Search

The current cross-sectional study aimed to investigate eHealth literacy among adult workers in China and explore the relationship between eHealth literacy and mental health in this population. Convenience sampling was used to conduct a survey among adult workers aged 18 to 60 years. Potential participants were chosen from those who completed physical examinations at the Health Management Center of one hospital in China. Participants' eHealth literacy and mental health were assessed using the eHealth Literacy Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire, Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale, and Perceived Stress Scale. Mean scores for eHealth literacy and perceived stress were 28.39 ( SD = 5.78) and 5.49 ( SD = 2.61), respectively. Depression and anxiety were found in 8.2% and 10.1% of participants, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that a 1-point increase in eHealth literacy score was associated with a 7% decrease in depressive symptoms (odds ratio [OR] = 0.93, 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.88, 0.99]) and a 6% decrease in anxiety symptoms (OR = 0.94, 95% CI [0.89, 0.99]). Furthermore, multiple linear regression analysis showed that perceived stress decreased 0.08 points ( B = −0.08, 95% CI [–0.13, −0.04]) with every 1-point increase in eHealth literacy score. Thus, eHealth literacy has the potential to reduce risk of depression, anxiety, and perceived stress, and to promote the mental health of adult workers. [ Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, xx (xx), xx–xx.]

This work reports a new π-conjugated copolymer with D–A structure (PBDB-T) as the stationary phase for gas chromatography (GC) with high resolving performance towards aromatic isomers of high similarity in structure and properties.

This study performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the health effects of Baduanjin exercise on adults aged 65 years and older. Chinese and English databases were electronically searched using search terms related to the PICO model from inception through June 2021. The study quality assessment and meta-analysis were conducted using the PEDro scale and RevMan 5.4 software. Eleven included Chinese studies, published between 2015 and 2021, recruited participants from the mainland of China. The aggregated results showed significant benefits of Baduanjin on physical function, walking ability, balance, and anxiety. A long-term Baduanjin intervention could also improve quality of life and reduce falls and pain. Baduanjin appears to have the potential to improve the health of older adults, but conclusions are limited due to the lack of rigorous and robust studies within and outside of mainland China. Larger, well-designed RCTs are needed to confirm these findings.

This work presents a novel strategy for engineering a GC stationary phase with high selectivity, inertness and thermal stability by introducing the 3D π-rich TP moieties to the terminals of a polar chain polymer. Herein, we provide the first example, i.e., a new TP-terminated polycaprolactone polymer (TPP) as the stationary phase for GC analyses. As demonstrated, the TPP column achieved distinctly improved inertness to fatty acids and aldehydes, and dramatically enhanced thermal stability (about 100 °C higher) over the PCL column. Also, the TPP column exhibited high resolving capability towards the positional isomers of phenols, anilines and alkylated/halobenzenes and showed good potential in detecting minor impurities in chemical products. Importantly, the proposed strategy is facile, feasible and generally applicable to analogous polymers.

Two-dimensional conductive metal-organic frameworks (2D

Backgroud: Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is used to monitor the process of repairing articular cartilage defect by transplanting the bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell marked by Ultrafine Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide (USPIO) in the rabbit. Methods The Bone Marrow Stromal Cells (BMSCs) cells are isolated from rabbits injected with USPIO (20 mg/kg). Staining and cck-8 are used to detect the ability to form bone, fat cartilage. In the 4 rabbit groups of the double knee joint cartilage defect, the 3 groups are respectively injected the BMSCs-sodium alginate gel compound marked USPIO, BMSCs-sodium alginate gel compound, pure sodium alginate gel, while the blank group doesn't do anything. The rabbits are assessed by MRI and histological studying. Results Compared with the control group, the BMSCs marked by USPIO are the same in cell morphology. The proliferative and differentiation ability of BMSCs in rabbits is not affected by USPIO with a concentration of 20mg/kg. We find that the cartilage defects are gradually repaired in the two cell transplantation groups, and it is slowly repaired by BMSCs transplanting for the treatment of rabbit knee cartilage defects in the other groups. The labeled BMSCs could be used to treat the rabbit knee cartilage defect but could be indicated by MRI. Conclusion The experimental results show that the BMSCs marked by USPIO are the same in cell morphology compared with the control group.

