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Abstract Plankton communities are the foundation of marine food webs and have a large effect on the dynamics of entire ecosystems. Changes in physicochemical factors strongly influence planktonic organisms and their turnover rates, making their communities useful for monitoring ecosystem health. We studied and compared the planktonic food webs of Palude della Rosa (Venice Lagoon, Italy) in 2005 and 2007. The food webs were developed using a novel approach based on the Monte Carlo random sampling of parameters within specific and realistic ranges to derive 1000 food webs for July of each year. The consumption flows involving Strombididae, Evadne spp. and Podon spp. were identified as the most important in splitting food webs of the July of the two years. Although functional nodes (FNs) differed both in presence and abundance in July of the two years, the whole system indicators showed very similar results. Sediment resuspension acted as a source of stress for the Venice Lagoon, being the most used resource by consumers while inhibiting primary producers by increasing water turbidity. Primary production in the water column was mainly generated by benthic FNs. Although the system was near an equilibrium point, it tended to increase its resilience at the expense of efficiency due to stress. This study highlights the role of plankton communities, which can serve to assess ecosystem health.

The increase in divorce rates over the past decades challenges the traditional image of the two-parent family, as new family forms are increasingly more common. Yet, the traditional view of the family has remained central to political socialization research. Therefore, we propose and empirically test a theoretical framework regarding the consequences of parental separation for processes of political socialization. While the impact of parental divorce has been studied extensively by sociologists, the political implications of this impactful life event have remained largely uncovered. We identify two mechanisms that we expect to predict more leftist political orientations in children of separated parents compared to those from intact families: experiences of economic deprivation and single-mother socialization. Multi-level analyses using the European Values Study (2008) and two-generational analyses with the Swiss Household Panel (1999–2020) support our expectations, indicating that in case of parental separation offspring tends to hold more leftist political orientations, controlling for selection into parental separation and the intergenerational transmission of political ideology. We find empirical support for mechanisms of economic deprivation and single-mother socialization across our analyses. The implications of our findings are that in the family political socialization process, offspring's political orientations are not only influenced by their parents' ideology, but also by formative experiences that result from the family structure.

The main aim of this paper is to paint an ecological picture of the phytoplankton communities of two adjacent and connected ecosystems, one transitional and one coastal marine, in the Northern Adriatic Sea: the Lagoon of Venice (LoV) and the Gulf of Venice (GoV). Based on 10 years (2011-2020) of monthly samplings, we compare the taxonomic composition, abundance and seasonal cycles of the two ecosystems. We focus on the inner zones of the LoV and on the coastal sea up to 8 nmi offshore, an area suitable for assessing the reciprocal influence of the lagoon and sea in terms of phytoplankton. Our main interest is to verify (i) whether the sea still affects the lagoon phytoplankton and (ii) whether the lagoon can provide organisms to the adjacent sea. Using a matrix composed of 466 samples, we performed various types of analysis to: (i) identify the prevalent features and seasonal patterns of abiotic factors and chlorophyll a, (ii) assess and compare taxonomic composition at each station and (iii) identify the generalist and specialist taxa. Our findings provide evidence that the prevalent structure of the communities in the selected areas of the two environments clearly differ concerning (i) seasonal succession, unimodal in the LoV (only one peak in summer) and multi-peak in the GoV (a succession of small peaks from spring to autumn), (ii) abundance and chlorophyll a, both much higher in the LoV (average: 6,009,593 cells l-1 and 4.1 µgl-1 respectively) than in the GoV (average 2,901,266 cells l-1 and 1,5 µgl-1 respectively), (iii) community composition, dominated by diatoms shared with benthic habitats (e.g. Thalassiosira, Nitzschia, Navicula) in the lagoon and by euplanktonic diatoms (e.g. Skeletonema, Chaetoceros, Pseudonitzschia) in the sea. The phytoplankton in the LoV appears to be affected by the marine phytoplankton of the adjacent sea and vice versa: the two environments share taxa that are both generalist (e.g. Skeletonema, Chaetoceros, Cyclotella, Pseudonitzschia) and specialist. Although the dominant factors in structuring the phytoplankton communities are local, dispersal rates, while not intense enough to generate transport of species that could significantly affect assemblage composition, are also at play.

