Search Process as Transitions Between Neural States

Search is one of the most performed activities on the World Wide Web. Various conceptual models postulate that the search process can be broken down into distinct emotional and cognitive states of searchers while they engage in a search process. These models significantly contribute to our understanding of the search process. However, they are typically based on self-report measures, such as surveys, questionnaire, etc. and therefore, only indirectly monitor the brain activity that supports such a process. With this work, we take one step further and directly measure the brain activity involved in a search process. To do so, we break down a search process into five time periods: a realisation of Information Need, Query Formulation, Query Submission, Relevance Judgment and Satisfaction Judgment. We then investigate the brain activity between these time periods. Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), we monitored the brain activity of twenty-four participants during a search process that involved answering questions carefully selected from the TREC-8 and TREC 2001 Q/A Tracks. This novel analysis that focuses on transitions rather than states reveals the contrasting brain activity between time periods – which enables the identification of the distinct parts of the search process as the user moves through them. This work, therefore, provides an important first step in representing the search process based on the transitions between neural states. Discovering more precisely how brain activity relates to different parts of the search process will enable the development of brain-computer interactions that better support search and search interactions, which we believe our study and conclusions advance

Role of emotion in information retrieval

The main objective of Information Retrieval (IR) systems is to satisfy searchers’ needs. A great deal of research has been conducted in the past to attempt to achieve a better insight into searchers’ needs and the factors that can potentially influence the success of an Information Retrieval and Seeking (IR&S) process. One of the factors which has been considered is searchers’ emotion. It has been shown in previous research that emotion plays an important role in the success of an IR&S process, which has the purpose of satisfying an information need. However, these previous studies do not give a sufficiently prominent position to emotion in IR, since they limit the role of emotion to a secondary factor, by assuming that a lack of knowledge (the need for information) is the primary factor (the motivation of the search). In this thesis, we propose to treat emotion as the principal factor in the system of needs of a searcher, and therefore one that ought to be considered by the retrieval algorithms. We present a more realistic view of searchers’ needs by considering not only theories from information retrieval and science, but also from psychology, philosophy, and sociology. We extensively report on the role of emotion in every aspect of human behaviour, both at an individual and social level. This serves not only to modify the current IR views of emotion, but more importantly to uncover social situations where emotion is the primary factor (i.e., source of motivation) in an IR&S process. We also show that the emotion aspect of documents plays an important part in satisfying the searcher’s need, in particular when emotion is indeed a primary factor. Given the above, we define three concepts, called emotion need, emotion object and emotion relevance, and present a conceptual map that utilises these concepts in IR tasks and scenarios. In order to investigate the practical concepts such as emotion object and emotion relevance in a real-life application, we first study the possibility of extracting emotion from text, since this is the first pragmatic challenge to be solved before any IR task can be tackled. For this purpose, we developed a text-based emotion extraction system and demonstrate that it outperforms other available emotion extraction approaches. Using the developed emotion extraction system, the usefulness of the practical concepts mentioned above is studied in two scenarios: movie recommendation and news diversification. In the movie recommendation scenario, two collaborative filtering (CF) models were proposed. CF systems aim to recommend items to a user, based on the information gathered from other users who have similar interests. CF techniques do not handle data sparsity well, especially in the case of the cold start problem, where there is no past rating for an item. In order to predict the rating of an item for a given user, the first and second models rely on an extension of state-of-the-art memory-based and model-based CF systems. The features used by the models are two emotion spaces extracted from the movie plot summary and the reviews made by users, and three semantic spaces, namely, actor, director, and genre. Experiments with two MovieLens datasets show that the inclusion of emotion information significantly improves the accuracy of prediction when compared with the state-of-the-art CF techniques, and also tackles data sparsity issues. In the news retrieval scenario, a novel way of diversifying results, i.e., diversifying based on the emotion aspect of documents, is proposed. For this purpose, two approaches are introduced to consider emotion features for diversification, and they are empirically tested on the TREC 678 Interactive Track collection. The results show that emotion features are capable of enhancing retrieval effectiveness. Overall, this thesis shows that emotion plays a key role in IR and that its importance needs to be considered. At a more detailed level, it illustrates the crucial part that emotion can play in • searchers, both as a primary (emotion need) and secondary factor (influential role) in an IR&S process; • enhancing the representation of a document using emotion features (emotion object); and finally, • improving the effectiveness of IR systems at satisfying searchers’ needs (emotion relevance)

