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The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and associated poleward heat transport are balanced by northern heat loss to the atmosphere and corresponding water mass transformation. The circulation of northwards flowing Atlantic Water in the surface and returning Overflow Water at depth is particularly manifested - and observed - at the Greenland-Scotland Ridge where the water masses are guided through narrow straits. There is however a rich variability in the exchange of water masses across the ridge on all time scales. Focusing on seasonal and interannual time scales, and particularly the gateways of the Denmark Strait and between Faroe Islands and Shetland, we specifically assess to what extent the exchanges of water masses across the Greenland-Scotland Ridge relate to wind forcing. On seasonal time scales, the variance explained of the observed exchanges can largely be related to large scale wind patterns, and a conceptual model shows how this wind forcing can manifest via a barotropic, cyclonic circulation. On interannual time scales the wind stress impact is less direct as baroclinic mechanisms gain importance and observations indicate a shift in the overflows from being more barotropicly to more baroclinically forced during the observation period. Overall, the observed Greenland-Scotland Ridge exchanges reflect a horizontal (cyclonic) circulation on seasonal time scales, while the interannual variability more represents an overturning circulation ; This research was supported by the Research Council of Norway project NORTH (Grant 229763). Additional support for M. A. Spall was provided by National Science Foundation Grant OCE-1558742, for T. Eldevik and S. Osterhus by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program project Blue-Action (Grant 727852), and for S. Osterhus by the European Framework Programs under Grant Agreement 308299 (NACLIM). The authors thank the NACLIM consortium for accessing GSR volume transport and hydrography data. The data on which this research is based belong to the NACLIM consortium, to the teams led by B. Berx at Marine Scotland (FSC inflow), by B. Hansen and K. M. H. Larsen at Havstovan (FC inflow and FBCoverflow), by S. Jonsson and H. Valdimarsson at Hafrannsoknastofnunin (DS inflow and Kogur hydrography), and by D. Quadfasel and K. Jochumsen at Universitat Hamburg (DS overflow). These data have been collected thanks to the funding provided by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7 2007-13), under Grant Agreement 308299 (www.naclim.eu).This study has been conducted using EU Copernicus Marine Service Information.

"This title was first published in 2001: Despite the fact that environmental directives are one of the strongest areas of policy decreed by the EU, it has a much poorer record when it comes to actual implementation of these policies. Instead of focusing on the traditional state-centrist accounts, this book compares two subnational regions within the EU, Scotland and Bavaria, and their role in the policy process. The author offers a multi-layered implementation map which highlights three main government 'layers' involved in the filtering process and identifies various formal and informal determinants which shape EU environmental policies during the process. The book not only compares implementation performances between the two regions and their respective states, but also compares the region's processes against the national processes, thereby exposing determinants that would otherwise remain undetected. In doing so, it confirms that subnational regions feature determinants which differ in many respects from national determinants and influence the effectiveness of EU environmental policies. The book contributes to a better understanding of the implementation deficit and presents a more refined picture of the EU environmental policy 'reality'."--Provided by publisher.

In 2018, Public Health England and the UK House of Parliament introduced a soft drinks industry levy to reduce the amount of sugar in sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). In addition to the positive results coming from the levy, in January 2019 the UK Government opened a consultation to consider regulating the use of price pro-motions on foods high in fat, sugar, and salt content. The levy and the banning of promotions could have similar effects (i.e., to potentially increase the product price); however, there is no study comparing their ex-ante effectiveness in reducing sugar consumption and even less their distributional impact. The purpose of the pre-sent study is to compare the effect and distributional impact of the measures. To achieve this, we estimated an EASI demand model using scanner panel data for Scotland for the period 2013 to 2017 (i.e., before the intro-duction of the levy). The results from the present study show that banning promotions on soft drinks would be more effective in reducing energy and sugar purchases than the soft drinks levy. The effectiveness of either policy varies by income, life stage, location, and degree of deprivation in Scotland. This argues for targeted policies instead of the usual 'one-size-fits-all' government policy. Specifically, banning promotions could reduce the annual quantity of beverage purchases by 35.8 per cent whereas the soft drinks levy results in only a 1.36 per cent reduction in annual beverage purchases Also, banning promotions reduces annual sugar purchases by 9 per cent compared to 3.9 per cent for the soft drinks levy. Translating this into changes in intake show that the average person will lose 0.85 kg and 0.36 kg per annum for the ban on promotions or soft drinks levy, respectively. The marginal changes in body weight suggest that other avenues such as a tax on and/or restricting promotions on dietary fat should be explored to achieve a larger impact.

