Digital Commons Network^™

Final Report Unesco-Unevoc International Experts Seminar, Dublin, Aidan Kenny

Conference Papers

UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre and the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) UNEVOC National Centre Ireland jointly organised an International Expert’s Consultation seminar from 18 to 20 August, 2008 at DIT Aungier Street Campus, in Dublin, Ireland. Since DIT joined the UNEVOC Network in early 2007, Mr. Aidan Kenny, co-ordinator of the National UNEVOC Centre Ireland and Dr. L. Efison Munjanganja, Head, UNEVOC Networks had in conversations and in correspondence been keen about the idea of a consultative seminar on technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and capacity building in the UNEVOC Network. Central to the idea was the stimulation of …

Next Door They Have Regulation, But Not Here …: Assessing The Opinions Of Actors In The Opaque World Of Unregulated Lobbying, John Hogan

Articles

The lobbying of government by various interests is regarded as central to the democratic process. Deliberative democratic theorists tell us that the regulation of lobbying has a positive effect on political systems, and the behaviour of those within them. Yet, only a small number of democracies have implemented legislation regulating lobbyists’ activities. Even within these countries, certain jurisdictions still have not enacted lobbying regulations. Here we examine the attitudes of actors in these unregulated provinces, states and institutions towards the idea of lobbying legislation. This ensures that in the broader context the actors we deal with have knowledge of lobbying …

The Global Obsession With Rankings: How Should Ireland Respond?, Ellen Hazelkorn

Other resources

No abstract provided.

Detection Of Staphylococcal Cassette Chromosome Mec Associated Dna Segments In Multiresistant Mssa And Identification Of Staphylococcus Epidermidis Ccrab4, Celine Herra, Anna Shore, Brian O’Connell,, Angela Rossney,, Derek Sullivan, Hilary Humphreys, David Coleman

Articles

Methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) can arise from methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) following partial or complete excision of staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec). This study investigated whether multiresistant MSSA isolates from Irish hospitals, where MRSA has been endemic for decades, harbor SCCmec DNA. Twenty-five multiresistant MSSA isolates recovered between 2002 and 2006 were tested for SCCmec DNA by PCR and were genotyped by multilocus sequence typing and spa typing. All isolates lacked mecA. Three isolates (12%) harbored SCCmec DNA; two of these (genotype ST8 t190) harbored a 26-kb SCCmec IID (II.3.1.2) remnant that lacked part of mecI and all of mecR1, …

Momitochondrial Dysfunction And Dna Damage Post Exposure To Low Dose Radiation And "Bystander" Factor (S), Sharon Nugent

Doctoral

The 'bystander effect' describes radiation-like damage in un irradiated cells, either in the vicinity of irradiated cells or exposed to medium from irradiated cells. This study aimed to further characterize the, as yet poorly understood, mitochondrial response to both direct irradiation and bystander factor(s). Human keratinocyte epithelial and Chinese hamster ovarian cells were exposed to either y radiation or bystander factor(s) at doses of 5mOy, O.50y and 50y and examined 4-96 hours later. DNA damage was determined using deletion analysis, single strand conformation polymorphism analysis, long range PCR, semi-quantitative PCR and quantitative real-time PCR. Mitochondrial mass was determined using MitoTrackelM …

Globalisation And Challenges For Higher Education, Ellen Hazelkorn

Other resources

No abstract provided.

The Global Labour Market And Graduate Employability: Challenges For Higher Education, Ellen Hazelkorn

Other resources

No abstract provided.

The Emperor Has No Clothes?: Rankings And The Shift From Qa To World-Class Excellence, Ellen Hazelkorn

Other resources

No abstract provided.

Localised Galvanic Corrosion Processes In Thermal Spray Coated/Cast Aluminium Alloy Systems, David Culliton, Tony Betts, David Kennedy

Conference Papers

Cast Aluminium Alloys, because of the propensity of aluminium to react with impurities and alloying elements, are prone to developing IM impurities during the solidification process. These IM phases can act, in some fluids, as initiation sites for localised corrosion processes, resulting in degradation phenomena, such as pitting. Whilst Thermal Spray coatings can improve the wear resistance of Cast Aluminium Alloys, their corrosion performance may be hampered by the presence of through porosity within the coating.

