NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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How does the Alexander Technique lead to psychological and non-physical outcomes? A realist review
No full textIntroduction
The focus of previous research on the Alexander Technique (AT), a psychophysical self-management approach, has mainly been in musical performance, physical change, and health outcomes such as pain. This rapid realist review aimed to understand psychological and non-physical outcomes of the AT, and how they may be generated.
Methods
Using a rapid review approach, papers with relevance to non-physical outcomes were identified using backward and forward citation searching from two key systematic reviews and consultation with AT experts.
Results
Thirty six documents were included for analysis, which resulted in 8 evidence-informed theory statements on how and for whom non-physical outcomes can be generated by AT lessons. A variety of non-physical outcomes of the AT were found, including improved general wellbeing and increased confidence to address present and future challenges, as well as identifying that difficult emotions can arise in lessons. Two main causal pathways were identified – 1) improvements in physical wellbeing leading directly to psychological wellbeing; and 2) an experience of mind-body integration leading people to apply AT skills to non-physical situations.
Conclusions
The AT may be a useful approach in a range of settings for psychophysical, long-term outcomes, and further research is warranted. We suggest a number of recommendations for practice and further research, including for AT teacher training and the need for mixed-methods research in the AT, and factors which support a person to gain benefit, such as openness to self-management and support to attend regular lessons
Systemic climate change litigation, standing rules and the Aarhus Convention: a purposive approach.
No full textThis article explores whether an exceptional approach to standing rules is needed to square the gatekeeping function of the courts of states/international organisations that are signatories to the Aarhus Convention with the complexity and urgency of the climate crisis. The central claim is that standing rules do not necessarily need to be reconstructed to resolve this conflict. Rather, what European states and the EU need to do is take their procedural human rights obligations under the Aarhus Convention seriously
Pollen Geochronology from the Atlantic Coast of the United States during the Last 500 Years
No full textBuilding robust age–depth models to understand climatic and geologic histories from coastal sedimentary archives often requires composite chronologies consisting of multi-proxy age markers. Pollen chronohorizons derived from a known change in vegetation are important for age–depth models, especially those with other sparse or imprecise age markers. However, the accuracy of pollen chronohorizons compared to other age markers and the impact of pollen chronohorizons on the precision of age–depth models, particularly in salt marsh environments, is poorly understood. Here, we combine new and published pollen data from eight coastal wetlands (salt marshes and mangroves) along the Atlantic Coast of the United States (U.S.) from Florida to Connecticut to define the age and uncertainty of 17 pollen chronohorizons. We found that 13 out of 17 pollen chronohorizons were consistent when compared to other age markers (radiocarbon, radionuclide 137Cs and pollution markers). Inconsistencies were likely related to the hyperlocality of pollen chronohorizons, mixing of salt marsh sediment, reworking of pollen from nearby tidal flats, misidentification of pollen signals, and inaccuracies in or misinterpretation of other age markers. Additionally, in a total of 24 models, including one or more pollen chronohorizons, increased precision (up to 41 years) or no change was found in 18 models
Structure of the Pacific Walker Circulation Depicted by the Reanalysis and CMIP6
No full textThe Pacific Walker circulation (PWC) is one of the most important components of large-scale tropical atmospheric circulations. The PWC and its influences have been studied extensively by numerical models and reanalysis. The newly released ERA5 and NCEP2 are the most widely used reanalysis datasets and serve as benchmarks for evaluation of model simulations. If the results of these datasets differ significantly, this could lead to a bias in projected long-term climate knowledge. For better understanding of future climate change, it is necessary to evaluate PWC reanalysis productions. As a result, we compared the PWC structures between the ERA5 and NCEP2 datasets from month to seasonal time scales. We used the zonal mass streamfunction (ZMS) over the equatorial Pacific to indicate the strength of the PWC. The PWC’s average monthly or seasonal cycle peaks around July. From February to June, the NCEP2 shows a higher PWC intensity, whereas the ERA5 shows greater intensity from July to December. The circulation center in the NCEP2 is generally stronger and wider than in the ERA5. The ERA5, however, revealed that the PWC’s west edge (zero line of ZMS over the western Pacific) had moved 10 degrees westward in comparison to the NCEP2. In addition, we compared the PWC mean state in the reanalysis and CMIP6 models; the mean state vertical structures of the tropical PWC in the CMIP6 multi-model ensemble (MME) are similar to those of the reanalyses in structure but weaker and wider than in the two reanalysis datasets. The PWC is broader in CMIP6, and the western boundary is 7 and 17 degrees farther west than in the ERA5 and NCEP2, respectively. This study suggests that, when using reanalysis datasets to evaluate PWC structural changes in intensity and western edge, extreme caution should be exercised
Commercialisation, Celtic and women in Irish traditional music
No full textRecent initiatives concerning gender equality and Irish traditional music have raised questions
regarding women’s performance and participation. Focusing on the impact of commercialisation
and consequent use of the ”Celtic music” label from the 1990s, this article examines the impact
of the commercial music industry on women in Irish traditional music. Utilising Lieb’s (2018)
“lifecycle model” as a form of analysis, this research draws on lived experiences of the scene
aided by a statistical analysis of a select discography. A subsequent research aim provokes
dual understandings pertaining to the impact of Riverdance and Michael Flatley’s later dance
shows on women performers. Although the 1990s can be regarded as transformative for women
and music in Ireland with an increased visibility of women performing on the commercial scene,
such progress can be understood in terms of “ebb and flow” with gender biases continuing to be
experienced
Low humidity and hypersalinity reduce cold tolerance in mangroves