Like many peripheral rural areas in Europe, the Western Isles of Scotland have long been regarded as rather backward and underdeveloped. Given the continuing population loss, low entrepreneurial behaviour as well as recent cases of rejection of large industrial and environmental projects, the perception of the Western Isles as a fragile area seems to have manifested itself even more deeply. However, in view of far-reaching structural transformation processes (globalisation, EU rural policies, Scottish devolution, new public management) as well as growing social capital and local pride, the Western Isles provide an example of rural regeneration based on endogenous development. This is reflected by an increasing number of social enterprises that provide much-needed services, such as transport, health care, housing, training, to name but a few. A process has been launched to re-think local priorities as well as to find ways towards sustainable rural development. Based on results of qualitative research, this paper provides an overview of selected social enterprises in the Western Isles. In particular, characteristic features and the contribution of social enterprises to sustainable rural development are given special emphasis in this analysis.

The authors are grateful to the Scottish Government, The Robert Barr Trust and Brooke's Dream for the funding to set up CPIPS and to Edinburgh Children's Hospital Charity, for continuing funding. ; Purpose: The purpose of this study is to report the number of children from a total population of children with cerebral palsy (CP) in Scotland who had a displaced or dislocated hip at first registration in a national surveillance programme. Methods: Migration percentage (MP), laterality, Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) level, CP subtype, distribution of CP and age were analyzed in 1171 children. Relative risk was calculated with 95% confidence intervals. Hip displacement and dislocation were defined as a MP of 40 to 99 and > 100 respectively. Results: Radiographs were available from the first assessment of 1171 children out of 1933 children registered on the system. In all, 2.5% of children had either one or both hips dislocated (29/1171) and dislocation only occurred in children of GMFCS levels IV and V. A total of 10% of children had a MP 40 to 99 in one or both hips (117/1171). An increasing GMFCS level was strongly associated with an abnormal MP. Hip dislocation was unusual in patients under the age of seven years. A MP of 40 to 99 was not seen in children with isolated dystonia. Displacement was more frequent in children with bilateral involvement and dislocation was only seen in spastic and mixed tone groups. Conclusion: This data gives an overview of the number of CP children who have hip displacement/dislocation in Scotland and who will possibly require surgery. ; Publisher PDF ; Peer reviewed

This thesis explores the prestige associated in late medieval Scotland with Flemish luxury products, using a material culture-based approach founded on the premise that objects can reveal the beliefs and attitudes of those who used them. Adding to existing scholarship which concentrates on the economic, political, and diplomatic connections between Scotland and Flanders, this research offers a new artefactual dimension to this relationship. It challenges the perception of Scotland as culturally and materially unsophisticated while simultaneously considering how objects were used in the expression of elite power and status. What drives this work is that late medieval Scottish elites were fully immersed in the most highly regarded and fashionable material trends of western Europe and that their consumption patterns fit into a wider mentality which saw Flemish craftsmanship as an ideal. A new model is thus presented, moving away from the traditional concentration on fluctuating wool exports and taking into account the cultural agency of noble, ecclesiastic, and burghal elites. It entails the initial examination of Scottish consumer demand and its impact on the Flemish luxury market. Following this are chapters on gift exchange and the presentation of magnificence, centred around the perception of the Flemish aesthetic as representative of elite status. Finally, this approach is applied to the burghal and clerical spheres, arguing that Flemish church furniture played a role in the formation and maintenance of elite urban identities. The comprehensive examination of artefactual sources, combined with the commercial, ritual, and ceremonial evidence found in written sources, enables the building up of a clearer impression of Scoto-Flemish material culture than has previously been realised. It is demonstrated that the material environment of late medieval Scottish elites was comparable to those of other European polities, constituting a common cultural sphere furnished by the luxury products of Flanders and the southern ...

