Digital Commons Network^™

The Wto Practice Of Legality Is Ensuring Transparency Forself-Enforcing Trade, Abdulmalik Mousa S Altamimi

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Purpose One of the core objectives of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is to maintain a practice of legality, including guaranteeing state and non-state actors interact based on the world trade norms. In seeking to achieve this objective, the WTO aims to uphold the trade rule of law by emphasising compliance with specified rules and procedures during the accession process, dispute settlement and trade policy review. This study aims to review these compliance procedures by invoking the interactional international law concept of a community of legal practice. Second, it briefly illuminates Chad Bown's proposal to establish an institute for assessing …

Achieving Substantive Justice In Mediation Through Procedural Justice: An Illusory Or Realizable Goal?, Dorcas Quek Anderson

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Mediation has been plagued with a problem of legitimacy. Genn stated that mediation “does not contribute to substantive justice because mediation requires the parties to relinquish ideas of legal rights during mediation and focus, instead, on problem-solving”. Mediation appears to be all about procedural justice, a concept that is associated with perceptions of fair treatment. And procedural justice does not seem to have any discernible link with substantive justice, in terms of giving effect to well-accepted norms.This blog entry is drawn from a paper that was presented at the Australasian Dispute Resolution Research Network 6th Annual Roundtable and the LSAANZ …

Defining The Limits To Abuse Of Process: Lim Geok Lin Andy V Yap Jin Meng Bryan, Dorcas Quek Anderson

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The abuse of process jurisdiction, which forms part of the doctrine of res judicata, is meant to uphold finality of litigation and prevent abusive litigation. While the jurisdiction has been applied to the original parties of earlier court proceedings, it could also prevent a person who was not part of earlier court proceedings from litigating his claim. In such circumstances, the abuse of process doctrine has to be cognisant of the commercial realities and motivations driving choices to advance separate rather than consolidated proceedings, while also protecting litigants from repeated litigation. A recent Singapore Court of Appeal decision imposed constraints …

Real-World Large-Scale Iot Systems For Community Eldercare: A Comparative Study On System Dependability, Hwee-Pink Tan, Austin Zhang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The paradigm of aging-in-place — where the elderly live and age in their own homes, independently and safely, with care provided by the community — is compelling, especially in societies that face both shortages in institutionalized eldercare resources, and rapidly-aging populations. Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies, particularly in-home monitoring solutions, are commercially available, and can be a fundamental enabler of smart community eldercare, if they are dependable. In this paper, we present our findings on system performance of solutions from two vendors, which we have deployed at scale for technology-enabled community care. In particular, we highlight the importance of quantifying actual system …

Pagesense: Toward Stylewise Contextual Advertising Via Visual Analysis Of Web Pages, Tao Mei, Lusong Li, Xinmei Tian, Dacheng Tao, Chong-Wah Ngo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The Internet has emerged as the most effective and a highly popular medium for advertising. Current contextual advertising platforms need publishers to manually change the original structure of their Web pages and predefine the position and style of embedded ads. Although publishers spend significant effort optimizing their Web page layout, a large number of Web pages contain noticeable blank regions. We present an innovative stylewise advertising platform for contextual advertising, called PageSense. The "style" of Web pages refers to the visual appearance of a Web page, such as color and layout. PageSense aims to associate style-consistent ads with Web pages. …

Discriminant Analysis On Riemannian Manifold Of Gaussian Distributions For Face Recognition With Image Sets, W. Wang, R. Wang, Zhiwu Huang, S. Shan, X. Chen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

To address the problem of face recognition with image sets, we aim to capture the underlying data distribution in each set and thus facilitate more robust classification. To this end, we represent image set as the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) comprising a number of Gaussian components with prior probabilities and seek to discriminate Gaussian components from different classes. Since in the light of information geometry, the Gaussians lie on a specific Riemannian manifold, this paper presents a method named discriminant analysis on Riemannian manifold of Gaussian distributions (DARG). We investigate several distance metrics between Gaussians and accordingly two discriminative learning …

