Digital Commons Network^™

An Analysis Of The Iranian Post-Earthquake Management And Structural Assessment System, Nirvan Razaghi-Kashani

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

This thesis investigated the theory and practice of structural assessment, as a component in a more extensive post-earthquake disaster management system. The research focused on Iran as a case study, and in particular the capital city of Iran (Tehran). This study aimed overview of the system used for post-earthquake disaster management and structural assessment in Tehran. This thesis examined three specific sub-components of the system, namely: The Earthquake Information Management System (EIMS), seismic hazard education programs, and initiatives to engage communities in the disaster management process. A blended phenomenological and ethnographic approach provided the basis for the analysis of collected …

Quantifying Farm-To-Fork Greenhouse Gas Emissions For Five Dietary Patterns Across Europe And North America: A Pooled Analysis From 2009 To 2020, Daniel Burke, Paul Hynds, Anushree Priyadarshini

Articles

Dietary patterns are inherently related to greenhouse (GHG) emissions via agricultural practices and food production systems. As the global population is predicted to increase from 8 billion (current) to 9.6 billion by 2050 added pressure will be placed on existing agricultural systems, resulting in increased GHG emissions thus exacerbating climate change. Therefore, there is an urgent need to understand present-day dietary patterns to shift to sustainable and healthy diets to mitigate GHG emissions and meet future climate targets. However, no review or pooled analyses of dietary pattern emissions from a farm-to-fork perspective has been undertaken to date. The current study …

Behavioral Pathways To Private Well Risk Mitigation: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach, Simon Mooney, Martin Boudou, Jean O'Dwyer, Paul Hynds

Articles

Complex, multi hazard risks such as private groundwater contamination necessitate multiannual risk reduction actions including seasonal, weather-based hazard evaluations. In the Republic of Ireland (ROI), high rural reliance on unregulated private wells renders behavior promotion a vital instrument toward safeguarding household health from waterborne infection. However, to date, pathways between behavioral predictors remain unknown while latent constructs such as extreme weather event (EWE) risk perception and self-efficacy (perceived behavioral competency) have yet to be sufficiently explored. Accordingly, a nationwide survey of 560 Irish private well owners was conducted, with structural equation modeling (SEM) employed to identify underlying relationships determining key …

An Ecological Study Of The Spatiotemporal Dynamics And Drivers Of Domestically Acquired Campylobacteriosis In Ireland, 2011–2018, Martin Boudou, Coilín Ó Haiseadha, Patricia Garvey, Jean O'Dwyer, Paul Hynds

Articles

In 2021, Campylobacteriosis was the main gastrointestinal disease in the European Union since 2007 according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. In the Republic of Ireland, the incidence of the disease is particularly high with approximately 3,000 cases per annum, raising significant concerns for national health authorities with an expected increase in the number of cases in the light of climate change. The current study sought to assess the spatio-temporal patterns of campylobacteriosis in the Republic of Ireland using 20,391 cases from January 2011 to December 2018. An ensemble of spatial statistics techniques including seasonal decomposition, spatial …

Embodying Arts Festivals As Infrastructural Transformation Of Places, Bernadette Quinn

Books/Book chapters

Arts festivals are important forms of cultural production and consumption (Négrier 2015). Irrespective of genre (e.g., visual arts, music or film) and whether single or multidisciplinary, their primary endeavour is to engage people in the making, showcasing and performance of art. Yet arts festivals do not necessarily receive recognition or attention based on their cultural attributes alone. Festivals and events have become “central to entrepreneurial cities’ efforts to generate commerce, regenerate place and stand out on the highly competitive global stage” (Quinn et al. 2020, 1875). Along with arts and cultural activities more generally, recent decades have seen cities use …

Playing From The Edge: Music Festivals And Broadcasting Practices In The West Cork Region Of Ireland, Enya Moore Dr., Bernadette Quinn, Brian Vaughan Dr

Presentations

A study of arts festivals' experiences of adopting digital practices in the period 2020-2022. The context is rural and the qualitative data were gathered in West Cork in the south west of Ireland.

