NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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The Skull Measuring Business: Some Murderous Little Facts from the Forgotten Spaces of Anthropology in Ireland
No full textThe “skull measuring business” is a phrase that resonates with a particular view of
Victorian anthropology as practised in Ireland in the 1890s. It captures the idea of
English scientists travelling to the periphery of the United Kingdom to trace the
racial origins of the “native” Irish at the height of the home rule crisis. Indeed,
Patrick Geddes, the bio-social innovator, coined the phrase to describe a restricted
form of Anglo-French anthropology that has become inextricably linked to eugenics,
the theoretical precursor of scientific racism. Geddes was warning Alfred Cort
Haddon that a radical approach to social organisation represented the future of
anthropology. This study attempts to find out how Haddon responded, in view of the
fact that he was photographed measuring skulls in the Aran Islands in 1892. It builds
upon the discovery in 2013 and 2014 of “lost” documentary and photographic
material in Dublin and Cambridge. This triggered a review–an “Irish” reading–of
Haddon’s papers, concentrating on mostly uncatalogued material relating to his
experimental ethnographical surveys of ethnical islands in the west of Ireland. It
became clear that the facts uncovered contradict conventional accounts of the skull
measuring business; narratives that are usually structured around evolution, race, and
imperialism. Instead, Haddon emerges as an English radical and supporter of home
rule. He built a network of folklore collectors that constituted an anti-imperial,
Anglo-Irish folklore movement, which was aligned with the nationalist cultural
programme of Douglas Hyde. That has been forgotten, overlooked, or
misinterpreted. Furthermore, Haddon preferred photography to text and his use of
the magic lantern as an instrument of anti-colonial activism represents a singular
modernist achievement in anthropology. Ironically, this has remained invisible to
many historians of disciplinary anthropology. This thesis attempts to correct this by
killing some anthropological tropes and creating space for alternative narratives
Hacking at the techno-feminist frontier – Gendered exclusion and inclusion in informal technology events.
No full textIn this chapter we examine how informal education events, like gamejams, contribute to the gendered structure of the knowledge economy in Ireland. We identify how communication, temporal and spatial structure, hierarchies of knowledge and unpaid labour contribute to gendered knowledge hierarchies, and to gendered pathways into ICT related occupations. Game making and game playing events may reinforce a relationship between codified and abstract forms of knowledge, certain forms of masculinity, and computers, ultimately undermining the assumption that digital games provide an equal pathway into STEM for all. Even if the focus of these events is on learning technical skills, we would suggest that a range of ‘informal’ and ‘incidental’ social learning is taking place that may serve to reinforce wider patterns of social inequality. In what follows, we first place our work in the context of historical and feminist research into the gender/technology/knowledge relationship in production and consumption cultures. We then present our findings from research at two day-long gamejam events in Ireland in 2016 to identify who attends these events and the ways in which these events are gendered. Finally, we discuss how academics and civic society organisations have collaborated to organise inclusive female-friendly informal learning events
SARS-CoV-2 Simulations Go Exascale to Capture Spike Opening and Reveal Cryptic Pockets Across the Proteome
No full textSARS-CoV-2 has intricate mechanisms for initiating infection, immune evasion/suppression, and
replication, which depend on the structure and dynamics of its constituent proteins. Many protein
structures have been solved, but far less is known about their relevant conformational changes.
