The reassuring role of music associated with the personality traits of children during dental care: a randomized clinical trial.

AIM: The objective of this study was to analyze the reassuring role of music associated with the personality traits of children during dental care. METHOD: The study involved a randomized crossover clinical trial with 34 children, aged from 4 to 6 years, who exhibited two carious lesions on the occlusal surfaces of the molars. The children were divided into two groups: (G1) first tooth restoration intervention session with music, second session without music; and (G2) first tooth restoration intervention session without music, second session with music. The first consultation was to perform a clinical examination, and the second and third to perform modified Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (mART). Symphony No. 40 by Mozart was played via headphones. Pulse rate (PR) was measured using a pulse oximeter. The Brazilian version of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Junior (EPQ-J) was used to measure the children's personality. For statistical analysis, descriptive, Chi-square, and Wilcoxon tests were carried out. RESULTS: The G1 group exhibited a lower PR at the time of the intervention during the second consultation compared to the third consultation (p = 0.012). The G2 group exhibited a lower PR at the time of the intervention during the third consultation compared to the first consultation (p = 0.002). The majority of the children with a low level of extraversion presented with higher PR (p = 0.005). CONCLUSION: Music could reduce the PR among children during dental intervention. Children with low extraversion showed a tendency towards a higher PR without music during dental care.

National character does not reflect mean personality trait levels in 49 cultures.

Most people hold beliefs about personality characteristics typical of members of their own and others' cultures. These perceptions of national character may be generalizations from personal experience, stereotypes with a "kernel of truth," or inaccurate stereotypes. We obtained national character ratings of 3989 people from 49 cultures and compared them with the average personality scores of culture members assessed by observer ratings and self-reports. National character ratings were reliable but did not converge with assessed traits. Perceptions of national character thus appear to be unfounded stereotypes that may serve the function of maintaining a national identity.

Amazonian malaria vector anopheline relationships interpreted from ITS2 rDNA sequences.

Species identification of anopheline mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) can be problematic because many of them belong to complexes of morphologically similar species, often with contrasted ecology, behaviour and vectorial importance. The application of DNA-based diagnostics has proved to be useful for distinguishing between such species. We determined ribosomal DNA sequences of the second internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) from samples of 16 species of Anopheles captured in the Amazon Basin, Brazil. Length of the ITS2 varied from 323 to 410 base pairs, with GC content ranging from 50.7% to 66.5% and sequence identity from 25% to 99% between species. Maximum-likelihood paup analysis separated two distinct groups of species conforming with the recognized subgenera Anopheles (represented by eiseni, mattogrossensis, mediopunctatus and peryassui) and Nyssorhynchus (represented by 12 spp.). For the latter group, the neighbour-joining tree generated from rDNA sequence ITS2 relationships is compatible with the morphological taxonomic key established for these Amazonian species: albitarsis, aquasalis, benarrochi, braziliensis, darlingi, deaneorum, dunhami, evansae, nuneztovari, oswaldoi, rangeli and triannulatus. These ITS2 sequence data proved to be a useful tool for species identification and, potentially, to solve taxonomic problems.

Sequence analysis of the second internal transcribed spacer of ribosomal DNA in Anopheles oswaldoi (Diptera: Culicidae).

Sequence divergence in the second internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) of ribosomal DNA was examined for female specimens of Anopheles oswaldoi Peryassu from 7 localities in South America. The lengths of ITS2 for all mosquitoes ranged from 348 to 356 nucleotides. After alignment of these sequences, similarity ranged from 87 to 100%. Divergence was within the range of inter-specific differences for members of anopheline species complexes. Therefore, specimens were placed into 4 groups that may correspond to at least 4 cryptic species. One is probably related to An. oswaldoi sensu stricto and another to Anopheles konderi Galvão & Damasceno. The other 2 groups may correspond to species for which morphological identification remains to be clarified. These data provide evidence that An. oswaldoi comprise a complex of cryptic species and that DNA identification may help to resolve the taxonomic questions related to this group.

Comparative susceptibility of two members of the Anopheles oswaldoi complex, An. oswaldoi and An. konderi, to infection by Plasmodium vivax.

We compared the susceptibility of Anopheles oswaldoi and An. konderi to infection by Plasmodium vivax based on the proportion of mosquitoes presenting oocysts and sporozoites. Anophelines were captured in the State of Acre and Rondônia, Brazilian Amazon, and used to obtain F1 progenies. After emergence of adults, male genitalia of mosquitoes of each family were dissected in order to identify them as either An. oswaldoi or An. konderi. F1 progenies of field-captured An. oswaldoi, An. konderi and An. darlingi (used as control) were fed simultaneously on P. vivax-infected blood. Mosquitoes were dissected on day 10-12 after feeding and examined for the presence of oocysts and sporozoites. Both An. oswaldoi and An. konderi developed oocysts in the midguts, however, the percentage of oocyst-positive mosquitoes for An. oswaldoi (13.8%) was higher than for An. konderi (3.3%), and only An. oswaldoi developed salivary infection with sporozoites (6.9% of positivity). Infection rates in An. darlingi ranged from 22.5% to 30.0% for both oocysts and sporozoites. These results indicate that An. oswaldoi can transmit P. vivax and suggest that it is more susceptible than An. konderi. Although An. oswaldoi is an exophilic and zoophilic species, it may be involved in malaria transmission as possibly occurred in the State of Acre.

Bionomics of anopheles aquasalis Curry 1932, in Guaraí, State of Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil--I. Seasonal distribution and parity rates.

From a total of 12,721 anophelines collected in a lowland area in Guaraí, Rio de Janeiro, from November 1991 to October 1992, 99.7% (12,688) were Anopheles aquasalis. This species occurred throughout the year, but in higher numbers from April to September, when rainfall was low or moderate. The proportion of parous females in June was significantly higher than the annual rate. An. aquasalis was weakly attracted by a light-trap, and no significant differences in abundance were detected between nights with and without moonlight.

[Identification of food sources of Anopheles aquasalis (Diptera: Culicidae) by precipitin test in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil]. / Determinação das fontes alimentares de Anopheles aquasalis (Diptera: Culicidae) no Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, pelo teste de precipitina.

Anopheles aquasalis has shown local variations in blood-host preference in Brazil: it seems to be anthropophilic in the northeast and zoophilic or opportunistic in the Amazon and other regions. A study was carried out in Guapimirim county, State of Rio de Janeiro, from May to November 1992, for the purpose of identifying the blood meal source of this anopheline by capillary tube precipitin test. A total of 1,366 females were captured at natural resting-places, 725 of which were blood-fed. The gut content of 473 blood fed females reacted to the antisera used (human, cow, horse, pig, dog and chicken). The majority of the females-356 (75.3%)-had blood from only one source. A substantial bovine preference was observed-52.2% had fed on cows, 29.8% on horses, 10.7% on pigs, 4.5% on chickens and 1.7% on dogs, but only few had fed on man (1.1%) and none on rats. On the other hand, 24.7% of the females had fed on more than one host, mainly on cows and horses. It was assumed that An. aquasalis is zoophilic in southeastern Brazil, feeding on a wide variety of animals, the cow being the primary host.

[Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty using balloon catheter in a Blalock-Taussig pulmonary-systemic fistula]. / Angioplastia transluminal percutánea con catéter de globo en una fístula sistémico-pulmonar de Blalock-Taussig.

Percutaneous transluminal balloon angioplasty has been used successfully in the treatment of valvular and vascular stenosis. This article describes our experience with this technique to improve pulmonary blood flow in a patient with a severely stenotic Blalock-Taussig (B-T) systemic-to-right pulmonary artery anastomosis, with improvement in oxygen peripheric saturation from 33 to 78% immediately postdilatation and 69% three months later. Hemoglobin decreased from 20.4 to 18.9 gm/dl and hematocrit from 64% to 58.5%. In conclusion we think that this technique is an alternative instead of cardiac surgery, in these cases the procedure is only palliative.