Chemical Speciation Of Sediment Phosphorus In A Ramsar Wetland, Ry Crocker, William H. Blake, Thomas H. Hutchinson, Sean Comber

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient, which at excessive concentrations can cause eutrophication of aquatic ecosystems. In freshwater wetlands, water quality deteriorates under these conditions, often succumbing to algal or duckweed dominance, over the biodiversity of other aquatic vegetation. Freshwater sediment may act as an internal source of legacy bound P that can induce production of algal and duckweed blooms beyond what may be expected from external loading of P alone. This study assesses the mobility, bioavailability, and origin of phosphorus in wetland ditch systems at the designated site of special scientific interest, West Sedgemoor. Based upon associations with different …

Spatial And Seasonal Variations In Dissolved Methane Across A Large Lake, Mike Peacock, Scott J. Davidson, Dolly N. Kothawala, Joel Segersten, Martyn N. Futter

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Lakes process large volumes of organic carbon (OC), are important sources of methane (CH4), and contribute to climatic warming. However, there is a lack of data from large lakes >500 km2, which creates uncertainty in global budgets. In this data article, we present dissolved CH4, OC bioreactivity measurements, water chemistry, and algal biovolumes at 11 stations across Lake Mälaren, the third largest (1,074 km2) Swedish lake. Total phosphorus concentrations show that during the study period the lake was classed as mesotrophic/eutrophic. Overall mean CH4 concentration from all stations, sampled five times to cover seasonal variation, was 2.51 μg l−1 (0.98–5.39 …

Mega-Reservoir Regulation: A Comparative Study On Downstream Responses Of The Yangtze And Yellow Rivers, Xiao Wu, Yao Yue, Alistair G.L. Borthwick, Louise J. Slater, Jaia Syvitski, Naishuang Bi, Zuosheng Yang, Houjie Wang

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Large reservoirs can considerably alter the water-sediment dynamics and morphology of alluvial rivers. Here we review the effects of two mega reservoirs operated with different regulation modes. The Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) on the Yangtze River has a typical anti-seasonal regulation mode, while the Xiaolangdi Reservoir (XLDR) on the Yellow River undergoes a swift drawdown process shortly before the flood season through the Water and Sediment Regulation Scheme (WSRS). We examine the influence of these regulation schemes on downstream water-sediment dynamics and find that vast sedimentation occurred in both the TGR (128.4 Mt./yr) and XLDR (210.2 Mt./yr). The two rivers …

The Propagation And Emplacement Mechanisms Of The Tenteniguada Volcanic Debris Avalanche (Gran Canaria): Field Evidence For Brittle Fault-Accommodated Spreading, Symeon Makris, Matteo Roverato, Alejandro Lomoschitz, Paul Cole, Irene Manzella

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The Tenteniguada volcanic debris avalanche deposit is located on the east of the island of Gran Canaria, Spain. Its internal structure is composed of a complex assemblage of extensional features and shearing structures including normal faults, horst and graben, brittle/ductile boudinage and clastic dike injections. Examination of these features in the field and evaluation of their distribution have allowed the generation of a new conceptual model for the transport and emplacement of this debris avalanche, and potentially others. In the majority of the deposit, the degree of disaggregation is low, with large portions of the original edifice preserved, although displaced …

Variability In Feeding Habitats Of Red Deer Sensu Lato In Eurasia In The Late Pleistocene And Holocene, Maciej Sykut, Sławomira Pawełczyk, Natalia Piotrowska, Krzysztof Stefaniak, Bogdan Ridush, Daniel Makowiecki, Pavel Kosintsev, Barbara Wilkens, Tomasz Borowik, Ralph Fyfe, Jessie Woodbridge, Magdalena Niedziałkowska

