Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

The Covid-19 Pandemic And Religious Travel: Present And Future Trends, Daniel H. Olsen, Dallen Timothy

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has had dramatic effects on both the health and economic stability of countries around the world. While several scholars and media commentators have suggested that the pandemic would be a good time to reset an unsustainable tourism system, left out of these discussions has been the impacts on religion and religious travel. The purpose of this paper is to review the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on religion and religious travel, including the tensions that have arisen between religious communities, governments and health officials. The paper then discusses potential futures regarding religious travel in a …

Crisis Management And The Impact Of Pandemics On Religious Tourism, William Mosier, Tariq Elhadary, Ismail A. Elhaty, Mehdi Safaei

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

The spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has caused a worldwide shockwave of fear and much misinformation leaving chaos in its wake. Holy shrines and other religious sites have a special place in the hearts and minds of many people. For example, the mosques in Makkah and Medina, Saudi Arabia typically accommodate over one hundred thousand Muslims daily. Due to the spread of COVID-19, both mosques were forced to shut their doors to pilgrims for health and safety reasons. This situation has saddened millions of Muslims all over the globe. The same situation applies to Qom City in Iran, Bethlehem …

Increasing The Stability And Applications Of Highly Active Naturally Occurring Antimicrobial Peptides, Wayne Travers

Doctoral

Antimicrobial Resistance is a fundamental threat to global health and safety” (WHO, 2016). Nisin, a 34 amino acid lanthipeptide, is currently used as a food preservative worldwide and has been used for decades without significant bacterial resistance having developed. It is an extremely active molecule which kills a range of different bacterial species. However nisin, along with some other similar peptides, suffers from low stability and solubility at physiological pH, which severely restricts its possible use in human and veterinary medicine. This research is concerned with increasing the stability of nisin in physiological pH systems; the stability of the dehydroalanine …

A Hybrid Agent-Based And Equation Based Model For The Spread Of Infectious Diseases, Elizabeth Hunter, Brian Mac Namee, John D. Kelleher

Articles

Both agent-based models and equation-based models can be used to model the spread of an infectious disease. Equation-based models have been shown to capture the overall dynamics of a disease outbreak while agent-based models are able to capture heterogeneous characteristics of agents that drive the spread of an outbreak. However, agent-based models are computationally intensive. To capture the advantages of both the equation-based and agent-based models, we create a hybrid model where the disease component of the hybrid model switches between agent-based and equation-based. The switch is determined using the number of agents infected. We first test the model at …

School Of Culinary Arts And Food Technology, Tu Dublin, Autumn Newsletter 2020, James Murphy

Other resources

The School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology, TU Dublin, Autumn Newsletter captured the many events, research, awards, significant contributions and special civic and community activities which the students and staff members of the school have successfully completed up to the Autumn period of 2020. The successful completion of these activities would not be possible without the active and on-going support of the 'INSPIRED' friends of Culinary Arts (school supporters) and our school's industry association supporters.

Sure 2020 Undergraduate Science Conference Booklet, Sure Network

Group Reports

The SURE 2020 Conference was the third series of Science Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) Conferences, following earlier series in 2018 (with three conferences in Dublin, Athlone and Waterford) and in 2019 (with three conferences in Dublin, Sligo and Carlow). The 2020 online conference had a total of 24 oral presentations and 35 poster presentations, and was attended by over 450 students, academic staff, professional body and industry representatives.

The aims of the conference were to:

1. Provide current students with an opportunity to gain an understanding of the work which has been undertaken by recent graduates, and the career opportunities that …

Investigation Of Surrogate Biomarkers Associated With Macular Pigment Status In A Group Of Older Irish Adults, Grainne Scanlon, John S. Butler, Daniel Mccartney, Ekaterina Lostutova, Rose Anne Kenny, James Loughman

Articles

SIGNIFICANCE: Macular pigment (MP) confers potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects at the macula; however, its optical density in the eye is not routinely measured in clinical practice.

PURPOSE: This study explored a range of surrogate biomarkers including anthropometric, clinical, and plasma measures that may be associated with lower MP optical density (MPOD).

