NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Leveraging blockchain technology for green innovation in ecosystem-based business models: A dynamic capability of values appropriation
No full textStakeholders' pressure for environmental sustainability asks firms to develop ecosystem-based business models (EBMs) driven by a disruptive technology that strategically prioritizes green innovation. Given the infancy of the relevant issues, there is scarce empirical evidence addressing how blockchain technology (BT) as a typical disruptive technology triggers the formation of EBMs with higher levels of platformisation and stakeholder diversity. To address this need, from the dynamic capability view, we identify value appropriation capability (VAC) as a vital catalyst translating BT into realizing green innovation in EBMs. Our results indicate that BT and VAC positively affect green innovation performance, while VAC also mediates the BT-green innovation relationship in EBMs. The main contribution is to offer new insight into the mechanisms between disruptive technology and the evolution towards EBMs through the lens of a previously under-researched dynamic capability, VAC. We also provide feasible, practical guidance for organizations to inspire green innovation and establish sustainable EBMs
QUBIC II: Spectral polarimetry with bolometric interferometry
No full textBolometric interferometry is a novel technique that has the ability to perform
spectral imaging. A bolometric interferometer observes the sky in a wide frequency band and
can reconstruct sky maps in several sub-bands within the physical band in post-processing of
the data. This provides a powerful spectral method to discriminate between the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and astrophysical foregrounds. In this paper, the methodology
is illustrated with examples based on the Q & U Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology
(QUBIC) which is a ground-based instrument designed to measure the B-mode polarization of
the sky at millimeter wavelengths. We consider the specific cases of point source reconstruction and Galactic dust mapping and we characterize the point spread function as a function
of frequency. We study the noise properties of spectral imaging, especially the correlations
between sub-bands, using end-to-end simulations together with a fast noise simulator. We
conclude showing that spectral imaging performance are nearly optimal up to five sub-bands
in the case of QUBIC
Experiments in early US television: windows of opportunities for female technical workers in the 1940s
No full textThis article examines the case of the Women’s Auxiliary Television Technical Staff (WATTS) of the Chicago television station WBKB: an all-female technical and production crew that operated from 1942 to 1947. In tracing the employment and work of the WATTS, this article examines, firstly, the conditions that enabled women to engage in television technical and production work. Secondly, this article considers the conditions that resulted in decline in the numbers of women working at the station in the post-war period, which were related to men’s return to work after the war, the shift in television’s evolution from experimental to professional and commercial, and, finally, to the gendered culture of work that emerged when men engaged in production work with women. Through an analysis of the trade and popular press discourses that first celebrated women’s television work and later dismissed it, women’s place in the earliest years of television is foregrounded
COVID-19 as a catalyst of a new container port hierarchy in Mediterranean Sea and Northern Range
No full textCOVID-19 has dramatically impacted the organization of value chains and the pattern of international trade. The manufacturing sector has had to act resiliently, and
the maritime sector was no exception. Container shipping lines have adapted their
routes, services and feet deployment with direct effects on many port activities. Our
analysis focuses exclusively on container vessels by considering number of calls and
calculating total containership capacity deployed within 45 Western Mediterranean
and Northern European ports throughout 2018, 2019 and 2020. 2018 is considered
as a ‘business as usual’ year, without exceptional events. 2019 is the start of the
outbreak and 2020 is the year most impacted by the economic consequences of the
pandemic. As we cover at least one port in each country, we considered ports that
handled more than one million TEUs per year and if the country did not have such a
port, we considered the largest one. The aim of our analysis is dual. First, we attempt
to point out the importance of certain ports as major hubs and the downgrading of
others to regional hubs, gateways or feeder ports in the Western Mediterranean and
Northern Europe. Second, our objective was to assess the way shipping alliances
have impacted the ranking of these ports during COVID-19. As a result, this exceptional crisis has not been a catalyst of a new port hierarchy while it has revealed
contrasting situations with ‘poor’ and ‘good’ crisis resilience for ports meaning that
some were downgraded, and others maintained their ranking. Moreover, COVID-19
has exacerbated the maritime alliances’ shortcomings, their capacity to unilaterally
impose their decisions through their Cooperative Working Agreements, regardless
of the consequences both for transport users and ports. One of the key lessons of the
COVID-19 crisis is that the time for change for maritime alliances has come
Perceived manageability of debt and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A UK population analysis
No full textObjectives
This study examined the association between perceived manageability of debt and risk of depression, anxiety, and mental health help-seeking among a nationally representative sample of adults living in the United Kingdom (UK).
