Ownership of companies in Scotland

In the August 2004 Quarterly Economic Commentary Brian Ashcroft raised important questions about corporate structure in Scotland and how far it can be characterised as unduly dominated by a few very large firms. This claim, advanced in the Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS) study Wealth Creation in Scotland (May 2004), rested on calculations that allocated to value added within Scotland all income from employment and profits generated by companies that were registered or headquartered in Scotland. In fact, as Ashcroft argues, Scotland's largest companies tend to have a majority of their workforce employed outside Scotland. Recalculating value added in Scotland to take account of this produces a significantly different picture. With the giant firms cut down to size – particularly the two big banks and the energy companies – Scotland's corporate profile falls more into line with that of other smaller European countries. This paper seeks to raise, in an explorative way, questions about another aspect of the Royal Bank argument: the assumption that all these firms can be treated as "Scottish" and their performance – compared with that of firms in Finland or Belgium - used as the key indicator of the health and competitiveness of an entity described as the "Scottish economy"

Determining the Efficacy of Magnetic Susceptibility as an Analytical Tool in the Middle Devonian Gas Bearing Shale of Taylor County, West Virginia

The magnetic susceptibility of two Middle Devonian shale units, the Mahantango Formation and Marcellus Shale, was recorded in order to determine if magnetic susceptibility could be used to predict (1) transgressive and regressive cycles, (2) brittleness, and (3) total organic content (TOC). A core from Taylor County, West Virginia was selected for this purpose.;Transgressive and regressive cycles were detected through variations of magnetic susceptibility values with maximum flooding surfaces indicated by troughs in the data and maximum regressive surfaces indicated by peaks. A sequence stratigraphic framework based upon variations in gamma ray and density measurements was used to establish a standard to gauge the accuracy of predictions made through magnetic susceptibility. It was found that the accuracy of the magnetic susceptibility method was similar to the gamma-density method in detecting a large 2nd order cycle, when both shale units were evaluated together. When the units were evaluated separately, it was found that both methods detected the same 3rd order cycles. However, within the Mahantango Formation the magnetic susceptibility method was more accurate recording 4th order cycles that the gamma-density method did not. Conversely, within the Marcellus Shale, the gamma-density method was more accurate recording 4th order cycles that the magnetic susceptibility method did not. It was concluded that the increased accuracy of the gamma-density method in the Marcellus shale was due to an increased sensitivity in the gamma ray and density logs as a response to the large amounts of TOC in the formation This increased sensitivity allowed for smaller variations to be more easily detected. The Mahantango Formation does not have large quantities of TOC. This diminished the sensitivity of the gamma and density logs allowing for the magnetic susceptibility method to be more accurate.;It was assumed that variations in brittleness are driven by transgressive and regressive cycles with ductile regions coinciding with maximum flooding surfaces and brittle regions coinciding with maximum regressive surfaces. Since magnetic susceptibility is also linked to transgressive and regressive cycles, it was expected that the sequence stratigraphy established previously could be linked to brittle and ductile couplets. The sequence stratigraphy established with the gamma-density method was also tested. Two methods of calculating a brittleness index were used to establish a baseline to test against. The first was based upon mineralogy and the second was based upon elastic properties. The brittleness index based upon mineralogy compared well to 3rd order transgressive and regressive cycle detected by both methods. Magnetic susceptibility failed to detect 4th order cycles within the Marcellus Shale, but detected 4th order cycles in the Mahantango Formation that mineralogy and elastic properties missed. The brittleness index based upon mineralogy aligns better with the sequence stratigraphy produced by the magnetic susceptibility method than with the gamma-density method. The brittleness index produced by elastic properties did not correlate with either method. Further, the brittleness index produced with elastic properties did not even correlate with the brittleness index produced by mineralogy. This disagreement cast doubt upon the effectiveness of both brittleness indices.;The relationship between magnetic susceptibility and TOC was tested along with the three most common wireline techniques in order to determine which, if any, were superior. All were judged in comparison to TOC derived from the core using Rock-Eval pyrolysis. The methods tested were: Schmoker\u27s 1983 density equation, Schmoker\u27s 1993 density equation, and the DeltalogR method. It was found that both the magnetic susceptibility of the whole rock and the magnetic susceptibility of its isolated kerogen component correlated better with core TOC values than any of the methods tested. The accuracy of the magnetic susceptibility of the whole rock was within the same order of magnitude as the other methods, and the accuracy of the magnetic susceptibility of the isolated kerogen component was an order of magnitude higher. In addition, evidence was found that links the magnetic susceptibility of kerogen within the two units to the composition of the kerogen. Vitrinite reflectance data confirms that variations in the magnetic susceptibility of the kerogen was not caused by variations in maturity. A very strong logarithmic relationship was found between the magnetic susceptibility of kerogen and the weight percent present. Using the hypothesis that variations in the amount of organic material present is linked to episodic algal blooms, it was concluded that the organic material supplied by these blooms significantly lowered the magnetic susceptibility of the organic sediment supplied during the normal habitat of the basin

