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The oral microbiome is a diverse and complex ecosystem essential for maintaining oral and systemic health. Our study is the first to define the oral microbial community in Egyptian young adults and investigate the effects of natural antimicrobials on the oral microbiome. SuperMint (SM) is a proprietary blend of peppermint, Japanese mint, bergamot mint, and spearmint essential oils encapsulated in a tiny soft beadlet. This work aimed to evaluate the effects of SM beadlets on the oral microbiome. This study recruited twenty healthy participants. A baseline investigation of the oral microbiome of the selected participants was performed by collecting saliva and swab samples before treatment. Treatment included chewing four SM beadlets twice a day for 7 days, and then, post-administration saliva and swab samples were collected at the end of treatment. The oral microbiome samples were analyzed by the high-throughput amplicon sequencing of 16S rRNA gene fragments, and the community composition was determined. The results showed that the abundance of some microbial genera and families decreased after using SM, including Prevotella, Streptococcus, Neisseria, and Haemophilus. However, some genera showed inconsistent patterns. We also found that the subject's gender and SM usage were significantly associated with diverse microbial composition. The results suggest that SM treatment decreased the abundance of several bacteria associated with halitosis and periodontal diseases, such as Actinomyces and Streptococcus. Furthermore, Corynebacterium species increased and Streptococcus decreased after SM usage. More research is needed to fully understand the antimicrobial effects of mint oils and their potential applications in maintaining good oral health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the water quality of the Baro-Akobo River Basin in Ethiopia was comprehensively assessed. Key parameters including temperature (°C), pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids (TDS), and ion concentrations such as K+, Ca2+, Na+, NO3−, NO2−, PO43−, CO32−, HCO3−, and NH4+were measured using standard methods, alongside sampling of phytoplankton, zooplankton, macroinvertebrates, macrophytes, and fish. Phytoplankton and zooplankton were sampled using Hydrobios nets with mesh sizes of 30 μm and 55 μm, respectively, while macroinvertebrates were collected via the kicking method. Results indicated generally alkaline pH levels and elevated turbidity, but acceptable levels of dissolved oxygen and ion concentrations according to WHO and FAO guidelines. Moreover, the study suggests that the wetlands in Gambella and Benishangul-Gumz regions are currently in good condition, providing valuable insights for the conservation and sustainable management of Ethiopia's water resources, ensuring their conservation for both present and future generations. Local authorities can use the study's findings to implement remedial measures to protect water quality and biodiversity in the regions.

Background: To improve access to appropriate eye health care services within the community health structures in Ghana, pre- and post-intervention studies were carried out to explore the feasibility of integrating primary eye health into the community health planning services programme. Aim: To explore the feasibility, accessibility and acceptability of integrating primary eye health care into community health planning services. Setting: The study was carried out in the Northern, Western and Eastern regions of Ghana. Methods: A pre- and post-intervention multi-stage cluster randomised design based on two separate cross-sectional surveys with both quantitative and qualitative research techniques were used. The magnitude of change in the dependent variables for the intervention group was compared with those for the comparison group at baseline and endline using a difference-in-difference analysis. Results: The intervention communities were more likely to visit a community health facility with their eye problems. Improved access to eye care medicines reduced the use of herbal preparations to treat eye disease. Conclusion: Integrating primary eye care (PEC) into community health planning service (CHPS) was associated with greater utilisation of community health facilities for eye health care services. Contribution: The results of this study should facilitate the implementation of the vision for everyone integrated into universal health coverage.

The high levels of mercury toxicity in humans make it necessary to monitor mercury levels in food, pharmaceuticals, and the environment to minimize human exposure. Between June 2020 and October 2021, researchers collected 240 fish samples from different locations along the Yemeni coast to evaluate mercury contamination. The Direct Mercury Analyzer was used to determine the concentration of mercury in each sample. To ensure method accuracy, a series of triplicate mercury concentration analyses were conducted. The samples ranged from 2 to 100 ng to determine linearity and repeatability i.e., within-day variation. The results showed a high level of precision, with a correlation coefficient of 0.9990 and a repeatability of 1.34 %–5.62 % RSD range. The method was also highly accurate, as the mercury recovery results from the contaminated fish samples ranged from 96.77 % to 105.14 %. The limits of detection and quantitation of mercury were 0.0015 ppm and 0.0049 ppm, respectively. This allowed the method to detect trace amounts of mercury in fish meat. Mercury concentration in the 240 fish samples did not exceed the FDA, but below the 0.5 ppm specified limit of YSMO.

In the Sri Lankan context, the lack of baseline studies to mitigate microplastic emissions through personal care and cosmetic products poses a huge problem. Hence this study serves as the first scientific investigation to analyze and characterize microplastics in selected personal care and cosmetic items available in the Sri Lankan markets. Fifteen brands representing five categories (face wash, facial scrubs, baby creams, shaving creams, and skin creams) of personal care and cosmetic items served as the basis for this investigation. Based on a questionnaire survey, from each category, three highly utilized brands were chosen and triplicates from each brand were used for the analysis. All samples were treated with the Fenton reagent to extract microplastics. Then through Nile red staining suspected microplastic were screened and characterized through FT-IR spectroscopy. The Nile Red analysis revealed seven brands of the fifteen to be stained with Nile Red and demonstrate luminance properties under UV light. However, FT-IR analysis proved only six brands contained actual microplastics. Low-density polyethylene and ethylene-propylene copolymer were the dominant types of microplastic. Most microplastics were irregularly shaped and white in color with sizes ranging from 238.55 ± 50.74 to 450.69 ± 174.9 μm. An emission estimation revealed that products FS-01 and FW-03 contain 3.36 ± 0.20 g and 0.2 ± 0.05 g of isolatable microplastics per product. While the present study provides scientific evidence for the availability of microplastics in products in Sri Lankan markets, it also provides a great opportunity to develop relevant policies and regulations to control them.

The oral microbiome is a diverse and complex ecosystem essential for maintaining oral and systemic health. Our study is the first to define the oral microbial community in Egyptian young adults and investigate the effects of natural antimicrobials on the oral microbiome. SuperMint (SM) is a proprietary blend of peppermint, Japanese mint, bergamot mint, and spearmint essential oils encapsulated in a tiny soft beadlet. This work aimed to evaluate the effects of SM beadlets on the oral microbiome. This study recruited twenty healthy participants. A baseline investigation of the oral microbiome of the selected participants was performed by collecting saliva and swab samples before treatment. Treatment included chewing four SM beadlets twice a day for 7 days, and then, post-administration saliva and swab samples were collected at the end of treatment. The oral microbiome samples were analyzed by the high-throughput amplicon sequencing of 16S rRNA gene fragments, and the community composition was determined. The results showed that the abundance of some microbial genera and families decreased after using SM, including Prevotella, Streptococcus, Neisseria, and Haemophilus. However, some genera showed inconsistent patterns. We also found that the subject’s gender and SM usage were significantly associated with diverse microbial composition. The results suggest that SM treatment decreased the abundance of several bacteria associated with halitosis and periodontal diseases, such as Actinomyces and Streptococcus. Furthermore, Corynebacterium species increased and Streptococcus decreased after SM usage. More research is needed to fully understand the antimicrobial effects of mint oils and their potential applications in maintaining good oral health.

Environmental risk assessment is one of the key tools in environmental engineering. This risk assessment can be qualitative or quantitative and it is based on preliminary studies i.e., baseline study for waste disposal sites. Even though the literature exists on baseline study in general, still there is a lack of guidance regarding development of a site-specific baseline study model for a waste disposal site. This study has two-fold aim, firstly, how to develop site-specific baseline study model for a selected dumping site, and secondly, how this site-specific baseline study can support the environmental engineering via mathematical risk estimation. Mahmood Booti Open Dumping Site (MBODS) is selected to demonstrate the development and application of site-specific baseline study model. This is followed by building a framework that shows how the output of the baseline study can lead to environmental engineering via mathematical risk estimation. The paper provides a mechanism of how to construct a bespoke baseline-study model that is readily useable, avoiding procurement of expensive computer software and yet smoothly connecting with the follow-on stages of the risk assessment. The work presented in this paper can be reproduced repeatedly to create site-specific baseline study models for risk assessment of other waste disposal sites in a cost-effective, consistent and cohesive manner.

