Digital Commons Network^™

Design Techniques For Direct Digital Synthesis Circuits With Improved Frequency Accuracy Over Wide Frequency Ranges, Stefan Leitner, Haibo Wang, Spyros Tragoudas

Articles

Recently, there are increasing interests in impedance sensors for various applications. Direct digital synthesis (DDS) circuits are commonly used in such sensor circuits for generating stimulus signals, due to the advantages of accurate frequency control, drift-free performance, etc. Previously reported DDS circuits for sensor applications typically maintain superb frequency accuracy within relatively small frequency ranges. This paper investigates techniques to improve frequency accuracy over wide frequency ranges. In addition, it presents an analytical framework to estimate the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the generated signal and derives guidelines for optimizing DDS circuit configurations. Both simulation and hardware measurement results …

Distributed Detection Of Sensor Worms Using Sequential Analysis And Remote Software Attestations, Jun-Won Ho, Matthew Wright

Articles

Recent work has demonstrated that self-propagating worms are a real threat to sensor networks. Since worms can enable an adversary to quickly compromise an entire sensor network, they must be detected and stopped as quickly as possible. To meet this need, we propose a worm propagation detection scheme for sensor networks. The proposed scheme applies a sequential analysis to detect worm propagation by leveraging the intuition that a worm’s communication pattern is different from benign traffic. In particular, a worm in a sensor network requires a long sequence of packets propagating hop-by-hop to each new infected node in turn. We …

Robot Perception Errors And Human Resolution Strategies In Situated Human-Robot Dialogue, Niels Schütte, Brian Mac Namee, John D. Kelleher

Articles

Errors in visual perception may cause problems in situated dialogues. We investigated this problem through an experiment in which human participants interacted through a natural language dialogue interface with a simulated robot.We introduced errors into the robot’s perception, and observed the resulting problems in the dialogues and their resolutions.We then introduced different methods for the user to request information about the robot’s understanding of the environment. We quantify the impact of perception errors on the dialogues, and investigate resolution attempts by users at a structural level and at the level of referring expressions.

Community Safety, Social Cohesion And Embedded Autonomy: A Case From South-West Dublin, Matt Bowden

Articles

The article provides a case of community safety based upon an evaluative study of an community safety intervention in the south-west Dublin suburb of Tallaght. Characteristic of the Irish context for crime prevention and community safety has been the ad hoc nature of policy formation and the underdeveloped structures for urban security. The case is based primarily upon qualitative data from interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders, together with some additional observations from a household survey. The key themes centre on the way safety manifests from issues related to social integration in the pilot communities; the impact, capacity and …

Recognising Birth Children As Social Actors In The Foster-Care Process: Retrospective Accounts From Biological Children Of Foster-Carers In Ireland, David Williams

Articles

While a wealth of literature exists on the topic of fostering, limited research has been published on the experiences of the biological children of foster-carers (Younes and Harp, 2007; Sutton and Stack, 2013). Literature that exists identifies increased recognition of the importance of birth children’s contribution to successful foster-care placements and the prevention of placement breakdown (Kalland and Sinkonnen, 2001; Hojer et al., 2013). This paper reports findings from an interpretivist study that explored the retrospective experiences of fifteen adult birth children of foster-carers (aged between eighteen and twenty-eight years) in Ireland. Using semi-structured interviews, birth children’s experiences of fostering …

Sociology In The 21st Century: Reminiscence And Redefinition, Rana Jawad, Paddy Dolan, Tracey Skillington

Articles

No abstract available.

An Application For Screening Gradual-Onset Age-Related Hearing Loss, Wayne M. Garrison, Joe Bochner

Articles

Objective. Less than 15% of adults in the USA over age 70 receive hearing screening; less than 20% of adults with hearing loss receive any form of treatment. Reasons vary, but affordability and accessibility are major barriers to intervention and treatment. This study provides data supporting a new adult hearing screening measure (NSRT®) that is self-administered, easy to use and focused on difficulties experienced in everyday speech communication. Methods. The NSRT® test materials are sentence-length utterances containing phonetic contrasts. The test requires respondents to determine whether sentences printed on a computer monitor are the same/different from sentences delivered as auditory …

Mid-Infrared Self-Similar Compression Of Picosecond Pulse In An Inversely Tapered Silicon Ridge Waveguide, Jin-Hui Yuan, Jian Chen, Feng Li, Chao Mei, Zhe Kang, Xianting Zhang, Yin Xu, Binbin Yan, Xinzhu Sang, Qiang Wu, Xian Zhou, Kangping Zhong, Kuiru Wang, Chongxiu Yu, Gerald Farrell

