Chinese Herbal Medicines for the Treatment of Type A H1N1 Influenza: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials

Chinese herbs are thought to be effective for type A H1N1 influenza. Series of Chinese herbs have been authorized recommended by the Chinese government, and until now a number of clinical trials of Chinese herbs for H1N1 influenza have been conducted. However, there is no critically appraised evidence such as systematic reviews or metaanalyses on potential benefits and harms of medicinal herbs for H1N1 influenza to justify their clinical use and their recommendation. CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CBM, CNKI, VIP, China Important Conference Papers Database, China Dissertation Database, and online clinical trial registry websites were searched for published and unpublished randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of Chinese herbs for H1N1 influenza till 31 August, 2011. A total of 26 RCTs were identified and reviewed. Most of the RCTs were of high risk of bias with flawed study design and poor methodological quality. The combination of several Chinese herbal medicines with or without oseltamivir demonstrated positive effect on fever resolution, relief of symptoms, and global effectiveness rate compared to oseltamivir alone. However, only one herbal medicine showed positive effect on viral shedding. Most of the trials did not report adverse events, and the safety of herbal medicines is still uncertain. Some Chinese herbal medicines demonstrated potential positive effect for 2009 type A H1N1 influenza; however, due to the lack of placebo controlled trial and lack of repeated test of the intervention, we could not draw confirmative conclusions on the beneficial effect of Chinese herbs for H1N1 influenza. More rigorous trials are warranted to support their clinical use

Effects of Tillage and Nitrogen Fertilizers on CH4 and CO2 Emissions and Soil Organic Carbon in Paddy Fields of Central China

Quantifying carbon (C) sequestration in paddy soils is necessary to help better understand the effect of agricultural practices on the C cycle. The objective of the present study was to assess the effects of tillage practices [conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT)] and the application of nitrogen (N) fertilizer (0 and 210 kg N ha−1) on fluxes of CH4 and CO2, and soil organic C (SOC) sequestration during the 2009 and 2010 rice growing seasons in central China. Application of N fertilizer significantly increased CH4 emissions by 13%–66% and SOC by 21%–94% irrespective of soil sampling depths, but had no effect on CO2 emissions in either year. Tillage significantly affected CH4 and CO2 emissions, where NT significantly decreased CH4 emissions by 10%–36% but increased CO2 emissions by 22%–40% in both years. The effects of tillage on the SOC varied with the depth of soil sampling. NT significantly increased the SOC by 7%–48% in the 0–5 cm layer compared with CT. However, there was no significant difference in the SOC between NT and CT across the entire 0–20 cm layer. Hence, our results suggest that the potential of SOC sequestration in NT paddy fields may be overestimated in central China if only surface soil samples are considered

Imaging-Based Characterization of Perthite in the Upper Triassic Yanchang Formation Tight Sandstone of the Ordos Basin, China

This work investigated the element distribution of perthite from the Upper Triassic Yanchang Formation tight sandstone in the Ordos Basin of northern China by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). FE-SEM results indicate significant differences in the morphology of Na-rich feldspar when K-rich feldspar is the main component of the perthite. EDS results show that different types of perthite have clearly defined differences on different element indexes. Additionally, indexes such as average-weight-K (K-rich)/Na (Na-rich), maximum-weight-K (Na-rich)/Na (Na-rich) and average-atomic-K (K-rich)/Na(Na-rich) might be the most effective ones to identify perthite types. Perthite is divided into six main types, i.e., perthite with thick parallel stripe distribution, with thin parallel stripe distribution, with lumpy stripe distribution, with dendritic stripe distribution, with encircling stripe distribution, and with mixed stripe distribution.</p

What role would the pores related to brittle minerals play in the process of oil migration and oil & water two-phase imbibition?

This study aimed to investigate the geometry distinction of the pores formed by brittle minerals in shale oil reservoir and dig out its significance in hydrocarbon migration and exploitation. 14050 pores related to brittle minerals in typical shale oil reservoir samples are selected as the research objects, high-resolution field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), imbibition test, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance(NMR), high-resolution image technique, construction of new parameters, statistics and analysis of large numbers and other means are used to discover this issue. Results firstly show that the development of pores in the two directions (Angle between two directions is 90 degrees or approximately 90 degrees) are complementary and promote each other. Reversely, the data points begin to be scattered, which means that the development of the pore in the above two directions begins to lose stability, rather than promote each other all the time. This could prove that the rectangle (width, height), Legendre ellipse (major axis and major axis) and maximum and minimum Feret diameter of pores can all be used as the effective criteria for the development of pore shape related to brittle minerals. Sufficient evidences could prove that the pores related to brittle minerals contribute to oil and gas migration and oil & water imbibition. The conclusion of this study will provide an important theoretical basis for clarifying the oil occurrence mechanism of shale oil reservoir and looking for the geological and engineering dessert from the microscopic viewpoint. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd