[The relationship between Zhu Kerou and the publication Medical History in the Past and Present].

Medical History in the Past and Present (Gu Jin Yi Shi), written by Wang Honghan, has been valued by historians since its discovery. Its publication was linked to Zhu Kerou but the relationship between the book and Zhu had been unclear for a long time. This paper examined medical books, medical notes, letters and local chronicles and other related materials. It was found that Zhu Kerou, also named Wengang and Yanyu, lived in Wu County, Jiangsu. He had studied under Miao Zunyi, a well-known doctor at that time, as his medical teacher for more than ten years. However, he did not maintain medicine as his career, but made a living with arts. He wrote Notes of Orchid (Di Yi Xiang Bi Ji) and had it published, collated and edited as part of the first seven volumes of Medical History in the Past and Present (Gu Jin Yi Shi). He also contributed to two additional volumes of this book.

Nutritional Supplement of Hatchery Eggshell Membrane Improves Poultry Performance and Provides Resistance against Endotoxin Stress.

Eggshells are significant part of hatchery waste which consist of calcium carbonate crust, membranes, and proteins and peptides of embryonic origins along with other entrapped contaminants including microbes. We hypothesized that using this product as a nutritional additive in poultry diet may confer better immunity to the chickens in the paradigm of mammalian milk that enhances immunity. Therefore, we investigated the effect of hatchery eggshell membranes (HESM) as a short term feed supplement on growth performance and immunity of chickens under bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenged condition. Three studies were conducted to find the effect of HESM supplement on post hatch chickens. In the first study, the chickens were fed either a control diet or diets containing 0.5% whey protein or HESM as supplement and evaluated at 5 weeks of age using growth, hematology, clinical chemistry, plasma immunoglobulins, and corticosterone as variables. The second and third studies were done to compare the effects of LPS on control and HESM fed birds at 5 weeks of age following at 4 and 24 h of treatment where the HESM was also sterilized with ethanol to deplete bacterial factors. HESM supplement caused weight gain in 2 experiments and decreased blood corticosterone concentrations. While LPS caused a significant loss in body weight at 24 h following its administration, the HESM supplemented birds showed significantly less body weight loss compared with the control fed birds. The WBC, heterophil/lymphocyte ratio, and the levels of IgG were low in chickens fed diets with HESM supplement compared with control diet group. LPS challenge increased the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokine gene IL-6 but the HESM fed birds showed its effect curtailed, also, which also, favored the up-regulation of anti-inflammatory genes compared with control diet fed chickens. Post hatch supplementation of HESM appears to improve performance, modulate immunity, and increase resistance of chickens to endotoxin.

Efficacy of a novel prebiotic and a commercial probiotic in reducing mortality and production losses due to cold stress and Escherichia coli challenge of broiler chicks 1.

Prebiotics consisting of resistant starch may alter intestinal ecology, thus modulating inflammation and increasing intestinal health through increased cecal production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA). Probiotics may directly alter the intestinal microbiome, resulting in the same effects. We hypothesize that adding prebiotics and probiotics to feed may protect the gut of young chicks under stress. Studies 1, 2, and 3 evaluated treatments in a cold stress (CS) and Escherichia coli (EC) oral challenge to 430 day-old broiler chicks for 3 wk. In study 1, prebiotics were administered as 15% of the diet during the first week only and consisted of the following: Hi-Maize resistant starch (HM), potato starch (PS), or raw potato (RP). In studies 2 and 3, the PS treatment was identical to study 1, and an additional probiotic treatment (PRO) was administered in feed and water. In study 1, PS protected BW during the first week and decreased the mortality of CS/EC-challenged birds during the first week and wk 3, while RP decreased the mortality of warm-brooded birds challenged with EC during the first week. In study 2, PS decreased and PRO increased the main effect mean (MEM) of the first week BW. PS and PRO numerically decreased the feed conversion ratio (FCR) by 23 and 29 points, respectively, in CS/EC-challenged birds with no effects on mortality. In study 3, PS decreased and PRO increased the first week and wk 3 MEM BW. PS numerically increased FCR by 16 points, while PRO decreased FCR by 2 points. Both PS and PRO tended to increase overall mortality, and PRO significantly increased mortality in the CS/EC challenge. These results suggest that the effects of PS may be too variable in this challenge model for further study; however, the PRO treatment improved production values and may have potential as an alternative to antibiotics during the first weeks after hatch.

