Fair enough: long-term prisoners talk about their sentence

No abstract available

Housing and Housing Finance: The View from Australia and Beyond

This paper draws together themes from work at the RBA, other national central banks, the BIS and elsewhere on recent developments in housing and housing finance. The general conclusion is that financial and macroeconomic developments have increased the demand for the stock of housing. Because the stock of housing is inherently slow to adjust, this has increased its relative price. Although this is a global trend, individual country institutions have affected outcomes, sometimes in ways that are not obvious. The resulting expansion in both sides of the household balance sheet is an important development for policy-makers to monitor, but it is probably not of itself a cause of financial instability.housing; housing finance; economic geography; cross-country

The impact of family policy packages on fertility trends in developed countries.

We examine how far fertility trends respond to family policies in OECD countries. In the light of the recent fertility rebound observed in several OECD countries, we empirically test the impact of different family policy settings on fertility, using data from 18 OECD countries that spans the years 1982 to 2007. Our results confirm that each instrument of the family policy package (paid leave, childcare services and financial transfers) has a positive influence, suggesting that the addition of these supports for working parents in a continuum during the early childhood is likely to facilitate parents' choice to have children. Policy levers do not have similar weight, however: in-cash benefits covering childhood after the year of childbirth and the coverage of childcare services for children under age three have a larger potential influence on fertility than leave entitlements and benefits granted around childbirth. Our findings are robust once controlling for birth postponement, endogeneity, time lagged fertility reactions and for different national contexts, such as economic development, female employment rates, labour market insecurity and childbearing norms.family policies; fertility; demographic economics; female employment; economics of gender

Does economic development drive the fertility rebound in OECD countries?

We examine how far changes in fertility trends are related to ongoing economic development in OECD countries. In the light of the inverse J-shaped relationship between the human development index (HDI) and total fertility rates that was recently found by Myrskylä, Kohler and Billari (2009), we single out the impact of economic development on fertility. We empirically test the hypothesis of a convex impact of GDP per capita on fertility, using data from the OECD area that spans the years 1960 to 2007. We test the robustness of our findings by controlling for birth postponement and for different income distribution patterns. By designating a clear turning point in the relationship between economic development and fertility, we find that economic development is likely to induce a fertility rebound, but is not sufficient to lift fertility to a significantly higher level in all OECD countries. Country-specific factors explain why countries with similar GDP per capita levels achieve significantly lower or higher fertility rates than the estimated baseline, however. By decomposing GDP per capita into several variables, we identify female employment as the main factor impacting fertility, behind GDP variations. The positive association between the increase in female employment and fertility rates suggests a key role played by the changes in norms and institutions supporting the combination of work and family that go along with the process of economic development.demographic economics; fertility; economic development; female employment; economics of gender

Book review: Young Offenders: Crime, Prison and Struggles for Desistance

No abstract available

Bueno, doncs, on commence? : plurilingüisme a classe de llengua estrangera

La noción de interlengua ha servido para explicar los procesos de aprendizaje de una segunda lengua o de una lengua extranjera y situar en su justo lugar los errores respecto al sistema cuando se trata de producir un discurso monolingüe. Esta perspectiva debe ser completada con el análisis de los comportamientos verbales de las personas cuando actúan en un contexto social plurilingüe, con la cooperación de otros individuos interesados en el mismo proceso comunicativo. Este segundo procedimiento supone tener en cuenta los enunciados en su contexto discursivo y las estrategias de las que se sirven los hablantes para mantener la comunicación. El propósito de este artículo es describir el uso y el valor comunicativo de algunos fenómenos de contacto de lenguas habituales en las comunidades plurilingües y en muchas aulas, pero presentes también en los contactos interculturales para los que se preparan los alumnos de lengua extranjera.La notion d'interlangue a été utilisée pour expliquer les procesos d'aprentissage d'une deuxième langue ou d'une langue étrangère; elle a également été utilisée pour situer avec précisión les erreurs du système lorsqu'il s'agit du produire un discours monolingüe. Cette perspective est à compléter par l'analyse des attitudes verbales des personnes agissant dans un contexte social plurilingüe, en collaboration avec d'autres individus intéressés par le même processus de comunication. Cette deuxième procédure implique tenir compte des énoncés, dans leur contexte discursif, et des stratégies dont se servent les parlants pour rester en communication. Cet article se propose de décrire l'usage et la valeur communicative de quelques phénomènes de contact de langues habituelles au sein des communautés plurilingües et dans beaucoup de salles de cours, mail presents aussi dans les contacts interculturels auxquels les étudiants de langues étrangères se préparent.The concept of interlanguage has been usefl when explaining the learning processes for a second or foreign language, and top ut in their proper context those errors - as regards the system- which arise when a monolingual approach is decided upon. This concept should be rounded off with an analysis of the verbal behaviour patterns of people when they are in a plurilingual social context, with the cooperation of other individuals interested in the same communicative process. This second procedure implies bearing in mind the terms used in the context of a given approach, and the strategies used by speakers to maintain communication. This article's proposal is to describe the use and the communicative value of some of the phenomena which arise from the contact of current languages in plurilingual communities and in many classrooms, and which also arise from intercultural contacts for those who prepare students of foreign languages