Continental margins usually have a high degree of environmental heterogeneity, which, in turn, promotes high benthic biodiversity. The South-Southeast regions concentrate the most well-mapped areas of the Brazilian continental margin regarding seafloor geomorphology and physical oceanography. However, the structure of the soft-sediment benthic fauna of the continental slope is still unknown. Characterization and understanding of the Brazilian continental slope biota are imperative since human activities are increasing in the last decades, especially after the discovery of the pre-salt reservoir in Santos Basin. In this study, we aimed to establish a baseline of the spatial distribution of the benthic macrofaunal communities regarding their latitudinal and bathymetric patterns in the Santos Basin to support future environmental monitoring activities in the region. As part of the Santos Project - The Santos Basin Regional Environmental Characterization (PCR-BS) - coordinated by CENPES/PETROBRAS, a benthic oceanographic cruise was carried out in 2019. Sediment samples were collected using a GOMEX-type box corer in 47 stations distributed in eight transects (4002,400 m depth range). In total, 12 additional stations (1,300-2,200 m) were defined to cover an area where oil and gas are exploited. Our results showed that macrofaunal assemblages of the Santos Basin present strong depth zonation related to changes in organic matter input, as well as to temperature, carbonate, and grain size. At local scale, the northern sector stood out for having a higher abundance of macrofauna in the upper slope (400 m) and it probably reflects the oceanographic processes and the organic enrichment caused by the upwelling events that occur at Cabo Frio region. The zonation pattern and the dominance of some polychaete, peracarid crustacean, and bivalve families were similar to other SE Brazilian continental margins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women are the backbone of development in rural and national economies. They play a vital and undeniable role in our lives which necessitates a proper assessment of their needs and current economic conditions. This project aims to assess the needs of women farmers in the Ormoc- Kananga (OK) mountain range and provide them with livelihood assistance to improve their standard of living. The city and municipal agriculturists of Ormoc and Kananga identified 13 barangays in the Ormoc-Kananga mountain ranges. All women farmers in the OK mountain range served as the population of the study. The sample size was drawn using Slovin’s formula. A total of 502 women farmers were interviewed – 284 respondents from Ormoc City and 218 respondents from Kananga. Seventy-seven percent of women respondents were married. All of them had high school level of education. Aside from farming, being a hired farm worker for other farms was their main occupation Seventy-eight percent of the farmers are actively participating in the farm decision-making. This implies that women farmers in the area played a role in planning and contribute in their farming operations. Seventy-two percent of the total annual earnings of the households (Php 44,446.60 or $ 844.01) were from farm sources. For a family of five, this income level is far below the national set poverty line. To augment the family income, the respondents yearn for alternative sources. They also want to maximize farm production in order to raise farm income. Thus, the following courses of action were suggested to help the women farmers at the OK mountain ranges: 1) training on simple farm record keeping and farm profitability assessment; and 2) livelihood and farm enterprise development based on the endowments available in the area.

South Africa’s National Senior Certificate examination system was introduced in 2008 as a single national examination system, in order to facilitate fair and standardised assessment and to provide all learners with an equal chance of access to higher education. However, limited research has been done to investigate the discrimination power of the actual examination items and the spread difficulty level for learners from different school quintile types. The purpose of the study reported on here was to investigate differential performance of learners in the items of the 2009 National Senior Certificate mathematics examination. The dataset used in this study was from the Western Cape (WC) Education Department. From the analysis, the results show that the discrimination power of the different examination questions was not identical across different school quintiles. Further investigation of the data reflects a considerable range of category difficulty levels, with higher (above average) ability levels being tested for learners in the quintile 1 to quintile 4 schools, while only learners with average abilities were being tested in the quintile 5 and independent schools.

