Access to Research at National University of Ireland, Galway
Research at National University of Ireland, GalwayNot a member yet
15712 research outputs found
Sort by
Healthcare-related transmission of mobile genetic elements co-carrying blaNDM and 16S rRNA methyltransferase genes in multiple enterobacterales
No full textAminoglycosides are used in the treatment of serious infections with Gram-negative bacteria, especially those resistant to beta-lactams and carbapenems. 16S rRNA methyltransferases (16S-RMTase) are capable of conferring resistance to nearly all aminoglycosides. They are sometimes detected in combination with blaNDM. This study describes the mobile genetic elements associated with blaNDM and 16S-RMTase (co-)carriage in Enterobacterales from Ireland in the period 2019–2023. All isolates (n=58) carrying both blaNDM and a 16S-RMTase gene between 2019 and 2023 were obtained from the CPE National Reference Laboratory Service. Short-read sequences were generated for all isolates, and long-read sequences were generated for a subset of isolates (n=27). MOB-recon was used to distinguish plasmid-derived contigs from draft assemblies. The containment distance and DCJ-indel distance were used to find clusters of related plasmids. Isolates carrying blaNDM-1 were associated with armA (n=31) but also rmtC (n=6) carriage. These genes were co-localized most frequently on IncFIB/HI1B (n=12), IncM2 (n=10) and IncC (n=8) plasmids. Closely related plasmids were identified in multiple species (range: 2–5) and at different sites around Ireland; however, the IncM2 plasmids were largely associated with a single hospital. Isolates carrying blaNDM-5 were associated with rmtB1 (n=28) carriage. The majority (n=15) were carried on a diverse range of mosaic IncF-type plasmids. Two discrete clusters of IncM1 (n=3) and IncFII (n=4) type plasmids were also detected. The study highlights the diverse plasmids co-carrying carbapenem and aminoglycoside resistance genes in Ireland. Detection of plasmids across multiple species and hospitals suggests dissemination driven by antimicrobial selective pressure and environmental reservoirs within healthcare networks. The co-dissemination of these genes on highly mobile plasmids poses a significant public health concern and emphasizes the need for greater awareness that chains of transmission of antimicrobial resistance in the healthcare setting may involve multiple species.This research was funded by Research Ireland through the Research Ireland Centre for Research Training in Genomics Data Science under grant no. 18/CRT/6214. This work was supported in part by the European One Health Association: 2022_STM_07.peer-reviewe
Robust highly conductive patterns in flexible PEEK materials with either sp3 or sp2 dominant carbon phases produced by using ultrashort laser pulses
No full textThis study reports ultrashort direct laser writing of highly conductive patterns on 50 µm thick flexible polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK) using two distinctive, electrically conductive regimes confirmed by XPS; an sp3-carbon dominant regime with minor sp2 contribution (Phase-I) and an sp2-carbon dominant regime with a small sp3 contribution (Phase-II). Phase-I is produced using a single laser scan strategy with a narrow fluence window. Phase-II is optimally produced using four sequential laser scan passes, each with a specific fluence. The rationale for the first pass was to disrupt carbon atoms, the second and third exposures were to gently modify this disrupted phase, and the fourth pass was to anneal the final structure. No characteristic graphene peaks were observed in Raman spectra for Phase-I, however, this phase surprisingly showed higher conductivity when compared with Phase-II. Raman peaks for graphene were observed for single laser scan passes at higher laser fluences with the onset of surface damage. In Phase-II, PEEK was laser scanned multiple times to transform into sp2 graphene integrated in the form of laser induced periodic surface structures. The lowest sheet resistance obtained was 9.60 Ω/□ and 11.53 Ω/□ corresponding to an electrical conductivity of ∼4.33 × 103 S/m and 4.17 × 103 S/m for Phase-I and Phase-II, respectively. The reported low-fluence process is significant for direct laser writing of conductive structures on polymers providing a precise and controlled manipulation of carbon configuration to produce components which are not impacted by mechanical friction.The Authors wish to acknowledge the support of the European Space Agency (ESA) contract ESA AO/1–10715/21/NL/AS and Research Ireland contract 19/US-C2C/2672. For the purpose of Open Access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright license to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.peer-reviewe
