Putting Equity Back in Reverse Mortgages: Helping Seniors Retire with Dignity

Policymakers can help some seniors age in place through policies to strengthen private-sector reverse mortgages. In reverse mortgages, individuals who may be “house rich but cash poor” can use their home’s equity to receive regular income or get money through a credit line. Andrew Helman argues that state legislatures can help seniors avoid the “tricks and traps” of reverse mortgages by estab­lishing programs in which lenders who agree to play by rules that ensure the safety and security of such mortgages are placed on a “preferred” list for seniors seeking a loan. He observes that laying the groundwork now can help a larger group of seniors age with dignity

Northern Hardwood Silviculture: Preferences among Family Forest Owners in the Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan

In the northern hardwood forests of the Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan, single-tree selection is the most commonly used silvicultural system. This system provides both a sustained yield of timber and attempts to emulate the windfall disturbance regime that determines the uneven aged structure of northern hardwood forests. However, with concerns about tree species diversity loss and a lack of early successional forests, even-aged regeneration methods are likely to become an increasingly crucial tool in the toolbox for managing northern hardwood forests of the Lake States. The forests of the Western Upper Peninsula are comprised of a mosaic of ownerships, with nearly 40% of the forested land owned by family forest owners. This study assessed family forest owners experience with, perceptions of, and interest in three different silvicultural methods recently implemented as a part of a long-term silviculture study on Michigan Technological University’s Ford Forest. A mailed survey with images and descriptions of clearcut, shelterwood, and single tree selection harvests was sent to family forest owners with at least 20 acres of forestland in the Western Upper Peninsula. The survey also included questions about landowners\u27 use of their forestland, management experience, incentive-program enrollment, and demographics. The findings indicated that family forest owners who rank timber as important reason for owning forestland are the most likely to be accepting of all three methods. Respondents who use their land for hunting are also very likely to implement clearcut and shelterwood methods. Other findings include different preferences for management between absentee and non-absentee landowners. The results of this study suggest that targeting hunting groups and actively managing landowners may have a positive effect on the understanding and acceptance of silviculture among family forest owners

Objects of Loss

I use objects as sculpture in my attempt to make the intangible, tangible. Objects become a way to remember or go back to the past. These objects are often called souvenirs. Souvenirs are objects that we place meaning in to try to avoid loss. We apply narrative and that gives them value. Without these souvenirs, we fear that the memory will vanish or be lost. Experiencing loss is not just the wish for something to be there, it is also a negation. In other words, when we lose something, it is not that we wish to go back to past events, rather we long for the potential future that has ceased to exist. Souvenirs are not just reminders of the past, but reminders of the lost future that is no longer possible. In my work each object is a cast of a container, specifically a box. I do not give the actual box; it is a cast, a stand- in for the real thing. This absence creates a longing for the actual thing. A cast essentially is an object trapped in time and marks the space between presence and absence. Gaston Bachelard says home is the ultimate place of intimacy.[i] Furthermore, attics, hidden, deep storage spaces, are the places in homes that evoke these intimate experiences. In my work, hundreds of porcelain slip cast boxes are stacked up to create a structure. They are arranged similarly to the way boxes are stored in an attic to create an intimate space. By casting boxes, I attempt to reveal the intimate. My work evokes a nostalgic response; the desperate desire to return to a time and place that never existed. Though this experience is often accompanied with mourning, it is intrinsic that we do experience this in order to solidify the intangible and immaterial. [i] Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space, (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1958), 7

Hole spin polarization in GaAlAs:Mn structures

A self-consistent calculation of the electronic properties of GaAlAs:Mn magnetic semiconductor quantum well structures is performed including the Hartree term and the sp-d exchange interaction with the Mn magnetic moments. The spin polarization density is obtained for several structure configurations. Available experimental results are compared with theory.Comment: 4 page

United States Response to Questionnaire Concerning \u3cem\u3eBoundaries and Interfaces With Respect to Copyright and Related Rights\u3c/em\u3e

ALAI-USA is the U.S. branch of ALAI (Association Littèraire et Artistique Internationale). ALAI-USA was started in the 1980\u27s by the late Professor Melville B. Nimmer, and was later expanded by Professor John M. Kernochan