To address this challenge, over a million citizen scientists banded together through the Folding@home distributed computing project to create the first exascale computer and simulate an unprecedented 0.1 seconds of the viral proteome. Our simulations capture dramatic opening of the apo Spike complex, far beyond that seen experimentally, which explains and successfully predicts the existence of ‘cryptic’ epitopes. Different Spike homologues modulate the probabilities of open versus closed structures, balancing receptor binding and immune evasion. We also observe dramatic conformational changes across the proteome, which reveal over 50 ‘cryptic’ pockets that expand targeting options for the design of antivirals. All data and models
are freely available online, providing a quantitative structural atlas
A Survey on Adaptive 360° Video Streaming: Solutions, Challenges and Opportunities
No full textOmnidirectional or 360° video is increasingly being used, mostly due to the latest advancements in immersive Virtual Reality (VR) technology. However, its wide adoption is hindered by the higher bandwidth and lower latency requirements than associated with traditional video content delivery. Diverse researchers propose and design solutions that help support an immersive visual experience of 360° video, primarily when delivered over a dynamic network environment. This paper presents the state-of-the-art on adaptive 360° video delivery solutions considering end-to-end video streaming in general and then specifically of 360° video delivery. Current and emerging solutions for adaptive 360° video streaming, including viewport-independent, viewport-dependent, and tile-based schemes are presented. Next, solutions for network-assisted unicast and multicast streaming of 360° video content are discussed. Different research challenges for both on-demand and live 360° video streaming are also analyzed. Several proposed standards and technologies and top international research projects are then presented. We demonstrate the ongoing standardization efforts for 360° media services that ensure interoperability and immersive media deployment on a massive scale. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion about future research opportunities enabled by 360° video
Editorial Introduction to ‘Paddison Geographies’
No full textReflecting biographical entanglements at varying points in both their and Ronan’s lives and careers, the contributors bear witness to Ronan’s expansive intellect and the thematic, conceptual, disciplinary, methodological and geographical breadth of his research concerns. We can learn much from studying an academic life, and especially one as rich and prodigious as Ronan’s. And yet, as academics, we do so little of this kind of labour, depriving ourselves of repositories of vital wisdom and knowledge and wastefully neglecting hard won intellectual resources. In Ronan’s scholarly corpus, there is much to excavate, reappraise, and appreciate. But this Editorial Introduction to ‘Paddison Geographies’ will not revisit Ronan’s research, teaching, and service – this task is performed with authority, empathy, wisdom and verve in the formal introduction to the Special Issue written by Chris Philo and thereafter in the articles which follow
Differentiating Snow and Glacier Melt Contribution to Runoff in the Gilgit River Basin via Degree-Day Modelling Approach
No full textIn contrast to widespread glacier retreat evidenced globally, glaciers in the Karakoram region have exhibited positive mass balances and general glacier stability over the past decade. Snow and glacier meltwater from the Karakoram and the western Himalayas, which supplies the Indus River Basin, provide an essential source of water to more than 215 million people, either directly, as potable
water, or indirectly, through hydroelectric generation and irrigation for crops. This study focuses on water resources in the Upper Indus Basin (UIB) which combines the ranges of the Hindukush,Karakoram and Himalaya (HKH). Specifically, we focus on the Gilgit River Basin (GRB) to inform more sustainable water use policy at the sub-basin scale. We employ two degree-day approaches, the Spatial Processes in Hydrology (SPHY) and Snowmelt Runoff Model (SRM), to simulate runoff in the GRB during 2001–2012. The performance of SRM was poor during July and August, the period
when glacier melt contribution typically dominates runoff. Consequently, SPHY outperformed SRM, likely attributable to SPHY’s ability to discriminate between glacier, snow, and rainfall contributions to runoff during the ablation period. The average simulated runoff revealed the prevalent snowmelt
contribution as 62%, followed by the glacier melt 28% and rainfall 10% in GRB. We also assessed the potential impact of climate change on future water resources, based on two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5). We estimate that summer flows are projected
to increase by between 5.6% and 19.8% due to increased temperatures of between 0.7 and 2.6 ◦C over the period 2039–2070. If realized, increased summer flows in the region could prove beneficial for a range of sectors, but only over the short to medium term and if not associated with extreme
events. Long-term projections indicate declining water resources in the region in terms of snow and glacier melt
Application of hierarchical clustering to identify high risk pests to Sitka spruce: Ireland as a case study
No full textInvertebrate forest pests and pathogens can cause considerable economic losses and modern patterns of trade
have facilitated the international movement of pest species on an unprecedented level. This upsurge in trade has
increased the pathways available to high risk species, facilitating entry and potential establishment in nations
where they were previously absent. To support policy and pest prioritization, pest risk analyses are conducted
to decide ‘if’ and ‘how’ pests should be regulated in order to prevent entry or establishment; however, they
cannot be carried out for every potential pest. This paper utilizes a hierarchical clustering (HC) approach to
analyse distribution data for pests of Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.) in order to identify species of
high risk to Ireland, as well as potential source regions of these pests. The presence and absence of almost a
1000 pests across 386 regions globally are clustered based on their similarity of pest assemblages, to provide an
objective examination of the highest risk pests to Irish forestry. Regional clusters were produced for each taxon
analysed including the Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Nematoda, Lepidoptera and the Fungi. The
results produced by the HC analysis were interpreted with regard to biological realism and climate. Biologically
meaningful clusters were produced for each of the groups, except for the Diptera and Nematoda, and each of
the species analysed were ranked within their group by a quantitative risk index specific to the island of Ireland.
