Fengshui, which can be translated as Wind-Water literally in English, is an ancient Chinese system of laws considered to govern spatial arrangement and orientation in relation to the flow of Qi, and whose favorable or...Fengshui, which can be translated as Wind-Water literally in English, is an ancient Chinese system of laws considered to govern spatial arrangement and orientation in relation to the flow of Qi, and whose favorable or unfavorable effects are taken into account when sitting and designing buildings. Similar systems exist in many other cultures such as Vastu Shastra in India, which consists of precepts born out of a traditional and archaic view on how the laws of nature affect human dwellings. Although prospered in ancient society, modem reactions to Fengshui are mixed. The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience states that principles of Fengshui are quite rational, but folk remedies and superstitions have been incorporated into its eclectic mix. In this paper, we do not distinguish Fengshui and other similar systems between science and superstition, but try to propose a criterion for judging whether a knowledge system is valuable, and if so, to whom it is valuable. We will end up arguing that, a knowledge system satisfying the criterion of relatively true property is valuable at least to its community of believers, and the problem of whether a knowledge system has greater value is essentially a problem of whether it is relatable to other knowledge systems, so as to expand its community of believers展开更多
The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of rat cytomegalovirus （RCMV） infection on the development of the nervous system in rat embryos, and to evaluate the involvement of Wnt signaling pathway key mo...The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of rat cytomegalovirus （RCMV） infection on the development of the nervous system in rat embryos, and to evaluate the involvement of Wnt signaling pathway key molecules and the downstream gene neurogenin 1 （Ngnl） in RCMV infected neural stem cells （NSCs）. Infection and control groups were established, each containing 20 pregnant Wistar rats. Rats in the infection group were inoculated with RCMV by intraperitoneal injection on the first day of pregnancy. Rat E20 embryos were taken to evaluate the teratogenic rate. NSCs were isolated from El3 embryos, and maintained in vitro. We found： 1） Poor fetal development was found in the infection group with low survival and high malformation rates. 2） The proliferation and differentiation of NSCs were affected. In the infection group, NSCs proliferated more slowly and had a lower neurosphere formation rate than the control. The differentiation ratio from NSCs to neurons and glial cells was significantly different from that of the control, showed by immunofluorescenee staining. 3） Ngnl mRNA expression and the nuclear p-catenin protein level were significantly lower than the control on day 2 when NSCs differentiated. 4） The Morris water maze test was performed on 4-week pups, and the infected rats were found worse in learning and memory ability. In a summary, RCMV infection caused abnormalities in the rat embryonic nervous system, significantly inhibited NSC proliferation and differentiation, and inhibited the expression of key molecules in the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway so as to affect NSCs differentiation. This may be an important mechanism by which RCMV causes embryonic nervous system abnormalities.展开更多
文摘Fengshui, which can be translated as Wind-Water literally in English, is an ancient Chinese system of laws considered to govern spatial arrangement and orientation in relation to the flow of Qi, and whose favorable or unfavorable effects are taken into account when sitting and designing buildings. Similar systems exist in many other cultures such as Vastu Shastra in India, which consists of precepts born out of a traditional and archaic view on how the laws of nature affect human dwellings. Although prospered in ancient society, modem reactions to Fengshui are mixed. The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience states that principles of Fengshui are quite rational, but folk remedies and superstitions have been incorporated into its eclectic mix. In this paper, we do not distinguish Fengshui and other similar systems between science and superstition, but try to propose a criterion for judging whether a knowledge system is valuable, and if so, to whom it is valuable. We will end up arguing that, a knowledge system satisfying the criterion of relatively true property is valuable at least to its community of believers, and the problem of whether a knowledge system has greater value is essentially a problem of whether it is relatable to other knowledge systems, so as to expand its community of believers
基金Shandong Province High-level Talent of Health 1020 Project Fund(No.2008-1)Science and Technology Creative Research of Weifang Medical University(No.K11TS1010)+1 种基金A Project of Shandong Province Higher Educational Science and Technology Program(No.J12LK04)National Natural Science Foundation of China(30900775)
文摘The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of rat cytomegalovirus （RCMV） infection on the development of the nervous system in rat embryos, and to evaluate the involvement of Wnt signaling pathway key molecules and the downstream gene neurogenin 1 （Ngnl） in RCMV infected neural stem cells （NSCs）. Infection and control groups were established, each containing 20 pregnant Wistar rats. Rats in the infection group were inoculated with RCMV by intraperitoneal injection on the first day of pregnancy. Rat E20 embryos were taken to evaluate the teratogenic rate. NSCs were isolated from El3 embryos, and maintained in vitro. We found： 1） Poor fetal development was found in the infection group with low survival and high malformation rates. 2） The proliferation and differentiation of NSCs were affected. In the infection group, NSCs proliferated more slowly and had a lower neurosphere formation rate than the control. The differentiation ratio from NSCs to neurons and glial cells was significantly different from that of the control, showed by immunofluorescenee staining. 3） Ngnl mRNA expression and the nuclear p-catenin protein level were significantly lower than the control on day 2 when NSCs differentiated. 4） The Morris water maze test was performed on 4-week pups, and the infected rats were found worse in learning and memory ability. In a summary, RCMV infection caused abnormalities in the rat embryonic nervous system, significantly inhibited NSC proliferation and differentiation, and inhibited the expression of key molecules in the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway so as to affect NSCs differentiation. This may be an important mechanism by which RCMV causes embryonic nervous system abnormalities.
