Digital Commons Network^™

The Dynamics Of Human Capital And The World Of Work: Towards A Common Market In Contemporary Tertiary Education, Aidan Kenny

Level 3

The drive for the so-called ‘knowledge society’, and the expected competitive advantage envisioned, has led to ‘power elites’ and vested interests applying pressure on nation states to develop and implement policies that push the balance of national education systems towards the economic imperative and away from the social good. This social inquiry will describe items, strategies and objectives relating to the pursuit of the current higher education change policy agendas, as expressed in key Irish policy documents.

Public Private Partnerships: A Licence To Print Money Or Value For Money?, Raymond Turner

Level 3

It is often considered that a Public Private Partnership (PPP) is a licence to print money for the private entity and that the state receives a price which does reflect the value of the underlying public asset.

This paper explores key concepts that underpin and define the nature of PPPs and how such partnerships have emerged and evolved as a means of project funding. The relationship between the underlying asset and the ownership of the derived benefit from the consumption of the public asset is explored to illustrate how the same asset can represent different values.

Uniarab: An Universal Machine Translator System For Arabic Based On Role And Reference Grammar, Brian Nolan, Yasser Salem

Conference Papers

This paper presents a machine translation system (Hutchins 2003) called UniArab (Salem, Hensman and Nolan 2008). It is a proof-of-concept system supporting the fundamental aspects of Arabic, such as the parts of speech, agreement and tenses. UniArab is based on the linking algorithm of RRG (syntax to semantics and vice versa). UniArab takes MSA Arabic as input in the native orthography, parses the sentence(s) into a logical meta-representation based on the fully expanded RRG logical structures and, using this, generates perfectly grammatical English output with full agreement and morphological resolution. UniArab utilizes an XML-based implementation of elements of the Role …

A Test Battery Approach To The Ecotoxicological Evaluation Of Cadmium And Copper Employing A Battery Of Marine Bioassays, Ailbhe Macken, Michelle Giltrap, Kim Ryall, Barry Foley, Evin Mcgovern, Brendan Mchugh, Maria Davoren

Articles

The main aim of this study was to investigate the sensitivity of the battery to two recognised metal pollutants of the marine environment and rank species sensitivity accordingly.

Storage, Manipulation, And Visualization Of Lidar Data, Bianca Schoen-Phelan, M. Bertolotto, D. F. Laefer, Sean W. Corish

Conference papers

In recent years, three-dimensional (3D) data has become increasingly available, in part as a result of significant technological progresses in Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR). LiDAR provides longitude and latitude information delivered in conjunction with a GPS device, and elevation information generated by a pulse or phase laser scanner, which together provide an effective way of acquiring accurate 3D information of a terrestrial or manmade feature. The main advantages of LiDAR over conventional surveying methods lie in the high accuracy of the data and the relatively little time needed to scan large geographical areas. LiDAR scans provide a vast amount …

Enabling Adaptation In Trust Computations, Luca Longo, Pierpaolo Dondio, Bresciani Riccardo, Andrew Butterfield, Stephen Barrett

Conference papers

Digital systems have been rapidly evolving within highly dynamic and unstructured environments, where the lack of a central authority forces entities to interact with each other through collaboration and negotiation. Digital agents often use Trust models in order to compute the level of trustworthiness of the partner they want to collaborate with. Unfortunately, due to the evolution speed of open and collaborative environments, the trustworthiness of an agent varies over time, and as a result, Trust models must be continuously adapted to the changing context. In this work we address the problem by presenting a self-adaptive model for Trust computations. …

An Enhanced Data Mining Life Cycle, Markus Hofmann, Brendan Tierney

Conference papers

Data mining projects are complex and can have a high failure rate. In order to improve project management and success rates of such projects a life cycle is vital to the overall success of the project. This paper reports on a research project that was concerned with the life cycle development for data mining projects, its team members and their role. The paper provides a detailed view of the design and development of the data mining life cycle called DMLC. The life cycle aims to support all members of data mining project teams as well as IT managers and academic …

