Search Page Research Articles

LanceletDB: an integrated genome database for lancelet, comparing domain types and combination in orthologues among lancelet and other species.

Lancelet (amphioxus) represents the most basally divergent extant chordate (cephalochordates) that diverged from the other two chordate lineages (urochordates and vertebrates) more than half a billion years ago. As it occupies a key position in evolution, it is considered as one of the best proxies for understanding the chordate ancestral state. Thus, the construction of a database with multiple lancelet genomes and gene annotation data, including protein domains, is urgently needed to investigate the loss and gain of domains in orthologues among species, especially ancient domain types (non-vertebrate-specific domains) and novel domain combination, which is helpful for providing new insight into the chordate ancestral state and vertebrate evolution. Here, we present an integrated genome database for lancelet, LanceletDB, which provides reference haploid genome sequence and annotation data for lancelet (Branchiostoma belcheri), including gene models and annotation, protein domain types, gene expression pattern in embryogenesis, different expression sequence tag sets and alternative polyadenylation (APA) sites profiled by the sequencing APA sites method. Especially, LanceletDB allows comparison of domain types and combination in orthologues among type species so as to decode the ancient domain types and novel domain combination during evolution. We also integrated the released diploid lancelet genome annotation data (Branchiostoma floridae) to expand LanceletDB and extend its usefulness. These data are available through the search and analysis page, basic local alignment search tool page and genome browser to provide an integrated display.

IMSS-P: An intelligent approach to design & development of personalized meta search & page ranking system

The proposed research work aims to discuss and explore various constraints of traditional web page search and ranking systems primarily in the present generation of big data. The primary objective is to facilitate a web user by presenting a most personalized web page ranking as a response to a user’s search query by considering tastes and browsing history of the user while previously searching on the web. This research intends to design and develop a machine learning based next generation of web page ranking algorithm, i.e., Advanced Cluster Vector Page Ranking algorithm (ACVPR). This ACVPR algorithm is implemented in the form of an Intelligent Mata Search System-Personalized tool to evaluate the performance of the algorithm. The ACVPR algorithm arm the user with a powerful meta-search tool to facilitate the user by providing a web page ranking order to quickly satisfy the personalized needs especially when the search query is erroneous or incomplete. An extensive mathematical and experimental evaluation of the developed logistic regression model by calculating and comparing various evaluation metrics such as specificity, sensitivity, precision, recall using R statistical tool shows the improved efficiency as compared to other popular search engines.

Impact of Task Types on Collaborative Information Seeking Behavior

Abstract This study examined the task type as an important factor in collaborative information seeking activities, devoting special attention to its impacts on collaborative information seeking behavior, awareness and sentiment. Collaborative information search experiments were conducted on a collaborative search system—Coagmento—for three different types of task (informational, transactional and navigational). System log, surveys and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data, with quantitative and qualitative analyses carried out on the data which related to 12 participants in four groups. Quantitative analysis employed SPSS 20, while qualitative analysis was carried out using ATLAS.ti. Through our research, we found that the task types have impact on users’ collaborative information seeking behavior in terms of web page browsing, search and image using, as well as interact with task awareness. A collaborative team approach is more suitable for completing the informational task than transactional and navigational tasks, while the task type also influences the sentiment. Concretely speaking, the transactional task causes more negative emotions.

A tutorial on DynaSearch: A Web-based system for collecting process-tracing data in dynamic decision tasks.

This tutorial describes DynaSearch, a Web-based system that supports process-tracing experiments on coupled-system dynamic decision-making tasks. A major need in these tasks is to examine the process by which decision makers search over a succession of situation reports for the information they need in order to make response decisions. DynaSearch provides researchers with the ability to construct and administer Web-based experiments containing both between- and within-subjects factors. Information search pages record participants' acquisition of verbal, numeric, and graphic information. Questionnaire pages query participants' recall of information, inferences from that information, and decisions about appropriate response actions. Experimenters can access this information in an online viewer to verify satisfactory task completion and can download the data in comma-separated text files that can be imported into statistical analysis packages.

