‘After the Celtic Tiger’, Irish Social Science Platform Conference

The four National University of Ireland Universities have offered a diploma in rural development to adults experienced in, or concerned about rural development since 1996. The diploma initiative arose from a government report on the needs for education and training for the development of rural areas. The universities acted upon the Creedon Report (1993) and offered a 60 credit two-year distance learning diploma in 11 separate themed modules. Over 400 people have completed this diploma since 1996 and have gone on to impact on their local communities, develop careers, develop enterprises, and impact on rural development policy. By 2004 the universities were able to launch a follow on degree. This degree completed by distance learning in two years, (following the diploma), has graduated almost 80 people in the last four years. This paper draws on research completed by two graduates of this degree. These graduates, with support from a summer research programme within NUI Maynooth, sought to qualitatively and quantitatively enumerate the impact of the degree on the professional and non-professional lives of the people who completed this course. Taking a sample the researchers designed and administered questionnaires and convened focus groups. The outcomes show a significant impact of this education. The respondents enumerate the strengths and weaknesses of this type of education for mature students and for rural development education. They also report career progression, community impact, and greater involvement in aspects of development among the graduates. The outcome of this research shows that this type of education has significant impact on personal confidence, competence in developing innovative solutions to need, and a greater capacity to participate. Presently there are significant challenges to development. These challenges are exacerbated in remoter rural areas. They are especially challenging to those who do not have the skills and the knowledge to engage with a post-modern economy. The outcome of this research is important as a contribution to our planning for how we can educate into disadvantaged communities rather than taking the most ambitious people out of their communities for education

Developing the Mathematical Beliefs of Second-level Students: An Intervention Study

This study examined the effects of a learning environment (embodying many of De Corte et al.’s, (2004) CLIA-model components) on secondary students’ mathematical beliefs. Such mathematical beliefs have been of interest to the research community due to their expected impact on students’ willingness to engage in mathematical problem-solving. This research adopted an action research methodology using a quasi-experimental sequential explanatory mixed methods design. Data was collected using the Mathematics Related Beliefs Questionnaire (MRBQ) and a number of focus groups and individual interviews were undertaken. The sample selected (age 13-14) was from a population of convenience. There was one treatment class (N=22) and three control classes (N=45). The classroom intervention was of six months duration and was carried out by the researcher teacher in a secondary community school. Findings revealed no significant positive effects on students’ beliefs from the new learning environment about the teacher’s role in the classroom, their personal competence and the relevance to their lives and mathematics as an inaccessible subject. A more negative outcome for the fourth factor of the MRBQ scale, ‘mathematics as an inaccessible subject’, resulted for all participants (experimental and control combined) with a moderate effect of eta2=0.09. Findings from the qualitative data indicated the experimental participants found mathematics to be a difficult but useful subject. Findings, overall, revealed no significant differences between the experimental and control classes, indicating the new learning environment had not had a positive impact on the beliefs examined. Possible factors identified were the length of the intervention, the ages of participants and the socio-economic status of the majority taking part in this study. Qualitative data also indicated participants in the treatment class had found some of the activities used in the intervention to be interesting and enjoyable. Responses to the use of group work indicated participants were both willing and able to enter into communities of learners. Other results showed that participants with the highest achievement scores appeared to be the most confident learners of mathematics. Participants appeared to accept the need to have patience and perseverance when solving difficult problems but this was not translated into action in the classroom. The importance of understanding mathematics appeared to be accepted by participants. Implications for methodology, research and practice are discussed in light of these findings

The potential, the performance and the behaviour of auxetic textile materials for competitive aquatic sports

The project investigated how auxetic materials in the competitive aquatic sports (swimming wetsuits and impact protection vests) can support athletic performance. Auxetic materials are considered as a class of interesting and emerging materials with enhanced behaviour. Due to their negative Poisson’s ratio, auxetic materials harbour unique characteristics such as, improved resistance to impact, synclastic curvature and viscoelastic dampening. Auxetic materials have been reported for a wide range of applications, including, functional performance sportswear, aerospace materials such as aeroplane nose cones, military textiles, medical equipment for example an antibiotic release bandage and geotextiles. However, there is little evidence of real time applications of auxetic materials and so this study investigated the application of auxetic materials for functional performance sportswear specifically competitive aquatic sports. A critical appraisal of literature revealed the potential of materials to reduce hydrodynamic resistance during swimming and the performance of auxetic foams and textiles in water sports (vests) to provide impact resistance. In this study, a thermo-mechanical manufacturing technique was adopted on a reticulated Polyurethane foam to produce an auxetic foam with 70% linear compression ratio in three planes. Results revealed that the conversion process was in line with previous researches and conventional foam was successfully converted into auxetic foam. A uniaxial compression test found the auxetic foam cells to contract under compressive strain and resist compression at the same time. Initially indicating that the auxetic foams will be more resistant to impact. The foams were subjected to an impact attenuation test developed by Department of Apparel, Manchester Metropolitan University. The results informed that auxetic foams can reduce peak impacts up 63% (3 times), which concurs with previous research. Auxetic foams therefore have the potential to provide enhanced resistance to impact in water sport protection vests. The auxetic foam was also evaluated for flexural rigidity and bending length. The converted auxetic foam achieved a 70% improvement in flexural rigidity measurement compared to conventional foams, indicating the auxetic foam has the potential to conform to body contours and therefore enhance the targeted compression in a competitive wetsuit. In addition, a commercially available competitive wetsuit was also examined for the potential of identifying where embedding of the auxetic materials in the garment would be most appropriate. The neoprene wetsuit evaluated in this project highlighted how functional materials are used within a conventional garment. Based on the above evaluation, it could be predicted that auxetic foams can be embedded into wetsuits for enhanced performance. Auxetic foams could enhance compression in highly compressive zones such as the buttocks, core and thighs without thinning out under tension, as conventional materials do. Their ability to contract under compression and extend under tension also suggests their suitability to shoulder and under arm panels where greater flexibility and freedom of movement is key. Auxetic therefore foams have the potential to reduce pressure and improve comfort in these areas. The above investigations reveal the potential of auxetic foams in competitive aquatic sports to reduce hydrodynamic resistance in a swimming wetsuit and offer enhanced impact resistance in a water sport protection vest. Key Words: Auxetic, negative Poisson’s ratio (NPR), auxetic foam, thermo-mechanical process, flexural rigidity, impact attenuation testing, compression, aquatic watersports application

