Digital Commons Network^™

Optimized Monopole And Dipole Antennas For Uwb Asset Tag Location Systems, Antoine Dumoulin, Matthias John, Max Ammann, Patrick Mcevoy

Articles

Miniaturized monopole and dipole antenna designs are reported with performances optimized for ultrawideband pulsed radio applications. The geometries are created using Bézier spline shapes, which have been refined with a genetic algorithm to simultaneously take account of both frequency- and time-domain criteria. Time-domain measurements of ultra wideband antennas with uniformly distributed energy across the full 3.1-10.6 GHz mask are reported for the first time and validate a new approach to minimization of pulse dispersion effects in the antenna designs.

Omnidirectional Circularly Polarised Microstrip Patch Antenna, Max Ammann, Adam Narbudowicz, Xiulong Bao

Articles

An omnidirectional circularly-polarised patch antenna is proposed. The antenna radiates right-handed circular-polarisation with an average axial ratio of 2.3 dB over a full 360° . A shallow diagonal CPW inset-feed was used to achieve good matching to the back-to-back coupled patches, providing a measured S11 < -15 dB at the centre frequency. The measured cross-polar performance is better than 13 dB and the realised gain variation is ~3 dB in the plane normal to the substrate.

Don't Overlook Homework Assignments - They're Simple, But Powerful, Henry Etlinger

Articles

Homework has been a staple of the educational world for decades. This essay outlines how homework assignments have been used effectively in two different courses in combination with a form of continuing group work I call "coalitions," and how the use of homework in each course has influenced the evolution of its use in the other course.

An Investigation In Culinary Life And Professional Identity In Practice During Internship, Frank Cullen

Articles

The primary objective of this research was to investigate the selection process used by consumers when choosing a restaurant to dine. This study examined literature on consumer behavior, restaurant selection, and decision-making, underpinning the contention that service quality is linked to the consumer’s selection of a restaurant. It supports the utility theories that consumers buy bundles of attributes that simultaneously combined represent a certain level of service quality at a certain price. The findings of the research displayed a preference by Dublin consumers for Italian and Chinese styled restaurants and identified quality of the food, type of food, cleanliness of …

Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna For Water Pipe Sensor And Telemetry, Giuseppe Ruvio, Domenico Gaetano, Max Ammann, Patrick Mcevoy

Articles

An antipodal Vivaldi antenna operates simultaneously for telemetry and sensing when placed conformally onto PVC pipes. Good radiation efficiency is realised and the antenna impedance matching remains stable when the pipe is empty or contains water. The Fidelity Factor performance based on an input Ultra Wideband Gaussian pulse is a suitable figure of merit to detect water presence. Different water levels and pipe conditions correspond to Fidelity Factors between 90% and 96%, which are a suitable dynamic range for sensing and the appropriate quality for pulse communications for remote monitoring.

Proportionality And Parole, Richard A. Bierschbach

Articles

Commentators analyzing the Supreme Court's watershed decision in Graham v. Florida, which prohibited sentences of life without parole for juveniles convicted of nonhomicide crimes, have generally done so in substantive proportionality terms, ignoring or downplaying parole in the process. This Article challenges that approach, focusing on the intersection of proportionality and parole as a jumping-off point. Taking parole seriously makes clear that Graham is difficult to understand solely in terms of substantive proportionality concepts like individual culpability and punishment severity. Instead, the decision can be seen as establishing a rule of constitutional criminal procedure, one that links the validity of …

Rluipa Is A Bridge Too Far: Inconvenience Is Not Discrimination, Marci A. Hamilton

Articles

No abstract provided.

Proportionality And Parole, Richard A. Bierschbach

Articles

Commentators analyzing the Supreme Court's watershed decision in Graham v. Florida, which prohibited sentences of life without parole for juveniles convicted of nonhomicide crimes, have generally done so in substantive proportionality terms, ignoring or downplaying parole in the process. This Article challenges that approach, focusing on the intersection of proportionality and parole as a jumping-off point. Taking parole seriously makes clear that Graham is difficult to understand solely in terms of substantive proportionality concepts like individual culpability and punishment severity. Instead, the decision can be seen as establishing a rule of constitutional criminal procedure, one that links the validity of …

Competing Into The Future: Responding To The Emerging Challenges Of Mnc Subsidiaries, Marty Reilly, Pamela Sharkey Scott, Vincent Mangematin

Articles

Purpose

Subsidiary units must respond to emerging threats including disaggregation of value chains and increased headquarters monitoring and control which have lead to a cycle of subsidiary decline. We recognize the value of subsidiary initiatives as a short term response but argue that subsidiary long term survival and growth will depend on the unit’s ability to align with its parent strategic activities and knowledge base.

