Digital Commons Network^™

Metamorphosis: An Evaluation Of The Adaptation And Re-Use Potential Of Suburban Housing For Older Homeowners, Michelle Moore

Masters

Ireland’s population is ageing at a rate that is more than twice the EU average. Public policy in Ireland aims to support older persons to age-in-place. Over 80% of older adults in Ireland live in an owner-occupied home, following many decades of public policy promoting home ownership as the tenure of choice. Limited research has been undertaken on the housing adaptation options that could result in privately-owned homes being made more suitable for the evolving needs of the rapidly ageing demographic. This thesis addresses the hypothesis that, with the provision of an appropriate suite of enablers, older homeowners can be …

Meditation Techniques And Their Relationship To Psychotic-Like And Mystical Experiences, Timothy Palmer

School of Psychology Theses

Meditation practice has been associated with benefits but also adverse experiences from anxiety to psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) and even psychosis. The overarching aim was to identify how different types of meditation techniques (varying in bodily focus) differentially relate to psychotic-like experiences and cognitive abilities, including interoceptive awareness, affective awareness and decision-making. For this, I conducted two correlational studies and an intervention study.Different systems have been proposed for classifying meditation techniques. Nash et al’s (2013) approach categorises techniques by goal: Null Directed Methods (NDM), which aim for an “empty” state; Cognitive Directed Methods (CDM), aimed at an enhanced cognitive state; and …

Predictive Perception In Autism, Robert Harlow

School of Psychology Theses

This thesis investigates how predictive perception, motor coordination, and neurotype differences influences social perception in autism. It explores how these mechanisms contribute to social difficulties faced by autistic people, through the lens of the double empathy problem and second-person neuroscience.Chapter 2 examined how spoken intentions and visual evidence guide predictive social perception. Across four experiments, results supported a dual-process model whereby top-down expectations shape early perception but are overridden by visual input once motion begins. This led to the ‘kinematic dominance hypothesis’, suggesting motion cues dominate perception once movement begins due to their higher precision.Chapter 3 used high-resolution active motion …

Understanding Truth And Reconciliations Processes In An Art-Based Community Project Which Addresses Experiences Of Iatrogenic Harm In Mental Health Services, Joseph French

School of Psychology Theses

Research suggests that some service users may have harmful experiences of mental health services. Truth and reconciliations processes have addressed systemic harm in other contexts. However, these are complex and may have positive and negative impacts. Eight interviews were conducted with seven members of a community arts group which uses a truth and reconciliations approach. Members create art to express harmful experiences of the mental health system and display it at exhibitions where mental health professionals are invited to engage with it. The researcher used a constructivist grounded theory informed approach to understand how artists experienced a truth and reconciliations …

An Evaluation Of Zero Trust Principles In Modern Software Development, Cezar Vararu, David White

Academic Poster Collection

An evaluation of Zero Trust Principles in modern software development

Electrochemical Detection Of Nitrite Based On Iron Oxide–Reduced Graphene Oxide Nanocomposite Modified Electrode In Real Water, Amira Ghezal, Zina Fredj, Ammar Al-Hamry, Marcos A. Gross, Leonardo G. Paterno, Mounir Ben Ali, Olfa Kanoun, Baljit Singh

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

This work presents a screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) modified with iron oxide nanoparticles-reduced graphene oxide (ION-rGO) nanocomposite for the rapid and highly sensitive determination of nitrite in real water samples. The presence of both ION and rGO on the electrode surface enhances the sensing performance compared to the unmodified SPCE by reducing the charge transfer at the electrode/electrolyte interface. Under optimized conditions, it is demonstrated that the charge-transfer resistance determined from electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) scales linearly with the logarithm of nitrite concentration. Due to its unique structure, the proposed nitrite sensor displays improved performance compared to our previous work, …

Exploring The Sustainability Of Single Use Plastics In The Biopharmaceuticals Sector: A Scoping Review Of Challenges, Opportunities And Impact, Cormac Mcmahon, Adrienne F. M. Fleming, Philip Owende, Malcolm Goggin

Articles

Single-use plastics (SUPs) are synonymous with the biopharmaceuticals sector, facilitating economies of scale, process efficiency, flexibility and sterility assurance, all with a seemingly negligible environmental footprint. Yet, in ever-tightening regulation, mandated by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and by concern for large-scale industrial impacts, the sustainability of SUP consumption is increasingly being questioned. Whilst the sector contributes to human welfare, its transition risk is unlikely to remain immune to societal pressure for more sustainable production. This paper aims to present a scoping review of the apparent contradiction between sectoral SUP adoption and the increasing importance of circularity. The approach to …

