The Economics of Total War and Reconstruction, 1914-1922

This chapter features a discussion of the economy and mobilization for the First World War. The authors analyse the implications and cost of total war, concluding with an examination of its contradictory legacies. In studying the war’s impact on Germany in particular, the chapter provides an in-depth look at the consequences of war on Europe’s strongest pre-war economy, without the complications of separating out the issues of a developing country, which can mimic those faced in wartime. The economic challenges that warring parties faced during the war included mobilization, warfare, labour shortage, impaired domestic economic activity, restricted international trade, a systematic redistribution of resources towards the war economy, food rationing, the predictable emergence of black markets, and a drop in living standards. The authors also discuss strategies to meet the significant financial demands associated with the war, and its tumultuous economic and political aftermath.

Two-wire thermocouples: A nonlinear state estimation approach to temperature reconstruction.

The problem of measuring high frequency variations in temperature is described, and the need for some form of reconstruction introduced. One method of reconstructing temperature measurements is to use the signals from two thermocouples of differing diameter. Two existing methods for processing such measurements and reconstructing the higher frequency components are described. These are compared to a novel reconstruction algorithm based on a nonlinear extended Kalman filter. The performance of this filter is found to compare favorably, in a number of ways, with the existing techniques, and it is suggested that such a technique would be viable for the online reconstruction of temperatures in real time.

The Irish hospitals sweepstake in the United States of America, 1930-1939

The Irish hospitals sweepstake was established by statute in the Irish Free State in 1930 to fund the state’s hospital service. The vast majority of tickets were sold outside Ireland, particularly in countries where such gambling was illegal at the time. Initially the largest market was in the United Kingdom, but following the introduction of restrictive legislation there in 1934, the promoters of the sweepstake turned their attentions to North America and after 1936 the United States became the largest source of contributions to the Irish sweep. This article examines a number of factors concerning the relationship of the Irish sweep with the USA, including: an effort to estimate the amount of money contributed to the sweep by Americans; the role of the Irish diaspora and of prominent republicans, including Joseph McGarrity and Connie Neenan, in the illegal ticket distribution network; the efforts of American Federal agencies and government departments to disrupt the sweepstake organisation in America; how the sweep was used by those who sought to legalise gambling in the USA; the attitudes of both the Irish and American governments to the sweep’s activities in America; and how the legalisation of gambling in America brought about the demise of the Irish sweep.

Compton profiles of Si: Pseudopotential calculation and reconstruction effects

Using an ab initio pseudopotential calculation, we compute Compton profiles of silicon along the (100), (110), and (111) directions, and then reconstruct the pseudo-wave-functions to regain the oscillatory behavior of the all-electron valence wave functions near the atomic cores. We study the effect that this reconstruction has on the Compton profiles and their anisotropies. We find a decrease in the magnitude of the profiles at small wave vectors and in their anisotropies. These changes bring the theoretical predictions closer to experimental results.

Semiclassical complex angular momentum theory and Pade reconstruction for resonances, rainbows, and reaction thresholds

A semiclassical complex angular momentum theory, used to analyze atom-diatom reactive angular distributions, is applied to several well-known potential (one-particle) problems. Examples include resonance scattering, rainbow scattering, and the Eckart threshold model. Pade reconstruction of the corresponding matrix elements from the values at physical (integral) angular momenta and properties of the Pade approximants are discussed in detail.