Digital Commons Network^™

Remittances And Income Inequality In Africa: Financial Development Thresholds For Economic Policy, I.K. Ofori, Emmanuel Y. Gbolonyo, Marcel A. Dossou, Richard K. Nkrumah

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

This study employs macrodata on 42 African countries to examine whether remittances and financial development (including its sub-components of access, depth and efficiency) contribute to the equalisation of incomes across the continent. Robust evidence based on the dynamic GMM estimator shows that: (i) remittances heighten income inequality in Africa, (ii) Africa’s financial system is not potent enough for propelling remittances towards the equalisation of incomes, and (iii) vis-à-vis financial access and depth, inefficiencies characterising Africa’s financial institutions is the main reason remittances contribute to the widening of the income disparity gap. Nonetheless, the optimism which we provide by way of …

A Machine Learning Perspective On Fnirs Signal Quality Control Approaches, Andrea Bizzego, Michelle Neoh, Giulio Gabrieli, Gianluca Esposito

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Despite a rise in the use of functional Near Infra-Red Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to study neural systems, fNIRS signal processing is not standardized and is highly affected by empirical and manual procedures. At the beginning of any signal processing procedure, Signal Quality Control (SQC) is critical to prevent errors and unreliable results. In fNIRS analysis, SQC currently relies on applying empirical thresholds to handcrafted Signal Quality Indicators (SQIs). In this study, we use a dataset of fNIRS signals (N = 1,340) recorded from 67 subjects, and manually label the signal quality of a subset of segments (N = 548) to investigate …

Fruits Of Their Labour: Biotransformation Reactions Of Yeasts During Brewery Fermentation, Natalia Svedlund, Simon Evering, Brian Gibson, Kristoffer Krogerus

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Abstract: There is a growing appreciation for the role that yeast play in biotransformation of flavour compounds during beverage fermentations. This is particularly the case for brewing due to the continued popularity of aromatic beers produced via the dry-hopping process. Here, we review the current literature pertaining to biotransformation reactions mediated by fermentative yeasts. These reactions are diverse and include the liberation of thiols from cysteine or glutathione-bound adducts, as well as the release of glycosidically bound terpene alcohols. These changes serve generally to increase the fruit and floral aromas in beverages. This is particularly the case for the thiol …

Heritage Requires Citizens’ Knowledge: The Cost Place-Making Action And Responsible Research, Heike Oevermann, Ayse Erek, Carola Hein, Conor Horan, Kata Krasznahorkai, Ida Sofie Gøtzsche Lange, Edmond Manahasa, Marijke Martin, Marluci Menezes, Matej Nikšič, Paulina Polko, Juli Székely, Simone Tappert, Pekka Tuominen

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

This chapter reflects on responsible science with an eye toward concrete research practice. To this end, we briefly introduce the RRI paradigm (Responsible Research and Innovation) and then highlight seven EU research projects in the context of a transnational COST Action project. This COST Action will investigate how placemaking activities, like public art, civil urban design, and local knowledge production, reshape and reinvent public space, and improve citizens’ involvement in urban planning and urban design, especially in the context of heritage sites. The chapter introduces heritage case studies that either contrast, differentiate, and add to existing knowledge and practices in …

Design Processes For User Engagement With Mobile Health: A Systematic Review, Tochukwu Ikwunne, Lucy Hederman, P. J. Wall

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Despite the importance of user engagement in mHealth system efficacy, many such interventions fail to engage their users effectively. This paper provides a systematic review of 10 years of research (32 articles) on mHealth design interventions conducted between 2011 and 2020. The PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) model was used for this review with the IEEE, Medline EBSCO Host, ACM, and Springer databases searched for English language papers with the published range. The goal of this review was to find out which design process improves user engagement with mHealth in order to guide the development of …

Co-Creating Digital Health Service: Activity Theory And Communicative Ecology Framework Analysis, Tochukwu Ikwunne, Lucy Hederman, P. J. Wall

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Globally, there has been an increase in digital health interventions over the last decade. These interventions aim to improve maternal and infant health outcomes and treatment adherence, as well as HIV/AIDS education and prevention, immunization rates, and communicable disease prevention. The creation of digital health services that incorporated users' dynamic, multi-level, and complexities are crucial to the advancement of digital healthcare. These services are, at best, co-created by developers, community health workers, and government representatives. However, due to the presence of multiple stakeholders, the co-creation of digital health services is a complex process. The paper presents a case study of …

