Zero-sum thinking, meritocratic beliefs, and preferences for basic income and universal healthcare

This study uses survey responses to explore how support for basic income and universal healthcare is linked to zero-sum thinking and meritocratic beliefs. Consistent with earlier work, I find that zero-sum thinking and weaker meritocratic beliefs both lead to greater levels of support for basic income and universal healthcare. Using a path analysis, zero-sum thinking is also found to strengthen support for basic income and universal healthcare along two separate channels -- one via zero-sum thinking’s direct effect on policy support and a second via an indirect effect, whereby zero-sum thinking is attached to weaker beliefs in meritocracy, which in turn lead to increased policy support. These results suggest that zero-sum thinking plays an important role in shaping support for progressive policies, and that the multifaceted connection between zero-sum thinking and policy support likely serves as a barrier to widespread recognition, appreciation, and promotion of the positive-sum consequences of these policies

Progress Towards Efficient Means of Synthesizing Natural Product Frondosin D

Frondosin D is a natural product generated by the marine sea sponge Dysidea frondosa that has a litany of documented medicinal effects, including acting as a potent anti-inflammatory, anti-HIV, and tumor suppressant agent. So far, the Ovaska lab methodology has successfully utilized a tandem 5-exo dig cyclization to form the core seven membered ring in three, A-C, of the five isoforms in the frondosin family. In addition to leveraging the reliability of this approach, two major ring construction sequences, A-D-B-C and D-C-B-A, have been explored as viable pathways in synthesis efforts of frondosin D. This present study investigated variations of the D-C-B-A approach, wherein modifications to both key tertiary alcohol and tricyclic ketone intermediates were performed in order to facilitate the installation of the A ring system to the remainder of the molecular scaffold. One of these attempts appeared to be successful in affording the tetracyclic skeleton of frondosin D. It is expected that the Ovaska lab will build off the progress associated with development of the structural core, in addition to exploring the advantages of other ring construction techniques, in order to chart an efficient route towards the total synthesis of natural product frondosin D

Calderón’s El médico de su honra: A Cubist Reading

El médico de su honra de Calderón de la Barca es una obra fracturada que, en la famosa locución de Stanley Fish, siempre ha permanecido “recalcitrant to interpretation.” Mientras que Gutierre puede ser el protagonista torturado de un drama de honor que enfrenta su amor por su esposa contra las demandas de su honor, El médico no es la obra de Gutierre. El médico es la obra del rey. Este monarca, sin embargo, es en si un personaje fracturado, una figura dramática e histórica conocida como “Pedro el Cruel” y como “Pedro el Justiciero.” Pero el rey que vemos paseándose por el palacio, un rey que entabla combate con los rufianes de la calle, encarcela a los malhechores y logra controlar a la nobleza andaluza, está muy lejos del rey que vemos en el mundo de la obra dramática, un rey impotente que es consciente de estar proyectando el poder que puede que no tenga. Dado que la obra dramática como texto y el mundo de la obra dramática ofrecen dos perspectivas diferentes de la monarquía que no pueden reconciliarse ni racionalizarse en un todo coherente, quizá sea hora de someter a El médico a una lectura cubista, una que llevará estos dos marcos de referencia distintos y a menudo contradictorios al primer plano y les permitirá existir independientemente uno del otro en el mismo plano interpretativo. Tal vez sea hora de pensar en El médico ni como poesía ni como drama sino como lo que el crítico cubista Guillaume Apollinaire ha llamado un “art of conception” que apela no al ojo sino al intelecto, an “art of conception” que hace que una comprensión de la autoridad real sea tan fracturada como la propia obra. Calderón de la Barca’s El médico de su honra is a fractured play that, in Stanley Fish’s famous locution, has always remained “recalcitrant to interpretation.” While Gutierre may be the tortured protagonist of a wife-murder play that pits his love for his wife against the demands of his honor, El médico is not Gutierre’s play. El médico is the king’s play. This monarch, however, is himself a fractured character, a dramatic and an historical figure known both as “Peter the Cruel” and as “Peter the Just.” But the king we see strutting through the palace, a king who tilts with street ruffians, imprisons miscreants, and brings the Andalusian nobility to heel, is a far cry from the king we see in the world of the play, an impotent king who is aware that he is projecting power he may not have. Given that the play as text and the world of the play offer two different perspectives of monarchy that can neither be reconciled nor rationalized into a coherent whole, perhaps it is time to subject El médico to a Cubist reading, one that will bring these two distinct and often contradictory frames of reference to the foreground and allow them to exist independently of each other on the same interpretive plane. Perhaps it is time to think of El médico neither as poetry nor as drama but as what the Cubist critic Guillaume Apollinaire has called an “art of conception” that appeals not to the eye but to the intellect, an “art of conception” that renders an understanding of royal authority as fractured as the play itself

Pre-lab Videos for CHM 223

Short lecture/demo videos meant to prepare students to begin lab work as soon as class starts. All videos CC-BY-NC-SAhttps://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/oer/1005/thumbnail.jp

The Florey Institute of Neuroscience: Experience in Australia

Funded by the Career Action Programs, I was able to intern in the Florey Institute of Neuroscience from May to July. I practiced working in the wet lab, and did three overarching projects: Neuropharmacology related to Alzheheimers’, tumor work related to glioblastoma and ApoE4 work