International school children's health needs: school nurses' views in Europe.

Rapid globalization and the integration of national economies have contributed to the sharp rise in enrollment in international schools. How does this global nomadism affect international school children and their individual health needs? This study attempts to find an answer by interviewing 10 school nurses, with varying degrees of experience in international schools in Sweden, Germany, and Switzerland. Through qualitative semistructured interviews, the school nurses described that the international school children expressed common health needs similar to the ones faced by children in other school settings. However, children in the international schools expressed additional context-specific health needs related to their transient lifestyle, such as language and cultural difficulties, emotional distress, vulnerability, homesickness, alienation, and increased physical health needs related to their expatriate lifestyle. These factors often present a challenge for the school nurse whose profession is to interpret the child's health needs, which may be obscured by cultural diversity.

Plasmin/plasminogen is essential for the healing of tympanic membrane perforations.

Plasminogen has been proposed to play an important role in different tissue remodeling processes such as wound healing and tissue regeneration after injuries. The healing of tympanic membrane perforations is a well-organized chain of inflammatory events, with an initial invasion of inflammatory cells followed by reparative and restoration phases. Here we show that the healing of tympanic membrane perforations is completely arrested in plasminogen-deficient mice, with no signs of any healing even 143 days after perforation. Inflammatory cells were recruited to the wounded area, but there were no signs of tissue debridement. In addition, removal of fibrin, keratinocyte migration and in-growth of connective tissue were impaired. This contrasts with skin wound healing, where studies have shown that, although the healing process is delayed, it reaches completion in all plasminogen-deficient mice. Our finding that keratinocyte migration and re-epithelialization were completely arrested in plasminogen-deficient mice indicates that plasminogen/plasmin plays a more profound role in the healing of tympanic membrane perforations than in the healing of other epithelial wounds.

Partition and release of 21 aroma compounds during storage of a pectin gel system.

The increasing popularity of low-fat products increases the need for a better understanding of how flavor release is affected by partial substitution of fat with hydrocolloids. Partitioning and release of aroma compounds from four pectin gels with different compositions were studied with static headspace and with a model mouth. Air/product partition coefficients determine the potential extent of aroma release, and mass transfer determines the rate at which aroma compounds are released to the vapor phase. This study showed that the gel network had large effects on the partition of aroma compounds between the gel and vapor phase. The specific properties of the aroma compounds were also of importance for the air/gel partition. Storage of the four gels showed that one of the weaker gels was influencing the concentration of aroma compounds in the headspace, probably caused by formation of a denser network over time.

The influence of gel strength on aroma release from pectin gels in a model mouth and in vivo, monitored with proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry.

The course of events from taking a food into the mouth to the perception of the food's flavor involves many steps, from dilution with saliva, mastication, and transportation of the compounds to the olfactory epithelium to transformation into signals that go to the brain. In addition, there are also the effects of the food's structure and properties. In this study, a proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometer (PTR-MS) was used to investigate how four pectin-containing systems with different structures and strengths affected the release of aroma compounds in a model mouth and in the nose of an assessor. Both the model mouth and the in-nose measurements showed that the strength and structure of pectin-containing systems are important with regard to the quantity of aroma compounds that are released. Mastication and saliva were also shown to have a large influence on how much of the aroma compound is released from the mouth to the nose.

Multivariate analysis of the influence of pectin, white syrup, and citric acid on aroma concentration in the headspace above pectin gels.

Pectin gels consist of polysaccharide networks surrounded by water. The gel networks can prevent release of aroma molecules from the gel to the gas phase above. In this study static headspace measurements were performed to correlate aroma concentration in the gas phase above pectin gels to different amounts of the gel ingredients. As a consequence, aroma concentration in the headspace in relation to gel texture, as characterized by rheology measurements, was also studied. Aroma concentration in the headspace above strong gels was low, due to entrapment of aroma molecules within the gel structure. Viscous solutions generally gave a high aroma concentration in the headspace, but owing to a complex matrix, this was lowered when large amounts of the gel ingredients were added. However, a high correlation between interaction terms and square terms of design variables and rheology parameters with aroma compounds indicated nonlinear and complex relationships.