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This paper is concerned with people's attachments to historic urban places they experience in their daily lives. The topic has received growing emphasis in the realm of heritage studies, given its importance to the conservation and management of historic urban environments. Drawing on qualitative data collected from thirty in-depth interviews carried out in Edinburgh, Scotland, I explore the multiple ways in which (known as dimensions in place attachment literature) people develop attachments to historic urban places: from a kind of autobiographic attachments which were grounded in their everyday living and memories, and those of their families to intellectual attachments wherein they showcased their deep appreciation for the attributes that define a historic place. I also seek to demonstrate a class-specific nature of attachments at the intellectual level, adding a politicised view to the complexity of the phenomenon. In so doing, I demonstrate the many ways in which historic places are important to people's enjoyment of lives in the city, and the various roles the history of places and/or their historic attributes played in forging such attachments. I conclude the paper with discussions on findings related to the current state of knowledge in place attachment research and implications for heritage practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the Culture and Communities Mapping Project, a study that uses cultural mapping to understand the relationships between the Edinburgh's cultural spaces and local communities. The paper begins by detailing different methodological paths that those carrying out cultural mapping projects will navigate: formatting the project to collect quantitative or qualitative data, which is usually correlated with tangible or intangible data, as well as approaching the map as a means to policy outcomes or as part of a process of community building through collective memory, or both. The paper then offers an in-depth case study of the Edinburgh-based map, a tool that artists, art institutions, and policy makers can use to better understand Edinburgh's cultural geography and guide further research on arts equity and access. The findings section concludes with thoughts on what the project reflects about the cultural mapping enterprise more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 10th UK National Heat Transfer Conference was held in Edinburgh, Scotland, during 10-11 September 2007 under the auspices of the UK Heat Transfer Committee and was co-organized by the University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University. The conference was part of a series of conferences which were initially organized every 4 years but more recently every 2 years in a synchronized manner with the European Thermal Sciences Conference and International Heat Transfer Conference. Thus, the UK heat transfer community, along with the international participants, can get together every year in a national or European or international heat transfer conference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the speakership of physician David Owen in the meeting of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in Scotland. Concentration on the white paper and the reform of the public health services; Dejection of Owen on the modification of the National Health Service; Privatization of the health services.

Background: Twenty miles per hour (20mph) speed limits (equivalent to roughly 30kmh) have become part of public health policies to reduce urban road collisions and casualties, especially in Western countries. Public opinion plays a crucial role in opposition to and acceptance of policies that are advocated for improving public health. Twenty miles per hour speed limit policies were implemented in Edinburgh and Belfast from 2016 to 2018. In this paper, we extract public opinion and sentiments expressed about the new 20mph speed limits in those cities using publicly available Twitter data. Methods: We analysed public sentiments from Twitter data and classified the public comments in plain English into the categories 'positive', 'neutral', and 'negative'. We also explored the frequency and sources of the tweets. Results: The total volume of tweets was higher for Edinburgh than for Belfast, but the volume of tweets followed a similar pattern, peaking around 2016, which is when the schemes were implemented. Overall, the tone of the tweets was positive or neutral towards the implementation of the speed limit policies. This finding was surprising as there is a perception among policymakers that there would have been public backlash against these sorts of policy changes. The commonly used hashtags focused largely on road safety and other potential benefits, for example to air pollution. Conclusions: Overall, public attitudes towards the policies were positive, thus policymakers should be less anxious about potential public backlash when considering the scale-up of 20mph speed restrictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 41st Annual Scientific Meeting of the Vascular Society of Great Britain and Ireland was held in Edinburgh, UK 22nd - 24th November 2006. The prize abstracts from this meeting are published in the print edition of BJS (vol 94: issue 2, February 2007). To view all other abstracts from this meeting, please click the pdf link on this page. Copyright © 2007 British Journal of Surgery Society Ltd. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1919 the Animal Breeding Research Department was established in Edinburgh. This Department, later renamed the Institute of Animal Genetics, forged an international reputation, eventually becoming the centrepiece of a cluster of new genetics research units and institutions in Edinburgh after the Second World War. Yet despite its significance for institutionalising animal genetics research in the UK, the origins and development of the Department have not received as much scholarly attention as its importance warrants. This paper sheds new light on Edinburgh’s place in early British genetics by drawing upon recently catalogued archival sources including the papers of James Cossar Ewart, Regius Professor of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh between 1882 and 1927. Although presently a marginal figure in genetics historiography, Ewart established two sites for experimental animal breeding work between 1895 and 1911 and played a central role in the founding of Britain’s first genetics lectureship, also in 1911. These early efforts helped to secure government funding in 1913. However, a combination of the First World War, bureaucratic problems and Ewart’s personal ambitions delayed the creation of the Department and the appointment of its director by another six years. This paper charts the institutionalisation of animal breeding and genetics research in Edinburgh within the wider contexts of British genetics and agriculture in the early twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1910 some 1200 delegates from Protestant missionary societies came together in Edinburgh, Scotland to attend a World Missionary Conference. In preparation for this event eight commissions were established to research various topics of importance to missionary societies. Commission III was dedicated to 'Education in Relation to the Christianization of National Life' and presented a volume of 470 pages as its report to the Conference based on over 200 responses to a list of questions under 14 broad topics. One of these topics pertained to the working relationship between missionaries and governments. This paper examines the discussion within the report regarding governmental attitudes to missionary education within colonial spaces. It provides a comparison between the aims of missionary education and the recorded experiences under various governments, particularly at times when they contrasted and conflicted. Taking a broadly comparative view, the paper shows the differences in concerns and objectives that various missionary bodies had in different colonial spaces, as well as the commonalities across colonial spaces in relation to governmental attitudes towards missionary education. This paper demonstrates the fruitfulness of a comparative approach to writing colonial histories of education, through elucidating both specificities and commonalities between different colonial education policies and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the intersection of Spiritual Motherhood, early childhood education and child welfare in early twentieth-century Edinburgh. Its focus is St Saviour's Child Garden (SSCG), which opened in the Canongate, in November 1906, part of the Free Kindergarten movement that emerged in Europe and North America in the late nineteenth century. The paper focuses on the SSCG's founder Lileen Hardy, in order to trace the development of this new approach to child welfare and women's work in Britain. It discusses her training at the Sesame House for Home-Life Training in London, her move to Edinburgh, and the network of predominantly women reformers, whose interests ranged from urban reform to medical welfare, she found there. It shows how this network facilitated the founding of the SSCG and discusses the form it took and Hardy's implementation of a modified form of Froebelian praxis. In so doing its concern is to show how Free Kindergarten forms part of a wider history of social welfare and urban reform as well as to the history of early childhood education, and to move attention away from the men usually associated with innovations in Scottish social reform like Patrick Geddes, and onto a group of women who created a women and child-centred proto-Welfare State in pre-First World War Edinburgh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the apparent plagiarism by three physicians from the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, Scotland. Use of materials from Gunther Eysenbach's article; Use of materials from the `British Medical Journal' Web site without attribution; Retraction of plagiarized article.

The article discusses the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland. The history of the library beginning with its inception in 1689 is traced. The famous collections that it owns includes the papers of author Sir Walter Scott. The John Murray Archive contains works by authors such as Baron George Gordon Byron and authors from the U.S., such as the novelist Herman Melville and the correspondence of actress Fanny Kemble.

While a reasonable amount of work has gone into automatically geoparsing text at the city or higher levels of granularity for different types of texts in different domains, there is relatively little research on geoparsing fine-grained locations such as buildings, green spaces and street names in text. This paper reports on how the Edinburgh Geoparser performs on this task for different types of literary text set in Edinburgh, the first UNESCO City of Literature. The non-copyrighted gold standard datasets created for this purpose are released along with this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An intriguing symbol adorns the grave, in Edinburgh's Old Calton Burial Ground, of George Wilson (1818--1859), Britain's first Professor of Technology. Wilson himself had devised the symbol as an emblem for the Industrial Museum of Scotland of which he was Director. In his professorial role he defined and delineated the 'territorial features' and 'intellectual architecture' of the novel academic discipline of technology. As the founding-Director of the Museum he imagined into being collections which materialised and illustrated the new subject. The paper interprets the emblem as a conceptual map of technology and uses it as the starting point from which to explore Wilson's understanding of what constituted his subject. Thus, the paper examines the Museum as itself a technology for presenting and representing technology. Further, it explores the intertwining of people, things and ideas which, for Wilson, constituted and were productive of technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The XVI European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ECSMGE) was held in Edinburgh in September 2015. It was hosted by the British Geotechnical Association, the UK member society of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering. The UK has a long history of pioneering geotechnical engineering and is home to Géotechnique, the birthplace of critical-state soil mechanics and the venue for the prestigious Rankine lecture. This conference showcased geotechnical engineering in the UK, the rest of Europe and, indeed, many other parts of the world. This paper briefly outlines the history of this conference series and of UK geotechnical engineering. It also describes some key parts of the organisation of the conference and highlights some key data relating to the submission of abstracts and papers and the registration of delegates; it is hoped that this information will be of value to organisers of future such events. The summary review and selected highlights demonstrate the breadth, depth and quality of the papers presented at the conference and contained in the proceedings. It is to be hoped that these, along with the fond memories of the delegates, will provide a lasting legacy to the geotechnical engineering community in Europe and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the development of a method used to characterize the two 5S ribosomal RNA genes from Xenopus laevis by Edwin Southern in 1970 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Significance of the study at a time when cloning technologies were not yet widely available and techniques for detecting specific DNA sequences were limited; Sensitivity and specificity of the technique; Success of Southern in developing an alternative strategy that rely on the capillary action of transfer buffer for the upward blotting through of DNA.

