Towards Female Empowerment. The New Generation of Irish Women Poets: Vona Groarke, Sinéad Morrissey, Caitríona O’Reilly and Mary O’Donoghue

The monographic study “Towards Female Empowerment − The New Generation of Irish Women Poets: Vona Groarke, Sinéad Morrissey, Caítriona O’Reilly, and Mary O’Donoghue” analyses in depth the poetry written by four most significant Irish authors born in the 1970s. Together with insightful interpretations of the explored poetry, it offers a new reading of philosophy, social and cultural studies, and psychology connected with the subject matter of women’s empowerment. The book constitutes a thought-provoking debate on the up-to-date issues that need to be critically re-examined and re-thought these days. It is an inspiring reading for people interested not only in Irish poetry but in modern literature in general.I have dedicated this monograph to my Mother whose unremitting and unfailing support “empowered” me to work on this book. Many thanks to my fiancé for not losing faith in me and for his patience. Over the years, while conducting my research on contemporary Irish women’s poets, I have encountered many inspiring and helpful people to whom I am sincerely indebted for their advice, wisdom and encouragement. With regard to this book, my special thanks are directed to Michaela Schrage-Früh, her husband David and Frederic for their hospitality and kindness. I would like to thank Przemysław Ostalski for his help with typesetting of the book, and Richard O’Callaghan Ph.D. for proofreading of the earlier versions of the text. Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to Professor Jerzy Jarniewicz for inspiring me to read poetry

The impact of grazing on seedling patterns in degraded sparse‐elm grassland

Over‐grazing by livestock in semi‐arid ecosystems is one of the main causes of desertification. Although over‐grazing presents a global environmental challenge, only a few studies have investigated grazing impacts on the composition of species and functional groups of seedling bank. In this study, we determined whether the composition of seedling species and functional groups, as well as the correlations between the seedlings of sparse‐elm (Ulmus pumila var. sabulosa or U. pumila) and other species changed under three grazing intensities in the degraded sparse‐elm grassland in the Horqin Sandy Land, China. Species composition and abundance of established seedlings were surveyed and the relationships between seedlings of U. pumila and other species were analyzed. The results showed that plant communities under moderate grazing were more stable than the other two grazing intensities due to higher seedling density, higher species richness and higher number of perennial herbs. Seedlings of U. pumila could even prevent noxious seedlings growth under moderate grazing. We concluded that moderate grazing could benefit the recovery of this sparse‐elm grassland in the Horqin Sandy Land

Fütoplankton järvede seisundi indikaatorina

A Thesis for applying for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Sciences and Applied Biology.Väitekiri filosoofiadoktori kraadi taotlemiseks keskkonnateaduste ja rakendusbioloogia erialal.According to Water Framework Directive (WFD), phytoplankton abundance, composition and bloom metrics should be used in lake ecological quality assessment. Phytoplankton is highly sensitive to environmental changes and can serve as an early warning parameter in water quality assessment. To quantify the response of phytoplankton communities to nutrient pressure, the metric should be robust. Still numerous confounding factors and even the adaptational plasticity of phytoplankton can compromise its indicator value and increase the uncertainty of assessment results. Therefore, the final assessment of the ecological quality needs to be based on multifaceted analysis of phytoplankton ecology. The aims of this study were to ascertain the main environmental factors determining the distribution and biomass of dominant phytoplankton species in the EU lakes, to analyze the suitability and strength of phytoplankton parameters and metrics for estimating the ecological status of lakes in EU lakes, and to exemplify the evaluation of phytoplankton metrics through uncertainty analyses of their response to eutrophication. Substantial effort was made within the EU 7th Framework Programme project WISER to collect consistent phytoplankton data across European lakes. These data was used in the present study to elaborate the best sampling procedures for lakes, test metrics in use, develop a common metric and study parameters which influence the distribution of dominant phytoplankton species and algal classes. The CCA ranked water colour, total phosphorous (TP) and alkalinity as the most important factors determining the large-scale distribution patterns of lake phytoplankton dominants in European lakes. During this study, strict sampling procedure was tested, wherein appeared, that single open water sampling location is generally sufficient for assessment of ecological quality of lakes. In this study three robust metrics are provided to assess the impact of eutrophication pressures.Euroopa Liidu Veepoliitika Raamdirektiivi (VRD) nõuete kohaselt tuleks veekogude ökoloogilise seisundi hindamisel kasutada fütoplanktoni näitajaid, mis iseloomustavad tema hulka ja koosseisu ning veeõitsengute sagedust ja intensiivsust. Fütoplankton on tundlik ja reageerib kiiresti veekogus toimuvatele muutustele. Survetegurite mõju hindamiseks peaks nende seos fütoplanktoni näitajatega olema piisavalt tugev ja stabiilne. Mitmed kõrvaltegurid ja koguni fütoplanktoni kohastumisvõime võivad seda seost häirida, mis suurendab määramatust ja vähendab fütoplanktoni indikaatorväärtust. Seetõttu peab järve seisundile antav lõpphinnang tuginema igakülgsele fütoplanktoni ökoloogia arvestamisele. Doktoritöö eesmärgiks oli välja selgitada peamised tegurid, mis mõjutavad fütoplanktoni dominantliikide levikut EL järvedes, analüüsida fütoplanktoni parameetrite sobivust ja tugevust hindamaks järvede ökoloogilist seisundit, ja testida eutrofeerumist iseloomustavaid fütoplanktoni näitajaid. EL 7. raamprogrammi projekti WISER raames koguti Euroopa järvedest kindla juhendi alusel suurel hulgal uusi fütoplanktoni andmeid. Nende andmete põhjal töötati käesolevas töös välja parim veeproovide kogumise kord, testiti näitajaid, mis olid juba varasemalt kasutusel, töötati välja ühine indeks ja uuriti dominantliikide, perekondade ja muude rühmade esinemist mõjutavaid tegureid. Üle-euroopalistel andmetel põhinev kanooniline korrespondentsanalüüs näitas, et kõige enam mõjutavad fütoplanktoni dominantliikide esinemist üldfosfori sisaldus vees, vee värvus ja üldaluselisus. Selle uurimuse käigus töötati välja kindel proovivõtu protokoll, mille käigus jõuti järeldusele, et üks avavee proov järves on tavaliselt hinnangu andmiseks piisav. Selles töös pakume välja kolm surveteguritest oluliselt sõltuvat indeksit, mida võiks kasutada veekogude seisundi hindamisel.Publication of this thesis is supported by the Estonian University of Life Sciences

The linguistic construction of business reasoning: Towards a language-based model of decision-making in undergraduate business

This thesis reports on research whose aim is to arrive at a linguistically theorised understanding of the process of decision-making in undergraduate business studies. The use of ‘real-life’ tasks such as country reports – the major assessment task of the interdisciplinary unit Business in the Global Environment at a metropolitan Australian university – is intended to prepare students for the skills of ‘problem-solving’, ‘decision-making’ and professional report writing in international business environments. However, as indicated by the large number of students failing this task, few students possess the sophisticated linguistic resources necessary to build the generic complexity and persuasive rhetoric this high-stakes task demands. This study is concerned with identifying the linguistic demands of demonstrating decision-making in country reports. Current modelling of ‘big texts’ in SFL (Martin, 1994, 1995) is insufficient for understanding longer texts stretching across the many pages tertiary students are generally required to write. This thesis will show through fine-grained linguistic analyses of High Distinction student assignments that not all ‘big texts’ are macrogenres made up of elemental genre complexes and illustrate that embedded genres play a fundamental role in enabling texts of the length of business country reports to grow bigger than a page. Drawing on discourse semantics (Martin, 1992; Martin & Rose, 2007; Martin & White, 2005), this thesis also will also show how business reasoning is construed in undergraduate business reports through different types of grammatical structures and how successful student writers construct cause-effect relations and three major types of rhetorical moves in these texts. By making visible the academically valued meanings by which skillful writers demonstrate the process of decision-making in undergraduate business country reports, this research has pedagogical implications for academic literacy interventions aimed at making explicit the basis of achievement in business studies. It is hoped that this study will open up future research directions for the continued study of knowledge-building in undergraduate business studies

