Walt Disney Theme Park Strategic Audit

Walt Disney theme parks are a part of the Theme parks, Resorts, and Cruise line sector of The Walt Disney Company. Despite many world changes to its environment throughout the years, Disney has remained one of the leaders in the entertainment industry. This Strategic audit will use PESTEL and Porter’s Five Forces to analyze the industry as a framework to understand how Disney can remain a strong competitor in its changing environment and industry

Humanitarian Intervention: great expectations and shattered hopes

America faces the moral dilemma of whether to intervene militarily, at great risk, in states which commit massive human rights violations against their own citizens. A systematic look at the intellectual ideas guiding international relations reveals such atrocities to be an established part of international behavior. Ending this structural violence is difficult because of the epistemological and ethical limits of social science, the rule of law, political theory, and moral philosophy. The resulting, insolvable problems of international politics--such as the preference for international order over individual justice, the unlimited aspirations of nationalism and self-determination, the conflicts of cultural relativism, and the lack of universal standards for state legitimacy--present obstacles to Americans changing their traditional foreign policy perspectives into a moral and effective policy of military humanitarian intervention. But there is hope, for non-military forms of humanitarian intervention provide the potential for greatly reducing structural violence

5-hydroxymethylcytosine profiling as an indicator of cellular state

A Laird is supported by the Medical Research Council Scottish Clinical Pharmacology and Pathology Programme, The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh Robertson’s Trust and The Melville Trust for the Care and Cure of Cancer. J Thomson is supported by the MARCAR project. Work in RR Meehan’s laboratory is supported by the Medical Research Council, the BBSRC and by the Innovative Medicine Initiative Joint Undertaking (IMI JU) under grant agreement number 115001 (MARCAR project).DNA methylation is widely studied in the context of cancer. However, the rediscovery of 5-hydroxymethylation of DNA adds a new layer of complexity to understanding the epigenetic basis of development and disease, including carcinogenesis. There have been significant advances in techniques for the detection of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine and, with this, greater insight into the distribution, regulation and function of this mark, which are reviewed here. Better understanding of the associated pathways involved in regulation of, and by, 5-hydroxymethylcytosine may give promise to new therapeutic targets. We discuss evidence to support the view of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine as a unique and dynamic mark of cellular state. These 5-hydroxymethylcytosine profiles may offer optimism for the development of diagnostic, prognostic and predictive biomarkers.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Riding on the Coat-Tails of Traditional Cultural Expressions

Matters related to the protection of traditional cultural expressions (‘TCEs’) or expressions of folklore (‘EoFs’) are sensitive and intricate as a blend of legal, economic, philosophical and anthropological considerations jostle to capture their core features. This results in disparate views surrounding what should qualify as TCEs or EoFs, who should be considered their ‘owner’ (assuming that ownership per se is conceptually compatible with these items), which is the most appropriate legal protection regime and how broad their scope of protection should be. Drawing from these various accounts on TCEs, this article focuses on the interaction between TCEs and EoFs originating on the European continent and the European Union (‘EU’) trade mark legislation. Specifically, this article examines whether the limitations of the effects of trade mark rights and of the absolute grounds of refusal, as developed by the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, are effective in preserving the cohesion of TCEs. This article advances the thesis that registration of TCEs and EoFs as trade marks generates an imbalance between the rights of the trade mark owner and the defences available to others under the EU trade mark law framework. Furthermore, such an imbalance is likely to hinder the unfettered circulation of TCEs and undermine their original meaning. Lastly, in some cases, trade mark registration of TCEs contributes to their appropriation and misappropriation. The article concludes that, de lege ferenda, the direct exclusion of TCEs as eligible subject matter for trade mark registration is preferable to seeking a post factum remedy

Renal magnesium handling: New insights in understanding old problems

Many sharp-eyed readers have pointed out to us that in the photo next to the article about yams in Ghana (Spore 87, June 2000, page 8), the woman had put all her cassava in one basket, and not the yams she planned to use. Point taken. Whatever you want to point out, point to or point at, your letters, faxes and emails are always welcome at the Spore address in the box on the right. Write now.MailboxMany sharp-eyed readers have pointed out to us that in the photo next to the article about yams in Ghana (Spore 87, June 2000, page 8), the woman had put all her cassava in one basket, and not the yams she planned to use. Point taken...

