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The emergence of web analytics software has changed the way marketing is researched, monitored, planned, and managed, which suggests a new dimension of marketing interactions between firms. This paper describes digital marketing results in terms of customer attraction to e-commerce websites from different angles (cross-country, firm type, evolution) and investigates empirically how competitors' marketing activities affect a focal firm. Using a vector autoregression model applied to data for grocery e-commerce in the US, the UK, and France, we find differences across American and European firms in the composition of digital marketing techniques and the existence of interaction effects across firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I analyse the role of shareholder approval and pre-emption rights in protecting shareholders in share issuances by listed corporations in the UK, Belgium and France. In these countries, shareholder approval and pre-emption rights are in principle required for share issuances, but the general meeting can authorise the board of directors to issue shares and disapply pre-emption rights. Proxy advisors and institutional investors have adopted guidelines that signal that they strongly support pre-emption rights and shareholder approval of share issuances. However, I provide empirical evidence that these guidelines are often not followed in France and Belgium, especially for smaller corporations with high levels of insider ownership. I contrast this with the strong impact of the guidelines in the UK. I also offer explanations for these differences, as well as policy options that would give shareholders a larger say on the balance between flexibility and accountability regarding authorisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design of piles in chalk is considered as an important issue for a number of geotechnical applications in Northern Europe. Few methods exist for predicting the ultimate axial pile capacity in chalk, but little guidance can be found regarding the design of driven piles in this complex material as experience is rather limited. This paper aims to study the short and long-term predictive performance of different pile design methods used in France and the UK where chalk is found widespread in the north-west coast and the south-east coast, respectively. Conventional methods used in France and the UK are compared by considering seven full-scale static load tests performed in Paris Basin and extracted from the LCPC pile database. The ratio of the measured vs calculated pile shaft resistance and base resistance value is analysed and the scatter of each method is studied. The comparison shows large differences between results. Extension of the database is of great importance to improve the predictive reliability. The last part discusses the evolution of the long-term capacity of driven piles in chalk due to ageing effects. Results show an increasing trend after driving, following a hyperbolic evolution curve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the 1745–46 Jacobite rebellion in Scotland (the last major attempt to restore the Stuart dynasty – in exile since 1689 – to the throne of Britain), and its decades-long aftermath, as a transatlantic problem deeply embedded in the geopolitical and cultural entanglements of inter-imperial rivalry and warfare. Prevailing interpretations of the '45 consider it as primarily a culminating political event centred on dynastic rivalry and the relative security of the Hanoverian establishment, while overlooking more recent geographic insights from the fields Atlantic and New Imperial history. In exploring the long term imperial strategic repercussions of the '45 as understood through the dynamics of a rapidly expanding and interconnected British Atlantic press and public sphere, this paper demonstrates novel and lasting understandings of the connection between inter-imperial rivalry, warfare, and domestic fifth-column rebellions. Such understandings, continuing throughout the mid-eighteenth century wars between Britain and France, and the contemporary anxieties tied to them, disrupt linear narratives of post-'45 British political and cultural integration. The British polity and formations of Britishness and Scottishness were entangled with France to an unprecedented degree as a result of the inter-imperial problem of the '45. This ultimately draws attention to the overlooked historical novelties, continuities, and contingencies of the post-'45 period. This cultural context must be considered and periodized on its own historical terms, rather than as part of a straightforward eighteenth century process of nation-state formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses how gluten was discussed by chemists in the nineteenth century in Great Britain and France as a proxy for both nutritive and baking quality. It examines the role of gluten in the broader quest to measure and render the quality of wheat and flour through a set of objective and quantifiable criteria. The paper also shows how measuring quality proved to be an extremely complex task, and how chemistry was, by itself, unable to reduce the complexity of the wheat grain, and the various demands made upon it, to a simple numerical indicator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at the political implications of a subject not always thought of as directly political, but which has an important ideological component: child-rearing advice. The period after 1945 offers an important example of how this topic can interact with developments in political ideology. This article takes the example of France, with substantial comparative reference to the US and Britain. It argues that the mid-twentieth century was characterized by a move from a hygienist and behaviourist approach to child rearing to a more liberal, humanist approach informed by Freudian psychoanalysis. This occurred significantly later in France – in the 1970s – than in Britain or the US, where it is associated with the years immediately after World War II. Through a comparison of two celebrated childcare experts who epitomized the change – Françoise Dolto in France, Benjamin Spock in the US – the paper explores the reasons for this temporal discrepancy. It shows that Anglo-American experts believed that the widespread application of psychoanalytic theory would help produce democratic citizens and ward off the dangers of authoritarian personalities. In France, psychoanalytic approaches became allied with conservative Catholic views of the family and women's roles, with implications for family policy into the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarship largely sees fraud-based citizenship stripping as a tool for guaranteeing the consistency of the naturalisation process against applicants who do not respect the rules. This implies that the line between 'desirable' and 'undesirable' citizens is drawn in accordance with procedural norms. In contrast, this article argues that deprivation on grounds of fraud aims to create a virtuous and responsible political subject. Drawing on the cases of France and the UK, the paper shows how government officials and judges understand citizenship deprivation not simply as a means to safeguard the procedural integrity of naturalisation, but as a mechanism for the moralisation and responsibilisation of applicants. The article further contends that not everyone is made the subject of 'renationalisation'. British and French deprivation policies reproduce suspicions and stereotypes against specific categories of migrants, constructing them as second-class citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Framing has previously been studied in the field of pandemic preparedness and global health governance and influenza pandemics have usually been framed in terms of security and evidence-based medicine on a global scale. This paper is based on the pandemic preparedness plans, published after 2009, from eight European countries. We study how pandemic preparedness is framed and how pandemic influenza in general is narrated in the plans. All plans contain references to ‘uncertainty’, ‘pandemic phases’, ‘risk management’, ‘vulnerability’ and ‘surveillance’. These themes were all framed differently in the studied plans. The preparedness plans in the member states diverge in ways that will challenge the ambition of the European Union to make the pandemic preparedness plans interoperable and to co-ordinate the member states during future pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Calais Jungle has existed in some form for several years. It grew in size tremendously as a result of the so-called ‘refugee crisis’, but was spectacularly demolished in October 2016. When the Jungle was still standing, it was a site of intense violence perpetuated by the local police, state authorities as well as French legal systems. Much of the literature that has explored the Jungle thus far has rightly depicted it as an unofficial refugee camp, a ‘state of exception’ and a site of biopolitical experimentation with distinct ‘camp geographies’. However, it is the contention of this paper that while these experimentations occur and fuel the precariousness of the site, the Jungle can be seen as a slum, and indeed, that it can be seen as a slum of London’s making. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Rationale: Public health and preventive medicine (PHPM) has been recognized internationally as a physician specialty, but national parallels and differences exist between training contexts. This paper reviews PHPM training and employment in Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the USA. Methods: Information gathered from relevant accreditation bodies and literature searches was used to create descriptive profiles of national training demographics and structure and a narrative outlining trends and challenges facing the specialty. Results: Notable similarities and differences exist between national contexts. Key themes were differences in training strategies and practice scope, specialty stakeholders, certification structure, and funding. Recognition challenges faced the specialty across all six countries. Other challenges included unclear competencies and training strategies and a need for PHPM specialists to highlight their role in combating population health threats. Additional differences existed between comparator countries on the structure of training, funding sources for training programs, availability of training posts, and linkages with other physician specialties. Conclusion: Highlighting these themes is a first step to fostering training collaborations between PHPM specialist physicians to augment transnational action on global public health challenges and also supports PHPM physician educators with innovative solutions from abroad that might address domestic specialty challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of campaigns against female genital mutilation (FGM) began in the 1920s. From the beginning, it was recognised that FGM was considered an important rite of passage between childhood and adulthood for girls, based on the importance of controlling female sexuality to maintain chastity and family honour, and to make girls marriageable. How to separate the “cut” from these deeply held norms is a question not yet adequately answered, yet I believe the answer is key to stopping the practice. Since the 1994 ICPD, national and international action against FGM has grown and resolutions have been passed in global forums which define FGM as a form of violence and a violation of children’s human rights. These resolutions have contributed to building consensus against FGM and developing national legislation criminalising FGM. Prosecutions or arrests involving FGM have been reported in several African countries and Great Britain, but apart from France, there have been very few. This paper summarises this history and how FGM has been criminalised. It argues that criminalisation may not be the best means of stopping FGM, but can have serious harmful effects itself. It calls for community-led educational information and more support for dialogue within FGM-practising communities, and argues that what is important is addressing the sexual and reproductive health consequences of FGM and gaining the understanding of women who have experienced it and their families as to why they should not make their daughters and grand-daughters go through it too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In light of the increasing elderly population and the growing demand for home care, the potential of robot support is given increasing attention. In this paper, an inventory of activities was made that threaten independent living of elderly when becoming problematic. Results will guide the further development of an existing service robot, the Care-O-bot®. Method: A systematic literature search of PubMed was performed, focused on the risk factors for institutionalization. Additionally, focus group sessions were conducted in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and France. In these focus group sessions, problematic activities threatening the independence of elderly people were discussed. Three separate target groups were included in the focus group sessions: (1) elderly persons ( n = 41), (2) formal caregivers ( n = 40) and (3) informal caregivers ( n = 32). Results: Activities within the International Classification of Functioning domains mobility, self-care, and interpersonal interaction and relationships were found to be the most problematic. Conclusions: A distinct set of daily activities was identified that may threaten independent living, but no single activity could be selected as the main activity causing a loss of independence as it is often a combination of problematic activities that is person-specific. Supporting the problematic activities need not involve a robotic solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using memoirs can be a vital way of supplementing archival evidence or indeed of overcoming a shortage of contemporaneous sources, and they offer insights into the attitudes and motivations of participants as well as how they recorded and remembered events. Memoirs retain an inherent value that must not be ignored, particularly in the study of intelligence liaison which addresses the kinds of personal and cultural aspects which are often especially well illuminated through autobiographical writing. This paper explores some of the theoretical and practical issues associated with the use of memoir material and examines them through the prism of selected autobiographical writings related to Anglo-French intelligence liaison from the Great War up to the Second World War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]