Linking gastrointestinal microbiota and metabolome dynamics to clinical outcomes in paediatric haematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Background: Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation is a curative procedure for a variety of conditions. Despite major advances, a plethora of adverse clinical outcomes can develop post-transplantation including graft-versus-host disease and infections, which remain the major causes of morbidity and mortality. There is increasing evidence that the gastrointestinal microbiota is associated with clinical outcomes post-haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Herein, we investigated the longitudinal dynamics of the gut microbiota and metabolome and potential associations to clinical outcomes in paediatric haematopoietic stem cell transplantation at a single centre. Results: On admission (baseline), the majority of patients presented with a different gut microbial composition in comparison with healthy control children with a significantly lower alpha diversity. A further, marked decrease in alpha diversity was observed immediately post-transplantation and in most microbial diversity, and composition did not return to baseline status whilst hospitalised. Longitudinal trajectories identified continuous fluctuations in microbial composition, with the dominance of a single taxon in a significant proportion of patients. Using pam clustering, three clusters were observed in the dataset. Cluster 1 was common pre-transplantation, characterised by a higher abundance of Clostridium XIVa, Bacteroides and Lachnospiraceae; cluster 2 and cluster 3 were more common post-transplantation with a higher abundance of Streptococcus and Staphylococcus in the former whilst Enterococcus, Enterobacteriaceae and Escherichia predominated in the latter. Cluster 3 was also associated with a higher risk of viraemia. Likewise, further multivariate analysis reveals Enterobacteriaceae, viraemia, use of total parenteral nutrition and various antimicrobials contributing towards cluster 3, Streptococcaceae, Staphylococcaceae, Neisseriaceae, vancomycin and metronidazole contributing towards cluster 2. Lachnospiraceae, Ruminococcaceae, Bifidobacteriaceae and not being on total parenteral nutrition contributed to cluster 1. Untargeted metabolomic analyses revealed changes that paralleled fluctuations in microbiota composition; importantly, low faecal butyrate was associated with a higher risk of viraemia. Conclusions: These findings highlight the frequent shifts and dominations in the gut microbiota of paediatric patients undergoing haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The study reveals associations between the faecal microbiota, metabolome and viraemia. To identify and explore the potential of microbial biomarkers that may predict the risk of complications post-HSCT, larger multi-centre studies investigating the longitudinal microbial profiling in paediatric haematopoietic stem cell transplantation are warranted

New Tools For Intermodal Analysis And Association Testing In Neuroimaging

In the field of neuroimage analysis two key goals are to understand the association of a high- dimensional imaging variable with a phenotype, and to understand relationships between several high-dimensional imaging variables. Several recent studies have shown that the standard “mass- univariate” methods to test an association of an image with a phenotype have inflated type 1 error rates due to invalid assumptions. Here, we propose two new methods to perform association testing in neuroimaging and illustrate the method in two stages of the lifespan. The first is a para- metric bootstrap testing procedure that estimates the joint distribution of test statistical parametric map in order to control the voxel-wise family-wise error rate (FWER). We illustrate the method by identifying sex differences in nonlinear developmental trajectories of cerebral blood flow through adolescence using the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort. The second testing procedure is a generalization of Rao’s score test based on projecting the score statistic onto a linear sub- space of a high-dimensional parameter space. The approach provides a way to localize signal in the high-dimensional space by projecting the scores to the subspace where the score test was performed. This allows for inference in the high-dimensional space to be performed on the same degrees of freedom as the score test, effectively reducing the number of comparisons. We illus- trate the method by analyzing a subset of the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative dataset. Finally, we propose a new tool to study relationships between neuroimaging modalities that we to describe how the spatial association between cortical thickness and sulcal depth changes in adolescent development

Trait-based approaches to analyze links between the drivers of change and ecosystem services: Synthesizing existing evidence and future challenges

Understanding the responses of biodiversity to drivers of change and the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem properties and ecosystem services is a key challenge in the context of global environmental change. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of the scientific literature linking direct drivers of change and ecosystem services via functional traits of three taxonomic groups (vegetation, invertebrates, and vertebrates) to: (1) uncover trends and research biases in this field; and (2) synthesize existing empirical evidence. Our results show the existence of important biases in published studies related to ecosystem types, taxonomic groups, direct drivers of change, ecosystem services, geographical range, and the spatial scale of analysis. We found multiple evidence of links between drivers and services mediated by functional traits, particularly between land-use changes and regulating services in vegetation and invertebrates. Seventy-five functional traits were recorded in our sample. However, few of these functional traits were repeatedly found to be associated with both the species responses to direct drivers of change (response traits) and the species effects on the provision of ecosystem services (effect traits). Our results highlight the existence of potential “key functional traits,” understood as those that have the capacity to influence the provision of multiple ecosystem services, while responding to specific drivers of change, across a variety of systems and organisms. Identifying “key functional traits” would help to develop robust indicator systems to monitor changes in biodiversity and their effects on ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services supplyFinancial support was received from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Project CGL2014-53782-P). MGL was funded by a postdoctoral grant from the Spanish National Institute for Agriculture and Food Research and Technology (INIA), which is cofounded by the European Social Fun