Concept for a commercial space station laboratory

The concept of a privately owned and operated fee-for-service laboratory as an element of a civil manned space station, envisioned as the venture of a group of private investors and an experienced laboratory operator to be undertaken with the cooperation of NASA is discussed. This group would acquire, outfit, activate, and operate the labortory on a fee-for-service basis, providing laboratory services to commercial firms, universities, and government agencies, including NASA. This concept was developed to identify, stimulate, and assist potential commercial users of a manned space station. A number of the issues which would be related to the concept, including the terms under which NASA might consider permitting private ownership and operation of a major space station component, the policies with respect to international participation in the construction and use of the space station, the basis for charging users for services received from the space station, and the types of support that NASA might be willing to provide to assist private industry in carrying out such a venture are discussed

Nonrefundable Retainers: Impermissible Under Fiduciary, Statutory and Contract Law

Since the New York Court of Appeals banned nonrefundable retainers, numerous other courts have joined in prohibiting this widespread practice of lawyers charging a fee for services in advance and keeping the fee even if the services are not performed. This may reflect increased judicial recognition of the effect of egregious fee practices on the image of the bar and the role such practices play in the declining esteem in which the legal profession is held. Among the more provocative contributors to this ongoing debate, Professor Steven Lubet recently reviewed our work advocating the ban against nonrefundable retainers and posed a number of questions about the per se prohibition against them. In this Article, we respond to Professor Lubet\u27s questions as well as to those posed by other scholars. In Part I, we discuss the client discharge right, the cornerstone upon which the absolute ban on nonrefundable retainers rests, and respond to a series of arguments concerning its meaning, how it may be impaired, and whether it may be waived. In Part II, we show that legitimate purposes that may be served by nonrefundable retainers cannot avoid impairing the client discharge right, but that other fee arrangements that do not impair that right can easily be designed to serve some of those ends. In Part III, we extend an invitation to address the issues we have identified to all those who believe that a per se ban against nonrefundable retainers is unnecessary to prevent the abuses they generate. We have previously extended this invitation to devise a less inclusive rule that would in a practical and self-effectuating way prohibit the abuses while permitting the attainment of legitimate purposes. Unfortunately for the debate, however, none of the participants have accepted this invitation. We therefore think it bears repeating

Residential Docks and Piers: Inventory of laws, regulations, and policies for the Southeastern United States

While the homes threatened by erosion and the developer illegally filling in marshlands are the projects that make the headlines, for many state regulatory programs, it’s the residential docks and piers that take up the most time. When is a dock too long? What about crossing extended property lines? And at what point does a creek have too many docks? There are no easy answers to any of the dock and pier related questions. Each state has to craft the laws and policies that are best for its natural resources and its political and legal environment. At the same time, mistakes in judgment can be costly for the organization, the homeowner, and the natural resources. At the request of the Georgia Coastal Management Program, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal Services Center compiled an inventory of dock information for four states—Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Federal laws, state laws and regulations, permitting policies, and contact information are included in a tabular format that is easy to use. (PDF contaions 18 pages

Vernal Pool Conservation: Enhancing Existing Regulation Through the Creation of the Maine Vernal Pool Special Area Management Plan

Conservation of natural resources is challenging given the competing economic and ecological goals humans have for landscapes. Vernal pools in the northeastern US are seasonal, small wetlands that provide critical breeding habitat for amphibians and invertebrates adapted to temporary waters, and are exceptionally hard to conserve as their function is dependent on connections to other wetlands and upland forests. A team of researchers in Maine joined forces with a diverse array of governmental and private stakeholders to develop an alternative to existing top-down vernal pool regulation. Through creative adoption and revision of various resource management tools, they produced a vernal pool conservation mechanism, the Maine Vernal Pool Special Management Area Plan that meets the needs of diverse stakeholders from developers to ecologists. This voluntary mitigation tool uses fees from impacts to vernal pools in locally identified growth areas to fund conservation of “poolscapes” (pools plus appropriate adjacent habitat) in areas locally designated for rural use. In this case study, we identify six key features of this mechanism that illustrate the use of existing tools to balance growth and pool conservation. This case study will provide readers with key concepts that can be applied to any conservation problem: namely, how to work with diverse interests toward a common goal, how to evaluate and use existing policy tools in new ways, and how to approach solutions to sticky problems through a willingness to accept uncertainty and risk

Residential Docks and Piers: Inventory of laws, regulations, and policies for the New England region

While the homes threatened by erosion and the developer illegally filling in marshlands are the projects that make the headlines, for many state regulatory programs, it’s the residential docks and piers that take up the most time. When is a dock too long? What about crossing extended property lines? And at what point does a creek have too many docks? There are no easy answers to these questions. At the request of the Georgia Coastal Management Program, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal Services Center published in April 2003 an inventory of residential dock and pier management information for the southeastern U.S. This inventory builds upon that effort and includes five New England states and one municipality: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and the Town of Falmouth, Massachusetts. Federal laws, state laws and regulations, permitting policies, and contact information are presented in a tabular format that is easy to use. (PDF contains 16 pages

Citizen Suit Attorney Fee Shifting Awards: A Critical Examination of Government-“Subsidized” Litigation

Silicon Carbide (SiC) is an important wide band gap semiconductor with outstanding electronic properties. With figures of merit far better than silicon, SiC is believed to replace and outcompete silicon in many applications using high frequencies, high voltage and high temperatures. With the introduction of seeded sublimation technique, a realisation of substrates with large diameter and high quality became possible. Recent progress in the bulk growth using high temperature chemical vapour deposition (HTCVD) has shown excellent results with high purity substrates with semi insulating (SI) properties. The availability of high quality SI substrates allows the fabrication of microwave devices with low rf losses such as the Metal Schottky Field Effect Transistor (MESFET). With the introduction of the hot-wall CVD technique, thick low doped n-type epitaxial layers have been grown for high power devices (> 4 kV) such as the PiN diode. The main contribution of the present work relates to the investigation of growth of MESFET structures. The goal has been to demonstrate the ability to grow MESFET structures using the hot-wall CVD technique. The challenge with abrupt interfaces and controlled doping has been investigated. A comprehensive investigation has been made on how nitrogen and aluminum dopant atoms incorporate into the SiC lattice using the hot-wall CVD technique. Fundamental research of MESFET structures has been combined with growth of device structures for both Swedish and European groups as well as industries. The research has been focused towards the understanding of dopant incorporation, characterization of doped epitaxial layers, the growth of device structures, the modelling of temperature distribution in a hot-wall susceptor and the development of growth systems for future up scaling. In paper 1 we present how the nitrogen dopant is incorporated into the SiC lattice. The influence of several different growth parameters on the nitrogen incorporation is presented. Equilibrium thermodynamical calculations have been performed to give a further insight into the incorporation mechanism. The investigation shows that the N2 molecule itself does not contribute directly to the nitrogen incorporation, however, molecules like the HCN and HNC are more likely. In paper 2 the incorporation of the aluminum dopant into the SiC lattice is investigated in a similar way as the nitrogen incorporation in paper 1. The results show that the aluminum incorporation in SiC is mainly controlled by the carbon coverage on the SiC surface. The investigation shows that it is difficult to obtain high aluminum doping on carbon face whereas the silicon face is sensitive to changes of the growth parameters. High growth rate resulted in a diffusion controlled incorporation. In Paper 3 we present the results from the growth of MESFET structures as well as characterization of the structures and final device properties. Knowledge taken from paper 1 and 2 was used to improve the abruptness of the grown structures. Paper 4 presents the results obtained by low temperature photoluminescence (LTPL) on separately grown 4H-SiC epitaxial layers. Doping calibration curves for nitrogen in the doping range from 1⋅1014 to 2⋅1019 cm-3 are presented. A discussion concerning the Mott transition is also presented. Paper 5 presents the results of the use of simulation to investigate the heating of a hot-wall CVD reactor. New susceptor and coil design are tested. The simulation has been verified with experimental heating tests which show excellent agreement. The new design has a temperature variation of less than 0.5 % over more than 70% of the total susceptor length in addition to a decreased power input of 15 %. In the final two papers, paper 6 and 7, we present work of growth of AlN on SiC. Thin films were grown and characterized with different techniques concerning crystal quality and thickness. The use of infrared reflectance and the features of the AlN reststrahl reflectance band allowed us to determine the thickness of AlN films as thin as 250 Å

Ethical Issues in Mass Tort Plaintiffs’ Representation: Beyond the Aggregate Settlement Rule

Those who have addressed ethics issues for plaintiffs’ lawyers in mass tort litigation have focused on possible reform of the aggregate settlement rule to facilitate global settlements. This Article addresses a broader range of ethical issues, including (1) application of the general conflicts of interest rule to both client-client and client-lawyer conflicts; (2) unresolved issues concerning the interpretation of the current aggregate settlement rule, including the need to disclose client names and the applicability of the rule to court-approved settlements and formula or matrix allocations; and (3) the ability of lawyers to voluntarily withdraw from representing plaintiffs who reject an offer of settlement

Preserving, Protecting, and Expanding Affordable Housing: A Policy Toolkit for Public Health

Resurgent interest in urban living is helping to revive neighborhoods in numerous American cities, stabilizing populations and sometimes beginning to reverse previous declines. One consequence of the influx of residents is new public and private investment in amenities such as parks, bike paths and grocery and other stores. However, new demand and investment can also drive up housing costs. That's particularly true in areas that have traditionally been affordable to low- and moderate-income individuals and families, notes a report by ChangeLab Solutions. With support from Kresge's Health Program, the nonprofit ChangeLab Solutions developed a guide to help practitioners and community advocates preserve and expand the number of affordable rental housing options in high-demand neighborhoods. The guide is aimed at practitioners who work at the intersection of housing and health, an area of increasing emphasis for Kresge's Health Program.The ChangeLab team has produced a policy toolkit with information on housing market trends and research on the links between rising housing costs and poor health outcomes. The toolkit identifies strategies to help ensure that households of all incomes have housing options in the areas where they want to live. It covers six policy areas: preservation, protection, inclusion, revenue generation, incentives and property acquisition