Harvard Division of Continuing Education

This thesis provides a template, in three parts, designed to enable museum financial management to comprehensively address and analyze museological capital structure both from a theoretical and practical perspective. To this end, this thesis first proposes a methodology to understand and develop museological financial philosophy, then offers a process to evaluate and value museum capital structure, and finally, unites fiscal philosophy and capital structure analysis by proposing a strategy for designing and constructing practical museum debt policy.

In the first section, the thesis presents and substantiates a case for elevating the importance of the business of museums by proposing that museological organizations adopt and communicate a fiscal mission statement. The thesis then provides a practical format for museum management, as well as trustees and board members, to define and formalize desired financial practices and goals. Specifically, museological fiscal mission statements must address organizational philosophy regarding financial governance, priorities, strategies, and communication.

In the next section, the complexity of nonprofit capital structure analysis is addressed, as well as the need for museums, in particular, to examine and quantify the manner in which they support their assets. After reviewing the history of museum funding streams, the thesis proposes analyzing museum financial structure by conceptually separating the operating business from the collections and any endowment. A substantiated methodology is offered for valuing the museum operating business using a market based approach that analyzes museum revenue both as perpetuity and to comparable commercial revenue streams.

In the final section, guidelines are provided for creating organizational debt policy. First, the thesis argues that an appropriate capital structure mix is critical to effectively carry out the museological strategic mission, and that though it adds additional risk, debt is a flexible financial tool that should be utilized. However, debt requires discipline; a discipline that mandates formalized policy. To create an outline for formalizing policy, the latter half of this section adapts research from the higher education and healthcare industries, incorporates specific ideas regarding fiscal mission statements and capital structure, and details the formulation of a hypothetical museum debt policy.

Although the states comprising the English-speaking Caribbean have much in common, integrating them politically and economically has proven to be an extremely challenging endeavor. All three integration initiatives since 1958 whether political or economic have failed to deliver their economic development and trade expansion goals. Uncompromising insular political interests of the key participants were at the heart of the demise of the West Indies Federation, the Caribbean’s first integration attempt. These interests have continued to be a dominant influence in the outcomes of the later attempts to integrate. Integration efforts have, been hampered by the absence of a strong political commitment to regionalization. Despite the chequered history of Caribbean integration, the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) were established in 2006. That arrangement essentially provided for a deeper form of economic integration, requiring a higher level of political commitment to integration than ever before.

Specifically this paper seeks to answer the question: is this latest arrangement any different from its three predecessors in terms of its expected results? The following discussion shows that while the concept of the CSME is radically different, the current approach to its implementation is not fundamentally different to that of the three previous ventures. As such, it does not represent the rebirth of Caribbean regionalism but rather, an attempt to resuscitate a politically and structurally flawed development strategy. The renewed ambition to integrate is not matched by the requisite political will and commitment to effectively carry the new venture forward. I use a combination of historical, political, and economic analysis as the primary methodological approach to test this hypothesis. I conclude that while a renewed political will might have overcome some past hurdles, that commitment still falls far short of the unified force required to create a robust and deeper form of integration that addresses economic and other challenges and keeps the region afloat in the relentless tidal flow of economic globalization.

Party of the Century: Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball is a cultural history exhibition designed to transport museum visitors back to Capote’s masked dance held in New York City on November 28, 1966 in the Plaza Hotel’s Grand Ballroom. The interdisciplinary installation aims to reanimate host Truman Capote (1924-1984), author of Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1958) and In Cold Blood (1966); his honoree, Katharine Graham (1917-2001), President of the Washington Post; and the convergence of 540 attending guests who traveled from around the world for the candlelit festivities. Few people stood in a more central position in the mid-1960s than Capote, one of the most well-known writers in his life time (Plimpton, “T.C.” 300). His acquaintances and networks spanned disparate realms: partygoers were accomplished and interesting people from all walks of life who influenced the world around them in profound ways. In the gallery, cross-media displays—assembled from archives and museums as well as public and private collections—highlight the party’s fashion, glamour, guest list, music, and reverie as well as establish the historical context of what was going on in the world at large. By examining the people who played a part in this once-in-a-generation gathering, visitors come face to face with the cultural, political, and social dynamics concurrently evolving over the 1960s decade. The evening’s legacy endures and continues to resonate: people now refer to the Black and White Ball as a touchstone for its time. A prototype, as imagined, the exhibition will open at a metropolitan museum with plans to travel afterwards to other venues.

