MEASUREMENT OF ANTIOXIDANT POWER OF MOUTHWASHES INDICATED IN STOMATITIS

ABSTRACTObjective: Hospital formulations containing allopurinol and rebamipide are used in the prophylactic and therapeutic management of stomatitis,owing to their antioxidant powers. The objective of this study was to measure the antioxidant powers of Zyloric® tablets (allopurinol), Mucosta®tablets (rebamipide), different hospital formulations indicated in the management of stomatitis (allopurinol and rebamipide mouthwashes), andAzulene® 0.4% for Gargle (sodium azulene sulfonate).Methods: We measured the antioxidant powers of Zyloric® and Mucosta® tablets, all hospital formulations indicated in the management of stomatitis(allopurinol and rebamipide mouthwashes), and the widely used Azulene® 0.4% for Gargle by employing the biological antioxidant potential test. Wecompared the efficacy of each of these drugs in the management of stomatitis.Results: Azulene® 0.4% for Gargle was found to have stronger antioxidant power than Zyloric® (100 mg) and Mucosta® (100 mg) tablets dissolved inwater. The antioxidant power of the solvent used in hospital formulations was similar to that of the prepared hospital formulation. Antioxidant powerof the drugs themselves was not observed in both the allopurinol and rebamipide mouthwashes.Conclusion: The antioxidant power of the drugs was not observed in both the allopurinol and rebamipide mouthwashes; therefore, hospitalformulations used as antioxidants were found to be less effective in the treatment of stomatitis. However, Azulene® 0.4% for Gargle was found to beuseful in the prophylactic and therapeutic management of stomatitis, owing to its antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory effects.Keywords: Stomatitis, Bone alkaline phosphatase-test, Allopurinol mouthwash, Rebamipide mouthwash, Azulene® 0.4% for Gargle, Antioxidant powe

Best Thermoelectric Efficiency of Ever-Explored Materials

A thermoelectric device is a heat engine that directly converts heat into electricity. Many materials with a high figure of merit ZT have been discovered in anticipation of a high thermoelectric efficiency. However, there has been a lack of investigations on efficiency-based material evaluation, and little is known about the achievable limit of thermoelectric efficiency. Here, we report the highest thermoelectric efficiency using 13,353 published materials. The thermoelectric device efficiencies of 808,610 configurations are calculated under various heat-source temperatures (T_h) when the cold-side temperature is 300 K, solving one-dimensional thermoelectric integral equations with temperature-dependent thermoelectric properties. For infinite-cascade devices, a thermoelectric efficiency larger than 33% (~1/3) is achievable when T_h exceeds 1400 K. For single-stage devices, the best efficiency of 17.1% (~1/6) is possible when T_h is 860 K. Leg segmentation can overcome this limit, delivering a very high efficiency of 24% (~1/4) when T_h is 1100 K.Comment: 32 pages (main+table+figure captions+figures), 7 additional pages for 6 high resolution figures, Supporting Data file is not public ye

A subjective well-being of the aged - psychological characteristics of elderly people of 90 or older -

高齢化社会の到来に伴い一言で老人といっても幅広い年代が対象となり、一律に老人では説明できない。実際看護をしていると90歳をすぎた老人はその年代迄にはない、穏やかさ、焦りのなさ、人生を達観しているような感じを受けることが多い。そこで90歳以上の老人にみられるイメージや心理面の特徴を明らかにし看護実践の一助としたいと考えた。方法は80歳以上の入院患者50名に身体、生活、家族面からみた現状、他者から見たイメージ、主観的幸福感を調査した。その結果、90歳以上は80歳代にくらべ看護者に肯定的イメージに受け取られる傾向にあった。主観的幸福感を示すモラール得点の総合点では差はなかったが得点する内容に差が見られ、80歳は積極的な生き方で得点しているものが多く90歳代は現状に満足している点で得点している者が多かった。看護者からみたイメージと本人の主観的幸福感は両年代とも肯定的イメージで相関した。The population of the aged is currently increasing with advanced medical science and technology. The aged have become to keep their lives long. In this paper, We especially focused on their psychological characteristics of elderly people of 90 and older to offer high quality of nursing care for them. We interviewed 50 patients of 80 years and older about a subjective well-being, using a questionaire based on Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale. And also we asked 50 nurses, who took care of them exclusively, a questinaire about their images of the aged. We report as follows : 1. The nurses estimated that their images of the second group (range : 90 years old ~) were better than the first group (range : 80~89 years old). 2. In subjective well-being which Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale showed, above-mentioned both groups were similar in total scores. However, each item was marked differently by them. 3. In both groups, their subjective well-being correlated with good images for them