Utilizing Hypervisor To Enhance Trustzone’S Introspection Capabilities On Non-Secure World, Zhang-Kai Zhang, Zhou-Jun Li, Chun-He Xia, Jin-Xin Ma, Jinhua Cui

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Widely used on the Android phones, the technology of ARM TrustZone divides the hardware resources of Android phones into two worlds:non-secure world and secure world. The Android operating system used by user is running in the non-secure world, while the non-secure world's introspection systems (e.g., KNOX, Hypervisor) that are based on TrustZone are running in the secure world. These introspection systems have the high privilege. They can dynamically check Android kernel integrity and perform memory management of non-secure world instead of Android kernel. But TrustZonecan can not completely introspect the hardware resources (e.g., Cache) of non-secure world because of the …

Anatomy Of Online Hate: Developing A Taxonomy And Machine Learning Models For Identifying And Classifying Hate In Online News Media, Joni Salminen, Hind Almerekhi, Milica Milenkovic, Soon-Gyu Jung, Haewoon Kwak, Haewoon Kwak, Bernard J. Jansen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Online social media platforms generally attempt to mitigate hateful expressions, as these comments can be detrimental to the health of the community. However, automatically identifying hateful comments can be challenging. We manually label 5,143 hateful expressions posted to YouTube and Facebook videos among a dataset of 137,098 comments from an online news media. We then create a granular taxonomy of different types and targets of online hate and train machine learning models to automatically detect and classify the hateful comments in the full dataset. Our contribution is twofold: 1) creating a granular taxonomy for hateful online comments that includes both …

Skylens: Visual Analysis Of Skyline On Multi-Dimensional Data, Xun Zhao, Yanhong Wu, Weiwei Cui, Xinnan Du, Yuan Chen, Yong Wang, Dik Lun Lee, Huamin Qu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Skyline queries have wide-ranging applications in fields that involve multi-criteria decision making, including tourism, retail industry, and human resources. By automatically removing incompetent candidates, skyline queries allow users to focus on a subset of superior data items (i.e.. the skyline), thus reducing the decision-making overhead. However, users are still required to interpret and compare these superior items manually before making a successful choice. This task is challenging because of two issues. First, people usually have fuzzy, unstable, and inconsistent preferences when presented with multiple candidates. Second, skyline queries do not reveal the reasons for the superiority of certain skyline points …

Diapause Disruption In Cirina Butyrospermi Vuillet (Lepidoptera, Attacidae), The Shea Caterpillar, In Burkina Faso, H. B. Bama, R. A. Dabire, D. Ouattara, S. Niassy, M. N. Ba, D. Dakouo

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

The shea caterpillar Cirina butyrospermi is an important insect, highly valued as a human food item in Burkina Faso. However, its appearance is seasonal due to its univoltine cycle. This study therefore investigated the possibilities of breaking the nymphal diapause by changing the environmental factors and through the hormonal treatment of prepupae and pupae using bovine insulin and 20-hydroxyecdysone. Changes in humidity and temperature did not result in emergence, suggesting a mandatory nature of the diapause in C. butyrospermi. Injection of 20-hydroxyecdysone between 20 and 40 ng on 20 C. butyrospermi pupae resulted in 15.24 and 47.5% emergence, respectively. The …

Independence And Impartiality Of Arbitrators: A Rule Of Law Analysis, Stefanie Schacherer

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) through arbitration remains in a state of legitimacy crisis and discussions on reform are ongoing. Much of the criticism is focussed on who is deciding investment dispute cases. Investment arbitrators have been called “private judges” who operate in secrecy, are biased in favour of big multinational companies and have no regard for conflicts of interest. The course of the negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the European Union (EU) and the United States, highlighted to what extent ISDS through arbitration is perceived as unfair and biased (at least in Europe). As a reaction …

An Introduction To The Singapore Convention On Mediation: Perspectives From Singapore, Nadja Alexander, Shou Yu Chong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

