College students' stress and health in the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of academic workload, separation from school, and fears of contagion.

The COVID-19 pandemic has unhinged the lives of people across the globe. In particular, more than 30 million Chinese college students are home-schooling, yet there is little understanding of how academic workload, separation from school, and fears of contagion lead to a decrease in their health. This study examined the relationships between Chinese college students' three critical stressors and two types of health in the COVID-19 pandemic context. We used a three-wave lagged design with a one-week interval. All the constructs were assessed by self-report in anonymous surveys during the COVID-19 pandemic. College students were asked to report their demographic information, academic workload, separation from school, fears of contagion, perceived stress, and health. The results of this study showed that academic workload, separation from school, and fears of contagion had negative effects on college students' health via perceived stress. In the COVID-19 crisis, multiple prevention and control measures focusing on college students may lead them to have different degrees of stress and health problems. Our results enrich the literature on stress and health and offer novel practical implications for all circles of the society to ensure students' health under the context of the COVID-19 epidemic

Examining the Effects of Overtime Work on Subjective Social Status and Social Inclusion in the Chinese Context

Although researchers have argued that long work hours have been shown to threaten individual health, lead to work-family conflict, and reduce job performance, the effect of overtime work on social-related outcomes has received little attention. Based on the framework of relative deprivation, we attempt to address this important issue by exploring whether, why, and when individuals’ overtime work influences their social attitudes. By using the data of 400 Chinese employees from the China Labor-Force Dynamics Survey (CLD), we found that overtime work was associated with a low level of subjective social status and social inclusion. In addition, we found that the time type of overtime work (work overtime on weekdays or on weekends and holidays) has a moderating effect on the relationship between overtime work and social inclusion. That is, employees who work overtime on weekdays are unlikely to have a sense of social inclusion. Furthermore, the negative relationship between overtime work and subjective social status was stronger at a low level of fairness rather than a high level of fairness. In contrast, the negative relationship between overtime work and social inclusion was stronger at a high level of fairness rather than a low level of fairness. These findings highlight the critical role of overtime work in social life and also provide novel insights into social intervention aimed at the happiness and harmony of a society

Safety and immunogenicity of inactivated COVID-19 vaccination in adult rheumatic patients in South China: a prospective study

Patients with rheumatic diseases (RD) are considered to be a high-risk population for infection with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). The effectiveness of inactivated COVID-19 vaccinations (ICVs) was described as more effective than 95%. Despite this, no data on the immunogenicity and safety of the ICV in Han race stable RD patients in China. In this study, we sought to assess the safety and immunogenicity of the ICVs in RD patients in South China. A total of 80 adult stable RD patients were recruited. Following 14–35 days of immunization, cheiluminescence immunoassays (CLIA) were utilized to detect antibodies titers. An investigation into the relative parameters on the immunogenicity response to vaccination was carried out using logistic regression analysis. Compared to the HC group, the positive response of IgG and Nab in RD patients were lower than those in healthy control (HC) (P = .040 and P < .0001, respectively) after two doses of ICV were inoculated. The use of methotrexate (P = .016) and prednisolone (P = .018), and the level of red blood cell distribution width-C (RDW-C) (P = .035) and C-reactive protein (P = .015) were independently associated with lower rises in the magnitude of COVID-19 vaccine antibodies. No vaccine-related serious adverse reactions were observed in either group. After receiving two doses of ICVs, the production of protective antibodies in stable RD patients treated with immunosuppressive agents may decrease. It was discovered that ICVs were safe and well tolerated by RD patients

Novel potential lncRNA biomarker in B cells indicates essential pathogenic pathway activation in patients with SLE

Objectives Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a highly heterogeneous disease, and B cell abnormalities play a central role in the pathogenesis of SLE. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have also been implicated in the pathogenesis of SLE. The expression of lncRNAs is finely regulated and cell-type dependent, so we aimed to identify B cell-expressing lncRNAs as biomarkers for SLE, and to explore their ability to reflect the status of SLE critical pathway and disease activity.Methods Weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) was used to cluster B cell-expressing genes of patients with SLE into different gene modules and relate them to clinical features. Based on the results of WGCNA, candidate lncRNA levels were further explored in public bulk and single-cell RNA-sequencing data. In another independent cohort, the levels of the candidate were detected by RT-qPCR and the correlation with disease activity was analysed.Results WGCNA analysis revealed one gene module significantly correlated with clinical features, which was enriched in type I interferon (IFN) pathway. Among non-coding genes in this module, lncRNA RP11-273G15.2 was differentially expressed in all five subsets of B cells from patients with SLE compared with healthy controls and other autoimmune diseases. RT-qPCR validated that RP11-273G15.2 was highly expressed in SLE B cells and positively correlated with IFN scores (r=0.7329, p&lt;0.0001) and disease activity (r=0.4710, p=0.0005).Conclusion RP11-273G15.2 could act as a diagnostic and disease activity monitoring biomarker for SLE, which might have the potential to guide clinical management