Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring Supports Provided For Student Eportfolio Development In A Professional Development Context, Muireann Okeeffe

Articles

This small scale study aimed to explore and establish if support strategies implemented to enhance student ePortfolios were helpful to students and to identify useful ways of supporting ePortfolio development with future cohorts of students. This action research study was informed through focus group discussion and individual interviews with students.

The importance of reflection for the development professional practice and of creative abilities is discussed. The substantial benefits of creativity within education are investigated and characteristics of creativity that might be developed with students’ ePortfolios are revealed. Specifically this paper seeks to foster Crafts (2011) four characteristics of creativity, pluralities, …

Supporting Professionalism In Educational Development In Irish Higher Education, Muireann Okeeffe

Articles

Higher education, in Ireland and globally, is undergoing profound change influenced by a variety of factors. In conjunction with these changes many initiatives to improve teaching and learning and the quality of graduates in higher education have been introduced in recent years. The changes and expansions in the sector has enabled growth of new roles in higher education described as ‘third space’ professionals by Whitchurch (2008).

This paper describes the struggle of those in third space professions, such as academic development, to establish a professional identity in higher education. The benefits of these contemporary roles to higher education are …

Predicting Stock Market Using Online Communities Raw Web Traffic Streams, Pierpaolo Dondio

Articles

This paper investigates the predictive power of online communities traffic in regard to stock prices. Using the largest dataset to date, spanning 8 years and almost the complete set of SP500 stocks, we analyze the predictive power of raw unstructured traffic by filtering stock daily returns with traffic features. Our results partially challenge the assumption that raw traffic simply trails stock prices, as expected from a noisy signal without the sentiment direction. Raw traffic is shown to predict prices with statistical significance but with small economic impact. Anyway, this impact rises to moderate under the following conditions: 3 to 7 …

Prediction Of Compressive Creep Bhaviour In Flexible Polyurethane Foam Over Long Time Scales And At Elevated Temperatures, Conor Briody, Barry Duignan, Stephen Jerrams, Stephen Ronan

Articles

Compressive creep gradually affects the structural performance of flexible polymeric foam material over extended time periods. When designing components, it is often difficult to account for long-term creep, as accurate creep data over long time periods or at high temperatures is often unavailable. This is mainly due to the lengthy testing times and/or inadequate high temperature testing facilities. This issue can be resolved by conducting a range of short-term creep tests and applying accurate prediction methods to the results. Short-term creep testing was conducted on viscoelastic polyurethane foam, a material commonly used in seating and bedding systems. Tests were conducted …

Building Fabric Design : Thermal Performance Standards, Joseph Little

Articles

This is the first of a series of articles using content from the new RIAI Building Fabric Design CPD which explores a range of themes of central importance to designing buildings that are highly energy efficient, genuinely compliant and perform to their design intent and specification. As the articles are short and the themes are often complex, they can be at best a short introduction to the issues raised. In this article we will look at the new minimum building fabric standards: these are far more onerous than much of the Industry understands.

Effects Of Salinity On The Toxicity Of Ionic Silver And Ag-Pvp Nanoparticles To Tisbe Battagliai And Ceramium Tenuicorne, Ailbhe Macken, Hugh Byrne, Kevin Thomas

Articles

The toxic effects of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) coated silver nanoparticles (Ag-NP_PVP) and ionic Ag, to Tisbe battagliai (Tb) and Ceramium tenuicorne (Ct) were investigated and the usefulness of standardised marine guidelines for ENP risk assessment were assessed. The toxicity of Ag-NP_PVP [CtEC₅₀ = 26.6 µg/L, TbEC₅₀ = 7.9 µg/L] and Ag⁺ [CtEC₅₀ = 2312.2µg/L, Tb EC₅₀ = 90.9 µg/L] to both test species differed, with the silver ENPs being more toxic. In contrast to Ag⁺ the toxicity of Ag-NP_PVP increased significantly with increasing salinity, however, after thorough characterisation it was not …

Role Of Polymeric Excipients On Controlled Release Profile Of Glipizide From Plga And Eudragit Rs 100 Nanoparticles, Pratap Naha, Hugh Byrne, Amulya Panda

