Authenticity, Identity and Sustainability in Post-war Iraq: Reshaping the Urban Form of Erbil City

Issues of authenticity and identity are particularly significant in cities where social and cultural change is shaping active transformation of its urban fabric and structure in the post-war condition. In search of sustainable future, Iraqi cities are stretched between the two ends of the spectrum, authentic quarters with its traditional fabric and modern districts with their global sense of living. This paper interrogates the reciprocal influences, distinct qualities and sustainable performance of both authentic and modern quarters of Erbil, the
capital of the Iraqi province of Kurdistan, as factors in shaping sustainable urban forms for Iraqi cities. In doing so, the paper, firstly, seeks to highlight the urban identity as an effective factor in relation to sustainable urban form. Secondly, the city of Erbil in Iraq has been chosen as a field study, due to its regional, social, political and historical role in the region. Thirdly, the study emphasises the dynamic activities and performance of residential projects according to rational sustainable criteria. The research concludes that urban identity and the sense of place in traditional and historical places should inform design strategies in order to achieve a more sustainable urban context.

Cognitive inhibition and interference in dissociative indentity disorder: the effects of anxiety on specific executive functions:The effects of anxiety on specific executive functions

Using an experimentally based, computer-presented task, this study assessed cognitive inhibition and interference in individuals from the dissociative identity disorder (DID; n=12), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD; n=12) and non-clinical (n=12) populations. Participants were assessed in a neutral and emotionally negative (anxiety provoking) context, manipulated by experimental instructions and word stimuli. The DID sample displayed effective cognitive inhibition in the neutral but not the anxious context. The GAD sample displayed the opposite findings. However, the interaction between group and context failed to reach significance. There was no indication of an attentional bias to non-schema specific negative words in any sample. Results are discussed in terms of the potential benefit of weakened cognitive inhibition during anxious arousal in dissociative individuals.

Kv1.5 is a major component underlying the A-type potassium current in retinal arteriolar smooth muscle.

Little is known about the molecular characteristics of the voltage-activated K(+) (K(v)) channels that underlie the A-type K(+) current in vascular smooth muscle cells of the systemic circulation. We investigated the molecular identity of the A-type K(+) current in retinal arteriolar myocytes using patch-clamp techniques, RT-PCR, immunohistochemistry, and neutralizing antibody studies. The A-type K(+) current was resistant to the actions of specific inhibitors for K(v)3 and K(v)4 channels but was blocked by the K(v)1 antagonist correolide. No effects were observed with pharmacological agents against K(v)1.1/2/3/6 and 7 channels, but the current was partially blocked by riluzole, a K(v)1.4 and K(v)1.5 inhibitor. The current was not altered by the removal of extracellular K(+) but was abolished by flecainide, indicative of K(v)1.5 rather than K(v)1.4 channels. Transcripts encoding K(v)1.5 and not K(v)1.4 were identified in freshly isolated retinal arterioles. Immunofluorescence labeling confirmed a lack of K(v)1.4 expression and revealed K(v)1.5 to be localized to the plasma membrane of the arteriolar smooth muscle cells. Anti-K(v)1.5 antibody applied intracellularly inhibited the A-type K(+) current, whereas anti-K(v)1.4 antibody had no effect. Co-expression of K(v)1.5 with K(v)beta1 or K(v)beta3 accessory subunits is known to transform K(v)1.5 currents from delayed rectifers into A-type currents. K(v)beta1 mRNA expression was detected in retinal arterioles, but K(v)beta3 was not observed. K(v)beta1 immunofluorescence was detected on the plasma membrane of retinal arteriolar myocytes. The findings of this study suggest that K(v)1.5, most likely co-assembled with K(v)beta1 subunits, comprises a major component underlying the A-type K(+) current in retinal arteriolar smooth muscle cells

The general and specific effects of educational programmes aimed at promoting awareness of and respect for diversity among young children