Abstract Across EU countries, all available evidence suggests that the number of deaths linked to COVID-19 among those living in nursing homes has been extremely high. However, it is largely unknown to what extent income and education affect the probability of being a nursing home resident. If the probability of residing in a nursing home is stratified by socio-economic status, under the current COVID-19 pandemic socio-economic inequality in the probability of living in a nursing home could contribute to enlarge socio-economic inequalities in the risk of mortality with COVID-19. In this article, we investigate whether there are income and educational differences in the likelihood of being a resident in a nursing home across 12 European countries. We use SHARE data (waves 5–7) and compute logistic regression models for rare events. We find that low-educated individuals and those having household income below the national median are more likely to live in a nursing home. This general pattern holds across all the European countries considered. However, there is considerable uncertainty in our estimates due to a small sample size, and firm conclusions on how the effect of socio-economic characteristics varies across countries cannot be drawn. Still, there is some indication that educational and income differences are the largest in the Scandinavian countries (Denmark and Sweden) and the Netherlands, while the smallest ones are found in Italy, with the remaining countries laying in between.

Since 1997, CNR-ISMAR has been collecting monthly hydrochemical and phytoplankton data in the northern and central basins of the Lagoon of Venice. The data have been part of the International Long-Term Ecosystem Research (LTER) database since 2007, helping to fill a gap in lagoon environmental studies. Analysing our time series (1998-2017), we were able to observe a rise in water temperature due to climate trends, a reduction in trophic status mainly due to the lower input of inorganic dissolved nitrogen nutrients and an increase in transparency and dissolved oxygen related to the increased biomass of macrophytes (macroalgae and seagrasses). Finally, a reduction in phytoplankton biomass and an accompanying increase in seagrass and macroalgal cover were observed. Present and future studies will help to evaluate the ways in which the Lagoon of Venice ecosystem responds to anthropogenic pressures and global climate change.

This work presents a practical case study of the Open Science principles applied to the valorization of a long-term marine dataset collected in the Northern Adriatic Sea, one of the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites of the LTER-Italy network. The dataset covers a temporal range of 50 years (1965–2015), and it is composed of abiotic, and phyto- and zooplankton data, for a total of 21 parameters. The case study involved many actions, which will be described here, distinguishing between the ones affecting the whole research project workflow and those acting more specifically on the dataset. We evaluate strengths, weaknesses, and possible improvements for each action. The present study pointed out that, despite the initial and still some remaining mistrust, opening research projects is more than a best practice. It is (i) important because it improves research transparency (increasing researchers’ credibility, replicability of science, and products reuse), (ii) required by many international initiatives and regulations, and (iii) enriching because it encourages cooperation between scientists across different fields and laboratories.

Transitional waters are subject to a high degree of variability in space and time. In this study, protist plankton communities of the Lagoon of Venice were compared among four sites characterised by different environmental conditions with a metabarcoding approach. High throughput sequencing (HTS) of the V4-18S rDNA fragment in 32 samples collected on four dates, from April 2016 to February 2017, produced 1,137,113 reads, which were grouped into 4,058 OTUs at 97% similarity. Bacillariophyta and Ciliophora were the most abundant groups in the entire dataset in terms of read number (27.6% and 16.6%, respectively), followed by Dinophyta (10.9%), Cryptophyceae (9.7%), and Syndiniales (6.1%). The contribution of protist groups markedly varied across the seasons, but spatial differences were also recorded in the lagoon. In April, a higher contribution of Bacillariophyta characterized St1 and 5 (68.0% and 61.1%), whereas Sts2 and 3 showed a higher percentage of Ciliophora (18.6 and 23.4%, respectively) and dinoflagellates (10.3 and 7.7%). In July, diatom blooms occurred at Sts1, 2 and 3, with some differences in the dominant species. At St2 Dinophyta reached the highest contribution of the whole sampling period in the area (30.6%), while St5 was quite distinct, with a low contribution of diatoms and a dominance of Ciliophora (34.0%) and Trebouxiophyceae (36.4%). All the stations in November were characterized by relatively high abundance of Ciliophora (21.4-51.9%). In February, diatom contribution was relevant only at St5 (29.3%), Teleaulax acuta peaked at St3 (ca. 36%), Syndiniales at St2 (38.8%) and Dictyochophyceae at St1 (24.2%). The α-diversity indexes (observed OTUs, Shannon and Pielou evenness) showed a high variability over space and time. Overall, diversity and community composition were rather similar between the intermediate and deeper Sts2 and 3 on all sampling dates whereas they at time differed between the landward and shallow Sts1 and 5. While the most marked differences occurred over the temporal scale, the depth of the station and the relatedness with the external marine coastal environment appear to play a major role in the spatial distribution of protist communities within the lagoon.

