NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Consumer trust and perceived risk for voice-controlled artificial intelligence: The case of Siri
No full textArtificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to change consumer behavior. However, despite billions of consumers
using mobile smart phones, adoption of (artificial) intelligent voice assistants, like Siri, is relatively low. A
conceptual model was constructed to determine the influence of consumer trust, interaction, perceived risk, and
novelty value on brand loyalty for AI supported devices. Using the MTurk platform, data was collected from a
sample of 675 Apple iPhone-using respondents. The findings showed perceived risk seems to have a significantly
negative influence on brand loyalty; however, other factors were found to have a significantly positive influence
on brand loyalty. The influence of novelty value of using Siri was found to be moderated by brand involvement
and consumer innovativeness in such a way the influence is greater for consumers who are less involved with the
brand and who are more innovativ
Seasonal and daytime variation in multiple immune parameters in humans: Evidence from 329,261 participants of the UK Biobank cohort
No full textSeasonal disease outbreaks are perennial features of human infectious disease but the factors generating these patterns are unclear. Here we investigate seasonal and daytime variability in multiple immune parameters in 329,261 participants in UK Biobank and test for associations with a wide range of environmental and lifestyle factors, including changes in day length, outdoor temperature and vitamin D at the time the blood sample was collected. Seasonal patterns were evident in lymphocyte and neutrophil counts, and C-reactive protein CRP, but not monocytes, and these were independent of lifestyle, demographic, and environmental factors. All the immune parameters assessed demonstrated significant daytime variation that was independent of confounding factors. At a population level, human immune parameters vary across season and across time of day, independent of multiple confounding factors. Both season and time of day are fundamental dimensions of immune function that should be considered in all studies of immuno-prophylaxis and disease transmission
Interaction of multiple ice streams on the Malin Shelf during deglaciation of the last British-Irish Ice Sheet
No full textThe Malin Shelf, off north-west Ireland, was an important zone of confluence for marine-based ice streams of the former British-Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS). Legacy geophysical datasets are used to construct models of the seismic character, relative age and distribution of shelf sediments and landforms. Buried and surface landform assemblages provide evidence that during deglaciation of the Late Devensian BIIS, the region was occupied not by a single Hebrides Ice Stream as previously proposed, but by four discrete ice streams, here referred to as the Sea of the Hebrides (SHIS), Inner Hebrides, North Channel and Tory Island ice streams. Our observations of stratigraphic relationships between the deposits of these ice streams indicate physical interactions between them during shelf deglaciation. We interpret an initial dominant cross-shelf flow along the SHIS impeding cross-shelf ice flow from other ice sheet sectors. Following withdrawal of the SHIS grounding line from the shelf edge to mid-shelf bathymetric highs during deglaciation, a reconfiguration of ice sheet flow paths allowed the expansion of smaller cross-shelf ice streams draining central Scotland and north-western Ireland. This internal dynamic behaviour provides a possible physical analogue for time-transgressive flow patterns reported for outlets draining the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
Transformations of Political Consciousness in the Process of State Formation in Nepal
No full textThis thesis builds on an ethnographic study of revolutionary action in rural Nepal by
conceptually grounding it in political, economic and historical analyses of capitalist
development and state formation. Nepal’s hilly periphery has become an important
region, where systemic change and the rise of political movements make it necessary to
understand the inter-relation between broader structures of power and local cultural
meanings of resistance. The recent political history of Nepal has seen the interplay
between these forces through the rise of peasant politics that culminated in Maoist
politics. This movement process, politically marked by a 10-year long People’s War, has
led to the establishment of a federal republic and reshaped the socio-political landscape
of rural Nepal.
The thesis draws on long-term fieldwork engagement in the former Maoist base area in
Mid-Western Nepal. Through participant observation, interviews, life stories and
discourse analysis, the thesis explores the transformations of political consciousness in
rural Nepal. The first part of the thesis focuses on the ‘conditional element of class’,
through which I explore unifying and pluralizing tendencies of capitalist modernity. By
engaging with the topics of modernity, development, state-formation, and the theory of
uneven and combined development, chapters 3-7 explore the background of the peasant
movement process that is grounded in Nepal's integration into the global capitalist
economy.
The second part of the thesis focuses on the ‘potential element of class’ and the post-
revolutionary context of the Maoist insurgency by ethnographically studying the Maoist
movement process in Kham Magar villages. The multi-layered analysis of the uneven
development of revolutionary action digs deeper into the political process of the People’s
War to show how the Maoists created their discourse of resistance. I follow these
developments that overgrew the Maoist framing process and small scale organizing to the
larger political-ideological institutions that established the Maoist base area. The history
of Maoist rule in the village of Maikot shows that in the former base area, the Maoists
organised the peasant’s experience into a thickly interwoven world of ‘subaltern
counterpublics’. Although the Maoist movement has seen its decline, I argue that to
understand the process of social transformation in rural Nepal, we should investigate the
constantly changing elements of the subaltern experience. I explore this through the life
stories of former Maoist combatants that map the rough coordinates of the post-
revolutionary common sense. This topic is also addressed in the doctoral ethnographic
film Taking on the Storm (2021), a filmic exploration of post-revolutionary common
sense in the former Maoist base area. Maikot’s post-revolutionary context is further
explored by analyzing the yarsagumba economy, an ethnographic narrative that explores
the peasants’ increased dependency on this lucrative commodity chain. In the last chapter
entitled Mushroom at the Top of the World (accompanied by a film with the same title),
I show how the yarsagumba economy has created a hybrid form of subsumption,
reflecting the contingency and unevenness of capitalist development in rural Nepal. I
argue that the post-revolutionary situation in Rukum has increased the integration of
peasant lives into dependent precarious livelihoods concealed by politics of autonomy.
