Horse inventory in the municipality of Degerfors

Animal welfare in Sweden has gone through major changes during the later years. In 2004, Swedish Animal Welfare Agency took over the central responsibility for the animal welfare from the Swedish Board of Agriculture, and in 2007 the board again became the central authority for animal welfare in Sweden.Even the practical supervision has changed, from the 1 of January 2009 the supervision is to be performed by the county administrative boards, instead of by the individual municipalities. Since 2006 every horse in the European Union has to have an identification card, in Sweden called a “horse passport” which describes the color and markings of the horse as well as any veterinary treatments.The ELOF-project, a collaborative project between the Swedish Board of Agriculture and the county administrative boards, intends to make the animal welfare supervision effective, standardised, fair and risk-based. Because of the takeover of the supervision and of the ELOF-project the Örebro County Administrative Board has began to make an inventory of the number of horses and horsefarms in the county. Another Ethology and Animal Welfare-student and I did, in collaboration with the county administrative board created a checklist that in connection with the inventory will lead to a risk-based animal welfare supervision. Apart from number of horses at each farm, the checklist brings up subjects as number of horses per enclosure, condition of the horses, lameness or other injuries, type and condition of fences, use of barbed wire in fences, pasture surface condition, access to shelter from wind and the general impressions of the farm according to risk factors as for example garbage outside the enclosed pasture. Two paragraphs soon to be enforced, the horse´s right to perform its social behaviour, preferably through contacts with other horses (applied fromAugust 1, 2009) and the ban of barbed wire in pasture enclosures for horses (applied from January 1, 2010) make these issues important to consider in the checklist. The inventory was performed in the munincipality of Degerfors, one of several munincipalities where the county administrative board felt it had insufficient knowledge of the number of horses. Using control list, car, maps and GPS-navigator the inventory took place during a few weeks weeks in March and April 2009. During the inventory we also had access to a property register, the map system Kartogis and an already existing animal keeper register

NSHU Bolognanätverk i Socialantropologi Slutrapport

The National Network for Social Anthropology has dealt with issues, such as, student mobility, admission to master´s courses and information, courses at advanced level and a joint course for ph.d. students. The network has met at five different occasions to discuss these issues. Participating instutions has been Falun, Göteborg, Lund x 2, Stockholm, and Uppsala x 2. The network have produced two concrete results: 1. A national overview of courses in social anthropology at advanced level, and 2. Plans for a national joint ph.d. course. The network will continue to meet also after the end of this project

Interpretable Instance-Based Text Classification for Social Science Research Projects

In this study, two groups of respondents have evaluated explanations generated from an instance-based explanation method called WITE (Weighted Instance-based Text Explanations). One group consisted of 24 non-experts who answered a web survey about the words characterising the concepts of the classes and the other group consisted of three senior researchers and three respondents from a media house in Sweden who answered a questionnaire with open questions. The data used originates from one of the researchers’ project on media consumption in Sweden. The results from the non-experts indicate that WITE identified many words that corresponded to the human understanding but also included some insignificant or contrary words as important. In the results from the expert evaluation, there were indications that there is a risk that the explanations could persuade the users of the correctness of a prediction, even if it is incorrect. Consequently, the study indicates that an explanation method could be seen as a new actor which is able to persuade and interact with the humans and cause a change in the results of the classification of a text

SMART METERS AND DEMAND SIDE MANAGEMENT IN SMART GRIDS – EXPLORING CHALLENGES AND OUTLINING FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

This research in progress paper explores smart meters and demand side management (DSM) challenges and how this is perceived by suppliers of smart grids. It builds on semi-structured interviews and a literature review showing that smart meters are a highly important, relevant, and interesting research topic. We identify a need to include knowledge on how to develop smart meter technology further as well as how to increase both supplier and energy user engagement and involvement in development of smart meters technology. Our research shows that there exist gaps between: policies, goals and expectations on one side and implementation and use of smart meters on the other side. Based on initial results we conclude that there is a need to explore DSM and smart meter technology further and to learn from a social-technical IS perspective to overcome a one-sided perspective, or even deterministic view, on technology

A comparison of the ForestMan AI software with the Heureka system regarding forest growth simulations and carbon calculations