Background: Children who experience parental divorce have worse long-term educational attainment than children living in intact families. Less clear is the extent to which heterogeneity in the divorce penalty depends on parents' socioeconomic background and contextual characteristics. Objective: This study focuses on the negative consequences of parental divorce for children's tertiary education attainment, their heterogeneity by parental socioeconomic background, and variation across time and space. Methods: Single-level and multi-level linear probability models are estimated on several data sources in a comparative analysis of European countries and US regions. Different operationalizations of parental divorce are employed, including both marital and non-marital dissolutions. Results: Results show a stronger negative association between parental divorce and the probability of obtaining a university degree for children of highly educated parents. This holds across different birth cohorts in both Europe and the United States, largely irrespective of the country or region of residence, the dataset, and the operationalization of divorce and parental education. Higher divorce and university enrollment rates increase the absolute size of the divorce penalty, but do not substantially alter its pattern of heterogeneity. Conclusions: Children of high-SES families have more to lose in terms of the family resources relevant to achieving a university degree and are thus more negatively affected by parental divorce. Contribution: The finding that the association between parental divorce and children's educational attainment is stronger for children of highly educated parents across a variety of social and institutional environments has implications for the role of divorce in the reproduction of social inequalities.

The Lagoon of Venice (LoV) and the Gulf of Venice (GoV), two adjacent coastal Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites in the northern Adriatic Sea, represent a transitional/marine coupled ecosystem under the influence of regional and local factors. In this study, these sites were sampled on four dates from April 2016 to February 2017 for environmental DNA and relevant abiotic variables, aiming to assess the relative importance of habitat heterogeneity and connectivity in structuring the protist community. High Throughput Sequencing of V4-18S rRNA gene from 56 samples collected at seven stations produced ca 6 million reads, grouped into 7,336 Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) at 97% similarity, which were affiliated to protists belonging to 34 taxonomic groups. The whole community was dominated by Bacillariophyta, especially in spring-summer in the LoV, and by Dinophyta, mainly in the GoV. Ciliophora, Syndiniales, and Cryptophyceae were the next more abundant groups. The community structure varied across the seasons and was different in the two ecosystems, which shared 96% of the reads but showed a high proportion of OTUs distributed preferentially in one of the two sites (specialists) and a different partitioning of trophic categories. GoV specialists were mainly Dinophyceae (>56%), followed by Syndiniales and Bacillariophyta, while the LoV specialists were distributed among several groups, including Bacillariophyta, Syndiniales, Ciliophora, Cryptophyceae, and Trebouxiophyceae. The main abiotic drivers of the differences between protist communities were salinity and temperature, which however explained a minor part of the variance (17%), pointing at a higher relevance of biotic factors and inter-taxa relationships. This was more evident in the LoV, where the network analysis highlighted a higher number of OTUs’ connections than in the GoV. Overall, the metabarcoding approach allowed to depict the composition of the whole protist community in the lagoon and adjacent coastal waters with high resolution, revealing many taxa so far not reported in the area. In addition, despite no clear barrier to dispersal processes, differences in the relative abundance and temporal variability of local protist communities indicate that environmental heterogeneity, in these adjacent and connected ecosystems, can be strong enough to allow for ecological segregation.

While the association between parental separation and children’s lower educational achievements is a robust finding, the evidence regarding its heterogeneity across social groups is mixed. Some studies show that socioeconomically advantaged families manage to shelter their pupils from the consequences of parental break-up, while others find the opposite. We contribute to this debate and sketch a structural theory of the heterogeneity of the consequences associated to parental separation on children’s educational outcomes. We argue that the separation penalty and its heterogeneity across social backgrounds differ depending on the selectivity of a given educational outcome. In particular, the smallest penalty will be observed for very rare and very common outcomes. The rarity of an educational outcome depends on pupils’ social background, which might produce the observed heterogeneity even if the separation penalty itself is equal across parental social background. We investigate the heterogeneity of the consequences of separation by parents’ education in Spain on two children’s outcomes. One outcome (enrolment in tertiary education) is rare for children in low educated families, while the other (retaking in primary and secondary education) is rare for children in highly educated families. The results show that the penalty associated to parental separation for retaking a year in primary and secondary education is larger for children of low educated mothers. No heterogeneity is found for enrolment in tertiary education. Zusammenfassung Während der Zusammenhang zwischen elterlicher Trennung und geringeren Bildungserfolgen der Kinder als belastbares Forschungsergebnis gilt, ist die Evidenz bezüglich ihrer Heterogenität über die sozialen Gruppen hinweg uneinheitlich. Einige Studien zeigen auf, dass sozioökonomisch bessergestellte Familien es schaffen, ihre Kinder im Schulalter vor den Folgen elterlicher Trennung abzuschirmen, während andere Studien dies verneinen. Wir tragen zu dieser Debatte bei, indem wir eine Strukturtheorie der Heterogenität der mit der der elterlichen Trennung assoziierten Konsequenzen für den Bildungsergebnisse der Kinder skizzieren. Wir argumentieren, dass die Bildungseinbußen aufgrund der Trennung und deren Heterogenität über die sozialen Hintergründe hinweg in Abhängigkeit von der Selektivität des jeweiligen Bildungsergebnisses unterscheiden. Insbesondere gilt, dass die geringsten Einbußen für sehr seltene und für sehr verbreitete Ergebnisse beobachtet werden. Die Seltenheit eines Bildungsergebnisses hängt vom sozialen Hintergrund der Schüler ab, der wiederum die beobachtete Heterogenität hervorbringen könnte; dies selbst dann, wenn die Einbußen aufgrund der Trennung über den sozialen Hintergrund der Eltern hinweg gleich sind. Wir untersuchen die Heterogenität der Trennungsfolgen anhand der elterlichen Bildung für zwei Ergebnisse für Kinder in Spanien: Eines dieser Ergebnisse – Besuch einer Einrichtung des tertiären Bildungssektors – tritt für Kinder in Familien mit niedriger Bildung selten auf, während das andere – Klassenwiederholung im Primär- und Sekundärschulsektor – für Kinder aus höher gebildeten Familien selten ist. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Bildungseinbußen, die mit der elterlichen Trennung in Verbindung gebracht werden – das Sitzenbleiben in der Elementar- und Sekundarschule – für die Kinder von Müttern mit niedriger Bildung größer sind. Für den Besuch des tertiären Bildungssektors wurde keine Heterogenität gefunden.

Previous research has shown that being born in the months immediately preceding the school entry cut-off date leads to lower educational outcomes in countries with a strict admission policy. In this article we use the effect of age at school entry in England as an identification device to provide a causal estimate of the compensatory advantage enjoyed by children from high social origin families. We find that the negative effects of a young school entry age are stronger for children from low social origin families. We also investigate when social origin differences in school entry age effects emerge, and test possible mechanisms. We find that before starting school, a younger school entry age leads to lower test scores for children of both low and highly educated families. For children from highly educated families the negative effect, however, progressively declines over the school career and almost vanishes by age 16. With respect to the mechanisms underlying this compensatory effect, we find no strong mediating role for parental involvement in homework and private lessons or for school choice.

This article expands the scope of comparative social stratification research in education to rapidly developing, largely low-income sub-Saharan Africa. First, we investigate trends in the association between parental socioeconomic status (SES) and children's chances to attend and complete primary education, exploring whether and where educational expansion of the early twenty-first century led to equalization of educational opportunities. Drawing on data from 153 Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (1990-2017) from 40 countries, findings indicate that inequality in attendance declined, but inequality in completing six grades largely persisted. Cross-country analyses reveal a large variation in inequality levels and trends. We explore the role of national contextual factors and find that underweight prevalence, fertility rates, school fees, public spending on education, and the ratio of pupils to teaching staff systematically explain variation in SES gaps across countries and cohorts. Findings underline the importance of absolute material deprivation and school teaching resources in the stratification of educational opportunities in this region.

By analysing a ten-year series (1998-2007) of data on hydrochemical properties, phytoplankton abundance and species composition in the Venice Lagoon, we identified i) the average annual phytoplankton biomass cycle, mainly unimodal and fairly well tuned with the fluctuations in temperature and irradiance and (ii) the seasonal succession of the most important species, allowing us to construct a “phytoplankton calendar”. Phytoplankton biomass was significantly lower in the second half of the ten-year period (2003-2007) than in the first half (1998-2002).

