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I am interested in the Macro scale and the macro effects evident at a city-scale level. I remember visiting New Orleans in 2016 and vividly remember seeing several signs with a large 'No' symbol drawn and the text  "neighbors not tourists" printed on the sign. Recently, as part of my research into New Orleans, I stumbled on this piece by the Guardian on how short-term rentals through platforms such as Airbnb are leading to gentrification in New Orleans. Highlighted in the article is how several Airbnb hosts do not reside on the listed premises. I remember the place we stayed, as we were a large party, having a 617 prefix number.  The prefix stood out as I knew the code 617 represented Boston and was curious what someone with ties to Boston doing in New Orleans as a host. In a similar vein, the article also highlights the problem of absentee hosts, hosts who acquire property for the sole purpose of setting up the property as an Airbnb site.

To tackle the problem, one councilwoman passed a law that required any Airbnb hosts in residential zones to have a homestead exemption verifying they live on site. In this case, a city-wide measure was taken and passed into law affecting the micro. It is common to have one host having several properties in different residential areas in New Orleans. From a technical standpoint, it could be viewed that Airbnb as technology is developed and presented as a scalable product. With no limits to reproducibility. Meanwhile, real-life discontinuities exist in the form of such homestead laws. It is impossible to live in more than one homestead at the same time. In other words, the concept of the human is not scalable.
Likewise, neither is cultural heritage. The city of New Orleans positions its self as a city with great cultural heritage. It is through this heritage that they seek to draw more and more tourists. How do cities think of scaling up successful initiatives and how do they navigate the political, social, ecological, or economic entanglements. At what point is downscaling necessary? Is culture scalable?

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/13/new-orleans-airbnb-trem…

I am currently a Ph.D. student interested in exploring the entanglements of scale, especially in the context of environmental sensing.  My primary research seeks to engage in discourse around the value of scalability that is presented as inherent in computation. While the term scale-up is almost synonymous with computation, sustainability; on the other hand, is known as a problem of scale. Take for example, the discourse on climate change where the actions required to combat climate change requires interventions at different scales. In this context, demanding changes at individual scales while no corresponding changes happen at larger scales would not yield much.

In looking at New Orleans, I came across a video on IoT cameras developed by Cisco, the networking giant. What struck me other than the apparent rise of surveillance capitalism was the narrative of one of the police officers highlighted in the video. The officer mentions that it is not feasible for the city to place police officers on every corner. In the context of scale, the police officer is implying that cameras are useful as they extend the police officer's ability to surveil the city. In other words, cameras and the networks help scale up the police officer, making it possible for them to cover a larger scale than before.

One of the police officers, in the video, also mentions that New Orleans is a tourist and hospitable town. Which brings up the question at any given period, what scale of visitors can New Orleans support without stretching the city's resources? Several other cities in the world have made efforts to limit visitors, in order not stretch city resources. The recent crisis at Mount Everest is an excellent example of what happens when resources are stretched to accommodate the increasing number of local visitors. How could something of this nature similarly impact New Orleans?

At the communication center where the video feed is analyzed, the IT manager provides reasons as to why they chose Cisco as their vendor. One of the reasons he gives was that the system is easily expandable, allowing the ability to scale out/up the network.

Scott G. Knowles: Department of History Head, Associate Professor in the Center for Science, Technology, and Society at Drexel University. Dr. Knowles specifically focuses on disaster, risk, and technological history. Multiple publications also extend into public policy, modern disaster response, and future risks.

The program appears to be popular with both lawmakers and the public. Unfortunately, coverage of the organization appears to mostly come from articles about the founding physicians-- often in the form of alumni news. The foundation's home webpage does link to several outside articles and news sources involving relevant topics in prison health care. There also appears to be an on-going series in The Lancet focusing on HIV/AIDs, a main component of the Center's mission. Moreover, the Center seems to serve as a fantastic resource for the Warren Alpert Medical School students, as the school maintains a longstanding tradition of involvement in Rhode Island public health

Emily Goldmann, PhD, MPH: assistant research professor of Global Public Health at NYU College of Global Public Health. Previous research includes work within several public health consulting firms and employment in the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in the Bureau of Adult Mental Health; this work included surveillance of psychological distress, metal illness, hospitalization, and rapid assessment of mental health conditions following hurricane Sandy. 

Sandro Galea MD, MPH, DrPH: a Canadian/American board-certified emergency medicine physician and epidemiologist, Dr. Galea is the current dean of the BU School of Public Health and former chair of Epidemiology at Mailman School of Public Health (Columbia University). His research primarily centers on social production of health within urban populations, including mental health disorders such as mood-anxiety and substance abuse; extensive publications exploring health inequalities, epidemiology, and health within vulnerable populations. Dr. Galea has served on numerous boards and committees analyzing the consequences of mass traumas, including 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and numerous international conflicts. 

1) Attawapiskat: This First Nation region is described in the article as one of the most isolate and remote. Further research indicates not only is it geographically isolated, but it lacks significant resources, resulting in a high cost of living and a scarcity in certain goods. Moreover, the region is serviced by a nursing clinic (no physicians) and a team of 8 paramedics-- truly an under-served medical region.

2) Aboriginal Healing Foundation: Our Catholic high school curriculum involved an ethics class, which debated the mistreatment aboriginals in the name of evangelicalism. I chose to research the foundation and determine what made this special-- why were they able to be cited as making such progress, despite losing funding in a few years.

3) Sheridan: A young girl who came to symbolize the suicide epidemic in Attawapiskat, she was 1 of over 100 who attempted to commit suicide within the span of 7 months. The Vice article describing her life and circumstances shows hints of an adolescent wise beyond her years, quoted as saying "if there's no resources, there's not going to be any change" in her suicide recording. 

The article focuses more on the fallacies of our current approaches to medicine. Dr. Kramer contends that the public would benefit from physicians melding their current factual approaches with anecdotal methods as well. Particularly, the field of psychiatry, which dabbles in processes of the brain not yet understood. While Dr. Kramer acknowledges it is necessary to have a well-defined approach, using "stories" allows for a more enriched judgement and remind practitioners of the vast differences in human experience. 

As the data is from 1998, I would sincerely hope that the data has already encouraged responses. Nonetheless, at the very least, the data should be able to serve as a marker for progression in traumatic event services. While sexual assault is markedly different from other traumatic events, the data could also be extrapolated to other events with community ties. More pointedly, data from this study demonstrated where some of the gaps came between victims with the "best" service outcomes and those with the "worst". The primary difference between the "best" group and those in latter tears was in the legal system. These shortcomings appeared to emerge early on, with a discrepancy in whether their reports even made it to the desk of the prosecution from the police department. This indicates a shortcoming in the system, and a point which should be investigated to better victim outcomes moving forward. Sexual assault cases are rarely black and white, thus some detectives may be inclined to create personal judgments about the merit of a case before passing it along, thus leading to its exclusion. This is one of several differences in victim encounters leading to less desired outcomes.

This report provides a detailed analysis of international response to nuclear emergencies. In addition to reviewing historic nuclear emergencies and their responses, it examines current nuclear policies. Initial reactions to previous nuclear emergencies (Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, ect.) focused on preventing future incidents. Yet,  Dr. Schmid argues increased safety measures and rigorous regulation cannot possibly safeguard against all emergency scenarios. She emphasizes the need to create an international organization to serve as an emergent response team, and explores several candidates such as the International Atomic Energy Agency and World Association of Nuclear Operators. However, Dr. Schmid concludes none of these suggested organizations currently have the fiscal capability or internation authority to act in this role.