Pharmacologically active derivatives of anthranilic acid occurring naturally in essential oils

Volatile anthranilic acid derivatives are important in the perfume industry since the second half of the 19th century. Methyl N-methylanthranilate (MMA) is the key component of neroli essential oil and it is present in other plants of the family Rutaceae. During the first decade of the 20th century, MMA was sold by several important perfume suppliers such as Schimmel, Van Dyk & Co, W.J. Blush & Co. but very little was known about its pharmacological/toxicological properties. Methyl (MMA) and isopropyl (IMA) esters of N-methylanthranilic acid have been recently identified in the essential oil of Choisya ternata Kunth (Rutaceae) (Fig. 1) [1]. Both of these volatile alkaloids have been proven to possess diverse pharmacological activities, including antinociceptive [1,2], anti-inflammatory [3], gastro-, hepato- and nephroprotective activities [4-6], anxiolytic and anti-depressant properties, as well as an effect on diazepam-induced sleep [7]. Although the toxicity of MMA has been previously investigated [2,8], there are only scarce data on the toxicity of IMA. In one of our previous studies [2], no signs of toxicity of IMA and MMA in mice (100 mg kg-1, p.o., 5-day study) were observed. Additionally, pathohistological examinations revealed no signs of liver toxicity or other signs of toxicity. When the metabolization studies were undertaken it could be concluded that generally, MMA and IMA suffer analogous biotransformation pathways; however, MMA predominantly underwent chemical conversions of the ester group, i.e. transformation into derivatives of anthranilamide and anthranilic acid, while the major metabolic pathway of IMA was hydroxylation of the aromatic core [9]

A semi-analytic model comparison: testing cooling models against hydrodynamical simulations

We compare predictions of cooled masses and cooling rates from three stripped-down Semi-Analytic Models (SAMs) of galaxy formation with the results of N-body+SPH simulations with gas particle mass of 3.9x10^6 Msun, where radiative cooling of a gas of primordial composition is implemented. We also run a simulation where cooling is switched on at redshift ~2, in order to test cooling models in a regime in which their approximations are expected to be valid. We confirm that cooling models implemented in SAMs are able to predict the amount of cooled mass at z=0 to within ~20 per cent. However, some relevant discrepancies are found. (i) When the contribution from poorly resolved halos is subtracted out, SAMs tend to under-predict by ~30 per cent the mass that cools in the infall-dominated regime. (ii) At large halo masses SAMs tend to over-predict cooling rates, though the numerical result may be affected by the use of SPH. (iii) As found in our previous work, cooling rates are found to be significantly affected by model details: simulations disfavour models with large cores and with quenching of cooling at major mergers. (iv) When cooling is switched on at z~2, cold gas accumulates very quickly in the simulated halos. This accumulation is reproduced by SAMs with varying degrees of accuracy.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures, accepted by MNRA

Isolation of major flavonoids from Kazakhstan endemic plant Crataegus almaatensis Pojark by high speed counter-current chromatography and their quantification by HPLC.

Introduction: Hawthorn (Crataegus L.) is a well-known widely used medicinal plant with more than 280 species that are spread in all over the world [1]. There are seven species of Crataegus growing in the Kazakhstan flora, from which only Crataegus almaatensis Pojark (C. almaatensis) is an endemic one. It is a dense, spiny tree up to 3-4 m tall producing dense white colored flowers.  It is spread in the foothills of Ile-Alataumountains inAlmaty [2,3]. Crataegus is used as an alternative medicine for ailments of the cardiovascular, digestive and endocrine systems[4]. These plants are rich in biologic active compounds, such as flavonoids, hydrocinnamic acids, sugars, organic or phenolic acids, terpenes and essential oils [5]. There are a few scientific studies on the biochemistry of cultivated C. almaatensis fruits, focused on the determination of carotene, bioflavonoids, sugar and organic acids contents [6,7]. There is no full-scale study of the C. almaatensis to date. The authors of this work, from Kazakhstan and from two other European Universities are carrying out joint scientific full-scale studies with this endemic plant. . The aim of this study is to present preliminary results on isolationand quantification of the main constituents of C. almaatensis flowers, leaves and fruits by means of high speed counter current chromatography (HSCCC) and HPLC respectively. Methods and Results:The HSCCC was performed using an instrument IntroPrepTM (Quattro). The solvent system HEMWat was chosen according to the partitioning of the constituents of the plant material on a TLC analysis. Identification of the isolated compounds was carried out by means of different NMR spectra. Reverse phase HPLC system (Waters) was used for the quantification of the isolated compounds using the following mobile phase: (A) 40mM potassium dihydrogen phosphate (pH 2.3 with 85% Orthophosphoric acid); (B) Methanol, 0-52.5 min 95%A-5%B; 52.5-57 min 58%A-42%B; 57-60 min 95%A-5%B, with a flow of 1ml/min. Two main flavonoids hyperoside and quercetin-3-O-rhamnoside were isolated and identified. The quantity of hyperoside was determined to be 19.79±0.36 mg/g, 14.70±0.37 mg/g and 0.27±0.01 mg/g for flowers, leaves and fruits respectively. The concentration of quercetin-3-O-rhamnoside in the extract was found to decrease from leaves (51.00±0.92mg/g) to flowers (1.23±0.05 mg/g)to fruits (almost undetectable).                             &nbsp

