Effect of social support on illness perception in patients with atrial fibrillation during "Blanking Period": Mediating role of sense of mastery.

AIM: To explore whether sense of mastery can mediate the relationship between social support and illness perception in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) who were at the "Blanking Period." DESIGN: A cross-sectional design. METHODS: 405 patients with AF who were at the "Blanking Period" in the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University were recruited; they completed a set of questionnaires, including the Perceived Social Support Scale, the Personal Mastery Scale and the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire. RESULTS: Social support and sense of mastery were both adversely connected to illness perception. The indirect effect of social support on illness perception through sense of mastery was negative, accounting for 86.04% of the total effect. CONCLUSION: During the "Blanking Period," better social support and sense of mastery contribute to a positive illness perception of AF patients. Social support also can influence patients' illness perception indirectly via the mediator of sense of mastery.

Enhanced photoreduction degradation of polybromodiphenyl ethers with Fe3O4-g-C3N4 under visible light irradiation.

As typical persistent organic pollutants, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) have aroused high environmental concern due to their toxicity and recalcitrant degradation. Herein, we report the enhanced photoreduction degradation of polybromodiphenyl ethers with Fe3O4-g-C3N4 under visible light irradiation (>420 nm). A series of high activity photocatalysts Fe3O4-g-C3N4 (named FeOCN-x) have been synthesized by an in situ growth method. The characterization of the prepared FeOCN-x nanocomposites has been examined by SEM, TEM, ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, a vibrating sample magnetometer, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Brunauer-Emmer-Teller surface area analysis. FeOCN-x hybrids all exhibit good magnetic separation properties with the saturation magnetization at 300 K varying from 0.4 to 6.3 emu g-1. Under visible light irradiation, FeOCN-x hybrids show enhanced photocatalytic activity for the debromination of PBDEs compared with g-C3N4. Among all the hybrids, FeOCN-4 with a 4 wt% Fe3O4 content gives the highest reaction rate, which is 6.7 times as high as that in pure g-C3N4. The FeOCN-x nanocomposites not only exhibit good photostability, but could also be easily recovered by magnetism. The results of the kinetic isotope effects (KIE) and the trapping agent experiments show that the rate determining step in the degradation reaction of PBDEs with FeOCN-x is the rate of electron accumulation in the conductive band. A possible photoreductive mechanism has been proposed. This study shows that the easily magnetically separable recycled photocatalyst FeOCN-x, with high visible light activity, could be an excellent candidate for dealing with halogen pollutants.