Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The World Is Our Classroom: Developing A Model For International Virtual Internships - The Global Innovations Project, Paul Doyle, Brian Keegan, Damian Gordon, Anna Becevel, Paul J. Gibson, Zhiying Jiang Phd, Dympna O'Sullivan

Articles

In the aftermath of COVID-19, remote working has become the norm, and graduates now need an even wider range of skills, which traditional classrooms and internships do not always provide. Working in multiple time zones, within global multi-cultural teams, and only ever meeting colleagues through online technology are just some of the challenges, which require a new type of global graduate. Transversal skills including leadership, collaboration, innovation, digital, green, organization and communication skills are critical. The disruption from COVID-19 also presents unprecedented opportunities to develop more inclusive approaches to internships and international experiences, to level the playing field for students …

Limits Of Detection Of Mycotoxins By Laminar Flow Strips: A Review, Xinyi Zhao, Hugh Byrne, Christine M. O’Connor, James Curtin, Furong Tian

Articles

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolic products of fungi. They are poisonous, carcinogenic, and mutagenic in nature and pose a serious health threat to both humans and animals, causing severe illnesses and even death. Rapid, simple and low-cost methods of detection of mycotoxins are of immense importance and in great demand in the food and beverage industry, as well as in agriculture and environmental monitoring, and, for this purpose, lateral flow immunochromatographic strips (ICSTs) have been widely used in food safety and environmental monitoring. The literature to date describing the development of ICSTs for the detection of different types of mycotoxins using …

Exploring Pathways From Data To Knowledge To Insights In The Pharmaceutical Industry: ‘Introducing The Pharmaceutical Knowledge Ecosystem’, Melanie J. Adams, Paige E. Kane, Anne Greene (Editor), Martin Lipa

Level 3

The ecosystem of how the pharmaceutical industry acquires data, transforms these data into tangible knowledge, and derives valuable insights throughout the process, is highly complex. Data, information, knowledge, and the resulting insights, are necessary to support decision- making, manage risk, problem solve, ensure product realisation, enable continual improvement, and enhance operational effectiveness. Building on the fundamental concepts established in the well-known Data Information Knowledge Wisdom (DIKW) hierarchy, this paper reviews the basic concepts involved in the DIKW pathway and begins to relate these concepts to both established capabilities (e.g., PAT), existing requirements (e.g., data integrity), and emerging trends in the …

Improving Risk-Based Decision Making (Rbdm) Effectiveness Through A Framework Which Integrates Knowledge And Risk, Martin Lipa, Valerie Mulholland, Anne Greene (Editor)

Level 3

This paper explores the emergence of the importance of knowledge in Risk-Based Decision Making (RBDM) and Quality Risk Management (QRM) through a detailed review of ICH Q9(R1) (Step 2) and presents a framework(the RKI cycle) to integrate knowledge and risk and associated six principles to operationalise it.

Towards An Ethical Framework For The Design And Development Of Inclusive Home-Based Smart Technology For Smart Spaces For Older Adults And People With Disabilities, Emma Murphy, Julie Doyle, Ioannis Stavrakakis, Damian Gordon, Brian Keegan, Dympna O'Sullivan

Articles

Unique ethical, privacy and safety implications arise for people who are reliant on home-based smart technology due to health conditions or disabilities. As a result we need to carefully reflect on our approaches to ethical issues over the life cycle of smart home technology design and the wider living context for end users and relevant stakeholders. In this position paper we highlight a need for a reflective, inclusive ethical framework for the design of inclusive smart spaces. We present key ethical considerations in the design, development and deployment of smart home-based technology for older adults and people with disabilities. We …

A Microfluidic Approach For Synthesis And Kinetic Profiling Of Branched Gold Nanostructures, Qi Cai, Valentina Castagnola, Luca Boselli, Alirio Moura, Hender Lopez, Wei Zhang, João M. De Araújo, Kenneth A. Dawson

Articles

Automatized approaches for nanoparticle synthesis and characterization represent a great asset to their applicability in the biomedical field by improving reproducibility and standardization, which help to meet the selection criteria of regulatory authorities. The scaled-up production of nanoparticles with carefully defined characteristics, including intrinsic morphological features, and minimal intra-batch, batch-to-batch, and operator variability, is an urgent requirement to elevate nanotechnology towards more trustable biological and technological applications. In this work, microfluidic approaches were employed to achieve fast mixing and good reproducibility in synthesizing a variety of gold nanostructures. The microfluidic setup allowed exploiting spatial resolution to investigate the growth evolution …

