Designing mobile technology to promote sustainable food choices

This paper is an experience report based on challenges encountered when designing scalable mobile persuasive HCI applications to help users make informed choices over their food consumption. We recently developed Tagliatelle, a social tagging system to help users to accurately monitor and assess their dietary behaviour and to promote healthier food choices. In this paper we propose a similar system in order to help users understand the sustainability of their food choices. We discuss the challenges inherent in doing so, and extrapolate some important issues that need to be addressed by technological developments that aim to persuade users to adopt more sustainable behaviours

IRELAND'S RESPONSE TO RECENT TRENDS IN INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION APPLICATIONS. ESRI RESEARCH SERIES NUMBER 72 JUNE 2018

The number of displaced persons has almost doubled over the last 20 years, reaching a record high of 65.6 million globally in 2016. Some 2.9 million of this number were refugees or asylum seekers (UNHCR, 2017a). The ongoing war in Syria, as well as major displacements resulting from conflict in Iraq, Yemen and sub-Saharan Africa, led to a large number of persons in need of protection attempting to reach the European Union (EU) between 2014 and 2016. Huge increases in irregular arrivals, mainly at southern and eastern Member States, as well as regular reports of multiple fatalities en route, led to the period becoming referred to by some as the refugee or migrant crisis. Asylum applications made within the EU increased rapidly in the period: in 2015, 1.32 million asylum applications were lodged, representing an increase of 110 per cent on 2014 when 627,000 applications were recorded. A slight decrease (5 per cent) in asylum applications in the EU was seen in 2016 (1.26 million), but this figure is still high when compared to pre-crisis levels (Eurostat, 2017). This study looks at Ireland’s response to recent trends in international protection applications during the period 2014–2016. In Ireland, like in many other Member States, a number of legislative and policy changes were introduced in those years specifically to address or manage fluctuations in the number of asylum applications, or to better control migration flows. Such policies and practices responded both to the wider EU refugee and migrant crisis, which had limited direct impact on Ireland but which changed the policy context, as well as to national increases and decreases in asylum applications. The scope of this report is limited to policy, practice and legislation regarding relocation and spontaneously arriving asylum applicants. Due to the fact that resettled refugees are not applicants for international protection, resettlement is excluded from the scope of this study

Flash-Mold Machine for Manufacturing Drug Implants

This Final Project Report provides the reader with a comprehensive detailing of all of the actions and work that has been completed for this Senior Design Project. In this report, the Cal Poly Biomedical Engineering Senior Project Team will discuss some background on the existing Mark I Flash-Mold Machine currently in use by Gesea Biosciences, background information on Gesea Biosciences, the Customer Requirements and Design Specifications of the new machine, Quality Engineering considerations, design concepts discussed, design concepts chosen, safety considerations, prototype development, manufacturing, testing protocols, and testing results, etc

Does Bank Market Power Affect SME Financing Constraints? ESRI Research Bulletin 2014/1/5

This paper investigates the impact of bank market power on investment financing constraints experienced by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It uses a large sample of approximately 118,000 SMEs across 20 European countries over the period 2005-2008. Our main contribution is to test the degree to which firms are financially constrained and investigate how such financial constraints vary by the degree of market competition between domestic banks

STEM Rebalance: A Novel Approach for Tackling Imbalanced Datasets using SMOTE, Edited Nearest Neighbour, and Mixup

Imbalanced datasets in medical imaging are characterized by skewed class proportions and scarcity of abnormal cases. When trained using such data, models tend to assign higher probabilities to normal cases, leading to biased performance. Common oversampling techniques such as SMOTE rely on local information and can introduce marginalization issues. This paper investigates the potential of using Mixup augmentation that combines two training examples along with their corresponding labels to generate new data points as a generic vicinal distribution. To this end, we propose STEM, which combines SMOTE-ENN and Mixup at the instance level. This integration enables us to effectively leverage the entire distribution of minority classes, thereby mitigating both between-class and within-class imbalances. We focus on the breast cancer problem, where imbalanced datasets are prevalent. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of STEM, which achieves AUC values of 0.96 and 0.99 in the Digital Database for Screening Mammography and Wisconsin Breast Cancer (Diagnostics) datasets, respectively. Moreover, this method shows promising potential when applied with an ensemble of machine learning (ML) classifiers.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, International Conference on Intelligent Computer Communication and Processin

The Ins and Outs of School Provider Literature: A Multi-Year Content Analysis on LGBT Youth

