Between Past and Present: Age, Period, and Cohort Effects on Changing Values in Lithuania

This study examines the changes in Schwartz’s higher-order-value dimensions in Lithuanians over time. We analyze cross-sectional repeated survey data, with a sample of 11,199 respondents from six waves of the European Social Survey (ESS) during the years 2010–2020. Time-lag and cross-sectional analyses revealed age and period effects on self-enhancement and self-transcendence, and age, period, and cohort effects on openness to change and conservation. A comparison of political generations shows that the youngest cohort (independent EU generation) is more conservative, more self-transcending, less open to change, and less self-enhancing over time, in contrast to other generations. The Soviet legacy generations follow a different trajectory of openness to change and conservation than the Stalin and Independent EU generations, suggesting that historical context and current period effects are strong, and that the youngest political generation is particularly sensitive to societal-level disruptions. It is plausible that forces related to rapid societal change, for example, a decline in the working-age population after the collapse of the Soviet Union and, more recently, during the period of the study due to mass emigration, have left a generation trapped between scarcity and modernity

Integrative analysis of the physiological, seasonal, and genetic influences on bovine milk oligosaccharide production and associated protein profiles

Central to the advancement of Irish dairy is the optimisation of whole colostrum/milk for improved calf health, and adding value to commercial products, such as bringing infant-formula compositionally closer to breast milk. Bovine milk has reduced diversity and yield of health-promoting oligosaccharides (OS), and their valuable effects are largely lost to formula-fed infants. To address this discrepancy, natural optimisation of bovine milk oligosaccharide (BMO) quantity and composition was investigated, by assessing key factors influencing their production. OS profiles revealed colostrum samples, Jersey cows, and 2nd-4th parity cows contained highest OS concentrations and highlighted prolific correlates (3-FL, DSLNT). Furthermore, high inter-cow colostrum variation revealed a wide range of BMO production, with 10 cows producing much higher (> 50% increase compared to mean) total OS concentrations. Three OS traits (LNnH, LSTa, DSLNT) reported heritabilities greater than 0.59 (P < 0.01). However, GWAS analysis reported no significantly associated SNPs after FDR (q < 0.05), with environmental factors significantly contributing to phenotypic variance. This work is the first to report bovine colostral OS hertabilities and paves the way for necessary additional GWAS studies to assess the feasibility of selective breeding initiatives including OS production in the future. Like BMO, specific milk proteins exhibit health-promoting properties. The effect of day post-partum and parity on the global protein profile during early lactation was investigated to expand proteome coverage/characterisation and offer an Irish context to previous analyses. Protein concentration decreased significantly after day 0 before stabilising. Overall, 471 proteins were identified across all samples; 199 protein groups showed altered relative abundance by day of lactation (fold change ≥2, adjusted-P <0.05), but none were altered significantly by parity. Colostrum had the highest levels of immune-related proteins. Subsequently, the association between BMO production and the protein profile of colostrum was explored to improve our holistic understanding of the global milk environment. Comprehensive characterisation of the colostral protein profile from high, mid-range, and low oligosaccharide producing cows (HOP, MOP, LOP) was carried out through analysis of the unfractionated colostrum, extracellular vesicle (EV), and cell fractions. The HOP had significantly higher levels of total protein than LOP. The unfractionated samples of HOP are associated with high levels of gastrointestinal modulatory proteins. In comparison, the EV fraction of the LOP contained higher relative abundances of immune-related proteins. This integrative approach allowed for the characterisation of distinct compositional profiles which may inform selection criteria for naturally enhanced colostrum, potentially targeting immuno-compromised calves and/or for use as a value-added starting material for powder products

Climate variability conceals emerging hydrological trends across Great Britain

Detecting a climate change signal from observed trends in river flows and hydrological extremes is challenging given the limited length of observations and the effects of internal climate variability. There has been an increasing call to better integrate historical observations with model projections, particularly given apparent inconsistencies between observed and projected hydroclimate trends. Here we use the UK as a case study of a region with apparent incongruity between past trends and future projections, such as observed summer wetting but broad agreement between climate models of reduced summer rainfall and river flows. Applying dynamical adjustment shows empirically that internal atmospheric circulation variability was a dominant factor in the observed positive summer rainfall trends over 1981–2010. Characterising the impacts of internal climate variability is crucial to fully appraising the range of possible hydrological extremes in current and future climate. Hence, we use a single model initial condition large ensemble (SMILE), with RCP8.5 forcing, to drive hydrological models at 190 catchments to explore the wide range of past and future river flow and hydrological drought trends that could arise due to internal variability. The results place the observed trends in context, showing that large ensembles are needed to fully capture the range of variability. This includes robust drying and wetting trends that could have occurred, thus in part reconciling the fact that observed trends may at first seem inconsistent with projections. Our results further show that the timing of a robust climate change signal above historical variability (i.e., a Time of Emergence) in river flows may remain obscured for decades due to the range of hydrological variability. There are however clear hotspots, such as decreasing low flows in southwest England, with an imminent ToE. However, a late ToE does not negate the potential for increased risk and adaptation measures should be formulated before a statistically significant climate signal emerges

BioBeo

This song is part of the BioBeo Education Programme, designed to introduce primary school children to the concept of the circular bioeconomy in a fun and engaging way. It aligns perfectly with the AgroCycle Kids Education Programme, developed by Dr Máire Nic an Bhaird and Dr Laoise Ní Chléirigh at Maynooth University, which emphasises participatory, hands-on learning. The BioBeo song encourages children to explore ideas of sustainability and circularity. By incorporating this song into classroom activities, educators can foster creativity and critical thinking about environmental solutions. It’s an excellent resource for making bioeconomy concepts accessible and enjoyable for young learners

The Maynooth Codex of Tabletop Adventures

Writing for Role-Playing Games: Narratives, Adventures, and Worldbuilding was a post-graduate class offered in the summer of 2024 by Maynooth University. Students immersed themselves in theory, design, and, most importantly, writing. The diversity of games that students were interested in speaks to the strength of the genre. Indeed, the existence of the class itself is a recognition of the importance and, dare we say, legitimacy of tabletop RPGs as a creative industry. As the works presented here demonstrate, tabletop RPGs offer a unique site to explore fundamental questions about society and human experience

Civic Engagement in the Neoliberal-Patriarchal University: Lessons from Irish Practitioners Working Within and Against the System.

This study examines civic engagement and highlights the ways community engagement practice can learn from practitioners in Ireland as they navigate present-day university environments. It explores the origins, interpretations, and common operational models of civic engagement, presenting it as a contested field shaped by differing orientations and politics. I delve more deeply into community engagement practices on the continuum from transactional to transformative, making the case for the latter throughout. I also explore how the relevant Irish civic engagement policies are enabling and restricting for practitioners, and how they may contribute to the domestication of community engagement within the neoliberal-patriarchal university. This research is positioned within the context of the neoliberal-patriarchal framing of the Irish higher education system, and conducted within a critical feminist research paradigm, drawing from the theories of intersectionality, critical feminist pedagogy, as well as my own practice in community engagement. It is a qualitative study that consists of in-depth interviews with seven Irish female civic engagement practitioners. The findings reveal that the participants’ commitments are to a radical and transformative model of civic engagement focused on social justice and equality, and based on the principles of holistic, engaged and nurturing pedagogy. At the same time, this study shows that the practice tends to be more traditional and tempered. This research portrays community engagement as innovative work in a rigid higher education system, and a practice that is liminal and largely invisible and unrecognised. Despite its marginal status, this research also documents the ways in which civic engagement can disturb the dominant discourse of a neoliberal-patriarchal university. The unique contribution of this research lies in its focus on the lived experiences of civic engagement practitioners, offering a new perspective on community engagement through a critical, intersectional feminist lens. It sheds light on the values, practices, and challenges faced by practitioners who work in a university environment that is often counter-normative to their practice and values, expanding our understanding of civic engagement in Ireland

Climate change risks illustrated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) “burning embers”

The completion of the Sixth Assessment Cycle of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides a unique opportunity to understand where the world stands on climate-change-related risks to natural and human systems at the global level, as well as for specific regions and sectors. Since its Third Assessment Report (AR3), released 2 decades ago, the IPCC has developed a synthetic representation of how risks increase with global warming, with risk levels reflected by the colours used, including shades of yellow and red, which led to the nickname “burning embers”. While initially designed to illustrate five overarching Reasons for Concern, these diagrams have been progressively applied to risks in specific systems and regions over the last 10 years. However, the information gathered through expert elicitation and the resulting quantitative risk assessments have hitherto remained scattered within and across reports and specific data files. This paper overcomes this limitation by developing a database containing all embers from AR3 to AR6 and an associated online “Climate Risks Embers Explorer” (CREE) to facilitate the exploration of the assessed risks. The data are also available in an archive file in a widely accessible format (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12626976, Marbaix et al., 2024). Important aspects of data homogenization are discussed, and an approach to structuring information on assessed risk increases is presented. Potential uses of the data are explored through aggregated analyses of risks and adaptation benefits, which show that, excluding high-adaptation cases, half of the assessed risk levels increase from a moderate risk to a high risk between 1.5 and 2 to 2.3 °C of global warming, a result which is consistent with the separate assessment of the Reasons for Concern by the IPCC. The database lays the groundwork for future risk assessments and the development of burning embers by providing a standardized baseline of risk data. It also highlights important areas for improvement in the forthcoming Seventh Assessment Cycle of the IPCC, particularly towards the systematic, homogeneous, and structured collection of information on illustrated risk increases; comprehensive coverage of impacted regions; a systematic consideration of adaptation and/or vulnerability levels; and, possibly, the coverage of risks from response measures. In the context of an ever-growing body of literature and knowledge, the facility described herein has the potential to help in synthesizing and illustrating risks across scales and systems in a more consistent and comprehensive way

Housing Need and Demand Assessment Policy Report. Data Stories Working Paper 7.

This policy report examines the use of data to determine long-term housing tenure needs and demands in Ireland through an in-depth case study of the Government of Ireland’s Housing Need and Demand Assessment (HNDA) policy. The study draws from deskbased research of all 31 local authority’s local development plans, 11 interviews with planners, policymakers and consultants involved in the rollout and present review of the HNDA, two workshops with key stakeholders exploring the relationship between evidence and policy and 13 post-workshop interviews. Beyond providing a synthesis of how the HNDA process was understood by users and key stakeholders, the report develops a critique of: 1) the methodology, 2) the capacity of local authorities to perform an HNDA, 3) the rollout of the policy and 4) overarching governance issues

Co-Creating Change: Seedbed Interventions as Catalysts for Equitable Urban Planning—The Case of Umeå

The ongoing urbanisation and densification at the intersection with increasing environmental and health crises demand a holistic, equitable, and inclusive approach to urban planning, which has also been highlighted in the EU Green Deal’s inclusive approach to sustainable urban planning aligned with the UN SDGs’ “Leave No One Behind.” This article introduces the seedbed intervention as a novel, community-driven, co-creative approach to Nature-based Solutions (NbS) that addresses gaps in equitable and inclusive urban planning frameworks. On the case of Umeå (Sweden), the article introduces the seedbed intervention approach and demonstrates how the approach facilitates the development of locally appropriate and sustainable NbS. The results show that the seedbed intervention approach improved the alignment between local needs and NbS design, connected diverse user groups, and catalysed curiosity, interest, and participation among citizens with the help of applying art-based methods. By demonstrating the practical application of a seedbed intervention, this research contributes to the development of scalable frameworks for more equitable and inclusive urban planning

Profit-seeking solar geoengineering exemplifies broader risks of market-based climate governance

Despite uncertainties about its feasibility and desirability, start-up companies seeking to profit from solar geoengineering have begun to emerge. One company is releasing balloons filled with sulfur dioxide to sell “cooling credits”, claiming that the cooling achieved when 1 g of SO2 is released is equivalent to offsetting one ton of carbon dioxide for one year. Another aspires to deliver returns to investors from the development of a proprietary aerosol for dispersal in the stratosphere. Such for-profit solar geoengineering enterprises should not be understood merely as rogue opportunists. These proposals are not only scientifically questionable, and premature in the absence of effective governance, but they are a predictable consequence of neoliberal, market-driven climate governance. The structures and incentives of market-based climate policy - circumscribed by neoliberalism’s emphasis on technological innovation, venture capital, and the marketization of environmental goods - have generated repeated efforts to profit from various forms of geoengineering. With a climate governance regime wherein private, for-profit actors significantly influence and weaken climate policy, de facto governance of solar geoengineering has emerged, dominated by actors linked to Silicon Valley funders and ideologies. Without more explicit efforts to curb the power of private sector actors, including commercial geoengineering bans and non-use provisions, pursuit of techno-market “solutions” could lead to both inadequate mitigation and increasingly risky reliance on geoengineering