NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Remdesivir shifts circadian rhythmicity to eveningness; similar to the most prevalent chronotype in ADHD
No full textCircadian clocks control immunity and virus replication, as well as pharmacokinetics and efficacy therapeutics. The aim of
this study was to investigate the extent of these relationships by measuring circadian gene expression in primary human-derived dermal fibroblast cultures (HDF) after remdesivir exposure. In the current study, we analysed circadian gene expression in a cohort of participants without a neuropsychiatric diagnosis. After ex vivo exposure to remdesivir to human dermal
fibroblast (HDF) cultures and dexamethasone synchronization, the rhythmicity of circadian gene expression (Clock, Bmal1,
Per1-3, Cry1) was analysed via qRT-PCR. In this study, D-MEQ scores indicated that participants without a neuropsychiatric diagnosis had no evening preference. Remdesivir leads to a slight phase-shift in Clock, Per1 and Per2. Significant different expressions of Bmal1 and Per3 were detected after remdesivir exposure: Bmal1 at ZT8 (t(22)=3.26, p=0.004), ZT24 (t(22)=− 2.66, p=0.015), ZT28 (t(20)=− 2.14, p=0.045) and Per3 at ZT8 (t(22)=− 4.27, p<0.001) and ZT12 (t(22)=− 2.61, p=0.016). A significant difference between chronotype and circadian gene expression for Bmal1, Cry1 and Per3 was observed. The present study shows that remdesivir has an impact on circadian function. It is well known that the circadian rhythm effects sleep and, moreover, sleep quality. The results suggest that remdesivir medication may alter sleep quality in participants without a neuropsychiatric diagnosis and shifts chronotype to evenness; similar as prevalent in
ADH
Dancing to two tunes: The role of bicultural identity and strong ties in skilled migrants’ value-driven protean careers
No full textRecent research has pointed out the lack of understanding of the way migrants manage career opportunities and barriers to mobilise their agency in the host destination. In order to better understand how some migrants succeed in host countries, we drew on interviews with 31 non-Western skilled migrants (NWSM) who felt they had achieved successful careers in Australia and the USA. Using a subjective value fulfilment approach, we analyse three illustrative cases
from the NWSM sample to understand how bicultural identity, strong ties and protean careers operate together within a Western host country. The findings illustrate the protean career orientation of these skilled migrants. These cases also highlight the role of bicultural identity and
strong ties in the formation of their career paths. Overall, the ability to harmoniously use and combine their bicultural identity emerges as a significant success factor in achieving protean careers. The findings also suggest that ongoing support from strong ties was influential and visible
in the skilled migrants’ protean career orientation. This was a dominant pattern of findings within the 31 cases of NWSMs, accounting for 90 % (28) of the participants. The findings contribute to extending the existing literature on career orientations by studying a cross-cultural sample
through the lens of the generally Westernised career approach of the protean career. In doing so, we argue that unlike Western expatriates who may benefit more from weak ties to progress in their careers, these NWSM indicated strong ties to be instrumental in their value fulfilling career trajectories, most likely due to their collectivist home country cultures. Similarly, we contribute
to the career literature on skilled migrants by highlighting the positive impact of bicultural identity and a value driven approach to these migrants’ successful protean careers. Implications for skilled migrants, career counsellors and HRM professionals are also discussed
What goes around comes around. Exploring how skilled migrant founder–managers of SMEs recruit and retain international talent
No full textAbstract
Purpose – This micro-level study unpacks the recruitment and retention of international professionals to
small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The study highlights the influence of the founders’ international
experience when applying organisational-level (meso) policies and practices. With their insider experience as
skilled migrants, we share how the founders in each of the SMEs mobilised career capital into human resource
management (HRM) strategies.
Design/methodology/approach – Combining literature on SMEs and skilled migrants’ careers, we draw
upon intelligent career theory to illuminate the recruitment and retention of self-initiated expatriates and skilled
migrants in SMEs. With three SME case studies as samples–one micro, one small and one medium-sized
organisation in Ireland–we consider the influence of the founders’ international experience in the design and
application of formal and informal HRM strategies (at the organisational level) that are operationalised to
recruit and retain international talent to/in these organisations.
