Web Site Personalization based on Link Analysis and Navigational Patterns

The continuous growth in the size and use of the World Wide Web imposes new methods of design and development of on-line information services. The need for predicting the users’ needs in order to improve the usability and user retention of a web site is more than evident and can be addressed by personalizing it. Recommendation algorithms aim at proposing “next” pages to users based on their current visit and the past users’ navigational patterns. In the vast majority of related algorithms, however, only the usage data are used to produce recommendations, disregarding the structural properties of the web graph. Thus important – in terms of PageRank authority score – pages may be underrated. In this work we present UPR, a PageRank-style algorithm which combines usage data and link analysis techniques for assigning probabilities to the web pages based on their importance in the web site’s navigational graph. We propose the application of a localized version of UPR (l-UPR) to personalized navigational sub-graphs for online web page ranking and recommendation. Moreover, we propose a hybrid probabilistic predictive model based on Markov models and link analysis for assigning prior probabilities in a hybrid probabilistic model. We prove, through experimentation, that this approach results in more objective and representative predictions than the ones produced from the pure usage-based approaches

The biochemical and clinical pharmacology of debrisoquine

Imperial Users onl

QueRIE: Collaborative Database Exploration

Interactive database exploration is a key task in information mining. However, users who lack SQL expertise or familiarity with the database schema face great difficulties in performing this task. To aid these users, we developed the QueRIE system for personalized query recommendations. QueRIE continuously monitors the user’s querying behavior and finds matching patterns in the system’s query log, in an attempt to identify previous users with similar information needs. Subsequently, QueRIE uses these “similar” users and their queries to recommend queries that the current user may find interesting. In this work we describe an instantiation of the QueRIE framework, where the active user’s session is represented by a set of query fragments. The recorded fragments are used to identify similar query fragments in the previously recorded sessions, which are in turn assembled in potentially interesting queries for the active user. We show through experimentation that the proposed method generates meaningful recommendations on real-life traces from the SkyServer database and propose a scalable design that enables the incremental update of similarities, making real-time computations on large amounts of data feasible. Finally, we compare this fragment-based instantiation with our previously proposed tuple-based instantiation discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each approach

Public Attitudes towards Crime and Punishment in Greece and the Factors Underlying their Construction

Public opinion regarding crime-related issues is a challenging matter for researchers and politicians alike. An ill-informed public with regards to crime, punishment and other aspects of the criminal justice system leads to discontent and demands for harsher policies to strengthen public safety. Politicians harness public opinion to secure votes, and this can result in punitive policies that are founded on erroneous beliefs. The objective of this study is to look more deeply into people’s attitudes towards crime and punishment, and to consider why Greek people hold the views that they do and how these views are constructed. A multi-method approach was adopted for the implementation of this study. Quantitative methods were used to map the scope of attitudes towards crime and punishment in Greece. Qualitative methods were then appropriate to analyse and explore how attitudes are constructed and investigate specific factors in more depth. Greek culture was found to be one of the core issues, and in this context the Greek Orthodox faith and the traditional tight Greek family unit indicate that the stronger are the Greek people’s adherence to their traditional religious and family values, the less punitive are their attitudes towards crime and punishment. However, factors such as the media, attitudes towards immigrants and the contemporary political scene were found to cause distorted perceptions, leading to lack of confidence in the Greek criminal justice system

How do Finnish and Chinese students’ diverse pedagogical experiences shape feedback interpretation?

  Due to the dissemination of joint degree programmes in higher education, more students from different educational backgrounds are exposed to the same teaching and assessment without sharing a common pedagogical culture. Since this is relatively new in Finland, little is known about how students with diverse backgrounds experience assessment compared to their Finnish classmates and how this affects their overall performance. Having as a starting point an English for Specific Purposes course offered in Finland and China, this qualitative study focuses on the role of feedback through seventeen in-depth interviews. Themes such as grades and peer feedback were interpreted based on the educational background to which the students have been previously exposed. These findings indicate that the teacher should be aware of their previous pedagogical experiences and how these affect feedback in the classroom. Additionally, peer feedback needs to be addressed explicitly by the teacher during the lessons and create more scaffolding opportunities to avoid potential misinterpretations.Due to the dissemination of joint degree programmes in higher education, more students from different educational backgrounds are exposed to the same teaching and assessment without sharing a common pedagogical culture. Since this is relatively new in Finland, little is known about how students with diverse backgrounds experience assessment compared to their Finnish classmates and how this affects their overall performance. Having as a starting point an English for Specific Purposes course offered in Finland and China, this qualitative study focuses on the role of feedback through seventeen in-depth interviews. Themes such as grades and peer feedback were interpreted based on the educational background to which the students have been previously exposed. These findings indicate that the teacher should be aware of their previous pedagogical experiences and how these affect feedback in the classroom. Additionally, peer feedback needs to be addressed explicitly by the teacher during the lessons and create more scaffolding opportunities to avoid potential misinterpretations