NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
Not a member yet
18159 research outputs found
Sort by
Innate PD-L1 limits T cell–mediated adipose tissue inflammation and ameliorates diet-induced obesity
No full textObesity has become a major health problem in the industrialized world. Immune regulation plays an important role in adipose tissue homeostasis; however, the initial events that shift the balance from a noninflammatory homeostatic environment toward inflammation leading to obesity are poorly understood. Here, we report a role for the costimulatory molecule programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) in the limitation of diet-induced obesity. Functional ablation of PD-L1 on dendritic cells (DCs) using conditional knockout mice increased weight gain and metabolic syndrome during diet-induced obesity, whereas PD-L1 expression on type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s), T cells, and macrophages was dispensable for obesity control. Using in vitro cocultures, DCs interacted with T cells and ILC2s via the PD-L1:PD-1 axis to inhibit T helper type 1 proliferation and promote type 2 polarization, respectively. A role for PD-L1 in adipose tissue regulation was also shown in humans, with a positive correlation between PD-L1 expression in visceral fat of people with obesity and elevated body weight. Thus, we define a mechanism of adipose tissue homeostasis controlled by the expression of PD-L1 by DCs, which may be a clinically relevant finding with regard to immune-related adverse events during immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy
Susceptibility to the common cold virus is associated with day length.
No full textSeasonal rhythms are endogenous timing mechanisms that allow animals living at temperate latitudes to synchronize their physiology to the seasons. Human viral respiratory disease is prevalent in the winter at temperate latitudes, but the role of endogenous mechanisms in these recurring annual patterns is unclear. The Common Cold Project is a repository of data describing the experimental viral challenge of 1,337 participants across the seasons of the year. We report a secondary analysis of these data to investigate if susceptibility to the common cold is associated with day length. The majority of the participants (78%) showed signs of infection but only 32% developed clinical signs of disease, and the probability of infection was significantly higher in longer day lengths (summer), but the disease was more likely in short (winter) day lengths. The persistence of winter disease patterns in experimental conditions supports the role of endogenous seasonality in human susceptibility to viral infection
Precarity and the pandemic: an inquiry into the impact of Covid19 on the working lives of non-permanent educators in post-compulsory education in Ireland
No full textThe paper analyses how educators employed on non-permanent contracts in the non-compulsory education sector in Ireland have fared during the Covid 19 pandemic. These employees were starting from a low base in relation to the terms and conditions of their employment when their places of work dramatically pivoted online in March 2020. We argue the impacts of the pandemic were disproportionate, with people reporting such things as increased workloads, exclusion from HR update communications and little supports in creating workspaces in their homes. In this sense, we foreground how participants’ places of work often assumed that all employees, precarious and permanent, had the same level of access to resources. Furthermore, given the gendered nature of caring responsibilities and the high proportion of women respondents in the research, we high-light the extent to which the pandemic increased caring responsibilities and impacted on female participants’ capacity to work. Overall, we demonstrate how the Covid 19 pandemic hasn’t, in itself, created unsatisfactory working conditions, rather, it has both exposed and accentuated existing shortfalls and further proved, if such proof was needed, that short-term actions com-pound the many problems with precarity in post-compulsory education work
Learning Together in, and about, Student-Staff Partnership in Higher Education
No full textStudent-staff partnerships are increasingly encouraged as a student engagement practice in Higher Education. By working in partnership, students and staff can learn from each other’s experiences and expertise, generating benefits for all. In this article, co-authored by students and staff, we offer insights into a student-staff partnership initiative at Maynooth University and Maynooth Students’ Union. Our partnership has its roots in the Enhancing Digital Teaching and Learning (EDTL) project, a cross-institutional initiative that aims to enhance the digital educational experiences and digital attributes of Irish university students. We discuss the development of our partnership, and outline some of the work that we have cooperated on so far, including collaborative development of student supports, resources, and social media campaigns, as well as facilitating shared student-staff conversations and action around wider institutional and national concerns. We draw on concrete examples from our time working in this partnership, and in this context, we highlight the benefits we have experienced; outline the challenges we encountered; and provide insight into the learning and unique perspectives that Maynooth students and staff members of our partnership gained in the process. By reflecting on our journey and sharing both our learning and the challenges, we hope to contribute to the wider discourses around meaningful student-staff partnership approaches in Higher Education
Discussion on “A combined estimate of global temperature”
No full textWhile the real-world has warmed in one unique way, the available data, which
is spatio-temporally incomplete and contains biases of unknown nature and
timing, means this quantity can only ever be estimated. Craigmile and Guttorp
(2022) propose an approach that optimally combines the range of existing products to gain a refined estimate. Implicit in this or, indeed, any similar approach,
are assumptions about the available estimates representing both an unbiased
and representative draw from the population of potential plausible estimates