Findings – The HRM practices in the three SME cases in this paper, each run by migrant founders, vary from
formalised (for our medium-sized organisation), semi-formalised (for our small-sized organisation) to ad hoc
and tailor-made (for our micro-sized organisation). These particular SMEs were often more receptive to hiring
other migrants. The important role of the three SME case studies’ skilled migrant founders and their own
international career experiences was apparent in the particular HRM approaches they adopted. The relevance
of intelligent career theory when applying micro-level findings at the meso-organisational level is shown.
Originality/value – The paper presents how the international experience of founder–managers, in turn,
impacts on the HRM practices and policies that are implemented to recruit and retain international employees.
The study highlights how both organisation size and founder-manager international experience influence the
degree of customisation of HRM practices and policies in SMEs, specifically pertaining to the recruitment and
retention of self-initiated expatriates and skilled migrant employees. The heterogeneity within the sub-categories encompassed under the umbrella label of SME is emphasised; validating our case study approach,
where nuance and detail of the specific organisation can be shared
Refuting the myth of a ‘tsunami’ of mental ill-health in populations affected by COVID-19: evidence that response to the pandemic is heterogeneous, not homogeneous
No full textBackground
The current study argues that population prevalence estimates for mental health disorders, or changes in mean scores over time, may not adequately reflect the heterogeneity in mental health response to the COVID-19 pandemic within the population.
Methods
The COVID-19 Psychological Research Consortium (C19PRC) Study is a longitudinal, nationally representative, online survey of UK adults. The current study analysed data from its first three waves of data collection: Wave 1 (March 2020, N = 2025), Wave 2 (April 2020, N = 1406) and Wave 3 (July 2020, N = 1166). Anxiety-depression was measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire Anxiety and Depression Scale (a composite measure of the PHQ-9 and GAD-7) and COVID-19-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with the International Trauma Questionnaire. Changes in mental health outcomes were modelled across the three waves. Latent class growth analysis was used to identify subgroups of individuals with different trajectories of change in anxiety-depression and COVID-19 PTSD. Latent class membership was regressed on baseline characteristics.
Results
Overall prevalence of anxiety-depression remained stable, while COVID-19 PTSD reduced between Waves 2 and 3. Heterogeneity in mental health response was found, and hypothesised classes reflecting (i) stability, (ii) improvement and (iii) deterioration in mental health were identified. Psychological factors were most likely to differentiate the improving, deteriorating and high-stable classes from the low-stable mental health trajectories.
Conclusions
A low-stable profile characterised by little-to-no psychological distress (‘resilient’ class) was the most common trajectory for both anxiety-depression and COVID-19 PTSD. Monitoring these trajectories is necessary moving forward, in particular for the ~30% of individuals with increasing anxiety-depression levels
The Contribution of Copy Number Variants and Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms to the Additive Genetic Variance of Carcass Traits in Cattle
No full textThe relative contributions of both copy number variants (CNVs) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to the additive genetic variance of carcass traits in cattle is not well understood. A detailed understanding of the relative importance of CNVs in cattle may have implications for study design of both genomic predictions and genome-wide
association studies. The first objective of the present study was to quantify the relative contributions of CNV data and SNP genotype data to the additive genetic variance of
carcass weight, fat, and conformation for 945 Charolais, 923 Holstein-Friesian, and 974 Limousin sires. The second objective was to jointly consider SNP and CNV data in a least absolute selection and shrinkage operator (LASSO) regression model to identify genomic regions associated with carcass weight, fat, and conformation within each of the three breeds separately. A genomic relationship matrix (GRM) based on just CNV data did not capture any variance in the three carcass traits when jointly evaluated with a SNP-derived GRM. In the LASSO regression analysis, a total of 987 SNPs and 18 CNVs were associated with at least one of the three carcass traits in at least one of the three
breeds. The quantitative trait loci (QTLs) corresponding to the associated SNPs and CNVs overlapped with several candidate genes including previously reported candidate
genes such as MSTN and RSAD2, and several potential novel candidate genes such as ACTN2 and THOC1. The results of the LASSO regression analysis demonstrated that CNVs can be used to detect associations with carcass traits which were not detected using the set of SNPs available in the present study. Therefore, the CNVs and SNPs available in the present study were not redundant forms of genomic data
Homotopy Invariance of the Space of Metrics with Positive Scalar Curvature on Manifolds with Singularities
No full textIn this paper we study manifolds, XΣ, with fibred singularities, more specifically, a relevant space Rpsc(XΣ)
of Riemannian metrics with positive scalar curvature. Our main goal is to prove that the space Rpsc(XΣ) is homotopy invariant under certain surgeries on XΣ
Shifting Formations, Formative Infrastructures: Nationalisms and Racisms in Media Circulation
No full textThis introduction to the special issue departs from elaborating on the issues explored in a project examining right-wing politics and “debates” about racism in Finland. It situates the research gathered in the collection in terms of a shared focus on the disparate networks of organised and opportunistic cultural producers that invest time and labour in the production of racialising and othering discourse and aesthetics, and on the modes and forms of cultural and media production that have, in a relatively short space of time, come to be distributed and adapted across divergent socio-political contexts, and integrated to the situated forms of racism and nationalism given exclusionary force across and within them. It underlines the need to understand the motivated circulation of racializing discourse in the wider context of forms of “postracialism,” and the need for research to move past the paradigm of “hate speech” to get to grips with the significance and impacts of intensively circulated racist “noise.
