Towards Nootropia : a non-linear approach to adaptive document filtering

In recent years, it has become increasingly difficult for users to find relevant information within the accessible glut. Research in Information Filtering (IF) tackles this problem through a tailored representation of the user interests, a user profile. Traditionally, IF inherits techniques from the related and more well established domains of Information Retrieval and Text Categorisation. These include, linear profile representations that exclude term dependencies and may only effectively represent a single topic of interest, and linear learning algorithms that achieve a steady profile adaptation pace. We argue that these practices are not attuned to the dynamic nature of user interests. A user may be interested in more than one topic in parallel, and both frequent variations and occasional radical changes of interests are inevitable over time. With our experimental system "Nootropia", we achieve adaptive document filtering with a single, multi-topic user profile. A hierarchical term network that takes into account topical and lexical correlations between terms and identifies topic-subtopic relations between them, is used to represent a user's multiple topics of interest and distinguish between them. A series of non-linear document evaluation functions is then established on the hierarchical network. Experiments using a variation of TREC's routing subtask to test the ability of a single profile to represent two and three topics of interest, reveal the approach's superiority over a linear profile representation. Adaptation of this single, multi-topic profile to a variety of changes in the user interests, is achieved through a process of self-organisation that constantly readjusts the profile stucturally, in response to user feedback. We used virtual users and another variation of TREC's routing subtask to test the profile on two learning and two forgetting tasks. The results clearly indicate the profile's ability to adapt to both frequent variations and radical changes in user interests

Beyond TREC's filtering track

Following the withdrawal of the filtering track from the latest TREC conferences, there is a niche for new evaluation standards. Towards this end, we suggest, based on variations of TREC's routing subtask, two new evaluation methodologies. The first can be used for evaluating single, multi-topic profiles and the second for testing the ability of a multi-topic profile to adapt to both modest variations and radical drifts in user interests

A Methodology for Simulated Experiments in Interactive Search

Interactive information retrieval has received much attention in recent years, e.g. [7]. Furthermore, increased activity in developing interactive features in search systems used across existing popular Web search engines suggests that interactive systems are being recognised as a promising next step in assisting information search. One of the most challenging problems with interactive systems however remains evaluation. We describe the general specifications of a methodology for conducting controlled and reproducible experiments in the context of interactive search. It was developed in the AutoAdapt project1 focusing on search in intranets, but the methodology is more generic than that and can be applied to interactive Web search as well. The goal of this methodology is to evaluate the ability of different algorithms to produce domain models that provide accurate suggestions for query modifications. The AutoAdapt project investigates the application of automatically constructed adaptive domain models for providing suggestions for query modifications to the users of an intranet search engine. This goes beyond static models such as the one employed to guide users who search the Web site of the University of Essex which is based on a domain model that has been built in advance using the documents’ markup structure

Neuromuscular electrical stimulation for preventing skeletal-muscle weakness and wasting in critically ill patients:a systematic review

BACKGROUND: Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) therapy may be useful in early musculoskeletal rehabilitation during acute critical illness. The objective of this systematic review was to evaluate the effectiveness of NMES for preventing skeletal-muscle weakness and wasting in critically ill patients, in comparison with usual care. METHODS: We searched PubMed, CENTRAL, CINAHL, Web of Science, and PEDro to identify randomized controlled trials exploring the effect of NMES in critically ill patients, which had a well-defined NMES protocol, provided outcomes related to skeletal-muscle strength and/or mass, and for which full text was available. Two independent reviewers extracted data on muscle-related outcomes (strength and mass), and participant and intervention characteristics, and assessed the methodological quality of the studies. Owing to the lack of means and standard deviations (SDs) in some studies, as well as the lack of baseline measurements in two studies, it was impossible to conduct a full meta-analysis. When means and SDs were provided, the effect sizes of individual outcomes were calculated, and otherwise, a qualitative analysis was performed. RESULTS: The search yielded 8 eligible studies involving 172 patients. The methodological quality of the studies was moderate to high. Five studies reported an increase in strength or better preservation of strength with NMES, with one study having a large effect size. Two studies found better preservation of muscle mass with NMES, with small to moderate effect sizes, while no significant benefits were found in two other studies. CONCLUSIONS: NMES added to usual care proved to be more effective than usual care alone for preventing skeletal-muscle weakness in critically ill patients. However, there is inconclusive evidence for its benefit in prevention of muscle wasting

Web Observatories: Concepts, State Of The Art & Beyond

The Web Observatories are becoming common Internet practice. They are web sites targeting a community of practitioners, scientists or generally individuals within the context of a focused organization. Their goal is to inform, educate, facilitate the interaction and boost the collaboration of community members. Various existing technologies can be deployed for this purpose. Still, their integration into a coherent informational and collaborative environment remains largely ad hoc. In this paper we attempt to elucidate the concept web observatory and identify its characteristics and practices