Relevance Assessments for Web Search Evaluation: Should We Randomise or Prioritise the Pooled Documents?

In the context of depth- k pooling for constructing web search test collections, we compare two approaches to ordering pooled documents for relevance assessors: The prioritisation strategy (PRI) used widely at NTCIR, and the simple randomisation strategy (RND). In order to address research questions regarding PRI and RND, we have constructed and released the WWW3E8 dataset, which contains eight independent relevance labels for 32,375 topic-document pairs, i.e., a total of 259,000 labels. Four of the eight relevance labels were obtained from PRI-based pools; the other four were obtained from RND-based pools. Using WWW3E8, we compare PRI and RND in terms of inter-assessor agreement, system ranking agreement, and robustness to new systems that did not contribute to the pools. We also utilise an assessor activity log we obtained as a byproduct of WWW3E8 to compare the two strategies in terms of assessment efficiency. Our main findings are: (a) The presentation order has no substantial impact on assessment efficiency; (b) While the presentation order substantially affects which documents are judged (highly) relevant, the difference between the inter-assessor agreement under the PRI condition and that under the RND condition is of no practical significance; (c) Different system rankings under the PRI condition are substantially more similar to one another than those under the RND condition; and (d) PRI-based relevance assessment files (qrels) are substantially and statistically significantly more robust to new systems than RND-based ones. Finding (d) suggests that PRI helps the assessors identify relevant documents that affect the evaluation of many existing systems, including those that did not contribute to the pools. Hence, if researchers need to evaluate their current IR systems using legacy IR test collections, we recommend the use of those constructed using the PRI approach unless they have a good reason to believe that their systems retrieve relevant documents that are vastly different from the pooled documents. While this robustness of PRI may also mean that the PRI-based pools are biased against future systems that retrieve highly novel relevant documents, one should note that there is no evidence that RND is any better in this respect.

Experiences of stressful situations and mindfulness training for persons with visual impairment

The aim of this study was to explore what persons with visual impairment (VI) experienced as stressful in their daily lives and their experiences with using mindfulness training (MT) to cope with stressful situations. In order to explore this we conducted semi-structured interviews with six persons with VI after finishing an 8-week MT course. Systematic text condensation was used to analyze the interviews. This qualitative study found that the participants described three main areas of stress: (1) lack of access to information, (2) social expectations, and (3) navigating the body through one’s surroundings. The participants’ experiences with using MT to cope with stressful situations resulted in emotion-based and problem-based strategies: (1) breathing anchor, (2) awareness of and reflection upon thoughts and feelings, (3) most things are doable, (4) tackling the situation in a new way, and (5) haste makes waste. Our respondents described using MT for coping with stressful situations in all the three main areas of stress. Based upon this study we propose that there is good reason to offer MT as stress management for persons with VI, but further study is required to confirm the health-promoting benefits of MT for this group.

Canaries or Colonials? The Reduced Prominence of the ‘Overseas Judges’ on Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal

Typically one member of a sitting panel of Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal is a senior jurist drawn from another common law jurisdiction. In the Court's early years, these ‘overseas judges’ were responsible for writing approximately one quarter of the lead opinions across a vast range of cases. This article demonstrates, however, that this practice has changed. The overseas judges now write a smaller share of lead opinions and no longer write lead opinions related to issues of fundamental human rights or the relationship between Hong Kong and the rest of China. This article suggests this change has been made for good reason. Though valid questions about the legitimacy of the role of the overseas judges can be made, they also continue to perform a valuable communicative role regarding the status of Hong Kong's judicial independence under the ‘one country, two systems’ framework. A recent rise in attacks on overseas and other ‘foreign’ judges in Hong Kong can be understood as part of a broader project that seeks to constrain the role of the independent judiciary. By continuing to invite overseas judges to sit on the Court of Final Appeal but reducing their public prominence, the Court has sought not only to reduce avenues for attacks on the legitimacy of particular decisions, but to protect the autonomy and independence of the judiciary more broadly.