Copyright of Therya is the property of Asociacion Mexicana de Mastozoologia, A. C. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Environmental risk assessment is one of the key tools in environmental engineering. This risk assessment can be qualitative or quantitative and it is based on preliminary studies i.e., baseline study for waste disposal sites. Even though the literature exists on baseline study in general, still there is a lack of guidance regarding development of a site-specific baseline study model for a waste disposal site. This study has two-fold aim, firstly, how to develop site-specific baseline study model for a selected dumping site, and secondly, how this site-specific baseline study can support the environmental engineering via mathematical risk estimation. Mahmood Booti Open Dumping Site (MBODS) is selected to demonstrate the development and application of site-specific baseline study model. This is followed by building a framework that shows how the output of the baseline study can lead to environmental engineering via mathematical risk estimation. The paper provides a mechanism of how to construct a bespoke baseline-study model that is readily useable, avoiding procurement of expensive computer software and yet smoothly connecting with the follow-on stages of the risk assessment. The work presented in this paper can be reproduced repeatedly to create site-specific baseline study models for risk assessment of other waste disposal sites in a cost-effective, consistent and cohesive manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The retinal macula is at the center of our visual field, and thus pathological damage in the macula significantly impacts an individual's quality of life. The parafoveal vessels form the inner retina provide oxygen perfusion, and the measurement of parafoveal oxygen saturation (sO2) can evaluate macular metabolism and provide pathophysiological insight. In this paper, for the first time, we present a baseline study of microvascular oxygen saturation (sO2) in perifoveal macular region using visible light optical coherence tomography (VIS-OCT) on normal eyes. The arterial and venous sO2 from all eyes was 92.1 ± 7.1 (vol %) and 48.4 ± 5.0 (vol %) (mean ± SD), respectively. Arteriovenous sO2 difference was 43.8 ± 9.5 (vol %). Marginal correlation was found between venous sO2 and intraocular pressure (IOP) among eyes. No significant correlation was found between sO2 and vessel topological features, including length, diameter, and distance to fovea. This baseline study could serve as a benchmark for the future sO2 investigation of retinal macular pathologies.

Abstract Background The prevention of metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a major public health concern in Japan. The effects of the relationship between eating behavior and nutritional intake on MetS remained unclear. To evaluate nutrition’s role in preventing or exacerbating MetS, we examined the associations among eating behavior, nutritional intake, and MetS for the baseline study in the cohort subjects undergone health checkups. Methods Four thousand and four hundred forty-seven Japanese men and women were enrolled at the Saku Central Hospital. They received an anthropometric and clinical examination and were assessed for present illness, lifestyle factors such as physical activity, smoking, drinking, and dietary habits at the enrollment. Eating behavior was analyzed by the Sakata’s Eating Behavior Questionnaire. Dietary assessment was made using a brief self-administered diet history questionnaire. Two thousand and six hundred two men and 1844 women aged more than 20 were analyzed. Results The mean age in men and women were 59.2 and 58.4 years old and the mean body mass index (BMI) were 23.7 and 22.3 kg/m2, respectively. The percentages of MetS were 20.6 in men and 6.1 in women. In some nutrients, significantly higher energy-adjusted intakes in subjects without MetS than with Mets appeared both in men and women after age adjustment. After adjusting by age, energy-adjusted intake beverages in men and cereals in women were significantly higher in subjects with MetS than those without MetS. The scores of all the categories in eating behavior were significantly worse in subjects with MetS than those without MetS. Conclusions The differences in dietary intake between subjects with Mets and without Mets were relatively small. The scores of all the categories in eating behavior were worse in subjects with MetS than without MetS. It was suggested that the problem lay in the quality of diet, not in the quantity, caused by bad eating habits. The potential influence of eating behavior and nutritional intake on MetS was presented in men and women.

This study was conducted around the beaches in Indonesia in order to investigate the level of pollution in the marine environment. Thirteen (13) locations in six (6) regions namely: Seribu Island, Banten, South Java, Biawak Islands, West Papua, and East Nusa making up a total length of 12.84 km of the area were studied. This investigation focused on the debris around isolated beaches, tourist attraction centers, fishing zones and marine protected areas (MPA). The method employed in this study was dependent on the international coastal cleanup form. The samples of debris collected and studied varied from the year 2013 to 2018 for a thorough investigation. The beach debris monitoring equipment revealed information about the distribution, abundance, types and, effects of marine debris on the ecosystem. Moreover, the study showed that the mass of debris collected within the areas listed weighted 1113.10 kg for 34,330 collected items. Also, the average density was noted to range between 1.43 and 5.11 items/m2. However, it was observed that plastic products constituted the highest percentage of the pollutants found in almost all the stations, with plastic bags being the most dominant.

