NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Probabilistic forecasting informed failure prognostics framework for improved RUL prediction under uncertainty: A transformer case study
No full textThe energy transition towards resilient and sustainable power plants requires moving from periodic health
assessment to condition-based lifetime planning, which in turn, creates new challenges and opportunities
for health estimation and prediction. Probabilistic forecasting models are being widely employed to predict
the likely evolution of power grid parameters, such as weather prediction models and probabilistic load
forecasting models, that precisely impact on the health state of power and energy components. These
models synthesize forecasting knowledge and associated uncertainty information, and their integration within
asset management practice would improve lifetime estimation under uncertainty through uncertainty-aware
probabilistic predictions. Accordingly, this paper presents a probabilistic prognostics method for lifetime
planning under uncertainty integrating data-driven probabilistic forecasting models with expert-knowledge
based Bayesian filtering methods. The proposed concepts are applied and validated with power transformers
operated in two different power generation systems and obtained results confirm that the proposed probabilistic
transformer lifetime estimate aids in the decision-making process with informative lifetime distributions and
associated confidence intervals
Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectroscopy of RW Aurigae A
No full textNear-Infrared observations of the classical T Tauri star RW Aurigae A taken using
the OH-Suppressing Infrared Spectrograph (OSIRIS) on the KECK telescope have
been used to investigate the morphology & kinematics of the jet, finding an extended
knot from the main body of the blue jet. Diagnostics have been performed, with the
extinction being found to be higher than previous measurement (Av = 4.6). The jets’
mass-loss rates have been found to be 1.022 ×10−9 M /year and 1.544 ×10−9 M /year
for the blue and red jet, respectively. The mass accretion rate has been measured to be
8.93 ×10−9 M /year using the Brγ emission line, having determined that it is not a
constituent of the jet. The wiggle for the RW Aur jet has been fit with a precession
and orbital model, both pointing to a brown dwarf companion with mass between
0.07 — 0.23 M similar to independently derived results for RW Aur A and for other
protostellar systems where wiggling has been used
Beyond Boundaries: The Aesthetics of the Scream in the Music of the Second Viennese School
No full textThis study investigates the complex relationship between the scream and music in
the work of Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern. Taking Kundry’s
scream in Wagner’s Parsifal (1882) as a key point of departure, this project draws on
theories of psychoanalysis and hysteria which emerged in the late-nineteenth and
early-twentieth centuries and complements them with more recent critical theory to
offer an expanded understanding of both the scream itself and its affective realisation
in the music of the Second Viennese School.
As well as the more explicit or literal manifestations of the scream found, for
example in Schoenberg’s Erwartung (1909) and Berg’s Lulu (1934), works that are
generally categorised as part of a broader movement of expressionism, this project
embraces a more figurative understanding of the scream as a manifestation of the
modernist desire to transcend reason, order, and the gloss of civilization through
music. That is, the project asks how testing the limits and extremes of musical
expression (a recurring feature of the vocal and instrumental music of these
composers) can be productively related to the affective extreme of the scream as an
utterance beyond expressive and communicative norms.
