Review: Mechanism, effectiveness, and the prospects of medicinal plants and their bioactive compounds in lowering ruminants' enteric methane emission.

Animal nutritionists continue to investigate new strategies to combat the challenge of methane emissions from ruminants. Medicinal plants (MPs) are known to be beneficial to animal health and exert functional roles in livestock due to their phytogenic compounds with antimicrobial, immunostimulatory, antioxidative, and anti-inflammatory activities. Some MP has been reported to be anti-methanogenic and can effectively lower ruminants' enteric methane emissions. This review overviews trends in MP utilization in ruminants, their bioactivity and their effectiveness in lowering enteric methane production. It highlights the MP regulatory mechanism and the gaps that must be critically addressed to improve its efficacy. MP could reduce enteric methane production by up to 8-50% by regulating the rumen fermentation pathway, directing hydrogen toward propionogenesis, and modifying rumen diversity, structure, and population of the methanogens and protozoa. Yet, factors such as palatability, extraction techniques, and economic implications must be further considered to exploit their potential fully.

The 44 kDa Pim-1 kinase directly interacts with tyrosine kinase Etk/BMX and protects human prostate cancer cells from apoptosis induced by chemotherapeutic drugs.

Protein kinase Pim-1 has been implicated in the development of hematopoietic and prostatic malignancies. Here, we present the evidence that two isoforms, the 44 and 33 kDa Pim-1, are expressed in all human prostate cancer cell lines examined. The subcellular localization of human 44 kDa Pim-1 is primarily on the plasma membrane, while the 33 kDa isoform is present in both the cytosol and nucleus in PCA cells. The 44 kDa Pim-1 contains the proline-rich motif at the N-terminus and directly binds to the SH3 domain of tyrosine kinase Etk. Such interaction leads to the activation of Etk kinase activity possibly by competing with the tumor suppressor p53. This is corroborated by the fact that overexpression of the 44 kDa Pim-1 in prostate cancer cells confers the resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs. Our results suggest that these two isoforms of Pim-1 kinase may regulate distinct substrates and the 44 kDa Pim-1 may play a more prominent role in drug resistance in prostate cancer cells.

[The clinical value of click stimuli on the measurement of ipsilateral acoustic reflex thresholds].

OBJECTIVE: To define that click can substitute for pure tone as a stimulus to measure ipsilateral acoustic reflex thresholds, and to find out the effect of probe frequency on acoustic reflex thresholds. METHOD: Using middle ear analyzer (GSI 33, version 2), we measured 23 normal voluntary participants (46 ears) for getting the pure-tone generated ipsilateral acoustic reflex thresholds at different probe frequency and the click evoked ipsilateral acoustic reflex thresholds at click rate 100/s and 180/s for every ear. RESULT: For pure tone, the ipsilateral acoustic reflex thresholds at 500 Hz, 1000 Hz, 2000 Hz, were (84.35 +/- 6.96) dB, (84.65 +/- 5.93) dB, (87.96 +/- 6.36) dB by using 226 Hz probe; (93.13 +/- 6.54) dB, (92.70 +/- 6.33) dB, (93.35 +/- 5.99) dB by using 678 Hz probe; (86.52 +/- 4.72) dB, (87.48 +/- 5.00) dB, (88.30 +/- 6.16) dB by using 1000 Hz probe. For click, the ipsilateral acoustic reflex thresholds at click rate 100/s and 180/s were (89.78 +/- 6.83) dB, (92.07 +/- 7.42) dB by using 226 Hz probe; (90.44 +/- 6.76) dB, (90.65 +/- 6.38) dB by using 678 Hz probe; (88.04 +/- 6.87) dB, (88.69 +/- 7.42) dB by using 1000 Hz probe. The acoustic reflex thresholds for 678 Hz probe were higher than those obtained with 226 Hz and 1000 Hz probes. CONCLUSION: There were no artifact appearance while stimulus had been click at low rate, so click can be used for the measurement of ipsilateral acoustic reflex thresholds.

Medical services in urban China: does the 'free' care policy induce greater demand?

In this paper we discuss the nature of the medical services and the free medical care programs in urban China, then using the data collected in a large city, we also explored the differences between those covered by a free program and those not in perceived illness, doctor visit, hospital admission, and emergency use. Our findings may show that Chinese experience in medical service use is consistent with the common idea that a free medical care policy could induce greater demand while it also has its own nature.

[Pharmacological studies of nin jion pei pa koa].

The results showed that King To Nin Jiom Pei Pa Koa had significant cough relieving and sputum removing effects. It also had an evident effect on relieving asthma in vivo and in vitro. In four acute or sub-acute inflammatory models, the anti-inflammatory effect was marked.