NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Spine Toolbox: A flexible open-source workflow management system with scenario and data management
No full textThe Spine Toolbox is open-source software for defining, managing, simulating and optimising energy system models. It gives the user the ability to collect, create, organise, and validate model input data, execute a model with selected data and finally archive and visualise results/output data. Spine Toolbox has been designed and developed to support the creation and execution of multivector energy integration models. It conveniently facilitates the linking of models with different scopes, or spatio-temporal resolutions, through the user interface. The models can be organised as a direct acyclic graph and efficiently executed through the embedded workflow management engine. The software helps users to import and manage data, define models and scenarios and orchestrate projects. It supports a self-contained and shareable entity-relationship data structure for storing model parameter values and the associated data. The software is developed using the latest Python environment and supports the execution of plugins. It is shipped in an installation package as a desktop application for different operating systems
Semiotics in Anthropology and Ethnography
No full textThe story of how semiotics, broadly defined, has emerged and evolved along multiple trajectories within the sub-disciplines of anthropology can be and has been told in many different ways (Mertz 2007; Singer 1984; Sebeok 1969, 1986; Sebeok, Hayes, and Bateson 1964; Sicoli and Wolfgram 2018).1 The present narrative will proceed along a somewhat unusual path in its attempt to tell one portion, the cultural anthropological portion, of this complicated story. It will track the history of what has been explicitly recognized as “semiotic anthropology” (as opposed to “symbolic” or “semiological” or “structural” or “semiotics in” anthropology), and it will do so specifically with regard to research in the sub-discipline of socio-cultural anthropology.2 In so doing, it will briefly take into account the emergence of biosemiotics within anthropology as it has influenced ongoing research in socio-cultural anthropology
Mapping emergent public engagement in societal transitions: a scoping review
No full textTransition discourses are gaining prominence in efforts to imagine a future that adequately addresses the urgent need to establish low carbon and climate resilient pathways. Within these discourses the 'public' is seen as central to the creation and implementation of appropriate interventions. The role of public engagement in societal transformation while essential, is also complex and often poorly understood. The purpose of this paper is to enhance our understanding regarding public engagement and to address the often superficial and shallow policy discourse on this topic.
The paper offers a review of evolving literature to map emergent public engagement in processes of transition and change. We adopt a pragmatic approach towards literature retrieval and analysis which enables a cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral review. We use a scoping review process and the three spheres of transformation framework (designated as the practical, political and personal spheres) to explore trends within this complex research field. The review draws from literature from the last two decades in the Irish context and looks at emergence and evolving spaces of public engagement within various systems of change including energy, food, coastal management and flood adaptation, among others
Lingering COVID and Looming Grand Crises: Envisioning Business Schools’ Business Model Transformations
No full textThe abstract is included in the text
Concepts for Modeling Smart Cities
No full textt The rapid increase and adoption of new Information Technologies (IT) in Smart Cities make the provision of public services more efficient. However, various
municipalities and cities deal with challenges to transform
and digitize city services. Smart Cities have a high degree
of complexity where offered city services must respond to
the concerns and goals of multiple stakeholders. These city
services must also involve diverse data sources, multi-domain applications, and heterogeneous systems and technologies. Enterprise Architecture (EA) is an instrument to deal with complexity in both private and public organizations. The paper defines the concepts for modeling Smart Cities in ArchiMate, guided by a design-oriented research approach. Particularly, the focus of this paper is on the concepts for modeling city services and underlying information systems which are added to the EA metamodel. The
metamodel is demonstrated in a real-world case and validated by Smart City domain experts. The findings suggest
that these concepts are essential to achieve the Smart City
strategy (e.g., city goals and objectives), as well as to meet the needs of different city stakeholders. Furthermore, an extension mechanism allows addressing the alignment of
business and IT in complex environments such as Smart
Cities, by adjusting EA metamodels and notations. This
can help cities to design, visualize, and communicate
architecture decisions when managing the transformation
and digitalization of public services
Effect of an Isometric or Eccentric Hip Extension Exercise Intervention on Hamstring Strength, Architecture, and Morphology
No full textPurpose: This study aimed to investigate hamstring architectural, strength, and morphological adaptations after an eccentric or isometric
hip extension exercise intervention. Methods: Twenty-four recreationally active males performed either an eccentric (n = 12) or an isometric