This project-based thesis has added five stops and an introduction to American Silver to the Currier Museum of Art’s mobile tour. The Museum has an extensive silver collection but has very little information readily available for its visitors in the galleries. This thesis provides those visitors with information about the Currier’s American silver collection. It uses the Currier’s current mobile application as a template while incorporating museum education teaching methods to create an engaging tour. The thesis begins with a history of silver in America from Colonial times to the start of the nineteenth century. This time period is best represented in the Currier’s American silver collection. The thesis discusses the role and development of the silversmith as a craftsman as well as the social history of silver in America during this period. It also discusses the use and advantages of using mobile technology in the museum setting. Many visitors already own mobile devices. Museums can take advantage of visitors’ familiarity with these tools by creating programs specifically for this technology. The tour itself is based on teaching methods outlined by the museum educator George E. Hein in his book: Learning in the Museum (1998). These methods are used to build upon the standards set by the Currier Museum of Art’s “Audience Engagement and Interpretation Philosophy” in order to make the tour more engaging for visitors. Articles by museum technology professionals Robert Stein and Nancy Proctor were also consulted when researching the best practices for mobile tours. Their work lays out many key elements for successful mobile applications including the use of media assets, stops where these assets are experienced and the connections used to move between the stops. The accessibility benefits of mobile technology for visitors, especially the use of audio recordings for visitors with disabilities, are also discussed and were taken into account when creating the tour.

Although young children can sometimes produce words in a near perfect form at a very early stage, several diary studies revealed that these correct first productions are usually followed by less faithful renditions, only to be returned later to relative accuracy. In order to investigate if this nonlinear pattern of children vocal production called “phonological regression” might also be shared with birds, we examined here the trajectory of vocal development of a young African Grey parrot (Athena) who is learning referential English. Parrots are excellent model systems for the study of speech acquisition as they possess advanced cognitive skills and are expert imitators of the human voice. By tracking Athena’s acquisition of vowel-like sounds over the course of fifteen months using audio recordings and acoustic software programs, we analyzed her vocal development over time, from her first squeaks to her more distinct pronunciations, and compared her progress with human children and other parrots in the lab. Not one, but multiple U-shaped curves characterized her acquisition of isolated labels. Our results indicate that, like human children, parrots can experience the phenomenon of phonological regression.

This thesis is made up of two parts: a critical essay (I) and (II) an original epic length screenplay – 210 pages script plus fifteen pages appendix. The critical essay contains a short essay on The Yin-Yang Creative Writing Art pieces which are part of the screenplay. I term creative writing art, art pieces which use only written characters and codified symbols to visually render new artistic impressions.

The screenplay brings to a contemporary audience the life of Louis Bachelier (1870-1946), the first mathematician (French) to use modern mathematics to describe the behavior of financial markets. It lets unfold the prejudices and struggles he had to overcome, as viewed in our time by a young black mathematician of African origin named K., starting in grad school in Paris in the mid-90s, and then on to Wall Street, as a proponent of a new theory of decision making based on a proto-probabilistic concept called BICs (Basis Instruments Contracts) that he has invented. We span Bachelier’s life from the death of his parents to his famous thesis in 1900, to the dramas of the Dreyfus affair in France, WW I, up to the death of his ephemeral spouse, and the climactic denial of tenure to him in 1926. The narrative unfolds as K. himself experience similar struggles and prejudices in modern times which lead him from Wall Street to inner city life in Newark, NJ, and then to Beijing China, and back to New York. The intertwined narratives unfold in at least four languages – English, French, Mandarin Chinese, Ghomala – serving as a clinical and scientific examination of the various dimensions of prejudice, language, deriving analytical insights that bind persuasion, risk, prejudice, rewards and punishments in the decision making process. It also features two heart wrenching love stories that grip hearts and reveal characters of great humanity. This is a universal story of the travails of the misunderstood and unappreciated underdog, who nonetheless keeps on soldiering to usher in a better world.

Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick and Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow are two American novels that intersect stylistically and thematically. This thesis argues that Pynchon’s novel mirrors and reinvents Melville’s novel. Gravity’s Rainbow is not simply engaging with Moby-Dick, but actively reprising it for the late 20th century through the power of Pynchon’s imagination. Pynchon responds to and reimagines Melville’s book by mirroring major themes and frameworks from Melville, by adopting some of his central images, and by mirroring his profuse use of technical language to express coded spiritual beliefs and deepening character analysis. The sublime white whale is reinvented as the Schwarzgerät, a German V2 rocket loaded with the mysterious polymer Imipolex G; this profound object stands symbolically at the center of the novel much as the whale, Moby Dick, does in Melville’s opus. The monstrous “grand hooded phantom, like a snow hill in the air” (Melville 7) is re-forged as the “white finality” looming “up in the zero sky” (Pynchon 85, 87).

Beyond the functions of the novels’ sublime central images, both novels are here recognized as relying on coded technical, specialist language to express metaphysical beliefs. Throughout each novel, the technical language codes the ineffable and the transcendent, allowing for an entry point to understand the functions of symbolic material. Gravity’s Rainbow echoes Moby Dick’s stylistic structure, which is vast and loose. Very few novels are identified from the world’s literary canon as “encyclopedic,” and the two here discussed are the only examples from American literature, according to Edward Mendelson’s “Encyclopedic Narrative” hypothesis, which is supported by literary critic Andrzej Kopcewicz. It is the similarities in the unconventional, encyclopedic literary style of Moby-Dick and Gravity’s Rainbow that offers one of the strongest arguments for their resonant kinship. I use the work of Lawrence Buell to deepen and critically engage the material; I also engage with the critical work of several other prominent scholars. The metaphors from science extend to the color theory at work in the main symbols present, which are white or suffused with light, such as the whale, rocket, doubloon and light bulb. This thesis argues that light and whiteness as characteristics of the symbolic objects represent evil, malignity or another dark force. I show that the color theory that ties the books together has its main genesis, for both Melville and Pynchon, in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Theory of Colors.

This thesis explores the typically cited character flaws of Macbeth and Hamlet and asserts that these flaws are not the main cause of their tragic downfalls, but, rather, it is the immense psychological and corporeal stresses created by the inexorable progression of time on the chief characters of Shakespeare’s plays, Macbeth and Hamlet, which lead Macbeth and Hamlet to their destruction. This thesis begins by examining the typical “character flaw” interpretation of Macbeth and Hamlet, which many critics assert, led to their eventual ruin and deaths of many around them. Subsequently, I cite substantial critical evidence from major literary critics, as well as my own close readings of these two plays, both of which quite strongly support my novel argument that the extreme psychological and bodily stresses of time experienced by Hamlet and Macbeth, and, to a lesser extent, by the other main characters in these two plays, rather than simply their character flaws, ultimately lead to their tragedy, loss, and death. I elaborate on my argument by showing how it fits quite well with other major types of critical approaches to literature, including gender-based literary criticism and psychoanalytic and Freudian analysis of Hamlet and Macbeth. I conclude by demonstrating via a novel approach that only through a comprehensive analysis of the emotional and physical tolls of the inescapable progression of time as experienced by Hamlet and Macbeth, and other chief characters, can one achieve an accurate understanding of these two Shakespearean tragedies.

The external structure and internal boundaries of the moral domain are not sharply defined. Substantive definitions of morality struggle to cleanly encapsulate the full diversity of human moral concern without including too much to retain correspondence to folk understandings, while functionalist definitions are complex and difficult to implement in study. Psychological work in 20th century often assumed morality was a single domain concerned primarily with transgression types emphasized in Western academia. Recent brain-imaging work has suggested that morality may in fact comprise multiple sub-domains, corresponding to moral natural kinds which cover a more diverse spectrum of topics than Western morality is typically concerned with (Parkinson et al., 2011). Moral Foundations Theory (MFT), which takes an evolutionary functionalist approach, is a promising candidate structure for this expanded moral domain. Here I probe the structure of the moral domain in exploratory fashion for correlates to the foundations of MFT in patterns of brain activation in response to moral stimuli generated and categorized by survey respondents. Activation contrasts are used to identify regions of differential activity between the putative foundations. Conjunctive overlaps between foundation contrasts are compared in order to establish which foundations behave similarly to one another relative to the other foundations in the set. Neither the 5-factor structure of MFT nor its coarser 2-factor structure is upheld. Instead, a semi-polarized scheme is suggested, with harm-preventative and purity-maintaining moral types occupying the extremes and more interpersonal foundations grouped together in between and less clearly delineated than previously assumed.

