Research Matters Issue 6 - Summer 2006

Research Matters revised

28/8/06

16:58

Page 1

ISSUE 6 SUMMER 06

From the South East to the Southern Hemisphere - WIT's health research links

Research Matters revised

28/8/06

16:58

W I T

2

Page 2

R E S E A R C H

M A T T E R S

-

I S S U E

6

-

S U M M E R

0 6

Editorial In this sixth edition of Research Matters, the continued growth both in terms of the range of research activities and the internationalisation of profile is increasingly evident at Waterford Institute of Technology.

We read an account of a year long sabbatical by one of the Institute’s leading researchers at the University of Sydney. The School of Education extends institutional collaboration to Southern China and Tula, Russia, advising on issues relating to higher education pedagogy. The programme of research in the area of autonomic communications ongoing with Motorola Laboratories Chicago and sponsored by the Science Foundation of Ireland is also featured.

The impact of the Institute’s research at a regional level is evident through our profile of the ongoing studies of the Estuarine Research Group exploring the potential development of seaweed based bioremediation products to extract metals from wastewater streams in the South East. The work of one of WIT’s Embark scholars involving the use of DNA based laboratory techniques to study the population of pine martens in the Waterford area also makes for interesting reading. The close links, which the Institute has with Waterford Regional Hospital through its association with Mr. Stephen Beatty, Consultant Ophthalmologist and the Macular Pigment Research Group, further demonstrates the very powerful impact of regional collaborations.

Dr. Willie Donnelly Head of Research & Innovation

Contents Aussie rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3

Exploring natural resources for dealing with waste: The Estuarine Research Group at WIT . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4

Advanced composites for the medical device industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5

Tracking the Irish pine marten: WIT and the IRCSET Embark Initiative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6

TSSG organises Manweek 2006 conferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7

The TSSG and Madeira project at the Celtic 2006 launch event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 - 8 Forging action research links with the University of Bath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9

Investigating Listeria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9

From China and Russia with love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 The need for Irish entrepreneurial regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Semiconductor physics at WIT and Trinity College . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Psychosocial interventions for panic disorder following coronary artery bypass graft: a case study. . . . . . 13 Supporting WIT’s research community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Developing a virtual incubation centre for the South East . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Delivering the communications infrastructure for the next generation Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Profile of a clinical researcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Marine inspiration for art installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Lecturer presents PhD thesis to WIT Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Hospital governance: An insight from hospitals in the South East of Ireland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Research under way in the Separation Science Research Group (SSRG) at Waterford Institute of Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 WIT researcher and SEEPP participant wins SEBIC Bright Ideas Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Eircom and Meteor host WIT Masters students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Recent WIT publications & conferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Research Matters revised

28/8/06

16:58

W I T

Page 3

R E S E A R C H

M A T T E R S

-

I S S U E

6

-

S U M M E R

0 6

Aussie rules

An account of a research year in Sydney by Dr. Niamh Murphy, Department of Health, Sport and Exercise Studies.

2005 was a special year, both professionally and personally, thanks to an opportunity to spend time “down under” in Sydney, Australia. I was determined to live the “Australian dream” for the year, so the four kids, husband (Noel) and I found a house beside the beach in Manly, which, as their slogan goes is “seven miles from Sydney (by ferry!) and a thousand miles from care”! The trip had been in planning for some time, as I was permitted by the Council of Directors to use my administration funding on a Strand III award to replace myself on teaching and domestic academic duties in order to work and study abroad. In advance, I had made contact with Professor Adrian Bauman who is a world leader in the field of physical activity research at the population level. Adrian works in the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney (USyd) and directs the Centre for Physical Activity and Health, where fifteen different nationalities were represented amongst the research staff!

I had Visiting Academic status at the University, allowing me the usual staff benefits. The University runs a world renowned Masters in Public Health (MPH) programme, which I was able to dip in and out of, as well as a staggering number of top quality seminars and conferences. I was bowled over by the quality of the staff at USyd, and especially by their openness and generosity in welcoming newcomers. There was no pomp and ceremony, no apparent hierarchies. Maybe it is their distance from the rest of the world that fosters this incredible hive of activity. Everyone worked hard, and published incredibly well, but found time, too, for challenge soccer matches and soccer training, a bit of running, cycle rides at weekends, and regular evenings out. I was in my element!

From a professional point of view, the year was hugely beneficial for me. I feel I learned so much about the field of public health, and what was happening globally in health promotion in our fortnightly meetings and in weekly seminars. My colleagues were an illustrious bunch, working with the World Health Organisation, Centre for Disease Control in the U.S., and the Australian Government, among others.

Dr. Niamh Murphy (front, centre) and the research team at the University of Sydney.

I worked primarily on two projects: one, a review of physical activity interventions in adolescence, in partnership with Deakin University, Melbourne, and the other on the impact of mass events (like Olympic Games, large road races or ‘one-off’ active transport days) on physical activity. The projected outcome from the first piece of work is a government report, and two papers to be submitted to the American Journal of Public Health later this year. I wrote a paper on mass events, which is currently in press in the American Journal of Physical Activity and Health, and another on bone health and physical activity in adolescents is in press in the Journal of Adolescent Health. Another paper on children’s activity and TV viewing, on which Michael Harrison is first author, is in press in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport.

The trip, or more specifically the contacts I made on the trip, have stimulated new areas of research for me. Currently, I am evaluating this year’s Flora Women’s Mini-marathon, with a larger, well-funded evaluation next year, and have prepared applications for ambitious research programmes funded by the Health Information and Quality Authority, and the Health Research Board, in partnership with colleagues in Sydney and in the HSE here at home. There were lots of other interesting bits and pieces too! I presented two papers at the Australian Physical

Activity conference in Melbourne in October, did a seminar at USyd on my work, facilitated on an Obesity Prevention workshop at USyd and attended the NSW Physical Activity Network meetings organized by the Health Authority. I reviewed research grant proposals for National Health and Medical Research Council 2005 awards, attended the National Health Promotion conference in Canberra in March, as well as a myriad of seminars, too numerous to mention.

I also visited Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, to set up student and staff exchange arrangements for the future (where I met fellow WIT colleagues John and Marie Wall!) and made the same links with Curtin University in Perth.

And I haven’t even mentioned the weather yet! Yes, it was divine, and so was Manly! We gained a lot from the kids’ experiences in school, and made lots of good friends, some of whom will visit us this summer. During the school holidays we travelled to the South Island of New Zealand, to the Barrier Reef, and took other trips around New South Wales. We stopped in South Africa on the way out and in Thailand on the way back. So, apart from being broke and a bit cold, I have fantastic memories, renewed enthusiasm, and a whole new area of research and contacts to build on for the future. It was a gem of a year, on all levels, for all of us.

For more information contact: Dr. Niamh Murphy E-mail: nmurphy@wit.ie

3

Research Matters revised

4

28/8/06

16:58

W I T

Page 4

R E S E A R C H

M A T T E R S

-

I S S U E

6

-

S U M M E R

0 6

Exploring natural resources for dealing with waste: The Estuarine Research Group at WIT The Estuarine Research Group (ERG) has a range of scientific expertise from molecular biology and bioremediation to inorganic chemistry and biological separations. Development of this research team was facilitated through funding under the Technological Sector Research Strand III (Core research strengths enhancement 2000-2006) initiative.

Phase I projects of the research team are focused on novel, fundamental investigations into the chemical and biological mechanisms involved in heavy metal sequestration and binding to a range of seaweeds (Phaeophyceae, Rhodophyceae, and Chlorophyceae) commonly found in the South-East of Ireland. Such research, although fundamental in nature, has positive economic implications for society through the potential development of our natural resources as bioremediation products for metal-laden wastewater streams.

A number of parallel research strands involving genetic, bioremediation, ecological and chemical studies are currently ongoing in the group. The combined output from these research elements is aimed at gaining a better understanding of the dynamics of metal uptake by seaweed species.

Clean seaweed sampling site: Baginbun Bay in County Wexford.

Bioremediation Studies To date, extensive screening has been carried out to identify key seaweed species (sourced from the South-East coastline of County Wexford, Ireland) for further research. In total, eight live seaweed species. from three divisions

Chemical Studies Seaweed biosorption behaviour has been controlled through careful manipulation of experimental parameters such as pH, initial metal concentration and contact time, thus allowing potentially selective biosorption between different metals as well as between different oxidation states of the same metal. Work to date has been focused on surface characterisation of the seaweed species and identification of the various functionalities involved in heavy metal binding using a variety of analytical techniques including potentiometric and conductimetric titrations, infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The functional groups found to be responsible for metal uptake include carboxyl, sulphate and amino groups.

Equilibrium and kinetic studies of metal

Aerated tanks for seaweed experimentation.

(Chlorophytes, Rhodophytes and Phaeophytes) were exposed to copper and chromium. These seaweeds have also been exposed to copper, chromium and lead in dried biomass form. The overall objective of this research is to develop a novel dried seaweed biomass- based biofiltration system for use in the bioremediation of heavy metal polluted wastewater streams. This has less environmental impact than conventional metal removal processes. Short-term studies investigating the seasonal variations influencing metal uptake have also been completed.

SEM image of Polysiphonia lanosa (red seaweed) surface morphology (Magnification 1000X) sorption have been used to elucidate the parameters of metal binding. Ongoing research investigates the effects of chemical modification of the surface functional groups with a view to enhancing metal binding and allowing deduction of metal binding mechanisms.

Genetic Studies The aim of this research is to identify the genes responsible for metal accumulation in seaweed. To date a variety of screening methods have been applied to identify genes associated with metal accumulation (e.g. genes encoding phytochelatin synthase and metallothioneins). These genes have been identified in a variety of plant and bacteria species. PCR was carried out on all species of interest using gene specific primers from a variety of plants and bacteria. Southern blotting analysis was also carried out using probes designed from known plant metallothionein and phytochelatin synthase genes. Suppression subtraction cDNA hybridization has been used to enrich cDNA from genes expressed in metal exposed seaweed using the red seaweed Polysiphonia lanosa. The subtraction products are currently being used for the generation of a cDNA library.

The ERG is housed in a state of the art research laboratory at WIT which facilitates the participation of this team in a wide range of estuarine/environmental based research projects. Facilities include two walk-in growth chambers that are temperature and light controlled to allow for replication of habitat conditions, specific digestion equipment and chromatographic equipment for protein purification.

To develop the operations of the ERG we are always looking for new collaborative opportunities. To avail of this invitation please find contact details below.

ERG members: Dr. Peter McLoughlin, Dr. Helen Hughes, Dr. Eddy Fitzgerald, Dr. Catherine O’Reilly, Dr. Orla O’Donovan, Mr. James Cusack, Ms. Vanessa Murphy, Mr. Richard Walsh and Dr. Brian Murphy.

For more information contact: Dr. Peter McLoughlin e-mail: pmcloughlin@wit.ie or Dr. Eddy Fitzgerald by e-mail: efitzgerald@wit.ie.

Research Matters revised

28/8/06

16:58

W I T

Page 5

R E S E A R C H

M A T T E R S

-

I S S U E

6

-

S U M M E R

0 6

Advanced composites for the medical device industry More and more diagnostic and therapeutic procedures are now being performed utilising microbore catheters. With the evolution of medical science and the development of new and revolutionary minimally invasive medical procedures, design and performance requirements for small diameter medical tubing have become more demanding and complex.

properties are designed, or tailored to the particular application. The behaviour of composite materials is in part controlled by the nature of the interface, which in polymer-matrix composites is usually required to be strong. Understanding and control of interfacial properties is therefore of considerable significance. Due to poor adhesion between aramid fibres and most

The path of the catheter along the artery into the blockage Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) or angioplasty, is a method of treating coronary artery disease.

A catheter with a deflated balloon on its tip is put in a narrowed artery segment.

There is a need in biomedical engineering for thin-walled, high-performance structures, which could be used as catheters, or as replacement implants in the body. However, there is a fundamental lack of technology to produce a hollow structure with a wall-thickness less than 0.1 mm. When the wall thickness of a tubing can be reduced, and can perform in an optimal way, it is possible for that tubing to reach other, more difficult-to-access areas of the body such as small bore arteries and neural networks.

