NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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The impact of e-marketing orientation, technological orientation and learning capacity on online SME performance
No full textCurrently, Internet penetration is accelerating across the country in Bangladesh, which,
in particular, has led to the simultaneous development and growth of online businesses.
Due to increased internet availability and accessibility, a number of small and medium
enterprises (SMEs) continue to operate using an Internet-driven online platform. This
context requires a research effort to investigate the underlying factors that might influence the business performance of online SMEs. Thus, the aim of the study is to examine the impact of e-marketing orientation (EMO), technology orientation (TO), and
learning capability (LC) on online SME performance in the context of Bangladesh. In
this study, the dependent variable is online SME performance, whereas the independent variables are EMO, TO and LC. To achieve this objective, the study developed a
questionnaire based on past literature. Following a non-probability random sampling
approach, 320 survey forms were distributed among online SME owners using the
online survey system (Google form), and finally 156 responses were realized as fully
complete responses. Hence, the study sample size is n = 156. SPSS version no. 26 was
used to analyze the correlation among independent and dependent variables and to
test the hypotheses. During statistical analysis, the 5% significance level is used as a
threshold value to accept hypotheses. The study results show that EMO, TO and LC
have a statistical and significant impact on online SME performance. Finally, this paper
seeks to outline several important implications for online SME owners, as well as suggest several directions for future research
A sea of change: Europe's future in the Atlantic realm
No full textEASAC – the European Academies' Science Advisory Council – is formed by the national science academies of the
EU Member States to enable them to collaborate with each other in giving advice to European policy-makers. Through EASAC, the academies work together to provide independent, expert, evidence-based advice about the scientific aspects of public policy to those who make or influence policy within the European institutions.
In this report, we describe the underlying processes and trends in the Atlantic, and the ways in which the state of the ocean – currents, winds, waves and ocean mixing – impact Europe’s climate, marine environment and resources. The report describes the underlying processes and trends in the Atlantic, and the ways in which the state of the ocean – currents, winds, waves and ocean mixing – impact Europe’s climate, marine environment and resources. A dominant influence is the global thermohaline circulation which includes the Atlantic Ocean currents that transport heat and salt into northern latitudes via the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Drift, with colder and denser waters returning south at depth; this is the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Superimposed on this are patterns of variability in both the atmosphere (the North Atlantic Oscillation) and the ocean (the Atlantic Multidecadal Variability). Palaeoclimatic records show that changes in these basic processes may have substantial local and global effects on climate and on marine and coastal ecosystems
What does it mean for a data subject to make their personal data ‘manifestly public’? An analysis of GDPR Article 9(2)(e)
No full textKey points
This article investigates an under-discussed and potentially significant provision in the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), namely Article 9(2)(e), which permits processing of special category personal data if the ‘processing relates to personal data which are manifestly made public by the data subject’.
This provision may be of increasing interest to data controllers in a variety of cloud-based, internet-related, and/or social media contexts. We specifically consider the application of this provision in the context of genetic data and open data sharing (ie data that can be freely used, re-used, and redistributed by anyone), illustrating this by way of several cases of initiatives that seek to share genetic data. We query whether by uploading one’s own genetic data onto the internet, a person has made their data ‘manifestly public’ within the meaning of the GDPR.
