Protecting the necessity of making: Katharine West

My interview with Katharine West coincided appropriately with Earth day, 22 April 2016. Listening to her describe the age-old geological processes of the weathering of igneous rock, producing primary kaolins, the basis for porcelain, conveying images of riverbeds with rich mineral deposits; I understood how she draws students to work with her in ceramics. Her appreciation of the connection of ceramics with the haptic and hand-made, with ancient cultures, anthropology, and archaeology is compelling

Why do Irish institutions still call themselves ‘royal’?

More than 90 years after independence, academies and colleges based in Ireland retain obsolete royal identitie

Potential applications for image-based systems in structural engineering

This paper presents a series of examples where systems based on images have been used to quantify deformation and strain fields for different applications. The objective of this work is to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of these technologies compared to more traditional systems. In particular, two image-based technologies have been studied: a Digital Image Correlation (DIC) device and a high speed camera. The former has been used in three different static tests: a compression test, a 4 points bending test and a tensile test. The latter was employed in a vibration analysis where the DIC could not be used due to its particular camera specification. Both technologies potentially produce easy to interpret results, which with commonly used alternative technologies usually require a significant post process effort. On the other hand, for effective and reliable results, the image-based technologies can require a previous treatment of the sample and a very careful experimental setup. Moreover, the possibility of performing global measurements compared to more local ones carried out by conventional sensors make these systems very attractive for structural engineering

A phenomenological study of community gardening : an insider's view of the lived experiences of community gardening participants throughout the growing and non-growing seasons

This study was carried out with the help of seven research participants at a community garden in the North-west of Ireland. Although research exploring the experiences of community gardening participants is limited, it is broadly acknowledged that community gardens have the capacity to promote positive, physical, social and mental health related outcomes for participants. However, the short Irish growing season and absence of guidelines concerning dormant season engagement limits the potential for these outcomes to be experienced all year round. In response to this I initiated a process of developing a range of new garden features and horticultural craftwork activities at the community garden under study, which would provide stimulation to its members throughout the whole year. The completion of this process paved the way for the execution of a unique study, one which would capture the experiences of participants throughout both the growing and dormant seasons.This study employed a phenomenological research strategy to explore the ‘lived’ seasonal experiences of community gardening participants and to establish what ‘meaning’ can be attached to these experiences. The main findings argue that community gardeners develop a strong sense of connectedness to the garden and to fellow participants and that the social, physical and skills development implications can influence the way participants self-identify. The collaborative efforts involved in developing and maintaining these spaces also fulfil an important function in relation to the promotion of social capital. The findings also demonstrate how dormant season activities can not only complement the growing season experiences in terms of the change of pace, scenery and direction, but also provide real value in terms of the different cognitive and skills development processes involved in carrying out these unique and unfamiliar tasks. This study also explores the transferability of the new dormant season activities to similar settings and provides recommendations for future areas of research

Cross institutional interchanges: student-teacher perspectives on an Irish service learning partnership

The research partners in this action research study are the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Letterfrack (GMITL) and QDS, Cope Foundation, Cork. GMITL is a provider of undergraduate initial teacher education (ITE) for second level teachers in the technical subjects Construction Studies and Design and Communication Graphics. QDS is service provider for adults with intellectual and physical challenges, specialising in wood technology and manufacture. GMITL student teachers engage in a civic engagement placement with QDS using the model of service learning (SL). This study investigates student teacher perspectives on participation in the SL experience with QDS. The study aims to identify benefits and challenges arising out of this partnership

Behaviour of hybrid concrete lattice girder flat slab system using insitu structural health monitoring

In recent decades, Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) has emerged as an increasingly important tool in Civil Engineering to understand how structures behave during construction and operation. Although SHM is not a new concept, it is only relatively recently that Civil Engineers have adopted SHM for the design, construction and management of civil engineering structures. One of the key benefits of SHM is the improved understanding of insitu structural behaviour.\ud This paper describes the SHM strategy implemented on a recently constructed building to monitor and record the behaviour of a hybrid concrete lattice girder flat slab floor system. Hybrid concrete construction (HCC) combines insitu and precast concrete to maximise the benefits of both forms of construction. HCC offers many advantages for both the designer and contractor and produces simple, buildable and economic structures which can result in faster, safer construction and reduced costs. Sensors were embedded in both the precast and insitu components of the hybrid concrete floor system and are used to monitor various aspects of the behaviour of the floor during the manufacture, construction and operational phase of the building. The information from the real-time monitoring offers the opportunity to compare actual and predicted behaviour using structural codes, such as Eurocodes. The majority of the instrumentation is embedded within the structure so that long-term effects such as creep and shrinkage of concrete components can also be investigated

Temporal and spatial variation in group size of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in the Shannon Estuary, Ireland

Bottlenose dolphin group size is known to be determined by food availability, social interactions and predator defence. This paper analyses data gathered over seven years from dolphin tour boats operating in the Shannon Estuary and examines whether there were any temporal or spatial trends in group size of the resident group of bottlenose dolphins in the region. Findings indicate that dolphin group size varied significantly between years (ANOVA, F 4.55, P 0.0001), and increased during the months of July, September and October (ANOVA, F 8.921, PB0.0001). Findings also reveal that group size of dolphins encountered in the middle part of the estuary was greater than the outer or inner estuary (ANOVA, F 4.176, P B 0.001). The seasonal change in group size is thought to be primarily caused by dolphins switching to different prey species

The use of deep water berths and the effect of noise on bottlenose dolphins in the Shannon Estuary cSAC

The Shannon Estuary on the west coast of Ireland is one of Europe’s premier deepwater berths catering for ships up to 200,000 deadweight tonnage. It is also Ireland’s only designated candidate special area of conservation for bottlenose dolphins under the EU Habitats Directive. Long-term static acoustic monitoring was carried out at a number of intensive shipping sites. In 2012, noise monitoring took place over a 6-month period (at 1 site) as part of Ireland’s requirements under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). This is the first assessment of the potential effect of vessel traffic on the behavior of this discrete dolphin population