CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, October 30,1996
3A
Search engine chugs out of KU
Program yields fusion of results
By Bradley Brooks Kansan staff writer
Anyone who has used search engines on the World Wide Web knows that the number of useless articles an engine finds is high. But with the work of a KU professor, the time that one spends sifting through that pile of information now can be significantly decreased.
"You will get one rank-ordered list that is the best hits from other engines," said Susan Gauch, professor of engineering, who has created the ProFusion search engine.
"You will get back a higher quality of, and a lot more, information."
What makes ProFusion different than other search engines on the World Wide Web, such as Alta Vista or Excite, is that it can better direct the search words a person types in to a relevant subject area.
"There is a higher accuracy in the analysis of words used in a query," Gauch said.
ProFusion is better than the popular Yahoo, Gauch said, because Yahoo's list of sites is handpicked by humans. Profusion is completely automated.
"Yahoo does not have a large database when compared to others," she said. "It is not a particularly comprehensive search engine."
and entertainment, that directs a person's search. While this is nothing new, ProFusion is more accurate at matching a word or phrase with the best area of the Internet to search.
In ProFusion there is a hierarchy of 13 categories, such as sports
"We did a user study and found that ProFusion is much more accurate than the others," Gauch said.
ProFusion has an accuracy rate of matching search words to relevant hits of 70 percent. The closest competitor, Excite, could only produce a rate of 50 percent. This means that not only will a user get better, more relevant information, but that time spent searching is decreased.
Gauch reported her search engine findings Oct.17 at WebNet '96, a convention held in San Francisco.
Another unique aspect of ProFu
sion is that it can automatically do daily, weekly, or monthly searches on a subject.
Gauch first began working on ProFusion in September of 1995. The site, which is located at the a d d r e s l e n g t s http://www.designlab.ukans.edu/ProFusion.html, has been up since January of this year.
"If you want to be kept up to date on a topic, you can rerun the search and collect new information that you haven't seen," Gauch said.
James Roberts, professor and chairman of electrical engineering and computer science, said that the success of Gauch's work did not surprise him.
"She is an expert in information retrieval," Roberts said. "This fits in perfectly with her area."
Light my fire
Steve Puppe / KANSAN
Janet Schaake, Lawrence resident, opens the top of a pumpkin to light the candle inside. Schaake, along with her four children, runs Schaake's Pumpkin Patch, the only pick-your-own-patch in Lawrence.
Medical students lend healing hand, gain experience
Instead of looking for a date, they are looking for medical problems.
Third-year KU medical students completing their clinical rotation are seeing patients at Watkins on Mondays and Thursdays. Two pair of students visit Watkins weekly for a month, and then new students replace them.
Medical students began training at Watkins in July, and Charles Yockey, student health services chief of staff, said the program would continue beyond this year.
"The program is ongoing," he said. "They don't have enough patient material at the medical center, so they are sending them over here. It's one thing to know how to treat leukemia, but it's another if you can't treat the common cold. You're going to see many more colds than cases of leukemia during your career."
Yockey said that most medical students spent all of their training time in the Med Center's hospital. But at Watkins, they learned basic things they needed to know, he said.
Brett Butz, Kansas City third-year medical student, said he enjoyed the experience because he got to interact with younger people.
"I am usually dealing with a patient population that is much older," he said. "Most of them are Medicare and Medicaid patients with chronic diseases."
The medical students at Watkins follow the same formula they do at the medical center when they examine patients.
"I find out the history of the patient, give them a physical exam, and make my assessment," Butz said. "Then I report back to Dr. Yockey. We discuss my assessment, and then we go back in together."
Yockey said that it took a little more time but that it balanced out because the medical students made it possible to see more patients.
Chris DeTray, Stilwel sophomore, was checked by one of the medical students for a wrist problem.
"He knew exactly what he was talking about. The doctor told me the same thing the med student said," DeTraya said. "I think it's a good program because it gives medical students good experience."
Yockey said only two students in the past three months had not wanted to be examined by a medical student.