Articles

On chip high quality and high degree pulse compression is desirable in the realization of integrated ultrashort pulse sources, which are important for nonlinear photonics and spectroscopy. In this paper, we design a simple inversely tapered silicon ridge waveguide with exponentially decreasing dispersion profile along the propagation direction, and numerically investigate self-similar pulse compression of the fundamental soliton within the mid-infrared spectral region. When higher-order dispersion (HOD), higher-order nonlinearity (HON), losses (α), and variation of the Kerr nonlinear coefficient γ(z) are considered in the extended nonlinear Schrödinger equation, a 1 ps input pulse at the wavelength of 2490 nm is …

#Betterrules: The Appropriate Use Of Social Media In Rulemaking, Stephen M. Johnson

Articles

In December 2015, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) use of various social media tools in a rulemaking under the Clean Water Act violated prohibitions in federal appropriations laws against publicity, propaganda, and lobbying. Although academics previously explored whether the use of technology in rulemaking might violate the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), the Paperwork Reduction Act, or the Federal Advisory Committee Act, none predicted that one of the first firestorms surrounding the use of social media in rulemaking would arise out of federal appropriations laws. ...

As the Administrative Conference of the United States …

Using Rapid Reviews In Nursing And Midwifery Research: An Example From A Study Commissioned To Inform Policy-Making, Denise O'Leary, Mary Casey, Laserina O’Connor, Diarmuid Stokes, Gerard Fealy, Denise O’Brien, Rita Smith, Martin Mcnamara, Claire Egan

Articles

Aim: To illustrate the potential use of rapid review approaches in nursing and midwifery research by presenting a worked example from a study conducted to inform policy decision making.

Background: Rapid reviews, which can be defined as outputs of a knowledge synthesis approach that involves modifying or omitting elements of a systematic review process due to limited time or resources, are becoming increasingly popular in health research. This paper provides guidance on how a rapid review can be undertaken and discusses the strengths and challenges of the approach.

Data source and research design: Data from a rapid …

An Investigation Into The Development And Progressive Adaptation Of Graduate Attributes In Tourism Programmes, Louise Bellew, Odette Gabaudan

Articles

As higher education institutes are embracing the notion of graduate attributes, it has become highly desirable to embed these attributes within programmes. This study proposes to investigate students’ views of recently identified graduate attributes in the Dublin Institute of Technology (Ireland), and how they perceive their development and application in their tourism programme. The study supports the idea of the importance of placement in the progressive adaptation of learning and in translating the conception of attributes. While students strongly believe that graduate attributes are developed through the placement experience, it is equally important to embed and strengthen the visibility of …

The Perceptions Of Key Stakeholders Of The Roles Of Specialist And Advanced Nursing And Midwifery Practitioners, Mary Casey, Laserina O'Connor, Emma Nicholson, Rita Smith, Denise O'Brien, Denise O'Leary, Gerard Fealy, Martin Mcnamara, Diarmuid Stokes, Claire Egan

Articles

Aim: To explore the perceptions of key stakeholders of the roles of specialist and advanced nursing and midwifery practitioners. Background: There is evidence that the contribution of these roles to patient care is poorly understood. Design: This research took place over 2 months in 2015 and is part of a larger study involving a rapid review to inform policy development on the specialist and advanced nursing and midwifery practice in Ireland. As an added value, a qualitative element involving thematic analysis was undertaken with key stakeholders. Methods: A phenomenological qualitative study was conducted incorporating semistructured interviews …

Arts And Humanities Research, Redefining Public Benefit, And Research Prioritization In Ireland, Andrew Gibson, Ellen Hazelkorn

Articles

This article looks at the effects of a national policy of research prioritization in the years following Ireland’s economic crisis. A national research prioritization exercise initiated by policymakers redefined the purpose of higher education research, and designed policies in line with this approach. Placing research for enterprise to the fore, it emphasized the economic value that subjects could return on state investments. This article examines the post-crisis policy of prioritization, its relationship with and effects on arts and humanities research, and how the notion of the benefit of research can be broadened while still addressing economic needs. It draws on …

Grief, Loss, And Separation: Experiences Of Birth Children Of Foster Carers, David Williams

Articles

Previous research identifies the increased exposure of birth children of foster carers to experiences of separation, grief, and loss due to the transient nature of foster care, but little is known about how birth children manage this loss. This paper reports findings from a qualitative study that examined the retrospective experiences of 15 adult birth children of foster carers (aged between 18 and 28 years) in Ireland. Findings suggest that birth children experience grief and loss when foster children leave their families. They report experiencing a range of emotional responses such as guilt, blame, and sadness. A reluctance to discuss …

A Chalcogenide Multimode Interferometric Temperature Sensor Operating At A Wavelength Of 2 Μm, Lin She, Pengfei Wang, Weimin Sun, Xianfan Wang, Wenlei Yang, Gilberto Brambilla, Gerald Farrell

Articles

This paper investigated the fabrication of a singlemode-multimode-singlemode fiber structure based on a chalcogenide (As2S3 and AsxS1−x) multimode fiber sandwiched between two standard silica singlemode fibers using a commercial fiber fusion splicer. The temperature dependence of this hybrid fiber structure was investigated and a first proof of concept showed that the hybrid SMS fiber structure has an average experimental temperature sensitivity of circa 84.38 pm/°C over a temperature range of 20 °C∼100°C at the wavelength range around 2 μm. The measured results show a general agreement with numerical simulations based on a guided-mode propagation analysis method. Our result provides a …

A Curvature Sensor Based On Twisted Single-Mode-Multimode-Single-Mode Hybrid Optical Fiber Structure, Ke Tian, Yifan Xin, Wenlei Yang, Tao Geng, Jing Ren, Ya-Xian Fan, Gerald Farrell, Elfed Lewis, Pengfei Wang

Articles

An optical fiber curvature sensor based on a twisted multimode fiber (MMF) sandwiched between two single-mode fibers (SMF) is proposed and investigated theoretically and experimentally. The measured transmission spectrum exhibits good agreement with theoretical predictions. Compared with a traditional single-mode-multimode-single-mode fiber structure sensor, the proposed configuration offers a higher average curvature sensitivity of -2.42 nm/m -1 over a curvature measurement range of 0-1.7390 m -1 and -7.09 dB/m -1 at an operating wavelength of 1537 nm. The temperature sensitivity of this sensor has been determined as 0.01 nm/°C over a wavelength range of 1535-1550 nm and circa 0.007 dB/°C at …

Public Employee Speech: Answering The Unanswered And Related Questions In Lane V. Franks, John E. Rumel

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No abstract provided.

On Competence: (Re)Considering Appropriate Legal Standards For Examining Sixth Amendment Claims Related To Criminal Defendants’ Mental Illness And Disability, Sarah Gerwig-Moore

Articles

This Article addresses the questions of attorney error and client competency and examines the following issues: the origin and development of the legal tests for intellectual competency to stand trial or enter a plea and the tests for evaluating Sixth Amendment effective assistance of counsel claims; the range of state and federal approaches to circumstances when those two situations converge; and whether and how our legal tests should be shaped to best assess attorney error when the client likely has an intellectual disability or incompetence. When consideration of a defendant's mental illness or mental disability forms the basis of a …

Global Science, National Research, And The Question Of University Rankings, Ellen Hazelkorn, Andrew Gibson

Articles

Science has always operated in a competitive environment, but the globalisation of knowledge and the rising popularity and use of global rankings have elevated this competition to a new level. The quality, performance and productivity of higher education and university-based research have become a national differentiator in the global knowledge economy. Global rankings essentially measure levels of wealth and investment in higher education, and they reflect the realisation that national pre-eminence is no longer sufficient. These developments also correspond with increased public scrutiny and calls for greater transparency, underpinned by growing necessity to demonstrate value, impact and benefit. Despite on-going …

Positive Sum Design: Designing Affordances For Bias, Choice, And Coordination, Ian Gonsher

Articles

No abstract provided.

Formative Assessment In Mathematics For Engineering Students, Eabhnat Ni Fhloinn, Michael Carr

Articles

this paper, we present a range of formative assessment types for engineering mathematics, including in-class exercises, homework, mock examination questions, table quizzes, presentations, critical analyses of statistical papers, peer-to-peer teaching, online assessments and electronic voting systems. We provide practical tips for the implementation of such assessments, with a particular focus on time or resource constraints and large class sizes, as well as effective methods of feedback. In addition, we consider the benefits of such formative assessments for students and staff.

A Packaged Whispering Gallery Mode Strain Sensor Based On A Polymer Wire Cylindrical Micro Resonator, Vishnu Kavungal, Gerald Farrell, Qiang Wu, Arun Mallik, Yuliya Semenova

Articles

We propose a whispering gallery mode (WGM) strain sensor formed by a polymer-wire cylindrical micro resonator for strain measurement applications. WGMs are generated by evanescently coupling light into the polymer-wire resonator from a silica fiber taper fabricated by the micro heater brushing technique. Accurate and repeatable measurements of a strains up to one free spectral range (FSR) shift of the WGMs (corresponding to 0.33 % of the polymer-wire elongation, 3250 μɛ) are demonstrated experimentally with the proposed sensor. Practical packaging method for the proposed strain sensor on a glass microscope slide has also been realized making the sensor portable and …

Efficacy Of A National Hydrological Risk Communication Strategy: Domestic Wastewater Treatment Systems In The Republic Of Ireland, Paul Hynds, Owen Naughton, Eoin O'Neill, Simon Mooney

Articles

A significant body of research has focused on the role of domestic wastewater treatment systems (DWWTSs) as sources of human-specific aquatic contaminants in both developed and developing regions. However, to date few studies have sought to investigate the awareness, attitudes and behaviours of DWWTS owners and the efficacy of associated communication initiatives. The current study provides an examination of a public national engagement campaign undertaken in the Republic of Ireland which seeks to minimise the impact of DWWTSs on human and ecological health via concurrent inspection and information dissemination. Overall, 1634 respondents were surveyed using a ‘‘before and after” study …

An Introduction To Positive Sum Design, Ian Gonsher

Articles

No abstract provided.

