The doors have opened on the most advanced animal hospital in Europe.

More than 10 years in the planning, the University of Glasgow’s Small Animal Hospital will have over 11,000 visits annually from across the UK and will provide a new benchmark in the care of animals.

Based within the world-leading Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, the £15million hospital will see a host of services offered, including a diagnostic suite complete with both MRI and CT scanners, a radioactive iodine unit for cats, an underwater treadmill and a pain and rehabilitation centre all of which are centred around the light and airy central treatment area.

The hospital has been constructed on the University’s Garscube Campus in Bearsden and its sloping grass roof complements its environment. A central atrium allows the hospital to be lit by natural light providing a calming ambience to anxious pets and their owners.

Professor Stuart Reid, Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, said: “The opening of new hospital is a step-change in the treatment of small animals. It represents the latest in care for pets and is the most advanced such facility in Europe.

“The patients we treat will still receive the best care available, but this will now be in the best surroundings available. With cutting edge facilities and capacity for training veterinarians at all stages of their career, the Faculty will be using the building as a flagship for its clinical provision.”

“We are delighted that the hospital is opening and look forward to welcoming patients from across the UK.”

When pets first arrive at the hospital, they are assessed in one of the thirteen new consulting rooms. From here they can be moved to any one of a number of specialist areas.

These areas include:

• - a centre for comparative oncology – the first in Scotland
• - a unique pain and rehabilitation centre with an underwater treadmill
• - a diagnostic imaging suite complete with an MRI scanner and CT scanner
• - ultra-modern operating theatres complete with cameras to allow remote viewing of procedures
• - an endoscopy suite with the most advanced endoscopy equipment available
• - purpose-built wards designed to allow the best nursing care to be delivered

The MRI and CT scanners will allow for the diagnosis of neurological conditions such as slipped discs or brain tumours. The hospital also houses a state of the art endoscopy room housing the most up to date endoscope allowing visualisation of early cancerous changes in the gut of both dogs and cats.

Dr Mark Jackson, director of the new Small Animal Hospital, explained that cancer is a key clinical discipline with an increasing number of cases being referred to the hospital each year.

Many types of cancers occur in humans and dogs and cats, and some are more common in pets such as skin cancer and breast cancer in un-neutered animals

Dr Jackson said: “Our centre for comparative oncology gives a wide range of treatment for most types of cancers in small animals.

“Pets are living longer than ever before and this is leading to the diagnosis of diseases more commonly seen in geriatric patients.

“As well as allowing us to treat these conditions, the new facilities will allow us to gain a better understanding about the development of illnesses and produce new ways to both diagnose and treat them.”

The centre also has an important role as a training hospital, where approximately 120 veterinary students and 30 veterinary nursing students will shadow specialists trained in all aspects of veterinary medicine, surgery and nursing.

Professor Stuart Reid said: “The new hospital will allow the vets of tomorrow to learn in the most advanced surrounding, allying the first-class building with access to the some of the best specialist vets in their field. As a training aid, it is unsurpassed.

“We are immensely proud of our Small Animal Hospital and feel sure it will provide a world-class service for the pet owners of the UK.”

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UNISON, the education union, today announced that its members would lobby the graduation ceremony of Glasgow College of Nautical Studies tonight (MONDAY) in its continuing campaign to reverse the college plans to close its Thistle Street nursery.

The lobby will take place at Glasgow Concert Hall, tonight (9 November) at 6.30 pm. It is not planned to interfere with the functioning of the ceremony.

Scott Donohoe, Assistant Secretary for UNISON’s Glasgow city branch said “We are using this public event to draw attention to the appalling decision by the college to close its nursery and withdraw a childcare service from students and staff.

“The college has always intended to close the nursery despite the constructive views & input of UNISON, the staff, MSP’s, parents etc. It is clear that this service cut has been driven by the prospective merger of city colleges, and it shows that this merger does not have any affordable childcare arrangements for staff and students. A major reduction in standards in the current economic climate. In the 21st century, parents with children should have a right to support to help them continue with their studies.”

