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Precarity revisited: Exploring camming work in Brazil and experiences of precarity in platform-based (erotic) content production
No full textThe article addresses labour precarity in platform-based cultural production from the perspective
of Brazilian camming work, examining it through cammers’ perceptions and experiences. Precarity
has been a framework for assessing work conditions in platformised cultural industries. This
framework stems from a normative standpoint of standard work and employment, which neither
represents labour markets nor marginalised cultural labour in the majority world. This article
tackles precarity from marginalised Global South cultural producers’ perspectives. Drawing on
15 in-depth interviews with cisgender female cammers, I show that local work and employment
realities, and the positionality of platforms within them, are critical to cammers’ sense-making of
labour precarity. For the cammers, the parameters for evaluating quality and precarity are unstable
and adjusted according to their position within and outside platform economies. Conclusions suggest that precarity is situated and derives its meaning from a complex articulation of workers’
experiences and positions across various economies
Social Rights under Article 2(1) of the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland
No full textThe impact of Brexit upon the protection of social rights has received comparatively little attention, both in the public media and the academic literature. Social progress achieved on the island of Ireland since the conclusion of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement can be seen as a product of that Agreement and Irish and British European Union (EU) membership – the former has generated the stability necessary for citizens to enjoy the opportunities and protection afforded by the latter. Brexit has put this social progress at risk and has already led to rights backsliding in social contexts. However, the mechanism created by the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland to address diminutions of rights flowing from Brexit – article 2(1) – is not, we contend, suitable for preventing diminutions in social rights. We demonstrate in this article that the test for breach of article 2(1) focuses on specific breaches of individual rights and therefore does not cover situations in which regression in rights protection cannot be tied empirically to individual circumstances. The enjoyment of social rights on the island of Ireland is often facilitated by horizontally applicable EU law, and changes in levels of protection of social rights are often best observed at the population level over time. Using several case studies, we demonstrate how social rights backsliding on the island of Ireland that is attributable wholly or mainly to Brexit likely cannot be litigated through the application of article 2(1) of the Protocol, and we reflect upon the inadequacy of this situation
Hybrid forecasting: blending climate predictions with AI models
No full textHybrid hydroclimatic forecasting systems employ data-driven (statistical or machine learning) methods to harness and integrate a broad variety of predictions from dynamical, physics-based models – such as numerical weather prediction, climate, land, hydrology, and Earth system models – into a final prediction product. They are recognized as a promising way of enhancing the prediction skill of meteorological and hydroclimatic variables and events, including rainfall, temperature, streamflow, floods, droughts, tropical cyclones, or atmospheric rivers. Hybrid forecasting methods are now receiving growing attention due to advances in weather and climate prediction systems at subseasonal to decadal scales, a better appreciation of the strengths of AI, and expanding access to computational resources and methods. Such systems are attractive because they may avoid the need to run a computationally expensive offline land model, can minimize the effect of biases that exist within dynamical outputs, benefit from the strengths of machine learning, and can learn from large datasets, while combining different sources of predictability with varying time horizons. Here we review recent developments in hybrid hydroclimatic forecasting and outline key challenges and opportunities for further research. These include obtaining physically explainable results, assimilating human influences from novel data sources, integrating new ensemble techniques to improve predictive skill, creating seamless prediction schemes that merge short to long lead times, incorporating initial land surface and ocean/ice conditions, acknowledging spatial variability in landscape and atmospheric forcing, and increasing the operational uptake of hybrid prediction schemes
Two Centuries of Relative Sea-Level Rise in Dublin, Ireland, Reconstructed by Geological Tide Gauge
No full textWe demonstrate the utility and reproducibility of the saltmarsh foraminifera-based ‘geological tide gauge’ (GTG) approach by developing two independent records of relative sea-level (RSL) change for Dublin, Ireland. Our records, recovered from two different saltmarshes, indicate that RSL rose at a century-scale rate of 1.5 ± 0.9 mm yr–1