Between 1809 and 1820, Thomas Knight (1775–1853) published quite a few papers on mathematics and its applications. These show him to have been surprisingly well-versed in French analytical mathematics at a time when French works were little read by his British contemporaries. InBSHM Bulletin2, Gloria Edwards and I published a paper (Craik and Edwards 2004) entitled ‘In search of Thomas Knight’, designated below as ‘[1]’, that examined Knight’s life and work. This follow-up paper gives further biographical information that links him with Edinburgh; it describes some more of his publications that were previously overlooked (for notice of the latter, I am grateful to a correspondent who wishes to remain anonymous); and it records some remarks about his work by his contemporaries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the 38th annual conference and Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Scottish Legal History Group which was held on October 6, 2018 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and it mentions the next conference on October 5, 2019. Abstracts are provided for papers such as "Supplications to the Papacy in Late Medieval Scotland" by Dr. Alan MacQuarrie and "Continuity and Change: the Highland Estate and the Regality Court of Grant" by Charles Fletcher which were presented at the 2018 event.

This paper reports on innovations in public order policing during the protests surrounding the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Parliamentary Assembly in Edinburgh, November 2009. When masked anarchist protesters determined to ‘smash NATO’ gathered on the streets on the first morning of the Assembly, they were initially confronted by three plainclothes police negotiators rather than a line of riot police. In this paper, we draw on empirical data to offer an analysis of these developments and gauge the extent to which they meet the stated intentions of the police to ‘facilitate lawful protest’. Whilst welcoming the shift in attitudes and approach towards political protest, we argue that the accent on facilitation in this operation ultimately appeared neither innovative nor effective in practice and frequently reverted to styles of policing designed to contain protest. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper argues that missio Dei theology must continue to provide the basis for an ecumenical missiology, provided certain problems are revisited, in line with themes of the 2010 Edinburgh study process. Among them is the need for emphasizing the vertical dimension of a transformative spirituality, somehow neglected in earlier ecumenical theologies. Only this will prevent an over-estimation of humanity's capacities. Within a missio Dei theology the specific role of the church is to be reaffirmed: there is no way back behind integration, which remains a cornerstone of an ecumenical approach, provided it keeps a critical distance to dogmatic ecclesiologies that tend to hinder progress towards visible unity. The debate on gospel and culture has to be urgently taken up again, through a positive appreciation of syncretism and the related search for criteria in intercultural hermeneutics. This will lead to articulating pneumatological approaches to mission with Christologies. Indeed, the New Testament texts with the most universal horizon refer to Christ as Word or Wisdom and not to the Holy Spirit. The paper moves on to ask whether then the relevance of the biblical wisdom tradition should not feature more in missiology. It could provide fertile approaches to witness in a religiously plural and ecologically damaged world. Ecumenical mission should in future be shaped by wisdom as much as it has been by prophecy, and keep both traditions in creative tension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2004, the Scottish Executive Education Department (SEED) established a project to pilot restorative practices (RPs) in schools in three local authorities (LAs) in Scotland. The pilot project was one strand of the Scottish Executive's range of initiatives to promote Better Behaviour Better Learning in Scottish schools and was to run from 2004 to 2006. In parallel with the pilot project, SEED commissioned a team from the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow to evaluate the initiative. That evaluation was collaborative and flexible and took account of differences between the eighteen pilot schools and also of the varying aims schools had in implementing RPs. This paper will draw on data emerging from the evaluation to compare and contrast the experiences of schools as they tried to work in ways which were more restorative and less punitive. The first part of this paper will define RPs and will discuss the nature and distinctiveness of these approaches as they have been used in different settings. The paper will then examine RPs in relation to the experience of schools in the Scottish pilot. Did successful implementation depend upon the existing ethos of the school? Or were RPs themselves a vehicle by which schools could develop a more positive ethos? Three case studies in implementing RPs will be offered. These will be used to exemplify how some schools changed their practices as a result of implementing RPs incorporated RPs into existing practices did not change at all These varying experiences of the case study schools will be used to probe notions of restorative and retributive approaches in relation to school ethos. Finally, the paper will explore the capacity of RPs to transform school ethos and, in general, will consider the conditions necessary for this to happen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws from the presentation "Sex Games People Play" before an audience of 80 at the World TA 2005 Summer Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland. Included in this paper are new, unpublished TA theories on sex and intimacy including: the Sexual Winner's and Loser's Loops, the new field of Intimacy Analysis, the Intimacy Winner's and Loser's Loops, and five new versions of the Drama Triangle at the psychological and script levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the highlights of the Meeting of Commonwealth Law Ministers in Edinburgh, Scotland, in July 2008. Conference secretary and director Betty Mould-Iddrisu presented a paper on the need to further refine principles underpinning a rule of law framework for the Commonwealth. Professor Christopher H. W. Gane presented a paper which addresses a number of issues and challenges facing the role of the Law Ministers within the Commonwealth.

