NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Between Europeanisation and Local Legacies: Holocaust Memory and Contemporary Anti-Semitism in Romania
No full textThis article addresses the persistence of anti-Semitism in Romania, placed in the context of some recent debates concerning the memory of the Holocaust in the country, as
well as in the area of Central and Eastern Europe more broadly. It argues that, despite significant improvements in terms of legislation, the memory of the Holocaust remains
a highly contested issue in contemporary Romania, torn between the attempts to join in the European memory of the Holocaust and local legacies that on the one hand focus
primarily on the suffering of Romanians under the communist regime, and on the other perform a symbolic denationalisation” of the Jewish minority in the country, whose own suffering is thus excised from national memory. It does so by focusing in particular on the debates surrounding the adoption of Law 217/2015, meant to clarify earlier
legislation on Holocaust denial, and comparing them with those prompted by the Ukrainian “memory laws” passed in the same year. Taking into account both the national and international reactions to these very different pieces of legislation, the article shows the still-persisting discrepancy between a (mostly Western) “European”
memory of the legacy of the twentieth century and local memory topoi characteristic of the countries that were part of the former socialist bloc
Digital transformation with enterprise architecture for smarter cities: a qualitative research approach
No full textPurpose
Smart city services are supported by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) referred to as digital technologies which increasingly promise huge opportunities for growth but are faced with system alignment and data integration issues when providing digital services.
Therefore, this study aims to employ Enterprise Architecture (EA) in digital transformation of cities by developing an architecture to address system alignment and data integration in digital transformation of cities.
Design/methodology/approach Qualitative method is applied to evaluate the presented architecture based on electric-mobility (e-Mobility) scenario and data was collected using case study via interviews from a municipality in Norway to validate the applicability of EA for digital transformation of city services.
Findings from the interviews were represented in ArchiMate language to model the digital transformation of e-mobility in smart cities. Findings suggest that the architecture serves as a guide to recommend urban administrators of the potential of EA and digital transformation in
addressing system alignment and data integration issues in smart cities.Research limitations/implications
Data employed in this study is from a single case, hence there is a need to evaluate the application of EA for digital transformation of city services with data collected from multi-cases. Practical implications: This current study adopts enterprise architecture approach to support city transformation as it has been widely applied by institutions to align business and ICT components. Social implications
This study provide implication on how municipalities can utilize EA and digital transformations towards a sustainable smart city. Originality/value An architecture is presented that can be utilized as a guide to help urban developers and
designers in deploying sustainable transport policies for smart cities. Additionally, EA is employed to foster digitalization towards achieving system alignment and data integration in cities to support urban environment as they digitally transform services provided to citizens
‘Good to know’: An Exploration of the role and Influence of Professional Ethics in ICT Bodies of Knowledge (BoKs)
No full textAs our dependency on ever-more complex, opaque, and ubiquitous information and communication technologies
(ICTs) increases, ethical concerns about the development of those technologies are also rising. One approach to mitigate
these concerns is to improve the maturity of the ICT profession through codification of its knowledge base and professional ethics. In this paper, some key theoretical approaches to ethics with a long-established tradition within Philosophy are explored and how these approaches may manifest in the codification of knowledge within ICT Bodies of Knowledge (BoKs) is discussed. BoKs provide a common vocabulary and knowledge inventory to aid communication and encourage shared values and practices, particularly in emerging professional areas such as the ICT profession. Thus, identifying and understanding how ethics are codified in ICT BoKs is important for maturing ICT professional practice in general, and more specifically, for the resolution of ethical concerns. This paper 1) explores considerations and approaches to how ethics are
incorporated within ICT BoKs, and 2) conducts content analysis on how ethics are codified within the content structure of ICT Boks. It is found that theoretical ethical approaches are rarely explicated cited in BoKS though, in the more mature BoKs, the discussion of ethics does include consideration of most of the major philosophical approaches. The implications of how knowledge about ethics is described and integrated into the wider knowledge infrastructure of the ICT profession including curriculum guidelines and accreditation processes is discussed. In a wider contribution to the Knowledge Management discipline, potential lessons to increase maturity for other emerging professions through the development of BoKs are also
outlined
Understanding the Structure and Function of Viral Glycosylation by Molecular Simulations: State-of-the-Art and Recent Case Studies
No full textThe chemical nature and heterogeneity of most complex carbohydrates makes their structural characterization very difficult, if not impossible, through experimental structural biology. This limits our understanding of glycan-mediated recognition processes and their contribution to protein dynamics, function and shielding, all aspects of great importance in understanding viral activity. Because glycans cannot be “seen” with standard structural biology techniques, their role is often disregarded, preventing our understanding of the biological function of glycoproteins and causing delays to the development of therapies. This is concerning in view of the urgency for new approaches to detect and block viral infection against COVID-19. High-performance computing (HPC)-based molecular simulations can now provide the missing atomistic-detailed description of fully glycosylated viral envelope proteins, delivering knowledge both alternative and complementary to experiment structural biology. In this article I discuss the basic principles of biomolecular simulations, focusing primarily on glycan-specific topics and research cases concerning viral fusion glycoproteins, namely the SARS-CoV-2 S, the influenza A hemagglutinin (HA) and the HIV-1 Env trimer, where HPC provided crucial missing information about key roles of viral glycosylation
High tree diversity enhances light interception in tropical forests
No full text1. Understanding the processes that underlie the effects of tree diversity on primary production is of foremost importance to enhance climate change mitigation by
tropical forests. Here, we investigated the effects of tree diversity on light interception over space and time in two tropical tree experiments, located in Panama—
Sardinilla site (monocultures to 18-species mixtures), and in Brazil—Anhembi site (20- to 114-species mixtures).
2. We assessed intercepted photosynthetically active radiation (iPAR) over horizontal grids and vertical transects (up to 5 m high in Sardinilla and up to 4 m high in Anhembi), in plots containing different richness levels and combinations of species.
3. Light interception increased from monocultures to 5-species mixtures in Sardinilla and from 20- to 114-species mixtures in Anhembi (during the dry season). At the
Sardinilla site, five-species mixtures showed iPAR comparable to the best performing monocultures, despite substantial differences observed among monocultures.
Diversity-iPAR relationships changed seasonally and were more pronounced during the dry season. Tree richness promoted a less variable temporal and spatial (i.e.
both horizontal and vertical) distribution of light interception. 4. Synthesis. High tree diversity (i.e. over a hundred species in mixture) maximizes
the amount of light intercepted by the canopy in restored tropical forests through more even capture in space and time. Diversity-light interception relationships
should be critically considered for designing cost-efficient large-scale tropical forest restoration programs
21st century HR: a competency model for the emerging role of HR Analysts
No full textPurpose – Drawing on human capital theory and the human capital resources framework, this study explores
the knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics (KSAOs) required by the emerging role of human
resource (HR) analysts. This study aims to systematically identify the key KSAOs and develop a competency
model for HR Analysts amid the growing digitalization of work.
Design/methodology/approach – Adopting best practices for competency modeling set out by Campion
et al. (2011), this study first analyzes 110 HR analyst job advertisements collected from five countries: Australia,
Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the USA. Second a thematic analysis of 12 in-depth semistructured
interviews with HR analytics professionals from Canada and Ireland is then conducted to develop a novel
competency model for HR Analysts.
Findings – This study adds to the developing and fast-growing field of HR analytics literature by offering
evidence supporting a set of six distinct competencies required by HR Analysts including: consulting, technical
knowledge, data fluency and data analysis, HR and business acumen, research and discovery and storytelling
and communication.
Practical implications – The research findings have several practical implications, specifically in
recruitment and selection, HR development and HR system alignment.
Originality/value – This study contributes to the evolving HR analytics literature in two ways. First, the
study links the role of HR Analysts to human capital theory and the human capital resource framework.
Second, it offers a timely and empirically driven competency model for the emerging role of HR Analysts
An Analysis of Common Security and Defence Policy’s (CSDP) Strategic Communication (StratCom)
No full textStrategic communication (StratCom) is established as one of the key functions and interests of contemporary
organisations and governments. The usefulness and importance of strategic communication becomes even more
essential when the organisation is defence and security-focused or involved in crisis management. The objective
of this study was to assess the strategic communication practices, and inherent challenges of communicating
Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and present relevant reflections. A documentary analysis of the
relevant EU websites and social media pages of 16 CSDP missions and operations was conducted. This was
supplemented with eight key-informant interviews with Press and Public Information Officers (PPIOs) of CSDP
and EU strategists.
The research demonstrated that most CSDP missions and operations are present on most social media platforms
but they often garner very small number of likes, comments, shares, replies or interactions from their targeted
audiences. Features of an echo-chamber are also observed. The study also found that public affairs (information)
and public diplomacy were the two main forms of strategic communication that the CSDP utilises. CSDP’s
strategic communication also tends to take a one-way StratCom process. The challenges faced in terms of StratCom
by CSDP are not uniform; they are contextual ranging from resource, translation to mismatch of expectations. The
major challenge, however, emanates from the structural problems of CSDP or the EU itself that are beyond the
European External Action Service (EEAS) or the relevant Press and Public Information Offices (PPIOs). The study
recommendations include quicker EU level political and policy compromise on CSDP, training and resource
improvements for StratCom, ‘storytelling and use of real people’, highlighting gender, rights and local ownership,
increasing the link with the international media and regular and appropriate self-appraisals
Nonlinear Data-Based Hydrodynamic Modeling of a Fixed Oscillating Water Column Wave Energy Device
No full textSystem identification (SI) techniques represent an alternative strategy to provide the hydrodynamic model of oscillating water column (OWC) devices, compared to more traditional physics-based
methods, such as linear potential theory (LPT) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). With SI, the
parameters of the model are obtained, by minimizing a model-related cost function, from input-output
data. The main advantage of SI is its simplicity, as well as its potential validity range, where the dynamic
model is valid over the full range for which the identification data was recorded. The paper clearly shows
the value of a global nonlinear model, both in terms of accuracy and computational simplicity, over an
equivalent multi-linear modelling solution. To this end, the validation performance of the nonlinear model
is compared to the results provided by a range of linear models. Furthermore, in order to provide a
more comprehensive comparative analysis, some practical aspects related to real-time implementation of
multi-linear and nonlinear SI models are discussed. For the experimental campaign, real wave tank (RWT)
data of a scaled OWC model are gathered from the narrow tank experimental facility at Dundalk Institute of
Technology (DkIT). Particular attention is paid to the selection of suitable input signals for the experimental
campaign, in order to ensure that the model is subjected to the entire range of equivalent frequencies, and
amplitudes, over which model validity is required
LMI‐based passivation of LTI systems with application to marine structures
No full textDue to the inherent relevance of passive (physically representative) models for control,
state-estimation, and motion simulation in the field of marine systems, in this paper, an
optimisation-based approach to passivation of linear time-invariant (LTI) systems is proposed with application to physically consistent dynamical modelling of marine structures.
In particular, the presented strategy is based upon the introduction of a suitably designed
perturbation, computed via minimisation of a linear objective subject to a specific set of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). The performance of the passivation technique is showcased
in terms of two case studies: An offshore platform, with a frequency-domain response
computed by means of hydrodynamic codes, and a 1:20 scale wave energy converter
(WEC), is characterised in terms of real experimental data
Genomic diversity, chromosomal rearrangements, and interspecies hybridization in the Ogataea polymorpha species complex
No full textThe methylotrophic yeast Ogataea polymorpha has long been a useful system for recombinant protein production, as well as a model
system for methanol metabolism, peroxisome biogenesis, thermotolerance, and nitrate assimilation. It has more recently become an important model for the evolution of mating-type switching. Here, we present a population genomics analysis of 47 isolates within the O. polymorpha species complex, including representatives of the species O. polymorpha, Ogataea parapolymorpha, Ogataea haglerorum, and\ud
Ogataea angusta. We found low levels of nucleotide sequence diversity within the O. polymorpha species complex and identified chromosomal rearrangements both within and between species. In addition, we found that one isolate is an interspecies hybrid between O. polymorpha and O. parapolymorpha and present evidence for loss of heterozygosity following hybridization