Influence Of Magnesium Nitrate On The Corrosion Performance Of Sol-Gel Coated Aa2024-T3 Aluminium Alloy, Rajath Varma, Brendan Duffy, John Cassidy

Articles

Traditional anti-corrosion technology has relied heavily on using reducible metal species, predominantly hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)), for protecting reactive metal alloys such as aluminium which is extensively used in the aerospace sector. However, the impending changes in the use of Cr(VI) in Europe and the United States have forced aerospace manufacturers to examine alternative materials for protecting aluminium. One of the most promising alternatives being investigated are organosilane based sol-gels containing anticorrosion additives. In this work the anti-corrosion properties of magnesium (II) nitrate (Mg(NO3)2) as a inhibitor was investigated at different concentrations (0.1% - 1.0 wt %) in a methyltriethoxysilane (MTEOS) …

Silver Doped Perfluoropolyether-Urethane Coatings: Antibacterial Activity And Surface Analysis, Niall Stobie, Brendan Duffy, Steven Hinder, Patrick Mchale, Declan Mccormack

Articles

The colonisation of clinical and industrial surfaces with pathogenic microorganisms has prompted increased research into the development of effective antibacterial and antifouling coatings. There is evidence that implanted biomedical surfaces coated with metallic silver can be inactivated by hysiological fluids, thus reducing the bioactivity of the coating. In this work, we report the biofilm inhibition of Staphylococcus epidermidis using a roomtemperatureprocessedsilver dopedperfluoropolyether-urethane coating. The release of silver ions from these fluoropolymers over a six-day period inhibited bacterial encrustation – as observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis indicated differences in carbon, fluorine and sodium surface composition …

Design, Manufacture, Mechanical Testing And Numerical Modelling Of An Asymmetric Composite Crossbow Limb, Amandeep S. Virk, J. Summerscales, W. Hall, S. M. Grove, M. E. Miles

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

This paper considers the design, manufacture, mechanical testing and numerical analysis of a crossbow beam (limb). The limb should be lightweight and permit a high deflection of the beam's tip in order to achieve a good ballistic performance. Consequently, fibre-reinforced polymer matrix composites are suitable candidate materials. However, carbon fibres were considered too brittle for this application. Aramid fibres combine low density and high stiffness but are weak in compression. E-glass fibres are relatively flexible but are of high density. The optimised design developed here uses aramid fibres on the tension face with E-glass fibres on the compression side. This …

A Modular Planar Robotic Manipulandum With End-Point Torque Control, Ian S. Howard, James N. Ingram, Daniel M. Wolpert

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Statistics Of Natural Movements Are Reflected In Motor Errors, Ian S. Howard, James N. Ingram, Kp Koerding, Daniel M. Wolpert

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Sequential And Direct Two-Photon Double Ionization Of D₂ At Flash, Y. H. Jiang, Artem Rudenko, Kai Uwe Kuhnel, Th. Ergler, S. Ludemann, Karl Zrost, Daniel Fischer, J. Perez-Torres, E. Plesiat, F. Martin, L. Foucar, J. Titze, Markus S. Schoffler, Reinhard Dorner, J. L. Sanz-Vicario, S. Dusterer, R. Treusch, Claus Dieter Schroter, Robert Moshammer, Joachim Hermann Ullrich

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Sequential and direct two-photon double ionization (DI) of D₂ molecule is studied experimentally and theoretically at a photon energy of 38.8 eV. Experimental and theoretical kinetic energy releases of D⁺+D⁺fragments, consisting of the contributions of sequential DI via the D₂⁺(1sσ_g) state and direct DI via a virtual state, agree well with each other.

Quantitative Rescattering Theory For Nonsequential Double Ionization Of Atoms By Intense Laser Pulses, Samuel Micheau, Zhangjin Chen, Anh-Thu Le, C. D. Lin

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Laser-induced electron recollisions are fundamental to many strong field phenomena in atoms and molecules. Using the recently developed quantitative rescattering theory, we demonstrate that the nonsequential double ionization (NSDI) of atoms by lasers can be obtained quantitatively in terms of inelastic collisions of the target ions with the free returning electrons where the latter are explicitly given by a spectrum-characterized wave packet. Using argon atoms as target, we calculated the NSDI yield including contributions from direct (e,2e) electron-impact ionization and electron-impact excitation accompanied by subsequent field ionization. We further investigate the dependence of total NSDI on the carrier-envelope phase of …

Emission Of Low-Energy Photons By Electrons At Electron-Positron And Electron-Ion Colliders With Dense Bunches, Ulrich D. Jentschura, G. L. Kotkin, V. G. Serbo

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Usually, the emission of low-energy photons in electron-positron (or electron-ion) bunch collisions is calculated with the same approach as for synchrotron radiation (beamstrahlung). However, for soft photons (Eγ

The Search For Quantum Critical Scaling In A Classical System, Jagat Lamsal, John Gaddy, Marcus Petrovic, Wouter Montfrooij, Thomas Vojta

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Order-disorder phase transitions in magnetic metals that occur at zero temperature have been studied in great detail. Theorists have advanced scenarios for these quantum critical systems in which the unusual response can be seen to evolve from a competition between ordering and disordering tendencies, driven by quantum fluctuations. Unfortunately, there is a potential disconnect between the real systems that are being studied experimentally, and the idealized systems that theoretical scenarios are based upon. Here we discuss how disorder introduces a change in morphology from a three-dimensional system to a collection of magnetic clusters, and we present neutron scattering data on …

Earth's Heat Source -- The Sun, Oliver Manuel

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Sun encompasses planet Earth, supplies the heat that warms it, and even shakes it. The United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assumed that solar influence on Earth's climate is limited to changes in solar irradiance and adopted the consensus opinion of a hydrogen-filled Sun - the Standard Solar Model (SSM). They did not consider the alternative solar model and instead adopted another consensus opinion: Anthropogenic greenhouse gases play a dominant role in climate change. The SSM fails to explain the solar wind, solar cycles, and the empirical link of solar surface activity with Earth's changing climate. The …

Distributed Utility-Based Rate Adaptation Protocols For Prioritized, Quasi-Elastic Flows, Sharanya Eswaran, Matthew P. Johnson, Archan Misra, Thomas La Porta

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper considers rate adaptation for streaming multimedia data in a wireless sensor network (WSN) consisting of multiple missions, where each mission subscribes to data streams from multiple sensors, and each sensor's data is utilized by multiple heterogenous missions. We specifically consider the application of the distributed network utility maximization (NUM) framework to a previously unconsidered scenario where the different missions have different priorities, as well as minimum utility demands. When all the utility demands are feasible, we first show that the addition of a penalty for failing to reach the minimum utility demand to the base NUM protocol leads …

Integrated Resource Allocation And Scheduling In Bidirectional Flow Shop With Multi-Machine And Cos Constraints, Hoong Chuin Lau, Zhengyi Zhao, Shuzhi Sam Ge

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

An integer programming (IP) model is proposed for integrated resource allocation and operation scheduling for a multiple job-agents system. Each agent handles a specific job-list in a bidirectional flowshop. For the individual agent scheduling problem, a formulation is proposed in continuous time domain and compared with an IP formulation in discrete time domain. Of particular interest is the formulation of the machine utilization function-- both in continuous time and discrete time. Fast heuristic methods are proposed with the relaxation of the machine capacity. For the integrated resource allocation and scheduling problem, a linear programming relaxation approach is applied to solve …