Alterations In Cortisol Profiles Among Mothers Of Children With Asd Related To Poor Child Sleep Quality, Wasmiah Bin Eid, Mengyu Lim, Giulio Gabrieli, Melanie Kölbel, Elizabeth Halstead, Gianluca Esposito, Dagmara Dimitriou

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience poorer sleep, but studies have not yet used objective measures to investigate how child and caregiver sleep affect each other. In this study, 29 mothers and their child with ASD aged between 6 and 16 years were recruited. Questionnaires measuring child autism, maternal depression, and maternal and child sleep quality were administered. Cortisol salivary samples were also obtained from the mothers over the course of a day. Results revealed that maternal depression is significantly correlated with their subjective sleep quality, sleep latency and daytime dysfunction. Child sleep quality was also found …

Harmonising The Human Biobanking Consent Process: An Irish Experience, Lydia O'Sullivan, Tomás P. Carroll, Niamh Clarke, Sarah Cooper, Ann Cullen, Laura Gorman, Billy Mccann, Blánaid Mee, Nicola Miller, Verena Murphy, Máiréad Murray, Jackie O'Leary, Sharon O'Toole, Emma Snapes, Suzanne Bracken

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Biobanks are repositories of human biological samples and data. They are an important component of clinical research in many disease areas and often represent the first step toward innovative treatments. For biobanks to operate, researchers need human participants to give their samples and associated health data. In Ireland, research participants must provide their freely given informed consent for their samples and data to be taken and used for research purposes. Biobank staff are responsible for communicating the relevant information to participants prior to obtaining their consent, and this communication process is supported by the Participant Information Leaflets and Informed Consent …

Habilitation Of Sleep Problems Among Mothers And Their Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Insights From Multi-Level Exploratory Dyadic Analyses, Wasmiah Bin Eid, Mengyu Lim, Giulio Gabrieli, Melanie Kölbel, Elizabeth Halstead, Gianluca Esposito, Dagmara Dimitriou

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Few habilitation strategies for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) consider their sleep-related problems. Together with the fact that caregivers of children with ASD also face issues with sleep, there may be yet-to-be uncovered relationships between caregiver-child sleep patterns and sleep quality, offering a key opportunity for clinicians to consider the needs of both child and caregiver in terms of sleep. 29 dyads of mothers and their children with ASD were recruited for this cohort study and both subjective (self-report questionnaires and sleep diaries) and objective (cortisol samples and actigraphy) measures of sleep were collected to investigate significant predictors of …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Highly Photocatalytic Active Ce And Cu Co-Doped Novel Spray Pyrolysis Developed Moo3 Films For Photocatalytic Degradation Of Eosin-Y Dye, Olfa Kamoun, Abdelaziz Gassoumi, Mohd Shkir, Nima Ghadiri, Najoua Turki-Kamoun

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

The current work deals with the fabrication of novel MoO₃ nanostructured films with Ce and Cu co-doping through the spray pyrolysis route on a glass substrate maintained at 460^◦C for the first time. The phase of developed films was approved by an X-ray diffraction study, and the crystallite size was determined between 82 and 92 nm. The optical transmission of the developed films was noticed to be reduced with doping and found between 45 and 90% for all films, and the absorption edge shifted to a higher wavelength with doping. The optical energy gap of the fabricated …

Identification And Critical Appraisal Of Evidence For Interventions For Refractive Error To Support The Development Of The Who Package Of Eye Care Interventions: A Systematic Review Of Clinical Practice Guidelines, Jennifer R. Evans, John G. Lawrenson, Jacqueline Ramke, Gianni Virgili, Iris Gordon, Gareth Lingham, Sumrana Yasmin, Stuart Keel

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Purpose: The World Health Organization is developing a Package of Eye Care Interventions (PECI) to support the integration of eye health care into national health programmes. Interventions included in the PECI should be based on robust evidence where available. Refractive error is a leading cause of blindness and vision impairment and is a PECI priority condition. The aim of this study was to provide high-quality evidence to support the development of the PECI by identifying and critically appraising clinical practice guidelines (CPGs), and extracting recommendations for refractive error interventions. Methods: We searched for CPGs on refractive error published in the …

Thermal Death Kinetics Of Three Representative Salmonella Enterica Strains In Toasted Oats Cereal, Matthew Chick, Antonio Lourenco, Alice Maserati, Ryan C. Fink, Francisco Diez-Gonzalez

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Several reports have indicated that the thermal tolerance of Salmonella at low-water activity increases significantly, but information on the impact of diverse food matrices is still scarce. The goal of this research was to determine the kinetic parameters (decimal reduction time, D; time required for the first decimal reduction, δ) of thermal resistance of Salmonella in a previously cooked low water activity food. Commercial toasted oats cereal (TOC) was used as the food model, with or without sucrose (25%) addition. TOC samples were inoculated with 10⁸ CFU/mL of a single strain of one of three Salmonella serovars (Agona, Tennessee, …

