National University of Ireland, Maynooth
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The effect of task switching on productivity: evidence from major league baseball pitchers
No full textThere are few opportunities, outside of a laboratory setting, to study how workers respond to the demands of task switching. A priori, task switching might either harm or benefit productivity, and thus it becomes an empirical question. Faced with difficulties in the measurement of productivity and task switching, we turn to an industry that produces accurate, detailed, and comparable measures of worker production, namely starting pitchers in Major League Baseball. Our results suggest that task switching, between pitching and batting, can improve subsequent pitching performance, though heterogeneity in this effect is present. We discuss implications for wider labour market settings
The Relationship Between Personality and Employment: Evidence From the Irish Marriage Bar
No full textThis article examines empirically the relationship between personality and employment using individual‐level survey data collected in The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA). The analysis is based on a subsample of Irish women who left their jobs because of the so‐called marriage bar, which was a legal requirement at the time that women must leave employment when they marry. Two groups of women are compared: Those who did, and those who did not, return to work after having to leave because of the marriage bar. The main finding is that personality does impact employment, with less agreeable and more extroverted women being more likely to return to work after a spell of non‐employment. More generally, the analysis highlights the role of non‐cognitive abilities in labor market success
Fostering Cultural Participation of Persons with Disabilities in the European Union Through Funding: ‘I Was Told There’d Be Cake’
No full text: I. Introduction. II. Cultural Participation of Persons with Disabilities in the CRPD: A Frame and a Benchmark. 1. The Key Features of the CRPD. 2. The Right of Persons with Disabilities to Participate in Cultural Life in the CRPD. III. Methodology. 1. A Socio-Legal Approach. 2. Methods. IV. Cultural Participation of Persons with Disabilities at the Intersection between EU Disability and Cultural Policies. 1. Cultural Participation of Persons with Disabilities in the EU Disability Acquis. 2. Cultural Participation of Persons with Disabilities in EU Cultural Policies. V. Fostering Cultural Participation through EU Funding: The Role of the Creative Europe Programme. 1. Supporting Cultural Participation of Persons with Disabilities through EU Funding to the Cultural and Creative Sectors. 2. Supporting Cultural Participation of Persons with Disabilities through Creative Europe. 2.1. Good Practices, Tangible Advancements and Potential. 2.2. Weaknesses and Flaws. VI. Concluding Remarks
Tradition and Innovation in the Materiality of Medieval Gaelic Law Manuscripts
No full textThis article is concerned with paper in the medieval Gaelic law manuscript
tradition during the initial phases of the paper tradition in Ireland.1 Paper
was introduced into the Gaelic manuscript tradition in the late fifteenth
century, but it took several centuries before it replaced vellum entirely
as the preferred writing medium.2 Recent studies have highlighted the
gradual change to paper from vellum in manuscripts compiled in Irish
schools of learning, particularly those of medicine and history.3 The extent
to which paper usage prevailed in the professional law schools during
this initial phase has not yet been fully explored, however. This article
provides a general survey and discussion of paper use in the vernacular
Irish law manuscripts, with particular focus on the largest such collection,
which is held in the Library of Trinity College Dublin. The evidence
demonstrates that the professional Irish law schools were not isolated
from the wider trends and practices of book production taking place in
Ireland. Scribes not only adopted the new writing technology but also
implemented innovative new page layouts in both materials, drawing on
external influences of imported printed books, demonstrating flexibility
and dexterity working between both media
Dance as a Powerful Tool to Advance Disability Inclusion: Reflections from an Interdisciplinary Collaboration
No full textThis article discusses the collaboration between the academic socio-legal project DANCING, funded by the European Research Council, and the inclusive dance company Stopgap Dance Company (Stopgap). DANCING, among other objectives, aimed to identify barriers and facilitators to cultural participation experienced by disabled people. In pursuing this objective, DANCING established a partnership with Stopgap aimed at the creation of a choreographic piece in which accessibility measures, intended to facilitate the participation of dancers with disabilities and the enjoyment of the choreography by audience with and without disabilities, were intrinsic to the creative process. By presenting findings of qualitative research conducted with Stopgap and audience, it explores how inclusivity and accessibility were experienced by both performers and spectators. This article focuses on three interlinked themes, which elucidate processes, challenges, and outcomes of engaging in inclusive dance at a professional level. In doing so, this article situates at the intersection of disability and dance research and endeavours to provide a theoretical and practical bedrock for future dance projects wishing to adopt more inclusive processes. Further, this article aims to contribute to broader scholarship in the field of arts that positions disability as a cultural identity worth celebrating
Schubert’s Piano Works for Four Hands. Performative and Pedagogical Insights into a Selection of Schubert’s Piano Duets
No full textFranz Schubert’s engagement with piano duets began at the age of thirteen and continued until his untimely death in 1828. He elevated the piano duet to a new degree of sophistication, composing extensively for the medium – 34 works. He was a pioneer in this genre and no composer has rivalled his legacy since then in terms of the quantity and quality of his piano duets. There was a point in time during which the popularity of the four-hand genre rivalled that of solo piano, though many of these works were transcriptions/arrangements. Schubert’s works though were almost exclusively original piano duets. His output consists of extremely diverse genres and forms including sonatas, polonaises, marches, dances, variations, fantasies, overtures, rondos, divertissements, and a fugue. Of all his opus numbers published during his lifetime, his piano duets were second only to his Lieder in number. His artful complexity in the genre paved the path for Schumann, Brahms, and later composers to explore this area, as Schubert attracted new attention to the genre as a serious artform.
