NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Identifying artificially drained pasture soils using machine learning and Earth observation imagery
No full textIn many areas of the globe, the installation of artificial drains on naturally poorly drained soils is a necessary part of farm management. Identifying the location of artificially
drained areas is an important step in achieving environmentally sustainable agricultural production. However, in many regions, data on the presence or the distribution of artificial drainage systems are rare. We outline an approach to identify artificially drained soils using Earth observation (EO) satellite imagery and digital elevation data. The method exploits the contrasting
phenology of grass during a peak growth stage to identify artificially drained and undrained soils. Two machine-learning techniques, support vector machine and random forest, were tested. Classification accuracy up to 91% was achieved using photo interpreted accuracy points using higher resolution satellite imagery. Additional investigations would be required to establish whether the drained conditions identified were a result of artificial drainage or from naturally well-drained soils occurring within larger soil units. Herein, the Republic of Ireland is used as a test case. Based on our findings, the area of artificially drained grassland within the study area could be revised upward, with 44% (or ∼345; 000 ha) of pasture currently classed as “poorly drained” identified as “artificially drained.” At one location, a change in the modelled drainage condition at field level was demonstrated following drain installation. The presented method demonstrates the ability of EO satellites to quickly and accurately map field drainage status at farm management scales over a wide area. This has the potential to improve management decisions at local scales, but also has implications in terms of national policy development and regulation in areas such as water quality and climate change mitigatio
An Energy-Maximising Linear Time Invariant Controller (LiTe-Con) for Wave Energy Devices
No full textA Linear Time Invariant (LTI) energy-maximising
control strategy for Wave Energy Converters (WECs) is proposed in this paper. Using the fundamental requirement of impedance matching, the controller is tuned to maximise the energy obtained under polychromatic wave excitation. Given the LTI nature of the proposed controller, the design and implementation procedure is significantly simpler than well-established energy-maximising controllers, including state-of-the-art numerical optimisation routines, which are predominant in this field. Additionally, a LTI constraint
handling mechanism is provided. The effectiveness of both the LTI control strategy and the constraint handling mechanism are assessed using regular and irregular waves in unconstrained and constrained cases. The resulting performance is compared to those obtained using existing WEC optimal control strategies. Finally, the benefits, in terms of power production, for both the controller and the constraint handling mechanism are explicitly highlighted
by means of an application cas
Parametric representation of arrays of wave energy converters for motion simulation and unknown input estimation: A moment-based approach
No full textWhen it comes to parameterisation of dynamical models for arrays of Wave Energy Converters (WECs), the most used approach, within the wave energy literature, provides a state-space representation whose order (dimension)
increases quadratically with the number of devices composing the WEC array. This represents a major drawback
for key WEC design elements, such as motion simulation and unknown input estimation, being the latter essential to effectively maximise energy extraction from ocean waves. We present herein a multi-input, multi-output (MIMO) parameterisation strategy based on a system-theoretic interpretation of moments. The state-space
representations computed with this moment-based approach exactly match the steady-state behaviour of the
target WEC system at specific (user-selected) interpolation points, providing efficient low dimensional models
that can accurately represent the input-output dynamics of WEC arrays. Moreover, we show that there exists an
intrinsic connection between wave excitation force estimation strategies and the moment-based parameterisation method proposed in this paper. We exploit this mathematical correlation to provide low order models that
deliver the same degree of wave excitation force estimation accuracy to that obtained by implementing the
currently-used parameterisation methods, with mild computational requirements. The performance of the
strategy is analysed in terms of a case study, considering a WEC array composed of state-of-the-art CorPower-like
devices, for both WEC motion simulation and wave excitation force estimation scenarios
Stakeholder engagement and the future of Irish public–private partnerships
No full textBuilding on recent works that stress the importance of stakeholder engagement in partnerships, we propose a novel benchmarking framework for the evaluation of public–private partnerships. This framework describes mutuality and the preservation of organisational identity as the ideal characteristics of partnerships because they, in turn, encourage stakeholder support for public–private partnerships. Applying this framework to infrastructure public–private partnerships in Ireland, we note that mutual accountability has been weakened following the financial crisis. Meanwhile, consultation with clients such as key public–private partnership stakeholders, which would help articulate organisational identities, remains patchy across the education, justice and health public–private partnership that we investigate. Nonetheless, there are sectoral differences. In education, consultation centres on school principals while ignoring teaching staff and trade unions. In justice, attention is focused primarily on judges. Similarly, in health sector public–private partnerships, there is a strong focus on clinicians. Overall, private sector-driven consultation efforts are primarily pragmatic, with a focus on preventing delays and the dissatisfaction of key clients who could prevent future projects from materialising. We suggest that the combination of this calculated approach to consultation, together with the delegation of public–private partnership contracting to an arm’s-length government agency, is likely to promote a similar depoliticisation of Irish public–private partnerships as has been observed in other countries. We argue that the potentially harmful stakeholder disengagement that this might encourage can be addressed through a concerted set of measures focusing on improved transparency of decision-making, as well as frameworks that mandate client and public consultation
Repealing Ireland's Eighth Amendment: abortion rights and democracy today
No full textIn 2018, the Irish public voted to repeal the Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution, which since 1983
banned abortion in the country. While this was a watershed moment in Irish history, it was not unconnected
to wider discussions now taking place around the world concerning gender, reproductive rights, the future of
religion, Church–State relationships, democracy and social movements. With this Forum, we want to prompt
some anthropological interpretations of Ireland’s repeal of the Eighth Amendment as a matter concerning not
only reproductive rights, but also questions of life and death, faith and shame, women and men, state power
and individual liberty, and more. We also ask what this event might mean (if anything) for other societies
dealing with similar issues
Rocking the boat while staying in it: connecting ends and means in radical community work
No full textAt a time when the term ‘radical’ is predominantly associated with intolerance and violence, this article explicitly interrogates its meaning and application in community development praxis. Based on a qualitative inquiry, influenced by community development principles, community workers with rich experience at both micro- and macro-levels in Ireland were interviewed individually, then collectively to elicit their perspectives on the possibilities and challenges for radical community work in Ireland. While specifically located, its conclusions have relevance for community work and community development globally.
Findings show that being a professional and a radical are not incompatible. Some radical community workers recognize their dual role in service of the state and their obligation to work with others to change it. Acknowledging that marginalized communities do not have the access to power available to more privileged communities necessitates strategies to maximize influence. At the same time, there is an intimate connection between the methods used to transform society and the nature of the subsequent society. As workers accountable to communities, funders and the profession itself, the strategies engaged with and tactics adopted warrant careful consideration.
This article seeks to challenge the dichotomy of either conflict or consensus approaches as overly simplistic. Its suggests that some community workers can hold a radical agenda and conflictual ideology while pro-actively engaging with decision-makers who, although part of systems, which perpetuate inequality, can also be agents of change
Predicting physiological imbalance in Holstein dairy cows by three different sets of milk biomarkers
No full textBlood biomarkers may be used to detect physiological imbalance and potential disease. However, blood sampling is difficult and expensive, and not applicable in commercial settings. Instead, individual milk samples are readily available at low cost, can be sampled easily and analysed instantly. The present observational study sampled blood and milk from 234 Holstein dairy cows from experimental herds in six European countries. The objective was to compare the use of three different sets of milk biomarkers for identification of cows in physiological imbalance and thus at risk of developing metabolic or infectious diseases. Random forests was used to predict body energy balance (EBAL), index for physiological imbalance (PI-index) and three clusters differentiating the metabolic status of cows created on basis of concentrations of plasma glucose, β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) and serum IGF-1. These three metabolic clusters were interpreted as cows in balance, physiological imbalance and “intermediate cows” with physiological status in between. The three sets of milk biomarkers used for prediction were: milk Fourier transform mid-IR (FT-MIR) spectra, 19 immunoglobulin G (IgG) N-glycans and 8 milk metabolites and enzymes (MME). Blood biomarkers were sampled twice; around 14 days after calving (days in milk (DIM)) and around 35 DIM. MME and FT-MIR were sampled twice weekly 1−50 DIM whereas IgG N-glycan were measured only four times. Performances of EBAL and PI-index predictions were measured by coefficient of determination (R2cv) and root mean squared error (RMSEcv) from leave-one-cow-out cross-validation (cv). For metabolic clusters, performance was measured by sensitivity, specificity and global accuracy from this cross-validation. Best prediction of PI-index was obtained by MME (R2cv = 0.40 (95 % CI: 0.29−0.50) at 14 DIM and 0.35 (0.23−0.44) at 35 DIM) while FT-MIR showed a better performance than MME for prediction of EBAL (R2cv = 0.28 (0.24−0.33) vs 0.21 (0.18−0.25)). Global accuracies of predicting metabolic clusters from MME and FT-MIR were at the same level ranging from 0.54 (95 % CI: 0.39−0.68) to 0.65 (0.55−0.75) for MME and 0.51 (0.37−0.65) to 0.68 (0.53−0.81) for FT-MIR. R2cv and accuracies were lower for IgG N-glycans. In conclusion, neither EBAL nor PI-index were sufficiently well predicted to be used as a management tool for identification of risk cows. MME and FT-MIR may be used to predict the physiological status of the cows, while the use of IgG N-glycans for prediction still needs development. Nevertheless, accuracies need to be improved and a larger training data set is warranted
Asymmetric bis-PNP pincer complexes of zirconium and hafnium – a measure of hemilability
No full textAsymmetrically-bound pyrrolide-based bis-PNP pincer complexes of zirconium and hafnium have been formed. The [κ2-PNPPh][κ3-PNPPh]MCl2 species are in direct contrast to previous zirconium PNP pincer complexes. The pincer ligands are fluxional in their binding and the energy barrier for exchange has been approximated using VT-NMR spectroscopy and the result validated by DFT calculations
Electrochemical formation of silver nanoparticles and their catalytic activity immobilised in a hydrogel matrix
No full textSilver nanoparticles were formed electrochemically in the presence of poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) to generate highly stable nanoparticles with a mean diameter of 12 nm. The optimised conditions involved formation at − 6.0 V vs Ag|Ag+ with a PVP:Ag+ ratio of 75:1. Particle agglomeration was observed when the PVP:Ag+ ratio was reduced to 25:1 and when extended polarisation periods were employed. Using the optimised conditions, the silver nanoparticles remained stable for periods in excess of 2 months. The nanoparticles were immobilised inside a polyacrylamide hydrogel and used for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol. The rate constant obtained for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol was calculated as 7.1 × 10−4 to 1.6 × 10−3 s−1 depending on the amount of silver. The hydrogel–Ag composite was stable and could be stored for several months, while there was little change in the rate constant when it was repeatedly used
A distributed location obfuscation method for online route planning
No full textA novel location obfuscation method for online route planning is proposed which is robust to privacy inferences by the service provider regarding route source and destination. This is achieved by performing the task of route computation in a distributed manner. Specifically, the client decomposes the required route into a sequence of shorter routes between intermediate locations. These routes are subsequently requested from independent online route planners with the results being integrated by the client to give the route originally required. Robustness to privacy inferences is a consequence of the fact that, without significant coordination and sharing of information, an individual online route planner cannot infer with high probability the true route source or destination. An evaluation of the proposed method is performed in the context of route planning within the street network of Boston. This evaluation demonstrates that the proposed method offers robustness to privacy inferences while exhibiting a reasonable reduction in quality of service