Agrarian change in lowland scotland in the Seventeenth Century

This study considers the changes which occurred in the agrarian economy of Lowland Scotland during the seventeenth century. It tests the two hypotheses which have formed the basis of all previous work on Scottish agriculture. The first of these, which has been generally accepted until recently, was that prior to the Agricultural Revolution in the eighteenth century, Scottish agriculture was in a backward state. Farming was considered to have'been at a subsistence level and to have been stagnant, if not actually in decline, during the seventeenth century. The second hypothesis, which has only been formulated in recent years and which was not backed by a large body of evidence, stated, that there had been a significant degree of development in Scottish agriculture during this period. The limitations of previous work are first examined and the most likely source material for a study of seventeenth century agriculture in Scotland is identified. The delimitation of the study area and the time period are then discussed. Using the sources which have proved to be most informative, a series of themes is then developed. Each chapter considers a different aspect of the agrarian economy in which development can be demonstrated. In each chapter, the significance of the theme is discussed and previous ideas considered. Changes through time are then studied and, as far as possible, regional differences are brought out and explained. The themes are closely interrelated and, when taken together, build up a picture of dynamic change in the rural economy of Lowland Scotland during this period. The second hypothesis is thus confirmed and the first one refuted. The principal contribution of this study is towards the further understanding of the seventeenth century as a major formative period in the economic development of Scotland and secondly, to the study of the processes involved in the change from subsistence to commercial agriculture