This has created a situation in which class struggle increases the power of rural elites over
the resource-dependent peasantry. Maikot’s ethnographic example brings us to a
conceptualisation of peasant politics and capitalist development, where the potential
elements of class strengthen the power of the rural elites, creating a form of passive
revolution
Using contextual cues in understanding urban mental well-being
No full textIt is well established that city life can impact on individuals’ mental well-being. Factors associated with modes of transport in a
city, such as cycle corridors and the reliability of bus network, and environment factors, such as availability of green spaces, have
been shown to relate to individuals’ well-being in the city. Smart cities contain a wealth of digital data which has been used in the
management and organisation of cities. Such data is gathered from sensors, networks and systems which contain rich insights on
factors associated with city life. Such as, for example, the availability of open spaces in the city, traffic congestion, and air quality
levels. We propose that these smart city data sources and data flows can act as contextual cues to indicate the mental well-being of
individuals in the city. That is, we propose harnessing indicators and patterns in datasets known to be associated with well-being,
and using these as contextual cues for automated city well-being level estimation. In this initial investigation, we focus on contextual
cues associated with active travel and transportation, environmental information and green infrastructure. We propose an AI-based
system which uses these contextual cues to generate an indicator of mental well-being in the city
Q-methodology as an innovative means of promoting human rights and social justice by engaging social workers in research on their organisational policy and practice
No full textThis presentation has no abstract
How should I put it? Q-methodology as an innovative means of engaging social workers in research on organisational policy and practice
No full textThis presentation has no abstract
Towards developing forensically relevant single-cell pipelines by incorporating direct-to-PCR extraction: compatibility, signal quality, and allele detection
No full textCurrent analysis of forensic DNA stains relies on the probabilistic interpretation of bulk-processed samples that represent mixed
profiles consisting of an unknown number of potentially partial representations of each contributor. Single-cell methods, in
contrast, offer a solution to the forensic DNA mixture problem by incorporating a step that separates cells before extraction. A
forensically relevant single-cell pipeline relies on efficient direct-to-PCR extractions that are compatible with standard down-
stream forensic reagents. Here we demonstrate the feasibility of implementing single-cell pipelines into the forensic process by
exploring four metrics of electropherogram (EPG) signal quality—i.e., allele detection rates, peak heights, peak height ratios, and
peak height balance across low- to high-molecular-weight short tandem repeat (STR) markers—obtained with four direct-to-PCR
extraction treatments and a common post-PCR laboratory procedure. Each treatment was used to extract DNA from 102 single
buccal cells, whereupon the amplification reagents were immediately added to the tube and the DNA was amplified/injected
using post-PCR conditions known to elicit a limit of detection (LoD) of one DNA molecule. The results show that most cells,
regardless of extraction treatment, rendered EPGs with at least a 50% true positive allele detection rate and that allele drop-out
was not cell independent. Statistical tests demonstrated that extraction treatments significantly impacted all metrics of EPG
quality, where the Arcturus® PicoPure™ extraction method resulted in the lowest median allele drop-out rate, highest median
average peak height, highest median average peak height ratio, and least negative median values of EPG sloping for
GlobalFiler™ STR loci amplified at half volume. We, therefore, conclude the feasibility of implementing single-cell pipelines
for casework purposes and demonstrate that inferential systems assuming cell independence will not be appropriate in the
probabilistic interpretation of a collection of single-cell EPGs
Trade Union Mobilization and Female-Dominated Care Work in Ireland: Feminised and/or Feminist?
No full textThis article adopts a feminist policy and politics perspective to examine gendered
shifts in mobilization of Trade Unions in Ireland. While Unions enjoyed access
to policy-setting contexts in a form of social partnership from the late 1980s to
2008, this process was abolished in the economic crisis and was replaced by
austerity-era public pay stability agreements. Adopting a case study approach,
this research scrutinizes Trade Union campaigns for feminised occupations to
examine how gender is used to do political and ideational work in feminised
campaigns. This analysis raises larger questions about what happens when
national corporatist models decline and Unions in response look to ‘gender’
campaigns and mobilise feminised occupational sectors
Socialism equals death, market equals life: anti-socialist and pro-market policy discourse among the contemporary Venezuelan Opposition.
No full textWhile there has been much coverage in the media and in academic work on the crisis inVenezuela, little has been written about the Venezuelan Opposition, grouped in the DemocraticUnity Coalition (MUD) and even less about their economic and social policies. This paper seeksto address this latter lacuna by providing a critical examination of three key MUD policydocuments. Situating this analysis within a wider discussion on the relationship betweendemocracy and neoliberalism, and using a framework derived from Wendy Brown’s book “In theRuins of Neoliberalism”, the article argues that the Venezuelan Opposition is fundamentallyneoliberal in ideological orientation. This means that it seeks to, paraphrasing Brown, critiqueand dismantle society, using anti-socialism as its principle trope to do so; attack “democracyunderstood as popular sovereignty and shared political power”, even while it uses democracy asits main discursive banner; and extend the personal protected sphere at the expense of the public.This may result, the article concludes, in a form of neoliberal authoritarianism rather than‘restored’ democracy as the Opposition claims