Sleep habits in infants: the role of maternal education.

OBJECTIVE: Sleep disturbances are frequent in infants. Early development of sleep routines has a positive effect on sleep quality. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of maternal education on the development of infants' sleep habits (SHs). METHODS: This was an experimental, longitudinal study. Postnatal mothers were allocated into two groups: to receive (intervention group, IG), or not receive (control group, CG) information on sleep hygiene. Individual 15-min sessions were provided and a leaflet was handed to the IG. A questionnaire on infants' SHs was applied by telephone/e-mail at 1, 2, 4, and 6 months of age. RESULTS: At least three questionnaires were answered by 314 mothers. Results were adjusted for maternal age, education, and race. In the IG, infants acquired more independent sleep habits, an effect still present at six months; slept more frequently in their own beds; adjusted odds ratio (ORadj) 3.8, 95% confidence interval (CI) (1.1-13.5); fell asleep more frequently alone (ORadj, 4.29; 95% CI, 2.4-7.6); fell asleep more frequently in their own beds (ORadj, 6.1; 95% CI, 3.5-10.6) and needed less breast/bottle feeding to fall asleep (ORadj, 2.68; 95% CI, 1.5-4.6). The autonomy was greater in IG infants after night awakenings; also until six months they went back to sleep more frequently alone (ORadj, 3.88; 95% CI, 2-7.5) and needed less breast/bottle feeding (ORadj, 2.35; 95% CI, 1.3-4.3). No differences were found regarding the need for light, television or other routines to fall asleep or after night awakenings. CONCLUSION: Maternal education is positively associated with the adoption of autonomous SHs in infants. Early maternal education is an adequate prevention strategy to be considered in neonatal care.

Cork stoppers as an effective sorbent for water treatment: the removal of mercury at environmentally relevant concentrations and conditions.

The technical feasibility of using stopper-derived cork as an effective biosorbent towards bivalent mercury at environmentally relevant concentrations and conditions was evaluated in this study. Only 25 mg/L of cork powder was able to achieve 94 % of mercury removal for an initial mercury concentration of 500 µg/L. It was found that under the conditions tested, the efficiency of mercury removal expressed as equilibrium removal percentage does not depend on the amount of cork or its particle size, but is very sensitive to initial metal concentration, with higher removal efficiencies at higher initial concentrations. Ion exchange was identified as one of the mechanisms involved in the sorption of Hg onto cork in the absence of ionic competition. Under ionic competition, stopper-derived cork showed to be extremely effective and selective for mercury in binary mixtures, while in complex matrices like seawater, moderate inhibition of the sorption process was observed, attributed to a change in mercury speciation. The loadings achieved are similar to the majority of literature values found for other biosorbents and for other metals, suggesting that cork stoppers can be recycled as an effective biosorbent for water treatment. However, the most interesting result is that equilibrium data show a very rare behaviour, with the isotherm presenting an almost square convex shape to the concentration axis, with an infinite slope for an Hg concentration in solution around 25 µg/L.