15234 research outputs found
Sort by
Harbour: Poems and Essays
No full textHarbour is a collection of poems and an essay. The poems address many themes, from silence to childhood, boarding school, Dublin and heartbreak. The essay will focus on silence and how this affects my poems. As I will explain more fully in the essay, at the core of the poems are two kinds of silence. The first is the silent trauma that dominates the poems, both in form and subject. This can be explored in terms of Lacan’s definition of trauma from his January 20th 1954 seminar (ed. by J-A Miller), which he later defined as part of the ‘Real’ in ‘The Imaginary, The Real, and the Symbolic’. This appears in ‘The Dream of Irma’s Injection (Conclusion)’, in the seminar from March 23rd 1955 (Lacan 33). Lacan explains that trauma is that which cannot be expressed; it is the flux of meaning, the ‘glimmers of light’ that hit us before they can be symbolized. In Part I of the essay I explore Lacan’s notion of trauma, as well as its responses, through ambivalence and mysticism. Part I will thus take the form of auto-criticism and examine where the trauma or its responses have made their mark on my poems. In Part II I will explore the silence that accompanies the materiality of language. I am thus arguing that in my poems my attention to the materiality of language creates a detachment from meaning, which equates to the experience of silence. For example, my use of minimal form, careful lineation that is often more vertical than horizontal, and lyricism, briefly distracts the reader from ‘meaning’, and creates silence. To support this argument, I will examine the poet Thomas A Clark’s use of material silence in his concrete, visual and page poetry; I will also consider some of my poems that were inspired by his materiality and silence. Parts I and II of the essay will thus offer an insight into how silence affects my poems from two separate angles – while exploring the broader cultural and poetic context that supports each of these
Extraction and Encapsulation of Bioactive Compounds Employing Novel Technologies
No full textThe main objective of this thesis was to investigate the potential of novel extraction techniques to enhance the extraction efficiency and biological functionality of bioactive compounds. The potential of encapsulation to increase the efficacy of these extracted bioactive compounds in food, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical applications was also investigated. Chapter 3 investigated conventional and novel extraction protocols utilizing novel techniques to extract phycobiliproteins (PBPs) from the red microalgae. PBPs were extracted using a cold plasma discharge system (CPDS) and a cold plasma jet system (CPJS) with water as the solvent. CPDS demonstrated superior effectiveness in enhancing extraction yield. CPDS-treated PBPs exhibited the highest antioxidant activities and demonstrated high cytotoxic potential in Caco-2 human colorectal adenocarcinoma cell lines. UAE, MAE, and PEFAE novel technologies, were employed to further enhance the extraction yield of PBPs in Chapter 4. This enhanced extraction yield was achieved through UAE treatment using a 20kHz probe for 10min at 4°C. Significant improvements in the antioxidant activities were also measured. Moreover, PBPs extracts obtained through UAE treatment exhibited no cytotoxic potential in human lung carcinoma and colorectal adenocarcinoma cell lines. In Chapter 5 the potential of MAE and UAE treatments to enhance the extraction yields of phycocyanins (PCs) from Arthrospira platensis were investigated at selected pH levels. The highest extraction yield was obtained from UAE for 15min at 4°C. Highest antioxidant activities were measured in crude PEs extract obtained from 10min UAE treatment. Cytotoxicity analysis revealed that the obtained crude PCs extracts pose minimal cytotoxic risk at concentrations 75 to 80% cell viability <200µg/mL. Chapters 8 and 9 investigated the extraction of phenolic compounds and proteins from food byproducts The highest extraction yield from buckwheat was obtained from HPPAE for 8min at 400MPa treatment. The highest antioxidant activities measured in crude phenolic extracts were obtained from HPPAE for 8min at 400MPa treatment. From M. charantia seeds, the highest extraction yield of crude proteins was obtained from UAE 30min at 4°C. After isolation and purification, 9.08 ± 0.23g of protein with 82.69 ± 0.78% purity was obtained from 100g of M.charantia seeds on a dry basis. Antidiabetic assays showed significantly antidiabetic higher activity for the purified protein compared to the crude protein . In vitro cytotoxicity analysis showed that concentrations <200µg/mL were non-toxic. Chapter 10 investigated the encapsulation of bioactive pigments using inulin and gum arabic. Microparticles were produced using a nano spray drying technique. Results demonstrated high encapsulation yields, solubility and colour retention for both encapsulated PCs and PEs. The combination of inulin and gum arabic facilitated the formation of smaller encapsulated particles with a homogeneous morphology and higher encapsulation efficiency compared to microparticles prepared with inulin alone. The antioxidant activity of microparticles encapsulated with the combination of inulin and gum arabic exhibited the best performance in case of FEAP assay for PCs and ABTS assay for PEs. In summary, this thesis demonstrated the potential of novel extraction technologies as viable alternatives to CAE. Encapsulation was demonstrated to enhance the stability and functionality of natural colourants.2025-12-02 JG: Author's signature removed from PD
