The Unlamented Demise of the Federal Defendant Rule

44 pagesFor two decades, courts in the Ninth Circuit enforced the so-called Federal Defendant Rule, under which intervention as of right was prohibited in cases brought under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Ninth Circuit eventually abandoned this rule in its 2011 en banc decision in Wilderness Society v. U.S. Forest Service. This Article traces the history of the Federal Defendant Rule, showing how it evolved through a common law-like process from a factspecific decision in one case to a bright-line rule. It also explains how, despite the Rule’s apparent clarity, it produced confusion in the district courts of the Ninth Circuit, leading to a series of inconsistent decisions. The Article concludes that the Ninth Circuit was right to reject the Rule and uses the history of the Rule to draw more general lessons about the processes through which judicial doctrines emerge, evolve, and are abandoned

The self-referential method for linear rigid bodies : application to hard and Lennard-Jones dumbbells

The self-referential (SR) method incorporating thermodynamic integration (TI) [Sweatman et al., J. Chem. Phys. 128, 064102 (2008)] is extended to treat systems of rigid linear bodies. The method is then applied to obtain the canonical ensemble Helmholtz free energy of the alpha-N2 and plastic face centered cubic phases of systems of hard and Lennard-Jones dumbbells using Monte Carlo simulations. Generally good agreement with reference literature data is obtained, which indicates that the SR-TI method is potentially very general and robust

NEPA and the Beneficial Impact EIS

The National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) requires that federal agencies prepare an environmental impact statement (“EIS”) for any major federal action “significantly affecting the quality of the human environment.” Some courts—in dicta—and some commentators have suggested that agencies must prepare an EIS for actions that will have significant beneficial impacts on the environment but no significant adverse impacts. In a recent case, the Ninth Circuit declined to address this question, but suggested that there was a circuit split on the issue. In this Article, I argue that agencies do not need to prepare such a “Beneficial Impact” EIS. First, there is actually no circuit split on the issue. All courts that have directly addressed the question have found that there is no Beneficial Impact EIS requirement. Cases that have been cited in support of such a requirement are either distinguishable or make such statements only in dicta. Second, while the statute does not directly address this question, some regulations and guidance indicate that an EIS should not be required under these circumstances. Third, the policies underlying NEPA are in tension with a Beneficial Impact EIS requirement. Such a requirement would produce unnecessary cost and delay for environmentally beneficial projects and create perverse incentives for federal agencies without any compensating informational benefits

Spontaneous mutation accumulation in multiple strains of the green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Estimates of mutational parameters, such as the average fitness effect of a new mutation and the rate at which new genetic variation for fitness is created by mutation, are important for the understanding of many biological processes. However, the causes of interspecific variation in mutational parameters and the extent to which they vary within species remain largely unknown. We maintained multiple strains of the unicellular eukaryote Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, for approximately 1000 generations under relaxed selection by transferring a single cell every ∼10 generations. Mean fitness of the lines tended to decline with generations of mutation accumulation whereas mutational variance increased. We did not find any evidence for differences among strains in any of the mutational parameters estimated. The overall change in mean fitness per cell division and rate of input of mutational variance per cell division were more similar to values observed in multicellular organisms than to those in other single-celled microbes. However, after taking into account differences in genome size among species, estimates from multicellular organisms and microbes, including our new estimates from C. reinhardtii, become substantially more similar. Thus, we suggest that variation in genome size is an important determinant of interspecific variation in mutational parameters

The Interpretation of Surface Easements in Severance Deeds as a Limit on Hydraulic Fracturing Practices

Hydraulic fracturing has driven a boom in natural gas production in the Marcellus Shale. While providing a growing source of domestic energy, this boom also raises signicant environmental concerns. Many of the impacts of hy draulic fracturing predominantly affect the inhabitants of the property where the drilling occurs. Yet when those inhabitants own only the surface estate, they have relatively little influence over whether and how the drilling occurs and will not profit from the gas extraction. This article provides a jurisdictional case stud4 set in West Virginia to assist in understanding the nuances relevant to an interpretation of the scope of express and implied surface easements pertinent to mineral extraction. West Virginia takes a unique approach to the accommodation doctrine. It permits a surface ovner to argue that certain overly burdensome practices may not have been contemplated by the parties to the original severance deed and easement, thus weakening the likelihood of their propriety and giving surface ovners leverage. Depending on the tlpe of easement at issue, the analysis can include a review of the burden to the surface, the nature of surface uses, the necessity of a practice, the compatibility of a practice, and/or contractual intention

助産師のマタニティヘルス・ケア能力の評価尺度開発のプロセス

滋賀医科大学修士（看護学）令和5年度thesi

Does Mutation Rate Depend on Itself?

Recent evidence suggests that mutation rates are fitness-dependent, broadening our view of the impacts of mutation on the genetic health of populations

Population allocation at the housing unit level: estimates around underground natural gas storage wells in PA, OH, NY, WV, MI, and CA

Background Spatially accurate population data are critical for determining health impacts from many known risk factors. However, the utility of the increasing spatial resolution of disease mapping and environmental exposures is limited by the lack of receptor population data at similar sub-census block spatial scales. Methods Here we apply an innovative method (Population Allocation by Occupied Domicile Estimation – ABODE) to disaggregate U.S. Census populations by allocating an average person per household to geospatially-identified residential housing units (RHU). We considered two possible sources of RHU location data: address point locations and building footprint centroids. We compared the performance of ABODE with the common proportional population allocation (PPA) method for estimating the nighttime residential populations within 200 m radii and setback areas (100 – 300 ft) around active underground natural gas storage (UGS) wells (n = 9834) in six U.S. states. Results Address location data generally outperformed building footprint data in predicting total counts of census residential housing units, with correlations ranging from 0.67 to 0.81 at the census block level. Using residentially-sited addresses only, ABODE estimated upwards of 20,000 physical households with between 48,126 and 53,250 people living within 200 m of active UGS wells – likely encompassing the size of a proposed UGS Wellhead Safety Zone. Across the 9834 active wells assessed, ABODE estimated between 5074 and 10,198 more people living in these areas compare to PPA, and the difference was significant at the individual well level (p = < 0.0001). By either population estimation method, OH exhibits a substantial degree of hyperlocal land use conflict between populations and UGS wells – more so than other states assessed. In some rare cases, population estimates differed by more than 100 people for the small 200 m2 well-areas. ABODE’s explicit accounting of physical households confirmed over 50% of PPA predictions as false positives indicated by non-zero predictions in areas absent physical RHUs. Conclusions Compared to PPA – in allocating identical population data at sub-census block spatial scales –ABODE provides a more precise population at risk (PAR) estimate with higher confidence estimates of populations at greatest risk. 65% of UGS wells occupy residential urban and suburban areas indicating the unique land use conflicts presented by UGS systems that likely continue to experience population encroachment. Overall, ABODE confirms tens of thousands of homes and residents are likely located within the proposed UGS Wellhead Safety Zone – and in some cases within state’s oil and gas well surface setback distances – of active UGS wells

Fitness effects of new mutations in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii across two stress gradients

Most spontaneous mutations affecting fitness are likely to be deleterious, but the strength of selection acting on them might be impacted by environmental stress. Such stress‐dependent selection could expose hidden genetic variation, which in turn might increase the adaptive potential of stressed populations. On the other hand, this variation might represent a genetic load and thus lead to population extinction under stress. Previous studies to determine the link between stress and mutational effects on fitness, however, have produced inconsistent results. Here, we determined the net change in fitness in 29 genotypes of the green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii that accumulated mutations in the near absence of selection for approximately 1000 generations across two stress gradients, increasing NaCl and decreasing phosphate. We found mutational effects to be magnified under extremely stressful conditions, but such effects were specific both to the type of stress and to the genetic background. The detection of stress‐dependent fitness effects of mutations depended on accurately scaling relative fitness measures by generation times, thus offering an explanation for the inconsistencies among previous studies