Putting a health inequalities focus on the Northern Ireland cardiovascular service framework

The PHA, supported by the Institute of Public Health in Ireland (IPH) and other agencies and individuals, has completed a health impact assessment (HIA) on the Cardiovascular Service Framework (CVSFW) for Northern Ireland.The CVSFW is the first in a series of service frameworks developed in Northern Ireland to guide HSC provision from prevention and health improvement over early intervention in communities and general practice into hospital and other institutional settings towards rehabilitation, palliative care and end of life.The CVSFW is relevant to everyone who has a part in HSC services for health improvement, hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, diabetes, heart disease, cerebrovascular disease (stroke), peripheral vascular disease and renal disease. This includes patients, carers, families, communities, voluntary and statutory service providers, policy makers and researchers. There are many determinants which impact on cardiovascular disease. Individual lifestyles are major contributors and smoking remains one of the biggest risk factors for the disease alongside sedentary lifestyles and alcohol consumption. Circumstances experienced during the early years influence health and wellbeing into adulthood. Breastfeeding can help protect against obesity, while physical activity and eating habits developed from a young age often form lifelong patterns of behaviour. Living and working conditions also impact on health. Type of job, level of control and employment conditions are major factors. Educational achievement and income are also powerful influences on health. The environment where we live can provide access to open and green space, which plays an important part in physical activity patterns alongside available transport infrastructure. As well as physical health impacts, all of these factors also influence mental health and emotional wellbeing.

A Fitter Future for All - Framework launched

Obesity is a modern lifestyle epidemic that is threatening our health and well-being.This was the key message delivered by Health Minister Edwin Poots at the launch of The Framework for Preventing and Addressing Overweight and Obesity in Northern Ireland 2012-2022: 'A Fitter Future for All'.This ten year strategy will seek to improve the health and wellbeing of people throughout their entire life, from newborns to seniors.Minister Poots said: "We need to face the issue of obesity head on. It's an issue that will require commitment and action from across all sectors, including other government departments and agencies. It is therefore my intention to invest more than £7 million towards tackling the problem of obesity over the next three years."The negative impact on health caused by obesity cannot be over stated. Being obese increases the risk of developing serious illnesses such as heart disease, stroke, some cancers and type 2 diabetes."It is a significant challenge facing modern society and if we don't tackle it now we are storing up a multitude of problems for ourselves in the future."The Minister continued: "More and more of our children and young people are becoming overweight or obese and are putting themselves at risk of developing a range of health problems in their later years."Evidence shows that it is more likely that an obese child will become an obese adult. This in turn will lead to a greater strain on our health and social care services, with more people requiring treatment for obesity related illnesses and specialist care."The proposed framework looks to address a number of key issues, including:-increasing levels of breastfeeding;increasing knowledge and skills about food and its preparationencouraging participation in physical activity;promoting walking and cycling; making sure how we live and where we live encourages and supports healthy eating and physical activity;encouraging and supporting more community involvement with these issues; and;continuation of reformulation of processed foods.The Minister added: "In Northern Ireland 59% of adults are either overweight (36%) or obese (23%). Another worrying statistic is that 8% of children aged 2-15 years were assessed as being obese. These figures demonstrate the scale of the problem and the enormous challenge we are facing."The new framework sets challenging targets. To date we have focussed on simply trying to stop the rise in the levels of obesity, however under A Fitter Future For All we are seeking to actually reduce the level of obesity by 4% and overweight and obesity by 3% among adults. In addition, we are seeking a 3% reduction of obesity and 2% reduction of overweight and obesity among our children and young people." "Meeting these targets will require changes in our lifestyles and behaviours. Most importantly, individuals need to be given the opportunity to make decisions that will benefit their own health and wellbeing".Referring to the 'Give It A Go!' initiative, to increase awareness of the range of nutritional and physical activity initiatives in the southern area, the Minister said: "The Give It A Go! Initiative is a great example of how collaborative work can make such a positive contribution to peoples' lives by providing opportunities for learning, participation in physical activity and for social interaction."Tackling obesity and seeing positive results throughout the life course of the entire population will take time but I strongly believe that the actions set out in this framework will inspire and enable people to improve their diets and be more active."Encouraging people to consider the framework and adopt a healthier lifestyle, the Minister concluded: "Government cannot tackle obesity on its own. We can encourage and promote healthy eating and physical activity but as a society, we must take more individual responsibility for our own health outcomes."Dr Tracy Owen, Consultant in Public Health Medicine with the PHA, said: "The PHA is already working with partner organisations across many of the areas included in the framework 'A Fitter Future for All' and is addressing issues such as developing people's skills and knowledge about healthier eating along with encouraging participation in physical activity. The framework gives us the opportunity to raise awareness of this important area and strengthen action."As the Minister has mentioned, a good example of this coordinated action is the PHA supported initiative Give it a Go! which is providing people in the Southern area with the opportunity to learn about food through supermarket tours and Cook it! classes and to get active through walks, spinning classes and many other activities, all of which are free. These taster sessions are aimed at raising awareness of healthier lifestyles which will ultimately make changes in behaviour more likely."These changes, no matter how small, can help people to lose weight, maintain a healthy weight and bring big benefits to their general health. Importantly, we have developed this joint programme by working closely with our partners, particularly local councils."

