Efficient and effective spam filtering and re-ranking for large web datasets

The TREC 2009 web ad hoc and relevance feedback tasks used a new document collection, the ClueWeb09 dataset, which was crawled from the general web in early 2009. This dataset contains 1 billion web pages, a substantial fraction of which are spam—pages designed to deceive search engines so as to deliver an unwanted payload. We examine the effect of spam on the results of the TREC 2009 web ad hoc and relevance feedback tasks, which used the ClueWeb09 dataset. We show that a simple content-based classifier with minimal training is efficient enough to rank the “spamminess” of every page in the dataset using a standard personal computer in 48 hours, and effective enough to yield significant and substantive improvements in the fixed-cutoff precision (estP10) as well as rank measures (estR-Precision, StatMAP, MAP) of nearly all submitted runs. Moreover, using a set of “honeypot” queries the labeling of training data may be reduced to an entirely automatic process. The results of classical information retrieval methods are particularly enhanced by filtering—from among the worst to among the best.     

Higher Education Participation in Northern Ireland

Higher education participation in Northern Ireland is higher than England and Wales and second only to Scotland. This paper charts the progress of participation and examines its social characteristics. Uniquely within the UK, approximately one-third of Northern Ireland entrants come from working class backgrounds. Catholic and female participation has also increased significantly but the participation of mature entrants is lower than in the rest of the UK. High participation levels have been achieved, however, by large numbers of entrants leaving to study in Scotland and England. There is a significant undersupply of higher education places in Northern Ireland when compared with either Scotland or Wales. With the costs of higher education being increasingly borne by individual students and their families there is already evidence that more students would prefer to remain in Northern Ireland to study. Increasing pressure on places is driving up A-level entry requirements and many students are forced to leave Northern Ireland to study or not to study in higher education. These developments threaten the advances made by particular social groups. Lifting the MASN cap in Northern Ireland is a significant policy objective.     

Key Skills Computerised Assessments. Guiding Principles

The paper is based on research and evaluation carried out in relation to the development of online Key Skills resources (Key Skills Online). Initial research identified guiding principles on which to base the design of computerised self assessments, and the evaluation findings supported these principles. The principles have relevance for the design of computerised diagnostic assessments more generally.     

Community Attitudes Toward School-Based Sexuality Education in a Conservative State

The purpose of this study was to assess community attitudes toward school-based abstinence-plus sexuality education. A dual sampling approach of landlines and cell phones resulted in 988 adults from two counties completing The South Carolina Survey of Public Opinion on Pregnancy Prevention. Among respondents, 87.1% supported school-based abstinence-plus sexuality education, and most of them agreed that various topics (abstinence, sexually transmitted diseases/HIV/AIDS, contraception) should be taught in grades 6 through 8. Few supporters believed that providing birth control information makes it more likely for teens to have sex. There was general consensus that schools and community settings should do more to prevent teen pregnancy and despite a conservative climate, respondents of this study support abstinence-plus sexuality education.     

“Open-Mouth Awe”: ESPN's Streetball and the “Transcendent Simultaneity” of the Media Sublime

An impressive body of research on the subject suggests that the seeds of the sublime experience are rooted either in the aesthetic qualities of the viewed object or in the cultural and contextual characteristics of the viewing subject. In this article, I contend that sublimity is, rather, the product of the relationship between subject and object, a relationship that defies representation and therefore provides the “excess of experience” that is the hallmark of the sublime encounter. Turning to ESPN's Streetball: The AND 1 Mix Tape Tour as evidence, I conclude that mediation as a process invites sublimity in audiences by immersing the viewer in the “transcendent simultaneity” of subjectivity and objectivity.     

Expert Systems used in the identification of misconceptions and assessment in school science: a review and proposed development

From research carried out over the last 20 years, there is now a wealth of data on the identification of students' misconceptions in various topics within science education. Much of the data in the form of questions and students' answers, and analysis of the data is well documented. Within this same period there have been major developments in the programming and use of microcomputer based expert system shells which can use formalised expert knowledge to mimic the processes normally carried out by a human expert. It seems that the two areas of research could, in the fuure, be brought together to provide support for teachers in using the research findings to support the individualised and targeted teaching of students in the classroom. A recent literature search, however, has shown the dearth of activity in this field. This paper reviews the situation at the present time and suggests how the two activities could be united.