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.

This work presents a novel strategy for the construction of a capillary column with high resolving performance and inertness for gas chromatographic (GC) analysis by combining the proposed surface modification with a selective stationary phase. Through the modified biphasic sol–gel reaction inside a capillary GC column, porous modification was made on the capillary surface (PM capillary) prior to coating with a stationary phase. Herein, we designed and synthesized a new triptycene-based stationary phase (TPPG) for the study. Using the proposed strategy, the PM-TPPG column was fabricated with a column efficiency of 4950 plates per m determined by n-dodecane at 120 °C and then investigated for its separation performance, inertness, repeatability, loadability and thermal stability. As demonstrated, the PM-TPPG column showed distinct advantages in these aspects over two reference columns (TPPG column and commercial PEG column). Particularly, the PM-TPPG column well resolved all the components in the Grob mixture and exhibited distinctly improved peak shapes for carboxylic acids and heterocyclic bases. Moreover, it exhibited excellent repeatability and reproducibility and higher column loadability than the two reference columns. Its applications to purity monitoring of chemical products demonstrate its good potential for practical GC analysis.

To explore the network structure underlying the symptoms of menopausal syndrome and to identify the central and bridge symptoms of menopause among middle-aged women.This is a cross-sectional survey study conducted in the Chinese community with a total of 1829 women aged 40-65 years. The Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) was used to assess the menopausal syndrome, including somato-vegetative, psychological, and urogenital subdomains. The network analysis was performed to determine the central and bridge symptoms of menopause.In the network of menopausal symptoms, anxiety, vaginal dryness, depressive mood, and irritability were the most central symptoms. Depressive mood, anxiety, and vaginal dryness were also detected as the bridge symptoms. The estimated network between the symptoms had good stability (CS-strength = 0.75 and CS-edge = 0.75).The present network analysis provided unique insights into the inner structure of menopausal symptoms. Psychological symptoms should be considered as the core symptoms in developing relevant interventions to improve the health and well-being of middle-aged women.

Here we report a novel hexaphenylbenzene (HPB)-based material functionalized with six tetraphenylethylene units (BPT) with unique conformation-driven selectivity for gas chromatographic (GC) separations. It is composed of a neat aromatic hydrocarbon with a rigid propeller-like conformation. As a result, the BPT capillary column exhibited high column efficiency of 5340 plates per m and high-resolution capability for aromatic to aliphatic isomers with excellent intra-day and inter-day repeatability and between-column reproducibility. The results demonstrate the unique conformation-driven selectivity of the HPB-based stationary phase, which is rarely reported for chromatography. Moreover, its application in the determination of isomer impurities in commercial products proved its good potential for practical GC analysis. This work presents a new perspective for developing selective stationary phases by engineering their structures.

This work presents a novel column fabrication approach for capillary gas chromatography (CGC) through the condensation reaction of a hydroxyl-terminated polymer with a cross-linker inside a capillary column. In this work, polypropylene glycol (PPG 4000) and tris[3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl]isocyanurate (ICS) were employed to fabricate the PPG-gel capillary column for GC analyses. Inside the column, a 3D cross-linked organogel network forms on the capillary inner surface by condensation of PPG 4000 with ICS under the given mild conditions. As a result, the PPG-gel column exhibited moderate polarity and showed distinctly advantageous resolving performance and inertness for carboxylic acids over the PPG column by the conventional static coating method. Also, it achieved high-resolution separations of the isomer mixtures of alkanes, alkylbenzenes and halobenzenes. Moreover, the PPG-gel column exhibited dramatically improved solvent stability because of its cross-linked organogel network. The organogel column displayed excellent column repeatability and reproducibility with the RSD% values in the range of 0.01–0.04% for run-to-run, 0.71–0.84% for day-to-day and 2.4–3.1% for column-to-column. The proposed organogel approach is facile and applicable to other analogous materials and has a promising future for wide applications.

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.