Physiological Indicators For Real-Time Detection Of Operator’S Attention, Bojana Bjegojevic, Maria Chiara Leva, Sam Cromie, Nora Balfe

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Attention is a safety-critical operator ability that needs to be sustained over the course of specific tasks. However, many internal factors (e.g.: cognitive underload or overload, fatigue, etc.) and external factors (e.g.: HMI quality, environmental stressors, noise, etc.), can cause attention to drift away from the task. Having real-time indicators of operator’s attention could increase the safety of any human-operated system. Recent industrial deployment of drivermonitoring systems demonstrated the possible use of certain physiological and behavioural metrics as indicators of attention. However, it is unclear how sensitive and accurate these metrics are in detecting attention-related changes. This paper aims to …

Modifying A Manufacturing Task For Teamwork Between Humans And Ai: Initial Data Collection To Guide Requirements Specifications, Andres Alonso Peréz, Hector Diego Estrada-Lugo, Enrique Munoz De Escalona Fernandez, Maria Chiara Leva, Julen Aperribai, Arkaitz Aranburu

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Recent advances in AI, above all machine and deep learning, have brought about unprecedented possibilities in automation, prediction and problem solving with impact on operators and their way of working and interacting with automation on the shop floor. While the expected effects are focusing on increasing the efficiency, flexibility, and productivity of operations in the industrial and service sector, there is justified scepticism towards its implementation due also to the challenge of integrating AI into operator’s current way of working and practices in a way that actually supports also the human in the loop. Therefore, it is now time to …

Characterization Of Saccharomyces Strains Isolated From “Kéknyelű” Grape Must And Their Potential For Wine Production, Annamária Gerőcs, Tibor Nagy, Katalin Nemes-Barnás, János Májer, Barna Árpád Szőke, Róbert Kővágó, Frederico Magalhães, Brian Gibson, András Szekeres, Ákos Juhász, Katalin Posta, Ferenc Olasz

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Novel wine yeast strains have the potential to satisfy customer demand for new sensorial experiences and to ensure that wine producers have strains that can produce wine as efficiently as possible. In this respect, hybrid yeast strains have recently been the subject of intense research, as they are able to combine the favourable characteristics of both parental strains. In this study, two Saccharomyces “Kéknyelű” grape juice isolates were identified by species-specific PCR and PCR-RFLP methods and investigated with respect to their wine fermentation potential. Physiological characterization of the isolated strains was performed and included assessment of ethanol, sulphur dioxide, temperature …

The Development Of A Holistic It Platform For Major Risk Assessment And Management: The Mira Tool, Emmanuel Plot, Maria Chiara Leva, Ludovic Moulin, Vassishtasaï Ramany B.P, Philippe Decamps, Frederic Baudequin

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

There are natural human cognitive biases that affect many aspects of our activities, including major risk management. Some of these have a common characteristic, namely the reification process related to our tendency to selectively seek or interpret information in a way that confirms our representations of reality, and which can lead to forgetting that our representations are in some way abstractions, or hypotheses, and as such, must be continually questioned, analysed and checked against reality. The moment we forget that the correspondence between our representations and reality is only a conditional truth and requires constant verification, is the moment when …

Design Of Simulated Takeover Request Task, Bilal Alam Khan, Maria Chiara Leva, Sam Cromie

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

As the population of older adults is increasing worldwide, it is imperative to accommodate their mobility and hence independence needs in the design of our transport systems. Semi-autonomous vehicles theoretically provide a potential solution to the mobility needs of older adults by supporting them in their driving. However, the technology is not fully matured yet and it still poses issues such as the paradigm of takeover request. This particular scenario may very well cause more problems than it solves. The major issue is that we don’t know how a person above 60 years of age may respond to a Takeover …

Label-Free Quantitative Proteomics Analysis Of Adriamycin Selected Multidrug Resistant Human Lung Cancer Cells, Esen Efeoglu, Michael Henry, Martin Clynes, Paula Meleady

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

The development of drug resistance in lung cancer is a major clinical challenge, leading to a 5-year survival rate of only 18%. Therefore, unravelling the mechanisms of drug resistance and developing novel therapeutic strategies is of crucial importance. This study systematically explores the novel biomarkers of drug resistance using a lung cancer model (DLKP) with a series of drug-resistant variants. In-depth label-free quantitative mass spectrometry-based proteomics and gene ontology analysis shows that parental DLKP cells significantly differ from drug-resistant variants, and the cellular proteome changes even among the drug-resistant subpopulations. Overall, ABC transporter proteins and lipid metabolism were determined to …