Evaluation of Drug Prevention Communications Project for Young People

This report on the findings of the evaluation of a drug prevention communications project for young people was commissioned by the Partnership Board of the Drugs Communication Team and conducted by researchers at the Centre for Institutional Studies at the University of East London. The research included a survey of young people’s drug use and knowledge about drugs (156 young people). Twenty-eight focus groups to assess the effectiveness of the web-site (94 young people), and eight in-depth interviews with professions to obtain their views of the website were completed. Existing research on drug use and websites, and the project’s monitoring data was collated and six steering group meetings attended

The Voice Characterisation Checklist:Psychometric Properties of a Brief Clinical Assessment of Voices as Social Agents

Aim: There is growing interest in tailoring psychological interventions for distressing voices and a need for reliable tools to assess phenomenological features which might influence treatment response. This study examines the reliability and internal consistency of the Voice Characterisation Checklist (VoCC), a novel 10-item tool which assesses degree of voice characterisation, identified as relevant to a new wave of relational approaches. Methods: The sample comprised participants experiencing distressing voices, recruited at baseline on the AVATAR2 trial between January 2021 and July 2022 (n = 170). Inter-rater reliability (IRR) and internal consistency analyses (Cronbach’s alpha) were conducted. Results: The majority of participants reported some degree of voice personification (94%) with high endorsement of voices as distinct auditory experiences (87%) with basic attributes of gender and age (82%). While most identified a voice intention (75%) and personality (76%), attribution of mental states (35%) to the voice (‘What are they thinking?’) and a known historical relationship (36%) were less common. The internal consistency of the VoCC was acceptable (10 items, α = 0.71). IRR analysis indicated acceptable to excellent reliability at the item-level for 9/10 items and moderate agreement between raters’ global (binary) classification of more vs. less highly characterised voices, κ = 0.549 (95% CI, 0.240–0.859), p < 0.05. Conclusion: The VoCC is a reliable and internally consistent tool for assessing voice characterisation and will be used to test whether voice characterisation moderates treatment outcome to AVATAR therapy. There is potential wider utility within clinical trials of other relational therapies as well as routine clinical practise

The voice characterisation checklist: psychometric properties of a brief clinical assessment of voices as social agents

Aim: There is growing interest in tailoring psychological interventions for distressing voices and a need for reliable tools to assess phenomenological features which might influence treatment response. This study examines the reliability and internal consistency of the Voice Characterisation Checklist (VoCC), a novel 10-item tool which assesses degree of voice characterisation, identified as relevant to a new wave of relational approaches. Methods: The sample comprised participants experiencing distressing voices, recruited at baseline on the AVATAR2 trial between January 2021 and July 2022 (n = 170). Inter-rater reliability (IRR) and internal consistency analyses (Cronbach’s alpha) were conducted. Results: The majority of participants reported some degree of voice personification (94%) with high endorsement of voices as distinct auditory experiences (87%) with basic attributes of gender and age (82%). While most identified a voice intention (75%) and personality (76%), attribution of mental states (35%) to the voice (‘What are they thinking?’) and a known historical relationship (36%) were less common. The internal consistency of the VoCC was acceptable (10 items, α = 0.71). IRR analysis indicated acceptable to excellent reliability at the item-level for 9/10 items and moderate agreement between raters’ global (binary) classification of more vs. less highly characterised voices, κ = 0.549 (95% CI, 0.240–0.859), p < 0.05. Conclusion: The VoCC is a reliable and internally consistent tool for assessing voice characterisation and will be used to test whether voice characterisation moderates treatment outcome to AVATAR therapy. There is potential wider utility within clinical trials of other relational therapies as well as routine clinical practice

