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Policy, planning practice and the lived experience in a changing Ireland: Provoking thoughts for/of change?
No full textRecent planning frameworks and policies have formally recognised the significance of the urban in contemporary Ireland and put in place the groundwork to accommodate, facilitate, and accelerate ‘metropolitanisation.’ If implemented, this new strategic positioning can move Ireland in the direction of more balanced development. However, the new spatial arrangements pose profound implications for existing modes of organisation and economic activity in cities and towns, as well as the rural sphere. Additionally, implementation of the new spatial and economic strategies are challenged by certain factors unique to the Irish context raised in this paper in the form of three provocations: 1) Ireland’s colonial legacies and mindsets hinder appropriate planning and development; 2) the historically grounded idealisation of the rural flattens lived experiences; and 3) moving beyond post-colonial confines requires a new and variegated politics of the urban and rural commons. These provocations serve to to open up a collective dialogue on the contours of a more mature approach to planning practice and policy development in Ireland that more closely resonates with lived experiences
Achieving Regional Equality
No full textGoverning from the metropolitan scale is not a
concept that is widely comprehended in Ireland.
And yet, the 2018 National Planning Framework
(NPF) statutorily mandates Ireland’s three regional
assemblies to develop what they term Metropolitan
Area Strategic Plans (MASP) for each of their
respective regional cities. This is a challenge for the
three regional assemblies because the purpose and
power of the metropolitan scale and its designation
is little understood amongst planners, policymakers
and the general public. Additionally in a staunchly
centralised Ireland, the regional assemblies as
governance bodies are under-recognised and underappreciated.
When done correctly, various opportunities can
stem from city-regional governance. Amongst
development scholars, strengthening lower tiers
of governance is beneficial particularly to identify
places in need of policy attention. However, in order
to effectively legitimise meso-level governance and
to successfully implement the Regional Spatial and
Economic Strategies (RSES) and MASPs, people’s
awareness of how the city-regional scale can benefit
them and their locality must first be addressed.
This policy report is based on research that took
place between September 2021 – December 2022.
Funded jointly by the Irish Research Council (IRC)
and the Southern Regional Assembly (SRA), the
research focuses on Ireland’s Southern Region, its
Assembly (SRA) and its executive (SRA Executive)
as a case study to observe and document the
relatively new process of ‘metropolitanisation’ in
Ireland in order to offer insight into implementatio
Charting the UK's path to net zero emissions by 2050: Challenges, strategies, and future directions
No full textThe authors explore the various obstacles and possible approaches that the UK may take
to fulfil its goal of having net‐zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The paper thoroughly examines several aspects of this project, such as the modernisation of infrastructure, the energy transition, the economic effects, the obstacles to research and
development, changes in behaviour, and the frameworks for policy and regulation. With a
44% decrease from 1990 levels by 2021, it showcases the UK's noteworthy achievement
in lowering emissions and its ambitious initiatives, such as the £12 billion Ten Point Plan,
to accelerate this development. The difficulties of switching from reliance on fossil fuels
to renewable energy sources, their implications for the economy, and the necessity of
green technology innovation are all covered in the article. It also discusses the behavioural
sides of this shift, highlighting the need to change one's lifestyle and engage the public. To
address these issues, the importance of international cooperation and policymaking is
emphasised. Insights into potential remedies are provided by the article, which includes
energy efficiency initiatives, investments in renewable energy, assistance for clean technology R&D, green funding options, public awareness campaigns, international cooperation, and regulatory frameworks. Every one of these alternatives is examined for
possible effects and obstacles. The article concludes that reaching net zero in the UK is a
complex but necessary objective that calls for a concerted strategy that strikes a balance
between social and economic concerns and environmental sustainability
Estimating soil particle-size fractions and predicting soil texture from microwave remote sensing techniques with application in Ireland.
