Irish Universities
Not a member yet
78452 research outputs found
Sort by
On the invariants of the cohomology of complements of Coxeter arrangements
No full textWe refine Brieskorn\u27s study of the cohomology of the complement of the reflection arrangement of a finite Coxeter group W. As a result we complete the verification of a conjecture by Felder and Veselov that gives an explicit basis of the space of W-invariants in this cohomology ring. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.The research of this work was supported by the Simons Foundation
(Grant #245399 to J.M. Douglass) and by the DFG (Grant #RO 1072/16-1 to G. R¨ohrle).
J.M. Douglass would like to acknowledge that some of this material is based upon work
supported by (while serving at) the National Science Foundation. Part of the research for
this paper was carried out during a stay at the Mathematical Research Institute Oberwolfach
supported by the “Research in Pairs” program.2021-05-2
Old Wine in New Bottles or Walking in Someone Else\u27s Shoes? Exploring Decision Problems in Blockchain Governance
No full textBlockchain technology comes with the promise of being a disruptive technology with the potential for novel ways of interaction in a wide range of applications. Following broader application, scholarly interest in the technology is growing, though an extensive analysis of blockchain applications from a governance perspective is lacking to date. This research pays special attention to the governance of blockchain systems and illustrates decision problems in 14 blockchain systems from four application domains. Based on academic literature, semi-structured interviews with representatives from those organizations, and content analysis of grey literature, common problems in blockchain governance have been singled out and contextualized. Studying their enactment revealed their relevance to major organizational theories in what we labelled “Patrolling the borders”, “External Legitimation”, “Reduction of Discretionality”, and “Temporal Management”. The identification of these problems enriches the scarce body of knowledge on the governance of blockchain systems, resulting in a better understanding of how blockchain governance links to existing concepts and how it is enacted in practice.University College Dubli
Brief report: analysis of dental treatment provided under general anaesthesia for children and young adults with autistic spectrum disorder and identification of challenges for dental services
No full textDental treatment provided under general anaesthesia (DGA) is an expectation for many children and young adults (CYA) diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Planning and delivery of DGA requires consideration of morbidity and mortality risks and implications for families and healthcare services. One hundred patient records of CYA with special healthcare needs were analysed to examine characteristics and experience of DGA revealing that 79% of CYA had a diagnosis of ASD. Forty-seven percent of CYA diagnosed with ASD had at least one previous hospital admission for DGA. For 24% of this repeat DGA group, the previous DGA was within a two-year period. Results highlight a high rate of DGA and need to investigate more effective primary dental care strategies
HTML: Hierarchical Transformer-based Multi-task Learning for Volatility Prediction
No full textThe World Wide Web Conference 2020 (WWW\u2720), Taipei, Taiwan (held online due to coronavirus outbreak), 20-24 April 2020Thevolatility forecastingtask refers to predicting the amount ofvariability in the price of a financial asset over a certain period.It is an important mechanism for evaluating the risk associatedwith an asset and, as such, is of significant theoretical and practicalimportance in financial analysis. While classical approaches haveframed this task as a time-series prediction one – using historicalpricing as a guide to future risk forecasting – recent advances innatural language processing have seen researchers turn to com-plementary sources of data, such as analyst reports, social media,and even the audio data from earnings calls. This paper proposes anovel hierarchical, transformer, multi-task architecture designedto harness the text and audio data from quarterly earnings confer-ence calls to predict future price volatility in the short and longterm. This includes a comprehensive comparison to a variety ofbaselines, which demonstrates very significant improvements inprediction accuracy, in the range 17% - 49% compared to the currentstate-of-the-art. In addition, we describe the results of an ablationstudy to evaluate the relative contributions of each component ofour approach and the relative contributions of text and audio datawith respect to prediction accuracy.Science Foundation IrelandInsight Research Centr
Elucidating the complex organization of neural micro-domains in the locust Schistocerca gregaria using dMRI
No full textTo understand brain function it is necessary to characterize both the underlying structural connectivity between neurons and the physiological integrity of these connections. Previous research exploring insect brain connectivity has typically used electron microscopy techniques, but this methodology cannot be applied to living animals and so cannot be used to understand dynamic physiological processes. The relatively large brain of the desert locust, Schistercera gregaria (Forksȧl) is ideal for exploring a novel methodology; micro diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (micro-dMRI) for the characterization of neuronal connectivity in an insect brain. The diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) data were acquired on a preclinical system using a customised multi-shell diffusion MRI scheme optimized to image the locust brain. Endogenous imaging contrasts from the averaged DWIs and Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging (DKI) scheme were applied to classify various anatomical features and diffusion patterns in neuropils, respectively. The application of micro-dMRI modelling to the locust brain provides a novel means of identifying anatomical regions and inferring connectivity of large tracts in an insect brain. Furthermore, quantitative imaging indices derived from the kurtosis model that include fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD) and kurtosis anisotropy (KA) can be extracted. These metrics could, in future, be used to quantify longitudinal structural changes in the nervous system of the locust brain that occur due to environmental stressors or ageing
Greenhouse gas mitigation and rural electricity generation by a novel two-stroke biogas engine
No full textSmall-scale anaerobic digestion of wet organic wastes can make positive contributions to climate mitigation, energy security and nutrient cycling in agri-food systems. However, the environmental sustainability of small-scale anaerobic digestion is undermined where lack of capacity to utilize the biogas fuel results in biomethane venting to the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. Policy support for improved manure management in Bali, Indonesia, has resulted in the installation of small (6 m3 ) anaerobic digesters across 752 Bali cattle breeding units. These 752 remote rural digesters annually vent approximately
75 482 ± 37 741 m3 of biomethane into the atmosphere as a waste, owing to lack of practical means to convert this potential fuel into useful energy. Meanwhile, most of these cattle farms lack access to electricity. This paper describes the performance of a novel, compact and versatile “BioMiniGen” system that provides convenient electricity generation from small-scale biogas production. This innovative system comprises: (i) a simple biogas desulfurizing system; (ii) a two-stroke, single cylinder (63 cc) air-cooled engine; (iii) an electric generator; (iv) an optional CO2 removal unit. Lifecycle assessment indicated that
bioelectricity generated by the BioMiniGen would have a smaller environmental footprint than Indonesian grid electricity across 11 impact categories, including a negative global warming burden owing to avoidance of biogas venting. Trade-offs included a larger abiotic depletion burden associated with manufacture of the generators. Over a five-year lifetime, each unit, costing US13023. Across Bali, up to 898 ± 449 MWh yr 1 bioelectricity could be generated, and 1.92 ± 0.96 Gg CO2 eq. saved. Further pilot trials are needed to ascertain realistic biogas yields from cleaned digesters managed for bioenergy generation alongside manure management. BioMiniGen technology could make an important contribution to energy security for the 1.4 billion people globally who lack access to electricit
Priming as a strategy to overcome detrimental pH effects on cells for intervertebral disc regeneration.
