WorldWideScience

Sample records for structured peer-to-peer systems

  1. Efficient Skyline Computation in Structured Peer-to-Peer Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cui, Bin; Chen, Lijiang; Xu, Linhao

    2009-01-01

    An increasing number of large-scale applications exploit peer-to-peer network architecture to provide highly scalable and flexible services. Among these applications, data management in peer-to-peer systems is one of the interesting domains. In this paper, we investigate the multidimensional...... skyline computation problem on a structured peer-to-peer network. In order to achieve low communication cost and quick response time, we utilize the iMinMax(\\theta ) method to transform high-dimensional data to one-dimensional value and distribute the data in a structured peer-to-peer network called BATON....... Thereafter, we propose a progressive algorithm with adaptive filter technique for efficient skyline computation in this environment. We further discuss some optimization techniques for the algorithm, and summarize the key principles of our algorithm into a query routing protocol with detailed analysis...

  2. Preventing DoS attacks in peer-to-peer media streaming systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Conner, William; Nahrstedt, Klara; Gupta, Indranil

    2006-01-01

    This paper presents a framework for preventing both selfishness and denial-of-service attacks in peer-to-peer media streaming systems. Our framework, called Oversight, achieves prevention of these undesirable activities by running a separate peer-to-peer download rate enforcement protocol along with the underlying peer-to-peer media streaming protocol. This separate Oversight protocol enforces download rate limitations on each participating peer. These limitations prevent selfish or malicious nodes from downloading an overwhelming amount of media stream data that could potentially exhaust the entire system. Since Oversight is based on a peer-to-peer architecture, it can accomplish this enforcement functionality in a scalable, efficient, and decentralized way that fits better with peer-to-peer media streaming systems compared to other solutions based on central server architectures. As peer-to-peer media streaming systems continue to grow in popularity, the threat of selfish and malicious peers participating in such large peer-to-peer networks will continue to grow as well. For example, since peer-to-peer media streaming systems allow users to send small request messages that result in the streaming of large media objects, these systems provide an opportunity for malicious users to exhaust resources in the system with little effort expended on their part. However, Oversight addresses these threats associated with selfish or malicious peers who cause such disruptions with excessive download requests. We evaluated our Oversight solution through simulations and our results show that applying Oversight to peer-to-peer media streaming systems can prevent both selfishness and denial-of-service attacks by effectively limiting the download rates of all nodes in the system.

  3. Mathematical Framework For Analyzing Incentives In Peer-To-Peer

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The existence and performance of peer-to-peer systems depend on the contribution of resources .... analysis in P2P based on game strategy. The entire P2P ... a robust P2P systems, every peer must be made to contribute by designing efficient free ..... Currently, all P2P can be classified based on structure as structured and ...

  4. Expertise-based peer selection in Peer-to-Peer networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Haase, Peter; Siebes, Ronny; Harmelen, van Frank

    2007-01-01

    Peer-to-Peer systems have proven to be an effective way of sharing data. Modern protocols are able to efficiently route a message to a given peer. However, determining the destination peer in the first place is not always trivial. We propose a model in which peers advertise their expertise in

  5. Expertise-based peer selection in Peer-to-Peer networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Haase, Peter; Siebes, Ronny; Harmelen, van Frank

    2007-01-01

    Peer-to-Peer systems have proven to be an effective way of sharing data. Modern protocols are able to efficiently route a message to a given peer. However, determining the destination peer in the first place is not always trivial. We propose a a message to a given peer. However, determining the

  6. Peer-to-peer computing (Introduction to Topic 7)

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Montresor, A.; Epema, D.H.J.; Jelasity, M.; Jorba, J.; Luque, E.; Margalef, T.; Benítez, D.

    2008-01-01

    After a decade of intensive investigation, peer-to-peer computing has established itself as an accepted research field in the general area of distributed systems. peer-to-peer computing can be seen as the democratization of computing-overthrowing the old regime of hierarchies as in client-server

  7. HyperPeer

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larsen, R.D.; Bouvin, N.O.

    2004-01-01

    This paper presents HyperPeer, a framework for developing peer-to-peer based hypermedia. The distribution of hypermedia structures is handled through a peer-to-peer (P2P) network, allowing for highly scalable sharing between users. A central challenge of all decentralized systems is to locate...

  8. Peer-to-Peer Service Sharing Platforms

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersson, Magnus; Hjalmarsson, Anders; Avital, Michel

    2013-01-01

    The sharing economy has been growing continuously in the last decade thanks to the proliferation of internet-based platforms that allow people to disintermediate the traditional commercial channels and to share excess resources and trade with one another effectively at a reasonably low transaction...... cost. Whereas early peer-to-peer platforms were designed to enable file sharing and goods trading, we recently witness the emergence of a new breed of peer-to-peer platforms that are designed for ordinary service sharing. Ordinary services entail intangible provisions and are defined as an economic...... activity that generates immaterial benefits and does not result in ownership of material goods. Based on a structured analysis of 41 internet-based rideshare platforms, we explore and layout the unique characteristics of peer-to-peer service sharing platforms based on three distinct temporal patterns...

  9. Privacy and Cooperation in Peer-to-Peer Systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zeilemaker, N.S.M.

    2015-01-01

    P2P networks employ the resources available at peers to reduce the load at, or eliminate the need for a server. In order to achieve these goals, protocols are implemented which aim to allow peers to collaborate efficiently. However, these same protocols can make peers an easy target, as their

  10. Peer to Peer Information Retrieval: An Overview

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Tigelaar, A.S.; Hiemstra, D.; Trieschnigg, D.

    2012-01-01

    Peer-to-peer technology is widely used for file sharing. In the past decade a number of prototype peer-to-peer information retrieval systems have been developed. Unfortunately, none of these have seen widespread real- world adoption and thus, in contrast with file sharing, information retrieval is

  11. Peer to Peer Information Retrieval: An Overview

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Tigelaar, A.S.; Hiemstra, Djoerd; Trieschnigg, Rudolf Berend

    Peer-to-peer technology is widely used for file sharing. In the past decade a number of prototype peer-to-peer information retrieval systems have been developed. Unfortunately, none of these have seen widespread real- world adoption and thus, in contrast with file sharing, information retrieval is

  12. Surveillance of peer to peer payment systems and peer to peer lending platforms

    OpenAIRE

    Faia, Ester

    2014-01-01

    Financial innovation is, as usual, faster than regulation. New forms of speculation and intermediation are rapidly emerging. Largely as a result of the evaporation of trust in financial intermediation, an exponentially increasing role is being played by the so-called peer to peer intermediation. The most prominent example at the moment is Bitcoin. If one expects that shocks in these markets could destabilize also traditional financial markets, then it will be necessary to extend regulatory me...

  13. Simple Peer-to-Peer SIP Privacy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koskela, Joakim; Tarkoma, Sasu

    In this paper, we introduce a model for enhancing privacy in peer-to-peer communication systems. The model is based on data obfuscation, preventing intermediate nodes from tracking calls, while still utilizing the shared resources of the peer network. This increases security when moving between untrusted, limited and ad-hoc networks, when the user is forced to rely on peer-to-peer schemes. The model is evaluated using a Host Identity Protocol-based prototype on mobile devices, and is found to provide good privacy, especially when combined with a source address hiding scheme. The contribution of this paper is to present the model and results obtained from its use, including usability considerations.

  14. Help Seeking among Peers: The Role of Goal Structure and Peer Climate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shim, Sungok Serena; Kiefer, Sarah M.; Wang, Cen

    2013-01-01

    With a sample of 373 middle school students, the present longitudinal study examined the role of the classroom peer climate in mediating the relation between perceptions of classroom goal structures and academic help seeking among peers. Classroom goal structures were measured in the fall and classroom peer climate and help seeking among peers…

  15. Peer-to-Peer Networking -RE-SONANCE

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    networking, operating systems and embedded systems. Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networking in recent times has been touted as .... Gnutella (General file sharing) P2P service at the same time. 2. .... The data processing does not occur in 'real time' ...

  16. PLATON: Peer-to-Peer load adjusting tree overlay networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lymberopoulos, L.; Pittaras, C.; Grammatikou, M.; Papavassiliou, S.; Maglaris, V.

    2011-01-01

    Peer-to-Peer systems supporting multi attribute and range queries use a number of techniques to partition the multi dimensional data space among participating peers. Load-balancing of data accross peer partitions is necessary in order to avoid the presence of network hotspots which may cause

  17. mitigating mitigating free riding in peer-to-peer networks

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    eobe

    The performance of peer-to-peer systems is based on the quality and quantity of resource contributions from peer systems ... riding [3]. There are several measurement studies ...... J. S. Hua, D. C. Huang, S M Yen, and C. W. Chena, “A dynamic.

  18. Surfing Peer-to-Peer IPTV: Distributed Channel Switching

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kermarrec, A.-M.; Le Merrer, E.; Liu, Y.; Simon, G.

    It is now common for IPTV systems attracting millions of users to be based on a peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture. In such systems, each channel is typically associated with one P2P overlay network connecting the users. This significantly enhances the user experience by relieving the source from dealing with all connections. Yet, the joining process resulting in a peer to be integrated in channel overlay usually requires a significant amount of time. As a consequence, switching from one channel to another is far to be as fast as in IPTV solutions provided by telco operators. In this paper, we tackle the issue of efficient channel switching in P2P IPTV system. This is to the best of our knowledge the first study on this topic. First, we conducted and analyzed a set of measurements of one of the most popular P2P systems (PPlive). These measurements reveal that the set of contacts that a joining peer receives from the central server are of the utmost importance in the start-up process. On those neigbors, depends the speed to acquire the first video frames to play. We then formulate the switching problem, and propose a simple distributed algorithm, as an illustration of the concept, which aims at leveraging the presence of peers in the network to fasten the switch process. The principle is that each peer maintains as neighbors peers involved in other channels, providing peers with good contacts upon channel switching. Finally, simulations show that our approach leads to substantial improvements on the channel switching time. As our algorithmic solution does not have any prerequisite on the overlays, it appears to be an appealing add-on for existing P2P IPTV systems.

  19. Peer-To-Peer Architectures in Distributed Data Management Systems for Large Hadron Collider Experiments

    CERN Document Server

    Lo Presti, Giuseppe; Lo Re, G; Orsini, L

    2005-01-01

    The main goal of the presented research is to investigate Peer-to-Peer architectures and to leverage distributed services to support networked autonomous systems. The research work focuses on development and demonstration of technologies suitable for providing autonomy and flexibility in the context of distributed network management and distributed data acquisition. A network management system enables the network administrator to monitor a computer network and properly handle any failure that can arise within the network. An online data acquisition (DAQ) system for high-energy physics experiments has to collect, combine, filter, and store for later analysis a huge amount of data, describing subatomic particles collision events. Both domains have tight constraints which are discussed and tackled in this work. New emerging paradigms have been investigated to design novel middleware architectures for such distributed systems, particularly the Active Networks paradigm and the Peer-to-Peer paradigm. A network man...

  20. PBRRI: A Hybrid Peer-to-Peer Communication Model in Distributed Systems

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    张亚英; 尤晋元

    2003-01-01

    In distributed systems independent agents need to interact with each other to accomplish their task.Modern peer-to-peer computing technologies always concern with enabling interaction among agents and help them cooperate with each other. But in fact, access control should also be considered to limit interaction to make it harmless. This paper proposed a proxy based rule regulated interaction (PBRRI) model. Role based access control is introduced for security concerns. Regulation rules are enforced in a distributed manner so that PBRRI can be applied to the open distributed systems such as Internet.

  1. Digital portfolio og peer to peer feedback

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jacobsen, Ditte; Bahrenscheer, Jesper Glarborg

    2017-01-01

    studerende og øget transfer mellem teori og praksis. Artiklen tager afsæt i erfaringerne fra udvikling, anvendelse og evaluering af den digitale portfolio og peer to peer feedback. Portfolien er digital og tilknyttet Metropols Learning Management System. De studerende uploader individuelt ugentligt deres...

  2. Technology enhanced peer learning and peer assessment

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Henriksen, Christian Bugge; Bregnhøj, Henrik; Rosthøj, Susanne

    2016-01-01

    This paper explores the application of learning designs featuring formalised and structured technology enhanced peer learning. These include student produced learning elements, peer review discussions and peer assessment in the BSc/MSc level summer course Restoration of European Ecosystems and Fr...... be a huge benefit from developing learning design patterns that facilitate informal peer learning and reinforce knowledge sharing practices.......This paper explores the application of learning designs featuring formalised and structured technology enhanced peer learning. These include student produced learning elements, peer review discussions and peer assessment in the BSc/MSc level summer course Restoration of European Ecosystems...... and Freshwaters (REEF), the Master thesis preparation seminars for the Master of Public Health (MPH) and the MOOC course Global Environmental Management (GEM). The application of student produced learning elements and peer review discussions is investigated by analyzing quotes from course evaluations...

  3. An Introduction to Models of Online Peer-to-Peer Social Networking

    CERN Document Server

    Kesidis, George

    2010-01-01

    This book concerns peer-to-peer applications and mechanisms operating on the Internet, particularly those that are not fully automated and involve significant human interaction. So, the realm of interest is the intersection of distributed systems and online social networking. Generally, simple models are described to clarify the ideas. Beginning with short overviews of caching, graph theory and game theory, we cover the basic ideas of structured and unstructured search. We then describe a simple framework for reputations and for iterated referrals and consensus. This framework is applied to a

  4. Stability analysis of peer-to-peer networks against churn

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Users of the peer-to-peer system join and leave the network randomly, which makes the overlay network dynamic and unstable in nature. In this paper, we propose an analytical framework to assess the robustness of p2p networks in the face of user churn. We model the peer churn through degree-independent as well as ...

  5. Cooperative peer-to-peer multiagent-based systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caram, L F; Caiafa, C F; Ausloos, M; Proto, A N

    2015-08-01

    A multiagent based model for a system of cooperative agents aiming at growth is proposed. This is based on a set of generalized Verhulst-Lotka-Volterra differential equations. In this study, strong cooperation is allowed among agents having similar sizes, and weak cooperation if agents have markedly different "sizes", thus establishing a peer-to-peer modulated interaction scheme. A rigorous analysis of the stable configurations is presented first examining the fixed points of the system, next determining their stability as a function of the model parameters. It is found that the agents are self-organizing into clusters. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that, depending on parameter values, multiple stable configurations can coexist. It occurs that only one of them always emerges with probability close to one, because its associated attractor dominates over the rest. This is shown through numerical integrations and simulations, after analytic developments. In contrast to the competitive case, agents are able to increase their capacity beyond the no-interaction case limit. In other words, when some collaborative partnership among a relatively small number of partners takes place, all agents act in good faith prioritizing the common good, when receiving a mutual benefit allowing them to surpass their capacity.

  6. Characteristics of file sharing and peer to peer networking | Opara ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Characteristics of file sharing and peer to peer networking. ... distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, ... including in multicast systems, anonymous communications systems, and web caches.

  7. Optimization of routing strategies for data transfer in peer-to-peer networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Morioka, Atsushi; Igarashi, Akito

    2014-01-01

    Since peer-to-peer file-sharing systems have become familiar recently, the information traffic in the networks is increasing. Therefore it causes various traffic problems in peer-to-peer networks. In this paper, we model some features of the peer-to-peer networks, and investigate the traffic problems. Peer-to-peer networks have two notable characters. One is that each peer frequently searches for a file and download it from a peer who has the requested file. To decide whether a peer has the requested file or not in modelling of the search and download process, we introduce file-parameter P j , which expresses the amount of files stored in peer j. It is assumed that if P j is large, peer j has many files and can meet other peers' requests with high probability. The other character is that peers leave and join into the network repeatedly. Many researchers address traffic problems of data transfer in computer communication networks. To our knowledge, however, no reports focus on those in peer-to-peer networks whose topology changes with time. For routing paths of data transfer, generally, the shortest paths are used in usual computer networks. In this paper, we introduce a new optimal routing strategy which uses weights of peers to avoid traffic congestion. We find that the new routing strategy is superior to the shortest path strategy in terms of congestion frequency in data transfer

  8. An Efficient Causal Group Communication Protocol for Free Scale Peer-to-Peer Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Grigory Evropeytsev

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available In peer-to-peer (P2P overlay networks, a group of n (≥2 peer processes have to cooperate with each other. Each peer sends messages to every peer and receives messages from every peer in a group. In group communications, each message sent by a peer is required to be causally delivered to every peer. Most of the protocols designed to ensure causal message order are designed for networks with a plain architecture. These protocols can be adapted to use in free scale and hierarchical topologies; however, the amount of control information is O(n, where n is the number of peers in the system. Some protocols are designed for a free scale or hierarchical networks, but in general they force the whole system to accomplish the same order viewed by a super peer. In this paper, we present a protocol that is specifically designed to work with a free scale peer-to-peer network. By using the information about the network’s architecture and by representing message dependencies on a bit level, the proposed protocol ensures causal message ordering without enforcing super peers order. The designed protocol is simulated and compared with the Immediate Dependency Relation and the Dependency Sequences protocols to show its lower overhead.

  9. Technology enhanced peer learning and peer assessment

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Henriksen, Christian Bugge; Bregnhøj, Henrik; Rosthøj, Susanne

    2016-01-01

    This paper explores the application of learning designs featuring formalised and structured technology enhanced peer learning. These include student produced learning elements, peer review discussions and peer assessment in the BSc/MSc level summer course Restoration of European Ecosystems...... and Freshwaters (REEF), the Master thesis preparation seminars for the Master of Public Health (MPH) and the MOOC course Global Environmental Management (GEM). The application of student produced learning elements and peer review discussions is investigated by analyzing quotes from course evaluations...... and performing focus group interviews. The application of peer assessment is investigated by analyzing the agreement of peer assessment between students assessing the same assignment. Our analyses confirm previous research on the value of peer learning and peer assessment and we argue that there could also...

  10. Jupiter: Peer-to-Peer Networking Platform over Heterogeneous Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Norihiro Ishikawa

    2006-10-01

    Full Text Available Peer-to-peer has entered the public limelight over the last few years. Several research projects are underway on peer-to-peer technologies, but no definitive conclusion is currently available. Compared with traditional Internet technologies, peer-to-peer has the potential to realize highly scalable, extensible, and efficient distributed applications. This is because its basic functions realize resource discovery, resource sharing, and load balancing in a highly distributed manner. An easy prediction is the emergence of an environment in which many sensors, people, and many different kinds of objects exist, move, and communicate with one another. Peer-to-peer is one of the most important and suitable technologies for such networking since it supports discovery mechanisms, simple one-to-one communication between devices, free and extensible distribution of resources, and distributed search to handle the enormous number of resources. The purpose of this study is to explore a universal peer-to-peer network architecture that will allow various devices to communicate with one another across various networks. We have been designing architecture and protocols for realizing peer-to-peer networking among various devices. We are currently designing APIs that are available for various peer-to-peer applications and are implementing a prototype called "Jupiter" as a peer-to-peer networking platform over heterogeneous networks.

  11. Child Pornography in Peer-to-Peer Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Steel, Chad M. S.

    2009-01-01

    Objective: The presence of child pornography in peer-to-peer networks is not disputed, but there has been little effort done to quantify and analyze the distribution and nature of that content to-date. By performing an analysis of queries and query hits on the largest peer-to-peer network, we are able to both quantify and describe the nature of…

  12. A peer-to-peer traffic safety campaign program.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-06-01

    The purpose of this project was to implement a peer-to-peer drivers safety program designed for high school students. : This project builds upon an effective peer-to-peer outreach effort in Texas entitled Teens in the Driver Seat (TDS), the : nati...

  13. Peer to peer energy trading with electric vehicles

    OpenAIRE

    Alvaro-Hermana, R.; Fraile-Ardanuy, J.; Zufiria, P.; Knapen, Luk; Janssens, Davy

    2016-01-01

    This paper presents a novel peer-to-peer energy trading system between two sets of electric vehicles, which significantly reduces the impact of the charging process on the power system during business hours. This trading system is also economically beneficial for all the users involved in the trading process. An activity-based model is used to predict the daily agenda and trips of a synthetic population for Flanders (Belgium). These drivers can be initially classified into three sets; after d...

  14. A survey of anonymous peer-to-peer file-sharing

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Chothia, T.; Chatzikokolakis, K.; Enokido, T.; Yan, L.; Xiao, B.; Kim, D.; Dai, Y.S.; Yang, L.T.

    2005-01-01

    This paper provides a survey of searchable, peer-to-peer file-sharing systems that offer the user some form of anonymity. We start this survey by giving a brief description of the most popular methods of providing anonymous communication. These include the Ants protocol, Onion routing, Multicasting,

  15. Personalised Peer-Supported Learning: The Peer-to-Peer Learning Environment (P2PLE)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Corneli, Joseph; Mikroyannidis, Alexander

    2011-01-01

    The Peer-to-Peer Learning Environment (P2PLE) is a proposed approach to helping learners co-construct their learning environment using recommendations about people, content, and tools. The work draws on current research on PLEs, and participant observation at the Peer-to-Peer University (P2PU). We are particularly interested in ways of eliciting…

  16. A Novel Multimedia Streaming System for Urban Rail Environments Using Wi-Fi Peer-to-Peer Technology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Poderys, Justas; Farooq, Jahanzeb; Soler, José

    2018-01-01

    to passenger devices using Wi-Fi Peer-to-Peer (P2P) technology. Such a multimedia distribution system can be deployed incrementally, as it can function concurrently with Wi-Fi connections already available in a number of trains. This paper presents the results obtained by emulating multimedia streaming...

  17. The mediatization of peer-to-peer health care

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dindler, Camilla; Ahlmark, Nanna

    2018-01-01

    observations and qualitative interviews from a peer-to-peer programme for men in Copenhagen. The article analyses the tensions that occurred in the media coverage of the programme as well as in the municipal facilitation and management of the peer-to-peer health care programme defined partly...... by a democratization of health expertise and by a broader culture characterized by individualized, risk aware health promotion. We will argue that tensions between media logics and logics of care and of risk created a mediatized conception of health and of the peer programme that highlighted health care...

  18. Predicting Availability of Mobile Peers in Large Peer-to-Peer Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sipos, Marton A.; Ekler, Péter

    2013-01-01

    users and network operators. In these situations, a certain redundancy must be built into the system because the availability of the nodes can vary greatly. The goal of this paper is to present a methodology to minimize the necessary redundancy by predicting the number of available nodes. The prediction......Peer-to-peer (P2P) applications for mobile devices are becoming more and more popular because of increasing bandwidth, computational performance and storage capabilities. Such a mobile based distributed architecture offers significant advantages in several scenarios from the perspective of both...

  19. The Tragedy of the Commons : Arms Race Within Peer-to-Peer Tools

    OpenAIRE

    Carlsson, Bengt

    2001-01-01

    The two major concerns about peer-to-peer are anonymity and non-censorship of documents. Music industry has highlighted these questions by forcing Napster to filter out copyright protected MP3 files and taking legal actions against local users by monitoring their stored MP3 files. Our investigation shows that when copyright protected files are filtered out, users stop downloading public music as well. The success of a distributed peer-to-peer system is dependent on both cooperating coalitions...

  20. Peer-to-peer psychological contracts in the South African wine industry

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ruth Penfold

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Orientation: Very few studies examine the impact of peer relationships on the psychological contract. Research purpose: Using the backdrop of wine farm workers in the Western Cape, South Africa, the aim of our study was to explore the nature of peer relationships shaping the psychological contract. Motivation for the study: The agricultural sector of South Africa, in particular the wine farms in the Western Cape, has undergone radical change in the past decades as a result of labour legislation and changing government structures. It was therefore expected that these changes would influence the psychological contracts held by wine farm workers. Research approach, design and method: This qualitative study sampled all 24 full-time employees and 2 managers on the Constantia Hills Wine Estate in Cape Town, South Africa. Semi-structured interviews were conducted using the critical incident technique in combination with a series of open questions. Main findings: Our findings showed support for the existence of peer-to-peer psychological contracts and noted the valuable influence of a suitable conduit individual on the relationship between employees and their employer. Practical and/or managerial implications: Wine farm workers in South Africa have a strong need to be consulted after a lifetime of having no voice. In addition to ensuring suitable levels of two-way communication, management must understand the inter-peer contract and the nature of the relationships sustaining it. Contribution: Whilst literature has suggested that management of the psychological contract lies firmly within the domain of the employer, our findings indicated that ensuring harmonious peer-to-peer contracts was also central to good working relationships.

  1. Give-and-take based peer-to-peer content distribution networks

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Compared to traditional content distribution schemes, peer- to-peer networks ... are shared among users who desire to download files. In a peer-to-peer ..... randomly generated data points, with 300 segments and 200 peers. From the figure ...

  2. Building Flexible Manufacturing Systems Based on Peer-Its

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Hechinger

    2008-02-01

    Full Text Available Peer-to-peer computing principles have started to pervade into mechanical control systems, inducing a paradigm shift from centralized to autonomic control. We have developed a self-contained, miniaturized, universal and scalable peer-to-peer based hardware-software system, the peer-it platform, to serve as a stick-on computer solution to raise real-world artefacts like, for example, machines, tools, or appliances towards technology-rich, autonomous, self-induced, and context-aware peers, operating as spontaneously interacting ensembles. The peer-it platform integrates sensor, actuator, and wireless communication facilities on the hardware level, with an object-oriented, component-based coordination framework at the software level, thus providing a generic platform for sensing, computing, controlling, and communication on a large scale. The physical appearance of a peer-it supports pinning it to real-world artefacts, while at the same time integrating those artefacts into a mobile ad hoc network of peers. Peer-it networks thus represent ensembles of coordinated artefacts, exhibiting features of autonomy like self-management at the node level and self-organization at the network level. We demonstrate how the peer-it system implements the desired flexibility in automated manufacturing systems to react in the case of changes, whether intended or unexpectedly occuring. The peer-it system enables machine flexibility in that it adapts production facilities to produce new types of products, or change the order of operation executed on parts instantaneously. Secondly, it enables routing flexibility, that is, the ability to use multiple machines to spontaneously perform the same operation on one part alternatively (to implement autonomic fault tolerance or to absorb large-scale changes in volume, capacity, or capability (to implement autonomic scalability.

  3. Challenges to Participation in the Sharing Economy: The Case of Local Online Peer-to-Peer Exchange in a Single Parents’ Network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Airi Lampinen

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper depicts an initiative to deploy an online peer-to-peer exchange system for a community network of single parents – a group of people in need of goods, services, and social support in their local neighborhoods. We apply participant observation and semi-structured interviews to uncover key issues that can hinder the emergence of sharing practices in local community networks of this type. Our study illustrates how pressures related to single parenthood can impede opportunities to engage in peer-to-peer exchange, even when community members view the social and material benefits of participation as desirable and necessary. This complicates the prevalent narrative that local peer-to-peer exchange systems are an accessible and convenient alternative to traditional markets. Moreover, we discuss our collaboration with the community as well as the developers of the sharing platform, highlighting the challenges of user-centered design in the sharing economy.

  4. Analysis of peer-to-peer locking of magnetrons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pengvanich, P.; Lau, Y. Y.; Cruz, E.; Gilgenbach, R. M.; Hoff, B.; Luginsland, J. W.

    2008-01-01

    The condition for mutual, or peer-to-peer, locking of two magnetrons is derived. This condition reduces to Adler's classical phase-locking condition in the limit where one magnetron becomes the ''master'' and the other becomes the ''slave.'' The formulation is extended to the peer-to-peer locking of N magnetrons, under the assumption that the electromagnetic coupling among the N magnetrons is modeled by an N-port network.

  5. Perceived peer influence and peer selection on adolescent smoking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoffman, Beth R; Monge, Peter R; Chou, Chih-Ping; Valente, Thomas W

    2007-08-01

    Despite advances in tobacco control, adolescent smoking remains a problem. The smoking status of friends is one of the highest correlates with adolescent smoking. This homophily (commonality of friends based on a given attribute) may be due to either peer pressure, where adolescents adopt the smoking behaviors of their friends, or peer selection, where adolescents choose friends based on their smoking status. This study used structural equation modeling to test a model of peer influence and peer selection on ever smoking by adolescents. The primary analysis of the model did not reach significance, but post hoc analyses did result in a model with good fit. Results indicated that both peer influence and peer selection were occurring, and that peer influence was more salient in the population than was peer selection. Implications of these results for tobacco prevention programs are discussed.

  6. Global phenomena from local rules: Peer-to-peer networks and crystal steps

    Science.gov (United States)

    Finkbiner, Amy

    Even simple, deterministic rules can generate interesting behavior in dynamical systems. This dissertation examines some real world systems for which fairly simple, locally defined rules yield useful or interesting properties in the system as a whole. In particular, we study routing in peer-to-peer networks and the motion of crystal steps. Peers can vary by three orders of magnitude in their capacities to process network traffic. This heterogeneity inspires our use of "proportionate load balancing," where each peer provides resources in proportion to its individual capacity. We provide an implementation that employs small, local adjustments to bring the entire network into a global balance. Analytically and through simulations, we demonstrate the effectiveness of proportionate load balancing on two routing methods for de Bruijn graphs, introducing a new "reversed" routing method which performs better than standard forward routing in some cases. The prevalence of peer-to-peer applications prompts companies to locate the hosts participating in these networks. We explore the use of supervised machine learning to identify peer-to-peer hosts, without using application-specific information. We introduce a model for "triples," which exploits information about nearly contemporaneous flows to give a statistical picture of a host's activities. We find that triples, together with measurements of inbound vs. outbound traffic, can capture most of the behavior of peer-to-peer hosts. An understanding of crystal surface evolution is important for the development of modern nanoscale electronic devices. The most commonly studied surface features are steps, which form at low temperatures when the crystal is cut close to a plane of symmetry. Step bunching, when steps arrange into widely separated clusters of tightly packed steps, is one important step phenomenon. We analyze a discrete model for crystal steps, in which the motion of each step depends on the two steps on either side of

  7. DServO: A Peer-to-Peer-based Approach to Biomedical Ontology Repositories.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mambone, Zakaria; Savadogo, Mahamadi; Some, Borlli Michel Jonas; Diallo, Gayo

    2015-01-01

    We present in this poster an extension of the ServO ontology server system, which adopts a decentralized Peer-To-Peer approach for managing multiple heterogeneous knowledge organization systems. It relies on the use of the JXTA protocol coupled with information retrieval techniques to provide a decentralized infrastructure for managing multiples instances of Ontology Repositories.

  8. Promoting Residential Renewable Energy via Peer-to-Peer Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heiskanen, Eva; Nissilä, Heli; Tainio, Pasi

    2017-01-01

    Peer-to-peer learning is gaining increasing attention in nonformal community-based environmental education. This article evaluates a novel modification of a concept for peer-to-peer learning about residential energy solutions (Open Homes). We organized collective "Energy Walks" visiting several homes with novel energy solutions and…

  9. Building Flexible Manufacturing Systems Based on Peer-Its

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    dos Santos Rocha M

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Peer-to-peer computing principles have started to pervade into mechanical control systems, inducing a paradigm shift from centralized to autonomic control. We have developed a self-contained, miniaturized, universal and scalable peer-to-peer based hardware-software system, the peer-it platform, to serve as a stick-on computer solution to raise real-world artefacts like, for example, machines, tools, or appliances towards technology-rich, autonomous, self-induced, and context-aware peers, operating as spontaneously interacting ensembles. The peer-it platform integrates sensor, actuator, and wireless communication facilities on the hardware level, with an object-oriented, component-based coordination framework at the software level, thus providing a generic platform for sensing, computing, controlling, and communication on a large scale. The physical appearance of a peer-it supports pinning it to real-world artefacts, while at the same time integrating those artefacts into a mobile ad hoc network of peers. Peer-it networks thus represent ensembles of coordinated artefacts, exhibiting features of autonomy like self-management at the node level and self-organization at the network level. We demonstrate how the peer-it system implements the desired flexibility in automated manufacturing systems to react in the case of changes, whether intended or unexpectedly occuring. The peer-it system enables machine flexibility in that it adapts production facilities to produce new types of products, or change the order of operation executed on parts instantaneously. Secondly, it enables routing flexibility, that is, the ability to use multiple machines to spontaneously perform the same operation on one part alternatively (to implement autonomic fault tolerance or to absorb large-scale changes in volume, capacity, or capability (to implement autonomic scalability.

  10. Studying the Effects of Peer-to-Peer Sharing Economy Platforms on Society

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Westerbeek, J.; Ubacht, J.; van der Voort, H.G.; ten Heuvelhof, E.F.; Scholl, Hans Jochem; Glassey, Olivier; Janssen, Marijn; Klievink, Bram; Lindgren, Ida; Parycek, Peter; Tambouris, Efthimios; Wimmer, Maria; Janowski, Tomasz; Sa Soares, Delfina

    2016-01-01

    Peer-to-peer sharing economy platforms potentially have big effects on values in society. Policymakers need to develop governance arrangements to benefit from the positive effects, while simultaneously mitigate the negative effects. This requires having a structured overview of the effects of these

  11. How Do Peers Impact Learning? An Experimental Investigation of Peer-To-Peer Teaching and Ability Tracking

    OpenAIRE

    Kimbrough, Erik O.; McGee, Andrew; Shigeoka, Hitoshi

    2017-01-01

    Classroom peers are believed to influence learning by teaching each other, and the efficacy of this teaching likely depends on classroom composition in terms of peers' ability. Unfortunately, little is known about peer-to-peer teaching because it is never observed in field studies. Furthermore, identifying how peer-to-peer teaching is affected by ability tracking – grouping students of similar ability – is complicated by the fact that tracking is typically accompanied by changes in curriculum...

  12. Gossip in a Smartphone Peer-to-Peer Network

    OpenAIRE

    Newport, Calvin

    2017-01-01

    In this paper, we study the fundamental problem of gossip in the mobile telephone model: a recently introduced variation of the classical telephone model modified to better describe the local peer-to-peer communication services implemented in many popular smartphone operating systems. In more detail, the mobile telephone model differs from the classical telephone model in three ways: (1) each device can participate in at most one connection per round; (2) the network topology can undergo a pa...

  13. Quality assurance in radiology: peer review and peer feedback

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Strickland, N.H.

    2015-01-01

    Peer review in radiology means an assessment of the accuracy of a report issued by another radiologist. Inevitably, this involves a judgement opinion from the reviewing radiologist. Peer feedback is the means by which any form of peer review is communicated back to the original author of the report. This article defines terms, discusses the current status, identifies problems, and provides some recommendations as to the way forward, concentrating upon the software requirements for efficient peer review and peer feedback of reported imaging studies. Radiologists undertake routine peer review in their everyday clinical practice, particularly when reporting and preparing for multidisciplinary team meetings. More formal peer review of reported imaging studies has been advocated as a quality assurance measure to promote good clinical practice. It is also a way of assessing the competency of reporting radiologists referred for investigation to bodies such as the General Medical Council (GMC). The literature shows, firstly, that there is a very wide reported range of discrepancy rates in many studies, which have used a variety of non-comparable methodologies; and secondly, that applying scoring systems in formal peer review is often meaningless, unhelpful, and can even be detrimental. There is currently a lack of electronic peer feedback system software on the market to inform radiologists of any review of their work that has occurred or to provide them with clinical outcome information on cases they have previously reported. Learning opportunities are therefore missed. Radiologists should actively engage with the medical informatics industry to design optimal peer review and feedback software with features to meet their needs. Such a system should be easy to use, be fully integrated with the radiological information and picture archiving systems used clinically, and contain a free-text comment box, without a numerical scoring system. It should form a temporary record

  14. System optimization for peer-to-peer multi hop video broadcasting in wireless ad hoc networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dedeoglu, V.; Atici, C.; Salman, F.S.; Sunay, M.O.

    2008-01-01

    We consider peer-to-peer video broadcasting using cooperation among peers in an ad hoc wireless network. As opposed to the traditional single hop broadcasting, multiple hops cause an increase in broadcast video quality while creating interference and increasing transmission delay. We develop

  15. Mobility Helps Peer-to-Peer Security

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Capkun, Srdjan; Hubaux, Jean-Pierre; Buttyan, Levente

    2006-01-01

    We propose a straightforward technique to provide peer-to-peer security in mobile networks. We show that far from being a hurdle, mobility can be exploited to set up security associations among users. We leverage on the temporary vicinity of users, during which appropriate cryptographic protocols...

  16. Brief Announcement: Induced Churn to Face Adversarial Behavior in Peer-to-Peer Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anceaume, Emmanuelle; Brasileiro, Francisco; Ludinard, Romaric; Sericola, Bruno; Tronel, Frederic

    Awerbuch and Scheideler [2] have shown that peer-to-peer overlays networks can only survive Byzantine attacks if malicious nodes are not able to predict what will be the topology of the network for a given sequence of join and leave operations. A prerequisite for this condition to hold is to guarantee that nodes identifiers randomness is continuously preserved. However targeted join/leave attacks may quickly endanger the relevance of such an assumption. Inducing churn has been shown to be the other fundamental ingredient to preserve randomness. Several strategies based on these principles have been proposed. Most of them are based on locally induced churn. However either they have been proven incorrect or they involve a too high level of complexity to be practically acceptable [2]. The other ones, based on globally induced churn, enforce limited lifetime for each node in the system. However, these solutions keep the system in an unnecessary hyper-activity, and thus need to impose strict restrictions on nodes joining rate which clearly limit their applicability to open systems.

  17. Quality assurance in radiology: peer review and peer feedback.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strickland, N H

    2015-11-01

    Peer review in radiology means an assessment of the accuracy of a report issued by another radiologist. Inevitably, this involves a judgement opinion from the reviewing radiologist. Peer feedback is the means by which any form of peer review is communicated back to the original author of the report. This article defines terms, discusses the current status, identifies problems, and provides some recommendations as to the way forward, concentrating upon the software requirements for efficient peer review and peer feedback of reported imaging studies. Radiologists undertake routine peer review in their everyday clinical practice, particularly when reporting and preparing for multidisciplinary team meetings. More formal peer review of reported imaging studies has been advocated as a quality assurance measure to promote good clinical practice. It is also a way of assessing the competency of reporting radiologists referred for investigation to bodies such as the General Medical Council (GMC). The literature shows, firstly, that there is a very wide reported range of discrepancy rates in many studies, which have used a variety of non-comparable methodologies; and secondly, that applying scoring systems in formal peer review is often meaningless, unhelpful, and can even be detrimental. There is currently a lack of electronic peer feedback system software on the market to inform radiologists of any review of their work that has occurred or to provide them with clinical outcome information on cases they have previously reported. Learning opportunities are therefore missed. Radiologists should actively engage with the medical informatics industry to design optimal peer review and feedback software with features to meet their needs. Such a system should be easy to use, be fully integrated with the radiological information and picture archiving systems used clinically, and contain a free-text comment box, without a numerical scoring system. It should form a temporary record

  18. [Adaptation of a peer pressure scale in French and German: the Peer Pressure Inventory].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baggio, S; Studer, J; Daeppen, J-B; Gmel, G

    2013-06-01

    Peer pressure is regarded as an important determinant of substance use, sexual behavior and juvenile delinquency. However, few peer pressure scales are validated, especially in French or German. Little is known about the factor structure of such scales or the kind of scale needed: some scales takes into account both peer pressure to do and peer pressure not to do, while others consider only peer pressure to do. The aim of the present study was to adapt French and German versions of the Peer Pressure Inventory, which is one of the most widely used scales in this field. We considered its factor structure and concurrent validity. Five thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven young Swiss men filled in a questionnaire on peer pressure, substance use, and other variables (conformity, involvement) in a cohort study. We identified a four-factor structure, with the three factors of the initial Peer Pressure Inventory (involvement, conformity, misconduct) and adding a new one (relationship with girls). A non-valued scale (from no peer pressure to peer pressure to do only) showed stronger psychometric qualities than a valued scale (from peer pressure not to do to peer pressure to do). Concurrent validity was also good. Each behavior or attitude was significantly associated with peer pressure. Peer pressure seems to be a multidimensional concept. In this study, peer pressure to do showed the strongest influence on participants. Indeed, peer pressure not to do did not add anything useful. Only peer pressure to do affected young Swiss men's behaviors and attitudes and was reliable. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

  19. Streaming Multimedia via Overlay Networks using Wi-Fi Peer-to-Peer Connections

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Poderys, Justas; Soler, José

    2017-01-01

    Short range ad-hoc wireless networks can be used to deliver streaming multimedia for information, entertainment and advertisement purposes. To enable short-range communication between various devices, the Wi-Fi Alliance proposed an extension to the IEEE802.11 Wi-Fi standard called Wi-Fi Peer......-to-Peer (P2P). It allows compliant devices to form ad-hoc communication groups without interrupting conventional access point-based Wi-Fi communication. This paper proposes to use Wi-Fi P2P connectivity to distribute streaming multimedia in ah-hoc formed user groups. The exchange of multimedia data...... is performed by forming an overlay network using Peer-to-Peer Streaming Peer Protocol (PPSPP). In order to make PPSPP function over WiFi P2P connections, this paper proposes a number of changes to the protocol. The performance of the proposed system is evaluated using a computer networks emulator...

  20. Peer-to-Peer Teaching Using Multi-Disciplinary Applications as Topics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sturdivant, Rodney X.; Souhan, Brian E.

    2011-01-01

    Most educators know that the best way to truly understand new material is to teach it. The use of students as peer educators provides numerous benefits to the student teacher and his or her classmates. Student-led instruction or peer-to-peer teaching is not a new concept or teaching technique. Peer teaching traces its roots back to the ancient…

  1. A digital peer-to-peer learning platform for clinical skills development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Basnak, Jesse; Ortynski, Jennifer; Chow, Meghan; Nzekwu, Emeka

    2017-02-01

    Due to constraints in time and resources, medical curricula may not provide adequate opportunities for pre-clerkship students to practice clinical skills. To address this, medical students at the University of Alberta developed a digital peer-to-peer learning initiative. The initiative assessed if students can learn clinical skills from their peers in co-curricular practice objective structured clinical exams (OSCEs). A total of 144 first-year medical students participated. Students wrote case scenarios that were reviewed by physicians. Students enacted the cases in practice OSCEs, acting as the patient, physician, and evaluator. Verbal and electronic evaluations were completed. A digital platform was used to automate the process. Surveys were disseminated to assess student perceptions of their experience. Seventy-five percent of participants said they needed opportunities to practice patient histories and physical exams in addition to those provided in the medical school curriculum. All participants agreed that the co-curricular practice OSCEs met this need. The majority of participants also agreed that the digital platform was efficient and easy to use. Students found the practice OSCEs and digital platform effective for learning clinical skills. Thus, peer-to-peer learning and computer automation can be useful adjuncts to traditional medical curricula.

  2. Hierarchical Data Distribution Scheme for Peer-to-Peer Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhushan, Shashi; Dave, M.; Patel, R. B.

    2010-11-01

    In the past few years, peer-to-peer (P2P) networks have become an extremely popular mechanism for large-scale content sharing. P2P systems have focused on specific application domains (e.g. music files, video files) or on providing file system like capabilities. P2P is a powerful paradigm, which provides a large-scale and cost-effective mechanism for data sharing. P2P system may be used for storing data globally. Can we implement a conventional database on P2P system? But successful implementation of conventional databases on the P2P systems is yet to be reported. In this paper we have presented the mathematical model for the replication of the partitions and presented a hierarchical based data distribution scheme for the P2P networks. We have also analyzed the resource utilization and throughput of the P2P system with respect to the availability, when a conventional database is implemented over the P2P system with variable query rate. Simulation results show that database partitions placed on the peers with higher availability factor perform better. Degradation index, throughput, resource utilization are the parameters evaluated with respect to the availability factor.

  3. Green: Towards a Pollution-Free Peer-to-Peer Content Sharing Service

    OpenAIRE

    Chen, Ruichuan; Lua, Eng Keong; Cai, Zhuhua; Crowcroft, Jon; Chen, Zhong

    2011-01-01

    Peer-to-Peer (P2P) content sharing systems are susceptible to the content pollution attack, in which attackers aggressively inject polluted contents into the systems to reduce the availability of authentic contents, thus decreasing the confidence of participating users. In this paper, we design a pollution-free P2P content sharing system, Green, by exploiting the inherent content-based information and the social-based reputation. In Green, a content provider (i.e., creator or sharer) publishe...

  4. Secure Service Invocation in a Peer-to-Peer Environment Using JXTA-SOAP

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laghi, Maria Chiara; Amoretti, Michele; Conte, Gianni

    The effective convergence of service-oriented architectures (SOA) and peer-to-peer (P2P) is an urgent task, with many important applications ranging from e-business to ambient intelligence. A considerable standardization effort is being carried out from both SOA and P2P communities, but a complete platform for the development of secure, distributed applications is still missing. In this context, the result of our research and development activity is JXTA-SOAP, an official extension for JXTA enabling Web Service sharing in peer-to-peer networks. Recently we focused on security aspects, providing JXTA-SOAP with a general security management system, and specialized policies that target both J2SE and J2ME versions of the component. Among others, we implemented a policy based on Multimedia Internet KEYing (MIKEY), which can be used to create a key pair and all the required parameters for encryption and decryption of service messages in consumer and provider peers running on resource-constrained devices.

  5. Energy-efficient peer-to-peer networking for constrained-capacity mobile environments

    OpenAIRE

    Harjula, E. (Erkki)

    2016-01-01

    Abstract Energy efficiency is a powerful measure for promoting sustainability in technological evolution and ensuring feasible battery life of end-user devices in mobile computing. Peer-to-peer technology provides decentralized and self-organizing architecture for distributing content between devices in networks that scale up almost infinitely. However, peer-to-peer networking may require lots of resources from peer nodes, which in turn may lead to increased energy consumption on mobile d...

  6. Research Paper A comparison of peer and non-peer exposure to ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Objective: This study examined peer and non-peer unwanted early sexual experiences (UESE) among 3,689 university students to establish whether peer UESE is as coercive and bothersome as non-peer UESE. Method: A self-report checklist was administered to all consenting students attending an orientation ...

  7. Mitigating Free Riding in Peer-To-Peer Networks: Game Theory ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Mitigating Free Riding in Peer-To-Peer Networks: Game Theory Approach. ... In this paper, we model the interactions between peers as a modified gift giving game and proposed an utility exchange incentive ... AJOL African Journals Online.

  8. Managing Supply and Demand of Bandwidth in Peer-to-Peer Communities

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Meulpolder, M.

    2011-01-01

    On today's Internet, millions of people participate in peer-to-peer communities where they share content such as audio and video files. Contrary to websites such as Youtube, which rely on large and expensive computer servers to store and deliver all of their content, peer-to-peer communities rely on

  9. Large-Scale Cooperative Task Distribution on Peer-to-Peer Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-01-01

    SUBTITLE Large-scale cooperative task distribution on peer-to-peer networks 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6...disadvantages of ML- Chord are its fixed size (two layers), and limited scala - bility for large-scale systems. RC-Chord extends ML- D. Karrels et al...configurable before runtime. This can be improved by incorporating a distributed learning algorithm to tune the number and range of the DLoE tracking

  10. Distributed Data Mining in Peer-to-Peer Networks

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are gaining popularity in many applications such as file sharing, e-commerce, and social networking, many of which deal with rich,...

  11. Is there something like a peer to peer science?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michel Bauwens

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available How will peer to peer infrastructures, and the underlying intersubjective and ethical relational model that is implied by it, affect scientific practice? Are peer-to-peer forms of cooperation, based on open and free input of voluntary contributors, participatory processes of governance, and universal availability of the output, more productive than centralized alternatives? In this short introduction, Michel Bauwens reviews a number of open and free, participatory and commons oriented practices that are emerging in scientific research and practice, but which ultimately point to a more profound epistemological revolution linked to increased participatory consciousness between the scientist and his human, organic and inorganic research material.

  12. Peer Influence, Peer Status, and Prosocial Behavior: An Experimental Investigation of Peer Socialization of Adolescents' Intentions to Volunteer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choukas-Bradley, Sophia; Giletta, Matteo; Cohen, Geoffrey L; Prinstein, Mitchell J

    2015-12-01

    Peer influence processes have been documented extensively for a wide range of maladaptive adolescent behaviors. However, peer socialization is not inherently deleterious, and little is known about whether adolescents influence each other's prosocial behaviors, or whether some peers are more influential than others towards positive youth outcomes. This study addressed these questions using an experimental "chat room" paradigm to examine in vivo peer influence of prosocial behavior endorsement. A school-based sample of 304 early adolescents (55% female, 45% male; M(age) = 12.68) believed they were interacting electronically with same-gender grademates (i.e., "e-confederates"), whose peer status was experimentally manipulated. The participants' intent to engage in prosocial behaviors was measured pre-experiment and in subsequent "public" and "private" experimental sessions. Overall, the adolescents conformed to the e-confederates' prosocial responses in public; yet, these peer influence effects were moderated by the peer status of the e-confederates, such that youth more strongly conformed to the high-status e-confederates than to the low-status ones. There also was some evidence that these peer influence effects were maintained in the private session, indicating potential internalization of prosocial peer norms. These findings help bridge the positive youth development and peer influence literatures, with potential implications for campaigns to increase prosocial behaviors.

  13. Peer-to-peer as a travel accommodation option and the customer value

    OpenAIRE

    Rakovets, Elizaveta

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of the study was to investigate the concept of peer-to-peer accommodation as a travel lodging option from the customers’ point of view and the reasons for choosing that. Airbnb and Couchsurfing were used as examples of peer-to-peer accommodation. The theoretical section of the thesis covers the history of the homestay concept as the original form of peer-to-peer accommodation, its features as a part of hospitality exchange network, and the influence of modern technologies. The...

  14. Efficient User Authentication and Key Management for Peer-to-Peer Live Streaming Systems

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    LIU Xuening; YIN Hao; LIN Chuang; DU Changlai

    2009-01-01

    Recent development of the peer-to-peer (P2P) live streaming technique has brought unprece-dented new momentum to the Internet with the characters of effective, scalable, and low cost. However, be-fore these applications can be successfully deployed as commercial applications, efficient access control mechanisms are needed. This work based on earlier research of the secure streaming architecture in Trust-Stream, analyzes how to ensure that only authorized users can access the original media in the P2P live streaming system by adopting a user authentication and key management scheme. The major features of this system include (1) the management server issues each authorized user a unique public key certificate,(2) the one-way hash chain extends the certificate's lifetime, (3) the original media is encrypted by the ses-sion key and delivered to the communication group, and (4) the session key is periodically updated and dis-tributed with the media. Finally, analyses and test results show that scheme provides a secure, scalable, re-liable, and efficient access control solution for P2P live streaming systems.

  15. Evaluating Management Information Systems, A Protocol for Automated Peer Review Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Black, Gordon C.

    1980-01-01

    This paper discusses key issues in evaluating an automated Peer Review System. Included are the conceptual base, design, steps in planning structural components, operation parameters, criteria, costs and a detailed outline or protocol for use in the evaluation. At the heart of the Peer Review System is the criteria utilized for measuring quality. Criteria evaluation should embrace, as a minimum, appropriateness, validity and reliability, and completemess or comprehensiveness of content. Such an evaluation is not complete without determining the impact (clinical outcome) of the service system or the patient and the population served.

