NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Exploring the dynamics of EDI leadership in the Irish screen industries: policy, practice and perspective
No full textEquality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in media are key concerns of contemporary academic research, current policy initiatives and ongoing activist debates in Ireland and across the world. This article evaluates the
extent to which EDI change has been championed and best practice
implemented by the leadership in Irish screen production. Adopting
a qualitative case study approach, industry documents were analysed
and structured in-depth interviews were undertaken with senior personnel across the sector. The findings suggest widespread support for EDI.
The sector noted that wide ranging organisational change was needed
alongside a coherent vision for the future. Visionary leadership from the
top down and dedicated resources from government are identified as key
requirements to embed EDI in the screen industries. However, in most
cases, interviewees do not identify themselves, even implicitly, as industry
leaders who are also empowered to generate change. Indeed, the actions
taken to embed best practice in their own organisations often lag behind
an expressed desire for change
Basslines, brains, bits, bytes, and burgers: Working with, and within the limits to, Marxism
No full textThis paper considers some of what it means to work with, and within the limits to, Marxism. I make reference to two sets of inquiries where Marxism matters but remains at the margins of things. My focus will be on human cognition and digital life. To balance things, I then highlight some issues where Marxism is much more to the fore, specifically what I loosely refer to as "foodscapes." Finally, I
conclude the essay with some further personal comments on my engagement with Marxism. Throughout, I want to give some expression to the sensation of walking a fine line between remaining committed to the conclusion that capitalist social relations are an enormous problem for human society but finding also that Marxism does not provide enough of the analytical equipment to answer how we should move beyond it. At the same time, I try to offer reflections on critical intellectual thought and action as a tentative and iterative experience, rather than an engagement framed by the security that one can find enough of what’s needed in Marxism
Good schools or good students? The importance of selectivity for school rankings
No full textThis paper uses a rich set of student background characteristics to estimate the value added of second-level schools in Ireland. We show that there is a considerable degree of reranking of schools when we move from analysing raw outcomes to value added; in many cases the best performing schools in raw terms are not the best in value-added terms. We show that, contrary to popular perception, fee-paying schools do not add higher value than other schools. A simulation exercise suggests that if parents chose the best value-added school from among the set of feasible schools, then this reallocation of students has the potential to increase academic achievement substantially
A newly reconciled dataset for identifying sea level rise and variability in Dublin Bay
No full textWe provide an updated sea level dataset for Dublin
for the period 1938–2016 at yearly resolution. Using a newly
collated sea level record for Dublin Port, as well as two
nearby tide gauges at Arklow and Howth Harbour, we perform data quality checks and calibration of the Dublin Port
record by adjusting the biased high water level measurements
that affect the overall calculation of mean sea level (MSL).
To correct these MSL values, we use a novel Bayesian linear regression that includes the mean low water values as
a predictor in the model. We validate the re-created MSL
dataset and show its consistency with other nearby tide gauge datasets. Using our new corrected dataset, we estimate a rate of sea level rise of 1.1 mm yr−1 during 1953–2016 (95 % credible interval from 0.6 to 1.6 mm yr−1
), and a rate of 7 mm yr−1 during 1997–2016 (95 % credible interval from 5 to 8.8 mm yr−1). The overall sea level rise is in line with expected trends, but large multidecadal variability has led to higher rates of rise in recent years
Harmonic convolutional networks based on discrete cosine transform
No full textConvolutional neural networks (CNNs) learn filters in order to capture local correlation patterns in feature space. We propose to learn these filters as combinations of preset spectral filters defined by the
Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT). Our proposed DCT-based harmonic blocks replace conventional convolutional layers to produce partially or fully harmonic versions of new or existing CNN architectures. Using
DCT energy compaction properties, we demonstrate how the harmonic networks can be efficiently compressed by truncating high-frequency information in harmonic blocks thanks to the redundancies in the
spectral domain. We report extensive experimental validation demonstrating benefits of the introduction
of harmonic blocks into state-of-the-art CNN models in image classification, object detection and semantic segmentation applications
Independent Quality Assessment of Essential Climate Variables: Lessons learnt from the Copernicus Climate Change Service
