Digital Commons Network^™

Partisan Conflict, Policy Uncertainty And Aggregate Corporate Cash Holdings, Chak Hung Jack Cheng, Ching Wai (Jeremy) Chiu, William B. Hankins, Anna Leigh Stone

Research, Publications & Creative Work

This paper distinguishes political uncertainty from policy uncertainty shocks and uncovers new empirical facts about how each impacts the aggregate cash holdings of US firms. Our baseline structural vector autoregression model shows that an exogenous one standard deviation shock to political and economic policy uncertainty is followed by 1 and 1.8% increase in aggregate corporate cash-to-total assets after five and eight quarters, respectively. The baseline result also shows that policy uncertainty shocks tend to raise financial market volatility while political uncertainty shocks tend to lower financial market volatility. Moreover, we find evidence that political uncertainty exerts asymmetric effects on aggregate …

Estimated Time Of Restoration (Etr) Guidance For Electric Distribution Networks, David Wanik, Emmanouil Anagnostou, Brian Hartman, Thomas Layton

Research, Publications & Creative Work

Electric distribution utilities have an obligation to inform the public and government regulators about when they expect to complete service restoration after a major storm. In this study, we explore methods for calculating the estimated time of restoration (ETR) from weather impacts, defined as the time it will take for 99.5% of customers to be restored. Actual data from Storm Irene (2011), the October Nor’easter (2011) and Hurricane Sandy (2012) within the Eversource Energy-Connecticut service territory were used to calibrate and test the methods; data used included predicted outages, the peak number of customers affected, a ratio of how many …

How International Is Political Science? Patterns Of Submission And Publication In The American Political Science Review, Marijke Breuning, Ayal Feinberg, Benjamin Isaak Gross, Melissa Martinez, Ramesh Sharma, John Ishiyama

Research, Publications & Creative Work

How international in scope is publishing in political science? Previous studies have shown that the top journals primarily publish work by scholars from the US and, to a lesser extent, other global north countries. However, such studies used published content and could not evaluate the impact of the review process on the relative absence of international scholars in journals.

Here, we evaluate patterns of submission and publication by US and international scholars for the American Political Science Review (APSR) – one of the most selective peer-reviewed journals in the discipline. We find that scholars from the US and other global …

Perceptions And Reactions To Tornado Warning Polygons: Would A Gradient Polygon Be Useful?, Ihnji Jon, Shih-Kai Huang, Michael K. Lindell

Research, Publications & Creative Work

To better understand interpretations of National Weather tornado warning polygons, 145 participants were shown 22 hypothetical scenarios in one of four displays deterministic polygon, deterministic polygon + radar image, gradient polygon, and gradient polygon + radar image. Participants judged each numerical strike probability (ps ) and reported the likelihood of taking seven different response actions. The deterministic polygon display produced ps that were highest at the centroid and declined in all directions from there. The deterministic polygon + radar display, the gradient polygon display, and the gradient polygon + radar display produced ps that were high at the centroid and …

Introduction To The Professor Robert Seidman Memorial Issue, Sean J. Kealy

Faculty Scholarship

Shortly after Professor Robert Seidman's passing in 2014, I met up with my friend and colleague Professor Helen Xanthaki at an International Association of Legislation conference in Seoul, Korea. We talked about Bob's enduring legacy in the worlds of legislative drafting and Law & Development, took turns telling stories about Bob and his wife Ann, and agreed that a law review issue dedicated to Bob's memory and work would be a fitting tribute. Needless to say I was honoured when the editor of the European Journal of Law Reform, Dr. Constantin Stefanou, asked me to be the guest editor for …

The Reliability Of Evidence In Evidence-Based Legislation, Sean J. Kealy, Alex Fomey

Faculty Scholarship

As evidence-based legislation develops, and as technology puts more information at our fingertips, there should be a better understanding of what exactly constitutes reliable evidence. Robert and Ann Seidman devoted their professional careers to developing the evidence-based Institutional Legislative Theory and Methodology and teaching it to legislative drafters around the world. Although ILTAM was firmly grounded in – and driven by – evidence, the question becomes what evidence is reliable and a worthy input for the methodology. Further, how can the drafter avoid the misuses of evidence such as confirmation bias and naïve beliefs? We aim to give a guide …

A Few Observations About The Curious State Of Massachusetts Labor Law: Public-Sector Unions After Janus, Maria O'Brien

