Baseline Air Quality Assessment of Goods Movement Activities before the Port of Charleston Expansion: A Community-University Collaborative.

As the demand for goods continues to increase, a collective network of transportation systems is required to facilitate goods movement activities. This study examines air quality near the Port of Charleston before its expansion and briefly describes the establishment and structure of a community-university partnership used to monitor existing pollution. Particulate matter (PM) concentrations (PM2.5 and PM10) were measured using the Thermo Fisher Scientific Partisol 2000i-D Dichotomous Air Sampler, Thermo Scientific Dichotomous Sequential Air Sampler Partisol-Plus 2025-D, and Rupprecht & Patashnick TEOM Series 1400 Sampler at neighborhood (Union Heights, Rosemont, and Accabee) and reference (FAA2.5 and Jenkins Street) sites. Descriptive statistics were performed and an ANOVA (analysis of variance) was calculated to find the difference in overall mean 24-hour PM average concentrations in communities impacted by environmental injustice. PM2.5 (15.2 µg/m3) and PM10 (27.2 µg/m3) maximum concentrations were highest in neighborhoods such as Union Heights neighborhoods due to more goods movement activities. Nevertheless, there was no statistically significant difference in mean concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 across neighborhood sites. In contrast, mean PM10 neighborhood concentrations were significantly lower than mean PM10 reference concentrations for Union Heights (p = 0.00), Accabee (p ≤ 0.0001), and Rosemont (p = 0.01). Although PM concentrations were lower than current National Ambient Air Quality Standards, this study demonstrated how community-university partners can work collectively to document baseline PM concentrations that will be used to examine changes in air quality after the port expansion brings additional goods movement activities to the area.

Evaluation of fast food behavior in pre-school children and parents following a one-year intervention with nutrition education.

A community-based intervention study was conducted to assess a nutrition education intervention on western style fast food consumption among Chinese children and parents. Eight kindergartens from three district areas of Hefei City (a total of 1252 children aged 4-6 years and their parents) were randomly selected. Descriptive and analytical statistical methods were used to evaluate the baseline, midterm, and final western style fast food knowledge, attitude, and practice in both parents and children were used to identify and compare the knowledge, attitude, and practice in the parents and children. Parents and children were divided into "intervention" and "control" groups based on nutrition education status. Consumption of western style fast food at breakfast in Chinese children and parents is not high. The main reasons for this in children is that consumption of western style fast food is not viewed as "food", but rather as a "gift" or "interesting". The time of children's consumption of western style fast food is mostly likely to be in the weekends. The nutrition education modified the parents' western style fast food behavior (p < 0.01), although it did not change significantly in children. The healthy nutrition concept should be built up among Chinese, especially in children. Insights from the families provide leads for future research and ideas for the nutrition education.

Modification of a smoking motivation questionnaire for Chinese medical students.

INTRODUCTION: Smoking prevalence among the medical students is high in China. Therefore, understanding the smoking motivations of medical students is crucial for smoking control, but currently there are no scales questionnaires customized for probing the smoking motivations of medical students. This aim of study was to test and modify a questionnaire for investigating smoking motivations among medical students. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1,125 medical students at Xuzhou Medical College in China in 2012.The model fit and validity was assessed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and the reliability was tested by single-item reliability, composite reliability, and item-total correlation. RESULTS: The prevalence of smoking was 9.84 % among study population. In the modified scales, the global fit indices identified a CFI value of 0.96, TLI was 0.96, and the RMSEA was 0.063. CFA supported the two dimensional structure of the instrument. The average variance extracted ranged from 0.45 to 0.62. All single-item reliability scores were greater than 0.20, and the composite reliability ranged from 0.74 to 0.91. CONCLUSION: Modified scales could be the preliminary instrument used in evaluating the smoking motivations of medical students. However, it should be further assessed using other forms and methods of validity and reliability, additional motivations of smoking, and the survey of other medical colleges in China.

Correlation study of knowledge and behavior regarding breast care among female undergraduate students in China.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to understand the relationship between knowledge level and behavior on breast care in Chinese students, so as to provide strategies for improving the health education of breast care and subsequently for aiding in breast cancer prevention. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A self-designed questionnaire was used to evaluate breast care knowledge level and characterize related behavior. Correlation analysis was conducted for the knowledge level and behavior. The study was carried out using 597 female undergraduate students in medical and non-medical colleges in Wuhu, China. RESULTS: The average score of breast care knowledge was 5.32±1.68 (5.62±1.68 and 5.00±1.68 for medical and non-medical students, respectively), with a greater score value for sophomores (5.59±1.72) than freshmen (5.18±1.65). The average score of breast care behavior was 2.21±1.13, again with a greater value in sophomores (2.37±1.15) than freshmen (2.21±1.13). A significant positive correlation (r=0.231, p<0.01) between knowledge scores and behavior scores was observed. In addition, various factors, including paying attention to breast care information, receiving breast self-examination guidance, TV program and Internet, were found to influence breast care knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: In general, female undergraduate students lack of self-awareness of breast care with a low rate of breast self-examination. It is necessary to carry out health education to improve early detection of breast cancer.