General Search Engines Research Articles

Scholarly communication in the age of Google

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the use patterns of scholarly e-journals by academics for teaching, research and keeping themselves up-to-date. The study also looks at differences in the use patterns across 12 disciplines.Design/methodology/approachA survey was conducted to explore academics’ use patterns of scholarly e-journals in 12 disciplines. The University of the Punjab was used for the sample population. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to all regular and contractual academics of Lahore campuses of the University. After follow up, 457 questionnaires were received with a response rate of 54 per cent. Descriptive statistics and non-parametric statistics were used to analyse data.FindingsThe results showed that the academics made more frequent use of e-journals, online reference sources and discussion with colleagues for scholarly activities. E-journals were used predominantly for research-related activities rather than for teaching and instruction. Academics obtained e-journal articles primarily from open access sources, i.e. general search engines and Google Scholar as compared to subscribed and other sources of e-journal articles. Disciplinary differences were also found in academics’ use patterns of e-journals. However, academics showed just satisfactory skills regarding use of advanced searching techniques and evaluation of the quality of e-journals.Practical implicationsFindings will be helpful for information professionals to review their policies and practices in relation to e-journal services for academic community. The needs for e-literacy skills to use e-journals will also be identified and findings will be significant for information professionals in arranging information literacy instruction programmes for targeted disciplines.Originality/valueMost of e-journals use studies focused on specific disciplines – Sciences, Life Sciences, Engineering and Technology and Social Sciences. This research study is valuable that investigated use patterns of e-journals across 12 different disciplines at the University of the Punjab.

Peripheral Exophytic Oral Lesions: A Clinical Decision Tree.

Diagnosis of peripheral oral exophytic lesions might be quite challenging. This review article aimed to introduce a decision tree for oral exophytic lesions according to their clinical features. General search engines and specialized databases including PubMed, PubMed Central, Medline Plus, EBSCO, Science Direct, Scopus, Embase, and authenticated textbooks were used to find relevant topics by means of keywords such as “oral soft tissue lesion,” “oral tumor like lesion,” “oral mucosal enlargement,” and “oral exophytic lesion.” Related English-language articles published since 1988 to 2016 in both medical and dental journals were appraised. Upon compilation of data, peripheral oral exophytic lesions were categorized into two major groups according to their surface texture: smooth (mesenchymal or nonsquamous epithelium-originated) and rough (squamous epithelium-originated). Lesions with smooth surface were also categorized into three subgroups according to their general frequency: reactive hyperplastic lesions/inflammatory hyperplasia, salivary gland lesions (nonneoplastic and neoplastic), and mesenchymal lesions (benign and malignant neoplasms). In addition, lesions with rough surface were summarized in six more common lesions. In total, 29 entities were organized in the form of a decision tree in order to help clinicians establish a logical diagnosis by a stepwise progression method.

PROTOCOL: Collaborative Testing for Improving Student Learning Outcomes and Test‐Taking Performance in Higher Education: A Systematic Review

PROTOCOL: Collaborative Testing for Improving Student Learning Outcomes and Test‐Taking Performance in Higher Education: A Systematic Review

How to sort trustworthy health online information? Improvements of the automated detection of HONcode criteria

When searching on the Web, laypersons and professionals have difficulty in determining the quality or trustworthiness of health websites. No simple approach can differentiate among trustworthy and unreliable health websites in the results provided by major search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Bing. The European project Kconnect proposes to classify the reliability and readability levels of health-related Web sites and pages, tools according to the detection of HONcode criteria, the Health On the Net Foundation (HON) Code of Conduct using automated tools that examine how technical the health information contained in each document is. This article focuses on enhancement of automated detection of HONcode criteria in real-time settings. Applications of the approach include integration into the HONcode certification process, and embedding it as generic filtering tool into user-centered health domain search engines as well as into major general search engines such as a Web browser extension.