UNISON has called for an Equality Impact Assessment, required under Gender Equality legislation, and which has not been carried out the union says. They have also demanded other information on the decision making process of the college and the other merger partners through a Freedom of Information request.

Scott Donohoe also points out that the union has not ruled out further industrial action. “Members have already demonstrated their commitment to action in defending this service,” he said, “and we give notice that UNISON will resist compulsory redundancies with all means at our disposal.”

The union called off industrial action on 20 August this year in return for a commitment to a joint review of nursery provision by both the college and UNISON.

The union is also writing to the Secretary of State for Education and Lifelong learning to raise the issue.

Thistle Street nursery, run by Glasgow College of Nautical Studies, is set to close in July, 2010, with the loss of 54 places for children, and 19 jobs. Nine places from the nursery have already been lost with the closure of the baby room in September this year.

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Glasgow has revised and updated its anti-bullying policy in response to a number of factors, including the increase in cyber-bullying and new legislation. The new policy will also require early years, primary and secondary schools in the city to record and report all discriminatory behaviour.

This will be done electronically and merged with the existing obligation to log all racist incidents.

Monitoring the incidence, frequency and types of bullying behaviour across establishments will allow the Council to identify trends and areas in which establishments are being particularly good or unsuccessful, in addressing an issue.

Thus, helping staff to learn and share good practice city-wide.

Since the 1980s Glasgow has led the way in anti-bullying initiatives and officials recognised that the first step in addressing bullying behaviour in schools is to recognise that it happens.

Extensive research then revealed that bullying is a bigger problem when it goes unrecognised and unacknowledged.

Glasgow’s anti-bullying policy was last updated in 1998 and there is no doubt that these measures including curriculum teaching and work with parents have made a real difference to the lives of children.

But society is changing and the nature of bullying behaviour has changed over the last 10 years and the new document and new measures reflect this.

Councillor Jonathan Findlay, Executive Member for Education at Glasgow City Council welcomes the revised policy and wholeheartedly endorses the fact that bullying behaviour will not be tolerated within Glasgow’s schools.

He said today: “We are committed to driving out bullying in all its forms. The Council and individual schools are constantly looking at new approaches to achieve this end, including innovative collaborative working with parents and pupils.

“The vast majority of our children feel safe in our schools and we know that happy, safe and confident individuals are more likely to reach their potential and maximise their attainment and achievement at school.

“This revision takes into account the changing face of bullying and the introduction over the last few years of the use of new technology and social network bullying. We have to tackle any forms of this upsetting and menacing behaviour as well as the traditional playground bullying.

“The introduction of recording and the on-going continuous professional development of our teachers and school staff in all 29 learning communities will help to understand and address issues our children are experiencing.”

The launch of the revised policy included a live dramatisation by young people from St Margaret Mary’s Secondary in Castlemilk, who took part in respectme’s recently launched anti-bullying resource CD ‘Andy’s Story’.

Respectme, the national anti-bullying network, works closely with Glasgow City Council and other local authorities.

Brian Donnelly, Director of respectme, was at the launch and said today:

“respectme commends Glasgow City Council on the launch of its revised anti-bullying policy. This robust guidance clearly sets out Glasgow’s expectations for all schools and learning communities when dealing with bullying behaviour.

“We particularly welcome the Council’s considerable commitment to training 80 key staff across the city, which will result in every learning community in Glasgow having trainers who can build anti-bullying skills and capacity locally.”

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Psychology researchers at the University of Glasgow have found the sound of the human voice can be recognised by the brain in less than one fifth of a second.

The study, conducted at the Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging in the Department of Psychology, found that the brain recognises voices within a similar time-frame as it recognises faces – after around 170ms following presentation.

