Quality of Web-based information on obsessive compulsive disorder.

BACKGROUND: The Internet is increasingly used as a source of information for mental health issues. The burden of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) may lead persons with diagnosed or undiagnosed OCD, and their relatives, to search for good quality information on the Web. This study aimed to evaluate the quality of Web-based information on English-language sites dealing with OCD and to compare the quality of websites found through a general and a medically specialized search engine. METHODS: Keywords related to OCD were entered into Google and OmniMedicalSearch. Websites were assessed on the basis of accountability, interactivity, readability, and content quality. The "Health on the Net" (HON) quality label and the Brief DISCERN scale score were used as possible content quality indicators. Of the 235 links identified, 53 websites were analyzed. RESULTS: The content quality of the OCD websites examined was relatively good. The use of a specialized search engine did not offer an advantage in finding websites with better content quality. A score ≥16 on the Brief DISCERN scale is associated with better content quality. CONCLUSION: This study shows the acceptability of the content quality of OCD websites. There is no advantage in searching for information with a specialized search engine rather than a general one. Practical implications: The Internet offers a number of high quality OCD websites. It remains critical, however, to have a provider-patient talk about the information found on the Web.

TFC: Ontología turística geográfica

Este trabajo muestra una ontología de carácter turístico que relaciona puntos de interés turístico con documentos digitales en Internet. El proyecto también incluye un prototipo de buscador para mostrar el funcionamiento de la ontología

Selecció i implementació d'un motor de cerca a la Biblioteca Virtual de la UOC

A partir de diferents enquestes de satisfacció institucional i de l'anàlisi de l'arxiu 'log' del servidor de la biblioteca respecte a l'ús i al comportament dels usuaris, es va detectar que cada cop era més complex accedir als continguts i serveis de manera proporcional al creixement d'aquests darrers i de l'augment del nombre d'usuaris. El creixement dels recursos i de les diferents aplicacions desenvolupats a la Biblioteca Virtual de la UOC (BUOC) va fer necessari la selecció i la implementació d'un motor de cerca que facilités de manera global l'accés als recursos d'informació i als serveis oferts a la comunitat virtual de la UOC d'acord amb la tipologia d'usuari, l'idioma i el seu entorn d'aprenentatge. En aquest article s'exposa el procés d'anàlisi de diferents productes i la implementació de Verity a la BUOC amb els desenvolupaments realitzats en les diferents aplicacions perquè el motor de cerca pugui fer la seva funció.

Análisis de la producción científica visible en internet de los técnicos de salud ambiental del Servicio Andaluz de Salud

Internet it is a powerful interactive communication channel with world scope, through which can be multiplied the visibility of the research of the professionals whose scientific production has a difficult diffusion by the conventionals media. It is presented an analysis of the scientific publications observed in the web in order to understand the different communication processes accomplished by the superior corps of environmental health technical of the Andalusian Health Service. Using the nominal relationship of the professionals, we used Google ‘search engine’ for all scientific publications located in the internet; we were made different bibliometric indicators as of the recovered records and was analyzed the time evolution of the scientific production, documental categories, geografic distribution, language, coauthors and institutional collaboration. It was identified a growing trend in the productivity of the publications in the last decade, mainly through communications to congresses (70.4%) and journals articles (16.9%). The publications mainly are located in spanish journals, that they are indexed on national and international databases. In all the Andalusian provinces was identified some published scientific communication. The indicator of coauthors is very high (95.77%) although the institutional participation is limited mainly to the primary attention districts, occupational centers of each professional (85.21%). The scientific publication patterns visualized in the web represent an important contribution for the knowledge of the characteristics of the environmental health professionals of the Andalusian health service, what provides avaluable information for the support of the information systems in public health.

Digital inmigrants and digital natives expectation collection in the Andalusian Public Health System Virtual Library: communication with our users

The Andalusian Public Health System Virtual Library (Biblioteca Virtual del Sistema Sanitario Público de Andalucía, BV-SSPA) provides access to health information resources and services to healthcare professionals through its Website. This virtual environment demands higher users’ knowledge in order to satisfy of the need of information of our users, as digital natives as digital immigrants, improving at the same time the communication with all of them. 1. To collect clients' views and expectations according to their nature of digital natives and immigrants. 2. To know our online reputation. A Collecting User Expectation Questionnaire will be built, taking into account the segmentation of the BV-SSPA users’ professional groups of the Andalusian Public Health System. A pilot test will be run to check the survey dimensions and items about practices, attitudes and knowledge of our users. Two Quality Function Deployment (QFD) matrices will enable the BV-SSPA services to be targeted to our digital natives or digital immigrants, according to their nature, finding the best way to satisfy their information needs. We provide feedback on BV-SSPA: users can have the opportunity to post feedback about the site via the 'Contact us' section and comment about their experience. And Web 2.0 is a shop window, providing the opportunity to show the comments; and through time, our online reputation will be built, but the BV-SSPA must manage its own personal branding. Web 2.0 tools are a driver of improvement, because they provide a key source of insight into people's attitudes. Besides, the BV-SSPA digital identity will be analyzed through indicators like major search engine referrals breakdown, top referring sites (non search engines), or top search engine referral phrases, among others. Definition of digital native and digital immigrant profiles of the BV-SSPA, and their difference, will be explained by their expectations. The design of the two QFD matrices will illustrate in just one graph the requirements of both groups for tackling digital abilities and inequalities. The BV-SSPA could deliver information and services through alternative channels. On the other hand, we are developing a strategy to identify, to measure and to manage a digital identity through communication with the user and to find out our online reputation. With the use of different tools from quantitative and qualitative methodology, and the opportunities offered by Web 2.0 tools, the BV-SSPA will know the expectations of their users as a first step to satisfy their necessities. Personalization is pivotal to the success of the Site, delivering tailored content to individuals based on their recorded preferences. The valuable user research can be used during new product development and redesign. Besides positive interaction let us build trust, show authenticity, and foster loyalty: we improve with effort, communication and show.

Quality of Web-based information on obsessive compulsive disorder.

BACKGROUND: The Internet is increasingly used as a source of information for mental health issues. The burden of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) may lead persons with diagnosed or undiagnosed OCD, and their relatives, to search for good quality information on the Web. This study aimed to evaluate the quality of Web-based information on English-language sites dealing with OCD and to compare the quality of websites found through a general and a medically specialized search engine. METHODS: Keywords related to OCD were entered into Google and OmniMedicalSearch. Websites were assessed on the basis of accountability, interactivity, readability, and content quality. The "Health on the Net" (HON) quality label and the Brief DISCERN scale score were used as possible content quality indicators. Of the 235 links identified, 53 websites were analyzed. RESULTS: The content quality of the OCD websites examined was relatively good. The use of a specialized search engine did not offer an advantage in finding websites with better content quality. A score ≥16 on the Brief DISCERN scale is associated with better content quality. CONCLUSION: This study shows the acceptability of the content quality of OCD websites. There is no advantage in searching for information with a specialized search engine rather than a general one. Practical implications: The Internet offers a number of high quality OCD websites. It remains critical, however, to have a provider-patient talk about the information found on the Web.

Cultural differences on seeking information: an eye tracking study

The main goal of this research is to investigate how people with different cultural background differ in their interaction style and visual behavior on search engine results pages (SERP), more specifically between groups from the Middle Eastern region vs. Western Europe. We conducted a controlled eye-tracking experiment to explore and evaluate the visual behavior of Arabs and Spaniardusers when scanning through the first page of the search results in Google. Big differences can be observed in the 4 aspects studied: U.A.E. participants stayed on the SERPs for longer, they read more results and they read each snippet in a more complete way than Spaniards. In Spain, people tended to scan the SERP, reading less text on each snippet, and choose a result among the first top rankedones without hardly seeing those in bottom positions.

Cercador documental amb lematització

Un cercador documental d'arxius locals, en diferents formats, que permet l'extracció i indexació de lemes en diferents idiomes (principalment català, castellà i anglès) en el que s'habilita la cerca a través d'una pàgina web allotjada en un servidor local.

Phenotip - a web-based instrument to help diagnosing fetal syndromes antenatally.

