NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Integrative analysis of the physiological, seasonal, and genetic influences on bovine milk oligosaccharide production and associated protein profiles
No full textCentral to the advancement of Irish dairy is the optimisation of whole colostrum/milk for improved calf health, and adding value to commercial products, such as bringing infant-formula compositionally closer to breast milk. Bovine milk has reduced diversity and yield of health-promoting oligosaccharides (OS), and their valuable effects are largely lost to formula-fed infants. To address this discrepancy, natural optimisation of bovine milk oligosaccharide (BMO) quantity and composition was investigated, by assessing key factors influencing their production. OS profiles revealed colostrum samples, Jersey cows, and 2nd-4th parity cows contained highest OS concentrations and highlighted prolific correlates (3-FL, DSLNT). Furthermore, high inter-cow colostrum variation revealed a wide range of BMO production, with 10 cows producing much higher (> 50% increase compared to mean) total OS concentrations. Three OS traits (LNnH, LSTa, DSLNT) reported heritabilities greater than 0.59 (P < 0.01). However, GWAS analysis reported no significantly associated SNPs after FDR (q < 0.05), with environmental factors significantly contributing to phenotypic variance. This work is the first to report bovine colostral OS hertabilities and paves the way for necessary additional GWAS studies to assess the feasibility of selective breeding initiatives including OS production in the future. Like BMO, specific milk proteins exhibit health-promoting properties. The effect of day post-partum and parity on the global protein profile during early lactation was investigated to expand proteome coverage/characterisation and offer an Irish context to previous analyses. Protein concentration decreased significantly after day 0 before stabilising. Overall, 471 proteins were identified across all samples; 199 protein groups showed altered relative abundance by day of lactation (fold change ≥2, adjusted-P <0.05), but none were altered significantly by parity. Colostrum had the highest levels of immune-related proteins. Subsequently, the association between BMO production and the protein profile of colostrum was explored to improve our holistic understanding of the global milk environment. Comprehensive characterisation of the colostral protein profile from high, mid-range, and low oligosaccharide producing cows (HOP, MOP, LOP) was carried out through analysis of the unfractionated colostrum, extracellular vesicle (EV), and cell fractions. The HOP had significantly higher levels of total protein than LOP. The unfractionated samples of HOP are associated with high levels of gastrointestinal modulatory proteins. In comparison, the EV fraction of the LOP contained higher relative abundances of immune-related proteins. This integrative approach allowed for the characterisation of distinct compositional profiles which may inform selection criteria for naturally enhanced colostrum, potentially targeting immuno-compromised calves and/or for use as a value-added starting material for powder products
Book Review: Educational research practice in Southern contexts: recentring, reframing and reimagining methodological canons: edited by Sharlene Swartz, Nidhi Singal and Madeleine Arnot, Oxon, Routledge, 2024, 359pp., £35.69 (paperback) and available Open Access, ISBN 9781003355397
No full textBook Review: Opening with a sketch of the rather tense landscape of contemporary educational scholarship, Swartz,
Singal, and Arnot, present a pressing aim to “open up the debate about ‘what works’ when researching Southern contexts” (p. 1). The editors’ deep reflection on this challenge impressively highlights their focus not just on the level of method, as so many edited volumes on research methods do; this itself revealing the effects of coloniality, which has sheared critical imaginaries from the production of knowledge fuelled by the “cognitive perspective of Eurocentrism” and a “growing techno critization” of knowledge production(Quijano, 2002). Instead, the focus goes deeper to encompass ontological and epistemological concerns, prior to “learning about first-hand experience of conducting research in such[Southern] contexts” to “recognise different cultural ways of being, knowing, and doing”(p. 1; original emphases), that lie outside the dominant Northern Anglophone systems of understanding, which have been deeply imbricated in domination and violence. Subsequently, the organisation and structure of this book is harmonious to the editors’ overarching goals and encourages the reader to engage with a diverse, robust and situationally rich volume of scholarship, taking them through themes of Centring, Reframing and Reimagining approaches to educational research, informed by postcolonial and decolonial perspectives
Climate variability conceals emerging hydrological trends across Great Britain
No full textDetecting a climate change signal from observed trends in river flows and hydrological extremes is challenging given the limited length of observations and the effects of internal climate variability. There has been an increasing call to better integrate historical observations with model projections, particularly given apparent inconsistencies between observed and projected hydroclimate trends. Here we use the UK as a case study of a region with apparent incongruity between past trends and future projections, such as observed summer wetting but broad agreement between climate models of reduced summer rainfall and river flows. Applying dynamical adjustment shows empirically that internal atmospheric circulation variability was a dominant factor in the observed positive summer rainfall trends over 1981–2010. Characterising the impacts of internal climate variability is crucial to fully appraising the range of possible hydrological extremes in current and future climate.
