Payoffs and pitfalls in using knowledge‑bases for consumer health search

Consumer health search (CHS) is a challenging domain with vocabulary mismatch and considerable domain expertise hampering peoples’ ability to formulate effective queries. We posit that using knowledge bases for query reformulation may help alleviate this problem. How to exploit knowledge bases for effective CHS is nontrivial, involving a swathe of key choices and design decisions (many of which are not explored in the literature). Here we rigorously empirically evaluate the impact these different choices have on retrieval effectiveness. A state-of-the-art knowledge-base retrieval model—the Entity Query Feature Expansion model—was used to evaluate these choices, which include: which knowledge base to use (specialised vs. general purpose), how to construct the knowledge base, how to extract entities from queries and map them to entities in the knowledge base, what part of the knowledge base to use for query expansion, and if to augment the knowledge base search process with relevance feedback. While knowledge base retrieval has been proposed as a solution for CHS, this paper delves into the finer details of doing this effectively, highlighting both payoffs and pitfalls. It aims to provide some lessons to others in advancing the state-of-the-art in CHS

Choices in Knowledge-Base Retrieval for Consumer Health Search

This paper investigates how retrieval using knowledge bases can be effectively translated to the consumer health search (CHS) domain. We posit that using knowledge bases for query reformulation may help to overcome some of the challenges in CHS. However, translating and implementing such approaches is nontrivial in CHS as it involves many design choices. We empirically evaluated the impact these different choices had on retrieval effectiveness. A state-of-the-art knowledge-base retrieval model—the Entity Query Feature Expansion model—was used to evaluate the following design choices: which knowledge base to use (specialised vs. generic), how to construct the knowledge base, how to extract entities from queries and map them to entities in the knowledge base, what part of the knowledge base to use for query expansion, and if to augment the KB search process with relevance feedback. While knowledge base retrieval has been proposed as a solution for CHS, this paper delves into the finer details of doing this effectively, highlighting both pitfalls and payoffs. It aims to provide some lessons to others in advancing the state-of-the-art in CHS

Consumer protection and financial literacy : lessons from nine country studies

The recent turmoil in financial markets worldwide has emphasized the need for adequate consumer protection and financial literacy for long-term stability of the financial sector. This Working Paper aims to summarize key lessons from reviews of consumer protection and financial literacy in nine middle-income countries of Europe and Central Asia (Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, the Russian Federationand Slovakia). All the country assessments used a systematic common approach, based on a set of Good Practices for Consumer Protection and Financial Literacy developed by the World Bank's Europe and Central Asia Region. The objective of the Working Paper is to contribute to the international dialog on strengthening financial consumer protection and financial literacy in emerging markets.A financial consumer protection regime should meet three objectives. First, consumers should receive accurate, simple, comparable information of a financial service or product, before and after buying it. Second, consumers should have access to expedient, inexpensive and efficient mechanisms for dispute resolution with financial institutions. Third, consumers should be able to receive financial education when and how they want it. A common challenge among the nine countries is the need of an adequate institutional structure for financial consumer protection. However independent of the specific institutional structures, financial consumers should have one single agency where to submit complaints and inquiries. Financial institutions should be required to apply fair, non-coercive and reasonable practices when selling and advertising financial products and services to consumers. Personal data should also be carefully protected.Financial Literacy,Access to Finance,Emerging Markets,Debt Markets,Bankruptcy and Resolution of Financial Distress

TAC's Approach to CGIAR Priority Assessment

Discussion paper on the approach to determining, evaluating, and monitoring the implementation of CGIAR priorities and strategies, and to assessing the impact of CGIAR research and training. The paper draws together various partial efforts at several preceding TAC meetings to decide on methodologies for determining impact and setting priorities.Agenda document, TAC 46

What IS a Tragedy of the Commons? Overfishing and the Campaign Spending Problem

Over the thirty-seven years since its publication, Garden Hardin\u27s Tragedy of the Commons has clearly become one of the most influential writings of all time. The tragedy of the commons is one of those rare scholarly ideas that has had an enormous impact in academia and is also commonly used outside of academia. In legal scholarship, the tragedy of the commons has been used to characterize a wide variety of resource problems, including intellectual property rights, overcrowding of telecommunications spectra, air and water pollution, and of course, the classic environmental commons problem, overfishing. But I suggest this embarrassment of citation riches highlights the fact that although we invoke it often, we do not know exactly what constitutes a tragedy of the commons. In an ideological policy battle between interventionists and libertarians – those that argue for and against governmental intervention – a true tragedy of the commons situation presents a potentially decisive argument in favor of intervention. In a true tragedy of the commons, resource users impose mutual externalities upon each other, creating a paternalistic justification for intervention. Of course, in over-exploiting a resource, resource users may also impose externalities upon a larger group that has some stake in the resource, such as the general public might have in clean air or water. This externality alone may be sufficient justification for intervening. But as I define it in this Article, a tragedy of the commons specifically involves a situation in which the resource users are detracting from their own ability to continue to exploit the resource. The need to save the resource users from themselves provides, independent of the need to internalize other large-group externalities, a particularly compelling case for governmental intervention. I use the definition set forth in this Article to analyze a problem that has not been previously recognized as a tragedy of the commons – the problem of ever-increasing political campaign expenditures

A selected annotated bibliography on lake development property and related information

"UED 29, January, 1975