Digital Commons Network^™

Women In Law: A Statistical Review Of The Status Of Women Attorneys In Idaho, Jessica Gunder

Articles

No abstract provided.

Groundwater Resources As A Global Reservoir For Antimicrobial-Resistant Bacteria, Luisa Andrade, Madeleine Kelly, Paul Hynds, John Weatherill, Anna Majury, Jean O'Dwyer

Articles

Antimicrobial resistance represents one of our most significant global health threats, with increasing incidences noted in both clinical and environmental settings. As such, identifying and understanding the sources and pathways for antimicrobial-resistant bacteria (ARB) is critical. The current study presents the first systematic review and pooled analysis of ARB occurrence in global groundwater supplies, which are used as primary drinking water sources by 2.2 billion people worldwide and are recurrently linked to significant outbreaks of infection. Seventy peer-reviewed studies were identified and included; findings reveal that 80.2% ± 29.0 and 57.2% ± 36.8 of aggregated groundwater isolates were resistant to …

Contract Governance In Small-World Networks: The Case Of The Maghribi Traders, Lisa Bernstein

Articles

No abstract provided.

The New Legal Liberalism, Emma Kaufman

Articles

No abstract provided.

Caring For The Care‐Giver: Debriefing Following Intra‐Operative Death, Roy Soto, Julie Kado, Bryan Kerner, Paul O’Leary, Gerald Rosen

Articles

Introduction: Intraoperative death affects a team of individuals, each with different levels of training and experience. Although briefings, time-outs, and debriefings have been well described, it is unclear how often they occur following intraoperative catastrophic events. We utilized an electronic survey to assess the frequency and potential utility of a formal debriefing process following the intraoperative death of a patient, and discuss our findings in light of the mental well-being of perioperative medical personnel. Methods:A 19 question electronic survey was distributed to primary operating room staff in two hospital systems. The survey was designed to identify which OR staff members …

Bio-Waste To Bio-Based, Anushree Priyadarshini, Gaurav Rajauria, Wen Le, Brijesh K. Tiwari

Articles

Research projects are currently underway in Teagasc and UCD todevelop cleaner and greener pre-treatment technologies forconversion of ‘bio-waste’ into ‘bio-based’ products withpotential applications in food, feed and biofuel. These projectshave the potential to significantly reduce the burden on land usefor protein and biofuels, not only in Ireland/Europe butworldwide, along with dramatically improving the conversionefficiencies of current bio-based production technologies.Moreover, these can significantly reduce the ever-increasingenvironmental problem of waste management and landfill usefor waste deposition.

Sns Optical Fiber Structure Sensor For Direct Detection Of The Phase Transition In C18h38 N-Alkane Material, Wei Han, Marek Rebow, Xiaokang Lian, Dejun Liu, Gerald Farrell, Qiang Wu, Yuliya Semenova

Articles

A singlemode-no-core-singlemode (SNS) fiber structure optical sensor for detecting the solid-liquid phase change in a phase change material: C18H38 n-alkane material (n-octadecane) is proposed and demonstrated. The transmission-type sensor probe consists of a short section of no-core fiber sandwiched between two sections of a singlemode fiber. Phase changes in n-octadecane are accompanied by large step-like variations of its refractive index (RI). Such a large discontinuous change of the n-octadecane’s RI during its phase transition, leads to the corresponding step-like change in the transmitted optical power that can reliably indicate the phase change of the sample in the vicinity of the …

Qoe Enhancement In Next Generation Wireless Ecosystems: A Machine Learning Approach, Eva Ibarrola, Mark Davis, Camille Voisin, Ciara Close, Leire Cristobo

Articles

Next-generation wireless ecosystems are expected to comprise heterogeneous technologies and diverse deployment scenarios. Ensuring quality of service (QoS) will be one of the major challenges on account of a variety of factors that are beyond the control of network and service providers in these environments. In this context, ITU-T is working on defining new Recommendations related to QoS and users' quality of experience (QoE) for the 5G era. Considering the new ITU-T QoS framework, we propose a methodology to develop a global QoS management model for next generation wireless ecosystems taking advantage of big data and machine learning (ML). The …

Double Deadbeat Plus Repetitive Control Scheme For Microgrid System, Sreedhar Madichetty, Malabika Basu, Sukumar Mishra, Josep M. Guerrero

