1,233 research outputs found
Chinese Students in Ireland
Ethnic and cultural diversity in Ireland continues to change, primarily as a result of increasing inward migration, this has added to the rich diversity that always existed in Ireland, but which perhaps is now only beginning to be fully acknowledged.
While there has been an increasing interest on research focusing on migration in recent years it has tended to be from the standpoint of the receiving country. It is
perhaps surprising that there has been comparatively little research that has been undertaken by or indeed focussed on the views and perceptions of people from minority ethnic communities who already live in or have migrated to Ireland.
To help redress this imbalance the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) is publishing a series of âcommunity profilesâ researched by
and in partnership with researchers from minority ethnic communities in Ireland.
This publication, the second community profiles series, focuses on Chinese students Ireland. The first community profile focuses on migrant workers from Poland.
Chinese students have been coming to Ireland in significant numbers since 1998, mainly as language students but also as third level students. This inward migration
was greatly facilitated by a decision in 2000 to allow all non-EEA students to work part time to help finance their studies. However, in 2005 restrictions were introduced which
meant that only full time students on third level courses of at least one year duration were allowed to work. Further proposed restrictions, in the form of work permits for
non-EEA students, may also impact on the number of Chinese students coming to Ireland, although the full extent of such changes are still unclear
Characterizing Circumgalactic Gas around Massive Ellipticals at z~0.4 - II. Physical Properties and Elemental Abundances
We present a systematic investigation of the circumgalactic medium (CGM)
within projected distances d<160 kpc of luminous red galaxies (LRGs). The
sample comprises 16 intermediate-redshift (z=0.21-0.55) LRGs of stellar mass
M_star>1e11 M_sun. Combining far-ultraviolet Cosmic Origin Spectrograph spectra
from the Hubble Space Telescope and optical echelle spectra from the ground
enables a detailed ionization analysis based on resolved component structures
of a suite of absorption transitions, including the full HI Lyman series and
various ionic metal transitions. By comparing the relative abundances of
different ions in individually-matched components, we show that cool gas (T~1e4
K) density and metallicity can vary by more than a factor of ten in in an LRG
halo. Specifically, metal-poor absorbing components with <1/10 solar
metallicity are seen in 50% of the LRG halos, while gas with solar and
super-solar metallicity is also common. These results indicate a complex
multiphase structure and poor chemical mixing in these quiescent halos. We
calculate the total surface mass density of cool gas, \Sigma_cool, by applying
the estimated ionization fraction corrections to the observed HI column
densities. The radial profile of \Sigma_cool is best-described by a projected
Einasto profile of slope \alpha=1 and scale radius r_s=48 kpc. We find that
typical LRGs at z~0.4 contain cool gas mass of M_cool= (1-2) x1e10 M_sun at
d<160 kpc (or as much as 4x1e10 M_sun at d<500 kpc), comparable to the cool CGM
mass of star-forming galaxies. Furthermore, we show that high-ionization OVI
and low-ionization absorption species exhibit distinct velocity profiles,
highlighting their different physical origins. We discuss the implications of
our findings for the origin and fate of cool gas in LRG halos.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS after a minor revision. 23 pages,
14 figures, and a 29-page Appendix with 27 additional figure
Rapid and sensitive insulated isothermal PCR for point-of-need feline leukaemia virus detection
Objectives: Feline leukaemia virus (FeLV), a gamma retrovirus, causes diseases of the feline haematopoietic system that are invariably fatal. Rapid and accurate testing at the point-of-need (PON) supports prevention of virus spread and management of clinical disease. This study evaluated the performance of an insulated isothermal PCR (iiPCR) that detects proviral DNA, and a reverse transcription (RT)-iiPCR that detects both viral RNA and proviral DNA, for FeLV detection at the PON. Methods: Mycoplasma haemofelis, feline coronavirus, feline herpesvirus, feline calicivirus and feline immunodeficiency virus were used to test analytical specificity. In vitro transcribed RNA, artificial plasmid, FeLV strain American Type Culture Collection VR-719 and a clinical FeLV isolate were used in the analytical sensitivity assays. A retrospective study including 116 clinical plasma and serum samples that had been tested with virus isolation, real-time PCR and ELISA, and a prospective study including 150 clinical plasma and serum samples were implemented to evaluate the clinical performances of the iiPCR-based methods for FeLV detection. Results: Ninety-five percent assay limit of detection was calculated to be 16 RNA and five DNA copies for the RT-iiPCR, and six DNA copies for the iiPCR. Both reactions had analytical sensitivity comparable to a reference real-time PCR (qPCR) and did not detect five non-target feline pathogens. The clinical performance of the RT-iiPCR and iiPCR had 98.82% agreement (kappa[κ] = 0.97) and 100% agreement (κ = 1.0), respectively, with the qPCR (n = 85). The agreement between an automatic nucleic extraction/RT-iiPCR system and virus isolation to detect FeLV in plasma or serum was 95.69% (κ = 0.95) and 98.67% (κ = 0.85) in a retrospective (n = 116) and a prospective (n = 150) study, respectively. Conclusions and relevance: These results suggested that both RT-iiPCR and iiPCR assays can serve as reliable tools for PON FeLV detection
