NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Selected papers from the International Whistleblowing Research Network conference at Maynooth University.
No full textCo-Creation Facilitates Translational Research on Upper Limb Prosthetics
No full textPeople who either use an upper limb prosthesis and/or have used services provided by a prosthetic rehabilitation centre, hereafter called users, are yet to benefit from the fast-paced growth in academic knowledge within the field of upper limb prosthetics. Crucially over the past decade, research has acknowledged the limitations of conducting laboratory-based studies for clinical translation. This has led to an increase, albeit rather small, in trials that gather real-world user data. Multi-stakeholder collaboration is critical within such trials, especially between researchers, users, and clinicians, as well as policy makers, charity representatives, and industry specialists. This paper presents a co-creation model that enables researchers to collaborate with multiple stakeholders, including users, throughout the duration of a study. This approach can lead to a transition in defining the roles of stakeholders, such as users, from participants to co-researchers. This presents a scenario whereby the boundaries between research and participation become blurred and ethical considerations may become complex. However, the time and resources that are required to conduct co-creation within academia can lead to greater impact and benefit the people that the research aims to serve
A(nother) time for nature? Situating non-human nature experiences within the emotional transitions of sight loss
No full textSight impairment is experienced by approximately 253 million people worldwide, including people of all generations, at all life course stages. Caught between past and present embodiments of the world, people often
express feelings of loss with the onset of sight impairment. This paper examines the role of nonhuman nature
encounters as a contingent resource amongst individuals navigating these emotional transitions. It responds to
recent calls to attend to the life course in both critical disability studies and the growing body of work linking
nonhuman nature relations to human wellbeing. The paper draws on findings from a qualitative study that
combined in-depth narrative interviews with in situ go-along interviews to explore how 31 people with sight
impairment in England describe and experience a sense of wellbeing (or otherwise) with nature across their
everyday lives and life trajectories. The data were analysed using inductive narrative thematic analysis. While
nonhuman nature encounters were valued by many participants in promoting a sense of freedom, relatedness,
pleasurable sensory immersion, opportunities for exploration and ‘skilling up’, this paper cautions against
generalised or overly Romantic tropes of what nonhuman nature can ‘do’ through key sight loss junctures, and
for whom. It highlights the value of providing timely and sensitive social scaffolding and nurturing creativity to
open up meaningful opportunities to engage with nonhuman nature and to counter feelings of loss exacerbated
by identity-limiting life course narratives and disability stereotypes. Informed by the stories shared by participants to chart and situate their experiences of sight loss, we call for a new identity politics within and beyond the
growing movement to ‘connect’ people to nonhuman nature for wellbeing; a politics that affirms diverse forms of
more-than-human embodiment, recognising how and why such relations may weave into – and indeed out of –
people’s varied, interdependent life course trajectories
Teaching Perspectives on Experiential Learning in Large Classes
No full textHigher education places an ever-growing value on innovative teaching practices that facilitate learning among students, who will then proceed to integrate it into their professional practices. At the same time, student enrolments continue to grow, and many have drawn attention to complaints that this “massification” equates to a lower-quality learning experience for students (Ahmed, 2016; Hornsby & Osman, 2014)
From social curse to social cure: A self‐help group community intervention for people affected by leprosy in Nepal
No full textLeprosy is endemic in Nepal and disproportionately affects
the most marginalized. Leprosy related stigma can be characterized as a social curse, because those affected are
excluded from group life and social participation which has
severe implications for psychological health. The Nepal
Leprosy Trust run a community-based self-help group intervention that aims to develop a new empowered identity to re-establish access to multiple group memberships' through social participation. In this applied cross-sectional study, informed by the Social Identity Model of Identity Change, we assess this intervention. Participants (N = 98) were members of self-help groups in 10 rural villages in Nepal,
and completed measures of self-help group identification,
access to multiple groups, internalized stigma and wellbeing. Mediation models indicated that self-help group
identification was indirectly linked to reduced stigma and
increased well-being through access to multiple groups.