At the 51st Session of the United Nations (UN) Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) on 25th June 2018, the final draft of the Convention on the Enforcement of International Settlement Agreements (the ‘Convention’) was recommended for submission to the UN General Assembly for its consideration, and the corresponding Model Law was adopted. A resolution to name the Convention the ‘Singapore Convention on Mediation’ was also approved. This concluded three years of vigorous debate in UNCITRAL Working Group II (Dispute Settlement) with participation by 85 member States and 35 international governmental and non-governmental organisations. The UN General Assembly has adopted …

An Iterated Local Search Algorithm For The Team Orienteering Problem With Variable Profits, Aldy Gunawan, Kien Ming Ng, Graham Kendall, Junhan Lai

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The orienteering problem (OP) is a routing problem that has numerous applications in various domains such as logistics and tourism. The objective is to determine a subset of vertices to visit for a vehicle so that the total collected score is maximized and a given time budget is not exceeded. The extensive application of the OP has led to many different variants, including the team orienteering problem (TOP) and the team orienteering problem with time windows. The TOP extends the OP by considering multiple vehicles. In this article, the team orienteering problem with variable profits (TOPVP) is studied. The main …

Hybrid Privacy-Preserving Clinical Decision Support System In Fog-Cloud Computing, Ximeng Liu, Robert H. Deng, Yang Yang, Ngoc Hieu Tran, Shangping Zhong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we propose a framework for hybrid privacy-preserving clinical decision support system in fog cloud computing, called HPCS. In HPCS, a fog server uses a lightweight data mining method to securely monitor patients' health condition in real-time. The newly detected abnormal symptoms can be further sent to the cloud server for high-accuracy prediction in a privacy-preserving way. Specifically, for the fog servers, we design a new secure outsourced inner-product protocol for achieving secure lightweight single-layer neural network. Also, a privacy-preserving piecewise polynomial calculation protocol allows cloud server to securely perform any activation functions in multiple-layer neural network. Moreover, …

Multi-Target Deep Neural Networks: Theoretical Analysis And Implementation, Zeng Zeng, Nanying Liang, Xulei Yang, Steven C. H. Hoi

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this work, we propose a novel deep neural network referred to as Multi-Target Deep Neural Network (MT-DNN). We theoretically prove that different stable target models with shared learning paths are stable and can achieve optimal solutions respectively. Based on GoogleNet, we design a single model with three different targets, one for classification, one for regression, and one for masks that is composed of 256  ×  256 sub-models. Unlike bounding boxes used in ImageNet, our single model can draw the shapes of target objects, and in the meanwhile, classify the objects and calculate their sizes. We validate our single MT-DNN …

Pricing For A Last-Mile Transportation System, Yiwei Chen, Hai Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The Last-Mile Problem refers to the provision of travel service from the nearest public transportation node to a home or other destination. Last-Mile Transportation System (LMTS), which has recently emerged, provide on-demand shared transportation. We consider an LMTS with multiple passenger types—adults, senior citizens, children, and students. The LMTS designer determines the price for the passengers, last-mile service vehicle capacity, and service fleet size (number of vehicles) for each last-mile region to maximize the social welfare generated by the LMTS. The level of last-mile service (in terms of passenger waiting time) is approximated by using a batch arrival, batch service, …

User Damages And The Limits Of Compensatory Reasoning, Alvin W. L. See

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The use of the term “user damages” in reference to compensatory damages is particularly problematic because it tends to overgeneralise the cases and conceal the importance of identifying the relevant loss in each case, which has implications on issues of proof, quantification and mitigation. This has contributed to the persistent neglect to squarely address issues of loss, which has in turn led to both over- and underestimation of the limits of compensatory damages. Once we look past the broad label, it becomes obvious that the cases purportedly unified by a common measure of loss tend to vary widely in facts …

Should Commercial Surrogacy Be Legalised?, Seow Hon Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Does Singapore condone commercial surrogacy? Thisquestion is in the limelight with a court judgment on a Singaporean doctor'sbid to adopt a boy he fathered through a commercial surrogacy arrangement inthe United States.