What, when, where and why? Understanding the origins of bog butter in Ireland
No full textBog butter is among the most common finds recovered from Irish peatlands, although, to date, the assemblage has remained poorly understood. While bog butter has attracted sporadic interest and ad hoc curation since the seventeenth century, the resulting studies have been limited in scale, typically centred on individual specimens or small sample groups. This research represents the first systematic study of the entire known Irish bog butter assemblage. It provides an authoritative account of the scale and character of the assemblage, in addition to analysing under-researched aspects of the phenomenon, such as its spatial distribution. Through extensive archival research and the construction of a bespoke database, this project has recorded more than 700 examples of Irish bog butter representing an increase of 46% on previous estimates. Through the use of radiocarbon dating and organic residue analyses, this research has established the chronology and chemical composition of bog butter from Northern Ireland. Finally, through geospatial analyses, this research has analysed the spatial distribution of Irish bog butter and examined, for the first time, how this distribution changes through time. It has also explored the spatial relationships between bog butter and other archaeological material recovered from Irish peatlands, producing a better understanding of the wider context of the bog butter assemblage and its interpretation. This research has revolutionised our understanding of bog butter in Ireland, effectively doubling our knowledge about the assemblage, in addition to demonstrating its significance in the Irish archaeological record and its potential to inform us about the past
Use of Remote Sensing for Monitoring Irish Water Quality
No full textThe Water Framework Directive (WFD) is the main legislation regulating water management in Europe, with the principal purpose of protecting and enhancing ‘good ecological statuses’ of all waters. Therefore, there is a need for effective and large coverage monitoring of water bodies to support the decision making of such directives. Remote sensing offers a cost-effective way to meet such need and has been used globally to alleviate the limitation of conventional method of water quality monitoring. However, the use of remote sensing for water quality monitoring still has significant challenges (i.e. low correlation efficiency; not applicable in different environmental settings etc.,.) and needs to be explored further. Especially, the usefulness of remote sensing for small water bodies has rarely been explored in previous research. Therefore, this thesis is aiming to address the knowledge gaps concerning the use of remote sensing techniques for small water bodies, with the primary focus of Irish water bodies. The efficacy of remote sensing to detect Irish water bodies was initially evaluated. Systematic comparison was conducted between satellite-derived maps and the existing water maps. Results show that both Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 have potential in assessing water quality across various water types in Ireland. The relationship between chlorophyll and Sentinel-2 remote sensing reflectance was then investigated. Models were built using different zoning classification methods and the results underscored the considerable impact the zoning methods have on accuracy. Three regional-scale methods (k-means clustering, river basin district, catchment) and a national scale method were tested. Results highlight the superior performance (higher R2 and lower RMSE) of the regional-scale approaches. K-means clustering emerged as the most stable with the highest accuracy. Additionally, the results show that regions with higher trophic state (eutrophic) waters consistently exhibited superior performances. Finally, to solve the problems of discontinuous monitoring hindered by single-sensor measurements, a multi-platform approach model was then built based on four optical satellites (Sentinel-2, Landsat-8, MODIS Terra and Aqua) spanning from 2016 to 2022. Results highlighted the advantages of using our multi-sensor model, which can provide 550% times the number of water quality estimates compared with in-situ measurement alone. Moreover, higher accuracies were also observed through the dataset, with average accuracies for oligotrophic, mesotrophic, and eutrophic of 79.7%, 70.3%, and 66.6%, found respectively. From the spatial analysis of our multi-platform approach model, we found that most of the eutrophic cases were from North Western, Neagh Bann River Basin Districts, this was consistent with the in-situ measurement spatial variation. Our multi-platform approach model discovered that while the average percentage of eutrophic cases across Ireland decreased from 25.50% in 2017 to 18.68% in 2021, there is an increasing trend from 2021 to July 2022.2025-12-02 JG: Author's signature removed from PDF2025-12-16 JG: Temporary (6m) embargo added at author's request -- query in progress
Examining the Need for China to Reform its Capital Maintenance Regime: a comparative study of the shareholders' distribution regimes between the UK and China
