Movement Lawyering for Georgia Worker Cooperatives

Capitalism’s Contradictions in Atlanta. The Park Place and Auburn Avenue intersection in downtown Atlanta juxtaposes capitalism’s shiny veneer and putrid underbelly. Among Georgia State University’s multi-story buildings, Woodruff Park’s lush trees, and the vibrant Sweet Auburn neighborhood once home to Martin Luther King, Jr., diverse youth vying for class ascension and minority-owned businesses exemplifying Atlanta’s claim as an entrepreneurship hub populate the sidewalks. A deeper look, however, reveals cracks within the “Real Wakanda” facade. Wooden boards cover commercial space doors along Auburn Avenue, houseless folks support each other and request help from others around Woodruff Park, and students born into poverty face the reality of being less likely than anywhere in the country to escape it. Moreover, significant numbers of Atlantans suffer despite pockets of wealth among Black entertainers and entrepreneurs who generally live in the suburbs. When capitalist markets fail, communities worldwide have turned to cooperation, and Atlanta is no different

RISER - roadside infrastructure for safer European roads

A new resource exists for anyone who has responsibility for making our roadside infrastructure safer. New guidelines, drawn up as a result of the RISER project, are publicly available and provide a rich source of information on the design and maintenance of a safer road environment

The Virginia retirement system

This thesis is written largely from knowledge obtained through two years of experience with the administration of the Virginia Retirement System. From this experience the author has attempted to provide the reader with a deeper insight into the operation of the Virginia Retirement System than otherwise might have been possible. In some instances it may appear that the treatment has become somewhat technical, but every attempt has been made to use language which is clear and nontechnical and still retain the original meaning of the Act. If the interpretation of the provisions of the Act has been altered in any instance, it was unintentional

Varicella Zoster Virus Encephalitis

Varicella zoster virus in the adult patient most commonly presents as shingles. Shingles is a painful vesicular eruption localized to a specific dermatome of the body. One of the potential complications of this infection is involvement of the central nervous system causing encephalitis. An increased risk of this complication is associated with the immunocompromised patient. In this case report, we review the history and physical exam findings that should raise clinical suspicion for varicella zoster encephalitis, as well as the epidemiology, risk factors, treatment, and prognosis of this type of infection

Interaction of road environment, vehicle and human factors in the causation of pedestrian accidents

The UK On-the-Spot project (OTS) completed over 1500 in-depth investigations of road accidents during 2000-2003 and is continuing for a further 3 years. Cases were sampled from two regions of England using rotating shifts to cover all days of the week and all hours of the day and night. Research teams were dispatched to accidents notified to police during the shifts; arrival time to the scene of the accident was generally less than 20 minutes. The methodology of OTS includes sophisticated systems for describing accident causation and the interaction of road, vehicle and human factors. The purpose of this paper is to describe and illustrate these systems by reference to pedestrian accidents. This type of analysis is intended to provide an insight into how and why pedestrian accidents occur in order to assist the development of effective road, vehicle and behavioural countermeasures

Development and implementation of the UK on the spot accident data collection study - phase I

The ‘On The Spot (OTS) Accident Data Collection Study’ has been developed to overcome a number of limitations encountered in earlier and current research. Most accident studies (such as the UK Co-operative Crash Injury Study, CCIS) are entirely retrospective, in that investigations take place a matter of days after the accident and are therefore limited in scope to factors which are relatively permanent, such as vehicle deformation and occupant injuries. They do not, in general, record information relating to evidence existing at the crash site, such as post-impact locations of vehicles, weather and road surface conditions; nor do they consider events leading up to the accident, such as the driving conditions encountered as the protagonists approached the crash site and their behaviour. It is these factors which give an insight into why the accident happened. The police, who do attend the scenes of accidents while such ‘volatile’ data is still available to be collected, tend to have other priorities, such as ensuring the injured receive help, clearing the scene to restore the flow of traffic and looking for indications that any of the parties involved has broken the law. The philosophy of the OTS project was to put experienced accident researchers at the crash scene at the same time as the police and other emergency services. The study is thus still retrospective, in that the accident has already happened, but the timing is such that it should be possible to gather information on the environmental and behavioural conditions prevailing just before the crash. This provides valuable in-depth data on the causes as well as the consequences of crashes, and allows counter-measures to be developed in the fields of human behaviour and highway engineering as well as vehicle crashworthiness. This is potentially a major improvement on the data currently available from other studies. A study of this type had not been conducted in the UK for over 20 years, and comparison of the results of the current study with those of the previous one should provide interesting insights into the changes which have taken place over that period

Corporate Entrepreneurship: Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained?

Recent literature has suggested that adopting elements of the organization of independent venture capital (VC) firms may enhance the performance of corporate venture (CV) units (Chesbrough, 2000; Sahlman, 1990). This assertion has only been subject to minimal empirical research: typically restricted to small-sample qualitative studies or to examining the respective influences of independent VC firms and CV units on the performance of portfolio firms (Gompers & Lerner, 1998; Maula & Murray, 2001). A longitudinal survey of 95 CV units across three continents found mixed empirical support for the suggestion. Of the VC structures and practices investigated, strongest support was found for CV unit engagement with the VC community which was consistently associated with superior corporate venturing performance along both strategic and financial dimensions. VC-like equity-based compensation systems were not found to influence CV performance even where CV units were strongly focused on financial goals. Overall, the adoption of VC practices, partially mediated by venture unit performance, was positively associated with CV unit survival. These results suggest that selective adoption of elements of the VC model may enhance CV unit performance and survival

Next-generation probiotics: the spectrum from probiotics to live biotherapeutics

The leading probiotics currently available to consumers are generally drawn from a narrow range of organisms. Knowledge of the gut microbiota and its constituent actors is changing this paradigm, particularly given the phylogenetic range and relatively unknown characteristics of the organisms under investigation as novel therapeutics. For this reason, and because their development is likely to be more amenable to a pharmaceutical than a food delivery route, these organisms are often operationally referred to as next-generation probiotics, a concept that overlaps with the emerging concept of live biotherapeutic products. The latter is a class of organisms developed exclusively for pharmaceutical application. In this Perspective, we discuss what lessons have been learned from working with traditional probiotics, explore the kinds of organisms that are likely to be used as novel microbial therapeutics, discuss the regulatory framework required, and propose how scientists may meet this challenge