Heterozygotic loss of SYK, a non-receptor tyrosine kinase, gives rise to mouse mammary tumor formation where Syk protein levels are reduced by about half; loss of SYK mRNA is correlated with invasive cell behavior in in vitro models; and SYK loss has been correlated with distant metastases in patients. Here, allelic loss of the SYK gene was explored in breast ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) using fluorescence in situ hybridization and pyrosequencing, respectively, and in infiltrating ductal carcinoma (IDC) using genomic data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Allelic loss was present in a subset of DCIS cases where adjacent IDC was present. SYK copy number loss was found in about 26% of 1002 total breast cancer cases and 30% of IDC cases. Quantitative immunofluorescence revealed Syk protein to be six-fold higher in infiltrating immune cells compared with epithelial cells. This difference distorted tumor cell mRNA and protein levels in extracts. 20% of 1002 IDC cases contained elevated immune cell infiltration as estimated by elevated immune-specific mRNAs. In cases without immune cell infiltration, loss of SYK copy number was associated with a significant reduction of SYK mRNA. Here we define a 55 Gene Set consisting of Syk interacting, motility- and invasion-related genes. We found that overall survival was significantly reduced in IDC and Luminal A+B cases where copy number and mutations of these 55 genes were affected (Kaplan-Meier, Logrank test p-value 0.007141 and Logrank test p-value 0.001198, respectively). We conclude that reduction in Syk expression and contributions of genomic instability to copy number and mutations in the 55 Syk interacting genes significantly contribute to poorer overall patient survival. A closer examination of the role of Syk interacting motility and invasion genes and their prognostic and/or causative association with metastatic disease and patient outcome is warranted.

Currently, the Endangered Species Act is falling short of its potential. Even though the Endangered Species Act has provided protection for endangered and threatened species and helped some species to recover and even thrive, the fact that most listed species’ habitat is on private land remains a hurdle that has not yet been overcome. In fact, the stringent requirements imposed upon private landowners often put endangered and threatened species at risk as some private landowners will use any means possible to stop the government from finding endangered or threatened species on their land. Because of this, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service should consider implementing a policy of collaborative management to ensure that protected species receive the protection they need to recover and thrive. To do this, the agency should consider applications by private landowners to participate in the collaborative process on a case-by-case basis and work with a strong, preferably neutral, entity to ensure that no individual stakeholder—whether government, company, or individual—takes advantage of the collaborative process. These policies can be best implemented through the Endangered Species Act’s experimental populations clause before moving the collaborative-management policy towards broader implementation across other areas of the Endangered Species Act. Right now, the question is no longer if agencies can implement collaborative strategies, but how these agencies can begin the process of reforming their regulations to include collaboration. Therefore, this Article offers recommendations on how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service can implement collaborative management to best protect both endangered and threatened species and provide incentives to private landowners to participate in the process.

Plasmonic nanostructures, functioning as nanoantenna reactors to highly focus light and efficiently convert it into thermal/chemical energy, have a significant potential for sustainable solar water disinfection (SODIS). A high-density plasmonic nanogap-based reactor array opens a way of maximizing the photothermal effect, but achieving uniformity and large density in such a technology while scaling up remains challenging. In this study, we provide an integrative plasmonic dimer array (hPDA) that is uniform and has high density ensuring significantly enhanced SODIS performance. The hPDA is constructed by a combined fabrication of the self-assembled monolayer and block copolymer lithography approaches. This combination leads to a twodimensional hexagonal array of the Au dimer structures consisting of a 1.3 nm nanogap. The uniformity and high density of nanogaps of the hPDA result in the physically and optically stabilized dimer array, which allows strong light focusing and a rapid and highly efficient harvesting of photothermal energy in the visible region. Finally, the integrated hPDA with an optofluidic reactor enables 5-fold enhanced Escherichia coli (E. coli) disinfection. We anticipate that the hPDA will be useful in the scalable sustainable energy and environmental process that converts solar energy.

This report presents results of a study investigating the groundwater laws and regulations of thirteen U.S. states. The report is actually the second edition of the study following amendments made to the first edition in response to extensive feedback and reviews solicited from practitioners, academics, and other professionals working in the field of water law from across the country. The purpose of the project is to compile and present the groundwater laws and regulations of every state in the United States that could then be used in a series of comparisons of groundwater governance principles, strategies, issues, and challenges. Professor Gabriel Eckstein at Texas A&M University School of Law and Professor Amy Hardberger at Saint Mary’s University Law School developed a matrix to ascertain chief components and characteristics of the groundwater legal regime of each state. Student researchers then used the matrix to respond to a standardized set of questions about the groundwater laws and regulations of a selection of states. In the near future, additional volumes with surveys of other U.S. states will be issued.

This report is the second volume in a continuing project designed to explore and articulate the groundwater laws and regulations of all fifty U.S. states. This particular report presents surveys for sixteen states throughout the country. The first volume featured thirteen state surveys and can be found at: http://www.law.tamu.edu/usgroundwaterlaws. The purpose of the project is to compile and present the groundwater laws and regulations of every state in the United States that could then be used in a series of comparisons of groundwater governance principles, strategies, issues, and challenges. Professor Gabriel Eckstein at Texas A&M University School of Law and Professor Amy Hardberger at Texas Tech University School of Law developed a matrix to ascertain chief components and characteristics of the groundwater legal regime of each state. Student researchers then used the matrix to respond to a standardized set of questions about the groundwater laws and regulations of a selection of states. In the near future, additional volumes with surveys of the remaining twenty-one U.S. states will be issued.