NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Wave excitation force forecasting using neural networks
No full textMany wave energy conversion applications require future knowledge or forecasting of the wave excitation force values. Most wave energy converter (WEC) control strategies need to forecast the time-series excitation force for wave energy harvesting maximization. The main aim of this study is to forecast the wave excitation force experiences by a two-body heaving point absorber WEC (as a case study) using three forecasting neural network methods. The wave excitation force is calculated based on the hydrodynamic characteristics of the considered device in the frequency and time-domain simulations. The nonlinear autoregressive neural (NAR) network, group method of data handling (GMDH) network, and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network are fitted to the wave elevation time-series data to forecast the future values of the excitation force. The performance of the examined methods is evaluated for various irregular incident waves that are created using different wave spectrums. Moreover, sensitivity analyses to sampling period and algorithms input parameters are performed to investigate the accuracy and generalizability of the discussed methods at different conditions. Each data set is divided into training and test sets. The results show that the performance of all discussed methods is satisfactory in training data sets and short-term ahead forecasting, but the NAR network method provides a relatively better agreement with test target data compared to other methods
Explorations in a galaxy of sialic acids: a review of sensing horizons, motivated by emerging biomedical and nutritional relevance
No full textSialic acid (Sia) is widely distributed in free, polymeric and conjugated forms in living creatures and humans. It serves various roles in human physiology including brain development, function of central nervous system, the immune system, lactation and infant cognition. Sia is over- or under-expressed in human cells, tissues and fluids during physiological disorders and the onset of cancers. Furthermore, the exploitation of Sia by several bacteria and viruses including SARS-CoV-2 to cause human infections has been recently revealed. A special chemical form of Sia and 3′- and 6′-sialyllactose have recently received regulatory approval for use in commercial food products as nutrition additives. Therefore, Sia production and assay have immense clinical and industrial interests. However, sensing or analytical approaches to Sia measurement in complex clinical and food samples are less developed due to lack of a comprehensive review covering both fundamental and perspectives to general readers working at the periphery of Sia. This review provides a carefully balanced and comprehensive collation of key aspects of the monosaccharide family of Sia, covering their sources, synthesis, biological significance, role in disease and human health and nutrition, culminating in a robust account of their analysis in complex matrices
Incorporating climate justice into legal reasoning: shifting towards a risk-based approach to causation in climate litigation
No full textThis article examines whether the widely accepted political theory contributions on fair burden sharing, harm avoidance and a just distribution of the remaining carbon budget can (and ought to) be incorporated or reflected in judicial reasoning on causation in systemic rights-based climate litigation. It explores whether a wider use of the European Court of Human Rights’ lenient approach to causation at the national level could help overcome some of the causal difficulties that might otherwise excuse wealthy developed country governments that are signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights from responsibility. The article also considers how rights-based arguments might be a way of operationalizing climate justice in judicial reasoning in systemic rights-based climate cases in Europe
An Examination of the Nurse/Midwife Prescribing Programme in Ireland: Confidence, Accuracy, Seeking Advice and working within the Scope of Practice
No full textThe purpose of this study is to explore the impact of the nurse/midwife
prescribing programme on nurse/midwife prescribers and measuring the
confidence, accuracy, advice seeking behaviour and scope of practice of the
participants. A concurrent mixed method approach was used. Data were
gathered from 28 qualified nurses and midwives in Ireland, 14 of whom were
registered nurse/midwife prescribers and 14 of whom were undertaking the
prescribing programme, using semi- structured interviews, and testing the
participants with validated clinical scenarios. Relevant literature was also
reviewed which revealed tensions between views of medicine and nursing,
issues of power and knowledge, and differences between positivist and post-
positivist views of research methodology.
The qualitative analysis of the data using MAX QDA to manage the data
resulted in the identification of themes including, aspects of the programme
which were more useful to the nurse/midwife prescribers; the effect the
nurse/midwife prescribing programme had on their clinical practice and their
thinking; how has the programme influenced or changed their view of
prescribing practices; how they used the nurse/midwife prescribing decision
making framework developed by An Bord Altranais; how did the
nurse/midwife prescribing programme prepare them for their role as a
nurse/midwife prescriber in Ireland and the changes that are required to the
nurse/midwife prescribing programme in Ireland. The quantitative element of
the study found high levels of confidence and accuracy among nurse/midwife
prescribers, a willingness to seek advice from medical and nursing colleagues
and it emerged that participants had good awareness of the limits of their
scope of practice.
