34 research outputs found
The legend of Diarmuid and Grania: its history and treatment by modern writers.
No full textThesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityThe latter half of the nineteenth century saw the beginnings in Ireland of the Celtic revival, a literary movement which sent modern Irish writers who were using the medium of English back to the ancient Gaelic literature of their country for inspiration. Historians, translators, and linguistic scholars had uncovered, in their study of this Gaelic literature, a rich mine of myth and legend which the Anglo-Irish were quick to use in literary works of their own.
The old Irish literature can boast of two famous cycles. The first, called the Ulster cycle, centers around the heroes of the Red Branch who lived in north-eastern Ireland and includes the many tales of the mighty Cuchulain. The second cycle, the Fenian or Ossianic, celebrates the deeds of the popular Irish hero, Finn MacCool, and his Fenian warriors. In both cycles there are stories which modern Irish writers have found appealing enough to re-tell in English, the language which Ireland now uses.
Of the Fenian tales, one of the best-known and one that is still recited as folk-lore by Gaelic-speaking peasants is the legend of Diarmuid and Grania. It differs
from most of the stories in this cycle in its portrayal of Finn , not as the generous, wise , powerful leader of his men, but as a jealous , petty tyrant. The legend tells the story of Grania , the daughter of Cormac MacArt, the High King of Ireland , and Diarmuid, the handsomest man in the Fianna and nephew of Finn MacCool himself. Grania, who is betrothed to Finn, falls in love with the chivalrous Diarmuid and forces him to elope with her. They flee from the court at Tara and are pursued throughoutIreland by the jealous Finn. Eventually Finn succeeds in sending Diarmuid to his death and wins back to himself
the affections of the fickle Grania.[TRUNCATED]
The manner in which an author re-tells an old story and gives it creative treatment of his own is always of interest to t he student of literature. The several authors who were attracted to the legend of Diarmvuid and Grania have all handled the old story differently and with varying degrees of success.(Brief mention has been made in this study of the allusive and symbolical references to the legend in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake.) Although the central line of action is the same, the characterizations, the selection of episodes from the original versions, and the actual method of unfolding the narrative all differ in these modern re-tellings. That so many writers found the old story appealing enough to warrant their giving it literary treatment of their own points to the human appeal and enduring interest of this old Celtic love story
The design, development, implementation and evaluation of Project FLAME: a multi-component, school-based, motor competence intervention for adolescent youth in Ireland
No full textBackground: Recent research has shown that Irish adolescent youth are insufficiently active and fail to reach basic levels of fundamental movement skills (FMS) and functional movement. Schools and the engagement of relevant stakeholders, particularly qualified Physical Education (PE) specialist teachers, are key vehicles for the provision of movement-based opportunities in youth. The purpose of the first phase of this research was to gather cross-sectional data on adolescent youth, differentiated by gender and grade across the first three years (Junior Cycle) of post-primary education, specifically to inform the development a multi-component, school-based motor competence intervention entitled Project FLAME (Fundamental and Functional Literacy for Activity and Movement Efficiency). The second phase of the research aimed to evaluate if Project FLAME can improve FMS and functional movement in adolescent youth.
Methods: Cross-sectional data, as part of the first phase of the research, were collected on adolescents (N = 219; mean age: 14.45 ± 0.96 years), within two, mixed gender schools. Primary outcome measures were consistent in both phases of the research and included the assessment of ten FMS (including locomotor and object control subsets) in conjunction with the observable, behavioural components from three established testing batteries, namely the Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD), TGMD-2, and the Get Skilled: Get Active manual, as well as the seven tests within the Functional Movement Screen (FMS™). The Project FLAME intervention included four major components, specifically the i) specialist Physical Education (PE) teacher component, ii) kinaesthetic classroom component, iii) student component and iv) digital literacy component. Using a non-randomized controlled trial as part of the second phase of the research, a target sample of 363 participants (56% male, mean age: 14.04 ± 0.89 years old) were recruited from three mixed-gender, sub-urban schools (two intervention; one control) in Cork, Ireland, for baseline data collection, followed by a 13-week consecutive intervention roll out, and post-test data collection. Linear mixed models were used to assess the effect of the intervention with two main effects, treatment and time, and their interaction. Analyses were adjusted for participants’ gender, age, grade and BMI score.
Results: Based on the results from the cross-sectional data, levels of actual mastery within FMS and functional movement were low, with significant gender and age-related differences observed. Following the implementation of the Project FLAME non-randomized controlled trial, significant intervention effects across time were observed, with the greatest improvements evident for overall gross FMS (p = .002).
Discussion: Findings from the first phase of the research suggested that developing a multi-component, school-based intervention was a strategic step that could improve the observed low levels of adolescent FMS and functional movement. The Project FLAME intervention was successful at improving adolescent overall FMS gross motor competence, resulting in significant treatment-time interactions. A whole-school approach emphasising FMS and functional movement, which include developmentally appropriate activities, and the concurrent involvement of specialist PE, and non-specialist PE teachers appears effective for developing motor competence in adolescent youth
Manifestations of Death in Two Collections of Short-Stories: 'L’horizon bleu de la mort' by Marin Preda and 'Geotenn ar Werhez' by Jakez Rioù
No full textThis article offers a reading of two volumes of short stories, 'Geotenn ar Werhez' by Breton author Jakez Rioù (1899-1937) and 'L’horizon bleu de la mort' by the Romanian Marin Preda. Both works describe traditional agrarian societies, one in western the other in eastern Europe, in the early to mid-twentieth century. We examine here attitudes to death and manifestations of death in Rioù’s and Preda’s writing. The thrust of the article is to suggest that these works provide rare insights into rural life in Europe before the advent of mechanisation. This leads us to consider litterature in the Celtic languages, Breton
in this instance, and Romanian, as a primary sources for evidence of aspects of European culture little documented in the metropolitan traditions of other languages. Rioù’s text is translated by Youenn Drezen, Preda’s by Micaela Slăvescu.412971088Studia Romanica Posnaniensi
Positive Intermediate Ricci Curvature on Fibre Bundles
No full textWe prove a canonical variation-type result for submersion metrics with positive intermediate Ricci curvatures. This can then be used in conjunction with surgery techniques to establish the existence of metrics with positive intermediate Ricci curvatures on a wide range of examples which had previously only been known to admit positive Ricci curvature, such as highly connected manifolds and exotic spheres. Further, we extend the results of the second author on the moduli space of metrics with positive Ricci curvature to positive intermediate Ricci curvatures.The first-named author acknowledges funding by the SNSF-Project 200020E 193062 and the DFG-Priority programme SPP 2026. Both authors would like to thank Diarmuid Crowley and David González Άlvaro for helpful conversations, and the anonymous referees for their careful reading and insightful comments
Major Events in European and Chinese International Development 1947–2013
No full textIntroductory remarksThe purpose of this chronology is to present the most detailed chronology of state and international organisation actions in the international relations of the European Union and China. The purpose of presenting a chronology of events without narrative theme is to provide a resource for scholars to trace their own themes. An effort has been made to be neutral in the selection of events. Of course, this is not wholly possible, as there must be some assessment of importance in deciding what to leave out. However, the author hopes that bringing these events together from many disparate sources will provide a platform for scholars in the identification and development of themes – in short, that by eschewing a current international relations or national policy goal oriented revision of the past to present what now seems important, the neutral presentation of organised information will be useful for open minded enquiry. The EU and China have developed bilateral relations only in the recent past. The chronology starts largely with European events with Chinese international relations activity increasing as the years progress. Readers are invited to contact the author to suggest events which merit inclusion or, even, deletion.[...
A Scoping Review on Quality Physical Education Programmes and Their Outcomes on Primary-Level Pupils
No full textA scoping review was carried out on the literature relating to the evaluation of the implementation of quality physical education (QPE) programmes and related outcomes on final-stage primary-level pupils’ attitudes towards physical education (ATPE), physical activity behaviour (PAB), mental wellbeing (MWB) and academic achievement (AA). The scoping review included studies published between 2000 and 2020 in the PubMed, Elsevier, SCOPUS and CINAHL databases and was completed in accordance with the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews’ guidelines. Based on the inclusion criteria, 15 out of 2869 studies were included in the review. A thematic analysis was used to inductively and deductively analyse the studies for common themes of features of QPE programmes in primary schools, arising from nine different countries, considering the four outcome dimensions (ATPE, PAB, MWB and AA). The common themes identified as features of QPE across all four dimensions were as follows: (1) government leadership; (2) PE curriculum; (3) school principal and leaders; (4) organisational management from leadership in school; (5) teachers; (6) parental involvement; and (7) community partnerships. Based on these findings, recommendations were made for an evaluation framework on QPE in primary education
A perspective and framework for the conceptual modelling of knowledge
No full textConceptual modelling of knowledge has remained an open research challenge. Existing frameworks do not cope with problems such as multiple user viewpoints, the plurality of epistemologies and representational forms, the mutability of knowledge, and the great body of legacy encoded knowledge. This thesis addresses the lack of a systematic method for the conceptual modelling of knowledge by presenting a novel perspective for dynamic knowledge exchange together with an associated modelling framework and tools.
The thesis establishes a new perspective, the erotetic perspective, based on question-and-answer exchanges that match knowledge needs with knowledge capacities. It presents a unified design framework within this perspective and introduces appropriate modelling constructs, the Functional Entity and the Knowledge Relation. The framework comprises a methodology (the Functional Entity Relationship Methodology), a diagramming system for drawing conceptual models (the Functional Entity Relationship Diagram) and a transactioning language for representing the knowledge exchanges (the Functional Entity Relationship Language). These respectively extend the classic Entity Relationship Diagram and the class of SQL-like languages adequately to describe all possible transactions involving encoded knowledge. The different types of Functional Entity are shown to cover the complete space of knowledge seeking and retrieval and cope with situations not possible in conventional data modelling.
As the modelling framework is a secondary design artefact (one that is capable of producing routine design artefacts) the design science research approach of Gregor & Jones was used. This approach necessitates an Alexander pattern drawn from prior research to guide development, followed by expository instantiations of the artefacts sought. Evaluation comprising verification, validation, generalization, substantiation and some external accreditation was conducted throughout. The models developed were tested for mutual encompassing through docking, which also confirms the erotetic perspective. Illustrative cases are presented to show the completed framework in action
Bringing Light to the Halls of Shadow
No full textAppellate judges operate in the shadows. Though they don’t see it that way. “We are judged by what we write,” said U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. True too, court proceedings and records are presumptively open to the public. The West Wing of the White House is certainly not so vulnerable to public scrutiny, and the backrooms of legislative chambers are famously smoke-filled. Yet the parts of court activity that we see and hear seem only to whet our appetite for the rest of the process. In this Preface, the author introduces the subject of the journalist and the court, whetting the reader\u27s appetite for articles by Lyle Denniston, Tony Mauro, Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain, and Robert Craig Waters
Securing a data set on allegations of sexual abuse made against the former disc jockey, Jimmy Savile
No full text## This dataset has been moved to the Edinburgh DataVault, where it is directly accessible only by authorised University of Edinburgh users. For further information please see https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/datasets/securing-a-data-set-on-allegations-of-sexual-abuse-made-against-t ##
In this work we look at the initial phase of an ESRC funded project involving academics from Social Work, Criminology, Informatics and the University of Edinburgh Library.This project collected and analysed a data set on allegations of sexual abuse made against the former disc jockey, Jimmy Savile. The Savile affair has taken place in a public and highly charged, arena. It has generated massive media attention and spawned several public reports, most notably that which was produced as a result of Operation Yewtree. Early allegations against Savile emanate from former residents at Duncroft, a residential school for `wayward but intelligent young women'. This project stems from data produced and collected by the blogger `Anna Raccoon' herself a former resident at the school. Through her blogs on the subject of Savile and Duncroft she was contacted by others and has collected a variety of information on the subject. The data harvested from the blog are supplemented by official reports and other blogs.The initial component of the project involves capturing Anna Racoon’s blog (The Racoon Arms). This is a WordPress blog that was taken down by the author. Following previous research approaches [9, 8] we searched for copies of the site in other content management systems. We found that this site had been archived in several frozen states in the Internet Archive’s WayBackMachine (IA). An active blog is a constantly evolving object, and therefore careful consideration needs to be given as to what version or versions should be harvested. Given that the blog is available via the IA, one might question why it is necessary to download a copy at all. There are two main reasons for doing so. Firstly, the IA may at any time, and without notice, remove the objects from their archive. Secondly, to provide additional functionality to support qualitative analysis of the content of the blog, as well as indexing to support additional resource discovery not provided within the blog software or the IA. While harvesting the contents of a blog manually can be a long and arduous process, it can be simplified and automated using a software solution, such as wget. Apart from soliciting permission from the IA, decisions need to be made as to which version or versions should be harvested. Further decisions included to what level of recursion each harvest should be and whether just blog text or all files contributing to content and functionality of the blog should be gathered. Such decisions influence not only the size of the eventual object, but also the richness of the context. There are also concomitant draw-backs – the deeper the recursion, the greater the number of missing files (those that have not been harvested by the IA). Given that WordPress blogs are based on HTML format files, apart from any images and other audio-visual files that may be associated with the blogs, the text portion is in as efficient a format as possible vis-a-vis file storage as well as capacity to use XML to provide value added indexing and tagging. Storage capacity requirements depend largely on the number of snapshots of the blog that are harvested and the level of recursion specified in the harvests. The size of one snapshot can range from 53 MiB to 660 MiB (ranging from 1,500 to 88,000 files), depending on the options specified