  16. Timely deposition of macromolecular structures is necessary for peer review

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Joosten, Robbie P.; Soueidan, Hayssam; Wessels, Lodewyk F. A.; Perrakis, Anastassis

    2013-01-01

    Deposition of crystallographic structures should be concurrent with or prior to manuscript submission for peer review, enabling validation and increasing reliability of the PDB. Most of the macromolecular structures in the Protein Data Bank (PDB), which are used daily by thousands of educators and scientists alike, are determined by X-ray crystallography. It was examined whether the crystallographic models and data were deposited to the PDB at the same time as the publications that describe them were submitted for peer review. This condition is necessary to ensure pre-publication validation and the quality of the PDB public archive. It was found that a significant proportion of PDB entries were submitted to the PDB after peer review of the corresponding publication started, and many were only submitted after peer review had ended. It is argued that clear description of journal policies and effective policing is important for pre-publication validation, which is key in ensuring the quality of the PDB and of peer-reviewed literature

  17. Timely deposition of macromolecular structures is necessary for peer review

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Joosten, Robbie P. [Netherlands Cancer Institute, Plesmanlaan 121, 1066 CX Amsterdam (Netherlands); Soueidan, Hayssam; Wessels, Lodewyk F. A. [Netherlands Cancer Institute, Plesmanlaan 121, 1066 CX, Amsterdam (Netherlands); Perrakis, Anastassis, E-mail: a.perrakis@nki.nl [Netherlands Cancer Institute, Plesmanlaan 121, 1066 CX Amsterdam (Netherlands)

    2013-12-01

    Deposition of crystallographic structures should be concurrent with or prior to manuscript submission for peer review, enabling validation and increasing reliability of the PDB. Most of the macromolecular structures in the Protein Data Bank (PDB), which are used daily by thousands of educators and scientists alike, are determined by X-ray crystallography. It was examined whether the crystallographic models and data were deposited to the PDB at the same time as the publications that describe them were submitted for peer review. This condition is necessary to ensure pre-publication validation and the quality of the PDB public archive. It was found that a significant proportion of PDB entries were submitted to the PDB after peer review of the corresponding publication started, and many were only submitted after peer review had ended. It is argued that clear description of journal policies and effective policing is important for pre-publication validation, which is key in ensuring the quality of the PDB and of peer-reviewed literature.

  18. Peer Influence, Peer Status, and Prosocial Behavior: An Experimental Investigation of Peer Socialization of Adolescents’ Intentions to Volunteer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giletta, Matteo; Cohen, Geoffrey L.

    2018-01-01

    Peer influence processes have been documented extensively for a wide range of maladaptive adolescent behaviors. However, peer socialization is not inherently deleterious, and little is known about whether adolescents influence each other’s prosocial behaviors, or whether some peers are more influential than others towards positive youth outcomes. This study addressed these questions using an experimental “chat room” paradigm to examine in vivo peer influence of prosocial behavior endorsement. A school-based sample of 304 early adolescents (55 % female, 45 % male; Mage = 12.68) believed they were interacting electronically with same-gender grademates (i.e., “e-confederates”), whose peer status was experimentally manipulated. The participants’ intent to engage in prosocial behaviors was measured pre-experiment and in subsequent “public” and “private” experimental sessions. Overall, the adolescents conformed to the e-confederates’ prosocial responses in public; yet, these peer influence effects were moderated by the peer status of the e-confederates, such that youth more strongly conformed to the high-status e-confederates than to the low-status ones. There also was some evidence that these peer influence effects were maintained in the private session, indicating potential internalization of prosocial peer norms. These findings help bridge the positive youth development and peer influence literatures, with potential implications for campaigns to increase prosocial behaviors. PMID:26525387

  19. Peer-to-peer communication, cancer prevention, and the internet

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ancker, Jessica S.; Carpenter, Kristen M.; Greene, Paul; Hoffmann, Randi; Kukafka, Rita; Marlow, Laura A.V.; Prigerson, Holly G.; Quillin, John M.

    2013-01-01

    Online communication among patients and consumers through support groups, discussion boards, and knowledge resources is becoming more common. In this paper, we discuss key methods through which such web-based peer-to-peer communication may affect health promotion and disease prevention behavior (exchanges of information, emotional and instrumental support, and establishment of group norms and models). We also discuss several theoretical models for studying online peer communication, including social theory, health communication models, and health behavior models. Although online peer communication about health and disease is very common, research evaluating effects on health behaviors, mediators, and outcomes is still relatively sparse. We suggest that future research in this field should include formative evaluation and studies of effects on mediators of behavior change, behaviors, and outcomes. It will also be important to examine spontaneously emerging peer communication efforts to see how they can be integrated with theory-based efforts initiated by researchers. PMID:19449267

  20. Peer Programs: An In-Depth Look at Peer Helping: Planning, Implementation, and Administration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tindall, Judith A.

    The goal of this book is to provide a program designed to teach peer helping professionals a method and rationale for training peer helpers. Peer helping programs are a major delivery system of affective education or deliberate psychological education. Peer helping programs can provide prevention, intervention, and support systems for people.…

  1. Redundancy Maintenance and Garbage Collection Strategies in Peer-to-Peer Storage Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Xin; Datta, Anwitaman

    Maintaining redundancy in P2P storage systems is essential for reliability guarantees. Numerous P2P storage system maintenance algorithms have been proposed in the last years, each supposedly improving upon the previous approaches. We perform a systematic comparative study of the various strategies taking also into account the influence of different garbage collection mechanisms, an issue not studied so far. Our experiments show that while some strategies generally perform better than some others, there is no universally best strategy, and their relative superiority depends on various other design choices as well as the specific evaluation criterion. Our results can be used by P2P storage systems designers to make prudent design decisions, and our exploration of the various evaluation metrics also provides a more comprehensive framework to compare algorithms for P2P storage systems. While there are numerous network simulators specifically developed even to simulate peer-to-peer networks, there existed no P2P storage simulators - a byproduct of this work is a generic modular P2P storage system simulator which we provide as open-source. Different redundancy, maintenance, placement, garbage-collection policies, churn scenarios can be easily integrated to the simulator to try out new schemes in future, and provides a common framework to compare (future) p2p storage systems designs - something which has not been possible so far.

  2. A Reciprocal Peer Review System to Support College Students' Writing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Yu-Fen

    2011-01-01

    As students' problem-solving processes in writing are rarely observed in face-to-face instruction, they have few opportunities to participate collaboratively in peer review to improve their texts. This study reports the design of a reciprocal peer review system for students to observe and learn from each other when writing. A sample of 95…

  3. Perception and Management of Risk in Internet-Based Peer-to-Peer Milk-Sharing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gribble, Karleen D.

    2014-01-01

    The perception and management of the risks of peer-to-peer milk sharing was explored via a written questionnaire administered to 97 peer milk donors and 41 peer milk recipients who were recruited via Facebook. All recipients' respondents were aware that there were risks associated with using peer-shared milk and took action to mitigate these…

  4. Peer-to-peer architectures for exascale computing : LDRD final report.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vorobeychik, Yevgeniy; Mayo, Jackson R.; Minnich, Ronald G.; Armstrong, Robert C.; Rudish, Donald W.

    2010-09-01

    platforms. P2P architectures give us a starting point for crafting applications and system software for exascale. In the context of the Internet, P2P applications (e.g., file sharing, botnets) have already solved this problem for 10{sup 6}-10{sup 7} nodes. Usually based on a fractal distributed hash table structure, these systems have proven robust in practice to constant and unpredictable outages, failures, and even subversion. For example, a recent estimate of botnet turnover (i.e., the number of machines leaving and joining) is about 11% per week. Nonetheless, P2P networks remain effective despite these failures: The Conficker botnet has grown to {approx} 5 x 10{sup 6} peers. Unlike today's system software and applications, those for next-generation exascale machines cannot assume a static structure and, to be scalable over millions of nodes, must be decentralized. P2P architectures achieve both, and provide a promising model for 'fault-oblivious computing'. This project aimed to study the dynamics of P2P networks in the context of a design for exascale systems and applications. Having no single point of failure, the most successful P2P architectures are adaptive and self-organizing. While there has been some previous work applying P2P to message passing, little attention has been previously paid to the tightly coupled exascale domain. Typically, the per-node footprint of P2P systems is small, making them ideal for HPC use. The implementation on each peer node cooperates en masse to 'heal' disruptions rather than relying on a controlling 'master' node. Understanding this cooperative behavior from a complex systems viewpoint is essential to predicting useful environments for the inextricably unreliable exascale platforms of the future. We sought to obtain theoretical insight into the stability and large-scale behavior of candidate architectures, and to work toward leveraging Sandia's Emulytics platform to test promising candidates

  5. Peer-to-Peer Consultations: Ancillary Services Peer Exchange with India: Experience from South Africa, Europe & the United States (Fact Sheet)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    2014-05-01

    In support of national and subnational decision makers, the 21st Century Power Partnership regularly works with country partners to organize peer-to-peer consultations on critical issues. In March 2014, 21CPP collaborated with the Regulatory Assistance Project - India to host two peer-to-peer exchanges among experts from India, South Africa, Europe, and the United States to discuss the provision of ancillary services, particularly in the context of added variability and uncertainty from renewable energy. This factsheet provides a high level summary of the peer-to-peer consultation.

  6. Peer-to-peer mentoring for individuals with early inflammatory arthritis: feasibility pilot.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sandhu, Sharron; Veinot, Paula; Embuldeniya, Gayathri; Brooks, Sydney; Sale, Joanna; Huang, Sicong; Zhao, Alex; Richards, Dawn; Bell, Mary J

    2013-03-01

    To examine the feasibility and potential benefits of early peer support to improve the health and quality of life of individuals with early inflammatory arthritis (EIA). Feasibility study using the 2008 Medical Research Council framework as a theoretical basis. A literature review, environmental scan, and interviews with patients, families and healthcare providers guided the development of peer mentor training sessions and a peer-to-peer mentoring programme. Peer mentors were trained and paired with a mentee to receive (face-to-face or telephone) support over 12 weeks. Two academic teaching hospitals in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Nine pairs consisting of one peer mentor and one mentee were matched based on factors such as age and work status. Mentee outcomes of disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs)/biological treatment use, self-efficacy, self-management, health-related quality of life, anxiety, coping efficacy, social support and disease activity were measured using validated tools. Descriptive statistics and effect sizes were calculated to determine clinically important (>0.3) changes. Peer mentor self-efficacy was assessed using a self-efficacy scale. Interviews conducted with participants examined acceptability and feasibility of procedures and outcome measures, as well as perspectives on the value of peer support for individuals with EIA. Themes were identified through constant comparison. Mentees experienced improvements in the overall arthritis impact on life, coping efficacy and social support (effect size >0.3). Mentees also perceived emotional, informational, appraisal and instrumental support. Mentors also reported benefits and learnt from mentees' fortitude and self-management skills. The training was well received by mentors. Their self-efficacy increased significantly after training completion. Participants' experience of peer support was informed by the unique relationship with their peer. All participants were unequivocal about the need for

  7. Peer-to-peer mentoring for individuals with early inflammatory arthritis: feasibility pilot

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sandhu, Sharron; Veinot, Paula; Embuldeniya, Gayathri; Brooks, Sydney; Sale, Joanna; Huang, Sicong; Zhao, Alex; Richards, Dawn; Bell, Mary J

    2013-01-01

    Objectives To examine the feasibility and potential benefits of early peer support to improve the health and quality of life of individuals with early inflammatory arthritis (EIA). Design Feasibility study using the 2008 Medical Research Council framework as a theoretical basis. A literature review, environmental scan, and interviews with patients, families and healthcare providers guided the development of peer mentor training sessions and a peer-to-peer mentoring programme. Peer mentors were trained and paired with a mentee to receive (face-to-face or telephone) support over 12 weeks. Setting Two academic teaching hospitals in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Participants Nine pairs consisting of one peer mentor and one mentee were matched based on factors such as age and work status. Primary outcome measure Mentee outcomes of disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs)/biological treatment use, self-efficacy, self-management, health-related quality of life, anxiety, coping efficacy, social support and disease activity were measured using validated tools. Descriptive statistics and effect sizes were calculated to determine clinically important (>0.3) changes. Peer mentor self-efficacy was assessed using a self-efficacy scale. Interviews conducted with participants examined acceptability and feasibility of procedures and outcome measures, as well as perspectives on the value of peer support for individuals with EIA. Themes were identified through constant comparison. Results Mentees experienced improvements in the overall arthritis impact on life, coping efficacy and social support (effect size >0.3). Mentees also perceived emotional, informational, appraisal and instrumental support. Mentors also reported benefits and learnt from mentees’ fortitude and self-management skills. The training was well received by mentors. Their self-efficacy increased significantly after training completion. Participants’ experience of peer support was informed by the unique

  8. DOLCLAN – Middleware Support for Peer-to-Peer Distributed Shared Objects

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bardram, Jakob; Mogensen, Martin

    2007-01-01

    Contemporary object-oriented programming seeks to enable distributed computing by accessing remote objects using blocking remote procedure calls. This technique, however, suffers from several drawbacks because it relies on the assumption of stable network connections and synchronous method...... invocations. In this paper we present an approach to support distributed programming, which rely on local object replicas keeping themselves synchronized using an underlying peer-to-peer infrastructure. We have termed our approach Peer-to-peer Distributed Shared Objects (PDSO). This PDSO approach has been...

  9. Does gender affect funding success at the peer-to-peer credit markets? Evidence from the largest German lending platform

    OpenAIRE

    Barasinska, Nataliya; Schäfer, Dorothea

    2010-01-01

    Studies of peer-to-peer lending in the USA find that female borrowers have better chances of getting funds than males. Is differential treatment of borrowers of different sexes a common feature of peer-to-peer lendingmarkets or is it subject to specific businessmodels, ways of fixing loan contracts and even national financial systems? We aim at answering this question by providing evidence on loan procurement at the largest German peer-to-peer lending platform Smava.de. Our results show that ...

  10. Do Peers Matter? Resistance to Peer Influence as a Mediator between Self-esteem and Procrastination among Undergraduates

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bin-Bin Chen

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available This study examined the relationship between self-esteem and procrastination and the mediating role of resistance to peer influence on this relationship among undergraduates. One hundred and ninety-nine Chinese undergraduate students completed the measures of procrastination, resistance to peer influence, and self-esteem. Structural Equation Modelling analyses indicated that self-esteem was negatively related to procrastination, and resistance to peer influence acted as a mediator of this relationship. The results suggest that the peer may be a key to understanding procrastination among undergraduates. Implications for future research and limitations of the current study are discussed.

  11. A Liberation Health Approach to Examining Challenges and Facilitators of Peer-to-Peer Human Milk Sharing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCloskey, Rebecca J; Karandikar, Sharvari

    2018-04-01

    Human milk sharing between peers is a common and growing practice. Although human milk has been unequivocally established as the ideal food source for infants, much stigma surrounds the practice of human milk sharing. Furthermore, there is little research examining peer-to-peer human milk sharing. Research Aim: We used the liberation health social work model to examine the experiences of mothers who have received donated human milk from a peer. Research questions were as follows: (a) What challenges do recipient mothers experience in peer-to-peer human milk sharing? (b) What supports do recipient mothers identify in peer-to-peer human milk sharing? Researchers conducted in-depth interviews with mothers ( N = 20) in the United States and Canada who were recipients of peer-to-peer human milk sharing. Researchers independently reviewed transcripts and completed open, axial, and selective coding. The authors discussed conflicts in theme identification until agreement was reached. Challenges to peer-to-peer human milk sharing were (a) substantial effort required to secure human milk; (b) institutional barriers; (c) milk bank specific barriers; and (d) lack of societal awareness and acceptance of human milk sharing. Facilitators included (a) informed decision making and transparency and (b) support from healthcare professionals. Despite risks and barriers, participants continued to pursue peer-to-peer human milk sharing. Informed by a liberation health framework, healthcare professionals-rather than universally discouraging human milk sharing between peers-should facilitate open dialogue with parents about the pros and cons of this practice and about screening recommendations to promote safety and mitigate risk.

  12. Privacy as Invisibility: Pervasive Surveillance and the Privatization of Peer-to-Peer Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Francesca Musiani

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available This article addresses the ongoing, increasing privatization of peer-to-peer (P2P file sharing systems – the emergence of systems that users may only join by personal, friend-to-friend invitation. It argues that, within P2P systems, privacy is increasingly coinciding with “mere” invisibility vis-à-vis the rest of the Internet ecosystem because of a trend that has shaped the recent history of P2P technology: The alternation between forms of pervasive surveillance of such systems, and reactions by developers and users to such restrictive measures. Yet, it also suggests that the richness of today’s landscape of P2P technology development and use, mainly in the field of Internet-based services, opens up new dimensions to the conceptualization of privacy, and may give room to a more articulate definition of the concept as related to P2P technology; one that includes not only the need of protection from external attacks, and the temporary outcomes of the competition between surveillance and counter-surveillance measures, but also issues such as user empowerment through better control over personal information, reconfiguration of data management practices, and removal of intermediaries in sharing and communication activities.

  13. Key agreement in peer-to-peer wireless networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cagalj, Mario; Capkun, Srdjan; Hubaux, Jean-Pierre

    2006-01-01

    We present a set of simple techniques for key establishment over a radio link in peer-to-peer networks. Our approach is based on the Diffie-Hellman key agreement protocol, which is known to be vulnerable to the “man-in-the-middle” attack if the two users involved in the protocol do not share any ...

  14. Information Propagation in Peer-to-Peer Networking : Modeling and Empirical Studies

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Tang, S.

    2010-01-01

    Although being a young technology, peer-to-peer (P2P) networking has spurred dramatic evolution on the Internet over the recent twenty years. Unlike traditional server-client mode, P2P networking applications are user-centric. Users (peers) generate their own content and share it with others across

  15. Student Voices: Perspectives on Peer-to-Peer Sexual Health Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Layzer, Carolyn; Rosapep, Lauren; Barr, Sherry

    2017-07-01

    This process study is a companion to a randomized evaluation of a school-based, peer-led comprehensive sexual health education program, Teen Prevention Education Program (Teen PEP), in which 11th- and 12th-grade students are trained by school health educators to conduct informative workshops with ninth-grade peers in schools in North Carolina. The process study was designed to understand youth participants' perspectives on the program in order to gain insight into program effectiveness. This is a mixed-methods study in 7 schools, with online surveys (N = 88) and 8 focus groups with peer educators (N = 116), end-of-program surveys (N = 1122), 8 focus groups with ninth-grade workshop participants (N = 89), and observations of the Teen PEP class and workshops during the semester of implementation in each school, 2012-2014. Both peer educators and ninth graders perceived benefits of participating in Teen PEP across a range of domains, including intentions, skills, and knowledge and that the peer education modality was important in their valuation of the experience. Our findings suggest that the peer-led comprehensive sexual health education approach embodied in Teen PEP can be an important educational mechanism for teaching students information and skills to promote sexual health. © 2017, American School Health Association.

  16. Agent-oriented Modeling for Collaborative Learning Environments: A Peer-to-Peer Helpdesk Case Study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Guizzardi-Silva Souza, R.; Wagner, G.; Aroyo, L.M.

    2002-01-01

    In this paper, we present the analysis and modelling of Help&Learn, an agent-based peer-to-peer helpdesk system to support extra-class interactions among students and teachers. Help&Learn expands the student’s possibility of solving problems, getting involved in a cooperative learning experience

  17. Inspiring peer-to-peer educations with film

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vachon, R. W.

    2014-12-01

    Oceans are vast, complicated, often inaccessible, three-dimensional and dark (for the most part). The value, vulnerabilities and dynamics of marine systems are quite far removed from the consciousness of many people. However, these reasons are not alibis for not understanding and appreciating oceans deep-rooted influences on our lives. Currently, the Nereus Program, a fellowship of climate, fisheries and computer modeling scientists, are accessing school systems in person and virtually, motivating teens to tell stories about their local understanding of the ocean's influence on their communities (even if they live in a landlocked location). In it's first iteration, we are soliciting youth to communicate through the popular medium of film. These films will be assembled into an on-line digital field guide. In part, this program is designed to be a peer-to-peer educational technique, where civilians are teaching other civilians about local or regional ocean dynamics. Additionally, the act of teaching through film is a proven method for deepening engagement, learning and empowerment of the individuals producing the films.

  18. Robust Reputations for Peer-to-peer Markets

    Science.gov (United States)

    2007-05-24

    a cryptographic protocol that permits persistent pseudonyms: on-line identities that maintain privacy and anonymity yet providing a strong guarantee...July 2005. [106] ——, “Resisting sybils in peer-to-peer markets,” 2007, to appear in the Proceedings of the Joint iTrust and PST Conference on Privacy ...vendors unite to voice their concerns,” Startup Journal, May 2004, http://startup.wsj.com/ ecommerce / ecommerce /20040526-wingfield.html. 179 [117] B. Yu and M

  19. A peer-to-peer file search and download protocol for wireless ad-hoc networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Sözer, Hasan; Tekkalmaz, M.; Korpeoglu, I.

    Deployment of traditional peer-to-peer file sharing systems on a wireless ad-hoc network introduces several challenges. Information and workload distribution as well as routing are major problems for members of a wireless ad-hoc network, which are only aware of their immediate neighborhood. In this

  20. Exploring a QoS Driven Scheduling Approach for Peer-to-Peer Live Streaming Systems with Network Coding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cui, Laizhong; Lu, Nan; Chen, Fu

    2014-01-01

    Most large-scale peer-to-peer (P2P) live streaming systems use mesh to organize peers and leverage pull scheduling to transmit packets for providing robustness in dynamic environment. The pull scheduling brings large packet delay. Network coding makes the push scheduling feasible in mesh P2P live streaming and improves the efficiency. However, it may also introduce some extra delays and coding computational overhead. To improve the packet delay, streaming quality, and coding overhead, in this paper are as follows. we propose a QoS driven push scheduling approach. The main contributions of this paper are: (i) We introduce a new network coding method to increase the content diversity and reduce the complexity of scheduling; (ii) we formulate the push scheduling as an optimization problem and transform it to a min-cost flow problem for solving it in polynomial time; (iii) we propose a push scheduling algorithm to reduce the coding overhead and do extensive experiments to validate the effectiveness of our approach. Compared with previous approaches, the simulation results demonstrate that packet delay, continuity index, and coding ratio of our system can be significantly improved, especially in dynamic environments. PMID:25114968

  1. Peer-to-peer lending and bias in crowd decision-making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, Pramesh; Uparna, Jayaram; Karampourniotis, Panagiotis; Horvat, Emoke-Agnes; Szymanski, Boleslaw; Korniss, Gyorgy; Bakdash, Jonathan Z; Uzzi, Brian

    2018-01-01

    Peer-to-peer lending is hypothesized to help equalize economic opportunities for the world's poor. We empirically investigate the "flat-world" hypothesis, the idea that globalization eventually leads to economic equality, using crowdfinancing data for over 660,000 loans in 220 nations and territories made between 2005 and 2013. Contrary to the flat-world hypothesis, we find that peer-to-peer lending networks are moving away from flatness. Furthermore, decreasing flatness is strongly associated with multiple variables: relatively stable patterns in the difference in the per capita GDP between borrowing and lending nations, ongoing migration flows from borrowing to lending nations worldwide, and the existence of a tie as a historic colonial. Our regression analysis also indicates a spatial preference in lending for geographically proximal borrowers. To estimate the robustness for these patterns for future changes, we construct a network of borrower and lending nations based on the observed data. Then, to perturb the network, we stochastically simulate policy and event shocks (e.g., erecting walls) or regulatory shocks (e.g., Brexit). The simulations project a drift towards rather than away from flatness. However, levels of flatness persist only for randomly distributed shocks. By contrast, loss of the top borrowing nations produces more flatness, not less, indicating how the welfare of the overall system is tied to a few distinctive and critical country-pair relationships.

  2. Research on load optimization of DHT-based hierarchy peer-to-peer system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhong, Haifeng; Luo, Dongjian; Wu, Wei; Xiao, Liang

    2009-08-01

    The main reason of causing the cost in p2p system is the maintenance cost that nodes build their routing information. In a large-scale system or a dynamic environment, p2p system generates considerable maintenance workload, which not only increase the bandwidth consumption but also affect the routing efficiency. So we present here a new Hierarchy_based maintenance method to minimize the maintenance cost which combines the hierarchical DHT algorithm with a peer proximity mechanism. The analysis results show our design can significantly decrease maintenance cost and improve scalability of the P2P system.

  3. Paper-pen peer-correction versus wiki-based peer-correction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Froldova Vladimira

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This study reports on the comparison of the students’ achievement and their attitudes towards the use of paper-pen peer-correction and wiki-based peer-correction within English language lessons and CLIL Social Science lessons at the higher secondary school in Prague. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were utilized to gather information. The data suggests that students made considerable use of wikis and showed higher degrees of motivation in wiki-based peer-correction during English language lessons than in CLIL Social Science lessons. In both cases wikis not only contributed to developing students’ writing skills, but also helped students recognize the importance of collaboration.

  4. Students' use of Facebook for peer-to-peer learning

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dalsgaard, Christian

    are using Facebook groups to help each other with all kinds of school-related matters, including issues relating directly to academic subjects. Based on the findings from the study, the paper concludes that there is an educational potential of Facebook groups in supporting peer-to-peer learning between...

  5. Securing Resources in Collaborative Environments: A Peer-to-peerApproach

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Berket, Karlo; Essiari, Abdelilah; Thompson, Mary R.

    2005-09-19

    We have developed a security model that facilitates control of resources by autonomous peers who act on behalf of collaborating users. This model allows a gradual build-up of trust. It enables secure interactions among users that do not necessarily know each other and allows them to build trust over the course of their collaboration. This paper describes various aspects of our security model and describes an architecture that implements this model to provide security in pure peer-to-peer environments.

  6. The future of mental health care: peer-to-peer support and social media.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Naslund, J A; Aschbrenner, K A; Marsch, L A; Bartels, S J

    2016-04-01

    People with serious mental illness are increasingly turning to popular social media, including Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, to share their illness experiences or seek advice from others with similar health conditions. This emerging form of unsolicited communication among self-forming online communities of patients and individuals with diverse health concerns is referred to as peer-to-peer support. We offer a perspective on how online peer-to-peer connections among people with serious mental illness could advance efforts to promote mental and physical wellbeing in this group. In this commentary, we take the perspective that when an individual with serious mental illness decides to connect with similar others online it represents a critical point in their illness experience. We propose a conceptual model to illustrate how online peer-to-peer connections may afford opportunities for individuals with serious mental illness to challenge stigma, increase consumer activation and access online interventions for mental and physical wellbeing. People with serious mental illness report benefits from interacting with peers online from greater social connectedness, feelings of group belonging and by sharing personal stories and strategies for coping with day-to-day challenges of living with a mental illness. Within online communities, individuals with serious mental illness could challenge stigma through personal empowerment and providing hope. By learning from peers online, these individuals may gain insight about important health care decisions, which could promote mental health care seeking behaviours. These individuals could also access interventions for mental and physical wellbeing delivered through social media that could incorporate mutual support between peers, help promote treatment engagement and reach a wider demographic. Unforeseen risks may include exposure to misleading information, facing hostile or derogatory comments from others, or feeling more uncertain

  7. Peer-to-Peer Lending in Surabaya: How It Drives Regional Economy?

    OpenAIRE

    Mahardhika, Galih Satria

    2017-01-01

    Financial technology, or so called as “Fintech”, has been remarked as a disruptive idea that changed our current financial system. In Indonesia, one of the emerging financial practices related to Fintech is the online-based peer-to-peer lending (P2PL). This research has two objectives: to explore current scheme of P2PL in Surabaya and to learn how P2PL drives the economy of Surabaya. To meet the objectives, numbers of existing papers are being reviewed related to the matter of P2PL and Micro,...

  8. An agent-based peer-to-peer architecture for semantic discovery of manufacturing services across virtual enterprises

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Wenyu; Zhang, Shuai; Cai, Ming; Jian, Wu

    2015-04-01

    With the development of virtual enterprise (VE) paradigm, the usage of serviceoriented architecture (SOA) is increasingly being considered for facilitating the integration and utilisation of distributed manufacturing resources. However, due to the heterogeneous nature among VEs, the dynamic nature of a VE and the autonomous nature of each VE member, the lack of both sophisticated coordination mechanism in the popular centralised infrastructure and semantic expressivity in the existing SOA standards make the current centralised, syntactic service discovery method undesirable. This motivates the proposed agent-based peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture for semantic discovery of manufacturing services across VEs. Multi-agent technology provides autonomous and flexible problemsolving capabilities in dynamic and adaptive VE environments. Peer-to-peer overlay provides highly scalable coupling across decentralised VEs, each of which exhibiting as a peer composed of multiple agents dealing with manufacturing services. The proposed architecture utilises a novel, efficient, two-stage search strategy - semantic peer discovery and semantic service discovery - to handle the complex searches of manufacturing services across VEs through fast peer filtering. The operation and experimental evaluation of the prototype system are presented to validate the implementation of the proposed approach.

  9. Peer-to-peer shadowing as a technique for the development of nurse middle managers clinical leadership.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lalleman, Pieterbas; Bouma, Joanne; Smid, Gerhard; Rasiah, Jananee; Schuurmans, Marieke

    2017-10-02

    Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences and impact of peer-to-peer shadowing as a technique to develop nurse middle managers' clinical leadership practices. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative descriptive study was conducted to gain insight into the experiences of nurse middle managers using semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed into codes using constant comparison and similar codes were grouped under sub-themes and then into four broader themes. Findings Peer-to-peer shadowing facilitates collective reflection-in-action and enhances an "investigate stance" while acting. Nurse middle managers begin to curb the caring disposition that unreflectively urges them to act, to answer the call for help in the here and now, focus on ad hoc "doings", and make quick judgements. Seeing a shadowee act produces, via a process of social comparison, a behavioural repertoire of postponing reactions and refraining from judging. Balancing the act of stepping in and doing something or just observing as well as giving or withholding feedback are important practices that are difficult to develop. Originality/value Peer-to-peer shadowing facilitates curbing the caring disposition, which is essential for clinical leadership development through unlocking a behavioural repertoire that is not easy to reveal because it is, unreflectively, closely knit to the professional background of the nurse managers. Unlike most leadership development programmes, that are quite introspective and detached from context, peer-to-peer shadowing does have the potential to promote collective learning while acting, which is an important process.

  10. Workplace peer educators and stress.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dickinson, David; Kgatea, Kabelo Duncan

    2008-11-01

    Peer educators form an important component of company responses to HIV and AIDS. Based on interviews with peer educators working in and around a mining company in South Africa's North-West Province, the study examines the relationship between involvement in peer education and stress. The paper discusses how becoming a peer educator can be a response to the often personal stress brought about by the HIV epidemic. In addition, structural difficulties, skills deficiencies and other obstacles to effective communication with their peers can create stress. The stress that active peer education brings to individuals is discussed, particularly in regard to the embeddedness of peer educators within their communities. The need for confidentiality also magnifies stress in the case of individuals who disregard peer educators' advice. Peer educators face many stresses in managing and supporting their own lives, thus their (voluntary) work as peer educators should not be taken out of context. Using this approach, we discuss how the role of peer educator should be conceptualised and how they can be organised and supported in order that their stress be minimised and effective engagement maximised.

  11. SwinDeW-C: A Peer-to-Peer Based Cloud Workflow System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Xiao; Yuan, Dong; Zhang, Gaofeng; Chen, Jinjun; Yang, Yun

    Workflow systems are designed to support the process automation of large scale business and scientific applications. In recent years, many workflow systems have been deployed on high performance computing infrastructures such as cluster, peer-to-peer (p2p), and grid computing (Moore, 2004; Wang, Jie, & Chen, 2009; Yang, Liu, Chen, Lignier, & Jin, 2007). One of the driving forces is the increasing demand of large scale instance and data/computation intensive workflow applications (large scale workflow applications for short) which are common in both eBusiness and eScience application areas. Typical examples (will be detailed in Section 13.2.1) include such as the transaction intensive nation-wide insurance claim application process; the data and computation intensive pulsar searching process in Astrophysics. Generally speaking, instance intensive applications are those processes which need to be executed for a large number of times sequentially within a very short period or concurrently with a large number of instances (Liu, Chen, Yang, & Jin, 2008; Liu et al., 2010; Yang et al., 2008). Therefore, large scale workflow applications normally require the support of high performance computing infrastructures (e.g. advanced CPU units, large memory space and high speed network), especially when workflow activities are of data and computation intensive themselves. In the real world, to accommodate such a request, expensive computing infrastructures including such as supercomputers and data servers are bought, installed, integrated and maintained with huge cost by system users

  12. APPLICATION OF PEER-TO-PEER ASSESSMENT OF WRITTEN WORKS OF STUDENTS IN STREAM INTERNAL COURSES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Д А Королев

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available At reduction of contact time in subject matters the instruments of preservation of active forms of studying for students assuming independent research work are required. One of such forms is peer-to- peer evaluation of works (peer assessment allowing to go beyond a narrow framework of automaticallychecked tests for the level of small research works. In article results of a two-year experiment on use of a piring on a stream course are given in MIEM Higher School of Economics National Research University taking into account specifics of audience rather mass online of courses.The received results and conclusions have formed a basis for modeling of ways of estimation of written works at peer-to-peer check without participation of the teacher. In an experiment schemes of estimation and motivation for management of a ratio of number of authors and reviewers have been fulfilled, and also the general questions of use of the offered system of assessment it is aware.

  13. Defining Peer-to-Peer Accountability From the Nurse's Perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lockett, Jacqueline Jansen; Barkley, Leslie; Stichler, Jaynelle; Palomo, Jeanne; Kik, Bozena; Walker, Christopher; Donnelly, Janet; Willon, Judy; Sanborn, Julie; O'Byrne, Noeleen

    2015-11-01

    The aim of this study was to define and create a conceptual model for peer-to-peer accountability (P to PA). Many organizations cite the importance of peer accountability (PA) as essential in ensuring patient safety. Professionalism in nursing requires self-regulation of practice and PA. Although discussed in the literature, P to PA is not conceptually defined. A grounded theory study design with constant comparative data collection and analysis was used to explore nurses' definitions of P to PA and their perceptions of motivators and barriers to engaging in P to PA. Transcripts of digital recordings of all interviews were analyzed using line-by-line coding until identified themes emerged. P to PA was defined as the act of speaking up when one observes a peer not practicing to acceptable standards. A conceptual model illustrates the antecedents, attributes, and consequences of P to PA. P to PA is the professional responsibility of every nurse and healthcare provider and is essential for safe patient care. The conceptual definition facilitates actualization of P to PA in practice.

  14. Writing to Learn and Learning to Write across the Disciplines: Peer-to-Peer Writing in Introductory-Level MOOCs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Denise K. Comer

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available This study aimed to evaluate how peer-to-peer interactions through writing impact student learning in introductory-level massive open online courses (MOOCs across disciplines. This article presents the results of a qualitative coding analysis of peer-to-peer interactions in two introductory level MOOCs: English Composition I: Achieving Expertise and Introduction to Chemistry. Results indicate that peer-to-peer interactions in writing through the forums and through peer assessment enhance learner understanding, link to course learning objectives, and generally contribute positively to the learning environment. Moreover, because forum interactions and peer review occur in written form, our research contributes to open distance learning (ODL scholarship by highlighting the importance of writing to learn as a significant pedagogical practice that should be encouraged more in MOOCs across disciplines.

  15. A peer-to-peer platform for decentralized logistics

    OpenAIRE

    Gallay, Olivier; Korpela, Kari; Tapio, Niemi; Nurminen, Jukka K.; Kersten, Wolfgang; Blecker, Thorsten; Ringle, Christian M.

    2017-01-01

    We introduce a novel platform for decentralized logistics, the aim of which is to magnify and accelerate the impact offered by the integration of the most recent advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to multi-modal freight operations. The essence of our peer-to-peer (P2P) framework distributes the management of the logistics operations to the multiple actors according to their available computational resources. As a result, this new approach prevents the dominant playe...

  16. A digital peer-to-peer learning platform for clinical skills development.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jesse Paul Basnak

    2017-02-01

    Conclusion: Students found the practice OSCEs and digital platform effective for learning clinical skills. Thus, peer-to-peer learning and computer automation can be useful adjuncts to traditional medical curricula.

  17. Peer victimization and peer rejection during early childhood

    Science.gov (United States)

    Godleski, Stephanie A.; Kamper, Kimberly E.; Ostrov, Jamie M.; Hart, Emily J.; Blakely-McClure, Sarah J.

    2014-01-01

    Objective The development and course of the subtypes of peer victimization is a relatively understudied topic despite the association of victimization with important developmental and clinical outcomes. Moreover, understanding potential predictors, such as peer rejection and emotion regulation, in early childhood may be especially important to elucidate possible bi-directional pathways between relational and physical victimization and rejection. The current study (N = 97) was designed to explore several gaps and limitations in the peer victimization and peer rejection literature. In particular, the prospective associations between relational and physical victimization and peer rejection over the course of 3.5 months during early childhood (i.e., 3- to 5- years-old) were investigated in an integrated model. Method The study consisted of 97 (42 girls) preschool children recruited from four early childhood schools in the northeast of the US. Using observations, research assistant report and teacher report, relational and physical aggression, relational and physical victimization, peer rejection, and emotion regulation were measured in a short-term longitudinal study. Path analyses were conducted to test the overall hypothesized model. Results Peer rejection was found to predict increases in relational victimization. In addition, emotion regulation was found to predict decreases in peer rejection and physical victimization. Conclusions Implications for research and practice are discussed, including teaching coping strategies for peer rejection and emotional distress. PMID:25133659

  18. Online Peer-to-Peer Support for Young People With Mental Health Problems: A Systematic Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ali, Kathina; Farrer, Louise; Gulliver, Amelia; Griffiths, Kathleen M

    2015-01-01

    Adolescence and early adulthood are critical periods for the development of mental disorders. Online peer-to-peer communication is popular among young people and may improve mental health by providing social support. Previous systematic reviews have targeted Internet support groups for adults with mental health problems, including depression. However, there have been no systematic reviews examining the effectiveness of online peer-to-peer support in improving the mental health of adolescents and young adults. The aim of this review was to systematically identify available evidence for the effectiveness of online peer-to peer support for young people with mental health problems. The PubMed, PsycInfo, and Cochrane databases were searched using keywords and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms. Retrieved abstracts (n=3934) were double screened and coded. Studies were included if they (1) investigated an online peer-to-peer interaction, (2) the interaction discussed topics related to mental health, (3) the age range of the sample was between 12 to 25 years, and (4) the study evaluated the effectiveness of the peer-to-peer interaction. Six studies satisfied the inclusion criteria for the current review. The studies targeted a range of mental health problems including depression and anxiety (n=2), general psychological problems (n=1), eating disorders (n=1), and substance use (tobacco) (n=2). The majority of studies investigated Internet support groups (n=4), and the remaining studies focused on virtual reality chat sessions (n=2). In almost all studies (n=5), the peer support intervention was moderated by health professionals, researchers or consumers. Studies employed a range of study designs including randomized controlled trials (n=3), pre-post studies (n=2) and one randomized trial. Overall, two of the randomized controlled trials were associated with a significant positive outcome in comparison to the control group at post-intervention. In the remaining four

  19. Active Minds: Creating Peer-to-Peer Mental Health Awareness

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walther, Willliam A.; Abelson, Sara; Malmon, Alison

    2014-01-01

    Utilizing student peers is one vital avenue for improving the prevention, detection, and treatment of mental health disorders on college campuses (The Campus Suicide Prevention Center of Virginia, 2011). This article will briefly review research findings indicating the importance of student peers and then focus on a promising model and growing…

  20. Evaluating Management Information Systems, A Protocol for Automated Peer Review Systems

    OpenAIRE

    Black, Gordon C.

    1980-01-01

    This paper discusses key issues in evaluating an automated Peer Review System. Included are the conceptual base, design, steps in planning structural components, operation parameters, criteria, costs and a detailed outline or protocol for use in the evaluation.

  1. Teaching peers to talk to peers: the time has come for science to create a respectable, full-time career track for "peer-peer communication teachers".

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodríguez, Armando Chapin

    2012-11-01

    Scientists should learn to communicate effectively with their colleagues through long-term, sustained training instead of ad hoc, one-off "interventions" that may or may not occur during graduate school or postdoctoral work. Since such training may place unreasonable demands on research advisors, institutions should create career opportunities for "peer-peer communication teachers." Copyright © 2012 WILEY Periodicals, Inc.

  2. Potential Benefits of Incorporating Peer-to-Peer Interactions Into Digital Interventions for Psychotic Disorders: A Systematic Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Biagianti, Bruno; Quraishi, Sophia H; Schlosser, Danielle A

    2018-04-01

    Peer-to-peer interactions and support groups mitigate experiences of social isolation and loneliness often reported by individuals with psychotic disorders. Online peer-to-peer communication can promote broader use of this form of social support. Peer-to-peer interactions occur naturally on social media platforms, but they can negatively affect mental health. Recent digital interventions for persons with psychotic disorders have harnessed the principles of social media to incorporate peer-to-peer communication. This review examined the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of recent digital interventions in order to identify strategies to maximize benefits of online peer-to-peer communication for persons with psychotic disorders. An electronic database search of PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Ovid MEDLINE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Health Technology Assessment Database was conducted in February 2017 and yielded a total of 1,015 results. Eight publications that reported data from six independent trials and five interventions were reviewed. The technology supporting peer-to-peer communication varied greatly across studies, from online forums to embedded social networking. When peer-to-peer interactions were moderated by facilitators, retention, engagement, acceptability, and efficacy were higher than for interventions with no facilitators. Individuals with psychotic disorders were actively engaged with moderated peer-to-peer communication and showed improvements in perceived social support. Studies involving service users in intervention design showed higher rates of acceptability. Individuals with psychotic disorders value and benefit from digital interventions that include moderated peer-to-peer interactions. Incorporating peer-to-peer communication into digital interventions for this population may increase compliance with other evidence-based therapies by producing more acceptable and engaging online environments.

  3. Peer-to-Peer Mentoring for African American Women With Lupus: A Feasibility Pilot.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Edith M; Hyer, J Madison; Viswanathan, Ramakrishnan; Faith, Trevor D; Voronca, Delia; Gebregzaibher, Mulugeta; Oates, Jim C; Egede, Leonard

    2018-06-01

    To examine the feasibility and potential benefits of peer mentoring to improve the disease self-management and quality of life of individuals with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Peer mentors were trained and paired with up to 3 mentees to receive self-management education and support by telephone over 12 weeks. This study took place at an academic teaching hospital in Charleston, South Carolina. Seven quads consisting of 1 peer mentor and 3 mentees were matched, based on factors such as age, area of residence, and marital and work status. Mentee outcomes of self-management, health-related quality of life, and disease activity were measured using validated tools at baseline, mid-intervention, and post-intervention. Descriptive statistics and effect sizes were calculated to determine clinically important (>0.3) changes from baseline. Mentees showed trends toward lower disease activity (P = 0.004) and improved health-related quality of life, in the form of decreased anxiety (P = 0.018) and decreased depression (P = 0.057). Other improvements in health-related quality of life were observed with effect sizes >0.3, but did not reach statistical significance. In addition, both mentees and mentors gave very high scores for perceived treatment credibility and service delivery. The intervention was well received. Training, the peer-mentoring program, and outcome measures were demonstrated to be feasible with modifications. This result provides preliminary support for the efficacy, acceptability, and perceived credibility of a peer-mentoring approach to improve disease self-management and health-related quality of life in African American women with SLE. Peer mentoring may augment current rheumatologic care. © 2017, American College of Rheumatology.

  4. Secure Peer-to-Peer Networks for Scientific Information Sharing, Phase I

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Our goal is to adapt the peer-to-peer technology (P2P), which has been overwhelmingly successful in popular content distribution, as the basis for development of...

  5. A Database Query Processing Model in Peer-To-Peer Network ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Peer-to-peer databases are becoming more prevalent on the internet for sharing and distributing applications, documents, files, and other digital media. The problem associated with answering large-scale ad hoc analysis queries, aggregation queries, on these databases poses unique challenges. This paper presents an ...

  6. PowerFolder – Peer-to-Peer powered Sync and Share

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2014-01-01

    PowerFolder is a peer-to-peer (P2P) sync and share solution which started as spin-off from the University of Cologne and University of Applied Science Niederrhein in 2007. It is available as commercial and open-source solution and in use by hundreds of education and research organization and several thousand businesses. The software enables datacenter providers, NRENs or any education and research organization to operate its own PowerFolder cloud as alternative to public clouds while preserving the same end-user experience: Access to data anywhere on any device (Windows, Linux, Apple, Web, Android and iOS). While approaches to sync and share data from/to a single central location have several drawbacks the PowerFolder solution offers a unique peer-to-peer algorithm to replicate and transfer data between sites, users and devices with the freedom to choose whether to store or not to store files at the central hub. This is archived by intelligent; decentralize meta- and binary-data handling between nodes in a se...

  7. Competitive Status Signaling in Peer-to-Peer File-Sharing Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Henry F. Lyle

    2007-04-01

    Full Text Available Internet peer-to-peer file sharing is a contemporary example of asymmetrical sharing in which “altruists” (file uploaders share unconditionally with non-reciprocating “free riders” (file downloaders. Those who upload digital media files over the Internet risk prosecution for copyright infringement, and are more vulnerable to computer hackers and viruses. In an analysis of file-sharing behavior among university undergraduates (N=331, we found that significantly more males than females engaged in risky file uploading. Contrary to expectations, uploaders were not concerned about their reputation online and file sharers were not interested in identifying or chatting with uploaders while online. Among uploaders, males were more likely than females to be identified as uploaders by friends, to discuss uploading and to upload in the presence of peers. We interpret these results using costly-signaling theory, and argue that uploading is a costly signal in which males engage in avoidable risk taking as a means to compete for status among peers in social contexts other than the Internet.

  8. From Parents to Siblings and Peers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Isabelle Roskam

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available The objective of the current research was to test the hypotheses arising from the epigenetic view of social development and from the wider perspective offered by the social network model with three interactional systems, that is, child–parent, child–sibling, and child–peer. They were tested in two prospective longitudinal studies using a multi-informant and multi-method strategy. Study 1 was conducted among 83 children and their parents and Study 2 among 190 children. Attachment security with parents was assessed when the children were 4 years of age, relationships with siblings at 5 years of age, and relationships with peers at 6 years of age. Attachment to parent was found to explain a limited part of variations in later social relationships with siblings and peers. The sibling interactional system had a consistent and enduring effect on later peer relationships. With regard to the two theoretical backgrounds under consideration, neither was able to account for equivocal findings displayed in the two studies as well as in previous research. The wonderful story of social development seems to be a very complex process for which new models are needed.

  9. Peer-to-peer over mobile ad hoc networks (Chapter 11)

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Qadri, N.N.; Liotta, A.; Pierre, S.

    2010-01-01

    In this chapter we review various approaches for the convergence of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs), identifying strengths and weaknesses, and putting things in perspective. P2P and MANETs are among the most active research topics in pervasive computing. The convergence of P2P

  10. Management issues related to effectively implementing a nutrition education program using peer educators.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taylor, T; Serrano, E; Anderson, J

    2001-01-01

    To explore the influence of administrative aspects of a nutrition education program with peer educators delivering the program. Telephone interviews with peer educators trained to deliver La Cocina Saludable, a nutrition education program for Hispanics. Open- and closed-ended questions. Abuelas (grandmothers) recruited and trained as peer educators for the program. The sample included peer educators no longer teaching (22%), currently teaching (30%), and who never taught after training. Motives and incentives for becoming peer educators, challenges for peer educators, and reasons peer educators withdrew from the program. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze quantitative data from the closed-ended questions. Qualitative analysis was applied to data from open-ended questions. Working with community and learning about nutrition were prime motivators. Recruiting participants and coordination of classes appeared to be major challenges. Personal issues and traveling in a large geographic area were cited as the main reasons for quitting. The effectiveness of using peer educators for La Cocina Saludable may be improved through empowerment, additional training, a structured and equitable reimbursement system, and assistance to carry out administrative tasks.

  11. Student Voices: Perspectives on Peer-to-Peer Sexual Health Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Layzer, Carolyn; Rosapep, Lauren; Barr, Sherry

    2017-01-01

    Background: This process study is a companion to a randomized evaluation of a school-based, peer-led comprehensive sexual health education program, Teen Prevention Education Program (Teen PEP), in which 11th- and 12th-grade students are trained by school health educators to conduct informative workshops with ninth-grade peers in schools in North…

  12. State-Of-The-Art and Prospects for Peer-To-Peer Transaction-Based Energy System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olamide Jogunola

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Transaction-based energy (TE management and control has become an increasingly relevant topic, attracting considerable attention from industry and the research community alike. As a result, new techniques are emerging for its development and actualization. This paper presents a comprehensive review of TE involving peer-to-peer (P2P energy trading and also covering the concept, enabling technologies, frameworks, active research efforts and the prospects of TE. The formulation of a common approach for TE management modelling is challenging given the diversity of circumstances of prosumers in terms of capacity, profiles and objectives. This has resulted in divergent opinions in the literature. The idea of this paper is therefore to explore these viewpoints and provide some perspectives on this burgeoning topic on P2P TE systems. This study identified that most of the techniques in the literature exclusively formulate energy trade problems as a game, an optimization problem or a variational inequality problem. It was also observed that none of the existing works has considered a unified messaging framework. This is a potential area for further investigation.

  13. o'Peer: open peer review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brewer, J. H.

    2014-12-01

    I have built a "demonstration" website at http://oPeer.org to illustrate how peer review and publication might be improved relative to the current model, which was designed and implemented in an era when scientific communication was either face-to-face or relied upon human delivery of ink marks on dead trees.

  14. Dissecting "Peer Presence" and "Decisions" to Deepen Understanding of Peer Influence on Adolescent Risky Choice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Somerville, Leah H; Haddara, Nadia; Sasse, Stephanie F; Skwara, Alea C; Moran, Joseph M; Figner, Bernd

    2018-04-27

    This study evaluated the aspects of complex decisions influenced by peers, and components of peer involvement influential to adolescents' risky decisions. Participants (N = 140) aged 13-25 completed the Columbia Card Task (CCT), a risky choice task, isolating deliberation-reliant and affect-reliant decisions while alone, while a friend monitors choices, and while a friend is merely present. There is no condition in which a nonfriend peer is present. Results demonstrated the risk-increasing peer effect occurred in the youngest participants in the cold CCT and middle-late adolescents in the hot CCT, whereas other ages and contexts showed a risk-decreasing peer effect. Mere presence was not sufficient to influence risky behavior. These boundaries in age, decision, and peer involvement constrain prevailing models of adolescent peer influence. © 2018 Society for Research in Child Development.

  15. A peer-led approach to promoting health education in schools: The views of peers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    JM Frantz

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Peer-led health promotion strategies in schools have been found to be effective in promoting healthy behaviours amongst youth. This study aimed to evaluate the views of the peer educators in implementing a health education programme using a qualitative approach. Informal discussions and eight in-depth interviews were used to explore the views of the 10 peer educators. Information from the interviews was transcribed verbatim, analysed, and coded thematically. The themes that emerged from the analysis of the informal discussion and in-depth interviews were grouped into categories, which included peer educators' experience of implementing the intervention, personal growth and experience with interacting with young people, and personal reflection on the presentation of the intervention. The role of peer educators was shown to be crucial to the success of peer-led programmes, but it is clear that equipping and supporting them through the process of implementation is essential.

  16. Peer-to-Peer JXTA Architecture for Continuing Mobile Medical Education Incorporated in Rural Public Health Centers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rajasekaran, Rajkumar; Iyengar, Nallani Chackravatula Sriman Narayana

    2013-04-01

    undergo training and should pass an exam in order to obtain the credits. The system is controlled and monitored by the administrator peer group, which makes it more flexible and structured. Compared with traditional learning system, enhanced study improves cloud-based mobile medical education technology.

  17. ENcentive: A Framework for Intelligent Marketing in Mobile Peer-To-Peer Environments

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Ratsimor, Olga; Finin, Tim; Joshi, Anupam; Yesha, Yelena

    2005-01-01

    .... eNcentive facilitates peer-to-peer electronic marketing in mobile ad hoc environments. Our framework employs an intelligent marketing scheme, by providing users the capability to collect information like sales promotions and discounts...

  18. Client-Server and Peer-to-Peer Ad-hoc Network for a Flexible Learning Environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ferial Khaddage

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Peer-to-Peer (P2P networking in a mobile learning environment has become a popular topic of research. One of the new emerging research ideas is on the ability to combine P2P network with server-based network to form a strong efficient portable and compatible network infrastructure. This paper describes a unique mobile network architecture, which reflects the on-campus students’ need for a mobile learning environment. This can be achieved by combining two different networks, client-server and peer-to-peer ad-hoc to form a sold and secure network. This is accomplished by employing one peer within the ad-hoc network to act as an agent-peer to facilitate communication and information sharing between the two networks. It can be implemented without any major changes to the current network technologies, and can combine any wireless protocols such as GPRS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 3G.

