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Being in Reference to the Person: Christos Yannaras and the Ecclesial Event.
No full textThe central aim of this dissertation is to offer a focused study on Christos Yannaras’ unexplored
response to Martin Heidegger’s onto-theological critique of metaphysics, with the further intention
of advancing Yannaras’ proposal as a possible way forward from the metaphysical impasse of
Western nihilism in the emerging field of Continental philosophy of religion. Accordingly, this
essay sets out to address the following questions: how and in what way can Yannaras’ response
overcome the metaphysical impasse of Western nihilism as illuminated by Martin Heidegger?
Further still, this inquiry gives rise to the following question: how in and what way does Yannaras’
response contribute to contemporary post-Heideggerian discourse? In response to the first
question, this essay will argue that Yannaras’ response to Heidegger’s critique is able to overcome
the metaphysical impasse of Western nihilism by A) arguing that the historical unfolding of
nihilism is an event that must be restricted to the Latin (Western European) philosophical tradition
alone, and thus neither accounts for nor applies to the non-Western, Hellenistic tradition of the
Christian East, which he summarizes as the philosophical tradition of the Greek Church Fathers.
Second, and for this reason, Yannaras is able to B) present the tradition of the Greek Church
Fathers as capable of successfully overcoming the nihilistic implications of Heidegger’s
fundamental ontology insofar as he believes it to offer a non-essentialist, testimonial metaphysics
of ecclesial existence which is not derived from the onto-theological structure of value-laden
metaphysics, but is capable of being known and validated through praxis, participation, and
intersubjective experience. In response to the second question, I will then argue that C) Yannaras’
ontological understanding of ecclesial existence offers a key methodological hermeneutic which
would allow for richer discourse amongst Christian thinkers within the post-Heideggerian field of
Continental philosophy of religion insofar as it would not restrict phenomenological discourse
within Christianity to theology or religion, but would open the possibility for Christian experience
to be discussed ontologically within the discipline of philosophy proper
The impact of parental emotional support on the succession intentions of next-generation family business members
No full textDrawing on social cognitive theory, this study investigates the influence of family business owners as parents on the succession intentions of their children. Measures of parental emotional support, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and affective commitment are applied to predict succession intentions. We test our research model on an international sample of21,525 sons and daughters of family business owners. The results suggest that parental emotional support positively influences succession intentions and is mediated by two cognitive factors: entrepreneurial self-efficacy and affective commitment to the family business. The results also suggest interaction effects of gender and birth order on succession intentions. This study offers important theoretical and practical insights into the aspirations of next-generation members of family businesses
Physical and perceptual demands of youth international team match-play in traditional and aged-matched future teams for biologically late maturing soccer players
No full textBackground: Given the rapidly increasing interest in national futures programmes, and the associated
significant increased resource investment, there is a pressing need for data specific to futures programmes
to inform practice across world football.
Aim: To investigate the differences in the physical and perceptual demands of match-play using Global
Positioning Software technology and Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) in traditional youth internation
team and age-matched international future teams for biologically late-maturing players over one
in-season period.
Subjects and methods: total of 18 U15 future team (FT) players and 21 national team (NT) playe
were examined.
Results: The results showed that FT players performed 9% greater total distances (p=0.008, Cohen’s d
1.29) and accumulated 20% greater total player loads (p<0.001, Cohen’s d 1.88) than NT players durin
matches. In contrast, NT players covered 113% greater sprinting distances (p=0.033, Cohen’s d 0.63) a
performed 62% more high-intensity accelerations (p=0.015, Cohen’s d 0.90) than FT players. There were
no differences in high-intensity and very high-intensity running distances, number of accelerations,
number of decelerations or high-intensity decelerations, or match-play RPE. When accounting for
biological maturation, the adjusted marginal means were not different between FT and NT players in
any physical metric except for total player load (p=0.046) and high-intensity accelerations (p<0.030).
