A practice focussed study of outdoor learning in five Scottish secondary schools 2011-2019

This thesis employs a social constructionist approach to explore the practices of outdoor learning [OL] enacted in five Scottish secondary schools and to consider local and temporal conditions that enabled and constrained practices across two time periods, 2011 and 2019. Continuities and discontinuities in practices are revealed. The decision to consider OL in Scottish secondary schools is in response to an identified gap in the research literature. Scotland’s OL curriculum policy is recognised as world-leading and teacher dispositions to OL positive. However, despite calls for a more embedded curricular role, the sparse literature available suggests minimal practice changes. The literature positions OL as an evolving and contested term, which encapsulates a range of purposes and approaches linked to physical, affective, and environmental learning outcomes. OL’s relationship to the Scottish curriculum has been marked by peaks and troughs of interest and support, reflecting temporal policy, social and cultural forces. A widening poverty-related attainment gap and rising mental health and wellbeing concerns in schools are manifestations of rising precarity and austerity during the years of 2011-2019. The timescale of this study presents an opportunity to consider current factors shaping OL practices. A qualitative inductive, deductive and abductive analysis framework is applied to teachers’ semi-structured interview data. Practice Architecture [PA] Theory was applied to reveal sayings, doings and relatings across a typology of OL that featured five distinctive types. Distinctive sayings, doings and relatings for three different types of OL; OL-as-Physical-Activity, OL-as-Pupil-Support and OL-asCurriculum, update our understanding of practices within secondary schools. A number of residual, dominant and emergent features are identified. Four overarching themes conclude that OL is: malleable, shaped by contexts and individuals, peripheral, potentially powerful as a pedagogy of affect and integral for some young people. An OL lens illuminates curriculum-making challenges within Scottish secondary schools. Implications for practice at Scottish education and school level are outlined.This thesis employs a social constructionist approach to explore the practices of outdoor learning [OL] enacted in five Scottish secondary schools and to consider local and temporal conditions that enabled and constrained practices across two time periods, 2011 and 2019. Continuities and discontinuities in practices are revealed. The decision to consider OL in Scottish secondary schools is in response to an identified gap in the research literature. Scotland’s OL curriculum policy is recognised as world-leading and teacher dispositions to OL positive. However, despite calls for a more embedded curricular role, the sparse literature available suggests minimal practice changes. The literature positions OL as an evolving and contested term, which encapsulates a range of purposes and approaches linked to physical, affective, and environmental learning outcomes. OL’s relationship to the Scottish curriculum has been marked by peaks and troughs of interest and support, reflecting temporal policy, social and cultural forces. A widening poverty-related attainment gap and rising mental health and wellbeing concerns in schools are manifestations of rising precarity and austerity during the years of 2011-2019. The timescale of this study presents an opportunity to consider current factors shaping OL practices. A qualitative inductive, deductive and abductive analysis framework is applied to teachers’ semi-structured interview data. Practice Architecture [PA] Theory was applied to reveal sayings, doings and relatings across a typology of OL that featured five distinctive types. Distinctive sayings, doings and relatings for three different types of OL; OL-as-Physical-Activity, OL-as-Pupil-Support and OL-asCurriculum, update our understanding of practices within secondary schools. A number of residual, dominant and emergent features are identified. Four overarching themes conclude that OL is: malleable, shaped by contexts and individuals, peripheral, potentially powerful as a pedagogy of affect and integral for some young people. An OL lens illuminates curriculum-making challenges within Scottish secondary schools. Implications for practice at Scottish education and school level are outlined