Articles

Polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) 50:50 and Eudragit RS 100 nanoparticles entrapping glipizide along with excipients were prepared using single emulsion solvent evaporation method. The objective was to develop single oral dose glipizide nano particles for reducing blood sugar level in diabetes induced experimental animals. Incorporation of Polyethylene glycol (PEG) (0.5%), Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) (0.5%) and Tween 20 (0.5%) in the organic phase during particle formulation improved release profile of glipizide from the polymer particles. Entrapment efficiency of glipizide in all the polymeric formulations was around ~70 %. Around 80 % of glipizide was released from both PLGA and Eudragit …

Reactive Oxygen Species Mediated Dna Damage In Human Lung Alveolar Epithelial (A549) Cells From Exposure To Non-Cytotoxic Mfi-Type Zeolite Nanoparticles, Kunal Bhattacharya, Pratap Naha, Izabela Naydenova, Svetlana Mintova, Hugh Byrne

Articles

Increasing utilization of engineered nanoparticles in the field of electronics and biomedical applications demands an assessment of risk associated with deliberate or accidental exposure. Metal based nanoparticles are potentially most important of all the nanoparticles in terms of health risks. Microporousalumino-silicates and pure silicates named as zeolites and zeo-type materials with variety of structures, chemical compositions, particle sizes and morphologies have a significant number of industrial uses such as in catalysis, sorption and ion-exchange processes. In particular, the nanosized particles due to their unique properties are used in hybrid organic-inorganic materials for photography, photonics, electronics, labeling, imaging, and sensing. The …

Required Features Of A Virtual Classroom Tool For Use In Higher Education, Arnold Hensman

Articles

The integration of virtual-classroom systems into the arsenal of e-learning tools represents a major evolution in the landscape of modern distance education. For many courses, standard virtual learning environments (VLEs) provide only a foundation upon which to base a distance learning programme. However, synchronous live online-teaching software such as Microsoft Office Communicator and Adobe Connect allow educators to simulate a real-time classroom environment over the internet like never before. Since these tools are being used more and more within higher education, questions must be asked about how effective they ultimately can be in meeting student learning requirements. More importantly, what …

Historical Gloss: A Primer, Alison Lacroix

Articles

No abstract provided.

Asymmetries And Incentives In Plea Bargaining And Evidence Production, Saul Levmore, Ariel Porat

Articles

Legal rules severely restrict payments to fact witnesses, though the government can often offer plea bargains or other nonmonetary inducements to encourage testimony. This asymmetry is something of a puzzle, for most asymmetries in criminal law favor the defendant. The asymmetry seems to disappear when physical evidence is at issue. One goal of this Essay is to understand the distinctions, or asymmetries, between monetary and nonmonetary payments, testimonial and physical evidence, and payments by the prosecution and defense. Another is to suggest ways in which law could better encourage the production of evidence, and thus the efficient reduction of crime, …

Comments On Law And Versteeg's 'The Declining Influence Of The United States Constitution', Tom Ginsburg, Zachary Elkins, James Melton

Articles

No abstract provided.

Grm7 Variants Associated With Age-Related Hearing Loss Based On Auditory Perception, Dina L. Newman, Laurel M. Fisher, Jeffrey Ohmen, Robert Parody, Chin-To Fong, Susan T. Frisina, Frances Mapes, David A. Eddins, Robert D. Frisina, Rick A. Friedman

Articles

Age-related hearing impairment (ARHI), or presbycusis, is a common condition of the elderly that results in significant communication difficulties in daily life. Clinically, it has been defined as a progressive loss of sensitivity to sound, starting at the high frequencies, inability to understand speech, lengthening of the minimum discernable temporal gap in sounds, and a decrease in the ability to filter out background noise. The causes of presbycusis are likely a combination of environmental and genetic factors. Previous research into the genetics of presbycusis has focused solely on hearing as measured by pure-tone thresholds. A few loci have been identified, …

Web-Based Interactive Video Vignettes Create A Personalized Active Learning Classroom For Introducing Big Ideas In Introductory Biology, Leslie Kate Wright, Dina L. Newman, Jean A. Cardinale, Robert Teese

Articles

The typical “flipped classroom” delivers lecture material in video format to students outside of class in order to make space for active learning in class. But why give students passive material at all? We are developing a set of high-quality online educational materials that promote active, hands-on science learning to aid in teaching of core concepts for introductory biology at the college level. Interactive video vignettes (IVVs) incorporate evidence based teaching strategies to address known areas of confusion for entering students. Each IVV includes a live action scenario with undergraduates investigating a biological problem with a realistic experiment that users …