While the “Second Cretan Lie” of Odyssey xix 199–359 and xvii 417–44 is presented as fictional tales within Homer’s larger myth, some elements have striking analogs in Late Bronze–Early Iron Age reality. This thesis examines these portions of the hero’s false ainos within their fictive context for the purpose of identifying and evaluating those elements. Particular focus is given to Odysseus’ declaration that he led nine successful maritime raids prior to the Trojan War; to his twice–described ill–fated assault on Egypt; and to his claim not only to have been spared in the wake of that Egyptian raid, but to have spent a subsequent seven years in the land of the pharaohs, during which he gathered great wealth. Through a comparative examination of literary and archaeological evidence from the Late Bronze–Early Iron transition in the Eastern Mediterranean, it is shown that these aspects of Odysseus’ stories are not only reflective of the historical reality surrounding the time in which the epic is set, but that Odysseus’ fictive experience is remarkably similar to that of one specific member of the ‘Sea Peoples’ groups best known from 19th and 20th dynasty Egyptian records: the ‘Sherden of the Sea.’

This thesis re-examines several of Robert Frost’s poems in light of his identification as a synecdochist and aim of reaching an ever-widening audience to provide that audience with a “momentary stay against confusion.” It explores the potential of his poetry to serve as a model for contemporary engagement with the environment. Supported by excerpts from the poet’s letters, speeches and prose, it considers these poems as acts of ecopoesis or “making” of the “home or dwelling-place” as defined by Jonathan Bate in Song of the Earth and asserts that Frost’s poetic celebrations of the reciprocity between humankind and environment serve to subtly challenge assumptions of human supremacy over other inhabitants of Earth.

With a primary focus on poems that were begun or completed during the first decade of the twentieth century – a time when the poet was out of necessity, actively and regularly engaged with a thirty-acre lot of land in Derry, New Hampshire – it argues that the poet’s conscious choice to dwell in rural settings where he could engage in a continued practice of reflection within revisited environment enabled the creation of vital poetry concerning what was in existence where he was in existence. Through discussion of John Elder’s essay “The Poetry of Experience” an account of his field experience of Frost’s enigmatic poem “Mowing,” it also explores the educational value of these poems as they provide opportunities for a wide range of readers to engage imaginatively with the environment, an activity of increasing importance as we face the challenges of global climate change in the twenty-first century.

This thesis seeks to understand the portrayals of animal sacrifice in the Old Comedy of classical Greece, a genre commonly considered for vulgarity, personal invective, and roots far removed from sacred acts. Recognizing that even fictional representations of sacrifice are based on real religious ritual, and that Old Comedy had a responsibility to present to the polis a reflection of its own attitudes and behaviors, comic sacrifice scenes become a valuable mode of insight on a culture that we struggle to understand through limited evidence. Approaching the plays with this in mind uncovers a richer and more complex relationship between comedy and sacrifice than might initially be expected.

Before being able to appreciate the meaning of sacrifice scenes in the plays, the first step is to establish a relationship between comedy and ritual. This study considers a progression of ideas around the identity of Greek drama, beginning with Aristotle’s Poetics and moving through the centuries as scholars identify the likely formative influences of comedy. After establishing comedy as a valid participant in the religious discourse of classical Athens, this study considers a progression of theories about the religious forces behind animal sacrifice as well as how the Greeks incorporated and expressed those forces. From Mircea Eliade’s concept of the sacred to Walter Burkert’s use of sacrifice to peer into the Greek psyche, we come to understand the interplay of ritual and performance as a culture communicates its own beliefs and attitudes.

