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Central Banks and Inflation: Where Do We Stand and How Did We Get Here?
No full textThe inability of central banks to attain their target inflation rates in recent years has raised questions about the extent to which central banks can control the inflation process. This paper discusses the evolution of thought and evidence since the 1960s on the determinants of inflation and the role that should be played by central banks. The paper highlights the roles played by two streams of thought associated with Milton Friedman: Monetarist theories predicting a key role for monetary aggregates in determining inflation and the rise in popularity of the expectations-augmented Phillips curve. We discuss influence of the latter in determining the modern consensus on central bank institutions and the relative roles for fiscal and monetary policies. We conclude with a discussion of macroeconomic developments of the past decade and current policy options to stimulate the economy and restore inflation to its target levels, including the merits of “helicopter money”
Multiple group membership, social network size, allostatic load and well-being: A mediation analysis
No full textObjectives: This study examined whether social network size and allostatic load (AL) mediated the association between multiple group membership (MGM) and future physical and psychological well-being. Methods: A longitudinal design was used and data from 1026 healthy participants on the relevant variables was extracted from Wave 2(2010− 12), Wave 3 (2011− 2013) (for baseline MGM, social network size and AL) and Wave 9 (2017–19) (for well-being at follow-up) of the Understanding Society UK population-based dataset. Results: MGM was not directly associated with future well-being, but both social network size, β = 0.06, t = 2.02, p = .04, and AL, β = − 0.06, t = − 2.05, p = .04, were associated with physical but not psychological well-being at follow-up. Those who had higher numbers of friends had better physical well-being, and those who had lower AL
risk scores had better physical well-being at follow-up. However, MGM was indirectly associated with physical well-being through social network size, and AL such that those reporting higher MGM, reported a greater number of friends which was associated with a lower AL and then future physical well-being, β = 0.004, CI [0.001., 0.0129]. This was not evident for psychological well-being. This mediation withstood adjustment for confounding factors (e.g. age, gender, marital status lifestyle factors). Conclusion: The present study extends findings on the existing social relationships and social cure literature and our findings are discussed in relation to the social cure hypothesis
Famine and Commemoration, 1909–2017: Sites and Dynamics of Memory
No full textIn September 2006 I began a semester at Concordia University as Peter O’Brien Visiting Scholar, thanks to the warm hospitality of Michael Kenneally and Rhona Richman Kenneally. Soon after my arrival, Michael arranged for me to visit Grosse Île and with a very special tour guide, Marianna O’Gallagher. At the end of my visit she presented me with a copy of her publication Grosse Île: Gateway to Canada (1984) inscribed as follows: “souvenir d’une belle journée dans la presence de nos ancêtres.” And with characteristic thoughtfulness, she sent a copy to my mother, the late Jo Kelleher, in Mallow, County Cork, who shared Marianna’s love of history and commitment to the significance of histories of place. When I was invited to give this memorial lecture, I looked again at Marianna’s inscription and decided to respond to its invitation to consider the significance of ancestors, and, as a scholar of the Great Irish Famine since the early 1990s, to reflect in a more explicitly personal register than hitherto on the familial dynamics of Famine commemoration and social memory
Policing the press: censorship, family planning, and the press in Ireland, 1929–67
No full textIn 1929 the Irish state banned the publication of any information that advocated the prevention of conception. While much research has examined the cleansing of sexual matters from motion pictures and literature, the mechanics of how aspects of sexuality, in this instance birth control information, was excised from the most affordable, most widely available, and most easily purchased medium – the press – have received scant attention. This article examines the origins of, the implementation of, and the controversies that arose from the banning of birth control information from the press in Ireland. Through an examination of state and ecclesiastical archives – as well as contemporaneous press coverage – it outlines the mechanics utilised by state and religious actors to cleanse the press of such content. The archives demonstrate an acute sensitivity on the part of Catholic moral entrepreneurs to any mention, as distinct from advocacy, of birth control in the press. This sensitivity led to those tasked with implementing censorship going beyond their remit in terms of imposing official and unofficial bans on various publications. Such actions delayed for decades any meaningful public discussion of birth control with the inevitable consequences this had for women in pre-1970’s Ireland
The Effects of Caffeine on Voice: A Systematic Review.