No full textDisc disease is characterised by degeneration of the nucleus pulposus (NP), the central gelatinous tissue of the intervertebral disc (IVD). As degeneration progresses, the microenvironment of the IVD becomes more hostile (i.e. decrease in oxygen, glucose and pH), providing a significant challenge for regeneration using cell-based therapies. Tissue engineering strategies such as priming cells or micro tissues with growth factors prior to implantation may overcome some of these issues by providing a pre-formed protective niche composed of extracellular matrix. The present study investigated the effect of priming on bone-marrow-derived stem cells (BMSCs) and articular chondrocytes (ACs) using transforming growth factor β3 (TGF-β3), cultured at different pH levels (pH 7.1, 6.8 and 6.5) representative of the in vivo disc microenvironment. Low pH was found to have a detrimental effect on both cell viability and matrix accumulation, which could be mitigated by priming cells using TGF-β3. Investigating the activation of the transmembrane acid-sensing ion channels (ASIC-1 and -3) showed an increased expression of ASIC-1 in BMSCs and ASIC-3 in ACs at lower pH levels post-priming. Metabolic activity in terms of lactic acid production was also found to be affected significantly by priming, whereas oxygen and glucose consumptions did not change considerably. Overall, the study demonstrated that cells could be equipped to sustain the harsh environment of the IVD and promote accumulation of NP-like matrix through priming. Such an approach may open new avenues to engineer tissues capable of sustaining challenging microenvironments such as those found in the IVD
“What Bothers Me Most Is the Disparity between the Choices that People Have or Don’t Have”: A Qualitative Study on the Health Systems Responsiveness to Implementing the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act in Ireland
No full textObjective: The Assisted Decision-Making (ADM) (Capacity) Act was enacted in 2015 inIreland and will be commenced in 2021. This paper is focused on this pre-implementation stage withinthe acute setting and uses a health systems responsiveness framework. Methods: We conductedface-to-face interviews using a critical incident technique. We interviewed older people includingthose with a diagnosis of dementia (n=8), family carers (n=5) and health and social care professionals(HSCPs) working in the acute setting (n=26). Results: The interviewees reflected upon a healthcaresystem that is currently under significant pressures. HSCPs are doing their best, but they are oftenhalted from delivering on the will and preference of their patients. Many older people and familycarers feel that they must be very assertive to have their preferences considered. All expressedconcern about the strain on the healthcare system. There are significant environmental barriers thatare hindering ADM practice. Conclusions: The commencement of ADM provides an opportunityto redefine the provision, practices, and priorities of healthcare in Ireland to enable improvedpatient-centred care. To facilitate implementation of ADM, it is therefore critical to identify andprovide adequate resources and work towards solutions to ensure a seamless commencement ofthe legislation.>Health Research Boar
Leprechauns on the chessboard
No full textWe introduce in this paper leprechauns, fairy chess pieces that can move either like the standard queen, or to any tile within k king moves. We then study the problem of placing n leprechauns on an n×n chessboard. When k=1, this is equivalent to the standard n-Queens Problem. We solve the problem for k=2, as well as for k>2 and n≤(k+1)2, giving in the process an upper bound on the lowest non-trivial value of n such that the (k,n)-Leprechauns Problem is satisfiable. Solving this problem for all k would be equivalent to solving the diverse n-Queens Problem, the variant of the n-Queens Problem where the distance between the two closest queens is maximized. While diversity has been a popular topic in other constraint problems, this is not the case for the n-Queens Problem, making our results the first major ones in the domain
Robustness of constant-delay predictor feedback for in-domain stabilization of reaction–diffusion PDEs with time- and spatially-varying input delays
No full textThis paper discusses the in-domain feedback stabilization of reaction–diffusion PDEs with Robin boundary conditions in the presence of an uncertain time- and spatially-varying delay in the distributed actuation. The proposed control design strategy consists of a constant-delay predictor feedback designed based on the known nominal value of the control input delay and is synthesized on a finite-dimensional truncated model capturing the unstable modes of the original infinite-dimensional system. By using a small-gain argument, we show that the resulting closed-loop system is exponentially stable provided that the variations of the delay around its nominal value are small enough. The proposed proof actually applies to any distributed-parameter system associated with an unbounded operator that 1) generates a -semigroup on a weighted space of square integrable functions over a compact interval; and 2) is self-adjoint with compact resolvent.European Commission - European Regional Development FundScience Foundation IrelandI-Form industry partner