Digital Commons Network^™

Impact Assessment Of High-Power Domestic Ev Charging Proliferation Of A Distribution Network, Arsalan Zaidi, Keith Sunderland, Michael Conlon

Articles

Transport electrification is becoming the mainstream as a means to improve efficiency, performance, andsustainability of transportation systems. Electrical vehicles (EVs) can help to de-carbonise the environment, but a downside isthe technical issues presented to the low-voltage distribution network. To quantify the stochastic nature of transport-affectedelectrification, probabilistic load flow is employed. Monte Carlo-based simulation is applied to accommodate the probabilisticuncertainties associated with variable EV charging patterns. This study considers high-power charging (up to 11 kW) at thedomestic level while monitoring power quality variations (voltage drop, voltage unbalance factor, voltage sag) standards. Thiswork focuses on the Irish and UK, distribution system operator's–transmission …

A Wide Frequency Scanning Printed Bruce Array Antenna With Bowtie And Semi-Circular Elements, Zeeshan Ahmed, Patrick Mcevoy, Max Ammann

Articles

A printed edge-fed counterpart of the wire Bruce array antenna, for frequency scanning applications, is presented in this paper. The unit-cell of the proposed antenna consists of bowtie and semi-circular elements to achieve wide bandwidth from below 22 GHz to above 38 GHz with open-stopband suppression. The open-stopband suppression enables a wide seamless scanning range from backward, through broadside, to forward endfire. A sidelobe threshold level of −10 dB is maintained to evaluate efficient scanning performance of the antenna. The antenna peak realized gain is 15.30 dBi, and, due to its compact size, has the ability to scan from −64° …

Anti-Resonance, Inhibited Coupling And Mode Transitionin Depressed Core Fibers, Xiaokang Lian, Gerald Farrell, Qiang Wu, Wei Han, Changyu Shen, Youqiao Ma, Yuliya Semenova

Articles

The depressed core fiber (DCF), consisting of a low-index solid core, a high-index cladding and air surrounding, is in effect a bridge between the conventional step-index fiber and the tube-type hollow-core fiber from the point of view of the index profile. In this paper the dispersion diagram of a DCF is obtained by solving the full-vector eigenvalue equations and analyzed using the theory of anti-resonant and the inhibited coupling mechanisms. While light propagation in tube-type hollow-core fibers is commonly described by the symmetric planar waveguide model, here we propose an asymmetric planar waveguide for the DCFs in an anti-resonant reflecting …

Spectral Dependence Of Transmission Losses In High-Index Polymer Coated No-Core Fibers, Xiaokang Lian, Gerald Farrell, Qiang Wu, Wei Han, Changyu Shen, Youqiao Ma, Yuliya Semenova

Articles

A high-index polymer coated no-core fiber (PC-NCF) is effectively a depressed core fiber, where the light is guided by the anti-resonant, inhibited coupling and total internal reflection effects and the dispersion diagram shows periodic resonant and anti-resonant bands. In this paper, the transmission spectra of the straight and bent PC-NCFs (length > 5 cm) are measured and analyzed from a modal dispersion perspective. For the purpose of the study, the PC-NCFs are contained within a fiber hetero-structure using two single-mode fiber (SMF) pigtails forming a SMF-PC-NCF-SMF structure. The anti-resonance spectral characteristics are suppressed by the multimode interference in the PC-NCF with …

Indirect Sliding Mode Control For Dc-Dc Sepic Converters, Hasan Komurcugil, Samet Biricik, Naki Guler

Articles

This article presents an indirect sliding mode control (SMC) for single-ended primary-inductor converters (SEPIC). Unlike the conventional SMC methods, the proposed SMC method employs a sliding surface function based on the input current error only. The use of such sliding surface function not only simplifies the implementation but also reduces the cost of implementation. It is shown that the output voltage control can be achieved indirectly. The input current reference is generated by a proportional-integral (PI) regulator. The existence condition and the region of the closed-loop system are determined for all possibilities of the PI gains. The performance of the …

Adherence To Dietary And Physical Activity Guidelines Among Shift Workers: Associations With Individual And Work-Related Factors, Ciara Kelly, Fiona M. Nea, Kirsty Pourshahidi, John Kearney, Victoria M O'Brien, M Barbara E Livingstone, Clare Corish

Articles

Objectives Shift work is associated with adverse effects on the health and lifestyle behaviours of employees. This study aimed to examine factors associated with adherence among shift workers to selected indicators of dietary and physical activity guidelines. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted on 1300 shift workers. Data were collected using a 15 minute telephone-administered questionnaire. Logistic regression methods were used for data analysis. Results Male shift workers (p

Extraction Of Protein From Four Different Seaweeds Using Three Different Physical Pre-Treatment Strategies, Jack O'Connor, Steve Meaney, Gwilym A. Williams, Maria Hayes

Articles

Seaweeds are a rich source of protein and can contain up to 47% on the dry weight basis. It ischallenging to extract proteins from the raw biomass of seaweed due to resilient cell-wall complexes.Four species of macroalgae were used in this study-two brown,Fucus vesiculosusandAlaria esculenta,and two red,Palmaria palmataandChondrus crispus. Three treatments were applied individually tothe macroalgal species: (I) high-pressure processing (HPP); (II) laboratory autoclave processing and(III) a classical sonication and salting out method. The protein, ash and lipid contents of the resultingextracts were estimated. Yields of protein recovered ranged from 3.2% forFucus vesiculosuspre-treatedwith high pressure processing to 28.9% protein recovered …

I Was Determined To Breastfeed, And I Always Found A Solution: Successful Experiences Of Exclusive Breastfeeding Among Chinese Mothers In Ireland, John Kearney, Qianling Zhou, Haoyue Chen, Katherine Younger, Tanya M. Cassidy

Articles

Background: The prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding for at least 4 months was previously found to be very low among Chinese immigrants in Ireland, at 5.8% (Zhou et al., Front Public Health 6:351, 2018). This study investigates the successful experiences of Chinese mothers living in Ireland who exclusively breastfeed for between four and 6 months.

Methods: Participants were recruited from the sample of the Ireland Chinese Mother Survey. Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with fourteen participants in their homes or public places.

Results: A content analysis revealed that various factors contributed to a successful experience of exclusive breastfeeding among the group …

A Novel Pool Of Microparticle Cholesterol Is Elevatedin Rheumatoid Arthritis But Not In Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patients, Shuai Shuai Hu, Brenton L. Cavanagh, Robert Harrington, Muddassar Ahmad, Grainne Kearns, Steve Meaney, Claire Wynne

Articles

Microparticles are sub-micron, membrane-bound particles released from virtually allcells and which are present in the circulation. In several autoimmune disorders their amountand composition in the circulation is altered. Microparticle surface protein expression has beenexplored as a differentiating tool in autoimmune disorders where the clinical pictures can overlap.Here, we examine the utility of a novel lipid-based marker—microparticle cholesterol, present in allmicroparticles regardless of cellular origin—to distinguish between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) andsystemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We first isolated a series of microparticle containing lipoproteindeficient fractions from patient and control plasma. There were no significant differences in thesize, structure or protein content of …

Breastfeeding Practices 2008–2009 Among Chinese Mothers Living In Ireland: A Mixed Methods Study, Qianling Zhou, Katherine Younger, Tanya M. Cassidey, Wenyi Wang, John Kearney

Articles

Background

Migration to another country has a potential influence on breastfeeding practices. A significant difference in breastfeeding rates between Irish nationals and non-nationals has been reported. This study was conducted to explore breastfeeding practices of the Chinese in Ireland, one of the largest Irish ethnic groups, and to explore the influence of living in Ireland on breastfeeding practices. This is the first and the only migration study so far on breastfeeding practices among the Chinese in Ireland.

Methods

A sequential explanatory mixed methods approach was adopted. The first phase was a cross-sectional self-administered retrospective mailed survey, to explore breastfeeding practices …

Classification And Biological Identity Of Complex Nano Shapes, Luca Boselli, Hender Lopez, Wei Zhang, Qi Cai, Valeria A. Giannone, Jingji Li, Alirio Moura, João M. De Araujo, Jennifer Cookman, Valentina Castagnola, Yan Yan, Kenneth A. Dawson

Articles

Everywhere in our surroundings we increasingly come in contact with nanostructures that have distinctive complex shape features on a scale comparable to the particle itself. Such shape ensembles can be made by modern nano-synthetic methods and many industrial processes. With the ever growing universe of nanoscale shapes, names such as “nanoflowers” and “nanostars” no longer precisely describe or characterise the distinct nature of the particles. Here we capture and digitise particle shape information on the relevant size scale and create a condensed representation in which the essential shape features can be captured, recognized and correlated. We find the natural emergence …

Phenotypic And Functional Characteristics Of Exosomes Derived From Irradiated Mouse Organs And Their Role In The Mechanisms Driving Non-Targeted Effects, Seda Tuncay Cagatay, Ammar Mayah, Mariateresa Mancuso, Paola Giardullo, Simonetta Pazzaglia, Anna Saran, Amuthachelvi Daniel, Damian Traynor, Aidan Meade, Fiona Lyng, Soile Tapio Tapio, Munira Kadhim Munira Kadhim

Articles

No abstract provided.

Insuring Apologies, Benjamin J. Mcmichael

Articles

Based on evidence demonstrating that an apology from a wrongdoer to a victim can assuage the victim's anger, reduce the likelihood that the victim seeks legal redress, and facilitate settlement, state legislatures have passed apology laws to encourage the delivery of more apologies. Aimed primarily at medical malpractice litigation-a traditional locus of the tort reform effort-apology laws render apologies from physicians to patients inadmissible in subsequent legal proceedings. In theory, privileging apologies will encourage their use and reduce malpractice liability risk as patients assert fewer claims and settle those claims that are asserted. However, if apology laws encourage the delivery …

The Law Of Rescue, Shalini Bhargava Ray

Articles

No abstract provided.

Gender-Related Differences In Flood Risk Perception And Behaviours Among Private Groundwater Users In The Republic Of Ireland, Cillian P. Mcdowell, Luisa Andrade, Eoin O'Neill, Kevin O'Malley, Jean O'Dwyer, Paul Hynds

Articles

Extreme weather events including flooding can have severe personal, infrastructural, and economic consequences, with recent evidence pointing to surface flooding as a pathway for the microbial contamination of private groundwater supplies. There is a pressing need for increasingly focused information and awareness campaigns to highlight the risks posed by extreme weather events and appropriate subsequent post-event actions. To date, little is known about the presence, directionality or magnitude of gender-related differences regarding flood risk awareness and behaviour among private groundwater users, a particularly susceptible sub-population due to an overarching paucity of infrastructural regulation across many regions. The current study investigated …

Knowledge And Behavioural Interventions To Reduce Human Health Risk From Private Groundwater Systems: A Global Review And Pooled Analysis Based On Development Status, S. Mooney, C. P. Mcdowell, J. O'Dwyer, P. D. Hynds

Articles

Groundwater contamination constitutes a significant health risk for private well users residing in rural areas. As the responsibility to safeguard rural private domestic groundwater typically rests with non-expert homeowners, interventions promoting risk mitigation and awareness represent the most viable means of preventing supply contamination. However, no global review or pooled analyses of these interventions has been undertaken to date. The current study sought to identify and quantify the performance of private well interventions from 1990 to 2018 via a global systematised review and pooled analysis. The PICO (Population-Intervention-Comparison-Outcome) approach was employed for literature identification. Relevant studies were statistically analysed across …

Risk Communication Approaches For Preventing Private Groundwater Contamination In The Republic Of Ireland: A Mixed-Methods Study Of Multidisciplinary Expert Opinion, S. Mooney, J. O'Dwyer, Paul Hynds

Articles

The mechanisms of private-well groundwater contamination are uniquely complex, necessitating a multisector communicative approach to risk management, premised on behaviour promotion. In countries such as the Republic of Ireland (ROI), characterised by oftentimes high groundwater contamination risk and concurrently limited user awareness, incorporation of multidisciplinary, ‘expert-based’ knowledge may facilitate design of evidence-based, practical interventions. Expert interviews represent an efficient form of expert consultation, enabling ease of access to niche information and comparison of procedure, but remain under-utilised within the groundwater management literature. In response, the current study elicited opinion from 50 experts across four broad categories (communications, engineering/science, policy, and …

Employing A Visual Representation Technique To Understand Undergraduates’ Perceptions Of Civic Engagement Across Countries, Sharon Feeney, John Hogan

Articles

Purpose – This paper aims to present an interpretation of freehand drawings produced by a sample of final year degree level learners in response to the question: “What is civic engagement”? The aim in using this approach, with final year degree learners from different countries, but pursuing the same degree, was to compare and contrast their understanding of civic engagement.

Design/methodology/approach – Learners completed their drawings and then discussed their drawings in small groups. All of their drawings were initially examined quantitatively before a sample of six drawings were selected for in-depth qualitative examination.

Findings – Using learner-generated drawings enables …

Entrepreneurial Process Studies Using Insider Action Research: Opportunities & Challenges For Entrepreneurship Scholarship, Kisito Futonge Nzembayie, Anthony Paul Buckley

Articles

This paper examines the opportunities and challenges of adopting Insider Action Research (IAR) in entrepreneurial process studies. It employs a critical reflexive and narrative approach in examining our own lived experience in a real-time digital entrepreneurial journey spanning three years while triangulating it with experiential knowledge in another role as dissertation supervisors. Our live case illustrates that IAR, when it combines reflective practice, cooperative inquiry and design science, represents a suitable but under-exploited methodology for entrepreneurship scholarship. We build on this knowledge to offer a model for incorporating this methodology in entrepreneurship research and education. Consequently, we contribute towards responding …

Stakeholder Engagement And The Future Of Irish Public–Private Partnerships, Gail Sheppard, Matthias Beck

Articles

Building on recent works that stress the importance of stakeholder engagement in partnerships, we propose a novel benchmarking framework for the evaluation of public–private partnerships. This framework describes mutuality and the preservation of organisational identity as the ideal characteristics of partnerships because they, in turn, encourage stakeholder support for public–private partnerships. Applying this framework to infrastructure public–private partnerships in Ireland, we note that mutual accountability has been weakened following the financial crisis. Meanwhile, con-sultation with clients such as key public–private partnership stakeholders, which would help articulate organisational identities, remains patchy across the education, justice
and health public–private partnership that we …

Ireland, Broadcasting And The Spectrum Wars, Kenneth W Murphy

Articles

This paper offers an overview and evaluation of Ireland’s changing media landscape through the prism of the recent policy contestation surrounding the future use of the UHF spectrum and it’s implications for the medium of television broadcasting. The article brings into focus current policy and governance developments and their interplay with market and technological change and how they are shaping a small open European state’s adaptation to the increasingly complex national/global hybrid media ecosystem. It examines the contexts surrounding the competition for spectrum resources and its implications for the role of free to air broadcasting and mobile broadband technologies in …

The Magic And Metaphysics Of Shit :The Production Of Space And Digital Technology, David Capener

Articles

Reading Henri Lefebvre alongside Bernard Stiegler, this paper explores the changes that have taken place to the production of space in our age of digital technology. Lefebvre sensed the radical changes taking place in society through the implementation of computational technologies. He asked a prescient question: How is this space being produced? Lefebvre was unable to foresee the significant changes to the actual mechanics of the production of space brought about by the third industrial revolution. A thinker who does do this is Bernard Stiegler who is interested in how new digital technologies change memory via tertiary mnemotechnical devices – …

Does Smoke-Free Legislation Work For Teens Too?: A Logistic Regression Analysis Of Smoking Prevalence And Gender Among Sixteen Years Old In Ireland Using The 1995-2015 Espad School Surveys, Shasha Li, Sheila Keogan, Luke Clancy

Articles

Objectives: To assess the role of tobacco control legislation (TCL) in youth smoking in Ireland. To examine the effects of smoke-free legislation in youth. To consider whether TCL contributed to the gender equalisation in prevalence in 16 years old seen between 2003 and 2015.

Setting Data are from the 4 yearly European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs from 1995 to 2015. Total sample size was 12.394. A logistic regression model on grouped data was used. Dependent variable is whether a student was a smoker in last 30 days. Independent variables are time, gender and the policy indicators, …

Does Smoke-Free Legislation Work For Teens Too? A Logistic Regression Analysis Of Smoking Prevalence And Gender Among 16 Years Old In Ireland, Using The 1995-2015 Espad School Surveys, Shasha Li, Sheila Keogan, Luke Clancy

Articles

Objectives: To assess the role of tobacco control legislation (TCL) in youth smoking in Ireland. To examine the effects of smoke-free legislation in youth. To consider whether TCL contributed to the gender equalisation in prevalence in 16 years old seen between 2003 and 2015.

Smart Green Communication Protocols Based On Several-Fold Messages Extracted From Common Sequential Patterns In Uavs, Iván García-Magariño, Geraldine Gray, Raquel Lacuesta, Jaime Lloret

Articles

Green communications can be crucial for saving energy in UAVs and enhancing their autonomy. The current work proposes to extract common sequential patterns of communications to gather each common pattern into a single several- fold message with a high-level compression. Since the messages of a pattern are elapsed from each other in time, the current approach performs a machine learning approach for estimating the elapsed times using off-line training. The learned predictive model is applied by each UAV during flight when receiving a several-fold compressed message. We have explored neural networks, linear regression and correlation analyses among others. The current …

Reflections On Post-Bailout Policy Analysis In Ireland, Mary Murphy, John Hogan

Articles

This short article reflects on observations from the forthcoming volume Policy Analysis in Ireland, edited by Hogan & Murphy. The volume forms part of the International Library of Policy Analysis series, which covers more than twenty countries, published by Policy Press and edited by Michael Howlett and Iris Geva-May. While various themes emerge from the Irish volume, this article focuses on only one core question: whether and how the 2008 economic crisis contracted and expanded the capacity for policy analysis in Ireland. The troika of the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and the European Commission are associated with policy …

Blockchain And Insurance: A Review For Operations And Regulation, Richard Brophy

Articles

The purpose of this paper is to examine the operational and regulatory positions of the employment of Blockchain in the insurance industry. Blockchain technology has attracted wide interest from various stakeholders. Many theorists are predicting that this technology will disrupt financial services, including insurance. As stated that the development of blockchain is dependent on regulatory acceptance of this technology, it is essential to establish the current state of play with regard to the application and use of blockchain from a commercial and regulatory standpoints.

Uses And Gratifications Of Generation Z Within Social Networks: A Dialectical Investigation Into The Facebook Domain, Ryan O'Carroll, Tara Rooney

Articles

To date, little research has considered how various types of gratifications operate within SNSs such as Facebook (LaRose et al. 2001; Quan-Haase and Young, 2010; Wang, 2015). To address this gap, we explore Generation Z’s motivational behaviour through the lens of Uses and Gratifications Theory. Additionally, we investigate the types of gratification obtained by Generation Z through Facebook. The research adopted an interpretivist philosophy and employed a qualitative approach. The data collection method used semi-structured interviews, in conjunction with qualitative digital diary research. Research participants were requested to record emotions, behaviours and opinions in their digital diaries over a consecutive …

Exploring The Relationship Between Immigrant Enclave Theory And Transnational Diaspora Entrepreneurial Opportunity Formation, Osa Godwin Osaghae Dr, Thomas M. Cooney

Articles

Immigrant Enclave Theory (IET) investigates the concentration and localisation of immigrants in a specific geographic area. Some IET studies have highlighted the resilience of these communities and described such enclaves as sources of mutual support, collective political power and beneficial social relationships. Other studies have examined the influence of IET on immigrant entrepreneurial activity within these geographic areas, although some of these studies have highlighted IET as a contributor to low profit margin businesses due to over-representation of immigrant enterprises within the same sector and geographic locality. This article considers the potential for Transnational Diaspora Entrepreneurship (TDE) as an alternative …

What Is A Fair Price For Objector Blackmail? Class Action Objectors And The 2018 Amendments To Rule 23 Symposium, Elizabeth J. Cabraser, Adam N. Steinman

Articles

No abstract provided.