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Red deer (Cervus elaphus) is one of the species that is rather wide spread and survived across Europe over the Holocene. The analyses of carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes in bone collagen of ungulate remains have been applied in paleoecological studies as environmental and dietary indicators. In this study we present the carbon and nitrogen stable isotope compositions of previously radiocarbon-dated red deer bone samples (N = 68) found in Central, Southern and Eastern Europe and Asia and aligned to one of two species: European red deer (Cervus elaphus) and wapiti (Cervus canadensis). We showed that the values of carbon …

Agricultural Systems Regulate Plant And Insect (Beetle) Diversity And Induce Ecosystem Novelty, Jessie Woodbridge, Ralph Fyfe

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Land-use change plays an important role in shaping plant and insect diversity over long time timescales. Great Britain provides an ideal case study to investigate patterns of long-term vegetation and insect diversity change owing to the existence of spatially and temporally extensive environmental archives (lake sediments, peatlands, and archaeological sites) and a long history of landscape transformation through agrarian change. The trends identified in past environmental datasets allow the impacts of land-use change on plant and insect diversity trends to be investigated alongside exploration of the emergence of ecological novelty. Using fossil pollen, insect (beetle), archaeodemographic, archaeobotanical and modern landscape …

Terrestrial Carbon Isotope Stratigraphy Of The Eocene–Oligocene Transition, Petrockstowe And Bovey Basins, Devon, Uk, Mohammed S. Chaanda, Stephen T. Grimes, Rhodri M. Jerrett, Mark Anderson, Melanie J. Leng, Meriel E. Fitzpatrick, Gregory D. Price

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The terrestrial sediments of the Petrockstowe and Bovey basins in Devon, UK were examined. Their age is considered to be Eocene and Oligocene. The sediments (kaolinitic clays, silts, sands, gravels, and lignites) from both basins were analysed for carbon isotopes of organic material, in conjunction with total organic carbon and palynological analyses used to unravel the type of and provenance of organic matter present. Within the Petrockstowe Basin, the lowermost interval examined shows a palynological distribution dominated by phytoclasts, whilst the upper part of the core is dominated by higher concentrations of palynomorphs (up to 90 %) and an increase …

Trading Spaces: Space As Metaphor For Contingency In Writing Centers, Genie N. Giaimo

The Writing Center Journal

This article offers a critical reading of writing center workplace space. Weaving together counterstorying with semiotic, geographic, and rhetorical analysis of space, the author provides an alternative way of understanding the connections between our physical and metaphorical workspaces. Precarity and contingency, the article posits, are made more palpable through connection to physical space because writing center labor (and workers) are often identified mostly through their space and availability. Ultimately, this article argues for a new way forward that decouples writing center workers and labor from inhabited workplace space. Arguing that these spaces are gendered, classed, and raced (among other things), …

Contingency As A Barrier To Decolonial Engagement: Listening To Multilingual Writers, Grace Lee-Amuzie

The Writing Center Journal

Based on the concept of transformative listening by García (2017) that views listening as a form of decolonial work that must take place in writing centers, the article examines colonial thinking and contingency as toxic preexisting conditions of writing center ecology that hinder our ability to listen to marginalized multilingual voices. Recognizing the commonality between multilingualism and contingency, both as ignored marginalized intersecting identities in the hierarchy of the racialized and corporatized university system, the article describes the complexity of engaging contingent workers in decolonial work and listening. Further, it argues that contingency creates significant barriers to the type of …

Comparing The Thermal Conductivity Of Three Artificial Soils Under Differing Moisture And Density Conditions For Use In Green Infrastructure, Paul H. Lunt, Kate Fuller, Matthew Fox, Steve Goodhew, Thomas R. Murphy