Space-time evolution of electron cascades in diamond

Here we describe model calculations to follow the spatio-temporal evolution of secondary electron cascades in diamond. The band structure of the insulator has been explicitly incorporated into the calculations as it affects ionizations from the valence band. A Monte-Carlo model was constructed to describe the path of electrons following the impact of a single electron of energy E 250 eV. The results show the evolution of the secondary electron cascades in terms of the number of electrons liberated, the spatial distribution of these electrons, and the energy distribution among the electrons as a function of time. The predicted ionization rates (5-13 electrons in 100 fs) lie within the limits given by experiments and phenomenological models. Calculation of the local electron density and the corresponding Debye length shows that the latter is systematically larger than the radius of the electron cloud. This means that the electron gas generated does not represent a plasma in a single impact cascade triggered by an electron of E 250 eV energy. This is important as it justifies the independent-electron approximation used in the model. At 1 fs, the (average) spatial distribution of secondary electrons is anisotropic with the electron cloud elongated in the direction of the primary impact. The maximal radius of the cascade is about 50 A at this time. As the system cools, energy is distributed more equally, and the spatial distribution of the electron cloud becomes isotropic. At 90 fs maximal radius is about 150 A. The Monte-Carlo model described here could be adopted for the investigation of radiation damage in other insulators and has implications for planned experiments with intense femtosecond X-ray sources.Comment: 26 pages, latex, 13 figure

A 15.7-minAM CVn binary discovered in K2

We present the discovery of SDSS J135154.46−064309.0, a short-period variable observed using 30-mincadence photometry in K2 Campaign 6. Follow-up spectroscopy and high-speed photometry support a classification as a new member of the rare class of ultracompact accreting binaries known as AM CVn stars. The spectroscopic orbital period of 15.65 ± 0.12 min makes this system the fourth-shortest-period AM CVn known, and the second system of this type to be discovered by the Kepler spacecraft. The K2 data show photometric periods at 15.7306 ± 0.0003 min, 16.1121 ± 0.0004 min, and 664.82 ± 0.06 min, which we identify as the orbital period, superhump period, and disc precession period, respectively. From the superhump and orbital periods we estimate the binary mass ratio q = M2/M1= 0.111 ± 0.005, though this method of mass ratio determination may not be well calibrated for helium-dominated binaries. This system is likely to be a bright foreground source of gravitational waves in the frequency range detectable by Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, and may be of use as a calibration source if future studies are able to constrain the masses of its stellar components

Survey of nucleon electromagnetic form factors

A dressed-quark core contribution to nucleon electromagnetic form factors is calculated. It is defined by the solution of a Poincare' covariant Faddeev equation in which dressed-quarks provide the elementary degree of freedom and correlations between them are expressed via diquarks. The nucleon-photon vertex involves a single parameter; i.e., a diquark charge radius. It is argued to be commensurate with the pion's charge radius. A comprehensive analysis and explanation of the form factors is built upon this foundation. A particular feature of the study is a separation of form factor contributions into those from different diagram types and correlation sectors, and subsequently a flavour separation for each of these. Amongst the extensive body of results that one could highlight are: r_1^{n,u}>r_1^{n,d}, owing to the presence of axial-vector quark-quark correlations; and for both the neutron and proton the ratio of Sachs electric and magnetic form factors possesses a zero.Comment: 43 pages, 17 figures, 12 tables, 5 appendice

The SN Ia runaway LP 398-9 : detection of circumstellar material and surface rotation

A promising progenitor scenario for Type Ia supernovae (SNeIa) is the thermonuclear detonation of a white dwarf in a close binary system with another white dwarf. After the primary star explodes, the surviving donor can be spontaneously released as a hypervelocity runaway. One such runaway donor candidate is LP 398-9, whose orbital trajectory traces back ≈105 yr to a known supernova remnant. Here, we report the discovery of carbon-rich circumstellar material around LP 398-9, revealed by a strong infrared excess and analysed with follow-up spectroscopy. The circumstellar material is most plausibly composed of inflated layers from the star itself, mechanically and radioactively heated by the past companion’s supernova. We also detect a 15.4 h periodic signal in the UV and optical light curves of LP 398-9, which we interpret as surface rotation. The rotation rate is consistent with theoretical predictions from this supernova mechanism, and the brightness variations could originate from surface inhomogeneity deposited by the supernova itself. Our observations strengthen the case for this double-degenerate SNIa progenitor channel, and motivate the search for more runaway SNIa donors

The SNIa runaway LP 398-9: detection of circumstellar material and surface rotation

