NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
Not a member yet
18159 research outputs found
Sort by
Applications to halt the trial of charges of non-recent child sexual abuse. The People (D.P.P.) v. C.Ce [2019] I.E.S.C. 94
No full textIreland, like many other countries, has reckoned with the question of how to acknowledge and do justice to adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Criminal prosecutions, are arguably the most important form of legal response to non-recent child sexual abuse, both in terms of the possible vindication and accountability they may offer survivors, and the opportunity for public condemnation of the abuser’s actions, if s/he is convicted. In finally coming to the criminal process, survivors are asking that the law (at least) acknowledge the legitimacy of their complaint by holding a trial. However, non-recent child sexual abuse often comes to the attention of the criminal process only after a significant interval of time has passed following the alleged abuse. An established body of psychological and sociological research explains that delay in reporting childhood sexual abuse is a normal response.
Over the course of the past three decades, the Irish courts have moved away from assuming that the impact of the interval of time between the alleged abuse and the reporting to the gardaí will inevitably mean the defendant is unfairly prejudiced, to being more willing to engage with the evidence and closely examine defendants’ claims of unfairness. In People (D.P.P.) v. C.Ce the Supreme Court clarified the approach to be taken by trial judges. The case is an important evolution in the Court's thinking about 'delay' and prejudice to the defence in non-recent child sexual abuse trials. This article explores the C.Ce decision and its significance. It examines the evidential and practical challenges faced by defendants and the prosecution in non-recent child sexual abuse trials. Section II sets out the evolution of the jurisprudence on defence applications to have the trial stopped on the grounds that the impact of the interval of time is such that the trial cannot be in accordance with constitutional fairness. Section III explores C.Ce itself, dealing first with the facts and then considering each judgment. Section IV places the judgment in a broader context and comments on further possible developments
‘Children from these communities’: unequal school provision, segregation, and the Irish educational landscape
No full textThis paper assesses equality in Irish post-primary education,
focusing on the provision of state-funded education and
specifically on the provision of schools not segregated by
religion, gender, or the charging of fees. Using the concept of the
educational landscape, it integrates a macro-micro perspective
that combines an analysis of national data generated by the
Central Statistics Office and the Department of Education and
Skills with a case study in Dublin. It shows that educational
provision is far from equal in Ireland. Outside of Irish cities, it is
largely the norm for the state to provide schools that do not
separate or exclude children on the basis of religion, gender, or
ability to pay. However, within Ireland’s cities, such provision is
much lower, and the educational landscape remains highly
segregated. Moreover, within Dublin, it is not only the provision
of inclusive (i.e. not segregated) post-primary facilities that is
unequal, but the provision of post-primary education more
generally. This spatially unequal educational investment may be
linked to other inequalities experienced by Dublin’s teenagers,
with children in areas of low and segregated school provision
spending a disproportionately large share of their time travelling
to school compared to children in areas of higher state investment
Does retirement affect voluntary work provision? Evidence from Europe and the U.S.
No full textWe examine whether retirement has a causal effect on the frequency of voluntary work provision in Europe and the U.S. We draw on data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe and the Health Retirement Study for the period 2009–2017 and use eligibility ages for old age pensions in an instrumental variable estimation to address endogeneity. We find that retirement increases the frequency of voluntary work provision in all countries
Human Hepatic CD56bright NK Cells Display a Tissue-Resident Transcriptional Profile and Enhanced Ability to Kill Allogenic CD8+ T Cells
No full textLiver-resident CD56brightCD16- natural killer (NK) cells are enriched in the human liver and are phenotypically distinct from their blood counterparts. Although these cells are capable of rapid cytotoxic effector activity, their functional role remains unclear. We hypothesise that they may contribute to immune tolerance in the liver during transplantation. RNA sequencing was carried out on FACS sorted NK cell subpopulations from liver perfusates (n=5) and healthy blood controls (n=5). Liver-resident CD56brightCD16+/- NK cells upregulate genes associated with tissue residency. They also upregulate expression of CD160 and LY9, both of which encode immune receptors capable of activating NK cells. Co-expression of CD160 and Ly9 on liver-resident NK cells was validated using flow cytometry. Hepatic NK cell cytotoxicity against allogenic T cells was tested using an in vitro co-culture system of liver perfusate-derived NK cells and blood T cells (n=10-13). In co-culture experiments, hepatic NK cells but not blood NK cells induced significant allogenic T cell death (p=0.0306). Allogenic CD8+ T cells were more susceptible to hepatic NK cytotoxicity than CD4+ T cells (p<0.0001). Stimulation of hepatic CD56bright NK cells with an anti-CD160 agonist mAb enhanced this cytotoxic response (p=0.0382). Our results highlight a role for donor liver NK cells in regulating allogenic CD8+ T cell activation, which may be important in controlling recipient CD8+ T cell-mediated rejection post liver-transplant
Born to Run : The Transmedia Evolution of the Bruce Springsteen Memoir from Book to Stage and Screen
No full textThis article explores how the genre of rock memoir took a new
cultural and commercial turn with the publication of Springsteen’s
book Born to Run (2016). It traces how the book became the
foundation for a transmedia project that unfolded across several
platforms (including the Broadway stage and Netflix) over the
course of two years (2016–2018). This transmedia project worked
to construct the twenty-first-century Springsteen as an artist and
commentator whose work lies at the intersections of rock, popular
literature, scripted theater, and the scree
Spatial Models or Random Forest? Evaluating the Use of Spatially Explicit Machine Learning Methods to Predict Employment Density around New Transit Stations in Los Angeles
No full textThe increasing use of “new” machine learning techniques, such as random forest, provides
an impetus to researchers to better understand the role of space in these models. Thus, this
article develops an approach for constructing spatially explicit random forest models by
including spatially lagged variables to mirror various spatial econometric specifications
in order to test their comparative performance against traditional spatial and nonspatial
regression models for predicting block-level employment density around new transit
stations in Los Angeles. This article employs a “post hoc” testing approach to isolate the
impact of a particular variable (transit proximity)—and supplemental diagnostics (such
as partial dependence plots and permutation importances)—to help inform explanatory
relationships. The results indicate that random forest models slightly outperform spatial
econometric models, and the inclusion of spatial lag parameters modestly improves random
forest model accuracy—the best-fit spatial random forest model demonstrates 84.61%
accuracy in predicting post-construction employment density around newly built transit
stations, compared to 81.88% for the best-fit spatial econometric model and 84.37% for
the nonspatial random forest model. However, given these somewhat small differences, it is
not possible to conclude that the random forest approach is clearly superior to traditional
spatial econometric models from these results alone
Understanding the role of linguistic distributional knowledge in cognition
No full textThe distributional pattern of words in language forms the basis of linguistic distributional knowledge and contributes to conceptual processing, yet many questions remain regarding its role in cognition. We propose that corpus-based linguistic distributional models can represent a cognitively plausible approach to understanding linguistic distributional knowledge when assumed to represent an essential component of semantics, when trained on corpora representative of human language experience, and when they capture the diverse distributional relations that are useful to cognition. Using an extensive set of cognitive tasks that vary in the complexity of conceptual processing required, we systematically evaluate a wide range of model families, corpora, and parameters, and demonstrate that there is no one-size-fits-all approach for how linguistic distributional knowledge is used across cognition. Rather, linguistic distributional knowledge is a rich source of information about the world that can be accessed flexibly according to the conceptual complexity of the task at hand
Head vs. Tail Squaramide–Naphthalimide Conjugates: Self-Assembly and Anion Binding Behaviour
No full textThe syntheses of two squaramide–naphthalimide conjugates (SN1 and SN2) are reported;
the structures of SN1 and SN2 differ by the attachment of a squaramide—either at the ‘head’ or
the ‘tail’ of the naphthalimide fluorophore. Both compounds displayed weak fluorescence due
to the inclusion of a nitro-aromatic squaramide which efficiently quenches the emission of the
naphthalimide. Both compounds were also shown to undergo self-aggregation as studied by 1H
NMR and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Furthermore, SN1 and SN2 gave rise to stark
colourimetric changes in response to basic anions such as AcO−, SO4
2− HPO4
2−, and F−. The
observed colour changes are thought to be due to deprotonation of a squaramide NH. The same
basic anions also result in a further quenching of the naphthalimide emission. No colour change or
emission modulations were observed in the presence of Cl−; however, 1H
The importance for wellbeing of having views of nature from and in the home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from the GreenCOVID study
No full textIntroduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the daily lives of people and may affect their well-being.
The aim of the present study is to assess well-being and associated factors during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the general population in three European countries.
Methods: Green COVID was an observational cross-sectional study using an online survey (7 April 2020 to 24 July
2020) promoted by the Health & Territory Research (HTR) of the University of Seville in Spain, Maynooth
University in Ireland, and the University of Winchester in England, which included a sample of 3109 unselected
adults. Well-being was measured using the World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5) scale.
Seven aspects, related to the natural environment of the home, were evaluated (role of outdoor views in coping
with lockdown, importance of blue spaces during lockdown, importance of green spaces during lockdown,
quality of view from home, use of outdoor spaces or window views, elements of nature in the home, and views of
green or blue spaces from home). Binary logistic regression was conducted to identify the parameters associated
with poor well-being.
Results: Mean age was 39.7 years and 79.3% lived in Spain, the majority in urban areas (92.8%). 73.0% were
female and 72.0% had undertaken university studies. Poor well-being was reported by 59.0%, while 26.6%
indicated the possible presence of clinical depression. The factors most associated with poor well-being were
students (OR = 1.541), those who had no engagement in physical activity (OR = 1.389), those who reported
‘living in Spain’ compared to Ireland (OR = 0.724), being female (OR = 1.256), poor quality views from home
(OR = 0.887), less benefit from views of the natural environment to cope with lockdown (OR = 0.964), and those
younger in age (OR = 0.990).
Conclusions: More than half of participants reported poor well-being and one in four indicated the possible
presence of clinical depression during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. We identified that belonging to a
younger age cohort, being a student, being female, not being able to continue with daily pursuits such as physical
activity, and having poorer quality of views from home led to poor well-being among participants. Our study
highlights the importance of continued physical activity and views of nature to improve the well-being of individuals during times of crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic
Philosophy of education in a new key: Publicness, social justice, and education; a South-North conversation
No full textPublic education is not just a way to organise and fund education. It is also the expression of a particular ideal about education and of a particular way to conceive of the relationship between education and society. The ideal of public education sees education as an important
dimension of the common good and as an important institution in securing the common good. The common good is never what individuals or particular groups want or desire, but always reaches beyond such particular desires towards that which societies as a whole should consider as desirable. This does, of course, put the common good in tension with the desires of individuals and groups. Neo-liberal modes of
governance have, over the past decades, put this particular educational set up under pressure and have, according to some, eroded the very idea of the common good. This set of contributions reflects on this state of affairs, partly through an exploration of the idea of publicness itself –
how it can be rearticulated and regained – and partly through reflections on the current state of education in the ‘north’ and the ‘south