Digital Commons Network^™

Socio-Economic Factors Associated With The Incidence Of Shiga-Toxin Producing Escherichia Coli (Stec) Enteritis And Cryptosporidiosis In The Republic Of Ireland, 2008–2017, Eiimear Cleary, Martin Boudou, Coilín Oscar Óhaiseadha, Patricia Garvey, Paul Mckeown, Jean O'Dwyer, Paul Hynds

Articles

The Republic of Ireland (ROI) currently reports the highest incidence rates of Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli (STEC) enteritis and cryptosporidiosis in Europe, with the spatial distribution of both infections exhibiting a clear urban/rural divide. To date, no investigation of the role of socio-demographic profile on the incidence of either infection in the ROI has been undertaken. The current study employed bivariate analyses and Random Forest classification to identify associations between individual components of a national deprivation index and spatially aggregated cases of STEC enteritis and cryptosporidiosis. Classification accuracies ranged from 78.2% (STEC, urban) to 90.6% (cryptosporidiosis, rural). STEC incidence was …

Application Of Big-Data For Epidemiological Studies Of Refractive Error, James Loughman

Articles

To examine whether data sourced from electronic medical records (EMR) and a large industrial spectacle lens manufacturing database can estimate refractive error distribution within large populations as an alternative to typical population surveys of refractive error.

Predictive Modeling Of Critical Temperatures In Superconducting Materials, Markus Hofmann, Natalia Sizochenko

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n this study, we have investigated quantitative relationships between critical temperaturesof superconductive inorganic materials and the basic physicochemical attributes of these materials(also called quantitative structure-property relationships). We demonstrated that one of the mostrecent studies (titled "A data-driven statistical model for predicting the critical temperature of asuperconductor” and published in Computational Materials Science by K. Hamidieh in 2018) reportson models that were based on the dataset that contains 27% of duplicate entries. We aimed todeliver stable models for a properly cleaned dataset using the same modeling techniques (multiplelinear regression, MLR, and gradient boosting decision trees, XGBoost). The predictive ability ofour best …

Strain-, Curvature- And Twist-Independent Temperature Sensor Based On A Small Air Core Hollow Core Fiber Structure, Dejun Liu, Wei Li, Qiang Wu, Fengzi Ling, Ke Tian, Changyu Shen, Fangfang Wei, Gerald Farrell, Yuliya Semenova, Pengfei Wang

Articles

Cross-sensitivity (crosstalk) to multiple parameters is a serious but common issue for most sensors and can significantly decrease the usefulness and detection accuracy of sensors. In this work, a high sensitivity temperature sensor based on a small air core (10 µm) hollow core fiber (SACHCF) structure is proposed. Co-excitation of both anti-resonant reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW) and Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) guiding mechanisms in transmission are demonstrated. It is found that the strain sensitivity of the proposed SACHCF structure is decreased over one order of magnitude when a double phase condition (destructive condition of MZI and resonant condition of ARROW) is …

Monitoring Stem Cell Differentiation Using Raman Microspectroscopy: Chondrogenic Differentiation, Towards Cartilage Formation, Francesca Ravera, Esen Efeoglu, Hugh Byrne

Articles

Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) have the ability to differentiate into chondrocytes, the only cellular components of cartilage and are therefore ideal candidates for cartilage and tissue repair technologies. Chondrocytes are surrounded by cartilage-like extracellular matrix (ECM), a complex network rich in glycosaminoglycans, proteoglycans, and collagen, which, together with a multitude of intracellular signalling molecules, trigger the chondrogenesis and allow the chondroprogenitor to acquire the spherical morphology of the chondrocytes. However, although the mechanisms of the differentiation of MSCs have been extensively explored, it has been difficult to provide a holistic picture of the process, in situ. Raman Micro Spectroscopy (RMS) …

Food Contact Surfaces: Challenges, Legislation And Solutions, Shubham Sharma, Amit Jaiswal, Brendan Duffy, Swarna Jaiswal

Articles

Food contact surfaces (FCSs) include all surfaces that may come in contact with the food during production, processing, and packaging. Food processing industries encounter several challenges due to its microbial interaction with the FCSs, such as cross-contamination of pathogenic microorganisms or allergens in food, formation of biofilm, biodeterioration of food contact surface leads to food with reduced shelf-life and quality. A legal EU framework provides the fundamental postulates for the safety and inertness of all Food Contact Materials (FCMs). Legislations have an important role in providing regulatory guidance on the quality assurance systems and verifying their implementation as a means …

Semiclassical Backreaction On Asymptotically Anti–De Sitter Black Holes, Peter Taylor, Cormac Breen

Articles

We consider a quantum scalar field on the classical background of an asymptotically anti–de Sitter black hole and the backreaction the field’s stress-energy tensor induces on the black hole geometry. The backreaction is computed by solving the reduced-order semiclassical Einstein field equations sourced by simple analytical approximations for the renormalized expectation value of the scalar field stress-energy tensor. When the field is massless and conformally coupled, we adopt Page’s approximation to the renormalized stress-energy tensor, while for massive fields we adopt a modified version of the DeWitt-Schwinger approximation. The latter approximation must be modified so that it possesses the correct …

Collaborations In Environmental Initiatives For An Effective Gover- Nance Of Social-Ecological Systems: What The Scientific Literature Suggests., Elena Andriollo, Alberto Caimo, Laura Secco, Elena Pisani

Articles

Moving from the scientific literature on evaluation of environmental projects and programs, this study identifies how and under which conditions collaborations are considered effective for adaptive gover- nance of SES. The method adopted is a systematic literature review based on the quantitative and qualitative analysis of 56 articles selected through specific queries on the SCOPUS database and published from 2004 to 2020. Results of the quantitative analysis underline conditions able to make collaborations effective for adaptive governance of SES: the importance of transdisciplinary research tackling both environmental and social sciences, the perceived urgency of stakeholders to tackle environmental challenges and …

You Can't Lose A Game If You Don't Play The Game: Exploring The Ethics Of Gamification In Education, Dympna O'Sullivan, Ioannis Stavrakakis, Damian Gordon, Andrea Curley, Brendan Tierney, Emma Murphy, Michael Collins, Anna Becevel

Articles

Gamification has been hailed as a meaningful solution to the perennial challenge of sustaining student attention in class. It uses facets of gameplay in an educational context, including things such as points, leaderboards and badges. These are clearly efforts to make the student experience more entertaining and engaging, but nonetheless, they are also clearly digital nudges and attempts to change the students’ behaviours and attitudes to a specific set of concepts, and in which case they must, and should, be subject to the same ethical scrutiny as any other form of persuasion technique, as they may be unintentionally eroding the …

Near-Field Propagation Analysis For Vivaldi Antenna Design: Insight Into The Propagation Process For Optimizing The Directivity, Integrity Of Signal Transmission, And Efficiency, Ha Hoang, Matthias John, Patrick Mcevoy, Max Ammann

Articles

Refined optimization of complex curve–linear-shaped radiators, such as traveling-wave Vivaldi antennas, can be achieved by considering simulated near fields to interpret in detail the structural influences of a design. The relationships between the space and time distributions of electromagnetic (EM) energy clusters and the geometric features are revealed with appropriate use of impulse response analysis combined with the multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm. This article reports a deeper approach when applied to the adjustment of the geometric features of a traveling-wave antenna based on an analysis of near-field propagation features.

Configurations To Superior Environmental Innovation Strategy: A Both–And Approach, Tiziana Russo-Spena, Nadia Di Paola, Aidan O'Driscoll

Articles

An effective climate change action involves the critical role that companies must play in assuring the long-term human and social well-being of future generations. In our study, we offer a more holistic, inclusive, both–and approach to the challenge of environmental innovation (EI) that uses a novel methodology to identify relevant configurations for firms engaging in a superior EI strategy. A conceptual framework is proposed that identifies six sets of driving characteristics of EI and two sets of beneficial outcomes, all inherently tensional. Our analysis utilizes a complementary rather than an oppositional point of view. A data set of 65 companies …

Evaluation Of Postoperative Refractive Error Correction After Cataract Surgery, Ellen Konadu Antwi-Adjei, Emmanuel Owusu, Emmanuel Kobia-Acquah, Emmanuella Esi Dadzie, Emmanuel Anarfi, Seth Wanye

