Search

This research responds to calls to further our understanding of exhibitions in the library context by exploring the significance of a commemorative exhibition staged in a public library. Employing a qualitative methodology, it centers on the 'Goodbye Dublin: The War of Independence in the City' commemorative exhibition, staged by Dublin City Pearse Street Library, between August 14th and October 31st, 2019. The findings show that the commemorative nature of the exhibition appealed to a variety of new, lapsed and frequent library users, connecting with Irish and non-Irish residents, as well as tourists visiting the city. In this regard, the exhibition was effective in its objective of appealing to a new and wide-ranging audience, however, the findings underline the need for more diverse and varied marketing, if this aim is to be entirely successful. The staging of the exhibition as an active authoring and articulation of the past by the library is highlighted, and the use of multimedia is seen to transform the library into an emotionally charged, dynamic, and multisensory space. This facilitates an immersive encounter, involving interplays between the exhibition narratives and visitors' personal memories and interests. This offers different ways for visitors to engage with the library, inspiring them to find new meanings, explore issues of personal, collective and national identities, and to reassess contemporary events. Overall, the research makes an important contribution by highlighting the complexity and importance of commemorative exhibitions in the context of public libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Festivals have been conceptualised as serious leisure activities as well as arenas for cultural capital acquisition and embodiment. However, there is still theoretical confusion surrounding the process of cultural embodiment, especially in leisure practices. This article suggests that the serious leisure perspective, in combination with cultural capital ideas, offers a means of deepening understanding of how cultural capital can be embodied in festival settings. To make its arguments, the article draws on qualitative data collected at two long-established literary festivals, one in Ireland and one in Italy. Observations and interviews with festival participants were used to develop an understanding of participants' cultural capital embodiment. The article suggests that the serious leisure perspective is a valuable theory to throw light on three elements of cultural embodiment at festivals: (1) body; (2) pre-existing cultural resources; (3) time. Interlinking serious leisure with cultural capital leads to an in-depth analysis of how culture is embodied during festivals. This article demonstrates the value of using serious leisure and the embodied state of cultural capital ideas in tandem to further understand cultural embodiment in festivals. The study concludes by suggesting potential future studies and areas of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates if and how cities conceive of festivals staged in outdoor public space as a means of achieving cultural inclusion policy objectives. The inclusion of culture in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) creates an imperative for cities to scrutinize their approaches to making their cities inclusive. Festivals offer potential in this regard and this study examines the ways that Barcelona, Dublin, Glasgow, Gothenburg and London incorporate festivals into cultural inclusion policies. It relies on secondary research to critically analyse a range of current policy documents, informed by Ball's ideas about policy contexts: (a) of influence, (b) of policy text production, and (c) of practice. Findings confirm existing assessments of the festival landscape as being complex. They show that while the cities studied have a long history of strategizing about festivals, this has not yet led to dedicated policy attention. Overall, in line with work by Whitford, Phi and Dredge, a market-led approach to festivals dominates, although evidence of a policy rhetoric linking festivals to cultural inclusion is present. Nevertheless, the findings suggest that policy thinking about how festivals can achieve cultural inclusion is neither sufficiently comprehensible nor "joined up" across relevant policy domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely held that social capital can help build sustainable communities, yet researchers agree that further research is needed to fully understand the social dimensions of sustainable development. In event settings, understanding how social capital is formed remains limited. This paper addresses this issue by examining the extent to which the UK City of Culture 2013 (CoC13) succeeded in building social capital in post-conflict Derry/Londonderry. The authors adopted a case study approach and mixed qualitative methods in the form of in-depth interviews and focus groups. The findings suggest that CoC13 helped to generate both bonding and bridging social capital, however, while intra community bonds were strengthened, exclusivity was also fostered. More positive were the examples of bridging capital cultivated across communities, particularly between young attendees, and between event organisers, with cooperation building trust and goodwill between volunteers. Some of the cross community relationships developed have been sustained. However, the lack of legacy planning has meant that the long-term social goals have not been met. In