Insufficient physical activity is widespread amongst older office workers and has adverse effects on their physical fitness and psychological wellbeing, as well as being a cause of pain and of pain intolerance. Health challenges in older office workers may have an impact on their work productivity, quality of life, and involvement in the workplace. Differing exercise interventions have been employed to improve older workers’ health conditions, with Tai Chi being reported to be a suitable physical activity intervention for this purpose. Tai Chi appears to improve older adults’ physical function and psychological wellbeing, and to reduce pain in older adults. Additionally, many studies have found the benefits of resistance training in the workplace for older adults, especially for work-related pain issues. However, a systematic review found that few studies have examined the use of combined Tai Chi and resistance training to improve the physical function of older adults, and there is a lack of studies regarding the effects of this combined programme on psychological wellbeing and pain. Further to this, no study has examined the use of Tai Chi combined with resistance training in older office workers. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a 12-week Tai Chi combined with resistance training programme in improving physical fitness and psychological wellbeing, and in reducing pain in older office workers. This programme was compared to a Tai Chi exercise only programme in a group of 40 older office workers (i.e., ≥ 55 years) who engaged in less than 60 minutes of accumulated moderate intensity physical activity per week and were employed by a university in Australia. A pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT) design was applied in this study. The first 10 movements of the 24-step simplified Tai Chi was chosen for use in this study, combined with Thera-band training using the hands. Prior to the pilot RCT study, an online survey was conducted to investigate the physical activity involvement, psychological wellbeing, and pain of older office workers aged 55 years and older, which could provide an insight into the physical activity intervention and workplace health promotion. The online survey reported that 27.3% of the older office workers had low levels of physical activity. Also, depression and anxiety were identified as two common major health issues in older office workers. In the pilot RCT study, 40 office workers aged 55 years and older, who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria, as well as provided signed consent forms, were randomly allocated into either the Tai Chi combined with Thera-band training (intervention) group or the Tai Chi exercise only (control) group. Outcome assessments were conducted at baseline, week 6, and week 12, using the 30-Second Chair Stand Test for lower limb strength, Grip Strength Test for upper limb strength, Function Reach Test for balance, 2-Minute Walk Test for walking endurance, Perceived Stress Scale for stress, Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for depression, Geriatric Anxiety Inventory for anxiety, and Visual Analogue Scale for pain. The majority of the participants were female (77.5%), had achieved a higher education qualification (55%), worked full-time (77.5%), were married (62.5%), and recorded as being right-handed (92.5%). A significant difference in pain at baseline was found among participants in the control and intervention groups (p < 0.05). Nine out of the 40 participants withdrew their participation during the study. An overall average attendance rate of 66.7% was recorded across the 40 participants, with 64.3% in the intervention group and 69.1% in the control group. After adjusting for the baseline pain scores and the attendance rate, analysis of data found that there was a statistically significant interaction between intervention type and time with anxiety scores (p = 0.04) and pain scores (p = 0.02). In addition, there were significant differences between groups in the improvement of lower limb strength (p = 0.01) and right upper limb strength (p = 0.04). No significant differences were found in other outcomes; however, the odds ratio estimation indicated that a higher percentage of participants in the intervention group had improvement in balance and walking endurance, and reduction in stress and depression compared with the control group. This study is the first known trial to test the effectiveness of Tai Chi combined with Thera-band training for health promotion in older sedentary office workers when compared to Tai Chi exercise only, with regard to physical fitness, psychological wellbeing, and pain. This study suggested that Tai Chi combined with Thera-band training has the potential to improve lower limb strength and upper limb strength compared to Tai Chi exercise only in older sedentary office workers. Limitations and recommendations from this study may be helpful in designing a large-scale RCT study regarding the effects of the Tai Chi combined with Thera-band training programme on health promotion in older office workers.

