CORA
Cork Open Research Archive (CORA) is UCC’s Open Access institutional repository which enables UCC researchers to make their research outputs freely available and accessible.
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Arabic-learning among the Minangkabau: attitudes, motivations, and collective religious memory
(University College Cork, 2024) Naska, Isral; De Sondy, Amanullah; Butler, Jenny; Kementrian Agama Republik Indonesia
This study investigates the role of Minangkabau cultural identity in shaping learners’ motivation to learn Arabic and their attitude toward the language. Minangkabau is a matrilineal society whose homeland is the West Sumatra province of Indonesia. Islam connects the Minangkabau people and Arabic. While the language functions as the sacred language of Islam, the Minangkabau people make Islam one of the most fundamental aspects of their cultural identity. This intersection brings out a particular social dynamic that plays a role in Arabic learning motivation and attitudes toward the language among Minangkabau learners of Arabic. Concerning the historical dynamics between Islam and Minangkabau, collective religious memory, which Maurice Halbwachs and Danièle Hervieu-Léger suggested, functions as the theoretical foundation of this thesis’ data analysis. Ethnography serves as the approach to collecting and analyzing the data. Thirty-six participants who have the Minangkabau cultural background from 4 cities of West Sumatra (Padang, Padang Panjang, Bukittinggi, and Payakumbuh) participated in the study. The study concludes that Arabic holds a distinctive significance among the Minangkabau because of four key aspects: religious rituals, religious authority, Qur’anic language, and identity or “Minangkabauness.” These aspects contribute to shaping participants’ motivation to learn Arabic.
A fully-coupled analysis of the spar-type floating offshore wind turbine with bionic fractal heave plate under wind-wave excitation conditions
(Elsevier Ltd., 2024-08-05) Huang, Haoda; Liu, Qingsong; Iglesias, Gregorio; Yue, Minnan; Miao, Weipao; Ye, Qi; Li, Chun; Yang, Tingting; National Natural Science Foundation of China
As shallow coastal areas for the installation of wind turbines approach saturation, wind turbines will need to be installed in deeper areas, requiring floating rather than seabed-fixed substructures. Considering factors such as economy and safety, floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) have become the major focus for offshore wind research and development. In the case of spar-type FOWTs, stability in the heave direction poses a challenge. With this in view, in this work a heave plate with bionic fractal structures is mounted on the bottom of the spar-type FOWT. The bionic fractal heave plates are innovatively proposed to further improve the dynamic response of the FOWT. In this study, the aero-hydro-mooring dynamic method of the FOWT is established to develop a reliable numerical solution model through the DFBI module using computational fluid dynamics software STAR-CCM+. The results of fully-coupled simulations of the original FOWT, the FOWT with heave plate (HP-FOWT) and FOWTs with 3∼5-layer bionic fractal heave plate (3∼5BFHP-FOWTs) are presented. Increases in average thrust and power of 0.44 % and 0.99 %, respectively, prove the optimal aerodynamic responses of the 5 BFHP-FOWT. As for the hydrodynamic responses, the average heave response amplitudes of the HP-FOWT and 3∼5BFHP-FOWTs are significantly lower than the original FOWT. The maximum reduction (25.03 %) is obtained by the 5BFHP-FOWT. The bionic fractal heave plate will slightly reduce the stability of the pitch response. For the standard deviation of the heave, surge, mooring lines 1 and 2 responses, the 5BFHP-FOWT decreases by 17.97 %, 11.44 %, 17.50 %, and 8.25 % respectively, showing the best stability improvement among the HP-FOWT and BFHP-FOWTs. Furthermore, the vortices in the bionic fractal heave plates are analyzed in detail at the Z = ±0.25 m section of the flow field. Only when the specific fractal layer number is 5, the number and curl of the vortices in the fractal structure increase significantly, showing excellent effect of the energy absorption.
Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy in the identification of oral potentially malignant disorders
(University College Cork, 2024) Fahy, Edward; Ni Riordain, Richeal; Burke, Ray
Aims: Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) examines the composition of tissue by analysing light reflected from inside the tissue. DRS has been applied to cancer diagnostics in liver, brain, breast and others. The aims of this study were to (i) to formulate a clinical protocol for use of DRS in diagnosis of oral potentially malignant disorder (OPMD), (ii) to explore the clinical utility for this probe in the mouth and (iii) to review the protocol and assess its potential use in clinical practice.
