476 research outputs found
The Political Economy of Textbook Writing: Paul Samuelson and the making of the first ten Editions of Economics (1945-1976)
No full textOver the past two decades, numerous contributions to the history of economics have tried to assess Paul Samuelson’s political positioning by tracing it in the subsequent editions of his famous textbook Economics. This literature, however, has provided no consensus about the location of Samuelson’s political ideas. While some authors believe that Samuelson has always had inclinations toward interventionism, others conclude that he more often acted as a pro-business advocate. The purpose of this paper is not to argue for one of these two interpretations but to depict the making of Economics itself as a political process. By ‘political’ it is not meant the conduct of party politics but the many political elements that a textbook author has to take into account if he wants to be published and favorably received. I argue that the “middle of the road” stance that Samuelson adopted in the book was consciously constructed by the MIT economist, with the help of his home institution and his publishing company, McGraw-Hill, to ensure both academic freedom and the success of the book. The reason for which the stance developed is related to pre-McCarthyist right-wing criticisms of the textbook and how Samuelson and the MIT department had to endure the pressures from members of the Corporation (MIT’s Board of Trustees), who tried to prevent the publication of the textbook and threatened Samuelson’s tenure at MIT as soon as 1947 – when early manuscripts were circulated. As a result, it was decided in accordance with both the Corporation and McGraw-Hill that the Readings volume would be published to balance conflicting ideas about state intervention. Following these early criticisms, the making of the subsequent editions relied on a network of instructors and referees all over the US in order to make it as successful and consensual as possible. This seemed to work quite well in the 1950s and for a good portion of the 1960s, until Economics became victim of its own success and was seen, in an ironical twist of fate, as a right wing text by younger, radical economists. From now on, Samuelson will try to have his book sent as often as possible to the radicals for referring process, with mixed results. Eventually, the book became criticized from both its left and its right.Paul Samuelson, Economics, Textbook, Politics, Economic Education
The politics of economic policy reform in developing countries
No full textBecause of politics, some economic policy reforms are adopted and pursued in the developing world, and others are delayed, and resisted. Economic reform is inherently a political act: It changes the distribution of benefits in society, benefiting some social groups, and hurting others. Social groups may oppose reform because of doubts about its benefits, or because they know it will harm their economic interests. The author shows how three types of reform - currency devaluation, the privatization of state enterprises, and the elimination of consumer (food) subsidies - affect the utility of nine different social groups (including international financial institutions). When governments try to privatize state-owned enterprises, for example, more social groups with greater political weight are likely to be disadvantaged than helped. Urban workers, urban bureaucrats, urban students, and the urban poor, are likely to"lose out"and will strongly oppose privatization. But the ruling elite, and urban politicians are also likely to at least partly resist privatization, fearing that such reform will reduce their economic"rents". More social groups, and power points thus oppose privatization than favor it, so this policy reform is likely to be delayed, or not implemented at all. However, social groups do not possess an absolute veto over economic reform, and policy reform can (and often does) occur, despite the opposition of certain social groups. It depends on the aggregate political weight of the groups opposing reform. For example, as the author shows, five social groups, either wholly or partly, oppose eliminating consumer (food) subsidies, but the combined weight of those groups is only roughly equal to the political weight of the four social groups - international financial institutions, the ruling elite, urban politicians, and urban capitalists - that favor this reform. Politically, consumer subsidies can be eliminated, or reduced, if the right kind of concern is shown for opposing social groups.Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Social Inclusion&Institutions,Gender and Education,Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,Poverty Assessment,Inequality
