Community interest and feasibility of using a novel smartphone-based formaldehyde exposure detection technology

Photopaper as a Tool for Community-Level Monitoring of Industrially Produced Hydrogen Sulfide and Corrosion

Scientific instrumentation driven by academic, military, and industrial applications tends to be high cost, designed for expert use, and "black boxed". Community-led citizen science (CLCS) is creating different research instruments with different measurement goals and processes. This paper identifies four design attributes for CLCS tools: affordability, accessibility, builds community efficacy and provides actionable data through validating a community method for monitoring the neurotoxic and corrosive gas Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S). For $1 per sample, the semi-quantitative method provides an affordable and easily interpretable data for communities to compare H2S concentrations and silver corrosion in their home environments to those in a major municipal sewage treatment plant. H2S is a leading cause of workplace injury in the U.S. and commonly found in oil and gas production, sewage treatment plants, and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Communities neighboring such sources tend to be socio-economically marginalized with little access to scientific or political resources. Consequently, health risks and material degradation from corrosion are well studied in workplaces while community exposures are under-studied. Existing commercial H2S detection methods are prohibitively expensive for low-income communities and often require the support of professional scientists. This paper describes a simple and inexpensive semi-quantitative H2S measurement method that uses photopaper. Photopaper passively measures H2S as its silver halide layer linearly reacts with H2S between concentrations of 60 ppb to 1 ppm, discoloring the paper from white to brown. We develop a colorimetric scale for this discoloration for visual estimation of H2S concentration and overall corrosion. The scale is based on comparing silver sulfide (Ag2S) measured by Purafil Corrosion Classification Coupons (CCCs) and H2S concentrations measured with the industry standard tool a Jerome Meter to silver and sulfur bound to the photopaper as measured with X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF). We conduct our validation studies in a major municipal sewage treatment plant to provide real-world occupational benchmarks for comparison to community results. This community science method is affordable, accessible, designed to build collective efficacy and to create actionable data to flag the need for follow-up research.

Applying the NIEHS translational research framework (NIEHS-TRF) to map clinical environmental health research trajectories

Background:

There is a need for comprehensive planning tools and exemplars for clinical environmental health research programs. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Translational Research Framework (NIEHS-TRF), as a comprehensive research activity mapping framework, promises to fill this gap in program planning and communication tools.

Objective:

The objective is a proof of concept demonstration to apply the NIEHS-TRF as a research project and career trajectory cartography framework.

Methods:

We utilized case series examples to apply the NIEHS-TRF as a project/career cartography framework. After a tailored research mission statement is clarified, the four step process in the NIEHS-TRF application includes 1) identifying research categories and activities (depicted visually by rings/nodes) that link to research program deliverables, 2) within each category (visual ring), linking specific works and program outcomes to activities (visual nodes), 3) coherently depicting visually as an overall map, and 4) developing recommended improvements for the NIEHS-TRF for research program cartography utility.

Results:

Successful mapping of a research project plan in a training grant application, a summary of an individual trajectory of research, and a community-initiated project was completed with mapping visualizations. The exercise facilitated purposeful planning and communication to describe common translational goals, progress, and targeted need for interdisciplinary collaboration.

Discussion:

Utilizing the NIEHS-TRF as a mapping tool for research program planning enabled unique insights into strengths, gaps, collaboration opportunities, and applications for environmental health nursing. This research project, career, and community-initiated research program trajectory mapping communication tool promises to accelerate impact and advancement through purposeful and clear planning for ongoing research activities along the translational continuum.

Advancing the symptom science model with environmental health

OBJECTIVE

Globally, indoor and outdoor pollutants are leading risk factors for death and reduced quality of life. Few theories explicitly address environmental health within the nursing discipline with a focus on harmful environmental exposures. The objective here is to expand the National Institutes of Health Symptom Science Model to include the environmental health concepts of environmental endotype (causative pathway) and environmental exposure.

DESIGN

Meleis' research to theory strategy for theory refinement was used. Research workshop proceedings, environmental health nursing research expert consensus, panelist research trajectories, and review of the literature were utilized as data sources.

RESULTS

Ongoing emphasis on the physical environment as a key determinant of health and theoretical perspectives for including environmental exposures and endotypes in symptom science are presented. Definitions of these concepts, further developed, are provided. Recommendations to strengthen environmental health nursing research and practice through capacity building/infrastructure, methods/outcomes, translational/clinical research, and basic/mechanistic research are included.

CONCLUSION

The revised model deepens theoretical support for clinical actions that include environmental modification, environmental health education, and exposure reduction. This modification will enable a middle-range theory and shared mental model to inspire the prioritization of environmental health in nursing leadership, research, practice, and education.

Validation of fitness tracker for sleep measures in women with asthma

OBJECTIVE

Nighttime wakening with asthma symptoms is a key to assessment and therapy decisions, with no gold standard objective measure. The study aims were to (1) determine the feasibility, (2) explore equivalence, and (3) test concordance of a consumer-based accelerometer with standard actigraphy for measurement of sleep patterns in women with asthma as an adjunct to self-report.

METHODS

Panel study design of women with poorly controlled asthma from a university-affiliated primary care clinic system was used. We assessed sensitivity and specificity, equivalence and concordance of sleep time, sleep efficiency, and wake counts between the consumer-based accelerometer Fitbit Charge™ and Actigraph wGT3X+. We linked data between devices for comparison both automatically by 24-hour period and manually by sleep segment.

RESULTS

Analysis included 424 938 minutes, 738 nights, and 833 unique sleep segments from 47 women. The fitness tracker demonstrated 97% sensitivity and 40% specificity to identify sleep. Between device equivalence for total sleep time (15 and 42-minute threshold) was demonstrated by sleep segment. Concordance improved for wake counts and sleep efficiency when adjusting for a linear trend.

CONCLUSIONS

There were important differences in total sleep time, efficiency, and wake count measures when comparing individual sleep segments versus 24-hour measures of sleep. Fitbit overestimates sleep efficiency and underestimates wake counts in this population compared to actigraphy. Low levels of systematic bias indicate the potential for raw measurements from the devices to achieve equivalence and concordance with additional processing, algorithm modification, and modeling. Fitness trackers offer an accessible and inexpensive method to quantify sleep patterns in the home environment as an adjunct to subjective reports, and require further informatics development.