Despite global commitments and efforts, a gender-based division of paid and unpaid work persists. To identify how psychological factors, national policies, and the broader sociocultural context contribute to this inequality, we assessed parental-leave intentions in young adults (18-30 years old) planning to have children (N = 13,942; 8,880 identified as women; 5,062 identified as men) across 37 countries that varied in parental-leave policies and societal gender equality. In all countries, women intended to take longer leave than men. National parental-leave policies and women's political representation partially explained cross-national variations in the gender gap. Gender gaps in leave intentions were paradoxically larger in countries with more gender-egalitarian parental-leave policies (i.e., longer leave available to both fathers and mothers). Interestingly, this cross-national variation in the gender gap was driven by cross-national variations in women's (rather than men's) leave intentions. Financially generous leave and gender-egalitarian policies (linked to men's higher uptake in prior research) were not associated with leave intentions in men. Rather, men's leave intentions were related to their individual gender attitudes. Leave intentions were inversely related to career ambitions. The potential for existing policies to foster gender equality in paid and unpaid work is discussed.

To substantiate the direction of the research, this paper establishes the factors which affect performance efficiency of stateowned enterprises (SOEs). The authors' analyse the effect of management control on the economic efficiency of activities of state-owned enterprises by application of management audit. The paper seeks to highlight the higher utility of economic activity as well as return of capital which was used in the process of activities. The paper analyses the quality of management and economic activity in SOEs based on scientific literature as well as reports and decisions of the representative government institutions as well as the results of empirical research which was accomplished in Lithuania. The paper stresses that the state-owned commercial property in Lithuania has thus far been managed inefficiently. Unlike private companies, SOEs practically fail to render much use to the state. This fact does not allow SOE's to reach the highest economic benefit. Accordingly, the authors' present an innovative approach towards the improvement of the management of SOEs economic activities through application of the audit principles, which traditionally are associated with the assessments of financial activity. The proposed model can be further extended and employed in other countries of Northern Europe, specifically in Latvia, Estonia and other Post-Soviet countries.

This paper sets a framework for using semiotics as an analytical method for Earth system science. It illustrates the use of such a method by analysing a dataset consisting of 32,383 abstracts of research articles pertaining to Earth system science, modelled as semantic networks. The analysis allows us to explain the epistemological advantages of this method as originating in the systems thinking common in both Earth system science and semiotics. The purpose of this methodological proposal is that of bringing the recent and critical planetary boundaries framework to the attention of ecosemiotics and biosemiotic criticism, and vice versa. Ecosemiotics is a branch of the biosemiotic modelling theory and is thus grounded in Charles Peirce’s schematic semiotics, but also developed in inspiration of Juri Lotman’s systemic semiotics. Both of these foundations of ecosemiotics are compatible with the rationale of Earth system science, given the schematism of Peirce’s semiotics and Lotman’s notion of meaning as an affordance of the biosphere. Far from exhausting the hermeneutic possibilities evoked by the discussed dataset, we argue that such semiotic analysis, made possible by the digital capacity of modelling large amounts of data, reveals new horizons for semiotic analysis, particularly regarding humans’ modelling of the environment.

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Vis dažniau iškylantys ekologijos ir gamtos saugojimo iššūkiai skatina mąstyti apie darnų vystymąsi. Vadovėlį parengę mokslininkai teigia, kad pagrindinė darnaus vystymosi idėja – suvokti, kaip žmonija turi gyventi tenkindama savuosius poreikius ir turėdama itin ribotus išteklius. Leidinio autoriai – skirtingų mokslo krypčių atstovai, todėl darnaus vystymosi ir šiai sričiai artimų temų problematika apžvelgiama iš skirtingų socialinių, ekonominių, inžinerinių ir kitų mokslo sričių perspektyvų. Leidinyje plačiai aptariamas išteklių valdymas, jų analizė, keliamas svarbiausias klausimas – kaip žmonės turėtų prisitaikyti prie šios planetos išteklių ribotumo? Išsamioje teorinėje vadovėlio dalyje skaitytojas supažindinamas su darniu vystymusi, šios šakos raida ir svarbiausiais komponentais. Kituose skyriuose darnaus vystymosi komponentai nagrinėjami detaliau: aptariamas socialinės gerovės ir laimės suvokimas, žiedinės ekonomikos pavyzdžiai ir svarba, klimato kaita, skaitmeninės kultūros įtaka. Skyrių pabaigoje pateikti klausimai leis įtvirtinti sukauptas žinias ir ugdytis esmines darnaus vystymosi kompetencijas: sisteminį mąstymą, numatymą, normatyvinę kompetenciją, strateginę kompetenciją, bendradarbiavimą, kritinį mąstymą, savivoką ir integruotą problemų sprendimo kompetenciją. Vadovėlis skirtas plačiam skaitytojų ratui, siekiančiam įgyti globalų, kritišką ir refleksyvų sąmoningumą, socialinio, ekonominio, kultūrinio ir aplinkos konteksto suvokimą, etinę poziciją, paremtą darnaus vystymosi principais.