The Effects of Critical Habitat Designation on Housing Supply: An Analysis of California Housing Construction Activity

Under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is required to designate critical habitat for listed species. Designation could result in modification to or delay of residential development projects within habitat boundaries, generating concern over potential housing market impacts. This paper draws upon a large dataset of municipal-level (FIPS) building permit issuances and critical habitat designations in California over a 13-year period to identify changes in the spatial and temporal pattern of development activity associated with critical habitat designation. We find that the proposal of critical habitat results in a 20.5% decrease in the annual supply of housing permits in the short-run and a 32.6% decrease in the long-run. Further, the percent of the FIPS area that is designated as critical habitat significantly affects the number of permits issued. We also find that the impact varies across the two periods in which critical habitat is designated and by the number of years relative to when critical habitat was first proposed.

Interaction, Neighborhood Selection and Housing Demand

social interactions, neighborhood selection, housing, neighborhood effects

Iowa\u27s Contribution to American Men of Science

The latest edition of the Biographical Directory of Scientists lists 2623 who are now in Iowa or were formerly here. For every twenty-one of the present North American scientists, two are or were Iowans. Of these Iowans, 1110 were born in Iowa. Only six states have a larger number of native scientists. Of the outstanding or starred scientists, fifty-nine are native Iowans, a number exceeded by only five states. There is a native Iowa scientist for every 2275 of Iowa\u27s present population, a ratio exceeded only by two states, each with a much smaller population, namely, Vermont and Utah

The effects of iPad applications as an instructional tool for mathematical achievement and motivation

The purpose of this research and intervention was to determine if the use of iPad technology during mathematical instruction would increase student achievement and motivation. During the five-week intervention, the participant was taught strategies for solving double and triple digit addition and subtraction equations. Those strategies were paired with the use of iPad technology. By the end of the five-week intensive intervention, the participant made large gains on the post-test as well as maintaining more consistent scores on the progress monitoring probes throughout the length of the study. Furthermore, the participant’s motivation and excitement of learning mathematics also increased by the end of this five-week study. Increasing the intensity of the intervention, adding engaging iPad technology and providing immediate feedback were some of the strengths of this study. Some of the limitations were providing a clear understanding of the Math Attitudes Survey to the participant as well as only working with one student in the study. Some of the recommendations made for classroom teachers in general from this study were coupling traditional mathematic instruction with specific technology and giving students a second chance to answer problems that were solved incorrectly the first time. Some of the recommendations made for teachers working with the participant specific to this study included allowing the student to use his own dry/erase whiteboard to solve problems, encouraging him to pay careful attention to the problems instead of focusing on how fast he can work, providing immediate feedback for the student and working to build a good relationship with him so he feels supported and confident with his work

Directory Listings of Minnesota Scientists

The new directory of scientists, the 10th edition of American Men of Science, enables us to ascertain in what fields and with what organizations scientists are working in Minnesota. It also makes possible a comparison with other organizations and with the rest of the United States

Magnetic domain fluctuations in an antiferromagnetic film observed with coherent resonant soft x-ray scattering

We report the direct observation of slow fluctuations of helical antiferromagnetic domains in an ultra-thin holmium film using coherent resonant magnetic x-ray scattering. We observe a gradual increase of the fluctuations in the speckle pattern with increasing temperature, while at the same time a static contribution to the speckle pattern remains. This finding indicates that domain-wall fluctuations occur over a large range of time scales. We ascribe this non-ergodic behavior to the strong dependence of the fluctuation rate on the local thickness of the film.Comment: to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Proximity effect of vanadium on spin-density-wave magnetism in Cr films

The spin-density wave (SDW) state in thin chromium films is well known to be strongly affected by proximity effects from neighboring layers. To date the main attention has been given to effects arising from exchange interactions at interfaces. In the present work we report on combined neutron and synchrotron scattering studies of proximity effects in Cr/V films where the boundary condition is due to the hybridization of Cr with paramagnetic V at the interface. We find that the V/Cr interface has a strong and long-range effect on the polarization, period, and the N\'{e}el temperature of the SDW in rather thick Cr films. This unusually strong effect is unexpected and not predicted by theory.Comment: 7 figure