NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Biceps Femoris Fascicle Lengths Increase after Hamstring Injury Rehabilitation to a Greater Extent in the Injured Leg
No full textObjectives. Document changes in fascicle length during rehabilitation from hamstring injury of the injured and uninjured
legs and secondarily to describe any association between these changes and reinjury rate. Design. Multicentre case series.
Methods. Fifty-two prospectively included hamstring injured athletes had their biceps femoris long head fascicle lengths
measured at the start and end of rehabilitation using two-dimensional ultrasound. Absolute and relative changes in fascicle
length were compared for each leg using linear mixed models. Participants were followed for six months after being cleared
to return to sport for any reinjury. Fascicle lengths and rehabilitation duration were compared for those who reinjured and
those who did not. Results. Injured leg fascicle length was shorter at the start of rehabilitation (9.1 cm compared to 9.8 cm,
p < 0.01 ) but underwent greater absolute and relative lengthening during rehabilitation to 11.1 cm (18% increase) compared
to 10.2 cm (8% increase, p < 0.01 ) for the uninjured leg. )ere were no significant differences in any fascicle length parameter
for the 5 participants who reinjured in the 6 months following their return to sport compared to those that did not reinjure.
Conclusions. While both injured and uninjured legs displayed increases in fascicle length during rehabilitation, the larger
fascicle length increases in the injured leg suggest that either a different training stimulus was applied during rehabilitation
to each leg or there was a different response to training and/or recovery from injury in the injured leg. Reinjury risk appears
to be independent of fascicle length changes in this cohort, but the small number of reinjuries makes any
conclusions speculative
The Irish Football Player Pathway: Examining Stakeholder Coherence Throughout and Across the Player Development System
No full textMaximizing the efficiency of the player development system is a strategic priority for any professional football club or association. However, the successful development of a young footballer is largely dependent upon the roles and relationships of the different stakeholders invested in the developmental process. This study examined the level of horizontal (i.e., extent to which stakeholders across a pathway stage work with players in an agreed fashion to optimize their experience) and vertical (i.e., extent to which multiple stages of the pathway are coordinated and build chronologically from previous involvement toward long-term needs) stakeholder coherence throughout the Irish football player pathway following a restructuring of development policies and the implementation of a nationwide academy system between 2016 and 2020 under the Football Association of Ireland's (FAI) Player Development Plan. As a second aim, we explored each of the key stakeholders' alignment to academic talent development principles in order to provide practical recommendations for future player and coach development policies. Accordingly, a series of interviews were conducted with 31 key stakeholders currently engaged in the player pathway. These key stakeholders consisted of parents, coaches and members of the FAI as the National Governing Body for football in Ireland. Data were analyzed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis, with findings highlighting a lack of stakeholder coherence across the pathway, both vertically and horizontally. Stakeholders displayed inconsistency in their understanding of the purpose of the player pathway and its long-term strategic aims, as well as demonstrating poor and incohesive relationships with each of the different stakeholders. Moreover, talent development principles between the different stakeholders appeared well-understood overall, although the practical implementation of several of these principles in applied practice did not appear to exist. Results highlight the need for organizational intervention and structural change across the Irish player pathway to maximize long-term player development in the future. Practical implications for the FAI are discussed and recommendations are made to support optimal player development policies moving forward
Modelling Professional Singers: A Bayesian Machine Learning Approach with Enhanced Real-time Pitch Contour Extraction and Onset Processing from an Extended Dataset.
No full textSinging signals are one of the input data that computer systems need to analyse, and singing is part of all the cultures in the world. However, although there have been several studies on audio signal processing during the last three decades, it is still an active research area because most of the available algorithms in the literature require improvement due to the complexity of audio/music signals. More efforts are needed for analysing sounds/music in a real-time environment since the algorithms should work only on the past data, while in an offline system, all the required data are available. In addition, the complexity of the data will be increased if the audio signals come from singing due to the unique features of singing signals (such as vocal system, vibration, pitch drift, and tuning approach) that make the signals different and more complicated than those from an instrument.
