Revisiting h measured on UK LIS and IR academics

A brief communication appearing in this journal ranked UK LIS and (some) IR academics by their h-index using data derived from Web of Science. In this brief communication, the same academics were re-ranked, using other popular citation databases. It was found that for academics who publish more in computer science forums, their h was significantly different due to highly cited papers missed by Web of Science; consequently their rank changed substantially. The study was widened to a broader set of UK LIS and IR academics where results showed similar statistically significant differences. A variant of h, hmx, was introduced that allowed a ranking of the academics using all citation databases together

Using debates to develop and assess critical reasoning abilities

The ability to construct evidence based arguments is an important and necessary skill in biosciences, health and other areas and arguably helps to define the concept of graduateness – the acquisition of a set of advanced transferable skills that are useful in any employment area. However, developing critical reasoning abilities progressively throughout a three year degree course is often implicitly rather than explicitly addressed. We often assume that our students understand that this is what we expect them to do when we direct them to the evidence base and this is not really good enough in a student centred ethos. Students have to know what they are meant to be learning and need to be able to self evaluate the extent of their learning. Learning outcomes need to be both explicit and transparent. Deconstructing what is meant by critical reasoning is for me relatively straight forward; I want my students to observe the world around them, ask questions about what might be going on, consider possible answers and explanations and determine which ones, on the evidence available, seem most plausible. In other words, I want them to think things through before they express opinions. Critical reasoning is also central to reflective practice – it is about evaluating one’s own reasoning to see how it holds up to new experiences and it is also about ‘the ability to use language with clarity and discrimination’ (Thomson 2002 p2). Opportunities abound on science and health courses to confront radically opposite viewpoints as ethical dilemmas present themselves almost daily. Examples here include reproductive technologies, end of life decisions, ecological ethics and the nature of doctor/patient relationships. Many of these dilemmas are based on debating ‘should we because we can’ and provide a valuable learning opportunity for students to engage in critical examination of both sides of the argument; whilst raising their awareness of the social responsibility of scientists and the impact of scientific developments. In the Faculty of Health here at Leeds Met, on our Health Sciences and Public Health courses we have a first year, first semester module, Concepts of Science and Health. This was designed to explore definitions and views of both of those terms and discuss moral and ethical frameworks that may help to evaluate and construct reasoned arguments around contested issues. 60% of the module assessment is for the production of a group report that sets out the arguments that either support or refute an ethical standpoint followed by a debate with their opposing group based on the written reports

Retrieving with good sense

Although always present in text, word sense ambiguity only recently became regarded as a problem to information retrieval which was potentially solvable. The growth of interest in word senses resulted from new directions taken in disambiguation research. This paper first outlines this research and surveys the resulting efforts in information retrieval. Although the majority of attempts to improve retrieval effectiveness were unsuccessful, much was learnt from the research. Most notably a notion of under what circumstance disambiguation may prove of use to retrieval

Attitudes to food and lifestyle choices in women with well-controlled and poorly-controlled type 2 diabetes mellitus from different ethnic groups : a pilot study : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Nutrition at Massey University

Type 2 diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in New Zealand, as it has globally. There has also been a dramatic rise in numbers from different ethnic groups attending the Auckland Diabetes Centre, with interpreters in approximately 60 different languages being employed. Research indicates that good glycaemic control in people with diabetes can dramatically reduce the risk of complications. However there are many barriers to achieving this. This thesis, by a dietician working at the Auckland Diabetes Centre, examines the research pertaining to the ethnic groups with the highest prevalence of type 2 diabetes, these being Maori, Pacific, Chinese and Indian, along with European groups. It investigates some of the socio-cultural and psychological issues which may be barriers to lifestyle and dietary modification for optimal diabetes control. A total of 232 women attending the Auckland Diabetes Centre took part in this study, aged from 24 to 78 years, the average being 56 years. Duration of diabetes ranged from one to 44 years, with an average of seven years. A questionnaire, designed to obtain their views on diabetes, how it affects their lifestyle, and their perceptions of food and health, was completed at their follow up visit. All had received dietary and lifestyle advice and questionnaire responses indicated a good dietary knowledge. It was evident from comments made that most felt the information given by the dietician was practical, focused on normal food; it was easy to understand and gave them confidence. Most agreed that not smoking, regular meals, daily physical activity, and taking medication (if prescribed) were very important. No statistical association was found between diabetes control and age, income, marital status, education, weight, blood pressure or lipid profile. However duration was significant, with more of those with poorly controlled diabetes likely to have diabetes longer; there was also evidence of an ethnic difference (p=0.02). This was to be expected given that diabetes is a progressive disease, but could indicate frustration and loss of motivation. Psychological issues were significant. The number of ethnic differences found in this study suggest that a more holistic approach and a wider knowledge of cultural and psychological issues is required in diabetes education. Health professionals need to be cognisant of the individual's health beliefs, cultural practices, and any psychological issues, to better assist people of different ethnic groups in management of their diabetes, in order that they may live full and normal lives and avoid complications. At present only 26 (8%) practising dieticians are from minority ethnic groups and not all of these are bilingual. There are only 192 (60%) dieticians employed by District Health Boards, for a population of four million people, 115,000 of whom have diagnosed diabetes. This pilot has identified more precisely the requirements for effective counselling

Word sense disambiguation and information retrieval

It has often been thought that word sense ambiguity is a cause of poor performance in Information Retrieval (IR) systems. The belief is that if ambiguous words can be correctly disambiguated, IR performance will increase. However, recent research into the application of a word sense disambiguator to an IR system failed to show any performance increase. From these results it has become clear that more basic research is needed to investigate the relationship between sense ambiguity, disambiguation, and IR. Using a technique that introduces additional sense ambiguity into a collection, this paper presents research that goes beyond previous work in this field to reveal the influence that ambiguity and disambiguation have on a probabilistic IR system. We conclude that word sense ambiguity is only problematic to an IR system when it is retrieving from very short queries. In addition we argue that if a word sense disambiguator is to be of any use to an IR system, the disambiguator must be able to resolve word senses to a high degree of accuracy

Martin J. Aitken (1922-2017)

No abstract available