Hybrid XML Retrieval: Combining Information Retrieval and a Native XML Database

This paper investigates the impact of three approaches to XML retrieval: using Zettair, a full-text information retrieval system; using eXist, a native XML database; and using a hybrid system that takes full article answers from Zettair and uses eXist to extract elements from those articles. For the content-only topics, we undertake a preliminary analysis of the INEX 2003 relevance assessments in order to identify the types of highly relevant document components. Further analysis identifies two complementary sub-cases of relevance assessments (General and Specific) and two categories of topics (Broad and Narrow). We develop a novel retrieval module that for a content-only topic utilises the information from the resulting answer list of a native XML database and dynamically determines the preferable units of retrieval, which we call Coherent Retrieval Elements. The results of our experiments show that—when each of the three systems is evaluated against different retrieval scenarios (such as different cases of relevance assessments, different topic categories and different choices of evaluation metrics)—the XML retrieval systems exhibit varying behaviour and the best performance can be reached for different values of the retrieval parameters. In the case of INEX 2003 relevance assessments for the content-only topics, our newly developed hybrid XML retrieval system is substantially more effective than either Zettair or eXist, and yields a robust and a very effective XML retrieval.     

Entity ranking in Wikipedia: utilising categories,links and topic difficulty prediction

Entity ranking has recently emerged as a research field that aims at retrieving entities as answers to a query. Unlike entity extraction where the goal is to tag names of entities in documents, entity ranking is primarily focused on returning a ranked list of relevant entity names for the query. Many approaches to entity ranking have been proposed, and most of them were evaluated on the INEX Wikipedia test collection. In this paper, we describe a system we developed for ranking Wikipedia entities in answer to a query. The entity ranking approach implemented in our system utilises the known categories, the link structure of Wikipedia, as well as the link co-occurrences with the entity examples (when provided) to retrieve relevant entities as answers to the query. We also extend our entity ranking approach by utilising the knowledge of predicted classes of topic difficulty. To predict the topic difficulty, we generate a classifier that uses features extracted from an INEX topic definition to classify the topic into an experimentally pre-determined class. This knowledge is then utilised to dynamically set the optimal values for the retrieval parameters of our entity ranking system. Our experiments demonstrate that the use of categories and the link structure of Wikipedia can significantly improve entity ranking effectiveness, and that topic difficulty prediction is a promising approach that could also be exploited to further improve the entity ranking performance.     

Is remote near-peer anatomy teaching an effective teaching strategy? Lessons learned from the transition to online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, medical educators have transformed pre-clerkship anatomy curricula into online formats. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and student perceptions of an online near-peer anatomy curriculum. The classes of 2022 and 2023 completed identical foundational anatomy curricula in-person, whereas the class of 2024 completed an adapted curriculum for remote online learning. Quantitative and qualitative responses were used to compare attitudes between instructional methods. Assessment scores and evaluation survey responses were collected from the classes of 2022 (n = 185), 2023 (n = 184), and 2024 (n = 183). Mean assessment scores (±SD) for the classes of 2022, 2023, and 2024 were 93.64% (±5.86), 93.75% (±4.09), and 92.04% (±4.83), respectively. Post hoc group comparisons showed the class of 2024 scored significantly lower than the two previous classes [2022: (H(1) = 18.58, P < 0.001), 2023: (H(1) = 18.65, P < 0.001)]. Mean survey results concerning curriculum quality were 4.06/5.00 for the class of 2023 and 3.57/5.0 for the class of 2024 (t(365) = 2.67, P = 0.008). Considering a small effect size (η² = 0.034), there was no meaningful difference in student assessment scores. A potential drawback of online near-peer anatomy teaching remains in student perceptions of course quality; qualitative feedback suggested technological limitations and perceptions of online course instructors were partly responsible for lower student satisfaction. Following the Covid-19 pandemic, medical educators should incorporate the lessons learned from this unique educational inflection point to improve curricula moving forward.     

Planning and presenting career development seminars

Summary An overview of the seminar planning process that includes needs assessment, program planning, implementation and evaluation has been presented. In addition, necessary platform skills have been identified to help staff members move from the role of planner to that of presentor. With training, either in counselor education programs or as a part of staff development, career counselors can provide a higher quality service to a larger number of students by learning more about the science and art of seminar planning and presentation.     

Problems, perseverance, and mathematical residue

This paper reports on a qualitative study in which three third grade students were presented with a mathematical challenge related to the volume of a cuboid. The task required the construction of containers and the enumeration of the multi-link cubes¹ held by each of the containers. The study videotaped and investigated the students working as a group through potentially seven different problem solving categories, and how they dealt with the student-generated mathematical dilemmas that surfaced during their exploration of the original problem. The tapes were examined for the problem solving actions that the students demonstrated, and an analysis of the students' counting strategies and solutions explored the connection between the children's spatial structuring and their use of numerical operations in enumerating 3-D rectangular arrays of cubes. The notions of perseverance and control are considered as they emerge during autonomous problem solving and the mathematical residue that results from the developing understanding of volume is discussed.This revised version was published online in October 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.