Digital Commons Network^™

Manual Evaluation Of Synthesised Sign Language Avatars, Robert G. Smith Mr, Brian Nolan Dr.

Conference Papers

The evaluation discussed in this paper explores the role that underlying facial expressions might have regarding understandability in sign language avatars. Focusing specifically on Irish Sign Language (ISL), we examine the Deaf community’s appetite for sign language avatars. The work presented explores the following hypothesis: Augmenting an existing avatar with various combinations of the 7 widely accepted universal emotions identified by Ekman [1] to achieve underlying facial expressions, will make that avatar more human-like and consequently improve usability and understandability for the ISL user. Using human evaluation methods [2] we compare an augmented set of avatar utterances against a baseline …

Generation Of Intracellular Reactive Oxygen Species And Genotoxicity Effect To Exposure Of Nanosized Polyamidoamine (Pamam) Dendrimers In Plhc-1 Cells In Vitro, Hugh Byrne, Pratap Naha

Articles

Polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers elicit systematically variable cyto- and eco-toxic responses, promising the basis for structure activity relationships governing nanotoxicological responses. Increased production of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), genotoxicity and apoptosis due to in-vitro exposure of hepatocellular carcinoma cells to dendrimer generations G-4, G-5 and G-6 is demonstrated. A generation dependent increase in ROS and genotoxicity was observed, consistent with our previous studies. The responses correlate well with the number of surface amino groups per generation. Although ROS production initially increases approximately linearly, it saturates at higher doses. Notably, normalised to molar dose of surface amino groups, the dose-dependent ROS …

Stakeholder Involvement For Programme Development, Colm O'Kane

Teaching Fellowships

In the current Higher Educational landscape in Ireland, it is crucial for universities and institutes to identify an individual identity or ethos for each of their programmes and to act effectively to both foster this identity in its current students and to promote it to prospective students. Almost every programme in DIT’s College of Engineering and Built Environment (CEBE) is in competition with similar programmes in other institutes or universities and differentiation of DIT’s offering is an important goal. This report describes the development of a framework for the identification of guiding principles for individual undergraduate programmes across the College. …

Number One Pery Square Sample Valentines Day Dinner Menu, 2013, Number One Pery Square

Menus of the 21st Century

Number One Pery Square is located in Pery Square, the Georgian Quarter, Limerick City, Co. Limerick. It now has its own kitchen garden right in the heart of the city. The chef is Alan Burns. The hotel has the Brasserie One Restaurant where the philosophy is to serve simple, sensibly priced dishes sometimes rustic, sometimes classic using the freshest of local ingredients. Brasserie One is a true classic Irish brasserie with strong French influences and the use of Irish artisan produce where possible.

Number One Pery Square Sample Private Dining And Group Lunch Menu, 2013, Number One Pery Square

Menus of the 21st Century

Number One Pery Square is located in Pery Square, the Georgian Quarter, Limerick City, Co. Limerick. It now has its own kitchen garden right in the heart of the city. The chef is Alan Burns. The hotel has the Brasserie One Restaurant where the philosophy is to serve simple, sensibly priced dishes sometimes rustic, sometimes classic using the freshest of local ingredients. Brasserie One is a true classic Irish brasserie with strong French influences and the use of Irish artisan produce where possible.

Number One Pery Square Sample Easter Sunday Lunch Menu, April 2013, Number One Pery Square

Menus of the 21st Century

Number One Pery Square is located in Pery Square, the Georgian Quarter, Limerick City, Co. Limerick. It now has its own kitchen garden right in the heart of the city. The chef is Alan Burns. The hotel has the Brasserie One Restaurant where the philosophy is to serve simple, sensibly priced dishes sometimes rustic, sometimes classic using the freshest of local ingredients. Brasserie One is a true classic Irish brasserie with strong French influences and the use of Irish artisan produce where possible.

Learner Experiences Of Online Pre-Lecture Resources For An Undergraduate Introductory Chemistry Course – A Case Study Informed By Phenomenography, Claire M. Mcdonnell, Roisin Donnelly

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Online Resources Platform For Mathematics Education, Marisa Llorens, Edmund Nevin, Eileen R. Mageean

Other resources

The aim of this project was to develop and explore the use of a Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) integrating a web-based platform for the study of mathematics as part of an active learning environment. The platform was designed to provide active support to engineering students especially those in their first year of study. Early use of the platform can identify possible areas of weakness and provide the self-learning environment required for students to become more proficient in areas where they are lacking key skills or are finding the concepts difficult to understand. The platform consists of a set …

Antioxidant Capacity, Arabinoxylans Content And In Vitro Glycaemic Index Of Cereal-Based Snacks Incorporated With Brewer’S Spent Grain, Sofia Reis, Nissreen Abu-Ghannam

