Garden Variety Research Articles

Hepatocellular Carcinoma Associated with Hepatic Venous Outflow Tract Obstruction (HVOTO-HCC): Is it Different from HCC of Viral Etiology?

Background and Aims: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary hepatic malignancy and the third leading cause of cancer related mortality worldwide. More than 80%–90% of HCC has underlying cirrhosis. Advances in non-surgical treatment options for hepatic venous outflow tract obstruction (HVOTO) has led to a dramatic decline in mortality rates leading to the emergence of the entity of HVOTO-HCC. We illustrate the differences with regard to the demography, clinical profile and imaging features of HVOTO-HCC, a rare entity, and compare the features with the garden variety of HCC of viral origin.

Apparent expression of flower colours and internal variation of enzyme activities in some typical phenotypes of dyer's saffron cultivars

Phytochemical screening of four <em>Carthamus </em>pigments in phenotypically different cultivars of dyer's saffron was carried out by means of chromatographic techniques. The pigment composition in the floral part correlated well with the flower colour, supporting these components as idoneous chemotaxonomic markers. Among seven cultivars examined, three were orange-yellow and contained carthamin (red) and precarthamin, safflor yellow A and safflor yellow B (orange-yellow) (type 0). There were bright-yellow and also had the above four pigments (type Y). The seventh cultivar was ivory-white and produced no quinoidal chalcones in the florets (type W). Relative activities of three different enzymes were examined in soluble protein extracts from etiolated seedlings of the garden varieties. Monophenol monooxygenase (EC 1.14.18.1) and peroxidase (EC 1.11.1.7.) were distributed over all cultivars tested. The relative level of the enzyme activities could be ordered as follows: type 0, type W and type Y. The activity of a carthamin-synthesizing enzyme was found in the protein extracts from all garden forms examined. Its activity was most prominent in type O. The activity level in type W was inferior to that of type O. The catalytic intensity in type Y was found to even lower. The results were discussed as to the composition of the phenotypic markers and the distribution of the enzyme activities in three different garden forms of dyer's saffron cultivars.

Saga of leptin: A tribute to douglas l coleman (1931-2014)

Douglas L Colman with his pioneering research studies, using obese parabiotic (ob/ob and db/db) mice, had laid a strong foundation for the subsequent identification of his hypothesized Satiety factor as the adipose tissue-secreted hormone, leptin. His research continues to have far-reaching impact on the way biomedical investigators explore and research the area of Obesity/Adiposity and physicians evaluate and treat Hunan Obesity. There is a revolutionary change in the concept of the adipose tissue from a mere store-house of fat to it being a major endocrine organ. Though the use of recombinant human leptin in the so-called garden variety of obesity (common obesity) has failed to have a major therapeutic impact, its use in certain leptin-deficiency syndromes, such as lipodystrohy-disorders, hypolaptinimc hypothalamic amenorrhea etc., has shown a reversal of the associated endocrine-metabolic and reproductive dysfunctions. It is however, unfortunate that the recombinant leptin is majorly an orphan drug and is not uniformly available to a large number of lipodystrophic patients throughout the world. This article briefly summarizes the pleotropic role of leptin and describes the current expansion of the therapeutic applications of recombinant leptin not only as a mono-therapy, but as an adjuvant in weight management programs targeted for common obesity.

Expanding the Therapeutic Frontier in Atherosclerosis

Expanding the Therapeutic Frontier in Atherosclerosis

Knowing the Name of Something Versus Knowing Something

Knowing the Name of Something Versus Knowing Something Ye Wang (bio) Assessing Literacy in Deaf Individuals: Neurocognitive Measurement and Predictors. Donna Morere and Thomas Allen (Eds.). Springer, 2013. 268 pp. $129.00 (hardcover), $99.00 (e-book). The American physicist Richard Feynman once said, “I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.” In an educational context, simply knowing a child’s label or diagnosis might not be the same as understanding the child’s experience or the areas where additional support might be needed. In the case of students who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing, then, can we predict a child’s literacy proficiency based on measures of hearing loss? That is, should we profile the literacy proficiency of students who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing based solely on their hearing loss? If hearing loss alone cannot fully predict the literacy proficiency of students who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing, what are other predictors? In Assessing Literacy in Deaf Individuals: Neurocognitive Measurement and Predictors, editors Donna Morere and Thomas Allen, along with a large group of contributing authors, describe and report the findings of a Toolkit project undertaken at the Science of Learning Center in Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2), at Gallaudet University. The purpose of the Toolkit project was to investigate the predictors of literacy proficiency among a garden variety of cognitive, linguistic, and academic factors with 90 deaf Gallaudet students whose primary mode of communication was American Sign Language (ASL). It was one of the most comprehensive literacy measurements with the same group of deaf individuals to date. One of the most valuable contributions of the project was the wide range of predictors of literacy proficiency that were involved (see below). Chapters 1 and 2 of the book introduce the rationale for the Toolkit project, its procedures, and the background characteristics of the participants. Chapters 3–12 present the Toolkit measures from three major categories: cognitive functioning, academic achievement, and linguistic functioning. Each Toolkit measure is described, and a statistical analysis of the psychometric properties of the measure is provided. Chapter 13 presents the results of a factor analysis of the Toolkit measures, combining the results with data from the background questionnaire in an investigation of the interrelationships among the selected background characteristics and the participants’ performance on the psychometric measures. Factor analysis was used in the project (a) to reduce the wide range of measures in the Toolkit to a set of cohesive factors relating to cognition, achievement, and language; and (b) to detect underlying structure in the relationships among these factors and identify their potential role in the learning and development of the participants. The factor analysis of Toolkit measures revealed 10 factors related to literacy proficiency of the participants, ranging from 15.4% to 4.6% of the variance, in the following descending order: (1) letter and word knowledge, (2) academic fluency, (3) working memory/executive functioning, (4) speech-based phonology/short-term memory, (5) sign-based linguistic learning and memory, (6) visuospatial short-term memory, (7) visuospatial reasoning/nonverbal intelligence, (8) visuospatial working memory, (9) ASL-based retrieval, and (10) mental rotation. The project also included a multivariate analysis of variance to identify variables’ demonstrated multivariate significance in participants’ early communication and language experience. Predictably, early [End Page 468] exposure to spoken English, ASL, or both yielded significant boosts in multiple factors. Dishearteningly, however, only 5 of the 90 participants reported that they had learned both English and ASL before starting school. The findings confirm many long-standing conclusions about the general cognitive functioning of individuals who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing, the role of working memory in literacy and academic skill development, and the interrelationship between language and reading. For example, measures of general cognitive functioning suggested that the participants performed in a manner similar to hearing populations instead of demonstrating characteristics unique to deaf populations. Furthermore, measures of memory and learning revealed that all aspects of working memory were important for academic skill development. And, significantly for this population, reading in all of its forms, including word recognition, reading fluency, and text comprehension, was undoubtedly associated...

MANAGEMENT OF ENDOCRINE DISEASE: GH therapy and cancer risk in hypopituitarism: what we know from human studies

It has been difficult to identify factors that affect the risk of cancer, but we know that people are at higher risk as they get older, or if they have a strong family history of cancer. The potential influence of environmental and behavioral factors remains poorly understood. Early population-based and case–control studies suggested that higher serum levels of IGF1 could be associated with increased cancer risk. Since GH therapy increases IGF1 levels, concern has been raised regarding its potential role as a cancer initiation factor. Experimental evidence and some clinical studies showed that when GH/IGF1 secretion or action was inhibited, a decreased incidence and rate of progression of cancers occurred. However, human populations comprise a garden variety of genotypes that respond differently to the same kind of exposures. Human population studies frequently reveal only very small effects to these exposures. So, are GH and cancer guilty by association? After more than 20 years, leukemia, a major safety issue initially believed associated with GH treatment in children with GH deficiency (GHD), has not been confirmed but the risk of second malignancies in patients previously treated with irradiation has been detected or confirmed through the National Cooperative Growth Study. Overall, this large study confirmed the favorable overall safety profile of GH therapy in children with GHD, and also highlighted specific populations at potential risk. The risk of secondary malignancy following radiotherapy is surely related to radiotherapy more than GH therapy that may increase growth but is less likely to start the oncogenic process. In GH-deficient adults treated with GH, observational studies (KIMS, HypoCCS) have shown that when IGF1 levels were targeted within normal age-related reference ranges, the occurrence of malignancies was not higher than in the general population.

The Road to Song Mao: Transnational Litigation from South-East Asia

The Supreme Court’s decision in Kiobel v Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. (“Kiobel”) has been extensively critiqued through the lens of United States (“US”) law, policy and jurisprudence. The lament that Kiobel has “destroy(ed) an entire juridical edifice for redressing gross violations of human rights” in US courts, however, should not eclipse the fact that redress can, and at times should, be secured elsewhere. In my view, Kiobel rightly adjusts the aperture of transnational corporate accountability away from the US – hitherto the default venue – and towards regional and foreign jurisdictions where violations occur or where accomplices reside. This article examines a transnational human rights litigation (“THRL”) case regarding land evictions in Cambodia that has been accepted for adjudication by the United Kingdom (“UK”) High Court. Song Mao v Tate & Lyle Sugar Industries (“Song Mao”), I argue, reinforces and refines three crucial lessons that can be gleaned from Kiobel. First, domestic and regional processes should be the first port of call when seeking redress for business-related human rights abuse. Second, once such processes are exhausted, recourse can be sought through THRL against transnational corporations and before foreign courts that have a nexus to the claim. Third, THRL should be premised on an appropriate cause of action, however pedestrian it may seem. Garden variety tort claims may be more effective at a liminal stage than torts rooted in jus cogens norms as foreign courts may find the latter to be incompatible with comity, especially without statutes akin to the Alien Tort Claims Act (“ATS”).

Lack of structure in the gene pool of the highly polyploid ornamental chrysanthemum

Selection of clonally propagated chrysanthemums is mostly performed on F1 hybrids using phenotypic characteristics without the use of molecular information. We applied 448 amplified fragment length polymorphism markers to a set of 81 accessions, mainly from the European gene pool, covering the different horticultural types (cut, pot and garden varieties) and originating from the most important European chrysanthemum breeders. The average pairwise genetic similarity of 0.69 was moderate to rather high. Neighbour-joining clustering resulted in no grouping of the accessions, either by their common origin or their horticultural type, or by similarities in important phenotypic characteristics. The structure of the dendrogram could not be supported by bootstrap analysis. Furthermore, network analysis using SplitsTree, principal coordinate analysis via DARwin or analysis of the population with structure did not differentiate reliable and invariable clusters. Therefore, we tested the marker saturation by plotting the mean coefficient of variation for every pairwise similarity of the bootstrap analysis against the different numbers of markers. We showed that the number of markers is sufficient for a precise estimate of genetic similarity and that the lack of bootstrap support is not due to a low genetic diversity or a lack of marker information, but most likely resulted from the breeding history of the cultivars, involving repeated backcrosses and the exchange of genotypes between breeders.

Children’s Readiness Gains in Publically Funded, Community-Based Pre-kindergarten Programs for 4 Year Olds and Preschool for 3 Year Olds

