Letter from Pierce Butler to John Ross requesting money, 1795.

Pierce Butler requests two or three hundred dollars of John Ross, for house use.https://digitalcommons.wofford.edu/littlejohnmss/1135/thumbnail.jp

Letter from Pierce Butler regarding his Salvadore lands in South Carolina. 1806.

Butler discusses financial and legal matters regarding his problems with squatters on his Salvadore lands in South Carolina. 1806.https://digitalcommons.wofford.edu/littlejohnmss/1136/thumbnail.jp

Letter from Pierce Butler to a Mr. Simpson, an employee of the Bank of the United States, regarding financial matters. 1801.

Butler asks Simpson if the Bank of United States will take in his Bills in London at the current price in the winter and spring of 1802. Item annotated with reply.https://digitalcommons.wofford.edu/littlejohnmss/1137/thumbnail.jp

Certificate authenticating the original appointment of B.H. Saxon as Secretary of State of South Carolina, signed by Pierce M. Butler, governor, and B.H. Saxon. Dated November 4, 1837, Columbia, S.C.

The appointment of B.H. Saxon as the Secretary of State of South Carolina is certified by this document. Signed by Pierce M. Butler and B.H. Saxon. 1837.https://digitalcommons.wofford.edu/littlejohnmss/1185/thumbnail.jp

Diffraction by an absorbing wedge

For the abstract of this paper, please see the PDF file

Modern Likelihood-Frequentist Inference

We offer an exposition of modern higher-order likelihood inference, and introduce software to implement this in a quite general setting. The aim is to make more accessible an important development in statistical theory and practice. The software, implemented in an R package, requires only that the user provide code to compute the likelihood function, and to specify extra-likelihood aspects of the model, such as stopping rule or censoring model, through a function generating a dataset under the model. The exposition charts a narrow course through the developments, intending thereby to make these more widely accessible. It includes the likelihood ratio approximation to the distribution of the maximum likelihood estimator, i.e. the p* formula, and transformation of this yielding a second-order approximation to the distribution of the signed likelihood ratio test statistic, based on a modified signedlikelihood ratio statistic r* . This follows developments of Barndorff-Nielsen and others. The software utilizes the approximation to required Jacobians as developed by Skovgaard, which is included in the exposition. Several examples of using the software are provided

Comparison of embedded and added motor imagery training in patients after stroke: Results of a randomised controlled pilot trial

Copyright @ 2012 Schuster et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background: Motor imagery (MI) when combined with physiotherapy can offer functional benefits after stroke. Two MI integration strategies exist: added and embedded MI. Both approaches were compared when learning a complex motor task (MT): ‘Going down, laying on the floor, and getting up again’. Methods: Outpatients after first stroke participated in a single-blinded, randomised controlled trial with MI embedded into physiotherapy (EG1), MI added to physiotherapy (EG2), and a control group (CG). All groups participated in six physiotherapy sessions. Primary study outcome was time (sec) to perform the motor task at pre and post-intervention. Secondary outcomes: level of help needed, stages of MT-completion, independence, balance, fear of falling (FOF), MI ability. Data were collected four times: twice during one week baseline phase (BL, T0), following the two week intervention (T1), after a two week follow-up (FU). Analysis of variance was performed. Results: Thirty nine outpatients were included (12 females, age: 63.4 ± 10 years; time since stroke: 3.5 ± 2 years; 29 with an ischemic event). All were able to complete the motor task using the standardised 7-step procedure and reduced FOF at T0, T1, and FU. Times to perform the MT at baseline were 44.2 ± 22s, 64.6 ± 50s, and 118.3 ± 93s for EG1 (N = 13), EG2 (N = 12), and CG (N = 14). All groups showed significant improvement in time to complete the MT (p < 0.001) and degree of help needed to perform the task: minimal assistance to supervision (CG) and independent performance (EG1+2). No between group differences were found. Only EG1 demonstrated changes in MI ability over time with the visual indicator increasing from T0 to T1 and decreasing from T1 to FU. The kinaesthetic indicator increased from T1 to FU. Patients indicated to value the MI training and continued using MI for other difficult-to-perform tasks. Conclusions: Embedded or added MI training combined with physiotherapy seem to be feasible and benefi-cial to learn the MT with emphasis on getting up independently. Based on their baseline level CG had the highest potential to improve outcomes. A patient study with 35 patients per group could give a conclusive answer of a superior MI integration strategy.The research project was partially funded by the Gottfried und Julia Bangerter-Rhyner Foundation

Reproductive efficiency and survival of Holstein-Friesian cows of divergent Economic Breeding Index, evaluated under seasonal calving pasture-based management

peer-reviewedThe objective of the current study was to examine phenotypic fertility performance and survival, and to gain insight into underlying factors that may contribute to greater fertility performance in 2 divergent genetic groups (GG) of Holstein-Friesian, selected using the Irish Economic Breeding Index (EBI). The GG were evaluated across 3 spring calving pasture-based feeding treatments (FT) over 4 yr. The 2 divergent GG were (1) high EBI; representative of the top 5% nationally (elite), and (2) EBI representative of the national average (NA). In each year, 90 elite and 45 NA cows were randomly allocated to 1 of 3 FT: control, lower grass allowance, and high concentrate. No interaction between GG and FT was observed for any of the measures of fertility investigated. The elite cows achieved significantly greater pregnancy rate to first service (+14.9 percentage points), and significantly greater pregnancy rates after 21, 42, and 84 d of breeding (+17.3, +15.2, and +9.6 percentage points, respectively) compared with NA. The number of services per cow was fewer for elite (1.57) compared with NA (1.80). The interval from mating start date to pregnancy was significantly shorter for elite cows compared with NA. The elite cows maintained greater mean body condition score than NA throughout the study (2.91 vs. 2.72), and had greater body condition score at calving, artificial insemination, and drying off compared with NA. The elite cows had greater mean circulating concentrations of insulin-like growth factor-1 compared with NA. No significant effect was observed of GG on commencement of luteal activity, or progesterone profile variables. Greater survival to the start of fifth lactation was observed for elite cows. The elite cows were 43% less likely to be culled than NA by the beginning of the fifth lactation. The results highlight the success of the Economic Breeding Index to deliver reproductive performance and longevity consistent with industry targets across a range of seasonal pasture-based FT. The results also clearly demonstrate the potential of appropriate genetic selection to reverse negative fertility trends incurred during previous decades of selection for milk production alone