Technological elites, the meritocracy, and postracial myths in Silicon Valley

Entre as modernas elites tecnológicas digitais, os mitos da meritocracia e da façanha intelectual são usados como marcadores de raça e gênero por uma supremacia branca masculina que consolida recursos de forma desproporcional em relação a pessoas não brancas, principalmente negros, latinos e indígenas. Os investimentos em mitos meritocráticos suprimem os questionamentos de racismo e discriminação, mesmo quando os produtos das elites digitais são infundidos com marcadores de raça, classe e gênero. As lutas históricas por inclusão social, política e econômica de negros, mulheres e outras classes desprotegidas têm implicado no reconhecimento da exclusão sistêmica, do trabalho forçado e da privação de direitos estruturais, além de compromissos com políticas públicas dos EUA, como as ações afirmativas, que foram igualmente fundamentais para reformas políticas voltadas para participação e oportunidades econômicas. A ascensão da tecnocracia digital tem sido, em muitos aspectos, antitética a esses esforços no sentido de reconhecer raça e gênero como fatores cruciais para inclusão e oportunidades tecnocráticas. Este artigo explora algumas das formas pelas quais os discursos das elites tecnocráticas do Vale do Silício reforçam os investimentos no pós racialismo como um pretexto para a re-consolidação do capital em oposição às políticas públicas que prometem acabar com práticas discriminatórias no mundo do trabalho. Por meio de uma análise cuidadosa do surgimento de empresas de tecnologias digitais e de uma discussão sobre como as elites tecnológicas trabalham para mascarar tudo, como inscrições algorítmicas e genéticas de raça incorporadas em seus produtos, mostramos como as elites digitais omitem a sua responsabilidade por suas reinscrições pós raciais de (in)visibilidades raciais. A partir do uso de análise histórica e crítica do discurso, o artigo revela como os mitos de uma meritocracia digital baseados em um “daltonismo racial” tecnocrático emergem como chave para a manutenção de exclusões de gênero e raça.Palavras-chave: Tecnologia. Raça. Gênero.Among modern digital technology elites, myths of meritocracy and intellectual prowess are used as racial and gender markers of white male supremacy that disproportionately consolidate resources away from people of color, particularly African Americans, Latino/as and Native Americans. Investments in meritocratic myths suppress interrogations of racism and discrimination even as the products of digital elites are infused with racial, class, and gender markers. Longstanding struggles for social, political, and economic inclusion for African Americans, women, and other legally protected classes have been predicated upon the recognition of systemic exclusion, forced labor, and structural disenfranchisement, and commitments to US public policies like affirmative action have, likewise, been fundamental to political reforms geared to economic opportunity and participation. The rise of the digital technocracy has, in many ways, been antithetical to these sustained efforts to recognize race and gender as salient factors structuring technocratic opportunity and inclusion. This paper explores some of the ways in which discourses of Silicon Valley technocratic elites bolster investments in post-racialism as a pretext for re-consolidations of capital, in opposition to public policy commitments to end discriminatory labor practices. Through a careful analysis of the rise of digital technology companies, and a discussion of how technology elites work to mask everything from algorithmic to genetic inscriptions of race embedded in their products, we show how digital elites elide responsibility for their post-racial re-inscriptions of racial visibilities (and invisibilities). Using historical and critical discourse analysis, the paper reveals how myths of a digital meritocracy premised on a technocratic colorblindness emerge key to perpetuating gender and racial exclusions.Keywords: Technology. Race. Gender