Strategic management of population programs
No full textFormal strategic planning and management appear to contribute to organizational effectiveness. The author surveys the literature on strategic management in private/for-profit organizations and applies lessons from that literature to population programs. Few would argue that population programs would not benefit from strategic planning and management, but it would be inadvisable to initiate the process when the organization is faced with a short-term crisis; during or immediately before a change in leadership; or when implementation is unlikely. Public sector programs seem to have the latitude to manage strategically. Models available for adoption include life-cycle models, strategic issues management, stakeholder analysis, and portfolio analysis. The model selected may be a function of: (1) who will use it (life-cycle/evolutionary models may be well-suited to the planning needs of donors); (2) the presence of challenges to the survival of the program or to key components of it (stakeholder analysis would find ready application in those circumstances); and (3) the relative success and stability of the program (portfolio analysis may help a program balance its activities in a stable environment whereas strategic issues management is useful in responding to a dynamic environment.) It is important to marshall top-level support, designatewho will do the leg work, analyze the organization's history and current situation, assess internal strengths and weaknesses and external threats and opportunities, and summarize critical issues facing the program. Then a strategy may be developed. Among the available approaches are: (1) scenario developments (useful for a program that senses a need to change its approach to clients); (2) critical issues analysis (useful for refining successful programs); and (3) a goal approach (useful for programs with diffuse, ill-defined objectives). There are no short-cuts, it is argued. A strategic plan typically contains: (1) a mission statement that describes the social need to be addressed, what is unique about the organization, what its values are, and who the principal stakeholders are; (2) a statement of the population to be served and goals for service delivery and quality standards; (3) a service delivery strategy; (4) a financial strategy; (5) a marketing strategy; and (6) support strategies. Most organizations will find that there is no ideal structure - all require tradeoffs - and that attention should focus on eliminating patently dysfunctional aspects of the structure.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,ICT Policy and Strategies,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Educational Sciences,Enterprise Development&Reform
Photograph of the College of Law class of 1993
No full textStudent Names: Shelley Allen, Andrea R. Austen, Patrick J. Baffaro, Loren P. Bell, Julian H. S. Berkeley, Jennifer G. Bielly, John W. Bove, Katherine T. Bove, Christopher C. Brand, James K. Brewer, Matthew W. Cameron, Lance A. Cantos, Peter J. Carini, Lisette F. Carter, Monica Y. Castagnasso, William T. Castanares, Shawn S. Chalich, Thomas P. Chapman III, Jacqueline L. Chernof, Peggy K. Christianson, Delos R. Clark, Matthew L. Clucas, Kelliss A. Collins, B. Harrison Conley, Richard A. Dalrymple, Jr., Jill A. Davis, Todd K. Davis, Debbie J. D-Vorous, Douglas J. Denney, Heidi A. Earls, M. Patton Echols III, Kirk A. Ehlis, Kevin G. Farnworth, Aaron D. Felton, Dawn L. Findlay, David W. Ford, Jill R. Fox, William Francis, Mark A. Fuchs, Glen D. Fukumura, Alan S. Funk, Daniel Q. Gallagher, Kimberly K. Geariety, David I. Gedrose, Courtland Geyer, Nicola J. Ghaly, Karl A. Goodwin, Jeannie Gorman, Robert R. Graves, Jr., David P. Groff, Brian J. Grossman, Scott L. Haddock, Kent W. Hansen, Thomas P. Harbolt, Brad J. Harper, Keith E. Hartley, Patricia L. Heatherman, Paul B. Heatherman, Peter S. Hicks, Jeffery O. Himstreet, Stephanie L. H-Barrie, Shelli L. H-Drill, Shannon E. Inglis, Steven B. Johnson, Paul Kelly, Jr., Paul S. Kibel, Richard R. Kilbride, Marc G. Kroop, James H. Kyung, Kristin C. LaMont, David A. LeMaster, Stephanie J. Leamer, Peter V. Lee, M. Scott Leigenguth, Gexin Li, Jim L. Lucas, Scott L. Lundgreen, Gregory T. Lusby, Alan D. Malone, Timothy