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STUDENT DIGITAL NEWSLETTER ALAGAPPA INSTITUTIONS |
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Neal C. Dalrymple, MD
At timestep 2 erectile dysfunction pump surgery buy cheap kamagra soft 100 mg on line, due to the summation over the states s1 erectile dysfunction while drunk buy kamagra soft 100 mg free shipping, p(s2 erectile dysfunction medicine for heart patients cheap kamagra soft 100mg amex, h2 v1:2) will be an indexed set of S Gaussians; similarly at timestep 3 erectile dysfunction cure video purchase kamagra soft 100mg amex, it will be S 2 and, in general, gives rise to S t-1 Gaussians at time t. Even for small t, the number of components required to exactly represent the filtered distribution is therefore computationally intractable. From a purely graph theoretic viewpoint, one would therefore envisage little difficulty in carrying out inference. Indeed, as we saw above, the derivation of the filtering algorithm is straightforward since the graph is singly-connected. However, the numerical implementation of the algorithm is intractable since the description of the messages requires an exponentially increasing number of terms. In order to deal with this intractability, several approximation schemes have been introduced [98, 110, 174, 161, 160]. Here we focus on techniques which approximate the switch conditional posteriors using a limited mixture of Gaussians. Since the exact posterior distributions are mixtures of Gaussians, albeit with an exponentially large number of components, the aim is to drop low weight components such that the resulting approximation accurately represents the posterior. In general, the influence of ancient observations will be much less relevant than that of recent observations. Our aim is to form a recursion for p(st, ht v1:t) based on a Gaussian mixture approximation of p(ht st, v1:t). Given an approximation of the filtered distribution p(st, ht v1:t) q(st, ht v1:t), the exact recursion equation (25. To derive the updates it is useful to break the new filtered approximation from equation (25. To retain computational feasibility we therefore approximate this with a limited I-component mixture I q(ht st, v1:t) = it =1 q(ht it, st, v1:t)q(it st, v1:t) (25. Strictly speaking, we should use the notation ft (it, st) since, for each time t, we have a set of means indexed by it, st, although we drop these dependencies in the notation used here. An important remark is that many techniques approximate p(ht st, v1:t) using a single Gaussian. Naturally, this gives rise to a mixture of Gaussians for p(ht v1:t) = st p(ht st, v1:t)p(st v1:t). However, in making a single Gaussian approximation to p(ht st, v1:t) the representation of the posterior may be poor. Our aim here is to maintain an accurate approximation to p(ht st, v1:t) by using a mixture of Gaussians. To find a recursion for the approximating distribution we first assume that we know the filtered approximation q(ht, st v1:t) and then propagate this forwards using the exact dynamics. To do so consider first the relation q(ht+1 st+1, v1:t+1) = = st,it st,it q(ht+1, st, it st+1, v1:t+1) q(ht+1 st, it, st+1, v1:t+1)q(st, it st+1, v1:t+1) (25. The usefulness of decomposing the update in this way is that the new filtered approximation is of the form of a Gaussian mixture, where q(ht+1 st, it, st+1, v1:t+1) is Gaussian and q(st, it st+1, v1:t+1) are the weights or mixing proportions of the components. Evaluating q(ht+1 st, it, st+1, v1:t+1) We aim to find a filtering recursion for q(ht+1 st, it, st+1, v1:t+1). The exact forward dynamics is then given by ht+1 = A(st+1)ht + h (st+1), Given the mixture component index it, we propagate this Gaussian with the exact dynamics equation (25. The last two factors q(it st, v1:t) and q(st v1:t) are given from the previous filtered iteration. Finally, q(st+1 it, st, v1:t) is found from q(st+1 it, st, v1:t) = p(st+1 ht, st) p(st+1 st) q(ht it,st,v1:t) q(st, it st+1, v1:t+1) q(vt+1 it, st, st+1, v1:t)q(st+1 it, st, v1:t)q(it st, v1:t)q(st v1:t) (25. To take covariance information into account an alternative would be to draw samples from the Gaussian q(ht it, st, v1:t) and thus approximate the average of p(st+1 ht, st) by sampling. Note that this does not equate Gaussian Sum filtering with a sequential sampling procedure, such as Particle Filtering, section(27. To prevent the number of components increasing exponentially with time, we numerically collapse q(ht+1 st+1, v1:t+1) back to I Gaussians to form I q(ht+1 st+1, v1:t+1) it+1 =1 q(ht+1 it+1, st+1, v1:t+1)q(it+1 