Due to the advancement of the Internet, information delivery has been forever changed. Technology rapidly outpaces traditional methods of conveying educational material. As a result, educators must seek non-traditional methods to deliver information. The use of social media outlets such as Facebook is one avenue of information delivery. The purpose of this study was to determine the uses and gratifications of the followers of the Trinity Waters Facebook page. A qualitative research design and purposeful sampling of (n=9) respondents were employed in this study. A semi-structured interview protocol was utilized in order to direct the study‘s research objectives. Respondents‘ desire increased availability of information and greater opportunities to establish networks with contemporaries. In addition, respondents sought practical information that could be applied to their daily pursuits. This study showed that followers of the Trinity Waters Facebook page want a greater amount of educational information disseminated through the page. As a result of this study, Trinity Waters should continue to seek out and distribute information that is significant and specific to the Trinity River basin. Trinity Waters should continue to pursue and disseminate information on current legislative or political actions that are specific to the Trinity River basin and also the state and federal levels. Events, meetings or seminars pertaining to the Trinity River basin and conservation efforts should be actively promoted by Trinity Waters via the Facebook platform. This study should be replicated with other extension programs throughout the state and nation. Further research should also be conducted on the implication of Facebook and social media in extension education settings.

The concept of networking has seen a sustained growth of interest of late from academics and practicing managers. The purpose of this study is to contribute to understan ding the extent to which business owners and senior managers within Ethekwini realize the importance of networking and, further, reveal the extent of their willingness to form relationships with other business owners. In pursuit of this broad aim the research made use of a sample size of 206 respondents, who were asked, and agreed, to complete a questionnaire comprising 25 questions. The questions in the questionnaire were structured in such a way that most of the salient factors that could affect one’s willingness to form relationships with others were reflected in the responses. The targeted population represented a variety of business owners and managers of different age and race groups. Most of the questionnaires were self-administered, and due to time constraints they were also completed using the services of four field workers. The quantitative method of data analysis was used to compare and contrast responses given by the respondents. The findings may be summarized in four statements. First, most business people are not members of bodies representing businesses like theirs and yet they are willing to become members. Most business people are ignorant of the existence of bodies representing businesses like theirs. Second, while business owners and senior managers in Ethekwini have great confidence in the future of Ethekwini economy, they seem to be feeling so individually, and not as members of network groups. Third, most of the respondents except those that are members of bodies representing bodies of businesses like theirs, do not talk to competitors. This is a clear indication that contrary to past research findings, some businesses do not feel that they can benefit from sharing information with competitors. Fourth, business owners and senior managers who have low self-confidence are less likely to network. They tend to keep information to themselves, perhaps, because of low self -confidence, not out of greed. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2009.

Checkpointing and rollback recovery are well-known techniques for coping with failures in distributed systems. Future generation Supercomputers will be message passing distributed systems consisting of millions of processors. As the number of processors grow, failure rate also grows. Thus, designing efficient checkpointing and recovery algorithms for coping with failures in such large systems is important for these systems to be fully utilized. We presented a novel communication-induced checkpointing algorithm which helps in reducing contention for accessing stable storage to store checkpoints. Under our algorithm, a process involved in a distributed computation can independently initiate consistent global checkpointing by saving its current state, called a tentative checkpoint. Other processes involved in the computation come to know about the consistent global checkpoint initiation through information piggy-backed with the application messages or limited control messages if necessary. When a process comes to know about a new consistent global checkpoint initiation, it takes a tentative checkpoint after processing the message. The tentative checkpoints taken can be flushed to stable storage when there is no contention for accessing stable storage. The tentative checkpoints together with the message logs stored in the stable storage form a consistent global checkpoint. Ad hoc networks consist of a set of nodes that can form a network for communication with each other without the aid of any infrastructure or human intervention. Nodes are energy-constrained and hence routing algorithm designed for these networks should take this into consideration. We proposed two routing protocols for mobile ad hoc networks which prevent nodes from broadcasting route requests unnecessarily during the route discovery phase and hence conserve energy and prevent contention in the network. One is called Triangle Based Routing (TBR) protocol. The other routing protocol we designed is called Routing Protocol with Selective Forwarding (RPSF). Both of the routing protocols greatly reduce the number of control packets which are needed to establish routes between pairs of source nodes and destination nodes. As a result, they reduce the energy consumed for route discovery. Moreover, these protocols reduce congestion and collision of packets due to limited number of nodes retransmitting the route requests.