No full textBackground
Caffeine is considered a dehydrating agent due to its diuretic effects and influences the body\u27s fluid balance. The relationship between voice and hydration has been widely investigated and it is accepted that inadequate hydration has detrimental effects on phonation. Since dehydration negatively affects the vocal folds and caffeine is considered a dehydrating agent, it can be hypothesized that voice might be negatively affected by caffeine intake. This systematic review aims to summarize and appraise the available evidence regarding the effects of caffeine on voice.
Methods
Randomized and non-randomized experimental studies of healthy participants were retrieved following an electronic searching of six databases in June 2020. No publication, language or date restrictions were applied. Data extraction of relevant data and risk of bias assessment was conducted independently by two reviewers.
Results
Five non-randomized experimental studies were deemed eligible for inclusion. The format of the administered interventions in the included studies was either liquid (coffee) or solid (caffeine tablets). Reported outcome measures used to examine the effects of caffeine on phonation consisted of acoustic, aerodynamic and (auditory & self-) perceptual. No measures were adversely affected by caffeine consumption.
Conclusion
Clinicians commonly advise patients to refrain from caffeine, as caffeine intake increases diuresis with subsequent effects on fluid balance. Such imbalances can potentially induce dehydration which can be detrimental to phonation. This notion cannot be supported empirically, as the evidence is deemed unreliable and no firm conclusions can be elicited to guide clinical practice. The results of this review demonstrate the lack of research in the field and the necessity for future investigations in order to inform evidence-based practice through reliable and valid outcomes
Initiating technology dependence to sustain a child\u27s life: a systematic review of reasons
No full textBackground Decision-making in initiating life-sustaining health technology is complex and often conducted at time-critical junctures in clinical care. Many of these decisions have profound, often irreversible, consequences for the child and family, as well as potential benefits for functioning, health and quality of life. Yet little is known about what influences these decisions. A systematic review of reasoning identified the range of reasons clinicians give in the literature when initiating technology dependence in a child, and as a result helps determine the range of influences on these decisions.
Methods Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsychINFO, Web of Science, ASSIA and Global Health Library databases were searched to identify all reasons given for the initiation of technology dependence in a child. Each reason was coded as a broad and narrow reason type, and whether it supported or rejected technology dependence.
Results 53 relevant papers were retained from 1604 publications, containing 116 broad reason types and 383 narrow reason types. These were grouped into broad thematic categories: clinical factors, quality of life factors, moral imperatives and duty and personal values; and whether they supported, rejected or described the initiation of technology dependence. The majority were conceptual or discussion papers, less than a third were empirical studies. Most discussed neonates and focused on end-of-life care.
