PREVENTION OF DENTAL CARIES BY ACUPUNCTURE

By acupuncture stimulation (at the Chinese meridian point), the total number of oral Streptococci and the caries-pathogenic bacteria, Streptococcus mutans, in the rats were decreased. The anti-RC-20 (Streptococcus mutans) titer of the rat serum increased as the result of acupuncture stimulation. Rat caries induced by a caries-inducing diet (6-PMV*2) was reduced by acupuncture stimulation

Estimation of the Spatiotemporal Patterns of Vegetation and Associated Ecosystem Services in a Bornean Montane Zone Using Three Shifting-Cultivation Scenarios

Tropical countries are now facing increasing global pressure to conserve tropical forests, while having to maintain cultivated lands (particularly shifting cultivation) for the subsistence of local people. To accomplish the effective conservation of tropical forests in harmony with subsistence shifting cultivation, we evaluated the influence of shifting cultivation on ecosystem services (i.e., biodiversity and carbon stock) at a landscape level based on three land-use scenarios. The study focus was the upland area between the Kinabalu Park and the Crocker Range Park in Sabah, northern Borneo, where local people conduct shifting cultivation for their subsistence. In this area, vegetation patches of various stages of secondary succession admix with shifting-cultivation lands. An earlier study in the same site depicted significant relationships between the stand ages of vegetation patches (which form a sere of secondary succession after the abandonment of cultivated land) and the above-ground biomass (i.e., carbon stock) and species composition of the stands. We incorporated these significant relationships to a stand-age estimation algorithm that had been developed earlier. We first mapped current (as of 2010) spatial patterns of the above-ground biomass and plant-community composition for the whole landscape. Subsequently, we simulated the spatiotemporal patterns of the above-ground biomass and plant-community distribution using three land-use scenarios: (1) reducing the area of shifting cultivation by one half and protecting the rest of the area; (2) shortening the minimum fallow period from 7 to 4 years while maintaining the same area of cultivation; and (3) elongating the minimum fallow period from 7 to 10 years while maintaining the same area of cultivation. Results indicated that land use based on scenario 2 could increase the carbon stock while maintaining the cultivation area. Our methods were effective in mapping the structure and composition of highly dynamic forests at a landscape level, and at predicting the future patterns of important ecosystem services based on land-use scenarios

DENTAL SURVEY IN NIGERIAPART I. PREVALENCE OF DENTAL CARIES IN NIGERIA

A joint dental epidemiological survey was carried out in 1981 in the ancient city of Ile-Ife and its environs in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The survey was made with the University of Ife, Ile-Ife, Oyo State, Nigeria, as the base. The occurrence of caries in 898 Nigerian school children of 509 urban and 389 rural children was compared with the occurrence of caries in the Japanese children. The results showed that the incidence of caries in the Nigerian school children was much lower than that of their Japanese counterpart. However, it is projected that with the increase in the consumption of sweet drinks and food in Nigeria, if superimposed on the existing poor oral hygiene, the incidence of caries will increase greatly

DENTAL SURVEY IN NIGERIA PART 2 BITING FORCE OF NIGERIAN

The biting force of 855 Nigerian children and adults from the age of 3 to 60 was recorded m the Joint Dental Epidemiological Survey in Nigeria in 1981. The biting force of the Nigerian rural group (245 males and 178 females) was significantly greater than those of the Nigerian urban group (227 males and 203 females) and the Japanese males and females