Digital Commons Network^™

The Half-Life And Death Of The Irish Catholic Novel : In A Country Renowned For Its Catholicism, It Is Unusual The ‘Catholic Novel’ Never Took Root, Eamon Maher

Articles

In Underground Cathedrals (2010), the Glenstal monk and author Mark Patrick Hederman described artists as the “secret agents” of the Holy Spirit: “Art has the imagination to sketch out the possible. When this happens something entirely new comes into the world. Often it is not recognised for what it is and is rejected or vilified by those who are comfortable with what is already there and afraid of whatever might unsettle the status quo”. Reflecting on this position, one wonders to what extent Irish novelists have fulfilled the important role outlined by Hederman. In the past, they definitely did offer …

Tiled Time Delay Estimation In Mobile Cloud Computing Environments, Ruairí De Fréin

Conference papers

We present a tiled delay estimation technique in the context of Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) environments. We examine its accuracy in the presence of multiple sources for (1) sub-sample delays and also (2) in the presence of phase-wrap around. Phase wrap-around is prevalent in MCC because the separation of acoustic sources may be large. We show that tiling a histogram of instantaneous phase estimates can improve delay estimates when phase-wrap around is sig- nificantly present and also when multiple sources are present. We report that error in the delay estimator is generally less than 5% of a sample, when the …

Uk Governance: From Overloading To Freeloading, Richard Woodward

Articles

The UK's ongoing political turbulence has prompted a reprise of debates from the 1970s when many concluded the country was ungovernable. Then, the most influential diagnosis conceptualised the UK's governance problem as one of ‘overloading’ caused by the electorate's excessive expectations. This article argues that these accounts overlooked another phenomenon besieging UK governance during this period. This phenomenon was freeloading: the withering of government capacity deriving from the ability of actors to enjoy the benefits of citizenship without altogether contributing to the cost. In the interim, these problems have become endemic, not least because of the unspoken but discernible policy …

School Of Culinary Arts & Food Technology - Winter Newsletter 2017, James Peter Murphy

Other resources

The School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology, Winter Newsletter captured the many events, research, awards, significant contributions and special civic and community activities which the students and staff members of the school have successfully completed leading up to the Winter period of 2017. The successful completion of these activities would not be possible without the active and on-going support of the 'INSPIRED' Friends of Culinary Arts (sponsors).

Interference Unmixing And Estimation Technique For Improvement Of Speech Separation Performance, Ankur Maurya

Dissertations

Presence of noise in the speech can sometimes become annoying as it can lead to loss of important data or create misunderstandings between the communications area which can lead to major problems associated to loss of time and money. This thesis focuses to filter out noise form a speech signal which is simulated in Matlab/Octave software while making a comparison between temporal resolution of signal with respect to the spectral resolution of the signal in which the parameters such as the size of window length are varied in order to obtain the best speech separation performance. To get the best …

Nanostructured Apatite-Mullite Glass-Ceramics For Enhanced Primary Human Osteoblast Cell Response, Gordon Cooke, Conor Dunne, Sarah Keane, Daithi De Faoite, Seamas Donnelly, Kenneth Stanton

Articles

This work investigates the difference in viability of primary human foetal osteoblast cells on a glass-ceramic surface with nanoscale topography relative to viability on a smooth glass-ceramic surface containing a bioactive phase. Apatite-mullite glass-ceramics containing bioactive fluorapatite (Ca₁₀(PO₄)₆F₂) and bioinert mullite (Si₂Al₆O₁₃) were synthesised and subsequent heat-treatment was optimised to form nano-sized fluorapatite crystals. Etching was used to selectively remove the bioactive phase, producing a surface with disordered nanoscale topography. Cells were seeded onto a smooth polished glass-ceramic substrate with the bioactive phase intact, an etched …

Towards Approaches And Techniques For Analysing Wifi Location Data, John Mcauley, Clement Roux, James Little

Conference papers

Citieshaveanincreasinglydensenetworkofconnectedaccess points that enable individuals and groups to access the web on a range of different devices. Although, in most cases, the data collected from these networks is anonymised, when aggregated, it provides a rich illustration of how cities, public places and urban spaces are used. However, making use of this data can prove challenging as rarely, due to anonymization and data protection measures, is the data labelled and often the accuracy of the location information is questionable. Given these constraints, we have investigated a set of methods that can be applied to anonymous WiFi- location-based data. Through two specific …

A Country Writer Exiled In The City: The Case Of John Mcgahern, Eamon Maher

Articles

No abstract provided.