Reinforced thermoplastic materials are becoming exceptionally important due to their ease of fabrication and reduced costs of manufacture. The process involves filament winding of thin layers of aramid with a thermoplastic polymer matrix. The objective is to produce high-performance thin-walled polymer structures whose

matrices, aramid fibre composites are characterised by relatively low off-axis properties. To improve the interfacial bonding between the aramid fibres and polymer matrix, a variety of fibre surface modifications have been employed including chemical grafting, plasma

matrix interface. Recent findings have shown that it could be possible to use simple optical microscopy as a technique to predict the effectiveness of an interface between a reinforcing fibre and a polymer matrix – instead of embarking on a difficult (and costly) exercise of advanced materials analysis (e.g. Raman spectroscopy and micromechanical analysis).

This was due to the occurrence of transcrystalline regions in the vicinity of the fibres and can occur due to the high amount of nucleation points on the fibre.

The degree of transcrystallinity was found to be surface specific. It was found that there was some relationship between the degree of transcrystallinity and the interfacial properties of the composite.

An example of a transcrystalline layer formed around a surface treated fibre is shown below. The degree of transcrystallinity is sizing specific (due to various forms of surface modification).

Previous work has been done by Austin Coffey in this area.

These findings can point to the use of transcrystallinity determination as a potentially valuable technique for the development of future advanced reinforced polymer materials. Applications for these new advanced composites go even further than the medical device industry – encompassing the automobile, aeronautical, and construction arenas.

Further work needs to be conducted to elucidate this characterisation technique, and it is envisaged that this will be carried out at WIT in conjunction with other research centres throughout Ireland and Europe.

Example of the transcrystalline layer formed around an aramid fibre (Succinyl Chloride) embedded in a Pebax matrix treatment, and the use of coupling agents.

Much work has been carried out by Austin Coffey, of the Department of Engineering Technology, in developing processing methods optimising the fibre – polymer

For more information contact: Mr. Austin Coffey, E-mail: acoffey@wit.ie

5

Research Matters revised

6

28/8/06

16:58

W I T

Page 6

R E S E A R C H

M A T T E R S

-

I S S U E

6

-

S U M M E R

0 6

Tracking the Irish pine marten: WIT and the IRCSET Embark Initiative A personal experience by Embark scholar Jacinta Mullins, Department of Chemical & Life Sciences The closing date for applications to the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering & Technology (IRCSET) Embark Initiative Postgraduate Research Scholarship scheme has passed, but do not give up hope, there have been second calls for proposals every year to date! I finished my degree in May 2004, and was not sure if I wanted to commit to postgraduate research, so I decided to try a job in industry. By the end of the summer, my now supervisor, Dr. Catherine O’ Reilly alerted me to the second call for the IRCSET scholarship. It is directed towards students who graduated with a 1:1 or 2:1 from Science, Engineering or Technology degrees. Having graduated from the WIT Applied Biology with Quality Management degree, I applied for the award and started my PhD study in October 2004.

The Embark scholarship is different to many others in the sense that the person, not the research, is funded. In other words, you can study at any institute or university in Ireland as long as a proposal and letter of support is included in the application (part of your research can also be carried out internationally). Initially, the value of the award was not much different to other PhD funding but this year it has increased by 26%. An additional €1500 is specifically allocated for transferable skills training, which will allow me to attend a statistical genetics course in the United States, which is not available in Ireland.

The IRCSET committee is very cooperative and the scholarship is flexible.

Extra funding after the standard 3 years is often granted if needed. Personally, the award has allowed me to attend conferences nationally and internationally, but more importantly it allows the purchase of high quality research materials especially in the area of molecular biology where reagents are becoming increasingly expensive, My research involves the use of DNAbased laboratory techniques to find out more about the population size, distribution and relatedness of the pine marten (Latin name: Martes martes) in Ireland. For those of you who may not know what a pine marten (pictured) is, it

Jacinta Mullins, Molecular Ecology Research Group, Lee Coffey, Bioremediation Research Group and Siobhan Moran, Molecular Ecology Research Group. is a relative of the stoat and weasel, close to the size of a domestic cat, and is an elusive omnivore that often dens in trees, old abandoned buildings or rock crevices such as those in The Burren, Co. Clare.

Our study population is in Portlaw, Co. Waterford (where we have been collecting DNA samples over the last couple of years) and we have tissue samples from around the country.

Population counts by observation is not an option as the pine marten is rarely seen in the wild and live trapping is too stressful for the animal and may change their natural behaviour. Therefore non-invasive sampling is used, a bit like forensics, where hair tubes are set up to pluck hair from the animal (stoats, red squirrels and rodents may also enter the tubes) and faeces are collected in the forest and sampled for DNA. The DNA is extracted from the sample and used in a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) which essentially makes copies of a defined region of the DNA. Different reactions are carried out on a sample to determine the species and sex of the animal it came from. With the samples positive for pine marten DNA, a “DNA fingerprint” can be obtained using another set of PCR reactions, to differentiate one individual from another.

I am currently at this “fingerprint” stage of the research.

When possible to discriminate between individual pine martens, the aim is to carry out a census of the Portlaw population. Furthermore, known

populations closeby such as Inistiogue, Co. Kilkenny can be compared with the Waterford individuals to estimate relatedness and migration between populations.

This can give an indication of the long term viability of the species as isolated populations may not survive independently. Hunting for fur was historically the biggest threat to the pine marten. Since it has become a protected species, habitat loss and fragmentation reduce the hunting area of the marten and make it vunerable to predators. This study will give an indication of the health of the pine marten population in Ireland.

If it is endangered, conservation strategies can then be put in place to prevent its extinction.

This work is following on from the work of Dr. Mark Statham. Other members of the Molecular Ecology Research Group include Dr. Catherine O’Reilly and Dr. Peter Turner, and postgraduate students Tom Roche and Siobhan Moran.

Think you have spotted a pine marten?

Please contact Ms. Jacinta Mullins, E-mail: jmullins@wit.ie

Research Matters revised

28/8/06

16:58

W I T

Page 7

R E S E A R C H

M A T T E R S

-

I S S U E

6

-

S U M M E R

0 6

7

TSSG organises Manweek 2006 conferences The Telecommunications Software & Systems Group (TSSG) is organising a major event in the network management research community’s calendar – The 2nd International Week on Management of Networks and Services (Manweek 2006). The event, which takes place from October 23rd-27th in Dublin’s Herbert Park Hotel, will be co-chaired by Dr. Willie Donnelly, Head of Research, WIT and Mr. John Strassner, Director of Autonomic Communications at Motorola Labs and WIT Visiting Professor.

Manweek 2006 will be the second time that a number of long-established conferences addressing different aspects of network and service management will be co-located, the first such event having taken place in Barcelona in October 2005.

The overall theme of the week – “Autonomic Component and System Management” – addresses one of the main challenges faced by the communications industry: the inability of service providers and network operators to adapt, in a dynamic fashion, their offered services to the changing needs of their customers. The five conferences will each support this general theme, but each will have its unique orientation, as summarised below: MMNS 2006 – The 9th IFIP/IEEE International Conference on Management of Multimedia and Mobile Networks and Services MMNS 2006 is a premier conference focussing on research and innovation in management of emerging multimedia technology and networked services.

Recently the conference scope has been expanded to include management of mobile networks and services, with a focus in 2006 on autonomic management of mobile multimedia services.

DSOM 2006 – The 17th IFIP/IEEE International Workshop on Distributed Systems: Operations and Management The major theme of the DSOM 2006 workshop is the management of large scale systems. Scalability issues and their impact on the management plane are common to all such systems, and existing management approaches are largely inadequate for emerging large scale and complex systems.

IPOM 2006 – The 6th IEEE International Workshop on IP Operations and Management IPOM 2006 is the sixth in a series of events dedicated to Operations and Management in IP-based networks, focussing this year on complexity of interoperability between

networks and service providers, performance versus costs in operating the IP-based networks, and the O&M challenges in next generation networks (NGN) and related seamless service provision.

MACE 2006 – The 1st IEEE International Workshop on Modelling Autonomic Communications Environments MACE 2006 aims to promote the realisation of Autonomic Communications Environments (ACEs) – service-centric environments exhibiting self-governing behaviour. The workshop will provide an opportunity to discuss how advances in networking technologies, software modelling, governance models, bio-inspired algorithms, machine learning and reasoning can contribute towards realisation of ACEs.

AGNM 2006 – The 2nd IEEE/IFIP International Workshop on Autonomic Grid Networking and Management The AGNM workshop offers a unique opportunity for researchers and practitioners to exchange ideas and experiences on problems, challenges, solutions and potential future research and development issues in the new field of Autonomic Grid Networking and Management.

For more information contact: Dr. Brendan Jennings E-mail: bjennings@tssg.org or Dr. Sven van der Meer E-mail: vdmeer@tssg.org http://www.manweek2006.org.

The TSSG and Madeira project at the Celtic 2006 launch event In his keynote speech in Dublin Castle at a recent event launching Celtic 2006, a public / private R&D research network in the field of telecommunications, the Irish Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mr. Micheál Martin T.D., acknowledged that ”Research activity by third level institutes on strategically important technologies will underpin innovation levels.”

Pictured left to right: Mr. Miguel Ponce de Leon European Research Manager at the TSSG, Mr. Micheál Martin T.D, Irish Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Dr. Sandra Collins, Ericsson Ireland.

The Celtic 2006 programme is part of a five-year EUREKA cluster, which initiates and runs privately and publicly funded R&D projects in the field of telecommunications.

The main objective of the event at Dublin Castle was to show the current status of the running CELTIC projects. Furthermore, the event provided an excellent Continued overleaf

Research Matters revised

8

28/8/06

16:58

W I T

Page 8

R E S E A R C H

M A T T E R S

-

I S S U E

6

-

S U M M E R

0 6

The TSSG and Madeira project at the Celtic 2006 launch event cont’d.

opportunity to show the state-of-the art of telecommunications development towards integrated next-generation telecommunications and multimedia systems for seamless use across mobile and fixed networks.

Critical research enabled by Madeira At the exhibition, CELTIC project teams demonstrated their achievements, demos / prototypes and discussed their results with interested experts.

Madeira [1] was one such project, developing novel technologies for vastly distributed and meshed network management systems. The Madeira project started in July 2004, with the (TSSG) at Waterford Institute of Technology being one of the Irish partners on the project, Ericsson R&D Ireland, being the other. There is also an interesting European partner mix of Siemens Austria, Ericsson Research Sweden, BT United Kingdom, Telefónica Spain and Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya Spain.

The Madeira solution seeks to manage networks with dynamic, transient network elements. It facilitates the deployment of self-managed services, and scales in order to manage networks with a vast numbers of elements. Current network management approaches like the Telecommunications Management Network (TMN) are based on a hierarchical structure and use rigid interoperability standards that make them less applicable to the evolving dynamic, heterogeneous network environments of the future. TMN performs network management tasks that are difficult to carry out using conventional methods.

Current large, transient next-generation networks have a great need for automated network management in order to reduce operating expenses (OPEX). The global adoption of IP-based networking solutions since the mid-1990’s and the recent emergence of the Internet as the platform for next generation services has highlighted the need for a powerful management technology and for an overall framework for the automated management of emerging networking infrastructures.

The focus of Madeira lies on the management functions which are executed in peer-to-peer aware Adaptive

Madeira TSSG researchers pictured in left to right: Claire Fahy, Fiona Mahon, Ray Carroll, Martin Feeney, Elyes Lehtihet, Dr. Sven van der Meer and Leigh Griffin.

Management Components, or AMCs. By using the peer-to-peer interface, these AMCs interact with each other and create an Overlay Management Network in order to perform specific management tasks.

Madeira P2P System This approach helps avoid the need for dedicated management systems and supports fast deployment of new services together with their effective management. Overall peer-to-peer systems can be characterized as distributed systems in which all nodes have identical capabilities and responsibilities and all communication is symmetric. In the Madeira P2P system, the nodes have a significant or total degree of autonomy from central servers which enable the utilization of previously unused management applications.

To ensure the scalability of the network, the nodes are grouped into Management Clusters. Each cluster has a Cluster Head that is responsible for the coordination and topology publishing of its cluster.

“The challenge was to research a solution that meets today's requirements and also matches the requirements of the emerging technological environment” said Claire Fahy, a senior researcher at the TSSG. Madeira applies Peer-to-Peer distributed techniques in a novel way to the domain of Network Management in order to achieve scalability and self-management in the areas of Configuration and Fault Management. This leads to vital

reductions in operating expenditure for Network Operators, and improvements in overall system performance.

“The issues of scalability and selfmanagement are critical in order to successfully manage Next Generation Networks” added Claire.