hip extension (n = 12) exercise intervention, twice per week for 6 wk, followed by a 4-wk detraining period. Biceps femoris long head (BFlh)
architecture was assessed pre-intervention, mid-intervention, post-intervention, and post-detraining via two-dimensional ultrasound. Strength
was assessed pre-intervention, post-intervention, and post-detraining during an isokinetic knee flexion, an isometric hip extension, a Nordic
hamstring exercise, and a single-leg hamstring bridge repetition to fatigue test. Hamstring muscle morphology was assessed via magnetic resonance imaging before strength testing sessions. Results: The eccentric hip extension exercise intervention significantly lengthened BFlh fascicles (+19.7%, P < 0.001, d = 1.57), increased eccentric knee flexion torque (ECC 60°·s−1
, +12%, P < 0.005, d = 0.66; ECC 180°·s−1
, +8.3%,
P < 0.05, d = 0.41), and increased BFlh (+13.3%, P < 0.001, d = 1.96) and semimembranosus (SM) muscle volume (+12.5%, P < 0.001,
d = 2.25). After 4 wk of detraining, BFlh fascicles were significantly shortened in the eccentric group (−14.8%, P < 0.005, d = −1.25), whereas
eccentric knee flexion torque and BFlh and SM volumes were unchanged. The isometric hip extension exercise intervention significantly increased isometric knee flexion torque (+10.4%, P < 0.05, d = 0.54), isometric hip extension force (+12.4%, P < 0.05, d = 0.41), and
semitendinosus volume (+15%, P = 0.054, d = 1.57). All other outcome measures saw no significant changes. After 4 wk of detraining,
no significant changes to any variables were observed in the isometric group. Conclusions: The eccentric but not isometric hip extension exercise intervention significantly increased BFlh fascicle length. Both exercise interventions demonstrated contraction mode–specific increases
in strength. However, the eccentric hip extension exercise intervention resulted in preferential hypertrophy of BFlh and SM, and the isometric
hip extension exercise intervention led to selective hypertrophy of semitendinosus
Molecular simulations of complex carbohydrates and glycoconjugates
No full textComplex carbohydrates (glycans) are the most abundant and versatile biopolymers in nature. The broad diversity of biochemical functions that carbohydrates cover is a direct consequence of the variety of 3D architectures they can adopt, displaying branched or linear arrangements, widely ranging in sizes, and with the highest diversity of building blocks of any other natural biopolymer. Despite this unparalleled complexity, a common denominator can be found in the glycans’ inherent flexibility, which hinders experimental characterization, but that can be addressed by high-performance computing (HPC)-based molecular simulations. In this short review, I present and discuss the state-of-the-art of molecular simulations of complex carbohydrates and glycoconjugates, highlighting methodological strengths and weaknesses, important insights through emblematic case studies, and suggesting perspectives for future developments
Critical education in the Irish repeal movement
No full textThis article is written from a pro-choice perspective. Through a radical, inclusive feminist lens, I examine educational aspects of the Irish repeal movement; a 35 year long, grassroots movement that forced the hand of reluctant politicians into calling a referendum to repeal the eighth amendment. I draw from websites and media interviews, my own experience as an academic-activist, and aspects of comprehensive mixed methods research I carried out over a three-year period (2018–2021). I maintain it was the independent (non-state funded) nature of pro-choice groups that enabled them to determine their own structures and tactics including participative, dialogic, hands-on, adult education. As the Irish reproductive rights movement enters a new phase of seeking to improve one of Europe’s most conservative laws, I argue for a reproductive justice approach that expands its demands far beyond the single issue of abortion access. An ongoing critical pedagogic dimension is crucial as part of this struggle
Towards a flatter ontology of institutional logics: How logics relate in situations of institutional complexity
No full textThe institutional logics approach is a powerful lens with which to examine and understand contexts in which norms and conceptions are multiple, unclear or in flux. While logics at the societal level have been well elaborated and are, in the most part, widely understood and accepted, at the field level logics are not necessarily so clear. Field frames distort, merge and confuse the societal logic as field actors negotiate, rebalance, bridge and interpret logics in a recursively constitutive process. We review research in two institutionally complex fields-higher education and healthcare - that employs an institutional logics lens. We identify and categorize institutional logics arising in these two fields and ask how these field-level logics relate to each other and to societal-level ideal-type logics. We ask what roles ideologies play in mediating relations between the field-level logics and what are the mechanisms by which this happens. We find that, at the field level, societal logics can appear as field-level instantiations or merge to form hybrids. New field-level logics can also emerge, but often these are confused with ideologies, thus limiting the theory-building potential of the institutional logics approach. We identify and begin to resolve confusion between logics and ideologies, highlighting the role of ideologies in mediating the relationships between logics at the field level. We advocate for, and pave the way towards, a new research agenda enabled by a flatter ontology of institutional logics that sees a horizontal relationship between logics as well as a vertical relationship between logics and actors