Years In Existence Research Articles

Cooperatives and Wealth Accumulation: Preliminary Analysis

Successful cooperative businesses create wealth and help their members accumulate wealth. In the first three years of its existence, BIG Wash Laundromat, for example, returned dividends to the original investors equal to 185 percent of their holdings (David Montgomery, 1999). After four years they paid off one of their two bank loans, and at least one share of stock sold for six times its original value (Rita Bright, personal communication). Worker-owners of Cooperative Home Care Associates earned annual dividends between $250 and $500 on their initial investment of $1,000 during the first ten years in existence (Sigmund Shipp, 2000). A study of 15 Mutual Benefit Service Sector Cooperatives in California found that these co-ops provided higher wages for members than the national minimum wage and wages higher than entry-level jobs in retail and manufacturing for unskilled, non-English-speaking immigrants (their members). Some engaged in profitsharing and were able to return surplus earnings to members. Six of 15 provided some form of benefits (Nancy Conover et al., 1993). Childspace develops worker-owned, child care cooperatives which provide above average salaries for the industry, with full medical coverage, child-care services for all worker-owners, and access to a career ladder. The Childspace Development Training Institute also instituted an individual development account program for worker-owners whose incomes are 200 percent or less of the federal poverty level (Christine Clamp, 2001). The above is anecdotal evidence from onetime case studies of specific cooperatives. Most of these are also examples from majoritypeople-of-color-owned and majority-womenowned cooperatives. Such examples of wealth creation exist around the country for mainstream populations as well as for marginal populations, and across the globe as well. Is this typical?' Are such achievements generalizable? The original title of this paper was: How Cooperative Ownership of Businesses and Homes Contributes to Wealth Accumulation in African American Communities: Preliminary Analysis. This was to be an exploration into how cooperative ownership creates and builds wealth, especially for those who do not start with much wealth. I quickly found that few scholars have addressed this issue, and most of what does exist is not from official data. In fact, there is not much data or analysis at all on wealth accumulation from co-op ownership in general, let alone from predominantly AfricanAmerican-owned cooperatives. In general, most cooperatives do not trade publicly or even trade much stock at all, and sometimes they do not distribute dividends. Often much of the co-op's wealth is retained in the enterprise and not distributed. Therefore, calculating return on investment is difficult. In addition, cooperative businesses are not identified as a separate category in government statistics, and so traditional data sets are difficult or impossible to use. Below I discuss what is known in this area. I end with questions and issues that need to be addressed if more progress is to be made on this topic.

SCOR announces new activities

Roger Revelle had many good ideas during his long and productive career. One of them came to fruition in 1957 in the form of the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR), which the International Council for Science created as its first interdisciplinary body, to promote international activities in oceanography. Revelle served as SCOR's first president from 1957 to 1960. SCOR offers opportunities for scientists from different countries to cooperate in planning and executing international programs in ocean sciences. Over its 44 years in existence, SCOR has sponsored 120 working groups and has actively participated in many of the major international oceanographic projects. Thirty‐six nations presently participate as SCOR members.

