2. Clause 1 of the proposed Scotland bill is widely seen to fall short of the Smith Commission’s recommendations to make the Scottish Parliament permanent in UK legislation. Instead, the commitment is to “recognise” a Scottish Parliament as a permanent part of the UK’s constitutional arrangements, without containing sufficient provisions to actually render the parliament permanent, for instance...

The Scottish diet is associated in the UK media and popular discourse with unhealthy deep-fried foods. In addition to the stereotype's negative effects on perceptions of Scottish food, culture and people, there is evidence that the stereotype of the Scottish diet has negative effects on food behaviour and public health in Scotland, having been shown to encourage consumption of deep-fried foods ...

No randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of screening and brief intervention (SBI) have been conducted in the community pharmacy setting. This pilot study was designed to inform the development and implementation of a large-scale RCT. The study examined the feasibility of providing SBI in community pharmacies, including practical considerations, recruitment of pharmacists and clients, uptake, pot...

BACKGROUND Outcomes are a major metric for evaluating effectiveness of dialysis. Comparisons between different populations reveal significant variation. In addition, the question of optimal timing of dialysis start lacks robust data from which to generate conclusions. METHODS This study compares dialysis survival in two geographically similar areas, Scotland and British Columbia, Canada (BC)....

We introduce the multiset sampler (MSS), a new Metropolis-Hastings algorithm for drawing samples from a posterior distribution. The MSS is designed to be effective when the posterior has the feature that the parameters can be divided into two sets: X, the parameters of interest and Y , the nuisance parameters. We contemplate a Metropolis-within-Gibbs sampler that iterates between X moves and Y ...

Introduction It is unclear how much of the geographical variation in coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke and cancer mortality rates within the UK is associated with diet. The aim of this study is to estimate how many deaths from CHD, stroke and cancer would be delayed or averted if Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland adopted a diet equivalent in nutritional quality to the English diet. Metho...

INTRODUCTION On 26 March 2006, Scotland implemented a smoke-free policy prohibiting smoking in indoor public venues, including bars and pubs. Drinking and smoking are highly associated behaviors, so we evaluated whether the regulations would decrease drinking behavior among smokers in public venues. We further assessed whether this effect would be more pronounced in heavier drinkers and whether...

Many branding consumer-based models focus on analysing the influencing effects of the brand; however, not in relation to Generation Y. Given the size and influence of Generation Y, and that a number of brands (i.e. Red Bull) focus specifically on capturing Generation Y, increasingly their relevance to branding practitioners and branding academics is being realised. This study examines the relev...

This paper outlines the asbestos hazard in Scotland and draws upon a systematic oral history project to analyze from the workers' perspective the nature of exposure, the limitations of government regulatory initiatives, and the ramifications of contracting asbestos-related diseases for sufferers and their families. Current issues are investigated, stressing the agency of workers, trade unions, ...