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Relapse of diabetic ketoacidosis secondary to insulin pump malfunction diagnosed by capillary blood 3-hydroxybutyrate: a case report

A 14 year old female with type 1 diabetes mellitus and a subcutaneous insulin pump was treated for diabetic ketoacidosis presumed secondary to dietary indiscretion, and then restarted her subcutaneous insulin pump after exchanging the tubing. An hour later, nursing review determined that she was using outdated insulin in the pump, and it was exchanged. However, 5 hours later relapse was suggested by a rise in capillary blood 3-hydroxybutyrate, in spite of a normal serum anion gap and a minimal increase in serum bicarbonate. Insulin pump failure was suspected, and the patient was treated for relapse of diabetic ketoacidosis. Following resolution, her insulin pump was replaced without further complications. Capillary blood levels of 3-hydroxybutyrate may be sensitive, early indicators of relapse of diabetic ketoacidosis, and are easily obtained

Continued Progress: Promising Evidence on Personalized Learning

The findings are grouped into four sections. The first section on student achievement finds that there were positive effects on student mathematics and reading performance and that the lowest-performing students made substantial gains relative to their peers. The second section on implementation and the perceptions of stakeholders finds that adoption of personalized learning practices varied considerably. Personalized learning practices that are direct extensions of current practice were more common, but implementation of some of the more challenging personalized learning strategies was less common. The third section relates implementation features to outcomes and identifies three elements of personalized learning that were being implemented in tandem in the schools with the largest achievement effects. Finally, the fourth section compares teachers' and students' survey responses to a national sample and finds some differences, such as teachers' greater use of practices that support competency-based learning and greater use of technology for personalization in the schools in this study with implementation data

Communication Correlates of Employee Morale

Although several factors are related to employee morale in organiza tional settings, the single most influential factor in enhancing job satis faction and group cohesiveness is superior-subordinate communication. Yet, while a great deal of speculation exists concerning the sorts of com munication behaviors most conducive to employee satisfaction, no em pirical test has been conducted to assess specifically the relationship between communication and morale. This study undertakes such an investigation.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68753/2/10.1177_002194367801500306.pd

The development of an ideal-type model of the coaching process and an exploratory investigation into the appropriateness of the model for coaches in three sports

The initial aim of the project was to devise and present an innovative model of the sports coaching process and to conduct an exploratory investigation into its aptness an an analytical tool for developing a more explicit understanding of the behaviour of coaches. Supported by the author's considerable experience as a coach and in working with senior, experienced coaches, and an analysis and evaluation of relevant literature, a logico-deductive methodology is employed to construct an ideal-type model of the coaching process. The model is conceptualised as a continuous cyclical coil, consisting of preparation and competition units, radiating around central goals and monitored via a potential performance constant. The coil represents a direct intervention core surrounded by indirect responsibilities and the external environment. The assumptions and key concepts around which the process is devised as described and the stages of the model explored in two-dimensional flow diagrams. The factors which constrain the application of the model are identified. A panel of thirty experienced, senior coaches was invited to respond to the model. Following an analysis of the data generated from the panel of coaches, it is clear that the ideal-type model fails to offer an adequate basis for an understanding of the full-range of the coaches' behaviour. To this extent the model had a limited utility as a 'model of' the coaching process. The aims of the project were revised in order to attempt to account for the unanticipated findings. The work of Schon (1983) is employed to provide a theoretical framework which offers a more useful interpretation of the research findings. The study concludes that the ideal-type model does not provide an adequate understanding of the behaviour of the panel of coaches employed in the study, but that proposals for further research which build constructively on the systematic framework offered by the model and incorporate Schon's incrementalist approach to professional practice, offer considerable promise for the future