Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Monolithic Phase and Gain Control Circuit for Broadband Frequency Tuning of Multipole Microwave Active Filters

In this article, a lossless variable gain and analog transmission-type phase shifter which consists of a MESFET with series resonant impedances including varactor diodes is designed. Layout, simulated and measured results of the MMIC chip are presented. The final function of this original monolithic circuit is to be introduced in multipole ring resonator planar filters to tune the frequency response and to compensate for the intrinsic losses of the resonators. The frequency tunability of these new selective active filters is better than one octave bandwidth.
The Future Favors Smaller Private Liberal Arts Colleges

Richard Ekman (rekman@cic.nche.edu) is president of the Council of Independent Colleges, the national service organization for approximately 650 small and mid-sized colleges and universities. He previously served in senior positions at Atlantic Philanthropies, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. What is the future of the small private liberal arts college? The popular media would have us believe that the trends now sweeping over higher education favor large, non-residential, technology-based degree programs that emphasize professional courses of study. The actual experiences of educational institutions, however, have been more varied. And even if the pattern had been uniform, a past pattern is no predictor of future events—as any historian would tell you. The first challenge for leaders of colleges and universities, therefore, is to distinguish those trends that are likely to determine the future trajectory of a college or university from trends that are not applicable and those that are likely to be short-lived from those that are ephemeral. The second challenge is to decide which of the durable trends to accept and which to resist actively.
Social Correlates of Delinquency for Youth in Need of Mental Health Services: Examining the Scope Conditions of Criminological Theories

While both traditional criminological inquiry and mental health research have identified internal and external constellations of risk factors associated with juvenile offending, interdisciplinary discourse has been limited. This paper takes a step in bridging the gap between criminological literature and work in the field of children’s mental health by evaluating the combined effects of social and mental health predictors on juvenile delinquency in a sample of youth with diagnosed clinical disorders. Results of multivariate analyses indicate that both traditional social risk factors as well as indicators of the nature and severity of youths’ mental health disorders contribute to delinquency. Moreover, the influence of one well-established risk factor, self-control, on delinquency is moderated by the presence of oppositional defiant disorder. The results of this study suggest that researchers and practitioners should consider the cumulative influence of social risk factors and psychological impairment in the etiology of delinquency.
Improved Learning Outcomes After Flipping a Therapeutics Module: Results of a Controlled Trial

Purpose To evaluate the impact on learning outcomes of flipping a pain management module in a doctor of pharmacy curriculum. Method In a required first-professional-year pharmacology and therapeutics course at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, the pain therapeutics content of the pain management module was flipped. This redesign transformed the module from a largely lecture-based, instructor-centered model to a learner-centered model that included a variety of preclass activities and in-class active learning exercises. In spring 2015, the module was taught using the traditional model; in spring 2016, it was taught using the flipped model. The same end-of-module objective structured clinical exam (OSCE) and multiple-choice exam were administered in 2015 to the traditional cohort (TC; n = 156) and in 2016 to the flipped cohort (FC; n = 162). Cohort performance was compared. Results Learning outcomes improved significantly in the FC: The mean OSCE score improved by 12.33/100 points (P < .0001; 95% CI 10.28–14.38; effect size 1.33), and performance on the multiple-choice exam’s therapeutics content improved by 5.07 percentage points (P < .0001; 95% CI 2.56–7.59; effect size 0.45). Student performance on exam items assessing higher cognitive levels significantly improved under the flipped model. Grade distribution on both exams shifted, with significantly more FC students earning an A or B and significantly fewer earning a D or F compared with TC students. Conclusions Student performance on knowledge- and skill-based assessments improved significantly after flipping the therapeutics content of a pain management module.
Seeing Organizational Learning: A `Cultural' View

What sight does a `cultural' approach to organizational learning enable? In an earlier essay my co-author and I argued that such an approach made it possible to bypass certain conceptual problems inherent in treating organizational learning as an attribute of individuals. In this essay I reflect on the metaphoric process that enabled that argument, which was implicitly as much methodological as it was ontological and epistemological, and spell out the attributes of such an approach, which today I would term `interpretive'. I touch briefly on questions of organizational size and geographic dispersal raised by another field-based study and conclude with a brief comparison of `culture' with `communities of practice', both of which enable a collective approach, and with some observations on the implications of a cultural-interpretive approach for research methods.
The Problem of Political Science: Political Relevance and Scientific Rigor in Aristotle's “Philosophy of Human Affairs”

