90Sr i 137Cs u srdelama Jadranskog mora

The biological concentration factors for the system pilchard/sea-water for 90Sr and 137Cs are presented and discussed. The 90St concentration factor was constant, whereas the concentration factor for 137Cs steadily increased after the Chernobyl accident. An UNSCFAR model was used to describp 90Sr transfer from fallout deposition to pilchards. Tire transfer coefficient was calculated to be 1.85 x 10-3 Bq yr kg-1/(Bq-2). The dose incurred by pilchard consumption was estimated for the Croatian population, the annual collective equivalent dose being less than 0.1 Sv.Prikazani su i razmotreni biološki koncentracijski faktori za sustav srdele/morska voda za 90Sr i 137Cs. Koncentracijski faktor za 90Sr je konstantan, dok je koncentracijski faktor za 137Cs i dalje u porastu nakon nuklearne nesreće u Černobilju. UNSCEAR-ovim modelom opisan je transfer 90Sr od radioaktivnih oborina do srdela. Transferni koeficijent procijenjen je na 1,85 x 10-3 Bq god kg-1/(Bq m-2). Procijenjena je godišnja kolektivna doza za Hrvatsku populaciju zbog konzumacije srdela i ona je manja od 0,1 Sv

Radioaktivnost u cisternskim vodama u Hrvatskoj

The levels of radioactivity in cistern waters in the areas along the Adriatic coast have been investigated since 1962 when high total beta activity and 90Sr were detected. A rapid decline followed after the nuclear moratorium. Since 1970 a small increase due to Chinese nuclear weapon tests has been registered. Several cistern waters in the villages around Zagreb were investigated while the nuclear power station was still under construction. Very low alpha and beta radioactivity originating from fall-out was detected.Nivo radioaktivnosti u cisternskim vodama duž Jadrana ispituje se od 1962. godine. Prati se stalno ukupna beta-aktivnost i 90Sr. Nakon prestanka velikih pokusa s nuklearnim oružjem, radioaktivnost je naglo pala i ostala niska do sada. Poslije 1968. godine došlo je do malog povišenja nivoa radioaktivnosti uslijed kineskih nuklearnih eksperimenata, međutim, značajnog povišenja nije bilo. Tokom dvije godine praćena je i alfa i beta aktivnost cisternskih voda u blizini Zagreba kao nulta točka prije rada nuklearne elektrane Krško. Istraživanja se nastavljaju

Protection of the Croatian population from accidental radioactive contamination of the food chain

Prikazana je važnost istraživanja translokacije radionuklida te prehrambeni lanac, kao i značajnost pojedine prehrambene komponente u ukupnoj izloženosti stanovništva Hrvatske nakon akcidentalne radioaktivne kontaminacije. Dan je niz podataka o kontaminaciji i procjeni izloženosti populacije nakon akcidenta u Černobilju, kao i o mogućnostima dekontaminacije pojedinih prehrambenih komponenata. Podaci iz literature uspoređeni su s vlastitim istraživanjima o smanjenju radionuklida u prehrambenom lancu. Istraživanja su koncentrirana na biološki najvažnije radionuklide 131I, 90Sr, 137Cs, sa svrhom da se u slučaju budućih akcidenata preventivne mjere preporučene pučanstvu temelje na principu da gubitak zbog štete koju je izazvala mjera zaštite ne bude veći od dobiti zbog mogućeg smanjenja doze.The paper indicates the importance of investigating radionuclide translocation in the human food chain, and the contribution of selected food components in total exposure of the population after accidental radioactive contanunation. Data on radioactive contamination and risk assessment of the Croatian population after the Chernobyl nuclear accident arc given and possibilities of decontamination of food chain components are discussed. Literature data on radionuclide removal from the human food chain are compared to the results of own investigations. Emphasis is placed on biologically most important radionuclides, 131I, 90Sr, 137Cs, and the most effective means of protection are sought. The preventive measures following a nuclear accident should be based on the cost-benefit principle i.e. the damage from applying radiation protection measures should not exceed the benefit from possible dose reduction

Protocol for the development and validation procedure of the managing the link and strengthening transition from child to adult mental health care (MILESTONE) suite of measures

