Development strategy reconsidered : Mexico, 1960-94

Different ways of discussing development strategy often reflect different definitions of development. Analysts who emphasize income or production as indicators of development may focus on macroeconomics or sectors. Other analysts may focus on distribution and social aspects as development. Economists tend to see development strategy from the normative, technocratic perspective of welfare economics. Political scientists may see development as a process of political interaction between different interests. Using Mexico as a case, the authors examine macroeconomic conditions and policies (based on flow of funds tables) and estimates of resource transfers between sectors and regions, to relate them to development strategies. They find that: 1) Macroeconomic conditions and policies have exerted a strong impact on resource transfers between the productive sector and the financial and fiscal sectors. 2) Because of the strong impact of macroeconomic conditions and policies, resource transfers between productive sectors were not necessarily evident for either financial or fiscal transfers. But combined transfers from nonagricultural states to agricultural states were significant in three out of four periods examined. 3) The government more effectively controls fiscal transfers because it is directly involved in decisionmaking about public investment and federal participation. Figures on fiscal transfers suggest that the government favored agricultural states in the quarter century studies. 4) Fiscal transfers dominated financial transfers--hence the general transfer from nonagricultural states to agricultural states. The Mexican government maintained a strong interventionist stance toward the rural and agricultural sector even as it espoused reducing the government's role in economic management. 5) During the era of shared development, the government favored less productive agricultural states over highly productive agricultural states. As agrarian reform was reformed, this favoritism diminished and eventually disappeared. 6) The study results reflect the Mexican government's political inclination to favor agricultural or rural states in coping with macroeconomic turmoil. In terms of development strategy, the federal government may have maintained that preference in securing resource flows, but that focus on the subsistence sector seems to have diminished recently.Health Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Economic Theory&Research,Decentralization,Economic Theory&Research,Poverty Assessment,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Economics&Finance,Achieving Shared Growth

On Zen Art

This article, which has become known as a classic expression of the main characteristics of Zen art, is republished in Marburg Journal of Religion by kind permission of the Eastern Buddhist Society, Kyōto, having been originally published in The Eastern Buddhist in 1966 I/2 (New Series), pages 21-33. It is a translation of “Zen Geijutsu no Rikai” (禅芸術の理解, “On the Understanding of Zen Art”) from Hisamatsu’s book Tōyōteki Mu (東洋的無, “Oriental Nothingness”), Kyōo: Kōundō 1939, pages 86-97. The original translation was made by Richard DeMartino in collaboration with Fujiyoshi Jikai and Abe Masao. For this re-publication the transliteration of Chinese names has been modernized. The Eastern Buddhist is a journal which was founded in Kyōto in 1921 by Suzuki Daisetsu and associates. Many valuable articles were published in its pages during the 1920s and 1930s. Having enjoyed a new lease of life since the second half of the twentieth century, The Eastern Buddhist is today a leading journal in the field of Buddhist Studies. Other important selections from the early contents may be found in the series Eastern Buddhist Voices (Equinox Publishing). It is hoped that this republication of a key article by HISAMATSU Shin’ichi in a convenient quality format will serve to make it available to a wide readership and further the appreciation of Zen art

Yoga and the Jesus Prayer—A Comparison between aṣtānga yoga in the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali and the Psycho-Physical Method of Hesychasm

The present article will try to show differences and similarities in description about the ascetic teaching and mystical experience of two totally different spiritual traditions, i.e. in regard to the “Jesus Prayer” in the late Byzantine era and “yoga” in ancient India. A prayer made much use of by Christians in the Eastern Orthodox Church is the so-called “Jesus Prayer” or “Prayer of the heart,” including a short phrase, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me” that is repeatedly and continuously recited.1 The Jesus Prayer began to spread generally in the Eastern Church with the birth of “hesychasm,” a spiritual movement of Orthodox monasticism in the 14th century Byzantine empire. But a significant part of this movement was not so much the establishment of the Jesus Prayer itself but a special psycho-physical technique which began to be practiced with this prayer by monks on the Holy Mountain of Athos. What interests us in this regard is that this psycho-physical method, including a special bodily posture and a breath control technique, appears to be quite similar to the methods set out in another religious tradition, namely that of yoga that developed from ancient times in India. Because of its impressive similarity, a Byzantinologist, Endre von Ivánka, called the practitioners of hesychasm “byzantinische Yogis.”2 For this present article we take up the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali with its comprehensive method of yoga, and clarify similarities and differences in the conceptual and methodological frameworks of the two systems

PTFE-Doped CeO2 Films: Synthesis, Characterization and Properties

Multi-functional hybrid films were developed by doping PTFE into CeO2 by co-sputtering of CeO2 and PTFE targets. The hybrid films formed on borosilicate glass substrate containing from 5 to 15 vol. % PTFE in CeO2 showed UV shielding, high indentation hardness, hydrophobicity, optical transmittance in visible light, and high bending crack resistance. Optical properties of 100 nm thick CeO2 -5 vol. % PTFE film revealed UV light shielding of more than 80 % at 380 nm and visible light transmittance higher than 80 %. Indentation hardness measured under the load of 0.001mN was more than 16,000N/mm2 of 2.7 times higher than the glass substrate. No crack in the film was observed by bending 1.5 cm in diameter. Furthermore, the hydrophobic surface property was evaluated by the water contact angle to be higher than 90 degrees. Preliminary characterization of the CeO2-PTFE film using XPS and XMA revealed that chemical states of F in sputter doped PTFE in CeO2 can be considered to exist as C-F and Ce-F compounds. On the other hand, chemical states of Ce changed partially from Ce+4 (CeO2) to Ce+3 (Ce2O3 or CeF3) with increasing doped PTFEF in the film.In this rapid communication, we preliminary described the optical, mechanical and chemical properties of newly developed hybrid CeO2-PTFE films prepared by sputtering