The Housing Meltdown: Why Did It Happen in the United States?

The crisis enveloping global financial markets since August 2007 was triggered by actual and prospective credit losses on US mortgages. Was the United States just unlucky to have been the first to experience a housing crisis? Or was it inherently more susceptible to one? I examine the limited international evidence available, to ask how the boom- bust cycle in the US housing market differed from elsewhere and what the underlying institutional drivers of these differences were. Compared with other countries, the United States seems to have: built up a larger overhang of excess housing supply; experienced a greater easing in mortgage lending standards; and ended up with a household sector more vulnerable to falling housing prices. Some of these outcomes seem to have been driven by tax, legal and regulatory systems that encouraged households to increase their leverage and permitted lenders to enable that development. Given the institutional background, it may have been that the US housing boom was always more likely to end badly than the booms elsewhere.Housing construction; Housing prices; Mortgage delinquencies; Mortgage markets; Subprime

Design and synthesis of indolylglyoxylamide derivatives as probes for the Translocator protein (TSPO)

ABSTRACT The 18kDa Translocator Protein (TSPO) is mainly located at the contact sites between the outer and the inner mitochondrial membranes, and is strictly associated with a number of proteins to form the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (MPTP). It is involved in a variety of biological processes including cholesterol transport, steroidogenesis, cell growth and differentiation, apoptosis induction, and regulation of immune functions. The expression of TSPO is ubiquitary in peripheral tissues (steroid producing tissues, liver, heart, kidney, lung, immune system) and in the central nervous system is mainly located in glial cells and in neurons. TSPO is up-regulated in a number of neuropathologies, Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, tumors etc.. Consequently, TSPO has been suggested as a promising diagnostic marker to image and measure the TSPO expression and distribution levels, and thus for evaluation of disease progression by means of specific fluorescent or radiolabeled ligands. The aim of this work is to synthesize and biological characterize a series of 2-phenylindol-3-ylglyoxylamides, and to test their validity as new TSPO probes. Compound 1 is characterized by the presence of a chemoreactive isothiocyanate group and by the NBD-fluorescent moiety. Compounds 2 and 3 are characterized by the presence of (1,4,7-triazonane-1,4,7-triyl)triacetic acid group (NOTA) and were synthesize to prepare and evaluate Ga-68 complexes as potential PET agents for measurement of TSPO

Panel : la etnografía sociolingüística : enfoques y resultados. Panel 1 : La etnografia sociolingüística : enfoque y métodos. Análisis interaccional para el estudio del plurilingüismo escolar

Este texto se presentó como comunicación al II Congreso Internacional de Etnografía y Educación: Migraciones y Ciudadanías. Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, 5-8 Septiembre 2008.A menudo las posiciones teóricas del análisis conversacional (AC) han sido criticadas desde la etnografía escolar, sobre todo en lo que se refiere a la concepción del contexto. Para la etnografía y, en cierta medida, también para el interaccionismo simbólico, el contexto macro actúa como telón de fondo, da sentido a las prácticas de los actores sociales y tiene un valor heurístico en la interpretación de los datos. Para el AC, en cambio, el contexto es el producto de la acción colectiva de los actores que participan en un acontecimiento de habla y no adquiere relevancia hasta que los propios actores no se la otorgan. Ello implica que la interpretación debe atenerse únicamente a los datos verbales, sin buscar en conocimientos externos la explicación del comportamiento de los hablantes. En esta comunicación intentaremos conciliar ambas perspectivas mediante el análisis de secuencias de un corpus obtenido mediante procedimientos etnográficos, pero analizado desde una estricta orientación conversacional. Dicha perspectiva nos parece especialmente útil para explorar datos producidos en situaciones de contacto y aprendizaje de lenguas