Digital Commons Network^™

All The World's A Page: Towards A Definition Of 'Writer' In An Age Of Opportunity, Sue Norton

Articles

This article considers the status of the writer at a time when publication is no longer elusive, given the immediacy of online dissemination. For those who identify as writers, it looks at the implications of blogging, social media, entrepreneurial self-publishing, and scholarly open access journals, including so-called ‘predatory’ ones. It argues for a distinction between day-to-day writing and composition, and seeks to establish a category for the writer that takes account of deliberation, craft, and readership. It juxtaposes the creative activity of Jack Kerouac, Virginia Woolf, Truman Capote, and Mother Goose against the linguist John McWhorter’s convincing dismissal of the …

Tbx2 Represses Pten In Rhabdomyosarcoma And Skeletal Muscle., B Zhu, M Zhang, E M Williams, C Keller, A Mansoor, J K Davie

Articles

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is the most frequent soft tissue sarcoma in children that shares many features of developing skeletal muscle. TBX2, a T-box family member, is highly upregulated in tumor cells of both major RMS subtypes where it functions as an oncogene. TBX2 is a repressor that is often overexpressed in cancer cells and functions in bypassing cell growth control, including the repression of the cell cycle regulators p14 and p21. We have found that TBX2 directly represses the tumor-suppressor phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) in both RMS and normal muscle. Exogenous expression of TBX2 in normal muscle cells downregulates PTEN, …

Federal Sentencing Guidelines & United States V. Booker: Social Context And Sentencing Disparity, Jeffrey Nowacki

Articles

The United States v. Booker (2005) decision rendered Federal Sentencing Guidelines advisory rather than mandatory. In the context of this decision, this study examines both the direct influence of aggregate-level political, community and administrative variables on sentencing outcomes, and the way that such characteristics might contextualize individual-level predictors. Using multi-level regression techniques, this study examines the role of aggregate level variables on sentence length decisions across four distinct time periods. Moreover, this article also examines whether aggregate-level variables condition the effects of race/ethnicity on sentencing outcomes. While the direct effects of aggregate-level variables on sentencing outcomes are generally limited to …

The Science Of Christmas: Dinner Table, Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire

Articles

This article discusses the science of preservation behind two famous Irish and English Christmas foods, Christmas Pudding and Mince Pies.

Intra-Agency Coordination, Jennifer Nou

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Challenges Of Leading Change In Health-Care Delivery From The Frontline, Vivienne Byers

Articles

Aim: The public sector is facing turbulent times and this challenges nurses, who are expected to serve both patient interests and the efficiency drives of their organisations. In the context of implementing person-centred health policy, this paper explores the evolving role of front-line nurses as leaders and champions of change.

Background: Nurses can be seen to have some autonomy in health-care delivery. However, they are subject to systems of social control. In implementing person- centred policy, nurses can be seen to be doing the best they can within a constrained environment.

Method: A survey of nursing practice in person-centred health-policy …

A Review Of Solar And Visible Light Active Tio2 Photocatalysis For Treating Bacteria, Cyanotoxins And Contaminants Of Emerging Concern, Rachel Fagan, Declan Mccormack, Suresh Pillai, Dionysios Dionysiou

Articles

Research into the development of solar and visible light active photocatalysts has been significantly increased in recent years due to its wide range of applications in treating contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs), bacteria and cyanotoxins. Solar photocatalysis is found to be highly effective in treating a wide range of CECs from sources such as pharmaceuticals, steroids, antibiotics, phthalates, disinfectants, pesticides, fragrances (musk), preservatives and additives. Similarly, a number of EDCs including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), alkylphenols (APs), bisphenol A (BPA), organotins (OTs), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), natural and synthetic estrogenic and androgenic chemicals, pesticides, and heavy …

The Minimum And Other Free Energies For Non-Linear Materials With Memory., John Murrough Golden

Articles

Expressions are obtained for free energies of materials with a certain type of non-linear constitutive relation. In particular, the minimum and related free energies are considered in some detail. Minimal states are defined for these materials, and it is shown that any free energy yielding a linear constitutive equation that is a functional of the minimal state has a counterpart in the non-linear case which is also a minimal state functional in this more general context. These results are explored for simple examples, including discrete spectrum materials.

