15234 research outputs found
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EU-Mindestlohnrichtlinie: Juristischer Paukenschlag
No full textFür das soziale Europa hat das Jahr mit einem Paukenschlag begonnen: Am 14. Januar empfahl EU-Generalanwalt Nicholas Emiliou dem Europäischen Gerichtshof (EuGH), die Mindestlohnrichtline zu annullieren. Sein Antrag stützt eine Klage Dänemarks gegen EU-Parlament und Rat, da deren Mindestlohnrichtlinie die Autonomie der nationalen Sozialpartner untergraben würde.University College Dublin (UCD
Data Protection Impact Assessments: The Intersection of Data Protection, Risk Assessments and New Governance
No full textThe Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) is an innovative regulatory tool, first introduced in 2018 as part of the EU’s GDPR. Since then, it has been adopted by many jurisdictions globally. Its purpose is to compel data controllers to evaluate and document how high risk personal data processing impacts the rights and freedoms of people. Despite its importance, there is limited research on the DPIA, with most studies focusing only on its theoretical underpinnings. Notably, there is a scarcity of empirical research on the practical application of this risk management instrument. This thesis takes a significant step towards filling this gap by analysing and comparing DPIAs in the light of regulatory theory. I develop a structured framework for comparing DPIAs and present the first systematic analysis of multiple DPIAs addressing the same fact pattern. First, I review the development of regulatory theory to show how DPIAs fit into the ‘ new governance’ model of regulation. I then trace the evolution of data protection across Europe, illustrating how it mirrors the shift from classical regulation to new governance. For the case study, I analyse twenty-three DPIAs produced by EEA states for their COVID proximity tracing apps. These DPIAs shared the same regulation, the same problem, and the same technical solution. The variable lies in how the data controllers interpret the DPIA regulations, making this a unique experiment. The comparative analysis of these 23 DPIAs shows a high degree of commonality in the elements required for a DPIA but significant variations in how each DPIA addresses these elements. Risk identification and mitigation, in particular, exhibit wide divergence. These findings indicate that DPIAs would benefit from a greater emphasis on transparency, learning and objective standards. The findings point to the weakness of ex-ante risk and proportionality assessment. Based on these insights, I propose four recommendations to enhance the DPIA process, which could be implemented by SAs and data controllers without requiring legislative changes. This would move DPIA regulation towards a reflexive and meta-regulatory approach, leading to a more consistent level of fundamental rights protection across the EU
Fermentation strategies for PHB production in a novel membrane bioreactor: Investigating batch and fed-batch operations
No full textGas-transfer membranes have been successfully deployed as efficient aeration devices in wastewater treatment. There is an increasing interest in using such membrane technology in industrial biotechnology. This study proposes membrane bioreactors as a novel bioreactor setup for polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) production using Cupriavidus necator, whereby gas-transfer membranes are used for aeration. A proof-of-concept membrane bioreactor was built by combining a 50 ml centrifuge tube with hollow fiber membrane bundles. Different numbers and length of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) hollow fiber membranes were used to create membrane bundles with varying specific surface areas for oxygen transfer. In batch mode, a maximum biomass concentration of 10.3 g/L, which corresponds to a yield of 0.67 g biomass/g substrate, was achieved with 250 m2/m3 as the specific surface area of the membranes and 40 rpm as the liquid recirculation rate. Two different fed-batch modes were investigated to induce PHB production by applying nitrogen source limitation via fill-and-draw and two-step feeding strategies. A PHB level of 22% was obtained with fill-and-draw feeding by supplying 0.25 g/L NH4Cl after initial cultivation. Results indicate that membrane bioreactors are promising for C. necator cultivation, but further research is needed to enhance the PHB productivity.Science Foundation Irelan
Design and characterisation of surface chemistries that enable high performance downstream purification processes for cells and biomolecules
No full textThe advent of superparamagnetic nanotechnologies and microfluidic platforms have facilitated rapid bioseparation and downstream processing of biomolecules and cells directly from complex biological media at clinical and industrial scales. The surface chemistries of these platforms are the enabling interface which facilitate rapid capture of specific targets directly from a highly variable range of contaminants such as cells, viral particles, nucleic acids, and proteins. Towards this, the research in this thesis describes the design and synthesis of functional surface chemistries, specifically silica, streptavidin, protein A and biofunctionalized non-fouling polymer brush films which enable advanced capture, purification, and detection of a range of clinically and industrially relevant targets such as circulating tumor cells, nucleic acids, and monoclonal antibodies
Supranational Pressures and Multilevel Responses: Healthcare Activism in the Era of the EU’s New Economic Governance Regime
