Digital Commons Network^™

Polystyrene Foam As A Source And Sink Of Chemicals In The Marine Environment: An Xrf Study, Andrew Turner

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

No abstract provided.

Balaam In The Book Of Numbers, Dana M. Pike

Faculty Publications

Balaam, the non-Israelite who prophesied positively about the Israelites, remains an enigmatic biblical figure, at least in part, because we cannot fully or confidently answer several important questions about him. The account of Balaam in Numbers 22–24 is oddly unique and reads like an independent unit, but it connects in several ways with the content and themes of the rest of the book of Numbers. So, however this account developed and was incorporated into the book of Numbers, it can at least be appreciated as part of the organic whole of the book.

The Demand For Public Information By Local And Nonlocal Investors: Evidence From Investor-Level Data*, Travis Dyer

Faculty Publications

I examine the demand for public information by local and nonlocal investors. Using novel data on institutional investors' requests for financial information from the SEC, I document that investors acquire approximately 20% more financial information for their local investments. This pattern holds after controlling for investors’ 13(f) portfolio holdings. I further demonstrate that this pattern is concentrated in stocks eliciting behavioral biases as well as among investors with strong company relationships. Consistent with public information acquisition being more beneficial to local investors, I find that local investors exhibit both enhanced timeliness in acquiring public information and superior portfolio trading decisions …

Pride, Shame And Tv Dinners, Edward Brennan

Conference papers

This paper critiques a dominant narrative in the history of Irish television, which typically equate television’s arrival with the launch of RTÉ in 1961 and interpret its development through a state-centred, modernisation framework. Drawing on life-story interviews with people who experienced television in Ireland during the 1950s and 1960s, the research challenges methodological nationalism by foregrounding memory as a source. It reveals how television was an uncertain status object that carried meanings of pride, shame, discipline, and cultural value. Theoretically informed by Bourdieu, Halbwachs, and Inglis, the paper analyses recollection as practical social action. Early television consumption was mediated by …

Reducing Energy Demand In China And The United Kingdom: The Importance Of Energy Literacy, D. R.E. Cotton, J. Zhai, W. Miller, L. Dalla Valle, J. Winter

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

As the impacts of climate change become increasingly visible across the globe, awareness of the need for cleaner energy and demand reduction is growing. Energy literacy offers a strong potential for explaining and predicting energy-related behaviours, yet research and policies focused on this topic remain limited. In this study, energy literacy was measured in a sample of 2806 university students in the United Kingdom and China, in addition to their wider environmental attitudes using the New Ecological Paradigm scale. Findings indicate that energy literacy was relatively high overall, but there were significant differences between the knowledge, attitudes and behavioural intentions …

Marine Fungi And The Biological Carbon Pump - A Quest For Novel Biomarkers For Key Players In The Carbon Cycle, E Cooper, S Thomas, S Ussher, D Rush, M Cunliffe, S Lengger

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The biological carbon pump (BCP) has a major role in the ability of the oceans to control the global climate and carbon cycle. Inorganic carbon is assimilated by phytoplankton in the surface ocean and converted into organic matter. The organic matter is transported to the deeper ocean interior by the BCP and degraded by microbes en route or sequestered to the deep ocean [1]. Marine fungi are understudied compared to other marine microbes, yet can account for as much biomass as prokaryotes on sinking organic matter in the BCP [2]. Fungi, both unicellular and filamentous, are active in carbon degradation …

Channel Erosion Dominates Sediment Sources In An Agricultural Catchment In The Upper Yangtze Basin Of China: Evidence From Geochemical Fingerprints, Zhonglin Shi, William H. Blake, Anbang Wen, Jiacun Chen, Dongchun Yan, Yi Long

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

No abstract provided.

Impacts Of Land Covers On Stormwater Runoff And Urban Development: A Land Use And Parcel Based Regression Approach, Long Zhou, Guoqiang Shen, C Li, Tian Chen, S Li, Robert Brown

School of Art, Design and Architecture

Extensive studies have shown that stormwater yield and quality in a city are heavily influenced by its land uses and land covers (LULC). However, the majority of these studies have been done at the major watershed levels using remote sensing data with only a few urban LULC types and at lower resolutions. This empirical study uses the City of Corvallis, Oregon in the U.S. as a case to establish robust regression relations between existing urban LULC and stormwater yield or quality at the land parcel level by environmental models and high-resolution spatial data. The environmental models are based on parcel-level …

