Title: Symplectic embeddings of rational homology balls

Abstract: We will begin with a description of the rational homology balls 
appearing in Fintushel and Stern's rational blow-down operation for smooth 
4-manifolds, a generalization of the standard blow-down. We will then 
discuss various smooth and symplectic embedding results of these rational 
homology balls. Time permitting, we will also give some explicit 
constructions of such symplectic embeddings.