Facing The Sun, Frank Prendergast, Muiris O'Sullivan, Ken Williams, Gabriel Cooney

Articles

December 2017 marked 50 years since archaeologist Michael J. O’Kelly first observed the solar illumination of the burial chamber in the Neolithic passage tomb at Newgrange during the period of the winter solstice. O’Kelly subsequently recorded direct sunlight entering Newgrange through the ‘especially contrived slit which lies under the roof-box at the outer end of the passage roof’ on 21 December 1969. The discovery of this historic phenomenon, dating back over 5,000 years, captured the public interest and imagination at that time and ever since. In this major article published in the Winter 2017 edition of Archaeology Ireland (date of …

Into The Deep: The Role Of Paradigms In Understanding Engineering Education For Sustainable Development, Iacovos Nicolaou, Eddie Conlon, Brian Bowe

Articles

This article presents summary findings of a mixed methods research project exploring the provision of education for sustainable development (SD) in seven Irish engineering degree programmes. Drawing on Sterling’s (2004) iceberg metaphor and Critical Realism it seeks to identify the underlying socio-cultural barriers preventing a holistic integration of SD in engineering education. It argues that the current focus is predominantly on the environmental dimension of SD and that there are a set of reinforcing mechanisms facilitating the provision of disciplinary education aimed at producing technically proficient, employable graduates in which the social dimension of SD is marginalised. This is underwritten …

Reliability-Based Designs Procedure Of Earth Retaining Walls In Geotechnical Engineering, Juan Camilo Viviescas, Juan Pablo Osorio, Julio E. Canon

Articles

The design and construction of foundations, retaining structures and slopes are usually based on deterministic formulations that do not allow the distinction between the natural variability and the inherent dispersion in the geotechnical parameters. Due to the inherent variability of the soil properties, there is a growing trend to implement reliability-based designs in geotechnical engineering to reduce design uncertainties by probabilistic methods. The reliability designs require the definition of the probability density functions of the geotechnical properties, as well as knowledge of the spatial variability of soils. This paper identifies the procedures, type of soil investigations, simulations and the most …

The Potential Of Raman Spectroscopy In The Diagnosis Of Premalignant Oral Lesions, Ola Ibrahim

Doctoral

Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Technological University Dublin, School of Physics December 2017.

Validation Of A Focused Basic Transthoracic Echocardiography Training Programme For Irish Critical Care Doctors, Roisin O'Mahony

Masters

Transthoracic Echocardiography (TTE) is a technique for scanning the human heart using ultrasound. It enables us to acquire vital information about the size, structure and function of the heart. This test is a crucial cardiac diagnostic test. Historically TTE was used only in cardiology departments, undertaken by trained personnel called cardiac physiologists or cardiology doctors. More recently, TTE has been recognized to be very useful in the management of critically ill patients in the intensive care and high dependency units of our hospitals. Currently bedside TTE on these patients is performed by cardiac physiologists who are generally only available during …

Developing And Assessing The Drivers Of Usage Of Computer-Assisted-Audit-Techniques (Caats) And The Factors That Impact Audit Quality Perceptions In Government Internal Audit, Ashraf Alhabsi

Doctoral

This research aims to develop two models, the first of which is capable of predicting the internal auditor’s intention to adopt audit technologies, and second of which is to predict the factors that impact on the internal auditor’s perception of internal audit quality in the context of public sector auditing in Oman. The models proposed by this research are developed from existing research on technology adoption in general, as well as research on technology adoption specific to the internal audit context (Curtis & Payne, 2014; Dowling & Leech, 2014; Mahzan & Lymer, 2014). Given that Oman is only in the …

The Edition, 30th November, 2017, Dit News Society

Student Publications

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Television May Be A Lot Like Its Past, Edward Brennan

Other

Like that first card from an old friend, or the roof of twinkling lights over the streets, in Ireland The Late Late Toy Show is one of those signs that Christmas is on its way. Kids are let loose on a grown - up show for a night of singing, dancing and, most importantly, toys. This annual special is ‘event television’. It will be discussed in kitchens, offices and school yards for days afterwards. Television events are set up, across different media, weeks in advance. There are ‘making of’ programmes, press pieces, promos, retrospect ives and so on that tell …

Mode-Sum Prescription For Vacuum Polarization In Black Hole Spacetimes In Even Dimensions, Peter Taylor, Cormac Doran

