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The article describes the process of recruiting a researcher with a learning disability at a United Kingdom (UK) university. Topics discussed include how the editors choose the paper, the job application process, and how the team works together. The support needed by people with learning disabilities when they apply for a job is also mentioned.

This paper explores people's acts of disengagement from activist campaign and group spaces in the context of border struggle activism in Germany and the UK as fugitive practices of refusal. These acts of disengagement took the form of remaining silent or intentionally distracted, sleeping during activist meetings, distancing oneself from activist groups during conversations, or completely withdrawing from these spaces. The paper approaches these acts, first, as practices of refusal that expose notions of the political rooted in liberal struggles over power and freedom as not only risky but also inherently self‐defeating and, second, as radically optimistic and vitalising practices of recovery and care that insist on alternative modes of thinking, practising, and experiencing sociality and the political that can inspire us to consider political agency in relation to wider abolitionist projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper develops an individual‐based stochastic network SIR model for the empirical analysis of the Covid‐19 pandemic. It derives moment conditions for the number of infected and active cases for single as well as multigroup epidemic models. These moment conditions are used to investigate the identification and estimation of the transmission rates. The paper then proposes a method that jointly estimates the transmission rate and the magnitude of under‐reporting of infected cases. Empirical evidence on six European countries matches the simulated outcomes once the under‐reporting of infected cases is addressed. It is estimated that the number of actual cases could be between 4 to 10 times higher than the reported numbers in October 2020 and declined to 2 to 3 times in April 2021. The calibrated models are used in the counterfactual analyses of the impact of social distancing and vaccination on the epidemic evolution and the timing of early interventions in the United Kingdom and Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the late 20th century, public discourse in Muslim‐minority countries has centered around the question of how to classify Muslims. In this paper, we compare the state, academic, and self‐classification of Muslims in two countries: the United Kingdom and Germany. We propose that the historical experience of anti‐Semitism makes religion a more salient master category to understand Muslims in Germany, while the history of both anti‐Semitism and anti‐Black racism largely resulting from colonial domination means that religion together with race are master categories used to understand Muslims in the United Kingdom. Through this multilayered ethnographic and historical analysis, we challenge taken‐for‐granted assumptions in both the political and academic milieu about what it means to be Muslim, emphasizing the importance of the interplay between sociopolitical categories and self‐identifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One feature of 'flexibilisation' concerns the growth of more individualised employment arrangements and career trajectories less connected to employing organisations. Informed by the Varieties of Capitalism approach, which emphasises the embeddedness of employment practices within discrete types of capitalist market economy, and based on rich qualitative data from interviews with 32 self‐employed and directly employed ICT professionals in the United Kingdom and Germany, we investigate comparative variation in their experience of flexibilisation. The research findings not only indicate some commonality, particularly in respect of perceptions of independence, but also highlight notable differences with regard to work pressures and insecurity. The paper advances theory by characterising two discrete varieties of flexibilisation, a 'liberalised' form evident in the United Kingdom and a more 'regulated' type apparent in Germany, contributing to a better understanding of comparative differences in flexibilisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decades there has been an increasing demand for transparency in the business sector. Companies produce corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports using standards like the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standard. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people are confronted with discrimination in their professional life. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview on how LGBT issues are integrated into the CSR framework in the UK and Germany. 385 reports from 2017 were analyzed and rated with a scoring system. The key findings are that LGBT issues are not predominant in the CSR reports of either country. However, the disclosure of LGBT policies is significantly higher in the UK than in Germany. British organizations largely do not follow sustainability standards, whereas in Germany most organizations report using CSR standards. Moreover, the disclosure of LGBT issues varies on the basis of the organization size and the industrial sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the macroeconomic effects of rising migration uncertainty in four advanced economies (i.e. US, UK, Germany and France). Migration uncertainty is first captured by the Migration Policy Uncertainty (MPUI) and the Migration Fear (MFI) news‐based indexes developed by Baker et al. (Immigration fears and policy uncertainty, 2015), and then by a novel Google Trend Migration Uncertainty Index (GTMU) based on the frequency of Internet searches for the term 'immigration'. VAR investigations suggest that the macroeconomic implications of rising migration uncertainty differ across countries. Moreover, news‐based and Google search‐based migration fear shocks generate different macroeconomic effects. For instance, in the US (France), MPUI, MFI and GTMU shocks all improve (undermine) production and labour market conditions in the medium run. For Germany and the UK, mixed evidence is found, suggesting that increasing media attention on migration phenomena and rising population's interest in migration‐related issues influence people's mood differently. The observed heterogeneity in the macroeconomic effects of rising migration uncertainty can be explained by cross‐country gaps in (a) the level of labour market rigidity, (b) the degree of people's happiness and life satisfaction and (c) the percentage of graduates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides novel evidence on trends in job stability in the United Kingdom and Germany, two capitalist economies with distinct sets of institutions and labour market reform trajectories. While we find evidence of an increase in short‐term jobs for men in both countries, we also find important differences in the overall patterns of change in the distribution of job tenure duration. The United Kingdom follows a masked instability pattern with opposite job stability trends for men and women. On the other hand, we find evidence of a polarization of the job tenure distribution among men and women in Germany. These findings are partly consistent with expectations from the dualization literature, emphasizing a growing segmentation of the labour market between insiders and outsiders. More generally, this study highlights the existence of multiple paths towards increased job instability that appear to be rooted in institutional differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We analyze the effect of job loss on couple's fertility within 5 years, in the