Despite the prominence of teaching in academia, we know little about how graduate students learn to teach. We propose the concept of a teaching community network (TCN), an informal social network that facilitates the exchange of teaching-specific resources. We explore the role of TCNs through a case study of a sociology doctoral program at a large…

A review of the marketing literature suggests that students develop personal marketing or sales plans to find their first job and subsequent career. Publishers are providing students access to online resources linked to career information. However, the person who knows most about a given career is the person who is working at that job on a daily…

Bullying perpetration and victimisation are common issues confronting schools. To understand the extent of bullying in schools and differences in the experiences of boys and girls, longitudinal studies of different subtypes of bullying perpetration and victimisation are essential. The current study aims to describe the rates of bullying…

The emergence of Web 2.0 technology provides more opportunities to foster online communication and sharing in an e-learning environment. The purpose of this study was to develop a Web 2.0 annotation system, MyNote, based on the Web 2.0 core concepts which emphasize ease of access and active sharing and then to gain an understanding about people's…

Manycore systems have emerged as being one of the dominant architectural trends in next-generation computer systems. These highly parallel systems are expected to be interconnected via packet-based networks-on-chip (NoC). The complexity of such systems poses novel and exciting challenges in academia, as teaching their design requires the students…

There has been a substantial rise in the number of students enrolling in part-time taught postgraduate awards. This study investigates the reasons or motivation for students to spend significant amounts on tutorial fees and find time alongside work, family and social commitments to take a taught postgraduate award. Data were gathered through…

This ethnographic study investigated heritage language maintenance among two distinct groups of Chinese immigrant families (Mandarin and Fujianese) from the social network perspective. The results indicated that a co-ethnic network could be a double-edged sword, which works differently on children from different social classes. While the Mandarin…

Few studies identify those factors that might account for the development of social capital. Understanding those factors associated with the existence of a social tie among actors in schools is important because absent social ties, individuals do not have access to social resources. We investigate social tie formation in schools focusing on advice…

Background: Patients are more likely to be screened for colorectal cancer if it is recommended by a health care provider. Therefore, it is imperative that providers have access to the latest screening guidelines. Purpose: This practice-based project sought to identify Kentucky primary care providers' preferred sources and methods of receiving…

Public discourse suggests that volunteer work will transform youth into productive citizens by connecting youth to their communities. However, the meaning and practice of "community" is rarely defined or investigated. Using interview and observation data from a study of 47 volunteers aged 15-23, I argue that there are three different types of…

This article reports on an exploratory study that examines how social networks can be used in foreign language teaching and learning. Qualitative data including interviews, online observations, and students' responses to open-ended survey questions was collected. The data suggests that there are both advantages and challenges associated with using…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the organizational factors that influence electronic health information exchange (HIE) by medical group practices in rural areas. Methods: A purposive sample of 8 small medical group practices in 3 experimental HIE regions were interviewed to determine the extent of clinical information exchange…

Social support has achieved national attention as a key component of the mental health recovery paradigm for persons with serious mental illness (SMI). The aim of this study was to investigate the amount of variance accounted for by four social tie characteristics (social network orientation, emotional support, tangible support, and negative…

In October, Myanmar's pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, got a quirky request on YouTube. A hyperactive instructor in a plaid jacket posted a video inviting her to do a Skype interview with his "World Regions" geography class at Virginia Tech. Ms. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate often compared to Nelson Mandela, might have…

In wireless sensor networks, more so generally than in other types of distributed systems, clock synchronization is crucial since by having this service available, several applications such as media access protocols, object tracking, or data fusion, would improve their performance. In this dissertation, we propose a set of algorithms to achieve…