13463 research outputs found
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How AI Can Turn Up the Volume on the Voice of the Consumer in New Product Development
No full textBrands are under pressure, with a 2021 BCG report indicating that customers might not notice if 75% of them disappeared. Innovation, driven by customer experience and fuelled by data, is essential for their survival. While R&D traditionally drove innovation using proprietary, in-house resources, pioneering firms have uncovered significant potential outside company walls. New Product Development (NPD) is a function that has consistently adopted emerging technologies, from CAD to marketing analytics. The rise of social media aligns with the growth of open innovation, enabling firms to access multiple sources of customer insights. However, only leading firms successfully manage and analyse high-frequency, multi-source data to inform innovation decisions. While lead users and consumers provide valuable sustainable innovation ideas, many companies struggle to effectively access and interpret the voice of the consumer. Few organisations employ advanced tools like AI and deep learning to integrate consumer insights and guide NPD. Despite the growing availability of data, understanding how to leverage multiple sources, including social media, remains limited and fragmented. This conceptual chapter develops a framework to help organisations navigate AI-driven customer engagement, enabling them to integrate diverse data sources and foster sustainable, impactful innovation
The impact of mechanical vibrations on pressure pulsation, considering the nonlinearity of the hydraulic valve
Full text linkThe article identifies some of the forces acting on hydraulic valves used in the civil and military vehicles. Particular attention was paid to the single-stage electrically controlled “on/off” hydraulic directional control valve. Special attention was focused on vibrations of hydraulic directional valve four ways, three positions (4/3) controlled by typical solenoids. Military vehicles can be a source of vibrations in low and high range of frequency. The spectrum of vibrations frequency is wide in this case. The value of the natural frequency of vibrations of the hydraulic directional control valve spool, whose body was affected by mechanical vibrations, was estimated. The paper shows that the natural vibrations of the directional control valve spool can coincide with the frequency of external vibrations acting on the valve from the ground. The mathematical description takes into account that when the spool is overdriven, the oscillating movement of the directional control valve spool is described by a model that takes into account the nonlinearity resulting from the fact that the spool is in the extreme position—it is a poor nonlinear mechanical system. The results of theoretical considerations were confronted with the results of experimental research. In addition, the presented modified model was used to assess the impact of the capacitance change on the value of the amplitude of pressure pulsations caused by the vibrations of the directional control valve spool
The Approach to optimization of the structure of the repair process of aviation radio-equipment
Full text linkThe Operation System (OS) of Aviation Radio Equipment (ARE) includes such elements as equipment, organizational structure, processes, documentation, personnel, measuring equipment, consumables and information resources, and others. When considering the problems of primary design and modernization of OSs, a large number of problems arise that can be solved with the help of intelligent decision support systems. During the operation of ARE, significant material resources are consumed, the amount of which is usually random. Therefore, during design, one of the main tasks is to ensure the minimum costs. This article considers the task of cost optimization within the organizational structure of the repair process. At the same time, the article provides analytical equations that allow to calculate and estimate operational costs for a given organizational structure, tariffs for repair and delivery of
equipment components, and failure flow parameters. Attention is also paid to the task of rationalizing the organizational structure of the repair process, taking into account the efficiency of the decision-making procedures depending on the failure type (simple or complex). In addition, the article considers an example of several scenarios for
the possible placement of repair enterprises in the airports of Ukraine during the post-war reconstruction perio
Impact analysis of Russian-Ukrainian war on airspace
Full text linkThe operation of global air transportation system is based on the safety and efficiency of provided services. Limiting airspace by closing some volumes requires reconfiguration of airplane trajectories. Russian-Ukrainian war led to the closure of the Ukrainian airspace for any civilian use since February 24, 2022. Airspaces of the Russian Federation and Belarus are limited in use due to sanctions and the high risk of military actions. In addition, ongoing military conflicts in the Middle East region hold airspaces of Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen at high risk for civil aviation. Airspace users have to avoid entering closed airspace, which results in increased trajectory length, total flight time, aircraft costs, and ticket prices for passengers. In our study, we analyzed the configuration of the closed airspace and its impact on the global air transportation system. A global air transportation graph is used to estimate additional trajectory length and horizontal flight efficiency for a particular departure airport. The impact of closed airspace configuration is estimated based on cumulated functions of the affected area by particular levels of additional trajectory length and horizontal flight efficiency index. Affected areas are estimated for Schiphol (EHAM) and O'Hare (KORD) international airports. Statistical analysis of trajectory data of particular flights indicates a significant increase in additional trajectory length and total flight time. The proposed model has been verified by comparison with the results of trajectory data analysis of 20 unique flight connections
The challenges of audio description in Ireland: Bridging education, users and industry (ADESI)
