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The development of a range of management science methodologies (MSMs) such as ‘soft’ operational research (OR) has been a feature of the UK OR practice over the last decades. This paper suggests that the increasing number of soft approaches developed in the UK is a direct consequence of the pragmatism in management education and management practice in Britain; and of the development of a robust British systems movement that has been engaged with the British OR community. Rationalism prevalent in French management education has kept OR/MS practice biased towards the hard end of MSM. We explore the usage of hard and soft methods and present results of a mailed survey administered to a small sample of British and French MBA graduates working in consultancy. Results reflect features of British and French business culture and management education; and indicate the different directions taken by the MS/OR movements in these two countries. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the pricing behaviour of cross channel ferry companies in the eight year period between awarding the Channel Tunnel franchise and the completion of the construction of the Tunnel. The ferry companies appear to have ‘made hay’ by significantly increasing some published prices for car ferry journeys in real terms over the period. The paper presents a model of regulatory intervention which can account for increasing prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares the efficiency of the coal-fired steam-generated electricity in Great Britain, the U.S. and France in 1970. The authors selected this industry for close examination because it had experienced rapid technological progress, its output is homogeneous and the data available are comparatively good. They found that the average level and rate of growth of fuel productivity in Great Britain industry were less than in France and in the U.S. The authors were careful to state, however, that technological backwardness was not the only interpretation of this result. They were aware that partial productivity measures could be very misleading because the contribution of other inputs, particularly capital, is ignored. Furthermore, this paper shows that the percentage increase in output in Great Britain from 1949-63 was higher than that in France and in the U.S., while the percentage increase in capital, measured by generating capacity, was much lower than in France or the US. This difference could be interpreted as implying that the productivity of capital in Great Britain industry was rising relatively to that in France and in the U.S. and thus that the industry in Great Britain was technologically forward. However, there are other interpretations, because capital productivity is also a partial measure of productivity. Thus, this paper suggests that there is a need a measure of productivity which reflects the simultaneous influence of all inputs and output and a production function provides such a measure. This article also estimates production functions for this industry.

The article reports on the effects of accounting diversity on the financial ratios and stock market valuation of the accounting data given by companies in France, Germany, and Great Britain. Also, the effectiveness of the European Union's efforts to lower diversity in accounting standards is looked at. Using a capital markets strategy and creating capital-markets-based measures for diversity in the accounting measurement practices the effects of measurement differences are discussed. The EU directives include minimizing the choices in accounting measurement principles, requirement of a specified set of annual report disclosures, and emphasis of the true and fair view in comparability and transparency.

