Living arrangements, activity participation and depression among older Chinese adults.

OBJECTIVES: We examined the relationship among living arrangements, activity participation and depression and the mediating effects of activity participation on the relationship between living arrangements and depression. STUDY DESIGN: This was a cross-sectional study based on nationally representative data. METHODS: 9647 older adults aged 60 years and over were recruited from the 2018 Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. Three-step regression and mediation analysis methods were used. RESULTS: Compared with older adults living with family members, those living in institutions attended fewer activities and experienced higher depression rates, and those living alone attended more activities and experienced higher depression rates. In the group living with family members, living with a spouse was an important way to increase activity participation and reduce depression. Mediation analysis suggested that activity participation mediated the impact of living arrangements on depression. Attending more activities could alleviate depression for older adults who are living alone, living in institutions and living without a spouse. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest an emphasis on the role of spouses and activity participation during depression interventions among older adults.

Diterpenoid alkaloids from two species of Delphinium.

Four new compounds (1-4) were isolated from the whole plants of two species of Delphinium, including two C20-diterpenoid alkaloids, umbrodines A and B (1 and 2), and a dibenzoxazepinone, umbrolide A (3) from Delphinium umbrosum Hand.-Mazz. and a C20-diterpenoid alkaloid, kingiadine (4) from Delphinium kingianum Bruhl. ex Huth. Ten known diterpenoid alkaloids were also isolated. Their structures were elucidated via HR-ESIMS, IR, and NMR data. Lycoctonine (11) and delectinine (12) exhibited appreciable cardiac activity. Furthermore, 11 and 12 showed cardioprotective effects against doxorubicin-induced toxicity in H9c2 cells, with the maximum protection rates of 61.63% and 51.18%, respectively.

Impact of humidity and flowrate on the thoron measurement sensitivity of electrostatic radon monitors.

The accurate measurement of thoron activity concentration is an important issue in both thoron exposure evaluation and in reducing its influence on radon measurement. For radon monitors based on electrostatic collection technique and an alpha spectrometry analyser, air humidity and sampling flowrate are key factors influencing the sensitivity of thoron activity concentration measurement. For the purpose of improving thoron measurement sensitivity and stability, theoretical derivation and experimental studies were systemically performed in this study. The results show that thoron measurement sensitivity decreases as a negative exponential function with absolute humidity increasing, and the sensitivity of thoron is much lower than that of radon under the same conditions, which is mainly caused by the small value of the concentration ratio of thoron inside to outside of the chamber. When the air exchange rate of the measurement chamber (sampling flowrate/inner volume) increases, the measurement sensitivity of thoron gas first increases rapidly and then decreases slowly after reaching its maximum at the air exchange rate of 0.24 s-1. In practice, in the normal air exchange rate range (for example <0.05 s-1), increasing the sampling flowrate could greatly improve the thoron measurement sensitivity, which consequently suggests an effective way to update thoron measurement under the present conditions of the monitor.

The health service use of aged rural-to-urban migrant workers in different types of cities in China.

BACKGROUND: The association between different types of cities and the use of health services by aged migrant workers in China has not been widely reported in previous studies. This article aims to focus on rural-to-urban migrant workers in China aged 50 years and older to examine the relationship between the region of these migrant workers' destination city (eastern, central or western) and migration city type (first-tier, second-tier, third-tier and smaller cities) and their use of health services (e.g., establishing health records, participating in health education, and seeking medical treatment when ill). METHODS: This study's data were obtained from China Migrants Dynamic Survey in 2017. A total of 14,732 rural-to-urban migrant workers aged 50 years and older were included in the analysis; 6,938 of the migrant workers were either ill or had recently experienced physical discomfort. A chi-square test and binary logistic regression were performed to explore the associations between these rural-urban migrants' destination cities and their use of health services. RESULTS: This study found that aged rural migrant workers who moved to the east or to first- or second-tier cities were less likely to establish health records, participate in health education programme, and seek medical care. CONCLUSIONS: Migrant destination cities are linked to the use of local health services by migrant workers aged 50 years and older in China. We found that aged migrant workers who migrated to relatively developed regions and cities accessed fewer health services. Such results signify that more attention should be paid to aged migrant workers' use of health services in economically developed regions and cities, to eliminate regional differences in healthcare inequality.

