Revisiting h measured on UK LIS and IR academics

A brief communication appearing in this journal ranked UK LIS and (some) IR academics by their h-index using data derived from Web of Science. In this brief communication, the same academics were re-ranked, using other popular citation databases. It was found that for academics who publish more in computer science forums, their h was significantly different due to highly cited papers missed by Web of Science; consequently their rank changed substantially. The study was widened to a broader set of UK LIS and IR academics where results showed similar statistically significant differences. A variant of h, hmx, was introduced that allowed a ranking of the academics using all citation databases together

The Impact of Central Government Policies on Local Authorities’’ Transport Expenditure and Provision: 1. Review of Changes in Government Policies Since 1979

The period since the mid-1970s has witnessed increasing interest and controversy in relations between central and local government as successive governments have sought to assert controls on local authorities' activities as part of wider economic and political programmes. Most attention has focussed on attempts to control local government expenditure in the context of the macroeconommic management of the economy, but in recent years, financial controls have been supplemented by legislative measures which have raised issues of a 'constitutional' nature (cf. Loughlin (1986)). Indeed, some commentators have argued that the controls introduced by the p~esent Conservative Government since 1979 represet a fundamental re-structuring of central-local relations such as to constitute a threat to the future of local government (see Rhodes (1984) p 261). A considerable amount of work has been undertaken to examine the implications of changes in the system of local government finance in terms of their effect, firstly, on local authority spending, secondly, on management and organisation within local authorities, and, thirdly, on relations between central and local government. This last aspect has received particular attention, especially through an SSRC-funded research initiative in the early 1980s in which the issue of central-local financial relations figured prominently (Goldsmith, 1986). Moreover, in this context there have been developments in the theory of the state, particularly the relationship of the 'local state' to the 'central state', deriving from the study of changes in central government financial controls (Martlew, 1983; Goldsmith and Villadsen, 1986). Clearly, the study of such changes will provide insights which will be valuable, firstly, in relation to the development of our ideas about the role and status of local government within the wider economic and political system and, secondly, in relation to the development of future policies for local government finance. To date, it would appear that most of the work in this area has focussed on aggregate spending by local authorities or classes of local authorities (e.g. shire/metropolitan/London authorities) and work on specific services has concentrated on such services as housing and education. It is considered, therefore, that an examination of the effects of changes in central government financial controls on local authorities' transport expenditure and provision will provide a valuable contribution to this area of study

Using debates to develop and assess critical reasoning abilities

The ability to construct evidence based arguments is an important and necessary skill in biosciences, health and other areas and arguably helps to define the concept of graduateness – the acquisition of a set of advanced transferable skills that are useful in any employment area. However, developing critical reasoning abilities progressively throughout a three year degree course is often implicitly rather than explicitly addressed. We often assume that our students understand that this is what we expect them to do when we direct them to the evidence base and this is not really good enough in a student centred ethos. Students have to know what they are meant to be learning and need to be able to self evaluate the extent of their learning. Learning outcomes need to be both explicit and transparent. Deconstructing what is meant by critical reasoning is for me relatively straight forward; I want my students to observe the world around them, ask questions about what might be going on, consider possible answers and explanations and determine which ones, on the evidence available, seem most plausible. In other words, I want them to think things through before they express opinions. Critical reasoning is also central to reflective practice – it is about evaluating one’s own reasoning to see how it holds up to new experiences and it is also about ‘the ability to use language with clarity and discrimination’ (Thomson 2002 p2). Opportunities abound on science and health courses to confront radically opposite viewpoints as ethical dilemmas present themselves almost daily. Examples here include reproductive technologies, end of life decisions, ecological ethics and the nature of doctor/patient relationships. Many of these dilemmas are based on debating ‘should we because we can’ and provide a valuable learning opportunity for students to engage in critical examination of both sides of the argument; whilst raising their awareness of the social responsibility of scientists and the impact of scientific developments. In the Faculty of Health here at Leeds Met, on our Health Sciences and Public Health courses we have a first year, first semester module, Concepts of Science and Health. This was designed to explore definitions and views of both of those terms and discuss moral and ethical frameworks that may help to evaluate and construct reasoned arguments around contested issues. 60% of the module assessment is for the production of a group report that sets out the arguments that either support or refute an ethical standpoint followed by a debate with their opposing group based on the written reports

