Economic Development and Social Values in Ireland: A First Assessment. ESRI Memorandum Series No. 53 1968

Doubtless a number of "purely" economic, political and geographical factors have handicapped until comparatively recently the progress of economic development in Ireland: We scarcely need to give examples. Yet not all communities that have suffered from the same, or similar handicaps in one historical period or another were defeated by them, economically speaking; in just the same way as the Irish people. Clearly such differences as there were must have arisen in part from the lack of exact identity in the several sets of historical circumstances in which these communities have found themselves situated. But we may also suppose that some responsibility for differences in rates of economic development should be laid at the door of diversity of social values. That is, there may have been, features of life in Ireland (of which certain vestiges remain today) that were out of harmony with the spirit of industrial society. Irrespective possibly of oppressive historical circumstances, these may have created by themselves an obstacle to the transformation of traditional Irish life in the direction that industrial, or even agrarian, revolution demanded. The obstacles we have in mind are those that, in contrast to those imposed from without by a parsimonious Providence, for example, or an exploiting colonial power, sprang as it were from among the people themselves

Social Status in Dublin: Marriage, Mobility and First Employment. ESRI General Research Series Paper No. 67, January 1973

The studies which follow, like the one that preceded them,1 are studies of social inequality, in certain of its aspects, among the population of the city of Dublin; and they therefore deal with a subject that may fall too easily the prey of emotion and moralist treatment. The difficulty of achieving objective treatment on such a topic is reinforced by a general, if at times theoretical, adherence in this country to ideas of egalitarianism-ideas which, in the face of inescapable evidence to the contrary, may culminate in the denial that distinctions of status or class are ever drawn in contemporary Ireland. In what follows, however, we have regarded distinctions of social status in their objective existence as real characteristics of Irish social organisation (as indeed they are); but we did not regard it as our task to arrive, in this’ context at any rate, at any moral or ethical evaluation of them

Conditions of immigrant assimilation in urban Brazil

Los documentos del Seminario fueron publicados por UNESCO en 1961 con el título: La urbanización en América Latina/Urbanization in Latin Americ

Ontogenetic scaling patterns and functional anatomy of the pelvic limb musculature in emus (Dromaius novaehollandiae)

Emus (Dromaius novaehollandiae) are exclusively terrestrial, bipedal and cursorial ratites with some similar biomechanical characteristics to humans. Their growth rates are impressive, as their body mass increases eighty-fold from hatching to adulthood whilst maintaining the same mode of locomotion throughout life. These ontogenetic characteristics stimulate biomechanical questions about the strategies that allow emus to cope with their rapid growth and locomotion, which can be partly addressed via scaling (allometric) analysis of morphology. In this study we have collected pelvic limb anatomical data (muscle architecture, tendon length, tendon mass and bone lengths) and calculated muscle physiological cross sectional area (PCSA) and average tendon cross sectional area from emus across three ontogenetic stages (n = 17, body masses from 3.6 to 42 kg). The data were analysed by reduced major axis regression to determine how these biomechanically relevant aspects of morphology scaled with body mass. Muscle mass and PCSA showed a marked trend towards positive allometry (26 and 27 out of 34 muscles respectively) and fascicle length showed a more mixed scaling pattern. The long tendons of the main digital flexors scaled with positive allometry for all characteristics whilst other tendons demonstrated a less clear scaling pattern. Finally, the two longer bones of the limb (tibiotarsus and tarsometatarsus) also exhibited positive allometry for length, and two others (femur and first phalanx of digit III) had trends towards isometry. These results indicate that emus experience a relative increase in their muscle force-generating capacities, as well as potentially increasing the force-sustaining capacities of their tendons, as they grow. Furthermore, we have clarified anatomical descriptions and provided illustrations of the pelvic limb muscle–tendon units in emus

Cryptic complexity in felid vertebral evolution: shape differentiation and allometry of the axial skeleton

Members of the mammalian family Felidae (extant and extinct cats) are grossly phenotypically similar, but display a 300-fold range in body size, from less than 1 kg to more than 300 kg. In addition to differences in body mass, felid species show dietary and locomotory specializations that correlate to skull and limb osteological measurements, such as shape or cross-sectional area. However, ecological correlates to the axial skeleton are yet untested. Here, we build on previous studies of the biomechanical and morphological evolution of the felid appendicular skeleton by conducting a quantitative analysis of morphology and allometry in the presacral vertebral column across extant cats. Our results demonstrate that vertebral columns of arboreal, scansorial and terrestrial felids significantly differ in morphology, specifically in the lumbar region, while no distinction based on dietary specialization was found. Body size significantly influences vertebral morphology, with clear regionalization of allometry along the vertebral column, suggesting that anterior (cervicals and thoracics) and posterior (lumbar) vertebrae may be independently subjected to distinct selection pressures