Las redes sociales como factor criminógeno de la venta ilegal de especies en Tamaulipas (México): el caso de Facebook

Las redes sociales, como Facebook, son herramientas útiles para el comercio, por lo que la venta ilegal de animales y plantas, siendo el tercer mayor comercio ilegal del mundo, está aprovechando este nuevo mecanismo para la compraventa y distribución ilegal de especies amenazadas, en peligro de extinción o sin procedencia legal, en el estado de Tamaulipas, con una ventaja considerable, la de no poder iniciar un proceso legal in situ. El objetivo del presente estudio fue determinar el uso activo de Facebook como factor criminógeno en la compra y venta de flora y fauna enlistadas en categorías de riesgo o que no hayan sido adquiridas de manera legal y sostenible, de acuerdo a la NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010, en Tamaulipas, México. Se realizó la búsqueda digital de las páginas de Facebook que se dedican a la venta de especies en la zona sur, centro y norte del estado, durante el periodo de enero a noviembre 2016. Mediante un método mixto de carácter retrospectivo, se analizó la venta ilegal de especies, como parte de la criminodinámica de una conducta antisocial que contraviene el patrimonio colectivo y el bien común. Se encontró que se movieron $ 176 260 del comercio ilegal en esta red en el periodo estudiado: la zona norte con un 96 % de la participación económica, seguida por la zona sur con un 3 %, y por último la zona centro, con el 1 %. La utilización de la perspectiva criminológica permitió establecer la criminodinámica existente en el comercio ilegal de especies, a través de las redes sociales. Este conocimiento puede servir a las autoridades correspondientes para fincar responsabilidades legales a los participantes, así como para impartir educación ambiental y orientación a la población, para no verse involucrado en delitos del fuero común y federal.

PDXliver: a database of liver cancer patient derived xenograft mouse models

BackgroundLiver cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths and characterized by heterogeneity and drug resistance. Patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models have been widely used in cancer research because they reproduce the characteristics of original tumors. However, the current studies of liver cancer PDX mice are scattered and the number of available PDX models are too small to represent the heterogeneity of liver cancer patients. To improve this situation and to complement available PDX models related resources, here we constructed a comprehensive database, PDXliver, to integrate and analyze liver cancer PDX models.DescriptionCurrently, PDXliver contains 116 PDX models from Chinese liver cancer patients, 51 of them were established by the in-house PDX platform and others were curated from the public literatures. These models are annotated with complete information, including clinical characteristics of patients, genome-wide expression profiles, germline variations, somatic mutations and copy number alterations. Analysis of expression subtypes and mutated genes show that PDXliver represents the diversity of human patients. Another feature of PDXliver is storing drug response data of PDX mice, which makes it possible to explore the association between molecular profiles and drug sensitivity. All data can be accessed via the Browse and Search pages. Additionally, two tools are provided to interactively visualize the omics data of selected PDXs or to compare two groups of PDXs.ConclusionAs far as we known, PDXliver is the first public database of liver cancer PDX models. We hope that this comprehensive resource will accelerate the utility of PDX models and facilitate liver cancer research. The PDXliver database is freely available online at: http://www.picb.ac.cn/PDXliver/

Aplicaciones informáticas dirigidas a jóvenes y adultos con discapacidad intelectual para el desarrollo de las áreas de apoyo

The use of Information and Communication Technologies is widely spread in all fields, including education. In the case of young people and adults with intellectual disabilities, it seems obvious that applications should serve to improve those supports to provide in the different functional areas. In this manuscript, 56 computer applications, in English and/or in Spanish, have been found by means of the search and study of reviews, scientific articles and web pages. Then, its connection with the support areas was evaluated by identifying the link for each computer application with each of the nine support areas. The findings confirm that the digital divide continues to increase and, in some cases, the treatment of the proposed activities promoting a childlike picture of this group is maintained. We found a low level of awareness of the support areas among developers and an imbalance in the applications, since some areas have great coverage while others have a residual presence. Promoting the consideration of the support areas among developers and further training for both educators and youth and adults with intellectual disabilities in order to reach a more productive use of ICT is recommended.

Can User Generated Content Predict Restaurant Survival: Deep Learning of Yelp Photos and Reviews

Despite the substantial economic impact of the restaurant industry, large-scale empirical research on restaurant survival has been sparse. We investigate whether consumer-posted photos can serve as a leading indicator of restaurant survival above and beyond reviews, firm characteristics, competitive landscape, and macro conditions. We employ machine learning techniques to extract features from 755,758 photos and 1,121,069 reviews posted on Yelp between 2004 and 2015 for 17,719 U.S. restaurants. We also collect data on restaurant characteristics (e.g., cuisine type; price level), competitive landscape, as well as entry and exit (if applicable) time from each restaurant’s Yelp/Facebook page, own website, or Google search engine. Using a predictive XGBoost algorithm, we find that consumer-posted photos are strong predictors of restaurant survival. Interestingly, the informativeness of photos (e.g., the proportion of food photos; the proportion of photos with helpful votes) relates more to restaurant survival than do photographic attributes (e.g., composition; brightness). Additionally, photos carry more predictive power for independent, young or mid-aged, and medium-priced restaurants. Assuming that restaurant owners possess no knowledge about future photos and reviews, photos predict restaurant survival for up to three years, while reviews are only predictive for one year. We further employ causal forests to facilitate the interpretation of our predictive results. Among photo content variables, the proportion of food photos has the largest positive association with restaurant survival, followed by proportions of outside and interior photos. Among others, the proportion of photos with helpful votes also positively relates to restaurant survival.

