Fatty liver in familial hypobetalipoproteinemia: Triglyceride assembly into VLDL particles is affected by the extent of hepatic steatosis

Familial hypobetalipoproteinemia (FHBL) subjects may develop fatty liver. Liver fat was assessed in 21 FHBL with six different apolipoprotein B (apoB) truncations (apoB-4 to apoB-89) and 14 controls by magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). Liver fat percentages were 16.7 ± 11.5 and 3.3 ± 2.9 (mean ± SD) (P = 0.001). Liver fat percentage was positively correlated with body mass index, waist circumference, and areas under the insulin curves of 2 h glucose tolerance tests, suggesting that obesity may affect the severity of liver fat accumulation in both groups. Despite 5-fold differences in liver fat percentage, mean values for obesity and insulin indexes were similar. Thus, for similar degrees of obesity, FHBL subjects have more hepatic fat. VLDL-triglyceride (TG)-fatty acids arise from plasma and nonplasma sources (liver and splanchnic tissues). To assess the relative contributions of each, [2H2] palmitate was infused over 12 h in 13 FHBL subjects and 11 controls. Isotopic enrichment of plasma free palmitate and VLDL-TG-palmitate was determined by mass spectrometry. Nonplasma sources contributed 51 ± 15% in FHBL and 37 ± 13% in controls (P = 0.02). Correlations of liver fat percentage and percent VLDL-TG-palmitate from liver were r = 0.89 (P = 0.0001) for FHBL subjects and r = 0.69 (P = 0.01) for controls. Thus, apoB truncation-producing mutations result in fatty liver and in altered assembly of VLDL-TG

Media coverage and public understanding of sentencing policy in relation to crimes against children

This research examines how the media report on sentences given to those who commit serious crimes against children and how this impacts on public knowledge and attitudes. Three months of press and television coverage were analysed in order to establish the editorial lines that are taken in different sections of the media and how they are promoted by selective reporting of sentencing. Results indicate that a small number of very high profile crimes account for a significant proportion of reporting in this area and often, particularly in the tabloid press, important information regarding sentencing rationale is sidelined in favour of moral condemnation and criticism of the judiciary. Polling data indicate that public attitudes are highly critical of sentencing but also confused about the meaning of tariffs. The article concludes by discussing what can be done to promote a more informed public debate over penal policy in this area

Modeling the R2* relaxivity of blood at 1.5 Tesla

BOLD (Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent) imaging is used in fMRI to show differences in activation of the brain based on the relative changes of the T2* (= 1/R2*) signal of the blood. However, quantification of blood oxygenation level based on the T2* signal has been hindered by the lack of a predictive model which accurately correlates the T2* signal to the oxygenation level of blood. The T2* signal decay in BOLD imaging is generated due to blood containing paramagnetic deoxyhemoglobin (in comparison to diamagnetic oxyhemoglobin). This generates local field inhomogeneities, which cause protons to experience different phase shifts, leading to dephasing and the MR signal decay. The blood T2* signal has been shown to decay with a complex behavior1, termed Non-Lorenztian, and thus is not adequately described by the traditional model of simplemono-exponential decay. Theoretical calculations show that diffusion narrowing substantially affects signal loss in our data. Over the past decade, several theoretical models have been proposed to describe this Non-Lorenztian behavior in the blood T2* signal in BOLD fMRI imaging. The goal of this project was to investigate different models which have been proposed over the years and determine a semi-phenomenological model for the T2* behaviorusing actual MR blood data

Spectrally resolved observations of atmospheric emitted radiance in the H2O rotation band

This paper presents the project Earth Cooling by Water Vapor Radiation, an observational programme, which aims at developing a database of spectrally resolved far infrared observations, in atmospheric dry conditions, in order to validate radiative transfer models and test the quality of water vapor continuum and line parameters. The project provides the very first set of far-infrared spectral downwelling radiance measurements, in dry atmospheric conditions, which are complemented with Raman Lidar-derived temperature and water vapor profiles