  19. Client-side Web Mining for Community Formation in Peer-to-Peer Environments

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — In this paper we present a framework for forming interests-based Peer-to-Peer communities using client-side web browsing history. At the heart of this framework is...

  20. Paternal/Maternal Attachment, Peer Support, Social Expectations of Peer Interaction, and Depressive Symptoms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Yih-Lan

    2006-01-01

    The aim of this study was to investigate how paternal and maternal attachment might relate to adolescents' peer support, social expectations of peer interaction, and depressive symptoms; 1,144 8th graders in Taiwan participated in the study. The relationships were examined through a structural equating modeling. Consistent with theoretical…

  1. Peer-to-peer milk donors' and recipients' experiences and perceptions of donor milk banks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gribble, Karleen D

    2013-07-01

    To explore the intersection of peer-to-peer milk sharing and donor milk banks. A descriptive survey design containing closed and open-ended questions was used to examine women's perceptions of peer-to-peer milk sharing and milk banking. Closed-ended questions were analyzed using descriptive statistics and conventional qualitative content analysis was used to analyze open-ended responses. Participants were recruited via the Facebook sites of two online milk-sharing networks (Human Milk 4 Human Babies and Eats on Feet). Ninety-eight milk donors and 41 milk recipients who had donated or received breast milk in an arrangement that was facilitated via the Internet. One half of donor recipients could not donate to a milk bank because there were no banks local to them or they did not qualify as donors. Other respondents did not donate to a milk bank because they viewed the process as difficult, had philosophical objections to milk banking, or had a philosophical attraction to peer sharing. Most donor respondents felt it was important to know the circumstances of their milk recipients. No recipient respondents had obtained milk from a milk bank; it was recognized that they would not qualify for banked milk or that banked milk was cost prohibitive. Peer-to-peer milk donors and recipients may differ from milk bank donors and recipients in significant ways. Cooperation between milk banks and peer sharing networks could benefit both groups. © 2013 AWHONN, the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses.

  2. From early family systems to internalizing symptoms: The role of emotion regulation and peer relations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindblom, Jallu; Vänskä, Mervi; Flykt, Marjo; Tolvanen, Asko; Tiitinen, Aila; Tulppala, Maija; Punamäki, Raija-Leena

    2017-04-01

    Research has demonstrated the importance of early family characteristics, such as the quality of caregiving, on children's later mental health. Information is, however, needed about the role of more holistic family systems and specific child-related socioemotional mechanisms. In this study, we conceptualize families as dynamic family system types, consisting of both marital and parenting trajectories over the transition to parenthood. First, we examine how early family system types predict children's anxiety, depression, peer exclusion, and emotion regulation. Second, we test whether couples' infertility history and other family related contextual factors moderate the effects of family system types on child outcomes. Third, we test whether children's emotion regulation and peer exclusion mediate the effects of family system types on anxiety and depression. The participants were 452 families representing cohesive, distant, authoritative, enmeshed, and discrepant family types, identified on the basis of relationship autonomy and intimacy from pregnancy to the child's age of 2 and 12 months. Children's anxiety, depression, emotion regulation, and peer exclusion were assessed at the age of 7-8 years. Structural equation modeling showed that distant, enmeshed, and discrepant families similarly predicted children's heightened anxiety and depression. Infertility history, parental education, and parity moderated the associations between certain family system types and child outcomes. Finally, emotion regulation, but not peer exclusion, was a common mediating mechanism between distant and enmeshed families and children's depression. The results emphasize the importance of early family environments on children's emotion regulation development and internalizing psychopathology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  3. Peer-to-peer Cooperative Scheduling Architecture for National Grid Infrastructure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matyska, Ludek; Ruda, Miroslav; Toth, Simon

    For some ten years, the Czech National Grid Infrastructure MetaCentrum uses a single central PBSPro installation to schedule jobs across the country. This centralized approach keeps a full track about all the clusters, providing support for jobs spanning several sites, implementation for the fair-share policy and better overall control of the grid environment. Despite a steady progress in the increased stability and resilience to intermittent very short network failures, growing number of sites and processors makes this architecture, with a single point of failure and scalability limits, obsolete. As a result, a new scheduling architecture is proposed, which relies on higher autonomy of clusters. It is based on a peer to peer network of semi-independent schedulers for each site or even cluster. Each scheduler accepts jobs for the whole infrastructure, cooperating with other schedulers on implementation of global policies like central job accounting, fair-share, or submission of jobs across several sites. The scheduling system is integrated with the Magrathea system to support scheduling of virtual clusters, including the setup of their internal network, again eventually spanning several sites. On the other hand, each scheduler is local to one of several clusters and is able to directly control and submit jobs to them even if the connection of other scheduling peers is lost. In parallel to the change of the overall architecture, the scheduling system itself is being replaced. Instead of PBSPro, chosen originally for its declared support of large scale distributed environment, the new scheduling architecture is based on the open-source Torque system. The implementation and support for the most desired properties in PBSPro and Torque are discussed and the necessary modifications to Torque to support the MetaCentrum scheduling architecture are presented, too.

  4. Which Peers Matter: How Social Ties Affect Peer-Group Effects

    Science.gov (United States)

    Poldin, Oleg; Valeeva, Diliara; Yudkevich, Maria

    2016-01-01

    We study how the achievements of university students are influenced by the characteristics and achievements of peers in individuals' social networks. Defining peer group in terms of friendship and study partner ties enables us to apply a network regression model and thereby disentangle the influence of peers' performance from that of peers'…

  5. Structuring the Peer Assessment Process: A Multilevel Approach for the Impact on Product Improvement and Peer Feedback Quality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gielen, M.; De Wever, B.

    2015-01-01

    In order to optimize students' peer feedback processes, this study investigates how an instructional intervention in the peer assessment process can have a beneficial effect on students' performance in a wiki environment in first-year higher education. The main aim was to study the effect of integrating a peer feedback template with a varying…

  6. Effects of Script Training on the Peer-to-Peer Communication of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ledbetter-Cho, Katherine; Lang, Russell; Davenport, Katy; Moore, Melissa; Lee, Allyson; Howell, Alexandria; Drew, Christine; Dawson, Dana; Charlop, Marjorie H.; Falcomata, Terry; O'Reilly, Mark

    2015-01-01

    A multiple baseline design across participants was used to demonstrate the effects of a script-training procedure on the peer-to-peer communication of 3 children with autism spectrum disorder during group play with peers. Both scripted and unscripted initiations as well as responses to peers increased for all 3 participants. Stimulus…

  7. Economic models for management of resources in peer-to-peer and grid computing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buyya, Rajkumar; Stockinger, Heinz; Giddy, Jonathan; Abramson, David

    2001-07-01

    The accelerated development in Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and Grid computing has positioned them as promising next generation computing platforms. They enable the creation of Virtual Enterprises (VE) for sharing resources distributed across the world. However, resource management, application development and usage models in these environments is a complex undertaking. This is due to the geographic distribution of resources that are owned by different organizations or peers. The resource owners of each of these resources have different usage or access policies and cost models, and varying loads and availability. In order to address complex resource management issues, we have proposed a computational economy framework for resource allocation and for regulating supply and demand in Grid computing environments. The framework provides mechanisms for optimizing resource provider and consumer objective functions through trading and brokering services. In a real world market, there exist various economic models for setting the price for goods based on supply-and-demand and their value to the user. They include commodity market, posted price, tenders and auctions. In this paper, we discuss the use of these models for interaction between Grid components in deciding resource value and the necessary infrastructure to realize them. In addition to normal services offered by Grid computing systems, we need an infrastructure to support interaction protocols, allocation mechanisms, currency, secure banking, and enforcement services. Furthermore, we demonstrate the usage of some of these economic models in resource brokering through Nimrod/G deadline and cost-based scheduling for two different optimization strategies on the World Wide Grid (WWG) testbed that contains peer-to-peer resources located on five continents: Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America.

  8. 2012 national state safety engineers and traffic engineers peer-to-peer workshop.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-11-01

    The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and the Illinois Center for Transportation (ICT) sponsored and hosted the : 2012 National State Safety Engineers and Traffic Engineers Peer-to-Peer Workshop on November 14 and 15, 2012, at the : Hyatt ...

  9. Peer-to-peer I/O (P2PIO) protocol specification Version 0.6

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Berket, Karlo; Essiari, Abdelilah; Gunter, Dan; Hoschek, Wolfgang

    2004-04-21

    Today's distributed systems require simple and powerful resource discovery queries in a dynamic environment consisting of a large number of resources spanning many autonomous administrative domains. The distributed search problem is hard due to the variety of query types, the number of resources and their autonomous, partitioned and dynamic nature. We propose a generalized resource discovery framework that is built around an application level messaging protocol called Peer-to-Peer I/O (P2PIO). P2PIO addresses a number of scalability problems in a general way. It provides flexible and uniform transport-independent resource discovery mechanisms to reduce both the client and network burden in multi-hop P2P systems.

  10. Survey of faculty perceptions regarding a peer review system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eisenberg, Ronald L; Cunningham, Meredith L; Siewert, Bettina; Kruskal, Jonathan B

    2014-04-01

    Virtually all radiologists participate in peer review, but to our knowledge, this is the first detailed study of their opinions toward various aspects of the process. The study qualified for quality assurance exemption from the institutional review board. A questionnaire sent to all radiology faculty at our institution assessed their views about peer review in general, as well as case selection and scoring, consensus section review for rating and presentation of errors, and impact on radiologist performance. Of 52 questionnaires sent, 50 were completed (response rate, 96.2%). Of these, 44% agreed that our RADPEER-like system is a waste of time, and 58% believed it is done merely to meet hospital/regulatory requirements. Conversely, 46% agreed that peer review improves radiologist performance, 32% agreed that it decreases medical error, and 42% believed that peer review results are valuable to protect radiologists in cases referred to the medical board. A large majority perform all peer reviews close to the deadline, and substantial minorities frequently or almost always select more than one previous examination for a single medical record number (28%), consciously select "less time intensive" cases (22%), and intentionally avoid cases requiring more time to peer review (30%). Almost one-half of respondents agreed that peer review has value, but as currently performed is a waste of time. The method for selecting cases raises serious questions regarding selection bias. A new approach is needed that stresses education of all radiologists by learning from the mistakes of others. Copyright © 2014 American College of Radiology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. Peer to peer mentoring: Outcomes of third-year midwifery students mentoring first-year students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hogan, Rosemarie; Fox, Deborah; Barratt-See, Georgina

    2017-06-01

    Undergraduate midwifery students commonly experience anxiety in relation to their first clinical placement. A peer mentoring program for midwifery students was implemented in an urban Australian university. The participants were first-year mentee and third-year mentor students studying a three-year Bachelor degree in midwifery. The program offered peer support to first-year midwifery students who had little or no previous exposure to hospital clinical settings. Mentors received the opportunity to develop mentoring and leadership skills. The aim was to explore the benefits, if any, of a peer mentoring program for midwifery students. The peer mentoring program was implemented in 2012. Sixty-three peer mentors and 170 mentees participated over three academic years. Surveys were distributed at the end of each academic year. Quantitative survey data were analysed descriptively and qualitative survey data were analysed thematically using NVivo 10 software. Over 80% of mentors and mentees felt that the program helped mentees adjust to their midwifery clinical placement. At least 75% of mentors benefited, in developing their communication, mentoring and leadership skills. Three themes emerged from the qualitative data, including 'Receiving start-up advice'; 'Knowing she was there' and 'Wanting more face to face time'. There is a paucity of literature on midwifery student peer mentoring. The findings of this program demonstrate the value of peer support for mentees and adds knowledge about the mentor experience for undergraduate midwifery students. The peer mentor program was of benefit to the majority of midwifery students. Copyright © 2017 Australian College of Midwives. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Online Peer-to-Peer Support for Young People With Mental Health Problems: A Systematic Review

    OpenAIRE

    Ali, Kathina; Farrer, Louise; Gulliver, Amelia; Griffiths, Kathleen M

    2015-01-01

    Background Adolescence and early adulthood are critical periods for the development of mental disorders. Online peer-to-peer communication is popular among young people and may improve mental health by providing social support. Previous systematic reviews have targeted Internet support groups for adults with mental health problems, including depression. However, there have been no systematic reviews examining the effectiveness of online peer-to-peer support in improving the mental health of a...

  13. [Peer teaching and peer assessment are appropriate tools in medical education in otorhinolaryngology].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kemper, M; Linke, J; Zahnert, T; Neudert, M

    2014-06-01

    The use of student tutors (peers) is an accepted method in medical education. In 2011, final year students of the otorhinolaryngology (ORL) department of the University Hospital in Dresden were appointed as peers for the clinical ORL examination. They assisted in the instruction of the clinical ORL examination (peer teaching, PT) and served as examiners (peer assessment, PA) in the final objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). The effect on the quality of education and examination was examined. 248 medical students (5(th) year) were divided in 2 groups. They were trained and finally examined in the standardized clinical ORL examination by peers and/or physicians. Group I (n=118) was exclusively trained and examined by physicians and group II (n=130) by peers and physicians. The results of the OSCE were stratified for the 2 groups and in group II for the subgroups according to the instructors' and examiners' qualification (peer or physician). The students evaluated the internship and the instructors' and examiners' quality with a validated questionnaire. In the OSCE, group I scored in the mean 59.9±4.9 points (max. 65). In group II the mean score was 58.3±4.3 points examined by the peers and 59.5±4.8 points for same performance assessed by the physicians. There were no statistical significant differences in the examination results when stratified for the instructors' and examiners' qualification. The evaluation results were consistently positive and identical when compared to the previous year without use of PT and PA and between the 2 groups and subgroups. When using a standardized clinical examination routine peers can be used for PT and PA to appropriate tools in student's medical education without any decrease in the teaching and examination quality. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

  14. Peer review: a tool to enhance clinical teaching.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gusic, Maryellen; Hageman, Heather; Zenni, Elisa

    2013-10-01

    The system used by academic health centres to evaluate teaching must be valued by the large number of faculty staff that teach in clinical settings. Peer review can be used to evaluate and enhance clinical teaching. The objective of this study was to determine the perceptions of clinical faculty about the effects of participating in peer review. Faculty members were observed teaching in a clinical setting by trained peer observers. Feedback was provided using a checklist of behaviours and descriptive comments. Afterwards, semi-structured interviews were conducted to assess the faculty member's perception about the process. Notes from the interviews were analysed using a grounded theory approach. The study was approved by the institutional review boards of all the institutions involved. Three themes emerged from the interviews with faculty members: (1) they found the process to be valuable - they received information that affirmed "good" teaching behaviours, and were prompted to be more focused on their teaching; (2) they were motivated to enhance their teaching by being more deliberate, interactive and learner-centred; and (3) they were inspired to explore other opportunities to improve their teaching skills. Peer review is a process that promotes the open discussion and exchange of ideas. This conversation advances clinical teaching skills and allows high-quality teaching behaviours to be strengthened. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  15. Peer Portal: Quality Enhancement in Thesis Writing Using Self-Managed Peer Review on a Mass Scale

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aghaee, Naghmeh; Hansson, Henrik

    2013-01-01

    This paper describes a specially developed online peer-review system, the Peer Portal, and the first results of its use for quality enhancement of bachelor's and master's thesis manuscripts. The peer-review system is completely student driven and therefore saves time for supervisors and creates a direct interaction between students without…

  16. Introduction to the special section on peer-to-peer computing and web data management

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Aoying ZHOU

    2008-01-01

    @@ Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing has been attracting attention from quite a few researchers and practitioners from different fields of computer science, such as networking, distributed computing, and database. Over P2P environment, the data management becomes a challenging issue.

  17. o'Peer: open peer review

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brewer, J H

    2014-01-01

    I have built a ''demonstration'' website at http://oPeer.org to illustrate how peer review and publication might be improved relative to the current model, which was designed and implemented in an era when scientific communication was either face-to-face or relied upon human delivery of ink marks on dead trees

  18. A Local Scalable Distributed Expectation Maximization Algorithm for Large Peer-to-Peer Networks

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This paper describes a local and distributed expectation maximization algorithm for learning parameters of Gaussian mixture models (GMM) in large peer-to-peer (P2P)...

  19. Peer til peer i arbejdet med udsatte mennesker

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ahlmark, Nanna; Norrhäll, Oskar; Jensen, Pernille Hartvig

    Statens Institut for Folkesundhed, Syddansk Universitet har fået til opdrag at lave en formativ procesevaluering af Københavns Kommunes projekt Mænd i København. Projektet omhandler udvikling og implementering af en peer til peer indsats med henblik på at forbedre sundhed og trivsel blandt udsatte...... mænd i risiko for at udvikle type 2 diabetes. En del af evalueringsopdraget har været at tilvejebringe viden om relevant litteratur om peer-metoder. I denne forbindelse er dette notat udarbejdet til Københavns Kommunes Forebyggelsescenter Nørrebro af evaluerings-teamet, som består af forsker, Nanna...... Ahlmark, adjunkt ved Aalborg Universitet Camilla Dindler, praktikant og specialestuderende Oskar Norrhäll og specialestuderende Pernille Hartvig Jensen. Notatet er en sammenfatning af udvalgt forskningslitteratur og rapporter om peer til peer-relaterede projekter målrettet udsatte grupper i forbindelse...

  20. Peer-to-Peer Enclaves for Improving Network Defence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David W. Archer

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available Information about cyberthreats within networks spreads slowly relative to the speed at which those threats spread. Typical "threat feeds" that are commercially available also disseminate information slowly relative to the propagation speed of attacks, and they often convey irrelevant information about imminent threats. As a result, hosts sharing a network may miss opportunities to improve their defence postures against imminent attack because needed information arrives too late or is lost in irrelevant noise. We envision timely, relevant peer-to-peer sharing of threat information – based on current technologies – as a solution to these problems and as a useful design pattern for defensive cyberwarfare. In our setting, network nodes form communities that we call enclaves, where each node defends itself while sharing information on imminent threats with peers that have similar threat exposure. In this article, we present our vision for this solution. We sketch the architecture of a typical node in such a network and how it might interact with a framework for sharing threat information; we explain why certain defensive countermeasures may work better in our setting; we discuss current tools that could be used as components in our vision; and we describe opportunities for future research and development.

  1. A Web-based Peer Assessment System for Assigning Student Scores in Cooperative Learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anon Sukstrienwong

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Working in groups has become increasingly important in order to develop students' skills. However, it can be more successful when peers cooperate and are involved in the assigned tasks. However, several educators firmly show disadvantages when all peers received the same reward, regardless of individual contribution. Some teachers also considering peer assessment to be time and effort consuming because preparation and monitoring are needed. In order to overcome these problems, we have developed a web-based peer assessment referred to as the ‘Scoring by Peer Assessment System’ (SPAS that allows teachers to set up the process of peer assessment, in order to assign scores that reflect the contribution of each student. Moreover, a web-based application allows students to evaluate their peers regarding their individual contribution where cooperative learning and peer assessment are used. The paper describes the system design and the implementation of our peer assessment application.

  2. Willingness to Drink as a Function of Peer Offers and Peer Norms in Early Adolescence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jackson, Kristina M; Roberts, Megan E; Colby, Suzanne M; Barnett, Nancy P; Abar, Caitlin C; Merrill, Jennifer E

    2014-01-01

    Objective: The goal of this study was to explore the effect of subjective peer norms on adolescents’ willingness to drink and whether this association was moderated by sensitivity to peer approval, prior alcohol use, and gender. Method: The sample was 1,023 middle-school students (52% female; 76% White; 12% Hispanic; Mage = 12.22 years) enrolled in a prospective study of drinking initiation and progression. Using web-based surveys, participants reported on their willingness to drink alcohol if offered by (a) a best friend or (b) a classmate, peer norms for two referent groups (close friends and classmates), history of sipping or consuming a full drink of alcohol, and sensitivity to peer approval (extreme peer orientation). Items were re-assessed at two follow-ups (administered 6 months apart). Results: Multilevel models revealed that measures of peer norms were significantly associated with both willingness outcomes, with the greatest prediction by descriptive norms. The association between norms and willingness was magnified for girls, those with limited prior experience with alcohol, and youths with low sensitivity to peer approval. Conclusions: Social norms appear to play a key role in substance use decisions and are relevant when considering more reactive behaviors that reflect willingness to drink under conducive circumstances. Prevention programs might target individuals with higher willingness, particularly girls who perceive others to be drinking and youths who have not yet sipped alcohol but report a higher perceived prevalence of alcohol consumption among both friends and peers. PMID:24766752

  3. MATIN: a random network coding based framework for high quality peer-to-peer live video streaming.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barekatain, Behrang; Khezrimotlagh, Dariush; Aizaini Maarof, Mohd; Ghaeini, Hamid Reza; Salleh, Shaharuddin; Quintana, Alfonso Ariza; Akbari, Behzad; Cabrera, Alicia Triviño

    2013-01-01

    In recent years, Random Network Coding (RNC) has emerged as a promising solution for efficient Peer-to-Peer (P2P) video multicasting over the Internet. This probably refers to this fact that RNC noticeably increases the error resiliency and throughput of the network. However, high transmission overhead arising from sending large coefficients vector as header has been the most important challenge of the RNC. Moreover, due to employing the Gauss-Jordan elimination method, considerable computational complexity can be imposed on peers in decoding the encoded blocks and checking linear dependency among the coefficients vectors. In order to address these challenges, this study introduces MATIN which is a random network coding based framework for efficient P2P video streaming. The MATIN includes a novel coefficients matrix generation method so that there is no linear dependency in the generated coefficients matrix. Using the proposed framework, each peer encapsulates one instead of n coefficients entries into the generated encoded packet which results in very low transmission overhead. It is also possible to obtain the inverted coefficients matrix using a bit number of simple arithmetic operations. In this regard, peers sustain very low computational complexities. As a result, the MATIN permits random network coding to be more efficient in P2P video streaming systems. The results obtained from simulation using OMNET++ show that it substantially outperforms the RNC which uses the Gauss-Jordan elimination method by providing better video quality on peers in terms of the four important performance metrics including video distortion, dependency distortion, End-to-End delay and Initial Startup delay.

  4. Open Peer Review: Collective Intelligence as a Framework for Theorizing Approaches to Peer Review in the Humanities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jenna Pack Sheffield

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available This article takes a moderate approach, balancing suggestions for when open peer review can benefit scholarship in the humanities, while offering important concerns authors and editors must consider before deciding to implement the process. I focus on online commenting functions and how they have been—and can be—used for open peer review to help improve the quality of an author’s scholarly work and change the way publishers go about their peer review processes. While open peer review is not necessarily digital, digital technologies allow for a broader range of participants and faster dissemination of knowledge, which is why this article focuses on online open peer review. Open Peer Review: Collective Intelligence as a Framework for Theorizing Approaches to Peer Review in the Humanities, by Jenna Pack Sheffield

  5. Aversive Peer Experiences on Social Networking Sites: Development of the Social Networking-Peer Experiences Questionnaire (SN-PEQ).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Landoll, Ryan R; La Greca, Annette M; Lai, Betty S

    2013-12-01

    Cyber victimization is an important research area; yet, little is known about aversive peer experiences on social networking sites (SNSs), which are used extensively by youth and host complex social exchanges. Across samples of adolescents ( n =216) and young adults ( n =214), we developed the Social Networking-Peer Experiences Questionnaire ( SN-PEQ ), and examined its psychometric properties, distinctiveness from traditional peer victimization, and associations with internalized distress. The SN-PEQ demonstrated strong factorial invariance and a single factor structure that was distinct from other forms of peer victimization. Negative SNS experiences were associated with youths' symptoms of social anxiety and depression, even when controlling for traditional peer victimization. Findings highlight the importance of examining the effects of aversive peer experiences that occur via social media.

  6. Aversive Peer Experiences on Social Networking Sites: Development of the Social Networking-Peer Experiences Questionnaire (SN-PEQ)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Landoll, Ryan R.; La Greca, Annette M.; Lai, Betty S.

    2012-01-01

    Cyber victimization is an important research area; yet, little is known about aversive peer experiences on social networking sites (SNSs), which are used extensively by youth and host complex social exchanges. Across samples of adolescents (n=216) and young adults (n=214), we developed the Social Networking-Peer Experiences Questionnaire (SN-PEQ), and examined its psychometric properties, distinctiveness from traditional peer victimization, and associations with internalized distress. The SN-PEQ demonstrated strong factorial invariance and a single factor structure that was distinct from other forms of peer victimization. Negative SNS experiences were associated with youths’ symptoms of social anxiety and depression, even when controlling for traditional peer victimization. Findings highlight the importance of examining the effects of aversive peer experiences that occur via social media. PMID:24288449

  7. Adolescents, peers, and motor vehicles: the perfect storm?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Allen, Joseph P; Brown, B Bradford

    2008-09-01

    Motor-vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death among teenagers and in many instances appear linked to negative peer influences on adolescent driving behavior. This article examines a range of developmental and structural factors that potentially increase the risks associated with adolescent driving. Developmental risk factors for adolescents include a propensity toward engaging in deviant and risky behavior, a desire to please peers, and the potential cost to an adolescent of alienating peers with his or her behavior while driving. Structural features of the driving situation that create risks for negative peer influences on driving behavior include the inability of adolescents to look at peers who may be pressuring them, divided attention, the need to behave in a conventional manner among peers who may not value conventional behavior, and the lack of accountability by peers for the effects of any risky driving they promote. A range of potential peer influences are considered, including passive and active distraction and direct disruption of driving, as well as more positive influences, such as peer modeling of good driving behavior and positive reinforcement of good driving. Although the range of risk factors created by peers is large, this range presents a number of promising targets for intervention to improve teen driving safety.

  8. Medical faculty opinions of peer tutoring.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rudland, Joy R; Rennie, Sarah C

    2014-01-01

    Peer tutoring is a well-researched and established method of learning defined as 'a medical student facilitating the learning of another medical student'. While it has been adopted in many medical schools, other schools may be reluctant to embrace this approach. The attitude of the teaching staff, responsible for organizing and or teaching students in an undergraduate medical course to formal peer teaching will affect how it is introduced and operationalized. This study elicits faculty opinions on how best to introduce peer tutoring for medical students. Structured telephone interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. The interviews were with medically qualified staff responsible for organizing or teaching undergraduate medical students at a New Zealand medical school. Six questions were posed regarding perceived advantages and disadvantages of peer tutoring and how the school and staff could support a peer-tutoring scheme if one was introduced. Staff generally supported the peer tutoring concept, offering a safe environment for learning with its teachers being so close in career stage to the learners. They also say disadvantages when the student-teachers imparted wrong information and when schools used peer tutoring to justify a reduction in teaching staff. Subjects felt that faculty would be more accepting of peer tutoring if efforts were made to build staff 'buy in' and empowerment, train peer tutors and introduce a solid evaluation process. Staff of our school expressed some concerns about peer tutoring that are not supported in the literature, signaling a need for better communication about the benefits and disadvantages of peer tutoring.

  9. Performance Evaluation of Peer-to-Peer Progressive Download in Broadband Access Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shibuya, Megumi; Ogishi, Tomohiko; Yamamoto, Shu

    P2P (Peer-to-Peer) file sharing architectures have scalable and cost-effective features. Hence, the application of P2P architectures to media streaming is attractive and expected to be an alternative to the current video streaming using IP multicast or content delivery systems because the current systems require expensive network infrastructures and large scale centralized cache storage systems. In this paper, we investigate the P2P progressive download enabling Internet video streaming services. We demonstrated the capability of the P2P progressive download in both laboratory test network as well as in the Internet. Through the experiments, we clarified the contribution of the FTTH links to the P2P progressive download in the heterogeneous access networks consisting of FTTH and ADSL links. We analyzed the cause of some download performance degradation occurred in the experiment and discussed about the effective methods to provide the video streaming service using P2P progressive download in the current heterogeneous networks.

  10. Scholarly publishing depends on peer reviewers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fernandez-Llimos, Fernando

    2018-01-01

    The peer-review crisis is posing a risk to the scholarly peer-reviewed journal system. Journals have to ask many potential peer reviewers to obtain a minimum acceptable number of peers accepting reviewing a manuscript. Several solutions have been suggested to overcome this shortage. From reimbursing for the job, to eliminating pre-publication reviews, one cannot predict which is more dangerous for the future of scholarly publishing. And, why not acknowledging their contribution to the final version of the article published? PubMed created two categories of contributors: authors [AU] and collaborators [IR]. Why not a third category for the peer-reviewer?

  11. Online Peer-to-Peer Communities in the Daily Lives of People With Chronic Illness

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kingod, Natasja; Cleal, Bryan; Wahlberg, Ayo

    2017-01-01

    This qualitative systematic review investigated how individuals with chronic illness experience online peer-to-peer support and how their experiences influence daily life with illness. Selected studies were appraised by quality criteria focused upon research questions and study design, participant...... selection, methods of data collection, and methods of analysis. Four themes were identified: (a) illness-associated identity work, (b) social support and connectivity, (c) experiential knowledge sharing, and (d) collective voice and mobilization. Findings indicate that online peer-to-peer communities...... everyday life with illness. This type of knowledge was perceived as extending far beyond medical care. Online communities were also used to mobilize and raise collective awareness about illness-specific concerns....

  12. A Peer-to-Peer Health Education Program for Vulnerable Children in Uganda

    Science.gov (United States)

    Falk, Diane S.; Pettet, Kristen; Mpagi, Charles

    2016-01-01

    In this paper, children attending a U.S.-sponsored private primary school serving orphaned and vulnerable children in Uganda were interviewed in focus groups about their participation in a peer-to-peer health education program in which they used music, dance, poetry, art, and drama to convey health information. The children reported enhanced…

  13. Practice Report / Bericht aus der Praxis: Peer teaching: From method to philosophy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ten Cate, Olle

    2017-11-01

    Peer teaching or peer-assisted learning is a popular topic in the medical education literature. While not one method of education, a categorization is possible according to (a) the developmental distance between learner and peer teacher, (b) the scale or group size of learners in peer teaching arrangements and (c) the extent of formality or structure of the arrangement. That yields many different forms of peer teaching. Viewing peer teaching as a multifaceted method shows several benefits. On a deeper level however peer teaching may be viewed as a philosophy of medical education that has historical roots but aligns well with current thinking of teaching and learning across the continuum of medical education. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier GmbH.

  14. Peer counselors' role in supporting patients' adherence to ART in Ethiopia and Uganda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gusdal, Annelie K; Obua, Celestino; Andualem, Tenaw; Wahlstrom, Rolf; Chalker, John; Fochsen, Grethe

    2011-06-01

    Our aim was to explore peer counselors' work and their role in supporting patients' adherence to antiretroviral treatment (ART) in resource-limited settings in Ethiopia and Uganda. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 79 patients, 17 peer counselors, and 22 providers in ART facilities in urban and rural areas of Ethiopia and Uganda. Two main categories with related subcategories emerged from the analysis. The first main category, peer counselors as facilitators of adherence, describes how peer counselors played an important role by acting as role models, raising awareness, and being visible in the community. They were also recognized for being close to the patients while acting as a bridge to the health system. They provided patients with an opportunity to individually talk to someone who was also living with HIV, who had a positive and life-affirming attitude about their situation, and were willing to share personal stories of hope when educating and counseling their patients. The second main category, benefits and challenges of peer counseling, deals with how peer counselors found reward in helping others while at the same time acknowledging their limitations and need of support and remuneration. Their role and function were not clearly defined within the health system and they received negligible financial and organizational support. While peer counseling is acknowledged as an essential vehicle for treatment success in ART support in sub-Saharan Africa, a formal recognition and regulation of their role should be defined. The issue of strategies for disclosure to support adherence, while avoiding or reducing stigma, also requires specific attention. We argue that the development and implementation of support to peer counselors are crucial in existing and future ART programs, but more research is needed to further explore factors that are important to sustain and strengthen the work of peer counselors.

  15. Understanding peer effects : on the nature, estimation and channels of peer effects

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Feld, J.F.; Zölitz, U.N.

    2016-01-01

    This paper estimates peer effects in a university context where students are randomly assigned to sections. While students benefit from better peers on average, lowachieving students are harmed by high-achieving peers. Analyzing students’ course evaluations suggests that peer effects are driven by

  16. Employing peer-to-peer software distribution in ALICE Grid Services to enable opportunistic use of OSG resources

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva; Sakrejda, Iwona

    2012-01-01

    The ALICE Grid infrastructure is based on AliEn, a lightweight open source framework built on Web Services and a Distributed Agent Model in which job agents are submitted onto a grid site to prepare the environment and pull work from a central task queue located at CERN. In the standard configuration, each ALICE grid site supports an ALICE-specific VO box as a single point of contact between the site and the ALICE central services. VO box processes monitor site utilization and job requests (ClusterMonitor), monitor dynamic job and site properties (MonaLisa), perform job agent submission (CE) and deploy job-specific software (PackMan). In particular, requiring a VO box at each site simplifies deployment of job software, done onto a shared file system at the site, and adds redundancy to the overall Grid system. ALICE offline computing, however, has also implemented a peer-to-peer method (based on BitTorrent) for downloading job software directly onto each worker node as needed. By utilizing both this peer-...

  17. MATIN: a random network coding based framework for high quality peer-to-peer live video streaming.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Behrang Barekatain

    Full Text Available In recent years, Random Network Coding (RNC has emerged as a promising solution for efficient Peer-to-Peer (P2P video multicasting over the Internet. This probably refers to this fact that RNC noticeably increases the error resiliency and throughput of the network. However, high transmission overhead arising from sending large coefficients vector as header has been the most important challenge of the RNC. Moreover, due to employing the Gauss-Jordan elimination method, considerable computational complexity can be imposed on peers in decoding the encoded blocks and checking linear dependency among the coefficients vectors. In order to address these challenges, this study introduces MATIN which is a random network coding based framework for efficient P2P video streaming. The MATIN includes a novel coefficients matrix generation method so that there is no linear dependency in the generated coefficients matrix. Using the proposed framework, each peer encapsulates one instead of n coefficients entries into the generated encoded packet which results in very low transmission overhead. It is also possible to obtain the inverted coefficients matrix using a bit number of simple arithmetic operations. In this regard, peers sustain very low computational complexities. As a result, the MATIN permits random network coding to be more efficient in P2P video streaming systems. The results obtained from simulation using OMNET++ show that it substantially outperforms the RNC which uses the Gauss-Jordan elimination method by providing better video quality on peers in terms of the four important performance metrics including video distortion, dependency distortion, End-to-End delay and Initial Startup delay.

  18. Understanding peer effects - On the nature, estimation and channels of peer effects

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Feld, J.F.; Zölitz, U.N.

    2016-01-01

    This paper estimates peer effects in a university context where students are randomly assigned to sections. While students benefit from better peers on average, low-achieving students are harmed by high-achieving peers. Analyzing students’ course evaluations suggests that peer effects are driven by

  19. Peer Exclusion Is Linked to Inhibition with Familiar but Not Unfamiliar Peers at Two Years of Age

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gazelle, Heidi; Faldowski, Richard A.

    2014-01-01

    This study examined the extent that inhibition among familiar peers was related to inhibition among unfamiliar peers versus exclusion by familiar peers at 2?years of age. Peer inhibition at 2?years of age was assessed by both mothers and teachers on versions of the Behavioral Inhibition Questionnaire and the Preschool Play Behavior Scale (N?=?141…

  20. Two Dimensional Array Based Overlay Network for Balancing Load of Peer-to-Peer Live Video Streaming

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ibrahimy, Abdullah Faruq Ibn; Rafiqul, Islam Md; Anwar, Farhat; Ibrahimy, Muhammad Ibn

    2013-01-01

    The live video data is streaming usually in a tree-based overlay network or in a mesh-based overlay network. In case of departure of a peer with additional upload bandwidth, the overlay network becomes very vulnerable to churn. In this paper, a two dimensional array-based overlay network is proposed for streaming the live video stream data. As there is always a peer or a live video streaming server to upload the live video stream data, so the overlay network is very stable and very robust to churn. Peers are placed according to their upload and download bandwidth, which enhances the balance of load and performance. The overlay network utilizes the additional upload bandwidth of peers to minimize chunk delivery delay and to maximize balance of load. The procedure, which is used for distributing the additional upload bandwidth of the peers, distributes the additional upload bandwidth to the heterogeneous strength peers in a fair treat distribution approach and to the homogeneous strength peers in a uniform distribution approach. The proposed overlay network has been simulated by Qualnet from Scalable Network Technologies and results are presented in this paper

  1. Two Dimensional Array Based Overlay Network for Balancing Load of Peer-to-Peer Live Video Streaming

    Science.gov (United States)

    Faruq Ibn Ibrahimy, Abdullah; Rafiqul, Islam Md; Anwar, Farhat; Ibn Ibrahimy, Muhammad

    2013-12-01

    The live video data is streaming usually in a tree-based overlay network or in a mesh-based overlay network. In case of departure of a peer with additional upload bandwidth, the overlay network becomes very vulnerable to churn. In this paper, a two dimensional array-based overlay network is proposed for streaming the live video stream data. As there is always a peer or a live video streaming server to upload the live video stream data, so the overlay network is very stable and very robust to churn. Peers are placed according to their upload and download bandwidth, which enhances the balance of load and performance. The overlay network utilizes the additional upload bandwidth of peers to minimize chunk delivery delay and to maximize balance of load. The procedure, which is used for distributing the additional upload bandwidth of the peers, distributes the additional upload bandwidth to the heterogeneous strength peers in a fair treat distribution approach and to the homogeneous strength peers in a uniform distribution approach. The proposed overlay network has been simulated by Qualnet from Scalable Network Technologies and results are presented in this paper.

  2. Children's Perceptions of Hypothetical Peers With Undesirable Characteristics: Role of the Peers' Desire to Change, Source of Effort to Change, and Outcome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barnett, Mark A; Sonnentag, Tammy L; Wadian, Taylor W; Jones, Tucker L; Langley, Courtney A

    2015-01-01

    The present study, involving sixth- to eighth-grade students, is an extension of a prior investigation (Barnett, Livengood, Sonnentag, Barlett, & Witham, 2010) that examined children's perceptions of hypothetical peers with various undesirable characteristics. Results indicate that children's perceptions of hypothetical peers with an undesirable characteristic are influenced by the peers' desire to change, the source of effort to change, and the peers' success or failure in changing the characteristic. The children anticipated responding more favorably to peers who were successful in overcoming an undesirable characteristic than peers who were unsuccessful. Regardless of the peers' outcome, the children anticipated responding more favorably to peers who tried to change than peers who relied on the effort of adult authorities to motivate change. The children perceived successful peers as experiencing more positive affect than their unsuccessful counterparts, especially if the success was presented as a fulfillment of the peers' desire to change their undesirable characteristic. Finally, the children's ratings reflected the belief that, among peers who failed to change their undesirable characteristic, lacking the desire to change increases the relative likelihood that the characteristic will be permanent.

  3. A peer-led approach to promoting health education in schools: The views of peers

    OpenAIRE

    Frantz, JM

    2015-01-01

    Peer-led health promotion strategies in schools have been found to be effective in promoting healthy behaviours amongst youth. This study aimed to evaluate the views of the peer educators in implementing a health education programme using a qualitative approach. Informal discussions and eight in-depth interviews were used to explore the views of the 10 peer educators. Information from the interviews was transcribed verbatim, analysed, and coded thematically. The themes that emerged from the a...

  4. Scholarly publishing depends on peer reviewers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernandez-Llimos F

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available The peer-review crisis is posing a risk to the scholarly peer-reviewed journal system. Journals have to ask many potential peer reviewers to obtain a minimum acceptable number of peers accepting reviewing a manuscript. Several solutions have been suggested to overcome this shortage. From reimbursing for the job, to eliminating pre-publication reviews, one cannot predict which is more dangerous for the future of scholarly publishing. And, why not acknowledging their contribution to the final version of the article published? PubMed created two categories of contributors: authors [AU] and collaborators [IR]. Why not a third category for the peer-reviewer?

  5. Peer Contagion in Child and Adolescent Social and Emotional Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dishion, Thomas J.; Tipsord, Jessica M.

    2012-01-01

    In this article, we examine the construct of peer contagion in childhood and adolescence and review studies of child and adolescent development that have identified peer contagion influences. Evidence suggests that children's interactions with peers are tied to increases in aggression in early and middle childhood and amplification of problem behaviors such as drug use, delinquency, and violence in early to late adolescence. Deviancy training is one mechanism that accounts for peer contagion effects on problem behaviors from age 5 through adolescence. In addition, we discuss peer contagion relevant to depression in adolescence, and corumination as an interactive process that may account for these effects. Social network analyses suggest that peer contagion underlies the influence of friendship on obesity, unhealthy body images, and expectations. Literature is reviewed that suggests how peer contagion effects can undermine the goals of public education from elementary school through college and impair the goals of juvenile corrections systems. In particular, programs that “select” adolescents at risk for aggregated preventive interventions are particularly vulnerable to peer contagion effects. It appears that a history of peer rejection is a vulnerability factor for influence by peers, and adult monitoring, supervision, positive parenting, structure, and self-regulation serve as protective factors. PMID:19575606

  6. A multi-tiered architecture for content retrieval in mobile peer-to-peer networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-01-01

    In this paper, we address content retrieval in Mobile Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Networks. We design a multi-tiered architecture for content : retrieval, where at Tier 1, we design a protocol for content similarity governed by a parameter that trades accu...

  7. Implementing a centralized institutional peer tutoring program.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gaughf, Natalie White; Foster, Penni Smith

    2016-01-01

    Peer tutoring has been found to be beneficial to both students and peer tutors in health sciences education programs. This article describes the implementation of a centralized, institutional peer tutoring program at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, an academic health science center in the U.S. The Program: This multispecialty peer tutoring program paired students experiencing academic difficulties with peer tutors who showed prior academic success, professionalism and effective communication skills. The program allowed students and peer tutors to coordinate their own tutoring services. Evaluations by both students and peer tutors showed satisfaction with the program. Recommendations for developing and implementing an effective peer tutoring program are presented, including utilization of an online system, consistent program policy with high professionalism expectations, funding, program evaluation and data tracking.

  8. A comparison of well-peer mentored and non-peer mentored athletes' perceptions of satisfaction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoffmann, Matt D; Loughead, Todd M

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of the present study was to compare well-peer mentored and non-peer mentored athletes' perceptions of satisfaction. A total of 444 intercollegiate athletes (272 well-peer mentored and 172 non-peer mentored) from a variety of sport teams participated in the study. Athletes from both well-peer mentored and non-peer mentored groups reported their satisfaction levels using the Athlete Satisfaction Questionnaire. The results of a MANOVA and follow-up post hoc ANOVAs showed that well-peer mentored athletes were significantly more satisfied than their non-peer mentored counterparts in terms of individual performance, personal dedication, team task contribution, team social contribution, team integration, ethics, ability utilisation and training and instruction. Overall, the findings suggest that athletes who are well-peer mentored by a teammate perceive higher satisfaction levels with various aspects of their athletic experience than athletes who are not peer mentored by a teammate. Given these positive findings, practitioners (i.e., coaches, sport psychology consultants) should inform athletes on the benefits of peer-to-peer mentoring. The practical implications of the results and strategies to promote peer athlete mentoring relationships in sport are highlighted.

  9. Peer-to-peer and mass communication effect on opinion shifts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kindler, A.; Solomon, S.; Stauffer, D.

    2013-02-01

    Opinion dynamics is studied through a minimal Ising model with three main influences (fields): personal conservatism (power-law distributed), inter-personal and group pressure, and a global field incorporating peer-to-peer and mass communications, which is generated bottom-up from the faction supporting the new opinion. A rich phase diagram appears separating possible terminal stages of the opinion diffusion, characterizing failure phases by the features of the individuals who had changed their opinion. An exhaustive solution of the model is produced, allowing predictions to be made on the opinion’s assimilation in the society.

  10. Pressure to drink but not to smoke: disentangling selection and socialization in adolescent peer networks and peer groups.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kiuru, Noona; Burk, William J; Laursen, Brett; Salmela-Aro, Katariina; Nurmi, Jari-Erik

    2010-12-01

    This paper examined the relative influence of selection and socialization on alcohol and tobacco use in adolescent peer networks and peer groups. The sample included 1419 Finnish secondary education students (690 males and 729 females, mean age 16 years at the outset) from nine schools. Participants identified three school friends and described their alcohol and tobacco use on two occasions one year apart. Actor-based models simultaneously examined changes in peer network ties and changes in individual behaviors for all participants within each school. Multi-level analyses examined changes in individual behaviors for adolescents entering new peer groups and adolescents in stable peer groups, both of which were embedded within the school-based peer networks. Similar results emerged from both analytic methods: Selection and socialization contributed to similarity of alcohol use, but only selection was a factor in tobacco use. Copyright © 2010 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. SU-E-T-211: Peer Review System for Ensuring Quality of Radiation Therapy Treatments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kapoor, R; Kapur, P; Kumar, S A; Alex, D; Ranka, S; Palta, J

    2012-06-01

    To demonstrate a Web-based electronic peer review system that has the potential to improve quality of care for radiation therapy patients. The system provides tools that allow radiation oncologists to seek peer review of target and critical structure delineation, treatment plans, and share clinical data with peers to optimize radiation therapy treatments. Peer review of radiation therapy treatment planning data prior to its initiation improves the quality of radiation therapy and clinical outcomes. Web-based access to radiation therapy treatment planning data and medical records mitigate existing geographical and temporal constraints. With internet access, the healthcare provider can access the data from any location and review it in an interactive and collaborative manner. Interoperability standard like DICOM-RT and IHE-RO compliant RT Systems have facilitated the design and implementation of PRS with Silverlight Web technology, .net Framework and SQL Server. Local DICOM-RT archive and cloud based services are deployed to facilitate remote peer reviews. To validate the PRS system, we tested the system for 100 patients with Philips Pinnacle v 9.0 and Varian Eclipse v 8.9 treatment planning system (TPS). We transmitted the DICOM RT data from the TPS to the cloud based services via the PRS local DICOM RT Archive. Various CT simulation based parameters such as orientation of CT, properties of RT structures etc. were compared between the TPS and PRS system. Data integrity of other parameters such as patient demographics (patient name, ID, attending physician etc.) and dose volume related parameters were also evaluated. Such rigorous testing allowed us to optimize the functionalities and clinical implementation of the PRS. We believe that the PRS will improve the quality and safety of a broad spectrum of radiation therapy patients treated in underserved areas while discouraging the overutilization of expensive radiation treatment modalities. This research and

  12. Peer to Peer Distributed Energy Trading in Smart Grids: A Survey

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juhar Abdella

    2018-06-01

    Full Text Available Due to the expansion of distributed renewable energy resources, peer to peer energy trading (P2P DET is expected to be one of the key elements of next generation power systems. P2P DET can provide various benefits such as creating a competitive energy market, reducing power outages, increasing overall efficiency of power systems and supplementing alternative sources of energy according to user preferences. Because of these promising advantages, P2P DET has attracted the attention of several researchers. Current research related to P2P DET include demand response optimization, power routing, network communication, security and privacy. This paper presents a review of the main research topics revolving around P2P DET. Particularly, we present a comprehensive survey of existing demand response optimization models, power routing devices and power routing algorithms. We also identify some key challenges faced in realizing P2P DET. Furthermore, we discuss state of the art enabling technologies such as Energy Internet, Blockchain and Software Defined Networking (SDN and we provide insights into future research directions.

  13. Peer-to-Peer Human-Robot Interaction for Space Exploration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fong, Terrence; Nourbakhsh, Illah

    2004-01-01

    NASA has embarked on a long-term program to develop human-robot systems for sustained, affordable space exploration. To support this mission, we are working to improve human-robot interaction and performance on planetary surfaces. Rather than building robots that function as glorified tools, our focus is to enable humans and robots to work as partners and peers. In this paper. we describe our approach, which includes contextual dialogue, cognitive modeling, and metrics-based field testing.

  14. Sexual and reproductive health in Greenland: evaluation of implementing sexual peer-to-peer education in Greenland (the SexInuk project).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Homøe, Anne-Sophie; Knudsen, Ane-Kersti Skaarup; Nielsen, Sigrid Brisson; Grynnerup, Anna Garcia-Alix

    2015-01-01

    For decades, the rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), such as gonorrhoea, chlamydia and syphilis, have increased in Greenland, especially within the young age groups (15-29 years). From 2006 to 2013, the number of abortions has been consistent with approximately 800-900 abortions per year in Greenland, which is nearly as high as the total number of births during the same period. Previous studies in Greenland have reported that knowledge about sexual health is important, both as prevention and as facilitator to stop the increasing rates of STIs. A peer-to-peer education programme about sexual health requires adaption to cultural values and acceptance among the population and government in order to be sustainable. Formative evaluation of a voluntary project (SexInuk), in relation to peer-to-peer education with focus on sexual health. Two workshops were conducted in Nuuk, Greenland, to recruit Greenlandic students. Qualitative design with focus group interviews (FGIs) to collect qualitative feedback on feasibility and implementation of the project. Supplemented with a brief questionnaire regarding personal information (gender, age, education) and questions about the educational elements in the SexInuk project. Eight Greenlandic students, who had completed one or two workshops, were enrolled. The FGIs showed an overall consensus regarding the need for improving sexual health education in Greenland. The participants requested more voluntary educators, to secure sustainability. The articulation of taboo topics in the Greenlandic society appeared very important. The participants suggested more awareness by promoting the project. Cultural values and language directions were important elements in the FGIs. To our knowledge, voluntary work regarding peer-to-peer education and sexual health has not been structurally evaluated in Greenland before. To achieve sustainability, the project needs educators and financial support. Further research is needed to investigate

  15. An Examination of Peer-Delivered Parenting Skills Programs Across New York State.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Acri, Mary C; Craig, Nancy; Adler, Josh

    2018-03-24

    Peers are an important adjunct to the public mental health service system, and are being increasingly utilized across the country as a cost-effective solution to workforce shortages. Despite the tremendous growth of peer-delivered support over the past two decades, it has only been within the past few years that peer programs have been the subject of empirical inquiry. The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence and characteristics of peer-delivered parenting programs across the New York State public mental health service system. We surveyed 46 family peer organizations across New York State regarding their delivery of structured peer-delivered parenting programs. Thirty-four (76%) completed the questionnaire, and of them, 18 (53%) delivered a parenting program. Subsequent interviews with seven of the 18 organizations revealed peer organizations had been delivering eight unique parenting programs for upwards of two decades. Additionally, organizations offered multiple supports to families to participate. Training, supervision, and issues around fidelity are discussed, as well as the implications of this study for states utilizing a peer workforce.

  16. Do Peers Matter? Resistance to Peer Influence as a Mediator between Self-Esteem and Procrastination among Undergraduates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Bin-Bin; Shi, Zeyi; Wang, Yan

    2016-01-01

    This study examined the relationship between self-esteem and procrastination and the mediating role of resistance to peer influence (RPI) on this relationship among undergraduates. One hundred and ninety-nine Chinese undergraduate students completed the measures of procrastination, RPI, and self-esteem. Structural Equation Modeling analyses indicated that self-esteem was negatively related to procrastination, and RPI acted as a mediator of this relationship. The results suggest that the peer may be a key to understanding procrastination among undergraduates. Implications for future research and limitations of the current study are discussed.