Among the extant comedies of Aristophanes, Frogs, Peace, and Birds receive major focus for their provocative use of sacrifice and related ritual behavior. Encounters with ritual practices move the protagonists toward their end goals, and control over animal sacrifice is an indicator of each character’s power. Sacrifice in each of these cases is presented not as a reverent act but a tool to be manipulated to achieve human aims. Aristophanes is using comedy’s unique license to express a more practical understanding of the human benefits of sacrifice and to demonstrate the shifting attitudes of the polis, away from reliance on traditional models and toward a preference for human action.

This work explores how the tragic poets, by means of snake imagery, convey the notion of disease. Moreover, it examines how snake imagery contributes to the process of healing through the emotion of fear that it triggers. My analysis of the tragedies in which the three main tragedians employ snake imagery builds upon findings from ancient authors that refer to snakes and their characteristics, and upon the findings of contemporary scholars. My overall method relies on tools from structuralism and psycholinguistics. Through snake imagery the tragic poets portray disease as it manifests itself through arrogance, deception, physical pain, and madness. For this purpose the poets employ images inspired by the particular anatomy and behavior of the snake.

Within the context of tragedy, and through the fear that it triggers, the snake imagery encourages self-knowledge and healing through self-correction.

GABAergic interneurons are important for balanced activity of the principal projection neurons of the striatum (spiny projection neurons, SPNs) and dysfunction of striatal GABAergic interneurons can lead to movement-related disorders. Despite this importance, very little is known about the connectivity of striatal interneurons and their functional spatial arrangement. In preliminary experiments our group optogenetically identified a group of interneuron connections that had not previously been seen in paired recordings. Here we tested the hypothesis that this finding is due to long-range connections of genetically defined interneuron classes. Using a pseudotyped Rabies Viral (RV) monosynaptic retrograde tracing strategy in sparsely identified SPNS, followed by three-dimensional reconstruction, we tested the spatial attributes of connections from different striatal interneuron classes, and lateral connections between SPNs.

Our results demonstrate the feasibility of an RV-dependent approach for local distance mapping and for the first time identify distinct projection properties of different striatal neuron classes. Importantly, our experiments reveal short, local connections of Fast Spiking (FS), but long-ranging projections of Low-Threshold Spiking (LTS) interneurons, which together form the majority of striatal GABAergic interneurons. These findings can resolve the opposing results from paired and optogenetic recordings and also suggest distinct signaling modalities for these two types of interneurons.

Omaha Hi-Lo Poker is a variant of the game of Poker, with more possibilities resulting from having four cards per player and a split Hi and Lo pot, compared to Texas Hold’em Poker. Recently published algorithms, commodity cloud computing, and graphics processor acceleration enable the analysis of more complex games. We use the newly published CFR+ algorithm, OpenCL heterogeneous computing framework, and Amazon Web Services cloud computing to analyse Omaha Hi-Lo Poker. Using these tools, an endgame jam/fold e-Nash Equilibrium is found and a scoring heuristic that approximates this equilibrium strategy is constructed.

Several central nervous system related diseases involve various cellular inflammation related components. Among others these components include increases in complement activation and synthesis of inflammatory signaling mediators. Therefore, several strategies for creating therapeutic benefit in patients has centered on targeting these cellular inflammatory mechanisms. One of these strategies has been to target the translocator protein (TSPO), which is an 18kDa outer mitochondrial membrane bound protein used in mediating transport of cholesterol into the inner mitochondrial membrane (Karlsetter, 2014). Recent studies have shown that activation of TSPO can induce a cellular anti-inflammatory response. The immunomodulation of the anti-inflammatory process is generally controlled by cytokines such as interleukin-10. So far, several protein, small molecule and peptide agonists, which stimulate the production of IL-10, have been elucidated. Recently Karlsetter et al displayed a cellular model where the potent inflammatory effects of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were reduced with an increasing concentration of TSPO. This data and other evidence hint at a mechanism where TSPO induces an anti-inflammatory response by upregulating IL-10. Therefore I propose that IL-10 mRNA and IL-10 protein levels are elevated within immune cells when TSPO levels have been overexpressed. To test this, TSPO was stimulated with Etifoxine, a known TSPO ligand, and evaluated for increases in IL-10 mRNA and protein. Gene expression and protein production data showed that no concentration or incubation of Etifoxine was able to upregulate IL-10 mRNA or protein. Furthermore, stable overexpression of TSPO in a macrophage cell line was unable to induce any increase in IL-10 message levels. These results suggest that TSPO does not modulate IL-10 and its inflammatory effects.

