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’

Maladaptive bias for extrahippocampal navigation strategies in aging humans.

Efficient spatial navigation requires not only accurate spatial knowledge but also the selection of appropriate strategies. Using a novel paradigm that allowed us to distinguish between beacon, associative cue, and place strategies, we investigated the effects of cognitive aging on the selection and adoption of navigation strategies in humans. Participants were required to rejoin a previously learned route encountered from an unfamiliar direction. Successful performance required the use of an allocentric place strategy, which was increasingly observed in young participants over six experimental sessions. In contrast, older participants, who were able to recall the route when approaching intersections from the same direction as during encoding, failed to use the correct place strategy when approaching intersections from novel directions. Instead, they continuously used a beacon strategy and showed no evidence of changing their behavior across the six sessions. Given that this bias was already apparent in the first experimental session, the inability to adopt the correct place strategy is not related to an inability to switch from a firmly established response strategy to an allocentric place strategy. Rather, and in line with previous research, age-related deficits in allocentric processing result in shifts in preferred navigation strategies and an overall bias for response strategies. The specific preference for a beacon strategy is discussed in the context of a possible dissociation between beacon-based and associative-cue-based response learning in the striatum, with the latter being more sensitive to age-related changes

Panagrolaimus magnivulvatus Boström, 1995 in nest material, algae and soils from inland nunataks in western Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica

Panagrolaimus magnivulvatus Boström, 1995 is reported from habitats on inland nunataks in western Dronning Maud Land, continental Antarctica. This species was recorded in lithosols of three of the 11 nunataks (Marsteinen, Lorentzenpiggen and Valterkulten) sampled during the 1992-93 summer. In addition, it was found in high numbers in material from inside the nests of the snow petrel Pagodroma nivea and in the algae Prasiola crispa at nest entrances on nunataks of the Robertskollen group. Panagrolaimus magnivulvatus from Roberts-kollen is described, scanning electron micrographs of its morphology are given and the specimens are compared with the type population from the Steinnabben nunatak in Dronning Maud Land, as described by Boström (I995). It is especially those Robertskollen specimens found in nest material that differ from specimens of the type population, mainly in longer and thicker bodies, longer tails and longer spicules in males. Novelty characters of the present specimens are the single adanal papilla situated on the anterior lip of the cloaca and the tail tips which are either pointed or bifurcated

Influence of abiotic factors on biotic components of the Batticaloa lagoon (2008 -2009)

Identification of abiotic variables that influence on biotic components in the lagoon is one of the main challenges in ecology because biotic components show variations in abundance as an adaptive response to changes in chemical, physical and biological characteristics of the habitats. An important characteristic of the lagoon is its biological diversity because physical, chemical (abiotic) measurements reflects water quality at a given time while biological assessment reflects conditions that have exited in a given environment over a long period of time. The present study investigated the prevailing condition of water quality to identify possible abiotic factors that effect on the biotic variables of the Batticaloa lagoon. In situ measurements of chemical, physical parameters of the lagoons measured were measured routinely from 9th July 2008 to 22nd June 2009. Averages of the results indicated chemical parameters of dissolved oxygen (3.65 } 0.40 to 13.99 } 0.64 mg/L), phosphorus (0.31 } 0.06 to 0.52 } 0.18mg/L), nitrate (1.07 } 0.32 to 3.98 } 0.22 mg/L), nitrite (58.33 } 9.27 to 72.08 } 6.90mg/L), and pH (8.01 } 0.02 to 8.16 } 0.05) and physical characteristics like salinity (15.50 } 1.65 to 29.16 } 0.89 ppt), density (1.01 }0.00 to 1.02 }0.01 gcm-3), surface water velocity (0.10 } 0.01 cms-l to 0.13 } 0.01 cms-1), turbidity (5.68 } 1.25 to 37.69 } 1.83FTU), temperature (31.58 } 0.60°C to 33.45 } 0.19°C) varied widely. Simultaneously were collected existing biotic components (finfish, shellfish and jelly fish) on the sampling points. Analysis elucidated the existing conditions were found to have strong impact on biological parameters. Furthermore, seasonal changes and anthropogenic influences also significantly affect the biotic components. This information and observation of this study will be very crucial to the biological life of the lagoon for formulating management policies (Master plan for Batticaloa lagoon) in future with other sectors

Violation of the Luttinger sum rule within the Hubbard model on a triangular lattice

