Böcker av Chirag Shah

A self-contained and practical introduction that assumes no prior knowledge of programming or machine learning.

While great strides have been made in the field of search and recommendation, there are still challenges and opportunities to address information access issues that involve solving tasks and accomplishing goals for a wide variety of users. Specifically, we lack intelligent systems that can detect not only the request an individual is making (what), but also understand and utilize the intention (why) and strategies (how) while providing information and enabling task completion. Many scholars in the fields of information retrieval, recommender systems, productivity (especially in task management and time management), and artificial intelligence have recognized the importance of extracting and understanding people's tasks and the intentions behind performing those tasks in order to serve them better. However, we are still struggling to support them in task completion, e.g., in search and assistance, and it has been challenging to move beyond single-query or single-turn interactions. The proliferation of intelligent agents has unlocked new modalities for interacting with information, but these agents will need to be able to work understanding current and future contexts and assist users at task level. This book will focus on task intelligence in the context of search and recommendation. Chapter 1 introduces readers to the issues of detecting, understanding, and using task and task-related information in an information episode (with or without active searching). This is followed by presenting several prominent ideas and frameworks about how tasks are conceptualized and represented in Chapter 2. In Chapter 3, the narrative moves to showing how task type relates to user behaviors and search intentions. A task can be explicitly expressed in some cases, such as in a to-do application, but often it is unexpressed. Chapter 4 covers these two scenarios with several related works and case studies. Chapter 5 shows how task knowledge and task models can contribute to addressing emerging retrieval and recommendation problems. Chapter 6 covers evaluation methodologies and metrics for task-based systems, with relevant case studies to demonstrate their uses. Finally, the book concludes in Chapter 7, with ideas for future directions in this important research area.

Since user study design has been widely applied in search interactions and information retrieval (IR) systems evaluation studies, a deep reflection and meta-evaluation of interactive IR (IIR) user studies is critical for sharpening the instruments of IIR research and improving the reliability and validity of the conclusions drawn from IIR user studies. To this end, we developed a faceted framework for supporting user study design, reporting, and evaluation based on a systematic review of the state-of-the-art IIR research papers recently published in several top IR venues (n=462). Within the framework, we identify three major types of research focuses, extract and summarize facet values from specific cases, and highlight the under-reported user study components which may significantly affect the results of research. Then, we employ the faceted framework in evaluating a series of IIR user studies against their respective research questions and explain the roles and impacts of the underlying connections and "e;collaborations"e; among different facet values. Through bridging diverse combinations of facet values with the study design decisions made for addressing research problems, the faceted framework can shed light on IIR user study design, reporting, and evaluation practices and help students and young researchers design and assess their own studies.

A step-by-step guidebook for doctors and other medical professionals about growing and preserving wealth, Financial Freedom Rx: The Physician's Guide to Achieving Financial Independence gives physicians all the tools necessary to manage their own finances. Medical professionals, especially doctors, spend many years in training as they accumulate debt and delay their earnings. This book presents a time-tested formula that students and established professionals can follow at any stage during their careers to achieve fiscal peace of mind. Students will learn how to budget and adopt disciplined financial practices. Residents and other trainees will learn how to defend against calamity with various insurances and how to manage debt. Junior professionals will acquire the skills needed to invest and grow their portfolios, while senior professionals will better understand the essentials of estate planning and retirement. Drs. Chirag P. Shah and Jayanth Sridhar wrote this inspiring text to guide physicians where to put their next dollar. This is particularly important during the financial uncertainties brought on by COVID-19 and insurance cuts. Financial Freedom Rx sets forth principles that will pilot medical professionals toward financial independence. Chapters include useful advice on topics such as: Financial planning Investing and asset allocation Jobs and contracts Taxes and insurance Student loans and debt Retirement savings and distributionsFinancial Freedom Rx: The Physician's Guide to Achieving Financial Independence serves as a timeless blueprint for financial planning that medical professionals will follow throughout their careers, and as a reference that readers will revisit again and again as they progress through the various stages of life.

This volume summarizes the author's work on social information seeking (SIS), and at the same time serves as an introduction to the topic. Sometimes also referred to as social search or social information retrieval, this is a relatively new area of study concerned with the seeking and acquiring of information from social spaces on the Internet.