The independence of neutral and ionized gas outflows in low-z galaxies
Using a large sample of emission line galaxies selected from the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey, we investigate the kinematics of the neutral gas in the
interstellar medium (ISM) based on the Na I5890,5896 (Na D)
doublet absorption line. By removing the Na D contribution from stellar
atmospheres, we isolate the line profile of the Na D excess, which represents
the neutral gas in the ISM. The kinematics traced by the Na D excess show high
velocity and velocity dispersion for a fraction of galaxies, indicating the
presence of neutral gas outflows. We find that the kinematics measured from the
Na D excess are similar between AGNs and star-forming galaxies. Moreover, by
comparing the kinematics traced by the Na D excess and those by the [O
III]5007 line taken from Woo et al. (2017), which traces ionized
outflows driven by AGNs, we find no correlation between them. These results
demonstrate that the neutral gas in the ISM traced by the Na D excess and the
ionized gas traced by [O III] are kinematically independent, and AGN has no
impact on the neutral gas outflows. In contrast to [O III], we find that the
measured line-of-sight velocity shift and velocity dispersion of the Na D
excess increase for more face-on galaxies due to the projection effect,
supporting that Na D outflows are radially driven (i.e., perpendicular to the
major axis of galaxies), presumably due to star formation.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures; Accepted for publication in ApJ, corrected the
titl
Through-container, extremely low concentration detection of multiple chemical markers of counterfeit alcohol using a handheld SORS device
Major food adulteration incidents occur with alarming frequency and are episodic, with the latest incident, involving the adulteration of meat from 21 producers in Brazil supplied to 60 other countries, reinforcing this view. Food fraud and counterfeiting involves all types of foods, feed, beverages, and packaging, with the potential for serious health, as well as significant economic and social impacts. In the spirit drinks sector, counterfeiters often ‘recycle’ used genuine packaging, or employ good quality simulants. To prove that suspect products are non-authentic ideally requires accurate, sensitive, analysis of the complex chemical composition while still in its packaging. This has yet to be achieved. Here, we have developed handheld spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS) for the first time in a food or beverage product, and demonstrate the potential for rapid in situ through-container analysis; achieving unequivocal detection of multiple chemical markers known for their use in the adulteration and counterfeiting of Scotch whisky, and other spirit drinks. We demonstrate that it is possible to detect a total of 10 denaturants/additives in extremely low concentrations without any contact with the sample; discriminate between and within multiple well-known Scotch whisky brands, and detect methanol concentrations well below the maximum human tolerable level
Metagenomic next-generation sequencing of samples from pediatric febrile illness in Tororo, Uganda.
Febrile illness is a major burden in African children, and non-malarial causes of fever are uncertain. In this retrospective exploratory study, we used metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) to evaluate serum, nasopharyngeal, and stool specimens from 94 children (aged 2-54 months) with febrile illness admitted to Tororo District Hospital, Uganda. The most common microbes identified were Plasmodium falciparum (51.1% of samples) and parvovirus B19 (4.4%) from serum; human rhinoviruses A and C (40%), respiratory syncytial virus (10%), and human herpesvirus 5 (10%) from nasopharyngeal swabs; and rotavirus A (50% of those with diarrhea) from stool. We also report the near complete genome of a highly divergent orthobunyavirus, tentatively named Nyangole virus, identified from the serum of a child diagnosed with malaria and pneumonia, a Bwamba orthobunyavirus in the nasopharynx of a child with rash and sepsis, and the genomes of two novel human rhinovirus C species. In this retrospective exploratory study, mNGS identified multiple potential pathogens, including 3 new viral species, associated with fever in Ugandan children
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