The City of Edinburgh in Scotland in the UK had advanced plans for a congestion charging scheme until 25 February 2005. However, these plans were abandoned at that time after a referendum that resulted in a 'no vote'. This paper explains the origins of the scheme, outlines its nature, extent, charging technology and predicted effect; it also analyses the difficulties that exist when attempting to plan and implement such a scheme in a particular governance context, and when there is little unanimity of public opinion about the need for a scheme. As well as the primary documentation from the proposals (e.g. public inquiry submissions, papers to government), the paper also draws upon a series of face-to-face interviews that were undertaken with key stakeholders. It also provides an analysis of press coverage in the local (Edinburgh) and national (Scottish) newspapers in the run-up to the referendum. These sources explain both the systemic and more local barriers to the scheme's implementation. The paper draws key lessons which are important for authorities considering the implementation of a road user charging scheme, by suggesting how legislative and governance barriers to implementation can be reduced. The lessons are of relevance world wide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: There is a demonstrable link between parking availability, price and mode choice, and parking policy has been shown to be a powerful demand management tool. Parking however is clearly an area of policy conflict since using it to manage demand may reduce revenue generation, or (be perceived to) damage the local economy. In terms of on-street and off-street parking there are a wide range of users who often have conflicting opinions, which have to be taken into account in its management, invariably leading to parking policies and measures that do not maximise the demand management potential of parking. This paper presents a range of public and business opinion data, from the case study of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, collected as part of the consultation for its parking strategy in 2005–2006. The strategy covers a wider geographical area than simply the city centre, and whilst this paper makes reference to this wider area it primarily deals with the city centre since that is where the majority of the parking strategy issues are to be found. After setting the policy and political context, the paper goes on to present these data. It then shows how the city''s parking policies were changed in response to the consultation. These policy changes are compared with parking policies that would solely manage travel demand, to demonstrate how the political process leads to compromise in the formulation of parking policies and measures. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Recent research in the history of geography has highlighted the significance of biographical perspectives, of different institutional narratives and the importance of memory and of non-foundationalist accounts in understanding the development of geography as a formal subject. Attention to various practices such as fieldwork, the production by undergraduates of geographical magazines and research-led teaching has further enriched our understanding of the experiences of doing geography. This paper draws upon such work in outlining the 100-year history of geography as a teaching department in the University of Edinburgh. Despite such new perspectives and, perhaps, because of them, and because the history of geography as a department is not the same as the history of the subject, it is not possible to offer a full centennial history of the lives lived within a department of geography. Using evidence relating to Edinburgh's century of geography teaching in a department, the paper questions the extent to which it is ever possible to reconstruct narratives of geography's institutional presence and addresses the implications of this for the history of geography more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: Internet-based screening for depression is becoming increasingly important. The aim of this study is to validate the Edinburgh Depression Scale (EDS) for internet administration. Methods: In 407 participants (64% women; 36% men) with subthreshold depression (mean age=55 years; S.D.=4.9) positive predictive values for a syndromal CIDI diagnosis of clinical depression were calculated and compared to those from paper and pencil validation studies. At one-year follow-up, internal consistency and convergent validity of the internet-based EDS were determined in 177 participants by Cronbach''s alpha and correlations with the internet-administered BDI and SCL-90 subscales depression and anxiety. Results: Positive predictive values ranged between 29% and 33% at cut-off scores of 12 to 14. Cronbach''s alpha for the internet-administered EDS was 0.87. The EDS correlated significantly with the internet-administered BDI (r =.75; p <.001) and two internet-administered subscales of the SCL-90: depression (r =.77; p <.001) and anxiety (r =.72; p <.001). A major limitation is that the study was conducted without a control group of healthy subjects. Conclusion: The psychometric properties of the internet-administered EDS are comparable to those of the paper and pencil EDS. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: There is a large amount of research work that has been devoted to the understanding of travel behaviour and for the prediction of travel demand and its management. Different types of data including stated preference and revealed preference, as well as different modelling approaches have been used to predict this. Essential to most travel demand forecasting models are the concepts of utility maximisation and equilibrium, although there have been alternative approaches for modelling travel behaviour. In this paper, the concept of asymmetric churn is discussed. That is travel behaviour should be considered as a two way process which changes over time. For example over time some travellers change their mode of travel from car to bus, but more travellers change their mode from bus to car. These changes are not equal and result in a net change in aggregate travel behaviour. Transport planners often aim at producing this effect in the opposite direction. It is important therefore to recognise the existence of churns in travel behaviour and to attempt to develop appropriate policies to target different groups of travellers with the relevant transport policies in order to improve the transport system. A data set collected from a recent large survey, which was carried out in Edinburgh is investigated to analyse the variations in departure time choice behaviour. The paper reports on the results of the investigation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper argues that young people's subcultural styles and identities are closely bound up with social class. We show that youth subcultures have been explained in a number of ways since emerging as a subject of serious study in the second half of the twentieth century, and that these explanations are located within a broader social scientific discourse. Fieldwork data collected through interviews with young people in Edinburgh and Newcastle indicate that, rather than being a free-floating lifestyle choice, young people's membership of subcultural groupings is largely determined by social class. In particular, the study shows that young people labelled as ‘Chavs’ or ‘Charvas’ should be understood as a subcultural group with specific social class affiliations. The paper concludes by considering some implications of these findings for theory, for further field research and for practical action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The city of Bath was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1987, the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh in 1995. At the dates of their inscription, management plans were not required by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as part of the nomination process. Although management guidelines for world cultural heritage sites have been published, these do not offer a template for the holistic heritage-driven management of complex urban sites at the scale of Bath or Edinburgh. Management plans for the Bath and Edinburgh World Heritage Sites have now been published. Following on from this author's paper ‘The World Heritage Convention and the Exemplary Management of Complex Heritage Sites’ in the Journal of Architectural Conservation, this paper aims to: summarize the approach and key issues that have been addressed in these two management plans - including aspects of their implementation; relate these to the expectations of the World Heritage Convention and other international agendas; and comment on the extent to which these management plans provide models for complex urban sites elsewhere, both in the United Kingdom and abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The greatest use of air travel within the UK is between central Scotland and London. This paper discusses the construction of a high-speed rail link (350 km/h capability) between Edinburgh and Newcastle to reduce the Edinburgh-London rail journey time to an equivalent flight time, with the objective of achieving greatest modal shift from air to rail travel with consequent reductions in carbon emissions. The paper describes the existing rail route and its limitations. A broad specification and a possible proposed route that would utilise the existing rail network and stations at each end are discussed. The paper also covers the overall costs of relative transport modes, how these modes can be equally treated and possible sources of finance. Short-term East Coast Main Line capacity improvements and the longer-term view that an Edinburgh-Newcastle link would be only a start in the development of high-speed rail on this route are discussed. It is concluded that the UK should follow the lead of other European countries and develop a high-speed rail network, primarily as a means of reducing carbon emissions from aircraft. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in the labour market, especially the rise in the employment of women (lone or partnered) with children, alongside an increased policy emphasis on work as a component of active citizenship for men and women, have stimulated the development of research examining the balance between work and home. Although sociologists have long been interested in the interface between the spheres of paid work and domestic life, understandings of the subjective experience of health and illness have tended to keep the domains of family and work separate. This paper addresses the construction of health and illness as operating at the interface between the worlds of work and home. Interviews were conducted with 30 mothers in paid work and having primary school aged children; the study was located in Edinburgh, Scotland. Through an analysis of the interview accounts, this paper examines respondents' experiences and constructions of health, sickness and wellbeing in themselves and in their children. Four areas are discussed: respondents' accounts of the effects of caring and providing on their own health; respondents' accounts of the influence of workplace relationships in the construction of sickness; respondents' accounts of negotiating absence for their children's sickness and how they made sense of and defined child sickness. We argue that managing sickness, itself an anticipated but unpredictable event, gives analytical purchase to understanding the values and practices that characterise the interrelationship between work and family life. The intersections of home and work operate powerfully in