This thesis is mainly focused on analysing singing signals and better understanding how trained- professional singers sing the pitch frequency and duration of the notes according to their position in a piece of music and the singing technique applied. To do this, it is discovered that by incorporating singing features, such as gender and BPM, a real-time pitch detection algorithm can be found to estimate fundamental frequencies with fewer errors. In addition, two novel algorithms were proposed, one for smoothing pitch contours and another for estimating onset, offset, and the transition between notes. These two algorithms showed better results as compared to several other state-of-the-art algorithms. Moreover, a new vocal dataset that included several annotations for 2688 singing files was published. Finally, this thesis presents two models for calculating pitches and the duration of notes according to their positions in a piece of music. In conclusion, optimizing results for pitch-oriented Music Information Retrieval (MIR) algorithms necessitates adapting/selecting them based on the unique characteristics of the signals. Achieving a universal algorithm that performs exceptionally well on all data types remains a formidable challenge given the current state of technology
Power negotiation on the tango dancefloor: The adoption of AI in B2B marketing
No full textAcknowledging the lack of empirical research on the adoption of AI in B2B marketing and the research gap in
studying power from a network perspective, this paper explores how the drivers of AI adoption as marketing
solutions affect network actors’ power dynamics. Using data collected through 20 semi-structured interviews
with business managers and engineers involved in AI adoption for B2B marketing activities, as well as academic
experts in the field of AI, this paper discusses how AI adoption priorities and motives shape the power dynamics
amongst the various network actors, including focal firms, AI suppliers and tech giant companies. The findings
show that, in the context of AI adoption in B2B, both technology and expertise are key sources of power, and that
data creates and perpetuates power negotiations and renegotiations in the network. We envisage this process as
the movements on a busy dancefloor where groups of actors are engaged in what we refer to as the Power Tango.
This paper contributes to the power dependence theory by showing that, through the adoption process, network
actors’ power is exchanged, exercised, counter-balanced and perpetuated, creating fluid network dynamics
Developing a Digital Framework for the Medieval Gaelic World: Report (Draft)
No full textThe abstract is included in the text
Thinking Together: A feminist collaborative inquiry into pedagogical approaches for domestic violence work in Ireland
No full textThis collaborative inquiry has produced a feminist pedagogical framework for an
approach to learning and education that is congruent with the values and goals of
anti-domestic violence work in Ireland. Findings were generated through a feminist
study in which ten domestic violence workers (myself included) came together to
generate solutions to the lack of such an organisational structure for their work. The
knowledge that was generated addresses the distinctive and critical nature of
domestic violence work and illustrates issues and dilemmas that present challenges
to maintaining empowering feminist practice. Through a robust dialogic process, this
group of co-inquirers were able to analyse and utilise their considerable skills and
experience to identify the core components of an approach to learning and
education. The research practice reflected those same values that participants
identified as central to a future education and learning framework for domestic
violence workers. These evidence based core principles centre around feminist
praxis, in which all participants commit to relationships and processes that are
democratic, collaborative and dialogic in nature and to use the knowledge generated
to contribute to the continuing feminist struggle for an end to male violence and all
forms of oppression.
Theoretically the study is informed by a feminist analysis in which domestic violence
work is understood to be part of the wider feminist project that aims to end to all
forms of gender oppression. Drawing from feminist and critical pedagogy, I add to
the framework shaped by the collaborative inquiry group by forging a theoretical
understanding of a pedagogy for domestic violence work. At the heart of this
pedagogic proposal is a model of learning in which participation in feminist
education, in a feminist community of practice and in a feminist social change
movement are all processes in authentic, active and creative interplay with each
other
The effect of temperature conditioning (9°C and 20°C) on the proteome of entomopathogenic nematode infective juveniles
