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Advancing the Structural Safety & Efficiency of Modular Construction Connections under Normal and Extreme Loading Conditions
No full textLack of experimental investigation of the structural performance of beam-to-column connections (i.e. intra-module connections) within corner-supported modular steel buildings (MSBs) has resulted in these connections typically being assumed as fully rigid. However, this is rarely the case due to the use of square hollow sections (SHS) columns in which the wall of the SHS welded to the adjoining beam can deform locally under concentrated load from the beam. A new computationally efficient phenomenological beam element model (BEM) with bilinear/trilinear moment-rotation relationship (initially validated through experiments by others) of the intra-module connections proposed herein has initially shown that the vertical displacement following the notional removal of one support in one module is at least 16% higher, compared to model with fully rigid intra-module connections. Despite the investigation only analysing one module, it showed how the semi-rigid intra-module connections affect its vertical stiffness. Therefore, the influence of accurate moment-rotation behaviour on a full building numerical model needs to be investigated. Hence, two types of eccentrically connected welded intra-module connections, typically found at the floor and ceiling levels of corner-supported steel modules, were experimentally tested to identify their precise moment-rotation (M-φ) response. The obtained response allows the actual behaviours of these connections to be better represented in the numerical model of the modules. In the experiments, two full-scale connections each of 5 repeat tests, showed that failure was governed by weld fracture between the cap plate and the column in all connections, under concentrated bending load from the beam. Similar failure patterns were observed in the validated numerical shell element model (SEM) of the connections. The influence of axial compression load in the column on the connections’ M-φ response was also investigated numerically using the validated model. It was found that the presence of axial compressive load in the column reduced the ultimate bending capacity of the connections, on average, by 17%. Furthermore, the numerical results showed that the commonly used deformation limit of 0.03b_0 to predict the ultimate bending capacity of hollow sections connections may not be applicable when the members are connected eccentrically to the SHS column. Local failure (tearing or bearing) at the side wall of the column occurred in almost all connections with column walls less than 10 mm thick. This is due to the nature of the eccentrically connected intra-module connections that transfer most of the bending load directly into the side wall of the column. For connections with column wall thickness larger than 10 mm, greater numbers of local crushing/yielding failure (i.e. plastic hinge) as a result of excessive rotation were observed in the beam. Following the experimental and numerical investigations of the intra-module connections, a full-scale 10-storey corner-supported MSB with experimentally and numerically validated semi-rigid intra-module connections throughout the building was created. The robustness assessment of the full building model demonstrated that disproportionate collapse was prevented in all ground floor corner removal (CR), external removal (ER) and internal removal (IR) scenarios in both cases where the ground floor columns were separately designed to axial loads at 100% and 110% their buckling capacity at ultimate limit state (ULS) before the notional removal. These results suggest that the structural design of the columns on the ground floor could be optimised to be more efficient. Furthermore, ER scenarios were found to be more severe than CR scenario where the latter was commonly deemed the most onerous in traditional framed buildings. Additionally, all the partially yielded intra-module connections, following the notional removal of column(s) for all the removal scenarios investigated2025-12-02 JG: Author's signature removed from PD
Soil compaction - evaluating effects of remediation strategies on soil, nutrients, plants and water
No full textSoil physical quality is a critical requirement for ecosystem services essential for meeting global food demands. As agricultural intensification must become sustainable, effective soil management strategies are urgently required to reduce soil degradation while maintaining productivity. In Ireland’s grassland systems, machinery operations often occur under sub-optimal field conditions due to Atlantic weather, leading to high soil water contents. This creates challenges for farmers in predicting soil water status, scheduling sustainable field operations due to the inherent spatial and temporal variability of soil moisture. Machinery trafficking, combined with soil water content, is a key driver of soil compaction and structural damage. Understanding how to prevent soil compaction during field activities remains critical for achieving sustainable agricultural intensification. Furthermore, evaluating the potential of farm byproducts as soil amendments to restore soil structure and functionality following compaction is an area requiring further investigation. This thesis investigates the physical aspects of soil quality, focusing on the interplay between soil water content, machinery trafficking, and the application of organic and inorganic amendments to prevent and mitigate soil compaction. Results highlight the utility of the Soil Moisture Deficit (SMD) tool in predicting