Responding to Gender-based Violence in Scotland: The Scope of the Gender Equality Duty to Drive Cultural and Practical Change

This piece of research has its roots in well-established policy debates in Scotland. Following the passage of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003, which introduced a new statutory aggravation for crimes motivated by religious prejudice, the then Scottish Executive convened a working group to explore and make recommendations on whether there was a case for similar provision for other social groups. The report and recommendations of the Hate Crime Working Group, published in 2004, recognised that the debate to introduce gender aggravation was one of the most contested issues which it had looked at, but it did not believe that at that stage it could recommend introducing such a provision. These debates re-emerged with Patrick Harvie’s member’s bill which was to become the Offences (Aggravation by Prejudice) (Scotland) Act 2009. The Equality and Human Rights Commission, along with many organisations in the women’s sector in Scotland, stated in its evidence on the bill that it did not believe that a statutory gender aggravation would be an effective additional criminal justice response to identifying and tackling crime motivated by gender prejudice. This of course begs the question about what is required to better address these types of crime. This piece of research, undertaken for the EHRC by the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, aims to be a useful contribution to this debate. It explores some of the arguments for and against a gender aggravation in Scots criminal law before considering the evidence thus far of the impact the Gender Equality Duty (GED) has had on Scotland’s criminal justice system, and makes a number of useful recommendations for the future. The EHRC subscribes to a gendered model of violence against women, which sees it as both a cause and consequence of wider gender inequality. We hope this report can help inform ongoing policy debate on criminal justice agencies’ response to violence against women, particularly in light of the new single equality duty which Scottish Ministers will in due course place on Scottish public authorities under powers conferred on them by the Equality Act 2010. We believe that the appropriate regulatory framework for public bodies working in this area is one of the prerequisites for further improving on Scotland’s record of identifying and tackling gender-based crime

High hopes? The gender equality duty and its impact on responses to gender-based violence

From 2007 until 2011, legislation in the form of the Gender Equality Duty (GED) required public bodies in Britain to take gender equality into consideration in all their policies and services. This article traces the development and implementation of the GED in Scotland, following a period of constitutional reform. It outlines its scope and focuses on its perceived potential as a policy tool for driving practical and cultural change in the way public bodies, particularly those responsible for the delivery of criminal justice, respond to gender-based violence. In so doing, it highlights the distinctive approach taken to gender-based violence in Scotland, and argues that despite some evidence of mainstreaming, the real potential for change afforded by the (short-lived) GED was never fully realised

Weakly Consistent Regularisation Methods for Ill-Posed Problems

This Chapter takes its origin in the lecture notes for a 9 h course at the Institut Henri Poincaré in September 2016. The course was divided in three parts. In the first part, which is not included herein, the aim was to first recall some basic aspects of stabilised finite element methods for convection-diffusion problems. We focus entirely on the second and third parts which were dedicated to ill-posed problems and their approximation using stabilised finite element methods. First we introduce the concept of conditional stability. Then we consider the elliptic Cauchy-problem and a data assimilation problem in a unified setting and show how stabilised finite element methods may be used to derive error estimates that are consistent with the stability properties of the problem and the approximation properties of the finite element space. Finally, we extend the result to a data assimilation problem subject to the heat equation

Assessing the utility of the national student financial aid scheme towards skills development: A case of a rural university in South Africa

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) was introduced in 1999 in South Africa to provide financial support for disadvantaged students through the provision of both loans and bursaries. This article reflects on the effects of the scheme on skills development within two faculties at the University of Limpopo. The research was undertaken in 2021 employing an exploratory qualitative methodology. A total of eighteen participants were purposively selected from two of the four faculties of the University of Limpopo. A semi-structured interview guide was utilised to elicit narrative data from all participating beneficiaries of the NSFAS. The narrative data were analysed using a thematic coding design and interpretations of the findings were subsequently made. The interpretation of the analysis focused on the effect of the NSFAS support on students’ skills development. The findings suggest that NSFAS funding contributed to the development of soft skills of beneficiaries which included financial security; spending prioritisation and collaborative budgeting; time-management skills; self-esteem and skills development opportunities. Whilst the findings are localised, they do suggest that further research could be undertaken into the potentials of NSFAS to boost students’ soft skills development during their time within a higher education institution

Results from the LSND Neutrino Oscillation Search

The Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector (LSND) at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility sets bounds on neutrino oscillations in the appearance channel nu_mu_bar --> nu_e_bar by searching for the signature of the reaction nu_e_bar p --> e^+ n: an e$^+$ followed by a 2.2MeV gamma ray from neutron capture. Five e^{+/-} -- gamma coincidences are observed in time with the LAMPF beam, with an estimated background of 6.2 events. The 90\% confidence limits obtained are: Delta (m^2) < 0.07eV^2 for sin^2 (2theta) = 1, and sin^2(2theta) < 6 10^{-3} for Delta (m^2) > 20 eV^2.Comment: 10 pages, uses REVTeX and epsf macro

Numerical Computations with H(div)-Finite Elements for the Brinkman Problem

The H(div)-conforming approach for the Brinkman equation is studied numerically, verifying the theoretical a priori and a posteriori analysis in previous work of the authors. Furthermore, the results are extended to cover a non-constant permeability. A hybridization technique for the problem is presented, complete with a convergence analysis and numerical verification. Finally, the numerical convergence studies are complemented with numerical examples of applications to domain decomposition and adaptive mesh refinement.Comment: Minor clarifications, added references. Reordering of some figures. To appear in Computational Geosciences, final article available at http://www.springerlink.co

Preliminary results of pheromone identification in Zygaena loti, and the potential for pheromones in burnet moth conservation.