United Kingdom and Germany. We contribute to the literature by assessing to what extent a man's and a woman's job loss is consequential. Further, we study the effects based on couples' income, earnings division between partners, parental status, and women's age. Background: A job loss may decrease the couple's fertility as a drop in resources reduces parents' investments to devote to a newborn—or it may increase the risk of a new birth because a job loss reduces the opportunity cost of a birth, especially if the woman loses her job. Method: We analyze couples from large population‐representative panel surveys in Germany (N = 15,029) and the United Kingdom (N = 15,932) containing yearly information about employment, relationship status, and fertility histories. We carry out estimates with linear probability models and inverse probability weighting methods. Results: Our results show that men's and, to a large extent, women's job loss negatively affects the chances of birth, especially in the United Kingdom. The subgroups mostly hit are income‐egalitarian/female breadwinner and childless couples, with women in their mid‐20 s up to late 30 s in the United Kingdom; income‐egalitarian/male‐breadwinner families, with 35‐year to 40‐year‐old women and one child in Germany; middle‐income couples are relatively more affected in both countries. Conclusion: A job loss makes couples less likely to have a child, particularly if the affected partner is a woman. The income effect jointly with other "unemployment scars" likely prevails on the reduction of opportunity costs of job loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To develop a patient's attitude questionnaire regarding prevention in oral health for use internationally. Methods: Using a mixed methods approach, a questionnaire was developed and refined as part of ADVOCATE (Added Value for Oral Care) study, involving partners in six countries: Netherlands, Hungary, Denmark, Ireland, Germany, and the UK. A literature review explored the history of oral healthcare delivery systems to develop a template for each of the six ADVOCATE countries. A systematic review identified the perceived barriers and facilitators to preventive oral healthcare and underpinned a topic guide and established the patient questionnaire domains. Focus groups in each ADVOCATE country developed the first version of the questionnaire. Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) in each ADVOCATE country tested the questionnaire and led to further refinement. The questionnaire was produced in five languages. Content validity and reproducibility used principal component analysis (PCA) and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) refined the questionnaire. Results: The literature review aided an understanding of each country's oral healthcare system, and the findings from the 25 studies identified in the systematic review found the main barriers/facilitators to preventive oral healthcare were cost, knowledge (preventive treatments and advice), and a patient awareness and adherence to preventive advice/treatments. Interviews and focus groups with 148 participants in the ADVOCATE study identified receiving the appropriate level of care/feeling valued, cost, level of motivation/priority, not feeling informed, knowledge, and skill mix as the main barriers/facilitators. Fifty‐three PPIE members refined the questionnaire. The pilot questionnaire was tested with 160 participants. Non‐essential or highly correlated variables were then removed, leaving 38 items, covering 6 domains (cost, advice received, advice wanted, message delivery, motivation, knowledge, and responsibility) within the questionnaire. A second pilot test‐run was undertaken with 185 participants. The test‐re‐test reliability demonstrated strong consistency of responses between the two time points (kappa range 0.3–0.7, most p <.0011), which culminated with a final version of the Patient Attitudes to Prevention in Oral Health Questionnaire (PAPOH) questionnaire. Conclusions: This mixed‐methods approach enabled the development of a multi‐language attitudinal questionnaire for use with patients (PAPOH) to compare attitudes to oral disease prevention internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of finance in the development of trade draws increasing attention from economists and economic historians. Yet empirical studies, especially from an historical perspective, continue to be scarce. This study analyses the role of German and British foreign banks in the internationalisation of trade during the first globalisation. It creates a novel data set on the bilateral trade of Germany and Great Britain with the rest of the world and the number and geographical distribution of German and British foreign banks between 1881 and 1913. Using an augmented gravity model of trade, the article shows that banks had a significant positive impact on exports and imports and that this effect was even more pronounced in case of German banks and trade. Moreover, the effect of German banks on trade is the highest in the years closer to bank entry, supporting the idea of German banks being initiators of trade. In contrast, the effect of British banks seems constant over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An ongoing outbreak of monkeypox virus (MPXV) was first reported in the United Kingdom on 6 May 2022. As of 17 November, there had been a total of 80 221 confirmed MPXV cases in over 110 countries. Based on data reported between 6 May and 30 June 2022 in the United Kingdom, Spain, and Germany, we applied a deep learning approach using convolutional neural networks to evaluate the parameters of the 2022 MPXV outbreak. The basic reproduction number (R0) of MPXV was estimated to be 2.32 in the United Kingdom, which indicates the active diffusion of MPXV since the beginning of the outbreak. The data from Spain and Germany produced higher median R0 values of 2.42 and 2.88, respectively. Importantly, the estimated R0 of MPXV in the three countries tends to the previously calculated R0 of smallpox (3.50 to 6.00). Furthermore, the incubation (1/ε) and infectious (1/γ) period was predicted between 9 and 10 days and 4−5 days, respectively. The R0 value derived from MPXV is consistent with the significantly increasing number of cases, indicating the risk of a rapid spread of MPXV worldwide, which would provide important insights for the prevention and control of MPXV epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we investigate the feasibility and added value of using the seasonal hindcasts of the ECMWF System 4 as a hazard event set for European winter windstorms damage calculations. The windstorms are identified for every ensemble member and every year by an objective windstorm tracking algorithm. The damages are calculated directly from the obtained wind footprints via the open source natural catastrophe damage model CLIMADA for Germany, the UK, France and Spain and compared to the loss from ERA‐Interim. The results show that the ensembles of losses in System 4 nicely capture the inter‐annual loss variability of the reanalysis. Due to more than 1,500 years of "virtual reality" windstorm data from the hindcasts, the return levels of extreme losses can be estimated fairly accurately. Based on System 4, the losses in the scale of 1990 (January, February, March and December including the prominent windstorm Daria) represent a 20‐year event in Germany whereas they represent a 100‐year event for the UK. Thus, a considerably shorter return period compared to return periods calculated from ERA‐Interim alone. Further we investigate the link between the annual losses and large‐scale drivers derived from mean‐sea‐level‐pressure (MSLP) data in System 4. We can show that within System 4 there is a significant link between increased loss potentials for strongly positive