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Whose energy systems? Ownership and social acceptance of of energy-system-related policies and technologies
No full textThis thesis explored the social acceptance of policies and technologies related to renewable energy systems by the public and other societal actors. Social acceptance of policies and technologies is a critical prerequisite for a successful energy transition and mitigation of climate change. Building on recent conceptual developments that emphasize the role of institutions in understanding processes of social acceptance, this thesis investigated various dimensions of social acceptance by considering the role of institutional frameworks of ownership and governance in Ireland. The introduction provides a literature review and contextualises the empirical work of this thesis. The core of the thesis is a collection of three empirical studies. The thesis ends with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of the empirical work. The first study, based on the sociotechnical imaginaries approach, explored perspectives of different stakeholders on renewable energy ownership models and the extent to which these are contingent upon imaginaries of the public. Based on qualitative analysis of interviews with stakeholders, we propose that instrumental perspectives on ownership are grounded in an imaginary of the public as energy consumers, whereas perspectives on ownership as empowerment are based on an imaginary of the public as energy citizens. The subsequent two quantitative studies explored the role of individual-level differences in explaining public and community acceptance of policies and technologies in the context of ownership and governance structures. The second study compared the predictive capacities of individual and collective dimensions of psychological ownership over water systems in explaining public acceptance of water system management policies among users of three forms of water supply systems, whose formal ownership structures vary. The results demonstrated that the relationship between the two dimensions of psychological ownership and public acceptance of water management policies depends on the formal ownership structures of water supply systems. The third study explored the role of collective psychological ownership over renewable energy developments and place-technology fit in explaining community acceptance of top-down and bottom-up governance approaches to renewable energy developments. The results showed that community acceptance of renewable energy developments is higher under bottom-up than top-down governance approaches, because bottom-up approaches strengthen feelings of collective psychological ownership and perceptions of place-technology fit. Overall, the results indicate the importance of considering the imaginaries of different stakeholders about energy systems and the role of the public in energy systems to understand processes of social acceptance of energy-system-related policies and technologies. Additionally, the results demonstrate that the ownership and governance structures of utilities are important for understanding the psychological processes underlying public/community acceptance. The implications of these results for policy, particularly in relation to public participation in renewable energy developments, are discussed.2025-12-04 JG: PDF replaced at author's reques
The Impact of Software Design on Energy Performance
No full textSoftware consumes energy as it executes, and the amount of energy expended on its execution globally is considerable. A constant growth in device ownership combined with a shift to cloud computing and a growing awareness of climate change has led to a new focus on software performance, but now from an energy perspective. The issue of software energy efficiency can be approached from several angles --- this thesis explores the relationship between software design and energy efficiency. Contemporary object-oriented programming practices prioritise modularity, extensibility and reusability in an effort to develop well-organised and maintainable code. However the introduction of the structures and indirection inherent to these goals results in redundancy, with the potential for significant and unnecessary energy consumption. This work investigates refactoring, design patterns, software metrics, and code smells to develop an understanding of the impact of high-level software design on energy efficiency. Studies undertaken in this work achieve energy consumption reductions of between 5% and 66% when large, open-source applications are transformed to reduce energy consumption, and also presents a novel approach to estimating energy performance by weighting static metrics with dynamic profiling data. These results underscore the negative impact software design practices can have on energy efficiency and raise questions regarding maintainability versus energy efficiency. The findings in this thesis also develop our understanding of how software design can impact energy efficiency, guides future research in this space, and enables developers to make informed decisions when developing more energy-aware software
Christian von Ehrenfels on Desire as “Promotion of Happiness”
No full textChristian von Ehrenfels (1859–1932), a prominent member of the Brentano School, is well known for his subjectivist value theory, whereby being valuable means being the object of a subject’s desire. Accordingly, the literature has interpreted his account of desire as the foundation of his axiology. However, such an interpretation overlooks the intrinsic richness of this account. This paper proposes, in contrast, to understand von Ehrenfels’s approach to desire as an autonomous psychological theory. I first emphasize that, for von Ehrenfels, desires are intentional, emotional experiences, before turning to his original reductionist definition of conative phenomena, according to which we desire an object when its representation as real ‘promotes our happiness’ compared to its representation as unreal. In doing so, I clarify the experiences of happiness and representation, critically review the formulations of this definition, and conclude that the ‘promotion of happiness’ best captures a procedure for knowing our desires.Irish Research CouncilCheck for published version during checkdate report - RO
Detection and attribution of river flow change in the arterially drained catchments of Ireland
