National University of Ireland, Maynooth
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Supported Decision-Making with Adults with Intellectual Disabilities, their Family Carers and Professional Carers
Get PDFSupported decision-making (SDM) – where people use trusted friends, family members, and professionals to help them understand the situations and choices they face, so they may make their own decisions – is a means for increasing autonomy. This research aimed to explore the views and experiences of adults with intellectual disabilities in Ireland and their decision-making supporters (family and professional carers) regarding SDM in order to inform the development of recommendations for guidelines to facilitate SDM for this cohort in anticipation of the commencement of Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act. A mixed methods systematic review identified a gap in current understanding of how adults with intellectual disabilities and their supporters use SDM to make everyday decisions. A qualitative survey exploring family and professional carers’ experiences of providing decision-making support during the COVID-19 pandemic indicated that carers struggled to facilitate decisional support for adults with intellectual disabilities while restrictions were in place. An environmental scan of online Irish resources on SDM for adults with intellectual disabilities and their supporters identified a paucity of resources relating to the application of SDM in everyday decision-making. Focus groups conducted separately with four stakeholder groups (adults with intellectual disabilities, family carers, professional frontline staff and professional supervisory staff) explored aspects of SDM each group valued most. Two World Cafe-style multi-stakeholder workshops were held to show focus group participants the preliminary focus group conclusions and obtain further thoughts and perspectives on SDM. All findings across this project were synthesised into five key recommendations for the construction of a guide to SDM. This thesis contributes to the literature by providing a multi-stakeholder perspective on the most valued aspects of SDM for adults with intellectual disabilities and their decision-making supporters in an resource to be designed for their benefit
Keltische (und rätische?) Personennamen in der vorrömischen Onomastik der Schweiz
Get PDFDer vorliegende Artikel gibt einen Überblick über das in vernakulären Inschriften der
Eisenzeit bezeugte Personennamengut der Schweiz mit Fokus auf die cisalpin-keltischen Inschriften der Südschweiz und diskutiert zwei mit diesem Material in Zusammenhang stehende Themen: die mögliche Präsenz sprachlich rätischer Elemente, und
die mutmaßlichen Unterschiede zwischen lepontischer und gallischer Personennamenbildung.
1 Ausgeklammert bleiben vorrömisches Namenmaterial in römischen Inschriften sowie Götter- und Ortsnamen. Ebenfalls beiseite bleiben müssen aus Platzgründen
die auf Schweizer Boden gefundenen vorrömischen Münzlegenden
Hamstring Strain Injury Risk Factors in Australian Football Change over the Course of the Season
Get PDFThis study aimed to determine which factors were most predictive of hamstring strain injury (HSI) during different stages of the competition in professional Australian Football.
Methods
Across two competitive seasons, eccentric knee flexor strength and biceps femoris long head architecture of 311 Australian Football players (455 player seasons) were assessed at the start and end of preseason and in the middle of the competitive season. Details of any prospective HSI were collated by medical staff of participating teams. Multiple logistic regression models were built to identify important risk factors for HSI at the different time points across the season.
Results
There were 16, 33, and 21 new HSIs reported in preseason, early in-season, and late in-season, respectively, across two competitive seasons. Multivariate logistic regression and recursive feature selection revealed that risk factors were different for preseason, early in-season, and late in-season HSIs. A combination of previous HSI, age, height, and muscle thickness were most associated with preseason injuries (median area under the curve [AUC], 0.83). Pennation angle and fascicle length had the strongest association with early in-season injuries (median AUC, 0.86). None of the input variables were associated with late in-season injuries (median AUC, 0.46). The identification of early in-season HSI and late in-season HSI was not improved by the magnitude of change of data across preseason (median AUC, 0.67).
Conclusions
Risk factors associated with prospective HSI were different across the season in Australian Rules Football, with nonmodifiable factors (previous HSI, age, and height) mostly associated with preseason injuries. Early in-season HSI were associated with modifiable factors, notably biceps femoris long head architectural measures. The prediction of in-season HSI was not improved by assessing the magnitude of change in data across preseason
Turning machines: a simple algorithmic model for molecular robotics
Get PDFMolecular robotics is challenging, so it seems best to keep it simple. We consider an abstract molecular robotics model based on simple folding instructions that execute asynchronously. Turning Machines are a simple 1D to 2D folding model, also easily generalisable to 2D to 3D folding. A Turning Machine starts out as a line of connected monomers in the discrete plane, each with an associated turning number. A monomer turns relative to its neighbours, executing a unit-distance translation that drags other monomers along with it, and through collective motion the initial set of monomers eventually folds into a programmed shape. We provide a suite of tools for reasoning about Turning Machines by fully characterising their ability to execute line rotations: executing an almost-full line rotation of 5 π / 3 radians is possible, yet a full 2 π rotation is impossible. Furthermore, line rotations up to 5 π / 3 are executed efficiently, in O ( log n ) expected time in our continuous time Markov chain time model. We then show that such line-rotations represent a fundamental primitive in the model, by using them to efficiently and asynchronously fold shapes. In particular, arbitrarily large zig-zag-rastered squares and zig-zag paths are foldable, as are y -monotone shapes albeit with error (bounded by perimeter length). Finally, we give shapes that despite having paths that traverse all their points, are in fact impossible to fold, as well as techniques for folding certain classes of (scaled) shapes without error. Our approach relies on careful geometric-based analyses of the feats possible and impossible by a very simple robotic system, and pushes conceptional hardness towards mathematical analysis and away from molecular implementation
Automatic Speech Recognition Models for Pathological Speech: Challenges and Insights
Get PDFConversational avatars provide innovative platforms for enhancing therapist-patient interactions in speech therapy by offering real-time feedback. However, the performance of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) models on disordered speech, such as dysarthria and stuttering, remains underexplored. The effectiveness of these systems hinges on the accuracy and processing speed of ASR models when transcribing pathological speech, particularly in real-time scenarios. This study evaluates several pre-trained ASR models, including Whisper-largev3-turbo, Canary, DistilWhisper, and NVIDIA’s stt-en-fastconformer-ctc-large across three datasets: Common Voice (standard speech), TORGO (dysarthric speech), and UCLASS (stuttered speech). We assess the models using Word Error Rate (WER), Real-Time Factor (RTF), and BERTScore to measure transcription accuracy, computational efficiency, and semantic congruence. The stt-en-fastconformer-ctc-large model demonstrates the fastest processing speeds, achieving the lowest WER and highest BERTScores on both the Common Voice and TORGO datasets, making it highly suitable for real-time therapeutic applications. However, all models struggle with accurately transcribing stuttered speech from the UCLASS dataset. These results highlight the need for ASR improvements for disordered speech, focusing on edge deployment to reduce latency and enhance accuracy with multimodal inputs
An Evaluation of FNV Non-Cryptographic Hash Functions
Get PDFWe conduct an examination of the FNV family
of non-cryptographic hash functions, with comparison to peer
functions, across the standard suite of tests combined with
commonly-used hash tables. The results obtained raise some
interesting questions about evaluation and application of hash
functions when considered alongside input type, goals and output
distribution. In particular, we review the literature supporting
the Avalanche criterion for assessing non-cryptographic hashes
to understand why it is frequently referenced
Magnetocaloric effect properties in the Ashkin–Teller model
Get PDFThis work investigates magnetic properties and the magnetocaloric effect in the scope of continuous and first-order phase transitions in different stability regimes of a system described by the Ashkin–Teller model. Mean Field Theory is implemented through the Gibbs–Bogoliubov variational principle to obtain expressions for free energy, entropy and magnetization, in addition to computing the magnetocaloric properties of the system under analysis. The starting point is a detailed analysis of magnetic properties as a function of temperature, coupling configurations and external fields. Continuous and first-order phase transitions are observed. The impact of having the system under the influence of an external field is studied, showing and discussing the most favorable conditions for the manifestation of the magnetocaloric potential. In addition, phase transitions between metastable and stable states due to the hysteresis effect when varying the external field are obtained from two different methods, Maxwell relations and the use of entropy variation to compute the correct magnetocaloric effect properties
Immune-Lymphatic Interactions in Inflammatory Bowel Disease
No full textThe intestinal lymphatic system provides two vital processes to maintain physiologic
equilibrium, its modulation of immune tolerance and absorption of dietary lipids. Pathologic
defects in intestinal lymphatic vessels can lead to increased fluid retention and immune
dysregulation, which ultimately impairs organ physiology. Lymphatic-associated pathologies
have been implicated in the etiology of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) for almost a
century. Despite this, we currently understand very little about how these lymphatic defects
contribute to the establishment and progression of Crohn’s Disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis
(UC). Therefore, we chose to evaluate lymphatic gene expression along the continuum of
disease in TNFΔARE+/- Crohn’s-like ileitis and CD4+CD45RBhigh Rag1-/- T cell transfer
mediated colitis models. A reduction in lymphatic endothelial cell (LEC) identity signatures
prox1, sox18 and lyve1, corresponded with an increase in colitogenic Th1/17-associated
cytokines, tnf, lta, ltb, ifng, il17. We also demonstrated this impaired LEC identity signature
was also present in a treatment-naïve Irish cohort of paediatric patients with UC. Using primary
HDLECs in vitro cultures, we chose to assess the impact of IBD-associated Type 1, Type 2
and Type 17 cytokines on LEC identity, lymphangiogenic, remodeling and structural integrity
gene expression profiles. Of note, TNF-α consistently repressed PROX1 and LYVE1 mRNA
and induced remodeling FOXC2 transcripts in a time and dose-dependent manner. Through
bulk RNA sequencing and pharmacologic inhibition studies we identified TNF-responsive
signaling pathways implicated in this transcriptional remodeling pattern, including TNF-α-
mediated changes in mTORC1 negative regulation and augmented PROX1 expression loss
upon dual TNF-α and Everolimus treatment. This correlated with altered HDLECs morphology
post-treatment. Collectively, our data supports the convergence of TNF-α driven loss of
PROX1 across in vitro HDLECs culture systems, IBD murine model tissues and patient
biopsies and supports the possibility that TNF-α-mTORC1 crosstalk may underpin lymphatic
vasculature dysfunction during chronic intestinal inflammation
Experimental Evaluation of Horner's Method for CPU Energy Reduction in Nonlinear Modelling
Get PDFComputer applications have played a central role in human progress over the past few decades. Their increasing prevalence has raised concerns about high energy consumption, drawing the attention of many scientists. Numerous studies have been conducted to develop techniques aimed at enhancing the efficiency of algorithms. Many of these studies evaluate performance based on computational time, which is measured by the elapsed time between two points in the algorithm. In this work, we present an experimental evaluation of energy reduction that reveals the computational time metric may overestimate the benefits of code efficiency. We have employed Horner's method to improve the code efficiency of two identified polynomial Nonlinear AutoRegressive Moving Average with eXogenous inputs (NARMAX) models for the Lorenz Attractor and Mackey-Glass systems. To directly measure Central Processing Unit (CPU) energy consumption, we utilised a Power Measurement Device. Our findings indicate that, while commonly used indicators such as simulation time and CPU utilisation are informative, they may not fully capture the complete picture of power usage
Design of Multi-Frequency Multi-Mode Dipole Antenna Based on Balanced Microstrip
Get PDFThis paper presents a multi-frequency and multi-mode dipole antenna based on balanced microstrip line. The antenna employs an asymmetric feeding approach, achieving a reflection coefficient below -10 dB in three frequency bands: 1.30-
1.64 GHz, 2.4-2.7 GHz, and 3-4.05 GHz. Moreover, within the
operational frequency range, it exhibits omnidirectional radia�tion characteristics and two-directional radiation characteristics
respectively. The antenna presented in this paper achieves differ�ent current distribution patterns in the three frequency bands,
enabling multi-mode radiation characteristics in the Sub-6G
frequency range. It possesses the advantages of low profile and
light weight, showing potential applications in miniaturization
and cost reduction for wireless systems in 5G applications