J. Marble, Kevin E. Mayne, Todd R. C. McCann, Catriona McCracken, Michael J. McDonagh, Bruce D. McGagin, Peter E. Meyers, Paul D. Migchelbrink, Michelle L. Miller, Laura A. S. Moore, Thomas J. Moore, Nicole K. Morgado, Jeffery A. Mornarich, Michelle M. Mulhern, Michael T. Mullen, Anne E. Murray, Bradford D. Myler, Kent M. Nicholas, Fred S. Nishihira, Jr., Gregory P. Noble, David P. O'Brien, Sharon K. O'Reilly, Debra Orman, Timothy M. Parks, Glenn A. Paternoster, Hebert M. Pearce, Gregory J. Peden, Christen Anton Peters, D. Richard Peters, Jr., Dirk L. Pierson, Douglas R. Prince, Douglas J. Raab, John E. Randolph, Jr., Thomas R. Rask III, Dana M. Reid, Alan D. Reynoldson, John R. Robinson, Kim V. Ronai, Douglas C. Roth, Michael P. Rudd, John R. San Felliop, Jr., Mary A. Schnabel, Jennifer L. Simpson, John P. Sloan, Tyler D. Smith, Michael L. Sommerfeld, Karen E. S-Hock, Eric J. Stoop, James J. Stout, Randall P. Sutton, Ragna L. TenEyck, Leslie A. Tidball, Maria E. B. Tipton, Michael V. Tom, Danny D. Tye, Lisa C. R. Vogt, Kari L. Waletich, Thomas G. Waller, Mark A. Walther, Dennis A. Wheeler, Caroline F. Wiley, Lee B. Willeman, Michael P. Young, Warne K. Young, Katherine M. Allen, Diane E. Bair, Roy E. Berg, Steven G. Bryan, Matthew Z. Gray, Kenneth D. Helm, Jill D. Laney, Jon Alan Linder, Randall H. Matsui, Joseph A. Mayo IV, Douglas R. Pahl, Robert W. Patridge, Amy L. Peterson, Kevin L. Russell, Shelley A. Smith, David M. Westbrook, Thomas J. Wettlaufer, Wesley L. WoolbrightBlack and Whit
Ordering our world: the quest for traces of temporal organization in autobiographical memory
No full textAn experiment examined the idea, derived from the Self Memory System model (Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000), that autobiographical events are sometimes tagged in memory with labels reflecting the life era in which an event occurred. The presence of such labels should affect the ease of judgments of the order in which life events occurred. Accordingly, 39 participants judged the order of two autobiographical events. Latency data consistently showed that between-era judgments were faster than within-era judgments, when the eras were defined in terms of either: (a) college versus high school, (b) academic quarter within year, or (c) academic year within school. The accuracy data similarly supported the presence of a between-era judgment effect for the college versus high school dichotomy
Journal of Mormon History, Volume 40, issue 1 (2014)
No full textLETTER
--Stakes in Canada, Francine Russell Bennion, vi
ARTICLES
--The People Are “Hogaffed or Humbugged”: The 1851–52 National Reaction to Utah’s “Runaway” Officers, Part 2, Ronald W. Walker and Matthew J. Grow, 1
--“Smoot Smites Smut:” Apostle-Senator Reed Smoot’s 1930 Campaign against Obscene Books, Michael Harold Paulos, 53
--“Colegias Chilenes de los Santos de los Últimos Días”: The History of Latter-day Saint Schools in Chile, Casey Paul Griffiths, Scott C. Esplin, Barbara Morgan, and E. Vance Randall, 97
--“Redeemed from the Curse Placed upon Her”: Dialogic Discourse on Eve in the Woman\u27s Exponent, Boyd Jay Petersen, 135
--“Some Savage Tribe”: Race, Legal Violence, and the Mormon War of 1838, T. Ward Frampton, 175
--Exhibiting Theology: James E. Talmage and Mormon Public Relations, 1915–20, Bradley Kime, 208
REVIEWS
--Reid L. Neilson, Exhibiting Mormonism: The Latter-day Saints and the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Andrea G. Radke-Moss, 239
--Samuel Alonzo Dodge and Steven C. Harper, eds., Exploring the First Vision. Ronald E. Bartholomew, 246
--Marjorie Newton. Tiki and Temple: The Mormon Mission in New Zealand, 1854–1958, Louis Midgley, 253
--Richard E. Turley Jr. and Brittany A. Chapman, eds. Women of Faith in the Latter Days, Volume 1, 1775–1820 and Women of Faith in the Latter Days, Volume 2, 1821–1845; Sysan M. Tanner, Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society, Lavina Fielding Anderson, 257
--Thomas G. Alexander. Edward Hunter Snow: Pioneer—Educator—Statesman, Romney Burke, 264
BOOK NOTICES
--Mike Winder and Ronald J. Fox, When the White House Comes to Zion, 268
--Elaine Stienon, The Light of the Morning, 270
--Howard R. Egan, Pioneering the West, 271
--Sherri Dew and Virginia H. Pearce, The Beginnings of Better Days: Divine Instructions to Women from the Prophet Joseph Smith, 272
--Scott C. Esplin and Kenneth L. Alford, eds., Salt Lake City: The Place Which God Prepared, 273
--Richard E. Turley Jr. and William W. Slaughter, How We Got the Doctrine and Covenants, 275
