Bing Search Engine Research Articles

Side effects of radiotherapy in breast cancer patients : The Internet as an information source.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer type among women necessitating adjuvant radiotherapy. As the Internet has become amajor source of information for cancer patients, this study aimed to evaluate the quality of websites giving information on side effects of radiotherapy for breast cancer patients. Apatients' search for the English terms "breast cancer - radiotherapy - side effects" and the corresponding German terms "Brustkrebs - Strahlentherapie - Nebenwirkungen" was carried out twice (5months apart) using the search engine Google. The first 30search results each were evaluated using the validated 16-question DISCERN Plus instrument, the Health on the Net Code of Conduct (HONcode) certification and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark criteria. The overall quality (DISCERN score) of the retrieved websites was further compared to queries via Bing and Yahoo search engines. The DISCERN score showed agreat range, with the majority of websites ranking fair to poor. Significantly superior results were found for English websites, particularly for webpages run by hospitals/universities and nongovernmental organizations (NGO), when compared to the respective German categories. In general, only aminority of websites met all JAMA benchmarks and was HONcode certified (both languages). We did not determine a relevant temporal change in website ranking among the top ten search hits, while significant variation occurred thereafter. Mean overall DISCERN score was similar between the various search engines. The Internet can give breast cancer patients seeking information on side effects of radiotherapy an overview. However, based on the currently low overall quality of websites and the lack of transparency for the average layperson, we emphasize the value of personal contact with the treating radio-oncologist in order to integrate and interpret the information found online.

Seeking Web-Based Information About Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Where, What, and When.

BackgroundAttention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder, prevalent among 2-10% of the population.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to describe where, what, and when people search online for topics related to ADHD.MethodsData were collected from Microsoft’s Bing search engine and from the community question and answer site, Yahoo Answers. The questions were analyzed based on keywords and using further statistical methods.ResultsOur results revealed that the Internet indeed constitutes a source of information for people searching the topic of ADHD, and that they search for information mostly about ADHD symptoms. Furthermore, individuals personally affected by the disorder made 2.0 more questions about ADHD compared with others. Questions begin when children reach 2 years of age, with an average age of 5.1 years. Most of the websites searched were not specifically related to ADHD and the timing of searches as well as the query content were different among those prediagnosis compared with postdiagnosis.ConclusionsThe study results shed light on the features of ADHD-related searches. Thus, they may help improve the Internet as a source of reliable information, and promote improved awareness and knowledge about ADHD as well as quality of life for populations dealing with the complex phenomena of ADHD.

Predicting Drug Recalls From Internet Search Engine Queries.

Batches of pharmaceuticals are sometimes recalled from the market when a safety issue or a defect is detected in specific production runs of a drug. Such problems are usually detected when patients or healthcare providers report abnormalities to medical authorities. Here, we test the hypothesis that defective production lots can be detected earlier by monitoring queries to Internet search engines. We extracted queries from the USA to the Bing search engine, which mentioned one of the 5195 pharmaceutical drugs during 2015 and all recall notifications issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) during that year. By using attributes that quantify the change in query volume at the state level, we attempted to predict if a recall of a specific drug will be ordered by FDA in a time horizon ranging from 1 to 40 days in future. Our results show that future drug recalls can indeed be identified with an AUC of 0.791 and a lift at 5% of approximately 6 when predicting a recall occurring one day ahead. This performance degrades as prediction is made for longer periods ahead. The most indicative attributes for prediction are sudden spikes in query volume about a specific medicine in each state. Recalls of prescription drugs and those estimated to be of medium-risk are more likely to be identified using search query data. These findings suggest that aggregated Internet search engine data can be used to facilitate in early warning of faulty batches of medicines.