In order to demonstrate the capabilities and strengths of the Madeira management approach, a number of scenarios were put together to describe real life problems that occur in WiFi networks, and that are difficult to solve with the traditional management approach. A prototype is currently being developed and tested on a WLAN test bed of up to twenty nodes.

The importance of collaborative research Finally, back at the Celtic 2006 event the potential impact of industry / academic collaborative research as shown through Madeira is also recognised by the Irish government. In the words of Mr. Micheál Martin, T.D,: “Much needs to be done to foster collaboration between academia and industry to identify areas of mutual interest and to forge productive relationships based on these.” He added “As the source of competitive advantage changes and knowledge becomes increasingly pivotal, national competitiveness will depend on ensuring that industry can influence and access the valuable research that is underway in the academic community throughout the country.”

For more information contact: Mr. Miguel Ponce de Leon at E-mail: miguelpdl@tssg.org

Research Matters revised

28/8/06

16:58

W I T

Page 9

R E S E A R C H

M A T T E R S

Forging action research links

-

I S S U E

6

-

S U M M E R

0 6

Investigating Listeria

with the University of Bath An inaugural meeting of the CHART (Centre for Helping, Access, Retention and Teaching at WIT) action inquiry group took place in the University of Bath on March 28th 2006.

Professor Peter Reason, Director of the Centre for Action Research in Professional Practice (CARPP) welcomed Patt Rohan, (Disability Officer), Laura Keane (Access Officer) and Martina Harte (Head of CHART), and introduced them to a diverse group of researchers, who each contributed to WIT’s emergent action research inquiry model. These formative “conversations” laid the foundations for the development of an inquiry group of reflective practitioners in WIT. The aim of the visit was to transform service provision in relation to the access, retention and student support initiatives into an action research model, underpinned by the concept of scholarship as proposed in Boyer’s original work, Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate (1990).

The Centre for Action Research in Professional Practice in Bath is concerned with approaches to action research, which integrate action and reflection, so that the knowledge gained in the inquiry is directly relevant to the issues being studied. It promotes collaboration between all those involved in the inquiry project. This approach lends itself to first, second and third person research practice: the type of research which is eminently suitable to the work of CHART. The inquiry group, consisting of reflective practitioners based within CHART looks forward to progressing this type of scholarship, initially guided by the wisdom and experience of our colleagues in Bath.

Listeria monocytogenes is the cause of listeriosis, a dangerous foodborne infection. Pregnant women, newborn, elderly and immunocompromised people are particularly at risk. The illness can vary from a mild, flu-like illness to meningitis leading to death. Infections during pregnancy can lead to premature delivery, infection of the newborn, or even stillbirth. There are a number of types of Listeria, only some of which can cause illness, but they are quite common in the environment. This microbe is of concern to the food industry in Ireland because of its ability to grow in food at refrigerator temperatures and survive food processing and it has been found in some types of chilled, ready to eat foods.

A research group at WIT has recently been successful in obtaining funding from the Department of Agriculture and Food under its FIRM (Food Institutional Research Measure) initiative to study the incidence of Listeria in a wide range of foods and food processing plants in Ireland. The group has linked up with researchers in UCD and the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory (CVRL). The research will initially focus on the application of molecular biological methods to distinguish isolates of Listeria from each other. Reliable methods of identifying microbes down to the strain level are important in food microbiology so that the source of potentially harmful organisms can be traced. The research group will have access to Listeria strains isolated from foods by laboratories around the country as these are sent to the CVRL and it is intended to create a bank of reference strains. A microbiological survey of food processing plants for the presence of Listeria will also be carried out.

The research group is led by Dr. Margery Godinho and the other WIT members of the

For more information contact: Ms. Martina Harte E-mail: mharte@wit.ie

team are Dr. Catherine O’Reilly, Dr. Martina Gooney, Ms. Eleanor Kent and Dr. Rebecca O’Mahony.

For more information contact: Dr. Margery Godinho E-mail: mgodinho@wit.ie

9

Research Matters revised

10

28/8/06

16:58

Page 10

W I T

R E S E A R C H

M A T T E R S

-

I S S U E

6

-

S U M M E R

0 6

From China and Russia with love

Dr. Orison Carlile, School of Education, Dr. Anne Jordan, School of Education, Mr. Bill O’Gorman School of Business and Dr. Tom O’Toole Head of School of Business, pictured at Guanxi University.

Four members of WIT staff were the keynote speakers in September 2005 at an international conference in China entitled The Development Models of the Modernization Processes in the Eastern and Western Countries - China and the World. The conference was organized by the Academic Board of China, the Chinese Federation of Industrial Economics, the Liuzhou Municipal Government, Guangxi University of Technology, Southern China and WIT. Dr. Tom O’Toole, Head of the School of Business introduced the conference, which was attended by leading Chinese academics and economists. He stressed the importance of the academic links between Guanxi University and WIT and highlighted some common social and economic factors.

Mr. Bill O’Gorman, Research Director, Centre for Entrepreneurship, gave a presentation on regional issues in entrepreneurial development (which can be found overleaf) and the way that resources needed to be targeted to the regions – an issue shared by both this Southern China region and the South East region of Ireland.

Dr. Anne Jordan and Dr. Orison Carlile of the School of Education, WIT, gave a

presentation on globalisation and the development of national qualification frameworks, and their importance to the knowledge economy in China.

Anne and Orison (whose visit to China was supported by the HEA’s Strategic Initiatives for Teaching and Learning Fund) also gave a presentation to Chinese academics on WIT’s Masters in Learning and Teaching for Third-Level Teachers.

In November 2005 Anne and Orison also visited the Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University in Tula, Russia where they gave a number of workshops to academic staff.

Russia has entered the Bologna Process and is undergoing a revision of its higher education policy and practices in order to align Russian lifelong learning policies with those in developed Western societies and in Europe. Staff members in this Russian university were keen to hear about Western developments in higher education and the Irish experience.

At this visit, a Memorandum of Understanding was agreed between WIT and the Lev Tolstoy Tula State University.

This will pave the way for an involvement in joint research projects and publications, including a proposed encyclopaedia of Russian pedagogy - Russia has a long

tradition of experimental work in the psychology and pedagogy of learning which is not greatly known in the West.

Academic exchanges between the two institutions have already taken place.

Professor Vladimir Fokin from the Lev Tolstoy University visited WIT on Jan 12 2006 as one of two keynote speakers at a conference entitled Research into Older Learners organised by WIT’s School of Education and Professional Development.

The other keynote speaker at this conference was Dr Alexandra Withnall, Senior Lecturer in Lifelong Learning & Health, Health Sciences Research Institute, Warwick Medical School, England. A joint comparative international study of opportunities for older learners is planned for 2006, to be published in English and Russian.

Negotiations are proceeding for Anne Jordan and Orison Carlile to return next year as Visiting Professors to the Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University to deliver a number of modules on higher education pedagogy.

For more information contact: Dr. Anne Jordan E-mail: ajordan@wit.ie

Research Matters revised

28/8/06

16:58

W I T

Page 11

R E S E A R C H

M A T T E R S

-

I S S U E

6

-

S U M M E R

0 6

11

The need for Irish entrepreneurial regions In this ever-increasing competitive global environment, nations may prosper, but national prosperity can often be at the expense of certain regions within the national economy.

This has been the experience of many developed economies worldwide. The phenomenon also exists in Europe, to the extent that the European Commission is applying more emphasis on developing processes to enhance and develop sustainable regional economies.

While large multinationals and other large organisations tend to locate in centres of high population in order to be assured of an adequate supply of labour, people have to travel to where the jobs are. This creates a cycle in which areas of large population will continue to grow and prosper, while areas of lower population will continue to decline, and become more dependent on lower skilled jobs and lower levels of industrial activity. However, this cycle can be broken; regions that are less prosperous than their larger centres of population counterparts can also become prosperous and create continued sustainable economic growth through embracing and utilising region specific policies focused on developing an entrepreneurial region.

The dilemma is that lagging or less prosperous regions, because of the “emigration” of some of the labour force and “brain drain” of young talent to the more prosperous, or more advanced regions cannot compete and do not have the capacity, or have less capability, to attract R&D or venture capital investments into the region.

An example of the above is Ireland which is considered to be a successful economy; it is currently among only five ‘high income’ group countries worldwide (OECD, 2005). However this success is mostly attributable to one region in Ireland, the mid-east, outperforming the other regions (some commentators may say at the expense of these other regions).

For example, a comparison between the mid-east and south-east regions reveals that 50% of second-level school leavers in the south-east that attend third-level colleges do so outside the region; 60% of those who graduate from the third-level colleges in the region leave the region to find employment.

Just like Dublin and the mid-east, other economies that have a small number of regions or cities outperforming other regions in their respective countries are

experiencing difficulties with congestion, infrastructure and over population issues, whilst the other regions constituting their overall economies are declining at varying rates. Therefore, in order to develop a more balanced economy there is a need to develop sustainable regional economies.

There is a need to create and develop entrepreneurial regions.

Neither centralised policy making, nor enterprise support or infrastructure development agencies with centralised structures will be able to provide successful regional R&D and technology investment strategies. Rather, what is required is that each region needs to develop its own region specific strategies and policies, taking their region’s nuances and requirements into consideration. Such a successful strategy can only be achieved through discussion and interactivity between the relevant regional stakeholders such as policy makers, enterprise support agencies, education providers, investors, and industry.

These region - specific strategies and policies should not be exclusive of national policy, in fact they should derive direction from national policy and set in motion activities and processes that enable and empower regional stakeholders and develop their own regions economically.

Such a process leads to the development of an entrepreneurial region based on a strong RTD investment policy and strategy.

The above article is based on a paper, ‘Developing Entrepreneurial Regions – Towards a Model of Modernisation and Sustainable Action’, recently presented

by Bill O’Gorman, Research Director, Centre for Entrepreneurship, School of Business, WIT, at the International Conference on the Comparison of The Development Models of the Modenization Processes in the Eastern and Western countries - China and the World.

For more information contact: Mr. Bill O’Gorman E-mail: wogorman@wit.ie

Examples of entrepreneurial regions are Silicon Valley in the US, Cambridge in the UK, and Sophia Antipolis in France, to mention a few. Based on research recently performed at the Centre for Entrepreneurship at Waterford Institute of Technology, seven factors have been identified as the defining characteristics of an entrepreneurial region: (i) regional attractiveness – a region’s environment and infrastructure needs to be such that not alone is it attractive to live in, but it is also attractive to work and invest in, (ii) presence of prominent third level institutes – successful, entrepreneurial regions have high quality, world renowned third level institutes of education engaged in leading edge research activities, (iii) critical mass of high-tech industries – in today’s competitive environment there is more of a need to focus on high-tech and knowledge - based industries. Those regions that are at the forefront of R&D, technology diffusion, and R&D commercialisation are leading entrepreneurial regions, (iv) presence of major, embedded indigenous industries – indigenous industries form the foundation of most regional growth and development.

Successful entrepreneurial regions focus on the development of their indigenous base as a driver of their economic success, (v) regional institutions – not only the existence of enterprise support, regional development agencies, industry representative organisations, and third level colleges of education and research, but the collaborative, integrative, supportive activities of these institutions, (vi) public and privately funded R&D activities – the greater the level of private/public funded levels of R&D activity, the greater the opportunity of R&D commercialisation, and the greater the opportunity to create wealth in the region, and (vii) market identification – if the regional market is not big enough to sustain growth and absorb outputs then there is an immediate need to identify and fulfil global markets.

Percentage of total population of Ireland Level of unemployment Participation rate in labour force Disposable income index Inflow of Multi National Companies to the region (1990 to 2001) compared to total inflow of MNCs into Ireland

Mid-East 39% < 4% 63% 100

South-East 11% 6% 58% 88

64%

12%

Research Matters revised

12

28/8/06

16:58

W I T

Page 12

R E S E A R C H

M A T T E R S

-

I S S U E

6

-

S U M M E R

0 6

Semiconductor physics at WIT and Trinity College A WIT research group that studies the physics of semiconductors is coordinated by Dr. Cormac O’Raifeartaigh of the School of Science. Experimental research is carried out at the electron spin resonance (ESR) laboratory at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) in collaboration with Dr. Robert Barklie of TCD. Research data are analysed at WIT with theoretical support provided by Dr. Mohammad Alhourani and Mr. Frank Leonard. The group has participated in research projects funded by WIT (BEHEST Programme), Enterprise Ireland and the EU (5th Framework Programme), with the results published in international science journals.