Custom, General Principles And The Great Architect Cassese, Mary Fan

Articles

Major advances in international criminal law and procedure rose on the trusses of judicially elucidated sources of international law—custom and general principles. These sources depend on the crucial art of derivation advanced by the architect of modern international criminal justice, President Antonio Cassese. What has transformed international criminal justice into flourishing law able to address changing configurations of violence is the development of the art of finding law in the dark and wilds of murky unwritten norms. [para] President Cassese pioneered paths through a perilous bog. "[T]he law lives in persons," and to understand the law one must study the …

Reducing In-Stent Restenosis Through Novel Stent Flow Field Augmentation, Eoin Murphy, Fergal Boyle

Articles

In-stent restenosis (ISR), manifested as a re-narrowing of the arterial lumen post-implantation of a stent, is a detrimental limitation of stent technology. Understanding and consequently devising ways of reducing the frequency of ISR has been a continuing goal of research into improved stent designs. The biological processes that can lead to ISR have been found to be partially flow dependent with the local hemodynamics at the arterial wall of crucial importance. This paper investigates these biological processes and their instigating factors. Furthermore, the history and theory behind three stent technologies which endeavour to reduce ISR rates through stent flow field …

Immunoproteomics: The Key To Discovery Of New Vaccine Antigens Against Bacterial Respiratory Infections, Ruth Dennehy, Siobhan Mcclean

Articles

The increase in antibiotic resistance and the shortage of new antimicrobials to prevent difficult bacterial infections underlines the importance of prophylactic therapies to prevent infection by bacterial pathogens. Vaccination has reduced the incidence of many serious diseases, including respiratory bacterial infections. However, there are many pathogens for which no vaccine is available and some vaccines are not effective among all age groups or among immunocompromised individuals. Immunoproteomics is a powerful technique which has been used to identify potential vaccine candidates to protect against pathogenic bacteria. The combination of proteomics with the detection of immunoreactive antigens using serum highlights immunogenic proteins …

Exchanging Information Without Intellectual Property, Michael J. Burstein

Articles

Contracting over information is notoriously difficult. Nearly fifty years ago, Kenneth Arrow articulated a “fundamental paradox” that arises when two parties try to exchange information. To complete such a transaction, the buyer of information must be able to place a value on the information. But once the seller discloses the information, the buyer can take it without paying. The conventional solution to this disclosure paradox is intellectual property. If the information is protected by a patent or a copyright then the seller can disclose the information free in the knowledge that the buyer can be enjoined against making, using, or …

Killing Them With Kindness: Examining "Consumer-Friendly" Arbitration Clauses After At&T Mobility V. Concepcion, Myriam E. Gilles

Articles

The article focuses on the U.S. Supreme Court case AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, in which California's "Discover Bank rule" was struck by the Court under the Federal Arbitration Act, which was upheld by the California Supreme Court in the court case Discover Bank v. Superior Court. It provides information that the rule is a judge-made rule which depicts that class action waivers are unforceable in arbitration agreements if such agreements are mentioned in standard form consumer contracts.

Exposing England For Famine Wrongs, Ian Kilroy

Articles

A critical review of The Famine Plot by Tim Pat Coogan. Coogan blames English government policy for the Irish Famline.

Dark Solitons Of The Qiao's Hierarchy, Rossen Ivanov, Tony Lyons

Articles

We obtain a class of soliton solutions of the integrable hierarchy which has been put forward in a series of works by Z. Qiao. The soliton solutions are in the class of real functions approaching constant value fast enough at infinity, the so-called 'dark solitons'.

Interactive Bulletin Boards That Support Writing, Julie Patterson

Articles

Great writing instruction = student created bulletin boards. Here are some ideas.

Picturing Takings, Lee Anne Fennell

Articles

Takings doctrine, we are constantly reminded, is unclear to the point of incoherence. The task offinding our way through it has become more difficult, and yet more interesting, with the Supreme Court's recent, inconclusive foray into the arena of judicial takings in Stop the Beach Renourishment. Following guideposts in Kelo, Lingle, and earlier cases, this essay uses a series of simple diagrams to examine how elements of takings jurisprudence fit together with each other and with other limits on governmental action. Visualizing takings in this manner yields surprising lessons for judicial takings and for takings law more generally.

Family Of Man, Robert Knight

Articles

Exhibition review of photographer Taryn Simon's project A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I-XVIII, exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art from May 2 - September 3, 2012.

Strategic Planning In Construction Professional Service Firms: A Study Of Irish Qs Practices, Roisin Murphy

Articles

The role and usefulness of strategic planning has been documented over several decades of strategic management research. Despite the significant body of existing knowledge in the field of strategic planning, there remains limited empirical investigation of the construction sector, specifically professional service firms operating within it. The construction sector is hugely important to the Irish economy, yet until now, no empirical investigation has been undertaken to determine the strategic planning process in construction professional practices in Ireland. A two-phase mixed methods study was undertaken to ascertain the extent of strategic planning within Quantity Surveying practices in Ireland. Characteristics of the …

G-Strands, Darryl Holm, Rossen Ivanov, James Percival

Articles

A G-strand is a map g(t,s): RxR --> G for a Lie group G that follows from Hamilton's principle for a certain class of G-invariant Lagrangians. The SO(3)-strand is the G-strand version of the rigid body equation and it may be regarded physically as a continuous spin chain. Here, SO(3)_K-strand dynamics for ellipsoidal rotations is derived as an Euler-Poincar'e system for a certain class of variations and recast as a Lie-Poisson system for coadjoint flow with the same Hamiltonian structure as for a perfect complex fluid. For a special Hamiltonian, the SO(3) …

A Piece Marking The 50th Anniversary Of The Publication Of Gilbert Cesbron's Les Saints Vont En Enfer : An Irishman's Diary, Eamon Maher

Articles

I wonder how many people are aware of the worker-priest movement in France? It began when Cardinal Suhard, Archbishop of Paris, commissioned two priests, Henri Godin and Yvan Daniel, Chaplains with the Jeunesse Ouvrière Catholique (Catholic Youth Movement), to write a report on the fall-off in religious practice among the French working classes. In 1943, their findings were published in a highly influential book, France, Pays de Mission?, which suggested that France had become a pagan country and that the Catholic Church had almost completely lost touch with the proletariat, who associated it, perhaps justifiably, with the business and ruling …

Quality And Nutritional Status Of Fresh-Cut Tomato As Affected By Spraying Of Delactosed Whey Permeate Compared To Industrial Washing Treatment., Lubna Ahmed, Ana Belen Martin-Diana, Daniel Rico, Catherine Barry-Ryan

Articles

The aim of this study was to examine the applicability of delactosed whey permeate 28 (DWP) treatment on preserving the quality and antioxidant attributes of fresh-cut 29 tomato. Tomatoes were treated with 3 % DWP by dipping, spraying and a 30 combination of both, stored at 4 °C for 10 days and compared with the industrial 31 standard, chlorine. The combination of dipping and spraying of DWP showed the best 32 results for all the markers tested. The combined treatment of dipping and spraying of 33 DWP significantly lowered total counts (~ 1.0 log cfu/g), yeast and moulds (~ 1.2 …

Traditional Knowledge, Cultural Expression, And The Siren's Call Of Property, Justin Hughes

Articles

Discussions on international legal norms for the protection of TK/TCE have, in their contemporary form, been ongoing since the late 1990s. In that time, our understanding of key issues for a workable system—subject matter, beneficiaries, rights, or protections—have advanced little, if at all. Indeed, as Michael Brown has observed, “vexing questions of origins and boundaries . . . are commonly swept under the rug in public discussions.” Yet even if all those questions were settled, we also need a clear justification or justifications for a new form of intellectual property on the world stage.

A Rough Look At The Shifting Effects On Learning Through Student Work Placement, Frank Cullen

Articles

The use of internship as a means of informal education is relatively commonplace. This is evident by the vast amount of literature dedicated to workplace learning, however very little research to date has explored the impact of international culinary internships on students. This paper addresses the void in research by exploring the nuances associated with culinary internships and in particular investigates the 2006 and 2007 student cohorts studying in the Technological University Dublin for the degree award of BA in Culinary Arts. The paper examines the internship preparation and experiences examining the impact of internship on the student’s attitudes towards …