No full textIf climate services are to lead to effective use of climate information in decision-making to enable the transition to a climate-smart, climate-ready world, then the question of trust in the products and services is of paramount importance. The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) has been actively grappling with how to build such trust: provision of demonstrably independent assessments of the quality of products, which was deemed an important element in such trust-building processes. C3S provides access to essential climate variables (ECVs) from multiple sources to a broad set of users ranging from scientists to private companies and decision-makers. Here we outline the approach undertaken to coherently assess the quality of a suite of observation- and reanalysis-based ECV products covering the atmosphere, ocean, land, and cryosphere. The assessment is based on four pillars: basic data checks, maturity of the datasets, fitness for purpose (scientific use cases and climate studies), and guidance to users. It is undertaken independently by scientific experts and presented alongside the datasets in a fully traceable, replicable, and transparent manner. The methodology deployed is detailed, and example assessments are given. These independent scientific quality assessments are intended to guide users to ensure they use tools and datasets that are fit for purpose to answer their specific needs rather than simply use the first product they alight on. This is the first such effort to develop and apply an assessment framework consistently to all ECVs. Lessons learned and future perspectives are outlined to potentially improve future assessment activities and thus climate services
A Simple and Effective Excitation Force Estimator for Wave Energy Systems
No full textWave energy converters (WECs) need to be optimally
controlled to be commercially viable. These controllers often require an estimate of the (unmeasurable) wave excitation force. To
date, observers for WECs are often based upon ‘complex’ techniques, which are counter-intuitive in their design, additionally
requiring an explicit model to describe the excitation as part of an
(augmented) system. The latter imposes strong assumptions on the
design of each observer, while also implying an additional computational burden associated with the necessity of augmenting the WEC
model to include the dynamics of the input.We propose a simple and
effective excitation force estimator based on linear time-invariant
(LTI) theory, without the need for an explicit model of the input. In
particular, we re-formulate the unknown-input estimation problem
as a tracking control-loop, so that a wide-variety of LTI design
techniques (arising from either classical or modern control theory)
can be used to compute an estimate of the excitation force. We
demonstrate performance, simplicity, and intuitive appeal of the
proposed observer, by means of a case study based on a realistic
computational fluid dynamics simulation, comparing the technique
against a large set of WEC observers, showing that the approach
is able to outperform available estimators
Global protein responses of multidrug resistance plasmid-containing Escherichia coli to ampicillin, cefotaxime, imipenem and ciprofloxacin
No full textObjectives
This study compared the proteomics of Escherichia coli containing the multidrug resistance plasmid pEK499 under antimicrobial stress and with no antimicrobial.
Methods
We utilised mass spectrometry-based proteomics to compare the proteomes of the bacteria and plasmid under antimicrobial stress and no antimicrobial.
Results
Our analysis identified statistically significant differentially abundant (SSDA) proteins common to groups exposed to the β-lactam antimicrobials but not ciprofloxacin, indicating a β-lactam stress response to exposure from this class of drugs, irrespective of β-lactam resistance or susceptibility. Data arising from comparisons of the proteomes of ciprofloxacin-treated E. coli and controls detected an increase in the relative abundance of proteins associated with ribosomes, translation, the TCA cycle and several proteins associated with detoxification, and a decrease in the relative abundance of proteins associated with the stress response, including oxidative stress. We identified changes in proteins associated with persister formation in the presence of ciprofloxacin but not the β-lactams. The plasmid proteome differed across each treatment and did not follow the pattern of antimicrobial–antimicrobial resistance (AMR) protein associations: a relative increase was observed in the amount of CTX-M-15 in the presence of cefotaxime and ciprofloxacin, but not the other β-lactams, suggesting regulation of CTX-M-15 protein production.
Conclusion
The proteomic data from this study provided novel insights into the proteins produced from the chromosome and plasmid under different antimicrobial stresses. These data also identified novel proteins not previously associated with AMR or antimicrobial responses in pathogens, which may well represent potential targets of AMR inhibition
Applying for the Associateship of the Library Association of Ireland (ALAI)
No full textAbstract included in the text
Energy-maximising control philosophy for a cyclorotor wave energy device
No full textRecently, cyclorotors, utilizing lift rather than buoyancy
forces for energy extraction, have been proposed and inherit
many of the appealing features characteristic of modern wind
turbines. In particular, the ability to spill energy though foil
pitching allows the device to remain at rated power despite significant variations in input power level, while additional cyclorotor features, including variable submergence depth and rotor radius, also permit a significant degree of modulation of the device
structure, and energy absorption characteristics, offering considerable flexibility. These configuration flexibilities, in addition to
torque control of the rotor/generator shaft (also characteristic of
wind turbines) offers the control engineer considerable freedom
in adjusting the device characteristics to maximise the effectiveness of the device in capturing wave power, while maintaining
structural integrity and minimizing harmful stresses on system
components. However, such flexibility also provides a significant challenge in the form of a multivariable control problem
for a system described by significantly nonlinear hydrodynamics. This paper describes a proposed hierarchical control system for a cyclorotor wave energy device, utilizing submergence
depth, rotor radius, foil pitch angles, and shaft torque as control
inputs. The hierarchy involves the separation of the control actuators into two classes: structural (or slow) control effectors, and
wave-by-wave (or fast) control effectors. In particular, the paper
will examine the interaction between the two levels of the control
hierarchy and the need, if any, for simultaneous optimisation of
the control parameters at both levels