Oral Health in 12- and 15-Year-Old Children in Serbia: A National Pathfinder Study.

The aim of the paper is to present the oral health profile of 12- and 15-year-old schoolchildren in Serbia. Basic Methods for Oral Health Surveys of the WHO were implemented to record: Decayed, Missing, and Filled Teeth/Surfaces Index (DMFT/DMFS), gingival bleeding, enamel fluorosis and other structural anomalies, dental erosion, dental trauma, and oral mucosal lesions. In addition, Silness and Löe plaque index and orthodontic status were assessed. A total of 36% of 12-year-olds and 22% of 15-year-olds in Serbia were caries-free. The mean DMFT was 2.32 ± 2.69 for 12-year-olds and 4.09 ± 3.81 for 15-year-olds. DMFT was made up largely by the decayed component. Gingival bleeding was present in 26% of examined 12-year-old and 18% of 15-year-old children. Dental plaque was observed in 63% of both 12- and 15-year-olds. Fluorosis, structural anomalies, dental erosion, dental trauma, and oral mucosal lesion were rarely detected. Low prevalence of malocclusions was found. Oral disease is still a common public health problem among schoolchildren in Serbia. A significant increase in the prevalence of caries disease between 12- and 15-year-old groups implies that preventive care for adolescents requires special attention. Corrective actions and reforms to the current school-based oral health prevention program are needed to further improve oral health in Serbian children

Modeling the optical constants of solids using acceptance-probability-controlled simulated annealing with an adaptive move generation procedure

The acceptance-probability-controlled simulated annealing with an adaptive move generation procedure, an optimization technique derived from the simulated annealing algorithm, is presented. The adaptive move generation procedure was compared against the random move generation procedure on seven multiminima test functions, as well as on the synthetic data, resembling the optical constants of a metal. In all cases the algorithm proved to have faster convergence and superior escaping from local minima. This algorithm was then applied to fit the model dielectric function to data for platinum and aluminum

Influences of fertilization by phosphorus on yield and nutritional status of maize in Potkozarje area

The field experiment with four rates of phosphorus (P) fertilization was conducted in spring of 2004 with treatments as follows: a) ordinary fertilization (kg/ha: 200 N + 80 P 2 O 5 + 120 K 2 O); b) a + 500 kg P 2 O 5 ; c) a + 1000 kg P 2 O 5 ; and d) a + 1500 kg P 2 O 5 . The triplephoshate enriched with sulphur and zinc (45% P 2 O 5 + 1,2% S + 0,06% Zn) was used as a source of P. Maize (Bc5984 and OsSK494 hybrids, for the growing season 2004 and 2005, respectively) was grown on the experimental plot. P fertilization significantly influenced on decreases of the leaf Mg by 38%, Mn by 30%, Zn by 48% and Mo by 53% compared to the control (mg kg −1 on the control: 1526 Mg, 44.3 Mn, 45.2 Zn, 2.62 Mo) and increases of the leaf Sr by 31% and Cd by 84% (mg kg −1 on the control: 62.3 Sr and 0.25 Cd), while differences of the remaining measurable elements (P, K, S, Fe, Cu, Ni, Cr, B, Ba, Na, and Al) were nonsignificant. Also, the leaf As, Hg and Se concentrations were under detectable levels of the method. In general, grain composition was less dependent on the fertilization in comparison with the leaf composition. For the 2005 growing season, only ordinary fertilization was applied. As affected by applied fertilization maize grain yields increased up to 32% and 17% compared to the control, for 2004 and 2005, respectively

A study of magnetic ordering in diluted antiferromagnet CoxZn1-xO (0.75 LT = x LT = 1)

In order to study the influence of the magnetic ions dilution on the crystal and magnetic structure of polycrystalline CoxZn1-xO (x = 1, 0.90, 0.83, 0.75) samples we have performed neutron-diffraction experiments at several temperatures in the 10-295 K range. Magnetic transition temperatures were determined by magnetic susceptibility measurements over the 50-350 K temperature interval. The Rietveld refinements of the neutron data for all samples show that lowering of the crystal symmetry from cubic in the paramagnetic region to monoclinic in the magnetically ordered state occurs. It is found that the magnetic unit cell is double the monoclinic crystal cell along the c-axis, which points to the onset of antiferromagnetic ordering along that axis. Magnetic ordering of CoO is preserved in all the samples despite the magnetic dilution. This finding is confirmed by comparing the variation of magnetic moments with temperature for all samples, as well as by the concentration dependence of the reduced Neel temperatures t = T-N(x)/T-N(1). The exchange interaction between Co2+ ions was found to be of the Heisenberg type. (C) 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim