Hispanic college students’ views of effective middle-school teachers: A multi-stage mixed analysis

In this multi-stage mixed-analysis study, the views of 437 Hispanic college students enrolled at two Hispanic-Serving Institutions in the Southwest of the USA were obtained concerning characteristics of effective middle-school teachers. Through the method of constant comparison (qualitative phase), 38 themes were determined to be present in respondents’ characteristics of effective middle-school teachers. Then, these themes (quantitative phase), quantified into an inter-respondent matrix that consisted of a series of 1s and 0s, were analysed to determine whether participants differed in their themes as a function of gender, college status and first-generation/non-first-generation status. Statistically significant differences were present between males and females, between undergraduate and graduate students, and between first-generation and non-first-generation college students in their emphases on effective middle-school teachers. Implications are discussed.     

Complex adaptive information flow and search transfer analysis

Studying information flow between node clusters can be conceptualised as an important challenge for the knowledge management research and practice community. We are confronted with issues related to establishing links between nodes and/or clusters during the process of information flow and search transfer in large distributed networks. In the case of missing socio-technical links, social networks can be instrumental in supporting the communities of practice interested in sharing and transferring knowledge across informal links. A comprehensive review of methodology for detecting missing links is provided. The proportion of common neighbours was selected as best practice to elicit missing links from a large health insurance data set. Weights were based on geographical arrangements of providers and the dollar value of transactions. The core network was elicited based on statistical thresholds. Suspicious, possibly fraudulent, behaviour is highlighted based on social network measures of the core. Our findings are supported by a health insurance industry expert panel.     

Visualising Famagusta: interdisciplinary approaches to the study of the Orthodox Cathedral of Saint George of the Greeks in Famagusta,Cyprus

This paper explores a recent interdisciplinary project which brought together a visualization expert, an art historian, and an architectural historian, to study the ruins of Saint George of the Greeks Cathedral in Famagusta, eastern Cyprus, then create a virtual three-dimensional reconstruction of it. The motivation for this work, funded by Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, was to apply existing knowledge and expertise to a difficult, and very particular, heritage question on this Eastern Mediterranean Island. The creation of such a model could, it was felt, not only reiterate the academic value of thorough archival work married to state of the art technology, but also have very practical reverberations in terms of future heritage welfare and education via this ‘borderless’ domain.