An archaeology of Irish cinema: Ireland's subaltern, migrant and feminist film cultures (1973-87)

This thesis examines the development of an Irish film avant-garde, from the mid 1970s to the late 1980s. The thesis argues that this period was marked by an historically specific intersection between Irish and international film cultures, which can be traced through contemporary film theory, cultural policy and critical practice. This period witnessed a revitalisation of indigenous production, and new initiatives in Irish arts policy, but many important Irish filmmakers trained or began their careers in London and New York, while others were supported by cultural and political agencies outside the state. The thesis focuses on the work of five filmmakers (Bob Quinn, Joe Comerford, Thaddeus O’Sullivan, Vivienne Dick and Pat Murphy) and on three key areas of intersection between Irish and international film culture, associated with the ‘subaltern’, migration and feminism. Through close readings of specific films, supported by interviews with selected filmmakers, distributors and archivists, the thesis develops an expanded model of practice, which extends beyond production to address issues of distribution and exhibition. This archaeology of Irish cinema is informed by post-structural critiques of the archive, as well as theories of the avantgarde, and it argues that the reception of Irish avant-garde film has been structured by the institutional discourses of the museum and the academy

Re-Imagined Communities?: Ireland, Europe and the Web as Shifting Sites of Television Discourse

The rise of satellite and cable across Europe during the late 1980s contributed to the restructuring of communications spaces that had previously been dominated by national broadcasters. These changes were viewed with concern by many media commentators. Summarising the debate in 1989, David Morley and Kevin Robins noted that ‘it is broadly felt that these new technologies have disturbing and damaging implications for established national (and indeed continental) identities. There is a common fear of both their potential to disaggregate fixed national audiences and communities and to create new ones across national boundaries’ (Morley and Robins, 1989: 11). It seems likely that digital broadcasting will further fragment national audiences, not least because it provides for an even greater emphasis on the type of ‘niche’ programming associated with satellite and cable (Richardson and Meinhof, 1999: 87). Public service broadcasters are faced with the challenge of retaining audiences for generalist programming, while transnational competitors can operate largely outside the limits of national regulation and orient their programming towards the most lucrative markets. In the Irish context, the troubled development of digital services has occasioned a renewed legislative and critical focus on the role of public service broadcasting in articulating national and cultural identity. But it is also possible to trace the ‘textualisation’ of new relations between broadcasters and national audiences (Richardson and Meinhof, 1999: 10). This paper adopts a textual approach to the analysis of Radio Telefis Éireann (RTÉ) during this transitional period. The focus of the analysis is RTÉ’s discursive framework, which encompasses graphic ephemera such as station idents, logos, lead-ins and trailers, as well as other aspects of scheduling, continuity and branding. This paper also considers the wider context for these shifts in orientation, by exploring television’s ‘re-imagination’ of Europe and the Web

Flashpoints Signal Hidden Inherent Instabilities in Land-Use Planning

Land-use decision-making processes have a long history of producing globally pervasive systemic equity and sustainability concerns. Quantitative, optimization-based planning approaches, e.g. Multi-Objective Land Allocation (MOLA), seemingly open the possibility to improve objectivity and transparency by explicitly evaluating planning priorities by the type, amount, and location of land uses. Here, we show that optimization-based planning approaches with generic planning criteria generate a series of unstable "flashpoints" whereby tiny changes in planning priorities produce large-scale changes in the amount of land use by type. We give quantitative arguments that the flashpoints we uncover in MOLA models are examples of a more general family of instabilities that occur whenever planning accounts for factors that coordinate use on- and between-sites, regardless of whether these planning factors are formulated explicitly or implicitly. We show that instabilities lead to regions of ambiguity in land-use type that we term "gray areas". By directly mapping gray areas between flashpoints, we show that quantitative methods retain utility by reducing combinatorially large spaces of possible land-use patterns to a small, characteristic set that can engage stakeholders to arrive at more efficient and just outcomes.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

A Bollywood Commercial for Ireland: Filming Ek Tha Tiger in Dublin

The spectacular representation of overseas locations has traditionally been a generic trope of Hindi cinema (AKA Bollywood). Notably, stunning places unfamiliar to Indian audiences are constantly featured in commercial Indian films, mostly for their visual qualities, in order to add a further element of entertainment to the story

Attention! A good bedside test for delirium?

peer-reviewedBackground Routine delirium screening could improve delirium detection, but it remains unclear as to which screening tool is most suitable. We tested the diagnostic accuracy of the following screening methods (either individually or in combination) in the detection of delirium: MOTYB (months of the year backwards); SSF (Spatial Span Forwards); evidence of subjective or objective 'confusion'.Methods We performed a cross-sectional study of general hospital adult inpatients in a large tertiary referral hospital. Screening tests were performed by junior medical trainees. Subsequently, two independent formal delirium assessments were performed: first, the Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) followed by the Delirium Rating Scale-Revised 98 (DRS-R98). DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition) criteria were used to assign delirium diagnosis. Sensitivity and specificity ratios with 95% CIs were calculated for each screening method.Results 265 patients were included. The most precise screening method overall was achieved by simultaneously performing MOTYB and assessing for subjective/objective confusion (sensitivity 93.8%, 95% CI 82.8 to 98.6; specificity 84.7%, 95% CI 79.2 to 89.2). In older patients, MOTYB alone was most accurate, whereas in younger patients, a simultaneous combination of SSF (cutoff 4) with either MOTYB or assessment of subjective/objective confusion was best. In every case, addition of the CAM as a second-line screening step to improve specificity resulted in considerable loss in sensitivity.Conclusions Our results suggest that simple attention tests may be useful in delirium screening. MOTYB used alone was the most accurate screening test in older people.PUBLISHEDpeer-reviewe

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570