Pre-industrial society and economy with particular reference to Scotland

This thesis comprises one book and 36 articles and chapters on the theme of pre-industrial economic and social patterns in Britain, which have been published over a period of fourteen years. The articles are presented in chronological order to demonstrate the way in which the author's ideas have developed through time. The research focuses on Scotland between the sixteenth and the late eighteenth centuries. One of the most important themes concerns the nature of Scottish agriculture in the early modern period, its technology and practices, its regional variations and the chronology of agrarian change and improvement. Other topics include rural settlement patterns, rural housing and the structure of rural society, patterns of debt and credit, landownership and estate management, land tenure and the condition of tenant farmers, marketing and trading, the effects of climatic change on agriculture, migration and population mobility, urbanization, urban occupational and social structures, and protoindustrialization.An important element of the study is the evaluation of a range of historical sources, including estate papers, commissary court testaments, and records relating to migration which have so far received little attention, in a Scottish context, from social and economic historians. In several of the articles the author's training, as a geographer, in techniques of statistical analysis has been used to develop new ways of exploring historical data and to frame new hypotheses relating to economic and social patterns. The thesis also includes review articles relating to Scottish historical geography, Scottish rural settlement and the contributions of historical geographers to medieval studies within Britain.Taken together this material represents a significant contribution to scholarship relating to early -modern Scotland. A recurring theme throughout the thesis is the way in which detailed research by the author has demonstrated that the society and economy of Scotland between the sixteenth and the late eighteenth centuries was more complex, more developed, more varied regionally and less primitive than has been accepted in the past. The results of the research highlight many of the ways in which Scotland developed between the Reformation and the Industrial Revolution.VOLUME I. • 1976 Rural housing in Lowland Scotland in the seventeenth century: the evidence of estate papers. Scottish Studies, 19, 55-68. 1977 Grain production in East Lothian in the seventeenth century. Transactions of the East Lothian Antiquarian Society, 15, 39-47. 1978 Scottish historical geography: a review. Scottish Geographical Magazine, 94, 4-24. 1978 Was there a Scottish Agricultural Revolution? Area, 10, 203-5. 1979 Written leases and their impact on Scottish agriculture in the seventeenth century. Agricultural History Review, 27, 1-9. 1979 The evolution of rural housing in Scotland in a West European context. In P. Flatres (ed.) Paysages ruraux Europeens. Rennes. 51-68. 1979 The growth of periodic market centres in Scotland 1600-1707. Scottish Geographical Magazine, 95, 13-26. 1979 Infield-outfield farming on a seventeenth - century Scottish estate. Journal of Historical Geography, 5, 391-402. 1979 The East Lothian grain trade 1660-1707. Transactions of the East Lothian Antiquarian Society, 16, 15-25. 1980 The emergence of the new estate structure. In M.L. Parry & T.R. Slater (eds.) The making of the Scottish countryside. Groom Helm, London, 117-36. 1981 Sources for Scottish historical geography: an introductory guide. Historical Geography Research Series, Geo Books, Norwich. 48pp. 1981 The evolution of rural settlement in Lowland Scotland in medieval and early- modern times: an exploration. Scottish Geograpical Magazine, 97, 4-15. 1981 George Dundas of Dundas: the context of an early eighteenth century Scottish improving landowner. Scottish Historical Review. 60, 1-13. 1981 The historical geography of rural settlement in Scotland: a review. Research papers series, Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh. 62pp. 1981 Human responses to short- and long-term climatic fluctuations: the example of early- modern Scotland. In M.L. Parry & C. Delano -Smith (eds.) Consequences of climatic change. University of Nottingham. 17-29, 1983 Some aspects of the structure of rural society in seventeenth -century Lowland Scotland, In T.M. Devine & D, Dickson (eds.) Ireland and Scotland 1600-1850. Edinburgh, John Donald, 32-46. (With K.A. Whyte) . 1983 Regional and local variations in seventeenth-century Scottish farming: a preliminary survey of the evidence of Commissary Court testaments. Manchester Geographer, 3, 49-59. (With K.A. Whyte). 1983 Early- modern Scotland: continuity and change. In G. Whittington & I.D. Whyte (eds.) An Historical Geography of Scotland. London, Academic Press, 119-40. 1983 Scottish rural communities in the seventeenth century. Local Historian, 15, 456-63. (With K.A. Whyte).VOLUME II. • 1984 Continuity and change in a seventeenth -century Scottish farming community. Agricultural History Review, 32, 159-69. (With K.A. Whyte). 1984 Geographical mobility in a seventeenth- century Scottish rural community. Local Population Studies 32, 45-53. (With K.A. Whyte). 1985 Shielings and the upland pastoral economy of the Lake District in medieval and early- modern times. In J.R. Baldwin & I.D. Whyte (Eds.) The Scandinavians in Cumbria. Scottish Society for Northern Studies, Edinburgh, 103-18. 1985 Poisson regression analysis and migration fields: the example of the apprenticeship records of Edinburgh in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 10, 317-32. (With A.A. Lovett & K.A. Whyte.) 1986 Agriculture in Aberdeenshire in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries: continuity and change. In D. Stevenson (ed.) From lairds to loons: county and burgh life in Aberdeen 1600-1800. Aberdeen University Press, 10-31, 1986 Commissary Court testaments: a neglected source for Scottish local history. Local Historian, 17 4-10. (With K.A. Whyte.) 1987 Patterns of migration of apprentices into Aberdeen and Inverness during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Scottish Geographical Magazine, 102, 81-91. (With K.A. Whyte.) 1987 The occupational structure of Scottish burghs in the late seventeenth century. In M. Lynch (ed,) The early modern town in Scotland. London, Croom Helm, 219-44. 1987 Medieval economy and society. In M. Pacione (ed.) Historical geography: progress and prospect. London. Groom Helm. 96-122. 1987 Marriage and mobility in East Lothian in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Transactions of the East Lothian Antiquarian Society, 19, 17-30. 1987 The function and social structure of Scottish burghs of barony in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Proceedings of international urban history conference, Wolfenbuttel, West Germany. 1988 Debt and credit, poverty and prosperity in a seventeenth-century Scottish rural community. In P. Roebuck & R. Mitchison (eds.) Scotland and Ireland: a comparative study of develop - ment. Edinburgh, John Donald, 70-80. (With K.A. Whyte.) 1988 The geographical mobility of women in early -modern Scotland. In L. Leneman (ed.), Perspectives in Scottish social history; essays in honour of Rosalind Mitchison. Aberdeen University Press, 83-106. (With K.A. Whyte.) 1989 Scottish society in perspective. In R.A. Houston & I.D. Whyte (eds.) Scottish society 1500-1800. Cambridge University Press, 1-36. (With R.A. Houston.) 1989 Population mobility. In R.A. Houston & I.D. Whyte (eds.) Scottish society 1500-1800. Cambridge University Press, 37-58. 1989 Urbanization in early- modern Scotland: a preliminary analysis. Scottish Journal of Economic and Social History. Forthcoming. 1989 Protoindustrialization in early-modern Scotland. In P. Hudson (ed,) Regions and Industries. Cambridge University Press, Forthcoming. • • SUBMITTED SEPARATELY: • 1979 Agriculture and rural society in seventeenth - century Scotland. Edinburgh. John Donald. 301pp

