The effect of mindfulness and psychological capital on mental health of breast cancer patients: Based on polynomial regression and response surface analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the combined effects of mindfulness and psychological capital on mental health of breast cancer patients and to examine the mediating effect of positive emotions in their relationship. METHODS: A convenient sampling method was used in this study, and 522 breast cancer patients aged 18 to 59 who received chemotherapy in a tertiary cancer hospital were enrolled. Polynomial regression with response surface analysis was mainly employed to explore the relationship between mindfulness, psychological capital, and mental health. A block-variable approach was used to verify the mediating effect of positive emotions. RESULTS: In cases of congruence, mental health was better when mindfulness and psychological capital were both high instead of being both low (the slope of the congruence was 0.540, p < 0.001); In cases of incongruence, poorer mental health was found in breast cancer patients with low psychological capital and high mindfulness compared with those who had high psychological capital and low mindfulness (the slope of the incongruence was -0.338, p < 0.001), and the combined effects were a positive curve (positive U-shaped) related to mental health (ß = 0.102, p = 0.040). In addition, positive emotions played a mediating role in the relationship between the block variable (mindfulness and psychological capital) and mental health, and the indirect effect was 0.131. CONCLUSIONS: This study expanded the research on the effects of mindfulness and psychological capital in improving mental health as well as the conflict between the two variables related to mental health by employing a new analytical technique among breast cancer patients.

Amphiphilic tocopheryl polyethylene glycol succinate as gas chromatographic stationary phase for high-resolution separations of challenging isomers and analysis of lavender essential oil.

This work presents the investigation of using tocopheryl polyethylene glycol succinate as the stationary phase for gas chromatography separations of isomers with different varieties and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of a wide range of components in lavender essential oil. Its capillary column exhibited moderate polarity and column efficiency of 4000 plates/m determined by n-dodecane at 120°C. As demonstrated, it showed outstanding separation performance toward challenging isomers such as xylenes, alkanes, phenols, and anilines and a wide range of components in essential oils with distinct advantages over the commercial polyethylene glycol and polysiloxane columns. Moreover, its capillary columns displayed excellent repeatability and reproducibility with the RSD values of the retention times in the range of 0.02-0.07% for run-to-run, 0.14-0.22% for day-to-day, and 2.5-4.3% for column-to-column. Its application to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of the lavender essential oil proved its good potential for practical gas chromatography analyses. To our knowledge, this work presents the first example of employing tocopheryl polyethylene glycol succinate for chromatographic analyses and demonstrates its promising future in this field.

Separation performance of the copolymer and homopolymer of aliphatic polycarbonate diols as the stationary phases for capillary gas chromatography.

This work presents the investigation of two aliphatic polycarbonate diols (CAPC and HAPC) as the stationary phases for capillary gas chromatography (GC). The CAPC and HAPC capillary columns showed moderate polarity and high column efficiency of 3704 - 4545 plates/m measured by n-octanol and naphthalene at 120 °C. It was found that despite their similar chemical compositions, CAPC and HAPC differ largely in their selectivity towards the isomers of alkanes, methylpyridines and xylenes. As demonstrated, the CAPC column exhibits advantageous comprehensive performance over the HAPC column and the commercial PEG column. Particularly, the CAPC column exhibits higher resolving performance towards the isomers indicated above and the Grob mixture than the HAPC column. Also, it shows distinct advantages over the PEG column in separating the Grob mixture, the isomers of diethylbenzenes and cymenes, and practical analysis of chemical products and the essential oil from the leaves of Rhododendron dauricum L. Additionally, the CAPC column has excellent repeatability and reproducibility on analyte retention times with the relative standard deviation (RSD) values in the range of 0.05% - 0.08% for run-to-run, 0.12% - 0.19% for day-to-day and 2.6% - 4.9% for column-to-column, respectively. Its applications to purity test of chemical products and GC-MS analysis of the essential oil demonstrate its promising future for practical GC analyses.

Feasibility of a Tai Chi with Thera-Band Training Program: A Pilot Study.

Tai Chi, combined with Thera-band (TCTB) exercise may be associated with an improvement in health where it increases physical fitness, improves psychological well-being, and decreases pain. This paper aimed to determine the feasibility of TCTB exercise in older sedentary office workers. Forty office workers aged over 55 years participated in a pilot randomized controlled trial (i.e., 12-week TCTB exercise or Tai Chi exercise only). Feasibility of the TCTB exercise approach was ascertained through the recruitment and enrolment rate, acceptability of the study intervention by participants including retention and adherence rates, participants' learning process, the appropriateness of data collection as well as the participants' evaluation of the intervention. Recruitment took longer than planned, with a low recruitment rate of 2.0% (42/2020), but a high enrolment rate of 95.2% (40/42). Thirty-one participants (i.e., 77.5%) completed the intervention. Of those who completed the trial, the overall average attendance was reported as 85.2%; 84.7% in the TCTB group and 85.7% in the Tai Chi only group. A total of 58.3% of participants (n = 21) could independently practice the TCTB or Tai Chi exercise motions at the end of the learning stage. There were no missing data except for the nine participants who withdrew during the intervention. No adverse events or effects were reported, and all participants were satisfied with the 12-week exercise intervention. Results support the feasibility of a large-scale randomized controlled trial to explore the efficacy of a TCTB program for improving health in older sedentary office workers.

