Digital Commons Network^™

Automated Doubt Identification From Informal Reflections Through Hybrid Sentic Patterns And Machine Learning Approach, Siaw Ling Lo, Kar Way Tan, Eng Lieh Ouh

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Do my students understand? The question that lingers in every instructor’s mind after each lesson. With the focus on learner-centered pedagogy, is it feasible to provide timely and relevant guidance to individual learners according to their levels of understanding? One of the options available is to collect reflections from learners after each lesson to extract relevant feedback so that doubts or questions can be addressed in a timely manner. In this paper, we derived a hybrid approach that leverages a novel Doubt Sentic Pattern Detection (SPD) algorithm and a machine learning model to automate the identification of doubts from students’ …

Ai And The Future Of Work: What We Know Today, Steven M. Miller, Thomas H. Davenport

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

To contribute to a better understanding of the contemporary realities of AI workplace deployments, the authors recently completed 29 case studies of people doing their everyday work with AI-enabled smart machines. Twenty-three of these examples were from North America, mostly in the US. Six were from Southeast Asia, mostly in Singapore. In this essay, we compare our findings on job and workplace impacts to those reported in the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future report, as we consider that to be the most comprehensive recent study on this topic.

Imon: Appearance-Based Gaze Tracking System On Mobile Devices, Sinh Huynh, Rajesh Krishna Balan, Jeonggil Ko

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Gaze tracking is a key building block used in many mobile applications including entertainment, personal productivity, accessibility, medical diagnosis, and visual attention monitoring. In this paper, we present iMon, an appearance-based gaze tracking system that is both designed for use on mobile phones and has significantly greater accuracy compared to prior state-of-the-art solutions. iMon achieves this by comprehensively considering the gaze estimation pipeline and then overcoming three different sources of errors. First, instead of assuming that the user's gaze is fixed to a single 2D coordinate, we construct each gaze label using a probabilistic 2D heatmap gaze representation input to …

On Analysing Student Resilience In Higher Education Programs Using A Data-Driven Approach, Audrey Tedja Widjaja, Ee-Peng Lim, Aldy Gunawan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Analysing student resilience is important as research has shown that resilience is related to students’ academic performance and their persistence through academic setbacks. While questionnaires can be conducted to assess student resilience directly, they suffer from human recall errors and deliberate suppression of true responses. In this paper, we propose ACREA, ACademic REsilience Analytics framework which adopts a data-driven approach to analyse student resilient behavior with the use of student-course data. ACREA defines academic setbacks experienced by students and measures how well students overcome such setbacks using a quasi-experimental design. By applying ACREA on a real world student-course dataset, we …

Rmm: Reinforced Memory Management For Class-Incremental Learning, Yaoyao Liu, Qianru Sun, Qianru Sun

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Class-Incremental Learning (CIL) [38] trains classifiers under a strict memory budget: in each incremental phase, learning is done for new data, most of which is abandoned to free space for the next phase. The preserved data are exemplars used for replaying. However, existing methods use a static and ad hoc strategy for memory allocation, which is often sub-optimal. In this work, we propose a dynamic memory management strategy that is optimized for the incremental phases and different object classes. We call our method reinforced memory management (RMM), leveraging reinforcement learning. RMM training is not naturally compatible with CIL as the …

Spurring Digital Transformation In Singapore's Legal Industry, Xin Juan Chua, Steven M. Miller

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

COVID-19 has transformed the way we live and work. It has caused the processes and operations of businesses and organisations to be restructured, as well as transformed business models. A 2020 McKinsey Global survey reported that companies all over the world claim they have accelerated the digitalisation of their customer and supply-chain interactions, as well as their internal operations, by three to four years. They also said they thought the share of digital or digitally enabled products in their portfolios has advanced by seven years. While technology transformation is not new to the legal profession, COVID-19 has cemented the importance …

