1,339 research outputs found

    A study of attitudes toward mentoring and its perceived benefits among Tennessee newspaper editors

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    Mentoring, as a means of organizational communication and professional development, is frequently implemented and studied within the business and academic settings. But this means of organi�ational communication has received relatively little implementation and no empirical studies within mass communication organizations. \u27fhis study examines the major themes in the recent literature concerning mentoring within the business world and academe and studies virtually all the available literature on mentoring within mass communication organizations. The review also addresses the principal problems within the mentoring literature and the need for mentoring research within mass communication organizations. A survey of Tennessee newspaper editors revealed that they generally support mentoring in their newsrooms, and the vast majority indicated they have or have had one or more proteges during their careers. While only a small number currently have formal mentoring programs, the majority indicated a willingness to implement a formal program if the right conditions existed. Finally, the editors surveyed gave generally high marks to the benefits of mentoring, particularly for the proteges

    Fuzzy ARTMAP: A Neural Network Architecture for Incremental Supervised Learning of Analog Multidimensional Maps

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    A new neural network architecture is introduced for incremental supervised learning of recognition categories and multidimensional maps in response to arbitrary sequences of analog or binary input vectors. The architecture, called Fuzzy ARTMAP, achieves a synthesis of fuzzy logic and Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) neural networks by exploiting a close formal similarity between the computations of fuzzy subsethood and ART category choice, resonance, and learning. Fuzzy ARTMAP also realizes a new Minimax Learning Rule that conjointly minimizes predictive error and maximizes code compression, or generalization. This is achieved by a match tracking process that increases the ART vigilance parameter by the minimum amount needed to correct a predictive error. As a result, the system automatically learns a minimal number of recognition categories, or "hidden units", to met accuracy criteria. Category proliferation is prevented by normalizing input vectors at a preprocessing stage. A normalization procedure called complement coding leads to a symmetric theory in which the MIN operator (Λ) and the MAX operator (v) of fuzzy logic play complementary roles. Complement coding uses on-cells and off-cells to represent the input pattern, and preserves individual feature amplitudes while normalizing the total on-cell/off-cell vector. Learning is stable because all adaptive weights can only decrease in time. Decreasing weights correspond to increasing sizes of category "boxes". Smaller vigilance values lead to larger category boxes. Improved prediction is achieved by training the system several times using different orderings of the input set. This voting strategy can also be used to assign probability estimates to competing predictions given small, noisy, or incomplete training sets. Four classes of simulations illustrate Fuzzy ARTMAP performance as compared to benchmark back propagation and genetic algorithm systems. These simulations include (i) finding points inside vs. outside a circle; (ii) learning to tell two spirals apart; (iii) incremental approximation of a piecewise continuous function; and (iv) a letter recognition database. The Fuzzy ARTMAP system is also compared to Salzberg's NGE system and to Simpson's FMMC system.British Petroleum (89-A-1204); Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (90-0083); National Science Foundation (IRI 90-00530); Office of Naval Research (N00014-91-J-4100); Air Force Office of Scientific Research (90-0175

    The Ursinus Weekly, November 13, 1961

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    J. P. Marquand\u27s Boston satire The Late George Apley Ursinus Curtain Club presentation Friday, Saturday nights: Vee Shibe, Steve Wurster act leads in comedy-drama at T-G Gymnasium • Senator Clark discusses prospects for peace for Ursinus Forum audience Wednesday • Bill Scheuren elected Collegeville J.P. Tuesday • Demas downed in cigarette search by a single soph • U.C. co-ed chosen Miss Liberty Bowl for second year • Dr. Seidel speaks to Beardwood • 625 students state desire to return to mike at meals • Peace Corps man to visit Thursday • Collegeville elects Pancoast mayor; Ursinus prof defeats Democrat 3 to 1 • Bertin outlines seven queries for student teachers • Professors, students start instrumental ensemble • Editorial: Senator\u27s visit; The art of dining • Ursinus in the past • Letters to the editor • Impressions in Moscow • Censor\u27s arm smites Miller\u27s Tropic of Cancer • West Chester snaps hockey streak • JV football initiated here; Help to season the scrubs • Booters tie LaSalle explorers, 1-1, in overtime thriller; Lose to Lehigh • Dutchmen dump Bears, 27-6; Foes\u27 ground game decisive • Ron Ritz\u27s running is bright spot throughout 1961 football season • Greek gleanings • Brodbeck III, day students join Maples, Leber-South in intramural semi-finals • Square Church on campus is Penn minister\u27s topichttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1304/thumbnail.jp

    Seismic Monitoring and Baseline Microseismicity in the Rome Trough, Eastern Kentucky

