State Visit Research Articles

America's Miracle Man in Vietnam: Ngo Dinh Diem, Religion, Race, and U.S. Intervention in Southeast Asia (review)

Reviewed by: America’s Miracle Man in Vietnam: Ngo Dinh Diem, Religion, Race, and U.S. Intervention in Southeast Asia Matthew Masur America’s Miracle Man in Vietnam: Ngo Dinh Diem, Religion, Race, and U.S. Intervention in Southeast Asia. By Seth Jacobs. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8223-3440-2. Photographs. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. x, 381. $22.95. In America's Miracle Man in Vietnam, Seth Jacobs examines the racial and religious attitudes that contributed to American support for Ngo Dinh Diem in the 1950s. Jacobs's goal is to "arrive at a fuller understanding of the origins of America's longest and most divisive war" (p. 20). He draws on the records of policy makers and religious figures, as well as cultural products of the 1950s, including the films The Ten Commandments, The King and I, and the writings of James Michener. He concludes that "a particular body of ideas about religion and race helped cement the Eisenhower administration's alliance with Diem" and precluded policy makers from considering alternative courses of action (p. 5). During the 1950s, American religious zeal motivated the country's foreign policy. John Foster Dulles, "the most unapologetically religious man to superintend American foreign policy since Woodrow Wilson" (p. 71), believed that Christians like Ngo Dinh Diem were America's best allies in the struggle against Communism. Because Americans viewed "Asia" as "an ignorant, heathen place, peopled, figuratively and literally, by children" (p. 96), Dulles and others felt that if the United States did not provide tutelage and assistance for Asians, the Soviets would "adopt" the region as its own (p. 117). [End Page 1183] Among the high-ranking officials in the Eisenhower administration, only J. Lawton Collins doubted Diem's suitability to lead South Vietnam. With Diem's victory over the sects in 1955, however, Collins's opinion was effectively marginalized. Several prominent figures drew attention to Vietnam and convinced Americans that Diem was an able statesman. Colonel Edward Lansdale encouraged Vietnamese to move south after the Geneva Convention and Tom Dooley, a doctor in the U.S. Navy, publicized the plight of the refugees. Press coverage of the refugee crisis, according to Jacobs, rendered "the Vietnamese civil war . . . as a battle between communists and Catholics" (p. 137; emphasis in original). The American Friends of Vietnam, a lobbying group that included journalist Joseph Buttinger, former OSS director "Iron Mike" O'Daniel, Mike Mansfield, and John F. Kennedy, mounted a public relations campaign to ensure that Diem, by the time of his 1957 state visit to Washington, would be viewed as "one of the great figures of the twentieth century" (p. 259). Jacobs criticizes prominent Americans for failing to give Asians "agency or independent thought" (p. 142), and for dismissing the Vietnamese populace as a "faceless horde" (p. 268). Jacobs, however, also fails to fully account for the actions of Vietnamese. Jacobs claims that "[i]t was in the United States that Diem won his post" as Prime Minister of South Vietnam (p. 25), that "Diem's government was an American creation" (p. 26), and that "Diem would never have been named premier had he not been Washington's candidate" (p. 53). While Jacobs may be correct in his argument that Americans' Orientalism and religiosity encouraged support for Diem, this does not mean that American attitudes and policies are enough to explain Diem's ascension to power, his policies, and his fall from power. Much like the people about whom he writes, Jacobs comes to his conclusions without fully exploring the context in Vietnam. Matthew Masur St. Anselm College Manchester, New Hampshire Copyright © 2006 Society for Military History

Efficient computation of time-bounded reachability probabilities in uniform continuous-time Markov decision processes

A continuous-time Markov decision process (CTMDP) is a generalization of a continuous-time Markov chain in which both probabilistic and nondeterministic choices co-exist. This paper presents an efficient algorithm to compute the maximum (or minimum) probability to reach a set of goal states within a given time bound in a uniform CTMDP, i.e., a CTMDP in which the delay time distribution per state visit is the same for all states. It furthermore proves that these probabilities coincide for (time-abstract) history-dependent and Markovian schedulers that resolve nondeterminism either deterministically or in a randomized way.