Many interesting theoretical problems arise from computer networks. In this thesis we will consider three of them: algorithms and data structures for problems involving distances in networks (in particular compact routing schemes, distance labels, and distance oracles), algorithms for wireless capacity and scheduling problems, and algorithms for optimizing iBGP overlays in autonomous systems on the Internet. While at first glance these problems may seem extremely different, they are similar in that they all attempt to look at a previously studied networking problem in new, more realistic frameworks. In other words, they are all as much about new models for old problems as they are about new algorithms. In this thesis we will define these models, design algorithms for them, and prove hardness and impossibility results for these three types of problems.

The proliferation of social networking sites (SNS) over the last 20 years is a techno-social phenomenon of our age. Since it emerged in 2004, Facebook, the most popular social network in the world, steadily outcompeted its rivals in the overwhelming majority of countries. However, there are a few exceptions, Russia being one of them: Vkontakte, country’s local SNS, has remained the most popular site of this kind in Russia. The aim of this master thesis is to discover what motivates Russian SNS users to prefer a domestic networking site over its global rival Facebook. Uses and gratification theory and social network theory form a theoretical framework of this study and guide the choice of methodology, as well as the process of analysis and discussion. Qualitative methodological approach, and in particular interviews and comparative case study, was applied in this research. Thus, 14 interviewees were recruited and asked about their experiences of Vkontakte and Facebook usage. In addition, the comparative analysis of both sites was conducted in order to establish the differences in tools, features and services which potentially could influence the usage patterns of Russian SNS users. It was discovered that the difference in a number and quality of tools on Facebook and Vkontakte, primarily video and audio, significantly influence the frequency of usage and time spent on these sites. Moreover, it was established that the networks of Russian users on Vkontakte contain both weak and strong ties, while Facebook networks contain mostly weak ties, which makes global network less interesting and attractive for country’s users. And finally, the study suggests that although both sites have noticeable disadvantages, users tend to think of Vkontakte as a more favorable SNS even in this respect and highlight that their dissatisfaction with some aspects of Facebook usage was greater than that of Vkontakte. The study provides novel information regarding under-researched topic of SNS usage in Russia, and thus contributes to the existing academic works in the field.

Business co-operation in the small firm sector has in recent years been the beneficiary of both considerable academic debate and public sector funding for its facilitation. This thesis reviews the pertinent literature in the fields of business co-operation, trust, commitment and personality psychology. The limitations of existing networking - co-operation SME research are identified, and in particular the dearth of empirical based research. Where such research exists, no attempt is made to isolate variables which might determine whether individuals are likely to co-operate with others, and / or the likely success of their co-operative activities. As a means of addressing these perceived flaws in the literature the potential antecedent role of owner-manager's personality, business related group affiliation, and owner-manager's and firm's demographics are examined in relation to their propensity to co-operate with others. A polymorphous definition of SME sector co-operation is adopted in which it is possible for actors to co-operate with varying parties and in a number of capacities. Extensive use is made of univariate chi-square and multivariate logistic regression techniques, with a logistic regression model ultimately being extended for each of the types of co-operation identified. The second phase of the empirical research conducted is focused upon the individual business network. Potential antecedents to small firm network success are examined at the aggregate level, and recommendations offered which network actors and facilitators can utilise as a means of heightening the likelihood of success within their own groups. The thesis closes with a re-examination of the hypothesis, drawing of conclusions relating to them, and the identification of areas for further research.

The use of social networking sites (SNS) is a relatively new field of academic enquiry. Growing concern over adolescents’ and children’s internet use has spawned research on the possible effects of internet use on adolescent and child development (Shen, Liu, & Wang, 2013). This research thesis is designed to explore what social networking sites and apps are being used by children in two UK secondary schools. To investigate when they are accessing their social networks, to measure what extent the use of SNS occupies young people’s minds and to gain a deeper understanding of the experience of being in secondary school, immersed in the use of social networking. A mixed methods, two phase, research design was employed. The first phase of this study employed the use of questionnaires incorporating an adapted internet addiction Test (Young, 1998). The 1148 participants in phase 1 were from across 2 UK secondary schools, in Years 9, 10 and 11 (aged 13 – 16 years old). Phase 2 of this research thesis identified 8 individuals (4 males, 4 females) who scored highly on the adapted internet addiction test (Young, 1998) used in phase 1. These participants took part in semi-structured interviews which were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The results of this study showcase a breadth and depth of data regarding the uses of SNS. Phase 1 of this study indicated that 2% of participants are experiencing significant problems in their life because of their social networking usage (SNS occupies their minds to a severe extent). 41% of participants reported experiencing occasional or frequent problems because of social networking (SNS occupies their minds to a moderate extent). 45% of participants may use social networking a bit too long at times, but they have control over their usage (SNS occupies their minds to a mild extent). 12% of participants report that it is very rare for social networking use to have any negative impact on their life (SNS occupies their minds to a normal extent). Phase 2 results identified a number of key themes experienced by children whose minds are occupied by SNS to a moderate or severe level, including: *Connection to others: Social connection; Relationship maintenance; The monitoring of others *Identity and Construction of the Self: Change over time; A part of you; The role of parent *Cyber-bullying: Group Judgement & Reaction; A venue/channel for negativity; ‘Blocking’ as protection *From online to in-school: Interference of work; Threats, intimidation or violence. This research thesis adds to the growing body of research regarding the uses and experiences of social networking sites. This thesis concludes with an exploration of the limitations of this research, future directions for study and the implications for educational psychology practice.