soil water status, with an SMD of +10 mm or higher identified as a threshold for safe machinery traffic. Under wetter conditions (SMD below +10 mm), soil bulk density alone proved insufficient to assess structural status, necessitating complementary indicators such as aggregate stability. When compaction occurred, amendments such as farmyard manure (FYM) and agricultural gypsum (AG) demonstrated the potential to mitigate compaction and enhance soil recovery, depending on soil moisture conditions. FYM was most effective across all conditions in the short term, while AG showed comparable benefits in dry soils over the long term. Using novel Soil Water Retention Curve analysis and X-ray CT imaging, the study revealed how these amendments influenced pore structure and water dynamics, with AG improving macroporosity and hydraulic conductivity and FYM enhancing microporosity and water retention. The results presented have relevance to current and future soil protection and agri-environmental policy, informing the development of sustainable intensification practices to support resilient agricultural systems
Examining cognition and brain networks using magnetoencephalography in paediatric autoimmune encephalitis and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis: a preliminary study
No full textPaediatric autoimmune encephalitis, including acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, are inflammatory brain diseases presenting with cognitive deficits, psychiatric symptoms, seizures, MRI and EEG abnormalities. Despite improvements in disease recognition and early immunotherapy, long-term outcomes in paediatric autoimmune encephalitis remain poor. Our aim was to understand functional connectivity changes that could be associated with negative developmental outcomes across different types of paediatric autoimmune encephalitis using magnetoencephalography. Participants were children diagnosed with paediatric autoimmune encephalitis at least 18 months before testing and typically developing children. All completed magnetoencephalography recording at rest, T1 MRI scans and neuropsychology testing. Brain connectivity (specifically in delta and theta) was estimated with amplitude envelope correlation, and network efficiency was measured using graph measures (global efficiency, local efficiency and modularity). Twelve children with paediatric autoimmune encephalitis (11.2 ± 3.5 years, interquartile range 9 years; 5M:7F) and 12 typically developing controls (10.6 ± 3.2 years, interquartile range 7 years; 8M:4F) participated. Children with paediatric autoimmune encephalitis did not differ from controls in working memory (t(21) = 1.449; P = 0.162; d = 0.605) but had significantly lower processing speed (t(21) = 2.463; P = 0.023; Cohen's d = 1.028). Groups did not differ in theta network topology measures. The paediatric autoimmune encephalitis group had a significantly lower delta local efficiency across all thresholds tested (d = -1.60 at network threshold 14%). Theta modularity was associated with lower working memory (β = -0.781; t(8) = -2.588, P = 0.032); this effect did not survive correction for multiple comparisons (P(corr) = 0.224). Magnetoencephalography was able to capture specific network alterations in paediatric autoimmune encephalitis patients. This preliminary study demonstrates that magnetoencephalography is an appropriate tool for assessing children with paediatric autoimmune encephalitis and could be associated with cognitive outcomes.Wellcome Trust -- Submitted for publication after 1 Jan 2021: 0m embargo and CC-BY licenseMedical Research CouncilAston UniversityBirmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital Charity Research FundEncephalitis Societ
The British–Irish Negotiations on the Drafting of the 1922 Constitution of the Irish Free State
No full textThe signing of the instrument popularly known as the “Anglo Irish Treaty” in December 1921 paved the way for the creation of the Irish Free State in December 1922. The draft Constitution of the Irish Free State, created in Dublin in early 1922, was taken to London for a confidential preview in May of that year. The British government insisted that the draft Constitution had effectively ignored the provisions of the 1921 Treaty and demanded major revisions. For a brief period, the collapse of the entire settlement agreed in 1921 appeared to be a real possibility. This disaster was only averted when both sides agreed to redraft substantial portions of the draft Constitution in early June 1922. This chapter examines the negotiating strategies developed in Dublin and London before and during the radical redrafting of the future Constitution of the Irish Free State.Due for publication. Check issue date and DO
Europäisches Arbeitsrecht (European Labour Law)
No full textEmployment law and industrial relations are strongly influenced by European integration. This advanced text book is written for undergraduate and postgraduate students of law, economics, and political science, as well as for those studying labour law as trade union activists or human resource managers. It evaluates European labor law from a comparative and international law perspective.
For its 4th edition, after more than 15 years, this standard work on European labor law has been extensively revised and restructured. The first part now contains, among other things, a comprehensive introduction to international and comparative law perspectives on European labor law, followed by a basic section on EU law. Part 2 is devoted to an exemplary presentation of key elements of EU legislation in labor law, adding the latest regulatory reflections on the "gig economy" to the topics covered so far.