Faculty Scholarship

This essay focuses on this hurried, even panicked response to Janus in Massachusetts and evaluates the likely outcome that encouraging a public union to treat member employees in one way and non-member employees in a distinctly less generous way will have for employees and the unions. I begin, in Part II, by noting (and explaining) the first and most apparent oddity in this story: why is an employer - i.e. the state - rushing to help its putative, arms-length bargaining partners? In Massachusetts, there are many different public-sector unions. School teachers, ¹³ firefighters,¹⁴ clerical workers, ¹⁵ state and local …

Narrative Topoi In The Digital Age, Zahr K. Said, Jessica Silbey

Faculty Scholarship

Decades of thoughtful law and humanities scholarship have made the case for using humanistic texts and methods in the legal classroom. We build on that scholarship by identifying and describing three “narrative topoi” of the twenty-first century – podcasts, twitter and fake news. We use the term “topos” (from the Greek meaning “place”) and its plural, “topoi,” to mean “a literary commonplace” and “general setting for discussion” in the context of literary forms. Like an identifiable genre, narrative topoi are familiar story paths for audiences to travel. These narrative topoi live in contemporary popular culture and are products of digital …

Pregnant Women And Equitable Access To Emergency Medical Care, Michael Ulrich

Faculty Scholarship

A diabetic patient suffering from ketoacidosis was taken from his hospital bed, removed from the hospital, and left in the parking lot without shoes or a shirt because the patient did not have health insurance and had not paid for prior services (Fedas, Alexander, and Chase-Lubitz 1991). The patient died at home the following day. A man with a steak knife in his back, wedged against his spine, was transferred from an emergency room because he was uninsured and could not pay $1,000 cash in advance to remove the knife (Annas 1986). A woman who was mistakenly identified …

Practice-Based Research Networks And The Mandate For Real-World Evidence, Elizabeth Hall-Lipsy, Leila Barraza, Christopher Robertson

Faculty Scholarship

The 21^st Century Cures Act encourages the Food and Drug Administration to consider “real-world evidence” in its regulation of the safety and efficacy of drugs and devices. Many have interpreted this mandate to focus on non-randomized observational research. However, we suggest that regulatory science must also move from rarefied academic hospitals to community-based settings, where the vast majority of patients in fact receive care in the fragmented U.S. healthcare system. This move is especially important if innovations are to reach, and be validated in, more diverse populations. A solution can be found in the 183 Practiced-Based Research Networks (“PBRN”), …

A Perspective On Incentives For Novel Inpatient Antibiotics: No One-Size-Fits-All, Taimur Bhatti, Ka Lum, Silas Holland, Stephanie Sassman, David Findlay, Kevin Outterson

Faculty Scholarship

The need for new “pull” incentives to stimulate antibiotic R&D is widely recognized. Due to the global diversity of health systems, combined with different challenges faced by antibiotics used in different types of healthcare settings, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, different “pull” incentives should be tailored to local contexts, priorities, and antibiotic types. Policymakers and industry should collaborate to identify appropriate solutions at the local, regional, and global levels.

Four Principles For Digital Expression (You Won't Believe #3!), Danielle K. Citron, Neil Richards

Faculty Scholarship

At the dawn of the Internet’s emergence, the Supreme Court rhapsodized about its potential as a tool for free expression and political liberation. In ACLU v. Reno (1997), the Supreme Court adopted a bold vision of Internet expression to strike down a federal law - the Communications Decency Act - that restricted digital expression to forms that were merely “decent.” Far more than the printing press, the Court explained, the mid-90s Internet enabled anyone to become a town crier. Communication no longer required the permission of powerful entities. With a network connection, the powerless had as much luck reaching a …

Saving Face: Unfolding The Screen Of Chinese Privacy Law, Tiffany Li, Jill Bronfman, Zhou Zhou

Faculty Scholarship

Privacy is often a subjective value, taking on meaning from specific social, historical, and cultural contexts. Western privacy scholars have so far generally limited academic study to focus on Western ideals of privacy. However, privacy – or some notion of it – can be found in almost every culture and every nation, including the growing economic powerhouse that is the People’s Republic of China. Focusing on China as a case study of non-Western privacy norms is important today, given the rapid rise of the Chinese economy and its corresponding impact on worldwide cultural norms and law. Simply put, it is …

Abolishing Ius Sanguinis Citizenship: A Proposal Too Restrained And Too Radical, Kristin Collins

Faculty Scholarship

Costica Dumbrava maintains that ius sanguinis citizenship is a historically tainted, outmoded, and unnecessary means of designating political membership. He argues that it is time to abandon it. Dumbrava limits his challenge to ius sanguinis citizenship per se, and even suggests that family-based migration rights could be used to minimise the disruptive effect of abolishing citizenship-by-descent. But his core complaints about ius sanguinis citizenship – the mismatch of biological parentage and political affinity, the difficulties of determining legal parentage – can be, and have been, levied against these various family-based preferences and statuses, which are likely found in every nation’s …

The Contributors, Marites Tiongco

DLSU Business & Economics Review

No abstract provided.

Is A Regional Credit Rating Agency For The Asean Feasible?, Tereso S. Tullao Jr, Christopher James R. Cabuay,, Daniel S. Hofileña

DLSU Business & Economics Review

In the spirit of deepening the bond markets of the ASEAN+3 region, as well as addressing the inadequacies put forth by the underrating of bonds by global credit rating agencies (GCRAs) and their lack of recognition of domestic CRAs’ (DCRAs) ratings, we look into the feasibility of a regional CRA (RCRA). Establishing an RCRA is faced with hurdles related to institutional and reputational constraints, mechanisms of information exchange, compatibility of financial reports, operational limitations, governance structure, and regulatory frameworks. In this light, we provide a brief discussion on potential alternatives such as the credit ratings initiative of the National University …

Ownership Structure And Stock Return Asymmetries In Asean-5 Stock Markets: A Firm-Level Analysis, Sorasart Sukcharoensin, Pariyada Sukcharoensin

DLSU Business & Economics Review

This paper explores the relationship between ownership structure and the skewness in the stock return distribution among ASEAN-5 equity markets, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand during 2007–2015. This study adds to the existing literatures that ownership structure can explain skewness of the stock returns. The empirical results reveal that stock returns in ASEAN-5 markets present asymmetric distribution. Further, by employing firm-level data, the results show that ownership structure, cumulative daily stock returns, firm size, and market-to-book ratio significantly affect future skewness of the stock returns.

Predictors Of Humanistic Sustainability Hrm Practices, Ana Liza Asis-Castro, Divina M. Edralin

DLSU Business & Economics Review

We determined and compared the degree of implementation of humanistic sustainability human resource management (HRM) practices. We analyzed which among the firm demographics, such as the number of years of operation, size, and type of ownership, is its significant predictor. Based on the Motivations of Humanistic “Sustain Ability” framework where the HRM practices were rooted, we used the descriptive, correlational, and causal research designs to analyze the 137 samples responses of various companies who participated in the survey. Our results showed that Philippine companies were moderately implementing humanistic sustainability HRM practices. It also indicated that those that were registered as …

Analysis Of Food Demand Elasticity Of Rice For The Poor In Aceh, Indonesia: An Almost Ideal Demand System Approach, -- Suriani, Diana Sapha A.H, Cut Zakia Rizki

DLSU Business & Economics Review

The purpose of this study is to empirically explore the effect of rice for the poor (Raskin) or subsidized rice consumption on the food demands elasticity of poor households. The study utilizes the primary data collected in 2015 based on the purposive sampling method for establishing the homogeneity characteristics of Raskin beneficiary’s households. An Almost Ideal Demand System approach is adopted to measure the proportion of food commodities expenditure of the poor and the demand elasticity as well as their responses to the income elasticity. Additionally, the correlation analysis is utilized to investigate the relationship between the selected socioeconomic variables …

Prospective Subgroup Analyses Of The Randomized Mcl‐002 (Sprint) Study: Lenalidomide Versus Investigator's Choice In Relapsed Or Refractory Mantle Cell Lymphoma, L Arcaini, T Lamy, J Walewski, D Belada, Et Al

Peninsula Medical School

In the mantle cell lymphoma (MCL)-002 study, lenalidomide demonstrated significantly improved median progression-free survival (PFS) compared with investigator's choice (IC) in patients with relapsed/refractory MCL. Here we present the long-term follow-up data and results of preplanned subgroup exploratory analyses from MCL-002 to evaluate the potential impact of demographic factors, baseline clinical characteristics and prior therapies on PFS. In MCL-002, patients with relapsed/refractory MCL were randomized 2:1 to receive lenalidomide (25 mg/day orally on days 1–21; 28-day cycles) or single-agent IC therapy (rituximab, gemcitabine, fludarabine, chlorambucil or cytarabine). The intent-to-treat population comprised 254 patients (lenalidomide, n = 170; IC, n = …

Proof Of Ownership Of Land In Nigeria By Documents Of Title: A Critical Analysis, Uzodinma Frank-Igwe, Goodtime Okara

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

From Babies To Robots: The Contribution Of Developmental Robotics To Developmental Psychology, A Cangelosi, M Schlesinger

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

© 2018 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. The latest developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, and the parallel advances in robotics, have contributed recently to a shift in the scientific approach to modeling human intelligence. These innovations, accompanied by the new emphasis on embodied and grounded cognition in AI and psychology, have led to the establishment of the field of developmental robotics. This field features an interdisciplinary approach, built on collaboration between cognitive robotics and child psychology, to the autonomous design of behavioral and cognitive capabilities in artificial cognitive agents, such as robots, which is …

Parkrun, Activity And Health: The Public Health Potential Of Parkrun, C Stevinson, M Hickson

School of Health Professions

No abstract provided.

