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Abstract Background Chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, are the leading causes of death and disability. Loneliness is linked to a greater risk of chronic disease. However, the lack of loneliness may change this relationship. Methods The 4th Survey of the Aged Population in Urban and Rural China (SSAPUR) was performed. 222,179 people over 60 years old were recruited. Chronic disease was defined by self-reported tumble incidents using the fourth SSAPUR questionnaire. We found that the residuals were well normally distributed. Subsequently, we analyzed the association between each studied factor and chronic disease by univariate logistic regression analysis. Finally, we stratified the population by age, gender, and urban and rural. Results 77,448 individuals experienced loneliness, while 137,593 did not. Loneliness correlated significantly with urban-rural classification, age, and gender (P

Abstract The performance of platform flexible employees is a core element that contributes to the rapid growth of the sharing economy platform. It is crucial to explore strategies to improve employees' performance with the growing competition among these platforms. Only a handful of research evidence has been found evaluating platform flexible employees’ psychological capital and work engagement to improve their performance. In order to remedy the gap, we draw on self-determination theory to develop a moderated mediation model, which examines how psychological capital affects platform flexible employees’ job performance. We employed hierarchical regression analysis to test the theoretical model and carried out two rounds of surveys, resulting in 474 valid paired questionnaires. The questionnaire assessed the psychological capital, work engagement, job performance, and job autonomy of flexible platform employees. The results indicate that work engagement plays a mediating role between psychological capital affects platform flexible employees’ job performance. Moreover, job autonomy moderates the mediating effect. The findings not only contribute to the literature on employees’ psychological capital and job performance, but also broaden the research scope of self-determination theory, and provide new ideas for improving the job performance of platform flexible employees.

The mechanical pressure that arises from the external structure of the automotive lithium battery module and its fixed devices can give rise to the concentration and damage of the internal stress inside the battery and increase the risks of battery degradation and failure. Commercial batteries cannot be disassembled, and the diffusion stress distribution at different times during discharge is notoriously difficult to determine. This paper, therefore, establishes the electrochemical force-coupling model based on the electrochemical and diffusion mechanics principles of batteries and studies the internal stress distribution of the battery under the diffusion stress of the electrode-material level and external pressure. Mainly driven by the electrochemical potential of the electrode particle diffusion stress stemming from the lithium-concentration difference inside and outside the particles, rupture is more likely to occur at the surface of the negative-electrode active particle at the end of discharge or the beginning of charging, as shown in simulation analysis. The variation in the volume of electrode material also leads to different stress and strain inside different areas, with the order of strain and stress being negative active material > negative collector fluid > positive active material > positive fluid. Therefore, huge stress and deformation will first cause the negative active particles to deviate from the fluid gradually and squeeze the diaphragm, resulting in mechanical failure accordingly.

Abstract Thalassemia is a group of common hereditary anemias that cause significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. However, precisely diagnosing thalassemia, especially rare thalassemia variants, is still challenging. Long-range PCR and long-molecule sequencing on the PacBio Sequel II platform utilized in this study could cover the entire HBA1, HBA2 and HBB genes, enabling the diagnosis of most of the common and rare types of thalassemia variants. In this study, 100 cases of suspected thalassemia were subjected to traditional thalassemia testing and third-generation sequencing for thalassemia genetic diagnosis. Compared with traditional diagnostic methods, an additional 10 cases of rare clinically significant variants, including 3 cases of structure variants and 7 cases of single nucleotide variations (SNVs) were identified, of which a case with − α3.7 subtype III (− α3.7III) was first identified and validated in the Chinese population. Other rare variants of 11.1 kb deletions (− 11.1/αα), triplicate α-globin genes (aaa3.7/αα) and rare SNVs have also been thoroughly detected. The results showed that rare thalassemia variants are not rare but have been misdiagnosed by conventional methods. The results further validated third-generation sequencing as a promising method for rare thalassemia genetic testing.

IntroductionGastric cancer (GC) remains the major constituent of cancer-related deaths and a global public health challenge with a high incidence rate. Helicobacter pylori (HP) plays an essential role in promoting the occurrence and progression of GC. Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are regarded as a significant component in the tumor microenvironment (TME), which is related to the metastasis of GC. However, the regulation mechanisms of CAFs in HP-related GC are not elucidated thoroughly.MethodsHP-related genes (HRGs) were downloaded from the GSE84437 and TCGA-GC databases. The two databases were combined into one cohort for training. Furthermore, the consensus unsupervised clustering analysis was obtained to sort the training cohort into different groups for the identification of differential expression genes (DEGs). Weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) was performed to verify the correlation between the DEGs and cancer-associated fibroblasts which were key components in the tumor microenvironment. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) was executed to find cancer-associated fibroblast-related differential expression genes (CDEGs) for the further establishment of a prognostic model.Results and discussionIn this study, 52 HP-related genes (HRGs) were screened out based on the GSE84437 and TCGA-GC databases. A total of 804 GC samples were analyzed, respectively, and clustered into two HP-related subtypes. The DEGs identified from the two subtypes were proved to have a relationship with TME. After WGCNA and LASSO, the CAFs-related module was identified, from which 21 gene signatures were confirmed. Then, a CDEGs-Score was constructed and its prediction efficiency in GC patients was conducted for validation. Overall, a highly precise nomogram was established for enhancing the adaptability of the CDEGs-Score. Furthermore, our findings revealed the applicability of CDEGs-Score in the sensitivity of chemotherapeutic drugs. In general, our research provided brand-new possibilities for comprehending HP-related GC, evaluating survival, and more efficient therapeutic strategies.