Web-Based Antismoking Advertising to Promote Smoking Cessation: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

BackgroundAlthough hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year on public health advertising, the advertisement content, design, and placement are usually developed by intuition rather than research.ObjectiveThe objective of our study was to develop a methodology for testing Web-based advertisements to promote smoking cessation.MethodsWe developed 10 advertisements that varied by their content (those that empower viewers to quit, help viewers to quit, or discuss the effects of smoking). We then conducted a series of Web-based randomized controlled trials that explored the effects of exposing users of Microsoft’s Bing search engine to antismoking advertisements that differed by content, placement, or other characteristics. Finally, we followed users to explore whether they conducted subsequent searches for smoking cessation products or services.ResultsThe advertisements were shown 710,106 times and clicked on 1167 times. In general, empowering advertisements had the greatest impact (hazard ratio [HR] 2.6, standard error [SE] 0.09 relative to nonempowering advertisements), but we observed significant variations by gender. For instance, we found that men exposed to smoking cessation advertisements were less likely than women to subsequently conduct smoking cessation searches (HR 0.2, SE 0.07), but that this likelihood increased 3.5 times in men exposed to advertisements containing empowering content. Women were more influenced by advertisements that emphasized the health effects of smoking. We also found that appearing at the top right of the page (HR 2.1, SE 0.07) or at the bottom rather than the top of a list (HR 1.1, SE 0.02) can improve smoking cessation advertisements’ effectiveness in prompting future searches related to smoking cessation.ConclusionsAdvertising should be targeted to different demographic groups in ways that are not always intuitive. Our study provides a method for testing the effectiveness of Web-based antismoking advertisements and demonstrates the importance of advertisements that are tailored according to specific demographics.

Poe in Cyberspace: The “Mobile-Friendly” Sites

Poe in Cyberspace: The “Mobile-Friendly” Sites

Programming and Runtime Support to Blaze FPGA Accelerator Deployment at Datacenter Scale.

With the end of CPU core scaling due to dark silicon limitations, customized accelerators on FPGAs have gained increased attention in modern datacenters due to their lower power, high performance and energy efficiency. Evidenced by Microsoft's FPGA deployment in its Bing search engine and Intel's 16.7 billion acquisition of Altera, integrating FPGAs into datacenters is considered one of the most promising approaches to sustain future datacenter growth. However, it is quite challenging for existing big data computing systems-like Apache Spark and Hadoop-to access the performance and energy benefits of FPGA accelerators. In this paper we design and implement Blaze to provide programming and runtime support for enabling easy and efficient deployments of FPGA accelerators in datacenters. In particular, Blaze abstracts FPGA accelerators as a service (FaaS) and provides a set of clean programming APIs for big data processing applications to easily utilize those accelerators. Our Blaze runtime implements an FaaS framework to efficiently share FPGA accelerators among multiple heterogeneous threads on a single node, and extends Hadoop YARN with accelerator-centric scheduling to efficiently share them among multiple computing tasks in the cluster. Experimental results using four representative big data applications demonstrate that Blaze greatly reduces the programming efforts to access FPGA accelerators in systems like Apache Spark and YARN, and improves the system throughput by 1.7 × to 3× (and energy efficiency by 1.5× to 2.7×) compared to a conventional CPU-only cluster.

The Effect of Limited Health Literacy on How Internet Users Learn About Diabetes

The Internet continues to be an important supplemental health information resource for an increasing number of U.S. adults, especially for those with a new or existing chronic condition. Here we examine how people use the Internet to learn about Type 2 diabetes and how health literacy (HL) influences this information-seeking behavior. We analyzed the searches of approximately 2 million people who queried for diabetes-related information on Microsoft’s Bing search engine. The HL of searchers was imputed through a community-based HL score. Topics searched were categorized and subsequent websites were assessed for readability. Overall, diabetes information–seeking strategies via the Internet are similar among adults with limited and adequate HL skills. However, people with limited HL take a longer time to read pages that are quickly read by people with adequate HL and vice versa. Information seeking among the former is terminated prematurely, as is evident from a Hidden Markov Model of the search process. Our findings indicate that the reading level required to understand the majority of diabetes-related information is high. Especially on government websites, more than 80% of information requires a reading level corresponding to 7th grade or higher. Our results indicate that individuals with lower HL may disproportionately struggle with Internet searches and fail to get an equivalent benefit from this information resource compared to users with greater HL. Future interventions should target the quality and ease of navigation of health care websites and find ways to leverage other relevant professionals to encourage and promote successful information access on the Web.

