An Empirical Investigation of Federal Wetlands Regulation and Flood Delineation: Implications for Residential Property Owners

Since the early 1970s, the federal government has undertaken extensive efforts to stem the loss of wetlands by regulating the use of land. This paper investigates the extent to which residential property owners are affected by federal wetlands regulation, by presenting an empirical investigation of such economic consequences. Results suggest that because of the Supreme Court?s holding in United States v. Riverside Bayview Homes, Inc., sale prices of properties located in a wetlands area were discounted nearly eight percent, even after controlling for some sample properties being flood delineated.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SPATIAL DATA IN MODELING ACTUAL ENROLLMENT IN THE CONSERVATION RESERVE ENHANCEMENT PROGRAM (CREP)

This paper uses actual enrollment and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data in six geographically diverse states to demonstrate that enrollment rates in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) are a function of the incentives offered. If aggregate county land use data were used, as has been done previously, incentives appear insignificant.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Beyond Optimal Linear Tax Mechanisms: An Experimental Examination of Damage-Based Ambient Taxes for Nonpoint Polluters

The regulation of nonpoint source water pollution from agriculture is a complex problem characterized by a multiplicity of polluters, informational asymmetries, complex fate and transport processes, and stochastic environmental factors. Taken together, these characteristics make regulatory policy based on individual firm emissions prohibitively costly. To circumvent this issue, economists, beginning with the seminal work of Segerson (1988), have devised economic incentive instruments that assign liabilities based on deviations between the observed ambient water quality level and a specified pollution threshold (Xepapadeas 1991; Horan, Shortle and Abler 1998, 2002; Hansen 1998, 2002). In the special case of a linear damage function, the regulator can optimally set the parameters of Segerson's (1988) incentive scheme solely with information on the damage function. When the damage function is nonlinear, a depiction that likely represents many watersheds, Segerson's incentive scheme is firm-specific, and the regulator must acquire costly firm-specific data on factors such as input use, land management practice, and soil type. Using a linear damage function setting, recent laboratory experimental economics efforts have investigated the ambient-based mechanisms proposed by Segerson, as well as some simple variants (Spraggon 2002, 2004; Poe et al. 2004; Vossler et al. 2005). A fundamental limitaion of this body of research, however, is that has utilized an "optimal design" in which the threshold pollution level for triggering the abient-based policy is set equal to the social optimum. It is therefore unclear whether subjects are optimally responding to the tax and threshold combination, or simply trying to reacting to the focal point created by the threshold. A second limitation of past experimetnal economics research is that, following Segerson, these investigations have utilized the limited case of a linear tax function. While a tax policy is relatively straightforward to apply when damages are linear, the application to real world situations may be limited. A more believable circumstance is that economic damages increase at an increasing rate as ambient pollution levels rise. This paper advances the experimental literature on ambient based pollution mechanisms in two important ways. First, by employing a range of marginal tax rates and threshold levels, we show that subjects do in fact respond optimally to the tax and cutoff combination. Second, by using the damage based tax proposed Hansen (1998) and Horan et al. (1998), we show that aggregate results when the economic damages from ambient water pollution are nonlinear are not significantly different from corresponding results under the linear tax.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Thin and lumpy: an experimental investigation of water quality trading

Water quality trading schemes in the United States can predominantly be characterized by low trading volumes. In this paper we utilize laboratory economics experiments to explore the extent to which the technology through which pollution abatement is achieved influences market outcomes. Mirroring the majority of water quality trading markets, the sessions utilize small trading groups composed of six participants. To understand the extent to which abatement technology influences trading behavior, the experimental treatments vary the degree of heterogeneity in initial abatement costs and the potential for long-lived investments in cost-reducing abatement technology.Environmental Economics and Policy,

AN EVALUATION OF A BIOMETRIC ENABLED CREDIT CARD FOR PROVIDING HIGH AUTHENTICITY IDENTITY PROOFING DURING THE TRANSACTION AUTHENTICATION PROCESS