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the reliability of the forest growth simulations and carbon calculations of the ForestMan AI forest planning system. The ForestMan AI software is developed by and the property of Skogr Kaupa Group AB. ForestMan AI is based on the ProdMod model from SLU and carbon calculations according to methodologies recommended by the IPCC in Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories reporting.The Heureka system calculations are used as benchmark for the evaluation. Heureka is a planning system that has been developed over more than 20 years and has found extensive use in both research and among forest companies. The Heureka system calculations is used as the basis for evaluation since it can be considered state-of-the-art with respect to forest research and because it is also used for assessments for the Swedish reporting of greenhouse gas emissions.The evaluation is based on the data from a forest estate in the Halland county. The estate encompasses 2.037 ha and has spruce as dominating species. It is, by and large, representative of forest in the region.The evaluation shows ForestMan AI to perform growth projections and the associated carbon stock assessment to agree to a great extent. No major deviations between the outputs of the systems are identified.The result of the study can be used as a basis for further development of standards for evaluating forest planning systems. Carbon as a commodity represents an emerging branch of forestry. Furthermore, it is the quantity to report by financial institutions and forest owners in Climate Benefit Analyses (CBA) mandated by the EU Taxonomy. Thus, it is crucial that different actors, SMEs (Small, Medium Enterprises) and others, are given access to research in various forms to meet the needs of this emerging branch of forestry

Retail Image As Seen Through Consumers' Eyes: studying international retail image through consumer photographs of stores

The aim of this paper is to explore how retail store image is perceived by consumers from different cultural backgrounds and with different degrees of awareness and experience of the retailer. The subject is IKEA, a retailer recognized as having a global approach to the markets in which it operates, resulting in a highly standardized approach to store branding. However, rather than employing traditional methodologies to elicit consumer perceptions of store image, we attempt to capture consumer perceptions through interpretations of the visual images generated by the participants themselves. The photo-elicitation method employed captured the different interpretations and meanings attached to commonly identified elements of store image and reinforced the central role played by the store itself in retail image formation

“Advice and Consent” in Historical Perspective

In recent years, commentators have complained about what they regard as an increasingly dysfunctional confirmation process for judges and high-ranking executive officials, and the proper role for the Senate in the confirmation process has been much debated. This Article suggests that confirmations have been contentious throughout American history, and that the focus on ideological issues in today’s confirmation proceedings is not anomalous. Indeed, historically, both Republicans and Democrats have used the confirmation process to delay or oppose nominations when the President hails from a different political party, and, sometimes, even when the President comes from the same party but there are ideological objections to the nominee. That the appointments process has, at times, been difficult and contentious should come as no great surprise. The Framers of the United States Constitution intentionally created a governmental structure that was more prone to obstructionism than other comparable systems. Relying on concepts like “separation of powers,” and “checks and balances,” the Framers sought to constrain the federal government in ways that would limit the possibilities for governmental abuse. The appointments power reflects this approach. Like many other constitutional powers, it is a shared power. Although the President has the power to nominate Article III judges, as well as ambassadors and “officers,” nominees can only be confirmed with the “advice and consent” of the Senate. By placing the power to appoint in two politically elected entities, the Constitution establishes a system whereby political influences will sometimes have a major impact on the confirmation process. Although contentiousness can arise during any type of nomination, some Supreme Court nominations have been particularly bitter. Both the Senate and the American public have increasingly become aware that the courts make law and that the political and judicial attitudes of nominees matter. Under such circumstances, the Senate’s inquiry quite naturally goes beyond the simple question of whether a nominee is qualified or unqualified. However, the confirmation process is more difficult today, even for nonjudicial nominees, because of the bitter partisanship that has infected the U.S. political system

The New Zealand Thrush: An Extinct Oriole

The New Zealand Thrush, or Piopio, is an extinct passerine that was endemic to New Zealand. It has often been placed in its own family (Turnagridae), unresolved relative to other passerines, but affinities with thrushes, Australaian magpies, manucodes, whistlers, birds-of-paradise and bowerbirds has been suggested based on morphological data. An affinity with the bowerbirds was also indicated in an early molecular study, but low statistical support make this association uncertain. In this study we use sequence data from three nuclear introns to examine the phylogenetic relationships of the piopios. All three genes independently indicate an oriole (Oriolidae) affinity of the piopios, and the monophyly of the typical orioles (Oriolus), figbirds (Sphecotheres), and the piopios is strongly supported in the Bayesian analysis of the concatenated data set (posterior probability = 1.0). The exact placement of the piopios within Oriolidae is, however, more uncertain but in the combined analysis and in two of the gene trees the piopios are placed basal to the typical orioles while the third gene suggest a sister relationship with the figbirds. This is the first time an oriole affinity has been proposed for the piopios. Divergence time estimates for the orioles suggest that the clade originated ca 20 million years ago, and based on these estimates it is evident that the piopios must have arrived on New Zealand by dispersal across the Tasman Sea and not as a result of vicariance when New Zealand separated from Gondwana in the late Cretaceous