Applying child-based information to a microsimulation model : A better tool to assess outcomes of alternative entitlements to child care provisions?

The Finnish child day care system has had two alternative public provisions in the mid-1980s after the parental leave period: a subjective right to public child day care or cash for care (child home care allowance) until the child is 3 years of age. The elderly siblings of the youngest child, if cared for at home, are entitled to a smaller siblings’ allowance until they start obligatory education. The right to child day care concerns all children before obligatory education (7 years of age). The forms of public support for child care have continuously been in public debate, some people demanding a longer period and higher allowance for the parents (mothers) to care for a child at home after the parental leave whereas others demand a longer parental leave and greater gender equality in child care. In spring 2012 the controversy concerned the Government’s plan to cut the home care allowance period by one year, for children below 2 years of age. Cutting public transfer expenditure was one justification, the other being increasing mothers’ labour market participation. That plan was never introduced but halving the allowance period between the parents has been suggested by the Government in 2013. In spite of high-tempered public discussion very few calculations about potential outcomes have been presented. Also the current static microsimulation models seemed not very useful in capturing the scope of even immediate impacts of these kinds of reforms. This paper has two motivations. The first motivation was a lack of micro-macro level analyses of po-tential outcomes of a possible reform. Cutting home care allowance decreases cash for care costs, but may increase child day care costs, if the mothers are available to the labour market earlier than before. The second motivation is a wish to apply and develop a microsimulation model with new kind of data in preparation of different child care alternatives. The problem in the former models and data is a lack of child-based information about their actual care periods. This is the first attempt to utilize child based spell data of child home care allowance. As application the paper will present preliminary potential outcomes of cutting entitlements to child home care allowance by one year and discusses the strengths and limitations of the applied model and data

Dynamics of driven interfaces in algebraically correlated random media

In this work we consider the dynamics of interfaces embedded in algebraically correlated two-dimensional random media. We study the isotropic percolation and the directed percolation lattice models away from and at their percolation transitions. Away from the transition, the kinetic roughening of an interface in both of these models is consistent with the power-law correlated Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class. Moreover, the scaling exponents are found to be in good agreement with existing renormalization-group calculations. At the transition, however, we find different behavior. In analogy to the case of a uniformly random background, the scaling exponents of the interface can be related to those of the underlying percolation transition. For the directed percolation case, both the growth and roughness exponents depend on the strength of correlations, while for the isotropic case the roughness exponent is constant. For both cases, the growth exponent increases with the strength of correlations. Our simulations are in good agreement with theory.Peer reviewe

Sukupuolen vaikutus lihavuuden ja parodontiitin väliseen yhteyteen

Tiivistelmä. Parodontiitti ja lihavuus ovat maailmanlaajuisesti merkittäviä aikuisväestön pitkäaikaissairauksia, jotka ovat yhteydessä toisiinsa. Lihavuuden seurauksena elimistöön kehittyy systeeminen matala-asteinen tulehdustila, mihin parodontaalikudos myös reagoi. Sairauksien taustalla vaikuttavat monet yksilö- ja yhteiskuntatason tekijät. Sukupuoli on yksi näihin sairauksiin vaikuttavista tekijöistä. Se vaikuttaa osaltaan rasvakudoksen kertymiseen sekä parodontiitin taudinkuvaan. Syventävien opintojen tutkielmani käsittelee sukupuolen vaikutusta lihavuuden ja parodontiitin väliseen yhteyteen. Julkaisut kerättiin systemaattisesti Pubmed- ja Scopus-tietokannoista. Lähdeaineiston rajaamisen apuna käytettiin sovellettua PRISMA-menetelmää sekä Oulun Yliopiston Covidence-ohjelmaa. Tutkielmaan valittu aineisto koostuu tutkimuksista, jotka keskittyvät käsittelemään lihavuutta ja parodontiittia. Tutkimusten tutkimuspopulaation tuli koostua aikuisista. Lisäksi tulosten tuli olla raportoituna erikseen miehillä ja/tai naisilla. Tutkielmaan hyväksytyistä tutkimuksista kerättiin tieto sukupuolen vaikutuksesta sairauksien väliseen yhteyteen. Tuloksia ylipainon ja lihavuuden aiheuttamasta riskistä eri parodontaalikudoksen muutoksille löydettiin vaihtelevasti molemmilla sukupuolilla. Tulokset eivät olleet yksiselitteisiä, joten aiheesta tarvitaan lisää tutkimusta. Tutkimusten vertailua hankaloittivat mm. tutkimustyyppien hajonta sekä parodontiitin ja lihavuuden määritelmien eroavaisuudet