No full textDetection and attribution of non-stationarity in river flows underpins effective catchment management. Change detection is often hampered by a lack of long-term, quality assured records, while attribution additionally requires disentangling multiple plausible external (i.e., climate) and internal (e.g. land use change) drivers of change at the catchment scale. This thesis seeks to advance detection and attribution in hydrology using a sample of 10 arterially drained catchments in Ireland. Drainage has been widely applied to Irish catchments with previous research focusing predominantly on impacts for floods. Little is known about drainage impacts across the flow regime, while these catchments are also subject to climate variability and change, as well as other internal modifications. The research starts by developing and implementing a framework and workflow for hydrometric data rescue to extend digital observations to include pre-drainage records for the study catchments. Guidance on procedures to collect and process historical data, extend flow records, and compile key metadata and information about each flow station is developed. Lack of metadata is a key challenge when working with historical hydrometric records which, when combined with equipment malfunction, errors in hydrometric practices, and the amalgamation of data sets of varying hydrometric methodologies and temporal resolutions in extended records, necessitates thorough investigations into data history. Quality control procedures during data rescue were complemented by a quality assurance framework consisting of hydrological modelling, comprehensive hydrometric review, and visual assessment of time series data. The workflow developed is already assisting other hydrometric data rescue efforts. In total, over 150 years of daily mean water level and flow data were added to the Irish record. Following rescue and quality assurance, statistical tests are deployed to detect changes (monotonic and step changes) across the flow regime. Attribution of detected changes is then attempted using a mixed method approach within a framework of multiple working hypotheses. First, a hydrological model trained prior to detected changes is used to simulate a counterfactual ‘natural’ evolution of flows and compared with factual (observed) flows. This step facilitates attribution of non-stationarity as externally or internally driven. Second, regression on model residuals is used to disentangle hypothesised internal catchment drivers with predictors developed to represent land use change and arterial drainage. Non-stationarity was detected across the flow regime at all 10 study catchments. Climate and arterial drainage were found to be the dominant drivers of change in average and high flows, with land use change of tertiary importance. Quality issues and hydrometric practice were more commonly attributed to detected changes in low flows. Despite the painstaking attention given to data quality, this still accounted for almost 13 percent of detected changes emphasising the importance of retaining data quality as a working hypothesis for attribution. Results show that arterial drainage produces higher peak flows and a flashier response across almost all catchments. Moreover, arterial drainage and climate changes are found to be additive, demonstrating that expansion of arterial drainage is not an appropriate solution for responding to increased flood risk with climate change. While of tertiary importance presently, large scale future land use change encouraged by climate mitigation policies is likely to become an increasingly important driver of future flow change. Better data sets of historical land use changes are urgently required for improving attribution to constrain their likely effects. It is hoped that the data sets, methods, and findings developed in this thesis will help advance detection and attribution for better river management in a more complex future
Power, Politics and Peace of mind: The study of how German financial integration into the global economy before 1914 shaped debates about German national security
No full textBefore the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Germany's escalating financial integration into the global economy heightened concern surrounding Germany's war readiness. This thesis aims to examine German national security in relation to financial interdependence by examining the impact of war scares on German financial markets, debates about financial power and financial integration, and German civilian and military leaders’ plans to mitigate the impact of war on financial stability. First, as financial markets can offer a gauge on financial risk, this thesis examines the effect of war scares on German financial markets by analysing bond prices, bank share prices, industry shares and bank interest rates during war scares between 1905 to 1912. For example war scares in 1911 and 1912 alarmed investors; market panic, in turn, alarmed decision makers. Second, this thesis analyses the debate, amongst officials and within the public sphere, about the benefits and risks of increasing German financial integration into international capital markets. Germany’s deepening global financial integration offered pportunities for German diplomacy to utilise capital exports as a tool in achieving foreign policy aims. Yet during times of crisis or war, the risk of suspension from participating in foreign capital markets was high. Third, this thesis assesses how various state, military and civil institutions prepared for the financial risks associated with the breakout of a future major European war. Despite Germany’s lack of financial war-readiness during the First World War, this thesis will show that before 1914, civilian and military leaders understood the importance of preparing and strengthening Germany’s financial system for future belligerent action
Controlling Campylobacter spp and Salmonella spp in poultry Processing using Cold Plasma and Natural Antimicrobials
No full textThis PhD scoped a framework of interventions for implementation at different stages of the post-slaughter poultry processing chain to control the contamination and cross-contamination risks of Salmonella and Campylobacter spp using a tailored range of cold plasma modes of delivery (liquid, gaseous, functionalised polymers) and natural compounds.
