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Poster abstract: optimal distributed bandwidth allocation in NB-IoT networks
No full textIn this paper, we investigate a key problem of Narrowband-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) in the context of 5G with Mobile Edge Computing (MEC). We address the challenge that IoT devices may have different priorities when demanding bandwidth for data transmission in specific applications and services. Due to the scarcity of bandwidth in a MEC enabled IoT network, our objective is to optimize bandwidth allocation for a group of NB-IoT devices in a way that the group can work collaboratively to maximize their overall utility. To this end, we design an optimal distributed algorithm and
use simulations to demonstrate its efficacy to effectively manage various IoT data streams in a fully distributed framework
Recording Non-Crime (Transphobic) Hate Incidents: R (Miller) v College of Policing and Chief Constable of Humberside
No full textFor the past two decades, the police in the United Kingdom have recorded non-crime hate incidents. Defined broadly as non-crime incidents which is perceived by the victim or any other person to be motivated by hostility or prejudice against a person who is a member of a protected group, the practice of recording such incidents, and the use of the so-called ‘perception test’ or ‘Macpherson test’, have been recognised internationally as crucial to combating hate crime. The European Council on Racism and Intolerance’s General Policy Recommendation 11 regarding the role of the police in combating racist offences and monitoring racist incidents in the, include a recommendations that a system for recording and monitoring racist incidents be put in place, and that the perception test to be used in this regard. Having operated relatively unproblematically, both the recording of non-crime hate incidents, and the perception test, were put under scrutiny by the High Court recently. This article will consider the potential impact of the decision in R (Miller) v College of Policing and Chief Constable of Humberside with respect to such incidents, particularly in the context of the recording of non-crime transphobic (hate) incidents. The decision has the capacity not only to impact on, and inform, not just policy and practice in England and Wales, but across the UK and Europe, where the test has been adopted and adapted
Private lives – the work of mathematics leaders in Irish primary schools
No full textDespite the glut of recent research that examines the complex art of school leadership, little or nothing is known of the enactment of subject-specific leadership across our education system. This national deficiency is aptly exemplified by our collective unawareness of mathematics leadership in the primary school sector. Coincidentally, this recognition also comes at a time of growing expectation and rising demand being placed upon the mathematics teaching and learning provision in all schools.
This research seeks to address this gap by focusing upon ten individuals who self-identify as local mathematics leaders. Specific strands of inquiry include the nature of the duties they undertake, their generalised working habits, the supports they access and the skillset that they call upon in the course of their work.
The researcher chooses a mixed-methods approach to tease out these queries. Drawing on elements of the case-study tradition, these diverse mathematics leaders are profiled in detail. The cohort are drawn from the principal and teacher-leader communities - some are remunerated for their work, others are volunteers. The researcher exploits three research instruments to gather data: an initial participant questionnaire/profiler, a twenty-day participant activity log and a semi-structured interview format at the conclusion of the logging period.
The data-analysis process further subscribes to the mixed-methods orientation of the researcher. Comparisons are drawn between different types of leader and how they fulfil their functions. Following the merger of qualitative and quantitative data bases, a set of five cross participant themes are identified and expanded upon. Primarily, the themes address key findings including the critical influence of context upon the working emphases of the local leader, the ever-growing complexity of the role, seeming contradictions within such leadership work, the universal absence of adequate time for mathematics leaders to lead, and, the apparent dearth of bespoke professional development and networking opportunities available to such personnel.
Following a robust benchmarking of the findings against the known international research, a comprehensive set of rationalised conclusions and recommendations are presented for consideration. Principally, they aim to address the widely held ignorance of the mathematics leadership position. Additionally, they seek to suggest tangible supports such as formalised role recognition, accompanying release time and enhanced networking opportunities in order to address this profile gap, and to practically assist the isolated practitioner on the ground. It is intended that these endorsements will speak to a broad national audience of school leaders themselves, management bodies, teacher and principal representative groups, national support services and most crucially, policy makers
‘Beyond rehabilitation.’ ‘An exploration of workers’ experiences in delivering drug services within the special drugs rehabilitation community employment programme.’
No full textPsychoactive drug use is a significant problem for most Western societies. It has been a growing problem in Ireland over the last five decades, causing a multitude of problems for individuals and communities. One of the primary rehabilitative responses available for individuals in Ireland desiring to undertake recovery is the drug rehabilitation Special Community Employment (SCE) programme. The SCE programme supports almost one thousand individuals in their recovery by maintaining stabilisation, reinforcing recovery, providing education and skills training, and developing recovery capital enabling the participant to re-enter society as a contributing member.
