NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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The musical conductor's association: collective podium power in wartime Britain?
No full textThe abstract is included in the text
When the threat is stronger than the execution: trade and welfare under oligopoly
No full textWe compare the effects of changes in trade costs on trade volumes and on the gains from trade under Cournot and Bertrand competition. In both cases, the threshold trade costs below which the possibility of trade affects the domestic firm's behavior is the same; and welfare is U-shaped under reasonable conditions. However, welfare is typically greater under Bertrand competition; for higher trade costs the volume of trade is greater under Cournot competition, implying a “van-der-Rohe Region”; and, for even higher trade costs, there exists a “Nimzowitsch Region”, where welfare is higher under Bertrand competition even though no trade takes place
Investigating the potential use of sparse-input reanalyses to homogenise long-term land surface air temperature records
No full textThe correction of meteorological observational records (homogenisation) for non climate artefacts is an important task. Very few, long-term meteorological station series are entirely free of non-climatic influences. Climate data homogenization aims to identify and remove these non climate factors. Numerous methods of homogenisation have been developed over the decades. Current state of the art approaches generally proceed using pairwise difference series between observations from a network of reference stations and the station under assessment. Such methods work well in well sampled regions such as Europe and North America, but are less successful in poorly sampled regions and epochs. Reanalyses are produced by assimilating available observations into a forecast model, producing complete fields that are consistent with: the input data, the model physics, and any external boundary conditions prescribed. Full-input reanalyses which assimilate data from all available sources have previously been used to homogenise radiosonde data records. This work sets out to investigate if sparse-input reanalysis products that only assimilate surface pressure and use prescribed sea-ice, sea surface temperatures and changes in atmospheric composition, can act as a suitable reference series for the homogenisation of land surface air temperatures and to compare the results to established methods. It is found that sparse-input reanalysis products have successively improved in their quality with each new generation. The most recent product from NOAA-CIRES – 20CRv3 – has comparable overall statistical properties when interpolated to station locations and differenced to pairwise differences. In well sample regions neighbour-based comparisons remain favourable, but in sparser regions and epochs –20CRv3 may be preferable. The 20CRv3 product is therefore used to identify breakpoints and then 4 distinct approaches are used to adjust the series. Two of these directly use the 20CRv3 fields to estimate adjustments, while the remaining pair use apparently homogeneous neighbour station series wherever possible. The resulting set of estimates show reasonable overall behaviour looking at station series behaviour, spatial anomalies and spatial trends. The thesis highlights the potential for sparse-input reanalysis to provide a substantial methodological degree of freedom in the homogenisation of
global land surface air temperature estimates, but further work is required in developing an operational version
Student Engagement With Experiential Learning in Large Classes
No full textWhen the Journal of Management Education published its call for papers for a special issue on experiential learning in large classes in 2019, our initial thoughts were bound by ideas of the physical. What constituted a “large class”? 50 students or 100 students? More? The editorial team had not imagined then that our world would be “locked down” as a result of widespread public health restrictions by the time submissions began to arrive
Introduction: 1918 and the Ambiguities of “Old-New Europe”
No full textOur special issue discusses different perspectives on the important changes that took place in the transition from empire to nation-state at the end of the First World War, focusing especially on transnational connections, structural and historical continuities, and marginal voices that have been fully or partially concealed by the emphasis on a radical national awakening in 1918. Specific articles broach topics such as the implications of 1918 on notions of gender and ethnicity, 1918 and the violence of the “Greater War,” and the legacies and memories of 1918 across the 20th century. Our approach treats the “New Europe” of 1918 as a largely coherent geopolitical and cultural space, one which can be studied in an interdisciplinary fashion. We contend that 1918 is not simply a clean break in which one epoch cleanly makes way for another, but rather it is an ambiguous and contradictory pivot, one which created an “Old-New Europe” caught between the forces of the imperial past and those of the national future. Our intention is not to dismiss entirely the importance of the transformations of 1918 but rather to show how there exists a tension between those changes and the many continuities and legacies that cut across the traditional chronology
Ireland and European Governance
No full textIrish membership of the European Communities in 1973 represented the most signicant development
in the life of the independent state, and it helped to refashion the economic, political, and social
landscape. Membership of the EU brought considerable change to domestic politics, and also to the
executive and administration. Adjusting to a dynamic rules-based supranational order required
adaptability and pragmatism. This chapter evaluates the impact of ‘Europe’ on Ireland, and the extent
to which there are patterns of ‘Europeanization’ in politics and public life as a result of almost ve
decades of EU membership. It argues that, domestically, Ireland used EU membership as a vehicle for
modernization, while externally, the EU provided an increasingly important ‘geopolitical anchor’. And
although this Europeanization has been far from uniform, the eect has been a move towards a more
self-conscious ‘choice for Europe’. Brexit has conrmed this renewed commitment to European
integration
Contractual Insecurity in the EU15: Using Multiple Surveys to Investigate Working with ‘No Contract’
No full textOur analysis makes use of three comparative European datasets to investigate the nature and meaning of working with ‘No Contract’ across a range of European societies in the mid-2010s. Using the EU Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS, 1995-2015), European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS, 1995-2015), and European Social Survey (ESS, 2002-2016) we show that the presence of workers with ‘No Contract’ is a significant feature of the labour market for a small number of Mediterranean countries, Ireland and the UK. We analyse how respondents describe their employment situation in different countries, given different possible contract categories; the subjective perception of their labour market insecurity by workers in various contract situations; and investigate how ‘No Contract’ working relates to other key variables in particular work and employment configurations. The paper reveals two primary patterns of ‘No Contract’ working. The first is related to ‘temporary contract’ work, with ‘No Contract’ employment serving as a related form of casualised work in the Mediterranean economies in particular. This also suggests that estimates of precarity are somewhat under-estimated in Mediterranean and Liberal economies in Europe. The second is present only in the UK and Ireland and represents a group of ‘No Contract’ workers primarily in market services, whose situation is best analysed as a particular, potentially more uncertain, form of permanent work
Does country environment matter in the relationship between intellectual capital and innovation performance?
