NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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3-Methoxybutan-2-one as a sustainable bio-based alternative to chlorinated solvents
No full textMethylation of acetoin with dimethyl carbonate was performed in a sustainable one-step process, with improved process mass intensity (PMI) and atom economy compared to previously published methods. The resulting product, 3-methoxybutan-2-one (MO) was successfully evaluated as a bio-based solvent, while both Kamlet–Taft solvatochromic parameters and Hansen solubility parameters demonstrate its potential viability in the substitution of chlorinated solvents. MO exhibited a low peroxide forming potential and a negative Ames mutagenicity test and was successfully used as a solvent in a Friedel–Crafts acylation (79% yield compared to 77% in dichloromethane) and for N-alkylations. MO is a renewable oxygenated solvent, with the potential ability to substitute carcinogenic halogenated solvents in some applications
The migration and preservation of six Norwegian municipality record‐keeping systems: Lessons learned
No full textThis article presents a rare insight into the migration of municipality record-keeping databases. The migration of a database for preservation purposes poses several challenges. In particular, our findings show that relevant issues are
file-format heterogeneity, collection volume, time and database structure evolution, and deviation from the governing standard. This article presents and
discusses how such issues interfere with an organization's ability to undertake a migration, for preservation purposes, of records from a relational database. The case study at hand concerns six Norwegian municipality record-keeping
databases covering a period from 1999 to 2012. The findings are presented with a discussion on how these issues manifest themselves as a problem for long-term preservation. The results discussed here may help an organization and
Information Systems (IS) manager to establish a best practice when undertaking a migration project and enable them to avoid some of the pitfalls that were discovered during this project
Experimentation Platforms as Bridges to Urban Sustainability
No full textDespite immense efforts to realize diverse visions of the ‘smart city,’ municipalities still face manifold uncertainties of how governance and the tools of governance can best support public and regional value creation for achieving urban sustainability. To this end, Urban Living Labs have become a known enabling mechanism. In this paper, we extend the lab idea and formulate the concept of
Urban Experimentation Platform that focuses on developing urban innovation ecosystems for urban sustainability. We use action design research and participant observation across multiple case studies enacting Urban Experimentation Platforms in order to investigate how the tie-in between governance and the local lab’s innovation process unfolds. Our analysis distills three facets that are instrumental
in institutionalizing these platforms as resilient organizational models. With the help of the case
studies, we illustrate the three facets, concerning issues of urban ecosystem governance, empowering co-creation, and qualifying local innovation. The facets reinforce the roles of digital instruments and digital capabilities for effective urban governance and platform management. We draw some conclusions for future research and formulate policy recommendations for implementing and operating Urban Experimentation Platforms
Impact of prior anterior cruciate ligament, hamstring or groin injury on lower limb strength and jump kinetics in elite female footballers
No full textObjective: To compare lower limb strength and countermovement jump (CMJ) kinetics between elite
female footballers with and without a history of anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR),
hamstring strain, or hip/groin injury.
Design: Cross-sectional.
Setting: Field-based.
Participants: 369 elite female Australian football, soccer and rugby league players aged 15e35.
Main outcome measures: Isometric hip adductor and abductor strength, eccentric knee flexor strength,
and CMJ vertical ground reaction forces, including between-leg asymmetry. Players reported their lifetime history of ACLR, and whether they had sustained a hamstring strain, or hip/groin injury in the
previous 12-months.
Results: Players with a unilateral history of ACLR (n ¼ 24) had significant between-leg asymmetry in
eccentric knee flexor strength (mean ¼ -6.3%, 95%CI ¼ -8.7 to -3.9%, P < .001), isometric hip abductor
strength (mean ¼ -2.5%, 95%CI ¼ -4.3 to -0.7%, P ¼ .008), and CMJ peak landing force (mean ¼ -5.5%,
95%CI ¼ -10.9 to -0.1%, P ¼ .046). Together, between-leg asymmetry in eccentric knee flexor strength,
isometric hip abductor strength, and CMJ peak landing force distinguished between players with and
without prior ACLR with 93% accuracy.
