Digital Commons Network^™

Assessment Of Consumer Protection Act 2019 To Support Tobacco Control In India, Ashok R. Patil

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The use of tobacco products has been clearly established to cause significant medical and economic harm. While specific tobacco control legislation has been enacted in the form of the COTPA 2003, it is important to examine if other legislations can be utilised for regulation of tobacco consumption. One such legislation is the Consumer Protection Act 2019, which significantly expands the rights of consumers and protection given to them in terms of product safety and product quality. Accordingly, this paper provides an in-depth analysis of the Consumer Protection Act 2019 and the scope of utilising this legislation and the jurisprudence on …

Including Autistic Teens In Libraries, Aisling Smith

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This article discusses the needs of autistic teenagers with low support needs and how best to cultivate and promote inclusivity in libraries to better serve this vulnerable sector of the community. Librarians should endeavour to understand the difficulties they encounter and how to minimize factors that might exacerbate these issues if autistic adolescents are to feel welcome and accepted.

Adapting To 4 Degrees C World, Karrigan Bork, Karen Bradshaw, Cinnamon P. Carlarne, Robin Kundis Craig, Sarah Fox, Josh Galperin, Keith Hirokawa, Shi-Ling Hsu, Katrina Kuh, Kevin Lynch, Michele Okoh, Jessica Owley, Melissa Powers, Shannon Roesler, J.B. Ruhl, James Salzman, David Takacs, Clifford J. Villa

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The Paris Agreement's goal to hold warming to 1.50-2 0 C above pre-industrial levels now appears unrealistic. Profs. Robin Kundis Craig and J.B. Ruhl have recently argued that because a 40 C world may be likely, we must recognize the disruptive consequences of such a world and respond by reimagining governance structures to meet the challenges of adapting to it. In this latest in a biannual series of essays, they and other members of the Environmental Law Collaborative explore what 40 C might mean for a variety of current legal doctrines, planning policies, governance structures, and institutions.

Childminding Professionalism And Professionalisation In Ireland: A Different Story, Miriam O'Regan, Ann Marie Halpenny, Noirin Hayes

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This research focussed on documenting the praxis and paedagogy of paid, professional childminding (family childcare/day care) in Ireland. It explored professionalism and professionalisation among childminders in the context of the evolving understanding of professionalism in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) nationally and internationally. The research was conducted within the framework of Ecocultural Theory (ECT) on the eve of mandatory regulation of childminding against the backdrop of Irish ECEC policy. A mixed method approach was adopted, using the Ecocultural Family Interview for Childminders (EFICh), including participants’ photographs, case study surveys, researcher field notes and holistic ratings. We present findings related …

Towards An Ethical Framework For The Design And Development Of Inclusive Home-Based Smart Technology For Smart Spaces For Older Adults And People With Disabilities, Emma Murphy, Julie Doyle, Ioannis Stavrakakis, Damian Gordon, Brian Keegan, Dympna O'Sullivan

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Unique ethical, privacy and safety implications arise for people who are reliant on home-based smart technology due to health conditions or disabilities. As a result we need to carefully reflect on our approaches to ethical issues over the life cycle of smart home technology design and the wider living context for end users and relevant stakeholders. In this position paper we highlight a need for a reflective, inclusive ethical framework for the design of inclusive smart spaces. We present key ethical considerations in the design, development and deployment of smart home-based technology for older adults and people with disabilities. We …

How Is Immigrant Entrepreneurial Opportunity Formation Influenced By Interactions Between Home And Host Countries?, Kingsley C. Njoku, Thomas M. Cooney

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This study examined how the entrepreneurial opportunity formation process among different ethnic groups was influenced by their origins and the cultural values accustomed to them. Using a qualitative phenomenological approach, data was collected from 20 participants (five each from four different ethnic groups) using an in-depth interview technique. The study found that the interactions between an immigrant's home and host environments can take different forms (i.e., enablers and threats) which will influence their career choices in diverse ways. The study model framework showed that participants are influenced distinctly subject to their ethnic backgrounds and the nature of their interactions with …

Understanding The Influence Of Place On Festival Making And Artistic Production In The Local Urban Festival Context, Danielle Lynch, Bernadette Quinn Dr