The study of aggregation propensity of a monoclonal antibody (mAb) and its sensitivity to applied stresses is believed to correlate with the overall stability of the mAb. As such, the aggregation propensity under various stresses can be used to develop a unique aggregation metric to rank order a panel of mAbs based on their stability. Often in a drug discovery campaign, multiple mAbs may imbue the desired in vivo efficacy, at which point identification of the most developable mAb becomes an important factor to decide on a single candidate for further development. This study focuses on the assessment of the stability of a panel of mAbs, by defining their propensity for aggregation along the native and non-native aggregation pathways. Kosmotrope based solubility evaluates a mAb’s colloidal stability, or propensity for native aggregation, while differential scanning fluorescence reports conformational stability, or propensity for non-native aggregation. By combining the conformational and colloidal stability metrics, an overall aggregation propensity profile can be generated for a mAb. To parse out further information on stability, the mAb panel was exposed to a series of stresses, which mimic stresses a mAb based drug would be exposed to during manufacturing and storage. After exposure to stress, the mAb panel was then monitored for change in apparent colloidal and conformational stability. There was no variation in the stability metrics measured, as a function of stress. However, observed precipitation denoted differential sensitivity to the stresses. Combining observational data with the stability metrics measured, allowed for rank ordering of aggregation propensity, and overall stability.

This case study investigates the US biosimilar business and the approach that should be implemented when financially analyzing biosimilar development candidates. To challenge the theory that the biosimilar business will be best suited for biologics experiencing the largest sales figures, this case study applied a financial analysis towards two biosimilar development candidates with contrasting sales. Using Soliris (eculizumab) and Remicade (infliximab) biosimilars as a test case, this case study hypothesized that a Soliris biosimilar has the opportunity to create more value over time—despite Soliris® having less sales than Remicade®—due to its favorable market outlook.

Over the next few years, the US biosimilar landscape is expected to evolve into a profitable business venture as the first wave of biologics, particularly monoclonal antibodies, begin to lose patent protection. With some biologics experiencing more than $5 billion in annual sales, many analysts believe biosimilars to these biologics will generate more value than a biosimilar to a reference biologic making under $5 billion in sales. However, based on the findings from this case study, the opposite was true. Using a product- and market-driven net present value (NPV) evaluation, this case study uncovered that a Soliris biosimilar candidate has the potential to generate more value than a Remicade biosimilar. Demonstrating that the reference biologic’s sales did not translate to a greater valuation for the Remicade biosimilar, this case was able to substantiate the importance in financially analyzing biosimilar development candidates beyond the sales of a reference biologic. In addition, this case study was able to demonstrate the utility in using a product- and market-driven valuation approach in the value determination of biosimilar development candidates.

My thesis project is a means of understanding the conditions associated with success and failure in the American film industry. This is carried out by tracking the careers of several thousand actors and actresses, and the number of votes that their movies have received on IMDb. A fundamental characteristic of film career success is that of influence from prior success or failure—consider that an established “star” will almost certainly receive opportunities denied to an unknown actor, or that a successful actor with a string of poorly received films may stop receiving offers for desirable roles. The goal for this project is to to develop an understanding of how these past events are linked with future success. The results of this project show a significant difference in career development between actors and actresses—actors’ career trajectories are significantly influenced by a small number of “make or break” films, while actresses’ careers are based on overall lifetime performance, particularly in an ability to avoid poorly-received films. Indeed, negatively received films are shown to have a distinctly greater influence on actresses’ careers than those that were positively received. These results were obtained from a model using machine learning to find which movies from actors’ and actresses’ pasts tend to have the most predictive information. The parameters for which movies should be included in this set was optimized using a genetic learning algorithm, considering factors such as: film age, whether it was well-received or poorly-received, and if so, to what magnitude, and whether the film fits with the natural periodicity that many actors’ and actresses’ careers exhibit. Results were obtained following an extensive optimization, consisting of approximately 5000 evolutionary steps and 200,000 fitness evaluations, done over 125 hours.