North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) phases for Germany and the UK as well as a reduced loss potential for Spain. The link between the other analysed indices is weak bar the East Atlantic (EA) pattern index. Thus, if the NAO in System 4 is correct we can assume that the windstorms in System 4 are useable. If this premise is given our study shows that the loss estimates and ultimately the return levels of losses from System 4 can be used in an operational way. The seasonal hindcasts of the ECMWF System 4 are used as a hazard event set for European winter windstorms loss calculations. The windstorms are identified for every ensemble member and every year by an objective windstorm tracking algorithm. The loss is calculated directly from the obtained wind footprints via the open source natural catastrophe damage model CLIMADA for Germany, the UK, France and Spain and compared to the loss from ERA‐Interim. Losses of the magnitude up to double the losses from 1990 are physically possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and purpose: Social engagement is an important active aging strategy to promote older adults' mental health. The purposes of this study were to compare social engagement in older populations around the world and explore associations with mental health outcomes. Materials and methods: An international cross‐sectional survey was conducted from 2017 to 2019. Data were retrieved from The International Social Survey Programme for a secondary data analysis across 30 countries. This study applied the Taxonomy of Social Activities and its six levels as operational definitions for a consistent concept of social engagement for international comparisons. Results: In total, 9403 older adults with a mean age of 72.85 ± 6.40 years responded. The highest levels of older adults' social engagement were found in Switzerland, Thailand, and New Zealand. Older adults of a higher age, with a lower educational level, who were permanently sick or disabled, who had no partner, who were widowed or whose civil partner had died, who lived alone, and who had lower self‐placement in society had significantly lower social engagement than did their counterparts. In the regression model, older adults' social engagement positively predicted general health, self‐accomplishment, and life satisfaction, but negatively predicted loneliness and depression. Conclusions: In aging societies worldwide, encouraging older adults' social engagement would be beneficial to promote mental health. Implications for nursing practice and health policies: Community professional nurses can develop strategies of social engagement based on the needs and sociodemographic factors of older adults to improve their mental health. Developing efficient strategies and local policies by learning from successful experiences in other countries is important to promote social engagement in aging societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the study is to investigate the relationship between the HEXACO personality model and Disintegration—representing a broad spectrum of psychotic‐like experiences and behavioral tendencies (Perceptual Distortions, General Executive/Cognitive Impairment, Enhanced Awareness, Paranoia, Mania, Flattened Affect, Apathy/Depression, Somatoform Dysregulation, and Magical Thinking) that are reconceptualized as a personality trait. In this preregistered study, we predicted that the Disintegration factor would separate from HEXACO. The replicability of the factorial structures of HEXACO and Disintegration subcomponents is investigated across the three national samples (UK, Germany, and Serbia), matched on key socio‐demographic variables. Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) is used to study the invariance of the hypothesized seven‐factor structure (six HEXACO plus Disintegration). Support for the metric invariance of the seven‐factor structure based on HEXACO and Disintegration subcomponents/facets across the three nations was found. The Disintegration factor lied outside the HEXACO personality space with each of its nine subcomponents. The Disintegration factor appeared to be among the most coherent and replicable of the seven across the samples and units of measurement (facets and items). A broad spectrum of psychotic‐like experiences/behavioral tendencies relevant in understanding and explaining many aspects of everyday and long‐term (mal)adaptations is not captured by the HEXACO model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An economic model was developed to estimate the cost of negative pressure wound therapy with instillation and dwelling of a topical wound solution vs control therapies. Economic model inputs were means derived from the results of a recently published systematic review and meta‐analysis of 13 comparative studies of negative pressure wound therapy with instillation. Means across studies comprising complex acute and chronic wounds for negative pressure wound therapy‐instillation vs control (negative pressure wound therapy without instillation, gauze dressings, or gentamicin polymethylmethacrylate beads) groups were 1.77 vs 2.69 operating room visits (P =.008) and 9.88 vs 21.80 therapy days (P =.02), respectively. These inputs plus hospital cost data were used to model costs for the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom. For the United States, Germany, and United Kingdom, respectively, economic model estimates of total potential per patient savings were $33 338, €8467, and £5626 for negative pressure wound therapy‐instillation group vs control, based on assumed number of OR visits during therapy, cost of therapy system, and length of therapy. Model results showed an overall potential cost‐savings with negative pressure wound therapy‐instillation vs control, based on fewer OR visits and shorter therapy duration as reported in the published systematic review and meta‐analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many researchers and practitioners consider ethnic segregation in neighbourhoods or schools detrimental to migrants' acculturation in host societies. Empirically, however, segregation is a 'mixed bag' and its effects depend crucially on the investigated acculturation domain (e.g., negative for language skills, positive for well‐being). As most prior studies have focused on a restricted spectrum of acculturation, a comprehensive assessment within one single study is needed to establish comparability across different acculturation domains. Among over 8000 immigrant‐background students from four countries, we investigated the association of classroom segregation, defined as opportunities for contact with natives and other migrants, with a broad spectrum of acculturation (academic, attitude‐related, identity‐related, social, health‐related, and psychological criteria). Some findings were consistent (e.g., academic acculturation), some were contrary to prior research (e.g., social acculturation). In sum, our results shed light on the 'mixed bag' of segregation and contribute to the understanding of a crucial social issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This article examines how unemployment affects the separation risk of heterosexual coresiding couples, depending on couples' household income and whether men or women become unemployed. Background: Unemployment may decrease the separation risk as a drop in resources makes separation more costly—or it may increase the separation risk if unemployment creates stress and reduces the quality of couple relations. Moreover, unemployment may be more detrimental for couples if men rather than women, or low‐earners rather than high‐earners, become unemployed. Method: This article adopts a couple perspective and assesses heterogeneous effects of unemployment on separation based on longitudinal data—large household