Discontinued drug therapies to treat diabetes in 2015

ABSTRACTIntroduction: This manuscript describes 21 drug targets in the area of diabetes and related conditions that were discontinued in 2015.Areas covered: The material for this paper was obtained by contacting biopharmaceutical companies, reviewing their pipelines, press releases and annual reports. Additionally, the authors searched clinicaltrials.gov, PubMed and general Internet search engines. Majority of the compounds were in early stages of the development.Expert opinion: Business reasons for termination of the drug projects emerge more and more frequently over the years. Safety signals usually appear early in the development and are often associated with novel drugs. 2015 medicines with inadequate efficacy were unable to compete with existing approved members of the class they represented.

ENGLISH

There are many undefined scaling challenges for general purpose crawler and search engines due to the rapid growth of the deep web. Now a days there are increasing numbers of data sources which become available on the web, but often their contents are only accessible through query interface. For harvesting deep web interface problem proposed framework is used and the Parsing process takes place. To achieve more accurate result this proposed crawler calculate binary vector and page rank of pages and Count the given keywords from the URL which is mined from the crawler to accomplish more precise result for a focused crawler give relevant links with ranking. Here experimental result on a set of representative domain show the accuracy of this proposed crawler framework which can efficiently retrieves web interface from large scale sites.

Crawling ranked deep Web data sources

In the era of big data, the vast majority of the data are not from the surface Web, the Web that is interconnected by hyperlinks and indexed by most general purpose search engines. Instead, the trove of valuable data often reside in the deep Web, the Web that is hidden behind query interfaces. Since numerous applications, like data integration and vertical portals, require deep Web data, various crawling methods were developed for exhaustively harvesting a deep Web data source with the minimal (or near-minimal) cost. Most existing crawling methods assume that all the documents matched by queries are returned. In practice, data sources often return the top k matches. This makes exhaustive data harvesting difficult: highly ranked documents will be returned multiple times, while documents ranked low have small chance being returned. In this paper, we decompose this problem into two orthogonal sub-problems, i.e., query and ranking bias problems, and propose a document frequency based crawling method to overcome the ranking bias problem. The rational of our method is to use the queries whose document frequencies are within the specified range to avoid the effect of search ranking plus return limit and significantly reduce the difficulty of crawling ranked data source. The method is extensively tested on a variety of datasets and compared with two existing methods. The experimental result demonstrates that our method outperforms the two algorithms by 58 % and 90 % on average respectively.

Online information seeking by patients with bipolar disorder: results from an international multisite survey.