This article reports the findings of a mixed-method evaluation of a pilot educational programme undertaken with 6-7 year olds in a sample of primary schools in England with the aim of increasing their awareness of and respect for diversity through theatre, workshops and related teacher-led classroom activities. The qualitative feedback from the teachers involved was extremely positive and encouraging and an analysis of the actual impact of the pilot programme on the children’s attitudes and awareness, using an experimental design, demonstrated some positive effects. In particular, the programme was found to increase the children’s general awareness of diversity and their ability to recognise instances of exclusion. While not a planned objective of the pilot programme, the evaluation also examined whether it had any effects on the children’s attitudes to specific differences, in this particular case racial differences. Interestingly, however, no evidence was found of any change in the children’s racial attitudes. With this in mind the article suggests that there is a need to distinguish between the general and specific effects of such educational programmes. The article considers the implications of this for future work in the area and also stresses the need to undertake more thorough and rigorous evaluations of such initiatives.

The fall of kinship - towards an epidemiological explanation

Kinship used to be described as what anthropologists do. Today, many might well say that it is what anthropologists do not do. One possible explanation is that the notion of kinship fell off anthropology's radar due to the criticisms raised by Needham and Schneider among others, which supposedly demonstrated that kinship is not a sound theoretical concept. Drawing inspiration from epidemiological approaches to cultural phenomena, this article aims to enrich this explanation. Kinship became an unattractive theoretical concept in the subculture of anthropology not simply because of problems with kinship theory per se, but also on account of fundamental changes in the very conception of anthropological knowledge and the impact of these changes on the personal identity of anthropologists.

Presbyterian Religion, Historiography and Ulster Scots Identity, c. 1800 to 1914

The links between Presbyterians in Scotland and the north of Ireland are obvious but have been largely ignored by historians of the nineteenth century. This article addresses this gap by showing how Ulster Presbyterians considered their relationship with their Scottish co-religionists and how they used the interplay of religious and ethnic considerations this entailed to articulate an Ulster Scots identity. For Presbyterians in Ireland, their Scottish origins and identity represented a collection of ideas that could be deployed at certain times for specific reasons – theological orthodoxy, civil and religious liberty, and certain character traits such as hard work, courage, and soberness. Ideas about the Scottish identity of Presbyterianism were reawakened for a more general audience in the first half of the nineteenth century, during the campaign for religious reform and revival within the Irish church, and were expressed through a distinctive denominational historiography inaugurated by James Seaton Reid. The formulation of a coherent narrative of Presbyterian religion and the improvement of Ulster laid the religious foundations of a distinct Ulster Scots identity and its utilization by unionist opponents of Home Rule between 1885 and 1914.

The development of national in-group bias: English children's attributions of characteristics to English, American and German people

This study investigated the development of national in-group bias in 5-11-year-old children. Three hundred and seven English children were asked to attribute characteristics to their own national group either on its own or in conjunction with attributing characteristics to one of two national out-groups, either Americans or Germans. The importance which the children ascribed to their own national identity in relationship to their other social identities was also assessed. It was found that, with increasing age, there was an increase in the number of negative characteristics attributed to the national in-group, and an increase in the number of positive characteristics attributed to the two out-groups, the net result being an overall reduction in in-group bias across this age range. However, in-group favouritism was still exhibited at all ages. Greater importance was attributed to national identity with increasing age. However, the characteristics attributed to the English in-group did not vary as a function of the comparative out-group which was present while the attributions were being made. The presence of a comparative out-group also did not affect the importance that was ascribed to the national identity. These findings suggest that children are relatively insensitive to the prevailing comparative context when making judgments about national groups.

Home Confined Consumers: Identity Continuities and Discontinuities

Consumers confined to the home through disability or long term illness are unable to access the marketplace directly and consume through the socialization process. The consumption situation of home bound individuals is the concern of this study, specifically, issues of consumer (re) socialization and consumer identity post home confinement. The research focuses on possessions, with respect to meanings, role and the process of socialization in relation to identity. Findings indicate that the nostalgic consumption of possessions offers the ability to (re)construct the self- identity after confinement. Additionally, possessions afford opportunities to maintain continuity with former ableist identities after the discontinuity of enforced marketplace withdrawal. An individual case study illustrates this point.