ABSTRACT European labour markets have undergone several important innovations over the last three decades. Most countries have reformed their labour markets since the mid-1990s, with the liberalization of fixed-term contracts and temporary work agencies being the common elements to such reforms. This paper investigates the existence of a change in the dynamic behaviour of the aggregate employment for major European Union countries - France, Germany, Italy and Spain. According to our results, partial labour market reforms have made the response of the aggregate employment to output shocks larger and quite comparable to that found for the UK - the most flexible labour market in Europe since the Thatcher reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Materials defined as pornographic have always been subject to regulation because of the potential of such items to ‘corrupt and deprave’. Yet the state and law has rarely sought to ban such materials, attempting instead to restrict their accessibility. The outcomes of such interventions have, however, rarely been predictable, an issue we explore with reference to the changing regulation of sex shops in Britain and France since the 1970s. Noting ambiguities in the legal definitions of spaces of sex retailing, this paper traces how diverse forms of control have combined to restrict the location of sex shops, simultaneously shaping their design, management, and marketing. Describing the emergence of gentrified and ‘designer’ stores, this paper demonstrates that regulation has been complicit in a process of neo-liberalization that has favoured more corporate sex shops – without this having ever been an explicit aim of those who have argued for the regulation of sex retailing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Heart failure is a chronic progressive condition, with considerable burden on patients' quality of life and economic burden for the healthcare systems. Before the approval of empagliflozin, there were no proven effective treatments for patients with heart failure with left ventricular ejection fraction (HF LVEF) > 40%. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cost‐effectiveness of empagliflozin + standard of care (SoC) compared with SoC alone for patients with HF LVEF > 40%, from the perspective of the healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK), Spain, and France, and to quantify the healthcare costs for these patients. Methods and results: A lifetime Markov cohort state‐transition model was developed based on discrete health states defined by Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire‐Clinical Summary Score quartiles to track disease severity. Model inputs relied primarily on the EMPEROR‐Preserved trial data or obtained from published literature or country‐specific databases, as well as local guidelines for the requirements for the conduct of the economic evaluation of healthcare technologies. The total lifetime cost of receiving SoC per patient was £10 092, €15 765, and €14 958 in the UK, Spain, and France, respectively, which increased by £1407, €1148, and €1485, respectively, with the addition of empagliflozin to the SoC. Empagliflozin + SoC was associated with significantly reduced number of hospitalization for HF or cardiovascular death compared with SoC alone, which was a key driver offsetting its drug acquisition costs. The incremental cost‐effectiveness ratio per quality‐adjusted life year (QALY) gained was consistently favourable at £14 851, €11 706, and €15 447 in the UK, Spain, and France, respectively. Scenario analysis using the New York Heart Association functional class showed similar results. Probabilistic sensitivity analyses showed more than 50% probability for cost‐effectiveness for a willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) threshold of £/€20 000/QALY for the three countries. Conclusions: Empagliflozin was found to be the first targeted treatment option that is clinically effective and cost‐effective for patients with HF LVEF > 40%. Prescribing empagliflozin with SoC to patients with HF LVEF > 40% is expected to improve clinical outcomes and patients' quality of life and substantially below accepted WTP threshold for the healthcare systems in the UK, Spain, and France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares technical aspects of accrual-based budgeting and accounting reforms of the national governments of France, Germany, the UK and the US. It shows that there is no consensus among the four countries about the complete package of technical reform possibilities that is most appropriate; there is also no consensus among the four countries about each one of the possibilities that is most appropriate. What is clear is the resilience of traditional budgetary accounting systems. It is also clear that, in the fundamental context and content of the reforms, the UK is the striking exception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As of 2008, surrogacy is legal and openly practised in various places; Japan, however, has no regulations or laws regarding surrogacy. This paper reports the situation of surrogacy in Japan and in five other regions (the USA, the UK, Taiwan, Korea and France) to clarify the pros and cons of prohibiting surrogacy, along with the problems and issues relating to surrogacy compensation. Not only in a country such as France that completely prohibits surrogacy within the country, but also in a country such as the UK that allows non-commercial surrogacy, infertile couples travel overseas for the purpose of surrogacy. In addition, some couples might seek underground surrogacy if the government prohibits surrogacy. If an intended parent couple and a surrogate make an agreement among themselves and then a problem occurs, they cannot ask for support from professionals or bring a case to court, as can be observed in South Korea and Taiwan. We also conclude that there is little difference between commercial surrogacy and non-commercial surrogacy in the absence of a clear definition of ‘reasonable expenses.’ In the UK, the law does not allow surrogates to receive compensation. However, in reality, there may be little difference between the amounts paid to surrogates for profit in the US and those paid to surrogates for reasonable expenses in the UK. We conclude that the issue of surrogacy demands further discussion in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question as to whether crime rates are rising or falling has both important public policy implications, in the law and order debate, and academic, in tests of etiological theories. This paper contends that official crime rates were falling in the two major industrial countries of the nineteenth century, Britain and France. Yet the major sociologists, lawyers, judges and so forth continued to discuss ‘rising crime’, and to develop theories to explain why. The reasons for increases differed between schools (biological, psychological, mainstream sociological and Marxist). But as diverse, and eminent a lot of theorists as Durkheim, Ferri, Tarde, Engels and Bonger were united in insisting that crime was rising. This paper explores the contradictions between theory and evidence in these various writers. Empirical evidence available at the time is re-examined, along with the results of recent re-analyses of the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some authors have suggested that deregulation of product and labour markets is responsible for the decline in Labour's share of GDP. A simple model predicts that privatization is associated with a lower labour share, due to job shedding. We test this hypothesis by focusing on privatization of network industries in the OECD. We find that, on average, privatization accounts for a fifth of the fall of Labour's share, and over half in Britain and France. This is due to lower employment, but it is partially offset by higher wages and falling barriers to entry, which dampen profit margins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a series of studies written during the 1980s, Bob Gregory and his co-authors compared the gender wage gap in Australia with that found in other countries. They found it was not the difference in human capital endowments that explained different gender wage gaps but rather the rewards for these endowments. They concluded that country-specific factors, especially the institutional environment, were important in explaining the gender wage gap. This study updates Gregory's work by comparing the gender wage gap across four countries, Australia, France, Japan and Britain. Our results concord with those of Gregory: institutions are still important in explaining the relative size of the gender wage gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the pre-Euro exposure to exchange rate changes of large firms in the UK, France and Germany. We find that the exchange rate sensitivity is considerably stronger than previously thought. In all three countries, firms typically gain value when their local currency depreciates against the US dollar, yet most UK firms lose value when sterling depreciates against the European currency unit. We also document the existence of an intriguing intervalling effect in the measurement of exchange rate exposure, which suggests that share prices might exhibit a delayed response to information, and prevents us from making robust generalizations concerning other exchange rate sensitivities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to fill some gaps by reporting case studies of maintenance work in British and French mass production industries.[4] Our prime aim is to explore the area and to offer guidelines for further research. In doing this we observe a connection between the patterns of work organisation, manning levels and wage hierarchies. This raises two principal questions. First, are the British maintenance workers more or less numerous than their French counterparts? Secondly, do they have a higher or lower position in the wage hierarchy? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers a comparison of parliamentary voting on European issues in Great Britain and France. In this paper, the recent roll-call votes in the French National Assembly and the British House of Commons were examined to see whether European integration issues continue to dichotomize both left and right internally, and to identify whether these divisions break up the far left from the moderate left and the far right from the moderate right. It is posed that findings confirm that European issues split up both left and right internally in both legislative setting.