A review of the literature on SCE indicates that several issues have arisen around funding structures, administration, governance and operations (Bruce 2004; Lawless 2006; CityWide 2013). However, little action has been taken over the last decade to address these issues. The studies referred to, adopted a broad view of the SCE programme. They examined activity across a wide range of stakeholders, including participants, families, workers, community boards and state bodies. While these studies provided excellent information, there was an evident paucity of research focused on the professional and support staff who deliver SCE in local community projects.
This research study was undertaken in response to that gap in the literature.It sought to provide some insight into the SCE workers\u27 experiences, which would contribute to the debate on operations and practices in SCEs and policy formation in the broader rehabilitation field.
The research used a mixed-methods design methodology consisting of an initial questionnaire to gather quantitative data and a series of semi-structured interviews that provided qualitative data, which enhanced and elaborated on the data gathered at the quantitative phase. This mixed-methods design provided a pragmatic approach that saw both qualitative and quantitative data generated and analysed.
Results suggest that SCE workers at all levels have experienced significant challenges to their effectiveness in work and their professional training and development needs. These issues are perceived to arise from the policies, procedures, administration and working conditions under which they operate within the SCE programmes. This research revealed that while social, economic policy and drug policy in Ireland has changed radically over the past decade, the SCE programme has failed to adapt in a way that adequately meets the needs of this changing environment. Several recommendations are made on foot of this study, which if adopted, would improve working conditions, enhance worker training and development and increase the effectiveness of service delivery
Predicting the outcomes of HIV treatment interruptions using computational modelling
No full textIn the past 30 years, HIV infection made a transition from fatal to chronic disease due to the emergence of potent treatment largely suppressing viral replication. However, this medication must be administered life-long on a
regular basis to maintain viral suppression and is not always well tolerated. Any interruption of treatment causes residual virus to be reactivated and infection to progress, where the underlying processes occurring and
consequences for the immune system are still poorly understood. Nonetheless, treatment interruptions are common due to adherence issues or limited access to antiretroviral drugs. Early clinical studies, aiming at
application of treatment interruptions in a structured way, gave contradictory results concerning patient safety, discouraging further trials. In-silico models potentially add to knowledge but a review of the Literature indicates most
current models used for studying treatment interruptions (equation-based), neglect recent clinical findings of collagen formation in lymphatic tissue due to HIV and its crucial role in immune system stability and efficacy. The aim
of this research is the construction and application of so-called ‘Bottom-Up’ models to allow improved assessment of these processes in relation to HIV treatment interruptions. In this regard, a novel computational model based on
2D Cellular Automata for lymphatic tissue depletion and associated damage to the immune system was developed. Hence, (i) using this model, the influence of spatial distribution of collagen formation on HIV infection
progression speed was evaluated while discussing aspects of computational performance. Further, (ii) direct Monte Carlo simulations were employed to explore the accumulation of tissue impairment due to repeated treatment interruptions and consequences for long-term prognosis. Finally, (iii) an inverse Monte Carlo approach was used to reconstruct yet unknown characteristics of patient groups. This is based on sparse data from past
clinical studies on treatment interruptions with the aim of explaining their contradictory results
Broadband Fully Integrated GaN Power Amplifier With Minimum-Inductance BPF Matching and Two-Transistor AM-PM Compensation
No full textIn this paper, we present a design technique for broadband fully integrated GaN power amplifiers (PAs), with merged bandpass filter (BPF) and AM-PM compensation. The minimum-inductance BPF structure is used as the output matching network of the PA. A new theory of the minimum-inductance BPF is developed and it is shown that, compared to the standard BPF, it can be implemented using lower total inductance and provide higher out-of-band attenuation. Furthermore, using a two-transistor architecture, an AM-PM compensation technique is proposed where compressive and expansive nonlinearity profiles of the transistors\u27 transconductance and gate-source capacitance are combined to achieve a linear total transconductance and input capacitance, over a wide power range. A fully integrated PA prototype, implemented in a 0.25- μm GaN-on-SiC process with 28-V supply, provides 35.1-38.9,dBm output power, 45-61% drain efficiency (DE), 40-55% power-added efficiency (PAE), and 11.3-13.4,dB power gain, across 2.0-4.0,GHz. For a 256-QAM signal with 7.2-dB PAPR and 100-MHz bandwidth at 2.4,GHz, it achieves 2.5% (-32.0,dB) rms error vector magnitude (EVMrms) and -37.5/-37.6,dBc adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR), while average output power and DE/PAE are respectively 30.1,dBm and 20.6/19.5%, without predistortion. EVMrms and ACLR can be improved to 0.5% (-46,dB) and -46.4/-46.8,dBc by using digital predistortion (DPD).Science Foundation IrelandTrinity College Dublin (TCD