Articles

Extruded snacks and breadsticks were formulated with increasing levels of brewer’s spent grain (BSG). The phenolic content increased by 4 and 7 fold with BSG addition in extrudates (40g/100g) and in breadsticks (35g/100g), respectively. Consequently, antioxidant capacity (DPPH, FRAP) also increased despite a recorded loss of phenolic compounds in extruded snacks. Arabinoxylans content increased up to 20 and 25g of BSG addition /100g of formulated extruded snacks and breadsticks, respectively. Further addition of BSG did not improve the content of arabinoxylans due to the possible formation of polysaccharide-protein complexes. Medium GI breadsticks were obtained with 35g of BSG incorporation /100g …

Valorisation Of Apple Peels, Laura Massini, Daniel Rico, Ana Belen Martin-Diana, Catherine Barry-Ryan

Articles

The peels of processed apples can be recovered for further food applications. Limited information on the valorisation of this type of waste is available for cooking varieties, e.g. cv Bramley’s Seedling. Extracts from fresh or dried (oven-dried or freeze-dried) peels were obtained with solvents of different polarity (aqueous acetone or ethanol) and assayed for their total phenolic content and antioxidant capacity; their antiradical power was compared to herb extracts. The dried peels were also characterised as bulk powders by assessing their nutritional value and total phenolic content. High amounts of ascorbic acid (up to 4 mg/g, dry weight) and polyphenols …

The Effect Of Non-Thermal Processing Technologies On Microbial Inactivation: An Investigation Into Sub-Lethal Injury Of Escherichia Coli And Pseudomonas Fluorescens, Rachel Halpin, L. Duffy, O. Cregenzán-Alberti,, J.G Lyng, F. Noci

Articles

In recent years, there has been an increased interest in food processing technologies that could lessen the thermal impact on food products. In the present study, thermosonication (TS) and pulsed electric fields (PEF), applied individually or in combination (TS/PEF), were investigated to determine their effects on inactivation and sub-lethal injury of Pseudomonas fluorescens and Escherichia coli. TS was applied at a low (L) and high (H) wave amplitude (18.6 μm and 27.9 μm, respectively), while PEF was applied at a low and high electrical field strength (29 kV cm⁻¹ and 32 kV cm⁻¹, respectively). In addition, …

Accuracy And Timeliness In Ml Based Activity Recognition, Robert J. Ross, John D. Kelleher

Conference papers

While recent Machine Learning (ML) based techniques for activity recognition show great promise, there remain a number of questions with respect to the relative merits of these techniques. To provide a better understanding of the relative strengths of contemporary Activity Recognition methods, in this paper we present a comparative analysis of Hidden Markov Model, Bayesian, and Support Vector Machine based human activity recognition models. The study builds on both pre-existing and newly annotated data which includes interleaved activities. Results demonstrate that while Support Vector Machine based techniques perform well for all data sets considered, simple representations of sensor histories regularly …

A Comparative Study Of The Effect Of Sensor Noise On Activity Recognition Models, Robert J. Ross, John D. Kelleher

Conference papers

To provide a better understanding of the relative strengths of Machine Learning based Activity Recognition methods, in this paper we present a comparative analysis of the robustness of three popular methods with respect to sensor noise. Specifically we evaluate the robustness of Naive Bayes classifier, Support Vector Machine, and Random Forest based activity recognition models in three cases which span sensor errors from dead to poorly calibrated sensors. Test data is partially synthesized from a recently annotated activity recognition corpus which includes both interleaved activities and a range of both temporally long and short activities. Results demonstrate that the relative …

An Investigation Of The Biochemical Properties Of Tetrazines As Potential Coating Additives, Swarna Jaiswal, Brendan Duffy, Luke O'Neill, Patrick Mchale

Articles

1,2,4,5-Tetrazine and its 3,6-disubstituted derivatives are currently used for a range of industrial and medical applications as they exhibit particular coordination chemistries, characterized by electron and charge transfer phenomena. The aim of the present work is to describe the synthesis of two tetrazine derivatives, namely 3,6-dihydrazino-1,2,4,5-tetrazine (DHDTZ) and 1,2,4,5-tetrazine dicarboxylic acid (DCTZ), and determine their antibacterial, antioxidant and anticorrosion characteristics as additives in a sol-gel coating on SS316L steel. The structure of the tetrazines was confirmed by NMR and FTIR while the surface morphology of bacterial cells in their presence was observed by AFM. Their ability to inhibit corrosion on …

Novel Microwave Assisted Synthesis Of Zns Nanomaterials, Suresh Pillai, Michael Seery, Damian Synnott, John Colreavy, Stephen Hinder