The impact of uncertainty in the distribution data is also examined, in order to assess its influence over the final
groupings produced. The outputs from this analysis suggest that the highest risk pests for Ireland’s Sitka spruce
plantations will originate from within Europe. Ultimately, Ireland could benefit from seeking regulation for some
of the higher ranking pests identified in this analysis. This analysis provides the first of its type for Sitka spruce, as well as its application in Ireland. It also serves to highlight the potential utility of HC as a ‘first approach’ to assessing the risk posed by alien species to hitherto novel regions
Long-term precipitation in Southwestern Europe reveals no clear trend attributable to anthropogenic forcing
No full textWe present a long-term assessment of precipitation trends in Southwestern Europe (1850–2018)
using data from multiple sources, including observations, gridded datasets and global climate
model experiments. Contrary to previous investigations based on shorter records, we demonstrate,
using new long-term, quality controlled precipitation series, the lack of statistically significant
long-term decreasing trends in precipitation for the region. Rather, significant trends were mostly
found for shorter periods, highlighting the prevalence of interdecadal and interannual variability at
these time-scales. Global climate model outputs from three CMIP experiments are evaluated for
periods concurrent with observations. Both the CMIP3 and CMIP5 ensembles show precipitation
decline, with only CMIP6 showing agreement with long term trends in observations. However, for
both CMIP3 and CMIP5 large interannual and internal variability among ensemble members
makes it difficult to identify a trend that is statistically different from observations. Across both
observations and models, our results make it difficult to associate any declining trends in
precipitation in Southwestern Europe to anthropogenic forcing at this stage
A Crest Factor Reduction Scheme with Optimum Spacing Peak Cancellation for Intra-band Non-contiguous Carrier Aggregated OFDM Signals
No full textThis paper proposes a new crest factor reduction scheme to reduce instantaneous-to-average power ratio (IAR) resulting decent peak reduction, and adjacent channel leakage ratio
(ACLR) reduction, though the error vector magnitude (EVM) is significantly enhanced. In
the conventional peak cancellation (CPC) technique, peak regrowth occurs as a result of
finite impulse response (FIR) filter windows overlapping. The peak regrowth problem in
CPC technique can be compensated, though this will lead to increased computational complexity and degradation in EVM. The proposed algorithm allocates spacing to contiguous
peaks to avoid FIR filter windows overlapping. Two types of overlapping are discussed,
incremental and decremental. The optimum spacing can be determined from the FIR filter
impulse response characteristic. Simulations are carried out with different intra-band non-contiguous carrier aggregated OFDM signals. The results of simulations show between 3
and 10% improvement in EVM performance while maintaining equivalent IAR and ACLR
performance. Applying the proposed optimum spacing peak cancellation scheme compared
to the conventional peak cancellation technique
Nonlinear model reduction for wave energy systems: a moment-matching-based approach
No full textAbstract Wave energy converters (WECs) inherently require appropriate control system technology to
ensure maximum energy absorption from ocean waves,
consequently reducing the associated levelised cost of
energy and facilitating their successful commercialisation. Regardless of the control strategy, the definition of the control problem itself depends upon the
specification of a suitable WEC model. Not only is
the structure of the model relevant for the definition
of the control problem, but also its associated complexity: given that the control law must be computed in
real-time, there is a limit to the computational complexity of the WEC model employed in the control design
procedure, while there is also a limit to the (analytical)
complexity of mathematical models for which a control
solution can be efficiently found. This paper presents
a systematic nonlinear model reduction by moment matching framework for WEC systems, capable of providing control-oriented WEC models tailored for the
control application, which inherently preserves steady state response characteristics. Existence and uniqueness of the associated nonlinear moment for WECs are proved in this paper, for a general class of systems. Given that the definition of nonlinear moments depends upon the solution of a nonlinear partial differential equation, an approximation framework for the computation of the nonlinear moment is proposed, tailored for the WEC application. Finally, the use and capabilities of the framework are illustrated by means
of case studies, using different WEC systems, under a
variety of wave conditions