NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Trunk, pelvis and lower limb coordination between anticipated and unanticipated sidestep cutting in females
No full textBackground
Emerging research has suggested a plausible relationship may exist between lower limb coordination and musculoskeletal injury. A small number of studies have investigated the link between coordination and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury during sidestep cutting. While prior work has shown unanticipated sidestep cutting to exhibit a more ‘at risk’ kinematic profile compared to anticipated tasks, a detailed understanding of the coordination between multiple joints and how they differ during unanticipated actions is lacking, particularly in females.
Research question
The purpose of this study was to observe the difference in trunk, pelvis and lower limb coordination and coordination variability during a dynamic, sidestep cutting task under anticipated and unanticipated conditions in a healthy female cohort.
Methods
Three-dimensional motion analysis data were recorded during anticipated and unanticipated sidestep cutting for nineteen healthy female participants (age, 24 ± 3yrs; height, 164 ± 5 cm; and weight, 58 ± 6 kg). Vector coding methodology was used to calculate coordination and coordination variability values and statistical parametric and non-parametric mapping was used to comprehensively determine differences between anticipated and unanticipated conditions.
Results
Differences were observed between anticipated and unanticipated conditions in the hip flexion – knee abduction angle (89 % of stance), hip rotation – knee abduction angle (55 % of stance), knee flexion – knee abduction angle (81–83 %, 86 % and 88–89 %) and knee flexion – ankle flexion angle (14–18 %) coupling angles. Differences in coupling angle variability were also observed with only one cluster of significance seen in hip abduction – knee abduction variability (27–30 % of stance).
Significance
Healthy females exhibit significant differences in lower limb coupling angles and coupling angle variability between anticipated and unanticipated sidestep cutting. Interventions aimed at reducing ACL injury risk may need to consider that anticipated and unanticipated sidestep cutting tasks present unique demands, and therefore should both be trained specifically
Political science in Central and Eastern Europe: integration with limited convergence in Czechia
No full textThis article discusses the integration of scholars from Central and Eastern Europe
(CEE) into the broader field of European political science. Evaluating data from
2000 to 2020, we ask whether CEE scholars managed to “close the gap” stemming from the initially underdeveloped state of post-communist political science.
We contend that the results are rather mixed: CEE scholars have been increasingly
present, yet achieved only very limited access to the top levels and mostly remain
in a position of dependency. Using the case of Czechia, we discuss the factors that
have likely contributed to the perpetuation of this state of integration with limited
convergence
'Schiller Goes Transnational: Julie Paucker and Robert Schuster’s "Malalai – Die afghanische Jungfrau von Orléans" (2017)'
No full textThis article focuses on Julie Paucker and Robert Schuster’s ‘MALALAI – Die afghanische Jungfrau von Orléans’ (2017), paying special attention to the constructions and contestations of gender and nation in this recent re-working of Schiller’s Die Jungfrau von Orleans(1801). Paucker radically re-configures Schiller’s play, whose engagement with the concept of nation allowed subsequent interpretations to view it as a nationalist text depicting a symbolic figure for a German nation that did not as yet exist, by centering on nineteenth-century Afghan folk hero Malalai of Maiwand and placing her in dialogue with her Franco-German counterpart. Set against past and present conflict in Afghanistan, migration to Europe, and the ‘refugee crisis’ in Germany, ‘MALALAI’ engages two geographically and culturally disparate myths. Whilst Paucker’s version of Schiller’s text elaborates an intertextual negotiation with the past, her transnational adaptation of a national narrative undermines and transcends the nationalism and Eurocentrism which have marked much of modern Jeanne d’Arc-reception to date. Through its multilingual and multinational politics of performance, ‘MALALAI’ resists re-writing Schiller’s Jung frauas an example of a major literature, positing instead a center/periphery shift as a way of attending to historical and political development on a global level
Philippe Vigand on Disability, Masculinity, and Ecology
No full textThe increase in publications in French dealing with physical
impairment and disability, which has been notable for the past thirty years, includes the work of Philippe Vigand who, following a cerebro-vascular accident, lived with “locked-in syndrome” and wrote six books. In this article, the ways in which Vigand engages with the concept of masculinity are studied in order to clarify the influence of the natural world itself, specifically forests and stag hunting to hounds, and of the French idea of the citizen, on his
sense of his life with profound physical impairments
Diachronic Delta: A computational and dialectical method for analysing literary corpora
No full textMuch has been written on computational literary studies' (CLS) rigidity and reductiveness
in comparison with literary criticism's more pragmatic and intuitive means of approaching
its object of study. This thesis attempts to undermine this antinomy via dialectical
materialist philosophy as proposed by George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and developed by
Karl Marx. As a science and a method of social critique, dialectics not only has a long
history of usage within literary criticism, but they also provide a means of mediating the
distinctions between empirical evidence, logic and intuition.
We do so by operationalising .John Burrows' 'Delta' method across time mther than as it is
conventionally applied, across text (.T. Burrows, "'Delta': a Measure of Stylistic Difference
and a Guide to Likely Authorship"). We thereby identify particular years as being
associated with extensive amounts of 'novelty' (which years introduce the most amount
of distance from proceeding years) and also possess extensive amounts of 'resonance' (are
relatively proximate to their successor years). This is undertaken on the basis that agents
within a dataset which score highly for both of these metrics are highly innovative, as
they are significantly different from the years which come before, and relatively similar
to the years which come after (Barron et al., "Individuals, institutions, and innovation
in the debates of the French Revolution."; Barron et al., "Supplementary Information:
Individuals, Institutions, and Innovation in the Debates of the French Revolution"). We
refer to these years as 'breaks' and identify them in order to contrast their behaviour
with the longue-dunie approach increasingly prevalent within CLS (Underwood, Distant
Horizons: Digital Evidence and Literary Change 25).
Though this theory of incremental change ultimately remains in overall terms robust, this
thesis nevertheless presents significant results arising from this method and demonstrates
the ways in which dialectical materialist philosophy may ground the use of empirical
methods more coherently within contemporary literary critical practice
Please don’t put a price on our lives”: Social media and the contestation of value in Ireland’s pricing of orphan drugs.
No full textThis chapter combines two streams of scholarship—social media marketing and influence, and market organization—to examine two case studies of patient activism in the context of Irish drug pricing. The first is the provision of Orkambi, a drug for cystic fibrosis, which was approved in Ireland after eleven months of state/pharma negotiations held in a context of public debate and social media campaigning by people living with cystic fibrosis, their loved ones, and their advocates. The second case concerns the provision of Spinraza, a drug for patients with spinal muscular atrophy. In each case the chapter identifies key actors and tracks their social media activity with a view to identifying key turning points in the debate, relational links, and shifts. Ultimately the goal is to understand how activist organizations and individuals organize and reorganize the pharmaceutical market and the collective good through their actions and interactions on social media
“Data is the new oil”: citizen science and informed consent in an era of researchers handling of an economically valuable resource
No full textAs with other areas of the social world, academic research in the contemporary healthcare setting has undergone adaptation and change. For example, research methods
are increasingly incorporating citizen participation in the research process, and there has been an increase in collaborative research that brings academic and industry
partners together. There have been numerous positive outcomes associated with both of these growing methodological and collaborative processes; nonetheless, both bring with them ethical considerations that require careful thought and attention. This paper addresses the ethical considerations that research teams must consider when using participatory methods and/or when working with industry and outlines a novel informed consent matrix designed to maintain the high ethical standard to which
academic research in the healthcare arena has traditionally adhered
Climate-Relevant Ocean Transport Measurements in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans
No full textOcean circulation redistributes heat, freshwater, carbon,
and nutrients all around the globe. Because of their importance in regulating climate, weather, extreme events, sea level, fisheries, and ecosystems, large-scale ocean currents should be monitored continuously. The Atlantic is
unique as the only ocean basin where heat is, on average,
transported northward in both hemispheres as part of
the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).
The largely unrestricted connection with the Arctic and
Southern Oceans allows ocean currents to exchange heat,
freshwater, and other properties with polar latitudes
Global short-term forecasting of COVID-19 cases
No full textThe continuously growing number of COVID-19 cases pressures healthcare services worldwide.
Accurate short-term forecasting is thus vital to support country-level policy making. The strategies
adopted by countries to combat the pandemic vary, generating diferent uncertainty levels about
the actual number of cases. Accounting for the hierarchical structure of the data and accommodating
extra-variability is therefore fundamental. We introduce a new modelling framework to describe the
pandemic’s course with great accuracy and provide short-term daily forecasts for every country in the
world. We show that our model generates highly accurate forecasts up to seven days ahead and use
estimated model components to cluster countries based on recent events. We introduce statistical
novelty in terms of modelling the autoregressive parameter as a function of time, increasing predictive
power and fexibility to adapt to each country. Our model can also be used to forecast the number of
deaths, study the efects of covariates (such as lockdown policies), and generate forecasts for smaller
regions within countries. Consequently, it has substantial implications for global planning and decision
making. We present forecasts and make all results freely available to any country in the world through
an online Shiny dashboard
Before and After: Towards Inclusive Production Studies, Theories, and Methods
No full textIn the afterword, Aphra Kerr revisits the early works of production-oriented research about video games,
including her own ethnographic study of a small game development studio in Ireland. From a first-hand
perspective, Kerr describes the first academic conferences that pioneered this direction of scholarly inquiry.
Besides looking back at the foundations of game production studies, the afterword thematizes the recent
developments in video game industries, such as datafication, the environmental effects of production,
surveillance capitalism, toxic game cultures, suggesting the future directions for more inclusive game production
studies