Detecting Patches On Road Pavement Images Acquired With 3d Laser Sensors Using Object Detection And Deep Learning, Syed Ibrahim Hassan, Dympna O'Sullivan, Susan Mckeever, Kieran Feighan, David Power, Ray Mcgowan

Articles

Regular pavement inspections are key to good road maintenance and road defect corrections. Advanced pavement inspection systems such as LCMS (Laser Crack Measurement System) can automatically detect the presence of different defects using 3D lasers. However, such systems still require manual involvement to complete the detection of pavement defects. This paper proposes an automatic patch detection system using object detection technique. To our knowledge, this is the first time state-of-the-art object detection models Faster RCNN, and SSD MobileNet-V2 have been used to detect patches inside images acquired by LCMS. Results show that the object detection model can successfully detect patches …

Learning Fruit Class From Short Wave Near Infrared Spectral Features, An Ai Approach Towards Determining Fruit Type, Ayesha Zeb, Waqar Shahid Qureshi, Abdul Ghafoor, Dympna O'Sullivan

Conference papers

This paper analyzes the potential of using shortwave NIRS (near-infrared spectroscopy) for fruit classification problems. The research focuses on O-H and C-H overtone features of fruit and its correlation with NIRS and therefore opens a new dimension of fruit classification problems using NIRS. Eleven fruits, which include apple, cherry, hass, kiwi, grapes, mango, melon, orange, loquat, plum, and apricot, were used in this study to cover physical characteristics such as peel thinness, pulp, seed thickness, and size. NIR spectral data is collected using the industry-standard F-750 fruit quality meter (wavelength range 300-1100nm) for all fruit mentioned above. Different shallow machine …

Linked Data Quality Assessment: A Survey, Aparna Nayak, Bojan Bozic, Luca Longo

Conference papers

Data is of high quality if it is fit for its intended use in operations, decision-making, and planning. There is a colossal amount of linked data available on the web. However, it is difficult to understand how well the linked data fits into the modeling tasks due to the defects present in the data. Faults emerged in the linked data, spreading far and wide, affecting all the services designed for it. Addressing linked data quality deficiencies requires identifying quality problems, quality assessment, and the refinement of data to improve its quality. This study aims to identify existing end-to-end frameworks for …

Assessing Feature Representations For Instance-Based Cross-Domain Anomaly Detection In Cloud Services Univariate Time Series Data, Rahul Agrahari, Matthew Nicholson, Clare Conran, Haytham Assem, John D. Kelleher

Articles

In this paper, we compare and assess the efficacy of a number of time-series instance feature representations for anomaly detection. To assess whether there are statistically significant differences between different feature representations for anomaly detection in a time series, we calculate and compare confidence intervals on the average performance of different feature sets across a number of different model types and cross-domain time-series datasets. Our results indicate that the catch22 time-series feature set augmented with features based on rolling mean and variance performs best on average, and that the difference in performance between this feature set and the next best …

Assessing Feature Representations For Instance-Based Cross-Domain Anomaly Detection In Cloud Services Univariate Time Series Data, Rahul Agrahari, Matthew Nicholson, Clare Conran, Haythem Assem, John D. Kelleher

Articles

In this paper, we compare and assess the efficacy of a number of time-series instance feature representations for anomaly detection. To assess whether there are statistically significant differences between different feature representations for anomaly detection in a time series, we calculate and compare confidence intervals on the average performance of different feature sets across a number of different model types and cross-domain time-series datasets. Our results indicate that the catch22 time-series feature set augmented with features based on rolling mean and variance performs best on average, and that the difference in performance between this feature set and the next best …

New Bounds On The Real Polynomial Roots, Emil Prodanov

Conference papers

The presented analysis determines several new bounds on the real roots of the equation anxn+an−1xn−1+⋯+a0=0 (with an>0). All proposed new bounds are lower than the Cauchy bound max{1,∑j=0n−1|aj/an|}. Firstly, the Cauchy bound formula is derived by presenting it in a new light – through a recursion. It is shown that this recursion could be exited at earlier stages and, the earlier the recursion is terminated, the lower the resulting root bound will be. Following a separate analysis, it is further demonstrated that a significantly lower root bound can be found if the summation in the Cauchy bound formula is …

On The Coriolis Effect For Internal Ocean Waves, Rossen Ivanov

Conference papers

A derivation of the Ostrovsky equation for internal waves with methods of the Hamiltonian water wave dynamics is presented. The internal wave formed at a pycnocline or thermocline in the ocean is influenced by the Coriolis force of the Earth's rotation. The Ostrovsky equation arises in the long waves and small amplitude approximation and for certain geophysical scales of the physical variables.

Evaluating A Peer Assisted Learning Programme For Mature Access Foundation Students Undertaking Computer Programming At An Irish University, Nevan Bermingham, Frances Boylan, Barry J. Ryan

Articles

Access Foundation Programmes are a widening-participation initiative designed to encourage engagement in higher education among under-represented groups. This includes socioeconomic and educational disadvantage. Mature students in particular enrolled on these programmes experience greater difficulties making the transition to tertiary education, especially when they opt to study disciplines traditionally considered difficult. Computer programming is perceived as a traditionally difficult subject with lower pass rates and progression rates typically than other subjects.

This paper describes the first of a three-cycle action research study examining the perceived effects of a structured Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) Programme for mature students enrolled on a computer …

Measuring And Comparing Social Bias In Static And Contextual Word Embeddings, Alan Cueva Mora

Dissertations

Word embeddings have been considered one of the biggest breakthroughs of deep learning for natural language processing. They are learned numerical vector representations of words where similar words have similar representations. Contextual word embeddings are the promising second-generation of word embeddings assigning a representation to a word based on its context. This can result in different representations for the same word depending on the context (e.g. river bank and commercial bank). There is evidence of social bias (human-like implicit biases based on gender, race, and other social constructs) in word embeddings. While detecting bias in static (classical or non-contextual) word …

Numerical Testcases To Study Proudman Resonance Using Shallow Water Models, Nicole Beisiegel, Jorn Behrens

Conference papers

Proudman resonance is the dominant mechanism behind meteotsunamis. We develop a comprehensive set of testcases to validate numerical methods focusing on the performance with respect to represent mentioned resonance. With the test cases we assess the wave amplification in dependence of characteristics of the pressure perturbation, model parameters, model resolution, and bathymetry characteristics. We use the compilation of tests to validate an adaptive discontinuous Galerkin (DG) model for the two-dimensional non-linear shallow water equations. As the tests are highly sensitive to model resolution, we use the adaptive mesh capabilities of the model to locally refine the disturbance and thus gain …

Micro-Rna And Proteomic Profiles Of Plasma-Derived Exosomes From Irradiated Mice Reveal Molecular Changes Preventing Apoptosis In Neonatal Cerebellum, Simonetta Pazzaglia, Barbara Tanno, Ilaria De Stefano, Paola Giardullo, Simona Leonardi, Caterina Merla, Gabriele Babini, Seda Tuncay Cagatay, Ammar Mayah, Munira Kadhim, Fiona Lyng, Christine Von Toerne, Zohaib N. Khan, Prabal Subedi, Soile Tapio, Anna Saran, Mariateresa Mancuso

Articles

Cell communication via exosomes is capable of influencing cell fate in stress situations such as exposure to ionizing radiation. In vitro and in vivo studies have shown that exosomes might play a role in out-of-target radiation effects by carrying molecular signaling mediators of radiation damage, as well as opposite protective functions resulting in resistance to radiotherapy. However, a global understanding of exosomes and their radiation-induced regulation, especially within the context of an intact mammalian organism, has been lacking. In this in vivo study, we demonstrate that, compared to sham-irradiated (SI) mice, a distinct pattern of proteins and miRNAs is found …

The Meaning Of Dark, Light And Shadows: Inferences In Art, Materiality And Cultural Practices, Frank Prendergast

Book/Book Chapter

Our visual awareness relies on light acting on the eye to perceive materiality and colour. Medieval thought wrestled to articulate and comprehend its nature. The notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, for example, included his descriptions to define light and make comparisons so as to differentiate between light and shadow. His focus was on the illumination of surfaces from the perspective of a painter, seeing shadows as ‘the diminution of light by the intervention of an opaque body’ and ‘the counterpart of luminous rays’. In his mind, a shadow ‘stood between light and darkness’, with darkness being ‘the absence of light’. …

Sure 2022 Undergraduate Science Conference Booklet, Sure Network

Group Reports

The SURE 2022 Conference was the fifth series of Science Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) Conferences. The conference took place on Friday, 14th October, 2022, co-hosted by SETU – Carlow campus and TU Dublin as a live Face2Face event running simultaneously in both venues on the same day. Students from throughout Ireland completing their Final Year Project in a science discipline in 2021-22 presented their undergraduate research work to this conference.

