Bringing Nature into the Zoo: Inexpensive Solutions for Zoo Environments

Animals in captivity have traditionally been kept in sterile and inappropriate environments. Typically this situation still prevails in zoos. Cages are designed only for restraint of the animals, expediency for the public, and convenient maintenance by keepers. The animals\u27 behavioral needs are often ignored. By using nature as a norm, and by using natural materials, the spatial and temporal environment of a captive animal can be easily and greatly enriched. Several examples which have been used at Woodland Park Zoological Gardens are discussed. Their application and expansion are appropriate for most urban zoo

Optimisation of the preservation of microbial cell banks for enhanced fermentation process performance

This work discusses optimisation of the cryopreservation of Bacillus licheniformis cell banks, used as inoculum for α-amylase producing 5 L batch fermentations. The effect of the presence of various cryopreservants including glycerol, Tween 80 and dimethyl sulphoxide on final fermentation performance measured by biomass and α-amylase concentration was investigated using optical density, dry cell weight, colony forming units, and multi-parameter flow cytometry. The application of multi-parameter flow cytometry using the fluorophores DiBac$_4$(3) and PI allowed real time viability measurements of individual microbial cells to be monitored before and after cryopreservation and during the fermentation process; viability here being defined as a cell having an intact and fully polarised cytoplasmic membrane. It was found that the concentration and type of cryopreservant used had a significant effect on microbial cell physiology and population heterogeneity during resuscitation recovery immediately after thawing. Cell banks prepared with Tween 80 were fastest to recover after freezing in comparison to cell banks prepared with dimethyl sulphoxide which showed the slowest growth rates. Interestingly cells preserved in glycerol recovered at a similar rate to cells frozen without cryopreservant. Despite different responses to the freezing process when each cell bank was used as inoculum for 5 L batch fermentations very little difference was noticed in overall process performance with respect to α-amylase production, growth rate and final biomass concentration

Is There a Place in the World for Zoos? / Another View of Zoos

We human animals make rapid technological and cultural advancements because we have the ability to pass definitive information to succeeding generations. But we also accept too much from the past without challenge. The good, the bad, and the indifferent are muddled together, accumulating in layers that smother each succeeding age. Cultural mores ranging from the silly to the profane, from charming to dangerous, clutter our world. They exist only because, as the British are wont to say, “We have always done things this way.” One very troubling example is the public zoological parks found in almost every city: they are fundamentally unchanged from the first public zoo that opened in The Regent’s Park in London in 1828. Although significant modifications have taken place since then, particularly recently, for the most part, zoos continue to do things the way they have done them for almost two centuries. An objective reevaluation is long overdue

Is There a Place in the World for Zoos? / Another View of Zoos

We human animals make rapid technological and cultural advancements because we have the ability to pass definitive information to succeeding generations. But we also accept too much from the past without challenge. The good, the bad, and the indifferent are muddled together, accumulating in layers that smother each succeeding age. Cultural mores ranging from the silly to the profane, from charming to dangerous, clutter our world. They exist only because, as the British are wont to say, “We have always done things this way.” One very troubling example is the public zoological parks found in almost every city: they are fundamentally unchanged from the first public zoo that opened in The Regent’s Park in London in 1828. Although significant modifications have taken place since then, particularly recently, for the most part, zoos continue to do things the way they have done them for almost two centuries. An objective reevaluation is long overdue

Receipt from Hancocks\u27 & Co. to Mrs. Ogden Goelet

https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/goelet-personal-expenses/1214/thumbnail.jp

Invoice from Hancocks\u27 & Co. to Miss Wilson

https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/goelet-personal-expenses/1188/thumbnail.jp

An analysis of the influence of domestic macroeconomic variables on the performance of the South African stock market sectoral indices

