Considering public policy as both a dependent and an independent variable, this article undertakes a systematic assessment of the sources and systemic consequences of policy. It begins with a ...statement of contrasting theories of the sources of policy. One strand of comparative theory emphasizes national cultures and elite beliefs as the main sources of policy; another stresses the cross-national imperatives of particular policy programs, of international diffusion, and of common policy processes. Drawing on longitudinal data on an array of ethnic policies in Malaysia, the study highlights the limits of cultural-determinist theories of policy. It shows that elite beliefs change over time, often creating layers of policy based on varying premises; that one set of beliefs can overcome another, inconsistent set; that critical events can alter the balance of authoritative beliefs; and that, where beliefs are in conflict, organized interests have room for maneuver. Moreover, the interaction of a mix of operative beliefs can produce outcomes very much at variance with what policymakers wish or anticipate. Finally, on the systemic effects of policy, the study shows that interests created by earlier policy can be decisive actors in the shaping of later policy. Policy itself can change the entire structure of the political system - an outcome rather clearly demonstrated in the case of Malaysia.
The Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) atmosphere general circulation model, with its new cloud scheme, is employed to study the indirect radiative effect of anthropogenic sulfate aerosol ...during the industrial period. The preindustrial and present‐day monthly mean aerosol climatologies are generated from running the Model for Ozone And Related chemical Tracers (MOZART) chemistry‐transport model. The respective global annual mean sulfate burdens are 0.22 and 0.81 Tg S. Cloud droplet number concentrations are related to sulfate mass concentrations using an empirical relationship (Boucher and Lohmann, 1995). A distinction is made between “forcing” and flux change at the top of the atmosphere in this study. The simulations, performed with prescribed sea surface temperature, show that the first indirect “forcing” (“Twomey” effect) amounts to an annual mean of −1.5 W m−2, concentrated largely over the oceans in the Northern Hemisphere (NH). The annual mean flux change owing to the response of the model to the first indirect effect is −1.4 W m−2, similar to the annual mean forcing. However, the model's response causes a rearrangement of cloud distribution as well as changes in longwave flux (smaller than solar flux changes). There is thus a differing geographical nature of the radiation field than for the forcing even though the global means are similar. The second indirect effect, which is necessarily an estimate made in terms of the model's response, amounts to −0.9 W m−2, but the statistical significance of the simulated geographical distribution of this effect is relatively low owing to the model's natural variability. Both the first and second effects are approximately linearly additive, giving rise to a combined annual mean flux change of −2.3 W m−2, with the NH responsible for 77% of the total flux change. Statistically significant model responses are obtained for the zonal mean total indirect effect in the entire NH and in the Southern Hemisphere low latitudes and midlatitudes (north of 45°S). The area of significance extends more than for the first and second effects considered separately. A comparison with a number of previous studies based on the same sulfate‐droplet relationship shows that, after distinguishing between forcing and flux change, the global mean change in watts per square meter for the total effect computed in this study is comparable to existing studies in spite of the differences in cloud schemes.
Nineteen patients undergoing a standard aneurysmectomy for recurrent ventricular tachycardia are compared with 30 patients unergoing electrophysiologically directed endocardial excision and ...aneurysmectomy. The electrophysiologically nondirected and electrophysiologically directed groups were aneurysmectomy. The electrophysiologically nondirected and electrophysiologically directed groups were similar for age (56.8 versus 57.5 years), interval after myocardial infarction (26.2 versus 28.3 months), preoperative episodes of ventricular tachycardia (13.2 versus 19.7), cardiac index (2.95 versus 2.79 L/min/m2), left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (15.5 versus 18.2 torr), and ejection fraction (34 versus 28%). Operative mortality rate in the nondirected group was 42%, with all but one of the deaths resulting from uncontrolled postoperative ventricular tachycardia. In the nondirected group 78.9% (15/19) of patients had recurrent ventricular tachycardia postoperatively. The operative mortality rate in the electrophysiologically directed group was 6.7% (2/30), and both patients died of left ventricular failure. Three patients (10%) have ventricular tachycardia inducible with programmed stimulation. We conclude that standard left ventricular aneurysmectomy is not an effective operation for recurrent sustained ventricular tachycardia. Conversely, electrophysiologically directed endocardial excision characteristically controls the arrhythmia at an acceptable surgical risk.
Abstract
Ethylene glycol ingestion, accidental or intentional, can be a life-threatening emergency. Assays are not available from most clinical laboratories, and, thus, results often require many ...hours or days to obtain. Enzymatic assays, adaptable to automated chemistry analyzers, have been evaluated, but they have been plagued by analytic problems. With an alternative method of data analysis applied to an existing enzymatic assay, a modified assay was developed and validated on 2 different automated chemistry systems. Compared with a previously validated method based on gas chromatography with flame ionization detection, the modified enzymatic assay showed excellent agreement on patient samples (y = 1.0227x −1.24; r2 = 0.9725), with a large analytic measuring range (2.5–300 mg/dL 0.4–48.4 mmol/L). Interferences from propylene glycol, various butanediols, and other related compounds were almost entirely eliminated; when present, they generated error flags rather than falsely elevated ethylene glycol results. This modified assay should make it possible for more clinical laboratories to offer ethylene glycol measurements.
This dissertation explores Jewish converts' search for authenticity in an adopted identity. In examining a highly atypical case in which membership in an ethnoracial is attained through means other ...than birth, I assess how individuals, groups, and society make sense of a situation of ethnoracial change that is at odds with the typical construction of American ethnoraciality. For converts, there is a looming sense that missing heredity calls the authenticity of one's membership into question, and each of a set of responses -- proving its presence in one's genes, "passing" as having attained membership by birth, or ensuring the heredity of one's progeny -- responds to desiring enhanced authenticity by making heredity palpable. While they focus on different temporal spaces and different subpopulations of converts, heredity is the clear and overarching feature of the authenticity-enhancing strategies identified in all three papers. Balancing being a group that calls heredity's seemingly-uniform role in ethnoracial membership into question against these strategies for achieving authenticity, converts position asking: is heredity surpassable in the politics of ethnoracial groupness?.
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