In online discussion forums, users are more motivated to take part in discussions when observing other users’ participation — the effect of social influence among forum users. In this paper, we study how to utilize social influence for increasing the overall forum participation. To this end, we propose a mechanism to maximize user influence and boost participation by displaying forum threads to...

the purpose of research was identifying the relationship between social capital and performance of agricultural extension experts, khouzestan province, iran. the method of research was a descriptive-correlative. the sample size was agricultural extension experts (n=98). a five-point likert-type scale was used as instrument to gather data in order to measure the social capital. data were analyze...

Small farms and smallholder farming systems play crucial roles in agricultural development in many developing countries. From the various rural development programs designed to support such farming systems, agricultural extension services are of at most importance. However, the benefit that farmers obtain from these services and the resulting impact depends, to a great extent, by their direct a...

This study aimed to identify the factors influencing adoption of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) technologies by paddy farmers in Sari County of Iran. A sample of 260 farmers who selected randomly, participated in this study through a survey questionnaire. Findings of the study revealed a statistically significant positive correlation between adoption of IPM technologies and farmers’ participa...

Depression is a major threat to public health, accounting for almost 12% of all disabilities and claiming the life of 1 out of 5 patients suffering from it. Since depression is often signaled by decreasing social interaction, we explored how analysis of online health forums may help identify such episodes. We collected posts and replies from users of several forums on healthboards.com and analy...

The purpose of research was identifying the relationship between social capital and performance of agricultural extension experts, Khouzestan province, Iran. The method of research was a descriptive-correlative. The sample size was agricultural extension experts (n=98). A five-point Likert-type scale was used as instrument to gather data in order to measure the social capital. Data were analyze...

This study is aimed at evaluating and measuring the factors affecting the Dezful wheat farmers` attitude toward the extension of wheat waste reduction. The method of research was correlative- descriptive. The population of this study is all farmers cultivated wheat in Dezful from 2011 to 2012 (n=5291). The Number of samples size was 360 based on Krejcie and Morgan table. Panel of experts and Al...

Identifying role of extension system in adoption of new technologies have important role to developing favorable extension systems. For supporting sustainable agriculture in Iran needs extension systems to be carefully thought and accurately implemented. The purpose of this is analyzing role of extension activities in adoption of sustainable agriculture. Based on the results the attending agric...