An Investigation into the Relationship Between Pre-Competition Mood States, Age, Gender and a National Ranking in Artistic Gymnastics

This study investigated the relationship between pre-competition mood state factors in gymnastics by gender, age and a national ranking. Participant-gymnasts (total n=116, male n=49, female n=67) completed a Brunel Mood Scale (BRUMS) one day prior to their main competition of the year. Information was also gathered from gymnasts of gender, age and a national ranking. Consistent with theoretical predictions, results confirmed that a number of pre-competition mood states differed by age with both juniors and seniors having a higher level of anger than children (p<.05 respectively). Also, seniors demonstrated higher tension than children (p<.001). However, only anger showed significant differences by gender with male gymnasts demonstrating higher levels of anger than female gymnasts (p<.05), and with international gymnasts registering higher levels of anger compared with second class gymnasts (p<.05). Authors suggest that future research should investigate relationships between the pre-competition mood in other gymnastics-related disciplines and sports, as well as competitive performances

La Visió de la història del paisatge a Gran Bretanya: velles i noves idees

Gran Bretanya ha estat descrita com un “país antic” i el mateix pot dir-se dels seus paisatges, que són complexos, resultat de múltiples capes històriques i sovint icònics. L'estudi d'aquests paisatges és interdisciplinar, enfocat en matèries properes i relacionades entre sí com ho són la història del paisatge i l'arqueologia del paisatge. L'objectiu d'aquest article és revisar breument com s'ha desenvolupat la història del paisatge en termes globals a Gran Bretanya i considerar com es manté en l'actualitat.Britain has been described as an ‘old country’ and the same may be said of its landscapes which are complex, multi-layered and often iconic. The study of these landscapes is interdisciplinary, focusing on the closely related subjects of landscape history and landscape archaeology. The aim of this paper is to review briefly how landscape history in general terms has developed in Britain and to consider how it stands today.Gran Bretaña ha sido descrita como un “país antiguo” y lo mismo se puede decir de sus paisajes, que son complejos, resultado de múltiples capas históricas y a menudo icónicos. El estudio de estos paisajes es interdisciplinar, focalizado en materias próximas y relacionadas entre sí como lo son la historia del paisaje y la arqueología del paisaje. El objetivo de este artículo es revisar brevemente cómo se ha desarrollado la historia del paisaje en términos generales en Gran Bretaña y considerar cómo se mantiene en la actualidad

Effective Caspase Inhibition Blocks Neutrophil Apoptosis and Reveals Mcl-1 as Both a Regulator and a Target of Neutrophil Caspase Activation

Human tissue inflammation is terminated, at least in part, by the death of inflammatory neutrophils by apoptosis. The regulation of this process is therefore key to understanding and manipulating inflammation resolution. Previous data have suggested that the short-lived pro-survival Bcl-2 family protein, Mcl-1, is instrumental in determining neutrophil lifespan. However, Mcl-1 can be cleaved following caspase activity, and the possibility therefore remains that the observed fall in Mcl-1 levels is due to caspase activity downstream of caspase activation, rather than being a key event initiating apoptosis in human neutrophils

Genome-Wide Association Study of Susceptibility to Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