The present work details some preliminary studies of the localised corrosion processes occurring at the interface area between a Thermal Spray coating and a …

The Politics Of Economic Performance, And The Trade Union Movement, 1970-1982, John Hogan, Gary Murphy

Articles

Here we argue that the relationship between the main Irish political parties and the trade unions, in the 1970s, was largely based upon political imperatives, with an economic subtext. The absence of strong ideological difference between the two largest Irish political parties meant they were willing to deal with the trade union moment in a somewhat similar fashion. At the start of the 1970s, the Fianna Fail government prodded the ICTU into a “voluntary” national wage agreement. This agreement was regarded as a means of stabilising the economy, attracting foreign investment, and improving Fianna Fail’s image with the electorate. While …

Critical Junctures? Privatization Policy In Brazil And Argentina At The Start Of The Century, John Hogan

Articles

This paper uses the critical junctures framework developed by Hogan and Doyle (2007) to determine if there were critical junctures in privatization policy in Brazil and Argentina at the start of the 21st century. The framework constitutes a rigorous approach to the identification of crisis, ideational change, and policy change. It is used to examine the economic disasters in Brazil in 1999 and Argentina in 2001. Previously, we would have had to wait decades before making such an assessment, as there were few tools with which to identify critical junctures, and these were usually only effective long after the event.

Structure Property Relationships In Organic Conjugated Systems, Luke O'Neill

Doctoral

A series of pi(п) conjugated oligomers containing 1 to 6 monomer units were studied by absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopies. The results are discussed and examined with regard to the variation of the optical properties with the increase of effective conjugation length. It was found that there was a linear relationship between the positioning of the absorption and photoluminescence maxima plotted against inverse conjugation length. The relationships are in good agreement with the simple particle in a box method, one of the earliest descriptions of the properties of one-dimensional organic molecules. Variations in the infinite chain limit band gap for a …

A Systematic Approach Towards Developing A Philosophy Of Engineering: Engineers Dancing With Philosophers, Mike Murphy

Presentations

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Global Rankings On Higher Education Research, Ellen Hazelkorn

Other resources

No abstract provided.

Guidance Booklet On Safe Handling Of Nanoparticles, Declan Mccormack, Norbert Malanowski, Paul Sermon, Juergen Hoeck

Articles

Nanotechnologies are a fast evolving scientific and technological field with a high potential impact on science, economy and society. Like with all new and quickly developing technologies it is important to weigh benefits versus risks at the earliest possible convenience. Building on the results of the ImPart project, this booklet is intended to give a review of the actual knowledge in the field of nanospecific risks, deriving recommendations for the safe handling of nanoparticles for executives in industry, public organizations and NGOs. This booklet is also intended to give an outlook on possible developments in the near future and "life …

A Narratives’ Exploration Of Non-Traditional International Assignees Locally Resident And Employed In The South Of France, Marian Crowley-Henry

Conference papers

Contemporary publications in international human resource management call for the pluralisation of international assignees beyond the widely described expatriate. This paper presents an under-explored category of international assignees: highly educated, non French, Western (first world) individuals who reside indefinitely in the South of France, maintaining their professional careers while resident in the host country. A sample of over thirty individuals meeting these criteria was interviewed in France in depth over a three year period. These individuals are not migrants as by their own descriptions they consider migrants to have to move internationally (economic migrants) while their decisions to move to …

Implementing Arabic-To-English Machine Translation Using The Role And Reference Grammar Linguistic Model, Yasser Salem, Arnold Hensman, Brian Nolan

Conference Papers

This paper presents work-in-progress investigating the development of a rule-based lexical framework for Arabic language processing using the Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) linguistic model. A system, called UniArab is introduced in this research to support the framework. The paper outlines the conceptual structure of UniArab System, which utilizes the framework and translates the Arabic language into another natural language. Also, this paper explores how the characteristics of the Arabic language will effect the development of a Machine Translation (MT) tool from Arabic to English. Several distinguishing features of Arabic pertinent to MT will be explored in detail with reference …

Fostering Critical Thinking And Intercultural Understanding: Canada’S Contribution To Media Literacy, Brian O'Neill

Other resources

No abstract provided.