METHODS: Two thousand five hundred ninety-four subjects completed a full MP assessment as part of wave 1 of The Irish Longitudinal Study of Aging. Macular pigment optical density was measured using customized heterochromatic flicker photometry. Clinical (blood pressure), plasma (lipoproteins, inflammatory markers), and anthropometric (waist, hip, height, weight) …

Weight Status Of Children Aged 2-5 Years Old, Attending A Paediatric Outpatient Clinic And Its Association With Parental Feeding Style And Parental Perceptions Of Weight Status, Aisling Lee, Helen Callaghan, Dara Gallagher Dr, Annette Lalor, Louise Rattigan, Hilary Greaney, Laura Keaver

SURE Journal: Science Undergraduate Research Experience Journal

Background: A child’s weight status can allow health care professionals to assess their developmental growth. A child having a low or high weight for height could be due to an imbalance in nutrient intake occurring. It is important to balance dietary intake and physical activity to maintain a healthy weight status. Excessive consumption of food can lead to an overweight/obese weight status which is linked to non-communicable diseases. Parental feeding style can directly impact a child’s set of eating behaviours. Therefore, parents have a strong influence over a child’s growth pattern. In addition, parental awareness of childhood obesity is reported …

Covid-19 Welcome To University, Alan Hilliard

Reports

A short survey was undertaken among the Peer Mentor candidates in TU Dublin’s Bolton St. Campus. The Peer Mentors are second year students from eleven different courses and this initiative prides itself in being embedded in specific courses across the College of Engineering and Built Environment and other colleges across the University. During the academic year the mentors give inputs based on the unique challenges within the course that the first years have registered for. The results, while predictable, reveal challenges facing all involved in Third Level Education during the unique challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.

'This is an important …

Raman Spectroscopy Of Lymphocytes For The Identification Of Prostate Cancer Patients With Late Radiation Toxicity Following Radiotherapy, Daniel Cullen, Jane Bryant, Adrian Maguire, Denish Medipally, Brendan Mcclean, Laura Shields, Emma Noone, Shirley Bradshaw, Marie Finn, Mary Dunne, Aoife M .Shannon, John Armstrong, Orla Howe, Aidan Meade, Fiona Lyng

Articles

The success of radiotherapy in tumour control depends on the total dose given. However, the tolerance of the normal tissues surrounding the tumour limits this dose. It is not known why some patients develop radiation toxicity and, currently, it is not possible to predict before treatment which patients will experience adverse effects. Thus, there is an unmet clinical need for a new test to identify patients at risk of radiation toxicity. Here, we report a new approach based on Raman spectroscopy.Blood samples were collected from 42 patients who had undergone radiotherapy for prostate cancer and had shown either severe or …

The Prevalence Of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Found During Screening Of A High-Risk Cardiovascular Population, Sorcha Amond Murray

Masters

Introduction: The effectiveness of screening for abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) has been debated for many years. An AAA is defined as a focal dilation of the abdominal aortic artery exceeding 1.5 times its normal size (Kent, 2014). Risk factors associated with AAA are similar to those of peripheral vascular disease, thus the population attending a vascular laboratory are ideal candidates for AAA screening. AAAs are more common in males, in smokers, with increasing age, and more likely with a family history of AAA (Chaikof et al, 2009). Currently the UK National Screening Committee recommend one time AAA screening by ultrasound …

Innovative Nanomaterial Approaches For Solar Energy Applications, James Walshe

Doctoral

The fundamental limitation of the conversion efficiency achievable with solar energy solutions (which includes photovoltaic and photothermal technology), requires the adaptation and integration of a series of innovative material strategies to continue the process of sustainably decarbonizing the global economy. Through the passive integration of additional nanoscale features which exploit and modify the solar spectrum through its interactions with luminescent molecules, metal nanoparticles, and/or thin-film optical coatings – the solar spectrum can be modulated and accordingly the collection efficiency of each respective technology enhanced. However, irrespective of the type of spectral conversion integrated into the technology (luminescent down-shifting, nanofluids, plasmonic …

Novel Therapeutic Approaches To Treat Brain Cancer Combining Cold Atmospheric Plasma, Therapeutic Prodrugs And Gold Nanoparticles, Zhonglei He

Doctoral

Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) makes up approximately 45% of all primary brain tumours. State of the art treatment at present involves concurrent and adjuvant temozolomide (TMZ) with radical radiotherapy which extends median survival from 12.1 months (radical radiotherapy alone) to 14.6 months according to the study of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Brain Tumour and Radiotherapy Groups and the National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC) Clinical Trials Group. Meanwhile, National Cancer Registry Ireland presented that GBM represents over 40% of all malignant brain tumours and had the worst five-year net survival (4%) compared to overall malignant …

A Model For The Spread Of Infectious Diseases In A Region, Elizabeth Hunter, Brian Mac Namee, John D. Kelleher

