The State-of-the-arts in Focused Search

The continuous influx of various text data on the Web requires search engines to improve their retrieval abilities for more specific information. The need for relevant results to a user’s topic of interest has gone beyond search for domain or type specific documents to more focused result (e.g. document fragments or answers to a query). The introduction of XML provides a format standard for data representation, storage, and exchange. It helps focused search to be carried out at different granularities of a structured document with XML markups. This report aims at reviewing the state-of-the-arts in focused search, particularly techniques for topic-specific document retrieval, passage retrieval, XML retrieval, and entity ranking. It is concluded with highlight of open problems

Learning-oriented language test preparation materials: a contradiction in terms?

The impact of the use of assessment on teaching and learning is increasingly regarded as a key concern in evaluating assessment use. Realising intended forms of impact relies on more than the design of an assessment: account must also be taken of the ways in which teachers, learners and others understand the demands of the assessment and incorporate these into their practice. The measures that testing agencies take to present and explicate their tests to teachers and other stakeholders therefore play an important role in promoting intended impact and mitigating unintended, negative impact. Materials that support teachers in preparing learners to take tests (such as descriptions of the test, preparation materials and teacher training resources) play an important role in communicating the test providers’ intentions. In this study, these support materials are analysed. The selected materials, provided to teachers by Cambridge English Language Assessment, go with the Speaking component of a major international test of general English proficiency: Cambridge English: First. The study addresses how these materials might embody or reflect learning-oriented assessment principles of task authenticity, learner engagement and feedback within a coherent systemic theory of action, reconciling formative and summative assessment functions to the benefit of learning

An adaptive approach for image organisation and retrieval

We propose and evaluate an adaptive approach towards content-based image retrieval (CBIR), which is based on the Ostensive Model of developing information needs. We use ostensive relevance to capture the user's current interest and tailor the retrieval accordingly. Our approach supports content-assisted browsing, by incorporating an adaptive query learning scheme based on implicit feedback from the user. Textual and colour features are employed to characterise images. Evidence from these features are combined using the Dempster-Shafer theory of evidence combination. Results from a user-centred, task-oriented evaluation show that the ostensive interface is preferred over a traditional interface with manual query facilities. Its strengths are considered to lie in its ability to adapt to the user's need, and its very intuitive and fluid way of operation

A granular approach to web search result presentation

In this paper we propose and evaluate interfaces for presenting the results of web searches. Sentences, taken from the top retrieved documents, are used as fine-grained representations of document content and, when combined in a ranked list, to provide a query-specific overview of the set of retrieved documents. Current search engine interfaces assume users examine such results document-by-document. In contrast our approach groups, ranks and presents the contents of the top ranked document set. We evaluate our hypotheses that the use of such an approach can lead to more effective web searching and to increased user satisfaction. Our evaluation, with real users and different types of information seeking scenario, showed, with statistical significance, that these hypotheses hold

Thesaurus-assisted search term selection and query expansion: a review of user-centred studies

This paper provides a review of the literature related to the application of domain-specific thesauri in the search and retrieval process. Focusing on studies which adopt a user-centred approach, the review presents a survey of the methodologies and results from empirical studies undertaken on the use of thesauri as sources of term selection for query formulation and expansion during the search process. It summaries the ways in which domain-specific thesauri from different disciplines have been used by various types of users and how these tools aid users in the selection of search terms. The review consists of two main sections covering, firstly studies on thesaurus-aided search term selection and secondly those dealing with query expansion using thesauri. Both sections are illustrated with case studies that have adopted a user-centred approach