Missed Opportunities For Children?:An Exploration Of The Impact Of New Funding Mechanisms For Early Childhood Education And Care (Ecec) In Ireland, Bernie O'Donoghue Hynes, Noirin Hayes, Siobhan Bradley

Articles

This presentation begins with a review of the overall funding structure for early childhood education and care in Ireland. It moves on to look in detail at the impact of the changes to the social inclusion funding measures. It concludes with a review of the reaction of various Irish stakeholders to these changes that have resulted in a 'missed opportunities for children'.

Helicobacter Pylori-Induced Inhibition Of Vascular Endothelial Cell Functions: A Role For Vaca-Dependent Nitric Oxide Reduction, Nicholas P. Toblin, Gary Henehan, Ronan P. Murphy, John P. Atherton, Anthony F. Guinan, Steven W. Kerrigan, Dermot Cox, Paul A. Cahill, Philip M. Cummins

Articles

Epidemiological and clinical studies provide compelling support for a causal relationship between Helicobacter pylori infection and endothelial dysfunction, leading to vascular diseases. However, clear biochemical evidence for this association is limited. In the present study, we have conducted a comprehensive investigation of endothelial injury in bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAECs) induced by H. pylori-conditioned medium (HPCM) prepared from H. pylori 60190 [vacuolating cytotoxin A (Vac(+))]. BAECs were treated with either unconditioned media, HPCM (0-25% vol/vol), or Escherichia coli-conditioned media for 24 h, and cell functions were monitored. Vac(+) HPCM significantly decreased BAEC proliferation, tube formation, and migration (by up to …

Developing Digital Radio For Ireland: Emerging Approaches And Strategies, Brian O'Neill

Conference Papers

Ireland’s experience of the transition from public service broadcasting to public service media has gathered pace within the last year with new legislative arrangements for media regulation, the awarding of digital terrestrial television licences and renewed attempts to introduce digital radio broadcasting on the DAB platform. The national public broadcaster, RTE, has played a central role in these developments as it attempts to manage a range of technology platforms and to provide media services for an increasingly diverse and complex market. This paper addresses the case of digital radio in Ireland and the prospects for a successful launch of DAB …

Dit News, 1st.-31st. Of October, 2008, Dit:Students Union

DIT Student Union

No abstract provided.

Optimisation Of Multicast Routing In Wireless Mesh Networks, Brian Keegan, Karol Kowalik, Mark Davis

Conference papers

In recent years Wireless Mesh Networks have been deployed and grown in popularity in many metropolitan areas. The deployment of such networks has allowed clients to gain access to publicly available broadband networks. The implementation of wireless mesh networks requires that backhaul services (traditionally carried by wired networks) be maintained via wireless mesh points. Because of their structure, wireless mesh networks provide an excellent means for targeting a large group of end users or simply to relay data. This may be achieved by means of broadcasting or more specifically multicasting. The lack of standards and support for multicasting over wireless …

Investigation Of Across-Layer Modification To The Dsr Routing Protocol In Wireless Mesh Networks, Mustafa Ramadhan, Mark Davis

Conference papers

This work introduces a cross-layer modification to the DSR protocol that increases the global throughput in wireless mesh networks. In our modified DSR protocol we have introduced the Access Efficiency metric as an alternative to the hop-count metric in order to improve the route selection mechanism. The selected path in the route selection mechanism is identified by choosing the path with the highest minimum Access Efficiency value. We have employed the OPNET modeller as a simulator to examine two different patterns of traffic for a series of randomly generated network topologies. Each topology was simulated twice. One simulation used the …

