GINI DP 10: Who Reaps the Benefits? The social distribution of public childcare in Sweden and Flanders

The main goal of this paper is to unravel the social distribution of childcare policies: who benefi ts from government investment on public childcare? If childcare policies are mainly used by those already working, and (scarce) budgetary resources thus end up with the higher income brackets, genuine concern arises about the distributional consequences of childcare policies on the one hand, and its effectiveness as an instrument to activate mothers with young children into the labour market on the other. Answering this question is a complex endeavour, because one has to simultaneously take into account the (possibly income-differentiated) tariff structure of childcare services and private childcare costs (parental fees), government expenditures (subsidies to childcare providers) and tax concessions. In this contribution, we develop a fi ne-grained analysis to reveal the distributional impact of public childcare for two countries (Flanders/Belgium and Sweden) already reaching the Barcelona targets for under 3s and interpret the results in a European perspective. We fi nd that, although both cases report high coverage rates, Sweden and Flanders have very different and even opposite distributional outcomes. Both examples provide us with valuable lessons on the redistributive nature of “new risk policies” and the effectiveness of childcare as an instrument of labour market activation.

Morphological evolution of the Kwinte Bank central depression before and after the cessation of aggregate extraction

Analyses of the records of ships registers and Electronic Monitoring Systems, of the trailer suction hopper dredgers, operating on the Belgian Continental Shelf, reveal that since the beginning of extraction in 1976, 75% of the total extracted volume originates from only one sandbank, the Kwinte Bank. At present, two morphologically-distinguished depressions are observed along the two most dredged areas of this sandbank: one in the central; and one in the northern part of the bank. In order to limit the impact of sand extraction on the bathymetry, the central depression of the Kwinte Bank was closed for exploitation, in February 2003. An understanding of the morphological evolution of this central depression is based upon data obtained: (a) from November 1999, until the closure for extraction in February 2003; and (b) on the subsequent post-dredging evolution, until June 2005. During this 5-year period, a total of 17 surveys were carried out with a multibeam echosounder over the area of the central depression (KBMA) and over a reference zone on an adjacent non-exploited sandbank. The resulting time-series of bathymetrical digital terrain models, together with backscatter strength maps, permit a detailed comparison of the bathy-morphological and sedimentary evolution of both of the monitored areas. Since the commencement of multibeam monitoring in 1999, an overall deepening (by 0.5m) of the entire KBMA monitoring zone is observed, until the cessation of dredging, in February 2003. Subsequently, the deepening slowed down and the variation in sediment volumes became similar to that of the adjacent non-exploited sandbank. From this, marine aggregate extraction appears to have only a local impact

Towards a high-resolution 3D-analysis of sand-bank architecture on the Belgian Continental Shelf (RESOURCE-3D): Final report

Revealing the internal structure of sand banks by means of high-resolution seismic (acoustic) methods remains one of the classic methodological challenges in shallow marine geophysical prospection. This is mostly due to the strong heterogeneity of the sand-bank body in combination with complex sea-floor morphology. This study has focussed on the optimisation of a methodological-technological approach through a comparison of various state-of-the-art high-resolution seismic source/receiver configurations for the investigation of the internal architecture of sand banks. On the basis of a dense network of seismic profiles, the 3D architecture of a test site on the Belgian Continental Shelf was studied in detail. Digital acquisition of the data enabled postacquisition processing and data enhancement. Specialised software was used to identify, trace and map the structuring sediment bodies. To translate the “acoustic information” in a most unbiased way, in terms of its lithological and sedimentological nature, UGent-RCMG’s knowledge database and available background information on the Quaternary geology of the Belgian part of the North Sea has been used intensively. Finally, the interpreted seismic data were integrated with other datasets, such as multibeam bathymetry. This enabled a highresolution 3D quantitative analysis and representation of the sand-bank architecture and its economical potential. After comparison of the acquired test data sets, a set of recommendations is formulated regarding the most optimal strategy for future 4D prospecting of marine aggregates on the Belgian Continental Shelf

Dual-Earner Family Policies at Work for Single-Parent Families

Family dynamics are changing and single-parent families are becoming more common across countries. In their flagship report “Progress of the World’s Women, 2019–2020,” UN Women (2019) demonstrated that, contrary to popular belief, couples with children do not constitute a majority of all families, but rather there are many different types of families. Single parenthood is considered a “new social risk” in poverty and inequality (Bonoli, 2013). Therefore, policy makers and legislators have designed targeted policy specifically for single parents, such as targeted child benefits to single parents. In addition, legislation and social policy have been designed and implemented specifically for single parents, such as child support and family law such as child custody and shared residence. This study takes a different approach, based on the universalist argument that without adequate social protection that benefits all families, those families that are more vulnerable are often hit the hardest. We focus on family policies, and specifically we examine whether and to what extent single parents benefit from the same family policies that are available to all families with children

