National University of Ireland, Maynooth
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The Erotic Webcam Industry in Brazil: Moral Disputes and Controversies A Iindústria Erótica de Webcam no Brasil: Disputas E Contenciosos Morais
No full textResumo
Este artigo discute os contenciosos morais presentes na indústria erótica de webcam brasileira, que visam distinguir a prática de camming da prostituição e da venda de sexo. Tais disputas buscam movimentar o camming dentro da divisão hierárquica do trabalho sexual, posicionando-o como um exemplo positivo de serviço erótico. O argumento se embasa nos estudos em dirty works , que diagnosticam táticas de trabalhadores para normalizarem e administrarem as máculas morais de ocupações estigmatizadas. Os resultados veem de etnografia digital (2016-2020) nas duas plataformas de camming nacionais (Câmera Hot e Câmera Privê) e de 15 entrevistas em profundidade com trabalhadoras mulheres cisgênero. Conclui-se que as performers desenvolvem três estratégias para tentar normalizar o camming: criar um léxico para a atividade, distinguir sexo de erotismo virtual e sinalizar as singularidades do camming . Tais estratégias estão fundamentadas em convenções de gênero e sexualidade, que são acionadas como balizas para refletir sobre o valor do camming .
Abstract
This paper addresses the moral controversies of the Brazilian erotic webcam industry, which aim to distinguish the camming practice from prostitution and sex sale. Such disputes seek to move camming within the hierarchical division of sex labour, positioning it as a positive example of erotic service. The argument is based on dirty works scholarship, which diagnoses workers’ tactics to normalise and manage the moral taints of stigmatised occupations. The results come from digital ethnography (2016-2020) developed on the two national camming platforms (Camera Hot and Camera Prive) and 15 in-depth interviews with cisgender women workers. The study concludes that performers develop three strategies in order to normalise camming: they create a lexicon for the activity, they distinguish sex from virtual eroticism, and they substantiate camming particularities. Such strategies rely on gender and sexuality conventions, which are summoned as guideposts to reflect on camming value
Lexicon Leponticum – concept and implementation. Cisalpine Celtic literacy. Proceedings of the international symposium Maynooth 23–24 June 2022
No full textThe digital edition and etymological dictionary of Cisalpine Celtic, Lexicon Leponticum (LexLep), has now been online for thirteen years. I want
to take this opportunity to take stock of what has been achieved so far,
present the status of the site as of 2023, and cast a look into its futur
Participatory action research in social movements
No full textThis chapter outlines why participatory action research (PAR) can be useful to social movements, and how to make it so. PAR involves movement activists carrying out research geared to their own needs, in a democratic process that transforms movement relationships and practice. The chapter is grounded in a 25-year experience of supporting activists carrying out PAR, and shows the wide range of different shapes it can take as activists reflect together on their own practice. It argues that this is far less risky than trial and error; focusses on the thing activists have most control over (their own actions); that its participatory and collective educational dimensions benefit movements politically; and that PAR supports movements becoming learning actors. Despite the diversity of actually-existing PAR, the chapter highlights some core principles that can be distilled from the experiences discussed to make PAR genuinely useful to movements
Types, determinants, and outcomes of entrepreneurial behaviours during crises.