Moby-Dick : History of a Loose-Fish: Manuscript, Print and Culture

MOBY-DICK:HISTORY OF A LOOSE-FISH: MANUSCRIPT, PRINT AND CULTURE Curated by John Bryant ooks can be powerful things. But by and large, they are not. Since 15100and the beginning of print publishing in BWestern culture, hundreds of thousands of titles have circulated among English-speaking societies alone; however, only a modest fraction have survived, and this is true only because of a good deal of luck and the prolonged efforts of scholars, librarians and enthusiasts. Books are an enduring technology, an efficient means of preserving words for generations and generations. However, like anything else that lives, a book is only mortal. True, it may last for centuries loager than the writer, editor and publisher who first handle it; its mortal coil is not shuffledoff so easily as human flesh, and in this regard, books possess a curious mechanism for creating something close to immortality. But that mechanism cannot work without a reader. A book can sit on a shelf and hold in reserve the thoughts, feelings, dreams and fictions of a mind; it can be a gravestone of a world long gone. But the moment that book is opened and read, the mind and world return. This is a kind of immortality, and it is no wonder that Herman Melville, who knew books and book making first hand, but failed as a professionalwriter, continued to create books privately - little volumes of poetry - well past the time when his contemporaries were reading him. He was setting himself up in print, creating a time capsule for readers to come. Books are transcenders of time, and with luck and a persistent crew of readers, they can be powerful things. Today, Moby-Dirk is regarded as one of our culture’s most powerful books. But this was not always the case, for its readership , now worldwide, had dwindled almost at the moment of its publication in October 1851. And it is safe to say now, 150 years later, that in only the latter half of those years in existence has the novel achieved the readership Melville (himself long gone) might have hoped for and the popularity it deserves. Of course, the power of a book and its popularity are separate things. Moby-Dick is now an icon among academics and general readers alike, so much so that individuals may “know of” the book through popular images of its one-legged monomaniac and white whale in everything from New Yorker cartoons to seafood eateries well before attempting to read the book itself. That is a form of transcendence I know Melville did not anticipate, or much hope for. “Knowing of” Moby-Dick has become an emblem that comes with the territory of our culture, both high brow and low. “Knowing” Moby-Dick requires some reading, and a lifetime of growing. The exhibition for The Melville Society’s third international conference, Moby-Dick 2001, celebrates a small but vibrant fraction of the impact of Melville’snovel on modern life. Robert K. Wallace and Elizabeth Schultz have assembled works of contemporary artists inspired by Moby-Dick and of illustrators working in the past century to render Melville’s images on the printed page beside the printed text. In conjunction with these artworks, which are both expressions and interpretations in their own right, I have assembled a modest collection (and only a fractional selection at that) of objects that represent the Thing Itself, not simply the text of Moby-Dick (which scholars tell us is actually intangible) but its various manifestations in manuscript, print, and other cultural artifacts. As we shall see, this “thing”called Moby-Dick is what Ishmael might call a “loose-fish.’’ 1.Loomings When Melville set sail in the whaling ship Acushnet in January 1841, he triggered a series of physical events and creative acts that would change his life and American letters. At the time he was simply a common sailor running about the world, hoping to find himself. After 18 months of that, he was ready to jump ship and did so in the Marquesas on the island of Nuku Hiva. His four-week 37 ARTISTS AFTER MOBY-DICK MOBY-DICK: HISTORY OF A LOOSE-FISH: MANUSCRIPT, PRINT AND CULTURE...

PHP3: PHARMACOECONOMIC FELLOWSHIPS: STRUCTURE, PROCESS, AND OUTCOMES

The escalating demand for pharmacoeconomic research has exceeded the supply of available researchers. Post-graduate pharmacoeconomic fellowships emerged to train and produce quality independent researchers to meet these growing educational needs. However, even after more than ten years in existence, the effectiveness of these programs has not been formally evaluated. In order to determine their effectiveness, first, a set of measures for pharmacoeconomic fellowship programs needs to be developed. OBJECTIVE: To construct a framework to examine the potential structure, process, and outcome measures for pharmacoeconomic fellowship programs. METHODS: Using the Donabedian model, we discuss the structures, processes, and outcomes of pharmacoeconomic fellowship programs. RESULTS: We begin by focusing on the structure of these programs, including facilities, qualification of the teaching staff, and operations of the institution. The types of settings involved in pharmacoeconomic fellowships are illustrated, and the experience and skills of preceptors and fellowship applicants are defined. The processes of pharmacoeconomic fellowships are reviewed, and the different characteristics of these programs such as the research and the educational components are discussed. Potential outcome measures of pharmacoeconomic fellowship programs are discussed. CONCLUSION: A framework for examining the structure, process, and outcome measures for pharmacoeconomic fellowship programs is given. Measures evaluating the outcomes of fellowship programs need to be developed. Further research is needed to determine the effectiveness of pharmacoeconomic fellowship programs.

Making it work: keys to successful collaboration in natural resource management.

This paper explores the positive aspects of collaboration in natural resources. Its purpose was to investigate participants' overall attitudes about keys to successful collaboration. The sample for the study consisted of 671 participants involved in 30 collaborative initiatives (CI) with the Forest Service. Using a mailed questionnaire, this study profiled the collaborative initiatives investigating purpose, problems addressed, groups involved, and years in existence. Respondents were queried on their overall perspectives on keys to successful collaboration. A total of more than 300 comments was collected from respondents and six categories emerged: development, information exchange, organizational support, personal communication, relationships/team building, and accomplishments. Continued research will need to explore the short- and long-term impacts of collaboration in natural resources.

Ambulatory phlebectomy. Principles and evolution of the method.