summary, the study suggests that in a post conflict society, events can help build social capital. However, in the absence of legacy planning, the benefits gained may soon evaporate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a method for determining and mapping suitable locations for development using Multi Criteria Analysis and the Analytical Hierarchy Process and considering uncertainties in the process. The method is applied to the case study of Howth (Dublin), where development suitability is assessed against specific protection and conservation areas as well as ground water vulnerability. Uncertainty is incorporated using a Monte Carlo simulation into the Analytical Hierarchy Process calculations to determine criteria weightings. A map is derived, which includes, for all locations, both site suitability for development and the level of uncertainty attached to this suitability. The map combines a double categorization of suitability and uncertainty. The method allows for increased transparency in decision making regarding site suitability for development, as well as increased confidence in decision making to allow for reduced risk in terms of the potential impact of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to contribute to the literature on the meanings of domestic spaces by furthering understandings of the sorts of roles that space plays in shaping women's leisure experiences. The study researched a group of 15 women who live in disadvantaged areas of Dublin city and care for dependent children. Focus groups and structured conversations revealed the poverty of the spatial capital available to these women, depicting local environments as difficult and stressful, and to be endured rather than enjoyed. They further revealed the extent to which the women's lives were shaped by their obligations as care-givers. Within the home itself, private domestic spaces were found to be deeply embedded with powerful ideologies of motherhood that did not necessarily evaporate in the simple absence of obligations imposed by children. Instead, they tended to serve as constant reminders of how things 'should be', consequently constraining some women's abilities to divest themselves of care-giving duties and engage in self-focused recreation. Some of the women studied were able to move beyond obligation, and for them leisure represented modest yet significant opportunities to self-determinedly relax, reclaim and even luxuriate in certain spaces within their homes. Similarly, once relieved of child-caring responsibilities, leisure encounters within the local environment afforded some women new insights into familiar spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nurse independent prescribing (NIP) has been at the centre of government policy in the UK to improve patient care. Clinical nurse specialists (CNSs) are key workers in the delivery of specialist palliative care services, and NIP enables them to improve the quality of care their patients receive. However, there are known barriers that prevent qualified NIPs from prescribing, including lack of NIP policies in organizations and difficulties in ensuring ongoing mentoring and support. This article describes how an NIP policy was developed and introduced within an independent specialist palliative care setting (hospice community team). The process undertaken by the NIP policy team is described as well as approaches to overcoming potential and actual barriers. Challenges in creating a NIP policy are explored, including such issues as managing off-label prescribing, obtaining peer support and securing insurance cover. As CNSs often work independently, it was felt important to provide mentoring following qualification by senior medical staff in order to gain confidence in their new roles in NIP. Wider influences, such as initiatives to increase care of patients in the community and 7-day working by CNSs are also considered. This article aims to support other health care providers, both in the independent and national health sectors, who plan to deliver the NIP agenda. Barriers to NIP must be addressed in order to achieve success and to ensure specialist palliative care nurses trained in NIP are able to put their extended skills into practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a general assumption in contemporary society that holidaying is beneficial in many ways. Yet, even in affluent societies, access to holidaying opportunities continues to be constrained by a variety of factors relating to inter alia income, gender, health and race. This is problematic because it means that sizeable minorities within advanced societies are being denied the benefits that researchers have attributed to the practice of holidaying. Recently, there has been a renewed interest in problematising the exclusionist nature of holidaying with researchers arguing that a lack of holiday opportunities may compound social deprivation, reinforce social problems and heighten social exclusion. A number of knowledge gaps have been identified including the extent to which holidaying benefits children and youth and those experiencing social exclusion. This paper aims to redress this knowledge deficit by reporting the findings of a study that examined the benefits of holidaying accruing to a group of children, and their families, experiencing social exclusion in Dublin. Using a variety of qualitative methods, the study found that access to holidaying opportunities contributed to quality of life and enhanced well-being