This work presents the investigation of two triptycene-based materials (TP-3OB and TP-3Im) as the stationary phases for gas chromatographic (GC) separations. The TP-3OB and TP-3Im capillary columns fabricated by static coating exhibited column efficiency of 3000–3500 plates/m for n-dodecane at 120 °C. Also, their McReynolds constants and Abraham system constants were determined to characterize their polarity and molecular interactions with analytes. On the basis of the unique 3D TP architecture, the TP-3OB and TP-3Im stationary phases exhibited complementary high-resolution performance for analytes of a wide ranging polarity, including alkylbenzenes, alkylnaphthalenes, halobenzenes, phenols and anilines, respectively. Moreover, the TP-based columns exhibited good repeatability and reproducibility on the retention times of analytes with the relative standard deviation (RSD) values in the range of 0.01–0.14% for run-to-run, 0.11–0.47% for day-to-day and 0.68–4.7% for column-to-column, respectively. Additionally, their applications for the determination of isomer impurities in the commercial reagents of o-dichlorobenzene, p-/m-diethylbenzene, o-toluidine and 2,3-/3,5-xylidine proved their good potential for practical analysis. This work demonstrates the promising future of the triptycene-based stationary phases for chromatographic separations.

Favorable physicochemical properties and unique molecular recognition capability endow triptycene-based materials with good potential as stationary phases for gas chromatography (GC). This work reports a new type of triptycene-based materials functionalized by three benzimidazolium cations with different peripheral alkyl lengths (denoted as TP-3Bim-5C and TP-3Bim-12C) and their GC separation performance. As a result, they shared high resolving performance for the naphthalene isomers but differed for the benzene derivatives with varying polarity. Moreover, their capillary columns exhibited good repeatability and thermal stability. This work presents a facile strategy for tailoring the selectivity of the TP-based stationary phases and demonstrates their promising future for chromatographic analysis.

Background: The wellbeing of college students is an important concern for public health, and may have associations with insufficient physical activity and psychological distress. This study aimed to identify the latent classes of wellbeing based on the PERMA (i.e., positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishments) wellbeing framework, and to explore their associations with levels of physical activity and psychological distress. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted. A latent profile analysis was performed to characterize the different classes of wellbeing of nursing college students. Results: A group of 1741 nursing college students in China completed the study. Three wellbeing classes were identified in the final model (i.e., low-level wellbeing, moderate-level wellbeing, and high-level wellbeing). Significant differences were found between the three classes in terms of gender (p = 0.002) and year of study (p = 0.038). Low levels of physical activity participation were significantly associated with lower odds of being in the high-level wellbeing class compared with the moderate-level wellbeing class (OR = 1.398, 95%CI [1.023, 1.910], p = 0.035). Lower levels of psychological distress were also associated with greater wellbeing among the three wellbeing classes (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Effective strategies are needed to increase college students’ physical activity participation and decrease the severity of psychological distress to improve their health and wellbeing in China.

This work presents the investigation of a novel CO

This work presents the investigation of using the amphiphilic triblock copolymer composed of poly(ethylene oxide)(PEO)-poly(propylene oxide) (PPO)-poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) (denoted as EPE) as the stationary phase for gas chromatographic (GC) analyses. The EPE capillary column exhibited moderate polarity and column efficiency of 4348 plates/m determined by naphthalene at 120 °C (k = 11.52). Different from the PEG and polysiloxane homopolymers, it showed high-resolution performance towards a wide range of aliphatic and aromatic isomers in terms of polarity and acid-base properties. Particularly, the EPE column displayed distinct advantages for separating the critical isomers of alkanes, anilines and phenols and the components of the lemon essential oil over the commercial PEG and polysiloxane columns. In addition, the EPE column exhibited excellent separation repeatability and reproducibility with the relative standard deviation (RSD) values in the range of 0.03% – 0.08% for run-to-run, 0.14% – 0.61% for day-to-day and 3.1% – 4.0% for column-to-column, respectively. Moreover, the EPE column was investigated in terms of thermal stability, the minimum allowable operating temperature (MiAOT) and sample loadability. Its application to GC-MS analysis of the essential oil demonstrated its feasibility for practical analyses. This work demonstrates the promising future of triblock copolymers as a new class of selective stationary phases for GC analyses, which is barely reported up to date. The findings of this work is of important value for fundamental researches and practical applications.

