558 research outputs found
Sort by
Putting LiDAR to the Test in the Brú na Bóinne WHS, Ireland: Site discovery, definition and investigation using LiDAR, geophysics and coring.
No full textHistorically aerial photography, and latterly LiDAR, have been used to identify and map new sites in the Brú na Bóinne World Heritage Site (WHS), an internationally significant archaeological landscape known for its Neolithic passage tombs, other monuments and megalithic art.
Recent analysis of LiDAR data from the Brú na Bóinne WHS undertaken as part of the INSTAR (Irish National Strategic Archaeological Research) Boyne Valley Landscapes Project, which directly addresses a number of the knowledge gaps identified in the Brú na Bóinne WHS Research Framework (Smyth et al. 2009), has revealed a host of new monuments in this important archaeological landscape. This poster presents some of the results of a programme of ground truthing of a small sample of sites: Site W in Monknewtown - a previously recorded monument - and two sites first identified on the LiDAR data (LP1 in Newgrange townland and LP2 in Dowth townland). Ground-truthing involves a combination geophysical survey and coring to obtain material for sedimentological and geochemical analysis and for radiocarbon dating
The importance of small-medium enterprises to the economy in the north east region of the Republic of Ireland
No full textThis study investigates the impact entrepreneurs have on the small-medium enterprise sector in the Irish economy and further examines if Ireland is in support of the development of small-medium enterprises in addition to investigating the importance of small-medium enterprises to the Irish economy in particular the north-east region of the Republic of Ireland through focusing on the conurbation centres of County Louth, County Monaghan and County Cavan. OCED (2010) proffers the view that there are many links between entrepreneurs and small-medium enterprises in terms of creating growth and wealth for the economy
A marketing strategy to reinvigorate the League of Ireland
No full textThe main motivation for this document was to develop a turnaround marketing strategy designed to overcome the problems a football club affiliated to the Airtricity league face. In essence. a football club is a business. like all businesses, it generates revenue and indeed has expenses such as wages. taxes etc. The soccer industry in Ireland has a long history of struggling financially. The papers main focus is to suggest recommendations on how the league and the organisations within the league can transform their businesses from one that is failing into one that is profitable
Undergraduates attitudes and intentions towards entrepreneurship: a study of third year female students at DkIT
No full textFemale entrepreneurship is regarded as an untapped source of economic development throughout the world. It has become increasingly accepted that few women in Ireland choose entrepreneurship as a career choice. Female entrepreneurs face greater hurdles to new venture creation than their male counterparts. However, entrepreneurship education is recognised as a route to increasing entrepreneurial activity. More and more females are now entering the third level education system in Ireland and thus represent a virtually untapped source of entrepreneurial activity. This dissertation provides a review of female entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education and students intentions towards pursuing a career in entrepreneurship. It examines the attitudes and intentions of third year undergraduate female students towards pursuing a career in entrepreneurship
The LEGO Maturity & Capability Model Approach
No full text“Maturity model” (MM) (based on Crosby’s original idea) has been one of the main buzzwords over the past 20 years. A variety of MMs have been created in several application domains, from Software Engineering to Contract Management. Despite several models intending to cover the same domain, their PRMs (Process Reference Models) typically have different scopes, do not always cover the same set of processes, or have different levels of depth, or do not express the same level of granularity when describing concepts. Thus some important questions from the MM users’ viewpoint arise: how to choose the right models for our needs? After selecting those models, how to build a new, tailored MM based on several sources and customized to a specific domain? This paper motivates these important questions and proposes a way to choose, combine and adapt the contents from multiple MMs within a generic-domain approach we call ‘LEGO’ (Living EnGineering prOcess), based upon the well-known kids’ toy that stimulates creativity through combining different bricks. We present three case studies, one of them based upon the development of the Medi SPICE model, illustrating how the proposed approach may be used to develop MCM (Maturity & Capabilty Models) in this contex
The involvement of Rho-associated kinase in rabbit urethral smooth muscle contraction
No full textThe mechanism of activation of urethral smooth muscle contraction was investigated using freshly-isolated rabbit urethral strips mounted on a force transducer and perfused with Krebs solution at 37 oC. The involvement of Rho-associated kinase (ROK) in urethral smooth muscle contraction was investigated by examining the effects of pre-incubation with two structurally distinct inhibitors of ROK, Y27632 (10 M) and H1152 (1 M), on the contractile response to electric field stimulation (EFS; 4 Hz), membrane depolarization with KCl (80 mM) and 1-adrenoceptor stimulation with phenylephrine (10 M). Both compounds markedly inhibited contractions elicited by all three stimuli, implicating ROK in urethral smooth muscle contractile responses. Addition of H-1152 at the plateau of a phenylephrine-induced contraction evoked relaxation. The protein kinase C inhibitor, GF109203X (0.2 M), on the other hand, had no effect on the contractile response to EFS, KCl or phenylephrine. For biochemical analyses, urethral muscle strips connected to a force transducer were incubated in Krebs solution in a 1-ml cuvette at 21 oC. Tissue strips were quick frozen at selected times for analysis of phosphorylation of three potential direct or indirect substrates of ROK: (i) myosin regulatory light chain at S19 and T18; (ii) the myosin targeting subunit of myosin light chain phosphatase, MYPT1, at T697 and T855; and (iii) cofilin at S3. The following results were obtained: (i) under resting tension (0.5 g), LC20 was phosphorylated to ~0.5 mol Pi / mol LC20 at S19; (ii) LC20 phosphorylation did not change in response to KCl or phenylephrine; (iii) ROK inhibition had no effect on LC20 phosphorylation in the absence or presence of contractile stimuli; (iv) under resting conditions, MYPT1 was partially phosphorylated at T697 and T855 and cofilin at S3; (v) phosphorylation of MYPT1 and cofilin was unaffected by KCl or phenylephrine; and (vi) KCl- and phenylephrine-induced contraction-relaxation cycles did not corrrelate with actin polymerization-depolymerization. We conclude that ROK plays an important role in urethral smooth muscle contraction but not via inhibition of MLCP or polymerization of actin. The high level of LC20 phosphorylation at resting tension suggests that activation of ROK leads to alleviation of inhibition of cross-bridge cycling
Interpreting Presence Sensor Data and Looking for Similarities Between Homes Using Cluster Analysis
No full textIn order to model older people’s behaviour in the home we must first understand it. In this paper we examine data from eight purpose-built aware homes over a six-month period, looking at presence in rooms to try to determine patterns amongst the older residents. We look for homes that have similar movement patterns using cluster analysis. We also
examine how movement over days clusters within individual
homes. Our analysis begins to show the possibilities of
distinguishing between residents in their homes based on
patterns of movement
Nitrogen Removal in Integrated Constructed Wetland Treating Domestic Wastewater
Get PDFThe nitrogen (N) removal performance of a 3.25 ha Integrated Constructed Wetland (ICW) treating domestic wastewater from Glaslough village in County Monaghan, Ireland, was evaluated in this study. The ICW consists of two sludge ponds and five shallow vegetated wetland cells. Influent and effluent concentrations of two N species, namely, ammonia-nitrogen (NH3-N) and nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N), which were measured weekly over two years, together with hydrology of the ICW provided the basis for this evaluation. The influent wastewater typically contained 40 mg L-1 NH3-N and 5 mg L-1 NO3-N. Concentrations of N in the ICW effluent were typically less than 1.0 mg L-1 for both wastewater typically contained 40 mg L-1 NH3-N and 5 mg L-1 NO3-N. Concentrations of N in the ICW effluent were typically less than 1.0 mg L-1 for both species. Overall, a total load of 2802 kg NH3-N and 441 kg NO3-N was received by the ICW and a removal rate of 98.0 % and 96.9 % respectively, was recorded. Average areal N loading rate (245 mg m-2 d-1 NH3-N and 38 mg m-2 d-1 NO3-N) had a significant linear relationship with areal N removal rate (240 mg m-2 d-1 and 35 mg m-2 d-1, respectively) for both species. The areal first-order N removal rate constants in the ICW averaged 14 m yr-1 for NH3-N and 11 m yr-1 for NO3-N. Temperature coefficients (θ) for N reduction in the ICW were low, and suggested that the variability in N removal by the ICW was independent of temperature
Verification & Validation in Medi SPICE
No full textEffective verification and validation are central to medical
device software development and are essential for regulatory approval.
Although guidance is available in multiple standards in the medical device software domain, it is difficult for the manufacturer to implement as there is no consolidated view of this information. Likewise, the standards and guidance documents do not consider process improvement initiatives. This paper assists in relation to both these aspects and introduces the development of processes for verification
and validation in the medical device domain
Improving Verification & Validation in the Medical Device Domain
No full textThe benefits of effective verification and validation activities in the medical device domain include increased usability and reliability, decreased failure rate and recalls and reduced risks to patients and users. Though there is guidance on verification and validation in
multiple standards in the medical device domain, these are difficult for the manufacturer to implement, as there is no consolidated information on how they can be successfully
achieved. The paper highlights three major areas for improvement in the medical device software development domain. This research is based on an analysis of available literature in the field of verification and validation in generic software development, safety-critical and
medical device software domains. Additionally, we also performed a review of the standards and process improvement models available in these domains