Not Untitled.

This chapter situates my own practice within an emergent field of urban intervention. It discusses the process, value of and inherent dangers in reframing interventionist practices and generating critical discourse around the 'invisible' and 'unofficial,' in interventionist practice. From the introduction: Cultural hijack is a term that cropped up in conversation with the editor, Ben Parry, in a bar in Glasgow some time ago. I was referring to that moment of being taken unawares by an experience – by something that stops you in your tracks, that redirects your thoughts, actions, attitude; something uninvited, unannounced, perhaps unnamed. The writing that follows is an attempt to sharpen my own thinking around the term. My intention is to frame cultural hijack and to discuss its recurrence and relevance in my own practice. in the process, I want to weigh up its value to artists and activists – partly to argue for its place in the canon of contemporary art and particularly to explore its various functions as a tool in the critical resistance toolkit. Sometimes like the benign stuff of day-to-day serendipity, this hijack can be a gentle gift; more often it’s a type of deliberate misdirection, like that practised by the magician to pull off a trick, by the conman to separate you from your money and by the artist to ‘wilfully disrupt’ your day. Cultural hijack doesn’t ask to be engaged with, cultural hijack doesn’t wait patiently to be consumed. Cultural hijack works against your best interests because it thinks it knows better. With the most provocative cultural hijack, you never escape without being perturbed, altered or otherwise redirected

National Museum of You: Scotland 365 Final Report

‘National Museum of You’ was a research and public engagement project conducted between November 2021 and May 2022 as part of the Scotland 365 project. The project was commissioned by National Museums Scotland (NMS) to help NMS transform the way they engage young people with their museums and collections. Led by Peter McCaughey, the arts organisation WAVEparticle invited pupils aged 10-18 and their teachers to tell us what they think school visits to museums should be like for young people. The project sought to understand and explore what school pupils and their teachers find enjoyable about museums and what they think should be changed or improved with respect to school visits. The project was delivered using a methodology composed of secondary research, site visits, interviews, workshops, creative approaches and a national survey. Project outputs included a final project report detailing findings and recommendations for the NMS youth engagement strategy and action plan, and a creative toolkit designed for teachers to support future school visits and pupil engagement with NMS’ museums. This is a final report on the work undertaken for the Schools Consultancy as part of the Scotland 365 project, that shares findings and makes recommendations for the NMS youth engagement strategy and action plan

Socio-economic status and lifestyle factors are associated with achalasia risk: a population-based case-control study.

AIM: To evaluate the association between various lifestyle factors and achalasia risk. METHODS: A population-based case-control study was conducted in Northern Ireland, including n = 151 achalasia cases and n = 117 age- and sex-matched controls. Lifestyle factors were assessed via a face-to-face structured interview. The association between achalasia and lifestyle factors was assessed by unconditional logistic regression, to produce odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). RESULTS: Individuals who had low-class occupations were at the highest risk of achalasia (OR = 1.88, 95%CI: 1.02-3.45), inferring that high-class occupation holders have a reduced risk of achalasia. A history of foreign travel, a lifestyle factor linked to upper socio-economic class, was also associated with a reduced risk of achalasia (OR = 0.59, 95%CI: 0.35-0.99). Smoking and alcohol consumption carried significantly reduced risks of achalasia, even after adjustment for socio-economic status. The presence of pets in the house was associated with a two-fold increased risk of achalasia (OR = 2.00, 95%CI: 1.17-3.42). No childhood household factors were associated with achalasia risk. CONCLUSION: Achalasia is a disease of inequality, and individuals from low socio-economic backgrounds are at highest risk. This does not appear to be due to corresponding alcohol and smoking behaviours. An observed positive association between pet ownership and achalasia risk suggests an interaction between endotoxin and viral infection exposure in achalasia aetiology

A touchdown nucleic acid amplification protocol as an alternative to culture backup for immunofluorescence in the routine diagnosis of acute viral respiratory tract infections

BACKGROUND: Immunofluorescence and virus culture are the main methods used to diagnose acute respiratory virus infections. Diagnosing these infections using nucleic acid amplification presents technical challenges, one of which is facilitating the different optimal annealing temperatures needed for each virus. To overcome this problem we developed a diagnostic molecular strip which combined a generic nested touchdown protocol with in-house primer master-mixes that could recognise 12 common respiratory viruses. RESULTS: Over an 18 month period a total of 222 specimens were tested by both immunofluorescence and the molecular strip. The specimens came from 103 males (median age 3.5 y), 80 females (median age 9 y) and 5 quality assurance scheme specimens. Viruses were recovered from a number of specimen types including broncho-alveolar lavage, nasopharyngeal secretions, sputa, post-mortem lung tissue and combined throat and nasal swabs. Viral detection by IF was poor in sputa and respiratory swabs. A total of 99 viruses were detected in the study from 79 patients and 4 quality control specimens: 31 by immunofluorescence and 99 using the molecular strip. The strip consistently out-performed immunofluorescence with no loss of diagnostic specificity. CONCLUSIONS: The touchdown protocol with pre-dispensed primer master-mixes was suitable for replacing virus culture for the diagnosis of respiratory viruses which were negative by immunofluorescence. Results by immunofluorescence were available after an average of 4–12 hours while molecular strip results were available within 24 hours, considerably faster than viral culture. The combined strip and touchdown protocol proved to be a convenient and reliable method of testing for multiple viruses in a routine setting

