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Approach to develop vulnerability curves for tidal turbine blades
No full textThe lifespan of tidal turbine blades is influenced by design quality, loading conditions, fatigue, water absorption, and unforeseen operational events. While structural testing under idealised conditions helps validate new designs, it often overlooks marine-specific effects such as water diffusion, erosion, and corrosion. This study introduces two novel approaches for generating vulnerability curves to predict blade lifespan, integrating material testing, literature data, and finite element (FE) modelling through a three-phase methodology. One approach uses accelerated aged fatigue data at coupon scale, and the other uses water diffusivity parameters, with both relying on FE modelling. The aged fatigue data-based method, which showed fewer limitations, was selected for a case study involving a 4 m glass fibre powder epoxy composite horizontal axis tidal turbine blade. The resulting vulnerability curve demonstrates potential to improve durability predictions, reduce testing costs, and support sustainable development in tidal energy.Grateful acknowledgment is extended for the financial support received for this work, encompassing funding from the European Commission under the H2020 CRIMSON project (Grant Agreement no.: 971209) and the TIDAL-GES project of the University of Galway Global Challenges Programme. Furthermore, gratitude is expressed for the financing by the MaREI Research Ireland Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine, which is funded by Taighde ´Eireann–Research Ireland, formerly Science Foundation Ireland, (Grant no. 12/RC/2302_2), the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (Grant no. 22/RDD/783, 23/RDD/917, and 23/RDD/1021) and the Marine Institute, funded under the Marine Research Programme by the Government of Ireland (PDOC/21/03/01)
Designing educative curriculum materials for primary mathematics teachers for use during curriculum reform
No full textMathematics curricula internationally and in Ireland are undergoing significant changes to ensure students possess critical 21st-century skills. Teachers must develop the necessary pedagogical knowledge to enact reformed curricula. Unfortunately, time, capacity, school culture, and choice often impede teachers’ participation in continued professional development (CPD) beneficial to their pedagogical growth, issues often exacerbated by reform. Existing design models for CPD do not fully describe their effectiveness during reform, signalling a need to further understand and identify effective CPD models for use during periods of change.
Educative curriculum materials (ECMs) are one method of CPD that aims to support teachers in progressing their practice while improving student learning. While research suggests that ECMs can positively impact teachers’ professional learning, limited research exists on how they can be designed and used during curriculum reform. Employing a design-based research (DBR) methodology, this study collaboratively investigates the design and implementation of ECMs for primary teachers in Ireland.
ECMs were designed and refined throughout four iterative design cycles by combining relevant literature, educational theories, and stakeholder input. The ECMs targeted questioning in mathematics lessons to promote students’ critical thinking skills development. The emerging theoretically informed MACE design framework and data from surveys, focus groups, and observations guided the design. Findings indicate that the ECMs taught teachers the value of questioning and how to implement it in lessons. Teachers appreciated the non-prescriptive nature of the ECMs and their simplistic design. Moreover, individualised support from the researcher was identified as invaluable to professional learning.
This project’s contributions include the identified potential for ECMs to be a practical approach to CPD, particularly during curriculum reform. In addition, the emerging MACE design model provides four key design criteria and five design informants for developing and implementing ECMs. Although beyond the immediate scope of this research, the MACE design model could be adapted to inform the design of other forms of CPD
A singular 'De diuisionibus temporum' and the manuscript Laon, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 422
No full textThe thesis examines the manuscript Laon, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 422 (L) and the contents of the astronomical and computistical compilation De astronomia et compoto held therein. The central focus was placed on the chapters containing materials from the Hiberno-Latin tract on the divisions of time, De diuisionibus temporum (DDT) with the aim of revealing the different strands of textual strata which make up these chapters.
