Whether and how to tax insurance, one of the crucial elements of the modern economy and society, is a complex issue for the design of laws on value added tax (VAT). Exemption from VAT has been the most common international practice, and it is also applied in the harmonized system of European VAT. New Zealand and Australia are examples of legal systems in which an alternative to exemption, a full t

Enamel, the outermost layer of teeth, is an acellular mineralized tissue that cannot regenerate; the mature tissue is composed of high aspect ratio apatite nanocrystals organized into rods and inter-rod regions. Amelogenin constitutes 90% of the protein matrix in developing enamel and plays a central role in guiding the hierarchical organization of apatite crystals observed in mature enamel. To da

Migrants as a group are recognised as being at risk of receiving low retirement pensions. Income over a lifetime is the principle for calculating pension rights. We have interviewed a group of migrants about their retirement preparations. Our results show that there are obstacles that obstruct migrants from entering the Swedish labour market, which will greatly influence future pension rights. The

Johannes Magnus (1488–1544) was the last Catholic archbishop of Uppsala to hold residence in Sweden. He was also a historian and wrote a work in Latin about Swedish history that was to gain an unparalleled importance. The work is entitled Historia de omnibus Gothorum Sueonumque regibus, the ‘History of all the Kings of the Goths and the Swedes’. It is arranged as a series of biographies of over 20

Nordic countries are the most gender equal countries in the world, but at the same time they have disproportionally high prevalence rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women. High prevalence of IPV against women, and high levels of gender equality would appear contradictory, but these apparently opposite statements appear to be true in Nordic countries, producing what could be called

An investigation on the central-pilot stage of a Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery 4th Generation DLE prototype test burner has been performed to understand the emission performance and operability. The core section, which is defined as RPL (Rich premixed lean) plays an important role for full burner combustion operation by stabilizing the main and pilot flames at different operating condition. Op

Invasive plants cause substantial economic and environmental damage throughout the world. However, eradication of most invasive species is impossible and, in some cases, undesirable. An alternative is to slow the spread of an invasive species, which can delay impacts or reduce their extent. We identify three main areas where models are used extensively in the study of plant spread and its manageme

Little is known about the relative importance of mechanistic drivers of plant spread, particularly when long-distance dispersal (LDD) events occur. Most methods to date approach LDD phenomenologically, and all mechanistic models, with one exception, have been implemented through simulation. Furthermore, the few recent mechanistically derived spread models have examined the relative role of differe

Understanding the relationships between biodiversity and land-use is a key element for the development of effective conservation strategies. We studied a mid-altitude steppe-like area of Southern France, the Causse de Sauveterre, that has been grazed for many centuries. The decrease of human population during the 20th century, particularly since the end of 2nd World War, and the ongoing changes in

Context: The details of fecundity, such as its distribution and timing, can have important consequences for forest dynamics. Aims: We detail two aspects of the reproductive ecology of an exotic population of Pinus nigra in New Zealand. We compare our findings with those reported for P. nigra in southern France and Britain. Methods: We describe variation in fecundity, both within the population and

Recently Prévot-Julliard and colleagues presented a concept paper on biological conservation strategies using exotic species as a case study. They emphasized the difficulty of integrating conservation into a broad picture that accounts for public perception as well as scientific knowledge. We support this general call for better integration of society in conservation research, but we believe that

In Europe, land use changes follow public policies, and particularly the Common Agricultural Policy. To predict the effect of policies on agricultural practices, landscape, and ultimately biodiversity, requires understanding of the interactions between social, economic and ecological dynamics at regional scale. We studied by means of prospective scenarios the possible effects of agricultural chang

The effects of habitat fragmentation on birds have often been studied in forest specialist species. Here we aimed at comparing the response of open habitat birds within a range of habitat specialization. The study area was a Mediterranean pseudo-steppe, designated as important for conservation yet fragmented by tree encroachment. We defined bird species dependency on steppe-like habitat by a corre

Succession theory focuses on the position of species along the shade tolerance gradient and their ability to colonize recently disturbed patches and has for decades overlooked resprouting as a key trait in community patterns. We study how different species traits interact with disturbance frequency to change species dominance in the canopy, focusing on the effects of resprouting ability. We develo

The timing of introduction of a new species into an ecosystem can be critical in determining the invasibility (i.e. the sensitivity to invasion) of a resident population. Here, we use an individual-based model to test how (1) the type of competition (symmetric versus asymmetric) and (2) seed masting influence the success of invasion by producing oscillatory dynamics in resident tree populations. W

Individual-based modelling is a promising tool for scaling from the individual to the population and community levels that allows a wide range of applied and theoretical approaches. Here, we explore how intra-specific competition affects population dynamics using FORSITE, an individual-based model describing tree-tree interactions in a spatial and stochastic context. We first describe FORSITE desi

Potentially significant shifts in the geographical patterns of vegetation are an expected result of climate change. However, the importance of local processes (e.g., dispersal, competition, or disturbance) has been often ignored in climate change modeling. We develop an individual-based simulation approach to assess how these mechanisms affect migration rate. We simulate the northward progression