[Current concepts in tobacco cessation and prevention]

In the recent years, for oral care in general, both improving oral hygiene and tobacco use cessation have been identified as necessary measures to gain and maintain long-term periodontal health. This growing evidence has given the dental team a whole new task to tackle when achieving and maintaining oral health with their patients. In order to support dental patients to quit tobacco use, it is helpful for the clinician to have a clear understanding of the genesis of 'tobacco use disease' in general. At present, the evidence-based method for tobacco use cessation consists of professional counselling on behavioural change using the so called "5A Method" (Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist and Arrange") in combination with pharmacotherapy. A suitable model for behavioural support in tobacco use cessation would help patients to move from one stage to the next. People who want to quit the smoking habit do not always participate in carefully controlled nicotine withdrawal programs, e.g. in linear fashion and from start to finish. Nevertheless, simple instructions - like those offered in the "Assist" (to help) and "Arrange" (to organize follow-up visits) - can be valuable tools for dental professionals supporting their patients to quit smoking. On the basis of significant evidence on the recovery of the oral mucosa and the periodontal tissue following tobacco use cessation, a new task has been emerged in dentistry: the role of oral health professionals providing counselling for patients who ought to quit tobacco use.

Extracranial expansion of a feline meningioma

Meningioma is the most frequently observed primary brain tumour in cats. Usually, it is associated with an intracranial expansion with consequent brain compression, oedema and brain herniation. Typical features of feline intracranial meningiomas are hyperostosis of the adjacent bone and intratumoral mineralisation. We describe a 13-year-old male neutered cat with a 1-year history of behavioural change. At clinical and neurological examination the cat showed signs consistent with right-sided forebrain lesion. Magnetic resonance images showed a right-sided extra-axial contrast enhancing mass in the region of the frontotemporal lobe. The overlying bone of the calvarium showed a marked defect with extracranial expansion of the tissue. Surgery was performed and the tumour could be exposed by a right-sided temporal approach. After extension of the bony defect the mass could be removed properly. The cat recovered well from surgery and a 12-month follow-up showed no persistent neurological deficits. Histopathological assessment of the tumour revealed a transitional grade 1 meningioma. Despite osteolysis and extracranial expansion of the tumour differentials should include menigioma in feline intracranial neoplasms.

Citizen science reveals unexpected continental-scale evolutionary change in a model organism

Organisms provide some of the most sensitive indicators of climate change and evolutionary responses are becoming apparent in species with short generation times. Large datasets on genetic polymorphism that can provide an historical benchmark against which to test for recent evolutionary responses are very rare, but an exception is found in the brown-lipped banded snail (Cepaea nemoralis). This species is sensitive to its thermal environment and exhibits several polymorphisms of shell colour and banding pattern affecting shell albedo in the majority of populations within its native range in Europe. We tested for evolutionary changes in shell albedo that might have been driven by the warming of the climate in Europe over the last half century by compiling an historical dataset for 6,515 native populations of C. nemoralis and comparing this with new data on nearly 3,000 populations. The new data were sampled mainly in 2009 through the Evolution MegaLab, a citizen science project that engaged thousands of volunteers in 15 countries throughout Europe in the biggest such exercise ever undertaken. A known geographic cline in the frequency of the colour phenotype with the highest albedo (yellow) was shown to have persisted and a difference in colour frequency between woodland and more open habitats was confirmed, but there was no general increase in the frequency of yellow shells. This may have been because snails adapted to a warming climate through behavioural thermoregulation. By contrast, we detected an unexpected decrease in the frequency of Unbanded shells and an increase in the Mid-banded morph. Neither of these evolutionary changes appears to be a direct response to climate change, indicating that the influence of other selective agents, possibly related to changing predation pressure and habitat change with effects on micro-climate.