over the last 200 years. This compares favourably with the shorter, but more precise, mean sea level (MSL) record from the Dublin Port tide gauge, which indicates long-term
(1953–2016 CE) rise at a rate of 1.1 ± 0.5 mm yr–1. When corrected for the influence of glacio-isostatic adjustment our saltmarsh-based reconstruction suggests sea levels in
Dublin rose at a rate of 1.6 ± 0.9 mm yr–1 since the start of the 19th century, which is in excellent agreement with the regional value of MSL rise over the same period (1.5 ±
0.2 mm yr–1) calculated from a compilation of tide gauge records around Britain. Whilst our record has decadal-scale temporal resolution (1 sample every 8 years), we are
currently unable to resolve multidecadal-scale variations in the rate of sea-level rise which are masked by the size of the vertical uncertainties (± 20 cm) associated with
our reconstruction of palaeomarsh-surface elevation. We discuss the challenges of applying the GTG approach in the typically minerogenic saltmarshes of the NE Atlantic
margin and outline potential solutions that would facilitate the production of Common Era RSL reconstructions in the region
A Process Model for Continuous Public Service Improvement: Demonstrated in Local Government Context for Smart Cities.
No full textThe new era of the smart city is accompanied by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and many other technologies to improve the quality of life for the citizen of the modern city, that in turn, has brought immense opportunities as well as challenges for government and organizations. Local authorities of the cities provide multiple services across different domains to the citizens (e.g. transport, health, environment, housing, etc.). Citizens are involved during different stages of smart city services and provide their feedback across those domains. Existing smart city initiatives provide various technological platforms for gathering citizens’ feedback to provide improved quality of services to them. Even though technological developments have resulted in a higher degree of digitalization, there is a need for improvement in the services provided by municipalities. There are multiple engagement platforms to obtain citizens’ feedback for the improvement of smart city services and to transform public services. However, limited studies consider the challenges faced by practitioners at the local level during the incorporation of those feedback for further service improvement. As a result, city services fail to fulfil the need of citizens and do not meet the goals set by existing engagement platforms. Technology-oriented solutions in the public sector domain require a logical and structured approach for the transformation of public services and digitalization. Enterprise Architecture (EA) can provide this structured approach to transform public services by providing a medium to manage change, and to respond to the need of multiple stakeholders including citizens. Thus, this research proposes a process model based on the guidelines of EA and the collaboration with practitioners that would assist local authorities to provide improved services to the citizens and fulfil their needs
Novel Developments in Bayesian Modelling Applied to Estimating Abundance in Animal Communities
No full textIn order to understand evolutionary-ecological processes and make decisions concerning
wildlife management (i.e., conservation and monitoring, according to Caughley
(1994)), the ability to estimate abundances of wild animal species can prove
imperative (Verdade et al., 2014). However, methods of data collection that involve
direct interaction with wild animals can be invasive and pose risks to both
wildlife and humans (Verdade et al., 2013).
In this thesis, we propose methodologies that may be used to estimate animal
abundances using different types of data, with an emphasis on data whose collection
is relatively low-effort, cost-effective and poses the least risk of danger to the
animal and observer. The ability to use these data to estimate abundance may
allow for the establishment of large-scale wildlife monitoring programs.
First we present a multivariate extension to the N-mixture model proposed by
Royle (2004). This extension allows for the estimation of abundances for multiple
species simultaneously, while also estimating the correlation between species
abundances. This model is further extended to allow for data collected over long
time periods through the addition of a first-order autoregressive term on the abundance.
This model is then extended further to allow for the use of zero-inflated
data by considering a hurdle-Poisson distribution for the latent abundances.
We then provide an overview of various N-mixture models, aimed at introducing
practitioners unfamiliar with statistics to this methodology. We demonstrate a
Bayesian implementation of some of these models to estimate foraging bee abundance,
with R code provided to allow model implementation by any interested
practitioners.