for the children studied. The benefits of the holiday extended beyond the time period of the holiday itself, and also extended beyond the children themselves into the wider family unit. A number of avenues for further research are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper problematises the term ‘festival tourism’. It conceptualises festivals as socially sustaining devices and argues that while they frequently function as tourist attractions, their social significance extends far beyond tourism. Using empirical material gathered in two case study arts festivals in Ireland, the paper demonstrates how festivals can contribute to arts development by inter alia creating demand for the arts, enhancing venue infrastructures, encouraging local creativity and animating local involvement. The paper contends that arts festivals, irrespective of their initial objectives almost inevitably develop tourist profiles over time and it proceeds to examine how changing tourism priorities in the two festivals studied impact upon sustainable festival practices. The findings suggest that tourism emerged as a key force promoting festival growth and expansion. It was found to be associated with increased revenue flows but also with increased arts activity on a year-round basis and with an improved venue infrastructure in both places. However, problems were identified with respect to the quality of the relationship forged between the festivals and local populations in the respective places. The paper concludes by arguing that festivals' engagement with tourism needs to be carefully managed in the interests of promoting the socially sustaining function of festivals and of encouraging sustainable approaches to tourism development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a remarkable rise in the number of urban arts festivals in recent decades. The outcomes of cities' engagement with arts festivals, however, remain little understood, particularly in social and cultural terms. This article reviews existing literature on urban festivals and argues that city authorities tend to disregard the social value of festivals and to construe them simply as vehicles of economic generation or as ‘quick fix’ solutions to city image problems. While such an approach renders certain benefits, it is ultimately quite limiting. If arts festivals are to achieve their undoubted potential in animating communities, celebrating diversity and improving quality of life, then they must be conceived of in a more holistic way by urban managers. Currently, the tasks of conceptualising the problems at issue and devising appropriate policies are hampered by the scarcity of empirical research conducted in the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on cultural reproduction in arts festival settings. It begins by conceptualizing festival settings as places whose characters derive from a combination of both internally derived traits and a diverse series of interactions with other places. Drawing on case study research conducted in an arts festival setting in Galway in the Republic of Ireland, the discussion identifies bow elements indigenous to the place connect and engage with external forces. The study found the process of interacting with other places to be complex, involving much negotiation and adaptation as locales became contexts for re-working an array of often conflicting ideals and influences. The paper concludes that while inevitable difficulties are faced as festivals negotiate the potentially standardizing forces of homogenization, it is only through continuous interaction with other places that local contexts realize their lull potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades geographers have paid increasing attention to festivals. They have construed festivals as important practices through which people connect with their place and as authored landscapes designed to promote particular sets of values and attach specific meanings to place. Tourism influences the processes and dynamics ongoing in festival settings and this paper seeks to unravel some of the complex ways in which it influences the reproduction of cultural meanings there. It draws on research conducted on the Wexford Festival Opera in the Republic of Ireland and analyses the symbolism, practices and meanings found to be ­associated with the festival. It discusses how 'official' festival meanings sought to balance ­élitism with inclusivity, and international appeal with local support but identifies a contrasting set of 'unofficial' meanings being communicated through the attitudes and practices evident in the local population. Tourism's role was found to be critical in reproducing 'official' meanings and in sustaining myths encasing the festival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the role played by holiday home owners in shaping leisure/tourism places. Having reviewed recent trends in the holiday home literature, the paper argues that the literature has failed to adequately consider how this group of actors can play a role in developing leisure/tourism places. The research is case study based and reports the findings of a study undertaken in Courtown, a small seaside resort in the Republic of Ireland. Specifically, it investigates the role that holiday home owners played in a controversy that arose with respect to developing tourism accommodation in an area of woodlands. In this case, a local business alliance proposed and planned to undertake this development with the stated