Groundwater Conservation Policy in Agriculture

Transboundary water conflicts between urban and rural populations often center on water use in the agricultural sector. Public officials may select a water conservation policy as the primary tool for reducing agricultural water use with the goal to improve water availability to urban areas and future generations. The Groundwater Management Act of 1980 (GMA) in Arizona was designed, in part, to induce water conservation in irrigated agriculture to sustain economic growth in an arid climate. Our mixed-method evaluation design merges qualitative, interview-based information with an estimated water demand function using panel data. We find that the GMA began with a flawed design and evolved through political circumstances into a ineffective water conservation tool. We explain nearly all water use in Arizona's agricultural sector from 1984-2002 using prices and weather data. We found no statistical evidence that the management plans of the GMA directly contributed to reduced water demand in Arizona's agricultural sector over the study period.Impact assessment, public policy, irrigation, water conservation, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Interaction of point sources and vortices for incompressible planar fluids

We consider a new system of differential equations which is at the same time gradient and locally Hamiltonian. It is obtained by just replacing a factor in the equations of interaction for N point vortices, and it is interpreted as an interaction of N point sources. Because of the local Hamiltonian structure and the symmetries it obeys, it does possess some of the first integrals that appear in the N vortex problem. We will show that binary collisions are easily blown up in this case since the equations of motion are of first order. This method may be easily generalized to the blow up of higher order collisions. We then generalize the model further to interactions of sources and vortices.Comment: 9 page

The Changing Landscape for In-House Counsel: Multijurisdictional Practice Considerations for Corporate Law Departments

This article contains an overview of areas to consider regarding the ability of in-house attorneys licensed in one or more jurisdictions in the United States to continue providing legal services when in a new location. The focus in this article is on matters relevant for attorneys engaged in transactional work, rather than those who are interested in representing their clients in courtrooms, administrative tribunals, and similar forums

Development of advanced electrode materials for use in rechargeable lithium batteries

Batteries are a necessary companion to most portable electronic devices, and the rechargeable lithium battery is the most energy dense and lightest of all the competing battery types. These features make it the most likely battery to be used in future electronic devices, which will be smaller and have increased functionality. Therefore, the performance of the rechargeable lithium battery must continue to be improved in terms of capacity, rate capability, and cycle life. This thesis contributes to this goal by developing new materials and novel synthesis techniques for application in advanced rechargeable lithium batteries. A significant contribution to the ever-growing collection of works on the doping of LiCoO2 and LiFePO4 structures in an attempt to raise their practical storage capacities is presented. The practical capacity of these materials can sometimes be increased by aliovalent doping due to the formation of charge-carrying holes, which impart a higher electrical conductivity. In the case of LiCoO2 doped with Mg, V and Mo prepared by traditional solid-state methods, the lithium storage capacity was not improved compared to the un-doped LiCoO2. This was attributed to the formation of lithium-containing secondary phases, which resulted in a lithium deficient primary phase and a higher concentration of Jahn-Teller Co4+ ions. These effects disrupted the intercalation framework and produced a poor electrochemical performance. In contrast, work on the doping of titanium into LiFePO4 confirmed that a complete solid solution could be formed using a sol-gel method, despite several previous works suggesting that the aliovalent doping of this structure was impossible. Doping 1 mol% titanium into the LiFePO4 structure improved the capacity to only 5 % less than the theoretical maximum attainable capacity. The mechanism for this improvement was related to increased p-type semiconductivity in the material. A novel materials synthesis technique, electric discharge assisted mechanical milling (EDAMM), was applied for the first time to the preparation of functional oxides. LiCoO2 and LiFePO4 cathode materials and SrTixCo1-xO3 (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5), which has possible magnetic applications, were synthesized in a matter of minutes with either microsized or nanosized powder morphologies. The electrochemical performance of the cathode materials was shown to be comparable to those delivered by powders synthesized by traditional solidstate techniques. SrTixCo1-xO3 powders could be formed as complete solid solutions with interesting magnetic properties. The EDAMM method shows commercial potential, as it can synthesize a wide range of functional oxide powders in high quantities. Concerning the synthesis of novel materials, this work also reports on the first ever formation of uniform and aligned NiO nanotubes. The nanotubes were up to 60 μm long, had an outer diameter of 200 nm and a wall thickness of 20-30 nm. Compared to nanocrystalline NiO, the nanotubes delivered a 30 % increase in the discharge capacity after repeated cycling. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy suggests that this improvement was due to kinetic advantages. Finally, unique carbon-based SnSb and transition metal oxide nanocomposite materials formed by various chemical techniques are shown to offer promise as anode materials due to their high capacity and excellent cycle life. The use of SnSb alloys has previously been hindered by their poor cyclability, which is caused by volume changes during cycling that result in a loss of electrical contact. Physically mixing carbon in a 1:1 weight ratio with the active material does not improve the cyclability of the electrode, but improves the realized capacity by increasing the electrical conductivity. A superior method of utilizing carbon in a composite form is to synthesize a SnSb-CNT powder, in which the SnSb is chemically bonded onto the carbon nanotube (CNT) nano-network. These powders demonstrated a high reversible capacity and stable cyclability. This method is an effective and promising option to address the problem of volume changes in all high capacity alloys. The Co3O4–C composite powders were produced by spray pyrolysis of a sugar-metal ion solution. The capacity in cells was \u3e 800 mAh g-1 for over 50 cycles, which solved the capacity fade problems. The improved electrochemical properties were related to the presence of a carbon sheath formed during processing, which acted to prevent excessive electrolyte reduction and retard the development of a thick solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). A disordered C matrix was also formed throughout the bulk powder during processing, which assisted in cushioning the volume changes associated with the electrochemical reaction