Conclusion: We conclude that while several physical performance metrics differ significantly between FT
and NT match-play, the most robust differences after controlling for maturation are in sprint performance
and high-intensity accelerations
Introduction: minorities and the making of European welfare
No full textThe development of welfare states across Europe in the twentieth century had different outcomes for different segments of society. In this special issue the dual character of welfare – that is, the aim of alleviating distress and creating social cohesion while creating divisions when determining who is deserving of what – is studied through the lens of ethnic and social minorities. Minorities, grouped together through joint experiences, heritage and/or social classifi-cations, have been subjected to both inclusionary and exclusionary welfare policies. Thus, welfare in the form of social services, social security, education and health care is a key component in addres-sing, maintaining and creating majority-minority divisions. This article introduces the contributions to the special issue and outlines their historiographical and conceptual foundations. Special atten-tion is given to how the authors in the special issue define welfare and minorities, as well as how the articles contribute to the study of these fields. In the introduction, we argue for a need to study the implications of welfare for minorities case by case, while at the same time outlining principal ways that minorities and welfare have been interlinked
Teachers learning to use student voice in primary physical education – ready, steady, go!
No full textPrimary physical education lags behind student voice developments in research and practice internationally (Gillett-Swan and Baroutsis, 2023) and in post-primary physical education (Howley and
O’Sullivan, 2021; Iannucci and Parker, 2022a). Furthermore, evidence is lacking on how to guide
primary teachers learning to implement student voice pedagogies in physical education successfully. This research begins to fill this gap by focusing on the research question: What direction
can be taken from primary teachers’ experiences of learning to enact student voice in physical
education? Insight on what mattered in teachers’ learning to enact student voice can guide how
to promote student voice pedagogies as everyday primary physical education pedagogies.
Within a professional learning community (n=10), nine primary teachers enacted student voice
pedagogical strategies over a six-month period. Data sources included recordings of monthly collective meetings with teachers (n=7), mid-point (n=4) and/or end-point (n=6) individual interviews with the teachers, blog posts (n=2), conference presentations (n=2), and three focus
groups with children (n=12). Drawing on teachers’ and children’s experiences, a roadmap for teachers getting started with enactment of student voice pedagogies is presented with attention to:
starting small, starting smart, and not stopping. Teachers valued the outcomes of enactment of student voice pedagogies for the children in their classes in ways that changed their teaching
approaches and sustained their commitment to student voice pedagogies. The roadmap presented
can be used to support teachers learning how to enact student voice as an everyday pedagogy in
primary physical education
Revised OSL chronology of the Kisiljevo loess-palaeosol sequence: New insight into the dust flux in the eastern Carpathian Basin during MIS 3 - MIS1
No full textThis study presents a detailed investigation of the Kisiljevo loess-palaeosol sequence in north-eastern Serbia, offering a refined understanding of its paleoenvironmental dynamics. Contrasting our updated OSL chronology with a previous study, reveals discrepancies, particularly at 400 cm depth, where a considerable age underestimation is evident. While variations in sampling depth and methodology may contribute to some differences, the substantial deviation raises concern about the reliability of the earlier chronology. Our robust age-depth model constructed using Bayesian modelling, and the consistent increase in ages with depth suggest a potential underestimation in the uppermost layer of the earlier study, possibly due to partial bleaching or post-depositional mixing. The Bayesian age-depth model portrays a continuous sedimentation history from the later stages of Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3) to the present day. The patterns in the calculated Mass Accumulation Rates reveal distinctive peaks during MIS 3 and the middle of MIS 2, deviating from typical dust deposition models. The MIS 3 peaks in dustiness could be attributed to regional factors such as increased transportation rates, enhanced trapping efficiency, or elevated palaeowind intensity. This research not only enhances our understanding of the Kisiljevo LPS but also provides valuable insights into regional paleoenvironmental dynamics. The study emphasizes the importance of considering local geological variations in reconstructing past climates from sediment archives and sets the stage for further investigations into the factors influencing dust deposition in north-eastern Serbia. The MAR trends established here serve as a crucial reference for broader paleoclimatic interpretations in the Carpathian Basin
Data mobilities: Rethinking the movement and circulation of digital data
No full textThe mobility of data has been variously described as data: flows, streams, journeys, threads,
transfers, exchanges, and circulation. In each case, the mobility of data is conceived as a
movement from here to there; that data moves along a chain of receivers and senders.
However, we contend that the metaphor of a data flow (or stream, journey, etc.) does not
reflect well the sharing and circulation of digital data. Rather, data replicate (copies), with the
original source retaining the data and a new source gaining it, and data proliferates
(multiplies) and diffuses across systems and sites when made openly available. As data
replicate and proliferate they are transformed through processes of data cleaning, data
wrangling, data fusion and enrichment, producing new incarnations of the source data.
