Identifying top relevant dates for implicit time sensitive queries

Despite a clear improvement of search and retrieval temporal applications, current search engines are still mostly unaware of the temporal dimension. Indeed, in most cases, systems are limited to offering the user the chance to restrict the search to a particular time period or to simply rely on an explicitly specified time span. If the user is not explicit in his/her search intents (e.g., “philip seymour hoffman”) search engines may likely fail to present an overall historic perspective of the topic. In most such cases, they are limited to retrieving the most recent results. One possible solution to this shortcoming is to understand the different time periods of the query. In this context, most state-of-the-art methodologies consider any occurrence of temporal expressions in web documents and other web data as equally relevant to an implicit time sensitive query. To approach this problem in a more adequate manner, we propose in this paper the detection of relevant temporal expressions to the query. Unlike previous metadata and query log-based approaches, we show how to achieve this goal based on information extracted from document content. However, instead of simply focusing on the detection of the most obvious date we are also interested in retrieving the set of dates that are relevant to the query. Towards this goal, we define a general similarity measure that makes use of co-occurrences of words and years based on corpus statistics and a classification methodology that is able to identify the set of top relevant dates for a given implicit time sensitive query, while filtering out the non-relevant ones. Through extensive experimental evaluation, we mean to demonstrate that our approach offers promising results in the field of temporal information retrieval (T-IR), as demonstrated by the experiments conducted over several baselines on web corpora collections.     

A Bibliometric Analysis of High Impact Research in the Middle East Using Champion Works

Increasing political and financial support for scientific research in the Middle East requires academic and research communities in the region to demonstrate the visibility and impact of their scientific output. However, for countries with smaller scientific communities or lack of detailed information on their scientific production, the use of common metrics of scientific impact (e.g., number of papers, impact factor, h-index, etc.) may fail to reveal their true ability to produce high quality research, and thus guarantee the wanted societal support. In such cases, identifying and highlighting outstanding papers produced by national institutions or scientists may be another way to demonstrate scientific capacity and impact. In this context, this work aims to provide an overview of champion works (papers that have received over 1,000 citations) produced by Middle East countries. This analysis focuses on science, medicine, and technology papers featured in the Science Citation Index Expanded of Web of Science. The authors identified 213 champion works authored by Middle East scientists published since the 1970s. Israel is currently the leading nation in the Middle East in terms of published champion works, but at least one such work was identified for the majority of countries in the region. Middle East champion works were published on a diverse range of subject categories and often featured in the top journals worldwide (e.g., Science, Nature, etc.). The top institutions in the Middle East authoring champion works and their leading collaborating countries worldwide are listed, and the role of international scientific collaborations in achieving these highly cited papers is highlighted.     

Effect of defence response time during lunge in foil fencing

The aim of this study was to analyse the effect of stimulus change timing on reaction response time parameters, horizontal velocity of the centre of mass (CM) and precision during offensive actions in fencing. Twelve fencers from the Spanish National Foil Team were included in the study. Two 500 Hz force plates were used to register the horizontal component of the reaction force while a 3D video camera set at 250 Hz recorded the spatial position of 11 body markers and a projector connected to a programmed stopwatch projected a moving target (stimulus) on a screen. When the circle (target) appeared in the centre of the plastron, fencers had to execute a step-forward-lunge as fast as possible, trying to touch the circle with the tip of the foil. During the lunge, the position of the target could randomly shift or not to three different positions. The stimulus change was performed randomly at four different times with a progressive delay. The results show that target changes did not have any effect when they occurred at the beginning of the movement sequence. However, when the target change was delayed, reaction and movement times increased and the technical execution of the lunge changed, leading to more errors.     

Are the new starting block facilities beneficial for backstroke start performance?

We aimed to analyse the handgrip positioning and the wedge effects on the backstroke start performance and technique. Ten swimmers completed randomly eight 15 m backstroke starts (four with hands on highest horizontal and four on vertical handgrip) performed with and without wedge. One surface and one underwater camera recorded kinematic data. Standardised mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used. Handgrip positioning did not affect kinematics with and without wedge use. Handgrips horizontally positioned and feet over wedge displayed greater knee angular velocity than without it (SMD = ?0.82; 95% CI: ?1.56, ?0.08). Hands vertically positioned and feet over wedge presented greater take-off angle (SMD = ?0.81; 95% CI: ?1.55, ?0.07), centre of mass (CM) vertical positioning at first water contact (SMD = ?0.97; 95% CI: ?1.87, ?0.07) and CM vertical velocity at CM immersion (SMD = 1.03; 95% CI: 0.08, 1.98) when comparing without wedge use. Swimmers extended the hip previous to the knee and ankle joints, except for the variant with hands vertically positioned without wedge (SMD = 0.75; 95% CI: ?0.03, 1.53). Swimmers should preserve biomechanical advantages achieved during flight with variant with hands vertically positioned and wedge throughout entry and underwater phase.     

Where Do You Draw the Line? How Our Actions Make a Difference

Carmen M. McCallum shares her story of how deeply an arbitrary boundary line affected her life in order to challenge us to recognize, change, and cross the lines that disrupt our students’ success.     

Re‐asserting the place of context in explaining student (under‐)achievement

One popular view of student achievement is that the quality of teaching students receive plays an important part in whether or not they do well at school. In this article we draw attention to ‘context’ as a complementary explanation, particularly regarding achievement differences between students from different socio‐economic backgrounds. In making these observations, we utilise data from one Australian secondary school located in an economically depressed rural community. Drawing on the insights of Bourdieu, our focus is on the broader social and economic influences that can adversely position students and schools, as well as work to inform the institutional stance that schools take in relation to their students.     

An assessment of a social–cognitive model of academic performance in mathematics in Argentinean middle school students

This study tested a set of hypotheses derived from the model of academic achievement in mathematics of the Social Cognitive Career Theory in a sample of Argentinean middle school students. To this aim, 277 students (male and female; age: 13–15 years) were assessed using the following instruments: logical–mathematical self-efficacy scale, mathematics outcome expectations, mathematics performance goals, and mathematics ability test. All of these instruments had been adapted for use in Argentinean students. Academic achievement in mathematics (i.e., grades obtained on regular school exams) was the variable to be modeled through the path analysis technique. The analysis allowed identification of interrelations among the variables and identification of direct and indirect effects. Academic achievement in mathematics was partially explained by the model. Overall, the results support the theoretical postulates of Social Cognitive Career Theory.     

Scholarly Communities at the Crossroads: Internationalizing Sociological Networks in Valparaíso,Chile (2003–2019)

Minerva - Achievements and tensions derived from the internationalization of national scholarly communities have attracted extensive attention. However, very little is hitherto known about the...