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The present article explores the structure of and recent developments in research activities in the polar regions. Based on a bibliographic study of published papers indexed in the ISI Web of Science during the period 1981-2007, we have analyzed trends in publication, scientific disciplines and subdisciplines, coauthorship, and international collaboration within the field of polar research. We have uncovered several rather striking trends. Scientific output in terms of refereed publications has increased far more rapidly in polar research compared to science in general, quadrupling rather than doubling over the surveyed period. There is a nearly 1:1 ratio between papers covering the Arctic relative to the Antarctic, with the vast majority within either the geosciences (40%) or biology (33%). There has been particularly a steep rise in the number of climate-related papers. The U.S.A. is by far the largest contributor to polar research on both the Arctic and the Antarctic, followed by Canada, the U.K., Germany, Norway, and Russia. The number of coauthored papers has grown markedly, reflecting geopolitical shifts and changing national and international funding priorities during the period. We believe our publication-based survey reveals interesting developments in scientific activities and international cooperation in general, and in polar science strategies and priorities in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares recent developments in income inequality in Canada, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In addition to describing cross-national variation in changes in income inequality, the paper examines different explanatory factors for these recent developments. The findings reported indicate that there is substantial cross-national variation, not only with regard to the level of inequality, but furthermore with regard to changes in inequality. The results indicate that the equalizing effect of welfare state redistribution did not decrease in all countries. By contrast, in all countries there was a universal tendency towards increased inequality in the pre-tax and transfer distribution, although the magnitude of the change differs from country to country. Even though a polarization of the earnings distribution is reported, the results still give no support to cross-national convergence with regard to income inequality during the 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the strategic level, international differences have proved important, especially during international collaborations. Since Dore's classic "British Factory: Japanese Factory," comparative values, behavior, and institutional settings have been extensively investigated, though attention has only recently switched to emerging markets such as that of Russia, which was not covered by Hofstede's comparative values study. Harvard's matched comparison of Soviet and U.S. decision making by Lawrence and Vlachoutsicos (around 1988) provided a classic study portraying behavioral differences just prior to transition. Coincidentally, my matched comparisons between the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and Japan involved the same U.S. company investigated by Harvard, aiding comparisons in all five countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is outstanding about the development of pharmaceutical laboratories in German, British and American drug companies is their differences. The outstanding differences stem from the organisation of medical science and practice, and differences in the structure and evolution of the industry. The use to which a company put its laboratory depended upon the advantage the firm saw in investing in scientists, and the extent to which the company was linked to the medical profession. The industry's relation to government was also crucial. These factors were quite different in Germany from Britain, and different again from the United States. At the Bayer Corp. in Leverkusen there was no commitment to organised research until the late 1880s. The crisis in the dyestuffs trade of the early 1880s made them receptive to change. Research offered Bayer a strategy that might reduce vulnerability to the fluctuations of the business cycle. The need to invest in research staff and facilities was only slowly accepted in the 1880s. Bayer established a pattern of hiring Ph.D. chemists for one year, and then sending them to a university or Technisehe Hochschule laboratory, where they worked on research problems related to the company production programme.

British commercial and political hopes to expand trade in the new Soviet state after 1920 were to an extent disappointed. Despite successful ventures by individual companies, in aggregate business fell short of expectations, especially compared with German and American competitors. The reasons were both (micro and macro) economic variables and political factors, in Britain and the USSR. From 1926 the Soviet regime was committed to rapid industrialization and a pattern of imports in which Germany enjoyed some comparative advantage. But, in contrast to major rivals, British governments occasionally tried to use trade as a political instrument to the disadvantage of commercial operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects on the contributions of the U.S. and Great Britain to Japanese and German corporate governance (CG) after World War II. Although different forms of CG have developed around the world in response to market forces and national culture, serious doubts have been cast on the ability of national governments to influence CG through legal changes. If governments can influence CG significantly, therefore, the most propitious circumstances were likely to occur under military occupation,, when an occupying government is free from any local electoral pressure, and citizens are demoralized and helpless in defeat. It seems appropriate therefore to reflect on the immediate post-World War Two period as potentially a miniature controlled laboratory of social experiment when occupying American and British military governments were in very strong position to reform CG in Japan and Germany in their own images. However, it turns out that, although many of their regulatory changes were subsequently modified and even reversed by domestic governments later restored to power, in some subtle ways, these changes did lay a basis for rapid post-war economic recoveries in Germany and Japan,

The article analyzes the Chinese-western scholarly interaction. China has signified its willingness to strengthen ties with western universities and maintain or increase the flow of scholarly exchange. Chinese leaders are confident that their scholars will absorb from the West techniques that will be useful for a modern, independent China. An examination of China's academic exchange with Great Britain, France and West Germany was undertaken, and the exchange policies and programs of the U.S. Canada and Japan in relation to China was reviewed.