panels from Germany and the UK using discrete‐time event history models. Results: For both countries, results show that the annual separation rate almost doubles after an unemployment spell: It increases from 0.9% to 1.6% per year. This effect does not vary when men or women lose their job. The separation risk after unemployment is somewhat higher for low‐income couples than high‐income couples in the UK, but overall differences are small. Conclusion: Findings show that unemployment does not strengthen unions, but makes them more vulnerable—regardless of which partner becomes unemployed and regardless of a household's economic resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study investigates whether and how fatherhood shapes the wage distribution in Britain, Finland, and Germany. Background: Existing research debates whether fatherhood is associated with greater wages. However, it remains unclear whether the association between fatherhood and wages varies along the wage distribution as well as institutional contexts. To explore this, we compare three countries that differ in their wage bargaining institutions and family policies. Method: We use unconditional quantile regression on longitudinal data from the 1995 to 2016 waves of the Finnish Linked Employer Employee data, German Socio‐Economic Panel, and UK Longitudinal Household Study. To control for selection into fatherhood, we combine quantile regressions with fixed effects techniques. Results: Results show little evidence of substantial fatherhood wage effects along men's wage distribution. In all countries, fathers' higher wages at the median and top of the wage distribution are mostly accounted for by selection, but fatherhood shifts the bottom part of the distribution to the left particularly in the UK. Conclusions: The extent to which having a child affects men's wages across the wage distribution is similar across three diverse policy contexts. Yet, differences across the wage distribution are larger in the UK. We argue this may be linked to its higher level of inequality typical of liberal labour markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Symbolic commitment is commonly acknowledged in the literature to be important for sustainability governance. Academics express high hopes and expectations of symbolic commitment as a means to strengthen sustainability institutions. Policy makers and bureaucrats see it as being necessary in order to keep an issue on the agenda. However, little is known about how symbolic commitment contributes to institutional resilience. This study examines the rise and fall of national institutions for implementing sustainability agendas in Germany, Finland, and the UK in the context of fluctuating symbolic commitment. Interviews with 56 policy actors and documentary analysis uncovered the creative role of bureaucrats in securing symbolic commitment. The risks of relying on symbolic commitment can be reduced by considering the impact of economic austerity and the loss of institutional memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies suggest that Uber and other tech start‐ups disrupt markets through regulatory entrepreneurship. This practice describes how such companies operate outside of regulation or in legal gray areas before mobilizing their customers in support of regulatory change. Financial technology (FinTech) is sometimes called the "Uber of banking," but banking reveals different political dynamics than the car‐for‐hire sector. Exploring the rise of online‐only banks in the UK and Germany, this article finds that start‐ups such as Starling, Monzo, and N26 challenged incumbents without breaking or remaking regulation. The regulatory entrepreneurship approach, which sees FinTech as a difficult case, and the state world of regulatory innovation, which views policy‐makers as seizing the opportunity created by new technology to reassess their relationship with incumbents, help to explain these findings. Its conclusions have relevance for wider debates about the governance of health care and legal services and the politics of disruption more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study develops a "comply or explain" index which captures compliance and quality of explanations given for non‐compliance with the corporate governance codes in UK and Germany. In particular, we explain, how compliance and quality of explanations provided in non‐compliance disclosures, and various other internal corporate governance mechanisms, affect the market valuation of firms in the two countries. A dynamic generalised method of moments (GMM) estimator is employed as the research technique for our analysis, which enabled us to control for the potential effects of endogeneity in our models. The findings of our content analysis suggest that firms exhibit significant differences in compliance, board independence and ownership structure in both countries. The "comply or explain" index is positively associated with the market valuation of UK firms suggesting that compliance and quality governance disclosure are value relevant in the UK. Institutional blockholders' ownership is, however, negatively associated with the market value of firms, which raises questions about the monitoring role of institutional shareholders in both countries. We argue that both compliance and explanations given for non‐compliance are equally important, as long as valid reasons and justifications for non‐compliance are provided by the reporting companies. These findings thus imply that the "comply or explain" principle is working well and that UK and German companies could benefit from the flexibility offered by this principle. With respect to the role of board size, board independence, ownership structure, and institutional ownership of firms, this study offers policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the bystander intervention model provides a useful account of how people help others, no previous study has applied it to a global emergency. This research aims to develop a scale for measuring global bystander intervention and investigate its potential antecedents in the Syrian refugee emergency. In Study 1 (N = 80) and Study 2 (N = 205), a 12‐item scale was established through a substantive‐validity assessment and a confirmatory factor analysis, respectively. Study 3 (N = 601) explored the potential antecedents of the global bystander intervention, employing British and German samples. Results show that the global bystander intervention model worked for both samples, but there were significant between‐group differences in terms of the extent to which they notice the emergency, know how to help, show political support, and donate money. Overall, the visibility of the global emergency aftermaths within the context has been deduced as a meaningful driver for between‐group differences. This research provides the first empirical evidence on global bystander intervention and it offers timely suggestions to promote support for refugees or other victims of global disasters, especially among those who are distant to the disaster zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is extensive literature on states and knowledge, there has been little focus on state ignorance: instances where states are identified as lacking knowledge relevant to addressing social problems. We present the first systematic analysis of how states perceive and respond to ignorance, developing a typology of responses (denial, resignation, and elucidation). We test and refine the typology through analyzing state ignorance of unauthorized migration in Germany and the UK, 1990–2006. Public authorities in both countries responded to ignorance through both denial and resignation. However, variations in control infrastructures and bureaucratic cultures meant that "resignation" took distinct forms. In