Digital Commons Network^™

Integrated Reward Scheme And Surge Pricing In A Ride Sourcing Market, Hai Yang, Chaoyi Shao, Hai Wang, Jieping Ye

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Surge pricing is commonly used in on-demand ride-sourcing platforms (e.g., Uber, Lyft and Didi) to dynamically balance demand and supply. However, since the price for ride service cannot be unlimited, there is usually a reasonable or legitimate range of prices in practice. Such a constrained surge pricing strategy fails to balance demand and supply in certain cases, e.g., even adopting the maximum allowed price cannot reduce the demand to an affordable level during peak hours. In addition, the practice of surge pricing is controversial and has stimulated long debate regarding its pros and cons. In this paper, to address the …

User-Friendly Deniable Storage For Mobile Devices, Bing Chang, Yao Cheng, Bo Chen, Fengwei Zhang, Wen-Tao Zhu, Yingjiu Li, Zhan. Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Mobile devices are prevalently used to process sensitive data, but traditional encryption may not work when an adversary is able to coerce the device owners to disclose the encryption keys. Plausibly Deniable Encryption (PDE) is thus designed to protect sensitive data against this powerful adversary. In this paper, we present MobiPluto, a user-friendly PDE scheme for denying the existence of sensitive data stored on mobile devices. A salient difference between MobiPluto and the existing PDE systems is that any block-based file systems can be deployed on top of it. To further improve usability and deniability of MobiPluto, we introduce a …

Perceptions Of Large-Scale, Standardised Testing In Religious Education: How Do Religious Educators Perceive The Bishops’ Religious Literacy Assessment?, Antonella Poncini

Theses

This research provides a Western Australian perspective of teaching and assessing Religious Education (RE) in Catholic schools. The perspective recognises RE as a learning area reserved for classroom instruction. This educational focus aligns RE with other learning areas as well as highlights the important role that RE plays in the evangelising mission of the Catholic Church.

A pragmatic approach to research was implemented to focus on religious educators’ perceptions of a large-scale, standardised assessment in RE called The Bishops’ Religious Literacy Assessment (BRLA). This assessment is developed by the Catholic Education Office of Western Australia. The research surveyed 238 religious …

Paid Parental Leave: An Investigation And Analysis Of Australian Paid Parental Leave Frameworks With Reference To Selected European Oecd Countries, Greg Lynn

Theses

xiii ABSTRACT In 2010, the Australian federal government introduced a national scheme of taxpayer-funded paid parental leave. This legislation was introduced only after much political debate and came after more than 100 years of reform to Australian industrial law to make employment laws work better for employees with families. These reforms occurred on the back of a long history of relatively slow female legal emancipation in Australia and the concept of employment rights for women having children is a relatively new legal concept. Australian employment law has traditionally been conceptualised in terms of the paradigm of ‘the male breadwinner,’ supported …

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 …

“Say What?”—Using Interpreters On Children’S Cases, Jennifer Baum

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Much attention has been paid over the years to training lawyers on best practices for representing children, but scant attention has been paid to the proper representation of non-English speaking children. However, recent changes to the United States’ immigration policy and practice have thrust this extra-vulnerable client population into the legal spotlight, and children’s lawyers are increasingly being called upon to provide legal services to clients who require translation or interpretation.

While both terms are often used interchangeably, “translation” refers to the conversion of written materials from one language to another while “interpretation” means the conversion of speech from …

An Exploration Of Faculty And Staff Mentoring On High-Risk Community College Student Self-Efficacy, Support Systems, And Persistence, William E. Ashcraft

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of faculty and staff mentoring on high-risk community college student self-efficacy, support systems and persistence and identifying the attitudes and behaviors of successful faculty and staff mentors. Using a phenomenological qualitative approach, twenty-two successful high-risk students from one urban community college were interviewed and asked to identify and describe someone on campus who had been most influential in their ability to persist. The twenty-six community college faculty and staff personnel identified by these students were interviewed to learn what they do to help students succeed and persist. Four themes emerged …

Factors Influencing Student Enrollment In Career Academy Programs, Whitney Stokes Ketchledge

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

Career academies are small learning communities that allow high school students to learn their core content in the context of the career field they may be interested in pursuing. This type of learning environment incorporates business and industry and postsecondary institutions so academy students receive academic curricula that prepares them for higher education and allows students to have experiences in the career field. There is considerable research demonstrating strong benefits of the academy model to students and teachers, but there is little indicating why students enroll in the academy and what methods of recruitment may work best.

The purpose of …

Examining The Role Of Behavioral Inhibition In Harsh Parenting Preferences: An Analog Study, Kelsey T. Ellis

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Understanding the cognitive processes involved in harsh parenting behavior would have broad implications for parenting interventions and training programs. Few studies have addressed how parental stressors, specifically infant crying, can influence individuals’ self-regulatory cognitive capacities and ultimately their preference for harsh parenting strategies. Furthermore, little research has explored the link between these cognitive processes and harsh parenting preferences; thus, little work has been done to establish a true causal relationship. This study examined the role of behavioral inhibition in harsh parenting preferences when individuals were exposed to an infant crying noise.

