NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Hot July weekend made warmer and more likely due to climate change
No full textMain findings
● The maximum temperatures on Friday 11 and Saturday 12 July would have been expected to occur on average once in every 14 years in the pre-industrial climate. Today, with 1.3°C of human-caused global warming, similar events are expected to occur once every 6 years.
● If warming reaches 2.6°C, which is expected this century under current policies, similar two-day periods of heat are expected to become a 1-in-3-year event.
● On July 12, temperatures across much of the country exceeded 28°C, and went as high as 31°C. These temperatures were made approximately 1.4°C warmer as a result of human-caused global warming. A similar increase in temperature was found for the two-day event.
● Specifically, looking at the high temperatures on Saturday the 12, they would have been expected to happen once in every 21 years in a 1.3°C cooler climate. Now, with human-caused global warming they are expected to happen once in every 8 years.
● A wide range of impacts highlight how extreme heat could be an emerging risk in Ireland. High night-time temperatures have potential dangerous effects for people with underlying health conditions if their bodies don’t manage to properly rest and recover. Red level forest fire warnings underlined the increased fire threat experienced under rising temperatures. High temperatures also caused a section of road to melt in Co. Cork and also put a strain on an already struggling water supply network
Leveraging EU non-discrimination law to make the cultural and creative sectors more inclusive of professionals with disabilities: socio-legal perspectives
No full textWorking in the cultural and creative sectors is often seen as an atypical exercise, which differs from mainstream practices in the labour market and operates outside the standard regulatory framework. In this context, the situation of cultural and creative professionals with disabilities and the applicable EU legislation can be overlooked, both in research and in practice. Following a socio-legal approach, this article associates desk-based legal research and empirical research, and considers how the participation of cultural and creative professionals with disabilities could be fostered within the current EU regulatory framework. It identifies gaps and potential in EU cultural policy, disability law and labour law, and, supported by the findings from a qualitative study with EU cultural stakeholders, it discusses the challenges that cultural and creative professionals experience, including those with disabilities. Contributing valuable insights into the participation of persons with disabilities in cultural life, the article argues that the Employment Equality Directive, a pillar of EU labour law and non-discrimination law, can play a key role in making those sectors more inclusive
BioBeo
No full textThis song is part of the BioBeo Education Programme, designed to introduce primary school children to the concept of the circular bioeconomy in a fun and engaging way. It aligns perfectly with the AgroCycle Kids Education Programme, developed by Dr Máire Nic an Bhaird and Dr Laoise Ní Chléirigh at Maynooth University, which emphasises participatory, hands-on learning. The BioBeo song encourages children to explore ideas of sustainability and circularity. By incorporating this song into classroom activities, educators can foster creativity and critical thinking about environmental solutions. It’s an excellent resource for making bioeconomy concepts accessible and enjoyable for young learners
Metropolitanization, civic capacity and metropolitan governance: Ireland in the metropolitan century
No full textThe dynamics and politics of metropolitanization in Ireland have received limited attention, attributed in part to Ireland’s historic culturally embedded urban–rural divide. The publication of the National Planning Framework (2018) demonstrates an effort by the Irish government to centre spatial thinking on Ireland’s five major cities. However, despite evidence of enhanced civic engagement, the Irish case demonstrates the challenges of creating a metropolitan state-space in a country with a traditionally strong rural identity. Drawing on Nelles’ concept of civic capital and the importance of mobilizing a metropolitan identity, in this paper we draw attention to four factors that constrain the formation of the metropolitan civic identity necessary for spatial planning efforts to succeed: the lack of an urban identity, discordant temporalities, the absence of key enablers and misaligned governance structures. Our study adopts an exploratory research design using critical discourse analysis of key documents, participant observation, semi-structured interviews and survey methodology to further the understanding of metropolitanization processes, provide insights into alternative forms of metropolitan governance and discuss the limits of civic capital. We conclude that it is critical to understand the nature of the state in order to understand the accumulation (or not) of metropolitan civic capital
Challenges and opportunities in teaching gender equality in Irish secondary schools