  17. Beyond Music Sharing: An Evaluation of Peer-to-Peer Data Dissemination Techniques in Large Scientific Collaborations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ripeanu, Matei [University of British Columbia, Vancouver; Al-Kiswany, Samer [University of British Columbia, Vancouver; Iamnitchi, Adriana [University of South Florida, Tampa; Vazhkudai, Sudharshan S [ORNL

    2009-03-01

    The avalanche of data from scientific instruments and the ensuing interest from geographically distributed users to analyze and interpret it accentuates the need for efficient data dissemination. A suitable data distribution scheme will find the delicate balance between conflicting requirements of minimizing transfer times, minimizing the impact on the network, and uniformly distributing load among participants. We identify several data distribution techniques, some successfully employed by today's peer-to-peer networks: staging, data partitioning, orthogonal bandwidth exploitation, and combinations of the above. We use simulations to explore the performance of these techniques in contexts similar to those used by today's data-centric scientific collaborations and derive several recommendations for efficient data dissemination. Our experimental results show that the peer-to-peer solutions that offer load balancing and good fault tolerance properties and have embedded participation incentives lead to unjustified costs in today's scientific data collaborations deployed on over-provisioned network cores. However, as user communities grow and these deployments scale, peer-to-peer data delivery mechanisms will likely outperform other techniques.

  18. Adolescent personality factors in self-ratings and peer nominations and their prediction of peer acceptance and peer rejection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scholte, R H; van Aken, M A; van Lieshout, C F

    1997-12-01

    In this study, the robustness of the Big Five personality factors in adolescents' self-ratings and peer nominations was investigated. Data were obtained on 2,001 adolescents attending secondary school (885 girls; 1,116 boys; M age = 14.5 years). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on the self-ratings confirmed the Big Five personality factors. In contrast, exploratory analysis on the peer nominations revealed five different factors: Aggression-Inattentiveness, Achievement-Withdrawal, Self-Confidence, Sociability, and Emotionality-Nervousness. It is suggested that peers evaluate group members not in terms of their personality but in terms of their group reputation. Peer evaluations contributed substantially to the prediction of peer acceptance and rejection; the Big Five personality factors based on self-ratings did not.

  19. Providing interoperability of eHealth communities through peer-to-peer networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kilic, Ozgur; Dogac, Asuman; Eichelberg, Marco

    2010-05-01

    Providing an interoperability infrastructure for Electronic Healthcare Records (EHRs) is on the agenda of many national and regional eHealth initiatives. Two important integration profiles have been specified for this purpose, namely, the "Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) Cross-enterprise Document Sharing (XDS)" and the "IHE Cross Community Access (XCA)." IHE XDS describes how to share EHRs in a community of healthcare enterprises and IHE XCA describes how EHRs are shared across communities. However, the current version of the IHE XCA integration profile does not address some of the important challenges of cross-community exchange environments. The first challenge is scalability. If every community that joins the network needs to connect to every other community, i.e., a pure peer-to-peer network, this solution will not scale. Furthermore, each community may use a different coding vocabulary for the same metadata attribute, in which case, the target community cannot interpret the query involving such an attribute. Yet another important challenge is that each community may (and typically will) have a different patient identifier domain. Querying for the patient identifiers in the target community using patient demographic data may create patient privacy concerns. In this paper, we address each of these challenges and show how they can be handled effectively in a superpeer-based peer-to-peer architecture.

  20. AntBot: Anti-pollution peer-to-peer botnets

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yan, Guanhua [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Eidenbenz, Stephan [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Ha, Duc T [UNIV. AT BUFFALO

    2009-01-01

    Botnets, which are responsible for many email sparnming and DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks in the current Internet, have emerged as one of most severe cyber-threats in recent years. To evade detection and improve resistance against countermeasures, botnets have evolved from the first generation that relies on IRC chat channels to deliver commands to the current generation that uses highly resilient P2P (Peer-to-Peer) protocols to spread their C&C (Command and Control) information. It is, however, revealed that P2P botnets, although relieved from the single point of failure that IRC botnets suffer, can be easily disrupted using pollution-based mitigation schemes [15]. In this paper, we play the devil's advocate and propose a new type of hypothetical botnets called AntBot, which aim to propagate their C&C information to individual bots even though there exists an adversary that persistently pollutes keys used by seized bots to search the command information. The key idea of AntBot is a tree-like structure that bots use to deliver the command so that captured bots reveal only limited information. To evaluate effectiveness of AntBot against pollution-based mitigation in a virtual environment, we develop a distributed P2P botnet simulator. Using extensive experiments, we demonstrate that AntBot operates resiliently against pollution-based mitigation. We further present a few potential defense schemes that could effectively disrupt AntBot operations.

  1. PeerFlow: Secure Load Balancing in Tor

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Johnson Aaron

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available We present PeerFlow, a system to securely load balance client traffic in Tor. Security in Tor requires that no adversary handle too much traffic. However, Tor relays are run by volunteers who cannot be trusted to report the relay bandwidths, which Tor clients use for load balancing. We show that existing methods to determine the bandwidths of Tor relays allow an adversary with little bandwidth to attack large amounts of client traffic. These methods include Tor’s current bandwidth-scanning system, TorFlow, and the peer-measurement system EigenSpeed. We present an improved design called PeerFlow that uses a peer-measurement process both to limit an adversary’s ability to increase his measured bandwidth and to improve accuracy. We show our system to be secure, fast, and efficient. We implement PeerFlow in Tor and demonstrate its speed and accuracy in large-scale network simulations.

  2. Commitment to Cooperation and Peer Punishment: Its Evolution

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tatsuya Sasaki

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Theoretical and empirical studies have generally weighed the effect of peer punishment and pool punishment for sanctioning free riders separately. However, these sanctioning mechanisms often pose a puzzling tradeoff between efficiency and stability in detecting and punishing free riders. Here, we combine the key aspects of these qualitatively different mechanisms in terms of evolutionary game theory. Based on the dilemmatic donation game, we introduce a strategy of commitment to both cooperation and peer punishment. To make the commitment credible, we assume that those willing to commit have to make a certain deposit. The deposit will be refunded as long as the committers faithfully cooperate in the donation game and punish free riders and non-committers. It turns out that the deposit-based commitment offers both the efficiency of peer punishment and the stability of pool punishment and that the replicator dynamics lead to transitions of different systems: pool punishment to commitment to peer punishment.

  3. Opportunities and Design Considerations for Peer Support in a Hospital Setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haldar, Shefali; Mishra, Sonali R; Khelifi, Maher; Pollack, Ari H; Pratt, Wanda

    2017-05-01

    Although research has demonstrated improved outcomes for outpatients who receive peer support-such as through online health communities, support groups, and mentoring systems-hospitalized patients have few mechanisms to receive such valuable support. To explore the opportunities for a hospital-based peer support system, we administered a survey to 146 pediatric patients and caregivers, and conducted semi-structured interviews with twelve patients and three caregivers in a children's hospital. Our analysis revealed that hospitalized individuals need peer support for five key purposes: (1) to ask about medical details-such as procedures, treatments, and medications; (2) to learn about healthcare providers; (3) to report and prevent medical errors; (4) to exchange emotional support; and (5) to manage their time in the hospital. In this paper, we examine these themes and describe potential barriers to using a hospital-based peer support system. We then discuss the unique opportunities and challenges that the hospital environment presents when designing for peer support in this setting.

  4. Using peer-to-peer energy-trading platforms to incentivize prosumers to form federated power plants

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morstyn, Thomas; Farrell, Niall; Darby, Sarah J.; McCulloch, Malcolm D.

    2018-02-01

    Power networks are undergoing a fundamental transition, with traditionally passive consumers becoming `prosumers' — proactive consumers with distributed energy resources, actively managing their consumption, production and storage of energy. A key question that remains unresolved is: how can we incentivize coordination between vast numbers of distributed energy resources, each with different owners and characteristics? Virtual power plants and peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading offer different sources of value to prosumers and the power network, and have been proposed as different potential structures for future prosumer electricity markets. In this Perspective, we argue they can be combined to capture the benefits of both. We thus propose the concept of the federated power plant, a virtual power plant formed through P2P transactions between self-organizing prosumers. This addresses social, institutional and economic issues faced by top-down strategies for coordinating virtual power plants, while unlocking additional value for P2P energy trading.

  5. Random Versus Nonrandom Peer Review: A Case for More Meaningful Peer Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Itri, Jason N; Donithan, Adam; Patel, Sohil H

    2018-05-10

    Random peer review programs are not optimized to discover cases with diagnostic error and thus have inherent limitations with respect to educational and quality improvement value. Nonrandom peer review offers an alternative approach in which diagnostic error cases are targeted for collection during routine clinical practice. The objective of this study was to compare error cases identified through random and nonrandom peer review approaches at an academic center. During the 1-year study period, the number of discrepancy cases and score of discrepancy were determined from each approach. The nonrandom peer review process collected 190 cases, of which 60 were scored as 2 (minor discrepancy), 94 as 3 (significant discrepancy), and 36 as 4 (major discrepancy). In the random peer review process, 1,690 cases were reviewed, of which 1,646 were scored as 1 (no discrepancy), 44 were scored as 2 (minor discrepancy), and none were scored as 3 or 4. Several teaching lessons and quality improvement measures were developed as a result of analysis of error cases collected through the nonrandom peer review process. Our experience supports the implementation of nonrandom peer review as a replacement to random peer review, with nonrandom peer review serving as a more effective method for collecting diagnostic error cases with educational and quality improvement value. Copyright © 2018 American College of Radiology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Making Peer-Assisted Content Distribution Robust to Collusion Using Bandwidth Puzzles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reiter, Michael K.; Sekar, Vyas; Spensky, Chad; Zhang, Zhenghao

    Many peer-assisted content-distribution systems reward a peer based on the amount of data that this peer serves to others. However, validating that a peer did so is, to our knowledge, an open problem; e.g., a group of colluding attackers can earn rewards by claiming to have served content to one another, when they have not. We propose a puzzle mechanism to make contribution-aware peer-assisted content distribution robust to such collusion. Our construction ties solving the puzzle to possession of specific content and, by issuing puzzle challenges simultaneously to all parties claiming to have that content, our mechanism prevents one content-holder from solving many others' puzzles. We prove (in the random oracle model) the security of our scheme, describe our integration of bandwidth puzzles into a media streaming system, and demonstrate the resulting attack resilience via simulations.

  7. Building capacity in social service agencies to employ peer providers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gates, Lauren B; Mandiberg, James M; Akabas, Sheila H

    2010-01-01

    While there is evidence that peer providers are valuable to service delivery teams, the agencies where they work face difficulties in fulfilling the potential of including peers on staff effectively. The purpose of this article is to report findings of a pilot test of a workplace strategy that promoted inclusion of peer providers at social service agencies by building organizational capacity to support people with mental health conditions in peer provider roles. The strategy included training, goal setting and ongoing consultation. Seventy-one peer, non-peer and supervisory staff participated from 6 agencies over a one year period. Goal attainment scaling and data from in-depth interviews about perceptions of differences in the ways in which staff are supported, administered prior to and after the consultation period, were used to assess strategy impact. Most frequently staff set goals to respond to role conflict or a lack of support. Staff that met or exceeded their goals utilized the formal structure of consultation to improve communication among themselves, had leadership that sanctioned changes and felt that their participation was of value to the organization and contributed to their individual development. Strategy participation promoted inclusion by initiating changes to policies and practices that devalued the peer provider role, increased skill sets, and formalized lines of communication for sharing information and understanding related to peer providers. Findings demonstrate that a strategy of training, goal setting and consultation can positively affect perceptions of inclusion, and promote implementation of practices associated with inclusive workplaces.

  8. Coaching mental health peer advocates for rural LGBTQ people.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Willging, Cathleen E; Israel, Tania; Ley, David; Trott, Elise M; DeMaria, Catherine; Joplin, Aaron; Smiley, Verida

    Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) people are affected by mental health disparities, especially in rural communities. We trained peer advocates in rural areas in the fundamentals of mental health, outreach, education, and support for this population. The peer advocates were coached by licensed mental health professionals. We evaluated this process through iterative qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews and written logs from coaches and advocates. The six major themes comprising the results centered on (1) coaching support, (2) peer advocate skills and preparation, (3) working with help seekers, (4) negotiating diversity, (5) logistical challenges in rural contexts, and (6) systemic challenges. We concluded that peer advocacy for LGBTQ people with mental distress offers an affirmative, community-based strategy to assist the underserved. To be successful, however, peer advocates will likely require ongoing training, coaching, and infrastructural support to negotiate contextual factors that can influence provision of community resources and support to LGBTQ people within rural communities.

  9. Peer review in forensic science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ballantyne, Kaye N; Edmond, Gary; Found, Bryan

    2017-08-01

    Peer review features prominently in the forensic sciences. Drawing on recent research and studies, this article examines different types of peer review, specifically: editorial peer review; peer review by the scientific community; technical and administrative review; and verification (and replication). The article reviews the different meanings of these quite disparate activities and their utility in relation to enhancing performance and reducing error. It explains how forensic practitioners should approach and use peer review, as well as how it should be described in expert reports and oral testimony. While peer review has considerable potential, and is a key component of modern quality management systems, its actual value in most forensic science settings has yet to be determined. In consequence, forensic practitioners should reflect on why they use specific review procedures and endeavour to make their actual practices and their potential value transparent to consumers; whether investigators, lawyers, jurors or judges. Claims that review increases the validity of a scientific technique or accuracy of opinions within a particular case should be avoided until empirical evidence is available to support such assertions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  10. Open Peer Review in Scientific Publishing: A Web Mining Study of PeerJ Authors and Reviewers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peiling Wang

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: To understand how authors and reviewers are accepting and embracing Open Peer Review (OPR, one of the newest innovations in the Open Science movement. Design/methodology/approach: This research collected and analyzed data from the Open Access journal PeerJ over its first three years (2013-2016. Web data were scraped, cleaned, and structured using several Web tools and programs. The structured data were imported into a relational database. Data analyses were conducted using analytical tools as well as programs developed by the researchers. Findings: PeerJ, which supports optional OPR, has a broad international representation of authors and referees. Approximately 73.89% of articles provide full review histories. Of the articles with published review histories, 17.61% had identities of all reviewers and 52.57% had at least one signed reviewer. In total, 43.23% of all reviews were signed. The observed proportions of signed reviews have been relatively stable over the period since the Journal's inception. Research limitations: This research is constrained by the availability of the peer review history data. Some peer reviews were not available when the authors opted out of publishing their review histories. The anonymity of reviewers made it impossible to give an accurate count of reviewers who contributed to the review process. Practical implications: These findings shed light on the current characteristics of OPR. Given the policy that authors are encouraged to make their articles' review history public and referees are encouraged to sign their review reports, the three years of PeerJ review data demonstrate that there is still some reluctance by authors to make their reviews public and by reviewers to identify themselves. Originality/value: This is the first study to closely examine PeerJ as an example of an OPR model journal. As Open Science moves further towards open research, OPR is a final and critical component. Research in this

  11. Assessment of Peer-Based and Structural Strategies for Increasing ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Assessment of Peer-Based and Structural Strategies for Increasing Male Participation in an Antenatal Setting in Lilongwe, Malawi. SM Mphonda, NE Rosenberg, E Kamanga, I Mofolo, G Mwale, E Boa, M Mwale, F Martinson, I Hoffman, MC Hosseinipour ...

  12. Affiliation with Antisocial Peers, Susceptibility to Peer Influence, and Antisocial Behavior during the Transition to Adulthood

    Science.gov (United States)

    Monahan, Kathryn C.; Steinberg, Laurence; Cauffman, Elizabeth

    2009-01-01

    Developmental theories suggest that affiliation with deviant peers and susceptibility to peer influence are important contributors to adolescent delinquency, but it is unclear how these variables impact antisocial behavior during the transition to adulthood, a period when most delinquent individuals decline in antisocial behavior. Using data from…

  13. A Local Asynchronous Distributed Privacy Preserving Feature Selection Algorithm for Large Peer-to-Peer Networks

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — In this paper we develop a local distributed privacy preserving algorithm for feature selection in a large peer-to-peer environment. Feature selection is often used...

  14. PeerJ – more than just a publisher

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peter Binfield

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available PeerJ Inc (the open access publisher of both 'PeerJ' and 'PeerJ PrePrints' announced itself in mid-2012, and started publishing articles in February 2013. Although to the casual observer, PeerJ might be thought of as ‘just another open access (OA publisher’, in fact (as evidenced by several industry awards it is building an environment which has publishing at its core, but which also addresses the needs of the academic community in several additional ways. In this article, one of the co-founders of PeerJ describes innovations such as their ‘individual-centric’ business model; their ‘optional open peer-review’ system; the PeerJ contribution points; the visual design; and several important aspects of their philosophy which together are creating a publishing system suitable for the needs of the 21st-century academic.

  15. NASA Product Peer Review Process

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jenks, Ken

    2009-01-01

    This viewgraph presentation describes NASA's product peer review process. The contents include: 1) Inspection/Peer Review at NASA; 2) Reasons for product peer reviews; 3) Different types of peer reviews; and 4) NASA requirements for peer reviews. This presentation also includes a demonstration of an actual product peer review.

  16. Peer Review

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Avital, Michel

    2018-01-01

    that the community’s hunger for publication accompanies only a modest appetite for providing the necessary support to sustain the consequent increase in peer-review load. The advent of blockchain technologies and the proliferation of cryptocurrencies presents an opportunity to develop a token-based peer...

  17. Analysis of online trading transaction (peer to peer) on e-commerce based on Islamic law

    OpenAIRE

    Siregar, Richardy Affan Sojuangon; Caroline, Bella Marisela; Lazuardi, Luqman Isyraqi; Renanda, Tris; Qodrya, Hersy Ayu; Sari, Atthiya Prima; Arbi, Ramadana

    2018-01-01

    E-commerce lets buyers order things over the Internet via gadgets wherever they are and whenever they want to. The order will be delivered right to the buyer’s doorstep. There are several e-commerce models at the moment. One model is called peer-to-peer model which has been implemented on three largest e-commerce platforms in Indonesia. The validity of e-commerce from Islamic view is studied in order to clear the Muslims doubt regarding transactions made online. After scrutinizing the peer-to...

  18. Peer pressure and incentive mechanisms in social networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deng, Chuang; Ye, Chao; Wang, Lin; Rong, Zhihai; Wang, Xiaofan

    2018-01-01

    Cooperation can be viewed as a social norm that is expected in our society. In this work, a framework based on spatial public goods game theory is established to study how peer pressure and incentive mechanisms can influence the evolution of cooperation. A unified model with adjustable parameters is developed to represent the effects of pure Personal Mechanism, Personal Mechanism with peer pressure and Social Mechanism, which demonstrates that when the sum of rewards plus the peer pressure felt by defectors is larger than the effective cost of cooperation, cooperation can prevail. As the peer pressure is caused by other cooperators in a game, group size and network structure play an important role. In particular, larger group size and more heterogeneous structured population can make defectors feel more peer pressure, which will promote the evolution and sustainment of cooperation.

  19. Weight of the Shortest Path to the First Encountered Peer in a Peer Group of Size m

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Van Mieghem, P.; Tang, S.

    We model the weight (e.g. delay, distance or cost) from an arbitrary node to the nearest (in weight) peer in a peer-to-peer (P2P) network. The exact probability generating function and an asymptotic analysis is presented for a random graph with i.i.d. exponential link weights. The asymptotic

  20. Telemedicine for Peer-to-Peer Psychiatry Learning between U.K. and Somaliland Medical Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keynejad, Roxanne; Ali, Faisal R.; Finlayson, Alexander E. T.; Handuleh, Jibriil; Adam, Gudon; Bowen, Jordan S. T.; Leather, Andrew; Little, Simon J.; Whitwell, Susannah

    2013-01-01

    Objective: The proportion of U.K. medical students applying for psychiatry training continues to decline, whereas, in Somaliland, there are no public-sector psychiatrists. This pilot study assessed the usefulness and feasibility of online, instant messenger, peer-to-peer exchange for psychiatry education between cultures. Method: Twenty medical…

  1. Peer To Peer-utlåning i Sverige : En komparativ studie mellan bankutlåning och Peer To Peer-utlåning på den svenska konsumentkreditmarknaden

    OpenAIRE

    Edman, Lars; Kaltea, Kristofer

    2015-01-01

    Background: Peer to peer lending has in recent years emerged and become a popular way to borrow money, mostly in the US and the UK. Since the first company was established in 2005, several competitors have emerged, and P2P lending has grown on average by 84 % quarterly between the second quarter year 2007 and the second quarter year 2014 in the US. Lending Club, which is the largest player within P2P-lending, has since its start in 2008 carried loans of a total value of six billions USD. Aim:...

  2. Leveraging position bias to improve peer recommendation.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kristina Lerman

    Full Text Available With the advent of social media and peer production, the amount of new online content has grown dramatically. To identify interesting items in the vast stream of new content, providers must rely on peer recommendation to aggregate opinions of their many users. Due to human cognitive biases, the presentation order strongly affects how people allocate attention to the available content. Moreover, we can manipulate attention through the presentation order of items to change the way peer recommendation works. We experimentally evaluate this effect using Amazon Mechanical Turk. We find that different policies for ordering content can steer user attention so as to improve the outcomes of peer recommendation.

  3. Inducing Peer Pressure to Promote Cooperation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mani, Ankur; Rahwan, Iyad; Pentland, Alex

    2013-04-01

    Cooperation in a large society of self-interested individuals is notoriously difficult to achieve when the externality of one individual's action is spread thin and wide on the whole society. This leads to the `tragedy of the commons' in which rational action will ultimately make everyone worse-off. Traditional policies to promote cooperation involve Pigouvian taxation or subsidies that make individuals internalize the externality they incur. We introduce a new approach to achieving global cooperation by localizing externalities to one's peers in a social network, thus leveraging the power of peer-pressure to regulate behavior. The mechanism relies on a joint model of externalities and peer-pressure. Surprisingly, this mechanism can require a lower budget to operate than the Pigouvian mechanism, even when accounting for the social cost of peer pressure. Even when the available budget is very low, the social mechanisms achieve greater improvement in the outcome.

  4. Inducing peer pressure to promote cooperation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mani, Ankur; Rahwan, Iyad; Pentland, Alex

    2013-01-01

    Cooperation in a large society of self-interested individuals is notoriously difficult to achieve when the externality of one individual's action is spread thin and wide on the whole society. This leads to the 'tragedy of the commons' in which rational action will ultimately make everyone worse-off. Traditional policies to promote cooperation involve Pigouvian taxation or subsidies that make individuals internalize the externality they incur. We introduce a new approach to achieving global cooperation by localizing externalities to one's peers in a social network, thus leveraging the power of peer-pressure to regulate behavior. The mechanism relies on a joint model of externalities and peer-pressure. Surprisingly, this mechanism can require a lower budget to operate than the Pigouvian mechanism, even when accounting for the social cost of peer pressure. Even when the available budget is very low, the social mechanisms achieve greater improvement in the outcome.

  5. Peer Education from the Perspective of Peer Educators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karaca, Aysel; Akkus, Dilek; Sener, Dilek Konuk

    2018-01-01

    Peer educators (PEs) have a significant role in providing education on various health issues like smoking, alcohol, and other substance use. This study aimed to determine the experiences and opinions of PEs regarding a peer education program. Using the qualitative research method, data were collected from the study sample, which consisted of 23…

  6. A Preliminary Study of Peer-to-Peer Human-Robot Interaction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fong, Terrence; Flueckiger, Lorenzo; Kunz, Clayton; Lees, David; Schreiner, John; Siegel, Michael; Hiatt, Laura M.; Nourbakhsh, Illah; Simmons, Reid; Ambrose, Robert

    2006-01-01

    The Peer-to-Peer Human-Robot Interaction (P2P-HRI) project is developing techniques to improve task coordination and collaboration between human and robot partners. Our work is motivated by the need to develop effective human-robot teams for space mission operations. A central element of our approach is creating dialogue and interaction tools that enable humans and robots to flexibly support one another. In order to understand how this approach can influence task performance, we recently conducted a series of tests simulating a lunar construction task with a human-robot team. In this paper, we describe the tests performed, discuss our initial results, and analyze the effect of intervention on task performance.

  7. Teaching doctors to treat doctors: medical student peer counselling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spiro, J H; Roenneburg, M; Maly, B J

    1980-01-01

    Physicians' emotional problems need to be recognized and treated. Intervention and prevention in this problem area have been attempted at the Medical College of Wisconsin through a programme of peer counselling designed to teach student physicians how to recognize and treat emotional difficulties faced by their peers. During the 18 months that the programme has been in operation, 20 peer counsellors reported a total 1,185 hours spent in counselling their peers, lending credence to the speculation that doctors will turn to their peers for help if, in medical school, there is acceptance of fallibility and responsiveness on the part of peers.

  8. Teaching Children with Autism to Engage in Peer-Directed Mands Using a Picture Exchange Communication System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paden, Amber R.; Kodak, Tiffany; Fisher, Wayne W.; Gawley-Bullington, Elizabeth M.; Bouxsein, Kelly J.

    2012-01-01

    We evaluated differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) plus prompting to increase peer-directed mands for preferred items using a picture exchange communication system (PECS). Two nonvocal individuals with autism participated. Independent mands with a peer increased with the implementation of DRA plus prompting for both…

  9. Peer-Assisted Content Distribution with Random Linear Network Coding

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hundebøll, Martin; Ledet-Pedersen, Jeppe; Sluyterman, Georg

    2014-01-01

    Peer-to-peer networks constitute a widely used, cost-effective and scalable technology to distribute bandwidth-intensive content. The technology forms a great platform to build distributed cloud storage without the need of a central provider. However, the majority of todays peer-to-peer systems...

  10. Horizontal Curve Virtual Peer Exchange : an RSPCB Peer Exchange

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-06-01

    This report summarizes the Horizontal Curve Virtual Peer Exchange sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Safetys Roadway Safety Professional Capacity Building Program on June 17, 2014. This virtual peer exchange was the f...

  11. Minority acculturation and peer rejection: Costs of acculturation misfit with peer-group norms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Celeste, Laura; Meeussen, Loes; Verschueren, Karine; Phalet, Karen

    2016-09-01

    How do minority adolescents' personal acculturation preferences and peer norms of acculturation affect their social inclusion in school? Turkish and Moroccan minority adolescents (N = 681) reported their preferences for heritage culture maintenance, mainstream culture adoption, and their experiences of peer rejection as a key indicator of adjustment problems. Additionally, we aggregated peer acculturation norms of maintenance and adoption within ethnically diverse classrooms (N = 230 in 50 Belgian schools), distinguishing between co-ethnic (Turkish or Moroccan classmates only, N = 681) and cross-ethnic norms (also including N = 1,930 other classmates). Cross-ethnic peer-group norms (of adoption and maintenance) and co-ethnic norms (of maintenance, marginally) predicted minority experiences of peer rejection (controlling for ethnic composition). Moreover, misfit of minorities' own acculturation preferences with both cross-ethnic and co-ethnic peer-group norms was harmful. When cross-ethnic norms stressed adoption, 'integrationist' minority youth - who combined culture adoption with maintenance - experienced most peer rejection. Yet, when co-ethnic peers stressed maintenance, 'assimilationist' minority youth experienced most rejection. In conclusion, acculturation misfit with peer-group norms is a risk factor for minority inclusion in ethnically diverse environments. © 2016 The British Psychological Society.

  12. Ontology-Based Peer Exchange Network (OPEN)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dong, Hui

    2010-01-01

    In current Peer-to-Peer networks, distributed and semantic free indexing is widely used by systems adopting "Distributed Hash Table" ("DHT") mechanisms. Although such systems typically solve a. user query rather fast in a deterministic way, they only support a very narrow search scheme, namely the exact hash key match. Furthermore, DHT systems put…

  13. Adult Willingness to Use Email and Social Media for Peer-to-Peer Cancer Screening Communication: Quantitative Interview Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cutrona, Sarah L; Roblin, Douglas W; Wagner, Joann L; Gaglio, Bridget; Williams, Andrew E; Torres Stone, Rosalie; Field, Terry S; Mazor, Kathleen M

    2013-11-28

    Adults over age 40 are increasing their use of email and social media, raising interest in use of peer-to-peer Internet-based messaging to promote cancer screening. The objective of our study was to assess current practices and attitudes toward use of email and other e-communication for peer-to-peer dialogues on cancer screening. We conducted in-person interviews with 438 insured adults ages 42-73 in Georgia, Hawaii, and Massachusetts. Participants reported on use of email and other e-communication including social media to discuss with peers routine health topics including breast and colorectal cancer (CRC). We ascertained willingness to share personal CRC screening experiences via conversation, postcard, email, or other e-communication. Health literacy scores were measured. Email had been used by one-third (33.8%, 148/438) to discuss routine health topics, by 14.6% (64/438) to discuss breast cancer screening, and by 12.6% (55/438) to discuss CRC screening. Other e-communication was used to discuss routine health topics (11.6%, 51/438), screening for breast cancer (3.9%, 17/438), and CRC (2.3%, 10/438). In the preceding week, 84.5% (370/438) of participants had used email, 55.9% (245/438) had used e-communication of some type; 44.3% (194/438) text, 32.9% (144/438) Facebook, 12.3% (54/438) instant message, 7.1% (31/438) video chat, and 4.8% (21/438) Twitter. Many participants were willing to share their CRC screening experiences via email (32.4%, 142/438 might be willing; 36.3%, 159/438 very willing) and via other e-communication (15.8%, 69/438 might be willing; 14.4%, 63/438 very willing). Individuals willing to send CRC screening emails scored significantly higher on tests of health literacy compared to those willing to send only postcards (Pcommunication to promote cancer screening to peers. Optimal approaches for encouraging peer-to-peer transmission of accurate and appropriate cancer screening messages must be studied.

  14. A Peer-Led Approach to Promoting Health Education in Schools: The Views of Peers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frantz, J. M.

    2015-01-01

    Peer-led health promotion strategies in schools have been found to be effective in promoting healthy behaviours amongst youth. This study aimed to evaluate the views of the peer educators in implementing a health education programme using a qualitative approach. Informal discussions and eight in-depth interviews were used to explore the views of…

  15. Adaptation en français et en allemand d'une échelle de pression des pairs pour jeunes adultes : le Peer Pressure Inventory [Adaptation of a peer pressure scale in French and German: the Peer Pressure Inventory].

    OpenAIRE

    Baggio, S.; Studer, J.; Daeppen, J.B.; Gmel, G.

    2013-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Peer pressure is regarded as an important determinant of substance use, sexual behavior and juvenile delinquency. However, few peer pressure scales are validated, especially in French or German. Little is known about the factor structure of such scales or the kind of scale needed: some scales takes into account both peer pressure to do and peer pressure not to do, while others consider only peer pressure to do. The aim of the present study was to adapt French and German versions o...

  16. A Mediated Moderation Model of Conformative Peer Bullying

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cho, Yoonju; Chung, Ock-Boon

    2012-01-01

    We investigated the relationship between conformative peer bullying and issues of peer conformity among adolescents. This relationship is examined through the establishment of a mediated moderation model for conformative peer bullying using structural equation modeling in a sample of 391 second-year middle school students in Seoul, South Korea. We…

  17. Multi-Agent Design and Implementation for an Online Peer Help System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meng, Anbo

    2014-01-01

    With the rapid advance of e-learning, the online peer help is playing increasingly important role. This paper explores the application of MAS to an online peer help system (MAPS). In the design phase, the architecture of MAPS is proposed, which consists of a set of agents including the personal agent, the course agent, the diagnosis agent, the DF…

  18. Group Peer Assessment for Summative Evaluation in a Graduate-Level Statistics Course for Ecologists

    Science.gov (United States)

    ArchMiller, Althea; Fieberg, John; Walker, J.D.; Holm, Noah

    2017-01-01

    Peer assessment is often used for formative learning, but few studies have examined the validity of group-based peer assessment for the summative evaluation of course assignments. The present study contributes to the literature by using online technology (the course management system Moodle™) to implement structured, summative peer review based on…

  19. Stigma in the mental health workplace: perceptions of peer employees and clinicians.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stromwall, Layne K; Holley, Lynn C; Bashor, Kathy E

    2011-08-01

    Informed by a structural theory of workplace discrimination, mental health system employees' perceptions of mental health workplace stigma and discrimination against service recipients and peer employees were investigated. Fifty-one peer employees and 52 licensed behavioral health clinicians participated in an online survey. Independent variables were employee status (peer or clinician), gender, ethnicity, years of mental health employment, age, and workplace social inclusion of peer employees. Analysis of covariance on workplace discrimination against service recipients revealed that peer employees perceived more discrimination than clinicians and whites perceived more discrimination than employees of color (corrected model F = 9.743 [16, 87], P = .000, partial ŋ (2) = .644). Analysis of covariance on workplace discrimination against peer employees revealed that peer employees perceived more discrimination than clinicians (F = 4.593, [6, 97], P = .000, partial ŋ (2) = .223).

  20. Jornada “Usos i abusos del peer-to-peer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Raquel Xalabarder

    2010-07-01

    Full Text Available El 3 de desembre de 2009, els Estudis de Dret i Ciència Política de la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC, juntament amb l'Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3, van organitzar la jornada "Usos i abusos del peer-to-peer", que va tenir lloc a la seu central de la UOC a Barcelona. La jornada la van coordinar els professors d'aquests Estudis integrants del grup de recerca Interdret de l'IN3.

  1. An integrated 2-year clinical skills peer tutoring scheme in a UK-based medical school: perceptions of tutees and peer tutors

    Science.gov (United States)

    2018-01-01

    Background Several benefits of peer tutoring in medical school teaching have been described. However, there is a lack of research on the perceptions of peer tutoring, particularly from tutees who partake in a long-term clinical skills scheme integrated into the medical school curriculum. This study evaluates the opinions of preclinical tutees at the end of a 2-year peer-tutored clinical skills program and peer tutors themselves. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in a UK-based medical school that primarily utilizes peer tutoring for clinical skills teaching. A questionnaire was designed to assess the views of preclinical tutees and peer tutors. Likert scales were used to grade responses and comment boxes to collect qualitative data. Results Sixty-five questionnaires were collected (52 tutees, 13 peer tutors). Seventy-nine percent of students felt satisfied with their teaching, and 70% felt adequately prepared for clinical placements. Furthermore, 79% believed that peer tutoring is the most effective method for clinical skills teaching. When compared to faculty teaching, tutees preferred being taught by peer tutors (63%), felt more confident (73%), and were more willing to engage (77%). All peer tutors felt that teaching made them more confident in their Objective Structured Clinical Examination performance, and 91% agreed that being a tutor made them consider pursuing teaching in the future. Thematic analysis of qualitative data identified 3 themes regarding peer tutoring: a more comfortable environment (69%), a more personalized teaching approach (34%), and variation in content taught (14%). Conclusion Preclinical tutees prefer being taught clinical skills by peer tutors compared to faculty, with the peer tutors also benefitting. Studies such as this, looking at long-term schemes, further validate peer tutoring and may encourage more medical schools to adopt this method as an effective way of clinical skills teaching. PMID:29922105

  2. STUDENT NURSES' EXPERIENCE OF A SYSTEM OF PEER ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    support

    A system of peer group supervision and accompaniment for student nurses has been in place at a ... The themes that were identified indicated that certain elements motivated nursing stu- dents to ..... tutors receive a financial incentive.

  3. Adolescent Susceptibility to Peer Influence in Sexual Situations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Widman, Laura; Choukas-Bradley, Sophia; Helms, Sarah W; Prinstein, Mitchell J

    2016-03-01

    One consistent predictor of adolescents' engagement in sexual risk behavior is their belief that peers are engaging in similar behavior; however, not all youth are equally susceptible to these peer influence effects. Understanding individual differences in susceptibility to peer influence is critical to identifying adolescents at risk for negative health outcomes. The purpose of this project was to identify predictors of susceptibility to peer influence using a novel performance-based measure of sexual risk taking. Participants were 300 early adolescents (Mage = 12.6 years; 53% female; 44% Caucasian) who completed (1) a pretest assessment of demographics, sexual attitudes, and hypothetical scenarios measuring the likelihood of engaging in sexual risk behavior and (2) a subsequent experimental procedure that simulated an Internet chat room in which youth believed that they were communicating with peers regarding these same hypothetical scenarios. In reality, these "peers" were computer-programmed e-confederates. Changes in responses to the sexual scenarios in the private pretest versus during the public chat room provided a performance-based measure of peer influence susceptibility. In total, 78% of youth provided more risky responses in the chat room than those in pretest. The most robust predictor of this change was gender, with boys significantly more susceptible to peer influence than girls. Significant interactions also were noted, with greater susceptibility among boys with later pubertal development and African-American boys. Results confirm that not all youth are equally susceptible to peer influence. Consistent with sexual script theory, boys evidence greater susceptibility to social pressure regarding sexual behavior than girls. Copyright © 2016 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. RatBot: anti-enumeration peer-to-peer botnets

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yan, Guanhua [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Eidenbenz, Stephan [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Chen, Songqing [GEORGE MASON UNIV.

    2010-01-01

    Botnets have emerged as one of the most severe cyber threats in recent years. To obtain high resilience against a single point of failure, the new generation of botnets have adopted the peer-to-peer (P2P) structure. One critical question regarding these P2P botnets is: how big are they indeed? To address this question, researchers have proposed both actively crawling and passively monitoring methods to enumerate existing P2P botnets. In this work, we go further to explore the potential strategies that botnets may have to obfuscate their true sizes. Towards this end, this paper introduces RatBot, a P2P botnet that applies some statistical techniques to defeat existing P2P botnet enumeration methods. The key ideas of RatBot are two-fold: (1) there exist a fraction of bots that are indistinguishable from their fake identities, which are spoofing IP addresses they use to hide themselves; (2) we use a heavy-tailed distribution to generate the number of fake identities for each of these bots so that the sum of observed fake identities converges only slowly and thus has high variation. We use large-scale high-fidelity simulation to quantify the estimation errors under diverse settings, and the results show that a naive enumeration technique can overestimate the sizes of P2P botnets by one order of magnitude. We believe that our work reveals new challenges of accurately estimating the sizes of P2P botnets, and hope that it will raise the awareness of security practitioners with these challenges. We further suggest a few countermeasures that can potentially defeat RatBot's anti-enumeration scheme.

  5. Peers and adolescent smoking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kobus, Kimberly

    2003-05-01

    There is a considerable body of empirical research that has identified adolescent peer relationships as a primary factor involved in adolescent cigarette smoking. Despite this large research base, many questions remain unanswered about the mechanisms by which peers affect youths' smoking behavior. Understanding these processes of influence is key to the development of prevention and intervention programs designed to address adolescent smoking as a significant public health concern. In this paper, theoretical frameworks and empirical findings are reviewed critically which inform the current state of knowledge regarding peer influences on teenage smoking. Specifically, social learning theory, primary socialization theory, social identity theory and social network theory are discussed. Empirical findings regarding peer influence and selection, as well as multiple reference points in adolescent friendships, including best friendships, romantic relationships, peer groups and social crowds, are also reviewed. Review of this work reveals the contribution that peers have in adolescents' use of tobacco, in some cases promoting use, and in other cases deterring it. This review also suggests that peer influences on smoking are more subtle than commonly thought and need to be examined more carefully, including consideration of larger social contexts, e.g. the family, neighborhood, and media. Recommendations for future investigations are made, as well as suggestions for specific methodological approaches that offer promise for advancing our knowledge of the contribution of peers on adolescent tobacco use.

  6. Peers for Promotion: Achieving Academic Advancement through Facilitated Peer Mentoring

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ockene, Judith K.; Milner, Robert J.; Thorndyke, Luanne E.; Congdon, John; Cain, Joanna M.

    2017-01-01

    The promotion process is challenging, particularly for non-tenure track faculty in academic medicine. To address this challenge, we implemented a facilitated peer mentoring program that included a structured curriculum with regular meetings, guided by two senior faculty mentors. Participants expressed satisfaction with the program, showed…

  7. Peer Review as a Strategy for Improving Students' Writing Process

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baker, Kimberly M.

    2016-01-01

    Peer review is an established strategy for improving the quality of students' writing. This study moves beyond the focus on outcomes to assess the peer-review process. In particular, this study focuses on the timing of the peer review, a highly structured feedback form, and student writers' revisions after engaging in peer review. This study draws…

  8. Peer Helpers: Encouraging Kids to Confide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tanaka, Gail; Reid, Kelley

    1997-01-01

    In peer-helping programs, a professional counselor or teacher trains a group of students who then help other students by listening, providing information, and referring them to others with the necessary expertise. Peer helpers can help improve the school climate by contributing to its health and security. Since 1979, Seattle's Natural Helpers…

  9. Assessment of Peer-Based and Structural Strategies for Increasing ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    AJRH Managing Editor

    peer educators was a form of task shifting that allowed health personnel to address other activities. From January 2007 through June 2008. (period 1), the peer educators gave health talks in the morning at the antenatal clinic, talking to the mothers and the few men who were present on the importance of male participation ...

  10. Joint Contributions of Peer Acceptance and Peer Academic Reputation to Achievement in Academically At-Risk Children: Mediating Processes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Qi; Hughes, Jan N.; Liew, Jeffrey; Kwok, Oi-Man

    2010-01-01

    The longitudinal relationships between two dimensions of peer relationships and subsequent academic adjustment were investigated in a sample of 543 relatively low achieving children (M = 6.57 years at Year 1, 1st grade). Latent variable SEM was used to test a four stage model positing indirect effects of peer acceptance and peer academic…

  11. The Impact of Classroom Peers in a Streaming System

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vardardottir, Arna

    2015-01-01

    This paper investigates educational production with a focus on the influence that socio-economic status of class peers has on academic outcomes of students in a streaming system. Employing the Swiss subsample of the PISA data, I provide evidence that while classroom assignment is not random within...... schools or tracks it is random within tracks-by-schools. Track-by-school fixed effects therefore render peer group composition conditionally uncorrelated with students' characteristics, while track fixed effects and school fixed effects don’t. Estimates based on track fixed-effects and school fixed...

  12. Lykkes peer-feedback altid?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jørgensen, Bente Mosgaard

    Agenda. International Journal of English Studies, 10(2), 171-184. doi:10.6018/ijes.10.2.119251 Lee, I. (2013). Research into Practice: Written Corrective Feedback. Language Teaching, 46(2), 108-119. doi:10.1017/S0261444812000390 Nicol, D. (2014). Guiding Principles for Peer Reveiw: Unlocking Learner...... Aarhus Universitet tilbydes derfor en række større og mindre opgaver, der skal give dem mulighed for at træne denne evne (se paper I, Jensen, in press, 2018). Nogle af de mindre opgaver inkluderer brugen af peer-feedback. Opgaverne afvikles via systemet Peergrade, hvor de studerende online bedømmer...... til at være, (3) pege på hvilke fordele og udfordringer der er med at anvende peer-feedback i det anvendte set-up på den pågældende uddannelse og (4) foreslå hvilke krav der må stilles til et system, der skal understøtte en korrektiv peer feedback proces ? Bredt teoretisk er jura-casen et eksempel på...

  13. Peer mentoring: evaluation of a novel programme in paediatrics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eisen, Sarah; Sukhani, Seema; Brightwell, Alex; Stoneham, Sara; Long, Andrew

    2014-02-01

    Mentoring is important for personal and professional development of doctors. Peer mentoring is a core skill in the UK paediatric postgraduate curriculum. However, there is a paucity of peer mentoring programmes aimed at postgraduate doctors in training (postgraduate trainees), and there are no such schemes within paediatrics described in the literature. We developed a regional peer mentoring programme for postgraduate trainees in paediatrics to assess demand and need for peer mentoring and to explore the benefits for both peer mentees and mentors. Junior postgraduate trainees, randomly selected from volunteers, received peer mentoring from more senior trainees for 1 year. Peer mentors were selected by competitive application and undertook tailored training followed by an experiential learning programme. The programme was evaluated using structured questionnaires. 90% (76/84) of first-year postgraduate trainees in paediatrics applied to participate, demonstrating high demand. 18 peer mentor-mentee pairs were matched. Peer mentors and mentees reported high satisfaction rates, acquisition of new and transferable skills and changed behaviours. All peer mentors intended to use the skills in their workplace and, later, as an educational supervisor. Our programme represents a novel approach to meeting the demonstrated demand and the curriculum requirement for peer mentoring, and enabled peer mentors and mentees to develop a valuable and versatile skill set. To our knowledge, it is the first such programme in paediatrics and provides a feasibility model that may be adapted locally to allow education providers to offer this important experience to postgraduate trainees.

  14. The Potential of Peer Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Susan Moore; Fiarman, Sarah E.

    2012-01-01

    Peer review of teachers is controversial for several reasons. Some say peer reviewers encroach on the rightful domain of the principal as instructional leader. Others argue that, because peer evaluators are fellow teachers, they may be biased or unwilling to make hard decisions. Many teachers find the prospect of peer evaluation unsettling because…

  15. How peer-review constrains cognition: on the frontline in the knowledge sector.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cowley, Stephen J

    2015-01-01

    Peer-review is neither reliable, fair, nor a valid basis for predicting 'impact': as quality control, peer-review is not fit for purpose. Endorsing the consensus, I offer a reframing: while a normative social process, peer-review also shapes the writing of a scientific paper. In so far as 'cognition' describes enabling conditions for flexible behavior, the practices of peer-review thus constrain knowledge-making. To pursue cognitive functions of peer-review, however, manuscripts must be seen as 'symbolizations', replicable patterns that use technologically enabled activity. On this bio-cognitive view, peer-review constrains knowledge-making by writers, editors, reviewers. Authors are prompted to recursively re-aggregate symbolizations to present what are deemed acceptable knowledge claims. How, then, can recursive re-embodiment be explored? In illustration, I sketch how the paper's own content came to be re-aggregated: agonistic review drove reformatting of argument structure, changes in rhetorical ploys and careful choice of wordings. For this reason, the paper's knowledge-claims can be traced to human activity that occurs in distributed cognitive systems. Peer-review is on the frontline in the knowledge sector in that it delimits what can count as knowing. Its systemic nature is therefore crucial to not only discipline-centered 'real' science but also its 'post-academic' counterparts.

  16. Which Peers Matter : How Social Ties Affect Peer-group Effects

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Poldin, O.; Valeeva, D.; Yudkevich, M.

    We study how the achievements of university students are influenced by the characteristics and achievements of peers in individuals’ social networks. Defining peer group in terms of friendship and study partner ties enables us to apply a network regression model and thereby disentangle the influence

  17. Peer production & peer support at the Free Technology Academy

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Potters, Hanneke; Berlanga, Adriana; Bijlsma, Lex

    2012-01-01

    Potters, H., Berlanga, A. J., & Lex, B. (2011). Peer Production & Peer Support at the Free Technology Academy. In G. van de Veer, P. B. Sloep, & M. van Eekelen (Eds.), Proceedings Computer Science Education Research Conference (CSERC '11) (pp. 49-58). April, 7-8, 2011, Heerlen, The Netherlands: ACM.

  18. Examining the Support Peer Supporters Provide Using Structural Equation Modeling: Nondirective and Directive Support in Diabetes Management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kowitt, Sarah D; Ayala, Guadalupe X; Cherrington, Andrea L; Horton, Lucy A; Safford, Monika M; Soto, Sandra; Tang, Tricia S; Fisher, Edwin B

    2017-12-01

    Little research has examined the characteristics of peer support. Pertinent to such examination may be characteristics such as the distinction between nondirective support (accepting recipients' feelings and cooperative with their plans) and directive (prescribing "correct" choices and feelings). In a peer support program for individuals with diabetes, this study examined (a) whether the distinction between nondirective and directive support was reflected in participants' ratings of support provided by peer supporters and (b) how nondirective and directive support were related to depressive symptoms, diabetes distress, and Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c). Three hundred fourteen participants with type 2 diabetes provided data on depressive symptoms, diabetes distress, and HbA1c before and after a diabetes management intervention delivered by peer supporters. At post-intervention, participants reported how the support provided by peer supporters was nondirective or directive. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), correlation analyses, and structural equation modeling examined the relationships among reports of nondirective and directive support, depressive symptoms, diabetes distress, and measured HbA1c. CFA confirmed the factor structure distinguishing between nondirective and directive support in participants' reports of support delivered by peer supporters. Controlling for demographic factors, baseline clinical values, and site, structural equation models indicated that at post-intervention, participants' reports of nondirective support were significantly associated with lower, while reports of directive support were significantly associated with greater depressive symptoms, altogether (with control variables) accounting for 51% of the variance in depressive symptoms. Peer supporters' nondirective support was associated with lower, but directive support was associated with greater depressive symptoms.

  19. Screening in new credit markets: can individual lenders infer borrower creditworthiness in peer-to-peer lending?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Iyer, R.; Khwaja, A.I.; Luttmer, E.F.P.; Shue, K.

    2009-01-01

    The current banking crisis highlights the challenges faced in the traditional lending model, particularly in terms of screening smaller borrowers. The recent growth in online peer-to-peer lending marketplaces offers opportunities to examine different lending models that rely on screening by multiple

  20. Peer Rejection and Internalizing Behavior: The Mediating Role of Peer Victimization in Preschool.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Metin Aslan, Özge

    2018-05-23

    The author examined the relationship among peer rejection, peer victimization, and internalizing behaviors. The author hypothesized that physical and relational victimization would have a different indirect effect on the relationship between peer rejection and internalizing behaviors. Participants were 94 preschool children (37 girls; average age 49.97 months) from two university preschools located in the northern part of the United States. The results indicated that internalizing behaviors predicted the mediating variables only regarding relational victimization. Relational victimization indirectly affected the association between peer rejection and internalizing behaviors. The study provides evidence of the mediating effect of victimization behaviors on the relationship among peer rejection, victimization, and internalizing behaviors.

  1. Group consensus peer review in radiation oncology: commitment to quality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duggar, W Neil; Bhandari, Rahul; Yang, Chunli Claus; Vijayakumar, Srinivasan

    2018-03-27

    Peer review, especially prospective peer review, has been supported by professional organizations as an important element in optimal Radiation Oncology practice based on its demonstration of efficacy at detecting and preventing errors prior to patient treatment. Implementation of peer review is not without barriers, but solutions do exist to mitigate or eliminate some of those barriers. Peer review practice at our institution involves three key elements: new patient conference, treatment planning conference, and chart rounds. The treatment planning conference is an adaptation of the group consensus peer review model from radiology which utilizes a group of peers reviewing each treatment plan prior to implementation. The peer group in radiation oncology includes Radiation Oncologists, Physician Residents, Medical Physicists, Dosimetrists, and Therapists. Thus, technical and clinical aspects of each plan are evaluated simultaneously. Though peer review is held in high regard in Radiation Oncology, many barriers commonly exist preventing optimal implementation such as time intensiveness, repetition, and distraction from clinic time with patients. Through the use of automated review tools and commitment by individuals and administration in regards to staffing, scheduling, and responsibilities, these barriers have been mitigated to implement this Group Consensus Peer Review model into a Radiation Oncology Clinic. A Group Consensus Peer Review model has been implemented with strategies to address common barriers to effective and efficient peer review.

  2. Trust in social computing. The case of peer-to-peer file sharing networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Heng Xu

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Social computing and online communities are changing the fundamental way people share information and communicate with each other. Social computing focuses on how users may have more autonomy to express their ideas and participate in social exchanges in various ways, one of which may be peer-to-peer (P2P file sharing. Given the greater risk of opportunistic behavior by malicious or criminal communities in P2P networks, it is crucial to understand the factors that affect individual’s use of P2P file sharing software. In this paper, we develop and empirically test a research model that includes trust beliefs and perceived risks as two major antecedent beliefs to the usage intention. Six trust antecedents are assessed including knowledge-based trust, cognitive trust, and both organizational and peer-network factors of institutional trust. Our preliminary results show general support for the model and offer some important implications for software vendors in P2P sharing industry and regulatory bodies.

  3. Assessing RN-to-RN peer review on clinical units.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pfeiffer, Judith A; Wickline, Mary A; Deetz, Jill; Berry, Elise S

    2012-04-01

    The primary purpose of this study was to measure informal registered nurse (RN)-to-RN peer review (defined as collegial communication about the quality of nursing care) at the work-unit level. Survey design with cluster sampling of 28 hospital or ambulatory care units (n = 541 respondents). Results were compared with existing patient safety and satisfaction data. A chi-squared test was used to compare responses against nurse characteristics. Nurses agreed that RN-to-RN peer review takes place on their units, but no correlation with patient safety and satisfaction data was found. Misunderstandings about the meaning of peer review were evident. Open-ended comments revealed barriers to peer review: fear of retribution, language barriers and lack of professionalism. Nurses need clarification of peer review. Issues with common language in a professional environment need to be addressed and nurses can learn collaboration from each other's cultures. Managers should support RN-to-RN peer review on clinical units. Methods used here may be useful to assess current departmental nurse peer review. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  4. Wi-Fi Walkman : A wireless handhold that shares and recommends music on peer-to-peer networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wang, J.; Reinders, M.J.T.; Pouwelse, J.; Lagendijk, R.L.

    2005-01-01

    The Wi-Fi walkman is a mobile multimedia application that we developed to investigate the technological and usability aspects of human-computer interaction with personalized, intelligent and context-aware wearable devices in peer-to-peer wireless environments such as the future home, office, or

  5. How peer-review constrains cognition

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cowley, Stephen

    2015-01-01

    Peer-review is neither reliable, fair, nor a valid basis for predicting ‘impact’: as quality control, peer-review is not fit for purpose. Endorsing the consensus, I offer a reframing: while a normative social process, peer-review also shapes the writing of a scientific paper. In so far as ‘cognit......Peer-review is neither reliable, fair, nor a valid basis for predicting ‘impact’: as quality control, peer-review is not fit for purpose. Endorsing the consensus, I offer a reframing: while a normative social process, peer-review also shapes the writing of a scientific paper. In so far...

  6. Peer effects on self-regulation in adolescence depend on the nature and quality of the peer interaction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    King, Kevin M; McLaughlin, Katie A; Silk, Jennifer; Monahan, Kathryn C

    2017-11-21

    Adolescence is a critical period for the development of self-regulation, and peer interactions are thought to strongly influence regulation ability. Simple exposure to peers has been found to alter decisions about risky behaviors and increase sensitivity to rewards. The link between peer exposure and self-regulation is likely to vary as a function of the type and quality of peer interaction (e.g., rejection or acceptance). Little is known about how the nature of interactions with peers influences different dimensions of self-regulation. We examined how randomization to acceptance or rejection by online "virtual" peers influenced multiple dimensions of self-regulation in a multisite community sample of 273 adolescents aged 16-17 years. Compared to a neutral condition, exposure to peers produced increases in cold cognitive control, but decreased hot cognitive control. Relative to peer acceptance, peer rejection reduced distress tolerance and increased sensitivity to losses. These findings suggest that different dimensions of adolescent self-regulation are influenced by the nature of the peer context: basic cognitive functions are altered by mere exposure to peers, whereas more complex decision making and emotion regulation processes are influenced primarily by the quality of that exposure.

  7. Peer-to-peer Services in the Field of Accommodation: Finland vs. Latin America

    OpenAIRE

    Tuominen, Sofia; Kosunen, Sonja

    2016-01-01

    This thesis focuses on peer-to-peer services in the field of accommodation, more closely Airbnb. The thesis aims at researching the differences of the use of Airbnb in Finland and Latin America with the main focus on Mexico. The thesis is commissioned by SMAL (Association of Finnish Travel Agents). The thesis will consist of eight parts. The first part presents an overall introduction of the topic, aims, commissioner, methods and hypotheses. The second part presents the sharing economy ph...

  8. Share2Quit: Online Social Network Peer Marketing of Tobacco Cessation Systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sadasivam, Rajani S; Cutrona, Sarah L; Luger, Tana M; Volz, Erik; Kinney, Rebecca; Rao, Sowmya R; Allison, Jeroan J; Houston, Thomas K

    2017-03-01

    Although technology-assisted tobacco interventions (TATIs) are effective, they are underused due to recruitment challenges. We tested whether we could successfully recruit smokers to a TATI using peer marketing through a social network (Facebook). We recruited smokers on Facebook using online advertisements. These recruited smokers (seeds) and subsequent waves of smokers (peer recruits) were provided the Share2Quit peer recruitment Facebook app and other tools. Smokers were incentivized for up to seven successful peer recruitments and had 30 days to recruit from date of registration. Successful peer recruitment was defined as a peer recruited smoker completing the registration on the TATI following a referral. Our primary questions were (1) whether smokers would recruit other smokers and (2) whether peer recruitment would extend the reach of the intervention to harder-to-reach groups, including those not ready to quit and minority smokers. Overall, 759 smokers were recruited (seeds: 190; peer recruits: 569). Fifteen percent (n = 117) of smokers successfully recruited their peers (seeds: 24.7%; peer recruits: 7.7%) leading to four recruitment waves. Compared to seeds, peer recruits were less likely to be ready to quit (peer recruits 74.2% vs. seeds 95.1%), more likely to be male (67.1% vs. 32.9%), and more likely to be African American (23.8% vs. 10.8%) (p marketing quadrupled our engaged smokers and enriched the sample with not-ready-to-quit and African American smokers. Peer recruitment is promising, and our study uncovered several important challenges for future research. This study demonstrates the successful recruitment of smokers to a TATI using a Facebook-based peer marketing strategy. Smokers on Facebook were willing and able to recruit other smokers to a TATI, yielding a large and diverse population of smokers. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. All rights reserved. For

  9. Teaching kids to cope with anger: peer education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Puskar, Kathryn R; Stark, Kirsti H; Northcut, Terri; Williams, Rick; Haley, Tammy

    2011-03-01

    Anger could be an early warning signal of violent behavior. Early peer education health promotion in relation to anger management could help children before uncontrolled anger becomes a problem in adolescence and adulthood. Peer education has been identified as a viable intervention strategy worldwide with various prevention programs for youth. The purpose of this article is to describe an anger management program (Teaching Kids to Cope with Anger, TKC-A 4th-8th graders) co-led by high school peer educators in an urban school district's summer school enhancement program. A program of five modules will be described. This paper discusses the peer educator implementation and recommendations for future implementation.

  10. Comparison of self-citation by peer reviewers in a journal with single-blind peer review versus a journal with open peer review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levis, Alexander W; Leentjens, Albert F G; Levenson, James L; Lumley, Mark A; Thombs, Brett D

    2015-12-01

    Some peer reviewers may inappropriately, or coercively request that authors include references to the reviewers' own work. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether, compared to reviews for a journal with single-blind peer review, reviews for a journal with open peer review included (1) fewer self-citations; (2) a lower proportion of self-citations without a rationale; and (3) a lower ratio of proportions of citations without a rationale in self-citations versus citations to others' work. Peer reviews for published manuscripts submitted in 2012 to a single-blind peer review journal, the Journal of Psychosomatic Research, were previously evaluated (Thombs et al., 2015). These were compared to publically available peer reviews of manuscripts published in 2012 in an open review journal, BMC Psychiatry. Two investigators independently extracted data for both journals. There were no significant differences between journals in the proportion of all reviewer citations that were self-citations (Journal of Psychosomatic Research: 71/225, 32%; BMC Psychiatry: 90/315, 29%; p=.50), or in the proportion of self-citations without a rationale (Journal of Psychosomatic Research: 15/71, 21%; BMC Psychiatry: 12/90, 13%; p=.21). There was no significant difference between journals in the proportion of self-citations versus citations to others' work without a rationale (p=.31). Blind and open peer review methodologies have distinct advantages and disadvantages. The present study found that, in reasonably similar journals that use single-blind and open review, there were no substantive differences in the pattern of peer reviewer self-citations. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. Macroeconomics and FinTech: Uncovering Latent Macroeconomic Effects on Peer-to-Peer Lending

    OpenAIRE

    Foo, Jessica; Lim, Lek-Heng; Wong, Ken Sze-Wai

    2017-01-01

    Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending is a fast growing financial technology (FinTech) trend that is displacing traditional retail banking. Studies on P2P lending have focused on predicting individual interest rates or default probabilities. However, the relationship between aggregated P2P interest rates and the general economy will be of interest to investors and borrowers as the P2P credit market matures. We show that the variation in P2P interest rates across grade types are determined by three macro...

  12. Exploiting peer group concept for adaptive and highly available services

    CERN Document Server

    Jan, M A; Fraz, M M; Ali, A; Ali, Arshad; Fraz, Mohammad Moazam; Jan, Muhammad Asif; Zahid, Fahd Ali

    2003-01-01

    This paper presents a prototype for redundant, highly available and fault tolerant peer to peer framework for data management. Peer to peer computing is gaining importance due to its flexible organization, lack of central authority, distribution of functionality to participating nodes and ability to utilize unused computational resources. Emergence of GRID computing has provided much needed infrastructure and administrative domain for peer to peer computing. The components of this framework exploit peer group concept to scope service and information search, arrange services and information in a coherent manner, provide selective redundancy and ensure availability in face of failure and high load conditions. A prototype system has been implemented using JXTA peer to peer technology and XML is used for service description and interfaces, allowing peers to communicate with services implemented in various platforms including web services and JINI services. It utilizes code mobility to achieve role interchange amo...

  13. Understanding Peer Review of Scientific Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Association of American Universities, 2011

    2011-01-01

    An important factor in the success of America's national research system is that federal funds for university-based research are awarded primarily through peer review, which uses panels of scientific experts, or "peers," to evaluate the quality of grant proposals. In this competitive process, proposals compete for resources based on their…

  14. Security Issues in Cross-Organizational Peer-to-Peer Applications and Some Solutions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gupta, Ankur; Awasthi, Lalit K.

    Peer-to-Peer networks have been widely used for sharing millions of terabytes of content, for large-scale distributed computing and for a variety of other novel applications, due to their scalability and fault-tolerance. However, the scope of P2P networks has somehow been limited to individual computers connected to the internet. P2P networks are also notorious for blatant copyright violations and facilitating several kinds of security attacks. Businesses and large organizations have thus stayed away from deploying P2P applications citing security loopholes in P2P systems as the biggest reason for non-adoption. In theory P2P applications can help fulfill many organizational requirements such as collaboration and joint projects with other organizations, access to specialized computing infrastructure and finally accessing the specialized information/content and expert human knowledge available at other organizations. These potentially beneficial interactions necessitate that the research community attempt to alleviate the security shortcomings in P2P systems and ensure their acceptance and wide deployment. This research paper therefore examines the security issues prevalent in enabling cross-organizational P2P interactions and provides some technical insights into how some of these issues can be resolved.

  15. Factors Supporting the Employment of Young Adult Peer Providers: Perspectives of Peers and Supervisors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Delman, Jonathan; Klodnick, Vanessa V

    2017-10-01

    Peer providers are a promising practice for transition-age youth community mental health treatment engagement and support, yet little is known about the experience of being a young adult peer provider or what helps to make an individual in this role successful. Utilizing a capital theory lens, this study uses data from focus groups (two with young adult peer providers and two with their supervisors) to examine facilitators of young adult peer provider success in community mental health treatment settings. Eight factors were identified as critical to young adult peer provider on-the-job success: persistence, job confidence, resilience, job training, skilled communications with colleagues, regular and individualized supervision, support from colleagues, and family support. Findings suggest that young adult peer providers may benefit immensely from an agency level focus on fostering social organizational capital as well as more individualized efforts to increase cultural, social, and psychological capital through training and supervision.

  16. Coaching the Debriefer: Peer Coaching to Improve Debriefing Quality in Simulation Programs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheng, Adam; Grant, Vincent; Huffman, James; Burgess, Gavin; Szyld, Demian; Robinson, Traci; Eppich, Walter

    2017-10-01

    Formal faculty development programs for simulation educators are costly and time-consuming. Peer coaching integrated into the teaching flow can enhance an educator's debriefing skills. We provide a practical guide for the who, what, when, where, why, and how of peer coaching for debriefing in simulation-based education. Peer coaching offers advantages such as psychological safety and team building, and it can benefit both the educator who is receiving feedback and the coach who is providing it. A feedback form for effective peer coaching includes the following: (1) psychological safety, (2) framework, (3) method/strategy, (4) content, (5) learner centeredness, (6) co-facilitation, (7) time management, (8) difficult situations, (9) debriefing adjuncts, and (10) individual style and experience. Institutional backing of peer coaching programs can facilitate implementation and sustainability. Program leaders should communicate the need and benefits, establish program goals, and provide assessment tools, training, structure, and evaluation to optimize chances of success.

  17. PSG: Peer-to-Peer semantic grid framework architecture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amira Soliman

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available The grid vision, of sharing diverse resources in a flexible, coordinated and secure manner, strongly depends on metadata. Currently, grid metadata is generated and used in an ad-hoc fashion, much of it buried in the grid middleware code libraries and database schemas. This ad-hoc expression and use of metadata causes chronic dependency on human intervention during the operation of grid machinery. Therefore, the Semantic Grid is emerged as an extension of the grid in which rich resource metadata is exposed and handled explicitly, and shared and managed via grid protocols. The layering of an explicit semantic infrastructure over the grid infrastructure potentially leads to increase interoperability and flexibility. In this paper, we present PSG framework architecture that offers semantic-based grid services. PSG architecture allows the explicit use of semantics and defining the associated grid services. PSG architecture is originated from the integration of Peer-to-Peer (P2P computing with semantics and agents. Ontologies are used in annotating each grid component, developing users/nodes profiles and organizing framework agents. While, P2P is responsible for organizing and coordinating the grid nodes and resources.

  18. Do peers matter? A review of peer and/or friends' influence on physical activity among American adolescents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fitzgerald, Amanda; Fitzgerald, Noelle; Aherne, Cian

    2012-08-01

    This systematic review investigated the relationship between peer and/or friend variables and physical activity among adolescents by synthesising cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental research conducted in the US. Seven electronic databases were searched to identify related articles published within the last 10 years and the articles reviewed included adolescents between 10 and 18 years. Studies reporting a measure of physical activity for adolescents and at least one potential peer and/or friend variable were included. Research demonstrated that peers and friends have an important role to play in the physical activity behavior of adolescents. Six processes were identified through which peers and/or friends may have an influence on physical activity including: peer and/or friend support, presence of peers and friends, peer norms, friendship quality and acceptance, peer crowds, and peer victimization. The theoretical significance of these results is assessed and the development of peer-related physical activity programs for adolescents is discussed. Copyright © 2012 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. How peer-review constrains cognition: on the frontline in the knowledge sector

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cowley, Stephen J.

    2015-01-01

    Peer-review is neither reliable, fair, nor a valid basis for predicting ‘impact’: as quality control, peer-review is not fit for purpose. Endorsing the consensus, I offer a reframing: while a normative social process, peer-review also shapes the writing of a scientific paper. In so far as ‘cognition’ describes enabling conditions for flexible behavior, the practices of peer-review thus constrain knowledge-making. To pursue cognitive functions of peer-review, however, manuscripts must be seen as ‘symbolizations’, replicable patterns that use technologically enabled activity. On this bio-cognitive view, peer-review constrains knowledge-making by writers, editors, reviewers. Authors are prompted to recursively re-aggregate symbolizations to present what are deemed acceptable knowledge claims. How, then, can recursive re-embodiment be explored? In illustration, I sketch how the paper’s own content came to be re-aggregated: agonistic review drove reformatting of argument structure, changes in rhetorical ploys and careful choice of wordings. For this reason, the paper’s knowledge-claims can be traced to human activity that occurs in distributed cognitive systems. Peer-review is on the frontline in the knowledge sector in that it delimits what can count as knowing. Its systemic nature is therefore crucial to not only discipline-centered ‘real’ science but also its ‘post-academic’ counterparts. PMID:26579064

  20. How peer review constrains cognition: on the frontline in the knowledge sector

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stephen John Cowley

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Peer-review is neither reliable, fair, nor a valid basis for predicting ‘impact’: as quality control, peer-review is not fit for purpose. Given this consensus, I propose another framing: while a normative social process, peer-review also shapes the flexible behavior called ‘writing’ a scientific paper. In so far as ‘cognition’ describes the enabling conditions for flexible behaviour, the practices of peer-review thus constrain knowledge-making. To pursue cognitive functions of peer-review, however, manuscripts must be seen as ‘symbolizations’, replicable patterns that use technologically enabled activity. On this bio-cognitive view, peer-review constrains knowledge-making by writers, editors, reviewers. Authors are prompted to recursively re-aggregate symbolizations to present what are deemed acceptable knowledge claims. How, then, can recursive re-embodiment be explored? In illustration, I sketch how the paper’s own content came to be re-aggregated: agonistic review drove reformatting of argument structure, changes in rhetorical ploys and careful choice of wordings. For this reason, the paper’s knowledge-claims can be traced to human activity that occurs in distributed cognitive systems. Peer-review is on the frontline in the knowledge sector in that it delimits what can count as knowing. Its systemic nature is therefore crucial to not only discipline-centered ‘real’ science but also its ‘post-academic’ counterparts.

  1. Peer Relations and Peer Deviance as Predictors of Reactive and Proactive Aggression among High School Girls

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uz Bas, Asli; Öz Soysal, Fatma Selda

    2016-01-01

    This study aimed to investigate associations between reactive and proactive aggression and peer relations and peer deviance among high school girls. A total of 442 high school students participated in this study. Reactive-Proactive Aggression Questionnaire, the Peer Relations Scale, and the Peer Deviance Scale were used to collect data. Results…

  2. [Improving patient safety through voluntary peer review].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kluge, S; Bause, H

    2015-01-01

    The intensive care unit (ICU) is one area of the hospital in which processes and communication are of primary importance. Errors in intensive care units can lead to serious adverse events with significant consequences for patients. Therefore quality and risk-management are important measures when treating critically ill patients. A pragmatic approach to support quality and safety in intensive care is peer review. This approach has gained significant acceptance over the past years. It consists of mutual visits by colleagues who conduct standardised peer reviews. These reviews focus on the systematic evaluation of the quality of an ICU's structure, its processes and outcome. Together with different associations, the State Chambers of Physicians and the German Medical Association have developed peer review as a standardized tool for quality improvement. The common goal of all stakeholders is the continuous and sustainable improvement in intensive care with peer reviews significantly increasing and improving communication between professions and disciplines. Peer reviews secure the sustainability of planned change processes and consequently lead the way to an improved culture of quality and safety.

  3. Designing student peer assessment in higher education: Analysis of written and oral peer feedback

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van den Berg, I.; Admiraal, W.; Pilot, A.

    2006-01-01

    Designing student peer assessment in higher education: analysis of written and oral peer feedback Relating it to design features, the present article describes the nature of written and oral peer feedback as it occurred in seven writing courses, each with a different PA design. Results indicate that

  4. Training Peer-Feedback Skills on Geometric Construction Tasks: Role of Domain Knowledge and Peer-Feedback Levels

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alqassab, Maryam; Strijbos, Jan-Willem; Ufer, Stefan

    2018-01-01

    Peer feedback is widely used to train assessment skills and to support collaborative learning of various learning tasks, but research on peer feedback in the domain of mathematics is limited. Although domain knowledge seems to be a prerequisite for peer-feedback provision, it only recently received attention in the peer-feedback literature. In…

  5. The Relationship of Facilitative Functioning to Effective Peer Supervision

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seligman, Linda

    1978-01-01

    This study investigates peer supervision. The criterion used was counselor trainees' growth in facilitative functioning. The study sought to ascertain whether the facilitative counselor trainee was also the effective peer supervisor, to provide information on evaluating peer-supervisory experience, and to shed light on the most effective…

  6. Peer support: helping to influence cultural change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Whitmore, Mary

    2015-02-01

    Breastfeeding peer support schemes in Blackpool and Lancashire work closely with midwifery and other partners to offer additional support and encouragement to breastfeeding mothers. Employed and volunteer peer supporters deliver a systematic service in target areas delivering workshops to pregnant mothers, supporting new mothers in hospital, including in the neonatal units, in mothers' homes and in groups at children's centres. Working with health, children's centres, public health and councils, the peer supporters were instrumental in Fleetwood town agreeing to always welcome breastfeeding. They worked with teachers, public health and infant feeding coordinators to deliver a month-long breastfeeding campaign at a local college and, working with health visitors, have engaged with grandmothers to find out how they feel they can help support new mothers. Skilled supervision is essential to ensuring peer supporters work safely and continue to develop their skills and knowledge. Volunteer coordinators play a key role in valuing and organising volunteers.

  7. Peer Learning in Instrumental Practicing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nielsen, Siw G; Johansen, Guro G; Jørgensen, Harald

    2018-01-01

    In higher music education (HME), the notion of "private teaching, private learning" has a long tradition, where the learning part rests on the student's individual practicing between instrumental lessons. However, recent research suggests that collaborative learning among peers is beneficial in several aspects, such as sense of belonging, motivation and self-efficacy. This is consistent with the concept of vicarious learning. In this study, we conducted a survey among bachelor music students in church music, performance or music education programs enrolled in a music academy ( N = 96), where parts of the questionnaire addressed peer learning and peer's influence on the students's instrumental practicing, and the degree of satisfaction with their practicing. These issues were seen in relation to gender, musical genre and study program. Overall, the students reported engaging in peer learning related to their instrumental practicing, to various degrees. This involved discussing practicing matters with peers, and practicing together with peers. However, student's reports of their views on peer learning, show that they perceive it more beneficial than the amount of time reported doing it would indicate. No significant gender differences were found, but students within improvised music/jazz engaged the most in peer learning, and church music students the least. Neither the degree of engaging in peer learning nor reported influence from peers correlated significantly with the degree of satisfaction. We discuss whether a general dissatisfaction is caused by being in a competitive learning environment combined with a privatized culture for learning. Finally, we suggest that collaborative forums for instrumental practicing within HME institutions can function as constructive and supportive arenas to enhance students learning and inner motivation.

  8. Peer Learning in Instrumental Practicing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nielsen, Siw G.; Johansen, Guro G.; Jørgensen, Harald

    2018-01-01

    In higher music education (HME), the notion of “private teaching, private learning” has a long tradition, where the learning part rests on the student's individual practicing between instrumental lessons. However, recent research suggests that collaborative learning among peers is beneficial in several aspects, such as sense of belonging, motivation and self-efficacy. This is consistent with the concept of vicarious learning. In this study, we conducted a survey among bachelor music students in church music, performance or music education programs enrolled in a music academy (N = 96), where parts of the questionnaire addressed peer learning and peer's influence on the students's instrumental practicing, and the degree of satisfaction with their practicing. These issues were seen in relation to gender, musical genre and study program. Overall, the students reported engaging in peer learning related to their instrumental practicing, to various degrees. This involved discussing practicing matters with peers, and practicing together with peers. However, student's reports of their views on peer learning, show that they perceive it more beneficial than the amount of time reported doing it would indicate. No significant gender differences were found, but students within improvised music/jazz engaged the most in peer learning, and church music students the least. Neither the degree of engaging in peer learning nor reported influence from peers correlated significantly with the degree of satisfaction. We discuss whether a general dissatisfaction is caused by being in a competitive learning environment combined with a privatized culture for learning. Finally, we suggest that collaborative forums for instrumental practicing within HME institutions can function as constructive and supportive arenas to enhance students learning and inner motivation. PMID:29599738

  9. Peer Learning in Instrumental Practicing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Siw G. Nielsen

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available In higher music education (HME, the notion of “private teaching, private learning” has a long tradition, where the learning part rests on the student's individual practicing between instrumental lessons. However, recent research suggests that collaborative learning among peers is beneficial in several aspects, such as sense of belonging, motivation and self-efficacy. This is consistent with the concept of vicarious learning. In this study, we conducted a survey among bachelor music students in church music, performance or music education programs enrolled in a music academy (N = 96, where parts of the questionnaire addressed peer learning and peer's influence on the students's instrumental practicing, and the degree of satisfaction with their practicing. These issues were seen in relation to gender, musical genre and study program. Overall, the students reported engaging in peer learning related to their instrumental practicing, to various degrees. This involved discussing practicing matters with peers, and practicing together with peers. However, student's reports of their views on peer learning, show that they perceive it more beneficial than the amount of time reported doing it would indicate. No significant gender differences were found, but students within improvised music/jazz engaged the most in peer learning, and church music students the least. Neither the degree of engaging in peer learning nor reported influence from peers correlated significantly with the degree of satisfaction. We discuss whether a general dissatisfaction is caused by being in a competitive learning environment combined with a privatized culture for learning. Finally, we suggest that collaborative forums for instrumental practicing within HME institutions can function as constructive and supportive arenas to enhance students learning and inner motivation.

  10. The changing face of peer review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irene Hames

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available It is a time of great innovation in peer review. Traditional models are being adapted and completely new ones introduced. Independent peer-review services are also starting to be offered by organizations outside the traditional journal ecosphere. In both new and established systems, the importance of increasing openness, transparency, and interaction between peer-review participants is being recognized, and these are being introduced to varying degrees. Concern with the ‘wastage’ of review effort in traditional peer review, where manuscripts often go from journal to journal, being reviewed afresh at each, before being accepted for publication, is also being addressed. Reviews are being transferred (‘cascaded’ and shared between some journals. The separation of the two basic functions of peer review—critical review and selection—as originally introduced by the journal PLOS ONE has been a major innovation, leading to the publication of sound work irrespective of its perceived novelty, interest, or importance. Post-publication review is also becoming more important and is another growth area. The concept of ‘portable’ reviews has been introduced, where authors can take reviews with them—either after they have obtained them from a peer-review provider in return for a fee or had their manuscript reviewed and declined at some journals—and include them with submissions to journals. The dynamics of publication are changing alongside, with journals able to ‘bid’ for papers that have been reviewed by independent organizations and make publishing offers to the authors. A number of innovations and ‘alternative’ peer-review models are described. They all, however, face many of the same issues as traditional peer review, and the same basic principles of good and ethical practice apply.

  11. Local Road Safety Peer Exchange - Region 7 : An RSPCB Peer Exchange

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-05-01

    This report provides a summary of the proceedings of the Local Road Safety Peer Exchange held in Denver, Colorado from May 31 to June 1, 2012. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) sponsored the Peer Exchange in coordination with Region 7 Local a...

  12. Secure Peer-to-Peer Networks for Scientific Information Sharing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karimabadi, Homa

    2012-01-01

    The most common means of remote scientific collaboration today includes the trio of e-mail for electronic communication, FTP for file sharing, and personalized Web sites for dissemination of papers and research results. With the growth of broadband Internet, there has been a desire to share large files (movies, files, scientific data files) over the Internet. Email has limits on the size of files that can be attached and transmitted. FTP is often used to share large files, but this requires the user to set up an FTP site for which it is hard to set group privileges, it is not straightforward for everyone, and the content is not searchable. Peer-to-peer technology (P2P), which has been overwhelmingly successful in popular content distribution, is the basis for development of a scientific collaboratory called Scientific Peer Network (SciPerNet). This technology combines social networking with P2P file sharing. SciPerNet will be a standalone application, written in Java and Swing, thus insuring portability to a number of different platforms. Some of the features include user authentication, search capability, seamless integration with a data center, the ability to create groups and social networks, and on-line chat. In contrast to P2P networks such as Gnutella, Bit Torrent, and others, SciPerNet incorporates three design elements that are critical to application of P2P for scientific purposes: User authentication, Data integrity validation, Reliable searching SciPerNet also provides a complementary solution to virtual observatories by enabling distributed collaboration and sharing of downloaded and/or processed data among scientists. This will, in turn, increase scientific returns from NASA missions. As such, SciPerNet can serve a two-fold purpose for NASA: a cost-savings software as well as a productivity tool for scientists working with data from NASA missions.

  13. Author's rights in the digital age: how Internet and peer-to-peer file sharing technology shape the perception of copyrights and copywrongs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Milijana Micunovic

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Author's rights and copyright law have gone through quite a few changes in the 'post-print' culture of binary systems, digital formations and techno-practices. Technological development supports new concept of author's rights by promoting free internet and digital market, as well as new contemporary experience of culture that is being rooted in digital technology, mass communication and the world of multimedia and virtuality. Though computer and digital technology have served both authors and users in various ways, they have also served as a very fertile ground for sharing copyrighted content thus leading to numerous copyright infringements and conflicts with the copyright law. The aim of this paper is to identify and analyze the ways in which computer and digital technology have given rise to new trends in the production (e.g. remix culture and consumption (e.g. peer-to-peer file sharing technology of culture, but also to determine how new forms of distribution, use and sharing of digital content changed and shaped the perception of authorship in the 21st century. In order to analyze the dynamic, nature and structure by which new digital and networking technologies are affecting the concept of authorship and author's rights and to test the consistency of previously established hypotheses, we conducted a survey amongst general public. Altogether 535 questionnaires were completed. Data was analyzed using SPSS tool and quantitative method of analysis. In the analysis special attention was given to both, the concept of authorship in the digital environment and the concept of peer-to-peer file sharing technology as not so new, but still very popular networked architecture for distributing, using and sharing digital content. Results have shown that most of the respondents use peer-to-peer file sharing technology to access, consume and/or share different cultural content (e.g. movies, music, books, etc. while violating the rights of copyright holders

  14. Advantages and limitations of peer assessment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karmen Goršak, Karmen Pižorn

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available This article examines current theoretical work and research findings regarding the effectiveness of peer assessment. The main purpose of the article is to define peer asses sment and its subcategory peer feedback and to present the advantages and limitations of peer assessment derived from different research findings. In addition, conditions and strategies to successfully guarantee the benefits of peer assessment are presented. The main research studies, mentioned in this article, have been carried out in different disciplines in higher education programmes and their findings reveal positive students’ and teachers’ attitude to peer assessment as well as high correlation between peers’ and te achers’ grades. The main results of the studies show a positive effect of peer assessment on student’s active role in the process of learning and assessment, the development of social and professional skills, student’s autonomy, critical thinking, peer and selfassessment skills. Recommendations for implementing peer assessment within foreign language tea ching, as well as implications for future research work are provided.

  15. PEER Business and Industry Partnership (BIP)

    Science.gov (United States)

    products laboratories publications nisee b.i.p. members education FAQs links bip members PEER Business and Industry Partnership (BIP) Current BIP members Joining the BIP Program Site Map Search PEER Business and PEER. For an annual donation, the PEER Business and Industry Partnership (BIP) involves members in PEER

  16. The relationship between peer conflict resolution knowledge and peer victimization in school-age children across the language continuum.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Campbell, Wenonah N; Skarakis-Doyle, Elizabeth

    2011-01-01

    Peer victimization, or bullying, has been identified as a significant child health priority and children with language impairment (LI) are among those who are vulnerable. Given the mandate of educators to provide support for all students who are bullied regardless of language status, research is needed that integrates the study of risk factors for peer victimization among children who are developing typically and children who have LI. Accordingly, this preliminary study explored the degree to which one potential risk factor, peer conflict resolution knowledge, was related to peer victimization in children across the language continuum, and considered whether or not individual differences in language ability influenced that relationship. Participants included 17 girls and 15 boys aged 9-12 years with a wide range of language abilities, six meeting criteria for LI. Participants completed a hypothetical peer conflict resolution task and a measure of peer victimization. Correlational analyses revealed very different patterns of relationships for boys and girls. Whereas boys' reports of peer victimization were meaningfully related to how they responded to hypothetical peer conflicts, girls' reports were most strongly associated with language ability. These preliminary findings suggest that it is important to consider gender when conceptualizing how factors such as peer conflict resolution knowledge might influence children's risk of being bullied. Readers will be able to: (1) provide a definition of peer victimization and give examples of different forms of peer victimization; (2) recognize that inadequate peer conflict resolution knowledge may be a risk factor for peer victimization; (3) describe the relationships between peer conflict resolution knowledge, language ability, and peer victimization in this study, and explain how these relationships differed for boys and girls; and (4) identify at least three opportunities for future research that would help to clarify

  17. Positive Peer Support or Negative Peer Influence? the Role of Peers among Adolescents in Recovery High Schools

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karakos, Holly L.

    2014-01-01

    Evidence from previous research suggests that peers at times exert negative influence and at other times exert positive influence on drug and alcohol use among adolescents in recovery. This study explores recovery high school staff members' perceptions of peer support among students in recovery high schools using qualitative interview data. Themes…

  18. Notes on Adolescent's Peer Relationships

    OpenAIRE

    栗本, かおり; Kaori, KURIMOTO; 岩手県立大学社会福祉学部; FACULTY OF SOCIAL WELFARE IWATE PREFECTURAL UNIVERSITY

    2003-01-01

    The purpose of this paper is to review the influence of adolescents' peer relationships on their psychosocial development. Adolescents influence on each other, though some psychosocial merit and demerit emerge in peer influence on adolescents. The merit improves adolescents' identity, self-esteem, satisfaction of life and happiness, provides support under the crisis as well. A case of the demerit can be seen as the negative peer pressure. Adolescents are willing to conform to the norm of peer...

  19. The Role of Peer Relationships in Adjustment to College

    Science.gov (United States)

    Swenson, Lisa A.; Nordstrom, Alicia; Hiester, Marnie

    2008-01-01

    According to developmental research, peer relationships serve a positive function in children's, adolescents', and adults' lives. We expected that peer relationships would also benefit emerging adults as they transition into college. Using friendship quality and attachment measures, we examined the link between the closeness of peer relationships…

  20. Re-Viewing Peer Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flynn, Elizabeth A.

    2011-01-01

    In this article, the author revisits her essay, "Students as Readers of Their Classmates' Writing," by providing a review of the literature on peer review over the past three decades and comments on patterns she sees in waves of peer review research and theorizing. She describes her subsequent experience with peer review in her own classes, and…

  1. Peer Influence and Recovery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Collier, Crystal; Simpson, Shelly; Najera, John; Weiner, Lauren

    2012-01-01

    Research has shown that peer influence can be negative, by increasing the likelihood that a youth will engage in high-risk behaviors and make risky decisions. However, peer influence can also be positive and protect a youth from these same high-risk activities. This article examines the extent of peer influence and then describes the Alternative…

  2. Age Differences in Resistance to Peer Influence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Steinberg, Laurence; Monahan, Kathryn C.

    2007-01-01

    Prior research describes the development of susceptibility to peer pressure in adolescence as following an inverted U-shaped curve, increasing during early adolescence, peaking around age 14, and declining thereafter. This pattern, however, is derived mainly from studies that specifically examined peer pressure to engage in antisocial behavior. In…

  3. Investigating the effect of child maltreatment on early adolescent peer-on-peer sexual aggression

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bramsen, Rikke Holm; Lasgaard, Mathias; Koss, Mary P

    2014-01-01

    : Estimates from the mediation model indicated significant indirect effects of child physical abuse on sexual aggression via peer influence and insecure-hostile masculinity. No significant total effect of child sexual abuse and child neglect on sexual aggression was found. CONCLUSIONS: Findings of the present......OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between child maltreatment and severe early adolescent peer-on-peer sexual aggression, using a multiple mediator model. METHODS: The study comprised 330 male Grade 9 students with a mean age of 14.9 years (SD=0.5). RESULTS...... study identify risk factors that are potentially changeable and therefore of value in informing the design of prevention programs aiming at early adolescent peer-on-peer sexual aggression in at-risk youth....

  4. The third-year medical student "grapevine": managing transitions between third-year clerkships using peer-to-peer handoffs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Masters, Dylan E; O'Brien, Bridget C; Chou, Calvin L

    2013-10-01

    As third-year medical students rotate between clerkships, they experience multiple transitions across workplace cultures and shifting learning expectations. The authors explored clerkship transitions from the students' perspective by examining the advice they passed on to their peers in preparation for new clerkships. Seventy-one students from three Veterans Affairs-based clerkship rotations at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine participated in a peer-to-peer handoff session from 2008 to 2011. In the handoff session, they gave tips for optimizing performance to students starting the clerkship they had just completed. The authors transcribed student comments from four handoff sessions and used qualitative content analysis to identify and compare advice across clerkships. Students shared advice about workplace culture, content learning, logistics, and work-life balance. Common themes included expectations of the rotation, workplace norms, specific tasks, learning opportunities, and learning strategies. Comments about patient care and work-life balance were rare. Students emphasized different themes for each clerkship; for example, for some clerkships, students commented heavily on tasks and content learning, while in another students focused on workplace culture and exam preparation. These findings characterize the transitions that third-year students undergo as they rotate into new clinical training environments. Students emphasized different aspects of each clerkship in the advice they passed to their peers, and their comments often describe informal norms or opportunities that official clerkship orientations may not address. Peer-to-peer handoffs may help ease transitions between clerkships with dissimilar cultures and expectations.

  5. Pressure to drink but not to smoke: Disentangling selection and socialization in adolescent peer networks and peer groups

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kiuru, N.; Burk, W.J.; Laursen, B.; Salmela-Aro, K.; Nurmi, J.E.

    2010-01-01

    This paper examined the relative influence of selection and socialization on alcohol and tobacco use in adolescent peer networks and peer groups. The sample included 1419 Finnish secondary education students (690 males and 729 females, mean age 16 years at the outset) from nine schools. Participants

  6. Peer Involvement in University Students' Education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zlatka Cugmas

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available We investigated the correlations between peer involvement in students’ education and their self-perception, attachment style, relationships with peers, personality and well-being. We used the Inventory of parent and peer attachment (Armsden & Greenberg, 1987, Relationship questionnaire (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991, Questionnaire of the subjects’ self-perceptions (Cugmas, 2012 and The big five questionnaire (BFQ; Caprara et al, 2002. We developed the questionnaires of peer involvement and subjects’ well-being. Positive relationships with peers, secure attachment style, positive self-perceptions, some personal characteristics and well-being were positively associated with peer support, and negatively with peer pressure.

  7. An Agent-Based Model of Private Woodland Owner Management Behavior Using Social Interactions, Information Flow, and Peer-To-Peer Networks.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emily Silver Huff

    Full Text Available Privately owned woodlands are an important source of timber and ecosystem services in North America and worldwide. Impacts of management on these ecosystems and timber supply from these woodlands are difficult to estimate because complex behavioral theory informs the owner's management decisions. The decision-making environment consists of exogenous market factors, internal cognitive processes, and social interactions with fellow landowners, foresters, and other rural community members. This study seeks to understand how social interactions, information flow, and peer-to-peer networks influence timber harvesting behavior using an agent-based model. This theoretical model includes forested polygons in various states of 'harvest readiness' and three types of agents: forest landowners, foresters, and peer leaders (individuals trained in conservation who use peer-to-peer networking. Agent rules, interactions, and characteristics were parameterized with values from existing literature and an empirical survey of forest landowner attitudes, intentions, and demographics. The model demonstrates that as trust in foresters and peer leaders increases, the percentage of the forest that is harvested sustainably increases. Furthermore, peer leaders can serve to increase landowner trust in foresters. Model output and equations will inform forest policy and extension/outreach efforts. The model also serves as an important testing ground for new theories of landowner decision making and behavior.

  8. Using Calibrated Peer Review to Teach Basic Research Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bracke, Marianne S.; Graveel, John G.

    2014-01-01

    Calibrated Peer Review (CPR) is an online tool being used in the class Introduction to Agriculture and Purdue University (AGR 10100) to integrate a writing and research component (http://cpr.molsci.ucla.edu/Home.aspx). Calibrated Peer Review combines the ability to create writing intensive assignments with an introduction to the peer-review…

  9. Responding to Children Victimized by Their Peers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nickerson, Amanda B.; Brock, Stephen E.; Chang, Yiping; O'Malley, Meagan D.

    2006-01-01

    Because victimization results from the dynamic interplay between the victim and his or her parents, peers, and teachers, responding to this problem should involve both direct and indirect interventions. This paper describes and reviews empirically supported direct interventions with victims, as well as indirect interventions with parents, peers,…

  10. Key Management Schemes for Peer-to-Peer Multimedia Streaming Overlay Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Naranjo, J. A. M.; López-Ramos, J. A.; Casado, L. G.

    Key distribution for multimedia live streaming peer-to-peer overlay networks is a field still in its childhood stage. A scheme designed for networks of this kind must seek security and efficiency while keeping in mind the following restrictions: limited bandwidth, continuous playing, great audience size and clients churn. This paper introduces two novel schemes that allow a trade-off between security and efficiency by allowing to dynamically vary the number of levels used in the key hierarchy. These changes are motivated by great variations in audience size, and initiated by decision of the Key Server. Additionally, a comparative study of both is presented, focusing on security and audience size. Results show that larger key hierarchies can supply bigger audiences, but offer less security against statistical attacks. The opposite happens for shorter key hierarchies.

  11. The Influence of Peers During Adolescence: Does Homophobic Name Calling by Peers Change Gender Identity?

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeLay, Dawn; Lynn Martin, Carol; Cook, Rachel E; Hanish, Laura D

    2018-03-01

    Adolescents actively evaluate their identities during adolescence, and one of the most salient and central identities for youth concerns their gender identity. Experiences with peers may inform gender identity. Unfortunately, many youth experience homophobic name calling, a form of peer victimization, and it is unknown whether youth internalize these peer messages and how these messages might influence gender identity. The goal of the present study was to assess the role of homophobic name calling on changes over the course of an academic year in adolescents' gender identity. Specifically, this study extends the literature using a new conceptualization and measure of gender identity that involves assessing how similar adolescents feel to both their own- and other-gender peers and, by employing longitudinal social network analyses, provides a rigorous analytic assessment of the impact of homophobic name calling on changes in these two dimensions of gender identity. Symbolic interaction perspectives-the "looking glass self"-suggest that peer feedback is incorporated into the self-concept. The current study tests this hypothesis by determining if adolescents respond to homophobic name calling by revising their self-view, specifically, how the self is viewed in relation to both gender groups. Participants were 299 6th grade students (53% female). Participants reported peer relationships, experiences of homophobic name calling, and gender identity (i.e., similarity to own- and other-gender peers). Longitudinal social network analyses revealed that homophobic name calling early in the school year predicted changes in gender identity over time. The results support the "looking glass self" hypothesis: experiencing homophobic name calling predicted identifying significantly less with own-gender peers and marginally more with other-gender peers over the course of an academic year. The effects held after controlling for participant characteristics (e.g., gender), social

  12. Le Peer to Peer: Vers un Nouveau Modèle de Civilisation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michel Bauwens

    2006-06-01

    Full Text Available Le « peer to peer » est la dynamique intersubjective caractéristique des réseaux distribués. Le but de cet essai est de montrer qu’il s’agit d’une véritable nouvelle forme d’organisation sociale, apte à produire et échanger des biens, à créer de la valeur. Celle-ci est la conséquence d’un nouvel imaginaire social, et possède le potentiel de devenir le pilier d’un nouveau mode d’économie politique, voire d’un nouveau type de civilisation. Pour cela, nous allons d’abord définir le P2P, décrire en bref ces manifestations, et le différencier d’autres modalités d’échange intersubjectif tel que le marché, la hiérarchie, l’économie du don. Comme principale modalité P2P nous distinguons: Les processus de production P2P, comme troisième mode de production, qui n’est ni géré par un mode hiérarchique ou par l’état, ni répondant à des impératifs de profit ou qui sont modulés par le biais des prix. Les processus de gouvernance P2P, qui gouverne ces processus de production. Les formes de propriété P2P, qui sont destine a empecher l’appropriation prive de cette production pour le commun. Afin d’examiner les characteristiques de cette nouvelle dynamique sociale, nous utilisons la typologie intersubjective de l’anthropologue Alan Page Fisque, qui distingue: 1. l’échange égalitaire (Equality Matching, c..a.d l’economie du don. 2. La relation d’autorité (Authority Ranking tel qu’elle s’exprime dans le mode hierarchique. 3. le marché (Market Pricing. 4. la participation commune (Communal Shareholding. En conclusion, nous examinons les possibilites d’expansion de ce nouveau mode sociale et son insertion dans l’economie capitaliste, en nous nous posons la question: le P2P peut-il etre concu comme alternative sociale et economique aux modeles existants. Abstract: “Peer to peer” is hypothesized as a new social formation with intersubjective dynamics characteristic of distributed

  13. A mixed methods study of peer-to-peer support in a group-based lifestyle intervention for adults with serious mental illness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aschbrenner, Kelly A; Naslund, John A; Bartels, Stephen J

    2016-12-01

    There is potential for peer support to enhance healthy lifestyle interventions targeting changes in body weight and fitness for adults with serious mental illness. The purpose of this study was to explore peer-to-peer support among individuals participating in a group lifestyle intervention that included social media to enhance in-person weight management sessions. A mixed methods study design was used to explore participants' perceptions and experiences of support from other group members during a 6-month group lifestyle intervention. Twenty-five individuals with serious mental illness reported their perceptions of the peer group environment and social support during the intervention. Seventeen of these individuals also participated in focus group interviews further exploring their experiences with group members. More than 80% of participants agreed that other group members were trustworthy and dependable, and 92% reported a high level of shared purpose and active participation in the group. Participants described how shared learning and group problem-solving activities fostered friendships and provided essential support for health behavior change. Sharing information, personal successes and challenges, and "being in the same boat" as other group members were key features of peer-to-peer support. Findings from this exploratory study suggest that participants enrolled in a group-based lifestyle intervention for people with serious mental illness experience peer-to-peer support in various ways that promote health behavior change. These findings highlight opportunities to enhance future lifestyle interventions with collaborative learning and social network technologies that foster peer support among participants. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  14. Peer Assessment in the Digital Age: A Meta-Analysis Comparing Peer and Teacher Ratings

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Hongli; Xiong, Yao; Zang, Xiaojiao; Kornhaber, Mindy L.; Lyu, Youngsun; Chung, Kyung Sun; Suen, Hoi K.

    2016-01-01

    Given the wide use of peer assessment, especially in higher education, the relative accuracy of peer ratings compared to teacher ratings is a major concern for both educators and researchers. This concern has grown with the increase of peer assessment in digital platforms. In this meta-analysis, using a variance-known hierarchical linear modelling…

  15. Future Structure of the Life-World. As an inevitable consequence of the «peer-to-peer»

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mototaka Mori

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This article intends to draw theoretically a future structure of the life-world. The state interventionism in the late capitalism has been often argued by the critical theoreticians like Jurgen Habermas since the last half of the twentieth century. It was particularly the main problem how possible the life-world was in such the technologically systematized society. However, the highly technological development of telecommunication has changed our everyday life very rapidly and totally. If we know such the rapid change of coevolution between human life and technology, we have to fundamentally reconsider on the theory of life-world. Therefore, in this article I will firstly focus on the classical theory of mundane social world which Alfred Schutz presented in the early 1930s. Of course, his project of socio-phenomenology has been one of the most brilliant und important works still now. However, his theory also will have to be renewed. If we know particularly the «peer-to-peer» constellation of the computer network by the distributed anonymous persons, the classical model of life-world must be versioned up to a next theoretical level. Secondly, considering on the virtual currency like the Bitcoin, this article will show you a hypothetical aspect of transformation of the life-world. The mechanism of trust, which has been often understood as one of the most important key concepts for the community or the society, may be replaced with the computer technology of cryptographic proof. Such a theoretical examination will finally lead to an important opened problem. We will have to inquire whether such the social order will be spontaneous, or whether such the ordering will have to be decided only by the speed of computer’s central processing unit.

  16. The Role of Child Characteristics and Peer Experiences in the Development of Peer Cooperation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Endedijk, Hinke M.; Cillessen, Antonius H. N.; Bekkering, Harold; Cox, R.F.A; Hunnius, Sabine

    Cooperation with peers is challenging for young children, and there are large individual differences in the development of cooperation. The roles of child characteristics and peer experiences for peer interaction during free play have been studied extensively, but it is unclear which factors predict

  17. Young People Smokers' Reactions on Peer Influence Not to Smoke.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harakeh, Zeena; van Nijnatten, Carolus H C J

    2016-11-09

    Peers exert influence not to smoke but little is yet known on how this affects young people's behavior and cognitions. This experimental study investigates the impact of two types of peer influence not to smoke on the verbalized attitudes and responses of daily-smoking young people. Two conditions were conducted: 1) a peer confederate stating three times that s/he had quit smoking and was glad to have done so (covert peer influence); 2) a peer confederate making similar statements, but urging to quit smoking (overt peer influence). The participant performed a music task with the peer in order to disguise the true nature of the experiment. Thirty-one daily-smoking young people (16-24 years) participated; 44 responses in the overt and 34 responses in the covert condition were analyzed in a discourse analysis. The participants in the covert condition were more elaborative about smoking, i.e., taking an active role in a dialogue about the experiences of the peer or the participant in quitting smoking while in the overt condition participants showed more passive resistance, i.e., not showing an intention to follow the advice but avoid causing the peer embarrassment or discomfort. Open resistance, i.e., demonstration of being well-informed and indicating the redundancy of the advice, does not significantly differ in these two conditions but occurs, for both, primarily at the third discouragement. Overt and frequent discouragement seems to be less effective in stimulating young people to take an active role in the dialogue with their peers about smoking.

  18. SCI peer health coach influence on self-management with peers: a qualitative analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Skeels, S E; Pernigotti, D; Houlihan, B V; Belliveau, T; Brody, M; Zazula, J; Hasiotis, S; Seetharama, S; Rosenblum, D; Jette, A

    2017-11-01

    A process evaluation of a clinical trial. To describe the roles fulfilled by peer health coaches (PHCs) with spinal cord injury (SCI) during a randomized controlled trial research study called 'My Care My Call', a novel telephone-based, peer-led self-management intervention for adults with chronic SCI 1+ years after injury. Connecticut and Greater Boston Area, MA, USA. Directed content analysis was used to qualitatively examine information from 504 tele-coaching calls, conducted with 42 participants with SCI, by two trained SCI PHCs. Self-management was the focus of each 6-month PHC-peer relationship. PHCs documented how and when they used the communication tools (CTs) and information delivery strategies (IDSs) they developed for the intervention. Interaction data were coded and analyzed to determine PHC roles in relation to CT and IDS utilization and application. PHCs performed three principal roles: Role Model, Supporter, and Advisor. Role Model interactions included CTs and IDSs that allowed PHCs to share personal experiences of managing and living with an SCI, including sharing their opinions and advice when appropriate. As Supporters, PHCs used CTs and IDSs to build credible relationships based on dependability and reassuring encouragement. PHCs fulfilled the unique role of Advisor using CTs and IDSs to teach and strategize with peers about SCI self-management. The SCI PHC performs a powerful, flexible role in promoting SCI self-management among peers. Analysis of PHC roles can inform the design of peer-led interventions and highlights the importance for the provision of peer mentor training.

  19. Aorta: a management layer for mobile peer-to-peer massive multiplayer games

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edlich, Stefan; Hoerning, Henrik; Brunnert, Andreas; Hoerning, Reidar

    2005-03-01

    The development of massive multiplayer games (MMPGs) for personal computers is based on a wide range of frameworks and technologies. In contrast, MMPG development for cell phones lacks the availability of framework support. We present Aorta as a multi-purpose lightweight MIDP 2.0 framework to support the transparent and equal API usage of peer-to-peer communication via http, IP and Bluetooth. Special experiments, such as load-tests on Nokia 6600s, have been carried out with Bluetooth support in using a server-as-client architecture to create ad-hoc networks by using piconet functionalities. Additionally, scatternet functionalities, which will be supported in upcoming devices, have been tested in a simulated environment on more than 12 cell phones. The core of the Aorta framework is the Etherlobby, which manages connections, peers, the game lobby, game policies and much more. The framework itself was developed to enable the fast development of mobile games, regardless of the distance between users, which might be within the schoolyard or much further away. The earliest market-ready application shown here is a multimedia game for cell phones utilizing all of the frameworks features. This game, called Micromonster, acts as platform for developer tests, as well as providing valuable information about interface usability and user acceptance.