Evaluating the Internal and External Usability Attributes of E-Learning Websites in Saudi Arabia

Web usability is important for users who depend on the websites they use, such as online distance education students. Accordingly, universities and educational websites need to determine the types of usability problems that occur on their websites. However, far too little attention has been paid to providing detailed information regarding the types of specific usability problems that occur on e-learning websites in general and on those in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in particular. The aim of this paper was to study and analyse the internal and external usability attributes of university websites that offer distance education courses in Saudi Arabia. Twelve universities in Saudi Arabia were considered — 11 government-affiliated universities and one private university. The analysis of the data indicates the level of usability of distance education websites. Results reveal that in Saudi Arabia, distance education websites are reliable but violate basic usability guidelines. Furthermore, Saudi e-learning websites need to focus on the utility of their home page search engines, provide more advanced search functionality, and provide sitemaps linked to every page on the websites.

Understanding web activity patterns among teachers, students and teacher candidates

AbstractThis study sought to understand generational and role differences in web usage of teachers, teacher candidates and K–12 students in a state in the USA (n = 2261). The researchers employed unique methods, which included using a custom‐built persistent web browser to track user behaviours free of self‐report, self‐selection and perception bias. Results revealed that all three groups utilized a variety of resources daily, but with some noticeable differences. For instance, (1) teachers and teacher candidates used the Internet on school devices much more than students; (2) they accessed general, multimedia, search, entertainment, shopping and social resources at a higher rate than students; (3) students visited a higher proportion of educational websites than their teachers; and (4) teachers visited a higher proportion of search pages than teacher candidates. Results may be useful for researchers (1) to better understand generational differences between groups; (2) to expand educational technology research to better include non‐pedagogical support tools for educators; and (3) to serve as a counterpoint for self‐report data on web resource frequency of use, which may provide different results.

Heuristics Miner for E-Commerce Visitor Access Pattern Representation

E-commerce click stream data can form a certain pattern that describe visitor behavior while surfing the e-commerce website. This pattern can be used to initiate a design to determine alternative access sequence on the website. This research use heuristic miner algorithm to determine the pattern. Iƒ-Algorithm and Genetic Mining are methods used for pattern recognition with frequent sequence item set approach. Heuristic Miner is an evolved form of those methods. Iƒ-Algorithm assume that an activity in a website, that has been recorded in the data log, is a complete sequence from start to finish, without any tolerance to incomplete data or data with noise. On the other hand, Genetic Mining is a method that tolerate incomplete data or data with noise, so it can generate a more detailed e-commerce visitor access pattern. In this study, the same sequence of events obtained from six-generated patterns. The resulting pattern of visitor access is that visitors are often access the home page and then the product category page or the home page and then the full text search page.

The Immune Epitope Database: How Data Are Entered and Retrieved.

Easy access to a vast collection of experimental data on immune epitopes can greatly facilitate the development of therapeutics and vaccines. The Immune Epitope Database and Analysis Resource (IEDB) was developed to provide such a resource as a free service to the biomedical research community. The IEDB contains epitope and assay information related to infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, allergic diseases, and transplant/alloantigens for humans, nonhuman primates, mice, and any other species studied. It contains T cell, B cell, MHC binding, and MHC ligand elution experiments. Its data are curated primarily from the published literature and also include direct submissions from researchers involved in epitope discovery. This article describes the process of capturing data from these sources and how the information is organized in the IEDB data. Different approaches for querying the data are then presented, using the home page search interface and the various specialized search interfaces. Specific examples covering diverse applications of interest are given to highlight the power and functionality of the IEDB.

Whom to Trust When Sick?