BackgroundInformation seeking is an important coping mechanism for dealing with chronic illness. Despite a growing number of mental health websites, there is little understanding of how patients with bipolar disorder use the Internet to seek information.MethodsA 39 question, paper-based, anonymous survey, translated into 12 languages, was completed by 1222 patients in 17 countries as a convenience sample between March 2014 and January 2016. All patients had a diagnosis of bipolar disorder from a psychiatrist. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and generalized estimating equations to account for correlated data.Results976 (81 % of 1212 valid responses) of the patients used the Internet, and of these 750 (77 %) looked for information on bipolar disorder. When looking online for information, 89 % used a computer rather than a smartphone, and 79 % started with a general search engine. The primary reasons for searching were drug side effects (51 %), to learn anonymously (43 %), and for help coping (39 %). About 1/3 rated their search skills as expert, and 2/3 as basic or intermediate. 59 % preferred a website on mental illness and 33 % preferred Wikipedia. Only 20 % read or participated in online support groups. Most patients (62 %) searched a couple times a year. Online information seeking helped about 2/3 to cope (41 % of the entire sample). About 2/3 did not discuss Internet findings with their doctor.ConclusionOnline information seeking helps many patients to cope although alternative information sources remain important. Most patients do not discuss Internet findings with their doctor, and concern remains about the quality of online information especially related to prescription drugs. Patients may not rate search skills accurately, and may not understand limitations of online privacy. More patient education about online information searching is needed and physicians should recommend a few high quality websites.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40345-016-0058-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Search engine effectiveness using query classification: a study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to highlight the retrieval effectiveness of search engines taking into consideration both precision and relative recall. Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on search engines that are selected on the basis of Alexa (Actionable Analytics for the web) Rank. Alexa listed top 500 sites, namely, search engines, portals, directories, social networking sites, networking tools, etc. But the scope of study is confined to only general search engines on the basis of language which was confined to English. Therefore only two general search engines are selected for the study . Alexa reports Google.com as the most visited website worldwide and Yahoo.com as the fourth most visited website globally. A total of 15 queries were selected randomly from PG students of Department of Library and Information Science during a period of eight days (from May 8 to May 15, 2014) which are classified manually into navigational, informational and transactional queries. However, queries are largely distributed on the two selected search engines to check their retrieval effectiveness as a training data set in order to define some characteristics of each type. Each query was submitted to the selected search engines which retrieved a large number of results but only the first 30 results were evaluated to limit the study in view of the fact that most of the users usually look up under the first hits of a query. Findings – The study estimated the precision and relative recall of Google and Yahoo. Queries using concepts in the field of Library and Information Science were tested and were divided into navigational queries, informational queries and transactional queries. Results of the study showed that the mean precision of Google was high with (1.10) followed by Yahoo with (0.88). While as, mean relative recall of Google was high with (0.68) followed by Yahoo with (0.31), respectively. Research limitations/implications – The study highlights the retrieval effectiveness of only two search engines. Originality/value – The research work is authentic and does not contain any plagiarized work.

Rational Drug use in Pakistan: A systematic review

<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Background:</strong> This article provides a review of different studies about rational use of drugs in Pakistan and different interventions to improve drug use in the country. The analysis of these studies focused on the quality of services offered by these pharmacies, knowledge of drug sellers and dispensing practices. <strong>Material and methods</strong>: The summary of rational drug use and their possible health consequences is based on reviews of drug use in Pakistan. A systematic inventory of published research work since 1990 to 2015 was undertaken to identify studies which focused on different aspects of rational drug use. Annals and computerized databases of International Network for Rational Use of Drugs (INRUD), WHO, PubMed, Science Direct were screened for relevant journal articles, research reports and newsletters. To expand and fortify the search process, the general search engine Google was utilize. <strong>Results:</strong> Initially, a total of 60 articles were retrieved for electronic databases by the authors. These articles were then again matched with the objectives of this study and those articles which did not qualify, were excluded. After further screening, 20 articles were selected and 15 appropriate studies were finally included in the review. <strong>Conclusion:</strong> In this study, we find out that large number of drugs is being used in wrong way. The current paper highlighted that quality of services provided at community pharmacies in Pakistan is not satisfactory. The situation of rational drug use indicators in the hospitals where the study was conducted is alarming. There is an urgent need for intervention to improve the situation. <strong>Key words: </strong>Rational drug use, Irrational drug use, Pakistan.

There comes a baby! What should I do? Smartphones' pregnancy-related applications: A web-based overview.

Our article aims to give an overview of the most mentioned smartphones' pregnancy-related applications (Apps). A keywords string with selected keywords was entered both in a general search engine (Google(®)) and PubMed. While PubMed returned no pertinent results, a total of 370 web pages were found on Google(®), and 146 of them were selected. All the pregnancy-related Apps cited at least eight times were included. Information about App's producer, price, contents, privacy policy, and presence of a scientific board was collected. Finally, nine apps were considered. The majority of them were free and available in the two main online markets (Apple(®) App Store and Android(®) Google Play). Five apps presented a privacy policy statement, while a scientific board was mentioned in only three. Further studies are needed in order to deepen the knowledge regarding the main risks of these devices, such as privacy loss, contents control concerns, the digital divide and a potential humanization reduction.

The Informed Patient: An Analysis of Information Seeking Behavior and Surgical Outcomes Among Men With Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia.

