Digital Commons Network^™

Using Satellite-Observed Geospatial Inundation Data To Identify The Impacts Of Flood On Firm-Level Performances: The Case Of China During 2000–2009, Pao-Li Chang, Fan Zheng

Research Collection School Of Economics

Among the first in the literature, this paper combines high-resolution satelliteobserved inundation maps with geocoded firm-level data to identify the flood exposure at the firm level. We apply the methodology to study the impact of floods on microlevel firm performances in China for the period 2000–2009. Being hit by a flood is associated with an annual loss of output and productivity of around 6% and 5%, respectively, which persists in the long run. The effects are heterogeneous across types of firms and locations of the floods. Firms that are tangible-asset intensive are more negatively affected by the flood events. Meanwhile, …

Hapticpuppet: A Kinesthetic Mid-Air Multidirectional Force-Feedback Drone-Based Interface, Martin Feick, Anthony Tang, Antonio Kruger

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Providing kinesthetic force-feedback for human-scale interactions is challenging due to the relatively large forces needed. Therefore, robotic actuators are predominantly used to deliver this kind of haptic feedback; however, they offer limited flexibility and spatial resolution. In this work, we introduce HapticPuppet, a drone-based force-feedback interface which can exert multidirectional forces onto the human body. This can be achieved by attaching strings to different parts of the human body such as fingers, hands or ankles, which can then be affixed to multiple coordinated drones - puppeteering the user. HapticPuppet opens up a wide range of potential applications in virtual, augmented …

Cscw 2022 Chairs' Welcome, Gary Hsieh, Anthony Tang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We are excited to bring you the 25th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing – CSCW 2022 – virtually. We were initially poised to hold CSCW 2022 in Taiwan to help strengthen the CSCW community’s relationship with Asia, but the uncertainty around COVID-19 pandemic restrictions made this an impractical idea. Yet, as designers, we view challenges as learning opportunities and know learning opportunities lead to new ideas and approaches. From the online and virtual conferences experiences of the past few years, we considered questions like: what makes conferences interesting, what makes conferences worth attending, how can we …

The Noise, The Resistance, And The Message” Inconstruing The Construction Of Arab Bilinguals-Biliterates’ Trans-Identity Space: A Grounded Theory Approach, Maha Omar Alhabbash

Dissertations

This study explored the construing of the construction of trans-identity space for Arab high schoolers, undergraduates, and graduate students who are bilinguals and biliterates. To that end, the study fathomed the trajectories and the process of trans-identity space construction along with the translanguaging space of bilingual-biliterate Arabs. Employing a grounded theory approach enabled the researcher to understand the nature of trans-identity space and how it functions in tandem with the confluence of translanguaging practices that leads to language identity reproduction. To validate the results, two means were used: a semi-structured interview with the participants (n=36) from high schoolers, …

The Relationship Between School Principals’ Resilience, Job Satisfaction, Self-Efficacy, Perceived Organizational Support, And Thriving In School Leadership Positions In The Uae Government Schools, Noura Abdulla Al Azzani

Dissertations

This dissertation is concerned with school principals who often come across adversities and hardships that challenge their strength and flexibility and impose immense pressure on them. Some of them break; others cope or overcome the adversities. The main objective of this dissertation is to explain why school leaders thrive in the face of their pressing mediating roles whereas others may not even survive within the UAE context. The socially embedded model of thriving at work is adapted to explain the relationship between the thriving level and five variables that could influence and mediate the relationship: the internal factors of resilience, …

The Status Of Homogeneous Grouping Implication In English Language Classrooms In The United Arab Emirates, Eman Mohamed Abdelwahab

Theses

This thesis is concerned with the status of homogeneous grouping implication in English language classrooms in the United Arab Emirates public schools. The study aims at exploring students’ and teachers’ perceptions toward homogeneous learning in English language classrooms, encountered challenges and possible suggestions of improvement. The Mixed method was used for data collection and analysis, by using both qualitative (Interview and short-essay questions) and quantitative (Likert-scale questionnaires) data as main sources of data.

The Study sample included 645 participants, consisting of 30 English language teachers and 615 high school students from 13 public schools in the United Arab Emirates. The …

The Impact Of Stem-Based Curriculum On The Development Of Creative Thinking Of High School Students In The United Arab Emirates, Rana Yousef Khalil

Theses

STEM-based curriculum is an integrated structure for teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics using project- and inquiry-based learning to produce creative outcomes. This study aims to assess the impact of STEM-based curriculum on the development of creative thinking of high school students while studying physics. Further, this study aims to assess the impact of students’ gender and grade level on the development of creative thinking after implementing a STEM-based curriculum. For this purpose, a quasi-experimental design was used to collect data using the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) and its metrics (fluency, elaboration, flexibility, and originality). In one of …

School Leadership Behaviors And Practices, Teacher Turnover, And Teacher Retention In The United Arab Emirates: A Triangulation Approach, Ayeda Abdulla Al Shebli

Dissertations

School leadership and school leaders' behaviors and practices can significantly affect the behavior of teachers. Retaining teachers in the teaching profession is important. Unfortunately, many teachers around the world have left or are deciding to leave this profession, a phenomenon called “teacher turnover”. High teacher turnover affects the overall quality of teaching and learning. Based on 2015 data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, teacher turnover is high in the United Arab Emirates. There are many factors that contribute to teacher turnover. This study investigated the factors affecting teachers' turnover by exploring the role of school leadership behaviors …

The Impact Of Internal And External Factors On Female Enrollment In Vocational Training Institutes In The United Arab Emirates: A Phenomenological Qualitative Study, Saada Mubarak Amro

Dissertations

Educational institutes around the world and vocational training institutes, in particular, are concerned with students’ participation and enrollment rates. Great emphasis is placed on the vocational sector and its role in establishing a knowledge-based economy in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as articulated in the UAE Vision 2021, its economic foresight 2030, and in the recent 50th-anniversary statement released in 2019 by HH Mohammed Rashed Al Maktoum. The importance of this sector is its significance in diversifying the economy, providing employment, and equipping both employed and unemployed nationals with the vocational skills required by local and international markets and industries. …

Impacts Of Intermediate And Long-Term Vitamin D Deficiency On The Murine Gastric Epithelial Cells And Acid Secretion, Shaima Raji Sirajudeen

Dissertations

The biological functions of vitamin D (VD) are diverse. It influences immunological response, cell proliferation and differentiation, and calcium homeostasis. However, over one billion people globally are VD deficient. The VD receptors, VDR and PDIA3, mediate the biological activities of VD. Studies on the biological roles of VD are numerous but very little on the stomach. The stomach is divided into three main parts – forestomach, corpus and antrum. Gastric glands, which make up the functional units of the stomach, are made up of numerous cell lineages and are located in the corpus and antrum, which are the glandular parts …

Contextualizing The Emotive & Experiential Trajectories Of Arab Bilinguals In Higher Education: An Exploratory Sequential Mixed Method Study, Sabahet Bruncaj

Dissertations

Higher Education institutions in the UAE are increasingly adopting English as a Medium of Instruction. For native Arabic speakers, this educational practice has established a lingual impasse that relegates entry and serves as a signifier of ability. This study explores the experiential and emotional histories of conducting academic studying in a second language. The study is grounded in the theoretical framework of Emotions, whereby the exploration of affect and emotion-specifiers on bilinguals within the EMI in HE experiences and identified. The study applied an Exploratory Sequential Mixed method design led by Qualitative semi-structured interviews with Ph.D. students (n=11). This framework …

Impact Of Covid Social Distancing Measures On Eating And Exercise Behaviors Among A Sample Of Hispanic Parents Of Young Children In The United States, Christian E. Vazquez, Katherine E. Hess, Megan J. Mcbride, Catherine Cubbin, Sarah Kate Bearman, Esther J. Calzada

