Exploring the Effects of Network Dynamics on Student Test Scores in a Rural Middle School

The purpose of the study was to explore network dynamics within a rural middle school and identify to what extent middle school faculty engagement in network dynamics affects student test scores. Specifically, within the study, I examined the effects of network relationships (i.e., trust and social ties), content exchange (i.e., advice ties), and student context on students’ Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test scores for Fall, Spring, and Growth. A survey was sent to 75 faculty and staff members in a rural middle school of 740 students. Network analysis by means of the ORA software toolkit, along with hierarchical linear modeling, were used for data analysis. I found that teachers’ trust, social, and advice ties were significant predictors of student achievement on MAP math, MAP reading, and MAP language test scores. Student context impacted student performance and was controlled for subsequent steps in the analysis. In the faculty level analysis, I found trust and social ties to be significant predictors of student performance in the Fall; social and advice ties significant predictors of student performance in the Spring; and trust and advice ties significant predictors of Growth. The study identifies the specific trust, social, and advice ties that affect students’ MAP test scores. Implications for practice and research are discussed

CyberCraft: Protecting Electronic Systems with Lightweight Agents

The United States military is seeking new and innovative methods for securing and maintaining its computing and network resources locally and world-wide. This document presents a work-in-progress research thrust toward building a system capable of meeting many of the US military’s network security and sustainment requirements. The system is based on a Distributed Multi-Agent System (DMAS), that is secure, small, and scalable to the large networks found in the military. It relies on a staged agent architecture capable of dynamic configuration to support changing mission environments. These agents are combined into Hierarchical Peer-to-Peer (HP2P) networks to provide scalable solutions. They employ Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) communications (with digital signatures), and support trust chain management concepts. This document, a work-in-progress, presents the motivation and current challenges in choosing a network communications architecture capable of supporting one million or more agents in a DMAS

Distinct neural mechanisms underlie the success, precision, and vividness of episodic memory

A network of brain regions have been linked with episodic memory retrieval, but limited progress has been made in identifying the contributions of distinct parts of the network. Here, we utilized continuous measures of retrieval to dissociate three components of episodic memory: retrieval success, precision, and vividness. In the fMRI scanner, participants encoded objects that varied continuously on three features: color, orientation, and location. Participants' memory was tested by having them recreate the appearance of the object features using a continuous dial, and continuous vividness judgments were recorded. Retrieval success, precision, and vividness were dissociable both behaviorally and neurally: successful versus unsuccessful retrieval was associated with hippocampal activity, retrieval precision scaled with activity in the angular gyrus, and vividness judgments tracked activity in the precuneus. The ability to dissociate these components of episodic memory reveals the benefit afforded by measuring memory on a continuous scale, allowing functional parcellation of the retrieval network.James S McDonnell Foundation Scholar Award, Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, Economic and Social Research Counci

MicroRNA history : discovery, recent applications and next frontiers

We thank the Department of Scientific Publications at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center for English language editing of the manuscript.Since 1993, when the first small non-coding RNA was identified, our knowledge about microRNAs has grown exponentially. In this review, we focus on the main progress in this field and discuss the most important findings under a historical perspective. In addition, we examine microRNAs as markers ofdisease diagnosis and prognosis, and as new therapeutic targets.M.I.A is supported by a PhD fellowship (SFRH/BD/47031/2008) from FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) from Portugal. G.A.C. is supported as a Fellow at The University of Texas MD Anderson Research Trust, as a Fellow of The University of Texas System Regents Research Scholar, and by the CLL Global Research Foundation. Work in Dr. Calin’s laboratory was supported in part by NIH, by DoD, by 2009 Seena Magowitz – Pancreatic Cancer Action Network – AACR Pilot Grant and by the U.S./European Alliance for the Therapy of CLL

Validating Perception and Use of Mobile Social Network Service: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Study

The rapid developments of Social Network Services (SNS) and mobile technology have offered opportunities to revisitseminal theories of technology use in today’s socio-technical environment. Mobile technology based SNSprovides various service channels that are highly correlated with their respective service contexts, in which culturalinfluences are omnipresent. Investigating use intention in a cross-cultural mobile SNS study implies new theoreticaldiscoveries and managerial practices. This research in progress (RIP) paper suggests that important distinctions existbetween U.S. and Chinese SNS subscribers in terms of SNS use and perceptions. Taking the perspective of SNSusers, we strive to explore the effects of cultural factors (e.g., collectivism vs. individualism) on trust formulation,degree of social awareness, and privacy concern. We examine the antecedents and consequences of legacyconstructs (e.g., technology acceptance and social capital) in SNS. This paper describes the research design to testthe research hypotheses. A triangulation methodology (i.e., qualitative and quantitative methods) is desired andproposed in the design. A discussion of research implications and business practices is also included in this RIPpaper

Trust and reputation in multi-modal sensor networks for marine environmental monitoring

Greater temporal and spatial sampling allows environmental processes and the well- being of our waterways to be monitored and characterised from previously unobtainable perspectives. It allows us to create models, make predictions and better manage our environments. New technologies are emerging in order to enable remote autonomous sensing of our water systems and subsequently meet the demands for high temporal and spatial monitoring. In particular, advances in communication and sensor technology has provided a catalyst for progress in remote monitoring of our water systems. However despite continuous improvements there are limitations with the use of this technology in marine environmental monitoring applications. We summarise these limitations in terms of scalability and reliability. In order to address these two main issues, our research proposes that environmental monitoring applications would strongly benefit from the use of a multi-modal sensor network utilising visual sensors, modelled outputs and context information alongside the more conventional in-situ wireless sensor networks. However each of these addi- tional data streams are unreliable. Hence we adapt a trust and reputation model for optimising their use to the network. For our research we use two test sites - the River Lee, Cork and Galway Bay each with a diverse range of multi-modal data sources. Firstly we investigate the coordination of multiple heterogenous information sources to allow more efficient operation of the more sophisticated in-situ analytical instrument in the network, to render the deployment of such devices more scalable. Secondly we address the issue of reliability. We investigate the ability of a multi-modal network to compensate for failure of in-situ nodes in the network, where there is no redundant identical node in the network to replace its operation. We adapt a model from the literature for dealing with the unreliability associated with each of the alternative sensor streams in order to monitor their behaviour over time and choose the most reliable output at a particular point in time in the network. We find that each of the alternative data streams demonstrates themselves to be useful tools in the network. The addition of the use of the trust and reputation model reflects their behaviour over time and demonstrates itself as a useful tool in optimising their use in the network

A review on trust propagation and opinion dynamics in social networks and group decision making frameworks

On-line platforms foster the communication capabilities of the Internet to develop large- scale influence networks in which the quality of the interactions can be evaluated based on trust and reputation. So far, this technology is well known for building trust and harness- ing cooperation in on-line marketplaces, such as Amazon (www.amazon.com) and eBay (www.ebay.es). However, these mechanisms are poised to have a broader impact on a wide range of scenarios, from large scale decision making procedures, such as the ones implied in e-democracy, to trust based recommendations on e-health context or influence and per- formance assessment in e-marketing and e-learning systems. This contribution surveys the progress in understanding the new possibilities and challenges that trust and reputation systems pose. To do so, it discusses trust, reputation and influence which are important measures in networked based communication mechanisms to support the worthiness of information, products, services opinions and recommendations. The existent mechanisms to estimate and propagate trust and reputation, in distributed networked scenarios, and how these measures can be integrated in decision making to reach consensus among the agents are analysed. Furthermore, it also provides an overview of the relevant work in opinion dynamics and influence assessment, as part of social networks. Finally, it identi- fies challenges and research opportunities on how the so called trust based network can be leveraged as an influence measure to foster decision making processes and recommen- dation mechanisms in complex social networks scenarios with uncertain knowledge, like the mentioned in e-health and e-marketing frameworks.The authors acknowledge the financial support from the EU project H2020-MSCA-IF-2016-DeciTrustNET-746398, FEDER funds provided in the National Spanish project TIN2016-75850-P , and the support of the RUDN University Program 5-100 (Russian Federation)

STRATEGI PENGUATAN MODAL SOSIAL KELOMPOK TANI DALAM PENGEMBANGAN PRODUK SAYURAN (Kasus Kelompok Tani di Kecamatan Getasan Kabupaten Semarang)

In the village, the agricultural development is not certainly oriented with the economic aspect. The intervention of society is very important which is very helpful for the citizens and the progression of agricultural itself. The purpose of this research is to analyze the existence of society, the influence of society and also to systemize the strategy that can strengthen society in developing of agricultural. The method is qualitative analysis with phenomenology approach. Qualitative analysis is done by direct observation in the field and in-depth interviews with the respondent that selected by purposive sampling. The result showed that society had formed farmers’ organization to coordinate between members. However, there are some problems that occur on this organization. The values and norms began to fade has become the major problem, other problem is sense of trust and social network utilization is not optimal. In conclusion, by using Analytic Network Process (ANP) showed that to make a progress of developing agricultural, they need to strengthen the society together with the citizens to face all the problems that may occur

Social Capital of Madura Barbers in Makassar, South Sulawesi

This study aims to understand and analyze the social capital and human capital Madura ethnic barbers in Makassar. This type of research is a qualitative case study approach. The subject was a barber Madura in Makassar. Selection of informants snowball, with a focus on issues of social capital and human capital. Researcher as research instrument. The collection of data through observation, interview and documentation, analyzed by a three-stage model of water, including data reduction, data presentation, and stage of development. The validity of data through observation extension technique, perseverance, member check and triangulation. The results showed that the social capital of the aspects of trust, people have to trust how the barber Madura. Aspects of the norm, uphold the norms as Madura seacoast, and the networking aspect, the barber form a network of kinship, ethnic, economic enterprises, and through the organization of Madura in the city. Human capital barber Madura in Makassar based on knowledge gained informally by way of self-taught, environment and hereditary from parents; aspects of the experience, gained since long (hereditary) with satisfactory results; aspects of the skills needed to improve their business and customers barber; aspects of creativity, creative enough to follow the model's hair and innovation aspects of the shaver is making progress, as part of the manual (gothok) to shaving machine (clipper)