National University of Ireland, Maynooth
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What's in Lisbon? Art Museums, Art Dealers, and Refugees in Portugal between 1933 and 1945
No full textThis thesis focuses on the transactions of works of art that took place in Portugal
during the period of the Third Reich (1933-1945), the institutions and individuals
involved in these transactions, and the works of art that were the object of those
transactions. Drawing on American, Austrian, British, Dutch, French, German,
Portuguese, and Swiss primary sources, the thesis sets out to determine the extent
of the influence of the refugee flux into the country and of the international
circulation of Nazi-looted art on the Portuguese art market. It does so by
identifying and studying the actions of specific groups identified as having the
higher chances of benefiting from these circumstances: importers and exporters of
non-contemporary works of art; national art museums in Lisbon and Porto, cities
with international communications and transport networks, which hosted the
highest number of refugees; public museums in seaside and spa resorts, where
thousands of refugees resided during the war years; and the foreign art dealers
who opened businesses in Lisbon. Conceptually, it begins with a large universe of
analysis, narrowing its scope as the chapters progress, culminating in the study of
the actions of one single figure, and clarifying the provenance of one single
painting, in a case study that brings together various areas of research examined
previously. While findings confirm the supposition that the Portuguese State and
public institutions did not knowingly engage in the acquisition of Nazi-looted art
during this period, they reveal that some of their acquisitions require further
provenance research, and that the actions of specific individuals in bringing works
of art into the country demand further scrutiny
Beyond ‘stagnation and change’?: Path dependency, translation and the ‘layering’ over time of Irish penal policy
No full textIn the past decade or so a significant body of work on
‘Hibernian exceptionalism’ to broader punitive trends
has emerged. The dominant argument and characterisation of Irish penality within this broad schema is that it is
exceptional for having been largely stagnant. This article
takes issue with the stagnation or ‘stickiness’ that is often
supposed to characterise the Irish penal system arguing
that stagnation as a form of ‘path dependency’ fails to
adequately account for key moments of penal change
and downplays the temporal dynamics that are often
apparent in policy development. Using two key ‘policy
windows’ as case studies – the 1996 ‘moral panic’ over
crime and the post-2011 turn to a more progressive penal
politics – it argues that greater consideration should be
given to the ‘translation’ and ‘layering’ of policy decisions and the growing complexity of policy space that
may result
Differential impact of swine, bovine and poultry manure on the microbiome and resistome of agricultural grassland
No full textLand spreading of animal manure is an essential process in agriculture. Despite the importance of grassland in global
food security the potential of the grass phyllosphere as a reservoir of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is unknown. Additionally, the comparative risk associated with different manure sources is unclear. Due to the One Health nature of
AMR there is an urgent need to fully understand the risk associated with AMR at the agriculture - environmental nexus.
We performed a grassland field study to assess and compare the relative and temporal impact of bovine, swine and
poultry manure application on the grass phyllosphere and soil microbiome and resistome over a period of four months,
using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and high-throughput quantitative PCR (HT-qPCR). The soil and grass
phyllosphere contained a diverse range of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) and mobile genetic elements
(MGEs). Manure treatment was found to introduce ARGs belonging to clinically important antimicrobial classes,
such as aminoglycoside and sulphonamide into grass and soil. Temporal analysis of ARGs and MGEs associated with
manure treatment indicated ARGs patterns were similar across the different manure types in the manure treated soil
and grass phyllosphere. Manure treatment resulted in the enrichment in members of the indigenous microbiota and
the introduction of manure associated bacteria, with this impact extending past the recommended six-week exclusion
period. However, these bacteria were in low relative abundance and manure treatment was not found to significantly
impact the overall composition of the microbiome or resistome. This provides evidence that the current guidelines facilitate reduction of biological risk to livestock. Additionally, in soil and grass samples MGEs correlated with ARGs
from clinically important antimicrobial classes, indicating the key role MGEs play in horizontal gene transfer in agri-cultural grassland. These results demonstrate the role of the grass phyllosphere as an under-studied sink of AMR
The Mid-infrared Instrument for JWST and Its In-flight Performance
No full textThe Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) extends the reach of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to 28.5 μm. It provides subarcsecond-resolution imaging, high sensitivity coronagraphy, and spectroscopy at resolutions of λ/Δλ ∼ 100–3500, with the high-resolution mode employing an integral field unit to provide spatial data cubes. The resulting broad suite of capabilities will enable huge advances in studies over this wavelength range. This overview describes the history of acquiring this capability for JWST. It discusses the basic attributes of the instrument optics, the detector arrays, and the cryocooler that keeps everything at approximately 7 K. It gives a short description of the data pipeline and of the instrument performance demonstrated during JWST commissioning. The bottom line is that the telescope and MIRI are both operating to the standards set by pre-launch predictions, and all of the MIRI capabilities are operating at, or even a bit better than, the level that had been expected. The paper is also designed to act as a roadmap to more detailed papers on different aspects of MIRI
‘Gente Blanca’ in the Green Atlantic: Selfhood, victimhood, whiteness, and early modern Ireland
No full textAtmospheric oxidation of new “green” solvents – Part 2: methyl pivalate and pinacolone
No full textLab-based experimental and computational methods were used to study the atmospheric degradation
of two promising “green” solvents: pinacolone, (CH3)3CC(O)CH3, and methyl pivalate, (CH3)3CC(O)OCH3.