Articles

Suboptimal cataract surgery outcomes remain a challenge in most developing countries. In Ghana, about 2 million people have been reported to be blind due to cataract with about 20% new cases being recorded yearly. The aim of this study was to evaluate postoperative correction of refractive errors after cataract surgery in a selected eye hospital in Ashanti Region, Ghana. This was a retrospective study where medical records of patients (aged 40–100) who reported to an eye hospital in Ghana from 2013–2018 were reviewed. Included in the study were patients aged ≥40 years and patients with complete records. Data on patient …

Entitlement To Punishment, Kyron J. Huigens

Articles

This Article advances the idea of entitlement to punishment as the core of a normative theory of legal punishment's moral justification. It presents an alternative to normative theories of punishment premised on desert or public welfare; that is, to retributivism and consequentialism. The argument relies on H.L.A. Hart's theory of criminal law as a "choosing system," his theory of legal rules, and his theory of rights. It posits the advancement of positive freedom as a morally justifying function of legal punishment.

An entitlement to punishment is a unique, distinctive legal relation. We impose punishment when an offender initiates an ordered …

Blockchain Neutrality, Samuel N. Weinstein

Articles

Blockchain technology is transforming how markets work. Blockchains eliminate the need for trusted gatekeepers like banks to execute, verify, and record transactions. In the financial markets, their disruptive potential threatens both Wall Street banks and Silicon Valley venture capitalists. How blockchain technology is regulated will determine whether it encourages or inhibits competition. Some blockchain applications present serious fraud and systemic risks, complicating regulation. This Article explores the antitrust and competition policy challenges blockchain presents and proposes a regulatory strategy, modeled on Internet regulation and net neutrality principles, to unlock blockchain’s competitive potential. It contends that financial regulators should promote blockchain …

Data: The Good, The Bad And The Ethical, John D. Kelleher, Filipe Cabral Pinto, Luis M. Cortesao

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It is often the case with new technologies that it is very hard to predict their long-term impacts and as a result, although new technology may be beneficial in the short term, it can still cause problems in the longer term. This is what happened with oil by-products in different areas: the use of plastic as a disposable material did not take into account the hundreds of years necessary for its decomposition and its related long-term environmental damage. Data is said to be the new oil. The message to be conveyed is associated with its intrinsic value. But as in …

Mathematical Model Of The Role Of Asymptomatic Infection In Outbreaks Of Some Emerging Pathogens, Nourridine Siewe, Bradford Greening Jr., Nina H. Fefferman

Articles

Preparation for outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases is often predicated on beliefs that we will be able to understand the epidemiological nature of an outbreak early into its inception. However, since many rare emerging diseases exhibit different epidemiological behaviors from outbreak to outbreak, early and accurate estimation of the epidemiological situation may not be straightforward in all cases. Previous studies have proposed considering the role of active asymptomatic infections co-emerging and co-circulating as part of the process of emergence of a novel pathogen. Thus far, consideration of the role of asymptomatic infections in emerging disease dynamics have usually avoided considering …

State Of The Art In Composition, Fabrication, Characterization, And Modeling Methods Of Cement-Based Thermoelectric Materials For Low-Temperature Applications, Xiaoli Liu, Ruchita Jani, Esther Orisakwee, Conrad Johnston, Piotr Chudzinski, Ming Qu, Brian Norton, Niall Holmes Dr., Jorge Kohanoff, Lorenzo Stella, Hongxi Yin, Kazuaki Yazawa

Articles

The worldwide energy crisis and environmental deterioration are probably humanity’s greatest challenges. Thermoelectricity, which allows for the mutual conversion between thermal and electrical energy, has become a promising technology to alleviate this challenge. Increasingly more research focuses on how to fabricate and apply thermoelectric materials for harvesting energy and regulating the indoor thermal environment. However, only a few studies have focused on cementitious materials with thermoelectric potential. Thermoelectric cement is a composite material in which particular additives can enhance the thermoelectric performance of ordinary cement. By potentially replacing traditional construction materials with thermoelectric cement in building applications, electricity could be …

On The Generation, Structure, And Semantics Of Grammar Patterns In Source Code Identifiers, Christian D. Newman,, Reem S. Alsuhaibani, Michael J. Decker, Anthony Peruma, Dishant Kaushik, Mohamed Wiem Mkaouer, Emily Hill