--Lee Nelson, comp., The Journal of Joseph: The Personal History of a Modern Prophet, 276
--Lee Nelson, Hoofbeats: The True-Life Story of an Exceptional Author, 277
--Phyllis Barber, Raw Edges: A Memoir, 27
How Can International Staff Exchange be Implemented as Part of the Execution of an Internationalisation Strategy in UK Higher Education? The Case of a Strategic Entrepreneur
No full textThis work constructs a bridge across the "knowing-doing gap" of international staff exchange: the gap between strategy formulation and its execution within the constraints of a post-1992 university business school in the UK. It goes beyond the common, well-intentioned and yet vague statements involving the "encouragement" of international staff exchange to propose a model of execution through strategic entrepreneurship.
The promotion of international staff mobility is a founding principle of the "Bologna Process", designed to create a converged system of higher education across Europe. Many UK "new" (ie post-1992) universities are engaged in the development of internationalisation strategies which include staff exchange. Meanwhile, the failure to execute strategy is increasingly acknowledged as a major problem in organisational performance.
Using a first-, second and third-person Insider Action Research (AR) approach, the author initiated, planned, organised and implemented an international staff exchange between universities in the UK and France. Data generated were subjected to a double process of analysis in order to construct the new model. A policy of "subjectivity with transparency" and transcontextual credibility throughout enables the reader to judge transferability. Duality is the nature of this "bridge" and the simplistic transplant of the expatriation policies of commercial organisations is avoided. Concepts from the theoretical literature in three domains - strategic management and entrepreneurship in higher education, internationalisation of higher education and strategy execution through strategic entrepreneurship - are combined with the research analysis to propose that "strategic entrepreneurs" can execute the riskier elements of an internationalisation strategy, such as staff exchange. Members of the creative class, strategic entrepreneurs are attracted and motivated by the foundation of a diverse environment and entrepreneurial culture promoted by a university's values-driven, holistic approach to internationalisation. Their autonomous strategic behaviour must be facilitated by an execution-focussed organisational architecture. In a university, the overall approach to staff exchange should combine central and local (school-based) functions and resource both to develop strategic initiatives and to exploit tactical opportunities.
This work broadens AR from education into strategic management, specifically linking the areas of strategic execution and strategic entrepreneurship
Simulating the 21-cm signal from the Epoch of Reionization
No full textIn this thesis, the 21-cm signal from the epoch of reionization is simulated using a combination of N-Body techniques and semi-analytical models. Images, line-of-sight spectra and power spectra of the simulated 21-cm signal are presented. The N-Body code, GADGET-2, is used to obtain the distribution of dark matter and a friends-of-friends algorithm is used to identify dark matter halos to construct halo merger trees. We ran seven simulations with periodic boxes of volumes ranging from (10h(^-1)Mpc)(^3) to (140h(^-1)Mpc)(^3), and particle masses ranging from 6.46 x lO(^4)h(^-1)M(_ʘ) to 1.42 X 10(^9) h(^-1)M(_ʘ). These merger trees are used with the GALFORM semi-analytical model of galaxy formation to predict the locations of galaxies and their ionizing luminosities within the halos. We find that halos in a broad range of masses contribute significantly to the total ionizing emissivity of each simulation. The effect of suppressing gas cooling due to reionization in low mass halos in GALFORM was also investigated. For a redshift of reionization, z(_reion) = 15, this significantly reduces the number of ionizing photons produced at z < 15. This results in a prolonged period of reionization as the Universe makes the transition from neutral to fully ionized. Next, the 21-cm signal and ionization state of the hydrogen is calculated for the simulation box with a volume of (20h(^-1)Mpc)(^3) and a particle mass of 5.17 x 10(^5)h(^-1)M(_ʘ). The hydrogen is assumed to follow the dark matter, and the 21-cm differential brightness temperature is calculated from the