respondents' constructions of health and sickness, and the analysis demonstrates how these are played out in everyday life, at home and at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A referendum in February 2005 saw Edinburgh citizens reject a transport strategy for the city, including a proposed congestion charging scheme. The aims of the strategy were to tackle road congestion and to provide a public transport system to match the best in Europe. Congestion charging was seen by the Council as a key tool both to reduce demand for road space and to provide a revenue stream for transport investment. This paper focuses on the context for the development of the proposals, the hurdles involved in taking them forward, and the apparent contradiction between initial high levels of support for a 'radical' transport policy and eventual rejection of the proposed means of achieving those objectives. The paper postulates a number of reasons why this rejection may have occurred, based on the author's experience in the development of the scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper questions the extent to which a distinctively Scottish social welfare policy has emerged post-Devolution. Exploring the myths that continue to pervade the discussion and analysis of Scottish society today, it is argued that the scope for policy departure is limited in a number of different ways. While acknowledging that there are important institutional and implementation differences that can and do affect the delivery of welfare in Scotland and England, nonetheless the paper argues that there is a need to acknowledge the similarities between New Labour policy in London and in Edinburgh, to go beyond narrow institutional-centred approaches and to explore both the social relations that underpin and shape the delivery of social policy and the mounting contradictions that are at the heart of the New Labour project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing health problem of hepatitis C virus infection has only recently attracted the attention of psychosocial research, especially among subjects at higher risk (e.g. injecting drug users). There is a lack of information about the knowledge, perceptions and feelings that injecting drug users hold about their hepatitis C antibody positive status and what it means to them. In order to clarify these issues it is necessary to take a holistic view of the problems faced and to explore the sense of self, or 'identity', that the drug user has as a backdrop to coping with their hepatitis C antibody positive status. This paper is guided by interpretive phenomenology. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with a group of injecting drug users from a general practice in a socially and economically disadvantaged area of Edinburgh. By allowing the group to talk about their past and present lives the process of how they constructed their identity was illuminated and their knowledge and feelings about their hepatitis C antibody positive status revealed. Lack of knowledge about their condition was evident but was engulfed by their 'problem drug user' identity and the many difficulties this entailed. The paper concludes by highlighting important areas of future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Founded on community development principles and practice, the ‘Breathing Space’ initiative aimed to produce a significant shift in community norms towards non-toleration and non-practice of smoking in a low-income area in Edinburgh, Scotland. The effectiveness of Breathing Space was evaluated using a quasi-experimental design, which incorporated a process evaluation in order to provide a description of the development and implementation of the intervention. Drawing on qualitative data from the process evaluation, this paper explores the varied and sometimes competing understandings of the endeavour held by those implementing the intervention. The paper examines the principles that underpin health promotion in the community setting, particularly the concepts of ownership, empowerment and participation, and their differential interpretation and employment by participants. The data illustrate how these varied understandings had implications for the joint planning and implementation of Breathing Space objectives. In addition, the different understandings raise questions about the appropriateness and viability of utilizing community development approaches in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The weather and the striking Scottish environment provided an excellent backdrop for the joint ISAGA/SAGSET International Conference held in Edinburgh in August 2002. This conference brought together more than 150 academics, practitioners, and researchers in diverse fields of practice from more than 25 countries. This report provides a brief taste of the depth and variety of papers and experiences available at a conference designed to integrate the multiple perspectives of these two major international experiential learning associations. Conference activities included papers and presentations from many fields of practice with opportunities to experience and critique simulation and game designs, share research initiatives, engage in debate on critical issues, and discuss conceptualizations of this important area of learning. These academic activities were balanced by a number of social ones providing opportunities to experience Scotland's culture and renew friendships with colleagues. The organizers received many accolades for the excellence of the program and the conference organization. It was indeed a memorable conference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the extent to which the softer or transferable skills that are apparently sought by firms are developed through work-based learning. The study is a pilot study, as it is restricted to the experience of students and graduates of a single degree programme at Napier University, Edinburgh. However, the results indicate a positive contribution of work-based learning to the development of the transferable skills of those involved in the programme. The