Hence, we use a single model initial condition large ensemble (SMILE), with RCP8.5 forcing, to drive hydrological models at 190 catchments to explore the wide range of past and future river flow and hydrological drought trends that could arise due to internal variability. The results place the observed trends in context, showing that large ensembles are needed to fully capture the range of variability. This includes robust drying and wetting trends that could have occurred, thus in part reconciling the fact that observed trends may at first seem inconsistent with projections. Our results further show that the timing of a robust climate change signal above historical variability (i.e., a Time of Emergence) in river flows may remain obscured for decades due to the range of hydrological variability. There are however clear hotspots, such as decreasing low flows in southwest England, with an imminent ToE. However, a late ToE does not negate the potential for increased risk and adaptation
measures should be formulated before a statistically significant climate signal emerges
Indicators of Global Climate Change 2024: annual update of key indicators of the state of the climate system and human influence
No full textIn a rapidly changing climate, evidence-based decision-making benefits from up-to-date and timely information. Here we compile monitoring datasets (published at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15639576; Smith et al., 2025a) to produce updated estimates for key indicators of the state of the climate system: net emissions of greenhouse gases and short-lived climate forcers, greenhouse gas concentrations, radiative forcing, the Earth's energy imbalance, surface temperature changes, warming attributed to human activities, the remaining carbon budget, and estimates of global temperature extremes. This year, we additionally include indicators for sea-level rise and land precipitation change. We follow methods as closely as possible to those used in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) Working Group One report.
The indicators show that human activities are increasing the Earth's energy imbalance and driving faster sea-level rise compared to the AR6 assessment. For the 2015–2024 decade average, observed warming relative to 1850–1900 was 1.24 [1.11 to 1.35] °C, of which 1.22 [1.0 to 1.5] °C was human-induced. The 2024-observed best estimate of global surface temperature (1.52 °C) is well above the best estimate of human-caused warming (1.36 °C). However, the 2024 observed warming can still be regarded as a typical year, considering the human-induced warming level and the state of internal variability associated with the phase of El Niño and Atlantic variability. Human-induced warming has been increasing at a rate that is unprecedented in the instrumental record, reaching 0.27 [0.2–0.4] °C per decade over 2015–2024. This high rate of warming is caused by a combination of greenhouse gas emissions being at an all-time high of 53.6±5.2 Gt CO2e yr−1 over the last decade (2014–2023), as well as reductions in the strength of aerosol cooling. Despite this, there is evidence that the rate of increase in CO2 emissions over the last decade has slowed compared to the 2000s, and depending on societal choices, a continued series of these annual updates over the critical 2020s decade could track decreases or increases in the rate of the climatic changes presented here
Medicine in the Medieval North Atlantic World. Vernacular Texts and Traditions
No full textStudies of medical learning in medieval England, Wales, Ireland, and Scandinavia have traditionally focused on each geographical region individually, with the North Atlantic perceived as a region largely peripheral to European culture. Such an approach, however, means that knowledge within this part of the world is never considered in the context of more global interactions, where scholars were in fact deeply engaged in wider intellectual currents concerning medicine and healing that stemmed from both continental Europe and the Middle East.
The chapters in this interdisciplinary collection draw together new research from historians, literary scholars, and linguists working on Norse, English, and Celtic material in order to bring fresh insights into the multilingual and cross-cultural nature of medical learning in northern Europe during the Middle Ages, c. 700-1600. They interrogate medical texts and ideas in both Latin and vernacular languages, addressing questions of translation, cultural and scientific inheritance, and exchange, and historical conceptions of health and the human being within nature. In doing so, this volume offers an in-depth study of the reception and transmission of medical knowledge that furthers our understanding both of scholarship in the medieval North Atlantic and across medieval Europe as a whole
Opinion 2/13 and Accession to the ECHR
No full textOpinion 2/13, handed down just before Christmas 2014, is a landmark decision in both European Union (EU) human rights law and EU external relations law. It showed that the EU’s rhetorical commitment to international human rights protection is not necessarily matched by action: Opinion 2/13 was the second time the Court of Justice put the brakes on the EU’s ambition to become a party to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) for reasons rooted in the EU’s constitutional set-up. Having comprehensively assessed the fairly elaborate ECHR Draft Accession Agreement (DAA), the CJEU provided the yardstick for any future attempt at accession: the constitutional hurdles identified will have to be taken for any reworked DAA to pass muster. The Opinion is also a landmark judgment in the wider field of EU external relations. By clarifying and strengthening the principle of the autonomy of the EU legal order, the Court reiterated the legal limits governing the EU’s ability to integrate into the wider international order at a time when EU external relations and EU treaty-making are becoming increasingly important
Broadband Coherent anti-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy for Single-Cell Imaging
No full textIn the clinical context microscopy still plays a pivotal role in analysing cells with a range of downstream
analyses available. The choice of which is usually dependent on the information required,
such as the level of protein expression, genetic marker identification or cell population estimation.
Many cell analyses are optical in nature, but use either bulk properties that are unspecific or where
measurement is based on pre-labelling the sample. Alternatively, Raman spectro-microscopic
approaches are highly attractive for cell diagnostics as they provide a molecular fingerprint of a
cell that is very sensitive to the cell micro-environment, is label-free and can be non-destructive.