Our response to this query is that in general, the answer should be no, but it remains possible. We argue that Article 9(2)(e) must be construed narrowly; outside of clearly defined contexts, it would be legally inappropriate to invoke and rely upon this manifestly public self-disclosure exception in data protection law. Our narrow interpretation of the provision aligns with the limited guidance made available from data protection authorities. As part of this argument, we propose a legal test that must be satisfied before Article 9(2)(e) may be lawfully invoked, and which is grounded in the intent of the data subject
Power resources and successful trade union actions that address precarity in adverse contexts: The case of Central and Eastern Europe
No full textIs it possible for trade unions to fight precarity in an adverse global context? Although existing research suggests this is possible, there is limited understanding of the interplay of resources that enable unions to address precarity in deregulated markets. This study employs a power resource approach to investigate how unions overcome their external constraints. It draws upon 130 in-depth interviews with key informants across nine Central and Eastern European countries to investigate successful and unsuccessful union actions in sectors with differing external resources. In each sector, unions that mobilise their internal resources have been able to reduce various precarity dimensions, such as low wages, lack of voice, and irregular working time. The results reveal that unions whose objectives are based on convincing win–win discourses can make strides, acting as drivers of change in precarity patterns even in unfavourable conditions. Moreover, the study introduces a multi-dimensional conceptualisation of union success, identifying union actions that result in measurable improvements in precarity dimensions for all worker types. To deepen understanding of the role unions play in fighting precarity in adverse contexts, future research could investigate union actions that improve a wider range of precarity dimensions for all workers
Expectations and Experiences of Gender Affirming Healthcare in Transgender Individuals
No full textGender affirming healthcare refers to a range of treatments and procedures which aim to alleviate gender dysphoria in transgender patients by bringing their bodies into alignment with their gender identities. These treatments can include gender affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) and various surgeries. This research, which was influenced by PPI (patient and public involvement) , aimed to explore the factors associated with experiences of gender affirming healthcare through two studies: (i) a systematic review of factors associated with gender affirming healthcare in existing literature, and (ii) a qualitative study consisting of interviews with ten transgender people (four males, four females, two non-binary) living in Ireland which explored expectations and experiences of gender affirming healthcare. The findings of these two studies suggest that a range of factors are associated with experiences. The systematic review included 38 studies from 13 different countries and found that factors associated with experiences broadly fell into the categories of sociodemographic factors, treatment-related factors, and psychosocial factors, such as interactions with healthcare professionals (HCPs). The qualitative study found that experiences of transgender people seeking treatment in Ireland were mixed, with positive experiences generally relating to treatments themselves and negative experiences generally relating to interactions with HCPs and barriers to care. Common barriers included waiting times, cost, and distance to gender clinics. Social support was frequently reported as an important factor in seeking care.
Participants often sought information online and from other transgender people due to a lack of available information and lack of knowledge among HCPs. Information from these sources often shaped participant expectations which in turn shaped experiences. A list of recommendations for those involved in supporting patients undergoing gender affirming healthcare has been developed based on the findings of these studies. This suggests a
number of ways in which transgender patients could be better supported through the transition process
The new Radiosounding HARMonization (RHARM) dataset of homogenized radiosounding temperature, humidity and wind profiles with uncertainties
No full textObservational records are more often than not influenced by residual non-climatic factors which
must be detected and adjusted for prior to their usage. In this work, we present a novel approach, named
Radiosounding HARMonization (RHARM), providing a homogenized data set of temperature, humidity
and wind profiles along with an estimation of the measurement uncertainties for 697 radiosounding stations
globally. The RHARM method has been used to adjust twice daily (0000 and 1200 UTC) radiosonde data
holdings at 16 pressure levels in the range 1,000–10 hPa, from 1978 to present, provided by the Integrated
Global Radiosonde Archive. Relative humidity (RH) data are limited to 250 hPa. The applied adjustments
are interpolated to all reported levels. RHARM is the first data set to provide homogenized time series with
an estimation of the observational uncertainty at each sounding pressure level. By construction, RHARM
adjusted fields are not affected by cross-contamination of biases across stations and are fully independent
of reanalysis data. Analysis of trends for temperature, RH and winds highlights increased geographical
coherency of trends over 1978–2000 globally, but especially in the Northern Hemisphere and South America.
RHARM shows warming trends of 0.39 K/decade at 300 hPa in the Northern Hemisphere and of 0.25 K/
decade in the tropics. The RHARM adjustments also reduce differences with the European Centre for
Medium-Range Weather Forecast ERA5 reanalysis, with the strongest effect in the Northern Hemisphere for
temperature and relative humidity. For wind speed, the comparison indicates a good agreement with ERA5 in
the troposphere
CASIE – Computing affect and social intelligence for healthcare in an ethical and trustworthy manner
No full textThis article explores the rapidly advancing innovation to endow robots with social intelligence capabilities in the form of multilingual and multimodal emotion recognition, and emotion-aware decision-making capabilities, for contextually appropriate robot behaviours and cooperative social human–robot interaction for the healthcare domain. The objective is to enable robots to become trustworthy and versatile social robots capable of having human-friendly and human assistive interactions, utilised to better assist human users’ needs by enabling the robot to sense, adapt, and respond appropriately to their requirements while taking into consideration their wider affective, motivational states, and behaviour. We propose an innovative approach to the difficult research challenge of endowing robots with social intelligence capabilities for human assistive interactions, going beyond the conventional robotic sense-think-act loop. We propose an architecture that addresses a wide range of social cooperation skills and features required for real human–robot social interaction, which includes language and vision analysis, dynamic emotional analysis (long-term affect and mood), semantic mapping to improve the robot’s knowledge of the local context, situational knowledge representation, and emotion-aware decision-making. Fundamental to this architecture is a normative ethical and social framework adapted to the specific challenges of robots engaging with caregivers and care-receivers
Experiencing Dyslexia Through the Prism of Difference
No full textAccording to research by AHEAD (2021), students with specific learning
difficulties are accessing third level education in greater numbers than ever
before. My research has shown this to be the case also, however, my
research, alongside a larger body of research (Clouder 2020; O’Brien,
2019; McCullagh, 2018) have highlighted that student with dyslexia tend
not to access the support services. Within the body of research conducted
in third level education in Ireland, few have focused on the overall
experiences of students with dyslexia studying in third level education. My
study addresses this gap in knowledge as it provides an insight into how
students with dyslexia navigate third level education.