  20. Transformation of Adolescent Peer Relations in the Social Media Context: Part 1-A Theoretical Framework and Application to Dyadic Peer Relationships.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nesi, Jacqueline; Choukas-Bradley, Sophia; Prinstein, Mitchell J

    2018-04-07

    Investigators have long recognized that adolescents' peer experiences provide a crucial context for the acquisition of developmental competencies, as well as potential risks for a range of adjustment difficulties. However, recent years have seen an exponential increase in adolescents' adoption of social media tools, fundamentally reshaping the landscape of adolescent peer interactions. Although research has begun to examine social media use among adolescents, researchers have lacked a unifying framework for understanding the impact of social media on adolescents' peer experiences. This paper represents Part 1 of a two-part theoretical review, in which we offer a transformation framework to integrate interdisciplinary social media scholarship and guide future work on social media use and peer relations from a theory-driven perspective. We draw on prior conceptualizations of social media as a distinct interpersonal context and apply this understanding to adolescents' peer experiences, outlining features of social media with particular relevance to adolescent peer relations. We argue that social media transforms adolescent peer relationships in five key ways: by changing the frequency or immediacy of experiences, amplifying experiences and demands, altering the qualitative nature of interactions, facilitating new opportunities for compensatory behaviors, and creating entirely novel behaviors. We offer an illustration of the transformation framework applied to adolescents' dyadic friendship processes (i.e., experiences typically occurring between two individuals), reviewing existing evidence and offering theoretical implications. Overall, the transformation framework represents a departure from the prevailing approaches of prior peer relations work and a new model for understanding peer relations in the social media context.

  1. Local Road Safety Peer Exchange - Region 9 : An RSPCB Peer Exchange

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-09-01

    This report provides a summary of the proceedings of the Region 9 Local Road Safety Peer : Exchange held in Sacramento, California on September 17 and 18, 2013. The Federal Highway : Administration (FHWA) Office of Safety (HSA) sponsored the peer exc...

  2. Road Safety Peer Exchange for Tribal Governments : an RSPCB Peer Exchange

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-12-01

    This report provides a summary of the proceedings of the Road Safety Peer Exchange for Tribal : Governments held in Albuquerque, New Mexico on December 9th and 10th, 2014. The peer exchange : brought together safety practitioners from across the Unit...

  3. MO-E-18C-01: Open Access Web-Based Peer-To-Peer Training and Education in Radiotherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pawlicki, T; Brown, D; Dunscombe, P; Mutic, S

    2014-01-01

    Purpose: Current training and education delivery models have limitations which result in gaps in clinical proficiency with equipment, procedures, and techniques. Educational and training opportunities offered by vendors and professional societies are by their nature not available at point of need or for the life of clinical systems. The objective of this work is to leverage modern communications technology to provide peer-to-peer training and education for radiotherapy professionals, in the clinic and on demand, as they undertake their clinical duties. Methods: We have developed a free of charge web site ( https://i.treatsafely.org ) using the Google App Engine and datastore (NDB, GQL), Python with AJAX-RPC, and Javascript. The site is a radiotherapy-specific hosting service to which user-created videos illustrating clinical or physics processes and other relevant educational material can be uploaded. Efficient navigation to the material of interest is provided through several RT specific search tools and videos can be scored by users, thus providing comprehensive peer review of the site content. The site also supports multilingual narration\\translation of videos, a quiz function for competence assessment and a library function allowing groups or institutions to define their standard operating procedures based on the video content. Results: The website went live in August 2013 and currently has over 680 registered users from 55 countries; 27.2% from the United States, 9.8% from India, 8.3% from the United Kingdom, 7.3% from Brazil, and 47.5% from other countries. The users include physicists (57.4%), Oncologists (12.5%), therapists (8.2%) and dosimetrists (4.8%). There are 75 videos to date including English, Portuguese, Mandarin, and Thai. Conclusion: Based on the initial acceptance of the site, we conclude that this open access web-based peer-to-peer tool is fulfilling an important need in radiotherapy training and education. Site functionality should expand in

  4. MO-E-18C-01: Open Access Web-Based Peer-To-Peer Training and Education in Radiotherapy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pawlicki, T [UC San Diego Medical Center, La Jolla, CA (United States); Brown, D; Dunscombe, P [Tom Baker Cancer Centre, Calgary, AB (Canada); Mutic, S [Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO (United States)

    2014-06-15

    Purpose: Current training and education delivery models have limitations which result in gaps in clinical proficiency with equipment, procedures, and techniques. Educational and training opportunities offered by vendors and professional societies are by their nature not available at point of need or for the life of clinical systems. The objective of this work is to leverage modern communications technology to provide peer-to-peer training and education for radiotherapy professionals, in the clinic and on demand, as they undertake their clinical duties. Methods: We have developed a free of charge web site ( https://i.treatsafely.org ) using the Google App Engine and datastore (NDB, GQL), Python with AJAX-RPC, and Javascript. The site is a radiotherapy-specific hosting service to which user-created videos illustrating clinical or physics processes and other relevant educational material can be uploaded. Efficient navigation to the material of interest is provided through several RT specific search tools and videos can be scored by users, thus providing comprehensive peer review of the site content. The site also supports multilingual narration\\translation of videos, a quiz function for competence assessment and a library function allowing groups or institutions to define their standard operating procedures based on the video content. Results: The website went live in August 2013 and currently has over 680 registered users from 55 countries; 27.2% from the United States, 9.8% from India, 8.3% from the United Kingdom, 7.3% from Brazil, and 47.5% from other countries. The users include physicists (57.4%), Oncologists (12.5%), therapists (8.2%) and dosimetrists (4.8%). There are 75 videos to date including English, Portuguese, Mandarin, and Thai. Conclusion: Based on the initial acceptance of the site, we conclude that this open access web-based peer-to-peer tool is fulfilling an important need in radiotherapy training and education. Site functionality should expand in

  5. Peer Review Quality and Transparency of the Peer-Review Process in Open Access and Subscription Journals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wicherts, Jelte M

    2016-01-01

    Recent controversies highlighting substandard peer review in Open Access (OA) and traditional (subscription) journals have increased the need for authors, funders, publishers, and institutions to assure quality of peer-review in academic journals. I propose that transparency of the peer-review process may be seen as an indicator of the quality of peer-review, and develop and validate a tool enabling different stakeholders to assess transparency of the peer-review process. Based on editorial guidelines and best practices, I developed a 14-item tool to rate transparency of the peer-review process on the basis of journals' websites. In Study 1, a random sample of 231 authors of papers in 92 subscription journals in different fields rated transparency of the journals that published their work. Authors' ratings of the transparency were positively associated with quality of the peer-review process but unrelated to journal's impact factors. In Study 2, 20 experts on OA publishing assessed the transparency of established (non-OA) journals, OA journals categorized as being published by potential predatory publishers, and journals from the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Results show high reliability across items (α = .91) and sufficient reliability across raters. Ratings differentiated the three types of journals well. In Study 3, academic librarians rated a random sample of 140 DOAJ journals and another 54 journals that had received a hoax paper written by Bohannon to test peer-review quality. Journals with higher transparency ratings were less likely to accept the flawed paper and showed higher impact as measured by the h5 index from Google Scholar. The tool to assess transparency of the peer-review process at academic journals shows promising reliability and validity. The transparency of the peer-review process can be seen as an indicator of peer-review quality allowing the tool to be used to predict academic quality in new journals.

  6. Independent peer review of nuclear safety computer codes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boyack, B.E.; Jenks, R.P.

    1993-01-01

    A structured, independent computer code peer-review process has been developed to assist the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the US Department of Energy in their nuclear safety missions. This paper describes a structured process of independent code peer review, benefits associated with a code-independent peer review, as well as the authors' recent peer-review experience. The NRC adheres to the principle that safety of plant design, construction, and operation are the responsibility of the licensee. Nevertheless, NRC staff must have the ability to independently assess plant designs and safety analyses submitted by license applicants. According to Ref. 1, open-quotes this requires that a sound understanding be obtained of the important physical phenomena that may occur during transients in operating power plants.close quotes The NRC concluded that computer codes are the principal products to open-quotes understand and predict plant response to deviations from normal operating conditionsclose quotes and has developed several codes for that purpose. However, codes cannot be used blindly; they must be assessed and found adequate for the purposes they are intended. A key part of the qualification process can be accomplished through code peer reviews; this approach has been adopted by the NRC

  7. Some limits in peer assessment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joan Domingo Penya

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Nowadays, the known as ‘peer assessment’ is one of the pillars of formative assessment in the different levels of the educational system buts, especially, in the University level. Last years, it has been considered in order to enhance students' meaningful learning, considering it as an element of social learning from the lessons learned by other classmates, and the ability to assess their quality, compared with the level of knowledge that each student has about the subject/course evaluated, and using common evaluation criteria. Relating to this, the experience presented in this paper has been developed with two groups of students. It allows to determine how many peer assessments is prudent to ask course students in order to make a serious and reliable activity, and not as a required and mandatory exercise that has to be carried out by students simply to pass the course; in this last case, the activity could become extremely trivial and banal. Statistical analysis of the results indicates that three-peer assessments per student appraised are a good lot. In addition, on the other hand, more than thirty-peer assessments do not provide learning nor serious activities.

  8. NCHRP peer exchange 2008.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2008-09-01

    Peer exchanges for state department of transportation (DOT) research programs originated with : the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA). That federal legislation : required the states to conduct periodic peer exchanges to...

  9. Local Road Safety Peer Exchange - Region 4 : An RSPCB Peer Exchange

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-03-01

    This report provides a summary of the proceedings of the Local Road Safety Peer Exchange held in Atlanta, Georgia on March 6th and 7th, 2013. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) sponsored the Peer Exchange in coordination with Region 4 Local Te...

  10. Local Road Safety Peer Exchange - Region 1 : An RSPCB Peer Exchange

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-10-01

    This report provides a summary of the proceedings of the Local Road Safety Peer Exchange held in Piscataway, New Jersey October 10th and 11th, 2012. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) sponsored the Peer Exchange in coordination with Region 1 L...

  11. Integrating International Students into Tertiary Education Using Intercultural Peer-to-Peer Training at Jacobs University Bremen, Germany

    Science.gov (United States)

    Binder, Nadine; Schreier, Margrit; Kühnen, Ulrich; Kedzior, Karina Karolina

    2013-01-01

    Increasing internationalization of higher education raises the question of how well institutions prepare their students to integrate into and benefit from cultural diversity on any university campus. The aim of this study was to assess an intercultural peer-to-peer training at Jacobs University Bremen, Germany, that aims to facilitate the…

  12. Pressure to Drink but Not to Smoke: Disentangling Selection and Socialization in Adolescent Peer Networks and Peer Groups

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kiuru, Noona; Burk, William J.; Laursen, Brett; Salmela-Aro, Katariina; Nurmi, Jari-Erik

    2010-01-01

    This paper examined the relative influence of selection and socialization on alcohol and tobacco use in adolescent peer networks and peer groups. The sample included 1419 Finnish secondary education students (690 males and 729 females, mean age 16 years at the outset) from nine schools. Participants identified three school friends and described…

  13. Exploring the use of peer review in large university courses

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Naemi Luckner

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Double blind peer review is a standard practice in the scientific community. It acts as a means of validating work as well as of getting feedback to improve it. As such, it seems prudent to also use it as a learning tool in large lectures to provide students with personalized feedback on their work. The general process can be directly adopted for the lecture context, but details need to be modified and adapted to create a better learning experience. The structure of a large lecture has been adjusted to provide the context for a double blind peer review process. Not only has the evaluation of activities during the semester changed to fit in with the double blind peer review, but also the organization of said activities was adapted to accompany the evaluation change. The first semester yielded promising results, but also pointed towards some issues with the current state of the system. We devised a list of design implications for future revisions of the double blind peer review system, based on feedback and experiences during the semester as well as on a survey among students at the end of the semester. These implications will be implemented to improve and refine the new system for upcoming semesters.

  14. The value of peer reviews to nuclear plant safety

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Subalusky, W.T. Jr.

    1994-01-01

    On a global basis, the nuclear utility industry has clearly demonstrated the value of peer reviews for improving nuclear safety and overall plant performance. Peer reviews are conducted by small teams of technical experts who review various aspects of plant operation, recognize strengths and recommend improvements, thereby stimulating a positive response to the recommendations. U.S. nuclear utilities initiated the operator-to-operator peer review process first through the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO). Now, voluntary peer reviews are an important activity of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO). Formed just five years ago. WANO has made significant progress in its key activities of the operator-to-operator exchanges, operating experience exchange, monitoring of plant performance indicators and sharing of good practices worldwide. A fifth activity, peer review on a strictly voluntary basis, is pertinent to this paper

  15. Peer work in Open Dialogue: A discussion paper.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bellingham, Brett; Buus, Niels; McCloughen, Andrea; Dawson, Lisa; Schweizer, Richard; Mikes-Liu, Kristof; Peetz, Amy; Boydell, Katherine; River, Jo

    2018-03-25

    Open Dialogue is a resource-oriented approach to mental health care that originated in Finland. As Open Dialogue has been adopted across diverse international healthcare settings, it has been adapted according to contextual factors. One important development in Open Dialogue has been the incorporation of paid, formal peer work. Peer work draws on the knowledge and wisdom gained through lived experience of distress and hardship to establish mutual, reciprocal, and supportive relationships with service users. As Open Dialogue is now being implemented across mental health services in Australia, stakeholders are beginning to consider the role that peer workers might have in this model of care. Open Dialogue was not, initially, conceived to include a specific role for peers, and there is little available literature, and even less empirical research, in this area. This discussion paper aims to surface some of the current debates and ideas about peer work in Open Dialogue. Examples and models of peer work in Open Dialogue are examined, and the potential benefits and challenges of adopting this approach in health services are discussed. Peer work in Open Dialogue could potentially foster democracy and disrupt clinical hierarchies, but could also move peer work from reciprocal to a less symmetrical relationship of 'giver' and 'receiver' of care. Other models of care, such as lived experience practitioners in Open Dialogue, can be conceived. However, it remains uncertain whether the hierarchical structures in healthcare and current models of funding would support any such models. © 2018 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc.

  16. Peer Influence on Managerial Honesty

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brunner, Markus; Ostermaier, Andreas

    2018-01-01

    peers’ reports are higher than they have expected, the opposite is not true. Third, partial transparency reinforces this asymmetry in peer influence. Unlike full transparency, it allows managers to substitute self-serving assumptions for missing information and to thus justify their own dishonesty more......We investigate peer influence on managerial honesty under varying levels of transparency. In a laboratory experiment, managers report their costs to a superior to request budget. We manipulate whether the managers learn each other’s report and cost (full transparency) or the report but not the cost...... (partial transparency). The results show, first, that managers are susceptible to peer influence, as they join peers in reporting honestly and dishonestly both under full and partial transparency. Second, however, the effect of peer influence is asymmetric. While managers’ dishonesty increases much when...

  17. The mental health consumer movement and peer providers in Israel.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moran, G S

    2018-04-16

    Self-help peer-support groups in Israel emerged in the 1980s and, over time, dynamically interacted and co-developed with the statutory mental health (MH) system. In this editorial, I outline historical milestones of how the evolution of the Israeli mental health system was influenced by the consumer movement. A brief depiction of the consumer movement history. At first, consumers operated outside of the mainstream MH system. Gradually, consumer groups and institutional personnel joined efforts towards community integration and enhancement of quality of life, pushing forward a person-centered recovery orientation. In turn, some administrators and key stakeholders in rehabilitation community services grew to value the impact of knowledge-by-experience in contemporary mental health care. In this context, over the past decade, peer roles were developed in the mental health system, including consumer-providers in community services and peer specialists in inpatient psychiatric hospitals. The insertion of peer roles into the mainstream MH system is far-reaching, including the placement of a peer-project coordinator within the ministry of health. I describe the unique contribution of peers, as experts-by-experience, to mainstream professional knowledge and practice. I also highlight the potential challenges involved when peer models of care are added to traditional medical models of care. The Israeli case demonstrates how the consumer movement can play an active role in MH systems and be acknowledged and recognised as a partner for changing policy, practice and reshaping formal institutions. In addition, they play a vital role in the development of peer-support services.

  18. Conformity to Peer Pressure in Preschool Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haun, Daniel B. M.; Tomasello, Michael

    2011-01-01

    Both adults and adolescents often conform their behavior and opinions to peer groups, even when they themselves know better. The current study investigated this phenomenon in 24 groups of 4 children between 4;2 and 4;9 years of age. Children often made their judgments conform to those of 3 peers, who had made obviously erroneous but unanimous…

  19. Use of an audience response system during peer teaching among physical therapy students in human gross anatomy: perceptions of peer teachers and students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wait, Kevin R; Cloud, Beth A; Forster, Lindsey A; Jones, Tiffany M; Nokleby, Jessica J; Wolfe, Cortney R; Youdas, James W

    2009-01-01

    An audience response system (ARS) has become popular among educators in medicine and the health professions because of the system's ability to engage listeners during a lecture presentation. No one has described the usefulness of ARS technology during planned nonlecture peer teaching sessions in gross anatomy instruction for health professionals. The unique feature of each peer teaching session was a nongraded 12-15 item ARS quiz assembled by six second-year doctor of physical therapy (DPT) students and purposely placed at the beginning of the review session for those first-year DPT students in attendance. This study used a ten-item questionnaire and a five-point Likert scale in addition to three open ended questions to survey perceptions of both first-year and second-year DPT students about the usefulness of ARS technology implemented during weekly interactive peer teaching sessions during a semester course in Anatomy for Physical Therapists. First-year students overwhelmingly acknowledged the ARS system permitted each student to self-assess his/her preparedness for a quiz or examination and compare his/her performance with that of classmates. Peer teachers recognized an ARS quiz provided them an opportunity to: (1) estimate first-year students' level of understanding of anatomical concepts; and (2) effectively prepare first-year students for their weekly quizzes and future examinations. On the basis of the mutual benefits derived by both students/tutees and teachers/tutors, physical therapist educators may wish to consider using ARS technology to enhance teaching methods for a class in gross human anatomy.

  20. 28 CFR 34.102 - Peer review procedures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 28 Judicial Administration 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Peer review procedures. 34.102 Section 34.102 Judicial Administration DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE OJJDP COMPETITION AND PEER REVIEW PROCEDURES Peer Review § 34.102 Peer review procedures. The OJJDP peer review process is contained in an OJJDP “Peer...

  1. The Effects of Young Children's Affiliations with Prosocial Peers on Subsequent Emotionality in Peer Interactions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fabes, Richard A.; Hanish, Laura D.; Martin, Carol Lynn; Moss, Alicia; Reesing, Amy

    2012-01-01

    Preschoolers' (60 boys and 64 girls, "M" age = 50.73 months) affiliations with prosocial peers were observed in naturally occurring interactions and then examined in relation to positive and negative emotionality within their peer interactions one semester later. Greater affiliation with prosocial peers in the fall was related to enhanced positive…

  2. Teachers and Peers as Communication Models to Teach Grammatical Forms to Preschoolers with Hearing Loss

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richels, Corrin G.; Bobzien, Jonna L.; Schwartz, Kathryn S.; Raver, Sharon A.; Browning, Ellen L.; Hester, Peggy P.

    2016-01-01

    Structured input from both teachers and peers maximizes the opportunities for preschoolers to learn grammatical forms. The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the effectiveness of using a teacher and a peer with typical hearing and language skills to model grammatically correct verbal responses to action "wh-" questions…

  3. Peer relationships and adolescents' academic and non-academic outcomes: same-sex and opposite-sex peer effects and the mediating role of school engagement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liem, Gregory Arief D; Martin, Andrew J

    2011-06-01

    The literature has documented theoretical/conceptual models delineating the facilitating role of peer relationships in academic and non-academic outcomes. However, the mechanisms through which peer relationships link to those outcomes is an area requiring further research. The study examined the role of adolescents' perceptions of their relationships with same-sex and opposite-sex peers in predicting their academic performance and general self-esteem and the potentially mediating role of school engagement in linking these perceived peer relationships with academic and non-academic outcomes. The sample comprised 1,436 high-school students (670 boys, 756 girls; 711 early adolescents, 723 later adolescents). Self-report measures and objective achievement tests were used. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was performed to test the hypothesized model and its invariance across gender and age groups. Perceived same-sex peer relationships yielded positive direct and indirect links with academic performance and general self-esteem. Perceived opposite-sex peer relationships yielded positive direct and indirect links with general self-esteem and an indirect positive link with academic performance, but mediation via school engagement was not as strong as that of perceived same-sex peer relationships. These findings generalized across gender and age groups. Adolescents' same-sex and opposite-sex peer relationships seem to positively impact their academic performance and general self-esteem in distinct ways. It appears that school engagement plays an important role in mediating these peer relationship effects, particularly those of same-sex peer relationships, on academic and non-academic functioning. Implications for psycho-educational theory, measurement, and practice are discussed. ©2011 The British Psychological Society.

  4. The ABC of Peer Mentoring--What Secondary Students Have to Say about Cross-Age Peer Mentoring in a Regional Australian School

    Science.gov (United States)

    Willis, Paul; Bland, Robert; Manka, Louise; Craft, Cec

    2012-01-01

    Cross-age peer mentoring is an educational model that builds on peer support and mentoring to assist young people to enhance social relationships, develop cognitive skills, and promote positive identity development. In this article, we outline the evaluation process of a cross-age peer-mentoring program implemented in an Australian secondary…

  5. The Myth of Peer Pressure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ungar, Michael T.

    2000-01-01

    The construct of peer pressure was examined as part of a qualitative study of the determinants of mental health for 41 high-risk adolescents. While the concept of peer pressure enables adults to explain youths' troubling behaviors, content analysis of the participants' accounts of their lives reveals peer pressure to be a myth. (Author/MKA)

  6. Male Peer Support to Hostile Sexist Attitudes Influences Rape Proclivity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Durán, Mercedes; Megías, Jesús L; Moya, Miguel

    2018-07-01

    Sexual assault affects a large proportion of women in the world. Although most rapes are committed by one man, the act itself may be influenced by many (e.g., the peer group). Hostile sexism (HS) has repeatedly been associated with men's rape proclivity, but the influence exerted by the HS of the peer group on rape proclivity has not been investigated. In this study, we explored the impact of perceived male peer support to HS on participants' rape proclivity. A sample of Spanish undergraduate students from a university in the south of Spain ( N = 134) completed the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory. Immediately afterwards, they received feedback on the supposed sexist responses of a peer group (high vs. low in HS); we kept the benevolent sexism (BS) of the peer group at medium levels. Next, we assessed participants' rape proclivity using acquaintance rape scenarios. Results showed an interaction between participants' own levels of HS and information about the HS of the peer group. Men high in HS reported higher rape proclivity in the high-HS peer-group condition than in the low-HS peer-group condition. By contrast, information on the peer group did not affect self-reported rape proclivity of men low in HS. Results also corroborated the relationship between participants' levels of HS and rape proclivity, and expanded the literature by revealing an unexpected influence of participants' BS on rape proclivity.

  7. Early adolescent substance use in Mexican origin families: Peer selection, peer influence, and parental monitoring.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schofield, Thomas J; Conger, Rand D; Robins, Richard W

    2015-12-01

    Because adolescents vary in their susceptibility to peer influence, the current study addresses potential reciprocal effects between associating with deviant peers and use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs (ATOD), as well as the potential buffering role of parental monitoring on these reciprocal effects. 674 children of Mexican origin reported at fifth and seventh grade (10.4 years old at fifth grade) on the degree to which they associated with deviant peers, intended to use alcohol, tobacco or other drugs (ATOD) in the future, and had used controlled substances during the past year. Trained observers rated parental monitoring from video-recorded family interactions at the first assessment. Youth who intended to use ATODs during fifth grade experienced a relative increase in number of deviant peers by seventh grade, and youth with more deviant peers in fifth grade were more likely to use ATODs by seventh grade. Parental monitoring buffered (i.e., moderated) the reciprocal association between involvement with deviant peers and both intent to use ATODs and actual use of ATODs. Parental monitoring can disrupt the reciprocal associations between deviant peers and ATOD use during the transition from childhood to adolescence. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Peer assisted learning: teaching dental skills and enhancing graduate attributes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cameron, D A; Binnie, V I; Sherriff, A; Bissell, V

    2015-09-25

    This study describes a pilot project in which peer assisted learning (PAL) is used to teach dental clinical skills. A cluster randomised controlled trial compared opinions of Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) students from peer-led groups versus staff-led groups in a clinical (impression taking) and a pre-clinical (handpiece skills) task. BDS5 (peer tutors) in their final year delivered teaching to BDS1 (tutees) for each task. Quantitative data from tutees and the peer tutors was gathered from questionnaires, along with open written comments. PAL was well received by both tutees and peer tutors. BDS1 tutees rated BDS5 peer tutors highly for delivery of information, and level of feedback. The tutees considered peer tutors more approachable and less intimidating than staff. Peer tutors reported their own knowledge had increased as a result of teaching. In a summative OSCE (objective structured clinical examination) four months following the teaching, no statistical significant difference between the performance of peer-led and staff-led groups was found at stations related to the subject matter in question. It is argued that PAL, as well as being a useful method of delivering subject-specific teaching, is able to contribute to the development of graduate attributes.

  9. Peer Review: Has It a Future?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soh, Kay Cheng

    2013-01-01

    Although its history is short, peer review has fast become a fixture of journal publications acquiring the status of a ritual in the academia. Many relevant and important issues have been raised leading to doubts about the value of peer review. The advent of electronic publishing further threatens the future of peer review. For peer review to…

  10. Peer relationships and academic achievement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Krnjajić Stevan B.

    2002-01-01

    Full Text Available After their childhood, when children begin to establish more intensive social contacts outside family, first of all, in school setting, their behavior i.e. their social, intellectual, moral and emotional development is more strongly affected by their peers. Consequently, the quality of peer relationships considerably affects the process of adaptation and academic achievement and their motivational and emotional attitude towards school respectively. Empirical findings showed that there is bi-directional influence between peer relationships and academic achievement. In other words, the quality of peer relationships affects academic achievement, and conversely, academic achievement affects the quality of peer relationships. For example, socially accepted children exhibiting prosocial, cooperative and responsible forms of behavior in school most frequently have high academic achievement. On the other hand, children rejected by their peers often have lower academic achievement and are a risk group tending to delinquency, absenteeism and drop out of school. Those behavioral and interpersonal forms of competence are frequently more reliable predictors of academic achievement than intellectual abilities are. Considering the fact that various patterns of peer interaction differently exert influence on students' academic behavior, the paper analyzed effects of (a social competence, (b social acceptance/rejection, (c child's friendships and (d prosocial behavior on academic achievement.

  11. Peer Influence and Addiction Recurrence

    OpenAIRE

    Paul Markdissi

    2009-01-01

    In this paper we highlight the role of peers in the recurrence of addictive behavior. To do so, we use a simple “forward looking” model with procrastination and peers influence. Our results show that while procrastination can explain the decision to postpone rehabilitation, peers influence is essential to explain the cyclical patterns of addiction-rehabilitation-addiction.

  12. Resistance to peer influence moderates the relationship between perceived (but not actual) peer norms and binge drinking in a college student social network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    DiGuiseppi, Graham T; Meisel, Matthew K; Balestrieri, Sara G; Ott, Miles Q; Cox, Melissa J; Clark, Melissa A; Barnett, Nancy P

    2018-05-01

    Adolescent and young adult binge drinking is strongly associated with perceived social norms and the drinking behavior that occurs within peer networks. The extent to which an individual is influenced by the behavior of others may depend upon that individual's resistance to peer influence (RPI). Students in their first semester of college (N=1323; 54.7% female, 57% White, 15.1% Hispanic) reported on their own binge drinking, and the perceived binge drinking of up to 10 important peers in the first-year class. Using network autocorrelation models, we investigated cross-sectional relationships between participant's binge drinking frequency and the perceived and actual binge drinking frequency of important peers. We then tested the moderating role of RPI, expecting that greater RPI would weaken the relationship between perceived and actual peer binge drinking on participant binge drinking. Perceived and actual peer binge drinking were statistically significant predictors of participant binge drinking frequency in the past month, after controlling for covariates. RPI significantly moderated the association between perceptions of peer binge drinking and participant's own binge drinking; this association was weaker among participants with higher RPI compared to those with lower RPI. RPI did not interact with the actual binge drinking behavior of network peers. RPI may function to protect individuals from the effect of their perceptions about the binge drinking of peers, but not from the effect of the actual binge drinking of peers. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  13. Peering into the Brain to Predict Behavior: Peer-Reported, but not Self-Reported, Conscientiousness Links Threat-Related Amygdala Activity to Future Problem Drinking

    Science.gov (United States)

    Swartz, Johnna R.; Knodt, Annchen R.; Radtke, Spenser R.; Hariri, Ahmad R.

    2016-01-01

    Personality traits such as conscientiousness as self-reported by individuals can help predict a range of outcomes, from job performance to longevity. Asking others to rate the personality of their acquaintances often provides even better predictive power than using self-report. Here, we examine whether peer-reported personality can provide a better link between brain function, namely threat-related amygdala activity, and future health-related behavior, namely problem drinking, than self-reported personality. Using data from a sample of 377 young adult university students who were rated on five personality traits by peers, we find that higher threat-related amygdala activity to fearful facial expressions is associated with higher peer-reported, but not self-reported, conscientiousness. Moreover, higher peer-reported, but not self-reported, conscientiousness predicts lower future problem drinking more than one year later, an effect specific to men. Remarkably, relatively higher amygdala activity has an indirect effect on future drinking behavior in men, linked by peer-reported conscientiousness to lower future problem drinking. Our results provide initial evidence that the perceived conscientiousness of an individual by their peers uniquely reflects variability in a core neural mechanism supporting threat responsiveness. These novel patterns further suggest that incorporating peer-reported measures of personality into individual differences research can reveal novel predictive pathways of risk and protection for problem behaviors. PMID:27717769

  14. Peering into the brain to predict behavior: Peer-reported, but not self-reported, conscientiousness links threat-related amygdala activity to future problem drinking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Swartz, Johnna R; Knodt, Annchen R; Radtke, Spenser R; Hariri, Ahmad R

    2017-02-01

    Personality traits such as conscientiousness as self-reported by individuals can help predict a range of outcomes, from job performance to longevity. Asking others to rate the personality of their acquaintances often provides even better predictive power than using self-report. Here, we examine whether peer-reported personality can provide a better link between brain function, namely threat-related amygdala activity, and future health-related behavior, namely problem drinking, than self-reported personality. Using data from a sample of 377 young adult university students who were rated on five personality traits by peers, we find that higher threat-related amygdala activity to fearful facial expressions is associated with higher peer-reported, but not self-reported, conscientiousness. Moreover, higher peer-reported, but not self-reported, conscientiousness predicts lower future problem drinking more than one year later, an effect specific to men. Remarkably, relatively higher amygdala activity has an indirect effect on future drinking behavior in men, linked by peer-reported conscientiousness to lower future problem drinking. Our results provide initial evidence that the perceived conscientiousness of an individual by their peers uniquely reflects variability in a core neural mechanism supporting threat responsiveness. These novel patterns further suggest that incorporating peer-reported measures of personality into individual differences research can reveal novel predictive pathways of risk and protection for problem behaviors. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Telemedicine-based system for quality management and peer review in radiology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morozov, Sergey; Guseva, Ekaterina; Ledikhova, Natalya; Vladzymyrskyy, Anton; Safronov, Dmitry

    2018-06-01

    Quality assurance is the key component of modern radiology. A telemedicine-based quality assurance system helps to overcome the "scoring" approach and makes the quality control more accessible and objective. A concept for quality assurance in radiology is developed. Its realization is a set of strategies, actions, and tools. The latter is based on telemedicine-based peer review of 23,199 computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images. The conception of the system for quality management in radiology represents a chain of actions: "discrepancies evaluation - routine support - quality improvement activity - discrepancies evaluation". It is realized by an audit methodology, telemedicine, elearning, and other technologies. After a year of systemic telemedicine-based peer reviews, the authors have estimated that clinically significant discrepancies were detected in 6% of all cases, while clinically insignificant ones were found in 19% of cases. Most often, problems appear in musculoskeletal records; 80% of the examinations have diagnostic or technical imperfections. The presence of routine telemedicine support and personalized elearning allowed improving the diagnostics quality. The level of discrepancies has decreased significantly (p elearning significantly decrease the number of discrepancies. • Teleradiology allows linking all primary-level hospitals to a common peer review network.

  16. Peer characteristics associated with improved glycemic control in a randomized controlled trial of a reciprocal peer support program for diabetes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaselitz, Elizabeth; Shah, Megha; Choi, Hwajung; Heisler, Michele

    2018-01-01

    Objective In a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial of diabetes reciprocal peer support, we examined characteristics of peers associated with improvements in their partner's glycemic control. Methods A total of 102 adults with diabetes were randomized to the reciprocal peer support arm (vs. a nurse care management arm). The primary outcome was change in A1c over six months. Intermediate outcomes were insulin initiation and peer engagement. A number of baseline characteristics of peers were hypothesized to influence outcomes for their peer, and concordant characteristics of peer dyads were hypothesized that would influence outcomes for both peer partners. Results Improvement in A1c was associated with having a peer older than oneself ( P peers who reported poorer health at baseline had worse glycemic control at follow-up ( P peers had a more controlled self-regulation style were more likely to initiate insulin ( P peers whose partners were older and reported more diabetes distress at baseline supports the need for further research into the peer characteristics that lead to improved outcomes. This could allow for better matching and more effective partnerships.

  17. Transformation of Adolescent Peer Relations in the Social Media Context: Part 2-Application to Peer Group Processes and Future Directions for Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nesi, Jacqueline; Choukas-Bradley, Sophia; Prinstein, Mitchell J

    2018-04-07

    As social media use becomes increasingly widespread among adolescents, research in this area has accumulated rapidly. Researchers have shown a growing interest in the impact of social media on adolescents' peer experiences, including the ways that the social media context shapes a variety of peer relations constructs. This paper represents Part 2 of a two-part theoretical review. In this review, we offer a new model for understanding the transformative role of social media in adolescents' peer experiences, with the goal of stimulating future empirical work that is grounded in theory. The transformation framework suggests that the features of the social media context transform adolescents' peer experiences by changing their frequency or immediacy, amplifying demands, altering their qualitative nature, and/or offering new opportunities for compensatory or novel behaviors. In the current paper, we consider the ways that social media may transform peer relations constructs that often occur at the group level. Our review focuses on three key constructs: peer victimization, peer status, and peer influence. We selectively review and highlight existing evidence for the transformation of these domains through social media. In addition, we discuss methodological considerations and key conceptual principles for future work. The current framework offers a new theoretical perspective through which peer relations researchers may consider adolescent social media use.

  18. Susceptibility to Peer Influence: Using a Performance-Based Measure to Identify Adolescent Males at Heightened Risk for Deviant Peer Socialization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prinstein, Mitchell J.; Brechwald, Whitney A.; Cohen, Geoffrey L.

    2011-01-01

    A substantial amount of research has suggested that adolescents' attitudes and behaviors are influenced by peers; however, little is known regarding adolescents' individual variability, or susceptibility, to peer influence. In this study, a performance-based index from an experimental paradigm was used to directly measure adolescents'…

  19. Exploring nursing students’ experience of peer learning in clinical practice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ravanipour, Maryam; Bahreini, Masoud; Ravanipour, Masoumeh

    2015-01-01

    Background: Peer learning is an educational process wherein someone of the same age or level of experience level interacts with other students interested in the same topic. There is limited evidence specifically focusing on the practical use of peer learning in Iran. The aim of this study was to explore nursing students’ experiences of peer learning in clinical practice. Materials and Methods: A qualitative content analysis was conducted. Focus groups were used to find the students’ experiences about peerlearning. Twenty-eight baccalaureate nursing students at Bushehr University of Medical Sciences were selected purposively, and were arranged in four groups of seven students each. The focus group interviews were conducted using a semi-structured interview schedule. All interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using conventional content analysis method. Results: The analysis identified four themes: Paradoxical dualism, peer exploitation, first learning efficacy, and socialization practice. Gained advantages and perceived disadvantages created paradoxical dualism, and peer exploitation resulted from peer selection and peer training. Conclusion: Nursing students reported general satisfaction concerning peer learning due to much more in-depth learning with little stress than conventional learning methods. Peer learning is a useful method for nursing students for practicing educational leadership and learning the clinical skills before they get a job. PMID:26097860

  20. The moderating effects of peer substance use on the family structure-adolescent substance use association: quantity versus quality of parenting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eitle, David

    2005-06-01

    This study examines the association between family structure and adolescent substance use, specifically focusing on the potential conditioning effects of the level of exposure to substance-using peers. Using data from a statewide study of Florida students, tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, and other illicit drug use was regressed on measures of family structure, exposure to deviant peers, family process variables (including supervision, attachment, and discipline), and an array of salient predictors of adolescent substance use. Logistic regression analyses revealed that the level of exposure to substance-using peers moderates the relationship between family structure and substance use for three of the four dependent variables. The core finding is that living with two natural parents serves as a protective factor against using tobacco, alcohol, or other illicit drugs, but only under conditions when exposure to deviant peers is lowest. Under conditions when exposure to deviant peers is highest, teens residing in a traditional two-parent family are most likely to report substance use. However, some evidence suggests that this latter finding may be due to differences in the duration of exposure to deviant peers. These findings reinforce the need to continue to explore how the quantity of parenting may provide additional protection against adolescent substance use beyond quality of parenting factors.

  1. International Survey of Peer Leadership (ISPL: An Emerging Snapshot of the Status of Peer Leadership in South Africa

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Frade Nelia

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The power and importance of peer influence in educational settings has been well documented (Cuseo, 2010; Ender & Kay, 2001; Keup, 2010. In South Africa, research supports international trends that student involvement in peer-led activities contributes to student success and ultimate throughput (Layton & McKenna, 2015; Loots, 2009; Underhill & McDonald, 2010. A plethora of research exists attesting to the benefits for students who are the recipients of peer-led activities. In South Africa, however, knowledge gaps exist pertaining to a national perspective on the experiences and, to some extent, on the benefits of peer leadership activities for peer leaders themselves. The purpose of this study is to provide an initial national snapshot of the development and experiences of peer leaders at six South African institutions of higher education, using the International Survey of Peer Leaders (ISPL. The research design adopted was a non-probability purposive sampling technique, with a sample size of N=466. Data were analysed using descriptive analyses. Findings validate previous findings and provide a more comprehensive picture of the types of peer leadership positions held, the training and support peer leaders receive, levels of engagement, and the benefits of being involved in peer-led activities.

  2. Cooptation of Peer Support Staff: Quantitative Evidence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anthony J. Alberta

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Objective In 2007, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS sent a letter to state Medicaid directors outlining requirements for implementing peer-based recovery support services (P-BRSS as a Medicaid-funded service. Since then, 30 states have implemented these services. Although the literature describing implementation of P-BRSS has identified the cooptation of peer support staff (PSS as a barrier to the effective provision of P-BRSS, the evidence for it remains anecdotal. This study attempts to determine if the context of employment in either a treatment organization or peer organization affected cooptation. Methods We conducted a survey of PSS in the fall of 2013. In all, 92 of the 181 respondents were working as PSS at the time, 53 in treatment organizations. Chi-square analysis was used to determine if the context of employment had an effect on the cooptation of peer staff. Results Peer staff working in treatment organizations reported that they were supervised by treatment staff and participated in employment-related training to improve their skills at providing treatment services more frequently than their counterparts in peer organizations. Peer staff working in treatment organizations also participated in training and education to prepare for employment as treatment professionals more frequently than peer staff working in peer organizations. Conclusions and Implications for Practice Peer staff members working in treatment organizations are subject to processes of acculturation into professional cultures that peer staff working in peer organizations are not. Effective implementation of P-BRSS should include specific efforts to minimize the cooptation of peer staff.

  3. Redefining the Practice of Peer Review Through Intelligent Automation Part 2: Data-Driven Peer Review Selection and Assignment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reiner, Bruce I

    2017-12-01

    In conventional radiology peer review practice, a small number of exams (routinely 5% of the total volume) is randomly selected, which may significantly underestimate the true error rate within a given radiology practice. An alternative and preferable approach would be to create a data-driven model which mathematically quantifies a peer review risk score for each individual exam and uses this data to identify high risk exams and readers, and selectively target these exams for peer review. An analogous model can also be created to assist in the assignment of these peer review cases in keeping with specific priorities of the service provider. An additional option to enhance the peer review process would be to assign the peer review cases in a truly blinded fashion. In addition to eliminating traditional peer review bias, this approach has the potential to better define exam-specific standard of care, particularly when multiple readers participate in the peer review process.

  4. A Distributed Dynamic Super Peer Selection Method Based on Evolutionary Game for Heterogeneous P2P Streaming Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jing Chen

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Due to high efficiency and good scalability, hierarchical hybrid P2P architecture has drawn more and more attention in P2P streaming research and application fields recently. The problem about super peer selection, which is the key problem in hybrid heterogeneous P2P architecture, is becoming highly challenging because super peers must be selected from a huge and dynamically changing network. A distributed super peer selection (SPS algorithm for hybrid heterogeneous P2P streaming system based on evolutionary game is proposed in this paper. The super peer selection procedure is modeled based on evolutionary game framework firstly, and its evolutionarily stable strategies are analyzed. Then a distributed Q-learning algorithm (ESS-SPS according to the mixed strategies by analysis is proposed for the peers to converge to the ESSs based on its own payoff history. Compared to the traditional randomly super peer selection scheme, experiments results show that the proposed ESS-SPS algorithm achieves better performance in terms of social welfare and average upload rate of super peers and keeps the upload capacity of the P2P streaming system increasing steadily with the number of peers increasing.

  5. The near-peer tutoring programme: embracing the 'doctors-to-teach' philosophy - a comparison of the effects of participation between the senior and junior near-peer tutors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liew, Siaw-Cheok; Sow, Chew-Fei; Sidhu, Jagmohni; Nadarajah, Vishna Devi

    2015-01-01

    Background While there is an increasing pool of literature documenting the benefits of near-peer tutoring programme, little is known about the benefits for junior and senior peer tutors. Knowledge of the peer tutors' perceived benefits at different levels of seniority will aid in the development of a near-peer tutoring programme that will better fulfil both curricula and personal aspirations of near-peer tutors. We, therefore, investigated the perceived benefits of participation in a near-peer tutoring programme for junior as well as senior near-peer tutors. Methods Pre- and post-participation questionnaires were distributed to near-peer tutors after their clinical skills teaching sessions with Phase I undergraduate medical students. The Peer Tutor Assessment Instrument questionnaires were distributed to the 1) students, and to the 2) near-peer tutors (junior and senior) after each teaching and learning session for self-evaluation. Results The senior near-peer tutors felt that their participation in the programme had enhanced their skills (p=0.03). As a whole, the near-peer tutors were more motivated (Pre 5.32±0.46; Post 5.47±0.50; p=0.210) to participate in future teaching sessions but did not expect that having teaching experiences would make teaching as their major career path in the future (Pre 4.63±1.07; Post 4.54±0.98; p=0.701). The senior near-peer tutors were evaluated significantly higher by the students (p=0.0001). Students' evaluations of near-peer tutors on the domain of critical analysis was higher than self-evaluations (p=0.003). Conclusions Generally, the near-peer tutors perceived that they have benefited most in their skills enhancement and these near-peer tutors were scored highly by the students. However, senior near-peer tutors do not perceive that the programme has a lasting impact on their choice of career path.

  6. The near-peer tutoring programme: embracing the 'doctors-to-teach' philosophy--a comparison of the effects of participation between the senior and junior near-peer tutors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liew, Siaw-Cheok; Sow, Chew-Fei; Sidhu, Jagmohni; Nadarajah, Vishna Devi

    2015-01-01

    While there is an increasing pool of literature documenting the benefits of near-peer tutoring programme, little is known about the benefits for junior and senior peer tutors. Knowledge of the peer tutors' perceived benefits at different levels of seniority will aid in the development of a near-peer tutoring programme that will better fulfil both curricula and personal aspirations of near-peer tutors. We, therefore, investigated the perceived benefits of participation in a near-peer tutoring programme for junior as well as senior near-peer tutors. Pre- and post-participation questionnaires were distributed to near-peer tutors after their clinical skills teaching sessions with Phase I undergraduate medical students. The Peer Tutor Assessment Instrument questionnaires were distributed to the 1) students, and to the 2) near-peer tutors (junior and senior) after each teaching and learning session for self-evaluation. The senior near-peer tutors felt that their participation in the programme had enhanced their skills (p=0.03). As a whole, the near-peer tutors were more motivated (Pre 5.32±0.46; Post 5.47±0.50; p=0.210) to participate in future teaching sessions but did not expect that having teaching experiences would make teaching as their major career path in the future (Pre 4.63±1.07; Post 4.54±0.98; p=0.701). The senior near-peer tutors were evaluated significantly higher by the students (p=0.0001). Students' evaluations of near-peer tutors on the domain of critical analysis was higher than self-evaluations (p=0.003). Generally, the near-peer tutors perceived that they have benefited most in their skills enhancement and these near-peer tutors were scored highly by the students. However, senior near-peer tutors do not perceive that the programme has a lasting impact on their choice of career path.

  7. Peer Led Team Learning in Introductory Biology: Effects on Peer Leader Critical Thinking Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Snyder, Julia J.; Wiles, Jason R.

    2015-01-01

    This study evaluated hypothesized effects of the Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) instructional model on undergraduate peer leaders’ critical thinking skills. This investigation also explored peer leaders’ perceptions of their critical thinking skills. A quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test with control group design was used to determine critical thinking gains in PLTL/non-PLTL groups. Critical thinking was assessed using the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) among participants who had previously completed and been successful in a mixed-majors introductory biology course at a large, private research university in the American Northeast. Qualitative data from open-ended questionnaires confirmed that factors thought to improve critical thinking skills such as interaction with peers, problem solving, and discussion were perceived by participants to have an impact on critical thinking gains. However, no significant quantitative differences in peer leaders’ critical thinking skills were found between pre- and post-experience CCTST measurements or between experimental and control groups. PMID:25629311

  8. Peer led team learning in introductory biology: effects on peer leader critical thinking skills.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Julia J Snyder

    Full Text Available This study evaluated hypothesized effects of the Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL instructional model on undergraduate peer leaders' critical thinking skills. This investigation also explored peer leaders' perceptions of their critical thinking skills. A quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test with control group design was used to determine critical thinking gains in PLTL/non-PLTL groups. Critical thinking was assessed using the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST among participants who had previously completed and been successful in a mixed-majors introductory biology course at a large, private research university in the American Northeast. Qualitative data from open-ended questionnaires confirmed that factors thought to improve critical thinking skills such as interaction with peers, problem solving, and discussion were perceived by participants to have an impact on critical thinking gains. However, no significant quantitative differences in peer leaders' critical thinking skills were found between pre- and post-experience CCTST measurements or between experimental and control groups.

  9. Peer led team learning in introductory biology: effects on peer leader critical thinking skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Snyder, Julia J; Wiles, Jason R

    2015-01-01

    This study evaluated hypothesized effects of the Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) instructional model on undergraduate peer leaders' critical thinking skills. This investigation also explored peer leaders' perceptions of their critical thinking skills. A quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test with control group design was used to determine critical thinking gains in PLTL/non-PLTL groups. Critical thinking was assessed using the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) among participants who had previously completed and been successful in a mixed-majors introductory biology course at a large, private research university in the American Northeast. Qualitative data from open-ended questionnaires confirmed that factors thought to improve critical thinking skills such as interaction with peers, problem solving, and discussion were perceived by participants to have an impact on critical thinking gains. However, no significant quantitative differences in peer leaders' critical thinking skills were found between pre- and post-experience CCTST measurements or between experimental and control groups.

  10. Online peer-to-peer lending and its implications for small business credit financing in Norway

    OpenAIRE

    Brekke, Henrik; Hagerud, Simon

    2017-01-01

    This thesis seeks to explore how the emergence of online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending will impact small businesses lending in Norway. Increasing attention has been drawn to small businesses and their apparent struggle to obtain appropriate credit financing. At the same time, online P2P lending, part of the new wave of financial technologies, has been held up as a potential remedy for this credit rationing. Our research involves two main parts. First, we study the extent to whi...

  11. Online peer-to-peer lending and its implications for small business credit financing in Norway

    OpenAIRE

    Brekke, Henrik; Hagerud, Simon

    2017-01-01

    Masteroppgave(MSc) in Master of Science in Business, Strategy - Handelshøyskolen BI, 2017 This thesis seeks to explore how the emergence of online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending will impact small businesses lending in Norway. Increasing attention has been drawn to small businesses and their apparent struggle to obtain appropriate credit financing. At the same time, online P2P lending, part of the new wave of financial technologies, has been held up as a potential remedy for this cr...

  12. Peer Observation as a Means to Develop Teachers’ Professionalism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tosriadi -

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available The emergence of reflective practice in promoting teacher professional development has been discussed in many literatures. Research studies showed the benefits of conducting reflective practice to improve teachers’ classroom instruction. Peer observation as one of the reflective practice activities is viewed as an effective strategy in developing teachers’ pedagogy and professional competences. Peer observation refers to the act of teachers collaborate to identify the strength and the weakness of their teachings. By doing so, it is expected there will be improvement in learning outcomes. This study explored EFL teachers’ perceptions on peer observation as means to develop teachers’ professionalism. Two EFL teachers who worked as English teachers were purposively selected as the respondents of the study. The participating teachers got at least 1 year teaching experience to assure their involvement in peer observation. To meet the objectives of the study, the data were gained through classroom observation, and followed by in depth interview. Then, they were analyzed by using interactive model data analysis for qualitative study. The results of the study indicated teachers’ positive perceptions on peer observation as professional development tool. Peer observation brought some benefits for teachers. It helped teachers solve the problems they found in their teachings, instead it also could be used as learning opportunity by observing new teaching method/strategy from other colleagues. Key words: reflective practice; peer observation; classroom instruction; professional development tool

  13. Peer observation and feedback of resident teaching.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Snydman, Laura; Chandler, Daniel; Rencic, Joseph; Sung, Yung-Chi

    2013-02-01

    Resident doctors (residents) play a significant role in the education of medical students. Morning work rounds provide an optimal venue to assess resident teaching. The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of peer observation of resident work rounds, to evaluate resident perceptions of peer observation and to evaluate resident perceptions of peer feedback.   Twenty-four internal medicine residents were simultaneously observed by an attending physician and a peer while teaching during work rounds (between August2008 and May 2009). At year-end, residents received a survey to characterise their attitudes towards peer observation and feedback. Twenty-one residents (87.5%) completed the survey. Half (52.4%) felt that participating in the peer observation study stimulated their interest in teaching during work rounds. Prior to participation in the study, fewer than half (42.9%) felt comfortable being observed by their peers, compared with 71.4 percent after participation (p=0.02). The proportion of residents who felt comfortable giving feedback to peers increased from 26.3 to 65.0percent (p=0.004), and the proportion of residents who felt comfortable receiving feedback from peers increased from 76.2 to 95.2 percent (p=0.02). Peer observation and feedback of resident teaching during work rounds is feasible and rewarding for the residents involved. Comfort with regards to being observed by peers, with receiving feedback from peers and with giving feedback to peers significantly increased after the study. Most residents reported changes in their teaching behaviour resulting from feedback. Residents felt that observing a peer teach on work rounds was one of the most useful activities to improve their own teaching on work rounds. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2013.

  14. Hispanic/Latino Adolescents' Alcohol Use: Influence of Family Structure, Perceived Peer Norms, and Family Members' Alcohol Use

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacobs, Wura; Barry, Adam E.; Xu, Lei; Valente, Thomas W.

    2016-01-01

    Background: Family structure and value system among Hispanic/Latino population are changing. However, very few studies have examined the combination of the influence of family structure, parental and sibling alcohol use, perceived peer norms about drinking, and alcohol use among Hispanic/Latino adolescents. Purpose: This study examined the…

  15. Effects That Facebook-Based Online Peer Assessment with Micro-Teaching Videos Can Have on Attitudes toward Peer Assessment and Perceived Learning from Peer Assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Guan-Yu

    2016-01-01

    The present study investigates the effects that Facebook-based online peer assessment with micro-teaching videos can have on attitudes toward peer assessment and perceived learning from peer assessment. The study recruited a sample of 31 university students who were enrolled in a teacher-training course. Using assessees' microteaching videos, the…

  16. The Benefits of Peer-to-Peer Mentoring: Lessons from The Earth Science Women's Network (ESWN)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holloway, T.; Steiner, A.; Fiore, A.; Hastings, M.; McKinley, G.; Staudt, A.; Wiedinmyer, C.

