Some theoretical and methodological comments on the impact of policies on fertility

Theoretically, and for reasons that I will shortly summarise in this presentation, there are strong reasons to expect policies to have a positive impact on fertility. Empirically, however, the evidence regarding the potential impact of policies of fertility is less clear cut. While numerous studies do indeed show a positive impact of policies, there is no consensus regarding the actual magnitude of the impact, nor about its short- or medium-term nature (Gauthier 2007). What I want to do in this presentation is consequently to reflect on the results from empirical studies by raising a number of theoretical and methodological issues.

Can policies enhance fertility in Europe?

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Nouvelles estimations du coût de l’enfant au Canada

Afin de pouvoir évaluer le degré auquel les politiques gouvernementales d’aide et de soutien aux familles compensent les coûts économiques reliés à la prise en charge d’un enfant, il importe de disposer d’une estimation du coût de l’enfant. Dans cet article, l’auteur présente un nouveau modèle d’estimation de ce coût, et l’applique aux données de l’enquête de Statistique Canada sur les dépenses des familles en 1982. La première partie décrit les développements méthodologiques et théoriques ayant permis l’obtention de ce modèle, et la deuxième analyse les estimations du coût de l’enfant selon son âge et son rang, pour des familles de niveaux de vie différents.In order to be able to appraise to what extent policy measures compensate for the cost of rearing a child, one needs an estimate of this cost. In this paper, the author presents a new model which is applied to data obtained from the survey of family expenditures, made in 1982 by Statistics Canada. The first part is devoted to the methodological and theoretical considerations on which the model is based, and the second part analyses the estimates of the cost of a child, according to age and rank of the child, and standard of living of the family.A fin de poder evaluar el grado en el cual las políticas governementales de ayuda y sostén a las familias compensan los costos económicos relacionados a la toma en cargo de un niño es importante disponer de una estimación de su costo. En este artículo, el autor presenta un nuevo modelo de estimación del costo y lo aplica a los datos de la encuesta de Estadísticas Canada sobre los gastos de las familias en 1982. La primera parte describe los desarrollos metodológicos y teóricos que han permitido el logro de este modelo y la segunda analiza las estimaciones del costo del niño segun su edad y su rango para las familias de distintos niveles de vida

Socio-Economic Differences in the Prevalence of Single Motherhood in North America and Europe

The study focuses on understanding the association between parental socio-economic status (SES) and the likelihood of women experiencing a first birth while single, and identifying societal factors that influence this association in 18 North American and European societies. Previous research has shown that single motherhood occurs disproportionately among those from with lower a lower parental SES. The study assesses whether this is caused by parental SES differences in the risk of single women experiencing a first conception leading to a live birth or by parental SES differences in how likely women are to enter a union during pregnancy. Additionally, an assessment is made of whether cross-national differences in these associations can be explained by a country’s access to family planning, norms regarding family formation, and economic inequality. Across countries, a negative gradient of parental SES was found on the likelihood of single women to experience a first pregnancy. The negative gradient was stronger in countries with better access to family planning. In some countries, the negative gradient of parental SES was aggravated during pregnancy because women from lower parental SES were less likely to enter a union. This was mostly found in societies with less conservative norms regarding marriage. The results suggest that certain developments in Western societies may increase socio-economic differentials in family demography

Do We Invest Less Time in Children? Trends in Parental Time in Selected Industrialized Countries Since the 1960\u27s

This paper examines trends in parental time in selected industrialized countries since the 1960s using time-use survey data. Despite the time pressures to which today’s families are confronted, parents appear to be devoting more time to children than they did some 40 years ago. Results also suggest a decrease in the differences between fathers and mothers in time devoted to children. Mothers continue to devote more time to childcare than fathers, but the gender gap has been reduced. These results are observed in several countries and therefore suggest a large global trend towards an increase in parental time investment with their children

Patterns of Time use of People Age 55 to 64 Years Old: Some Cross-National Comparisons