Ethnography was used as the principle method of research in this project,
and 16 participants took part. The participants varied in age range and
identified as different genders. The range of programmes studied by the
participants were at undergraduate and postgraduate level and my
research participants were attending four different third-level institutions.
Contemporary discourse and literature surrounding dyslexia is often
dominated by notions of disability, deficit, lack, vulnerability, and social
expectancies around achievement in education. Accepting dyslexia as an
integral part of the self and viewing it through a prism of difference as
opposed to a deficit, were emerging themes in this study, as motivators to
success. Institutional and attitudinal barriers also emerged as common
themes in this study as did the impacts on academic self-worth, self-esteem, and self-confidence as a result of studying in third level education
with dyslexia.
My research found that when students identify dyslexia as a limitation, it
becomes a barrier to successful learning and has a negative effect on their
identity, which impacts them socially and academically, due to what I call
internalised ableism. However, an easier pathway to success is achieved
when viewing dyslexia as a difference and studying through a Neurodiverse
Approach. This approach enabled my participants to achieve academic
success, not despite their dyslexia but in partnership with it. Ultimately, this
dissertation asks what their specific experiences are and what does it mean
to study in third level education with dyslexia.
This research and its findings are therefore relevant to several stakeholders
such as policy makers, third level education institutions, disability support
staff and teaching staff
Stuck in the Middle with EU (and the UK)? How Ireland navigates its relationships with the EU and UK postBrexit
No full textThe vote by the United Kingdom on 23 June 2016 to leave the European Union presented Ireland with some very difficult choices, in particular between its commitment to protecting the Good Friday Agreement and its membership of the EU’s Customs Union and Single Market. Immediately on 24 June 2016, the sense in Dublin was one that the exit of the UK from the EU constituted an existential threat to Ireland, and in particular to peace on the island. While entirely accepting of the legitimacy of the decision, the Irish government led by Taoiseach Enda Kenny, set about limiting the potential damage caused to Ireland
Healthy versus inflamed lung environments differentially affect mesenchymal stromal cells
No full textBackground Despite increased interest in mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC)-based cell therapies for acute
respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), clinical investigations have not yet been successful and our
understanding of the potential in vivo mechanisms of MSC actions in ARDS remains limited. ARDS is
driven by an acute severe innate immune dysregulation, often characterised by inflammation, coagulation and
cell injury. How this inflammatory microenvironment influences MSC functions remains to be determined.
Aim The aim of this study was to comparatively assess how the inflammatory environment present in
ARDS lungs versus the lung environment present in healthy volunteers alters MSC behaviour.
Methods Clinical-grade human bone marrow-derived MSCs (hMSCs) were exposed to bronchoalveolar
lavage fluid (BALF) samples obtained from ARDS patients or from healthy volunteers. Following
exposure, hMSCs and their conditioned media were evaluated for a broad panel of relevant properties,
including viability, levels of expression of inflammatory cytokines, gene expression, cell surface human
leukocyte antigen expression, and activation of coagulation and complement pathways.
Results Pro-inflammatory, pro-coagulant and major histocompatibility complex (self-recognition) related gene
expression was markedly upregulated in hMSCs exposed ex vivo to BALF obtained from healthy volunteers.
These changes were less apparent and often opposite in hMSCs exposed to ARDS BALF samples.
Conclusion These data provide new insights into how hMSCs behave in healthy versus inflamed lung
environments, and strongly suggest that the inflamed environment in ARDS induces hMSC responses that
are potentially beneficial for cell survival and actions. This further highlights the need to understand how
different disease environments affect hMSC functions