The essential oils of the leaves and flowers of Skimmia anquetilia N.P.Taylor & Airy Shaw (family: Rutaceae) were examined by the combination of gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The analysis of the oils from leaves and flowers revealed the presence of b-phellandrene (1.8%, 18.4%), geijerene (2.0%, 15.0%), germacrene B (11.6%, 2.0%), linalyl acetate (7.3%, 11.2%), linalool (9.5%, 9.4%), a-terpineol (5.6%, 4.4%) and pregeijerene (0.2%, 5.6%) as major constituents. The antioxidant activity of the leaf and flower oils was studied and compared by different methods including their effect on reducing power, chelating properties of Fe +2 and in vitro 2 ' 2 ' -diphenylpicrylhadrazyl (DPPH) radical-scavenging activity. The total phenolic contents in the water extracts of leaf and flower were estimated and compared.

In many practical situations, complete data are not available in lifetime studies. Many of the available observations are right censored giving survival information up to a noted time and not the exact failure times. This constitutes randomly censored data. In this paper, we consider Maxwell distribution as a survival time model. The censoring time is also assumed to follow a Maxwell distribution with a different parameter. Maximum likelihood estimators and confidence intervals for the parameters are derived with randomly censored data. Bayes estimators are also developed with inverted gamma priors and generalized entropy loss function. A Monte Carlo simulation study is performed to compare the developed estimation procedures. A real data example is given at the end of the study.

The essential oils from fresh aerial parts of Mentha spicata L. collected from ten different natural habitats of Uttarakhand, India were analyzed by a combination of GC, GC/MS and NMR spectroscopy. The analysis revealed that monoterpenoids (46.1%-91.6%), mainly carvone (15.3%-68.5%), piperetenone oxide (24.0%-79.2%) and α-humulene (0.1%-29.9%), were the major constituents of the essential oils, but with significant qualitative and quantitative differences among the other constituents. Cluster analysis of the oil composition was carried out in order to discern the differences and similarities within different accessions collected from different natural habitats. The essential oils were also screened for their antioxidant activities by chelating properties of Fe 2+ , DPPH radical-scavenging activity, and their reducing power. The essential oils of two chemo variants (viz. carvone and piperetenone oxide types) were also tested for potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) sprout suppressant activity. The results showed that these oils exhibit good sprout inhibition activity in comparison to CIPC and iodine, the standard sprout suppressant.

The role of telomeres in sustained tumor growth is well understood. However, mechanisms of how telomeres might impact the tumor microenvironment (TME) are not clear. Upon examining tumor associated macrophages (TAMs) in 94 hormone-negative (triple-negative) breast cancer (TNBC) cases we found infiltration of TAMs to be telomere sensitive: Tumors with relatively short telomeres had higher abundance of TAM and vice versa. This observation was replicated across TNBC clinical tissue, patient-derived organoids, tumor xenografts and cancer cells with long/short telomeres. Mechanistically, we demonstrate that non-telomeric binding of TRF2, a telomere-repeat-binding-factor; at the interleukin receptor IL1R1 promoter directly activates IL1R1 through recruitment of the histone-acetyl-transferase p300 and consequent H3K27 acetylation. Interleukin-1signaling could be induced in TRF2-high cells through ligands IL1A/B, but not TNFα, and abrogated by the receptor antagonist IL1RA, supporting specificity of the TRF2-IL1R1axis. TRF2 binding at the IL1R1 promoter was mediated by G-quadruplex motifs and was sensitive to telomere length – thereby establishing telomere-length-dependent regulation of IL1R1 and IL1-mediated TAM infiltration in cancers. Our results reveal a heretofore unknown function of telomeres in interleukin signaling and anti- tumor immune response, through non-telomeric TRF2. Therefore, we propose telomere length as a novel biomarker underlying patient-specific response to cancer immunotherapy.

The efficiency of polymeric adsorbent (PA) and weak-base anion (WBA) resins at different temperatures to improve the quality of UF-clarified pear juice was investigated. UF-clarified and partially concentrated pear juice was passed through PA and then through WBA resins at 23, 30, and 50 °C. Treated juice samples were analyzed for pH, titratable acidity, color, phenolics, minerals, sugars, and organic acids. Treated juice showed 85% reduction in both color and titratable acidity. There was also a significant reduction (P < 0.05) in the content of polyphenolics and organic acids. No significant changes (P > 0.05) in the nutritional value were detected. Temperatures higher than 23 °C did not significantly (P > 0.05) improve the efficiency of the resins tested.