Context-based metrics for evaluating changes to web pages

The web provides a lot of fluid information but this information changes, moves, and even disappears over time. Bookmark lists, portals, and paths are collections where the building blocks are web pages, which are susceptible to these changes. A lot of research, both in industry and in academia, focuses on organizing this vast amount of data. In this thesis, I present context-based algorithms for measuring changes to a document. The methods proposed use other documents in a collection as the context for evaluating changes in the web pages. These metrics will be used in maintaining paths as the individual pages in paths change. This approach will enhance the evaluations of change made by the currently existing Path Manager, in the Walden's Paths project that is being developed in the Center for the Study of Digital Libraries at Texas A&M University

Physics Potential of the ICAL detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO)

The upcoming 50 kt magnetized iron calorimeter (ICAL) detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is designed to study the atmospheric neutrinos and antineutrinos separately over a wide range of energies and path lengths. The primary focus of this experiment is to explore the Earth matter effects by observing the energy and zenith angle dependence of the atmospheric neutrinos in the multi-GeV range. This study will be crucial to address some of the outstanding issues in neutrino oscillation physics, including the fundamental issue of neutrino mass hierarchy. In this document, we present the physics potential of the detector as obtained from realistic detector simulations. We describe the simulation framework, the neutrino interactions in the detector, and the expected response of the detector to particles traversing it. The ICAL detector can determine the energy and direction of the muons to a high precision, and in addition, its sensitivity to multi-GeV hadrons increases its physics reach substantially. Its charge identification capability, and hence its ability to distinguish neutrinos from antineutrinos, makes it an efficient detector for determining the neutrino mass hierarchy. In this report, we outline the analyses carried out for the determination of neutrino mass hierarchy and precision measurements of atmospheric neutrino mixing parameters at ICAL, and give the expected physics reach of the detector with 10 years of runtime. We also explore the potential of ICAL for probing new physics scenarios like CPT violation and the presence of magnetic monopoles.Comment: 139 pages, Physics White Paper of the ICAL (INO) Collaboration, Contents identical with the version published in Pramana - J. Physic

Browsing Intricately Interconnected Paths

Graph-centric and node-centric browsing are the two commonly identified hypertext-browsing paradigms. We believe that pathcentric browsing, the browsing behavior exhibited by path interfaces, is an independent browsing paradigm that combines useful aspects of the two commonly supported cases. Paths have long been recognized as an effective medium for aggregating and communicating information and have been included in various hypermedia systems as alternate metaphors or supporting tools. The Walden's Paths project promotes path-centric traversal as the primary browsing mechanism over Web-based materials. This paper expands the notion of our paths to include more generalized structures and interconnections across paths. We present an architecture for describing complex networks of such paths. Finally, we discuss the design and present a prototype implementation of the Path Engine, a tool that provides a linear interface for browsing intricately interconnected paths

Managing distributed collections: evaluating web page changes, movement, and replacement

Distributed collections of Web materials are common. Bookmark lists, paths, and catalogs such as Yahoo! Directories require human maintenance to keep up to date with changes to the underlying documents. The Walden’s Paths Path Manager is a tool to support the maintenance of distributed collections. Earlier efforts focused on recognizing the type and degree of change within Web pages and identifying pages no longer accessible. We now extend this work with algorithms for evaluating drastic changes to page content based on context. Additionally, we expand on previous work to locate moved pages and apply the modified approach to suggesting page replacements when the original page cannot be found. Based on these results we are redesigning the Path Manager to better support the range of assessments necessary to manage distributed collections

Metadocuments supporting digital library information discovery

Abstract. The World Wide Web is a decentralized, unmanaged, dynamically changing repository of digital documents. Walden’s Paths provides tools that enable authors to collect, organize, annotate, and present Webbased information to reader communities via a linear metadocument called a path. Walden’s Paths includes path authoring and reading interfaces supporting the contextualization of included materials to match authors’ goals as well as enabling browsing off the path to match readers ’ personal interests. It also provides tools to manage these paths of transient Web materials based on the identification and evaluation of changes to the component pages. Experience with Walden’s Paths in educational settings and changes to Web technology as well as the Web-savvyness of users have led to a variety of changes to earlier designs. Current directions of work include the development of methods for evaluating readers ’ understanding via quizzes associated with paths and richer path structures. Keywords: Walden’s Paths – Metadocuments – Hypertext – Path maintenance – Digital library service

The Walden’s Paths Quiz Engine

Abstract: The Walden’s Paths project is developing tools to facilitate the inclusion of Web-based materials in classroom education. It currently includes components to create, present and manage paths that recontextualize information on the Web. In this paper we present the Quiz Engine, a fullfeatured online testing system that extends the repertoire of our tools to include Web-base

Where Brain, Body and World Collide

The production cross section of electrons from semileptonic decays of beauty hadrons was measured at mid-rapidity (|y| < 0.8) in the transverse momentum range 1 < pt < 8 Gev/c with the ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC in pp collisions at a center of mass energy sqrt{s} = 7 TeV using an integrated luminosity of 2.2 nb^{-1}. Electrons from beauty hadron decays were selected based on the displacement of the decay vertex from the collision vertex. A perturbative QCD calculation agrees with the measurement within uncertainties. The data were extrapolated to the full phase space to determine the total cross section for the production of beauty quark-antiquark pairs