Editors\u27 Introduction: Toward Transitional Justice in Ireland? Addressing Legacies of Harm

The testimony above comes from the CLANN report, an evidence gathering and advocacy project that facilitated survivor participation in the Republic of Ireland’s ongoing Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and Certain Related Matters. We open this special issue of Éire-Ireland, entitled Toward Transitional Justice in Ireland? Addressing Legacies of Harm, with survivors’ voices in order to acknowledge that the volume is concerned with the experience of hundreds of thousands of individuals who were born or grew up in Ireland, and of their families across multiple generations, who have been too frequently ignored. As academics and members of the Justice for Magdalenes Research (JFMR) advocacy group, for the past decade we have endeavored to place the motto of survivors, “nothing about us, without us,” at the center of our research and activism on the subject of Ireland’s class, race, disability, and gender-based abuses, so evident in Irish carceral institutions.2021-01-27 JG: PDF replaced with published version at publisher\u27s reques

Ultra-Low-Power Phase-Tracking Receivers for IoT Applications

The worldwide market of Internet-of-Things (IoT) is growing at a fast exponential rate due to the confluence of several driving forces: the explosion of end-user devices, demand for ubiquitous connectivity, and the continual evolution of available technologies. To keep up with this exponential growth, system portability and energy autonomy of the connected IoT devices are paramount. This indicates that the IoT nodes must be powered up through an inexpensive coin battery or directly from an energy harvesting (EH) source. Although EH is promising, the range of supported IoT applications is restricted due to the limited energy availability and excessive system power dissipation. Therefore, powering the IoT node via batteries is so far the most robust and efficient solution. To improve the battery longevity, ultra-low-power (ULP) and ultra-low-voltage (ULV) design approaches both become increasingly significant. Among the major blocks of an IoT node is a wireless receiver (RX). Although much effort has been made to optimize the power efficiency for constituent sub-blocks of the RX, it becomes more challenging to further reduce its power allocation, where some key RF blocks [i.e., low-noise amplifier (LNA) and local oscillator (LO)] dominate most of the power budget to satisfy the stringent sensitivity and linearity requirements. Besides, in the nanometer-scale CMOS territory, the low intrinsic gain and high threshold voltage further limit the room for circuit-level innovation. In this dissertation, we focus on improving power efficiency mainly from an architectural perspective. A first-ever type-II phase-tracking (PT)-RX architecture is proposed with the record best-in-class power efficiency. By employing a multibit analog-to-digital converter (ADC), the proposed PT-RX zeros out its automatic frequency calibration (AFC) offset, which is a severe issue in the prior type-I PT-RXs. Because of the removed AFC offset, the type-IIloop is also very tolerant for long run-lengths of consecutive “1” or “0” symbol sequences. Besides, the ADC, along with a passive mixer, functions as a multi-level phase detector (PD) with an enlarged linear range of small-signal gain, which ensures unconditionally stable locking in the steady-state. This prototype of PT-RX targets Bluetooth low energy (BLE) standard, consuming only 1.5 mW at a supply of ≤0.7V and is fabricated in a mainstream 28-nm LP CMOS process technology from TSMC. It maintains a cutting-edge performance of in-band interference and out-band blocker rejection while also offering the best-in-class figure-of-merit (FoM) of 181 dB (when it was firstly reported), with a 1 Mbps BLE sensitivity of −93 dBm. Moreover, to further validate the innate advantages of the type-II architecture in terms of power efficiency, we present our second version of PT-RX achieving the sensitivity of −93.2dBm with merely 0.9mW power consumption. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed receiver achieves the best sensitivity FoM of 183.2 dB among the BLE receivers. It also addresses the commonly found pulling issue in the zero-IF PT-RXs, which in our case happens through magnetic coupling from the on-chip inductor of a low-noise trans- conductance amplifier (LNTA) into a digitally controlled oscillator (DCO). This is solved by employing an inductor-free structure of LNTA. As a result, a 1.5—2.5-dB improvement of the adjacent channel rejection (ACR) is obtained. Lastly, as part of the future research suggestions, a non-linear waveform-tracking filter is proposed to overcome the constraint between loop delay and interference rejection in the PT- RXs. It promises a 1–2-dB improvement of ACR per simulation. Preliminary measurement results are given.Science Foundation IrelandAnalog Device, Cork, Irelan

Injury trends in Irish amateur rugby: an epidemiological comparison of men and women