This study is based on a content analysis of two primary sources: 1) literature published on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth in professional journals for school providers (school counselors, nurses, psychologists and social workers) over more than a 30-year period; and 2) materials developed for school providers on LGBT youth by states with laws, regulations and professional policies related to sexual orientation and/or gender identity in schools. Fifteen professional journals were identified that serve as primary and secondary journals for school providers. A total of 41 articles were published in these journals on LGBT youth between 1937 and 2005. Journal articles were coded by the investigator and a second coder, with an inter-rater reliability rate of .97. Most articles focused on identity development, and a majority provided information on developing a supportive school environment for LGB youth. Few focused on issues of salience for contemporary generations of LGBT adolescents, such as resiliency and strength or positive youth development. Only one article focused on youth of color, one on lesbian youth and none on transgender youth. Less than one-third included HIV/AIDS, only 7% mentioned HIV counseling and testing, and 2% mentioned lesbians\u27 risk for STDs. Nearly three-fourths of articles (71%) focused on interventions with LGB youth (few included transgender youth), including the need to promote a safe school environment. Few empirical articles (19.5%), a handful of training articles (7.3%) no theoretical and very few review articles (2.2%) were published during this period. Although nearly one-third of the states had adopted laws, regulations or professional standards to prohibit discrimination of students on the basis of sexual orientation (and 4 included gender identity), no states other than Massachusetts had developed training materials for school providers on LGBT youth. However, Massachusetts\u27 materials were never used since their program was defunded in 2002. Several states made training on LGBT adolescents available to school providers through professional and community organizations. Coupled with limited and outdated content in professional journals, school providers lack access to current multidisciplinary research, theoretical literature and information reviews needed to inform their work with LGBT students and their families

Participation by place-based community organisations in local development: case studies from East Cork

The past two decades have witnessed concerted efforts by theorists and policy-makers to place civil society at the centre of social, economic and environmental development processes. To this end, policies grounded in a Third Way approach have sought to forge stronger linkages between the state and voluntary community-based organisations. Concepts such as active citizenship, social capital, partnership and sustainability have underpinned this political philosophy, which reflects a movement in development theory and political science away from notions of state-led development and unfettered neo-liberalism. In the Irish context, a series of initiatives have given expression to this new policy agenda, the foremost amongst them the publication of a White Paper in 2000. New local governance structures and development schemes have multiplied since the early 1990s, while the physical planning system has also been modified. All this has taken place against the backdrop of unprecedented economic development and social change precipitated by the ‘Celtic Tiger’.This thesis examines the interaction between community organisations, state institutions and other actors in development processes in East Cork. It focuses upon place-based community organisations, who seek to represent the interests of their particular localities. A case study approach is employed to explore the realpolitik of local development and to gauge the extent to which grassroots community organisations wield influence in determining the development of their communities. The study concludes that the transfer of decision-making power to community organisations has been more illusory than real and that, in practical terms, such groups remain marginal in the circuits of power. However, the situation of community organisations operating in different geographical locales cannot be reduced to an overarching theoretical logic. The case studies show that the modus operandi of community groups varies considerably and can be influenced by specific local geographies, events and personalities

On the ecology of rorqual whales (Balaenopteridae) in Irish waters using intrinsic markers

Despite repeated calls for an ecosystem-based approach to the management of marine resources, little information exists on the ecosystem role and requirements of top predators such as baleen whales in Irish waters. Considering that they are long-lived and highly migratory, baleen whales such as rorquals (Family Balaenopteridae] are potentially useful bio-monitors of anthropogenic environmental change. However, their use as environmental indicators is precluded by an insufficient understanding of their basic ecology. Following centuries of whaling and other emerging threats to their survival including pollution, bycatch and ship-strikes, the conservation status of most rorqual species is difficult to assess due to a shortfall in our knowledge. This thesis aims to facilitate more informed management decision-making and the implementation of more effective conservation measures by bridging key gaps in our knowledge. Pertinent questions on feeding and migration ecology are addressed using intrinsic markers, i.e. chemicals whose stable properties ensure they move through biotic systems and are detectable in tissues. Intrinsic markers include naturally occurring [e.g. stable isotopes, DNA, trace elements] and anthropogenic compounds (e.g persistent organic pollutants or POPs]. In Chapter 1, current knowledge on the ecology of blue [Balaenoptera musculus], fin (R physalus), humpback (Megaptera novaengliae] and minke whales (Racutorostrata] in Irish waters is reviewed. In chapter 2, stable isotope analysis of baleen from these four species is used to approximate the ecological niche and thus to examine resource partitioning. Chapter 3 is a methodological precursor to Chapter 4 where stable isotope\ud Bayesian mixing models are used to investigate the preferred diet of fin and humpback whales in the Celtic Sea. In Chapter 3, unpredictable effects of preanalytical lipid-extraction of skin and blubber biopsies were found for both 513C and <515N values. Chapter 5 is a methodological chapter, concluding that the amount of lipid remaining in blubber biopsies is not representative of blubber in situ. This finding was relevant to Chapter 6 which used POP concentrations to investigate elements of population structure of humpback whales in the North Atlantic. Chapter 7 discusses how the key findings such as the diet preferences of Celtic Sea fin whales (Euphausiids such as Meganyctiphanes norvegica and Nyctiphanes couchii, and year-0 sp ra t [Sprattus sprattus] and herring (Clupea harengusj) and humpback whales (chiefly sprat and herring) may be used to facilitate an informed ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management