Financial Liberalisation and Consumption Behaviour

The paper addresses the question of whether financial liberalisation and innovation have significantly altered consumption behaviour by reducing liquidity constraints as capital markets have become more flexible. A consumption model in which the permanent income hypothesis and extreme Keynesian consumption functions are nested as special cases is the starting point for this analysis. Estimated values for the sensitivity of consumption to current income for different time periods and for several OECD countries are assessed and compared in the light of various econometric properties, country-specific liberalisation measures and a variety of proxies reflecting changing liquidity constraints.

"Making the leap to medical education": a qualitative study of medical educators' experiences of career transition

Background Medical educators often have prior and primary experience in other academic and clinical disciplines. Individuals seeking successful careers in the education of medical students and doctors must, at some point in their development, make a conscious transition into a new identity as a medical educator. This is a necessary move if individuals are to commit to acquiring and maintaining specialist expertise in medical education. Some achieve this transition successfully, while others struggle and may even lose interest and abandon the endeavour. We explored senior educators’ experiences of achieving the transition into medical education and their views on what helps and hinders the process. Methods In 2015 we conducted three focus groups with 15 senior medical educators. All focus groups were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. We applied transition theory to guide our deductive analysis, using Schlossberg’s Four S (4S) framework to code and report the participants’ self-reported perceptions of those factors relating to Self, Situation, Support and Strategy that had assisted them to make a successful transition to a fully acknowledged medical educator identity. Through inductive analysis, we then identified 17 explanatory sub-themes that were common to all three focus groups. Results Background and circumstances, individual motivation, a sense of control, organisational support, and effective networking and information seeking behaviour were factors identified as contributing to successful transition into, and maintenance of, a strong self-identity as a medical educator. Conclusions The experiences of established medical educators, and in particular an exploration of the factors that have facilitated their transition to an acknowledged self-identity as a medical educator could assist in supporting new educators to cope with the changes involved in developing as a medical educator

Natural resource management methodology : lessons for complex community settings.

Natural resource management (NRM) is being seen increasingly as involving complex ecological and social/political settings and thus requiring changes to the research and development (R&D) adopted in the past. NRM R&D has been characterised by predominately positivistic and reductionistic methodologies. Recent attempts to deal with complexity in NRM settings required input from many scientific disciplines including the social sciences. It also involved the use of contextual approaches the nature of the substantive domain is understood in the framing of questions. In using a substantive approach, the importance of considering NRM R&D as a human activity has been recognised and this offers opportunities for community psychologists. In dealing with complex ecological and social systems, there is also opportunity for a reciprocity between NRM methodologies and the development of applied methodologies in community psychology

Better defined geological and hazard models for Bellahouston Park, Glasgow : extension, Autumn 2003

Glasgow City Council (GCC) would like the key, south-central area of Bellahouston Park to be used for public events and wish to further constrain hazard areas related to old mineworkings. Previous studies and a borehole drilling programme have improved the geological and hazard model related to the workings of the Knightswood Gas and Pollock Stone coals (Rogers and Sowerbutts, 2000; Monaghan, Browne & Culshaw 2003). However a problematic area remained around a 1960’s borehole record ‘Pollock Borehole 13’ that contained a 1.1m void at 22.2m depth (–1.7m OD). The void was interpreted as being at the level of the Banton Rider Coal and the geology of the borehole did not fit well with surrounding boreholes (Monaghan, Browne & Culshaw 2003). The area where this void would be projected to crop out (hazard class D2) was in the centre of the part of the park with least hazard (no recorded mineworkings). Therefore, GCC wished to further resolve the area of hazard class D2 to adequately understand the hazards to public safety in this prime area for future activities. GCC commissioned the British Geological Survey (BGS) to undertake stratigraphical logging of three additional boreholes and to update the geological and hazard models for southern Bellahouston Park accordingly. Please refer to Monaghan, Browne & Culshaw (2003) along with this report

Better defined geological and hazard models for Bellahouston Park, Glasgow

Borehole records prove that the Knightswood Gas Coal (KDG) has been extensively worked in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow. In 2000, the British Geological Survey (BGS) undertook a commissioned research project for Glasgow City Council (GCC) to produce geological and hazard models related to abandoned mineworkings for Bellahouston Park (Rogers and Sowerbutts, 2000). The models identified some areas of the Park that have a thin drift cover and are crossed by the KDG outcrop*. These areas were classed as having the greatest likelihood of voids from mining of the KDG reaching the surface. Crown holes have previously developed within these areas. Other coal seams that crop out within Bellahouston Park did not appear to have been worked with the exception of the ?Banton Rider Coal in a small area beneath the Sports Centre and workings of the Pollock Stone Coal immediately to the east of the Park. Glasgow City Council would like the key, south-central area of the Park to be used for public events and need to constrain further the areas of greatest hazard immediately down-dip of the KDG outcrop, and also adjacent areas of least hazard on the up-dip side of the KDG outcrop. GCC commissioned BGS to devise a drilling programme of 13 boreholes, undertake stratigraphical logging of the cores during the drilling period, and subsequent revision of the geological and hazard models