NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Decoding and Recoding Game jams and Independent Game Making Spaces for Inclusion
No full textWhile research on gamejams internationally has proposed that they can be a useful context for informal learning, networking between indie developers, and innovation, in this chapter we argue that they can also be perceived, and experienced, as exclusionary spaces by those who identify as women, and individuals who are outside of existing game making communities. Research on gamejams in two different cities in Ireland for the Refiguring Innovation in Games project found that these events overwhelmingly attracted a young male demographic with existing programming skills. Since 2016 the authors have designed and run six adult ‘female friendly’ diversity in games workshops in Ireland to encourage inclusive informal education and innovation. They took place at weekends in co-working innovation centres and formal educational settings provided by our partners. This chapter reflects on the recruitment, participation, and outcome of our workshops - but in particular reflects on the explicit and implicit spatial and technical barriers faced by participants and organisers. While contemporary discourses and industry data seem to support the democratisation of games production, contemporary software for game development and available learning spaces impose restrictions that continue to marginalise and impose a technicity that is gendered, classed and raced. This chapter argues that explicit inclusion strategies are needed to address persist structures of exclusion in informal and formal games education
‘Good to know’: An exploration of the role and influence of professional ethics in ICT Bodies of Knowledge (BoKs).
No full textAs our dependency on ever-more complex, opaque, and ubiquitous information and communication technologies
(ICTs) increases, ethical concerns about the development of those technologies are also rising. One approach to mitigate
these concerns is to improve the maturity of the ICT profession through codification of its knowledge base and professional
ethics. In this paper, some key theoretical approaches to ethics with a long-established tradition within Philosophy are
explored and how these approaches may manifest in the codification of knowledge within ICT Bodies of Knowledge (BoKs)
is discussed. BoKs provide a common vocabulary and knowledge inventory to aid communication and encourage shared
values and practices, particularly in emerging professional areas such as the ICT profession. Thus, identifying and
understanding how ethics are codified in ICT BoKs is important for maturing ICT professional practice in general, and more
specifically, for the resolution of ethical concerns. This paper 1) explores considerations and approaches to how ethics are
incorporated within ICT BoKs, and 2) conducts content analysis on how ethics are codified within the content structure of
ICT Boks. It is found that theoretical ethical approaches are rarely explicitly cited in BoKS though, in the more mature BoKs,
the discussion of ethics does include consideration of most of the major philosophical approaches. The implications of how
knowledge about ethics is described and integrated into the wider knowledge infrastructure of the ICT profession including
curriculum guidelines and accreditation processes is discussed. In a wider contribution to the Knowledge Management
discipline, potential lessons to increase maturity for other emerging professions through the development of BoKs are also
outlined
Digital Pre-Distortion: The Implementation, Minimisation, & Estimation
No full textImproving the energy efficiency of cellular communication networks is necessary for future
green and sustainable wireless communications. The advent of Fifth Generation (5G) communications
has introduced new communication scenarios which have augmented this issue;
large scale networks of small cell battery powered nodes, massive Multiple Input Multiple
Output (MIMO) transmission consisting of large multiples of transmitter elements per base
station and beam steering antenna arrays for high frequency communications.
Power Amplifiers (PA) are a major cause for power inefficiency in Radio Frequency (RF) transmitters.
An trade-off in PA design exists between efficiency and linearity. To satisfy both high
efficiency and high linearity, an external linearisation technique can be applied to a PA.
Digital Pre-Distortion (DPD) has been widely demonstrated in industry and academia to perform
linearisation. Some issues concerning DPD are related to implementation efficiency,
robust function estimation and the complexity of DPD solutions.
This dissertation contributes to the optimised design of pre-distorters in hardware, the improvement
of the DPD function estimation process in terms of accuracy and robustness, and
the dimension reduction of DPD functions. These contributions are accomplished with modern
5G transmission scenarios in mind.
Four novel contributions (B-E) are presented in this thesis, directly related to publications
listed on page xi. These contributions were focused on the aspects of DPD function implementation,
minimisation and estimation.
Two novel contributions were made related to the aspect of implementation. These focused on
the design of polynomial pre-distorters. They present optimised pre-distorter designs based
on whether there is prior knowledge on the exact structure or not. The first proposed method
(B) optimises a pre-distorter with regards to hardware efficiency and latency for a given predistorter
structure. It achieves the best compromise of both compared to existing methods.