Patriotic Womanhood: The Culture of Feminism in Modern Iran, 1900–19411

In 1909, an Iranian journalist conceded that his countrywomen were less valued than ‘the animals of other nations.’ Although granted various privileges through Islamic law, or sharia, they were non...

State Visits and International Trade

Politicians travel extensively abroad, for various reasons. One purpose of external visits is to improve bilateral economic relations. In this paper, I examine the effect of state visits on international trade. I use a large data set covering the travel activities of the heads of state of France, Germany and the United States between 1948 and 2003. My results indicate that state and official visits are indeed positively correlated with exports. A typical visit is associated with higher bilateral exports by about 8 to 10 percent, holding other things constant.

King Faisal ibn Abdul Aziz Al Saud in the arena of world politics: a glimpse from Washington, 1950 to 1971

This paper aims to draw a portrait of King Faisal, as it emerges from the records of the various presidential administrations of the USA. The records which were available to me usually originate from the encounters of the heads of state and their ministers on the occasion of official visits. Despite ceremonial protocol and diplomatic courteousness, the encounters always also had a personal touch of character and emotion. Therefore we do not simply look at the portrait through an American mirror. No doubt, the documents at hand do contain specific perceptions of King Faisal and of Saudi society by the various administrations in Washington. On the other hand, the mere fact of the King's physical presence and verbal performance in those encounters brings authenticity to the fore. Because of the fairly wide range of topics on the political agenda of such state visits, the portrait sheds light on King Faisal's personality, public appearance and sense of humour, on his statesmanship as well as on his diplomacy and commitments in the arena of Middle Eastern politics and of international relations at large. Since it seems to me that the year 1966 is of particular significance for an assessment of King Faisal's political legacy in the Middle Eastern arena, I have depicted his visit in Washington and meeting with President L.B. Johnson in June of that year for a more comprehensive treatment. In contrast, Faisal's personal encounters with Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and later on—twice—with Richard Nixon are dealt with more cursorily.1 The sources for this paper were not really collected in any systematic fashion. Rather, they came my way in the course of a research project with a different, although related topic (see Helmut Mejcher, Sinai, 5 giugno 1967. Il conflitto arabo‐israeliano (Bologna: Società editrice il Mulino, 2000). On the other hand, it is not a random collection either. As I said before, the documents focus on the diplomatic highlights of official visits of the King and Crown Prince in Washington.

Strategic public diplomacy and local press: how a high-profile “head-of-state” visit was covered in America’s heartland

Drawing upon the lines of research on public diplomacy and media communication, this study aims to use Chinese President Jiang Zemin’s state visit to the US in 1997 as a case in point to examine the news values and judgment of the US local press in covering a major public diplomacy event and to discuss the effectiveness of the use of head-of-state visits as instruments of public diplomacy. The study focuses on two aspects of media image: visibility and valence. Its main findings indicate that, despite the PR efforts, the image of China, as reflected in the local press coverage, was not improved. This study highlights the critical role of the local press in managing the perception and reputation of a country in the eyes of a foreign public, and argues that the local aspect is not only significant in studying public diplomacy and the US media, but also relevant to US public diplomacy strategies and tactics overseas.

ALAN M. TURING'S CRITIQUE OF RUNNING SHORT CRIBS ON THE US NAVY BOMBE

Declassified documents from the “Crane Collection” at the National Archives (USA) reveal much of the cryptanalytical collaboration that defeated the German Naval Enigma machine. As researchers continue to work through these papers, new light is shed on that relationship. In May, 2002 a manuscript, typed and handwritten, by Alan M. Turing was found by the author in the ”Crane Collection”. Written at the time of his United States visit during the winter of 1942–1943, it reflects Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) interests and skepticism regarding the US Naval Intelligence (OP-20-G) effort to independently design and construct its own rapid analytical machines (RAMs).