Articles

Parallel connection of converters is a convenient choice when system capacity is to be increased. Parallel-connected voltage source converters, especially neutral point clamped converters, are one of the best choices for its range. However, with the parallel connectivity, the converter possesses a circulating current in its legs, which consequently threatens the safe operation of the system. To alleviate this circulating current problem, in this paper, a double deadbeat (DD) plus repetitive control (RC) scheme is proposed. The RC scheme is employed to mitigate the circulating currents and the DD loop control scheme is employed to achieve a high operating bandwidth …

Influence Of The Local Field And Dipole-Dipole Interactions On The Spectral Characteristics Of Simple Metals And Their Nanoparticles, I. I. Shaganov, Kevin Berwick, T. S. Perova

Articles

The effect of dipole-dipole interactions of free electrons on the spectral characteristics of simple metals and their nanoparticles is analyzed using Drude theory and the model of the Lorentz local field. It is established that accounting for the dispersion of a local field under conditions of one-dimensional (1D) confinement based on the optical constants of the bulk metal allows the determination of its spectral micro-characteristics in the frequency region of the longitudinal collective motions of the free electrons. This corresponds to the spectra of the dielectric losses of bulk plasma oscillations. A similar procedure for three-dimensional (3D) confinement produces the …

Addressing Vision Impairment In Mozambique And The Africa Region, Stephen Thompson, Kovin Naidoo, Joel Bambamba, Vanessa Moodley, Diane Van Staden, Amanda Forde, Kajal Shah, Luigi Bilotto, James Loughman

Articles

The Mozambique Eyecare Project was an international partnership to implement and research eye health education in Mozambique and the Africa region. An optometry degree was developed at Universidade Lúrio, Mozambique. In addition, existing eye health workers were upskilled with training. Researchers from various disciplines evaluated the project and its potential for impact on eye health in the region. The body of evidence generated from the research provides useful lessons for development programmes in general, as well as specific lessons for delivering eye health education and service delivery models for low income settings.

Re-Assessing The Place Of The “Silent Period” In The Development Of English As An Additional Language Among Children In Early Years Settings, Ruth Harris

Articles

This paper explores the acceptance of a “silent period” as a stage in second language development for children acquiring English as an Additional Language in Early Years settings. Current views suggest that it is normal for children to very quickly stop using their mother tongue and enter a period of silence. A positive perspective on this is that children may be using this time to observe and grow in understanding of the second language. However, there may also be negative effects, as children may become withdrawn and miss out on opportunities to develop relationships and language. It is the argument …

Men And The Drug Buzz: Masculinity And Men’S Motivations For Illicit Recreational Drug Use, Clay Darcy

Articles

The purpose of this article is to explore the motivations behind some men’s recreational use of illicit drugs from a gender standpoint. The rationale for this analysis stems from men’s predominance as illicit drug users and their likelihood of experiencing problem drug use and becoming a part of an over-represented population in drug treatment services. Explanations for men’s problematic/addicted patterns of drug use often point to marginalisation, disadvantage, and/or men’s tendency towards problematic health behaviours. This article argues that men’s illicit recreational drug use is often glossed over as a gendered activity and receives less scrutiny than problematic/addicted patterns of …

Challenges And Opportunities Brought To The Chinese Economy By Brexit And The New Us Administration, Lucia Morales, Bernadette Andreosso-O’Callaghan

Articles

The impact of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as the 45th US president in the context of stock market reactions and economic policy uncertainty (EPU) within three key zones in ‘the Greater China Region’ (Hong Kong, Taiwan and China Mainland) are examined in this article. The chosen research period is from January 2014 to June 2017, and the EPU Index in the USA and the UK is used as a proxy to measure political uncertainty in two of the world major economies and how they impact on the Chinese stock market. The main contribution of the article can …

Un(Der)Employed Youth: From Precariousness To Resilience, Alia Weston, Miguel Imas, Jennifer Manning, Paul Donnelly, Kudzayi Ngwerume