Prenatal ultrasound can often reliably distinguish fetal anatomic anomalies, particularly in the hands of an experienced ultrasonographer. Given the large number of existing syndromes and the significant overlap in prenatal findings, antenatal differentiation for syndrome diagnosis is difficult. We constructed a hierarchic tree of 1140 sonographic markers and submarkers, organized per organ system. Subsequently, a database of prenatally diagnosable syndromes was built. An internet-based search engine was then designed to search the syndrome database based on a single or multiple sonographic markers. Future developments will include a database with magnetic resonance imaging findings as well as further refinements in the search engine to allow prioritization based on incidence of syndromes and markers.

Desarrollo de una web semántica

Amb aquest projecte es vol solucionar aquesta manca d'accés a la informació i sobretot disposar d'un sistema que relacioni "tot amb tot", és a dir, muntar un sistema únic per documentar xarxa (física) independentment de l'element que es vulgui documentar. La idea és basar el projecte de documentació en una web semàntica basada en wiki semàntica amb un motor de cerca MediaWiki.

Electronic Reference Library Phase I Report, 1999

This report describes the first phase in a project to develop an electronic reference library (ERL) to help Iowa transportation officials efficiently access information in critical and heavily used documents. These documents include Standard Specifications for Bridge and Highway Construction (hereinafter called Standard Specifications), design manuals, standard drawings, the Construction Manual, and Material Instruction Memoranda (hereinafter called Material IMs). Additional items that could be included to enhance the ERL include phone books, letting dates, Internet links, computer programs distributed by the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT), and local specifications, such as the Urban Standard Specifications of Public Improvements. All cross-references should be hyper linked, and a search engine should be provided. Revisions noted in the General Supplemental Specifications (hereinafter called the Supplemental Specifications) should be incorporated into the text of the Standard Specifications. The Standard Specifications should refer to related sections of other documents, and there should be reciprocal hyper links in those other documents. These features would speed research on critical issues and save staff time. A master plan and a pilot version were both developed in this first phase of the ERL.

Un motor de cerca per a l'aualé

L'aualé és possiblement el joc de mancala més conegut. Essent un joc amb adversari i de suma nul·la que s'ha estudiat profusament en el marc de la intel·ligència artificial, fins a arribar a la solució d'una de les seves variants l'any 2002. El projecte plantejat se centra en l'estudi pràctic d'una variant d'aualé de més difícil solució, 'abapa', a través de l'elaboració i optimització d'un motor de cerca.

Improving Information Problem Solving skills in Secondary Education through embedded instruction

This empirical study consists in an investigation of the effects, on the development of Information Problem Solving (IPS) skills, of a long-term embedded, structured and supported instruction in Secondary Education. Forty secondary students of 7th and 8th grades (13–15 years old) participated in the 2-year IPS instruction designed in this study. Twenty of them participated in the IPS instruction, and the remaining twenty were the control group. All the students were pre- and post-tested in their regular classrooms, and their IPS process and performance were logged by means of screen capture software, to warrant their ecological validity. The IPS constituent skills, the web search sub-skills and the answers given by each participant were analyzed. The main findings of our study suggested that experimental students showed a more expert pattern than the control students regarding the constituent skill ‘defining the problem’ and the following two web search sub-skills: ‘search terms’ typed in a search engine, and ‘selected results’ from a SERP. In addition, scores of task performance were statistically better in experimental students than in control group students. The paper contributes to the discussion of how well-designed and well-embedded scaffolds could be designed in instructional programs in order to guarantee the development and efficiency of the students’ IPS skills by using net information better and participating fully in the global knowledge society.

La cerca única, o com fer fàcil el camí a l'usuari

This paper presents a reflection on the need for libraries to think about how to facilitate access to the documentary sources they manage.As the number of resources available in electronic form increases, libraries are in the need to provide a simple and usable search tool that allows integrating the contents of the various information management systems they give access to.To define user expectations to the search interface, some of the features that they are accustomed to use in their requests for information on the Internet have been included.The technologies that allow the discovery layer implementation as a search tool that integrates the various information systems of the library are presented next. And below are some examples of implementations that work in line with the integration of various information sources into a single search engine, as models to consider for implementing a system of this kind.The purpose of it all is to present a state of the art of some cases of operational deployments as a starting point for any organization interested in improving access it offers to its resources on the basis of references study.