I argue that the transformative nature of the New Viennese aesthetics of the
scream was key to the lasting resonance of this aesthetics throughout
twentieth–century music and culture and that this potential to enact a transcendence
or synthesis of seemingly opposing or mutually exclusive states (the conscious and
the unconscious, the body and the soul, noise and silence, male and female) places
the scream at the heart of key questions occupying artists in the cultural foment of
fin-de-siècle Vienna. By identifying the scream as a significant, yet under-researched
feature of the aesthetics of the Second Viennese School and situating it within the
broader cultural climate of expressionism, the project sheds light on practices and
ideas with important implications for modernist culture
Supporting Teachers’ capacity in the pedagogic use of ICT An Action Research Case Study
No full textI undertook this Collaborative Action Research study, following the identification of a
problem raised by students in a school survey regarding the lack of ICT use by teachers in
their teaching. It was a focused, practitioner led study, rooted in the world of teacher
practice. There were two main phases to this research. In the first phase two groups of
teachers collaborated in creating OneNote classroom based assessments (CBA) templates
through an adopted approach to teacher ICT professional development, the “collaborative
apprenticeship model”. Findings included positive claims regarding productivity due to the
type of collaboration teachers engaged in becoming a community, with the possibility of
becoming a Community of Practice. Positivity too regarding the innovative ability OneNote
offered teachers to carry out student assessments. The second phase occurred when, in March
2019, COVID-19 forced schools to close with little time to prepare for the transfer of
teaching online. There was an urgency to prepare teachers for online teaching. This resulted
in an altering of my research question replacing “teaching” with “online teaching” and the
delivery of a training intervention to address staff needs to teach online. Findings indicated
that teachers felt more prepared and less anxious for the transfer online. Post closure a need
was identified to conduct a staff survey to gather data on their online teaching. One key
finding from this was the issue of lack of engagement by many students online. This led to
conducting a student survey. Findings showed that students struggled with engagement as a
result of poor Wi-Fi, lack of access to technology, responsibilities at home and the overload
of homework which overwhelmed them
Accelerating the Potential of Drones for Local Government International Best and Emerging Practice Report
No full textAround the world, cities have started to deploy drones in a variety of missions –saving lives,
reducing costs, delivering better services and generating efficiencies. The technology has
evolved at a breath-taking pace over the past decade with a significant growth in the number
of drones using our airspace. However, public sector and local government drone operations
are at an early stage of their journey, with the next decade expected to bring about dramatic
changes. Key benefits of drones adoption were identified across a number of public sector
services, including:
Public Safety: fire services, such as site mapping, aerial view and support on firebreaks; rescue
missions and flood risk maps.
Health and Environment: delivery of defibrillators, medical supplies and transplant organs,
sanitation of urban areas, pollution control and monitoring critical infrastructure. Drones can make
operations more efficient, save time and lives.
Planning and Development: site inspections at reduced cost assisting planning decisions and
enforcement. In the construction and development of buildings, real time data from drones can
reduce costs and gain efficiencies while reducing risks and improving data quality.
Transport and Logistics: road maintenance monitoring with reduced costs per inspection, traffic
surveillance with more accurate data on congestion and accidents, assisting ports operations, and for
postal and package deliveries.
Energy: monitoring energy storage and transmission systems can result in significant time savings
and a safer operating environment
Don’t you tweet me badly: Anxiety contagion between leaders and followers in computer-mediated communication during COVID-19
No full textDo organizational leaders’ tweets influence their employees’ anxiety? And if so, have employees become more susceptible to their leader’s social media communications during the COVID-19 pandemic? Based on emotional contagion and using machine learning algorithms to track anxiety and personality traits of 197 leaders and 958 followers across 79 organizations over 316 days, we find that during the pandemic leaders’ tweets do influence follower state anxiety. In addition, followers of trait anxious leaders seem somewhat protected by sudden spikes in leader state anxiety, while followers of less trait anxious leaders are most affected by increased leader state anxiety. Multi-day lagged regressions showcase that this effect is stronger post-onset of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic crisis context
National disability strategies as rights-based cultural policy tools
No full textA growing attention to cultural participation of people with disabilities has been propelled by the entry into force of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Being strictly connected to the implementation of the CRPD, the focus on cultural participation of people with disabilities has accrued outside the remit of national cultural policy. This article carries out a thematic analysis of national disability strategies across 27 Member States of the European Union plus the UK and explores the extent to which these strategies can be considered rights-based cultural policy tools. It identifies four themes recurring across those strategies: enhancing accessibility of cultural heritage, cultural institutions and cultural content; supporting persons with disabilities as creators of culture; awareness-raising about cultural participation of persons with disabilities; and protecting disability identity and culture. It then discusses the measures linked to these themes that national disability strategies adopt. On the whole, this article argues that national disability strategies can be, to varying degrees, considered cultural policy tools, and display significant rights-based elements. It concludes with reflections on the broader implications of those findings for cultural policy
Communion in Ezza Culture: A Theological Analysis from the Trinitarian Perspective of the Cappadocian Fathers
No full textThe doctrine of the Trinity has long been taught and received as a mystery not knowable
to human beings. Unfortunately, this central doctrine of Christianity has to a great extent
been interpreted and confined to the intellectual sphere without any connection to
people’s lived experiences. This study departs from this tradition; instead, it uses the
relational interpretation of the Trinity by the Cappadocian fathers to study communal
relationships in contemporary Ezza culture in Igbo in Eastern Nigeria. The thesis argues
that the Trinity is not merely a mystery that has no connection to human experience.
