NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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In the beginning was . . . the word. Cycles of Influence: A historical analysis of some seminal influences on the evolutionary development of mediation principles, values and practice models
No full textA historical analysis of seminal influences on the evolutionary development of
mediation principles, values and practice models. This article will focus on the ideas
of pioneering individuals who had a significant role and influence on contemporary
mediation principles and practice. It will describe their professional field of practice;
the particular principles and values that underpinned their practice; the theoretical
models and styles of practice they developed and how those became transported into
contemporary mediation practice. The relevance for mediation is to raise awareness
of the centrality, significance, and importance of these key principles. Ideally, this
will in turn impact on the quality of contemporary practice. Hopefully it will inform or
remind reflective practitioners, trainers, and practice consultants of what constitutes
the foundations of best practice
The a posteriori probability of the number of contributors when conditioned on an assumed contributor
No full textForensic DNA signal is notoriously challenging to assess, requiring computational tools to support its interpre-
tation. Over-expressions of stutter, allele drop-out, allele drop-in, degradation, differential degradation, and the
like, make forensic DNA profiles too complicated to evaluate by manual methods. In response, computational
tools that make point estimates on the Number of Contributors (NOC) to a sample have been developed, as have
Bayesian methods that evaluate an A Posteriori Probability (APP) distribution on the NOC. In cases where an
overly narrow NOC range is assumed, the downstream strength of evidence may be incomplete insofar as the
evidence is evaluated with an inadequate set of propositions.
In the current paper, we extend previous work on NOCIt, a Bayesian method that determines an APP on the
NOC given an electropherogram, by reporting on an implementation where the user can add assumed contrib-
utors. NOCIt is a continuous system that incorporates models of peak height (including degradation and dif-
ferential degradation), forward and reverse stutter, noise, and allelic drop-out, while being cognizant of allele
frequencies in a reference population. When conditioned on a known contributor, we found that the mode of the
APP distribution can shift to one greater when compared with the circumstance where no known contributor is
assumed, and that occurred most often when the assumed contributor was the minor constituent to the mixture.
In a development of a result of Slooten and Caliebe (FSI:G, 2018) that, under suitable assumptions, establishes
the NOC can be treated as a nuisance variable in the computation of a likelihood ratio between the prosecution
and defense hypotheses, we show that this computation must not only use coincident models, but also coincident
contextual information. The results reported here, therefore, illustrate the power of modern probabilistic systems
to assess full weights-of-evidence, and to provide information on reasonable NOC ranges across multiple
contexts
Adapting to mediation online: the Irish experience
No full textThis article contrasts the use of online mediation in Ireland from February 2019,
prior to the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, and from then until March 2021. It
considers the context for online mediation in Ireland, the challenges to the
mediation process, the experience of online mediation from the perspectives of
mediators and participants in mediation. Sharing these experiences informs
future decisions as to how technology might best be integrated into mediation
practice in the longer term.
The experience of 13 mediators indicates that there are challenges due to
familiarity with technology for mediators and participants, and challenges to
power balancing and confidentiality. In Ireland, although platforms such as Zoom
played a major role, use of the telephone in the mediation process also increased.
An online mediation competence framework for mediators is proposed
Upcycling Formal Specifications for Similar Implementations with Arís
No full textWe describe the Arís system for creating new formal specifications for
source code by transferring existing specifications to similar implementations.
