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Genetic programming, a form of genetic algorithm, has begun to be applied to a fuzzy information retrieval system in order to improve the formulation of weighted Boolean queries by means of relevance feedback. Our theoretical approach assembles together the concepts of information retrieval, fuzzy set theory, and genetic programming. Records (textual documents) in a database (collection) can be viewed as being represented by vectors of weights corresponding to the index terms that describe record topicality. A weighted Boolean query can be viewed as a parse tree and is a chromosome in terms of a genetic algorithm. Through the mechanisms of genetic programming, the weighted query is modified in order to improve system performance via precision and recall. Relevance feedback is incorporated, in part via user defined measures, over a trial set of records. The fitness of a candidate query can be expressed directly as a function of the perceived relevance of the retrieved set. Preliminary results based on some small testbeds are given. The form of the fitness function has a significant effect upon performance and the proper fitness functions take into account relevance based on topicality (and perhaps other factors³).

Many recommenders compute predictions by inferring the users’ preferences. However, in some cases, such as in e-education, the recommendations of pedagogical resources should rather be based on users’ memory. In order to estimate in real time and with low involvement what has been recalled by users, we designed a user study to highlight the link between gaze features and visual memory. Our protocol consisted in asking different subjects to remember a large set of images. During this memory test, we collected about 19 000 fixation points. Among other results, we show in this paper a strong correlation between the relative path angles and the memorized items. We then applied various classifiers and showed that it is possible to predict the users’ memory status by analyzing their gaze data. This is the first step so as to provide recommendations that fits users’ learning curve.

The DASH score is a universally accepted method for assessment of hand function. However, there are occasions when a pre-treatment DASH score is unavailable. This study provides a solution to this situation. An initial DASH score was obtained from all patients at the time of their first clinic visit. A second score was obtained at the time of final follow-up asking the patient to "Recall" their pre-treatment status. The two scores were compared with appropriate statistical analysis. Thirty-eight patients were included in the study and scores were obtained at an average time interval of 32 weeks (6–121 weeks). Excellent agreement was noted for the ability of the patient population to recall their scores with a group correlation of 0.86. This proves that the Recall DASH score is an excellent and useful research tool for use in hand surgery.