Overview of INEX 2008 Link the Wiki Track

The Link the Wiki track at INEX 2008 offered two tasks, file-to-file link discovery and anchor-to-BEP link discovery. In the former 6600 topics were used and in the latter 50 were used. Manual assessment of the anchor-to-BEP runs was performed using a tool developed for the purpose. Runs were evaluated using standard precision & recall measures such as MAP and precision / recall graphs. 10 groups participated and the approaches they took are discussed. Final evaluation results for all runs are presented.

Performance recordivity : studio music in a live context

A broad range of positions is articulated in the academic literature around the relationship between recordings and live performance. Auslander (2008) argues that “live performance ceased long ago to be the primary experience of popular music, with the result that most live performances of popular music now seek to replicate the music on the recording”. Elliott (1995) suggests that “hit songs are often conceived and produced as unambiguous and meticulously recorded performances that their originators often duplicate exactly in live performances”. Wurtzler (1992) argues that “as socially and historically produced, the categories of the live and the recorded are defined in a mutually exclusive relationship, in that the notion of the live is premised on the absence of recording and the defining fact of the recorded is the absence of the live”. Yet many artists perform in ways that fundamentally challenge such positions. Whilst it is common practice for musicians across many musical genres to compose and construct their musical works in the studio such that the recording is, in Auslander’s words, the ‘original performance’, the live version is not simply an attempt to replicate the recorded version. Indeed in some cases, such replication is impossible. There are well known historical examples. Queen, for example, never performed the a cappella sections of Bohemian Rhapsody because it they were too complex to perform live. A 1966 recording of the Beach Boys studio creation Good Vibrations shows them struggling through the song prior to its release. This paper argues that as technology develops, the lines between the recording studio and live performance change and become more blurred. New models for performance emerge. In a 2010 live performance given by Grammy Award winning artist Imogen Heap in New York, the artist undertakes a live, improvised construction of a piece as a performative act. She invites the audience to choose the key for the track and proceeds to layer up the various parts in front of the audience as a live performance act. Her recording process is thus revealed on stage in real time and she performs a process that what would have once been confined to the recording studio. So how do artists bring studio production processes into the live context? What aspects of studio production are now performable and what consistent models can be identified amongst the various approaches now seen? This paper will present an overview of approaches to performative realisations of studio produced tracks and will illuminate some emerging relationships between recorded music and performance across a range of contexts.

A small molecule that walks non-directionally along a track without external intervention

Charge of the light brigade: A molecule is able to walk back and forth upon a five-foothold pentaethylenimine track without external intervention. The 1D random walk is highly processive (mean step number 530) and exchange takes place between adjacent amine groups in a stepwise fashion. The walker performs a simple task whilst walking: quenching of the fluorescence of an anthracene group sited at one end of the track. Copyright © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

AEHRC & QUT at TREC 2011 Medical Track : a concept-based information retrieval approach

The Australian e-Health Research Centre and Queensland University of Technology recently participated in the TREC 2011 Medical Records Track. This paper reports on our methods, results and experience using a concept-based information retrieval approach. Our concept-based approach is intended to overcome specific challenges we identify in searching medical records. Queries and documents are transformed from their term-based originals into medical concepts as de ned by the SNOMED-CT ontology. Results show our concept-based approach performed above the median in all three performance metrics: bref (+12%), R-prec (+18%) and Prec@10 (+6%).

Neuromuscular imbalances in the track sprinter

Athletic coaching can involve observation of a motor control task and then proposing guidance to an athlete about how the task performance can be developed. Coaches can identify the technique elements that seem to hinder performance and then provide instruction. Recently, a variety of training methods were proposed to enhance sprint performance, however a number of authors have identified these methods as characterised by low scientific evaluation or support (Brown & Vescovi, 2012; Jones, Bezodis, & Thompson, 2009). This article will outline a scientifically robust neuromuscular theory underlying poor movement techniques that may be visible when coaches observe sprint performance. The goal of this article is to inform the sprint coach of a method to identify and correct suboptimal biomechanics to enhance athletic performance.

