Rank Aggregation techniques have found wide applications for metasearch along with other streams such as Sports, Voting System, Stock Markets, and Reduction in Spam. This paper presents the optimization of rank lists for web queries put by the user on different MetaSearch engines. A metaheuristic approach such as Genetic algorithm based rank…

Introduction: The use of averaged topic-level scores can result in the loss of valuable data and can cause misinterpretation of the effectiveness of system performance. This study aims to use the scores of each document to evaluate document retrieval systems in a pairwise system evaluation. Method: The chosen evaluation metrics are document-level…

Initial learning can interfere with subsequent learning (proactive interference [PI]), but recent work indicates initial testing can reduce PI. Here, we tested 2 alternative hypotheses of this effect: Does testing reduce PI by constraining retrieval to the target list, or by facilitating a postretrieval monitoring process? Participants first…

With the emergence of the Web 2.0, collaborative annotation practices have become more mature in the field of learning. In this context, several recent studies have shown the powerful effects of the integration of annotation mechanism in learning process. However, most of these studies provide poor support for semantically structured resources,…

Research syntheses are increasingly being conducted within the fields of ecology and environmental management. Information retrieval is crucial in any synthesis in identifying data for inclusion whilst potentially reducing biases in the dataset gathered, yet the nature of ecological information provides several challenges when compared with…

Openness in education is an evolving concept which is shaped by the changing needs of societies, cultures, geographies, and economies, thus, it does not have a precise definition. By focusing on four sets of generic keywords -- open education, open learning, open educational resources (OERs), and open educational practices (OEPs) -- this paper…

Open educational resources (OER) have become increasingly popular in recent times. Here, the aim was to synthesise the lessons learned through the development of OER materials for a university-level course called "environmental modelling". Consequently, the topics of discussion included: (i) how to choose an appropriate creative commons…

Machine learning (ML) algorithms have proven highly accurate for identifying Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) but are not used much in practice, in part because the best way to make use of the technology in a typical workflow is unclear. In this work, we evaluate ML models for RCT classification (support vector machines, convolutional neural…

This article reviews studies on teaching Chinese as a second or foreign language (CSL/CFL) inside and outside Mainland China. In the review process, we analyzed a total of 1358 Chinese language articles and 175 English language articles from CNKI [Chinese characters omitted] and Web of Science, respectively, during the period from 2004 to 2016. By…

Using CiteSpace to draw a keyword co-occurrence knowledge map for 1,048 research papers on the quality of higher education from 2000 to 2014 in the Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index database, we found that over the past 15 years, research on the quality of Chinese higher education was clearly oriented toward policies, and a good interactive…

The potential of social media to give insight into the dynamic evolution of public conversations, and into their reactive and constitutive role in political activities, has to date been underdeveloped. While topic modeling can give static insight into the structure of a conversation, and keyword volume tracking can show how engagement with a…

Purpose: This paper aims to identify patterns and trends taking place in engineering education in sustainability, through analyzing the evolution of research conducted in relevant publications in the field of engineering education for sustainability in the past decades. Design/methodology/approach: First, a bibliometric approach has been applied,…

This study aimed to determine whether the reading skills of third-grade schoolchildren are associated with their preferences for semantic, phonological, and shape competitors (images or printed words) after being exposed to a spoken critical word. Two groups of children participated: skilled readers and less-skilled readers. Through a…

Within educational data mining, many statistical models capture the learning of students working individually. However, not much work has been done to extend these statistical models of individual learning to a collaborative setting, despite the effectiveness of collaborative learning activities. We extend a widely used model (the additive factors…

Information retrieval techniques have been applied to biomedical research for a variety of purposes, such as textual document retrieval and molecular data retrieval. As biomedical research evolves over time, information retrieval is also constantly facing new challenges, including the growing number of available data, the emerging new data types,…