No full textEntomopathogenic nematodes (EPN) of the genera Steinernema and Heterorhabditis are parasites which kill and reproduce within insects. While both have life cycles centred around their developmentally arrested, nonfeeding and stress tolerant infective juvenile (IJ) stage, they are relatively distantly related. These IJs are promising biocontrol agents, and their shelf life and stress tolerance may be enhanced by storage at low temperatures. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the proteome of the IJs of two distantly related EPN species is affected by storage at 9°C (for up to 9 weeks) and 20°C (for up to 6 weeks), using label-free quantitative proteomics. Overall, more proteins were detected in S. carpocapsae (2422) than in H. megidis (1582). The S. carpocapsae proteome was strongly affected by temperature, while the H. megidis proteome was affected by both time and temperature. The proteins which increased in abundance to the greatest extent in S. carpocapsae IJs after conditioning at 9°C were chaperone proteins, and proteins related to stress. The proteins which increased in abundance the most after storage at 20°C were proteins related to the cytoskeleton, cell signalling, proteases and their inhibitors, which may have roles in infection. The proteins which decreased in abundance to the greatest extent in S. carpocapsae after both 9°C and 20°C storage were those associated with metabolism, stress and the cytoskeleton. After storage at both temperatures, the proteins increased to the greatest extent in H. megidis IJs were those associated with the cytoskeleton, cell signalling and carbon metabolism, and the proteins decreased in abundance to the greatest extent were heat shock and ribosomal proteins, and those associated with metabolism. As the longest-lived stage of the EPN life cycle, IJs may be affected by proteostatic stress, caused by the accumulation of misfolded proteins and toxic aggregates. The substantial increase of chaperone proteins in S. carpocapsae, and to a greater extent at 9°C, and the general decrease in ribosomal and chaperone proteins in H. megidis may represent species-specific proteostasis mechanisms. Similarly, organisms accumulate reactive oxygen species (ROS) over time and both species exhibited a gradual increase in proteins which enhance ROS tolerance, such as catalase. The species-specific responses of the proteome in response to storage temperature, and over time, may reflect the phylogenetic distance and/or different ecological strategies
Improving phenotyping in winter barley cultivars towards waterlogging tolerance by combining field trials under natural conditions with controlled growth condition experiments
No full textAdditional rainfall in Northern Europe due to global climate change is increasing the incidences of field flooding. Flooding causes hypoxic stress that results in a reduced capacity for photosynthesis, reduction in nutrient availability and uptake, increased production of toxic metabolites by anaerobic bacteria in the soil, and ultimately yield losses and crop death. To overcome hypoxic environmental conditions, new cultivars need to be bred and tested for waterlogging tolerance. We scored 403 winter barley cultivars from the ‘Association Genetics of UK Elite Barley’ (AGOUEB) population, taking advantage of the phenotypic changes associated with hypoxic stress. This enabled us to identify an initial set of waterlogging sensitive and tolerant cultivars. Comparative analysis of a subset of 65 cultivars exposed to waterlogging stress under field and growth cabinet environments showed variability in scores due to varying sensitivity to waterlogging over multi-season field trials. In field trials, we observed waterlogging damage resulting in reductions in biomass, grain yield and crop height. However, the effects varied between seasons and the severity of waterlogging due to differences in the topography of the field and the amount of rainfall. To overcome the seasonal variations in environmental conditions in multi-season field trials, we developed in parallel, an enhanced phenotyping method by complementing field experiments with phenotyping under controlled growth conditions. The phenotyping scoring method allows for the grouping of cultivars by sensitivity and tolerance to waterlogging, with limited variance between cultivars scored in the field and controlled conditions. Together, these two complementary approaches maximise the data available to breeders, allowing for the reliable selection of more tolerant cultivars able to grow under flooding conditions
Harry Hardy and the Royal Irish Constabulary Band: A Musical Accompaniment to Ireland’s Mid-Victorian Middle-Class Leisure Culture (1861–1872)
No full textThis dissertation examines the interplay of music and leisure pursuits in nineteenth-century Ireland in the context of the Royal Irish Constabulary band. Established in 1861 under the leadership of Harry Hardy, this band held a prominent position in middle-class musical life, becoming a sought-after side-line entertainment at exhibitions, sporting events, coastal resorts, parks, charity events, banquets, and balls. The band constituted an important facet in the expanding leisure life of mid-nineteenth-century Ireland while also being a significant musical marker of police authority.
This research documents the early years of the RIC band during the eleven-year tenure of Hardy. Conveying a visual and sonic representation of institutional power, this band nonetheless succeeded in endearing itself to the public, carving its own niche as Ireland’s national band. This dissertation contributes to the study of music in the second half of the nineteenth century, particularly to the new forms of popular music which were beginning to emerge in Ireland and Britain. It also contributes considerably to the much-neglected area of band music in Ireland and its contribution to popular entertainment. Most of this research is based on previously untapped primary sources, particularly newspaper articles and promotional material, building a clear profile of the place of the RIC band in nineteenth-century Irish society. This work is of a strong interdisciplinary nature and intersects with areas of nineteenth-century consumer and leisure culture previously unconsidered from a musicological viewpoint.