The Impact of Using Google Search Engine and Yahoo Bing Network on Attracting New Customers Online and on the Effectiveness of Online Advertisements

<p>This study aims at measuring the impact of using the most popular search engines: Google and Yahoo Bing networks on attracting new customers towards company websites and on the effectiveness of online advertisements. Quantitative research method and questionnaires were used by researcher to collect data.</p><p>The researcher distributed (129) questionnaires on (33) companies that use E-marketing in Jordan. Among those only (87) questionnaires were returned and (42) of which only were usable and valid for the statistical analysis. After executing the analysis, the study concluded that Google search engine has a direct effect on attracting new customers and on online advertisements effectiveness at (α ≤ 0.05) level for companies using E-marketing in Jordan, while Yahoo Bing search engine has a direct effect on attracting new customers and on the effectiveness online advertisements at (α ≤ 0.05) level for companies using E-marketing in Jordan.</p>

Differences in physical status, mental state and online behavior of people in pro-anorexia web communities

BackgroundThere is a debate about the effects of pro-anorexia (colloquially referred to as pro-ana) websites. Research suggests that the effect of these websites is not straightforward. Indeed, the actual function of these sites is disputed, with studies indicating both negative and positive effects. AimThis is the first study which systematically examined the differences between pro-anorexia web communities in four main aspects: web language used (posts); web interests/search behaviors (queries); users' self-reported weight status and weight goals; and associated self-reported mood/pathology. MethodsWe collected three primary sources of data, including messages posed on three pro-ana websites, a survey completed by over 1000 participants of a pro-ana website, and the searches made on the Bing search engine of pro-anorexia users. These data were analyzed for content, reported demographics and pathology, and behavior over time. ResultsAlthough members of the main pro-ana website investigated appear to be depressed, with high rates of self-harm and suicide attempts, users are significantly more interested in treatment, have wishes of procreation and reported the highest goal weights among the investigated sites. In contrast, users of other pro-ana websites investigated, are more interested in morbid themes including depression, self-harm and suicide. The percentage of severely malnourished website users, in general, appears to be small (20%). ConclusionsOur results indicate that a new strategy is required to facilitate the communication between mental health specialists and pro-ana web users, recognizing the differences in harm associated with different websites.

Evaluating the content and quality of information about premature ejaculation on the Internet: what are men being exposed to ?

Premature ejaculation is one of the most common male sexual dysfunctions; however, only a few patients with premature ejaculation are seeking professional help or advice. Internet has become an important source of knowledge, and thus, more patients are looking online for health information. According to our best knowledge, no study has evaluated the content and quality of websites on premature ejaculation. We, therefore, aimed to evaluate the content and quality of currently available Internet-based information on premature ejaculation. A sample was obtained comprising the 50 top sites retrieved from Google, Bing and Yahoo search engines using the terms 'premature ejaculation'. Each site then was reviewed based on some predefined evaluation criteria to determine the general quality, condition-specific content quality, popularity index and ownership. The websites reviewed were differed highly in terms of quality and ownership. Only a few sites provided comprehensive medical and complete information on premature ejaculation. The online information available is often of uncertain calibre; therefore, men are being exposed to information about premature ejaculation with a highly variable degree quality. This fact should be considered both by health professionals and website owners, and better online resources should be provided for these patients.

An Analysis of the Content and Availability of Information on Suicide Methods Online

ABSTRACTObjective: To describe the types of content available to people searching online for suicide methods. Method: A series of suicide and suicide method-related searches were conducted through Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Ask search engines. Results: Most sites provided information on suicide methods and included discussion of suicide methods between users. Explicit encouragement of suicide was rare. However, dismissive or hostile responses to individuals expressing suicidal feelings were common. Conclusions: Information on suicide methods is easily found online. Mental health organizations may need to direct more efforts towards educating and training the public on how to appropriately respond to suicidal people.

The Comparative Study of Search Engines Google versus Bing

Search engines play a significant role in improving the effectiveness with which internet users retrieve information. There are various search engines available on the internet with Google and Bing being among the most popular ones. The study, therefore, sought to compare the effectiveness of Google and Bing search engines in an effort to determine the one among them that is more preferred by users. Both qualitative and quantitative aspects were considered in the study where the quantitative methods revealed the statistics while qualitative technique relied on the feedback from users. The findings indicated that Google is preferred in as far as navigational and informational queries are concerned hence implying that customers have more confidence in Google search engine compared to Bing. Google search engines tend to give better precision in cases where simple few words’ queries are involved. Bing on the other hand could be relied upon for better precision in cases where complex multi-word queries are involved.

