NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Diurnal to interannual variability in the Northeast Atlantic from hydrographic transects and fixed time-series across the Rockall Trough
No full textThe southern entrance to the Rockall Trough is subject to a complex set of dynamic processes, influenced by Atlantic gyre interactions, the North Atlantic Current, slope boundary currents, variable wind stress forcing, mesoscale activity, and a changing supply of modified water masses formed elsewhere in the Atlantic. These processes drive large temporal and spatial variations, and mixing of surface and intermediate water mass properties that advect through the Trough and drive variations in the deeper waters circulating around it. Here, we investigate variability across the southern and central Rockall Trough from standard hydrographic sections (2006–2022) and deepwater moored subsurface measurements, to better understand changes in water column characteristics and water mass modification during advection through the Rockall Trough and track the aftermath of recent freshening events. Rapid and longer-term physical changes are assessed along with spatial variability and watermass interaction. Interannual variability is large across intermediate depths, deeper circulations are regenerated and a salinity core associated with the eastern boundary current is detailed. Establishing, maintaining, monitoring and analysis of observational ocean time-series datasets are a fundamental requirement for managing and conserving crucial biological resources and are key to understanding oceanic and earth system change
Vector time series modelling of turbidity in Dublin Bay
No full textTurbidity is commonly monitored as an important water quality index. Human activities, such as dredging and dumping operations,can disrupt turbidity levels and should be monitored and analysed for possible effects. In this paper, we model the variations of turbidity in Dublin Bay over space and time to investigate the effects of dumping and dredging while controlling for the effect of wind speed as a common atmospheric effect. We develop a Vector Auto-Regressive Integrated Conditional Heteroskedasticity (VARICH)approach to modelling the dynamical behaviour of turbidity over different locations and at different water depths. We use daily values of turbidity during the years 2017–2018 to fit the model. We show that the results of our fitted model are in line with the observed data and that the uncertainties, measured through Bayesian credible intervals,are well calibrated. Furthermore, we show that the daily effects of dredging and dumping on turbidity are negligible in comparison to that of wind spee
How Irish Higher Education Institutions can Organise themselves to Unlock Research for Policy (Working Paper February 2024, No. 19)
No full textThis paper aims to explore how Irish higher education institutions can organise themselves to
unlock the potential of research on policy-making. It describes work underway in Maynooth
University, sets out the emergence of brokerage arrangements to support the impact of
research on policy in a national policy context and explores some international research
findings in relation to brokerage and related activities. It also identifies and seeks to describe
some particular brokerage arrangements established by individual higher education
institutions, as well as some established by a number of higher education institutions in
partnership sometimes with Governments. The aim is to seek to support the emerging
discussion about these issues.
This paper is intended to be read in conjunction with two other pieces of work being advanced
by the authors. Following a series of eight ‘open discussion meetings’ which were organised on
a cross-disciplinary basis in Maynooth University (April to June 2023) to secure a better
understanding, from the perspective of staff, of what Maynooth University might do next to
help researchers unlock the full value of their work for public policy, they drafted a discussion
paper to put some shape on and to place on the record the views which colleagues articulated
during these meetings. This record was tested and further considered in two briefing and
refinement meetings with the original participants and other interested colleagues, which took
place September and October 2023, and it is planned to publish an updated paper in the near
future. They are also finalising a related paper on how innovation and research for policy
support each other
"Moving from that's the way it is, to what it can be". Improving service at MU Library.
No full textEngagement & Information Services, Maynooth University Library
Universal Error Correction Decoding Algorithms
No full textThere is no perfect communication channel, and any communication necessarily
involves some level of noise. Attempting to hold a conversation across a crowded
room, for instance, will likely result in miscommunication due to background noise.
Channel coding, as a field, is concerned with reducing the rate of error in such noisy
communication channels. This can be achieved by encoding messages with channel
codes, which allow communication errors to be detected and corrected. The study
of channel coding was launched in 1948 [78], and it now underlies critical technology
such as the Internet, space communications, and storage of digital information [57].
In this thesis, we develop new algorithms and channel coding techniques based
on Guessing Random Additive Noise Decoding (GRAND), a recently introduced
family of decoders for channel codes. GRAND algorithms, unusually, can decode
any channel code of any length that has a moderate amount of redundancy.
Assuming that all messages are equally likely, they achieve maximum-likelihood
decoding, which is the best possible outcome of decoding a channel code. GRAND
challenges several assumptions of traditional channel coding and asserts a new decoding
paradigm in which the particular channel code being used doesn't matter,
allowing greater flexibility in the design of communication schemes. Given that an
upper bound on GRAND's computational complexity increases exponentially with
the amount of redundancy in a code, it is impractical to directly decode arbitrary
channel codes that have a large amount of redundancy.
The goal of this thesis is thus to explore if GRAND can be used to decode such
high-redundancy codes, which are suitable for the noisiest channel environments.
To that end, we introduce and develop two iterative decoding algorithms, Iterative GRAND (IGRAND) and block turbo decoding with GRAND, for a powerful
class of channel codes known as product codes. Product codes are, in general,
high-redundancy codes formed from a concatenation of low- to moderateredundancy
component codes. The key insight of the algorithms considered here
is that GRAND can decode product codes by decoding each of their component
codes in turn, circumventing the aforementioned complexity constraint.