Pulsed laser photolysis coupled to pulsed laser-induced fluorescence was used to determine absolute rate coefficients (in 10−12 cm3 molec.−1
s
−1
) of k1(297 K) = (1.2 ± 0.2) for OH + (CH3)3CC(O)CH3 (Reaction R1) and
k2(297 K) = (1.3 ± 0.2) for OH + (CH3)3CC(O)OCH3 (Reaction R2), in good agreement with one previous experimental study. Rate coefficients for both reactions were found to increase at elevated temperature, with k1(T )
adequately described by k1(297–485 K) = 2.1 × 10−12 exp(−200/T ) cm3 molec.−1
s
−1
. k2(T ) exhibited more
complex behaviour, with a local minimum at around 300 K. In the course of this work, k3(295–450 K) was obtained for the well-characterised reaction OH + C2H5OH (ethanol; Reaction R3), in satisfactory agreement with
the evaluated literature.
UV–Vis spectroscopy experiments and computational calculations were used to explore cross-sections for
(CH3)3CC(O)CH3 photolysis (Reaction R4), while (CH3)3CC(O)OCH3 showed no sign of absorption over the
wavelengths of interest. Absorption cross-sections for (CH3)3CC(O)CH3, σ4(λ), in the actinic region were larger,
and the maximum was red-shifted compared to estimates (methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) values) used in current
state-of-science models. As a consequence, we note that photolysis (Reaction R4) is likely the dominant pathway
for removal of (CH3)3CC(O)CH3 from the troposphere. Nonetheless, large uncertainties remain as quantum
yields ϕ4(λ) remain unmeasured. Lifetime estimates based upon Reactions (R1) and (R4) span the range 2–9 d
and are consequently associated with a poorly constrained estimated photochemical ozone creation potential
(POCPE). In accord with previous studies, (CH3)3CC(O)OCH3 did not absorb in the actinic
Evaluating International Agreements: The Voluntarist Reply and its Limits
No full textHow should the fact of state consent to international agreements affect their moral evaluation? Political criticism of the content of international agreements is often answered by invoking the voluntary nature of those agreements: if states did not wish to accept their terms then they were free to reject them; the fact of their having voluntarily accepted them limits the scope for subsequent criticism. This is the “Voluntarist Reply”. This paper examines the Voluntarist Reply to understand the specific moral work that it claims to do, the sense of voluntariness that it requires, and the limits on the capacity of voluntary consent to answer substantive political and moral criticism . It maps those limits across four prominent and plausible accounts of international economic justice to understand the different ways that consent does or does not alter the moral situation
Experiences and perceptions of everyday decision-making in the lives of adults with intellectual disabilities, their care partners and direct care support workers
No full textBackground: Decisional support is important to people with intellectual disabilities. This review explores: i) how everyday decision-making is perceived and/or experienced by adults with intellectual disability, their care partners and direct care support workers (DCSWs); ii) techniques/approaches used to support everyday decision-making; and iii) barriers/facilitators encountered. Method: PRISMA systematic review methodology using PsycInfo, PubMED, Web of Science, CINAHL and Scopus. Results: Eighty-one papers were included [qualitative (n = 69), quantitative (n = 7), mixed methods (n = 5)]. Adults with intellectual disability reported wanting to make decisions and needing support. Care partner support was affected by concerns about safety and decisional capacity. DCSWs reported difficulty balancing client decisions and care partner concerns when providing support. Supported Decision-Making (SDM) was identified as a key method of support. Barriers and facilitators were interconnected and impacted by stressors. Conclusion: This topic is under-researched and ill-defined. Supported decision-making is an increasingly popular approach whose application requires further exploration
PCP complexes of Titanium in the +3 and +4 oxidation states
No full textTi(IV) and Ti(III) complexes using the tBuPCP ligand have been synthesized (tBuPCP = C6H3-2,6-(CH2PtBu2)2). The [tBuPCP]Li synthon can be reacted with TiCl4(THF)2 to form (tBuPCP)TiCl3 (1) in limited yields due to significant reduction of the titanium synthon. The Ti(III) complex (tBuPCP)TiCl2 (2) has been further characterized. This can have half an equivalent of halide abstracted to form [{(tBuPCP)TiCl}2{μ-Cl}][B(C6F5)4] (3) and can also be methylated, forming (tBuPCP)TiMe2 (4). All the Ti(III) complexes have been characterized using EPR and X-ray crystallography, giving insight into their electronic structures, which are further supported by DFT calculations