Developing selective stationary phases for gas chromatography (GC) is key to achieving high-resolution separation of analytes in various samples for their GC determinations. With the rapid development of materials science, researches on employing diverse types of materials as GC stationary phases have advanced considerably. This review mainly focuses on the investigation of porous materials, graphene and analogs, truxene-based materials, and triptycene-based materials as stationary phases for GC separations over the past five years, and briefly discusses the related problems and prospects.

Self-regulation of exercise has been highly encouraged to stay healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there appears to be a lack of validated health tool to assess adults’ health and wellbeing. This study aimed to use a remote web-based app to explore participants’ daily home-based walking during the COVID-19. A 30-day home-based walking program with three different groups was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., 3kms walking group, 5kms walking group, and 8kms walking group). 140,129 healthy adults were recruited, with 61,077 of them recording their walking, reflecting a participant retention of 43.6%. More than half of participants (54.4%) engaged in walking for 21 days. Significant differences were found in the average self-reported accumulated walking days and participants’ attendance rate of each accumulated walking day between the three groups (p< 0.01). An obvious decrease was recorded in participants’ attendance after the accumulated 21 walking days, with the highest decrease rate of 21.6% in the 3kms walking group. This study suggests that a remoted web-based app combined with incentives might effectively encourage participants to engage in the home-based walking program.

Digital health information technology combines current health information, health management as well as health resource globally. It also provides a new model of health management platform to learn the impact of COVID-19 on health status of adults. The COVID-19 pandemic effectively increases people’s sedentary time, which might negatively influence people’s levels of health-related quality of life (HRQol) and perceived stress. This study aimed to provide information about the levels of and the association of the sedentary time and levels of HRQol and perceived stress of Chinese immigrants in Australia at the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-section online survey was conducted among 60 Chinese immigrants in Australia (57.6% female). There was no significant increase of sedentary time during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic compared with the pre-COVID-19 period, with only a slight increase from an average of 5.5 to 5.65 hours per day. Almost half of the participants (40.0%) reported moderate levels of perceived stress. Participants’ average physical component summary score (PCS) and mental component summary score (MCS) for HRQoL were 82.71 (SD = 15.02) and 75.83 (SD = 17.73) respectively. Significant correlations between levels of perceived stress and HRQoL were observed (p < 0.05). Prolonged sitting time was also found to have a negative effect on HRQoL (p < 0.05). During the early stage of the COVID-19, public health strategies aimed at decreasing sedentary time among the Chinese immigrants in Australia may be necessary to maintain health on a population level.

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&rsquo, learning process, the appropriateness of data collection as well as the participants&rsquo, 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.

Surgical treatment, particularly for gastrointestinal cancer, is a burdensome prospect for many patients. Psychological stress is a common complaint; however, little is known about its patterns in perioperative patients. This study aimed to identify distinct trajectories of perioperative stress and explore antecedent factors and hospitalization outcomes among different trajectories in patients with gastrointestinal cancer.A longitudinal study was conducted on 203 patients with gastrointestinal surgical cancer at a specialized oncology hospital in China. Psychological stress was assessed at five perioperative time points (1-3 days before surgery; 1-3 days, 4-6 days, 7-9 days after surgery, and before discharge). A growth mixture model was used to analyze the potential stress trajectories. Multinomial logistic regression was used to identify the characteristics associated with different trajectories.Three stress trajectories were identified: recovery class (RC, 60.6%), chronic class (CC, 29.5%), and deterioration class (DC, 9.9%). Compared with CC, RC exhibited a shorter length of stay and better recovery quality, and was related to employment, low illness perception, and positive coping; DC reported lower recovery quality from 7 to 9 days after surgery to discharge and was associated with poor education level, history of surgery, stoma, smoking, and preoperative insomnia.Most surgical patients were insulated from stress due to psychosocial resources, and thus displayed good recovery. However, many patients had moderate stress that did not improve or worsen over the perioperative period, which still needs to be screened and provided with early stress management.