A21 -year-old hardworking student from Xidian University in Xi'an, Wei Zexi MJffi, has been at the centre of public discussion since his death in April 2016. When diagnosed with end-stage synovial sarcoma back in 2014, Wei and his family searched for more information on ways to treat the seemingly incurable disease. Baidu, the largest Internet search engine in China, naturally became a useful channel for information. The family's search on Baidu linked them to the Second Hospital of Beijing Armed Police Corps, ranked a Grade A tertiary (sanji jiadeng ^^), the highest ranking in the Chinese hospital classification scheme. Wei and his family were assured by a doctor at the hospital that there was a very high chance of saving Wei's life after rounds of medical treatment called cellular immunotherapy. The doctor's indication of collaboration with Stanford University in the United States further raised the hope of Wei's family. However, the treatment also put the family in massive debt with its extraordinary cost. When Wei's medical condition deteriorated, the doctor in charge revoked his previous claims about the success rate of the treatment and was found to have lied about collaboration with the renowned university. Wei and his family felt deceived by the hospital as well as Baidu. Before his death, Wei posted a long article on the Internet in February 2016, blaming Baidu for doing evil with its information rank bidding service jingjia paiming%and expressing his grievance against the hospital and the doctor in charge without revealing their names.® When he passed away on 12 April, his tragic story stirred up a huge public outcry on media originating with the question-and-answer platform Zhihu £p^. Public concern over the death of Wei Zexi was enormous, with 370 million people having read about the case on the media platform Weibo as of 7 May.® Initially, heavy criticism was directed towards Baidu. State-run media such as People's Daily and China Daily criticised Baidu for a business model lacking in social responsibility and made a general call for improvements in state regulation.® Baidu's commercial competitors also joined this round of attack on Baidu.(4)The Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), however, soon caused the case to die down on 4 May by urging related media to delete posts that take the opportunity to attack the Party, the Government, the medical system, and the system. Some news articles covering the scandal about the military hospital could no longer be read from then on.®Meanwhile, various government departments took action to ease public discontent in early May. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC), and State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) launched a joint investigation into Baidu on 2 May, followed by state directives demanding a re-organisation of Baidu's search page and modification of its information rank bidding service.®The NHFPC and Central Military Commission (CMC) also looked into the operation of the Second Hospital of Beijing Armed Police Corps on 3 May. All collaboration between military-operated hospitals and private medical companies was suspended. Several officials in the hospital were disciplined after publication of the investigation report.(7) There have also been calls for termination of paid services provided by the military.(8)Indeed, the Wei Zexi Incident combines a number of problems that have long existed with Baidu and healthcare reform in China. It ignited heated discussion amongst the general public and experts, notably on the circulation of online medical advertisements without proper regulation, the lack of transparency about the outsourcing of medical departments of military1. run hospitals to private medical companies, the quality of which is often in serious doubt, and the limits of the recent round of healthcare reform. …

Analysis of Web Spam for Non-English Content: Toward More Effective Language-Based Classifiers.

Web spammers aim to obtain higher ranks for their web pages by including spam contents that deceive search engines in order to include their pages in search results even when they are not related to the search terms. Search engines continue to develop new web spam detection mechanisms, but spammers also aim to improve their tools to evade detection. In this study, we first explore the effect of the page language on spam detection features and we demonstrate how the best set of detection features varies according to the page language. We also study the performance of Google Penguin, a newly developed anti-web spamming technique for their search engine. Using spam pages in Arabic as a case study, we show that unlike similar English pages, Google anti-spamming techniques are ineffective against a high proportion of Arabic spam pages. We then explore multiple detection features for spam pages to identify an appropriate set of features that yields a high detection accuracy compared with the integrated Google Penguin technique. In order to build and evaluate our classifier, as well as to help researchers to conduct consistent measurement studies, we collected and manually labeled a corpus of Arabic web pages, including both benign and spam pages. Furthermore, we developed a browser plug-in that utilizes our classifier to warn users about spam pages after clicking on a URL and by filtering out search engine results. Using Google Penguin as a benchmark, we provide an illustrative example to show that language-based web spam classifiers are more effective for capturing spam contents.

Web Search Customization Approach Using Redundant Web Usage Data Association and Clustering

The massive growth of web consists of huge number of redundant information in related to some context. Due to which the need of information through a search provide high number of duplicate results which makes user to navigate number of sites to find the needed information. Users often miss their search pages when they browse the large and complex navigation of the web. Web customization is based on the use of the web logs can take advantage of the knowledge necessary to study the content and the structure of the internet to support. Searching information can be improvised in support of the implicit information generated by the web server in form logs for various web documents visited by users. This paper proposes a web search customization approach (WSCA) using redundant web usage data association and hierarchal clustering. Association generates a multilevel association for redundant data in the web navigation sites and clustering generates a cluster of frequent access patterns. The approach will improvise the real-time customization and also cost requirement for generating customized resources. The experiment evaluation shows an improvisation in precision rate in relevant to different queries against existing clustering approach..

