1,721,352 research outputs found
Peer Support : relations between the context, process and outcomes for the students who are supported.
Get PDFIn this paper an investigation of the outcomes of a Peer Support scheme for the students who are supported is reported. It was found that attendance at peer learning was positively and significantly correlated to academic performance. This relationship was found even when prior levels of academic performance were controlled for. However, it was also found that students who attended peer learning adopted statistically significant less meaning orientated approaches to studying over the course of the academic year. It is argued that this is an indication that the quality of the learning of these students fell. Qualitative evidence suggests that this change in approach was in response to an increased awareness of the assessment demands of the course and that these students had become more strategically orientated in their approach to studying as a result of their attendance at Peer Support. It is argued that these results suggest that the outcomes and operation of this Peer Support scheme were influenced by the context in which it operated. Two implications of these findings are discussed
Online peer assessment: helping to facilitate learning through participation
No full textThe focus of this paper is on the combination of enquiry-based learning, information literacy and e-learning and how they are embedded in an online peer assessment exercise. What it shall present is a structure and strategy that aids student learning in the short and long-term. Ninety eight students completed a questionnaire before and after a three-week online peer assessment exercise during a first year undergraduate research and study skills module. The results demonstrate that a significant number of students valued the design of the exercise and the benefits it can have on their future learning and development. The paper concludes by suggesting that new and innovative ways of assessment are needed to keep engaging students and develop their learning in different ways
Some studies on Wirless Mesh Net Works (WMNS)
No full textWireless Mesh Networks is a new exciting technology that is anticipated to resolve the limitations and to significantly improve the performance of adhoc networks ,wireless local area networks(WLANS),wireless personal area networks(WPANS), and wireless metropolitan area networks(WMANs).Wireless Mesh Network is a decentralized networking technology that is currently being adapted to connect peer-to-peer clients and large-scale backbone networks. It will deliver wireless services for a large variety of applications in personal, local, campus, and metropolitan areas. Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) consist of mesh routers and mesh clients, where mesh routers have minimal mobility and form the backbone of WMNs. They provide network access for both mesh and conventional clients. Mesh routers have bridging and gateway functionality that in turn helps in the integration of WMNs with other existing networks such as internet, cellular, IEEE 802.15, IEEE 802.16, sensor networks , etc. However mesh clients can be either stationary or mobile and form a client mesh network among themselves and with mesh routers.
In WMNs, nodes are comprised of mesh routers and mesh clients. Each node operates not only as a host but also as a router, forwarding packets on behalf of other nodes that may not be within direct wireless transmission range of their destinations. A WMN is dynamically self-organized and self-configured, with the nodes in the network automatically establishing and maintaining mesh connectivity among themselves (creating, in effect, an ad hoc network). This feature brings many advantages to WMNs such as low up-front cost, easy network maintenance, robustness, and reliable service coverage. Conventional nodes (e.g., desktops, laptops, PDAs, Pocket PCs, phones, etc.) equipped with wireless network interface cards (NICs) can connect directly to wireless mesh routers. Customers without wireless NICs can access WMNs by connecting to
wireless mesh routers through, for example, Ethernet. Thus, WMNs will greatly help the users to be always-on-line anywhere anytime. Moreover, the gateway/bridge functionalities in mesh routers enable the integration of WMNs with various existing wireless networks such as cellular, wireless sensor, wireless-fidelity (Wi-Fi), worldwide inter-operability for microwave access (Wi MAX), Wi Media networks. Consequently, through an integrated WMN, the users of existing network can be provided with otherwise impossible services of these networks.
WMN is a promising wireless technology for numerous applications, e.g., broadband home networking, community and neighbourhood networks, enterprise networking, building automation, etc. It is gaining significant attention as a possible way for cash strapped Internet service providers (ISPs), carriers, and others to roll out robust and reliable wireless broadband service access in a way that needs minimal up-front investments. With the capability of self-organization and self-configuration, WMNs can be deployed incrementally, one node at a time, as needed.
Mesh networks provide a number of applications. For example in difficult environments such as emergency situations, tunnels, oil rigs, battlefield surveillance, high speed mobile video applications on board public transport or real time racing car telemetry. Some current applications are:
1. U.S. military forces are now using wireless mesh networking to connect their computers, mainly ruggedized laptops, in field operations.
2. Electric meters now being deployed on residences transfer their readings from one to another and eventually to the central office for billing without the need for human meter readers or the need to connect the meters with cables.
3. The laptops in the one laptop per child program use wireless mesh networking to enable students to exchange files and get on the Internet even though they lack wired or cell phone or other physical connections in their area.
4. Broadband home networking.
5. Community and neighbourhood networking.
6. Enterprise networking.
7. Metropolitan area networks.
8. Transportation systems
9. Building automation
10. Health and medical systems.
11. Security surveillance systems
12. P2P Communications
However, to make a WMN be all it can be, considerable research efforts are still needed. For example, the available MAC and routing protocols applied to WMNs do not have enough scalability; the throughput drops significantly as the number of nodes or hops in a WMN increases. Similar problems exist in other networking protocols. Also a number of research challenges remain in all protocol layers. Consequently, all existing protocols from the application layer to transport, network MAC, and physical layers need to be enhanced or re-invented. Researchers have started to revisit the protocol design of existing wireless networks, especially of IEEE 802.11 networks, ad hoc networks, and wireless sensor networks, from the perspective of WMNs. Industrial standards groups are also actively working on new specifications for mesh networking. For example, IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15, and IEEE 802.16 all have established sub-working groups to focus on new standards for WMNs.