No full textoai:researchrepository.ucd.ie:10197/30754This Thesis has two objectives: to compare the laws of the UK and China in the sector of shareholders’ distributions in respect of their capacity for creditor protection, with the aim of investigating the need for reformation of the capital maintenance regime in China; and to examine the fit and feasibility of transplanting the UK’s current shareholders’ distribution regimes (including capital maintenance) to China, with the aim of exploring an optimal model of shareholders’ distribution regime in China. This Thesis analyses and compares shareholders’ distribution regimes in both the UK and China, namely, statutory rules in the areas of share repurchase, capital reduction, dividend distribution and financial assistance for the acquisition of a company’s own shares, and the common law of unlawful return of capital. This Thesis investigates the capacity of creditor protection that can be achieved by capital maintenance regimes in both the UK and China through applying a yardstick of company solvency upon and within one year of shareholders’ distribution. The investigation discloses that the capital maintenance regime in the UK, a regime which primarily adopts the net assets test, cannot guarantee company solvency upon shareholders’ distributions. The comparative study and company solvency investigation in China discloses weaknesses of its transplanted capital maintenance regime, such as halfway transplant, incoherence, a simplistic approach, a lack of consideration into company solvency upon distribution, a lack of personal accountability and constraint in creditor protection. Through testing legal transplant theories, this Thesis identifies the following as the contributing factors to these weaknesses: instructions given by authoritarian leaders to establish a legal system rapidly, confusing power distribution between the National People’s Congress and the Supreme People’s Court in law-making and lack of Western legal education received by law-making lawyers and their inability to fully grasp the meaning of transplanted laws. This Thesis recommends that any future transplant in China shall take into consideration the interplay between the transplanted law and the forces of socio-cultural speciality – one of which in this case is the accounting environment. This Thesis concludes that neither the capital maintenance regime nor the solvency-based regime in the UK fits the current accounting environment in China; and that China may adopt a combination of simple balance sheet test and a phased solvency test in its reformation of the shareholders’ distribution regime
American Anthem: Poems and Essays
No full textAmerican Anthem is a collection of poetry followed by a critical reflection on the craft elements within the manuscript. The collection of poetry explores the growing levels of gun violence in the United States. More specifically, the manuscript seeks to illustrate the devastating psychological ramifications trauma inevitably has on the mind and body as a result of such violence. Following the collection of poetry, the critical reflection places significant emphasis on elements of craft that inform the collection by examining how the interplay of narrative and lyric, intimacy and distance within perspective, and the interplay of tradition and innovation within form can serve to convey the complexity of trauma. When taken together, the poetry and critical reflection shed new light on the ways in which poetry grapples with the phenomenon of violence
Decentralized Processing Techniques for Biomedical Signal Classification
No full textThe imperative to strike a harmonious balance between precision and efficiency has led to the exploration of novel approaches for decentralized inferencing. This thesis addresses the critical challenge of minimizing power consumption on edge devices while transmitting minimal data to the cloud, thereby achieving low latency, low complexity, and high accuracy in the detection of abnormal biomedical signals. This research introduces three innovative solutions to tackle this multifaceted problem. The first solution combines large and small models, strategically leveraging their unique strengths to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of biomedical signal inferencing. By combining the comprehensiveness of large models with the agility of small models, this approach optimizes performance while judiciously managing computational resources. This fusion not only enables the recognition of subtle patterns in biomedical signals but also ensures that the inferencing process remains feasible for edge devices with limited processing capabilities. The second solution focuses on addressing the challenges of resource-intensive deep learning models by investigating techniques for network compression and pruning. These methods aim to streamline model architectures without compromising on accuracy. By reducing the redundancy within neural networks and eliminating less critical connections, this approach not only minimizes computational complexity but also enables faster inferencing, making it well-suited for low-latency requirements in biomedical signal analysis. By allowing models to make informed decisions with varying degrees of confidence, the third solution not only optimizes computational resources but also ensures that the system remains adaptable to different signal scenarios using early exit points. This adaptability is particularly valuable in scenarios where maintaining high accuracy is paramount while managing the computational load efficiently.