This work presents the investigation of two new pentiptycene (PP)-functionalized triblock copolymers (PEPE1, PEPE2) for gas chromatographic (GC) analyses with an aim to address the separation problems toward analytes of high resemblance in properties and a wide variety of components in complex samples. Up to date, these two materials are not reported in any fields. The PEPE1 and PEPE2 columns showed close column efficiency (above 4000 plates/m) but differed in polarity, morphology and separation performance. As testified by the challenging Grob test mixture, the PEPE1 column exhibited comprehensively higher separation capability than the PEPE2 column and the commercial reference columns. Also, the PEPE1 column achieved high-resolution performance for both apolar and polar isomers of high resemblance, such as xylenes, phenols and anilines. Moreover, it displayed high inertness towards carboxylic acids and excellent separation repeatability and reproducibility tested by the aniline isomers with the RSD values in the range of 0.01-0.04% for run-to-run, 0.09-0.13% for day-to-day and 1.2-2.0% for column-to-column, respectively. Its application to GC-MS analysis of the essential oil from tea flowers demonstrated its advantageous separation performance towards a wide range of components and proved its feasibility for practical analyses of complex samples.

This work describes the investigation of utilizing a chain-typed thiophene-based π-conjugated polymer, i.e., poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), as the stationary phase for gas chromatography (GC). The P3HT column was statically prepared and investigated for its column efficiency, polarity, separation performance, repeatability and thermal stability. As a result, it showed moderate polarity and column efficiencies of 3260, 3310 and 3790 plates/m for 1-octanol, naphthalene and n-dodecane, respectively. As evidenced, it exhibited high-resolution performance for aliphatic and aromatic isomers, including those critical pairs such as phenanthrene/anthracene and p-/m-benzenediol isomers. Moreover, it displayed stronger retention for alkanes, alcohols and phenols in comparison to the polysiloxane stationary phase with close polarity. Also, the P3HT column had good repeatability and reproducibility with the RSD values less than 0.05% for run-to-run, 0.17-0.54% for day-to-day and 2.7-5.2% for column-to-column, and good thermal stability up to 260 °C. This work demonstrates the promising future of the thiophene-based polymer and its derivatives in separation science.

Prolonged sitting time has been reported among university workers which can have adverse health effects. The aim of this study was to examine the sitting time, physical activity, and psychological well-being reported by older university office workers. An online self-reported survey was distributed to all office workers 55 years and older at one university in Australia. Sixty-six office workers were recruited. They reported an average sitting time of 7.5 hours per day on weekdays. In all, 72.7% of the sample reported both moderate and high physical activity levels. A high percentage of the office workers reported depression (25.8%) and anxiety (12.1%). Lower education levels were significantly related to higher perceived stress and more depressive symptomatology ( p = .03 and .02, respectively). Significant associations were found between stress, depression, and anxiety ( p < .001) among this group of workers.

Herein we report a propeller-like hexaphenylbenzene-based hydrocarbon material (denoted as BT) as the stationary phase for capillary gas chromatography (GC). The statically-coated BT capillary column showed a high column efficiency of 4340 plates m-1 and weak polarity. Owing to its unique conformation, π-electron toroidal delocalization and intrinsic microporosity, the BT stationary phase exhibited interesting selectivity for aromatic compounds over alkanes. Compared with the graphene (G) column, the BT column showed much prolonged retention and high selectivity for aromatic isomers, especially methylnaphthalenes, dimethylnaphthalenes and phenanthrene/anthracene, mainly because of its propeller-like conformation with rich intercalation effects. Moreover, it exhibited good column repeatability (intra-day, inter-day) and reproducibility (between-column) with RSD values on the retention times less than 0.08% for intra-day, 0.32% for inter-day and 3.8% for between-column, respectively. Also, it showed good potential for determination of minor isomer impurities in real samples. To the best of our knowledge, this work presents the first example of employing an neat aromatic hydrocarbon material as the GC stationary phase with high selectivity for analytes of a wide ranging polarity.