There is however common understanding that the rate of signal generation is too low for use in
high-throughput scenarios, such as for clinical screening and diagnosis. Broadband CARS (BCARS)
is a spectroscopic technique that probes the same molecular vibrations as Raman spectroscopy using
coherent excitation by employing focused ultrafast laser pulses. The resulting signal obtained can
be orders of magnitude stronger than conventional Raman scattering because it is a nonlinear effect.
In this thesis, BCARS is investigated as a tool for single cell imaging, with the ultimate goal of
label-free single-cell classification and high-throughput imaging. Exogenous fluorochromes were
not used in any of the samples studied in this thesis. In this work, single cell imaging consisted of
preparing an adequate cell sample, acquiring a hyperspectral dataset, where each point in the image
corresponds to a Broadband CARS spectrum, and finally, interpreting the molecular information. In
order to reach this capability, a highly optimised BCARS opto-electronic system was constructed,
consisting of a commercial ultrafast laser, a modified microscope and several optical elements. The
microscope was rigorously tested on non-biological samples such as pure solvents and microplastics,
which enabled the tuning of the optical parameters of the system such as its resolution. After
system optimisation much work was done on developing a sample targeting procedure and an
automated software program was developed to enable scanning of images. Finally, bespoke data
analysis procedures were developed and implemented in several single-cell image studies that were
of relevance to clinical diagnostics
‘You no have to treat me with your hate’: The needs and experiences of female foreign national prisoners in an Irish prison
No full textFemale foreign national prisoners (FFNPs) are a distinct cohort of prisoners with specific experiences and characteristics. These women not only experience the gendered pains of imprisonment but also endure the additional challenges associated with being a foreign national prisoner. Yet although these women suffer multiple layers of disadvantage, little is known about the critical problems that define the daily lived experiences of FFNPs during their imprisonment. This article aims to open up these areas of inquiry in an Irish context and examine the needs and experiences of 13 FFNPs residing in the Dóchas Centre – Ireland's sole operational female-only prison at the time of this study. The article begins by grappling with the complexity of defining power, agency, adaptation and resistance in prison before outlining the methodology of the qualitative study. It then presents the key challenges encountered by this cohort of FFNPs in six parts: language challenges, information provision, religious practice and expression, family relationships, inmate–peer relationships and staff–prisoner relationships. Drawing on theories of power, agency, adaptation and resistance where appropriate, the paper explores the distinct ways in which the power of the institution is experienced by these FFNPs and negotiated with corresponding forms of adaptation and agency. The article also addresses the unresolved spectre of resistance and concludes that the Irish Prison Service need look no further than the Bangkok Rules in order to alleviate the ‘highly gendered’ pains of imprisonment for this cohort of ‘forgotten’ prisoners
Learning from making and doing: taking the makerspaces to the next level at Maynooth University
No full textWhat do you do when you already have one makerspace that is well-used and popular? Answer – create an even better one! And then start thinking about what other types of content need to be created and embark on a Media Lab to complement this. This is exactly the journey that Maynooth University is currently embarking on.
From its launch in 2015, the Makerspace developed a well-used 3D printing service which continued up until the pandemic when it had to be put on hold as a library-based service. The recommencement of the service in 2022 coincided with staff moving on and recruitment of new staff giving the impetus to take the services to another level. This has led to a successful bid to create a new, more ambitious makerspace, and as well as opening up new opportunities, the most significant of these to date being the collaboration with the Media Studies department and other interested parties to launch a Media Lab.
Building on their experience the team have been able to make the case for good locations for both the new Makerspace and Media Lab, putting their ‘lessons learned’ to good use.
Extensive and imaginative use of social media channels has helped to embed the Makerspace within the university conscience and opened up avenues for collaboration. Through the Makerspace, the library has been able to offer creative and practical support to an expanding portfolio of research projects across the university as well as being an active supporter in undergraduate recruitment
Franz Schubert: a Pathway to Explore Illness and Healing in the Final Symphonies – A Conductor’s Perspective
No full textGenerally regarded as a dark work, Schubert’s ‘Unfinished’ Symphony in B minor (D. 759) was written while he was sick from syphilis, and questions abound as to why he never returned to complete this work. During a period of latency, which is part of the cycle of this illness, Schubert wrote what is generally thought of as a very positive work, and his longest symphony: the ‘Great’ Symphony in C major (D. 944). Did Schubert compose in a vacuum separated from
his illness? Is there any correlation to be drawn between his newly found health and that of the C-major Symphony? If so, what is to be learned?
Both symphonies offer themselves as a pathway to explore issues around illness and healing. Combining my experience as a conductor with my knowledge of the philosophical works of Hans-Georg Gadamer and contemporary research in both psychology and mindbody medicine, I tackle these questions, and in doing so, challenge many received truths about Schubert. The question is not any more if Schubert’s brain was affected, but how. By
undertaking an analysis on how Schubert’s varying states of illness and health might be seen to be represented in his music, I open up a whole new perspective in Schubertian scholarship, and demonstrate the rich and diverse ways in which music may be integrated into the health
humanities