Virtual Camarero : desarrollo de aplicaciones departamentales con .NET Framework 4.0

El Virtual Camarero es un proyecto de final de carrera realizado con .NET. Consiste en una aplicación para terminal táctil para poder realizar pedidos en un bar o restaurante desde la mesa de un local. Sin la necesidad de que el camarero venga a pedir lo que se quiere tomar.

Desarrollo de aplicaciones departamentales con .NET Framework 4.0

Proyecto de fin de carrera haciendo uso de WPF para el desarrollo de una aplicación departamental.

Evaluation of organ-specific peripheral doses after 2-dimensional, 3-dimensional and hybrid intensity modulated radiation therapy for breast cancer based on Monte Carlo and convolution/superposition algorithms: implications for secondary cancer risk assessment.

To make a comprehensive evaluation of organ-specific out-of-field doses using Monte Carlo (MC) simulations for different breast cancer irradiation techniques and to compare results with a commercial treatment planning system (TPS). Three breast radiotherapy techniques using 6MV tangential photon beams were compared: (a) 2DRT (open rectangular fields), (b) 3DCRT (conformal wedged fields), and (c) hybrid IMRT (open conformal+modulated fields). Over 35 organs were contoured in a whole-body CT scan and organ-specific dose distributions were determined with MC and the TPS. Large differences in out-of-field doses were observed between MC and TPS calculations, even for organs close to the target volume such as the heart, the lungs and the contralateral breast (up to 70% difference). MC simulations showed that a large fraction of the out-of-field dose comes from the out-of-field head scatter fluence (>40%) which is not adequately modeled by the TPS. Based on MC simulations, the 3DCRT technique using external wedges yielded significantly higher doses (up to a factor 4-5 in the pelvis) than the 2DRT and the hybrid IMRT techniques which yielded similar out-of-field doses. In sharp contrast to popular belief, the IMRT technique investigated here does not increase the out-of-field dose compared to conventional techniques and may offer the most optimal plan. The 3DCRT technique with external wedges yields the largest out-of-field doses. For accurate out-of-field dose assessment, a commercial TPS should not be used, even for organs near the target volume (contralateral breast, lungs, heart).

ServEngine : Framework pel desenvolupament de serveis en línia

En aquest projecte es desenvoluparà ServEngine, un framework per al desenvolupament de serveis de portals, comunitats virtuals i sistemes de comerç electrònic basat en el patró MVC i, com s'elegirà més endavant després d'un procés d'anàlisi i comparació, utilitzant Struts com a base de desenvolupament.