The Critical French Medical Humanities
No full textIn the 1990s the phenomenon known today as ‘French Cultural
Studies’ emerged in the UK under the broad umbrella of French and Francophone Studies. Adopting an nterdisciplinary approach, French Cultural Studies sought to open up new ways of looking at France and the French-speaking world through the ideas, images, and narratives of more than a century of turbulent history and political change. Forbes and Kelly (1995)1 – who wrote the first significant
introduction to French Cultural Studies – placed special emphasis on culture as the live constituent (the ‘visible territory’) through which a nation, a people and the individual struggle to define themselves (290). In identifying ‘culture’ as the shifting ground of national and
individual identity, the co-authors tapped into the embodied experience of citizens. French Cultural Studies has since flourished as an academic pursuit, embedding itself in curricula in degrees in French Studies and shaping individual and collective research portfolios
Living with Dying in France: Contemporary French Writing about End-of-Life Care
No full textTHE FRENCH NATIONAL HEALTHCARE system enjoys a reputation for excellence, both in terms of outcomes for patients and the accessibility of care. However, the 2016 overview of French health policy put out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development raises concerns about the appropriateness of some care in the French healthcare system, calling for better engagement of patients in the decision making process about treatment options.1
This article examines the representation of terminally ill patients’ experience of the French healthcare system in
two recently published auto pathographical narratives.2
In Réparer le monde, Alexandre Gefen defends the idea that twenty-first-century French literary culture “a vu l’émergence d’une conception que je qualifierai de ‘thérapeutique’ de l’écriture et de la lecture, celle d’une littérature qui guérit, qui soigne, qui aide, ou, du moins, qui ‘fait du bien.’”3 Gefen’s point is valid for
the two authors whose work will be explored here, and can also be applied fruitfully to French society more broadly and its medical system as it accompanies its citizens at the end of life. “Je suis vouée simplement à imaginer une
écoute post mortem et me satisfaire d’avoir été un peu utile,” says Marie Deroubaix, pressing for legal reform to euthanasia laws in France through her book 6 mois à vivre: J’ai choisi de mourir dignement (2012)
Why parents chose to send their children to Irish-medium immersion preschools: learning from parental choice strategies in Celtic countries
No full textThis study investigated the reasons Irish parents chose to send their children to Irish-medium preschools settings over other forms of early childhood education. The international literature on parental decision making regarding childcare and relevant studies on immersion education in Celtic countries were reviewed. A parental questionnaire, informed by this literature, was distributed through selected immersion settings in Ireland. Social and cognitive development were the main reasons parents cited
in regard to early childhood education and an interest in the Irish language and bilingualism along with the good reputation of the immersion preschool were the reasons they chose immersion pre-schooling. Comparisons were made with the reasons parents chose immersion primary education in Scotland, Wales and Ireland and the findings were broadly similar across the studies. Recommendations include disseminating information about immersion preschools more widely as well as reviewing the impact of the Education (Admission to Schools) Act (DES, Admission to Schools Policy. Dublin: DES. http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/
2018/act/14/enacted/en/html, 2018) on enrolment in Irish-medium preschools and primary schools