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Recent decades have seen a dramatic increase in research output on arts festivals and cultural events, and a growing focus on the role festivals play in negotiating and constructing meanings of place. However, little attention has been paid to how place shapes the process of festival making and artistic production. This paper attempts to address this shortcoming by examining the extent to which place matters to the production of festival activity and asks: how does place influence festival making and artistic production in a local arts festival context? The study is part of ongoing qualitative research into the Five Lamps …

Sociodemographic, Personal, Peer, And Familial Predictors Of E-Cigarette Ever Use In Espad Ireland: A Forward Stepwise Logistic Regression Model, Joan Hanafin, Salome Sunday, Luke Clancy

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Introduction:
/="/">E-cigarette ever use has risen significantly in recent years in Ireland, similar to trends elsewhere in Europe, the United States, and Asia-Pacific region. Results from ESPAD Ireland (European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs) show teenage e-cigarette ever use increased from 18% (2015) to 37% (2019). Given this increase, our aim is to profile e-cigarette ever users and never users in this age group; to examine sociodemographic, personal, peer, and familial factors associated with e-cigarette ever use; and to suggest appropriate measures to reduce use.
/="/">
/="/">Methods:
/="/">A nationally representative stratified random sample of …

Probability Models With Discrete And Continuous Parts, James E. Marengo, David L. Farnsworth

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In mathematical statistics courses, students learn that the quadratic function E ((X – x )-squared) is minimized when x is the mean of the random variable X, and that the graphs of this function for any two distributions of X are simply translates of each other. We focus on the problem of minimizing the function defined by y ( x) = E ( IX – xI-squared ) in the context of mixtures of probability distributions of the discrete, absolutely continuous, and singular continuous types. This problem is important, for example, in Bayesian statistics, when one attempts to compute the decision …

Institutional Considerations For The Regulation Of Internet Service Providers, Daniel Deacon

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Written to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, this Essay looks forward at possible settlements regarding the nagging question of whether and how best to regulate Internet service providers. Rather than start from the standpoint that this or that policy, such as net neutrality, is good or bad, I ask more broadly who should regulate ISPs and under what general framework. I assess and critique various frameworks, including reliance on markets and antitrust; state-level regulation under a federal Title I regime; various frameworks set forward in Republican sponsored bills; and the Save the Internet Act. I …

Contracts In The Age Of Smart Readers, Yonathan A. Arbel, Shmuel I. Becher

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What does it mean to have machines that can read, explain, and evaluate contracts? Recent advances in machine learning have led to a fundamental breakthrough in machine language models, portending a profound shift in the ability of machines to process text. Such a shift has far-reaching consequences for diverse areas of law, which are predicated on, and justified by, the existence of information barriers. Our object here is to provide a general framework for evaluating the legal and policy implications of employing language models as "smart readers"-tools that read, analyze, and assess contracts, disclosures, and privacy policies.

Synthesizing state-of-the-art developments, …

Assessing Feature Representations For Instance-Based Cross-Domain Anomaly Detection In Cloud Services Univariate Time Series Data, Rahul Agrahari, Matthew Nicholson, Clare Conran, Haytham Assem, John D. Kelleher

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In this paper, we compare and assess the efficacy of a number of time-series instance feature representations for anomaly detection. To assess whether there are statistically significant differences between different feature representations for anomaly detection in a time series, we calculate and compare confidence intervals on the average performance of different feature sets across a number of different model types and cross-domain time-series datasets. Our results indicate that the catch22 time-series feature set augmented with features based on rolling mean and variance performs best on average, and that the difference in performance between this feature set and the next best …

Assessing Feature Representations For Instance-Based Cross-Domain Anomaly Detection In Cloud Services Univariate Time Series Data, Rahul Agrahari, Matthew Nicholson, Clare Conran, Haythem Assem, John D. Kelleher

Articles

In this paper, we compare and assess the efficacy of a number of time-series instance feature representations for anomaly detection. To assess whether there are statistically significant differences between different feature representations for anomaly detection in a time series, we calculate and compare confidence intervals on the average performance of different feature sets across a number of different model types and cross-domain time-series datasets. Our results indicate that the catch22 time-series feature set augmented with features based on rolling mean and variance performs best on average, and that the difference in performance between this feature set and the next best …

