Contouritic depositional systems influenced by complex seafloor topography : Late Cenozoic seismoacoustic reconstructions from the Galicia and Angola Continental Margins

Contourites are sediment drift bodies that form under the persistent influence of bottom currents. As their morphology and composition records changes in the ambient current regime, they form excellent paleoceanographic archives. The shape and size of a contourite is determined by strength and variability of the bottom current as well as sediment supply, but also by the topographic framework with which the current interacts. Especially smaller scale topographic features such as seamounts are known to interact with and thereby amplify bottom currents, leading to the evolution of distinct contourite drifts. The interplay between topography and bottom current and the resulting depositional pattern are complex and not entirely understood. However, due to the associated amplification of currents the resulting deposits are often more sensitive to variations in the background hydrodynamic regime. This makes them especially valuable for paleoceanographic reconstruction. However, before that information can be utilized, the interaction mechanisms which ultimately shape the drift have to be understood in their entirety. Moreover, changes in topography, be it through burial by sediments, tectonic activity or even biogenic construction of topographic features, may cause similar changes in the interaction process as a variation in the current forcing. This project addresses interaction between currents and topography in two representative yet diverse study areas. At the Galicia Margin, a strongly dissected topography formed during the opening of the North Atlantic Ocean and was furthermore shaped by the Pyrenean and Betic orogenies. Various seafloor features, such as topographic obstacles and ridges have interacted with ocean density fronts passing through the transition zone between Mediterranean Outflow Water and Labrador Seawater, which was lowered during glacials and shoaling in deglacial periods. The second study area is located at the shallow Angola Margin, where the seafloor is actively deforming through gravity-driven salt tectonic processes. Extensional grabens open up in the process of salt rafting and are rapidly filled by sediments depositing under the influence of bottom currents. Furthermore Cold Water Corals grow in marked mound and ridge structures in the area, adding more variability to the already dynamic topography. Overall, the present thesis provides new insight into the interaction of bottom currents and small-scale topographic features and their role in shaping contourite depositional systems through numerous examples. Conceptual models of the influence of these interaction processes on sedimentary deposits were advanced and the influence of bottom current topography interaction in previously undisclosed settings was discovered. The detailed investigation of these processes is an important step to more holistic understanding to the role of bottom currents in shaping complex continental margins and also a step towards the deciphering of valuable paleoceanographic information archived in these systems

State care provision, societal opinion and children's care of older parents in 11 European countries

Dependent older people are predominantly cared for by family members, mostly partners and children, but not every parent in need is cared for by a child, and intergenerational care varies widely across Europe. Previous studies have used care regimes to explain these differences, but because of the lack of large comparative surveys, the prevalence of intergenerational care has rarely been related directly to the institutional and cultural context, including state care provision, legal obligations between family members, and societal opinion about the role of the state in elderly care. This paper reports an analysis of variations in intergenerational care among European countries and the reasons for these differences using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe for Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Results from logistic multilevel models show that care by children is influenced by the individual characteristics of both parents and children, and by family structures, welfare-state institutions and cultural norms. Intergenerational care is more prevalent in southern and central European countries, where children are legally obligated to support parents in need, and care is perceived as a responsibility of the family, whereas in northern Europe, the wider availability of formal care services enable adult children, particularly daughters, have more choice about their activities and use of tim

Pflege der Eltern - Ein europäischer Vergleich*

Zusammenfassung: Pflegebedürftige werden vorwiegend von Familienmitgliedern versorgt. Nicht jede pflegebedürftige Person kann jedoch auf die Unterstützung von Angehörigen zurückgreifen, und nicht alle Familienmitglieder beteiligen sich an der Pflege. Welche Faktoren begünstigen also die familiale Pflege, und welche erschweren sie? Welche bedeutenden Unterschiede bestehen zwischen europäischen Ländern, und wie lassen sich diese erklären? Die empirischen Analysen basieren auf dem Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (Belgien, Dänemark, Deutschland, Frankreich, Griechenland, Italien, Niederlande, Österreich, Schweden, Schweiz und Spanien). Die Befunde zeigen, dass die Pflege der Eltern durch die erwachsenen Kinder von vielfältigen Faktoren abhängt: individuelle Merkmale von Eltern und Kindern, familiale Strukturen sowie kulturell-kontextuelle Faktoren einschließlich wohlfahrtsstaatlicher Institutionen. Intergenerationale Pflege ist besonders in den süd- und zentraleuropäischen Ländern ausgeprägt, in denen Kinder gesetzlich zur Unterstützung bedürftiger Eltern verpflichtet sind. Gleichzeitig ermöglichen professionelle häusliche Pflegeleistungen in den untersuchten Ländern, dass erwachsene Kinder eigene Lebensentwürfe jenseits der Pflege verfolgen könne

Gendered support to older parents: do welfare states matter?

The aim of this study is to examine the association of welfare state policies and the gendered organisation of intergenerational support (instrumental help and personal care) to older parents. The study distinguishes between support to older parents provided at least weekly, i.e. time-intensive and often burdening support, and supplemental sporadic support. Three policy instruments were expected to be associated with daughters' and sons' support or gender inequality in intergenerational support respectively: (1) professional social services, (2) cash-for-care payments and (3) legal obligations to provide or co-finance care for parents. The analyses based on the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe showed that daughters provided somewhat more sporadic and much more intensive support than sons throughout Europe. While about half of all children who sporadically supported a parent were men, this applied to only one out of four children who provided intensive support. Logistic multilevel models revealed that legal obligations were positively associated with daughters' likelihood of giving intensive support to parents but did not affect the likelihood of sons doing so. Legal obligations thus stimulate support in a gender-specific way. Both legal obligations and cash-for-care schemes were also accompanied by a more unequal distribution of involvement in intensive support at the expense of women. Social services, in contrast, were linked to a lower involvement of daughters in intensive support. In sum, the results suggest that welfare states can both preserve or reduce gender inequality in intergenerational support depending on specific arrangement