Moving Towards More Sustainable Aquaculture Practices: A Meta‐Analysis On The Potential Of Plant‐Enriched Diets To Improve Fish Growth, Immunity And Disease Resistance, Miriam Reverter, N Tapissier‐Bontemps, Samira Sarter, Pierre Sasal, Domenico Caruso

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

AbstractAquatic animal diseases are one of the major limiting factors in aquaculture development, with disease emergence forecast to increase with global change. However, in order to treat increasing diseases in a context of global emergence of antimicrobial resistance and strengthening regulations on antimicrobial use, sustainable alternatives are urgently needed. The use of plant supplements to increase fish immunity and disease resistance has gained much popularity within the last decades. The use of functional supplements, such as plants, can also improve growth and feed assimilation, contributing to a better optimization of aquaculture resources (e.g. fish meal inclusion). We conducted a systematic …

Geopolitics Of Finance In Africa: Birth Of Financial Centres, Not Monetary Unions, Elizabeth Cobbett

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Using Realist Approaches In Nutrition And Dietetics Research, Gemma Jenkins, Isabella Maugeri, Claire Palermo, Rebecca Hardwick

Peninsula Medical School

No abstract provided.

The Social Infrastructure Of The Smart City: How Can "Smart Cities" Be More Inclusive?, K Willis

School of Art, Design and Architecture

The smart city promises a new model of integrated urban design bringing together people, urban spaces and smart technologies. The quote above highlights the question of not only who owns the frameworks of the smart city but also more importantly who has access and what does this access enable them to do. We need to ask carefully who is included and recognise that the smart city often excludes the very people, communities and place it claims to help. The key is to establish how marginalised or excluded groups may benefit – or not – in these initiatives. In order to …

Tephra Deposition And Bonding With Reactive Oxides Enhances Burial Of Organic Carbon In The Bering Sea, Jack Longman, Thomas M. Gernon, Martin R. Palmer, Hayley R. Manners

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Preservation of organic carbon (OC) in marine sediments exerts a major control on the cycling of carbon in the Earth system. In these marine environments, OC preservation may be enhanced by diagenetic reactions in locations where deposition of fragmental volcanic material called tephra occurs. While the mechanisms by which this process occurs are well understood, site-specific studies of this process are limited. Here, we report a study of sediments from the Bering Sea (IODP Site U1339D) to investigate the effects of marine tephra deposition on carbon cycling during the Pleistocene and Holocene. Our results suggest that tephra layers are loci …

The Impact Of Microfinance On Women Empowerment In The Case Of Vietnam, Long Bui Thanh

Doctoral

In recent years, most microfinance programs have focused on gender issues with significant support given to poor female clients with the goal of facilitating their access to capital. An interesting fact to be considered is that women are regarded as wonderful clients, as they appear to engage in a more efficient manner in the saving process and the repayment of microloans when compared to men. Based on existing studies, researchers suggest that women are also more responsible regarding the management of finances in the context of poor families (Aggarwal et al., 2015; D'Espallier et al., 2011; Mayoux, 2005).

Complex Relationships Between Water Discharge And Sediment Concentration Across The Loess Plateau, China, Haiyan Zheng, Chiyuan Miao, Juying Jiao, Alistair G.L. Borthwick

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Understanding of the relationship between water discharge (Q) and suspended sediment concentration (SSC) across the Loess Plateau is a prerequisite for evaluating different soil and water conservation measures. Using daily Q and SSC datasets, this study jointly analyzes changes in Q and SSC on the central Loess Plateau, a major sediment-producing area of China, during the periods 1971-1987 (P1) and 2008-2016 (P2). The results show that during both P1 and P2, the contributions of maximum-3-day-per-year sediment load (SSL) to the total SSL are almost invariably over 50% (dominant), with the majority increasing further between P1 and P2. The contribution of …

Multinationality Of Uk Firms – A Longitudinal Study Based On Sales And Subsidiaries Data, Pearlean Chadha, Jenny Berrill

Articles

Purpose – This paper aims to contribute to the regionalisation–globalisation debate in international business (IB) by providing a longitudinal analysis of firm-level multinationality. The analysis uses a unique hand-collected data set of both accounting (sales) and non-accounting (subsidiaries) data. The percentage of foreign sales is also used as an additional measure of multinationality.

Design/methodology/approach – This paper categorises constituent firms of the Financial Times Stock Exchange 350 index over an 18-year time period from 1998 to 2015. Firms are categorised using the multinationality classification system developed by Aggarwal et al. (2011). The paper also conducts an industrial analysis across ten …

Transport, Weathering And Pollution Of Plastic From Container Losses At Sea: Observations From A Spillage Of Inkjet Cartridges In The North Atlantic Ocean, Andrew Turner, Tracey Williams, Tom Pitchford

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

No abstract provided.

Children, Military Families And Soldier Citizenship, Richard Yarwood, Naomi Tyrrell, Claire Kelly

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

No abstract provided.

Atomic Spectrometry Update: Review Of Advances In The Analysis Of Metals, Chemicals And Materials, Simon Carter, Robert Clough, Andy Fisher, Bridget Gibson, Ben Russell

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

This review covers advances in the analysis of advanced materials, metals, fuels and lubricants, nanostructures, ceramics, refractories, organic and inorganic chemicals, catalysts and nuclear materials by a range of techniques including X-ray, ICP, LIBS, mass spectrometry, synchrotron-based techniques, plus non-destructive and ablation surface techniques.

Detecting Interlocutor Confusion In Situated Human-Avatar Dialogue: A Pilot Study, Na Li, John D. Kelleher, Robert J. Ross

Conference papers

In order to enhance levels of engagement with conversational systems, our long term research goal seeks to monitor the confusion state of a user and adapt dialogue policies in response to such user confusion states. To this end, in this paper, we present our initial research centred on a user-avatar dialogue scenario that we have developed to study the manifestation of confusion and in the long term its mitigation. We present a new definition of confusion that is particularly tailored to the requirements of intelligent conversational system development for task-oriented dialogue. We also present the details of our Wizard-of-Oz based …

Intraspecific Variation In Leaf Traits Facilitates The Occurrence Of Trees At The Amazonia–Cerrado Transition, Igor Araújo, Beatriz S. Marimon, Marina C. Scalon, Wesley J.A. Cruz, Sophie Fauset, Tiffani C.S. Vieira, David R. Galbraith, Manuel U. Gloor

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The ability of plant species to adjust key functional traits through intraspecific variation may determine their success in persisting on our planet in the future, especially in unstable habitats, such as the Amazonia–Cerrado transition zone. We assessed intraspecific variation in 12 leaf morphological and anatomical traits for four tree species along a savanna–forest gradient, including rocky cerrado, typical cerrado and woodland savanna. Generally, all evaluated species showed great intraspecific variation. Our findings demonstrate that trees occurring in the woodland savanna are potentially more vulnerable to climate change, while in the cerrado the individuals presented higher tolerance to water deficit and …

Using Dartmoor Ponies In Conservation Grazing To Reduce Molinia Caerulea Dominance And Encourage Germination Of Calluna Vulgaris In Heathland Vegetation On Dartmoor, Uk, Paul H. Lunt, Jakob L. Leigh, Samantha A. Mcneil, Malcolm J. Gibb

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The increasing dominance of purple moor-grass Molinia caerulea in heathland ecosystems in the UK is of growing concern due to its detrimental impact on plant and animal diversity on sites of nature conservation interest. The use of free-ranging ponies to reduce Molinia dominance was investigated from 2017 to 2019 within a 425 ha site on Dartmoor, UK. Salt blocks were used to attract the ponies to a Molinia-dominated area of heath within the site, away from their previously-preferred grazing areas. The impact of pony grazing was assessed by measurements of vegetation structure and plant species composition. The increased presence of …

Let's Talk About Ditching Plastics At Festivals, Ellen Foley

Case Studies

Student blog series from MSc in Event Management students at TU Dublin. In this blog post Ellen Foley asks is it time to stop using plastic at festivals. She discusses how how Education and collaboration are the two vital ingredients that festival planners must embrace in order to tackle this ever-pressing problem. It’s time to get creative and work together to ditch the plastic.

Risk Factors For Gut Dysbiosis In Early Life, Kimberley Parkin, Claus T. Christophersen, Valerie Verhasselt, Matthew N. Cooper, David Martino

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Dysbiosis refers to a reduction in microbial diversity, combined with a loss of beneficial taxa, and an increase in pathogenic microorganisms. Dysbiosis of the intestinal microbiota can have a substantial effect on the nervous and immune systems, contributing to the onset of several inflammatory diseases. Epidemiological studies provided insight in how changes in the living environment have contributed to an overall loss of diversity and key taxa in the gut microbiome, coinciding with increased reports of atopy and allergic diseases. The gut microbiome begins development at birth, with major transition periods occurring around the commencement of breastfeeding, and the introduction …

Enhancing Mixed Traffic Flow Safety Via Connected And Autonomous Vehicle Trajectory Planning With A Reinforcement Learning Approach, Yanqiu Cheng, Chenxi Chen, Xianbiao Hu, Kuanmin Chen, Qing Tang, Yang Song