Moreover, data does not replicate and diffuse alone, but with companions, such as other data
(e.g., metadata, derived data) and information (e.g., documentation, visualisations). The
replication, proliferation and diffusion of data is facilitated by seams (interface/connection points between systems) and aided by metadata, standards and protocols, and hindered by
frictions and vulnerabilities. We illustrate our argument through a case study of the planning
data ecosystem in Ireland
Selection of reference data significantly influences biological maturity timing classification in national youth soccer players
No full textThis study investigated biological maturity timing (BMT) in 116 Irish U13 and 958 Swedish U15 male national soccer players using various growth reference datasets. BMT was expressed as a Z-score comparing each player's percentage of predicted adult height (%PAH) to age-specific means and standard deviations reported in the: Berkeley Growth Longitudinal (US), UK 1990 growth reference (UK), and Swedish 2000s growth reference (SWE) studies. Multinomial logistic regression was used to compare BMT classification (Early, On-time, Late) between datasets. One-sampled means t-tests were used to examine BMT-related maturity biases per cohort and reference dataset. For both Swedish U15 (p < 0.001) and Irish U13 (p = 0.003) players, BMT classification was significantly influenced by the selection of the growth reference dataset. Only 61% of players had the same BMT category across all reference datasets. Significant maturity biases existed in favour of early maturing Swedish players (mean = 96.5%PAH) in all datasets, although moderate using SWE (d = 0.7), large using UK (d = 1.02), and very large using US (d = 1.36) (all p < 0.001). Small significant maturity biases existed in favour of early maturing Irish players (mean = 87.1%PAH) using UK (p < 0.001, d = 0.48) and US (p < 0.001, d = 0.33), but not SWE. We conclude that maturity Z-scores must be interpreted with significant caution, given the large variations in BMT classification between reference datasets
Smoothness and covariance structure modelling in Bayesian machine learning models
No full textBayesian additive regression trees (BART) is a Bayesian tree-based model which can
provide high predictive accuracy in both classification and regression problems. Within
the Bayesian paradigm, regularisation is achieved by defining priors which ensure that
each tree contributes modestly to the overall ensemble, thereby enhancing generalisation.
Consequently, BART has proven to be very useful in a wide array of applications.
However, the standard BART model is limited in certain respects. This thesis introduces
some novel extensions to the BART framework to address certain key shortcomings. The
inherent lack of smoothness, which is intrinsic to the piecewise-constant nature of the
decision trees, is the motivation behind two of our proposals. The first involves the incorporation
of Gaussian processes while the second uses penalised splines in the terminal
nodes. Both of these novel approaches yield demonstrable improvements from the points
of view of predictive accuracy and uncertainty calibration in extensive simulations and
real-world applications.
Another drawback of the standard BART model is that it is designed for predicting
univariate outcomes. We introduce a third extension to embed BART in the seemingly
unrelated regression framework to deal with multiple outcomes and model the covariance
structure arising from their joint distribution. The method is applied in a causal setting
in order to determine the cost-effectiveness of a novel medical intervention.
The incorporation of penalised splines is designed to introduce smoothness to BART’s
predictions. Concurrently, the extension to model multivariate outcomes within a seemingly
unrelated regression framework enhances BART by structuring the covariance
among responses. The synthesis of Gaussian processes with BART exemplifies this
dual enhancement, simultaneously facilitating smooth predictive surfaces and capturing
structured dependency, although the latter is within the feature space
Collateral Damage: the Body and the Environment in post-2003 Iraqi fiction
No full textThis research maps an aesthetic turn/or shift in Iraqi fiction that occurred after the 2003 US-led invasion and the fall of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime. I class this as an experimental turn in the aesthetics of the Iraqi novel that builds on the social realism more prevalent in the pre-2003 Iraqi novel. Post-2003 fiction shares similarities with pre-2003 fiction in that it has been produced either during, or in the aftermath, of a long duration of coloniality/neocoloniality, and is oftentimes inflected, thematically, with the physical environment. Post-2003 Iraqi fiction builds on its pre-2003 forebears in its other-than-realist dislocations of pre-2003 Iraqi social realism, where narratives that are seemingly grounded within realism are punctuated with speculative tropes, as in Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi, or with a fragmented narrative punctuated with moments of unreality, as in The Corpse Washer, by Sinan Antoon. These texts share similarities in their preoccupation with the environment and the body; “the body” in this instance signifies the corporeal body/body politic or national body/and the text as a body. In this context, the thesis reads the engagement with Iraq’s natural resources–trees, water and oil–in the two texts in terms of aesthetic and formal techniques of representing violence that impacts the body and the environment in interconnected ways