Full text linkAround 5% of the population in Ireland is blind or visually impaired, highlighting the urgency of improving access to media and culture. Although progress has been made, the provision of audio description (AD) remains inconsistent, with variations in quality, availability, and sectoral coverage. European directives such as the European Accessibility Act and the Audiovisual Media Services Directive set important standards, yet their implementation across Member States, including Ireland, has been uneven. National measures like the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act (2022) mark progress, but enforcement gaps and limited application across non-broadcast settings persist. The ADESI report identifies multiple barriers: insufficient training pathways, lack of certification, and unsustainable funding models that undermine professionalism and trust. Smaller organisations face particular challenges due to resource constraints, reliance on external providers, and the high costs of producing quality AD. Opportunities exist in fostering in-house expertise, encouraging collaboration between academia, industry, and users, and ensuring active end-user involvement in service design. Awareness also remains low; most users encounter AD informally, reflecting weak promotional strategies. While AI technologies offer potential, skilled human describers remain essential. To secure an inclusive cultural landscape, Ireland must adopt unified standards, strengthen accountability, and embed accessibility as a consistent, long-term priority across all entertainment platforms
The Changing Shape of Formal Opposition in Advanced Democracies
No full textThis chapter looks at institutionalised forms of opposition in democracies and traces the evolution from loyal parliamentary oppsoition to monitory democracy
Learning to teach algebra: an analysis of student-teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching functional thinking
No full textSignificant strides have been made in the research field of early algebra, but more attention to the Mathematics Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) of teachers within this domain is warranted (c.f. Wilkie, 2016; Kieran, 2007). The study described in this paper engaged student-teachers in Germany, Ireland and South Africa in the role of student when they attended a preparation programme for the teaching of functional thinking, and in the role of novice teacher when they taught functional thinking in classrooms. The participants completed pre and delayedpost questionnaires designed to measure their mathematical knowledge for teaching functional thinking. While considerable progress was made by the cohort between the preand post-assessment, challenges persisted on some items. In this paper, we present quantitative evidence of the development in students’ thinking between the pre- and postassessment and discussion of the relatively challenging items
Clustered Profiles of Primary Teachers’ Mathematical Knowledge: Insights from a South African Study with Irish Collaboration
No full textThe Common Content Knowledge (CCK) domain of Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching is an essential component of the knowledge required to teach mathematics (Ball et al., 2008). An NGO-led project in South Africa recruits practising teachers to teach in after-school
mathematics clubs and provides them with Continuous Professional Development (CPD) delivered through a WhatsApp platform. Seeking to evaluate the impact of the CPD on the teachers’ CCK, a longitudinal study was established. This paper presents findings from pretest
data collected from 121 primary school teachers. Cluster analysis was used to identify distinct performance profiles. These preliminary insights highlight variations in teacher knowledge that could inform the design of differentiated support strategies in subsequent professional
development sessions
Peace by procedure: civil servants, metagovernance and the Northern Ireland peace process
No full textThis paper aims to examine how Irish and British civil servants contributed to structuring the political and procedural conditions for peacebuilding in Northern Ireland. It asks what kind of governance architecture enabled compromise across conflict lines and who was responsible for its design and operation. The article conceptualises these officials as metagovernors – actors who shape the frameworks through which governance occurs – in a context marked by territorial contestation and institutional fragility.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a qualitative design combining extensive archival research with semi-structured elite interviews to trace how civil servants in Dublin and London co-produced governance environments between the Anglo-Irish Agreement (1985) and the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement (1998). It draws on insights from public administration, peacebuilding and conflict management to develop a metagovernance lens tailored to divided societies.
Findings
British and Irish civil servants played a central, though often overlooked, role in enabling the peace process. Beyond implementing policy, they actively designed relational, procedural and spatial infrastructures that facilitated cross-border cooperation, managed institutional trust and embedded compromise into the evolving architecture of peace. The paper introduces the concept of structures of continuity to capture the informal yet enduring bureaucratic practices that sustained coordination across moments of political rupture.
Originality/value
This paper repositions civil servants as strategic actors in conflict management and peacebuilding. It advances a novel analytical framework that integrates metagovernance theory with empirical research on territorial conflict, offering transferable insights into how bureaucratic agency, institutional memory and elite communication shape peace processes
Preparing teachers for diversity: how are teacher education systems responding to cultural diversity – the case of Austria and Ireland
No full textThe chapter begins with an overview of migration-related diversity in Austria and Ireland, both countries with high levels of cultural, linguistic and religious diversity in schools. Research in Europe indicates that migration produces a new context for teaching, for which many teachers do not feel sufficiently prepared. Hence, teacher education is at stake and rarely looked at systematically in migration-related research in education. Therefore, in this article, secondary teacher education courses are analysed to ascertain how higher education institutions in these two countries are preparing secondary teachers for culturally responsive teaching. After describing the methodology used to examine the Initial Teacher Education curricula of the two countries, an analysis of the research findings is provided. It turns out that relevant courses in the compulsory sections of the curricula are largely missing in both countries. Finally, based on an analysis of the literature and research findings, a discussion of the consequences for teacher education, together with recommendations for improvement, is formulated. It provides countries with a foundational discourse to equip student teachers with the necessary skills to embed cultural responsivity into their classrooms upon completion of their apprenticeship for teaching