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The longitudinal trajectory planning of connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) has been widely studied in the literature to reduce travel time or fuel consumptions. The safety impact of CAV trajectory planning to the mixed traffic flow with both CAV and human-driven vehicle (HDV), however, is not well understood yet. This study presents a reinforcement learning modeling approach, named Monte Carlo tree search-based autonomous vehicle safety algorithm, or MCTS-AVS, to optimize the safety of mixed traffic flow, on a one-lane roadway with signalized intersection control. Crash potential index (CPI) is defined to quantitively measure the safety performance of the mixed traffic …

The Fringe Or The Heart Of Things? Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Musics In Australian Music Institutions, Clint Bracknell, Linda Barwick

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Teetering on the fringe of Australian music scholarship and knowledge institutions, research and teaching of local Indigenous musics hold a marginal place, belying the positioning of Indigenous music-makers at the centre of international representations of Australian culture, and the dynamic local connections of Indigenous music-making to Australian landscapes and social realities. Music’s ubiquity and diversity worldwide show its potential as a tool to manage the changing world in societies of the past and present, yet this potential is largely neglected in contemporary Australia, and our theories and evidence base are limited by the narrow western focus within our knowledge institutions. …

Association Between Community-Based Self-Reported Covid-19 Symptoms And Social Deprivation Explored Using Symptom Tracker Apps: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Study In Northern Ireland, Jennifer M. Mckinley, David Cutting, Neil Anderson, Conor Graham, Brian Johnston, Ute Mueller, Peter M. Atkinson, Hugo Van Woerden, Declan T. Bradley, Frank Kee

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Objectives: The aim of the study was to investigate the spatial and temporal relationships between the prevalence of COVID-19 symptoms in the community-level and area-level social deprivation. Design: Spatial mapping, generalised linear models, using time as a factor and spatial-lag models were used to explore the relationship between self-reported COVID-19 symptom prevalence as recorded through two smartphone symptom tracker apps and a range of socioeconomic factors using a repeated cross-sectional study design. Setting: In the community in Northern Ireland, UK. The analysis period included the earliest stages of non-pharmaceutical interventions and societal restrictions or 'lockdown' in 2020. Participants: Users of …

Subjective Knowledge, Perceived Risk, And Information Search When Purchasing A Franchise: A Comparative Exploration From Australia, Peter Balsarini, Claire Lambert, Maria M. Ryan, Martin Maccarthy

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Franchising has long been a method by which organizations seek to expand and facilitate local market development. However, franchising as a growth strategy can often be hampered by lack of suitable franchisees. To mitigate this shortage, some franchisors have engaged in recruiting franchisees internally from the ranks of their employees in addition to the traditional approach of recruiting franchisees externally. Predominantly franchisees are individuals rather than corporations and thus purchasing a franchise should most commonly be characterized as a consumer acquisition. To explore the relationship between subjective knowledge, perceived risk, and information search behaviors when purchasing a franchise qualitative interviews …

Accountability Via Social And Financial Performance Of The Hospitality Sector: The Role Of Market Orientation, Soheil Kazemian, Hadrian G. Djajadikerta, Saiyydi Mat Roni, Terri Trireksani, Zuraidah Mohd-Sanusi

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Purpose This study aims to examine the three dimensions of market orientation, namely, customer orientation, competitor orientation and inter-function coordination, which influence the accountability in the financial and social performance of tourism operators in large touristic cities. Design/methodology/approach In total, 95 usable questionnaires as the required data were collected from the top managers of four- and five-star hotels in Iran. Findings Partial least squares (PLS) results confirm that customer orientation and inter-function coordination influence both the financial and social performance of the hospitality sector yet reveal that competitor orientation has no significant relationship with social performance. Research limitations/implications These findings …

Aquatic Ecosystems Of The Anthropocene: Limnology And Microbial Ecology Of Mine Pit Lakes, Melanie L. Blanchette, Mark A. Lund

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Mine pit lakes (‘pit lakes’) are new aquatic ecosystems of the Anthropocene. Potentially hundreds of meters deep, these lakes are prominent in the landscape and in the public consciousness. However, the ecology of pit lakes is underrepresented in the literature. The broad goal of this research was to determine the environmental drivers of pelagic microbe assemblages in Australian coal pit lakes. The overall experimental design was four lakes sampled three times, top and bottom, in 2019. Instrument chains were installed in lakes and measurements of in situ water quality and water samples for metals, metalloids, nutrients and microbe assemblage were …