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'That old shame trick': Mothering, trauma and neurodiversity in Emilie Pine's Ruth & Pen
Get PDFThe abstract is included in the text
Mesenchymal stromal cells can block palmitate training of macrophages via cyclooxygenase-2 and interleukin-1 receptor antagonist
Get PDFInnate training of macrophages can be beneficial for the clearance of pathogens. However, for certain chronic
conditions, innate training can have detrimental effects due to an excessive production of pro-inflammatory
cytokines. Obesity is a condition that is associated with a range of increased pro-inflammatory training stimuli
including the free fatty acid palmitate. Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are powerful immunomodulators
and known to suppress inflammatory macrophages via a range of soluble factors. We show that palmitate training of murine bone-marrow-derived macrophages and human monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs) results
in an increased production of TNFa and IL-6 upon stimulation with lipopolysaccharide and is associated with
epigenetic remodeling. Palmitate training led to metabolic changes, however, MSCs did not alter the metabolic
profile of human MDMs. Using a transwell system, we demonstrated that human bone marrow MSCs block palmitate training in both murine and human macrophages suggesting the involvement of secreted factors. MSC
disruption of the training process occurs through more than one pathway. Suppression of palmitate-enhanced
TNFa production is associated with cyclooxygenase-2 activity in MSCs, while secretion of interleukin-1 receptor
antagonist by MSCs is required to suppress palmitate-enhanced IL-6 production in MDMs
Dismantling Barriers and Advancing the Right of Persons with Disabilities to Participate in Cultural Life: A Socio-Legal Analysis
Get PDFThe right to participate in cultural life is profoundly rooted in international human rights law, and, with regard to persons with disabilities, it is enunciated in Article 30 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD or the Convention). This provision requires States Parties to the Convention to ensure accessibility of cultural materials, services and activities, and cultural heritage, and to support the creative and artistic potential of persons with disabilities. However, people with disabilities continue to face barriers to cultural participation.
On foot of a pan-European empirical study and a socio-legal analysis, this book discusses the normative content of Article 30 CRPD and its implementation. It identifies and categorises barriers to cultural participation, highlighting new paths to operationalise Article 30 CRPD.
This book will be of interest to scholars and students working in disability law, socio-legal studies, international human rights law, as well as cultural studies, disability studies, and cultural policies
Sharing our Stories: From Sierra Leone to Maynooth: Victoria Ballah shares her story…
Get PDFI’m from Hastings – a town about 16 kilometres
from Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. I was
born in 1997. My mother died when I was seven,
leaving me and my two sisters, Olive and Catherine,
and my brother Maclean, in the care of my father.
Because I was the youngest, I was sent to live with
my aunt nearby. Much later, when I was in fi rst year at
University, I moved back to live with my father, but sadly
he died in 2019, when I was in my fi nal year. My father
was from the Limba, one of the oldest ethnic groups in
Sierra Leone. They live in the north and north west. My
mother was a Krio. The Krio are descendants of freed
slaves and some of her ancestors were Nigerian. My
dad was an Anglican, my mother a Methodist. I grew
up Methodist and went to a local non-denominational
primary school in Hastings and attended the Annie
Walsh Secondary School from 2010
Deepening dialogue in Silent Spaces: An exploration of pedagogical informed practice in adult and community education spaces within communities in contention.
Get PDFThe rise of political populism has posed significant challenges for democratic societies and for the academy. Populist movements often emphasise a division between ‘the people’ and ‘the elite’, pushing narratives that thrive on polarisation. In such contexts dialogue between social and community groups and populist movements is crucial for the health of democracy. However, within the academy, and specifically within adult and community education in formal, informal, and non-formal spaces, populism tends to undermine the practice of dialogue by promoting exclusionary practices, rejecting, and indeed silencing the legitimacy of opposing views. This article explores the theoretical foundations of dialogue and silence as critical components of communicative discourse. It posits the theories of Freire (1970, 1996, 1998, 2010), Greene (1973, 1978, 1995), Brookfield (1995, 2009), Lederach (2003), Bar-on (1989, 2007), and Giroux (2005) as a means of scaffolding a collaborative theoretical framework for conducting meaningful dialogue amongst and between communities in contention. In doing so it aims to offer practitioners of adult and community education a conceptual framework to support participatory dialogue that engages with contentious and complex narratives. This article offers the concept of silence as a societal response to conflict, the construct of dialogue as one means to deconstruct the silence, the acknowledgement of truth being multifaceted, and the complexity that arises in dealing with identity in communities in conflict, where the practice of dialogue is challenging, elusive, and subdued. In concluding, it suggests where arts-based methodologies form the backdrop, there is hope for shared understanding to emerge organically
Library IT Development Department Stats, February 2024-February 2025
No full textAn infographic, created for Love Data Week 2025, showcasing some of the work done by the Library IT Development department in Maynooth University Library from February 2024 to February 2025
Profit-seeking solar geoengineering exemplifies broader risks of market-based climate governance
Get PDFDespite uncertainties about its feasibility and desirability, start-up companies seeking to profit from solar geoengineering
have begun to emerge. One company is releasing balloons filled with sulfur dioxide to sell “cooling
credits”, claiming that the cooling achieved when 1 g of SO2 is released is equivalent to offsetting one ton of
carbon dioxide for one year. Another aspires to deliver returns to investors from the development of a proprietary
aerosol for dispersal in the stratosphere. Such for-profit solar geoengineering enterprises should not be understood
merely as rogue opportunists. These proposals are not only scientifically questionable, and premature in
the absence of effective governance, but they are a predictable consequence of neoliberal, market-driven climate
governance. The structures and incentives of market-based climate policy - circumscribed by neoliberalism’s
emphasis on technological innovation, venture capital, and the marketization of environmental goods - have
generated repeated efforts to profit from various forms of geoengineering. With a climate governance regime
wherein private, for-profit actors significantly influence and weaken climate policy, de facto governance of solar
geoengineering has emerged, dominated by actors linked to Silicon Valley funders and ideologies. Without more
explicit efforts to curb the power of private sector actors, including commercial geoengineering bans and non-use
provisions, pursuit of techno-market “solutions” could lead to both inadequate mitigation and increasingly risky
reliance on geoengineering
Fungal siderophores and their analogues alter microbial growth and biochemistry: expanding the repertoire of antimicrobial strategies.
No full textIn recent years, the concerns of rising anti-microbial resistance (AMR) in bacteria and fungi have grown due to the rate at which pathogens gain resistance to antimicrobials compared to the rate of antibiotic discovery. As a result, investigations into the role of siderophores, natural iron chelators produced by microbes under iron limiting conditions, are being carried out to see if these small metabolites can be used to bypass AMR by either limiting the amount of available iron or using them as carriers for ‘Trojan-Horse’ antibiotics. It was observed that Triacetylfusarinine C (TAFC), a siderophore native to Aspergillus fumigatus, significantly inhibited Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinetobacter baumannii growth in a dose-dependent manner (p < 0.05) and increased the production of a hitherto unknown catecholate, potentially enterobactin-related, siderophore in K. pneumoniae with a singly charged [M+1H]1+ of 924.34. Quantitative proteomic analysis revealed that K. pneumoniae treated with TAFC or gliotoxin (GT), another metabolite produced by A. fumigatus, exhibited disruption of metal homeostasis pathways, protein synthesis and electron transfer. Furthermore, Diacetylfusarinine C (DAFC), a TAFC analogue, was successfully conjugated to chitosan, a biopolymer, and separately to the chemotherapy drug methotrexate (MTX). The DAFC polymer exhibited increased iron-binding activity relative to free TAFC and the gallium chelate of DAFC-MTX (GaDAFC-MTX) conjugate significantly inhibited the growth of A. fumigatus on solid agar by 50 % (p < 0.005) and in liquid culture by 60% (p < 0.005). Interestingly, the GaDAFC-MTX conjugate significantly inhibited TAFC production by 95% (p < 0.005) and overall siderophore production by 50% (p < 0.05) whereas free MTX only inhibited the production of TAFC (p < 0.005). It is concluded that siderophores not native to K. pneumoniae can be used to limit the
available environmental iron and that TAFC and derivatives are suitable candidates for developing Trojan-Horse antifungals
Networks of climate obstruction: Discourses of denial and delay in US fossil energy, plastic, and agrichemical industries
Get PDFThe use of fossil-derived hydrocarbons in fossil energy, plastic production, and agriculture makes these three sectors mutually reinforcing and reliant on sustained fossil fuel extraction. In this paper, we examine the ways the fossil fuel energy, plastics, and agrichemicals industries interact on social media using Twitter (renamed X as of 2023) data analysis, and we explore the implications of these interactions for policy. Content analysis of the text of tweets from the two largest US corporations and a major trade association for each sector (three discrete social media accounts for each sector) reveals coordinated messaging and identifies synergistic themes among these three sectors. Network analysis shows substantial engagement among the three sectors and identifies common external entities frequently mentioned in each sector. To understand the discursive strategies of the twitter networks of these three petrochemical derivative and fuel sectors, we propose the discourses of climate obstruction framework, adapted from and expanding on Lamb et al.’s (2020) discourses of climate delay framework. Our framework integrates both discourses of delay and discourses of denial because an integration of both were found in our analysis suggesting coordinated efforts to obstruct climate action. Our analysis suggests that discourses to deny and delay climate policy are aligned and coordinated across the three sectors to reinforce existing infrastructure and inhibit change. Exceptions in this alignment emerge for a few distinct sector-specific goals, including contrasting messages about biofuel. Despite some disparate views and different policy priorities among these three sectors, similar efforts to reinforce existing extractive petrochemical hegemony and undermine climate policy are clearly evident in each sector. These findings suggest that more research is needed to understand collaborative efforts among fossil energy, plastic, and agrichemical producers to influence climate and energy policy
Challenges and opportunities in teaching gender equality in Irish secondary schools
Get PDFChallenges related to the teaching of gender equality in Irish secondary schools are multifaceted and include: insufficient gender equality training for teachers; tendencies towards conservative and religious ethos schools; lack of space in which to address gender topics and issues (including gender identity, gender stereotyping, gender discrimination) in the curriculum and, especially, growing resistance to gender equality and gender mainstreaming from a variety of stakeholders including schools, teachers, parents and students. This paper stems from a transnational European project – GEMINI – aimed at gender mainstreaming through media literacy and presents findings from a study of 12 Irish secondary school teachers in different secondary school types who detail their interest and engagement with gender equality and gender issues, but identify multiple forms of resistance to the delivery of gender equality education. Teachers express fears about rising misogyny among students and raise concerns about the influence of controversial sexist figures like Andrew Tate, especially among boys in Ireland. Findings contribute to the literature on challenges to gender mainstreaming and media literacy in Ireland