The frequency-moment expansion method is developed to analyze the validity of the Luttinger sum rule within the Mott-Hubbard insulator, as represented by the generalized Hubbard model at half filling and large $U$. For the particular case of the Hubbard model with nearest-neighbor hopping on a triangular lattice lacking the particle-hole symmetry results reveal substantial violation of the sum rule.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Frequency dependence of acoustic waves in marine sediments

In situ techniques provide the most reliable method of examining the geoacoustical properties of marine sediments. In the past, individual in situ surveys have only been able to examine compressional waves over a maximum frequency range of 100 Hz to 50 kHz. A new in situ acoustic device, the Sediment Probing Acoustic Detection Equipment, or SPADE, has been developed, which can emit a variety of pulses, e.g. tonal and swept-frequency, over a continuous frequency range of 10 - 100 kHz. Data from a recent field trial are analysed to obtain the in situ velocity and attenuation over frequency increments of 5 kHz between 10 - 75 kHz. Results imply that scattering is a dominant attenuation mechanism from 10-75 kHz and the media is dispersive for frequencies between 60 and 70 kHz and below 20 kHz. Biot theory cannot accurately model the observed velocity and attenuation

Comment on "New Experimental Limit for the Electric Dipole Moment of the Neutron"

A new limit for the neutron electric dipole moment has been recently reported. This new limit is obtained by combining the result from a previous experiment with the result from a more recent experiment that has much worse statistical accuracy. We show that the old result has a systematic error possibly four times greater than the new limit, and under the circumstances, averaging of the old and new results is statistically invalid. The conclusion is that it would be more appropriate to quote two independent but mutually supportive limits as obtained from each experiment separately.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Complications of Vehicular-Related Injuries: A Scoping Review of Literature

Context: Complications of vehicular-related trauma contribute to the overall morbidity, and ultimately the costs, of road accidents. However, direct evidence on the burden of complications of vehicular-related trauma injuries is not directly explored. This scoping review aims to provide a summary of the relevant literature on the most significant acute complications and consequences of trauma caused by motor vehicle accidents or similar mechanisms. Evidence Acquisition: Multiple electronic databases, as well as grey literature, were explored. Studies were included in this scoping review if they evaluated adult patients with acute complications of traumatic injury caused by motor vehicle trauma or similar mechanisms. Results: Trauma-related complications contribute to increasing mortality of patients. Complications of traumatic injuries are also the main cause of patients’ readmission to hospitals. Various studies report the rate of high-grade complications around 10%, but the overall rate of complications, ignoring severity, is approximately 60%. Depending on the surveyed population, different complications are identified as the most prevalent, but pneumonia is identified as the most prevalent complication in the majority of studies. The most important factors predicting the occurrence of complications in trauma patients are older age and poor Glasgow coma scale. Conclusions: Complications of trauma-related injuries are significant factors affecting the outcome of patients. There has been limited research directly exploring this topic, possibly due to the difficulty of undertaking such studies. A particularly important research topic is the prevention and management of complications in elderly trauma patients with comorbidities. In conclusion, complications of trauma related injuries are significant considerations for clinical practice and research

Public health social media communications and consumer neuroscience

Consumer neuroscience is an emerging discipline. Potential exists for neurological quantitative research techniques to be used for the development and analysis of public health messages due to limited numbers of successful campaigns. In some instances, highly successful public health marketing campaigns have been designed to address something greater than financial gain and have achieved exceptional reach. This results in increased public awareness using social amplification platforms. Examples of these include action-oriented social media campaigns that ask individuals to act, share, pledge or challenge on behalf of a health or social cause. Neurological and physiological techniques include functional magnetic resonance imaging, magnetoencephalography, electroencephalography, eye tracking, galvanic skin response, heart rate, facial recognition and implicit association testing. Due to nonconscious decision-making processes these techniques have the potential to identify driving forces behind individuals' decision to become involved in health and social cause marketing campaigns that are unable to be identified with qualitative research methods. In 2014/2015 the Australian Government spent $23.3 million Australian dollars (AUD) on health and social service marketing campaigns, with$19.4 million AUD on health communications, and $3.9 million AUD on social services. These figures are considered conservative as expenditure on marketing campaigns below$250 thousand AUD is excluded. Thus, using consumer neuroscience to inform the design of future public health and social cause communications, which may help to save a life, while reducing expenditure on unsuccessful campaigns, requires greater understanding of the effectiveness of a positive action orientation vs. a fear and shock approach