Toward a theory of indexing

A theory of indexing helps explain the nature of indexing, the structure of the vocabulary, and the quality of the index. Indexing theories formulated by Jonker, Heilprin, Landry and Salton are described. Each formulation has a different focus. Jonker, by means of the Terminological and Connective Continua, provided a basis for understanding the relationships between the size of the vocabulary, the hierarchical organization, and the specificity by which concepts can be described. Heilprin introduced the idea of a search path which leads from query to document. He also added a third dimension to Jonker's model; the three variables are diffuseness, permutivity and hierarchical connectedness. Landry made an ambitious and well conceived attempt to build a comprehensive theory of indexing predicated upon sets of documents, sets of attributes, and sets of relationships between the two. It is expressed in theorems and by formal notation. Salton provided both a notational definition of indexing and procedures for improving the ability of index terms to discriminate between relevant and nonrelevant documents. These separate theories need to be tested experimentally and eventually combined into a unified comprehensive theory of indexing.     

Student Evaluation of Faculty: Effects of Purpose on Pattern

Much of the existing research addressing student ratings of faculty has focused on psychometric properties of the rating process or on physical characteristics of courses and individuals. Less explored is the cognitive processes of students, as evaluators, and the administrative purposes for which outcomes from student evaluations are used. To determine if students used different cognitive sets as a function of the explicit purpose for which ratings are obtained, a field experiment was conducted. Explicit purposes for course evaluations were manipulated to include a control condition, a formative condition (instructional improvement), and a summative condition (salary increase). These conditions served as the classification variable in a discriminant analysis and six different dimensions of classroom performance, as assessed by students, served as the discriminating variables. Results indicate that the purpose of assessment fails to influence the pattern of faculty ratings provided by students. From an administrative perspective, these findings have practical implications both for the collection of student evaluations and for the use of student ratings.     

教练员在反兴奋剂中的作用

兴奋剂已成为世界体育界一个严重问题,体育明星卷入兴奋剂案件,不仅反映出世界范围内大众媒体对比赛公正性的关注,也突显了体育界反兴奋剂所面临的复杂局面.     

Rain and museum attendance: Are daily data fine enough?

I investigate the intraday effects of rain on the demand for indoor leisure. To do so, I use sub-daily museum attendance and weather data to reveal a dynamic response to precipitation that would be obscured using day-level data. I find that the magnitudes and signs of the effects of rainfall vary significantly throughout the day. In some hours, the predicted increase in visitors is nearly three times larger than would be expected from estimates using daily measures. Many individuals appear to actively adjust their plans throughout the day in response to rain, while others’ attendance depends upon prior weather forecasts of rain. Further analysis reveals that visit duration also increases during rainy periods, and visitors are more likely to attend pay-to-enter special exhibits. International visitors make up a greater share of total visitors during periods of observed precipitation. More broadly, this paper establishes the viability and value of working with widely available sub-daily rainfall data to uncover these dynamics.     

From boot camp to bu‐bu? IT surveillance,patriarchal familism,and labor control: a South Korean case study

Abstract

Information technology capable of real‐time evaluation has changed the nature of labor control by completely monitoring a system. This homeostasis of real‐time control eliminating the space barrier has increased workers' stress and anxiety and weakened the workers' solidarity. An IT surveillance system, frequently called an electronic panopticon, has been viewed as the sophisticated form of the Talyor principle of scientific management. However, IT surveillance has operated in the way of combined form with the cultural values of a certain society. In this paper, I show how cultural values influence labor control through IT surveillance using a case study from the tire industry. H tire company has introduced the DAS (Data Acquisition System) for increasing productivity through a new control system. Real‐time evaluation, an instant report of each workers' merit on the monitor, and compensation have made workers feel constantly under surveillance and under stress due to competition with other workers. This IT surveillance has more deeply influenced labor control when combined with patriarchal familism – composed of features such as group‐oriented attitudes, hierarchical relations between the old and young, subordination to one's seniors, etc, which have come to be viewed as some of the typical cultural values prevalent in South Korea. Although the basic principle of technology may be the same in all societies, the effects of applied information technology depend on specific socio‐historical contexts: not only culture, habits, and politics, but also the power relations between managers and workers. I will tentatively designate this as a ‘hybrid form’ of labor control, in the sense that cultural value is added or intermingled with the principle of IT surveillance.