Data Obtained With An Open-Source Static Automated Perimetry Test Of The Full Visual Field In Healthy Adults, Iván Marín-Franch, Paul H. Artes, Luke X. Chong, Andrew Turpin, Michael Wall

School of Health Professions

No abstract provided.

Evaluating Physical Activity In Dementia: A Systematic Review Of Outcomes To Inform The Development Of A Core Outcome Set, A-C Gonçalves, J Cruz, A Marques, S Demain, D Samuel

School of Health Professions

No abstract provided.

Impact Of The Sign Head Injury Guidelines And Nhs 4-Hour Emergency Target On Hospital Admissions For Head Injury In Scotland: An Interrupted Times Series, Carl Marincowitz, Fiona E. Lecky, Eleanor Morris, Victoria Allgar, Trevor A. Sheldon

Peninsula Medical School

ObjectivesHead injury is a common reason for emergency department (ED) attendance. Around 1% of patients have life-threatening injuries, while 80% of patients are discharged. National guidelines (Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN)) were introduced in Scotland with the aim of achieving early identification of those with acute intracranial lesions yet safely reducing hospital admissions.This study aims to assess the impact of these guidelines and any effect the national 4-hour ED performance target had on hospital admissions for head injury.SettingAll Scottish hospitals between April 1998 and March 2016.ParticipantsPatients admitted to hospital for head injury or traumatic brain injury (TBI) diagnosed by CT …

From Structure To Activity: Using Centrality Measures To Predict Neuronal Activity, Jack Mc Kay Fletcher, Thomas Wennekers

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

It is clear that the topological structure of a neural network somehow determines the activity of the neurons within it. In the present work, we ask to what extent it is possible to examine the structural features of a network and learn something about its activity? Specifically, we consider how the centrality (the importance of a node in a network) of a neuron correlates with its firing rate. To investigate, we apply an array of centrality measures, including In-Degree, Closeness, Betweenness, Eigenvector, Katz, PageRank, Hyperlink-Induced Topic Search (HITS) and NeuronRank to Leaky-Integrate and Fire neural networks with different connectivity schemes. …

Intermittent Wave Energy Generation System With Hydraulic Energy Storage And Pressure Control For Stable Power Output, Ruiyin Song, Yong Ming Dai, Xiaohua Qian

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Visual Attention And Object Naming In Humanoid Robots Using A Bio-Inspired Spiking Neural Network, García D Hernández, Samantha Adams, Alex Rast, Thomas Wennekers, Steve Furber, Angelo Cangelosi

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

© 2018 The Authors Recent advances in behavioural and computational neuroscience, cognitive robotics, and in the hardware implementation of large-scale neural networks, provide the opportunity for an accelerated understanding of brain functions and for the design of interactive robotic systems based on brain-inspired control systems. This is especially the case in the domain of action and language learning, given the significant scientific and technological developments in this field. In this work we describe how a neuroanatomically grounded spiking neural network for visual attention has been extended with a word learning capability and integrated with the iCub humanoid robot to demonstrate …

Guidelines For Designing Social Robots As Second Language Tutors, T Belpaeme, P Vogt, Den Berghe R Van, K Bergmann, T Göksun, Haas M De, J Kanero, J Kennedy, Ac Küntay, O Oudgenoeg-Paz, F Papadopoulos, T Schodde, J Verhagen, Cd Wallbridge, B Willemsen, Wit J De, V Geçkin, L Hoffmann, S Kopp, E Krahmer, E Mamus, J-M Montanier, C Oranç, Ak Pandey

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

In recent years, it has been suggested that social robots have potential as tutors and educators for both children and adults. While robots have been shown to be effective in teaching knowledge and skill-based topics, we wish to explore how social robots can be used to tutor a second language to young children. As language learning relies on situated, grounded and social learning, in which interaction and repeated practice are central, social robots hold promise as educational tools for supporting second language learning. This paper surveys the developmental psychology of second language learning and suggests an agenda to study how …