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"Anxiety floods the entire system”: A Qualitative Study Exploring Teacher Perspectives regarding how Anxiety impacts Autistic Pupils with co-occurring Intellectual Disabilities.
No full textThis qualitative study investigates teachers’ perspectives on anxiety among autistic learners with intellectual disabilities (ID) in special school settings. Research in this area remains limited, with existing studies often overlooking the distinct ways anxiety manifests and interacts with ID in this population. Semi-structured interviews with eight teachers explored their views on anxiety presentation, triggers, and strategies for support. Reflexive thematic analysis provided nuanced insights into the findings.
Teachers highlighted that anxiety often presents through behaviours misinterpreted as core features of autism, complicating identification and response to emotional needs. Environmental factors, including sensory stimuli, routine disruptions, and limited spaces for sensory breaks, emerged as significant triggers. Unpredictable staffing and incompatible pupil groupings further exacerbated anxiety, contributing to social withdrawal and self-regulation challenges.
To address these issues, teachers described using proactive strategies, such as transition planning, building trust, or low-arousal environments. They emphasised the need for a whole-school, collaborative approach, alongside multidisciplinary support. However, teachers often felt overwhelmed due or limited access to external specialists or support.
Participants advocated for neurodiversity-affirming practices focusing on environmental triggers and regulation. The study underscores the importance of increased teacher support, comprehensive planning, and integrating family and community resources to develop consistent anxiety management strategies
Staidéar agus Athbhreithniú Leantach ar Chur bhfeidhm Shonraíochtaí Gaeilge na Sraithe Sóisearaí (T1 & T2). Tuarascáil Eatramhach: Céim a hAon. Study and Continuing Review of the Implementation of Junior Cycle Irish Specifications (T1 & T2). Interim Report: Phase One.
Get PDFTá sé mar aidhm ag an taighde staidéar agus athbhreithniú leantach a
dhéanamh ar chur i bhfeidhm Shonraíochtaí Gaeilge na Sraithe Sóisearaí (T1 agus T2) i scoileanna iar-bunleibhéil i réimse an teagaisc, na foghlama agus an mheasúnaithe. Díríonn an taighde go háirithe ar chur i bhfeidhm an leagan de na sonraíochtaí Gaeilge a cuireadh ar fáil i Meán Fómhair 2023 agus leanfaidh an taighde cohórt scoláirí i scoileanna cás-staidéir a thosaigh sa chéad bhliain in 2024-2025. Mar sin féin, is próiseas diaidh ar ndiaidh atá in aon athrú curaclaim agus tugann cuid de na sonraí a bailíodh léargais ar thaithí agus ar thuairimí a bhain leis na leaganacha 2017 de na Sonraíochtaí Gaeilge T1 agus T2. Mar a cuireadh i láthair san iarratas ar thairiscintí, tabharfaidh an taighde
léargais spéisiúla ar gach gné de na sonraíochtaí, agus cruthófar deis do
rannpháirtithe réitigh fhéideartha a mholadh d’aon chonstaicí atá ann do chur i ngníomh na sonraíochtaí (CNCM, Iarratas ar Thairiscintí, lch. 21). Breathnófar go háirithe, ar an taithí atá ag scoileanna ar an múnla idirdhealaithe don Ghaeilge sa tSraith Shóisearach, chomh maith leis na hathruithe sa chleachtas de bharr Chreat na Sraithe Sóisearaí (2015).
The aim of the research is to continue the study and review of the
implementation of Junior Cycle Irish Specifications (T1 & T2) in post-primary schools in the area of teaching, learning and assessment. In particular, the research focuses on the enactment of the September 2023 version of the specifications, and follows a cohort of students who began First Year in 2023-2024. However, due to the gradual nature of curriculum change some data collected will refer to experiences and opinions regarding the 2017 T1 and T2 specifications for Irish. As set out in the research for tender, the study will provide interesting insights into all aspects of the specifications, allowing for the natural emergence with participants of possible solutions to challenges met in the enactment of the specifications (NCCA Tender, p.21). Particular consideration will be given to schools’ experiences of the model of differentiation for Irish at Junior Cycle, as well as the changes in practice brought about by the 2015 Junior Cycle Framework
Language in the age of AI technology: From human to non-human authenticity, from public governance to privatised assemblages
Get PDFLarge language models based on machine-learning technologies are reshaping linguistic contexts and understandings of language. We explore these reconfigurations by investigating discursive positionings of traditional institutional guardians of power in language in response to these changes. Focusing on the discourse of the Real Academia Española (RAE), we show how RAE’s social functions, ways of asserting authority, and the nature, function, and rightful ownership of RAE’s standard language have been reimagined. Crucially, RAE presents itself as a professional soft power that protects the rights of Spanish speakers. Drawing on tropes of authenticity and endangerment, it conceptualises language generated by machine-learning technologies as inauthentic and as destroying the authentic Spanish of human Spanish speakers. We argue that these discourses are indexical of a power struggle where the role of traditional language norming institutions is reshaped in the face of sociotechnical innovations that are in the hands of global commercial companies. (Standard language, AI technology, language academies, authority in language, big tech, Real Academia Española)
A Graph Based Raman Spectral Processing Technique for Exosome Classification