No full textSynthetic Aperture Radar is a low-cost alternative widely employed to estimate soil properties, especially over small map scales (i.e. large area). In contrast to deeper soil layers, topsoil is more consistent with the capability of a C-band SAR signal data (e.g., Sentinel-1) to reach the soil surface. However, few studies address the use of microwave-based sensors to estimate particle size fractions and soil texture classes (e.g., loam, sandy clay). As soil texture consists of the relative proportions of sand, silt, and clay, this soil property is compositional in nature (i.e., the sum of the components is equal to 100%), and such a constraint is not always considered in either explicitly spatial or non-spatial models. Moreover, retrieving information on soils from radar signals is a challenging task, particularly under vegetated soil conditions. This research seeks to address this challenge by employing H-alpha dual-pol decomposition over a study domain located in the Republic of Ireland, where soils are typically covered by grass/pasture. No study to date has employed this method for estimating sand, silt, and clay, or soil texture. Employing both a spatial and non-spatial framework and explicitly considering the compositional nature of soil texture, two different statistical modelling approaches – linear and tree-based – are used to derive soil estimates from Sentinel-1 data, in tandem with topographical and geophysical covariates. Five primary conclusions can be drawn from this work: (i) it is beneficial to treat soil texture as compositional data in the models employed; (ii) radar-based derivatives are not able to predict sand, silt or clay without the aid of covariates, since the models do not identify direct relationships between the backscattering coefficients (� ��0 , � ��0) and the soil particle size fractions; (iii) the non-spatial modelling approaches yield better estimates when fitted without the geophysical covariates, however, the geophysical covariates are useful in obtaining soil texture in the regression models with interactions terms; (iv) the H-alpha Dual-Pol Decomposition method provides, to a certain extent, soil information over low vegetation, and improved estimates of sand, silt and clay; and (v), the spatial models do not outperform the non-spatial models in estimating soil particle size fractions (PSF) in terms of numerical estimates, but are useful in capturing patterns and trends in the response variables. Hence, this research provides a methodological framework to inform the design of in situ soil surveys and a means to estimate soil properties over large spatial areas to generate new data products for use in hydrological, land surface, climate, and other model-based approaches that currently employ coarse global scale soil texture products. This research is also timely in light of the European and Irish policy initiatives around soils such as “A Soil Deal for Europe 2021-2030 (Mission Soil)” and “A Signpost for Soil Policy in Ireland 2021-2030”
MicroRNA-155 contributes to epithelial dysfunction in eosinophilic oesophagitis
No full textEosinophilic Oesophagitis (EoE) is a chronic allergen-mediated disease of the oesophagus with a
rising incidence which represents an increased clinical burden associated with disease. During EoE
chronic inflammation, eosinophils and other leukocytes migrate into the oesophageal epithelium and
consume available oxygen at a higher rate than the surrounding epithelium. This reduction in the
oxygen tension places an increased metabolic demand on the epithelium and induces an extended
inflammatory hypoxia in the EoE oesophagus. Previous studies showed that this extended hypoxic
microenvironment is concordant with a decrease in HIF-1α signaling, whereby HIF-1α was repressed
in active EoE and shown to regulate the barrier forming tight junction claudin-1. Pharmacologic HIF�1α stabilisation restored the HIF-1α/claudin-1 regulatory axis and highlighted the barrier protective
role of HIF-1α in the oesophageal epithelium.
With reference to upstream regulators associated with oesophageal epithelial reactive changes,
microRNAs (miRNAs) were an attractive avenue of exploration which were previously researched in
EoE, however their impact on the oesophageal epithelium has not been fully elucidated. Previous
research has defined a coordinate negative feedback loop with the elevation of miR-155 and the
destabilisation of HIF-1α signaling in response to extended experimental hypoxia, however the
functional impacts of miR-155 in the oesophagus had not yet been fully identified. Using in silico
analyses we highlight an enrichment of miR-155 regulated pathways within the EoE transcriptome and
suggest the action of miR-155 in hypoxic pathways and epithelial barrier regulation.
Furthermore, we show via in situ hybridisation an elevation in miR-155 in oesophageal biopsies
of active EoE patients, whereby miR-155 was shown localised to basal and suprabasal layers of the
epithelium. In concordance with the literature, we defined an elevation of miR-155 in EPC2-hTERTs
cultured in extended experimental hypoxia, which was inversely correlated with the decrease in HIF�1α signaling. Using miR-155 stably overexpressing (miR-155OE) EPC2-hTERTs we reported a
dysfunctional epithelial barrier in 3-dimensional physiologic cultures measured by transepithelial
electrical resistance (TEER). qRT-PCR and western blot analysis identified a selective decrease in claudin-7, with immunofluorescence staining further confirming a decrease in expression and
mislocalisation of claudin-7. In silico analysis did not identify miR-155 binding sites in claudin-7 mRNA,
however we propose that miR-155 induces dysfunctional epithelial barrier through indirect
attenuation of claudin-7.
Molecular characterisation studies have shown a dysregulation in the basal-stem cell
compartment in the EoE epithelium. Studies have highlighted a decrease in CD73 and CD104
expressing basal-stem cells in response to EoE inflammation which was associated with reduced
epithelial renewal. Further studies have also associated an elevation in quiescent progenitorstem cells
in EoE pathology, however the impact of miR-155 on the epithelial basal-stem compartment has not
been fully explored. We identified that miR-155OE cultures have an acute elevation of proliferation
and basal stem markers, followed by a reduction at extended timepoints. This was concordant with
reduction in suprabasal keratin-13 and keratin-4, and elevation in late-differentiation markers keratin�16 and involucrin. We propose that miR-155 is associated with destabilisation of CD73, dysregulates
other basal stem-like cells and induces an accelerated maturation phenotype in organoid cultures.