The Meld Model: The Holy Grail Of Indian Corporate Jurisprudence, Rahul Singh

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Is a model of a theory of Indian corporate jurisprudence effable? This paper posits that jurisprudence of Indian corporate law is desirable and possible. Given the relative nascence of the Companies Act 2013, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 and the Competition Act 2002, this paper undergirds the possibility of jurisprudence through modelling-the meld model-which is, jurisprudentially speaking, a synthesis between 'exclusive legal positivism' and 'law and economics'. The paper instantiates the utility and desirability of the meld model through test suites - i.e. select case laws in the context of company, competition and insolvency laws. With the help of test …

Improving Interpreters’ Normative Ethics Discourse By Imparting Principled-Reasoning Through Case Analysis, Robyn K. Dean, Robert Q. Pollard Jr.

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The vocabulary available to community interpreters regarding professional ethics is typically limited to a set of prohibitions—what interpreters should not do. These prohibitions are disproportionately more prevalent in ethical documents and discourse than guidance on what interpreters should do. Both types of guidance are examples of normative ethical messages. However, when interpreters are asked to justify decisions which lead to them taking action rather than refraining from action, they are left with insufficient vocabulary to do so. Without a broader normative vocabulary allowing conversation regarding action-taking, interpreters tend to rely on unhelpful, non-normative language such as metaphors which fail to …

Effects Of Religiosity And Travel Desire On Covid-19 Vaccination Intentions, Muhammet Kesgin, Ali Selcuk Can, Dogan Gursoy, Yuksel Ekinci, Khaled Aldawodi

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Despite the deadly consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine hesitation remains a threat to public health and international travel. This study tests the effect of Muslim religiosity on belief-based attitudes (i.e., subjective norms, perceived behavioural control) and travel desire as a proxy for COVID-19 vaccination intentions. The structural model was tested using PLS-SEM with the data collected via a self-administrated survey between April and June 2021 in Saudi Arabia (N=759). Results reveal that travel desire along with belief-based attitudes influence COVID-19 vaccination intentions. Intrinsic religiosity influences individuals’ subjective norms, directly and perceived behavioural control and COVID-19 vaccination intentions indirectly through …

Refactoring For Reuse: An Empirical Study, Eman Abdullah Alomar, Tianjia Wang, Vaibhavi Raut, Mohamed Wiem Mkaouer, Christian D. Newman, Ali Ouni

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Refactoring is the de-facto practice to optimize software health. While several studies propose refactoring strategies to optimize software design through applying design patterns and removing design defects, little is known about how developers actually refactor their code to improve its reuse. Therefore, we extract, from 1,828 open source projects, a set of refactorings that were intended to improve the software reusability. We analyze the impact of reusability refactorings on the state-of-the-art reusability metrics, and we compare the distribution of reusability refactoring types, with the distribution of the remaining mainstream refactorings. Overall, we found that the distribution of refactoring types, applied …

Evolutionary Paths To Macrolide Resistance In A Neisseria Commensal Converge On Ribosomal Genes Through Short Sequence Duplications, Jordan C. Raisman, Michael A. Fiore, Lucille Tomin, Joseph K. O. Adjei, Virginia X. Aswad, Jonathan Chu, Christina J. Domondon, Ben A. Donahue, Claudia A. Masciotti, Connor G. Mcgrath, Jo Melita, Paul A. Podbielski, Madelyn R. Schreiner, Lauren J. Trumpore, Peter C. Wengert, Emalee A. Wrightstone, André O. Hudson, Crista B. Wadsworth

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Neisseria commensals are an indisputable source of resistance for their pathogenic relatives. However, the evolutionary paths commensal species take to reduced susceptibility in this genus have been relatively underexplored. Here, we leverage in vitro selection as a powerful screen to identify the genetic adaptations that produce azithromycin resistance (� 2 μg/mL) in the Neisseria commensal, N. elongata. Across multiple lineages (n = 7/16), we find mutations that reduce susceptibility to azithromycin converge on the locus encoding the 50S ribosomal L34 protein (rpmH) and the intergenic region proximal to the 30S ribosomal S3 protein (rpsC) through short tandem duplication events. Interestingly, …

