The longitudinal relationship between self-compassion and cancer patients' unmet supportive care needs.

OBJECTIVES: Unmet supportive care needs are associated with psychological symptoms such as depression and anxiety. However, so far, few studies have explored the protective psychological factors of unmet needs. Therefore, this study intends to explore the protective effect of self-compassion on unmet needs of Chinese cancer patients and to examine the predictive role of self-compassion on these needs during treatment. METHODS: A longitudinal study was performed at Shaanxi Provincial Cancer Hospital in Xi'an, China. A total of 153 heterogeneous cancer patients were assessed after the first diagnosis (T1), at the beginning (T2) and end (T3) of medical treatment. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were used to examine the research questions. RESULTS: Cross-sectional regression analyses showed that self-compassion at T1 was significantly related to psychological needs at T1. Negative self-compassion at T1 was significantly related to total unmet needs, psychological needs, health system, and information and sexual needs. Longitudinal regression analyses showed that self-compassion at T1 significantly predicted total unmet needs; health system and information (HSI) needs at T2, psychological needs at T3, and negative self-compassion at T1 significantly predicted total unmet needs, HSI needs, physical needs, and patient care needs at T2 when controlling for unmet needs at T1. Positive self-compassion was not a predictor of unmet needs. CONCLUSIONS: Self-compassion can be a protective factor of unmet needs in cancer patients. Future intervention studies should focus on improving the overall level of self-compassion and reducing the level of negative self-compassion in cancer patients to reduce patients' unmet needs.

Surface-mediated periodate activation by nano zero-valent iron for the enhanced abatement of organic contaminants.

Periodate (PI)-based advanced oxidation processes have recently received increasing attentions. Herein, PI was readily activated by nano zero-valent iron (nZVI) and subsequently led to the enhanced oxidation of organic contaminants, with the removal performance of sulfadiazine (SDZ) in the nZVI/PI process even higher than that in the nZVI/peroxydisulfate process under identical conditions. Kinetic experiments indicated that the decay of SDZ was susceptible to the dosage of nZVI and PI, but was barely affected by pH values (4.0-7.0) under buffered conditions, suggesting the promising performance of the nZVI/PI process in a relatively wide pH range. Selective degradation of contaminants and 18O-isotope labeling assays collectively demonstrated that iodate radical (•IO3), high-valent iron-oxo species (Fe(IV)) and hydroxyl radical (•OH) were responsible for the abatement of organic contaminants. More importantly, due to the relatively weak steric hindrance effect of PI, PI easily adsorbed on the surface of nZVI and no iron leaching was detected throughout the reaction, implying that PI activation induced by nZVI was a surface-mediated process. Besides, PI was not transformed into harmful reactive iodine species. This study proposed an environmental-friendly approach for PI activation and shed new lights on the PI-based processes.

Highly selective oxidation of organic contaminants in the RuIII-activated peroxymonosulfate process: The dominance of RuVO species.

Ruthenium (RuIII)-activated peroxymonosulfate (the RuIII/PMS process) is one of the most efficient PMS-based advanced oxidation processes for the abatement of organic contaminants. Here we interestingly found that phenyl methyl sulfoxide (PMSO) was significantly oxidized to phenyl methyl sulfone (PMSO2) in the RuIII/PMS process at the pH range of 3.0-6.0, with the conversion ratio of ΔPMSO to ΔPMSO2 was close to 100%, which favored the dominance of high-valent ruthenium-oxo species (RuVO) instead of the widely-recognized radicals (i.e, hydroxyl radical and sulfate radical). Scavenging experiments further indicated that RuVO was unreactive to tert-butyl alcohol, but could be scavenged by methanol and dimethyl sulfoxide. Besides, sulfamethoxazole, acetaminophen, carbamazepine, diclofenac, 2,4,6-trichlorophenol were readily degraded in the RuIII/PMS process, but atrazine, ibuprofen, benzoic acid and 4-nitrobenzoic acid were barely removed, suggesting the high selectivity of RuVO species. This study enriched the understandings on the mechanism of RuIII-mediated PMS activation and the nature of RuVO species.

Enhanced Oxidation of Organic Contaminants by Iron(II)-Activated Periodate: The Significance of High-Valent Iron-Oxo Species.

Potassium periodate (PI, KIO4) was readily activated by Fe(II) under acidic conditions, resulting in the enhanced abatement of organic contaminants in 2 min, with the decay ratios of the selected pollutants even outnumbered those in the Fe(II)/peroxymonosulfate and Fe(II)/peroxydisulfate processes under identical conditions. Both 18O isotope labeling techniques using methyl phenyl sulfoxide (PMSO) as the substrate and X-ray absorption near-edge structure spectroscopy provided conclusive evidences for the generation of high-valent iron-oxo species (Fe(IV)) in the Fe(II)/PI process. Density functional theory calculations determined that the reaction of Fe(II) with PI followed the formation of a hydrogen bonding complex between Fe(H2O)62+ and IO4(H2O)-, ligand exchange, and oxygen atom transfer, consequently generating Fe(IV) species. More interestingly, the unexpected detection of 18O-labeled hydroxylated PMSO not only favored the simultaneous generation of ·OH but also demonstrated that ·OH was indirectly produced through the self-decay of Fe(IV) to form H2O2 and the subsequent Fenton reaction. In addition, IO4- was not transformed into the undesired iodine species (i.e., HOI, I2, and I3-) but was converted to nontoxic iodate (IO3-). This study proposed an efficient and environmental friendly process for the rapid removal of emerging contaminants and enriched the understandings on the evolution mechanism of ·OH in Fe(IV)-mediated processes.