The PAS-ADD Checklist is a screening instrument specifically designed to help staff recognize mental health problems in the people with intellectual disability for whom they care, and to make informed referral decisions. The instrument consists of a life-events checklist and 29 symptom items scored on a four-point scale. Scores are combined to provide three threshold scores. The crossing of any of these thresholds indicates the need for a fuller assessment. The items are worded in everyday language, making the Checklist suitable for use by individuals who do not have a background in psychopathology. The present paper presents the results of a number of studies evaluating the reliability and validity of the Checklist. Factor analysis of Checklists completed on a community sample of 201 individuals yielded eight factors, of which seven were readily interpretable in diagnostic terms. Internal consistency of the scales was generally acceptable. Inter-rater reliability in respect to individual items gave a fairly low average Kappa of 0.42. However, agreement on case identification, the main purpose of the Checklist, was quite good, with 83% of the decision being in agreement. Validity in relation to clinical opinion was also satisfactory, case detection rising appropriately with the clinically judged severity of disorder. The PAS-ADD Checklist is published and distributed by the Hester Adrian Research Centre, Manchester, England, from where further information and order forms are available on request.

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[1] Cloud droplets form by nucleation on atmospheric aerosol particles. Populations of such particles invariably contain organic material, a major source of which is thought to be condensation of photo-oxidation products of biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs). We demonstrate that smog chamber studies of the formation of such biogenic secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formed during photooxidation must be conducted at near atmospheric concentrations to yield atmospherically representative particle composition, hygroscopicity and cloud-forming potential. Under these conditions, the hygroscopicity measured at 95% relative humidity can be used reliably to predict the CCN activity of the SOA particles by assuming droplet surface tension of pure water. We also show that the supersaturation required to activate a given size of particle decreases with age. [2] Aerosol particles partially counteract the warming effect of greenhouse gases by modifying cloud radiative properties. Depending on their size and chemical composition, natural and anthropogenic aerosol particles may act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and thereby change the cloud radiative properties and lifetime. The magnitude of this effect is the single biggest unknown in modeling radiative forcing (http://www.ipcc.ch.). Atmospheric aerosols often consist of (internal) mixtures of organic and inorganic substances. The cloud forming potential (i.e. the hygroscopic properties) of the inorganic constituents are generally well known, whereas not much is known on the hygroscopic properties associated with the organic matter, which typically contributes 20-50% to the mass of fine aerosol particles [Kanakidou et al., 2005]. Secondary organic aerosol (SOA), formed by photo-oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), is a major contribution to this organic fraction [Robinson et al., 2007]. In this study, we conducted smog chamber experiments on the SOA's hygroscopic properties and ability to act as CCN, using precursor concentrations approaching atmospheric levels. Hygroscopicity measurements in sub-and supersaturated conditions were compared in order to investigate potential surface tension reduction effects of SOA solution droplets. The surface tension may be important for models inferring the CCN potential from measured hygroscopic properties at sub-saturated conditions. It has been shown that organic material collected from Po Valley fog samples may lower the surface tension in bulk solution and it was inferred that they may similarly affect surface tension in growing cloud droplets [Facchini et al., 1999].[3] Experiments were performed at the PSI chamber [Paulsen et al., 2005] using varying initial concentrations of 183 to 10 ppbv a-pinene, a frequently used aerosol precursor representative of biogenic emissions (comparable results were found when using the anthropogenic organic aerosol precursor 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene). The chemical nature of the SOA particles was investigated using the Aerodyne aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) [Jayne et al., 2000] (see...

There is a need to identify TC survivors at risk of poorer outcomes and for interventions to target the areas of greatest impairment (i.e., psychological distress and mental HRQOL).