A promising progenitor scenario for Type Ia supernovae (SNeIa) is the thermonuclear detonation of a white dwarf in a close binary system with another white dwarf. After the primary star explodes, the surviving donor can be spontaneously released as a hypervelocity runaway. One such runaway donor candidate is LP 398-9, whose orbital trajectory traces back ≈10 5 years to a known supernova remnant. Here we report the discovery of carbon-rich circumstellar material around LP 398-9, revealed by a strong infrared excess and analyzed with follow-up spectroscopy. The circumstellar material is most plausibly composed of inflated layers from the star itself, mechanically and radioactively heated by the past companion's supernova. We also detect a 15.4 hr periodic signal in the UV and optical light curves of LP 398-9, which we interpret as surface rotation. The rotation rate is consistent with theoretical predictions from this supernova mechanism, and the brightness variations could originate from surface inhomogeneity deposited by the supernova itself. Our observations strengthen the case for this double-degenerate SNIa progenitor channel, and motivate the search for more runaway SNIa donors

Swimming against the tide: A case study of an integrated social studies department

A recent trend in developed countries’ school curricula has been the transition from disciplinary to generic forms of knowledge, resulting in an emphasis on interdisciplinary organisation and more active forms of learning. Subject specialists are increasingly expected to demonstrate how their subject interconnects and equips pupils with key life skills. Such a change requires a major cultural shift and has been controversial, particularly in Scotland where Curriculum for Excellence, the latest curriculum reform, has seen this debate re-emerge. A detailed empirical case study of one secondary school Social Studies department that has already negotiated these shifts is presented. The case study provides insights into how school and department structures and cultures conducive to a more integrated approach have been developed. Leadership, increased opportunities for teachers to exercise greater autonomy in their work, sources of impetus and support for innovation, and the co-construction of meaning through dialogue are important themes in this process. This case study connects with current policy and provides an insight into strategies that other schools might employ when seeking to embed integrative practices. The department is identified as a significant locus for innovation and one which appears to challenge the norm

Wholesale pricing in a small open economy

This paper addresses the empirical analysis of wholesale profit margins using data of the Dutch wholesale sector, 1986. At the heart of the analysis is the typical nature of wholesale production: wholesalers do not produce a tangible product, but offer a service capacity. This has an immediate impact on the identification, interprelation and measurement of determinants of profit variations. A model is set up to explain variations in wholesale profit margins, which is inspired by two widely applied approaches to industry pricing: the behavioural mark-up model and the marginalist price-cost model

TIC 378898110: A bright, short-period AM CVn binary in TESS

AM CVn-type systems are ultracompact, helium-accreting binary systems which are evolutionarily linked to the progenitors of thermonuclear supernovae and are expected to be strong Galactic sources of gravitational waves detectable to upcoming space-based interferometers. AM CVn binaries with orbital periods ≲ 20–23 min exist in a constant high state with a permanently ionised accretion disc. We present the discovery of TIC 378898110, a bright (G = 14.3 mag), nearby (309.3 ± 1.8 pc), high-state AM CVn binary discovered in TESS two-minute-cadence photometry. At optical wavelengths this is the third-brightest AM CVn binary known. The photometry of the system shows a 23.07172(6) min periodicity, which is likely to be the ‘superhump’ period and implies an orbital period in the range 22–23 min. There is no detectable spectroscopic variability. The system underwent an unusual, year-long brightening event during which the dominant photometric period changed to a shorter period (constrained to 20.5 ± 2.0 min), which we suggest may be evidence for the onset of disc-edge eclipses. The estimated mass transfer rate, log(M˙ /M⊙yr−1 ) = −6.8±1.0, is unusually high and may suggest a high-mass or thermally inflated donor. The binary is detected as an X-ray source, with a flux of 9.2+4.2 −1.8 ×10−13 erg cm−2s−1 in the 0.3–10 keV range. TIC 378898110 is the shortest-period binary system discovered with TESS, and its large predicted gravitational-wave amplitude makes it a compelling verification binary for future space-based gravitational wave detectors