No full textThis paper examines how country environment shapes the relationship between firm intellectual capital and its
innovation performance. Using survey data from 649 firms in Finland, Spain and Russia complemented by
archival IMD World Competitiveness Ranking data, we find that when country environment is characterised by
greater availability of skilled labour and a stronger appropriability regime, a firm’s human and structural capital
have a lower impact on its innovation performance. The effect of relational capital does not depend on these
contextual variables. This study enriches the intellectual capital-based view of the firm by demonstrating that
country-level factors moderate the performance effects of firm-level intellectual capital. It also adds to the
strategic management literature by exploring the explanatory power of a combination of country-level variables
and firm-level resources in understanding firm-level performance. Our findings can help practitioners focus on
the elements of intellectual capital that have the greatest impact in their environment
Access to and Reactivity of Fe 0 , Fe −I , Fe I , and Fe II PC carbene P Pincer Complexes
No full textDespite their promising metal–ligand cooperative
reactivity, PCcarbeneP pincer ligands are rarely reported for firstrow transition-metal centres. Using a dehydration methodology, we report access to an Fe0 PCcarbeneP pincer complex (1) that proceeds via an isolated a-hydroxylalkyl hydrido complex (3). Reversible carbonyl migration to the carbene position in 1 is found to allow coordination chemistry and E@H bond addition (E = H, B, Cl) across the iron–carbene linkage, representing a unique mechanism for metal–ligand cooperativity. The PCcarbeneP pincer ligand is also found to stabilize formal FeII, Fe I, and Fe@I
oxidation states, as demonstrated with synthesis and characterization of the complexes [11-X]-[BArF
20] (X = Br, I), 12, and K[13]. Compound K[13] is
found to be highly reactive, and abstracts hydrogen from
a range of aliphatic C@H sources. Computational analysis by
DFT suggests that the formal FeI and Fe@I complexes contain
significant carbene radical character. The ability of the
PCcarbeneP ligand scaffold to partake in metal–ligand cooperativity and to support a range of iron oxidation states renders it as potentially useful in many catalytic application
Neuroevolution in Deep Neural Networks: Current Trends and Future Challenges
No full textA variety of methods have been applied to the architectural configuration and learning or training of artificial deep
neural networks (DNN). These methods play a crucial role in the success or failure of the DNN for most problems and applications. Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are gaining momentum as a computationally feasible method for the automated optimization of DNNs. Neuroevolution is a term, which describes these processes of automated configuration and training of DNNs using EAs. While many works exist in the literature, no comprehensive surveys currently exist focusing exclusively on the strengths and limitations
of using neuroevolution approaches in DNNs. Absence of such
surveys can lead to a disjointed and fragmented field preventing DNNs researchers potentially adopting neuroevolutionary methods in their own research, resulting in lost opportunities for wider application within real-world deep learning problems. This article presents a comprehensive survey, discussion, and evaluation of the
state-of-the-art in using EAs for architectural configuration and training of DNNs. This article highlights the most pertinent current issues and challenges in neuroevolution and identifies multiple promising future research directions. Impact Statement—The concept of deep learning originated from the study of artificial neural networks (ANNs). ANNs have achieved extraordinary results in a variety of diverse application areas. Numerous methods have been applied to the architectural configuration and learning or training of artificial DNN and these methods
play a crucial role in the success or failure of the DNN for most problems and applications. Recently, EAs have been gaining momentum as a computationally feasible method (called neuroevolution) for the automated configuration and learning or training of DNNs. This article reviews over 170 recent scientific papers describing how major EAs paradigms are being applied by researchers to the configuration and optimization of multiple DNNs. By articulating a clear understanding of the context, state-of-the-art, and feasibility of Neuroevolution, researchers in AI, EAs, and DNN will benefit from this article. The impact of this article comes from contributing toward enhancing research capacity, knowledge, and skills for researchers currently working in neuroevolution and actively engaging those considering becoming involved in this area