Etherlearn: Decentralizing Learning Via Blockchain, Nguyen Binh Duong Ta, Tian Jun Joel Yang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In institutes of higher learning, most of the time course material development and delivery follow a centralized model which is fully lecturer-controlled. In this model, engaging students as partners in learning is a challenging problem as: 1) students are usually hesitant to contribute due to the fear of getting it wrong, 2) not much incentive for them to put in the extra effort, and 3) current online learning systems lack adequate facilities to support seamless and anonymous interactions between students. In this work, we propose EtherLearn, a blockchain based peer-learning system to distribute the control of how course material and …

Infinite Time Horizon Safety Of Bayesian Neural Networks, Mathias Lechner, Dorde Zikelic, Krishnendu Chatterjee, Thomas A. Henzinger

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Bayesian neural networks (BNNs) place distributions over the weights of a neural network to model uncertainty in the data and the network’s prediction. We consider the problem of verifying safety when running a Bayesian neural network policy in a feedback loop with infinite time horizon systems. Compared to the existing sampling-based approaches, which are inapplicable to the infinite time horizon setting, we train a separate deterministic neural network that serves as an infinite time horizon safety certificate. In particular, we show that the certificate network guarantees the safety of the system over a subset of the BNN weight posterior’s support. …

Bundled Earnings Guidance And Analysts' Forecast Revisions, Charles Hsu, Rencheng Wang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Bundling managerial earnings guidance with quarterly earnings announcements (EAs) has become an increasingly common practice. This study investigates the impact of bundled guidance on analysts' forecast revisions. Our findings indicate that analysts respond more to bundled guidance than non-bundled guidance. This effect increases with analysts' time pressure and cognitive constraints around the EA. Analysts' revisions also incorporate more of the bundled management guidance when accompanied by additional information, such as conference calls. We further find that analysts revise their forecasts more quickly following bundled guidance than non-bundled guidance. Together, these findings are consistent with the notion that analysts place more …

The Impact Of The Ifrs 9 Expected Loss Approach On Accounting Conservatism, Clarence Goh, Chu Yeong Lim, Kevin Ow Yong

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Using an experimental setting, this paper examines the impact of the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS 9) expected credit loss (ECL) approach on accounting conservatism. The ECL approach enables banks to incorporate loan loss provisions (LLP) on a timelier basis and help bank regulators anticipate weaknesses in banks’ loan portfolios. Conversely, the ECL model could be more susceptible to managerial discretion. More conservative bank managers might make excessivecredit provisions. Our findings show that high conservatism is positively associated with higher levels of LLP. In addition, the effect of accounting conservatism is contingent upon the type of loan loss model. We …

Beyond Shareholder Value? Why Firms Voluntarily Disclose Support For Black Lives Matter, A. J. Chen, Patricia M. Dechow, Samuel T. Tan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We investigate why firms voluntarily disclose support for the Black Lives Matter movement (BLM firms) even though these disclosures have little impact on shareholder value. We examine two competing explanations: that managers are acting in the interests of a broad set of stakeholders, or that they are engaging in “woke-washing.” Our evidence supports the stakeholder perspective since we find that BLM firms have more inclusive cultures on multiple dimensions – from their board members, to employees, to the rights of shareholders, and to the compensation structure of top executives. Furthermore, BLM firms face less risk in speaking out since they …

Jcihe: Winter 2020: Special Issue Introduction And State Of The Field 2021

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

Jcihe: Winter 2020: Special Issue Introduction Issue 5 And State Of The Field 2021

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

“To Educate And Liberate?” Moving From Coloniality To Postcoloniality In The International Branch Campus Model

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

Bioabsorbable Metal Zinc Differentially Affects Mitochondria In Vascular Endothelial And Smooth Muscle Cells, Olivia R. M. Bagshaw, Fereshteh Moradi, Christopher S. Moffatt, Hillary A. Hettwer, Ping Liang, Jeremy Goldman, Jaroslaw Drelich, Jeffrey A. Stuart

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Zinc is an essential trace element having various structural, catalytic and regulatory interactions with an estimated 3000 proteins. Zinc has drawn recent attention for its use, both as pure metal and alloyed, in arterial stents due to its biodegradability, biocompatibility, and low corrosion rates. Previous studies have demonstrated that zinc metal implants prevent the development of neointimal hyperplasia, which is a common cause of restenosis following coronary intervention. This suppression appears to be smooth muscle cell-specific, as reendothelization of the neointima is not inhibited. To better understand the basis of zinc's differential effects on rat aortic smooth muscle (RASMC) versus …

