Circular 02/20 : capital : capital project grant support : updated arrangements for 2002/03

"This circular updates LSC Circular 01/06 and sets out the arrangements for institutions applying to the Learning and Skills Council (the Council) for capital grant support in 2002/03. It includes: revised arrangements for the receipt, assessment and determination of institutions’ applications; FE, 16 -19, ACL, DDA and SEND Act capital arrangements; FEEMS; consultation on proposals likely to affect colleges’ playing fields; applications and claims forms" -- front cover

Circular 03/16 : Success for All : recognising and rewarding excellence in colleges and other providers of further education : arrangements for premium rate funding

"In Circular 03/01, Success for All - Implementation of the framework for quality and success, the LSC consulted on arrangements to implement Government policy for assessing performance in order to recognise and reward excellence.We also sought views on arrangements for differential funding rates, as part of the development of a framework for quality and success associated with theme four of Success for All. This circular explains how the LSC has taken account of feedback from the sector and developed arrangements to recognise and reward excellence in colleges and other further education (FE) providers. These will be incorporated into the LSC’s future performance review for such providers. This circular is addressed to FE colleges, specialist designated institutions and former external institutions (independent and local authority) in respect of their FE provision. It is also of interest to higher education institutions (HEIs) with further education provision, specialist colleges for learners with learning disabilities and learning difficulties and Ufi/learndirect hubs. Further work will be undertaken with these groups of providers to enable them to be brought within the scope of premium funding arrangements" -- front cover

Circular 01/15 : quality improvement : standards fund 2001/02 : category 1e : Basic Skills Quality Initiative

"This circular provides further information on the arrangements for the basic skills quality initiative. It provides a summary of reporting requirements and templates for these reports. This circular also contains the directory of facilitators from which providers can choose their facilitator" -- front cover

Further Education Funding Council : circular 00/20 : finance : payment of funds 2000-01

"This circular provides information to institutions on the Council’s arrangements for the payment of various categories of funds. It covers the period August 2000 to July 2001. This circular is of interest to college finance directors, finance officers, heads of external institutions, heads of higher education institutions and institutions receiving Council funds" -- front cover

Circular 01/07 : quality improvement : Standards Fund 2001/02 : independent specialist colleges for students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities and dance and drama schools in receipt of DfES bursaries

"This circular provides information on categories of funding and the Council’s intended use of the standards fund for 2001/02 for independent specialist colleges for students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities and dance and drama schools in receipt of DfES bursaries. The circular indicates the initiatives that are being funded. These are: provider improvement; professional development; and dissemination of good practice.Application forms are attached at annexes B, C, D and E respectively. The circular also provides information about administrative arrangements for applications and the allocation of funds" -- front cover

Dynamics of circular arrangements of vorticity in two dimensions

The merger of two like-signed vortices is a well-studied problem, but in a turbulent flow, we may often have more than two like-signed vortices interacting. We study the merger of three or more identical co-rotating vortices initially arranged on the vertices of a regular polygon. At low to moderate Reynolds numbers, we find an additional stage in the merger process, absent in the merger of two vortices, where an annular vortical structure is formed and is long-lived. Vortex merger is slowed down significantly due to this. Such annular vortices are known at far higher Reynolds numbers in studies of tropical cyclones, which have been noticed to a break down into individual vortices. In the pre-annular stage, vortical structures in a viscous flow are found here to tilt and realign in a manner similar to the inviscid case, but the pronounced filaments visible in the latter are practically absent in the former. Interestingly at higher Reynolds numbers, the merger of an odd number of vortices is found to proceed very differently from that of an even number. The former process is rapid and chaotic whereas the latter proceeds more slowly via pairing events. The annular vortex takes the form of a generalised Lamb-Oseen vortex (GLO), and diffuses inwards until it forms a standard Lamb-Oseen vortex. For lower Reynolds number, the numerical (fully nonlinear) evolution of the GLO vortex follows exactly the analytical evolution until merger. At higher Reynolds numbers, the annulus goes through instabilities whose nonlinear stages show a pronounced difference between even and odd mode disturbances. It is hoped that the present findings, that multiple vortex merger is qualitatively different from the merger of two vortices, will motivate studies on how multiple vortex interactions affect the inverse cascade in two-dimensional turbulence.Comment: Abstract truncated. Paper to appear in Physical Review

Optical chirality from dark-field illumination of planar plasmonic nanostructures

Dark-field illumination is shown to make planar chiral nanoparticle arrangements exhibit circular dichroism in extinction analogous to true chiral scatterers. Circular dichrosim is experimentally observed at the maximum scattering of single oligomers consisting rotationally symmetric arrangements of gold nanorods, with strong agreement to numerical simulation. A dipole model is developed to show that this effect is caused by a difference in the geometric projection of a nanorod onto the handed orientation of electric fields created by a circularly polarized dark-field that is normally incident on a glass substrate. Owing to this geometric origin, the wavelength of the peak chiral response is also experimentally shown to shift depending on the separation between nanoparticles. All presented oligomers have physical dimensions less than the operating wavelength, and the applicable extension to closely packed planar arrays of oligomers is demonstrated to amplify the magnitude of circular dichroism. The realization of strong chirality in these oligomers demonstrates a new path to engineer optical chirality from planar devices using dark-field illumination

Circular 01/10 : reorganisations : further education corporation reorganisations and rationalisation fund support

"This circular confirms the arrangements for consideration by the Learning and Skills Council (the Council) of proposals for further education corporation reorganisations(including mergers), applications for support from the Council’s Rationalisation Fund 1999-2002, in 2001/02, and applications for name changes. It confirms the criteria and procedures for the dissolution and establishment of further education corporations, arrangements for transfer of further education corporations to the higher education sector, and the criteria and procedures for applying for financial support from the Rationalisation Fund" -- front cover

Circular 02/19 : quality and standards : reviewing performance : refined arrangements for colleges and providers from October 2002

"This circular is addressed to colleges and providers funded by the Learning and Skills Council, their representative bodies, learners and their representative bodies, inspectorates, awarding bodies and all other stakeholders with an interest in post-16 learning. It does not apply to school sixth forms. It provides details of the refined performance review framework to be introduced by the Council during October 2002 and outlines the analysis of the responses to consultative Circular 02/05 Performance Review: Arrangements for Colleges and Other Providers" -- front cover

Circular 02/03 : data collection : collection arrangements on learner data

"This circular is for consultation. It sets out the medium-term strategy of the Learning and Skills Council (the Council) for collecting data on learners and provides details of the proposed content of the Individualised Learner Record for further education institutions and work based learning providers for 2002/03" -- front cover