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Supporting Embedded Medical Software Development with MDevSPICE® and Agile Practices
Get PDFEmerging medical devices are highly relying on embedded software that runs on the specific platform in real time. The development of embedded software is different from ordinary software development due to the hardware-software dependency. MDevSPICE® has been developed to provide guidance to support such development. To increase the flexibility of this framework agile practices have been introduced. This paper outlines the challenges for embedded medical device software development and the structure of MDevSPICE® and suggests a suitable combination of agile practices that will help to add flexibility and address corresponding challenges of embedded medical device software development
Self-neglect among the elderly in Ireland
No full textThe following research project examines the topic of self-neglect among the elderly in Ireland. Self-neglect is a hidden and undeniably complex problem and presents a serious public health issue. A detailed analysis of the literature reveales multiple themes such as the adverse health outcomes of older people who self-neglect, their refusal of services and interventions, and the ethical challenges faced by health and social care professionals. A qualitative research paradigm was utilised for the purpose of data collection, with two separate practitioners from the Health Service Executive being interviewed in order to ascertain their perspectives on self-neglect, given their extensive professional experience of the phenomenon.
The findings of the research project underscores the significance of self-neglect among the older population, highlighting how it is far from being a straightforward problem with an easy solution. Although the prevalence of self-neglect based on both participants’ estimations of their caseloads was corroborated by the literature, cases which come to the attention of professionals are generally not deemed to be representative of the true extent of self-neglect within the population due to self-neglect behaviours remaining hidden, often times only coming to the attention of others when there is a crisis in the older person’s medical presentation or something happens publicly. The study findings also revealed that instances of self-neglect can occur simultaneously with elder abuse, whereby family members could be depriving the older person of the resources they need to adequately provide for themselves. Other findings highlighted the lack of any formal self-neglect assessment tool among public health nurses, making identification of self-neglect subjective and not standardised; the convoluted process of referrals in relation to accessing certain multidisciplinary services; and the major challenges in making a medical determination of capacity, an area which may become even more compounded with the introduction of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015. However, more study is needed in this particular area especially when the new legislation becomes operational. Finally, the study findings revealed that self-neglect has both good and bad outcomes, with good ones being summed up as a complete ‘turn-around’ in the older person’s condition. Bad outcomes were described as especially difficult because the self-neglect persists and the risk persists while professionals are left trying to positively engage and build relationships with the older person who is denying service intervention and does not see their own behaviour as problematic
NETLAKE guidelines for automated monitoring system development. What to do about ice? (Factsheet 013)
Get PDFHigh Frequency data treatment and visualization with ECDSOFT and OnLineMonitor. In Obrador, B., Jones, I.D. and Jennings, E. (Eds.) NETLAKE toolbox for the analysis of high-frequency data from lakes (Factsheet 5).
Get PDFIreland: Crossroads of Art and Design, 1690–1840: The Music
Get PDFThe old and new, unusual and apparently familiar, are present on this recording of music to accompany an exhibition of the same name at the Art Institute of Chicago. The completeness of the concept and product is impressive, with the quality of musicianship, production, images, and liner notes contributing to the aesthetic experience
Agile Medical Device Software Development: Introducing Agile Practices into MDevSPICE®
Get PDFMedical device software is usually embedded within the overall system as one of the sub-systems. It needs to be integrated with other sub-systems such as the electrical and mechanical for a functional medical device to be developed. In order to develop a working medical device system through integrating its sub-systems, the sub-systems’ requirements have to be derived from the overall medical device system requirements. The system requirements are continuously collected, analysed and built from the needs of different stakeholders such as patients, health professionals and other companies offering relevant devices, interfaces and software related to the medical device system under development. Various regulatory requirements have to be achieved for a medical device to be allowed market access. We have developed and piloted a medical device software process assessment framework called MDevSPICE® that integrates the regulatory requirements from the relevant medical device software standards. This paper describes how the MDevSPICE® framework has been designed to enable medical device software developers to produce software that will be safe and easily integrated with other sub-systems of the overall medical device. We also describe the lessons learned from piloting MDevSPICE® in the medical device industry and introduce an agile methodology together with its benefits and challenges. This paper outlines how MDevSPICE® can be extended to include agile practices to enable medical device software development to be performed in a more flexible manner
Inferential modelling of time series by evolutionary computation. In Obrador, B., Jones, I.D. and Jennings, E. (Eds.) NETLAKE toolbox for the analysis of high-frequency data from lakes (Factsheet 11).
Get PDFOffshore wind platform
No full textNowadays, most electricity is generated by fuel or gas. They are not renewable energy sources. Fuel and gas both contain carbon which causes serious pollution to the environment, increases the problem of global warming and may occur such as rise in sea level. Meanwhile, due to the exhaustion of energy resources, the energy conservation is emphasized. On account of the problem of environmental pollution and exhaustion of energy resources becoming worse and worse, it is important to explore the use of renewable energy. Wind is one of the renewable energy sources which is now widely used. Wind turbines are the structure which converts kinetic energy from wind into electrical power. Wind turbine has two types which are either onshore or offshore. For offshore wind turbines, they have almost the same components except foundation type. The foundation of the offshore wind turbine varies depending on the seabed conditions and the turbine installed capacity. The aim of this report is to design an offshore wind turbine related to the Thornton Bank offshore wind farm [1] and also the thesis of T.F.A (Tom) van Eijk [2]. The turbine is using the cylinder gravity foundation base. The objectives of this report are the foundation design and the check for ground bearing capacity and sliding resistance of seabed. However, the structural design of the turbine for example the reinforcement steels, bolts and generator are not concerned
From Tralee to Times Square: Bringing Irish folk theatre to Broadway
Get PDFAmerica has been a significant (market)place for Irish traditional music throughout the twentieth century to the present. From the early recordings of Michael Coleman and his contemporaries in the 1920s through the emergence of the Clancy Brothers in the 1960s to the leading roles of Michael Flatley and Jean Butler in the 1994 production Riverdance, musical developments on both sides of the Atlantic have been interlinked and two-directional.1 The Irish American audience continues to be an important market for touring Irish performers with significant Irish music festivals in America presenting many leading Irish music groups each year. In this paper, I focus on a tour by an Irish folk theatre group in the 1970s that entered spaces beyond the normal diasporic spaces but appealed primarily to an Irish American audience in spaces of popular culture. In 1976 a group of amateur musicians, singers and dancers travelled from Co. Kerry in the south west of Ireland to America where, amongst other venues, they performed at the Palace Theatre, Times Square, Broadway. The production by Siamsa Tíre, The National Folk Theatre of Ireland, entitled Siamsa (pronounced Shee-am-sa), presented aspects of Irish rural life in the early twentieth century through music, song, dance and mime. Through archival research focusing on newspapers in tandem with oral histories developed from the memories of some of those involved in the tour, I provide insights on the cultural distance between Ireland and the USA in the 1970s despite the existence of a large Irish diaspora. In particular I critique the representations of Irishness presented and the degree of acceptability of these to both Irish and American audiences. Furthermore, the reflections of cast members, particularly the children, highlight the differences in popular culture in terms of everyday life experiences and celebrity culture