Smart Search: A Firefox Add-On to Compute a Web Traffic Ranking

Search engines results are typically ordered according to some notion of importance of a web page as well as relevance of the content of a web page to a query. Web page importance is usually calculated based on some graph theoretic properties of the web. Another common technique to measure page importance is to make use of the traffic that goes to a particular web page as measured by a browser toolbar. Currently, there are some traffic ranking tools available like www.alexa.com, www.ranking.com, www.compete.com that give such analytic as to the number of users who visit a web site. Alexa provides the traffic rank for a website based on two factors: The number of users that view a website and the number of pages viewed. The Alexa toolbar is not open-source.The main goal of our project was to create a Smart Search Firefox add-on for the Yioop search engine, an open source search engine developed by my project advisor, Dr. Chris Pollett. This add-on would provide similar analytic data to the Yioop search engine, but in a transparent and open-source way. With the results received from the Smart Search toolbar extension, the Yioop search engine refines the search results as well as provides user centric-search results. Eventually, users would benefit from these better search results

A visual analytics approach for visualisation and knowledge discovery from time-varying personal life data

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in ful filment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyToday, the importance of big data from lifestyles and work activities has been the focus of much research. At the same time, advances in modern sensor technologies have enabled self-logging of a signi cant number of daily activities and movements. Lifestyle logging produces a wide variety of personal data along the lifespan of individuals, including locations, movements, travel distance, step counts and the like, and can be useful in many areas such as healthcare, personal life management, memory recall, and socialisation. However, the amount of obtainable personal life logging data has enormously increased and stands in need of effective processing, analysis, and visualisation to provide hidden insights owing to the lack of semantic information (particularly in spatiotemporal data), complexity, large volume of trivial records, and absence of effective information visualisation on a large scale. Meanwhile, new technologies such as visual analytics have emerged with great potential in data mining and visualisation to overcome the challenges in handling such data and to support individuals in many aspects of their life. Thus, this thesis contemplates the importance of scalability and conducts a comprehensive investigation into visual analytics and its impact on the process of knowledge discovery from the European Commission project MyHealthAvatar at the Centre for Visualisation and Data Analytics by actively involving individuals in order to establish a credible reasoning and effectual interactive visualisation of such multivariate data with particular focus on lifestyle and personal events. To this end, this work widely reviews the foremost existing work on data mining (with the particular focus on semantic enrichment and ranking), data visualisation (of time-oriented, personal, and spatiotemporal data), and methodical evaluations of such approaches. Subsequently, a novel automated place annotation is introduced with multilevel probabilistic latent semantic analysis to automatically attach relevant information to the collected personal spatiotemporal data with low or no semantic information in order to address the inadequate information, which is essential for the process of knowledge discovery. Correspondingly, a multi-signi ficance event ranking model is introduced by involving a number of factors as well as individuals' preferences, which can influence the result within the process of analysis towards credible and high-quality knowledge discovery. The data mining models are assessed in terms of accurateness and performance. The results showed that both models are highly capable of enriching the raw data and providing significant events based on user preferences. An interactive visualisation is also designed and implemented including a set of novel visual components signifi cantly based upon human perception and attentiveness to visualise the extracted knowledge. Each visual component is evaluated iteratively based on usability and perceptibility in order to enhance the visualisation towards reaching the goal of this thesis. Lastly, three integrated visual analytics tools (platforms) are designed and implemented in order to demonstrate how the data mining models and interactive visualisation can be exploited to support different aspects of personal life, such as lifestyle, life pattern, and memory recall (reminiscence). The result of the evaluation for the three integrated visual analytics tools showed that this visual analytics approach can deliver a remarkable experience in gaining knowledge and supporting the users' life in certain aspects

Task complexity analysis and QoS management for mapping dynamic video-processing tasks on a multi-core platform

This paper addresses efficient mapping and reconfiguration of advanced video applications onto a general purpose multi-core platform. By accurately modeling the resource usage for an application, allocation of processing resources on the platform can be based on the actually needed resources instead of a worst-case approach, thereby improving Quality-of-Service (QoS). Here, we exploit a new and strongly upcoming class of dynamic video applications based on image and content analysis for resource management and control. Such applications are characterized by irregular computing behavior and memory usage. It is shown that with linear models and statistical techniques based on the Markov modeling, a rather good accuracy (94–97%) for predicting the resource usage can be obtained. This prediction accuracy is so good that it allows resource prediction at runtime, thereby leading to an actively controlled system management