the UK, pragmatism about the limitations of state capacity implied that officials were sanguine about their "ignorance," with pressure emanating from external political scrutiny. In Germany, by contrast, officials faced an acute conflict between bureaucratic and legal norms of the rule of law, and constraints to enforcement. Both cases reveal profound state ambivalence about elucidating social problems over which they have limited control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the dynamic causal relationship between financial stress index and economic activity in the UK and Germany for the period from 2003 to 2018. Unlike the previous studies which ignore the consideration of all quantiles of distribution, we employ a Granger causality in quantiles that captures causal links in each quantile of distribution. Hence we are able to disseminate between the causality in the median and the tails of the conditional distribution. Our findings indicate that there is a significant, negative causal relationship running from financial stress to economic activity in both countries. However, the changes in the financial stress level in Germany start influencing the industrial production earlier (when economic activity is at lower levels) than in the UK. Our results highlight the emphasis on the consideration of the entire conditional distribution to avoid the risk of misleading inferences on the causality analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Isolation due to habitat fragmentation can lead to morphological and functional variation between populations, with the effect being well documented in rodents. Here, we investigated whether such morphological variation could be identified between British populations of the Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris). This species was once widespread across Great Britain, but suffered a severe population decline across the 20th century, leaving a highly fragmented distribution. The aim was to test for morphological and biomechanical variation of the mandible between the remaining British red squirrel populations, and between British and continental European red squirrels. Linear and geometric morphometric methods were used to analyse shape in a sample of over 250 red squirrel hemi‐mandibles from across Britain plus a sample from Germany representing the central European subspecies. Procrustes ANOVA identified significant shape variation between populations, with particularly distinct differences being noted between red squirrels from Germany and several British red squirrel populations, which may reflect their evolutionary history. Linear biomechanical measurements showed that the red squirrels from Formby and Jersey had a significantly lower mechanical advantage of the temporalis muscle than other British populations, suggesting they were less efficient at gnawing. This functional difference may be related to many factors, such as founder effect, potential inbreeding and/or past supplemental feeding with less mechanically resistant food items. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of the study was to explore the integration of CEE's stock markets (Central, South‐East and Baltic) with those of the developed ones (Germany, USA and the UK). Using daily data from 20 October 2000 up to 20 October 2016, the static analysis indicates a long‐run cointegration relationship between CEE markets and all three counterparts considered. The dynamic analysis indicates several short‐run episodes of cointegration, which are influenced by nondomestic factors. When comparing among the counterparts, one can highlight that the US stock market is less integrated with emerging markets, which could be considered for portfolio diversification. Furthermore, the contagion effect is not rejected, given that the dynamic pairwise correlations are likely to be affected by herding behaviour and significant break dates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares the judicial regimes for resolving individual employment rights disputes in Germany, Great Britain and Japan. First, we consider the form of institutional change; second, we examine the lay judge's role; and third, we assess the effectiveness of the three judicial regimes. We find that Japan made the least institutional change, layering a new procedure on top of an existing one. Paradoxically, however, its lay judges have a more extensive role than their counterparts in Germany and Britain, which established new institutions. As to effectiveness, there are several criteria. British labour courts are currently the least informal and speedy, but the cheapest. In both Britain and Germany, legal norms are publicised as adjudicatory hearings are open to the public and judgments are available for public scrutiny, unlike in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research collaboration is promoted by governments and research funders, but if the relative prevalence and merits of collaboration vary internationally then different national and disciplinary strategies may be needed to promote it. This study compares the team size and field normalized citation impact of research across all 27 Scopus broad fields in the 10 countries with the most journal articles indexed in Scopus 2008–2012. The results show that team size varies substantially by discipline and country, with Japan (4.2) having two‐thirds more authors per article than the United Kingdom (2.5). Solo authorship is rare in China (4%) but common in the United Kingdom (27%). While increasing team size associates with higher citation impact in almost all countries and fields, this association is much weaker in China than elsewhere. There are also field differences in the association between citation impact and collaboration. For example, larger team sizes in the Business, Management & Accounting category do not seem to associate with greater research impact, and for China and India, solo authorship associates with higher citation impact in this field. Overall, there are substantial international and field differences in the extent to which researchers collaborate and the extent to which collaboration associates with higher citation impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The resources used in treatment for sex offenders with intellectual disabilities have had much research attention, but less has been written about how participants are expected to respond (programme mechanisms). Methods: A realist evaluation of seven programmes from the UK, Canada, USA, Switzerland and Germany was conducted. In semi‐structured interviews, programme designers elucidated how they are intended to work. The data analysis was driven by the realist concern to expose programme mechanisms and intended outcomes. Results: Two main outcomes are increasing risk management capacities and cultivating prosocial identities. These are achieved through developing insights into a person's risks, work on (sexual) self‐regulation skills, sexual boundaries and personal values and by developing meaningful social roles and positive relationships. Conclusions: Over time, there have been changes to some of the treatment resources used. However, there were little differences in terms of the intended programme mechanisms and outcomes, which remained surprisingly consistent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research activities related to social informatics (SI) are expanding, even as community fragmentation, topical dispersion, and methodological diversity continue to increase. Specifically, the different understandings of SI in regional communities have strong impacts, and each has a different history, methodological grounding, and often a different thematic focus. The aim of this article is to connect three selected perspectives on SI—intellectual (regional schools of thought), methodological, and