Chemical diversity and biological activity assessment of Benthic Cyanobacteria from the west of Ireland
No full textToxins produced by cyanobacteria emerge as significant hazards to the well-being of humans, animals, and aquatic ecosystems. Human exposure to these toxins arises primarily through the consumption of contaminated water or through direct contact, particularly in instances of cyanobacterial bloom events. The escalation of harmful cyanobacterial blooms on a global scale is becoming a major concern, as our understanding of the toxin production and metabolomes associated with these newly emerging and widespread blooms remains limited. Cyanobacterial blooms in Ireland are no exception due to the occurrence of widespread lakes. On the other hand, the metabolome of these cyanobacteria represents an unexplored repository of bioactive metabolites with the potential to provide valuable applications. Consequently, the investigation of cyanobacterial accumulations in freshwater ecosystems in Ireland not only holds the potential to reveal new bioactive compounds but also offers an opportunity to confront the emerging threats posed by these microorganisms. This PhD thesis describes the first results of a deep chemical investigation of major benthic cyanobacterial accumulations from some freshwater lakes in the West of Ireland. Chapter two describes the sample collection and prioritisation protocol of samples achieved through a biological screening, chemical profiling and retrospective toxin analysis protocol. Chapter three describes the isolation and structure elucidation of the new Micropeptin LOF941, Micropeptin LOF925 and Micropeptin LOF953 from a Microcoleus autumnalis-dominated biofilm collected from Lough O’Flynn, Co. Roscommon, alongside their evaluation as antioxidative agents and proposition of chemical structures of minor micropeptin analogues using a tandem mass spectrometry/molecular networking workflow. Chapter four describes the isolation and structure elucidation of two new [7.7]paracyclophane derivatives containing an unusual α-L-rhamnose sugar moiety, and their evaluation as antimicrobial agents. Chapter five describes a series of new bisindole alkaloids, the Urlárins, isolated from cyanobacteria collected from Lough Urlár, Co. Mayo, and their activity as cytotoxic compounds. This first deep chemical investigation of some Irish freshwater cyanobacteria underscores the importance of ongoing assessments, encompassing both potential beneficial applications and considerations of toxicity
Protein – Calixarene frameworks via supramolecular synthons: A modular approach
No full textAnionic, water-soluble calixarenes act as protein receptors and mediators of assembly, towards protein crystal engineering. Reproducible structural units, known as supramolecular synthons, are identified across protein – calixarene crystal structures and applied to direct new frameworks. Controlled calixarene binding is applicable in disordered protein capture and molecular tectonics
Putting the "Planets" back into "Planetary Nebulae"
No full textThis thesis investigates the hypothesis that planetary engulfment during the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase of planetary nebula progenitor stars contributes significantly to the formation of non-spherical planetary nebulae (PNe), building on the binary-shaping hypothesis. Planetary nebulae form as stars expel their outer layers, leaving behind an expanding shell of gas. The majority of PNe exhibit asymmetrical, non-spherical shapes, suggesting external influences in their formation. The research investigating the origin of their shapes was conducted using a tool called SIMSPLASH (SIMulationS for the PLAnet Shaping Hypothesis), which is a research code that calculates the orbital evolution of exoplanets by combining the host stars’ stellar mass-loss rates with the tidal evolution of the bodies involved. Via this mechanism, the probabilities of stars having and engulfing massive planets as a function of stellar mass could be determined.
