Books by "Michael J. Saks"
4 books found
The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies
by Michael Storper, Thomas Kemeny, Naji Makarem, Taner Osman
2015 · Stanford University Press
Today, the Bay Area is home to the most successful knowledge economy in America, while Los Angeles has fallen progressively further behind its neighbor to the north and a number of other American metropolises. Yet, in 1970, experts would have predicted that L.A. would outpace San Francisco in population, income, economic power, and influence. The usual factors used to explain urban growth—luck, immigration, local economic policies, and the pool of skilled labor—do not account for the contrast between the two cities and their fates. So what does? The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies challenges many of the conventional notions about economic development and sheds new light on its workings. The authors argue that it is essential to understand the interactions of three major components—economic specialization, human capital formation, and institutional factors—to determine how well a regional economy will cope with new opportunities and challenges. Drawing on economics, sociology, political science, and geography, they argue that the economic development of metropolitan regions hinges on previously underexplored capacities for organizational change in firms, networks of people, and networks of leaders. By studying San Francisco and Los Angeles in unprecedented levels of depth, this book extracts lessons for the field of economic development studies and urban regions around the world.
Benedictin was prescribed to more than thirty-five million American women from its introduction in 1956 until 1983, when it was withdrawn from the market. The drug's manufacturer, Merrill Dow Pharmaceuticals, a major U.S. pharmaceutical firm, joined a list of other companies whose product liabilities would result in precedent-setting litigation. Before it was over, the Benedictin litigation would involve 2,000 claimants over a fifteen-year period. Michael D. Green offers a comprehensive overview of the Benedictin case and highlights many of the key issues in mass toxic substances litigation, comparing individual and collective forms of litigation, and illustrating the misunderstandings between scientists and lawyers about the role of science in providing evidence for the legal system.
Gait analysis is the systematic study of human walking, using the eye and brain of experienced observers, augmented by instrumentation for measuring body movements, body mechanics, and the activity of the muscles. Since Aristotle’s work on gait analysis more than 2000 years ago, it has become an established clinical science used extensively in the healthcare and rehabilitation fields for diagnosis and treatment. Forensic Gait Analysis details the more recent, and rapidly developing, use of gait analysis in the forensic sciences. The book considers the use of observational gait analysis, based on video recordings, to assist in the process of identification or exclusion. With the increase in use of CCTV and surveillance systems over the last 20 to 30 years, there has been a steady and rapid increase in the use of gait as evidence. Currently, gait analysis is widely used in the UK in criminal investigations, with increasing awareness of its potential use in the US, Europe, and globally. The book details the history of the science, current practices, and of the emergent application to establish best-practice standards that conform to those of other forensic science disciplines. Engagement with the Forensic Science Regulator, and the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences in the UK, and the International Association for Identification has helped to ensure and enhance the quality assurance of forensic gait analysis. However, there remains a fundamental lack of standardized training and methodology for use in evidentiary and investigative casework. This book fills that void, serving as one of the first to describe the current state of practice, capabilities and limitations, and to outline methods, standards of practice and expectations of the gait analyst as a forensic practitioner. Forensic Gait Analysis reflects current research and forensic practice and will serve as a state-of-the-art guide to the use of gait analysis in the forensic context—for both education and training purposes. It will be a welcome addition to the libraries of professionals in the areas of podiatry, gait analysis, forensic video analysis, law enforcement, and legal practice.