Articles

Identifier names are the atoms of program comprehension. Weak identifier names decrease developer productivity and degrade the performance of automated approaches that leverage identifier names in source code analysis; threatening many of the advantages which stand to be gained from advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Therefore, it is vital to support developers in naming and renaming identifiers. In this paper, we extend our prior work, which studies the primary method through which names evolve: rename refactorings. In our prior work, we contextualize rename changes by examining commit messages and other refactorings. In this extension, we further consider data …

A Comparative Analysis Of Rule-Based, Model-Agnostic Methods For Explainable Artificial Intelligence, Giulia Vilone, Lucas Rizzo, Luca Longo

Articles

The ultimate goal of Explainable Artificial Intelligence is to build models that possess both high accuracy and degree of explainability. Understanding the inferences of such models can be seen as a process that discloses the relationships between their input and output. These relationships can be represented as a set of inference rules which are usually not explicit within a model. Scholars have proposed several methods for extracting rules from data-driven machine-learned models. However, limited work exists on their comparison. This study proposes a novel comparative approach to evaluate and compare the rulesets produced by four post-hoc rule extractors by employing …

Lightgwas: A Novel Machine Learning Procedure For Genome-Wide Association Study, Ambrozio Bruno, Luca Longo, Lucas Rizzo

Articles

This paper proposes a novel machine learning procedure for genome-wide association study (GWAS), named LightGWAS. It is based on the LightGBM framework, in addition to being a single, resilient, autonomous and scalable solution to address common limitations of GWAS implementations found in the literature. These include reliance on massive manual quality control steps and specific GWAS methods for each type of dataset morphology and size. Through this research, LightGWAS has been contrasted against PLINK2, one of the current state-of-the-art for GWAS implementations based on general linear model with support to firth regularisation. The mean differences measured upon standard classification metrics, …

A Conceptual Model To Explain Dark Matter And Dark Energy, Jonathan Blackledge

Articles

This paper considers a conceptual model that attempts to explain ‘Dark Matter’ and‘Dark Energy’. The model is based on considering a gravitational field to be the result of a mass (aHiggs field) scattering pre-existing cosmic background space-time waves or ‘Uber-waves’. The term‘Uber’ is used to denote an outstanding or supreme example of a particular kind of gravitationalwave with cosmic-scale wavelengths that are far in excess of those associated with the gravitationalwaves generated by accelerating masses. Such waves are taken to be the very lowest frequencycomponents associated with the spectrum of space-time waves generated by the ‘Big Bang’ andare supported by …

Neurophysiological Correlates Of Dual Tasking In People With Parkinson's Disease And Freezing Of Gait, Conor Fearon, John Butler, Saskia Waechter, Isabelle Killane, Simon Kelly, Richard B Reilly, Timothy Lynch

Articles

Freezing of gait in people with Parkinson's disease (PwP) is associated with executive dysfunction and motor preparation deficits. We have recently shown that electrophysiological markers of motor preparation, rather than decision-making, differentiate PwP with freezing of gait (FOG +) and without (FOG -) while sitting. To examine the effect of locomotion on these results, we measured behavioural and electrophysiological responses in PwP with and without FOG during a target response time task while sitting (single-task) and stepping-in-place (dual-task). Behavioural and electroencephalographic data were acquired from 18 PwP (eight FOG +) and seven young controls performing the task while sitting and …

Exploring The Potential Of Defeasible Argumentation For Quantitative Inferences In Real-World Contexts: An Assessment Of Computational Trust, Lucas Rizzo, Pierpaolo Dondio, Luca Longo

Articles

Argumentation has recently shown appealing properties for inference under uncertainty and conflicting knowledge. However, there is a lack of studies focused on the examination of its capacity of exploiting real-world knowledge bases for performing quantitative, case-by-case inferences. This study performs an analysis of the inferential capacity of a set of argument-based models, designed by a human reasoner, for the problem of trust assessment. Precisely, these models are exploited using data from Wikipedia, and are aimed at inferring the trustworthiness of its editors. A comparison against non-deductive approaches revealed that these models were superior according to values inferred to recognised trustworthy …

Enhancing The Visibility Of Vernier Effect In A Tri-Microfiber Coupler Fiber Loop Interferometer For Ultrasensitive Refractive Index And Temperature Sensing, Fangfang Wei, Dejun Liu, Zhe Wang, Zhuochen Wang, Gerald Farrell, Qiang Wu, Gang-Ding Peng, Yuliya Semenova

Articles

In this paper a Vernier effect based sensor is analyzed and demonstrated experimentally in a tri-microfiber coupler (Tri-MFC) and polarization-maintaining fiber (PMF) loop interferometer (Tri-MFC-PMF) to provide ultrasensitive refractive index and temperature sensing. The main novelty of this work is an analysis of parameters of the proposed Tri-MFC-PMF with the objective of determining the conditions leading to a strong Vernier effect. It has been identified by simulation that the Vernier effect is a primary factor in the design of Tri-MFC-PMF loop sensing structure for sensitivity enhancement. It is furthermore demonstrated experimentally that enhancing the visibility of the Vernier spectrum in …

Eventually Periodic Solutions Of Single Neuron Model, Inese Bula, Michael A. Radin

Articles

In this paper, we consider a non-autonomous piecewise linear difference equation that describes a discrete version of a single neuron model with a periodic (period two and period three) internal decay rate. We investigated the periodic behavior of solutions relative to the periodic internal decay rate in our previous papers. Our goal is to prove that this model contains a large quantity of initial conditions that generate eventually periodic solutions. We will show that only periodic solutions and eventually periodic solutions exist in several cases.

A Reference Data Set For Image Registration Of The Pelvis Using Combinatorial Rigid Registration Optimization (Corro)., Afua A Yorke, David Solis Jr, Thoas Guerrero

Articles

Purpose Clinical image pairs provide the most realistic test data for image registration evaluation. However, the optimal registration is unknown. Using combinatorial rigid registration optimization (CORRO) we demonstrate a method to estimate the optimal alignment for rigid-registration of clinical image pairs.

Methods Expert selected landmark pairs were selected for each CT/CBCT image pair for six cases representing head and neck, thoracic, and pelvic anatomic regions. Combination subsets of a k number of landmark pairs (k-combination set) were generated without repeat to form a large set of k-combination sets (k-set) for k = 4,8,12. The rigid transformation between the image pairs …

Quotient-Transitivity And Cyclic Subgroup-Transitivity, Brendan Goldsmith, Ketao Gong

Articles

We introduce two new notions of transitivity for Abelian 𝑝-groups based on isomorphism of quotients rather than the classical use of equality of height sequences associated with Abelian 𝑝-group theory. Unlike the classical theory where “most” groups are transitive, these new notions lead to much smaller classes, but even these classes are sufficiently large to be interesting.

A Hybrid Agent-Based And Equation Based Model For The Spread Of Infectious Diseases, Elizabeth Hunter, Brian Mac Namee, John D. Kelleher

Articles

Both agent-based models and equation-based models can be used to model the spread of an infectious disease. Equation-based models have been shown to capture the overall dynamics of a disease outbreak while agent-based models are able to capture heterogeneous characteristics of agents that drive the spread of an outbreak. However, agent-based models are computationally intensive. To capture the advantages of both the equation-based and agent-based models, we create a hybrid model where the disease component of the hybrid model switches between agent-based and equation-based. The switch is determined using the number of agents infected. We first test the model at …

Comparing Variable Importance In Prediction Of Silence Behaviours Between Random Forest And Conditional Inference Forest Models., Stephen Barrett Dr, Geraldine Gray Dr, Colm Mcguinness Dr, Michael Knoll Dr.

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This paper explores variable importance metrics of Conditional Inference Trees (CIT) and classical Classification And Regression Trees (CART) based Random Forests. The paper compares both algorithms variable importance rankings and highlights why CIT should be used when dealing with data with different levels of aggregation. The models analysed explored the role of cultural factors at individual and societal level when predicting Organisational Silence behaviours.

Assessment And Evaluation Of Student Learning Through A Project-Based Assignment On Note By Note Cooking, Roisin Burke, Pauline Danaher

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Many innovative teaching and learning methods are used in higher level education including projectbased learning (PBL). Since 2012 a PBL assignment project has been undertaken by master students of the Advanced Molecular Gastronomy module at Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin). The aim is to stimulate student learning and creativity by using Note by Note cooking in a PBL assignment while at the same time complying with the requirements of the annual International Note by Note contest which is held in Paris, France. Direct and indirect assessment methods were used to assign individual grades and to gather student feedback about the …