However, despite Schubert’s efforts in transcending the boundaries of the piano duet, the significance of his piano duets remains largely unexplored or at least significantly unaddressed in scholarship. Why is this? This thesis will investigate contributing factors that until now, have not been given significant attention. Much of the scholarly efforts in the nineteenth and twentieth century on Schubert were centred around his Lieder – though I argue Schubert was of a pioneer in the genre of piano duets too. More recently, scholars have begun to re-examine Schubert’s solo piano works, especially his ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy and his late piano sonatas. I posit that Schubert’s cultivation of the piano duet genre was equally authentic as his solo works and ask, why have his piano duets not been held in such a high regard? A selection of Schubert’s overlooked piano works are provided as case studies, providing performative and pedagogical perspectives. This research penetrates uncharted territory, as scholarship on Schubert’s piano duets is minimal and a more comprehensive study is due. Consequently, this thesis will bridge gaps in the reassessment of Schubert’s piano works, and it will contribute to the creation of new perspectives in Schubertian scholarship
Learning from making and doing: taking the makerspaces to the next level at Maynooth University
No full textWhat do you do when you already have one makerspace that is well-used and popular? Answer – create an even better one! And then start thinking about what other types of content need to be created and embark on a Media Lab to complement this. This is exactly the journey that Maynooth University is currently embarking on.
From its launch in 2015, the Makerspace developed a well-used 3D printing service which continued up until the pandemic when it had to be put on hold as a library-based service. The recommencement of the service in 2022 coincided with staff moving on and recruitment of new staff giving the impetus to take the services to another level. This has led to a successful bid to create a new, more ambitious makerspace, and as well as opening up new opportunities, the most significant of these to date being the collaboration with the Media Studies department and other interested parties to launch a Media Lab.
Building on their experience the team have been able to make the case for good locations for both the new Makerspace and Media Lab, putting their ‘lessons learned’ to good use.
Extensive and imaginative use of social media channels has helped to embed the Makerspace within the university conscience and opened up avenues for collaboration. Through the Makerspace, the library has been able to offer creative and practical support to an expanding portfolio of research projects across the university as well as being an active supporter in undergraduate recruitment
“Here Lads, this is the story!”. An exploration into access practitioner knowledge and community engagement within Irish higher education
No full textThis research explores higher education access practitioner knowledge, investigating the relationship between access practice and community engagement. The research delves into the world of HEI access practice, it looks at how access can be enhanced drawing on the knowledge from professional access practitioners and communities that experience disadvantage.
Access practitioners have been working within Higher Educational Institutions in Ireland since the late 1990s. Despite equity of access being a strategic priority of the Higher Education Authority and policy and funding commitments by the Government to address educational inequalities, there remains inequalities in our society that have deep levels of educational disadvantage. As an access practitioner for over two decades, this research explores with access colleagues and community participants if and how community engagement practices could enhance access practices.
This research stands within a critical tradition, interested in questions regarding equality and power. Using qualitative research methods with community participants and access practitioners, the reality of the access role is depicted, alongside the untapped access opportunities that exist within communities. In-depth interviews with practitioners and community workshops using participatory research methods (photovoice) were undertaken. Research participants explored themes relating to educational disadvantage, access to higher education and community engagement.
The research found that access practice at institutional level is significantly impacted by neoliberal government policy and new managerial practice. The empirical evidence from this research points to difficult working conditions, inappropriate institutional positioning, and pressures on time for access practitioners, all of which limits real meaningful engagement with communities that are under-represented in higher education. Access practitioners are working with limited resources, and with time specific funding streams, which have negative consequences for community engagement. Communities have been on the receiving end of this hurried approach, resulting in very few opportunities for meaningful, collaborative and respectful engagements, where HEIs and communities can
together, as equals, address issues relating to educational disadvantage. New principles for access and community engagement for access professionals are presented
Semantic-Based Surrogate-Assisted Neuroevolution for Neural Architecture Search in Deep Neural Networks
No full textNeuroevolution is a popular branch of Neural Architecture Search (NAS) that searches
for high-performing artificial neural network architectures using evolutionary algorithms.
Neuroevolution of deeper, more complex architectures, like deep neural networks, however,
comes at a great computational cost, as often thousands of architectures need to be
trained and evaluated over numerous Graphical Processing Unit days. To address this,
research has turned to the use of Surrogate-Assisted Evolutionary Algorithms (SAEAs),
where less expensive surrogate models can be used to estimate the fitness of an architecture,
without the need to fully train it, resulting in a substantial reduction in the
associated computational cost. Ultimately, SAEAs have emerged as a graceful response
to tackling computational intensive workflows, such as neuroevolution, however, some
notable limitations remain, such as, issues relating to high-dimensionality and complex
encoding strategies required in current surrogate-assisted neuroevolution methods.
In this thesis, we use a semantic-inspired method to adeptly handle these issues, which
in turn, is incorporated into a novel technique named Neuro-Linear Genetic Programming
(NeuroLGP). NeuroLGP evolves chain-structured topologies with a representation closely
aligned to how neural network architectures are naturally constructed. This allows us to
perform an in-depth analysis not only on the surrogate model robustness and architecture
performance, but also allows us to analyse how the internal makeup of our architectures
change during evolution. From this, we propose a new mechanism, named NeuroLGPMB,
that is capable of evolving truly complex modern networks that exhibit multi-branch
connections. Our proposed SAEA approach was shown to not only be robust for both
NeuroLGP and NeuroLGP-MB but was also able to find high-performing individuals with
a substantial reduction in time