The Church of Scotland and the English apocalyptic imagination, 1630-1650

This article explores the evolution of the eschatological identity of the Church of Scotland within the framework of English puritan apocalyptic thought in the period 1630–50. From the beginnings of reformation, English protestant theologians constructed an elaborate series of readings of Biblical apocalyptic texts through which they attempted to understand contemporary events. By the 1630s, English puritan exegetes had begun to identify within the Biblical text a distinctive role for Scottish Presbyterianism. The Scottish church, which, in the opinion of many English puritans, moved towards a more rigorously reformed ecclesiology as the 1630s progressed, was identified as a harbinger of the millennial glory that English puritans would shortly share. But as the relationship between Parliament and Presbytery turned sour, English puritans increasingly identified the Scottish church as the apocalyptic menace that stood in the way of their millennial fulfilment – a feeling made vivid in the rhetoric of the Cromwellian invasion.

The 1863 Melbourne Shakespeare War: Barry Sullivan, Charles and Ellen Kean, and the Play of Cultural Usurpation on the Australian Stage

This essay investigates an intricate drama of cultural identity in performances of Shakespeare on the nineteenth-century Melbourne stage. It considers the rivalry between Charles and Ellen Kean and their competitor, Barry Sullivan, for the two-month period in 1863 during which their Australian tours overlapped. This Melbourne Shakespeare war was anticipated,augmented, and richly documented in Melbourne’s papers: The Age, The Argus and Melbourne Punch. This essay pursues two seams of inquiry. The first is an investigation of the discourses of cultural and aesthetic value laced through the language of reviews of their Shakespearean roles.The essay identifies how reviewers register affective engagement with the performers in these roles, and suggests how the roles themselves reflected, by accident or design, the terms of the dispute. The second is concerned with the national identity of the actors. Kean, although born in Waterford, Ireland, had held the post of Queen Victoria’s Master of the Revels and identified himself as English. Sullivan, although born in Birmingham, was of Cork parentage and was identified as Irish by both his supporters and his detractors. This essay tracks the development of the actors’ national and artistic identities established prior to Melbourne and ask how they played out on in the context of the particularities of Australian reception. It shows that, in this instance, these actors were implicated in complex debates over national authority and cultural ownership.

Community identity as resource and context: A mixed method investigation of coping and collective action in a disadvantaged community

Community identities enhance well-being through the provision of social support and feelings of collective efficacy as well as by acting as a basis for collective action and social change. However, the precise mechanisms through which community identity acts to enhance well-being are complicated by stigmatisation which potentially undermines solidarity and collective action. The present research examines a real-world stigmatised community group in order to investigate: (1) the community identity factors that act to enhance well-being, and (2) the consequences of community identity for community action. Study 1 consisted of a household survey conducted in disadvantaged areas of Limerick city in Ireland. Participants (n=322) completed measures of community identification, social support, collective efficacy, community action, and psychological well-being. Mediation analysis indicated that perceptions of collective efficacy mediated the relationship between identification and well-being. However, levels of self-reported community action were low and unrelated to community identification. In Study 2, twelve follow–up multiple-participant interviews with residents and community group workers were thematically analysed, revealing high levels of stigmatisation and opposition to identity-related collective action. These findings suggest the potential for stigma to reduce collective action through undermining solidarity and social support.

Stigmatised Identity and Service Usage in Disadvantaged Communities: Residents’, community workers’ and service providers’ perspectives.

The impact of community stigmatisation upon service usage has been largely overlooked from a social identity perspective. Specifically, the social identity-mediated mechanisms by which stigmatisation hinders service use remain unspecified. The present study examines how service providers, community workers and residents recount their experience of the stigmatisation of local community identity and how this shapes residents’ uptake of welfare, education and community support services. Twenty individual and group interviews with 10 residents, 16 community workers and six statutory service providers in economically disadvantaged communities in Limerick, Ireland, were thematically analysed.Analysis indicates that statutory service providers endorsed negative stereotypes of disadvantaged areas as separate and anti-social. The awareness of this perceived division and the experience of ‘stigma consciousness’ was reported by residents and community workers to undermine trust, leading to under-utilisation of community and government services. We argue that stigmatisation acts as a ‘social curse’ by undermining shared identity between service users and providers and so turning a potentially cooperative intragroup relationship into a fraught intergroup one. We suggest that tackling stigma in order to foster a sense of shared identity is important in creating positive and cooperative service interactions for both service users and providers.

