NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Look who’s (not) talking: The use of mediation in medical negligence claims in Ireland
No full textThis paper looks at why mediation is not more widely used in medical negligence
claims in Ireland. It is based on research, undertaken in connection with an MA in
Mediation and Conflict Intervention at Maynooth University, during which eight
solicitors working in the field of medical negligence shared their experience and
perspectives on the use of mediation in this area. The research finds that
mediation is in use but only as part of the convoluted litigation system and the
style used is focused on the legal interests of the parties rather than any emotional
needs. The Irish State has introduced some measures to facilitate the use of
mediation but there is no coherent strategy and low public awareness. Legislative
changes to streamline the litigation system are on the way, but if the parties’
needs and interests are to be served, a more facilitative, people-centred
mediation style should be adopted, supported by a coherent, government
sponsored, restorative justice strategy
Checking the foundations. Book review: Mediation and Dispute Resolution, Contemporary Issues and Developments, by Tony Whatling (2021) London
No full textTowards Integrated Pixel Modelling
No full textThe primary focus of this thesis is the re-formulation and extension of traditional mode-matching methods, and the development of the software package SCATTER-TNG (S-TNG) to
incorporate them. The foundations of this software are built on the legacy of mode matching
routines developed by the Terahertz Group at Maynooth University. This new adaptation aims
to enable continued contributions to the design, analysis, and efficient characterisation of the
sensitive pixel (feed, cavity, and absorber) structures of future far-infrared instruments.
Contemporary waveguide technologies increasingly rely on the exploitation of multi-moded
behaviour and operation in higher frequency bands. In these scenarios a more comprehensive
approach is required to correctly predict their behaviour as the assumption of ideal surfaces
may no longer be entirely valid.
In S-TNG, the fundamental description of fields within waveguides and at discontinuities relies
on auxiliary vector potentials rather than their measurable electric and magnetic field
quantities. Moreover, the necessary mode matching integrals are derived in terms of contour
rather than surface integrals. The reformulations offer an alternative, somewhat more flexible,
mathematical representation of the mode matching problem. Furthermore, mode matching
methods are extended to allow for non-PEC (Perfect Electrically Conductive) treatment of the
boundary walls. These non-PEC boundary walls consider mechanisms for loss which are
generally not included in the modal analysis of guide structures. In particular, losses may
manifest themselves more significantly in multi-moded structures, as field distributions for
increasing higher order modes are localised to a greater extent at the boundary walls.
The motivation for this body of work stemmed from ESA contracted work focused on “New
Technology High Efficiency Horn Antennas for Cosmic Microwave Background Experiments
and Far-Infrared Astronomy” – fulfilling the requirement to model multi-moded pixel devices
for THz space instruments. This included the ability to easily model arbitrary shaped absorbers
in an infinitely thin absorber layer model achieved via the contour integral implementation.
The software tools developed have since been applied to the design and analysis of some
proposed pixel and feed designs for the SPICA/SAFARI instrument. In particular, there is great
interest in the non-PEC treatment of the boundary walls for the analysis of prototype designs
Supporting new principals as leaders of learning through mentoring
No full textMentoring is an established method of support for principals as they commence their role as school
leaders. However, there is limited research on the influence of mentoring on the development of
leadership practices of newly appointed post-primary school principals in Ireland. As the role of a
principal has evolved from a manager to a leader of learning, the role of mentoring has also evolved.
The purpose of this general qualitative study is to explore the experiences and perceptions of newly
appointed principals (NAPs) in relation to the effectiveness of a formal mentoring programme. This
study addresses the following overarching research question: how can mentoring be used, if at all, to
develop NAPs as leaders of learning? This inquiry led to the development of the following embedded
questions linked to the overall research question: (1) What are NAPs’ perspectives of mentoring
following a formal mentoring programme? (2) How has participants’ professional practice been
influenced by their mentoring experience?
