The United States Claims Court: A Safe Harbor from Government Regulation of Privately Owned Wetlands

Efforts to protect wetlands under the Federal Clean Water Act and State Environmental Laws have led to an increasing number of actions in the U.S. Court of Claims brought by landowners for just compensation due to a taking of their property through governmental action. Landowners have turned to the Court of Claims because it is seen as a safe harbor from government regulation in which their claims are more likely to prevail. This comment examines Loveladies Harbor, the pivotal Court of Claims case where a denial of a permit to fill a wetland was found to be a taking. The focus of this comment is the conflict between individual property rights and the public interest in wetlands conservation. The author argues that courts should recognize and give value to the public interest in the ecological and environmental benefits of wetlands

A New Species of Mnioes (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) from the United States

This is the first record of the genus Mnioes in the United States. Previously described species are all Neotropic. Townes described the genus in 1946, placing Lampronota? jircunda Cresson, 1874, and Meniscus ? orbitalis Cresson, 1874, in it. The new species described here has been collected from several areas in the United States. This study was made while the author was a graduate student at The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Data Uncertainty in Real Estate Forecasting

The rapid expansion of the TMT sector in the late 1990s and more recent growing regulatory and corporate focus on business continuity and security have raised the profile of data centres. Data centres offer a unique blend of occupational, physical and technological characteristics compared to conventional real estate assets. Limited trading and heterogeneity of data centres also causes higher levels of appraisal uncertainty. In practice, the application of conventional discounted cash flow approaches requires information about a wide range of inputs that is difficult to derive from limited market signals or estimate analytically. This paper outlines an approach that uses pricing signals from similar traded cash flows is proposed. Based upon ‘the law of one price’, the method draws upon the premise that two identical future cash flows must have the same value now. Given the difficulties of estimating exit values, an alternative is that the expected cash flows of data centre are analysed over the life cycle of the building, with corporate bond yields used to provide a proxy for the appropriate discount rates for lease income. Since liabilities are quite diverse, a number of proxies are suggested as discount and capitalisation rates including indexed-linked, fixed interest and zero-coupon bonds. Although there are rarely assets that have identical cash flows and some approximation is necessary, the level of appraiser subjectivity is dramatically reduced.

Data dilemmas in forecasting European office market rents

This paper uses data provided by three major real estate advisory firms to investigate the level and pattern of variation in the measurement of historic real estate rental values for the main European office centres. The paper assesses the extent to which the data providing organizations agree on historic market performance in terms of returns, risk and timing and examines the relationship between market maturity and agreement. The analysis suggests that at the aggregate level and for many markets, there is substantial agreement on direction, quantity and timing of market change. However, there is substantial variability in the level of agreement among cities. The paper also assesses whether the different data sets produce different explanatory models and market forecast. It is concluded that, although disagreement on the direction of market change is high for many market, the different data sets often produce similar explanatory models and predict similar relative performance

Data Dilemmas in Forecasting European Office Market Rents

This paper uses data provided by three major real estate advisory firms to investigate the level and pattern of variation in the measurement of historic real estate rental values for the main European office centres. The paper assesses the extent to which the data providing organizations agree on historic market performance in terms of returns, risk and timing and examines the relationship between market maturity and agreement. The analysis suggests that at the aggregate level and for many markets, there is substantial agreement on direction, quantity and timing of market change. However, there is substantial variability in the level of agreement among cities. The paper also assesses whether the different data sets produce different explanatory models and market forecast. It is concluded that, although disagreement on the direction of market change is high for many market, the different data sets often produce similar explanatory models and predict similar relative performance.

Some day a great harvest: A history of the foundation of St. Augustine\u27s Indian Mission, Winnebago, Nebraska, 1888 to 1945

Controversy has shadowed Christian missionary activity among Native American peoples from its beginnings in the 1500’s to the present day. During the last two centuries, the churches have competed for the souls of Indians on reservations, in the press, in Congress and in the federal courts. At stake were access to the reservations and the use of federal funds in religious institutions. These jurisdictional conflicts reflected and reinforced the contentious relationships between Protestants and Catholics in the United States. The history of St. Augustine’s Indian Mission was shaped by a combination of national and local events. The foundation of the mission was delayed for twenty years in part by the controversy over the use o f federal funds by religious institutions. More importantly, the well-established Presbyterian missionaries opposed Catholic attempts to locate on the reservation. The mission was finally established with the help of Mother Katharine Drexel, but only after reservation lands had been opened to extensive white settlement. A series of land rushes soon resulted in the impoverishment of Indian families and further complicated relationships between whites and Indians. While Father Joseph Schell sought to help the Winnebagoes by exposing white corruption, Father John Griese worked to develop employment opportunities and to establish an educational and spiritual ministry. Sioux author Vine Deloria, Jr. has eloquently critiqued the negative impact of missions on Native American cultures. However, Deloria created a stereotype of the missionary and the impact of the missions, which failed to address the complexity of the subject. This study of St. Augustine’s suggests that there was also a positive side to the work of Catholic missionaries, and that a generalized assessment of the missions cannot be written until more case studies have been completed

Plasmonic Grating Geometrics and Wavelength-dependent Focus Depth in Infrared Detectors

The objective for this research is to determine a relationship between plasmonic grating geometries and the wavelength-dependent focus depth. This research is focused on enhancing the signal collected by infrared detectors by using a metal grating as a planar lens to focus light in the detecting region of the substrate. This can be used to maintain a thinner absorbing region and possibly to create multi-color imaging in a single pixel. Simulations demonstrate that the plasmonic lens is capable of creating a wavelength dependent focus spot