Treatments of Aristotle's moral-political science have largely disregarded the methodological statements that he delivers as he embarks on his “philosophy of human affairs” in book I of the Nicomachean Ethics. A consideration of these statements, however, lends critical support to the view that Aristotle sought to give the sharpest possible expression to ordinary moral-political opinion. Moreover, apart from revealing the by-no-means ordinary reasons that induced Aristotle to do so (and to do so in contrast to Plato), such a consideration sheds light on the source of the vagueness or ambiguity that defines moral-political opinion as such. Indeed, the methodological statements are perhaps the first entries in the old quarrel of “relevance versus rigor. ” And, through them, Aristotle suggests how political scientists today might walk a fine line between “politics,” on one hand, and “science,” on the other, without losing sight of the ultimate tension between them.
Adolescent suicide attempts: risks and protectors.

OBJECTIVE In 1997, suicide was the third leading cause of death among 10- to 19-year-olds in the United States, with the greatest increases in suicide rates in the previous decade experienced by black and other minority youth. The purpose of this study was to identify risk and protective factors for suicide attempts among black, Hispanic, and white male and female adolescents. METHODS We used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, conducted in 1995 and 1996. A nationally representative sample of 13 110 students in grades 7 through 12 completed 2 in-home interviews, an average of 11 months apart. We examined Time 1 factors at the individual, family, and community level that predicted or protected against Time 2 suicide attempts. RESULTS Perceived parent and family connectedness was protective against suicide attempts for black, Hispanic, and white girls and boys, with odds ratios ranging from 0.06 to 0.32. For girls, emotional well-being was also protective for all of the racial/ethnic groups studied, while a high grade point average was an additional protective factor for all of the boys. Cross-cutting risk factors included previous suicide attempt, violence victimization, violence perpetration, alcohol use, marijuana use, and school problems. Additionally, somatic symptoms, friend suicide attempt or completion, other illicit drug use, and a history of mental health treatment predicted suicide attempts among black, Hispanic, and white females. Weapon-carrying at school and same-sex romantic attraction were predictive for all groups of boys. Calculating the estimated probabilities of attempting suicide for adolescents with increasing numbers of risk and protective factors revealed that the presence of 3 protective factors reduced the risk of a suicide attempt by 70% to 85% for each of the gender and racial/ethnic groups, including those with and without identified risk factors. CONCLUSIONS In these national samples of black, Hispanic, and white youth, unique and cross-cutting factors derived from a resiliency framework predicted or protected against attempting suicide. In addition to risk reduction, promotion of protective factors may offer an effective approach to primary as well as secondary prevention of adolescent suicidal behavior.
Almost sure asymptotic optimality for online routing and machine scheduling problems

In this article, we study algorithms for online routing and machine scheduling problems. The problems are “online” because the problem instances are revealed incrementally. We first study algorithms for the online Traveling Repairman Problem (TRP), where a single server is to visit a set of locations in a network with the objective of minimizing the sum of weighted completion times. We then analyze well‐known online algorithms for a variety of machine scheduling problems, which are appropriate models for many network optimization problems; in the scheduling notation of Graham et al. 18 , we consider 1|rj,pmtn|∑jwjCj, 1|rj|∑jwjCj, Q|rj,pmtn|∑jCj, P|rj|∑jCj, Q|rj,pmtn|∑jwjCj and Q|rj|∑jwjCj. We introduce general probabilistic assumptions about the problem data as a tool to study the online algorithms for these online combinatorial problems. The algorithms do not utilize the underlying probabilistic assumptions in any way. We prove that these online algorithms are almost surely asymptotically optimal. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. NETWORKS, 2010
Labor Market Outcomes and the Enforcement of the Employment Protection Legislation

This paper assesses the impact of labor market regulations on labor market outcomes through the use of enforcement indicators. First, it uses cross-sectional variations over the French territory in the number of judges in charge of individual labor disputes. The very presence of labor courts is supposed to act as a threat to employers by limiting their ability to fire at will and encouraging their compliance to labor regulations. We show by using an original and exhaustive data set of the individual cases that were brought to these labor courts over the period 1990-2004 that the number of judges in a court (their “density”) affects case outcomes by giving weight to this threat. Second, as a proxy for judicial firing costs, we use the legal representations of workers and firms involved in labor disputes and the filing ratee.g. the number of claims over the number of firings. We instrument them by judicial environment variables. We find that local regulation institutions limit the volatility of labor flows, particularly in the most populous areas in the trade and service sectors and in both small and large firms. Using the French Labor Survey, we find that enforcement forces significantly decrease the employment rates –particularly those of the low-educated and of female workers. As an illustration, we try to evaluate the impact of the forthcoming reform of the judiciary map which should lead to the closure of 63 among the existing 271 labor courts. JEL classification: J32, J53, J63, K31
Enhancing Positioning Accuracy in Urban Terrain by Fusing Data from a GPS Receiver, Inertial Sensors, Stereo-Camera and Digital Maps for Pedestrian Navigation

The paper presents an algorithm for estimating a pedestrian location in an urban environment. The algorithm is based on the particle filter and uses different data sources: a GPS receiver, inertial sensors, probability maps and a stereo camera. Inertial sensors are used to estimate a relative displacement of a pedestrian. A gyroscope estimates a change in the heading direction. An accelerometer is used to count a pedestrian’s steps and their lengths. The so-called probability maps help to limit GPS inaccuracy by imposing constraints on pedestrian kinematics, e.g., it is assumed that a pedestrian cannot cross buildings, fences etc. This limits position inaccuracy to ca. 10 m. Incorporation of depth estimates derived from a stereo camera that are compared to the 3D model of an environment has enabled further reduction of positioning errors. As a result, for 90% of the time, the algorithm is able to estimate a pedestrian location with an error smaller than 2 m, compared to an error of 6.5 m for a navigation based solely on GPS.
Combination of platelet‐rich plasma within periodontal ligament stem cell sheets enhances cell differentiation and matrix production

The longstanding goal of periodontal therapy is to regenerate periodontal tissues. Although platelet‐rich plasma (PRP) has been gaining increasing popularity for use in the orofacial region, whether PRP is useful for periodontal regeneration is still unknown. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a mixture of periodontal ligament stem cell (PDLSC) sheets and PRP promoted bone regeneration, one of the most important measurement indices of periodontal tissue regenerative capability in vitro and in vivo. In this study, we evaluated the effects of different doses of PRP on the differentiation of human PDLSCs. Then cell sheet formation, extracellular matrix deposition and osteogenic gene expression in response to different doses of PRP treatment during sheet grafting was investigated. Furthermore, we implanted PDLSC sheets treated with 1% PRP subcutaneously into immunocompromised mice to evaluate their bone‐regenerative capability. The results revealed that 1% PRP significantly enhanced the osteogenic differentiation of PDLSCs. Based on the production of extracellular matrix proteins, the results of scanning electron microscopy and the expression of the osteogenic genes ALP, Runx2, Col‐1 and OCN, the provision of 1% PRP for PDLSC sheets was the most effective PRP administration mode for cell sheet formation. The results of in vivo transplantation showed that 1% PRP‐mediated PDLSC sheets exhibited better periodontal tissue regenerative capability than those obtained without PRP intervention. These data suggest that a suitable concentration of PRP stimulation may enhance extracellular matrix production and positively affect cell behaviour in PDLSC sheets. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Reasons for discontinuation of subcutaneous biologic therapy in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis: a patient perspective

Objective To examine reasons why rheumatoid arthritis patients discontinued subcutaneous (SQ) anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) treatment in the past 12 months, so as to help inform successful, uninterrupted therapy. Methods Data were collected in March and April 2011 using self-reported, internet-based questionnaires. Study inclusion criteria comprised: rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis; discontinuation of SQ anti-TNF medication (adalimumab, certolizumab, etanercept, or golimumab) within the past 12 months; aged ≥18 years; United States residency; and consent to participate. Patients reported primary and other reasons for discontinuation of their most recently discontinued anti-TNF. Results Questionnaires from 250 patients were analyzed; 72.8% were female, 80.8% were white, and median age was 51 years. Patients had discontinued etanercept (n=109), adalimumab (n=98), certolizumab (n=24), or golimumab (n=19) within the past 12 months. When prompted about their primary reason for discontinuation, lack of effectiveness (40.8%) was cited most often, followed by injection experience (18.4%). Combining prompted primary and other reasons for discontinuation, 60.8% of patients reported lack of effectiveness, while 40.8% reported injection experience, which included: pain/burning/discomfort after injection (14.4%); pain/burning/discomfort during injection (13.2%); injection reactions such as redness/swelling after injection (12.4%); dislike of self-injection (11.6%); dislike of frequency of injection (10.4%); and fear of injection/needles (6.8%). Conclusion From the patient perspective, there are unmet needs with regard to the effectiveness and injection experience associated with SQ anti-TNF medications, which may lead to discontinuation. Treatment options with a better injection experience may address these needs. These results demonstrate the importance of including the patient perspective when making prescribing decisions or payer access and coverage decisions.
Scale-invariant speech analysis via joint time-frequency-scale processing

We argue that an important aspect of the human speech signal is scaling in the frequency domain. We discuss the two physical mechanisms responsible for the scaling. The first mechanism is that when we have a harmonic signal whose fundamental is frequency modulated then the spectrum is the sum of scaled functions. The second comes about from the consideration that while different speakers have very different size vocal tracts (for example an adult and a child), we none the less produce speech which is similar in some sense. We will argue and present evidence to show that the speaker differences result in scaling in the frequency domain. We further discuss how one can handle scale processing.
In praise of the null hypothesis statistical test.

