192 research outputs found
The Making and Remaking of Irish History: An Interview with Vincent Comerford
No full textOn Tuesday, 26 April 2016, I sat down with former head of History at Maynooth University, Professor Vincent Comerford, to chat about the current state of the discipline, about changes within history over time and the telling of Irish history, and about the centennial commemorations of Ireland’s 1916 Rising. Prof. Comerford is originally from Tipperary and came to Maynooth in 1962, where he studied for his undergraduate and Master’s degree. He then attended Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and earned his PhD with the guidance and supervision of T. W. Moody. Subsequently, he became a lecturer in History at Maynooth in 1977, and was appointed Professor of Modern History and head of department in 1989, remaining in post until his retirement in 2010. At Maynooth he supervised more than thirty PhD theses on nineteenth- and twentieth-century Ireland, and oversaw a great expansion in the size of the History department and the scope of its activities. Professor Comerford’s bibliography includes: Charles J. Kickham: A Study in Irish Nationalism and Literature (1979); The Fenians in Context: Irish Politics and Society, 1848-82 (1985); and Ireland: Inventing the Nation (2003). Comerford also contributed the primary narrative for the period 1850-91 to A New History of Ireland. He has edited several collections and written numerous articles that focus on Irish nationalism and nineteenth century Irish history. The following is a transcript of our (just-over-one-hour-long) conversation. Author keywords: Discourse analysis; Irish history and culture; Ireland--History--Easter Rising, 1916; InterviewPublished Versio
The assessment of movement health in clinical practice: a multidimensional perspective
No full textThis masterclass takes a multidimensional approach to movement assessment in clinical practice. It seeks to provide innovative views on both emerging and more established methods of assessing movement within the world of movement health, injury prevention and rehabilitation. A historical perspective of the value and complexity of human movement, the role of a physical therapist in function of movement health evaluation across the entire lifespan and a critical appraisal of the current evidence-based approach to identify individual relevant movement patterns is presented. To assist a physical therapist in their role as a movement system specialist, a clinical-oriented overview of current movement-based approaches is proposed within this multidimensional perspective to facilitate the translation of science into practice and vice versa. A Movement Evaluation Model is presented and focuses on the measurable movement outcome of resultants on numerous interactions of individual, environmental and task constraints. The model blends the analysis of preferred movement strategies with a battery of cognitive movement control tests to assist clinical judgement as to how to optimize movement health across an individual lifespan.</p
Movement control testing of older people in community settings: description of a screening tool and intra-rater reliability
No full textObjective: To determine the intra-rater reliability of a newly developed movement screening tool; the ‘Movement control screen for older people in community settings’. The movement screening tool aims to identify movement control impairments which can potentially influence movement function. Method: Thirty one active female recreational golfers, aged 65-77 years,carried out three movement control tests included in the screening tool. Performance was videorecorded to enable repeated ratings. Each test was evaluated by criteria which were rated as pass or fail and ratings were carried out three weeks apart to examine intra-rater reliability. Reliability was assessed using percentage agreement and Cohen’s Kappa. Results: Percentage agreementfor each test ranged from 93.0-97.3%, with an overall mean agreement of 95.5%. Kappa values for test scores ranged from 0.35-0.90. Percentage agreement for individual criteria ranged from 83.0-100.0%, with kappa values ranging from 0.00-1.00. Discussion: Acceptable intra-rater reliability was established for overall tests scores of the screening tool but certain criteria wereidentified as being less reliable than others. Recommendations are made for refinement of some criteria to improve reliability of the screening tool.<br/
The Carathéodory topology for multiply connected domains II
No full textWe continue our exposition concerning the Carathéodory topology for multiply connected domains which we began in [Comerford M., The Carathéodory topology for multiply connected domains I, Cent. Eur. J. Math., 2013, 11(2), 322-340] by introducing the notion of boundedness for a family of pointed domains of the same connectivity. The limit of a convergent sequence of n-connected domains which is bounded in this sense is again n-connected and will satisfy the same bounds. We prove a result which establishes several equivalent conditions for boundedness. This allows us to extend the notions of convergence and equicontinuity to families of functions defined on varying domains. © 2014 Versita Warsaw and Springer-Verlag Wien
A ‘Movement Screening Test’ of functional control ability in female recreation golfers and non-golfers over the age of 80 years: A reliability study