Torture, Forced Confessions, and Inhuman Punishments: Human Rights Abuses in the Japanese Penal System

TORTURE, FORCED CONFESSIONS, AND INHUMAN PUNISHMENTS: HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN THE JAPANESE PENAL SYSTEM Jeff Vize* INTRODUCTION Japan has rarely found itself on the most-wanted lists of human rights activists, and perhaps for good reason. It is the richest and most stable nation in Asia,' and seems to practice none of the flagrantly abusive policies of regional neighbors like China 2 or Myanmar. 3 Its massive economy provides a high stan- dard of living. 4 Crime, though rising rapidly in the last ten years, is still minuscule by international standards. In 2000, Japanese authorities reported that there were 1,985 crimes for every 100,000 inhabitants, compared to 4,124 in the United States, and * University of California at Davis, King Hall School of Law, J.D. (2004). The author would like to thank Professor Diane Marie Amann for her helpful advice, comments, and criticism. The author would also like to thank Professor Kojiro Sakamoto, and his wife Chikage, for their advice from a Japanese perspective. JAPAN'S NEW ECONOMY: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY 2-3 (Magnus Blomstrom et al. eds., 2001). See also Statistics Division, United Nations, Indicators on Income and Economic Activity, at http://un- stats.un.org/unsd/demographic/social/inc-eco.htm (last visited July 27, 2003) (listing Japan's per capita gross domestic product for 2001 at $32,540, the fifth highest in the world). 2. Chris Patten, Don't Worry, Be Happy, NEWSWEEK, Oct. 28, 2002 at 46. The author, the former British governor of Hong Kong, argues that in China, [c]apital punishment is meted out with mindless frequency. Too many of China's most thoughtful dissidents have been expelled from incarceration at home to exile abroad. The treatment of the Falun Gong betrays the nervousness of a regime that remembers too well the dramas of the last Chinese dynasty. Id. 3. Burmese Leader Arrives for Malaysian State Visit, AGENCE FRANCE- PRESSE, Aug. 12, 1996, LExIs, Nexis Library, News Group File, All (quoting the Malaysian political opposition leader, who urged that Myanmar not be allowed to join ASEAN until ending its flagrant human rights abuses ). 4. BUREAU OF DEMOCRACY, HUM. RTs. & LAB., U.S. DEP'T OF STATE, COUNTRY REPORTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES - 2001: JAPAN (2002) [hereinaf- ter COUNTRY REPORT], available at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/eap/ 8319.htm.

State Leaders Share Strategies, Successes

You have accessThe ASHA LeaderASHA News1 Dec 2002State Leaders Share Strategies, Successes Marat Moore Marat Moore Google Scholar More articles by this author https://doi.org/10.1044/leader.AN.07122002.1 SectionsAbout ToolsAdd to favorites ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In Massachusetts clinicians have gained third-party billing for independent providers from the state’s Blue Cross Blue Shield health plan. More than 80 association leaders from 39 states recently celebrated this victory and others-—and assessed their challenges—in Providence, RI, at the annual ASHA/Council of State Association Presidents (CSAP) conference. Following its usual format, the gathering featured two back-to-back meetings—an ASHA state policy workshop May 16–17 and the CSAP meeting May 17–18. Session topics at the state policy workshop included funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act—how to access funds through the state—the latest developments in licensure laws, the potential impact of CCC changes on state practice acts, and the implementation of Rhode Island’s early hearing detection and intervention law. State Sen. Hanna Gallo of Rhode Island—who also works in the schools as a speech-language pathologist—addressed the group on how to influence the legislative process. (For more on Gallo, see sidebar at right.) She urged participants to learn more about how bills are developed and debated at the state level, and to make contact with decision-makers. “You need to be involved with state legislators. They need to know who you are, what your positions are on issues, and what you expect from them,” she said. “And on the state association level, when you have bills, make sure you hire a good lobbyist and put enough money in your PAC.” The CSAP conference focused on the theme, “Tools for Transforming Tomorrow…Together We Learn.” In her opening address, ASHA President Nancy Creaghead discussed the impact of trends in service delivery on state associations. Michael McKinley, a professional speaker and past president of a national speakers’ association, explored successful ways to handle change in a second keynote address. In sessions, state association leaders focused on assessing their association budgets, hiring or firing a lobbying firm, and the relationship between volunteer and hired leadership. Participants also discussed how to run a successful convention, conduct smooth meetings, and fully utilize ASHA resources. “People came with tremendous excitement,” said CSAP President Nancy McKinley, noting that participants were interested in developing leadership and technology skills, and in connecting in new ways with audiologists. “Our associations are stronger when the professions work closely together,” she added. Celebrating Success Every year, CSAP offers an open session—called “Bring, Brag and Moan”—that invites state leaders to report on the year’s successes and challenges. Some of the “brags” included advances in tuition assistance for students, licensure, accessibility legislation, hearing aid regulations, and caseload reduction. Progress also is occurring in expanding services and third-party billing to insurance carriers. In many cases, services may be covered, but the providers who offer them may be severely restricted. Norraine Wylonis, president of the Massachusetts Speech-Language-Hearing Association (MSHA), told her colleagues about a victory in gaining third-party billing for independent providers from the state’s Blue Cross Blue Shield health plan. For years in Massachusetts, only hospital or physician office-based SLPs or audiologists could provide covered services. Through MSHA, a bill was repeatedly introduced requiring private health plans to allow licensed practitioners to become providers if their license included the service of the benefit. After years of vigorous lobbying—including a year when the governor vetoed the bill—MSHA was successful. Now a licensed and ASHA-certified SLP or audiologist can provide a covered service as a private practitioner. “This is a major victory, because Blue Cross Blue Shield is such a big player. People needing services can now go to any provider in the state,” Wylonis said, adding that the insurers cannot restrict the length of the benefit if the service is considered a medical necessity. For more information on state associations, visit http://www.asha.org/ and click on “About ASHA” and “Legislation & Advocacy” to access state contact information. For information on CSAP, visit http://www.csap.org/. Advertising Disclaimer | Advertise With Us Advertising Disclaimer | Advertise With Us Additional Resources FiguresSourcesRelatedDetails Volume 7Issue 12December 2002 Get Permissions Add to your Mendeley library History Published in print: Dec 1, 2002 Metrics Downloaded 46 times Topicsasha-topicsleader_do_tagleader-topicsasha-article-typesCopyright & Permissions© 2002 American Speech-Language-Hearing AssociationLoading ...

The Foreign Office and the 1939 Royal Visit to America: Courting the USA in an Era of Isolationism

The visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to the USA in June 1939, the first by a British monarch, seemed to symbolize, at a time of escalating danger, the solidarity of the English-speaking peoples. The occasion's significance was jocularly captured in a Gaumont newsreel: against images of the royal couple escorted along Pennsylvania Avenue, the narrator declares that the last time the British had gone there it had been 'to burn the White House'.1 Extending a state visit to Canada, the US trip was the result of an invitation from President Roosevelt. Instead of a British minister, the minister-in-attendance was Canadian Prime Minister, Mackenzie King. The sovereigns visited Washington and New York, attending the World Fair, and relaxed at Roosevelt's Hyde Park home before returning to Britain via Canada. The outward harmony of the event, however, assiduously promoted on both sides of the Atlantic by the media, belied the tensions gathering force between the two nations during the 1930s, as each in its own way addressed the escalating threat to world peace from Germany, Italy and Japan. It is an event which has received only passing comment in the many books about the era, including those dealing with propaganda and Anglo-American relations.2 Existing accounts from a royal perspective offer useful but brief, one-sided summaries that do not establish the full context.3 It has been the subject of just two articles. David Reynolds has meticulously examined the event from the American side, focusing upon the visit's place within the context of Roosevelt's foreign policy.4 The British side has been examined by Benjamin D. Rhodes, in which he highlights the 'psychological approach' to

