Disability Studies Pedagogy: Engaging Dissonance and Meaning Making

Student responses to disability studies pedagogy are influenced by the context in which they learn. This study examined student responses in two disability studies initiatives: one within a teacher preparation program that included American Indian students, the other within a stand alone, interdisciplinary course taken primarily by Americans of European descent. Course dialogue and students' written assignments were used to identify and categorize their responses. While some students readily engaged in critique of disability as culturally constructed, experiences of significant resistance related to positivist filters, adherence to individualism, and defense of identity-related norms. These responses are discussed as considerations for more effective pedagogy in this relatively new field

The triple-shell structure and collimated outflows of the planetary nebula NGC 6891

Narrow-band H$\alpha$ and [N {\sc ii}] images and high-dispersion spatially-resolved echelle spectroscopy of the planetary nebula NGC 6891 are presented. These observations show a great wealth of structures. The bright central nebula is surrounded by an attached shell and a detached outer halo. Both the inner and intermediate shells can be described as ellipsoids with similar major to minor axial ratios, but different spatial orientations. The kinematical ages of the intermediate shell and halo are 4,800 and 28,000 years, respectively. The inter-shell time lapse is in good agreement with the evolutionary inter-pulse time lapse. A highly collimated outflow is observed to protrude from the tips of the major axis of the inner nebula and impact on the outer edge of the intermediate shell. Kinematics and excitation of this outflow provide conclusive evidence that it is deflected during the interaction with the outer edge of the intermediate shell. At the same time, both the kinematics and the morphology of the intermediate shell appear to be affected by this interaction.Comment: To be published in MNRAS, 9 pages, 5 figure

A review of the quality and content of mobile apps to support lifestyle modifications following a transient ischaemic attack or 'minor' stroke

OBJECTIVE: Secondary prevention is recommended to reduce cardiovascular risk after transient ischaemic attack (TIA) or ‘minor’ stroke. Mobile health interventions can provide accessible, cost-effective approaches to address modifiable risk factors, such as physical inactivity, hypertension and being overweight. The objective of this study was to evaluate the quality of apps for supporting lifestyle change following a TIA or ‘minor’ stroke. METHODS: Systematic searches of Google Play and the Apple Store were carried out to identify mobile apps released between 1 November 2019 and 1 October 2021. Keywords were used including stroke, TIA, lifestyle, prevention and recovery. Quality was assessed using the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS). Common components were identified with the Behaviour Change Technique (BCT) Taxonomy. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the performance results for each app. RESULTS: Searches identified 2545 potential apps. Thirty remained after removing duplicates and screening titles and descriptions. Six were eligible after full review of their content. All apps included at least one BCT (range: 1–16 BCTs). The most frequent BCTs included ‘information about health consequences’ (n = 5/6), ‘verbal or visual communication from a credible source’ (n = 4/6) and ‘action planning’ (n = 4/6). The mean MARS score was 2.57/5 (SD: 0.51; range: 1.78–3.36). No apps were of ‘good’ overall quality (scoring more than 4/5). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first review of mobile health interventions for this population. Only a small number of apps were available. None were targeted specifically at people with a TIA or ‘minor’ stroke. Overall quality was low. Further work is needed to develop and test accessible, user designed, and evidence-informed digital interventions in this population

Planning for sustainability: Future retail centre locations

The concept of ‘sustainable retail development’ implies that retail centres should serve their communities economically and socially, while not degrading local environments. However, existing evidence shows that shopping malls often negatively impact both the core and peripheries of city regions from environmental, social, and economic perspectives. This paper adapts commuting data to estimate the hypothetical shopping-related emissions associated with travelling to-and-from retail centres. We perform this analysis at the Small Area level for Ireland’s five major city regions. Our results suggest that the environmental degradation from retail centres increases as distances from urban cores increase

DCU at MMM 2013 video browser showdown

This paper describes a handheld video browser that in corporates shot boundary detection, key frame extraction, semantic content analysis, key frame browsing, and similarity search

Audio-visual classification video browser

This paper presents our third participation in the Video Browser Showdown. Building on the experience that we gained while participating in this event, we compete in the 2014 showdown with a more advanced browsing system based on incorporating several audio- visual retrieval techniques. This paper provides a short overview of the features and functionality of our new system