Structural Basis For Binding Specificity Between Subclasses Of Modular Polyketide Synthase Docking Domains, Tonia Buchholz, Todd W. Geders, Frank E. Bartley Iii, Kevin A. Reynolds, Janet L. Smith, David H. Sherman

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Bacterial type I polyketide synthases (PKSs) assemble structurally diverse natural products of significant clinical value from simple metabolic building blocks. The synthesis of these compounds occurs in a processive fashion along a large multiprotein complex. Transfer of the acyl intermediate across interpolypeptide junctions is mediated, at least in large part, by N- and C-terminal docking domains. We report here a comprehensive analysis of the binding affinity and selectivity for the complete set of discrete docking domain pairs in the pikromycin and erythromycin PKS systems. Despite disconnection from their parent module, each cognate pair of docking domains retained exquisite binding selectivity. …

A Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer For Continuous Underway Shipboard Analysis Of Dimethylsulfide In Near-Surface Seawater, Eric S. Saltzman, Warren J. De Bruyn, M. J. Lawler, Christa Marandino, C. A. Mccormick

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

A compact, low-cost atmospheric pressure, chemical ionization mass spectrometer ('mini-CIMS') has been developed for continuous underway shipboard measurements of dimethylsulfide (DMS) in seawater. The instrument was used to analyze DMS in air equilibrated with flowing seawater across a porous Teflon membrane equilibrator. The equilibrated gas stream was diluted with air containing an isotopically-labeled internal standard. DMS is ionized at atmospheric pressure via proton transfer from water vapor, then declustered, mass filtered via quadrupole mass spectrometry, and detected with an electron multiplier. The instrument described here is based on a low-cost residual gas analyzer (Stanford Research Systems), which has been modified …

A Photochemically Initiated Chemistry For Coupling Underivatized Carbohydrates To Gold Nanoparticles, Xin Wang, Olof Ramström, Mingdi Yan

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

The sensitive optoelectronic properties of metal nanoparticles make nanoparticle-based materials a powerful tool to study fundamental biorecognition processes. Here we present a new and versatile method for coupling underivatized carbohydrates to gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) via the photochemically induced reaction of perfluorophenylazide (PFPA). A one-pot procedure was developed where Au NPs were synthesized and functionalized with PFPA by a ligand-exchange reaction. Carbohydrates were subsequently immobilized on the NPs by a fast light activation. The coupling reaction was efficient, resulting in high coupling yield as well as high ligand surface coverage. A colorimetric system based on the carbohydrate-modified Au NPs was …

Musical Sound Source Separation Using Extended Tensor Decompositions, Derry Fitzgerald

Conference papers

Recently, tensor decompositions have found use in sound source separation. In particular, non-negative tensor decompositions have received a lot of attention due to their ability to decompose audio spectrograms into meaningful ”parts” such as individual notes. Extensions to the basic non-negative tensor factorisation framework allow the incorporation of additional constraints, such as shift-invariance in both frequency and time. This enables the factorisations to capture more complex structures than individual notes, such as individual sources playing different pitches and time-evolving instrument timbres. Further music specific constraints such as harmonicity and source-filter modeling have been shown to improve separation performance for musical …

Time Reversal Of Continuous-Wave, Steady-State Signals In Elastic Media, Brian E. Anderson, Robert A. Guyer, Paul A. Johnson, Timothy J. Ulrich

Faculty Publications

Experimental observations of spatial focusing of continuous-wave, steady-state elastic waves in a reverberant elastic cavity using time reversal are reported here. Spatially localized focusing is achieved when multiple channels are employed, while a single channel does not yield such focusing. The amplitude of the energy at the focal location increases as the square of the number of channels used, while the amplitude elsewhere in the medium increases proportionally with the number of channels used. The observation is important in the context of imaging in solid laboratory samples as well as problems involving continuous-wave signals in Earth.

