Pre-Competition

As the costs of pharmaceutical research and development rise and concerns grow about the pace of innovation, both federal agencies and industry participants have turned to new forms of collaboration to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of biomedical research. Industry participants, many of them competitors, come together to define joint research and development objectives and to share project results in what are widely known as “pre-competitive” collaborations. There is a prevailing understanding among both industry and governmental actors that these pre-competitive endeavors are not only permissible, but encouraged. While the term “pre-competitive” is prevalent in the pharmaceutical industry, it is missing from the antitrust lexicon. Neither the courts nor the federal agencies charged with enforcing U.S. antitrust laws have ever recognized precompetitive activity as immune from antitrust challenge. Rather, antitrust regulators have repeatedly emphasized that when competitors collaborate, anticompetitive behavior may arise regardless of the stage at which collaborating occurs. This Article critically examines the phenomenon of precompetitive collaboration through an antitrust lens. It analyzes the apparent disconnect between the industry reliance on precompetition as a way of demarcating procompetitive arrangements among competitors, on the one hand, and the absence of any such distinction in antitrust law or practice, on the other. It then explores the ways that this disconnect may manifest itself in the choice and structure of collaborative arrangements and suggests a framework for refocusing attention on collaborations that are procompetitive, irrespective of the stage of development

Doing military fitness: physical culture, civilian leisure, and militarism

Drawing explicitly upon the bodily techniques of military basic training and the corporeal competencies of ex-military personnel, military-themed fitness classes and physical challenges have become an increasingly popular civilian leisure pursuit in the UK over the last two decades. This paper explores the embodied regimes, experiences, and interactions between civilians and ex-military personnel that occur in these emergent hybrid leisure spaces. Drawing on ethnographic data, I argue that commercial military fitness involves a repurposing and rearticulation of collective military discipline within a late modern physical culture that emphasizes the individual body as a site of self-discovery and personal responsibility. Military fitness is thus a site of a particular biopolitics, of feeling alive in a very specific way. The intensities and feelings of physical achievement and togetherness that are generated emerge filtered through a particular military lens, circulating around and clinging to the totem of the repurposed ex-martial body. In the commercial logic of the fitness market, being ‘military’ and the ex-soldier’s body have thus become particularly trusted and affectively resonant brands

Social Media and the Politics of Gender, Race and Identity: The case of Serena Williams.

This study investigates issues of gender, race and identity, as enacted through social media, focusing on the abuse experienced by tennis player Serena Williams during the 2015 Wimbledon Championships. A netnographic analysis of discriminatory or abusive comments relating to Williams were collected from 24 sites on two social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter. These platforms are popular sites commonly used for fan/athlete interaction. Williams identifies as female and African American, therefore intersectionality is adopted to examine the representation of Williams in social media spaces. Several pertinent themes were uncovered relating to Williams including ‘Gender questioning’, ‘Accusations of performance enhancing drugs use’ and ‘Racism’. Such themes showed a simultaneous overlapping of multiple forms of oppression encountered by Williams, reinforcing the notion of the black female athlete as ‘other’ in virtual spaces. Such oppression is perpetuated by the online environment

Natational Dress: Functionality, Fashion and the Fracturing of Separate Spheres in Victorian Britain

In 1873, The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine extolled the values of swimming for women and gave advice on the best form of bathing dress, one which preserved modesty and met the demands of contemporary fashion. This essentially impractical type of bathing outfit has been the subject of much of the historiography surrounding female swimming costumes but it was not the only swimming dress on show during the “long” Victorian period. The women of all classes who participated in more serious swimming required something functional rather than fashionable while working-class professional natationists, who appeared regularly in water shows throughout the country, wore attire that combined functionality, tight to the body while allowing freedom of movement, with public appeal, a critical consideration for female exhibitors. Their activities and costumes challenged prevailing notions of “separate spheres” and this paper explores Victorian aquatic dress in the context of class, gender and social space

Traumatic Brain Injury in Precariously Housed Persons: Incidence and Risks

Background Homeless and precarious housed persons are particularly prone to traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), but existent incidence rates are hampered by poor case acquisition. We rigorously documented TBIs in precariously housed persons transitioning in and out of homelessness. Methods Between December 2016 and May 2018, 326 precariously housed participants enrolled in a longitudinal study in Vancouver, Canada were assessed monthly for TBI occurrences after education on sequelae. Over one participant-year, 2433 TBI screenings were acquired for 326 person-years and variables associated with odds of incident TBI were evaluated. Findings One hundred participants acquired 175 TBIs, yielding an observed incidence proportion of 30¢7% and event proportion of 53¢7%. Of the injured, 61% reported one TBI and 39% reported multiple injuries. Acute intoxication was present for more than half of the TBI events assessed. Additionally, 9¢7% of TBI events occurred in the context of a drug overdose. Common injury mechanisms were falls (45¢1%), assaults (25¢1%), and hitting one’s head on an object (13¢1%). In this community-based but non-randomly recruited sample, exploratory analyses identified factors associated with odds of an incident TBI over one year of follow-up, including: schizophrenia disorders (odds ratio (OR) = 0¢43, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0¢19, 0¢94), role functioning (OR = 0¢69, 95% CI 0¢52, 0¢91), opioid dependence (OR = 2¢17, 95% CI 1¢27, 3¢72) and those reporting past TBIs (OR = 1¢99, 95% CI 1¢13, 3¢52). Interpretation Given the ubiquity of TBIs revealed in this precariously housed sample, we identify an underappreciated and urgent healthcare priority. Several factors modified the odds of incident TBI, which can facilitate investigations into targeted prevention efforts

Benign external hydrocephalus: a review, with emphasis on management

Benign external hydrocephalus in infants, characterized by macrocephaly and typical neuroimaging findings, is considered as a self-limiting condition and is therefore rarely treated. This review concerns all aspects of this condition: etiology, neuroimaging, symptoms and clinical findings, treatment, and outcome, with emphasis on management. The review is based on a systematic search in the Pubmed and Web of Science databases. The search covered various forms of hydrocephalus, extracerebral fluid, and macrocephaly. Studies reporting small children with idiopathic external hydrocephalus were included, mostly focusing on the studies reporting a long-term outcome. A total of 147 studies are included, the majority however with a limited methodological quality. Several theories regarding pathophysiology and various symptoms, signs, and clinical findings underscore the heterogeneity of the condition. Neuroimaging is important in the differentiation between external hydrocephalus and similar conditions. A transient delay of psychomotor development is commonly seen during childhood. A long-term outcome is scarcely reported, and the results are varying. Although most children with external hydrocephalus seem to do well both initially and in the long term, a substantial number of patients show temporary or permanent psychomotor delay. To verify that this truly is a benign condition, we suggest that future research on external hydrocephalus should focus on the long-term effects of surgical treatment as opposed to conservative management