Fatigue Risk Management: Current Practices And Challenges, Further Learning, Ishbel Macgregor-Curtin, Nora Balfe, Maria Chiara Leva

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

This paper outlines the causes, consequences and prevalence of fatigue and demonstrates the risk fatigue plays in accident causation in safety critical transport industries. Approaches to fatigue risk management are described and the limitations and challenges of these approaches are discussed in the context of the transport industry. The paper expands on previous research by further analysing data from a benchmarking study to determine the approaches taken in the rail industry. The paper concludes that railway organisations are applying some elements of a Fatigue Risk Management System (FRMS) approach to fatigue management, but this is not being applied systematically which …

Unlocking The Functional Potential Of Polyploid Yeasts, Simone Mozzachiodi, Kristoffer Krogerus, Brian Gibson, Alain Nicolas, Gianni Liti

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Breeding and domestication have generated widely exploited crops, animals and microbes. However, many Saccharomyces cerevisiae industrial strains have complex polyploid genomes and are sterile, preventing genetic improvement strategies based on breeding. Here, we present a strain improvement approach based on the budding yeasts’ property to promote genetic recombination when meiosis is interrupted and cells return-to-mitotic-growth (RTG). We demonstrate that two unrelated sterile industrial strains with complex triploid and tetraploid genomes are RTG-competent and develop a visual screening for easy and high-throughput identification of recombined RTG clones based on colony phenotypes. Sequencing of the evolved clones reveal unprecedented levels of RTG-induced …

Multiple Conserved States Characterize The Twist Landscape Of The Bacterial Actin Homolog Mreb, Benjamin D Knapp, Michael D Ward, Gregory R Bowman, Handuo Shi, Kerwyn Casey Huang

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Filament formation by cytoskeletal proteins is critical to their involvement in myriad cellular processes. The bacterial actin homolog MreB, which is essential for cell-shape determination in many rod-shaped bacteria, has served as a model system for studying the mechanics of cytoskeletal filaments. Previous molecular dynamics (MD) simulations revealed that the twist of MreB double protofilaments is dependent on the bound nucleotide, as well as binding to the membrane or the accessory protein RodZ, and MreB mutations that modulate twist also affect MreB spatial organization and cell shape. Here, we show that MreB double protofilaments can adopt multiple twist states during …

Evaluating The Implementation Of A Multi-Level Mhealth Study To Improve Hydroxyurea Utilization In Sickle Cell Disease, J S Hankins, A A King, A A Baumann, L M. Klesges, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is a progressive genetic disease that causes organ damage and reduces longevity. Hydroxyurea is an underutilized evidence-based medication that reduces complications and improves survival in SCD. In a multi-site clinical trial, part of the NIH-funded Sickle Cell Disease Implementation Consortium (SCDIC), we evaluate the implementation of a multi-level and multi-component mobile health (mHealth) patient and provider intervention to target the determinants and context of low hydroxyurea use. Given the complexity of the intervention and contextual variability in its implementation, we combined different behavioral and implementation theories, models, and frameworks to facilitate the evaluation of the …

Youth Systemic Advocacy And Collective Care Program Report, Kylie Wrigley

Reports accepted as research outputs

Climate Justice Union trained 13 diverse participants aged 12-18 across Noongar Boodja in systemic advocacy and collective care. The program was co-designed by CJU and 5 young people and delivered online over 7 weeks. It emphasised critical reflection, collective care and identifying climate (in)justice in our communities. Participants said they enrolled because they want to learn how to create change, and wanted to create that change by getting involved, learning skills and sharing them with their peers. This report provides an overview of the program, it's aims and why this program and more like it are needed. We report on …

Theta-Gamma Coupling As A Cortical Biomarker Of Brain-Computer Interface-Mediated Motor Recovery In Chronic Stroke, Nabi Rustamov, Joseph Humphries, Alexandre Carter, Eric C Leuthardt

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Chronic stroke patients with upper-limb motor disabilities are now beginning to see treatment options that were not previously available. To date, the two options recently approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration include vagus nerve stimulation and brain-computer interface therapy. While the mechanisms for vagus nerve stimulation have been well defined, the mechanisms underlying brain-computer interface-driven motor rehabilitation are largely unknown. Given that cross-frequency coupling has been associated with a wide variety of higher-order functions involved in learning and memory, we hypothesized this rhythm-specific mechanism would correlate with the functional improvements effected by a brain-computer interface. This study …

