Let Us Bury and Forget: Civil War Memory and Identity in Cabell County, West Virginia, 1865-1915

This thesis covers the events of the Civil War in Cabell County, West Virginia, and how those events were remembered by the county’s residents in the decades after the war. It provides a brief look at the early development of the county and how its inhabitants sought to exploit the county’s topography in order to facilitate commercial investment in the region. Cabell Countians were deeply divided and several skirmishes between Union and Confederate forces produced a time of terror and hardship. When the war was over, Cabell Countians sought a return to normality and to renew projects that might bring economic prosperity to the region. However, the animosity of the war was not easily forgotten and political acts such as proscription and loyalty oaths continued to engender hostility. Collis P. Huntington’s announcement of his desire to finish the C&O railroad and create a new town in the county provided economic opportunity to many in the region. Wealthy landowners and businessmen on both sides attempted to settle the differences of the war through shared and mutual financial success. Their desire to build a city together necessitated forgetting the divisions that had set the inhabitants against one another. Both factions suffered from a strong identity crisis and because of this neither group could project a clear understanding of their side’s reasons for fighting. Cabell Countians were unable to achieve reconciliation, despite their mutual cooperation, because neither side was ready to tackle the issues that had plunged them into war. The economic opportunities offered by industrialism had helped mitigate much of the animosity of the war years, but due to the incomplete nature of reconciliation Union and Confederate veterans were unable to convey a resonant account of their participation in the Civil War and what the war had meant to their side

Dynamic filtering of static dipoles in magnetoencephalography

We consider the problem of estimating neural activity from measurements of the magnetic fields recorded by magnetoencephalography. We exploit the temporal structure of the problem and model the neural current as a collection of evolving current dipoles, which appear and disappear, but whose locations are constant throughout their lifetime. This fully reflects the physiological interpretation of the model. In order to conduct inference under this proposed model, it was necessary to develop an algorithm based around state-of-the-art sequential Monte Carlo methods employing carefully designed importance distributions. Previous work employed a bootstrap filter and an artificial dynamic structure where dipoles performed a random walk in space, yielding nonphysical artefacts in the reconstructions; such artefacts are not observed when using the proposed model. The algorithm is validated with simulated data, in which it provided an average localisation error which is approximately half that of the bootstrap filter. An application to complex real data derived from a somatosensory experiment is presented. Assessment of model fit via marginal likelihood showed a clear preference for the proposed model and the associated reconstructions show better localisation

Gamma-ray Spectroscopy and Lifetime Measurements of Nuclei in the A = 70, N = Z Region

An experiment was performed at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at Michigan State University, USA. Transition strengths for gamma decays from low-lying excited states in A ~ 70 nuclei have been deduced from lifetime measurements using the recoil distance Doppler shift and gamma-ray lineshape methods in conjunction with nucleon knockout and inelastic scattering reactions. The results confirm the collectivity previously reported for the 2^+ -> 0^+ decay in 68Se and reveal a relative decrease in collectivity in 70Br. This trend is reproduced by shell model calculations using the GXPF1A interaction in the fp model space including the Coulomb, spin-orbit and isospin non-conserving interactions. The 3^+ -> 2^+ decay in 70Br is found to have a very small B(M1) value, which is consistent with the configuration of the state being dominated by the coupling of f5/2 and p1/2 nucleons. The results suggest the g9/2 orbit does not play an important role at low spin in these nuclei. The B(E2) values for the decays of the T = 1 2^+ states in 70Br and 70Se are almost identical, suggesting there is no major shape change between the two nuclei at low spin. New gamma rays have been identified in 68Se and 69Se. gamma-gamma coincidence measurements have allowed one of the two new gamma rays observed in 69Se to be placed in the level scheme. Shell model calculations with the GXPF1A interaction in the fp model space suggest that this new gamma ray comes from a previously unobserved excited 1/2^- state. Lifetimes of excited states in 72Kr, 66Ge, 69Se and 65Ga have also been extracted and, where possible, compared to previous work

Archaeological Monitoring of the Olmos Basin Golf Course Tree Planting Project, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas

At the request of the City of San Antonio (COSA), Pape-Dawson Engineers, Inc. (Pape-Dawson) monitored for cultural resources during the planting of new trees within portions of the existing Olmos Basin Golf Course, located west of the intersection of Basse Road and US 281, in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. The trees were placed randomly throughout the golf course along with new, connecting irrigation lines. Excavations for the trees averaged 3.6 feet (ft) (1.1 meters2 [m2]) in diameter and 1.6 ft (0.5 m) deep. Irrigation lines were installed approximately 1 ft (0.3 m) below the ground surface and were on average 0.75 ft (0.23 m) in width. As the Olmos Basin Golf Course is a municipal golf course operated by the COSA, compliance with the Antiquities Code of Texas (ACT) will be necessary. No federal funding or permitting is anticipated and compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) will not be required. Prior to fieldwork, Pape-Dawson archaeologists coordinated with the COSA archaeologist and the Texas Historical Commission (THC) to determine areas of concern for field investigations. Based on this coordination, archaeologists focused on monitoring during tree planting and irrigation line installations located only within the boundaries of previously recorded sites 41BX1799 and 41BX1800. Within these sites, archaeologists monitored between 50 and 75 percent of the total tree installations. Archaeological monitoring was conducted within the approximately 185-acre project area intermittently between January 22 and April 9, 2019. Pape-Dawson archaeologists monitored the excavation of 208 tree pits, 20 of which were positive for cultural materials. Of these 20 positive pits, nine were located within previously disturbed soil contexts. A total of 2.35 km of irrigation lines were also monitored for cultural resources. Isolated cultural materials from prehistoric, historic, and modern time periods were observed throughout the irrigation line trenches. Sites 41BX1799 and 41BX1800, were revisited during archaeological monitoring. Site 41BX1799 is a multicomponent site, consisting of a prehistoric lithic scatter, a lithic material procurement site, and a historic artifact scatter of indeterminate temporal affiliation. Site 41BX1800 is a low-density prehistoric lithic scatter, dating to the Late to Transitional Archaic time period. Most materials observed were situated within disturbed contexts, however, archaeologists did identify intact deposits of prehistoric and historic materials in 11 of the excavated tree pits. As a result of this monitoring, 41BX1799’s site boundary was extended out an additional 1.11-acres. No cultural materials were observed outside of the current 41BX1800 boundary; thus, it remains unaltered. Due to the lack of intact cultural features, the paucity of diagnostic artifacts, and the extensive disturbances noted throughout both previously recorded sites, 41BX1799 and 41BX1800 are recommended Not Eligible for National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and State Antiquities Landmarks (SAL) designations. If future work within sites 41BX1799 or 41BX1800 reveal additional archaeological deposits, work should temporarily cease, and the City Archaeologist and THC should be immediately notified before recommencing work. All records associated with this project are curated at the University of Texas at San Antonio Center for Archaeological Research (UTSA-CAR)

Clinical phenotype of endometrial carcinoma in Lynch Syndrome: MSH2 mutation carriers

