NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Children's School Lives: Equalities in Children's School Lives - The Impact of Social Background (2019-2023)
No full textA key focus of the Children’s School Lives (CSL) longitudinal study is to understand the factors which shape
children’s experiences of their learning and ultimately their capacities to flourish both in the here and now as
children, but also in their future lives as adults. Our previous report into the wellbeing of children (Report 7)
highlighted attributes related to children’s feelings about themselves and their lives in school – levels of
happiness, worry, interest in learning as well as sense of accomplishment and meaning in life. In this report we
locate children’s flourishing within the wider social context of differences in wealth, poverty, social status and
belonging in the society at large. It is children, including those in primary school, who are at greatest risk of
poverty1 (CSO 2024) in Ireland. While all children have a right to education, as enshrined in the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child, (Assembly, U. G. [1989]. Convention on the Rights of the Child. United
Nations, Treaty Series, 1577[3], 1–23.) children’s capacity to realise these rights within education is influenced
by the social, material and economic conditions of their everyday lives. This is especially important with respect
to the earlier years of education, including in primary schools, where the foundations for children’s educational
trajectories are established
Irish News Media’s Preferential Treatment of Religious Actors in Relation to Crime and Harm
No full textNews media plays a dual role in society of both informant and influence, with a shifting overlap
based upon internal and external factors. Simultaneously, powerful parties within society can
often exert influence over media, news inclusive - raising a question of how this relationship
may in turn affect news portrayals of actors within these parties. This research project set out
to examine Irish newspaper articles to deduce whether a primary ‘powerful party’ throughout
Ireland’s history, the Christian order, and its branches, held sway over the portrayals of order
members accused or charged of committing harm.
Through a content analysis of one hundred news articles over a sixty-year period, with an even
focus split between members of a Christian order and non-members, it was determined that
Irish news media did show bias in favour of order members through several means such as
inclusion of information, tone and language, amongst others. the significance of this finding is
discussed within its own context and in the wider contexts of media and power within society,
with considerations of cyclical inequality, labelling, norms, and wider social structures,
alongside the plausibility of change in society’s approach to news media, as this study’s results
highlight an issue which is only exacerbated by the modern-day relationship between powerful
actors and media
An Examination into What Constitutes an “Ideal” State Response to Rioting: Comparisons Between Rioting in England and the United States
No full textThe aim of this dissertation is to provide answers as to what constitutes an “ideal” response to
rioting and how this can be achieved. This study explored the pillars of riot theory and
presents arguments regarding the policing and social control of rioting. Through exploring
different theoretical perspectives on policing strategies and the impact of social control on
protest and rioting it was found that an ideal response to rioting is one that protects the right
to protest, maintains police legitimacy and is based upon an evidence-based approach to
rioting behavior from both a policing and criminal justice perspective. These arguments
regarding the policing and social control of rioting were then applied to two highly publicized
riots, the 2011 England riots and the 2021 United States Capitol riot in order to conclude on
how the response of each jurisdiction aligned with an ideal response to rioting. The analysis
of these State responses to rioting found that neither jurisdiction fulfilled the criteria to be
considered an ideal response to rioting. The responses of each jurisdiction to examples of
rioting were then compared using the parallel topical comparison method which found that
both jurisdictions shared many similarities in their response to rioting. In concluding this
dissertation recommendations were provided on how these responses could be improved and
how ideal responses to rioting could be achieved
A Common Purpose? Social Work Students’ Social Justice Related Views in Finland and the island of Ireland
No full textExploring social work students’ views to understand how equipped they are to pursue
the social justice mission of the profession should be of central academic and practical
interest. There are, however, surprisingly few empirical studies focussing on social
work students’ views on social justice-related issues from a comparative viewpoint.
Such knowledge is thought to be of a wider international interest from a number of
perspectives, including social work education and student exchange and, in a wider
context, for the development of social work as a profession and for discussing the prerequisites for shared international notions of social work. This article explores the
views of social work students studying in different socio-economic contexts and
welfare regimes in relation to some key aspects assumed to be vital for the profession.
