Antioxidant and anticancer capacity of saponin‐enriched Carica papaya leaf extracts

The papaya (Carica papaya) leaf (PL) contains high levels of saponins and polyphenolic compounds, and historically, it has been used as a folk medicine for numerous ailments, including cancer. PL is traditionally prepared by hot water extraction; however, optimised extraction conditions have not been assessed. This study optimised conditions for the extraction of saponins from PL and assessed their antioxidant capacity and antipancreatic cancer activity. Optimisation was achieved using response surface methodology. Saponins and total phenolic compounds were assessed for their antioxidant, free radical scavenging, ion‐reducing capacity, and antipancreatic cancer activity. Optimal aqueous extraction conditions were 85 °C, 25 min. and a water‐to‐leaf ratio of 20:1 mL g^?1. Ethanol extracts demonstrated higher antioxidant, free radical scavenging and ion‐reducing capacity, as well as antipancreatic cancer activity. This study revealed that the PL contains numerous bioactive compounds, with significant anticancer activity warranting further studies on the isolation and characterisation of individual bioactive compounds from the PL.     

White juror bias: An investigation of prejudice against Black defendants in the American courtroom.

Racial prejudice in the courtroom is examined through a historical sketch of racism in the legal system, a review of psychological research on White juror bias, and a study investigating White mock jurors' judgments of a fictional trial summary. The central hypothesis is that salient racial issues at trial activate the normative racial attitudes held by White jurors. In previous eras, these racial norms encouraged overtly anti-Black prejudice. But in modern America, many Whites embrace an egalitarian value system and try to behave in an appropriately nonprejudiced manner when race is salient. Therefore, contrary to the intuition of many scholars and researchers, contemporary White jurors are more likely to demonstrate racial bias against a Black defendant in interracial trials without blatantly racial issues. Empirical data suggest that this pattern of bias is not limited to one type of crime or one type of racial issue. Practical implications and future research directions are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Association rule mining to detect factors which contribute to heart disease in males and females

This paper investigates the sick and healthy factors which contribute to heart disease for males and females. Association rule mining, a computational intelligence approach, is used to identify these factors and the UCI Cleveland dataset, a biological database, is considered along with the three rule generation algorithms – Apriori, Predictive Apriori and Tertius. Analyzing the information available on sick and healthy individuals and taking confidence as an indicator, females are seen to have less chance of coronary heart disease then males. Also, the attributes indicating healthy and sick conditions were identified. It is seen that factors such as chest pain being asymptomatic and the presence of exercise-induced angina indicate the likely existence of heart disease for both men and women. However, resting ECG being either normal or hyper and slope being flat are potential high risk factors for women only. For men, on the other hand, only a single rule expressing resting ECG being hyper was shown to be a significant factor. This means, for women, resting ECG status is a key distinct factor for heart disease prediction. Comparing the healthy status of men and women, slope being up, number of coloured vessels being zero, and oldpeak being less than or equal to 0.56 indicate a healthy status for both genders.     

Cyanogenic potential of fresh and frozen cassava on retail sale in three Irish cities: a snapshot survey

Imported cassava roots can be found on retail sale in several Irish cities and towns. Fresh roots (n = 36 roots) and peeled frozen root pieces (n = 28 packs) were randomly purchased from five retailers in Belfast, Dublin and Limerick and assayed for cyanogenic potential (CNp). Total CNp of fresh root parenchyma varied from 37.5 to 242.9 mg kg^?1 as HCN, dry weight basis – dwb), averaging 104.4 mg kg^?1 HCN (dwb). Total CNp of frozen root parenchyma (n = 28 packs) ranged from 28.5 to 258.6 mg kg^?1 HCN (dwb), averaging 81.7 mg kg^?1 HCN (dwb). Around 78% of fresh roots, and 93% of packs of frozen parenchyma, complied with the Codex Alimentarius definition of ‘sweet’ cassava, but most (86.1% and 64.3%, respectively) exceeded European Union NETTOX recommendations for total CNp. In around one‐third of frozen parenchyma packs, nonglycosidic cyanogens accounted for 83–100% of total CNp. The toxicological implications are briefly discussed.     

Discovery of Structural and Functional Features in RNA Pseudoknots

An RNA pseudoknot consists of nonnested double-stranded stems connected by single-stranded loops. There is increasing recognition that RNA pseudoknots are one of the most prevalent RNA structures and fulfill a diverse set of biological roles within cells, and there is an expanding rate of studies into RNA pseudoknotted structures as well as increasing allocation of function. These not only produce valuable structural data but also facilitate an understanding of structural and functional characteristics in RNA molecules. PseudoBase is a database providing structural, functional, and sequence data related to RNA pseudoknots. To capture the features of RNA pseudoknots, we present a novel framework using quantitative association rule mining to analyze the pseudoknot data. The derived rules are classified into specified association groups regarding structure, function, and category of RNA pseudoknots. The discovered association rules assist biologists in filtering out significant knowledge of structure-function and structure-category relationships. A brief biological interpretation to the relationships is presented, and their potential correlations with each other are highlighted.     

Detecting inconsistency in biological molecular databases using ontologies

The rapid growth of life science databases demands the fusion of knowledge from heterogeneous databases to answer complex biological questions. The discrepancies in nomenclature, various schemas and incompatible formats of biological databases, however, result in a significant lack of interoperability among databases. Therefore, data preparation is a key prerequisite for biological database mining. Integrating diverse biological molecular databases is an essential action to cope with the heterogeneity of biological databases and guarantee efficient data mining. However, the inconsistency in biological databases is a key issue for data integration. This paper proposes a framework to detect the inconsistency in biological databases using ontologies. A numeric estimate is provided to measure the inconsistency and identify those biological databases that are appropriate for further mining applications. This aids in enhancing the quality of databases and guaranteeing accurate and efficient mining of biological databases.     

Evolution, emotions, and emotional disorders.

Emotions research is now routinely grounded in evolution, but explicit evolutionary analyses of emotions remain rare. This article considers the implications of natural selection for several classic questions about emotions and emotional disorders. Emotions are special modes of operation shaped by natural selection. They adjust multiple response parameters in ways that have increased fitness in adaptively challenging situations that recurred over the course of evolution. They are valenced because selection shapes special processes for situations that have influenced fitness in the past. In situations that decrease fitness, negative emotions are useful and positive emotions are harmful. Selection has partially differentiated subtypes of emotions from generic precursor states to deal with specialized situations. This has resulted in untidy emotions that blur into each other on dozens of dimensions, rendering the quest for simple categorically distinct emotions futile. Selection has shaped flexible mechanisms that control the expression of emotions on the basis of an individual's appraisal of the meaning of events for his or her ability to reach personal goals. The prevalence of emotional disorders can be attributed to several evolutionary factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)