Effectiveness Of Search Strategies Research Articles

Impacto de diferentes estratégias de busca sob os resultados de uma metanálise para a característica mastite em gado de leite

Abstract Poorly formulated search strategies can have great influences on the results of a meta-analysis, since it directly impacts the amount and adherence to the theme of the works used for study, therefore, the formulation of a consistent and functional search strategy is essential for the review system to achieve its goals. The objective of this work was to study the impact of different search strategies in a systematic review by performing a meta-analysis to estimate heritability for the mastitis trait in dairy cattle. Once the search strategies were defined, the searches carried out in the Web of science, Scopus, Scielo and Pubmed databases returned 921 studies from which, after going through the identification, selection, eligibility and inclusion processes, 25 studies were selected. Withdrawals from selected articles, 26 heritability estimates were used in the meta-analysis. A random effect model was used, with all analyzes performed by the R program, through the Metafor package. The estimates obtained through the combined statistics of studies for mastitis, presented values of low magnitude (0.05 and 0.06). The effects of search strategies have a significant impact on the meta-analysis estimates produced.

Analyzing Visual Search Techniques using Eye Tracking for a Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) Task

A challenge with current Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) systems includes patient identification errors, i.e. when an incorrect patient’s record is referenced. These types of errors can lead to patient safety issues such as administrating medication to the incorrect patient. Eye tracking technology can provide insights into the visual search patterns of healthcare professionals and shed light on how patient identification errors occur. This study investigates whether there are differences in visual search metrics, response time, and accuracy when searching for a patient by two identifiers – name or date of birth – from a list of patients with similar names. The findings revealed there was no effect of search strategy on speed or accuracy; however, there was an effect on fixation duration and number of fixations within specific areas of interest. Across both search strategies, there were more fixations on names. This demonstrates the importance of a patient’s name regardless of search strategy and is an important consideration to take into account if multiple patients share the same name. This study shows that eye tracking technology can be used to investigate the visual search patterns employed during patient identification and provide insights as to how patient identification errors occur. It also demonstrates a need to develop alternative methods to prevent patient identification errors apart from relying on healthcare professionals to verify patient identity.

Illness trajectory and Internet as a health information and communication channel used by parents of infants admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit

Internet use became an integral part of the healthcare relationship. Literature indicates that the illness trajectory plays a role in the use of Internet as a health information tool. This study focuses on infants admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit. This study aims to understand how the illness trajectory triggers the use of Internet by parents of infants admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit, using a conceptual framework influenced by Corbin and Strauss' illness trajectory. This study was based on a qualitative longitudinal multiple-case study design. From July 2007-August 2008 and from June 2009-May 2010, parents with newborns were prospectively interviewed over a period of 10months. Parents were recruited in four neonatal intensive care units. The interviews were subject of a thematic content analysis. The multi-layered illness trajectory triggers Internet use. Parents' online health information behaviour interacts with other information channels too (such as interaction with healthcare professionals). Parents accumulate knowledge along the illness trajectory affecting their information needs. The sickness trajectory helps to understand the complexity of the information behaviour. Labels have a major impact on the effectiveness of search strategies. Nursing and other healthcare professionals should become more aware about the complex relationship between information needs and Internet use along the illness trajectory of an infant. As such, they will be more able to assist parents in finding and evaluating high-quality online information at the right time.

The nature and scope of student search strategies in using a web derived corpus for writing

The use of online language corpora in L2 teaching and learning is gaining momentum largely because corpora are an easily accessed source of language input that potentially provide rich and authentic lexico-grammatical data. This can be of particular use for students' writing as its incorporation can enhance the appearance of native-like fluency. We describe a particular online web-derived corpus constructed by means of digital library software, and we describe the nature of the concordancer that services it. This is a system we have named FLAX (Flexible Language Acquisition). Because the system incorporates not only a useful and authentic corpus but also linked databases, we maintain that it meets the need for an easily accessible online resource that gives explicit information about typical lexical and syntactic collocations. While online corpus-based resources are becoming more readily available, and their effective incorporation into language teaching is being documented, we seem to know little about how learners access them and make use of the results they generate. This paper reports on an exploratory investigation of the search strategies used by learners in a university general English course as they make use of FLAX, tracking the way they exploit the search results in their texts, and presenting their relevant comments about the system. In such a way, we seek to explain variation in students' use and effectiveness of search strategies to support their writing. This type of research, although exploratory, is critical if we are to acknowledge the need for students to become ‘research workers’.

Two-Dimensional Code Acquisition in Environments With a Spatially Nonuniform Distribution of Interference: Algorithms and Performance

In this paper, we investigate code acquisition in the delay and angular domain in environments where interference and noise are nonuniformly distributed in the spatial (angular) domain. It is seen that performance is clearly degraded by the presence of nonuniform spatial distributions of interference. The degree of impairment is related to the actual shape of the distribution and becomes more significant when large amounts of interfering power are concentrated in one or more angular directions. As compared to a reference case with a uniform distribution of equivalent interfering power, the mean acquisition time could increase by factors of up to four. Some effective approaches to compensate for the loss of performance due to the uneven nature of interference are also studied. First, the effect of search strategies in the delay and angular domains on acquisition performance is assessed. A searching algorithm up-ranking angular cells according to the amount of associated interference is proposed as one solution to reduce the performance gap. It is shown that applying this search strategy can considerably reduce the mean acquisition time. Finally, two adaptive schemes based on setting integration times or threshold values according to the level of interference prevailing in each angular cell, are discussed. The former approach returns performance figures similar to those obtained with the uniform equivalent interference distribution while the latter provide moderate performance gains.