"...Jedermanns Geldgeschäfte prompt, sicher und billig zu besorgen": die Bestimmungsgrößen unterschiedlicher Rentabilität öffentlicher Unternehmungen am Beispiel der britischen und österreichischen Postsparkasse 1885-1914

Daunton und Wagner führen eine vergleichende Analyse der Bestimmungsgrößen der Profitabilität zweier großer öffentlicher Unternehmen des 19. Jhs., der britischen Post Office Savings Bank und des österreichischen Postsparkassen-Amts, durch. Als Quellenbasis dienten Protokolle, Jahres- und Rechenschaftsberichte sowie ältere und neuere Sekundärliteratur. Die Post Office Savings Bank diente dem Postsparkassen-Amt zwar als Modell, doch übertraf das österreichische Institut das britische Vorbild an innerorganisatorischer Flexibilität. Das Postsparkassen-Amt operierte auch unter günstigeren Absatzbedingungen als die Post Office Savings Bank, die nur geringe Chancen besaß, in den Bereich des überregionalen Scheckverkehrs vorzustoßen, der den ertragreichsten Geschäftszweig des österreichischen Instituts bildete. Den Hauptgrund für die unterschiedliche zeitliche Entwicklung der relativen Profitabilität der britischen und der österreichischen Postsparkasse sehen die Autoren in den mittelfristigen Trends, denen die Zinssätze auf dem Londoner und Wiener Kapitalmarkt unterlagen. Die Untersuchung enthält einen umfangreichen Tabellenanhang. (STR

Visions of Utopia: Sweden, the BBC and the Welfare State

Drawing on manuscripts and transcripts of BBC programme output, and material from the Radio Times, and the BBC’s The Listener magazine, this article analyses radio talks and programmes that focused on Sweden in the immediate years after the Second World War when the Swedish model was widely popularised abroad. The article argues that BBC output entangled domestic politics and transnational ideas around post-war reconstruction and welfare. Sweden was used as a lens through which a modern welfare state could be visualised and justified. This was however Utopia in two senses since the image of Sweden presented was in itself a highly idealised representation

The East Asian Journal of British History: Special Issue - Anglo-Japanese Conference of Historians 2015 Changing Networks and Power in British History: Politics, Society, Trade, vol. 5

The East Asian Journal of British History is produced by the East Asian Society of British History, and supported by the Institute for Historical Research. The Institute of Historical Research is pleased and proud to be supporting this recent addition to British history scholarship. Developing out of the IHR’s long-standing collaborative partnership with Japanese universities, and now in its fourth year, the East Asian Journal of British History features some of the best emergent scholarship from Anglophone historians working in China, Japan, and South Korea. Divided between an articles section and one devoted to reviews, the journal’s remit wide-ranging covering all fields and periods of British history. It complements the triennial Anglo-Japanese Conference organised by the IHR and Japanese historians based at the universities of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, and the conference of the East Asian Society of British history, in which we are joined by our colleagues from South Korea. In future, we hope that more contributions will be featured in the journal from the Chinese mainland and from Taiwan

The Production and Application of Hydrogels for Wound Management: A Review

Wound treatment has increased in importance in the wound care sector due to the pervasiveness of chronic wounds in the high-risk population including, but not limited to, geriatric population, immunocompromised and obese patients. Furthermore, the number of people diagnosed with diabetes is rapidly growing. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the global diabetic occurrence has increased from 4.7 in 1980 to 8.5 in 2014. As diabetes becomes a common medical condition, it has also become one of the major causes of chronic wounds which require specialised care to address patients’ unique needs. Wound dressings play a vital role in the wound healing process as they protect the wound site from the external environment. They are also capable of interacting with the wound bed in order to facilitate and accelerate the healing process. Advanced dressings such as hydrogels are designed to maintain a moist environment at the site of application and due to high water content are ideal candidates for wound management. Hydrogels can be used for both exudating or dry necrotic wounds. Additionally, hydrogels also demonstrate other unique features such as softness, malleability and biocompatibility. Nowadays, advanced wound care products make up around 7.1 billion of the global market and their production is growing at an annual rate of 8.3 with the market projected to be worth 12.5 billion by 2022. The presented review focuses on novel hydrogel wound dressings, their main characteristics and their wound management applications. It also describes recent methodologies used for their production and the future potential developments

Combining the contributions of behavioral economics and other social sciences in understanding taxation and tax reform

This paper extends previous work presented at the SABE/IAREP conference at St Mary’s University, Halifax (James, 2009). In the earlier paper it was shown that conventional economic theory is used to make the case for tax reform but does not always adequately incorporate all the relevant factors. However, an approach based on behavioral economics can make the difference between success and failure. In this paper the contributions of other social sciences are also included. Taxation is a particularly appropriate subject to explore the integration of the social sciences since they have all devoted considerable attention to it. It can be seen that different social sciences suggest a range of variables that might be taken into account in addition to those included in mainstream economics. Other social sciences also offer different methodological approaches and consider the possibility of different outcomes of the fiscal process. The paper concludes that it is not easy to integrate the social sciences in a single approach to the study of tax and tax policy. There may also be the risk of encouraging inappropriate integration - researchers operating outside their expertise can produce results that are not helpful. However, comparing the contribution of behavioral economics with those of the social sciences more generally, it can be seen that behavioral economics can offer a framework within which these areas can be examined. Indeed, it may be a useful channel to add the contributions of other social sciences to mainstream economic research