NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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The communiversity: A partnership approach to community engaged adult education.
No full textThe Communiversity is an adult education intervention targeting people experiencing
‘exclusion’ not only from a socio-economic stand point but also in terms of age, mental
health, addiction recovery, disability and other forms of marginalisation. It is a three-way
partnership between Maynooth University (MU), community based organisations in the form
of Local Development Companies and the Public Library Service. This article will emphasise
the importance of higher education partnership arrangements with like-minded organisations
who can deliver value for money within the public sector by pooling resources and sharing
services to promote the aim of community engaged lifelong learning. It will also consider
threats to the initiative in terms of insecure funding and ‘special’ status outside the
mainstream of skills acquisition and job readiness that lifelong learning education budgets
are weighted towards
The Role of Digital Twins for building resilient communities: Case of Dublin.
No full text‘Resilience’ is an overarching term subsuming capacity of any society to deal and adapt with new changes in existing systems. ‘Digital’ is rapidly becoming a new order of life, especially with urban solutions labelled more and more as ‘smart’, in rhetoric hopes of achieving a high quality of life. Digital twins are one such emerging technology, focussing to create virtual replicas of physical assets, and systems, with advanced data analytics and prediction capabilities in real-time. For cities, they can result in cost efficiencies, operational efficiencies, better urban management, and informed decision-making. However, for communities, they can aid in better participation, accessibility, and inclusive communication, which could result in localization of sustainable development goals, and improved levels of acceptance for a just and green transition, thus eventually building more resilience within communities. Realising their potential role in decision-making, Dublin City Council’s smart cities unit has collaborated with the Science Foundation of Ireland’s ADAPT Research Centre for AI-Driven Digital Content Technology on a two-year long targeted project for developing a digital twin framework. The project started in December 2022 with core objective to adopt a human-centric approach for future engagement frameworks. It is unique in terms of its collaborative and multi-stakeholder structure
Maintaining deep roots: The transformative possibilities of adult literacy education
No full textThis article explores on the formative influence of adult popular education in the evolution and continued ethos of adult literacy education in the Republic of Ireland. Freire's work has been influential within Irish adult education and community development, informed by Freirean practices of learner-centredness, experiential learning and group learning. This stands in contrast to Further Education and Training system in which the adult literacy services are based, which has become increasingly professionalised in recent years, susceptible to the ideological values and practices of performativity. The article analyses the findings of research reports on adult literacy which used a mixed methods approach. They reveal how the adult literacy sector holds important spaces for educators to counteract systemic pressures of performativity as they work with learners and their communities through the ethos and pedagogies of adult education, but this is constrained in its radical transformative possibilities
Digital Entrepreneurship for Women (DEW) Policy Recommendations
No full textThe lack of female participation in the EU labour market continues to represent a significant source
of untapped potential for EU economies. As outlined by the EU Commission Gender Equality
Strategy 2020-2025, gender stereotypes and male-dominated models and networks continue to
prevail to the detriment of women. Covid-19 has undoubtedly exacerbated the challenges of
female entrepreneurship promotion as well as the social challenges of violence against women and
discrimination. However, the post-pandemic landscape provides for new opportunities for female
entrepreneurship, therefore, DEW - Digital Entrepreneurship for Women - is ideally placed to
respond to the need for gender-specific training around digital enterprise as well as to the underrepresentation of women in the entrepreneurial space.