The Internet has placed considerable information at the disposal of patients, but the sources for credible and accurate information may be difficult for a layperson to discern. Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in elderly men can be treated with different surgical interventions. The purpose of this research was to determine information seeking behaviors (ISB) of BPH patients before and after each type of surgery. All patients who underwent surgical intervention for BPH at a tertiary training center between January 2007 and January 2013 were included in this study. A comprehensive questionnaire regarding their ISB was sent through a third-party survey center. The following areas were examined: (1) the patient's opinion regarding information sources of BPH and its treatment, (2) the extent of ISB for each patient and its relation to the type of surgical intervention he eventually underwent, and (3) the relationship between the extent of ISB and the patient's final satisfaction. The results indicated that the majority of patients felt that it is relatively easy to find information about BPH and its treatment. Most of the patient started with either general online search engines or used the hospital website. Patients who explored more sources of information ended up choosing a more specific and sophisticated procedure. Generally, patients used fewer sources postoperatively regardless of the procedure they underwent. There was no correlation between the extent of ISB and overall satisfaction ( r = -0.0719, p = .1610) and regret ( r = -0.0436, p = .3945).

The Potential Knowledge Recommendation System using User’s Search Logs

Background/Objectives: This paper proposes a potential query recommendation system based on the user search history so that information search system users can express their potential information needs in a query, and the information they want can be searched. Methods/Statistical Analysis: The proposed system used users’ search query to analyze the associative relationship with existing users’ search history, and extracted users’ potential information needs. The extracted potential information needs are recommended to users in the recommendation query. Findings: This paper used 27,656 pieces of search history data for analyzing the utility of the proposed system and conducted a behavioral experiment. The experiment found that the subjects showed a statistically higher level of satisfaction when using the proposed system than when using a general search engine. Improvements/Applications: In the future, it will be possible to secure the reliability of recommended queries by expanding and solidifying the search history through researches on personalization.

Manipulating Google's Knowledge Graph Box to Counter Biased Information Processing During an Online Search on Vaccination: Application of a Technological Debiasing Strategy.

BackgroundOne of people’s major motives for going online is the search for health-related information. Most consumers start their search with a general search engine but are unaware of the fact that its sorting and ranking criteria do not mirror information quality. This misconception can lead to distorted search outcomes, especially when the information processing is characterized by heuristic principles and resulting cognitive biases instead of a systematic elaboration. As vaccination opponents are vocal on the Web, the chance of encountering their non‒evidence-based views on immunization is high. Therefore, biased information processing in this context can cause subsequent impaired judgment and decision making. A technological debiasing strategy could counter this by changing people’s search environment.ObjectiveThis study aims at testing a technological debiasing strategy to reduce the negative effects of biased information processing when using a general search engine on people’s vaccination-related knowledge and attitudes. This strategy is to manipulate the content of Google’s knowledge graph box, which is integrated in the search interface and provides basic information about the search topic.MethodsA full 3x2 factorial, posttest-only design was employed with availability of basic factual information (comprehensible vs hardly comprehensible vs not present) as the first factor and a warning message as the second factor of experimental manipulation. Outcome variables were the evaluation of the knowledge graph box, vaccination-related knowledge, as well as beliefs and attitudes toward vaccination, as represented by three latent variables emerged from an exploratory factor analysis.ResultsTwo-way analysis of variance revealed a significant main effect of availability of basic information in the knowledge graph box on participants’ vaccination knowledge scores (F2,273=4.86, P=.01), skepticism/fear of vaccination side effects (F2,273=3.5, P=.03), and perceived information quality (F2,273=3.73, P=.02). More specifically, respondents receiving comprehensible information appeared to be more knowledgeable, less skeptical of vaccination, and more critical of information quality compared to participants exposed to hardly comprehensible information. Although, there was no significant interaction effect between the availability of information and the presence of the warning, there was a dominant pattern in which the presence of the warning appeared to have a positive influence on the group receiving comprehensible information while the opposite was true for the groups exposed to hardly comprehensible information and no information at all. Participants evaluated the knowledge graph box as moderately to highly useful, with no significant differences among the experimental groups.ConclusionOverall, the results suggest that comprehensible information in the knowledge graph box positively affects participants’ vaccination-related knowledge and attitudes. A small change in the content retrieval procedure currently used by Google could already make a valuable difference in the pursuit of an unbiased online information search. Further research is needed to gain insights into the knowledge graph box’s entire potential.

