Developing a framework for understanding health information behavior change from avoidance to acquisition: a grounded theory exploration.

BACKGROUND: Health information avoidance is common in real life, but because it is not always conducive to health promotion and maintenance, people often actively switch to health information acquisition. Understanding this process of active change can facilitate intervention in unreasonable avoidance behaviors. However, studies so far have mostly focused on why and how avoidance takes place, little is known about the process of active change from avoidance to acquisition. We thus use a grounded theory approach (GT) to explore how the active change takes place, and to generate a grounded theoretical framework capable of illustrating stages and influencing factors involved in the active change process. METHODS: Straussian grounded theory (Corbin & Strauss, 2015) was used to analyze data collected through semi-structured interviews with 30 adults (14 in good health, 11 with disease, 5 in other health status) who had experienced health information behavior change from avoidance to acquisition. These interviews focused on how the change occurred and what effected the change. RESULTS: The core category of Health Information Avoidance Change and 12 categories were identified and integrated to form a theoretical framework termed the Health Information Avoidance Change Model (HIACM). This model describes the process using five non-linear stage variables (initiation, preparation, action, maintenance, and abandonment) and seven moderating factor variables (cognitive change, social stimulus, beliefs and attitudes, intrapsychic literacy, social resources, information source, time and material resources). CONCLUSIONS: HIACM can be used to explain the process of active change from health information avoidance to health information acquisition. HIAC is a non-linear and holistic process, and it is necessary to dynamically analyze the impact of relevant factors and take targeted intervention measures in stages. HIAC is usually not only an individual behavior, but also a socialized behavior requiring the collaboration of individuals, families, health information providers, healthcare providers, and governments.

Indoxacarb resistance-associated mutation of Liriomyza trifolii in Hainan, China.

Liriomyza trifolii, which has been recently prevalent in China, harms more than 300 plant species, especially cowpea in Hainan. This pest also affects the quality and production of vegetables in winter. Indoxacarb is the first commercial oxadiazine pesticide, which is a new efficient insecticide used to control pests of Diptera, including L. trifolii. The unique mechanism of indoxacarb is that indenyl is transformed into N-demethoxycarbonyl metabolite (DCJW) in insects and acts on inactivated sodium channel; DCJW could then destroy the conduction of nerve impulses, which leads to movement disorders, feeding stoppage, paralysis, and eventually the death of pests. The field population of L. trifolii developed resistance by 769 times higher than the sensitive population in Sanya, Hainan. Results revealed the existence of a mutation (i.e., V1848I) in the sixth transmembrane segment of Domain IV of the sodium channel in the field population. The homozygous resistant genotype frequency for the V1848I mutation was 10-15% among the three field-collected populations. This paper reports for the first time the presence of the kdr mutation V1848I in resistant populations of L. trifolii to indoxacarb. The present study will contribute to the understanding of the evolution of indoxacarb resistance and contribute to the development of resistance management practices for winter vegetables in Hainan.

FSC231 can alleviate paclitaxel-induced neuralgia by inhibiting PICK1 and affecting related factors.

AIM: To explore the inhibitory effect of FSC231, a PDZ domain inhibitor of protein interacting with C kinase 1 (PICK1), on paclitaxel induced neuralgia and its possible pathways. METHODS: Forty C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into four groups (n = 10): the control group (CON), the FSC231 group (FSC), the paclitaxel group (PTL) and the FSC231 add paclitaxel group (F + P). Behavioral indictors of mice including the mechanical pain threshold, foot contraction reflex and inhibition rate were evaluated. ELISA, RT-qPCR and Western Blot were performed to determine the expression levels of IL-1ß, IL-10, substance P and PICK1. RESULTS: Compared with the control group, the foot contraction reflex time, mechanical pain threshold and IL-10 levels were significantly reduced in the PTL group, and IL-1ß, substance P and PICK1 levels were significantly increased (P < 0.05). Compared with the PTL group, the foot contraction reflex time, mechanical pain threshold and IL-10 level were significantly increased, while IL-1ß, SP and PICK1 levels were significantly decreased in the F + P group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: FSC231 could alleviate paclitaxel-induced neuralgia by inhibiting PICK1 and affecting the secretion of inflammatory factors and substance P. The results of this study provide experimental basis for FSC231 to treat neuralgia caused by chemotherapy.

A novel enhanced diffusion sampler for collecting gaseous pollutants without air agitation.

A novel enhanced diffusion sampler for collecting gaseous phase polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) without air agitation is proposed. The diffusion of target compounds into a sampling chamber is facilitated by continuously purging through a closed-loop flow to create a large concentration difference between the ambient air and the air in the sampling chamber. A glass-fiber filter-based prototype was developed. It was demonstrated that the device could collect gaseous PAHs at a much higher rate (1.6 ± 1.4 L/min) than regular passive samplers, while the ambient air is not agitated. The prototype was also tested in both the laboratory and field for characterizing the concentration gradients over a short distance from the soil surface. The sampler has potential to be applied in other similar situations to characterize the concentration profiles of other chemicals.

Wintertime pollution level, size distribution and personal daily exposure to particulate matters in the northern and southern rural Chinese homes and variation in different household fuels.

This study investigated and compared wintertime air pollution and personal exposure in the rural northern and southern Chinese homes. Daily indoor and outdoor particle samples were simultaneously collected by using stationary samplers, and personal exposure was directly measured using portable carried samplers. The daily average concentrations of indoor and outdoor PM2.5 were 521 ± 234 and 365 ± 185 µg/m3 in the northern village, that were about 2.3-2.7 times of 188 ± 104 and 150 ± 29 µg/m3 in indoor and outdoor air in the southern villages. Particle size distribution was similar between indoor and outdoor air, and had relatively smaller difference between the two sites, relative to the particle mass concentration difference. PM2.5 contributed to ∼80% of the TSP mass, and in PM2.5, near 90% were PM1.0. In homes using electricity in the southern villages, outdoor air pollution could explain 70-80% of the variation in indoor air pollution. The daily exposure to PM2.5 measured using personal carried samplers were 451 ± 301 µg/m3 in the northern villages with traditional solid fuels used for daily cooking and heating, and in the southern villages without heating, the exposure to PM2.5 were 184 ± 83 and 166 ± 45 µg/m3, respectively, for the population using wood and electricity for daily cooking. Time-weighted daily average exposure estimated from area concentration and time spent indoor and outdoor was generally correlated the directly measured exposure.

Source-oriented risk assessment of inhalation exposure to ambient polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and contributions of non-priority isomers in urban Nanjing, a megacity located in Yangtze River Delta, China.

Sixteen U.S. EPA priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and eleven non-priority isomers including some dibenzopyrenes were analyzed to evaluate health risk attributable to inhalation exposure to ambient PAHs and contributions of the non-priority PAHs in a megacity Nanjing, east China. The annual average mass concentration of the total 16 EPA priority PAHs in air was 51.1 ± 29.8 ng/m3, comprising up to 93% of the mass concentration of all 27 PAHs, however, the estimated Incremental Lifetime Cancer Risk (ILCR) due to inhalation exposure would be underestimated by 63% on average if only accounting the 16 EPA priority PAHs. The risk would be underestimated by 13% if only particulate PAHs were considered, though gaseous PAHs made up to about 70% of the total mass concentration. During the last fifteen years, ambient Benzo[a]pyrene decreased significantly in the city which was consistent with the declining trend of PAHs emissions. Source contributions to the estimated ILCR were much different from the contributions for the total mass concentration, calling for the introduce of important source-oriented risk assessments. Emissions from gasoline vehicles contributed to 12% of the total mass concentration of 27 PAHs analyzed, but regarding relative contributions to the overall health risk, gasoline vehicle emissions contributed 45% of the calculated ILCR. Dibenzopyrenes were a group of non-priority isomers largely contributing to the calculated ILCR, and vehicle emissions were probably important sources of these high molecular weight isomers. Ambient dibenzo[a,l]pyrene positively correlated with the priority PAH Benzo[g,h,i]perylene. The study indicates that inclusion of non-priority PAHs could be valuable for both PAH source apportionment and health risk assessment.

Exposure and health impact evaluation based on simultaneous measurement of indoor and ambient PM2.5 in Haidian, Beijing.

Because people spend most of their time indoors, the characterization of indoor air quality is important for exposure assessment. Unfortunately, indoor air data are scarce, leading to a major data gap in risk assessment. In this study, PM2.5 concentrations in both indoor and outdoor air were simultaneously measured using on-line particulate counters in 13 households in Haidian, Beijing for both heating and non-heating seasons. A bimodal distribution of PM2.5 concentrations suggests rapid transitions between polluted and non-polluted situations. The PM2.5 concentrations in indoor and outdoor air varied synchronously, with the indoor variation lagging. The lag time in the heating season was longer than that in the non-heating season. The particle sizes in indoor air were smaller than those in ambient air in the heating season and vice versa in the non-heating season. PM2.5 concentrations in indoor air were generally lower than those in ambient air except when ambient concentrations dropped sharply to very low levels or there were internal emissions from cooking or other activities. The effectiveness of an air cleaner to reduce indoor PM2.5 concentrations was demonstrated. Non-linear regression models were developed to predict indoor air PM2.5 concentrations based on ambient data with lag time incorporated. The models were applied to estimate the overall population exposure to PM2.5 and the health consequences in Haidian. The health impacts would be significantly overestimated without the indoor exposure being taken into consideration, and this bias would increase as the ambient air quality improved in the future.

Clinical Documents Clustering Based on Medication/Symptom Names Using Multi-View Nonnegative Matrix Factorization.

Clinical documents are rich free-text data sources containing valuable medication and symptom information, which have a great potential to improve health care. In this paper, we build an integrating system for extracting medication names and symptom names from clinical notes. Then we apply nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) and multi-view NMF to cluster clinical notes into meaningful clusters based on sample-feature matrices. Our experimental results show that multi-view NMF is a preferable method for clinical document clustering. Moreover, we find that using extracted medication/symptom names to cluster clinical documents outperforms just using words.

Neuroprotective effect of calcitriol on ischemic/reperfusion injury through the NR3A/CREB pathways in the rat hippocampus.

Calcitriol has been demonstrated to provide neuroprotection against ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. However, the exact mechanism of this protection remains unknown. In the present study, the neuroprotective effect of calcitriol was investigated in rats exposed to cerebral I/R injury induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). In addition, the involvement of NR3A, extracellular signal­regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2), and phosphorylated cAMP/Ca2+­response element binding protein (p­CREB) in this protective action was determined in the hippocampal neurons. Western blot analysis was conducted to analyze the protein levels of NR3A, mitogen­activated protein kinase kinase (MEK) and p­CREB. The immunoreactivity of p­CREB and NR3A were measured by quantum dot­based immunofluorescence analysis. Results showed that MCAO rats exhibited large cortical infarct volumes. By contrast, intraperitoneal administration of calcitriol significantly reduced infarct volumes seven days following reperfusion, and these results were accompanied by elevated NR3A and p­CREB activity in the hippocampal neurons. The inhibition of MEK by the addition of PD98059 led to attenuation of the neuroprotective effects of calcitriol and a correlated decrease in CREB activity. The results also demonstrated that calcitriol protected the brain from I/R injury through the NR3A­MEK/ERK­CREB pathway.