The results based on survey data from student cohorts in Finland (N ¼ 608) and the island of Ireland (N ¼ 279) support the general conclusion that there are important,
similar patterns of motivations and understandings amongst the students, despite substantial differences in histories, welfare state developments, current policies and social
conditions in various jurisdictions. The results are of interest to educators across countries internationally and provide an important basis for future similar studies
Role of N343 glycosylation on the SARS-CoV-2 S RBD structure and co-receptor binding across variants of concern
No full textGlycosylation of the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein represents a key target for viral evolution because it affects both viral evasion and fitness. Successful variations in the glycan shield are difficult to achieve though, as protein glycosylation is also critical to folding and structural stability. Within this framework, the identification of glycosylation sites that are structurally dispensable can provide insight into the evolutionary mechanisms of the shield and inform immune surveillance. In this work, we show through over 45 μs of cumulative sampling from conventional and enhanced molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, how the structure of the immunodominant S receptor binding domain (RBD) is regulated by N-glycosylation at N343 and how this glycan’s structural role changes from WHu-1, alpha (B.1.1.7), and beta (B.1.351), to the delta (B.1.617.2), and omicron (BA.1 and BA.2.86) variants. More specifically, we find that the amphipathic nature of the N-glycan is instrumental to preserve the structural integrity of the RBD hydrophobic core and that loss of glycosylation at N343 triggers a specific and consistent conformational change. We show how this change allosterically regulates the conformation of the receptor binding motif (RBM) in the WHu-1, alpha, and beta RBDs, but not in the delta and omicron variants, due to mutations that reinforce the RBD architecture. In support of these findings, we show that the binding of the RBD to monosialylated ganglioside co-receptors is highly dependent on N343 glycosylation in the WHu-1, but not in the delta RBD, and that affinity changes significantly across VoCs. Ultimately, the molecular and functional insight we provide in this work reinforces our understanding of the role of glycosylation in protein structure and function and it also allows us to identify the structural constraints within which the glycosylation site at N343 can become a hotspot for mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 S glycan shield
Social Innovation and the Financial Risk of EMNCs - The Contingent Role of Institutional Legitimacy
No full textThis paper examines the influence of social innovation on financial risk of emerging economy multinational corporations (EMNCs). Traditionally, research has focussed on Western MNCs’ and their financial performance implications. However, the growing involvement of EMNCs in social innovation—albeit in environments characterized by institutional voids—and its effects on financial risk necessitate an in-depth examination. Drawing on stakeholder theory, we explored how EMNCs balance their social innovation initiatives with financial risks. To this end, we first examine how social innovation reduces the financial risk of EMNCs. Second, we examine the association between excessive social innovation and EMNCs’ financial risk. In addition, borrowing insights from institutional theory, we assess the role played by institutional legitimacy in this process, acknowledging institutional legitimacy’s potential to mitigate the financial risks associated with social innovation in emerging economies. We test our hypotheses based on data drawn from 90 EMNCs in 14 emerging economies, applying a panel regression model with robust standard errors and a rigorous robustness propensity score matching test. Our findings show that social innovation reduces EMNC financial risk, and challenge the assertions made regarding the potential negative implications of excessive social innovation on financial risk. Our results also demonstrate the intricate moderating effects of institutional legitimacy in balancing social innovation, excessive social innovation, and EMNC financial risk. Finally, we proffer critical implications for managers and policymakers in emerging economies
Law, Morality, and the State’s Justification of Punishment: Aquinas, J.S. Mill and Brentano
No full textEven though their views differ on what constitutes the proper relationship between morality and the law, Aquinas, J.S. Mill and Brentano all agree that the state is morally justified in inflicting punishment on those who are found guilty of infringing state law and committing crime. Punishment is necessary, they argue, for the purposes of bringing about law compliance and a better society. Punishment, however, steps in after the law has not been complied with and, even when transacted, punishment is no guarantee of any moral betterment in society. Notwithstanding the different moral theories that Aquinas, Mill and Brentano elaborate, this paper argues that each of these authors hold an a priori moral conviction in the state's justification of punishment, but this cherished conviction can be called into question on practical, moral and state grounds
Using the surface scattering mechanism from dual-pol SAR data to estimate topsoil particle-sizefractions
No full textData extracted from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) have been widely employed to estimate soil properties.
However, these studies are typically constrained to bare soil conditions, as soil information retrieval in vegetated
areas remains challenging. Polarimetric decomposition has emerged as a potentially useful method to separate
the scattering contributions of different targets (e.g. canopy/leaves and the underlying soil), which is of significance for areas that are near-permanently covered in low-lying vegetation (e.g. grass) like Ireland – the study area for this investigation. Here, we test the surface scattering mechanism, derived from H-alpha dual-pol decomposition, together with other covariates, to estimate percentages of sand, silt, and clay, over vegetated terrain, using Sentinel 1 data (dual-pol C-band SAR). The statistical modelling approaches evaluated – linear
regression (LRM) and tree-based regression models (machine learning) – explicitly consider the compositional nature of soil texture. When compared to the models fitted without surface scattering data, results showed that the inclusion of the surface scattering data improved estimates of silt and clay, with the compositional linear regression model, and estimates of sand and silt fractions with different tree-based models. While not without limitations, our study demonstrated that the polarimetric decomposition method, which is typically used for classification and segmentation purposes, could also be used for soil property estimation, broadening the application of this technique in microwave remote sensing studies
The Neural Correlates of Spatial Learning and Memory During Human Navigation.
No full textSpatial navigation is an essential skill for animals and humans alike. It helps us get to a desired place and remember how to get back there in the future. Despite the fact that this process in humans has been well researched, there is still little known about the neural activity underlying spatial navigation processes in humans. Therefore, we aimed to contribute to the current human navigation literature by exploring a number of cognitive factors known to be involved, namely learning and memory. This thesis aims to address gaps in the literature by exploring spatial learning as a dynamic and flexible behavioural process, as well as spatial memory retrieval following recent (24-hours) and remote (1 month) retention intervals. Furthermore, we examined age-related changes in these behavioural and neural underpinnings. Spatial navigation ability was assessed using a virtual water maze task: NavWell (Commins et al., 2020). We also examined brain oscillations, which are rhythmic patterns of neural activity proposed to reflect cognition. We investigated these rhythms at different frequencies using electroencephalography (EEG) in healthy younger and older adults whilst they navigated. Our results suggest that successful spatial learning coincides with the reduction of theta (4-8 Hz) and alpha (8-12 Hz) oscillations. Successful spatial memory retrieval promotes delta (2-4 Hz) and theta (5-7 Hz) increases. When navigation strategies are unsuccessful, these oscillations at frontal areas become enhanced. Recent and remote spatial memory retrieval requires recruitment of the same frequency bands, but greater oscillatory power. However, older adults show reduced power throughout all frequency bands compared to younger adults. They further demonstrated beta (15-29 Hz) and gamma (30-40 Hz) decreases during recent memory retrieval, with delta increases and theta decreases during remote retrieval. Our findings support theories of low-frequency oscillations possessing a mnemonic role, and further contribute to theoretical debates regarding memory consolidation and ageing from the unique perspective of human spatial cognition