CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - DISCRIMINATORY STATE GAME LEGISLATION - CONSTITUTIONALITY AS TO NON-RESIDENT LANDOWNER

A non-resident landowner and his assignee brought an action to enjoin enforcement of a Louisiana statute which denied them the right to secure licenses to trap furbearing animals or alligators on the former\u27s land until they had resided in the state for not less than one year. Held, the statute, discriminating as it did against landowners purely on the basis of non-residence, was unconstitutional as a deprivation of property and a denial of equal protection of the law. Pavel v. Patterson, (D. C. La. 1938) 24F. Supp. 915

NEGLIGENCE - CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE OF CHILDREN

In an action for damages for injuries sustained by a boy six years and seven months of age through the alleged negligence of defendant, held, the court would not rule as a matter of law that a child of this age could not be contributorily negligent; it would leave the question of plaintiff\u27s contributory negligence to the jury with instructions that a child can only be held to that degree of care which could reasonably be expected from a child of his own age, ability, and understanding under like circumstances. A vigorous dissent upheld the common-law rule that, as a matter of law, a child under seven is conclusively presumed to be incapable of contributory negligence. Tyler v. Weed, 285 Mich. 460, 280 N. W. 827 (1938)

DEEDS - FUTURE INTERESTS - RIGHT OF MURDERER TO ACQUIRE PROPERTY BY OPERATION OF CONDITION SUBSEQUENT THAT PROPERTY SHALL REVERT ON GRANTEE\u27S DEATH

Grantor, who had been adjudged insane, conveyed a farm to grantee on condition that the farm would revert to grantor should grantee predecease him. Grantee was killed under circumstances tending to show that he was killed by grantor, who was insane at the time of the death of the grantee. Held, title to the land, under the deed, reverted to grantor upon grantee\u27s death, in spite of the general rule in Missouri that a murderer cannot inherit realty from his victim. Eisenhardt v. Siegel, (Mo. 1938) 119 S. W. (2d) 810

BANKRUPTCY -TRUSTEE\u27S LIABILITY - EFFECT OF REQUIREMENT OF DEPOSIT IN DESIGNATED DEPOSITARY ON TRUSTEE\u27S COMMON LAW DUTY OF DUE CARE

In a suit to charge a trustee in bankruptcy for the loss of funds of the bankrupt estate caused by insolvency of the depositary bank, the trustee contended that as he had fulfilled the requirement of section 61 of the Bankruptcy Act by depositing the funds of the estate in a designated depositary, he could not be charged with liability for any loss occurring thereafter; he argued that section 61 repealed, by implication, the trustee\u27s common-law duty of due care in the handling of estate funds after they were deposited in a designated depositary. Held, the fact that the freedom of choice of the fiduciary is limited by statute does not relieve him of the duty of exercising due care within the field left to his discretion, and he is liable if his negligence caused the loss. United States ex rel. Willoughby v. Howard, 302 U. S. 445, 58 S. Ct. 309 (1937)

PROHIBITION - IS THE WRIT OF PROHIBITION A PREROGATIVE WRIT?

The writ of prohibition originally issued from the king\u27s temporal courts to the ecclesiastical courts to prevent any usurpation of jurisdiction of the king\u27s courts by the spiritual courts. Prohibition has been classed as one of the prerogative writs, that is, a writ issued by the extraordinary power of the sovereign to interfere with private rights in order to preserve the prerogatives and franchises of the state. The writ of prohibition differed historically from the other prerogative writs in that its issuance was not discretionary with the court, but rather it was held to issue as a matter of right where lack of jurisdiction in the inferior court was apparent on the face of the proceedings. The purposes of prohibition as presented by the early cases,--viz., to maintain the king\u27s rights and to secure an orderly administration of justice according to the rules established by the king, --emphasize the prerogative nature of the writ. It was considered to be to the king\u27s interest to prevent jurisdictional usurpations from becoming precedents for a constant exercise of superior jurisdiction by inferior courts, with resultant strengthening of power and income of the spiritual courts at the expense of the temporal courts

BANKRUPTCY-CORPORATE REORGANIZATION - FRATERNAL BENEFIT SOCIETY ENTITLED TO BENEFITS OF SECTION 77B

Plaintiff\u27s right to petition for reorganization under section 77 B of the Bankruptcy Act was challenged on the ground that plaintiff was an insurance corporation within the meaning of section 4 of the Bankruptcy Act and therefore excepted from the benefits of the act. Held, that when Congress used the words insurance corporation in the Bankruptcy Act, it meant a corporation authorized by the law of its creation to do an insurance business. As Congress knew that the various States had authorized the formation of fraternal benefit societies, described as such in enabling statutes, when Congress passed this statute without defining the characteristics of insurance corporations, it recognized the various definitions thereof in the statutes of the several states as to what constitutes an insurance corporation. Under the Florida law, petitioner was not an insurance corporation, but a fraternal benefit society, and therefore not excluded from benefits of the act. Grand Lodge, Knights of Pythias of North America v. McKee, (C. C. A. 5th, 1938) 95 F. (2d) 474

A cost-of-illness analysis of β-Thalassaemia major in children in Sri Lanka - experience from a tertiary level teaching hospital

Background Sri Lanka has a high prevalence of β-thalassaemia major. Clinical management is complex and long-term and includes regular blood transfusion and iron chelation therapy. The economic burden of β-thalassaemia for the Sri Lankan healthcare system and households is currently unknown. Methods A prevalence-based, cost-of-illness study was conducted on the Thalassaemia Unit, Department of Paediatrics, Kandy Teaching Hospital, Sri Lanka. Data were collected from clinical records, consultations with the head of the blood bank and a consultant paediatrician directly involved with the care of patients, alongside structured interviews with families to gather data on the personal costs incurred such as those for travel. Results Thirty-four children aged 2–17 years with transfusion dependent thalassaemia major and their parent/guardian were included in the study. The total average cost per patient year to the hospital was $US 2601 of which$US 2092 were direct costs and $US 509 were overhead costs. Mean household expenditure was$US 206 per year with food and transport per transfusion ($US 7.57 and$US 4.26 respectively) being the highest cost items. Nine (26.5%) families experienced catastrophic levels of healthcare expenditure (> 10% of income) in the care of their affected child. The poorest households were the most likely to experience such levels of expenditure. Conclusions β-thalassaemia major poses a significant economic burden on health services and the families of affected children in Sri Lanka. Greater support is needed for the high proportion of families that suffer catastrophic out-of-pocket costs

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