Eighteen years have passed since the third edition (2007) of this book was published, and these were turbulent years which and the fourth edition (2024), which have permanently changed the framework conditions of European labour law. The interval between crises that shake the EU has become shorter and shorter. The collapse of the US market for under-secured mortgage loans in the second half of 2007, the resulting capital market crisis and global economic crisis have moved into the shadow of the global pandemic (2020) and the next European war (2022). Optimists are able to recognise slight progress in the EU's response. The EU reacted to the challenges of the post-2007 crisis for the eurozone in particular, with a neo-liberal economic anti-crisis programme that resulted in diminishing labour and social protection in many Member States. The instrument of conditionality in the granting of benefits has led, among other things, to a differentiation of national labour laws, which is in tension with the continued aim of harmonising national labour laws and social systems by way of progress. After 2016, the EU Commission began a cautious social policy renaissance, which initially culminated in the legally non-binding proclamation of a European Pillar of Social Rights and is now also generating legislation. The economic contraction caused by the global pandemic prompted the EU to launch an extensive support programme. The associated budget solidarity initially seemed to represent a contrast to the supply-oriented course in the post-2007 crisis. However, the withdrawal of funding requires the development of reform programmes that could lead to supply-oriented reforms of national labour and social rights. Optimistically, all of this leads to an increased legal-political appreciation of the social dimension of the EU and more attention for EU labour law. In addition, European labour law, as an essential part of the social union, is gaining importance beyond the circle of those interested in labour law, as it allows a critical examination of the integrative claims of the EU project. The special approach of this textbook justifies its continuation even after a long interruption. Under the title European Labour Law, we deal with the question of how labour and law behave under the paradigm of the European Union's legal integration project. European labour law, even in the EU, must neither be primarily dedicated to a logic of competitiveness nor to the conception of national welfare state arrangements suspected of protectionism. Instead, its task is to provide a supranational framework for humane gainful employment for employees and forward-looking entrepreneurs on the basis of functioning European labour relations and the integration of labour law concerns into all areas of economic law. This perspective has lost none of its relevance. It provides a conceptually coherent presentation of the theoretical framework for EU labour law, from which the reader can explore individual topics of the subject independently. The book assumes no knowledge of German or Austrian labour law or EU law and is therefore equally suitable for students and practitioners
Decision tree for adaptation after radical changes: linking dynamic capabilities, ambidexterity, and strategic alliances
No full textWe developed a decision tree that integrates relevant organizational adaptation theories to respond to radical changes. The understanding of organizational adaptation often requires a combination of multiple theoretical lenses, especially considering today’s radical changes in technologies, markets, and regulations. However, the research streams on adaptation and change are often disconnected and we lack a unifying adaptation framework that might reveal the synergistic contribution of each theoretical perspective to the problem. To fill this important lacuna, we integrate four relevant scholarly perspectives on the topic: dynamic capabilities, ambidexterity, vertical alliances, and horizontal strategic alliances. Our main contribution is an integrative decision tree that unveils when and why each perspective is most appropriate to respond to radical changes. Our research also unpacks dynamic capabilities theory by suggesting when ambidexterity, vertical, and horizontal alliances are appropriate to integrate the upper-level theory of dynamic capabilities, and how they can overcome some of its limitations. The paper also clarifies that, in order to adapt ambidextrously after radical changes destroying core and/or complementary assets, companies need specific alliance strategies.Open Access funding provided by the IReL Consortiu
Designing User-Centered Gamified Mixed Reality: Innovative Frameworks and Gamified MR Application
No full textThis thesis explores integrating Mixed Reality (MR) and gamification through a motivational design model previously unexplored in higher education. Existing tools lack frameworks merging MR’s immersive potential with gamification, resulting in less engaging experiences. Using the ADDIE framework, this study addresses methodological, theoretical, practical, and empirical gaps, aligning technological advancements with pedagogical needs. The study evaluates MR’s application in higher education by synthesising data and policies, then develops gamified MR frameworks using ARCS+G and rapid application development (RAD) models. It designs and develops a gamified MR application, assessed through a real-life case study to evaluate its impact on student motivation. Theoretical and technical frameworks are validated to ensure their robustness and practical applicability, bridging theoretical concepts and implementation in advancing MR and gamification in education. The ADDIE framework guides the research methodology. A literature review in the ‘analysis’ phase identifies gaps and opportunities, examining user needs and aligning goals for the gamified MR system. The ‘design’ phase develops a theoretical framework using ARCS+G to enhance gamified elements aligned with user needs. The ‘development’ phase integrates theory into practice with RAD methodology, outlining iterative processes for creating functional MR components. The ‘implementation’ phase deploys the gamified MR system for real-world