Design/ Methodology

This research is part of an ongoing quantitative and qualitative study programme of Irish subsidiary operations of foreign MNCs. This paper integrates our broader research to date with both in-depth interviews of a …

Changes To The International Regulatory Environment, Martin Mchugh, Fergal Mccaffery, Valentine Casey

Articles

Since 2010, two significant international regulations regarding medical device development have come into force, the amendment to the European Union (EU) Medical Device Directive (MDD) 2007/47/EC and the United States (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Final rule on Medical Device Data Systems (MDDS). Adherence to these regulations is mandatory to be able to market a medical device in the respective region. The ability to understand these regulations and apply them to a development project can be difficult. The MDDS final rule changes the safety classification of a number of devices from Class III-high risk to Class I-low risk. The …

Designing And Implementing A Platform For Collecting Multi-Modal Data Of Human-Robot Interaction, Brian Vaughan, Jing Guang Han, Emer Kilmartin, Nick Campbell

Articles

This paper details a method of collecting video and audio recordings of people inter- acting with a simple robot interlocutor. The interaction is recorded via a number of cameras and microphones mounted on and around the robot. The system utilised a number of technologies to engage with interlocutors including OpenCV, Python, and Max MSP. Interactions over a three month period were collected at The Science Gallery in Trinity College Dublin. Visitors to the gallery freely engaged with the robot, with interactions on their behalf being spontaneous and non-scripted. The robot dialogue was a set pattern of utterances to engage interlocutors …

The Photographer's Copyright - Photograph As Art, Photograph As Database, Justin Hughes

Articles

No abstract provided.

After Class: Aggregate Litigation In The Wake Of At&T; Mobility V Concepcion, Myriam E. Gilles, Gary Friedman

Articles

Class actions are on the ropes. Courts in recent years have ramped up the standards governing the certification of damages classes and created new standing requirements for consumer class actions. Most recently, in Wal-Mart v Dukes, the Supreme Court articulated a new and highly restrictive interpretation of the commonality requirement of Rule 23(a). But all of this pales in comparison to the Court's April 2011 decision in AT&T Mobility v Concepcion, broadly validating arbitration provisions containing class action waivers. The precise reach of Concepcion warrants close scrutiny. Our analysis suggests that following Concepcion, some plaintiffs will be able to successfully …

Systematically Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Quality Assurance Programmes In Leading To Improvements In Institutional Performance, Deirdre Lillis

Articles

Higher education institutions worldwide invest significant resources in their quality assurance systems however little empirical research exists which demonstrates their effectiveness (or otherwise). Methodological approaches for determining effectiveness are also underdeveloped. Self study with peer review is a widely used model for ensuring the quality of the core teaching, research and engagement activities of higher education institutions. This paper illustrates how an established social programme evaluation methodology can be used to determine its effectiveness in leading to improvements in institutional performance. The concept of effectiveness and the particular challenges posed by the higher education organisational culture are considered. An example …

They Saw A Protest: Cognitive Illiberalism And The Speech-Conduct Distinction, Dan M. Kahan, David A. Hoffman, Donald Braman, Danieli Evans, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski

Articles

“Cultural cognition” refers to the unconscious influence of individuals’ group commitments on their perceptions of legally consequential facts. We conducted an experiment to assess the impact of cultural cognition on perceptions of facts relevant to distinguishing constitutionally protected “speech” from unprotected “conduct.” Study subjects viewed a video of a political demonstration. Half the subjects believed that the demonstrators were protesting abortion outside of an abortion clinic, and the other half that the demonstrators were protesting the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy outside a campus recruitment facility. Subjects of opposing cultural outlooks who were assigned to the same experimental condition …

A Virtual Home Away From Home, Ian Kilroy

Articles

Emigration and media: “Staying in touch with home while living abroad has never been simpler, but does it make the emigration experience any easier? Emigrants and immigrants discuss the challenges of keeping up with home while living abroad.”

