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Why Trump's attacks on libraries are bad news for everyone
No full textOpinion: Recent events in the US have shown us libraries, and the services and information they provide, must never be taken for grante
Power system stability with high integration of RESs and EVs: Benefits, challenges, tools, and solutions
No full textIn our daily lives, electric energy is essential and impacts numerous aspects of society. The electricity produced
from conventional sources falls short of meeting contemporary demand, giving rise to power supply issues and
environmental concerns, including the emission of greenhouse gases. For all those reasons, the transformation to
Renewable Energy Sources (RESs) is indispensable, more than ever. Nevertheless, the inherent uncertainty and
low inertia introduce operational challenges and threaten power system stability. Various research papers have
been published regarding RES integration and design. However, research articles addressing stability in
distributed generation networks with RESs are either scarce or inadequate. To address power system stability, the
primary objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the benefits, challenges, and integration
of RESs and electric vehicles (EVs), in addition to tools, software, controlling mechanisms, and potential solutions related to RESs integration. Integrating HVDC technology with hybrid RES enhances long-distance power
transmission efficiency, reduces losses, and improves grid stability, making it an effective solution for variable
RES generation. Therefore, the HVDC link has been taken as a case study and is simulated using DIgSILENT
/MATLAB softwares. The result shows that the HVDC link is more stable than the HVAC transmission in terms of
voltage stability when integrating the RESs, which could result in a voltage limit violation. The 100 % RESs
integration may proceed more smoothly and efficiently if DC voltage is present
A Socio-Legal Study of Stakeholder Perspectives on the Identification of Victims of Trafficking in Human Beings for the Purpose of Labour Exploitation Across European States.
No full textThis thesis is a socio-legal analysis of stakeholder perspectives on the identification of
victims of trafficking in human beings for the purpose of labour exploitation (THB-LE),
focusing on the practical operation of the identification procedure, multi-stakeholder cooperation
and, training and awareness measures. Through 42 semi-structured interviews
with labour inspectors, criminal law enforcement officials, trade unionists and
representatives from non-governmental organisations, it captures bottom-up insights on
the gap between the law and practice of identification. This is combined with a top-down
analysis of Article 10 of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking
in Human Beings. Overall, the data highlights both limitations to the international legal
framework itself, and gaps between the obligation to identify under international law and
its practical realisation in Europe.
The interview findings suggest that the identification procedure should be understood as
encompassing the two distinct processes of detection and formal identification. Yet,
Article 10 only covers formal identification. The research thus finds a significant lacuna
in the legal framework. The analysis also reveals practical barriers to effective
identification relating to, for example, shifting the burden of identification to victims and
difficulties in distinguishing the boundary between a labour law violation and THB-LE.
The thesis establishes that the enduring criminal justice approach to trafficking in human
beings hinders the effectiveness of the identification procedure by limiting the formal
identification process to criminal law enforcement officials. Concurrently, it reveals
challenges to the substantive realisation of a multi-stakeholder integrated approach due
to, inter alia, stakeholders’ conflicting agendas and the failure to adequately recognise
certain labour market stakeholders, including trade unions.
Finally, the thesis makes recommendations for states to improve the practice of
identification, for example, by mapping the duties of relevant stakeholders to delineate
areas of convergence and align their efforts
Collective Mental Action: Turning Texts into Statutes
No full textHow exactly do we know that a text is a law? This paper argues that purely legalistic explanations are inadequate because they do not explain why certain voting rules possess the authority to alter the statute book. Rejecting the modern tendency to view legislatures as a “they, not an ‘it’,” I critically examine Michael Bratman’s proceduralist theory, which draws on the traditional idea of a single legislative author. Bratman holds that statutes express the legislature’s collective intentions, understood as the outcome of legislators’ shared preferences regarding procedural matters. I argue that Bratman’s approach overemphasizes rational coherence and confers undue power on individual minority legislators. To address these concerns, the paper revises Bratman’s framework to a) incorporate a majoritarian rule of aggregation and, b) conceive of legislation as a mental act involving the formation of a collective policy “will” rather than a collective policy “intention.” This conceptual shift relaxes the rationality threshold for legislative action and aligns Bratman’s framework more closely with the pragmatic realities of legislative assemblies
The heart of the campus: How academic libraries in Ireland are supporting student well-being
No full textAcademic 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. Despite many initiatives taking place on the island of Ireland very little literature has been published providing evidence of this. Academic librarians who were either library directors, or who had responsibility for student services in the library, enthusiastically responded to a survey which asked questions regarding the provision of mental health and well-being supports in their libraries, and the drivers and barriers in doing so. The study also investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on service provision. The findings of this study and recommendations for academic libraries in Ireland will be discussed in this presentation
