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Planning and implementing an automated storage and retrieval system at the University of Limerick
No full textPermission was granted by the publisher to place the preprint version of "Planning and implementing an automated storage and retrieval system at the University of Limerick" in the Institutional Repository of the University of Limerick. The final definitive version was published in Chandos Information Professional Series:
Technology, Change and the Academic Library, 2021, pp. 143-150 and is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-822807-4.00014-2The case study introduces the automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) implemented in the new library at the University of Limerick (UL), Ireland. A quarter of the Library’s print collections were moved into this robotic system that has a capacity of 500,000 books and takes up oneninth of the space of conventional shelving. This is the first on-site automated storage system located within a university library in Europe. The technology provides an opportunity for a radical and game-changing shift away from providing space for collections to providing new and innovative learning spaces for library users. The case study outlines the drivers that influenced the decision to include an ASRS in the building, and describes and reflects on the significant change management challenges of implementing a complex storage solution that affected all staff and had a transformative impact on library services
Patients’, family members’ and healthcare practitioners’experiences of Stevens–Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis: a qualitative descriptive study using emotional touchpoints
No full textPlease see link to podcast linked to this paper: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3wtcDxQebURXG8cybAHFHK?si=EqP0ovECS6eFl1qQ9ZDXoA&utm_source=copy-linkStevens–Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) are devastating conditions resulting from a severe immune‐mediated mucocutaneous reaction which normally occurs as a result of medication.1 In the acute phase, the patient presents with a febrile illness, followed by skin and mucous membrane necrosis and detachment.2 The patient can quickly become critically ill and is treated as a medical emergency. There may be long‐lasting psychological effects on patients and their significant others.3 However, there is a dearth of research on the experiences of patients with SJS/TEN, those close to them and healthcare practitioners (HCPs) providing care
Voter Expectations of Government Formation: The Importance of the Information Context in Coalition Systems:
No full textCan voters in multi-party systems predict which coalition will form the government with any degree of accuracy? To date, studies which explore voter expectations of coalition formation have emphasized individual-level attributes, such as education, but the complexity of the environment at the time the coalitions are forming should also be consequential in enabling (or handicapping) voters in forming expectations. We examine the relative effects of individual level attributes(e.g.education, cognitive mobilization) versus contextual factors (e.g.information availability) in 19 German state elections and 3 German general elections between 2009 and 2017. We find that the ease of identifiability of alternative future governments varies significantly across multi-party systems.We find that respondents are more likely to predict governments that they would like to see in office, that have a higher probability of receiving a majority of seats, and that consist of ideologically proximate parties. Combining survey data with a novel indicator of coalition signals, measured through a quantitative text analysis of newspaper coverage, we also find that voters consider positive pre-election coalition signals when predicting the government. Finally, we find that the information environment is much more relevant for correct coalition predictions than individual-level characteristics of respondents. While individual attributes do influence predictive ability, these factors are strongly dominated by the context in which the prediction is taking place.The information environment has by far the largest effect on predicting coalition outcomes.Our results have implications for the literature on strategic voting in multiparty settings,as well as the literature on accountability
Evaporating hydrophilic and superhydrophobic droplets in electric fields
No full textEvaporating water droplets on a heated substrate are investigated in this work. Specifically, the influences of electric fields are studied in the context of the heat flux distribution beneath the droplets as well as the droplet mechanics and resulting shapes and forces. To facilitate a deeper understanding of the problem, both hydrophilic and superhydrophobic droplets are considered for an entire evaporation period with and without electric field effects. Both wetting scenarios show that the net radial directed electric force is directed inward, resulting in a compressive force which influences the droplet shape in such a way that it appears elongated. Conversely, the net vertically directed electric force is determined to be downwardly directed for hydrophilic droplets, pressing the droplet to the surface, whereas it is upwardly directed for the superhydrophobic droplets, representing a lifting force. With regard to the heat transfer to the droplets, only a pronounced electric field effect was observed for the superhydrophobic droplet. For all droplets, the contact line density, representing the ratio of the contact line perimeter to the total base area of the droplet, is determined to be a parameter that unifies the average heat flux from the heater to the droplets. This suggests that the heat transfer to the base of the droplet in the presence of an electric field is dominated by the electric fields influence, or lack thereof, on the contact line density
LGBTQ+ Special Edition Editorial Journal of Nursing Management
No full textGlobally, there is an imperative in providing access to appropriate and responsive healthcare for all citizens (World Health Organization, 2016). There is an increased interest in how these concerns extend to wider populations such those people identifying as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer or Questioning (LGBTQ+) (Government Equalities Office, 2018). However, there remains significant gaps in the research evidence around the distinct supports and services available to meet the specific needs of LGBTQ+ populations. This is evident in the shortcomings that exist in the education and practice development requirements of nurses and other allied health professionals (McCann & Brown, 2020). International responses to discrimination and social exclusion are becoming more evident in health inequality and human rights legislative documents in order to address concerns that can impact significantly upon the lives LGBTQ+ people (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2015; Royal College of Nursing, 2016). For some LGBTQ+ people, issues related to minority stress can result in depression, anxiety, suicidality, loneliness and isolation (Institute of Medicine, 2011)
Manipulating cocrystal size and morphology using a combination of temperature cycling and additives
No full textA cooling crystallization of benzoic acid and isonicotinamide in ethanol yields the 1:1 cocrystal with an extreme needle-like morphology with an initial mean aspect ratio of ∼10 and a size of ∼64 μm. We demonstrate that the use of suspension temperature cycling in combination with tailor-made additives alleviates such extreme needle-like morphologies and increases the average particle size of this cocrystal material. Temperature cycling of the cocrystal suspensions in ethanol alone reduces the mean aspect ratio from 10 to 3.3 while it increases the average crystal size from 64 to 450 μm. The further addition of low concentrations of benzamide or nicotinamide suppresses the growth rate at the tip of the needle even more, resulting in a more favorable equant morphology. An iterative mechanism in which additives are incorporated in the lattice structure and released during the temperature increase in each cycle is proposed. Thus, the incorporation of an additive at the normally fast growing and potential needle tips and its release during the temperature increase part of the cycle effectively makes an additive action catalytic. The simultaneous use of temperature cycling and tailor-made additives offers a new and effective approach for the elimination of unsatisfactory needle-like crystal morphologies and a small crystal size during the production of a pharmaceutical cocrystal material.This publication has emanated from research supported in part by a research grant from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and is co-founded under the European Regional Development Fund under Grant Number 12/RC/2275.
FC thanks the Crystallize COST Action CM1402 for travel funding of the Short-Term Scientific Mission (STSM). FC gratefully acknowledges the hospitality that he enjoyed as a Visiting researcher during his STSM at the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Continuous Manufacturing and Crystallisation (CMAC) at the University of Strathclyde.
JtH, SJU and VS would like to thank EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Continuous Manufacturing and Crystallisation (Grant Ref EP/K503289/1) for funding this work. The authors would like to acknowledge that part of this work was carried out in the CMAC National Facility supported by UKRPIF (UK Research Partnership Fund) award from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) (Grant Ref HH13054).2021-11-2
Quantifying used electrical and electronic equipment exported from ireland to west africa in roll-on roll-off vehicles
No full textThe investigation on the transboundary shipment of used and waste electrical and electronic equipment from developed countries is a well-studied subject with regard to the environmental and health impacts in the destination countries when it reaches end-of-life. Prior research has ranked Ireland the 8th highest source of used electrical and electronic equipment (UEEE) into Nigeria, with roll-on roll-off (RoRo) vehicles as the largest carrier (Odeyingbo 2017). This study presents the first comprehensive port of origin estimation of UEEE export shipments from Ireland in RoRo vehicles. This was obtained by using a ‘person in the port’ involving vehicle and enforcement document inspections at the Ringaskiddy port in Cork, Ireland. By scaling sampling data to annual shipment figures, it was estimated that 17,319 kg of UEEE are currently exported from Ireland annually and that around 1 in 5 vehicles exported contain UEEE. Additionally, the type of UEEE and frequency of shipments show certain equipment are high in demand at destination country. By using the Nigerian second-hand websites, the annual shipments were valued at approximately €147,225. The results obtained from this study suggests a significant reduction in UEEE exported from previous studies and highlights an opportunity for further research in additional ports of origin, as well as the examination of the shipping process, cost, and verification of functionality. Additionally, the straightforward methods provide better understandings of UEEE flows as this is significant to all stakeholders concerned with the regulation, enforcement, and safety of UEEE shipment
