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Critical geopolitics, despite its radical ambitions, has been reluctant to shift its emphasis from the figure of the geopolitical tactician, ‘decisive’ events and the agency of the military-state. This paper, in common with recent work on ‘popular geopolitics’, offers a different agenda. It takes up the story of Britain and America's first nuclear missile – the US-made ‘Corporal’– through the testimony of a self-described ‘space-daft’ schoolboy who, in 1959, travelled alone across Scotland to witness the first British testing of the missile. However, unlike much of the literature on popular geopolitics, this paper is concerned with the more-than-representational question of observant practice. Addressing recent calls for a more empirical enquiry into the relationship between geography and visual culture, the paper examines how geopolitical power operates through sights and spectacles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with exploring aspects of experience and the creation of place within the Iron Age landscapes of the Atlantic islands of the Outer Hebrides as a means of addressing questions of social identity. These prehistoric landscapes are defined primarily by monumental domestic roundhouse sites, brochs, duns and wheelhouses, which are typically found on the low-lying west coast of the islands or on small islets within freshwater lochs. In this paper the evidence for varying scales of island experience and identity in the Outer Hebridean Iron Age is explored. It is argued that the island, and the islet dwelling, more specifically, were central to the everyday experiences of these Iron Age communities, albeit in varying guises; and was a key component in the creation of domestic places and a mechanism for expressing and reinforcing social identity within this Iron Age society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Art therapy, despite being an evidence-based, safe and acceptable intervention, is not widely available to clients in Scotland. Online delivery has the potential to expand the reach and accessibility, but special considerations need to be given to designing successful online art therapy services, due to the unique emphasis on the role of an image and artmaking alongside the therapeutic relationship. Methods: A pilot online art therapy service was developed and delivered in the Western Isles of Scotland to individual adult clients wishing to increase their psychological wellbeing. This research aimed to assess feasibility and acceptability of the novel service, identify enablers and challenges in setting up and delivering the service, explore participants' expectations and experiences of art therapy and identify any impacts of the service. Mixed-method evaluation incorporated questionnaires, focus groups, interviews and Audio Image Recordings (AIRs). Findings were grouped into themes across several key areas: service setup, research procedures, intervention design and impacts and insights. Recommendations were developed for the first three areas and the last section presents indications of change and gives voice to client experience primarily. Results: Online art therapy was described by clients as a judgement-free zone which allowed freedom to experiment, express, feel and immerse themselves in the creative flow. Other benefits included readiness to accept emotions, increased understanding of self and others and being able to see things from a new perspective. Clients recognised the unique nature of art therapy in relation to other psychological treatments and valued the freedom of expression it offered, including the non-verbal. Discussion: This project demonstrated that online art therapy is not only a feasible an acceptable intervention, but potentially also a powerfully impactful one, capable of instilling a positive change in a surprisingly short period of time. Exploring ways to expand current and introduce new art therapy services is highly recommended. Refinement of an intervention design, tools and research procedures is recommended through further feasibility studies of a larger scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial patterns of functional diversity are important in understanding community assembly as well as spatial variation in ecosystem functioning, yet the contribution of different species to these patterns remains unclear, making it difficult to generalise. Several studies have previously used a sequential addition approach to determine the subsets of species that contribute to the spatial distribution of species richness, frequently showing the importance of common species to richness patterns. This approach, however, has not been applied to functional diversity despite the central role of species traits in community ecology.Here we use a multiscale survey of plants from the Machair grassland system of the Western Isles of Scotland to ask the following questions: (i) Do functional diversity patterns correlate better with geographically common or geographically rare species?; (ii) Do their relative contributions vary with spatial scale?; and (iii) Do these patterns vary between functional diversity measures?We show that while species richness patterns correlate with geographically common species, common species contribute less than expected to spatial patterns of functional diversity at frequently used spatial monitoring scales. The relative contribution of species to overall biodiversity patterns, however, can vary with spatial scale.Synthesis. Surveying only common species may be inadequate for estimating spatial patterns of functional diversity, especially if using occurrence as opposed to percentage cover or abundance data, and spatial scale needs to be considered when designing surveys. Our approach highlights the