Children’S Outdoor Play Injuries: How Real Are Parental Concerns Of Danger In Outdoor Play?, Fiona Armstrong, David Gaul

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Risky play can be defined as any play that is thrilling or exciting, involving risk of injury [Sandseter, E. B. H. (2007). Categorising risky play—How can we identify risk-taking in children's play? European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 15(2), 237–252.]. Risky play has been associated with danger and increased risk of injury, yet there is limited evidence relating to the prevalence of injuries because of play, with existing data mainly related to home and sports-related injuries [Gilmartin, S., Barrett, M., Bennett, M., Begley, C., Ni Chroinin, C., O’Toole, P., & Blackburn, C. (2022). The effect of national public health measures …

Understanding Urban Cultural Festivals As Social Infrastructure, Bernadette Quinn

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

This paper is concerned with the role that urban cultural festivals play in enhancing the quality and vitality of social life. It acknowledges that their reputation has become tarnished in recent years and that festivals now frequently feature in debates because they are charged with inciting tensions, exclusions and contestations. However, of note here is that cities tend to narrowly conceive of festivals as temporarily bounded moments of commodifiable spectacle. The fact that festivals function, on an ongoing manner, as embedded, sustained practices capable of supporting urban social living in numerous ordinary ways is rarely acknowledged, much less prioritised. This …

From Feedback To Framework: Exploring A Student-Centric Development Process For Low-End Immersive Ar/Vr Learning Content In Hospitality Education, Alexander Lennart Schmidt, Praneschen Govender, Jeroen Oskam, Ralf Burbach, Davin Dunlea, Jennifer Hussey, Colin O’Connor, Daniel King, Pasi Tuominen, Jouko Loijas, Teemu Moilanen, Elisa Laatikainen, David Cortés, Belén Bermejo, Carlos Juiz

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

There is a vibrant debate concerning the integration of immersive learning content into hospitality education to (a.) embed the learning process in real-life professional contexts and, (b.) uphold student engagement. Contributing to this debate, this article explores the development process of low-end immersive AR/VR content for hospitality education, leveraging design-based research (DBR) centered around student feedback. This study is based on qualitative focus group data triangulated with survey data collected across four universities located in Europe, each of which offers hospitality programs. Our findings suggest a three-stage development process framework. This process comprises three decision-making dilemmas which need to be …

Espad Ireland 2024 Supplementary Analysis Report: A Closer Look At Teenager Substance Use And Gambling Through Family, Peer, And School Data, Joan Hanafin, Salome Sunday, Helen Fitzmarice, Luke Clancy

Reports

No abstract provided.

Príomhthorthaí Ó Thionscadal Suirbhé Scoileanna Na Heorpa 2024 Maidir Le Halcól Agus Drugaí Eile (Espad)., Espad Group

Reports

Déantar achoimre san fhoilseachán seo ar na príomhthorthaí ón 8ú babhta de Thionscadal Suirbhé Scoileanna na hEorpa maidir le hAlcól agus Drugaí Eile (ESPAD), a rinneadh i measc 113 882 scoláire idir 15 agus 16 bliana d’aois, ar fud 37 tír Eorpacha in 2024. Is léiriú é an t-eagrán seo ar 30 bliain d’fhaireachán a dhéanamh ar iompraíochtaí rioscúla na nógánach ar fud na hEorpa agus tugtar isteach leis béim nua ar fholláine mheabhrach agus ar ghníomhaíochtaí coisctheacha, agus aitheantas á thabhairt do thábhacht mhéadaitheach na dtosca sin maidir le torthaí sláinte na n-ógánach a mhúnlú. Tá an tuarascáil seo …

Espad Ireland 2024. European School Survey Project On Alcohol And Other Drugs, Joan Hanafin, Salome Sunday, Helen Fitzmarice, Luke Clancy

Reports

No abstract provided.

The Digital Loophole: Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Child Age Verification Methods On Social Media, Fatmaelzahraa Eltaher Ph.D, Rahul Gajula, Luis Miralles-Pechuán, Christina Thorpe, Susan Mckeever

Conference papers

Social media platforms are an integral part of daily life for nearly five billion people worldwide. However, the growing presence of underage users on these platforms raises significant concerns regarding children's exposure to harmful content and its impact on their mental health. This paper examines the effectiveness of age verification measures implemented on leading platforms Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and X. We evaluate the age verification processes required for account creation by simulating the registration steps for minors on these platforms. We also compare these methods to best practices in online age assurance in finance, betting and public transportation …

Synthesising Cross-Speaker Data For Low-Resource Pathological Speech Recognition With Peft, Kesego Mokgosi, Milad Dadgar, Cathy Ennis, Robert Ross

Conference papers

Dysarthric speech recognition is essential for enhancing communication and accessibility for individuals with speech impairments, yet its development is hindered by a scarcity of robust, speaker-specific datasets. This study explores low-resource dysarthric speech recognition through cross-speaker transfer using synthetic data and parameter-efficient fine-tuning (PEFT). We integrate SpeechT5 text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis with x-vector speaker embeddings to generate speaker-specific dysarthric speech, enabling model adaptation while preserving pathological speech characteristics such as prosodic irregularities. Experiments on the TORGO dataset show that mixed cross-synthetic data with LoRA fine-tuning achieves a WER of 0.17, representing a 71.7% improvement over the standard model (0.60 WER) without …

Fostering A Culture Of Collaboration For Change:​ Tu Dublin’S Engaged Research Network ​, Catherine Bates, Mary Deasy, Ade Baruwa, Caroline Mcgowan, Catherine E. Gorman, Claire Mcdonnell, Fiona Prendergast, Lucía Morales, Sorcha Hyland

Research and Innovation - Other

Engagement drives a strong research culture, fostering collaboration, impact, and sustainability. It enables integration by connecting early-career and senior researchers; enhances research outcomes; and creates more opportunities for funding. This creates a more inclusive, diverse, and dynamic research ecosystem. Engaged research is co-created with stakeholders, e.g. communities, industries, and policymakers, to provide tangible outcomes and impact.

TU Dublin has established an Engaged Research Network (ERN) to enable knowledge co-creation. The aim is to build its capacity for Engaged Research, with a focus on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. It focuses on connecting and supporting staff and PhD students and developing …

An Examination Of Middle School Girls’ Perceptions And Preferences Of Reading From A Device Versus Paper, Debra Kisch

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Schools have been impacted by the technological advancements of the world. With these changes, students have been increasingly using technology, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic. The use of devices to read, both for pleasure and academically, have increased, especially since the introduction of Amazon’s Kindle in 2007 (Ashburn, 2024). Additionally, schools have started issuing devices for students to use and it is reported that forty-five percent of schools have a computer for each student (National Center for Education Statistics, 20). They found an extra 37% reported having a computer for each student in some grades or classrooms. States are also …

Socioeconomic Status And Educational Opportunities Through The Eyes Of Students And Teachers: Diverse Realities, Shared Insights, Jill Schany

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Sowl and Crain (2021) argue that despite recognizing the uniqueness of the place when it comes to rural demographics and needs, policies regarding education and the economy often prioritize urban areas, defining rural in opposition to urban without adequately addressing the specific needs of rural youth. Studies examining geographical disparities in educational outcomes traditionally concentrated on achievement gaps within urban and suburban areas, highlighting more startling gaps in cities with heightened racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic inequality and segregation. Literature also extensively discusses neighborhood effects on educational outcomes in densely populated regions, offering valuable insights into the distribution of educational opportunities …

Anxious, Persistent, And Resilient; Oh My!, Samantha Hilbert

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

No abstract provided.

Neuron Semantic-Guided Test Generation For Deep Neural Networks Fuzzing, Li Huang, Weifeng Sun, Meng Yan, Zhongxin Liu, Yan Lei, David Lo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In recent years, significant progress has been made in testing methods for deep neural networks (DNNs) to ensure their correctness and robustness. Coverage-guided criteria, such as neuron-wise, layer-wise, and path-/trace-wise, have been proposed for DNN fuzzing. However, existing coverage-based criteria encounter performance bottlenecks for several reasons: Testing Adequacy: Partial neural coverage criteria have been observed to achieve full coverage using only a small number of test inputs. In this case, increasing the number of test inputs does not consistently improve the quality of models. Interpretability: The current coverage criteria lack interpretability. Consequently, testers are unable to identify and understand which …

Echoes Of Play: Traditional Outdoor Games Of Chitral`S Mountain Communities, Rubina Nawab, Fozia Parveen

Institute for Educational Development Pakistan (IED-PK) Archives

No abstract provided.

Data Management In Large-Scale Studies: A Handbook For Researchers, Sadia Muzaffar Bhutta, Aisha Naz Ansari, Sohail Ahmad, Wadhwani Nimarta

Institute for Educational Development Pakistan (IED-PK) Archives

This handbook presents insights and experiences on managing largescale data, shared by team members who contributed to six large-scale studies, including the AKU-IED Impact Study, EGRI-QEP, SMILO1, TCFSMILO, SMILO2, and PPP study. All these projects were funded by different organisations. We extend our gratitude to all research team members for their valuable experiential contributions to this handbook.

