Background: Severe cytokine storm syndrome (CSS) is considered as the cause of death among critically ill COVID-19 cases. Early identi cation of the high-risk severe cases is crucial to lower the fatality and healthcare costs. Methods: In this study, we retrospectively analyzed the rst and second-week serum levels of IL-6, IL-8, and IL-10 of 50 COVID-19 cases. We calculated the ratios of IL-6/IL-10 and IL-8/IL-10 at 3 rd , 6 th , 9 th , and 12 th days of hospitalization. Results: We collected 50 COVID-19 cases (male 54%, mean age 51.2, range 18-86), including 39 mild cases (78%), 7 severe/recovered cases (14%), and 4 died cases (8%).The ratios of IL 6/IL-10 and IL-8/IL-10 among mild cases were below 27 (the highest, 26.9) along the 4 testing points of two week hospitalization, while we found that the IL-6/IL-10 and IL-8/IL-10 ratios were as high as 187.51 and 225.3 respectively in the death group on 3 rd day with the highest IL-6/IL-10 ratio of 297.28 on the 6 th day of hospitalization. Conclusions: Our preliminary results suggest that the ratios of IL-6/IL-10 and IL-8/IL-10 at the early stage (the rst two weeks) of COVID-19 could be a predictive marker for the disease prognosis, of which the cutoff lines were suggested below 50 for a mild and recoverable severe cases.

The yeast community in the Chinese strong-flavoured liquor region of Yibin was investigated and the ethanol producing abilities and extracellular enzymes activities of the isolates were tested. A total of 110 yeast were isolated on Wallerstein Laboratory medium and through 26S rRNA D1/D2 region sequence analysis identified as 13 yeast species. These were Wickerhamomyces anomalus, Debaryomyces hansenii, Issatchenkia orientalis, Lodderomyces elongisporus, Clavispora lusitaniae, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Pichia fermentans, Pichia manshurica, Pichia membranifaciens, Torulaspora delbrueckii, Trichosporon insectorum, Trichosporonoides megachiliensis, Zygosaccharomyces bailii, and one uncertain species. These yeast species, composed of various strains, formed the special yeast community in the Yibin region. Approximately 73.6% of the strains belong to the four dominant species: W. anomalus, D. hansenii, I. orientalis and L. elongisporus. The 110 yeast strains produced 0.6-9.0% (v/v) alcohol (average of 5.4%, v/v) in a grain medium, and 0.2-7.2% (v/v) alcohol (average value of 2.9%, v/v) in a yeast extract-peptone-dextrose medium. Furthermore, the 49 strains that produced pectinase, lipase, cellulase, amylase or protease generally showed better ethanol-producing ability than those strains that do not produce extracellular enzymes. This work profiles the ethanolproducing ability and the organic matter utilization of the yeast community in Chinese strong-flavoured liquor produced in the Yibin region and provides a better understanding of Chinese strong-flavoured liquor fermentation.

In recent decades, quasi-zero stiffness (QZS) vibration isolation systems with nonlinear characteristics have aroused widespread attention and strong research interest due to their enormous potential in low-frequency vibration isolation. This work comprehensively reviews recent research on QZS vibration isolators with a focus on the principle, structural design, and vibration isolation performance of various types of QZS vibration isolators. The negative-stiffness mechanism falls into two categories by different realization methods: passive and active/semi-active negative-stiffness mechanisms. Representative design, performance analysis, and practical application are elaborated for each category. The results show that passive vibration isolation systems have excellent low-frequency vibration isolation performance under specific payload and design parameters, whereas active/semi-active vibration isolation systems can better adapt to different environmental conditions. Finally, the development trends and challenges of QZS vibration isolators are summarized, and the solved and unsolved problems are highlighted. This review aims to give a comprehensive understanding of the QZS vibration isolation mechanism. It also provides guidance on designing new QZS vibration isolators for improving their vibration isolation performance and engineering applicability.

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