Exploiting SNOMED CT concepts and relationships for clinical information retrieval : Australian e-Health Research Centre and Queensland University of Technology at the TREC 2012 Medical Track

The Australian e-Health Research Centre and Queensland University of Technology recently participated in the TREC 2012 Medical Records Track. This paper reports on our methods, results and experience using an approach that exploits the concept and inter-concept relationships defined in the SNOMED CT medical ontology. Our concept-based approach is intended to overcome specific challenges in searching medical records, namely vocabulary mismatch and granularity mismatch. Queries and documents are transformed from their term-based originals into medical concepts as defined by the SNOMED CT ontology, this is done to tackle vocabulary mismatch. In addition, we make use of the SNOMED CT parent-child `is-a' relationships between concepts to weight documents that contained concept subsumed by the query concepts; this is done to tackle the problem of granularity mismatch. Finally, we experiment with other SNOMED CT relationships besides the is-a relationship to weight concepts related to query concepts. Results show our concept-based approach performed significantly above the median in all four performance metrics. Further improvements are achieved by the incorporation of weighting subsumed concepts, overall leading to improvement above the median of 28% infAP, 10% infNDCG, 12% R-prec and 7% Prec@10. The incorporation of other relations besides is-a demonstrated mixed results, more research is required to determined which SNOMED CT relationships are best employed when weighting related concepts.

QUT Para at TREC 2012 Web Track : Word Associations for Retrieving Web Documents

Many existing information retrieval models do not explicitly take into account in- formation about word associations. Our approach makes use of rst and second order relationships found in natural language, known as syntagmatic and paradigmatic associ- ations, respectively. This is achieved by using a formal model of word meaning within the query expansion process. On ad hoc retrieval, our approach achieves statistically sig- ni cant improvements in MAP (0.158) and P@20 (0.396) over our baseline model. The ERR@20 and nDCG@20 of our system was 0.249 and 0.192 respectively. Our results and discussion suggest that information about both syntagamtic and paradigmatic associa- tions can assist with improving retrieval eectiveness on ad hoc retrieval.

A non-linear dynamic analysis of heavy haul track line sleepers under wheel flat

Significant wheel-rail dynamic forces occur because of imperfections in the wheels and/or rail. One of the key responses to the transmission of these forces down through the track is impact force on the sleepers. Dynamic analysis of nonlinear systems is very complicated and does not lend itself easily to a classical solution of multiple equations. Trying to deduce the behaviour of track components from experimental data is very difficult because such data is hard to obtain and applies to only the particular conditions of the track being tested. The finite element method can be the best solution to this dilemma. This paper describes a finite element model using the software package ANSYS for various sized flat defects in the tread of a wheel rolling at a typical speed on heavy haul track. The paper explores the dynamic response of a prestressed concrete sleeper to these defects.

A dynamic wheel-rail impact analysis of railway track under wheel flat by Finite Element Analysis

Wheel–rail interaction is one of the most important research topics in railway engineering. It involves track impact response, track vibration and track safety. Track structure failures caused by wheel–rail impact forces can lead to significant economic loss for track owners through damage to rails and to the sleepers beneath. Wheel–rail impact forces occur because of imperfections in the wheels or rails such as wheel flats, irregular wheel profiles, rail corrugations and differences in the heights of rails connected at a welded joint. A wheel flat can cause a large dynamic impact force as well as a forced vibration with a high frequency, which can cause damage to the track structure. In the present work, a three-dimensional (3-D) finite element (FE) model for the impact analysis induced by the wheel flat is developed by use of the finite element analysis (FEA) software package ANSYS and validated by another validated simulation. The effect of wheel flats on impact forces is thoroughly investigated. It is found that the presence of a wheel flat will significantly increase the dynamic impact force on both rail and sleeper. The impact force will monotonically increase with the size of wheel flats. The relationships between the impact force and the wheel flat size are explored from this finite element analysis and they are important for track engineers to improve their understanding of the design and maintenance of the track system.

QUT_Para at TREC 2012 Web Track : word associations for retrieving web documents

Many existing information retrieval models do not explicitly take into account in- formation about word associations. Our approach makes use of rst and second order relationships found in natural language, known as syntagmatic and paradigmatic associ- ations, respectively. This is achieved by using a formal model of word meaning within the query expansion process. On ad hoc retrieval, our approach achieves statistically sig- ni cant improvements in MAP (0.158) and P@20 (0.396) over our baseline model. The ERR@20 and nDCG@20 of our system was 0.249 and 0.192 respectively. Our results and discussion suggest that information about both syntagamtic and paradigmatic associa- tions can assist with improving retrieval eectiveness on ad hoc retrieval.

Overview of the INEX 2011 relevance feedback track

The INEX 2011 Relevance Feedback track offered a refined approach to the evaluation of Focused Relevance Feedback algorithms through simulated exhaustive user feedback. Run in largely identical fashion to the Relevance Feedback track in INEX 2010[2], we simulated a user-in-the loop by re-using the assessments of ad-hoc retrieval obtained from real users who assess focused ad-hoc retrieval submissions. We present the evaluation methodology, its implementation, and experimental results obtained for four submissions from two participating organisations. As the task and evaluation methods did not change between INEX 2010 and now, explanations of these details from the INEX 2010 version of the track have been repeated verbatim where appropriate.