Articles

A novel ambient pressure microwave-assisted technique is developed in which silver and indium modified ZnS is synthesised. The as prepared ZnS is characterised by X-ray diffraction, UV-Vis spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and luminescence spectroscopy. This procedure produced crystalline materials with particle sizes below 10 nm. The synthesis technique leads to defects in the crystal which induce mid energy levels in the band gap and lead to indoor light photocatalytic activity. Increasing the amount of silver causes a phase transition from cubic blende to hexagonal phase ZnS. In a comparative study, when the ZnS cubic blende is heated in a conventional …

Expedited Approval Of Energy Projects: Toward Assessing The Forms Of Procedural Relief, Michael B. Gerrard

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

This research is heading toward two further sets of questions, which may or may not be reached in the current phase of the work.

First, if certain permits or reviews can be dispensed with for certain projects, and there are few negative collateral consequences, do we need these permits and reviews at all? Every proposed project is important to someone, and arguments can almost always be mounted that a given kind of project warrants special treatment. The present inquiry may help identify some requirements that are obsolete and should not apply to anyone, and it may also help identify others …

The Emergence Of Natural Gas And The Need For Cooperative Federalism To Address A Big "Fracking" Problem., Joshua P. Dennis

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

This Comment explores the recent emergence of natural gas production, the hydraulic fracturing process and briefly touches on the current regulatory system that oversees its operation. I then explain why the current regulatory system is insufficient to protect individuals and the environment from hydraulic fracturing. And lastly, I argue that a form of cooperative federalism is the best approach to regulate hydraulic fracturing.

Legal, Technical, And Economic Challenges In Integrating Renewable Power Generation Into The Electricity Grid, Timothy P. Duane, Kiran H. Griffith

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

This Article addresses the legal, technical, and economic challenges of integrating high levels of renewable power generation into electrical grid system operation. Part II shows that the primary integration challenge is reducing the total costs of integration and allocating the costs of integration in a hybrid regulatory structure, which presents different institutional impediments than traditional cost-of-service ratemaking or rate-of-return regulation. We demonstrate that the primary impediment to improved integration is a failure to make the critical policy choice about how such costs will be allocated. Part III describes and analyzes the BPA-wind dispute in order to evaluate the adequacy of …

Strategic Project/ Canteen Ireland, Yvonne Feehan

Students Learning with Communities

CanTeen Ireland is an organisation set up to support, empower and develop young people who have or have had cancer between the ages of 12 and 25. Set up in May 1990, the nationwide support group provides members with a place where they can simply be young people, away from the day to day pressures that come with living with cancer in the hospital or at home. Having no dedicated wards in Irish hospitals for teenagers with cancer, CanTeen is an important resource for the country and steps up where the HSE falls down. CanTeen does not rely on the …

Exploring The Use Of Web 2.0 Tools To Support Knowledge Sharing Within The Non-Profit Sector, Christina Shannon

Students Learning with Communities

This project will investigate the challenges of knowledge sharing and communication in non-profit organizations with a high dependence on volunteers. Projects of this type typically rely heavily on the knowledge of the volunteers for success and while many projects have some mechanisms through which they communicate and share knowledge such as a web presence, typically the knowledge is disparate, highly tacit, embedded in the people involved. A scattered approach is typical with knowledge and information on several different forums managed by several different people with no obvious connection. There is unlikely to be a cohesive, coherent approach in place to …

Effect Of Inhomogeneous Deformation On Anisotropy Of Az31 Magnesium Sheet, Jidong Kang, David S. Wilkinson, Raja K. Mishra, Wei Yuan, Rajiv S. Mishra

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Inhomogeneous plastic deformation in AZ31 magnesium sheet has been studied during uniaxial tensile testing using digital image correlation and electron backscatter diffraction techniques. Large strain gradients develop on the sheet surface parallel and perpendicular to the loading direction while very little deformation occurs in the thickness direction. This lack of thinning leads to an abrupt fracture following the development of a premature but extensive diffuse neck but without any localized neck. The strain distribution on the sheet surface evolves nonlinearly with strain, impacting the measured plastic strain ratio, r-value. The results show that r-value should be measured at "points" rather …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 11 No. 1, August 2013, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Contents:

Editor's Note by John Nelson and Dayna Barnes

Languages of Human Rights in Timor-Leste by David Webster

This paper examines the historical process by which Timorese embraced the language of human rights, and their transnational support networks as diffusion belts for “rights talk.” It argues for a two-way understanding of rights diffusion, suggesting that Timorese framing of rights have contributed to a global shift towards a wider understanding of human rights as more than simply civil liberties in the Western tradition. Human rights, in other words, is a language that has served the Timorese independence cause, and in turn …

Nutritional Intervention Restores Muscle But Not Kidney Phenotypes In Adult Calcineurin Aα Null Mice, K. Madsen, R. N. Reddy, S. R. Price, C. R. Williams, Jennifer L. Gooch

PCOM Scholarly Works

Mice lacking the α isoform of the catalytic subunit of calcineurin (CnAα) were first reported in 1996 and have been an important model to understand the role of calcineurin in the brain, immune system, bones, muscle, and kidney. Research using the mice has been limited, however, by failure to thrive and early lethality of most null pups. Work in our laboratory led to the rescue of CnAα-/- mice by supplemental feeding to compensate for a defect in salivary enzyme secretion. The data revealed that, without intervention, knockout mice suffer from severe caloric restriction. Since nutritional deprivation is known to significantly …

Collaborating To Nowhere: The Imperative Of Government Accountability For Restoring The Chesapeake Bay, Rena I. Steinzor, Shana Jones

Faculty Scholarship

This Article opens with an analysis of why the Chesapeake Bay Program will repeat its past failures unless a reliable mechanism for ensuring accountability is created. It then explains how the independent evaluator should be constructed to make possible the overall success of Bay restoration. Finally, it closes with a rebuttal of the arguments in favor of self--auditing and against independent review.

Fighting Cybercrime After United States V. Jones, David C. Gray, Danielle Keats Citron, Liz Clark Rinehart

Faculty Scholarship

In a landmark non-decision last term, five Justices of the United States Supreme Court would have held that citizens possess a Fourth Amendment right to expect that certain quantities of information about them will remain private, even if they have no such expectations with respect to any of the information or data constituting that whole. This quantitative approach to evaluating and protecting Fourth Amendment rights is certainly novel and raises serious conceptual, doctrinal, and practical challenges. In other works, we have met these challenges by engaging in a careful analysis of this “mosaic theory” and by proposing that courts focus …

Licensed To Care: Inhabiting The Transnational Economy Of "Global Pinoy", Fidel Taguinod

Doctoral

The Philippines’ experience in international labour migration is widely considered a success – an observation endorsed by international bodies such as the World Health Organisation. As an active source of professional nurses to the developed world, the country continues to produce more nurses than the local nursing market can employ; a labour strategy that is promoted, facilitated and supported by the Philippine state and nursing educational system. This thesis interrogates Filipino nurse migration through the methodological prism of autoethnography, drawing on first-hand experience and reflexive accounts, interviews, photographs, policy documents and material cultural artefacts, to critically examine and challenge the …

The Lismullin Enclosure:A Designed Ritual Space, Frank Prendergast

Book/Book Chapter

The discovery in 2007 of a prehistoric post-built enclosure at Lismullin, Co. Meath, during archaeological investigations in advance of the construction of the M3 motorway is, arguably, the most significant Irish archaeological discovery of recent times. This appendix summarises a commissioned specialist report on the spatial and archaeoastronomical features of the enclosure.

The Riai Standard Form Of Contract 2012 Edition: A Review, Tony Cunningham

Other Resources

The RIAI ‘yellow’ and ‘blue’ Forms of Contracts have been recently amended and published as the 2012 edition. The yellow form where quantities form part of the contract is identical to the 2011 edition and has been republished as the 2012 edition. The 2011 version superseded the 2002 version. This paper reviews and synopsises the provisions of the 2012 RIAI ‘yellow’ form of contract and identifies the principle changes to the 2002 edition.

Forget The FlâNeur, Conor Mcgarrigle

Articles

This paper discusses the connections between the ‘flâneur’, Baudelaire's symbol of modernity, the anonymous man on the streets of nineteenth century Paris, and his contemporary digital incarnation, the ‘cyberflâneur’. It is argued that, although the flâ- neur could be successfully re-imagined as the cyberflâneur in the early days of the web, this nine- teenth century model of male privilege no longer fits the purpose. It is suggested that it is time to forget the flâneur and search for a new model to consider the peripatetic nature of location-aware networked devices in the digitally augmented city.

Detection Of Thermoluminescence In Polyether Ether Ketone (Peek), Dipendra Adhikari

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Sterilization is a mandatory process for materials used in medical applications. Sterilization procedures commonly used are steam sterilization, ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilization and sterilization by radiation. The high energy photons incident upon a polymer can cause chain scission, crosslinking, defects (trapped electrons) within the polymer matrix, and the formation of free radicals. In this research work, we used thermally stimulated luminescence (TSL) and differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) to study the effects of X- and UV-irradiation on different grades of PEEK. We have observed a major sharp glow peak at temperature of about 150°C (with other five minor peaks), at the …