Precautionary Regulation in Europe and the United States: A Quantitative Comparison

Much attention has been addressed to the question of whether Europe or the United States adopts a more precautionary stance to the regulation of potential environmental, health, and safety risks. Some commentators suggest that Europe is more risk-averse and precautionary, whereas the US is seen as more risk-taking and optimistic about the prospects for new technology. Others suggest that the US is more precautionary because its regulatory process is more legalistic and adversarial, while Europe is more lax and corporatist in its regulations. The flip-flop hypothesis claims that the US was more precautionary than Europe in the 1970s and early 1980s, and that Europe has become more precautionary since then. We examine the levels and trends in regulation of environmental, health, and safety risks since 1970. Unlike previous research, which has studied only a small set of prominent cases selected non-randomly, we develop a comprehensive list of almost 3,000 risks and code the relative stringency of regulation in Europe and the US for each of 100 risks randomly selected from that list for each year from 1970 through 2004. Our results suggest that: (a) averaging over risks, there is no significant difference in relative precaution over the period, (b) weakly consistent with the flip-flop hypothesis, there is some evidence of a modest shift toward greater relative precaution of European regulation since about 1990, although (c) there is a diversity of trends across risks, of which the most common is no change in relative precaution (including cases where Europe and the US are equally precautionary and where Europe or the US has been consistently more precautionary). The overall finding is of a mixed and diverse pattern of relative transatlantic precaution over the period

Together forever? Explaining exclusivity in party-firm relations

Parties and firms are the key actors of representative democracy and capitalism respectively and the dynamic of attachment between them is a central feature of any political economy. This is the first article to systematically analyse the exclusivity of party-firm relations. We consider exclusivity at a point in time and exclusivity over time. Does a firm have a relationship with only one party at a given point in time, or is it close to more than one party? Does a firm maintain a relationship with only one party over time, or does it switch between parties? Most important, how do patterns of exclusivity impact on a firm’s ability to lobby successfully? We propose a general theory, which explains patterns of party-firm relations by reference to the division of institutions and the type of party competition in a political system. A preliminary test of our theory with Polish survey data confirms our predictions, establishing a promising hypothesis for future research

Validation and Determination of Ice Water Content - Radar Reflectivity Relationships during CRYSTAL-FACE: Flight Requirements for Future Comparisons

In order for clouds to be more accurately represented in global circulation models (GCM), there is need for improved understanding of the properties of ice such as the total water in ice clouds, called ice water content (IWC), ice particle sizes and their shapes. Improved representation of clouds in models will enable GCMs to better predict for example, how changes in emissions of pollutants affect cloud formation and evolution, upper tropospheric water vapor, and the radiative budget of the atmosphere that is crucial for climate change studies. An extensive cloud measurement campaign called CRYSTAL-FACE was conducted during Summer 2002 using instrumented aircraft and a variety of instruments to measure properties of ice clouds. This paper deals with the measurement of IWC using the Harvard water vapor and total water instruments on the NASA WB-57 high-altitude aircraft. The IWC is measured directly by these instruments at the altitude of the WB-57, and it is compared with remote measurements from the Goddard Cloud Radar System (CRS) on the NASA ER-2. CRS measures vertical profiles of radar reflectivity from which IWC can be estimated at the WB-57 altitude. The IWC measurements obtained from the Harvard instruments and CRS were found to be within 20-30% of each other. Part of this difference was attributed to errors associated with comparing two measurements that are not collocated in time an space since both aircraft were not in identical locations. This study provides some credibility to the Harvard and CRS-derived IWC measurements that are in general difficult to validate except through consistency checks using different measurement approaches

Triangle-Free Penny Graphs: Degeneracy, Choosability, and Edge Count

We show that triangle-free penny graphs have degeneracy at most two, list coloring number (choosability) at most three, diameter $D=\Omega(\sqrt n)$, and at most $\min\bigl(2n-\Omega(\sqrt n),2n-D-2\bigr)$ edges.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures. To appear at the 25th International Symposium on Graph Drawing and Network Visualization (GD 2017