Finally we examine a scenario in which data is not composed of observations of
individuals, but rather observations of animal vestiges (i.e., traces that an animal
leaves behind as it moves through the environment). Here we present a novel
modelling framework, the triple Poisson model, that allows for the estimation of
animal abundance using vestige data, even when only very scarce data is available
A Game-Theoretic Framework for Coexistence of WiFi and Cellular Networks in the 6-GHz Unlicensed Spectrum
No full textThe recently unlocked 6-GHz spectrum is accessible to cellular and WiFi networks for unlicensed use while they conform to the constraints imposed by the incumbent nodes. We allow only a fraction of the cellular base stations (BSs) and a fraction of WiFi access points (APs) to use the 6-GHz band so that sources of interference are spatially segregated and made sparse, thereby decreasing the overall interference to each other. Through our proposed framework, we control this fraction as we group portions of cellular and WiFi network elements into entities competing with the other entities for the spectrum resources. These entities interact to satisfy their Quality of Service demands by playing a non-cooperative game. The action of an entity corresponds to the fraction of its network elements (WiFi APs and cellular BSs) operating in the 6-GHz band. We use tools from stochastic geometry to derive the theoretical performance metrics for users of each radio access technology, which helps us capture the aggregate behaviour of the network in a snapshot. Due to the decentralized nature of the game, we find the solution using distributed Best Response Algorithm (D-BRA), which improves the average datarate by 11.37% and 18.59% for cellular and WiFi networks, respectively, with random strategy as the baseline. The results demonstrate how the system parameters affect the performance of a network at equilibrium and highlight the throughput gains of the networks as a result of using the 6-GHz bands, which offer considerably larger bandwidths. We tested our framework using real-world data, which shows that practical implementation of multi-entity spectrum sharing is feasible even when the spatial distribution of the network elements and population are non-homogeneous
The ERC DANCING Mid-Term Academic Conference.Protecting the Right to Culture of Persons with Disabilities and Enhancing Cultural Diversity through European Union Law: Exploring New Paths (DANCING)
No full textThe present report recaptures the DANCING Mid-Term Academic Conference on 4 September
2023 which marked the halfway point of the European Research Council-funded project
‘Protecting the Right to Culture of Persons with Disabilities and Enhancing Cultural Diversity
through European Union Law: Exploring New Paths – DANCING’. The conference pursued two
primary objectives, namely taking stock of the research conducted up until this point in the
project and to situate that research within broader scholarly debates. Thus, besides
presenting interim findings of the DANCING project, the received constructive criticism at this
occasion is recalled and presented as it feeds into the on-going research undertaken by the
DANCING team. The report also highlights which accessibility measures and reasonable
accommodation was undertaken to organise and host an inclusive and accessible conference
for all. To implement and communicate some of the preliminary findings on barriers and
facilitators to cultural participation by persons with disabilities, a bespoke, accessible
DANCING opera concert followed the academic sessions. This DANCING concert is equally
presented and discussed in this report, including the manifold accessibility measures and
facilitators to an inclusive concert performance employed.
As such, the DANCING project commenced on 1 September 2020 and is due to be completed
on 31 August 2025. It pursuesthree main objectives, namely, exploring barriers and facilitators
to cultural participation of persons with disabilities (experiential objective); investigating the
intersection of cultural rights of persons with disabilities and cultural diversity in EU law
(normative objective); and ultimately re-theorising cultural diversity as a constitutional
principle of the EU (theoretical objective), each of which intersects with and supports the
others. The DANCING project and research is organised in four complementary work packages.