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Abstract Soil-based green infrastructure has the potential to improve building thermal performance and contribute to sustainable buildings. This study compares thermal conductivity response to soil moisture of three peat-free artificial soils to evaluate their potential use within green roofs and living walls. Thermal conductivity was measured with changing soil moisture and density. All soils showed higher thermal conductivity measures with increases in soil moisture. The ‘Biochar-coconut coir compost’ had the lowest thermal conductivity measures which displayed negligible response to density changes and exhibited the highest water holding capacity. When uncompacted, ‘FabSoil’ had low thermal conductivity measures, but when compacted, its …

An Evidence Base Of Ecosystems Services Provided By Diadromous Fish In The European Atlantic Area, Matthew Ashley, Arantza Murillas, Angela Muench, Cristina Marta-Pedroso, Lynda Rodwell, Sian Rees, Emma Rendle, Tea Bašić, Gordon H. Copp, Estibaliz Díaz, David J. Nachón, Patrick Lambert, Geraldine Lassalle

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Historical and existing environmental and human induced pressures have negatively impacted diadromous species, as well as benefits to humans, derived from the ecosystem services these species contribute to. As species move across national boundaries, successful management is rendered a complex process. Future climate change scenarios are likely to change species distributions, further impacting management and the benefits available to people across each species range. To provide an evidence base on the contribution of eleven diadromous fish populations to ecosystem services, and so gains and losses of ecosystem service benefits in the European Atlantic Area, we completed an evidence review of …

Lead In Painted Surfaces And Dusts From Rented Urban Properties (Plymouth, Uk), Sarah Tooms, Alison Stokes, Andrew Turner

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry has been used to measure lead (Pb) in painted surfaces and indoor dusts from 14 rented properties in the city of Plymouth, UK. Lead was detected in 78 out of 164 surfaces measured (and in 69 out of 150 interior surfaces) with an overall median concentration of 7100 mg kg−1 (range from 157 to 139,000 mg kg−1), and was detected in all but two properties that included one building constructed within the last 25 years. Selected measurements on an area basis (n = 48) returned Pb concentrations ranging from below 0.01 to 16.1 mg cm−2 that …

Physical And Biogeochemical Controls On Seasonal Iron, Manganese, And Cobalt Distributions In Northeast Atlantic Shelf Seas, Xue Gang Chen, Dagmara Rusiecka, Martha Gledhill, Angela Milne, Amber L. Annett, Aaron Joseph Beck, Antony J. Birchill, Maeve C. Lohan, Simon Ussher, Eric P. Achterberg

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

No abstract provided.

Influence Of Built Environment On Outdoor Thermal Comfort: A Comparative Study Of New And Old Urban Blocks In Guangzhou, Xingdong Deng, Weixiao Nie, Xiaohui Li, Jie Wu, Zhe Yin, Jiejie Han, Haonan Pan, Cho Kwong Charlie Lam

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Urban populations face increasing heat stress in cities. However, the influence of the built environment of new and old urban blocks on pedestrian thermal comfort remains unclear. This study selected typical old (Yongqingfang) and new urban areas (Knowledge City) in Guangzhou, China, as our research sites. Through field monitoring and surveys, we used physiological equivalent temperature (PET) and thermal comfort vote (TCV) to evaluate outdoor thermal comfort by thermal walk experiments. We analyzed the relationships between built environment variables, meteorological variables, and pedestrian thermal comfort at the two sites. Our analysis revealed significant differences in the built environment and meteorological …

Global Variability And Controls On The Accumulation Of Fallout Radionuclides In Cryoconite, Caroline C. Clason, Giovanni Baccolo, Edyta Łokas, Philip N. Owens, Przemyslaw Wachniew, Geoff E. Millward, Alex Taylor, Will H. Blake, Dylan B. Beard, Ewa Poniecka, Nick Selmes, Elizabeth A. Bagshaw, Joseph Cook, Ralph Fyfe, Melanie Hay, Deborah Land, Nozomu Takeuchi, Massimiliano Nastasi, Monica Sisti, Francesca Pittino, Andrea Franzetti, Roberto Ambrosini, Mauro B Di

