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Oral health is an integral part of general health. Different population groups have been assessed for oral health status in India, but still, many have been neglected; one such group is the prisoners. The prison population is a unique and challenging one with many health problems, including poor oral health, which may be due to lack of knowledge about good oral health practices. This study aims to assess effectiveness of oral health education on oral health knowledge, attitude and practices and oral hygiene status among the male prison inmates of central jail in Kolkata, India.

An interventional study was done among 240 male convicts. The data was elicited using a structured proforma; oral health status was assessed by recording OHI-S index, and the severity of gingivitis was assessed by recording the gingival index. Oral health education was delivered by using audio-visual aid. Oral health knowledge, attitude, practices and oral hygiene and gingival status were reassessed among the inmates before and after dental education at the end of three and six months.

A significant change in oral health knowledge, attitude and practices was seen, which in turn resulted in an appreciable decrease in the mean gingival index score (1.73 ± 0.382 to 1.20 ± 0.321) and OHI-S (3.31 ± 0.815 to 2.57 ± 0.551) in all the inmates after oral health education program over the period of time.

The oral health education with reinforcement proved to be an effective tool to instil good oral hygiene practices in the inmates.

Globally, consumer’s inclination towards functional foods had noticed due to their greater health consciousness coupled with enhanced health-care cost. The fact that probiotics could promote a healthier gut microbiome led projection of probiotic foods as functional foods and had emerged as an important dietary strategy for improved human health. It had established that ice cream was a better carrier for probiotics than fermented milked due to greater stability of probiotics in ice cream matrix. Global demand for ice cream boomed and probiotic ice cream could have been one of the most demanded functional foods. The purpose of this paper was to review the technological aspects and factors affecting probiotic viability and to standardize methodology to produce functional probiotic ice cream.

Attempt was made to search the literature (review and researched papers) to identify diverse factors affecting the probiotic viability and major technological challenge faced during formulation of probiotic ice cream. Keywords used for data searched included dairy-based functional foods, ice cream variants, probiotic ice cream, factors affecting probiotic viability and health benefits of probiotic ice cream.

Retention of probiotic viability at a level of >10⁶ cfu/ml is a prerequisite for functional probiotic ice creams. Functional probiotic ice cream could have been produced with the modification of basic mix and modulating technological parameters during processing and freezing. Functionality can be further enhanced with the inclusion of certain nutraceutical components such as prebiotics, antioxidant, phenolic compounds and dietary fibres. Based upon reviewed literature, suggested method for the manufacture of functional probiotic ice cream involved freezing of a probiotic ice cream mix obtained by blending 10% probiotic fermented milk with 90% non-fermented plain ice cream mix for higher probiotic viability. Probiotic ice cream with functional features, comparable with traditional ice cream in terms of technological and sensory properties could be produced and can crop up as a novel functional food.

Probiotic ice cream with functional features may attract food manufacturers to cater health-conscious consumers.

Burdened by undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and overweight and obesity as a consequence of both internal conflict and the global nutrition transition, Iraq is in need of adequate public health nutrition education to mitigate nutrition-related outcomes and risks. To address nutrition-related health outcomes, trained nutrition professionals are warranted. This paper examines current nutrition-affiliated programs offered across post-secondary institutions in Iraq.

An electronic review of universities and colleges’ websites, department webpages and academic programs’ homepages and resources of all the private and public universities in Iraq was conducted to find programs related to nutrition, nutrition sciences and dietetics.

All identified programs belonged to the governmental sector, were administered and financed by the Iraqi Government and were under the purview of the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education. The review highlighted a predominant focus on food sciences in agricultural departments rather than public health or clinical nutrition. Advanced education in topics such as human metabolism, medical nutrition therapy and public health nutrition are required to adequately address over- and undernutrition in Iraq.

The current state of public health and nutrition-related postsecondary education in Iraq warrants an increased emphasis on clinical and public health nutrition education. Despite a commendable focus on food science studies, the country’s ongoing challenges with obesity, nutrition-related noncommunicable diseases and conflict-associated food insecurity signal an urgent need for balancing this focus with grounding in postsecondary training in public health nutrition.

The multidimensional complexity of urban settlements is increasing and the problem of spaces and territories brought to the scale of smart cities is a critical global issue. This study aims to analyse the scientific production in the Web of Science (WoS) on the relationship between smart cities and the eight urban dimensions defined by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the period 1990 to 2021, in order to establish which countries lead the knowledge related to the search for sustainable living conditions for people and how this knowledge contributes to improving stakeholders' decision-making.

The methodological steps followed in the study were: (1) Identification and selection of keywords. (2) Design and application of an algorithm to identify these selected keywords in titles, abstracts and keywords using WoS terms to contrast them. (3) Data processing was performed from Journal Citation Report (JCR) journals during the year 2022.

This study identified the authors, institutions and countries that publish the most globally on the topic of Smart Cities. The acceleration in the integration of new technologies and their impact on population conglomerates and their relationship with urban dimensions were also analysed. The evidence found indicates that the USA and China are leading in this field.

This bibliometric study was designed to analyse a knowledge space not addressed in the scientific literature referred to the relationship between the concept of smart cities and the urban dimensions established by the WEF, the identification of new technologies that are converging to promote developments of new ways of managing urban dimensions and propose new knowledge spaces.