Exploring Oral Health Beliefs and Behaviour Among Tibetan Immigrants of Bylakkupe.

PURPOSE: To explore the oral health beliefs and behaviour among Tibetan immigrants of Bylakkupe village. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A stratified random sampling technique involving 366 Tibetan monks in Bylakkupe monasteries was used in this study. The oral health beliefs were measured using a pre-tested questionnaire. RESULTS: The results showed that seriousness was higher compared to other domains in the health belief model. Further, as the duration of the stay increased, the perceived importance was also higher among the population studied. CONCLUSION: The results show that in general, although the seriousness of oral health was high among the participants, the perceived benefit of dental treatment was relatively low.

Monks on the move: Evaluating pilgrimage to Byzantine St. Stephen's monastery using strontium isotopes.

OBJECTIVES: Written and archaeological evidence indicates that migration, in the form of pilgrimage to Byzantine Palestine, was a major social phenomenon between the 5th and 7th centuries CE. Monasteries saw record growth at this time as pilgrims chose to stay in the region and take up religious life. A major influx of people to the region, with a corresponding growth in monastic vocations that led travelers to stay in the area, is not in question; however, the distant origins of pilgrims reflected in surviving texts may be an artifact of preservation, biased towards an elite minority. The Byzantine monastery of St. Stephen's provides an opportunity to study this question from a bioarchaeological perspective, given the excellent preservation of the human skeletal assemblage, a wealth of written works about the community as well as daily life in Byzantine Palestine, and a rich archaeological record for the site and region. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An analysis of radiogenic strontium isotope values from the third molars of 22 individuals recovered from the St. Stephen's crypt complex was conducted to test whether those interred at the monastery were of local origin. RESULTS: Of those examined ( x¯= 0.7084 ± 0.0007, 1σ), 8 out of 22 (36%) exhibited (87) Sr/(86) Sr ratios that fell outside of local ranges. DISCUSSION: These results confirmed the sizeable presence of nonlocals at St. Stephen's Monastery. While most of these migrants likely traveled to Jerusalem from different areas of the Levant as pilgrims, others may have hailed from further afield, including Europe.

Monk seal faeces as a non-invasive technique to monitor the incidence of ingested microplastics and potential presence of plastic additives.

Anthropogenic debris, including plastics, has recently been identified as a major threat for marine mammals and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive aims to achieve the good environmental status of European waters by addressing among other criteria, the effects of marine litter on biota. This study implemented for the first time a non-invasive technique for collecting monk seal samples to assess microdebris ingestion in combination with identifying plastic additives and porphyrins biomarkers. A total of 12 samples of monk seal faeces were collected from marine caves in Zakynthos Island, Greece. A total of 166 microplastic particles were identified; 75 % of the particles were smaller than 3 mm. Nine phthalates and three porphyrins were detected. A strong correlation was found between the number of microplastics and the concentration of phthalates. The values of both phthalates and porphyrins were found lower than in other marine mammal tissues, suggesting that seals might not be impacted by them yet.