Plasma Functionalized Water (PFW) was generated using two different plasma systems. PFW functionalized using a microwaved Induced Plasma system (MidiPlex) showed that the plasma process parameters of plasma generation time, initial volume of water to be plasma treated, and contact time control its microbial reduction properties. This study successfully characterised and optimised the plasma process parameters to generate PFWs of increasing volumes up to 600 ml that can efficiently reduce poultry pathogens to undetectable levels. The chemical profile of these PFW showed the production of both Nitrate and Nitrite plasma reactive species, reduction of pH, and increase of the conductivity.
Other PFWs considered in this study were generated using the reactive species specificity plasma system (RSS) with two plasma discharges, namely Spark and Glow. The bactericidal effect of PFW-RSS differed with the plasma generation time, contact time, plasma discharge, and the target bacteria. The results revealed a high sensitivity for Salmonella spp and Campylobacter spp towards PFW-Spark. Different mechanisms of antimicrobial actions were observed to be involved for PFW; namely, intracellular oxidative stress, membrane damage, cell deformation, and destruction of metabolic activity. Live cell imaging and the consolidated videos of these bacteria while exposed to a diluted PFW for up to 1 hour confirmed the mechanisms of action assessed and the effect of specific plasma process parameters. The efficacy of PFW generated using the MidiPlex system demonstrated useful potential for controlling biofilms generated by Salmonella spp across different poultry processing conditions, and when attached to six commonly used food contact surfaces. Overall, the metabolic activity and the microbial load of cells forming the biofilms were reduced by up to 100% with 1 min washing with PFW. Biofilm analysis through AFM, SEM, and CLSM showed that PFW treatment led to significant damage to the structure of the biofilm, eruption of the cells generating these biofilms, and DNA denaturation. A sterilised chicken juice model was developed that mimicked the nutrient composition of fresh poultry meat without interfering with the natural microflora. This model was successfully used to optimize different delivery modes of cold plasma treatment and natural compounds to control the target pathogens. Aligned to the post-slaughter process stages for fresh poultry, the thermal stability of PFW generated using Midi-plex was considered and showed high bactericidal stability during and post-scalding. The combination of the two plasma treatment approaches using liquid and gaseous cold plasma applications, namely scalding and In-package DBD, showed efficiency for control of both Salmonella spp and Campylobacter spp over an extended storage time of 7 days at 4°C. The biological safety of implementing cold plasma treatments to the poultry process chain was assessed, and these treatments, whether applied separately or in combination, showed no short-term cytotoxic effect on a CHO-K1 cell line. Cold plasma treatment improved the microbial reduction potential of a chitosan edible coating. The intervention combination of misting with PFW, applying a plasma functionalized coating to the poultry with in-package DBD treatment, significantly improved the microbiological quality of fresh chicken meat, for both skin-on and skin-off chicken samples, compared to the untreated chicken meat. Overall, this thesis proposes safe and flexible approaches to implement CP into the current poultry processing chain easily
Masculinities and friendships in the lives of young queer people in Ireland
No full textThis study investigates the lived experiences of young queer masculine individuals in Ireland, with a focus on how masculinities intersect with friendship dynamics. The overarching objective is to uncover the ways in which masculinities influence, and are influenced by, relational practices within their social circles. To achieve this, the research addresses three specific objectives: examining the friendships of queer masculine individuals with individuals of various experiences of gender and sexuality, understanding the impact of masculinities and societal norms on constructions of gender and relationships, and exploring how individuals negotiate masculinities and queerness to foster care and intimacy in friendships. Utilising a "feminist-positioning, queer-destabilising" qualitative methodology, the study is grounded in interpretivist and phenomenological frameworks. It applies innovative queer ethnographic methods, including “Queer Life Histories” and “Queer Dyadic Friendship Interviews”, to facilitate an in-depth exploration of participants' experiences over two phases of interviews. Phase One includes interviews with 17 young queer masculine individuals, while Phase Two involves interviews with nine of these participants alongside friends of their choice. The study’s conceptual grounding is situated within gender and sexuality scholarship–expanded through feminist, intersectional, and decolonial interventions–alongside