The Dark Side of the American Dream: Individual Agency, Hard Work, and Public Mass Shootings

This project traces the origins and continuing existence of the American Dream. The American Dream refers to the belief that hard work will result in success and upward mobility for future generations. In other words, American culture views each individual as the master of their own destiny, provided they work hard. Though America’s culture has changed drastically over the course of its history, and differs greatly between various groups, the American Dream is a concept which runs deep in the minds of Americans to this day. This project starts the American Dream’s timeline during the Protestant Reformation, then continues on to the Puritans of New England and the First Great Awakening, the start of the American public educational system, and the development of fame-obsession and celebrity culture. Importantly, this project will also show the manifestations and effects of the American Dream, including Public Mass Shootings

Advice’s Effect: The Role of Western Advisors on Russian Privatization Policy

This paper seeks to investigate the role that western advisors played in Russia’s transition to a market economy during the 1990s. In order to answer this question a wide variety of sources were consulted. Scholarly papers, books on the subject, and works by the participants themselves all played. Through my investigation it became clear that advisors played little, if any, role in influencing policy. A host of domestic ideas and political factors were far more important in determining what strategy was pursued

Molecular Studies of Neural Tube Defect Development in the Mouse Embryo

The thesis describes studies of the development of neural tube defects (NTD) in genetically predisposed mice, specifically the curly tail and loop-tail mutants. The curly tail mouse exhibits delay or failure of closure of the neural tube at the posterior neuropore and is a model for low spinal NTD in humans. In vivo supplementation of embryos with the vitamin, inositol, significantly reduces the incidence of spinal defects raising the possibility of using inositol to prevent a proportion of NTD in humans. Moreover, inositol treatment of embryos in culture minimises the delay in posterior neuropore closure that is known, from previous studies, to lead directly to development of NTD. The mechanism of action of inositol has been examined using in vitro inhibitors and activators, measurements of inositol incorporation and analysis of gene expression in cultured embryos. The findings suggest a model that involves an increased flux through the inositol/lipid cycle which leads to activation of protein kinase C and upregulation of expression of retinoic acid receptor-β in the hindgut, the affected tissue in the curly tail mutant. The loop-tail mutant mouse is a model for craniorachischisis in humans; homozygous embryos exhibit failure of initial closure of the neural folds resulting in an open neural tube from the midbrain/hindbrain boundary along the entire body axis. Loop-tail embryos are identified by PCR analysis prior to the failure of neural tube closure. Analysis of gene expression by whole mount in situ hybridisation reveals abnormal expression of sonic hedgehog and netrin-1 in the notochord and floor plate of homozygous mutant embryos suggesting that defects in the development of these tissues may contribute to the development of NTD

An archaeological survey of the Brainerd Mission Cemetery

The Brainerd Mission Cemetery (40HA128) was placed on the National Register of Historical Places in 1979. The cemetery is all that visibly remains of the Brainerd Mission for Cherokee Indians. Christian missionaries converted and educated Cherokee students until the tragic Trail of Tears in 1838. Today the cemetery is preserved on a one acre complex surrounded by parking lots, roads, and commercial establishments of the Eastgate Shopping Mall and Brainerd Village. The City of Chattanooga acquired the green space and parking lot north and east of the cemetery for future interpretive and educational initiatives. The Jeffery L. Brown Institute of Archaeology conducted an archaeological survey consisting of the backhoe excavation of seven trenches on these parcels. The survey was designed to generate information on the archaeological record of the property, particularly the presence of subsurface features such as unmarked historic burials. No significant cultural remains were encountered during the survey.https://scholar.utc.edu/archaeology-reports/1001/thumbnail.jp

Contracting Correctness: A Rubric for Analyzing Morality Clauses

Morality clauses give a contracting party the right to terminate if the other party behaves badly or embarrassingly. A curious product of twentieth-century Hollywood, these contract clauses have traditionally been used to control the antics of entertainers and athletes. The current politically-sensitive historical moment, combined with the internet’s ability to broadcast widely and permanently, has put everyone’s off-duty speech, conduct, and reputation under the microscope. Media reports detailing people’s digital falls from grace abound. For fear of negative association, businesses are more attuned than ever to the extracurricular acts of their agents and associates—and are increasingly binding them to morality clauses that allow for abrupt separations. However, morality clauses have largely escaped judicial and academic scrutiny. Perhaps due to the hefty bargaining power of their traditionally famous parties, most courts have generally found these clauses enforceable with fleeting analysis. Outside of the sports and entertainment industries, academic literature on the morality clause is scant. We ignore morality clauses at our peril. Like non-compete clauses, which suffer from well-documented overuse and overbreadth, morality clauses can be socially harmful. Their unrestricted use allows and invites unpredictability, bad faith, and broad limitations on expression, privacy, and other liberties. This is especially true when imposed on low-profile agents with little bargaining power. Unlike the well-trodden area of non-competes, there is no uniform rubric for assessing whether and to what extent morality clauses are enforceable, fairly imposed, and lawfully interpreted. This Article addresses this gap, offering to courts and jurists alike a five-factor test by which to determine the validity of morality clauses in a world where reputation pervades and the line between home and office is blurred

The MASSIVE Survey - III. Molecular gas and a broken Tully-Fisher relation in the most massive early-type galaxies

In this work we present CO(1-0) and CO(2-1) observations of a pilot sample of 15 early-type galaxies (ETGs) drawn from the MASSIVE galaxy survey, a volume-limited integral-field spectroscopic study of the most massive ETGs ($M_* >10^{11.5}M_\odot$) within 108 Mpc. These objects were selected because they showed signs of an interstellar medium and/or star formation. A large amount of gas ($>$2$\times$10$^8$ M$_{\odot}$) is present in 10 out of 15 objects, and these galaxies have gas fractions higher than expected based on extrapolation from lower mass samples. We tentatively interpret this as evidence that stellar mass loss and hot halo cooling may be starting to play a role in fuelling the most massive galaxies. These MASSIVE ETGs seem to have lower star-formation efficiencies (SFE=SFR/M$_{\rm H2}$) than spiral galaxies, but the SFEs derived are consistent with being drawn from the same distribution found in other lower mass ETG samples. This suggests that the SFE is not simply a function of stellar mass, but that local, internal processes are more important for regulating star formation. Finally we used the CO line profiles to investigate the high-mass end of the Tully-Fisher relation (TFR). We find that there is a break in the slope of the TFR for ETGs at high masses (consistent with previous studies). The strength of this break correlates with the stellar velocity dispersion of the host galaxies, suggesting it is caused by additional baryonic mass being present in the centre of massive ETGs. We speculate on the root cause of this change and its implications for galaxy formation theories.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, accepted by MNRA

Defining a PARticular Pathway of Neural Tube Closure

Mammalian neurulation is completed when the dorsolateral neural folds bend inwards, their tips make adhesive contacts across the midline, and the epithelia remodel to create a closed neural tube. Two recent papers (one by Camerer et al. in this issue of Developmental Cell) demonstrate a vital role for protease-activated G protein-coupled receptor signaling in these late closure events, opening up new avenues for exploring the molecular basis of mammalian neural tube morphogenesis