Shelters reflect but cannot solve underlying problems with relinquished and stray animals - A retrospective study of dogs and cats entering and leaving shelters in Denmark from 2004 to 2017

Data covering about 90% of the estimated intake of dogs and cats to Danish shelters from 2004 to 2017 were used to study the effects of tight control of dogs and of efforts to increase shelter services for unwanted or stray cats. During the period, there was a low and decreasing intake of dogs, while the annual proportion of euthanised dogs increased from 6% to 10%. The number of cats entering shelters increased by about 250%, while the annual proportion of euthanised cats increased from 15% to about 29%. At the same time, there seemed to be a decrease in the population of stray cats. The major increase in cat intake may be due to animal protection non-governmental organizations (NGOs) making it easier to relinquish cats into shelters. Dog shelters can successfully handle surplus animals because dogs are well controlled by owners and are tightly regulated. Cats are more difficult to confine, are often allowed to roam freely and are less regulated. Therefore, cat shelters cannot solve the problem of surplus cats on their own. It is argued that an economic analysis may serve as a point of departure for a discussion on better policy making for NGOs in charge of shelters

Med Bourdieu på feltarbejde

Pierre Bourdieu nyder stor popularitet i videnskabelige kredse. Inden for etnografien er det stort set umuligt at åbne en bog eller en artikel, uden at Bourdieu optræder. Der er stor forskel på, hvordan han bliver brugt. Nogle mener, at de kan bruge Bourdieus teorier til at forstå de samufnd, de beskræftiger sig med. Men Bouridieu tager selv afstand fra, at man bruger hans erfaringer med samfund som en teori om samfund

Characteristics of the polymer transport in ratchet systems

Molecules with complex internal structure in time-dependent periodic potentials are studied by using short Rubinstein-Duke model polymers as an example. We extend our earlier work on transport in stochastically varying potentials to cover also deterministic potential switching mechanisms, energetic efficiency and non-uniform charge distributions. We also use currents in the non-equilibrium steady state to identify the dominating mechanisms that lead to polymer transportation and analyze the evolution of the macroscopic state (e.g., total and head-to-head lengths) of the polymers. Several numerical methods are used to solve the master equations and nonlinear optimization problems. The dominating transport mechanisms are found via graph optimization methods. The results show that small changes in the molecule structure and the environment variables can lead to large increases of the drift. The drift and the coherence can be amplified by using deterministic flashing potentials and customized polymer charge distributions. Identifying the dominating transport mechanism by graph analysis tools is found to give insight in how the molecule is transported by the ratchet effect.Comment: 35 pages, 17 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

State of the Art Report

This paper illustrates the research questions, the main underlying concepts and the relevant literature of the EUCROSS project. The project examines the relationship between the manifold activities of EU residents (nationals, mobile EU citizens, and thirdcountry nationals) across the borders of nation states and their collective identities. Specifically, the project intends to: 1) map out individuals’ cross-border practices as an effect of European integration and globalisation; 2) assess the impact of these practices on collective identifications (also controlling for the inverse causal process). Which cross-border practices are more likely to foster some form of identification with the EU – e.g., contacts with foreign friends and/or unwanted foreigners, periods of labour mobility abroad, business and tourist travel, or consumer relations with international companies? Under which contextual and individual conditions do these experiences promote a higher sensitivity to ‘Europe’ – rather than the ‘local’ or the ‘global’ – as an identity catalyst? Which social groups are more prone to adopt a European mindset in the wake of the Europeanisation of everyday life? In addressing these questions, we use the concepts of ‘Europeanisation’, ‘European identity’, ‘cross-border practices’ and ‘cosmopolitanism’ drawing on and elaborating from their meaning in the contemporary social science literature – and especially in sociology, anthropology, political science and social psychology. Overall, we find that seldom are these concepts treated altogether specifying the link between spatially and culturally situated behaviours on the one hand and collective identifications and value orientations on the other. Moreover, few studies examine socio-cultural Europeanisation and supernational identifications comparatively, and none includes simultaneously native and immigrant populations, who in fact may attest of different modalities in which the behaviour-identity link can take place