An easy, effective, inexpensive, and aesthetic method of varicose vein avulsion, in an office setting, is the aim of most phlebologists. Muller's ambulatory phlebectomy probably comes very close to this goal. With the acceptance and diffusion of this method, imitations, deviations, and "ameliorations" are frequent but do not always represent a true evolution. To describe the basic principles of the method and the evolution of some aspects (anesthesia, instruments, duplex mapping, eco-phlebectomy, compression) leading to effective advantages. In its 40 years in existence, ambulatory phlebectomy has not significantly changed, and has proved to be easy and safe. The most important progress has been made in anesthetic dose and in ultrasound applications.

Treatment in Transition

This article describes the struggles and difficulties of providing rehabilitation services in the transitional corrections environment. Larned Mental Health Correctional Facility, located in southwest central Kansas, is used as an example for outlining the difficulties faced by mental institutions devoted to offender treatment and processing while under correctional care. After 5 years in existence, the unit has discovered that symptoms and functional disabilities that make up long-term mental disorders pose a significant challenge to treatment and rehabilitation. Rehabilitation and treatment modalities can help reduce or compensate for social and occupational disabilities, but permanent improvements and successful transitions back to regular correctional institutions are frequently unpredictable.

The politics of inflation-fighting in new democracies

Several scholars have advocated social pacts as a means to combat inflation in new democracies. This article examines efforts to negotiate social pacts in five nascent democratic regimes during their first five years in existence. Boolean analysis demonstrates the improbable nature of the social pacts negotiated in Spain; subsequent analysis aims at improving our understanding of why Spain successed. While social pacts have been minimally useful in most new democracies, inflation has been combatted more successfully in many countries (including some of the cases analyzed here) via the move from state capitalism toward more free-market policies. While market economics has been more successful in fighting inflation, the political effects of such policies have been mixed.

Quality Assurance in Capitated Physician Groups

To describe quality assurance (QA) programs implemented by capitated physician groups; to measure their relative emphasis on monitoring of overuse compared with underuse and monitoring and improving preventive services compared with chronic disease care; and to examine how group characteristics influence QA activity. Cross-sectional questionnaire. A large network-model health maintenance organization in California (133 contracting physician groups). Ninety-four physician groups (71%) caring for 2.9 million capitated patients. Self-reported use of quality monitoring and improvement methods. All capitated physician groups conducted some QA. Groups' QA programs monitored areas subject to overuse, such as cesarean delivery and angioplasty rates, more than areas subject to underuse, such as childhood immunization rates and performance of retinal examinations for diabetic patients (64% vs 43%, P<.001). They monitored underuse of preventive services more than follow-up services for chronic diseases (54% vs 31%, P<.001). Groups also used reminders for preventive services more than they monitored follow-up services for chronic diseases (26% vs 15%, P<.01). Physician group characteristics independently associated with higher overall QA activity were greater number of years in existence, higher profitability, and capitated care penetration. Capitation places a large share of responsibility for QA in the hands of physician groups, but not all aspects of QA are being equally addressed. The emphasis on overuse may result from financial incentives inherent in capitation, while the focus on preventive services may stem from lack of adequate quality measurement tools for monitoring chronic disease care. Further research efforts should address how capitated physician groups might expand their QA programs to include monitoring of underuse, especially for patients with chronic disease.

The rise and fall of the criminal law of the German Democratic Republic

O n October 3, 1990, a rare event in the history of law took place. After many years in existence, an independent, fully developed criminal law system disappeared from the map of comparative law--without a successor and, like a ship in the Bermuda triangle, almost without a trace. Nonetheless, in the forty years of its existence, this criminal law system had significant and, for those affected, serious consequences. This article reviews the origins, development, and collapse of the East German penal system.

The New York Convention 1958 and Panama Convention 1975: Redundancy or Compatibility?

the traditional hostility towards arbitration and, in particular, international arbitration in Latin America appears to be on the wane. A new trend was heralded by the Inter-American Convention on International Commercial Arbitration, which was adopted by the Governments of the Member States of the Organisation of American States (OAS) in Panama on 30 January 1975 (the ‘Panama Convention’).1 The Panama Convention came into effect on 16 June 1976 and has been adhered to by some 11 Latin American countries. Ratification is apparently pending in the United States, where the proposed implementing legislation would consist of a new chapter of Title 9 (Arbitration) of the United States Code.2 The Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, done at New York, 10 June 1958 (the ‘New York Convention’)3 is now 30 years in existence. The New York Convention has been adhered to by 80 States, 17 of which are Latin American. Ratification is reportedly pending in Venezuela. The status of adherence to both Conventions in the Western Hemisphere is as follows: View this table: It is said that the Panama Convention 1975 ‘was carefully drawn up so as to be fully compatible with the New York Convention 1958.’5 This statement raises the question what may be the raison d'etre of the Panama Convention in view of the New York Convention. Another question is whether both Conventions can co-exist. Before examining these questions, it may be helpful to describe briefly the New York and Panama Conventions. The New York Convention contemplates two basic actions. The first action is the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards, ie , arbitral awards made in the territory of another (Contracting) State. This field of application is defined in Article I. The general obligation for the Contracting States to recognise such awards as …

Geological aid to developing countries

Report of the inaugural meeting of the UK section of the Association of Geoscientists for International Development (AGID-UK), now affiliated to the Geological Society, held in Burlington House, 15 February 1988. AGID is a unique international association of geoscientists with some 90% of its 2500 membership drawn from over 100 Third World countries. After nearly 15 years in existence, it is still the only organization devoted to the application of science to the problems of developing countries. It works in co-operation with local, national and international groups on programmes related to the development of natural resources, environmental planning and geoscience education. Perhaps its most important function is the informal grassroots contact and worldwide collaboration between individual geoscientists who share many of the same problems and the determination to solve them. The theme of the meeting was to explore the role that UK geologists could play towards these ends. Four speakers were invited to address aspects of ‘geological aid’ from personal experience. Global geoscience. Anthon R. Berger (Ottawa, editor of Episodes) began by suggesting that ‘geological aid’ was a somewhat outmoded concept. However since geosciences are global in outlook, it is imperative that a proper understanding is developed of the natural forces that lead to global changes and of their interaction with society. It is also imperative to communicate effectively both the results of such research and any consequent warnings to planners, politicians and policymakers. None of this can be done without the full participation of Third World Scientists in the

A Pathologists’ Assistant Training Program: Past, Present, and Future

After 17 years in existence, a Pathologists’ Assistant Training Program continues to thrive. Because a recent survey of pathologists reflected new changes in anatomic pathology, the program curriculum was altered to adjust to current progress; however, the basic practical training was maintained. With the addition of more students, new clinical rotations have been added to ensure adequate exposure to surgical and autopsy pathology. Courses in computers and laboratory management reflect the attitudes of the pathologists surveyed toward the role of the assistant.

The Progress of Life Assurance Business in the United Kingdom during the last Fifty Years

Omitting from consideration the speculative and evanescent schemes which were the precursors of life assurance companies, and taking into account only the properly-constituted life offices, we find that up to 1 January 1837 the total number of such companies which had been established was 94, of which 20 had ceased to exist, leaving 74 then in operation. The average age of these 74 companies was 17¾ years. Not more than 18 of them had been 25 years in existence, while the remaining 56 had only attained an average age of 7 years. It at first strikes us as a very remarkable circumstance that only 20 offices out of a total of 102 had succumbed in the long period of 131 years, dating from 1706, when the Amicable was founded: but it has to be borne in mind that in 1837 the great majority of the offices had not attained an age sufficient to test their stability.

The U.S. Geological Survey

THE American papers contain an announcement which will be received with some astonishment in Europe. A member of Congress, Mr. Herbert, of Alabama, has introduced a Bill into the House prohibiting the Geological Survey of the United States from expending any money for palseontological work, except for the collection, classification, and proper care of fossils and other material; and from composing, compiling, or preparing for publication monographs, bulletins, or other books except an annual report containing merely the transactions of the bureau and other routine official matter. It is further proposed to sell off the laboratories and other property of the Survey which after the passing of the Act would be no longer needed. Of course there may be official or departmental reasons for reorganisation or retrenchment of which the outside world is ignorant. But these reasons must be very serious indeed to justify such action as is proposed. If there is one scientific undertaking of which the United States have pre-eminently just reason to boast as a model to all civilised countries, it is their Geological Survey. For completeness of equipment it has no rival in the world, and already though it has only been seven years in existence its work both for excellence and amount has placed it in the very front of the scientific organisations of the time. Whether we look to its purely scientific achievements or to the importance of its practical work in mining and other economical departments, the crippling of the resources of the Geological Survey of the United States would be a calamity against which not only all lovers of science but all who are interested in the continued development of the natural productions of the great republic would energetically protest. We can hardly suppose that Mr. Herbert will have many supporters, and it is difficult to conceive from what possible motive he is acting. He calculates that if his Bill passes he will effect a saving of 250,000 dollars. He should try to find some branch of the public service where economy and retrenchment could be practised without seriously injuring the scientific credit and industrial progress of his country. And no doubt he could succeed in this search.