Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences

About: Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences is a education organization based out in Oslo, Norway. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 1420 authors who have published 3508 publications receiving 77843 citations.

Adolescent mental health and behavioural predictors of being NEET: a prospective study of young adults not in employment, education, or training.

Abstract: Background Young adults who are not in employment, education, or training (NEET) are at risk of long-term economic disadvantage and social exclusion. Knowledge about risk factors for being NEET largely comes from cross-sectional studies of vulnerable individuals. Using data collected over a 10-year period, we examined adolescent predictors of being NEET in young adulthood. Methods We used data on 1938 participants from the Victorian Adolescent Health Cohort Study, a community-based longitudinal study of adolescents in Victoria, Australia. Associations between common mental disorders, disruptive behaviour, cannabis use and drinking behaviour in adolescence, and NEET status at two waves of follow-up in young adulthood (mean ages of 20.7 and 24.1 years) were investigated using logistic regression, with generalised estimating equations used to account for the repeated outcome measure. Results Overall, 8.5% of the participants were NEET at age 20.7 years and 8.2% at 24.1 years. After adjusting for potential confounders, we found evidence of increased risk of being NEET among frequent adolescent cannabis users [adjusted odds ratio (ORadj) = 1.74; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.10–2.75] and those who reported repeated disruptive behaviours (ORadj = 1.71; 95% CI 1.15–2.55) or persistent common mental disorders in adolescence (ORadj = 1.60; 95% CI 1.07–2.40). Similar associations were present when participants with children were included in the same category as those in employment, education, or training. Conclusions Young people with an early onset of mental health and behavioural problems are at risk of failing to make the transition from school to employment. This finding reinforces the importance of integrated employment and mental health support programmes.

Written online situational feedback via mobile phone to support self-management of chronic widespread pain: a usability study of a Web-based intervention

Abstract: Background: This pretrial study aimed to develop and test the usability of a four-week Internet intervention delivered by a Web-enabled mobile phone to support self-management of chronic widespread pain. Methods: The intervention included daily online entries and individualized written feedback, grounded in a mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral approach. The participants registered activities, emotions and pain cognitions three times daily using the mobile device. The therapist had immediate access to this information through a secure Web site. The situational information was used to formulate and send a personalized text message to the participant with the aim of stimulating effective self-management of the current situation. Six women participated and evaluated the experience. Results: The intervention was rated as supportive, meaningful and user-friendly by the majority of the women. The response rate to the daily registration entries was high and technical problems were few. Conclusion: The results indicate a feasible intervention. Web-applications are fast becoming standard features of mobile phones and interventions of this kind can therefore be more available than before. Trial registration number: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01236209

Dietary treatment of weight loss in patients with advanced cancer and cachexia: a systematic literature review.

Abstract: Purpose: A systematical literature review evaluating the effect of dietary counseling in treating weight loss and improving energy intake in patients with advanced cancer with different stages of cachexia. Principal results: Five publications were retrieved, of which three were randomized. Two out of five studies showed less weight loss with dietary counseling (+1% weight gain vs. −1.5% weight loss, p = 0.03, 1.4 kg vs. −2 kg, p < 0.05), two presented positive effect on energy intake (92% of total caloric need vs. 73%, p < 0.01, 1865 ± 317 kcal vs. 1556 ± 497 kcal, ns).

A systematic review of measures of shoulder pain and functioning using the International classification of functioning, disability and health (ICF)

Abstract: Background Shoulder pain is a common condition with prevalence estimates of 7–26% and the associated disability is multi-faceted. For functional assessments in clinic and research, a number of condition-specific and generic measures are available. With the approval of the ICF, a system is now available for the analysis of health status measures. The aims of this systematic literature review were to identify the most frequently addressed aspects of functioning in assessments of shoulder pain and provide an overview of the content of frequently used measures.

An intelligent strategy for checking the annual inspection status of motorcycles based on license plate recognition

Abstract: License plate recognition techniques have been successfully applied to the management of stolen cars, management of parking lots and traffic flow control. This study proposes a license plate based strategy for checking the annual inspection status of motorcycles from images taken along the roadside and at designated inspection stations. Both a UMPC (Ultra Mobile Personal Computer) with a web camera and a desktop PC are used as hardware platforms. The license plate locations in images are identified by means of integrated horizontal and vertical projections that are scanned using a search window. Moreover, a character recovery method is exploited to enhance the success rate. Character recognition is achieved using both a back propagation artificial neural network and feature matching. The identified license plate can then be compared with entries in a database to check the inspection status of the motorcycle. Experiments yield a recognition rate of 95.7% and 93.9% based on roadside and inspection station test images, respectively. It takes less than 1s on a UMPC (Celeron 900MHz with 256MB memory) and about 293ms on a PC (Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz with 1GB memory) to correctly recognize a license plate. Challenges associated with recognizing license plates from roadside and designated inspection stations images are also discussed.