Research@THEA (Technological Higher Education Association)
Not a member yet
2857 research outputs found
Sort by
An Examination of Portrayals of Smoking in Noir Graphic/ Comic Novels
Get PDFGlobal mortality from tobacco related diseases continues to rise. Most smokers start smoking in adolescence and early adulthood. Graphic novels have a particular appeal to this age group, and are
increasingly read by females and males. Prior research examining a range of graphic novels had noted high rates of portrayals of smoking in noir and cyber-punk novels. This research focused on a random sample of noir graphic novels to explore this finding in more depth. A quantitative content analysis of ten noir graphic novels was
conducted. Although there was substantial variability in the number of portrayals of smoking, smoking imagery was prevalent throughout
all of the novels examined. Of particular note was the high rate of portrayals of women smoking. This is an issue given the rise in smoking rates in young women and girls in some Western countries. Some
examples of substitution and relegation of tobacco products was noted, and tobacco control advocates should seek to work with artists to promote omission, substitution and relegation of such imagery. Further research is suggested to explore in more depth the characterization of smokers in such graphic novels, and the ongoing recurrence of such imagery in contemporary graphic noir novels.ye
Reflections on Active Learning Approaches
Get PDFStudent Engagement - Active Learning approaches help me
to engage more and understand information better. They
help me take control of my learning process. I find absorbing
information is challenging but using active learning, helps me
to gain more knowledge, enjoy the process of learning and
remember it after learning.
Graduate Attributes - Active Learning helps me develop TUS
Graduate Attributes including: ‘work readiness and of the
whole person’ because we will be required to be adaptable
and able to continually communicate with different people.
We learn a lot of these skills from groupwork, problem solving
and presentation skills.
Critical Thinking - Active Learning strategies therefore help
me expand my critical thinking, teamwork, problem solving
and my adaptability. I struggled with these especially during
the COVID 19 pandemic and how I experienced remote online
learning for a whole year. On returning to campus this year, my
lecturers have been using more active learning strategies and
these have given me new skills and confidence as a learner
Unpacking decision making in comparative judgement: a stimulated think-aloud methodology to gain insight into young peoples' decision making
Get PDFWhile reliability has been the subject of much Comparative Judgement (CJ) research,
understanding its validity, which and relates directly to the included judges and their decision making, is paramount. Understanding this decision-making better would add significantly to
the formative use of CJ and its use in educational task-design.
This paper reports on a pilot study exploring a novel methodology aiming to unpack judges’
decision-making. One 11-year-old student completed a CJ session on a selection of portfolios
developed in response to an authentic design-task in STEM education. During this, a novel
“stimulated think aloud protocol” was implemented, which was developed by synthesising
aspects of traditional think-aloud-protocols with stimulated recall interviews.
The approach is considered to have worked well as it was immediately evident that prompts
were required to keep the participant on task and to continue verbalising their thoughts. As in
this case the participant was younger, giving support in what to verbalise appeared necessary.
The approach was possibly more useful due to the age of the participant. Limitations exist in
that the stimulating prompts could influence participant decision-making if they provoke
reflection which otherwise would not have occurred in an undisrupted CJ judging session
Breeding biology of the Common Swift (Apus apus) in Ireland – the most north-westerly edge of the nesting habitat
Get PDFIreland is at the north-western edge of the Common Swifts’ (Apus apus) range, and information on the basic breeding parameters of the species in this region is sparse. Therefore, the main objective of this research was to provide a detailed study of the breeding biology of the Common Swift in Ireland using information gathered at two artificial nest colonies located in Castlebar, County Mayo, and Maguiresbridge in County Fermanagh. Quantitative analysis was carried out on aspects of the breeding biology of the Common Swift such as a) important dates
during the breeding season, including arrival, egg laying, hatching, fledging and departure; b) the colonies’ productivity and chick mortality in the nest; c) the chicks’ feeding frequencies; and d) egg loss during the incubation period. In addition, some aspects of the breeding biology were measured for their response to environmental factors such as rainfall, temperature and wind. The design of this research was based on the use of artificial nest boxes fitted with cameras connected to recording equipment, which resulted in the analysis of 28,500 hours of footage. During this investigation a total of 128 breeding attempts were studied which included observations of 300 laid eggs, 244 fledged chicks, 39 egg ejections and 17 chick mortalities. The phenological breeding cycle of the Common Swift is rigid, and there is a little variation in the values of mean arrival, egg-laying, hatching, fledging and departure dates each year. The average clutch size in Castlebar was 2.33 (se± 0.07) and 2.41 (se± 0.65) in Maguiresbridge. The average brood size in Castlebar was 1.53 (se± 0.16) and 2.28 (se± 0.08) in Maguiresbridge. The average number of fledglings in Castlebar was 1.38 (se± 0.15) and 2.13 (se± 0.09) in
Maguiresbridge. A low average brood size and number of fledglings in Castlebar were the result of significant egg loss during incubation, a phenomenon apparently accentuated by the smaller size of the nest cavity along with small and shallow nest moulds. The total number of chick-feeding visits to the nest during the entire chick-rearing period was dependant on the size of the brood but the relationship was not linear. On average: broods of one were fed 501.28 (se± 20.15) times in the season; broods of two were fed 746.80 (se± 18.15) times; and broods of three were fed 872.5 (se± 20.15) times. Daily patterns of chick-feeding frequencies were related to the brood's size and age. For broods of one, the feeding remained constant throughout the period and reduced only in the last ten days before fledging. For broods of two and three, feeding increased linearly during the first eight to ten days following hatching and dropped during the last ten days before fledging. Weather factors influenced the daily number of feeds, with wind having the most positive impact, and to a lesser extent temperature (positive) and rainfall (negative). Egg loss for the most part was accidental with the adult swift knocking out the incubated egg. At both nest box projects; the size of the nest mould and the nest box was crucial in either influencing (Castlebar) or limiting (Maguiresbridge) egg loss. The presence of artificial nest moulds at both colonies appeared to influence poor nest construction, and in some breeding attempts led to a disregard for nest material collection. Overall, the findings of this study indicate that the Common Swift is well adapted to breed in Ireland, and if given suitable
nest opportunities, it can produce sustainable colonies.n
Nematode-based indices in soil ecology: Application, utility, and future directions
Get PDFThe health and functioning of soil ecosystems are the foundation of sustainable food production and land management. Of key importance in achieving sustainability, is the frequent measurement of soil health, and indices based on the community structure of nematodes are amongst the most widely used toolsets by soil ecologists. Thirty years after the development of the Maturity Index, we aimed to evaluate the application, utility, and future directions of nematode-based indices (NBIs). This review focused on NBIs that are calculated using the coloniser-persister classification of nematodes. Data from 672 empirical studies in terrestrial environments revealed that the NBIs presented a dissimilar usage trend. The Channel Index and Metabolic Footprints showed the strongest increase in application rates over time, thus indicating a greater interest in studying decomposition pathways and ecosystem functioning, respectively. Furthermore, nematode-based indices were mostly applied in agricultural systems associated with herbaceous crops and in studies investigating, for example, soil nutrient enrichment following manure and/or inorganic fertilizer application. We further provide a framework for selecting a focus-orientated subset of NBIs for testing hypotheses based on the underlying ecological mechanisms. Also, we highlight important considerations, including the unexpected behaviour of some nematode taxa, in the interpretation of NBIs. The improvement of NBIs relies on advancing our understanding of the autecology of nematodes. Finally, we deliver insight into the further development of NBIs considering recent methodological advancements. We highlight that NBIs have been and might become increasingly important in providing valuable information on soil ecosystem health and functioning, especially considering the urgent need for more sustainable land use
Drones can reliably, accurately and with high levels of precision, collect large volume water samples and physio-chemical data from lakes
Get PDFThe rapid development and application of drone technology has included water sampling and collection of physiochemical data from lakes. Previous research has demonstrated the significant potential of drones to play a future pivotal role in the collection of such data from lakes that fulfil requirements of large-scale monitoring programmes. However, currently the utilisation of drone technology for water quality monitoring is hindered by a number of important limitations: i) the low rate of successful sample captured; ii) the relatively low volume of water sample retrieved for analyses of multiple water chemistry parameters; and critically iii) differences between water chemistry parameters when using a drone versus samples collected by boat. Here we present results comparing the water chemistry results of a large number of parameters (pH, dissolved oxygen concentration, temperature, conductivity, alkalinity, hardness, true colour, chloride, silica, ammonia, total oxidised nitrogen, nitrite, nitrate, ortho-phosphate, total phosphorous and chlorophyll) sampled via drone with samples collected by boat in a number of lakes. The drone water sampling method used here is the first to collect a sufficiently large volume of water to meet the monitoring requirements of large scale water monitoring programmes, 2 L, at a 100% success rate and most crucially, with water chemistry variables that are not significantly different to those taken using traditional boat water sampling. This study therefore shows that drone technology can be utilised to collect water chemistry data and samples from lakes in a reliable, more rapid and cost effective manner than traditional sampling using boats, that is safer for personnel and poses less of a biosecurity risk.ye
Online-based participatory design: a case study of developing international standards during a pandemic
Get PDFStandards are essential instruments to ensure the safety, efficiency and quality of products, services, systems, processes, and environments. In pre-pandemic times, the standard development process used to happen through in-person consultation and meetings, however, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the whole routine. A team of technical experts from the National Standards Authority of Ireland trialled an online-based participatory design process to support the review and development of a standard through stakeholder engagement. This article introduces the experience of developing a new standard by leveraging emerging digital technologies, through stakeholder participation. This research offers a framework, outlining the steps undertaken during the process, tosupport future online-based standard development processes in co-operation with stakeholders, by respecting cultures, backgrounds, skills, and experiences.ye
Quality of user experience evaluation with emotion recognition from peripheral physiological signals
Get PDFQuality of Experience (QoE), which is a measure of a user’s degree of delight
or annoyance, is traditionally captured using human reports which are
subjective by nature. Similarly, estimation of human emotions is grouped into
subjective self reports as well as two other categories: behavioural (facial
expression, eye tracking, body movement) and physiological (EEG, ECG, HR,
GSR etc).
Wearables such as smart watches with sensors to accurately measure
physiological data can be combined with Artificial intelligence (AI) machine
learning and deep learning techniques to objectively extract information
such as emotion categories from the sensor data
Internal corporate social responsibility preferences of young job seekers with regard to sustainable HRM: are these preferences related to their personal value orientations
No full textObjectives: In order to increase corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities with organizations, the support of employees in times of climate change is crucial: employees with CSR awareness of sustainability and their subsequent extra-role work behavior are an asset to an organization. Sustainable HRM promotes sustainable employee behavior. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between personal values orientations and internal CSR preferences which increase subsequent sustainable employee behavior fostered by sustainable HRM practices. Specifically, our central research question here examines the extent to which personal value orientations predicts internal CSR preferences towards sustainable employee behavior. In this paper, we look at this issue from the perspective of young, highly qualified job seekers who have to face issues of sustainability.ye
Implementation of reinforcement learning algorithms for robotic pick and place with non-visual sensing
No full textThe term ‘Industry 4.0’ appeared for the first time in 2011 and saw the
introduction of many cutting-edge technologies such as Cyber-Physical
Systems (CPS), Internet of Things (IoT), and Digital Twins (DT). World
leading scholar Warren G. Bennis was quoted in 2016 as follows: The factory of the future will
only have two employees: a man and a dog. The man will be there to
feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment.
Warren Bennis