Children’s Experiences of Family Disruption in Sweden

This paper examines the living arrangements of Swedish children from 1970 through 1999 using the Level of Living Survey. Sweden, with low levels of economic inequality and a generous welfare state, provides an important context for studying socioeconomic differentials in family structure. We find that, although differences by parent education in non-marital childbearing are substantial and persistent, cohabiting childbearing is common even among highly educated Swedish parents. Educational differences in family instability were small during the 1970s, but increased over time as a result of rising union disruption among less-educated parents (secondary graduates or less). Children in more advantaged families experienced substantially less change in family structure and instability over the study period. Although cohabiting parents were more likely to separate than parents married at the child’s birth, differences were greater for the less-educated. Data limitations precluded investigating these differences across time. We conclude that educational differences in children’s living arrangements in Sweden have grown, but remain small in international comparisons.children, cohabitation, family dynamics, family structure

External Ventures: Why Firms Don't Develop All Their Inventions In-house

In this paper we consider why firms sometimes choose an external development path for their own inventions, despite the costs of contracting and the risks of opportunistic behaviour and expropriation. We model the probability that firms adopt an external development strategy using survey data from over 2700 Australian inventions. Our results indicate that firms pursue external development strategies in response to perceived project-level risk about the technical feasibility of the invention, especially when suported by confidence in the patent system. Our findings also confirm that small to medium size enterprises, highly leveraged large firms and firms with few co-specialized assets are more likely to pursue an external development strategy.Outsourcing R&D, managing technological risk, licensing innovation

Childrearing responsibility and stepfamily fertility in Finland and Austria

We investigate the hypothesis that the propensity of a stepfamily couple to have a shared child is inversely related to the responsibility for rearing pre-union children. We compare effects of coresident pre-union children to those of nonresident, and effects of the woman’s children to those of the man’s. Shared children and stepchildren reduce the risk of a birth to a couple, and the reduction is larger for each shared child than for a stepchild. We found larger effects of coresident pre-union children than of nonresident children, and larger effects of a woman’s pre-union children than of a man’s. The differences were more pronounced in Austria where public support for childrearing and gender equality is lower than in Finland. Our study demonstrates that in addition to the number of pre-union children, coresidence and parentage of pre-union children also need to be considered in future fertility research.Austria, Finland, child rearing, family composition, fertility determinants

Key ecological sites of Hamilton City: Volume 1

Ecological sites of significance previously identified in 2000 were reviewed in 2011. Natural vegetation in areas acquired by the city since 2000 was also surveyed to identify any new key sites. In total seventy key sites that met the Waikato Regional Council Regional Policy Statement criteria for ecological significance were identified across Hamilton City. Of the original key sites, the total area covered by sites, average site size and overall quality of sites had increased between the 2000 and 2011 surveys. This was due to restoration efforts across the city by Hamilton City Council and the community. Vegetation restoration efforts have had other biodiversity and ecological benefits such as providing additional habitat for the city’s increasing tui population. Key sites are not spread evenly across the city or across landform types. Most key sites are either in gullies or adjoining the Waikato River. Less than 1% of urban alluvial plains and peat bogs are key sites. Two sites on private land have degraded and no longer meet the ecological significance criteria in 2011. The current survey utilised a standard methodology focused on vegetation types. There will be other significant sites not identified including sites with significant fauna values but a detailed and costly survey would be required to identify all such sites. The 1.5% of the city area covered by key sites is well below the 10% minimum recommended to prevent biodiversity decline in urban areas. Areas where vegetation restoration has begun in the city have the potential to expand existing key sites or develop new sites if council and community efforts continue in the future. The Council and its restoration partners should continue to seek ways of increasing native vegetation cover in Hamilton City and restoration of the distinctive gully landform remains the best option

Input effects on the acquisition of a novel phrasal construction in five year olds

The present experiments demonstrate that children as young as five years old (M = 5;2) generalize beyond their input on the basis of minimal exposure to a novel argument structure construction. The novel construction that was used involved a non-English phrasal pattern: VN1N2, paired with a novel abstract meaning: N2 approaches N1. At the same time, we find that children are keenly sensitive to the input: they show knowledge of the construction after a single day of exposure but this grows stronger after three days; also, children generalize more readily to new verbs when the input contains more than one verb

Reproductive Biology and Ecology of the Endemic New Zealand Tree Ixerba brexioides (tāwari)

This research investigated the ecology of Ixerba brexioides (tāwari) with regard to pollination, breeding strategy, seed biology, and forest composition. Research was focused around three main questions: 1. How is tāwari pollinated with regard to vector and pollen source? How is it adapted for this? 2. How is seed dispersal of tāwari achieved and under what conditions is germination most successful? 3. What are the dominant community associations of tāwari what how are they constrained by environmental variables? The first research question was addressed using video surveillance, nectar analysis, and artificial pollination experiments in a small tract of tāwari forest at Tūī Ridge Park in the Mamaku Range, North Island, New Zealand. Analysis of 125 hours of video footage showed that tāwari is predominantly insect pollinated with occasional bird visitation. The most frequent flower visitors were flies and nocturnal moths. Tāwari nectar volume peaked at midday, and declined toward the late afternoon, before increasing again at dusk. This pattern of nectar secretion followed closely the activity patterns of flies during the day and moths at night. Nectar sugar concentration was 11% on average (range 3% to 20%) which is considered low, but is suited to moths, bats, birds, and bees. Exclusion experiments demonstrated that tāwari is capable of producing viable seed under cross-fertilisation, self-fertilisation, and agamospermy. Breeding system indices demonstrated that tāwari is medium pollen limited (PLI = 0.31), self-compatible (SCI = 0.93), and autonomously selfing (ASI = 0.65). Question two was addressed by video surveillance of tāwari seed capsules, morphological observation, and by a series of germination experiments. Video failure meant that with limited footage (mostly at night) no dispersal activity was captured on film. However, using available literature and observations of seed morphology birds were considered the most probable effective disperser. Germination trials included standard conditions, shade, seeds left in fruit, seeds deposited on soil surface, and seeds buried at 5 cm soil depth. Germination was most effective in the buried treatment (average 85% germination) and the soil surface treatment (average 75% germination). Cluster analysis and NMS (Non-Metric Multi-Dimensional Scaling) ordination of 641 plots of tāwari forest from the NVS (National Vegetation Survey) database was used to assess the community associations of tāwari. Based on plot species assemblage, the analysis showed four main forest types that are largely separate in geographical space: Northland, Coromandel, Kaimai, and Urewera. Each type had significant indicator species that were constrained in range by latitudinal limits. Recent literature suggests that environmental variables that most influence tāwari forest distribution are annual temperature and rainfall in conjunction with solar radiation. Tāwari forest occupies only areas which are cool and moist, and seedlings are biased toward high light conditions. In the central North Island tāwari had the highest probability of occurrence in sites with a mean annual temperature of 11° to 13° Celsius, mean annual rainfall between 2000 and 2250 mm annually, and mean solar radiation of 143 to 145 MJ m2 per day. Parent material also plays an important part, especially the depth of Taupō Pumice deposits as tāwari forest is more prone to occur in areas of mature soil where depth of volcanic deposits is not excessive. Information on tāwari from the present thesis combined with other published and unpublished sources is presented in the form of a New Zealand Biological Flora Series journal contribution. Recommendations for further research on tāwari and New Zealand reproductive biology in general are given