ANN based modelling of hydrodynamic cavitation processes: Biomass pre-treatment and wastewater treatment
No full textWe have developed artificial neural network (ANN) based models for simulating two application examples of hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) namely, biomass pre-treatment to enhance biogas and degradation of organic pollutants in water. The first case reports data on influence of number of passes through HC reactor on biomethane generation from bagasse. The second case reports data on influence of HC reactor scale on degradation of dichloroaniline (DCA). Similar to most of the HC based applications, the availability of experimental data for these two applications is rather limited. In this work a systematic methodology for developing ANN model is presented. The models were shown to describe the experimental data very well. The ANN models were then evaluated for their ability to interpolate and extrapolate. Despite the limited data, the ANN models were able to simulate and interpolate the data for two very different and complex HC applications very well. The extrapolated results of biomethane generation in terms of number of passes were consistent with the intuitive understanding. The extrapolated results in terms of elapsed time were however not consistent with the intuitive understanding. The ANN model was able to generate intuitively consistent extrapolated results for degradation of DCA in terms of number of passes as well as scale of HC reactor. The results will be useful for developing quantitative models of complex HC applications
Microcavity array supported lipid bilayer models of ganglioside – influenza hemagglutinin1 binding
No full textThe binding of influenza receptor (HA(1)) to membranes containing different glycosphingolipid receptors was investigated at Microcavity Supported Lipid Bilayers (MSLBs). We observed that HA(1)preferentially binds to GD1a but the diffusion coefficient of the associated complex at lipid bilayer is approximately double that of the complexes formed by HA(1)GM1 or GM3.The authors gratefully acknowledge Science Foundation Ireland under Grant No. [14/IA/2488]2021-08-0
Influence of protein (human galectin-3) design on aspects of lectin activity
No full textThe concept of biomedical significance of the functional pairing between tissue lectins and their glycoconjugate counterreceptors has reached the mainstream of research on the flow of biological information. A major challenge now is to identify the principles of structure-activity relationships that underlie specificity of recognition and the ensuing post-binding processes. Toward this end, we focus on a distinct feature on the side of the lectin, i.e. its architecture to present the carbohydrate recognition domain (CRD). Working with a multifunctional human lectin, i.e. galectin-3, as model, its CRD is used in protein engineering to build variants with different modular assembly. Hereby, it becomes possible to compare activity features of the natural design, i.e. CRD attached to an N-terminal tail, with those of homo- and heterodimers and the tail-free protein. Thermodynamics of binding disaccharides proved full activity of all proteins at very similar affinity. The following glycan array testing revealed maintained preferential contact formation with N-acetyllactosamine oligomers and histo-blood group ABH epitopes irrespective of variant design. The study of carbohydrate-inhibitable binding of the test panel disclosed up to qualitative cell-type-dependent differences in sections of fixed murine epididymis and especially jejunum. By probing topological aspects of binding, the susceptibility to inhibition by a tetravalent glycocluster was markedly different for the wild-type vs the homodimeric variant proteins. The results teach the salient lesson that protein design matters: the type of CRD presentation can have a profound bearing on whether basically suited oligosaccharides, which for example tested positively in an array, will become binding partners in situ. When lectin-glycoconjugate aggregates (lattices) are formed, their structural organization will depend on this parameter. Further testing (ga)lectin variants will thus be instrumental (i) to define the full range of impact of altering protein assembly and (ii) to explain why certain types of design have been favored during the course of evolution, besides opening biomedical perspectives for potential applications of the novel galectin forms.Open Access funding provided by Projekt DEAL.
We gratefully acknowledge inspiring discussions with Drs. B. Friday,
A. Leddoz and A. W. L. Nose, valuable input during the review process
and generous fnancial support by an NIH Grant (No. CA242351; to
M.C.)