“A very orderly retreat”: Democratic transition in East Germany, 1989-90

East Germany's 1989-90 democratisation is among the best known of East European transitions, but does not lend itself to comparative analysis, due to the singular way in which political reform and democratic consolidation were subsumed by Germany's unification process. Yet aspects of East Germany's democratisation have proved amenable to comparative approaches. This article reviews the comparative literature that refers to East Germany, and finds a schism between those who designate East Germany's transition “regime collapse” and others who contend that it exemplifies “transition through extrication”. It inquires into the merits of each position and finds in favour of the latter. Drawing on primary and secondary literature, as well as archival and interview sources, it portrays a communist elite that was, to a large extent, prepared to adapt to changing circumstances and capable of learning from “reference states” such as Poland. Although East Germany was the Soviet state in which the positions of existing elites were most threatened by democratic transition, here too a surprising number succeeded in maintaining their position while filing across the bridge to market society. A concluding section outlines the alchemy through which their bureaucratic power was transmuted into property and influence in the “new Germany”

Inflation and Labor Market Flexibility: The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease

Inflation can grease the wheels of the labor market by relaxing downward wage rigidity but it can also increase uncertainty and have a negative sand effect. This paper studies the grease effect of inflation by looking at whether the interaction between inflation and labor market regulations affects how employment responds to changes in output. The results show that in industrial countries with highly regulated labor markets, the grease effect of inflation dominates the sand effect. In the case of developing countries, we rarely find a significant effect of inflation on labor market regulations and provide evidence indicating that this could be due to the presence of a large informal sector and limited enforcement of de jure labor market regulations

Social Spending and Aggregate Welfare in Developing and Transition Economies

Notwithstanding the unprecedented attention devoted to reducing poverty and fostering human development via scaling up social sector spending, there is surprisingly little rigorous empirical work on the question of whether social spending is effective in achieving these goals. This paper examines the impact of government spending on the social sectors (health, education, and social protection) on two major indicators of aggregate welfare (the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index and child mortality), using a panel dataset comprising 55 developing and transition countries from 1990 to 2009. We find that government social spending has a significantly positive causal effect on the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, while government expenditure on health has a significant negative impact on child mortality rate. These results are fairly robust to the method of estimation, the use of alternative instruments to control for the endogeneity of social spending, the set of control variables included in the regressions, and the use of alternative samples

SIg-E- ("null-cell") non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. Multiparametric determination of their B- or T-cell lineage.

The authors performed immunophenotypic, functional, and molecular analysis of the neoplastic cells from 20 cases of SIg-, E-("null-cell") non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) in order to determine their lineage, better define this category of NHL, and evaluate the lineage specificity of selected phenotypic markers and the individual and collective utility of these approaches. They assigned 4 cases to the T-cell lineage, and 15 cases to the B-cell lineage, and 1 case remained indeterminant on the basis of immunophenotypic analysis. The cells from 2 cases assigned to the T-cell lineage expressed unusual phenotypes, but their T-cell derivation was confirmed by the demonstration of helper function in vitro. The 15 cases assigned to the B-cell lineage expressed a variety of B-cell-associated antigens, consistent with various stages of B-cell differentiation. Monoclonal antibodies OKT3, OKT4, OKT6, and OKT8 exhibited T-cell lineage restriction; and monoclonal antibodies OKB2, BL1, and B1 exhibited B-cell lineage restriction. Ia, TdT, cALLa, OKT9, and OKT10 exhibited lineage infidelity. Southern blot analysis for immunoglobulin heavy chain gene rearrangements confirmed 18 of the 19 lineage assignments made by immunophenotypic analysis and suggested that the 1 case of indeterminate phenotype was a B-cell neoplasm. One T-cell (OKT3+, T4+) neoplasm exhibited rearranged immunoglobulin heavy chain genes. Thus, neither immunophenotypic analysis nor the demonstration of rearranged immunoglobulin heavy chain genes alone permitted the satisfactory lineage assignment of every case of SIg-, E- NHL. However, combined immunophenotypic, functional, and genotypic analysis allowed us to assign every SIg-, E-NHL to the B- or T-cell lineage and to demonstrate that truly "null-cell" NHLs are probably very uncommon

Radiology Research Funding: Current State and Future Opportunities

Funding for research has become increasingly difficult to obtain in an environment of decreasing clinical revenue, increasing research costs, and growing competition for federal and nonfederal funding sources. This paper identifies critical requirements to build and sustain a successful radiology research program (eg, key personnel and leadership, research training and mentorship, infrastructure, institutional and departmental funding or support), reviews the current state of available funding for radiology (including federal, nonfederal, philanthropy, crowdfunding, and industry), and describes promising opportunities for future funding (eg, health services, comparative effectiveness, and patient-centered outcomes research). The funding climate, especially at the federal level, changes periodically, so it is important to have radiology-specific organizations such as the American College of Radiology and the Academy of Radiology Research serving as our key advocates. Key to obtaining any funding, no matter what the source, is a well-formulated grant proposal, so a review of opportunities specifically available to radiologists to develop and hone their grant-writing skills is provided. Effective and sustained funding for radiology research has the potential to cultivate young researchers, bolster quality research, and enhance health care. Those interested in pursuing research need to be aware of the ever-changing funding landscape, research priority areas, and the resources available to them to succeed. To succeed, radiology researchers need to think about diversification and flexibility in their interests, developing multidisciplinary and multi-institutional projects, and engaging a broader base of stakeholders that includes patients