Background: Rugby union is a physically demanding sport that carries an inherent risk of injury. Despite being a popular and widely played team sport, little is known about injuries occurring across the male and female amateur game. Purpose: To establish and compare injury incidence, nature, and severity in male and female Irish amateur rugby union. Study Design: Prospective cohort study. Level of Evidence: Level 3. Methods: Data were collected prospectively from 25 male teams (959 players) and 8 female teams (234 players) over 2 full seasons. Both time-loss (24-hour time-loss injury definition) and non-time-loss match injury reports were collected, alongside match exposure data. Results: Time-loss match injury incidence rates were 49.1/1000 and 35.6/1000 player-hours for male and female players, respectively. Concussion and ankle ligament sprains were the most common diagnoses for male (5.6/1000 and 4.4/1000 player-hours, respectively) and female players (5.5/1000 and 3.9/1000 player-hours, respectively). Anterior cruciate ligament injuries presented the highest injury burden for male and female players with 200.3 and 307.2 days of absence per 1000 player-hours, respectively. In female players, 83% of noncontact injuries occurred in the fourth quarter of match play. Conclusion: While female players had a lower overall injury incidence rate compared with male players, concussion and ankle ligament injuries were the most common injuries in both cohorts. In female players, a high rate of noncontact injuries in the second half points to the need for strength and conditioning training programs to reduce fatigue-related injuries. Clinical Relevance: Establishing the incidence and burden of rugby-related injuries is an essential step in minimizing injury risk. This epidemiological information will aid the development of future reduction strategies, including education and coaching strategies and strength and conditioning programs, informed by the most common injuries observed and the mechanism of injury

Effect of welding on microstructure and mechanical response of X100Q bainitic steel through nanoindentation, tensile, cyclic plasticity and fatigue characterisation

This paper presents an experimental characterisation of fatigue at welded connections for the next-generation high-strength low-alloy offshore riser steel, X100Q. An instrumented girth weld is conducted with a parallel programme of physical-thermal simulation (Gleeble) to develop heat affected zone (HAZ) test specimens. X100Q is shown to exhibit superior fatigue performance to the current state of the art offshore riser steel, X80. Significant differences are demonstrated between the parent material and simulated HAZ in terms of hardness, monotonic strength and cyclic plasticity response, which can be related to the observed microstructural transformations: the refined grain and bainitic block size in the fine-grained HAZ are shown to give a harder and stronger response than parent material, whereas the coarsened bainitic lath structure in the intercritical HAZ gives a softer and weaker response. The simulated HAZ materials exhibit superior fatigue performance to the parent material and weld metal. A significant reduction in life is shown for cross-weld specimens, indicating susceptibility to failure due to HAZ softening for matched or over-matched X100Q welds.This publication has emanated from research conducted the financial support of Science Foundation Ireland as part of the MECHANNICS joint project between NUI Galway and University of Limerick under grant number SFI/14/IA/2604 and the I-Form Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre under grant number SFI/16/RC/3872

How a moral panic influenced the world’s first blanket ban on new psychoactive substances

Ireland passed the world’s first blanket ban on new psychoactive substance in 2010. This article traces the historical processes culminating in the Criminal Justice (Psychoactive Substances) Act (2010) through a systematic review of Irish media articles published between 2000 and 2010 (N = 338). The review found that head shops were largely tolerated when they sold cannabis paraphernalia (2000–2008), possibly indicating the normalisation of cannabis in Ireland. Some mild condemnatory language emerges between 2008 and 2009 when head shops began selling some new psychoactive substances. The review suggests that the 2010 Act was partly a product of a moral panic, driven and managed by a range of moral entrepreneurs and, involving both peaceful and violent protests. Unlike some traditional moral panics, young people were not identified as folk devils but rather as under threat from a new drug distribution model (head shops) and new drugs (NPS)

Technostress in secondary education settings

Teaching is considered a highly regulated profession in Ireland. Teachers employed in state-funded secondary schools are required to be registered with the Irish Teaching Council, while the Department of Education and Skills is responsible for the coordination of teachers’ employment (Heinz et al, 2017). Employment relations within the sector are regulated by legislation and collective agreements reached between this government department and the main trade unions, the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland (ASTI), and the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) (Murphy et al, 2019). As a profession, teaching is viewed as one which has many advantages from a work-life balance (WLB) perspective, though research indicates that there is a need to introduce greater WLB policies and programmes for the teaching community (Miryala and Chiluka, 2012). International research argues that the commodification of education is contributing to the intensification of work and to greater performance management around teachers’ work in other contexts (Fitzgerald et al, 2019; Frederickson, 2009; Merceille and Murphy, 2017). As such, the nature and context of work has changed and now shares more similarities with the private sector, in particular in relation to demands around working time, and the development of an “always on” culture (MacDowell and Kinman, 2017). The drivers for this can be viewed as symptomatic of broader societal changes brought about through enhanced technology (Mullan and Wacjman, 2019; Moore, 2017).PUBLISHEDPeer reviewe

Per Artursson\u27s Major Contributions to the Caco-2 Cell Literature in Pharmaceutical Sciences