Tai Chi Combined With Resistance Training for Adults Aged 50 Years and Older: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Despite Tai Chi and resistance training being recommended as suitable exercise for older adults, there are no systematic reviews synthesizing the effectiveness of a combination of Tai Chi and resistance training on health promotion of older adults. This study aimed to review the existing literature regarding the effect of Tai Chi and resistance training on physical health, mental health, pain, health-related quality of life, and age-related impairment in adults aged 50 years and older. METHODS: A systematic review was conducted to report the health outcomes of Tai Chi combined with resistance training research in adults aged 50 years and older. Articles were identified by searching PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, MEDLINE, Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro), and the Cochrane library using search terms representing "Tai Chi" and "resistance" and "older adults." Quantitative experimental studies with participants aged 50 years and older, where one of the interventions was Tai Chi and resistance training, were included. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The literature search yielded 648 articles from which 7 met the inclusion criteria. Collectively, the studies involved 703 participants aged 50 years and older, including healthy older adults, older adults with history of falls, postmenopausal women, and people diagnosed with end-stage hip osteoarthritis. Studies included different Tai Chi forms in combination with various types of resistance training. Training sessions were 2 to 7.5 h/wk and lasted between 12 weeks and 12 months. After long-term Tai Chi and resistance training, the participants showed significant improvement in upper and lower extremity muscle strength, aerobic endurance, balance, and mobility. However, 1 study failed to show improvement in Functional Movement Screening compared with traditional Tai Chi and nonexercise groups. No study examined the effects of Tai Chi and resistance training on health-related quality of life, fear of falling, or mental health in adults aged 50 years and older. CONCLUSIONS: The review supports that Tai Chi in combination with resistance training improves physical function and muscle strength in adults aged 50 years and older.

Dicationic ionic liquid stationary phase for GC-MS analysis of volatile compounds in herbal plants.

The seeming "dual nature" of ionic liquids (ILs) for separating both apolar and polar compounds suggests that ILs may have a great potential for complex samples like essential oils from herbal plants that contain a great variety of compounds. In the present work, a geminal dicationic IL, 1,9-di(3-vinylimidazolium)nonane bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl]imidate, was investigated for this purpose. To find the best way to achieve satisfactory separations simultaneously for the compounds in essential oils, the dicationic IL was used as the stationary phase for capillary gas chromatography (GC) in two ways, either in its pure state or as a mixed stationary phase with monocationic ILs and a polysiloxane diluent. Interestingly, it was found that the mixed stationary phase exhibited a much better selectivity for polar and nonpolar compounds than either the dicationic IL or the polysiloxane, suggesting that a kind of synergistic effect occurred when these stationary phases were combined in the way described. A comparison with two commercial stationary phases (polar and nonpolar) indicated that this novel mixed stationary phase behaved in a way closer to a polar stationary phase in terms of selectivity and elution order. The present work demonstrates that the mixed stationary phase is efficient and selective and can be an alternative choice for the GC analysis of samples of complex composition.

Analysis of the volatile compounds in Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort. using HS-SPME-GC-MS.

A headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) method followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is described for the analysis of volatile compounds in the dry rhizome of Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort. Three types of SPME fibers including PDMS, PDMS-DVB and DVB-CAR-PDMS were investigated and the best extraction was achieved with the mixed fiber DVB-CAR-PDMS. Parameters for HS-SPME in terms of temperature and time, sample amount and particle size, and desorption time were also investigated. A polar capillary column was used for the chromatographic separation. As a result, 73 compounds were determined and identified by the HS-SPME-GC-MS method with at least 20 more compounds than those in the methods available. Comparison was made between HS-SPME-GC-MS and steam distillation (SD)-GC-MS methods. Using much less sample amount, shorter extraction time and simpler procedure, HS-SPME method can achieve similar results with those by SD. In conclusion, the present method is simple, rapid and effective and can be used for the analysis of volatile compounds in medicinal plants.

Solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric analysis of volatile compounds from Curcuma wenyujin Y.H. Chen et C. Ling.

A solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS) for analysis of the volatile compounds from Curcuma wenyujin Y.H. Chen et C. Ling is described. SPME parameters (fiber type, extraction temperature and time, headspace volume and desorption time) and GC conditions were tested. The powdered sample of C. wenyujin Y.H. Chen et C. Ling was directly analyzed by SPME-GC-MS and 72 compounds were identified. The results from SPME-GC-MS were compared with those obtained from steam distillation gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SD-GC-MS) with a good agreement. The results show that SPME-GC-MS method is a fast, simple and efficient way for the analysis of volatile components from traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs).

High-performance liquid chromatographic method for the bioequivalence evaluation of desloratadine fumarate tablets in dogs.

A simple HPLC method was developed for the determination of desloratadine in dog plasma and was used for evaluating the bioequivalence of desloratadine fumarate tablets and desloratadine tablets in dogs. Chromatographic separation was performed on a Hypersil CN column (150 mm x 5.0 mm, 5 microm) using a mixture of methanol, acetonitrile and phosphate buffer (pH 5.5; 0.01 mol/l) (35:35:30, v/v/v) as mobile phase delivered at a flow rate of 0.8 ml/min. The detection was set at 241 nm. The limit of quantitation was 5.0 ng/ml. The calibration range was from 5.0 to 800.0 ng/ml. Inter- and intra-day precision ranged from 1.8 to 3.8% and from 2.2 to 9.0%, respectively. The recovery of desloratadine from dog plasma ranged from 78.8 to 82.0%. The developed method was applied to the bioequivalence studies of desloratadine fumarate tablets (test preparation) and desloratadine tablets (reference preparation) in five dogs. Pharmacokinetic parameters t(max), C(max), AUC(0-t), AUC(0- infinity ), t(1/2) were determined from plasma concentration-time profiles of both preparations. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) did not show any significant difference between the two preparations and 90% confidence intervals fell within the acceptable range for bioequivalence. Based on these statistical inferences it was concluded that the two preparations exhibited comparable pharmacokinetic profiles and that desloratadine fumarate tablets was bioequivalent to desloratadine tablets.