Methods
Data was derived from the COVID-19 Psychological Research Consortium (C19PRC) Study Wave 6 (August/September 2021) which examined the psychological, social, and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the UK adult population. Bivariate and logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine the association between different levels of perceived debt manageability (i.e., “easily manageable”, “some problems”, “quite serious problems”, “very serious problems”, “cannot manage at all”) and mental health related outcomes.
Results
Almost a quarter of the sample (24%, n = 494) reported debt management problems, and debt manageability associated with higher levels of anxiety, depression, and mental health help-seeking. After adjusting for demographic variables (e.g. income, receipt of benefits), logistic regression analysis demonstrated a dose-response association between increasing levels of debt manageability problems and mental health outcomes. Specifically, adjusted odds ratios for anxiety ranged from 2.28 (‘some problems’) to 11.18 (‘very serious problems’), for depression ranged from 2.80 (‘some problems’) to 16.21 (‘cannot manage at all’), and for mental health help-seeking ranged from 1.69 (‘some problems’) to 3.18 (‘quite serious problems’, ‘very serious problems’).
Conclusion
This study highlights that debt manageability problems represent a robust predictor of depression, anxiety, and mental-health help seeking
Montessori, the White Cross and Trauma-Informed Practice
No full textChildhood adversity and trauma are pervasive and have powerful, far-reaching consequences for health and well-being. Recent years have seen increased recognition of the need for trauma-informed practice, which aims to promote understanding, healing, and the prevention of retraumatization. Historical data show that the early Montessori schools were known internationally as healing schools, wherein children affected by adversity or trauma were apparently healed on a considerable scale. This study presents the findings from a documentary analysis of three primary sources, namely, Maria Montessori’s own original accounts, eyewitness accounts, and media reports pertaining to this healing aspect of the early Montessori schools. The findings demonstrate that, first, from the beginning of her career, Montessori worked with children who had experienced significant exposure to adversity or trauma, second, that her Montessori Method was shown to affect healing or recovery in these children, and third, that her long involvement with trauma-affected children directly led to her later attempts to set up an organization to be called the White Cross, which was to incorporate, among other things, a trauma-informed course for teacher–nurses. In this innovative approach to Montessori studies, we argue that Montessori was ahead of her time, that her work is even more relevant today in the context of adversity and trauma research, and that her methods, principles, and approaches may be harnessed and used in ways that promote trauma-informed practice in contemporary education settings
Dashboards and Public Health: The Development, Impacts, and Lessons From the Irish Government COVID-19 Dashboards
No full textDashboards use a suite of visual analytics, such as various forms of graphs (e.g., line graphs,
histograms, bar charts, pie charts), maps, and infographics (e.g., gauges, traffic lights, meters,
arrows) to display and communicate time series and spatial data. 1 Most contemporary
dashboards are dynamic (i.e., being updated as data, including real-time data, are released) and
interactive (e.g., allowing selecting, filtering, and querying data; zooming in or out, panning, and
overlaying; changing type of visualization).2 The power and utility of dashboards is that they act
as effective cognitive tools for making sense of and tracking voluminous, varied, and quickly
transitioning data, enabling users to examine emerging patterns and trends and make evidence-
informed decisions and policy responses.3,4 Consequently, dashboards have become common
across sectors as a means to communicate, monitor, track, analyze, and act on large volumes of
dynamic data
SWOT Analysis carried out of the MU Library in 2021 in collaboration with the Senior Management Library Team.
