Deconstructing and Reconstructing Hot News: Toward a Functional Approach

Hot news is factual, time-sensitive information ranging from baseball scores to the outbreak of war. In recent years, hot news has found its own niche among legal scholars and courts. When deconstructed, though, hot news is simply information and, like most information, it has a public good character. The problem ultimately is that news is non-excludable and non-rivalrous – discoverers or creators of hot news cannot exclude others from using the news and hot news is not destroyed when used. This means it may be produced at levels that are less than optimal.The critical element in hot news is lead time. In periods of less technological sophistication, the discoverer and reporter of news could depend on lead time, even if only a few hours, during which it was the exclusive source of the information. In today’s internet-based world, lead time is nonexistent. The most painstakingly gathered and expensive fact-based research can be re-reported within moments of its publication. This inevitably decreases the incentive to do original reporting. A public response, in the form of state or federal legislation, to a shortage of hot news entails a public investment in a legal regime designed to protect exclusivity for a limited time. During that time, those first discovering the news and reporting it can internalize the benefits of their efforts. When viewed from this perspective, certain standards are important. Society gains the most when hot news is discovered and reported as long as the benefits, however defined, outweigh its costs and those costs are incurred by those most efficient at discovering and producing the news. This leads to several sub-goals. First, there is no reason to protect hot news that would be reported without public intervention. Second, care must be taken to define the type of news that will be protected. In particular, hotnews should have a functional definition – one that is consistent with the goal of ensuring news that otherwise would be stifled by the free-rider effect is published. This is a tall order and it is doubtful that a hot news policy can follow the functional definition completely. Nevertheless, without a target, efforts to develop a sensible hot news policy are likely to fall short of the goal of maximizing useful fact finding and reporting while avoiding unnecessary costs. Although news gathering and reporting has a cost, so does a policy of allowing exclusivity to encourage the same gathering and reporting. For example, during the period of exclusivity, the reporting entity may have a degree of monopoly or market power that allows the entity to increase the cost of access to the information. In addition, others will not be able to report the information themselves even though wider dissemination may be beneficial to the public. Finally, any system of regulation involving an exclusivity policy will create administrative costs. These costs are also part of the analysis.This Article describes the current state of hot news law and examines the issues that must be addressed in developing a functional and a rational approach to hot news. It describes the general requirements of such a system and assesses three proposals explored by the Federal Trade Commission. Finally, it describes the specifics of proposed federal legislation

Deconstructing and Reconstructing Hot News: Toward a Functional Approach

Hot news is factual, time-sensitive information ranging from baseball scores to the outbreak of war. In recent years, hot news has found its own niche among legal scholars and courts. When deconstructed, though, hot news is simply information and, like most information, it has a public good character. The problem ultimately is that news is non-excludable and non-rivalrous – discoverers or creators of hot news cannot exclude others from using the news and hot news is not destroyed when used. This means it may be produced at levels that are less than optimal.The critical element in hot news is lead time. In periods of less technological sophistication, the discoverer and reporter of news could depend on lead time, even if only a few hours, during which it was the exclusive source of the information. In today’s internet-based world, lead time is nonexistent. The most painstakingly gathered and expensive fact-based research can be re-reported within moments of its publication. This inevitably decreases the incentive to do original reporting. A public response, in the form of state or federal legislation, to a shortage of hot news entails a public investment in a legal regime designed to protect exclusivity for a limited time. During that time, those first discovering the news and reporting it can internalize the benefits of their efforts. When viewed from this perspective, certain standards are important. Society gains the most when hot news is discovered and reported as long as the benefits, however defined, outweigh its costs and those costs are incurred by those most efficient at discovering and producing the news. This leads to several sub-goals. First, there is no reason to protect hot news that would be reported without public intervention. Second, care must be taken to define the type of news that will be protected. In particular, hotnews should have a functional definition – one that is consistent with the goal of ensuring news that otherwise would be stifled by the free-rider effect is published. This is a tall order and it is doubtful that a hot news policy can follow the functional definition completely. Nevertheless, without a target, efforts to develop a sensible hot news policy are likely to fall short of the goal of maximizing useful fact finding and reporting while avoiding unnecessary costs. Although news gathering and reporting has a cost, so does a policy of allowing exclusivity to encourage the same gathering and reporting. For example, during the period of exclusivity, the reporting entity may have a degree of monopoly or market power that allows the entity to increase the cost of access to the information. In addition, others will not be able to report the information themselves even though wider dissemination may be beneficial to the public. Finally, any system of regulation involving an exclusivity policy will create administrative costs. These costs are also part of the analysis.This Article describes the current state of hot news law and examines the issues that must be addressed in developing a functional and a rational approach to hot news. It describes the general requirements of such a system and assesses three proposals explored by the Federal Trade Commission. Finally, it describes the specifics of proposed federal legislation

