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
Introduction: A research agenda for food systems
(Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022-10-25) Sage, Colin
The argument that 'food systems are broken' has been made widely over the past decade or more by an ever-growing roster of scholars and policy analysts. Following the first section that deconstructs the food system into key components and examines the way these interconnect, the chapter then goes on to identify and briefly explain major system failings. These include the triple burden of dietary inadequacy and non-communicable disease; a range of environmental impacts, including climate breakdown and wider ecological and health consequences; and issues around labour, inequality and food poverty. However, how such problems - and their proposed solutions - are framed requires paying close attention to different narratives representing very divergent interests. One recurrent term that is widely used - including by those anxious to maintain 'business as usual' - is that of sustainability. This is examined more closely in relation to its deployment as a prefix for agriculture - where the principles of agroecology are outlined - and for diets where the challenges for reshaping consumption practices are explored.
Conceptual design of a hybrid floating offshore wind turbine integrated with hydrogen production and storage system
(American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2024-08-09) Pham, Thanh Dam; Trinh, Luan Cong; Dinh, Van Nguyen; Leahy, Paul; Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland
The shift towards renewable energy requires sustainable energy carriers, with hydrogen emerging as a crucial player in creating a lasting and stable decarbonized energy sector. Floating offshore wind turbines are expected to become a major contributor to renewable electricity because they can harness wind energy over a vast area of the ocean, areas which fixed-bottom wind turbines cannot reach. Combining floating offshore wind turbines with hydrogen production and storage potentially creates a powerful solution to address the variability of wind energy and allows the production of zero-carbon “green” hydrogen from wholly renewable sources. Additionally, integrating hydrogen systems with large floating offshore wind turbines allows for decentralized and easily-scalable energy production and storage. This approach not only boosts energy security in coastal and island states but also reduces dependence on existing energy networks. This paper introduces a conceptual design of a hybrid system. It integrates a 15 MW semi-submersible floating offshore wind turbine with a hydrogen production and storage unit, both mounted on the same semi-submersible floating platform. The system mass properties are modeled in Catia, and its dynamic behaviors are analyzed using the OpenFAST software. Essential tests performed include free decay tests and response amplitude operator analysis to observe the platform’s movements. The primary goal is to verify the system stability during different operational events and varying environmental factors. The analysis emphasizes the advantages and potential of combining offshore wind turbine technology with hydrogen storage and production systems.
(Neo)Liberal populism and Ireland’s “squeezed middle”
(Sage Publications, 2020) Meade, Rosie R.; Kiely, Elizabeth
Acknowledging definitional problems associated with the concept of ‘populism’, this article shifts the analytic gaze away from actors or politics that are conventionally characterised as populist, on to an analysis of the doing of populism by those who typically evade the populist label. Tracing the discursive construction of the ‘squeezed middle’ in Irish mainstream media and parliamentary debates between January 2014 and March 2019, the authors analyse how this signifier was mobilised to fuel and foment ressentiment among middle-earning taxpayers. This article analyses how the discourses of the ‘squeezed middle’ functioned ideologically, as a form of anti-welfare populism, redirecting blame for middle-class ontological and material insecurities on to unemployed welfare recipients who were depicted as immoral, lazy and insulated from hardship. This article highlights how populism operates from the so-called moderate centres of liberal democracy and not exclusively from the political margins. Irish political and media narratives of the ‘squeezed middle’ are seen as part of a larger project whereby damaging myths about the unemployed are propagated in service of ideological class warfare; legitimising neoliberal austerity and normalising unequal economic relations.
Investigation of transverse exchange-springs in electrodeposited nano-heterostructured films through first-order reversal curve analysis
(AIP Publishing, 2024-09-19) Samanta, Arindam; Roy, Saibal; Science Foundation Ireland; National Science Foundation
The prerequisite of efficient exchange-spring nano-heterostructures, i.e., tuning both hard and soft phases at a nanometer level, has posed significant preparation challenges to ensure effective exchange-coupling. Here, we present a novel approach to fabricate transverse exchange-spring nano-heterostructures using single starting material through an “in situ” electrodeposition technique at room temperature. Utilizing modified acidic bath chemistry and controlled hydrogen evolution, we successfully prepared stress-free, shiny, fine-grained amorphous, and nanocrystalline Co-rich cobalt phosphorus films. These nano-heterostructured films exhibit a unique non-collinear anisotropy-driven transverse exchange-spring behavior, investigated systematically under ambient conditions. The comprehensive functional analyses reveal that intricate interplay between in-plane (IP) anisotropy of amorphous phase and out-of-plane (OOP) anisotropy generating from a nanocrystalline structure compete with each other, while producing characteristic stripe domain structures to novel corrugated stripe domain shapes. The angle-dependent first-order reversal curve distributions demonstrate new insights into the magnetic reversal mechanisms, further confirming the non-exchange-spring and exchange-spring nature of the films depending on the prevalent interfacial exchange coupling. Formation of anisotropy-driven metastable-state due to competition between IP and OOP anisotropy at a particular OOP orientation has led the normal exchange-spring structures to a transverse exchange-spring structure. Micromagnetic simulations, in excellent agreement with experimental data, further elucidate the formation of characteristic stripe domain patterns and the influence of anisotropy on the magnetic properties. The innovative methodology and detailed functional analysis presented here offer significant understanding to the field of exchange-spring magnetic materials, including anisotropy-driven metastable states, demonstrating the potential for scalable and cost-effective fabrication of advanced nano-heterostructures with tailored magnetic properties.
Tunable power-phase distributions in a phonon-magnon-coupled magnon microwave antenna for reservoir computing
(American Physical Society, 2024-11-26) Samanta, Arindam; Roy, Saibal; Science Foundation Ireland; National Science Foundation; Department for Education, UK Government
Exploring the power and phase profiles of spin waves not only enhances our fundamental understanding of magnetic materials but also opens up avenues for energy-efficient technologies such as spintronics, magnonics, and potentially reservoir computing. Here, we present the power-phase distributions and their tunability of a surface-acoustic-wave-driven “magnon microwave antenna” (MMA), comprising patterned arrays of magnetostrictive nanomagnets embedded in piezoelectric heterostructures. The MMA generates tunable microwave frequencies without external bias fields, thanks to phonon-magnon coupling, producing multimode microwave frequencies with nonvolatile spin textures. A comprehensive static magnetic study elucidates the crucial role of the demagnetization energy distribution, rather than its overall magnitude in magnetization reversal processes. Additionally, functional tunability could be achieved through amplitude-dependent training using various combinations of nanowire and nanodot dimensions, topologies, material properties, and array configurations. The nonvolatile nature of the spin textures generated in the MMA under bias-field-free conditions is promising for energy-efficient logic and low-power computing applications. Thus this work introduces a novel alternative approach, paving the way to utilize these MMAs for on-chip reservoir computing, where amplitude varies at the operating frequency.