Le Postmoderne et la « Visibilite » des « Invisibles » : Cas des « Native Americans » dans « This Land » de Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Cet article vise à montrer comment dans la philosophie postmoderne et avec le postmoderne, les « native americans » qui étaient « invisibles » dans la période de l’Eurocentrisme sont passés d’une « invisibilité » à une visibilité véritable. Puisque désormais ils ont droit à la parole et donc ils disent leur part de vérité sur l’histoire des États-Unis et sur leurs propres histoires à eux telle que vécues avec les euro-américains. A travers donc les théories de la déconstruction et de l’historicisme, l’étude a fait remarquer que les « native americans » ont une visibilité dans le monde postmoderne et plus précisément aux États-Unis à travers une visibilité liée à la réclamation de leurs terres, à travers une visibilité liée à la réécriture de l’histoire américaine, d’une part à enseigner sur eux et d’autre part à enseigner sur l’origine des États-Unis ; et enfin à travers une visibilité liée à la restauration et la restitution de leur héritage culturel, cet héritage culturel que les survivants des génocides possèdent et font rayonné. Il faut par ailleurs ajouter que ce passage du statut d’invisibles à la visibilité à trois niveaux (réclamation de leurs terres, réécriture de l’histoire américaine, restauration et restitution de leur héritage culturel) marque un tournant décisif dans la vie des États-Unis et c’est à juste titre que Joe Biden, le Président américain a choisi novembre 2021 pour célébrer l’héritage des «Native Americans». This article aims to show how in postmodern philosophy and with the postmodern, "native americans" who were "invisible" in the period of Eurocentrism went from "invisibility" to true visibility. Since now they have the right to speak and therefore they can tell their share of the truth about the history of the United States and their own stories as they used to live them since their contact with Euro-Americans. So through the theories of deconstruction and historicism, this study pointed out that “native americans” have visibility in the postmodern world and more precisely in the contemporary United States through a visibility linked to the claim of their lands, through a visibility linked to the rewriting of American history, on the one hand that taught about them and on the other hand that taught about the origin of the United States; and finally through a visibility linked to the restoration and restitution of their cultural heritage, this cultural heritage that the survivors of genocides possess and promote proudly. It should also be added that this passage from the status of invisibility to visibility at three levels (claim of their lands, rewriting of American history, restoration and restitution of their cultural heritage) indicates a decisive turning point in the history of the United States and it is with good reason that Joe Biden, the American President, declared November 2021 to celebrate Native American Heritage.

Robert Merton and Ibn Sina: A Roll Call of Moral Imperatives

The paper attempts to expand the authentic understanding of the imperatives of the scientific ethos given by R.K. Merton in 1942. In the original interpretation, Merton’s Code referred only to the European science of the New Age and subsequent centuries. As Merton himself and his followers have seen, the applicability of this code to other societies is not relevant. However, the author of the paper believes that the original four maxims of Merton in one way or another work effectively outside the specified space-time frame and, in particular, work in medieval Arab-Muslim science. The philosophical allegorical parable "The Message of Birds" written by Ibn Sina in the XI century is used as a text in which the imperatives that semantically coincide with Merton's maxims are found. The analysis shows that the text of the medieval scientist is transparently articulated: 1) Mertonian "communism" which assumes the collective ownership of epistemological discourse participants of the products received in its process (new empirical facts, theoretical and methodological innovations); 2) "universalism" that excludes any discrimination of discourse subjects on external, non-scientific criteria; 3) "disinterestedness", according to which the scientist builds his activities as if he had no other interests but to understand the truth; 4) "organized skepticism" according to which there is no presumption of innocence in science, and whoever comes forward with epistemological innovation must calmly and patiently prove his rightness to those who are standing in defence of the existing body of knowledge. Since the author of "The Message of Birds", despite his chosen artistic and mystical form for this work, is one of the largest figures of medieval Arab-Muslim science, his parable should be interpreted, first of all, as a text, which reflects the very process of cognitive search in pre-classical science. A closer familiarity with the nature and content of epistemological discourse in ancient and medieval traditional societies provides a good reason here to see one of the attempts to systematize the ethical rules that have actually been in force among scientists for many centuries.

The Perennial Riddle of Life’s Origin

The origin of life is the most consequential problem in biology, possibly in all of science, and it remains unsolved. This chapter summarizes what has been learned and highlights questions that remain open, including How, Where, When, and especially Why. LUCA, some four billion years ago, already featured the basic capacities of contemporary cells. These must have evolved still earlier, at a nebulous proto-cellular stage. There is good reason to believe that enzymes, DNA, ribosomes, electron-transport chains, and the rotary ATP synthase all predate LUCA and were shaped by the standard process of variation and natural selection, but we know next to nothing about how cells ever got started. I favor the proposal that it began with a purely chemical dynamic network capable of reproducing itself, that may have originated by chance. Natural selection would have favored the incorporation of any ancillary factors that promoted its kinetic stability, especially ones that improved reproduction or gave access to energy. All the specifics are in dispute, including the role of a prebiotic broth of organic chemicals, the nature and origin of enclosure, the RNA world, and a venue in submarine hydrothermal vents. My sense is that critical pieces of the puzzle remain to be discovered.

The Linguistic Coping Strategies of Three Netherlanders in England

Thousands of migrants left the Low Countries in the second half of the sixteenth century for religious, political, or economic reasons. They faced many difficulties as they attempted to rebuild their lives abroad, including linguistic obstacles. Many of them moved to England, but proficiency in English was rare among the Netherlandish community. Nevertheless, as this article argues, the language differences did not only pose problems, they also offered opportunities, especially to members of the higher echelons of the Dutch diasporic community. The inhabitants of the Low Countries were widely reputed to have excellent knowledge of languages, and for good reason. This article concentrates on the linguistic strategies of three multilingual individuals who moved across the North Sea: the nobleman Jan van der Noot, the painter Lucas d’Heere, and the merchant Johannes Radermacher. It studies the ways in which they used their proficiency in multiple languages as starting capital to build new social and professional lives for themselves. For example, they used their linguistic skills to appeal to the local aristocracy in order to ensure patronage, to expand social and professional networks by frequenting particular religious language communities, and to offer language instruction. This article therefore contributes to our understanding of linguistic encounters in the everyday lives and struggles of migrants in the sixteenth century.