Jacob Cohen (1994) raised a number of questions about the logic and information value of the null hypothesis statistical test (NHST). Specifically, he suggested that: (a) The NHST does not tell us what we want to know; (b) the null hypothesis is always false; and (c) the NHST lacks logical integrity. It is the author's view that although there may be good reasons to give up the NHST, these particular points made by Cohen are not among those reasons. When addressing these points, the author also attempts to demonstrate the elegance and usefulness of the NHST.
The measurement of the etic aspects of individualism and collectivism across cultures

The dimension of individualism-collectivism, as identified by Hofstede (1980), was studied using items developed both theoretically and emically in nine diverse cultures. The dimension was found to be analysable into four stable etic factors: Individualism had two aspects (Separation from Ingroups and Self-Reliance with Hedonism) and collectivism had two aspects (Family Integrity and Interdependence with Sociability). These four factors are orthogonal to each other. The location of nine cultures on these four factors was used to compute a “collectivism” score which correlated r = + · 73 with Hofstede's (1980) collectivism scores for the nine cultures. This approach enables the measurement of individualism-collectivism in each culture as well as across cultures, and shows that different methods for measuring individualism-collectivism converge.
Minimally important difference in diffuse systemic sclerosis: results from the d-penicillamine study

Objective: To estimate minimally important differences (MIDs) in scores for the modified Rodnan Skin Score (mRSS) and Health Assessment Questionnaire—Disability Index (HAQ-DI) in a clinical trial on diffuse systemic sclerosis (SSc). Participants and methods: 134 people participated in a 2-year, double-blind, randomised clinical trial comparing efficacy of low-dose and high-dose d-penicillamine in diffuse SSc. At 6, 12, 18 and 24 months, the investigator was asked to rate the change in the patient’s health since entering the study: markedly worsened, moderately worsened, slightly worsened, unchanged, slightly improved, moderately improved or markedly improved. Patients who were rated as slightly improved were defined as the minimally changed subgroup and compared with patients rated as moderately or markedly improved. Results: The MID estimates for the mRSS improvement ranged from 3.2 to 5.3 (0.40–0.66 effect size) and for the HAQ-DI from 0.10 to 0.14 (0.15–0.21 effect size). Patients who were rated to improve more than slightly were found to improve by 6.9–14.2 (0.86–1.77 effect size) on the mRSS and 0.21–0.55 (0.32–0.83 effect size) on the HAQ-DI score. Conclusion: MID estimates are provided for improvement in the mRSS and HAQ-DI scores, which can help in interpreting clinical trials on patients with SSc and be used for sample size calculation for future clinical trials on diffuse SSc.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation of right inferior parietal cortex causally influences prefrontal activation for visual detection

For effective interactions with the environment, the brain needs to form perceptual decisions based on noisy sensory evidence. Accumulating evidence suggests that perceptual decisions are formed by widespread interactions amongst sensory areas representing the noisy sensory evidence and fronto‐parietal areas integrating the evidence into a decision variable that is compared to a decisional threshold. This concurrent transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)‐fMRI study applied 10 Hz bursts of four TMS (or Sham) pulses to the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) to investigate the causal influence of IPS on the neural systems involved in perceptual decision‐making. Participants had to detect visual signals at threshold intensity that were presented in their left lower visual field on 50% of the trials. Critically, we adjusted the signal strength such that participants failed to detect the visual stimulus on approximately 30% of the trials allowing us to categorise trials into hits, misses and correct rejections (CR). Our results show that IPS‐relative to Sham‐TMS attenuated activation increases for misses relative to CR in the left middle and superior frontal gyri. Critically, while IPS‐TMS did not significantly affect participants’ performance accuracy, it affected how observers adjusted their response times after making an error. We therefore suggest that activation increases in superior frontal gyri for misses relative to correct responses may not be critical for signal detection performance, but rather reflect post‐decisional processing such as metacognitive monitoring of choice accuracy or decisional confidence.