This research has sought to provide a more balanced consideration of the RIC and its band, in contrast to other more polarised narratives. It thus positions itself alongside the initial steps being made by historians to voice the unspoken language surrounding the RIC. My work seeks to objectively examine the contribution of the RIC band to Irish society while also recognising its place in British musical life of that time. It joins an expanding musicological discussion on the interplay of Irish identity and music in the age of Fenianism and Home Rule,
and contributes to the ongoing process of building an inclusive and unbiased picture of Irish society and culture in the middle decades of nineteenth-century Ireland
Coders, Creatives and the Commodification of Knowledge in a Digitalizing, Flexibilizing World (of Work)
No full textThis thesis is a comparative case study of knowledge work in software and creative sectors in
contemporary capitalism. It investigates how the commodification of knowledge has
transformed relations of control, work-life boundaries and worker subjectivities in knowledge
work. The thesis links these changes in the organisation of work to commodification through
the analysis of four sociomaterial exigencies of knowledge work – indeterminacy, exclusivity,
sociomaterial attachments, and objectification (through digitalization).
Studies of work have been burgeoning over the last fifty years, and it is generally agreed by
most disciplines and interested parties that the advanced capitalist societies of the world have
been experiencing a significant transformation since at least the 1980’s. Despite the diverse
range of causal explanations for these changes, there is convergence around some core
developments, namely the increasing digitalization of society, the flexibilization of work and
employment, the intensification of competitiveness, individualism and entrepreneurialism as
organizing principles, the financialization of the global economy, and the importance of
knowledge, information and creativity in the worlds of work.
The high-technology Software and Cultural and Creative Industries have been the focus of
global narratives and hyperbole since the 1990s and in many ways these activities (I use the
term ‘activities’ to denote the industries and the work/labour within them) have been hailed as
the archetypes and prototypes of the transformations underway. Therefore, they are ideal cases
for a critical study of work at the forefront of capitalist transformations. Through extensive
interviews with 44 workers and managers in a variety of firms in both sectors, the thesis
provides important insights into how work is changing, what problems and opportunities
present themselves, and what might be possible trajectories for the future of work.
These case studies are analysed through a theoretical, conceptual and analytical framework,
which I term a sociomaterialist critical realism. This framework allows me to unravel the
knowledge work of software and creative workers as a necessarily sociomaterial practice. The
thesis therefore takes the idea that ‘matter matters’ seriously, and this becomes the centre point
around which the line of argument and chapters are built. By interviewing these workers about
the practices of their labour, the organisation of their work and their experiences of it, I ‘isolate’
and ‘locate’ the sociomaterial threads that bind them to their labour, organisations,
communities of practice, and the subject of their labour itself. In doing so, the analysis
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effectively identifies and traces the entanglements of knowledge work and contributes to our
understanding of how these are weaved together in contemporary work.
The findings identify core exigencies (central characteristics that generate typical demands) of
knowledge work and illustrates how these shape the nature of software and creative work by
examining their implications for the contested terrains of control, the work-life boundary, and
worker subjectivity. It is in these contested terrains of working life that I find that knowledge
work is controlled through regulated autonomy, boundaries are necessarily blurred because of
the permanent susceptibility to perennial labour, and that knowledge workers are
sociomaterially required to perform as agile agents to effectively conduct their work and
maintain their careers.
As Kalleberg (2009:1) stated in his presidential address to the American Sociological
Association, “work reveals much about the social order, how it is changing, and the kind of
problems and issues people (and their governments) must address”. As social scientists, we
often approach our studies of the world from a critical juncture of reality where the causal
complexities of human societies converge, and social phenomena emerge. Similarly, I use the
world of work as the vantage point from which I begin my journey into the analysis of socio-
economic organization and its implications for the experiences of workers in contemporary
capitalism. Despite the wider complexities of those core transformations taking place,
empirical case studies of work and production which build upon global scholarship and account
for political economic dynamics can reveal much about these changes, how they are
experienced by workers on the ground, and the causal forces shaping work and economic
futures.
On a more fundamental level, this research and thesis are all about making connections: firstly,
making connections between the different but adjacent fields of the sociology of work (SoW),
labour process analysis (LPA), communication and media studies, organisation and
management studies, and (socio)materialisms; second, making connections between the
microsociological practices of labour, their sociomateriality and the organisational structures
and economic processes within which they are embedded; and finally, making connections
between new approaches and conceptual tools and existing terrains of struggle within the world
of work