Holt, Johnson and the 1966 Federal Election. A Question of Causality

US President Lyndon Johnson's state visit to Australia in October 1966, came at the pinnacle of support for Australia's military involvement in the Vietnam War. Johnson's visit also occurred just weeks before an election for the House of Representatives at which the ruling Liberal‐Country Party Coalition won its eighth successive, and largest victory. The proximity of these events has led many to argue that a causal relationship exists between the two. Advocates of this thesis, however, have failed to support their position with any evidence other than the anecdotal. Contrary to the assertions made by numerous political historians and observers of the period, this paper finds no evidence to support a thesis of causality. This paper argues that the Coalition's landslide victory in 1966 was both a rejection of the tired and lacklustre leadership of Labor's Arthur Calwell and a measure of the electorate's overwhelming support for Holt and his Government's policies of conscription and military involvement in Vietnam.

Myth, nationalism and genocide

In the second half of 1978, the Pol Pot regime was in its death throes. A rebellion had spread in the Eastern Zone of Cambodia, and was proving difŽ cult to suppress. One Cambodian man who lived through these events was a former blacksmith whom I met in Phnom Penh in 1991. His cousin was married to a niece of Heng Samrin, one of the rebellion’s leaders and later President of the State of Cambodia (SOC). The blacksmith was working for the SOC Interior Ministry. A technique he claimed the Pol Pot armed forces had used to round up rebels, in those last months of 1978, was to call people to Ž lm showings in the countryside . He said ofŽ cials would Ž rst project the Ž lms, then arrest alleged rebels in the audience. One Ž lm which the blacksmith claimed to have seen was of particular interest, at least for how he remembered it. The Ž lm was of Pol Pot’s 1977 state visit to China. The blacksmith recalled seeing footage of Pol Pot’s trip to an unnamed interior province of China, one which was constantly short of water. In this province, the Ž lm showed “seven million” people assembled to welcome Pol Pot. The massive crowd comprised only young men and women of the Chinese province, all carefully “chosen for their beauty.” The Ž lm also showed how the province was watered by a man-made canal bringing water from the sea, the blacksmith claimed. However, the canal was only able to supply the province with a single bucket of water per person. Here is a fascinating example of Khmer myth-making in progress. The Cambodian script of this “Chinese” Ž lm is striking: the preoccupation with the agricultural water supply that dominated Democratic Kampuchea; the Cambodian’s unfamiliarity with the sea and the unserviceability of salt water for irrigation; the vast crowd of “seven million,” the reputed population of Cambodia at the time; and its division into young men and women, crack troops of the “mobile brigades” into which single adult Cambodian workers were divided by the Khmer Rouge, usually being fed rations of a single can of rice per person per day. The remembered Ž lm was a projection of the Cambodian experience. Of course, in one sense the Pol Pot regime did “show” Cambodians a new country. At the same time the Vietnamese were making their own projections—far into the past—about the Chinese–Cambodian relationship. A cartoon published in an October, 1978 Hanoi magazine for political cadres shows a Khmer Rouge “burning the books” while a Chinese in imperial attire, suggesting Chin Shih Huang, fans the  ames with his breath.