No full textEntrepreneurs usually have several means at their disposal to deal with and overcome adverse circumstances, ranging from simple non-resourceful coping strategies to more elaborate resourceful behaviours. However, entrepreneurs who find themselves in conditions of prolonged adversity and disadvantage have few effective possibilities to withstand sudden adversity such as crises and income shocks. Based on these premises, we develop theory on the types, antecedents, and outcomes of entrepreneurial responses to adversity by investigating how entrepreneurs living in conditions of extreme poverty may behave resourcefully while facing two major crises in a short timeframe. Through an analysis of entrepreneurship in South-West Cameroon, we identify three behaviours entrepreneurs enact in response to crises: passive, hustling, and future-oriented, which differ with regards to activities, driving motivations, main objectives, approaches towards present and future adversity, and dominant focus concerning the use of resources. We also find that entrepreneurs’ enacted behaviours depend chiefly on the nature of the losses they incur and on the type of social capital they can avail of in the aftermath of a crisis. Lastly, we suggest that the different behaviours result in further changes in the entrepreneurs’ resource levels, which subsequently influence the likelihood that entrepreneurs will shift between behaviours
How Irish Higher Education Institutions can Organise themselves to Unlock Research for Policy (Working Paper February 2024, No. 19)
No full textThis paper aims to explore how Irish higher education institutions can organise themselves to
unlock the potential of research on policy-making. It describes work underway in Maynooth
University, sets out the emergence of brokerage arrangements to support the impact of
research on policy in a national policy context and explores some international research
findings in relation to brokerage and related activities. It also identifies and seeks to describe
some particular brokerage arrangements established by individual higher education
institutions, as well as some established by a number of higher education institutions in
partnership sometimes with Governments. The aim is to seek to support the emerging
discussion about these issues.
This paper is intended to be read in conjunction with two other pieces of work being advanced
by the authors. Following a series of eight ‘open discussion meetings’ which were organised on
a cross-disciplinary basis in Maynooth University (April to June 2023) to secure a better
understanding, from the perspective of staff, of what Maynooth University might do next to
help researchers unlock the full value of their work for public policy, they drafted a discussion
paper to put some shape on and to place on the record the views which colleagues articulated
during these meetings. This record was tested and further considered in two briefing and
refinement meetings with the original participants and other interested colleagues, which took
place September and October 2023, and it is planned to publish an updated paper in the near
future. They are also finalising a related paper on how innovation and research for policy
support each other
Introduction: minorities and the making of European welfare
No full textThe development of welfare states across Europe in the twentieth century had different outcomes for different segments of society. In this special issue the dual character of welfare – that is, the aim of alleviating distress and creating social cohesion while creating divisions when determining who is deserving of what – is studied through the lens of ethnic and social minorities. Minorities, grouped together through joint experiences, heritage and/or social classifi-cations, have been subjected to both inclusionary and exclusionary welfare policies. Thus, welfare in the form of social services, social security, education and health care is a key component in addres-sing, maintaining and creating majority-minority divisions. This article introduces the contributions to the special issue and outlines their historiographical and conceptual foundations. Special atten-tion is given to how the authors in the special issue define welfare and minorities, as well as how the articles contribute to the study of these fields. In the introduction, we argue for a need to study the implications of welfare for minorities case by case, while at the same time outlining principal ways that minorities and welfare have been interlinked
The human MIF polymorphism CATT7 enhances pro‐inflammatory macrophage polarization in a clinically relevant model of allergic airway inflammation
No full textHigh level expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokine macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) has been associated with severe asthma. The role of MIF and its functional promotor polymorphism in innate immune training is currently unknown. Using novel humanized CATT7 MIF mice, this study is the first to investigate the effect of MIF on bone marrow-derived macrophage (BMDM) memory after house dust mite (HDM) challenge. CATT7 BMDMs demonstrated a significant primed increase in M1 markers following HDM and LPS stimulation, compared to naive mice. This M1 signature was found to be MIF-dependent, as administration of a small molecule MIF inhibitor, SCD-19, blocked the induction of this pro-inflammatory M1-like phenotype in BMDMs from CATT7 mice challenged with HDM. Training naive BMDMs in vitro with HDM for 24 h followed by a rest period and subsequent stimulation with LPS led to significantly increased production of the pro-inflammatory cytokine TNFα in BMDMs from CATT7 mice but not WT mice. Addition of the pan methyltransferase inhibitor MTA before HDM training significantly abrogated this effect in BMDMs from CATT7 mice, suggesting that HDM-induced training is associated with epigenetic remodelling. These findings suggest that trained immunity induced by HDM is under genetic control, playing an important role in asthma patients with the high MIF genotypes (CATT6/7/8)
Estimating the proportion of modern contraceptives supplied by the public and private sectors using a Bayesian hierarchical penalized spline model
No full textQuantifying the public/private-sector supply of contraceptive methods within countries is vital for effective and sustainable family-planning delivery. However, many low- and middle-income countries quantify contraceptive supply using out-of-date Demographic Health Surveys. As an alternative, we propose using a Bayesian, hierarchical, penalized-spline model, with survey input, to produce annual estimates and projections of contraceptive supply-share outcomes. Our approach shares information across countries, accounts for survey observational errors and produces probabilistic projections informed by past changes in supply shares, as well as correlations between supply-share changes across different contraceptive methods. Results may be used to evaluate family-planning program effectiveness and stability
Indicators of Global Climate Change 2023: annual update of key indicators of the state of the climate system and human influence
No full textIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessments are the trusted source of scientific
evidence for climate negotiations taking place under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Evidence-based decision-making needs to be informed by up-to-date and timely information on key indicators of the state of the climate system and of the human influence on the global climate system.
