Themes in Scottish asylum culture : the hospitalisation of the Scottish asylum 1880-1914

Having embarked on a vast journey of asylum construction from the 1860s, Scottish mental health care faced uncertainty as to the appropriate role of the asylum by the 1880s. Whereas the mid century was dominated by official efforts to lessen the asylum's custodial image, late Victorian asylum culture encompassed both traditional and new themes in the treatment and care of patients. These themes included hospitalisation, traditional moral approaches, and wider social influences such as the poor law, philanthropy, endemic disease and Victorian ethics. In an age of medical advance, Scottish asylum doctors and administrators introduced hospitalisation in a bid to enhance the status of asylum culture. The hospitalisation of the asylum was attempted through architectural change, transitions in mental nursing and the pursuit of laboratory research. Yet as a movement, hospitalisation was largely ornamental. Although hospitalisation paved the way for impressive new buildings, there was little additional funding to improve asylum infrastructure by raising nursing standards or to conduct laboratory research work. While the Commissioners in Lunacy proclaimed `hospitalisation' to be a distinctive part of the Scottish approach of mental health care, the policy's origins lay not with the policy makers but with individual medical superintendents. Although hospitalisation became an official approach by the General Board of Lunacy, like any other theme in asylum culture, the extent of hospitalisation's implementation relied on the support of individual doctors and local circumstance. Despite this attempt to emulate modern medicine, moral management rather than hospitalisation methods continued as the fundamental approach of treatment and control in most institutions. The main components of moral management were work and a system of rewards (implemented through liberties and accommodation privileges). The process of mental recovery continued to be linked to industriousness and behaviour. The thesis acknowledges the impact of local forces and wider society upon attitudes towards mental health care, such as the economically driven district lunacy boards and to a lessening extent the parochial boards and philanthropy. In viewing the asylum within the wider context of Scottish society, the asylum shared some characteristics with other Victorian institutions. Finally, although the patient's autonomy within the system should not be overplayed, the asylum doctor was also affected by the patients' co-operation with treatment and the involvement of family and friends in admission

Terra incognita—cerebellar contributions to neuropsychiatric and cognitive dysfunction in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia

Although converging evidence has positioned the human cerebellum as an important relay for intact cognitive and neuropsychiatric processing, changes in this large structure remain mostly overlooked in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), a disease which is characterized by cognitive and neuropsychiatric deficits. The present study assessed whether degeneration in specific cerebellar subregions associate with indices of cognition and neuropsychiatric performance in bvFTD. Our results demonstrate a relationship between cognitive and neuropsychiatric decline across various domains of memory, language, emotion, executive, visuospatial function, and motivation and the degree of gray matter degeneration in cerebellar lobules V–VII. Most notably, bilateral cerebellar lobule VII and the posterior vermis emerged as distinct for memory processes, the right cerebellar hemisphere underpinned emotion, and the posterior vermis was highlighted in language dysfunction in bvFTD. Based on cortico-cerebellar connectivity maps, these findings in the cerebellum are consistent with the neural connections with the cortices involved in these domains in patients with bvFTD. Overall, the present study underscores the significance of cortical-cerebellar networks associated with cognition and neuropsychiatric dysfunction in bvFTD

Useful work for idle hands or a brightening and elevating influence?:The introduction of the Brabazon Employment Scheme to Glasgow's public institutions in the late 19th century

Women’s ability to effect changes in welfare policy during the later workings of the new Poor Law has been presented as a ‘marginal influence’ within past historiography. This perspective is contested in recent empirical work, which argues for a more positive view of female agency. The Brabazon Employment Scheme was a charitable initiative, which occupied the poor unable to take part in the routine work of public institutions. Findings from its operation in Glasgow demonstrate how women drew upon philanthropic experience as well as elected positions in the management of institutions to secure the scheme’s introduction in these settings. While the initiative originated in the English workhouses, local women extended the Brabazon activities to address gaps in welfare provision for asylum patients. In doing so, the article shows how organised charity continued to function as an avenue of support for the poor alongside municipal relief into the early 20th century

