Determining an upper reference value for the urinary fluoride-creatinine ratio in healthy children younger than 7 years

The urinary fluoride/creatinine ratio (U&lt;sub&gt;F/Cr&lt;/sub&gt;) in a spot urine sample could be a useful systemic F exposure monitoring tool. No reference value for U&lt;sub&gt;F/Cr&lt;/sub&gt; currently exists, therefore this study aimed to establish an upper reference value for a U&lt;sub&gt;F/Cr&lt;/sub&gt;, corresponding to excessive systemic F exposure, i.e., &gt;0.07 mg F/kg body weight (b.w.)/day, in children. Subsidiary aims were to examine the relationship between (i) total daily F intake (TDFI) and 24-h urinary F excretion (DUFE); (ii) DUFE and U&lt;sub&gt;F/Cr&lt;/sub&gt;, and (iii) TDFI and U&lt;sub&gt;F/Cr&lt;/sub&gt;. Simultaneously collected TDFI, DUFE, and urinary creatinine (U&lt;sub&gt;Cr&lt;/sub&gt;) data in children &lt;7 years were taken from UK studies conducted from 2002 to 2014 in order to calculate U&lt;sub&gt;F/Cr&lt;/sub&gt; (mg/g) for each child. For the 158 children (mean age 5.8 years) included in the data analysis, mean TDFI and DUFE were 0.049 (SD 0.033) and 0.016 (SD 0.008) mg/kg b.w./day, respectively, and the mean U&lt;sub&gt;F/Cr&lt;/sub&gt; was 1.21 (SD 0.61) mg/g. Significant (&lt;i&gt;p&lt;/i&gt; &lt; 0.001) positive linear correlations were found between TDFI and DUFE, DUFE and U&lt;sub&gt;F/Cr&lt;/sub&gt;, and TDFI and U&lt;sub&gt;F/Cr&lt;/sub&gt;. The estimated upper reference value for U&lt;sub&gt;F/Cr&lt;/sub&gt; was 1.69 mg/g; this was significantly (&lt;i&gt;p&lt;/i&gt; = 0.019) higher than the U&lt;sub&gt;F/Cr&lt;/sub&gt; (1.29) associated with optimal F exposure (0.05-0.07 mg/kg b.w./day). In conclusion, the strong positive correlation between TDFI and U&lt;sub&gt;F/Cr&lt;/sub&gt; confirms the strong association of these 2 F exposure variables and the value of a spot urine sample for prediction of TDFI (i.e., the most important risk factor in determining fluorosis occurrence and severity) in young children. Establishing an estimation of an upper reference value of 1.69 mg/g for U&lt;sub&gt;F/Cr&lt;/sub&gt; in spot urine samples could simplify and facilitate their use as a valuable tool in large epidemiological studies.</jats:p

Convening the Counter-Conversation: Critical Participatory Action Research Against Real-Time Repression

This dissertation presents the anti-fascist Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR) process of three doctoral student participants/co-researchers, all practicing educators, with varied experiences in public and private education at the middle school, high school, and collegiate level. This research examines the convergence of the participants/co-researchers in response to their shared concerns about ascendent authoritarianism and rising repression and the subsequent formation of this study’s in-process CPAR research collective organized to critically counter, rather than reiterate, this repression. Enacting the theoretical/methodological frameworks of Critical Theory and Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action, the participants/co-researchers dialogically determined contemporary fascism to be the focus of this study and elected to conduct CPAR as a means to further investigate fascism within the collective local context of St. Louis schools. Seeking to put theory into practice, the research collective engaged the emergent, people-powered, possibilities of CPAR as a counter to fascism. The research collective recorded and transcribed their CPAR meeting conversations as the primary source of evidence analyzed for this study. Implementing a collaborative-polyvocal-autoethnographic approach, thematic analysis reveals a Freirean-Fromm counter-frame of death or life—Fascist Necrophily problem—Anti-Fascist Biophily counter. Honoring the anti-oppressive aims of CPAR, implications for further anti-fascist actions are considered