NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Critical realism, mimetic theory and social work
No full textScapegoating is a ubiquitous, yet pernicious, phenomenon in today’s world. It manifests in innumerable ways. Social work, in line with its emancipatory value-base, seeks to engage with various scapegoated groups to challenge the experience. In this article, the authors draw on critical realism and mimetic theory to elucidate the causative mechanisms fueling scapegoating. This is done in order to heighten social workers’ insight into the process and empower targeted groups
A Tale of Two Referendums: A Comparative Study of the Anti-Amendment Campaign and Together for Yes
No full textThe 8th Amendment, Ireland’s constitutional ban on abortion, may be viewed as a prism through which shifting ideas about women and sexuality in Irish society can be understood. How did Ireland move from being the first country in the world to offer constitutional protection to the ‘unborn’, to a country that enthusiastically voted to support abortion as a legitimate choice in pregnancy at a time when, internationally, the tide appears to be shifting towards more restrictive abortion regimes? This article offers a comparative study of two referendum campaigns; the feminist-led Anti-Amendment Campaign that organised to oppose the introduction of the amendment in 1983; and Together for Yes, the 2018 campaign to remove the amendment. Focusing on these two campaigns will allow an exploration of how over the course of 35 years’ abortion moved from being a one dimensional ‘moral’ issue to a multi-dimensional political and social question that reflected changing attitudes to sexuality and the role of women in public life. This article examines the political compromises the campaigns made, highlighting the lessons that can be taken forward in order to achieve a more emancipatory discourse of reproductive agency both in Ireland and internationally
Prevalence of frailty in patients with non-cirrhotic non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
No full textObjective: End-stage chronic liver disease is associated with accelerated ageing and increased frailty. Frailty measures have provided clinical utility in identifying patients at increased risk of poor health outcomes, including those awaiting liver transplantation. However, there is limited data on the prevalence and severity of frailty in patients with non-cirrhotic non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of frailty and prefrailty in patients with non-cirrhotic NAFLD and correlate with severity of liver disease.
Design: A cross-sectional analysis of functional and laboratory frailty assessments, including the Fried frailty index (FFI), a self-reported frailty index (SRFI) and a lab-based frailty index (FI-LAB), was performed in a cohort of 109 patients with NAFLD, and results compared with fibrosis staging based on transient elastography.
Results: Patients with NAFLD had a high prevalence of prefrailty and frailty, with a median SRFI score of 0.18 (IQR: 0.18), FFI of 1 (IQR: 1) and FI-LAB of 0.18 (IQR: 0.12). Using the SRFI, 45% of F0/F1 patients were classified as prefrail and 20% were classified as frail, while in F2/F3 patients this increased to 36% and 41%, respectively. SRFI, 30 s sit-to-stand and FI-LAB scores increased with increasing liver fibrosis stages (p=0.001, 0.006 and <0.001, respectively). On multivariate linear regression, female gender was identified as a significant predictor of elevated frailty scores.
Conclusion: This study identifies a high prevalence of frailty in individuals with non-cirrhotic NAFLD. Addressing frailty through early rehabilitation interventions may reduce overall morbidity and mortality in this population
Metabolic responses of two pioneer wood decay fungi to diurnally cycling temperature
No full textDecomposition of lignin-rich wood by fungi drives nutrient recycling in woodland ecosystems. Fluctuating abiotic conditions are known to promote the functioning of ecological communities and ecosystems. In the context of wood decay, fluctuating temperature increases decomposition rates. Metabolomics, in tandem with other ‘omics tools, can highlight the metabolic processes affected by experimental treatments, even in the absence of genome sequences and annotations. Globally, natural wood decay communities are dominated by the phylum Basidiomycota. We examined the metabolic responses of Mucidula mucida, a dominant constituent of pioneer communities in beech branches in British woodlands, and Exidia glandulosa, a stress-selected constituent of the same communities, in response to constant and diurnally cycling temperature.
We applied untargeted metabolomics and proteomics to beech wood blocks, colonised by M. mucida or E. glandulosa and exposed to either diurnally cycling (mean 15 ± 10°C) or constant (15°C) temperature, in a fully factorial design.
Metabolites and proteins linked to lignin breakdown, the citric acid cycle, pentose phosphate pathway, carbohydrate metabolism, fatty acid metabolism and protein biosynthesis and turnover were under-enriched in fluctuating, compared to stable temperatures, in the generalist M. mucida. Conversely, E. glandulosa showed little differential response to the experimental treatments.
Synthesis. By demonstrating temperature-dependant metabolic signatures related to nutrient acquisition in a generalist wood decay fungus, we provide new insights into how abiotic conditions can affect community-mediated decomposition and carbon turnover in forests. We show that mechanisms underpinning important biogeochemical processes can be highlighted using untargeted metabolomics and proteomics in the absence of well-annotated genomes
QUBIC III: Laboratory characterization
No full textWe report on an extensive test campaign of a prototype version of the QUBIC (Q & U Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology) instrument, carried out at Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology (APC) in Paris. Exploiting the novel concept called bolometric interferometry, QUBIC is designed to measure the CMB polarization at 150 and 220 GHz from a high altitude site at Alto Chorillo, Argentina. The prototype model called QUBIC Technological Demonstrator (QUBIC-TD) operates in a single frequency band (150 GHz) and with a reduced number of baselines, but it contains all the elements of the QUBIC instrument in its final configuration. The test campaign included measurements of the synthesized beam and of the polarization performance, as well as a verification of the interference fringe pattern. A modulated, frequency-tunable millimetre-wave source was placed in the telescope far-field and was used to simulate a point source. The QUBIC-TD field of view was scanned across the source to produce beam maps. Our measurements confirm the frequency-dependent behaviour of the beam profile, which gives QUBIC the possibility to do spectral imaging. The measured polarization performance indicates a cross-polarization leakage less than 0.6%. We also successfully tested the polarization modulation system, which is provided by a rotating half wave plate. We demonstrate the full mapmaking pipeline using data from this measurement campaign, effectively giving an end-to-end checkout of the entire QUBIC system, including all hardware subsystems, their interfaces, and the software to operate the whole system and run the analysis. Our results confirm the viability of bolometric interferometry for measurements of the CMB polarization
QUBIC IV: Performance of TES bolometers and readout electronics
No full textA prototype version of the Q & U bolometric interferometer for cosmology (QUBIC) underwent a campaign of testing in the laboratory at Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology laboratory in Paris (APC). The detection chain is currently made of 256 NbSi transition edge sensors (TES) cooled to 320 mK. The readout system is a 128:1 time domain multiplexing scheme based on 128 SQUIDs cooled at 1 K that are controlled and amplified by a SiGe application specific integrated circuit at 40 K. We report the performance of this readout chain and the characterization of the TES. The readout system has been functionally tested and characterized in the lab and in QUBIC. The low noise amplifier demonstrated a white noise level of 0.3 nV/√Hz. Characterizations of the QUBIC detectors and readout electronics includes the measurement of I-V curves, time constant and the noise equivalent power. The QUBIC TES bolometer array has approximately 80% detectors within operational parameters. It demonstrated a thermal decoupling compatible with a phonon noise of about 5 × 10-17 W/√Hz at 410 mK critical temperature. While still limited by microphonics from the pulse tubes and noise aliasing from readout system, the instrument noise equivalent power is about 2 × 10-16 W/√Hz, enough for the demonstration of bolometric interferometry
QUBIC VII: The feedhorn-switch system of the technological demonstrator
No full textWe present the design, manufacturing and performance of the horn-switch system developed for the technological demonstrator of QUBIC (the Q&U Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology). This system consists of 64 back-to-back dual-band (150 GHz and 220 GHz) corrugated feed-horns interposed with mechanical switches used to select desired baselines during the instrument self-calibration. We manufactured the horns in aluminum platelets milled by photo-chemical etching and mechanically tightened with screws. The switches are based on steel blades that open and close the waveguide between the back-to-back horns and are operated by miniaturized electromagnets. The measured electromagnetic performance of the feedhorns agrees with simulations. In particular we obtained a return loss around -20 dB up to 230 GHz and beam patterns in agreement with single-mode simulations down to -30 dB. The switches for this prototype were designed and built for the 150 GHz band. In this frequency range we find return and insertion losses consistent with expectations (<-25 dB and ∼-0.1 dB, respectively) and an isolation larger than 70 dB. In this paper we also show the current development status of the feedhorn-switch system for the QUBIC full instrument, based on an array of 400 horn-switch assemblies
Trends in eating disorder risk among U.S. college students, 2013–2021.
No full textDespite concerns about rising rates of mental health problems among college students in recent years, little is
known about trends in eating disorder (ED). This study examined data from the 2013–2020/2021 Healthy Minds
Study (HMS), a large study of US college students (N = 267,599). Students completed the SCOFF scale, a validated measure of ED symptoms. From 2013 to 2020/2021 the prevalence of ED risk increased significantly from
15% to 28% (13% increase, 95% CI, 12.2–13.9) with young, female, and Hispanic students experiencing the
largest increases. ED risk increased significantly by 3 percentage points (95% CI, 1.7–4.2) during the COVID-19
pandemic
Unique effects of book-reading at 9-months on vocabulary development at 36-months: Insights from a nationally representative sample of Irish families
No full textIt is well-established that participation in shared book reading interactions with caregivers supports children’s early language and literacy development. Most of this literature focuses on reading experiences
during the preschool period. Less is known about the nature and importance of such practices during
infancy. Therefore, the goal of this study was to examine literacy practices between parents and infants
in a large cohort study, Growing Up in Ireland. Interview, survey, and direct measurements of children’s
language skills were used to examine whether parent-report of book reading practices when children
were 9-months predicted child expressive vocabulary at 36-months (N = 9171). Regression analysis indicated that approximately 80% of 9-month-old Irish children are read to by parents. Characteristics of
families who were more likely to report reading with children emerged: those with higher educational
attainment, fewer depressive symptoms, and those who report a high-quality home language environment (e.g., reported talking more to children during everyday activities). Furthermore, children who were
read to at 9-months had stronger expressive vocabulary skills at 36-months, even after accounting for
socio-demographic and home literacy environment covariates measured at both 9- and 36-months. Results are discussed using a bioecological framework to describe how proximal and distal factors in the
child’s environment converge to impact early childhood literacy development
FisheyeSuperPoint: Keypoint Detection and Description Network for Fisheye Images
No full textKeypoint detection and description is a commonly used building block in computer vision systems particularly for robotics and autonomous driving. However, the majority of techniques to date have focused on standard cameras with little consideration given to fisheye cameras which are commonly used in urban driving and automated parking. In this paper, we propose a novel training and evaluation pipeline for fisheye images. We make use of SuperPoint as our baseline which is a self-supervised keypoint detector and descriptor that has achieved state-of-the-art results on homography estimation. We introduce a fisheye adaptation pipeline to enable training on undistorted fisheye images. We evaluate the performance on the HPatches benchmark, and, by introducing a fisheye based evaluation method for detection repeatability and descriptor matching correctness, on the Oxford RobotCar dataset