Strategies of Combating Corruption in Nigeria: The Islamic Perspective

Corruption has become a pandemic and a moral burden that bedeviled the world. Corruption is a practice that permeates all societal segments, sectors, activities and it takes various shapes, forms, dimensions, classifications and manifestations. Nearly all countries of the world are affected by the endemic of corruption albeit, in different magnitude with some having lower incidence while others a high rate of occurrence. Corruption has constituted itself as a political and socioeconomic problem worldwide because it leads to misgovernance, deprivation, inequality and squander of scarce public resources which have the concomitant repercussions of poverty, insecurity, joblessness, hunger and malnutrition, poor healthcare services delivery and low quality education. The problem of corruption took a new dimension when it continuously defies various strategies and alternatives proffered by nation-states, international organisations and agencies. One of the outstanding measures that permanently proves workable is the Islamic model which forbids the practice of corruption and ties it with moral burden and spiritual integrity. Hence, this study presented an alternative model with reference to Nigeria as the area of study. The study utilised a conceptual descriptive approach where documented sources were consulted and analysed. The study discovered that despite the existence of various anti-graft agencies, corruption continues in Nigeria unabated which portrays the need for adopting a different approach and that has been provided as the Islamic perspective. The study recommends among several others that the Islamic ethics and morals of detesting corrupt practices and the accompanied sanctions should be integrated in the crusade against corruption

Integrating Conversational Agents and Knowledge Graphs Within the Scholarly Domain

In the last few years, chatbots have become mainstream solutions adopted in a variety of domains for automatizing communication at scale. In the same period, knowledge graphs have attracted significant attention from business and academia as robust and scalable representations of information. In the scientific and academic research domain, they are increasingly used to illustrate the relevant actors (e.g., researchers, institutions), documents (e.g., articles, patents), entities (e.g., concepts, innovations), and other related information. Following the same direction, this paper describes how to integrate conversational agents with knowledge graphs focused on the scholarly domain, a.k.a. Scientific Knowledge Graphs. On top of the proposed architecture, we developed AIDA-Bot, a simple chatbot that leverages a large-scale knowledge graph of scholarly data. AIDA-Bot can answer natural language questions about scientific articles, research concepts, researchers, institutions, and research venues. We have developed four prototypes of AIDA-Bot on Alexa products, web browsers, Telegram clients, and humanoid robots. We performed a user study evaluation with 15 domain experts showing a high level of interest and engagement with the proposed agent

Missouri S&T Magazine Spring 2006

https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/alumni-magazine/1045/thumbnail.jp

Dynamic Patent Governance in Europe and the United States: The Myriad Example

This Article examines the emerging elements of a new model for patent governance. It is divided into four parts. In Section One, we develop a model of dynamic patent governance. This model extends the theoretical framework of network governance, to explain the emergence of networks in the decisionmaking infrastructure for the public and private actors in the patent system. Dynamic patent governance widens this theoretical framework in two key ways. First, dynamic patent governance, within its formal dimensions, is based on the idea that heterogeneous administrative actors regulate the grant and enforcement of patents. This challenges a perspective that sees patent examination agencies as the sole actor of importance within the patent system. Second, dynamic patent governance, within its informal dimensions, highlights that the patent administrative regime is shaped by the fluid relationship of diverse actors to these heterogeneous administrative actors. Section Two explores the consequences of a more dynamic patent governance context. Section Three applies this model to explore the recent Myriad litigation in the United States and Europe. Section Four focuses on some particular challenges that dynamic patent governance poses to: (1) the impulse to centralize patent administration and litigation; and (2) the efficiency of the patent system