The impact of COVID-19 and associated lockdowns on traumatic spinal cord injury incidence: a population based study

Study design Natural experiment Objectives To determine whether COVID-19 restrictions were associated with changes in the incidence of traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) in Scotland. Setting The Queen Elizabeth National Spinal Injuries Unit (QENSIU), the sole provider of treatment for TSCI in Scotland. Methods Time series analysis of all admissions for TSCI between 1st January 2015 and 31st August 2022. Results Over the 8-year study period, 745 patients were admitted to the QENSIU with a TSCI. Interrupted time series analysis showed that level 3 and 4 COVID-19 lockdown restrictions (the most severe levels) were associated with lower incidence of TSCI (RR 0.63, CI% CI 0.47, 0.82, p < 0.001). The associations were stronger in people aged over 45 (additive interaction p = 0.001), males (additive interaction p = 0.01) and non-tetraplegia (additive interaction p = 0.002). The incidence of TSCI due to deliberate self-harm was higher (0.41 versus 0.23 per month) during restrictions. Conclusions Overall, TSCI incidence reduced in Scotland when lockdowns were implemented, presumably due to lower engagement in risky activities. The increase in TSCI due to deliberate self-harm may reflect increased mental health problems and social isolation and should be anticipated and targeted in future pandemics. The change in incidence during the COVID-19 pandemic may have an economic impact and see a temporary reduction in the burden on health and social care. The results of this study will be useful for resource planning in future pandemics

Relationship between ecosystem productivity and photosynthetically active radiation for northern peatlands

We analyzed the relationship between new ecosystem exchange of carbon dioxide (NEE) and irradiance (as photosynthetic photon flux density of PPFD), using published and unpublished data that have been collected during midgrowing season for carbon balance studies at seven peatlands in North America and Europe. NEE measurements included both eddy-correlation tower and clear, static chamber methods, which gave very similar results. Data were analyzed by site, as aggregated data set for all peatland type (bog, poor fen, rich fen, and all fens) and as a single aggregated data set for all peatlands. In all cases, a fit with a rectangular hyperbola (NEE = PPFD P max (PPFD + PMAX) + R) better described the NEE-PPFD relationships ,while bogs had lower respiration rates (R = -2.0 umol m-2 s-1 for bogs and -2.7 umol m-2 s-1 for fens) and lower NEE at moderate and high light levels (Pmax = 5.2 umol m-2 s-1) than the upland exosystems (closed canopy forest, grassland, and cropland) summarized by Ruimy et al. [1995]. Despite this low productivity, northern peatland soil carbon pools are generally 5-50 times larger than upland ecosystems because of slow rates of decomposition caused by litter quality and anaerobic, cold soils

Clinical utility of a nested nucleic acid amplification format in comparison to viral culture for the diagnosis of mucosal herpes simplex infection in a genitourinary medicine setting

BACKGROUND: Nested nucleic acid amplification tests are often thought too sensitive or prone to generatingfalse positive results for routine use. The current study investigated the specificity and clinicalutility of a routine multiplex nested assay for mucosal herpetic infections. METHODS: Ninety patients, categorised into those clinically diagnosed to (a) have and (b) not haveherpetic infection, were enrolled. Swabs from oral and ano-genital sites were assayed by thenested assay and culture and the results assessed against clinical evaluation for diagnosingherpetic infections; cell content was also recorded. RESULTS: Twenty-six and 64 patients were thought to (a) have and (b) not have mucosal herpeticinfection. Taking the clinical evaluation as indicating the presence of herpetic infection, thenested polymerase chain reaction and culture had respective sensitivities of 19/26 (73%) and12/26 (46%) (Χ(2) p = 0.02). There was no significant difference in specificities between nPCR62/64 (97%) and culture 63/64 (98%) (Χ(2) p = 1.0). Cell content was important for viraldetection by nPCR (Χ(2) p = 0.07) but not culture. Nesting was found necessary for sensitivity anddid not reduce specificity. Assay under-performance appeared related to sub-optimal cellcontent (20%) but may have reflected clinical over-diagnosis. The results suggest the need forvalidating specimen cell quality. CONCLUSIONS: This study questions the value of routine laboratory confirmation of mucosal herpetic infection. The adoption of a more discriminatory usage of laboratory diagnostic facilities for genital herpetic infection, taking account of cell content, and restricting it to those cases where it actually affects patient management, may be warranted