Adolescents' mental health concerns, reported with an idiographic assessment tool.

Background: Adolescents' self-defined concerns about their mental health are understudied. Yet gaining insight into the individual concerns of this group could be helpful in providing better services to the adolescent population. In this study, an idiographic procedure called Assert was used to increase our knowledge of which concerns are reported by adolescents as the most salient, in a primary mental health care situation.

Validation of a database of mean uranium, thorium and potassium concentrations in rock samples of Portuguese geological units, generated of literature data.

The European Atlas of Natural Radiation, recently published, contains a collection of maps of Europe showing the levels of natural sources of radiation. Among the lacunae of the Atlas are maps of U, Th and K concentrations in rocks due to lack of European-wide geochemical surveys of bedrock units. The objective of this paper is to investigate the usability of scattered geochemical data of rock samples for large-scale mapping of U, Th and K concentrations in geological units.

Development of a Geogenic Radon Hazard Index-Concept, History, Experiences.

Exposure to indoor radon at home and in workplaces constitutes a serious public health risk and is the second most prevalent cause of lung cancer after tobacco smoking. Indoor radon concentration is to a large extent controlled by so-called geogenic radon, which is radon generated in the ground. While indoor radon has been mapped in many parts of Europe, this is not the case for its geogenic control, which has been surveyed exhaustively in only a few countries or regions.

Experiences with using an idiographic assessment procedure in primary mental health care services for adolescents.

: This article aims to explore counsellor experiences using an idiographic assessment procedure implemented in adolescent mental health services. The procedure, Assert, is based on asking the adolescents the question "What matters to you?" to define important topics to address in treatment.: Focus groups and interviews were conducted with counsellors who used Assert (N = 27), and the data were analysed with thematic analysis.

"What matters to you?": A randomized controlled effectiveness trial, Using Systematic Idiographic Assessment as an intervention to Increase Adolescents' perceived control of their mental health.

Introduction: Over the last decades, many Western countries have seen an increase in mental health difficulties in the adolescent population. Among Norwegian adolescents, internalizing symptoms are most prevalent, and 10%-38% of adolescents seek out primary health care services for mental health problems. This study examined whether an idiographic measure designed for adolescents called Assert, which uses variables individually selected by the adolescents, could improve user involvement, locus of control, mental health, and quality of life.

Client feedback in psychological therapy for children and adolescents with mental health problems.

Background: Childhood and adolescent mental health problems are a serious and growing concern worldwide. Research suggests that psychotherapy can have a significant and positive impact on children and adolescents with mental health problems, such as anxiety disorders, depression and conduct disorders. Client feedback tools serve as a method of monitoring clients' progress and providing feedback from clients to therapists during the therapeutic process.

Digital version of the European Atlas of natural radiation.

The European Atlas of Natural Radiation is a collection of maps displaying the levels of natural radioactivity caused by different sources. It has been developed and is being maintained by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission, in line with its mission, based on the Euratom Treaty: to collect, validate and report information on radioactivity levels in the environment of the EU Member States. This work describes the first version of the European Atlas of Natural Radiation, available in digital format through a web portal, as well as the methodology and results for the maps already developed.

The relation between radon in schools and in dwellings: A case study in a rural region of Southern Serbia.

Recognized as a significant health hazard, radon (Rn) has been given increasing attention for years. Surveys of different kinds have been performed in many countries to assess the intensity and the geographical extent of possible Rn problems. Common surveys cover mainly dwellings, the indoor place with highest occupancy, and schools, where people spend a large fraction of their lifetime and which can also be considered exemplary for Rn exposure at workplaces; it has however been observed that relating them is difficult.

First Map of Residential Indoor Radon Measurements in Azerbaijan.

This article describes results of the first measurements of indoor radon concentrations in Azerbaijan, including description of the methodology and the mathematical and statistical processing of the results obtained. Measured radon concentrations varied considerably: from almost radon-free houses to around 1100 Bq m-3. However, only ~7% of the total number of measurements exceeded the maximum permissible concentrations.

Mapping uranium concentration in soil: Belgian experience towards a European map.

A map of uranium concentration in soil has been planned for the European Atlas of Natural Radiation. This Atlas is being developed by the Radioactivity Environmental Monitoring (REM) group of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission. The great interest in uranium compared to other terrestrial radionuclides stems from the fact that radon (Rn) is in the decay chain of uranium (U) and that public exposure to natural ionizing radiation is largely due to indoor radon.

Estimating the terrestrial gamma dose rate by decomposition of the ambient dose equivalent rate.

An extensive network of dose rate monitoring stations continuously measures ambient dose rate across Europe, as part of the EURDEP system. Its purpose is early warning in radiological emergencies and documenting its temporal and spatial evolution. In normal conditions, when there is no contribution to the dose rate signal coming from fresh anthropogenic contamination, the data represent the radiation "background", i.

Identification of airborne radioactive spatial patterns in Europe - Feasibility study using Beryllium-7.

The present study proposes a methodology to identify spatial patterns in airborne radioactive particles in Europe. The methodology is based on transforming the activity concentrations in the set of stations for each month (monthly index), due to the tightly spaced sampling intervals (daily to monthly), in combination with hierarchical and non-hierarchical clustering approaches, due to the lack of a priori knowledge of the number of clusters to be created. Three different hierarchical cluster methodologies are explored to set the optimal number of clusters necessary to initialize the non-hierarchical one (k-means).