Seaweed intake and blood pressure levels in healthy pre-school Japanese children

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Few studies have examined whether dietary factors might affect blood pressure in children. We purposed to investigate whether seaweed intake is associated with blood pressure level among Japanese preschool children.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The design of the study was cross-sectional and it was conducted in autumn 2006. Subjects were healthy preschoolers aged 3-6 years in Aichi, Japan. Blood pressure and pulse were measured once by an automated sphygmomanometer, which uses oscillometric methods. Dietary data, including seaweed intake, were assessed using 3-day dietary records covering 2 consecutive weekdays and 1 weekend day. Of a total of 533 children, 459 (86.1 percent) agreed to be enrolled in our study. Finally, blood pressure measurement, complete dietary records and parent-reported height and weight were obtained for 223 boys and 194 girls.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>When we examined Spearman's correlation coefficients, seaweed intake was significantly negatively related to systolic blood pressure in girls (<it>P </it>= 0.008). In the one-way analysis of covariance for blood pressure and pulse after adjustments for age and BMI, the boys with the lowest, middle and highest tertiles of seaweed intake had diastolic blood pressure readings of 62.8, 59.3 and 59.6 mmHg, respectively (<it>P </it>= 0.11, trend <it>P </it>= 0.038). Girls with higher seaweed intake had significantly lower systolic blood pressure readings (102.4, 99.2 and 96.9 mmHg for girls with the lowest, middle and highest tertiles of seaweed intake, respectively; <it>P </it>= 0.037, trend <it>P </it>= 0.030).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our study showed that seaweed intake was negatively related to diastolic blood pressure in boys and to systolic blood pressure in girls. This suggests that seaweed might have beneficial effects on blood pressure among children.</p

Effect of parity on lymphocytes in peripheral blood and colostrum of healthy Holstein dairy cows

Investigation of the bovine systemic and mammary gland immune cells at calving might provide crucial information about the susceptibility of the mammary gland to infection. This study investigated the leukocyte population and cytokine mRNA levels in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and colostrum mononuclear cells (CCs) obtained from healthy cows soon after calving. Fifty dairy cows that did not show clinical diseases were divided into 4 groups on the basis of parity: heifer (group 1, n = 10), 2nd calving (group 2, n = 11), 3rd calving (group 3, n = 14), and more than 3rd calving (group 4, n = 15). In the peripheral blood the numbers of CD3+TcR1-N12+, CD3+, CD4+, and major histocompatibility complex class II+CD14− lymphocytes were significantly higher in group 1 than in group 4, whereas in the colostrum the percentages of CD4+ and CD4+CD26+ lymphocytes and the CD4+/CD8+ ratio were significantly lower in group 1 than in group 4. There were no significant differences in the cytokine mRNA levels of PBMCs among the 4 groups; however, in the CCs the ratio of interferon gamma to interleukin 4 was significantly lower in group 1 than in group 3. These results suggest that the cellular immune function of PBMCs is lower, whereas mammary gland immune cells are more active, in cows with higher parity compared with heifers at calving

Seaweed intake and blood pressure levels in healthy pre-school Japanese children

Abstract Background: Few studies have examined whether dietary factors might affect bloo