Urban grasslands support threatened water voles

Urbanisation is often linked with habitat loss and a reduction in species richness but some species may be able to adapt to urban environments. Water voles Arvicola amphibius, a rapidly declining species in the UK, have recently been recorded in isolated grassland habitats in Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city (human population 1.2 million). The aim of this study was to determine the distribution and habitat characteristics of water vole populations occupying these dry grasslands. Field work was undertaken from March to October 2014 in a 34 km2 study area located 3 km east of the city centre. Field sign transects recorded water vole presence in 21/65 (32%) and 19/62 (31%) surveyed sites in spring and autumn, respectively. Vole occupancy increased with distance from water and was greatest in parkland, followed by sites with rank vegetation and roadside habitats. Occupancy was lower where signs of predators were recorded but surprisingly occupancy was found to be greater in the most disturbed sites, perhaps linked to the fact that many of these sites were public parks containing suitable grassland. Sites occupied by water voles were classed as neutral grasslands with species composition dominated by two main species. The number of grassland sites occupied by water voles, especially within public areas suggests that careful management of these urban grassland habitats will benefit the conservation of this highly threatened species in the UK

Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts

Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas

Although theMYConcogene has been implicated incancer, a systematic assessment of alterations ofMYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatoryproteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN),across human cancers is lacking. Using computa-tional approaches, we define genomic and proteo-mic features associated with MYC and the PMNacross the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas.Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one ofthe MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYCantagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequentlymutated or deleted members, proposing a roleas tumor suppressors.MYCalterations were mutu-ally exclusive withPIK3CA,PTEN,APC,orBRAFalterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct onco-genic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such asimmune response and growth factor signaling; chro-matin, translation, and DNA replication/repair wereconserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insightsinto MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkersand therapeutics for cancers with alterations ofMYC or the PMN

Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas

This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin

Spatial Organization and Molecular Correlation of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes Using Deep Learning on Pathology Images

Beyond sample curation and basic pathologic characterization, the digitized H&E-stained images of TCGA samples remain underutilized. To highlight this resource, we present mappings of tumorinfiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) based on H&E images from 13 TCGA tumor types. These TIL maps are derived through computational staining using a convolutional neural network trained to classify patches of images. Affinity propagation revealed local spatial structure in TIL patterns and correlation with overall survival. TIL map structural patterns were grouped using standard histopathological parameters. These patterns are enriched in particular T cell subpopulations derived from molecular measures. TIL densities and spatial structure were differentially enriched among tumor types, immune subtypes, and tumor molecular subtypes, implying that spatial infiltrate state could reflect particular tumor cell aberration states. Obtaining spatial lymphocytic patterns linked to the rich genomic characterization of TCGA samples demonstrates one use for the TCGA image archives with insights into the tumor-immune microenvironment

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

Assessment of risk of insect-resistant transgenic crops to nontarget arthropods

An international initiative is developing a scientifically rigorous approach to evaluate the potential risks to nontarget arthropods (NTAs) posed by insect-resistant, genetically modified (IRGM) crops. It adapts the tiered approach to risk assessment that is used internationally within regulatory toxicology and environmental sciences. The approach focuses on the formulation and testing of clearly stated risk hypotheses, making maximum use of available data and using formal decision guidelines to progress between testing stages (or tiers). It is intended to provide guidance to regulatory agencies that are currently developing their own NTA risk assessment guidelines for IRGM crops and to help harmonize regulatory requirements between different countries and different regions of the world

Integrated Genomic Analysis of the Ubiquitin Pathway across Cancer Types

Protein ubiquitination is a dynamic and reversibleprocess of adding single ubiquitin molecules orvarious ubiquitin chains to target proteins. Here,using multidimensional omic data of 9,125 tumorsamples across 33 cancer types from The CancerGenome Atlas, we perform comprehensive molecu-lar characterization of 929 ubiquitin-related genesand 95 deubiquitinase genes. Among them, we sys-tematically identify top somatic driver candidates,including mutatedFBXW7with cancer-type-specificpatterns and amplifiedMDM2showing a mutuallyexclusive pattern withBRAFmutations. Ubiquitinpathway genes tend to be upregulated in cancermediated by diverse mechanisms. By integratingpan-cancer multiomic data, we identify a group oftumor samples that exhibit worse prognosis. Thesesamples are consistently associated with the upre-gulation of cell-cycle and DNA repair pathways, char-acterized by mutatedTP53,MYC/TERTamplifica-tion, andAPC/PTENdeletion. Our analysishighlights the importance of the ubiquitin pathwayin cancer development and lays a foundation fordeveloping relevant therapeutic strategies