An Antelope of Fashion

I first encountered chiru during a wildlife survey in Qinghai in 1985.At that time,I was only aware that they lived on the high Tibetan Plateau,most of them between 4300-5000m in elevation and that they were confined to China,except for a few that strayed into India.     

中俄战略协作伙伴关系的历史

中俄睦邻友好有着悠久的历史,其间也经历了风风雨雨,而2001年两国签署的《中俄睦邻友好合作条约》为两国关系的进一步发展奠定了法律基础。中俄两国的战略协作关系体现在许多方面,如建立多层次的对话机制,继续扩大两国公众之间的相互理解,加强文化、经贸交流等。中俄战略协作伙伴关系的保持和深化给两国的社会科学工作者提出了一些非常重要的任务,如加强与传媒的合作,促使两国彼此形成一种客观、友善和相互尊重的态度和看法;在解决两国研究中存在的分歧时,要立足于两国的睦邻友好合作关系;在研究两国过去的一些局部冲突问题时,应坚持历史的立场,不能把今天的评判标准用于对过去历史事件的评价,更不能在评论事件时从今天的认识出发做道德判断等。     

Reproduction rates in multiregion modeling systems for HIV / AIDS

The persistence of HIV/AIDS has seen a revival of academic interest in the development of modeling systems to assist understanding the population dynamics of this infection. Moreover, it has become increasingly recognized that a key component of these systems for interpreting disease prevention is their reproduction rate, which provides an indication of whether an epidemic might start in a community described by a particular set of epidemiological characteristics. The properties of these rates have been explored in detail for models of a single risk behavior but not for multiregion formats that allow for the transfer of infection between geographical units. Therefore, in this paper I derive reproduction rates for a multiregion HIV/AIDS model together with their associated critical thresholds that estimate the minimum population of susceptibles necessary for an epidemic to begin. These statistics are interpreted for a simplified global setting representing regional variations in the potential onset of HIV/AIDS. In the discussion I examine the potential applicability of these results to understanding HIV/AIDS prevention.     

Theoretical change and therapeutic innovation in the treatment of syphilis in mid-nineteenth-century France

This article examines changes in the treatment of venereal disease in mid-nineteenth-century France in light of theoretical developments in the understanding of these diseases. It focuses on three theories of venereal disease: the orthodox theory of the "unity" of gonorrhea and syphilis; the physiological theory of Fran?ois Broussais, which essentially denied the actual existence of such a disease; and Philippe Ricord's new doctrine of venereal disease, a theory that is often credited with having established the distinction between syphilis and gonorrhea. The argument is that theoretical considerations played a major role in the evaluation of the relative merits of these theories and that any understanding of the appeal of Ricord's new doctrine must consider not only its pathological claims but its therapeutic implications as well. This was not, however, simply an instance of theory applied. These two aspects of Ricord's new doctrine, its pathology and its therapeutics, were inextricably bound up with one another, so that judgment of the one necessarily entailed judgment of the other. The argument is that therapeutic practice should not be seen simply as a downwind consequence of changes in the theoretical understanding of disease, but rather as an integral part of the process of change. These were the kinds of developments that led doctors to believe that French medicine was making very real progress at mid-century.     

Prelude to the plague: public health and politics at America's Pacific gateway, 1899

San Francisco played a crucial in the formulation of American immigration policy vis-à-vis Asia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During this period, it was often difficult to differentiate political struggles over the exclusion of Asians from other conflicts. This article examines one such arena: an acrimonious, well-documented argument in 1899 between Federal and various State and local authorities over the arrival of a Japanese passenger liner that may--or may not--have been carrying bubonic plague. Six months later, the plague unquestionably arrived, resulting in the well-known San Francisco plague epidemic of 1900 in which more that 110 people died. Reviewing the 1899 prelude, the public attitudes of the various health authorities, and the way the press reported health issues, collectively give some sense of that historical space where the regulation of public health, politics, and the immigration industry intersected and were fiercely contested.