Articles

In understanding the dynamics of the spread of an infectious disease, it is important to understand how a town’s place in a network of towns within a region will impact how the disease spreads to that town and from that town. In this article, we take a model for the spread of an infectious disease in a single town and scale it up to simulate a region containing multiple towns. The model is validated by looking at how adding additional towns and commuters influences the outbreak in a single town. We then look at how the centrality of a town …

Optimisation Of Vitamin D Status For Enhanced Immuno-Protection Against Covid-19, Daniel Mccartney, Declan G. Byrne

Articles

Abstract

Background

Vitamin D deficiency (serum 25(OH)D<50nmol/l) is common in Ireland, particularly amongst older adults, hospital inpatients and nursing home residents. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with increased risk of acute viral respiratory infection and community acquired pneumonia, with several molecular mechanisms proposed to explain this association. Vitamin D supplementation has also been shown to reduce the risk of respiratory infection.

Vitamin D and Covid-19

Correction of vitamin D deficiency is thought to suppress CD26, a putative adhesion molecule for Covid-19 host cell invasion. Vitamin D may also attenuate interferon gamma (IFNγ) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) inflammatory responses, both potent predictors of poorer outcome in critically-ill ventilated patients including those with Covid-19.

Vitamin D Requirements

Irish adults require 25-30μg/d of vitamin D3, an intake not achievable by diet alone, to reliably maintain serum 25(OH)D levels >50nmol/l. Supplementation with doses up to 100μg/d has been shown to be safe for adults, and many agencies and expert …

Translating National Standards Into Practice: Supporting Social Care Professionals, Victoria O'Dwyer, Laura Behan, Linda Weir, Deirdre Connolly, Rachel Flynn

Journal of Social Care

The Health Information and Quality Authority [HIQA] was established in 2007 to drive high quality and safe care for people using health and social care services in Ireland. One of the functions of HIQA is to set national standards for services. When developing standards HIQA conducts a thorough review of evidence and extensively engages stakeholders through focus groups, advisory groups and public consultations. To validate the robustness of its processes HIQA distributed a survey to key stakeholders with experience of the standards development processes in 2018. It also undertook an international review of how other organisations approach the development of …

The Relationship Between Serum Zinc Levels And Myopia, Niamh Burke, John Butler, Daniel Ian Flitcroft, James Loughman

Articles

Clinical significance: Myopia is inherently associated with eye growth and thereby possibly amenable to nutritional influence. However, little attention has been given to possible die- tary influences. This study demonstrates that serum zinc does not play a role in myopia development. Background: Myopia is inherently associated with eye growth and thereby possibly amena- ble to nutritional influence. A number of Asian studies have reported lower levels of serum zinc in myopic children. This study was designed to assess the relationship between serum zinc and myopia in the Korean population – using a subsample of participants from nation- ally representative data.

Genome-Wide Dna Methylation Meta-Analysis In The Brains Of Suicide Completers, Stefanie Policicchio, Sam Washer, Joana Viana, Artemis Latrou, Joe Burrage, Eilis Hannon, Gustavo Turecki, Zachary Kaminsky, Jonathan Mill, Emma L. Dempster, Therese Murphy

Articles

Suicide is the second leading cause of death globally among young people representing a significant global health burden. Although the molecular correlates of suicide remains poorly understood, it has been hypothesised that epigenomic processes may play a role. The objective of this study was to identify suicide-associated DNA methylation changes in the human brain by utilising previously published and unpublished methylomic datasets. We analysed prefrontal cortex (PFC, n = 211) and cerebellum (CER, n = 114) DNA methylation profiles from suicide completers and non-psychiatric, sudden-death controls, meta-analysing data from independent cohorts for each brain region separately. We report evidence for …

The Processes, Effects And Therapeutics Of Pilgrimage Walking The St. Olav Way, Nanna Natalia Jørgensen, John Eade, Tor-Johan Ekeland, Catherine A.N. Lorentzen

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage walking is increasingly sought as self-therapy for different mental, physical and spiritual ailments, sudden life changes, crossroads or challenges. However, pilgrimage walking as therapy is largely an unexplored ground within health science / care / interventions notwithstanding millennia of human experience. To unfold the nature and add to the knowledge about pilgrimage walking as therapy, this article explores the health-related processes (as experienced mentally, physically, spiritually, socially and in nature), the after-effects (on daily life, behaviour and future actions) and the therapeutic mechanisms (that bring forth these processes and effects) involved in walking the St. Olav Way across Norway. …

Raman Microspectroscopy For The Discrimination Of Thyroid And Lung Cancer Subtypes For Application In Clinical Cytopathology, Declan O'Dea