Should Securities Regulators Allow Companies Going Public With Dual-Class Shares?, Aurelio Gurrea-Martinez

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In the past years, several companies, such as Google, Linkedin, Facebook, and Alibaba, went public with dual-class share structures, that is, share structures that typically include two classes of ordinary shares carrying unequal voting rights. Those shares with more voting rights (eg, ‘class A’ shares) are usually held by the company´s founders and executives, while the rest of the company´s share capital, formed by stock with regular voting rights (eg, ‘class B’ shares), is generally sold to outside investors.

West Meets East: An Exploration Of The Ways American University Development Officers Can Build Guanxi With Chinese Parents, Jinrui Zhang Mone

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Because philanthropic support from alumni and their families is an important source of revenue for American colleges and universities, identifying ways to connect with Chinese students and cultivate philanthropic support from their parents is an essential component of fundraising efforts. In this study, I explored how American university advancement officers could employ guanxi to cultivate relationships with Chinese parent donors in order to increase U.S. higher education philanthropy efforts. The concept of guanxi, an important aspect of building and sustaining relationships in China, served as the focus for understanding Chinese parents’ connections with their children’s American universities. I employed …

Selling Attorney's Fees, Anthony J. Sebok

Articles

Attorneys in the United States are under increasing pressure to change and adopt practices commonly found in the world of finance and business. Over the past thirty years, the bar and legal academics have debated what to do; the focus of this debate has been whether to change Model Rule of Professional Conduct 5.4 to allow partnerships between attorneys and nonlawyers or partnerships owned by nonlawyer shareholders.

One of the reasons attorneys are debating changes to Rule 5.4 is that the practice of law depends on capital, and the old methods for raising capital are no longer sufficient. Rather than …

Combating Russian Disinformation In Ukraine: Case Studies In A Market For Loyalties, Monroe E. Price, Adam P. Barry

Articles

The article examines how Ukraine has responded to Russian disinformation through two distinct projects: the Guidelines Project and the Words and Wars Project. These initiatives represent different approaches to combating disinformation, with the Guidelines Project emphasizing international norms and consensus-building, while the Words and Wars Project focuses on directly countering Russian tactics. The analysis highlights how the structure, stakeholders, and funding of these projects shape their recommendations and outcomes, underscoring the tension between national security and freedom of expression.

[Introduction To] Unthinking Mastery: Dehumanism And Colonial Entanglements, Julietta Singh

Bookshelf

In Unthinking Mastery Julietta Singh challenges a core, fraught dimension of geopolitical, cultural, and scholarly endeavor: the drive toward mastery over the self and others. Drawing on postcolonial theory, queer theory, new materialism, and animal studies, Singh traces how pervasive the concept of mastery has been to modern politics and anticolonial movements. She juxtaposes destructive uses of mastery, such as the colonial domination of bodies, against more laudable forms, such as intellectual and linguistic mastery, to underscore how the concept—regardless of its use—is rooted in histories of violence and the wielding of power. For anticolonial thinkers like Fanon and Gandhi, …

[Chapter 1 From] No Archive Will Restore You, Julietta Singh

Bookshelf

At once memoir, theory, poetic prose, and fragment, No Archive Will Restore You is a feverish meditation on the body. Departing from Antonio Gramsci’s summons to compile an inventory of the historical traces left in each of us, Singh engages with both the impossibility and urgent necessity of crafting an archive of the body. Through reveries on the enduring legacies of pain, desire, sexuality, race, and identity, she asks us to sense and feel what we have been trained to disavow, to re-member the body as more than itself.

Perceived Causes And Methods Of Examination Malpractice In The Malawian Education System: A Case Study Of Secondary Schools In South East Education Division (Seed), Fiddelis Blessings Makaula

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to examine perceived causes and methods of examination malpractice in the Malawian education system.