The high levels of mercury toxicity in humans make it necessary to monitor mercury levels in food, pharmaceuticals, and the environment to minimize human exposure. Between June 2020 and October 2021, researchers collected 240 fish samples from different locations along the Yemeni coast to evaluate mercury contamination. The Direct Mercury Analyzer was used to determine the concentration of mercury in each sample. To ensure method accuracy, a series of triplicate mercury concentration analyses were conducted. The samples ranged from 2 to 100 ng to determine linearity and repeatability i.e., within-day variation. The results showed a high level of precision, with a correlation coefficient of 0.9990 and a repeatability of 1.34 %-5.62 % RSD range. The method was also highly accurate, as the mercury recovery results from the contaminated fish samples ranged from 96.77 % to 105.14 %. The limits of detection and quantitation of mercury were 0.0015 ppm and 0.0049 ppm, respectively. This allowed the method to detect trace amounts of mercury in fish meat. Mercury concentration in the 240 fish samples did not exceed the FDA, but below the 0.5 ppm specified limit of YSMO., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2024 The Authors.)

The pressing demand for workload along with social media interaction leads to diminished alertness during work hours. Researchers attempted to measure alertness level from various cues like EEG, EOG, video-based eye movement analysis, etc. Among these, video-based eyelid and iris motion tracking gained much attention in recent years. However, most of these implementations are tested on video data of subjects without spectacles. These videos do not pose a challenge for eye detection and tracking. In this work, the authors have designed an experiment to yield a video database of 58 human subjects wearing spectacles and are at different levels of alertness. Along with spectacles, they introduced variation in session, recording frame rate (fps), illumination, and time of the experiment. They carried out an analysis to detect the reliableness of facial and ocular features like yawning and eye-blinks in the context of alertness level detection capability. Also, they observe the influence of spectacles on ocular feature detection performance under spectacles and propose a simple preprocessing step to alleviate the specular reflection problem. Extensive experiments on real-world images demonstrate that the authors’ approach achieves desirable reflection suppression results within minimum execution time compared to the state-of-the-art.

