A search for supersymmetry was performed in events with one electron or muon, jets, and missing transverse momentum. The dataset was the first 5.0 fb^-1 of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV proton-proton events from the Large Hadron Collider, as measured by the CMS detector in 2011. A data-driven method was used to estimate the background at high values of the transverse mass, where the suppression of the Standard Model backgrounds allows for relatively loose cuts on the jet activity. No excess above the expected background was observed, so a limit was set in the m₀-m_1/2 plane of the CMSSM at tan β = 10, A₀ = 0, and sgn(μ)=+1.

My dissertation aims to make progress in understanding what it is to be an embodied rational agent. I argue that human agency consists not just in our rational capacities for thought and understanding, but also in non-rational capacities, like our physical ability to put one foot in front of the other and walk. In trying to understand the nature of embodied rationality, my dissertation takes steps toward developing the idea that our activity as free, rational beings consists not just in cognition, but also in bodily action.

I suggest that our success as practical reasoners depends constitutively on our physical abilities. Practical reason's primary function is to guide action, even though acting is not a part of one's practical reasoning. Practical reason differs in this respect from theoretical reason, since theoretical reason functions to guide belief, and forming a belief is a part of one's reasoning. In guiding action, practical reason ``reaches past itself'' in a way that theoretical reason does not. Since acting is not a part of one's reasoning, practical reason can only succeed in fulfilling its primary function as part of a larger action system. This larger action system crucially includes the physical abilities that we rely on to execute most of our actions. Thus, our success as practical reasoners depends not just on our capacities for practical thought and understanding, but also on the larger action system that those capacities function as a part of, including our physical abilities.

We evaluate recent revisions of assimilation theory by comparing the labor market performance of Mexican immigrants and their descendents to those of native white and Black Americans. Using unique data from the CPS Contingent Worker Series, we measure the employment sector distribution, fringe benefits, and earnings of four Mexican foreign born cohorts, second generation, and third generation Mexican Americans. We find little evidence that Mexican Americans are clustered in nonstandard work, noting instead improvement in benefits and pay amongst older cohorts and the second and third generation. However, all Mexican origin workers are disadvantaged relative to native whites in terms of benefits. It is only within the public sector that the labor market outcomes of Mexican origin workers fully converge with native whites.