Pollinator efficiency in Blakea gracilis (Melastomataceae)

Blakea gracilis (Melastomataceae) is one of 20,000 species of flowering plants whose flowers have poricidal anthers. This morphology is adapted for “buzz-pollination,” where bee-induced vibrations result in the expulsion of pollen through the anther pores. The frequency of vibrations significantly affects pollen release, with peak anther discharge occurring at 500 Hz. Bees, however, are only able to buzz at about 300 Hz, and rarely reach frequencies higher than 400 Hz. This gap leaves the potential for a “most efficient” pollinator, a particular bee able to buzz at the highest frequency, thereby procuring the most pollen per visit and moving more pollen from flower to flower. In this study, I aimed to determine whether a “most efficient” pollinator exists for Blakea gracilis. I focused on large-bodied bees and small-bodied bees, predicting that larger bees would be capable of reaching higher frequencies and therefore would be better pollinators than their smaller counterparts. I found that large- and small-bodied bees open the same number of anthers per visit (t = 0.553, df = 36.277, p = 0.584), even though small bees spend significantly more time buzzing each flower (t = 3.753, df = 22.5, p = 0.001). Large-bodied bees achieved the same success as their smaller counterparts in less time by opening more anthers per second (t = -3.266, df = 36.3, p = 0.002). Despite their length of visitation, the amount of time each size-class spent buzzing a flower did not affect how many anthers they opened (large-bodied: R2 = 0.061, p = 0.080, t = 1.786; small-bodied: R2 = 0.169, p = 0.057, t = 2.019). I found one exception in Bombus sp., which was able to open more anthers the longer it vibrated the flower (Spearman’s Rho = 0.576, p = 0.041, N = 10). I found that there is no “most efficient” pollinator of Blakea gracilis, instead the results are consistent with those of past studies which concluded that buzz-pollination is generalized to all bee visitors. En este estudio, yo tenía como objetivo determinar si existe un polinizador más eficiente para Blakea gracilis. Me enfoqué en abejas grandes y pequeñas, prediciendo que las abejas grandes serían capaces de alcanzar frecuencias más altas y por lo tanto serían mejores polinizadores que sus contrapartes más pequeñas.https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/tropical_ecology/1513/thumbnail.jp

Architectural epidemiology : a computational framework

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, May, 2020Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, May, 2020Cataloged from the official PDF of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 73-76).Architecture affects our health, especially in hospitals. However, our ability to learn from existing hospitals to design buildings that improve patient outcomes is limited. If we want to leverage large datasets of health outcomes to build knowledge about how architecture affects health, then we need new methods for analyzing spatial data and health data jointly. In this thesis, I present several steps toward the goal of developing a computational model of architectural epidemiology that aims to leverage both human and machine intelligence to do so. First, I outline the need for structured architectural datasets that capture spatial information in schemas that current drawing formats do not allow. These datasets need to be wide to capture multifaceted and qualitative aspects of the built environment, and so we need new methods to generate this data. Finally, we need strategies for surfacing insight from these datasets by involving both humans and machines in the process.Next, I propose a framework to satisfy these criteria that consists of four components: 1) data sources, 2) feature engineering, 3) statistical analyses, and 4) decision-making activities. Two case studies provide in-depth illustrations of these components: The first presents a 3D interface that enables developers to create 3D visualizations of large health outcome datasets in architectural space while taking advantage of the Kyrix details-on-demand system's backend performance optimizations. The second tests the efficacy of neural network ablation to surface relationships between architectural characteristics and health outcomes using a synthetic dataset. It is not necessary to ignore human intuition if we want to take advantage of computational power, and it is not necessary to leave behind computational power if we want to take advantage of human intuition. By overcoming current technical barriers with the methods proposed in this thesis, we can work toward achieving both.Ultimately, we can learn from our current environments to design buildings that improve our health.by Jim Peraino.S.M.S.M.S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of ArchitectureS.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Scienc