Checking Smart Contracts With Structural Code Embedding, Zhipeng Gao, Lingxiao Jiang, Xin Xia, David Lo, John Grundy

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Smart contracts have been increasingly used together with blockchains to automate financial and business transactions. However, many bugs and vulnerabilities have been identified in many contracts which raises serious concerns about smart contract security, not to mention that the blockchain systems on which the smart contracts are built can be buggy. Thus, there is a significant need to better maintain smart contract code and ensure its high reliability. In this paper, we propose an automated approach to learn characteristics of smart contracts in Solidity, useful for repetitive contract code, bug detection and contract validation. Our new approach is based on …

Deriving Invariant Checkers For Critical Infrastructure Using Axiomatic Design Principles, Cheah Huei Yoong, Venkata Reddy Palleti, Rajib Ranjan Maiti, Arlindo Silva, Christopher M. Poskitt

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) in critical infrastructure face serious threats of attack, motivating research into a wide variety of defence mechanisms such as those that monitor for violations of invariants, i.e. logical properties over sensor and actuator states that should always be true. Many approaches for identifying invariants attempt to do so automatically, typically using data logs, but these can miss valid system properties if relevant behaviours are not well-represented in the data. Furthermore, as the CPS is already built, resolving any design flaws or weak points identified through this process is costly. In this paper, we propose a systematic …

A Fine-Grained Attribute Based Data Retrieval With Proxy Re-Encryption Scheme For Data Outsourcing Systems, Hanshu Hong, Ximeng Liu, Zhixin Sun

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Attribute based encryption is suitable for data protection in data outsourcing systems such as cloud computing. However, the leveraging of encryption technique may retrain some routine operations over the encrypted data, particularly in the field of data retrieval. This paper presents an attribute based date retrieval with proxy re-encryption (ABDR-PRE) to provide both fine-grained access control and retrieval over the ciphertexts. The proposed scheme achieves fine-grained data access management by adopting KP-ABE mechanism, a delegator can generate the re-encryption key and search indexes for the ciphertexts to be shared over the target delegatee’s attributes. Throughout the process of data sharing, …

Examining The Extent Of And Determinants For Sustainability Assurance Quality: The Role Of Audit Committees, Rashid Zaman, Muhammad Bilal Farooq, Fahad Khalid, Zeeshan Mahmood

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This study examines the extent of and determinants for sustainability assurance quality. Data comprise sustainability assurance statements published by the top 100 listed companies in Australia and New Zealand from 2017 to 2019. The findings indicate that Australian companies lead their New Zealand counterparts in sustainability assurance. Although sustainability reporting has risen, assurance rates remain significantly low. Accountants dominate the market, and companies prefer to use their own auditors for sustainability assurance work. Sustainability assurance quality is poor and does not vary significantly among Australian and New Zealand companies. Low-quality sustainability assurance plays a limited role in mitigating potential stakeholder–agency …

A Case Report Of Covid-19 Monitoring In The Austrian Professional Football League, Antje Van Der Zee-Neuen, Dagmar Schaffler-Schaden, Jürgen Herfert, James O´Brien, Tim Johansson, Patrick Kutschar, Alexander Seymer, Stephan Ludwig, Thomas Stöggl, David Keeley, Herbert Resch, Jürgen Osterbrink, Maria Flamm

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Since the beginning of the COVID -19 pandemic, many contact sport teams are facing major challenges to safely continue training and competition. We present the design and implementation of a structured monitoring concept for the Austrian national football league. 146 professional players from five clubs of the professional Austrian football league were monitored for a period of 12 weeks. Subjective health parameters, PCR- test results and data obtained from a geo-tracking app were collected. Simulations modelling the consequences of a COVID-19 case with increasing reproduction number were computed. No COVID -19 infection occurred during the observation period in the players. …

