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The Scottish Diaspora : Understanding and Engaging Scotland's Global Community
Get PDFThe Scottish Government’s [SG] Scottish Connections Framework underscores the profound importance of Scotland’s diaspora, envisioning it as an ‘extension of Scotland itself – our living bridge with people, organisations, and communities around the world’.1 The Scottish Connections Framework recognises that connecting with the global Scottish community brings significant benefits—not only for Scotland’s economy and culture, but also for how Scotland builds relationships and strengthens its reputation around the world. From the very beginning, this work has been supported by detailed research into Scotland’s global diaspora —the many people with Scottish roots and connections who live across the world. This report shares new insights based on data gathered through a survey carried out in the spring and summer of 2025. The survey itself was not created just for this report: it is part of ongoing research exploring patterns of diaspora connections that had already started to emerge in an earlier study of Scots living in continental Europe. In this report, we take a closer look at the new survey data, alongside the comments and stories shared by survey participants. Together, these help paint a picture of how Scotland’s different diasporas see their connection to Scotland, how engaged they feel, and where there might be new opportunities to strengthen those bonds in the future
From pirates to professionals : retaining a sense of integration during venture scaling
Get PDFOur paper explains how organizations can build and sustain internal member identification during rapidly scaling transitions. Using a longitudinal case study of a UK scaling firm, we show how organizational members follow a recursive process of retaining and forgoing the past and foreseeing the future to create a transitional organizational identity through transitionary identity work. Key to such identity work is identification‐based trust, which embraces being valued, having confidence in colleagues and being aligned with company values. Such identification‐based trust generates positive emotions and holds a scaling firm together while it changes. Our study contributes to the literature on identity transition, showing how integration can be achieved in underexplored settings of chaotic and unstable change
Characterization and automated optimization of laser-driven proton beams from converging liquid sheet jet targets
No full textCompact, stable, and versatile laser-driven ion sources hold great promise for applications ranging from medicine to materials science and fundamental physics. While single-shot sources have demonstrated favorable beam properties, including the peak fluxes necessary for several applications, high-repetition-rate operation will be necessary to generate and sustain the high average flux needed for many of the most exciting applications of laser-driven ion sources. Further, to navigate through the high-dimensional space of laser and target parameters toward experimental optima, it is essential to develop ion acceleration platforms compatible with machine learning techniques and capable of autonomous real-time optimization. Here, we present a multi-Hz ion acceleration platform employing a liquid sheet jet target. We characterize the laser-plasma interaction and the laser-driven proton beam across a variety of key parameters governing the interaction using an extensive suite of online diagnostics. We also demonstrate real-time, closed-loop optimization of the ion beam maximum energy by tuning the laser wave front using a Bayesian optimization scheme. This approach increased the maximum proton energy by 11% compared to a manually optimized wave front by enhancing the energy concentration within the laser focal spot, demonstrating the potential for closed-loop optimization schemes to tune future ion accelerators for robust high-repetition-rate operation
From the Titanic era to the AI era: a rational framework for life-cycle damage stability and flooding risk management of passenger ships
Get PDFMaritime accidents involving passenger ships have long influenced industry approaches to ship design, emphasizing resilience and fail-safe performance following flooding events. Consequently, regulatory frameworks have focused predominantly on damage containment and emergency response rather than on accident prevention. This emphasis is reinforced by largely rules-based regulations that apply mainly to newbuildings and reflect legacy assumptions that have not kept pace with modern technological advances. As a result, many existing ships operate under comparatively lower safety standards, with limited means to sustain or enhance safety during operation. Meanwhile, progress in accident prevention has been modest, failing to capitalize on contemporary developments that could offer cost-effective and transformative safety improvements. There is a clear need for a paradigm shift from post-accident protection toward proactive accident prevention, with the ultimate objective of eliminating loss of life at sea. This paper proposes such a shift and outlines the essential elements required to design and operate fundamentally safer ships
A systematic review of ecological momentary assessment procedures of self-harm (with and without suicidal intent) studies in adolescents and young adults
Get PDFEcological momentary assessment (EMA) captures real-time data on thoughts, emotions, and behaviours within individuals’ natural environments. Although EMA has been increasingly used to examine self-harm, existing reviews have not focused specifically on adolescents. This systematic review examines EMA research on adolescent self-harm, focusing on methodological considerations and key risk and protective factors for self-harm. Five databases, plus pre-print, unpublished and grey literature sources, were searched up to 30 January 2024. Studies were included if published in English, used EMA methodology, included adolescents aged 10–24 years and measured suicidal ideation, suicidal behaviours, or self-harm. The review included 79 studies, published from 2009 to the present. Self-harm was associated with numerous risk factors, including negative affect, stress, interpersonal influences and sleep. EMA was generally well-accepted by adolescent participants, with high compliance rates. The findings highlight the value of EMA in capturing real-time fluctuations in self-harm and associated risk factors among adolescents. EMA demonstrates strong potential for improving understanding and prediction of self-harm; yet challenges remain, including variability in study designs and a lack of clear reporting of the methodologies. Future research should focus on standardising methodologies, increasing participant diversity, and exploring the clinical utility of EMA in early intervention and prevention strategies
