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“Please burn after reading”: vernacular religion in secret police archives
No full text“Please burn after reading”: vernacular religion in secret police archives: The paper explores to what extent archival materials produced by the secret police in socialist Hungary could be used as sources for the study of vernacular religion. Looking at examples from the Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security, it argues that when read with critical approach, these documents reveal several aspects of religiosity from an era remarkably scarce in contemporary ethnographic sources. For all their limitations these files reveal the ways in which religious groups and individuals adapted to oppression and developed strategies to deflect the attention of the authorities, but also expressions of spirituality or the position and role religion, churches and their representatives had in a socialist society. By applying the vernacular religious approach to these files we are also able to move away from showing religious subjects simply as the victim of the regime and point instead to their resilience and agency
Time domain converters and ultra-low-power all-digital phase-locked-loop
No full textInternet-of-Things promise the devices the ability to connect, collect and exchange data with little or no human-to-human or human-to-computer intervention. The continued demand for low cost and low power of wireless communications drive research that explores new architectures and techniques in the RF front-end. Time-domain operations are favored by the technology scaling, thanks to the steeper and steeper transition edges having the ability to carry information. Two fundamental time-domain data converters are time-to-digital converter (TDC) and digital-to-time converter (DTC). First, a novel discharging constant-slope DTC is proposed, consuming merely 31 μW running at 40 MHz. Taking advantage of the constant-slope operation, it achieves 1.07 LSB in a 9-bit implementation with a typical resolution of 148 fs. This work also uncovers for the first time two effects that are compensating each other: channel length modulation is compensated by the ramp node varactor. Compared with other constant-slope DTC counterparts and other DTC architectures, the proposed work achieves an outstanding performance. Then, the other basic time-domain block, time-to-digital converter, is introduced thoroughly in the introduction chapter with popular TDC architectures investigated and summarized. The proposed TDC work targets built-in-self-test applications. With the help of the proposed system self-calibration method, the non-ideal effects of analog blocks can be calibrated in a digital manner. The system achieves pico-second level precision with a low-quality clock available in the SoC environment. Two all-digital phase-locked-loops are designed with different applications and techniques. The first one utilizes a ΣΔ technique to dither the DTC control codes to suppress fractional spurs. In the mm-wave applications, it achieves around -30 dBc fractional spur at 60 GHz output. With the help of low noise contribution from the DTC and narrow TDC range benefited from Vernier architecture, the PLL achieves 213{277 fs RMS jitter in 57.5{67.2 GHz tuning range while consuming only 40mW. The second one is applied in the Bluetooth low energy applications. It pursues low power consumption for the PLL so that the battery life can be extended for the radios. With the help of the improved constant-slope DTC and hybrid TDC, together with an optimized low power inverse-class- F VCO, the PLL achieves sub-half-mW power consumption with 1 ps RMS jitter
Applying the system of environmental economic accounting-ecosystem accounting (SEEA-EA) framework at catchment scale to develop ecosystem extent and condition accounts
No full textEcosystem accounting is a tool to integrate nature into decision-making in a more
structured way. Applying the use of nationally available datasets at catchment scale and
following the System of Environmental Economic Accounting-Ecosystem Accounting
(SEEA-EA) framework, we present results from a catchment case study in Ireland,
highlighting findings specifically in relation to the development of ecosystem extent and
condition accounts. In the absence of a national ecosystem map, CORINE landcover
mapping formed the basic data for extent and type of ecosystems, distinguishing woodlands and forest, peatland and heathland, grasslands and cropland and urban areas,
with limited coverage of linear freshwater rivers, hedgerows and coastal ecosystems.
Additional remote sensing data provided higher resolution at catchment scale, while limited site-level survey data were available. Condition data gathered for reporting under the EU Water Framework Directive were available at sub-basin level for surface waterbodies. Data were available at national level for habitats reported for the EU under the Habitats Directive (59 habitats reported), covering ~ 25% of the study area. Data for ecosystem types outside of these reporting frameworks were in the form of ancillary data only, providing information on pressures, threats and intensity of use. Our findings in Ireland reflect work across the European region, highlighting the role of data gathering and stakeholder engagement. We outline some of the data gaps to provide information for future research and alignment of data for the purpose of NCA, both at catchment and national scale
Development of long-term daily maximum and minimum air temperature series and assessment of past extreme air temperature events in Ireland
No full textDespite the rich heritage of meteorological observations registered in Ireland, prior to this PhD research, numerous historical daily air temperature records remained only in paper data sources across multiple archives, which constituted an obstacle to climate research. The assessment of the long-term frequency, duration, intensity, and distribution of extreme air temperatures events such as cold waves and heat waves in Ireland was lacking. Previous research on extreme air temperatures events has focused on the period with available digital daily air temperature observations, generally from the 1950s onwards, despite the rich heritage of continuous records from the 19th century. The extension of the temporal and spatial network dataset of long-term daily minimum and maximum air temperatures series dating back to the 19th century is crucial to a greater understanding of past climate variability and trends in Ireland.