Food contamination incidents: what do consumers seek online? Who cares?

Consumers can play an active role in managing their health during food contamination incidents. With the popularity of the internet, consumers may seek online information to minimize health risks associated with the incidents. This study examines information demand and supply for consumers' online-information seeking by investigating the search queries commonly used by consumers during the incidents and returned first page search results. We use a stage of change model to frame our hypotheses about information demand and stakeholder and agenda setting theories to frame our hypotheses about information supply. Results show that consumers' information seeking may progress through stages of precontemplation (seeking no special information), contemplation (seeking information related to the facts of the incidents), preparation and action (seeking information related to safety precautions and practices), and maintenance and termination (seeking no special information). Mainstream news media play the most important role in providing online information related to the facts of the incidents during the contemplation stage of consumers' information seeking. Online citizen journalism is the major online source for information related to safety precautions and practices during the preparation and action stage of information seeking. A diversity of other stakeholders also provide online information related to the incidents but are not primary information sources for consumers. We suggest that stakeholders, especially those who are responsible for providing accurate and timely information to consumers such as government agencies, establish online marketing strategies to make their information more accessible by consumers. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Connecting Search Marketing to Hotel Revenue Management: Conjoint Analysis as a Methodology to Evaluate the Optimal Online Travel Agency Commission Fee

A growing amount of travel is booked through third-party Internet booking sites where the booking commission the hotels are charged is subject to negotiation. The fee varies, depending, among other things, on the search position a travel offering is advertised. In this paper we demonstrate how to quantify the value of the placement on the third-party search results page, and thus how to assess the appropriate placement associated fee taking the benefit of this position into account. A sample of 5,968 stated booking choices by 1,492 respondents on a fictitious online hotel booking website was analyzed using choice-based conjoint analysis. The empirical results support past observations and claims that the position of a hotel on the search page of a booking site has significant impact on the likelihood of being booked. We find, however, that this placement-based probability depends on the specific attributes of a hotel. The major contribution of this paper is the methodology we offer demonstrating how to determine the monetary value of various search results positions (listing on an online travel agent (OTA) site) for different hotel properties.

Boston Symphony Orchestra Archives (review)

IntroductionThe Boston Symphony Orchestra Ar - chives website currently contains digital scans of concert programs from 1881 to 2011, and over 2,000 photographic images. This online presentation, which uses OCLC's CONTENTdm platform,1 documents the activities of the Boston Sym phony Orchestra (BSO) as well as the Boston Sym - phony Chamber Players, the Boston Pops and Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestras, the Tanglewood Festival, and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. Although the orchestra's physical archival collection also includes correspondence, press clippings, posters, musical instruments, and recordings, these formats are not represented online on this site at this time. However, the website does state that expansion of its digital collection is in process,2 and some of those materials are represented on the orchestra's main web site.3Embedded within this site is a separate performance history search interface called HENRY (named after the orchestra's founder, Henry Lee Higginson), which allows users to search information on performances from 21 October 1881, through the current season. Its database is updated on a monthly basis. The development of HENRY was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.NavigationIt is worth noting that the BSO Archives site's URL is http://collections.bso.org, but HENRY has a separate URL, http://archives .bso.org. These address names have the potential to confuse users.On the main page of the BSO Archives section (http://collections.bso.org), there are links to the two collections-Images and Program Books-with a brief description and a scrollable thumbnail image gallery for both. Above these are a search box with an option for Advanced Search, links to the About page, HENRY, and Browse All.Clicking on the respective collection link brings up a landing page that, like the main page, features a rotating gallery of thumbnails and a description of the collection's contents, and in addition presents a section of suggested topics to browse. On the right side of the page is a static grid of recently digitized items, and a handy RSS link so that users can be notified when new items are added to the collection.The Browse All link brings the user to a table of thumbnails, but its main function is as a search page for the collections, which will be discussed below. It is easier to browse and get a better sense of what is available through the suggested topics list.One suggested link on the Program Books page is the program for the first BSO concert, held on 22 October 1881.4 The item can be viewed as multiple PDF files with an Adobe Acrobat plug-in. There is also a tab to view as text, which is an unedited Optical Character Recognition (OCR) text file. Next to this tab is a text search box. As OCR text files often have some scanning errors, executing a word search within the program page can be hit or miss. The document scans, however, are of excellent quality, and can be zoomed in or out using Adobe's tools.Each page of the program is its own PDF file, and thumbnails of each file is in a vertical tray on the right side of the Web page. A Content tab is also located at the top of the tray, which simply supplies links to each PDF file as text, rather than as thumbnail images. The link names are not descriptive, however; each file is only known as seq. 1, seq. 2, and so forth.Options are available to view the program book in page-flip mode and with the PDF and text files presented side by side for comparison. There are also buttons for downloading the entire program book (as a multi-page PDF), and printing either the current page or the entire book. A page or book can be saved to a Favorites folder by clicking on Save Page or Save to Favorites, respectively. The Reference URL link generates permalinks and HTML to copy and paste, and clicking on Share pulls up functionality from the Add This tool, allowing the user to share the item through an array of social media. …

CCSI: a database providing chromatin-chromatin spatial interaction information.

Distal regulatory elements have been shown to regulate gene transcription through spatial interactions, and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are linked with distal gene expression by spatial proximity, which helps to explain the causal role of disease-associated SNPs in non-coding region. Therefore, studies on spatial interactions between chromatin have created a new avenue for elucidating the mechanism of transcriptional regulation in disease pathogenesis. Recently, a growing number of chromatin interactions have been revealed by means of 3C, 4C, 5C, ChIA-PET and Hi-C technologies. To interpret and utilize these interactions, we constructed chromatin–chromatin spatial interaction (CCSI) database by integrating and annotating 91 sets of chromatin interaction data derived from published literature, UCSC database and NCBI GEO database, resulting in a total of 3 017 962 pairwise interactions (false discovery rate < 0.05), covering human, mouse and yeast. A web interface has been designed to provide access to the chromatin interactions. The main features of CCSI are (i) showing chromatin interactions and corresponding genes, enhancers and SNPs within the regions in the search page; (ii) offering complete interaction datasets, enhancer and SNP information in the download page; and (iii) providing analysis pipeline for the annotation of interaction data. In conclusion, CCSI will facilitate exploring transcriptional regulatory mechanism in disease pathogenesis associated with spatial interactions among genes, regulatory regions and SNPs. Database URL: http://120.79.23.67/ccsi/search.php

A process evaluation accompanying an attempted randomized controlled trial of an evidence service for health system policymakers.

BackgroundWe developed an evidence service that draws inputs from Health Systems Evidence (HSE), which is a comprehensive database of research evidence about governance, financial and delivery arrangements within health systems and about implementation strategies relevant to health systems. Our goal was to evaluate whether, how and why a ‘full-serve’ evidence service increases the use of synthesized research evidence by policy analysts and advisors in the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care as compared to a ‘self-serve’ evidence service.MethodsWe attempted to conduct a two-arm, 10-month randomized controlled trial (RCT), along with a follow-up qualitative process evaluation, but we terminated the RCT when we failed to reach our recruitment target. For the qualitative process evaluation we modified the original interview guide to allow us to explore the (1) factors influencing participation in the trial; (2) usage of HSE, factors explaining usage patterns, and strategies to increase usage; (3) participation in training workshops and use of other supports; and (4) views about and experiences with key HSE features.ResultsWe terminated the RCT given our 15% recruitment rate. Six factors were identified by those who had agreed to participate in the trial as encouraging their participation: relevance of the study to participants’ own work; familiarity with the researchers; personal view of the importance of using research evidence in policymaking; academic background; support from supervisors; and participation of colleagues. Most reported that they never, infrequently or inconsistently used HSE and suggested strategies to increase its use, including regular email reminders and employee training. However, only two participants indicated that employee training, in the form of a workshop about finding and using research evidence, had influenced their use of HSE. Most participants found HSE features to be intuitive and helpful, although registration/sign-in and some page formats (particularly the advanced search page and detailed search results page) discouraged their use or did not optimize the user experience.ConclusionsThe qualitative findings informed a re-design of HSE, which allows users to more efficiently find and use research evidence about how to strengthen or reform health systems or in how to get cost-effective programs, services and drugs to those who need them. Our experience with RCT recruitment suggests the need to consider changing the unit of allocation to divisions instead of individuals within divisions, among other lessons.Trial registrationThis protocol for this study is published in Implementation Science and registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (HHS/FHS REB 10–267).Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12961-015-0066-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.