Defects in semiconductors Semiconducting materials such as silicon lie at the heart of modern electronics, from the silicon chip to the digital computer. Yet much research is still needed in order to understand the fundamental physics of these materials.

One area of particular interest is the formation of structural defects in semiconductors and the effect of these defects on the conduction of electricity. A variety of experimental techniques are used for the study of such defects, one of the most powerful of which is electron spin resonance spectroscopy (see inset).

Research projects Unlike many experimental techniques, electron spin resonance (ESR) gives information on both the identity and concentration of defect centres in solids.

The WIT-TCD collaboration exploits this facility to study defects in novel semiconducting materials such as silicongermanium1. The collaboration also employs a new type of ESR spectroscopy,

Dr. Cormac O’Raifeartaigh and Dr. Robert Barklie in the electron spin resonance laboratory at Trinity College

Electrically Detected Magnetic Resonance, to study defects in thin film semiconductors such as silicon-oninsulator films2. The group has recently completed a comprehensive ESR study of the defects produced by the implantation of a variety of ions into bulk silicon3,4.

Future work This year, the group will use Electrically Detected Magnetic Resonance to study novel thin film oxides, materials that are to be used as insulators in future silicon circuits. While silicon dioxide (the native oxide of silicon) is currently used as the gate dielectric in transistor circuits, the continued shrinkage of electronic circuits will soon necessitate its replacement by an insulator with a higher dielectric constant, k. The aim of this project will be to characterise the structure of defects in high-k oxide materials such as zirconium oxide.

Electron spin resonance (ESR) is a magnetic resonance technique used for the study of paramagnetic materials, i.e. materials containing unpaired electrons. As structural defects or impurities in solids often result in broken molecular bonds and unpaired electrons, ESR spectroscopy can be used for the characterisation of such defect centres. ESR spectra are highly sensitive to the immediate surroundings of an unpaired electron and provide much information on the nature of crystalline defects.

In ESR spectroscopy, samples are placed in a strong magnetic field, where a splitting of electron energy states occurs due to the spin of the electron. Transitions between the energy states can then be induced by the application of an alternating magnetic field of appropriate frequency. Monitoring the energy

Sample publications 1 Larsen A., O’Raifeartaigh C., Barklie R.C., Lindner J. et al (1997) “MeV Ion implantation induced damage in relaxed Si1-xGex alloy layers”.

J. Applied Physics vol. 81 no. 5 pp 2208.

2 O’Raifeartaigh C., Alhourani M., Leonard F. and Barklie R.C. (2004) “Spindependent magnetophotoconductivity in silicon-on-sapphire”. J. Applied Physics vol. 96 no.11 pp 6557.

3 O’Raifeartaigh C., Barklie R.C. and Lindner J. (2004) “EPR study of defects produced by MeV Ag ion implantation into silicon”. Nuclear Instrum. Methods B vol. 217 pp 442.

4 Barklie R.C. and O`Raifeartaigh C. (2005) “EPR characterisation of defects produced by ion implantation into silicon”. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter vol. 17 pp 2351.

absorbed at resonance gives an ESR spectrum characteristic of the environment of the unpaired electron.

Originally proposed as a startling demonstration of quantum physics, ESR is now a standard diagnostic laboratory tool. It is used in physics for the study of defects in solids, in chemistry for the identification of reaction pathways, and in biology and medicine for the tagging of biological spin probes. A novel form of ESR spectroscopy, Electrically Detected Magnetic Resonance, is particularly useful for the study of defects in thin film materials for electronics.

For more information contact: Dr. Cormac O’Raifeartaigh E-mail: coraifeartaigh@wit.ie

Research Matters revised

28/8/06

16:58

W I T

Page 13

R E S E A R C H

M A T T E R S

-

I S S U E

6

-

S U M M E R

0 6

Psychosocial interventions for panic disorder following coronary artery bypass graft: a case study Reid, T., Denieffe, S., Denny, M., McKenna, J. Cognitive theories of anxiety disorders suggest that people experience increased anxiety when they believe that they are in physical danger.

Whether this physical danger is actually present is unimportant, as it is the misinterpretation of the perceived threat or stimulus that causes increased anxiety. In panic disorder, the fear associated with somatic sensations causes an increase in anxiety due to the association between these sensations and expected catastrophic outcomes.

This case study describes the use of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) in the management of panic disorder following a coronary artery bypass graft. A sixtyfour year old man (who will be known as Mr. Smith throughout the course of this paper, in order to preserve anonymity) was referred through the Cardiac Rehabilitation (CR) programme with recent onset of anxiety and panic attacks.

He had been initially referred to the CR programme following a Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG). He was treated with nine sessions of CBT over a five-month period. Baseline assessment showed significant distress and a deficit in functioning. During his recovery period he experienced discomfort from the wound site and had a number of admissions to hospital with post-surgical complications.

Following intervention there was a marked reduction in objective and subjective measurement of distress and an overall improvement in functioning.

The approach to treating panic disorder where there is a co-existing organic disease and pain primarily targets the cycle of physiological arousal, increased pain, discomfort and repeated episodes of panic. Admission to hospital or treatment by a medical practitioner may provide rationalisation for sufferers, allowing them to feel that a catastrophe did not occur because they sought help in time. It is important to employ a multidisclipinary approach to the treatment of anxiety and co-existing organic disease, especially where pain is a factor.

Treatment of the anxiety and panic attacks began with an initial clinical interview, which elicited the history and current stage of the problem. At this interview, the process of assessing current levels of distress was ascertained by identifying catastrophic interpretations of bodily sensations, and introducing the Beck

Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and daily selfmonitoring. A number of self-report questionnaires are available to measure anxiety levels, and BAI is the among the most commonly used. This is a 21-item questionnaire measuring non-occurrence, mild, moderate or severe somatic symptoms. Self-monitoring diaries keep a daily record of situations, frequency, intensity and duration of anxiety. They can be designed to suit an individual client’s need, and provide baseline and progress measurements. Measures of severity and intensity commonly include the use of Subjective Units of Discomfort scales (SUD). These scales are usually a simple Likert type scale from 0-10 which a client can use to assess their subjective discomfort related to specific situations.

It was important at this stage to be aware that Mr. Smith’s catastrophic beliefs did have some basis in fact, and the CR team felt it would be wrong to try and dismiss all awareness of negative bodily sensations. As the case was handled in a multi-disclipinary CR forum, discussion regarding pain management, functional deficit and psychosocial intervention was necessary to formulate an effective therapeutic approach. It was decided that no progress could be realistically made until his pain had been adequately assessed and managed.

This was eventually successful through the use of nerve blocks, though no clear reason for experiencing such severe pain was found.

Assessment was carried out over the first two sessions. The client was interviewed using a modified Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule-Revised (ADIS-R). This is a standardised format for carrying out clinical interviews specifically for clients with anxiety disorders. Upon referral, Mr. Smith described feeling moderate to severe pain almost constantly, and during the severe episodes became breathless, dizzy and convinced that he was having another heart attack. Upon his discharge from hospital, the episodes of breathlessness and dizziness continued and became more frequent, and he described having about ten per day.

Intermediate sessions focused on continuously and positively reinforcing progress in functional ability and social interaction. During these sessions, the

Mr. Tony Reid, Department of Nursing focus was placed on generating alternative non-catastrophic interpretations. These alternatives began by looking at Mr. Smith’s belief that his operation was less successful than those of other patients treated around the same time. Reassessments of pain, functional ability and anxiety were carried out, which provided positive reinforcement that progress had been made. Arrangements were also made for Mr. Smith to re-enter the CR programme, as it was felt that the support provided by the group would also help normalise his cognitions and increase social interaction. At these sessions, relapse prevention was discussed and Mr. Smith was given a number of questions to answer as homework. For example, when specific situations he encountered caused him discomfort, he was asked to record his immediate thoughts, feelings and actions.

Mr. Smith underwent nine sessions over a five-month period. There was marked progress at session nine with almost no anxiety and only mild Subjective Units of Discomfort (SUD) scores, which were mainly due to some minor episodes of pain that were adequately controlled by medication. There is little doubt that the effective surgical management of Mr. Smith’s pain was a major contribution to the intervention. The intensity and chronicity of the pain did not allow for rapid progress in functional or psychosocial intervention. It is also important to state that evidence relating to cognitive distortion in CR patients strongly suggests that psychosocial interventions play a key role in positive outcomes in Cardiac Rehabilitation.

For more information contact: Mr. Tony Reid E-mail: treid@wit.ie

13

Research Matters revised

28/8/06

16:58

Page 14

W I T

14

R E S E A R C H

M A T T E R S

-

I S S U E

6

-

S U M M E R

0 6

Supporting WIT’s research community The Research Support Unit (RSU) is a

proposal preparation and manages the recruitment of staff and students on funded research projects.

Contact: scullinane@wit.ie

dedicated office that provides advice and support to WIT researchers who are engaged in funded research projects. Among the activities that take place under the remit of the RSU are information sessions for internal and external funding, the management of research accounts and the provision of research performance reports to external agencies. The RSU

Eimear Cheasty, Susie Cullinane, Dr. Willie Donnelly, Jenny Murphy, Kathryn Kiely and Rita Dalton.

also distributes calls for funding opportunities and provides advice on proposal preparation.

Since the beginning of 2006, the RSU has facilitated a number of key information sessions for WIT’s researchers, including organising visits from Mr. Martin Hynes, Director of the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering & Technology, Dr. Mary Kelly and Dr. Gary Crawley of Science Foundation Ireland, and Dr. Barry Fennell of Enterprise Ireland, among others. These sessions proved very informative and were well attended by WIT’s research community. The RSU will continue to invite speakers to the Institute in the coming months to ensure that our researchers are well informed of the funding opportunities available and on the practices of submitting proposals to funding bodies.

Most recently, a step-by-step guide for researchers has been added to the Research section of the WIT website.

This is a support tool for researchers that details the funding process from beginning to end. It offers advice, from finding a funding source, to managing a research project. It also includes all forms and procedures necessary to get you on your way. You can find this detailed resource at http://www2.wit.ie/Research/Support /Step-by-Step-Guide/.

If you have a query for the Research Support team, please contact the relevant person: Susie Cullinane – Projects Manager manages the day-to-day running of the RSU and all the funded WIT research projects. She ensures that all researchers in the Institute have the most up-to-date information on funding opportunities and

Rita Dalton – Personal Assistant to Dr. Willie Donnelly and Kathryn Kiely is the liaison point for any internal or external researcher, academic or industry representative who wishes to co-ordinate their activities with the current workings of the School of Research and Innovation.

Rita also manages the online Agresso purchase ordering system for all funded research projects.

Contact: rdalton@wit.ie Eimear Cheasty - Administrative Assistant manages the expenditure on all research projects, as well as ensuring that up-todate information is maintained for all research project files. She acts as a point of contact for all researchers in the Institute, dealing with research queries and requests for information.

Contact: echeasty@wit.ie Jenny Murphy - Administrative Assistant assists with the promotion of the Institute’s research activities. She collates and edits articles on research for publications such as the Research Matters newsletter, and is currently working on creating a WIT profile for the Expertise Ireland website. (www.expertiseireland.com).

Contact: jmurphy@wit.ie

Developing a virtual incubation centre for the South East Waterford Institute of Technology in association with Wexford County Enterprise Board have been awarded European Social Fund (ESF) grant funding of almost €400,000 to develop a virtual incubation centre for the South East region.

The virtual incubation centre model is an exciting and innovative concept that is unique in both an Irish and international context. The centre will provide online training, classroom based training, online mentoring and various other online tools to support and facilitate the growth of micro-businesses in the Wexford and South East region.

Commenting on this initiative, Dr. Sean Mythen, CEO of Wexford County Enterprise Board stated, “We see the virtual incubation centre as a progressive development because it will help us to provide support and resources to growth

businesses in our region in a manner that overcomes geographical barriers and time constraints.”

Ms. Dolores Gilhooly, Head of the School of Education and Professional Development in WIT said “This project is seen as an exciting development by WIT because it facilitates our ongoing commitment to support the South East region, through the use of innovative information technology. It also gives us an opportunity to conduct research into the concept of a virtual incubation centre which is at the leading edge of enterprise support.”

Initially it is proposed to run a pilot project with up to twenty companies who have expressed a desire to grow their businesses participating in the virtual incubation centre. WIT will provide certification to participants on completion of the programme.