aim of improving tourism facilities in the area. The main opposition came from holiday home owners who formed the Save Courtown Woods Campaign. Research questions posed include what motivated the latter's involvement? What sources of power did they draw upon? How did their actions change the local area? The study found that holiday home owners as an identifiable group of actors must not be ignored as potentially important players in the shaping of local development paths. They were committed to protecting the amenity value of the area and achieved their campaign aims by securing an agreement that no development would occur on 55% of the woodland area. A key factor underpinning the group's ability to effectively engage in the local development process was the degree to which they had kinship and social connections with the local area. These gave the group an 'insider-outsider' status that enabled them to access decision-making channels. Social status was found to play a particular role in this respect, facilitating linkages between holiday home owners and the local business and political elites. Social relationships were formative influences shaping the actions taken by the holiday home owners and in particular, may have played a part in... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solutions of monodisperse monolayer-protected clusters (MPCs) of gold can beused as multivalent redox mediators in electrochemical experiments due to their quantized double-layer charging properties. We demonstrate their use in scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) experiments wherein the species of interest (up to 2-electron reduction or 4-electron oxidation from the native charge-state of the MPCs) is generated at the tip electrode, providing a simple means to adjust the driving force of the electron transfer (ET). Approach curves to perfectly insulating (Teflon) and conducting (Pt) substrates are obtained. Subsequently, heterogeneous ET between MPCs in 1,2-dichloroethane and an aqueous redox couple (Ce(IV), Fe(CN)[SUB6][SUP3-/4-], Ru(NH[SUB3])[SUB6][SUP3+], and Ru(CN)[SUB6][SUP4-]) is probed with both feedback and potentiometric mode of SECM operation. Depending on the charge-state of the MPCs, they can accept/donate charge heterogeneously at the liquid-liquid interface. However, this reaction is very slow in contrast to ET involving MPCs at the metal-electrolyte interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reversible electrochemical injection of discrete numbers of electrons into sterically stabilized silicon nanocrystals (NCs) (∼2 to 4 nanomaters in diameter) was observed by differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) in N,N′-dimethylformamide and acetonitrile. The electrochemical gap between the onset of electron injection and hole injection—related to the highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals—grew with decreasing nanocrystal size, and the DPV peak potentials above the onset for electron injection roughly correspond to expected Coulomb blockade or quantized double-layer charging energies. Electron transfer reactions between positively and negatively charged nanocrystals (or between charged nanocrystals and molecular redox-active coreactants) occurred that led to electron and hole annihilation, producing visible light. The electrogenerated chemiluminescence spectra exhibited a peak maximum at 640 nanometers, a significant red shift from the photoluminescence maximum (420 nanometers) of the same silicon NC solution. These results demonstrate that the chemical stability of silicon NCs could enable their use as radox-active macromoleculer species with the combined optical and charging properties of semiconductor quantum dots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel method to readily determine the lipophilicity of electrogenerated charged species is reported. This is achieved by local electrolysis at a Pt coated micropipette and, subsequently, driving the electrogenerated species to transfer across the liquid–liquid interface supported at the tip of the micropipette under potential control. The formal potential of ion transfer can then be used to give a measure of its relative lipophilicity. The method proposed is facile and enables the study of potentially unstable charged products of electron transfer reactions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article investigates electron transfer kinetics between a solution redox mediator and the nanocrystal core using a monolayer of alkanethiolate protected gold nanocrystals and reports the first quantitative estimate for the rate of electron transfer at the nanocrystal/solution interface. The rate of electron transfer was found to be depended on the redox couple used, which shows the importance of molecule specific properties such as the effect of their relative hydrophilicities.

The article focuses on the electrodeposition noble metals on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). The SWNT serves a dual function: initially as the electrodeposition template and subsequently as a wire to electrically connect the deposited Au, Pt and Pd nanoparticles. SWNT electrodes suitable for electrochemical measurements were produced via patterned SWNT growth following standard microfabrication techniques. Metal electrodeposition was performed potentiostatically in a two-electrode arrangement where the deposition potential, duration of the pulse and the concentration of the metal salt (HAuCl4, K,PtCl4, (NH4)2PdCl4) were varied.