interaction, focusing on Microsoft HoloLens 2 and gathering feedback via pilot study and experimental evaluations. The final ‘evaluation’ phase assesses usability and user experience from experts perspectives, validating the framework and offering improvement recommendations. Findings provide empirical evidence supporting gamified MR’s benefits in education, emphasising user-centred design for impactful tools. By developing and validating frameworks, this research demonstrates how immersive technologies combined with motivational strategies enhance educational settings. It contributes to refining the ADDIE framework for MR and gamification integration, addressing unique challenges, and creating systematic, user-focused methods for gamified MR applications aligned with educational objectives. This study offers a practical roadmap for innovation, merging MR and gamification to advance human–computer interaction (HCI) and educational technology, enabling immersive learning tools. It establishes a foundation for future exploration of scalable frameworks, diverse educational contexts, and emerging technologies to enhance engagement and outcomes. Through ADDIE’s structured approach, beginning with user analysis, progressing to design and iterative development, and culminating in deployment and evaluation, this study marks a significant step forward. However, integrating MR and gamification into education is just beginning, presenting vast opportunities for future innovation
Machine Learning Approaches to Understanding Legislative Economic Discourse
No full textThis dissertation provides an investigation into legislative economic discourse across multiple countries and institutional settings, as well as communication channels. It relies on several machine-learning techniques to analyze legislative texts and social media posts. The analyses included in the various chapters offer insights into how economic rhetoric works as a vehicle for ideological expression, constituency engagement, and policy framing. These results have implications for methodological innovation, the dynamics of political communication, and the broader understanding of legislative behavior. This research project includes three papers and a research note. The first paper (Chapter 2) conducts a systematic assessment of the capabilities of 12 machine learning models and model variations in detecting economic ideology. As an evaluation benchmark, I use manifesto data spanning six elections in the United Kingdom and pre-annotated by expert and crowd coders. The analysis assesses the performance of several generative, fine-tuned, and zero-shot models at the granular and aggregate levels. The results show that generative models such as GPT-4o and Gemini 1.5 Flash consistently outperform other models against all benchmarks. However, they pose issues of accessibility and resource availability. Fine-tuning yielded competitive performance and offers a reliable alternative through domain-specific optimization. But its dependency on training data severely limits scalability. Zero-shot models consistently face difficulties with identifying signals of economic ideology, often resulting in negative associations with human coding. Using general knowledge for the domain-specific task of ideology scaling proved to be unreliable. Other key findings include considerable within-party variation, fine-tuning benefiting from larger training data, and zero-shot’s sensitivity to prompt content. The assessments include the strengths and limitations of each model and derive best-practices for automated analyses of political content. The second paper (Chapter 3) investigates whether and why legislators express different economic ideologies on social media compared to floor speeches. It focuses on legislators in Ireland, the United States, and the United Kingdom from 2011 to 2019. The analysis relies on 16+ million texts from Twitter posts and speeches by over 2,400 lawmakers. I detect economic content using a fine-tuned transformer model and classify it based on labels of economic ideology using a generative language model. The findings reveal that electoral systems resulting in high party discipline enforce more cross-venue ideological coherence among legislators. In addition, lawmakers’ behavior changes over their tenure and adapts to different contexts. Senior legislators exhibit more consistent economic messaging. Campaign periods reduce cross-platform inconsistency in the United States but amplify it in Ireland and the UK. Reactions to national unemployment show similar cross-country differences. Higher unemployment rates promote more economic messaging coherence in the United Kingdom but lead to increased divergence in the United States. Being in the opposition was consistently associated with lower degrees of cross-venue inconsistency. However, several robustness tests suggest a heavy dependence of this effect on partisan affiliation. These findings highlight the strategic nature of legislators’ economic communication, its adaptability to different contexts, and development over time. The third paper (Chapter 4) examines how members of the House of Commons adapt their economic communication to changing economic conditions in their constituencies. Using a corpus of 970,072 speeches delivered between 2005 and 2019, I detect economic and local content using transformer models fine-tuned on hand-coded data and measure sentiment using a zero-shot language model. The computational approach to detecting constituency focus improves upon prior studies based on mentions of geographic localities alone. Relying on constituency-level jobless claims as a proxy for economic conditions, the analysis evaluates the impact of institutional and individual-level predictors. Higher unemployment is associated with increased locally-oriented speeches, more focus on economic policy within these speeches, and a negative shift in sentiment. Electoral security and seniority discourage responsiveness to constituents’ economic conditions. Government lawmakers are more likely to react to changes in jobless claims. The research note (Chapter 6) examines how US House Members adapt their economic sentiment in social media posts and congressional speeches in response to