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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Recent Submissions
Engaging students-as-partners (SaP) to explore Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in STEM
(Editorial Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, 2026-06-15) Coubrough, Katie; Huq, Molly; Wahid, Maheen; Tinto, Kirsty; Neves, Karla; Irfan, Muhammad; Klemm, Nicholas; Currie, Susan; Gibson, Lorraine; Laubscher, Roisin Kelly-; Cunningham, Margaret; Brunetto, Domenico; Domenech, Josep; Alvarez-Hevia, David Menendez; Martínez-Varea, Alicia
Across the UK, universities pledge alignment with education legislation and global strategies such as NET2030. This case study evaluates a workshop exploring Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in STEM curriculum. Grounded in a Students-as-Partners (SaP) framework, the workshop employed Mural and Mentimeter to examine the relationship between educational inequalities and how ESD principles can be applied to promote equity. Analysis of the data revealed key insights into barriers and effective learning methods. A recurring theme was disproportionate access to educational experiences, identified by 45% of students (n=23). Suggested improvements included participatory workshops and concept-based learning (CBL). While students recognised a wide range of sustainable resources, a common barrier was “too much noise from the university.” Participants’ understanding of sustainability, which includes social factors, highlights the need for a holistic ESD approach in curriculum design, moving beyond passive delivery toward transparent, co-created pedagogical models.
A microbiota-informed pipeline for in vitro characterisation of insulinotropic properties of dairy fermentates using static EndoC-βH1 and dynamic microfluidic models
(Elsevier BV, 2026-08-03) Garcia-Gutierrez, Enriqueta; Ponsero, Alise J.; Calero, Víctor; Slattery, Helen; Gonçalves, Catarina; Marroquí, Laura; Cotter, Paul D.; European Commission; Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades; HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme; Science Foundation Ireland; Enterprise Ireland; Horizon 2020
Diabetes mellitus (DM), which encompasses Type 1, Type 2 and gestational diabetes, affects approximately 537 million adults, with prevalence continuing to rise. In addition to pregnancy, factors such as dietary choices, lifestyle and infections can lead to the development of DM. Given the increasing prevalence of DM, it is necessary to continue to identify approaches to control the release of insulin. Emerging evidence indicates that the gut microbiota plays a central role in mediating the metabolic effects of diet on the host, including the regulation of insulin secretion. Dietary interventions have been proven to be successful in this regard, but identifying foods and food components that influence insulin secretion is challenging due to the complexity of diet-microbiota-host interactions and the lack of fast and standardised screening tools. We have developed a novel screening framework based on the β-cell insulin response, using the human cell line EndoC-βH1 to assess candidate foods and ingredients with insulinotropic properties. As an initial proof-of-concept, we applied the framework to food ingredients, i.e., dairy-derived fermentates, which had first undergone simulated digestion followed by addition to an ex vivo colon model, allowing us to mimic the metabolic transformations taking place in the human gut. The processed colonic fermentation supernatants were then evaluated using a static and microfluidic platform, respectively, to capture dynamic insulin release profiles. Distinct fermentate compositions were associated with varying levels of insulin secretion. Our results suggest that this framework could be applied broadly to screen foods and food components for insulinotropic potential, providing an affordable approach for the development for anti-diabetic dietary applications.
Gut microbiome features associated with Bifidobacterium colonization predict personalized probiotic persistence patterns
(2026-04-23) Goswami, Sourav; Ansari, Alisha; Sharaf, Chetan; O’Toole, Paul W.; Shanahan, Fergus; Ahuja, Vineet; Ghosh, Tarini Shankar; Ministry of Science and Technology, India; IIIT-Delhi
Bifidobacteria are key health-associated members of the human gut microbiome and are widely used as probiotics, but their colonization success varies substantially between individuals, partly due to baseline microbiome composition. We analyzed 51,244 gut microbiomes from 149 cohorts (45 countries) to identify non-Bifidobacterial taxa associated with the Bifidobacterial features. We observed several consistent and age-/life-style-specific association patterns of different non-Bifidobacterial taxa with the different Bifidobacteria. Multiple Bifidobacteria showed positive associations with butyrate-producing Firmicutes and Collinsella; negative associations involved pathobiont-Firmicutes and specific Bacteroidota taxa. B. adolescentis and B. breve showed the strongest positive and negative associations, respectively, with health-associated adult gut microbiome members. We quantified these relationships as Association-Scores, stratified by age/life-style/sequencing-strategy/disease, which were significantly reproducible after adjusting for multiple microbiome-linked, host life-style/clinical covariates, and predictable using species-specific genomic functions. We used these Association-Scores to derive microbiome-level Receptive-Scores that quantify how permissive a baseline microbiome is to increases or persistence of a given Bifidobacterium. In an external dataset of eight Bifidobacterium interventions (n = 1633 gut microbiomes), Receptive-Scores combined with baseline abundance of the administered Bifidobacteria significantly predicted post-treatment persistence/increase in 69.23% of trial-probiotic pairs. Together, this work identifies microbiome features governing Bifidobacterial colonization and provides tools to predict personalized probiotic responses.
Investigating developmental changes in susceptibility to temporal audiovisual illusions on balance and sensorimotor function in children
(2026-03-25) Hirst, Rebecca J.; McKenna, Eimear; Setti, Annalisa; Newell, Fiona N.; Science Foundation Ireland(SFI)
Balance and movement rely on multisensory input. In older adults, audiovisual integration—measured via the Sound-Induced Flash Illusion (SIFI)—has been linked to balance and motor performance, suggesting that multisensory perceptual measures may relate to functional motor abilities. This study explored whether similar links exist in childhood or emerge later in development. A total of 118 children aged 4–17 years of age completed (1) a balance task (standing on one leg, eyes open vs. closed), (2) a timed visuomotor task (maximum target hits in 2 min), and (3) the SIFI task (judging flashes paired with beeps at varying stimulus onset asynchronies, SOAs). Older children used vision more for balance, showed better visuomotor performance, and were less susceptible to SIFI illusions at longer SOAs, indicating developmental refinement in audiovisual integration. However, we found no strong evidence linking SIFI performance with balance or motor performance. Exploratory analyses revealed that children with dance training and those who found the task easier were slightly less susceptible to the illusion. These results suggest that links between multisensory integration and sensorimotor performance may not be present in early childhood or may require more sensitive measures to detect, offering a potential avenue for future research.
National trends in venous thromboembolism incidence in Ireland (2015-2022): a retrospective analysis
(Elsevier BV, 2026-06-12) Daly, Richard; Kirke, Ciara; Hanley, Cathal; Healy, Orla; Kevane, Barry; Áinle, Fionnuala Ní; Crowley, Maeve P.
Background: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) affects millions globally, resulting in significant costs to patients and healthcare systems. Robust incidence data on VTE are limited, with a scarcity of national-level data in Ireland. Objectives: Determination of the crude VTE incidence in Ireland between 2015-2022; and assessment of VTE events during the COVID-19 during the pandemic, resulting in or occurring during a hospital admission. Methods: This was a retrospective observational study using Hospital In-patient Enquiry data obtained from hospital admissions in Ireland from 2015 to 2022. VTE events were identified using International Classification of Disease codes and categorized into primary (reason for admission), secondary (arising during admission), and hospital-acquired VTE. Census data were used to calculate crude incidence rates. Secondary rates were calculated per 1000 in-patient discharges and per 1000 elective hip/knee arthroplasties. Results: Between 2015 and 2022, 51,123 adult VTE cases were recorded, with a mean annual crude incidence of 172 per 100,000 population. The mean adult primary VTE crude incidence was 98 per 100,000 and mean annual hospital–acquired VTE rate was 9.9 per 1000 discharges. Of the primary VTE cases, 15,284 (52%) were in females. A total of 218 pediatric VTE cases were identified (0.23 per 10,000 population). Pregnancy-associated VTE accounted for 2.4 VTE events per 1000 live births. The mean incidence of VTE was 11 per 1000 elective hip/knee arthroplasties. Conclusion: This national report of VTE incidence in Ireland provides data on primary and secondary VTE trends. From 2020 to 2022, increases in pediatric VTE, adult pulmonary embolism, and pregnancy-associated VTE and decreases in adult deep vein thrombosis were observed, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This forms essential baseline data to inform VTE prevention, surveillance, further research, and health policy.