The study considers the constructs of leadership for learning (LfL) and mentoring identifying key
dimensions for each concept. Social cognitive learning theory is used as a theoretical bridge between
these two concepts to explore NAPs’ learning experiences. Based on ten individual interviews and a
focus group consisting of four participants, this study suggests that mentoring can support the
development of NAPs’ LfL practices. This is achieved through four significant findings from this study:
(1) the establishment of supportive relationships, (2) mentoring conversations that share learning
experiences, (3) linking emotional awareness to leadership and (4) commitment on the part of the
mentee to the mentoring process. In addition, this study sheds light on the importance of matching
the mentor with the mentee, the philosophy of learning behind LfL and mentoring and mentoring as
a form of social learning. The findings have implications for current and future mentoring
programmes that aim to support NAPs as leaders of learning
Retrospect 2021
No full textThe Irish History Students’ Association (IHSA) annual conference in 2021 was unique within the organisation’s history. The restrictions that the Covid-19 pandemic imposed, forced the Organising Committee at the Department of History, Maynooth University, to change the traditional format of this conference to a virtual setting. Conscious that the annual IHSA conference has remained, since 1950, an integral milestone in the organisation’s calendar, the Committee was eager to uphold – despite the barriers to intra-personal contact and travel this year – the commitment to dialogue between early-career researchers. This was achieved, and more: the move to a virtual conference allowed the organisation to extend its reach across geographic borders, welcoming an international audience of early-career researchers, academics, professionals, diplomats, politicians, and a broad audience of those with a love of history. It was our great pleasure to welcome speakers from fifteen universities across the island of Ireland, England, and the United States of America each of whom provided an intriguing insight into their respective research area. We would like to thank them for their part in making this conference a well-rounded and fruitful event
Food, digital life, and new environment-development dynamics
No full textThis chapter calls attention to new connections between digital technologies and food
that can be found all across the world. It scrutinizes these developments against the light
of an environment-development nexus engineered by mainstream development
theorists, which assumes that an embrace of digital technologies in and across food
systems will boost “development” and reduce the environmental impact of “modern”
agricultural practices. The chapter uses materials on emerging configurations in the
digital-infused food system to probe the possibilities for critical subjects to blend
technical proficiencies to create alternative, conceivably more just, digital futures than
those called forth by the well-established and many new firms using digital devices and
services to generate and capture value across the food system
Current Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation weakest in last millennium
No full textThe Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)—
one of Earth’s major ocean circulation systems—redistributes
heat on our planet and has a major impact on climate. Here, we
compare a variety of published proxy records to reconstruct
the evolution of the AMOC since about ad 400. A fairly consistent picture of the AMOC emerges: after a long and relatively
stable period, there was an initial weakening starting in the
nineteenth century, followed by a second, more rapid, decline
in the mid-twentieth century, leading to the weakest state of
the AMOC occurring in recent decades
Nonlinear Energy-Maximizing Optimal Control of Wave Energy Systems: A Moment-Based Approach
No full textLinear dynamics are virtually always assumed when
designing optimal controllers for wave energy converters (WECs),
motivated by both their simplicity and computational convenience. Nevertheless, unlike traditional tracking control applications, the assumptions under which the linearization of WEC
models is performed are challenged by the energy-maximizing
controller itself, which intrinsically enhances device motion to
maximize power extraction from incoming ocean waves. In this
article, we present a moment-based energy-maximizing control
strategy for WECs subject to nonlinear dynamics. We develop
a framework under which the objective function (and system
variables) can be mapped to a finite-dimensional tractable
nonlinear program, which can be efficiently solved using state of-the-art nonlinear programming solvers. Moreover, we show
that the objective function belongs to a class of generalized
convex functions when mapped to the moment domain, guaranteeing the existence of a global energy-maximizing solution
and giving explicit conditions for when a local solution is,
effectively, a global maximizer. The performance of the strategy
is demonstrated through a case study, where we consider (state
and input-constrained) energy maximization for a state-of-the art CorPower-like WEC, subject to different hydrodynamic
nonlinearities
Bacterial Interactions with Aspergillus fumigatus in the Immunocompromised Lung
No full textThe immunocompromised airways are susceptible to infections caused by a range of pathogens which increases the opportunity for polymicrobial interactions to occur. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus are the predominant causes of pulmonary infection for individuals with respiratory disorders such as cystic fibrosis (CF). The spore-forming fungus Aspergillus fumigatus, is most frequently isolated with P. aeruginosa, and co-infection results in poor outcomes for patients. It is therefore clinically important to understand how these pathogens interact with each other and how such interactions may contribute to disease progression so that appropriate therapeutic strategies may be developed. Despite its persistence in the airways throughout the life of a patient, A. fumigatus rarely becomes the dominant pathogen. In vitro interaction studies have revealed remarkable insights into the molecular mechanisms that drive agonistic and antagonistic interactions that occur between A. fumigatus and pulmonary bacterial pathogens such as P. aeruginosa. Crucially, these studies demonstrate that although bacteria may predominate in a competitive environment, A. fumigatus has the capacity to persist and contribute to disease
BEMRosetta: An open-source hydrodynamic coefficients converter and viewer integrated with Nemoh and FOAMM
No full textBoundary Element Method (BEM) solvers are
extensively used to obtain the hydrodynamic coefficients
required to model hydrodynamic forces in floating marine
structures. BEM solvers require the discretization of the
submerged device surface as a mesh to compute the hydro-dynamic coefficients as radiation damping and added mass,
response amplitude operators and linear and second-order
exciting forces. Each of these solvers need particular input
files and mesh formats, and save the results in specific file
formats. Typically, the input and output files are incompatible
between different solvers. Researchers handle this problem by
converting model results through homemade spreadsheets or
macros made in scripting languages. BEMRosetta was created
to allow loading and saving the input files, mesh geometries
and the hydrodynamic coefficients, in different formats. Furthermore, it also includes a mesh viewer. Additionally, BEMRosetta can calculate different parameters from the mesh and
the hydrodynamic coefficients. Through its integration with
the Finite-Order hydrodynamic Approximation by Moment Matching (FOAMM) toolbox, BEMRossetta allows the state space model of the radiation convolution term for the desired
degrees of freedom be obtained