70 years of Scottish National Accounts : 1948-2018
No full textThis paper provides a comprehensive time series of historical National Accounts for Scotland (onshore and offshore) from 1948 to 2018. It includes a detailed breakdown by income component and industrial sector using methods that are forward and backward compatible. Through this work we offer new insights on the performance of the post-war Scottish economy, including its relative performance to the UK and its industrial makeup. Our findings also provide, for the first time, a full picture of the totality of Scotland's economy over the last 70 years by incorporating an estimate of North Sea oil and gas gross value added from within Scotland's territorial waters
Scotland’s Budget Report 2026-27
Get PDFWhile UK Budget consequentials and economic developments have eased day-to-day spending pressures, Shona Robison will have her work cut out to decide how to plug a £1 billion-plus gap in capital spending plans she announced just over six months ago. Rachel Reeves’ November Budget increased funding for next year by £300 million through the Barnett formula. Further improvements to tax and social security forecasts boost funding by an additional £450 million
First-principles mechanism of TDMAH adsorption on pristine and laser-functionalized graphene toward area-selective atomic layer deposition of HfO₂
No full textHafnium oxide (HfO2) is a leading high-κ dielectric for advanced graphene-based field-effect transistor yet achieving conformal and defect-free HfO2 films on graphene remains challenging. The chemical inertness of pristine graphene suppresses precursor chemisorption during atomic layer deposition (ALD), resulting in discontinuous coverage and increased gate-leakage currents. Two-photon laser oxidation (2PLO) is a promising approach to introduce oxygen-containing groups that enhance surface reactivity, but a systematic atomistic comparison of TDMAH adsorption on pristine graphene and oxygen-functionalized graphene has not yet been reported. This study employs first-principles density functional theory (DFT) to investigate the adsorption behaviour of tetrakis(dimethylamido)hafnium (TDMAH) on graphene during the initial half-cycle of ALD. Adsorption energy, charge density difference (CDD), projected density of states (PDOS) and Bader charge analyses reveal that pristine graphene exhibits weak physisorption, hydroxyl and carboxyl groups promote strong chemisorption, whereas epoxide groups show intermediate behaviour. A higher density of oxygen functionalities is suggested to provide more nucleation sites and uniform HfO2 growth. These findings explain the nucleation delay on inert region and define a practical selectivity window during early growth stages. The results provide an atomistic framework for interpreting selective ALD behaviour on graphene and support process optimisation for dielectric integration in advanced nanoelectronics and quantum applications
Increased expression of aromatase after focal cerebral ischemia : relevance to neuroprotection and functional recovery
Get PDFAim Aromatase is the key enzyme in the biosynthesis of 17β-estradiol, the most potent estrogen, which has pleiotropic neuroprotective properties. Aromatase levels increase in the brain after stroke, and its gene variants increase susceptibility to stroke. This study aims to determine whether aromatase overexpression improves stroke outcome and whether aromatase inhibition exacerbates outcome after permanent focal cerebral ischemia. Methods/Design All animals (3–4 months old) underwent permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) by diathermy. Time course of aromatase expression following MCAO in female ovariectomized spontaneously hypertensive stroke prone (SHRSP) rats was assessed by semi-quantitative immunohistochemistry and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). The effect of aromatase expression on stroke outcome was assessed using a male mouse model over-expressing aromatase (Dax-1 KO mice) and by letrozole treatment. Volume of ischemic damage was assessed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and functional recovery was assessed by the corner test and foot-fault test. All analyses were performed using GraphPad Prism version 9.0. Results The key findings are that aromatase expression was significantly increased in SHRSP in both the dorsal and ventral peri-infarct zones and hippocampus at 24 h post-MCAO as measured by areas of immunostaining but not qPCR. There was no improvement in stroke outcome by Dax-1 KO, despite significantly higher plasma 17β-estradiol levels and increased brain aromatase immunoreactivity after stroke. There was no exacerbation on stroke outcome by letrozole, despite decreased plasma 17β-estradiol levels. Conclusion The time course and location of increased aromatase indicate a potential role in neuroprotection and repair; however, manipulation of aromatase expression does not influence outcome after permanent MCAO in male mice
A neural field approach to robot navigation with brain-inspired goal-directed cognitive maps
Get PDFMammals possess remarkable navigational abilities, underpinned by the hippocampus and associated neural cells that enable them to orient, adapt, and reach goals in unfamiliar environments without exhaustive exploration. Traditional robotic navigation systems, in contrast, depend often on static maps or pre-programmed routes, making them vulnerable to dynamic changes, incomplete information, and local minima. To bridge this gap, this paper proposes an enhanced goal-directed cognitive map (eGDCM) model that integrates a neural field-based algorithm for adaptive optimization of head direction and speed cells, augmented by the follow-the-gap method (FGM) for safe motion, and improved Vector Field Histogram (iVFH) mapping. The eGDCM fuses the spatial representation and goal-driven reasoning capabilities of cognitive maps with the continuous, self-organizing dynamics of neural fields, enabling real-time adaptation to both static and dynamic obstacles. This braininspired framework incorporates multiple navigational strategies allowing robots to form compact, efficient spatial graphs and plan collision-free paths without computationally intensive graph searches. Simulation and comparison studies on complex city maps and dynamic environments demonstrate that eGDCM achieves shorter and smoother trajectories, and superior adaptability compared to the GDCM model and other state-of-the art algorithms. These results highlight the potential of hippocampalinspired neural mechanisms to advance robust, efficient, and safe autonomous navigation in unstructured real-world settings
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