Supporting the Social Identity Model of Identity Change, we
present novel evidence that group-based interventions can
offer new valued identities that link to social cure resources, even in the most adverse circumstances. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statemen
Linear and Nonlinear Digital Filters: From the Analog and Beyond
No full textA common approach in the development of digital filters is to begin with an existing analog filter and produce an equivalent computer program to realize it. This may involve, at the extreme, the detailed analysis of circuit behavior, or it may stem from a higher-level approach that looks at block diagrams and s-domain transfer functions. In this article, we first take the latter approach to develop a set of linear filters from the well-known state variable filter. From this we obtain a first result, which is a linear digital implementation of the Steiner design, comprising separate inputs for different frequency responses and a single output summing the responses. Turning back to the state variable design, we show that to develop a nonlinear version, an analog circuit realization can be used to identify positions in which to insert nonlinear waveshapers. This gives us our second result, a nonlinear digital state variable filter. From this analog-derived design, we then propose modifications that go beyond the original filter, developing as a final result a structure that could be classed as a hybrid of filter and digital waveshaper. As part of this process, we ask the question of whether an approach that takes inspiration from the analog world, while being decoupled from it, may be more profitable in the long run than an obsession with detailed circuit modeling
Do Beijing’s Capital Controls Bind Hong Kong? Reality or Illusion
No full textThe ongoing impact of COVID-19 on global economic growth is likely to result in a retreat from financial globalization, including restrictions on capital movements. This concern arises from the experience of short-term capital control policies being implemented by countries in past financial crisis. This trend, together with China’s long history of using capital controls, has further sparked fears in Hong Kong regarding the extent to which the capital control restrictions from Beijing could impact Hong Kong’s open financial policy on capital transfers. With this context, this article evaluates situations where concerns have been raised and seeks to ascertain whether Hong Kong could be legally liable for the implementation of capital controls in Beijing
The Student Perspective on COVID-19 Related Closures at Irish Universities with a Focus on Accessibility and Engagement
No full textThis paper describes the impact of the COVID-19 closures on accessibility and student
engagement. A survey was designed and administered to students who were enrolled in
mathematics modules in an Irish university at the time of the closures. A total of 263 students
from six universities responded to the survey. The survey comprised three sections: Teaching
and Learning, Assessment, and Personal Experience, and centred on how the changes in
teaching and assessment were viewed by students. This paper examines a subset of the survey
that focuses on students’ access to and engagement with online learning. The data shows that
the abrupt changes had a significant impact on students’ motivation in addition to other
factors which impacted engagement. The responses indicate that most (but not all) students
had access to the appropriate technology and infrastructure to engage with online learning
Introducing direction fields to students learning ordinary differential equations (ODEs) through guided inquiry
No full textThis paper reports on an intervention as part of which direction fields were introduced to students learning ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The intervention was designed and implemented to address issues with students’ conceptions of the solutions of ODEs. These were identified by a diagnostic survey and through a review of the lit- erature. The intervention comprised fifteen guided inquiry tutorials, one of which introduced students to direction fields in the context of first order ODEs. A combination of interviews and immediate and delayed post-testing was used to measure the impact of the tuto- rial. The design of the tutorial and the results of the interviews and post-test data are reported. A large majority of the students who completed the tutorial were able to successfully complete tasks link- ing direction fields to their study of ODEs. A significant improvement was also observed in relation to students’ conceptions of solutions to an ODE
High-Risk Drinking in Midlife Before Versus During the COVID-19 Crisis: Longitudinal Evidence From the United Kingdom
No full textIntroduction: Emerging evidence suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdown
restrictions may have influenced alcohol consumption. This study examines changes in high-risk
alcohol consumption from before to during the COVID-19 crisis in an established cohort of middle-aged British adults.
Methods: Participants consisted of 3,358 middle-aged adults from the 1970 British Cohort Study
who completed the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test for detecting hazardous drinkers in primary care settings in 2016−2018 (when aged 46−48 years) and May 2020 (aged 50 years). Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to examine changes in high-risk drinking (scores of ≥5), and
multinomial regression was used to compare responses with individual test items in 2016−2018 and
May 2020.
Results: Among middle-aged British adults, high-risk drinking increased by 5.2 percentage points
from 19.4% to 24.6% (p<0.001) between 2016−2018 and May 2020. The increase in high-risk
drinking was not moderated by sex, marital status, educational attainment, the presence of a
chronic illness, or the year the baseline survey was completed. The prevalence of drinking ≥4 times
a week doubled from 12.5% to 26% from before to during the pandemic (p<0.001), and there was
also evidence of an increase in the frequency of being unable to stop drinking.
Conclusions: This study provides evidence linking the COVID-19 crisis and associated lockdown
restrictions to an increase in high-risk drinking patterns and particularly frequent drinking in British
adults. Potential long-term changes in drinking habits should be monitored following the emergence
of the COVID-19 pandemic