Ethnicity, Self-Knowledge And Literary Sensitivity: A Sociological Reading Of V. S. Naipaul’S First Four Novels, N. Jayaram

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Taking a cue from G. S. Ghurye’s Shakespeare on Conscience and Justice (1965) this lecture in his memory explores the role of ethnicity in shaping the selfknowledge and literary sensitivity of V. S. Naipaul. Naipaul’s life traverses three distinct cultures: the Hindu culture brought by his ancestors who came as indentured migrants to Trinidad, the Creole culture of colonial Trinidad and the emerging modern culture of western civilisation. Much of Naipaul’s self-knowledge involved his engagement with these three cultures and his experience of the interplay between colonialism and ethnicity. In his first four novels—Miguel Street, The Mystic Masseur, The Suffrage …

Re-Thinking The Coronavirus Pandemic As A Policy Punctuation: Covid-19 As A Path-Clearing Policy Accelerator, John Hogan, Michael Patrick Howlett, Mary P. Murphy

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This article joins with others in this special issue to examine the evolution of our understanding of how the coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 pandemic impacted policy ideas and routines across a wide variety of sectors of government activity. Did policy ideas and routines transform as a result of the pandemic or were they merely a continuation of the status quo ante? If they did transform, are the transformations temporary in nature or likely to lead to significant, deep and permanent reform to existing policy paths and trajectories? As this article sets out, the literature on policy punctuations has evolved and helps …

Plasma Induced Reactive Oxygen Species-Dependent Cytotoxicity In Glioblastoma 3d Tumourspheres, Janith Wanigasekara, Carlos Barcia, Patrick J. Cullen, Brijesh Tiwari, James F. Curtin

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The aim of this study was to determine the effects of a pin‐to‐plate cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) on U‐251 MG three‐dimensional (3D) glioblastoma spheroids under different conditions. 3D tumorspheres showed higher resistance to the CAP treatment compared to 2D monolayer cells. A single CAP treatment was able to induce cytotoxicity, while multiple CAP treatments augmented this effect. CAP was also able to induce cytotoxicity throughout the tumoursphere, and we identified that reactive oxygen species(ROS) plays a major role, while H2O2plays a partial role in CAP‐induced cytotoxicity in tumour-spheres. We conclude that ROS‐dependent cytotoxicity is induced uniformly throughout glioblastoma and epidermoid …

Analysis Of Human Gait Cycle With Body Equilibrium Based On Leg Orientation, Muhammad Asif, Muhammad Abdullah Tayyab, Muhammad Hammad Shahid, Usama Arif, Mohsin Islam Tiwana, Umar Shahbaz Khan, Waqar Shahid Qureshi

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Gait analysis identifies the posture during movement in order to provide the correct actions for a normal gait. A person's gait may differ from others and can be recognized by specific patterns. Healthy individuals exhibit normal gait patterns, while lower limb amputees exhibit abnormal gait patterns. To better understand the pitfalls of gait, it is imperative to develop systems capable of capturing the gait patterns of healthy individuals. The main objective of this research was to introduce a new concept in gait analysis by computing the static and dynamic equilibrium in a real-world environment. A relationship was also presented among …

Gender Equality In Higher Education And Research, Rodrigo Rosa, Sara Clavero

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No abstract provided.

Intergenerational Learning As A Pedagogical Strategy In Early Childhood Education Services: Perspectives From An Irish Study, Anne Fitzpatrick, Ann Marie Halpenny

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This study investigated the concept, role and potential of intergenerational learning (IGL) as a pedagogical strategy in five Irish early childhood education (ECE) services, through exploring the perspectives on IGL of educators (5), children (70) and their parents (43). Informed by socio-cultural theories of learning and aligned to key principles of IGL, a qualitative methodological approach was adopted. Data was gathered using semi-structured interviews with educators, ‘draw and talk’ strategies with children and informal written feedback with parents. Key findings demonstrated that children’s happiness, socio-emotional competences and executive functions, all key elements of successful learning and living, were strongly supported …

