BACKGROUND High levels of mortality not explained by differences in socioeconomic status (SES) have been observed for Scotland and its largest city, Glasgow, compared with elsewhere in the UK. Previous cross-sectional research highlighted potentially relevant differences in social capital, including religious social capital (the benefits of social participation in organised religion). The aim o...

We aimed to estimate the prevalence, healthcare costs and number of deaths among people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in England and Scotland 2011-2030. We adapted the Dutch COPD Model by using English and Scottish demographic, COPD incidence, COPD prevalence, smoking prevalence and mortality data to make projections. In England, the prevalence of COPD was estimated to be 1....

Relatives of people with aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) may be at increased risk of SAH, but precise data on the level of risk and which relatives are most likely to be affected are lacking. We studied two samples: 5478 relatives of patients from the whole of Scotland who had a SAH in one year and 3213 relatives of patients with a SAH admitted to the West of Scotland regional neurosu...

OBJECTIVES Comparative benchmarking of specialist palliative care (SPC) services across jurisdictions can be used to assess the adequacy of provision. Published in 2016, the Scottish Atlas of Palliative Care unlocks the possibility of benchmarking Scotland's provision against other European Union (EU) countries. Our objectives were to describe the provision of SPC services in Scotland and compa...

Wine production is climate dependent and highly sensitive to weather variability, which makes the sector a good indicator of ongoing and future climate change impacts. Under high-end climate change (HECC), temperatures in Scotland are projected to increase significantly by the end of the twenty-first century. This raises the possibility of future temperatures becoming sufficiently high to suppo...

PURPOSE Strains of type emm89 Streptococcus pyogenes have recently increased in frequency as a cause of human infections in several countries in Europe and North America. This increase has been molecular epidemiologically linked with the emergence of a new genetically distinct clone, designated clade 3. We sought to extend our understanding of this epidemic behavior by the genetic characterizat...

Individuals with alcohol dependence often die prematurely [1,2]. Scotland in particular has high rates of alcohol misuse compared to the rest of the UK and Europe [3] and it imposes a substantial burden on Scottish society, costing between £2,475.6 million and £4,635.4 million per year (at 2007/2008 prices) [4]. Scotland’s death rate from chronic liver disease and cirrhosis are around twice as ...

Manganese (Mn) in surface waters is a micronutrient, but elevated concentrations are toxic to fish and impair drinking water quality. In Scotland, undesirable Mn concentrations (> 0.05 mg l(-1)) occur predominantly in upland freshwaters because the acidic pH and organic nature of catchment soils favour Mn mobilisation. The relationship between upland land-use in Scotland and Mn concentrations i...

This abstract describes how Monte-Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) [1, 4] can be applied to play the hideand-seek game Scotland Yard. This game is played by 6 players: 5 seekers and 1 hider. The seekers work together to capture the hider by moving one of their pawns to the location occupied by the hider. The game is played on a map consisting of 199 locations, connected by 4 different transportation ty...

The contribution of age groups and causes of death to the sex difference in life expectancy (SDLE) at birth in Japan and Scotland was estimated for the period 1965-1990. The purpose was to determine the particular age groups and causes of death responsible for the opposite trend of SDLE in the two countries. SDLE has been widening and narrowing in Japan and Scotland, respectively. The availabil...