Participants (n = 129) were undergraduate students (Mage = …

Fiscal Effort For Pre-Kindergarten Spending And Early Literacy Achievement In Virginia, Patricia S. Williams

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

There is a plethora of available early childhood education research linking participation and funding to short- and long-term benefits for individuals, society, and the economy. Educational advocates, social justice proponents, and economists agree that pre-kindergarten (Pre-K) education is the best human capital investment to spur economic growth and wealth. States are faced with choices and challenges concerning Pre-K investments as a vehicle to realizing desired literacy outcomes. Virginia, in particular, is stifled by below-average proficiency rates on national and state reading assessments, as well as declines school readiness skills and early literacy rates. For this reason, the intent of this …

Predicting Speech-Language Pathology Graduate Student Success: Executive Functions And Standardized Admission Tests, Jane E. Roitsch

Communication Disorders & Special Education Theses & Dissertations

Within the next three years, the number of available speech-language pathology (SLP) jobs is projected to increase by 18% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2018). The most logical response to the escalating market demand would be to increase the number of students admitted into SLP graduate programs. However, this may not be as simple as it sounds.

Successful training of graduate SLP clinicians requires the professional, emotional, financial, and time commitments of the program’s clinical and academic faculty. The accreditation status of graduate SLP programs is based in part on graduation completion rates and students passing the national examination in SLP, …

Risks Faced By Foreign Lawyers In China, Chenglin Liu

Faculty Articles

This article provides an objective assessment of the potential risks that foreign lawyers face in China as they push the boundaries of the limits on their activities set by Chinese law. When the Shanghai Bar Association (SBA), a government-controlled organization, accused foreign lawyers of violating Chinese law and called for official action, some scholars dismissed the threat, claiming that there was no legal basis for a crackdown on foreign lawyers. These scholars erroneously maintained that the Chinese laws that regulate foreign lawyers are ambiguous and create "gray areas." In fact, the claims of the SBA are justified because the applicable …

Of Brutal Murder And Transcendental Sovereignty: The Meaning Of Vested Private Rights, Adam J. Macleod

Faculty Articles

The idea of vested private rights is divisive; it divides those who practice law from those who teach and think about law. On one side of the divide, practicing lawyers act as though (at least some) rights exist and exert binding obligations upon private persons and government officials, such that once vested, the rights cannot be taken away or retrospectively altered. Lawyers convey estates in property, negotiate contracts, and write and send demand letters on the supposition that they are specifying and vindicating rights, which are rights not as a result of a judgment by a court in a subsequent …

Markets And Morals: The Limits Of Doux Commerce, Mark L. Movsesian

Faculty Publications

In this essay for a symposium on Professor Nathan Oman's new book, The Dignity of Commerce, I do three things. First, I describe what I take to be the central message of the book, namely, that markets promote liberal values of tolerance, pluralism, and cooperation among rival, even hostile groups. Second, I show how Oman's argument draws from a line of political and economic thought that dates to the Enlightenment, the so-called "doux commerce" thesis of thinkers like Montesquieu and Adam Smith. Finally, I discuss what I consider the most penetrating criticism of that thesis, Edmund Burke's critique from …

Corporate Compliance That Advances Racial Diversity And Justice And Why Business Deregulation Does Not Matter, Cheryl L. Wade

Faculty Publications

This Essay considers the problem of racial harassment and discrimination in the aftermath of the recent and more thorough discussion about gender inequality. It begins by explaining the inadequacies of the SEC Board Diversity Rules and Section 342. It then describes the reasons why, despite these inadequacies, more regulation relating to discrimination and diversity is not needed. Finally, it discusses how to improve U.S. businesses’ compliance with existing antidiscrimination law.

How Long Is History's Shadow?, Anita S. Krishnakumar

Faculty Publications

In Congress’s Constitution, Josh Chafetz takes issue with those who have questioned the value of Congress in recent years. He argues that Congress’s critics focus too heavily on its legislative function and ignore several important nonlegislative powers that enable Congress to exert significant authority vis-à-vis the other branches. Chafetz engages in close historical examination of these nonlegislative powers and notes that in some cases, Congress has ceased exercising them as robustly as it once did, while in others it has unwittingly ceded them to another branch. Congress’s Constitution urges Congress to reassert several of its ceded powers more aggressively …

The Peace Vs. Justice Puzzle And The Syrian Crisis, Paul R. Williams, Lisa K. Dicker, C. Danae Paterson

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Those involved in peace negotiations often face the dilemma of balancing demands for justice with the imperative of stopping the conflict as quickly as possible. There are abiding ethical and moral debates surrounding this tension between peace and justice. In Syria—where the death toll has exceeded 470,000, 11 million have been displaced, and there are over 14,000 documented cases of death by torture—the peace versus justice puzzle is a living dilemma with which those involved in the peace process grapple with on a daily basis.

Is it morally permissible to allow conflict (and the attendant human suffering) to continue, …