st+1, v1:t+1) (25. A straightforward approach is to repeatedly merge low-weight components, as explained in section(25. This completes the description of how to form a recursion for the continuous filtered posterior approximation q(ht+1 st+1, v1:t+1) in equation (25. The leftmost column depicts the previous Gaussian mixture approximation q(ht, it v1:t) for two states S = 2 (red and blue) and three mixture components I = 3, with the mixture weight represented by the area of each oval. There are S = 2 different linear systems which take each of the components of the mixture into a new filtered state, the colour of the arrow indicating which dynamic system is used. After one time-step each mixture component branches into a further S components so that the joint approximation q(ht+1, st+1 v1:t+1) contains S 2 I components (middle column). To keep the representation computationally tractable the mixture of Gaussians for each state st+1 is collapsed back to I components. This means that each coloured state needs to be approximated by a smaller I component mixture of Gaussians. A naive but computationally efficient approach is to simply ignore the lowest weight components, as depicted on the right column, see mix2mix. We now have all the quantities required to compute the Gaussian Sum approximation of the filtering forward pass. Approximate the filtered posterior p(st v1:t), p(ht st, v1:t) it wt (it, st)N (ht ft (it, st), Ft (it, st)). Compute (st) i,s p (st, i, s) end for normalise L L + log st,i,s p (st, i, s) end for the mixture is used[277]. This can be achieved by finding the mean and covariance of the mixture distribution (25. The remaining N - K + 1 Gaussians are simply merged to a single Gaussian using the above method. Alternative heuristics such as recursively merging the two Gaussians with the lowest mixture weights are also reasonable. More sophisticated methods which retain some spatial information would clearly be potentially useful. The method presented in [174] is a suitable approach which considers removing Gaussians which are spatially similar (and not just low-weight components), thereby retaining a sense of diversity over the possible solutions. In applications with many thousands of timesteps, speed can be a factor in determining which method of collapsing Gaussians is to be preferred. The collapse operation to a smaller number of Gaussians is analogous to resampling in Particle Filtering. Since a Gaussian is more expressive than a delta-function, the Gaussian Sum filter is generally an improved approximation technique over using point particles. For this reason smoothing is more prone to failure since there are more assumptions that need to be satisfied for the approximations to hold. The recursion runs backwards in time, beginning with the initialisation p(hT, sT v1:T) set by the filtered result (at time =, the filtered and smoothed posteriors coincide). Apart from the fact that the number of mixture components will increase at each step, computing the integral over ht+1 in equation (25. For this reason it is more useful derive an approximate recursion by beginning with the exact relation p(st, ht v1:T) = st+1 p(st+1 v1:T)p(ht st, st+1, v1:T)p(st st+1, v1:T) (25. However, we also require the distribution p(ht+1 st, st+1, v1:T) which is not directly known and needs to be inferred, in itself a computationally challenging task. To avoid the exponential explosion problem, we use a finite mixture approximation, q(ht+1, st+1 v1:T): p(ht+1, st+1 v1:T) q(ht+1, st+1 v1:T) = q(ht+1 st+1, v1:T)q(st+1 v1:T) (25. The extension to using a mixture to approximate each p(ht+1 st+1, v1:T) is conceptually straightforward and deferred to section(25. However, ht will most likely be heavily influenced by v1:t, so that not knowing the state of st is likely to be of secondary importance. The values of the blue shaded nodes are known, and the red shaded node indicates a known variable which is assumed unknown in forming the approximation. A simple approach is to approximate the average by evaluation at the mean1 q(st ht+1, st+1 v1:t) q(ht+1 st+1,v1:T) q(st ht+1, st+1, v1:t) q(ht+1 st+1,v1:T) q(st st+1, v1:T). Replacing ht+1 by its mean gives the approximation q(st ht+1, st+1, v1:t) where q(ht+1 st+1,v1:T) 1 e- 2 zt+1 (st,st+1) (st,st+1 v1:t)zt+1 (st,st+1) q(st st+1, v1:t) (25. Approximations which take covariance information into account can also be considered, although the above simple (and fast) method may suffice in practice [17, 192]. Approximates p(st v1:T) and p(ht st, v1:T) Jt ut (jt, st)N (gt (jt, st), Gt (jt, st)) using a mixture of Gaussians.