These three approaches present a comprehensive framework for advancing decentralized abnormal biomedical signal inferencing. Through this work, we aim to contribute to the realization of highly efficient, low-power, and low-latency biomedical signal analysis systems, fostering advancements in healthcare and remote monitoring technologies
Towards a new taxonomy for youth mental health: Clusters of adolescent well-being and socio-emotional difficulties within large community and school-based samples
No full textBackground: Current psychiatric taxonomies are limited, and interest in alternative approaches to organise youth mental health has increased. Aims: My research question was - how can we best group adolescents based on mental health difficulties and strengths? One aim was to therefore identify adolescent mental health groups that emerge using person-centred statistical analyses. A second aim was to classify adolescents into groups by applying a promising, but under-used statistical approach. Method: Regarding the first aim, a systematic review of the literature was conducted. Twelve studies were identified (n = 101,792 adolescents). To meet the other aim, a secondary analysis of a large dataset was calculated. An unsupervised machine learning algorithm was used to cluster adolescents (n = 25,568 adolescents) based on socio-emotional and behavioural difficulties as well as psychological well-being. Results: The systematic review revealed around six common cluster-types. They described patterns of flourishing, surviving, struggling, and languishing – the other two were less common and were characterised by a general absence of symptoms. The secondary analysis indicated eight clusters. These ranged from adolescents with high well-being to those with intense, co-occurrent problems. Also identified were groups experiencing discrete problems but with intact well-being. Conclusion: Findings suggest mental health groups that fall along a gradient. It spans from excellent mental health to widespread problems, with discrete patterns of difficulties nested between. The research reported here offers a different perspective on alternative mental health taxonomies, and new evidence that can contribute to this discussion
Salaire minimum européen: coup de théâtre juridique
No full textL'année a commencé en fanfare pour l'Europe sociale: le 14 janvier, l'avocat général de l'UE, Nicholas Emiliou, a recommandé à la Cour de justice de l'Union européenne (CJUE) d'annuler la directive sur le salaire minimum. Sa demande s'appuie sur une plainte déposée par le Danemark contre le Parlement européen et le Conseil, car leur directive sur le salaire minimum porterait atteinte à l'autonomie des partenaires sociaux nationaux.Unia Trade Unio
Desaster vorerst abgewendet – zur Präsidentschaftwahl in Rumänien
No full textMitte Mai hätten die Rechtsextremen fast die rumänische Präsidentschaftswahl gewonnen: Im ersten regulären Wahlgang am 4. Mai erzielte George Simion mit 41 Prozent der Stimmen ein Rekordergebnis. Zum Vergleich: Im annullierten Wahlgang vom November 2024 erhielten die Ultranationalisten Călin Georgescu (23 Prozent) und Simion (14 Prozent) zusammen weniger Stimmen.Unia Trade Unio