Calibrating Variable-Value Population Ethics

Variable-Value axiologies propose solutions to the challenges of population ethics. These views avoid Parfit’s Repugnant Conclusion, while satisfying some weak instances of the Mere Addition principle (for example, at small population sizes). We apply calibration methods to Variable-Value views while assuming: first, some very weak instances of Mere Addition, and, second, some plausible empirical assumptions about the size and welfare of the intertemporal world population. We find that Variable-Value views imply conclusions that should seem repugnant to anyone who opposes Total Utilitarianism due to the Repugnant Conclusion. So, any wish to avoid repugnant conclusions is not a good reason to choose a Variable-Value view. More broadly, these calibrations teach us something about the effort to avoid the Repugnant Conclusion. Our results join a recent literature arguing that prior efforts to avoid the Repugnant Conclusion hinge on inessential features of the formalization of repugnance. Some of this effort may therefore be misplaced.

Proverbs and African Modernity: Defining an Ethics of Becoming

African proverbs have, for good reason, attracted considerable attention from scholars, both African and non-African. One notable testimony to such attention is the international conference in South Africa from which came a monumental collection of scholarly articles now available on CD and in print. Another evidence of the interest the subject has enjoyed among African scholars is the wealth of publications they have produced in recent years, for example, Adeleke Adeeko’s monograph Proverbs, Textuality, and Nativism in African Literature; Ambrose Adikamkwu Monye’s Proverbs in African Orature: The Aniocha-Igbo Experience; Kwesi Yankah’s The Proverb in the Context of Akan Rhetoric: A Theory of Proverb Praxis; and my Yoruba Proverbs. In addition, there have been influential articles by Ayo Bamgbose, Lawrence. A. Boadi, Romanus N. Egudu, Kwame Gyekye, Yisa Yusuf, and a host of others whose omission from this rather abbreviated list is not meant as a slight. In a recent conversation, the preeminent paremiologist, Wolfgang Mieder, called my attention to the lineup of articles in the most recent issue of Proverbium [23: 2006], in which four of the five lead articles are by Nigerian scholars (Abimbola Adesoji, Bode Agbaje, George Olusola Ajibade, and Akinola Akintunde Asinyanbola) and on African proverbs, an indication, he said of the present effervescence of, and future potential for, proverb studies and publications on them on African soil. Because of these efforts we now know a good deal about proverbs as a cultural resource, their functionality and the protocols for their usage, but also their artistry-structure, wordplay, imagery, and so forth, especially after calls such as Isidore Okpewho’s (1992) that scholars pay due attention to the aesthetic dimensions of traditional oral forms.

Halfway Between Byzantium and Serbia: Marriage Provisions of the Second Žiča Charter .

Marking the eight hundred years anniversary of the adoption of the Žiča Charter issued by Stefan Prvovjenčani is more than a good reason to closely examine the provisions of this Charter. If we think about the historical and political context of that time, it becomes clear that the Žiča Charter provides direct information on the formative processes of the Serbian state and church. Žiča was not only the seat of the new Serbian archdiocese, but also had a central role in building the cult of the Nemanjić dynasty and especially of Stefan Prvovjenčani as its first king. The Žiča Charter, one of the oldest Serbian legal monuments, represents the determination of the first Serbian king to create a powerful Serbian state and strengthen the Serbian Orthodox Church, which would be the base of the political and legal program not only for Stefan Prvovjenčani, but also for his successors. This is reminiscent of the „symphony doctrine” that was copied from Byzantium, and in that copying, no branch of law, including marriage law, was spared. The most important part of this Charter are definitely the norms dedicated to marital law, which show that general political tendencies had a huge impact on private law too. Many legal transplants such as the prohibition of arbitrary divorce, the prohibition of kidnaping as a way of separating spouses or dowry institutions have caused radical changes in Serbian marital law; however, they were not immune to transformations under the influence of customary law and attitudes of the society of medieval Serbia. It once again proves the thesis of professor Alan Watson who claimed that legal transplants have their own, independent life in the law system that accepted them. When it comes to Serbian medieval law, that life started very early. The influence of Roman-Byzantine and canon law was already felt in the Nomokanon of Sveti Sava, and then in the Žiča Charter; in later regulations of Serbian medieval law this influence becomes quite obvious. The main topic of this paper will be the process of legal transplantation in marital law from the Byzantine Empire to Serbia and the author will also try to discover and explain certain regularities and deviations in that process. Тhe analysis of the marital provisions of the Žiča Charter is naturally imposed here as a starting point.