Articles

In this paper, we explore the experiences of Irish and Zimbabwean youth who live and work in precarious economic conditions. We study these youths’ experiences in a manner that traverses contexts under the question: How do un(der)employed youth in the Global South and Global North enact resilience and agency while navigating economic precarity? The paper builds on youth literature from both the Global North and Global South, emphasizing socio-economic precarity, youth agency, and resilience. We collected our data from interviews conducted in Ireland and Zimbabwe. Methodologically, the paper follows a postcolonial narrative approach to study these experiences. Our findings show …

American Option Pricing: An Accelerated Lattice Model With Intelligent Lattice Search, Qianru Shang, Brian Byrne

Articles

The authors introduce to the literature an intelligent lattice search algorithm to efficiently locate the optimal exercise boundary for American options. Lattice models can be accelerated by incorporating intelligent lattice search, truncation, and dynamic memory. We reduce computational runtime from over 18 minutes down to less than 3 seconds to estimate a 15,000-step binomial tree where the results obtained are consistent with a widely acclaimed literature. Delta and implied volatility can also be accelerated relative to standard models. Lattice estimation, in general, is considered to be slow and not practical for valuing large books of options or for promptly rebalancing …

Ex-Post Service Contract Performance Management, Brian Forbes, Malcolm Brady

Articles

This paper highlights how contract incompleteness can threaten the performance of public procurement facilities management contracts during their implementation stages, based on a multiple case study comprising five public procurement services contracts. The paper takes a principle-agent view and with the unit of analysis being the contract itself. The paper shows that contract contingencies are almost inevitable and may stem from the written contract or from the participating organisations. Written and unwritten contract management mechanisms were used in practice to deal with contingencies as they arose in the services case studies examined. The paper found that written contracts do not …

External And Internal Networks And Access To Hrd Resources In Small Professional Service Firms, Ciara Nolan Dr, Thomas Garavan

Articles

A key challenge facing small professional service firms (PSFs) in the context of implementing human resource development (HRD) is access to resources. The use of external and internal networks represents an important means of identifying and acquiring needed resources. We utilize resource dependency and network theories to explore the types of networks used by owner-managers to acquire HRD resources and the types of resources that are acquired. We investigate these issues utilizing three case study organizations located in the Republic of Ireland and interview data from owner-managers and employees. We found that small PSFs derived resources from both coercive and …

Expanding University Entrepreneurial Ecosystems To Under-Represented Communities, Emma O'Brien, Thomas M. Cooney, Per Blenker

Articles

Purpose – Entrepreneurship education has moved from an elitist view focussing on a start-up and picking-the-winners philosophy towards a broader enterprising behaviour approach; recognising entrepreneurship as an activity of relevance for everybody. The purpose of this paper is to extend this development and identify how university entrepreneurial ecosystems can be expanded to support communities that are under-represented in entrepreneurship.

Design/methodology/approach – Based on an integrative literature review (Torraco, 2005), this paper draws together and synthesises literature from the field of entrepreneurship, higher education studies and under-represented communities in an integrated fashion, leading to the development of a new conceptual model. …

Fifty Years Of The Strategic Trade-Offs Model: In Memory And Honor Of Wickham Skinner, Roberto Sarmiento, Garvan Whelan, Matthias Thürer, Francisco Arturo Bribiescas-Silva

Articles

In 1969, Professor Wickham Skinner, whom many consider as “the father of manufacturing strategy,” published a seminal paper entitled “Manufacturing-Missing Link in Corporate Strategy.” Among the many interesting insights outlined in that article, Skinner is particularly careful to explain the importance of acknowledging the existence of specific trade-offs in the design of production systems. For example, he warns that a failure on the part of executives to recognize the limitations and compromises that are inherent to all technology and human based systems will inevitably result in a diminished ability of firms to compete successfully in the marketplace. Fifty years after …

Development Of Poly-Vinyl Alcohol Stabilized Silver Nanofluids For Solar Thermal Applications, James Walshe, George Amarandei, Hind Ahmed, Sarah Mccormack, John Doran

Articles

Nanofluids offer the potential to address the low thermal conductivities found in conventional heat transfer fluids, through their unique electrical, optical and thermal properties, but their implementation remains restricted due to absorption and stability limitations. Here, we characterize and exploit the distinctive plasmonic properties exhibited by polyvinyl-alcohol stabilized silver nanostructures by tuning their absorption and thermal properties through controlling the nanoparticle size, morphology and particle-size distribution configuration at the synthesis stage. The photo-thermal efficiency of different water-based silver nanofluids under a standard AM1.5G weighted solar spectrum were explored, the influence of each of these components on the resulting fluids performance …