Conclusions There is a lack of empirical studies on this topic, scant knowledge about the experience of older children and their families in particular; and little written on choices made outside ‘end-of-life’ care. This review provides a sound basis for empirical research into the important influences on a child’s potential technology dependence
Empirical Modelling of Public Lighting Emission Functions
No full textStudy of light at night has increased in recent decades due to the recognition of its impact on the environment, potential health concerns, as well as both the financial and carbon cost of energy waste. The advent of more extensive and improved ground-based measurements together with quantifiable satellite data has revolutionised the field, and provided data to test improved theoretical models. However, “closing the loop” and finding a detailed connection between these measurements requires knowledge of the “city emission function”, the angular distribution of upwelling radiation with zenith distance. Simplified analytical functions have been superseded by more complex models involving statistical approximation of emission sources and obstructions and inversion techniques now permit the estimation of emission functions from the observed sky brightness measurements. In this paper, we present an efficient GIS-based method to model public lighting using real-world photometric data and high-resolution digital elevation maps of obstructions such as buildings and trees at a 1 m scale. We discuss the results of this work for a sample of Irish towns as well as a city area. We also compare our results to previous emission functions as well as to observed asymmetries in emission detected by satellites such as SUOMI VIIRS
Unfolding the prospects of computational (bio)materials modelling
No full textIn this perspective communication, we briefly sketch the current state of computational (bio)materials research and discuss possible solutions for the four challenges that have been increasingly identified within this community: i) the desire to develop a unified framework for testing the consistency of implementation and of physical accuracy for newly developed methodologies, ii) the selection of a standard format that can deal with the diversity of simulation data and at the same time simplifies data storage, data exchange and data reproduction, iii) how to deal with the generation, storage and analysis of massive data, and iv) the benefits of efficient ’core’ engines. Expressed viewpoints are the result of discussions between computational stakeholders during a Lorentz Center workshop with the prosaic title Workshop on Multi-scale Modelling and are aimed at: i) improving validation, reporting and reproducibility of computational results, ii) improving data migration between simulation packages and with analysis tools, iii) popularising the use of coarse-grained and multi-scale computational tools among non-experts, opening up these modern computational developments to an extended user community.Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y UniversidadesGeneralitat de CatalunyaSwiss National Science FoundationNational Science Center of PolandItalian National Projec
Diverging Divergences: Examining Variants of Jensen Shannon Divergence for Corpus Comparison Tasks
No full textThe 12th Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC 2020), Marseille, France, 11-16 May 2020 (cancelled due to coronavirus outbreak)Jensen-Shannon divergence (JSD) is a distribution similarity measurement widely used in natural language processing. In corpus comparison tasks, where keywords are extracted to reveal the divergence between different corpora (for example, social media posts from proponents of different views on a political issue), two variants of JSD have emerged in the literature. One of these uses a weighting based on the relative sizes of the corpora being compared. In this paper we argue that this weighting is unnecessary and, in fact, can lead to misleading results. We recommend that this weighted version is not used. We base this recommendation on an analysis of the JSD variants and experiments showing how they impact corpus comparison results as the relative sizes of the corpora being compared change.Science Foundation IrelandTeagas
Encounters with truth: the hermeneutical task of religious education in the Republic of Ireland
No full textThis study claims that the question of truth is central to religious education. It contends that there are two broad approaches to how the question of truth is considered in religious education in the Republic of Ireland. These two approaches can be broadly described as follows: [a] approaches that operate from the presumption that objective truth exists, and [b] approaches that are sceptical of any claim to objective truth. The
research argues that each of these approaches, in their current manifestations, are found wanting when confronted with the challenges that face religious education in a contemporary pluralist classroom.
This research takes account of the theological as well as philosophical sensitives that characterise religious education. It proposes that another way forward for religious education presents itself by way of a greater appreciation for the hermeneutical turn that has emerged in contemporary theological and philosophical discourse. To this end
the study engages with Pollefeyt’s consideration of religious education and its emergent hermeneutical turn; Boeve’s post-modern reflections on tradition and the need for an open narrative; Marion’s understanding of givenness and hermeneutics in the context of a God-beyond-being; a critical realist approach to religious education; and, Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics to arrive at an understanding of religious
education that operates from a theologically and philosophically informed position that religious education qua religious education facilitates encounters with truth.
This study offers an account of the hermeneutical task of religious education which places the question of truth at its centre. It argues for an understanding of the hermeneutical task of religious education as being orientated towards facilitating ‘truthevents’, moments of truth whereby the ‘happening’ character of education as well as its transformative nature are appreciated through meaningful encounters with the particularity and difference of the other. The study concludes by identifying seven correlating insights that emerge from the conversation between Catholic theology and Gadamerian philosophy and five key principles that may assist in future developments in religious education in the Republic of Ireland and beyond