"One was tired and just wanted to see the doctor that they always saw and the other one was a sensitive issue dealing with an STD," he said. "The students have been real receptive."
Same-sex couples informed of rights
Washburn law students teach legal protections
By Nicholas C. Charalambous
Kansan staff writer
Rhonda Colson is a wife, and one day, she hopes to be a mother.
Colson, Lawrence resident, and her partner had a commitment ceremony at an Ecumenical Catholic Church in Jacksonville, Ill., on April 21, 1995. But as a same-sex couple, they still can't be recognized as legally married.
That doesn't mean they can't have some of the same legal protections as heterosexual married couples, said Scott Curry, a third-year law student at the Washburn University School of Law.
"That's what we, as a community, need to learn." Curry said.
Colson and her partner were among 30 people who attended a legal workshop at the Washburn University School of Law Saturday, at which Curry talked about powers of attorney that could give same-sex partners more control for each other's health care and financial matters.
For instance, Colson said she was concerned that her partner's parents would deny her access if her partner became seriously ill.
"If she were to be in an intensive care unit, and I couldn't get to see her, that would be extremely rough on me," she said.
But there are two powers of attorney, which the couple could set up cheaply and easily, to confer rights to partners, Curry said. Forms are available at public libraries and hospitals.
Durable power of attorney for health. With this power, a person could have the right to be in a partner's hospital room and could make decisions for a partner's care if the partner is incapacitated.
Durable power of attorney for financial affairs. With this power, a person could have the right, depending on how the power is written, to take ownership of possessions in a partner's name, if a partner is incapacitated. If bills need to be paid, the person with the power can reach into the partner's bank account.
A second type of financial power of attorney can be established while partners are alive. It gives both partners joint authority to sign checks or forms for the other partner.
Curry advised partners to think carefully before they signed any forms.
"Recognize that what you're doing is giving someone else the same power over your life that you yourself have," he said.
Saferide helps to solve drunk-driving problem
By Neal Shulenburger Kansan staff writer
On the front lawn of Stauffer-Flint Hall sits a mass of metal that bears the slight resemblance of a car.
Its front end looks more like a twisted piece of metal than the front end of a Toyota Tercel. Its windshield and hood have met, leaving the windshield no more than a spider web of Plexiglas. The driver's side door hangs slightly off center, and the window is missing.
The car was involved in a collision with another vehicle whose driver was intoxicated. It stands there as a reminder to students of what can happen when they drive drunk.
Gayle Reece, KU police officer,
said that the display of the smashed
car was the Alcohol Awareness
Committee's idea to commemorate
Alcohol Awareness Week, which
ended last Friday.
It was the idea of the KU police to place a Saferide car beside it.
"One of the things we are trying to push on campus is making smart choices," Reece said. "This kind of display lets people think graphically about it."
The Saferide car has since been removed to fulfill its original function of getting students home safely.
Wayne Pope, who oversees the operation of the Saferide program, said that anywhere from 100 to 200 students used Saferide on a typical
weekend.
While Reece said she had no way of knowing how many accidents Saferide may have prevented, she said the program gave them an alternative to drunk driving.
"What I can say is that it's there for students to use, and students do use it." Reece said.
While Saferide picks up students that are too intoxicated to drive, Pope said that the program was not limited to just intoxicated students.
"Saferide is picking up any student that has a valid KUID and taking them to their residence; it doesn't matter where that is or whether or not they've been drinking," he said.
Chris Goebel, Clearwater junior, who has used the service in the past, said that Saferide was valuable to students.
"I think it's a real good idea, it's obvious that college students will be drinking." Goebel said. "If they had to pay for a taxi a lot more students might try to drive home when they shouldn't, just to save money."
Jean-Frederic Despres, Leawood sophomore, said that the program definitely was worthwhile.
"Actually, I come from Canada, and we had the same sort of deal there," Despres said. "It was called Operation Rednose. When I came to campus I was surprised to find the same kind of system here. When you are halfway across campus and no one can drive, it's a nice thing to have."