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The three-month-old infant, born in Xiaogan City, Hubei Province, was hospitalized due to fever for 4 hours on January 26, 2020. The throat swab test was positive for SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid, and the final diagnosis was COVID-19. The condition was improved after 17 days hospitalization treatment, the infant was cured and discharged. The infant had fever, cough and foaming at the mouth. Physical examination: lipstick, no cyanosis, pharyngeal congestion, stable breathing, clear breath sounds in both lungs, no obvious rales. The infant was from Hubei, the epidemic area, with fever and respiratory symptoms. The peripheral blood leukocyte was not high. The chest X-ray showed that the right lung texture was slightly thickened, which seems to be a bit of sheet shadow. The throat swab COVID-19 nucleic acid test was positive. The diagnosis of COVID-19 was established and complied with general type. The infant was treated with paramivir, azithromycin and ceftazidime, ambroxol, atomization and sputum suction. The infant was cured and discharged On February 11,2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phosphate-solubilizing microorganisms have been considered as a novel alternative approach to provide phosphate fertilizers that promote plant growth. In this study, three strains were isolated and identified as Penicillium oxalicum FJG21, Penicillium oxalicum FJQ5, and Bacillus subtilis BPM12, with a relatively high phosphate-solubilizing activity. Various phosphate sources were investigated, and Ca3(PO4)2 was identified as the effective phosphate source. Factors governing the phosphate-solubilizing activity of the strains included carbon and nitrogen sources, initial pH, and fermentation time. A high soluble phosphorus content was achieved with 529.0μg·mL-1, 514.0μg·mL-1, and 330.7μg·mL-1for Penicillium oxalicum FJG21, Penicillium oxalicum FJQ5, and Bacillus subtilis BPM12, respectively. An inverse correlation of the quantity of soluble phosphorus content and the pH value of the medium was observed. In addition, Bacillus subtilis BPM12 displayed a prominent capability of producing indole acetic acid. Penicillium oxalicum FJG21 and Penicillium oxalicum FJQ5 exhibited high cellulase activities. These phosphate-solubilizing microorganisms with good phosphate-solubilizing capability and growth-promoting ability are the promising strains for agricultural utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The screening of new potential microbes for the selective degradation of lignin makes agricultural straws available to achieve the complete conversion to biofuel. Because of the capability of laccase to oxidize phenolic compounds and to reduce the molecular oxygen of water, laccase has attracted much interest in recent years for its industrial applications. In this study, a fungal strain with a relatively high laccase activity was isolated from corn farm residue and identified as Trametes KS-2. The maximum laccase activity was 631 U/L for Trametes KS-2 when glucose/corn stalk (1/1, w/w) and peptone were used as the carbon source and nitrogen source, with 0.09 mmol of Cu2+ at pH 5.5 and 28 °C for 10 days. Laccase activity of Trametes KS-2 was relatively stable in the presence of salt and an ionic liquid. Scanning electron microscopy analysis indicated the morphological alteration of lignocelluloses via Trametes KS-2 treatment. Remarkable degradation of lignin in corn stalk was achieved with Trametes KS-2. After 15 days, the lignin was noticeably reduced to 76 mg, and the degradation rate was increased to 65.4%. Trametes KS-2 could be potentially utilized in the microbial degradation of lignin for lignocellulosic biomass and the industrial production of laccase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is increasing interest in the application of ionic liquids for the pretreatment and fractionation of lignocelluloses. In this study, a series of functional acidic ionic liquids (ILs) with various heterocyclic organic cations were synthesized. Corn stalks were successfully fractionated into lignin, hemicelluloses, and cellulose when ultrasonically pretreated with ILs at 70 °C for 3 h, and subsequently treated with alkaline extraction. High yields of IL-isolated lignin (18.3% to 19.6%) and (8.3% to 14.6%) were obtained using ILs in the absence and presence of water, respectively. The yield of cellulose ranged from 40.0 to 77.0% from IL treatments, whereas the yield of hemicelluloses ranged from 1.1% to 17.3%. Enzymatic hydrolysis of the isolated cellulose residual produced 89.2% to 94.9% reducing sugar with 77.8% to 86.1% glucose, which corresponded to 80.5% to 91.4% enzymatic conversion of cellulose. Syringol and vanillin were found as the main lignin degradation products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives In this study, we aim to evaluate the effect of urban and rural resident medical insurance scheme (URRMI) on the utilisation of medical services by urban and rural residents in the four pilot provinces. Setting and participants The sample used in this study is 13 305 individuals, including 2620 in the treatment group and 10 685 in the control group, from the 2011 and 2015 surveys of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Outcome measures Propensity score matching and difference-in-differences regression approach (PSM-DID) is used in