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Cassava, a tropical food, feed and biofuel crop, has great capacity for biomass accumulation and an extraordinary efficiency in water use and mineral nutrition, which makes it highly suitable as a model plant for tropical crops. However, the understanding of the metabolism and genomics of this important crop is limited. The recent breakthroughs in the genomics of cassava, including whole-genome sequencing and transcriptome analysis, as well as advances in the biology of photosynthesis, starch biosynthesis, adaptation to drought and high temperature, and resistance to virus and bacterial diseases, are reviewed here. Many of the new developments have come from comparative analyses between a wild ancestor and existing cultivars. Finally, the current challenges and future potential of cassava as a model plant are discussed.

Camellia oleifera Abel shell, as a by-product produced during the processing of Camellia oleifera Abel, was usually discarded or burned. The resource utilization of C. oleifera shell can not only improve its own added value, but also solve the environmental pollution problems caused by it. Based on the existing research, this paper introduced the main functional components of C. oleifera shell and the utilization of C. oleifera shell in material, fertilizer and energy. C. oleifera shell contained tannins, tea saponins, flavones and polysaccharides and other substances, which made C. oleifera shell an ideal raw material for antibacterial, antioxidant, antiviral and other applications. In terms of materialization, the activated carbon adsorbent of C. oleifera shell showed good adsorption effect, but the capacitance material prepared from C. oleifera shell was low in conductivity, and the mechanical properties of wood-based composites were poor. In the aspect of fertilizer, the organic fertilizer and culture medium prepared from C. oleifera shell could obviously improve the soil, improve the quality of fertilizer and promote the growth of seedlings. In terms of energy utilization, the high lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose content made C. oleifera shell have certain advantages in direct combustion power generation, marsh gas production by anaerobic fermentation, bioethanol and bio-oil preparation, but there are some problems such as chloride corrode boiler, lignin is difficult to degrade, low bioethanol yield, low bio-oil yield and so on. In addition, the future utilization direction of C. oleifera shell was prospected. In the aspect of preparing carbon material, the C. oleifera shell need targeted carbonization for capacitor material. In the aspect of wood-based composites, it need to improve the structure and mechanical property. In the aspect functional components utilization, it need to develop high value-added deep processing products and expand production scale. In the aspect of energy, it need to solve the integration problem of biomass conversion process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To observe the treatment effect of acute sternocostal pain in recruits with the chiropractic manipulation combined with Compound Acupuncture. Method: 75 cases of acute chest pain recruits were randomly divided into treatment group (45 cases) and control group (30 cases). The treatment group was treated with chiropractic manipulation. In the control group, Dahuoluo pill and diclofenac sodium sustained-release capsule were taken orally, combined with TDP irradiation. The immediate effect of the two groups was observed after one treatment. Result: The total effective rate was 97.8% in the treatment group and 56.7% in the control group, the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The chiropractic manipulation combined with compound acupuncture has a high effective rate and quick onset in the treatment of acute sternocostal pain of recruits, which is convenient for the training of troops and improves the recovery rate of training injuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Diabetic nephropathy (DN), also known as diabetic kidney disease (DKD), has caused enormous economic pressure and serious health problems worldwide. TCM practitioners commonly use a combination of Astragalus membranaceus (A. membranaceus) and Rhizoma Dioscoreae (R. Dioscoreae) in the treatment of DN. Research is still lacking on the therapeutic effects of TCM for DN., Objective: The systematic review and meta-analysis intended to evaluate whether the combination of A. membranaceus and R. Dioscoreae together with Western medicine can provide better efficacy against DN than treatment with traditional Western medicine alone, to provide a clinical medical basis for the use of the TCM combination., Design: The research team performed a performed a systematic narrative review by searching the Web of Science, Science Direct, Pubmed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), VIP, Wanfang, Chinese Science and Technology Journal Database, and Biomedical Literature Chinese Database from databases' inceptions to May 2023. The team used the keywords astragalus and yam, diabetic nephropathy, antidiabetic, and 24-h urinary protein., Setting: The review and meta-analysis occurred at Jiangxi Hospital of Integrated Traditional China and Western Medicine in Nanchang, Jiangxi, China., Intervention: To perform a subgroup analysis, the research team divided the studies into two groups based on the TCM treatment course, with one subgroup receiving treatment for ≤4 weeks and the second receiving treatment for >4 weeks, to judge whether a time-dependence existed for the effects of the TCM combination on UP., Outcome Measure: All studies used 24-h urinary protein (UP) as the outcome measure., Results: In all studies, all heterogeneous (P < .01, I2 = 94%, the intervention groups had a significantly greater reduction in 24-h UP than the control groups did (P < .05). The heterogeneity for a treatment course of ≤4 weeks was P < .01, I2 = 97%, and for a course of >4 weeks was P < .01, I2 = 87%. For both ≤4 weeks and >4 weeks, the intervention groups had a significantly greater reduction in 24-h UP than the control groups did, with P < .01 and P < .01, respectively. The protein effect wasn't time dependent., Conclusions: A. membranaceus and R. Dioscoreae can significantly reduce UP production, and inhibition of UP wasn't time-dependent.