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) has become increasing prevalent in both the academic and industrial communities. A new class of system built on SDNs, which we refer to as SDN-Enabled, provide programmatic interfaces between the SDN controller and the larger distributed system. Existing tools for SDN verification and analysis are insufficiently expressive to capture this composition of a network and a larger distributed system. Generic verification systems are an infeasible solution, due to their monolithic approach to modeling and rapid state-space explosion. In this thesis we present a new compositional approach to system modeling and verification that is particularly appropriate for SDN-Enabled systems. Compositional models may have sub-components (such as switches and end-hosts) modified, added, or removed with only minimal, isolated changes. Furthermore, invariants may be defined over the composed system that restrict its behavior, allowing assumptions to be added or removed and for components to be abstracted away into the service guarantee that they provide (such as guaranteed packet arrival). Finally, compositional modeling can minimize the size of the state space to be verified by taking advantage of known model structure. We also present the Verificare platform, a tool chain for building compositional models in our modeling language and automatically compiling them to multiple off-the-shelf verification tools. The compiler outputs a minimal, calculus-oblivious formalism, which is accessed by plugins via a translation API. This enables a wide variety of requirements to be verified. As new tools become available, the translator can easily be extended with plugins to support them.

As a recently emerging network paradigm, Software-Defined Networking (SDN) has attracted considerable attention from both industry and academia. The most significant advantage of SDN is that the paradigm disassociates the control logic (i.e., control plane) from the forwarding process (i.e., data plane), which are usually integrated into traditional network devices. Thanks to the property of centralized control, SDN enables the flexibility of dispatching flow policies to simplify network management. However, this property also makes the SDN environment vulnerable, which will cause network paralysis when the sole SDN controller runs malfunction. Although several works have been done on deploying multiple controllers to address the failure of a centralized controller, their drawbacks are leading to inefficiency and balance loss of controller utilization, provoking resource idling as well as being incapable to suffice flow outburst. Additionally, the network operators often put a great deal of effort into discovering failure nodes to recover their networks, which can be mitigated by applying failure detection before the network deterioration occurs. Network traffic prediction can serve as a practical approach to evaluate the state of the OpenFlow-based switch and consequently detect SDN node failures in advance. As far as prediction solution is concerned, most researchers investigate either statistical modeling approaches, such as Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA), or Artificial Neural Network (ANN) methods, like Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) Neural Network. Nonetheless, few of them study the model merging these two mechanisms regarding multi-step prediction. This thesis proposes a novel system associated with Network Function Virtualization (NFV) technique to enhance the resilience of SDN network. A hybrid prediction model based on the combination of SARIMA and LSTM is introduced as part of the detection module of this system, where the potential node breakdown can be readily determined so that it can implement smart prevention and fast recovery without human interaction. The results show the proposed scheme improves the performance concerning time complexity compared with that of previous work, reaching up to 95% accuracy while shortening the detection and recovery time by the new combined prediction model.

Researchers have suggested that social networking sites are especially suited to creating a two-way communication with audiences as described by Kent & Taylor’s dialogic communication theory. However, researchers have also shown that most organizations are failing to actually create this type of dialogue with their followers on SNS. This leads to the question: why are organizations failing to realize this potential? In this study, I consider one possible reason: that organizations are following advice offered online by self-appointed “experts” on SNS strategy and that advice is not effective. I performed a content analysis of 29 websites that promise easy tips to increase social media engagement, identified by their placement at the top of Google search listings, then tested some of the most common advice from these sites on the Facebook and Twitter pages of a group of state-level advocacy organizations to see whether that advice is effective in increasing engagement or overall reach. I found many sites advising organizations to interact with followers, create engaging content and to include visual elements in posts. However, the recommendations were often hedged with limitations, or backed up by unreliable statistics or anecdotal evidence. My own experiment showed that using a call to action increased engagement on Twitter and including a photo increased reach on Facebook, but no other test variable had an effect on impressions, reach or engagement on either site. This suggests that the advice offered online is not reliable, and organizations may fail to create dialogic communication with their followers because they are relying on faulty advice to build their SNS strategies.