Doctoral

The branch of cytology known as cytopathology, studies and diagnoses diseases at a cellular level, and is a useful method for detecting cancer. The procedures used to attain cytological samples for diagnostic purposes, such as aspiration and exfoliative methods are safe, accurate and cost-effective. Histochemical and immunohistochemical (IHC) techniques are commonly applied to cytological samples to aid cancer diagnosis, however multiple limitations occur using these methods for the diagnosis of thyroid cancer (TC) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is the prominent diagnostic method used for the initial investigation of thyroid nodules but is limited …

Macular Pigment And Diabetes Mellitus, Grainne Scanlon

Doctoral

The macula is a specialised part of the retina responsible for detailed central and colour vision. The carotenoids lutein, zeaxanthin and meso-zeaxanthin are uniquely concentrated in the inner and central layers of the primate macula, where they are collectively known as macular pigment (MP). Macular pigment confers potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects in the eye. Many studies have suggested that these carotenoids are lower in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and that increased levels of MP may confer protection against AMD, especially the late form of the disease. Research is now beginning to focus on MP optical density (MPOD) and carotenoid …

A Hybrid Agent-Based And Equation Based Epidemiological Model For The Spread Of Infectious Diseases, Elizabeth Hunter

Doctoral

Infectious disease models are essential in understanding how an outbreak might occur and how best to mitigate an outbreak. One of the most important factors in modelling a disease is choosing an appropriate model and determining the assump tions needed to create the model. The main research questions this thesis addresses are how do we create a model for the spread of infectious diseases that captures heterogeneous agents without using an inordinate amount of computing power and how can we use that model to plan for future infectious disease outbreaks. We start our work by analysing and comparing equation based …

A Class Act - Revising Food Classifications To Enable Automated Assessment Of Compliance With Food-Based Dietary Guidelines, H. Al-Sehaim, F. E. Douglas

Conference papers

Food classification systems make it easier to compare data from various sources and aids in the creation of public health guidelines. These systems can include a large amount of foods divided into various food groups and broader food categories.(1) Nutritics employs a standardised food categorisation system containing 114 unique categories. Food-based dietary guidelines (FBDG) categorise food types into general food groups to enable communication around amounts to consume daily basis to promote good health.(2) The correct classification of foods is essential to enable the implementation of an automated feature in Nutritics to assess compliance with FBDGs.This project aims to revise …

Producing Urban Aerobiological Risk Map For Cupressaceae Family In The Sw Iberian Peninsula From Lidar Technology, Raúl Pecero‐Casimiro, Santiago Fernández‐Rodríguez, Rafael Tormo‐Molina, Inmaculada Silva‐Palacios, Ángela Gonzalo‐Garijo, Alejandro Monroy‐Colín, Juan Francisco Coloma, José María Maya‐Manzano

Articles

Given the rise in the global population and the consequently high levels of pollution, urban green areas, such as those that include plants in the Cupressaceae family, are suitable to reduce the pollution levels, improving the air quality. However, some species with ornamental value are also very allergenic species whose planting should be regulated and their pollen production reduced by suitable pruning. The Aerobiological Index to create Risk maps for
Ornamental Trees (AIROT), in its previous version, already included parameters that other indexes did not consider, such as the width of the streets, the height of buildings and the geographical …

Biopharmaceutical Revolution In Saudi Arabia: Progress And Development, Rihana Alzahran, Elaine Harris

Articles

Purpose This paper aimed to analyze the situation of the biopharmaceutical industry in Saudi Arabia to improve the situation in a way that achieves high levels of development similar to those in Europe, the United States of America (USA), and Japan. Methods To achieve the objective of the study, the authors surveyed 18 out of 21 Saudi pharmaceutical companies that have received licensing for manufacturing from the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) to diagnose the situation of manufacturing in relation to biopharmaceuticals. An interview with SFDA officials was carried out as a supplement to the survey. Results Findings revealed …

A Hybrid System Dynamics, Discrete Event Simulation And Data Envelopment Analysis To Investigate Boarding Patients In Acute Hospitals, Leila Keshtkar, Wael Rashwan, Waleed Abo Hamad, Amr Arisha

Articles

Timely access to health services has become increasingly difficult due to demographic change and aging people growth. These create new heterogeneous challenges for society and healthcare systems. Congestion at acute hospitals has reached unprecedented levels due to the unavailability of acute beds. As a consequence, patients in need of treatment endure prolonged waiting times as a decision whether to admit, transfer, or send them home is made. These long waiting times often result in boarding patients in different places in the hospital. This threatens patient safety and diminishes the service quality while increasing treatment costs. It is argued in the …