    2007-12-01

    The Earth Science Women's Network (ESWN) is a grassroots organization that began with the meeting of six women graduate students and recent Ph.D.s at the Spring 2002 AGU meeting in Washington, DC. Since then, the group has grown to over 400 members, completely by word of mouth. We provide an informal, peer-to-peer network developed to promote and support careers of women in the Earth sciences. Through the network, women have found jobs, established research collaborations, shared strategies on work/life balance, and built a community stretching around the world. We maintain an email list for members to develop an expanded peer network outside of their own institution, and we have recently launched a co-ed jobs list to benefit the wider geoscience community. We will present a summary of strategies that have been discussed by group members on how to transition to a new faculty position, build a research group, develop new research collaborations, and balance career and family.

  17. The evolution of peer review as a basis for scientific publication: directional selection towards a robust discipline?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferreira, Catarina; Bastille-Rousseau, Guillaume; Bennett, Amanda M; Ellington, E Hance; Terwissen, Christine; Austin, Cayla; Borlestean, Adrian; Boudreau, Melanie R; Chan, Kevin; Forsythe, Adrian; Hossie, Thomas J; Landolt, Kristen; Longhi, Jessica; Otis, Josée-Anne; Peers, Michael J L; Rae, Jason; Seguin, Jacob; Watt, Cristen; Wehtje, Morgan; Murray, Dennis L

    2016-08-01

    Peer review is pivotal to science and academia, as it represents a widely accepted strategy for ensuring quality control in scientific research. Yet, the peer-review system is poorly adapted to recent changes in the discipline and current societal needs. We provide historical context for the cultural lag that governs peer review that has eventually led to the system's current structural weaknesses (voluntary review, unstandardized review criteria, decentralized process). We argue that some current attempts to upgrade or otherwise modify the peer-review system are merely sticking-plaster solutions to these fundamental flaws, and therefore are unlikely to resolve them in the long term. We claim that for peer review to be relevant, effective, and contemporary with today's publishing demands across scientific disciplines, its main components need to be redesigned. We propose directional changes that are likely to improve the quality, rigour, and timeliness of peer review, and thereby ensure that this critical process serves the community it was created for. © 2015 Cambridge Philosophical Society.

  18. Student nurses' experience of a system of peer group supervision ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Recommendations were made to change the system in order to eliminate the negative aspects and after careful consideration and programme changes, implemented in 2001. It therefore became necessary to evaluate the revised system of peer group supervision and guidance for effectiveness. A qualitative, descriptive ...

  19. Online Peer-to-Peer Communities in the Daily Lives of People With Chronic Illness: A Qualitative Systematic Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kingod, Natasja; Cleal, Bryan; Wahlberg, Ayo; Husted, Gitte R

    2017-01-01

    This qualitative systematic review investigated how individuals with chronic illness experience online peer-to-peer support and how their experiences influence daily life with illness. Selected studies were appraised by quality criteria focused upon research questions and study design, participant selection, methods of data collection, and methods of analysis. Four themes were identified: (a) illness-associated identity work, (b) social support and connectivity, (c) experiential knowledge sharing, and (d) collective voice and mobilization. Findings indicate that online peer-to-peer communities provide a supportive space for daily self-care related to chronic illness. Online communities provided a valued space to strengthen social ties and exchange knowledge that supported offline ties and patient-doctor relationships. Individuals used online communities to exchange experiential knowledge about everyday life with illness. This type of knowledge was perceived as extending far beyond medical care. Online communities were also used to mobilize and raise collective awareness about illness-specific concerns. © The Author(s) 2016.

  20. Peer influence on adolescent snacking

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nørgaard, Maria Kümpel; Hansen, Kathrine Nørgaard; Grunert, Klaus G

    2013-01-01

    Purpose – The purpose of the research presented in this paper is 1) To explore peer influence and the social and symbolic meaning that adolescents (10 to 16 years) attach to snacks; and 2) to investigate the relative influence of peer influence compared to personal factors in explaining perceived...... importance of snack attributes; and 3) To investigate age and gender differences in the peer influence process. Design/methodology/approach – A web-based survey distributed via email was combined with follow-up focus groups including adolescents aged 10 to 16 years in Denmark. Findings – The survey results...... show that the youngest adolescents and the girls perceived the highest influence from peers, and that peer social influence has more effect on what adolescents perceive as important snack attributes as compared to more personal factors. The focus group results show that adolescents purchase and consume...

  1. Kentucky Peer Exchange : Strategic Highway Safety Plans (SHSPs) - An RSPCB Peer Exchange

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-06-01

    This report summarizes a peer exchange hosted by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) and the Kentucky Office of Highway Safety (KOHS) on June 16-17, 2015, in Frankfort, KY. The event included peer representatives from the Georgia Department of...

  2. Peer Influences on Adolescent Decision Making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albert, Dustin; Chein, Jason; Steinberg, Laurence

    2013-04-01

    Research efforts to account for elevated risk behavior among adolescents have arrived at an exciting new stage. Moving beyond laboratory studies of age differences in "cool" cognitive processes related to risk perception and reasoning, new approaches have shifted focus to the influence of social and emotional factors on adolescent neurocognition. We review recent research suggesting that adolescent risk-taking propensity derives in part from a maturational gap between early adolescent remodeling of the brain's socio-emotional reward system and a gradual, prolonged strengthening of the cognitive control system. At a time when adolescents spend an increasing amount of time with their peers, research suggests that peer-related stimuli may sensitize the reward system to respond to the reward value of risky behavior. As the cognitive control system gradually matures over the course of the teenage years, adolescents grow in their capacity to coordinate affect and cognition, and to exercise self-regulation even in emotionally arousing situations. These capacities are reflected in gradual growth in the capacity to resist peer influence.

  3. Inadvertent Exposure to Pornography on the Internet: Implications of Peer-to-Peer File-Sharing Networks for Child Development and Families

    Science.gov (United States)

    Greenfield, P.M.

    2004-01-01

    This essay comprises testimony to the Congressional Committee on Government Reform. The Committee's concern was the possibility of exposure to pornography when children and teens participate in peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, which are extremely popular in these age groups. A review of the relevant literature led to three major conclusions:…

  4. Developing future nurse educators through peer mentoring

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rosenau PA

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Patricia A Rosenau, Rita F Lisella, Tracey L Clancy, Lorelli S NowellFaculty of Nursing, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, CanadaBackground: The nursing workforce and nursing education demographic trends reinforce the urgency to cultivate future nursing leaders, educators, and mentors. The changing realities of health care environments, involving crowded student placements, overtaxed clinical mentors and preceptors, and inexperienced staff, hamper student learning and professional development. Peer mentoring has been used successfully in nursing education to enhance student engagement and the quality of the student learning experience. Although various terms like peer mentor have been used to describe the role of senior students facilitating junior student learning, the literature is silent about how peer mentoring fosters the development of future nursing education leaders.Objectives: The aim of this study was to understand how peer mentorship fosters the development of nursing education leadership in senior undergraduate nursing students enrolled in an elective undergraduate peer-mentoring credit course, Introductory Concepts in Nursing Education and Leadership Through Peer-Led Learning.Design and method: This phenomenological study explored the development of nursing education leadership in senior undergraduate students through the analysis of critical reflections of individual senior students and online discussions between triads of senior students teaching/learning across diverse junior-level theory and practice courses.Participants: Seventeen senior undergraduate nursing students enrolled in the elective course participated in the study.Results: From the critical reflections and online discussions, four themes emerged: "developing teaching philosophies and pedagogies", "learning teaching strategies", "supportive peer relationship", and "benefits of the peer mentorship program".Conclusion: The creation and promotion of peer leadership

  5. Autenticación de contenidos y control de acceso en redes peer-to-peer puras

    OpenAIRE

    Palomar González, Esther

    2011-01-01

    Esta tesis doctoral se enmarca dentro del área de investigación de la seguridad en entornos Peer-to-Peer (P2P) totalmente descentralizados (también denominados puros.) En particular, el objetivo principal de esta tesis doctoral es definir, analizar e implementar un esquema para la distribución segura de los contenidos compartidos. En este trabajo de tesis se han realizado importantes avances e innovadoras aportaciones enfocadas a garantizar que el contenido compartido es auténtico; es decir, ...

  6. 40 CFR 194.27 - Peer review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 24 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Peer review. 194.27 Section 194.27... § 194.27 Peer review. (a) Any compliance application shall include documentation of peer review that has... barrier evaluation as required in § 194.44. (b) Peer review processes required in paragraph (a) of this...

  7. 45 CFR 1388.9 - Peer review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 45 Public Welfare 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Peer review. 1388.9 Section 1388.9 Public Welfare... PROGRAM THE UNIVERSITY AFFILIATED PROGRAMS § 1388.9 Peer review. (a) The purpose of the peer review... D, Section 152 of the Act, must be evaluated through the peer review process. (c) Panels must be...

  8. Peer Teaching to Foster Learning in Physiology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Srivastava, Tripti K; Waghmare, Lalitbhushan S; Mishra, Ved Prakash; Rawekar, Alka T; Quazi, Nazli; Jagzape, Arunita T

    2015-08-01

    Peer teaching is an effective tool to promote learning and retention of knowledge. By preparing to teach, students are encouraged to construct their own learning program, so that they can explain effectively to fellow learners. Peer teaching is introduced in present study to foster learning and pedagogical skills amongst first year medical under-graduates in physiology with a Hypothesis that teaching is linked to learning on part of the teacher. Non-randomized, Interventional study, with mixed methods design. Cases experienced peer teaching whereas controls underwent tutorials for four consecutive classes. Quantitative Evaluation was done through pre/post test score analysis for Class average normalized gain and tests of significance, difference in average score in surprise class test after one month and percentage of responses in closed ended items of feedback questionnaire. Qualitative Evaluation was done through categorization of open ended items and coding of reflective statements. The average pre and post test score was statistically significant within cases (p = 0.01) and controls (p = 0.023). The average post test scores was more for cases though not statistically significant. The class average normalized gain (g) for Tutorials was 49% and for peer teaching 53%. Surprise test had average scoring of 36 marks (out of 50) for controls and 41 marks for cases. Analysed section wise, the average score was better for Long answer question (LAQ) in cases. Section wise analysis suggested that through peer teaching, retention was better for descriptive answers as LAQ has better average score in cases. Feedback responses were predominantly positive for efficacy of peer teaching as a learning method. The reflective statements were sorted into reflection in action, reflection on action, claiming evidence, describing experience, and recognizing discrepancies. Teaching can stimulate further learning as it involves interplay of three processes: metacognitive awareness

  9. Partnerships Enhancing Practice: A Preliminary Model of Technology-Based Peer-to-Peer Evaluations of Teaching in Higher Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Servilio, Kathryn L.; Hollingshead, Aleksandra; Hott, Brittany L.

    2017-01-01

    In higher education, current teaching evaluation models typically involve senior faculty evaluating junior faculty. However, there is evidence that peer-to-peer junior faculty observations and feedback may be just as effective. This descriptive case study utilized an inductive analysis to examine experiences of six special education early career…

  10. SALTO Peer Review Guidelines. Guidelines for Peer Review of Safety Aspects of Long Term Operation of Nuclear Power Plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2014-01-01

    International peer review is a useful tool for Member States to exchange experiences, learn from each other and apply good practices in the long term operation (LTO) of nuclear power plants (NPPs). The peer review is also an important mechanism through which the IAEA supports Member States in enhancing the safety of NPPs. The IAEA has conducted various types of safety review that indirectly address aspects of LTO, including safety reviews for design, engineering, operation and external hazards. Operational Safety Review Team (OSART) services include review of ageing management programmes. In addition, several Member States have requested Ageing Management Assessment Team (AMAT) missions. Through these experiences, it was recognized that a comprehensive peer review on LTO would be very useful to Member States. The Safety Aspects of Long Term Operation (SALTO) peer review addresses strategy and key elements for the safe LTO of NPPs, which includes AMAT objectives and complements OSART reviews. The SALTO peer review is designed to assist operating organizations in adopting a proper approach to LTP including implementing appropriate activities to ensure that plant safety will be maintained during the LTO period. The SALTO peer review can be tailored to focus on ageing management programmes (AMPs) or on other activities related to LTO to support the Member State in enhancing the safety of its NPPs. The SALTO peer review can also support regulators in establishing or improving regulatory and licensing strategies for the LTO of NPPs. The guidelines in this publication are primarily intended for members of a SALTO review team and provide a basic structure and common reference for peer reviews of LTO. Additionally, the guidelines also provide useful information to the operating organizations of NPPs (or technical support organizations) for carrying out their own self-assessments or comprehensive programme reviews. The guidelines are intended to be generic, as there are

  11. Temperament Alters Susceptibility to Negative Peer Influence in Early Adolescence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mrug, Sylvie; Madan, Anjana; Windle, Michael

    2012-01-01

    The role of deviant peers in adolescent antisocial behavior has been well documented, but less is known about individual differences in susceptibility to negative peer influence. This study examined whether specific temperament dimensions moderate the prospective relationship between peer deviance and delinquent behavior in early adolescence.…

  12. Local Road Safety Peer Exchange - Regions 3 & 5 : An RSPCB Peer Exchange

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-06-01

    This report provides a summary of the proceedings of the Local Road Safety Peer Exchange held in Columbus, Ohio on June 12 and 13, 2013. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) sponsored the Peer Exchange in coordination with the Region 3 & 5 Local...

  13. Peer social support training in UK prisons.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stewart, Warren; Lovely, Rachel

    2017-10-11

    To undertake a service evaluation to assess the effect of peer social support training using two separate learning programmes, which were designed to assist prisoners to support older prisoners and prisoners with disabilities. The service evaluation used an action research approach to support planning, delivery and data collection. Eleven interviews with nine prisoners who had undertaken the peer social support training programmes and two members of prison staff (one nurse manager and one prison officer) were recorded and transcribed by the researchers. This data was coded and thematically analysed to evaluate the findings. Recommendations were made regarding the format and content of the training. The training was well received by the peer social support worker trainees and had several positive outcomes, including increased peer social support, improved relationships between peer social support workers and older prisoners and prisoners with disabilities, increased self-esteem, measured as 'social capital', among peer social support workers, and effective teamworking. The peer social support training programmes were considered to be a positive intervention and were effective in supporting peer social support roles. Recommendations for future training of prisoner peer support workers include involving existing peer social support workers in training and recruitment, and enhancing the role of peer social support workers in prisons by providing them with job descriptions. ©2012 RCN Publishing Company Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be copied, transmitted or recorded in any way, in whole or part, without prior permission of the publishers.

  14. Peer Mentoring and Peer Tutoring among K-12 Students: A Literature Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goodrich, Andrew

    2018-01-01

    The purpose of this literature review is to examine research on peer mentoring among K-12 students to assist practitioners with how to incorporate these instructional techniques into their own music programs. Primary themes across the music education literature of peer mentoring include the role of music teachers, the role of students as they…

  15. Demystifying the peer-review process - workshop

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scientific writing and peer-review are integral parts of the publishing process. This workshop aims to demystify the peer-review process for early career scientists and provide insightful tips for streamlining the submission and peer review process for all researchers. Providing ...

  16. Peer-Allocated Instant Response (PAIR): Computional allocation of peer tutors in learning communities

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Westera, Wim

    2009-01-01

    Westera, W. (2007). Peer-Allocated Instant Response (PAIR): Computational allocation of peer tutors in learning communities. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/10/2/5.html

  17. Peer Review of Teaching

    OpenAIRE

    Fernandez, Charles E.; Yu, Jenny

    2007-01-01

    This article provides an overview and description of peer review of teaching for faculty members and administrators who would like to implement a peer review program. This may include classroom and clinical settings. A brief overview, procedure, and a teaching competence evaluation rubric are provided

  18. Social Withdrawal, Peer Rejection, and Peer Victimization in Taiwanese Middle School Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wei, Hsi-Sheng; Chen, Ji-Kang

    2009-01-01

    This study aims to examine the relationships between social withdrawal, peer rejection and peer victimization among Taiwanese middle school students as well as to explore the applicability of relevant models in an East Asia culture context. The sample of this study consists of 219 7th grade students from middle schools in Taiwan. Data from…

  19. Multi-stage open peer review: scientific evaluation integrating the strengths of traditional peer review with the virtues of transparency and self-regulation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ulrich ePöschl

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available The traditional forms of scientific publishing and peer review do not live up to the demands of efficient communication and quality assurance in today’s highly diverse and rapidly evolving world of science. They need to be advanced and complemented by interactive and transparent forms of review, publication, and discussion that are open to the scientific community and to the public.The advantages of open access, public peer review and interactive discussion can be efficiently and flexibly combined with the strengths of traditional scientific peer review. Since 2001 the benefits and viability of this approach are clearly demonstrated by the highly successful interactive open access journal Atmo¬sphe¬ric Chemistry and Physics (ACP and a growing number of sister journals launched and operated by the European Geosciences Union (EGU and the open access publisher Copernicus.The interactive open access journals are practicing an integrative multi-stage process of publication and peer review combined with interactive public discussion, which effectively resolves the dilemma between rapid scientific exchange and thorough quality assurance. The high efficiency and predictive validity of multi-stage open peer review have been confirmed in a series of dedicated studies by evaluation experts from the social sciences, and the same or similar concepts have recently also been adopted in other disciplines, including the life sciences and economics. Multi-stage open peer review can be flexibly adjusted to the needs and peculiarities of different scientific communities. Due to the flexibility and compatibility with traditional structures of scientific publishing and peer review, the multi-stage open peer review concept enables efficient evolution in scientific communication and quality assurance. It has the potential for swift replacement of hidden peer review as the standard of scientific quality assurance, and it provides a basis for open evaluation in

  20. Undergraduate Essay Writing: Online and Face-to-Face Peer Reviews

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chong, Mike R.; Goff, Lori; Dej, Kimberly

    2012-01-01

    We implemented two different approaches of using peer review to support undergraduate essay assignments for students taking large second-year courses in life sciences and biology: a web-based online peer review (OPR) approach and a more traditional face-to-face peer review (FPR) approach that was conducted in tutorial settings. The essays…

  1. Alcohol Use and Popularity: Social Payoffs from Conforming to Peers' Behavior

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balsa, Ana I.; Homer, Jenny F.; French, Michael T.; Norton, Edward C.

    2010-01-01

    Although many economic analyses of adolescents have examined the costs of risky behaviors, few have investigated the gains that young people derive from such actions, particularly in terms of social payoffs for complying with peer behavior. This paper studies the relationship between adolescents' use of alcohol (relative to that of their peers) and popularity at school. We use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a rich and nationally-representative survey with detailed information on social networks. Our findings suggest that adolescents are socially rewarded for conforming to their peers' alcohol use and penalized (to a lesser degree) for increasing their consumption above that of their peers. Male adolescents are rewarded for keeping up with their peers' drinking and for getting drunk. Female adolescents are rewarded for drinking per se, but not necessarily for keeping up with their peers. The results offer new information on peer influence and have implications for substance abuse interventions at school and in the community. PMID:21860582

  2. Does This Make Me Look Fat? Peer Crowd and Peer Contributions to Adolescent Girls' Weight Control Behaviors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mackey, Eleanor Race; La Greca, Annette M.

    2008-01-01

    Based on the Theory of Reasoned Action, this study evaluated a "socialization" model linking girls' peer crowd affiliations (e.g., Jocks, Populars) with their own weight concern, perceived peer weight norms, and weight control behaviors. An alternative "selection" model was also evaluated. Girls (N = 236; M age = 15.95 years) from diverse ethnic…

  3. Peer reviewing e-learning: opportunities, challenges, and solutions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruiz, Jorge G; Candler, Chris; Teasdale, Thomas A

    2007-05-01

    Peer review is the foundation of academic publication and a necessary step in the scrutiny of any scholarly work. Simply defined, peer review is the attentive, unbiased assessment of any scholarly work that is submitted for formal scrutiny. Although medical school faculty increasingly use technology in clinical teaching, e-learning materials are often not subjected to a rigorous peer review process. The authors contrast peer review of e-learning materials with that of print materials, describe peer review issues regarding e-learning materials, propose approaches to address the challenges of peer review of e-learning materials, and outline directions for refinement of the e-learning peer review process. At its core, the peer review of e-learning materials should not differ substantially from that of traditional manuscripts. However, e-learning introduces new demands that impel reviewers to consider aspects that are unique to educational technology, including pedagogy, format, usability, navigation, interactivity, delivery, ease of updating, distribution, and access. Four approaches are offered to ease the burden and improve the quality of e-learning peer review: develop peer review training, embrace multidisciplinary peer review, develop guidelines, and provide incentives and compensation. The authors conclude with suggestions about peer review research.

  4. Relation of depression and anxiety to self- and peer-reported relational aggression.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zimmer-Gembeck, Melanie J; Pronk, Rhiarne E

    2012-01-01

    The primary purpose of this multimethod and multimeasure study was to identify how the peer relationships of Australian adolescents (ages 9-15 years; N = 335) at school, including relational aggression and victimization, correlated with their symptoms of depression and anxiety. Moreover, relational aggression and victimization were measured via both self- and peer report, and discrepancies between reports were considered as correlates of symptoms and peer relationship status. Adolescents who reported more symptoms of depression and anxiety also self-reported more relational victimization and reported their peers as less trustworthy. Adolescents who overreported their own relational victimization and aggression compared with peer report had more symptoms compared with those who agreed with their peers or underreported their aggression and victimization. Adolescents who underreported their own aggression were not only more socially prominent but were also more disliked by their peers. When considered independent of self-reports, no measure of peer-reported peer status, aggression, or victimization was associated with depressive symptoms; but adolescents reported as more accepted by their peers had fewer anxiety symptoms. Longitudinal research should be conducted to examine adolescents' increasing socioemotional problems as correlates of discrepancies between self- and peer reports of relational aggression and victimization. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  5. Peer support and peer-led family support for persons living with schizophrenia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duckworth, Kenneth; Halpern, Lisa

    2014-05-01

    Peer support and peer-led family psychoeducation represent two distinct and complementary recovery-oriented models to support individuals who live with schizophrenia and their families, respectively. The goals of these models focus on improving knowledge, coping, self-care, social support, and self-management strategies. These models represent important capacity-building strategies for people who live with the illness and the people who love them. This brief article is intended to provide the practicing clinician, person living with schizophrenia, and policy maker with a working knowledge of the current state of the literature in these two related fields. Practitioners should consider these resources and integrate them into their care. A person living with schizophrenia could use this review to advocate for appropriate resources and to identify career opportunities. Policy makers could benefit from an understanding of the literature to mitigate financial and cultural barriers to adopting these practices. The last 5 years have seen a dramatic expansion of the application of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to give evidence to match the experience of people in these programs. The field has seen Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) named as evidence-based practice by the National Registry of Evidence-Based Practices. A RCT was also conducted for another peer-developed and led program called Building Recovery of Individual Dreams & Goals through Education & Support. Family to Family, the largest peer-led family psychoeducation course, was also found to have significant impact after the study and also 6 months later in RCT. Family to Family has also been named as an evidence-based practice. The field of people who are living well with schizophrenia working as resources and supports to others living with the illness is an idea that is growing momentum. This momentum has been matched by the RCT evidence. Peer support as a professional role has an emerging literature

  6. Implementing mental health peer support: a South Australian experience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Franke, Carmen C D; Paton, Barbara C; Gassner, Lee-Anne J

    2010-01-01

    Mental illness is among the greatest causes of disability, diminished quality of life and reduced productivity. Mental health policy aims to reform services to meet consumers' needs and one of the strategies is to increase the number of consumers working in the mental health service system. In South Australia, the Peer Work Project was established to provide a program for the training of consumers to work alongside mental health services. The project developed a flexible training pathway that consisted of an information session, the Introduction to Peer Work (IPW) course and further training pathways for peer workers. External evaluation indicated that the IPW course was a good preparation for peer workers, but a crucial factor in the implementation process of employing peer workers was commitment and leadership within the organisation in both preparing the organisation and supporting peer workers in their role. To assist organisations wanting to employ peer workers, a three step model was developed: prepare, train and support. The project has been successful in establishing employment outcomes for IPW graduates. The outcomes increased with time after graduation and there was a shift from voluntary to paid employment.

  7. Peer Inquiry: Discovering What You Know through Dialogue

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wix, Linney; John-Steiner, Vera

    2008-01-01

    The article discusses a dialogical peer inquiry process as a practice of co-constructing knowledge in graduate coursework. The process, formerly structured as an exam, was developed by Dr. Vera John-Steiner more than 30 years ago and has been implemented in adapted forms by her students in their teaching. The dialogical peer inquiry process…

  8. Brain structural correlates of risk-taking behavior and effects of peer influence in adolescents.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Myoung Soo Kwon

    Full Text Available Adolescents are characterized by impulsive risky behavior, particularly in the presence of peers. We discriminated high and low risk-taking male adolescents aged 18-19 years by assessing their propensity for risky behavior and vulnerability to peer influence with personality tests, and compared structural differences in gray and white matter of the brain with voxel-based morphometry (VBM and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI, respectively. We also compared the brain structures according to the participants' actual risk-taking behavior in a simulated driving task with two different social conditions making up a peer competition situation. There was a discrepancy between the self-reported personality test results and risky driving behavior (running through an intersection with traffic lights turning yellow, chancing a collision with another vehicle. Comparison between high and low risk-taking adolescents according to personality test results revealed no significant difference in gray matter volume and white matter integrity. However, comparison according to actual risk-taking behavior during task performance revealed significantly higher white matter integrity in the high risk-taking group, suggesting that increased risky behavior during adolescence is not necessarily attributed to the immature brain as conventional wisdom says.

  9. Positive and Negative Peer Influence in Residential Care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huefner, Jonathan C; Smith, Gail L; Stevens, Amy L

    2017-10-13

    The potential for negative peer influence has been well established in research, and there is a growing interest in how positive peer influence also impacts youth. No research, however, has concurrently examined positive and negative peer influence in the context of residential care. Clinical records for 886 residential care youth were used in a Hierarchical Linear Model analysis to examine the impact of negative and positive peer influence on naturally occurring patterns of serious problem behavior over time. Negative peer influence, where the majority of youth in a home manifested above the average number of serious behavior problems, occurred 13.7% of the time. Positive peer influence, where the majority of youth manifested no serious problem behaviors for the month, occurred 47.7% of the time. Overall, youth problem behavior improved over time. There were significantly lower rates of serious problem behavior in target youth during positive peer influence months. Conversely, there were significantly higher rates of serious problem behaviors in target youth during negative peer influence months. Negative peer influence had a relatively greater impact on target peers' serious behavior problems than did positive peer influence. Caregiver experience significantly reduced the impact of negative peer influence, but did not significantly augment positive peer influence. Months where negative peer influence was combined with inexperienced caregivers produced the highest rates of serious problem behavior. Our results support the view that residential programs for troubled youth need to create circumstances that promote positive and control for negative peer influence.

  10. An Expectancy Theory Motivation Approach to Peer Assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Friedman, Barry A.; Cox, Pamela L.; Maher, Larry E.

    2008-01-01

    Group projects are an important component of higher education, and the use of peer assessment of students' individual contributions to group projects has increased. The researchers employed an expectancy theory approach and an experimental design in a field setting to investigate conditions that influence students' motivation to rate their peers'…

  11. Response switching and self-efficacy in Peer Instruction classrooms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Kelly; Schell, Julie; Ho, Andrew; Lukoff, Brian; Mazur, Eric

    2015-06-01

    Peer Instruction, a well-known student-centered teaching method, engages students during class through structured, frequent questioning and is often facilitated by classroom response systems. The central feature of any Peer Instruction class is a conceptual question designed to help resolve student misconceptions about subject matter. We provide students two opportunities to answer each question—once after a round of individual reflection and then again after a discussion round with a peer. The second round provides students the choice to "switch" their original response to a different answer. The percentage of right answers typically increases after peer discussion: most students who answer incorrectly in the individual round switch to the correct answer after the peer discussion. However, for any given question there are also students who switch their initially right answer to a wrong answer and students who switch their initially wrong answer to a different wrong answer. In this study, we analyze response switching over one semester of an introductory electricity and magnetism course taught using Peer Instruction at Harvard University. Two key features emerge from our analysis: First, response switching correlates with academic self-efficacy. Students with low self-efficacy switch their responses more than students with high self-efficacy. Second, switching also correlates with the difficulty of the question; students switch to incorrect responses more often when the question is difficult. These findings indicate that instructors may need to provide greater support for difficult questions, such as supplying cues during lectures, increasing times for discussions, or ensuring effective pairing (such as having a student with one right answer in the pair). Additionally, the connection between response switching and self-efficacy motivates interventions to increase student self-efficacy at the beginning of the semester by helping students develop early mastery or

  12. Specificity of peer conflicts in adolescence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Petrović Danijela

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available The results of the survey conducted on the sample of 530 adolescents are presented in this paper. The sample included two age groups (13 and 16 years. The research was realized in 11 town and 26 schools. The method of the retrospection of the conflict contents, with one week retrospection interval, was used to research the perception of the conflict characteristics. The distinctive characteristics and the effects of the peer conflicts in adolescence have been identified by comparing them to the conflicts with friends, romantic partners, siblings and teachers. According to the results peer conflicts have certain specificity. Although less frequent than conflicts with parents and siblings, the peer conflicts in adolescence are widen phenomenon - on average, the adolescents get in conflict with their peers more than 13 times in a week, almost twice in a day. The most frequent causes are teasing and inappropriate jokes, deliberate provoking, gossips, insults and not respecting the differences in opinion. Peers follow the teachers as the least important persons in the conflict. Compared to the conflicts in other types of the social relations, the conflicts with peers are the least uncomfortable. Yielding is the least, competition the most present resolution strategy in peer conflicts. As well as the most conflicts in this age conflicts with peers are short time episode.

  13. Peer-to-peer shadowing as a technique for the development of nurse middle managers clinical leadership : an explorative study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Pieterbas Lalleman; G.A.C. Smid; J. Rasiah; J. Bouma; M.J. Schuurmans

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences and impact of peer-to-peer shadowing as a technique to develop nurse middle managers’ clinical leadership practices. A qualitative descriptive study was conducted to gain insight into the experiences of nurse middle managers using

  14. Using Peer Feedback to Improve Learning via Online Peer Assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Eric Zhi-Feng; Lee, Chun-Yi

    2013-01-01

    This study investigates the influence of various forms of peer observation and feedback on student learning. We recruited twelve graduate students enrolled in a course entitled, Statistics in Education and Psychology, at a university in northern Taiwan. Researchers adopted the case study method, and the course lasted for ten weeks. Students were…

  15. Clarifying the role of the mental health peer specialist in Massachusetts, USA: insights from peer specialists, supervisors and clients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cabral, Linda; Strother, Heather; Muhr, Kathy; Sefton, Laura; Savageau, Judith

    2014-01-01

    Mental health peer specialists develop peer-to-peer relationships of trust with clients to improve their health and well-being, functioning in ways similar to community health workers. Although the number of peer specialists in use has been increasing, their role in care teams is less defined than that of the community health worker. This qualitative study explored how the peer specialist role is defined across different stakeholder groups, the expectations for this role and how the peer specialist is utilised and integrated across different types of mental health services. Data were collected through interviews and focus groups conducted in Massachusetts with peer specialists (N = 44), their supervisors (N = 14) and clients (N = 10) between September 2009 and January 2011. A consensus coding approach was used and all data outputs were reviewed by the entire team to identify themes. Peer specialists reported that their most important role is to develop relationships with clients and that having lived mental health experience is a key element in creating that bond. They also indicated that educating staff about the recovery model and peer role is another important function. However, they often felt a lack of clarity about their role within their organisation and care team. Supervisors valued the unique experience that peer specialists bring to an organisation. However, without a defined set of expectations for this role, they struggled with training, guiding and evaluating their peer specialist staff. Clients reported that the shared lived experience is important for the relationship and that working with a peer specialist has improved their mental health. With increasing support for person-centred integrated healthcare delivery models, the demand for mental health peer specialist services will probably increase. Therefore, clearer role definition, as well as workforce development focused on team orientation, is necessary for peer specialists to be fully integrated

  16. The ethics of peer review in bioethics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wendler, David; Miller, Franklin

    2014-01-01

    A good deal has been written on the ethics of peer review, especially in the scientific and medical literatures. In contrast, we are unaware of any articles on the ethics of peer review in bioethics. Recognising this gap, we evaluate the extant proposals regarding ethical standards for peer review in general and consider how they apply to bioethics. We argue that scholars have an obligation to perform peer review based on the extent to which they personally benefit from the peer review process. We also argue, contrary to existing proposals and guidelines, that it can be appropriate for peer reviewers to benefit in their own scholarship from the manuscripts they review. With respect to bioethics in particular, we endorse double-blind review and suggest several ways in which the peer review process might be improved. PMID:24131903

  17. Peer Relations in Peer Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riese, Hanne; Samara, Akylina; Lillejord, Solvi

    2012-01-01

    Over the last decades, much research on peer learning practices has been conducted. Quantitative, experimental designs focusing on problems of cause and effect dominate. Consequently, effects on achievement are well documented, as is the influence of different conditions on the effect rate. In spite of the general acknowledgment of the importance…

  18. Psychometric properties of the Peer Proficiency Assessment (PEPA): a tool for evaluation of undergraduate peer counselors' motivational interviewing fidelity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mastroleo, Nadine R; Mallett, Kimberly A; Turrisi, Rob; Ray, Anne E

    2009-09-01

    Despite the expanding use of undergraduate student peer counseling interventions aimed at reducing college student drinking, few programs evaluate peer counselors' competency to conduct these interventions. The present research describes the development and psychometric assessments of the Peer Proficiency Assessment (PEPA), a new tool for examining Motivational Interviewing adherence in undergraduate student peer delivered interventions. Twenty peer delivered sessions were evaluated by master and undergraduate student coders using a cross-validation design to examine peer based alcohol intervention sessions. Assessments revealed high inter-rater reliability between student and master coders and good correlations between previously established fidelity tools. Findings lend support for the use of the PEPA to examine peer counselor competency. The PEPA, training for use, inter-rater reliability information, construct and predictive validity, and tool usefulness are described.

  19. Can Near-Peer Teaching Improve Academic Performance?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Brett; Fowler, James

    2014-01-01

    Near peer teaching is becoming increasingly popular within healthcare education. The experiences and effects of near-peer teaching upon the near-peer teachers' academic performance are poorly understood. In order to address this, the objective of this study was to examine whether a near-peer teaching program improved the overall clinical unit…

  20. Búsqueda de recursos en redes peer-to-peer totalmente descentralizadas basada en redes neuronales artificiales

    OpenAIRE

    Corbalán, Leonardo César

    2014-01-01

    Las redes Peer-to-Peer (P2P) puras no estructuradas como Gnutella, dónde los nodos se conectan entre sí como pares o iguales, sin roles diferenciados ni jerarquías de ninguna clase, son sistemas distribuidos, dinámicos, sin punto alguno de centralización, que favorecen la robustez y tolerancia a fallos. Sin embargo, la búsqueda de recursos en estos sistemas constituye un problema esencial. El algoritmo de búsqueda BFS de Gnutella genera gran cantidad de tráfico dificultando su escalabilidad. ...

  1. Advancing Kinesiology through Improved Peer Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knudson, Duane V.; Morrow, James R., Jr.; Thomas, Jerry R.

    2014-01-01

    Peer review of scholarship is essential to journal quality, evidence, knowledge advancement, and application of that knowledge in any field. This commentary summarizes recent literature on issues related to peer-review quality and current review practice in kinesiology and provides recommendations to improve peer review in kinesiology journals. We…

  2. Which peer teaching methods do medical students prefer?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jayakumar, Nithish; Srirathan, Danushan; Shah, Rishita; Jakubowska, Agnieszka; Clarke, Andrew; Annan, David; Albasha, Dekan

    2016-01-01

    The beneficial effects of peer teaching in medical education have been well-described in the literature. However, it is unclear whether students prefer to be taught by peers in small or large group settings. This study's aim was to identify differences in medical students' preferences and perceptions of small-group versus large-group peer teaching. Questionnaires were administered to medical students in Year 3 and Year 4 (first 2 years of clinical training) at one institution in the United Kingdom to identify their experiences and perceptions of small-and large-group peer teaching. For this study, small-group peer teaching was defined as a tutorial, or similar, taught by peer tutor to a group of 5 students or less. Large-group peer teaching was defined as a lecture, or similar, taught by peer tutors to a group of more than 20 students. Seventy-three students (81% response rate) completed the questionnaires (54% males; median age of 23). Nearly 55% of respondents reported prior exposure to small-group peer teaching but a larger proportion of respondents (86%) had previously attended large-group peer teaching. Of all valid responses, 49% did not have a preference of peer teaching method while 47% preferred small-group peer teaching. The majority of Year 3 students preferred small-group peer teaching to no preference (62.5% vs 37.5%, Fisher's exact test; P = 0.035) whereas most Year 4 students did not report a particular preference. Likert-scale responses showed that the majority of students held negative perceptions about large-group peer teaching, in comparison with small-group peer teaching, with respect to (1) interactivity, (2) a comfortable environment to ask questions, and (3) feedback received. Most respondents in this study did not report a preference for small-versus large-group settings when taught by peers. More Year 3 respondents were likely to prefer small-group peer teaching as opposed to Year 4 respondents.

  3. A cross-lagged structural equation model of relational aggression, physical aggression, and peer status in a Chinese culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tseng, Wan-Ling; Banny, Adrienne M; Kawabata, Yoshito; Crick, Nicki R; Gau, Susan Shur-Fen

    2013-01-01

    This short-term longitudinal study examined the associations among relational aggression, physical aggression, and peer status (i.e., acceptance, rejection, and perceived popularity) across three time points, six months apart, in a Taiwanese sample. Participants were 198 fifth grade students (94 girls and 104 boys; Mean age = 10.35 years) from Taipei, Taiwan. Study variables were assessed using peer nomination procedure. Results from the cross-lagged structural equation models demonstrated that there were longitudinal associations between relational aggression and each of the peer status constructs while only one longitudinal association was found for physical aggression such that physical aggression positively predicted subsequent peer rejection. The longitudinal associations did not vary with gender. Results also showed high stabilities of relational aggression, physical aggression, and the three peer status constructs over 1 year as well as high concurrent association between relational and physical aggression. In addition, relational aggression and physical aggression were concurrently related to less acceptance, more rejection, and less perceived popularity, especially at the outset of the study. Findings of this study demonstrated both similarities and differences in relation to previous literature in primarily Western cultures. This study also highlights the bidirectional and complex nature of the association between aggression and peer status, which appears to depend on the form of aggression and on the particular indicator of peer status under study. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  4. Minnesota Peer Exchange : Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) Implementation - An RSPCB Peer Exchange

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-02-01

    The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MN DOT) hosted a peer exchange February 3-4, 2015, in St. Paul, Minnesota. The event included peer representatives from the Nevada Department of Transportation (NV DOT), the Ohio Department of Transportatio...

  5. A Model Of Critical Peer Feedback To Facilitate Business English Writing Using Qzone Weblogs Among Chinese Undergraduates

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gao Xianwei

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to explore critical thinking skills in peer feedback for Business English writing in order to facilitate the quality of peer feedback and quality of Business English writing. “Critical peer feedback” was conceptualized with the integration of “critical thinking” and “peer feedback” in order to improve the quality of peer feedback. This study explored the process, content and factors of critical peer feedback through Qzone weblogs, and summarized the model of critical peer feedback. A qualitative case study was conducted with a group of six junior students majoring in Business English for one semester in a Chinese university. Three models of critical thinking including Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy, Paul-Elder Model and Reichenbach’s Six Steps Model, were transferred to the participants in the workshops. Three kinds of data including semi-structured interview transcripts, six writing assignments and artifacts of critical peer feedback, were analyzed by QSR NVivo 8. The findings revealed that the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy is more acceptable for the beginners of critical peer feedback which provides a six-step model of critical thinking. The process of critical peer feedback in online context was summarized as four steps- “intake”, “critical thinking”, “output”, and “post-output”. Each of the four steps had several mental processes in critical peer feedback. This study may be significant for the knowledge of higher-order peer feedback to facilitate the quality of higher-level writing.

  6. Peer Mentoring in Engineering: (Un)Shared Experience of Undergraduate Peer Mentors and Mentees

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lim, Jae Hoon; MacLeod, Bailey P.; Tkacik, Peter T.; Dika, Sandra L.

    2017-01-01

    In this qualitative study, we explored the experiences of 26 engineering student mentors and mentees in a peer mentoring program. We found that mentors and mentees exploited the mentoring program's fluid structure and situated social relationships to enact a specific type of academic/professional goal and identity conducive to their entry to one…

  7. They all do it, will you? Event-related potential evidence of herding behavior in online peer-to-peer lending.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Haihong; Dan, MengHan; Ma, Qingguo; Jin, Jia

    2018-05-14

    As herding is a typical characteristic of human behavior, many researchers have found the existence of herding behavior in online peer-to-peer lending through empirical surveys. However, the underlying neural basis of this phenomenon is still unclear. In the current study, we studied the neural activities of herding at decision-making stage and feedback stage using event-related potentials (ERPs). Our results showed that at decision-making stage, larger error related negativity (ERN) amplitude was induced under low-proportion conditions than that of high-proportion conditions. Meanwhile, during feedback stage, negative feedback elicited larger feedback related negativity (FRN) amplitude than that of positive feedback under low-proportion conditions, however, there was no significant FRN difference under high-proportion conditions. The current study suggests that herding behavior in online peer-to-peer lending is related to individual's risk perception and is possible to avoid negative emotions brought by failed investments. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  8. Peer-Driven Justice: Development and Validation of the Teen Court Peer Influence Scale

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Scott; Chonody, Jill M.

    2010-01-01

    The authors report a validation study of the Teen Court Peer Influence Scale (TCPIS), a newly developed scale, to examine its factor structure, reliability, and evidence of validity. Methods: The scale was disseminated to 202 participants in six teen courts in the state of Florida, and the authors conducted exploratory factor analyses. Content…

  9. 7 CFR 550.17 - Peer review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Peer review. 550.17 Section 550.17 Agriculture... § 550.17 Peer review. Upon request of the REE Agency, cooperators may be requested to provide documentation in support of peer review activities and cooperator personnel may be requested to participate in...

  10. Views on the peer review system of biomedical journals: an online survey of academics from high-ranking universities

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-01-01

    Background Peer review is the major method used by biomedical journals for making the decision of publishing an article. This cross-sectional survey assesses views concerning the review system of biomedical journals among academics globally. Methods A total of 28,009 biomedical academics from high-ranking universities listed by the 2009 Times Higher Education Quacquarelli Symonds (THE-QS) World University Rankings were contacted by email between March 2010 and August 2010. 1,340 completed an online survey which focused on their academic background, negative experiences and views on biomedical journal peer review and the results were compared among basic scientists, clinicians and clinician scientists. Results Fewer than half of the respondents agreed that the peer review systems of biomedical journals were fair (48.4%), scientific (47.5%), or transparent (25.1%). Nevertheless, 58.2% of the respondents agreed that authors should remain anonymous and 64.4% agreed that reviewers should not be disclosed. Most, (67.7%) agreed to the establishment of an appeal system. The proportion of native English-speaking respondents who agreed that the “peer review system is fair” was significantly higher than for non-native respondents (p = 0.02). Similarly, the proportion of clinicians stating that the “peer review system is fair” was significantly higher than that for basic scientists and clinician-scientists (p = 0.004). For females, (β = −0.1, p = 0.03), the frequency of encountering personal attacks in reviewers’ comments (β = −0.1, p = 0.002) and the frequency of imposition of unnecessary references by reviewers (β = −0.06, p = 0.04) were independently and inversely associated with agreement that “the peer review system is fair”. Conclusion Academics are divided on the issue of whether the biomedical journal peer review system is fair, scientific and transparent. A majority of academics agreed with the double-blind peer

  11. The Relationship between Class Attitudes towards Peers with a Disability and Peer Acceptance, Friendships and Peer Interactions of Students with a Disability in Regular Secondary Schools

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petry, Katja

    2018-01-01

    Students with a disability in inclusive classes often face problems with peer acceptance, friendships and peer interactions. In this paper, the relationship between these difficulties in social participation and the attitudes that typically developing adolescents hold towards peers with a disability at the level of the class was explored. A…

  12. Practice Report / Bericht aus der Praxis : Peer teaching: From method to philosophy

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    ten Cate, Olle

    2017-01-01

    Peer teaching or peer-assisted learning is a popular topic in the medical education literature. While not one method of education, a categorization is possible according to (a) the developmental distance between learner and peer teacher, (b) the scale or group size of learners in peer teaching

  13. Thank You to Our 2017 Peer Reviewers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hauck, Steven A.; Baratoux, David; Stanley, Sabine; Stanley

    2018-02-01

    Science operates best by sharing accurate new knowledge in clear ways. In order to check our assumptions, our methods, and our interpretations of the observations, experiments, analyses, and calculations that we do, we ask others to look at our work. We call this peer review—other experts who were not involved in a given study read and critically evaluate the descriptions of our work. They look for completeness, accuracy, whether work is new, and how clearly we have written the descriptions. We continue to be humbled by the time, effort, and careful insights that our colleagues share with each other through the process of peer review. In 2017, JGR Planets benefited from more than 610 reviews provided by 398 of our peers for papers submitted to the journal. Thank you all for your awesome efforts toward advancing planetary science now and for the future.

  14. Peer Review in Scientific Publications: Benefits, Critiques, & A Survival Guide

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kelly, Jacalyn; Sadeghieh, Tara

    2014-01-01

    Peer review has been defined as a process of subjecting an author’s scholarly work, research or ideas to the scrutiny of others who are experts in the same field. It functions to encourage authors to meet the accepted high standards of their discipline and to control the dissemination of research data to ensure that unwarranted claims, unacceptable interpretations or personal views are not published without prior expert review. Despite its wide-spread use by most journals, the peer review process has also been widely criticised due to the slowness of the process to publish new findings and due to perceived bias by the editors and/or reviewers. Within the scientific community, peer review has become an essential component of the academic writing process. It helps ensure that papers published in scientific journals answer meaningful research questions and draw accurate conclusions based on professionally executed experimentation. Submission of low quality manuscripts has become increasingly prevalent, and peer review acts as a filter to prevent this work from reaching the scientific community. The major advantage of a peer review process is that peer-reviewed articles provide a trusted form of scientific communication. Since scientific knowledge is cumulative and builds on itself, this trust is particularly important. Despite the positive impacts of peer review, critics argue that the peer review process stifles innovation in experimentation, and acts as a poor screen against plagiarism. Despite its downfalls, there has not yet been a foolproof system developed to take the place of peer review, however, researchers have been looking into electronic means of improving the peer review process. Unfortunately, the recent explosion in online only/electronic journals has led to mass publication of a large number of scientific articles with little or no peer review. This poses significant risk to advances in scientific knowledge and its future potential. The current

  15. The 60 Days of PVE Campaign: Lessons on Organizing an Online, Peer-to-Peer, Counter-radicalization Program

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alex Wilner

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Combatting violent extremism can involve organizing Peer-to-Peer (P2P preventing violent extremism (PVE programs and social media campaigns. While hundreds of PVE campaigns have been launched around the world in recent months and years, very few of these campaigns have actually been reviewed, analyzed, or assessed in any systematic way. Metrics of success and failure have yet to be fully developed, and very little is publically known as to what might differentiate a great and successful P2P campaign from a mediocre one. This article will provide first-hand insight on orchestrating a publically funded, university-based, online, peer-to-peer PVE campaign – 60 Days of PVE – based on the experience of a group of Canadian graduate students. The article provides an account of the group’s approach to PVE. It highlights the entirety of the group’s campaign, from theory and conceptualization to branding, media strategy, and evaluation, and describes the campaign’s core objectives and implementation. The article also analyzes the campaign’s digital footprint and reach using data gleamed from social media. Finally, the article discusses the challenges and difficulties the group faced in running their campaign, lessons that are pertinent for others contemplating a similar endeavour.

  16. Publications and the peer review system

    Science.gov (United States)

    The peer review process as it relates to scientific publications in entomological journals is facing a number of serious issues that must be addressed. Among those issues are the increasing submissions from international authors writing in English as a second or third language, manuscripts lacking s...

  17. The ethics of peer review in bioethics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wendler, David; Miller, Franklin

    2014-10-01

    A good deal has been written on the ethics of peer review, especially in the scientific and medical literatures. In contrast, we are unaware of any articles on the ethics of peer review in bioethics. Recognising this gap, we evaluate the extant proposals regarding ethical standards for peer review in general and consider how they apply to bioethics. We argue that scholars have an obligation to perform peer review based on the extent to which they personally benefit from the peer review process. We also argue, contrary to existing proposals and guidelines, that it can be appropriate for peer reviewers to benefit in their own scholarship from the manuscripts they review. With respect to bioethics in particular, we endorse double-blind review and suggest several ways in which the peer review process might be improved. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

  18. [Peer harassment in primary school: the role of peers and its relationship with sociometric status].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lucas Molina, Beatriz; Pulido Valero, Rosa; Solbes Canales, Irene

    2011-04-01

    During the last decade, there has been a change in peer harassment research from a focus on the characteristics of the Aggressor-Victim dyad to the recognition of peer harassment as a whole group process, with most of children playing some kind of role. This study uses a shortened adaptation of the Participant-Role Questionnaire approach to identify these roles in 2,050 Spanish children aged 8 to 13 years. These Participant Roles were related to belonging to one of the five sociometric status groups. Factor analysis revealed four different roles, indicating that the adapted scale remains a reliable way of distinguishing the Aggressor, Victim, Defender of the victim, and Outsider roles. Boys played the roles of Aggressor and Victim significantly more frequently. The children's Participant Role was found to be related to their sociometric status. Progress in the measurement of peer harassment as a group process and the success of intervention strategies may depend on finding clearer distinctions among the different peer roles, mobilizing peer pressure, and isolating aggressors from their social support.

  19. Breastfeeding peer support: are there additional benefits?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wade, Deborah; Haining, Shona; Day, Ann

    2009-12-01

    Anecdotal discussion among breastfeeding peer supporters and the infant-feeding co-ordinator suggested that breastfeeding peer support provided by breastfeeding peer supporters may offer benefits to breastfeeding women and their families other than increasing breastfeeding initiation and sustainability. The aim of this research was to determine whether there was evidence to support this. The research team used focus groups to obtain information from 16 local women who had received breastfeeding peer support from breastfeeding peer supporters. The key themes that emerged were--improved mental health, increased self-esteem or confidence, parenting skills, improved family diet, breastfeeding sustainability and poor hospital experience.The findings suggest that breastfeeding peer supporters supporting mothers to breastfeed, with the intention of increasing both breastfeeding rates and sustainability, may have additional benefits in several aspects of families' lives. Breastfeeding peer support may play an important role in helping to attain targets such as reducing obesity and postnatal depression.

  20. The growth of peer support: an international charter.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stratford, Anthony C; Halpin, Matt; Phillips, Keely; Skerritt, Frances; Beales, Anne; Cheng, Vincent; Hammond, Magdel; O'Hagan, Mary; Loreto, Catherine; Tiengtom, Kim; Kobe, Benon; Harrington, Steve; Fisher, Dan; Davidson, Larry

    2017-07-06

    While mental health peer support originated in its contemporary form in English-speaking countries, it is now spreading rapidly across the globe. This rapid growth presents two major challenges. The first pertains to "role integrity" and the second to the possible culture-bound nature of peer support; a concern which has attended the emergence of peer support in countries that have significantly different worldviews. Recognizing the growth of peer support and the resulting challenges, this report results from the convening of an international consortium of peer leaders from six continents (all but Antarctica). Following an environmental scan of the state of peer support globally, this group moved to develop consensus on a common, core set of guiding principles and values to ensure a robust future for the development of effective, culturally responsive forms of peer support. Key principles, values and practices considered essential to peer support are presented. Assuming that sufficient political and community support are generated, there can be considerable enthusiasm for the expansion of peer support around the globe. Peer leaders are encouraged, however, to develop and deliver peer support both with integrity to its founding values in a civil rights and social justice framework and with responsiveness to local cultural worldviews.