INDIA IN 2000 A Respite from Instability

For India, 2000 was a year of portents that followed no pattern. On the eve of the millennium, the once-dominant Indian National Congress had lost its third consecutive general election. Moreover, India had completed 10 years without a Nehru/Gandhi-lineage prime minister. The year brought the 50th anniversary of the country’s democratic Constitution and saw Atal Bihari Vajpayee become the longest-serving non-Congress prime minister in Indian history. One might therefore view 2000 as a year in which India finally outgrew dynastic politics and one-party dominance. Yet, by year’s end, another individual from the Nehru/Gandhi political dynasty was overwhelmingly reelected president of the Congress Party and the Congress in turn was reviving electorally in several states. Internationally, too, events of symbolic importance pointed one way while others suggested less change than met the eye. In March, the first visit by a U.S. president to India in over two decades was hailed as a breakthrough in relations between the two countries. In October, though, a week-long state visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin reestablished Russia as India’s principal military supplier and diplomatic ally. Nestled in between these markers were occurrences that testified to both the deepening of Indian political institutions and the continuing challenges they face, pointing both to the possibility of new policy directions and the powerful influence of past legacies. In turn, this survey will address national politics, state politics, domestic unrest and its impact on India’s relations with its neighbors, India’s relations with the rest of the world, and the Indian economy.

Japan and Russia: The Tortuous Path to Normalization, 1949-1999

Introduction PART I: RELATIONS: 1949-1984 The San Francisco Peace Treaty and the Definition of the Kurile Islands H.Wada The Soviet-Japanese Postwar Peace Settlement in Retrospect B.Slavinsky Reconciliation in the Fifties: The Logic of Soviet Decision-Making A.Zagorsky Two Decades of Soviet Diplomacy and Andrei Gromyko P.Berton Japan-Soviet Political Relations from 1976 to 1983 H.Kimura PART II: RELATIONS: 1985-1999 Japan-Soviet Relations under Perestroika: Perceptions and Interactions between Two Capitals N.Shimotomai Russian Decision-Making on Japan in the Gorbachev Era L. L.Tarlow A Japanese View of Japan-Russian Relations between the August 1991 Coup and President Yeltsin's State Visit of October 1993 S. Edamura A Russian View of Russian-Japanese Relations in 1991-93 G.Kunadze Why Did Russia and Japan Fail to Achieve Rapprochement in 1991 to 1996? T.Hasegawa Cross-Border Relations and Russo-Japanese Bilateral Ties in the 1990s G.Rozman Russo-Japanese Relations after Yeltsin's Re-election in 1996 K.Sarkisov Japanese-Russian Relations in 1997-99: The Struggle against Illusions S.Hakamada PART III: MUTUAL INFLUENCES AND COMPARISONS Factors Shaping the Formation of Views on Japan in the USSR in the Postwar Period S.Verbitsky Japanese Perceptions of the Soviet Union and Russia in the Postwar Period T.Hasegawa Overcoming the Legacy of History: Japanese Public Relations in Russia, 1990-94 A.Kawato Nihonjinron and Russkaia Ideia: Transformation of Japanese and Russian Nationalism in the Postwar Era and Beyond T.Anno Japan and Russia: Great Power Ambitions and Domestic Capacities G. Rozman

India and U.S. work toward improving science ties

Two years after India set off several underground nuclear tests that rattled sabers and Indian‐U.S. ties, the two countries now are edging back to normalization. One measure of that return to friendlier diplomatic relations is discussions on science and technology issues held during a recent, high‐level roundtable meeting timed to Indian Prime Minister Atel Behari Vajpayee s official visit to the United States in September.During Vajpayee s state visit, U.S. President Bill Clinton told his counterpart, I think we have worked hard together to move our relationship from one of too little contact and too much suspicion, to one of genuine efforts to build a long‐term partnership that is in the interests of the people of India and the people of the United States.

Italijanske operne predstave pri Auerspergih sredi 17. stoletja – drobtinica k slovenskemu glasbenemu zgodovinopisju

Italijanske operne predstave pri Auerspergih sredi 17. stoletja – drobtinica k slovenskemu glasbenemu zgodovinopisju

A Question of Priorities: Human Rights, Development, and "Asian Values"

Last October, in a gesture timed to coincide with a state visit to Washington by Chinese President Jiang Zemin, China begame a signatory to the International Covenant on Social, Economic, and Cultural Rights (ICSECR).