Presents a study on Haltica Carduorum Guerin beetle imported from France and released in Great Britain as a contribution to biological control of creeping thistle. Importance of creeping thistle in marginal grazing areas; Attempts to exclude alien insects potentially damaging to crops from the area; Potential value of Haltica Carduorum as a biological control agent.

Using a sample of small firms that defaulted on their bank debt in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, we find that large differences in creditors' rights across countries lead banks to adjust their lending and reorganization practices to mitigate costly aspects of bankruptcy law. In particular, French banks respond to a creditor-unfriendly code by requiring more collateral than lenders elsewhere, and by relying on collateral forms that minimize the statutory dilution of their claims in bankruptcy. Despite such adjustments, bank recovery rates in default remain sharply different across the three countries, reflecting very different levels of creditor protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers whether organized labour's engagement with shareholder activism represents a shift in unions' traditional stakeholder preferences on corporate governance under pension fund capitalism. It does so in light of recent critiques of the class power thesis of corporate governance which suggest greater fluidity and fragmentation in labour's approach. Adopting a diverse case study strategy to compare organized labour's actions in the United States, United Kingdom and France, the article explains these activities as innovative strategies, similar to other revitalization initiatives, designed to advance traditional agendas by alternative means. The article thus concludes that, while organized labour's shareholder activism is unexpected under the class power thesis, its core preferences remain largely unchanged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines whether capital flow restrictions, originally enacted for balance of payments reasons, also had the intended effect of isolating the national segments of the international equity market. Specific focus is given to measures adopted in the U.S., Great Britain and France. Arbitrage would assure that the market price of a security in one country would be equal to the market price of the same security in the second country, given that there are instantaneous information flows and no barriers to capital movements. However, the prices for a given security differs between markets, and such price differentials can be viewed as indicators of the impact of different capital control measures.