No full textHealthcare has historically been regarded as a local service. But national health systems are increasingly shaped by European integration. Since the 2010 establishment of the European Union’s new economic governance regime in response to the global financial crisis, the Council and the Commission are empowered to vertically intervene in the organization, and financing of member state health systems. The country-specific methodology of the new economic governance regime allowed these executive institutions to target the health systems of member states worst affected by the crisis, imposing pressure to curtail health budgets and marketize service provision. These supranational interventions created new grievances for both workers and users, as wages and material conditions in public health systems deteriorated and users experienced new barriers to access. The experiences of user- and worker-led campaigns in the health systems of Ireland and Madrid during the first decade of the regime demonstrate that these actors are cognisant of this re-scaling of power, and this has provoked some scaling upward of activities and new approaches to understanding grievances. While healthcare activism remains focused on domestic scales, this containment of protest reflects both resource limitations and strategic choice
Collaborative Research Network
No full textThe Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA) Collaborative Research Network (CRN)/research committee met during the GRAPPA 2023 annual meeting. Updates were provided on GRAPPA research projects, including the Axial Involvement in Psoriatic Arthritis (AXIS), Axial Psoriatic Arthritis Molecular and Clinical Characterisation Study, Diagnostic Ultrasound Enthesitis Tool (DUET), and Sex- and Gender-Based Analysis of the Effectiveness of Advanced Therapies (SAGE) studies, as well as the Health Initiatives in Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis Consortium European States (HIPPOCRATES) and Elucidating the Landscape of Immunoendotypes in Psoriatic Skin and Synovium (ELLIPSS) studies. The highlight of the meeting was a presentation and discussion on the use of digital tools to study psoriatic disease.European Commission Horizon 2020Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking (JU)2025-10-31 JG: PDF replaced with correct versio
EEG oscillatory signatures of increased cognitive control at intersections: a virtual reality driving simulation
No full textIntroduction: Intersections are particularly complex traffic situations and are often the scene of accidents. Driver behaviour and decision-making might be affected by specific factors such as the right of way, traffic volume, and the occurrence of a critical event directly before the intersection. Methods: We developed a new driving scenario in virtual reality (VR) to test the impact of these factors using a fully immersive head-mounted display. Participants had to navigate through a series of intersections to reach their target destination. We recorded their driving behaviour as well as their brain activity using electroencephalography (EEG). Results: Our results showed that participants engaged cognitive control processes when approaching an intersection with high traffic volume and when reacting to a critical event, as indexed by driving behaviour and proactively by increased theta power. We did not find differences for right of way in the EEG data, but driving behaviour was as expected, revealing a driving speed reduction when participants had to yield to traffic. Discussion: We discuss advantages and potential challenges of an immersive VR-based approach to driving simulations and the challenges encountered when recording and analysing EEG data. We conclude that despite movement and electronic artefacts, EEG data in the theta and alpha bands can be analysed robustly and allow for novel insights into control processes in realistic VR scenarios.RAC Research Foundation and Rees Jeffreys Road FundEranda FoundationWolfson FoundationRees Jeffrey Road Fun
Tourism in Conflict: A Comparative Study of Conflict Tourism in the North of Ireland and Palestine
No full textIn the case of societies that are currently enduring conflict, settler-colonialism, and apartheid, and those that have begun to transition towards a post-conflict society; conflict tourism has become a very popular niche within their wider tourism industry. Conflict tourism in the context of this research is understood as conflict related tourism practices within a society experiencing conflict or one that has experienced conflict in living memory. This niche has been created to appeal to the consumer desires for “authenticity” and the “real” stories of conflict. Potentially transformative to a society and economy transitioning to post-conflict or an essential ongoing income stream during the instability of conflict; once formed within a society, contested narratives vie for dominance in this space and are put to purpose by agents and stakeholders in pursuit of their own political ends. These agents include state led nationalist projects, for-profit commercial enterprises, grassroots NGOs, and individual actors. This research follows an interdisciplinary approach to comparatively analyse the conflict tourism industry in the North of Ireland as a society undergoing a peace process and transitioning towards post-conflict, and Palestine as a society that is experiencing ongoing and escalating asymmetric conflict in the form of settler-colonialism, apartheid, occupation, genocide, and resistance. I propose that an analysis of the role played by this industry in these contexts is possible by focusing on issues pertaining to: (a) the prominent aspects of these tour encounters, (b) the structure of this industry and methods of narrative construction and