The design and development of the centre has already begun. Multimedia Instructional Design Ltd., a Waterford based company will provide project management services to the programme.

For more information contact Ms. Dolores Gilhooly E-mail: dgilhooly@wit.ie

Research Matters revised

28/8/06

16:58

W I T

Page 15

R E S E A R C H

M A T T E R S

-

I S S U E

6

-

S U M M E R

0 6

Delivering the communications infrastructure for the next generation Internet It is probably fair to say that the introduction of the mobile phone and to a lesser extent the internet have profoundly changed how we work, learn and play. We now talk about a knowledge society with information available at the touch of a button. We can use our handsets to order a pizza, watch TV, take an e-learning course or remotely monitor our homes.

With the introduction of new wireless networks such as Wi-fi and Wi-Max we will expect to be able to seamlessly move from one network to another depending on user priorities such as cost, quality of service and security. The convergence of the telecommunications and internet worlds through the creation of a seamless communications environment is a major challenge for the communications industry.

Depiction of an autonomic network management system

One of the challenges is to address the complexities that are required to efficiently manage, configure and maintain the communications environment incorporating networks and services.

Traditionally, the maintenance of the communications environment has been carried out by humans, resulting in high costs and frequent errors. The Foundations of Autonomic Management of Communications Networks and Services is a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) funded project currently running in the Telecommunications Software and Systems Group (TSSG). Its objective is to provide new network management solutions capable of delivering a seamless communications environment.

The project seeks to develop novel methodologies, architectures, processes and algorithms to support autonomic network management capabilities. Autonomic management covers the ability for systems to self-govern its behaviour while maintaining the overall business goal.

To achieve autonomic network management, the TSSG proposes the use of information modelling to capture knowledge relating to network capabilities, environmental constraints and business goals/policies, together with reasoning and learning techniques to enhance and evolve this knowledge. Knowledge embedded within system models will be used by policy-based network management systems incorporating translation/code generation and policy enforcement processes that automatically configure network elements in response to changing business goals and/or environmental context. This realises an autonomic control loop, in which the system senses changes in itself and its environment, analyses this information to ensure that business goals and objectives are being met, expedites changes should these goals and objectives be threatened, and observes the result.

The model-centric approach supports the reconfiguration of networks with minimal human intervention and will deliver considerable improvements over existing statically configured network management systems, since it will support the reconfiguration of networks with minimum human intervention at all but the high-level business view. However, to deliver full autonomic network management capabilities, it is also necessary to introduce processes and algorithms into the network infrastructure to maintain optimal or near-optimal behaviour in terms of global stability, performance, robustness and security. In particular, the TSSG team believes that some of these processes and algorithms can be profitably modelled on various biological processes found in the natural world. Furthermore, to ensure that they act in accordance with business goals, such processes and algorithms should themselves be modelled, so that their operation can be automatically configured via appropriate policies.

The diagram presents a high-level depiction of an autonomic network management system based on the approach described above. Central to the approach is the presence of one or more system models that abstract both the static structure, functionality, and dynamic behaviour of the underlying network infrastructure, management functionality and offered services. Also modelled is the governance model of the system, realised as a continuum of policies reflecting business, system, network, device and device instance views.

These models are continuously updated by the Knowledge Analysis/Generation component in response to the changing operational context of the network and/or changing business goals and objectives. The Policy Analysis/Deployment component utilises knowledge embodied within the models to automatically generate network device configurations that maximise the degree to which the network satisfies business goals given its current operational context.

The long-term research question which we wish to address is: how can we formulate an architecture and methodology for autonomic network management that can support current and future business models and value chains in the communications services market?

Many characteristics of self-government can be found in biological systems. An exciting research area is the application of mechanisms and principles of biological systems to the development of autonomic networks management solutions. Molecular cell biology principles have been investigated and used as inspiration for the development of an autonomic network management architecture for next generation communications networks. Initial investigations have concentrated on the translation of functionalities of cells through protein production in the nucleus, to data models for the management of network elements. A second area of investigation uses artificial homeostasis as a model for the management of network resources.

The research team has developed a hierarchical bio-inspired policybased management system based on mechanisms for organism regulation that supports self-organisation and self-management at different levels of the hierarchy. The initial model has been presented in policy2006.

The members of the research team are: Dr. Willie Donnelly, Mr. John Strassner, Dr. Sven van der Meer, Dr. Brendan Jennings, Dr. Dmitri Botvich and Mr. Micheal Ă&#x201C; FoghlĂş.

Contact: bjennings@wit.ie

15

Research Matters revised

16

28/8/06

16:58

W I T

Page 16

R E S E A R C H

M A T T E R S

-

I S S U E

6

-

S U M M E R

0 6

Profile of a clinical researcher Stephen Beatty, soon after his arrival in Waterford to take up the post of Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon at Waterford Regional Hospital (WRH), approached the Waterford Institute of Technology to explore the potential for pursuing his research interests.

“From the first day I dropped into WIT, when I met Mr. John Griffith of the Department of Chemical and Life Sciences, I knew that this was a place where I could do business.

Doors were opened, problems were solved, and my enthusiasm was matched” says Mr. Beatty. Soon after that, Mr. Beatty teamed up with Dr. Orla O’Donovan of WIT, and together they secured seed funding to establish the Macular Pigment Research Group (MPRG).

“In brief, the MPRG is investigating ways of preventing blindness. Agerelated macular degeneration, or AMD, is the commonest cause of blind registration in the world, and it is likely to become more common because we are living longer. AMD is thought to result from cumulative blue light damage, and oxidative damage, to the retina. There is a pigment at the back of the eye, known as macular pigment, which filters out blue light and is a powerful antioxidant. Interestingly, this macular pigment is entirely of dietary origin”, explains Mr. Beatty.

thesis with the MPRG in 2005, and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to the Medical College of Georgia in recognition of his work. John is returning to the MPRG as a Senior Scientist and Research Leader in June of 2006.

The MPRG now supports 5 full-time staff, all funded through competitive grants, and these include Dr. John Nolan, Dr. Edward Loane, Dr. Kumari Neelam, Dr. Audrey Hearne and Ms. Leigh-Anne Maddock.

In 2002, Mr. Beatty was appointed an Associate Lecturer in WIT, and was appointed to the Board of Governors of the Institute in 2005. Mr. Beatty also sits on the University Sub-committee and the Audit Committee of WIT. Mr. Stephen Beatty, Consultant Ophthamologist, WRH and founding member of the Macular Pigment Research Group at WIT “It is possible, therefore, that simple dietary modification or supplementation could delay or prevent the commonest cause of blindness in the world. Certainly, John Nolan’s PhD findings have shown very strong evidence that this macular pigment is protective for this disease”, continued Mr. Beatty.

Dr. John Nolan completed his PhD

“My experience at WIT has been fantastic. I think the stewardship of the Institute’s Director, Professor Kieran Byrne, combined with the ‘can do’ philosophy of its academic and administrative staff, ensures the success of WIT well into the future. I also believe that designation of WIT as the University of the South East is essential if the Institute is to fulfil its potential and respond to regional demand” said Mr. Beatty.

For more information on the MPRG at WIT: Dr. Orla O’Donovan E-mail: oodonovan@wit.ie

Marine inspiration for art installation Ms. Mairín Grant’s recent work has used as its focus the ship’s log of a fisherman working out of Dunmore East in 1985. The log records the weather, the quotas, the catch, other fishing boats, crew members and damages or repairs to boats.

Creating an artistic installation from this log has called for the transcription of original handwritten records, one for each day of the year, on to dyed tissue paper.

The title of the installation, Sea Area Forecast, conveys the importance of the forecast to the working life and safety of fishermen. The tissues are suspended from the ceiling, and a sound recording of a trawler at sea, along with the sound of the waves, gulls, fishermen shouting, machinery clanking and the trawler engine throbbing accompanies the work.

This installation ran in Waterford’s Municipal Gallery in June 2005 and is currently on show in the Bourne Vincent Gallery in the University of Limerick.

This August, Mairín will be exhibiting

work in Grünberg, Germany. The original sketches for the paintings in the exhibition were done over fifteen years, on flights throughout Europe. Relieving the boredom of plane journeys, they also presented the challenge of trying to capture a picture from a fleeting image.

The Gallery which is in Grünberg is a converted monastery and is ideal for showing Mairín’s new, large-scale work.

For more information contact: Ms. Mairín Grant E-mail: mgrant@wit.ie

Sea Area Forecast by Mairín Grant

Research Matters revised

28/8/06

16:58

W I T

Page 17

R E S E A R C H

M A T T E R S

-

I S S U E

6

-

S U M M E R

0 6

Lecturer presents PhD thesis to WIT Library Dr. Christine O’Dowd-Smyth, lecturer in French and Francophone Studies at WIT recently presented a copy of her doctoral thesis to the Institute’s award-winning Leabharlann Luke Wadding.

Dr. O'Dowd-Smyth, a native of Westport, Co Mayo who has lectured in Waterford since 1992 completed her doctorate titled Silence, Exile and the Problematic of Postcolonial Identity in North African Francophone Literatures under the supervision of Prof Debra Kelly, University of Westminster. Her research traced common threads between the postcolonial writings of North Africans writing in French, and Irish writers.

Accepting the research for inclusion in the library where he said it will remain as part of “Waterford’s rich higher education annals”, Prof Kieran R Byrne, Director of WIT congratulated Dr. O’Dowd-Smyth on what he termed her “exceptional accomplishment”. “The presentation of this PhD research further underlines this Institute’s commitment to high standards and is timely as the Institute has recently submitted an application for university designation to the Department of Education & Science. Dr. O’Dowd-Smyth’s

Dr. Christine O’Dowd-Smyth presents her thesis to Prof. Kieran Byrne, Director, WIT. work is also timely in that it looks from a relevant and fresh international perspective at what is now a key issue for Ireland – that of postcolonial identity. This is a piece of work that is already being sought out by other scholars which is a true mark of its importance and currency in academia.”

For her part, Dr. O’Dowd-Smyth described the presentation of her PhD research to

Hospital governance: An insight from hospitals in the South East of Ireland Recent years have witnessed vast and varying debate on the topic of governance and much of the emphasis has been on the private sector entities. However, the debate has moved toward the practices of the public sector. Growing concerns in health care systems in particular have propelled governance to the forefront of the agenda of policy makers and managers alike. Much work has been completed in the international arena with countries such as Belgium, the UK and the US leading the way in research on governance of health care systems.

Irish hospitals have been under much scrutiny in recent years over issues such as A&E crises and waiting lists to name but a few. These issues in conjunction with the publication of several government commissioned reports in recent years have brought the issue of hospital governance to the fore and has forced the contemplation of ‘good’ governance in our hospital organisations.

The significance of this issue coupled with the lack of evidence in an Irish context gave Catherine Murphy (MBS Internationalisation) of the WIT School of Business the impetus to investigate the

concept of governance in a hospital setting and the drivers of this phenomena in both the internal and external environments of the hospital.

Using a sample of large, medium and small hospitals in the South East of Ireland, interviews were conducted with ten senior managers including respondents from the Health Service Executive (HSE). These respondents stemmed from across a number of functional areas including nursing, hospital management and finance to name a few.

The results establish that hospital governance is a multi faceted concept and

the library as a “wonderful experience at the end of a long journey”. She also acknowledged the support she had received from the academic community at the Institute and from her family and friends.

For more information contact: Dr. Christine O’Dowd-Smyth E-mail: codowdsmyth@wit.ie

complex issue. Almost the entire hospital management group indicates that while the governance emphasis in the past primarily focused on financial dimensions, in particular value for money and resource allocation issues, this is now changing. It was also established that while the governance codes developed for the corporate world may be a useful tool for hospital governance, they cannot be applied to such a setting without adjustment.

While there appears to have been much improvement in goal alignment across hospital staff, confusion exists with respect to the principal-agent relationship, a relationship that many regard to be a cornerstone of ‘good’ governance.

Furthermore, clinical governance practices are now deemed to be very important and it is likely that they will be embraced particularly as the organisational changes of the health sector become more embedded.

Governance in a hospital setting is deemed a complex process but it is a very important phenomena in the evolution of the Irish health service.

