Philanthropy and education in Scotland

Philanthropic contributions to education have become more publicly visible in recent years, in Scotland as in many other places. Yet philanthropy used to be much more important to Scottish education than it is now. Funding from the state, from individual students, or from non-philanthropic commercial contracts remain far larger than any kind of charitable donation. The essay considers why people – now and in the past – have been inclined to make philanthropic contributions, and what would be required for there to be a truly substantial increase in philanthropy

New integrations of U Pb zircon data from Caledonian intrusions in the Southern Uplands of Scotland

The Laurentian margin in Britain and Ireland experienced the Caledonian-Acadian orogenies resulting from Palaeozoic closure of the Iapetus Ocean and accretion of Baltica and peri-Gondwanan terranes. However, the age and significance of magmatism remain contested, without a geologically consistent geodynamic reconstruction. We have interrogated the Usingle bondPb zircon record of intrusive complexes within the Southern Uplands-Down-Longford accretionary complex, focused on the Southern Uplands in Scotland. New texturally constrained laser ablation data are presented from the Carsphairn, Black Stockarton Moor, Bengairn, and Cheviot complexes. In these locations, most zircons contain poorly zoned cores with 206Pb/238U ages no older than ∼ 424 Ma, chemically comparable with younger magmatic overgrowths. Magmatic overgrowth ages confirm emplacement of Carsphairn at ∼ 414–411 Ma, Black Stockarton Moor and Bengairn at ∼ 410–408 Ma, and Cheviot at ∼ 400 Ma. Across the accretionary complex, the onset of zircon growth from ∼ 424 Ma appears to mark slab roll-back processes. Zircon cores may represent stalling and crystallisation of magmas in the deep crust, whilst emplacement into the shallow crust after ∼ 415 Ma accompanies the onset of regional transtension. We do not feel there is sufficient evidence to directly attribute magmatism to slab breakoff, despite this process being popularly championed in Scottish and Irish geology. We discuss the latest geodynamic interpretations of magmatism during the Caledonian-Acadian events, including events to the south of the Iapetus suture, and argue that complete zircon histories have a role to play in reconstruction of ancient orogens

Velocity-space sensitivity of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET

The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR

Relationship of edge localized mode burst times with divertor flux loop signal phase in JET

A phase relationship is identified between sequential edge localized modes (ELMs) occurrence times in a set of H-mode tokamak plasmas to the voltage measured in full flux azimuthal loops in the divertor region. We focus on plasmas in the Joint European Torus where a steady H-mode is sustained over several seconds, during which ELMs are observed in the Be II emission at the divertor. The ELMs analysed arise from intrinsic ELMing, in that there is no deliberate intent to control the ELMing process by external means. We use ELM timings derived from the Be II signal to perform direct time domain analysis of the full flux loop VLD2 and VLD3 signals, which provide a high cadence global measurement proportional to the voltage induced by changes in poloidal magnetic flux. Specifically, we examine how the time interval between pairs of successive ELMs is linked to the time-evolving phase of the full flux loop signals. Each ELM produces a clear early pulse in the full flux loop signals, whose peak time is used to condition our analysis. The arrival time of the following ELM, relative to this pulse, is found to fall into one of two categories: (i) prompt ELMs, which are directly paced by the initial response seen in the flux loop signals; and (ii) all other ELMs, which occur after the initial response of the full flux loop signals has decayed in amplitude. The times at which ELMs in category (ii) occur, relative to the first ELM of the pair, are clustered at times when the instantaneous phase of the full flux loop signal is close to its value at the time of the first ELM

AMINO ACID CATABOLISM AND GLUCONEOGENESIS IN SHEEP'

International audienc

A reexamination of Pleistocene tunnel valley distribution on the central Scotian Shelf

Tunnel valleys are an erosional channel characterized by anastomosing, steep-sided channel systems formed by subglacial, confined meltwater flow. Our study uses two-dimensional (2D) industry reflection seismic on the Scotian Shelf near Sable Island to better constrain the geometry of tunnel valleys in the area. Here, U- to V-shaped buried channels north and west of Sable Island extensively branch, reconnect, and meander. They average 2–5 km wide and 150–700 m deep (below sea level) and have a dominantly north–south orientation. Immediately to the south and southwest of Sable Island, the channels become narrower (1–1.5 km), shallower (300–400 m maximum) and more widely spaced. Multiple tunnel valley generations may be present, but could not be separately mapped. There is a notable gap of 20–30 km between the ends of the detectable tunnel valleys and the shelf edge south of Sable Island. An exception is erosive features at the shelf edge at the head of Logan Canyon, but these channels are disconnected from the tunnel valley network further north and may not be tunnel valleys. The reason for the gap south of Sable Island is not clear; however, we do not believe it is due to data coverage or resolution issues. If the tunnel valleys genuinely end south of Sable Island, then the gap between them and the shelf edge means that between The Gully and Logan Canyon these subglacial meltwater channels did not empty directly at the shelf edge. This implies direct meltwater and sediment delivery by tunnel valleys to the Scotian Slope during the Pleistocene may have been limited in this area. </jats:p