This edition of the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences is dedicated to the wonderful career of Per Artursson from the University of Uppsala. My Commentary focusses on Per\u27s major contributions to the Caco-2 cell literature over the past 30 years. Two especially influential papers have been cited more than 1000 times out of a total citation count of almost 30,000 and a h-index of 93 (Google Scholar), making Per one of the most cited and influential Pharmaceutical scientists of his generation. The Caco-2 field to which Per contributed so many advances has informed the community on key areas including predictive drug fluxes across the intestine, metabolism by intestinal epithelia, the role of transporters during flux, enantiomer-selective flux, excipient interaction with tight junctions, and nanoparticle uptake by enterocytes. In this pioneering work, Per has been careful to emphasise that Caco-2 monolayers have limitations and are a model of the human small intestine where observations must be backed up with in vitro tissue and in vivo work. Throughout, he has paid great attention to detail in methodology, as reflected by co-authorship of two Nature Protocols on Caco-2 assays. The article briefly assesses some of the most important milestones in Per\u27s published Caco-2 research

Physicochemical Characteristics of Protein-Enriched Restructured Beef Steaks with Phosphates, Transglutaminase, and Elasticised Package Forming

Restructured beef steaks were formulated by adding protein-rich ingredients (pea protein isolate (PPI), rice protein (RP), and lentil flour (LF) (at 4 and 8%)), phosphate (0.2%), and two binding agents: 1% (TG) and 0.15% (TS). The effects of their addition on the physicochemical properties of the beef steaks were investigated. Protein content of the RP8TG sample was significantly higher than that of the control in both the raw and cooked state. Raw LF4TS exhibited greater () a values than the control; however, after the cooking process, L, a, and b values were similar for all treatments. Textural assessment showed that elevating protein level increased () hardness, chewiness, cohesiveness, and gumminess in cooked restructured steaks. LF addition reduced all textural values assessed, indicating a strong plant protein effect on texture modification. The commercial binder produced a better bind in combination with protein ingredients. This facilitated the production of uniformed restructured beef steaks from low-value beef muscles with acceptable quality parameters using a novel process technology.Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marin

Irish dairy farmers’ engagement with animal health surveillance services: Factors influencing sample submission

A high-quality animal health surveillance service is required to inform policy and decision-making in food-animal disease control, to substantiate claims regarding national animal health status and for the early detection of exotic or emerging diseases. In Ireland, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine provides partially subsidized testing of farm animal samples and postmortem examinations to the Irish agriculture sector (farmers) at 6 regional veterinary laboratories (RVL) throughout the country. Diagnoses and data from these submissions are recorded and reported monthly and annually to enable animal health monitoring and disease surveillance. In a passive surveillance model, both the veterinary practitioner and the farmer play a vital role in sample submission by determining which cases are sent to the laboratory for postmortem or diagnostic testing. This paper identified factors influencing Irish dairy farmers\u27 decisions to submit carcasses to RVL. Behavioral determinants of the submission of samples where veterinary professionals are concerned has been studied previously; however, limited work has studied determinants among farmers. This study conducted qualitative analyses of decisions of Irish dairy farmers relevant to diagnostic sample submission to an RVL and to examine the herd-level characteristics of farmers that submitted cases to an RVL. The biographical narrative interpretive method was used to interview 5 case-study farmers who were classified nonsubmitters, medium, or high submitters to the postmortem service based on the proportion of on-farm mortalities submitted to the laboratory service in 2016. The data obtained from these interviews were supplemented and triangulated through dairy farmer focus groups. The data were thematically analyzed and described qualitatively. In addition, quantitative analysis was undertaken. Data for herds within the catchment area of a central RVL were extracted, and a multivariable logistic regression model was constructed to examine the relationship between herds from which carcasses were submitted to the laboratory and those from which none were submitted. Results from the analysis show that the farmer\u27s veterinary practitioner was the primary influence on submission of carcasses to the laboratory. Similarly, the type of incident, logistical issues with transporting carcasses to the laboratory, influence of peers, presence of alternative private laboratories, and a fear of government involvement were key factors emerging from the case-study interview and focus group data. Herd size was identified in both the qualitative and quantitative analysis as a factor determining submission. In the logistic regression model, herd size and increased levels of expansion were positively correlated with the odds of submission, whereas distance from the laboratory was negatively associated with odds of submission. These results identify the main factors influencing the use of diagnostic services for surveillance of animal health, signaling how services may be made more attractive by policy makers to a potentially wider cohort of users

A Model of QE, Reserve Demand and the Money Multiplier

Quantitative easing programmes have driven unprecedented expansions in the supply of central bank reserves around the world over the past two decades, fundamentally changing the implementation of monetary policy. The collapse in money multipliers following QE episodes has often been interpreted as implying banks are happy to passively hold most of the reserves created by QE. This paper develops a simple micro-simulation model of the banking sector that adapts the traditional money multiplier model and allows for bank reserve demand to be inferred from monetary aggregates. The model allows the use of unwanted reserves by banks to play out over time alongside QE purchases and incorporates both significantly higher reserve demand after 2008 and capital constraints. With these additions, the model explains the persistently lower money multipliers seen in the US following QE, as well as the growth in commercial bank deposits. The model suggests the demand from banks for reserves has increased substantially since the introduction of QE but not to the point where banks are passively absorbing all newly created reserves