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The accumulation of fallout radionuclides (FRNs) from nuclear weapons testing and nuclear accidents has been evaluated for over half a century in natural environments; however, until recently their distribution and abundance within glaciers have been poorly understood. Following a series of individual studies of FRNs, specifically 137Cs, 241Am and 210Pb, deposited on the surface of glaciers, we now understand that cryoconite, a material commonly found in the supraglacial environment, is a highly efficient accumulator of FRNs, both artificial and natural. However, the variability of FRN activity concentrations in cryoconite across the global cryosphere has never been assessed. This study thus …

Accumulation Of Polystyrene Nanoplastics And Triclosan By A Model Tooth-Carp Fish, Aphaniops Hormuzensis (Teleostei: Aphaniidae), Maryam Saemi-Komsari, Reza Pashaei, Sajjad Abbasi, Hamid Reza Esmaeili, Reda Dzingelevičienė, Hadavand B Shirkavand, Kalako M Pasalari, Malgorzata Szultka-Mlynska, Renata Gadzała-Kopciuch, Boguslaw Buszewski, Andrew Turner

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The presence and effects of nanoplastics (NPs; <1 μm) in the aquatic environment are a growing concern. In this study, a model tooth-carp fish, Aphaniops hormuzensis, has been exposed to different concentrations of fluorescent polystyrene nanoplastics (PS-NP) in its diet (up to 5 mg kg−1) over periods of 28 d and the particle accumulation in different tissues determined. Accumulation was observed in both digestive and non-digestive organs, with concentrations greater in the gut, liver and gill (up to 400 μg kg−1 dw) than in the skin and muscle (<180 μg kg−1 dw), but no dependency on exposure time or dose was evident. The presence of the organic contaminant, triclosan (TCS), in the diet and at concentrations up to 0.5 μg kg−1 did not affect PS-NP uptake by A. hormuzensis, while TCS accumulation in the whole body increased with time (up to 10 μg kg−1) and, likewise, appeared to be unaffected by the presence of PS-NPs. These observations suggest that the two contaminants do not interact with each other or that any interactions have no impact on accumulation. The results of this study add to the growing body of evidence that NPs can be translocated by aquatic organisms after ingestion, and reveal that, for the species and conditions employed, nanoplastics are accumulated more readily than a widely used organic chemical.

Developing Entrepreneurial Skillsets Amongst Rural Women In Uganda, Sylvia Gavigan, Thomas M. Cooney, Klavs Ciprikis

Articles

Purpose: Rural women in Africa have less entrepreneurship opportunities than men. This is mainly due to societal expectations of women, but it may also be caused by a lack of entrepreneurial knowledge and skills due to their work in agriculture-related activities. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the impact of entrepreneurship training on entrepreneurial skillsets of rural women working in Uganda and how such training influences their entrepreneurial activity.

Design/methodology/approach: The primary data set for this study comes from surveys of rural women working in agriculture who participated in a specific entrepreneurship training programme in Uganda. A …

Racialization Of Muslim Students In Australia, Ireland, And The United States: Cross-Cultural Perspectives, Melanie C. Brooks, Miriam D. Ezzani Miriam D. Ezzani, Youcef Sai, Fida Sanjakdar

Journal Articles

The purpose of this qualitative cross-cultural case study was to better understand how Muslim students living in Australia, Ireland, and the United States navigated racism to identify ways in which school leaders and teachers can better address the structural, historical, and socioeconomic roots of racial injustice, discrimination, and ongoing oppression. Data collection was guided by a shared interview protocol that asked questions regarding family background, personal interests, identity, and friendships with a focus on their experiences of anti-Muslim racism in secondary schools. Findings suggested that Muslim students navigated racialization by (de)constructing their Muslimness, seeking voice, navigating between inclusion and exclusion, …

Improving Teaching Quality In Higher Education: A Practitioner's Guide To Using Formative Teaching Analysis Poll, Thies Johannsen, Henning Meyer

Practice Papers

Teaching Analysis Poll (TAP) has become an increasingly popular tool for evaluating teaching quality and enhancing student learning outcomes in higher education. It requires, however, additional human resources. This paper presents a modified version for easy implementation: Formative Teaching Analysis Poll (FTAP). It can be used by an individual educator and is nonetheless an effective practical method for practitioners in higher education to improve their teaching quality and enhance the learning experience of their students.

