Typically, species have been accidentally introduced when they were imported for ornamental purposes, escaped from captivity, or were carelessly released into the environment. Often species arrived by means of ocean vessels' ballasts, or in pallets, produce, or plant nursery stock. Additionally, animals and other agricultural products have transported them to the United States. (3) The new species may flourish and rapidly expand, as they typically have few or no natural enemies in their new environment. Parasites, pathogens, or predators that would inhibit or limit their spread may be few or nonexistent. In addition, the new environment often provides better medium for growth and reproduction than the species' original surroundings. (4) With these advantages, native species may find it difficult to compete and survive against new, more energetic and prolific neighbor. A 1999 study by Cornell University estimated that approximately 50,000 foreign species have invaded the United States since the 1700s, and the number in the last 30 years has increased at an alarming rate. …

This paper is an essay in political economy. It defines globalization and discusses its key role in economic development over the past two centuries as well as today. Globalization may have broadened markets, thereby affecting the nature of competition within those larger markets, or it may have simply introduced more trade or foreign direct investment to existing markets. One conclusion is that there is no global market for high value food, or for any particular high value food. To date the impacts of multinational firms in political forums at the state, regional or national as well as the global level have been in many instances as important as their impacts on economic markets. Issues and concerns discussed range from general observations on governance of the global economy to the impact of global concentration on specific problems in the agricultural and food markets of the United States. We conclude that the scope and extent of public policy is a direct function of the degree of development and globalization in an economy.

We present an analysis of markets for fresh strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries in the United States during 2008–2011. We use weekly panel data covering supermarket purchases in 52 cities. The primary goal is to estimate demand elasticities for fresh berries and thereby provide a better understanding of consumer behaviour in response to price changes and the nature of competition among these crops. We estimate fixed and random effects models for double log demand equations and a complete demand system, the Almost Ideal Demand System. The latter specification can be used to estimate demand relationships that conform to utility maximising behaviour. The elasticity estimates are very robust across the different specifications and estimation methods. This increases confidence in our findings and provides some assurance that choice of functional form or estimation method is not driving our results. We find that retail demands for all berry crops are in the elastic range and that the different berries are substitutes for one another. The demand for strawberries was the least elastic with an own price elasticity of –1.26 and blackberries were the most elastic with a demand elasticity of –1.88. Blackberry demand was also the most responsive to the prices of competing berry crops. The study provides clearer insight into markets for berries in the United States. In addition, it fills a gap in the present lack of up-to-date consumer demand elasticities for these crops and will be useful for growers, decision makers and consumers.

Air carrier activity at major hub airports and changing interline practices in the United States' airline industry

The British legal system is on the verge of sweeping, historic changes. Parliament is expected to act soon on a reform bill, which will transform the legal profession, the legal aid system, and the organizational and financial structure of law firms in England and Wales. Because London is the home of many of the world's largest global law firms, these changes can have widespread effects on the nature of competition, not only in the United Kingdom, but in the European Union and around the world. This paper traces the development of the legislation, describes its contents, and focuses on the possibility of outside ownership of law firms by non-lawyers, and corporations traded publicly on stock exchanges. It reviews the brief experience of outside ownership of law firms in Australia and implications for lawyers and law firms in the United States. The paper observes that, because the potential scope and depth of the regulatory changes and the competitive effects are too important to ignore, developments need to be monitored and studied carefully. The paper concludes that, although the time is not ripe for such regulatory changes in the United States, support can develop as business opportunities materialize. The future is certain to bring further debates and, perhaps, action to allow more flexible business organizations and new ways to dispense legal services to businesses and the general public.

The relationship between political and economic cycles is one of the most widely studied topics in political economics. This book examines how electoral laws, the timing of elections, the ideological orientation of governments, and the nature of competition between political parties influence unemployment, economic growth, inflation, and monetary and fiscal policy. The book presents both a thorough overview of the theoretical literature and a vast amount of empirical evidence. A common belief is that voters reward incumbents who artificially create favorable conditions before an election, even though the economy may take a turn for the worse immediately thereafter. The authors argue that the dynamics of political cycles are far more complex. In their review of the main theoretical approaches to the issues, they demonstrate the multifaceted relationships between macroeconomic and political policies. They also present a broad range of empirical data, from the United States as well as OECD countries. One of their most striking findings is that the United States is not exceptional; the relationships between political and economic cycles are remarkably similar in other democracies, particularly those with two-party systems.

International grant making by U.S. foundations.