thematic—and introduce a comparative framework for understanding SI that includes all known approaches. Thus, the article draws from a thematic and methodological grounding of research across schools of thought, along with definitions that rely on the extension and intension of the notion of SI. The article is built on a paralogy of views and pluralism typical of postmodern science. Because SI is forced to continually reform its research focus, due to the rapid development of information and communication technology, social changes and ideologies that surround computerization and informatization, the presented perspective maintains a high degree of flexibility, without the need to constantly redefine the boundaries, as is typical in modern science. This approach may support further developments in promoting and understanding SI worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hepatitis B (HB) vaccine is effective for the prevention of HB virus infection. It has been widely accepted that an anti‐HB surface antibody (HBs) level ≥10 mIU/mL is protective against HB virus infection. Although transient infection can occur in individuals who attain a peak level of anti‐HBs ≥10 mIU/mL after primary vaccination, long‐term follow‐up studies show that successful primary vaccination can prevent individuals from acute clinical hepatitis and chronic infection. Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at‐risk individuals. Based on the accumulated data, the USA considers an anti‐HBs level ≥10 mIU/mL to constitute successful vaccination for HCWs. In contrast, because some anti‐HBs assays cannot accurately measure in the low anti‐HBs range, including 10 mIU/mL, the UK and Germany consider an anti‐HBs level ≥100 mIU/mL to constitute successful vaccination for HCWs. In the USA and UK, a booster dose is unnecessary for HCWs after successful vaccination. In Germany, anti‐HBs testing is recommended for HCWs who are at particularly high individual exposure risk 10 years after successful primary immunization, and a booster dose is offered if the anti‐HBs level has declined to ˂100 mIU/mL. The differences in the goal of HB vaccination, reliability of anti‐HBs assays, and use of booster vaccination cause discordance in HB vaccination policies for HCWs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variation in preservation and sampling probability clouds our estimates of past biodiversity. The most extreme examples are Lagerstätten faunas and floras. Although such deposits provide a wealth of information and represent true richness better than other deposits, they can create misleading diversity peaks because of their species richness. Here, we investigate how Lagerstätten formations add to time series of vertebrate richness in the UK, Germany and China. The first two nations are associated with well‐studied fossil records and the last is a country where palaeontology has a much shorter history; all three nations include noted Lagerstätten in their fossil records. Lagerstätten provide a larger proportion of China's sampled richness than in Germany or the UK, despite comprising a smaller proportion of its fossiliferous deposits. The proportions of taxa that are unique to Lagerstätten vary through time and between countries. Further, in all regions, we find little overlap between the taxa occurring in Lagerstätten and in 'ordinary' formations within the same time bin, indicating that Lagerstätten preserve unusual faunas. As expected, fragile taxa make up a greater proportion of richness in Lagerstätten than the remainder of the fossil record. Surprisingly, we find that Lagerstätten account for a minority of peaks in the palaeodiversity curves of all vertebrates (18% in the UK; 36% in Germany and China), and Lagerstätten count is generally not a good overall predictor of the palaeodiversity signal. Vastly different sampling probabilities through taxa, locations and time require serious consideration when analysing palaeodiversity curves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using social tables, this article provides new data on inequality in Germany and Britain on an annual basis for the first half of the twentieth century. Inequality trends in these two countries tended to follow opposite patterns. The decline in inequality in Germany was interrupted during the First World War and the Nazi period, while in Britain the reversal took place between the end of the First World War and the Great Depression. Results show that the drop in inequality during the twentieth century in Europe did not follow secular trends, thus supporting the notion of inequality cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a new account of the construction of the modern male homosexual within late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century sexual scientific networks in Britain and Germany. It argues that the construction of the male homosexual as an inborn type enabled sexual scientists to detach homosexuality from long-standing associations of same-sex acts with the corruption of youth. In characterising the inborn homosexual as someone who sought consensual relationships with mature men and whose desires were fixed, unchanging and determined by the gender of the object of attraction, not his age, sexual scientists discounted the view that homosexuality could be caused by childhood/adolescent experiences and rejected the idea that homosexuals were perpetrators of abusive relationships with younger males. Yet, as the article also shows, attempts to assert an age-irrelevant gender-based framework for theorising sexuality did not succeed in sidelining age-differentiated forms of desire. On the contrary, age continued to be theorised within sexual scientific debates in dialogue with intersecting homophile communities who remained invested in the erotics of age. As a whole, the article demonstrates the importance of foregrounding age as a central category of analysis in the history of sexuality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using harmonized household survey data, we analyze long‐run social mobility in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, and test recent theories of multigenerational persistence of socioeconomic status. In this country comparison setting, we find evidence against a universal law of social mobility. Our results show that the long‐run persistence of socioeconomic status and the validity of a first‐order Markov chain in the intergenerational transmission of human capital is country‐specific. Furthermore, we find that the direct and independent effect of grandparents' social status on grandchildren's status tends to vary by gender and institutional context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of subjective democratic legitimacy from a citizens' perspective has become an important strand of research in political science. Echoing the well‐known distinction between 'input‐oriented' and 'output‐oriented' legitimacy, the scientific debate on this topic has coined two opposed views. Some scholars find that citizens have a strong and intrinsic preference for meaningful participation in collective decision making. But others argue, to the contrary, that citizens prefer 'stealth democracy' because they care mainly about the substance of decisions, but much less about the procedures leading to them. In this article, citizens' preferences regarding democratic governance are explored, focusing on their evaluations of a public policy according to criteria related to various legitimacy dimensions, as well as on the (tense) relationship among them. Data from a population‐based conjoint experiment conducted in eight metropolitan areas in France, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom is used. By analysing 5,000 respondents' preferences for different governance arrangements, which