Improving young people's health and wellbeing: a framework for public health

The Framework has been developed as a resource to enable local areas in the delivery of their public health role for young people. It poses questions for councillors, health and wellbeing boards, commissioners, providers and education and learning settings to help them support young people to be healthy and to improve outcomes for young people. This is a new framework, which has been developed with support from Association of Young People’s Health and with input from those across health, education, youth services and local and national government.

Disseny i implementació d'un marc de treball de presentació amb XML per a aplicacions J2EE a partir del Framework Struts

L'objectiu principal d'aquest projecte és la separació total dels rols de programador i de dissenyador de vistes en el disseny d'aplicacions distribuïdes fetes mitjançant tecnologia J2EE, i també el suport d'una sola aplicació a diferents tipus de client i idiomes alhora, sense la necessitat de codi extra o específic per a aconseguir-ho.

Generació automàtica d'una solució JEE (JPA + EJB + JSF) basada en el framework AndroMDA

En aquest projecte s'utilitzarà el framework AndroMDA per construir un programari que permeti generar automàticament a partir d'un model UML simple una aplicació JEE.

Framework para la capa de presentación de aplicaciones web

El framework dissenyat, denominat magis, ajuda als desenvolupadors organitzant la presentació de continguts, l'accés a les funcions i serveis de negoci, el flux de pàgines, el processament de formularis, el maneig d'errors i la gestió d'estat.

J2EE Framework capa de presentación

El present projecte se centra en la creació d'un framework1 per a la capa de presentació de java J2EE2, així com un generador de codi de suport a aquest.

Diseño e implementación de un marco de trabajo(framework) de presentación para aplicaciones J2EE

El projecte de fi de carrera proposat consisteix en l'anàlisi, disseny i implementació d'un conjunt de components que simplifiquen la construcció de la capa de presentació per a aplicacions web, servint de base per al desenvolupament d'altres productes.

Quand les normes font loi : topologie intégrée et processus différenciés de la normalisation internationale

International standardisation refers to voluntary technical specifications pertaining to the production and exchange of goods and services across borders. The paper outlines a theoretical framework which spells out the contention of emerging hybrid forms of non state authority in the global realm. It argues that international standardisation is confronted with a deep rift between promoters of further socialisation of international standards (i.e. a transfer of the universal scope of law into the official framework of standard-setting bodies) and multinational corporations in favour of globalisation of technical standards (i.e. universal recognition of minimal sectorial market-based standards). The problems related to the development of a possible ISO standard of system management in corporate social responsibility provides evidence of the argument.

A framework for quality in long-term residential care for older people in Ireland / National Council on Ageing and Older People

In 1999 the National Council on Ageing and Older People commissioned a postal survey of all long-term residential care facilities in the country to determie: - whether facilities had quality initiatives in operation - providers' views and aspirations for future provision of long-term care - providers' views on the introduction of a national quality monitoring policy This report is the outcome of the programme of work conducted by the Council on the quality of long-term residential care provision for older people in Ireland. The aim of the report is to provide a framework for developing quality in long-term residential care settings with a focus on the well-being, dignity and autonomy of older residents.

Palliative Care - A Five Year/Medium Term Development Framework

This document details the HSE's Palliative Care Services - Five Year Medium Term Development Framework (2009 - 2013). It has been developed using a holistic, system-wide, approach to addressing the level of need identified by both the Baseline Study on the Provision of Hospice / Specialist Palliative Care Services in Ireland (2006) as well as the HSE Audit of Palliative Care Service Provision (2007). The HSE Audit was conducted by each of the four HSE Administrative Areas, in conjunction with Area Development Committees, against the recommendations of the Report of the National Advisory Committee on Palliative Care 2001 (the NACPC Report). Therefore, this document is grounded in the recommendations of the NACPC Report, (e.g. palliative care definition, palliative care service areas, staffing and bed number ratios), and informed by the findings of the HSE Audit. The purpose of this document is not to replace the recommendations of the NACPC Report from a policy context, nor does it represent a new national strategy for palliative care. This document details the required actions and initiatives necessary to address the gaps in palliative care service provision, against the recommendations set out in the NACPC Report.