Lawrence Kohlberg was a moral philosopher and student of child development who died in 1987. He was at one time, director of Harvard's Center for Moral Education. His special area of interest was the moral development of children how they develop a sense of right, wrong, and justice. Kohlberg observed that growing children advance through definite stages of moral development in a manner similar...

In Gibb’s theory of moral development Piagetian ideas concerning egocentrism play an important role. Based on these ideas Gibbs offers a detailed analysis of transitions in moral development. However, Gibbs still fails to utilize the full potential offered by Piaget’s equilibration theory, because he does not generalize the idea of overcoming egocentrism, as an important mechanism, to all stage...

Given any $$\alpha \in [0,1]$$ , an $$ -constant-sum game (abbreviated as -CS game) on a finite set of players, N, is function that assigns real number to coalition $$S\subseteq N$$ such the sum worth S and its complementary $$N\backslash S$$ times grand coalition. This class contains constant-sum games Khmelnitskaya (Int J Game Theory 32:223–227, 2003) (for = 1$$ ) threats (Kohlberg Neyman, Ga...

INTRODUCTION Emergency medical services (EMS) agencies transport a significant majority of patients with low acuity and non-emergent conditions to local emergency departments (ED), affecting the entire emergency care system's capacity and performance. Opportunities exist for alternative models that integrate technology, telehealth, and more appropriately aligned patient navigation. While a limi...

Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, my husband Liwen and my son Ethan. They have always been there for me. Their endless love and support kept me going for the whole idea of " Ph. D. " v Acknowledgements