A Multifaceted Approach Increased Staff Confidence To Develop Outside Of School Hours Care As A Health Promoting Setting, Karen Forde, Leesa Costello, Amanda Devine, Ros Sambell, Ruth Wallace

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background:

Outside-of-school-hours-care (OSHC) services are well positioned to influence the health behaviours of 489, 800 Australian children, and are an important setting for health promotion given the current rates of childhood overweight and obesity and associated health risks. OSHC Professionals are ideally placed to become positive influencers in this setting, although they may require training and support to confidently perform this role. This study piloted a multifaceted intervention strategy to increase OSHC Professional’s confidence and competencies, to support a health promoting OSHC environment with a nutrition and physical activity focus.

Methods:

A mixed methods approach was used. Nineteen OSHC Professionals …

Eccentric-Only Versus Concentric-Only Resistance Training Effects On Biochemical And Physiological Parameters In Patients With Type 2 Diabetes, Christine Kudiarasu, Wafina Rohadhia, Yoshihiro Katsura, Tomoko Koeda, Favil Singh, Kazunori Nosaka

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background:

The benefits of resistance training for patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) are well documented; however, the effects of exercise with different muscle contraction types such as eccentric versus concentric contractions on physiological outcomes for this population are not clear. This study compared eccentric-only (ECC) and concentric-only resistance training (CON) to test the hypothesis that ECC would be superior to CON to improve insulin sensitivity, lipid profile, body composition, muscle strength and physical function of patients with T2D.

Methods:

Adults with T2D (50–79 years) were allocated to the ECC (n = 9) or CON group (n = 9). Resistance …

Analysis Of Circulating Tumour Cells In Early-Stage Uveal Melanoma: Evaluation Of Tumour Marker Expression To Increase Capture, Aaron B. Beasley, Timothy W. Isaacs, Tersia Vermeulen, James Freeman, Jean-Louis De Sousa, Riyaz Bhikoo, Doireann Hennessy, Anna Reid, Fred K. Chen, Jacqueline Bentel, Daniel Mckay, R. Max Conway, Michelle R. Pereira, Bob Mirzai, Leslie Calapre, Wendy N. Erber, Melanie R. Ziman, Elin S. Gray

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background:

The stratification of uveal melanoma (UM) patients into prognostic groups is critical for patient management and for directing patients towards clinical trials. Current classification is based on clinicopathological and molecular features of the tumour. Analysis of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) has been proposed as a tool to avoid invasive biopsy of the primary tumour. However, the clinical utility of such liquid biopsy depends on the detection rate of CTCs.

Methods:

The expression of melanoma, melanocyte, and stem cell markers was tested in a primary tissue microarray (TMA) and UM cell lines. Markers found to be highly expressed in primary …

Multi-Marker Immunofluorescent Staining And Pd-L1 Detection On Circulating Tumour Cells From Ovarian Cancer Patients, Du-Bois Asante, Michael Morici, Ganendra R. K. A. Mohan, Emmanuel Acheampong, Isaac Spencer, Weitao Lin, Paula Van Miert, Samantha Gibson, Aaron B. Beasley, Melanie Ziman, Leslie Calapre, Tarek M. Meniawy, Elin S. Gray

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Detection of ovarian cancer (OC) circulating tumour cells (CTCs) is primarily based on targeting epithelial markers, thus failing to detect mesenchymal tumour cells. More importantly, the immune checkpoint inhibitor marker PD-L1 has not been demonstrated on CTCs from OC patients. An antibody staining protocol was developed and tested using SKOV-3 and OVCA432 OC cell lines. We targeted epithelial (cytokeratin (CK) and EpCAM), mesenchymal (vimentin), and OC-specific (PAX8) markers for detection of CTCs, and CD45/16 and CD31 were used for the exclusion of white blood and vascular endothelial cells, respectively. PD-L1 was used for CTC characterisation. CTCs were enriched using the …

“Coronavirus Changed The Rules On Everything”: Parent Perspectives On How The Covid‐19 Pandemic Influenced Family Routines, Relationships And Technology Use In Families With Infants, Rebecca Hood, Juliana Zabatiero, Desiree Silva, Stephen R. Zubrick, Leon Straker