How may beach nourishment affect the sandy beach ecosystem? The case of Belgian beaches

Though often regarded as biological deserts, sandy beaches provide a unique habitat for several species. Research was conducted by a consortium of experts with as a first objective to provide an integrated overview of the Belgian beach ecosystem and all its major components. A second objective comprised a review of available literature on the ecological impact of beach nourishment. To meet the first objective, an integrated overview of the Belgian sandy beach ecosystem based on spatial and temporal variation of fauna and flora of 11 sandy beaches is provided. The presented results corroborate the overlooked ecological significance of sandy beaches as a habitat. Besides sedimentology and hydrodynamics, five ecosystem components were taken into account: microphytobenthos, vascular plants, terrestrial arthropods, zoobenthos and avifauna. Nourishment of beaches is a large scale anthropogenic influence on sandy beach ecosystem. Sandy beaches are regarded as systems with a strong resilience towards such impacts. Nevertheless serious (short term) ecological effects can be expected. A review of prior studies indicates that the impact of nourishment is rather case-specific and that it is difficult to draw general conclusions. Short term impact is mostly large due to total mortality of benthic life. It seems very likely that potential recovery from the impact of nourishment will be limited to two essential, species specific pathways: (1) survival by resident organisms and (2) re-colonisation by immigrating individuals, the latter depending on both the dispersal capacities and habitat demands of the organisms. Further research is needed to explore possibilities for reducing detrimental ecological effects. Specific studies are needed towards the survival options, the dispersal capacities and habitat demands of the species present. These should allow for management guidelines to be drawn in terms of preferable nourishment sediment characteristics, timing and practice of the deposition of the sand

Study of ageing and gain limits of microstrip gas chambers at high rates

The CMS experiment comprises MSGCs as one of the key detection elements for high luminosity tracking at LHC. In addition to the high dose rate of 10 mC/year per cm of strip, these detectors have to survive the hostile presence of highly ionizing particles, neutrons low energy gammas and hadrons. In this report we present the results of systematic tests on maximum safe operational gain limits in MSGCs before the discharge. Long term ageing tests performed on prototype open Ibanana¹ modules envisaged to be arranged around the interaction region in the forward part of the CMS tracker show no evidence of gain drop up to equivalent ~ 10 years of LHC operation. A comparison is made between argon and neon gas mixtures with DME in equal proportions by investigating long term irradiation effects on chamber operation by introducing controlled and reproducible pollution in the gas lines

Voice processing in dementia: a neuropsychological and neuroanatomical analysis

Voice processing in neurodegenerative disease is poorly understood. Here we undertook a systematic investigation of voice processing in a cohort of patients with clinical diagnoses representing two canonical dementia syndromes: temporal variant frontotemporal lobar degeneration (n = 14) and Alzheimer’s disease (n = 22). Patient performance was compared with a healthy matched control group (n = 35). All subjects had a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment including measures of voice perception (vocal size, gender, speaker discrimination) and voice recognition (familiarity, identification, naming and cross-modal matching) and equivalent measures of face and name processing. Neuroanatomical associations of voice processing performance were assessed using voxel-based morphometry. Both disease groups showed deficits on all aspects of voice recognition and impairment was more severe in the temporal variant frontotemporal lobar degeneration group than the Alzheimer’s disease group. Face and name recognition were also impaired in both disease groups and name recognition was significantly more impaired than other modalities in the temporal variant frontotemporal lobar degeneration group. The Alzheimer’s disease group showed additional deficits of vocal gender perception and voice discrimination. The neuroanatomical analysis across both disease groups revealed common grey matter associations of familiarity, identification and cross-modal recognition in all modalities in the right temporal pole and anterior fusiform gyrus; while in the Alzheimer’s disease group, voice discrimination was associated with grey matter in the right inferior parietal lobe. The findings suggest that impairments of voice recognition are significant in both these canonical dementia syndromes but particularly severe in temporal variant frontotemporal lobar degeneration, whereas impairments of voice perception may show relative specificity for Alzheimer’s disease. The right anterior temporal lobe is likely to have a critical role in the recognition of voices and other modalities of person knowledge