Safety of herbal medicines used in early gestations among the Chinese population: A population-based cohort study.

Background: Herbal medicines have a long history of use for pregnant women around the world. However, their use in the early pregnancy is often questioned in terms of safety on offspring.

Purpose: To investigate whether herbal medicines used at early pregnancy are associated with an increased risk of birth defects.

A comprehensive investigation of the microbial risk of secondary water supply systems in residential neighborhoods in a large city.

Secondary water supply systems (SWSSs) are characterized by long water stagnation and low levels of chlorine residuals, which may pose a high microbial risk to terminal users. In this study, the SWSSs of 12 residential neighborhoods in a metropolitan area of 5 million people in southeastern China were seasonally investigated to assess their microbial risks by determining more than 30 physicochemical and biological parameters. Although the microbiological quality of SWSS water met the requirements of the standards for drinking water quality of China, it did deteriorate in various aspects.

Unconditional and conditional analysis of epistasis between tillering QTLs based on single segment substitution lines in rice.

Epistasis plays an important role in manipulating rice tiller number, but epistatic mechanism still remains a challenge. Here we showed the process of epistatic analysis between tillering QTLs. A half diallel mating scheme was conducted based on 6 single segment substitution lines and 9 dual segment pyramiding lines to allow the analysis of 4 epistatic components.

Complete genome sequence of Mycobacterium Mya-zh01, an endophytic bacterium, promotes plant growth and seed germination isolated from flower stalk of Doritaenopsis.

No genomic sequence of Mycobacterium isolated from orchids has been reported yet; therefore, this study intends to analyze the complete genomic sequence of a growth-promoting Mycobacterium from orchid Doritaenopsis. Mycobacterium strain Mya-zh01 was isolated from the flower stalk of Doritaenopsis Jiuhbao Red Rose. Our results show that Mya-zh01 can effectively produce and secrete the plant growth hormone indole-3-acetic acid (IAA).