Comparison measurement of unattached radon progeny concentration in three different environments.

Accurate measurement of unattached radon progeny is important for dose evaluation of radon exposure. For quality control of field surveys, a series of comparison measurements were carried out using three commercial unattached radon progeny monitors in real environments as well as in a radon chamber. The results show that the radon equilibrium equivalent concentrations (EECs) of different monitors agree very well, mostly within ±3.0% where there is no thoron progeny interference in the radon chamber. However, the unattached fraction of radon progeny is not so consistent, and the relative difference is 3.3% ~ 39.5% in different environments. The unattached fraction of radon progeny is affected by aerosol concentration. Anomalously high unattached fraction was found in the environment with extremely high humidity and low aerosol concentration. For accurate measurement of unattached radon progeny, specific attention should be paid to the collection efficiency of unattached radon progeny and the interference of attached radon progeny on a wire screen.

The experimental study on the emanation power of a flow-through thoron source made from incandescent gas mantles.

To improve the quality of the calibration of thoron concentration activity measurement, an experimental study on the emanation power of a flow-through thoron source based on incandescent gas mantles was carried out in this paper. The thoron activity concentrations of the outflowed air from the flow-through source were measured using RAD7, and the quantitative relationship between thoron concentrations and flowrates was studied through theoretical analysis, and the thoron emanation powers were obtained from the fitting of the relationship above. Results show that the thoron concentration decreased with the increasing flowrate in the gas path, and the thoron emanation powers of three batches of gas mantles obtained by fitting were 1.33% ± 0.17%, 0.77% ± 0.10% and 0.57% ± 0.07% respectively in low humidity condition. Those results were checked using the gamma spectroscopy method, and were consistent within the error range.

Variation of the unattached fraction of radon progeny and its contribution to radon exposure.

The unattached fraction of radon progeny is one of the most important factors for radon exposure evaluation through the dosimetric approach. To better understand its level and variation in the real environment, a series of field measurements were carried out indoors and outdoors, and radon equilibrium equivalent concentration was also measured. The dose contribution of unattached radon progeny was evaluated in addition. The results show that no clear variation trend of the unattached fraction of radon progeny is observed in an indoor or outdoor environment. The average unattached fraction of radon progeny for the indoors and outdoors are (8.7 ± 1.6)% and (9.7 ± 2.1)%, respectively. The dose contribution of unattached radon progeny to total radon exposure is some 38.8% in an indoor environment, suggesting the importance of the evaluation on unattached radon progeny.

A method of measurement of (239)Pu, (240)Pu, (241)Pu in high U content marine sediments by sector field ICP-MS and its application to Fukushima sediment samples.

An accurate and precise analytical method is highly needed for the determination of Pu isotopes in marine sediments for the long-term marine environment monitoring that is being done since the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. The elimination of uranium from the sediment samples needs to be carefully checked. We established an analytical method based on anion-exchange chromatography and SF-ICP-MS in this work. A uranium decontamination factor of 2 × 10(6) was achieved, and the U concentrations in the final sample solutions were typically below 4 pg mL(-1), thus no extra correction of (238)U interferences from the Pu spectra was needed. The method was suitable for the analysis of (241)Pu in marine sediments using large sample amounts (>10 g). We validated the method by measuring marine sediment reference materials and our results agreed well with the certified and the literature values. Surface sediments and one sediment core sample collected after the nuclear accident were analyzed. The characterization of (241)Pu/(239)Pu atom ratios in the surface sediments and the vertical distribution of Pu isotopes showed that there was no detectable Pu contamination from the nuclear accident in the marine sediments collected 30 km off the plant site.

Release of Pu isotopes from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident to the marine environment was negligible.

Atmospheric deposition of Pu isotopes from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accident has been observed in the terrestrial environment around the FDNPP site; however, their deposition in the marine environment has not been studied. The possible contamination of Pu in the marine environment has attracted great scientific and public concern. To fully understand this possible contamination of Pu isotopes from the FDNPP accident to the marine environment, we collected marine sediment core samples within the 30 km zone around the FDNPP site in the western North Pacific about two years after the accident. Pu isotopes ((239)Pu, (240)Pu, and (241)Pu) and radiocesium isotopes ((134)Cs and (137)Cs) in the samples were determined. The high activities of radiocesium and the (134)Cs/(137)Cs activity ratios with values around 1 (decay corrected to 15 March 2011) suggested that these samples were contaminated by the FDNPP accident-released radionuclides. However, the activities of (239+240)Pu and (241)Pu were low compared with the background level before the FDNPP accident. The Pu atom ratios ((240)Pu/(239)Pu and (241)Pu/(239)Pu) suggested that global fallout and the pacific proving ground (PPG) close-in fallout are the main sources for Pu contamination in the marine sediments. As Pu isotopes are particle-reactive and they can be easily incorporated with the marine sediments, we concluded that the release of Pu isotopes from the FDNPP accident to the marine environment was negligible.

A series of high-sensitivity radon detection systems and their applications in nitrogen as well as the boil-off liquid nitrogen measurement.

In modern rare-event search experiments such as neutrino experiments and dark matter search experiments, radon is one of the most important radiation backgrounds since it can emanate from nearly all the materials containing radium and migrate freely in the experiment system. To support the China Dark Matter Experiment (CDEX) at China Jinping Underground Laboratory (CJPL), a series of high-sensitivity radon detection systems with different electrostatic collection chambers were designed, and radon in nitrogen as well as boil-off liquid nitrogen was measured after accurate calibration and enrichment. Results showed that the calibration factors were 2.1 ± 0.2 (counts/h)/(Bq/m3), 21.1 ± 0.7 (counts/h)/(Bq/m3), 186.2 ± 2.2 (counts/h)/(Bq/m3), 387 ± 7 (counts/h)/(Bq/m3) and the 90% confidence level detection limits were 27.22 mBq/m3, 1.89 ∼ 3.06 mBq/m3, 0.41 ∼ 0.68 mBq/m3, 0.44 mBq/m3 for CJPL-HR2, CJPL-HR20, CJPL-HR140 and CJPL-HR300 measurement systems, respectively. Combined with an enrichment system consisting of twenty g CarboACT activated charcoals in a cold trap, the lower level detection limit (LLD) of typical No.1 CJPL-HR140 could reach 1.8 µBq/m3 with three days' enrichment time and three days' measurement time at 20 L/min sampling flowrate. For verification and application, the radon activity concentrations in nitrogen were 0.6 ∼ 1.9 mBq/m3 with an average of 1.1 ± 0.1 mBq/m3.While in boil-off liquid nitrogen, the radon activity concentrations ranged from 0.04 to 0.62 mBq/m3, and they were significantly lower in old-decayed liquid nitrogen compared to newly-filled liquid nitrogen, with a nearly five-fold decrease.

Efficiency analysis and comparison of different radon progeny measurement methods.

Radon exposure to the public contributes more than half of all the radiation doses caused by natural radiation; accurate measurement of radon progeny is quite essential for the dose evaluation of radon exposure in environment. For the purpose of establishing a radon progeny standard and controlling measurement quality of commercial devices, it is quite important to analyze the efficiency of different measurement methods and determine which would be the most appropriate for radon progeny measurements. Through theoretical analysis and experimental measurement, some commonly used measurement methods were compared in this study and the development trends of those methods were reviewed. Results show that for radon progeny measurement, the spectroscopic analysis method is better than the gross count method, while least-square calculation methods is better than traditional three-count or five-count method. Multiperiod counting of α plus ß spectrum as well as using weighted least-square calculation method might be the best choice for accurate measurement on radon progeny in standard radon chamber when calibrating commercial radon progeny monitors.

New-designed measurement device for radon and thoron activity concentration based on gas direct detection.

A new-designed measurement device for radon and thoron activity concentration is developed based on gas direct measurement to support their in-situ calibration. It consists of a 2000 mm2 Passivated Implanted Planar Silicon (PIPS) detector, a Multi-Channel Analyzer (MCA), a Micro Controller Unit (MCU), and a small electrostatic chamber with a volume of nearly 23 ml. The device records those alpha particles emitted from radon and thoron gas, and the detection efficiency and the crosstalk factor of 218Po/216Po are determined by Monte Carlo simulation. Measurement results have been compared with AlphaGUARD DF2000 in pure radon and thoron environments, respectively. Results show that the measurement results of the devices and the reference monitor agree well with each other, with an average relative deviation of 0.48% for radon gas from about 3300 Bq/m3 to 38 kBq/m3 and -3.25% for thoron gas from about 25 kBq/m3 to 70 kBq/m3. Uncertainty assessment has also been done, and a relative system uncertainty of radon is about 6.8%, while that of thoron is nearly 7.3%.

The temporal variation of radon concentration at different depths of soil: A case study in Beijing.

Variations in soil radon concentrations are a potential precursor of earthquake and volcanic events. However, the unclear migration and variation mechanisms of radon concentrations in soil still limit its effective application. To elucidate the temporal variation and its possible influence factors on radon concentrations at different soil depths, a case study was performed at a suburban site in Beijing. A long-term continuous measurement system consisting of ten radon-in-soil monitors at depths from 0.1 to 5.0 m and other meteorological sensors was employed. The monitoring was carried out from January 8th to July 29th, 2022, covering 3445 h in total. Radon concentrations generally increased with soil depth. Diurnal variation of soil radon concentrations at depths of 1.2 and 1.6 m in winter and spring was observed, and a negative correlation between the soil radon concentration and the residual air pressure was found. This finding indicates a possible air exchange channel between the soil and the atmosphere at the study site. In addition, the soil radon concentration at 4.0 m depth was unexpectedly lower than that of neighboring depths and was steady throughout the measurement period. This is attributed to a possible clay layer in the soil structure at 4.0 m depth. The results of this field study indicate that the complexity of temporal variation of soil radon concentrations should be considered for its application in predicting earthquake and volcanic events.

Radon dynamic adsorption coefficients of two activated charcoals at different temperatures in nitrogen environment.

Profiting from their intrinsic low radioactivity, CarboACT and Saratech, the two kinds of activated charcoal, are commonly adopted in radon removal and radon enrichment process related to modern rare-event search experiments. For supporting CDEX collaboration on radon issue, a flow-through experimental system was established and radon dynamic adsorption coefficients (kα) of CarboACT and Saratech were systematically measured in N2 condition within the temperature range of -85 °C∼200 °C. The experimental results show that radon dynamic adsorption coefficients of CarboACT and Saratech increase exponentially with the decrease of temperature, and different elution curves of them were observed. Extrapolated to 77K, the kα-values of CarboACT and Saratech at liquid nitrogen temperature could be firstly estimated at 1.2 × 1013 (L/g) and 9.5 × 1011 (L/g), respectively. The overall image of the adsorption capacities of these two activated charcoals is valuable for rare-event search studies related to radon issue.

Assessment of the unattached fraction of indoor radon progeny and its contribution to dose: a pilot study in China.

The unattached fraction of radon progeny (f(p)) is one of the most important factors for accurate evaluation of the effective dose from a unit of radon exposure, and it may vary greatly in different environments. For precise evaluation of the indoor radon exposure dose and the influence of unattached radon progeny, a pilot survey of f(p) in different environments was carried out in China with a portable and integrating monitor. The dose conversion factors for radon progeny are calculated with LUDEP(®) code, and the dose contributions from the unattached and the attached radon progenies were simultaneously evaluated based on the results of field measurements. The results show that even though the concentrations of radon progeny vary significantly among different indoor environments, the variations of f(p) seem relatively small (9.3-16.9%). The dose contribution from unattached radon progeny is generally larger (30.2-46.2%) in an indoor environment.

Accurate measurement of the radon exhalation rate of building materials using the closed chamber method.

The construction department of the Chinese government is now discussing the possibility of reducing indoor radon exposure through controlling the radon exhalation rate of building materials. However, which quantity is suitable for control and how to specify and measure this quantity are still not clear. A comparison of a theoretical model and measurement process of radon exhalation between the surface of soil and building materials was carried out. As a result, the so-called intrinsic exhalation rate is thought to be a suitable quantity for control. Through theoretical analysis and experimental comparisons of different pre-treatment methods, it was indicated that the closed chamber method could be used to measure the intrinsic exhalation rate of building materials. Measurement results show that the average intrinsic radon exhalation rate of building materials commonly used in Beijing is 4.891 mBq m(-2) s(-1), with a range of 0.323-21.250 mBq m(-2) s(-1), and the average diffusion length is 16.448 cm, with a range of 2.371-41.960 cm.

A new-designed system for continuous measurement of radon in water.

On-line continuous monitoring of radon concentration in water is of great significance for its environmental application as a radioactive tracer, for example, as a potential precursor for earthquake forecast and volcanic eruption. To realize on-line continuous measurement on radon in complex water body, a compact measurement system mainly consisted of a simple degassing device and an electrostatic radon monitor is newly developed. The sensitivity of the measurement system is 73 ± 5 cph/(Bq/L), and the detection limit is 0.04 Bq/L with a 60-min cycle at 25 °C water temperature. Intercomparison measurements with RAD H2O were performed both in laboratory condition and in field, and consistent results within the error range were achieved. To test the developed measurement system, a continuous monitoring of radon concentration in water in the drainage tunnel of Mount Jinping was performed for 3 months. The arithmetic mean of radon concentration in water is 0.34 ± 0.09 Bq/L, varying in the range of 0.04-0.60 Bq/L during the period. Several rapid decreases of radon concentration in water were observed, which might be attributed to the increase of rainwater mixing in the drainage tunnel caused by heavy rainfall. The stability of long-term operation of the system enables it to be widely used in the field of radon in water as a tracer.

Pu and 137Cs in the Yangtze River estuary sediments: distribution and source identification.

Pu isotopes and (137)Cs were analyzed using sector field ICP-MS and γ spectrometry, respectively, in surface sediment and core sediment samples from the Yangtze River estuary. (239+240)Pu activity and (240)Pu/(239)Pu atom ratios (>0.18) shows a generally increasing trend from land to sea and from north to south in the estuary. This spatial distribution pattern indicates that the Pacific Proving Grounds (PPG) source Pu transported by ocean currents was intensively scavenged into the suspended sediment under favorable conditions, and mixed with riverine sediment as the water circulated in the estuary. This process is the main control for the distribution of Pu in the estuary. Moreover, Pu is also an important indicator for monitoring the changes of environmental radioactivity in the estuary as the river basin is currently the site of extensive human activities and the sea level is rising because of global climate changes. For core sediment samples the maximum peak of (239+240)Pu activity was observed at a depth of 172 cm. The sedimentation rate was estimated on the basis of the Pu maximum deposition peak in 1963-1964 to be 4.1 cm/a. The contributions of the PPG close-in fallout Pu (44%) and the riverine Pu (45%) in Yangtze River estuary sediments are equally important for the total Pu deposition in the estuary, which challenges the current hypothesis that the riverine Pu input was the major source of Pu budget in this area.

Observation and analysis of atmospheric radon in Qingdao, China.

To investigate the levels and behaviours of the atmospheric radon concentration in Qingdao, a continuous measurement was carried out and recorded hourly over a three-year period from September 2006 to August 2009. Levels and variations were studied on the basis of 16,817 data points, and the trends of diurnal and seasonal variations were also analysed. The average concentration of atmospheric radon over the three years was 5.00 ± 3.01 Bq m(-3). The average diurnal pattern of radon concentration showed that the daily maximum appears in the early morning, and the daily minimum in the late afternoon, which is driven by the atmospheric stability. The annual pattern features a maximum around December and a minimum around June, which correlates with the origin of air mass brought by the monsoon.