The study employs data from currently discovered exoplanets, updating any previous statistics, as well as incorporating three-body systems of different varieties into the analysis. Updates were also made to the code that allowed for a broader and more efficient exploration of the hypothesis. The total rate of engulfments on the AGB is 6.5%, and is just slightly higher than that for only single-star single-planet systems with a rate of 5.6%. Neither of these percentages provides strong support to the idea that planet engulfment accounts for the vast majority of aspherical PNe shaping. However, some of the observation and selection biases, such as a very high engulfment rate in higher-mass stars but a lack of discovered progenitor systems with host stars of such masses, provide additional context for the hypothesis. Additionally, the results show that the majority of planets are engulfed on the RGB, of which the effects on the stellar evolution thereafter have not yet been fully researched. The overall conclusion that can be drawn from this work is that while planetary engulfment can explain a small portion of non-spherical PNe, the evidence currently suggests that it is not the primary mechanism behind the shaping of the majority of these nebulae. Therefore, the hypothesis is not sufficient enough to resolve the mystery of non-spherical planetary nebulae morphologies
C-reactive protein expression in acute ischemic stroke blood clots: Implications for etiology
No full textIntroduction:
C-reactive protein (CRP) is a prototypic inflammation marker, with elevated levels associated with an increased risk of cerebrovascular events. To determine whether CRP could be a useful biomarker of stroke etiology, we investigated CRP expression in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) clots from large-artery atherosclerosis (LAA), cardio-embolism (CE) and cryptogenic (Crypt) subtypes.
Patients and methods:
We analysed clot samples from AIS patients (LAA, CE, Crypt; n = 50 each), collected across five stroke centres in France, Serbia, Spain, and Japan between February 2021 and February 2024, as part of the prospective Clotbase International Registry of 460 patients who underwent mechanical thrombectomy. Clot components were assessed using Martius Scarlet Blue staining. CRP expression was examined using immunohistochemistry and its co-localisation with clot components was detected using immunofluorescence. Clinical parameters were compared across etiologies.
Results:
CRP expression varied significantly among clots. Most clots (65%) had minimal (⩽1%) CRP and 35% showed substantial (>1%) CRP. CE group had significantly more clots with substantial CRP than LAA and Crypt (48% vs 30% and 26%; p = 0.048). Clots with substantial CRP contained more fibrin (28.9%) than those with low CRP (20.6%; p = 0.005). Confocal microscopy showed CRP co-localised with fibrin and white blood cells (WBCs).
Discussion and conclusion:
Significantly more AIS clots of CE expressed substantial CRP compared to those of LAA and Crypt, suggesting CE strokes may be more strongly linked to inflammation. Clots with substantial CRP expression displayed significantly more fibrin compared to those with minimal CRP expression, suggesting a potential association between inflammation and fibrin-rich clots. Further study of the relationship between CRP, fibrin and WBCs in clots may improve our understanding of the processes of thrombo-inflammation.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The funders and award number are Research Ireland: 13/RC/2073_2 and Sensome; Chinese Scholarship Council.peer-reviewe
Analysis of consular assistance provided to Irish citizens abroad, 2014–2023
No full textIntroduction
There has been limited literature reporting the nature of the consular assistance provided to travellers. This study aimed to describe the consular assistance activity of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs.
Methods
Publicly available consular assistance data (2014–2023) were analysed descriptively. Consular missions were listed under 16–19 categories.
Results
A total of 26,378 consular assistance missions were recorded. The greatest proportion of missions related to COVID-19 repatriations (26.9 %, n = 7097), deaths overseas (10 %, n = 2650), and medical illness/mental health emergency abroad (11.6 %, n = 3047). Forensic incidents (arrests/victims of crime) accounted for 12.9 % (n = 3392) of consular assistance episodes.
Conclusion
This study highlights the characteristics and trends of consular assistance requests received by a national governmental agency. Future studies should explore traveller awareness of consular procedures and the extent to which they are addressed in travel medicine consultations.peer-reviewe
Neurosymbolic visual reasoning with scene graph enrichment
No full textVisual reasoning is a critical component of artificial intelligence that aims to understand, interpret, and reason about complex visual content. It has an interdisciplinary nature incorporating visual feature extraction and image generation from computer vision, linguistic feature extraction and language generation from natural language processing, and graph-based representation and semantic enrichment from knowledge representation and reasoning. Data-centric visual reasoning techniques often face limitations in intuitively interpreting visual content due to the limited expressiveness and generalisability of scene representations. We propose a knowledge-enhanced neurosymbolic visual reasoning framework based on scene graph enrichment. This framework employs deep learning techniques for object detection and relationship prediction in visual content to generate scene graph representations, which are then refined and semantically enriched using common sense knowledge extracted from a heterogeneous knowledge graph. The enriched scene graphs are used in downstream visual reasoning tasks, including image captioning, visual question answering and image generation. A comprehensive experimental analysis on the standard datasets and evaluation benchmarks demonstrates considerable improvement over existing state-of-the-art methods in terms of relationship recall rate, image captioning quality, question answering accuracy and image generation realism. The encouraging results validate the effectiveness of leveraging heterogeneous common sense knowledge for enhanced scene understanding and visual reasoning.2025-08-2
A systematic review of the qualitative research on barriers and facilitators to home hemodialysis
No full textIntroduction
The growing prevalence of chronic kidney disease has led to an increased demand for kidney replacement therapies. Although a kidney transplant is the preferred treatment for patients, many patients require dialysis temporarily before receiving a transplant or are unsuitable transplant candidates requiring long-term dialysis. Home hemodialysis (home HD) is cost-effective and associated with improved patient outcomes; however, its adoption remains low. There is a need to understand the factors that may support or hinder the use of home HD. Accordingly, a systematic review of the qualitative literature was conducted to identify barriers and facilitators to home HD for patients, their carers/family, and healthcare professionals.