Search engine bias: the structuration of traffic on the World-Wide Web

Search engines are essential components of the World Wide Web; both commercially and in terms of everyday usage, their importance is hard to overstate. This thesis examines the question of why there is bias in search engine results – bias that invites users to click on links to large websites, commercial websites, websites based in certain countries, and websites written in certain languages. In this thesis, the historical development of the search engine industry is traced. Search engines first emerged as prototypical technological startups emanating from Silicon Valley, followed by the acquisition of search engine companies by major US media corporations and their development into portals. The subsequent development of pay-per-click advertising is central to the current industry structure, an oligarchy of virtually integrated companies managing networks of syndicated advertising and traffic distribution. The study also shows a global landscape in which search production is concentrated in and caters for large global advertising markets, leaving the rest of the world with patchy and uneven search results coverage. The analysis of interviews with senior search engine engineers indicates that issues of quality are addressed in terms of customer service and relevance in their discourse, while the analysis of documents, interviews with search marketers, and participant observation within a search engine marketing firm showed that producers and marketers had complex relationships that combine aspects of collaboration, competition, and indifference. The results of the study offer a basis for the synthesis of insights of the political economy of media and communication and the social studies of technology tradition, emphasising the importance of culture in constructing and maintaining both local structures and wider systems. In the case of search engines, the evidence indicates that the culture of the technological entrepreneur is very effective in creating a new megabusiness, but less successful in encouraging a debate on issues of the public good or public responsibility as they relate to the search engine industry

Towards a coachee-centred approach to coaching academic leaders

This thesis unifies the five elements of the research portfolio into a coherent whole. These elements comprise a small scale research project, an applied research project followed by a report on professional practice. In addition to these three distinct projects, a comprehensive literature review and reflective account are also part of the various elements of the portfolio. The above elements of the portfolio are organized into five chapters. The entire research is carried out in an organization that is a leading institution of higher education in the Middle East. The first element of the portfolio is the literature review which is guided by the purpose of this qualitative research that aims to explore a learning-informed coaching framework for academic Deans. Guided by the objective and gap in the existing research, a comprehensive literature review on learning theories and coaching models is undertaken. Later, it was extended to include coaching competency frameworks. The small scale research project explores the lived experiences of two executive leadership coaches who coached 11 professional managers at the university to improve their leadership potential. It examines the literature on organizational leadership coaching in a university context. While using the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) methodology, the data analysis resulted in five themes: commitment to evolve and grow, role of goal-setting in coaching, impact of self-efficacy on goal attainment, 3-way meetings for accountability and support, and coaching for organizational leadership development. The research offers learning for practitioners such as coaches and managers of coaching engagements. The results of this study cannot be generalized, however, it advances the research conversations on the coaching for leadership development in universities. The small scale research project proved to be an excellent opportunity to practice methodology, data collection and analysis, and most significantly writing a research report. These learnings proved extremely beneficial during the main applied research project. In the applied research project, I explored the lived experiences of academic Deans in the university using the same IPA methodology. The analysis of the interview transcripts resulted in five themes: attract and retain faculty, disciplinary background, learning by observation, reflection, and thinking clearly while relaxed. By understanding the role, context and experiences of Deans, through the lens of classic learning theories, it informs a heuristic framework that is particularly relevant to coaching academic Deans. While this study is exhaustive, it is simply a tentative framework; additional research is required to develop a more complete framework. The key finding of the applied research project is that coaching academic Deans is a complex and context driven process. This finding, combined with some supporting evidence in the literature, led to the possibility that the current coach competency frameworks recommended by professional bodies may not be sufficient for coaching academic Deans. Therefore, the research was extended to explore that with the question: do existing coaching competency frameworks adequately address the complex task of coaching academic deans? The unit of analysis of this interpretative and evaluative case study is the coaching practice that is based on the core competencies as prescribed by International Coach Federation (ICF) and European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC). It uses five different sources of evidence that converge to address the research question. The report concludes that an evidence-based approach to coaching that integrates scientific knowledge with the expertise of practitioners can be more effective, especially at the executive level such as Deans. Therefore, a competent coach is not enough to generate inspired insights for complex coaching of Deans. A deeper understanding of the purpose, relevant learning theories and context are other additional conditions for the coaching engagements. These are certain limitations to the study. It has been conducted in a single university with a single coach and five Deans. Therefore, the findings may not be generalized to other leaders and industries

Cooperative mechanisms for information dissemination and retrieval in networks with autonomous nodes

