Zinc as an adjunct to antibiotics for the treatment of severe pneumonia in children <5 years: a meta-analysis of randomised-controlled trials.

The effect of Zn, as an adjunct to antibiotics, on the treatment of severe pneumonia in young children is still under debate; therefore, we performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the therapeutic role of Zn for severe pneumonia in children younger than 5 years. PubMed, Cochrane library and Embase databases were systematically searched from inception until October 2015 for randomised-controlled trials (RCT) that assessed the effect of Zn as an adjunct to antibiotics for severe pneumonia. Random-effects model was used for calculating the pooled estimates, and intention-to-treat principle was also applied. Nine RCT involving 2926 children were included. Overall, the pooled results showed that adjunct treatment with Zn failed to reduce the time to recovery from severe pneumonia (hazard ratios (HR)=1·04; 95% CI 0·90, 1·19; I(2)=39%; P=0·58), hospital length of stay (HR=1·04; 95% CI 0·83, 1·33; I(2)=57%; P=0·74), treatment failure (relative risk (RR)=0·95; 95% CI 0·79, 1·14; I(2)=20%; P=0·58) or change of antibiotics (RR=1·07; 95% CI 0·79, 1·45; I(2)=44%; P=0·67). In addition, continuous outcomes were consistent while meta-analysed with standard mean difference, and all outcomes remained stable in intention-to-treat analysis. No significant differences were observed in the two groups between death rate, adverse events or recovery times of severe pneumonia indicators. Our results suggested that adjunct treatment with Zn failed to benefit young children in the treatment of severe pneumonia. Considering the clinical heterogeneity, baseline characteristics of children, definition of severe pneumonia and Zn supplement way should be taken into consideration in future research. This study was registered at PRESPERO as CRD42015019798.

[Effects or maize/peanut intercropping on rhizosphere soil microbes and nutrient contents].

A field experiment was conducted to study the effects of maize/peanut intercropping on the rhizosphere soil microbial community and nutrient contents. Three treatments were installed, i. e., maize/peanut intercropping, maize monoculture, and peanut monoculture. Comparing with monoculture, intercropping could significantly increase the quantity of soil bacteria in both maize and peanut root areas. The numbers of soil actinomyces and fungi had no significant differences in the root areas of intercropped and mono-cultured peanut, but were much higher in intercropped than in mono-cultured maize root area. The functional diversity and metabolic activity of soil microbial community also improved under intercropping. Maize/peanut intercropping increased the soil alkali-hydrolysable N, available P and organic matter contents and EC to some extent, especially in the root area of maize. All the results suggested that maize/peanut intercropping could obviously improve the status of soil microbes and nutrients in root areas, which in turn, would promote the growth of intercropped crops.