Effects Of Lline Rate On Vvideo Qos Over Wireless Networks: An Experimental Approach, Stuart Wallace, Mark Davis

Conference papers

Video streaming over Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANS) is becoming an increasingly popular service. However, end user OoS is highly influenced by many factors. These include the video codec used, the packetization scheme, error concealment and correction techniques, the complexity of the video, propagation losses, and the line rate. In this paper the effect of the line rate on the capacity of the network when streaming multimedia content is analyzed experimentally. It is shown that as the line rate decreases the bandwidth load of the video stream dramatically increases leading to poor QoS at the client side. As automatic line …

An Investigation Of The Correlation Between Passive Monitoring And Activie Probing Techniques Used In Wlan Mesh Networks, Chenzhe Zhang, Mark Davis

Conference papers

In recent years, Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) have emerged as a promising solution to provide low cost networks that extend Internet access and other networking services. Mesh routers form the backbone connectivity through cooperative routing in an often unstable wireless medium. Therefore, the techniques used to monitor and manage the performance metrics to help optimize the link performance in WMNs. This paper presents an assessment of the correlation between passive monitoring and active probing techniques used for link performance measurement in WMNs. This paper presents an assessment of the correlation between passive monitoring and active probing techniques used for link …

Synthesis And Antimicrobial Evaluation Of Carbohydrate And Polyhydroxylated Non-Carbohydrate Fatty Acid Ester And Ether Derivatives, Aoife Smith, Patricia Nobmann, Gary Henehan, Paula Bourke, Julie Dunne

Articles

A series of fatty acid ester and ether derivatives have been chemically synthesised based on carbohydrate and non-carbohydrate polyhydroxylated scaffolds. The synthesised compounds, along with their corresponding fatty acid monoglyceride antimicrobials, were evaluated for antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Of the derivatives synthesised several of the carbohydrate based compounds have antimicrobial efficacy comparable with commercially available antimicrobials. The results suggest that the nature of the carbohydrate core plays a role in the efficacy of carbohydrate fatty acid derivatives as antimicrobials.

Hand-Held Flyback Driven Coaxial Dielectric Barrier Discharge: Development And Characterization, Victor J. Law, Vladimir Milosavljevic, Neil O’Connor, James F. Lalor, Steven Daniels

Articles

The development of a handheld single and triple chamber atmospheric pressure coaxial dielectric barrier discharge driven by Flyback circuitry for helium and argon discharges is described. The Flyback uses external metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor power switching technology and the transformer operates in the continuous current mode to convert a continuous dc power of 10–33 W to generate a 1.2–1.6 kV 3.5 μs pulse. An argon discharge breakdown voltage of ∼768 V is measured. With a 50 kHz, pulse repetition rate and an argon flow rate of 0.5–10 argon slm (slm denotes standard liters per minute), the electrical power density deposited in …

Development Of A Workflow For The Comparison Of Classification Techniques, Zanifa Omary

Masters

As the interest in machine learning and data mining springs up, the problem of how to assess learning algorithms and compare classifiers become more pressing. This has been associated with the lack of comprehensive and complete workflow depending on the project scale to provide guidance to its users. This means the success or failure of the project can be highly dependent on the person or team carrying it. The standard practice adopted by many researchers and experimenters has been to follow steps or phases from existing workflows such as CRISP-DM, KDD and SASSEMMA. However, as machine learning and data mining …

Development Of A Workflow For The Comparison Of Classification Techniques, Zanifa Omary

Dissertations

As the interest in machine learning and data mining springs up, the problem of how to assess learning algorithms and compare classifiers become more pressing. This has been associated with the lack of comprehensive and complete workflow depending on the project scale to provide guidance to its users. This means the success or failure of the project can be highly dependent on the person or team carrying it.

The standard practice adopted by many researchers and experimenters has been to follow steps or phases from existing workflows such as CRISP-DM, KDD and SASSEMMA. However, as machine learning and data mining …