1522 research outputs found
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The Inclusion of Students with Disabilities in Mainstream Post-Primary Physical Education from the Perspective of the Physical Education Teacher
Get PDFThis study explored the realities of including students with disabilities into mainstream physical education classes in post-primary schools in Waterford City from the perspective of the physical education teacher . Data collected was both qualitative and quantitative in nature and was conducted in two phases. Phase one consisted of the administration of questionnaires to all physical education teachers (n=12) and all students with disabilities attending mainstream secondary schools in Waterford City (n=22). In-depth semi-structured interviews were also carried out with a sample of the physical education teachers. Once phase one was completed and the data analysed, phase two was developed. It consisted of observations of students with disabilities participating in physical education classes and based on these observations and information gathered from phase one a workshop intervention was carried out with physical education teachers and special needs assistants. Results of the study revealed that only 1% of students surveyed who attend mainstream schools in Waterford City had a disability. Results also found that a low number of physical education teachers had received any initial teacher training or the opportunity to gain further training once qualified in the area of special needs and inclusion. Teachers revealed that more emphasis is needed on special needs education both during initial teacher training and in-service. Many barriers to inclusion were highlighted during the study. The most prevalent of those were limited and unsuitable access to facilities, game-dominated physical education and negative attitudes of non-disabled students towards those with a disability. The study also highlighted that the development of individual education plans and the input of physical education teachers into these plans as an area of neglect and the role and training of special needs assistant to aid in the inclusion of students with disabilities in physical education needs further investigation and development. The results therefore provide evidence that students with disabilities in mainstream physical education face many barriers to their inclusion in and adjustments need to be made in order for future inclusion to be successful
XACML Policy Performance Evaluation Using a Flexible Load Testing Framework
Get PDFThe performance and scalability of access control systems is growing more important as organisations deploy ever more complex communications and content management systems. Fine-grained access control is becoming more pervasive, so decisions are more frequent and policy sets are larger. We outline a flexible performance testing framework that accepts XACML PDP implementations (in the server component) and submits representative access control requests (from the client component) in a representative temporal ordering. The framework includes instrumentation and analysis modules to support performance experiments. We describe an initial realization of the framework and report on initial experiments comparing the performance of the SunXACML and Enterprise XACML PDPs
Determining Phosphorus and Sediment Release Rates from Five Irish Tillage Soils
No full textThe aim of this study was to compare the nutrient and sediment releases from five Irish tillage soils, inclined at 10- and 15-degree slopes, under a simulated rainfall intensity of 30 mm h–1 in a controlled laboratory study. Using the relationship between soil test phosphorus (STP) in the five soils and the dissolved reactive phosphorus (DRP) released in surface runoff, a runoff dissolved phosphorus risk indicator (RDPRI) was developed to identify the STP level for Irish tillage soils above which there may be a potential threat to surface water quality. The results of this study indicated that tillage soils may produce surface runoff P concentrations in excess of 30 μg L–1 (the value above which eutrophication of rivers is likely to occur and the maximum allowable concentration of DRP in rivers under the EU Water Framework Directive, WFD) if their Morgan’s phosphorus (Pm), Mehlich 3 phosphorus (M3-P), and water extractable phosphorus (WEP) concentrations exceed 9.5 mg L–1, 67.2 mg kg–1, and 4.4 mg kg–1, respectively. This work reinforces the statutory agronomic based requirements of the European Communities (Good Agricultural Practice for Protection of Waters) Regulations 2009 (S.I. no. 101 of 2009). A statistical analysis showed that WEP gave the best prediction for runoff DRP
Do mass participation sporting events have a role in making populations more active?
Get PDFMass sporting events are becoming increasingly popular worldwide and may have health benefits as they
foster low intensity participation in a non competitive, fun environment. We know little, however, about
their long term effect, if any, on physical activity levels. This report describes the initial impact of three
women only mass events in Ireland as well as the effectiveness of a series of initiatives designed to boost
activity among the least active participants. It also presents key lessons and recommendations for all those
charged with promoting physical activity in Ireland
DOES SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE EXIST? AND, IF SO, HOW CAN IT BE ACHIEVED?
Get PDFStrategists and economists have spent years studying firms and organisations that have been successful. The questions that arose back then remain unanswered today. Why are some organisations more successful than others? What is different about these successful firms? How did they achieve this competitive advantage (CA)? And is it sustainable? Many theories have been put forward in an effort to solve this matter, but not one particular theory has been acknowledged as the means of gaining this competitive advantage (Cockburn, Henderson and Stern, 2000). Strategy within the 1980s mainly focused on the management of external factors as the source of competitive advantage (Porter, 1985). In the context of tourism, this is even more apparent. Many authors within the tourism literature have researched competitiveness in relation to the external environment (Yasin, Alavi, Sobral, Lisboa, 2003; Go, Pine and Yu, 1994). However, in the early nineties there was a significant shift in focus when strategists began to recognise that CA came from resources within the firm (Mahoney and Pandian, 1992; Barney, 1991; Grant, 1991).
Policy makers have recognised the significant role that the Irish tourism sector plays within the Irish economy as well as its lack of competitiveness, hence they are eager to instil competitiveness in Irish tourism organisations (Dept of Arts, Sports and Tourism, 2010; Tourism Renewal Group, 2009). However, the dynamic nature of the tourism industry has made competition difficult to sustain. The problem with Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA) is that nobody really knows how to achieve it or whether it can even exist (Useem, 2000). There has been significant debate about this issue in strategic literature for quite some time and is still ongoing today (Fiol, 2001; Coyne, 1986).