At War With A Silent Killer: An Ipa Study Of The Lived Experiences Of Community Pharmacists In Ireland During Covid-19, Regina Brady, Niamh Imbusch

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Objectives: The purpose of this research was to give voice to the unique lived experiences of community pharmacists who continued to work in patient-facing roles throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Research objectives sought to understand how they felt about working during this time including any risks felt, why they choose to continue working, and what the post-COVID future might hold for them and their profession. Method: The study was guided by the principles of traditional interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Primary research was collated using semi-structured interviews of a small, purposively selected homogenous group of pharmacists. The research context was a …

The History And Work Of The Centre For Early Childhood Development And Education (Cecde) (2001-2008), Elizabeth Dunphy Dr, Maire Mhic Mhathuna

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Growing international interest in ECEC policy in the 1990s resulted in increasing awareness of its significance for education policy in Ireland. Arising from this, in 1999, Ready to Learn: A White Paper for Early Childhood Education was published. This led to the establishment of the Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education (CECDE). This chapter charts in chronological order the history and work of the CECDE from its inception in 2001 until its closure in 2008. It documents the governance, structures, strategic direction and management of the Centre. It foregrounds the outputs of the Centre including research reports, international conferences …

Design And Development Of Magnetic Iron Core Gold Nanoparticle-Based Fluorescent Multiplex Assay To Detect Salmonella, Xinyi Zhao

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Salmonella is a bacterial pathogen which is one of the leading causes of severe illnesses in humans. The current study involved the design and development of two methods, respectively using iron oxide nanoparticle (IONP) and iron core gold nanoparticle (ICGNP), conjugated with the Salmonella antibody and the fluorophore, 4-Methylumbelliferyl Caprylate (4-MUCAP), used as an indicator, for its selective and sensitive detection in contaminated food products. Twenty double-blind beverage samples, spiked with Salmonella enteritidis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Escherichia coli, were prepared in sterile Eppendorf® tubes at room temperature. The gold layer and spikes of ICGNPs increased the surface areas. The ratio …

Hydrogel On A Smart Nanomaterial Interface To Carry Therapeutics For Digitalized Glioma Treatment, Xinyi Zhao, Bilal Javed, Furong Tian, Kangze Liu

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Glioma is considered the primary brain tumor to cause brain illnesses, and it is difficult to treat and shows resistance to various routine therapeutics. The most common treatments to cure glioma are the surgical removal of tumors followed by adjuvant chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The latest biocompatible interfaces have been incorporated into therapeutic modalities such as the targeted delivery of drugs using hydrogels to treat and manage brain glioma. This review illustrates the applications of the multimodal hydrogel as the carrier of therapeutics, gene therapy, therapeutic tactics, and glioma devices. The scientific articles were retrieved from 2019 to 2022 on …

Exploring The Concept Of The Digital Educator During Covid-19, Fernando Jimenez, Gracia Sanchez, Jose Palma, Luis Miralles-Pechuán, Juan A. Botia

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T In many machine learning classification problems, datasets are usually of high dimensionality and therefore require efficient and effective methods for identifying the relative importance of their attributes, eliminating the redundant and irrelevant ones. Due to the huge size of the search space of the possible solutions, the attribute subset evaluation feature selection methods are not very suitable, so in these scenarios feature ranking methods are used. Most of the feature ranking methods described in the literature are univariate methods, which do not detect interactions between factors. In this paper, we propose two new multivariate feature ranking methods based on …

Ordinary And Extraordinary Images: Making Visible The Operations Of Stock Photography In Posters Against The Repeal Of The 8th Amendment, Ann Curran

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The operations of stock photographs, as utilised by the Irish anti-abortion lobby, have not been examined before. Many of the ‘Vote No’ posters in the 2018 Irish referendum campaign on the 8th amendment maintained a visual and textual focus on foetal personhood: asking the Irish electorate to ‘love both,’ while deploying a range of stock photographs. In this article, I trace specific stock images used on anti-abortion posters against Repeal back to their online image bank sources. I make visible the role of generic or stereotypical photographs in anti-abortion messaging, in the knowledge that stock photographs often function best when …