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Background: Subacute thyroiditis (SAT) is rarely diagnosed in pregnant women, and only 7 cases have been reported to date. Thyroid dysfunction, especially hyperthyroidism, during pregnancy has been associated with both maternal and neonatal complications. Thus, the early diagnosis and treatment of SAT during pregnancy may be beneficial. We present a case report and literature review to complement the diagnostic evaluation and management of SAT during pregnancy. Case presentation: A 27-year-old woman presented in gestational week 17 of her first pregnancy and had a negative prior medical history. She presented to the Endocrinology Department complaining of neck pain for one month that had intensified in the last five days. Physical examination revealed a diffusely enlarged thyroid gland that was firm and tender on palpation. The patient also had an elevated temperature and heart rate. The increasing and long-lasting pain coupled with a decreased level of thyroid-stimulating hormone indicated hyperthyroidism. Ultrasound findings were indicative of SAT. Importantly, the pain was so severe that 10 mg of oral prednisone per day was administered in gestational week 18, which was increased to 15 mg/d after 10 days that was discontinued in week 28. Levothyroxine was started in gestational week 24 and administered throughout the pregnancy. The patient responded well to the treatments, and her neck pain disappeared in gestational week 21. She gave birth to a healthy male in gestational week 41. Conclusion: SAT can be diagnosed and effectively managed during pregnancy, thus benefiting mothers and infants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Subacute thyroiditis (SAT) is rarely diagnosed in pregnant women, and only 7 cases have been reported to date. Thyroid dysfunction, especially hyperthyroidism, during pregnancy has been associated with both maternal and neonatal complications. Thus, the early diagnosis and treatment of SAT during pregnancy may be beneficial. We present a case report and literature review to complement the diagnostic evaluation and management of SAT during pregnancy.Case Presentation: A 27-year-old woman presented in gestational week 17 of her first pregnancy and had a negative prior medical history. She presented to the Endocrinology Department complaining of neck pain for one month that had intensified in the last five days. Physical examination revealed a diffusely enlarged thyroid gland that was firm and tender on palpation. The patient also had an elevated temperature and heart rate. The increasing and long-lasting pain coupled with a decreased level of thyroid-stimulating hormone indicated hyperthyroidism. Ultrasound findings were indicative of SAT. Importantly, the pain was so severe that 10 mg of oral prednisone per day was administered in gestational week 18, which was increased to 15 mg/d after 10 days that was discontinued in week 28. Levothyroxine was started in gestational week 24 and administered throughout the pregnancy. The patient responded well to the treatments, and her neck pain disappeared in gestational week 21. She gave birth to a healthy male in gestational week 41.Conclusion: SAT can be diagnosed and effectively managed during pregnancy, thus benefiting mothers and infants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, the innovative development of education for older people is an important response to the aging population, and an important way to meet the spiritual, cultural, and social needs of older people. Current academic research mainly focuses on the social factors that affect the participation of older people in education and there are few empirical studies on the individual psychological characteristics of older adult learning behavior. This study takes a positive psychology approach to the exploration of the factors influencing the participation of older adults in education in a number of universities of the Third Age in Fujian Province, China. The study is based on curriculum preferences and frequency of participation in extracurricular activities. The results show that the personality traits of extraversion and neuroticism, as well as gender, age, level of educational attainment, and family economic status significantly affect frequency of participation in extracurricular activities and the curriculum preferences of older learners. The results of this study suggest that we can strengthen personality matching to promote the learning enthusiasm of older people in education, and adhere to the demand-oriented to promote the Third age education curriculum personalized. Furthermore, we should increase the scope for popularizing Third age education, improve the accessibility of education for the older people, accelerate the integration of older adult education with the Internet, innovate the form of older adult education, and then promote the development of customized curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In this paper, the catalytic performance of non-purified esterase from wheat bran immobilized on glass fibre membrane carrier is established, the immobilization conditions observed were enzyme 1 mL, phosphate buffer 3 mL (pH 7.0), immobilization time 1 h, immobilization temperature 29 °C. After carrier functionalization some characteristics of immobilized enzyme were studied, the results showed that immobilized enzyme presenting improved characteristic than that of free enzyme. The optimum pH for free and immobilized enzymes were found to be 8 and 7, respectively. As for optimum temperature for free and immobilized enzymes were observed to be 30 °C and 40 °C, respectively. When the enzyme was immobilized on glass fibre membranes, its K m increased about 7 times. In addition, storage and thermal stability of the free wheat esterase were increased by as a result of membrane immobilization, after 12 days of storage, the immobilized enzyme still retained about 91.10% of its original activity at 4 °C, indicating a great potential in industrial application. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • The wheat esterase was immobilized on glass fiber film for the first time. • Enzymatic properties of immobilized wheat esterase are proposed. • Catalytic properties of wheat esterase changes of the presence of carrier. • Immobilized wheat esterase presenting improved characteristic than that of free enzyme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gene expression programming (GEP) models, a robust variant of genetic programming, are developed in this study to correlate resilient modulus with routine properties of subgrade soils and state of stress for pavement design applications. A database used for building the model was developed that contained grain size distribution, Atterberg limits, standard Proctor, unconfined compression, and resilient modulus results for 97 soils from 16 different counties in Oklahoma. Of these, 63 soils (development data set) are used in training, and the remaining 34 soils (evaluation data set) from two different counties are used in evaluation of the models developed. Two different correlations were developed using different combinations of the influencing parameters. The proposed constitutive models relate the resilient modulus of routine subgrade soils to moisture content , dry density , plasticity index (PI), percent passing a No. 200 sieve (), unconfined compressive strength , deviatoric stress , and bulk stress . The results are compared with those from artificial neutral network (ANN) models. Overall, GEP models show good performance and are proven to be better than ANN models. The GEP-based design equations can be readily used for pavement design purposes or may be used as a fast check on solutions developed by more in-depth deterministic analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gummy stem blight of Cucumis melo L. (melon) caused by Didymella bryoniae is a serious disease in the major production area of northwest China. Two Streptomyces isolates (Streptomyces pactum A12 and S. globisporus subsp. globisporus C28) previously isolated from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau were investigated regarding their biocontrol of gummy stem blight and growth promotion of melon under controlled conditions. Streptomyces A12 and C28 indicated obvious antagonistic activity against D. bryoniae in vitro. Both A12 and C28 significantly decreased disease severity and AUDPC (area under the disease progress curve) of melon gummy stem blight in vivo (P < 0.05). Ten-fold dilution of C28 culture filtrate was more effective in controlling the disease compared with other treatments, the disease reduction effects were 41.0–64.2%. The mean fresh weights were increased by 40.4% for plants, 44.2% for roots, and 40.3% for aerial parts, when A12 was applied in both nursery soil and transplanted soil. Streptomyces C28 also increased the mean fresh weights of melon plants by 18.4–49.0% compared with the control in pot trial. Streptomyces A12 and C28 showed substantial colonization abilities in the rhizosphere and on the rhizoplane of melon plants. Results demonstrated that Streptomyces A12 and C28 were of positive effect on the biocontrol of gummy stem blight and growth promotion of Cucumis melo L. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this study, we developed a novel liquid fermentation medium of Cordyceps militaris using pupa powder and wheat bran as nitrogen resources instead of the traditionally used peptone. This process not only reduced the cost by approximately 50%, but increased production by over 30%. Then, we explored a method to extract and purify cordycepin by combining hydrothermal reflux extraction with macroporous resin adsorption, which is inexpensive and suitable for the industrial production. The optimum conditions for hydrothermal reflux were extracting three times at 95 °C with 1:10 sample-to-water ratio, and the cordycepin purity with macroporous resin HPD-100 reached 95.23%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of mixed fermentation of Jiuqu and Saccharomyces cerevisiae on the quality of kiwifruit wine. The results showed that total titratable acidity, methanol and organic acids of kiwi wine fermented by Jiuqu + Saccharomyces cerevisiae EC1118 were significantly lower (p < 0.05) than that in other groups. There was no significant difference in the content of flavor substances in kiwi wines fermented by a mixed group and Saccharomyces cerevisiae EC1118 alone, but the sensory evaluation showed a significantly large difference. On the sensory scale, kiwi wine fermented by mixed fermentation had a unique presentation and typical bouquet, better than those fermented by Jiuqu and Saccharomyces cerevisiae EC1118 alone. In conclusion, mixed fermentation of Jiuqu + Saccharomyces cerevisiae EC1118 could improve the quality of the kiwi wine, which provides a promising application prospection for kiwi wine production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paocai is a popular fermented vegetable side dish or appetizer in China. This study was to investigate the relationship between its sensory quality and physicochemical properties by different statistical methods and to establish a regression prediction model for sensory scores. Principal component analysis disclosed that the sensory properties were negatively correlated with lactic acid and acetic acid contents. The cluster analysis classified the samples into three groups based on their sensory scores and the main differences among the groups were firmness, salinity, and acid production. Finally, a prediction model with an adjusted R2 of 85.28% was established by partial least squares regression to predict the sensory scores and showed high reliability on six tested samples. Practical applications: Paocai is a popular side dish or appetizer in China that has a large annual production and consumption. Nowadays, the evaluation of the quality of paocai is mainly relied on sensory assessment, which is expensive to implement, time‐consuming, and sometimes cannot be implemented online for immediate feedback. By establishing the relationship between sensory quality and physicochemical properties of paocai, it is possible to build online feedback of paocai production by instrumental detections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paocai is a popular fermented vegetable side dish or appetizer in China. This study was to investigate the quality and microbial flora changes of paocai during the multiple rounds of fermentation, in order to provide practical suggestions for the industrial production. A total of 4 kinds of lactic acid bacteria were identified based on morphology and calcium dissolution zone size and further 16s RNA identifications. The paocai quality was evaluated on titratable acid, organic acid, amino acid and volatile components content. The results showed that the brine starters after the 4 rounds of fermentation could significantly accelerate the fermentation process from 6 days to only 1–2 days. After 4th round of fermentation, the quality of radish paocai was roughly unified as regard for the microbial flora, organic acid, free amino acid and volatile components content at the maturation point. Therefore, the brine after 4th round of radish paocai fermentation could be used as starters for radish paocai production in industrial scale. • Starter could accelerate the fermentation process of paocai; • After 4 rounds of fermentation could unify the quality of paocai; • Starter of brine after 4 rounds decreases fermentation time from 6 days to 2 days; • Paocai Quality is significantly influenced by the microbial flora changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]