Law and Legacy in Medical Jurisprudence

Graeme Laurie stepped down from the Chair in Medical Jurisprudence at the University of Edinburgh in 2019. This edited collection pays tribute to his extraordinary contributions to the field. Graeme often spoke about the importance of 'legacy' in academic work and forged a remarkable intellectual legacy of his own, notably through his work on genetic privacy, human tissue and information governance, and the regulatory salience of the concept of liminality. The essays in this volume animate the concept of legacy to analyse the study and practice of medical jurisprudence. In this light, legacy reveals characteristics of both benefit and burden, as both an encumbrance to and facilitator of the development of law, policy and regulation. The contributions reconcile the ideas of legacy and responsiveness and show that both dimensions are critical to achieve and sustain the health of medical jurisprudence itself as a dynamic, interdisciplinary and policy-engaged field of thinking.

John Erskine z Carnock (1695–1768) — adwokat, profesor Uniwersytetu w Edynburgu, pisarz instytucjonalny

John Erskine of Carnock (1695–1768) — jurist, professor at the University of Edinburgh, institutional writer The article is an attempt to describe John Erskine — a Scottish advocate, the second person to hold the chair of Scottish law at the University of Edinburgh, and an institutional writer. The author of An Institute and Principles largely abandoned the comparative approach of his predecessors in favour of a systematic interpretation of Scottish law enriched with scholarly reflection on its nature, whilst taking into proper account the current state of Scottish case law. Erskine’s works have not only provided a foundation for the education of many generations of Scottish jurists, but having found recognition in the eyes of Scottish jurisprudence, they have secured for themselves the status of a subsidiary source of law, and for their author, a great deal of respectability. John Erskine von Carnock (1695–1768) — Rechtsanwalt, Professor an der Universität Edinburgh, institutioneller Schreiber Gegenstand des Beitrags ist der Versuch die Gestalt von John Erskine zu schildern. Er war schottischer Rechtsanwalt, zweite Person, die den Posten des Professors für schottisches Recht an der Universität Edinburgh bekleidete und zugleich ein institutioneller Schreiber. Der Verfasser von Institutionen und Grundsätzen verzichtete überwiegend auf die komparatistische Auffassung seiner Vorgänger zugunsten des systematischen Vortrages des schottischen Rechts, bereichert um wissenschaftliche Reflexion seinen Charakter betreffend, unter gleichzeitiger Berücksichtigung des aktuellen Standes der schottischen Rechtsprechung. Die Werke von Erskine stellten nicht nur ein Fundament der Edukation vieler Generationen schottischer Juristen dar, aber nachdem sie durch die schottische Jurisprudenz anerkannt wurden, sicherten sie sich auch den Status einer subsidiären Rechtsquelle, und dem Autor dieser Werke — großen Respekt.

Fundamentals of Music Theory

This open e-book is the result of a project funded by a University of Edinburgh Student Experience Grant, Open e-Textbooks for access to music education. The project was a collaboration between Open Educational Resources Service, and staff and student interns from the Reid School of Music. As a proof-of-concept endeavour, the project aimed to explore how effectively we could convert existing course content into convenient and reusable open formats suitable for use by staff and students both within and beyond the University. The resulting e-book presents open licensed educational materials that deal with the building blocks of musical stave (sometimes known as staff) notation, a language designed to communicate about musical ideas which is in use around the world. The resources in this e-book include video lectures and their transcripts, as well as supporting text explanations, examples and illustrations. The materials introduce topics such as the organisation of discrete pitches into scales and intervals, and temporal organisation of musical sounds as duration, in rhythm and metre. These rudiments are presented through an introduction to the elements of five-line stave notation, and through critical discussion of the advantages and limitations served by notational systems in the representation and analysis of musical sounds. This serves as the basis of further explanations, to illustrate musical concepts including key, time signature, harmonisation, cadence and modulation. We anticipate that subsequent versions of this e-book will update and develop the contents and presentation of the materials, following the success of this student-led collaboration.

VIKING II, a Worldwide Observational Cohort of Volunteers with Northern Isles Ancestry

Introduction: The purpose of VIKING II is to create an observational cohort of volunteers with ancestry from the Northern Isles of Scotland, primarily for identifying genetic variants influencing disease. The new online protocol is separate to, but follows on from, earlier genetic epidemiological clinic-based studies in the isolated populations of Orkney and Shetland. These populations are favourable for the study of rarer genetic variants due to genetic drift, the large number of relatives, and availability of pedigree information. Methods and Analysis: Online methods are being used to recruit ~4,000 people who have Northern Isles ancestry, living anywhere in the world. The option for participants to have actionable genetic results returned is offered. Broad consent will be taken electronically. Data will be collected at baseline through an online questionnaire and longitudinally through linkage to NHS data in the electronic health record. The questionnaire collects a variety of phenotypes including personal and family health. DNA will be extracted from saliva samples then genome-wide genotyped and exome sequenced. VIKING II aims to capitalise on the special features of the Northern Isles populations to create a research cohort that will facilitate the analysis of genetic variants associated with a broad range of traits and disease endpoints. Ethics and Dissemination The South East Scotland Research Ethics Committee gave the study a favourable opinion. VIKING II is sponsored by the University of Edinburgh and NHS Lothian. Summary research findings will be disseminated to participants and funding bodies, presented at conferences and reported in peer-reviewed publications.