Evidence for inbreeding depression in the tree Robinia pseudoacacia L. (Fabaceae).

The magnitude of inbreeding depression within populations is important for the evolution and maintenance of mixed mating systems. However, data are sparse on the magnitude of inbreeding depression in Robinia pseudoacacia. In this study, we compared differences in the mature seed set per fruit, seed mass, germination success, and seedling growth between self- and cross-pollination treatments and estimated the inbreeding depression at 3 stages: seed maturation, seedling emergence, and seedling growth at 10 and 20 weeks. We found that progenies resulting from cross-pollination treatments showed significantly higher fitness than progenies resulting from self-pollination, causing high levels of inbreeding depression. Inbreeding depression was not uniformly manifested, however, over the 3 stages. Inbreeding depression was the greatest between fertilization and seed maturation stage (δ = 0.5419), and the seedling emergence (0.3654) stage was second. No significant differences in seedling growth were observed between selfed and crossed progenies. The cumulative inbreeding depression (δ) across all 3 stages averaged 0.7452. Inbreeding depression may promote outcrossing in R. pseudoacacia by acting as a post-pollination barrier to selfing. The large difference in the seed set between self- and cross-pollination that we detected indicated that inbreeding depression would probably be a reasonable explanation for the high abortion and low seed set in R. pseudoacacia.

Simultaneous nitrogen and phosphorus removal under low dissolved oxygen conditions.

A full-scale test was operated by using low dissolved oxygen activated sludge process to enhance biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal. When the influent concentrations of CODcr, TN and TP varied in a range of 352.9 mg/L-1338.2 mg/L, 34.4 mg/L-96.3 mg/L, and 2.21 mg/L-24.0 mg/L, the average removal efficiencies were 94.9%, 86.7% and 93.0%, respectively. During the test period of two months, effluent means of CODcr, BOD5, NH3-N, TN and TP were below 50 mg/L, 25 mg/L, 10 mg/L and 1.0 mg/L, respectively. The low dissolved oxygen activated sludge process has a simple flow sheet, fewer facilities and high N and P removal efficiency. It is very convenient to retrofit the conventional activated sludge process with the above process.

[Study on treatment of infectious shock with recipe of liqi huoxue and kaibi gutuo].

Based on the pathogenesis of infectious shock which were stagnation of Qi, blood stasis, impairment of body resistance and trends to collapse, a series of new preparations of traditional Chinese Medicine was developed, Injection Kangjue Tongmai, Injection Yiqi Jiuyin and Injection Yiqi Huiyang, which could Liqi Huoxue and Kaibi Gutuo (regulate the flow of Qi, promote blood circulation, strengthen the body resistance and remit collapse), the result of 183 cases of infectious shock treated with them showed that the mortality was 4.37%, significantly lower than that of control group (23.0%). All three injections could rapidly elevate blood pressure and stabilize it for prolonged time, increase renal blood flow and lower blood viscosity. In animal experiment, the injections reduced lipid peroxide of vital organs, stabilized bio-membrane, protected the cell structure and maintained their normal functions.

[Clinical and experimental study of qing wen oral liquid in the treatment of viral infectious fever].

110 cases of viral fever patients receiving Qing Wen oral liquid were observed. The total effective rate was 94.5% in comparing to 86.5% in the control group, P < 0.01. The shortening of time concerning both the beginning on the declining of fever and normalization of body temperature were obvious in comparison with the control. The remedy was also effective in improving symptoms and signs, alleviating renal failure, improving microcirculation and providing bi-directional regulation to the immune system, thus the progression of the disease was controlled. Animal experiments showed that Qing Wen oral liquid could protect the rabbits with hemorrhagic fever, delay the incubation period and the peak of fever, lower the febrile index and PGE content, improve the hemorheology and enhance the cell-mediated immunity in CSF.