For more information contact: Ms. Catherine Murphy E-mail: camurphy@wit.ie

17

Research Matters revised

18

28/8/06

16:58

Page 18

W I T

R E S E A R C H

M A T T E R S

-

I S S U E

6

-

S U M M E R

0 6

Research under way in the Separation Science Research Group (SSRG) at Waterford Institute of Technology Synthesis of Modified Polyvinyl Alcohol for Use as MIPs N-heterocycles have great precedence in the pharmaceutical industry as they are the building blocks for many pharmaceutical and active drug compounds. A selective extraction system for N-heterocycles is currently being developed showing excellent film characteristics which may potentially be developed as a sensing or drug delivery system.

Mr. Jason Mullowney and Ms. Rachel Walsh of the Separation Science Research Group at WIT. The SSRG has built up a strong research group in the area of Molecular Imprinted Polymers (MIPs). Molecular Imprinting presents a means by which selective phases can be prepared and tailored to the specific characteristics of a template (i.e. a specific drug molecule). In recent years the technology has matured to a viable alternative to biological recognition systems with increased applicability in analytical chemistry, offering a cheap and versatile platform by which molecule specific recognition can be generated.

Current research projects at the SSRG include: The Development of Microemulsions for the Analysis of Pharmaceutical Analytes by Microemulsion Electrokinetic Chromatography (MEEKC) and Microemulsion Liquid Chromatography (MELC) The advantage of employing microemulsions for MEEKC and MELC is that both water-soluble and waterinsoluble analytes can be readily solubilised due to the nature of the microemulsion. This is especially useful when analysing pharmaceutical products such as creams, ointments or suppositories, which can often require extraction steps prior to analysis.

Pharmaceutical formulations can be solubilised in the microemulsion and injected directly onto the instrument without any extraction and with minimum sample preparation.

Molecular Imprinting of Drugs Used to Treat Heart Disease This current research project, in conjunction with Merck, Sharpe and

Dohme (Ireland) Ltd, shows huge potential for developing selective separation media for pharmaceutical actives, i.e. Lisinopril Dihydrate used in the treatment of hypertension and heart disease.

MIPs Beads as Controlled Release Media for Pharmaceutical Actives This research (supported by the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering & Technology Embark Initiative) focuses on the synthesis of MIP beads, selective to ibuprofen and other non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs, which may potentially be developed as controlled drug delivery systems.

Investigation into the Use of Sol-gel Molecularly Imprinted Sensors Currently the group is investigating the use of organically modified sol-gels as selective infrared sensors. The ability to tailor their physical properties is a significant advantage over conventionally used polymers. This combined with their potential for molecular imprinting, demonstrates the potential for the production of a sol-gel based selective sensor.

The Potential of Acrylic and Sol-gel Polymers for Molecular Imprinting This project assesses the various characteristics of the template structure critical to the imprinting process.

Template molecules are imprinted in both acrylic and sol-gel polymers allowing both imprinted systems to be compared for specificity and selectivity.

Controlled Synthesis of MIP Beads This research (supported by the Interreg IIIA Separations, Wales & Ireland â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Novel Generation Science or SWINGS initiative) involves the development of a controlled polymerization method for the synthesis of uniform spherical molecularly imprinted polymer beads. Columns and cartridges packed with uniform spherical beads show better flow characteristics when used in liquid chromatography, solid-phase extraction and other flow through applications. Such media will be used for the selective extraction and purification of a range of pharmaceutical actives and environmental templates. The academic partners in this project include the School of Pharmacy at Cardiff University, of which the leading researcher Dr. Chris Allender is part.

Analysis of Substrate Range and Catalytic Activity of Novel Nitrile Metabolising Enzymes This research project involves the analysis of substrate range and catalytic activity of novel nitrile metabolising enzymes, derived from the parent strains, using a variety of techniques including gas chromatography (GC), and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).

SFI funding was obtained to allow the development of a collaborative travel grant between WIT and Prof. Mei-Xiang Wangâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s group at the Chinese National Academy of Science, Institute of Chemistry in Beijing.

The establishment of the SSRG was facilitated through funding under the Technological Sector Research Strand III initiative.

For more information contact: Dr. Peter McLoughlin E-mail: pmcloughlin@wit.ie

Research Matters revised

28/8/06

16:58

W I T

Page 19

R E S E A R C H

M A T T E R S

-

I S S U E

6

-

S U M M E R

0 6

WIT researcher and SEEPP participant wins SEBIC Bright Ideas award 2006 Peer-to-peer file sharing and high speed network access have underlined the popularity and potential of the Internet as a medium for the distribution of digital media content, while denying income to the content creators/owners. There is a distinct desire within the digital media content industry for widespread sales, coupled with a desire to control the copyright of their digital media content. Michael McCarthy, a Masters graduate of WIT, founded Pendula Limited to develop a patented system solution to address the prolific phenomenon of digital media content piracy that currently exists and was recently awarded the prestigious SEBIC “Bright Ideas” Award for 2006. Pendula Limited has developed a real-time digital media content protection device, with an associated content distribution model that has the capacity to prevent against the piracy of that content.

Michael synopsises it as “a system for implementing Digital Rights Management (DRM) while offering some fair usage through a controllable number of copies.

A server is used to control and encrypt

content on demand per user, per device, per item. The encrypted content is transmitted openly over the internet and downloaded onto a user’s device using standard interfaces. The user’s device acts as a trusted mobile platform to store and decrypt the digital data and preferably only outputs the decrypted data as an analogue signal.”

The primary innovation in the design of the decryption algorithm was in the reconciliation of an RSA derivative within an efficient embedded digital logic implementation, resulting in an ultra efficient, ultra low power, hardware decryption algorithm for streamed digital media content protection. The encryption / decryption algorithm which has been developed presents a robust level of encryption for the nature of the particular content under consideration. The deployment of the solution involves an augmentation to existing digital media content players, such that they implement this particular form of streamed decryption.

In September 2005, Michael decided to commercialise his expertise in this area.

His studies and research, combined with

time spent working with AT&T as Radio Frequency Engineer and Lucent Technologies as RF/Digital Design Engineer, place him ideally to develop this system solution. He accepted a place on the South East Enterprise Platform Programme (SEEPP), a one year start-up enterprise support programme run by Waterford Institute of Technology, in order to better equip himself with the management know-how required to develop the company to a commerciallytrading entity. The associated prize is worth €5,000, which comprises six months free rental in the SEBIC Incubation Centre as well as regular access to expert business advisors.

For more information contact: Mr. Michael McCarthy E-mail: mmccarthy@wit.ie Applications for entry to the SEEPP programme commencing in September 2006 are currently being accepted For more information contact: Mr. Eugene Crehan E-mail: ecrehan@wit.ie www.seepp.ie

Eircom and Meteor host WIT Masters students In March of this year, Eircom and Meteor hosted a visit by WIT Masters students in Accounting to the Stephen's Green HQ. In a high energy and insightful presentation given by Mr. Peter Lynch CFO of Eircom and Mr. Leo Crawford, Project Manager, the business logic for the acquisition of Meteor was explored.

This was set against the background of the overall Eircom business and the attitude and behaviour of all the key players.

The Meteor CEO Mr. Robert Haulbrook gave the vendor perspective and outlined the trajectory for the mobile business. He demonstrated the rapid progress being made by the Meteor team.

Meteor generously sponsored prepaid handsets for the party, showing an

awareness that these students will hold key decision-making positions in business in the years ahead, as well as being immediate customers and opinion leaders among their age cohort. The students will now complete research projects addressing some of the business issues examined.

Research issues arising included matters such as: understanding the high ARPU in Ireland relative to our EU peers and distilling the meaning for other technological and commercial initiatives; modelling the transition from one technical platform to another and determining the timing for satisfactory switching and scenario analysis for an oligopoly market with huge interdependencies.

The WIT group was led by lecturer in Strategic Information Management, Mr. John Maher and course leader Mr. John Casey, both Chartered Accountants. The former remarked " It is through this type of creative dialogue that we advanced the intellectual capital base of the country and promote independent and reflective learning." Mr. Peter Lynch emphasised the importance of high quality thinking followed by clear articulation of explicit logic and conclusions. He praised the professionalism of the team in Eircom who had a track record of correctly formulating decisions and implementing them.

For more information contact: Mr. John Maher E-mail: jmaher@wit.ie

19

Research Matters revised

20

28/8/06

16:58

W I T

Page 20

R E S E A R C H

M A T T E R S

-

I S S U E

6

-

S U M M E R

0 6

Recent WIT publications & conferences ■ ■ ■ PUBLICATIONS ■ ■ ■ Abbott, Y., O’Mahony, R., Leonard, N, Quinn, P. J., van der Reijden, T., Dijkshoorn, L. & Fanning, S. (2005) Characterisation of a 2.6 kbp variable region in a class 1 integron identified in an Acinetobacter baumanii strain isolated from a horse. J. Antimicrob. Chemother. 55, pp.367-370.

Altria, K. D., Broderick, M., Donegan, S. & Power, J. (2004). The use of novel water-in-oil microemulsions in microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography. Electrophoresis, 25, pp. 645-652.

Altrie, R., Costigan, T., Donegan,S., O Brien, P., Mahmood, U., Bogdan, A. & Beatty S. (2005) Investigation and management of an epidemic of Hydroview introcular lens opcaification Graefes Arch Clin Exp Opthamol 243, pp.1124-1133 Balasubramaniam, S., Barrett, K., Donnelly, W., Strassner, J., & van der Meer, S. (2006) Bio-inspired Policy Based Management (bioPBM) for Autonomic Communication Systems, Proceeding of the 7th IEEE Workshop on Policies for Distributed Systems and Networks (Policy 2006), Western Ontario, London, Canada.

Balasubramaniam, S., Donnelly, W., Botvich, D., Agoulmine, N., & Strassner, J. (2006) Towards Integrating Principles of Molecular Biology for Autonomic Network Management, Proceeding of the 13th HP OpenView University Association (HP-OVUA) Workshop, Nice, France.

Balasubramaniam, S., Jadwiga, I., & Pfeifer, T. (2006) Active Node supporting Context-aware Vertical Handover in Pervasive Computing Environment with Redundant Positioning, Proceeding of the 1st International Symposium on Wireless Pervasive Computing, Phuket, Thailand.

Bergin, M. & Clarke, J. (2005) Mental Health in the Community. Quin S. and Redmond B. (eds) Mental Health and Social Policy in Ireland, University College Dublin Press, Dublin Carroll, R., Fahy, C., Lehtihet, E., van der Meer, S., Georgalas, N., & Cleary, D. (2006) Applying the P2P paradigm to management of largescale distributed networks using a Model Driven Approach, Proceeding of the 10th IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium (NOMS 2006), Vancouver, Canada.

Flavin, K., Hughes, H., Dobbyn, V., Kirwan, P., Murphy, K., Steiner, H., Mizaikoff, B. & McLoughlin, P. (2006) A comparison of polymeric materials as pre-concentrating media for use with ATR/FAIR Sensing.

International Journal of Environmental and Analytical Chemistry, 86, 6, pp.401-415 Furlong ,A. (2006) “The Central Role of Language Learning/Teaching Methodologies in CLIL“ in CLIL Quality Matrix report, http://www.ecml.at/mtp2/CLILmatrix/pdf/wsrepD3E2005_6.pdf Harrison, M., Murphy, N., Burns, C., Heslin, J. & McGuinness, M. (2006) Influence of a health education intervention on physical activity and screen inactivity in Irish primary school children: Switch Off-Get Active. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 2006 Howlett, M. (2006) Patrick Kavanagh's 'Great Hunger': A Vision of Tragedy, Doctrine and Life, Vol. 56, No. 3, pp. 27-38.

Jennings, B. & Malone, P. (2006) Flexible Charging for Multi-provider Composed Services using a Federated, Two-phase Rating Process, Proceeding of the 10th IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium (NOMS 2006), Vancouver, Canada.

Jordan, A., & Bunyan, K. (2005)Too late for the learning: lessons for older learners Journal of Research in Post-Compulsory Education, Winter.

Jordan, A. & Carlile, O. (2005) ‘Conference or Classroom: the Place of Theory’ in Misztal, M ed. Studies in Teacher Education:Psychopedagogy, Krakow, Poland.

Jordan, A., Carlile, O. & Stack, A. (2006) Learning by Design: Learning Theory for the Designer of Multimedia Educational Materials, Dublin, Blackhall Press Kelliher, F. (2005) Interpretivism and the pursuit of research legitimisation: an integrated approach to single case design, The Electronic Journal of Business Research Methodology, 3(2), pp.123-32 Leonard, N., Abbott, Y., Rossney, A., Quinn, P., O’ Mahony, R. & Markey, B. (2005) Isolation of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from a veterinary surgeon and five dogs in a veterinary practice. Irish Veterinary Journal. 58, pp. 62-63 Madden, C. (2006) Undergraduate nursing students' acquisition and retention of CPR knowledge and skills. Nurse Education Today. 26, pp.218-227.

Clarke, J., Dooly, Z., & Fitzgerald, W. (2006) SecurIST: Security & Dependability to Empower the Citizen in the 21st Century, Proceeding of the 15th IST Mobile Summit, Place Myconos, Greece.

Merriman, V., (2005) A Responsibility to Dream: Culture and the Decolonisation of Independent Ireland in Lucy Cotter (ed.), Third Text Special Issue on Ireland (Routledge, 2005), pp. 489-499.

Cummins, W., Duggan, P. & McLoughlin, P. (2005) A comparative study of the potential of acrylic and sol-gel polymers for molecular imprinting. Analytica Chimica Acta, 542,(1), pp. 52-60.

Moloney, C. (2005) A Community Entertainment, pp. 411-14, John "Boss" Murphy (1875-1955), pp. 444-46, in Denis J. Hickey ed., The Annals of Churchtown, Churchtown Village Renewal Trust, Cork.

Doran, J. P., Duggan, P., Masterson, M., Turner, P. D. & O'Reilly, C. (2005) Expression and purification of a recombinant enantioselective amidase. Protein Expression and Purification, 40, 190.

McLoughlin, P., Flavin, K., Kirwan, P., Murphy, B., Murphy, K.,(2005) Modelling of Fickian diffusion to enhance polymer-modified sensor performance, Sensors & Actuators B, 107/1, pp.170-177.

Feeney, M. & Frisby, R. (2006), Autonomic Management of Smart Spaces, Proceeding of the 3rd International Workshop on Managing Ubiquitous Communications And Services (MUCS 2006), Cork, Ireland.

Molloy, R.(2006) Integrating the transferable skills of time management and planning into the BBS German Language Course Developing students' transferable skills in the language classroom: Case studies from the Transferable Skills in Third Level Modern Languages Curricula Project, Dublin, Transferable Skills Project.

Finnegan, R. (2005) The Classical Taste of William Ponsonby, 2nd Earl of Bessborough, in Irish Architectural and Decorative Arts: The Journal of the Irish Georgian Society, Vol. VIII, 2005, pp. 12-43; Finnegan, R. "George Barrett R.A. (2006) 1732-84, Tempietto del Clitunno, Gorry Gallery Exhibition Catalogue of 17th, 18th 19th century Paintings (Dublin, March, 2006), pp. 5-6.

Mullins, R., Mahon, F., Crotty, M., Kuhmuench, C., & Mitic, J. (2006) Daidalos: A Platform for Facilitating Pervasive Services, Proceeding of the 4th International Conference on Pervasive Computing, Dublin, Ireland.

Research Matters revised

28/8/06

16:58

W I T

Page 21

R E S E A R C H

M A T T E R S

-

I S S U E

6

-

S U M M E R

0 6

Recent WIT publications & conferences cont’d...

Murphy, N.M. & Bauman, A. (2006) Mass sporting and physical activity events: are they bread and circuses or public health interventions to increase population levels of physical activity? Journal of Physical Activity and Health Ni Dhuinn, M., Brown, P. & O’Rathaile, M.(2006) Physical activity for bone health in inactive teenage girls-is a supervised, teacher-led program or self-led program best? Journal of Adolescent Health Neelam, K., Nolan, J., Loane, E., Stack, J., O'Donovan, O., Au Eong, K.G., Beatty, S. (2006) Macular pigment and ocular biometry. Vision Res. Jun; 46(13), pp.2149-56.

Nolan, J., Stack, J., Mellerio, J., Godinho, M., O’Donovan, O., Neelam, K., Beatty, S. (2006) Monthly Consistency of Macular Pigment Optical Density and Serum Concentrations of Lutein and Zeaxanthin Current Eye Research 31, pp.199-213. Ó Dúill, G. (2005) selected and translated from the original Irish by Bernie Kenny, Gone to Earth, Ballyclare, Co. Antrim, the Black Mountain Press.

O’Raifeartaigh, C. (2005) “Einstein and the Quantum Theory of Light”, The Engineers Journal vol. 59, no.7, pp 407.

O’Raifeartaigh, C. (2005) “Einstein and the Atomic Theory”, The Engineers Journal vol. 59, no. 8, pp 497 O' Reilly, M., Cahill, M., Perry, I. (2006) 'Writing to patients: a randomised controlled trial'. Clinical Medicine, Journal of the Royal College of Physicians, Vol 6, No 2, March/April, pp. 178-182 (5) Osmani, V. & Balasubramaniam, S. (2006) An Architecture Supporting Human Activity Recognition, 3rd International Workshop on Managing Ubiquitous Communications and Services (MUCS), Cork, Ireland.

Osmani, V. & Balasubramaniam, S. (2006) Context Management Support for Activity Recognition in Health-Care, 3rd International Workshop on Tangible Space Intiative, T. Strang, V. Cahill, & A. Quigley, eds., Dublin, Ireland, pp. 453-466.

Ó Dúill, G., Rinck, Monika et al (2006) VERSschmuggel VÉARSaistear, Irische und deutschsprachige Gedichte, Heidelberg, Wunderhorn agus Indreabhán, Cló IarChonnachta (with accompanying audio cds)

Pfeifer, T. (2006), Autonomic Position Management, Proceeding of the 1st Internation Symposium on Wireless Pervasive Computing, Phuket, Thailand.

Ó Dúill, G. (2005) Inattention in the ProCathedral; The Surface; Making Tracks; Outward and Return; in Fred Johnston, ed., Cork Literary Review vol. 11, Bradshaw Books, Cork

Pils, C., Roussaki, I., & Strimpakou, M. (2006), Retrieving Context, Proceeding of the Second International Workshop on Location- and Context-Awareness, Dublin, Ireland.

Ó Dúill, G. (2005) Airlord; 35,000; in John Ravenscroft, ed., Cadenza vol. 14, Boston, Lincolnshire Ó Dúill, G. (2005) Visiting Munich; in J. and H. Wakeman, eds, the Shop 17, Schull, Co Cork Ó Dúill, G. (2005), Rollercoaster; in Martin Blyth, ed. South 31, Poole, Dorset Ó Dúill, G. (2005), Chicago; in J. and H. Wakeman, eds, the Shop 19, Schull, Co Cork Ó Dúill, G. (2005), Darkness Falls, in Susan Sindall et al, eds, Heliotrope, New York Ó Dúill, G. (2005), The Shell Guide to Cloverhill, in Philip Cummings, ed., Lá, 17 August, Belfast Ó Dúill, G. (2006), Faoileoir/ Glider, in J. and H. Wakeman, eds, the Shop, 20, Schull, Co. Cork Ó Dúill, G. (2005), Without a Mask – Celia de Fréine, in P. Sirr, ed., Poetry Ireland Review 84, Dublin Ó Dúill, G. (2005), Patterns are for Knitters – Michael Davitt, in P. Sirr, ed., Poetry Ireland Review 84, Dublin O’Mahony, R., Abbott, Y., Leonard, N. C., Markey, B. K., Quinn, P. J., Pollock, P., Fanning, S. & Roosney, A. (2005) Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus sureus (MRSA) isolated from animals and veterinary personnel in Ireland. Vet. Microbiol. 190, pp. 285-296.

O’Mahony, R., Saugy, M., Leonard, N., Drudy, D., Bradshaw, B., Egan, J., Whyte, P., O’Mahony, M., Wall., P. & Fanning, S. (2005) Antimicrobial resistance in isolates of Salmonella spp. from pigs and the characterisation of a S. Infantis gene cassette. Foodborne Pathog.

Dis. 2, pp. 274-281.

O’ Mahony R., Doran J., Coffey L., Cahill O., Black G & O’ Reilly C. (2005) Characterisation of the nitrile hydratase gene clusters of Rhodococcus erythropolis strains AJ270 and AJ300 and Microbacterium sp. AJ115 indicates horizontal gene transfer and reveals an insertion of IS1166. Antoine van Leeuwenhoek 87, pp. 221-232.

Ponce de Leon, M., Balasubramaniam, S., & Donnelly, W. (2006) Creating a distributed mobile networking testbed environment – through the Living Labs approach, Proceeding of the 2nd International IEEE/Create-Net Conference on Testbeds and Research Infrastructures for the Development of Networks and Communities, Barcelona, Spain.

Quinlan, N. & Hegarty, N. (2006). 'Librarians outside the box: Waterford Institute of Technology's library-based virtual learning environment (VLE) training and development programme'. New Library World. Volume: 107 Issue: 1/2, pp. 37-47 Raymer, D., Strassner, J., Lehtihet, E., & van der Meer, S. (2006) Endto-End Model Driven Policy Based Network Management, Proceeding of the 7th IEEE Workshop on Policies for Distributed Systems and Networks (Policy 2006), Western Ontario, London, Canada.

Strassner, J., Agoulmine, N., & Lehtihet, E. (2006) FOCALE A Novel Autonomic Networking Architecture, Latin American Autonomic Computing Symposium (LAACS), Campo Grande, MS, Brazil.

Tanguy, Y., Houlihan, J., Huyet, G., Viktorov, E.A. & Mandel P. (2006) Synchronization and Clustering in a Multimode Quantum Dot Laser Physical Review Letters, 96, 053902. van der Meer, S., Davy, S., Davy, A., Carroll, R., Jennings, B., & Strassner, J. (2006) Autonomic Networking: Prototype Implementation of the Policy Continuum, Proceeding of the 1st IEEE International Workshop on Broadband Convergence Networks (BcN)., Vancouver, Canada.

Wells, J. (2006) Hospital based industrial therapy units and the people who work within them - an Irish case analysis using a soft-systems approach Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing 13, pp.139147 Whelan, S. & Wohlfeil, M. (2006), Communicating Brands Through Engagement with "Lived" Experiences, Journal of Brand Management, Vol. 13, Issue 4

21

Research Matters revised

22

28/8/06

16:58

W I T

Page 22

R E S E A R C H

M A T T E R S

-

I S S U E

6

-

S U M M E R

0 6

Recent WIT publications & conferences cont’d...

Whelan, S. & Davies, G. (2005), Profiling Consumers of Own Brands and National Brands Using Human Personality, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services Special Issue: Retail Consumer Behaviour”,

Furlong, A. (2005) “The Central Role of Language Learning/Teaching Methodologies in CLIL. “ The CLIL Quality Matrix”. European Centre for Modern Languages, Graz, Austria. November 2005

Whelan, S. & Davies, G. (2006), “‘A comparative study of the corporate reputation of Irish versus British retailers: lessons for retail brand practice’ Irish Marketing Review.

Furlong, A. (2005) “Gender Identities and the L3 learning experience“ 14th International Congress, AILA, Madison, Wisconsin, USA. July 2005

Whelan, S. & Davies, G. (2005), “An Exploratory Study Of The Country Of Origin Effect On The Corporate Reputation Of International Retailers”, Manchester Business School Working Paper Series.

Furlong, A. (2006) “An introduction to CLIL/EMILE. “ Association du Français Appliqué. D.I.T . Dublin. February 2006

Whyte, P., Fanning, S., O’ Mahony M., O’ Mahony R. & Drudy D. (2005) Public Health and economic burden of infectious foodborne diseases in Ireland. Irish Veterinary Journal. 58, pp.279-282.

Williams, H., Yang, Y., Taylor, N., McBurney, S., Papadopoulu, E., Mahon, F., & Crotty, M. (2006) Personalized Dynamic Composition of Services and Resources in a Wireless Pervasive Computing Environment, Proceeding of the 1st International Symposium on Wireless Pervasive Computing, Phuket, Thailand.

Woods, J., & McDonald, T.J., (2005) A Longitudinal Study Into The Integration of E-Commerce In SMEs, in Proceedings of the Fourth IASTED International Conference on Communications, Internet, and Information Technology, Massachusetts, pp. 113-119.

Zach, M., Fahy, C., Carroll, R., Lehtihet, E., Parker, D., Georgalas, N., Nielsen, J., Marin, R., & Serrat, J. (2006) Towards a framework for network management applications based on peer-to-peer paradigms, Proceeding of the 10th IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium (NOMS 2006), Vancouver, Canada.