Dr. Subhash Mukhopadhyay, The Unsung Indian-Bengali Hero

India is the brain hub of the world’s scientific research. When it comes to Indian science, how can one forget the contributions of Bengal, and Kolkata? If you calculate the number of Nobel prize winners from India, you will find an astounding majority of them are connected to Kolkata. Dr. CV Raman was highly connected to the Indian Association of Cultivation of Science [IACS], Kolkata where he did the major work which brought him the Nobel Prize in 1930.[1,2] In 1917, he was appointed to the Palit chair of physics at Raza bazar Science College, University of Calcutta.[1] Yet surprisingly, many researchers in Bengal were unrecognized and didn’t receive their deserved fame. Their work sang but they were unsung. In this editorial, we try to know about one such legendary Indian Physician-Doctor who hadn’t received the proper recognition he deserved. Dr. Subhash Mukhopadhyay was an extraordinary Indian Physician Researcher who was born on 16th January 1931 in Hazaribagh, India [3]. At the University of Edinburgh, he did an extraordinary work on hormones. Title of his thesis was, “Some Observations on The Biological Assay of Gonadotropic Hormones”. You can read the full thesis PDF from the following link present at Archives of University of Edinburgh,[4]. Before him, there was no great way to detect the levels of this hormone, but his remarkable work in this field opened many avenues for which he also received his second PhD. He is famous for India’s first and world’s second In Vitro Fertilization [IVF] work.

Changing the way stories are told: Engaging staff and students in improving Wikipedia content about women in Scotland

The University of Edinburgh was the first UK university to employ a Wikimedian-in-Residence (WiR) to support students and staff across the whole university. Over the last five years, the project aimed to develop information literacy and digital research skills and to address the gender disparity of editors and participants in the community. The project has demonstrated the University of Edinburgh’s commitment to foster staff and student engagement as active digital citizens of the world and was awarded the 2019 Herald Higher Education Award for “Innovative Use of Technology in the Curriculum.” The residency also focuses on addressing the content on gender gaps and improving coverage of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Our first Wikipedia edit-a-thon in 2015 was based on “the Edinburgh Seven”—the first women to study medicine at the University. The WiR collaborated with the University archives team to develop an exhibit celebrating Scotland’s Suffragettes and facilitated a student internship that was awarded the Digital Humanities Award for Best Data Visualization 2019 for the Wikidata Map of Accused Witches in Scotland. This chapter will showcase stories of student engagement and collaboration inside and outside the curriculum, providing exemplars of how students have engaged with, and been intrinsically motivated by, researching and publishing their scholarship online in a real-world application of their learning. This chapter will also outline why employing a Wikimedian-in-Residence, alongside other learning technologists and digital skills trainers, is a worthwhile return of investment for universities.

Assessment of Dependency of Unsteady Onset Flow and Resultant Tidal Turbine Fatigue Loads on Measurement Position at a Tidal Site

This work determines the variation in the fatigue loading on a tidal turbine at two depth positions and two different locations within a site. Site data were obtained at the European Marine Energy Centre, EMEC, test facility in Scotland, which has been compiled at the University of Edinburgh. The turbine modelled is the 18m Diameter DEEP-gen 1MW horizontal axis turbine. A blade element method is combined with a synthetic turbulence inflow to determine forces along the blade over a period of five tidal cycles. The focus is on establishing the difference between the loads at one tidal site, with an emphasis on the variety of turbulent conditions, with the onset flow fluctuations as great as 17% and the average integral lengthscales varying from 11 to 14 m at hub height. Fatigue loading is assessed using damage equivalent loads, with a 30% variation between turbine positions and 32% between turbine locations within a site, for one design case. When long term loading is assessed, a 41% difference is found for aggregated loads for a near surface turbine and a 28% difference for a near bed turbine.

First person – Chloe Stanton

ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Disease Models & Mechanisms, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Chloe Stanton is first author on ‘ A mouse model of brittle cornea syndrome caused by mutation in Zfp469’, published in DMM. Chloe is a postdoc in the lab of Dr Veronique Vitart at The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK, investigating the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying eye diseases.

An interview with Jamie Davies

Jamie Davies is Professor of Experimental Anatomy at the University of Edinburgh. Spanning the fields of developmental biology, tissue engineering and synthetic biology, his research aims to understand the mechanisms by which cells organise themselves into tissues, focussing on the kidney. In addition to his research, Jamie is involved in science communication and public engagement, having written several books for specialist and non-specialist readers, and having given numerous public lectures and broadcasts. In April 2021, Jamie was awarded the inaugural Wolpert Medal from the British Society for Developmental Biology (BSDB), which is presented to outstanding developmental biologists who have made a significant contribution to teaching and communicating developmental biology in the UK. We spoke to Jamie to ask him about his cross-disciplinary research interests, his thoughts on public engagement and his advice for young researchers.