Focusing On Process And History: Path Dependence, Paul Donnelly

Articles

In recognition of the calls for more processual and historically informed organizational theorizing, this chapter considers the notion of path dependency, an approach which holds that a historical path of choices has the character of a branching process with a self-reinforcing dynamic such that preceding steps in a particular direction induce further movement in the same direction, thereby making the possibility of switching to some other previously credible alternative more difficult. Path dependence seeks to assess how process, sequence and temporality can be best incorporated into explanation, the focus of the researcher being on particular outcomes, temporal sequencing and the …

Extensions Of Effective-Medium Theory Of Transport In Disordered Systems, V. M. Kenkre, Z. Kalay, Paul Ernest Parris

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

The effective-medium theory of transport in disordered systems, whose basis is the replacement of spatial disorder by temporal memory, is extended in several practical directions. Restricting attention to a one-dimensional system with bond disorder for specificity, a transformation procedure is developed to deduce explicit expressions for the memory functions from given distribution functions characterizing the system disorder. It is shown how to use the memory functions in the Laplace domain forms in which they first appear, and in the time domain forms which are obtained via numerical inversion algorithms, to address time evolution of the system beyond the asymptotic domain …

Infinite-Randomness Quantum Critical Points Induced By Dissipation, Thomas Vojta, Chetan Kotabage, Jose A. Hoyos

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We develop a strong-disorder renormalization group to study quantum phase transitions with continuous O(N) symmetry order parameters under the influence of both quenched disorder and dissipation. For Ohmic dissipation, as realized in Hertz's theory of the itinerant antiferromagnetic transition or in the superconductor-metal transition in nanowires, we find the transition to be governed by an exotic infinite-randomness fixed point in the same universality class as the (dissipationless) random transverse-field Ising model. We determine the critical behavior and calculate key observables at the transition and in the associated quantum Griffiths phase. We also briefly discuss the cases of super-Ohmic and sub-Ohmic …

Infinite-Randomness Critical Point In The Two-Dimensional Disordered Contact Process, Thomas Vojta, A. Farquhar, J. Mast

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We study the nonequilibrium phase transition in the two-dimensional contact process on a randomly diluted lattice by means of large-scale Monte Carlo simulations for times up to 1010 and system sizes up to 8000×8000 sites. Our data provide strong evidence for the transition being controlled by an exotic infinite-randomness critical point with activated (exponential) dynamical scaling. We calculate the critical exponents of the transition and find them to be universal, i.e., independent of disorder strength. The Griffiths region between the clean and the dirty critical points exhibits power-law dynamical scaling with continuously varying exponents. We discuss the generality of our …

Risk Indexes For Draft Ccl3 Chemicals, J. Alan Roberson, Matthew Lueders, Craig Adams, Jeffrey S. Rosen

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

To supplement the processes used for developing the draft third Contaminant Candidate List (CCL3) and better inform decisions made by the US Environmental Protection Agency on future CCLs, the authors offer an evaluation tool for efficiently synthesizing, visualizing, and organizing data for effective comparisons among contaminants. Graphical presentations of health effects-occurrence indexes were developed for more than 300 chemical contaminants, including those on the draft CCL3. a risk indexes framework was then used to elucidate the extent of available data, the data quality, and the underlying uncertainties for occurrence and toxicity. Choosing the appropriate contaminant for regulation is a complex …

Mobile Speed Estimation For Broadband Wireless Communications Over Rician Fading Channels, Y. Rosa Zheng, Chengshan Xiao

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, a new algorithm is proposed to estimate mobile speed for broadband wireless communications, which often encounter large number of fading channel taps causing severe intersymbol interference. Different from existing algorithms, which commonly assume that the fading channel coefficients are available for the speed estimators, the proposed algorithm is based on the received signals which contain unknown transmitted data, unknown frequency selective fading channel coefficients possibly including line-of-sight (LOS) components, and random receiver noise. Theoretical analysis is first carried out from the received signals, and a practical algorithm is proposed based on the analytical results. The algorithm employs …