Materials and Methods: A clinical protocol for use of the DRS probe was formulated based on literature review and clinical experience. A translational clinical research study with two groups, one with histologically confirmed OPMD (n=53) and a control group (n=27) were enrolled. All participants received DRS of mucosal surfaces, including areas of OPMD, in the mouth. The readings were then investigated to find reliable biomarkers and their accuracy to differentiate the two groups. Repeatability and reproducibility with two users were examined. Interviews were carried out with oral surgery clinicians after reading the protocol.
Results: The protocol produced good results, which were grouped based on the site of acquisition. Our analysis found accuracy figures of 89% and 87% respectively for distinguishing OPMD and normal mucosa in the buccal mucosa and ventral tongue. This OPMD group was made up of mostly oral lichen planus (OLP), with small numbers of other diagnoses. (OLP n=41, oral leukoplakia n=5, others n=5) Accuracy figures for the dorsum of the tongue were poor. DRS was easy to use, quick and acceptable to patients. Repeatability was shown to be good, however reproducibility was fair. This may be due to inter-user pressure differences in the mouth. Clinicians were sceptical of this new technology, in part due to lack of evidence of clinical utility compared with biopsy.
Conclusion: DRS has shown a new role in identifying oral lichen planus in the buccal mucosa and ventral tongue. This device may have poor accuracy in identifying oral lichen planus on the dorsal surface of the tongue. It has potential as a replacement for biopsy as a screening tool, however observed difficulties in clinical use preclude widespread implementation. Observed inter-user variability in the mouth has not been thus far explored in the DRS literature. Further studies are needed to confirm this observation.
The reasons for staying when so many depart: an exploratory study of junior hospital doctors’ intentions to stay in Ireland
(University College Cork, 2024) Seathu Raman, Siva Shaangari; McDonnell, Anthony; Beck, Matthias; Irish Research Council
Voluntary turnover continues to be a significant issue impacting the ability of the Irish healthcare system to provide the necessary level of care to its citizens. Junior hospital doctors are at the bedrock of hospital care, but Ireland has a substantial issue with the numbers departing to other countries. Much research has focused on why hospital doctors are leaving in such large numbers with poor working conditions being amongst the most cited reasons for this.
Using a qualitative methodology involving in-depth, semi-structured interviews with more than 30 junior public hospital doctors, this thesis addresses two interrelated research questions. First, why do some junior hospital doctors intend to stay in their roles despite the prevalent challenges and poor working conditions which cause many to leave? Second, did the COVID-19 pandemic impact the working and personal lives/experiences of doctors and their intention to stay, and if so how? Addressing these questions are important through enabling a move away from the somewhat narrow focus in the literature on turnover (i.e. why doctors leave) by providing a more enriching and holistic perspective through focusing on intentions to stay . This additional perspective has become more commonplace in the broader employee turnover literature but has received little consideration in the healthcare literature and context.
Job embeddedness theory is employed to unpack the organisational (on-the-job) and community (off-the-job) factors that influence doctors’ intentions to stay in their jobs. The study illustrates the crucial role of community embeddedness, which arises from doctors’ fit and links, and their reluctance to sacrifice connections, with family, social networks, culture, lifestyle, and the local community. In other words, non-work factors are especially critical in why these doctors remain working in Ireland. This study also provides empirical data on the lived experience of junior hospital doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it offers rich accounts and narratives of the positive and challenging impacts that these critical workers were faced with regarding work and non-work practices and how these were influencing their intention to stay.
This thesis demonstrates the value of applying job embeddedness theory in the healthcare field and in helping us understand junior hospital doctor retention through illustrating the important, yet different, roles that organisational and community embeddedness play in retaining doctors. While the study adds to the existing calls for greater investment in staffing, improved working conditions, and more consistent implementation of HRM practices, the argument is also made for a more proactive approach to assisting doctors, especially those from other countries, in becoming embedded in their communities to improve their intentions to say, and as result aid organisational retention. While we find strong levels of embeddedness amongst many doctors, this is entirely left to individuals themselves rather than there being any assistance offered.
Modelling choices for the Roadef 2022 challenge
(Association for Constraint Programming, 2024-09-02) Simonis, Helm; Science Foundation Ireland
This paper describes our approach to modelling and solving the Roadef 2022 Challenge, a trans portation planning problem introduced by Renault. We describe a high-level decomposition of the problem, and the models for different stages, focussing on a MIP main problem which decides when in time stacks of items should be transported. We present a lower bound on the number of trucks required to deliver all stacks in time, and show how the lower bounds on individual placement problems can be incorporated as cuts in the main MIP model.