We show the code graphs underlying its operation, graph matching supports retrieval, and pattern completion enables transfer of specifications to new implementations. A theorem prover formally verifies the new specifications
From Wilderness to Wonderment: The Presentation of Irish Heritage, Durrow and Glendalough
No full textThis study explores how heritage is presented at different sites, by different social,
political and national groups. How heritage is communicated, displayed or conveyed is
dependent on a number of influencing factors, such as tourism, local and national politics,
and economic conditions. Moreover, how heritage is presented has altered significantly
over time at these sites. It has been influenced by external factors such as economic
cycles, political and even climatic events, while continually being restructured by
changing aesthetic styles, cultural trends, and technological advancements. As such, each
of these influencing factors has been investigated in order to provide a complete
representation of the two Irish case study sites, Durrow, County Offaly, and Glendalough,
County Wicklow. Through a multifaceted system of analysis this project has utilised
several disciplinary elements such as history, archaeology, sociology and spatial
geography. This inclusive understanding of the past provides answers to our current form
of existence, both in terms of the physical space we occupy, nature and our society,
moreover, this kind of knowledge provides us with the tools to envisage possible future
outcomes. Whilst initially the term heritage will spark preconceived impressions of its
meaning, heritage as a concept is extremely complex and culturally subjective. Heritage
is a crucial component in identity formation. It can be fundamental to community
connections and provide people with a sense of belonging
Targeted Copper (II) Compounds with Selective Anti – Cancer and Anti-Microbial Activity
No full textThe selectivity for cancer cells has always been one of the major challenges for anticancer
drugs and, in particular, for metal-based agents, such as cisplatin. Despite the great success
of the anticancer drug of cisplatin and of a few other Pt(II) compounds, such as carboplatin
and oxalilplatin, the lack of selectivity, the high toxicity and the resistance mechanisms are
limiting their use. There are several strategies that could be implemented to overcome the
lack of selectivity and one of these is the use of specific vectors whose receptors are
overexpressed in the cancer cells with respect healthy tissues (i.e. sugars and carbohydrates
in general). Two very important vectors whose receptors are overexpressed are estrogens
and biotin.
In this thesis we report the synthesis and characterisation of a plethora of completely novel
Copper (II) based compounds whose coordination sphere has been modified to
accommodate estrogens (Chapter 2) and biotin (Chapter 3), with the aim to enhance the
tumour selectivity. The complexes have been successfully synthesised and characterised and
their application as anticancer agents have been evaluated. The rationale for the use of
Copper instead of Platinum is due to Copper being much less toxic than Platinum, being and
endogenous metal, and for this reason it is more tolerable within the body. There are several
examples of Copper based complexes with anticancer properties and it is interesting to note
that Copper complexes show a different mechanism of action with respect Pt based ones.
Copper, being a redox active metal with two available oxidation states in physiological
conditions (E0
Cu(II)/Cu(I) = + 0.15 V) can interfere with the cellular redox stress and produce ROS
(Reactive Oxygen Species) that can alter the cellular redox environment. In fact,
mitochondria, where the cellular respiration process happens, are considered an important
target for Cu complexes. The new complexes have been tested against a large panel of cancer
cell lines, cells which both overexpress these corresponding receptors (estrogens or biotin)
and ones which do not and very promising and interesting results are obtained. For some
complexes the redox stress, the ROS production and the mechanism of cell death are
reported. While mitochondria are considered the most important target of Copper based
compounds, the mitochondrial and nuclear DNA also play a very important role. Depending
on the nature of the ancillary ligands, Cu species can bind to the DNA forming several
adducts. In Chapter 4 are described a series of novel Cu(II) species, containing different
planar aromatic ligands (derivatives of DPPZ, dipyrido-phenazine), that can act as DNA
intercalators, with the aim to investigate the role of the substituents (electron withdrawing
or electron donating groups) on the biological properties. These complexes are synthesised
and characterised and their interaction with DNA is explored. A detailed and comprehensive
theoretical characterisation is also reported. These complexes show very interesting
antimicrobial properties against MRSA strain and antifungal activity against Candida
Albicans
The Authoritarian Dynamic During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Effects on Nationalism and Anti-Immigrant Sentiment
No full textResearch has demonstrated that situational factors such as perceived threats to the social order activate latent authoritarianism. The deadly COVID-19 pandemic presents a rare opportunity to test whether existential threat stemming from an indiscriminate virus moderates the relationship between authoritarianism and political attitudes toward the nation and out-groups. Using data from two large nationally representative samples of adults in the United Kingdom (N = 2,025) and Republic of Ireland (N = 1,041) collected during the initial phases of strict lockdown measures in both countries, we find that the associations between right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and (1) nationalism and (2) anti-immigrant attitudes are conditional on levels of perceived threat. As anxiety about the COVID-19 pandemic increases, so too does the effect of RWA on those political outcomes. Thus, it appears that existential threats to humanity from the COVID-19 pandemic moderate expressions of authoritarianism in society