Articles

We present a mode-sum regularization prescription for computing the vacuum polarization of a scalar field in static spherically symmetric black hole spacetimes in even dimensions. This is the first general and systematic approach to regularized vacuum polarization in higher even dimensions, building upon a previous scheme we developed for odd dimensions. Things are more complicated here since the even-dimensional propagator possesses logarithmic singularities which must be regularized. However, in spite of this complication, the regularization parameters can be computed in closed form in arbitrary even dimensions and for arbitrary metric function f(r). As an explicit example of our method, we …

Mode-Sum Prescription For Vacuum Polarization In Black Hole Spacetimes In Even Dimensions, Peter Taylor, Cormac Breen

Articles

We present a mode-sum regularization prescription for computing the vacuum polarization of a scalar field in static spherically symmetric black hole spacetimes in even dimensions. This is the first general and systematic approach to regularized vacuum polarization in higher even dimensions, building upon a previous scheme we developed for odd dimensions. Things are more complicated here since the even-dimensional propagator possesses logarithmic singularities which must be regularized. However, in spite of this complication, the regularization parameters can be computed in closed form in arbitrary even dimensions and for arbitrary metric function f(r). As an explicit example of our method, we …

Level 1 Before Level 2 – The Irish Bim Mandate, Robert Moore

Conference papers

Government Contracts Committee for Construction (GCCC) has prepared a position paper titled ‘A Public Sector BIM Adoption Strategy’, which outlines the context and rationale for the adoption of BIM and puts forward a proposed timeline for adoption, the purpose of this position paper is to invite a response from industry [1]. This paper analyses the position paper on the subject of the implementation of the proposed mandate. The author defines what is implied by UK BIM Levels 0, 1, 2 and 3, and collates the responses from industry to the position paper regarding the implementation plan. This position paper is …

Ireland’S Bim Macro Adoption Study: Establishing Ireland’S Bim Maturity, Barry Mcauley, Alan Hore, Roger West, Mohamad Kassem, Shiyao Kuang

Conference papers

Since 2016 the BIM Innovation Capability Programme (BICP) has captured the capability of the Irish Construction Industry’s and the Higher Education Institutes’ (HEIs) response to the increased requirement for BIM on Irish construction and engineering projects. One of the primary responsibilities of the BICP research team is to collate data to assist the National BIM Council of Ireland in the formulation of a National BIM Roadmap. To assist the Council with this task the BICP research team applied five macro BIM maturity conceptual models to assess Ireland’s BIM maturity. The results from the models were further utilised to develop a …

Stewardship Of International Bim Programmes: Lessons For Ireland, Barry Mcauley, Alan Hore, Roger West, Shiyao Kuang

Conference papers

The support by central government of national Building Information Modelling (BIM) programmes is common throughout the developed world today. To further understand how the different international governments have supported their BIM programmes the BIM Innovation Capability Programme (BICP) research team in Ireland recently completed a comprehensive Global BIM Study to help inform the National BIM Council (NBC) of Ireland in developing a Roadmap to Digital Transition for Ireland’s Construction Sector. This paper details the findings of a more concentrated investigation on a selection of jurisdictions on how particular international BIM programmes are orgainsed, managed and the level of governmental support …

Perception Of Auditory Objects In Complex Scenes: Factors And Applications, William Coleman

Conference Papers

Over the past twenty years, technological advances have driven the development of media consumption in both home and mobile contexts. While not ubiquitous, multi-channel audio home cinema systems have become more prevalent, as has the consumption of broadcast and gaming media on smartphone and tablet technology via mobile telecommunications networks. This has created new possibilities and poses new challenges for audio content delivery such as how the same content can be presented to greatest effect given that it may be consumed via either a surround-sound home entertainment system or in a mobile context using stereo headphones. This paper outlines research …

What Is Not Where: The Challenge Of Integrating Spatial Representations Into Deep Learning Architectures, John D. Kelleher, Simon Dobnik

Books/Book chapters

This paper examines to what degree current deep learning architectures for image caption generation capture spatial lan- guage. On the basis of the evaluation of examples of generated captions from the literature we argue that systems capture what objects are in the image data but not where these objects are located: the cap- tions generated by these systems are the output of a language model conditioned on the output of an object detector that cannot capture fine-grained location information. Although language models provide useful knowledge for image captions, we argue that deep learning image captioning architectures should also model geometric …

Modular Mechanistic Networks: On Bridging Mechanistic And Phenomenological Models With Deep Neural Networks In Natural Language Processing, Simon Dobnik, John D. Kelleher

Books/Book chapters

Natural language processing (NLP) can be done using either top-down (theory driven) and bottom-up (data driven) approaches, which we call mechanistic and phenomenological respectively. The approaches are frequently considered to stand in opposition to each other. Examining some recent approaches in deep learning we argue that deep neural networks incorporate both perspectives and, furthermore, that leveraging this aspect of deep learning may help in solving complex problems within language technology, such as modelling language and perception in the domain of spatial cognition.