Rationale: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a complex lung disease characterised by scarring of the lung that is believed to result from an atypical response to injury of the epithelium. Genome-wide association studies have reported signals of association implicating multiple pathways including host defence, telomere maintenance, signalling and cell-cell adhesion. Objectives: To improve our understanding of factors that increase IPF susceptibility by identifying previously unreported genetic associations. Methods and measurements: We conducted genome-wide analyses across three independent studies and meta-analysed these results to generate the largest genome-wide association study of IPF to date (2,668 IPF cases and 8,591 controls). We performed replication in two independent studies (1,456 IPF cases and 11,874 controls) and functional analyses (including statistical fine-mapping, investigations into gene expression and testing for enrichment of IPF susceptibility signals in regulatory regions) to determine putatively causal genes. Polygenic risk scores were used to assess the collective effect of variants not reported as associated with IPF. Main results: We identified and replicated three new genome-wide significant (P<5×10−8) signals of association with IPF susceptibility (associated with altered gene expression of KIF15, MAD1L1 and DEPTOR) and confirmed associations at 11 previously reported loci. Polygenic risk score analyses showed that the combined effect of many thousands of as-yet unreported IPF susceptibility variants contribute to IPF susceptibility. Conclusions: The observation that decreased DEPTOR expression associates with increased susceptibility to IPF, supports recent studies demonstrating the importance of mTOR signalling in lung fibrosis. New signals of association implicating KIF15 and MAD1L1 suggest a possible role of mitotic spindle-assembly genes in IPF susceptibility

‘Fourth places’: the Contemporary Public Settings for Informal Social Interaction among Strangers.

This paper introduces ‘fourth places’ as an additional category of informal social settings alongside ‘third places’ (Oldenburg 1989). Through extensive empirical fieldwork on where and how social interaction among strangers occurs in the public and semi-public spaces of a contemporary masterplanned neighbourhood, this paper reveals that ‘fourth places’ are closely related to ‘third places’ in terms of social and behavioural characteristics, involving a radical departure from the routines of home and work, inclusivity, and social comfort. However, the activities, users, locations and spatial conditions that support them are very different. They are characterized by ‘in-betweenness’ in terms of spaces, activities, time and management, as well as a great sense of publicness. This paper will demonstrate that the latter conditions are effective in breaking the ‘placelessness’ and ‘fortress’ designs of newly designed urban public spaces and that, by doing so, they make ‘fourth places’ sociologically more open in order to bring strangers together. The recognition of these findings problematizes well-established urban design theories and redefines several spatial concepts for designing public space. Ultimately, the findings also bring optimism to urban design practice, offering new insights into how to design more lively and inclusive public spaces. Keywords: ‘Fourth places’, Informal Public Social Settings, Social Interaction, Strangers, Public Space Design

Obligation to family during times of transition: care, support and the response to HIV and AIDS in rural South Africa

In rural South Africa, high HIV prevalence has the potential to affect the care and support that kin are able to provide to those living with HIV. Despite this, families seem to be largely resilient and a key source of care and support to family affected by HIV. In this article, we explore the motivations for the provision of care and support by kin. We use the results of a small-scale in-depth qualitative study conducted in 10 households over 6 months in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, to show that family obligation and conditional reciprocity operate in varying degrees and build social capital. We highlight the complexity of kin relations where obligation is not guaranteed or is limited, requiring the consideration of policy measures that provide means of social support that are not reliant on the family

PCSK6 and Survival in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

Rationale: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a devastating disease characterized by limited treatment options and high mortality. A better understanding of the molecular drivers of IPF progression is needed. Objectives: To identify and validate molecular determinants of IPF survival. Methods: A staged genome-wide association study was performed using paired genomic and survival data. Stage I cases were drawn from centers across the United States and Europe and stage II cases from Vanderbilt University. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to identify gene variants associated with differential transplantation-free survival (TFS). Stage I variants with nominal significance (P < 5 x 10(-5)) were advanced for stage II testing and meta-analyzed to identify those reaching genome-wide significance (P < 5 x 10(-8)). Downstream analyses were performed for genes and proteins associated with variants reaching genome-wide significance. Measurements and Main Results: After quality controls, 1,481 stage I cases and 397 stage II cases were included in the analysis. After filtering, 9,075,629 variants were tested in stage I, with 158 meeting advancement criteria. Four variants associated with TFS with consistent effect direction were identified in stage II, including one in an intron of PCSK6 (proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 6) reaching genome-wide significance (hazard ratio, 4.11 [95% confidence interval, 2.54-6.67]; P = 9.45 x 10(-9)). PCSK6 protein was highly expressed in IPF lung parenchyma. PCSK6 lung staining intensity, peripheral blood gene expression, and plasma concentration were associated with reduced TFS. Conclusions: We identified four novel variants associated with IPF survival, including one in PCSK6 that reached genome-wide significance. Downstream analyses suggested that PCSK6 protein plays a potentially important role in IPF progression