presentation in each context, and (c) the role played by authenticity and power in terms of agency and authorisation to engage in this industry. By deciding to focus on these three core issues a better understanding of the role played by the conflict industry in societies experiencing a different stage of conflict is to be gained. This project utilised ethnographic qualitative research methods, amounting to 45 semi-structured interviews with people working in, advocating for, and being affected by the conflict tourism industry in their respective contexts, ethnographic participant observation of over 75 conflict tourism activities across both contexts, and autoethnographic reflective practice of my own participation in these activities and experiences. The findings of this research indicate primarily the relevance of conflict temporality in how the conflict tourism industry manifests in and impacts upon each context in question across each of the three issues I noted above. Additionally, two potentially generalisable and transplantable hypotheses have been generated concerning firstly a framework for understanding the strength of conflict narratives both in terms of their presentation and the support they receive from their audiences; and secondly the application of an adapted version of Smith’s (2006) Authorized Heritage Discourse as a framework to understand authorisation, authenticity, and agency within not only cases of conflict tourism, but any case of tourism globally
An Electrochemical Oxidation Prins-type Cyclization Sequence for the Synthesis of Substituted N-Heterocycles
No full textThis thesis presents three separate projects, two of which employ electroorganic synthesis to construct structurally diverse cyclic carbamates and sulfonamides. With the advance of commercially available electrolysis reactors, electrochemical methods have regained significant attention due to their sustainability and unique reactivity over traditional reagent- based transformation. The third project focuses on the stereoselective synthesis of hydnocarpic acid, a biologically active cyclopentenyl fatty acid. Chapter 1 introduces the principles of electroorganic synthesis, emphasizing electrochemical oxidation (also known as Shono oxidation) and its applications as a synthetic tool in organic and medicinal chemistry. It also reviews reported methodologies for the synthesis of 1,3- oxazinan-2-ones (bicyclic carbamates) and outlines the background and aims of the first project. Chapter 2 describes the electrochemical oxidation of a range cyclic and acyclic N-Boc substrates to generate N,O-acetals in moderate to good yields. These versatile intermediates undergo Prins-type cyclization with unsaturated silanes in the presence of Lewis acids, as presented in Chapter 3, affording the corresponding 1,3-oxazinan-2-ones. Reaction conditions for both transformations were optimized, and mechanistic rationales are proposed. Chapter 4 further explores α-C(sp3)-H bond functionalization of sulfonamides and 1,3- oxazinan-2-ones via electrochemical oxidation. It begins by introducing electrochemical oxidation using sulfonamides, a substrate class that remains underexplored compared to cyclic amides or carbamates. In our work, various sulfonamide substrates were evaluated, though the yields were generally lower than those obtained with N-Boc series. Electrochemical oxidation of one bicyclic carbamate, described in Chapter 2, produced regioisomeric mixtures, promoting a discussion on regioselectivity. Chapter 5 addresses the synthesis of hydnocarpic acid. It begins with an overview of cyclopentenyl fatty acids and reported method for hydnocarpic acid synthesis. The introduction of copper-catalyzed conjugate addition (Kharasch addition) was also described in detail. In our designed synthetic route, this conjugate addition was employed between the Grignard reagent and cyclopentenone as the key step to stereoselective constructed the side chain. Initial challenges with reaction performance prompted evaluation of reaction conditions to identify the underlying causes
Cultivating practices of inclusion towards same-sex families in Italy: A comparison among educators, social workers, and healthcare professionals
No full textLGB+ parented families in recent years are becoming more visible, but limited information exists about how professionals interact with people in these family forms. This study used the framework of intergroup contact theory to investigate whether contact with lesbians and gay men, same-sex couples, and same-sex parents respectively increase inclusive practices towards same-sex families, and whether this association is mediated by professionals' prejudice and endorsement of same-sex families' rights. A questionnaire with scales on: (a) intergroup contact, (b) professionals' orientation towards same-sex families' inclusive practices, (c) professionals' prejudices, and (d) support of same-sex couples' rights was administered to 460 professionals (9.8% males) working in social (N = 103), education (N = 156), and healthcare (N = 201) services in Italy. Path analysis was used to test the prediction that contact increases professionals' intention to embrace inclusive practices towards same-sex families through the mediation of both prejudice and support to same-sex couples' rights to have and raise children. Results showed that contact reduced prejudices towards same-sex families and increased the endorsement of same-sex families' rights, which in turn favoured professionals' willingness to modify their practices to include these family forms. Implications for the training and development of inclusive models are discussed. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement