Epidemiology, prevention and control of oral diseases in pediatric subjects

Caries and periodontal diseases are a neglected epidemic by millions of Italians who suffer unnecessarily from them. Both diseases are preventable and the combination of high prevalence, high morbidity and relative inattention from the National Health Service (NHS), makes caries and periodontal disease a significant public health problem. In this perspective, the World Health Organization and the University of Milan have promoted a national epidemiological study aimed at a sample of 4, 6 and 12-years-old students from schools in the North, Central and South of Italy. The study provides for the administration of a questionnaire to parents and a dental examination carried out at school by dentists trained by the WHO. In our town the epidemiological study planning and the survey were carried out by professors of the School of Specialization in "Pediatric Dentistry" (Prof. G. Giuliana and Prof. G. Pizzo) supported by specialist dentists from the same School, calibrated according to the WHO methodology. The survey was carried out between 2017 and 2019 involving 2701 children attending schools in the 8 districts of the town. The parents were sent a letter which explained the nature of the survey and contained a pre-printed form for the issue of informed consent to participate in the survey with a questionnaire regarding the family nuclear, the oral hygiene and eating habits of the minor and the child's previous dental experiences. The ICDAS (International Caries Detection and Assessment System) was used to detect the prevalence of carious lesions. The dentist used for each child visited a dental mirror and the CPI (Community Periodontal Index) index for periodontal assessment. Preliminary results showed that 25.3% of 12-years-old students had gingival bleeding and 41.1% had tartar. The caries index (ICDAS) shows us that as early as 4 years, 20% of children have initial carious lesions, 37% have dentine caries and that 34.38% have highly destructive caries. At 12 years, 34.95% had initial carious lesions, 46% had cavities that already affected dentin and that 42.44% had highly destructive cavities. The exigence to implement a program of prevention / early treatment of caries/gingivitis in pediatric subjects living in Palermo, since the first months of child's life, was born from the data analysis. The project "Un sorriso per 54 tutti i bambini", carried out at the U.O. of "Pediatric Dentistry" of Policlinico Paolo Giaccone in Palermo, was therefore finalised in order to 1) improve efficiency and effectiveness in the promotion of the oral health of minors, through the creation of a preventive / assistance route of significant social health impact; 2) assess the effectiveness of the preventive methodologies adopte

Daytime sensible heat flux estimation over heterogeneous surfaces using multitemporal land‐surface temperature observations

Equations based on surface renewal (SR) analysis to estimate the sensible heat flux (H) require as input the mean ramp amplitude and period observed in the ramp‐like pattern of the air temperature measured at high frequency. A SR‐based method to estimate sensible heat flux (HSR‐LST) requiring only low‐frequency measurements of the air temperature, horizontal mean wind speed, and land‐surface temperature as input was derived and tested under unstable conditions over a heterogeneous canopy (olive grove). HSR‐LST assumes that the mean ramp amplitude can be inferred from the difference between land‐surface temperature and mean air temperature through a linear relationship and that the ramp frequency is related to a wind shear scale characteristic of the canopy flow. The land‐surface temperature was retrieved by integrating in situ sensing measures of thermal infrared energy emitted by the surface. The performance of HSR‐LST was analyzed against flux tower measurements collected at two heights (close to and well above the canopy top). Crucial parameters involved in HSR‐LST, which define the above mentioned linear relationship, were explained using the canopy height and the land surface temperature observed at sunrise and sunset. Although the olive grove can behave as either an isothermal or anisothermal surface, HSR‐LST performed close to H measured using the eddy covariance and the Bowen ratio energy balance methods. Root mean square differences between HSR‐LST and measured H were of about 55 W m−2. Thus, by using multitemporal thermal acquisitions, HSR‐LST appears to bypass inconsistency between land surface temperature and the mean aerodynamic temperature. The one‐source bulk transfer formulation for estimating H performed reliable after calibration against the eddy covariance method. After calibration, the latter performed similar to the proposed SR‐LST method.This research was funded by project CGL2012‐37416‐C04‐01 and CGL2015‐65627‐C3‐1‐R (Ministerio de Ciencia y Innovación of Spain), CEI Iberus, 2014 (Proyecto financiado por el Ministerio de Educación en el marco del Programa Campus de Excelencia Internacional of Spain), and Ayuda para estancias en centros extranjeros (Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte of Spain)

Behavioural disorders in children and adolescents: A conceptual review about the therapeutic alliance with family and school

Aim: In disruptive behavioral disorders, given the wide range of symptomatic manifestations and the complexity of the sociofamiliar contexts in which they develop, it is now proven that more visible and more stable results can be achieved over time through multimodal and multidimensional interventions. These are accomplished through the integration of psychotherapeutic interventions for the child and parents, counseling interventions for all the various practitioners who come into contact with the child in school, sports, and social settings, through the possibility of organizing multiple settings in patient can be followed by several health professionals such as child and adolescent neuropsychiatrist, neuropsychomotricist, occupation therapist, psychologist

Review about comorbidities of behavioural disorders in children and adolescents: The focus on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Disruptive behavior disorders (DBD) present high comorbidity rate mainly for opposite-defiant disorders that are frequent among children, adolescents and adults affected by with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), probably as result of common temperamental risk factors such as attention, distraction, impulsivity. ADHD tend to manifest in about 50% of individuals diagnosed as disruptive behavioral disorders

Coastal zone water quality: Calibration of a water-turbidity equation for MODIS data

A nephelometric turbidity algorithm has been specifically calibrated for coastal waters in Sicily. To this purpose, intensive field campaigns were performed in July, August and September 2008. Measurements were collected in situ in three different gulfs. Statistical analysis suggests that field data should be spatially grouped but temporally separated; hence, new calibration parameters have been proposed. Turbidity retrieved by applying the algorithm using literature coefficients and the ones calibrated in situ are shown and compared. The comparison demonstrated that a specific calibration was necessary for quantitatively monitoring turbidity in Sicilian gulfs