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Systemic barriers and student vulnerability: exploring the economic and well-being impacts of housing insecurity and work restrictions on non-EU students with Stamp 2 visas in Dublin
No full textThis research explores how housing insecurity and work-hour restrictions under the Stamp 2 visa affect the financial stability, mental health, and well-being of non-EU international students in Dublin. Ireland has become an important destination for international students, with non-EU students contributing significantly to the tuition income and low-wage labour markets. However, many students face unstable housing, limited support from institutions and strict legal rules that put at risk their academic success and personal well-being.
The research uses a quantitative approach based on a structured online survey completed by 90 non-EU students attending English language schools and universities in Dublin. The survey collected information on housing conditions, income and expenses, employment patterns, mental health and access to institutional support. The results show high levels of overcrowded housing, financial difficulties and engagement in informal work beyond legal limits. Students reported high stress, sleep problems and low motivation, all of which are directly linked to housing instability, visa-related income restrictions and lack of effective guidance from their institutions.
The discussion of the results highlights structural contradictions in the international education system, where students are essential to the economy but still remain socially and institutionally marginalised. The research recommends targeted reforms at both institutional and governmental levels, including adjustments to visa policies, expanded housing support, improved mental health services, and stronger collaborations with NGOs.
By focusing on the lived experiences of non-EU students, this research provides deeper insight into the vulnerabilities rooted in the current system. It calls for a more ethical, inclusive, and sustainable approach to international education in Ireland, one that aligns the national strategies with the realities of those who sustain them
Quantitative Assessment of Amazon’s Strategic Adaptation and Consumer Behavior in the Post-Brexit E-commerce Environment
No full textThis research investigates how Amazon UK has strategically responded to the challenges of Brexit and how these adaptations have affected consumer behavior and perceptions among EU-based customers. With Brexit introducing new trade barriers, VAT regulations, and logistical disruptions, cross-border e-commerce dynamics have shifted significantly. This study focuses on three key areas: changes in EU consumers’ purchasing patterns, perceptions of Amazon’s service quality post-Brexit (particularly in delivery, pricing, and product availability), and how users evaluate Amazon’s compliance and localization strategies.
A quantitative, cross-sectional survey was conducted, targeting EU residents who have purchased from Amazon UK since 2021. A total of 112 valid responses were collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression techniques. The findings indicate that while many consumers continue to use Amazon UK, shopping frequency has decreased, and product category preferences have shifted. Respondents rated Amazon relatively well in terms of delivery reliability and communication clarity, but expressed dissatisfaction with post-Brexit pricing and product availability.
Interestingly, while satisfaction and trust in Amazon remained high, these factors were not strong predictors of future shopping intentions. This unexpected result suggests a disconnect between perceived platform performance and long-term loyalty, possibly due to increased price sensitivity or competition from EU-based platforms.
The study contributes to understanding consumer behavior in disrupted trade environments and highlights the need for continued strategic alignment in pricing, inventory localization, and user experience. It also identifies areas for further research, such as qualitative exploration of consumer sentiment and longitudinal tracking of behavioral changes. Overall, this research offers practical insights for e-commerce platforms navigating regulatory shifts and evolving consumer expectations in post-Brexit Europe
The effects of establishing a continuous training and development system for personnel at a Ukrainian bank to further career progression (A case study of Crédit Agricole, Ukraine)
No full textThe following dissertation aims to showcase and evaluate how the implementation and the regular use of a continuous training and development system for employees and personnel can not only enhance an employee’s soft skills and practical skills used for their job specifications and standard operating procedures but also aims to motivate and boost employee productiveness - leading to an organic growth in order to climb the career ladder within an organisation. French financial institution Crédit Agricole Bank, specifically their operation in Ukraine is nominated as the case study for this dissertation given their investments in implementing three different schools of training and development for their employees in Ukraine which aim to contribute to internal career growth within the bank. This is considered along with an employee’s mentality; how their motivation and engagement are a requirement to build a career path internally at the bank and how the war in Ukraine from February 2022 has had any knock-on effects to employee mental health and potential burnout.
