Jun He

This paper examines three landmark eminent domain cases, Poletown Neighborhood Council v. Detroit, County of Wayne v. Hathcock, and Kelo v. New London, which are often cited as evidence of inconsistent judicial outcomes. Using a comparative case analysis, it introduces Contextual Cost-Benefit Analysis (CCBA), a framework that interprets takings decisions as pragmatic evaluations in which costs and benefits are weighted by their contextual salience. The analysis shows that courts tend to uphold takings when projected benefits credibly outweigh the displacement and demoralization costs thereby generated, and reject them otherwise. This satisficing logic, grounded in Simon's concept of bounded rationality and North's account of institutional constraints, resembles the heuristic structure of the Hand rule in judicial reasoning rather than the marginal calculus of standard economic models. By identifying this distinct logic, CCBA suggests that accurate costbenefit analysis may require contextual weighting when decision-makers operate under institutional constraints.

Uranium is a resource with exceptionally high energy density, releasing substantially more energy per unit mass than conventional fossil fuels. In uranium mining, in situ leaching offers significant advantages over open-pit and underground mining, including reduced environmental impact, lower operational costs, enhanced safety, and improved controllability. Within the in situ leaching framework, acid leaching faces limitations in high-carbonate ore bodies, while alkaline leaching is unsuitable for deposits rich in pyrite and other sulfide minerals due to side reactions and precipitate formation that hinder leaching efficiency. In contrast, CO₂-O₂ leaching, as a neutral leaching approach, exhibits broader applicability across diverse ore types and geological settings. Incorporating CO₂ into the leaching process also enables carbon utilization, offering a potential pathway to cleaner uranium extraction aligned with carbon reduction and sustainable energy goals. This review systematically examines the geochemical principles, as well as hydrological and transport phenomena governing CO₂-O₂ in situ leaching. Recent technological advances are summarized, including progress in reaction kinetics and leaching efficiency, leaching solution design and control, and reservoir modification. Furthermore, the techno-economic implications of CO₂-O₂ in situ leaching are critically assessed, with particular emphasis on operational cost structures and the evolution of techno-economic analysis methodologies. On this basis, key challenges and future directions are identified. This work aims to support the future large-scale and economically efficient deployment of CO₂-O₂ in situ leaching for uranium resource development.

With the intensifying global climate crisis and the urgent demand for carbon neutrality, carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture technologies have received growing attention as effective strategies for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon-based porous materials are widely regarded as promising CO₂ adsorbents due to their tunable porosity, high surface area, and excellent chemical and thermal stability. Among them, biomass-derived porous carbon materials have received growing attention as sustainable, low-cost alternatives to fossil-based adsorbents. This review provides a comprehensive overview of recent advances in biomass-derived porous carbon materials for CO₂ capture, emphasizing the fundamental adsorption mechanisms, including physisorption, chemisorption, and their synergistic effects. Key synthesis pathways, such as pyrolysis and hydrothermal carbonization, are discussed in relation to the development of biomass-derived porous carbon materials. Furthermore, performance-enhancing strategies, such as activation treatments, heteroatom doping, and templating methods, are critically evaluated for their ability to tailor surface properties and improve CO₂ uptake capacity. Recent progress in typical biomass-derived porous carbon materials, including active carbon, hierarchical porous carbon, and other innovative carbon materials, is also highlighted. In addition to summarizing recent advances in porous carbon synthesis, this review introduces a unified techno-economic framework that integrates cost, sustainability, and performance-driven benefits. Overall, this review aims to provide systematic insights into the performance of biomass-derived porous carbon materials and to guide the rational design of efficient, sustainable adsorbents for real-world carbon capture applications.

Undercompensated acquisitions arouse disputes, social dissents, and resistance. I incorporate this “demoralization” cost that is overlooked by the literature into a formalized Blume et al, (1984) model. I first explore a unilateral case where resistance is merely caused by undercompensation and then a bilateral case where the household can voluntarily add resisting efforts to pursue more compensation. Under the bilateral case, I investigate three scenarios with the sequential game: the government and the household move simultaneously, the government leads the sequential game, the household leads the sequential game where the government compromises. I find the simultaneous game and the sequential game led by the government share the same outcome as the unilateral case: the household voluntarily adds no resisting efforts, but the government undercompensates. The latter deviates from the social optimum with no undercompensation. I propose a full-compensation rule to restore the social optimum. This rule needs to be paired with institutionalization that eliminates the household’s strategic addition of resisting efforts in the sequential game led by the household.