Background and purpose: Physical inactivity and prolonged sitting have associations with adverse health. University office workers are at a high risk of psychological and pain issues. This study aimed to explore the differences in sitting time, levels of physical activity participation, stress, depression, anxiety, and pain among university office workers in China and Australia. Methods: Online surveys were distributed to university office workers over 55 years at two universities in China and Australia, respectively. Results: A total of 185 participants completed the online survey (119 in China and 66 in Australia). Significant differences were found in sitting time during workdays between the two countries (p < 0.05) with a longer sitting time in the Australian respondents (7.5 h/day) than those in China (4.6 h/day). Additionally, there were also significant differences in terms of levels of depression and pain symptoms within the two countries (p < 0.05). The Australian respondents reported high levels of depression and pain (M = 7.38, SD = 5.86 and M = 3.65, SD = 2.21, respectively) than those in China (M = 5.71, SD = 4.87 and M = 1.89, SD = 1.89, respectively). The gender, education level, and sitting time of participants were found to be associated with pain scores (p < 0.05). A significant association between marital status and pain scores was found among the Australian respondents (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Future studies with a larger population are needed to validate the results and to further explore the association between physical activity participation and psychological wellbeing among university office workers.

This work reports a selective and inert triptycene-based stationary phase (TPT) combining the triptycene framework with tocopheryl polyethylene glycol succinate (TPGS) units for capillary gas chromatography (GC). The TPT stationary phase was physically coated onto a capillary column by static coating method with the column efficiency of 4200 plates/m and moderate polarity. As demonstrated, the TPT column exhibited high inertness towards organic bases, including basic heterocycles, aliphatic and aromatic amines, showing distinct advantages over the TPGS and commercial columns. Also, the TPT column displayed high-resolution performance towards the isomers of methylpyridines, toluidines, xylidines and alkanes (C6–C8). Moreover, it showed excellent separation repeatability and reproducibility with RSD values in the range of 0.03%-0.07% for run-to-run, 0.12%–0.18% for day-to-day and 2.3%–3.6% for column-to- column (n = 4). Its applications to purity test of chemical products and to GC-MS analysis of the essential oil of Artemisia annua L. demonstrated its good potential for practical analyses. The present work has novelty in constructing highly selective and inert stationary phases and providing a feasible strategy for concurrently addressing the related problems in GC analyses. Its methodology and findings is of important value in terms of fundamental researches and practical applications.

This work reports oligothiophene-functionalized truxene-based stationary phases (TTT, TDT and TFT) with a unique star-shaped π-conjugated architecture for gas chromatographic (GC) separations. They exhibited medium polarity and column efficiency of 3340–3760 plates/m determined by naphthalene at 120 °C. Among them, the TTT stationary phase displayed advantageous resolving capability over the TDT and TFT phases for a wide ranging analytes from apolar to polar, particularly for structural and positional isomers, including alcohols, phenols, halogenated and alkylated benzenes and naphthalenes. Moreover, the TTT column exhibited good thermal stability and repeatability with relative standard deviation (RSD) values of 0.02%–0.07% for run-to-run, 0.10%–0.53% for day-to-day and 2.1%–2.9% for column-to-column, respectively. In addition, it was applied for the determination of isomer impurities in real samples, proving its good potential for practical GC analysis.

This work presents the investigation of permethyl pillar[5]arene (MP5) as stationary phase for capillary gas chromatographic (GC) separations. The MP5 capillary column fabricated by the sol-gel coating method exhibited weak polarity and high column efficiency over 4200 plates/m for n -dodecane, n -octanol and naphthalene. Particularly, the MP5 stationary phase displays unique retention for dibromoalkanes, which was found to be closely related with the linker length, and shows high resolving capability for a wide range of positional and structural isomers, including alkylbenzenes, chlorobenzenes and chloronitrobenzenes, naphthalene derivatives, phenols and anilines. Moreover, the MP5 column showed good thermal stability and repeatability and reproducibility with the relative standard deviation in the range of 0.02–0.04% for intra-day, 0.32–0.46% for inter-day and 1.5–3.4% for between-column, respectively. This work demonstrates an promising future of pillar[n]arenes as a new type of stationary phase in chromatographic separations.