At 01:36:32 UTC on August 24, 2016 an earthquake of magnitude 6.0 occurred in Central Italy, affecting many small towns and municipalities in the Lazio, Umbria, Marche and Abruzzo regions. The event caused severe damages, many victims and 299 fatalities. Only 21 seconds after the beginning of the earthquake, the first automatic location of this earthquake was available and stored in our earthquakes database. The first magnitude estimate followed 68 seconds after the origin time. Few seconds later the INGV seismologists on duty in accordance to the agreed protocols provided the first alert to the Italian Civil Protection Department (Dipartimento di Protezione Civile, DPC) and thereby triggered the seismic emergency protocol. Subsequently, they elaborated the data in order to produce the first manually reviewed hypocenter, which was published on the Institute’s website at 01:53:18 UTC. The sequence following this mainshock generated thousands of earthquakes in the epicentral area, which the INGV automated localization system processed and detected along with the usual seismic activity in the rest of the Italian territory. In this paper we analyze the behavior of the automated system and of the data lifecycle management procedures in such extraordinary conditions. In particular we want to measure the capability of the system to manage the huge data flow, in terms of frequency and size of seismic events and its ability to remain fairly responsive and accurate in accomplishing its duty in the expected time. This will help us to identify potential problems and to suggest necessary improvements to better serve the INGV mission for Civil Protection.

In this paper we present a new study on the High Tiber Valley earthquake occurred on April 26, 1917. Using the digitized data from mechanical seismograph records, we computed the source parameters like focal mechanism and moment magnitude from moment tensor (MT). The study of historical earthquakes from an instrumental perspective is crucial because of the complexity of problems associated with the study of seismograms of moderate to large earthquakes occurred from the late 19th century until the early 1960s. Since historical earthquake records show significant uncertainties in phase arrival times and have been recorded by seismograph generally with short natural period, we developed a code to compute the MT based on a forward modeling technique, which uses the amplitude spectra of the full waveform length and the first P-arrival polarities to constrain the P- and T-axes. The best solution is determined by the best fit between the observed and synthetic amplitude spectra and from the coherency between the observed and the theoretical first P-arrival polarities. The 1917 High Tiber Valley earthquake is one of the most important 20th century earthquake occurred in the Italian Peninsula for which the focal mechanism and moment magnitude from seismic records are not available. Additionally, we apply a multidisciplinary approach to characterize the source of this earthquake, combining instrumental, macroseismic, geological and tectonic data and investigations. The computed MT results in a north-south normal fault mechanism (strike: 147°, dip: 29°, slip: −94°), which is consistent with the strike estimated from the macroseismic data (157°). The moment magnitude calculated from the MT and that derived from the macroseismic data are Mw=5.5±0.2 and Mw=5.9±0.1, respectively.

This article corrects: F. Bernardi, M.G. Ciaccio, B. Palombo and G. Ferrari, Moment tensor inversion of early instrumental data: application to the 1917 High Tiber Valley, Monterchi earthquake, Annals of Geophysics, 59 (3), 2016, S0318; doi:10.4401/ag-6850.

Los objetivos del articulo son 1) analizar las consecuencias de la flexibilidad laboral en el curso vital de los individuos, 2) asi como saber si la flexibilidad ha socavado o reforzado la importancia de las clases sociales, de la educacion y del genero en distintos aspectos concernientes al curso vital, sobre todo relacionados con el empleo en Espana. La peculiaridad espanola con respecto a la flexibilidad radica en la alta proporcion de contratos temporales. La mayor diferencia entre estos contratos y los indefinidos es su menor coste de despido. La manera en la que el Estado del Bienestar ha introducido la flexibilidad ha logrado un equilibrio de riesgos entre generaciones, por lo que no puede decirse que haya unos claros ganadores o perdedores. Los datos indican que los efectos de la flexibilizacion sobre el curso vital de los individuos son mucho mas modestos de lo que las hipotesis preven. Asimismo, la flexibilización no ha mermado la importancia de las clases sociales ni de los niveles de estudio para explicar la posición de los individuos en el mercado laboral, aunque tampoco hay una clara evidencia de que las brechas entre los individuos de distintas clases ocupaciones o con distintos niveles de estudio hayan aumentado en Espana.The objectives of the paper are 1) to analyse the effects of labour flexibility on individuals from a lifecourse perspective and 2) to know whether flexibility has undermined or reinforced the effects of social classes, education and gender on several aspects concerning the life-course, above all those related to employment in Spain. The peculiarity of the Spanish case lies in the proportion of fixed-term contracts. The greatest difference between these contracts and permanent contracts is not the job to be done, or even its temporary or permanent nature, but rather the lower layoff cost. The way that the Welfare State has introduced flexibilisation has achieved a balance of risks between the generations, so that there cannot be said to be clear winners or losers. The data indicate that the effects of flexibilisation on the main changes in the labour market and in demography are much more modest than what the hypotheses predict. Similarly, flexibilisation has not evened out the risks among the different social classes and educational levels, although it has not provoked an increase in inequality, either.