distribution of neutral hydrogen. High resolution images and spectra of the 21-cm signal are generated from these neutral hydrogen density fields. A toy model is first investigated, randomly distributed ionized spheres of constant radii are generated to investigate the effect ionized regions have on the 21-cm power spectra. We find that this increases power on the scales of the size of the ionized spheres, but decreases power on small scales. The amount of change in power is sensitive to the overall ionized fraction of the simulation box, increasing the ionized fraction increases the power on the scales of the spheres while decreases the power on small scales. Next, the GALFORM model is investigated. The ionizing luminosities of GALFORM galaxies are used to calculate cosmological Strömgren spheres representing ionized regions. These spheres are "painted" around the location of the galaxies on the density field. We find that the power spectra lack any obvious features due to the range of sizes of the GALFORM ionized regions. However, the power spectra is sensitive to the ionized fraction of the simulation box. The slope of the power spectra decreases as ionized fraction increases. Finally, the temperature field is smoothed over a bandwidth of 200 kHz and a 2-D Gaussian beam with a FWHM of 3 arcmin to emulate the LOFAR telescope beam response. We find that only the largest features, such as large ionized regions, are still identifiable after smoothing. LOFAR should be able to detect the early stages of reionization, but may have difficulties during later stages when much of the brightest 21-cm signal is removed by reionization
A new look at the pathogenesis of asthma
No full textAsthma is an inflammatory disorder of the conducting airways that has strong association with allergic sensitization. The disease is characterized by a polarized Th-2 (T-helper-2)-type T-cell response, but in general targeting this component of the disease with selective therapies has been disappointing and most therapy still relies on bronchodilators and corticosteroids rather than treating underlying disease mechanisms. With the disappointing outcomes of targeting individual Th-2 cytokines or manipulating T-cells, the time has come to re-evaluate the direction of research in this disease. A case is made that asthma has its origins in the airways themselves involving defective structural and functional behaviour of the epithelium in relation to environmental insults. Specifically, a defect in barrier function and an impaired innate immune response to viral infection may provide the substrate upon which allergic sensitization takes place. Once sensitized, the repeated allergen exposure will lead to disease persistence. These mechanisms could also be used to explain airway wall remodelling and the susceptibility of the asthmatic lung to exacerbations provoked by respiratory viruses, air pollution episodes and exposure to biologically active allergens. Variable activation of this epithelial-mesenchymal trophic unit could also lead to the emergence of different asthma phenotypes and a more targeted approach to the treatment of these. It also raises the possibility of developing treatments that increase the lung's resistance to the inhaled environment rather than concentrating all efforts on trying to suppress inflammation once it has become established.<br/
Retinitis Pigmentosa GTPase Regulator (RPGR) protein isoforms in mammalian retina:insights into X-linked Retinitis Pigmentosa and associated ciliopathies
No full textMutations in the cilia-centrosomal protein Retinitis Pigmentosa GTPase Regulator (RPGR) are a frequent cause of retinal degeneration. The RPGR gene undergoes complex alternative splicing and encodes multiple protein isoforms. To elucidate the function of major RPGR isoforms (RPGR 1-19 and RPGR ORF15), we have generated isoform-specific antibodies and examined their expression and localization in the retina. Using sucrose-gradient centrifugation, immunofluorescence and co-immunoprecipitation methods, we show that RPGR isoforms localize to distinct sub-cellular compartments in mammalian photoreceptors and associate with a number of cilia-centrosomal proteins. The RCC1-like domain of RPGR, which is present in all major RPGR isoforms, is sufficient to target it to the cilia and centrosomes in cultured cells. Our findings indicate that multiple isotypes of RPGR may perform overlapping yet somewhat distinct transport-related functions in photoreceptors
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