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Chapter 7: The Evaluation Of Ontologies, Leo Obrst, Benjamin Ashpole, Werner Ceusters, Inderjeet Mani, Steven Ray, Barry Smith Dec 2006

Chapter 7: The Evaluation Of Ontologies, Leo Obrst, Benjamin Ashpole, Werner Ceusters, Inderjeet Mani, Steven Ray, Barry Smith

Steven R Ray

Recent years have seen rapid progress in the development of ontologies as semantic models intended to capture and represent aspects of the real world. There is, however, great variation in the quality of ontologies. If ontologies are to become progressively better in the future, more rigorously developed, and more appropriately compared, then a systematic discipline of ontology evaluation must be created to ensure quality of content and methodology. Systematic methods for ontology evaluation will take into account representation of individual ontologies, performance and accuracy on tasks for which the ontology is designed and used, degree of alignment with other ontologies …


“Why Part? The Institutional Politics Of Presidential Budget Reform.”, Matt Dull Aug 2006

“Why Part? The Institutional Politics Of Presidential Budget Reform.”, Matt Dull

Matthew Dull

The George W. Bush administration’s Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) follows a sequence of president-initiated budget reforms. The pattern is puzzling in that past reforms have tended to drain staff resources, failed to take hold, and yielded little or no political advantage. Given the track record of past initiatives, why has the Bush administration chosen to invest Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and agency resources in PART? This article briefly traces PART’s development and, placing the initiative in the context of contemporary research on the institutional presidency, attempts to make sense of the sustained appeal that rationalizing reforms have …


Physical Properties Of Distillers Dried Grains With Solubles (Ddgs), Kurt A. Rosentrater Jul 2006

Physical Properties Of Distillers Dried Grains With Solubles (Ddgs), Kurt A. Rosentrater

Kurt A. Rosentrater

The production of corn-based ethanol in the U.S. is dramatically increasing, and consequently so is the amount of coproduct materials generated from this processing sector. These streams are primarily utilized as livestock feed, which is a route that provides ethanol processors with a substantial revenue source and significantly increases the profitability of the production process. With the construction and operation of many new plants in recent years, these residuals do, however, have much potential for value-added processing and utilization in other sectors as well. Extensive research has been conducted into determining the nutritional properties of distillers dried grains with solubles …


Fractionation Techniques To Concentrate Nutrient Streams In Distillers Grains, Kurt A. Rosentrater, Deepa Subramanian, Padmanaban G. Krishnan Jun 2006

Fractionation Techniques To Concentrate Nutrient Streams In Distillers Grains, Kurt A. Rosentrater, Deepa Subramanian, Padmanaban G. Krishnan

Kurt A. Rosentrater

Corn, the most widely produced feed grain in the United States, accounts for more than 90% of the total value and production of feed grains. It is also used for food, industrial materials, and fuel ethanol production. Distillers grains, the major coproduct from ethanol manufacturing, are used as livestock feed. There are, however, other potential options, including value-added food, industrial, chemical, and energy applications. Fractionating distillers grains into concentrated streams of protein, fiber, and fat may be key to facilitating these types of utilization. Previous studies on other products have shown that fractionation is a promising mechanism for extracting valuable …


Metalib Usability Test - Think Aloud Protocols, Carole A. George May 2006

Metalib Usability Test - Think Aloud Protocols, Carole A. George

Carole A. George

Introduction. Usability testing using think aloud protocols was conducted on the MetaLib, a new product that provides the option to search multiple databases, catalogs, indexes, and other resources, soon to be offered by the university libraries. The object of the testing was to find problems users might experience using the MetaLib site in order to improve site usability. Method. Volunteers responded to an email request on the university online bulletin board and completed an online demographic questionnaire. Based on responses to the questionnaire, eight volunteers, diverse with respect to affiliation, discipline, gender, language, and computer expertise, were selected to participate. …


Minimal Test Collections For Retrieval Evaluation, Ben Carterette, James Allan, Ramesh Sitaraman Jan 2006

Minimal Test Collections For Retrieval Evaluation, Ben Carterette, James Allan, Ramesh Sitaraman

Ramesh Sitaraman

Accurate estimation of information retrieval evaluation metrics such as average precision require large sets of relevance judgments. Building sets large enough for evaluation of real-world implementations is at best inefficient, at worst infeasible. In this work we link evaluation with test collection construction to gain an understanding of the minimal judging effort that must be done to have high confidence in the outcome of an evaluation. A new way of looking at average precision leads to a natural algorithm for selecting documents to judge and allows us to estimate the degree of confidence by defining a distribution over possible document …


Scholarly Use Of Information: Graduate Students' Information Seeking Behaviour, Carole A. George, A. Bright, T Hurlbert, E C. Linke, G St. Clair, J Stein Jan 2006

