A Time-Aware Approach to Improving Ad-hoc Information Retrieval from Microblogs

There is an immense number of short-text documents produced as the result of microblogging. The content produced is growing as the number of microbloggers grows, and as active microbloggers continue to post millions of updates. The range of topics discussed is so vast, that microblogs provide an abundance of useful information. In this work, the problem of retrieving the most relevant information in microblogs is addressed. Interesting temporal patterns were found in the initial analysis of the study. Therefore the focus of the current work is to first exploit a temporal variable in order to see how effectively it can be used to predict the relevance of the tweets and, then, to include it in a retrieval weighting model along with other tweet-specific features. Generalized Linear Mixed-effect Models (GLMMs) are used to analyze the features and to propose two re-ranking models. These two models were developed through an exploratory process on a training set and then were evaluated on a test set

World report: 2014

Introduction: World Report 2014 is Human Rights Watch’s 24th annual review of human rights practices around the globe. It summarizes key human rights issues in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide, drawing on events from the end of 2012 through November 2013. The book is divided into three main parts: an essay section, photo essays, and country-specific chapters. In the 667-page world report, its 24th annual review of human rights practices around the world, Human Rights Watch summarizes major issues in more than 90 countries. In many countries, a misguided equation of democracy with the presumed desires of a majority prompted rulers to supress minority groups and views most notably in Egypt, Human Rights Watch said. It also led some governments to enforce a narrow vision of cultural propriety, targeting in particular women, gays, and lesbians. The disclosures of the whistleblower Edward Snowden showed that the US government’s mass surveillance has eradicated much of our privacy in a world that virtually requires electronic communication. But global outrage at this assault on the right to privacy offers some promise of change