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Xerostomia (dry mouth perception) is a condition that affects mastication, swallowing and speech and increases with age or can be the result of medication or some systemic diseases. The purpose of this exploratory study was to evaluate the prevalence of xerostomia in a local elderly population and its relationship with medication. It was verified that most of the participants have xerostomia, and from these, the majority take medication. Additionally, the prevalence of xerostomia varies with the type of medication taken. The presence of xerostomia was found to be significantly related to the number of medications taken.

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2021, Around the beginning of the 2021 new year, Europe's COVID-19 third wave led many leaders to implement a new lockdown period, with the teaching-learning system returning to the online method once more. The present study aimed to understand the health consequences for adolescents and young adults (AYA) during the third wave's lockdown. This mixed-method study included 592 participants between 16 and 24 years old (M = 19.01, SD = 2.32), with the majority being female (70.9%) and students (82.3%) at high school (55.1%) or university (44.9%). Negative impacts are highlighted in the categories: relationships, physical activity (as well aseno impacts), screen time and academic stress; and no impactsin health and well-being, leisure activities, sleep, diet, academic performance and relationships with teachers and peers. Overall, when compared to the opposite gender, girls report more negative impacts on leisure activities and diet, although more positive impacts on diet, as well as on academic stress; boys stand out in the negative consequences on substance use. At the academic level, students in higher education show more negative impacts on relationships, leisure activities, sleep, diet, screen time and relationships with teachers and peers. Enlightened about the impacts of the second lockdown on their lives, and showing signs of "pandemic fatigue", this study draws attention to the need to associate psychological support measures with those implemented to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

© 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC., Objective: (1) To give adolescents and youth a voice and listen to the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) in their lives; (2) to identify their coping strategies; (3) present lessons learned to be better prepared for future pandemics. Methods: Six hundred and seventeen participants from 16 to 24 years old (M = 19.2 years; F = 19.1 years) answered the online questionnaire during the pandemic lockdown. Sociodemographic data were analyzed with SPSS version 26 and qualitative data with MAXQDA 2020. Engel's Biopsychosocial model supported the analysis and data presentation. Results: in terms of impacts, stands out: biological—headaches and muscle pain; psychological—more time to perform pleasant and personal development activities, but more symptoms of depression, anxiety, and loneliness, longer screen time, and more substance use; social—increase of family conflicts and disagreements, loss of important life moments, contacts, and social skills, but it allows a greater selection of friendships. Regarding coping strategies, the importance of facing these times with a positive perspective, carrying out pleasurable activities, keeping in touch with family and friends, and establishing routines are emphasized. As lessons for future pandemics, the importance of respecting the norms of the Directorate‐General for Health, the need for the National Health System to be prepared, as well as teachers and students for online learning, and studying the possibility of establishing routines with the support of television. Conclusions: This study illustrates adolescents and young people's perception of the impacts of the pandemic upon them, as well as their competence to participate in the issues that directly affect them. Priorities to mitigate the impact of future pandemics are presented.

Dental bleaching is regarded as a safe medical treatment for those who want to achieve a brighter smile. Bleaching is a chemical process in which oxidation occurs, affecting the way teeth absorb or...

Copyright: © 2017 Margarida Gaspar de Matos, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited., The Surf-Salva Camp 2016 project aimed at promoting social inclusion, wellbeing, and mental health, as well as developing beach security values and social citizenship in children and youth in foster care institutions, through surfing (Surf-Therapy). Participants were 48 adolescents aged 10 to 16, selected from 4 foster institutions in the greater Lisbon district. Results suggest that intervention through surf therapy had a number of positive effects: exploration, effort and perseverance, problem-solving, time management, social competencies, interpersonal relationships and emotional regulation all developed among the participants throughout the project. Results support the claim that within a suitable theoretical framework, with a solid and well trained team and with adequate psychotherapeutic supervision and evaluation, Surf Therapy can be a very promising possibility in the care of at-risk young people, and policy makers should consider this suggestion in the development of policies related to vulnerable institutionalized young people.

Wind power is currently one of the sources of electricity the fastest growing worldwide. However, especially in Brazil, it is still very difficult to locate areas with reliable winds for the implementation of a wind farm, because there is not enough data density that guarante the wind farm efficiency. Thus, the development of models that simulate wind conditions are extremely important for studies and research in this area. In this way, weather reanalysis data can be used as input into high-resolution regional models, for example. Therefore, this work presents a study comparing two sets of weather Reanalysis of wind data - ERA-Interim and CFSR - with measured data from automated weather stations of the National Institute of Meteorology in the Rio Grande do Sul state in order to obtain the coefficient correlation of data from reanalysis with data measured for each measurement point and for every season. For better visualization of the correlation results, it is also built contour maps with correlation coefficient where can be seeing that the best performance of the CFSR reanalysis.