Oral health self-management barriers among rural older adults in Guangxi, China: A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Objective: To understand the barriers associated with self-management of oral health among rural older adults in Guangxi, and to explore the high incidence of oral problems. This information will assist in the formulation of relevant strategies to solve the oral health problems in this population. METHODS: Taking a phenomenological approach, the current status of, and barriers to, oral health self-management in rural older adults from different regions of Guangxi were explored. Participants were purposively selected and interviewed face-to-face. RESULTS: The interviews yielded four overarching themes and six corresponding sub-themes pertaining to barriers in oral health self-management. These included: (1) Older adults' understanding of oral health and disease, perceptions of oral health and their oral health behaviours; (2) Problems in accessing oral health information; (3) Role of family support; and (4) Barriers to healthcare that included access to dental services, oral treatment experience and financial burden of access to dental care. CONCLUSION: Rural older adults in Guangxi face oral health self-management barriers. Improving access to oral healthcare services and changing existing oral health perceptions and habits may assist them in overcoming self-management challenges.

[Health Effects of PM2.5 Based on Bacterial Toxicity Test and Transcriptional Analysis in Lungs of Mice].

Although epidemiology and toxicology studies have demonstrated that exposure to ambient air particles could result in a variety of lung diseases, but the pulmonary toxicological mechanism remains obscure. In this study, the toxicity of PM2.5 particles in different concentrations was investigated by toxicological methods, including the luminescent bacteria acute toxicity test and genotoxicity performed by SOS chromogenic reaction. The results indicated that, the acute toxicity and genotoxicity were low and negative, respectively. In addition, rats were treated with PM2.5 suspension through intratracheal instillation, and the pathologic changes and expression of different genes in their lungs were carried out. We found that PM2.5 exposure resulted in fibrotic changes and inflammation in the lung with the increase in PM2.5 concentration. Pathway analysis indicated that PM2.5 can induce pulmonary toxicity through disturbing the function of ribosomal protein, fatty acids, and cholesterol metabolism, suggesting an inflammatory reaction in the lung is caused by genetic damage and is irreversible. A gene ontology analysis revealed that abnormal expression of related genes in the immune response could be the specific pathway of lung inflammation. These findings improve our understanding of the toxicological pathway and mechanism of PM2.5 exposure.

Rapid dye degradation with reactive oxidants generated by chloride-induced peroxymonosulfate activation.

Transition-metal is known to catalyze peroxymonosulfate (PMS) decomposition to produce sulfate radicals. Here we report reactions between PMS and chloride, without a need of transition metals, also can be used to degrade organic dye pollutant (Rhodamine B, (RhB)). Some important operating parameters, such as dosages of PMS and Cl(-), pH of solution, temperature, ionic strength, and several common cations, were systematically investigated. Almost complete decoloration of RhB was achieved within 5 min ([PMS] = 0.5 mM, [Cl(-)] = 120 mM, and pH 3.0), and RhB bleaching rate increased with the increased dosages of both PMS and chloride ion, following the pseudo-first-order kinetic model. However, the total organic carbon (TOC) removal results demonstrated that the decoloration of RhB was due to the destruction of chromophore rather than complete degradation. RhB decoloration could be significantly accelerated due to the high ionic strength. Increasing of the reaction temperature from 273 K to 333 K was beneficial to the RhB degradation, and the activation energy was determined to be 32.996 kJ/mol. Bleaching rate of RhB with the examined cations increased with the order of NH4 (+) < Na(+) < K(+) < Al(3+) < Ca(2+) < Mg(2+). Some major degradation products of RhB were identified by GC-MS. The present study may have active technical implications for the treatment of dyestuff wastewater in practice.

Sorption of BTEX mixtures to organobenonites.

Organobentonites synthesized by replacing the metal ions in bentonite with cetyltrimethylammonium (CTMA) or tetramethylammonium cation (TMA) were investigated for their behaviors to sorb benzene, toluene, p-xylene from water. The results served to distinguish the sorption mechanisms (adsorption or partition) of the two types of organobentonites. Bentonites modified with short-chain alkyl functional groups (e.g., TMA) sorb organic contaminants primarily by an adsorption process, in which the sorbed amount decreases with increasing steric hindrance of the organic compound and the process exhibits a competitive effect because of steric hindrance in multisolute systems. In contrast, the sorption of contaminants to organobentonites modified with long-chain alkyl groups (e.g., CTMA) occurs by partition process without exhibiting a competitive effect, and the additional organic compounds may induce a cosorptive effect. In the latter case, the measured distribution coefficients of organic compounds between organobentonites and water (log Kd) are positively correlated with the octanol-water partition coefficients of the compounds (logKow) and the sorption process exhibits no competitive effect in multi-solute systems.