Get PDFExosomes are small vesicles crucial for cell signaling and disease biomarkers. Due to their complexity, an “omics” approach is preferable to individual biomarkers. While Raman spectroscopy is effective for exosome analysis, it requires high sample concentrations and has limited sensitivity to lipids and proteins. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy helps overcome these challenges. In this study, we leverage Neo4j graph databases to organize 3,045 Raman spectra of exosomes, enhancing data generalization. To further refine spectral analysis, we introduce a novel spectral filtering process that integrates the PageRank Filter with optimal Dimensionality Reduction. This method improves feature selection, resulting in superior classification performance. Specifically, the Extra Trees model, using our spectral processing approach, achieves 0.76 and 0.857 accuracy in classifying hyperglycemic, hypoglycemic, and normal exosome samples based on Raman spectra and surface, respectively, with group 10-fold cross-validation. Our results show that graph-based spectral filtering combined with optimal dimensionality reduction significantly improves classification accuracy by reducing noise while preserving key biomarker signals. This novel framework enhances Raman-based exosome analysis, expanding its potential for biomedical applications, disease diagnostics, and biomarker discovery
Service-Based Business Model Innovation in Product-Based Firms – A Comparative Study
Get PDFTraditional strategy in existing markets or product classes typically involves reducing costs, improving quality, or incremental innovation, which leads to increasingly dense competition with little room for maneuver. In order to compete in a digital era, traditional companies have to reinvent themselves by reallocating their resources and business
processes to offer a new service value proposition in parallel to the legacy one. This thesis investigates the business model restructuring of companies in terms of service-oriented value innovation as a new business model woven in an established product-oriented company. Johnson’s business model framework, with its four interlocking building
blocks, provides the basis for qualitative research exploring how companies reinvent themselves to foster radical service innovations. The research approach includes three case study companies in the business-to-business sector, each of them representing the key actors in their industry. Research was conducted through 31 semi-structured
interviews over more than a four-year period. The research helps unpack the evolutionary process of the new service business model, illustrating how companies manage the steps from a single project base to a service value proposition suitable for the mass market. While existing theory already provides an understanding of what a business model is and
which single elements might be involved in an innovation process, the research extends this to explore how the elements of a service-based business model innovation affect each other in an activity system and how they become relevant in the course of the evolutionary
process. The core findings also expand the business model approach in terms of an ecosystem perspective, which plays a decisive role in the innovation process in terms of newly established partnerships for the new service value proposition but has remained hitherto underexplored
Unlocking the Stability of Multi-Component Pharmaceutical Forms
Get PDFThe field of computational chemistry is constantly developing new predictive methods to guide experiments. Co-crystals are a promising development for improving the properties of active molecules, which is an exciting prospect specifically for the pharmaceutical field in formulating active pharmaceutical ingredients (API). To minimise computational cost, quantum mechanical models based on density functional theory (DFT) can be supported where appropriate with faster semi-empirical density functional tight binding (DFTB). These types of models can be used to predict the enthalpy of formation of the co-crystal structures. My results show that the full DFT methodologies predict the enthalpy of formation well for a broad range of co-crystals, with the DFTB methods giving high-throughput predictions for simple co-crystals but failing for larger, more complex APIs.
Another area of intensive research in multi-component pharmaceutical forms is the development of anti-cancer artificial metallonucleases (AMNs) that can be used to recognise and damage nucleic acids. This is aided by the metal centre which promotes oxidative processes chiefly responsible for cleavage activity. Thus, ensuring coordination of the metals in their parent AMN scaffolds is imperative for them to function correctly. Click chemistry is a recently discovered modular process to produce various AMNs with differing terminal groups. The goal here is to produce various polynuclear AMN structures, as these have previously been found to have a greater activity than mononuclear congeners, resulting in greater DNA damaging effects. This thesis aims to predict metal ion binding properties based on a wide range of scaffolds. The pendant groups can influence the strength of the metal to scaffold binding. DFT calculations are used to predict the effect of a broad range of molecular groups in place of the hetero-aromatic donors and explore how this can improve the metal binding in molecular scaffolds
Detecting Beta-Amyloid via Cross-Modal Knowledge Distillation from PET to MRI
Get PDFWe approach the task of beta-amyloid detection in Alzheimer’s patients and propose a multimodal contrastive and distillation-based learning framework integrating PET (using AV45 and PIB tracers) and 3T MRI data from 790 participants in the OASIS-3 cohort. Built on BiomedCLIP with efficient LoRA fine-tuning, our model leverages cross-modal and self-attention mechanisms with soft triplet loss and adaptive margin to align PET–MRI embeddings. Through knowledge distillation, we transfer PET-guided representations into MRI-only embeddings. A lightweight MLP predicts amyloid positivity from PET-guided MRI representations and MRI embeddings. Our preliminary results demonstrate that PET-guided MRI successfully transfers knowledge to an MRI-only model, showing substantial relative improvement (+8.3% F1 score) compared to models trained without distilled knowledge
Conversational search for image and video with augmented labelling
Get PDFThe rapid growth of media archives—including text, speech, video, and audio—has driven strong interest in developing advanced search methods for multimedia content. In particular, conversational search has emerged as a promising approach, where users engage in a dialogue with an AI agent to support and enhance their search activities. While most existing systems focus on text-based archives, this research extends conversational search methods to image and video retrieval.