Communication within the health care team: doctors and nurses

Proper communication within the health care team is especially important in terms of creating safe emotional and professional conditions for the team members and for quality healing. The aim of the study is to explore the factors that hinder appropriate communication between doctors and nurses and thus to make the effective elimination of the communication disturbances possible. Investigation in main medical databases and general search engines were used for analysing the phenomenon. It was revealed that communication between doctors and nurses is restrained by factors that can be observed on individual, professional and system levels as well. Role confusion, lack of trust, communication barriers arising from hierarchical inequalities, leadership problems, differences in qualifications, burnout and organizational problems can equally be found amongst them. The effectiveness of communication between nurses and doctors in Hungary is especially strongly influenced by the fear of losing jobs, the financial problems arising from different degree of gratuity and the phenomenon of burnout. Changes on individual, professional and system levels are equally important for significant improvement in the communication between doctors and nurses. Joint trainings based on strong organizational development skills and joint conferences could promote significantly better flow of information, mutual appreciation and harmonization.

Análisis comparativo de los sellos de calidad de páginas web sanitarias

BackgroundThe search for health related information on the Internet is a growing phenomenon, buts its main drawback is the lack of reliability of information consulted. The aim of this study was to analyse and compare existing quality labels of health websites. Material and methodsA cross-sectional study was performed by searching Medline, IBECS, Google, and Yahoo, in both English and Spanish, between 8 and 9 March, 2015. Different keywords were used depending on whether the search was conducted in medical databases or generic search engines. The quality labels were classified according to their origin, analysing their character, year of implementation, the existence of the accreditation process, number of categories, criteria and standards, possibility of self-assessment, number of levels of certification, certification scope, validity, analytical quality of content, fee, results of the accreditation process, application and number of websites granted the seal, and quality labels obtained by the accrediting organisation. ResultsSeven quality labels, five of Spanish origin (WMA, PAWS, WIS, SEAFORMEC and M21) and two international ones (HONcode and Health Web Site Accreditation), were analysed. There was disparity in carrying out the accreditation process, with some not detailing key aspects of the process, or providing incomplete, outdated, or even inaccurate information. The most rigorous guaranteed the level of confidence that the websites had in relation to the content of information, but none checked the quality of them. ConclusionsAlthough rigorous quality labels may become useful, the deficiencies in some of them cast doubt on their current usefulness.

Pharmacists Preferences and Utilization of Drug Information Resources

Objective: The study was designed to evaluate the level of drug information skills for pharmaicst in the Non-to identify the participants’ preferences for drug information resources. Background: The ability of utilizing proper information is one of the essential clinical skills required by pharmacists to fulfill pharmacist’s role as the primary source of drug knowledge. However, pharmacists are facing with the imminent challenge of utilizing proper information as to the increasing number of information. Howard University provides a drug information session to the Non-Traditional Doctor of Pharmacy students to enhance the student’s drug information skills. A survey consisting of 18-questionnaires has been distributed to the participants (n=18) to assess the participant’s utilization skill and the preference on each resource. Descriptive statistics and chisquare analysis was done using IBM SPSS 23. Results: General search engines (55.6%) was the most preferred tool for their drug information search activities, and among the search engines 72% of the group frequently used Google for drug information inquiries. However, only 17% of the participants responded always cross-checked with other resources, and 22% always verified the authenticity of the website. On contrary to the findings, the level of confidence was notably high on their drug information skill (72%), and on the accuracy of obtained information (100%). Conclusion: The observation from the study suggests that pharmacists should be more aware of the possibilities of risking the client’s safety while using Google or other search engines whose information may often not most current and accurate.