Climatic and Topologic Controls on the Complexity of River Networks

The emergence and evolution of channel networks are controlled by the competition between the hillslopes and fluvial processes on the landscape. Investigating the geomorphic and topologic properties of these networks is important for developing predictive models describing the network dynamics under changing environment as well as for quantifying the roles of processes in creating distinct patterns of channel networks. In this dissertation, the response of landscapes to changing climatic forcing via numerical-modeling and field observations was investigated. A new framework was proposed to evaluate the complexity of catchments using two different representations of channel networks. The structural complexity was studied using the width function, which characterizes the spatial arrangement of channels. Whereas, the functional complexity was explored using the incremental area function, capturing the patterns of transport of fluxes. Our analysis reveals stronger controls of topological connectivity on the functional complexity than on structural complexity, indicating that the unchannelized surface (hillslope) contributes to the increase of heterogeneity in transport processes. Furthermore, the channel network structure was investigated using a physically-based numerical landscape evolution model for varying hillslope and fluvial processes. Different magnitudes of soil transport (D) and fluvial incision (K) coefficients represent different magnitudes of hillslope and fluvial processes. We show that different combinations of D and K result in distinct branching structure in landscapes. For example, for smaller D and K combinations (mimicking dry climate), a higher number of branching channels was observed. Whereas, for larger D and K combinations (mimicking humid climate), a higher number of side-branching channels is obtained. These results are consistent with the field observations suggesting that varying climatic conditions imprint distinct signatures on the branching structure of channel networks

An architecture for life-long user modelling

In this paper, we propose a united architecture for the creation of life-long user profiles. Our architecture combines different steps required for a user prole, including feature extraction and representation, reasoning, recommendation and presentation. We discuss various issues that arise in the context of life-long profiling

Cortical activity of relevance

Many theoretical approaches in information retrieval assume that relevance is based on mutual interaction of the system and user. Past studies have mainly focused on the system side of relevance, while user-centred studies are more recent. As a result, this work aims to focus on user relevance, which is characterised as a subjective process, dependant on the specific user mind state [19]. To gain a better insight into the nature of this internal and subjective process, it is crucial to examine the underlying behavioural, physiological and psychological mechanisms involved [1]. With the development of brain imaging, new research has begun to investigate user relevance by analysing neural brain activity. However, despite the available research, different strata of relevance proposed by Saracevic (1997), have not yet been investigated in terms of neuroscience. A better understanding of relevance is an important step towards improving personalisation in the information retrieval process

The Comparative Study of Ranking System of Islamic Countries Universities and National Ranking of Universities in Iran Using the Most Famous Ranking Systems in the World

This research is aiming at a comparative study of Islamic countries university`s ranking system and Iran`s universities` national ranking system with the most famous ranking system in the world which are as Academic Ranking of World University (ARWU), The Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE), The Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings (QS), The U.S. News rankings (USN), Center for World University Rankings (CWUR). In this research, the criteria and indicators of each of the five higher education ranking systems are described based on the two ranking systems of ISC and National Ranking of universities of Iran and using George Bradley's comparative analysis and considering the list of top universities in the last update of the Internet portal by the date 05/09/2017. In this research, it is revealed that there is not any similarity between QS ranking system and ISC ranking system. However, based on the results, Iran and ISC ranking systems are mostly compatible with THE, from among the globally most famous ranking systems. Combining THE and Iran`s ranking systems could offer a far more global system which is capable of covering all aspects of ranking and universities` universal status. THE and ARWU can be named as the most complete combined systems, from among the global and most famous ranking systems, which can be used as a substitution for Iran`s ranking system

Prevalence of Taurodontism of Permanent Molars in Dental School of Shahid Beheshti University from 2000 to 2006

Objective: Taurodontism is a dental anomaly characterized by elongation of root body and apical displacement of the pulp chamber floor associated with shortening of roots and their narrowing at  the cementoenamel junction (CEJ). Due to having a dilated apical one-third, these teeth may cause complications during extraction, locating canal orifices and instrumentation. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of taurodontism of permanent molars in a small Iranian population.Methods: This retrospective descriptive study was conducted on 1,100 dental records of patients that were randomly selected among 5,672 records available in the archives of School of Dentistry,  Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences from 2000 to 2010 that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Teeth with extensive restorations or carious lesions were excluded. One observer evaluated all the radiographs and the teeth were classified based on the presence or absence of taurodontism. All positive cases were re-evaluated by two examiners and accurate measurements were made using a caliper according to Shifman and Chanannel criteria.Results: A total of 1,184 radiographs were evaluated; of which 447 (47.7%) belonged to males and 737 (62.3%) belonged to females. A total of 5,532 first and second molars of both jaws were evaluated  in  these  radiographs.  There  were  1,310  (23.7%)  maxillary  first  molars,  987 (17.8%)mandibular first molars, 1,731 (31.3%) maxillary second molars and 1,504 (27.7%) mandibular second molars. Overall, 293 teeth had taurodontism; of which, 179 belonged to females and 114 belonged to males.Conclusion: The prevalence of taurodontism in the understudy population was 6.41%.  It appears that taurodontism is not as rare as it is thought to be

The 9th symposium on future directions in information access

[Abstract unavailable

Rhinolith: An Incidental Finding in a Patient Under Orthodontic Treatment

Objectives Rhinolith is an uncommon condition that results from calcification of an endogenous or exogenous nidus within the nasal cavity. It may present asymptomatically or cause symptoms like headache and nasal obstruction. Case: In this case report, we present a case of an unusual and quite big rhinolith in a 17-year-old male which was undetected for some time, and was accidentally found in the radiographic examination. It possibly originated from a retained foreign body in childhood. We discuss its clinical and radiographic features and its effect on the surrounding structures. Conclusion Radiographic assessment and rigid endoscopy are important to evaluate the rhinolith's location

The Relationships Between Personality Traits With Women Sexual Satisfaction

Objectives Based on the reported studies, approximately 80 of marital disputes result from sexual dissatisfaction. It is helpful to identify factors predicting sexual satisfaction, especially in females, to prevent such problems. The current study aimed at examining simple and multiple factorial relationships between big 5 personality traits and sexual satisfaction in a population of married females in Mashhad, Iran. Methods Statistical population in the current study included all married females who lived in Mashhad. A total of 115 females were selected by the available sampling method. To collect data, the sexual satisfaction scale for women (SSS-W) and big 5 personality questionnaire (NEO) were employed. The data were analyzed by multiple regressions and validated by confirmatory factor analysis using AMOS-21 software and Pearson correlation coefficient using SPSS version 19.Results Findings of the current study indicated a significant relationship between the big 5 personality traits, including neuroticism (R=-0.407), extraversion (R=0.310), openness (R=0.232), agreeableness (R=0.258) and conscientiousness (R=0.389), and sexual satisfaction in females (P<0.0001). Stepwise multiple regression analyses that among the 5 independent variables, only 2 variables of neuroticism and conscientiousness could be used in the regression equation (R2=0.203, P<0.0001). Conclusion Findings of the current study indicated that females� sexual satisfaction can be predicted through their personality traits. Also, personality variables, especially neuroticism and conscientiousness, were recommended to examine the sexual incompatibility