The thesis makes two significant contributions to knowledge. Firstly, it offers an analysis of the DDT chapters of the compilation in L, whose composition, it is argued, was the work of an Irish scholar operating on the continent in the last quarter of the eighth century. The in-depth analysis of a selection of L’s DDT chapters demonstrates the use of two different DDT tracts, and the elements of authorial contribution repeatedly align with Irish or Irish-associated scholarship of the eighth century. Secondly, the thesis contributes to the evolving understanding of the wider DDT tradition. Using the corpus of manuscript witnesses gathered by Bisagni in his 2019 study of DDT, the ‘expanded’ versions are used as comparanda for L and to illustrate the intersection of textual materials found in circulation during the Carolingian period, but which were distinct from the conventional and more commonly transmitted Standard DDT. This study argues that DDT should not be regarded as a single text, since, as demonstrated in this study, there were at least four distinct DDT tracts in circulation by the early ninth century.
Accordingly, this thesis aims to contribute towards our understanding of the reception and transmission of Irish and Irish-influenced scholarly culture on the Carolingian continent
Unravelling the politics of framing: The Clonbrock photographic collection
No full textThis interdisciplinary Irish Studies research examines the Clonbrock Photographic Collection (CPC) housed at the National Library of Ireland’s photographic archive. Of the CPC’s 3,000 images, 2,149 have been digitised. This collection spans the turbulent period of Irish history from the 1860s to the 1930s. This collection is the largest of the four early Irish photograph collections in the NLI. It is comprised of glass plate negatives, photograph albums and lantern slides. These form the collection of the Dillon family of Clonbrock, County Galway and the Crofton family of nearby Mote Park. Each was Protestant, Southern Unionist, loyal to the British Empire, and with a shared interest in photography.
In examining the collection, the salient question in exploring each image is frequently not just about “what is in the frame?” but also “what is left out?”. The CPC is a historically valuable visual contribution to Ireland’s cultural heritage. Its images are important aides and additions to facilitate a more nuanced understanding of the complexity and duality of Irish life from the distinct vantage point of an Anglo-Irish landlord family.
An empirical study of the photograph collection and estate papers has shown that politics surrounds the practice of photography, whether through national pride or the expression of self, as well as familial and socio-economic Anglo-Irish identity in Ireland of this period. Frequently exhibiting visual politics, the photographers associated with the CPC, often used photography to foster and demonstrate a connection with family, friends, and those in and around the estate at Clonbrock. As argued here, they used their photographs to uphold their status as Anglo-Irish progressive, modern, improving resident landlords while remaining deeply attached to the British Empire. The CPC images further illustrate the philanthropic and community engagement of the women and men of the Clonbrock family, illustrating the sense of duty and service of which they were conscious in their roles.
Many scholars consider Augusta Caroline Dillon (née Crofton), who became Lady Clonbrock in 1893, the principal photographer connected to the CPC. This research supports this argument and highlights the significant impact of her life’s work, showing her to be an important, although under-researched, figure in Irish history
Adverse drug reaction profile prediction: denoising, signal enhancement and missing row imputation
No full textAdverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) cause significant risks to human health, making it essential to identify potential ADRs in the early-stage of drug development. However, this process is costly and time-consuming. Therefore, developing advanced computational methods to predict ADR profiles is important.
We developed a series of approaches to enhance ADR profile prediction across three main strategies. First, to address noise in imbalanced ADR data, we proposed a novel hybrid method, Kernel Regression (KR) on V (VKR), which combines Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) with KR on the drug-component matrix V derived from NMF. Second, we introduced Smoothed KR (SKR) to enhance signal detection for rare ADRs. Finally, we developed a missing row imputation strategy to enrich drug databases by imputing missing rows of features for non-overlapping drugs, increasing the datasets breadth and predictive capability.
Our three strategies yielded significant improvements. VKR demonstrated superior performance over existing methods on both single features and integrated features. SKR significantly improved prediction performance for rare ADRs, outperforming other methods in this challenging category, while improvements for common ADRswere more modest. The extended size of dataset further enhanced model performance with both the single features and the integrated features, indicating the benefit of the missing row imputation strategy.
Together, these methods provide a robust framework for ADR prediction, addressing ADR data noise, rare ADR detection, and limitations of ADR data usage. VKR effectively reduces noise introduced by imbalanced data and the binary representation of drug-ADR data, while SKR addresses the gap in rare ADR prediction, which is crucial for real-world applications. Current models often overlook rare ADRs due to the dominance of common ADR signals. However, capturing these rare ADRs, which often lead to severe cases, is crucial for comprehensive drug safety assessment. The limited overlap of drugs across feature databases significantly reduces usable training data, making the missing row imputation strategy a valuable addition for preserving critical drug information and improving predictive outcomes.The research contained within this thesis has been conducted with the financial support of Science Foundation Ireland under Grant number [18/CRT/6214]. The research contained within this thesis has been supported by a Marie Sklodowska Curie (H2020-MSCA) Fellowship within the 7th European Community Framework Programme
Neurobiological mechanisms underpinning altered pain processing in a preclinical model of chronic stress-induced potentiation of post-surgical pain
No full textPre-surgical stress is a well-recognised risk factor for persistent post-surgical pain, and while the precise underlying neurobiological mechanisms remain unknown, neuro-immune interactions are believed to play a pivotal role. Here, we investigated the effect of repeated restraint stress (RRS) on post-surgical somatosensory hypersensitivity and affective responding in male rats and examined underlying mechanisms mediating these effects. We showed that RRS for 21 days, but not for 3 or 14 days, induced behavioural despair in the forced swim test, reduced body weight gain and elevated faecal corticosterone levels in male Sprague-Dawley rats. Following paw incision surgery, animals pre-exposed to RRS exhibited exacerbated mechanical and heat hypersensitivity, pain-related aversion, and anxiety-like behaviour compared to non-stress counterparts. RNAseq analysis revealed alterations in glial and neuro-immune pathways in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord in the RRS + paw incision group compared to paw incision alone, data further confirmed by increased microglial activity and inflammatory gene expression (iba1, itgam, il-1β and nlrp3). Intrathecal administration of IL-1Ra or MCC950 (an NLRP3 inhibitor) attenuated the RRS-induced increase in pain-related aversion and mechanical hypersensitivity post-surgery. Chronic administration of RU486, a glucocorticoid receptor antagonist, prevented RRS-induced despair-like behaviour but did not alter the effects of RRS on pain-related aversion or mechanical hypersensitivity post-surgery. In contrast, chronic administration of propranolol, a β-adrenergic receptor antagonist and sympathetic nervous system inhibitor, not only prevented the RRS-induced despair-like behaviour but also attenuated exacerbation of mechanical hypersensitivity, pain-related aversion, and anxiety-like behaviour post-surgery. These findings suggest that RRS exacerbates and prolongs post-surgical somatosensory and affective pain responding via β-adrenergic receptor activation and increased spinal microglial NLRP3-IL1β signalling. These data provide further insight into the mechanism by which chronic stress and mood disorders exacerbate post-surgical pain behaviou
The role of Toll-like receptors and their relevance to cognition in schizophrenia – biological, transcriptomic and genomic data based evidence
No full textSchizophrenia is a debilitating psychiatric disorder with a complex aetiology. Individuals with this disorder experience positive, negative, and cognitive symptoms. The literature, through decades of research, supports an immune hypothesis, suggesting cytokine imbalance in schizophrenia. However, a significant gap remains: the cause of this imbalance, which results in low-grade chronic inflammation, is still unknown. To fill this gap, in this thesis, I investigated one of the sources of cytokines, Toll-like receptors (TLRs). They belong to a family of pattern recognition receptors. These receptors are ubiquitously expressed and are highly expressed on immune cells (macrophages, dendritic cells, lymphocytes, microglia, and other cells). Activation of TLRs stimulates cytokine production. This thesis investigates the role of TLRs in schizophrenia using peripheral blood samples, their connection to cognition, genomic and transcriptomic changes, and the impact of antipsychotic drug dose on immune function and cognition.