MS-069: Papers of John W. Vannorsdall

The Papers of John W. Vannorsdall consist correspondence and issues proposals from the late 1960’s and early 1970’s from the Office of the Chaplain at Gettysburg College. The papers also include papers pertaining to the Chapel and the Student Christian Association during the same time period. Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each collection in addition to inventories of their content. More information about our collections can be found on our website http://www.gettysburg.edu/special_collections/collections/.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/findingaidsall/1063/thumbnail.jp

MS-082: Capt. Russell Miller and Claudia Lewis Miller Correspondence, 1916-1919

This collection consists of 297 letters written between Russell Miller and Claudia Miller from Washington in 1916-1919 during their courtship and marriage before Russell was deployed to Europe during World War I. Almost all letters are attached to their original envelopes with stamps. Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each collection in addition to inventories of their content. More information about our collections can be found on our website https://www.gettysburg.edu/special-collections/collections/.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/findingaidsall/1075/thumbnail.jp

Retrieving with good sense

Although always present in text, word sense ambiguity only recently became regarded as a problem to information retrieval which was potentially solvable. The growth of interest in word senses resulted from new directions taken in disambiguation research. This paper first outlines this research and surveys the resulting efforts in information retrieval. Although the majority of attempts to improve retrieval effectiveness were unsuccessful, much was learnt from the research. Most notably a notion of under what circumstance disambiguation may prove of use to retrieval

Demonstration of lightweight gamma spectrometry systems in urban environments

Urban areas present highly complex radiation environments; with small scale features resulting from different construction materials, topographic effects and potential anthropogenic inputs from past industrial activity or other sources. Mapping of the radiation fields in urban areas allows a detailed assessment of exposure pathways for the people who live and work there, as well as locating discrete sources of activity that may warrant removal to mitigate dose to the general public. These areas also present access difficulties for radiometric mapping using vehicles or aircraft. A lightweight portable gamma spectrometry system has been used to survey sites in the vicinity of Glasgow to demonstrate the possibilities of radiometric mapping of urban areas, and to investigate the complex radiometric features such areas present. Variations in natural activity due to construction materials have been described, the presence of 137Cs used to identify relatively undisturbed ground, and a previously unknown NORM feature identified. The effect of topographic enclosure on measurements of activity concentration has been quantified. The portable system is compared with the outputs that might be expected from larger vehicular or airborne systems. For large areas airborne surveys are the most cost effective approach, but provide limited spatial resolution, vehicular surveys can provide sparse exploratory data rapidly or detailed mapping of open areas where off-road access is possible. Backpack systems are ideally suited to detailed surveys of small areas, especially where vehicular access is difficult

Word sense disambiguation and information retrieval

It has often been thought that word sense ambiguity is a cause of poor performance in Information Retrieval (IR) systems. The belief is that if ambiguous words can be correctly disambiguated, IR performance will increase. However, recent research into the application of a word sense disambiguator to an IR system failed to show any performance increase. From these results it has become clear that more basic research is needed to investigate the relationship between sense ambiguity, disambiguation, and IR. Using a technique that introduces additional sense ambiguity into a collection, this paper presents research that goes beyond previous work in this field to reveal the influence that ambiguity and disambiguation have on a probabilistic IR system. We conclude that word sense ambiguity is only problematic to an IR system when it is retrieving from very short queries. In addition we argue that if a word sense disambiguator is to be of any use to an IR system, the disambiguator must be able to resolve word senses to a high degree of accuracy