Αυτή η διατριβή συνεισφέρει στη βιβλιογραφία με το να προτείνει και να μοντελοποιήσει καινοτόμους αλγορίθμους και σχήματα που επιτρέπουν στις διεργασίες διάδοσης και ανάκτησης πληροφοριών – και γενικότερα της διαχείρισης περιεχομένου – να εκτελεστούν πιο αποτελεσματικά σε ένα σύγχρονο περιβάλλον δικτύωσης. Εκτός από τη διάδοση και ανάκτηση των πληροφοριών, άλλες πτυχές της διαχείρισης περιεχομένου που εξετάζουμε είναι η αποθήκευση και η κατηγοριοποίηση. Η πιο σημαντική πρόκληση που αφορά πολλά από τα σχήματα που προτείνονται στην παρούσα εργασία είναι η ανάγκη να διαχειριστούν την αυτονομία των κόμβων, διατηρώντας παράλληλα τον κατανεμημένο, καθώς και τον ανοικτό χαρακτήρα του συστήματος. Κατά το σχεδιασμό κατανεμημένων μηχανισμών σε δίκτυα με αυτόνομους κόμβους, ένα σημαντικό επίσης Ζητούμενο είναι να δημιουργηθούν κίνητρα ώστε οι κόμβοι να συνεργάζονται κατά την εκτέλεση των καθηκόντων επικοινωνίας. Ένα καινούργιο χαρακτηριστικό των περισσοτέρων από τα προτεινόμενα σχήματα είναι η αξιοποίηση των κοινωνικών χαρακτηριστικών των κόμβων, εστιάζοντας στο πώς τα κοινά ενδιαφέροντα των κόμβων μπορούν να αξιοποιηθούν για τη βελτίωση της αποδοτικότητας στην επικοινωνία. Για την αξιολόγηση της απόδοσης των προτεινόμενων αλγορίθμων και σχημάτων, κυρίως αναπτύσσουμε μαθηματικά στοχαστικά μοντέλα και λαμβάνουμε αριθμητικά αποτελέσματα. Όπου είναι απαραίτητο, παρέχουμε αποτελέσματα προσομοίωσης που επαληθεύουν την ακρίβεια αυτών των μοντέλων. Πραγματικά ίχνη δικτύου χρησιμοποιούνται όπου θέλουμε να υποστηρίξουμε περαιτέρω τη λογική για την πρόταση ενός συγκεκριμένου σχήματος. Ένα βασικό εργαλείο για τη μοντελοποίηση και την ανάλυση των προβλημάτων συνεργασίας σε δίκτυα με αυτόνομους κόμβους είναι η θεωρία παιγνίων, η οποία χρησιμοποιείται σε μερικά τμήματα αυτής της διατριβής για να βοηθήσει στην εξακρίβωση της δυνατότητας διατήρησης της συνεργασίας μεταξύ των κόμβων στο δίκτυο. Με την αξιοποίηση των κοινωνικών χαρακτηριστικών των κόμβων, μπαίνουμε επίσης στον τομέα της ανάλυσης των κοινωνικών δικτύων, και χρησιμοποιούμε σχετικές μετρικές και τεχνικές ανάλυσης.This thesis contributes to the literature by proposing and modeling novel algorithms and schemes that allow the tasks of information dissemination and retrieval – and more generally of content management – to be performed more efficiently in a modern networking environment. Apart from information dissemination and retrieval, other aspects of content management we examine are content storage and classification. The most important challenge that will preoccupy many of the proposed schemes is the need to manage the autonomy of nodes while preserving the distributed, as well as the open nature of the system. In designing distributed mechanisms in networks with autonomous nodes, an important challenge is also to develop incentives for nodes to cooperate while performing communication tasks. A novel characteristic of most of the proposed schemes is the exploitation of social characteristics of nodes, focusing on how common interests of nodes can be used to improve communication efficiency. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithms and schemes, we mainly develop mathematical stochastic models and obtain numerical results. Where it is deemed necessary, we provide simulation results that verify the accuracy of these models. Real network traces are used where we want to further support the rationale for proposing a certain scheme. A key tool for modeling and analyzing cooperation problems in networks with autonomous nodes is game theory, and it is used in parts of this thesis to help identify the feasibility of sustaining cooperation between nodes in the network. By exploiting social characteristics of nodes, we also enter the field of social network analysis, and use related metrics and techniques