Advancing tools to promote health equity across European Union regions : The EURO-HEALTHY project

Population health measurements are recognised as appropriate tools to support public health monitoring. Yet, there is still a lack of tools that offer a basis for policy appraisal and for foreseeing impacts on health equity. In the context of persistent regional inequalities, it is critical to ascertain which regions are performing best, which factors might shape future health outcomes and where there is room for improvement. Under the EURO-HEALTHY project, tools combining the technical elements of multi-criteria value models and the social elements of participatory processes were developed to measure health in multiple dimensions and to inform policies. The flagship tool is the Population Health Index (PHI), a multidimensional measure that evaluates health from the lens of equity in health determinants and health outcomes, further divided into sub-indices. Foresight tools for policy analysis were also developed, namely: (1) scenarios of future patterns of population health in Europe in 2030, combining group elicitation with the Extreme-World method and (2) a multi-criteria evaluation framework informing policy appraisal (case study of Lisbon). Finally, a WebGIS was built to map and communicate the results to wider audiences. The Population Health Index was applied to all European Union (EU) regions, indicating which regions are lagging behind and where investments are most needed to close the health gap. Three scenarios for 2030 were produced - (1) the 'Failing Europe' scenario (worst case/increasing inequalities), (2) the 'Sustainable Prosperity' scenario (best case/decreasing inequalities) and (3) the 'Being Stuck' scenario (the EU and Member States maintain the status quo). Finally, the policy appraisal exercise conducted in Lisbon illustrates which policies have higher potential to improve health and how their feasibility can change according to different scenarios. The article makes a theoretical and practical contribution to the field of population health. Theoretically, it contributes to the conceptualisation of health in a broader sense by advancing a model able to integrate multiple aspects of health, including health outcomes and multisectoral determinants. Empirically, the model and tools are closely tied to what is measurable when using the EU context but offering opportunities to be upscaled to other settings

Estimating the spatial distribution of acute undifferentiated fever (AUF) and associated risk factors using emergency call data in India. A symptom-based approach for public health surveillance

The System for Early-warning based on Emergency Data (SEED) is a pilot project to evaluate the use of emergency call data with the main complaint acute undifferentiated fever (AUF) for syndromic surveillance in India. While spatio-temporal methods provide signals to detect potential disease outbreaks, additional information about socio-ecological exposure factors and the main population at risk is necessary for evidence-based public health interventions and future preparedness strategies. The goal of this study is to investigate whether a spatial epidemiological analysis at the ecological level provides information on urban-rural inequalities, socio-ecological exposure factors and the main population at risk for AUF. Our results displayed higher risks in rural areas with strong local variation. Household industries and proximity to forests were the main socio-ecological exposure factors and scheduled tribes were the main population at risk for AUF. These results provide additional information for syndromic surveillance and could be used for evidence-based public health interventions and future preparedness strategies

Identitaetsbildende Effekte beruflicher Arbeit Abschlussbericht

SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: F01B1136 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekBundesministerium fuer Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie, Bonn (Germany)DEGerman

Orbital Delivery of Small Payloads Using Hypersonic Airbreathing Propulsion

Scramjet engines promise significantly higher specific impulse than rockets during the hypersonic phase of low-Earth-orbit insertion trajectories. Despite this, scramjets are not used on any current systems due to the difficulty of operating over the large Mach number envelope required by this accelerating trajectory. The key to taking advantage of airbreathing hypersonic engines for low-Earth-orbit insertion is to develop a multistage system that makes use of the scramjet only within its high-performance regime. Amultistage rocket-scramjet-rocket system that accepts this limitation has therefore been examined. This system includes a solid rocket boost to Mach 6, a near-term Mach 6–12 hydrogen-fueled scramjet engine to propel a reusable second stage, and a liquid-fueled final-stage rocket. Trajectory calculations for a system scaled to deliver approximately 100 kg to a 200 km equatorial orbit indicate payload mass fractions of approximately 1.5% with the use of a scramjet stage designed for low drag and efficient packaging. The goal of this work is to guide the future development of scramjets by identifying the areas that will make the most significant improvement to their use for space access.Michael Smart and Matthew Tetlo