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the level of disclosure on content elements of integrated reporting (IR) in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales higher education institutions (HEIs). The authors suggest that integrated thinking is an internal process that organizations can follow to increase the level of disclosure on IR that can be used as an effective mechanism to enhance accountability with stakeholders.Design/methodology/approachInternational Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) guidelines and content analysis are used to analyze IR content elements in HEI reports from 2014-2016.FindingsThe results indicate a significant increase in the trend and extent of IR content elements. The HEI-specific characteristics examined, such as establishment of HEI; adoption of IR framework and governing board size are all statistically and positively associated with IR content elements disclosure. This paper introduces signalling theory to explore the idea that appropriate communication via integrated thinking can close the gap between the organization and its stakeholders via increased level of disclosure on IR content elements.Practical implicationsThe results will assist policymakers and regulators to assess the benefits of voluntary implementation of IR at HEIs and evaluate possible mandatory implementation of IIRC guidelines. Second, the findings can assist managers of institutions interested in implementing IR.Social implicationsThis study recommends universities to explicitly address IR issues in reporting, as this will increase their impact as leaders of educational thought in addition to their roles as partners, advisors, counselors and assessors.Originality/valueThis study explores whether HEIs in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales provide disclosure on IIRC content elements as a reflection of integrated thinking and whether the connectivity and interdependence between different departments will help to signal to stakeholders how HEIs create value for society.

IntroductionThe Family Nurse Partnership(FNP) is an intensive home-visiting service for teenage first-time mothers (and children), developed/trialled in the US and adapted/trialled across Europe.The Scottish Government(SG) aims to build on and supplement the existing national/international evidence base for FNP, to assess effectiveness and opportunities for optimisation of the programme, for future decision making in Scotland.
Objectives and ApproachThe evaluation commissioned is a natural experiment of FNP, taking advantage of the existing information infrastructure in Scotland. This natural experiment represents an important opportunity to determine programme impact upon many key programme outcomes using routinely collected data at a lower cost than a comparably sized effectiveness trial. Key objectives are: to identify clients in receipt of FNP-support and a control sample of matched families who would meet criteria for FNP but did not receive support, to obtain approval and through anonymised data linkage link to health and other data, and to determine the effect of FNP across a range of maternal and child outcomes.
ResultsThe succes of the natural experiment design in trying to replicate the gold standard design of the RCT will be presented and will cover the following topics: (how cases and a comparable group of first-time teenage women have been identified across 10 Health Boards (HBs) between 2009 and 2016 using data made available by the electronic Data Research and Innovation Service (eDRIS) from FNP, NHS Scotland and SG; the matching process of the cases and controls using propensity score methods to ensure an unbiased comparison; the linkage to health, social care and educational datasets and the approval processes involved, and the strengths and limitations of using routine data to evaluate relevant study outcomes that map to a logic model.
Conclusion/ImplicationsThe impact of this evaluation into the effectiveness of FNP in Scotland will establish a robustly matched study cohort, a more strealmined linkage and approval process, and identification of outcomes not only for a short-term follow-up but also for a longer-term follow-up of the teenage mothers and their children.

This paper studies support for upper chamber reforms in multinational countries. In his seminal work on the topic, Lijphart (1984) argues that the upper chamber can be used to accommodate minority groups. However, to date, we still know very little about the perception of minority populations of this institution. We explore this topic building upon an original survey experiment conducted in Scotland and Quebec, where there has been a recent debate about reforming the upper chamber. The results demonstrate that the national minorities in the UK and Canada strongly support a reform of the upper chamber. Also, we find that a reform that would increase the democratic legitimacy of the institution is more popular than one that would foster the regional representation of the minority group, even among respondents who report a strong regional identity.