Reduction in dental plaque in patients with mental disorders through the dental hygiene care programme.

OBJECTIVE: To develop a dental hygiene care programme based on the specific needs of patients with mental disorders and to suggest practical guidelines to improve the oral health care of these patients. METHODS: A total of 73 patients with mental illness participated in the study. The patients were randomly classified into three groups and followed over 12 weeks at 4-week intervals. A newly designed dental hygiene care programme using flash-based video, brochures and a toothpick method was implemented by five dental hygienists. Plaque index, stimulated saliva, subjective oral dryness and dental caries activity were analysed as outcome variables. RESULTS: Results showed that the dental plaque index significantly decreased after each session (P < 0.0001) in all three groups, and significant differences were found between groups (P = 0.036). Patients' oral dryness decreased significantly, but stimulated saliva and dental caries activity did not improve. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that the dental hygiene care programme, which made use of a short, 10-min flash-based video and brochures every 4 weeks, was effective in reducing the dental plaque index of patients with mental disorders.

Responses of young energy-restricted sheep to chronically administered insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I): evidence that IGF-I suppresses the hepatic growth hormone receptor.

We have shown previously that chronic administration (8 weeks) of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) has little growth-promoting effect in well fed sheep. The aim of this study was to investigate the anabolic effects of IGF-I in energy-restricted conditions in which circulating concentrations of IGF-I in control animals were expected to be low. Young castrate male sheep were offered chaffed lucerne at a rate equivalent to 110% maintenance and were treated by sc injection three times per day for either 8 or 12 weeks with recombinant human IGF-I (150 micrograms/kg live wt x day) or saline in a 2 x 2 factorial design (eight animals per cell). IGF-I treatment significantly increased plasma IGF-I concentrations, but reduced plasma concentrations of IGF-II, GH, urea, and creatinine. Treatment with IGF-I also decreased (P < 0.1) GH secretion in response to a GRF load, but significantly (P < 0.05) increased the nonesterified fatty acid response to an epinephrine load. The reduction in circulating GH levels was accompanied by a suppression of [125I]oGH binding to hepatic microsomal membranes. This effect, if apparent in other tissues, may act as a feedback mechanism to limit the local synthesis of IGF-I and could explain why IGF-I treatment had little effect on the growth rate of the sheep, although it did increase nitrogen digestibility of the feed consumed and decreased the fat content of the hind leg. It also differentially promoted the growth of the spleen, thymus, and mandibular salivary gland and increased blood counts of eosinophils. It is concluded that IGF-I does not have marked effects on growth rate or body composition in sheep fed a near-maintenance diet. Possible reasons include the associated suppression of GH secretion and action, which limits the ability of treated animals to repartition absorbed nutrients.

Removal of phosphorus from water using lignocellulosic material modified with iron species from acid mine drainage.

Lignocellulosic biosorbents, including juniper fiber, show promise as sorbents for removing pollutants from wastewater run-off because of their low cost. In this study, juniper fiber modified with iron species from acid mine drainage (AMD) was tested for its capacity to remove phosphorus from water compared to unmodified juniper fiber. In batch tests, the maximum adsorbate loading (Qmax) of phosphorus onto the modified adsorbent was 1.83 mg g(-1) at pH 4.0, obtained by fitting the isotherm results to the Langmuir isotherm model. This value is similar to the sorption capacity of other conventional adsorbents such as goethite, which implies that the modified lignocellulosic material would be effective as a sorbent for removing phosphorus from water. In the kinetic test, the pseudo-second order kinetic model fitted well the sorption of phosphorus onto the modified filter medium, showing the kinetic constant (k) of 8.09 x 10(-2) g(mg min)(-1) at initial phosphorus concentration of 10 mg l(-1).