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Article
Publication date: 1 March 1983

A.P. Gibson and M.T. Lothian

Since the time of primitive man, timber has remained the most useful and versatile of all naturally available materials. Its obvious aesthetic value makes it irreplaceable in the…

137

Abstract

Since the time of primitive man, timber has remained the most useful and versatile of all naturally available materials. Its obvious aesthetic value makes it irreplaceable in the manufacture of fine musical instruments, furniture and great works of sculpture, but its greatest use is in the construction of our dwellings. Whether used in its almost natural state to construct a forester's log cabin, or sliced up into convenient pieces to build most of the world's homes, it is unsurpassed for versatility, ease of working and mechanical strength.

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Structural Survey, vol. 1 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-080X

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Article
Publication date: 1 April 1990

M.T. Lothian

Discusses the means and methods of detecting timber decay and damp,briefly outlining the historic use of wood in the construction ofdwellings and the role of the timber…

264

Abstract

Discusses the means and methods of detecting timber decay and damp, briefly outlining the historic use of wood in the construction of dwellings and the role of the timber infestation surveyor. Details the process of a thorough inspection, both external and internal, suggesting that particular note should be taken of high earth or path levels, gaps round window frames, broken guttering, rainwater spillage, cracked renderings, missing slates, defective linings and blocked outlets in gutters, blocked airbricks and sagging roof tiles. Concentrates on fungal and insect damage and stresses the results of dampness. Discusses the importance of thoroughness.

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Structural Survey, vol. 8 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-080X

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Article
Publication date: 1 July 2005

Sue Malthus and Carolyn Fowler

During the 1990s the value to an intending professional accountant of undertaking a period of liberal (general) studies was promoted internationally by a number of individuals and…

710

Abstract

During the 1990s the value to an intending professional accountant of undertaking a period of liberal (general) studies was promoted internationally by a number of individuals and organisations, including the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (the “Institute”). The Institute significantly changed its admissions policy for Chartered Accountants in 1996 and one change was to require four years of degree level study with a compulsory liberal studies component. This study surveys the perceptions of New Zealand accounting practitioners on the impact of this compulsory liberal component. The results of this study demonstrate that there is little support from accounting practitioners for IFAC’s claim that liberal education “can contribute significantly to the acquisition of professional skills”, including intellectual, personal and communication skills. In addition, the majority of respondents did not perceive any improvements in the professional skills of the staff that had qualified under the Institute’s current admissions policy. However, any perceived improvements were mainly attributed to the Institute’s admissions policy change. Notwithstanding the lack of support for the assertion that liberal education develops professional skills, there is a strong belief by respondents in the value of liberal education for intending professional accountants.

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Pacific Accounting Review, vol. 17 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0114-0582

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Article
Publication date: 1 October 1998

Gill Scott

Examines the Out of School childcare initiative in Scotland (in 1996) by gathering data from the 1991 census and carrying out questionnaire surveys and interviews with both…

915

Abstract

Examines the Out of School childcare initiative in Scotland (in 1996) by gathering data from the 1991 census and carrying out questionnaire surveys and interviews with both workers, responsible for developing Out of School care, and parents. Compares the findings with earlier research carried out in 1995. Assesses the impact the initiative has had on creating new jobs, improving access to employment for parents using the service, and how well the scheme answers the needs of women workers. Indicates from results obtained that parents had experienced a change in economic activity – increasing hours worked or starting a new job – and/or increased training take‐up. Records also that efficiency and enjoyment of work increased as gender inequalities began to be tackled. Notes that Out of School care schemes were more likely to occur in areas of higher socio‐economic composition, yet Out of School childcare could be part of an anti‐poverty strategy, encouraging women from deprived areas to enter the labour market. Claims that the scheme has had contradictory impacts but that it is hampered by lack of adequate and long‐term funding.

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International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 18 no. 9/10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

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Book part
Publication date: 26 April 2014

Panayiotis F. Diamandis, Anastassios A. Drakos and Georgios P. Kouretas

The purpose of this paper is to provide an extensive review of the monetary model of exchange rate determination which is the main theoretical framework on analyzing exchange rate…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide an extensive review of the monetary model of exchange rate determination which is the main theoretical framework on analyzing exchange rate behavior over the last 40 years. Furthermore, we test the flexible price monetarist variant and the sticky price Keynesian variant of the monetary model. We conduct our analysis employing a sample of 14 advanced economies using annual data spanning the period 1880–2012.

Design/methodology/approach

The theoretical background of the paper relies on the monetary model to the exchange rate determination. We provide a thorough econometric analysis using a battery of unit root and cointegration testing techniques. We test the price-flexible monetarist version and the sticky-price version of the model using annual data from 1880 to 2012 for a group of industrialized countries.