The Battle For Commercial Hearts And Minds And The Internal Brand Within A Charity Shop Network In Ireland, Edmund O'Callaghan

Articles

Charities are increasingly adopting commercial branding strategies to capture consumer hearts and minds for competitive gain, with little attention on the internal organisational battle for hearts and minds within a not-for-profit context. This paper explores the internal brand of a charity that currently operates 227 charity shops on the island of Ireland, using Hankinson’s 2004 framework that focuses on functional, symbolic, behavioural and experiential components. An exploratory case study was developed based on a survey of organisational members (n = 138), interviews with six regional shopmanagers, observation in retail stores and supplemented by organisation documentation. Findings indicate a clarity of …

A New Era For Reuse Social Enterprises In Ireland? The Capacities Required For Achieving Sustainability, Gerard Doyle

Articles

The conventional linear relationship between production and consumption is no longer sustainable. A key component of the transition towards a more sustainable society is the continuation in use of products for longer and the development of a repair and reuse culture. Reuse social enterprises contribute to addressing a range of environmental, economic and social issues facing urban areas. This paper is concerned with, firstly, the motivations for citizens to establish reuse social enterprises in Ireland. Secondly, the paper examines the factors that contribute to reuse social enterprises in Ireland becoming sustainable.

The research points to the necessity of reuse social …

Prosecuting Securities Fraud Under Section 17(A)(2), Wendy Gerwick Couture

Articles

No abstract provided.

Principles For State Prosecution Of Securities Crime In A Dual-Regulatory, Multi-Enforcer Regime, Wendy Gerwick Couture

Articles

This article proposes principles for the exercise of prosecutorial discretion when prosecuting securities crime under state law. Securities transactions in the United States are subject to a dual-regulatory, multi-enforcer regime. Securities are dually regulated by the federal government and the states, with each regulatory scheme including both civil and criminal enforcement provisions. Those laws are multi-enforced at each level by a regulator, private parties, and prosecutors. And yet, the role of state prosecution of securities crime within this regime is undertheorized, and there is little guidance for state prosecutors about how their prosecutorial decisions affect this regime. This article, drawing …

New Metrics And The Politics Of Judicial Selection, Jeremy Kidd

Articles

Recent Supreme Court nomination hearings have become increasingly rancorous, revealing the increasing political importance of the judiciary in our system of government. We need to know more about those who are chosen to wield this power, but those being considered have strong incentives to obscure all but the most basic characteristics of integrity, decorum, intellect, and courtesy. One of the most important decisions in our democracy is therefore made with far less information than would be ideal. Only through development of new metrics and refinement of existing metrics can we begin to cut through obfuscation and identify the goals and …

Procompetitive Justifications In Antitrust Law, John M. Newman

Articles

The Rule of Reason, which has come to dominate modern antitrust law, allows defendants the opportunity to justify their conduct by demonstrating procompetitive effects. Seizing the opportunity, defendants have begun offering increasingly numerous and creative explanations for their behavior.

But which of these myriad justifications are valid? To leading jurists and scholars, this has remained an "open question," even an "absolute mystery." Examination of the relevant case law reveals multiple competing approaches and seemingly irreconcilable opinions. The ongoing lack of clarity in this area is inexcusable: procompetitive-justification analysis is vital to a properly functioning antitrust enterprise.

This Article provides answers …

Unlocking Access To Health Care: A Federalist Approach To Reforming Occupational Licensing, Gabriel Scheffler

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Poverty Of Clinical Canonic Texts, Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

No abstract provided.

Etched In Stone: Historic Preservation Law And Confederate Monuments, Jess R. Phelps, Jessica Owley

Articles

This Article examines the current controversy regarding Confederate monuments. While many have focused on the removal of these commemorative objects, the legal framework regarding their protection has not been fully explored. This Article provides an in-depth understanding of the application of historic preservation laws to monument removal efforts and examines the impact of these federal, state, and local laws. The examination raises significant questions about the permanency of preservation laws generally. This Article considers how historic significance is evaluated and valued, noting the lack of flexibility and absence of mechanisms for reevaluating past protection decisions. This Article uses the Confederate …