Background: Thalassemia was the most common monogenic diseases worldwide, which was caused by mutations, deletions or duplications in human globin genes which disturbed the synthesis balance between α- and β-globin chains of hemoglobin. There were many classics methods to diagnose thalassemia, but all of them had limitations. Although variations in the human β-globin gene cluster were mainly point mutations, novel large deletions had been described in recent years along with the development of DNA sequencing technology.Case report: We present a case of 32-year-old male with abnormal hematological results. However, 23 genotypes of the most common thalassemia were not detected by two independent conventional platforms. Finally, using multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA), third-generation sequencing (TGS) and Gap PCR detection methods, we first confirmed the case with a novel 7.2 Kb deletion (Chr11:5222800-5230034, hg38) located at HBB gene.Conclusion: Our results showed that TGS technology was a powerful tool for thalassemia breakpoint detection, had promising potentiality in genetic screening of novel thalassemia, especially for the novel deletions in globin genes.

Background: Thalassemia was the most common monogenic diseases worldwide, which was caused by mutations, deletions or duplications in human globin genes which disturbed the synthesis balance between α- and ß-globin chains of hemoglobin. There were many classics methods to diagnose thalassemia, but all of them had limitations. Although variations in the human β-globin gene cluster were mainly point mutations, novel large deletions had been described in recent years along with the development of DNA sequencing technology. Case report: We present a case of 32-year-old male with abnormal hematological results. However, 23 genotypes of the most common thalassemia were not detected by two independent conventional platforms. Finally, using multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA), thirdgeneration sequencing (TGS) and Gap PCR detection methods, we first confirmed the case with a novel 7.2 Kb deletion (Chr11:5222800-5230034, hg38) located at HBB gene. Conclusion: Our results showed that TGS technology was a powerful tool for thalassemia breakpoint detection, had promising potentiality in genetic screening of novel thalassemia, especially for the novel deletions in globin genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context.--Recently, new technologies, such as nextgeneration sequencing and third-generation sequencing, have been used in carrier screening of thalassemia. However, there is no direct comparison between the 2 methods in carrier screening of thalassemia. Objective.--To compare the clinical performance of third-generation sequencing with next-generation sequencing in carrier screening of thalassemia. Design.--Next-generation sequencing and third-generation sequencing were simultaneously conducted for 1122 individuals in Hainan Province. Results.--Among 1122 genetic results, 1105 (98.48%) were concordant and 17 (1.52%) were discordant between the 2 methods. Among the 17 discordant results, 4 were common thalassemia variants, 9 were rare thalassemia variants, and 4 were variations with unknown pathogenicity. Sanger sequencing and polymerase chain reaction for discordant samples confirmed all the results of thirdgeneration sequencing. Among the 685 individuals with common and rare thalassemia variants detected by third-generation sequencing, 512 (74.74%) were carriers of athalassemia, 110 (16.06%) were carriers of b-thalassemia, and 63 (9.20%) had coinheritance of a-thalassemia and bthalassemia. Three thalassemia variants were reported for the first time in Hainan Province, including --THAI, -α2.4, and ααααanti3.7. Eleven variants with potential pathogenicity were identified in 36 patients with positive hemoglobin test results. Among 52 individuals with negative hemoglobin test results, 17 were identified with thalassemia variants. In total, third-generation sequencing and next-generation sequencing correctly detected 763 and 746 individuals with variants, respectively. Third-generation sequencing yielded a 2.28% (17 of 746) increment compared with next-generation sequencing. Conclusions.--Third-generation sequencing was demonstrated to be a more accurate and reliable approach in carrier screening of thalassemia compared with next-generation sequencing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

* Context.--Identification of rare thalassemia variants requires a combination of multiple diagnostic technologies. Objective.--To investigate a new approach of comprehensive analysis of thalassemia alleles based on thirdgeneration sequencing (TGS) for identification of a- and bglobin gene variants. Design.--Enrolled in this study were 70 suspected carriers of rare thalassemia variants. Routine gap--polymerase chain reaction and DNA sequencing were used to detect rare thalassemia variants, and TGS technology was performed to identify α- and β-globin gene variants. Results.--Twenty-three cases that carried rare variants in α- and β-globin genes were identified by the routine detection methods. TGS technology yielded a 7.14% (5 of 70) increment of rare a- and b-globin gene variants as compared with the routine methods. Among them, the rare deletional genotype of --THAI was the most common variant. In addition, rare variants of CD15 (G>A) (HBA2:c.46G>A), CD117/118(þTCA) (HBA1:c.354_355insTCA), and β-thalassemia 3.5-kilobase gene deletion were first identified in Fujian Province, China; to the best of our knowledge, this is the second report in the Chinese population. Moreover, HBA1:c.-24C>G, IVS-II-55 (G>T) (HBA1:c.300+55G.T) and hemoglobin (Hb) Maranon (HBA2:c.94A>G) were first identified in the Chinese population. We also identified rare Hb variants of HbC, HbG-Honolulu, Hb Miyashiro, and HbG-Coushatta in this study. Conclusions.--TGS technology can effectively and accurately detect deletional and nondeletional thalassemia variants simultaneously in one experiment. Our study also demonstrated the application value of TGS-based comprehensive analysis of thalassemia alleles in the detection of rare thalassemia gene variants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]