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Research Ethics in Researching Digital Life
Get PDFThis chapter examines in relation to researching digital life:
• the central principles of research ethics;
• ethics frameworks and a situational and reflexive approach to research ethics;
• researching vulnerable communities and sensitive issues, and power relations in research;
• the ethics of using ‘found data’ produced by others; and
• ethical considerations in producing data using digital media
Managing access to health data for research and innovation in the EU: is a better regulatory approach possible?
Get PDFData, personal data, and health data are critical in developing new technologies and health interventions,
but accessing this data is fraught with ethical concerns. The European Union’s General Data Protection
Regulation (GDPR) and the proposed European Health Data Space (EHDS) regulation seek to provide
protection of personal data while enabling access to this data for health research. However, it is
questionable whether the current and proposed framework (including the exceptions and derogations
within these) adequately balance and protect the breadth of rights, including under Articles 8 and 14 of
the European Convention on Human Rights, and interests at stake. This chapter reflects on the competing
rights and interests of the differing stakeholders involved in the use of health data for health research
purposes. We argue that regulatory frameworks need to account for and engage with these competing
motivations and interests, and must also ensure that benefits arising are accessible to stakeholders in an
equitable manner. We set out some of these competing interests before considering the GDPR and
possible role of the EHDS for the governance of data in the health research context given these
considerations. We argue that privacy and re-identifiability are not the only concerns relevant here, and
make the case that both regulations fail to fully consider the wider social and ethical concerns in this space.
The chapter concludes by reflecting on the limits of both regulations, with proposals for reframing of the
system from one primarily focused on individual risk to a system that considers both the individual and
collective risks and benefits at stake
How Cognitive Bias Prevents Serendipity in New Product Development (and What to Do About It)
Get PDFThe purpose of this article is to identify practical
strategies that new product development (NPD) managers can
undertake to increase the likelihood of serendipity within the NPD
process by focusing on overcoming the barriers presented by cognitive bias. We adopt an alternative methodological approach based
on analogical reasoning to develop a series of propositions that
explain the relationship between cognitive biases and serendipity.
We present a process model of how serendipity unfolds within NPD.
We provide a detailed analysis of cognitive bias within NPD, and
identify those categories of biases that are most likely to hinder the
occurrence and realization of serendipity in NPD. Finally, we propose a strategy of debiasing NPD activities to enable serendipity and
thereby improve new product performance. This article concludes
with a research agenda and discusses implications for firms
Responsive Synthetic Peptide Conjugates – From Sensors to Peptidomimetics
Get PDFThe importance of luminescent peptide sensors and peptidomimetics lies in their ability to address challenges in detection, imaging, drug development, and various other fields. More specifically, luminescent peptide-conjugates are often biocompatible and can detect analytes at trace-levels. This makes them effective tools for the visualisation of cellular processes and molecular interactions, while aiding in early diagnosis and monitoring disease progression. Indeed, peptidomimetics are designed to mimic the biological activity of peptides while often offering enhanced stability and bioavailability, overcoming some of the many limitations associated with native peptides. This thesis will focus on the use of modified synthetic peptide-conjugates as potential luminescent sensors for the visualisation of Caspase-3, and the design of a completely new peptidomimetic-scaffold based on Squaratides – a hybrid mix of squaramides and peptides.
The thesis opens with a literature review (Chapter 1) documenting the therapeutic history of peptides and the inherent functionalities that facilitate their diverse chemistries, all the way up to the luminescent applications of peptide-conjugates for selective sensing/visualisation of specific disease-related enzymes. Chapter 2 details the design, synthesis, and characterisation of a ratiometric fluorescent caspase-3 probe. This novel peptide-conjugate was investigated as a potential probe for the visualisation of caspase-3 via UV-vis/Fluorescence studies, enzyme kinetic(s) experiments, and selectivity studies. The probe was shown to be highly selective towards caspase-3, with kinetic data comparable to others reported in literature, while benefiting from the advantages of ratiometric detection. The design of a potential red-emitting naphthalimide-peptide probe for caspase-3 visualisation is also discussed.
Chapter 3 aims to build on the idea of fluorescent visualisation using traditional organic fluorophores, but instead employs lanthanide luminescence, with their prolonged luminescence lifetimes and tuneable emission colours. This chapter reports the synthesis and characterisation of a family of novel, water-soluble squaramide-based cyclen ligands with varying symmetry and substitution patterns, including one ligand that may have the potential to act as a lanthanide-based caspase-3 probe. The photophysical properties of each squaramide
antenna was investigated, with preliminary metal-centred luminescence emission spectra being obtained for Eu3+ and Tb3+ complexes.