Historical daily maximum and minimum air temperatures observations for 21 short-term series and 12 long-term series and registered in the period 1831 – 1968 were digitised from handwritten registers, newspapers, articles, proceedings, and monographs. The historical data were double keyed to avoid errors during the digitisation. Secondary school students (transition year), university students as part of an assignment, university students through the volunteering programme ALIVE, and members of the Irish Meteorological Society were engaged in the digitisation of historical data. A semi-automatic quality control procedure was employed. Doubtful maximum and minimum air temperature series were automatically flagged in R software through the application of statistical tests: climate consistency, internal consistency, day-to-day step-change, and persistence. The flagged data were manually assessed with the cross-reference of data and metadata. The homogenisation of daily, monthly, seasonal, and annual data in the period 1885 – 2018 was achieved through the application of the software MASHv3.03 (Multiple Analysis of Series for Homogenisation). The assessment of frequency, duration, intensity, and distribution of air temperatures extremes recommended by the World Meteorological Organization Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices was made through R software. The assessment of heat waves and cold waves was supported by the cross-reference of documentary supporting information.
The rescued daily maximum and minimum air temperatures series for 21 short-term and 12 long-term series and station metadata in the period 1831 – 1968 are available as open access (Mateus et al., 2020). Secondary school students-scientist partnerships as part of service-learning have the potential to be applied elsewhere and contribute to a fast, accurate, and efficient climate data rescue process (Mateus et al., 2021). The rescued historical data presented quality issues (errors and outliers) such as climate consistency, internal consistency, persistence, and day-to-day step-change, which were corrected through statistical quality control procedures, and analysis of documentary sources and metadata. Changes in the station location and surroundings, instrumentation, and observation practices introduced non-climate inhomogeneities in the air temperature data, which were removed through the application of statistical homogenisation procedures in combination with the analysis of station metadata.
The findings of this research follow state of the art for Europe, assessing a significant decrease in the number of frost days and cold days, increase in the number of summer days and warm nights. Heat waves are increasing in frequency and intensity in the 2nd half of the 20th century. Using the Met Éireann’s definition, the most intense heat waves are only seen from the 1970s onward in stations such as Markree, Phoenix Park Dublin, and Valentia Observatory. Following state of the art on European trends, the frequency and intensity of cold waves are decreasing, although the cold wave of December 2010 was one of the most intense events in the instrumental record.
The assessment of past extreme air temperatures events is important to assist stakeholders and policymakers in defining climate action, adaptation and mitigation policies, and reducing the vulnerabilities of future extreme events. A greater understanding and reduction of vulnerability is necessary to mitigate the demographic, environmental, and socio-economic impacts of future extreme air temperatures events.2022-05-0
Time course and magnitude of ventilatory and renal acid-base acclimatization following rapid ascent to and residence at 3,800 m over nine days
No full textRapid ascent to high altitude imposes an acute hypoxic and acid-base challenge, with ventilatory and renal acclimatization countering these perturbations. Specifically, ventilatory acclimatization improves oxygenation, but with concomitant hypocapnia and respiratory alkalosis. A compensatory, renally-mediated relative metabolic acidosis follows via bicarbonate elimination, normalizing arterial pH(a). The time-course and magnitude of these integrated acclimatization processes are highly variable between individuals. Using a previously-developed metric of renal reactivity (RR), indexing the change in arterial bicarbonate concentration (∆[HCO3-]a; renal response) over the change in arterial pressure of CO2 (∆PaCO2; renal stimulus), we aimed to characterize changes in RR magnitude following rapid ascent and residence at altitude. Resident lowlanders (n=16) were tested at 1,045 m (Day [D]0) prior to ascent, on D2 within 24-hours of arrival, and D9 during residence at 3,800 m. Radial artery blood draws were obtained to measure acid-base variables: PaCO2, [HCO3-]a and pHa. Compared to D0, PaCO2 and [HCO3-]a were lower on D2 (P0.058) and RR (P=0.056) were not detected. As pHa appeared fully compensated on D2 and RR did not increase significantly from D2 to D9, these data demonstrate renal acid-base compensation within 24-hours at moderate steady-state altitude. Moreover, RR was strongly and inversely correlated with ∆pHa on D2 and D9 (r≤-0.95; P<0.0001), suggesting that a high-gain renal response better protects pHa. Our study highlights the differential time-course, magnitude, and variability of integrated ventilatory and renal acid-base acclimatization following rapid ascent and residence at high altitude
A qualitative investigation into the individual injury burden of amateur rugby players