Cancellous bone and theropod dinosaur locomotion. Part I—an examination of cancellous bone architecture in the hindlimb bones of theropods

This paper is the first of a three-part series that investigates the architecture of cancellous (‘spongy’) bone in the main hindlimb bones of theropod dinosaurs, and uses cancellous bone architectural patterns to infer locomotor biomechanics in extinct non-avian species. Cancellous bone is widely known to be highly sensitive to its mechanical environment, and has previously been used to infer locomotor biomechanics in extinct tetrapod vertebrates, especially primates. Despite great promise, cancellous bone architecture has remained little utilized for investigating locomotion in many other extinct vertebrate groups, such as dinosaurs. Documentation and quantification of architectural patterns across a whole bone, and across multiple bones, can provide much information on cancellous bone architectural patterns and variation across species. Additionally, this also lends itself to analysis of the musculoskeletal biomechanical factors involved in a direct, mechanistic fashion. On this premise, computed tomographic and image analysis techniques were used to describe and analyse the three-dimensional architecture of cancellous bone in the main hindlimb bones of theropod dinosaurs for the first time. A comprehensive survey across many extant and extinct species is produced, identifying several patterns of similarity and contrast between groups. For instance, more stemward non-avian theropods (e.g. ceratosaurs and tyrannosaurids) exhibit cancellous bone architectures more comparable to that present in humans, whereas species more closely related to birds (e.g. paravians) exhibit architectural patterns bearing greater similarity to those of extant birds. Many of the observed patterns may be linked to particular aspects of locomotor biomechanics, such as the degree of hip or knee flexion during stance and gait. A further important observation is the abundance of markedly oblique trabeculae in the diaphyses of the femur and tibia of birds, which in large species produces spiralling patterns along the endosteal surface. Not only do these observations provide new insight into theropod anatomy and behaviour, they also provide the foundation for mechanistic testing of locomotor hypotheses via musculoskeletal biomechanical modelling

An extension to the collisional model of the energetic cost of support qualitatively explains trotting and the trot–canter transition

The majority of terrestrial mammals adopt distinct, discrete gaits across their speed range. Though there is evidence that walk, trot and gallop may be selected at speeds consistent with minimizing metabolic cost (Hoyt and Taylor, 1981, Nature, 291, 239–240), the mechanical causes underlying these costs and their changes with speed are not well understood. In particular, the paired, near‐simultaneous contacts of the trot is puzzling as it appears to demand a high mechanical work that could easily be avoided with distributed contacts, as with a “running walk” gait or “tolt.” Here, a simple condition is derived—a ratio including the pitch moment of inertia and back length—for which trotting is energetically advantageous because it avoids the energetic consequences of pitching. Pitching could also be avoided if the impulses from the legs were orientated through the center of mass. A range of idealized gaits is considered that achieve this zero‐pitch condition, and work minimization predicts a transition from trot to canter at intermediate speeds. This can be understood from the geometric principles of achieving a “pseudoelastic” collision with each impulse (Ruina et al., 2005, J Theoretical Biol, 14, 170‐192). However, at high speeds, a transition back to trot is predicted that is not observed in nature

An Approach to Elastoplasticity at Large Deformations

Finite plasticity theories are still a subject of controversy and lively discussions. Among the approaches to finite elastoplasticity two became especially popular. The first, implemented in the commercial finite element codes, is based on the introduction of a hypoelastic constitutive law and the additive elastic-plastic decomposition of the deformation rate tensor. Unfortunately, the use of hypoelasticity may lead to a nonphysical creation or dissipation of energy in a closed deformation cycle. In order to replace hypoelasticity with hyperelasticity the second popular approach based on the multiplicative elastic-plastic decomposition of the deformation gradient tensor was developed. Unluckily, the latter theory is not perfect as well because it introduces intermediate plastic configurations, which are geometrically incompatible, non-unique, and, consequently, fictitious physically. In the present work, an attempt is made to combine strengths of the described approaches avoiding their drawbacks. Particularly, a tensor of the plastic deformation rate is introduced in the additive elastic-plastic decomposition of the velocity gradient. This tensor is used in the flow rule defined by the generalized isotropic Reiner-Rivlin fluid. The tensor of the plastic deformation rate is also used in an evolution equation that allows calculating an elastic strain tensor which, in its turn, is used in the hyperelastic constitutive law. Thus, the present approach employs hyperelasticity and the additive decomposition of the velocity gradient avoiding nonphysical hypoelasticity and the multiplicative decomposition of the deformation gradient associated with incompatible plastic configurations. The developed finite elastoplasticity framework for isotropic materials is specified to extend the classical -theory of metal plasticity to large deformations and the simple shear deformation is analyzed