The article throws light on the time-resolved electrochemical detection of discrete adsorption events. It reports the amperometric detection of single carboxylated micro and nanospheres adsorbing on electrodes as well-resolved, discrete steps in the current-time response. Detection at the single-event level is a necessary requirement for a range of single-molecule experiments and can greatly enhance existing sensor technologies. Electrochemical detection of micron-sized latex beads at arrays of microelectrodes has also been proposed as a sensing technique for use in sandwich-type immunoassays, and it was deduced that single-bead detection could be realized.

Thiol-protected gold nanoparticles, so-called monolayer protected clusters (MPCs), are unique in that they can be repeatedly isolated and dispersed without irreversible aggregation. This extraordinary stability is due to the strength of the gold-thiol bond. From extensive research on 2D self-assembled thiol monolayers on Au (SAMs), the gold-sulfur bond is broken only under extreme oxidative conditions, at high temperatures or by electrochemical reduction. MPCs are essentially 3D SAMs and have been termed freely diffusing nanoelectrodes.

Describes the preparation of hexanethiol-capped Au (C6S-Au) particles by the Brust method using the modification proposed by Murray and colleagues to obtain particles of small core radius and improved monodispersity. Methods used to investigate the monolayer protected clusters (MPC) redox properties; Current response; Differential pulse voltammetry response; Oxidation states for monolayer protected gold nanoparticles.

This article reports on the ion permeability of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) formed on the surface of charged alkanethiol-protected gold nanoparticles, so-called monolayer-protected clusters (MPCs). The capacitance and thus the charging energy required to add/remove an electron from the metal core are extremely sensitive to ions entering the monolayer, and the extent of ion penetration can be tuned by the charge and size of the ions and the permittivity of the solvent. Experimentally, this effect is comparable to ion association with conventional redox molecules, indicating that MPCs despite their large size and the fundamentally differing nature of the electron transfer process can be treated analogously to redox molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A synthesis strategy to obtain monodisperse hexanethiolate-protected Au38 clusters based on their resistance to etching upon exposure to a hyperexcess of thiol is reported. The reduction time in the standard Brust-Schiffrin two-phase synthesis was optimized such that Au38 were the only clusters that were fully passivated by the thiol monolayer which leaves larger particles vulnerable to etching by excess thiol. The isolated Au38 was characterized by mass spectrometry, thermogravimetric analysis, optical spectroscopy, and electrochemical techniques giving Au38(SC6)22 as the molecular formula for the cluster. These ultrasmall Au clusters behave analogously to molecules with a wide energy gap between occupied (HOMO) and unoccupied levels (LUMO) and undergo single-electron charging at room temperature in electrochemical experiments. Electrochemistry provides an elegant means to study the electronic structure and the chemical stability of the clusters at different charge states. We used cyclic voltammetry and scanning electrochemical microscopy to unequivocally demonstrate that Au38 can be reversibly oxidized to charge states z = +1 or +2; however, reduction to z = -1 leads to desorption of the protecting thiolate monolayer. Although this reductive desorption of thiol from the cluster surface is superficially analogous to electrochemical desorption of planar self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) from macroscopic electrodes, the molecular details of the process are likely to be complicated based on the current view that the thiolate monolayer in clusters is in fact composed of polymeric Au-S complexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the use of the scanning electrochemical microscope (SECM) to investigate the electronic properties of Langmuir monolayers of alkane thiol protected gold nanocrystals (NCs). A substantial increase in monolayer conductivity upon mechanical compression of the Au NC monolayer is reported for the first time. This may be the room temperature signature of the insulator to metal transition previously reported for comparable silver NC monolayers. Factors influencing the conductivity of the monolayer NC array are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the potential of ring-disk ultramicroelectrodes for scanning electrochemical microscopy. Investigation on the partitioning of iodine across liquid-liquid interface; Problems associated with double layer charging; Collection of electrode-generated species.

The article differentiates ion solvation in the film and electrolyte phase in controlling redox properties of model electroactive thin films. Ion transfer across the film/solution interface has received little attention to date, and here we will demonstrate how it can effectively shut off the redox response of nanoparticle films.