Many states provide public funding to facilitate school readiness for community-based pre-K and preschool programs for 4 year old children and ‘at risk’ 3 year old children. Little research exists on the school readiness gains of children participating in these “garden variety” community-based programs. The current study evaluated the child outcome gains in cognitive, communication and social/learning domains of 4 year old pre-K children and 3 year old preschool children participating in publicly funded, community-based programs. A sample of 132 children (86 four year olds and 46 three year olds) participating in publicly funded community pre-K and preschool programs were assessed at the beginning and end of the year. Paired samples t tests were conducted to determine if the mean scores on posttests were significantly different than pretests on measures using SPSS software. Findings revealed the 4 year old children significantly increased their standard scores (SS) in cognitive, receptive vocabulary and social–emotional development. No change in SS was reported on the communication subtest. There was no statistically significant change in SS of the 3 year olds in any of the areas assessed. Children attending the “garden variety” publicly supported community based pre-K programs make notable gains in school readiness, but growth rates remained stable for the 3 year olds. Mean scores at pretest on some of the subtests were below average indicating the programs are reaching at-risk children. Findings suggest differences in the structural variables of the two programs may have contributed to the outcomes.

Comparison of Two New Mouse Models of Polygenic Type 2 Diabetes at the Jackson Laboratory, NONcNZO10Lt/J and TALLYHO/JngJ

This review compares two novel polygenic mouse models of type 2 diabetes (T2D), TALLYHO/JngJ and NONcNZO10/LtJ, and contrasts both with the well-known C57BLKS/J-Leprdb (db/db) monogenic diabesity model. We posit that the new polygenic models are more representative of the “garden variety” obesity underlying human T2D in terms of their polygenetic rather than monogenic etiology. Moreover, the clinical phenotypes in these new models are less extreme, for example, more moderated development of obesity coupled with less extreme endocrine disturbances. The more progressive development of obesity produces a maturity-onset development of hyperglycemia in contrast to the juvenile-onset diabetes observed in the morbidly obese db/db model. Unlike the leptin receptor-deficient db/db models with central leptin resistance, the new models develop a progressive peripheral leptin resistance and are able to maintain reproductive function. Although the T2D pathophysiology in both TALLYHO/JngJ and NONcNZO10/LtJ is remarkably similar, their genetic etiologies are clearly different, underscoring the genetic heterogeneity underlying T2D in humans.

A Rethink of Investor-State Dispute Settlement

The paper appraises the recent trends towards mediation in investor-state dispute settlement as arbitration is becoming increasingly more formalised as ‘liti-arbitration’ or ‘arbitral litigation’. This is based on several important recent ADR surverys in the USA, EU and Asia-Pacific. The paper points out the failure to understand the desirable style of mediation in such cases as there is a garden variety of mediation styles and very often little care is taken of their respective suitability by proposers while justifying their adoption. It is proposed here that an evaluative-facilitative mediation (EFM) in a structured and sequential manner will prove useful for investor-state disputes for various important reasons which are highlighted. It is also proposed that if mediation reaches an impasse, arbitration can be resorted to as a fallback (i.e. Med-Arb) with the same person as the mediator and arbitrator or a different person as the arbitrator as the parties might agree.

List Media: The Telephone Directory and the Arranging of Names

List Media: The Telephone Directory and the Arranging of Names

Matrix Disruptions, Growth, and Degradation of Cartilage with Impaired Sulfation

Diastrophic dysplasia (DTD) is an incurable recessive chondrodysplasia caused by mutations in the SLC26A2 transporter responsible for sulfate uptake by chondrocytes. The mutations cause undersulfation of glycosaminoglycans in cartilage. Studies of dtd mice with a knock-in Slc26a2 mutation showed an unusual progression of the disorder: net undersulfation is mild and normalizing with age, but the articular cartilage degrades with age and bones develop abnormally. To understand underlying mechanisms, we studied newborn dtd mice. We developed, verified and used high-definition infrared hyperspectral imaging of cartilage sections at physiological conditions, to quantify collagen and its orientation, noncollagenous proteins, and chondroitin chains, and their sulfation with 6-μm spatial resolution and without labeling. We found that chondroitin sulfation across the proximal femur cartilage varied dramatically in dtd, but not in the wild type. Corresponding undersulfation of dtd was mild in most regions, but strong in narrow articular and growth plate regions crucial for bone development. This undersulfation correlated with the chondroitin synthesis rate measured via radioactive sulfate incorporation, explaining the sulfation normalization with age. Collagen orientation was reduced, and the reduction correlated with chondroitin undersulfation. Such disorientation involved the layer of collagen covering the articular surface and protecting cartilage from degradation. Malformation of this layer may contribute to the degradation progression with age and to collagen and proteoglycan depletion from the articular region, which we observed in mice already at birth. The results provide clues to in vivo sulfation, DTD treatment, and cartilage growth.