This paper will look comprehensively at whether it is possible for a tourism organisation to attain a competitive advantage. If it is possible, then how can the tourism organisation‟s internal resources be utilised to gain this level of competitiveness. Furthermore, this paper will discuss whether tourist practitioners can transform this advantage into a sustainable competitive advantage
Meixner-type results for Riordan arrays and associated integer sequences
Get PDFWe determine which (ordinary) Riordan arrays are the coefficient arrays of a family
of orthogonal polynomials. In so doing, we are led to introduce a family of polynomials,
which includes the Boubaker polynomials, and a scaled version of the Chebyshev
poynomials, using the techniques of Riordan arrays. We classify these polynomials in
terms of the Chebyshev polynomials of the first and second kinds. We also examine the
Hankel transforms of sequences associated to the inverse of the polynomial coefficient
arrays, including the associated moment sequences
ILLUMINATING APPLIED SERVICE INNOVATION RESEARCH WITH SMES: THE CASE OF THE RIKON GROUP
Get PDFGenerating absorbable and practical knowledge on the systematic development, design and testing of new and/or improved service offerings, processes and business models, i.e. service innovation, represents a timely and relevant growth area transcending European and Irish innovation, recovery and socio-economic strategies. However, research into the development and practice of service innovation vis-à-vis product innovation is a relatively emerging domain and as such, is at best characterised as emerging. The existing body of research knowledge, derived largely from product innovation, fails to provide concrete processes by which to embed service innovation at the firm-level which has significant implications in terms of industry awareness, deployment and impact. Reflective of this, Irish data emanating from the Community Innovation Survey indicates that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) report the least levels of engagement, expenditure and collaboration with academia in relation to innovation activities, which is a concern when the Irish enterprise landscape is dominated by SMEs.
Mindful of the foregoing; this research, which has received ‘New Ideas’ funding from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences utilises The RIKON Group based in W.I.T as a knowledge provider within Enterprise Ireland’s Innovation Voucher Programme as a lens to disseminate (1) the application areas and methodologies of service innovation and (2) the range and impact of applied service innovation research and knowledge transfer. Through a combination of desk research and multiple case study developments transcending an end-to-end perspective of service innovation including ideation, business development, market analysis, service design and market development this research (1) synthesises the service innovation challenges faced by Irish SMEs; (2) illustrates the methodologies utilised to deliver service innovation solutions to SMEs; (3) highlights the range of applied service innovation research interventions developed by The RIKON Group; (4) profiles Irish service innovation case studies and (5) demonstrates the various impacts associated with implementing service innovation. This research accordingly impacts at various stakeholder levels, most notably in terms of raising industry awareness and practice, informing policy development through evidence based research and contributes to the emerging academic and applied research agenda surrounding the discipline
RF Propagation Through Transparent Conductors In Energy Efficient Windows
Get PDFWindows were traditionally used as a means of building access and egress for RF signals. However, the drive
towards building energy efficiency now means that windows are frequently coated with thin layers of Transparent Conductors (TCs). TCs can let visible light energy pass virtually un-attenuated, but reflect longer wavelengths (typically from the infrared region), to keep buildings warmer in colder climates and cooler in warmer climates. However, the use of TCs has a negative impact on wireless propagation, which this paper reports on. Three commercially available windows are examined, with results showing that less than 1% of the signal passes in
either direction. This result is taken from a series of
measurement over a range of frequencies from 800 MHz to 6
GHz, both in a large hall and in the WIT anechoic chamber
Randomized controlled trial to increase physical activity among insufficiently active women following their participation in a mass event
No full textObjective: To assess the impact of a community based, low-contact intervention on the physical activity
habits of insufficiently active women.
Design: Randomized controlled trial.
Participants: Inactive Irish women.
Method: A population sample of women participating in a mass 10 km event were up followed at 2 and
6 months, and those who had relapsed to insufficient levels of physical activity were recruited to this trial
and randomly allocated to an intervention or control group. A tailored physical activity booklet was mailed
to participants in the intervention group; a placebo booklet was administered to the control group. Three
weeks after the dissemination of materials, members of the intervention group were contacted by phone to
check the receipt and use of the booklets. Six weeks post baseline, questionnaires were administered to all
participants.
Results: Receipt and use of materials and an increase in self-efficacy was significantly greater in the
intervention group. Mean total physical activity increased significantly between baseline and follow-up in both
the intervention (+ 109 min) and control groups (+ 139 min), with increases most apparent among the least
active participants of both groups. There was also a significant increase in the number of respondents meeting
minimum physical activity guidelines at follow-up.
Conclusion: There was no difference in the increases in physical activity, which were greatest among least
active participants, between intervention and control groups, suggesting that the tailored materials used in
this trial did not have a greater impact than standard health information and contact alone
Diversity–interaction modeling: estimating contributions of species identities and interactions to ecosystem function
Get PDFWe develop a modeling framework that estimates the effects of species identity
and diversity on ecosystem function and permits prediction of the diversity–function
relationship across different types of community composition. Rather than just measure an
overall effect of diversity, we separately estimate the contributions of different species
interactions. This is especially important when both positive and negative interactions occur or
where there are patterns in the interactions. Based on different biological assumptions, we can
test for different patterns of interaction that correspond to the roles of evenness, functional
groups, and functional redundancy. These more parsimonious descriptions can be especially
useful in identifying general diversity–function relationships in communities with large
numbers of species. We provide an example of the application of the modeling framework.
These models describe community-level performance and thus do not require separate
measurement of the performance of individual species. This flexible modeling approach can be
tailored to test many hypotheses in biodiversity research and can suggest the interaction
mechanisms that may be acting