This study draws on the concepts of relative standing to explain the post-merger performance of recently acquired European firms. We used a 2 x 3 sampling design where we surveyed top managers of British and French firms that were acquired by British, French, and U.S. firms as to their perceptions of cultural compatibility with the buying firms, their sense of loss of autonomy since the merger, and post-merger performance. While we found that the theory adequately explains the post-merger performance of both British and French firms, suggesting that this primarily "made-in-the-United States" organization theory extends beyond the cultural domain of the United States, we also found an aspect of the theory that reflects a possible cultural bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at the accounting measurement practices in France, Germany, and Great Britain and the differences in the effects of their financial statements. The differences in financial ratios and stock market valuation of accounting data are not explained by macroeconomic factors, they are predictable, and they are present in net income. The directives of enacted legislation by the European Union do not affect the cross-country differences despite efforts to create an integrated set of financial reporting standards.

The article refers to international accounting standards and the profits-measurement behavior in France, Germany, and Great Britain. The European Method of financial analysis involves a ratio of disclosed to adjusted profit, which is called the conservatism index. Problems with the European Method--from a security-analysis perspective--include taxation, intercountry accounting harmonization, international performance comparisons, and consolidation and inflation accounting policies. Statistics show the profits-measurement behavior for the period of 1972 to 1975, chi-square test results for France/Great Britain, Germany/Great Britain, and France/Germany, and the impact of differences in international accounting on profits.

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Maids, household appliances and housework time are key inputs to domestic production. This study uses data from the UK and France to estimate the effects of resource prices on the demand for these inputs. We conclude that higher opportunity costs of time increase the likelihood of having maid services and appliances. Women's time costs are also positively related to his housework time and negatively related to hers. Finally, maid service appears to be a closer substitute for housework time on weekend days than weekdays, suggesting smaller labour supply effects than anticipated by earlier literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary 1. Both nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) enrichment have been identified to drive plant species losses from nutrient-poor semi-natural grasslands. The relative contribution of N vs. P to species loss remains unclear, however. 2. We investigated how soil N and P availability affect the occurrence of 61 grassland species across North-western Europe. We selected 132 study sites, located in Great Britain, Belgium and France, along a soil fertility gradient based on variability in atmospheric N deposition and on nutrient input from adjacent agricultural land. To gain insight into the underlying ecological mechanisms of species loss, we examined the role of a suite of plant traits that may mediate a species' response to increased N or P availability. 3. Mixed logistic regression showed that the occurrence of 24 plant species (39·3%) was affected by soil nutrient availability. Of these species, 18 were negatively affected by increased P (29·5%) and five by increased N (8·2%). Regionally declining plant species were absent from both P-rich and N-rich grasslands. Higher susceptibility to elevated P was associated with stress tolerance, low maximum canopy height and symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizae. 4. Synthesis and applications. Although we also identified negative effects on plant diversity through N enrichment, our results strongly suggest that P enrichment is a more important driver of species loss from semi-natural grasslands. Species in symbiosis with mycorrhizae and with low canopy height are especially at risk. Because detrimental effects of P enrichment are very difficult to mitigate due to the persistence of P in the soil, nature management should give absolute priority to preventing P input in grasslands through fertilization, agricultural run-off or inundation with P-polluted surface water. To restore species-rich grasslands on P-enriched soils, top soil removal appears crucial and more research regarding alternative removal strategies is essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from large-scale establishment surveys in Britain and France, we show that incentive pay for non-managers is more widespread in France than in Britain. We explain this finding in terms of the ‘beneficial constraint’ arising from stronger employment protection in France, which provides an impulse to develop incentive pay; employer networking activities in France, which facilitate joint learning about its development and operation; and government fiscal incentives for profit-sharing, which reduce the cost of its operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use data from the Relations Professionnelles et Négociations d'Entreprise survey of 2004 and the Workplace Employment Relations Survey of 2004 to analyse how far approaches to human resource management differ according to whether an establishment is part of a company with a stock exchange listing. In both countries we find that listing is positively associated with teamworking and performance-related pay, while in France, but not in Britain, it is also linked to worker autonomy and training. Our findings are inconsistent with the claim that shareholder pressure operates as a constraint on the adoption of high-performance workplace practices. The pattern is similar in the two countries, but with a slightly stronger tendency for listing to be associated with high-performance workplace practices in France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an outlook for the world economy as of October 2008. The impending global recession has prompted governments to intervene, including the decision of the U.S. to buy bad assets and the £700 billion bank recapitalisation scheme in Great Britain. Several charts are also presented that show economic forecasts for several regions, such as the Eurozone, Japan, and France. An assessment of the economic conditions and gross domestic product (GDP) forecast in emerging markets is also presented.