No full textIn December 2021, as part of my MLis, I undertook a SWOT analysis of the Maynooth University Library, with the library Senior Management Team. This poster outlines the investigation of the library internal and external strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It provides a snapshot of the current situation. The methodology and key findings are presented.
The output of a SWOT analysis can be used as building blocks in a Strategic Plan, helping identify tasks and actions for various sections in the library. This poster will be of interest to those involved in planning and reviewing library services
Independence: An Introduction to the #AoIR21 Special issue
No full textThis paper introduces the ‘Independence’ themed special issue which includes research presented at the 22nd annual Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) conference (2021). ‘Independence’ as a special issue theme could hardly be timelier, both in geopolitical and internet research terms. The call for the 2021 AoIR annual conference asked us to reflect on the ambivalence of the term, to look back on historical struggles for independence, the long waves of history, and prompted us to ask who benefits from independence (and who does not). Hosted online for a second year, this time by universities in Philadelphia (USA), the conference was bounded by the Black Lives Matter movement, the insurrectionist storming of Washington, D.C.’s Capitol Hill, and global struggles to control the COVID-19 pandemic. This special issue includes nine papers that showcase new research exploring the affordances offered by digital media platforms to people, users, and workers, while also identifying tendencies towards new forms of control and surveillance facilitated by platforms. Topics include geopolitical and biopolitical digital sovereignty, facial recognition technologies, data divides, new methods approaches and innovative data sourcing, mobile and social media, examinations of embodied local knowledge as well as patriarchal, racist, and gendered social structures, and a broad range of field sites from Asia, Africa, and South America
RF Power Amplifier Modeling and Linearisation for Improved Training and Dimension Reduction Techniques
No full textThe energy used to power cellular communication networks has grown immensely
in recent times due to the increased human reliance on the wireless transmission of
data. This has led to increased energy consumption of cellular networks, intensified
by the advent of the Fifth Generation (5G) communication standard. In order to
improve the energy efficiency of current and future cellular communication genera-
tions, the reasons why and how to reduce the power consumption without affecting
performance is an important area of research.
Power Amplifiers (PAs) are responsible for a considerable percentage of the power
inefficiencies in Radio Frequency (RF) transmitters. There is a trade-off in the topol-
ogy of PA architectures between linearity and efficiency. However, to maintain both
high efficiency and linearity external linearisation procedures can be implemented
digitally. Digital Predistortion (DPD) has been demonstrated as a suitable linearisa-
tion solution of PAs that enables the retention of high efficiency and signal linearity.
However as the carrier frequencies and bandwidths of the power amplifiers increase
along with the introduction of multi-antenna base stations, new research and im-
plementation obstacles emerge regarding efficiency, estimation and computational
complexity of traditional DPD methodologies.
This thesis contributes to the advancement of PA models, DPD function estima-
tion process in terms of accuracy and robustness, and finally dimension reduction
of specific DPD functions. These novel developments are cultivated with the afore-
mentioned energy targets of 5G transmission and reception taken into consideration.
Four novel contributions are presented in this thesis. The four contributions are
related to publications listed in the Introduction of this thesis. The focal point of
work presented is optimisation of techniques for PA modelling and linearisation.
The first novel contribution was enhancing a specific learning adaption, Recursive
Least Squares, with improved robustness. An elegant early stopping criterion was
established to minimize both time taken to train model coefficients and model ac-
curacy.
The next novel contribution was a new strategy for DPD to combat the presence of
multi-collinearity, and further reduce computational cost. The next contribution is
related to the calculation of the limits to which modern communication signals can
be down-sampled before use in calculating DPD coefficients , regardless of the DPD
function used.
The final contribution is that of a novel methodology for calculating a common set of
coefficients suitable for behavioural model and DPD coefficient estimation for any
modulated signal. Native features of the testbench were used and the structures
implemented employed hardware resources commonly found in Field Programmable
Gate Arrays (FPGAs)