However, successive IPCC reports are published at intervals of 5–10 years, creating potential for an information gap between report cycles.
We follow methods as close as possible to those used in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) Working Group One (WGI) report.We compile monitoring datasets to produce estimates for key climate indicators related to forcing of the climate system: emissions of greenhouse gases and short-lived climate forcers, greenhouse gas concentrations, radiative forcing, the Earth’s energy imbalance, surface temperature changes, warming attributed to human activities, the remaining carbon budget, and estimates of global temperature extremes. The purpose of this effort, grounded in an open-data, open-science approach, is to make annually updated reliable global climate
indicators available in the public domain (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11388387, Smith et al., 2024a). As they are traceable to IPCC report methods, they can be trusted by all parties involved in UNFCCC negotiations and help convey wider understanding of the latest knowledge of the climate system and its direction of travel.
The indicators show that, for the 2014–2023 decade average, observed warming was 1.19 [1.06 to 1.30] °C,of which 1.19 [1.0 to 1.4] °C was human-induced. For the single-year average, human-induced warming reached 1.31 [1.1 to 1.7] °C in 2023 relative to 1850–1900. The best estimate is below the 2023-observed warming record of 1.43 [1.32 to 1.53] °C, indicating a substantial contribution of internal variability in the 2023 record. Humaninduced
warming has been increasing at a rate that is unprecedented in the instrumental record, reaching 0.26[0.2–0.4] °C per decade over 2014–2023. This high rate of warming is caused by a combination of net greenhouse gas emissions being at a persistent high of 53+-5:4 GtCO2e yr-
Multiscale spatially varying coefficient modelling using a Geographical Gaussian Process GAM
No full textThis paper proposes a novel spatially varying coefficient (SVC)
regression through a Geographical Gaussian Process GAM (GGP-GAM): a Generalized Additive Model (GAM) with Gaussian Process
(GP) splines parameterised at observation locations. A GGP-GAM
was applied to multiple simulated coefficient datasets exhibiting
varying degrees of spatial heterogeneity and out-performed the
SVC brand-leader, Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression
(MGWR), under a range of fit metrics. Both were then applied to a
Brexit case study and compared, with MGWR marginally out-performing GGP-GAM. The theoretical frameworks and implementation
of both approaches are discussed: GWR models calibrate multiple
models whereas GAMs provide a full single model; GAMs can automatically penalise local collinearity; GWR-based approaches are
computationally more demanding; MGWR is still only for Gaussian
responses; MGWR bandwidths are intuitive indicators of spatial heterogeneity. GGP-GAM calibration and tuning are also discussed and
areas of future work are identified, including the creation of a
user-friendly package to support model creation and coefficient
mapping, and to facilitate ease of comparison with alternate SVC
models. A final observation that GGP-GAMs have the potential to
overcome some of the long-standing reservations about GWR-based regression methods and to elevate the perception of SVCs
amongst the broader community