Measuring plagiarism: Researching what students do, not what they say they do

Student plagiarism in colleges and universities has become a controversial issue in recent years. A key problem has been the lack of reliable empirical data on the frequency, nature and extent of plagiarism in student assignments. The aim of the study described here was to provide this data. Patterns of plagiarism were tracked in two university business studies assignments involving over 500 students and over 1000 scripts. Turnitin software was used to facilitate the identification of plagiarised material in assignments. The findings confirmed some common assertions about the nature of student plagiarism but did not provide support for a number of others

Building the legal and regulatory framework

Banking structure ; Financial crises ; Bankruptcy ; Bank supervision ; Indonesia ; Korea ; Taiwan ; China ; Russia ; Thailand

Building from strength: asset-based community development

Before embarking on a community development effort, consider making a list of local strengths instead of just problems. A new assessment technique encourages all residents to participate in mapping community assets and helps generate the can-do attitude needed to move mountains.Community development

Econometric flexibility in microsimulation: an age-centred regression approach

This paper describes a strategy for estimating predictive equations that has been shown to work well in microsimulation modelling. The technique, referred to here as ?age-centred regression,? is particularly useful when the available data set for estimating a model equation is limited and the marginal effect of one or more explanatory variables might be expected to vary systematically by age. The examples used here to describe how age-centring works are taken from the labour supply equations in the Congressional Budget Office Long-Term (CBOLT) dynamic microsimulation model. By switching from a traditional single-equation approach to age-centred regression, we show that marginal effects of independent variables can vary significantly across age groups. The comparison also reveals that improvements in mean predictions by age can be achieved with little if any loss in statistical precision of coefficient estimates.age-centred regression; heterogeneity; spline; kernel

Supporting Answerers with Feedback in Social Q&A

Prior research has examined the use of Social Question and Answer (Q&A) websites for answer and help seeking. However, the potential for these websites to support domain learning has not yet been realized. Helping users write effective answers can be beneficial for subject area learning for both answerers and the recipients of answers. In this study, we examine the utility of crowdsourced, criteria-based feedback for answerers on a student-centered Q&A website, Brainly.com. In an experiment with 55 users, we compared perceptions of the current rating system against two feedback designs with explicit criteria (Appropriate, Understandable, and Generalizable). Contrary to our hypotheses, answerers disagreed with and rejected the criteria-based feedback. Although the criteria aligned with answerers' goals, and crowdsourced ratings were found to be objectively accurate, the norms and expectations for answers on Brainly conflicted with our design. We conclude with implications for the design of feedback in social Q&A.Comment: Published in Proceedings of the Fifth Annual ACM Conference on Learning at Scale, Article No. 10, London, United Kingdom. June 26 - 28, 201

The Effect of Expected Income on Individual Migration Decisions

The paper develops a tractable econometric model of optimal migration, focusing on expected income as the main economic influence on migration. The model improves on previous work in two respects: it covers optimal sequences of location decisions (rather than a single once-for-all choice), and it allows for many alternative location choices. The model is estimated using panel data from the NLSY on white males with a high school education. Our main conclusion is that interstate migration decisions are influenced to a substantial extent by income prospects. The results suggest that the link between income and migration decisions is driven both by geographic differences in mean wages and by a tendency to move in search of a better locational match when the income realization in the current location is unfavorable.

Three-dimensional models of conventional and vertical junction laser-photovoltaic energy converters

Three-dimensional models of both conventional planar junction and vertical junction photovoltaic energy converters have been constructed. The models are a set of linear partial differential equations and take into account many photoconverter design parameters. The model is applied to Si photoconverters; however, the model may be used with other semiconductors. When used with a Nd laser, the conversion efficiency of the Si vertical junction photoconverter is 47 percent, whereas the efficiency for the conventional planar Si photoconverter is only 17 percent. A parametric study of the Si vertical junction photoconverter is then done in order to describe the optimum converter for use with the 1.06-micron Nd laser. The efficiency of this optimized vertical junction converter is 44 percent at 1 kW/sq cm

Photovoltaic conversion of laser power to electrical power

Photovoltaic laser to electric converters are attractive for use with a space-based laser power station. The results of modeling studies for a silicon vertical junction converter used with a Nd laser are given. A computer code was developed for the model and this code was used to conduct a parametric study for a Si vertical junction converter consisting of one p-n junction irradiated with a Nd laser. These calculations predict an efficiency over 50 percent for an optimized converter