Improving Relevance Feedback with Unbiased Estimate of User\u27s Information Need

Relevance feedback is an effective and widely accepted method in information retrieval to improve performance. Relevance feedback generally uses an adaptive learning method to estimate the userís information need. In this research, we propose an alternative two-stage sampling method to obtain an unbiased estimate of the userís information need. Our estimate shows not only improved retrieval performance, but also better prevention of query drift, which troubles traditional relevance feedback. We also give theoretical justification and empirical support for this method

Estimating Error and Bias of Offline Recommender System Evaluation Results

Recommender systems are software applications deployed on the Internet to help people find useful items (e.g. movies, books, music, products) by providing recommendation lists. Before deploying recommender systems online, researchers and practitioners generally conduct offline evaluations to compare the accuracy of top- recommendation lists among candidate algorithms using users’ history consumption data. These offline evaluations typically use metrics and methodologies borrowed from machine learning and information retrieval and have several well-known biases that affect the validity of their results, including popularity bias and other biases arising from the missing-not-at-random nature of the data used. The existence of these biases is well-established, but their extent and impact are not as well-studied. In this work, we employ controlled simulations with varying assumptions about the distribution and structure of users’ preferences and the rating process to estimate the distributions of the errors in recommender experiment outcomes as a result of these biases. We calibrate our simulated datasets to mimic key statistics of existing public datasets in different domains and use the simulated data to assess the error in estimating true accuracy with observable rating data. We find inconsistency of the evaluation metric scores and the order in which they rank recommendation algorithms in the synthetic true preference and the observation dataset. Simulation results show that offline evaluations are sometimes fooled by intrinsic effects in the data generation process into mistakenly ranking algorithms. The extent of this effect is sensitive to assumptions

Recommendation Systems: Decision Support for the Information Economy

Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Content quality assessment related frameworks for social media

The assessment of content quality (CQ) in social media adds a layer of complexity over traditional information quality assessment frameworks. Challenges arise in accurately evaluating the quality of content that has been created by users from different backgrounds, for different domains and consumed by users with different requirements. This paper presents a comprehensive review of 19 existing CQ assessment related frameworks for social media in addition to proposing directions for framework improvements

LookBook: pioneering Inclusive beauty with artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms

Technology's imperfections and biases inherited from historical norms are crucial to acknowledge. Rapid perpetuation and amplification of these biases necessitate transparency and proactive measures to mitigate their impact. The online visual culture reinforces Eurocentric beauty ideals through prioritized algorithms and augmented reality filters, distorting reality and perpetuating unrealistic standards of beauty. Narrow beauty standards in technology pose a significant challenge to overcome. Algorithms personalize content, creating "filter bubbles" that reinforce these ideals and limit exposure to diverse representations of beauty. This cycle compels individuals to conform, hindering the embrace of their unique features and alternative definitions of beauty. LookBook counters prevalent narrow beauty standards in technology. It promotes inclusivity and representation through self-expression, community engagement, and diverse visibility. LookBook comprises three core sections: Dash, Books, and Community. In Dash, users curate their experience through personalization algorithms. Books allow users to collect curated content for inspiration and creativity, while Community fosters connections with like-minded individuals. Through LookBook, users create a reality aligned with their unique vision. They control consumed content, nurturing individualism through preferences and creativity. This personalization empowers individuals to break free from narrow beauty standards and embrace their distinctiveness. LookBook stands out with its algorithmic training and data representation. It offers transparency on how personalization algorithms operate and ensures a balanced and diverse representation of physicalities and ethnicities. By addressing biases and embracing a wide range of identities, LookBook sparks a conversation for a technology landscape that amplifies all voices, fostering an environment celebrating diversity and prioritizing inclusivity

Vector computers, Monte Carlo simulation, and regression analysis: An introduction (Version 2)

Monte Carlo Technique;Supercomputer;computer science

Job Recommendation System Using Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL)

The rapid growth of online job portals and the increasing volume of job listings have made it challenging for job seekers to efficiently navigate through the vast number of available opportunities. Job recommendation systems play a crucial role in assisting users in finding relevant job opportunities based on their skills, preferences, and past experiences. This research paper proposes a job recommendation system that leverages deep learning techniques to enhance the accuracy and effectiveness of job recommendations. The system utilizes advanced algorithms to analyses user profiles, job descriptions, and historical data to generate personalized job recommendations. Experimental evaluations demonstrate the superiority of the proposed system compared to traditional recommendation methods, thereby improving the job search process for both job seekers and employers. This paper provides Job recommendation system using Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL)

Bridging the semantic gap in content-based image retrieval.

To manage large image databases, Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) emerged as a new research subject. CBIR involves the development of automated methods to use visual features in searching and retrieving. Unfortunately, the performance of most CBIR systems is inherently constrained by the low-level visual features because they cannot adequately express the user\u27s high-level concepts. This is known as the semantic gap problem. This dissertation introduces a new approach to CBIR that attempts to bridge the semantic gap. Our approach includes four components. The first one learns a multi-modal thesaurus that associates low-level visual profiles with high-level keywords. This is accomplished through image segmentation, feature extraction, and clustering of image regions. The second component uses the thesaurus to annotate images in an unsupervised way. This is accomplished through fuzzy membership functions to label new regions based on their proximity to the profiles in the thesaurus. The third component consists of an efficient and effective method for fusing the retrieval results from the multi-modal features. Our method is based on learning and adapting fuzzy membership functions to the distribution of the features\u27 distances and assigning a degree of worthiness to each feature. The fourth component provides the user with the option to perform hybrid querying and query expansion. This allows the enrichment of a visual query with textual data extracted from the automatically labeled images in the database. The four components are integrated into a complete CBIR system that can run in three different and complementary modes. The first mode allows the user to query using an example image. The second mode allows the user to specify positive and/or negative sample regions that should or should not be included in the retrieved images. The third mode uses a Graphical Text Interface to allow the user to browse the database interactively using a combination of low-level features and high-level concepts. The proposed system and ail of its components and modes are implemented and validated using a large data collection for accuracy, performance, and improvement over traditional CBIR techniques