The final section (Chapter 4) documents the attempted synthesis of a novel class of peptidomimetics featuring a squaramide motif. The aim was to investigate the use of squaramides as potential peptidomimetics, by generating synthetic analogues of a previous pharmaceutical drug – Cilengitide – with the hope of improving its overall stability. This chapter outlines a versatile synthetic methodology for the production of Nβ-Fmoc alkyl-amines (from their respective commercially available amino acids) and their incorporation into cyclic Squaratide peptidomimetics
SoMoSAT – Soil Moisture Estimates from Satellite-based Earth Observations. Report No 460
Get PDFSoil moisture interactions for climate, and their relevance for understanding hydrological, agricultural and ecological processes are recognised and acknowledged as important. Nonetheless, there is a paucity of soil water observations globally. Even at the regional and country scale, only limited observations are available. This research uses machine learning with remote sensing data and data from deployed in-situ soil moisture sensors to derive a harmonised soil moisture product for Ireland. Based on independent tests of the models it was found to largely reproduce the available soil moisture measurements. A key output from the research was the deployment of a number of in situ soil moisture sensors, which will support a national initiative to deploy an integrated network of soil moisture sensors across Ireland. The research highlights the need for an integrated monitoring infrastructure to facilitate consistently measuring soil moisture in Ireland
Experimental assessment of combined sliding mode & moment-based control (SM2C) for arrays of wave energy conversion systems
Get PDFMotivated by the lack of comprehensive experimental implementation and assessment of the potential benefit that can be achieved with energy-maximising optimal control solutions for arrays of wave energy converters (WECs), we present, in this paper, the development, design, experimental implementation, and performance appraisal, of optimal moment-based control for arrays of WEC systems. Both centralised and decentralised controllers are evaluated. Four different WEC array layout configurations are considered, with up to three 1:20 scale prototypes of the Wavestar WEC system operating simultaneously within the basin, subject to a variety of sea state conditions. In particular, the proposed controller, termed sliding-mode-moment-based controller SM
C, is composed of a receding-horizon moment-based reference generation process, and a subsequent proportional–integral–derivative-like continuous sliding mode tracking controller. This composite control structure is implemented and assessed experimentally, providing a detailed analysis of key performance metrics. We show that the proposed SM
C strategy is able to maximise energy absorption for all the considered WEC array layouts, with up to 2.8 times energy improvement when compared to the benchmark controller case. The findings of this experimental study show tangible proof of the performance enhancement that can be achieved in real arrays of WEC systems with the use of appropriate control technology, demonstrating not only the feasibility of the proposed SM
C strategy in itself, but the key role that control systems have to play in the pathway towards effective exploitation of the yet largely untapped wave energy resource
Population dynamics of mushroom casing over the course of Agaricus bisporus cultivation in the presence of Bacillus velezensis QST 713 and Bacillus velezensis Kos biocontrol agents
No full textThe globally cultivated white button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) is grown commercially at an industrial scale. Numerous pathogens pose a significant economic threat to its cultivation. Due to the emergence of resistance towards fungicide treatments, the future of mushroom disease treatment will need to move towards integrated pest management including the use of biological control agents (BCAs). In this study, we investigated the impact of the BCAs, B. velezensis QST 713 and Kos on the population dynamics of the microbiota of mushroom casing. Amplicon sequencing revealed that four Bacterial phyla Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidota and Actinobacteriota dominated at casing and the end of the crop cycle. The most dominant fungal genus detected at casing was Agaricus and after 7 days accounted for the vast majority of fungal species detected. The application of BCAs, B. velezensis QST 713 and B. velezensis Kos did not have a significant impact on the microbiota across the crop cycle and comparisons between control plots and plots treated with BCA showed no significant differences in their microbiome composition. This research contributes novel insights into the dynamics, composition, and structure of microbial communities within A. bisporus mushroom casing with and without the application of two BCAs
Children's School Lives: Children's Wellbeing in Irish Primary Schools (2019-2023)
Get PDFThis report marks the seventh in the series from the Children’s School Lives longitudinal study. Wellbeing in Irish
Primary Schools 2019–2023 presents experiences shared by almost 4,000 children in close to 200 primary schools,
their teachers, school leaders, parents and, in the case of some children, their grandparents. Drawing on this rich
data set from the two cohorts of children participating in the study, the report shines a light on children’s wellbeing
from junior infants through to sixth class
Irish News Media’s Preferential Treatment of Religious Actors in Relation to Crime and Harm
Get PDFNews media plays a dual role in society of both informant and influence, with a shifting overlap
based upon internal and external factors. Simultaneously, powerful parties within society can
often exert influence over media, news inclusive - raising a question of how this relationship
may in turn affect news portrayals of actors within these parties. This research project set out
to examine Irish newspaper articles to deduce whether a primary ‘powerful party’ throughout
Ireland’s history, the Christian order, and its branches, held sway over the portrayals of order
members accused or charged of committing harm.
Through a content analysis of one hundred news articles over a sixty-year period, with an even
focus split between members of a Christian order and non-members, it was determined that
Irish news media did show bias in favour of order members through several means such as
inclusion of information, tone and language, amongst others. the significance of this finding is
discussed within its own context and in the wider contexts of media and power within society,
with considerations of cyclical inequality, labelling, norms, and wider social structures,
alongside the plausibility of change in society’s approach to news media, as this study’s results
highlight an issue which is only exacerbated by the modern-day relationship between powerful
actors and media
Access to inner language enhances memory for events.
Get PDFEvents are temporally bounded experiences involving people, objects, and actions that can be segmented into sequences of smaller, meaningful events (e.g., steps involved in constructing a piece of furniture), but the role of inner language in remembering such events has been unclear. We investigated whether inner language enhances memory for events in a naturalistic, nonverbal task where participants constructed simple models from memory. Across three experiments, we used linguistic suppression in a dual-task paradigm to test whether inner language improved overall memory performance and completion time, additionally exploring the number of events that could be recalled. We found that access to inner language at encoding consistently affected memory performance: when inner language was disrupted at encoding, participants were poorer at recalling the models and remembered fewer events. This effect was present whether or not the number of events to be recalled exceed event memory capacity (estimated as approximately seven to eight events). Critically, linguistic suppression impaired memory performance to a greater extent than a control secondary task that did not affect access to language; that is, impairment was not solely due to dual-task interference. The results support the proposal that inner language enhances event memory via a mechanism of linguistic bootstrapping, which makes event representation more efficient by allowing more information to be encoded in an event model even when language is not being used in the task. These findings therefore extend theories of event memory and add to a growing body of evidence that inner language is a highly valuable cognitive tool