■ ■ ■ CONFERENCES ■ ■ ■ Barry, R., & Doyle, L. (2006). ‘Inter-organisational information system adoption: investigating the dominant factor ‘power’’. 11th UK Academy of Information Systems, University of Gloucestershire. (9-11 April).

Chadwick, J., Power, D. & Jackman, B. (2006), ‘Modelling the Timing Considerations of an Automotive-based Time-Triggered System’. SAE 2006 World Congress, Detroit, Michigan, USA. Clarke, J., Dooly, Z. & Fitzgerald, W. (2006), ‘SecurIST: Security & Dependability to Empower the Citizen in the 21st Century’. 15th IST Mobile Summit, Myconos, Greece.

Clarke, J. & Fitzgerald, W. (2005), ‘SECURIST: Co-ordinating the development of a Strategic Research Agenda for Security and Dependability R&D’. 39TH Annual IEEE International Carnahan Conference.

Cregg, P.J., Murphy, K. & Mardinoglu, A.(2006) “Inclusion of Interparticle Interactions in the Modelling of Magnetic Drug Targeting” 6th International Conference on the Scientific & Clinical Applications of Magnetic Carriers, Krems, Austria. May 17th-20th 2006 (http://www.magneticmicrosphere.com/meet2006/proceedings.html) Finnegan, R.J. (2006) ‘Espied with Truth’s Ray or Error’s jaundiced Eye?: Richard Twiss’s Account of Dublin in 1775, to "'Bare bones of a fanlight”': Georgian Dublin Conference, UCD School of History and Archives, Newman House. (6 May).

Hansen, C. (2006) ‘PhD by Practice’. From Experience - Art and Design Research Network Symposium, Limerick School of Art and Design.

(10th March).

Furlong, A. (2005) “L’Enseignement d’une Matière par l’Intégration d’une Langue Etrangère/Content and Language Integrated Learning.

De quoi s’agit-il? Pour quelles raisons et comment s’y prendre? “ Le Français en Irlande: Vers un Nouveau Dynamisme, D.I.T., Dublin. November 2005

Jackman, B. & Sanyanga, S. (2006) ‘Using Model Driven Architecture for the Development and Integration of Platform-Independent Vehicle Application Software across Different OEMs.’ SAE World Congress.

Jackman, B. & Sanyanga, S. (2006) ‘Using UML 2.0 to Create Executable Code from Requirements Capture and Consistent Requirement Specifications for Real Time Automotive Software Development’. SAE World Congress.

Jordan, A. & Carlile, O. (2006) ‘Learning Outcomes and National Qualification Frameworks’ Lifelong Learning Conference, Armenia.

(April).

Jordan, A. & Bunyan, K. (2005) ‘Active citizenship and the struggle for knowledge and power in older learners’ FACE Conference, UCC. (July).

Jordan, A. & Carlile, O. (2005) ‘Learning societies: global trends towards national qualification frameworks’. International Conference on Globalization Processes, Guanxi, China, (Sept).

Keating, M. & Harrington, D.(2005) ‘Service Quality Implementation Understanding the Role and Contribution of Middle Managers’ Irish Academy of Management Annual Conference, GMIT, Galway.

(September).

Keating, M. & Harrington, D. (2005) ‘The Role of Hotel Middle Managers in Quality Implementation’ Tourism and Hospitality Research in Ireland: Exploring the issues. University of Ulster, Portrush. (June).

Kelliher, F. & Henderson, J.B. (2005), ‘Implementing IT in a micro-firm’ Irish Academy of Management Proceedings NUIG. (7-9 Sept).

Merriman, V. (2004) ‘Exiled to Home: Dermot Bolger’s ‘Départ/Arrivé’ and ‘From These Green Heights’, at Intertextual Dialogues: Travels And Routes, Conference of the Portuguese Association for AngloAmerican Studies, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal. (April 2005).

Merriman, V. (2005) ‘Beyond Permitted Acts: Irish Theatre in the Twenty-first Century’, Royal Holloway Symposium on Intercultural, Cross-cultural and Postcolonial Theatre, London (May).

Merriman, V. (2005) ‘Culture and the Decolonisation of Independent Ireland’, Forum on issues arising from Third Text: Special Issue on Ireland, National College of Art and Design, Dublin. (December).

Molloy, R. (2005) ‘Fachübergreifende Fertigkeiten in den Unterricht Wirtschaftsdeutsch integrieren’ (‘Integrating Soft Skills into Business German Language Programmes’) Business German in Ireland Working Group, Goethe Institute. (4 Nov).

Molloy, R. (2005) ‘Integrating Transferable Skills into Languages courses at WIT’ ‘Languages and Skills: Just about communications?’

Conference, DCU, (16 December).

Mullery, K., Leppla, G., Boyd, D. & Jackman, B.(2006) ‘Experiences with the ODX Diagnostic Database Standard’. SAE World Congress.

Murphy, C. & O'Donohoe, S. (2006) 'Hospital Governance: An Insight from the South East of Ireland', Irish Accounting & Finance Association Conference, DCU Dublin. (11 –12 May).

Research Matters revised

28/8/06

16:58

W I T

Page 23

R E S E A R C H

M A T T E R S

-

I S S U E

6

-

S U M M E R

0 6

Recent WIT publications & conferences cont’d...

Murphy, J. (2005) ‘Slap and Tickle: Violence as Fun in the Movies’, Gender and Violence conference, University of Aberdeen, Scotland. (9 - 11 September).

Murphy, J. (2006) ‘Repositioning Irish-America: Neil Jordan’s American-Irish and the value of the interstice’. Screening IrishAmerica conference, Boston College, MA, USA. (16 - 17 March).

Murphy, J. (2006) ‘The body in Almodóvar's work: A site of rhizomatic symbolic violence’ . New Voices conference, National University of Ireland, Maynooth. (5 - 7 May).

Murphy, N.M.(2005) ‘Promoting physical activity with Irish teenage girls: an intervention with a focus on bone health’. National Physical Activity Conference, Melbourne,Australia. (13-16 October). Abstract: Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport (Supplement), 2005, 8,4, 153.

Murphy, N.M. (2005) ‘Influence of a health education intervention on physical activity and screen inactivity in Irish primary school children: Switch Off-Get Active’. National Physical Activity Conference, Australia. (13-16 October). Abstract: Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport (Supplement), 8,4, 41.

Murphy, N.M. (2004) ‘Physical activity and bone health: a health promotion perspective’. UK Calcium Summit. Edinburgh, Cardiff and London. (14, 15, 17 Sept).

O’Connor, N. (2006) “The Importance Of Destination Branding In Movie Induced Tourism Locations, “ Cutting Edge Research in Tourism Conference - New Directions Challenges and Applications, School of Management, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK. O’Toole, M. (2005) “Teaching and Learning Styles in Apprentice Education, “ ITAC Fourth Conference on Apprenticeship, Dublin. May 2005

Power, J., Whelan, S. & Davies, G. (2006), ‘Consumer Relationships with Ruthless Brands’, 2nd Annual Colloquium of the Academy of Marketing’s Brand and Corporate Reputation SIG, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK. (7- 8 Sept).

Whelan, S. & Power, J. (2005), ‘A conceptual model of the influence of brand trust on the relationship between consumer and company image’, Academy of Marketing Conference, Dublin Institute of Technology.

Woods, J., McDonald, T.J. & Stapleton, L. (2004) ‘EC-IDM - The Electronic Commerce Integrated Development Methodology for Small Firms’, Information Systems Development Conference, Lithuania.

■ ■ ■ BOOK CHAPTER ■ ■ ■ Jordan, A. & Carlile, O. (2005) It works in practice but will it work in theory? Chapter in Moore, S. & McMullan, B. (eds) Emerging Issues in University Education, AISHE, Dublin.

Marsh, A., Mc Evoy, E., Altria, K., Broderick, M., Donegan, S. Power. J. (2006) Microemulsion Electrokinetic Chromatography - a review.

Encyclopedia of Separation Science.

Moore J., Corcoran D., Dooley J., Fanning S., Lucey B., Matsuda M., Mc Dowell, D., Megraud, F., Millar, C., O’ Mahony, R., O’ Riordain, R., O’ Rourke, M., Rao, J., Rooney, P., Sails, A. & Whyte, P. (2005) Campylobacter Review Article. Vet. Res 36: 351-382.

■ ■ ■ NEWSPAPER ARTICLE ■ ■ ■ O’Connor, N. 04/12/05 The Sunday Business Post Newspaper: “Tourist Spin-off from Ballyk a mixed blessing for villagers”.

Power, J. & Whelan, S. (2004), ‘Modelling the Influence of Brand Trust on the Relationship Between Consumer, CEO & Corporate Reputation’, 1st International Research Colloquium in Reputation, Waterford Institute of Technology, Waterford, Ireland. (20–22 March).

Ó Dúill, G. Providence, R.I.; in Caroline Walshe, ed., the Irish Times, 05 February 2005, Dublin

Power, J. & Whelan, S. (2005), ‘A Conceptual Model of the Influence of Brand Trust on the Relationship Between Consumer & Company Image’, Academy of Marketing Conference, Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin, Ireland. (5- 8 June).

Barry, P. (2006) ‘Simple closed form Hankel transforms based on the central coefficients of certain Pascal-like triangles’, available electronically at http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/math/pdf/0605/0605169.pdf

Power, J. & Whelan, S. (2005), Incongruency & Ruthless Brands: Modelling the Effects of Trust on the Consumer - Company Relationship’, 8th Annual Conference of the Irish Academy of Management, Galway - Mayo Institute of Technology, Galway, Ireland. (7 – 9 Sept).

Rajkovic, P., Petkovic, M.D. & Barry, P. The Hankel transform of the

Power, J. (2005), ‘Developing a Cohesive Position for Rural Tourism The Role of Image Congruence’, Recent Developments in Tourism Research Conference, University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal. (6 - 8 Oct).

Power, J., Haberlin, D. & Foley A. (2005), ‘Developing the Positioning of the Irish Rural Tourism Product - The Role of Image and Market Focus’, Tourism & Hospitality Research in Ireland: Exploring the Issues Conference, University of Ulster, Belfast. (14 - 15 June).

Power, J. & Whelan, S. (2006), ‘Antecedents of Consumer Trust with Ruthless Leaders’, Academy of Marketing’s Thought Leaders International Conference on Brand Management, University of Birmingham, Birmingham. (28 – 29 March).

■ ■ ■ OTHER ■ ■ ■

sum of two consecutive generalized Catalan numbers, published electronically at arXiv.org/pdf/math.CO/0604422

23

Research Matters revised

28/8/06

16:58

Page 24

Staff in the Research Support Unit are based on the second floor of the Walton IT Building. Staff in the Research and Innovation Centre are based on the Carriganore campus. Contact details are as follows: Dr. Willie Donnelly Head of School of Research & Innovation Office: IT 2.11 Tel: +353 – 51 – 845596 or Internally: ext. 5596 Email: wdonnelly@wit.ie Kathryn Kiely Industry Services Manager Office: IT 2.08 Tel: +353 – 51 – 302034 or Internally: ext. 2034 Email: kkiely@wit.ie

Research Support Unit Susie Cullinane Projects Manager Research Support Unit Room IT.2.10 Tel: +353 – 51 – 845503 or Internally: ext. 5503 Email: scullinane@wit.ie Rita Dalton Personal Assistant Research Support Unit Room IT 2.10 Tel: +353 – 51 – 845596 or Internally: ext. 5596 Email: rdalton@wit.ie

Research and Innovation Centre, Carriganore Tom Corcoran Innovation Centre Manager Tel: +353 – 51 – 2975 or Internally: ext. 2975 Email: tcorcoran@wit.ie Mary Fearon Administrative Assistant Research and Innovation Centre Tel: +353 – 51 – 302900 or Internally: ext. 2900

Eimear Cheasty Administrative Assistant Research Support Unit Room IT 2.10 Tel: +353 – 51 – 845501 or Internally: ext. 5501 Email: echeasty@wit.ie Jenny Murphy Administrative Assistant Research Support Unit Room IT 2.10 Tel: +353 – 51 – 845591 or Internally: ext. 5591 Email: jmurphy@wit.ie

Research Matters is published twice a year by the School of Research and Innovation in Waterford Institute of Technology.

Please address any comments or suggestions that you may have on this publication to Kathryn Kiely, Industry Services Manager. Email: research@wit.ie.

Edited by Jenny Murphy.