The Difficulties Of Democratic Mercy, Aziz Huq

Articles

No abstract provided.

Geographies Of Inequality: Urban Renewal And The Race, Gender, And Class Of Post-Katrina New Orleans, Shiloh L. Deitz, Kristen M. Barber

Articles

In this paper, we address pressing questions on the perpetuation of race, gender, and class inequalities in ongoing restoration practices shaping the "New" New Orleans. We unpack federal and local efforts to rebuild and revitalize the city over the last ten years and map the geography of New Orleans at the neighborhood level both before and after the storm. We discuss how mismanaged resources, corrupt profit-taking, conflicts of interest for the stakeholders, and socially unconscious design conditioned a fiscally irresponsible and non-inclusive recovery. These efforts have pushed out already marginalized populations, resulted in the gentrification of historically African American neighborhoods, …

Maths In Prison, Catherine Byrne, Michael Carr

Articles

I teach maths to all levels in an adult male remand prison in Ireland and am also studying for a PhD in maths in prison education in Technological University Dublin (DIT). This paper describes recent initiatives piloted by maths teachers and school management to increase attendance, engagement and certification in maths. It assesses the effects of the initiatives and looks at future potential in this setting and in others. To set the paper in context, I begin by describing a typical day as a prison maths teacher.

On Hearsay, Richard A. Posner

Articles

No abstract provided.

Detection And Epidemiology Of Plasmid-Mediated Ampc B-Lactamase Producing Escherichia Coli In Two Irish Tertiary Care Hospitals, Celine Herra

Articles

This study determined the prevalence and distribution of plasmid-mediated AmpC (pAmpC) b-lactamases in Irish Escherichia coli isolates. Clinical E. coli isolates (n = 95) that were intermediate or resistant to cefoxitin and/or flagged by VITEK 2 as potential AmpC-producers underwent confirmation using a MASTDISCST ESBL and AmpC Detection Kit. Multiplex PCR capable of detecting family-specific plasmid ampC genes was performed to detect the presence of these genes. Five PCR- negative isolates were selected for promoter analysis. PFGE and MLST were performed on E. coli isolates that harboured a plasmid ampC gene to determine their clonal relatedness. Plasmid ampC genes were …

Applying Two-Level Modelling To Remote Sensor Systems Design To Enable Future Knowledge Generation, Paul Stacey, Damon Berry

Articles

Geographical Information Scientists have a need to combine data from many sources and in various ways to synthesize new understanding, producing new knowle­dge [1]. Remote sensor deployments, monitoring environmental phenomena, are a huge provider of valuable data. Often, observation systems are built in isolation, and the data representations are not adequately designed for re-use and higher order knowledge generation. There are many standards that allow syntactic interoperability and sharing of remote sensor systems observational data, such as the OGC’s suite of standards [2]. However, semantic interoperability remains a work in progress [3] [4]. This presentation describes how system design techniques …

Raman Spectroscopic Analysis Of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma And Oral Dysplasia In The High-Wavenumber Region, Hugh Byrne, Luis Felipe Carvalho, Fiona Lyng, Franck Bonnier

Articles

Raman spectroscopy can provide a molecular-level signature of the biochemical composition and structure of cells with excellent spatial resolution and could be useful to monitor changes in composition for early stage and non-invasive cancer diagnosis, both ex-vivo and in vivo. In particular, the fingerprint spectral region (400–1,800 cm^-1) has been shown to be very promising for optical biopsy purposes. However, limitations to discrimination of dysplastic and inflammatory processes based on the fingerprint region still persist. In addition, the Raman spectral signal of dysplastic cells is one important source of misdiagnosis of normal versus pathological tissues. The high wavenumber …

Fatigue Modeling Via Mammalian Auditory System For Prediction Of Noise Induced Hearing Loss, Pengfei Sun, Jun Qin, Kathleen Campbell

Articles

Noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) remains as a severe health problem worldwide. Existing noise metrics and modeling for evaluation of NIHL are limited on prediction of gradually developing NIHL (GDHL) caused by high-level occupational noise. In this study, we proposed two auditory fatigue based models, including equal velocity level (EVL) and complex velocity level (CVL), which combine the high-cycle fatigue theory with the mammalian auditory model, to predict GDHL. The mammalian auditory model is introduced by combining the transfer function of the external-middle ear and the triple-path nonlinear (TRNL) filter to obtain velocities of basilar membrane (BM) in cochlea. The …

Surface Modification Of Pen Treated With Ozone And Uv Photooxidation, Entesar Al Abdulal, Alla Bailey, Michael Mehan, Surendra K. Gupta, Xinyun Li, Marc Toro, Gerald A. Takacs

Articles

Poly(ethylene 2,6-naphthalate) (PEN) was treated with ozone in the absence of radiation and the results were compared with ultraviolet (UV) photooxidation using 253·7 and 184·9 nm radiations. The surface modification of the top 2–5 nm was analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) for chemical changes. Higher saturation levels of oxidation were achieved using UV photooxidation than ozonation. Both treatment methods increased the amounts of C–O–C, C=O and O–C=O bondings while UV photooxidation also increased the concentration of the anhydride/carbonate moieties on the surface. Atomic force microscopy detected smoother surfaces with increasing treatment time for both the treatments. The changes in …

Improving The Electromechanical Performance Of Dialectric Elastomers Using Silicone Rubber And Dopamine Coated Barium Titanate., Liang Jiang, Tony Betts, David Kennedy, Stephen Jerrams

Articles

In this work, a new soft dielectric elastomer (DE) was fabricated from dopamine coated barium titanate particles and silicone rubber (SR). The results show that the dopamine, in addition to coating the barium titanate (BaTiO3, BT), the coated particles (DP-BT) were highly compatible with SR. In order to achieve a maximum voltage-induced deformation, the minimum secant moduli of DEs were obtained in experimentation at a stretch ratio of approximately 1.6 by applying equi-biaxial tensile strain using the bubble inflation method. Additionally, it was found that the addition of DP-BT into SR led to an increased dielectric constant and decreased dielectric …

Book Review: "The Irish Dramatic Revival 1899–1939.", Tanya Dean

Articles

Book Review of The Irish Dramatic Revival 1899–1939, by Anthony Roche, London, Bloomsbury methuen drama, 2015, 272 pp., £16.99 (paperback), iSBn 9781408175286

Eighteen Years On: A Re-Review (Reviewing William N. Eskridge, Jr., The Case For Same-Sex Marriage: From Sexual Liberty To Civilized Commitment (1996)), Richard A. Posner

Articles

No abstract provided.

Political Powerlessness, Nicholas Stephanopoulos

Articles

No abstract provided.

Raman Spectroscopy For Screening And Diagnosis Of Cervical Cancer, Fiona Lyng, Damien Traynor, Ines Rm Ramos, Franck Bonnier, Hugh Byrne

Articles

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide and mainly affects younger women. The mortality associated with cervical cancer can be reduced if this disease is detected at the pre-cancer stage. Current gold standard methods include cytopathology, HPV testing and histopathology but these methods are limited in terms of subjectivity, cost and time. There is an unmet clinical need for new methods to aid clinicians in the early detection of cervical pre-cancer. These methods should be objective, rapid and require minimal sample preparation. Raman spectroscopy is a vibrational spectroscopic technique by which incident radiation is used to …

Using Sequential Mixed Methods In Enterprise Policy Evaluation: A Pragmatic Design Choice?, Anthony Paul Buckley

Articles

How might policy instruments contribute to indigenous firm growth and how can the effects of these instruments be evaluated at both firm and policy level? This paper illustrates how a mixed methods research design and data analysis strategy can pragmatically address the research questions outlined above. The advantages and challenges of employing quantitative research methods (what happened?) followed by confirmatory qualitative research methods (how and why did it happen?) in a multiphase sequential explanatory design is explored. The data analysis strategy is firstly to analyse the data generated from a ‘before and after’ quasi-experiment (with statistical controls), then data from …

Comment On Professor Gluck's "Imperfect Statutes, Imperfect Courts", Richard A. Posner

Articles

No abstract provided.

Audiovisual Processing Is Abnormal In Parkinson's Disease And Correlates With Freezing Of Gait And Disease Duration, Conor Fearon, John Butler, Louise Newman, Timothy Lynch, Richard B. Reilly

Articles

Background: Sensory and perceptual disturbances progress with disease duration in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and probably contribute to motor deficits such as bradykinesia and gait disturbances, including freezing of gait (FOG). Simple reaction time tests are ideal to explore sensory processing, as they require little cognitive processing. Multisensory integration is the ability of the brain to integrate sensory information from multiple modalities into a single coherent percept, which is crucial for complex motor tasks such as gait. 9 10 11 12 13 Objectives: The aims of this study were to: 1. Assess differences in unisensory (auditory and visual) and multisensory processing …

Determination Of Nanoparticle Localisation Within Subcellular Organelles In Vitro Using Raman Spectroscopy, Esen Efeoglu, Mark Keating, Jennifer Mcintyre, Alan Casey, Hugh Byrne

Articles

Ease of sample preparation, narrow spectral bandwidth and minimal influence from water are features of Raman spectroscopy which make it a powerful, label-free way to study a wide range of biological structures and phenomena. In this context, given the concerns over their toxicology arising from their increased production and use, evaluation of nanoparticle uptake and localisation in biological systems and determination of the mechanisms of subcellular interaction and trafficking can provide long-term solutions for nanotoxicology, and potential strategies for nanomedicine. In this study, Raman spectroscopy is explored to monitor the sequential trafficking of nanoparticles through subcellular organelles in-vitro and to …

Investigating The Role Of Shape On The Biological Impact Of Gold Nanoparticles In Vitro, Furong Tian, Hugh Byrne, Joao Conde, Tobias Stoeger, Martin Clift,, Alan Casey, Pablo Del Pino, Beatriz Pelaz, Barbara Rothen-Rutishauser,, Giovani Estrada, Jesús De La Fuente

Articles

Aim: To investigate the influence of gold nanoparticle (GNP) geometry on the biochemical response of Calu-3 epithelial cells.

Materials and Methods: Spherical, triangular and hexagonal GNPs were used. The GNP-cell interaction was assessed via atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The biochemical impact of GNPs was determined over 72hrs at [0.0001-1mg/mL].

Results: At 1mg/mL, hexagonal GNPs reduced Calu-3 viability below 60%, showed increased reactive oxygen species production and higher expression of pro-apoptotic markers. A cell mass burden of 1:2:12 as well as number of GNPs per cell (2:1:3) was observed for spherical:triangular:hexagonal GNPs.

Conclusion:

These findings do …

Candels Visual Classifications: Scheme, Data Release, And First Results, Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe, Mark Mozena, Dale Kocevski, Daniel H. Mcintosh, Jennifer Lotz, Eric F. Bell, Sandy Faber, Harry Ferguson, David Koo, Robert Bassett, Maksym Bernyk, Kirsten Blancato, Darren Croton, Tomas Dahlen, Frederic Bournaud, Paolo Cassata, Marco Castellano, Edmond Cheung, Christopher J. Conselice, Duilia F. De Mello, Laura Degroot, Jennifer Donley, Javiera Guedes, Norman Grogin, Nimish Hathi, Matt Hilton, Brett Hollon, Anton Koekemoer, Nick Liu, Ray A. Lucas, Marie Martig, Elizabeth Mcgrath, Conor Mcpartland, Bahram Mobasher, Alice Morlock, Erin O'Leary, Mike Peth, Janine Pforr, Annalisa Pillepich, David Rosario, Emmaris Soto, Amber Straughn, Olivia Telford, Ben Sunnquist, Jonathan Trump, Benjamin Weiner, Stijn Wuyts