Dimensions of religious and national identity among Irish adolescents growing up in two jurisdictions

This poster explores the impact of growing up in different socio-political environments in the border areas of the Republic of Ireland (RoI) and Northern Ireland (NI) on adolescents’ evaluations of their religious and national identities. The vast majority of the population of the Republic of Ireland are Catholic and Irish whereas in Northern Ireland, the majority are Protestant and British. 713 adolescents (NI= 415; RoI=298), who categorised their religious identity as Catholic and their nationality as Irish completed the Collective Self – Esteem (CSE) scale (Crocker & Luhtanen, 1990) with reference to either their religious (N=350) or national identity (n=363). The overall rating of CSE for the Irish identity was significantly higher than the rating of CSE for the Catholic Identity. This result was modified by a significant interaction - adolescents in the Republic of Ireland rated the CSE of their Irish nationality higher than those in Northern Ireland (20.99 vs. 19.95), whereas adolescents in Northern Ireland rated the CSE of their Catholic religious identity higher than their peers in the Republic of Ireland (19.97 vs 18.87). Further analysis of the CSE subscales revealed differing patterns of relationships according to the scale. The evaluation of the Public Collective Self-Esteem of national and religious identities were significantly higher in the Republic of Ireland than in Northern Ireland, however Private Collective Self-esteem did not differ according to jurisdiction. These findings are discussed in relation to the social context and current theoretical accounts of collective identification processes.

An exploratory study of specialist and generalist teachers: predicting self efficacy in delivering primary physical education.

We aimed to determine whether primary school teachers’ motivational regulations to exercise and self efficacy in delivering a physical education (PE) lesson are different based on prior PE training. Two groups of qualified primary school teachers were recruited; PE specialists and a group of generalist primary school teachers who also teach PE. All teachers completed the Behavioural Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire-2, International Physical Activity Questionnaire and the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale. PE specialists demonstrated significantly higher levels of intrinsic motivation towards exercise participation and took part in more physical activity in comparison to the generalist teachers. Regression analysis showed that being a PE specialist predicted higher scores in instructional strategies and classroom management in PE. Our findings support the useof Self Determination Theory concepts in understanding teacher’s exercise participation motivations. These findings have implications for the modelling role of teachers in encouraging children to be physically active.

Evaluation of methodologies to determine vegetable oil species present in oil mixtures: Proposition of an approach to meet the EU legislation demands for correct vegetable oils labelling

Refined vegetable oils are widely used in the food industry as ingredients or components in many processed food products in the form of oil blends. To date, the generic term 'vegetable oil' has been used in the labelling of food containing oil blends. With the introduction of new EU Regulation for Food Information (1169/2011) due to take effect in 2014, the oil species used must be clearly identified on the package and there is a need for development of fit for purpose methodology for industry and regulators alike to verify the oil species present in a product. The available methodologies that may be employed to authenticate the botanical origin of a vegetable oil admixture were reviewed and evaluated. The majority of the sources however, described techniques applied to crude vegetable oils such as olive oil due to the lack of refined vegetable oil focused studies. Nevertheless, DNA based typing methods and stable isotopes procedures were found not suitable for this particular purpose due to several issues. Only a small number of specific chromatographic and spectroscopic fingerprinting methods in either targeted or untargeted mode were found to be applicable in potentially providing a solution to this complex authenticity problem. Applied as a single method in isolation, these techniques would be able to give limited information on the oils identity as signals obtained for various oil types may well be overlapping. Therefore, more complex and combined approaches are likely to be needed to identify the oil species present in oil blends employing a stepwise approach in combination with advanced chemometrics. Options to provide such a methodology are outlined in the current study.