Ruin and desolation scarcely paralleled : An examination of The Virginia Flood of 1870’s aftermath and relief efforts

During the autumn of 1870, a massive flood engulfed parts of Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland. The turbid waters claimed over 100 lives and left communities and residents along the James, Shenandoah, Potomac, Rappahannock, Anna, Rivanna, Maury, Middle, South, Staunton, Rockfish, Tye, and Pamunkey Rivers in varying states of distress. At least one quarter of Virginia was affected by the storm and subsequent flooding, making it significant to multiple areas of the State through the loss of life, property, and infrastructure. This thesis examines the flooding event in detail through both a written thesis and website component. The written thesis is broken into two parts, each of which focus on different aspects of the flood. Part 1 provides a detailed record of the storm and the flood damage combined with analysis of the flood’s place in history. This part examines the destruction as a regional event rather than a sectional local history, following the flood along two paths; from Staunton, Virginia to Georgetown, Maryland along the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers, and Lexington to Richmond by way of the James River and its tributaries. Part 2 examines the subject of relief for the sufferers of the 1870 Flood. While the majority of relief came from nearby neighbors and residents of the region, there was also a statewide Legislative Relief Committee. The examination of charitable aid further illuminates the impact of regional property destruction and loss, while also illuminating post-Civil War disaster relief practices during Reconstruction. This part delves into four instances of local relief committees and how they interacted with the Virginia Legislative Relief Committee. Finally, as an ongoing project, 1870flood.com will examine the flood through both individual stories and broader historic scholarship. Through a comprehensive casualty list, the website will attempt to tell the stories of those who lost their lives and the family members who were left to pick up the pieces. By combining the traditional thesis analysis and the website public history project, this research aims to begin filling the historiographical gap while also illuminating the impact of the Virginia Flood of 1870

Editor's Introduction

This thematic issue of the journal was conceived during a symposium at Victoria University of Wellington in November 2018 on the theme of ‘The Family as Mnemonic Community’. At the symposium, funded through a New Zealand Marsden grant for the project ‘The Missing Link’, a group of international and multidisciplinary researchers shared their investigations into family memory and discussed four broad questions: - what kinds of stories or information do families pass down the generations? - how are family stories about the past transmitted, remembered, and received? - why do family memories and stories about the past matter in the present? - and what are the advantages and disadvantages of different scholarly approaches?   Five out of six of the authors in this issue presented papers at the symposium, and their articles are revised or reconceptualised for publication here. The remaining author was invited to submit a paper once we scoped out the majority of submissions and decided on the shape of the volume

Characteristic-free resolutions of Weyl and Specht modules

We construct explicit resolutions of Weyl modules by divided powers and of co-Specht modules by permutational modules. We also prove a conjecture of Boltje-Hartmann on resolutions of co-Specht modules.Comment: 31 page

Differentiation of organizational climate and culture in public health and social services in Finland

Aim: The aim of the study was to examine the differentiation of organizational contexts within Finnish public health and social services both at the workplace and at the local governmental (municipality) level. Subject and methods: We focused on climate, comprising individual level experience, and on culture, comprising collective level as "the way things are done in organization". Climate, as "the way people perceive their work environment", was interpreted to reflect personally relevant professional and moral concerns. As an exploration of antecedents of climate and culture, we compared the scale of contextual differences among workplaces with the extent of differences at the municipal level. We also examined by multilevel hierarchical linear models (HLM), the importance of observed differentiation of workplaces in terms of impacts of both climate and culture on employee morale. Results: There existed different organizational climates and cultures within Finnish public human service organizations both at workplace and upper organizational level. Differences in terms of climate were somewhat bigger than differences in culture. Conclusion: Both climate and culture should be highlighted in the effort to specify the characteristics of organizational social contexts, as well as their antecedents and consequences in public human services

Assessing the Impact of Metacognitive Post-Reflection Exercises on Problem-Solving Skillfulness

We studied the impact of metacognitive reflections on recently completed work as a way to improve the retention of newly-learned problem-solving techniques. Students video-recorded themselves talking through problems immediately after finishing them, completed ongoing problem-solving strategy maps or problem-sorting exercises, and filled out detailed exam wrappers. We assessed students' problem-solving skillfulness using a combination of validated instruments and final exam questions scored using a rubric that targets problem-solving best practices. We found a small but significant difference between the rubric score distributions for the control and treatment groups. However, a multiple ordered logistic regression using treatment and Force Concept Inventory (FCI) pre-test score as predictors showed that this difference is better explained by the latter. The surprising impact of conceptual preparation on problem-solving skill suggests two things: the importance of remediation for students with insufficient conceptual understanding and the need to consider problem-solving interventions in the context of students' conceptual knowledge base.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure

Defining successful integration: An examination into the life of Grenadian transmigrants in Toronto (Ontario).

The successful integration of immigrants has always been assessed in terms of the material possessions they accumulate in the host country. Researchers such as Henry (1994), Richmond and Kalbach (1980), Richmond (1969; 1989), have measured the success of migrants using objective markers, such as ownership of residence, occupational status/mobility, income attainments and the educational accomplishments made in the receiving country. Although their assessment may include some of the above mentioned indicators, other criteria may be used as well. Alternatively, many may define their success in terms of a broadened world vision, the ability to establish a family or household, the knowledge, competence, improved social skills and experience gained from travel. Consequently, this thesis will challenge these conventional definitions of success by considering success outside the host country and the definitions of success from the perspective of the immigrants themselves. This study was based on interviews conducted with 50 Grenadian transmigrants in the city of Toronto, during the Summer of 1996. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1998 .G73. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 39-02, page: 0414. Adviser: Tanya Basok. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1998

Analysis of travelling waves associated with the modelling of aerosolised skin grafts

A previous model developed by the authors investigates the growth patterns of keratinocyte cell colonies after they have been applied to a burn site using a spray technique. In this paper, we investigate a simplified one-dimensional version of the model. This model yields travelling wave solutions and we analyse the behaviour of the travelling waves. Approximations for the rate of healing and maximum values for both the active healing and the healed cell densities are obtained