The use of conversation mapping to frame key perceptual issues facing the general dental practice system in England

<b>Objective</b>: To demonstrate the use of a novel qualitative methodology namely conversation mapping, which can be used to capture differences in stakeholder perspectives and give a root definition of the problem in a complex policy area. The methodology is used in the context of the changes introduced in the English general dental practice system in April 2006, to investigate the key issues facing the system, as perceived by general dental practitioners (GDPs). <b>Basic research design</b>: From a broad trigger statement, three transformational statements were produced. Each participant recorded their contribution on a hard diagrammatic form as a ‘map’, with others responding with their own written comment, thus generating three conversation maps. Thematic analysis resulted in the generation of a preliminary model summarising key perceptual issues. <b>Results</b>: The five emergent themes identified were: financing, dentists’ wants/needs, the role of the public and patients, system goals and policy level decision making. Financing was identified as the core category to which all other categories were related. <b>Conclusions</b>: Conversation mapping, a methodology arising from a systems approach, can be used to develop a ‘rich picture’ of an oral health care system in order to define the core problem within this policy area. Findings suggest that GDPs identify the financing of the system as a fundamental source of problems within the general dental practice system. This appears to be at variance with the perception of policy makers, who report a more limited view, identifying the system of remuneration as the ‘heart of the problem’

Twisting gauged non-linear sigma-models

We consider gauged sigma-models from a Riemann surface into a Kaehler and hamiltonian G-manifold X. The supersymmetric N=2 theory can always be twisted to produce a gauged A-model. This model localizes to the moduli space of solutions of the vortex equations and computes the Hamiltonian Gromov-Witten invariants. When the target is equivariantly Calabi-Yau, i.e. when its first G-equivariant Chern class vanishes, the supersymmetric theory can also be twisted into a gauged B-model. This model localizes to the Kaehler quotient X//G.Comment: 33 pages; v2: small additions, published versio

Twistors and Black Holes

Motivated by black hole physics in N=2, D=4 supergravity, we study the geometry of quaternionic-Kahler manifolds M obtained by the c-map construction from projective special Kahler manifolds M_s. Improving on earlier treatments, we compute the Kahler potentials on the twistor space Z and Swann space S in the complex coordinates adapted to the Heisenberg symmetries. The results bear a simple relation to the Hesse potential \Sigma of the special Kahler manifold M_s, and hence to the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy for BPS black holes. We explicitly construct the ``covariant c-map'' and the ``twistor map'', which relate real coordinates on M x CP^1 (resp. M x R^4/Z_2) to complex coordinates on Z (resp. S). As applications, we solve for the general BPS geodesic motion on M, and provide explicit integral formulae for the quaternionic Penrose transform relating elements of H^1(Z,O(-k)) to massless fields on M annihilated by first or second order differential operators. Finally, we compute the exact radial wave function (in the supergravity approximation) for BPS black holes with fixed electric and magnetic charges.Comment: 47 pages, v2: typos corrected, reference added, v3: minor change

The 16O(γ, 2N) reaction measured with tagged photons

TThe results of tagged photon measurements of the 16O(γ, pn) and 16O(γ, pp) reactions, carried out with photons of energies of 80–131 MeV, are presented. Missing energy spectra for both reactions, with an energy resolution of 7 MeV have been obtained. The 16O(γ, pn) missing energy spectrum is very similar to that recently measured for the 12C(γ, pN) reaction. In both cases the recoil momentum distributions are quantitavely described by a quasideuteron mechanism. Using normalisation factors based on this mechanism the average cross section for the 16O(γ, pn) reaction, for nucleons ejected from the 1p shell, is 510 ± 95 μb. The corresponding cross section for the 16O(γ, pp) reaction is 10.0 ± 3.0 μb

The emergence of the Euro as an international currency

Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:3597.3859(29-97) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Involving young people in research

Full report 'Involving young researchers' by P. Kirby, is published for the Foundation by YPS, ISBN 1-902163345-8SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:3927.734141(Dec 1999, N89) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

The reception of Lucan's De Bello Civili in the nineteenth century

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN027563 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Boundary layer solutions to functional elliptic equations

The goal of this paper is to study a class of nonlinear functional elliptic equations using very simple comparison principles. We first construct a nontrivial solution and then study its asymptotic behaviour when the diffusion coefficient goes to 0