Status of the European Atlas of Natural Radiation.

According to the EURATOM (European Atomic Energy Community) Treaty, one of the missions of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission (EC) is to collect, process, evaluate and present data on environmental radioactivity. In 2006, the JRC started the 'European Atlas of Natural Radiation' project, in order to give an overview of the geographic distribution of sources of, and exposures to, natural radiation. As a first task, a map of indoor radon concentration was created, because in most cases this is the most important contribution to exposure, and since it could be expected that data collection would take quite some time, because radon (Rn) surveys are very differently advanced between European countries.

A climatology of ⁷Be in surface air in European Union.

This study presents a European-wide analysis of the spatial and temporal distribution of the cosmogenic isotope (7)Be in surface air. This is the first time that a long term database of 34 sampling sites that regularly provide data to the Radioactivity Environmental Monitoring (REM) network, managed by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Ispra, is used. While temporal coverage varies between stations, some of them have delivered data more or less continuously from 1984 to 2011.

From the European indoor radon map towards an atlas of natural radiation.

In 2006, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission launched a project to map radon at the European level, as part of a planned European Atlas of Natural Radiation. It started with a map of indoor radon concentrations. As of May 2014, this map includes data from 24 countries, covering a fair part of Europe.

An evaluation of thoron (and radon) equilibrium factor close to walls based on long-term measurements in dwellings.

Thoron gas and its progeny behave quite differently in room environments, owing to the difference in their half-lives; therefore, it is important to measure simultaneously gas and progeny concentrations to estimate the time-integrated equilibrium factor. Furthermore, thoron concentration strongly depends on the distance from the source, i.e.

Geographical distribution of the annual mean radon concentrations in primary schools of Southern Serbia - application of geostatistical methods.

Between 2008 and 2011 a survey of radon ((222)Rn) was performed in schools of several districts of Southern Serbia. Some results have been published previously (Žunić et al., 2010; Carpentieri et al.

Radon in indoor air of primary schools: a systematic survey to evaluate factors affecting radon concentration levels and their variability.

Unlabelled: In order to optimize the design of a national survey aimed to evaluate radon exposure of children in schools in Serbia, a pilot study was carried out in all the 334 primary schools of 13 municipalities of Southern Serbia. Based on data from passive measurements, rooms with annual radon concentration >300 Bq/m(3) were found in 5% of schools. The mean annual radon concentration weighted with the number of pupils is 73 Bq/m(3), 39% lower than the unweighted 119 Bq/m(3) average concentration.

U22 protocol as measure of symptomatic improvement after catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation.

Introduction: Left atrial catheter ablation is useful as symptomatic treatment in selected patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Evaluation requires measurement of arrhythmia-related symptoms. Many of the published protocols have drawbacks and have been used in AF only, with no possible comparison to other ablations that compete for the same resources.

The European map of the geogenic radon potential.

As part of its projected European Atlas of Natural Radiation (EANR), the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission, in cooperation with research institutions and radioprotection authorities all over Europe, is currently developing a map of the geogenic radon potential. In an accompanying report the state of knowledge, mapping approaches and problems are discussed. We explain the rationale and the legal situation in Europe and present an overview on the main problems stemming from the heterogeneity of input datasets between participating countries and from the definition of input variables and their differently implemented sampling procedures or protocols.

Assessment of long-term radon concentration measurement precision in field conditions (Serbian Schools) for a survey carried out by an international collaboration.

In an international collaboration, a long-term radon concentration survey was carried out in schools of Southern Serbia with radon detectors prepared, etched and read-out in Italy. In such surveys it is necessary to evaluate measurement precision in field conditions, and to check whether quality assurance protocols were effective in keeping uncertainties under control, despite the complex organisation of measurements. In the first stage of the survey, which involves only some of the total number of municipalities, paired detectors were exposed in each monitored room in order to experimentally assess measurement precision.

Status of the European indoor radon map.

Since 2006 a European map of indoor radon (Rn) concentration is in the making. So far 20 countries have contributed with national data, allowing a fair coverage of parts of Europe. This paper presents the current (September 2010) state of the map, discusses its rationale, presents some statistical findings and addresses a few problems which arose during the work.

Healthy Gaming - Video Game Design to promote Health.

Background: There is an increasing interest in health games including simulation tools, games for specific conditions, persuasive games to promote a healthy life style or exergames where physical exercise is used to control the game.

Objective: The objective of the article is to review current literature about available health games and the impact related to game design principles as well as some educational theory aspects.

Methods: Literature from the big databases and known sites with games for health has been searched to find articles about games for health purposes.

Symptomatic improvement after catheter ablation of supraventricular tachycardia measured by the arrhythmia-specific questionnaire U22.

Introduction: The main indication for ablation of supraventricular tachycardia is symptomatic relief. Generic measures of quality of life are not suitable for direct evaluation of arrhythmia-related symptoms, and a specific tool is needed. The questionnaire U22 quantifies symptoms associated with arrhythmic events.