Globalization and Eligibility To Deliver Legal Advice: Inbound Legal Services Provided by Corporate Counsel Licensed Only in a Country Outside the United States

The regulation of cross-border delivery of legal services remains in flux. Clients in the United States, particularly sophisticated corporate clients, should be allowed to utilize the special expertise possessed by lawyers licensed outside the United States. Key reforms that at this point are gaining traction include the following: allowing lawyers licensed outside the United States to qualify for limited licenses as in-house counsel; broadening the scope of practice so that all foreign legal consultants are allowed to give legal advice related to third-country and international law; and allowing fly in, fly out practice while temporarily present in the host state. Taking Fred Zacharias’s counsel, we will certainly revisit the discussion of this continually developing area of the law in the years ahead

Dynamics of Conformal Maps for a Class of Non-Laplacian Growth Phenomena

Time-dependent conformal maps are used to model a class of growth phenomena limited by coupled non-Laplacian transport processes, such as nonlinear diffusion, advection, and electro-migration. Both continuous and stochastic dynamics are described by generalizing conformal-mapping techniques for viscous fingering and diffusion-limited aggregation, respectively. A general notion of time in stochastic growth is also introduced. The theory is applied to simulations of advection-diffusion-limited aggregation in a background potential flow. A universal crossover in morphology is observed from diffusion-limited to advection-limited fractal patterns with an associated crossover in the growth rate, controlled by a time-dependent effective Peclet number. Remarkably, the fractal dimension is not affected by advection, in spite of dramatic increases in anisotropy and growth rate, due to the persistence of diffusion limitation at small scales.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures (six color plates

Corundum-Hibonite Inclusions and the Environments of High Temperature Processing in the Early Solar System

Calcium, Aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs) are composed of the suite of minerals predicted to be the first to condense from a cooling gas of solar composition [1]. Yet, the first phase to condense, corundum, is rare in CAIs, having mostly reacted to form hibonite followed by other phases at lower temperatures. Many CAIs show evidence of complex post-formational histories, including condensation, evaporation, and melting [e.g. 2, 3]. However, the nature of these thermal events and the nebular environments in which they took place are poorly constrained. Some corundum and corundum-hibonite grains appear to have survived or avoided these complex CAI reprocessing events. Such ultra-refractory CAIs may provide a clearer record of the O isotopic composition of the Sun and the evolution of the O isotopic composition of the planet-forming region [4-6]. Here we present in situ O and Mg isotopic analyses of two corundum/hibonite inclusions that record differing formation histories