Objective The purpose of this study is to compare histological and clinical variables of individuals with Lynch Syndrome associated Endometrial Carcinoma with a cohort with sporadic Endometrial Carcinomas derived from the general population with sporadic Endometrial Carcinomas. The patients in the Lynch Syndrome cohort were genetically confirmed carriers of MSH2 mismatch repair gene mutations all with previously diagnosed Endometrial Carcinoma. Methods Clinical data was abstracted retrospectively from the medical charts of 46 women with endometrial caner who had a known MSH2 mismatch repair mutation confirmed through genetic sequencing. Clinical variables abstracted from the medical files of these patients included (1) Age at diagnosis (2) International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) Stage (3) International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics Grade and (4) Cell type of endometrial carcinoma. The characteristics of the MSH2 carriers were subsequently compared to the clinically relevant variables of sporadic endometrial cancers that were retrieved from the Newfoundland and Labrador Cancer Care Registry (NLCCR) diagnosed between 2000 and 2010. The Newfoundland and Labrador Cancer Care Registry is a provincial cancer care program and database operated by Eastern Health that combines 5 core cancer programs and registries. The NLCCR includes the provinces Colon, Breast and Cervical screening programs and the provincial tumour and systemic therapy surveillance programs. Results The mean age at diagnosis of Endometrial Cancer (EC) in the MSH2 Lynch syndrome mutation carriers was 46.3 years vs. 60.9 years in the sporadic cohort (p=<0.001). The Lynch Syndrome ECs were diagnosed more frequently prior to 55 years of age (p=<0.001). Comparing local and advanced stages of disease, the Lynch Syndrome cohort had more advanced disease at diagnosis (p=0.047). The prevalence of papillary serous cell type carcinomas in the Lynch Syndrome (23.7%) cohort was statistically more frequent than in the sporadic cohort (3.6%) (p=< 0.001). Clear cell carcinomas were observed more frequently in Lynch Syndrome related EC (7.9%) compared to the sporadic cohort (0.8%) (p=<0.001). The prevalence of grade 3 tumours in the Lynch Syndrome related EC cohort was higher compared to the sporadic cohort; 32.4% and 11.9% respectively (p=0.001). Merger of low-grade (1/2) tumours compared to high grade (3) tumours observed the Lynch Syndrome cohort to present with higher-grade tumours. In the Lynch Syndrome cohort 69.6% had endometrial carcinoma as a sentinel cancer. Survival after diagnosis of EC was similar in each cohort (p=0.068). Logistic regression models indicated that a diagnosis of EC prior to age 55 and a histological diagnosis of papillary serous/clear cell carcinoma to were independently associated with LS (p=<0.001 and p=<0.001 respectively). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that grade, stage of disease, age and cell type were independently associated with a diagnosis of LS. Conclusion This is a preliminary study focusing on the clinical features present in Lynch Syndrome related endometrial carcinomas in women carrying MSH2 mismatch repair mutations. This study serves as a pilot study for a larger, population-based study of the genetics and epidemiology of endometrial carcinomas in Newfoundland and Labrador. We have concluded that Lynch Syndrome associated endometrial cancers are diagnosed at a younger age than the endometrial cancers in the general population, and that prevalence of cell types with unfavorable prognosis was higher in Lynch Syndrome related endometrial carcinomas. The stage of cancer in the Lynch syndrome related endometrial carcinoma cohort at diagnosis was more advanced, and was associated with a higher histological grade. Multivariate analysis found these characteristics to be predictive of LS. Lynch Syndrome related EC patients demonstrated no difference in survival (p=0.068) when compared to the sporadic cohort via Kaplan-Meier survival analysis

Latent Space Planning for Multi-Object Manipulation with Environment-Aware Relational Classifiers

Objects rarely sit in isolation in everyday human environments. If we want robots to operate and perform tasks in our human environments, they must understand how the objects they manipulate will interact with structural elements of the environment for all but the simplest of tasks. As such, we'd like our robots to reason about how multiple objects and environmental elements relate to one another and how those relations may change as the robot interacts with the world. We examine the problem of predicting inter-object and object-environment relations between previously unseen objects and novel environments purely from partial-view point clouds. Our approach enables robots to plan and execute sequences to complete multi-object manipulation tasks defined from logical relations. This removes the burden of providing explicit, continuous object states as goals to the robot. We explore several different neural network architectures for this task. We find the best performing model to be a novel transformer-based neural network that both predicts object-environment relations and learns a latent-space dynamics function. We achieve reliable sim-to-real transfer without any fine-tuning. Our experiments show that our model understands how changes in observed environmental geometry relate to semantic relations between objects. We show more videos on our website: https://sites.google.com/view/erelationaldynamics.Comment: Under review. Update contact information and equations in the manuscript. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2209.1194