Increased Virus Dissemination Leads To Enhanced Lung Injury But Not Inflammation During Influenza-Associated Secondary Bacterial Infection, Amanda P Smith, Lindey C Lane, Ivan Ramirez Zuniga, David M Moquin, Peter Vogel, Amber M Smith

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Secondary bacterial infections increase influenza-related morbidity and mortality, particularly if acquired after 5-7 d from the viral onset. Synergistic host responses and direct pathogen-pathogen interactions are thought to lead to a state of hyperinflammation, but the kinetics of the lung pathology have not yet been detailed, and identifying the contribution of different mechanisms to disease is difficult because these may change over time. To address this gap, we examined host-pathogen and lung pathology dynamics following a secondary bacterial infection initiated at different time points after influenza within a murine model. We then used a mathematical approach to quantify the increased …

Toolkit Of Methods For Feminist Participatory Action Research: Empowering Women, Transforming Systems, Trimita Chakma, Naomi Joy Godden, Kavita Naidu

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This Toolkit was developed following a series of training workshops on Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) concepts and methods with Oxfam Cambodia’s Inclusion Project 2 (IP2) partners from Lao, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. The training provided targeted capacity support and technical assistance to the IP2 partners to develop gender-responsive advocacy activities on water governance in the Mekong region.

This Toolkit was developed to provide guidance to IP2 partners on how to use FPAR methods in their ongoing activities and advocacy. However, FPAR is a process and is not issue-specific. As such, the Toolkit can also be used by communities, …

The (De)Territorialised Appeal Of International Schools In China: Forging Brands, Boundaries And Inter-Belonging In Segregated Urban Space, Lily Kong, Orlando Woods, Hong Zhu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper considers how the (de)territorialised appeal of international schools in China can reflect, enforce and expand pre-existing patterns of urban segregation. Whilst exploration of the effects of educational marketplaces on urban environments has become a focus of scholarly research, the recent expansion in the supply of, and demand for, international education has caused these effects to become more nuanced. As (de)territorialised entities, international schools can cause multiple forms of spatial and psycho-social distinction and (dis)association to become intertwined, the effects of which start from the school and radiate out from there. International schools can therefore cause segregation to become …

A Bubble Of Protection: Examining Dispositional Optimism As A Psychological Buffer Of The Deleterious Association Between Negative Work-Family Spillover And Psychological Health, Sean T. H. Lee, Bryan K. C. Choy, Jose C. Yong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Demands and stressors from work increasingly encroach upon people’s family lives in modern settings, resulting in poorer familial relationships and impaired psychological health. The current study proposed and examined dispositional optimism as a potential psychological buffer of the deleterious impact of negative work-to-family spillover (WFS) on psychological health. Based on a sample of employed midlife adults in the United States (N = 1,252) drawn from a large and nationally representative dataset, MIDUS 3, we found that dispositional optimism significantly moderated the relationship between negative WFS and subjective well-being, even after controlling for a variety of potential confounds. However, this moderation …

"Let’S See If We Can Go A Whole Day On The Road Eating Free Food": Encountering The Divine With Claire Dwyer In The Private Spaces Of Richmond’S Highway To Heaven, Justin K. H. Tse

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article recounts the development of the author’s positionality in studying religion in a Canadian suburb through a collaborative project with the late feminist geographer of religion Claire Dwyer. The field site was No. 5 Road, the “Highway to Heaven” in Richmond, British Columbia with over 20 religious institutions on a three kilometre stretch of road. Building from Dwyer’s writing on “encountering the divine” through field work from 2010 to 2012, the author offers an account of a personal shift from evangelical religious exclusivism to an understanding of the plurality of interreligious experience. Using a reflexive writing style, the article …

A Harbour In The Country, A City In The Sea: Infrastructural Conduits, Territorial Inversions And The Slippages Of Sovereignty In Sino-Sri Lankan Development Narratives, Orlando Woods

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper adopts infrastructure as a lens through which new understandings of the inter-relationships between territory and sovereignty can be advanced. It argues that inverting the terrestrial assumption of territory can lead to “slippages” of sovereignty in which territorial sovereignty is indirectly claimed through the assertion of governance rights. For the purposes of this paper, I explore these inversions through the reclaiming of land from the ocean, and the removal of land by the ocean. Drawing on ethnographic research exploring the effects of China-backed infrastructure megaprojects in Sri Lanka, these territorial inversions are explored, respectively, through the Port City Colombo …