Lack of concordance between subjective improvement and symptom change in psychotic episodes

OBJECTIVES: Subjective, self-rated improvement in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders can carry significance as a first-person account of treatment outcome, and can be of importance for the individual patient's acceptance of further treatment, including psychological treatments. This study assessed the concordance between post-treatment subjective improvement and the observed symptom change after a psychotic episode. DESIGN: Longitudinal study based on daily symptom ratings. METHOD: The study sample consisted of 43 younger, primarily first- or second-episode patients. Observed symptom change was calculated as both pre-post differences and symptom trajectories. Subjective improvement was assessed at the end of treatment by using the 'Emotional and Behavioural Changes in Psychotherapy Questionnaire' (VEV), a retrospective measure of subjective change. RESULTS: The findings indicated no significant concordance between pre-post differences in symptoms and self-rated improvement, nor were final levels of symptoms related to subjective improvement. Higher initial and mean symptom levels for positive symptoms were related to a lower degree of subjective improvement. A shorter duration of an initial trend-like improvement in psychosis was shown to be associated with greater subjective improvement. CONCLUSIONS: Subjective assessment of improvement may differ markedly from symptom change. In psychotic episodes, more severe initial positive symptoms as well as a delayed improvement of positive symptoms may be related to a reduced subjective experience of improvement for the duration of the entire episode. The treatment of psychosis should take a possible discordance between subjective and objective change into account.

Behaviour change counselling for tobacco use cessation and promotion of healthy lifestyles: a systematic review

AIM To systematically assess the efficacy of oral health behaviour change counselling for tobacco use cessation (TUC) and the promotion of healthy lifestyles. MATERIALS AND METHODS Systematic Reviews, Randomized (RCTs), and Controlled Clinical Trials (CCTs) were identified through an electronic search of four databases complemented by manual search. Identification, screening, eligibility and inclusion of studies were performed independently by two reviewers. Quality assessment of the included publications was performed according to the AMSTAR tool for the assessment of the methodological quality of systematic reviews. RESULTS A total of seven systematic reviews were included. With the exception of inadequate oral hygiene, the following unhealthy lifestyles related with periodontal diseases were investigated: tobacco use, unhealthy diets, harmful use of alcohol, physical inactivity, and stress. Brief interventions for TUC were shown to be effective when applied in the dental practice setting while evidence for dietary counselling and the promotion of other healthy lifestyles was limited or non-existent. CONCLUSIONS While aiming to improve periodontal treatment outcomes and the maintenance of periodontal health current evidence suggests that tobacco use brief interventions conducted in the dental practice setting were effective thus underlining the rational for behavioural support.

Individual and group level trajectories of behavioural development in Border collies.

In order to assess dogs’ personality changes during ontogeny, a cohort of 69 Border collies was followed up from six to 18–24 months. When the dogs were 6, 12, and 18–24 months old, their owners repeatedly filled in a dog personality questionnaire (DPQ), which yielded five personality factors divided into fifteen facets. All five DPQ factors were highly correlated between the three age classes, indicating that the dogs’ personality remained consistent relative to other individuals. Nonetheless, at the group level significant changes with age were found for four of the five DPQ factors. Fearfulness, Aggression towards People, Responsiveness to Training and Aggression towards Animals increased with age; only Activity/Excitability did not change significantly over time. These changes in DPQ factor scores occurred mainly between the ages of 6 and 12 months, although some facets changed beyond this age. No sex differences were found for any of the tested factors or facets, suggesting that individual variation in personality was greater than male/female differences. There were significant litter effects for the factors Fearfulness, Aggression towards People and Activity/Excitability, indicating either a strong genetic basis for these traits or a high influence of the shared early environment. To conclude, from the age of six months, consistency in personality relative to other individuals can be observed in Border collies. However, at the group level, increases in fearful and aggressive behaviours occur up to 12 months and for some traits up to two years, highlighting the need for early interventions. Follow-up studies are needed to assess trajectories of personality development prior to six months and after two years, and to include a wider variety of breeds.