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This study explores how the first wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic influenced family routines, relationships and technology use (smartphones and tablet computers) among families with infants. Infancy is known to be an important period for attachment security and future child development, and a time of being susceptible to changes within and outside of the family unit. A qualitative design using convenience sampling was employed. A total of 30 mothers in Perth, Western Australia participated in semi‐structured interviews by audio or video call. All mothers were parents of infants aged 9 to 15 months old. Interviews were audio‐recorded and transcribed, and …

Influence Of Physical And Technical Aspects On Change Of Direction Performance Of Rugby Players: An Exploratory Study, Tomás T. Freitas, Pedro E. Alcaraz, Julio Calleja-González, Ademir F. S. Arruda, Aristide Guerriero, Valter P. Mercer, Lucas A. Pereira, Felipe P. Carpes, Michael R. Mcguigan, Irineu Loturco

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

We examined the relationships between change of direction (COD) speed and deficit, and a series of speed-and power-related measurements in national team rugby union players and analyzed the influence of movement patterns on COD ability. Eleven male athletes completed the following physical assessments on different days: day 1—anthropometric measurements, and lower-body kinematic parameters (assessed with eight inertial sensors) and completion time in COD tests (proagility, 45◦ cutting maneuver (CUT), and “L” (L-Drill)); day 2—bilateral and unilateral squat and countermovement jumps, 40 m linear sprint, and bar-power output in the jump squat and half-squat exercises. Pearson’s product–moment correlations were performed to …

Higher Habitual Flavonoid Intakes Are Associated With A Lower Risk Of Peripheral Artery Disease Hospitalizations, Nicola P. Bondonno, Kevin Murray, Aedin Cassidy, Catherine P. Bondonno, Joshua Lewis, Kevin D. Croft, Cecilie Kyro, Gunnar Gislason, Christian Torp-Pedersen, Augustin Scalbert, Anne Tjonneland, Jonathan M. Hodgson, Frederik Dalgaard

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background

The role of nutrition in the primary prevention of peripheral artery disease (PAD), the third leading cause of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, is undetermined. Flavonoids may attenuate atherosclerosis and therefore persons who consume flavonoid-rich foods may have a lower risk of developing PAD.

Objectives

We aimed to examine the association between flavonoid intake and PAD hospitalizations and investigate if the association differs according to established risk factors for PAD.

Methods

Baseline data from 55,647 participants of the Danish Diet, Cancer, and Health Study without PAD, recruited from 1993 to 1997, were cross-linked with Danish nationwide registries. Flavonoid intake was calculated …

Uab Receives Funding To Support Early-Career Investigators Impacted By Covid-19 Pandemic, Staff

Browse All News

No abstract provided.

Bostock Was Bogus: Textualism, Pluralism, And Title Vii, Mitchell N. Berman, Guha Krishnamurthi

Notre Dame Law Review

In Bostock v. Clayton County, one of the blockbuster cases from its 2019 Term, the Supreme Court held that federal antidiscrimination law prohibits employment discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity. Unsurprisingly, the result won wide acclaim in the mainstream legal and popular media. Results aside, however, the reaction to Justice Neil Gorsuch’s majority opinion, which purported to ground the outcome in a textualist approach to statutory interpretation, was more mixed. The great majority of commentators, both liberal and conservative, praised Justice Gorsuch for what they deemed a careful and sophisticated—even “magnificent” and “exemplary”—application of textualist principles, …

Forum Selection Clauses, Non-Signatories, And Personal Jurisdiction, John F. Coyle, Robin J. Effron

Notre Dame Law Review

Who is bound by a forum selection clause? At first glance, the answer to this question may seem obvious. It is black letter law that a person cannot be bound to an agreement without her consent. In recent years, however, courts have not followed this rule with respect to forum selection clauses. Instead, they routinely enforce these clauses against individuals who never signed the contract containing the clause. Courts justify this practice on the grounds that it promotes litigation efficiency by bringing all of the litigants together in the chosen forum. There are, however, problems with enforcing forum selection clauses …