Credit card fraud has continued to grow despite efforts to protect financial data from data breaches of financial institutions. Data breaches of financial transactional records over the past decade have impacted millions of U.S. consumers, resulting in decreased consumer confidence in security. Banking institutions losing money due to fraud are forced to raise interest rates and increase fees to their cardholders. The costs of fraud are passed to the banking institution’s customers to offset the losses. The requisite to detect and eliminate fraud before it occurs is mutually beneficial to both the banking institution and cardholders. Credit card companies continue to focus on methods for identifying fraudulent transactions as they occur and on validating account owners. Financial institutions utilize various models to alert consumers of potential fraud on a real-time basis. Current authorization models that validate the identity of the account holders during the transaction are limited or nonexistent. Many consumers are not required to provide any form of identification or signature proving identity for minimal purchase amount. For purchases requiring validation, consumers are able to validate a transaction with a simple, unverified signature mark at a merchant terminal. The introduction of the chip card added the additional element of security but can be combined with additional user authentication methods. To provide a more secure financial transaction, identity verification as a user authentication method can be realized through biometrics, most commonly, a fingerprint and can be achieved through the use of merchant touch screen credit card terminals or mobile purchasing applications. Using a physical credit card embedded with a fingerprint positions the user authentication process at the point of sale, thus providing real-time validation of the user as the credit card account owner utilizing the biometric fingerprint as identity proof and signature. This research seeks to evaluate the biometric-enabled physical credit card in an effort to increase the level of credit card transaction security and reduce the occurrences of fraud

Guide for Oxygen Hazards Analyses on Components and Systems

Because most materials, including metals, will burn in an oxygen-enriched environment, hazards are always present when using oxygen. Most materials will ignite at lower temperatures in an oxygen-enriched environment than in air, and once ignited, combustion rates are greater in the oxygen-enriched environment. Many metals burn violently in an oxygen-enriched environment when ignited. Lubricants, tapes, gaskets, fuels, and solvents can increase the possibility of ignition in oxygen systems. However, these hazards do not preclude the use of oxygen. Oxygen may be safely used if all the materials in a system are not flammable in the end-use environment or if ignition sources are identified and controlled. These ignition and combustion hazards necessitate a proper oxygen hazards analysis before introducing a material or component into oxygen service. The objective of this test plan is to describe the White Sands Test Facility oxygen hazards analysis to be performed on components and systems before oxygen is introduced and is recommended before implementing the oxygen component qualification procedure. The plan describes the NASA Johnson Space Center White Sands Test Facility method consistent with the ASTM documents for analyzing the hazards of components and systems exposed to an oxygen-enriched environment. The oxygen hazards analysis is a useful tool for oxygen-system designers, system engineers, and facility managers. Problem areas can be pinpointed before oxygen is introduced into the system, preventing damage to hardware and possible injury or loss of life

Short-range order and chemical compositions of glasses along the basaltic-rhyolite sub-alkaline join by Raman and FTIR spectroscopies