SAGE Open Access Agreement Publications-Archive

Background: In the United States, healthy behaviors, such as eating fruits/vegetables and exercise, are well below recommended levels, particularly for Hispanics. The COVID pandemic may have exacerbated existing health behavior disparities. The current study examines the impact of COVID social distancing measures on Hispanic parents' eating and exercise behaviors, and how the impact may differ by socioeconomic status (SES) and distress levels. Design and methods: This cross-sectional logistic regression study utilized data from a sample of Hispanic parents in Texas (n = 237). COVID-related questions were collected in Summer 2020. Dependent variables included self-reported changes in exercise and eating behaviors …

Which Neural Network Makes More Explainable Decisions? An Approach Towards Measuring Explainability, Mengdi Zhang, Jun Sun, Jingyi Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Neural networks are getting increasingly popular thanks to their exceptional performance in solving many real-world problems. At the same time, they are shown to be vulnerable to attacks, difficult to debug and subject to fairness issues. To improve people’s trust in the technology, it is often necessary to provide some human-understandable explanation of neural networks’ decisions, e.g., why is that my loan application is rejected whereas hers is approved? That is, the stakeholder would be interested to minimize the chances of not being able to explain the decision consistently and would like to know how often and how easy it …

Predictive Self-Organizing Neural Networks For In-Home Detection Of Mild Cognitive Impairment, Seng Khoon Teh, Iris Rawtaer, Ah-Hwee Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In-home sensing of daily living patterns from older adults coupled with machine learning is a promisingapproach to detect Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), a potentially reversible condition with early detectionand appropriate intervention. However, the number of subjects involved in such real-world studies istypically limited, posing the so-called small data problem to most predictive models which rely on a sizablenumber of labeled data. In this work, a predictive self-organizing neural network known as fuzzy AdaptiveResonance Associate Map (fuzzy ARAM) is proposed to detect MCI using in-home sensor data collected from aunique Singapore cross-sectional study. Specifically, mean and standard deviation of nine in-home …

Graph Neural Network With Self-Attention And Multi-Task Learning For Credit Default Risk Prediction, Zihao Li, Xianzhi Wang, Lina Yao, Yakun Chen, Guandong Xu, Ee-Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We propose a graph neural network with self-attention and multi-task learning (SaM-GNN) to leverage the advantages of deep learning for credit default risk prediction. Our approach incorporates two parallel tasks based on shared intermediate vectors for input vector reconstruction and credit default risk prediction, respectively. To better leverage supervised data, we use self-attention layers for feature representation of categorical and numeric data; we further link raw data into a graph and use a graph convolution module to aggregate similar information and cope with missing values during constructing intermediate vectors. Our method does not heavily rely on feature engineering work and …

Investigating Bloom's Cognitive Skills In Foundation And Advanced Programming Courses From Students' Discussions, Joel Jer Wei Lim, Gottipati Swapna, Kyong Jin Shim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Programming courses provide students with the skills to develop complex business applications. Teaching and learning programming is challenging, and collaborative learning is proposed to help with this challenge. Online discussion forums promote networking with other learners such that they can build knowledge collaboratively. It aids students open their horizons of thought processes to acquire cognitive skills. Cognitive analysis of discussion is critical to understand students' learning process. In this paper, we propose Bloom's taxonomy based cognitive model for programming discussion forums. We present machine learning (ML) based solution to extract students' cognitive skills. Our evaluations on compupting courses show that …

Autopruner: Transformer-Based Call Graph Pruning, Cong Thanh Le, Hong Jin Kang, Truong Giang Nguyen, Stefanus Agus Haryono, David Lo, Xuan-Bach D. Le, Huynh Quyet Thang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Constructing a static call graph requires trade-offs between soundness and precision. Program analysis techniques for constructing call graphs are unfortunately usually imprecise. To address this problem, researchers have recently proposed call graph pruning empowered by machine learning to post-process call graphs constructed by static analysis. A machine learning model is built to capture information from the call graph by extracting structural features for use in a random forest classifier. It then removes edges that are predicted to be false positives. Despite the improvements shown by machine learning models, they are still limited as they do not consider the source code …

