Prevalence of halitosis in young male adults: a study in swiss army recruits comparing self-reported and clinical data

BACKGROUND: Sound epidemiologic data on halitosis are rare. We evaluated the prevalence of halitosis in a young male adult population in Switzerland using a standardized questionnaire and clinical examination. METHODS: Six hundred twenty-six Swiss Army recruits aged 18 to 25 years (mean: 20.3 years) were selected as study subjects. First, a standardized questionnaire focusing on dental hygiene, self-reported halitosis, smoking, and alcohol consumption was filled out by all participants. In the clinical examination, objective values for the presence of halitosis were gathered through an organoleptic assessment of the breath odor and the measurement of volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs). Additionally, tongue coating, plaque index, and probing depths were evaluated for each recruit. RESULTS: The questionnaire revealed that only 17% of all included recruits had never experienced halitosis. The organoleptic evaluation (grades 0 to 3) identified eight persons with grade 3, 148 persons with grade 2, and 424 persons with grade 1 or 0. The calculation of the Pearson correlation coefficient to evaluate the relationship among the three methods of assessing halitosis revealed little to no correlation. The organoleptic score showed high reproducibility (kappa = 0.79). Tongue coating was the only influencing factor found to contribute to higher organoleptic scores and higher VSC values. CONCLUSIONS: Oral malodor seemed to pose an oral health problem for about one-fifth of 20-year-old Swiss males questioned. No correlation between self-reported halitosis and organoleptic or VSC measurements could be detected. Although the organoleptic method described here offers a high reproducibility, the lack of correlation between VSC values and organoleptic scores has to be critically addressed. For further studies assessing new organoleptic scores, a validated index should always be included as a direct control.

On the use of textural features for writer identification in old handwritten music scores

Writer identification consists in determining the writer of a piece of handwriting from a set of writers. In this paper we present a system for writer identification in old handwritten music scores which uses only music notation to determine the author. The steps of the proposed system are the following. First of all, the music sheet is preprocessed for obtaining a music score without the staff lines. Afterwards, four different methods for generating texture images from music symbols are applied. Every approach uses a different spatial variation when combining the music symbols to generate the textures. Finally, Gabor filters and Grey-scale Co-ocurrence matrices are used to obtain the features. The classification is performed using a k-NN classifier based on Euclidean distance. The proposed method has been tested on a database of old music scores from the 17th to 19th centuries, achieving encouraging identification rates.

The content and composition of lipids in the digital cushion of the bovine claw with respect to age and location--a preliminary report

The pads of the bovine digital cushion, which serves as a shock absorber, have specific anatomical structures to cope with the substantial forces acting within the claw. To gain more information on the lipid composition and content of the pads, horn shoes from 12 slaughtered heifers and cows were removed and different samples of the pads excised with a scalpel. Pad lipids were extracted and the fatty acid composition determined by gas chromatography. Fat from perirenal and subcutaneous adipose tissues served as a comparison. Overall, this fat contained a higher quantity of extracted lipids than that of the claw pads and did not differ between heifers and cows. In contrast, lipid content in the pads was significantly higher in the cows than in the heifers. In both groups, the lipid content of the middle and abaxial pads, which are situated directly under the distal phalanx, was lower than in the pads of the other locations. The lipids in all pads contained >77% monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), differing sharply from the adipose tissue with values <51%. Among the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) a significantly higher proportion of arachidonic acid (AA) was found in the heifer pads than in those of the cows, whereas the proportion of AA was similar in the adipose tissue of all animals. The proportion of AA in the pad lipids also varied between the defined locations with the highest proportion found in locations that showed the lowest lipid content and was related to the age of the animal.

Effect of animal species and age on plate-induced vascular damage in cortical bone

Plates used for fracture fixation produce vascular injury to the underlying cortical bone. During the recovery of the blood supply, temporary osteoporosis is observed as a result of Haversian remodeling of the necrotic bone. This process temporarily reduces the strength of the bone. We tackled the postulate that quantitative differences exist between animal species, and in different bones within the same species, due to variations in the relative importance of the endosteal and periosteal blood supplies. Using implants scaled to the size of the bone, we found comparable cortical vascular damage in the sheep and in the dog, and in the tibia and femur of each animal. We observed a significant reduction in cortical vascular damage using plates that had a smaller contact area with the underlying bone. No significant difference in cortical vascular damage was noted in animals of different ages.

History of Art in the Digital Age: Problems and Possibilities

Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist, einen allgemeinen Überblick über die Wirkung von Computern auf die Kunstgeschichte zu geben. Zu Beginn der Arbeit wird der Charakter der informationstechnologischen Revolution untersucht, einschließlich seiner schon oft festgestellten Parallelen mit der "Gutenberg"- Revolution, deren Ausgangspunkt in der Entwicklung der Druckerpresse liegt. Wie auch bei Gutenberg, ist die Entwicklung der Informationstechnologie technologisch bedingt. Jedoch führt sie durch ihren Schwerpunkt auf Flexibilität und Verbreitung an ein anderes Ziel. Diese Flexibilität ist zweischneidig: während sie viele neue Möglichkeiten eröffnet, scheint sie auch einen bruchstückhafteren, iterativen Ansatz zur Untersuchung des Vorzugs von Information vor Wissen anzuregen. Es bleibt jedoch offen, ob dieser Ansatz als notwendige Konsequenz der Struktur dieser vorhandenen neuen Technologie betrachtet werden kann, oder ob er eher als Produkt eines allgemeinen intellektuellen Wandels, angeregt durch das Aufkommen des postmodernen Diskurses, beschrieben werden soll. Ich werde in dem vorliegenden Artikel für den zweitgenannten Grund argumentieren. Ich bin außerdem der Meinung, dass der in der neuen Technologie enthaltenen Tendenz zur Fragmentierung entgegengewirkt werden kann - vorausgesetzt der Wunsch besteht. Die Entwicklung des Computers hängt eng mit der Nachfrage des Konsumenten zusammen. Aus diesem Grund kann ein neuer Trend in der Nachfrage die Art der Ausweitung und Modifizierung technologischer Vorgänge mitbestimmen.Des weiteren werden in der vorliegenden Arbeit Problemstellungen diskutiert, die speziell Auswirkungen auf die Untersuchung von Bildern haben. Hierbei wird sowohl das Potential digitaler Bilder für neue Formen der Erforschung und Analyse diskutiert, als auch die vielen neuen Möglichkeiten im Zeitalter des Internets.

Book review of “Germany in Transit: Nation and Migration, 1955-2005”. 588 pages, University of California Press, 2007, by Deniz Göktürk, David Gramling and Anton Kaes (eds.)

Though migration is an age-old feature of human activity, driven by various circumstances, its current place in the midst of global dynamics and the phenomenon of globalization is becoming increasingly critical. International immigration and its regulation have been largely shaped by the policies in the receiving countries, often determining preferences for nationality cohorts and work skills to satisfy their labor and human capital requirements. When immigration has been necessitated by political strife, host countries have displayed immense magnanimity as well. However, the growing realization of resource limitations and the strange quirks of cultural pluralism are in turn creating waves of dissonance. Literature and the media are now replete with an in depth look into the immigration debate in various nations of the world in trying to seek new directions and satisfactory solutions.

Mean age of carbon in fine roots from temperate forests and grasslands with different management

Fine roots are the most dynamic portion of a plant's root system and a major source of soil organic matter. By altering plant species diversity and composition, soil conditions and nutrient availability, and consequently belowground allocation and dynamics of root carbon (C) inputs, land-use and management changes may influence organic C storage in terrestrial ecosystems. In three German regions, we measured fine root radiocarbon (14C) content to estimate the mean time since C in root tissues was fixed from the atmosphere in 54 grassland and forest plots with different management and soil conditions. Although root biomass was on average greater in grasslands 5.1 ± 0.8 g (mean ± SE, n = 27) than in forests 3.1 ± 0.5 g (n = 27) (p < 0.05), the mean age of C in fine roots in forests averaged 11.3 ± 1.8 yr and was older and more variable compared to grasslands 1.7 ± 0.4 yr (p < 0.001). We further found that management affects the mean age of fine root C in temperate grasslands mediated by changes in plant species diversity and composition. Fine root mean C age is positively correlated with plant diversity (r = 0.65) and with the number of perennial species (r = 0.77). Fine root mean C age in grasslands was also affected by study region with averages of 0.7 ± 0.1 yr (n = 9) on mostly organic soils in northern Germany and of 1.8 ± 0.3 yr (n = 9) and 2.6 ± 0.3 (n = 9) in central and southern Germany (p < 0.05). This was probably due to differences in soil nutrient contents and soil moisture conditions between study regions, which affected plant species diversity and the presence of perennial species. Our results indicate more long-lived roots or internal redistribution of C in perennial species and suggest linkages between fine root C age and management in grasslands. These findings improve our ability to predict and model belowground C fluxes across broader spatial scales.

Veridicality of self-concept of strengths in male adolescents

Changes in physical self-concept and veridicality (i.e., the appropriateness of one’s self-perceptions to reality) during childhood and adolescence are related to performance in physical fi tness, exercise, and global self-esteem, particularly in male adolescents. This cross-sectional study examined the relation between the self-concept of strength and actual strength in groups of male adolescents ages 12 to 15 years. For this purpose, 889 male adolescents (M age = 13.2 yr., SD = 1.0) were questioned about their self-concept of strength, after which a test of strength was carried out. The results showed that the correlation between self- concept of strength and actual strength was higher in older (14- and 15-year-old) than younger (12- and 13-year-old) adolescents. There was a statistically signifi cant association between age group and veridicality, indicating that realistic self-concept is underrepresented among younger, but overrepresented among older adolescents. No association was found between the adolescents’ physical activity and veridicality. The consequences for further research on the development of veridicality in the physical domain are discussed.

Development of micro-electrospray mass spectrometry for ultra high sensitivity and application in the study of drugs of abuse on endogenous \lbrack Met\rbrack $\sp5$-enkephalin release

A micro-electrospray interface was developed specifically for the neurobiological applications described in this dissertation. Incorporation of a unique nano-flow liquid chromatography micro-electrospray "needle" into the micro-electrospray interface (micro-ES/MS) increased the sensitivity of the mass spectrometric assay by $\sim$1000 fold and thus permitted the first analysis of specific neuroactive compounds in brain extracellular fluid collected by in vivo microdialysis (Md).^ Initial in vivo data presented deals with the pharmacodynamics of a novel GABA$\sb{\rm B}$ antagonist and the availability of the compound in its parent (unmetabolized) form to the brain of the anesthetized rat. Next, the first structurally specific endogenous release of (Met) $\sp5$-enkephalin was demonstrated in unanesthetized freely-moving animals (release of $\sim$6.5 fmole of (Met) $\sp5$-enkephalin into the dialysate by direct neuronal depolarization). The Md/micro-ES/MS system was used to test the acute effects of drugs of abuse on the endogenous release of (Met) $\sp5$-enkephalin from the globus pallidus/ventral pallidum brain region in rats. Four drugs known to be abused by man (morphine, cocaine, methamphetamine and diazepam) were tested. Morphine and cocaine both elicited a two-fold or more increase in the release of (Met) $\sp5$-enkephalin over vehicle controls. Diazepam elicited a small decrease in (Met) $\sp5$-enkephalin levels and methamphetamine showed no significant effect on (Met) $\sp5$-enkephalin. These results imply that (Met) $\sp5$-enkephalin may be involved in the reward pathway of certain drugs of abuse. ^

Global Cultural Law and Policy in the Age of Ubiquitous Internet

Digital technologies and the Internet in particular have transformed the ways we create, distribute, use, reuse and consume cultural content; have impacted on the workings of the cultural industries, and more generally on the processes of making, experiencing and remembering culture in local and global spaces. Yet, few of these, often profound, transformations have found reflection in law and institutional design. Cultural policy toolkits, in particular at the international level, are still very much offline/analogue and conceive of culture as static property linked to national sovereignty and state boundaries. The article describes this state of affairs and asks the key question of whether there is a need to reform global cultural law and policy and if yes, what the essential elements of such a reform should be.