In this thesis, I found that TLRs are associated with cognitive deficits. I found that increased activity of TLRs leads to elevated cytokine levels in patients which in turn is associated with cognitive deficits. The genomics and transcriptomics studies also suggest a strong immune dysfunction in schizophrenia and implicate the potential role of TLRs in schizophrenia. While the associations of TLRs with cognition are modest, more longitudinal studies are required to increase the robustness of these results. Overall, the findings from this thesis suggest that the role of TLRs extends beyond the immune system, and changes in their activity, expression, and gene sequence have broader implications, potentially affecting cognition. This thesis provides an empirical basis for carrying out further investigations into the role of TLRs in schizophrenia and the underlying mechanisms that connect TLRs to cognition in humans
Operationalising differential confidence in the career aspirations of senior primary-aged children from diverse backgrounds
No full textThis dissertation is primarily about the influence of social class on senior Irish primary school children’s career aspirations, including teaching. The rationale for the study stems from the lack of research, especially in Ireland, about the career aspirations of children, and in particular the dearth of research exploring and comparing the perspectives of children from diverse backgrounds. This in-depth qualitative study explores the perspectives and experiences of 47 senior primary-aged children (aged 10-12), as they identify and explore the influences on their individual career aspirations. The participants also considered the teaching profession, including reasons to aspire (or not) to become a teacher, and their perspectives on the lack of diversity in the teaching profession. This research gives voice to the perspectives of children from ‘lower’ and ‘higher’ social class backgrounds, as well as diverse ethnic and migrant backgrounds. The methodology employed was Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT), through which 11 in-depth, semi-structured focus group and 24 in-depth, semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with 47 participants over four iterative rounds of data generation and analysis.
The overall CGT is articulated as ‘operationalising differential confidence in the career aspirations of primary children from diverse backgrounds’, through which the perceptions of opportunity of children from diverse backgrounds affected their confidence in planning for their futures, and their career aspirations, including teaching, and illustrating the impact of socio-demographic positionality therein. This CGT study demonstrates the significant familial influence on participants’ career aspirations, with this influence mediated by social class, migrant and ethnic background, how family influence impacted participants’ confidence to pursue certain careers, and their decision to aspire (or not) to become a teacher, and how they perceived the issue of diversity in the teaching profession. The process of ‘operationalising differential confidence in the career aspirations of primary children’ is seen through the three categories, 1) Family Funnelling, 2) (Un)Confidently Aspiring, and 3) Differentially rejecting the teaching career.
Drawing on the work of Bourdieu, Bronfenbrenner, Gottfredson, Lewin, and Hill, as well as relevant empirical findings from previous research, the study provides an original contribution to knowledge in the field through evidencing how social class, and migrant and ethnic background mediate primary-aged children’s career aspirations, including how they consider and prepare for future careers and, overall, reject a teaching career. Given the contrast in participants’ perspectives regarding their confidence to pursue certain career aspirations, and the reasons behind their aspirations, a number of grounded recommendations for policy, practice, and research are offered
Towards improved neonatal care through noninvasive and minimally invasive sensing technologies for hypoxia monitoring
No full textHypoxia, characterized by inadequate oxygen supply to specific body regions at the tissue level, has significant implications for the fetus during labor and the newborn shortly after delivery. This oxygen deprivation can lead to severe cellular abnormalities, stillbirth, or neonatal mortality. Birth asphyxia, a critical manifestation of hypoxia, leads to significant neonatal morbidity and mortality. Neonates who survive the acute phase of birth asphyxia are at risk of developing long-term neurological sequelae, such as hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, cognitive impairment, speech and developmental delays, vision, hearing, and feeding impairments, emotional and behavioral disorders, and learning disabilities.
Current clinical practices using biophysical technologies, such as electrocardiography (ECG), cardiotocography (CTG), ST-analysis adjunct to CTG, and Doppler ultrasound, result in high false-positive rates and increased obstetric interventions during labor. Biochemical-based technologies like fetal scalp blood sampling and arterial blood gas sampling identify metabolic acidosis and oxygen deprivation. However, these methods are highly invasive and may not improve clinical outcomes or reduce unnecessary interventions. Therefore, accurate, continuous, affordable, and ideally noninvasive monitoring of hypoxia in neonates is a pressing clinical need.
