A technical modification of skin surface biopsy has been introduced by using plastic tape instead of glass as holder, mainly to investigate mycological infections of skin folds. Among various brands of plastic sheets, a polyester film (Melinex O UCB-SIDAC) has been demonstrated as the most suitable. A direct microscopic comparison has been made between our modified technique and conventional scraping as procedures for collecting material from interdigital spaces in 30 patients with bilateral athlete's foot. It has been shown that the skin surface biopsy gives a slightly greater number of positive results (presence of dermatophytes or Candida species) than the conventional scraping technique, although the difference between both techniques is not statistically significant at the 0-05 level (0-05 less than P less than 0-10). Some advantages of the modified skin surface biopsy are emphasized.
In the preface to the paperbound edition of his very stimulating book, Hirschman remarks that 'the question of balanced versus unbalanced growth seems to have caught the exclusive attention of many readers'; he pleads for a correction of this bias, stating that 'the topics discussed in the chapters on motivations, technology and regional transmission of growth are no less central to development strategy and require much further investigation'.1The purpose of this article is to examine Hirschman's views on technology, and in particular his contention that certain capital intensive ventures are particularly well suited for less developed countries. We shall start by briefly recalling Hirschman's argument; it will be shown that this argument actually contains two hypotheses on labour productivity differentials between less developed and advanced countries rather than just the one explicitly stated byHirschman. Next we shall test both hypotheses; we shall do this at the level of individual plants rather than industries so as to avoid the twin dangers of weakening the original hypotheses and confusing the analysis with statistical difficulties.(1) Theory and hypothesesIn Hirschman's view, certain types of factory operations and industrial technologies perform a crucial function in raising labour productivity, especially in less developed countries. At the level of individual factory operations, labour efficiency will be higher in machine-paced as opposed to operator-paced operations. This is so 'because machine-paced operations provide for steadiness of pace and regular brief rest periods which the inexperienced self-paced worker has difficulty in observing'.2 As a result, productivity in less developed countries will tend to be comparatively higher in industrial operations that are primarily machine-paced.At the level of production processes as a whole, modern technology helps management to coordinate efforts and consequently this too tends to improve labour productivity. The degree to which modern technology facilitates coordination varies from one industry to another. It is likely to be higher in 'process-centred' as opposed to 'product-centred' industries. In the former, the technology consists of some basic processes, around which work falls into place almost naturally, and the sequences of operations are fairly rigidly compelled. In the latter, work is not patterned around one or several key technical processes, and technology makes much less of a contribution to the coordination of efforts (unless it succeeds, by organizing 'flow', in imitating the conditions prevailing in the 'process-centred' industries)
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