To address all aspects of the research and the activities undertaken by the DANCING project
at the halfway point, the DANCING Mid-Term Academic Conference was structured into two
main parts. The morning session focused on EU disability law as a distinct field of enquiry as
well as interdisciplinarity, intersectional approaches and participatory studies in academic
research (especially but not exclusively in legal research). The aim was to examine how and to
what extent the DANCING project can contribute to advancing the state-of-the-art and to
interdisciplinary approaches in EU legal scholarship. The afternoon session zoomed in on
preliminary and interim findings of the DANCING project and in particular those under work
packages 1 and 2. Several invited respondents as well as attendees contributed to lively
discussions offering insights and constructive criticism from legal scholarship and adjacent
disciplines. Moreover, the arts-based research, and the chosen case study of inclusive dance,
were discussed within a roundtable to elaborate on the benefits and challenges of such
approach of combining legal-doctrinal work with non-cognitive ways of knowing. This
roundtable also featured DANCING collaborators Stopgap Dance Company who were
commissioned by DANCING to create a bespoke contemporary dance piece entitled ‘Lived
Fiction’. The academic part was closed with a keynote address by leading EU law scholar
Professor Gráinne De Búrca.
The accompanying DANCING opera concert, which was organised in collaboration with the
Department of Music of Maynooth University, emphasised and showcased the embedded
arts-based and participatory approaches of the DANCING project by drawing on empirical
findings under work package 1, which looks at barriers and facilitators to cultural participation
by audiences and artists with disabilities. In this way, the DANCING concert both served to
present interim findings in an alternate, non-academic way as well as acted upon them by
implementing facilitators to create a more inclusive and artistically well-rounded concert
performance for all.
In doing so, the DANCING Mid-Term Academic Conference further demonstrated the
participatory approach that informs DANCING research. The DANCING Mid-Term Academic
Conference therefore featured as a key output of the overall project, which pursues a
diversified communication strategy, combining traditional academic outputs with artistic
performances that embed the ethos and findings of the project and ties into the cross-cutting
work package 4 and overall communication strategy of the DANCING project
Thinking social movement learning, again: Choudry, Freire and the conversation between popular education and social movements
No full textDisciplinary pressures within academia often produce specialised and one-sided accounts of complex social processes. Convincing accounts of popular education regularly acknowledge the importance of social movements but without theorising them adequately–and vice versa. This one-sidedness is compounded by a widespread tendency to generalise from often highly specific institutional and political contexts, as though all movements learned in the same way across space and time and popular education’s role in fostering this learning is simple. Unchecked, this leads to the reification of ‘critical’ theory and the reduction and flattening of emancipatory practices to methods or even predefined goals. This paper constructs a dialogue between the work of Choudry, Freire and other authors in both fields, aimed at both celebrating and problematising their contribution to learning from our struggles. By developing a conversation between them, we want to explore how their insights might be usefully integrated for contemporary social movements
Unconstitutional Evictions
No full textEarlier this year, the Irish Government pressed ahead with plans to allow a temporary legislative
ban on ‘no-fault’ evictions to expire. In this article, I argue that Article 40.5 of the Constitution, which
protects the inviolability of the dwelling, would be implicated in any case in which the courts must decide
whether the law requires them to enforce evictions against tenants. This is the position even in cases involving
private landlords, and where the tenants continue to occupy the landlord’s property in defiance of a valid notice
of termination. To make this argument, I analyse the case law surrounding Art 40.5 and offer an account of
the normative underpinnings of that provision. In early cases, it was thought that Art 40.5 was concerned
with forcible entry into one’s home by the State. While this is certainly a relevant aspect of Art 40.5, I argue
that subsequent cases make clear that this provision is underpinned by a richer conception of the moral value
of the home. Drawing on recent work in moral philosophy, I argue that the ‘dwelling’ referred to in the
Constitution has an important social aspect. We have standing to demand that our home, or dwelling, is not
interfered with because control over a private space of one’s own is essential for forming intimate human
relationships and pursuing valuable ends. When we see that this is the conception of the dwelling with which
Art 40.5 is concerned, it becomes clear that tenants have standing to demand a heightened level of justification
from the State before their eviction is enforced