UK devolution and the European Union: a tale of cooperative asymmetry?

The post 1999 devolution project has resulted in a major recalibration of the pre-existing arrangements for making European Union policy within the UK. The devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales (but not the English regions) have gained in electoral legitimacy and legislative powers, and thereby a greater claim to consultation with UK central government. Four key characteristics of EU policy making in a devolved UK are identified. The legal contingency of the 'devolveds'' status has not yet impeded traditional cooperative relations between government tiers, but the stability of the new arrangements remains in question. The UK case is compared to EU regionalisation in other member states and a distinction is drawn between a cooperative regionalist approach (the devolveds) and a consultative one (the English regions)

Optical study of interactions in a d-electron Kondo lattice with ferromagnetism

We report on a comprehensive optical, transport and thermodynamic study of the Zintl compound Yb$_{14}$MnSb$_{11}$, demonstrating that it is the first ferromagnetic Kondo lattice compound in the underscreened limit. We propose a scenerio whereby the combination of Kondo and Jahn-Teller effects provides a consistent explanation of both transport and optical data.Comment: 4 page

Multifrequency VLA observations of the FR I radio galaxy 3C 31: morphology, spectrum and magnetic field

We present high-quality VLA images of the FR I radio galaxy 3C 31 in the frequency range 1365 to 8440 MHz with angular resolutions from 0.25 to 40 arcsec. Our new images reveal complex, well resolved filamentary substructure in the radio jets and tails. We also use these images to explore the spectral structure of 3C 31 on large and small scales. We infer the apparent magnetic field structure by correcting for Faraday rotation. Some of the intensity substructure in the jets is clearly related to structure in their apparent magnetic field: there are arcs of emission where the degree of linear polarization increases, with the apparent magnetic field parallel to the ridges of the arcs. The spectral indices are significantly steeper (0.62) within 7 arcsec of the nucleus than between 7 and 50 arcsec (0.52 - 0.57). The spectra of the jet edges are also slightly flatter than the average for their surroundings. At larger distances, the jets are clearly delimited from surrounding larger-scale emission both by their flatter radio spectra and by sharp brightness gradients. The spectral index of 0.62 in the first 7 arcsec of 3C 31's jets is very close to that found in other FR I galaxies where their jets first brighten in the radio and where X-ray synchrotron emission is most prominent. Farther from the nucleus, where the spectra flatten, X-ray emission is fainter relative to the radio. The brightest X-ray emission from FR I jets is therefore not associated with the flattest radio spectra, but with a particle-acceleration process whose characteristic energy index is 2.24. The spectral flattening with distance from the nucleus occurs where our relativistic jet models require deceleration, and the flatter-spectra at the jet edges may be associated with transverse velocity shear. (Slightly abridged)Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Controls on development and diversity of Early Archean stromatolites

The ≈3,450-million-year-old Strelley Pool Formation in Western Australia contains a reef-like assembly of laminated sedimentary accretion structures (stromatolites) that have macroscale characteristics suggestive of biological influence. However, direct microscale evidence of biology—namely, organic microbial remains or biosedimentary fabrics—has to date eluded discovery in the extensively-recrystallized rocks. Recently-identified outcrops with relatively good textural preservation record microscale evidence of primary sedimentary processes, including some that indicate probable microbial mat formation. Furthermore, we find relict fabrics and organic layers that covary with stromatolite morphology, linking morphologic diversity to changes in sedimentation, seafloor mineral precipitation, and inferred microbial mat development. Thus, the most direct and compelling signatures of life in the Strelley Pool Formation are those observed at the microscopic scale. By examining spatiotemporal changes in microscale characteristics it is possible not only to recognize the presence of probable microbial mats during stromatolite development, but also to infer aspects of the biological inputs to stromatolite morphogenesis. The persistence of an inferred biological signal through changing environmental circumstances and stromatolite types indicates that benthic microbial populations adapted to shifting environmental conditions in early oceans

Empty spaces and the value of symbols: Estonia's 'war of monuments' from another angle

Taking as its point of departure the recent heightened discussion surrounding publicly sited monuments in Estonia, this article investigates the issue from the perspective of the country's eastern border city of Narva, focusing especially upon the restoration in 2000 of a 'Swedish Lion' monument to mark the 300th anniversary of Sweden's victory over Russia at the first Battle of Narva. This commemoration is characterised here as a successful local negotiation of a potentially divisive past, as are subsequent commemorations of the Russian conquest of Narva in 1704. A recent proposal to erect a statue of Peter the Great in the city, however, briefly threatened to open a new front in Estonia's ongoing 'war of monuments'. Through a discussion of these episodes, the article seeks to link the Narva case to broader conceptual issues of identity politics, nationalism and post-communist transition

Correlated metallic state of vanadium dioxide

The metal-insulator transition and unconventional metallic transport in vanadium dioxide (VO$_2$) are investigated with a combination of spectroscopic ellipsometry and reflectance measurements. The data indicates that electronic correlations, not electron-phonon interactions, govern charge dynamics in the metallic state of VO$_2$. This study focuses on the frequency and temperature dependence of the conductivity in the regime of extremely short mean free path violating the Ioffe-Regel-Mott limit of metallic transport. The standard quasiparticle picture of charge conduction is found to be untenable in metallic VO$_2$.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure