Oral health is an essential component of an individual’s general health and overall well-being. Although past studies have evaluated oral health knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP), little is known about the level of KAP between students and staff of higher education institutions. This study aimed to evaluate oral health knowledge, attitudes, and practices among undergraduate students and staff at a selected University of Technology in Nigeria. A multicentre cross-sectional survey was conducted between May – June 2021 with a sample of 747 consisting of 378 students and 369 staff, recruited from 8 faculties across the University. One-way ANOVA test was applied for the statistical evaluation of numerical measures. The association between knowledge, attitudes and practice scores were assessed using Pearson correlation analyses (α=.0.05).  No significant differences were found in the oral health knowledge, attitude, and practices between the students and staff (P>0.05). Overall, the finding suggests that 84.3% of the respondents had a positive attitude toward oral health, 92.5% had high knowledge and 87.4% practised oral health was adequate. The respondents KAP differed by socio-demographic characteristics. The relationship between knowledge and practice was fair (r = 0.358, p < 0.01) while positive weak correlations were observed between attitude and practice (r = 0.198, p < 0.01), and between knowledge and attitude (r = 0.173, p < 0.01). The salient feature of this study suggests that while there was a high level of knowledge among the respondents, the attitude and actual practice of oral healthcare does not commensurate with the level of knowledge. Nonetheless, it was found that knowledge had positive associations with the practice of oral health care. The findings suggest there is a need to improve the knowledge about oral health practice among both staff and students through a tailored design of community based awareness to increase oral health practice.

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This study presents an optimized method that is applicable in monitoring the occurrence of pharmaceuticals in a wide range of aquatic environments. The optimised Solid Phase Extraction method is based on Bond Elut Plexa cartridges for the identification and quantification of three non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, three antiretroviral drugs and a lipid regulator in the coastal area of Durban city, South Africa covering four seasons. The extracted compounds are qualitatively and quantitatively detected by a high-performance liquid phase chromatographic instrument coupled to a photodiode array detector. The recoveries range from 62 to 110% with a Relative Standard Deviation of 0.56−4.68%, respectively, for the determination of emtricitabine, tenofovir, naproxen, diclofenac, ibuprofen, efavirenz, and gemfibrozil. The analytical method is validated by spiking estuarine water samples with 5 µg L− 1 of a mixture containing the target pharmaceuticals and the matrix detection limit is established to be 0.62–1.78 µg L− 1 for the target compounds. The optimized method is applied to seasonal monitoring of pharmaceuticals at chosen study sites from winter and spring of 2019 and summer and autumn of 2020. The results indicate the concentration of the pharmaceuticals studied varies with the type of aquatic environment and season.

The global distribution of oral diseases caused by bacterial and the severity of their consequences constitute a pandemic condition.The present paper reports on the antibacterial properties of a modified eggshell and titanium dioxide using the mechanochemical method. EB@TiO2 was modified and characterized using X-raydiffraction (XRD) while the degradation condition was studied using Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).The inhibitory properties of EB@TiO2at differentconcentrations (2:1; 3:1 and 4: 1) against both Grampositive (E. coli) and negative bacterial (B. Cereus)strain were studied the using disk diffusion method.The XRD result confirmed the presence of a thermodynamically stable calcite structure, which is indicative of calcium carbonate. The diffraction peak of the XRD at 2θ = 29.5o suggests the deposition of TiO2 on the surface of CaCo3. TGA curves shows the decomposition of anatase form of titanium dioxide and calcium carbonate. The study evidently shows the antibacterial activities of EB@TiO2 against Escherichia coli and B. Cereus. The salient feature of the study finding is that modifying eggshells with titanium dioxide improves the antibacterial properties, and thus offers a promising role for the development of potent d

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