December 2016 Newsletter

Letter from the Executive Director -- Distinguished Lectures & Conferences -- Research & Publications -- Faculty & Student News.Newsletter of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law & Business, an interdisciplinary joint venture of the UT School of Law & the McCombs School of Business.The Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law, and Busines

How Green is Wind Energy?

The Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law, and Busines

April 2016 Newsletter

Letter from the Executive Director -- Distinguished Lectures & Conferences -- Research & Publications -- Faculty & Student News URL: http://kbhenergycenter.utexas.edu/news/kbh-center-releases-november-2015-newsletter/Newsletter of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law & Business, an interdisciplinary joint venture of the UT School of Law & the McCombs School of Business.The Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law, and Busines

November 2015 Newsletter

TextLetter from the Director -- Conferences & Programming -- Research -- Curriculum KBH Newsletter URL: http://kbhenergycenter.utexas.edu/news/kbh-center-releases-november-2015-newsletter/Newsletter of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law & Business, an interdisciplinary joint venture of the UT School of Law & the McCombs School of Business.The Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law, and Busines

The Endangered Species Act Turns 40 in 2013

The Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law, and Busines

Regional Conservation for Endangered Species: Success in Texas

The Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law, and Busines

Protecting Species or Hindering Energy Development? How the Endangered Species Act Impacts Energy Projects on Western Public Lands

Since it was enacted in 1973, the ESA has been one of the most celebrated environmental laws, but also one of the most reviled. Industry groups argue that the consultation process frequently delays and sometimes halts much needed energy, transportation, water supply, and other projects and often dramatically increases project costs. Environmentalists disagree with this view, contending that the process actually rarely stops anything and that the FWS lacks the backbone to impose meaningful conservation requirements that would be costly or inconvenient for the project developer. In 2015, the authors decided to delve deeply into ESA §7 to analyze how it actually works in practice and to assess the validity of various parties’ claims about the consultation process. They focused on the impact of §7 consultation on energy development on public land. This Comment is an overview of that study and key findings. In a nutshell, the authors learned that only a small fraction of energy projects developed on public land are reviewed at all under §7. When it applies, the consultation process appears to go quickly and smoothly for the vast majority of oil and gas projects, for a variety of reasons. On the other hand, consultation on solar energy and wind energy projects tends to be lengthy and complicated.The Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law, and Busines

Transfer Student Peer Mentorship Initiative

Transfer students have unique needs that differ from those of incoming freshmen. The TRAM Transfer Student Mentorship Program connects incoming transfer students with students who also began their VCU journey as transfer students. Through a one-on-one relationship with a trained mentor, transfer students who participate in this program will access guidance and information to help them navigate the university and its resources, programs, and culture

Glucose homeostasis can be differentially modulated by varying individual components of a western diet

Chronic overconsumption of a Western diet has been identified as a major risk factor for diabetes, yet precisely how each individual component contributes to defects in glucose homeostasis independent of consumption of other macronutrients remains unclear. Eight-week-old male Sprague Dawley rats were randomized to feeding with one of six semi-pure diets: control, processed (high advanced glycation end products/AGE), high protein, high dextrose (glucose polymer), high in saturated fat (plant origin), or high in saturated fat (animal origin). After chronic feeding for 24 weeks, body composition was determined by bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy and glucose homeostasis was assessed. When compared to the control and high AGE diets, excess consumption of the diet high in saturated fat (animal source) increased body weight and adiposity, and decreased insulin sensitivity, as defined by HOMA IR, impaired skeletal muscle insulin signaling and insulin hypersecretion in the context of increased circulating glucagon-like peptide (GLP-1). Compared to the control diet, chronic consumption of the high AGE, protein or dextrose diet increased fasting plasma glucose, decreased fasting plasma insulin and insulin secretion. These diets also reduced circulating GLP-1 concentrations. These data suggest that individual components of a western diet have differential effects in modulating glucose homeostasis and adiposity. These data provide clear evidence of a link between over-consumption of a western diet and the development of diabetes

Gene–gene interaction of AhRwith and within the Wntcascade affects susceptibility to lung cancer

Background Aberrant Wnt signalling, regulating cell development and stemness, influences the development of many cancer types. The Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) mediates tumorigenesis of environmental pollutants. Complex interaction patterns of genes assigned to AhR/Wnt-signalling were recently associated with lung cancer susceptibility. Aim To assess the association and predictive ability of AhR/Wnt-genes with lung cancer in cases and controls of European descent. Methods Odds ratios (OR) were estimated for genomic variants assigned to the Wnt agonist and the antagonistic genes DKK2, DKK3, DKK4, FRZB, SFRP4 and Axin2. Logistic regression models with variable selection were trained, validated and tested to predict lung cancer, at which other previously identified SNPs that have been robustly associated with lung cancer risk could also enter the model. Furthermore, decision trees were created to investigate variant x variant interaction. All analyses were performed for overall lung cancer and for subgroups. Results No genome-wide significant association of AhR/Wnt-genes with overall lung cancer was observed, but within the subgroups of ever smokers (e.g., maker rs2722278 SFRP4; OR = 1.20; 95% CI 1.13-1.27; p = 5.6 x 10(-10)) and never smokers (e.g., maker rs1133683 Axin2; OR = 1.27; 95% CI 1.19-1.35; p = 1.0 x 10(-12)). Although predictability is poor, AhR/Wnt-variants are unexpectedly overrepresented in optimized prediction scores for overall lung cancer and for small cell lung cancer. Remarkably, the score for never-smokers contained solely two AhR/Wnt-variants. The optimal decision tree for never smokers consists of 7 AhR/Wnt-variants and only two lung cancer variants. Conclusions The role of variants belonging to Wnt/AhR-pathways in lung cancer susceptibility may be underrated in main-effects association analysis. Complex interaction patterns in individuals of European descent have moderate predictive capacity for lung cancer or subgroups thereof, especially in never smokers