Rather, it asserts, for example, that communal relationships in Ezza culture are possible
because Ezza people, like other human beings, are created in the image and likeness of
God who is Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity captures the fact that human beings are
created in the image and likeness of God especially because of the incarnation of the
second person of the Trinity, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, there is a continuity and
development of the God/human relationship made possible by Jesus Christ who reveals
God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The ministry of Jesus essentially calls all humanity to
participate in the fullness of trinitarian communion. On the basis of all these factors, this
study argues that the communion in Ezza culture, although imperfect, resembles
trinitarian communion. It proposes that teaching and interpreting the doctrine of the
Trinity in terms of loving relationship and communion has thepontential to deepen the
gospel message in Ezza. This is especially the case because when love, the central
message of the Christian faith, encounters a culture that practices communal living,
people may begin to embrace the positive teaching of the Christian message in their
communal lives. In this environment of enhanced genuine Christian commitment, the
Christian injunction of love of God and neighbour may take root and flourish
The Right of People with Disabilities to Participate in Cultural Life: Is Cinderella Going to the Ball?
No full textArticle 30 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
requires States Parties to ensure accessibility of cultural materials, activities and heritage. It also
obliges them to ‘enable persons with disabilities to have the opportunity to develop and utilize their
creative, artistic and intellectual potential’, highlighting the need for appropriate policies to enhance
cultural participation of persons with disabilities. The chapter argues that Article 30 CRPD plays a
pivotal role in the realization of the ‘human rights model of disability’ embedded in the Convention.
By examining States Parties’ reports, related Lists of Issues and Concluding Observations of the
Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the chapter detects trends, challenges, and gaps
in States’ approaches to cultural rights of persons with disabilities. It then discusses new paths to
operationalizing the human rights model of disability in the cultural field
The Youthreach Employee Wellbeing Report 2022
No full textThe Youthreach Programme, introduced in 1988, is the Irish government’s primary response to early school leaving providing young people 15 and 20 years who have dropped out of mainstream education, with access to alternative education and training, progression and social inclusion. Youthreach integrates education, training and work experience with a strong personal development emphasis for 6,780 young people in 2020, delivered by 1,100+ frontline staff country-wide in 112 Youthreach centres funded from the SOLAS Further Education and Training (FET) programme.
Youthreach teaching staff work with a student cohort who often come from marginalised and disadvantaged communities and have dropped out of mainstream education for a multitude of reasons. The survey was distributed to Youthreach employees via email addresses available in the public domain and snowball recruitment in December 2021. 325 people, one-third of Youthreach sector employees, responded to the survey. Two out of three participants were female; most respondents were aged over 40 and were in their role for over 10 years. Respondents were located across all provinces and held various roles in Youthreach including Youthreach Manager, Coordinator, Resource Worker and Teacher. All centre sizes were represented.
The report indicates significant challenges facing frontline Youthreach sector staff including workload pressures, working in evenings, weekends and holidays periods, inadequate infrastructure, and a lack of recognition of the role and responsibilities of teaching staff. Despite workplace stress, the findings nonetheless indicate relatively high wellbeing among Youthreach staff. Employees reported significant psychological and social resilience helping them deal with work-related challenges and cope with adversity. The report also highlights the dedication and commitment of Youthreach staff to their student cohort.
The lack of recognition of Youthreach staff at a systemic level was identified as a key concern, with participants describing a lack of awareness or consideration of the value of the Youthreach programme, especially at a statutory level. Researchers also found that personal commitment, values and positive relationships that are formed between Youthreach employees and learners underpin the resilience of Youthreach staff