that could have been created. There are well-founded reasons to doubt that this
is the case. An alternative approach, used in the IPCC report, is to employ much
simpler approaches which, in particular, hedge against underestimation of the
true uncertainty in the evolution of global surface temperatures, and thus serve
to future-proof current estimates against subsequent dataset innovations arising
from future improvements in our understanding
How is loneliness related to anxiety and depression: A population‐based network analysis in the early lockdown period
No full textHigh risk of mental health problems is associated with loneliness resulting from social distancing measures and "lockdowns" that have been imposed globally due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explores the interconnectedness of loneliness, anxiety and depression on a symptom level using network analysis. A representative sample of participants (N = 1041), who were of at least 18 years of age, was recruited from the Republic of Ireland (ROI). Loneliness, anxiety and depression were assessed using validated instruments. Network analysis was used to identify the network structure of loneliness, anxiety and depression. Loneliness was found to be largely isolated from anxiety and depression nodes in the network. Anxiety and depression were largely interconnected. "Trouble relaxing," "feeling bad about oneself" and "not being able to stop or control worrying" were suggested as the most influential nodes of the network. Despite the expectation that loneliness would be implicated more robustly in the anxiety and depression network of symptoms, the results suggest loneliness as a distinct construct that is not interwoven with anxiety and depression
‘Ransack the histories’: Gay Men, Liberation and the Politics of Literary Style
No full textn Queer Fictions of the Past, Scott Bravmann argued that ‘lesbian and gay historical self-representations –queer fictions of the past –help construct, maintain and contest identities –queer fictions of the present.’2In this essay, I test the applicability of this argument to Irish writing and, more specifically, to three examples of twenty-first century writing engaging imaginatively with the twentieth-century history of gay men’s lives in Irelan
Membrane compartmentalisation of the ubiquitin system
No full textWe now have a comprehensive inventory of ubiquitin system components. Understanding of any system also needs an appreciation of how components are organised together. Quantitative proteomics has provided us with a census of their relative populations in several model cell types. Here, by examining large scale unbiased data sets, we seek to identify and map those components, which principally reside on the major organelles of the endomembrane system. We present the consensus distribution of > 50 ubiquitin modifying enzymes, E2s, E3s and DUBs, that possess transmembrane domains. This analysis reveals that the ER and endosomal compartments have a diverse cast of resident E3s, whilst the Golgi and mitochondria operate with a more restricted palette. We describe key functions of ubiquitylation that are specific to each compartment and relate this to their signature complement of ubiquitin modifying components
Metagenomic and HT-qPCR analysis reveal the microbiome and resistome in pig slurry under storage, composting, and anaerobic digestion
No full textDirect application of pig slurry to agricultural land, as a means of nutrient recycling, introduces pathogens, antibiotic resistant bacteria, or genes, to the environment. With global environmental sustainability policies mandating a reduction in synthetic fertilisation and a commitment to a circular economy it is imperative to find effective on-farm treatments of slurry that maximises its fertilisation value and minimises risk to health and the environment. We assessed and compared the effect of storage, composting, and anaerobic digestion (AD) on pig slurry microbiome, resistome and nutrient content. Shotgun metagenomic sequencing and HT-qPCR arrays were implemented to understand the dynamics across the treatments. Our results identified that each treatment methods have advantages and disadvantages in removal pollutants or increasing nutrients. The data suggests that storage and composting are optimal for the removal of human pathogens and anaerobic digestion for the reduction in antibiotic resistance (AMR) genes and mobile genetic elements. The nitrogen content is increased in storage and AD, while reduced in composting. Thus, depending on the requirement for increased or reduced nitrogen the optimum treatment varies. Combining the results indicates that composting provides the greatest gain by reducing risk to human health and the environment. Network analysis revealed reducing Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes while increasing Firmicutes will reduce the AMR content. KEGG analysis identified no significant change in the pathways across all treatments. This novel study provides a data driven decision tree to determine the optimal treatment for best practice to minimise pathogen, AMR and excess or increasing nutrient transfer from slurry to environment
Feminist pedagogy and reproductive rights
No full textAt the heart of this research is an online, four week, Reproductive Rights and Reproductive Justice course that was designed and delivered specifically for this study. This research tells the story of this course including its significance during a historical time when reproductive
rights are under attack across the globe and when reproductive oppressions persist in Ireland despite a significant relaxation in legal obstacles since 2018. Primary finding are drawn from the insights of activists who completed the programme and who opted-in to accompanying
research allowing me to draw directly from pre and post anonymous questionnaires. Overall I assess the role of feminist pedagogy in creating a more just society were reproductive oppressions are eradicated.
The study is qualitative and methodologically draws from feminist critical theory and autoethnography. Give the contested nature of many of the concepts I use, it articulates my understanding of feminist pedagogy and presents the work through a Reproductive Justice
Framework to unpack a specific research question on the ways feminist pedagogy can inform, support and equip reproductive rights activist