the study. First, we match the baseline data by using kernel matching. Then, the average treatment effect of the four outcome variables are analysed by using the DID model. Finally, the robustness of the PSM-DID estimation is tested by simple model and radius matching. Results Kernel matching have improved the overall balance after matching. The URRMI policy has significantly reduced the need-but-not outpatient care and significantly increased outpatient care cost and inpatient care cost for rural residents, with DID value of -0.271, 0.090 and 0.256, respectively. After robustness test, the DID competing results of four outcome variables are consistent. Conclusions URRMI has a limited effect on the utilisation of medical and health services by all residents, but the effect on rural residents is obvious. The government should establish a unified or income-matching payment standard to prevent, control the use of medical insurance funds and increase its efforts to implement URRMI integration in more regions to improve overall fundraising levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is an urban and rural social model country. In the past three decades, the developing speed of rural areas has been much slower than urban areas, which may lead to the differences in dietary patterns. This study aimed to investigate the disparities of dietary structures from urban and rural children, and to analyze the effects of different dietary patterns on their adverse outcome. Among 1590 students, aged 11 years to 17 years, from primary and middle schools, a cross-sectional study was conducted. There were three dietary patterns recognized: Westernization structure, meat diet structure, and Western and Chinese structure. Compared with rural students, more urban students were in the highest categories of the whole dietary patterns (p < 0.001). Overweight/obesity and central adiposity were more prevailing among urban students, while rural students had a more prevailing risk of bone fracture (p < 0.05). Through the adjustment for all confounding factors, the Westernization structure could increase the risk of overweight/obesity and central adiposity, the meat structure could increase the risk of elevated blood pressure/hypertension, while the risk of low bone mineral quality could be reduced by the Chinese and Western structure. In conclusion, a rural-urban disparity in dietary patterns was found in our study, and different dietary patterns were associated with the risk of some adverse outcomes. Therefore, there were different prevalences of the adverse outcomes between rural and urban students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lignocellulosic biomass as a renewable and valuable resource has been a very active research area during recent years. Ionic liquids (ILs) are an attractive approach for the pretreatment of lignocelluloses. In this work, a series of pyrrolidinium-based ionic liquids were prepared simply and were investigated for the pretreatment of corn stalk at 90 °C for 30 min. The characteristics of regenerated lignin and cellulose-rich materials were determined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. Both ILs and ILs/H2O were studied. Notably, 10.17% lignin based on the original corn stalk was recovered with [Hmp]Cl-pretreatment; 21.34% and 15.83% reducing sugar based on the original corn stalk were observed during pretreatment with [Hmp]HSO4/H2O and [Hmp]Cl/H2O pretreatment, respectively; 80.54% of reducing sugar was obtained based on the cellulose-rich materials with [Hmp]Cl/H2O-pretreatment. Also, the glucose and cellobiose yields were 73.82% and 8.64%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PH5 is a petunia gene that encodes a plasma membrane H+-ATPase and determines the vacuolar pH. The citrate content of fruit cell vacuoles influences citrus organoleptic qualities. Although citrus could have PH5-like homologs that are involved in citrate accumulation, the details are still unknown. In this study, extensive data-mining with the PH5 sequence and PCR amplification confirmed that there are at least eight PH5-like genes (CsPH1-8) in the citrus genome. CsPHs have a molecular mass of approximately 100 kDa, and they have high similarity to PhPH5, AtAHA10 or AtAHA2 (from 64.6 to 80.9%). They contain 13-21 exons and 12-20 introns and were evenly distributed into four subgroups of the P3A-subfamily (CsPH1, CsPH2, and CsPH3 in Group I, CsPH4 and CsPH5 in Group II, CsPH6 in Group IV, and CsPH7 and CsPH8 in Group III together with PhPH5). A transcript analysis showed that CsPH1, 3, and 4 were predominantly expressed in mature leaves, whereas CsPH2 and 7 were predominantly expressed in roots, CsPH5 and 6 were predominantly expressed in flowers, and CsPH8 was predominantly expressed in fruit juice sacs (JS). Moreover, the CsPH transcript profiles differed between orange and pummelo, as well as between high-acid and low-acid cultivars. The low-acid orange "Honganliu" exhibits low transcript levels of CsPH3, CsPH4, CsPH5, and CsPH8, whereas the acid-free pummelo (AFP) has only a low transcript level of CsPH8. In addition, ABA injection increased the citrate content significantly, which was accompanied by the obvious induction of CsPH2, 6, 7, and 8 transcript levels. Taken together, we suggest that CsPH8 seems likely to regulate citrate accumulation in the citrus fruit vacuole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]