An econometric study was undertaken to determine the extent to which selected macroeconomic variables influenced stock market prices on the All-Share, Financial, Mining and Retail Indices of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in South Africa from 1996:7 to 2008:12. The Johansen cointegration method was used to determine whether cointegrating relationships existed between the macroeconomic variables and the stock market indices. A Vector Error Correction model was estimated and found significant results that money supply, inflation, long and short- run interest rates, and the exchange rate all had an influence on stock market prices. Further, the VECM results for each sector indicated that certain macroeconomic variables had differing influences on each sector of the stock market. Impulse Response tests indicated that the selected macroeconomic variables caused shock to the sectoral indices in the short-run but that the effect was lagged. The Variance Decomposition tests conducted supported earlier evidence that the macroeconomic variables had a strong level of sectoral index determinacy in the long run. The results found that the All-Share and Financial Indices were negatively influenced by inflation and short term interest rates in the long run, while the Financial Index also had a negative relationship with long-run interest rates. Money supply was found to have a positive effect on all the indices. A weakening of the exchange rate was found to have a positive influence on both the Retail and Mining Indices, while it negatively affected the All-Share and Financial Indices. The long-run interest rate had a positive influence on both the Retail and Mining Indices. Overall the study finds that macroeconomic variables are important determinants of stock market prices in South Africa and that it is important to examine each sector of the stock market separately to capture what are different effects. The limitations of the study are that a different measure for exchange rates from the nominal rand/dollar exchange rate used here may yield more decisive results and provide insight into the link between exchange rate behaviour and performance of especially the retail sector

'Transitional Justice, Punishment and Security'

This thesis concerns the normative dimension of transitional justice—the problem of which moral and political values should guide the process of transition from conflict and authoritarian rule to democracy. The central thesis is that the value of security should be a normative priority in the process of transition, because establishing security is a necessary condition for democracy and other transitional measures (lustration, compensation, institutional development and reconciliation, to name but a few). The thesis develops an account of how the value of security informs a justification of the measures utilised in the transition to a politically legitimate state. In doing so, it explores how the value of security (much neglected in political philosophy) informs our understanding of central political problems and concepts—including state legitimacy, democracy, the function, content and value of laws (including the concept of the ‘rule of law’) and the role of human rights in state coercion. Far from being an issue confined to the academy, the problems of transitional justice are a reality for a number of states around the world who are struggling to achieve democracy. This thesis represents a contribution to the scholarship around this process of political transition. It seeks to show the important insights that moral and political philosophy can provide for the process of moving from conflict and authoritarian rule to democracy. In doing so, it illustrates how the problems of transitional justice are in fact central problems for political philosophy

Disclosing new worlds? : Strategic management, styles and meaning

The philosopher Martin Heidegger argued that the truthful life was at risk of being lost in Western technological culture in the name of increasing control, efficiency, and agility.  As the risk is actualised, so the human essence as truth maker is obscured and life itself feels poorer. This thesis draws on Heideggerian philosophy to demonstrate the loss in two dominant styles of contemporary strategic management: the world-picturing and, more recent, agile style. It builds a theory of post-agile strategic practice, which I call adaptive, to address this loss. Consistent with Heideggerian philosophy, I utilise a transformative disclosure methodology and a literary, paradigmatic case reading method to address the questions: Why is agile strategic management so unsatisfying? How do Heideggerian scholars shed light on this dissatisfaction? How do Heideggerians understand the emerging style and what strategic management practices can I propose for the future? After introducing agile strategic management and the impoverishment of life that it fosters, I set out how Heidegger’s philosophy of truth, thinking, and the sacred both sheds light on the problem and suggests a remedy for it. I closely read paradigmatic texts of the world-picturing and agile strategic management styles to demonstrate how business strategy theorisation lines up with extraordinary closeness to Heidegger’s philosophical assessment. I then analyse three Heideggerian prototypes for an adaptive style of strategy practice, concentrating on one paradigmatic text to identify their principal weakness: the omission of the sacred. I illustrate and contrast paradigmatic cases of both the agile and adaptive styles drawn from the beer industry and draw on the adaptive case to construct a theory of adaptive strategy practice, which addresses the problem of the loss of truth, suggesting pedagogical and strategic management practices. I conclude by summarising its findings and contributions, noting some limitations and connections to other studies and suggesting further lines of research

An investigation into the preservation of microbial cell banks for alpha-amylase production during 5L fed-batch Bacillus licheniformis fermentations

Fluorescent staining techniques were used for a systematic examination of methods used to cryopreserve microbial cell banks. The aim of cryopreservation here is to ensure subsequent reproducible fermentation performance rather than just post thaw viability. Bacillus licheniformis cell physiology post-thaw is dependent on the cryopreservant (either Tween 80, glycerol or dimethyl sulphoxide) and whilst this had a profound effect on the length of the lag phase, during subsequent 5 l fed-batch fermentations, it had little effect on maximum specific growth rate, final biomass concentration or a-amylase activity. Tween 80 not only protected the cells during freezing but also helped them recover post-thaw resulting in shorter process times