Compa-ratio, a technique used in diverse ways in the corporate sector, was used to analyze gender bias in faculty salaries at one university. Results, compared with those derived from two multiple regression analyses of the same data, suggest that the technique is adaptable for higher education and easily understood by administrators and faculty.…

A solution of the convection-dispersion equation is used to describe the solute breakthrough curves generated in the demonstrations in the companion paper. Estimation of the best fit model parameters (solute velocity, dispersion, and retardation) is illustrated using the method of moments for an example data set. (Author/MDH)

Establishes a rationale for teaching population genetics to students and inservice biology teachers. Suggests strategies for introducing students to the Hardy-Weinberg principle. (MDH)

Describes a relevance-feedback mechanism for content-based image retrieval that evaluates the feature distributions of the images judged relevant by the user and updates both the similarity measure and the query to accurately represent the user's information needs. (Author/LRW)

Discusses science evaluation studies that seek to determine quantitatively the contribution of different authors, departments, or countries to the whole system, and suggests that different scoring methods can yield totally different rankings. Presents formulas for counting procedures, nontrivial examples of anomalies, and possible solutions.…

Investigates the application of a relevance ranking technique, cover density ranking that is based on term proximity and cooccurrence for information retrieval on the World Wide Web that augments coordination ranking when one to three search terms are used. Compares cover density ranking with standard ranking methods and discusses implementation…

Explains the Web impact factor (WIF) for comparing the relative attractiveness or influence of Web spaces, where the WIF is the number of pages linking to a Web space divided by the number of pages in the Web space. Compares WIFs for Australasian universities and for Australasian electronic journals. (Author/LRW)

Presents simple experiments using the flow of water from bell jars that can provide an easily visualized introduction to exponential decay. (Author)

Considers a new approach to construction of single-valued measures for evaluation of search results. A general statement of the order preservation property is given, and all considered single-valued measures are analyzed for the existence of this property. Problems of legitimacy of the use of single-valued measures in various situations are…

Describes an evaluation model for expansion systems in information retrieval, i.e., systems expanding a user selection of documents to provide the user with a larger set of documents sharing the same or related characteristics. Highlights include a test protocol and evaluation measures for the efficiency of expansion systems. (Contains 29…

Discusses precision and recall in information science and proposes a new model based on fractal geometry for clusters of relevant documents. Search strategies for retrieving a group of relevant documents are reviewed; fractal sets and chaotic processes are described; and the new model is explained. (Contains 43 references.) (LRW)

Provides an introduction to structural equation modelling (SEM) for language research, including: general objectives of SEM applications relevant to language assessment; methodology and statistical assumptions about data that must be met; commonly-used SEM steps and concepts; application matters, with sample models; and recent critical discussions…

Following a pretest, 11 participants who were naive with regard to various algebraic and trigonometric transformations received an introductory lecture regarding the fundamentals of the rectangular coordinate system. Following the lecture, they took part in a computer-interactive matching-to-sample procedure in which they received training on…

Students of population and regional studies are familiar with the demographic accounting equation in which the size of the population at time t + x is equal to the population at time t plus the births, minus the deaths, plus the immigrants, minus the emigrants, during the interval of time x. This simple formula can be used to derive a variety of…

Three basic theorems concerning expected values and variances of sums and products of random variables play an important role in mathematical statistics and its applications in education, business, the social sciences, and the natural sciences. A solid understanding of these theorems requires that students be familiar with the proofs of these…