Soft information indicates the reliability of a received message and is useful for
a wide range of applications, including error detection and turbo decoding. In
addition to the goal of decoding high-redundancy codes, this thesis also investigates
the question of whether it is possible for GRAND decoding to output accurate soft
information. We derive probabilistic soft output formulae for GRAND algorithms,
evaluate their accuracy, and explore their application to error detection
Decadal Predictability of Seasonal Temperature Distributions
No full textDecadal predictions focus regularly on the predictability of single values, like means or extremes.
In this study we investigate the prediction skill of the full underlying surface temperature distributions on global
and European scales. We investigate initialized hindcast simulations of the Max Planck Institute Earth system
model decadal prediction system and compare the distribution of seasonal daily temperatures with estimates of
the climatology and uninitialized historical simulations. In the analysis we show that the initialized prediction
system has advantages in particular in the North Atlantic area and allow so to make reliable predictions for the
whole temperature spectrum for two to 10 years ahead. We also demonstrate that the capability of initialized
climate predictions to predict the temperature distribution depends on the seaso
Estimating the proportion of modern contraceptives supplied by the public and private sectors using a Bayesian hierarchical penalized spline model
No full textQuantifying the public/private-sector supply of contraceptive methods within countries is vital for effective and sustainable family-planning delivery. However, many low- and middle-income countries quantify contraceptive supply using out-of-date Demographic Health Surveys. As an alternative, we propose using a Bayesian, hierarchical, penalized-spline model, with survey input, to produce annual estimates and projections of contraceptive supply-share outcomes. Our approach shares information across countries, accounts for survey observational errors and produces probabilistic projections informed by past changes in supply shares, as well as correlations between supply-share changes across different contraceptive methods. Results may be used to evaluate family-planning program effectiveness and stability
Born to blossom, bloom, then perish? The rise and fall of the Pomells de Joventut de Catalunya (1920–1923)
No full textThe activities, outputs, and histories of youth organisations across a range of contexts can give us a privileged understanding of later political movements that find their roots with those youth movements. Scholars have already paid a great deal of attention to youth movements as part of totalitarian regimes, revolutionary and rebel-lious factions, as well as weird and wonderful cults. However, our understanding of the realities and impact of youth groups tied to minoritised language movements in Iberia remains under developed and fails to reflect on the agency of youth. In the case of Catalonia – the focus of this article – a number of youth groups emerged in the delicate, and politically fraught period between Spain’s disastrous defeat at hands of the United States in 1898and the sudden rise of the Primo de Rivera dictatorship (1923–1930). Nearing the end of this timeline, the Pomells de Joventut de Catalunya (1920–1923) were one such organisation that sprung upto serve both God and Catalonia, a combination which would garner interest from the Catalan elite but also single them out for annihilation at hands of Spanish nationalism. This article seeks to disclose the history of the Pomells, their wider networks and relations to the power structures of the day, how young people made the organisation their own through small actions, and, finally, the demise and afterlives of the organisation
Autobiographical Cerebral Network Activation in Older Adults Before and After Reminiscence Therapy: A Preliminary Report
No full textIntroduction: Reminiscence therapy (RT), which engages individuals to evoke positive memories, has been shown to be
effective in improving psychological well-being in older adults suffering from PTSD, depression, and anxiety. However, its impact
on brain function has yet to be determined. This paper presents functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data to describe
changes in autobiographical memory networks (AMN) in community-dwelling older adults. Methods: This pilot study used a
within-subject design to measure changes in AMN activation in 11 older adults who underwent 6 weeks of RT. In the scanner,
participants retrieved autobiographical memories which were either recent or remote, rehearsed or unrehearsed. Participants
also underwent a clinical interview to assess changes in memory, quality of life, mental health, and affect. Findings: Compared
to pretreatment, anxiety decreased (z = -2.014, p = .040) and activated significant areas within the AMN, including bilateral
medial prefrontal cortex, left precuneus, right occipital cortex, and left anterior hippocampus. Conclusion: Although RT had
subtle effects on psychological function in this sample with no evidence of impairments, including depression at baseline, the
fMRI data support current thinking of the effect RT has on the AMN. Increased activation of right posterior hippocampus
following RT is compatible with the Multiple Trace Theory Theory (Nadel & Moscovitch, 1997)
Fossil fuel industry influence in higher education: A review and a research agenda
No full textThe evolution of fossil fuel industry tactics for obstructing climate action, fromoutright denial of climate change to more subtle techniques of delay, is undergrowing scrutiny. One key site of ongoing climate obstructionism identified byresearchers, journalists, and advocates is higher education. Scholars haveexhaustively documented how industry-sponsored academic research tends tobias scholarship in favor of tobacco, pharmaceutical, food, sugar, lead, andother industries, but the contemporary influence of fossil fuel interests onhigher education has received relatively little academic attention. We reportthe first literature review of academic and civil society investigations into fossil fuel industry ties to higher education in the United States, United Kingdom,Canada, and Australia. We find that universities are an established yet under-researched vehicle of climate obstruction by the fossil fuel industry, and that universities' lack of transparency about their partnerships with this industry poses a challenge to empirical research. We propose a research agenda of topi-cal and methodological directions for future analyses of the prevalence and consequences of fossil fuel industry–university partnerships, and responses to them