The aims of each of the SURE conferences are to:

• Provide current students with an opportunity to gain an understanding of the work which has been undertaken by recent graduates, …

Advancing Competency In Managing Risk And Knowledge: Steps Toward Operationalisation Of The Risk-Knowledge Infinity Cycle (Rki Cycle) Part 3: Uncovering Knowledge For Qrm Through Knowledge Mapping At Node 1, Martin Lipa, Valerie Mulholland, Anne Greene

Articles

To date, literature on the Risk-Knowledge Infinity Cycle (RKI Cycle) has mainly been theoretical. This paper series intent is to focus on the operationalisation of the RKI Cycle by describing a series of steps – the “How to” – for RKI Cycle deployment, to help move the RKI Cycle from theory to practice. The third paper in this series focuses on ensuring the best available knowledge flows into QRM through a case study demonstrating knowledge mapping to support effective quality risk assessment during commissioning and qualification activities.

Development And Validation Of A Raman Spectroscopic Classification Model For Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (Cin), Damien Traynor, Shiyamala Duraipandian, Ramya Bhatia, Kate Cuschieri, Prerna Tewari, Padraig Kearney, Tom D'Arcy, John J. O'Leary, Cara M. Martin, Fiona Lyng

Articles

The mortality associated with cervical cancer can be reduced if detected at the precancer stage, but current methods are limited in terms of subjectivity, cost and time. Optical spectroscopic methods such as Raman spectroscopy can provide a rapid, label-free and nondestructive measurement of the biochemical fingerprint of a cell, tissue or biofluid. Previous studies have shown the potential of Raman spectroscopy for cervical cancer diagnosis, but most were pilot studies with small sample sizes. The aim of this study is to show the clinical utility of Raman spectroscopy for identifying cervical precancer in a large sample set with validation in …

The 4c’S Of Pal – An Evidence-Based Model For Implementing Peer Assisted Learning For Mature Students, Nevan Bermingham, Frances Boylan, Barry J. Ryan

Articles

Peer Assisted Leaning (PAL) programmes have been shown to enhance learner confidence and have an overall positive effect on learner comprehension, particularly in subjects traditionally perceived as difficult. This research describes the findings of a three-cycle Action Research study into the perceived benefits of implementing such a programme for mature students enrolled on a computer science programming module on an Access Foundation Programme in an Irish University. The findings from this study suggest that peer learning programmes offer students a valued support structure that aids transition and acculturation into tertiary education whilst simultaneously improving their subject-matter comprehension and confidence. An …

Evaluation Of The Potential Of Nanofluids Containing Different Ag Nanoparticle Size Distributions For Enhanced Solar Energy Conversion In Hybrid Photovoltaic-Thermal (Pvt) Applications, James Walshe, John Doran, George Amarandei

Articles

Hybridising photovoltaic and photothermal technologies into a single system that can simultaneously deliver heat and power represents one of the leading strategies for generating clean energy at more affordable prices. In a hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) system, the capability to modulate the thermal and electrical power output is significantly influenced by the spectral properties of the heat transfer fluid utilised. In this study, we report on one of the first experimental evaluations of the capability of a multimodal silver nanofluid containing various particle shapes and particle sizes to selectively modulate the solar energy for PVT applications. The diverse set of particle …

Copper(Ii) And Silver(I)‑1,10‑Phenanthroline‑5,6‑Dione Complexes Interact With Double‑Stranded Dna: Further Evidence Of Their Apparent Multi‑Modal Activity Towards Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Anna Clara Milesi Galdino, Lívia Viganor, Matheus Mendonça Pereira, Michael Devereux, Malachy Mccann, Marta Helena Branquinha, Zara Molphy, Sinéad O'Carroll, Conor Bain, Georgia Menounou, Andrew Kellett, André Luis Souza Dos Santos

Articles

Tackling microbial resistance requires continuous efforts for the development of new molecules with novel mechanisms of action and potent antimicrobial activity. Our group has previously identified metal-based compounds, [Ag(1,10-phenanthroline-5,6-dione)2]ClO4 (Ag-phendione) and [Cu(1,10-phenanthroline-5,6-dione)3](ClO4)2.4H2O (Cu-phendione), with efficient antimicrobial action against multidrug-resistant species. Herein, we investigated the ability of Ag-phendione and Cu-phendione to bind with double-stranded DNA using a combination of in silico and in vitro approaches. Molecular docking revealed that both phendione derivatives can interact with the DNA by hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions. Cu-phendione exhibited the highest binding affinity to either major (− 7.9 kcal/mol) or minor (− 7.2 kcal/mol) …

