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Using a multi-dimensional approach for catchment scale herbicide pollution assessments
No full textWorldwide herbicide use in agriculture, whilst safeguarding yields also presents water quality issues. Controlling factors in agricultural catchments include both static and dynamic parameters. The present study investigated the occurrence of herbicides in streams and groundwater in two meso-scale catchments with contrasting flow controls and agricultural landuse (grassland and arable land). Using a multi-dimensional approach, streams were monitored from November 2018 to November 2019 using Chemcatcher® passive sampling devices and groundwater was sampled in 95 private drinking water wells. The concentrations of herbicides were larger in the stream of the Grassland catchment (8.9–472.6 ng L−1) dominated by poorly drained soils than in the Arable catchment (0.9–169.1 ng L−1) dominated by well-drained soils. Incidental losses of herbicides during time of application and low flows in summer caused concentrations of MCPA, Fluroxypyr, Trichlorpyr, Clopyralid and Mecoprop to exceeded the European Union (EU) drinking water standard due to a lack of dilution. Herbicides were present in the stream throughout the year and the total mass load was higher in winter flows, suggesting a persistence of primary chemical residues in soil and sub-surface environments and restricted degradation. Losses of herbicides to the streams were source limited and influenced by hydrological conditions. Herbicides were detected in 38% of surveyed drinking water wells. While most areas had concentrations below the EU drinking water standard some areas with well-drained soils in the Grassland catchment, had concentrations exceeding recommendations. Individual wells had concentrations of Clopyralid (619 ng L−1) and Trichlorpyr (650 ng L−1). Despite the study areas not usually associated with herbicide pollution, and annual mass loads being comparatively low, many herbicides were present in both surface and groundwater, sometimes above the recommendations for drinking water. This whole catchment assessment provides a basis to develop collaborative measures to mitigate pollution of water by herbicides.Horizon 2020 Framework Programm
Modern routines: The perception of time and space in film spectators’ memories of cinemagoing in 1940s Buenos Aires
No full textThe renewal of theoretical and methodological tools, putting the spotlight of film historiography on movie audiences and their movie-going routines, has meant a significant shift for the study of national and regional cinemas. The New Cinema History movement has demonstrated the vital importance of introducing in-depth, data-based studies of exhibition, distribution and programming, considering both individual and collective experiences. One trend in this renewal of cinema history are studies that rely on oral testimonies of the elderly to reconstruct their movie-going practices. This article discusses the ways spatial and temporal perceptions appear in oral narratives of movie-going experiences in Buenos Aires during the 1940s and 1950s. Based on twenty qualitative interviews with elderly men and women who attended cinemas during that period, we explore how through their imaginaries they build a certain place in the past that shows sharp contrasts to the perceived present. We trace the ways in which memories are intertwined with the emergence of modern routines in their environment and the way the cinematographic experience affected the audience’s mental cartography of the different environments of Buenos Aires. Film consumption, which included not only going to the pictures but also a constant presence of its imaginaries in their daily life, led them to develop new sensorial skills, helping them face a changing world
The Early Cultural Contexts of Shakespearean Stage Music: Vocality, Circulation and Representation
No full textThe aim of this thesis is twofold:
1. To investigate the cultural significance of Shakespearean theatre music with specific focus on the use of boys voices on the stage, depictions of the supernatural world, and musical representations of death.
2. To re-examine the origins and early circulation of Shakespeare s songs, applying a rigorous method of stemmatic analysis to shed light on their earliest forms.
In chapter 1 I examine the role of Elizabethan and Jacobean child companies in raising the musical profile of early modern English drama, concluding that the child companies greatest legacy was the musical tradition associated with their indoor performances, a tradition which was inherited by the adults after their demise. An overview of child company activity and the reasons for their dissolution is followed by an interpretation of Hamlet s Little Eyases passage (II.ii), where I draw on the musical associations of the term means as key to understanding the passage as a comment on the revival of the child companies. A comparison of the notated pitch of boy songs in child and adult company repertoire demonstrates that boy songs of the adult companies were notated at a higher pitch than those of the child companies. There follows an account of the clues that can be glimpsed in both adult- and child-company play texts to understanding the implications for theatrical companies of vocal pitch and voice change in boys. A discussion about boy apprenticeship in Shakespeare s own company is followed by a reflection on the musical consequences of the adults usurpation of the children s indoor playing space.
