NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Using Artificial Intelligence in Infection Prevention
No full textPurpose of Review Artificial intelligence (AI) offers huge potential in infection prevention and control (IPC). We explore its potential IPC benefits in epidemiology, laboratory infection diagnosis, and hand hygiene.
Recent Findings AI has the potential to detect transmission events during outbreaks or predict high-risk patients, enabling development of tailored IPC interventions. AI offers opportunities to enhance diagnostics with objective pattern recognition, standardize the diagnosis of infections with IPC implications, and facilitate the dissemination of IPC expertise. AI hand hygiene applications can deliver behaviour change, though it requires further evaluation in different clinical settings. However, staff can become dependent on automatic reminders, and performance returns to baseline if feedback is removed. Summary Advantages for IPC include speed, consistency, and capability of handling
infinitely large datasets. However, many challenges remain, improving the availability of high-quality representative datasets and consideration of biases within pre-existing
databases are important challenges for future developments. AI in itself will not improve IPC; this requires culture and behaviour change. Most studies to date assess performance
retrospectively so there is a need for prospective evaluation in the real-life, often chaotic, clinical setting. Close collaboration with IPC experts to interpret outputs and ensure clinical relevance is essentia
An unprecedented social solidarity stress test
No full textWhile much of the emphasis has been on when and how economies may safely re-open due to the coronavirus pandemic, this article studies the undervalued workplace considerations therein. The initial responses of Member States to the pandemic are outlined for the purpose of setting out similarities and distinctions, but also and mostly to foreground an analysis to date of unresolved problems related to work. Important points for continued monitoring are also identified and an overview of some of the employment law considerations in re-opening workplaces are critically assessed. Consequently, teleworking garners particular attention due to its prominent role during the lockdown and its possible growing place in labour law in the near future
What regions of Chinese characters are crucial for recognition? A web-based study
No full textThe study involves approximately 250 Chinese university students from eight institutions to determine what parts of a representative sample of Chinese characters are crucial to their correct identification. A web-based experimental platform was used to present 102 simplified characters to participants. The characters were partially obscured using a Gaussian blurring technique. The direction of maximum blur could either be from top to bottom, bottom to top, left to right, or right to left. Participants were asked to identify the blurred character and type its pinyin. Overall, participants correctly identified 88% of characters. The effects of all forms of blurring on correct recognition were correlated with character structures. Phonetic radicals seem to be more sensitive to the blurring than semantic radicals, while the radical transparency and radical frequency also play a role in the recognition accuracy. The blurring conditions that impacted most significantly on correct recognition were top to bottom and bottom to top, which caused, respectively, the upper and lower parts of the character to be obscured
Factors for e-voting adoption - analysis of general elections in Nigeria
No full textThe adoption and use of e-voting technologies in major elections remain largely problematic regardless of where they are implemented. This has motivated a number of survey-based empirical studies on determining important factors for e-voting adoption based on existing technology adoption models. However, there is a paucity of studies, which provide deep insights and understanding of core issues involved in e-voting adoption success or failures in different contexts. This article describes an ethnography carried out with the goal to understand factors that support or inhibit e-voting adoption based on detailed data collected during the 2011 Nigerian General Elections. By consolidating existing e-voting adoption models and a multi-level innovation adoption model into an analytical framework, we analysed the observations made by one of the authors as a participant in the adoption and implementation of the e-voting initiative as well as the post-election reports. Our findings are synthesized into a multi-level e-voting adoption model. In addition, we catalog a number of factors that could negatively affect e-voting adoption in a similar environment. Our results contribute to advancing theory building in e-voting adoption while it provides practitioners with a concrete checklist of success factors and barriers for adopting e-voting technologies
The Transformative Engagement Network (TEN) Team
No full textThere is a growing realisation that to better understand and intervene in the interconnected political, cultural and psycho-social dynamics that constitute the contexts for these current global challenges requires transdisciplinary and intersectoral approaches; approaches that include and value diverse perspectives and pay particular attention to the perspectives and experiences of those who are the most vulnerable and those who are currently excluded from the knowledge creation processes. This article discusses the learning gained from an inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional project entitled Transformative Engagement Network (TEN)
Analysing pro-poor innovation acceptance by income segments
No full textPurpose – To enhance the understanding of the moderating influence of different bottom of the pyramid
(BOP) income segments on the antecedents of pro-poor innovation acceptance.
Design/methodology/approach – In this study, 320 BOP consumers with a range of low-to-moderate
literacy and low-income levels were used as a convenience non-probability sample for undertaking quantitative
analyses.
Findings – Only the influence of perceived usefulness on intention is moderated by income segments, such
that the effect will be stronger for low-income BOP segment. Moreover, the influences of relative advantage,
compatibility and observability on intention are moderated by income segments.
Practical implications – This empirical work has considerable private sector and public policy implications
for companies and government designing/selling products for millions of poor people in developing and
emerging economies.