No full textObjective: To examine the individual experiences of injury burden in amateur Rugby players across the onset of injury, rehabilitation, and return to play. Design: Qualitative. Setting: Irish amateur Rugby clubs. Participants: Three male and two female Rugby players who sustained a severe injury that resulted in a time loss of at least 28 days. Main outcome measures: Semi-structured interviews were used to explore the injury burden experienced during the three phases of injury. Results: Hierarchical content analysis revealed 36 codes representing individual injury burden, which were clustered into seven themes across personal (emotional reaction; impact on performance or involvement; lack of knowledge; severity of injury and incapacitation) and situational (exposure to others playing; negative experiences with treatment or rehabilitation; societal burden) dimensions. Conclusions: The findings indicate that individual injury experiences can affect a player’s recovery and rehabilitation outcome, potentially extending the injury process and affecting player availability for the team. As such, injury management should focus on alleviating any injury-related burden experienced by players, as well as burden placed on the team, to maximise rehabilitation outcomes
Introduction to Special Section: Prosocial Development in Risky and Vulnerable Contexts
No full textThe introduction highlights a developmental perspective on children’s and youth prosocial behavior in risky and vulnerable contexts. The six empirical papers published in this Special Section are considered within a multilevel, multidimensional framework and reflect a diversity of methodological approaches. The studies each provide foundational work that informs theory, builds our knowledge base, and has important intervention implications. We highlight the contributions of each study and present recommendations for future developmental research on prosocial behaviors
A philosopher’s guide to discounting
No full textThis chapter introduces several distinctions relevant to what is called the “discounting problem”, since the issue is how (future) costs and benefits are discounted to make them comparable in present terms. The author defends the claim that there are good reasons to adopt Ramsey-style discounting in the context of climate change: the Ramsey rule is robust, flexible, and well-understood. An important distinction involved in discounting—“descriptivism” and “prescriptivism”—is discussed. It is argued that, even if we adopt prescriptivism, and accept that this means there is need for moral experts in parameter assignments, there is a significant issue. The type of moral expertise required for the discounting problem will not involve knowledge of moral theory—thus making moral philosophy unhelpful in terms of making particular parameter assignments, despite these being substantive moral judgments
Editorial: Interactions of the nervous system with bacteria
No full textRecent evidence that microbes influence mood and behavior via the gut-brain axis has opened up new avenues for research into neurological disorders. Hence, many studies now employ multidisciplinary approaches assessing for changes in microbial diversity, neuroinflammation as well as alterations in neuronal circuitry that impact brain function in health and disease. Such collaborative research was virtually unheard of in previous decades but holds remarkable promise for identifying novel pathways and therapeutic targets within the gastrointestinal tract to treat brain disorders. This editorial highlights these exciting developments in neuroscience, microbiology, and immunological research by examining 13 articles focused on how the nervous system interacts with bacteria in preclinical and clinical settings. A common theme is the dissection of complex
interactions between the nervous system and bacteria as well as the resulting influences on inflammatory pathways, symptoms, or behavior in patient studies and mouse models. Specifically, neuronal-microbial interactions in the context of nervous system disorders ranging from autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Alzheimer’s Disease and Major Depressive Disorder to migraine and epilepsy are investigated. Overall, we propose that via leveraging our understanding of the gut-brain axis, the modulation of gut microbes leading to significant benefits for brain health can become a reality
Semiconductor nanowire arrays for optical sensing: a numerical insight on the impact of array periodicity and density
No full textRecent advances in the nanofabrication and modelling of metasurfaces have shown the potential of these systems in providing unprecedented control over light-matter interactions at the nanoscale, enabling immediate and tangible improvement of features and specifications of photonic devices that are becoming always more crucial in enhancing everyday life quality. In this work, we theoretically demonstrate that metasurfaces made of periodic and non-periodic deterministic assemblies of vertically aligned semiconductor nanowires can be engineered to display a tailored effective optical response and provide a suitable route to realize advanced systems with controlled photonic properties particularly interesting for sensing applications. The metasurfaces investigated in this paper correspond to nanowire arrays that can be experimentally realized exploiting nanolithography and bottom-up nanowire growth methods: the combination of these techniques allow to finely control the position and the physical properties of each individual nanowire in complex arrays. By resorting to numerical simulations, we address the near- and far-field behavior of a nanowire ensemble and we show that the controlled design and arrangement of the nanowires on the substrate may introduce unprecedented oscillations of light reflectance, yielding a metasurface which displays an electromagnetic behavior with great potential for sensing. Finite-difference time-domain numerical simulations are carried out to tailor the nanostructure parameters and systematically engineer the optical response in the VIS-NIR spectral range. By exploiting our computational-methods we set-up a complete procedure to design and test metasurfaces able to behave as functional sensors. These results are especially encouraging in the perspective of developing arrays of epitaxially grown semiconductor nanowires, where the suggested design can be easily implemented during the nanostructure growth, opening the way to fully engineered nanowire-based optical metamaterials