were randomly varied with respect to their input, throughput and output quality as well as their scope of authority, light is shed on the relative importance of different aspects of democratic governance. It is found, first, that output evaluations are the most important driver for citizens' choice of a governance arrangement; second, consistent positive effects of criteria of input and throughput legitimacy that operate largely independent of output evaluations can be discerned; and third, democratic input, but not democratic throughput, is considered somewhat more important when a governance body holds a high level of formal authority. These findings run counter to a central tenet of the 'stealth democracy' argument. While they indeed suggest that political actors and institutions can gain legitimacy primarily through the provision of 'good output', citizens' demand for input and throughput do not seem to be conditioned by the quality of output as advocates of stealth democratic theory suggest. Democratic input and throughput remain important secondary features of democratic governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is common for politicians to refer to "our proud history of supporting refugees," yet the historical record regarding responses to refugees is not straightforwardly positive. So how is history drawn upon in political debates regarding refugees? Applying discursive psychology, this article analyzes the use of history in five U.K. parliamentary debates that took place from September 2015 to January 2016 on the European refugee "crisis." The analysis identifies six "functions" of the use of the history: resonance, continuity, reciprocity, posterity, responsibility, and redemption. It shows how references to historical events create narratives regarding the United Kingdom's history of supporting refugees in order to construct the nation in particular ways, mobilize collective identities, and legitimize or criticize political actions. Specifically, references to the United Kingdom's role in providing refuge to Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany functions as a hegemonic narrative that reinforces the United Kingdom's "heroic" position and constructs the Syrian conflict as involving an oppressive dictator and innocent refugees in need to help, thereby legitimizing support for Syrian refugees. The analysis demonstrates the flexibility of historical narratives, reformulates the distinction between "psychological" and "rhetorical" uses of historical analogies, and reflects on the social and political implications of such uses of history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When and how do social movements form to mobilize action across national boundaries? In the context of the 2015 movement to support Syrian refugees, we develop an integrative model of transnational social movement formation shaped by pre‐existing world‐views (social dominance orientation and right‐wing authoritarianism) and social media exposure to iconic events, resulting in an emergent group consciousness ("we are", "we believe", "we feel"). Group consciousness is, in turn, the proximal predictor of solidarity with refugees. Participants were from six countries: Hungary (N = 267), Romania (N = 163), Germany (N = 190), the United Kingdom (N = 159), the United States (N = 244) and Australia (N = 344). Multi‐group structural equation models confirmed that group consciousness, shaped by individual differences and exposure to events through social media, was the proximal predictor of solidarity. The subjective meaning of group consciousness varied across samples, reflecting national differences. Results support the importance of considering individual and national differences, and group processes in understanding emergent social movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the historical significance of the increasing precariousness of labor, even in the most advanced economies. Given the sterility of the mainstream approach, based on methodological individualism, we start from a Marxist critique of political economy, focusing on the laws that govern the process of capitalist accumulation and its contradictions. Within the framework of these laws, we analyze the tendency of labor exploitation to increase in a capitalist economy, linked to the exigencies of profitability due to the increasing difficulties of the valorization of capital. The precariousness of labor is studied around some of the main forms it adopts in three European economies: mini‐jobs in Germany, "zero‐hours contracts" in the United Kingdom, and false self‐employment, together with internship and training contracts, in Spain. Based on theoretical and empirical analysis, several conclusions are proposed to understand the extension and deepening of labor precariousness, built on the notions of overexploitation and destruction of productive forces, linked to current demands of capitalist accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advocating more repressive law and order policies along the slogan 'tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime' in their election manifesto, Tony Blair in the United Kingdom and Gerhard Schröder in Germany were elected in the late 1990s. Once in power, however, only New Labour substantially toughened law and order policies, whereas the German Social Democrats did not change the legal status quo, to a similar extent, during their mandate. This article tackles this puzzle, arguing that the preferences of the ministers and the formal and informal rules shaping the balance of power in government are crucial to understanding why two governments that initially advocated similar policies adopted a rather different policy stance. The results are based on meticulous process tracing and a series of elite interviews concerning two major topics in the realm of law and order during the 1990s: policies directed at sexual offenders, and policies responding to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By most standards, Britain in the 19th century was the world's leading financial nation, with more developed capital markets than any other country. An influential view in the law and finance literature argues that, holding macroeconomic factors constant, the different financial development can be attributed to more stringent disclosure regulation in Britain. Presenting a granular analysis of regulatory reform in Britain and Germany, this article shows that the level of disclosure regulation was largely comparable in both countries during the relevant period and that reform initiatives were not an exogenous stimulus of financial development, but evolved incrementally in response to changing market conditions. On the other hand, the legal regime governing the formation of stock corporations developed in diametrically opposed directions in the two countries as a result of concerted efforts by policy makers to change market conditions. The article argues that these rules, which were relevant to organisational choice and the availability of different sources of financing, stand out as the most striking difference between Germany and the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to conventional wisdom, the fall of the Swedish currency in September 1931 was caused by the sterling crisis. This article shows that the road towards devaluation began earlier and that financial linkages with Germany proved to be more important than Sweden's economic and monetary relations with Great Britain. It all started in late 1929 when the Swedish financier Ivar Kreuger gave a loan to the German government in exchange for the match monopoly, thus tying his business ventures to Germany's solvency. In addition, a part of this loan was financed by large US dollar credits from the two largest Swedish banks that, in turn, accumulated a sizeable foreign short-term deficit. When in June 1931 the German fiscal crisis began to escalate, international investors ceased to consider Sweden a safe haven because they knew about the linkages between the German government, Kreuger, and the Swedish banking system. This downgrading, in combination with the foreign short-term deficit of the banking sector, proved lethal for the reserve position of the Swedish central bank, once the international liquidity crisis in mid-July 1931 erupted. The sterling crisis only put the final nail in the coffin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents drug and alcohol addiction-related news briefs and information about events such as the 9th European Public Health Conference which will be held on November 9-12, 2016 in Vienna, Austria. Legislation to legalise cannabis for medical purposes in Germany is examined, along with the trafficking of synthetic drugs on the Vietnam-China border. Laws regulating the use of tax revenues to fund public health programmes in places such as Panama and Poland are assessed.

