From Railroads to Sand Dunes: An Examination of the Offsetting Doctrine in Partial Takings

Called “shadowy at best,” the offsetting doctrine in partial takings has confused “even trained legal minds” and generated inconsistent decision after inconsistent decision. The offsetting doctrine allows certain benefits, termed special, to offset condemnation awards, while general benefits may not be offset. Courts blindly adhere to the doctrine despite its underpinnings rooted in eighteenth-century public policy, which was based on concerns of overly speculative valuation and arguably erroneous fairness, as well as incorrect interpretations of Takings Clause jurisprudence. Such adherence dramatically increases the cost of financing a takings project. In the face of blind adherence to the doctrine, municipalities are forced to balance the needs of their citizens against the needs of eighteenth-century courts, often resulting in the failure of municipalities to engage in takings for the public benefit. This Note argues that new public policy concerns warrant rejection of the doctrine in favor of a rule that allows all nonspeculative benefits to offset a condemnation award. This rule would take into account modern advances in evidence, promote fairness, simplify the judicial process, and allow municipalities to respond to twentieth-century problems while landowners receive just compensation for taken land

Behavioral technology and its application to fire toxicology research

The application of behavioral technology to the toxicity testing of pyrolysis/combustion (P/C) products is discussed and two categories of behavioral tests commonly employed in fire toxicology programs are reviewed. Data are presented from a comparison of carbon monoxide (CO) induced incapacitation in rats performing in a rotating wheel or under a Sidmon free-operant schedule of shock avoidance. Rats performing in the rotating wheel were behaviorally incapacitated at CO concentrations and carboxyhemoglobin levels significantly lower than those which incapacitated operant avoidance animals. It is concluded that different measures of behavioral incapacitation may vary since incapacitation is a function of the particular toxic mechanism at work and the behavioral requirements of the specific task employed in the test procedure

Networked by design: can policy constraints support the development of capabilities for collaborative innovation?

While there has been some recent interest in the behavioural effects of policies in support of innovation networks, this research field is still relatively new. In particular, an important but under-researched question for policy design is “what kind of networks” should be supported, if the objective of the policy is not just to fund successful innovation projects, but also to stimulate behavioural changes in the participants, such as increasing their ability to engage in collaborative innovation. By studying the case of the innovation policy programmes implemented by the regional government of Tuscany, in Italy, between 2002 and 2008, we assess whether the imposition of constraints on the design of innovation networks has enhanced the participants’ collaborative innovation capabilities, and we draw some general implications for policy

Parametric Surfaces for Augmented Architecture representation

Augmented Reality (AR) represents a growing communication channel, responding to the need to expand reality with additional information, offering easy and engaging access to digital data. AR for architectural representation allows a simple interaction with 3D models, facilitating spatial understanding of complex volumes and topological relationships between parts, overcoming some limitations related to Virtual Reality. In the last decade different developments in the pipeline process have seen a significant advancement in technological and algorithmic aspects, paying less attention to 3D modeling generation. For this, the article explores the construction of basic geometries for 3D model’s generation, highlighting the relationship between geometry and topology, basic for a consistent normal distribution. Moreover, a critical evaluation about corrective paths of existing 3D models is presented, analysing a complex architectural case study, the virtual model of Villa del Verginese, an emblematic example for topological emerged problems. The final aim of the paper is to refocus attention on 3D model construction, suggesting some "good practices" useful for preventing, minimizing or correcting topological problems, extending the accessibility of AR to people engaged in architectural representation

Tuning the electronic transport properties of graphene through functionalisation with fluorine

Engineering the electronic properties of graphene has triggered great interest for potential applications in electronics and opto-electronics. Here we demonstrate the possibility to tune the electronic transport properties of graphene monolayers and multilayers by functionalisation with fluorine. We show that by adjusting the fluorine content different electronic transport regimes can be accessed. For monolayer samples, with increasing the fluorine content, we observe a transition from electronic transport through Mott variable range hopping in two dimensions to Efros - Shklovskii variable range hopping. Multilayer fluorinated graphene with high concentration of fluorine show two-dimensional Mott variable range hopping transport, whereas CF0.28 multilayer flakes have a band gap of 0.25eV and exhibit thermally activated transport. Our experimental findings demonstrate that the ability to control the degree of functionalisation of graphene is instrumental to engineer different electronic properties in graphene materials.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Remarks on the tensor degree of finite groups

The present paper is a note on the tensor degree of finite groups, introduced recently in literature. This numerical invariant generalizes the commutativity degree through the notion of nonabelian tensor square. We show two inequalities, which correlate the tensor and the commutativity degree of finite groups, and, indirectly, structural properties will be discussed.Comment: 5 pages; to appear with revisions in Filoma

Innovation, generative relationships and scaffolding structures: implications of a complexity perspective to innovation for public and private interventions

The linear model of innovation has been superseded by a variety of theoretical models that view the innovation process as systemic, complex, multi-level, multi-temporal, involving a plurality of heterogeneous economic agents. Accordingly, the emphasis of the policy discourse has changed over time. The focus has shifted from the direct public funding of basic research as an engine of innovation, to the creation of markets for knowledge goods, to, eventually, the acknowledgement that knowledge transfer very often requires direct interactions among innovating actors. In most cases, policy interventions attempt to facilitate the match between “demand” and “supply” of the knowledge needed to innovate. A complexity perspective calls for a different framing, one focused on the fostering of processes characterized by multiple agency levels, multiple temporal scales, ontological uncertainty and emergent outcomes. This contribution explores what it means to design interventions in support of innovation processes inspired by a complex systems perspective. It does so by analyzing two examples of coordinated interventions: a public policy funding innovating networks (with SMEs, research centers and university), and a private initiative, promoted by a network of medium-sized mechanical engineering firms, that supports innovation by means of technology brokerage. Relying on two unique datasets recording the interactions of the organizations involved in these interventions, social network analysis and qualitative research are combined in order to investigate network dynamics and the roles of specific actors in fostering innovation processes. Then, some general implications for the design of coordinated interventions supporting innovation in a complexity perspective are drawn