Ian Charest, a PhD student who conducted the study under the supervision of Professor Pascal Belin, said: “Because human social interactions rely heavily on facial and vocal expressions, the brain is likely to have developed the ability to process them very rapidly and efficiently. Since faces and voices are usually paired together in social communication, it makes sense that the brain would process them in a similar time-frame.”

Researchers tested 32 volunteers in an experiment in which electrical signals generated by the brain were measured using EEG caps as the volunteers listened to series of sounds comprising bird songs, environmental sounds and human voices.

They observed electric potentials related to voice that had twice the amplitude as those related to bird songs and environmental sounds in less than 200 milliseconds.

Ian, from Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada added: “This knowledge may also help us understand conditions such as autism and help develop more accessible diagnostic tools. Autistic individuals have difficulties in social interactions and we observe abnormal brain activity after presentation of faces or voices in their brains.”

The study, entitled ‘Electrophysiological evidence for an early processing of human voices’ is published online by BMC Neuroscience. It was supported by grants from the Economical and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, Royal Society, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Canadian Foundation for Innovation, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Canadian Institute of Health Research, and France-Télécom.

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David Kerr

Over 1500 new jobs for Glasgow have been welcomed by the SNP candidate in the Glasgow North East by-election, David Kerr. The 1505 jobs are supported with funding from the Scottish Government.

The jobs were part of a series of announcements made by First Minister Alex Salmond and Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in their speeches to the SNP’s annual conference in Inverness as great news for Glasgow.

The First Minister announced Scottish Government grants worth over £6.8m for Glaswegian businesses – money which which will support 1505 jobs across the city.

He also spoke of the success of the Scottish Government’s ScotAction Adopt-An-Apprentice scheme which sees young people made redundant after serving only half their time offered a second chance with a new firm.

Mr Salmond vowed to fight for Glasgow’s fair share of money which the London Labour government want to spend on transport links to and regeneration of London’s East End for the Olympic Games in 2012.

The Deputy First Minister announced that the SNP Scottish Government would end the right-to-buy policy for new tenants – introduced by the Margaret Thatcher – ensuring that affordable housing is available to those who need it most.

Ms Sturgeon went on to say £300m of NHS efficiency savings are to be reinvested in frontline services.

Commenting, Mr Kerr said:

“The SNP is delivering across Scotland – and in Glasgow especially.

“While Labour have neglected Glasgow for 74 years, the SNP are committed to seeing our city thrive and we’re delivering the policies to make it happen.

“In these tough times, 1505 jobs and nearly £7 million of new investment will make a real difference in Glasgow.

“The announcements made by Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon to the SNP annual conference reflect our priorities as a party: investment in jobs and better opportunities for our young people, in health and in affordable housing for those who need it most.

“The SNP’s priorities are the same priorities as the people of Glasgow’s.

“Together, we’ve got what it takes to make our great city even better.”

• The following Glaswegian businesses have received assistance -
• LL Online Limited – Glasgow – £1,700,000 – 101 new jobs
• Matchlight Limited – Glasgow – £250,000 – 17 new jobs
• PPT (Scotland) Limited – Glasgow – £200,000 – 20 new jobs
• Sykes Global Services Limited – Glasgow – £230,000 – 60 new jobs
• Tesco Personal Finance – Glasgow – £5,000,000 – 880 new jobs
• Velos-IT Limited – Glasgow – £180,000 – 16 new jobs
• Bcerta Limited – Glasgow – £150,000 – 15 new jobs
• Caboodl Limited – Glasgow – £100,000 – 8 new jobs
• City Park Technology Centre – Glasgow – £500,000 – 120 new jobs
• Crackit Productions Limited – Glasgow – £140,000 – 10 new jobs
• Edan Communication Solutions Limited – Glasgow – £50,000 – 8 new jobs
• Esure Holdings Limited – Glasgow – £1,100,000 – 250 new jobs

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A groundbreaking educational programme created by Medics Against Violence (MAV) has today been recognised by the Scottish Policing Awards.

