How large families fare in Germany: Examining child poverty risks and policy solutions

Historically, researchers and policymakers alike recognized the risk of poverty among large families, but family size is often neglected in the contemporary literature. This article revives an examination of the connections between family size and poverty risk for children with a focus on Germany. We take a child-centered perspective by analyzing a sample of 13–14 year-old children from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). First, we provide a detailed overview of the welfare and tax policies aimed at large families in Germany. Next, we estimate the poverty risk and prevalence for children in large families (looking at families with 3+ and 4+ children). Finally, we discuss how the policy and socio-economic context interacts with the risk of poverty. We identify that the means-tested social assistance scheme penalizes large families, while the child benefit would only acknowledge higher need of middle-income families with three or more children.Irish Research CouncilCheck for published version during checkdate report - RO

Transfer Learning-based Seizure Detection on Multiple Channels of Paediatric EEGs

The 2023 45th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC), Sydney, Australia, 24-27 July 2023Epilepsy is a common neurological disease characterised by recurring seizures that affect up to 70 million people worldwide. During the first ten years of life, approximately one in every 150 children is diagnosed with epilepsy. EEG is an important tool for diagnosing seizures and other brain disorders. However, expert visual analysis of EEGs is time-consuming. In addition to reducing expert annotation time, the automatic seizure detection method is a powerful tool for assisting experts with the analysis of EEGs. Research on the automated detection of seizures in pediatric EEG has been limited. Deep learning algorithms are typically used in paediatric seizure detection methods; however, they are computationally expensive and take a long time to develop. This problem can be solved using transfer learning. In this study, we developed a transfer learning-based seizure detection method on multiple channels of paediatric EEGs. The publicly available CHB-MIT EEG dataset was used to build our method. The dataset was split into training (n=14), validation (n=4), and testing (n=6). Spectrograms generated from 10 s EEG signals with 5 s overlap were used as the input into three pre-trained transfer learning models (ResNet50, VGG16 and InceptionV3). We took care to separate the children into either the training or test set to ensure that the test set was independent. Based on the EEG test set, the method has 85.41% accuracy, 85.94% recall, and 85.49% precision. This method has the potential to assist researchers and clinicians in the automated analysis of seizures in paediatric EEGs.European Commission Horizon 202

Place-based Policies and Household Wealth in Africa

This paper provides empirical evidence on the impact of a prominent placebased policy - Special Economic Zones (SEZs) - on the economic well-being of African households. We compile a novel dataset on repeated cross-sections of households living in various distance bands around SEZs in 10 African countries over the period of 1990 to 2020. Exploiting time variation in SEZ establishment, the estimation yields that households in the vicinity of SEZs become significantly wealthier compared to the national average after SEZs are established. The effect is most pronounced for households within 10 km and decays rapidly with distance. We show that this result is not driven by the residential sorting of wealthier households in SEZ neighbourhoods. The rise in wealth is strongest towards the middle of the wealth distribution and goes hand in hand with increased access to household utilities, higher consumption of durable goods, higher levels of education, and a shift away from agricultural activities - patterns that we interpret as indicative of an urbanization trend and the strengthening of the middle class.Pagination (dc.identifier.start/endpage): Optiona

Making Open Access count: Creating standards to measure the use of Open Access resources

Consortium of National and University Libraries (CONUL) Conference, 31 May 2017, Athlone, IrelandProposal to create a standard for detecting and excluding web robot traffic in Open Access institutional repository download statistics

A feminist vision of care and economic equality

This report develops a feminist vision of care and economic equality, by exploring the interconnections between care and gendered inequalities, particularly in the economic shpere, due to the prevalence of unpaid or low paid care work. Power inequalities at the heart of the care economy - both in Ireland and globally - are examined and the way social investment in care could support a labour intensive industry, which has the potential to attain greater gender equality, more decent jobs, address global regional inequalities and contribute to more sustainable economic development. Care and care provision are central to understanding women's economic inequality and poverty in Ireland and globally. Care work is largely unpaid or low paid, and mainly taken on by women from marginalised sectors in homes, communities and institutional settings. Unpaid care work subsidises every area of the national and global economy. Together with low-paid care, it is at the root of systems of economic exploitation. This paper combines analysis of the global and Irish care models with the lived experiences of women in Ireland (namely home carers; disabled women; Traveller women and lone parents). It makes substantial policy recommendations for Ireland to be a leading voice in recognising the value of care and putting care at the centre of its policies. By actioning these recommendations Ireland will ensure care is rewarded; the burden of unpaid care work on women is reduced; care is redistributed within households, between households and State and between States; and care is reclaimed as a social and public responsibility through properly financed universal quality public services.ActionAidNational Women's Council of Ireland2024-08-22 JG: PDF replaced with correct ite

Sine secundaria: Thomas d'Aquin, Siger de Brabant et les débats sur l'occasionalisme

Il est bien connu que les maîtres médiévaux commentaient en classes les textes de base à partir d’un certain nombre des questions standard, transmises des uns aux autres. La réduplication faisait partie des pratiques inhérentes à l’enseignement universitaire. Les variations que l’on observe parfois peuvent s’avérer porteuses d’innovation thématique et entraîner des bouleversements conceptuels et formels. En examinant plusieurs commentaires sur le Liber de causis, j’ai pu noter un changement dans la tradition exégétique postérieure à Siger de Brabant, notamment en ce qui concerne la compréhension du théorème I. Dans les commentaires antérieurs, les auteurs essaient principalement de définir le flux et d’expliquer comment une cause peut influencer davantage qu’une autre cause.European Commission Horizon 202

A Machine Learning Approach for Sex and Age Classification of Paediatric EEGs

The 45th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Sydney, Australia, 24-27 July 2023Electroencephalography (EEG) is an important investigation of childhood seizures and other brain disorders. Expert visual analysis of EEGs can estimate subjects' age based on the presence of particular maturational features. The sex of a child, however, cannot be determined by visual inspection. In this study, we explored sex and age differences in the EEGs of 351 healthy male and female children aged between 6 and 10 years. We developed machine learning-based methods to classify the sex and age of healthy children from their EEGs. This preliminary study based on small EEG numbers demonstrates the potential for machine learning in helping with age determination in healthy children. This may be useful in distinguishing developmentally normal from developmentally delayed children. The model performed poorly for estimation of biological sex. However, we achieved 66.67% accuracy in age prediction allowing a 1 year error, on the test set.European Commission Horizon 202

Vignettes to Support Theory Refinement: Methodological Insights From a Realist Evaluation

Realist evaluation methodology aims to understand social programmes by revealing what works, for whom, in what circumstances, and how and why. Realist evaluation starts with generating initial programme theories (IPTs), which are subsequently tested and refined systematically using a multi-methods approach. This article describes a case study of the utilisation of vignettes, or short hypothetical stories, as part of the teacher-learner cycles recommended within realist evaluation. First, we explore the methodological alignment between vignettes and realist evaluation. We then present a specific case example of the application of vignettes as a data collection tool and discuss the potential advantages and the challenges of using vignettes within realist evaluation. Finally, we offer recommendations for researchers who wish to employ vignettes as a powerful instrument that can be used to better explain IPTs to participants and, in turn, enrich their participation in theory refinement within the realist evaluation framework.European Commission Horizon 202

Distributed Acoustic Sensing for the Geotechnical Assessment of Offshore Renewable Developments

This paper discusses a recent technological addition to the field of offshore geotechnical investigation. Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) utilises fibre optic cables as continuous sensing elements, measuring small strain imposed on the glass core by the transmission of acoustic energy along the sea bed / water interface ( Trafford et al. 2021 , Trafford et al. 2022a ). The potential benefits of this over traditional sediment profiling methods is the rapid data acquisition over large scale arrays. As well as providing detailed information for the design of offshore foundations the potential to deploy extensive linear arrays make the proposed methodology ideal for the assessment of linear investigations such as transmission cable route options.Science Foundation IrelandGeological Survey of Ireland (GSI

Caring for Transgender patients in the ICU: Current insights for equitable care

There is ever more focus on issues surrounding Transgender/Trans people and their healthcare needs, and while there is a dearth of evidence related to Intensive Care, this paper aims to address considerations for ICU nurses when caring for Trans patients. These include both the overall approach to person-centred care for Trans patients as well as the physiological considerations that necessitate nursing interventions. The term Trans is an umbrella term which refers to a person whose gender identity differs from the biological sex they were assigned at birth. Not everybody ascribes to a gender identity which is either male, nor female; people who identify outside of this binary might be described as Non-Binary or a number of other terms. Further terminology is outlined in Table 1