El objetivo de este trabajo es integrar algunas de las contribuciones de los estudios sobre la movilidad social y dinámicas familiares para explicar la emancipación familiar en España. El modelo explicativo propuesto se basa en las conjeturas de Easterlin sobre el conflicto entre aspiraciones y recursos y las relaciona con los supuestos centrales de las teorías de la desigualdad de oportunidades educativas (Boudon; Breen). Según este modelo, una condición para que los individuos se emancipen es que hayan alcanzado como mínimo la misma posición socio-económica de sus familias de origen. Para comprobar esta hipótesis se realizan dos análisis empíricos. En el primero se compara la posición socio-económica de los jóvenes con la de sus padres y se estudia la relación entre las tasas agregadas de movilidad social y la edad mediana de emancipación por cohorte. En el segundo, mediante un event history análisis se analiza en el nivel individual cómo la experiencia de movilidad social influye en la propensión a emanciparse. Los datos empleados en la investigación empírica proceden de la Encuesta Sociodemográfica y de la Encuesta de Población Activa.

Background: In this paper we study the long-term consequences of parental divorce in a comparative perspective. Special attention is paid to the heterogeneity of the consequences of divorce for children's educational attainment by parental education. Objective: The study attempts to establish whether the parental breakup penalty for tertiary education attainment varies by socioeconomic background, and whether it depends on the societal context. Methods: Data are drawn from the first wave of the Generations and Gender Survey, covering 14 countries. We estimate multi-level random-slope models for the completion of tertiary education. Results: The results show that parental divorce is negatively associated with children's tertiary education attainment. Across the 14 countries considered in this study, children of separated parents have a probability of achieving a university degree that is on average seven percentage points lower than that of children from intact families. The breakup penalty is stronger for children of highly educated parents, and is independent of the degree of diffusion of divorce. In countries with early selection into educational tracks, divorce appears to have more negative consequences for the children of poorly educated mothers. Conclusions: For children in most countries, parental divorce is associated with a lower probability of attaining a university degree. The divorce penalty is larger for children with highly educated parents. This equalizing pattern is accentuated in countries with a comprehensive educational system. Comments: Future research on the heterogeneous consequences of parental divorce should addressthe issue of self-selection into divorce, which might lead to an overestimation of the negative effect of divorce on students with highly educated parents. It should also further investigate the micro mechanisms underlying the divorce penalty.

The aim of this article is to analyse the determinants of marriage dissolution in Spain and their variation over time for women married between 1949 and 2006. Data are drawn from the Survey of Fertility, Family and Values of 2006. The article analyses the transition from first marriage to marital dissolution for couples who married in two eras: one prior to the Divorce Law of 1981, during which social and legal barriers to dissolution were many, and one in the period after the law was introduced, during which barriers to marriage dissolution were far fewer. Analyses are conducted using a continuous time event history model. The results indicate some similarities between Spain and other countries, such as the positive relationship between the typical features of unconventional families and marital dissolution, but also some specific differences, such as an increase in the importance of premarital pregnancy and/or not having children. It is also important to stress the declining importance of socio-economic variables, such as education and the labour market situation of women.

The convergence of meridian lines at the North Pole is a fitting metaphor for the convergence of technologies involved in the first success of the Transglobal Car Expedition, which reached the North Pole after a challenging journey across the frozen Arctic Sea, starting from the Canadian coast. The expedition is currently aiming to cross Africa, reach the South Pole and then return to New York via South America.