An Investigation In The Development Of Europe's Erasmus Internship Policy, Frank Cullen

Articles

The involvement of the School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology in international mobility for work placement has experienced exponential growth over the past five years with the assistance of European Leonardo da Vinci and Erasmus funding for European internships. The main purpose behind the European Commission funding ventures for internship (experiential learning) is to enhance the students’ cultural awareness, cultivate their language skills and develop their professionalism in their field of study. This paper provide an overview of the development of Erasmus internship and relationship between the the European Commission, the HEA, and DIT.

What Is The Pensee Sauvage And Is It Still Alive In Modern Society?, Mark William Farrell

Articles

The culinary process has changed somewhat down through the ages but not to any great extent. The raw materials are still similar but innovation and creativity has been applied to them to give the finished product varying degrees of taste, texture, sensory and aesthetic pleasure. Fundamentally the tools which we use to interpret or rate our food are the very same apparatus which animals use to define theirs. The anthropology of sensory perception is essentially the same for animals and man in an evolutionary perspective (Pasquet, Simmen & Pagezy, 2000). It reflects the capacity of the animal or primitive human …

Disciplinary Identity Of Nanoscience And Nanotechnology Research- A Study Of Postgraduate Researchers’ Experiences, Deepa Nathamuni Chari, Robert Howard, Brian Bowe

Articles

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology research although growing at very fast rate, its disciplinary identity remains ‘ill-defined’. It is often viewed as multidisciplinary; and/or interdisciplinary science or even as a unique discipline on its own way. As a consequence, whether this growing research area requires researchers that have studied specialised undergraduate or postgraduate nanoscience and nanotechnology programmes; or traditional science and engineering disciplines is still less understood. The examination of postgraduate researchers’ experiences of nanoscience and nanotechnology research can provide a way of understanding nanoscience and nanotechnology research and the associated forms of disciplinarity, which in turn can address what the type …

A Microfiber Coupler Tip Thermometer, Ming Ding, Pengfei Wang, Gilberto Bramilla

Articles

A compact thermometer based on a broadband microfiber coupler tip is demonstrated. This sensor can measure a broad temperature interval ranging from room temperature to 1283 degrees C with sub-200 mu m spatial resolution. An average sensitivity of 11.96 pm/degrees C was achieved for a coupler tip with similar to 2.5 mu m diameter. This is the highest temperature measured with a silica optical fiber device. (C)2012 Optical Society of America

A Survey Based Analysis Of It Adoption And 3pls’ Performance, Pietro Evangelista, Riccardo Mogre, Alessandro Perego, Antonino Raspagliesi, Edward Sweeney

Articles

Purpose – In today’s competitive scenario, effective supply chain management is increasingly dependant on third party logistics (3PL) companies’ capabilities and performance. The dissemination of information technology (IT) has contributed to change the supply chain role of 3PL companies and IT is considered an important element influencing performance of modern logistics companies. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between IT and 3PLs’ performance, assuming that logistics capabilities play a mediating role in this relationship.

Design/methodology/approach – Empirical evidence based on a questionnaire survey conducted on a sample of logistics service companies operating in the Italian …

On Creativity, Kerry Meakin

Articles

A review of available literature on creativity was undertaken to determine the definition of creativity, the common traits displayed by those perceived as being creative and how those traits may possibly be nurtured. The word ‘creativity’ has been used by politicians as if it is tangible commodity that must be developed in time of economic recession. Indeed, Dublin City Enterprise Board, a local government authority are in the process of staging ‘Idea Generation’ workshops, “this workshop not only shows you what ideas are good ideas but also introduces you to the concepts of thinking laterally” (Dublin Regional Authority, 2011). The …

Can Design Thinking Have A Social Life Through Networking?, Brenda Duggan

Articles

‘The design process is best described metaphorically as a system of spaces rather than a predefined series of orderly steps. The steps demarcate different sorts of related activities that together form a continuum of innovation’. (Brown, 2008, 4) This paper addresses two different spaces for examining design thinking — the design research notebook and the digital space, the topic-driven blog. The premise for this paper arises from teaching digital media on a visual communication programme. I wanted to ask the question from my perspective as an educator — if the individual research notebook is a convention or vehicle for design …

Irish Sexuality In The 1960s And 70s, Eamon Maher

Articles

Material reproduced by kind permission of Doctrine and Life.

