2,159 research outputs found
Community work as women's work? The gendering of English neighbourhood partnerships
This article contributes to debates about regeneration policy by developing a gendered perspective on neighbourhood partnerships. It explores the gendered nature of partnership working within regeneration policy in England by using a case study of a New Deal for Communities Partnership. Empirical data are used to explore the experiences of women working as unpaid community activists and paid community professionals. The article seeks to place women's perspectives and their everyday lives at the heart of debates about regeneration policy and partnerships
Using the theory of planned behaviour as a process evaluation tool in randomised trials of knowledge translation strategies : A case study from UK primary care
Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Transcritical flow of a stratified fluid over topography: analysis of the forced Gardner equation
Transcritical flow of a stratified fluid past a broad localised topographic
obstacle is studied analytically in the framework of the forced extended
Korteweg--de Vries (eKdV), or Gardner, equation. We consider both possible
signs for the cubic nonlinear term in the Gardner equation corresponding to
different fluid density stratification profiles. We identify the range of the
input parameters: the oncoming flow speed (the Froude number) and the
topographic amplitude, for which the obstacle supports a stationary localised
hydraulic transition from the subcritical flow upstream to the supercritical
flow downstream. Such a localised transcritical flow is resolved back into the
equilibrium flow state away from the obstacle with the aid of unsteady coherent
nonlinear wave structures propagating upstream and downstream. Along with the
regular, cnoidal undular bores occurring in the analogous problem for the
single-layer flow modeled by the forced KdV equation, the transcritical
internal wave flows support a diverse family of upstream and downstream wave
structures, including solibores, rarefaction waves, reversed and trigonometric
undular bores, which we describe using the recent development of the nonlinear
modulation theory for the (unforced) Gardner equation. The predictions of the
developed analytic construction are confirmed by direct numerical simulations
of the forced Gardner equation for a broad range of input parameters.Comment: 34 pages, 24 figure
Cuspons, peakons and regular gap solitons between three dispersion curves
A general wave model with the cubic nonlinearity is introduced to describe a
situation when the linear dispersion relation has three branches, which would
intersect in the absence of linear couplings between the three waves. Actually,
the system contains two waves with a strong linear coupling between them, to
which a third wave is then coupled. This model has two gaps in its linear
spectrum. Realizations of this model can be made in terms of temporal or
spatial evolution of optical fields in, respectively, a planar waveguide or a
bulk-layered medium resembling a photonic-crystal fiber. Another physical
system described by the same model is a set of three internal wave modes in a
density-stratified fluid. A nonlinear analysis is performed for solitons which
have zero velocity in the reference frame in which the group velocity of the
third wave vanishes. Disregarding the self-phase modulation (SPM) term in the
equation for the third wave, we find two coexisting families of solitons:
regular ones, which may be regarded as a smooth deformation of the usual gap
solitons in a two-wave system, and cuspons with a singularity in the first
derivative at their center. Even in the limit when the linear coupling of the
third wave to the first two vanishes, the soliton family remains drastically
different from that in the linearly uncoupled system; in this limit, regular
solitons whose amplitude exceeds a certain critical value are replaced by
peakons. While the regular solitons, cuspons, and peakons are found in an exact
analytical form, their stability is tested numerically, which shows that they
all may be stable. If the SPM terms are retained, we find that there again
coexist two different families of generic stable soliton solutions, namely,
regular ones and peakons.Comment: a latex file with the text and 10 pdf files with figures. Physical
Review E, in pres
Alternative approaches to capacity building â emerging practices abroad
This study was undertaken to identify alternative approaches to third sector capacity building in countries outside of the UK. Principally desk-based, it draws on the insight and recommendations of the research teamâs contacts which span Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, and the International Development context. The research has been undertaken in two main stages. The first scoping phase involved an email request for information on third sector and civil society capacity building. Respondents were asked to identify examples of capacity building that met with a number of good practice principles. The second phase took a more in-depth look at some selected cases: a funding brokerage partnership model from Australia; a variety of methods from the US; a number of approaches used or promoted by Dutch third sector organisations (TSOs) working in international development; a thematic study of leadership programmes; and a review of some networking approaches to capacity building
Recommended from our members
How do hospitals respond to feedback about blood transfusion practice? A multiple case study investigation
