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Investigating the effects of a glutamine-rich protein on the localization of a mutant RNA-binding protein and stress response in \u3ci\u3eCandida albicans\u3c/i\u3e
No full text[Abstract embargoed
The Independent State Legislature Theory and Partisan Gerrymandering: How \u3ci\u3eMoore v. Harper\u3c/i\u3e May Reshape Congressional Elections
Full text linkIn 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Rucho v. Common Cause that partisan gerrymandering is not a justiciable question for federal courts. Four years later, the Court is reviewing a new case, Moore v. Harper. In Moore, the question presented is whether state courts can review partisan gerrymandering.
The central question in Moore is the validity of the Independent State Legislature Theory. Proponents of the ISLT believe that state legislatures derive their authority to draw Congressional districts from the Federal Constitution and are therefore not subject to state-level checks and balances such as gubernatorial vetoes and state courts when redistricting. Critics argue that neither precedent nor the intent of the Framers grants state legislatures exclusive authority over redistricting.
This paper analyzes the history of the Independent State Legislature Theory and outlines potential standards that the Court may adopt based off past-precedent. It then applies these standards to the redistricting process, arguing that nearly any form of the Independent State Legislature Theory would harm American democracy by making it easier for state legislatures to draw Congressional districts for partisan advantage. This paper concludes with strategies for mitigating the harm that would be caused if the Court legitimizes the Independent State Legislature Theory
Infant and Maternal Health Outcomes Following Improved Substance Use Disorder Treatment for Pregnant Women
No full text[Abstract embargoed
How do long-term above-ground biomass dynamics vary between different forest stand types at Harvard Forest?
Full text linkMonitoring forest carbon storage is necessary in accurately modelling the global carbon cycle. In the Northeast, terrestrial forests represent a major carbon sink with above-ground biomass (AGB) accounting for 40% of stored forest carbon. Therefore, understanding how AGB varies spatiotemporally is essential in predicting future carbon storage. Repeated measurements in permanent, long-term plots provide an opportunity to examine how carbon stored in AGB is changing over time. I used 29 years of data from the Harvard Forest Environmental Monitoring Systems (HF EMS) Site to determine how stand composition, intrinsic factors, and extrinsic environmental factors influenced rates of carbon storage in AGB over time. Using a partition around medoids (PAM) clustering method, I separated the 34 ground plots at the EMS stand into their respective stand types. I found that each stand type at the HF EMS plots accumulates carbon at consistent rates throughout the study period, although rates of carbon accumulation between stands were significantly different. Red Pine stands experience a rapid decline in biomass in 2018 due to the introduction of the Southern Pine Beetle. Across all stand types, sporadic mortality events determine variations in yearly rates of carbon accumulation, although this has little significant influence on total AGB accumulation. Leaf area index (LAI) and foliar N contents have no effect on growth increments. Extrinsic environmental variables had mixed effects on growth and mortality, highlighting the complexities of predicting forest carbon storage under changing climate conditions
Searle’s Mind: Brains, Subjects, and Systems
Full text linkThroughout this project, I ‘step into the Chinese Room’ presented by philosopher John R. Searle and develop the areas where the Chinese Room Argument succeeds. I have aimed to pick out where Searle has succeeded with the Chinese Room Argument and introduce how it fits in with his school of biological naturalism, as it seems that he already had some conception of it when presenting the Argument. From here, I introduce some of the primary arguments against the Chinese Room Argument because they do not fit with Searle’s overarching theme of biological naturalism. Particularly, Searle’s conception of systems and system features is something he endorses for the biological but immediately labels as silly for the Chinese Room. Following the exposition of systems and system features, I expand on how there is a disconnect between Searle’s use of system features and his view of the Chinese Room Argument. What is so special about Searle’s conception of systems and the systems present in the Chinese Room Argument? Searle should claim that the Chinese Room is simply not the kind of thing that can think. Ultimately, Searle’s philosophy of mind leaves us with either a muddled philosophy or an invalid argument in the Chinese Room, but with much to learn and not forget to consider in the philosophy of mind, such as the important role of subjectivity in our conscious life
Service Beyond Bars: How Correctional Chaplains Mediate the Movement of Religion in Prisons and Jails
No full textThis ethnography explores the movement and restriction of religion as mediated by prison and jail chaplains in correctional institutions. Spread across four chapters are conversations with eleven interlocutors, including nine correctional chaplains working across the country, the director of a nationwide nonprofit generating Islamic education for those incarcerated, and a currently incarcerated field minister in Louisiana. I found that given the broad freedom of movement enjoyed and essentialized by correctional chaplains across centuries, religion too, as propelled by chaplains, has a rare fluidity and permeability in prisons and jails. I term this twofold phenomenon dual movement. Simultaneously, this movement is restricted and controlled by the dual confinement of the incarcerated person’s body and spiritual direction by corrections administrators and chaplains alike. I contend that analyzing the mechanisms of dual movement and dual confinement inherent to these facilities is the key to understanding the fluidity of religion and the power structures between chaplains and the incarcerated people to whom they minister. These power structures are remade each day in either relational and reflective pastoral counseling conversations, material-rich or lacking religious services, or explicitly “rehabilitative” religious programs that reframe vintage rhetoric of religious salvation as attempts at molding imprisoned people into models of self-discipline. As long as these institutions are still widely regarded as indispensable and security remains the ultimate concern of the state, I argue that chaplains, positioned at the junction of penal and spiritual power, are most capable of introducing and sustaining life-affirming and dignifying care
Characterization of Retinoic Acid Signaling During Tooth Morphogenesis and Evolution in \u3ci\u3eDanio rerio\u3c/i\u3e
No full text[Abstract restricted
Know-Nothingism, Abolitionism, and Fanaticism: An Analysis of the Collapse of the Second Party System in Maine
Full text linkThe 1850s were a tumultuous period in American politics, with a complete partisan realignment fundamentally shifting the balance of power away from the status quo and toward possibilities for change. This paper focuses on the collapse of the Second Party System in Maine, and understanding how we can explain this stunning and rapid shift. The varying factors can be placed into two broad categories First, ethnocultural issues were primarily responsible for much of the growing turmoil within and between the major parties throughout the 1840s, and accelerating greatly in the early 1850s with rising levels of immigration and the increasing draw of the temperance movement, which was then followed by the passage of highly controversial legislation concerning these issues. Second, national-level issues such as the Fugitive Slave Act and detailed reports of the violence out West in local newspapers brought the consequences of the unfettered expansion of slavery closer to home for many Mainers. Scholars of this period have expressed varying opinions as to the relative importance of local and national level issues in generating a change to the political system. Using Maine as a case study due to its position as a leader in the temperance movement and its geographical distance from the battlegrounds of national politics at the time, I conduct an in-depth examination of the political history of the state and conclude that rising tensions on both local and national levels were necessary to cause such transformational change