Pandemic buying: Testing a psychological model of over-purchasing and panic buying using data from the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic
No full textThe over-purchasing and hoarding of necessities is a common response to crises, especially in developed economies where there is normally an expectation of plentiful supply. This behaviour was observed internationally during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the absence of actual scarcity, this behaviour can be described as ‘panic buying’ and can lead to temporary shortages. However, there have been few psychological studies of this phenomenon. Here we propose a psychological model of over-purchasing informed by animal foraging theory and make predictions about variables that predict over-purchasing by either exacerbating or mitigating the anticipation of future scarcity. These variables include additional scarcity cues (e.g. loss of income), distress (e.g., depression), psychological factors that draw attention to these cues (e.g., neuroticism) or to reassuring messages (e.g., analytical reasoning) or which facilitate over-purchasing (e.g., income). We tested our model in parallel nationally representative internet surveys of the adult general population conducted in the United Kingdom (UK: N = 2025) and the Republic of Ireland (RoI: N = 1041) 52 and 31 days after the first confirmed cases of COVID-19 were detected in the UK and RoI, respectively. About three quarters of participants reported minimal over-purchasing. There was more over-purchasing in RoI vs UK and in urban vs rural areas. When over-purchasing occurred, in both countries it was observed across a wide range of product categories and was accounted for by a single latent factor. It was positively predicted by household income, the presence of children at home, psychological distress (depression, death anxiety), threat sensitivity (right wing authoritarianism) and mistrust of others (paranoia). Analytic reasoning ability had an inhibitory effect. Predictor variables accounted for 36% and 34% of the variance in over-purchasing in the UK and RoI respectively. With some caveats, the data supported our model and points to strategies to mitigate over-purchasing in future crises
Patents, Governance and Control: Ethics and the Patentability of Novel Beings and Advanced Biotechnologies in Europe
No full textThis article focuses primarily on to what extent novel beings, and particularly, beings which display something
akin to human consciousness or agency would be (or should be) patentable under current European patent
law. Patents grant the patent holder a right to exclude others from using the patented invention for the period
of patent grant (usually 20 years). This allows the patent holder to control how that invention can or cannot be
used by others downstream, granting patent holders a governance like function over the patented technology
for the duration of the patent. Accordingly, the potential for patentability of novel beings gives rise to a myriad
of ethical issues including: to what extent is it appropriate for patent holders to retain and exercise patents
over “novel beings”; how issues of “agency” displayed by any “novel beings” would fit within the current
patent framework, if at all; and to what extent existing exclusions from patentability might exclude patents on
“novel beings” or whether changes within patent law may be needed if patents in relation to “novel beings”
are deemed ethically problematic. This article focuses on such issues, and in doing so, also sheds light on the
role of ethical issues within the patenting of advanced biotechnologies more generall
Trajectories of change in internalizing symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal population-based study
No full textFour distinct patterns of change in internalizing symptoms were identified, and the modal response was resilience.•71% of people experienced no change in internalizing symptoms during the pandemic. More people experienced improving (18%) than worsening (11%) internalizing symptoms during the pandemic. The majority of Irish adults have not experienced a negative mental health effect from the COVID-19 pandemic. Longitudinal data indicates that the mental health of the general population may not have been as badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as some had feared. Most studies examining change in mental health during the pandemic have assumed population homogeneity which may conceal evidence of worsening mental health for some. In this study, we applied a heterogeneous perspective to determine if there were distinct groups in the population characterised by different patterns of change in internalizing symptoms during the pandemic. Self-report data were collected from a nationally representative sample of Irish adults (N = 1041) at four time-points between April and December 2020. In the entire sample, mean levels of internalizing symptoms significantly declined from March to December 2020. However, we identified four distinct groups with different patterns of change. The most common response was ‘Resilience’ (66.7%), followed by ‘Improving’ (17.9%), ‘Worsening’ (11.3%), and ‘Sustained’ (4.1%). Belonging to the ‘Worsening’ class was associated with younger age, city dwelling, current and past treatment for a mental health problem, higher levels of empathy, and higher levels of loneliness. Sample attrition was relatively high and although this was managed using robust statistical methods, bias associated with non-responses cannot be entirely ruled out. The majority of adults experienced no change, or an improvement in internalizing symptoms during the pandemic, and a relatively small proportion of adults experienced a worsening of internalizing symptoms. Limited public mental health resources should be targeted toward helping these at-risk individuals