Background: Mental health disorders in the child and adolescent population are a pressing public health concern. Despite the high prevalence of psychopathology in this vulnerable population, the transition from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) to Adult Mental Health Services (AMHS) has many obstacles such as deficiencies in planning, organisational readiness and policy gaps. All these factors contribute to an inadequate and suboptimal transition process. A suite of measures is required that would allow young people to be assessed in a structured and standardised way to determine the on-going need for care and to improve communication across clinicians at CAMHS and AMHS. This will have the potential to reduce the overall health economic burden and could also improve the quality of life for patients travelling across the transition boundary. The MILESTONE (Managing the Link and Strengthening Transition from Child to Adult Mental Health Care) project aims to address the significant socioeconomic and societal challenge related to the transition process. This protocol paper describes the development of two MILESTONE transition-related measures: The Transition Readiness and Appropriateness Measure (TRAM), designed to be a decision-making aide for clinicians, and the Transition Related Outcome Measure (TROM), for examining the outcome of transition. Methods: The TRAM and TROM have been developed and were validated following the US FDA Guidance for Patient-reported Outcome Measures which follows an incremental stepwise framework. The study gathers information from service users, parents, families and mental health care professionals who have experience working with young people undergoing the transition process from eight European countries. Discussion: There is an urgent need for comprehensive measures that can assess transition across the CAMHS/AMHS boundary. This study protocol describes the process of development of two new transition measures: the TRAM and TROM. The TRAM has the potential to nurture better transitions as the findings can be summarised and provided to clinicians as a clinician-decision making support tool for identifying cases who need to transition and the TROM can be used to examine the outcomes of the transition process. Trial registration: MILESTONE study registration: ISRCTN83240263 Registered 23-July-2015 - ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03013595 Registered 6 January 2017

Managing the link and strengthening transition from child to adult mental health Care in Europe (MILESTONE): Background, rationale and methodology

Background: Transition from distinct Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) to Adult Mental Health Services (AMHS) is beset with multitude of problems affecting continuity of care for young people with mental health needs. Transition-related discontinuity of care is a major health, socioeconomic and societal challenge globally. The overall aim of the Managing the Link and Strengthening Transition from Child to Adult Mental Health Care in Europe (MILESTONE) project (2014-19) is to improve transition from CAMHS to AMHS in diverse healthcare settings across Europe. MILESTONE focuses on current service provision in Europe, new transition-related measures, long term outcomes of young people leaving CAMHS, improving transitional care through 'managed transition', ethics of transitioning and the training of health care professionals. Methods: Data will be collected via systematic literature reviews, pan-European surveys, and focus groups with service providers, users and carers, and members of youth advocacy and mental health advocacy groups. A prospective cohort study will be conducted with a nested cluster randomised controlled trial in eight European Union (EU) countries (Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, UK) involving over 1000 CAMHS users, their carers, and clinicians. Discussion: Improving transitional care can facilitate not only recovery but also mental health promotion and mental illness prevention for young people. MILESTONE will provide evidence of the organisational structures and processes influencing transition at the service interface across differing healthcare models in Europe and longitudinal outcomes for young people leaving CAMHS, solutions for improving transitional care in a cost-effective manner, training modules for clinicians, and commissioning and policy guidelines for service providers and policy makers

Dragutin Mayer and Božo Metzger: Leaders in Radiation Science and Radiation Protection in Croatia

Ubrzo nakon što je Röntgen krajem godine 1895. sustavno u literaturi opisao tzv. X-zrake, po njemu nazvane i rendgenskim zrakama, spoznaja o mogućnosti njihove uporabe u medicini i znanosti gotovo odmah dolazi u Hrvatsku te su prvi rendgenogrami i rendgenske cijevi nabavljeni već početkom godine 1896. Iste godine, prikazom prvog rendgenograma kao prve primjene rendgenskog zračenja na području Hrvatske označen je efektivni početak znanosti o zračenju u nas. U članku je prikazano školovanje, službovanje i javno djelovanje nedavno preminulog Dragutina Mayera i Bože Metzgera kao velikana iz područja znanosti o zračenju u Hrvatskoj. Istaknuta je njihova jedinstvena uloga u širenju visokoškolske nastave fizike na područje zaštite od zračenja u Hrvatskoj. Također, njihova svjedočanstva i kazivanja otkrila su brojne nepoznate detalje važne za povijest znanosti o zračenju i zaštite od zračenja u Hrvatskoj.Soon after Röntgen described X-rays (in many languages also known as Röntgen-rays) in end 1895, information about their use in medicine and science came to Croatia and first roentgenograms and Röntgen tubes were acquired by the beginning of the year 1896. That same year saw the first demonstration of Xrays and the effective beginning of radiation science in Croatia. This article speaks about, the work of Božo Metzger and the late Dragutin Mayer, two remarkable radiation scientists from Croatia. Both had a unique role in teaching radiation protection and physics at a university level. Their recollections reveal many unknown details about the history of radiation science and radiation protection in Croatia

Worldwide diversity of endophytic fungi and insects associated with dormant tree twigs

International trade in plants and climate change are two of the main factors causing damaging tree pests (i.e. fungi and insects) to spread into new areas. To mitigate these risks, a large-scale assessment of tree-associated fungi and insects is needed. We present records of endophytic fungi and insects in twigs of 17 angiosperm and gymnosperm genera, from 51 locations in 32 countries worldwide. Endophytic fungi were characterized by high-throughput sequencing of 352 samples from 145 tree species in 28 countries. Insects were reared from 227 samples of 109 tree species in 18 countries and sorted into taxonomic orders and feeding guilds. Herbivorous insects were grouped into morphospecies and were identified using molecular and morphological approaches. This dataset reveals the diversity of tree-associated taxa, as it contains 12,721 fungal Amplicon Sequence Variants and 208 herbivorous insect morphospecies, sampled across broad geographic and climatic gradients and for many tree species. This dataset will facilitate applied and fundamental studies on the distribution of fungal endophytes and insects in trees

Managing the link and strengthening transition from child to adult mental health Care in Europe (MILESTONE): Background, rationale and methodology

Background: Transition from distinct Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) to Adult Mental Health Services (AMHS) is beset with multitude of problems affecting continuity of care for young people with mental health needs. Transition-related discontinuity of care is a major health, socioeconomic and societal challenge globally. The overall aim of the Managing the Link and Strengthening Transition from Child to Adult Mental Health Care in Europe (MILESTONE) project (2014-19) is to improve transition from CAMHS to AMHS in diverse healthcare settings across Europe. MILESTONE focuses on current service provision in Europe, new transition-related measures, long term outcomes of young people leaving CAMHS, improving transitional care through 'managed transition', ethics of transitioning and the training of health care professionals. Methods: Data will be collected via systematic literature reviews, pan-European surveys, and focus groups with service providers, users and carers, and members of youth advocacy and mental health advocacy groups. A prospective cohort study will be conducted with a nested cluster randomised controlled trial in eight European Union (EU) countries (Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, UK) involving over 1000 CAMHS users, their carers, and clinicians. Discussion: Improving transitional care can facilitate not only recovery but also mental health promotion and mental illness prevention for young people. MILESTONE will provide evidence of the organisational structures and processes influencing transition at the service interface across differing healthcare models in Europe and longitudinal outcomes for young people leaving CAMHS, solutions for improving transitional care in a cost-effective manner, training modules for clinicians, and commissioning and policy guidelines for service providers and policy makers

The CogBIAS longitudinal study protocol: cognitive and genetic factors influencing psychological functioning in adolescence.

BACKGROUND: Optimal psychological development is dependent upon a complex interplay between individual and situational factors. Investigating the development of these factors in adolescence will help to improve understanding of emotional vulnerability and resilience. The CogBIAS longitudinal study (CogBIAS-L-S) aims to combine cognitive and genetic approaches to investigate risk and protective factors associated with the development of mood and impulsivity-related outcomes in an adolescent sample. METHODS: CogBIAS-L-S is a three-wave longitudinal study of typically developing adolescents conducted over 4 years, with data collection at age 12, 14 and 16. At each wave participants will undergo multiple assessments including a range of selective cognitive processing tasks (e.g. attention bias, interpretation bias, memory bias) and psychological self-report measures (e.g. anxiety, depression, resilience). Saliva samples will also be collected at the baseline assessment for genetic analyses. Multilevel statistical analyses will be performed to investigate the developmental trajectory of cognitive biases on psychological functioning, as well as the influence of genetic moderation on these relationships. DISCUSSION: CogBIAS-L-S represents the first longitudinal study to assess multiple cognitive biases across adolescent development and the largest study of its kind to collect genetic data. It therefore provides a unique opportunity to understand how genes and the environment influence the development and maintenance of cognitive biases and provide insight into risk and protective factors that may be key targets for intervention.This work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013)/ERC grant agreement no: [324176]

Training of adult psychiatrists and child and adolescent psychiatrists in europe

Background: Profound clinical, conceptual and ideological differences between child and adult mental health service models contribute to transition-related discontinuity of care. Many of these may be related to psychiatry training. Methods: A systematic review on General Adult Psychiatry (GAP) and Child and Adult Psychiatry (CAP) training in Europe, with a particular focus on transition as a theme in GAP and CAP training. Results: Thirty-four full-papers, six abstracts and seven additional full text documents were identified. Important variations between countries were found across several domains including assessment of trainees, clinical and educational supervision, psychotherapy training and continuing medical education. Three models of training were identified: i) a generalist common training programme; ii) totally separate training programmes; iii) mixed types. Only two national training programs (UK and Ireland) were identified to have addressed transition as a topic, both involving CAP exclusively. Conclusion: Three models of training in GAP and CAP across Europe are identified, suggesting that the harmonization is not yet realised and a possible barrier to improving transitional care. Training in transition has only recently been considered. It is timely, topical and important to develop evidence-based training approaches on transitional care across Europe into both CAP and GAP training