Assessing The Quality And Reliability Of Health Information On ERCP Using The DISCERN Instrument

Abstract Introduction: Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) is a technique that uses both fluoroscopic imaging and luminal endoscopy to help diagnose and treated pancreatobiliary pathologies. With increasing use of the internet to gain medical competence, the purpose of this investigation is to assess the quality of online health information about the ERCP procedure. Methods: ERCP related websites were assessed using the Google, Yahoo and Bing search engines. The DISCERN instrument and JAMA benchmarks were used to critically assess each websites. A total of 60 websites were reviewed with 7 websites excluded based on the exclusion criteria established. After removal of duplicate websites, a total of 24 unique websites were assessed. Websites that were exclusively visually based, could be modified by the general population and banner advertisements were not included in the investigation. Results: The average DISCERN score was 42.2 (9.1) for the 24 unique websites assessed. Using the JAMA benchmarks, appropriate authorship and attribution of references were seen in 25% and 29% of websites respectively. Currency, which ensures that website developers provide dates when content is posted was only seen in 13% of cases with disclosure, indicating potential conflict of interest, seen in 17% of cases. Conclusion: The overall quality of websites discussing ERCP is of low to moderate quality. The highest scoring websites were concise, with clear aims and described the procedures with benefits and associated risks. The lowest scoring websites failed to adequately reference information and describe additional treatment options. Websites that appeared first on each search engine for ERCP did not necessarily score better, demonstrating the importance of providing patients with high quality resources. Future investigation should use additional critical appraisal tools to assess ERCP related websites and assess the impact of varied formats (text, animations) on the quality of information provided.

Populating parameters of web services by automatic composition using search precision and WSDL weight matrix

Web service composition is meant for connecting different web services according to the requirement. This research implements a system for invoking the web services according to the users' requirement and composing the services if required. The unknown values of input parameters are populated by composing available web services automatically and dynamically. The methodology used here is searching the requested services according to the functional word using Bing search engine, processing the search results which have high precision, computation of WSDL weight matrix to select suitable web services for user satisfaction, and populating unknown input parameters' values by composing the web services. Composable web services are found by intra-cluster search and inter-cluster search among different operations of community web services. Composition rule is framed for the services involved in resolving unknown values, pre-condition and effect elements are tested before composition, and web services are invoked according to the composition rule.

Availability of prescription drugs for bipolar disorder at online pharmacies

BackgroundThere is increasing use of online pharmacies to purchase prescription drugs. While some online pharmacies are legitimate and safe, there are many unsafe and illegal so-called "rogue" online pharmacies. This study investigated the availability of psychotropic drugs online to consumers in the US, using 5 commonly prescribed drugs for bipolar disorder. MethodsUsing the search term "buy [drug name]" in the Google, Yahoo and Bing search engines, the characteristics of the online pharmacies found on the first two pages of search results were investigated. The availability of the requested dosage and formulations of two brand (Seroquel XR, Abilify) and three generic drugs (lamotrigine, lithium carbonate and bupropion SR) were determined. ResultsOf 30 online pharmacies found, 17 (57%) were rated as rogue by LegitScript. Of the 30 pharmacies, 15 (50%) require a prescription, 21 (70%) claim to be from Canada, with 20 of these having a Canadian International Pharmacy association (CIPA) seal on the website. Only 13 of the 20 sites with a CIPA seal were active CIPA members. There were about the same number of trust verification seals on the rogue and legitimate pharmacy sites. Some rogue pharmacies are professional in appearance, and may be difficult for consumers to recognize as rogue. All five brand and generic drugs were offered for sale online, with or without a prescription. However, many substitutions were presented such as different strengths and formulations including products not approved by the FDA. LimitationsNo evaluation of product quality, packaging or purchasing. ConclusionsPsychotropic medications are available online with or without a prescription. The majority of online pharmacy websites were rogue. Physicians should ask about the use of online pharmacies. For those who choose to use online pharmacies, two measures to detect rogue pharmacies are recommended: (1) only purchase drugs from pharmacies that require a prescription, and (2) check all pharmacy verification seals directly on the website of the certifying organization, every time, before purchase.

Assessing the impact of a health intervention via user-generated Internet content

Assessing the effect of a health-oriented intervention by traditional epidemiological methods is commonly based only on population segments that use healthcare services. Here we introduce a complementary framework for evaluating the impact of a targeted intervention, such as a vaccination campaign against an infectious disease, through a statistical analysis of user-generated content submitted on web platforms. Using supervised learning, we derive a nonlinear regression model for estimating the prevalence of a health event in a population from Internet data. This model is applied to identify control location groups that correlate historically with the areas, where a specific intervention campaign has taken place. We then determine the impact of the intervention by inferring a projection of the disease rates that could have emerged in the absence of a campaign. Our case study focuses on the influenza vaccination program that was launched in England during the 2013/14 season, and our observations consist of millions of geo-located search queries to the Bing search engine and posts on Twitter. The impact estimates derived from the application of the proposed statistical framework support conventional assessments of the campaign.

Assessing the standards of online oral hygiene instructions for patients with fixed orthodontic appliances

BackgroundThe authors conducted this study to assess the quality of the information available on the Web about oral hygiene for patients with fixed orthodontic appliances. MethodsThe authors entered the search terms “cleaning braces,” “brushing braces,” and “oral hygiene and braces” into Google, Yahoo, and Bing search engines. They analyzed Web sites satisfying the inclusion criteria from the first 20 hits of each search for accessibility, usability, and reliability by using the LIDA instrument; for readability by using the Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) score; and for the completeness of oral hygiene instructions. ResultsSixty-two Web sites met the inclusion criteria. The mean total LIDA score of 71.2 indicated the moderate quality of the design of the reviewed Web sites. The mean (standard deviation [SD]) values of LIDA scores for accessibility, usability, and reliability were 85.9 (7.0), 63.4 (16.1), and 48.0 (10.4), respectively. The mean (SD) FRE Score of 68.6 (9.7) applied to standard reading skills. The completeness of information (mean [SD] = 67.1 [27.8]) presented the highest variability. ConclusionsOverall, the authors found that the standards of online oral hygiene materials for orthodontic patients with fixed appliances exhibited modest scores. Readability appeared to be appropriate for young adolescents, whereas the comprehensiveness of the displayed information was highly variable. Further improvement of the infrastructure of electronic health information (that is, e-health) in orthodontics is necessary to meet patients’ needs. Practical ImplicationsGiven the moderate quality of oral hygiene instruction available on the Web for patients with fixed appliances, orthodontic patients and caregivers should be cautious when browsing the Internet for relevant information. Dental professionals should refer patients to valid Web-based educational materials.

Web-Based Knowledge Acquisition Approach for Building Diseases Symptoms Ontology

Today medical ontologies have an important role in medicine field to represent medical knowledge. They are much stronger than biomedical vocabularies. In diseases diagnosis process, each disease has number of symptoms associated with it. We can employ ontology in helping to diagnose diseases by building Diseases-Symptoms ontology, which relate diseases and symptoms. Such ontology would be very useful for medical expert systems to assist physicians in diagnosis diseases or as a training tool for medical students. In this paper, we propose a method that automatically extract medical knowledge from Web resources and build Diseases-Symptoms ontology. We use the linguistic pattern and statistical analysis techniques based on Bing search engine. We evaluated the proposed method for two diseases Hyperthyroidism and Eczema by two consultant physicians.

Presenting a Fuzzy System for Identifying Persian Advertising Websites

Online advertisement is a cheap and powerful tool which has targeted internet users. At the moment there is a multibillion dollar market for online advertising which is the main income of some popular websites. Some people use this cheap tool to achieve their personal goals i.e. they use incorrect advertisement techniques. For instance a user refers to Bing search engine and tries to search “Photoshop software download”. The question is whether the returned results are related to the searched sentence or not. Unfortunately, there are some advertisement websites which use phony techniques (such as using fake key words) to attract users to their websites. Consequently, the user is not able to find his desired webpage and lose his time. In this paper Persian websites are investigated. A fuzzy system is proposed which performs identification and analysis of websites using two parameters; “url feature” and “number of important key words”.

Poe in Cyberspace Technology, Magic, and Quack Physics

Poe in Cyberspace Technology, Magic, and Quack Physics