MS-101: Miscellaneous 18th and 19th Century British Letter Collection

This artificial collection consists of 40 letters between various parties, written between 1771 and 1887. The letters share no single origin or destination, and are therefore divided chronologically rather than by subject or author/recipient. Included in the collection is a group of newspaper clippings from the early 20th century pertaining to the Portland Vase, as well as biographical information on the 3rd Duke of Portland.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/findingaidsall/1148/thumbnail.jp

Commentary: Battles Won, but War on Vet Homelessness Continues

In his second inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln called upon Americans to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan ... These words have proven so influential that the Department of Veterans Affairs has adopted them as its motto. But how well have we as a nation risen to this call? [excerpt

We Have a Sacred Duty to House all Homeless Veterans

In a letter to Congress urging the nation to pay what it owed to veterans of the Continental Army, George Washington voiced his firm conviction that we as honorable Americans would “never leave unpaid the debt of gratitude” to those brave souls who “rescued by their arms from impending ruin” the fledgling United States. (excerpt

Opinion: Too Many Veterans with Children are Still Homeless

Don’t ignore homeless veterans. As we pause this Veterans Day to reflect on those who have sacrificed in the service of our country, let us not neglect to address the plight of those who have returned to a civilian life with far less promise than they have every right to expect. [excerpt

Opinion: Housing Our Homeless Vets is a Duty We’ll Always Owe

As we celebrate Veterans Day across America, we are reminded of President Abraham Lincoln’s powerful admonition in the Gettysburg Address regarding what we owe to those who have sacrificed and given of themselves in the defense of the common good. [excerpt

Design & Evaluation of a Hybrid Switched Capacitor Circuit with Wide-Bandgap Devices for DC Grid Applications

ABSTRACT As technologies advance, the rate at which renewable power sources, such as solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind, are being added to the power grid is increasing. Typically, PV power plants require large inverters for direct current to alternating current (DC-AC) power conversion, as well as large transformers to step up voltages to the grid voltage. Offshore wind farms and large PV power plants in remote locations often aggregate power on a DC bus in order to improve efficiency and reduce the cost of power conversion hardware within the energy complex. However, the power must still be converted to AC for integration into the grid. Research is being done to allow greater adoption of low, medium, and high voltage DC distribution, wherein DC power is used directly by loads. This has the potential for additional cost savings. To better realize this vision, however, new DC-DC converter technologies must be developed that are small, cheap and efficient at the voltages and power levels relevant to grid integrations. This project demonstrates the feasibility of a switched capacitor boost converter topology that is scalable to 10 kilovolts, and can serve as an interface between lower voltage PV arrays and medium voltage DC (MVDC) distribution lines. In particular, this approach relies on switched capacitors, wide-bandgap (WGB) devices, and high-frequency switching to achieve high power density and high gain. As part of this work, two prototypes were constructed including a benchtop-scale prototype rated for 25W at 500 Volts and a 6 kW 10 kV converter. In particular, this second converter was demonstrated in hardware to deliver 2.56 kW at 10 kV DC to a resistive load with greater than 95% efficiency, demonstrating the feasibility of this converter for grid applications

Social Memory and Landscape: A Cross-Cultural Examination

The study of social memory and landscape in archaeological contexts is a recent trend in social archaeological theory. As such, and despite the flexibility, applicability, and usefulness of this approach, not many sites or societies have been studied from this perspective. The purpose of this examination is to demonstrate the flexibility, applicability and usefulness of the interpretive frameworks by applying it to three disparate sites and societies which are vastly different culturally, spatially and temporally. Research at these sites has not focused on issues of social memory and landscape, despite their perfect suitability

Evolutionary consequences of behavioral diversity

Iterated games provide a framework to describe social interactions among groups of individuals. Recent work stimulated by the discovery of "zero-determinant" strategies has rapidly expanded our ability to analyze such interactions. This body of work has primarily focused on games in which players face a simple binary choice, to "cooperate" or "defect". Real individuals, however, often exhibit behavioral diversity, varying their input to a social interaction both qualitatively and quantitatively. Here we explore how access to a greater diversity of behavioral choices impacts the evolution of social dynamics in finite populations. We show that, in public goods games, some two-choice strategies can nonetheless resist invasion by all possible multi-choice invaders, even while engaging in relatively little punishment. We also show that access to greater behavioral choice results in more "rugged " fitness landscapes, with populations able to stabilize cooperation at multiple levels of investment, such that choice facilitates cooperation when returns on investments are low, but hinders cooperation when returns on investments are high. Finally, we analyze iterated rock-paper-scissors games, whose non-transitive payoff structure means unilateral control is difficult and zero-determinant strategies do not exist in general. Despite this, we find that a large portion of multi-choice strategies can invade and resist invasion by strategies that lack behavioral diversity -- so that even well-mixed populations will tend to evolve behavioral diversity.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figure

Methods to Describe Referral Patterns in a Canadian Primary Care Electronic Medical Record Database: Modelling Multilevel Count Data

Background: A referral from a family physician (FP) to a specialist is an inflection point in the patient journey, with potential implications for clinical outcomes and health policy. Primary care electronic medical record (EMR) databases offer opportunities to examine referral patterns. Until recently, software techniques were not available to model these kinds of multi-level count data. Objective: To establish methodology for determining referral rates from FPs to medical specialists using the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network (CPCSSN) EMR database. Method: Retrospective cohort study, mixed effects and multi-level negative binomial regression modelling with 87,258 eligible patients between 2007 and 2012. Mean referrals compared by patient sex, age, chronic conditions, FP visits, and urban/rural practice location. Proportion of variance in referral rates attributable to the patient and practice levels. Results: On average, males had 0.26, and females 0.31 referrals in a 12-month period. Referrals were significantly higher for females, increased with age, FP visits, and number of chronic conditions (p\u3c.0001). Overall, 14% of the variance in referrals could be attributed to the practice level, and 86% to patient level characteristics. Conclusions: Both patient and practice characteristics influenced referral patterns. The methodologic insights gained from this study have relevance to future studies on many research questions that utilize count data, both within primary care and broader health services research. The utility of the CPCSSN database will continue to increase in tandem with data quality improvements, providing a valuable resource to study Canadian referral patterns over time

Instructional Learning Teams: A Case Study

Changing teacher practices to improve student learning is a challenge. For teachers’ practices to change, faculties within schools must build communities of practice. However, supporting teachers’ collaborative learning within a Professional Learning Team can be an elusive challenge. We found through the Instructional Learning Team (ILT) model of professional development that teachers have a focused model to make effective changes to their practice. ILTs promote school improvement by providing a process through which teachers collaboratively focus on sustained reflection about student learning tasks, instruction, and student work using the Japanese Lesson Study and critiquing their work using Newmann’s (1996) Intellectual Quality framework. We followed two teams of teachers over a semester and qualitatively examined changes in four elements of professional learning: shared ideas and values, focus on student learning, reflective dialogue, and deprivatization of practice. Through the ILT process all four elements of professional learning communities increased. This process of changing practice through examining instructional tasks, practices and student work has a direct impact on helping teachers move toward implementing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS)