Spitzer Science Center within an Enterprise Architecture

The Spitzer Science Center’s (SSC) evolutionary development approach, coupled with a flexible, scaleable hardware and software architecture has been key in Spitzer’s ability to handle an explosion of data products, evolving data definitions, and changing data quality requirements. Spitzer is generating (depending on the campaign and instrument) about 10 TB of pre-archive data every 14 to 20 days. This generally reduces to between 3 TB and 6 TB of standard products, again depending on the campaign and instrument. This paper will discuss (1) the Spitzer Science Center’s responses to evolving data, quality, and processing requirements and (2) how robust or not was the original architecture to allow Spitzer to accommodate on-going change

On (Not) Being Milton: Tony Harrison’s Liminal Voice

The paper examines the relation between poetic identity, whose ongoing construction remains one of the most persistently reoccurring themes of Harrison’s work, and the liminal position occupied by the speaker of Harrison’s verse. In the context of the sociological thought of such scholars as Zygmunt Bauman and Stuart Hall, the following paper discusses the way in which the idea of being in-between operates in “On Not Being Milton,” an initial poem from Harrison’s widely acclaimed sonnet sequence The School of Eloquence, whose unique character stems partly from the fact that it constitutes an ongoing poetic project which has continued from 1978 onwards, reflecting the social and cultural changes of contemporary Britain

V-slotted screw head and matching driving tool facilitate insertion and removal of screw fasteners

A V-slotted designed screw and a screwdriver with a V-shaped tang facilitate driving the screw into difficult locations and minimize axial forces thus avoiding damage to the screw

MS-068: Henry P. Clare Letters, Co. D., 9th New York State Militia

This collection consists of 47 letters written by Henry P. Clare to his brother, William Keating Clare, with the exception of one letter addressed to Lieutenant Colonel M.T. McMahon, Assistant Adjutant General, and one written from a George E. Hyatt to William. The letters in this collection range from January 4, 1863 (although they are mislabeled by Henry to be January 1862) to December 6, 1863. Henry talks mostly of his life in the camp, gives his opinion of the war, and of the Army’s and the nation’s leadership. Many of the letters are sharply critical of leaders, including Lincoln, Burnside, Hooker, and Meade, and of the way the war is being handled. He admits in one letter that he is a Copperhead, although the term is not looked upon kindly in the army. Letter 18, which is written by another soldier to William, letting him know that Henry is safe after the battle of Chancellorsville, and Letter 26, dated July 5, 1863, details what Henry and his regiment experienced during the Battle of Gettysburg. He occasionally mentions other members of the 83rd, including Colonel Joseph A. Moesch, their regimental commander, with whom he seems well acquainted. Henry is quite a character, and his letters express his unique personality wonderfully, as well as giving insight into some of the politics of soldiering. Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each collection in addition to inventories of their content. More information about our collections can be found on our website http://www.gettysburg.edu/special?collections/collections/.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/findingaidsall/1158/thumbnail.jp

Gender, networks and talent management : interim findings of a narrative inquiry

Despite an enduring concern with the acquisition, development and retention of talent, literature in the field has tended to retain a practitioner focus. More recent work, however, includes attempts to develop a more robust empirical and critical perspective, with occasional calls for an analysis of the gendered aspect of talent management. This paper is aimed at partially filling the ‘gender gap’ in talent management research. Part of a larger narrative study, findings presented here focus particularly on the role of networks in gendering the translation of talent management into practice

Quantifying dimensionality: Bayesian cosmological model complexities

We demonstrate a measure for the effective number of parameters constrained by a posterior distribution in the context of cosmology. In the same way that the mean of the Shannon information (i.e. the Kullback-Leibler divergence) provides a measure of the strength of constraint between prior and posterior, we show that the variance of the Shannon information gives a measure of dimensionality of constraint. We examine this quantity in a cosmological context, applying it to likelihoods derived from Cosmic Microwave Background, large scale structure and supernovae data. We show that this measure of Bayesian model dimensionality compares favourably both analytically and numerically in a cosmological context with the existing measure of model complexity used in the literature.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures. v2: updates post peer-review. v3: typographical correction to equation 3

Beyond model answers: learners’ perceptions of self-assessment materials in e-learning applications

The importance of feedback as an aid to self‐assessment is widely acknowledged. A common form of feedback that is used widely in e‐learning is the use of model answers. However, model answers are deficient in many respects. In particular, the notion of a ‘model’ answer implies the existence of a single correct answer applicable across multiple contexts with no scope for permissible variation. This reductive assumption is rarely the case with complex problems that are supposed to test students’ higher‐order learning. Nevertheless, the challenge remains of how to support students as they assess their own performance using model answers and other forms of non‐verificational ‘feedback’. To explore this challenge, the research investigated a management development e‐learning application and investigated the effectiveness of model answers that followed problem‐based questions. The research was exploratory, using semi‐structured interviews with 29 adult learners employed in a global organisation. Given interviewees’ generally negative perceptions of the model‐answers, they were asked to describe their ideal form of self‐assessment materials, and to evaluate nine alternative designs. The results suggest that, as support for higher‐order learning, self‐assessment materials that merely present an idealised model answer are inadequate. As alternatives, learners preferred materials that helped them understand what behaviours to avoid (and not just ‘do’), how to think through the problem (i.e. critical thinking skills), and the key issues that provide a framework for thinking. These findings have broader relevance within higher education, particularly in postgraduate programmes for business students where the importance of prior business experience is emphasised and the profile of students is similar to that of the participants in this research

Quantifying tensions in cosmological parameters: Interpreting the DES evidence ratio

We provide a new interpretation for the Bayes factor combination used in the Dark Energy Survey (DES) first year analysis to quantify the tension between the DES and Planck datasets. The ratio quantifies a Bayesian confidence in our ability to combine the datasets. This interpretation is prior-dependent, with wider prior widths boosting the confidence. We therefore propose that if there are any reasonable priors which reduce the confidence to below unity, then we cannot assert that the datasets are compatible. Computing the evidence ratios for the DES first year analysis and Planck, given that narrower priors drop the confidence to below unity, we conclude that DES and Planck are, in a Bayesian sense, incompatible under LCDM. Additionally we compute ratios which confirm the consensus that measurements of the acoustic scale by the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (SDSS) are compatible with Planck, whilst direct measurements of the acceleration rate of the Universe by the SHOES collaboration are not. We propose a modification to the Bayes ratio which removes the prior dependency using Kullback-Leibler divergences, and using this statistical test find Planck in strong tension with SHOES, in moderate tension with DES, and in no tension with SDSS. We propose this statistic as the optimal way to compare datasets, ahead of the next DES data releases, as well as future surveys. Finally, as an element of these calculations, we introduce in a cosmological setting the Bayesian model dimensionality, which is a parameterisation-independent measure of the number of parameters that a given dataset constrains.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures. v2 & v3: updates post peer-review. v4: typographical correction to the reported errors in the log S column of Table II. v5: typographical correction to equation 2

The influence of television on vocabulary, concepts and preferences of children in grades one and two.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University N.B.: With which is bound Currie, Jamesena. A study of twenty-five first grade children's preferences for television programs