No full textChallenges related to the teaching of gender equality in Irish secondary schools are multifaceted and include: insufficient gender equality training for teachers; tendencies towards conservative and religious ethos schools; lack of space in which to address gender topics and issues (including gender identity, gender stereotyping, gender discrimination) in the curriculum and, especially, growing resistance to gender equality and gender mainstreaming from a variety of stakeholders including schools, teachers, parents and students. This paper stems from a transnational European project – GEMINI – aimed at gender mainstreaming through media literacy and presents findings from a study of 12 Irish secondary school teachers in different secondary school types who detail their interest and engagement with gender equality and gender issues, but identify multiple forms of resistance to the delivery of gender equality education. Teachers express fears about rising misogyny among students and raise concerns about the influence of controversial sexist figures like Andrew Tate, especially among boys in Ireland. Findings contribute to the literature on challenges to gender mainstreaming and media literacy in Ireland
Intellectual property rights over ‘integrated’ medical devices: the potential health impacts and bioethical implications of rightsholders’ control
No full textDespite extensive literature examining intellectual property rights (IPRs) and access to health, there has been limited examination of how IPRs can potentially impact the development, access to, delivery of, and use of medical devices. This article fills this gap, focusing on patent and copyright protections applicable to elements of medical devices that are attachable to or implanted into the human body, such as prostheses or pacemakers. Although the human body itself is not patentable in Europe (Article 5, Biotechnology Directive), elements of medical devices created outside the body are patentable. Moreover, certain aspects of such medical devices can be subject to copyright, and other types of IPRs. This article provides an overview of the types of IPRs that can apply over attachable and implantable medical devices. Following this, and focusing specifically on copyright and patent rights, it argues that such IPRs, alongside incentivizing technological development in certain contexts, also give rightsholders significant control over key aspects of how individuals use and access IP-protected elements of such devices, with the potential for health-related impacts and bioethical implications. Accordingly, the article argues that greater understanding and scrutiny are needed within the health law and bioethics communities around the potential impacts of IPRs over medical devices
The ERC DANCING WP4 Tools for Change
No full textThis report is part of the project entitled ‘Protecting the Right to Culture of Persons with
Disabilities and Enhancing Cultural Diversity through European Union Law: Exploring New
Paths – DANCING’. This project has received funding from the European Research Council
(ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant
Agreement No. 864182). This report reflects only the authors’ views and does not necessarily
reflect those of the European Union (EU) or the ERC
Statistical analysis of high-dimensional spatio-temporal data
No full textTo realise biological function, cellular behaviour is a dynamic, involved processes that
encompass spatial arrangement, differentiation, division and death. Numerous in vivo
biological experiments have been designed to track cellular behaviour over different timeand
space-scale frames, generating a large amount of spatio-temporal data. However, traditional
statistical methods are not well adapted to draw meaningful insight from those
high-dimensional data. Motivated by primary data sources provided by collaborators, this
thesis presents a novel statistical analysis framework of high-dimensional spatio-temporal
data, addressing it at different time scales. To capture biological information at fixed time
points, a spatial statistical pipeline is developed to quantify the distribution of various
cell types and assess their spatial relationships. The analysis is extended to cover periods
of the order of one day, with a statistical framework designed to process spatio-temporal
data, combining a data cleaning process and investigating the relationship between cell
movement and differentiation. Over longer time periods, mathematical models and statistical
methods are developed to estimate the average number of divisions in vivo, offering
insights into long-term cell distribution. The advanced statistical analysis helps capture
the spatio-temporal relationships between different cell types, revealing the dynamic processes
of cellular behaviour
A Community Needs Analysis with Traveller and Roma Students on Their Experiences of Higher Education
No full textDigital twins and deep maps
No full textMapping is now thoroughly digital at all stages of production and maps are widely used in digital form. This digital turn has transformed the nature of mapping and maps. Maps need no longer be static representations, but rather constitute spatial media, providing an interactive, dynamic means for creating, discussing, and sharing spatial information and mediating spatial practices. This has included the development of 3D mapping, including nascent digital twins and digital deep maps. In this short paper, we reflect on our attempts to produce a 3D city information model for Dublin that acts as a basic digital twin, which we have also used to explore deep mapping, as well as map projecting data onto a printed 3D map model of the city. We consider what digital twins and deep maps mean for how we understand the nature of mapping, arguing that they produce a dyadic intertwining of map and territory; a literal, material expression of post‐representational, ontogenetic conceptions of mapping