Quantification And Identification Of Microproteinuria Using Ultrafiltration And Atr-Ftir Spectroscopy, David Perezguaita, Zack Richardson, Phil Heraud, Bayden Wood

Articles

The presence of low amounts of specific proteins in urine can be an indicator of diagnosis and prognosis of several diseases including renal failure and cancer. Hence, there is an urgent need for Point-of-care (PoC) methods, which can quantify microproteinuria levels (30-300 ppm) and identify the major proteins associated with the microproteinuria. In this study, we coupled ultracentrifugation with attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) to identify and quantify proteins in urine at low parts per million levels. The process involves the preconcentration of proteins from 500 μL of urine using an ultrafiltration device. After several washings, the isolated proteins …

Espad Report 2019: Results From European School Survey Project On Alcohol And Other Drugs, Sabrina Mokinaro, Julian Vincente, Elisa Benedetti, Sonia Cerrai, Emanuala Colasante, Sharon Arpa, Pavla Chomynova, Ludwig Kraus, Karin Monshouwer, Stanislas Spika, Arsaell Mar Arnarsson, Olga Balakireva, Begona Brime Beteta, Elin Kristin Bye, Anina Chileva, Luke Clancy, Zamira Hyseni Duraku, Tatijana Durisic, Olga Ekholm, Zsuzsanna Elekes, Silvia Florescu, Biljana Kilibarda, Anna Kokkevi, Elsa Lavado, Tanja Urdih Lazar, Martina Markelic, Alojz Nociar, Silvana Oncheva, Kirsimarja Raitasalo, Ludmilla Rupsience, Janusz Sieroslawski, Julian Strizek, Lela Sturua, Johan Svensson, Diana Vanaga, Kyriakos Veresies, Sigrid Vorobjov, Pai Weihe, Rodolfo Cotichini, Loredana Fortunato, Katenna Skarupova

Reports

The main purpose of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) is to collect comparable data on substance use and other forms of risk behaviour among 15- to 16-year-old students in order to monitor trends within, as well as between, countries. Between 1995 and 2019, seven waves of data collection were conducted across 49 European countries. This report presents selected key results. The full set of data on which the current report is based, including all of the standard tables, is available online (http://www.espad.org). All tables can be downloaded in Excel format and used for further …

Does Smoke-Free Legislation Work For Teens Too?: A Logistic Regression Analysis Of Smoking Prevalence And Gender Among Sixteen Years Old In Ireland Using The 1995-2015 Espad School Surveys, Shasha Li, Sheila Keogan, Luke Clancy

Articles

Objectives: To assess the role of tobacco control legislation (TCL) in youth smoking in Ireland. To examine the effects of smoke-free legislation in youth. To consider whether TCL contributed to the gender equalisation in prevalence in 16 years old seen between 2003 and 2015.

Setting Data are from the 4 yearly European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs from 1995 to 2015. Total sample size was 12.394. A logistic regression model on grouped data was used. Dependent variable is whether a student was a smoker in last 30 days. Independent variables are time, gender and the policy indicators, …

Secondhand Smoke Exposure And Other Signs Of Tobacco Consumption At Outdoor Entrances Of Primary Schools In Eleven European Countries, Elisabet Henderson, Xavier Continente, Esteve Fernandez, Olena Tigova, Nuria Cortes-Francisco, Silvano Gallus, Alessandra Lugo, Sean Semple, Rachel O'Donnell, Luke Clancy, Sheila Keogan, Ario Ruprecht, Alessandro Borgini, Anna Tzortzi, Vergina K. Vyzikidou, Giuseppe Gornini, Angel Lopez-Nicolas, Joan B. Soriano, Gergana Geshanova, Joseph Osman, Ute Mons, Krzysztof Przewozniak, Jose Precioso, Ramona Brad, Maria J. Lopez, Tackshs Project Investigators

Articles

Introduction: Although smoking restrictions at child-related settings are progressively being adopted, school out-door entrances are neglected in most smoke-free policies across Europe.

Objectives:To describe secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure and tobacco-related signs in outdoor entrances of primary schools in Europe according to area-level socioeconomic status (SES), smoke-free policy, national smoking prevalence, and geographical region.

Methods:In this cross-sectional study we monitored vapor-phase nicotine concentrations at 220 school outdoor entrances in 11 European countries (March 2017–October 2018). To account for nicotine presence, we used the laboratory's limit of quantification of 0.06μg/m3as point threshold. We also recorded the presence of smell of smoke, people …