National clinical audits play key roles in improving care and driving system-wide change. However, effects of audit and feedback depend upon both reach (e.g. relevant staff receiving the feedback) and response (e.g. staff regulating their behaviour accordingly). This study aimed to investigate which hospital staff initially receive feedback and formulate a response, how feedback is disseminated within hospitals, and how responses are enacted (including barriers and enablers to enactment). Using a multiple case study approach, we purposively sampled four UK hospitals for variation in infrastructure and resources. We conducted semi-structured interviews with staff from transfusion-related roles and observed Hospital Transfusion Committee meetings. Interviews and analysis were based on the Theoretical Domains Framework of behaviour change. We coded interview transcripts into theoretical domains, then inductively identified themes within each domain to identify barriers and enablers. We also analysed data to identify which staff currently receive feedback and how dissemination is managed within the hospital. Members of the hospitalâs transfusion team initially received feedback in all cases, and were primarily responsible for disseminating and responding, facilitated through the Hospital Transfusion Committee. At each hospital, key individuals involved in prescribing transfusions reported never having received feedback from a national audit. Whether audits were discussed and actions explicitly agreed in Committee meetings varied between hospitals. Key enablers of action across all cases included clear lines of responsibility and strategies to remind staff about recommendations. Barriers included difficulties disseminating to relevant staff and needing to amend feedback to make it appropriate for local use. Appropriate responses by hospital staff to feedback about blood transfusion practice depend upon supportive infrastructures and role clarity. Hospitals could benefit from support to disseminate feedback systematically, particularly to frontline staff involved in the behaviours being audited, and practical tools to support strategic decision-making (e.g. action-planning around local response to feedback)
Heating up the cold bounce
Self-dual string cosmological models provide an effective example of bouncing
solutions where a phase of accelerated contraction smoothly evolves into an
epoch of decelerated Friedmann--Robertson--Walker expansion dominated by the
dilaton. While the transition to the expanding regime occurs at sub-Planckian
curvature scales, the Universe emerging after the bounce is cold, with sharply
growing gauge coupling. However, since massless gauge bosons (as well as other
massless fields) are super-adiabatically amplified, the energy density of the
maximally amplified modes re-entering the horizon after the bounce can
efficiently heat the Universe. As a consequence the gauge coupling reaches a
constant value, which can still be perturbative.Comment: 28 pages, 13 figure
Unsteady undular bores in fully nonlinear shallow-water theory
We consider unsteady undular bores for a pair of coupled equations of
Boussinesq-type which contain the familiar fully nonlinear dissipationless
shallow-water dynamics and the leading-order fully nonlinear dispersive terms.
This system contains one horizontal space dimension and time and can be
systematically derived from the full Euler equations for irrotational flows
with a free surface using a standard long-wave asymptotic expansion.
In this context the system was first derived by Su and Gardner. It coincides
with the one-dimensional flat-bottom reduction of the Green-Naghdi system and,
additionally, has recently found a number of fluid dynamics applications other
than the present context of shallow-water gravity waves. We then use the
Whitham modulation theory for a one-phase periodic travelling wave to obtain an
asymptotic analytical description of an undular bore in the Su-Gardner system
for a full range of "depth" ratios across the bore. The positions of the
leading and trailing edges of the undular bore and the amplitude of the leading
solitary wave of the bore are found as functions of this "depth ratio". The
formation of a partial undular bore with a rapidly-varying finite-amplitude
trailing wave front is predicted for ``depth ratios'' across the bore exceeding
1.43. The analytical results from the modulation theory are shown to be in
excellent agreement with full numerical solutions for the development of an
undular bore in the Su-Gardner system.Comment: Revised version accepted for publication in Phys. Fluids, 51 pages, 9
figure
GRIDKIT: Pluggable overlay networks for Grid computing
A `second generation' approach to the provision of Grid middleware is now emerging which is built on service-oriented architecture and web services standards and technologies. However, advanced Grid applications have significant demands that are not addressed by present-day web services platforms. As one prime example, current platforms do not support the rich diversity of communication `interaction types' that are demanded by advanced applications (e.g. publish-subscribe, media streaming, peer-to-peer interaction). In the paper we describe the Gridkit middleware which augments the basic service-oriented architecture to address this particular deficiency. We particularly focus on the communications infrastructure support required to support multiple interaction types in a unified, principled and extensible manner-which we present in terms of the novel concept of pluggable overlay networks
- âŠ