Vegas United Inv. Series 105 v. Celtic Bank, 135 Nev. Adv. Op. 61 (December 19, 2019)

Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) Chapter 116 codifies the Uniform Common-Interest Ownership Act and outlines statutory regulations governing common-interest communities in Nevada. NRS Chapter 116 applies generally to all residential property owners’ associations (POAs) but does not automatically apply to nonresidential POAs. Nonresidential POAs may voluntarily elect to incorporate NRS Chapter 116 either in whole or in part. NRS Chapter 116 applies only to nonresidential POAs only to the extent expressly provided for by the incorporated statutory provisions. Vegas United Investment Series 105, Inc. purchased a nonresidential property at a foreclosure sale pursuant to NRS § 116.3116. The conditions, covenants, and restrictions (CC&Rs) of the nonresidential property upon which this appeal was based expressly incorporated only NRS 116.3116-31168 and not the entirety of NRS Chapter 116. The CC&Rs did not incorporate the provisions of Chapter 116 which might invalidate a mortgage savings clause or which might provide for assessments supporting a lien that would have superpriority status. Because Vegas United’s lien did not have a superpriority portion and the mortgage savings clause was still valid, Celtic Bank’s existing mortgage on the property was not extinguished and the district court properly determined that Vegas United took the property subject to Celtic Bank’s prior interest

Luminous X-ray Flares from Low Mass X-ray Binary Candidates in the Early-Type Galaxy NGC 4697

We report results of the first search specifically targeting short-timescale X-ray flares from low-mass X-ray binaries in an early-type galaxy. A new method for flare detection is presented. In NGC 4697, the nearest, optically luminous, X-ray faint elliptical galaxy, 3 out of 157 sources are found to display flares at >99.95% probability, and all show more than one flare. Two sources are coincident with globular clusters and show flare durations and luminosities similar to (but larger than) Type-I X-ray superbursts found in Galactic neutron star (NS) X-ray binaries (XRBs). The third source shows more extreme flares. Its flare luminosity (~6E39 erg/s) is very super-Eddington for an NS and is similar to the peak luminosities of the brightest Galactic black hole (BH) XRBs. However, the flare duration (~70 s) is much shorter than are typically seen for outbursts reaching those luminosities in Galactic BH sources. Alternative models for the flares are considered.Comment: Astrophysical Journal Letters, accepted: 4 page

Modeling Building Block Interdependency

The Building-Block Hypothesis appeals to the notion of problem decomposition and the assembly of solutions from sub-solutions. Accordingly, there have been many varieties of GA test problems with a structure based on building-blocks. Many of these problems use deceptive fitness functions to model interdependency between the bits within a block. However, very few have any model of interdependency between building-blocks; those that do are not consistent in the type of interaction used intra-block and inter-block. This paper discusses the inadequacies of the various test problems in the literature and clarifies the concept of building-block interdependency. We formulate a principled model of hierarchical interdependency that can be applied through many levels in a consistent manner and introduce Hierarchical If-and-only-if (H-IFF) as a canonical example. We present some empirical results of GAs on H-IFF showing that if population diversity is maintained and linkage is tight then the GA is able to identify and manipulate building-blocks over many levels of assembly, as the Building-Block Hypothesis suggests

Lipsitz v. State, 135 Nev. Adv. Op. 17 (June 6, 2019)

The Court reviewed an appeal from a defendant who was convicted of seven sexually related counts. The defendant challenged his conviction on three grounds: (1) that the district court erred in permitting the victim to testify via two-way audiovisual transmission; (2) that the district court abused its discretion in proceeding to trial after the State raised concerns about the defendant’s competency; and (3) that the district court erred in convicting the defendant of both sexual assault and attempted sexual assault where both counts were based on the same incident. The Court concluded that the district court properly permitted testimony via audiovisual transmission and adopted the Craig test to determine when audiovisual testimony is proper. The court further concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion in allowing the trial to proceed despite questions regarding the defendant’s competency, but that the district court erred in convicting the defendant of both sexual assault and attempted sexual assault

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,

On the existence of infinitely many closed geodesics on orbifolds of revolution

Using the theory of geodesics on surfaces of revolution, we introduce the period function. We use this as our main tool in showing that any two-dimensional orbifold of revolution homeomorphic to S^2 must contain an infinite number of geometrically distinct closed geodesics. Since any such orbifold of revolution can be regarded as a topological two-sphere with metric singularities, we will have extended Bangert's theorem on the existence of infinitely many closed geodesics on any smooth Riemannian two-sphere. In addition, we give an example of a two-sphere cone-manifold of revolution which possesses a single closed geodesic, thus showing that Bangert's result does not hold in the wider class of closed surfaces with cone manifold structures.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures; for a PDF version see http://www.calpoly.edu/~jborzell/Publications/publications.htm

Cross-sectional associations between variations in ankle shape by statistical shape modeling, injury history, and race : the Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project

Rheumatology Research Foundation Medical Student Preceptorship Award (Lateef/Nelson), NIAMS K23 AR061406 (Nelson); NIH/NIAMS P60AR064166 and U01DP003206 (Jordan/Renner), NIH/NIAMS R01AR067743 (Golightly). The funders had no role in study design; collection, analysis, or interpretation of data; writing the manuscript or the decision to submit for publication.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Spatial Distribution of Specific N-cycle Microorganisms in Oxic River Sediments

Anthropogenic nitrogen (N) inputs cause considerable damage to aquatic ecosystems. Anaerobic ammonia oxidising bacteria (anammox bacteria or AnAOB) have an important role in the removal of fixed N in oxic sediments, despite being obligate anaerobes. AnAOB are also important in wastewater bioreactors. Specifically, in complete autotrophic nitrogen removal over nitrite (CANON) bioreactors, AnAOB interact with other N-cycle groups such as ammonia oxidising bacteria (AOB), archaea (AOA), complete ammonia oxidation (comammox) bacteria and denitrifiers. This thesis aims to investigate the spatial localisation of N-cycle groups in relation to AnAOB in oxic river sediments. Here, imaging techniques such as confocal microscopy and catalysed reporter deposition fluorescent in situ hybridisation (CARD-FISH) were utilised. In addition, a novel negative staining technique was developed to analyse sediment grain microtopology. This technique allows accurate 3D measurements of nominally non-fluorescent objects using confocal microscopy - in this case the surface of sediment grains. This thesis found that AnAOB exhibit a chasmoendolithic lifestyle – inhabiting anoxic pores on sediment grain surfaces – a strategy not previously observed in bioreactors. Furthermore, analysis of the spatial interactions of AnAOB with complete ammonia oxidising (comammox) bacteria show 35.2% of AnAOB colonies are found within 1 μm of comammox bacteria colonies, suggesting some form of beneficial relationship. In conclusion, we have a previously unknown oxygen avoidance strategy in AnAOB and have further analysed the relationship of AnAOB with other N-cycle groups in oxic sediments