The study found that nurse/midwife prescribing was perceived by the
participants to have changed their practice in terms of caring for the whole
patient and their awareness of potential dangers in prescribing such as
polypharmacy. Also, the study found that the prescribing programme was
effective in preparing the nurse/midwife prescribers, and that being a
nurse/midwife prescriber produced efficiencies in patient care as well as
quality enhancement in that care. The study revealed frustrations with the
governance system particularly the monitoring system that seemed to
incentivize prescriptions. Finally, the study highlighted the pedagogical
implications of this study for nurse/midwife prescribing education and how
real-world learning through simulation, cooperative learning, and
interdisciplinary education, could enhance learning, increase safety, and
ultimately lead to better patient outcomes
Still waters run deep: The invisible life of working mothers with disabilities in Lithuania
No full textThis article explores the challenges faced by women with disabilities in combining the
roles of ‘mother’ and ‘worker’ in Lithuania and reflects on the strategies mothers
employed to overcome these. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with twenty
women with a variety of (dis)abling conditions and diverse life experiences between 2014
and 2018. In-depth thematic analysis by qualitative research teams revealed a constant
tension in women’s aspirations to have a family and work. This revealed women’s
enormous personal resources which facilitated them to overcome challenges they faced
in motherhood as well as seemingly insurmountable obstacles to employment. However,
within the vicious circle of social and economic challenges, they fought their battles with
silent compliance, which hid their experiences and potentially denied them opportunities
for support. This research reveals a policy response in Lithuania that categorises disability
as an individual issue to be overcome rather than a socially constructed experience. The
findings indicate the need for reframing understanding at macro, as well as micro-level
policy interventions. At the micro-level, sensitive forms of professional support would
help mothers with disabilities to choose more pronounced strategies of coping while also
maintaining their dignity and privacy. These findings provide insights into the specific
situation of women in Lithuania but are also relevant to many other contexts
Nonlinear Model Reduction by Moment-Matching for a Point Absorber Wave Energy Conversion System
No full textThis paper presents a data-driven model reduction by moment-matching approach to construct control-oriented models for a point absorber device. The methodology chosen and developed generates models which are input-to-state linear, with any nonlinear behaviour confined to the output map. Such a map is the result of a data-driven approximation procedure, where the so-called moment of the point absorber system is estimated via a least-squares procedure. The resulting control-oriented model can inherently preserve steady-state properties of the target WEC system for a user-defined class of input signals of interest, with the computation only dependent upon a suitably defined set of input-output data
Ogam. Language | Writing | Epigraphy
No full textThis book was written as part of the research projects Chronologicon Hibernicum (Chron-Hib) and Harnessing digital technologies to transform understanding of ogham writing, from the 4th century to the 21st (OG(H)AM). These projects have received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 647351) and from the UKRI-AHRC and the Irish Research Council under the ‘UK-Ireland Collaboration in the Digital Humanities Research Grants Call’ (grant numbers AH/W001985/1 and IRC/W001985/1). The author expresses his gratitude to Katherine Forsyth and Nora White for advice and help
Combining qualitative and geo-spatial approaches to explore older adults’ lived experiences of ageing – as well as they can – in place
No full textThis thesis explores the lived experience of older people within the Greater Dublin
Area of Ireland, to determine how they define and enact ageing well in place. It
combines qualitative and spatial methods, including preliminary focus groups (Stage
1), as well as in-depth interviews, mapping exercises, and go-along interviews with
older people in two contrasting Study Areas (Stage 2). Results provide participant
accounts of the importance of getting out and about, showing how this varies
between participants and how it fluctuates over time. Findings reveal why getting out
and about is valued by participants, focusing on the importance of connecting with
others, and presents both positive and negative experiences of social interaction.
Results demonstrate the places or phases where these interactions occur or do not
occur, the nature of these interactions and relationships, as well as how older adults
develop schedules and routines to maximise opportunities to interact with others.
Drawing in depth on four individual lifeworlds with health and mobility challenges,
geo-narratives and annotated maps are presented to highlight how getting out and
about is navigated and negotiated, based on dynamic personal and environmental
contexts, as well as what matters most to that individual for a good quality of life. By
integrating and empirically grounding ageing in place and ageing well, this thesis
produces a lay and relational conceptual framework of ageing – as well as you can –
in place, which emphasises the need for pragmatic and subjective definitions of
ageing well and recognises the importance of engaging beyond the home to feel and
be ‘in place’ to connect with others. Finally, some recommendations are offered to
policymakers, which could support older people not just to age in place, but to age as
well as they might want
A validated analytical model for a cyclorotor wave energy device
No full textWe present a new analytical model for a horizontal axis cyclorotor-based wave energy converter (WEC). A number of cyclorotor-based WEC concepts and models, with different numbers of hydrofoils, have previously been studied. Our model is derived for a horizontal cyclorotor with 2 hydrofoils. The governing equations are optimised and converted to the polar coordinate system. The mechanical model is based on Newton's second law for rotation. Rotation is considered in two-dimensional potential flow, for both monochromatic and panchromatic waves, including waves generated by the rotating rotor, and viscous losses. The developed model is very convenient for modelling, analysis and control design for a cyclorotor based WEC. The authors of this work have derived new, exact, analytic functions for the free surface perturbation and induced fluid velocity field caused by hydrofoil rotation. These new formulae significantly decrease the model calculation time, compared to previous models, and increase the accuracy of the results. We present the results of free rotation simulations for the rotor in monochromatic and panchromatic waves obtained with the use of the newly derived equations