NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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PhD courses and the intersectoral experience
No full textIt has been found that most PhD graduates (>85%) do not achieve a long-term
academic career and thus there is a growing need to re-imagine PhD
education that incentivizes doctoral students to engage with research
consumers, not only within their discipline, but also, across other disciplines
and sectors to have real social impact for an improved society. The aim of this
work is to identify intersectoral/interdisciplinary courses that are considered
to broaden student career outside and inside academia. For this purpose, a
survey was designed to identify modules which lead to the improvement of
students' skills while an analysis of their attributes was also performed. Two
target groups have been considered: (a) young researchers and (b) program
directors each of which can provide different information regarding the
courses of interest. 52 students and 11 directors from 5 European Universities,
participated in the study. An absence of such courses in the standard PhD
program was observed, while any intersectoral/interdisciplinary activities
were conducted outside the PhD program, and organized by collaboration of
academia and other organizations. The survey findings reveal the need to
restructure the PhD programs
Sharing Our Stories: From Sierra Leone to Ireland: Reverend Dr Sahr John Yambasu tells his story
No full textHelen Fallon, Deputy Librarian at Maynooth
University meets African people living in Ireland.
Through sharing stories we can reach a better
understanding of each other and our hopes and
dreams. “In June 2021, Reverend Dr Sahr John
Yambasu became the fi rst African-born leader of
Ireland’s Methodist Church. I fi rst met Reverend
Yambasu in Freetown. We caught up recently in
Ireland and he shared his story.
Textual healing: ethical conservation of looted manuscripts and ‘The Gospel of Judas’
No full textThrough a case study of the looting, sale, conservation and subsequent publication of ‘The Gospel of Judas’, this article examines if there is any ethical merit in conserving looted manuscripts. While fully acknowledging the extensive harm caused by looting, it explores the prevailing argument in archaeological circles that all looted artefacts must be ignored by conservators, given the logic that the blanket refusal to authenticate, conserve or research looted objects would decrease demand and their grey market value, and so prevent archaeological sites being robbed. However, this view, it is argued, is complicated by antiquities with written content and that conservation ethics leave room for conservators to use informed judgement on a case-by-case basis, especially as looted manuscripts have two types of context: archaeological and textual. By examining the experiences of a wide range of conservators and applying professional conservation ethics, the argument is made that there is still merit in conserving and publishing the textual content of otherwise unique, historic and badly deteriorated manuscript artefacts such as ‘The Gospel of Judas’. Conservators need to retain agency and uphold a duty of care to an object in order to help unlock and preserve landmark texts, so long as it is undertaken responsibly in the service of mitigating the harm done by looting as much as possible
‘At the round earth’s imagined corners’: the power of Science Fiction to enrich ethical knowledge creation for responsible innovation.
No full textKnowledge Management (KM) can reflect an aspirational vision of how human knowledge, identity, and
technology should interact. As innovations emerge, our view and expectations of the future evolve. Innovation
is part of the KM process and requires the ability to imagine these mutable futures before they materialise.
The imagined worlds of Science Fiction (SF) offer one way to explore possible futures and future possibilities.
Indeed, some classic SF literature is strikingly prescient. These imagined worlds provide a landscape of
inspirations and warnings that can support our understanding of the ethical and social impacts of working with
and managing knowledge. Often presenting an extreme vector or ‘ideal type’ of how technology is shaped by,
and in turn shapes, human life, SF provides a rich repertoire of imagined futures that enable us to support a
Precautionary Principle in how we develop and implement technology.
Drawing on classical and contemporary SF literature, this paper explores a number of SF visions of the future. It
categorises the major themes of the roles played by human knowledge and technology, as portrayed in the
selected texts. It then discusses how these imagined futures currently influence our discourse about knowledge,
and how they might inform current and further ethical concerns on KM and technology development. Finally, it
offers some new insights for how SF might inspire and influence KM, particularly with respect to the social and
ethical impact of managing knowledge. We conclude that SF literature provides a repertoire of imagined future
possibilities and possible futures that could inform and improve KM’s ability to ethically plan for innovation
Omnichannel retailing: Digital transformation of a medium-sized retailer
No full textMost retailers are currently undergoing a major transformation in the process of becoming omnichannel retailers. This case addresses the challenges of an Irish company in the transition from an offline focused retailer to an omnichannel company. Building on its strong expertise in traditional offline retail, the company is aiming to establish itself as an omnichannel retailer that allows for increasing its customer base in Ireland and overseas. The case describes actual challenges along the journey, including the strategic, operational, and technological challenges. It provides an opportunity for students to discuss and understand the practical aspects of the retail transformation process and the linkage between technology and business strategy. The case enables discussions on the multiple aspects in the process of transformation toward omnichannel retail and promotes the development of innovative solutions for transferring customer experience provided in offline retail to online platforms
Optimizing the Level of Challenge in Stroke Rehabilitation using Iterative Learning Control: a Simulation
No full textThe level of challenge in stroke rehabilitation
has to be carefully chosen to keep the patient engaged and
motivated while not frustrating them. This paper presents
a simulation where this level of challenge is automatically
optimized using iterative learning control. An iterative learning
controller provides a simulated stroke patient with a target
task that the patient then learns to execute. Based on the
error between the target task and the execution, the controller
adjusts the difficulty of the target task for the next trial. The
patient is simulated by a nonlinear autoregressive network with
exogenous inputs to mimic their sensorimotor system and a
second-order model to approximate their elbow joint dynamics.
The results of the simulations show that the rehabilitation
approach proposed in this paper results in more difficult
tasks and a smoother difficulty progression as compared to a
rehabilitation approach where the difficulty of the target task
is updated according to a threshold
Opportunities for international collaboration in COVID-19 mental health research
No full textAbstract in tex
Data-driven nonlinear model reduction by moment-matching for the ISWEC system
No full textGiven the relevance of control-oriented models in
optimal control design for wave energy converters (WECs),
this paper presents a data-driven approach to nonlinear model
reduction by moment-matching for the ISWEC device, a device
originally developed at the Politecnico di Torino. The presented
model reduction technique is capable of providing simple WEC
models, which inherently preserve steady-state response characteristics from the target nonlinear system, by merely using
information on the system outputs, defined for a specific class of
operating conditions. We demonstrate that the proposed model
reduction by moment-matching procedure is well-posed for the
ISWEC, and illustrate the efficacy of this reduction technique
under a variety of sea conditions
A methodology for the structural design of LiftWEC: A wave-bladed cyclorotor
No full textNovel wave energy convertors (WECs) need to
be designed to ensure both longevity and hydrodynamic
efficiency. Hence there is a need to develop methodologies
that tackle both the hydrodynamic and structural requirements of WECs. Here we demonstrate an integral methodology for the design of LiftWEC: a two-foil wave bladed
cyclorotor. The hydrofoils follow the orbital motion of the
wave particles and rotate around a central axis. The span of
the hydrofoils is aligned to the crest of the wave, making
the device a wave terminator, i.e. a device that cancels the
incoming wave. The phase of the rotation is different to
that of the incoming wave. This phase difference generates
lift and sustains the rotation of the hydrofoils. In this paper,
a low-order two-dimensional hydrodynamic model and a
structural model based on beam theory are weakly coupled
to assess power production and structural stresses on the
device. We estimate the forces on the hydrofoils due to
regular waves under design conditions. By studying two
rotor configurations and two typical loading cases on the
hydrofoils, we demonstrate that LiftWEC is structurally
resilient to design conditions. We show that, for the
selected wave design conditions, the optimum radius to
span ratio is about 0.8, which ensures maximum mean
power output, but also, a reduced structural penalty. We
therefore demonstrate a powerful design tool and pave the
way for future frequency analysis studies for this type of
devices
On energy transfer of parametric resonance for wave energy conversion
No full textParametric resonance has been observed, both
numerically and experimentally, in various studies of wave
energy converters (WECs). Large heave motions induce
a periodic variation in the metacentric height of a WEC
body and, consequently, cause a harmonic variation in
pitch/roll restoring coefficients, which can parametrically
excite the pitch/roll modes. Current studies attempt to
determine the occurrence conditions of parametric resonance, by detecting the boundaries between stable and
unstable regions in the parameter space. In the literature,
some studies aim to make use of parametric resonance for
improving power capture. In contrast, some studies try
to suppress the effect of parametric resonance, as it can
reduce power capture efficiency in the primary degree of
freedom. However, how energy transfers from one mode to
another is not fully understood. This study aims to analyse
energy transfer between heave and pitch/roll modes when
parametric resonance occurs. A generic cylindrical point
absorber is studied as a WEC floater to consider non-linear
wave-structure interaction, including non-linear FroudeKrylov and viscous forces. A heave-pitch-roll three-degree of-freedom model is derived for numerical study of the
energy transfer between different operational modes