Booklet Of Green Prompts, Fatima Iqbal, Ali Fayyaz

Institute for Educational Development Pakistan (IED-PK) Archives

This short stories book is an outcome of the Climate Action Fellowship carried out by the Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED) and funded by the U.S. Mission in Pakistan.

Encapsulating Student Perspectives: Investigating Students’ Voice In Urban Secondary Education, Treyvon L. Harlin

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACTEncapsulating Student Perspectives: Investigating Students’ Voice in Urban Secondary Education by Treyvon L. Harlin February 2025 Advisor: Ben Pogodzinski, Ph.D. Major: Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Degree: Doctor of Philosophy The research in this dissertation focuses on the implication of student voice in historically marginalized secondary schools throughout the metropolitan area of Detroit, Michigan. Research initiatives conducted by Delpit (2006), Holmes & Crossley (2004), and Levitan (2018) have shown that students, especially those of marginalized populations, must have a sense of safety, feel valued and that their opinions matter to have buy-in with academic objectives and a school’s vision. Unfortunately, …

Autoras Ensombrecidas Al Final Del Renacimiento: María De Zayas Y Sotomayor Y Aemilia Lanyer, Marybeth Thommes

Research Honors

Las obras de estas dos autoras toman estilos de escritura únicas de la época que alabaron a sus comunidades femeninas, temas sobre los elementos positivos de la feminidad y los negativos de la opresión de las mujeres durante el siglo XVII, y representaciones de figuras femeninas mitológicas y bíblicas destacadas. Ambas autoras incluían todas estas estrategias para reconfigurar la percepción de las mujeres, y por eso la feminidad en general, en un sentido empoderante, creando una fuente sólida donde otras mujeres podían encontrar inspiración y esperanza para un futuro mejor para su género.

Transitions After College And Athletics, Kate Christian

Research Honors

The transition away from college athletics is a significant marker for student athletes. Yet much existing research has focused on Division 1 athletes, leaving Division 3 underexplored. This study looks at the challenges athletes learn to navigate leaving two major institutions simultaneously—-college and athletics. By looking at how sports operate as a near-total institution, it reveals how athletes are socialized into their sport and structure their life around athletics. To study this transition, I utilize semi-structured interviews with former D3 athletes from Illinois Wesleyan University. While many athletes recounted feeling a loss of identity, they also reflected on how their …

The American Party Polarization Dilemma: Why Political Discourse Matters, Chase Beitz

Research Honors

The question pursued in my research paper is this: Does the proliferation of extreme political discourse fuel party polarization along party lines in the United States? I hypothesize that the greater the number and the more extreme the tone of political statements made by powerful figures within a party, the greater the level of polarization between and within the parties. These powerful figures stand out in this work as discursive entrepreneurs, individuals utilizing and proliferating extreme discourse for strategic and ideological gain. A thorough analysis was completed on four recent eras of Republican control in Congress: the John Boehner era …

Police Records And Rural Crime In 1940s Ireland: The Challenges Of Using Historical Documents As Primary Sources In Sociological Research, Clay Darcy

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

No abstract provided.

Inge Viermetz, Woman Acquitted At Nuremberg, Diane Marie Amann

FIU Law Review

Conventional narratives tend to represent the post-World War II international criminal proceedings as a men’s project, thus obscuring the many women who participated, as lawyers, journalists, analysts, interpreters, witnesses, and defendants. Indeed, two women stood trial before Nuremberg Military Tribunals. This article examines the case of the only woman found not-guilty: Inge Viermetz, who had been an administrator at Lebensborn, the Nazi SS adoption and placement agency. The article outlines the prosecution’s child-taking case against Viermetz, as well as her successful gendered self-portrayal as a conventionally feminine caregiver. With references to Professor Megan A. Fairlie, at whose memorial symposium it …

Legalist Realism, Mark A. Drumbl

FIU Law Review

This article explores the scholarly footprint of Professor Megan Fairlie. This is a footprint of 'legalist realism'. Professor Fairlie was greatly concerned with legalism, in other words, the centrality of due process, the rights of the defendant, and human dignity in trials of individuals accused of the most heinous crimes. She was committed to put the law in international criminal law. And her view was one of realism, notably, that the structure of international institutions must be mindful of power politics, and expectations and ambitions ought to recognize the limitations and possibilities of politics in order to retain legitimacy and …