Background: The availability of costly safety measures against transfusion-transmissible infections forces Western countries to confront difficult ethical questions. How to decide about implementing such measures? When are such decisions justified? As a preliminary to addressing these questions, we assessed which concerns shape actual donor blood safety policymaking in five Western countries.Study Design and Methods: Our qualitative study involved determining which issues had been discussed in advisory committee meetings and capturing these issues in general categories. Appropriate documents were identified in collaboration with local decision-making experts in Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The introduction of hepatitis B virus nucleic acid testing and selected measures against variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, West Nile virus, and Q-fever were chosen as cases representing decision-making on safety measures with high costs and low or uncertain added safety.Results: A broad inventory of concerns was established, including: 1) nine categories of advantages and disadvantages of candidate safety policies; 2) six kinds of difficulties in assessing risks and forecasting the effects of safety policies; 3) 13 decision-making principles; and 4) six kinds of practical barriers hampering the translation of candidate policies into decisions.Conclusion: Blood safety policymaking involves a wide variety of competing concerns, and approaches to reconcile these considerations are themselves contested. Developing a systematic decision-making approach requires ethical reflection on, among others, reasonable costs of safety and the value of transparency in public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As nationally mixed people have parents born in different countries, they can potentially identify with multiple national reference groups, allowing the researcher to study national identification processes. The analysis of approximately one hundred people of nationally mixed background living in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom highlights different registers of identification. There are important differences in how nationally mixed people articulate them, which leads to the identification of different national repertoires of identification. In France, a strong French national identity was emphasized, whereas German national identity seems more fragile because it depends mainly on cultural socialization. In the United Kingdom, non-national identities are developed in a context where the national community is not clearly defined, while ethnicity is publicly recognized. The register and repertoire of identification concepts thus allow the researcher to analyse identity discourses and then explain national differences through international comparison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forming interpersonal therapeutic relationships with mental health Service Users remains a key aspect of the practice of Psychiatric/ Mental Health nurses. Given the omnipresence of the concept within the relevant literature the reader could be forgiven for asking: why would Psychiatric/ Mental Health nurses opine about something so basic, so ubiquitous and so central to the theory and practice of our discipline? While the authors could locate no substantive argument that refutes the role or value of such relationships, a sizable, growing and reasonably consistent body of work has emerged, which appears to indicate that this centrality and value is not necessarily reflected in many clinical practice settings. Accordingly, we draw on the published evaluations of mental health care emanating from the United Kingdom, Portugal, Canada, Switzerland, Germany and Australia, compare these findings and highlight similarities or/and congruence and discuss a range of issues arising out of the findings. Alas, the findings seem to depict a mental health care inpatient experience that is often devoid of warm therapeutic relationships, respectful interactions, information or choice about treatment and any kind of formal/informal 'talk therapy'. Instead such care experiences are personified by: coercion, disinterest, inhumane practices, custodial and controlling practitioners and a gross over use of pharmacological 'treatments'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from 28 countries in four continents, the present research addresses the question of how basic values may account for political activism. Study 1 ( N = 35,116) analyses data from representative samples in 20 countries that responded to the 21-item version of the Portrait Values Questionnaire ( PVQ-21) in the European Social Survey. Study 2 ( N = 7,773) analyses data from adult samples in six of the same countries ( Finland, Germany, Greece, Israel, Poland, and United Kingdom) and eight other countries ( Australia, Brazil, Chile, Italy, Slovakia, Turkey, Ukraine, and United States) that completed the full 40-item PVQ. Across both studies, political activism relates positively to self-transcendence and openness to change values, especially to universalism and autonomy of thought, a subtype of self-direction. Political activism relates negatively to conservation values, especially to conformity and personal security. National differences in the strength of the associations between individual values and political activism are linked to level of democratization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Treatment with new and/or innovative drugs with uncertain safety and efficacy profile is associated with substantial ethical concerns. The main objective of this paper is to present guidance on the use of such drugs contained in: (i) major international codes and guidelines pertaining to medical ethics and biomedical research; (ii) national codes of medical ethics and professional conduct of the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, France and Germany. Out of the four international codes and guidelines analysed, only the Declaration of Helsinki addresses the question of the use of unproven drugs. Among national codes, only two (USA and New Zealand) explicitly allow for use of new or innovative drugs. Moreover, treatment with unproven drugs seems to be permissible under the French code, though this is not stated explicitly. The remaining codes do not contain any articles on the use of new and innovative drugs. An update of existing articles, as well as the addition of new guidelines to the codes, should be considered in view of the rapid pace of development and introduction to clinical practice of new drugs. This work is relevant to innovative off-label applications of approved drugs and expanded access to investigational drugs., (© 2018 The British Pharmacological Society.)