The planning of cycle trips in the province of East Flanders

Traditional route planners assist in finding the shortest or fastest route from one place to another. This paper presents a novel approach to path finding in a directed graph, namely a target distance, motivated by the problem that a recreational cyclist deals with when searching a nice route of a certain length. The problem is defined as a variant of the arc orienteering problem (AOP), a new combinatorial optimisation problem in which the score of a route in a directed graph has to be maximised by visiting arcs, while each arc can be visited at most once and the total cost of the route should not exceed a predefined cost. The contribution of this paper is threefold: (1) a mathematical model of the AOP is provided, (2) a metaheuristic method that solves AOP instances to near optimality in 1 s of execution time, is proposed and evaluated, and (3) two real-life applications of the method are presented. An on-line cycle route planning application offers personalised cycle routes based on user preferences, and an SMS service provides cyclists “in the field” with routes on demand.     

The Budgetary Dilemmas of an Ageing Workforce: A Scenario Study of the Public Sector in the Netherlands

This paper studies the consequences (particularly the budgetary effects) of alternative senior-worker policies in the Dutch public sector. Special attention is paid to: the ongoing process of population ageing; the interaction between the participation in senior-worker schemes and the use of disability and unemployment schemes; and the effect of labour participation of older workers on employment opportunities for younger workers. From the scenario analysis, it appears that policies aimed at influencing the participation in senior-worker schemes will not result in substantial savings. The main conclusion of the study is that ageing of the labour force will lead to substantial cost increases anyway, whatever the early-retirement policy.     

Polygyny and Fertility Among the Sereer of Senegal

The population laboratory of Ngayokhème, in Senegal, has been observed longitudinally since 1962. Information on marital status at the time of birth (rather than at the time of a survey) is used to examine the effect of polygyny on fertility. Although plural marriages are less fertile and the rank order of the wife has an effect, the mechanism appears to operate through the age difference of the spouses and the greater likelihood of temporary separate residence in the case of polygynous marriages. An examination of birth intervals suggests that the lower fecundity of older men, rather than a reduction of the frequency of intercourse, is the main factor. However, there is little relation between the fertility of different wives of the same polygynists.     

Romanian approach to media portrayals of disability

There is a wide range of media representations of disability, but not just because of the societal stigma. They are a function of norms of journalism as well as biases among people with disabilities themselves. This article is a contribution to the issue of social representation of persons with disabilities from a Romanian perspective, which will help to witness the transformation of the general perception of persons with disabilities by seeing the evolution of the terms used to name disability in crucial years of the socio‐political development of Romania (1989, 1990 and 2003). The existence of different categories of representations will reveal the evolution of society, which switched from a culture of protection to a culture of promotion for people with disabilities.     

Collective Labor Supply and Child Care Expenditures: Theory and Application

In this study we examine the collective labor supply choices of dual-earner parents and take into account child care expenditures. For this purpose we use data of the Flemish Families and Care Survey (FFCS, 2004–2005). The main findings are, firstly, that the supply of paid labor is hardly affected by changes in the prices of child care services. Secondly, child care price effects on the individual labor supplies are much smaller than the wage effects. Thirdly, we find that additional earnings due to an increase in household non-labor income minus the child care expenditures are mainly transferred to the wife.     

Backcasting as a Tool to Develop a Sustainable Transport Scenario Assuming Emission Reductions of 80-90%

This article will summarise the results of The Netherlands pilot study commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, and carried out by the Dutch National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). This pilot study differed from existing sustainable transport scenario studies for four reasons: (i) very sharp emission reductions are assumed, (ii) not only 'forecasting' but also 'backcasting' scenarios are constructed, (iii) instrument packages and implementation time paths are described which - if carried out - would result in the necessary technological and behavioural changes to realize environmentally sustainable transport, and (iv) the social and economic impact of sustainable transport is assessed.