Objectives. This paper examines the patterns of time use of adults age 55 to 64 years old in six countries: Austria, Canada, Finland, Italy, Sweden, and the United States. It examines the discontinuity in daily activities by employment status and gender. Methods. The paper uses nationally representative samples from time use surveys carried out in each country. We compute aggregate patterns of time use by employment status and gender for seven categories of activities: personal activities, paid work, unpaid work, housework, social leisure, active leisure, and passive leisure. We also compute dissimilarity indices to measure the degree of discontinuity in patterns of time use by employment status and gender. Results. We find that the pattern of time use of non-employed adults resemble that of full-time employed people on their non-workdays. We also find evidence that the transition out of the labor force is associated with a convergence in pattern of time use of men and women in the USA, Canada, and Finland, but not in other countries. Discussion. There appears to be continuities in the way people use their time as they grow older and retire from the labor force. We however raise the possibility that these results may hold only for the ‘young-old’. Decreasing health and physical endurance at older ages may introduce significant discontinuities in patterns of time at a later stage of the life-cycle. Our future work will examine the impact of health and daily limitation on patterns of time use at older ages

Bacillus sphaericus Binary Toxin Elicits Host Cell Autophagy as a Response to Intoxication

Bacillus sphaericus strains that produce the binary toxin (Bin) are highly toxic to Culex and Anopheles mosquitoes, and have been used since the late 1980s as a biopesticide for the control of these vectors of infectious disease agents. The Bin toxin produced by these strains targets mosquito larval midgut epithelial cells where it binds to Cpm1 (Culex pipiens maltase 1) a digestive enzyme, and causes severe intracellular damage, including a dramatic cytoplasmic vacuolation. The intoxication of mammalian epithelial MDCK cells engineered to express Cpm1 mimics the cytopathologies observed in mosquito enterocytes following Bin ingestion: pore formation and vacuolation. In this study we demonstrate that Bin-induced vacuolisation is a transient phenomenon that affects autolysosomes. In addition, we show that this vacuolisation is associated with induction of autophagy in intoxicated cells. Furthermore, we report that after internalization, Bin reaches the recycling endosomes but is not localized either within the vacuolating autolysosomes or within any other degradative compartment. Our observations reveal that Bin elicits autophagy as the cell's response to intoxication while protecting itself from degradation through trafficking towards the recycling pathways

Intra-tumor genetic heterogeneity and alternative driver genetic alterations in breast cancers with heterogeneous HER2 gene amplification

Background HER2 is overexpressed and amplified in approximately 15% of invasive breast cancers, and is the molecular target and predictive marker of response to anti-HER2 agents. In a subset of these cases, heterogeneous distribution of HER2 gene amplification can be found, which creates clinically challenging scenarios. Currently, breast cancers with HER2 amplification/overexpression in just over 10% of cancer cells are considered HER2-positive for clinical purposes; however, it is unclear as to whether the HER2-negative components of such tumors would be driven by distinct genetic alterations. Here we sought to characterize the pathologic and genetic features of the HER2-positive and HER2-negative components of breast cancers with heterogeneous HER2 gene amplification and to define the repertoire of potential driver genetic alterations in the HER2-negative components of these cases.Results We separately analyzed the HER2-negative and HER2-positive components of 12 HER2 heterogeneous breast cancers using gene copy number profiling and massively parallel sequencing, and identified potential driver genetic alterations restricted to the HER2-negative cells in each case. In vitro experiments provided functional evidence to suggest that BRF2 and DSN1 overexpression/amplification, and the HER2 I767M mutation may be alterations that compensate for the lack of HER2 amplification in the HER2-negative components of HER2 heterogeneous breast cancers.Conclusions Our results indicate that even driver genetic alterations, such as HER2 gene amplification, can be heterogeneously distributed within a cancer, and that the HER2-negative components are likely driven by genetic alterations not present in the HER2-positive components, including BRF2 and DSN1 amplification and HER2 somatic mutations