No full textAssessing function in elderly populations predominantly aims to quantify the risk of falling. Current assessment methods do not consider changes associated with aging in movement coordination patterns and the ability to control movement. The aim of this study was to examine the intra-rater reliability of a ‘Movement Screening Test’ (MST) in females over 80 years across a range of physical activity levels, who were golfers and non-golfers. Female recreational golfers (N = 21) and non-golfers (N = 10) aged 80 to 87 years performed the MST. The MST consists of three tests: Test 1, sit to stand with arm lift; Test 2, trunk lean with knee bend and opposite arm lift; Test 3, chest rotation with neutral head and pelvis. Videos of the MST were analyzed and scored according to specific criteria. The videos were reviewed on two separate occasions to quantify the intra-rater reliability of scoring of the MST. Intra-rater reliability ( κ ) of the MST demonstrated substantial agreement for 11/23 criteria ( κ = 0.65 and to 0.78) and excellent agreement for 9/23 criteria ( κ = 0.81 to 1). Therefore, the reliability of the MST for women aged 80 years and over was established. The MST test and scoring system may be further refined to improve reliability. Further investigations could explore coordination patterns in older people, how these relate to various aspects of musculoskeletal function, and how they vary between different population
Exposure of faked dishonesty study makes me proud to be a behavioural scientist
No full textFirst paragraph: The story has a lot to recommend it: psychologist Dan Ariely, the author of a bestselling book on the behavioural science of dishonesty, retracts his study because the data was faked. No wonder it’s been picked up by the world’s media. Buzzfeed declared this “the latest blow to the buzzy field of behavioural economics”. Psychologist Stuart Ritchie, himself a scientist, wrote about the case under the headline: “Never trust a scientist”.https://theconversation.com/exposure-of-faked-dishonesty-study-makes-me-proud-to-be-a-behavioural-scientist-16716
Effect of obstacles/tips card on breastfeeding drop-off
No full textBackground Many mothers report having stopped breastfeeding sooner than they would have liked. Aim We test whether a planning card reduces breastfeeding drop-off. Method We recruited 81 women who were at least 36 weeks pregnant at antenatal classes in Lothian, Scotland. By systematic assignment, participants received no card; an obstacles/tips card, which details common breastfeeding obstacles and tips to overcome them; or an enhanced obstacles/tips card, which additionally featured an intentions prompt on its reverse side. Between 10–14 days after the due date, we measured rates of exclusive and any breastfeeding. Findings On discharge, feeding methods were similar across all three groups. At 10-14 days, drop-off was four-fold higher in the control group than in either of the two card groups (p=0.026). Conclusion The obstacles/tips cards offer potential as a means to achieve reductions in breastfeeding drop-off
Intra and inter-rater reliability of screening for movement impairments: movement control tests from the foundation matrix
No full textPre-season screening is well established within the sporting arena, and aims to enhance performance and reduce injury risk. With the increasing need to identify potential injury with greater accuracy, a new risk assessment process has been produced; The Performance Matrix (battery of movement control tests). As with any new method of objective testing, it is fundamental to establish whether the same results can be reproduced between examiners and by the same examiner on consecutive occasions. This study aimed to determine the intra-rater test re-test and inter-rater reliability of tests from a component of The Performance Matrix, The Foundation Matrix. Twenty participants were screened by two experienced musculoskeletal therapists using nine tests to assess the ability to control movement during specific tasks. Movement evaluation criteria for each test were rated as pass or fail. The therapists observed participants real-time and tests were recorded on video to enable repeated ratings four months later to examine intra-rater reliability (videos rated two weeks apart). Overall test percentage agreement was 87% for inter-rater reliability; 98% Rater 1, 94% Rater 2 for test re-test reliability; and 75% for real-time versus video. Intraclass-correlation coefficients (ICCs) were excellent between raters (0.81) and within raters (Rater 1, 0.96; Rater 2, 0.88) but poor for real-time versus video (0.23). Reliability for individual components of each test was more variable: inter-rater, 68-100%; intra-rater, 88-100% Rater 1, 75-100% Rater 2; and real-time versus video 31-100%. Cohen’s Kappa values for inter-rater reliability were 0.0-1.0; intra-rater 0.6-1.0 for Rater 1; -0.1-1.0 for Rater 2; and -0.1-1 for real-time versus video. It is concluded that both inter and intra-rater reliability of tests in The Foundation Matrix are acceptable when rated by experienced therapists. Recommendations are made for modifying some of the criteria to improve reliability where excellence was not reached
SAIS User Survey Summary Report
No full textThe report provides a summary of the findings of a survey run in 2021. The findings cover the following topics: A. General summary and main findings B. SAIS survey respondents’ profile and avalanche knowledge C. SAIS survey respondents’ familiarity with SAIS reports D. SAIS survey respondents’ understanding of the hazard scale and danger roseThe data set associated with the report can be found here: http://hdl.handle.net/11667/192 Supported by the AHRC Research Project "Varieties of Risk" The report is a collaboration between Philip Ebert and David Comerfor
Non-autonomous Julia sets with escaping critical points
No full textWe consider non-autonomous iteration which is a generalization of standard polynomial iteration where we deal with Julia sets arising from composition sequences for arbitrarily chosen polynomials with uniformly bounded degrees and coefficients. In this paper, we look at examples where all the critical points escape to infinity. In the classical case, any example of this type must be hyperbolic and there can be only one Fatou component, namely the basin at infinity. This result remains true in the non-autonomous case if we also require that the dynamics on the Julia set be hyperbolic or semi-hyperbolic. However, in general it fails and we exhibit three counterexamples of sequences of quadratic polynomials all of whose critical points escape but which have bounded Fatou components. © 2011 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC
- …