Highly Isolated Compact Tri-Band MIMO Antenna with Trapezoidal Defected Ground Plane for 5G Communication Devices
No full textThe 5th International Conference on UK-China Emerging Technologies (UCET), University of Glasgow, Scotland (held online due to coronavirus outbreak), 20-21 August 2020In this paper a compact tri-band MIMO antenna has been proposed for 5G wireless communication devices. The isolation of -20 dB has been obtained between the two input ports using meander line structures and five vias incorporating at different places of the structure. Two rectangular slots have been etched on the radiating patch to further improve antenna performance. The designed antenna provides multiband characteristic in S, C and X frequency bands. Different characteristic parameters such as Envelope Correlation Coefficient, diversity gain, electric field distribution and radiation pattern are also presented and discussed . The overall antenna volumetric size is 42×34×1mm 3 .European Commission Horizon 2020Science Foundation IrelandTrinity College Dublin (TCD
Glendalough: the Upper Lake
No full textGlendalough (Gleann Dá Loch, ‘Glen of the Two Loughs’) in the Wicklow Mountains is a beautiful landscape, famed for its cultural and natural heritage. It is the place that St Kevin (Cóemgen) adopted as a spiritual retreat, to be close to nature, and where he founded a celebrated monastery, probably in the later sixth century.Heritage CouncilWicklow County Council2021-03-10 JG: PDF replaced at author\u27s reques
Investigating the physiological relevance of ex vivo disc organ culture nutrient microenvironments using in silico modeling and experimental validation
No full textBackground: Ex vivo disc organ culture systems have become a valuable tool for the development and pre‐clinical testing of potential intervertebral disc (IVD) regeneration strategies. Bovine caudal discs have been widely selected due to their large availability and comparability to human IVDs in terms of size and biochemical composition. However, despite their extensive use, it remains to be elucidated whether their nutrient microenvironment is comparable to human degeneration.
Aims: This work aims to create the first experimentally validated in silico model which can be used to predict and characterize the metabolite concentrations within ex vivo culture systems.
Materials & Methods: Finite element models of cultured discs governed by previously established coupled reaction‐diffusion equations were created using COMSOL Multiphysics. Experimental validation was performed by measuring oxygen, glucose and pH levels within discs cultured for 7 days, in a static compression bioreactor.
Results: The in silico model was successfully validated through good agreement between the predicted and experimentally measured concentrations. For an ex vivo organ cultured in high glucose medium (4.5 g/L or 25 mM) and normoxia, a larger bovine caudal disc (Cd1‐2 to Cd3‐4) had a central concentration of ~2.6 %O2, ~8 mM of glucose and a pH value of 6.7, while the smallest caudal discs investigated (Cd6‐7 and Cd7‐8), had a central concentration of ~6.5 %O2, ~12 mM of glucose and a pH value of 6.9.
Discussion: This work advances the knowledge of ex vivo disc culture microenvironments and highlights a critical need for optimization and standardization of culturing conditions.
Conclusion: Ultimately, for assessment of cell‐based therapies and successful clinical translation based on nutritional demands, it is imperative that the critical metabolite values within organ cultures (minimum glucose, oxygen and pH values) are physiologically relevant and comparable to the stages of human degeneration
Measuring spinal mobility using an inertial measurement unit system: A reliability study in Axial Spondyloarthritis
No full textThe objectives of this study were to evaluate the reliability of wearable inertial motion unit (IMU) sensors in measuring spinal range of motion under supervised and unsupervised conditions in both laboratory and ambulatory settings. A secondary aim of the study was to evaluate the reliability of composite IMU metrology scores (IMU-ASMI (Amb)). Forty people with axSpA participated in this clinical measurement study. Participant spinal mobility was assessed by conventional metrology (Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Metrology Index, linear version—BASMILin) and by a wireless IMU sensor-based system which measured lumbar flexion-extension, lateral flexion and rotation. Each sensor-based movement test was converted to a normalized index and used to calculate IMU-ASMI (Amb) scores. Test-retest reliability was evaluated using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). There was good to excellent agreement for all spinal range of movements (ICC > 0.85) and IMU-ASMI (Amb) scores (ICC > 0.87) across all conditions. Correlations between IMU-ASMI (Amb) scores and conventional metrology were strong (Pearson correlation ≥ 0.85). An IMU sensor-based system is a reliable way of measuring spinal lumbar mobility in axSpA under supervised and unsupervised conditions. While not a replacement for established clinical measures, composite IMU-ASMI (Amb) scores may be reliably used as a proxy measure of spinal mobility