paper concludes that these tentative positive results drawn from the pilot study need to be tested across a broader sample of students and graduates from a wide range of programmes and institutions. This would enable an effective evaluation of the role of work-based learning in skilling the firm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Research has shown that women screened as being 'possibly depressed' on the Edinburgh Depression Scale consist of two distinct duration types: those with Transient distress, and those with Enduring distress. This paper reports on the exploration of antenatal data to ascertain if information from the initial EDS screening can help determine which women may have Transient, and which Enduring, distress after just a few weeks.Methods: Data from three antenatal studies were explored, where the EDS had been given twice within a psychosocial screening setting. Repeat testing of the EDS, together with a diagnostic interview, was conducted 2-5 weeks later.Results: Women with Enduring distress (those scoring high on both occasions) were significantly more likely to meet criteria for a depressive disorder than those with Transient distress. They also scored significantly and clinically meaningfully higher on their initial EDS, though no cut-off score was optimal in discriminating between the two duration categories. Differentiation could also not be made from the endorsement of the self-harm question, but was best when women were asked to predict how they would be feeling, and why.Limitations: The data come from three studies just with English-speaking women with slightly different methodologies, producing information on a fairly small number of women with Transient (n=12-29) and Enduring (n=14-25) distress. In addition the EDS re-test interval of between 2 and 5 weeks was quite wide.Conclusions: Clinical implications are that women who score high initially on the EDS are most likely to continue to score high (have Enduring distress) if they themselves think this will be the case, or if they only give wishful thinking as the reason as to why they think they will feel better. Research studies should also therefore analyse their data taking into account this duration category. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper centres on the Beltane Fire Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. The objectives are to: first, identify the stages of the festival’s evolution and their respective characteristics; second, distinguish features corresponding to the carnivalesque; and, finally, examine the changes in event evolution, particularly regulatory interventions, and their effect. A qualitative approach comprising interviews with internal and external festival stakeholders was utilised. It is argued that there are three stages in the festival’s evolution: revival and early development; development and regulation; and, maturation. The characteristics of these evolutionary stages are identified. As the festival has developed and been subject to increasing regulation, features of the carnivalesque have been reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Classifying events is challenging in Twitter because tweets texts have a large amount of temporal data with a lot of noise and various kinds of topics. In this paper, we propose a method to classify events from Twitter. We firstly find the distinguishing terms between tweets in events and measure their similarities with learning language models such as ConceptNet and a latent Dirichlet allocation method for selectional preferences (LDA-SP), which have been widely studied based on large text corpora within computational linguistic relations. The relationship of term words in tweets will be discovered by checking them under each model. We then proposed a method to compute the similarity between tweets based on tweets’ features including common term words and relationships among their distinguishing term words. It will be explicit and convenient for applying to k-nearest neighbor techniques for classification. We carefully applied experiments on the Edinburgh Twitter Corpus to show that our method achieves competitive results for classifying events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper steps into the minefield that is urban sustainability studies. It defends a rigorous definition of sustainable development called Environmental Space. This approach starts from the assumption that (1) there are limits to the biophysical capacity of the ecosystem and (2) that--within these limits--each individual has equal access rights to natural capital. On this basis, per capita sustainable consumption targets are calculated which can be (and are being) used as policy objectives. The paper explores how environmental space has influenced local sustainability politics in Edinburgh, Scotland. By doing so, it finds that environmental space targets are still far from being achieved. Reasons for this failure are investigated and Edinburgh's continued commitment to the material growth of her economy is identified as one key barrier. This point is illustrated through the investigation of recent policy decisions in Edinburgh which were justified as being necessary for growth, but which clearly contradict the aims of sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcohol use amongst elderly people is an increasingly important area to understand, yet relatively little research has been undertaken and our knowledge remains limited. This paper contains a review of the literature, concentrating on alcohol use in community-dwelling elderly people. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal research papers are reviewed; their findings suggest high abstinence rates amongst the population under consideration, with consumption consistently associated negatively with increasing age and female gender. A summary of the largely non-specific, descriptive literature available is also included. Research concerned with elderly people and alcohol use is problematic and therefore the limitations of the available research are examined in detail. Firm conclusions are difficult to draw from the research to date because, for example, there are varying definitions of terms such as 'alcoholism' and 'heavy drinking' and instruments used for detection have not been validated with older age groups. The need for increased awareness amongst health professionals, especially nurses, about issues surrounding community dwelling elderly people and alcohol use and misuse is discussed. Finally, the importance of further research, especially amongst largely neglected groups of the elderly population, such as ethnic minority groups and elderly homeless people, is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arguably, nursing, like all health care disciplines, is an applied science. Essentially, this refers to the application of theory in order to understand and respond to the health problems of clients. These theories may be drawn (borrowed) from any applied science, or generated inductively from clinical nursing practice. Alternatively, nurses may attempt to apply deductive theory (global theoretical frameworks) known as nursing models. In this paper, all theoretical approaches, irrespective of origin, are referred to as models used by nurses. Thirteen criteria by which clinicians, and others, can evaluate the clinical and practical utility of models used by nurses which are expressed in the form of questions are identified and discussed. The criteria are an extension, both in detail and in number, of those developed by Reynolds and Cormack and subsequently applied by those writers to the Johnson Behavioural System Model of Nursing. The value, or otherwise, of individual models, or of models in general, will not be discussed in this paper. However, the authors propose that if the evaluation criteria described here are applied to existing models, serious deficits will be identified in relation to their clinical and practical utility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about several papers discussed at the 10th annual Wood Science & Engineering (WSE) network meeting held in Edinburgh, Scotland on October 13-14, 2014 is presented. Topics include timber engineering, wood technology, and thermal and chemical modification of wood. The meeting featured several speakers including Peter Wilson, Callum Hill, and Peter Wilson.

Information about several papers discussed at the 3rd International Conference on Cutaneous Lupus Erythematosus (CLE) held in Edinburgh, Scotland on May 6-8, 2014 is presented. Topics include role of antimicrobial peptides in CLE, treatment options for CLE, and higher risk of smokers for CLE. The conference featured several speakers including Dr. Regine Gläser, Dr. Sue Jessop, and Dr. Simon Meggitt.

The Erich Werdermann collection ‘Plantae Chilenses’ held at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh constitutes an important set of herbarium specimens from the Chilean flora, and represents over 10% of preserved specimens from Chile in the herbarium. Duplicate sets of specimens were distributed from the Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem to a further 15 major international herbaria. Here we provide a description of this collection, highlighting aspects of Werdermann’s journey in Chile. Included are his itinerary and maps showing where the specimens were collected. An important aspect of the paper is to clarify ambiguities concerning label data in order to provide more accurate detail for researchers using Werdermann’s specimens. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reaffirms the importance of politics in theories on gentrification through analysis of a recent 'regeneration' project based in Craigmillar, a stigmatised district on the southeastern edge of Edinburgh. It sketches the historical backdrop to the area's stigma as a place 'outside' the city, using qualitative research on the Craigmillar Festival Society to highlight how this stigma was produced and intensified as well as contested. By stressing that the main intention of the 'regeneration' project was to attract more affluent residents to Craigmillar, we show how territorial stigmatisation and 'regeneration' through gentrification form two sides of the same conceptual and policy coin: the "blemish of place" becomes a target and rationale for 'fixing' the area, thus obviating and obstructing policies aimed at attacking deprivation, inequality, or the structural problems of advanced marginality. The state's role in creating the very stigma it then insists on scrubbing highlights a major contradiction in contemporary urban policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the development of the 'chapbook' in Scotland between 1680 and 1760. Chapbook is here defined as a publication using a single sheet of paper, printed on both sides, and folded into octavo size or smaller. The discussion focuses on production in Edinburgh which at this time was the centre of the Scottish book trade. While very few works were produced in these small formats in the city before the last quarter of the seventeenth century, the three generations thereafter witnessed their emergence as an important part of the market. This chapbook literature included 'penny godlies' and 'story books', poems and songs, which had long been staples of the London trade. Indeed, much output north of the border comprised titles pirated from the south. It is suggested, however, that an independent repertoire of distinctively Scottish material also began to flourish during this period which paved the way for the heyday of the nation's chapbook in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The Edinburgh trade is shown to be much more extensive than has been appreciated hitherto. Discovery of the testament of Robert Drummond, the Edinburgh printer who died in 1752, reveals that he produced many such works that are no longer extant. It demonstrates not only that a number of classic English chapbooks were being reprinted in Scotland much earlier than otherwise known, but also that an indigenous Scottish output was well established before the reign of George III. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]