A Breakdown Voltage Multiplier for High Voltage Swing Drivers

A novel breakdown voltage (BV) multiplier is introduced that makes it possible to generate high output voltage swings using transistors with low breakdown voltages. The timing analysis of the stage is used to optimize its dynamic response. A 10 Gb/s optical modulator driver with a differential output voltage swing of 8 V on a 50 Ω load was implemented in a SiGe BiCMOS process. It uses the BV-Doubler topology to achieve output swings twice the collector–emitter breakdown voltage without stressing any single transistor

Two Minimal Clinically Important Difference (2MCID) : A New Twist on an Old Concept

This work is open access licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/Peer reviewe

On the Integration of Emerging Stock Markets in the Middle East

Results from the Johansen-Juselius test suggest that the Middle East emerging stock markets are segmented globally, but appear highly integrated within the region. Moreover, the Gonzalo- Granger test, in conjunction with error-correction models, indicates that the market in Egypt is a dominant force driving other markets in the region. The apparent segmentation of the markets in the Middle East from the global market implies that these emerging markets provide international investors with potential diversification gains.

The German discovery of America : commerce and diplomacy in two emerging nations, 1776-1835

The early German-American relationship does not lend itself easily to traditional diplomatic history. American scholarship has neglected the subject entirely, perhaps because the most important actors not only were not Americans, but were operating far beneath the official channels of statesmanship. Hanseatic merchants opened the doors to the German-American relationship, and kept those doors open for fifty years until diplomats finally caught up to them. With the subtlety of bees cross-pollinating distant flowers, these men made German-American ties an economic fait accompli long before national governments saw the need to codify the relationship in treaties and endow it with well-staffed embassies.An emerging liberal bourgeoisie in the seaports of North Germany and the youngUnited States established economic and social connections which drew their two societies together, despite a long period of revolution and warfare. The result was a cultural linkage far more important than the paper agreements of statesmen and leaders, because it led to the movement of goods, ideas about free-trade and capitalism, and ultimately millions of immigrants. This work draws together the historical records of diplomats, merchants,statesmen, magistrates, immigrants, and literati in both Germany and the United States, to illustrate the ways in which Germans and Americans discovered each other in a time of great political upheavals, and what came of these discoveries.Although American and German statesmen made occasional overtures in each other\u27s direction, and although the United States signed three treaties with Prussia, these proved to be little more than pleasantries. The economic connections established between the American seaports and the Hanse cemented German-American relations during the first half-century of American independence. The efforts of many small, independent entrepreneurs combined to develop into social, cultural, and ultimately political connections by the time of the great German emigrations of the mid-19th century

The Future of Local News in New York City

US-based reporting jobs are increasingly concentrated within a small number of major metropolitan areas, driven by digital journalism outlets, according to research over the past few years from media analysts like Joshua Benton at Harvard’s Nieman Lab and Jack Shafer and Tucker Doherty of Politico. As for cities where journalism jobs still flourish, New York City is atop that list. According to a 2015 analysis by Jim Tankersley in The Washington Post, the number of reporting jobs in New York basically held steady in the years between 2004 and 2014, while the number of reporting jobs outside that city, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., dropped by 25 percent in the same time period. However, the proliferation of new, often unstable digital journalism hiring booms in the largest city in the US has masked just how dire the situation is for local reporting. Paul Moses illustrated this aptly in a 2017 piece for The Daily Beast, based on research for the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism’s Urban Reporting Program, highlighting a lack of any dedicated reporter covering Queens County courts (which would be the nation’s fourth largest city if it stood on its own). He wrote, “The problem for local news coverage is the simple fact that a story aimed at a national audience is likelier to generate heavy web traffic than a local one. Original local news reporting is threatened not only by layoffs but by the transfer of jobs to writing on whatever is of interest to a national web audience.” This common concern for the troubling state of local news in New York City led the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, the New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, and WNYC to convene an off-the-record roundtable discussion focused on The Future of Local News on February 9, 2018, at the Columbia University School of Journalism. The goal of the discussion was to bring together a select group of journalists, publishers, academics, funders, public-sector representatives, and other experts to discuss how to reverse the crisis in poorly resourced New York local media and work toward innovative solutions to ensure a sustainable future for local news. The half-day roundtable took place in the morning and comprised a closed discussion built around three major questions: 1) What is the state of local journalism in New York City at the beginning of 2018? 2) What trends and emerging business models in local news across the US and internationally might we be able to learn from? 3)Where do we go from here? What are possible futures for local media in New York

Pairs of disjoint matchings and related classes of graphs

For a finite graph $G$, we study the maximum $2$-edge colorable subgraph problem and a related ratio $\frac{\mu(G)}{\nu(G)}$, where $\nu(G)$ is the matching number of $G$, and $\mu(G)$ is the size of the largest matching in any pair $(H,H')$ of disjoint matchings maximizing $|H| + |H'|$ (equivalently, forming a maximum $2$-edge colorable subgraph). Previously, it was shown that $\frac{4}{5} \le \frac{\mu(G)}{\nu(G)} \le 1$, and the class of graphs achieving $\frac{4}{5}$ was completely characterized. We show here that any rational number between $\frac{4}{5}$ and $1$ can be achieved by a connected graph. Furthermore, we prove that every graph with ratio less than $1$ must admit special subgraphs

The Design, Development and Validation of a Persuasive Content Generator

This paper addresses the automatic generation of persuasive content to influence users’ attitude and behaviour. Our research extends current approaches by leveraging individuals’ social media profiles and activity to personalize the persuasive content. Unlike most other implemented persuasive technology, our system is generic and can be adapted to any domain where collections of electronic text are available. Using the Yale Attitude Change approach, we describe: the multi-layered Pyramid of Individualization model; the design, development, and validation of integrated software that can generate individualized persuasive content based on a user’s social media profile and activity. Results indicate the proposed system can create personalized information that (a) matches readers’ interests, (b) is tailored to their ability to understand the information, and (c) is supported by trustable sources

Teaching Beyond Trans-Competency: Exploring Trans-Affirming Pedagogy Through Applied Case Studies

In this paper, we share two applied case studies social work instructors can use to teach trans-affirming, anti-oppressive practice. These cases span two practice arenas, child welfare and low-barrier shelter services, and are derived from practice in the authors’ personal and professional experiences in the Northeastern and Midwestern regions of the United States. For each case, we describe the accompanying class context, share our pedagogical approach, name the underlying assumptions and structures that facilitate harm, explore relevant practice skills, and identify theoretical, philosophical, and ethical commitments essential for trans-affirming practice. Our approach to social work education on transgender and gender expansice (TGE) issues goes beyond the didactic forms of trans-competency lectures we are all too familiar with, whereby students memorize statistics and terms. Instead, we offer strategies to open up possibilities for transformative and sustainable shifts in thinking about social work practice with TGE communities. In this article, we use “TGE” to refer to transgender and gender expansive individuals and LGBTQ+ to refer to people belonging to gender and sexual minority groups. Any deviations represent language used within specific studies or cases cited