Through quantitative research methods with the use of surveys, interviews or otherwise using a small dataset of Crédit Agricole Bank Ukraine employees picked, the aim is to confirm if it can draw parallels between the motivations of these employees and their interactions with training and development systems to draw a conclusion if there is a direct relationship between these two concepts that impact work performance and productivity in order to build towards furthering their careers within the bank. The results from this research will form a basis to gain an understanding on whether the use of a continuous training and development platform or system is effective and worthwhile to organic employee growth or if it is purely used as a tool to broaden company knowledge, internal skillsets and confirm if employees are compliant with the organisation’s standard operating environment. Towards the end, any recommendations, takeaway points, improvements and/or conclusions will be brought to attention and how other financial institutions, organisations or businesses of any size and in any field of business can follow suit in ways to improve internal employee career growth, build on working knowledge, sharpen existing skills, acquire new skillsets or at the very least find ways to motivate and improve employee engagement in work training/activities and apply themselves to become more ambitious
Transitioning from Task-Oriented Decision-Making to Strategic Leadership: How Former Employees Can Succeed as Entrepreneurs
No full textThis study will investigate how employees will handle the transition into entrepreneurship with a focus on decision-making, the approaches, information gathering, their perception of risk-taking, adaptation, and transitional challenges.
This study will use a quantitative methodology with semi-structured interviews to collect data from five first-time entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds and in different sectors. A thematic analysis will be used to extract themes from the data, and findings will be discussed and analysed, leading to learning outcomes and a chance to improve personal development.
Findings align with established theories in decision-making and entrepreneurship, which also helped facilitate learning outcomes
Identifying Heart Attack Risk in Vulnerable Population: A Machine Learning Approach
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic has significantly increased the incidence of post-infection cardiovascular events, particularly myocardial infarction, in individuals over 40. While the underlying mechanisms remain elusive, this study employs a hybrid machine learning approach to analyze epidemiological data in assessing 13 key heart attack risk factors and their susceptibility. Based on a unique dataset that combines demographic, biochemical, ECG, and thallium stress tests, this study aims to design, develop, and deploy a clinical decision support system. Assimilating outcomes from five clustering techniques applied to the ‘Kaggle heart attack risk’ dataset, the study categorizes distinct subpopulations against varying risk profiles and then divides the population into ‘at-risk’ (AR) and ‘not-at-risk’ (NAR) groups using clustering algorithms. The GMM algorithm outperforms its competitors (with clustering accuracy and Silhouette coefficient scores of 84.24% and 0.2623, respectively). Subsequent analyses, employing Pearson correlation and linear regression as descriptors, reveal a strong association between the likelihood of experiencing a heart attack and the 13 risk factors studied, and these are statistically significant (p < 0.05). Our findings provide valuable insights into the development of targeted risk stratification and preventive strategies for high-risk individuals based on heart attack risk scores. The aggravated risk for postmenopausal patients indicates compromised individual risk factors due to estrogen depletion that may be further compromised by extraneous stress impacts, like anxiety and fear, aspects that have traditionally eluded data modeling predictions. The model can be repurposed to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations
Review on Millimeter Wave Propagation Through Sand and Dust Storm—Impact of Humidity
No full textIn this paper, sand and dust storm characteristics and attenuation prediction methods were reviewed and summarized comprehensively. The impact of humidity on the attenuation prediction process is focally discussed while highlighting the need to incorporate it in the modeling process for accurate attenuation prediction. This review is driven by the need to develop precise prediction models that account for the impact of meteorological factors, particularly humidity, on millimeter-wave attenuation during dust storms. By addressing these shortcomings, the review seeks to improve the design of resilient communication systems to support the ultra-reliable 5G and 6G networks in challenging environments. A critique of the previous studies that highlight the contributions and drawbacks is presented in the paper. This is followed by a taxonomy of models based on their prediction concepts and the timeline of developments. Furthermore, open issues and challenges for research were presented. The review study found that existing theoretical models have failed to predict measured attenuation accurately, often deviating significantly. Most of the theoretical and analytical approaches for estimating dust storm attenuation are found to neglect the critical influence of humidity. Few empirical and machine-learning models proposed recently, have demonstrated closer alignment with measurements after considering humidity and other metrological parameters
Investigating the Relationship Between Parenting Styles, Resilience and Emotional Intelligence in Adulthood
No full textCurrent research has explored the lasting effects of parenting styles on children and adolescents’ resilience and emotional intelligence. Preliminary studies have examined how Parenting Styles, EI and Resilience parenting styles affect emotional intelligence and resilience in adulthood. This current study aimed to expand on the literature by investigating the relationship between parenting styles, emotional intelligence and resilience in adulthood. The hypotheses presented were that parenting styles would influence both emotional intelligence and resilience outcomes in adulthood and that there would be an association between emotional intelligence and resilience. Participants were recruited using convenience snowball sampling via social media (n=81). Participants completed online surveys including demographic information, The Parenting Styles and Dimensions questionnaire, The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale and
The Davies Brief Emotional Intelligence scale. Results of the two multiple regressions found no statistically significant relationships between parenting styles and resilience. Results from the Pearson correlation found a significant association between emotional intelligence and resilience. This study suggests that the development of emotional intelligence and resilience is more complex and may be determined by life experiences across the lifespan as opposed to solely early childhood experiences, such as parenting styles of parents. The results also suggest emotional intelligence and resilience are closely related
Maternal Influence on Daughters’ Body Image: A Quantitative Study
No full textThis study explores the impact mothers have on their daughters’ body image through maternal factors, such as, maternal pressures, maternal fat talk, appearance comparisons and the internalisation of the thin ideal. Building on prior research, this study seeks to address a gap in the isolation of maternal influences rather than broader factors. A quantitative, cross-sectional design was employed, with a sample of 90 female participants, aged 18-24, having completed an online survey. Measures included the internalisation of thin ideals subscale and the family pressures subscale taken from the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire (SATAQ-4R), the Family Fat Talk Questionnaire (FFTQ), the Physical Appearance Comparison Scale-Revised (PACS-R), and the Dissatisfaction subscale of The Multi-faceted Instrument for Body image Disturbance (MI-BoD). Pearson’s correlations and multiple regression analyses revealed that maternal fat talk, maternal pressures and the internalisation of thin ideals significantly predicted body dissatisfaction (R² = .44, p < .001), while appearance comparisons did not yield significant results. These findings highlight the substantial role of maternal communication and modelling in shaping young women’s body perceptions, underscoring the need for interventions targeting mother-daughter dynamics. The study contributes to existing literature by addressing gaps in research that focus solely on maternal influence, rather than familial or media influences collectively. Future research should further explore the mechanisms through which maternal behaviours contribute to body dissatisfaction to inform preventive strategies for fostering positive body image development
Investigating the Relationship Between Loneliness and Mental Health Help-Seeking Behaviour
No full textAims: The present study sought to explore the relationship between loneliness and help-seeking within the general population and hypothesised a significant correlation. This study compared differences of help-seeking between men and women and hypothesised that women are more likely to seek help. Lastly this study also investigated how age, gender and perceived social support predicted help-seeking and hypothesised that these would be significant predictors of help-seeking. Research has shown the profound harmful effects that loneliness can have on overall health. Therefore, the present study sought to analyse the role that help-seeking can have to mitigate loneliness.
Method: A survey was administered to participants (n=103), and they were recruited online via social media, and messaging platforms. This survey consisted of demographic questions of age and gender, the Revised UCLA Loneliness scale was used to analyse loneliness and social isolation, The General Help-Seeking Questionnaire (GHSQ) was used as a self-report measure to investigate future help seeking intentions. The Multidimensional Survey of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) was used to examine levels of support from family, friends and significant others.
Results: Findings did not identify a statistically significant correlation between loneliness and help seeking. Follow up independent t-tests found that women show significantly higher levels of help-seeking compared to men. Findings from the multiple regression analysis found that the model explained 29.9% of variance in help seeking and that perceived social support, but not age or gender, was significantly predictive of help-seeking.
Conclusion: This study challenges the idea that lonely individuals will naturally seek help and suggests clinical implications aimed at more proactive outreach rather than waiting for individuals to seek-help
Mental Health Risks Between Positively and Negatively Reinforced Alcohol Intake
No full textAims: The goal of the current study is to further outline the drinking motives (Cooper, 1994) behind positively and negatively reinforced alcohol intake and if these motives have an effect on the individual’s mental health risks such as depression, anxiety or stress.
Method: A questionnaire was completed online by participants (n=105) assessing their levels of positive and negative reinforcing behaviours associated with alcohol, using a scale by Cho and colleagues (2019) and their symptoms of mental health risk, using the DASS-21 scale. Demographic questions were included to fulfil hypotheses within the study.
Result: Significant findings were found associating negatively reinforced alcohol with mental health risks (r=0.208). Anxiety was the only symptom to have significant findings, being associated with both positive (r= 0.245) and negative (r= 0.205) reinforcement.
Conclusion: Findings do outline the potential mental health risks associated with negatively reinforced alcohol intake more so than positive. Further research would be improved through the use of a longitudinal design to causality opposed to correlation