Measuring Walls In Accordance With Arm4 - An Introductory Demonstration, Tony Cunningham

Other Resources

This demonstration involves the measurement of 'traditional' external brick and block cavity walls and internal block partitions. The demonstration is addressed to students taking (Irish) measurement or quantities modules at first year / entry level of quantity surveying related programmes. The worked example has been carried out using traditional handwritten quantity surveying processes on traditional dimension paper. It is acknowledged that this would be carried out using measurement software or on-screen measurement technology in actual practice. The traditional handwritten approach has been retained in order to enable novice students to develop the necessary measurement skills and build confidence through direct …

Working From Home: A Double Edged Sword, Kathleen Farrell

Conference papers

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how working from home can be optimally managed to achieve greater work/ home harmony. Critics assert that employees who are not office-based are "actually not working". The following are challenges of working from home

-The difficulty in separating home from work

-Self- imposed pressure of working endlessly and

-The feeling of being alienated from companies’ major decisions and sometimes promotions.

Otani (2015) argues for flexibility and cites Sheryl Sandberg, Facebooks Chief Operating Officer as making the point that it is more important to measure the results rather than watching people "try". Even …

Characterisation Of Cold Plasma Treated Beef And Dairy Lipids Using Spectroscopic And Chromatographic Methods, Chaitanya Sarangapani, David Dorran, Julie Dunne, Paula Bourke, Patrick Cullen

Articles

The efficacy of cold plasma for inactivation of food-borne pathogens in foods is established. However, insights on cold plasma-food interactions in terms of quality effects, particularly for oils and fats, are sparse. This study evaluated plasma-induced lipid oxidation of model matrices, namely dairy and meat fats. Product characterisation was performed using FTIR, ¹H NMR and chromatographic techniques. The oxidation of lipids by cold plasma followed the Criegee mechanism and typical oxidation products identified included ozonides, aldehydes (hexanal, pentenal, nonanal and nonenal) and carboxylic acids (9-oxononanoic acid, octanoic acid, nonanoic acid), along with hydroperoxides (9- and 13-hydroperoxy-octadecadienoylglycerol species). However, these …

Ka-Band Vivaldi Antenna With Novel Core Element For High-Gain, Manh-Ha Hoang, Kansheng Yang, Matthias John, Patrick Mcevoy, Max Ammann

Conference Papers

A high gain Vivaldi antenna employing an integrated core element is proposed. The maximum antenna gain is 16.9 dBi and it performs better than 14 dBi over the complete Ka (24 - 40 GHz) band. The design methodology, excitation arrangement and field distribution features are described.

How Are We Being Informed About Climate Change?, Elisa Perpignan, Oluwasegun O. Seriki, Rollis Jiofack, Derrick Agyapong

Conference papers

Scientific poster ‘How is Europe being informed about Climate Change?’ This poster was presented as part of the research results that have been delivered on behalf of the Women Partnership for the 'Climate change, migration & me Challenge' which was organised part of the Young Water Professional program of the Amsterdam International Water Week.

The poster won the second prize with the team comprising Elisa Perpignan, Derrick Agyapong, Rollis Jiofack, Oluwasegun Seriki (participating online out of respectively Ghana, Burkina Faso and Ireland), from the case: European Pact for Water. The team was selected to attend the Planetary Security Conference – …

Modelling Tree Contribution In Susceptibility Analysis Of Shallow Llandslides, Roberto José Marín Sánchez, Juan Pablo Osorio

Articles

In this paper an assessment of shallow landslides susceptibility in a tropical and mountainous terrain is made. A method that allows to model slope stability over large areas is used. Tree contribution is quantified by means of three parameters: rainfall interception, root reinforcement and tree surcharge. A rainfall interception model is used to determine the rain available for infiltration and its temporal distribution during the simulation. The hydrological models included in TRIGRS are described, which allows to determine the pore water pressure depending on the initial conditions. This pore water pressure is used in the revised infinite slope stability model, …