A semi-analytic model comparison - gas cooling and galaxy mergers

We use stripped-down versions of three semi-analytic galaxy formation models to study the influence of different assumptions about gas cooling and galaxy mergers. By running the three models on identical sets of merger trees extracted from high-resolution cosmological N-body simulations, we are able to perform both statistical analyses and halo-by-halo comparisons. Our study demonstrates that there is a good statistical agreement between the three models used here, when operating on the same merger trees, reflecting a general agreement in the underlying framework for semi-analytic models. We also show, however, that various assumptions that are commonly adopted to treat gas cooling and galaxy mergers can lead to significantly different results, at least in some regimes. In particular, we find that the different models adopted for gas cooling lead to similar results for mass scales comparable to that of our own Galaxy. Significant differences, however, arise at larger mass scales. These are largely (but not entirely) due to different treatments of the `rapid cooling' regime, and different assumptions about the hot gas distribution. At this mass regime, the predicted cooling rates can differ up to about one order of magnitude, with important implications on the relative weight that these models give to AGN feedback in order to counter-act excessive gas condensation in relatively massive haloes at low redshift. Different assumptions in the modelling of galaxy mergers can also result in significant differences in the timings of mergers, with important consequences for the formation and evolution of massive galaxies.Comment: 21 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

A Scoping Review on the Therapeutic Potential of Resin From the Species Larix decidua Mill. [Pinaceae] to Treat Ulcerating Wounds.

Malignant ulcerating wounds or neoplastic lesions are a considerable burden for patients suffering from advanced cancer. These wounds have no effective treatment and are very difficult to manage. The present review summarizes evidence in support of a hypothesis put forward in anthroposophic medicine, which suggests a beneficial role of resin from the species Larix decidua Mill. [Pinaceae] for treating such wounds. A systematic search strategy was performed using the databases PubMed, EMBASE and SciFinder. The included publications described the chemical composition of this species, as well as in vitro, in vivo, and ex vivo experiments using plant extracts and isolated compounds. The results show that among the phytochemical classes, terpenoids were the major components of this species, especially in the resin. The summarized biological experiments revealed antimicrobial, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, with promising potential for the extracts and isolated compounds. However, the molecular mechanisms and toxicological effects are as of yet not conclusively evaluated. From the data of our study, we can conclude that L. decidua might indeed have a promising potential for the treatment of malignant wounds, but definitive information that can prove its effectiveness is still lacking. We therefore suggest that future efforts should be dedicated to the evaluation of L. decidua resin's therapeutic use considering its antiseptic action and proposed wound healing properties

Neonatal EEG graded for severity of background abnormalities in hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy

This report describes a set of neonatal electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings graded according to the severity of abnormalities in the background pattern. The dataset consists of 169 hours of multichannel EEG from 53 neonates recorded in a neonatal intensive care unit. All neonates received a diagnosis of hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE), the most common cause of brain injury in full term infants. For each neonate, multiple 1-hour epochs of good quality EEG were selected and then graded for background abnormalities. The grading system assesses EEG attributes such as amplitude and frequency, continuity, sleep--wake cycling, symmetry and synchrony, and abnormal waveforms. Background severity was then categorised into 4 grades: normal or mildly abnormal EEG, moderately abnormal EEG, severely abnormal EEG, and inactive EEG. The data can be used as a reference set of multi-channel EEG for neonates with HIE, for EEG training purposes, or for developing and evaluating automated grading algorithms

Semi-analytic galaxy formation in early dark energy cosmologies

We study the impact of early dark energy (EDE) cosmologies on galaxy properties by coupling high-resolution numerical simulations with semi-analytic modeling (SAM) of galaxy formation and evolution. EDE models are characterized by a non-vanishing high-redshift contribution of dark energy, producing an earlier growth of structures and a modification of large-scale structure evolution. They can be viewed as typical representatives of non-standard dark energy models in which only the expansion history is modified, and hence the impact on galaxy formation is indirect. We show that in EDE cosmologies the predicted space density of galaxies is enhanced at all scales with respect to the standard LCDM scenario, and the corresponding cosmic star formation history and stellar mass density is increased at high-redshift. We compare these results with a set of theoretical predictions obtained with alternative SAMs applied to our reference LCDM simulation, yielding a rough measure of the systematic uncertainty of the models. We find that the modifications in galaxy properties induced by EDE cosmologies are of the same order of magnitude as intra-SAM variations for a standard LCDM realization (unless rather extreme EDE models are considered), suggesting that is difficult to use such predictions alone to disentangle between different cosmological scenarios. However, when independent information on the underlying properties of host dark matter haloes is included, the SAM predictions on galaxy bias may provide important clues on the expansion history and the equation-of-state evolution.Comment: 7 pages; 4 figures, MNRAS submitte

DDO 216-A1: A Central Globular Cluster in a Low-luminosity Transition-type Galaxy

United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (HST GO-13768)United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (AST-1517226)United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (HST-AR-12836)United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (HST-AR-13888)United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (HST-AR-13896

ETN Valued Species and Sites Report

Provide operations and maintenance support to scientific teams initiating studies of valued species, such as Bluefin tuna, European eel, sea bass, sea trout. To achieve this deliverable a workshop will be hold focussing on launching and networking activities