The countries of the Caribbean region benefit from a number of preferential trade arrangements. In addition to the industrialized countrys' General System of Preferences (GSP) which are applicable to most developing countries, there are some very special arrangements formulated to promote exports from the Caribbean countries -- the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) of the United States, CARIBCAN of Canada, and the much older Lome Conventions of the European Communities, which includes the Caribbean as well as most African and some Pacific countries. Yet, in spite of this preferential treatment, the Caribbean export performance has been worse than the performance of the developing countries as a whole. This report examines the Caribbean export performance in the 1980s in some detail, analyzes the possible reasons behind this performance, and presents some recommendations to improve it. The scope of the analysis in this report is limited to the member countries of the Caribbean Group for Cooperation in Economic Development. This report not only has a Caribbean perspective, it examines all three major arrangements - the CBI, CARIBCAN, and Lome Convention in the environment of both groups and specific exporters in the three different markets. In this way, the greatly varying performances can lead to insights on export performance and ways to improve it.

Clinical microbiologists are engaged in the field of diagnostic microbiology to determine whether pathogenic microorganisms are present in clinical specimens collected from patients with suspected infections. If microorganisms are found, these are identified and susceptibility profiles, when indicated, are determined. During the past two decades, technical advances in the field of diagnostic microbiology have made constant and enormous progress in various areas, including bacteriology, mycology, mycobacteriology, parasitology, and virology. The diagnostic capabilities of modern clinical microbiology laboratories have improved rapidly and have expanded greatly due to a technological revolution in molecular aspects of microbiology and immunology. In particular, rapid techniques for nucleic acid amplification and characterization combined with automation and user-friendly software have significantly broadened the diagnostic arsenal for the clinical microbiologist. The conventional diagnostic model for clinical microbiology has been labor-intensive and frequently required days to weeks before test results were available. Moreover, due to the complexity and length of such testing, this service was usually directed at the hospitalized patient population. The physical structure of laboratories, staffing patterns, workflow, and turnaround time all have been influenced profoundly by these technical advances. Such changes will undoubtedly continue and lead the field of diagnostic microbiology inevitably to a truly modern discipline. Advanced Techniques in Diagnostic Microbiology provides a comprehensive and up-to-date description of advanced methods that have evolved for the diagnosis of infectious diseases in the routine clinical microbiology laboratory. The book is divided into two sections. The first techniques section covers the principles and characteristics of techniques ranging from rapid antigen testing, to advanced antibody detection, to in vitro nucleic acid amplification techniques, and to nucleic acid microarray and mass spectrometry. Sufficient space is assigned to cover different nucleic acid amplification formats that are currently being used widely in the diagnostic microbiology field. Within each technique, examples are given regarding its application in the diagnostic field. Commercial product information, if available, is introduced with commentary in each chapter. If several test formats are available for a technique, objective comparisons are given to illustrate the contrasts of their advantages and disadvantages. The second applications section provides practical examples of application of these advanced techniques in several "hot" spots in the diagnostic field. A diverse team of authors presents authoritative and comprehensive information on sequence-based bacterial identification, blood and blood product screening, molecular diagnosis of sexually transmitted diseases, advances in mycobacterial diagnosis, novel and rapid emerging microorganism detection and genotyping, and future directions in the diagnostic microbiology field. We hope our readers like this technique-based approach and your feedback is highly appreciated. We want to thank the authors who devoted their time and efforts to produce their chapters. We also thank the staff at Springer Press, especially Melissa Ramondetta, who initiated the whole project. Finally, we greatly appreciate the constant encouragement of our family members through this long effort. Without their unwavering faith and full support, we would never have had the courage to commence this project.

The unexpected emergence of the Solidarity movement in Poland has focused Western attention on conflicts within socialist states. The rapid truncation of Solidarity and the rise of a new image of the state as a militarized, relatively autonomous, repressive apparatus has left several theoretical questions unresolved and raised some new ones. This volume draws from historical and political accounts of the events that haunted Poland between 1980 and 1984, providing a complex sociological explanation of the major processes that occur within the state-society sphere of relationships. In part one, the authors examine the conflict between social movements and the state in Poland: the history of Solidarity, the nature of the political conflict between Solidarity and the Communist state, the institutionaliza-tion of the means of control by the party over society, the functioning of civil society, and the mediating role of the Catholic Church. In part two, the authors treat issues that go beyond Solidarity: the scope of state autonomy, legitimacy conflicts within socialist and capitalist states, other social movements in Poland, and the philosophical symbolism of Solidarity.

The special needs of women with disabilities have been disregarded in a wide variety of vital areas. Issues pertain to women as wives and mothers. Studies of the effects on female sexuality of such conditions as renal disease and diabetes are lacking, though the sexual functioning of men with these diseases has been researched. On the economic front, the Federal-State Vocational Rehabilitation system and the regulations concerning disability benefits under Social Security provide less adequately for women than for men. Hopefully, this volume will raise the consciousness of its readers to the special status of women with disabilities as a minority group experiences multiple sources of discriminations.