financial, monetary, and macroeconomic indicators. The analysis focuses on standardized measures of stock performance, treasury yields, oil prices, industrial production, and consumer confidence while controlling for demographic and political attributes. It also includes analyses of potential temporally delayed responses. The findings reveal that stock performance and treasury yields are the most influential drivers of sentiment with cross-platform differences in duration and intensity. Tweets tend to show quicker and more sustained reactions. Speeches show a shorter and sometimes weaker responsiveness. Oil prices, industrial production, and consumer confidence also shape sentiment but with varied timing and strength. These findings highlight legislators’ strategic use of different communication channels for immediate versus measured responses. They underscore how economic conditions inform political discourse and suggest further research on platform-specific messaging and policy impacts
Psychosis and Serious Mental Illness (SMI): The Role of Family Factors and Emotional Dysregulation
No full textThe present thesis presents two studies with an aim to explore the pathway from psychosis proneness to persistence and persistence to impairment or serious mental illness (SMI) with a specific focus on early childhood experiences and emotional processes that contribute to vulnerability. The first study reports on a meta-aggregative systematic review exploring the lived experiences of Adult-Children of Parents with Mental Illness (Adult-COMPI) across childhood and adulthood. It identified three synthesised findings: (i) Childhood Experiences (trauma, silencing, parentification, coping strategies), (ii) Support in Childhood (from professional services, family, and community), and (iii) the Impact on Adulthood (parenthood, relationships, resilience). The findings suggest that Adult-COMPI represent a nosological “pragmatic subgroup” with distinct psychological difficulties. Identification of Adult-COMPI as a pragmatic subgroup gives the opportunity for effective transdiagnostic early intervention and prevention. The second study examines the role of emotional regulation (ER) in predicting delusional ideation and associated distress, conviction and preoccupation in a general population sample reporting psychotic-like experiences (PLE’s). Using a cross-sectional design, the research found that difficulties in ER and alexithymia significantly predicted delusional experiences. ER accounted for 30% of the relationship between delusional beliefs and psychiatric diagnosis. These findings suggest that emotional dysregulation plays a key role across the psychosis continuum, highlighting the potential benefits of interventions targeting emotional dysregulation. Taken together, these findings suggest that ER difficulties and exposure to parental SMI may represent a common risk linking early developmental adversity to later vulnerability and impairment within psychosis and other mental health difficulties.2025-10-29 JG: Author's signature removed from PD
Associations between maternal diet, lifestyle and sociodemographic factors with placental and offspring outcomes
No full textAccording to the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) hypothesis, early intrauterine exposures, such as maternal nutrition and lifestyle, can have lasting impacts on offspring health from infancy through adulthood. Placental weight (PW) and the birthweight:placental weight (BW:PW) ratio, which are indicators of placental growth and efficiency, are understudied in this context but may play a critical role in influencing offspring health trajectories. The role of maternal diet, lifestyle, and socioeconomic status (SES) in shaping these placental outcomes, and the potential for sex-specific differences, remains relatively unknown. Addressing these gaps, the overarching aim of this thesis is to examine the associations of maternal diet, lifestyle, and SES with placental outcomes and their relationship with offspring health. Additionally, this work explores whether these associations differ by the sex of the offspring. This study utilises secondary data from two Irish birth cohorts: the Lifeways Cross-Generation cohort, representing the general population, and the PEARS cohort, focusing on a group of mothers with overweight or obesity. Chapter 3 investigated maternal diet in the Lifeways cohort using multiple linear regression. Pro-inflammatory and high glycaemic index diets were positively, and high diet quality scores were negatively, associated with PW. Sex-specific effects showed female foetuses more sensitive to maternal glucose levels and male foetuses to inflammatory diets. This aligns with Chapter 6 findings in PEARS mothers without pregnancy complications, whereby a more pro-inflammatory diet was associated with increased placental weight and lower placental efficiency in male offspring. In Chapter 4, maternal physical activity and alcohol intake, but not a composite healthy lifestyle score, influenced placental development in a sex-specific manner. For example, low maternal physical activity was consistently associated with a lower BW:PW ratio at extreme centiles, particularly in female offspring. Chapter 5 explored the role of SES. In Lifeways, cluster analysis identified "Renters" as having adverse outcomes, including lower BW and poorer dietary quality. PLS regression highlighted nulliparity as a significant predictor of lower PW and BW in both cohorts. Finally, Chapter 7 examined the long-term influence of placental outcomes on offspring body mass index (BMI) trajectories. Results from linear mixed-effects models showed that PW was positively associated with offspring BMI in a non-sex specific manner, but this effect diminished by age nine. The results of this thesis provide novel insights into how maternal diet, lifestyle, and sociodemographic factors influence placental development and long-term offspring BMI. Diet and lifestyle interventions during early pregnancy hold the potential to significantly optimise maternal and foetal health. To better understand these associations, future longitudinal research is warranted, particularly in larger and more diverse populations.2025-11-28 JG: Signatures removed from PD