Evanescent Field Coupling Between Two Parallel Close Contact Sms Fiber Structures, Qiang Wu, Youqiao Ma, Jinhui Yuan, Yuliya Semenova, Pengfei Wang, Chongxiu Yu, Gerald Farrell

Articles

We proposed a novel optical coupling technique based on two parallel singlemode-multimode- singlemode (SMS) fiber structures. This technique utilizes one SMS structure to excite multiple cladding modes within an output singlemode fiber. The excited multiple cladding modes will be coupled to the input SMF in the second SMS structure by placing the two SMS fiber structures in parallel and in close contact each other. The coupled cladding modes will be re-coupled to a guided core mode by the second SMS fiber structure. Theoretical analysis for such technique was provided and experimentally we have achieved a pass band spectral response with …

Life Cycle Assessment In The Print Industry: A Critical Review, Justin Bousquin, Eni Gambeta, Marcos Esterman

Articles

This article compares life cycle assessment studies performed on imaging equipment for the consumer market in order to identify common practices, limitations, areas for improvement, and opportunities for standardization. The analysis suggests that comparisons across studies are significantly hampered by variability in scope, transparency, data sources, and assumptions; it identifies sources of discrepancy and variability. Of particular concern to printing devices was the definition of a functional unit, which can vary significantly depending on the capabilities and use patterns of a printer. Standardization of the functional unit and related assumptions has a high potential to increase quantitative comparability across studies. …

Reasons For Non-Engagement With The Provision Of Emotional Competency Coaching: A Qualitative Study Of Irish First Year Undergraduate Students, Aiden Carthy, Celesta Mccann, Sinead Mcgilloway, Colm Mcguinness

Articles

Very little is known as to why students choose not to participate in emotional intelligence coaching programmes. This qualitative study was undertaken with a sample of Irish undergraduate students (n=20), who chose not to engage with the provision of coaching at a technical college inDublin. The reasons for non-engagement were explored by means of face-to-face interviews. The four principal reasons for non-engagement were: failing to appreciate the value of coaching; a perceived heavy academic workload; the fact that coaching was not a mandatory component of the academic curriculum; and fear that coaching may reveal weaknesses of character. Based on the …

A Fast-Response, High- Temperature Microfiber Coupler Thermometer, Ming Ding, Pengfei Wang, Gilberto Brambilla

Articles

A compact temperature sensor based on a broadband microfiber coupler tip is demonstrated. The thermometer dynamic range spans from room temperature to 1511 with a response time of tens of milliseconds. This is the highest temperature measured with a silica optical fiber device. A resolution of 0.66 was achieved for a coupler tip diameter of . Better resolution can be achieved with smaller sized microfiber coupler tips.

Information-Seeking Behaviour Of Nurses: Where Is Information Sought And What Processes Are Followed?, Denise O'Leary, Siobhan Ni Mhaolrunaigh

Articles

Aim This paper is a report of a study on how nurses inform their decision-making in the workplace

Background Despite the growing availability of research evidence, nurses have been slow to adopt it into their daily decision-making.

Method The study was undertaken in Ireland between 2006 and 2007 using a sequential mixed methods approach. In phase 1, the views of a quota sample of 29 nurses were explored using semi-structured interviews incorporating vignettes. Phase 2 involved the design and dissemination of a survey to a disproportionate stratified random sample of 1356 nurses. The response rate was 29%.

Findings In decision-making, …

Photonic Crystal Fiber Interferometer For Dew Detection, Jinesh Mathew, Yuliya Semenova, Gerald Farrell

Articles

A novel method for dew detection based on photonic crystal fiber (PCF) interferometer that operates in reflection mode is presented in this paper. The fabrication of the sensor head is simple since it only involves cleaving and fusion splicing. The sensor shows good sensitivity to dew formation with a large wavelength peak shift of the interference pattern at the onset of dew formation. The device’s response to ambient humidity and temperature are also studied and reported in this paper. From our experiment it is also concluded that by attaching a thermoelectric cooler with temperature feedback, the sensor head demonstrated can …