Based on a review of literature and personal experience using FTAP, in this paper we provide an overview of the underlying methodology of FTAP, its …

Lessons From Redefining Traditional Work Placements For University Students In Tu Dublin, Kevin Dominic Delaney, Norah Cussen, Deirdre Ryan

Practice Papers

There is strong support for ensuring all university students have an option to undertake relevant work placement. Work-placements enable students to engage with enterprise and develop experiential learning while linking their academic study and theory to real industrial practice. Such placements, or internships, offer students an opportunity to build their self-confidence while refining their transversal skills such as creativity, innovation, communication, team-working and problem solving. Furthermore, placements broaden students’ knowledge base and improve their employability upon graduation.

While student cohorts benefit from engaging with enterprise the enterprise also benefits, such as from the energy, new perspectives and ideas interns can …

Social Studies And History Curriculum Assessment In Colleges Of Education In Ghana: Reflective Practices Of Teacher Educators, Bernice Oteng, Ronald Osei Mensah, Pearl Adiza Babah, Enock Swanzy-Impraim

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Assessment is a crucial and essential component of successful instruction and learning. As a result, teachers must examine their actions in the classroom through a process of reflective practices (self-observation and self-evaluation) and think about why they do it and if it works. This essay examines the reflective practices of Ghanaian teacher educators regarding the evaluation of social studies and history curricula. It made use of the sequential explanatory mixed method as a methodology drawn from questionnaires, interviews and document reviews. The findings disclosed that teacher educators in Ghana’s colleges of education have low efficacy and poor reflective practices when …

Identifying The Characteristics, Constraints, And Enablers To Creating Value In Applied Performance Analysis, Denise Martin, Peter G. O'Donoghue, Jonathan Bradley, Sam Robertson, Denise Mcgrath

Articles

While applied performance analysts (PAs) are a well-established applied sports science practitioner group, there is no clear definition of the purpose of an analyst, their key relationships, or the expertise required to execute the role successfully. This research sought to understand how PA practitioners and educators perceive their role as applied PA practitioners. Twenty-seven applied PAs and educators with applied PA experience participated in six online focus groups, completing an online survey in advance. Reflexive thematic analysis of transcripts and survey data generated an overarching theme: embedded applied PA practitioners have a value co-creation role within performance ecosystems which is …

Capturing The Behaviour Of Volunteer Pedestrians In A Newly-Developed University Campus Using A Distributed Array Of Bluetooth Low Energy Devices, Ahlam Al Anbouri, Mayank Parmar, David Powell, Paula Kelly, Niall Holmes Dr., Damon Berry, Lorraine D'Arcy

Conference papers

Contemporary public infrastructure projects emphasise sustainable options that integrate pedestrian routes, leisure facilities and convenient access to public transport systems. It is important to understand the effectiveness of these contemporary designs. In the age of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), there is a need to develop technologybased solutions that collect information about the behaviour of pedestrians in public spaces as they commute and engage in leisure pursuits while simultaneously preserving the privacy of these citizens. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), has privacypreserving features that make it worth considering as part of a technology solution for studies of this type. This …

Editorial: Investigating The Effect Of The Physical Context On Customer Experience, Helen L. Bruce, Ewa Krolikowska, Tara Rooney

Articles

This editorial introduces a special issue of the Journal of Services Marketing, dedicated to articles discussing the effect of the physical context on customer experience. The editorial identifies diverse areas of extant knowledge which researchers might draw upon when investigating the effect of the physical context on customer experience. to inform future research agendas.