In chapters 2 and 3 I examine the origins and early circulation of Shakespeare s songs. All known manuscript and printed sources for the earliest versions of those songs are collated in appendix 2.1, which serves as a point of reference for both chapters. Chapter 2 commences with a survey of the secondary literature concerning the classification of Shakespeare s songs as popular , formal etc., and an overview of early modern manuscript and print culture. In the main body of the chapter, I explore Shakespeare s use of pre-existing, popular songs as a hierarchization device whereby he portrays characters as being drunk, clowns, mad, or the butt of jokes. Chapter 3 consists of case studies of the circulation of six of Shakespeare s songs which do not appear to have pre-dated their plays. Using the text-critical method, I trace the relationships between early sources of text and music, concluding that songs ostensibly penned by Shakespeare circulated with textual stability, while songs whose origins are more complex or which had affiliations with plays outside of Shakespeare s canon have less consistent textual traditions.
In chapter 4 I examine the musical aspects of Shakespeare s supernatural and magical characters, namely fairies, witches and The Tempest s Ariel. Placing Shakespeare s characters within their wider cultural context, I conclude that specific musical effects came to be associated with those different types of being: shifting metre with fairies, daring harmonies within a stable , incantatory rhythm for magic songs, and harmonic and structural disorder for witches. Chapter 5 posits Shakespeare s musical treatment of death as a reflection of the changing cultural and religious landscape of early modern England. A study of the distribution of the words knell , bell and plague throughout Shakespeare s plays reveals a correlation with plague outbreaks in England. Finally, a survey of the dramatic use of such musical devices as knells, dead marches and dirges leads to the conclusion that at a time when the use of music to mourn and bury the dead was under curtailment, it continued to be used unreservedly on the stage
Quality of life following formation of an ileal conduit due to urinary bladder neoplasm: a systematic review
No full textAim: To present the findings of a systematic review on reported quality of life following the formation of a urinary diversion as a result of cystectomy due to urinary bladder neoplasm.
Background: Bladder cancer is the most commonly occurring cancer of the urological
system. Treatment often involves undergoing a radical cystectomy with an ileal conduit formation. Quality of life issues associated with this surgery are complex and
varied.
Design: A systematic review using thematic synthesis.
Data Sources: A comprehensive search, using The Cochrane Library, CINAHL,
PubMed and PsycInfo databases, focusing on the years from 2007 to 2020.
Review methods: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analyses was the chosen checklist used. Studies were critically appraised using the
Crowe Critical Appraisal Tool.
Results: The formation of an ileal conduit negatively affects respondent\u27s quality of
life particularly regarding body image, social distress, reduced sexual activity and
employment. Poor research focus on the impact of ileal conduit formation on sexual
well-being postoperatively was apparent.
Conclusions: Further research using qualitative methodologies is needed to gain a
deeper understanding of how this life-changing procedure impacts quality of life
Exploring transdisciplinary education
No full textBecause wicked Sustainability Problems (WSPs) are complex, multi-scaled, value-laden, ill-structured, and difficult to address (for example see Lonngren et al., 2016), teams that include engineers and others with expert knowledge are needed to effectively manage WSPs relating to environmental stress and declining ecosystem health, including WSPs stemming from resource scarcity, biodiversity loss, and climate change. How do we educate engineers to successfully engage in such transdisciplinary teams? What is transdisciplinary education? This paper explores aspects of these questions. First, we review areas of education literature relevant to transdisciplinary teaching and learning, including frameworks such as “Threshold Concepts” (Meyer & Land, 2006) and “Empathic Thinking” (Walther et al., 2017), and pedagogies reported in the literature, including “Value Analysis”, and “Learning Communities” (McGregor, 2017). We introduce the design-based research methodology (DBR) as a framework for developing transdisciplinary education, and we offer a review of the engineering education literature relevant to transdisciplinary training. Next, a case study employing DBR is presented. This case, inspired by the work of Tejedor & Segalas (2018a) and others, extends the work presented by Morgan et al. (2018), which reports a novel sustainable development workshop experience for masters-level graduate students, organized and hosted by the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) in the spring of 2017. A second workshop was deployed in June of 2018, during which students from a variety of backgrounds and institutions gathered in UPV to create locally relevant, sustainable, conceptual designs for the built environment. The DBR case study focuses on this 2nd workshop, during which survey, interview, and focus group data reflecting both the student and the facilitator experiences, were collected. An initial interpretation of this data is presented. This paper contributes to engineering education for sustainable development because it emphasizes a meta- framework which conceptualizes the development of transdisciplinary education experiences and which has the potential to enable faculty to reflect on and improve novel transdisciplinary experiences
Higher education approaches to engender students’ environmental consciousness in electronic device design
No full textDesign briefs defined by user groups and their development into prototypes or demonstrators follows well established methodologies in both academia an industry. However, the infusion of an environmental context is yet to be fully established. It is critically important that this objective is achieved, so that the products developed promote positive environmental sustenance, follow processes that identify materials that are sourced from the most ecologically appropriate sources, follow a design methodology that leads to a set of candidate solutions that are all in one way or another environmentally sound, and finally the inclusion of an ‘end of life’ path which directly identifies re-usability or safe biodegradability. This paper surveys the approaches Higher Education Institutions have taken in embedding environmentally conscious design tools, particularly related to electronics, into their students’ curricula, and an informal audit as to how well their approaches engender sustainability of engineering and design consciousness in their graduates. The paper draws on engineering, design, creativity, materials selection, innovation, product and industrial design in relation to electronics, in an otherwise broad sense. The paper also highlights examples of this approach at the Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dun Laoghaire, within the Irish context of environmental policy
Challenging energy engineering undergraduates with diverse perspectives on nuclear power
No full textAs part of an introductory energy engineering undergraduate module at University College Cork, student presentations on a zero-carbon energy plan for Ireland have shown a high preference for nuclear energy, despite a complete absence of nuclear energy from the same module curriculum. Nuclear power has never been built or generated in Ireland, is currently illegal, and faces high levels of public opposition. The origins of a high preference for nuclear energy among undergraduate student engineers is therefore unclear. In response to this high preference for, but critically unengaged view of nuclear power, the authors developed a participatory learning activity for first year undergraduate engineering students to engage with a range of maximally different perspectives on nuclear power. Four different perspectives on whether Ireland needs nuclear power were presented to this year’s class: definitely yes; definitely no; maybe yes; maybe no. These perspectives involved a number of different framings of nuclear power and ranged across a spectrum from techno-economic to socio-technical. They emphasised to a greater or lesser degree issues around risk, cost, system impacts, timing, social acceptability, and sustainability. The activity took place in a room divided into four quadrants with each quadrant representing one of the four different perspectives on nuclear power. At the start of activity, students were invited to go to the quadrant that best represented their initial views. Each perspective on nuclear power was then delivered in a short expert presentation by one of the co- authors. Throughout these presentations, students were invited to remain in or move from their quadrant as they were persuaded or not by the arguments advanced. At the start of the activity, an overwhelming majority (96%) of the students indicated a yes preference with the majority of these being maybe yes (79%); at the end of the debate the total yes share had significantly decreased (to 54%), with the largest share of the lost vote moving to the maybe no category which finished at 36% (having started at 0%). Overall, there was a greater distribution of students across all four categories than at the start. Evaluations on the activity format were largely positive. Student reasons for changing their views were mostly socio-technical points specific to Ireland that included the electricity system, overall energy needs, costs and expert availability. Closing reflections introduced the idea of a wicked problem and highlighted the importance of values to questions such as “Should Ireland Go Nuclear”, i.e. avoiding an exclusively narrow scientific framing
Novel SDDM rating prediction models for recommendation systems
No full textThe accuracy of behavioral interactive features is a key factor for improving the performance
of rating prediction. In order to deeply explore the potential rules of user behavior and enhance the accurate
representation of interactive features, this paper proposes two rating prediction models, based on the spatial
dimension and distance measurement (SDDM), under the premise of taking the mean value of the user
behavior history as a user feature, and obtaining the interactive features of an item and a user by calculating
the distance between them in each feature dimension. In the proposed SDDM-Var and SDDM-PCC models,
the variance and the Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) are respectively utilized to evaluate the user’s
attention to each feature dimension as to further obtain the weight vector of the interactive features. Finally,
in order to improve the generalization ability of the proposed models, the rating prediction is accomplished
by means of a specially designed multi-layer full-connection neural network. The conducted experiments
with two public MovieLens datasets demonstrate the superior rating prediction performance of the proposed
models in comparison with the existing baseline models, in terms of the root mean square error (RMSE),
by achieving values of 0.865 and 0.872 on MovieLens 100K, and 0.839 and 0.832 on MovieLens 1M,
respectively for SDDM-Var and SDDM-PCC
The Embodied Modelling of Gestural Sequencing in Speech
No full textIn this work we formulate and examine the hypothesis that speech sequencing patterns are shaped by the requirements of production and perception efficiency. Many phenomena associated with sequencing in speech can be seen as emergent properties of skilled motor action system behaving according to biologically and evolutionarily plausible parsimonious criteria. The articulatory sequences under consideration are represented in this thesis in the manner of Articulatory Phonology as gestural scores, i.e., temporal and dynamical descriptions of activation patterns of primitive speech actions – gestures. In order to be able to introduce relevant optimality criteria, we thoroughly evaluate the Task Dynamical implementation of Articulatory Phonology. We modify the task dynamical model of the vocal tract so that it accounts not only for the dynamical nature of the abstract sequenced tasks but also for the physical properties of the end effectors participating in the production of a small, clearly defined set of speech gestures. This resulting embodied task dynamical implementation of gestural sequencing allows us to quantitatively evaluate gestural scores in terms of the cost of their realisation, encompassing both functional aspects and the underlying physical effort associated with speech production. In this work we consider three inter-linked cost functions associated with the production and perception of gestural sequences: articulatory effort, parsing cost, and overall utterance duration. The articulatory effort is a measure of expenditure of force exerted by the model muscles in order to achieve a given sequence of gestural targets. The parsing cost is related to the resulting precision of articulation as achieved by the system’s end effectors, and to the demands imposed on the listener in order to parse the utterance. The duration cost straightforwardly reflects the overall duration of the realised gestural score. The cost functions conceived in this way pose mutually contradicting requirements on the temporal alignments and dynamical parameterisations of the gestural sequence. When combined in a single parametric overall cost function used as an objective function of the optimisation problem, this approach leads to identification of sequencing patterns, gestural scores, that are optimal with respect to the realistic interplay of perception and production criteria. We find that this optimisation process results in stable gestural sequences that reproduce several known coarticulatory effects, such as the relative order of articulatory events in simple vowel-consonant-vowel sequences and global v gestural sequencing patterns involving consonant clusters. The emergent intergestural phasing patterns are evaluated in light of the leading theories of gestural sequencing in speech. Our results indicate a considerable dependency of intergestural phasing relations on the articulatory nature of the sequenced gestures and the physiological and anatomical properties of the articulators involved in their realisation. These results are sometimes at odds with some of the intergestural phasing principles postulated in Articulatory Phonology, but show a strong agreement with articulatory data collected by phoneticians