Preventive herd management practices and their effect on lamb mortality in Ethiopia.

According to previous studies, lamb mortality is high in the Ethiopian highlands. The present study aims to evaluate the execution of preventive sheep herd health management practices with respect to if, and how, such practices are linked to occurrence of lamb mortality. Interviews were performed with 74 sheep-owning households participating in a capacity development program on livestock and 69 households not participating in such program. To evaluate the impact of combinations of performed practices, a scoring system was developed-the households retrieved a higher score the more desired routines were accomplished. To identify which practices had the highest impact on lamb mortality, a similar score was calculated for each phase of the sheep reproductive year, creating sub-scores for each phase. The results showed a significant (p < 0.05) negative correlation between the total number of performed practices and occurrence of lamb mortality, indicating a lower occurrence of lamb mortality the more desired practices implemented. Further analysis of sub-scores showed significant (p < 0.05) negative correlations between a higher number of performed desired practices during gestation period and during lambing. Conclusively, the study indicates that preventive herd management routines are beneficial for lamb survival, foremost when enforced during the gestation period and around lambing-hence, this is where to focus future interventions

The quest for publicness : political conflict about the organisation of tramways and telecommunication in Sweden, c. 1900–1920

This article explores political conflicts about the organisation of public services in Sweden c. 1900–1920. The authors argue that political decisions play a vital role in shaping the political economy of public services. The case studies analysed are the political debates about the communalisation of the tramway system in Stockholm, and the nationalisation of Sweden’s last private telephone company. In both cases, the transfer of the service to public organisation was a lengthy process, ending in the late 1910s. This is explained using the concept of publicness. Drawing on three discursive chains, the argument is that the political development was affected by the politicians conception of the political community, the form of organisation and by perceptions of values such as equal access and modernity. In the case of the tramways, public organisation was seen as the best option to defend the public against corruption and self-interest. In the case of the telephones, free market competition was seen as a guarantee for an efficient and cost- effective service. The reason for this difference, is argued, was that the debate on the tramways articulated a clearer notion of publicness, where equal access and public opinion carried larger weight.

‘King Bottomless Empty Purse’ : Taxes, Avarice and Pastoral Care in the Swedish Reign of Christian I (1457–64)

Taxes were at the heart of late medieval political discourse because tax extraction was a tangible and sore point of interaction between subjects and their rulers. At no point in Swedish history was this more obvious than in the reign of Christian I (1457–64), and this article takes his reign as a moment to explore the parameters of the fiscal discourse where taxes were refuted or accepted. The first part examines the fiscal norms of law and custom, which were expressed in the pamphlets and chronicles that testify to Sweden’s burgeoning public sphere. The second part, however, focuses on the moralizing tenor of these narratives, where the tax abuse by Christian and other rulers is considered not only a crime but also a sin, and in particular avarice. The third part of the inquiry maps this moralizing tenor to its source in the penitential literature that guided the pastoral care of rulers and subjects alike. Taxes, this article contends, were not only talked about in the idioms of law and custom but also in the language of moral theology and pastoral care. Penance and politics were entwined in a way that shaped how taxes were talked about in public life.