Our approach involves developing an experimental framework to explore how conversational engagement can improve multimedia search. We introduce a prototype system that combines dialogue-based interaction with state-of-the-art visual indexing techniques. While multimedia information retrieval (MIR) has long been studied through conventional user-driven interfaces, the integration of conversational agents introduces a new layer of interactivity. The agent aims to assist users by suggesting relevant content and helping to filter out irrelevant results.
Effective dialogue in this context requires the agent to demonstrate an understanding of the content and its relevance to the user’s needs. Although MIR techniques have advanced significantly, little attention has been paid to how retrieved content is represented and communicated during the search process. Our system addresses this gap by incorporating object detection to highlight key visual features, enhancing both the accuracy and contextual relevance of search results.
To evaluate the framework, we conducted three user studies focused on the effectiveness of conversational engagement in multimedia search. These studies examined how AI-driven dialogue affects users’ ability to retrieve relevant image and video content and improves the overall search experience. Results indicate that conversational interaction not only refines retrieval accuracy but also increases user satisfaction by creating a more intuitive and responsive search environment
The Impact of Belonging to a Community of Practice on Teacher Identity, Leadership and Professional Learning: An Exploratory Case Study of a Post-Primary School in Leinster, Dublin
Get PDFThis doctoral study investigates the impact of belonging to a Community of Practice (CoP) on post-primary teachers. The understanding of teacher professional learning (PL) as witnessing a transformative reform agenda stemming from recommendations from national and international reviews of existing teacher education teacher PL has also gained attention
from the publication of Cosán’s Framework for Teachers’ Learning (2016) and the recent Action Plan (2021) to support its implementation, underpins this study. This investigation into belonging to a CoP in an increasingly demanding educational landscape is scaffolded by two key pillars: the impact on teacher professional learning and teachers' sense of belongingness. Firstly, teachers lead PL based on their own experiences, as continuous engagement and collective learning occur more frequently when teachers work together to develop their professional growth further CoPs offer a high-quality, job-embedded form of professional learning that has several benefits. Secondly, belongingness is a fundamental
human need, and it is difficult for teachers to fulfil their duties and responsibilities fully without a high sense of belonging to their profession. Although teacher PL has its challenges (lack of motivation, lack of time and lack of appropriate learning opportunities), CoPs have a positive impact on members’ self-directed PL in building community, collaborating with colleagues, developing instructional practice and feelings of support and belonging. A constructivist paradigm informs this qualitative case study design. This study researched the experience of seven post-primary teachers in a school in the Leinster region through employing participant reflective journals and semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis has shown three themes to emerge: CoPs for belonging and wellbeing, CoPs for PL and CoPs for teacher agency
An exploration of the contribution of Leaving Certificate Religious Education to the promotion of biblical literacy
Get PDFThis research considered the status of the Bible within Ireland’s Leaving Certificate Religious Education syllabus [LCRE]. Building on the work of a range of international researchers in biblical studies (including R. A. Bowie, Margaret Carswell and Peta Goldburg), a case study focus was adopted to explore the experience of biblical literacy at this level. The study availed of two research cohorts. The first involved a written survey of Religious Education teachers (n=21). The second concentrated on students who had chosen to study Religious Education for the Leaving Certificate examination (n=18). The participants were drawn from three second-level school types, a Church of Ireland school, a Catholic voluntary secondary school, and an Education and Training Board (ETB) school. Beyond an initial interrogation of the presence of the Bible in LCRE, a range of sources were examined, including material from the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, the Teaching Council, and from the State Examination Commission that is responsible for the assessment of LCRE as well as the occasional release of quantitative student data.
Thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2022) was employed to identify patterns and findings from the qualitative data. A combination of data tools provided insight into the reasons for selecting LCRE, Section H: The Bible as an area for study. The exercise revealed that despite linkages across several sections, the specific goal of biblical literacy was fundamentally limited to one optional section, leading to a concern that many students might not be equipped with the tools to attain a high level of biblical literacy. Findings reveal the significance of initial teacher education (ITE) in building RE teacher confidence to engage with the Bible. Some teachers and students had difficulty in identifying literary genres within the Bible. They also noted the challenge of moving beyond literal interpretations of biblical text. A further outcome indicated that the current assessment of the Bible demands less interpretative skills than other sections of the LCRE syllabus