Preferences and Utilization of Drug Information Resources by Practicing Pharmacists

Objective: This study was designed to identify preferences and utilization of drug information (DI) resources, and to assess perceived level of drug information skill for pharmacists enrolled in a Non-traditional Doctor of Pharmacy (NTDP) program. Background: The ability to search for, utilize and apply drug information is an essential skill for pharmacists to fulfill their role as the primary source of drug knowledge. However, with exponential growth in the abundance of information, the increasing availability of an array DI resources and as a advocacy measures for provider status and MTM reimbursement intensify, knowing appropriate DI skills has become a challenge for pharmacists. Therefore, understanding the baseline knowledge of practicing pharmacists, such as those in NTDP programs, is crucial for determining how to design effective training measures. Methods: An 18-question survey was distributed to the participants (n=18) to assess their drug resource preferences and perceived skill level. Descriptive statistics were used and Chi-square analysis was performed using IBM SPSS 23. Results: General search engines (55.6%)was the most preferred tool for respondents’ drug information search activities, while 72% of respondents frequently used Google for drug information inquiries. However, only 17%of the respondents always cross-checked preliminary search results with other resources, and only 22 percent always verified the authenticity of the websites used. The level of confidence in drug information skills and in the accuracy of information obtained was notably high amongst NTDP students with 72% and 100%, respectively, selecting confident or very confident. Conclusion: Observation from the study suggests that pharmacists should be more aware of the possible risks to patient safety inherent in using Google or other search engines, and should be steered toward utilization of more reputable, evidence-based DI resources.

Evaluation of English Websites on Dental Caries by Using Consumer Evaluation Tools.

To evaluate the quality of patient-oriented online information about dental caries using existing consumer evaluation tools and to judge the efficacy of these tools in quality assessment. The websites for the evaluation were pooled by using two general search engines (Google and Yahoo!). The search terms were: 'dental caries', 'tooth decay' and 'tooth cavity'. Three assessment tools (LIDA, DISCERN and FRES) were used to evaluate the quality of the information in the areas of accessibility, usability, reliability and readability. In total, 77 websites were analysed. The median scores of LIDA accessibility and usability were 45.0 and 8.0, respectively, which corresponded to a medium level of quality. The median reliability scores for LIDA (12.0) and DISCERN (20.0) both corresponded to low level of quality. The readability was high with the median FRES score 59.7. The websites on caries had good accessibility, usability and readability, while reliability of the information was poor. The LIDA instrument was found to be more convenient than DISCERN and can be recommended to lay people for quick quality assessment.

Jaw lesions associated with impacted tooth: A radiographic diagnostic guide.

This review article aimed to introduce a category of jaw lesions associated with impacted tooth. General search engines and specialized databases such as Google Scholar, PubMed, PubMed Central, MedLine Plus, Science Direct, Scopus, and well-recognized textbooks were used to find relevant studies using keywords such as "jaw lesion", "jaw disease", "impacted tooth", and "unerupted tooth". More than 250 articles were found, of which approximately 80 were broadly relevant to the topic. We ultimately included 47 articles that were closely related to the topic of interest. When the relevant data were compiled, the following 10 lesions were identified as having a relationship with impacted tooth: dentigerous cysts, calcifying odontogenic cysts, unicystic (mural) ameloblastomas, ameloblastomas, ameloblastic fibromas, adenomatoid odontogenic tumors, keratocystic odontogenic tumors, calcifying epithelial odontogenic tumors, ameloblastic fibro-odontomas, and odontomas. When clinicians encounter a lesion associated with an impacted tooth, they should first consider these entities in the differential diagnosis. This will help dental practitioners make more accurate diagnoses and develop better treatment plans based on patients' radiographs.