The voice characterisation checklist: psychometric properties of a brief clinical assessment of voices as social agents

AimThere is growing interest in tailoring psychological interventions for distressing voices and a need for reliable tools to assess phenomenological features which might influence treatment response. This study examines the reliability and internal consistency of the Voice Characterisation Checklist (VoCC), a novel 10-item tool which assesses degree of voice characterisation, identified as relevant to a new wave of relational approaches.MethodsThe sample comprised participants experiencing distressing voices, recruited at baseline on the AVATAR2 trial between January 2021 and July 2022 (n = 170). Inter-rater reliability (IRR) and internal consistency analyses (Cronbach’s alpha) were conducted.ResultsThe majority of participants reported some degree of voice personification (94%) with high endorsement of voices as distinct auditory experiences (87%) with basic attributes of gender and age (82%). While most identified a voice intention (75%) and personality (76%), attribution of mental states (35%) to the voice (‘What are they thinking?’) and a known historical relationship (36%) were less common. The internal consistency of the VoCC was acceptable (10 items, α = 0.71). IRR analysis indicated acceptable to excellent reliability at the item-level for 9/10 items and moderate agreement between raters’ global (binary) classification of more vs. less highly characterised voices, κ = 0.549 (95% CI, 0.240–0.859), p &lt; 0.05.ConclusionThe VoCC is a reliable and internally consistent tool for assessing voice characterisation and will be used to test whether voice characterisation moderates treatment outcome to AVATAR therapy. There is potential wider utility within clinical trials of other relational therapies as well as routine clinical practise

Post hoc Analysis for Detecting Individual Rare Variant Risk Associations Using Probit Regression Bayesian Variable Selection Methods in Case-Control Sequencing Studies

Rare variants (RVs) have been shown to be significant contributors to complex disease risk. By definition, these variants have very low minor allele frequencies and traditional single-marker methods for statistical analysis are underpowered for typical sequencing study sample sizes. Multimarker burden-type approaches attempt to identify aggregation of RVs across case-control status by analyzing relatively small partitions of the genome, such as genes. However, it is generally the case that the aggregative measure would be a mixture of causal and neutral variants, and these omnibus tests do not directly provide any indication of which RVs may be driving a given association. Recently, Bayesian variable selection approaches have been proposed to identify RV associations from a large set of RVs under consideration. Although these approaches have been shown to be powerful at detecting associations at the RV level, there are often computational limitations on the total quantity of RVs under consideration and compromises are necessary for large-scale application. Here, we propose a computationally efficient alternative formulation of this method using a probit regression approach specifically capable of simultaneously analyzing hundreds to thousands of RVs. We evaluate our approach to detect causal variation on simulated data and examine sensitivity and specificity in instances of high RV dimensionality as well as apply it to pathway-level RV analysis results from a prostate cancer (PC) risk case-control sequencing study. Finally, we discuss potential extensions and future directions of this work

REVEL: An Ensemble Method for Predicting the Pathogenicity of Rare Missense Variants

Supplemental Data Supplemental Data include one figure and five tables and can be found with this article online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2016.08.016. Supplemental Data Document S1. Figure S1 and Tables S1–S5 Download Document S2. Article plus Supplemental Data Download Web Resources ClinVar, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/clinvar/ dbNSFP, https://sites.google.com/site/jpopgen/dbNSFP Human Gene Mutation Database, http://www.hgmd.cf.ac.uk/ REVEL, https://sites.google.com/site/revelgenomics/ SwissVar, http://swissvar.expasy.org/ The vast majority of coding variants are rare, and assessment of the contribution of rare variants to complex traits is hampered by low statistical power and limited functional data. Improved methods for predicting the pathogenicity of rare coding variants are needed to facilitate the discovery of disease variants from exome sequencing studies. We developed REVEL (rare exome variant ensemble learner), an ensemble method for predicting the pathogenicity of missense variants on the basis of individual tools: MutPred, FATHMM, VEST, PolyPhen, SIFT, PROVEAN, MutationAssessor, MutationTaster, LRT, GERP, SiPhy, phyloP, and phastCons. REVEL was trained with recently discovered pathogenic and rare neutral missense variants, excluding those previously used to train its constituent tools. When applied to two independent test sets, REVEL had the best overall performance (p < 10−12) as compared to any individual tool and seven ensemble methods: MetaSVM, MetaLR, KGGSeq, Condel, CADD, DANN, and Eigen. Importantly, REVEL also had the best performance for distinguishing pathogenic from rare neutral variants with allele frequencies <0.5%. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for REVEL was 0.046–0.182 higher in an independent test set of 935 recent SwissVar disease variants and 123,935 putatively neutral exome sequencing variants and 0.027–0.143 higher in an independent test set of 1,953 pathogenic and 2,406 benign variants recently reported in ClinVar than the AUCs for other ensemble methods. We provide pre-computed REVEL scores for all possible human missense variants to facilitate the identification of pathogenic variants in the sea of rare variants discovered as sequencing studies expand in scale