Search results for "LDC"

Assembled policies : the Finnish case of restricted entitlement to early childhood education and care

2019

In this article, we utilize an application of Deleuze and Quattari’s (1987) concept of assemblage to explore and better understand the interconnectedness and materiality of the policies of early childhood education and care (ECEC). To exemplify how directing our focus to assemblages can further the understanding of policies in the everyday life of families, we will present a Finnish case of entitlement to ECEC. Since 1996, children under school age have enjoyed the entitlement to full-day ECEC provided by local authorities. In 2016, the Finnish parliament enforced new legislation that allows municipalities to limit this entitlement to 20 hours per week unless the child’s parents work or stu…

Effects of bilingualism on white matter atrophy in mild cognitive impairment: a diffusion tensor imaging study

2020

Background and purpose Previous investigations show that bilinguals exhibit the first symptoms of dementia 4-5 years later than monolinguals. Therefore, bilingualism has been proposed as a cognitive reserve mechanism. Recent studies have advanced towards an understanding of the brain mechanisms underlying bilingualism's protection against dementia, but none of them deals with white matter (WM) diffusion. Methods In this study, the topic was investigated by measuring WM integrity in a sample of 35 bilinguals and 53 passive bilinguals with mild cognitive impairment. Results No significant differences were found between the groups in cognitive level, education, age or sex. However, bilinguals …

Always on the move? Measured physical activity of 3-year-old preschool children

2015

Multi-dimensional pattern matching with dimensional wildcards

1995

We introduce a new multi-dimensional pattern matching problem, which is a natural generalization of the on-line search in string matching. We are given a text matrix A[1: n1, ..., 1:n d ] of size N= n1×n2×...×n d , which we may preprocess. Then, we are given, online, an r-dimensional pattern matrix B[1:m1,...,1:m r ] of size M= m1×m2×...×m r , with 1≤r≤d. We would like to know whether B*=B*[*, 1:m1,*, ...,1: mr, *] occurs in A, where * is a dimensional wildcard such that B* is any d-dimensional matrix having size 1 × ... × m1×...1×m r ×...1 and containing the same elements as B. Notice that there might be (d/r)≤2d occurrences of B* for each position of A. We give CRCW-PRAM algorithms for pr…

Subsidizing private childcare in a universal regime

2023

AbstractAll families in Finland have the freedom to choose between subsidized home care, universal public childcare, and private childcare. We study the impact of the introduction of private childcare subsidies in Finland. Private childcare subsidies have causal effects on take-up but no impact on home care or employment among women with small children. Instead, private services seem to crowd out public childcare. Private services have a socioeconomic gradient by mother’s education that steepens when the subsidy increases. Families’ preferences between home care, public childcare, and private childcare do not explain the result.

Mothers’ non-standard working and childcare-related challenges : A comparison between lone and coupled mothers

2016

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to particularly focus on lone-mother families, comparing the childcare-related challenges experienced by working lone mothers and coupled mothers in three European countries in the context of a 24/7 economy and non-standard working hours (e.g. evening, night and weekend work). Design/methodology/approach – This study utilises survey data from Finnish, Dutch and British working mothers (n=1,106) collected as part of the “Families 24/7” research project. Multivariate regression analysis is used to analyse the associations between childcare-related challenges, maternal non-standard working, lone motherhood and country of residence. Findings – The results…

Quantum algorithms for search with wildcards and combinatorial group testing

2012

We consider two combinatorial problems. The first we call "search with wildcards": given an unknown n-bit string x, and the ability to check whether any subset of the bits of x is equal to a provided query string, the goal is to output x. We give a nearly optimal O(sqrt(n) log n) quantum query algorithm for search with wildcards, beating the classical lower bound of Omega(n) queries. Rather than using amplitude amplification or a quantum walk, our algorithm is ultimately based on the solution to a state discrimination problem. The second problem we consider is combinatorial group testing, which is the task of identifying a subset of at most k special items out of a set of n items, given the…

Variabilité climatique et profils organoleptiques du Pinot noir dans le monde

2015

Wine typicity is revealed at various spatial scales, according to the variability of terroir components, which individual contribution change depending on the site. In this study, the impact of climate at global scale on the sensory profile of wine is examined.Thirty one Pinot noir wines produced in 16 winegrowing regions in Europe (Germany, France and Switzerland), North America (USA), South America (Chile) and Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) were selected. A blind testing was performed on the wines by 14 judges; among which 9 were considered sufficiently repeatable (criteria evaluated from the sensory analysis results of two identical wines). Wines were described by 26 visual, olfacto…

Global Climate Policies, Local Institutions and Food Security in a Pastoral Society in Ethiopia

2020

This paper explores climate change adaptation within national policy priorities in a least developed country (LDC). The premise of the article is that when considering food security, climate is an exogenous trigger, while the deeper causes lie in social problems. Therefore, adaptation is subordinate to poverty alleviation. The paper examines how these two goals, climate adaptation and poverty alleviation, can be combined. Recent studies have shown that the most effective way to adapt to changing climate conditions in a poor country is to rely on local institutions that have established and sustainable mechanisms to deal with extreme climatic conditions. This research analyzes the stakeholde…

The value of by-catch data: how species-specific surveys can serve non-target species

2019

Camera trapping has a wide range of research application, but, while research designs are often focused on the study of a single focal species, cameras can also record other non-target species. Occupancy modeling using by-catch data can be a valuable resource to gain information on these species maximizing the scientific effort and efficiency of wildlife surveys. In this study, we used by-catch data from a European wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris) survey in Southern Italy to assess the habitat covariates determinant for the occupancy of the crested porcupine (Hystrix cristata). We recorded 33 detections at 17 out of 51 cameras (naive occupancy = 0.33). The best models fitted the data w…