Background: The prevention of metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a major public health concern in Japan. The effects of the relationship between eating behavior and nutritional intake on MetS remained unclear. To evaluate nutrition's role in preventing or exacerbating MetS, we examined the associations among eating behavior, nutritional intake, and MetS for the baseline study in the cohort subjects undergone health checkups. Methods: Four thousand and four hundred forty-seven Japanese men and women were enrolled at the Saku Central Hospital. They received an anthropometric and clinical examination and were assessed for present illness, lifestyle factors such as physical activity, smoking, drinking, and dietary habits at the enrollment. Eating behavior was analyzed by the Sakata's Eating Behavior Questionnaire. Dietary assessment was made using a brief self-administered diet history questionnaire. Two thousand and six hundred two men and 1844 women aged more than 20 were analyzed. Results: The mean age in men and women were 59.2 and 58.4 years old and the mean body mass index (BMI) were 23.7 and 22.3 kg/m2, respectively. The percentages of MetS were 20.6 in men and 6.1 in women. In some nutrients, significantly higher energy-adjusted intakes in subjects without MetS than with Mets appeared both in men and women after age adjustment. After adjusting by age, energy-adjusted intake beverages in men and cereals in women were significantly higher in subjects with MetS than those without MetS. The scores of all the categories in eating behavior were significantly worse in subjects with MetS than those without MetS. Conclusions: The differences in dietary intake between subjects with Mets and without Mets were relatively small. The scores of all the categories in eating behavior were worse in subjects with MetS than without MetS. It was suggested that the problem lay in the quality of diet, not in the quantity, caused by bad eating habits. The potential influence of eating behavior and nutritional intake on MetS was presented in men and women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pressing demand for workload along with social media interaction leads to diminished alertness during work hours. Researchers attempted to measure alertness level from various cues like EEG, EOG, video‐based eye movement analysis, etc. Among these, video‐based eyelid and iris motion tracking gained much attention in recent years. However, most of these implementations are tested on video data of subjects without spectacles. These videos do not pose a challenge for eye detection and tracking. In this work, the authors have designed an experiment to yield a video database of 58 human subjects wearing spectacles and are at different levels of alertness. Along with spectacles, they introduced variation in session, recording frame rate (fps), illumination, and time of the experiment. They carried out an analysis to detect the reliableness of facial and ocular features like yawning and eye‐blinks in the context of alertness level detection capability. Also, they observe the influence of spectacles on ocular feature detection performance under spectacles and propose a simple preprocessing step to alleviate the specular reflection problem. Extensive experiments on real‐world images demonstrate that the authors' approach achieves desirable reflection suppression results within minimum execution time compared to the state‐of‐the‐art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Pedagogische Studien is the property of Vereniging Onderwijsresearch and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Foodborne outbreaks caused by fecal contamination of fresh produce represent a serious concern to public health and the economy. As the consumption of fresh produce increases, public health officials and organizations have pushed for improvements in food safety procedures and environmental assessments to reduce the risk of contamination. Visual inspections and the establishment of "buffer zones" between animal feeding operations and producing fields are the current best practices for environmental assessments. However, a generalized distance guideline and visual inspections may not be enough to account for all environmental risk variables. Here, we report a baseline measurement surveying the background Bacteroidales concentration, as a quantitative fecal contamination indicator, in California's Salinas Valley. We collected a total of 1632 samples from two romaine lettuce commercial fields at the time of harvesting through two seasons in a year. The quantification of Bacteroidales concentration was performed using qPCR, revealing a notably low concentration (0–2.00 copies/cm2) in the commercial fields. To further enhance the applicability of our findings, we developed a user-friendly method for real-world fecal contamination risk assessment that seamlessly integrates with industry practices. Through the generation of heatmaps that visually illustrate varying risk levels across fields, this approach can identify site-specific risks and offer fresh produce stakeholders a more comprehensive understanding of their land. We anticipate this work can encourage the use of Bacteroidales in the fresh produce industry to monitor fecal contamination and prevent future foodborne outbreaks. [Display omitted] • We surveyed the background Bacteroidales concentration, as a quantitative fecal contamination indicator, in California's Salinas Valley. • The Bacteroidales concentration on the commercial fields was very low (0–2.00 copies/cm2). • Our methodology for evaluating the risk of fecal contamination complements the current environmental assessment practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) could be affected not only by oral health but also by demographic and ecosocial factors. This research aimed to analyze the sociodemographic and clinical factors that may influence the OHRQoL of 12-year-old children. Methods A representative sample was selected from Hong Kong. Periodontal status and caries were examined according to WHO criteria. Four orthodontic indices were used to assess malocclusion. Child Perception Questionnaires (CPQ11–14-ISF:8 and CPQ11–14-RSF:8) including four domains, namely oral symptoms (OS), functional limitations (FL), emotional well-being (EWB), and social well-being (SWB), were used to measure OHRQoL. Adjusted OR was calculated by ordinal logistic regression. Results Totally 589 eligible subjects (305 females, 284 males) were recruited. Males tended to rank higher in OS domain but lower in EWB domain (adjusted OR = 1.89 and 0.67). Mother’s education was linked more closely with children’s CPQ scores. Higher education levels were associated with better quality of life (adjusted OR = 0.45 and 0.37). Household income showed no effect on CPQ scores. Unhealthy periodontal conditions had a negative effect on EWB and total CPQ (adjusted OR = 1.61 and 1.63). High caries experience only had a negative effect on SWB (adjusted OR = 1.60). Malocclusion affected FL, EWB, SWB and total CPQ: all malocclusion severities affected SWB; only severe malocclusions affected FL, EWB and total CPQ. Conclusion Males were more tolerant of oral symptoms than females were. Higher levels of mother’s education led to better OHRQoL of their children. Unhealthy periodontal conditions affected emotional well-being, while high caries experience affected social well-being. All malocclusion severities had an effect on social well-being; severe malocclusion further caused functional limitations, worse emotional well-being, and hence worse OHRQoL.

In the Sri Lankan context, the lack of baseline studies to mitigate microplastic emissions through personal care and cosmetic products poses a huge problem. Hence this study serves as the first scientific investigation to analyze and characterize microplastics in selected personal care and cosmetic items available in the Sri Lankan markets. Fifteen brands representing five categories (face wash, facial scrubs, baby creams, shaving creams, and skin creams) of personal care and cosmetic items served as the basis for this investigation. Based on a questionnaire survey, from each category, three highly utilized brands were chosen and triplicates from each brand were used for the analysis. All samples were treated with the Fenton reagent to extract microplastics. Then through Nile red staining suspected microplastic were screened and characterized through FT-IR spectroscopy. The Nile Red analysis revealed seven brands of the fifteen to be stained with Nile Red and demonstrate luminance properties under UV light. However, FT-IR analysis proved only six brands contained actual microplastics. Low-density polyethylene and ethylene-propylene copolymer were the dominant types of microplastic. Most microplastics were irregularly shaped and white in color with sizes ranging from 238.55 ± 50.74 to 450.69 ± 174.9 μm. An emission estimation revealed that products FS-01 and FW-03 contain 3.36 ± 0.20 g and 0.2 ± 0.05 g of isolatable microplastics per product. While the present study provides scientific evidence for the availability of microplastics in products in Sri Lankan markets, it also provides a great opportunity to develop relevant policies and regulations to control them., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 The Author(s).)

Freely emitted biogas at palm oil mills has been regarded as untapped energy source nowadays, despite being recognised as major contributor to the global warming. Up till now, most of palm oil mills are still operating with the conventional anaerobic digestion systems which may not spur biogas industry to life. This study shall explore biogas production between day and night under existing mill operating conditions at KKS Bukit Benut Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP). Biogas produced during day time was 62% as compared to 38% during night time with the total methane emission of 490.3 kg/day. The methane concentration recorded at the digester tank ranged from 58.7 to 68.5%. The correlations between various factors that may influence biogas production were investigated. The finding shows that substrate feeding is the most influencial factor leading to high biogas production during day time.

Indoor and outdoor ovitraps were placed in 15 randomly selected houses in two rural villages in Chiapas, southern Mexico. In addition, ovitraps were placed in five transects surrounding each village, with three traps per transect, one at the edge, one at 50 m, and another at 100 m from the edge of the village. All traps were inspected weekly. A transect with eight traps along a road between the two villages was also included. Population fluctuations of Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus were examined during 2016–2018 by counting egg numbers. A higher number of Aedes spp. eggs was recorded at Hidalgo village with 257,712 eggs (60.9%), of which 58.1% were present in outdoor ovitraps and 41.9% in indoor ovitraps, compared with 165,623 eggs (39.1%) collected in the village of Río Florido, 49.0% in outdoor and 51.0% in indoor ovitraps. A total of 84,047 eggs was collected from ovitraps placed along transects around Río Florido, compared to 67,542 eggs recorded from transects around Hidalgo. Fluctuations in egg counts were associated with annual variation in precipitation, with 2.3 to 3.2-fold more eggs collected from ovitraps placed in houses and 4.8 to 5.1-fold more eggs in ovitraps from the surrounding transects during the rainy season than in the dry season, respectively. Aedes aegypti was the dominant species during the dry season and at the start of the rainy season in both villages. Aedes albopictus populations were lower for most of the dry season, but increased during the rainy season and predominated at the end of the rainy season in both villages. Aedes albopictus was also the dominant species in the zones surrounding both villages. The numbers of eggs collected from intradomiciliary ovitraps were strongly correlated with the numbers of eggs in peridomiciliary ovitraps in both Río Florido (R2adj = 0.92) and Hidalgo (R2adj = 0.94), suggesting that peridomiciliary sampling could provide an accurate estimate of intradomiciliary oviposition by Aedes spp. in future studies in these villages. We conclude that the feasibility of sterile insect technique (SIT)-based program of vector control could be evaluated in the isolated Ae. aegypti populations in the rural villages of our baseline study.