Probabilistic Modeling in Dynamic Information Retrieval

Dynamic modeling is used to design systems that are adaptive to their changing environment and is currently poorly understood in information retrieval systems. Common elements in the information retrieval methodology, such as documents, relevance, users and tasks, are dynamic entities that may evolve over the course of several interactions, which is increasingly captured in search log datasets. Conventional frameworks and models in information retrieval treat these elements as static, or only consider local interactivity, without consideration for the optimisation of all potential interactions. Further to this, advances in information retrieval interface, contextual personalization and ad display demand models that can intelligently react to users over time. This thesis proposes a new area of information retrieval research called Dynamic Information Retrieval. The term dynamics is defined and what it means within the context of information retrieval. Three examples of current areas of research in information retrieval which can be described as dynamic are covered: multi-page search, online learning to rank and session search. A probabilistic model for dynamic information retrieval is introduced and analysed, and applied in practical algorithms throughout. This framework is based on the partially observable Markov decision process model, and solved using dynamic programming and the Bellman equation. Comparisons are made against well-established techniques that show improvements in ranking quality and in particular, document diversification. The limitations of this approach are explored and appropriate approximation techniques are investigated, resulting in the development of an efficient multi-armed bandit based ranking algorithm. Finally, the extraction of dynamic behaviour from search logs is also demonstrated as an application, showing that dynamic information retrieval modeling is an effective and versatile tool in state of the art information retrieval research

Retrieving Examination Results Through Wireless Application Protocol

Students who are taking examinations in any learning institution would like to know their results as soon as it is available. The widely used of mobile phone among students in higher learning institution could be exploited as a medium for retrieving the examination results. They may retrieve the results anytime and anywhere through their mobile device by activating General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) or using Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) technology. This paper presents the whole process for the development of a Mobile Web Application to retrieve examination results using mobile devices through Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). The process includes developing requirement model, prototype construction and usability testing. The objectives of the study are to develop the requirement models of a mobile web application in retrieval of examination results using WAP technology; and to evaluate the prototype using usability testing. The application is proposed for the usage of the students in Malaysian Institute of Information Technology, Universiti Kuala Lumpur (MIIT UniKL). The methodology that has been used is Rational Unified Process (RUP) and the techniques used for usability testing are think aloud protocol and semi-structured interviews. The usability testing that has been conducted in this research revealed that the WAP application in retrieval of examination results is effective, easy to use, well-accepted by students and should be implemented for MIIT UniKL

The Symbiotic Relationship Between Information Retrieval and Informetrics

Informetrics and information retrieval (IR) represent fundamental areas of study within information science. Historically, researchers have not fully capitalized on the potential research synergies that exist between these two areas. Data sources used in traditional informetrics studies have their analogues in IR, with similar types of empirical regularities found in IR system content and use. Methods for data collection and analysis used in informetrics can help to inform IR system development and evaluation. Areas of application have included automatic indexing, index term weighting and understanding user query and session patterns through the quantitative analysis of user transaction logs. Similarly, developments in database technology have made the study of informetric phenomena less cumbersome, and recent innovations used in IR research, such as language models and ranking algorithms, provide new tools that may be applied to research problems of interest to informetricians. Building on the author’s previous work (Wolfram 2003), this paper reviews a sample of relevant literature published primarily since 2000 to highlight how each area of study may help to inform and benefit the other

Scaling Digital Humanities on (and utilising) the Web

The work of a humanities e-researcher is scoped by the possibilities offered in digital artefacts: in their ever increasing number and their distribution and access over the Internet. This is recognised through a shift to an increasingly data-intensive method characterised as the "fourth paradigm" of e-Research and enabled by the new computational tools and techniques that characterise e-Science and e-Research. To realise these systems we propose an approach built upon the defining properties of the Web: adopting the REST style and Linked Data principles to enable the radical publication, sharing, and linking of data for, and by, researchers. Within this Resource Oriented architecture we utilise distinct but interwoven models to represent services, data collections, workflows, and -- so to simplify the rapid development of integrated applications to explore specific findings -- the domain of the application. We illustrate this conceptual framework in a prototype system for enhancing the application of Music Information Retrieval workflows, driven by several related aims: to enable MIR researchers to utilise these datasets through incorporation in their research systems and workflows; to publish MIR research output on the Semantic Web linked to existing datasets; and to present MIR research output, with cross-referencing to other linked data sources, for manipulation and evaluation by MIR and musicology researchers and re-use within the wider Semantic Web and Digital Humanities communities. As an illustration of a specific domain-driven application with which to explore findings, we gather and publish metadata describing audio collections derived from the country of an artist. Genre analysis over these collections, and integration of this analysis with collection metadata enables us to ask: "how country is my country?"

Formal models, usability and related work in IR (editorial for special edition)

The Glasgow IR group has carried out both theoretical and empirical work, aimed at giving end users efficient and effective access to large collections of multimedia data

Business Domain Modelling using an Integrated Framework

This paper presents an application of a “Systematic Soft Domain Driven Design Framework” as a soft systems approach to domain-driven design of information systems development. The framework combining techniques from Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), the Unified Modelling Language (UML), and an implementation pattern known as “Naked Objects”. This framework have been used in action research projects that have involved the investigation and modelling of business processes using object-oriented domain models and the implementation of software systems based on those domain models. Within this framework, Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) is used as a guiding methodology to explore the problem situation and to develop the domain model using UML for the given business domain. The framework is proposed and evaluated in our previous works, and a real case study “Information Retrieval System for academic research” is used, in this paper, to show further practice and evaluation of the framework in different business domain. We argue that there are advantages from combining and using techniques from different methodologies in this way for business domain modelling. The framework is overviewed and justified as multimethodology using Mingers multimethodology ideas