Bodipy–Pyrene Donor–Acceptor Sensitizers For Triplet–Triplet Annihilation Upconversion: The Impact Of The Bodipy-Core On Upconversion Efficiency, Natalia Kiseleva, Mikhail Filatov, Jan C. Fischer, Milian Kaiser, Marius Jakoby, Dimitry Busko, Ian A. Howard, Bryce Richards, Andrey Turshatov

Articles

Triplet–triplet annihilation upconversion (TTA-UC) is an important type of optical process with applications in biophotonics, solar energy harvesting and photochemistry. In most of the TTA-UC systems, the formation of triplet excited states takes place via spin–orbital interactions promoted by heavy atoms. Given the crucial role of heavy atoms (especially noble metals, such as Pd and Pt) in promoting intersystem crossing (ISC) and, therefore, in production of UC luminescence, the feasibility of using more readily available and inexpensive sensitizers without heavy atoms remains a challenge. Here, we investigated sensitization of TTA-UC using BODIPY–pyrene heavy-atom-free donor–acceptor dyads with different numbers of alkyl …

A Modified Spectroscopic Approach For The Real-Time Detection Of Pollen And Fungal Spores At A Semi-Urban Site Using The Wibs-4+, Part I, Emma Markey, Jerry Hourihane Clancy, Moisés Martínez-Bracero, Finnian Neeson, Roland Sarda-Estève, Dominique Baisnée, Eoin Mcgillicuddy, Gavin Sewell, David J. O’Connor

Articles

The real-time monitoring of primary biological aerosol particles (PBAP) such as pollen and fungal spores has receivedmuch attention in recent years as a result of their health and climatic effects. In this study, theWideband Integrated Bioaerosol Sensor (WIBS) 4+ model was evaluated for its ability to sample and detect ambient fungal spore and pollen concentrations, compared to the traditional Hirst volumetric method. Although the determination of total pollen and fungal spore ambient concentrations are of interest, the selective detection of individual pollen/fungal spore types are often of greater allergenic/agricultural concern. To aid in this endeavour, modifications were made to the …

An Odd-Protocol For Agent-Based Model For The Spread Of Covid-19 In Ireland, Elizabeth Hunter, John D. Kelleher

Reports

No abstract provided.

Methods And Means For Registration, Measurement, Processing And Evaluation Of Thermographic Information With Application In Systems For Medical Diagnostics And Ecology, Stanyo Kolev

Books

Chapter 1. General principles in methods and means for recording, measuring and processing thermographic information. Applications of thermography, mainly in the fields of medicine and ecology, are presented. Problems related to the accuracy of measurement with an infrared camera are discussed. External (Atmosphere, Physical characteristics of body coverings, Geometric factors, Environment, Infrared characteristics of the object under study and Behavioral factors) and internal (Stressor, Blood circulation, Physical activity, Sweating, etc.) factors that affect the accuracy of measurement are described. The causes leading to errors in thermographic measurements are analyzed, the main ones being: water vapor, ozone and carbon dioxide in …

Residential Demand Side Management Model, Optimization And Future Perspective: A Review, Subhasis Panda, Sarthak Mohanty, Pravat Kumar Rout, Binod Kumar Sahu, Mohit Bajaj, Dr Hossam Zawbaa, Salah Kamel

Articles

The residential load sector plays a vital role in terms of its impact on overall power balance, stability, and efficient power management. However, the load dynamics of the energy demand of residential users are always nonlinear, uncontrollable, and inelastic concerning power grid regulation and management. The integration of distributed generations (DGs) and advancement of information and communication technology (ICT) even though handles the related issues and challenges up to some extent, till the flexibility, energy management and scheduling with better planning are necessary for the residential sector to achieve better grid stability and efficiency. To address these issues, it is …

An Image Processing Based Classifier To Support Safe Dropping For Delivery-By-Drone, Assem A. Abdelhak, Alan Hicks, Dan Moss, Susan Mckeever

Articles

Autonomous delivery-by-drone of packages is an active area of research and commercial development. However, the assessment of safe dropping/ delivery zones has received limited attention. Ensuring that the dropping zone is a safe area for dropping, and continues to stay safe during the dropping process is key to safe delivery. This paper proposes a simple and fast classifier to assess the safety of a designated dropping zone before and during the dropping operation, using a single onboard camera. This classifier is, as far as we can tell, the first to address the problem of safety assessment at the point of …