Within this context, DEW delivers the following innovative solutions:
Developing innovative, gender-specific training on female entrepreneurship with specific
focuses on key areas where women entrepreneurs experience the most challenges (i.e.,
access to finance, digitalisation and accessing networks)
Establishing an Open Educational Resource Platform which enables access to free resources
in 4 languages
Contributing to policy development on the topic of women entrepreneurs and digital
enterprises, by specifically applying a gender lens to the ENTRECOMP Framework
DEW harnesses the expertise of seven partners from five countries who represent the various
dimensions and aspects of female entrepreneurship with a specific emphasis on digital
empowerment. Within the partnership are public and private sector organisations as well as
academic, NGO and ICT partners. All of this expertise will combine to successfully deliver on this
innovative project
Stealthy Hacking and Secrecy of Controlled State Estimation Systems With Random Dropouts
No full textWe study the maximum information gain that an adversary may obtain through hacking without being detected. Consider a dynamical process observed by a sensor that transmits a local estimate of the system state to a remote estimator according to some reference transmission policy across a packet-dropping wireless channel equipped with acknowledgments (ACK). An adversary overhears the transmissions and proactively hijacks the sensor to reprogram its transmission policy. We define perfect secrecy as keeping the averaged expected error covariance bounded at the legitimate estimator and unbounded at the adversary. By analyzing the stationary distribution of the expected error covariance, we show that perfect secrecy can be attained for unstable systems only if the ACK channel has no packet dropouts. In other situations, we prove that independent of the reference policy and the detection methods, perfect secrecy is not attainable. For this scenario, we devise a Stackelberg game to derive the optimal defensive reference policy for the legitimate estimator and present a branch-and-bound algorithm with global optimality to solve the proposed game
Literature Review on Inclusive Education Ireland
No full textThe TUTOR consortium partners have adopted an assessment methodology, setting out the
common framework, criterion and parameters for the TUTOR project. This literature review
is the first phase of the TUTOR assessment methodology. Five partners within the
consortium undertake a review of the literature pertaining to inclusive education within
each country. A European wide review also forms part of the assessment. The focus of the
literature review is on inclusive education for teachers in second level schools/or in Vocation
Education and Training (VET), Further Education and Training (FET), who are working with
cohorts of migrant, LGBTI+, socio-economic disadvantaged students including those at risk of
poverty, educational disadvantage, students facing geographical barriers, marginalised and
ethnic groups including Traveller and Roma.
This action is a desk-based literature review, coordinated by Maynooth
University, aiming to identify the emerging common trends, needs and challenges to
ensure that the secondary education and vocational, further education and training
environments are inclusive of all students in the consortium partner countries.
Strategic documents that examine different perspectives of teachers upskilling
needs in terms of inclusive education in modern secondary, vocational and further
education and training are reviewed
Synthesis, characterisation, and solution behaviour of Ag(I) bis(phenanthroline-oxazine) complexes and the evaluation of their biological activity against the pathogenic yeast Candida albicans
No full textThree Ag(I) bis(phenanthroline-oxazine) complexes with varying lipophilicity were synthesised and characterised. The solution stoichiometry of 1:2 Ag(I):ligand was determined for each complex by the continuous variation Job’s plot method using NMR spectroscopy. NMR studies were also carried out to investigate the fluxional behaviour of the Ag(I) complexes in solution. The biological activity of the silver(I) complexes and the corresponding ligands towards a clinical strain of Candida albicans MEN was studied using broth microdilution assays. Testing showed the choice of media and the duration of incubation were key determinants of the inhibitory behaviour towards Candida albicans, however, the difference between freshly prepared and pre-prepared solutions was insignificant in minimal media. The activity of the metal-free ligands correlated with the length of the alkyl chain. In minimal media, the methyl ester phenanthroline-oxazine ligand was effective only at 60 μM, limiting growth to 67% of the control, while a 60 μM dose of the propyl ester analogue limited fungal growth at < 20% of the control. MIC50 and MIC80 values for the propyl and hexyl ester analogues were calculated to be 45 and 59 µM (propyl), and 18 and 45 µM (hexyl). Moreover, in a study of activity as a function of time it was observed that the hexyl ester ligand maintained its activity for longer than the methyl and propyl analogues; after 48 h a 60 μM dose held fungal growth at 24% of that of the control. Complexation to Ag(I) was much more effective in enhancing biological activity of the ligands than was increasing the ester chain length. Significantly no difference in activity between the three silver(I) complexes was observed under the experimental conditions. All three complexes were substantially more active than their parent ligands against Candida albicans and AgClO4 and the three silver(I) bis(phen-oxazine) complexes have MIC80 values of < 15 μM. The ability of the silver(I) complexes to hold fungal growth at about 20% of the control even after 48 h incubation at low dosages (15 μM) showcases their superiority over the simple silver(I) perchlorate salt, which ceased to be effective at dosages below 60 μM at the extended time point
The Road Less Travelled Community Work and the Traveller Struggle for Human Rights in Ireland
No full textThis study delves into the struggle for human rights within the Traveller community in Ireland, exploring the perspectives of both activists and community workers who have engaged in this cause. The research aims to develop an understanding of anti-Traveller racism from the perspective of activists and community workers, the obstacles hindering human rights, the factors that support progress towards the attainment of human rights, and the pivotal role community work has played in this struggle.
Using a qualitative approach, the study highlights the entrenched discrimination and racism experienced by Travellers. Factors which contribute to the poor living conditions, high unemployment, poverty, limited access to essential services., social exclusion, and health disparities within the Traveller community.
The study illuminates the intergenerational systemic nature of anti-Traveller racism and its detrimental effects on the Traveller community, regarding self-esteem, mental health, and overall well-being. Simultaneously, it highlights the resilience and strength of the Traveller community in the face of these challenges.
Traveller activists and community workers have persistently challenged the racism experienced by Travellers, advocating for human rights, equality and better conditions. This ongoing struggle spanning six decades has been characterized by the resistance of these activist and community workers against the systemic anti-Traveller racism which was institutionalised by the Irish state.
Identified as a powerful agent of change, community work brought a framework rooted in a human rights agenda. This framework empowered Travellers to mobilize collectively and challenge the persistent racism and a sedentarist ideology that blamed Travellers for their situation.
This research culminates in actionable recommendations drawn from the analysis aimed at significantly enhancing the circumstances of Travellers in Ireland
Informality as a Virtue: Exploring Positive Informal Judicial Institutions
No full textMost scholarly writings focus on the harmful effects of informal institutions. This article explores the positive influence of informal judicial institutions on the fundamental values of judicial systems. It develops a framework for assessing such institutions. The paper argues that the normative evaluation of informal judicial institutions is highly context-specific. Depending on their historical trajectories, different jurisdictions may emphasize different interests. Because of this, when evaluating informal judicial institutions, balancing the same values may yield different results in different jurisdictions. The recent trend towards formalization, supported by supranational institutions, goes hand-in-hand with the spreading narrative of good governance, emphasizing principles such as transparency or inclusion, principles that generally stand in tension with informality. This article cautions against emerging supranational templates insensitive to local practice
The Catholic Footprint in Victorian Dublin
No full textReligions make their mark in cities already bearing the legacies of earlier spiritual encodings, decodings and re-codings. We might describe these marks as a sort of footprint. The Catholic footprint, then, would, in the manner of the urban figure-ground relation, include the churches, schools, hospitals or other edifices that comprise the mission of the Catholic Church.1 It would extend to various street- and place-names that, for many people, have Catholic associations. Less tangible but still evident, the Catholic footprint in a city might include land owned by the Church, and the control that this allows over urban development. All senses might register the Catholic footprint. Candles and incense are most intense within the walls of a church, but even they are occasionally carried in procession into city streets. Bells call the faithful to mass or, as with the Angelus, to other religious observance. The footprint extends to the realm of memory and cities are replete with religious relics, from graveyards to sites where once stood religious institutions, or where in time past sacred matters transpired. Some of these sites are invested with commemorative practice and in this way become places of public memory.2 Others are more covert, haunted by histories of state-perpetrated violence or under the erasure of active state suppression, they serve as a spectral trace of injury and elision