species that may be adequate indicators of different dimensions of biodiversity and contributes to our understanding of the distribution of functional diversity in space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lyme disease is usually associated with forested habitats but has recently emerged on treeless islands in the Western Isles of Scotland. The environmental and human components of Lyme disease risk in open habitats remain unknown. We quantified the environmental hazard and risk factors for human tick bite exposure among treeless islands with low and high Lyme disease incidence in the Western Isles. We found a higher prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato-infected ticks on high-incidence than on low-incidence islands (6.4% vs. 0.7%); we also found that residents of high-incidence islands reported increased tick bite exposure. Most tick bites (72.7%) occurred <1 km from the home, including many in home gardens. Residents of high Lyme disease incidence islands reported increasing problems with ticks; many suggested changing deer distribution as a potential driver. We highlight the benefits of an integrated approach in understanding the factors that contribute to Lyme disease emergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa is one of the few species able to build reef-like structures and a 3-dimensional coral framework in the deep oceans. Furthermore, deep cold-water coral bioherms may be among the first marine ecosystems to be affected by ocean acidification. Colonies of L. pertusa were collected during a cruise in 2006 to cold-water coral bioherms of the Mingulay reef complex (Hebrides, North Atlantic). Shortly after sample collection onboard these corals were labelled with calcium- 45. The same experimental approach was used to assess calcification rates and how those changed due to reduced pH during a cruise to the Skagerrak (North Sea) in 2007. The highest calcification rates were found in youngest polyps with up to 1% d-1 new skeletal growth and average rates of 0.11±0.02% d-1(±S.E.). Lowering pH by 0.15 and 0.3 units relative to the ambient level resulted in calcification being reduced by 30 and 56%. Lower pH reduced calcification more in fast growing, young polyps (59% reduction) than in older polyps (40% reduction). Thus skeletal growth of young and fast calcifying corallites suffered more from ocean acidification. Nevertheless, L. pertusa exhibited positive net calcification (as measured by 45Ca incorporation) even at an aragonite saturation state (Ωa) below 1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A heart drawn at the top of a love letter in 1933 is the starting point for this exploration of desire and fear in the New Hebrides. The letter is to a ni-Vanuatu woman named Vetcham from John Stephens. John's mother, reputedly related to the Tongan royal family, settled with her English husband in the New Hebrides in 1906. John's desire for Vetcham, a 'bushman's wife', increased the local settlers' and the Presbyterian missionary's fears about personal safety, which are recorded in archived correspondence with British government officials. Vetcham emerges as a strong and unruly woman in this correspondence by men about her and John. Her story highlights contested boundaries and border crossings between the colonial worlds of indigenous people, settlers, mission and the government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the seabed photography, environmental assessment and evidence for deep-water trawling on the continental margin west of Hebrides, Scotland. Changes in sediment type and megabenthic community; Use of lower resolution imaging techniques; Impact of deep-sea trawling on the seabed.

Pollen percentage and pollen concentration data are described from an infilled basin within a Loch Lomond Stadial end moraine at Gribun on the west coast of the Isle of Mull, Inner Hebrides, Scotland. The pollen profile, which is over 13 m deep, spans most of the Flandrian stage and constitutes one of the most detailed records of post-glacial vegetational change for any area in northern Britain. Nine local pollen assemblage zones and five pollen concentration zones are identified in the pollen diagrams, and these can be correlated with biozones recognized in other profiles on Mull, In general, the data from Gribun confirm the spatial and temporal patterns of Flandrian vegetational developments that have been suggested by these earlier studies. However, the high level of biostratigraphic resolution within the Gribun profile places these palaeobotanical and associated reconstructions on a more secure footing, and it is therefore proposed that Gribun be considered as the type site for the Flandrian stage in this area of western Scotland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flandrian percentage pollen diagrams are presented from three sites in Western and northern Mull, Inner Hebrides, Scotland, and these data are augmented by Pollen concentration evidence from one of the sites. In general terms, the pattern of vegetational development is broadly similar to that found in a previous study in the uplands of south-central Mull. However, differences in detail are apparent in the vegetational history of the northern and western parts of the island, particularly in the representation of Empetrum, Juniperus and Betula pollen in the early Flandrian deposits, and in the frequencies of Alnus and Quercus in the mid- and late-Flandrian pollen records. These pollen-stratigraphic contrasts between the three sites, and between these profiles and those from the more sheltered south-central parts of the island can be attributed partly to differences in pollen recruitment processes and partly to variations in degree of exposure to prevailing winds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]