The programme, involving university experts, was set up to educate pupils about the dangers of getting involved in violence and weapon carrying. MAV has been running in schools across Strathclyde for almost a year.

Its founders Dr Christine Goodall, Mark Devlin and David Koppel, all of the University’s Dental School, were recognised for their outstanding contribution to Criminal Justice and Tackling Crime through the programme.

Dr Goodall said: “We are delighted that MAV’s work had been recognised in this way. When we set up Medics Against Violence we were determined to make a difference to levels of violence in Strathclyde – for us, violence is not just a justice issue, it’s a health issue: we see the outcome of violence every single day of our working lives.

“The Violence Reduction Unit and Strathclyde Police have been hugely supportive of our work and although it is still early days, if our message makes just one youngster think twice about taking a weapon with them when they leave the house, it will be worth it.”

The award also recognised the work of Campus Police Officer PC Geoff Smith in advising MAV and helping them test the programme before it was rolled out to schools across Strathclyde.

PC Smith added: “MAV’s programme is invaluable in helping educate youngsters about the dangers of violence and weapon carrying. Pupils get lots of information about the risks surrounding violence from teachers and campus officers, but to have medics who have seen first hand the physical and mental scars violence can inflict coming in to schools to speak about their experiences really gets the message home that carrying a weapon is not a good idea.

“It’s an honour to receive this award alongside them.”

MAV were nominated for the award by Violence Reduction Unit Deputy Head Karyn McCluskey.

Ms McCluskey continued: “Christine, Mark, David and their colleagues have been working with us voluntarily for the past four years through a range of different projects. Medics Against Violence is just the latest initiative in their extraordinary effort to support Scotland in its aim to drive down violence. Their dedication and effort, and that of PC Smith, has been immense and I feel privileged to work with them.”

The award was presented to MAV and PC Smith by David McKenna, Chief Executive of Victim Support Scotland.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, who was present at the awards ceremony, said: “These awards highlight many examples of how our police officers, staff and partners across Scotland work tirelessly to serve their communities.

I congratulate Medics Against Violence and PC Smith on their success. By working in partnership in this way we can continue to challenge the problem of violence in Scotland.”

Medics Against Violence was set up in December 2008 by Dr Christine Goodall and maxillofacial consultants Mark Devlin and David Koppel. The initiative is funded by £80k of government cash

MAV is backed by the national Violence Reduction Unit and the World Health Organisation as part of their Violence Prevention Alliance.

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After 45 years painstaking scholarship by the English Language department of the University of Glasgow, the world’s first historical thesaurus is to be published this week (22 October).

Professor Christian Kay

The brainchild of Professor Michael Samuels in 1964, the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary is the culmination of thousands of hours work by hundreds of research assistants, postgraduate students, university staff and volunteers.

The grand ambition was to map almost every word in the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary on to a vast classification structure where words with similar meaning are grouped together and listed in chronological order from the oldest (c700 A.D.) to the most recent.

The awe-inspiring completed work contains nearly 800,000 meanings, organised into more than 236,000 categories and subcategories collected together in 4,500 pages in two volumes. Now, for the first time ever, we can look at the English language as a whole directly in terms of meaning and gain insights into its use. The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary is a unique tool for exploring more than a millennium of language change and cultural nuance.

Professor Christian Kay, one of four editors on the project, said: “The difference between our thesaurus and Roget’s Thesaurus is that we go right back to the beginnings of English. So that, in addition to getting the words arranged by their meanings, we provide the dates during which they were current in English. We include obsolete words which are no longer in use or are only found in very special contexts. Words have different survival rates, so there are maybe 7,000 words which have been in English since the very early days and there are other words that maybe only lasted for a few years. For the first time ever, The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary puts these in context.”

The dedication, scholarship and hard work has paid off with widespread acclaim for the publication. David Crystal, Professor of linguistics at the University of Wales said: “The Oxford English Dictionary gave us individual trees, but never a sight of the whole forest or helpful pathways through it. The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary does precisely that.”

Randolph Quirk, Emeritus Quain Professor of English Language and Literature, University College London said: “This book is a magnificent achievement of quite extraordinary value. It is perhaps the single most significant tool ever devised for investigating semantic, social and intellectual history.”

Broadcaster and novelist, Melvyn Bragg said: “The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary will be outstanding and indispensable and so much fun! Who would have thought that ‘Smacker’ (one who gives loud kisses) came in 1611 – at the same time as the first King James Bible.”

Professor Kay and her three fellow editors, Jane Roberts, Michael Samuels and Irené Wotherspoon will be attending a launch party for the book on 22 October at the University of Glasgow and everyone who contributed to the Historical Thesaurus is invited to attend.

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The by-election for the Westminster parliamentary constituency of Glasgow North East will take place on Thursday, November 12, 2009. It is being held following the resignation of Michael Martin, the former Speaker of the House of Commons.

For the first time in three centuries, the speaker of the House of Commons resigned – the biggest casualty in a widening scandal in which MPs expensed such things as installing a chandelier or cleaning a moat at a country home.

Michael Martin took just 30 seconds to break with centuries of convention, announcing that in the interest of maintaining unity in Parliament’s lower house, he would leave his prestigious post on June 21 this year

“That is all I have to say on this matter,” Martin said, swiftly calling the house to order and moving on to other business. Members of Parliament who had crowded the chamber to hear the historic announcement filed out, surprised that such a moment was over in a flash.

The rest of Britain will likely not move on so easily. Since details of MPs expenses became public earlier this month, the public’s anger has intensified. Claims have included such mundane items as cookies and pet food to more costly ones such as a chandelier installation, cleaning of a moat and even mortgage payments.

Since the scandal, Gordon Brown has called for an overhaul of the system which allowed excesses, and said that Parliament can no longer self-regulate, but should hand supervision of salaries and expenses over to an independent body.

“Westminster cannot operate like some gentleman’s club, where the members make up the rules,” he said, noting that a junior minister in his government has had to step down and that two members of his party were suspended over their claims.

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Hazardous area lighting specialist, Victor Lighting has introduced a CAP 437 and ICAO compliant heli deck perimeter light to their range. The high efficiency Vanguard VL34 meets the new safety standards, applicable from January 2009, providing safer and glare free perimeter lighting for helicopter platforms. Built for challenging environments, the VL34 will withstand prolonged exposure to extreme weather and is fully IEC Ex and ATEX compliant for use in Zone 1 hazardous areas.

Like all Vanguard products, the VL34, combines sound engineering principles with advanced technology. For resilience units have epoxy coated die cast bodies allied to diffusively patterned borosilicate lamp glass and silicone gasket sealing. An optional epoxy coated galvanised steel wire guard, with or without integrated bird spike, may also be fitted. The overall assembly achieves IP66/67 rating for ingress protection.

High efficiency illumination is achieved by the use of 8 x 1W green LEDs to maximise light output and minimise power consumption. Units have a projected working life of over 80,000 hours, so re-lamping should not be required throughout the life of the unit reducing pressures on maintenance teams. The VL34 will operate efficiently between -45 to +55 degrees centigrade and has a significant advantage over conventional light sources that light output is not diminished at low temperatures.

In the event of power failure the emergency version sustains lighting for 90 minutes by the in-built battery backup. Units are suitable for 110 to 254v supply. Technical assistance is available from Victor Lighting at +44 (0) 141 810 9644 and additional information is at www.victor-lighting.com.

More Information

• Gareth Bruce, Tel. +44 (0)141 810 9644
• E-mail: gbruce@victor-lighting.com Web: www.victor-lighting.com
• Victor Lighting, PO Box 5571, Glasgow, G52 9AH, UK

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Professor Ronald MacDonald, Adam Smith Professor at Glasgow University

Leading economists, Professors Ronald MacDonald and Paul Hallwood are calling for an end to the Barnett Formula and a move to Scottish fiscal autonomy.