Collectively, these findings suggest that miR-155 is an epithelial miRNA elevated in EoE pathology.
MiR-155 elevation is concordant with the extended hypoxic microenvironment and attenuation in HIF�1α, moreover we highlight that miR-155 impairs barrier integrity by the indirect attenuation of
claudin-7 which may contribute to EoE pathophysiology. MiR-155 elevation was also associated with
the decrease in basal CD73, and in the induction of an accelerated maturity phenotype characterised
by an atrophy of adequate stratification processes indictive of EoE pathology
On Loss-Aware Optimal Control of Wave Energy Converters With Electrical Power Take-Offs
No full textIncorporating the non-ideal power take-off (PTO) efficiency of wave energy converters (WECs) into energy-maximizing
control is crucial for achieving optimal electrical power generation.
The majority of previous loss-aware controllers are based on a
simplified power-coefficient (PC) model or only consider the copper
loss, which remain insufficient to describe a real electrical PTO. In
this article, a high-fidelity loss model, encompassing different loss
components of the PTO (a generator and a power converter), is
developed, and a number of loss-aware model predictive control
(MPC) options are derived and compared in a realistic case study.
The results highlight the importance of using an appropriate loss
model, rather than a PC model, both for power evaluation and
for control, and it is shown that a quadratic loss model employed
in MPC is effective in approximating the true loss function, so
that near-optimal power production can be achieved with fast
computation
How are academic libraries in Ireland providing student well-being and mental health support?
No full textBackground
The mental health and well-being of students has been a global concern for some time. More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted mental health and well-being. Increasing pressures on students such as the “cost of living crisis” and lack of suitable accommodation have led to increased levels of anxiety. Higher Education Institutions (HEI) are seeking ways to incorporate a “whole university” approach to tackle the perceived mental health crisis. Academic libraries are at the heart of campus life and are therefore in a unique position to provide mental health and well-being support to students.
Aims
Despite many initiatives taking place on the island of Ireland there is little in the extant literature providing evidence of this. The aim of this study is to provide an overview of the provision of mental health and well-being supports in Irish academic libraries, and drivers and barriers in doing so. In addition, this study investigates the impact that COVID-19 has had on service provision.
Method
A primarily quantitative approach was taken using a questionnaire adapted from a previous UK study. Academic librarians who were either library directors or had responsibility for student services in the library answered a series of multiple-choice questions, and two open text questions were provided for longer responses. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed on multiple-choice questions and thematic analysis applied to the open text comments
Measuring Collective Action Intention Toward Gender Equality Across Cultures
No full textCollective action is a powerful tool for social change and is fundamental to women and girls’ empowerment on a societal level. Collective action towards gender equality could be understood as intentional and conscious civic behaviors focused on social transformation, questioning power relations, and promoting gender equality through collective efforts. Various instruments to measure collective action intentions have been developed, but to our knowledge none of the published measures were subject to invariance testing. We introduce the gender equality collective action intention (GECAI) scale and examine its psychometric isomorphism and measurement invariance, using data from 60 countries ( N = 31,686). Our findings indicate that partial scalar measurement invariance of the GECAI scale permits conditional comparisons of latent mean GECAI scores across countries. Moreover, this metric psychometric isomorphism of the GECAI means we can interpret scores at the country-level (i.e., as a group attribute) conceptually similar to individual attributes. Therefore, our findings add to the growing body of literature on gender based collective action by introducing a methodologically sound tool to measure collective action intentions towards gender equality across cultures
Model-Free Linear Noncausal Optimal Control of Wave Energy Converters via Reinforcement Learning
No full textThis article introduces a novel reinforcement learning (RL) method for wave energy converters (WECs), which
directly generates linear noncausal optimal control (LNOC)
policies on continuous action space. Unlike other existing WEC
RL algorithms looking at the problem mainly from a learning
perspective, the proposed RL approach adopts a control-theoretic
approach by delving into the underlying WEC energy maximization (EM) optimal control problem (OCP). This leads to
control-informed decisions on choosing the RL state, as well as
developing the RL structure. The proposed model-free LNOC
(MF-LNOC) offers substantial advantages, including significantly
improved performance due to the use of noncausal information,
a simplified RL with linear actor and quadratic critic structures,
and remarkable fast convergence speeds, achieved using less than
150 s of data points, for a benchmarked point absorber, which can
be further shortened using the replay technique. This reduction
in training time allows for controller reconfiguration in pace with
sea changes. Demonstrative numerical simulations are presented
to verify the efficacy of the proposed methods. The proposed
MF-LNOC also shows robustness against wave prediction inaccuracies and changing sea conditions. The MF-LNOC methodology
can be highly attractive for WEC developers who want to design
an efficient and reliable controller for WECs but also hope to
avoid the challenge of establishing a control-oriented model that
can preserve high fidelity over a wide range of sea condition