Judicial Attitudes toward Specific Performance of Construction Contracts

Specific performance has long been recognized in contract law as the fundamental alternative to monetary relief, when such relief is deemed inadequate. Historically, however, the general rule has been to deny decrees for specific performance when a contract to construct or repair is involved. Reasons traditionally advanced for these denials include the availability of damages as an adequate remedy at law, the lack of sufficient contractual details necessary to fashion a meaningful decree, and the practical difficulties underlying supervision of the contract by the court. Some modern courts, on the other hand, have suggested that the difficulties envisioned by the traditionalist courts are more imagined than real, and have routinely granted specific performance even when rather complex building contracts are at issue. This article will explore the development of these two conflicting approaches and the rationales advanced to support them. Following an examination of the relevant historical context which shaped the traditionalist approach into its present form, the methods and reasoning of both views will be analyzed with the objective of determining which is more properly suited to serve the needs of a highly industrialized modern society. To the extent that the roots of the traditionalist approach are grounded in the history of the High English Court of Chancery, the concerns advanced during that period as reasons to deny specific performance of construction contracts are largely without foundation today. This article will conclude, therefore, that a more liberalized view toward construction contracts and specific performance is both warranted and desirable in order to serve more adequately and efficiently the needs of an increasingly complex society

The Impact of Type Ia Supernovae in Quiescent Galaxies: I. Formation of the Multiphase Interstellar medium

A cool phase of the interstellar medium has been observed in many giant elliptical galaxies, but its origin remains unclear. We propose that uneven heating from Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), together with radiative cooling, can lead to the formation of the cool phase. The basic idea is that since SNe Ia explode randomly, gas parcels which are not directly heated by SN shocks will cool, forming multiphase gas. We run a series of idealized high-resolution numerical simulations, and find that cool gas develops even when the overall SNe heating rate $H$ exceeds the cooling rate $C$ by a factor as large as 1.4. We also find that the time for multiphase gas development depends on the gas temperature. When the medium has a temperature $T = 3\times 10^6$ K, the cool phase forms within one cooling time \tc; however, the cool phase formation is delayed to a few times \tc\ for higher temperatures. The main reason for the delay is turbulent mixing. Cool gas formed this way would naturally have a metallicity lower than that of the hot medium. For constant $H/C$, there is more turbulent mixing for higher temperature gas. We note that this mechanism of producing cool gas cannot be captured in cosmological simulations, which usually fail to resolve individual SN remnants.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, published by ApJ. This work is part of the SMAUG project, see more information at https://www.simonsfoundation.org/flatiron/center-for-computational-astrophysics/galaxy-formation/smaug/papersplash

The Ionization State of Sodium in Galactic Winds

Roughly 80% of Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies (ULIRGs) show blue shifted absorption in the resonance lines of neutral sodium, indicating that cool winds are common in such objects, as shown by Rupke et al and by Martin. The neutral sodium (NaI) columns indicated by these absorption lines are ~ 10^{13}-3x10^{14}/cm^2, while the bolometric luminosity varies by a factor of only four. We show that the gas in ULIRG outflows is likely to be in photoionization equilibrium. The very small ULIRG sample of Goldader et al. demonstrates that the ratio of ultraviolet flux to far infrared flux varies by a factor $\sim100$ from object to object. While the Goldader sample does not overlap with those of Rupke et al. and Martin, we show that such a large variation in ultraviolet flux will produce a similar variation in the column of neutral sodium for a fixed mass flux and density. However, if the cold gas is in pressure equilibrium with a hot outflow with a mass loss rate similar to the star formation rate, the range of ionization state is significantly smaller. Measurements of the UV flux for objects in the Martin and Rupke et al. catalogs will definitively determine if photoionization effects are responsible for the wide variation seen in the sodium columns. If they are, a determination of the gas density and mass loss rate in the cool winds will follow, with attendant improvements in our understanding of wind driving mechanisms and of the effects of galaxies on their surroundings.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Ap

Building Resilient Business Students: Faculty as Servant Leaders

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the normal cadence of life. These disruptions affected students in higher education in many ways as well increasing the stress and anxiety levels of college students and having a considerable negative impact on their mental health. Business students were not exempt from the negative mental health impact of COVID-19. Aware of the stress its students are experiencing, higher education can play a role in creating environments which support learning and the development of skills to rebound from that adversity. This is particularly true for business schools who are also monitoring how business itself is being affected and conducted during this pandemic Business schools are not only positioned to support the mental health of their students but also to prepare them to be successful in a business world that is transforming at the same time (Krishnamurthy, 2020). One important way universities can support their students and enhance the students’ positive response to adversity is to focus on the development of resilience. The problem this article will address is how business school faculty can help students develop resiliency so that they can be successful now and in their future careers. Specifically, how faculty exhibiting servant leadership characteristics can improve the resilience of their students and better prepare them to respond to adversities like the COVID-19 pandemic