Jumped or pushed: what motivates NHS staff to set up a social enterprise?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the motivations behind public sector spin outs, focusing on the Right to Request policy, which enabled NHS staff to set up their own social enterprises to deliver healthcare services.\ud \ud Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on empirical data gathered from 16 in-depth interviews with individuals who had led a Right to Request proposal.\ud \ud Findings – Motivations to spin out of the NHS into a social enterprise were often “empathetic” in nature, built around the good of the service for staff and users. Alongside this, some felt “pushed” out of the NHS as a result of government restructuring policy, with social enterprise offering the only hope to survive as an organisation.\ud \ud Research limitations/implications – The study captures a particular point in time and there may be other perspectives that have not been included.\ud \ud Social implications – The paper is of use to academics, policy makers and practitioners. It provides an important contribution in thinking about how to motivate public sector staff, especially those from a health profession, to consider spinning out into social enterprises.\ud \ud Originality/value – The paper is the first to look at the motivations of healthcare spin outs through the Right to Request programme. The findings are related to previous literature on social entrepreneurship within public sector settings.\u

Chiral effective field theory beyond the power-counting regime

Novel techniques are presented, which identify the chiral power-counting regime (PCR), and realize the existence of an intrinsic energy scale embedded in lattice QCD results that extend outside the PCR. The nucleon mass is considered as a benchmark for illustrating this new approach. Using finite-range regularization, an optimal regularization scale can be extracted from lattice simulation results by analyzing the renormalization of the low energy coefficients. The optimal scale allows a description of lattice simulation results that extend beyond the PCR by quantifying and thus handling any scheme-dependence. Preliminary results for the nucleon magnetic moment are also examined, and a consistent optimal regularization scale is obtained. This indicates the existence of an intrinsic scale corresponding to the finite size of the source of the pion cloud.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, conferenc

Influence of Obstacle Location and Frequency on the Propagation of Premixed Flames

Turbulent propagating premixed flames are encountered in spark ignition engines, gas turbines, industrial burners, as well as in vented gas explosions. In all these applications, the flame fronts interact with complex solid boundaries which not only distort the flame structure but directly affect the propagation rate in ways that are not yet fully understood. This thesis aims to provide both a quantitative and qualitative understanding of the link between overpressure, flame front wrinkling and turbulence levels generated in the propagating medium. This is an issue of importance for the provision of improved sub-models for the burning rates of premixed flames. An experimental chamber was constructed where controlled premixed flames were ignited from rest to propagate past solid obstacles and/or baffle plates strategically positioned in the chamber. Laser Doppler Anemometry was used to measure the velocity field and turbulence fields while pressure transducers were used to obtain pressure-time traces. In addition to this Laser-Induced Fluorescence of the Hydroxyl radical is was to image the flame front as it consumes the unburnt fuel captured in the re-circulation zone behind the main obstruction. The thesis reports on the effects of various parameters such as the inclusion of grids and obstructions, blockage ratio, and repeated obstacles to explore possible correlations between the pressure and the flow-fields. Pressure, velocity and LIF images were correlated and analysed to prove the significance of grid location and number on overall turbulence intensity. Corresponding flow field parameters such as flame front wrinkling, peak overpressure and RMS all combine to conclusively demonstrate their interaction and influence to turbulence intensity. By progressively positioning more grids further downstream, consequent rises in the flow field parameters and the establishment of positive trends indicates the overall significance of kernel development and flow disturbances in relation to turbulence generation

Timber Resources and the Manufacture and Methods of Marketing Lumber in the United States

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty and the Administrative Committee of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts

C3TM: CEI CCD charge transfer model for radiation damage analysis and testing

Radiation induced defects in the silicon lattice of Charge Couple Devices (CCDs) are able to trap electrons during read out and thus create a smearing effect that is detrimental to the scientific data. To further our understanding of the positions and properties of individual radiation-induced traps and how they affect space- borne CCD performance, we have created the Centre for Electronic Imaging (CEI) CCD Charge Transfer Model (C3TM). This model simulates the physical processes taking place when transferring signal through a radiation damaged CCD. C3TM is a Monte Carlo model based on Shockley-Read-Hall theory, and it mimics the physical properties in the CCD as closely as possible. It runs on a sub-electrode level taking device specific charge density simulations made with professional TCAD software as direct input. Each trap can be specified with 3D positional information, emission time constant and other physical properties. The model is therefore also able to simulate multi-level clocking and other complex clocking schemes, such as trap pumping

Integration of a RSI microstructure sensing package into a Seaglider

Seagliders are a type of propeller-less AUV that glide through the water by changing their buoyancy. They have become mainstream collectors of standard oceanographic data (conductivity, temperature, pressure, dissolved oxygen, fluorescence and backscatter) and are increasingly used as trucks to carry a wide variety of hydrographic and bio-geochemical sensors. The extended sensor capability enhances the utility of the gliders for oceanographic observations. Seagliders are designed and optimized for long-term missions (up to 10 months) and deep sea profiling (up to 1000 m). They provide high resolution oceanographic data with very good temporal and spatial density, in near real-time, at a fraction of the cost of ship collected data. These performance parameters are sometimes at odds with the physical dimensions and electrical requirements of the hydrographic and bio-geochemical sensors scientists want installed in gliders. However, as the acceptance of gliders as an integral component of the oceanographic suite of measurement tools grows so do the efforts of sensor vendors to develop products that meet the size, weight and power requirements for successful glider integration. Turbulence microstructure sensors are one measurement system that scientists desired on Seagliders but that until recently did not fit the glider footprint. In collaboration with Rockland Scientific, Inc., a suite of RSI turbulence microstructure sensors was recently integrated into a Seaglider and the system’s performance validated during field tests in Puget Sound near Seattle, WA and in Loch Linnhe on the west coast of Scotland. Ocean turbulence controls the mixing of water masses, biogeochemical fluxes within them, and facilitates ocean-atmosphere gas exchange. As a result, turbulence impacts global ocean circulation, polar ice melt rates, drawdown of atmospheric carbon dioxide and carbon deposition, coastal and deep ocean ecology, commercial fisheries, and the dispersion of pollutants. Turbulent mixing is also recognized as a key parameter in global climate models, used for understanding and predicting future climate change. Seagliders equipped with turbulence microstructure sensors will allow scientists to map the geographical distribution and temporal variability of mixing in the ocean on scales not possible with ship-based measurements. This presentation discusses the technical aspects of the integration of the turbulence sensor suite on a Seaglider with an emphasis on achieving high data quality, while retaining the performance characteristics of the Seaglider. We will also describe applications for this sensor suite, examine the turbulence measurement data already collected by the Seaglider and discuss future deployment plans

Discrete Symmetries and Neutrino Mass Perturbations for \theta_{13}

The recent measurement of the third lepton mixing angle, \theta_{13}, has shown that, although small compared to \theta_{12} and \theta_{23}, it is much larger than anticipated in schemes that generate Tri-Bi-Maximal (TBM) or Golden Ratio (GR) mixing. We develop a model-independent formalism for perturbations away from exact TBM or GR mixing in the neutrino sector. Each resulting perturbation scheme reflects an underlying symmetry structure and involves a single complex parameter. We show that such perturbations can readily fit the observed value of \theta_{13}, which is then correlated with a change in the other mixing angles. We also determine the implication for the lepton CP violating phases. For comparison we determine the predictions for Bi-Maximal mixing corrected by charged lepton mixing and we discuss the accuracy that will be needed to distinguish between the various schemes.Comment: 20 page