Zygaena loti scotica (Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775) is a threatened species endemic to Western Scotland. Its known distribution is currently limited to approximately 10km2 in Western Argyll, which are under careful management for the insect’s conservation as a Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) priority species. In 2014, a small number of Z. loti were collected from Scotland and reared for pheromone identification. Headspace collection and gland extraction was carried out on two female moths, from which compounds were subsequently analysed by Gas Chromatogram Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS). Potential pheromone compounds eliciting an antennal response in males were assessed by GC-linked Electro-Antennographic-Detection (GC/EAD). Analyses revealed one potential compound present in female glands and headspace samples. Candidate pheromone lures were produced and tested at various sites in Western Argyll in order to determine behavioural responses of male Z. loti to a synthetic blend containing the previously identified compound. In this presentation the study is discussed as well as the potential for pheromones as a tool for monitoring and studying rare zygaenids

Children’s experiences of domestic violence and abuse: siblings’ accounts of relational coping

This article explores how young people see their relationships, particularly their sibling relationships, in families affected by domestic violence, and how relationality emerges in their accounts as a resource to build an agentic sense of self. The ‘voice’ of children is largely absent from domestic violence literature, which typically portrays them as passive, damaged and relationally incompetent. Children’s own understandings of their relational worlds are often overlooked, and consequently existing models of children’s social interactions give inadequate accounts of their meaning-making-in-context. Drawn from a larger study of children’s experiences of domestic violence and abuse, this paper uses two case studies of sibling relationships to explore young people’s use of relational resources, for coping with violence in the home. The paper explores how relationality and coping intertwine in young people’s accounts, and disrupts the taken for granted assumption that children’s ‘premature caring’ or ‘parentification’ is (only) pathological in children’s responses to domestic violence. This has implications for understanding young people’s experiences in the present, and supporting their capacity for relationship building in the future

Managing at the Speed of Light: Improving Mission-Support Performance

The House and Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittees requested this study to help DOE's three major mission-support organizations improve their operations to better meet the current and future needs of the department. The passage of the Recovery Act only increased the importance of having DOE's mission-support offices working in the most effective, efficient, and timely manner as possible. While following rules and regulations is essential, the foremost task of the mission-support offices is to support the department's mission, i.e., the programs that DOE is implementing, whether in Washington D.C. or in the field. As a result, the Panel offered specific recommendations to strengthen the mission-focus and improve the management of each of the following support functions based on five "management mandates":- Strategic Vision- Leadership- Mission and Customer Service Orientation- Tactical Implementation- Agility/AdaptabilityKey FindingsThe Panel made several recommendations in each of the functional areas examined and some overarching recommendations for the corporate management of the mission-support offices that they believed would result in significant improvements to DOE's mission-support operations. The Panel believed that adopting these recommendations will not only make DOE a better functioning organization, but that most of them are essential if DOE is to put its very large allocation of Recovery Act funding to its intended uses as quickly as possible

Common Cerambycid Pheromone components as attractants for Longhorn Beetles (Cerambycidae) breeding in ephemeral oak substrates in Northern Europe

Longhorn beetles are ecologically important insects in forest ecosystems as decomposers of woody substrates, microhabitat engineers, and as components of forest food webs. These species can be greatly affected both positively and negatively by modern forestry management practices, and should be monitored accordingly. Through headspace sampling, coupled gas chromatography-electroantennography, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and field bioassays, we identified two compounds, 2-methyl-1-butanol and 3-hydroxy-2-hexanone, that constitute aggregation-sex pheromone attractants of three cerambycid species which breed primarily in different types of fresh, recently dead oak wood in Northern Europe: Pyrrhidium sanguineum (L.), Phymatodes alni ssp. alni (L.), and Phymatodes testaceus (L.) (Cerambycinae: Callidiini). Analyses of headspace volatiles collected from live insects indicated that the male-produced aggregation-sex pheromone of P. sanguineum is a 1–15:100 blend of (R)-2-methyl-1-butanol and (R)-3-hydroxy-2-hexanone, whereas the corresponding ratios for P. alni were 70–110:100. In field bioassays, adult P. sanguineum and P. alni were significantly attracted to multiple blends with varying ratios of the two compounds. When tested individually, the compounds were minimally attractive. In contrast, adult P. testaceus exhibited nonspecific attraction to both of the individual compounds and to different blends, despite the hydroxyketone not being part of its pheromone, which consists of (R)-2-methyl-1-butanol alone. Overall, our results suggest that a blend of 50:100 of racemic 2-methyl-1-butanol and 3-hydroxy-2-hexanone is appropriate for parallel, cost-efficient pheromone-based monitoring of all three species. In particular, these species could serve as useful indicators of how modern forestry practices affect a whole guild of saproxylic insects that require ephemeral deadwood substrates for successful breeding