Efficient Navigation For Constrained Shortest Path With Adaptive Expansion Control, Wenwen Xia, Yuchen Li, Wentian Guo, Shenghong Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In many route planning applications, finding constrained shortest paths (CSP) is an important and fundamental problem. CSP aims to find the shortest path between two nodes on a graph while satisfying a path constraint. Solving CSPs requires a large search space and is prohibitively slow on large graphs, even with the state-of-the-art parallel solution on GPUs. The reason lies in the lack of effective navigational information and pruning strategies in the search procedure. In this paper, we propose SPEC, a Shortest Path Enhanced approach for solving the exact CSP problem. Our design rationales of SPEC rely on the observation that …

How To Formulate Specific How-To Questions In Software Development?, Mingwei Liu, Xin Peng, Andrian Marcus, Christoph Treude, Jiazhan Xie, Huanjun Xu, Yanjun Yang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Developers often ask how-to questions using search engines, technical Q&A communities, and interactive Q&A systems to seek help for specific programming tasks. However, they often do not formulate the questions in a specific way, making it hard for the systems to return the best answers. We propose an approach (TaskKG4Q) that interactively helps developers formulate a programming related how-to question. TaskKG4Q is using a programming task knowledge graph (task KG in short) mined from Stack Overflow questions, which provides a hierarchical conceptual structure for tasks in terms of [actions], [objects], and [constraints]. An empirical evaluation of the intrinsic quality of …

In War And Peace: The Impact Of World Politics On Software Ecosystems, Raula Kula, Christoph Treude

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Reliance on third-party libraries is now commonplace in contemporary software engineering. Being open source in nature, these libraries should advocate for a world where the freedoms and opportunities of open source software can be enjoyed by all. Yet, there is a growing concern related to maintainers using their influence to make political stances (i.e., referred to as protestware). In this paper, we reflect on the impact of world politics on software ecosystems, especially in the context of the ongoing War in Ukraine. We show three cases where world politics has had an impact on a software ecosystem, and how these …

Inception Transformer, Chenyang Si, Weihao Yu, Pan Zhou, Yichen Zhou, Xinchao Wang, Shuicheng Yan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Recent studies show that Transformer has strong capability of building long-range dependencies, yet is incompetent in capturing high frequencies that predominantly convey local information. To tackle this issue, we present a novel and general-purpose Inception Transformer, or iFormer for short, that effectively learns comprehensive features with both high- and low-frequency information in visual data. Specifically, we design an Inception mixer to explicitly graft the advantages of convolution and max-pooling for capturing the high-frequency information to Transformers. Different from recent hybrid frameworks, the Inception mixer brings greater efficiency through a channel splitting mechanism to adopt parallel convolution/max-pooling path and self-attention path …

A Decade Of Job Prospects In The Librarianship Profession, Akwasi Duffour Frimpong, Anthony Obeng Mr.

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

ABSRACT

From 2010 to 2020, the study examined job advertisements for library practitioners in Ghana. The study results reveal no substantial changes over a ten-year period. Notwithstanding, job opportunities have gradually increased. In both 2010 and 2020, Assistant Librarians had more job openings than Librarians which is the topmost position in the library profession. Higher degrees of Ph.D. and MPhil are mostly the requisite for any positions, but most jobs require a Master of Arts in Information Studies or Information Science or Bachelor of Arts in Information Science. Despite the fact that technology is permeating job openings in libraries, employers …

Buyer Beware: Avoiding Pitfalls When Buying Fine Art, Gerard Ng, Vincent Ooi

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Our article introduces the reader to crucial concepts such as provenance, authenticity and ownership of fine art. It explains how one can check the established art databases and registers to conduct due diligence searches.We also explain the importance of a written contract for both buyers and sellers. The current common practice of transacting without a written contract can lead to considerable difficulties if issues with the artwork are discovered in the future.At the minimum, a contract should make it clear that the seller has the full responsibility for the accuracy of the provenance, particularly in cases where the artwork has …

The Curious Case Of The 0.1 Per Cent Service Charge, Vincent Ooi

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Just before 1 August 2022, a coffeeshop zi char chain announced that it would impose a 0.1% service charge. This decision was reversed within two weeks due to "customers' reactions".While the rate might appear to be absurdly low and not worth the trouble of imposing, this article suggests that there was more to the situation than first meets the eye. GST regulations require merchants to list GST inclusive prices unless the goods and services are provided by hotels and F&B outlets that are subject to a service charge. The 0.1% rate is thus explicable as a likely attempt to get …

Privacy Qui Tam, Peter Ormerod

Faculty Publications

Privacy law keeps getting stronger, but surveillance-based businesses have proven immune to these new legal regimes. The disconnect between privacy law in theory and in practice is a multifaceted problem, and one critical component is enforcement.

Today, most privacy laws are enforced by governmental regulators—the Federal Trade Commission, the nascent California Privacy Protection Agency, and state attorneys general. An enduring impasse for proposed privacy laws is whether to supplement public enforcement by using a private right of action to authorize individuals to enforce the law.

Both of these conventional enforcement schemes have significant shortcomings. Public enforcement has proven inadequate because …

Commentary: Examining Contextual Factors Contributing To Differentials In Covid-19 Mortality In U.S. Vs. India., Preeti Zanwar, Katrine L Wallace, Christopher Soria, Arokiasamy Perianayagam

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

No abstract provided.

Digital Services Trade And Trade Agreements, Henry S. Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Trade agreements have become the main forum for the regulation of digital services trade issues over the past decade. This chapter provides a comprehensive examination of the regulation of digital services trade in trade agreements, first reviewing the rules in the World Trade Organization (WTO), then comparing the approaches between the United States (US), the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and the European Union (EU), and explaining the reasons for their deep differences. This chapter further analyzes such provisions in trade agreements in Asia and the Pacific, which has become one of the most dynamic regions in terms of new …

The Investment Chapter In The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership: Enhanced Rules Without Enforcement Mechanism, Henry S. Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This Chapter examines the legal rules in the investment chapter in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). It starts with an overview and summary of the main provisions in the chapter, followed by an assessment of the rules by comparing established free trade agreements (FTAs), especially the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership. In particular, it notes that the chapter, whilst largely following the established approaches to investment in other FTAs, also includes important twists to the common rules to favour the host states. The last part discusses the conspicuous absence of an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism, its pros and cons, …

Book Review: Mediation Ethics: A Practitioner's Guide Edited By Omer Shapira Ed, Dorcas Quek Anderson

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

A review of the book Mediation ethics: A practitioner's guide, edited by Omer Shapira. Mediation ethics have been consistently featured in mediation training courses and mediation ethical principles have also been encapsulated in mediation providers’ codes of conduct for mediators. However, mediation ethics have probably inspired fewer publications and academic discussions than the popular topic of mediation skills. It is thus timely that Shapira has edited this publication focusing on mediation ethics. Published in 2021, this collection of reflections on mediation ethics has been written primarily for the American mediation profession, with frequent references made to the US Model Standards …

How I Perform Totally Endoscopic Robotic Mitral Valve Repair., Colin C Yost, Jake L Rosen, Meagan Wu, Caroline M Komlo, Jordan E Goldhammer, T Sloane Guy

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

A sixty-two-year-old male presented with significant symptoms related to severe mitral regurgitation with posterior leaflet flail and prolapse on transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE). Preoperative computed tomography (CT) angiography showed normal caliber thoracoabdominal aorta and patent access vessels. The patient underwent totally endoscopic robotic mitral valve repair (rMVr) with left atrial CryoMAZE procedure.