In their new book, The Political Economy of Financing the Scottish Government: Considering a New Constitutional Settlement for Scotland, they consider a number of alternatives to the current system, including the Calman proposal, and find all systems short of fiscal autonomy lacking.

Professor Ronald MacDonald, Adam Smith Professor at Glasgow University, said:

“The current fiscal settlement for Scotland is no longer politically tenable, nor is it economically defensible. We consider a number of alternatives to the Barnett formula, and our analysis shows that proposals like those from the Calman Commission are merely tinkering with the current system and will fail.

“What we strongly support is a quite different approach, one that would be seen as legitimate in the eyes of a significant fraction of the Scottish electorate. In such a system decision-makers, meaning the Scottish voters, their representatives – the Members of the Scottish Parliament, as well as the Scottish Government – take financial responsibility for their spending decisions. This financial responsibility can only be achieved by devolving responsibility over taxes to Scotland: what we call ‘tax devolution’.”

Professor Paul Hallwood, Professor of Economics at the University of Connecticut, said:

“Since the 1970s, Scotland has had a credible threat leave the ‘command and control’ system currently operating in the UK. Tax devolution has the great advantage of making those at Holyrood who spend taxes also bear the political cost of raising those taxes. This basic idea of fiscal accountability goes back to the works of Adam Smith himself. Whether looked at from the English or Scottish perspective, tax devolution is the logical answer to ongoing debates about budgets and bloc grants.

“There is a ‘democracy argument’ that applies in both Scotland and the rest of the UK, and we think that the Scottish electorate is intelligent enough to know and to vote its preferences. We come down firmly in favour of fiscal autonomy in which essentially most, if not all, revenues raised in Scotland – including North Sea oil revenues – are returned to Scotland.”

The authors conclude that irrespective of political questions about the constitution, fiscal autonomy, which can be designed for Scotland within the UK political union or for an independent Scotland, offers a much sharper and clearer incentive mechanism – for both the private sector and the elected representatives in Edinburgh – than either the status quo or lesser forms of fiscal federalism.

Professor Michael Artis says of the book: “The Barnett formula is doomed. These authors provide a readable and convincing guide to the alternatives. The volume is a wonderful example of what tight economic reasoning can do – its case for fiscal autonomy is unanswerable.”

Professor Michael Artis, University of Manchester and University of Swansea. Professor Artis is one of the UK’s leading macroeconomists and is Director of the University of Manchester’s Regional Economic Centre (MREC). He is also the Welsh Assembly Government Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Swansea

Atrist goes on: “Hallwood and MacDonald make a compelling case for the devolution of fiscal authority to Scotland to increase fiscal autonomy and improve fiscal performance. They suggest not only the need for such devolution but provide a careful analysis and blueprint of how to do it.”

Professor Wallace Oates, University of Maryland, USA. Professor Oates is widely regarded as the originator of the so-called fiscal federalist literature and has made numerous key contributions to this literature

Paul Hallwood is Professor of Economics at the University of Connecticut where his research interests include the fields of economic integration – from both historical and policy orientated perspectives, the economics of business organisation, and ocean policy. He acted for several years as a consultant to a major oil exporting country and previously worked at the University of Aberdeen. He and MacDonald are joint authors of a leading advanced textbook on international finance.

Ronald MacDonald is the Adam Smith Professor of Political Economy University of Glasgow. He has published widely in the areas of Macroeconomics and International Finance. He has been a consultant to a number of central banks, financial institutions and the International Monetary Fund and has advised governments on macroeconomic policy. Since the creation of the Research papers in Economics (REPEC) world ranking of Economists, he has consistently appeared in the top five per cent of this poll, one of only three economists based in Scotland to achieve this ranking.

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