Methods
This systematic review was carried out following ENTREQ guidelines. Electronic searches were conducted on Medline (OVID), EMBASE, CINAHL (EBSCO), and PsycINFO. The COM-B and Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) were used to collate the barriers and enablers identified within the papers through deductive content analysis.
Results
Thirteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Within the capability component of the COM-B model, lack of knowledge of home HD was identified as a barrier by healthcare professionals and patients. Within the opportunity component, the suitability of patients' homes (e.g., home modifications) and the healthcare system was identified as barriers to home HD. Fostering an environment of support and community was seen as a facilitator of home HD. Within the motivation component of the model, a lack of confidence and reluctance of patients to burden their family members with the responsibility of treatment were perceived as barriers. Improvements in the quality of life for the person receiving home HD were regarded as a motivator.
Conclusion
To encourage widespread home HD use, understanding its barriers and facilitators for patients and the healthcare system is key to developing and implementing effective interventions to increase uptake.This work was supported by the Irish Health Research Board (ILP-HSR-2022-001).peer-reviewe
Developing health professionals' health literacy competencies to support patients in diabetes self-management
No full textIntroduction
Health literacy is an issue of global importance. There is a need for health literacy education for health professionals to improve patient outcomes. Health literacy education for health professionals is supported in the literature and policy development. Health Literacy refers to people’s ability to understand and use health information. In Ireland, 2 in 5 adults have been found to have limited health literacy skills, which has been shown to impact health outcomes.
To address these issues, health professionals need to be able to communicate in a health literate way so information is accessible for health service users to access. When an individual has diabetes, self-management is essential in maintaining health where they need to have advanced skills. Therefore, if a health professional has the skills needed to provide information in a health literate way, there is the potential to improve the self-management skills of health service users.
Aims
This research project aimed to develop a health literacy education programme for health professionals, to help empower patients with diabetes in optimising self-management.
Methods
This was achieved by utilising a mixed methods approach, guided by the Medical Research Council’s framework for developing complex interventions. A novel health literacy education programme was developed using two stages of the framework: Programme development and Feasibility. Informed by a scoping review, and stakeholder engagement, an E-Delphi consensus and public and patient involvement, a prototype of the programme was developed, and feasibility tested.
Results
This study shows that there is a lack of current health literacy education programmes in existence for health professionals in diabetes care. Little is known about the detail of the reported interventions as information about content, delivery and instructional methods was limited. Using an E-Delphi consensus study, the components of a health literacy education programme were prioritised, and consensus was gained on the educational competencies, methods of delivery and educational techniques required to develop a novel health literacy education programme for health professionals in diabetes care. Feasibility results show that recruitment and retention was a challenge for the developed education programme. As a result of the implemented education programme, there was an increase in participant knowledge, gathering information, providing information, shared decision making and enabling self-management. There was a high intention to implement learned skills. Programme feedback was positive and constructive for future iterations.
Conclusion
Overall, an evidence based, and stakeholder informed education programme was developed for health professionals working in diabetes care. Although recruitment was on a small scale, learning took place when compared pre and post education and feedback from participants was positive and constructive in nature. The feasibility study demonstrated how an evaluation of the programme is not appropriate, and the education programme needs to be refined