Six sub-alkaline glasses with compositions progressively shifting from the tholeiitic basalt (B100) end-member to the rhyolite (R100) end-member were investigated and analysed in the same frequency domain by both Raman and FTIR. This approach highlights spectroscopic similarities and differences such as positions, widths and intensities of Raman and FTIR bands, which may also exhibit significant overlapping. Both the Raman and FTIR spectra show several peaks grouped in three main vibrational windows: 200–650 (low frequency region, named F-I in this study), 650–850 (intermediate region, F-II) and 850–1250 cm−1 (high-frequency region, F-III). In line with previous investigations, the F-I interval can be ascribed to vibrational modes involving rings of tetrahedrally coordinated cations linked by bridging oxygens. It can be fitted with three components, whereas F-II involves the motion of Si atoms within its oxygen cage and is adequately represented by two components. Finally, F-III contains different T-O (T = tetrahedrally coordinated network-forming cation) stretching bands that can be tied to the overall degree of polymerization of the glass and are fitted with four components. In some glasses, the three and the two components within F-I and F-II are identifiable in both Raman and FTIR spectra; in cases of strong peak overlap, these peaks can be complementary to one another towards our interpretation of the molecular arrangement(s) in these glasses. Indeed, the positions of the four components in F-III are first constrained in the Raman spectra, which are more identifiable, then further refined using available Raman spectra for corresponding chemically simple silicate systems. The nine fitted components can reproduce the Raman and FTIR spectra extremely well. As a function of the amount of SiO2, the positions and intensities of the three low frequency components progressively shift in both Raman and FTIR. Similarly, the two bands in the F-II intermediate region exhibit a monotonic shifting of their positions. Indeed, the components at high frequency display less significant shifting of their positions as a function of SiO2, while their intensities change more markedly in the Raman spectrum compared to those for FTIR. The vibrational components measured in this study provide a referenced dataset of assignations of the most abundant natural volcanic glasses. Therefore, it provides a diagnostic tool based on the cross-validation of Raman and FTIR spectra to quickly identify the glass chemistry, offering the possibility to expand the applicability of remote investigations

Short-lived spots in solar-like stars as observed by CoRoT

Context. CoRoT light curves have an unprecedented photometric quality, having simultaneously a high signal-to-noise ratio, a long time span and a nearly continuous duty-cycle. Aims. We analyse the light-curves of four bright targets observed in the seismology field and study short-lived small spots in solar-like stars. Methods. We present a simple spot modeling by iterative analysis. Its ability to extract relevant parameters is ensured by implementing relaxation steps to avoid convergence to local minima of the sum of the residuals between observations and modeling. The use of Monte-Carlo simulations allows us to estimate the performance of the fits. Results. Our starspot modeling gives a representation of the spots on these stars in agreement with other well tested methods. Within this framework, parameters such as rigid-body rotation and spot lifetimes seem to be precisely determined. Then, the lifetime/rotation period ratios are in the range 0.5 - 2, and there is clear evidence for differential rotation.Comment: 11 pages Accepted in A&

NASA Structural Analysis Report on the American Airlines Flight 587 Accident - Local Analysis of the Right Rear Lug

A detailed finite element analysis of the right rear lug of the American Airlines Flight 587 - Airbus A300-600R was performed as part of the National Transportation Safety Board s failure investigation of the accident that occurred on November 12, 2001. The loads experienced by the right rear lug are evaluated using global models of the vertical tail, local models near the right rear lug, and a global-local analysis procedure. The right rear lug was analyzed using two modeling approaches. In the first approach, solid-shell type modeling is used, and in the second approach, layered-shell type modeling is used. The solid-shell and the layered-shell modeling approaches were used in progressive failure analyses (PFA) to determine the load, mode, and location of failure in the right rear lug under loading representative of an Airbus certification test conducted in 1985 (the 1985-certification test). Both analyses were in excellent agreement with each other on the predicted failure loads, failure mode, and location of failure. The solid-shell type modeling was then used to analyze both a subcomponent test conducted by Airbus in 2003 (the 2003-subcomponent test) and the accident condition. Excellent agreement was observed between the analyses and the observed failures in both cases. From the analyses conducted and presented in this paper, the following conclusions were drawn. The moment, Mx (moment about the fuselage longitudinal axis), has significant effect on the failure load of the lugs. Higher absolute values of Mx give lower failure loads. The predicted load, mode, and location of the failure of the 1985-certification test, 2003-subcomponent test, and the accident condition are in very good agreement. This agreement suggests that the 1985-certification and 2003- subcomponent tests represent the accident condition accurately. The failure mode of the right rear lug for the 1985-certification test, 2003-subcomponent test, and the accident load case is identified as a cleavage-type failure. For the accident case, the predicted failure load for the right rear lug from the PFA is greater than 1.98 times the limit load of the lugs. I