foundational and contemporary Critical Studies of Men and Masculinities theory. Through ethnographic chapters analysing individual and dyadic friendship narratives, the findings reveal complex interactions with masculine norms and highlight friendships as transformative spaces for resisting and redefining gender expectations. These chapters explore early gendering influences, cultures of hegemonic masculinity in childhood, the role of heteronormativity and other normativities in friendships, and the enactment of nonnormative masculine performances through queer relationships. This analysis extends to discourses of masculinity, emotional expression, care practices, and the reimagining of intimacy beyond normative boundaries. Through an immersive exploration of how these young queer masculine individuals navigate cultural and social landscapes in Ireland, this research contributes to broader scholarship on queer masculinities and Irish queer studies, offering insights into the multiplicity of masculinities within contemporary Irish society
Acute Management of the Neonatal Airway
No full textBackground and Objectives: Emerging technologies, such as respiratory function monitors (RFMs) and video laryngoscopes, have the potential to improve the teaching of newborn face mask ventilation and intubation. In this thesis, I aimed to explore how these advancements can improve the training and practice of these critical neonatal procedures. The specific objectives were to review the evidence on teaching these skills, assess resuscitation practices in Ireland, and evaluate the impact of RFMs on ventilation effectiveness. Additionally, I aimed to determine how RFMs could be integrated into mask ventilation training and assess the application of the VL technique as it becomes increasingly prevalent in neonatal care. Methods: This research included clinicians involved in newborn resuscitation and infants undergoing intubation with VL. The methods included several preparatory studies: a systematic literature review of the evidence for teaching newborn face mask ventilation and intubation, a nationwide survey of neonatal centres in Ireland, and a randomised, crossover manikin study comparing two RFMs. Subsequently, two further studies were conducted: a multicentre, before-and-after manikin study evaluating the effectiveness of a standardised training intervention on face mask ventilation, and a prospective, observational study assessing synchronised video recordings of laryngoscope views and the external environment. Results: RFM feedback enhances mask ventilation training, but further research is needed to refine teaching methods. While VL has shown promise in neonatal intubation training, most studies have focused on the direct laryngoscopy (DL) technique. There was considerable variability in newborn resuscitation training, equipment, and governance across Ireland. Although RFM feedback with a simple visual display improved ventilation, challenges remained in addressing ineffective ventilations. A standardised training intervention using an RFM with simple visual feedback significantly reduced face mask leak. Neonatal intubation using VL frequently deviated from current resuscitation guidelines, with unclear verbal instructions from supervisors. Conclusions: There is a need for standardised national protocols and training resources. While RFM feedback with a simple display enhances mask ventilation, additional guidance may be required to help operators correct ineffective ventilations. A standardised training intervention on face mask ventilation improves short-term skills and may be replicable beyond research settings. Updated resuscitation guidelines and improved communication are essential for VL intubation, and further investigation into effective verbal cues is warranted.2025-11-12 JG: Author's signature removed from PD
The link between upper plate stress and subduction dynamics: Insights from the Hikurangi Subduction Margin
No full textCharacterisation of the contemporary in-situ stress state, orientation and magnitude, of the Earth’s crust is crucial to improve our understanding of active crustal deformation, geodynamic processes, and seismicity in tectonically active regions such as subduction dynamics. Earthquake occurrence and a variety of seismic slip behaviours are controlled by the interaction between in-situ principal stresses, mechanical and geometrical properties of crustal faults and fault rocks, and pore pressure within and around faults. Therefore, acquiring quantitative knowledge of the in-situ stress is an essential step to assess seismic and tsunamigenic hazards at subduction zones. This thesis seeks to explore the link between stress, structure, and subduction dynamics at the Hikurangi Subduction Margin (HSM). HSM, off the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, known to experiences strong, along-strike variations in megathrust slip behaviour, ranging from episodic slow slip events (SSEs) and creep at the northern and central HSM to deep interseismic locking (and stress accumulation) beneath the southern HSM. I explore spatial and temporal variations in the stress state within the overriding plate of HSM in order to (1) better understand their relationship to the far-field stress state and long-term tectonic deformations, and its potential link to observed along-strike variations in subduction slip behaviour and (2) determine critically stressed faults that are optimally oriented for slip and dilation in the HSM, investigate their impact on the permeability of the overriding plate’s faults, and investigate the role they play in driving SSEs. I analyse borehole image logs and oriented four-arm calliper logs acquired from thirteen boreholes, and integrate wireline data, leak-off test data, formation Integrity test data, and pore pressure data (mud weights and formation tests) from 44 wells. Then I present principal stress orientations and magnitudes, the first quantitative map of the faulting style (absolute and relative principal stress magnitudes), and its uncertainty along the HSM. Our results reveal a combination of contractional, transpressional strike-slip and/or normal faulting with SHmax orientations of 065°/245° (ENE-WSW) in the central and northern HSM. The southern HSM stress field becomes more contractional, showing a transpressional strike-slip and/or reverse faulting with a dominant 112°/292° (E-W) SHmax orientation. The variation of stress state along the HSM strike correlates spatially with observed along-strike variations in subduction interface slip behaviour. The variation of stress state along the HSM strike may result from along-strike variation in deformation style imposed by clockwise rotation of forearc. In the southern HSM, borehole-derived stress state in the overriding plate is inconsistent with stress state derived from focal mechanism solutions within the subducting plate, implying some degree of mechanical decoupling between the shallow hanging wall and subducting slab. This decoupling may reflect low shear stress on the subduction interface. This study found that faults in the central HSM in a strike-slip and compressional stress state have higher dilation tendencies compared to the faults in the southern HSM. Along-strike decrease in the vertical structural permeability of overriding plate may influence the degree of Pp on the subduction interface, which may influence duration of SSEs. Rate at which the transient Pp drops on the subduction interface is partly controlled by the time required for the permeability of high-dilating faults to increase in response to small stresses induced by SSEs. This transient increase in permeability allows the overpressure drop on the subduction interface, thus terminating slip in SSE episodes. This model may account for both short-term SSEs lasting 2-3 weeks in the northern and central HSM and long-term SSEs lasting over a year in the southern HSM
Deep Graph Networks for Analysing Illicit Activity in Cryptocurrency to Combat Financial Cybercrime
No full textFinancial cybercrime is an increasing threat to the public, corporations, and government entities as billions of euros are stolen and laundered annually through financial networks. Artificial intelligence methods offer investigators a method of defending against illicit activity, preventing loss of assets, and identifying cybercriminals. Cryptocurrency offers attackers unique avenues to launder their illicit funds through the decentralised networks. Cryptocurrency crime is estimated to be worth over \$24 billion in 2023 and is steadily rising year-on-year with Bitcoin being the most popular cryptocurrency of choice for criminals. Current techniques deployed to track and prevent Bitcoin related crime are being evaded by advanced and sophisticated tooling created by privacy advocates and cybercriminals. The emerging threats from advanced cybercriminals and malicious users of Bitcoin emphasise the requirement for a new all encompassing approach that tackles varying levels of obfuscation on the blockchain. This thesis addresses the issues of illicit detection evasion by introducing FraudLens, a framework for identifying illicit activity in Bitcoin. FraudLens is established to (i) address the evolving threat landscape within cryptocurrency and identify and explain the wide variety of methods to disguise and obfuscate one self on the blockchain network, (ii) introduce graph restructuring methods to improve graph neural network performance in transaction monitoring and the broader node imbalance classification task, (iii) integrate large language models as a method of explainable artificial intelligence through contextual narrative generation and similarity analysis, and (iv) perform topological data analysis on transaction graph structures to identify persistent features to enhance the robustness of transaction monitoring demonstrated by defending against adversarial graph neural network attacks. The results across the three experiments demonstrate a holistic approach to tackling financial cybercrime in cryptocurrency and significantly push the state-of-the-art by addressing the advanced nature of the current Bitcoin threat landscape.2025-11-26 JG: Author's signature removed from PD