Over 80 taxa of mostly agriculturally important legumes were surveyed as sources of the metabolites, genistein and daidzein. Remarkably high concentrations (over 2 g • kg"^ dry weight) of the anticancer metabolite, genistein, were found in the leaves of Psoralea corylifolia (Indian bread root). All other legumes, with the exception of fermented soybean miso, had genistein levels <400 mg • kg"^ dry weight. Concentrations of over 1 g • kg~^ dry weight and 0.95 g • kg"^ dry weight of the anticancer metabolite, daidzein, were found in the stems of the fava bean {Vicia faba) and roots of kudzu vine {Pueraria lobata)^ respectively. From this survey, our results indicate that the legumes, lupine (Lupinus spp.), fava bean, {Vicia faha), soybeans {Glycine max), kudzu {Pueraria lobata), and psoralea {Psoralea corylifolia), are excellent food sources for both genistein and daidzein. Miso, a fermented soybean product, is also a rich source of both isoflavones.

Cancer drugs are commonly administered in the clinic in the form of mixtures, also called cocktails or combinations. Assessment of synergistic and antagonistic interactions between drugs is therefore an important aspect of cancer research. Numerous methods have been proposed to assess drug interactions, each one based on a null (or additive) model. In this paper, the Loewe additivity index is used as a basis. Parameters of concentration-response curves, used as input to the Loewe equation, are estimated with a nonlinear mixed-effects model. The use of a nonlinear mixed-effects model, in combination with the Loewe index and a procedure to calculate confidence intervals of the index, is referred to as the 'MixLow' method. Simulations of a sham mixture of a drug with itself show that the MixLow method provides parameter estimators that are more precise than those produced by the Median-Effect method, a popular approach that uses log linearization of the concentration-response curves. Coverage of confidence intervals for the interaction index is acceptable for the MixLow method but poor for the Median-Effect method. This is the first comparison report of coverage of confidence intervals for the Loewe interaction index. A mixture of vincristine and topotecan is also analyzed by the MixLow method and the results are compared with those previously published. The MixLow method can be used to quantify drug interactions in any fixed-ratio drug combination study that includes within-group and between-group replicates, and where responses follow a sigmoidal pattern.

One of the key enabling features of coherent Raman scattering (CRS) techniques is the dramatically improved imaging speed over conventional vibrational imaging methods. It is this enhanced imaging acquisition rate that has guided the field of vibrational microscopy into the territory of real-time imaging of live tissues. In this feature article, we review several aspects of fast vibrational imaging and discuss new applications made possible by the improved CRS imaging capabilities. In addition, we reflect on the current limitations of CRS microscopy and look ahead at several new developments towards real-time, hyperspectral vibrational imaging of biological tissues.

Humanity faces serious social and environmental problems, including climate change and biodiversity loss. Increasingly, scientists, global policy experts, and the general public conclude that incremental approaches to reduce risk are insufficient and transformative change is needed across all sectors of society. However, the meaning of transformation is still unsettled in the literature, as is the proper role of science in fostering it. This paper is the first in a three-part series that adds to the discussion by proposing a novel science-driven research-and-development program aimed at societal transformation. More than a proposal, it offers a perspective and conceptual framework from which societal transformation might be approached. As part of this, it advances a formal mechanics with which to model and understand self-organizing societies of individuals. While acknowledging the necessity of reform to existing societal systems (e.g., governance, economic, and financial systems), the focus of the series is on transformation understood as systems change or systems migration—the de novo development of and migration to new societal systems. The series provides definitions, aims, reasoning, worldview, and a theory of change, and discusses fitness metrics and design principles for new systems. This first paper proposes a worldview, built using ideas from evolutionary biology, complex systems science, cognitive sciences, and information theory, which is intended to serve as the foundation for the R&D program. Subsequent papers in the series build on the worldview to address fitness metrics, system design, and other topics.

Synergistic and antagonistic drug interactions are important to consider when developing mixtures of anticancer or other types of drugs. Boik, Newman, and Boik (2008) proposed the MixLow method as an alternative to the Median-Effect method of Chou and Talalay (1984) for estimating drug interaction indices. One advantage of the MixLow method is that the nonlinear mixed-effects model used to estimate parameters of concentrationresponse curves can provide more accurate parameter estimates than the log linearization and least-squares analysis used in the Median-Effect method. This paper introduces the mixlow package in R, an implementation of the MixLow method. Results are reported for a small simulation study.