This includes men who have attacked other men in gay bashings impotence at 37 buy kamagra soft 100 mg without prescription, as documented by filmmaker Arthur Dong in Licensed to Kill erectile dysfunction and age cheap kamagra soft 100 mg on line. Frank Kameny erectile dysfunction reasons proven kamagra soft 100 mg, who lost his government job impotence for erectile dysfunction causes generic kamagra soft 100mg on line, and Barbara Gittings were among those who began to fight federally sanctioned discrimination against homosexuals in federal jobs and the military. The threat of the "homosexual menace" was a theme in American politics throughout the McCarthy era; these purges were ironically instigated by J. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth are from two to four times as likely to have attempted suicide as their peers; almost 50 percent of transgender youth have seriously considered taking their own life; up to 25 percent of transgender youth have reported suicide attempts. Edgar Hoover (New York: Putnam Publishing, 2003); Albin Krebs, "Roy Cohn, Aide to McCarthy and Fiery Lawyer, Dies at 59," New York Times, August 3, 1986, partners. A Philadelphia state marker was recently approved for the location associated with the home that 109 1 -33 Tracy Baim women from the military took a large toll, and then as in more recent years, African American women were more likely to be identified as "homosexual. Private industry was inspired by this government action-perhaps 20 percent of the labor force were forced to undergo loyalty security clearances. While in public, men and women were arrested in bars and men arrested while in cruising areas, people were not immune from police harassment and vice squads raiding and arresting them in their own homes. For some men, anonymous sex was an answer, disconnecting desire from the possibility of a sustained relationship. Paid sex with hustlers, known as "trade" seemed preferable to the social stigma and police harassment. Getting caught meant scandal, and several high-profile sex scandals targeted gays (and in some cases, lesbians). One of the worst scandals arose in Boise, Idaho in 1955, after an arrest of three men escalated quickly to include more than one hundred men and teen boys alleged to be part of a sex ring. Fifteen men were eventually sentenced in the case, including for sex with another consenting adult, some with life sentences. Edgar Hoover was among the most public enemies of homosexuals during his time at the agency. People banded together for safety and companionship, as well as to agitate and fight for their rights to same-sex desire, intimacy, and relationships. Johnson, the Lavender Scare: the Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004). While many of the people who participated in these new groups were there for safety and social reasons, some wanted to fight back against police harassment, bias from the medical and psychiatric professions, and discrimination in military and federal employment. In Philadelphia, Annual Reminder Days (also known as Fourth of July Stuart Timmons, the Trouble with Harry Hay: Founder of the Modern Gay Movement (Boston: Alyson, 1990). Harry Hay is associated with several locations, including the Sri Ram Ashram Ranch outside Benson, Arizona where the first gathering of the Radical Faeries-of which Hay was a founder- took place in 1979. In a stormy meeting of the Mattachine Society in 1953 at the First Universalist Church, at the corner of West Eighth Street and Crenshaw Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, Harry Hay and other "radicals" were removed from the leadership of the society, changing the course of the organization. Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin lived together at their home in the Noe Valley neighborhood of San Francisco. Some of the pioneers of this era that are remembered today include Frank Kameny, Barbara Gittings and her longtime partner Kay Lahusen, Reverend Troy Perry, Ada Bello, William B. Sexuality and freedom from gender roles were common denominators of the early "lavender liberation" movement, but those could only loosely hold things together. There were many divisions along axes of race, class, gender, religion, and geography. Bisexuals have been ostracized from the community, and the transgender leadership was disrespected and ignored; Sylvia Rivera, who was at the Stonewall riot, was not allowed to speak at 129 Stein, City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves; Martin Duberman, Stonewall (New York: Dutton, 1993), 113. Johnson were transgender women of color and active gay rights pioneers in New York City. As founders of the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, they hustled on the streets so they could pay rent for an apartment where young queers could stay safely without having to turn their own tricks. Men and women faced massive schisms, with women believing-often unfairly -that gay men were only involved to find their next sexual conquest. And while some wanted to rely on a "born this way" genetic disposition to sexuality, others saw freedom of sexual expression, gender identity, and household composition as an empowering spectrum of choices. Some wanted a singleissue focus on "gay rights," while others wanted multi-issue organizations to align with other causes. Black lesbian poet and activist Audre Lorde responded, "There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle, because we do not live single-issue lives. Liquor licenses were at risk if regulators deemed an establishment a "homosexual hangout. Led by Andrea Dworkin (who called herself a "political lesbian") and law professor Catherine McKinnon (who did not disclose her sexual identity) a vocal group of feminists denounced rape and pornography. The schism between pro-sex, anticensorship activists and more hardline lesbian feminists created animosities that still divide the movement. It also put some antipornography feminists in alliance with right-wing antifeminists. In 1984, Bright began working at On Our Backs, the first women-produced sex magazine, a takeoff on the more political off our backs feminist publication. This was long before the inyour-face columns of Dan Savage, an openly gay man, were run in mainstream publications, giving advice not just to gay men, but to all readers, all kinks, fetishes, and types of sexuality. Charles Silverstein and Edmund White, a critical early book for men learning about their true selves, and later the Joy of Lesbian Sex, by Emily L. Sisley and Bertha Harris and What Color is Your Handkerchief: A Lesbian S/M Sexuality Reader by Samois added to the dialogue. Tracy Baim (Chicago: Prairie Avenue Books, 2012), 103; Melinda Chateauvert, Sex Workers Unite! They were looking for nonjudgmental advice from people who lived similar lives, and in the 1970s, they finally found it. Just as the Kinsey reports had educated a previous generation of Americans, these 1970s and 1980s publications provided the breadcrumbs critical in the pre-Internet age. Lesbians, gays, bisexuals, queer, and transgender people are found in all ethnic and social groups. Many white gays did cross color lines to go to "black and tan" and other clubs catering to the primarily black community, but most gay bars were as racially segregated Silverstein and Edmund White, the Joy of Gay Sex: An Intimate Guide for Gay Men to the Pleasures of a Gay Lifestyle (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1977); Emily L. Camp Trans was a response of transgender women to their exclusion from the festival; it was set up outside the festival from approximately 2006 through 2011. Gay men, with more personal freedom and more leeway to occupy public spaces, have always had a wider set of options. There were visual clues that could be read in a glance on the streets including certain kinds of clothing and colored accessories. While a lot of cruising happened on the streets and in cars (the direction the car was parked was one way to indicate sexual preference), gay bars were a major place where people met for sex or to find love. PreStonewall, many gay bars were owned by the Mafia, which paid protection money to avoid police raids. With laws against homosexuals gathering, dancing, and even people wearing clothing "not appropriate" to their gender, bars needed protection. When it closed in 2004, it was the oldest African American gay bar in the country. Almost immediately they were picketed by the newly formed Committee for Open Gay Bars because of their identification policies designed to keep out African Americans, women, and people in drag. In 1984, members of Black and White Men Together, an interracial group for gay men, sued the owner of the Torch (opened in 1983 at 411 East Thirty-Second Street, Baltimore, Maryland) and another bar for racial discrimination. African American patrons were asked for multiple pieces of identification to enter the bar, while white patrons received less scrutiny. Some featured drag, others were seedy corner bars with covered windows, some were pool halls, some had back rooms for sex, and some were lesbian butch/femme haunts. In the 1970s and 1980s there were big discos with high-energy patrons, and in the 1990s, circuit parties were popular. Leather contest founded by Chuck Renslow and Dom Orejudos, the Miss Continental Contest founded by Jim Flint, and various "bear" and other communities have thrived. The transgender community was welcome in certain gay bars, but not all, so transgender-specific organizations formed, and there were separations within that community along various divisions, including cross-dressers, drag queens, transsexuals, male-to-female, female-to-male, gender nonconforming, femmes, butches, masculine-of-center, and more. The disabled rights community pushed for acceptance, with organizations, art, and literature, including groups and services for the hearing impaired and blind.
