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Antioxidants are substances that prevent oxidation of other compounds or neutralize free radicals. Spices and herbs are rich sources of antioxidants which are used in food and beverages such as tea to enhance flavor, aroma and color. Antioxidant potential of the spices and herbs extracts was analyzed as contents of total phenols and flavonoids; and reducing power by the ferric reducing antioxidant power assay (FRAP). For the 4 spices and 2 herbs evaluated, crude protein was highest in clove (46.94 ± 1.15mg/ml) followed by tulsi (15.36 ± 0.31mg/ml), fennel (14.17 ± 1.05mg/ml), black pepper (13.43 ± 2.12mg/ml), cinnamon (7.62 ± 0.22mg/ml) and mint (3.07 ± 0.12mg/ml). Carbohydrates levels differed between all spices and herbs with tulsi (10.02 ± 0.84mg/ml) having high carbohydrate levels followed by fennel (9.99 ± 0.88mg/ml) and black pepper (8.19 ± 0.mg/ml 79) whereas mint (5.89 ± 0.37mg/ml), cinnamon (4.68 ± 0.44mg/ml) and clove (4.46 ± 0.76mg/ml) had low carbohydrate levels.The significantly higher level of phenolics (118.3 mg ± 21.21mg TAE/gm) and flavonoids (57.16 ± 2.12mg AAE/gm) was reported in clove (p≤ 0.05) as compared to other spices and herbs studied. The clove has significantly high antioxidative capacity (32.73 ± 0.84mg AAE/gm) (p≤ 0.05) than all other spices and herbs studied in the present study.

Advancement in next-generation sequencing, transcriptomics, proteomics and other high-throughput technologies has enabled simultaneous measurement of multiple types of genomic data for cancer samples. These data together may reveal new biological insights as compared to analyzing one single genome type data. This study proposes a novel use of supervised dimension reduction method, called sliced inverse regression, to multi-omics data analysis to improve prediction over a single data type analysis. The study further proposes an integrative sliced inverse regression method (integrative SIR) for simultaneous analysis of multiple omics data types of cancer samples, including MiRNA, MRNA and proteomics, to achieve integrative dimension reduction and to further improve prediction performance. Numerical results show that integrative analysis of multi-omics data is beneficial as compared to single data source analysis, and more importantly, that supervised dimension reduction methods possess advantages in integrative data analysis in terms of classification and prediction as compared to unsupervised dimension reduction methods.

Early adolescence- roughly between the ages 10 and 14 is a time in the life span in which individuals undergo a myriad of changes at different levels, such as changes due to cognitive development, physical development and psychosocial development. The present study investigates the influence of peer relationships on the happiness of early adolescents. This is a non-experimental study that describes the correlation between two variables using a survey method. The study was conducted on 100 participants (50 males and 50 females) between the ages of 10 to 14 years. The IPPA (Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment) (Armsden, G.C., & Greenberg, M.T.1987) was used in order to assess the adolescents’ perceptions of the relationship with their close friends- particularly how well these figures serve as sources of psychological security (Reliability = 0.91; Validity = 0.57). The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (Hills, P., & Argyle, M.2002) was administered in order to assess the current level of happiness in adolescents (Reliability = 0.92). Statistical analysis was done using Pearson’s product moment correlation, independent samples t test, one-way analysis of variance and simple linear regression. The results of the data analyzed using Pearson’s correlation revealed a positive correlation between peer relationships and the happiness level of early adolescents. However, based on gender and other demographic variables, the groups did not significantly differ. The study also found that the peer relationships among the adolescents predicted their current happiness level by 18%. Although the sample is small and limited to a specific geographical area, the results emphasize the importance of understanding the impact of peer relationships on the emotional well-being (happiness) of early adolescents. This study is relevant when identifying and working with individuals who are at risk for maladaptive outcomes such as social withdrawal and emotional distress, who lack healthy peer attachments.

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