This thesis focuses on two approaches to overcome the limitations of existing hypoxia monitoring methods. The first approach focuses on improving the use of existing biophysical technology, ECG, by identifying hypoxia-related morphological features to predict hypoxia in neonates. This is achieved by analyzing data recorded simultaneously using biochemical (ABG analysis) and biophysical (ECG waveform analysis) methods. The study found that specific ECG features, including T/QRS, T Amplitude, Tslope, Tslope/T, Tslope/|T|, HR, QT, and QTc were significantly different in neonates with asphyxia compared to those without asphyxia. Furthermore, ECG features, Tslope/T, QT, and QTc, exhibited significant differences across all three groups (acidosis, normal, and alkalosis) both before and after the management of neonatal asphyxia. Therefore, this study demonstrated the feasibility of noninvasive, and continuous monitoring of asphyxiated neonates using these ECG features, either individually or in combination.
The second approach explores the potential of utilizing interstitial fluid (ISF) pH as a biomarker for hypoxia. This approach is based on two primary factors, ISF pH levels respond quickly to hypoxic events due to the limited buffering capacity of ISF, and monitoring ISF presents a less invasive alternative to blood sampling. To enable the development of novel sensors for ISF pH monitoring, it is essential to create impedance-based pH-representative liquid mimics due to limited access to ISF. This thesis reports the preparation of eight buffers as potential ISF mimics, with pH values ranging from 6.00 to 8.00, standardized to a concentration of 0.1 M, and tested at room temperature. The prepared buffers were evaluated based on their pH profile, electrical conductivity, and dielectric properties compared to human plasma ISF. The experimental findings suggest that the BES buffer, HCl-CBC buffer, CBC buffer, and SP buffer effectively mimic the metabolic acidosis induced by asphyxia. Conversely, the metabolic alkalosis effect can be replicated using the BTP, Trizma, and NaOH-BTP buffers. With the development of these ISF mimics, impedance-based biosensors for noninvasive ISF pH (and potentially hypoxia) monitoring could be developed and reliably tested in the lab. To this end, a study was conducted to select appropriate electrode configurations and measurement techniques for the development of sensitive and accurate impedance-based pH biosensors. This study demonstrated that ITO electrode configuration and mode of operation significantly impact the precision of pH and impedance in EIS measurements. The three-electrode potentiostat probe setup at measured temperatures was selected for its reduced impedance and consistent output, which is essential for developing highly sensitive and precise pH biosensors. The study confirmed the feasibility of utilizing ITO-based EIS for pH sensing by demonstrating the impact of pH variations on impedance. Additionally, the frequency-dependent impedance changes in ISF due to pH variations provide the potential for designing a minimally invasive approach to detect and monitor asphyxia associated with metabolic disorders. The findings of this research underscore the potential of microneedle-based biosensing devices for continuous, long-term hypoxia monitoring in ISF, which could significantly improve healthcare and patient care
‘We could have done without a meal, all we wanted was a bit of love’: Eating in Ireland’s Magdalene institutions and industrial schools
No full textThis thesis examines the history of food within two Catholic-run institutions in Ireland: the Magdalene laundries and industrial schools. From the 1870s to the closure of the final Magdalene laundry in 1996, these institutions collectively housed tens of thousands of women and children as part of what James Smith has termed, Ireland’s ‘architecture of containment’. It was because of this institutional web, which sought to confine citizens deemed to challenge society’s moral proscriptions, that approximately 7.8 percent of the women contained in Magdalene laundries were transferred there from an industrial or reformatory school. Recent scholarship has largely focused on the injustice of this containment during the twentieth century, supported by the accounts of chronic abuse and neglect that have continued to surface ever since the realities of these residential settings came to light in the 1990s. While the Magdalene laundries and industrial schools are widely considered punitive and disciplinary sites, there has been no scholarship on the significance of diet and the experience of food within these institutional settings, despite it being a constant element of a tightly regulated regime. This thesis shows that the food eaten in these institutions carries historical significance, both as an indicator of their general management, and of the attitudes of the church and state towards the worth of the women and children contained within them. Importantly, it also illustrates how food can be used as a lens within historical analysis to elucidate the experience of being within these closed institutions. As historical sites shrouded in archival silences, the sensing body of survivors is one of the few avenues to understanding the Magdalene laundries and industrial schools, and their significance in modern Irish history. By using memories of food as a point of access to the subjectivities of survivors, this thesis reveals the affective imprint of institutional power on embodied experience.Hardiman Scholarship, University of Galwa