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Since the input x is observed erectile dysfunction raleigh nc purchase kamagra soft 100 mg with mastercard, the distribution is just a linear chain factor graph impotence lexapro cheap kamagra soft 100mg amex. The inference of pairwise marginals p(yt erectile dysfunction miracle shake buy kamagra soft 100mg overnight delivery, yt-1 x) is therefore straightforward using message passing erectile dysfunction treatment without side effects kamagra soft 100 mg on line. The backward pass is p(ht x1:T, v1:T) = p(ht, ht+1 x1:t+1, xt+2:T, v1:T) = p(ht ht+1, x1:t+1, v1:t)p(ht+1 x1:T, v1:T) (23. Consider predicting the output distribution p(vt x1:T) given both past and future input information x1:T. Thus the prediction uses only past information and discards any future contextual information. For example, x might represent a sentence in English, and y1:T should represent the translation into French. In practice it is common to use potentials of the form K exp k=1 k fk,t (yt, yt-1, x) (23. The gradient is given by L = i n n fi (yt, yt-1, xn) - fi (yt, yt-1, xn) p(yt,yt-1 xn,) (23. This can be achieved using either the standard factor graph message passing or by deriving an explicit algorithm, see exercise(227). Finding the most likely output sequence for a novel input x is straightforward since y1:T = argmax y1:T t (yt, yt-1, x,) (23. In some applications, particularly in natural language processing, the dimension K of the vector of features f1. This means that the storage of the Hessian is not feasible for Newton based training and either limited memory methods or conjugate gradient techniques are typically preferred[288]. In practice one would use richer feature functions defined to seek features of the input sequence x and also to produce a feature vector with more than one non-zero entry. The upper hidden units then correspond to phonemes, and the lower to mouth positions; this model therefore captures the expected coupling between mouth positions and phonemes. The form of each p(xi (t) xi (t), x(t-1)) is chosen such that the overall distribution remains acyclic. In most applications, the model is temporally homogeneous so that one may fully describe the distribution in terms of a two-time-slice model, fig(23. Roughly speaking, a continuous output vector vt at time t, represents which frequencies are present in the speech signal in a small window around time t. These acoustic vectors are typically formed from taking a discrete Fourier transform of the speech signal over a small window around time t, with additional transformations to mimic human auditory processing. Alternatively, related forms of linear coding of the observed acoustic waveform may be used[131]. Given then each acoustic vector vt and an associated phoneme ht, one may use maximum likelihood to fit a mixture of (usually isotropic) Gaussians p(vt ht) to vt. The fact that people speak at different speeds can be addressed using time-warping in which the latent phoneme remains in the same state for a number of timesteps. In practice noise corrupts the speech signal in a complex way, so that the resulting model is inappropriate, and performance degrades significantly. In this case the structure of the transition matrices is upper triangular (or lower, depending on your definition), or even a banded triangular matrix. Given a training set of such tagged sequences, the task is to tag a novel word sequence. For the training data, both the tags and words are observed so that Maximum Likelihood training of the transition and emission distribution can be achieved by simple counting. Given a new sequence of words, the most likely tag sequence can be inferred using the Viterbi algorithm. More recent part-of-speech taggers tend to use conditional random fields in which the input sequence x1:This the sentence and the output sequence y1:This the tag sequence. In the list of decoded sequences, what value is log p(h1:27 v1:27) for this sequence Explain why a local message passing algorithm cannot, in general, be found for this problem and discuss the computational complexity of finding an exact solution. Explain how to adapt the Expectation-Maximisation algorithm to form a recursive algorithm, for finding an approximate v1:T. Additionally, explain how the algorithm can be implemented using local message passing. In particular, explain how to learn a transition matrix with an upper triangular structure. What is the probability that the Markov chain pnew generated the sequence S given by S A, A, G, T, A, C, T, T, A, C, C, T, A, C, G, C (23. Similarly, generate 100 sequences each of length 16 from the Markov chain defined by qnew. Concatenate all these sequences into a cell array v so that v contains the first sequence and v the last sequence. The result returned in phgvn indicate the posterior probability of sequence assignment. Define an emission distribution that has 4 output states such that p(v = i h = j) = 0. Derive an algorithm that will find the most likely joint state argmax h1:T t=2 (ht-1, ht) (23. Explain how the above recursion enables the computation of argmax h1 t=2 (ht, ht-1) (23. Explain how once the most likely state for h1 is computed, one may efficiently compute the remaining optimal states h2. Derive an algorithm that will compute pairwise marginals p(ht, ht-1) from the joint distribution (23. Similarly, show that one can push the summation of hT inside the product to define -1T (hT -1) = hT (hT -1, hT) (23. Explain how to compute the likelihood gradient by the use of filtered information alone. Our interest is to derive a recursion for the filtered distribution (ht, ct) p(ht, ct, v1:t) 1. Using this derive (ht, ct) = p(vt ht) p(ht ht-1, c)p(ct ct-1 = 1)t-1 (ht-1, ct-1 = 1) Dmax (23. Show that the right hand side of the above can be written as p(ht ht-1, ct = c)p(ct = c ct-1 = 1)t-1 (ht-1, 1) + I [c = Dmax] ht-1 ht-1 p(ht ht-1, c)t-1 (ht-1, c + 1) (23. Show that the recursion for is then given by (h, 1) = p(vt ht = h)pdur (1) ptran (h ht-1)t-1 (ht-1, 1) ht-1 + I [Dmax = 1] p(vt ht = h) and for c > 1 ht-1 ptran (ht ht-1)t-1 (ht-1, 2) (23. Explain why the computational complexity of filtered inference in the duration model is O H 2 Dmax. In contrast to discrete-state Markov models, chapter(23), continuous state distributions are not automatically closed under operations such as products and marginalisation. To make practical algorithms for which inference and learning can be carried efficiently, we therefore are heavily restricted in the form of the continuous transition p(vt vt-1). For the case that At is invariant with t, the process is called time-invariant, which we assume throughout unless explicitly stated otherwise. As such, these models, have widespread application in many branches of science, from engineering and physics to economics. For a dim v = V dimensional vector, its evolution is described by vt = At-1 v1 = Pt-1 P-1 v1 (24. For stable systems we require therefore no eigenvalues of magnitude greater than 1 and only unit eigenvalues will contribute in long term. Note that the eigenvalues may be complex which corresponds to rotational behaviour, see exercise(234). Even though the magnitude of vt-1 is decreased by a factor of a at each iteration, the additive noise on average boosts the magnitude so that it remains steady in the long run.
Some colleges consist of a number of large departments where each department generates its own guidelines and procedures for faculty assessment erectile dysfunction quad mix discount kamagra soft 100 mg visa. Also in some of the colleges erectile dysfunction from diabetes treatment for order 100mg kamagra soft, all assessment and associated paperwork is handled through the department administration erectile dysfunction causes stress discount 100 mg kamagra soft with mastercard. This document describes the recommended procedures for each of the various faculty assessments and the responsibilities of the faculty impotence klonopin kamagra soft 100 mg with mastercard, department heads, 128 and college administration in carrying out these assessments, submitting, and storing the resulting documentation. Faculty Annual Performance Reviews All faculty members, whether tenure track, tenured, or academic professional track, must have an annual written review, for which the department heads (or immediate supervisors if administrators) are responsible. Required Documentation: In January of each year, department heads must request that all faculty submit an Annual Faculty Self-Evaluation Report. The report may consist of either an online form or a Word or other type of digital document that can be filled in and submitted electronically. Process: During January and February, Faculty Self-Evaluations are produced by the faculty and reviewed by the department head or immediate supervisor, in case of administrators. The department head meets with individual faculty to discuss their progress and to provide and receive verbal feedback. In evaluating teaching, research, and service, contributions made to support interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary programs, and contributions made to enhancing diversity should be recognized. Ratings for faculty given by department heads should include the following categories: Unsatisfactory: Performance does not meet requirements for the position. No faculty member may receive an overall satisfactory rating if they have not complied with all mandatory university training programs. In cases where a faculty member has been notified of a mandatory training requirement near the time of the end of the evaluation period, they shall be given 30 days to complete the requirement. Likewise, the faculty member must certify their attentiveness to safety and compliance. To satisfy these requirements the following acknowledgements must be signed and dated by each faculty member on their Annual Evaluation Review Report: 1. I will, on a continuing and timely basis, address any safety deficiencies, report any and all safety concerns to the department head, and demonstrate compliance with safety standards as defined by the Environmental Health & Safety Department. Faculty members are also required to acknowledge receipt of the written evaluation by returning a signed copy of the document to the department head. At that time, the faculty member may add a response to the written evaluation so that it may also be included in their personnel file. Department heads must also provide a memo, which certifies that all faculty (tenured, tenure track, academic professional track) have been reviewed, have received feedback, and have signed a copy of their written review. In this memo the department heads should specifically indicate any tenure track faculty member who is not progressing satisfactorily toward an affirmative tenure decision. Likewise, an unsatisfactory performance evaluation for any faculty member must also be reported. If the faculty member is tenured and an unsatisfactory performance evaluation is received, a written plan for near-term improvement must be submitted unless three consecutive unsatisfactory annual performance evaluations have been received, in which case a professional development review will be initiated (see Section 8). Annual reviews must be