New modulation schemes need to be developed in order to achieve higher transmission rate. For e.g., new wideband transmission schemes other than OFDM and UWB are needed.
Advanced antenna processing including directional, smart and multiple antenna technologies is further investigated, since their complexity and cost are still too high for wide commercialization.
Several other efforts are needed in fields like flexible spectrum management, cross layer design etc
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Investigations of non-crystalline polymeric semi-conductors.
No full textThe thesis is divided into five chapters. The introductory chapter deals with the introduction to conductive polymers, semi-conductors, charge transfer complexes, radical ion compounds and scope of the present investigation. The physics of polymer conductors and semi-conductors is given in the chapter-2, where the foundation for the present investigation has been laid. Theory of conduction and mechanism of electric conductivity in metallopolymers is discussed in this chapter.
The Chapter-3 deals with the experimental procedures and results, besides details of the experimental setup. The result of the investigations is discussed in chapter-4.The work concludes with possible directions for further investigations in the last chapter
PEER SOCIALIZATION TO BINGE DRINKING IN EARLY ADULTHOOD: EFFECTS OF IMPULSIVITY, DELINQUENCY AND CHILDHOOD ADHD
Get PDFNo prospective longitudinal studies have tested whether and how social networks contribute to alcohol-related outcomes for children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The current study examined peer alcohol socialization in young adults with and without childhood ADHD. The presence of heavy and light drinking friends in the social network were examined as mediators of the association between adolescent behavioral dysregulation (i.e. impulsivity and delinquency) and young adult alcohol use (i.e. binge drinking and quantity/frequency) for individuals with, and without, childhood ADHD. Prediction from the number and proportion of drinking friends were tested to determine which operationalization explained more variance in young adult alcohol use.
Participants were 94 individuals with childhood ADHD and 68 demographically-similar individuals without ADHD from the Pittsburgh ADHD Longitudinal Study. At age 25, but not in earlier adulthood or for quantity/frequency, individuals with ADHD reported less frequent binge drinking than individuals without ADHD. Number and proportion of drinking friends between ages 21 and 24 predicted age 25 binge drinking for both groups but only age 25 quantity/frequency of alcohol use for individuals with ADHD. The number/proportion of light-drinking friends was not protective against alcohol use for either group and alcohol use consumption in the social network did not mediate the association between behavioral dysregulation and alcohol use.
Overall, alcohol use was prevalent in early adulthood for both groups. However, the stronger associations between alcohol-consuming friendships and quantity/frequency of alcohol use in the ADHD group suggests that individuals with ADHD histories are more strongly influenced by social networks conducive to alcohol use than individuals without ADHD. Moreover, higher density of alcohol-involved friendships, which may affect the proportion of social time allocated to drinking opportunities, rather than number of friendships involving alcohol, may be most important. Future research may be aided by methodological improvements to distinguish selection and influence processes, consideration of college attendance, vocational factors, and ADHD symptom persistence, and other facets of social influence such as quality of relationships and alcohol use in romantic partnerships
Online social support: an exploratory study of breastfeeding women’s use of internet and mobile applications to obtain peer support
Get PDFThis thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Online social support is reported to be used by a number of people to obtain social interaction and exchange communication as a way to buffer stressful situations. Breastfeeding women experience a significant change in their lives and routine which a number of women find it stressful for various reasons. Research shows that breastfeeding women use the Internet to obtain support, however little is known about how breastfeeding women use online social support and their perceptions, concerns and expectations about using it.
An interpretive approach using qualitative methods was adopted in this research to obtain and analyse the data acquired through interviews and observations. The framework proposed by the Social Cognitive theory was used to conduct this research and to provide insights into online social support in a breastfeeding peer support context. The results in this research indicate that in spite of face-to-face interventions being favoured, online social support is perceived as a helpful alternative support with the potential to positively influence breastfeeding self-efficacy. A number of similar characteristics of face-to-face support were found to be present in online social support, such as emotional and informational support, empathy and empowerment. Online social support was perceived as offering additional features to traditional support including convenience of use, connection with peers and supporters at any time of the day, and the opportunity to express emotions and issues textually. Certain concerns were also associated to using online social support to support breastfeeding women, which need to be taken into consideration by providers of online social support. These included the need for training volunteers in this type of media, confidentiality and trustworthiness of the information available online and issues related to digital divide. These findings are useful to further the understanding of the implications of online social support in self-efficacy and the associated outcomes. Policy makers, social scientists and breastfeeding support organisations can use the findings in this research to develop future breastfeeding promotion strategies and interventions. Ultimately, breastfeeding women benefit from the findings of this research, through the implementation of online social support interventions addressing the issues raised in this research. These women will consequently have access to more services and applications, as well as engage with volunteers or clinicians trained to fulfil their needs over an alternative channel
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