Validation Of A Membrane Touch Biosensor For The Qualitative Detection Of Igg Class Antibodies To Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2, Tony Loughman, Baljit Singh, Brian Seddon, Philip Noone, Padmanabhan Santhosh

Articles

A novel type of biosensor was assessed for application to the qualitative determination of circulating antibodies to herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2). The device utilises a high activity HSV-2 type specific gG2 antigen for antibody capture and commercially available ELISA reagents. The study compares the diagnostic performance of a prototype HSV-2 biochip to well-established in vitro tests routinely applied in clinical procedures. A panel of human serum samples (n = 60) previously characterised for HSV-2 serological status using the DiaSorin LIAISON® HSV-2 chemiluminescent immunoassay were assayed on the HSV-2 biochip and the Focus Diagnostics HerpeSelect® 2 ELISA IgG kit …

The Shadow Of Free Enterprise: The Unconstitutionality Of The Securities & Exchange Commission's Administrative Law Judges, Linda D. Jellum, Moses M. Tincher

Articles

Six years ago, Congress enacted the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act), for the first time giving the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) the power to seek monetary penalties through its in-house adjudication. The SEC already had the power to seek such penalties in federal court. With the Dodd-Frank Act, the SEC’s enforcement division could now choose between an adjudication before an SEC Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) or a civil action before an Article III judge. With this new choice, litigants contended that the SEC realized a significant home-court advantage. For example, the Wall Street Journal …

Sharing Economy Meets The Sherman Act: Is Uber A Firm, A Cartel, Or Something In Between?, Mark Anderson

Articles

The sharing economy is a new industrial structure that is made possible by instantaneous internet communication and changes in the life, work, and purchasing habits of individual entrepreneurs and consumers. Antitrust law is an economic regulatory scheme dating back to 1890 in the United States that is designed to address centrally controlled concentrations of economic power and the threats that those concentrations pose to consumer interests and economic efficiency. In order to accommodate a modern enterprise structure in which thousands or millions of independent contractors join forces to provide a service by agreement among themselves, antitrust law requires re-envisioning and …

Walking Code, Conor Mcgarrigle

Articles

This paper describes an early stage research project that seeks to apply Situationist concepts of psychogeography to urban walking as artistic and activist practice. The project seeks to ultimately create a syntax that can be used to describe and codify the subjective spatial practice of walking in the city. This process is a conceptual and discursive exercise to generate new knowledge about urban space as embodied data space that seeks to create a practical open framework that can be deployed to algorithmically generate walking experiences tailored toward specific desires and activities.

This will be achieved through the development of algorithmic …

High Sensitivity Ammonia Gas Sensor Based On A Silica-Gel-Coated Microfiber Coupler, Lei Sun, Yuliya Semenova, Qiang Wu, Dejun Liu, Jinhui Yuan, Tao Ma, Xinzhu Sang, Binbin Yan, Kuiru Wang, Chongxiu Yu, Gerald Farrell

Articles

In this paper, a high-sensitivity ammonia gas sensor is proposed based on a silica-gel-coated microfiber coupler (MFC). The MFC structure is formed by the two tapered fibers with 3 μm waist diameter each, which were fabricated by using a customized microheater brushing technique. Silica gel coating was prepared by a sol-gel technique and applied on the surface of the MFC as a thin layer. The spectral characteristics of the proposed sensor were studied under various ammonia gas concentrations. The experimental results show that the coating thickness strongly affected the sensitivity of the MFC-based sensor to ammonia gas concentration. For the …

Harmonizing Cultural Ip Across Borders: Fashionable Bags & Ghanaian Adinkra Symbols, J. Janewa Osei-Tutu

Articles

Global copyright and trademark laws protect symbols, names, and literary and artistic works. However, when their primary significance is cultural, because they are neither individual original works nor symbols that are used as commercial identifiers, intellectual property laws do not protect these symbols or artistic works. This is true, even if these goods are protected under national laws as part of that nation's cultural heritage. Once these cultural goods cross borders, there is no international law that will enable the country from which these goods originate to assert its rights in other countries. This Article characterizes these cultural goods as …