completed before merit payments or raises may be recommended, and no later than March 1. Mid-term Review of Tenure Track Faculty Members Mid-term review ensures that tenure track faculty members have a clear understanding of 130 their current status and progress toward tenure and promotion. The University requires that all tenure track faculty members are hired with a probationary period and have a mid-term review. Mandatory mid-term review may take the place of the annual faculty performance review. All items and acknowledgements mentioned in the annual review must be incorporated into the mid-term review unless already stated in a separate annual review. Separate evaluation of each area (research, teaching, and service) as well as an overall assessment must be provided. The committee must also discuss what the candidate can do to improve performance during the remainder of the probationary period. The department head must specifically describe the scholarly expertise of the candidate and the uniqueness and significance of their scholarly contribution. Documents submitted by the faculty candidate as required by the University (in the order stated under 12. The committee must also discuss what the candidate can do to improve performance during the remainder of the tenure period. Imperatives for tenure and promotion in the College of Dentistry are: effective classroom 132 instruction including creative development of teaching materials and methods, the successful advising of undergraduate, dental, and/or graduate students, the ability to develop and sustain an independent research program, scholarly contributions primarily but not exclusively through peer reviewed publications, and evidence of high quality service/engagement at an institutional and professional level. Although some quantitative measures of evaluation may be employed, excellence in performance is of primary importance; that is, the quality, significance, and impact of accomplishments are of greatest importance. All tenure track faculty will have variable amounts of teaching, research, and service as designated in their yearly appointment letters. Review for promotion must consider these relative proportions so that the weight of the evaluations of each area matches the proportion of activity in that area. For tenure and promotion, in addition to meritorious accomplishments, a high potential for continued excellence is required. Examples would include (a) gifted and productive master teachers who are abreast of their field but who have not contributed extensively to the development of new knowledge, (b) exceptionally outstanding researchers whose teaching is merely acceptable, and (c) tenured faculty whose sustained service to the University is unselfish, distinctive and outstanding, but whose teaching and research are only acceptable. Few faculty will possess qualities such as these, but those who do deserve recognition and advancement. Rather, advancement will be based on accomplishments, which merit tenure and/or promotion. Successful recommendations will result in the advancement becoming effective at the beginning of the following academic year. Candidates themselves may also propose going up for promotion following consultation with the department head. Tenure track assistant professors will also be informed if they are up for mandatory tenure review. The department head should make it clear to the candidate that these materials may be updated by documentation in a memo at any stage of the process, prior to final submission to the Office of the Dean of Faculties, and that updates should be signed and dated by the candidate. Department heads are required to review all potential external reviewers to ensure they are from recognized peer institutions/programs or better and are clear leaders in the field. Letters from former students are irrelevant except as supportive documents for the teaching evaluation. The department head may make telephone or email inquiries to potential reviewers prior to the letter request. This letter, along with selected materials for review, will be sent to external reviewers as early as possible in the review cycle, thus it is imperative that the candidate does not delay in the preparation of these materials. The College expects a minimum of five letters, with a roughly equivalent number of letters received from reviewers selected by the department head and letters received from reviewers selected by the candidate (2 to 3 or 3 to 2). The solicitation letter must use the template developed by the Office of the Dean of Faculties and available on the website dof. At no time is the candidate to inquire about the status of the reviewers he or she nominates or to contact them. Confidentiality of hard copy and electronic files should be maintained throughout the process. This committee also prepares teaching, research, and service peer evaluations as required for the dossier addressed to the department head. Regarding scholarly activity, the committee must specifically describe the expertise of the candidate and the uniqueness and significance of their scholarly contribution. Describe the expertise of the candidate and the quality, significance, and impact of their contributions in all areas. The committee must consider the circumstances of each candidate regarding the nature and proportion of their individual assignments in teaching, research, and service. An academic professional track faculty member may engage in one or more academic activities, but in general they are evaluated in one of the two main areas of teaching or research.
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