Sealant Effectiveness for Children Receiving a Combination of Preventive Methods in a Fluoridated Community: Two-Year Results

A series of preventive methods in combination have been used to reduce dental caries in children including dental health education, prophylaxes, pit and fissure sealants, topical application of fluoride and restorative care. Prophylaxes, sealant, and fluoride procedures are repeated every six months. Two-year results show reductions of occlusal caries increments of 74.3% for first graders and 77.1% for sixth graders. Sealant loss, as defined in this study, varied from 33% to 90% with the highest loss occurring in the newly erupted permanent molars during the first six months of the project. These high sealant loss rates are thought to be related to the age of the population which was designed to include children at the ages of peak eruption of permanent molar teeth (ages six and twelve). These teeth were often only minimally erupted and maintaining the dry field required for sealant retention was extremely difficult. However, in spite of these high rates of sealant loss, caries reduction on occlusal surfaces was highly significant in comparison to that of children who did not receive sealants.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68154/2/10.1177_00220345770560121801.pd

A Critical Analysis of the Proton Form Factor with Sudakov Suppression and Intrinsic Transverse Momentum

The behavior of the proton magnetic form factor is studied within the modified hard scattering picture, which takes into account gluonic radiative corrections in terms of transverse separations. We parallel the analysis given previously by Li and make apparent a number of serious objections. The appropriate cut-off needed to render the form-factor calculation finite is both detailed and analyzed by considering different cut-off prescriptions. The use of the maximum interquark separation as a common infrared cut-off in the Sudakov suppression factor is proposed, since it avoids difficulties with the $\alpha _{s}$-singularities and yields a proton form factor insensitive to the inclusion of the soft region which therefore can be confidently attributed to perturbative QCD. Results are presented for a variety of proton wave functions including also their intrinsic transverse momentum. It turns out that the perturbative contribution, although theoretically self-consistent for $Q^{2}$ larger than about $6$~GeV${}^{2}$ to $10$~GeV${}^{2}$, is too small compared to the data.Comment: 31 pages (RevTex) + 6 figures in PS-file; preprint BUGH Wuppertal WU-B-94-06, preprint Ruhr-Universit\"at Bochum RUB-TPII-01/9

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Incorporating vector ecology and life history into disease transmission models : insights from Tsetse (Glossina spp.)

Accurate models are crucial for predicting the spread of vector-borne diseases, and for developing appropriate control policies. Simple models often ignore finer details of vector biology, commonly due to lack of pertinent field data. However, for tsetse (Glossina spp), vectors of the parasites causing debilitating human and livestock trypanosomiasis in Africa, extensive field and laboratory data facilitate improved models and predictions of vector control outcomes. We review studies on the effects of environmental temperature, and fly age and sex, on survival and reproduction in tsetse, savannah species particularly–emphasizing the extreme maternal investment and sensitivity of early life stages to high temperatures. We consider implications of these results for predictive models of tsetse populations, and of the transmission and control of African trypanosomiasis. We discuss how further research on vectors, and improved models of vector populations and disease dynamics, can lead to improved predictions of vector abundance and disease spread