The member countries of the World Health Organization have endorsed its Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity, and Health. We assess the potential consumption impacts of these norms in the United States, France, and the United Kingdom using a mathematical programming approach. We find that adherence would involve large reductions in the consumption of fats and oils accompanying large rises in the consumption of fruits, vegetables, and cereal. Further, in the United Kingdom and the United States, but not France, sugar intakes would have to shrink considerably. Focusing on sub-populations within each country, we find that the least educated, not necessarily the poorest, would have to bear the highest burden of adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a newly-created data set which measures legal change over time, the authors present evidence on the evolution of labour law in France, Germany, India, the United Kingdom and the United States. Their analysis casts light on the claim that "legal origin" affects the content of labour law regimes. While some divergence between common law and civil law countries is found at the aggregate level, a more complex picture emerges from consideration of specific areas of labour law. The authors discuss the potential significance of this relatively new measurement-based approach to understanding the forces that shape the evolution of labour law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The two plesiosauroid species from the Posidonia shale of Holzmaden, ‘ Plesiosaurus’ guilelmiimperatoris and ‘ Plesiosaurus’ brachypterygius, do not belong to Plesiosaurus but form new monotypic genera. The new genus Hydrorion is erected for ‘ P.’ brachypterygius, and the genus Seeleyosaurus is re-established for ‘ P.’ guilelmiimperatoris. The recently described species Plesiopterys wildii is regarded as a junior synonym of S. guilelmiimperatoris. A short phylogenetic analysis shows that S. guilelmiimperatoris and Muraenosaurus are basal elasmosaurs. H. brachypterygius, Occitanosaurus tournemirensis from France and Microcleidus homalospondylus from England form a monophyletic clade, which is the sister taxon to the Cretaceous elasmosaurs. A palaeobiogeographical comparison of plesiosaur localities in the Lower Jurassic shows distinct palaeobiogeographical zones for the Toarcian, with different plesiosaur taxa in England, Germany and France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For France, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S. for the period from 1994 to 2001, this study explores empirically the association between valuation errors from a standard empirical application of the residual income valuation model and violations of the clean surplus relationship (dirty surplus accounting flows). Motivated by concern that the effect of dirty surplus accounting on the applicability of accounting-based valuation models might vary across accounting regimes, the study also documents differences across pairs of countries in the relationship between valuation errors and dirty surplus flows. The study finds some weak evidence of predicted relationships between valuation errors and dirty surplus flows in the U.S., but finds little evidence of such relationships elsewhere. There is some limited evidence of cross-country difference in the relationship between valuation errors and dirty surplus flows, mostly involving the U.S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addresses the response of Great Britain and France to the prospect of integrating their Islamic minorities and their approach to groups within their borders. Complications of the process of homogenization, differentiation and emerging identities of minorities; Role of religion in shaping the European identity; History of Europe's opposition and continued hostility toward Islam; Emphasis of Islam on women's role in society; Development of the educational system of European countries.

The article compares the relative pay of young workers in Great Britain, France and West Germany. One of the most important differences in the organization of young workers' labour markets between the three countries and which exerts a major influence on pay structure, lies in the predominant position of apprenticeships in West Germany and to a lesser extent in Great Britain, compared to their much smaller extent in France. For example, in 1978, in West Germany 5.1% of manual workers in industry were apprentices, compared with 4.2% in Great Britain and 0.4 per cent in France. Within the economics of training, it has been argued that the problem of funding training for transferable and for non-transferable skills gives rise to two different patterns of pay differentials between trainees and skilled workers. Training for transferable skills is always open to the problem that employers who undertake no training themselves may poach skilled workers from those who do and the more general such poaching becomes, the less firms are willing to pay for transferable training.