Complexity generation during natural product biosynthesis using redox enzymes.

Redox enzymes such as FAD-dependent and cytochrome P450 oxygenases play indispensible roles in generating structural complexity during natural product biosynthesis. In the pre-assembly steps, redox enzymes can convert garden variety primary metabolites into unique starter and extender building blocks. In the post-assembly tailoring steps, redox cascades can transform nascent scaffolds into structurally complex final products. In this review, we will discuss several recently characterized redox enzymes in the biosynthesis of polyketides and nonribosomal peptides.

Letter by Forfia and Borlaug Regarding Article, “Pulmonary Hypertension in Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction: A Target of Phosphodiesterase-5 Inhibition in a 1-Year Study”

To the Editor: We greatly enjoyed the elegant and informative study from Guazzi et al,1 identifying dramatic improvements in cardiopulmonary function among patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH) due to heart failure (HF) with preserved ejection fraction (PH-HFpEF) after treatment with the phosphodiesterase type-5 inhibitor sildenafil. These results are very exciting, particularly in the absence of established treatments for HFpEF, and they provide key preliminary evidence supporting the use of phosphodiesterase type-5 inhibitor compounds in this context. However, the characteristics of the subjects enrolled in this study are not typical of garden variety HFpEF or even PH-HFpEF patients, raising questions regarding the broad applicability of these data. In the study of Guazzi and colleagues, the mean central venous pressure (CVP) was …

Epigenetic Targeting in Cancer: Garden Variety Instructions?

Epigenetic Targeting in Cancer: Garden Variety Instructions?

Hearing How Smooth It Looks: Selective Attention and Crossmodal Perception in the Arts

Hearing How Smooth It Looks: Selective Attention and Crossmodal Perception in the Arts

Polymorphonuclear Neutrophils Move into the Fast Lane in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Polymorphonuclear Neutrophils Move into the Fast Lane in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Property Dualism and Substance Dualism

I attempt to rebut Dean Zimmerman's novel argument (2010), which he presents in support of substance dualism, for the conclusion that, in spite of its popularity, the combination of property dualism with substance materialism represents a precarious position in the philosophy of mind. I take issue with Zimmerman's contention that the vagueness of ‘garden variety’ material objects such as brains or bodies makes them unsuitable candidates for the possession of phenomenal properties. I also argue that the ‘speculative materialism’ that is available to a substance materialist property dualist who abandons the identification of persons with such garden variety objects is significantly more attractive than Zimmerman allows. Although I do not attempt to refute its substance dualist rival, I conclude that the combination of property dualism with substance materialism can withstand Zimmerman's objections.

The world of the Renaissance herbal

AbstractA herbal is a treatise on medicinal plants; the intended audience was traditionally one of doctors and apothecaries, and the purpose was to enable them to know which plants to use for medical purposes, and how to identify them in the field. In the 1530s appeared the first herbals for which artists were employed to draw plants from real specimens, rather than simply copying older illustrations – which, as a result of generations of manuscript copying, were not useful for practical identification purposes. Herbals became a genre with a strong market, and all the publishing traditions of plagiarism and competition can be traced during the course of the 16th and 17th centuries. They also became the focus for one aspect of the rediscovery of the classical past: the endeavour to rediscover the works of Pliny and Dioscorides, and the attempt to determine accurately which plants those authors had described – for there was no significant concept of geographical distribution in the early 16th century, until previously unknown plants began to be introduced from the Americas. As the interest in both classical botany and new plants spread, the market for herbals widened, and they began to include information on garden varieties, thus providing a record of European horticultural activity.