Poverty, Maternal Depression, Family Status and Children's Cognitive and Behavioural Development in Early Childhood: A Longitudinal Study

Improving children's lives is high on the UK policy agenda. In this study for a recent birth cohort of UK children we examine how three aspects of parental resources - income, mother's mental well-being and family status - in early childhood enhance or compromise their children's cognitive and behavioural development. As well as examining how these three aspects of parental resources separately and jointly affect children's well-being, we also enquire whether persistent poverty or persistent maternal depression are more deleterious for children's current well-being than periodic episodes of poverty and depression. We find strong associations between poverty and young children's intellectual and behavioural development, and persistent poverty was found to be particularly important in relation to children's cognitive development. Maternal depression (net of other factors) was more weakly related to cognitive development but strongly related to whether children were exhibiting behaviour problems, and persistent depression amplified the situation. Family status, net of other factors (most noticeably poverty), was only weakly associated with children's development

Late Holocene landscape evolution in the Dazzler Range: new evidence

Radiocarbon dating of a wood sample from the upper part of a sequence of coarse fluvial gravels at Branchs Creek has confirmed that accumulation of coarse fluvial gravels continued into the late Mid Holocene, prior to an influx of up to 3 m of sand during the last two millenia. Ongoing erosion at Branchs Creek has revealed that clay previously interpreted as a separate unit beneath the gravels is merely a clay lens and that the gravel/clay sequence is over 3.5 m thick. Investigation ofa site at Saxons Creek, at the southern end of the Dazzler Range, has revealed a similar stratigraphy and confirms widespread catchment instability during the Mid to Late Holocene. The upper gravels are again rich in logs and smaller wood fragments, and two samples have returned radiocarbon ages of -4.1 and 2.2 ka BP. At least 3 m of sand has accumulated since deposition of the gravels ceased, with at least 1 m of sand deposited over the last several centuries. As at Branchs Creek and elsewhere in the Dazzler Range, pronounced incision into alluvial sediments has been triggered by artificial straightening of the Saxons Creek channel

Holocene landscape instability in the Dazzler Range, northern Tasmania

At least 5m of poorly consolidated Quaternary sediments have accumulated since the mid Holocene in the lower reaches of stream channels that drain the flanks of the Dazzler Range. Radiocarbon assay of charcoal and wood fragments contained in the sediments indicate deposition during the mid to late Holocene 5.2-1.8 ka. Coarse gravels in the earliest deposits are believed to have been recycled from relict periglacial gravels in response to increased runoff and channel instability, brought about by neoglacial cooling coupled with changes in vegetation structure and associated fire frequency. The thickness of the sediments and the presence oflarge logs in the sediments along the lower reaches of Branchs Creek suggest at least one geomorphic event of high magnitude. Significant aggradation of finer calibre sediments has continued during the last two millenia. Since European settlement, deep gulleys have formed in the lower reaches of alluvial fans that flank the range, in response to land clearing for agriculture and the artificial straightening of stream channels. The earlier history of slope instability and sediment aggradation, even under natural conditions, highlights the need for careful land management

Mountain geomorphology and the last glaciation at Lake St Clair

During the Last Glaciation, the glaciers that developed in the Lake St Clair area were largely controlled by the topography and played only a minor role in shaping the landscape, the most striking glacial features of which were produced during earlier glaciations. The glaciers were subject to continental influences, which resulted in some distinctive depositional and erosional landforms, bur were still of essentially temperate type. In apparent contrast to those in the West Coast Range, the glaciers in the Lake St Clair area retreated systematically in clear stages

Management considerations for the Heard Island lava tube caves

Heard Island contains a system of lava tube caves in a largely pristine condition which are the best developed bedrock caves known in Antarctic or Subantarctic latitudes. They require special management, because of significant and sometimes fragile attributes associated with cave geomorphology, geology, hydrology, atmospheres, soils, microbiology, flora, fauna, vertebrate palaeontology, archaeology and safety considerations. Use for recreation, tourism or science may pose serious impacts on these cave environments. Restricted access under the Heard Island Wilderness Reserve Management Plan would be an appropriate management response

Power and policymaking

This thesis is concerned with approaches to policymaking analysis. It argues that dominant neo-pluralist theories of policymaking have limited explanatory force. This arises from the method of inquiry, which necessarily limits the scope of analysis. The emphasis on inductive methods, coupled with a narrow focus on nonformalised sub-state networks, produces a model which is a useful way of identifying non-state policy actors, but which has no explanatory capacity outside such networks. In particular two weaknesses in network analysis are highlighted as significant. The first is that neo-pluralism does not account for the possible constraint on meso-level activity by the state. The state's ability to constrain individual agency may arise either from its position as a distinct social actor, or from it being an aspect of structural constraint. As this latter point implies, the second key weakness with neo-pluralist network analysis is owing to its structural indeterminism. The thesis argues that an adequate account of the policymaking process must recognise the possibility of limits to actor autonomy which arise from individual interaction with structure. Although the argument is made for a structural dimension to policymaking analysis, it concedes the dangers of functionalism and determinism which can arise from the application of structural frameworks. Consequently, the thesis argues for a duality of structure and agency as the core of political analysis. This argument is made on theoretical grounds, and via discussion of an empirical case study of the EU Task Force Environment: Water. The argument then is for a dual approach to policymaking which utilises both inductive and deductive methods. It is argued (a) that a Marxist analysis of the state and the structural constraints of capitalism can be combined (although not integrated) with networks analysis in a dual approach, and (b) that this combination provides the best model of policymaking