summary: Northern populations of Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud. (common reed) often flower so late that the ability to produce viable seeds before winter dieback can be limited. If climate changes as predicted, the reed may become able to set seed further north in its range. This would have implications for the ability of reed to colonize new sites as well as for the distribution of animals which eat reed seeds in winter. A survey of 34 British populations in 1993 and 1994 showed that seed production is highly variable between sites, ranging from 0 to 100%. Southern and western populations tended to show the highest seed sets, although some southern populations were infertile and some northern sites set seed. Average seed weight tended to be higher in sites which showed good seed set. Seeds from sites with high average seed weight tended to germinate more readily. The seed‐setting capability of populations was successfully associated with climatic conditions at the time of flowering. However, seed weight was not found to relate to climate, but depended on seed production and overall plant height. Logistic regression modelling indicated that the best seed sets should occur in P. australis when: (i) August rainfall is low; (ii) the combined rainfalls of September and October are high; and (iii) the combined temperatures of these months are high. The model accounts for approximately one third of the variation in observed seed sets between sites, indicating that other, unmeasured, factors might also play a part in determining seed set in P. australis. At three northern populations which were studied in more detail, a number of genotypes coexisted, and legitimate pollen germination and pollen‐tube growth was observed in each case. As no seed set occurred in two of these, self‐incompatibility cannot explain poor seed setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores why Great Britain became an industrialized and urbanized economy long before France. On the eve of the Great War, agriculture, according to official censuses of population, continued to provide employment for up to 41 per cent of the workforce in France and generated around 35 per cent of the country's national income. In Britain only 8 per cent of the workforce could be officially classified as employed on the land, and agriculture accounted for a mere 5 per cent of gross domestic product. Around 1911, 35 per cent of the population of France resided in towns containing populations of 3,000 and above, while the comparable proportion for Britain was 78 per cent. Structural change in France was in large measure predetermined by a combination of geographical endowments and a system of property rights inherited from its feudal past. Both constraints, operating within the context of pre-chemical and pre-mechanical agricultural systems, so limited the scale and scope of French endeavours to follow the path taken by Britain between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, became almost irrelevant to conditions in France.

The mathematics achievement scores of 28,274 students in 1443 Australian, Belgian, English, Finish, French, German, Israeli, Japanese, Dutch, Scotch, Swedish, and US. elementary schools were correlated with, and regressed on socioeconomic status, highest math course taken, weekly hours of homework, interest in mathematics, and several other variables with both individuals and schools within each country as units of analysis. The results corroborate recent syntheses of small- scale studies of productive factors in academic learning as well as regression analyses of large-scale surveys. Among directly alterable variables, the amount and the quality or vigour of instruction including homework most strongly influence achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the issue of Islamic activists in the Western Countries and its negative effects to the majority of Muslims. The author cited instances such as the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York and the terrorist acts against Frenchmen in Algeria have made the presence of such activists a political issue in countries such as the United States, France and Great Britain. According to the author, because of those incidents done by some Muslims, the majority of the Muslims in the Western countries would be affected.

The article focuses on literature related to Entente Cordiale, the treaty between Great Britain and France containing secret articles. The popular stories about the reigns from that of Queen Anne, the final Stuart monarch of Scotland, to the period when queen of Great Britain & Ireland, Alexandrina Victoria ascended the throne scarcely serve to elucidate the reasons for the many frictions that drove the countries to war. The highly colored portraits of Edward VII, as Prince and King, found in "The Tragedy of Edward VII," were in need of some cleaning and revarnishing. The book, "Memories," written by Admiral John Fisher, the First Sea Lord throws a searchlight upon the king of Great Britain, Edward VII and his political achievements, which reveals a buccaneering spirit that is quite different from the peacemaking virtue Edward attributes to his subject. There was a secret military treaty, made in 1892 between France and Soviet Union, in which it was laid down that mobilization of the two countries was a declaration of war against Germany.

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.)