No full textMacroclimatic changes are expected to radically alter coastal wetland ecosystems in the coming century. The trajectory of the response to climate warming may differ based on other concomitantly changing abiotic variables such as soil salinity and relative humidity. Thus, understanding plant responses to multiple interacting stressors is required to accurately predict coastal wetland shifts under climate change. The ongoing poleward shift of mangrove range limits has been linked with a reduction in freeze events, yet interactions between low temperature and other abiotic stressors remain underexplored. We grew two common mangroves (Avicennia germinans and Rhizophora mangle, n = 1222) from propagules for 10 months in environmental growth chambers under experimentally manipulated temperature, salinity, and relative humidity treatments that reflected the range of conditions these species experience in the field. We measured variation in growth and physiological characteristics before, during, and after low temperature exposure. For both species, resistance and resilience to low temperature stress were mediated by salinity and relative humidity conditions. Chronic chilling at 10 °C caused widespread reduction in seedling stem elongation rate, altered leaf gas exchange rates, and increased mortality, particularly under high salinity and low humidity conditions. Additional exposure to an overnight freeze (−4 °C) had relatively minor impacts. Five months after exposure to low temperatures, some R. mangle exhibited the capacity to recover from severe cold damage, but only under optimal humidity and salinity conditions. Although A. germinans were generally more resistant to low temperature stress, severely damaged plants did not recover, even in low salinity and high humidity conditions. We contend that current and future mangrove range limits are the result of interactions between multiple abiotic stressors including temperature, salinity, and relative humidity. Consequently, future modelling approaches to predicting range shifts under climate change need to consider multiple concomitantly changing abiotic variables and their interactions
Carbon Catabolite Repression in Filamentous Fungi Is Regulated by Phosphorylation of the Transcription Factor CreA
No full textFilamentous fungi of the genus Aspergillus are of particular interest for biotechnological applications due to their natural capacity to secrete carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZy) that target plant biomass. The presence of easily metabolizable sugars such as glucose, whose concentrations increase during plant biomass hydrolysis, results in the repression of CAZy-encoding genes in a process known as carbon catabolite repression (CCR), which is undesired for the purpose of large-scale enzyme production. To date, the C2H2 transcription factor CreA has been described as the major CC repressor in Aspergillus spp., although little is known about the role of posttranslational modifications in this process. In this work, phosphorylation sites were identified by mass spectrometry on Aspergillus nidulans CreA, and subsequently, the previously identified but uncharacterized site S262, the characterized site S319, and the newly identified sites S268 and T308 were chosen to be mutated to nonphosphorylatable residues before their effect on CCR was investigated. Sites S262, S268, and T308 are important for CreA protein accumulation and cellular localization, DNA binding, and repression of enzyme activities. In agreement with a previous study, site S319 was not important for several here-tested phenotypes but is key for CreA degradation and induction of enzyme activities. All sites were shown to be important for glycogen and trehalose metabolism. This study highlights the importance of CreA phosphorylation sites for the regulation of CCR. These sites are interesting targets for biotechnological strain engineering without the need to delete essential genes, which could result in undesired side effects
Improved diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 by using nucleoprotein and spike protein fragment 2 in quantitative dual ELISA tests
No full textThe novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), is the
causative agent of the 2020 worldwide coronavirus pandemic. Antibody testing is useful for
diagnosing historic infections of a disease in a population. These tests are also a helpful
epidemiological tool for predicting how the virus spreads in a community, relating antibody
levels to immunity and for assessing herd immunity. In the present study, SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins were recombinantly produced and used to analyse serum from individuals previously
exposed, or not, to SARS-CoV-2. The nucleocapsid (Npro) and spike subunit 2 (S2Frag) proteins
were identified as highly immunogenic, although responses to the former were generally greater.
These two proteins were used to develop two quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays
(ELISAs) that when used in combination resulted in a highly reliable diagnostic test. Npro and
S2Frag-ELISAs could detect at least 10% more true positive coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) cases than the commercially available ARCHITECT test (Abbott). Moreover, our quantitative ELISAs also show that specific antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 proteins tend to wane rapidly even
in patients who had developed severe disease. As antibody tests complement COVID-19 diagnosis and determine population-level surveillance during this pandemic, the alternative diagnostic
we present in this study could play a role in controlling the spread of the virus
Black-box modelling of a three-body hinge-barge wave energy device via forces responses
No full textEffective modelling of Wave Energy Converters (WEC) is fundamental in the design and
implementation of power-maximizing controllers. It is possible to get accurate dynamic models with system
identification techniques based on experimental input-output data. However, even though these techniques are
well developed in other application areas they are seldom used in the context of WECs. This work describes
the methodology used to model a three-body hinge-barge wave energy device using experimental data. Some
identification strategies are discussed to get a linear time-invariant dynamic model. The obtained model is
validated against a data set separate from that used for identification, to ensure the generalisation capabilities
of the model
Analisis de Turbinas Undimotrices para Columna de ´ Agua Oscilante Operando en Maxima Extracci ´ on de ´ Energ´ıa
No full textEn este trabajo se realiza una comparacion de ´
las turbinas autorrectificantes mas utilizadas en el ´ ambito de ´
los convertidores de ola basados en columna de agua oscilante.
Las turbinas son llevadas a funcionar en su punto optimo de ´
extraccion de potencia mec ´ anica, a partir de la definici ´ on de ´
un coeficiente optimo y t ´ ecnicas de control de modo deslizante ´
adaptivo. Los resultados muestran que la propuesta de trabajar
en el optimo genera m ´ as energ ´ ´ıa mecanica sin importar la turbina ´
utilizada