Articles

We have undertaken an ambitious program to visually classify all galaxies in the five CANDELS fields down to H < 24.5 involving the dedicated efforts of over 65 individual classifiers. Once completed, we expect to have detailed morphological classifications for over 50,000 galaxies spanning 0 < z < 4 over all the fields, with classifications from 3 to 5 independent classifiers for each galaxy. Here, we present our detailed visual classification scheme, which was designed to cover a wide range of CANDELS science goals. This scheme includes the basic Hubble sequence types, but also includes a detailed look at mergers and interactions, the clumpiness of galaxies, k-corrections, and a variety of other structural properties. In this paper, we focus on the first field to be completed—GOODS-S, which has been classified at various depths. The wide area coverage spanning the full field (wide+deep+ERS) includes 7634 galaxies that have been classified by at least three different people. In the deep area of the field, 2534 galaxies have been classified by at least five different people at three different depths. With this paper, we release to the public all of the visual classifications in GOODS-S along with the Perl/Tk GUI that we developed to classify galaxies. We present our initial results here, including an analysis of our internal consistency and comparisons among multiple classifiers as well as a comparison to the Sérsic index. We find that the level of agreement among classifiers is quite good (>70% across the full magnitude range) and depends on both the galaxy magnitude and the galaxy type, with disks showing the highest level of agreement (>50%) and irregulars the lowest (<10%). A comparison of our classifications with the Sérsic index and rest-frame colors shows a clear separation between disk and spheroid populations. Finally, we explore morphological k-corrections between the V-band and H-band observations and find that a small fraction (84 galaxies in total) are classified as being very different between these two bands. These galaxies typically have very clumpy and extended morphology or are very faint in the V-band.

Incorporating Hydrologic Data And Ecohydrologic Relationships Into Ecological Site Descriptions, Christopher Jason Williams, Frederick B. Pierson, Kenneth E. Spaeth, Joel R. Brown, Osama Z. Al-Hamdan, Mark A. Weltz, Mark A. Nearing, Jeffrey E. Herrick, Jan Boll, Peter R. Robichaud, David C. Goodrich, Phillip Heilman, D. Phillip Guertin, Mariano Hernandez, Haiyan Wei, Stuart P. Hardegree, Eva K. Strand, Jonathan D. Bates, Loretta J. Metz, Mary H. Nichols

Articles

The purpose of this paper is to recommend a framework and methodology for incorporating hydrologic data and ecohydrologic relationships in Ecological Site Descriptions (ESDs) and thereby enhance the utility of ESDs for assessing rangelands and guiding resilience-based management strategies. Resilience-based strategies assess and manage ecological state dynamics that affect state vulnerability and, therefore, provide opportunities to adapt management. Many rangelands are spatially heterogeneous or sparsely vegetated where the vegetation structure strongly influences infiltration and soil retention. Infiltration and soil retention further influence soil water recharge, nutrient availability, and overall plant productivity. These key ecohydrologic relationships govern the ecologic resilience of …

Incorporation Of Fibrin Into A Collagen–Glycosaminoglycan Matrix Results In A Scaffold With Improved Mechanical Properties And Enhanced Capacity To Resist Cell-Mediated Contraction, Claire Brougham, Tanya J. Levingstone, Stefan Jockenhoevel, Thomas C. Flanagan, Fergal J. O'Brien

Articles

Fibrin has many uses as a tissue engineering scaffold, however many in vivo studies have shown a reduction in function resulting from the susceptibility of fibrin to cell-mediated contraction. The overall aim of the present study was to develop and characterise a reinforced natural scaffold using fibrin, collagen and glycosaminoglycan (FCG), and to examine the cell-mediated contraction of this scaffold in comparison to fibrin gels. Through the use of an injection loading technique, a homogenous FCG scaffold was developed. Mechanical testing showed a sixfold increase in compressive modulus and a thirtyfold increase in tensile modulus of fibrin when reinforced with …