European Atlas of Natural Radiation

Natural ionizing radiation is considered as the largest contributor to the collective effective dose received by the world population. The human population is continuously exposed to ionizing radiation from several natural sources that can be classified into two broad categories: high-energy cosmic rays incident on the Earth’s atmosphere and releasing secondary radiation (cosmic contribution); and radioactive nuclides generated during the formation of the Earth and still present in the Earth’s crust (terrestrial contribution). Terrestrial radioactivity is mostly produced by the uranium and thorium radioactive families together with potassium. In most circumstances, radon, a noble gas produced in the radioactive decay of uranium, is the most important contributor to the total dose. This Atlas aims to present the current state of knowledge of natural radioactivity, by giving general background information, and describing its various sources. This reference material is complemented by a collection of maps of Europe displaying the levels of natural radioactivity caused by different sources. It is a compilation of contributions and reviews received from more than 80 experts in their field: they come from universities, research centres, national and European authorities and international organizations. This Atlas provides reference material and makes harmonized datasets available to the scientific community and national competent authorities. In parallel, this Atlas may serve as a tool for the public to: • familiarize itself with natural radioactivity; • be informed about the levels of natural radioactivity caused by different sources; • have a more balanced view of the annual dose received by the world population, to which natural radioactivity is the largest contributor; • and make direct comparisons between doses from natural sources of ionizing radiation and those from man-made (artificial) ones, hence to better understand the latter.JRC.G.10-Knowledge for Nuclear Security and Safet

European Atlas of Natural Radiation

Natural ionizing radiation is considered as the largest contributor to the collective effective dose received by the world population. The human population is continuously exposed to ionizing radiation from several natural sources that can be classified into two broad categories: high-energy cosmic rays incident on the Earth’s atmosphere and releasing secondary radiation (cosmic contribution); and radioactive nuclides generated during the formation of the Earth and still present in the Earth’s crust (terrestrial contribution). Terrestrial radioactivity is mostly produced by the uranium and thorium radioactive families together with potassium. In most circumstances, radon, a noble gas produced in the radioactive decay of uranium, is the most important contributor to the total dose.This Atlas aims to present the current state of knowledge of natural radioactivity, by giving general background information, and describing its various sources. This reference material is complemented by a collection of maps of Europe displaying the levels of natural radioactivity caused by different sources. It is a compilation of contributions and reviews received from more than 80 experts in their field: they come from universities, research centres, national and European authorities and international organizations.This Atlas provides reference material and makes harmonized datasets available to the scientific community and national competent authorities. In parallel, this Atlas may serve as a tool for the public to: • familiarize itself with natural radioactivity;• be informed about the levels of natural radioactivity caused by different sources;• have a more balanced view of the annual dose received by the world population, to which natural radioactivity is the largest contributor;• and make direct comparisons between doses from natural sources of ionizing radiation and those from man-made (artificial) ones, hence to better understand the latter.Additional information at: https://remon.jrc.ec.europa.eu/About/Atlas-of-Natural-Radiatio

Goal 16, Promuovere societ\ue0 pacifiche e inclusive per uno sviluppo sostenibile

Rapporto Lombardia \ue8 un prodotto editoriale realizzato a partire dal 2017 da PoliS-Lombardia ed \ue8 rivolto, in primo luogo, ai policy maker di Regione Lombardia e, pi\uf9 in generale, ai decisori dei settori politici, economici e sociali della Lombardia. Rapporto Lombardia, in particolare, si propone per essere uno strumento di analisi di contesto a supporto delle loro scelte. Per attuare le misure necessarie a raggiungere gli obiettivi di sostenibilit\ue0 economica, sociale e ambientale, l\u2019Agenda ONU 2030 riconosce un ruolo fondamentale alle qualit\ue0 delle istituzioni e alla capacit\ue0 delle stesse di mettere nelle condizioni i cittadini di esercitare i diritti soggettivi civili e politici quali la sicurezza, l\u2019accesso alle informazioni, la libert\ue0 di espressione, la partecipazione ai processi democratici. Molti dei Target del Goal 16 (Promuovere societ\ue0 pacifiche e inclusive per uno sviluppo sostenibile, garantire a tutti l\u2019accesso alla giustizia, e creare istituzioni efficaci, responsabili e inclusive a tutti i livelli) intercettano temi di stretta attualit\ue0 per Regione Lombardia quali, per esempio, il contrasto e la prevenzione ai fenomeni della corruzione che minano la fiducia dei cittadini nelle istituzioni democratiche e la lotta alle infiltrazioni della criminalit\ue0 organizzata nell\u2019economia e nelle societ\ue0 che minacciano il funzionamento di interi settori produttivi e sono in grado di condizionare le scelte degli amministratori locali e in ultima istanza l\u2019efficacia delle politiche pubbliche. Il capitolo 16, in particolare, si sofferma su alcuni fondamentali temi: Target 16.1 - Ridurre significativamente in ogni dove tutte le forme di violenza e i tassi di mortalit\ue0 connessi con un affondo specifico sulla criminalit\ue0 degli stranieri che rappresenta un fenomeno sempre pi\uf9 diffuso anche nel territorio regionale e in qualche modo alimenta la ridotta percezione di sicurezza dei cittadini lombardi; Target 16.2 - Eliminare l\u2019abuso, lo sfruttamento, il traffico e tutte le forme di violenza e tortura contro i bambini viene dato spazio alle esperienze virtuose presenti in regione di assistenza di minori vittime di abuso, un fenomeno che \ue8 ancora poco conosciuto;Target 16.4 - Ridurre in maniera significativa il finanziamento illecito e il traffico di armi, potenziare il recupero e la restituzione dei beni rubati e combattere tutte le forme di crimine organizzato; Target 16.5 - Ridurre sensibilmente la corruzione e gli abusi di potere in tutte le loro forme in considerazione degli allarmi ripetutamente lanciati sulla permeabilit\ue0 della pubblica amministrazione locale e regionale alla corruzione, i cui confini e la cui dimensione sfuggono ancora a una chiara definizione vista anche la difficolt\ue0 a catturare il fenomeno; Target 16.6 - Sviluppare istituzioni efficaci, responsabili e trasparenti a tutti i livelli. Il Goal 16 ha natura trasversale alle tre aree in cui si articola l\u2019Agenda ONU (sociale, economica, ambientale) in quanto riconosce la centralit\ue0 delle qualit\ue0 delle istituzioni e l\u2019importanza del riconoscimento di alcuni diritti politici

Bayesian Feature Fusion Using Factor Graph in Reduced Normal Form

In this work, we investigate an Information Fusion architecture based on a Factor Graph in Reduced Normal Form. This paradigm permits to describe the fusion in a completely probabilistic framework and the information related to the different features are represented as messages that flow in a probabilistic network. In this way we build a sort of context for observed features conferring to the solution a great flexibility for managing different type of features with wrong and missing values as required by many real applications. Moreover, modifying opportunely the messages that flow into the network, we obtain an effective way to condition the inference based on the different reliability of each information source or in presence of single unreliable signal. The proposed architecture has been used to fuse different detectors for an identity document classification task but its flexibility, extendibility and robustness make it suitable to many real scenarios where the signal can be wrongly received or completely missing

Clinical and Radiological Differences in Patients Following Traumatic SCI at Different Ages

Background. Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) is a lesion that can affect several spinal structures, including the vertebrae, spinal cord, ligaments, and other adjacent parts of the spine. Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) can cause functional changes in patients of different ages. Material and methods. The study aims to determine whether there are social, clinical, and radiological differences between young, middle-aged, and elderly adults with SCI caused by a ground-level fall. This retrospective study analyzed the records of patients with a clinical diagnosis of SCI. It enrolled patients with traumatic spinal cord injury after a ground-level fall divided as follows: young aged adults 18–35 years of age (G1); middle-aged adults aged 36–60 years (G2); and elderly adults aged over 60 years (G3). Their clinical, social, and radiological variables were analyzed. Results. It is observed that low schooling level, being widowed, and being a homemaker were more frequently encountered among elderly adults, whereas being single was more common in middle-aged adults. The morphologic diagnosis of compression fracture and the associated injury of facial trauma occurred more frequently in elderly adults, with an increasing tendency with age. Conservative therapeutic management was most commonly encountered in elderly adults, compared to surgery from a posterior approach in middle-aged adults. Listhesis was better identified in middle-aged adults by computed tomography (CT). Spinal cord contusion and injury to the C1 vertebra were demonstrated in young adults by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Conclusions. 1. Elderly adults with low education level, widowed, and homemakers were more susceptible to SCI caused by a fall. 2. Single marital status was more frequently noted in young adults. 3. The most frequent clinical aspects were the morphological aspect of compression fracture and facial trauma as an associated injury in elderly adults, with the occurrence of facial trauma increasing with age. 4. Conservative therapeutic management was more common in elderly adults than surgery from a posterior approach in middle-aged adults. 5. Regarding the radiological aspects of CT, listhesis was better identified in middle-aged adults. Spinal cord contusions and C1 vertebra lesions were better identified in young adults by MRI

Chapter 5: Radon

Natural ionising radiation is considered the largest contributor to the collective effective dose received by the world’s population. Man is continuously exposed to ionising radiation from several sources that can be grouped into two categories: first, high-energy cosmic rays incident on the Earth’s atmosphere and releasing secondary radiation (cosmic contribution); and, second, radioactive nuclides generated when the Earth was formed and still present in its crust (terrestrial contribution). Terrestrial radioactivity is mostly produced by the uranium (U) and thorium (Th) radioactive families together with potassium (40K), a long-lived radioactive isotope of the elemental potassium. In most cases, radon (222Rn), a noble gas produced by radioactive decay of the 238U progeny, is the major contributor to the total dose. This European Atlas of Natural Radiation has been conceived and developed as a tool for the public to become familiar with natural radioactivity; be informed about the levels of such radioactivity caused by different sources; and have a more balanced view of the annual dose received by the world’s population, to which natural radioactivity is the largest contributor. At the same time, it provides reference material and generates harmonised data, both for the scientific community and national competent authorities. Intended as an encyclopaedia of natural radioactivity, the Atlas describes the different sources of such radioactivity, cosmic and terrestrial, and represents the state-of-the art of this topic. In parallel, it contains a collection of maps of Europe showing the levels of natural sources of radiation. This work unfolds as a sequence of chapters: the rationale behind; some necessary background information; terrestrial radionuclides; radon; radionuclides in water and river sediments; radionuclides in food; cosmic radiation and cosmogenic radionuclides. The final chapter delivers the overall goal of the Atlas: a population-weighted average of the annual effective dose due to natural sources of radon, estimated for each European country as well as for all of them together, giving, therefore, an overall European estimate. As a complement, this introductory chapter offers an overview of the legal basis and requirements on protecting the public from exposure to natural radiation sources. In Europe, radiation has a long tradition. Based on the Euratom Treaty, the European Atomic Energy Community early established a set of legislation for protecting the public against dangers arising from artificial ('man-made') ionising radiation, but this scope has since been extended to include natural radiation. Indeed, the recently modernised and consolidated Basic Safety Standards Directive from 2013 contains detailed provisions on the protection from all natural radiation sources, including radon, cosmic rays, natural radionuclides in building material, and naturally occurring radioactive material