Conclusion: Elite female footballers with a history of ACLR, but not hamstring or hip/groin injury, exhibit
persistent between-leg asymmetries in lower limb strength and jump kinetics following a return to
sport
Mid infrared spectroscopy and milk quality traits: A data analysis competition at the “International Workshop on Spectroscopy and Chemometrics 2021”
No full textA chemometric data analysis challenge has been arranged during the first edition of the “International Workshop
on Spectroscopy and Chemometrics”, organized by the Vistamilk SFI Research Centre and held online in April
2021. The aim of the competition was to build a calibration model in order to predict milk quality traits exploiting
the information contained in mid-infrared spectra only. Three different traits have been provided, presenting
heterogeneous degrees of prediction complexity thus possibly requiring trait-specific modelling choices. In this
paper the different approaches adopted by the participants are outlined and the insights obtained from the analyses are critically discussed
Excess Mortality in Dublin during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Using RIP.ie as a geographical source
No full textDue to the increasing prevalence of Covid-19 nationally in the latter half of 2020, concern has been rising as to how the resurgence of the disease will impact Dublin as the capital and largest city within Ireland. One indicator of the deadly impact of Covid-19 within the city is to identify excess deaths reported within different districts of Dublin, to begin to detect underlying factors that relate to recognisable population health impacts in each
area. To do this, we examined excess death notices posted to RIP.ie for Dublin across 2020, relative to previous years. Using RIP.ie as an effective near real-time indicator of
excess mortality linked to Covid-19, we explored the deeper patterns associated with this excess mortality within the city, which became a hub for the resurgence of the disease in Autumn 2020. In this short paper we investigate the underlying factors that have affected the levels of mortality associated with Covid-19 within Dublin. In particular, we examine evidence that points toward Covid-related deaths being 50% higher in Dublin’s more
deprived districts, a finding that mirrors wider global research on the differential impacts of the disease (Bambra et al., 2020)
‘I’m not “racist” but’: Liberalism, Populism and Euphemisation in the Guardian
No full textWith the resurgence of Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests, and their spread to the United Kingdom in Spring 2020, the Guardian adopted a mostly unambiguous approach to the movement, offering broad support, whether in its editorial, news or opinion pieces. This was even the case when the statue of slave trader Edward Colston was toppled
in Bristol, with an editorial stating that it was ‘a long time in going’.1 This not only departed from many instances of mainstream coverage and reactions, which were more cautious and warned against illegal acts for example, but also from the approach the Guardian itself had
taken in the past when discussing racism and the resurgence of the far right in particular
Islamophobia, race and the attack on antiracism: Gavan Titley and Alana Lentin in conversation
No full textIn our work together, going back to the mid-2000s, we have always felt that it was impossible to engage fully with the ever circulating, scavenger nature of race and racism from the narrow Anglo-American vantage point that often predominates and orients public and scholarly discussions. Especially, when attempting to think with and against race in Europe and to excavate the attempts to ‘bury it alive’ we always attempted to seek out the parallels and overlaps between contexts that attempted to portray themselves as distinct, mirroring indeed the sedimentation created by a politics of race. Reading race in France, and in particular over the last two decades Islamophobia, has been central to that work in common. In this conversation, we reflect on debates on race, coloniality and the spectre of ‘Islamo-leftism’ in the France of 2020–2021, against the backdrop of both a global pandemic and a worldwide movement against racial violence. Through this dialogue, we think about what has changed, and what remains the same, ending with a recognition of the international importance of decolonial and political antiracist politics in France and the energy they inspire in the face of the most reactionary of forces
The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan; a cultural investigation
No full textIn February 1979, the Imperial War Museum, mindful that the last generation of the
personnel to serve in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan was becoming increasingly frail, sent
interviewers around Britain to record their memories. One of the people interviewed was
William Hamilton Scriven who, in the 1930s, served as a Sudan Defence Force medical
officer in El Fashir, in present-day Darfur. His most vivid memory of his time in the Sudan
concerned the improvised cricket pitch at El Fashir, constructed from mud and locally
produced matting. He recalled helping the local District Commissioner, a keen cricketer, to
arrange matches with some of the native officers serving in the Sudan Defence Force, an
experiment he describes as ‘not a success’. The games, he noted, were played with ‘very
ancient bats’, one of which was ‘bound with crocodile skin’, and he recalled with great joy
how the local Sudanese people tended to ‘laugh their heads off’ while watching these rather
shambolic fixtures
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 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