Spatio-temporal dynamics of speleothem growth and glaciation in the British Isles
No full textReconstructing the spatio-temporal dynamics of glaciations and permafrost largely relies on surface deposits and is therefore a challenge for every glacial period older than the last due to erosion. Consequently, glaciations and permafrost remain poorly constrained worldwide before ca. 30 ka. Since speleothems (carbonate cave deposits) form from drip water and generally indicate the absence of an ice sheet and permafrost, we evaluate how speleothem growth phases defined by U series dates align with past glacial–interglacial cycles. Further, we make the first systematic comparison of the spatial distribution of speleothem dates with independent reconstructions of the history of the British–Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS) to test how well geomorphologic ice reconstructions are replicated in the cave record. The frequency distribution of 1020 U series dates based on three different dating methods between 300 and 5 ka shows statistically significant periods of speleothem growth during the last interglacial and several interstadials during the last glacial. A pronounced decline in speleothem growth coincides with the Last Glacial Maximum before broad reactivation during deglaciation and into the Holocene. Spatio-temporal patterns in speleothem growth between 31 and 15 ka agree well with the surface-deposit-based reconstruction of the last BIIS. In data-rich regions, such as northern England, ice dynamics are well replicated in the cave record, which provide additional evidence about the spatio-temporal distribution of permafrost dynamics. Beyond the Last Glacial Maximum, the distribution of speleothem dates across the British Isles offers the opportunity to improve chronological constraints on past ice sheet variability, with evidence for a highly dynamic Scottish ice sheet during the last glacial. The results provide independent evidence of ice distribution complementary to studies of surface geomorphology and geology, and the potential to extend reconstructions into permafrost and earlier glacial cycles. Whilst undersampling is currently the main limitation for speleothem-based ice and permafrost reconstruction even in relatively well-sampled parts of the British Isles, we show that speleothem dates obtained using modern mass spectrometry techniques reveal a higher spatio-temporal resolution of glacial–interglacial cycles and glacial extent than previously possible. Further study of leads and lags in speleothem growth compared to surface deposition may provide new insights into landscape-scale dynamics during ice sheet growth and retreat
Deepening dialogue in Silent Spaces: An exploration of pedagogical informed practice in adult and community education spaces within communities in contention.
No full textThe rise of political populism has posed significant challenges for democratic societies and for the academy. Populist movements often emphasise a division between ‘the people’ and ‘the elite’, pushing narratives that thrive on polarisation. In such contexts dialogue between social and community groups and populist movements is crucial for the health of democracy. However, within the academy, and specifically within adult and community education in formal, informal, and non-formal spaces, populism tends to undermine the practice of dialogue by promoting exclusionary practices, rejecting, and indeed silencing the legitimacy of opposing views. This article explores the theoretical foundations of dialogue and silence as critical components of communicative discourse. It posits the theories of Freire (1970, 1996, 1998, 2010), Greene (1973, 1978, 1995), Brookfield (1995, 2009), Lederach (2003), Bar-on (1989, 2007), and Giroux (2005) as a means of scaffolding a collaborative theoretical framework for conducting meaningful dialogue amongst and between communities in contention. In doing so it aims to offer practitioners of adult and community education a conceptual framework to support participatory dialogue that engages with contentious and complex narratives. This article offers the concept of silence as a societal response to conflict, the construct of dialogue as one means to deconstruct the silence, the acknowledgement of truth being multifaceted, and the complexity that arises in dealing with identity in communities in conflict, where the practice of dialogue is challenging, elusive, and subdued. In concluding, it suggests where arts-based methodologies form the backdrop, there is hope for shared understanding to emerge organically
Profit-seeking solar geoengineering exemplifies broader risks of market-based climate governance
No full textDespite uncertainties about its feasibility and desirability, start-up companies seeking to profit from solar geoengineering
have begun to emerge. One company is releasing balloons filled with sulfur dioxide to sell “cooling
credits”, claiming that the cooling achieved when 1 g of SO2 is released is equivalent to offsetting one ton of
carbon dioxide for one year. Another aspires to deliver returns to investors from the development of a proprietary
aerosol for dispersal in the stratosphere. Such for-profit solar geoengineering enterprises should not be understood
merely as rogue opportunists. These proposals are not only scientifically questionable, and premature in
the absence of effective governance, but they are a predictable consequence of neoliberal, market-driven climate
governance. The structures and incentives of market-based climate policy - circumscribed by neoliberalism’s
emphasis on technological innovation, venture capital, and the marketization of environmental goods - have
generated repeated efforts to profit from various forms of geoengineering. With a climate governance regime
wherein private, for-profit actors significantly influence and weaken climate policy, de facto governance of solar
geoengineering has emerged, dominated by actors linked to Silicon Valley funders and ideologies. Without more
explicit efforts to curb the power of private sector actors, including commercial geoengineering bans and non-use
provisions, pursuit of techno-market “solutions” could lead to both inadequate mitigation and increasingly risky
reliance on geoengineering
Resource List: Projects, Toolkits, and Resources related to Cultural Participation of Persons with Disabilities.
No full textThis Resource List presents projects, organisations and initiatives reviewed during the extensive research conducted across Work Packages 1 and 2 of DANCING. It also includes initiatives and projects presented to us by participants in the qualitative research. This Resource List complements the Toolkit for Cultural Organisations that presents findings and recommendations.
This Resource List aims to highlight projects, initiatives, toolkits and reports that have a focus on cultural participation by and involving persons with disabilities, the accessibility of cultural content, and the overall relation between disability and the Cultural and Creative Sectors (CCS). In doing so, this Resource List includes references to existing tools and resources which may be of interest to organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs), cultural organisations, as well as academics, policymakers and civil society organisations.
This Resource List does not provide a systematic quantitative review, but instead includes a list of selected projects and tools carried out/produced in Europe, many of which have been supported by EU funding. It is important to note that this List is not exhaustive and does not provide a comprehensive appraisal.
The idea of this Resource List arises from findings of WP1, which highlighted that there is still a piecemeal approach to cultural participation of persons with disabilities with many obstacles to ensuring their inclusion and the accessibility of cultural content and venues. As argued in other academic outputs of the DANCING project, good practices in relation to accessibility and inclusion are fragmented and often confined within the specific and limited timeframes of projects.[1] A recurring theme among participants in the empirical research of the DANCING project was the ‘loss’ of good practices. This happens either because such good practices are linked to a project, with a specific timeframe and funding, and are discontinued after the end of a given project, or because such good practices rely on the distinct expertise of certain employees, artists or cultural workers, and discontinue following the exit or retirement of such an expert. Interview responses frequently indicated that, despite the publication of numerous guides and checklists promoting good practices across different countries, cultural organisations still face challenges in their proper use and implementation. Moreover, the adoption of a systematic approach to embed accessibility and inclusive practices into the CCS and into mainstream cultural activities seems still very slow. This is engendered by the tendency for cultural funding not to include specific accessibility budget lines, or, even when they do, such funding is allocated for bespoke (often short-term) projects rather than for sustained, long-term actions aimed at integrating accessibility into all cultural goods and services. For example, a participant of the DANCING research observed that although many innovative projects and ideas for increasing accessibility exist, accessibility rarely becomes mainstream.[2] Hence this Resource List aims to support and stimulate mutual learning to avoid fragmentation of efforts and the engendering of existing piecemeal approaches
Statistical analysis of high-dimensional spatio-temporal data
No full textTo realise biological function, cellular behaviour is a dynamic, involved processes that
encompass spatial arrangement, differentiation, division and death. Numerous in vivo
biological experiments have been designed to track cellular behaviour over different timeand
space-scale frames, generating a large amount of spatio-temporal data. However, traditional
statistical methods are not well adapted to draw meaningful insight from those
high-dimensional data. Motivated by primary data sources provided by collaborators, this
thesis presents a novel statistical analysis framework of high-dimensional spatio-temporal
data, addressing it at different time scales. To capture biological information at fixed time
points, a spatial statistical pipeline is developed to quantify the distribution of various
cell types and assess their spatial relationships. The analysis is extended to cover periods
of the order of one day, with a statistical framework designed to process spatio-temporal
data, combining a data cleaning process and investigating the relationship between cell
movement and differentiation. Over longer time periods, mathematical models and statistical
methods are developed to estimate the average number of divisions in vivo, offering
insights into long-term cell distribution. The advanced statistical analysis helps capture
the spatio-temporal relationships between different cell types, revealing the dynamic processes
of cellular behaviour