Dark Chocolate (70% Cacao) Modulates Gamma Wave Frequencies In Vigorously Active Individuals, Sasha Silver, Ranea Al-Tikriti, Nicole Jin

Loma Linda University Research Reports

Background: Visualization and the demand to increase cognitive function to improve performance is an area of growing interest in athletes and physically active individuals. Gamma (25-45 Hz) waves, the fastest of the brainwave frequencies, are optimal for cognitive function.

Objective: Determine if savoring and ingestion of dark chocolate (70% cacao) can modulate gamma wave frequencies between visualization at a state of rest and a state of exercise performance in vigorously active individuals.

Participants/setting: The study recruited 10 vigorously active individuals from Loma Linda University. Participants’ mean age was 23.7± 2.2 years. Vigorous activity was defined by the Centers for Disease …

The Effects Of Daily Ginger Tea Consumption In Reducing Period Discomfort, Kristy Valencia, Sherllie Kartika

Loma Linda University Research Reports

Background

Ginger has been known for its medicinal purposes which includes treating inflammation.⁶ Researchers have observed the effects of ginger capsules to alleviate dysmenorrhea, but few studies have investigated the use of ginger tea.^6,7,9,10,11 The effects of ginger tea on adolescent females have been studied and researchers concluded that ginger reduces menstrual discomfort.^1,2

Objective

The purpose of our study was to observe the effects of daily ginger tea consumption on menstrual discomfort in non-adolescent menstruating women.

Design

Our study was a quantitative, interventional study.

Participants/setting

Subjects were females aged 18 years and above. Participants were mostly students …

Job Satisfaction Among Registered Dietitians In Various Settings In The United States, Jaime Martin, Marysol Zaragoza

Loma Linda University Research Reports

Abstract

Background. Registered Dietitians (RD) are employed in various practice settings, yet little is known regarding their job satisfaction. Not all states have RD licensure, perhaps influencing levels of job satisfaction.

Objective. The purpose of this graduate student research study was to analyze job satisfaction among RDs and identify influential factors in order to better equip policy- and strategy- makers.

Design. The study consisted of an anonymous online survey completed through the Qualtrics® website and an optional interview completed by email, phone, in-person, or through Zoom. RDs were recruited using flyers, word of mouth, email, and the Commission on Dietetic …

Relationship Between Nutrition Knowledge And Obesity In Southern California Adults, Tatiana Keay, Tonya Larson, Claudinne Herrera

Loma Linda University Research Reports

Background

Over one third of the adult population in the U.S. are obese placing them at higher risk for morbidity or mortality.

Objective

To determine if lack of nutrition knowledge has a positive impact on eating behaviors using obesity status as an indicator.

Design

Participants completed the General Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire (GNKQ), Anonymous Demographic Questionnaire (ADQ), and anthropometric measurements were taken during a one-time meeting lasting about one hour.

Participants/Setting

Data collection was completed on 334 participants between the ages of 18-55 years in a southern California community sample.

Intervention

Anthropometric measurements were collected by the research team and consisted …

Electronic Cigarette Use Prevalence, Associated Factors, And Pattern By Cigarette Smoking Status In The United States From Nhanes (National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey) 2013-2014, Rana Jaber, Anshul Saxena, Khurram Nasir

All Publications

BACKGROUND:

To examine the prevalence and patterns of recent electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use in a nationally representative sample of US adults and adolescents.

METHODS AND RESULTS:

Using tobacco information from NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) 2013-2014, 5423 adults and 895 adolescents (aged 13-17 years) were included in this analysis. Demographic, tobacco use, and drug use information were self-reported. Recent e-cigarette use (within the previous 5 days) was stratified by smoking status. Of 125 e-cigarette users, 116 participants were aged ≥18 years, corresponding to 2.6% (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.0-3.1) and 1.21% (95% CI, 0.3-2.1) prevalence of e-cigarette use …