Scholarly Use Of Information: Graduate Students' Information Seeking Behaviour, Carole A. George, A. Bright, T Hurlbert, E C. Linke, G St. Clair, J Stein

Carole A. George

Introduction. This study explored graduate students' information behaviour related to their process of inquiry and scholarly activities. Method. In depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with one hundred graduate students representing all disciplines and departments from Carnegie Mellon University. Analysis. Working in pairs, we coded transcripts of interviews into meaningful categories using ATLAS.ti software. The combined use of quantitative and qualitative analysis aimed to reduce subjectivity. Results. Graduate students often begin with a meeting with professors who provide direction, recommend and provide resources. Other students help to shape graduate students' research activities, and university library personnel provide guidance in finding resources. …


Some Physical Properties Of Distillers Dried Grains With Solubles (Ddgs), Kurt A. Rosentrater Jan 2006

Some Physical Properties Of Distillers Dried Grains With Solubles (Ddgs), Kurt A. Rosentrater

Kurt A. Rosentrater

With the rapid growth in the fuel ethanol industry in recent years, considerable research is being devoted to determining distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) nutritional properties and to optimizing their inclusion in livestock diets; physical properties of these materials, however, have been largely ignored. Using standard laboratory methods, several physical properties for typical DDGS streams were determined, including moisture content, water activity, thermal properties (conductivity, resistivity, and diffusivity), bulk density, angle of repose, and color. The DDGS samples in this study were golden-brown in color and exhibited physical properties similar to other dry feed ingredients, such as hominy feed, …


Harnessing Innovative Technologies In Higher Education, Kathleen P. King, Joan K. Griggs Jan 2006

Harnessing Innovative Technologies In Higher Education, Kathleen P. King, Joan K. Griggs

Kathleen P King

This publication is an attempt to capture the evolution of distributed higher education over the last decade by tracing the applications of new technologies funded by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE). As FIPSE surveyed the current state of distance/distributed education, there existed an opportunity to help post econdary education make the transition to this new generation of distance education made possible by the explosive growth of the Internet and other new technologies. These technologies created the potential for students to access learning that was interactive, customized, and self-paced; to more easily merge lifelong learning with the …


Usability Of The Digital Library: An Evaluation Model, Judy Jeng Jan 2006

Usability Of The Digital Library: An Evaluation Model, Judy Jeng

Judy Jeng

Summary report from the 2004 ACRL Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship recipient


Consequence Of Competing And Complementary Evaluation Approaches: A Case Study., Brandon Youker, Chris Coryn, Daniela Schröter, Michelle Bakerson Dec 2005

Consequence Of Competing And Complementary Evaluation Approaches: A Case Study., Brandon Youker, Chris Coryn, Daniela Schröter, Michelle Bakerson

Brandon W. Youker Ph.D

A poster presentation demonstrating an evaluation of a summer school program for middle schoolers in which the evaluators divided into two teams and simultaneously evaluated the program. The first team examined the students' performance according to the program's ability to achieve stated goals while the second team intentionally avoided any knowledge of or reference to the stated goals and objectives throughout the entire evaluation. The two teams wrote separate reports and then a combined report.


Review Of Exploring Evaluator Role And Identity., Carolyn Sullins, Brandon Youker Dec 2005

Review Of Exploring Evaluator Role And Identity., Carolyn Sullins, Brandon Youker

Brandon W. Youker Ph.D

A book review of "Exploring Evaluator Role and Identity" edited by Katherine E. Ryan and Thomas A. Schwandt (2002).


Values Driven Evaluation, P. Cristian Gugiu, Nadini Persuad, Brandon Youker Dec 2005

Values Driven Evaluation, P. Cristian Gugiu, Nadini Persuad, Brandon Youker

Brandon W. Youker Ph.D

Values are the basis for defining what aspects of the evaluand should be considered meritous in a particular context. They are something which is in principle or quality intrinsically valuable or desirable. So in evaluation, factual premises describe performance, while value premises can be thought of as the qualities that, when converted to standards, determine the degree to which the performance was good or bad, worthwhile or worthless, and significant or insignificant. Value premises can be validated using commonsense or based on such things as the severity of needs, resource efficiency, legal requirements, professional requirements, and so on. There are …


Review Of The Evaluation Exchange, Volume Xi(1), Xi(2), And Xi(3), Brandon W. Youker Ph.D Dec 2005

Review Of The Evaluation Exchange, Volume Xi(1), Xi(2), And Xi(3), Brandon W. Youker Ph.D

Brandon W. Youker Ph.D

The Evaluation Exchange is a free, online evaluation periodical (http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/eval.html) published by the Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) three or four times annually. It is aimed at addressing issues that program evaluators frequently encounter. The journal emphasizes innovative methods and approaches to evaluation, emerging trends in practice, and practical applications of evaluation theory. It is designed to serve as a medium for evaluators, program practitioners, funders, and policymakers.