Effects of hormone-replacement therapy on hemostatic factors, lipid factors, and endothelial function in women undergoing surgical menopause: Implications for prevention of atherosclerosis

Women with premature menopause are at high risk for vascular compications associated with thrombogenesis and atherogenesis. The use of hormone-replacement therapy (HRT), however, may protect against these complications. Hemostatic abnormalities and endothelial function are closely related to the processes of thrombogenesis and atherogenesis. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effects of premature menopause on markers of hemostasis, platelet function, and endothelial function and the effects of starting HRT. This is a prospective longitudinal study of premenopausal women undergoing surgical menopause in whom estrogen HRT is started. We measured sequential changes in plasma levels of the hemostatic factors (fibrinogen, fibrin d -dimer, and plasminogen activiator inhibitor [PAI]), markers of platelet function (soluble leukocyte adhesion molecule P-selectin) and endothelial function (von Willebrand factor [vWf], soluble thrombomodulin [sTM], and tissue plasminogen activator [TPA]), and serum lipid levels, including lipoprotein A. Twenty-seven premenopausal women (mean age 43.6 ± 6.5 years) undergoing hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophrectomy were studied. In the postsurgical menopausal state (visit 2), there was a significant elevation in sTM levels (paired Wilcoxon test, p = 0.008). There was also a trend toward higher median soluble P-selectin, PAI, and mean TPA levels and lower vWf levels. After 6 weeks of HRT (visit 3), there was a significant reduction in mean vWf (paired Wilcoxon test, p = 0.0026), sTM ( p = 0.039), and TPA levels ( p = 0.02) compared with premenopausal levels. There were no significant changes in plasma fibrinogen, fibrin d -dimer, and PAI levels at visit 2 or visit 3 compared with premenopausal levels. There was a significant increase in serum lipoprotein A (paired Wilcoxon test, p = 0.008), cholesterol, and triglyceride levels after surgical menopause (paired t test, p < 0.01). Lipoprotein A and cholesterol levels after HRT (visit 3) were not significantly different from prehysterectomy levels, although triglyceride levels were increased further. HRT results in a significant reduction in vWf, sTM, and TPA levels, suggesting beneficial effects on endothelial function and atherogenesis. Although there was a significant increase in serum lipoprotein A and cholesterol levels after surgical menopause, lipoprotein A and cholesterol levels after HRT were not significantly different from presurgery levels. These observations are consistent with the beneficial effects of HRT in cardiovascular hemodynamics and cardiovascular disease. (Am Heart J 1997;134:764-71.)

Automatic association of news items

A new media for news delivery has emerged in which print, photographs, video, and audio can be integrated into personalized multimedia news presentations. An electronic news delivery system produces personal ‘editions’ by selecting news items from various sources in a variety of media types and ordering and/or grouping these items for presentation. Clearly, if personalized and dynamic ‘editions’ of news are to be a reality then algorithms are needed that select and group items with minimal human intervention. In this paper we will examine only one of the problems involved in the automatic generation of electronic editions: the association of related items of different media type, specifically photos and stories. The goal of this research is to be able to determine to what degree any two news items refer to the same news event. This metric has several uses. First, it can be used to link multimedia items that can be shown together, such as a video, photo, and text story related to a shipwreck or state visit. Second, it can be used to form clusters of very similar items from a variety of sources so that one or two can be chosen to represent that event in an edition. In this paper we discuss the specific association of text and photo news items although our approach to the problem of defining relationships between photos and stories applies to a larger domain of news items including scripted news video clips and scripted radio broadcasts.

Labor Party Victory in U.K. Elections Ends 18 Years of Conservative Control

The Duke of Edinburgh and I look forward to receiving State Visits by His Excellency the President of Brazil in December and by Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress of Japan next year. We also look forward to our visit to Canada and to our State Visits to Pakistan and India.