Fusarium head blight and deoxynivalenol from barley in the Maritime Provinces

1 online resource (55 pages) : illustrations (some colour), mapIncludes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (pages 45-54).Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) is one of the most devastating agriculture diseases that affects barley worldwide by reducing crop yields and grain quality. The main causal organism of concern in Eastern Canada is the fungal pathogen, Fusarium graminearum. This pathogen inhibits protein synthesis in the seeds, resulting in low yields, and can produce mycotoxins to contaminate the grains. Deoxynivalenol (DON) is the most important mycotoxins as it is toxic to animals and humans. It is important to perform barley disease surveys in the Maritimes as they have ceased in the early 2000s, resulting in a lack of FHB information in these provinces. To further understand the presence of FHB causing species and DON in the Maritime provinces, barley seeds were collected by partners at the Atlantic Grains Council. Seed samples were separated per field to isolate Fusarium species, and a second subsample ground for quantitative-PCR (qPCR) and DON analysis. A total of 336 isolates were collected, the majority being F. graminearum, other species identified were F. poae, F. avenaceum, and F. sporotrichioides. DON concentrations ranged from 0 to 15.6 ppm in each field. Nova Scotia presented the highest disease level based on qPCR of F. graminearum DNA, isolate numbers and DON levels, with less disease presence in New Brunswick and PEI. F. graminearum DNA correlated significantly with DON concentration (R2=0.92). A virulence assay using F. graminearum isolates from each province was performed to observe differences between provincial isolates and to assess visual rating methods. qPCR data did reveal a weak positive correlation with visual severity ratings (R2=0.48). This qPCR assay revealed a rapid and reliable method to evaluate and quantify FHB in barley to be used in future surveys. Correlation results can be used to increase precision in other agronomic studies that aim to reduce FHB severity

Knowledge exchange in crisis settings: A scoping review

BACKGROUND: Public health practice and efforts to improve the social determinants of health operate within a climate characterised by multiple and intersecting crises. This includes the Covid-19 pandemic as well as more protracted crises such as climate change and persistent social inequalities that impact health. We sought to understand and compare how knowledge exchange (KE) processes occur across different crises, and how knowledge on improving social determinants of health can be utilised at times of crisis to reduce health inequalities and strengthen public systems. METHODS: We conducted a scoping review to understand how KE on improving social determinants of health can occur across different types of crises (e.g. environmental, pandemics, humanitarian). Relevant studies were identified through electronic searching of Medline, EMBASE, Global Health, Scopus and Web of Science databases. RESULTS: We identified 86 studies for inclusion in the review. Most studies concerned pandemic or environmental crises. Fewer studies explored KE during technical (e.g. nuclear), terror-related or humanitarian crises. This may reflect a limitation of the searches. Few studies assessed KE as part of longer-term responses to social and economic impacts of crises, with studies more likely to focus on immediate response or early recovery stages. Exchange of research evidence or data with policy or practice contextual knowledge was common but there was variation in the extent that lay (public) knowledge was included as part of KE processes. CONCLUSION: As ongoing crises continue with significant public health implications, KE processes should appropriately reflect the complexity inherent in crises and foreground health inequalities. Doing so could include the utilisation of systems or complexity-informed methods to support planning and evaluation of KE, a greater focus on KE to support action to address social determinants of health, and the inclusion of a plurality of knowledge-including lived experience-in planning and responding to crises

The elephant in the room?:Why spatial stigma does not receive the public health attention it deserves

In the context of health inequalities, spatial stigma refers to the ways that areas experiencing socioeconomic inequalities become negatively portrayed and labelled in public, official and policy discourses. With respect to the body of research on social determinants of health and health inequalities, and attention accorded to this issue in policy or practice, spatial stigma remains significantly under-represented compared with other possible causal factors. We suggest three explanations contributing to this neglect. First, the lack of research into spatial stigma originates from a more limited public health focus on the symbolic meanings of places for health, compared to their physical and social dimensions. Second, lay involvement and evidence of lived experiences of health inequalities continues to be under-represented in public health decision-making. Finally, it is the case that public health organizations may also be contributing to negative area portrayals in their communications of health inequalities. There are growing examples of social action being taken by groups of residents to resist this stigma through the promotion of more positive portrayals of areas and communities. Greater public health attention to this issue as well is likely to result in health gains and aid the development of more effective health inequalities strategies