The second proposed method (D) is focused on hardware efficiency and can optimise predistorters
without prior knowledge of the polynomial structure.
The remaining two contributions are related to the minimisation and estimation aspects of a
DPD function. In this thesis contributions were focused on minimised sets of Least Squares
(LS) estimated DPD parameters. The first of these proposed methods (C) gauges the influence
of training samples on the fitted function. Samples with an abnormally large influence relative
to the other training samples can be deemed outlier data points and excluded from a repeated
regression. Experimental results while using the method (E) showed improved linearisation
performance while using a reduced training dataset. The second of these proposed methods
(E) extends the concept of (C) to analysing the influence each estimated parameter has on
the fitted function. From a scale of 0 to 1 the linear independence of each individual basis
function is gauged, which reflects its relative importance in the regression. Not only can this
then be used to prune the least relevant features, it also offers a simple and informative level
of interpretability not found among other feature selection methods. Experimental results,
using measured PA output signals, in which feature selection was performed with the proposed
method (E) showed comparable linearisation performance with reduced pre-distorter
complexity to the LS method
Precarity and the pandemic
No full textAn inquiry into the impact of Covid19 on the working
lives of non-permanent educators in, and across, higher
and further education in Ireland
An Arts Based Narrative Inquiry into Children's Experiences of the Five Foundations of the Social-Emotional and Academic Learning Program you can do it! Program Achieve.
No full textMy research aims to narratively inquire into students’ experiences of the five foundations of
the social-emotional and academic learning program ‘You Can Do It (YCDI) Program
Achieve’ (2007) and explore the impact the program has had on their lives on and off the
school landscape. I also present and explore how eight primary school children composed
their individual stories to live by, a narrative form of identity (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000),
through stories shared throughout this inquiry. What might I learn by inquiring into these
experiences, where children’s stories of the YCDI foundations and the program intersect
and bump against school stories and other stories we live in (Morris, 2002)? How might
inquiring into emerging tensions deepen understanding of cultural, institutional, and social
narratives shaping the students' lives and stories? How might my inquiry expand knowledge
about the YCDI program and the meeting of diverse lives on school landscapes?
My research puzzle considered YCDI conversations as spaces where children
engaged in meaning and identity-making, where tensions arose as stories bumped against
dominant cultural, institutional, and social narratives in an out-of-classroom place
(Clandinin & Connelly, 1999). The participants’ stories and my autobiographical narratives
revealed the complexity of navigating the school landscape and the workshops. This
complexity led to a re-imagining of the school landscape as a space where students’ and
teachers’ lives and stories entwined, entangled, bumped, and shifted in relation to others in
creative, curious, and often tension-filled ways. I understand the context for teacher
knowledge in terms of the professional knowledge landscape (Clandinin & Connelly, 1995)
and teachers’ personal practical knowledge (Connelly & Clandinin, 1988). I also wish to
make space for students' personal learner knowledgeto attend to their embodied lives,
wisdom, and school experiences.
Drawing upon the relational nature of narrative inquiry, I use the guiding metaphor
of a ‘life-timeline’ to ground myself and my participants in the three-dimensional narrative
inquiry space of the personal, social, temporal, and place or series of places (Clandinin &
Connelly, 2000). During the first stage of my inquiry, I came alongside my participants as we
engaged in arts-based workshops based around the students’ experiences of the five
foundations of the YCDI (2007) program; Organisation, Confidence, Getting Along,
Resilience and Persistence. We came alongside each other again, one year later, where we
engaged in one-to-one creative conversations where I shared their stories with them while
also revisiting and, in some instances, restorying their pieces of art. This narrative inquiry
has revealed numerous threads and plotlines such as storylines of YCDI foundations,
storylines of the program's impact, storylines of competition, marginalization, resistance,
tension, family, school, belonging, and care
Technology supporting infection prevention and control training in Africa
No full textInfection Control Network Africa (ICAN) is the largest infection prevention and control (IPC) organisation in Africa. It provides IPC education programs and actively supports IPC implementation to reduce healthcare-associated infections(HAIs), such as COVID-19, Ebola, etc. Good quality clinical hand hygiene is the foundation of IPC. Still, it is challenging to teach as it involves a new psychomotor skill and develops new hand hygiene habits appropriate to the clinical setting. In 2019 ICANTrain-The-Trainer (TTT) program began using the SureWashtechnology platform to support both in-person education and the cascade of training to other staff in the facility. This paper describes the need, the technology platform, program rollout before and during the COVID-19 outbreak, the impact and the lessons learned. We conclude by providing some observations on the future use of technology for infection control trainin
“You either sink or you swim, and you're better off swimming”: A qualitative study exploring the self-management experiences of soft tissue sarcoma survivors
No full textPurpose: To qualitatively explore the consequences of soft tissue sarcoma and its treatment experienced by survivors, the self-management strategies they use to deal with these consequences, and any factors that may act as barriers or facilitators to their self-management.
Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven soft tissue sarcoma survivors who had completed their primary treatment. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and thematically analysed.
Results: Physical, psychological and social consequences of soft tissue sarcoma and its treatment were identified, with side-effects, physical restrictions, body image issues, fear of recurrence, feeling depressed, familial relationships and sexual activity being the most frequently reported. Nine different types of self-management strategy encompassing eighteen specific strategies were identified, including cognitive strategies, lifestyle changes and utilisation of resources. Personal, social and environmental facilitators of self-management were identified; being in a relationship, being at an appropriate life stage, and having support from family, friends and medical staff were most commonly reported. Finally, personal and environmental barriers to self-management included the adaptation period, ongoing complications, rareness of sarcoma and poor patient-healthcare provider communication.
Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest that soft tissue sarcoma survivors, especially those who are younger and experience physical limitations, may find the immediate post-treatment period particularly challenging and may benefit from nurse-led self-management support
Cyclodextrins as Supramolecular Recognition Systems: Applications in the Fabrication of Electrochemical Sensors
No full textSupramolecular chemistry, although focused mainly on noncovalent intermolecular and intramolecular interactions, which are considerably weaker than covalent interactions, can be employed to fabricate sensors with a remarkable affinity for a target analyte. In this review the development of cyclodextrin-based electrochemical sensors is described and discussed. Following a short introduction to the general properties of cyclodextrins and their ability to form inclusion complexes, the cyclodextrin-based sensors are introduced. This includes the combination of cyclodextrins with reduced graphene oxide, carbon nanotubes, conducting polymers, enzymes and aptamers, and electropolymerized cyclodextrin films. The applications of these materials as chiral recognition agents and biosensors and in the electrochemical detection of environmental contaminants, biomolecules and amino acids, drugs and flavonoids are reviewed and compared. Based on the papers reviewed, it is clear that cyclodextrins are promising molecular recognition agents in the creation of electrochemical sensors, chiral sensors, and biosensors. Moreover, they have been combined with a host of materials to enhance the detection of the target analytes. Nevertheless, challenges remain, including the development of more robust methods for the integration of cyclodextrins into the sensing unit
Can my use of Guided Inquiry Based Science Education enhance my pupils learning of and attitude towards Science?
No full textThe main purpose of this self-study research was to enhance my practice in the
area of Science Education, enabling me to live closer to my educational values of
inclusion and autonomy. I aimed to improve the children’s learning of scientific
concepts while fostering positive attitudes towards Science using a child-centred
inquiry approach to teaching and learning.
Applying a self-study action research paradigm allowed me to gain a deeper
insight into my practice by reflecting critically through multiple lenses (Brookfield,
1995). My reflective journal, children’s questionnaires, children’s interviews,
worksheets (to assess learning) and conversations with critical friends provided data
sources from a variety of perspectives. These were analysed and reflected on to offer
rigour and validity to the research.
I carried out two cycles of research. Examining my own practice in Cycle 1
(reconnaissance) and introducing an Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE) approach
in Cycle 2. This inquiry approach was hands-on and minds-on, encouraging the children
to think critically, work collaboratively and develop their scientific skills.
I have shown that children’s interest in and enjoyment of Science increased
when engaging with an inquiry approach to teaching and learning, their academic
attainment in Science increased with many becoming more articulate in expressing their
ideas. Furthermore, IBSE allowed me to embed my values into my practice and reembrace
a constructivist mind-set