Crossover Scaling of Wavelength Selection in Directional Solidification of Binary Alloys

We simulate dendritic growth in directional solidification in dilute binary alloys using a phase-field model solved with an adaptive-mesh refinement. The spacing of primary branches is examined for a range of thermal gradients and alloy compositions and is found to undergo a maximum as a function of pulling velocity, in agreement with experimental observations. We demonstrate that wavelength selection is unambiguously described by a non-trivial crossover scaling function from the emergence of cellular growth to the onset of dendritic fingers, a result validated using published experimental data.Comment: 4 pages, four figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Hierarchical Self-Assembly of Halogen-Bonded Block Copolymer Complexes into Upright Cylindrical Domains

Self-assembly of block copolymers into well-defined, ordered arrangements of chemically distinct domains is a reliable strategy for preparing tailored nanostructures. Microphase separation results from the system, minimizing repulsive interactions between dissimilar blocks and maximizing attractive interactions between similar blocks. Supramolecular methods have also achieved this separation by introducing small-molecule additives binding specifically to one block by noncovalent interactions. Here, we use halogen bonding as a supramolecular tool that directs the hierarchical self-assembly of low-molecular-weight perfluorinated molecules and diblock copolymers. Microphase separation results in a lamellar-within-cylindrical arrangement and promotes upright cylindrical alignment in films upon rapid casting and without further annealing. Such cylindrical domains with internal lamellar self-assemblies can be cleaved by solvent treatment of bulk films, resulting in separated and segmented cylindrical micelles stabilized by halogen-bond-based supramolecular crosslinks. These features, alongside the reversible nature of halogen bonding, provide a robust modular approach for nanofabricatio

Dynamics of Spreading of Chainlike Molecules with Asymmetric Surface Interactions

In this work we study the spreading dynamics of tiny liquid droplets on solid surfaces in the case where the ends of the molecules feel different interactions with respect to the surface. We consider a simple model of dimers and short chainlike molecules that cannot form chemical bonds with the surface. We use constant temperature Molecular Dynamics techniques to examine in detail the microscopic structure of the time dependent precursor film. We find that in some cases it can exhibit a high degree of local order that can persist even for flexible chains. Our model also reproduces the experimentally observed early and late-time spreading regimes where the radius of the film grows proportional to the square root of time. The ratios of the associated transport coefficients are in good overall agreement with experiments. Our density profiles are also in good agreement with measurements on the spreading of molecules on hydrophobic surfaces.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX with APS macros, 21 figures available by contacting [email protected], to appear in Phys. Rev.

Modeling Elasticity in Crystal Growth

A new model of crystal growth is presented that describes the phenomena on atomic length and diffusive time scales. The former incorporates elastic and plastic deformation in a natural manner, and the latter enables access to times scales much larger than conventional atomic methods. The model is shown to be consistent with the predictions of Read and Shockley for grain boundary energy, and Matthews and Blakeslee for misfit dislocations in epitaxial growth.Comment: 4 pages, 10 figure

Applying individual level data on children’s care periods to microsimulation models

Paper presented at the 4th General Conference of the International Microsimulation Association, 11–13 December 2013, Australi

Diffusive Spreading of Chainlike Molecules on Surfaces

We study the diffusion and submonolayer spreading of chainlike molecules on surfaces. Using the fluctuating bond model we extract the collective and tracer diffusion coefficients D_c and D_t with a variety of methods. We show that D_c(theta) has unusual behavior as a function of the coverage theta. It first increases but after a maximum goes to zero as theta go to one. We show that the increase is due to entropic repulsion that leads to steep density profiles for spreading droplets seen in experiments. We also develop an analytic model for D_c(theta) which agrees well with the simulations.Comment: 3 pages, RevTeX, 4 postscript figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Letters (1996