Findings

We provide strong evidence of the existence of a nonlinear relationship between exchange rates and fundamentals. Therefore, we model the time-varying nature of this relationship by allowing for Markov regime switches for the exchange rate regimes. Modeling exchange rates within this context can be motivated by the fact that the change in regime should be considered as a random event and not predictable. These results show that linearity is rejected in favor of an MS-VECM specification which forms statistically an adequate representation of the data. Two regimes are implied by the model; the one of the estimated regimes describes the monetary model whereas the other matches in most cases the constant coefficient model with wrong signs. Furthermore it is shown that depending on the nominal exchange rate regime in operation, the adjustment to the long run implied by the monetary model of the exchange rate determination came either from the exchange rate or from the monetary fundamentals. Moreover, based on a Regime Classification Measure, we showed that our chosen Markov-switching specification performed well in distinguishing between the two regimes for all cases. Finally, it is shown that fundamentals are not only significant within each regime but are also significant for the switches between the two regimes.

Practical implications

The results are of interest to practitioners and policy makers since understanding the evolution and determination of exchange rates is of crucial importance. Furthermore, our results are linked to forecasting performance of exchange rate models.

Originality/value

The present analysis extends previous analyses on exchange rate determination and it provides further support in favor of the monetary model as a long-run framework to understand the evolution of exchange rates.

Details

Macroeconomic Analysis and International Finance
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78350-756-6

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Book part
Publication date: 15 December 1998

Ibrahim M. Abdalla

Geographic information for the home address of the accident casualty is obtained from the home-address post-code for each casualty. This allows the STATS 19 data base, the UK…

Abstract

Geographic information for the home address of the accident casualty is obtained from the home-address post-code for each casualty. This allows the STATS 19 data base, the UK police system for reporting accidents, for the former Lothian Region in Scotland, 1990 to 1992, to be linked to social and economic indicators in the 1991 UK census and to the corresponding digitised boundaries at the smallest census geographical level (Output Areas, OAs) and post-code sector level in Scotland. For each post-code sector Standardised Casualty Ratio (SCR) which is commonly used in epidemiology to study rare diseases is calculated from the ratio of the number of casualties observed to that expected in the area. Adjusted SCRs are calculated, they are the ratios of the numbers of casualties predicted by social and economic factors that are measured at the census using Poisson regression to the expected numbers. Empirical Bayes Estimates (EMEs) are applied to prevent the results from areas with small populations being shown as too extreme. Results from the analysis indicate that accident risk to residents from deprived areas is high compared with those from affluent areas. Finally maps that can be used to identify areas in Lothian where there is relatively high SCRs are presented.

Details

Mathematics in Transport Planning and Control
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-08-043430-8

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Article
Publication date: 1 June 2006

Paula Huddart

Pilot mental health link workers have been working in schools in West Lothian since 2002. This article reports initial findings from semi‐structured interviews with pupil support…

95

Abstract

Pilot mental health link workers have been working in schools in West Lothian since 2002. This article reports initial findings from semi‐structured interviews with pupil support staff in 11 secondary schools receiving this service. School staff reported an improvement in referral systems for children at the early stages of mental illness, including quicker access to specialist services, and an improvement in their own knowledge and skills. These benefits were associated more strongly with frequency of contact with the mental health link workers than with the physical location of the worker within the school. Link workers with a social work background were more likely than those with a nursing background to be asked to deal with children presenting with behaviour problems.

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Journal of Public Mental Health, vol. 5 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5729

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Article
Publication date: 31 December 2019

Yoke Yie Chen, Nirmalie Wiratunga and Robert Lothian

Recommender system approaches such as collaborative and content-based filtering rely on user ratings and product descriptions to recommend products. More recently, recommender…

239

Abstract

Purpose

Recommender system approaches such as collaborative and content-based filtering rely on user ratings and product descriptions to recommend products. More recently, recommender system research has focussed on exploiting knowledge from user-generated content such as product reviews to enhance recommendation performance. The purpose of this paper is to show that the performance of a recommender system can be enhanced by integrating explicit knowledge extracted from product reviews with implicit knowledge extracted from analysis of consumer’s purchase behaviour.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors introduce a sentiment and preference-guided strategy for product recommendation by integrating not only explicit, user-generated and sentiment-rich content but also implicit knowledge gleaned from users’ product purchase preferences. Integration of both of these knowledge sources helps to model sentiment over a set of product aspects. The authors show how established dimensionality reduction and feature weighting approaches from text classification can be adopted to weight and select an optimal subset of aspects for recommendation tasks. The authors compare the proposed approach against several baseline methods as well as the state-of-the-art better method, which recommends products that are superior to a query product.

Findings

Evaluation results from seven different product categories show that aspect weighting and selection significantly improves state-of-the-art recommendation approaches.

Research limitations/implications

The proposed approach recommends products by analysing user sentiment on product aspects. Therefore, the proposed approach can be used to develop recommender systems that can explain to users why a product is recommended. This is achieved by presenting an analysis of sentiment distribution over individual aspects that describe a given product.

Originality/value

This paper describes a novel approach to integrate consumer purchase behaviour analysis and aspect-level sentiment analysis to enhance recommendation. In particular, the authors introduce the idea of aspect weighting and selection to help users identify better products. Furthermore, the authors demonstrate the practical benefits of this approach on a variety of product categories and compare the approach with the current state-of-the-art approaches.

Details

Online Information Review, vol. 44 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1468-4527

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Book part
Publication date: 22 November 2019

Katherine M. Johnson, Richard M. Simon, Jessica L. Liddell and Sarah Kington

There has been substantial interest in US cesarean rates, which increased from 5% of deliveries in the 1970s to nearly one-third of births by the mid-2000s. Explanations typically…

Abstract

There has been substantial interest in US cesarean rates, which increased from 5% of deliveries in the 1970s to nearly one-third of births by the mid-2000s. Explanations typically emphasize individual risk factors (e.g., advanced maternal age, increased BMI, and greater desire for control over delivery) of women giving birth, or address institutional factors, such as the medicalization of childbirth and the culture of liability leading physicians to practice defensive medicine. We focus here on another non-medical explanation – childbirth education (CBE). CBE is an important, underexplored mechanism that can shape women’s expectations about labor and birth and potentially lead them to expect, or desire, a cesarean delivery as a normalized outcome. We analyze data from three waves (2002, 2006, 2013) of the Listening to Mothers national survey on US women’s childbearing experiences (n = 3,985). Using logistic regression analysis, we examined both mode of delivery (vaginal versus cesarean), and attitudes about future request for elective cesarean among both primiparous and multiparous women. Despite previous research suggesting that CBE increased the likelihood of vaginal delivery, we find that CBE attendance was not associated with likelihood of vaginal delivery among either primiparous or multiparous women. However, both primiparous and multiparous women who attended CBE classes were significantly more likely to say they would request a future, elective cesarean. Furthermore, these effects were in the opposite direction of effects for natural birth attitudes. Our findings suggest that contemporary CBE classes may be a form of “anticipatory socialization”, potentially priming women’s acceptance of medicalized childbirth.

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Article
Publication date: 24 January 2019

Fiona Switzer, Sean Harper and David Peck

The purpose of this paper is to identify barriers for people with psychotic spectrum disorders accessing CBTp in NHS Lothian. Despite national guidelines recommending CBT for the…

1624

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify barriers for people with psychotic spectrum disorders accessing CBTp in NHS Lothian. Despite national guidelines recommending CBT for the treatment of schizophrenia (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Guidelines 2014) and (Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network Guidelines 2013), levels of access to CBTp remain low. The overall goal of the study is to uncover emergent themes regarding barriers to access to CBT for patients with psychosis. In addition, the influence of psychosocial skills intervention (PSI) training for psychosis (Brooker and Brabban, 2006) will be explored and if completion of this training effects referral behaviours and attitudes to CBTp.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is a quantitative service evaluation project which uses a questionnaire design to explore the factors that influence a clinician’s decision to refer a patient for CBTp. Three qualitative questions are included for thematic analysis to allow the respondents to elaborate on their views on potential barriers. All appropriate Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) staff in adult mental health in NHS Lothian were invited to participate in the study.

Findings

CMHT staff in NHS Lothian hold favourable views of CBTp and would support an increase in access for patients with psychosis. Key barriers to access for CBTp identified in this study comprise of, little or no access to CBTp, lack of integration of services and unclear referral pathways. Further themes emerging from the study also included, improving multi-disciplinary communication and increasing CMHT staff knowledge and confidence in CBTp. PSI training was shown to have a significant effect on referral rates. Further research would be warranted to explore the influence of PSI training on CMHT staff confidence and knowledge in CBTp.

Originality/value

This is the first paper of its kind to investigate the potential barriers to access to CBTp in Scotland. The paper has highlighted some key barriers and potential strategies to overcome the barriers identified will be discussed.

Details

Mental Health Review Journal, vol. 24 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1361-9322

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