A social network represents the interconnected relations among people. In a knowledge-intensive era as of now, people have less capability to resolve more ill-defined and complicated problems. Several researches indicate that under such a circumstance people are more likely to turn to other people through their social networks than to consult sources like databases and documents. Searching in social networks is therefore an essential issue. In addition, typical social networks are neither regular nor completely random ones, but instead, they are mixtures between these two, which are referred to as small worlds. Consequently, such an issue is also called the small world search. Search mechanism in the small world can be classified into single-attribute approach (e.g. best connected) and multiple-attribute approach (e.g. social distance). Relevant research works, however, are mostly based on acquaintance networks. And one of the problems to search in acquaintance networks is its high attrition rate that hinders further search and results in low success rate. On the other hand, in recent years several researchers focus on the constitution and propagation of trust networks that represent the trustworthy relations among people. Since trust implies much closer to what we mean friends rather than acquaintance, we believe that the attrition rate in trust networks should be lower than in acquaintance networks. Based on this belief, we propose to search in trust networks rather than acquaintance networks to enhance the quality of the search process. We design three experiments to compare the search performance in the trust networks and in the acquaintance networks. Experiment I is to examine the ¡§social-distance¡¨ search strategy we adopt in the search. The second experiment evaluates the performance comparison without considering attrition. Finally, we consider the attrition rate and attrition rate difference for the comparison. The results show that as long as the attrition rate difference is beyond 10%, search in trust networks performs better than in acquaintance networks. It therefore justifies the feasibility of our proposed approach in gaining good search performance.

In this study, we present the implementation and experimental analysis of a modeling approach for analyzing tactical level land combat to generate information for weapon and ammunition planning. The discrete-time stochastic model (DSM), which can handle small and moderately large force levels, is based on single shot kill probabilities. Forces are assumed to be heterogeneous on both sides, and both directed and area fire types are modeled by means of combinatorial analysis. DSM considers overkills and can handle noncombat loss and engagement processes, discrete reinforcements, force combinations and divisions. In addition to experimenting with DSM, we estimate attrition rate coefficients used in Lanchester combat models, such that the two models will yield similar figures for force levels throughout the combat.

Educators at a public high school in Southeastern United States depend on mentor teachers to minimize the attrition rate among beginning teachers, yet the strategies implemented by mentors lack definition and clarity. The purpose of this study was to explore mentor teachers' perceptions of effective mentoring strategies and their needs when mentoring new teachers. Maslow's humanistic learning theory guided this bounded basic qualitative study. The research questions focused on the mentoring strategies mentor teachers perceived as effective and the needs of the mentors. Ten high school mentor teachers, who currently mentor new teachers, were purposefully selected to participate in individual and focus group interviews. Precoding, open and axial coding were used to inductively analyze the data. The results showed mentors promote school culture, are a source of information, build relationships, use data to drive discussion, provide opportunity for reflection, conduct observations, connect theory with practice, and model professional behavior as effective strategies. Mentor teachers indicated that effective communication is crucial when mentoring new teachers. Additionally, they need specific skills to help beginning teachers better understand the reality of teaching and address their unrealistic expectations of the profession. Based on the findings a 3-day professional development for mentor teachers was developed to address mentors' needs. This endeavor may contribute to positive social change when district administration provides mentor teachers with professional development to enrich their mentoring strategies which in turn may address the challenges new teachers experience and reduce the attrition rate.

Magister Public Health - MPH / This is a qualitative study, the aim of which is to explore experiences influencing the academic performance of 1st Year nursing students at the Western Cape College of Nursing, South Africa, during 2008 when the College was confronted with unprecedented failure rates among 1st Year students. It describes the College's collaboration with a higher education institution and the changes that emanated from this collaboration. The influence of situational factors on 1st Year nursing students is explored. These include the legacy of the inequality of past learning opportunities, institutional factors which hamper students' sense of belonging, and the social and academic integration of students into their learning environment. The methodology used in the process of exploring these factors included focus group discussions with students and in-depth interviews with staff in order to explore their respective perceptions of the problem. From this it is hoped that the quality of human resources for health will be enhanced. / South Africa

<p>This is a qualitative study, the aim of which is to explore experiences influencing the<br /> academic performance of 1st Year nursing students at the Western Cape College of Nursing,<br /> South Africa, during 2008 when the College was confronted with unprecedented failure rates<br /> among 1st Year students. It describes the College‟s collaboration with a higher education<br /> institution and the changes that emanated from this collaboration. The influence of<br /> situational factors on 1st Year nursing students is explored. These include the legacy of the<br /> inequality of past learning opportunities, institutional factors which hamper students‟ sense of<br /> belonging, and the social and academic integration of students into their learning<br /> environment. The methodology used in the process of exploring these factors included focus<br /> group discussions with students and in-depth interviews with staff in order to explore their<br /> respective perceptions of the problem. From this it is hoped that the quality of human<br /> resources for health will be enhanced.</p>

<p>This is a qualitative study, the aim of which is to explore experiences influencing the<br /> academic performance of 1st Year nursing students at the Western Cape College of Nursing,<br /> South Africa, during 2008 when the College was confronted with unprecedented failure rates<br /> among 1st Year students. It describes the College‟s collaboration with a higher education<br /> institution and the changes that emanated from this collaboration. The influence of<br /> situational factors on 1st Year nursing students is explored. These include the legacy of the<br /> inequality of past learning opportunities, institutional factors which hamper students‟ sense of<br /> belonging, and the social and academic integration of students into their learning<br /> environment. The methodology used in the process of exploring these factors included focus<br /> group discussions with students and in-depth interviews with staff in order to explore their<br /> respective perceptions of the problem. From this it is hoped that the quality of human<br /> resources for health will be enhanced.</p>