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    In the central and eastern United States, felt earthquakes likely triggered by fluid injection from oil and gas production or wastewater disposal have dramatically increased in frequency since the onset of the unconventional shale gas and oil boom. In the Rome Trough of eastern Kentucky, fracture stimulations and wastewater injection are ongoing and occur near areas of historical seismic activity. Unlike in surrounding and nearby states (Ohio, West Virginia, and Arkansas), in Kentucky, no seismic events related to subsurface fluid injections have been reported as felt or detected by regional seismic networks, including the Kentucky Seismic and Strong-Motion Network. Oil and gas development of the deep Cambrian Rogersville Shale in the Rome Trough is in a very early stage, and will require horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing. To characterize natural seismicity rates and the conditions that might lead to induced or triggered events, the Kentucky Geological Survey is conducting a collaborative study, the Eastern Kentucky Microseismic Monitoring Project, prior to large-scale oil and gas production and wastewater injection. A temporary network of broadband seismographs was deployed near dense clusters of Class II wastewater-injection wells and near the locations of new, deep oil and gas test wells in eastern Kentucky. Network installation began in mid-2015 and by November 2015, 12 stations were operating, with data acquired in real time and jointly with regional network data. Additional stations were installed between June 2016 and October 2017 in targeted locations. The network improved the monitoring sensitivity near wastewater-injection wells and deep oil and gas test wells by approximately an entire unit of magnitude: With the temporary network, the detectable magnitudes range from 0.7 to 1.0, and without it, the detectable magnitudes range from 1.5 to 1.9. Using the real-time recordings of this network in tandem with the recordings of other temporary and permanent regional seismic stations, we generated a catalog of local seismicity and developed a calibrated magnitude scale. At the time this report was prepared, 151 earthquakes had been detected and located, 38 of which were in the project area, defined as the region bounded by 37.1°N to 38.7°N latitude and 84.5°W to 82.0°W longitude. Only six earthquakes occurred in the Rome Trough of eastern Kentucky, none of which were reported in regional monitoring agency catalogs, and none of which appear to be associated with the deep Rogersville Shale test wells that were completed during the time the network was in operation or with wastewater-injection wells

    Technology for Behavioral Change in Rural Older Adults with Obesity

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    Background: Mobile health (mHealth) technologies comprise a multidisciplinary treatment strategy providing potential solutions for overcoming challenges of successfully delivering health promotion interventions in rural areas. We evaluated the potential of using technology in a high-risk population. Methods: We conducted a convergent, parallel mixed-methods study using semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and self-reported questionnaires, using purposive sampling of 29 older adults, 4 community leaders and 7 clinicians in a rural setting. We developed codes informed by thematic analysis and assessed the quantitative data using descriptive statistics. Results: All groups expressed that mHealth could improve health behaviors. Older adults were optimistic that mHealth could track health. Participants believed they could improve patient insight into health, motivating change and assuring accountability. Barriers to using technology were described, including infrastructure. Conclusions: Older rural adults with obesity expressed excitement about the use of mHealth technologies to improve their health, yet barriers to implementation exist

    Two Decades of Publishing Excellence in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology

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    Recombinant biological products have revolutionized modern medicine by providing both remarkably effective vaccines to prevent disease and therapeutic drugs to treat a wide variety of unmet medical needs. Since the early 1980s, dozens of new therapeutic protein drugs and macromolecular vaccines have been commercialized, which have benefitted millions of patients worldwide. The pharmaceutical development of these biological products presented many scientific and technical challenges, some of which continue today with newer candidates including recombinant protein-based vaccines with novel adjuvants, peptide and RNA-based drugs, and stem cellular therapies. Compared with small molecule drugs, the characterization, stabilization, formulation, and delivery of biomolecules share common hurdles as well as unique challenges. This area of drug development research has been referred to as “pharmaceutical biotechnology”, in recognition of the critical role that recombinant DNA technology plays in the design and production of most of these biological products. Current research focus areas in this field include (i) determination of structural integrity of the primary sequence, post-translational modifications, and higher-order three dimensional shapes, (ii) assessment of physicochemical degradation pathways and their effects on biological activity and potency, (iii) formulation design and development to optimize stability and delivery, (iv) evaluating and optimizing process development steps including lyophilization and fill-finish, (v) analytical method development and applications of new instruments and data visualization tools, (vi) design and development of drug delivery approaches, and (vii) studies of biological effects including pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and adverse immunogenicity. During the early days of pharmaceutical biotechnology research, there were numerous scientific challenges because the analytical characterization approaches needed for development of recombinant biological molecules in “real world” pharmaceutical dosage forms were essentially unknown. Furthermore, understanding critical drug product manufacturing issues (e.g., stability of biological compounds during processing, storage, and shipping as well as reproducibility of fill-finish production technologies) and behavior during and after patient administration was often achieved by “on-the-job” training. Fortunately, the pioneers in the field regularly presented research at key conferences and started publishing early in pharmaceutical sciences journals such as Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Recognizing this critically important new field, the then Editor of the journal, Professor Bill Higuchi, instituted a new “pharmaceutical biotechnology” category for research papers. This insightful move was coupled with an equally wise decision to recruit Dr. C. Russell Middaugh as the new Associate Editor for the new research category. As will be detailed below, under Dr. Middaugh’s diligent and expert guidance, pharmaceutical biotechnology papers have grown in number, scope, and impact over the past 20 years, and these days, the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences is viewed by scientific leaders in the field as the “go to” place for publication of the most important results and descriptions of innovations in pharmaceutical biotechnology
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