Originality/value – This study contributes originally to knowledge in the subject area as there are very few
studies that clearly and systematically analyse the key antecedents influencing the adoption intention of pro-poor technological innovations in the BOP market
Fortress Europe, Global Migration & the Global Pandemic
No full textThe European Union’s external border regime is a manifestation of continuing imperialism. It reinforces particular imaginaries of Europe’s wealth as somehow innate (rather than plundered and extorted1) and of
Europeanness itself as whiteness—euphemistically packaged as a “European Way of Life” to be protected.2
This exposes international law’s structural limitations—if not designs—as bound up with racial borders in the
global context. In the wake of COVID-19 and with a climate apocalypse already underway, these realities need
to be urgently ruptured and reimagined
Islamic Mortgage-Alternatives in Ireland: A Comparative Reflection on a Decade of Consumer Appetite in the Face of Legislative Uncertainty
No full textThis article provides an in-depth and comparative analysis of the accommodation of Islamic mortgage-alternatives under Irish law. It draws on results from two surveys of Ireland’s Muslim community and uses a comparative approach with the UK to highlight continuing gaps in the legal framework relevant to Ireland’s Islamic finance market
The Aspergillus fumigatus Secretome Alters the Proteome of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to Stimulate Bacterial Growth: Implications for Co-infection
No full textIndividuals with cystic fibrosis are susceptible to co-infection by Aspergillus fumigatus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Despite the persistence of A. fumigatus in the cystic fibrosis lung P. aeruginosa eventually predominates as the primary pathogen. Several factors are likely to facilitate P. aeruginosa colonization in the airways, including alterations to the microbial environment. The cystic fibrosis airways are hypoxic, nitrate-rich environments, and the sputum has higher amino acid concentrations than normal. In this study, significant growth proliferation was observed in P. aeruginosa when the bacteria were exposed to A. fumigatus culture filtrates (CuF) containing a high nitrate content. Proteomic analysis of the A. fumigatus CuF identified a significant number of environment-altering proteases and peptidases. The molecular mechanisms promoting bacterial growth were investigated using label-free quantitative (LFQ) proteomics to compare the proteome of P. aeruginosa grown in the A. fumigatus CuF and in CuF produced by a P. aeruginosa-A. fumigatus co-culture, to that cultured in P. aeruginosa CuF. LFQ proteomics revealed distinct changes in the proteome of P. aeruginosa when cultured in the different CuFs, including increases in the levels of proteins involved in denitrification, stress response, replication, amino acid metabolism and efflux pumps, and a down-regulation of pathways involving ABC transporters. These findings offer novel insights into the complex dynamics that exist between P. aeruginosa and A. fumigatus. Understanding the molecular strategies that enable P. aeruginosa to predominate in an environment where A. fumigatus exists is important in the context of therapeutic development to target this pathogen
Deep phenotyping classical galactosemia: clinical outcomes and biochemical markers
No full textEarly diagnosis and dietary treatment do not prevent long-term complications, which mostly affect the central nervous system in
classical galactosemia patients. The clinical outcome of patients is highly variable, and there is an urgent need for prognostic biomarkers. The aim of this study was first to increase knowledge on the natural history of classical galactosemia by studying a cohort
of patients with varying geno- and phenotypes and second to study the association between clinical outcomes and two possible
prognostic biomarkers. In addition, the association between abnormalities on brain MRI and clinical outcomes was investigated.
Classical galactosemia patients visiting the galactosemia expertise outpatient clinic of the Amsterdam University Medical Centre
were evaluated according to the International Classical Galactosemia guideline with the addition of an examination by a neurologist, serum immunoglobulin G N-glycan profiling and a brain MRI. The biomarkers of interest were galactose-1-phosphate levels
and N-glycan profiles, and the clinical outcomes studied were intellectual outcome and the presence or absence of movement disorders and/or primary ovarian insufficiency. Data of 56 classical galactosemia patients are reported. The intellectual outcome ranged
from 45 to 103 (mean 77 6 14) and was <85 in 62%. Movement disorders were found in 17 (47%) of the 36 tested patients. In
females aged 12 years and older, primary ovarian insufficiency was diagnosed in 12 (71%) of the 17 patients. Significant differences in N-glycan peaks were found between controls and patients. However, no significant differences in either N-glycans or galactose-1-phosphate levels were found between patients with a poor (intellectual outcome < 85) and normal intellectual outcome (intellectual outcome 85), and with or without movement disorders or primary ovarian insufficiency. The variant patients detected by
newborn screening, with previously unknown geno- and phenotypes and currently no long-term complications, demonstrated significantly lower galactose-1-phospate levels than classical patients (P < 0.0005). Qualitative analysis of the MRI’s demonstrated
brain abnormalities in 18 of the 21 patients, more severely in patients with a lower intellectual outcome and/or with movement disorders. This study demonstrates a large variability in clinical outcome, which varies from a below average intelligence, movement
disorders and in females primary ovarian insufficiency to a normal clinical outcome. In our cohort of classical galactosemia
patients, galactose-1-phosphate levels and N-glycan variations were not associated with clinical outcomes, but galactose-1-phosphate levels did differentiate between classical and variant patients detected by newborn screening. The correlation between brain
abnormalities and clinical outcome should be further investigated by quantitative analysis of the MR images. The variability in
clinical outcome necessitates individual and standardized evaluation of all classical galactosemia patients