Oral health of seafarers - a review

The research base needs to be expanded to cover all seafarers. Dental professional expertise should be sought in policy and guideline development relevant to oral health. A strategy comprising preventive, screening, and treatment service components should be developed and a certificate of dental health introduced. Funding strategies in a complex environment of transnational stakeholders for the improvement of oral-health services for seafarers are needed. Aspects of military oral health care systems could be an example for civilian operators

Excited-state dynamics of bacteriorhodopsin probed by broadband femtosecond fluorescence spectroscopy

AbstractThe impact of varying excitation densities (∼0.3 to ∼40 photons per molecule) on the ultrafast fluorescence dynamics of bacteriorhodopsin has been studied in a wide spectral range (630–900 nm). For low excitation densities, the fluorescence dynamics can be approximated biexponentially with time constants of <0.15 and ∼0.45 ps. The spectrum associated with the fastest time constant peaks at 650 nm, while the 0.45 ps component is most prominent at 750 nm. Superimposed on these kinetics is a shift of the fluorescence maximum with time (dynamic Stokes shift). Higher excitation densities alter the time constants and their amplitudes. These changes are assigned to multi-photon absorptions

Hilft das zahnmedizinische Bonussystem den stationär Pflegebedürftigen?

Zusammenfassung: Die Mundgesundheit bei Pflegebedürftigen ist mangelhaft. Zufällig ausgewählte Pflegebedürftige (Berlin n=75, Nordrhein-Westfalen n=94, Sachsen n=73) aus 30 stationären Pflegeeinrichtungen wurden u.a. zu ihrem Verhalten der zahnmedizinischen Inanspruchnahme und der Nutzung ihres zahnmedizinischen Bonusheftes (zBH) befragt. Von 242Befragten (Median: 82Jahre, Range: 43-100Jahre, Frauen: 78,5%) besaßen nur 18,6% ein zBH, dabei gab es keine signifikanten geschlechts- und altersspezifischen Unterschiede. Regionale Unterschiede waren signifikant (Berlin 5,3%, Nordrhein-Westfalen 18,1%, Sachsen 32,9%; χ2-Test p<0,01). Die Zahnzahl war bei Bonusheftinhabern größer (Mann-Whitney-Test p=0,01), die Zeitspanne zum letzten Zahnarztbesuch geringer (p<0,01). Von den Bonusheftinhabern gaben 18,6% an, den Zahnarzt länger als 12Monate nicht aufgesucht zu haben (stationär Pflegebedürftige ohne Bonusheft 51,3%). Als Beitrag zur Qualitätssicherung, zur oralen Infektionskontrolle sowie zur Verbesserung der mundbezogenen und allgemeinen Lebensqualität wird die regelmäßige jährliche Durchführung zahnmedizinischer Reihenuntersuchungen mit dem Führen eines zBH für jeden Bewohner vorgeschlage

Static critical exponents of the ferromagnetic transition in spin glass re-entrant systems

The static critical phenomenology near the Curie temperature of the re-entrant metallic alloys Au_0.81Fe_0.19, Ni_0.78Mn_0.22, Ni_0.79Mn_0.21 and amorphous a-Fe_0.98Zr_0.08 is studied using a variety of experimental techniques and methods of analysis. We have generally found that the values for the exponents alpha, beta, gamma and delta depart significantly from the predictions for the 3D Heisenberg model and are intermediate between these expectations and the values characterizing a typical spin glass transition. Comparing the exponents obtained in our work with indices for other re-entrant systems reported in the literature, a weak universality class may be defined where the exponents distribute within a certain range around average values.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figure

Pantoprazole Does not Affect Serum Trough Levels of Tacrolimus and Everolimus in Liver Transplant Recipients

Background: Liver transplant recipients are frequently treated with proton pump inhibitors. Drug interactions have been described especially with respect to omeprazole. Due to the lower binding capacity of pantoprazole to CYP2C19 this drug became preferred and became the most used proton pump inhibitor in Germany. The data on the influence of pantoprazole on immunosuppressive drugs in liver transplant recipients a very scarce.Methods: The authors performed a single center analysis in liver transplant recipients on the effect of pantoprazole on the serum trough levels of different immunosuppressants. The trough levels were compared over a period of 1 year before and after start or stop of a continuous oral co-administration of 40 mg pantoprazole once daily.Results: The serum trough levels of tacrolimus (n = 30), everolimus (n = 7), or sirolimus (n = 3) remain constant during an observation period of at least 1 year before and after co-administration of pantoprazole. None of the included patients needed a change of dosage of the observed immunosuppressants during the observation period.Conclusions: The oral co-administration of pantoprazole is safe in immunosuppressed liver transplant recipients according to the serum trough levels of tacrolimus, everolimus, and sirolimus. This analysis provides first data on the influence of pantoprazole on immunosuppressive drugs in liver transplant recipients

Enacting Hope through Narratives of Indigenous Language and Culture Reclamation

In globalizing landscapes, Indigenous ways of knowing and being persist in their connectedness to specific geographies, even as they are transformed by migrations, both forced and voluntary, and dynamic exchanges. This paper presents narratives of Indigenous and ally scholars which explore what it means to enact language and culture reclamation from a place of hope—by Indigenous peoples, for Indigenous communities—and in connection with distinct historical, political, and geographic sites. By naming the identities the authors represent—Chickasaw, Nez Perce, Eastern Shoshone/Northern Arapaho, Hopi, San Carlos Apache and Euro-American—we use a framework of hope to counter damaging assumptions of homogeneity of Indigenous communities while also searching for common themes to advance an agenda of decolonization across positionalities. Understanding that Indigenous sovereignties are built on “contingency with the beliefs, and understandings of the past” (Grande 250), we interrupt settler-colonial narratives which portray Indigenous languages and cultures as deficient and vanishing. Further, through narratives, we explore how disciplines such as linguistics, anthropology, education, and cultural studies can be interwoven to highlight experiences of identity reconciliation, spirituality through language revitalization, and storytelling as narrative reclamation. A critical culturally sustaining/revitalizing pedagogy unifies the narratives and provides a framework for attending to “asymmetrical power relations and legacies of colonization” (McCarty and Lee 8). In this way, Indigenous narratives of persistence and optimism find relevance in the global and local here and now while emphasizing the relevancy of hope as a rooted practice of relationality in Indigenous language and cultural education. Sharing narratives of hope acknowledges the experience of colonization, while privileging the hope in Indigenous knowledge as a return to the community and generator of new narratives.Ye