  1. Transition From Peer Review to Peer Learning: Experience in a Radiology Department.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Donnelly, Lane F; Dorfman, Scott R; Jones, Jeremy; Bisset, George S

    2017-10-18

    To describe the process by which a radiology department moved from peer review to peer collaborative improvement (PCI) and review data from the first 16 months of the PCI process. Data from the first 16 months after PCI were reviewed: number of case reviews performed, number of learning opportunities identified, percentage yield of learning opportunities identified, type of learning opportunities identified, and comparison of the previous parameters between case randomly reviewed versus actively pushed (issues actively identified and entered). Changes in actively pushed cases were also assessed as volume per month over the 16 months (run chart). Faculty members were surveyed about their perception of the conversion to PCI. In all, 12,197 cases were peer reviewed, yielding 1,140 learning opportunities (9.34%). The most common types of learning opportunities for all reviewed cases included perception (5.1%) and reporting (1.9%). The yield of learning opportunities from actively pushed cases was 96.3% compared with 3.88% for randomly reviewed cases. The number of actively pushed cases per month increased over the course of the period and established two new confidence intervals. The faculty survey revealed that the faculty perceived the new PCI process as positive, nonpunitive, and focused on improvement. The study demonstrates that a switch to PCI is perceived as nonpunitive and associated with increased radiologist submission of learning opportunities. Active entering of identified learning opportunities had a greater yield and perceived value, compared with random review of cases. Copyright © 2017 American College of Radiology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. Evaluation of a Peer-Led Hypertension Intervention for Veterans: Impact on Peer Leaders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mosack, Katie E.; Patterson, Leslie; Brouwer, Amanda M.; Wendorf, Angela R.; Ertl, Kristyn; Eastwood, Dan; Morzinski, Jeffrey; Fletcher, Kathlyn; Whittle, Jeff

    2013-01-01

    Volunteer peer leaders (PLs) benefit from their involvement in health interventions but we know little about how they compare with other non-PL volunteers or with the intervention recipients themselves. We randomized 58 veterans' service organizations' posts (e.g. VFW) to peer- versus professionally led self-management support interventions. Our…

  3. Near-peer education: a novel teaching program.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Menezes, Sara; Premnath, Daphne

    2016-05-30

    This study aims to: 1) Evaluate whether a near-peer program improves perceived OSCE performance; 2) Identify factors motivating students to teach; 3) Evaluate role of near-peer teaching in medical education. A near-peer OSCE teaching program was implemented at Monash University's Peninsula Clinical School over the 2013 academic year. Forty 3rd-year and thirty final-year medical students were recruited as near-peer learners and educators, respectively. A post-program questionnaire was completed by learners prior to summative OSCEs (n=31), followed by post-OSCE focus groups (n=10). Near-peer teachers were interviewed at the program's conclusion (n=10). Qualitative data was analysed for emerging themes to assess the perceived value of the program. Learners felt peer-led teaching was more relevant to assessment, at an appropriate level of difficulty and delivered in a less threatening environment than other methods of teaching. They valued consistent practice and felt confident approaching their summative OSCEs. Educators enjoyed the opportunity to develop their teaching skills, citing mutual benefit and gratitude to past peer-educators as strong motivators to teach others. Near-peer education, valued by near-peer learners and teachers alike, was a useful method to improve preparation and perceived performance in summative examinations. In particular, a novel year-long, student-run initiative was regarded as a valuable and feasible adjunct to faculty teaching.

  4. Peer Tutoring at Colleges and Universities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Mikyong Minsun

    2015-01-01

    This paper focuses on the important roles of peer tutoring and peer tutoring services that utilize student tutors in higher education. First, the roles and potential benefits of peer tutoring are identified and reviewed as they apply to various dimensions of student development. Second, the impacts, benefits, and extended beneficiaries of peer…

  5. Physician peer group characteristics and timeliness of breast cancer surgery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bachand, Jacqueline; Soulos, Pamela R; Herrin, Jeph; Pollack, Craig E; Xu, Xiao; Ma, Xiaomei; Gross, Cary P

    2018-04-24

    Little is known about how the structure of interdisciplinary groups of physicians affects the timeliness of breast cancer surgery their patients receive. We used social network methods to examine variation in surgical delay across physician peer groups and the association of this delay with group characteristics. We used linked Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare data to construct physician peer groups based on shared breast cancer patients. We used hierarchical generalized linear models to examine the association of three group characteristics, patient racial composition, provider density (the ratio of potential vs. actual connections between physicians), and provider transitivity (clustering of providers within groups), with delayed surgery. The study sample included 8338 women with breast cancer in 157 physician peer groups. Surgical delay varied widely across physician peer groups (interquartile range 28.2-50.0%). For every 10% increase in the percentage of black patients in a peer group, there was a 41% increase in the odds of delayed surgery for women in that peer group regardless of a patient's own race [odds ratio (OR) 1.41, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.15-1.73]. Women in physician peer groups with the highest provider density were less likely to receive delayed surgery than those in physician peer groups with the lowest provider density (OR 0.65, 95% CI 0.44-0.98). We did not find an association between provider transitivity and delayed surgery. The likelihood of surgical delay varied substantially across physician peer groups and was associated with provider density and patient racial composition.

  6. Gender bias in scholarly peer review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Helmer, Markus; Schottdorf, Manuel; Neef, Andreas; Battaglia, Demian

    2017-03-21

    Peer review is the cornerstone of scholarly publishing and it is essential that peer reviewers are appointed on the basis of their expertise alone. However, it is difficult to check for any bias in the peer-review process because the identity of peer reviewers generally remains confidential. Here, using public information about the identities of 9000 editors and 43000 reviewers from the Frontiers series of journals, we show that women are underrepresented in the peer-review process, that editors of both genders operate with substantial same-gender preference (homophily), and that the mechanisms of this homophily are gender-dependent. We also show that homophily will persist even if numerical parity between genders is reached, highlighting the need for increased efforts to combat subtler forms of gender bias in scholarly publishing.

  7. A Method for Improving the Integrity of Peer Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dadkhah, Mehdi; Kahani, Mohsen; Borchardt, Glenn

    2017-08-15

    Peer review is the most important aspect of reputable journals. Without it, we would be unsure about whether the material published was as valid and reliable as is possible. However, with the advent of the Internet, scientific literature has now become subject to a relatively new phenomenon: fake peer reviews. Some dishonest researchers have been manipulating the peer review process to publish what are often inferior papers. There are even papers that explain how to do it. This paper discusses one of those methods and how editors can defeat it by using a special review ID. This method is easy to understand and can be added to current peer review systems easily.

  8. Peer-assisted learning: time for nomenclature clarification

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexander Olaussen

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Background: Peer-assisted learning (PAL is used throughout all levels of healthcare education. Lack of formalised agreement on different PAL programmes may confuse the literature. Given the increasing interest in PAL as an education philosophy, the terms need clarification. The aim of this review is to 1 describe different PAL programmes, 2 clarify the terminology surrounding PAL, and 3 propose a simple pragmatic way of defining PAL programmes based on their design. Methods: A review of current PAL programmes within the healthcare setting was conducted. Each programme was scrutinised based on two aspects: the relationship between student and teacher, and the student to teacher ratio. The studies were then shown to fit exclusively into the novel proposed classification. Results: The 34 programmes found, demonstrate a wide variety in terms used. We established six terms, which exclusively applied to the programmes. The relationship between student and teacher was categorised as peer-to-peer or near-peer. The student to teacher ratio suited three groupings, named intuitively ‘Mentoring’ (1:1 or 1:2, ‘Tutoring’ (1:3–10, and ‘Didactic’ (1:>10. From this, six novel terms – all under the heading of PAL – are suggested: ‘Peer Mentoring’, ‘Peer Tutoring’, ‘Peer Didactic’, ‘Near-Peer Mentoring’, ‘Near-Peer Tutoring’, and ‘Near-Peer Didactic’. Conclusions: We suggest herein a simple pragmatic terminology to overcome ambiguous terminology. Academically, clear terms will allow effective and efficient research, ensuring furthering of the educational philosophy.

  9. Peer-assisted learning: time for nomenclature clarification

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olaussen, Alexander; Reddy, Priya; Irvine, Susan; Williams, Brett

    2016-01-01

    Background Peer-assisted learning (PAL) is used throughout all levels of healthcare education. Lack of formalised agreement on different PAL programmes may confuse the literature. Given the increasing interest in PAL as an education philosophy, the terms need clarification. The aim of this review is to 1) describe different PAL programmes, 2) clarify the terminology surrounding PAL, and 3) propose a simple pragmatic way of defining PAL programmes based on their design. Methods A review of current PAL programmes within the healthcare setting was conducted. Each programme was scrutinised based on two aspects: the relationship between student and teacher, and the student to teacher ratio. The studies were then shown to fit exclusively into the novel proposed classification. Results The 34 programmes found, demonstrate a wide variety in terms used. We established six terms, which exclusively applied to the programmes. The relationship between student and teacher was categorised as peer-to-peer or near-peer. The student to teacher ratio suited three groupings, named intuitively ‘Mentoring’ (1:1 or 1:2), ‘Tutoring’ (1:3–10), and ‘Didactic’ (1:>10). From this, six novel terms – all under the heading of PAL – are suggested: ‘Peer Mentoring’, ‘Peer Tutoring’, ‘Peer Didactic’, ‘Near-Peer Mentoring’, ‘Near-Peer Tutoring’, and ‘Near-Peer Didactic’. Conclusions We suggest herein a simple pragmatic terminology to overcome ambiguous terminology. Academically, clear terms will allow effective and efficient research, ensuring furthering of the educational philosophy. PMID:27415590

  10. The Power of Peer Reviewing to Enhance Writing in Horticulture: Greenhouse Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, Neil O.; Flash, Pamela

    2014-01-01

    Peer review is not included in undergraduate horticultural curricula. Our research objectives in an 8- year study, which ranged from 2000 to 2007 in two sections (2000-2002 non-peer reviewed and 2003-2007 peer-reviewed) of Greenhouse Management students at the University of Minnesota were to determine whether iterative peer reviews would result in…

  11. Peer Education in Campus Suicide Prevention

    Science.gov (United States)

    Catanzarite, Julie A.; Robinson, Myles D.

    2013-01-01

    Student peer educators have been used by higher education intuitions to influence the education and retention of college students for many years, and most institutions have some type of peer educator program. Newton and Ender (2010) broadly define the role of peer educators as "students who have been selected, trained, and designated by a…

  12. 42 CFR 24.5 - Peer review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Peer review. 24.5 Section 24.5 Public Health PUBLIC....5 Peer review. An individual may not be considered for appointment into the SBRS unless his/her qualifications have been reviewed by a PHS peer review committee and the committee has recommended appointment to...

  13. Are Negative Peer Influences Domain Specific? Examining the Influence of Peers and Parents on Externalizing and Drug Use Behaviors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cox, Ronald B; Criss, Michael M; Harrist, Amanda W; Zapata-Roblyer, Martha

    2017-10-01

    Most studies tend to characterize peer influences as either positive or negative. In a sample of 1815 youth from 14 different schools in Caracas, Venezuela, we explored how two types of peer affiliations (i.e., deviant and drug-using peers) differentially mediated the paths from positive parenting to youth's externalizing behavior and licit and illicit drug use. We used Zero Inflated Poisson models to test the probability of use and the extent of use during the past 12 months. Results suggested that peer influences are domain specific among Venezuelan youth. That is, deviant peer affiliations mediated the path from positive parenting to youth externalizing behaviors, and peer drug-using affiliations mediated the paths to the drug use outcomes. Mediation effects were partial, suggesting that parenting explained unique variance in the outcomes after accounting for both peer variables, gender, and age. We discuss implications for the development of screening tools and for prevention interventions targeting adolescents from different cultures.

  14. An Adaptive Failure Detector Based on Quality of Service in Peer-to-Peer Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jian Dong

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available The failure detector is one of the fundamental components that maintain high availability of Peer-to-Peer (P2P networks. Under different network conditions, the adaptive failure detector based on quality of service (QoS can achieve the detection time and accuracy required by upper applications with lower detection overhead. In P2P systems, complexity of network and high churn lead to high message loss rate. To reduce the impact on detection accuracy, baseline detection strategy based on retransmission mechanism has been employed widely in many P2P applications; however, Chen’s classic adaptive model cannot describe this kind of detection strategy. In order to provide an efficient service of failure detection in P2P systems, this paper establishes a novel QoS evaluation model for the baseline detection strategy. The relationship between the detection period and the QoS is discussed and on this basis, an adaptive failure detector (B-AFD is proposed, which can meet the quantitative QoS metrics under changing network environment. Meanwhile, it is observed from the experimental analysis that B-AFD achieves better detection accuracy and time with lower detection overhead compared to the traditional baseline strategy and the adaptive detectors based on Chen’s model. Moreover, B-AFD has better adaptability to P2P network.

  15. An Adaptive Failure Detector Based on Quality of Service in Peer-to-Peer Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dong, Jian; Ren, Xiao; Zuo, Decheng; Liu, Hongwei

    2014-01-01

    The failure detector is one of the fundamental components that maintain high availability of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks. Under different network conditions, the adaptive failure detector based on quality of service (QoS) can achieve the detection time and accuracy required by upper applications with lower detection overhead. In P2P systems, complexity of network and high churn lead to high message loss rate. To reduce the impact on detection accuracy, baseline detection strategy based on retransmission mechanism has been employed widely in many P2P applications; however, Chen's classic adaptive model cannot describe this kind of detection strategy. In order to provide an efficient service of failure detection in P2P systems, this paper establishes a novel QoS evaluation model for the baseline detection strategy. The relationship between the detection period and the QoS is discussed and on this basis, an adaptive failure detector (B-AFD) is proposed, which can meet the quantitative QoS metrics under changing network environment. Meanwhile, it is observed from the experimental analysis that B-AFD achieves better detection accuracy and time with lower detection overhead compared to the traditional baseline strategy and the adaptive detectors based on Chen's model. Moreover, B-AFD has better adaptability to P2P network. PMID:25198005

  16. Peer-to-Peer Teaching in Higher Education: A Critical Literature Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stigmar, Martin

    2016-01-01

    The aim of my critical literature review is to identify studies where students are engaged as partners in teaching in higher education and to analyze how tutors and tutees benefit from peer teaching. Thirty studies were included for review. Thirteen countries are represented and two thirds of the studies conducted in the United States of America…

  17. Sensitivity to Peer Evaluation and Its Genetic and Environmental Determinants: Findings from a Population-Based Twin Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klippel, Annelie; Reininghaus, Ulrich; Viechtbauer, Wolfgang; Decoster, Jeroen; Delespaul, Philippe; Derom, Cathérine; de Hert, Marc; Jacobs, Nele; Menne-Lothmann, Claudia; Rutten, Bart; Thiery, Evert; van Os, Jim; van Winkel, Ruud; Myin-Germeys, Inez; Wichers, Marieke

    2018-02-23

    Adolescents and young adults are highly focused on peer evaluation, but little is known about sources of their differential sensitivity. We examined to what extent sensitivity to peer evaluation is influenced by interacting environmental and genetic factors. A sample of 354 healthy adolescent twin pairs (n = 708) took part in a structured, laboratory task in which they were exposed to peer evaluation. The proportion of the variance in sensitivity to peer evaluation due to genetic and environmental factors was estimated, as was the association with specific a priori environmental risk factors. Differences in sensitivity to peer evaluation between adolescents were explained mainly by non-shared environmental influences. The results on shared environmental influences were not conclusive. No impact of latent genetic factors or gene-environment interactions was found. Adolescents with lower self-rated positions on the social ladder or who reported to have been bullied more severely showed significantly stronger responses to peer evaluation. Not genes, but subjective social status and past experience of being bullied seem to impact sensitivity to peer evaluation. This suggests that altered response to peer evaluation is the outcome of cumulative sensitization to social interactions.

  18. Clinical Nurse Specialists Guide Staff Nurses to Promote Practice Accountability Through Peer Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Semper, Julie; Halvorson, Betty; Hersh, Mary; Torres, Clare; Lillington, Linda

    2016-01-01

    The aim of the study was to describe the clinical nurse specialist role in developing and implementing a staff nurse education program to promote practice accountability using peer review principles. Peer review is essential for professional nursing practice demanding a significant culture change. Clinical nurse specialists in a Magnet-designated community hospital were charged with developing a staff nurse peer review education program. Peer review is a recognized mechanism of professional self-regulation to ensure delivery of quality care. The American Nurses Association strongly urges incorporating peer review in professional nursing practice models. Clinical nurse specialists play a critical role in educating staff nurses about practice accountability. Clinical nurse specialists developed an education program guided by the American Nurses Association's principles of peer review. A baseline needs assessment identified potential barriers and learning needs. Content incorporated tools and strategies to build communication skills, collaboration, practice change, and peer accountability. The education program resulted in increased staff nurse knowledge about peer review and application of peer review principles in practice. Clinical nurse specialists played a critical role in helping staff nurses understand peer review and its application to practice. The clinical nurse specialist role will continue to be important in sustaining the application of peer review principles in practice.

  19. "I'm Not Here to Learn How to Mark Someone Else's Stuff": An Investigation of an Online Peer-to-Peer Review Workshop Tool

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, Michael John; Diao, Ming Ming; Huang, Leon

    2015-01-01

    In this article, we explore the intersecting concepts of fairness, trust and temporality in relation to the implementation of an online peer-to-peer review Moodle Workshop tool at a Sydney metropolitan university. Drawing on qualitative interviews with unit convenors and online surveys of students using the Workshop tool, we seek to highlight a…

  20. Peer Teaching among Physical Therapy Students during Human Gross Anatomy: Perceptions of Peer Teachers and Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Youdas, James W.; Hoffarth, Brianna L.; Kohlwey, Scott R.; Kramer, Christine M.; Petro, Jaime L.

    2008-01-01

    Despite nearly 200 accredited entry-level physical therapist education programs in the United States that culminate in a doctoral degree, only a paucity of reports have been published regarding the efficacy of peer teaching in gross anatomy. No one has described the usefulness of peer teaching from the viewpoint of the peer teacher. An organized…

  1. Generational Differences in Resistance to Peer Pressure among Mexican-Origin Adolescents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Umana-Taylor, Adriana J.; Bamaca-Gomez, Mayra Y.

    2003-01-01

    Examined whether Mexican origin adolescents who varied by generational status would differ in their resistance to peer pressure. After controlling for gender, resistance to peer pressure varied significantly by generational status. Adolescents with no familial births in the United States were significantly more resistant to peer pressure than…

  2. Peer assessment of individual contributions to a group project: Student perceptions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kench, Peter L.; Field, Nikki; Agudera, Maila; Gill, Margo

    2009-01-01

    Group work has many benefits for a student's professional development but it is difficult to determine the individual contributions to the group assessment tasks. Peer assessment of an individual's contribution to group work can be used to encourage student participation. It is important that the method of peer assessment is fair and that the students' submissions be treated confidentially. A model for peer assessment of individual contributions to the group assessment is described. Students who did not participate adequately in the group were penalised resulting in a reduced individual grade. Perceptions of the peer assessment method are reported for students enrolled (n = 169) in the subject 'Medical Radiations Project'. The questionnaire showed a positive student response towards the peer assessment model.

  3. Adolescents, Peers, and Motor Vehicles The Perfect Storm?

    OpenAIRE

    Allen, Joseph P.; Brown, B. Bradford

    2008-01-01

    Motor-vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death among teenagers and in many instances appear linked to negative peer influences on adolescent driving behavior. This article examines a range of developmental and structural factors that potentially increase the risks associated with adolescent driving. Developmental risk factors for adolescents include a propensity toward engaging in deviant and risky behavior, a desire to please peers, and the potential cost to an adolescent of alienating p...

  4. The near-peer tutoring programme: embracing the ‘doctors-to-teach’ philosophy – a comparison of the effects of participation between the senior and junior near-peer tutors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Siaw-Cheok Liew

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Background: While there is an increasing pool of literature documenting the benefits of near-peer tutoring programme, little is known about the benefits for junior and senior peer tutors. Knowledge of the peer tutors’ perceived benefits at different levels of seniority will aid in the development of a near-peer tutoring programme that will better fulfil both curricula and personal aspirations of near-peer tutors. We, therefore, investigated the perceived benefits of participation in a near-peer tutoring programme for junior as well as senior near-peer tutors. Methods: Pre- and post-participation questionnaires were distributed to near-peer tutors after their clinical skills teaching sessions with Phase I undergraduate medical students. The Peer Tutor Assessment Instrument questionnaires were distributed to the 1 students, and to the 2 near-peer tutors (junior and senior after each teaching and learning session for self-evaluation. Results: The senior near-peer tutors felt that their participation in the programme had enhanced their skills (p=0.03. As a whole, the near-peer tutors were more motivated (Pre 5.32±0.46; Post 5.47±0.50; p=0.210 to participate in future teaching sessions but did not expect that having teaching experiences would make teaching as their major career path in the future (Pre 4.63±1.07; Post 4.54±0.98; p=0.701. The senior near-peer tutors were evaluated significantly higher by the students (p=0.0001. Students’ evaluations of near-peer tutors on the domain of critical analysis was higher than self-evaluations (p=0.003. Conclusions: Generally, the near-peer tutors perceived that they have benefited most in their skills enhancement and these near-peer tutors were scored highly by the students. However, senior near-peer tutors do not perceive that the programme has a lasting impact on their choice of career path.

  5. The near-peer tutoring programme: embracing the ‘doctors-to-teach’ philosophy – a comparison of the effects of participation between the senior and junior near-peer tutors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liew, Siaw-Cheok; Sow, Chew-Fei; Sidhu, Jagmohni; Nadarajah, Vishna Devi

    2015-01-01

    Background While there is an increasing pool of literature documenting the benefits of near-peer tutoring programme, little is known about the benefits for junior and senior peer tutors. Knowledge of the peer tutors’ perceived benefits at different levels of seniority will aid in the development of a near-peer tutoring programme that will better fulfil both curricula and personal aspirations of near-peer tutors. We, therefore, investigated the perceived benefits of participation in a near-peer tutoring programme for junior as well as senior near-peer tutors. Methods Pre- and post-participation questionnaires were distributed to near-peer tutors after their clinical skills teaching sessions with Phase I undergraduate medical students. The Peer Tutor Assessment Instrument questionnaires were distributed to the 1) students, and to the 2) near-peer tutors (junior and senior) after each teaching and learning session for self-evaluation. Results The senior near-peer tutors felt that their participation in the programme had enhanced their skills (p=0.03). As a whole, the near-peer tutors were more motivated (Pre 5.32±0.46; Post 5.47±0.50; p=0.210) to participate in future teaching sessions but did not expect that having teaching experiences would make teaching as their major career path in the future (Pre 4.63±1.07; Post 4.54±0.98; p=0.701). The senior near-peer tutors were evaluated significantly higher by the students (p=0.0001). Students’ evaluations of near-peer tutors on the domain of critical analysis was higher than self-evaluations (p=0.003). Conclusions Generally, the near-peer tutors perceived that they have benefited most in their skills enhancement and these near-peer tutors were scored highly by the students. However, senior near-peer tutors do not perceive that the programme has a lasting impact on their choice of career path. PMID:26356229

  6. The Relation between Early Adolescents' Trust Beliefs in Peers and Reactions to Peer Provocation: Attributions of Intention and Retaliation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rotenberg, Ken J.; Betts, Lucy R.; Moore, Jolene

    2013-01-01

    The authors examined the relation between early adolescents' trust beliefs in peers and both their attributions for, and retaliatory aggression to, peer provocation. One hundred and eight-five early adolescents (102 male) from the United Kingdom (M age = 12 years, 2 months, SD = 3 months) completed the Children's Generalized Trust Beliefs in peer…

  7. Developing students' teaching through peer observation and feedback.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rees, Eliot L; Davies, Benjamin; Eastwood, Michael

    2015-10-01

    With the increasing popularity and scale of peer teaching, it is imperative to develop methods that ensure the quality of teaching provided by undergraduate students. We used an established faculty development and quality assurance process in a novel context: peer observation of teaching for undergraduate peer tutors. We have developed a form to record observations and aid the facilitation of feedback. In addition, experienced peer tutors have been trained to observe peer-taught sessions and provide tutors with verbal and written feedback. We have found peer observation of teaching to be a feasible and acceptable process for improving quality of teaching provided by undergraduate medical students. However, feedback regarding the quality of peer observer's feedback may help to develop students' abilities further.

  8. Psychopathic Traits Moderate Peer Influence on Adolescent Delinquency

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kerr, Margaret; Van Zalk, Maarten; Stattin, Hakan

    2012-01-01

    Background: Peer influence on adolescent delinquency is well established, but little is known about moderators of peer influence. In this study, we examined adolescents' (targets) and their peers' psychopathic personality traits as moderators of peer influence on delinquency in peer networks. We used three separate dimensions of the psychopathic…

  9. Horizontal Curves Virtual Peer Exchange

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-05-01

    This report provides a summary of a peer-to-peer videoconference sponsored by : the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Safety. The : videoconference, which piloted a virtual event format, is part of a series of : roadway departure-focuse...

  10. Peer Mentoring for Bioinformatics presentation

    OpenAIRE

    Budd, Aidan

    2014-01-01

    A handout used in a HUB (Heidelberg Unseminars in Bioinformatics) meeting focused on career development for bioinformaticians. It describes an activity for use to help introduce the idea of peer mentoring, potnetially acting as an opportunity to create peer-mentoring groups.

  11. Promoting recovery through peer support: possibilities for social work practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loumpa, Vasiliki

    2012-01-01

    The Recovery Approach has been adopted by mental health services worldwide and peer support constitutes one of the main elements of recovery-based services. This article discusses the relevancy of recovery and peer support to mental health social work practice through an exploration of social work ethics and values. Furthermore, it provides an exploration of how peer support can be maximized in groupwork to assist the social work clinician to promote recovery and well-being. More specifically, this article discusses how the narrative therapy concepts of "retelling" and "witnessing" can be used in the context of peer support to promote recovery, and also how social constructionist, dialogical, and systemic therapy approaches can assist the social work practitioner to enhance peer support in recovery oriented groupwork. Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

  12. Characteristics of peer violence in schools

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sinobad Sandra

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper the author analyses types and main characteristics of peer violence in schools as well as forms of their manifestation. The analysis refers to data about the prevalence of peer violence in schools in Serbia, and in particular to forms of peer violence within our country as well as in the world. The part of the text refers to characteristics of perpetrators and their victims as well as on consequences that spring up from long term exposure to violence. Finally, the article has been pointed out an importance of introducing intervention programs in schools, by which use peer violence could be significantly decreased.

  13. Prosocial behavior as a protective factor for children's peer victimization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Griese, Emily R; Buhs, Eric S

    2014-07-01

    A majority of peer victimization research focuses on its associations with negative outcomes, yet efforts to understand possible protective factors that may mitigate these negative outcomes also require attention. The present study was an investigation of the potential moderating effect of prosocial behaviors on loneliness for youth who are peer victimized. Participants were fourth and fifth grade students (511 total; 49 % boys) who were primarily European American (43.4 %) and Hispanic (48.2 %). Structural Equation Modeling was used to test the interaction of prosocial behavior and peer victimization (relational and overt forms) on loneliness 1 year later. The results indicated that prosocial behavior significantly moderated the relationship between peer victimization (for the relational form only) and loneliness while controlling for levels of perceived peer support. A multi-group comparison by gender further indicated the moderation was significant for boys only. Potential implications for intervention/prevention efforts focused on developing children's prosocial skills as a possible protective factor for relationally victimized youth are discussed.

  14. The mechanisms underpinning peer support: a literature review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watson, Emma

    2017-12-20

    The employment of Peer Support Workers, who themselves have experience of significant emotional distress, can promote recovery at an individual and organisational level. While research examining the benefits of peer support within mental health services continues to grow, an understanding of how, and through what processes, these benefits are reached remains under-developed. To review the published research literature relating to the process of peer support and its underpinning mechanisms to better understand how and why it works. A scoping review of published literature identified studies relating to peer support mechanisms, processes and relationships. Studies were summarised and findings analysed. Five mechanisms were found to underpin peer support relationships (lived experience, love labour, the liminal position of the peer worker, strengths-focussed social and practical support, and the helper role). The identified mechanisms can underpin both the success and difficulties associated with peer support relationships. Further research should review a broader range of literature and clarify how these mechanisms contribute to peer support in different contexts.

  15. Peer teaching in medical education: twelve reasons to move from theory to practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ten Cate, Olle; Durning, Steven

    2007-09-01

    To provide an estimation of how often peer teaching is applied in medical education, based on reports in the literature and to summarize reasons that support the use of this form of teaching. We surveyed the 2006 medical education literature and categorised reports of peer teaching according to educational distance between students teaching and students taught, group size, and level of formality of the teaching. Subsequently, we analysed the rationales for applying peer teaching. Most reports were published abstracts in either Medical Education's annual feature 'Really Good Stuff' or the AMEE's annual conference proceedings. We identified twelve distinct reasons to apply peer teaching, including 'alleviating faculty teaching burden', 'providing role models for junior students', 'enhancing intrinsic motivation' and 'preparing physicians for their future role as educators'. Peer teaching appears to be practiced often, but many peer teaching reports do not become full length journal articles. We conclude that specifically 'near-peer teaching' appears beneficial for student teachers and learners as well as for the organisation. The analogy of the 'journeyman', as intermediate between 'apprentice' and 'master', with both learning and teaching tasks, is a valuable but yet under-recognized source of education in the medical education continuum.

  16. Simulating Dynamic Network Models and Adolescent Smoking: The Impact of Varying Peer Influence and Peer Selection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lakon, Cynthia M; Hipp, John R; Wang, Cheng; Butts, Carter T; Jose, Rupa

    2015-12-01

    We used a stochastic actor-based approach to examine the effect of peer influence and peer selection--the propensity to choose friends who are similar--on smoking among adolescents. Data were collected from 1994 to 1996 from 2 schools involved in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, with respectively 2178 and 976 students, and different levels of smoking. Our experimental manipulations of the peer influence and selection parameters in a simulation strategy indicated that stronger peer influence decreased school-level smoking. In contrast to the assumption that a smoker may induce a nonsmoker to begin smoking, adherence to antismoking norms may result in an adolescent nonsmoker inducing a smoker to stop smoking and reduce school-level smoking.

  17. Peer mentoring works!

    OpenAIRE

    Andrews, Jane; Clark, Robin

    2011-01-01

    This report draws on the findings of a three year study into peer mentoring conducted at 6 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), 5 of which were in the UK, 1 of which was in Norway. Following a multiple case-study design, quantitative and qualitative research was conducted in collaboration with the project partners. The research findings provide empirical evidence that peer mentoring works! In particular the report provides: - An Executive Summary outlining the main project findings - A synop...

  18. Peer Influence, Peer Selection and Adolescent Alcohol Use: a Simulation Study Using a Dynamic Network Model of Friendship Ties and Alcohol Use.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Cheng; Hipp, John R; Butts, Carter T; Jose, Rupa; Lakon, Cynthia M

    2017-05-01

    While studies suggest that peer influence can in some cases encourage adolescent substance use, recent work demonstrates that peer influence may be on average protective for cigarette smoking, raising questions about whether this effect occurs for other substance use behaviors. Herein, we focus on adolescent drinking, which may follow different social dynamics than smoking. We use a data-calibrated Stochastic Actor-Based (SAB) Model of adolescent friendship tie choice and drinking behavior to explore the impact of manipulating the size of peer influence and selection effects on drinking in two school-based networks. We first fit a SAB Model to data on friendship tie choice and adolescent drinking behavior within two large schools (n = 2178 and n = 976) over three time points using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. We then alter the size of the peer influence and selection parameters with all other effects fixed at their estimated values and simulate the social systems forward 1000 times under varying conditions. Whereas peer selection appears to contribute to drinking behavior similarity among adolescents, there is no evidence that it leads to higher levels of drinking at the school level. A stronger peer influence effect lowers the overall level of drinking in both schools. There are many similarities in the patterning of findings between this study of drinking and previous work on smoking, suggesting that peer influence and selection may function similarly with respect to these substances.

  19. Peer Influences on Risk-taking in Middle Childhood

    OpenAIRE

    Bradbury, Kirsten

    1999-01-01

    Unintentional injury is the leading cause of death and disability in children. Many injuries to school-aged children occur during unsupervised peer activities, but peer influences on risky behavior in preadolescence remain under-investigated. We examined peer context effects on reported risk-taking, identified predictors of peer influence, and compared peer influence in high- and low-social-functioning groups. Forty-one boys aged 8-10 years listened to scenarios in which they encountered oppo...

  20. Peer-led team learning in an online course on controversial medication issues and the US healthcare system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pittenger, Amy L; LimBybliw, Amy L

    2013-09-12

    To implement peer-led team learning in an online course on controversial issues surrounding medications and the US healthcare system. The course was delivered completely online using a learning management system. Students participated in weekly small-group discussions in online forums, completed 3 reflective writing assignments, and collaborated on a peer-reviewed grant proposal project. In a post-course survey, students reported that the course was challenging but meaningful. Final projects and peer-reviewed assignments demonstrated that primary learning goals for the course were achieved and students were empowered to engage in the healthcare debate. A peer-led team-learning is an effective strategy for an online course offered to a wide variety of student learners. By shifting some of the learning and grading responsibility to students, the instructor workload for the course was rendered more manageable.

  1. A multi-disciplinary perspective on emergent and future innovations in peer review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tennant, Jonathan P; Dugan, Jonathan M; Graziotin, Daniel; Jacques, Damien C; Waldner, François; Mietchen, Daniel; Elkhatib, Yehia; B Collister, Lauren; Pikas, Christina K; Crick, Tom; Masuzzo, Paola; Caravaggi, Anthony; Berg, Devin R; Niemeyer, Kyle E; Ross-Hellauer, Tony; Mannheimer, Sara; Rigling, Lillian; Katz, Daniel S; Greshake Tzovaras, Bastian; Pacheco-Mendoza, Josmel; Fatima, Nazeefa; Poblet, Marta; Isaakidis, Marios; Irawan, Dasapta Erwin; Renaut, Sébastien; Madan, Christopher R; Matthias, Lisa; Nørgaard Kjær, Jesper; O'Donnell, Daniel Paul; Neylon, Cameron; Kearns, Sarah; Selvaraju, Manojkumar; Colomb, Julien

    2017-01-01

    Peer review of research articles is a core part of our scholarly communication system. In spite of its importance, the status and purpose of peer review is often contested. What is its role in our modern digital research and communications infrastructure? Does it perform to the high standards with which it is generally regarded? Studies of peer review have shown that it is prone to bias and abuse in numerous dimensions, frequently unreliable, and can fail to detect even fraudulent research. With the advent of web technologies, we are now witnessing a phase of innovation and experimentation in our approaches to peer review. These developments prompted us to examine emerging models of peer review from a range of disciplines and venues, and to ask how they might address some of the issues with our current systems of peer review. We examine the functionality of a range of social Web platforms, and compare these with the traits underlying a viable peer review system: quality control, quantified performance metrics as engagement incentives, and certification and reputation. Ideally, any new systems will demonstrate that they out-perform and reduce the biases of existing models as much as possible. We conclude that there is considerable scope for new peer review initiatives to be developed, each with their own potential issues and advantages. We also propose a novel hybrid platform model that could, at least partially, resolve many of the socio-technical issues associated with peer review, and potentially disrupt the entire scholarly communication system. Success for any such development relies on reaching a critical threshold of research community engagement with both the process and the platform, and therefore cannot be achieved without a significant change of incentives in research environments.

  2. Harnessing Online Peer Education (HOPE): integrating C-POL and social media to train peer leaders in HIV prevention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jaganath, Devan; Gill, Harkiran K; Cohen, Adam Carl; Young, Sean D

    2012-01-01

    Novel methods, such as Internet-based interventions, are needed to combat the spread of HIV. While past initiatives have used the Internet to promote HIV prevention, the growing popularity, decreasing digital divide, and multi-functionality of social networking sites, such as Facebook, make this an ideal time to develop innovative ways to use online social networking sites to scale HIV prevention interventions among high-risk groups. The UCLA Harnessing Online Peer Education study is a longitudinal experimental study to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of using social media for peer-led HIV prevention, specifically among African American and Latino Men who have Sex with Men (MSM). No curriculum currently exists to train peer leaders in delivering culturally aware HIV prevention messages using social media. Training was created that adapted the Community Popular Opinion Leader (C-POL) model, for use on social networking sites. Peer leaders are recruited who represent the target population and have experience with both social media and community outreach. The curriculum contains the following elements: discussion and role playing exercises to integrate basic knowledge of HIV/AIDS, awareness of sociocultural HIV/AIDS issues in the age of technology, and communication methods for training peer leaders in effective, interactive social media-based HIV prevention. Ethical issues related to Facebook and health interventions are integrated throughout the sessions. Training outcomes have been developed for long-term assessment of retention and efficacy. This is the first C-POL curriculum that has been adapted for use on social networking websites. Although this curriculum has been used to target African-American and Latino MSM, it has been created to allow generalization to other high-risk groups.

  3. Peer Victimization and Social Dominance as Intervening Variables of the Link between Peer Liking and Relational Aggression

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adams, Ryan E.; Bartlett, Nancy H.; Bukowski, William M.

    2010-01-01

    The current study examined social dominance and peer victimization as possible intervening and moderating variables of the association between peer liking and relational aggression because previous findings suggest that social dominance and peer victimization are important for predicting the acceptableness and success of aggression. A total of 367…

  4. Global health partnership for student peer-to-peer psychiatry e-learning: Lessons learned.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keynejad, Roxanne C

    2016-12-03

    Global 'twinning' relationships between healthcare organizations and institutions in low and high-resource settings have created growing opportunities for e-health partnerships which capitalize upon expanding information technology resources worldwide. E-learning approaches to medical education are increasingly popular but remain under-investigated, whilst a new emphasis on global health teaching has coincided with university budget cuts in many high income countries. King's Somaliland Partnership (KSP) is a paired institutional partnership health link, supported by Tropical Health and Education Trust (THET), which works to strengthen the healthcare system and improve access to care through mutual exchange of skills, knowledge and experience between Somaliland and King's Health Partners, UK. Aqoon, meaning knowledge in Somali, is a peer-to-peer global mental health e-learning partnership between medical students at King's College London (KCL) and Hargeisa and Amoud Universities, Somaliland. It aims to extend the benefits of KSP's cross-cultural and global mental health education work to medical students and has reported positive results, including improved attitudes towards psychiatry in Somaliland students. The process of devising, piloting, evaluating, refining, implementing, re-evaluating and again refining the Aqoon model has identified important barriers to successful partnership. This article describes lessons learned during this process, sharing principles and recommendations for readers wishing to expand their own global health link beyond qualified clinicians, to the healthcare professionals of the future.

  5. Detailed prospective peer review in a community radiation oncology clinic.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mitchell, James D; Chesnut, Thomas J; Eastham, David V; Demandante, Carlo N; Hoopes, David J

    In 2012, we instituted detailed prospective peer review of new cases. We present the outcomes of peer review on patient management and time required for peer review. Peer review rounds were held 3 to 4 days weekly and required 2 physicians to review pertinent information from the electronic medical record and treatment planning system. Eight aspects were reviewed for each case: 1) workup and staging; 2) treatment intent and prescription; 3) position, immobilization, and simulation; 4) motion assessment and management; 5) target contours; 6) normal tissue contours; 7) target dosimetry; and 8) normal tissue dosimetry. Cases were marked as, "Meets standard of care," "Variation," or "Major deviation." Changes in treatment plan were noted. As our process evolved, we recorded the time spent reviewing each case. From 2012 to 2014, we collected peer review data on 442 of 465 (95%) radiation therapy patients treated in our hospital-based clinic. Overall, 91 (20.6%) of the cases were marked as having a variation, and 3 (0.7%) as major deviation. Forty-two (9.5%) of the cases were altered after peer review. An overall peer review score of "Variation" or "Major deviation" was highly associated with a change in treatment plan (P peer review. Indicators on position, immobilization, simulation, target contours, target dosimetry, motion management, normal tissue contours, and normal tissue dosimetry were significantly associated with a change in treatment plan. The mean time spent on each case was 7 minutes. Prospective peer review is feasible in a community radiation oncology practice. Our process led to changes in 9.5% of cases. Peer review should focus on technical factors such as target contours and dosimetry. Peer review required 7 minutes per case. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  6. Peer-Mentoring Program and Academic Atmosphere

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sri Endah Kusmartini

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Management of Sriwijaya State Polytechnic believes that peer-mentoring program has positive effects on students’ academic success. Moreover, it is also believed that good academic atmosphere should be developed. In line with these, researchers tried to investigate whether peer-mentoring program and academic atmosphere correlated significantly to students’ writing achievement partially and simultaneously. The research was conducted in English Department, Sriwijaya State Polytechnic with 60 samples taken randomly. Measures of Peer-mentoring Program and Academic Atmosphere were used sequentially to measure peer-mentoring program and academic atmosphere as perceived by the students. Meanwhile, writing score was used to find out writing achievement of the students. The hypotheses were tested by using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Linear Regression. The results showed that peer-mentoring program and academic atmosphere as perceived by the students correlated significantly towards students’ writing achievement partially and simultaneously. Therefore it is recommended to continue the programs.

  7. Can parental monitoring and peer management reduce the selection or influence of delinquent peers? Testing the question using a dynamic social network approach.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Tilton-Weaver, L.C.; Burk, W.J.; Kerr, M.; Stattin, H.

    2013-01-01

    We tested whether parents can reduce affiliation with delinquent peers through 3 forms of peer management: soliciting information, monitoring rules, and communicating disapproval of peers. We examined whether peer management interrupted 2 peer processes: selection and influence of delinquent peers.

  8. Teen Drivers' Perceptions of Their Peer Passengers: Qualitative Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ehsani, Johnathon P; Haynie, Denise L; Luthers, Christina; Perlus, Jessamyn; Gerber, Eli; Ouimet, Marie Claude; Klauer, Sheila G; Simons-Morton, Bruce

    The presence of peer passengers increases teenage drivers' fatal crash risk. Distraction and social influence are the two main factors that have been associated with increased risk. Teen drivers' perceptions of their peer passengers on these factors could inform our understanding of the conditions under which peer passengers increase crash risk or promote safer driving. The purpose of this study was to examine teen drivers' perceptions of their peer passengers on distraction and social influence. A convenience sample of male and female drivers participated in a semi-structured interview that included questions on their perceptions of the effects of peer passengers on driving on distraction and social influence. The analysis of the interviews was guided by a grounded theory approach. Teenage drivers were aware of the risk that peer passengers posed. Some described having passengers in the vehicle as distracting, and recognized that the level of distraction increased with the number of passengers in the vehicle. Drivers that felt responsible for the safety of their peer passengers described strategies they used to control the in-vehicle environment. Drivers described driving with passengers as a performance, and articulated direct and indirect sources of pressure, gender norms, and unspoken expectations of their passengers as influencing their driving behavior. The influence of passengers is situation specific and dependent on whom the passenger(s) may be. Passenger influence may be either protective or harmful, depending on the circumstances. Some passengers exert direct influence, but often their influence appears more indirect and subtle.

  9. Cyberbullying among Children and its Comparison to Traditional Forms of Peer Violence

    OpenAIRE

    Strabić, Nives; Tokić Milaković, Ana

    2016-01-01

    In addition to traditional forms of peer violence (physical, verbal, relational, sexual, economic and cultural), children are increasingly involved in cyberbullying through electronic media. We present a literature review on peer violence in order to determine the similarities and specifics of cyberbullying, in comparison with traditional forms of peer violence. Similarities of these forms of bullying are manifested in the overlap of core elements in most conceptualizations of peer bullying a...

  10. Endogenous Peer Effects: Fact or Fiction?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yeung, Ryan; Nguyen-Hoang, Phuong

    2016-01-01

    The authors examine endogenous peer effects, which occur when a student's behavior or outcome is a function of the behavior or outcome of his or her peer group. Endogenous peer effects have important implications for educational policies such as busing, school choice and tracking. In this study, the authors quantitatively review the literature on…

  11. Peer Country Comments Paper - Denmark

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bredgaard, Thomas

    Bidrag til EU-kommissionens peer-review on "Strategies for Employment policy Reform. Implementation Challenges in Decentralised Countries"......Bidrag til EU-kommissionens peer-review on "Strategies for Employment policy Reform. Implementation Challenges in Decentralised Countries"...

  12. Peer Gynti tagasitulek / Hilve Rebane

    Index Scriptorium Estoniae

    Rebane, Hilve, 1938-2012

    1999-01-01

    Arvustus: Ibsen, Henrik. Peer Gynt / tõlkinud Marie Under. 2. tr. Tallinn : Eesti Raamat, 1998. Ka "Peer Gynti" mõjutusi eesti kirjanduses: August Gailiti, Marie Underi, A. H. Tammsaare ja eriti Karl Ristikivi loomingus

  13. Designing Peer Review for Pedagogical Success: What Can We Learn from Professional Science?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trautmann, Nancy M.

    2009-01-01

    This article compares peer review in professional versus education settings, summarizing key aspects of scientific peer review and reflecting on how these relate to the process as experienced by students. Consideration of professional peer review benefits educators in two ways. First, systems used for student peer review can employ some of the…

  14. The Peer Education Approach in Adolescents- Narrative Review Article.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abdi, Fatemeh; Simbar, Masoumeh

    2013-11-01

    Adolescence is an important stage of human life span, which crucial developmental processes occur. Since peers play a critical role in the psychosocial development of most adolescents, peer education is currently considered as a health promotion strategy in adolescents. Peer education is defined as a system of delivering knowledge that improves social learning and provides psychosocial support. As identifying the outcomes of different educational approaches will be beneficial in choosing the most effective programs for training adolescents, the present article reviewed the impact of the peer education approach on adolescents. In this review, databases such as PubMed, EMBASE, ISI, and Iranian databases, from 1999 to 2013, were searched using a number of keywords. Peer education is an effective tool for promoting healthy behaviors among adolescents. The development of this social process depends on the settings, context, and the values and expectations of the participants. Therefore, designing such programs requires proper preparation, training, supervision, and evaluation.

  15. The Influence of Peer Groups on Academic Success

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sallee, Margaret W.; Tierney, William G.

    2007-01-01

    The authors examine how peer relationships influence students' academic success. After defining peer groups, the article considers the ways in which students' peer networks facilitate or inhibit access to academic resources. The authors argue that the composition and purpose of a peer group influences academic achievement and students' likelihood…

  16. Adapting Peer Review to an Online Course: An Exploratory Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knight, Linda V.; Steinbach, Theresa A.

    2011-01-01

    With demonstrated benefits to higher level learning, peer review in the classroom has been well researched and popular since at least the 1990s. However, little or no prior studies exist into the peer review process for online courses. Further, we found no prior research specifically addressing the operational aspects of online peer review. This…

  17. Process modeling and bottleneck mining in online peer-review systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Premchaiswadi, Wichian; Porouhan, Parham

    2015-01-01

    This paper is divided into three main parts. In the first part of the study, we captured, collected and formatted an event log describing the handling of reviews for proceedings of an international conference in Thailand. In the second part, we used several process mining techniques in order to discover process models, social, organizational, and hierarchical structures from the proceeding's event log. In the third part, we detected the deviations and bottlenecks of the peer review process by comparing the observed events (i.e., authentic dataset) with a pre-defined model (i.e., master map). Finally, we investigated the performance information as well as the total waiting time in order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the online submission and peer review system for the prospective conferences and seminars. Consequently, the main goals of the study were as follows: (1) to convert the collected event log into the appropriate format supported by process mining analysis tools, (2) to discover process models and to construct social networks based on the collected event log, and (3) to find deviations, discrepancies and bottlenecks between the collected event log and the master pre-defined model. The results showed that although each paper was initially sent to three different reviewers; it was not always possible to make a decision after the first round of reviewing; therefore, additional reviewers were invited. In total, all the accepted and rejected manuscripts were reviewed by an average of 3.9 and 3.2 expert reviewers, respectively. Moreover, obvious violations of the rules and regulations relating to careless or inappropriate peer review of a manuscript-committed by the editorial board and other staff-were identified. Nine blocks of activity in the authentic dataset were not completely compatible with the activities defined in the master model. Also, five of the activity traces were not correctly enabled, and seven activities were missed within the

  18. Parental management of peer relationships and early adolescents' social skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mounts, Nina S

    2011-04-01

    Despite a growing body of research on parental management of peer relationships, little is known about the relationship between parental management of peers and early adolescents' social skills or the precursors to parental management of peer relationships. The goals of this short-term longitudinal investigation were to examine the relationship between parental management of peers (consulting and guiding), conflict about peers, and adolescents' social skills (cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control) and to examine potential precursors (goals of improving peer relationships and beliefs about authority over peer relationships) to parental management of peer relationships. A predominantly White sample (71%) of 75 seventh-graders (57% female) and their primary caregivers participated in the 9-month investigation. Caregivers completed questionnaires regarding goals of improving their adolescents' peer relationships, beliefs about parental authority over peer relationships, parental management of peers, and adolescents' social skills. Adolescents completed questionnaires regarding their social skills. Path analyses suggest that a greater number of caregivers' goals of improving peer relationships and higher beliefs about parental authority over peers were related to higher levels of consulting, guiding, and conflict about peers. Higher levels of conflict about peers in conjunction with higher levels of consulting were related to lower levels of assertion and responsibility in peer relationships over time. When parents reported having a greater number of goals of improving peer relationships, adolescents reported higher levels of cooperation, assertion, empathy, and self control over time. Findings suggest that caregivers' goals and beliefs are important in predicting parental management of peer relationships and adolescents' social skills over time, and that conflict about peers undermines caregivers' efforts to be positively involved in

  19. Estimating Probability of Default on Peer to Peer Market – Survival Analysis Approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Đurović Andrija

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Arguably a cornerstone of credit risk modelling is the probability of default. This article aims is to search for the evidence of relationship between loan characteristics and probability of default on peer-to-peer (P2P market. In line with that, two loan characteristics are analysed: 1 loan term length and 2 loan purpose. The analysis is conducted using survival analysis approach within the vintage framework. Firstly, 12 months probability of default through the cycle is used to compare riskiness of analysed loan characteristics. Secondly, log-rank test is employed in order to compare complete survival period of cohorts. Findings of the paper suggest that there is clear evidence of relationship between analysed loan characteristics and probability of default. Longer term loans are more risky than the shorter term ones and the least risky loans are those used for credit card payoff.

  20. Pre-university Chemistry Students in a Mimicked Scholarly Peer Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Rens, Lisette; Hermarij, Philip; Pilot, Albert; Beishuizen, Jos; Hofman, Herman; Wal, Marjolein

    2014-10-01

    Peer review is a significant component in scientific research. Introducing peer review into inquiry processes may be regarded as an aim to develop student understanding regarding quality in inquiries. This study examines student understanding in inquiry peer reviews among pre-university chemistry students, aged 16-17, when they enact a design of a mimicked scholarly peer review. This design is based on a model of a human activity system. Twenty-five different schools in Brazil, Germany, Poland and The Netherlands participated. The students (n = 880) conducted in small groups (n = 428) open inquiries on fermentation. All groups prepared an inquiry report for peer review. These reports were published on a website. Groups were randomly paired in an internet symposium, where they posted review comments to their peers. These responses were qualitatively analyzed on small groups' level of understanding regarding seven categories: inquiry question, hypothesis, management of control variables, accurate measurement, presenting results, reliability of results, discussion and conclusion. The mimicked scholarly review prompted a collective practice. Student understanding was significantly well on presenting results, discussion and conclusion, and significantly less on inquiry question and reliability of results. An enacted design, based on a model of a human activity system, created student understanding of quality in inquiries as well as an insight in a peer-reviewing practice. To what extent this model can be applied in a broader context of design research in science education needs further study.