[Babase] Re: Enhancements to Ranker

Jun Yang junyang at gmail.com
Thu Dec 20 23:01:16 EST 2007


On Dec 20, 2007 2:05 PM, Lacey Maryott <lacey.maryott at duke.edu> wrote:

>     First, I created a matrix with rank dates 12-01-2005 to 12-31-2005
> as the basis and with 01-01-2006 to 01-31-2006 as the interaction matrix
> dates for ALM ranks for grp 1.10. The actual ranks for this grp for Dec
> 05 do not match the initial output in ranker. I made a table here
> <https://papio.biology.duke.edu/babasewiki/RankerDiffs#preview> on the
> wiki so that you can see the difference.  The order produced by Ranker
> doesn't seem to resemble at all the ranks for Dec 05.
>     Also, the same ranking produced the list of individuals who had been
> present in December, not those present in January. NET for example, was
> in 1.10 in Dec 2005, but was not as of Jan 2006, and thus, should not
> show up in the matrix, (Right?).
>     Lastly, I really like the new header at the top of the window which
> displays the group and date of the matrix, but I think it is important
> to distinguish that while the ranking is based on DEC 05 Ranks, that
> interactions are from Jan 06.  Right now the header for the interactions
> taking place in Jan 06 Reads "Nyayo's ALM on 2005-12-01".

I think these issues are all rooted in our interpretation of "dates of ranking."

1. The "ranking start/end dates" refer to the month that the ranking is for
(not the month with an existing ranking from which we derive the
current ranking).
For example, if the ranking start/end dates specify Dec 05, then we
look for all members
of Nyayo's ALM during Dec 05. These members, and only these members, will
show up as headers of the matrix (regardless of whether they participate in any
interactions during the "interaction matrix start/end dates"--see below).

When we save the ranking to babase, the current ordering of members (matrix
headers) will be recorded in the babase Ranks table, with rnkdate set
to the ranking
start date. (The contents of the interaction matrix is never written to babase).

2. The "interaction matrix start/end dates" refer to the time period during
which we count the number of interactions among the members selected
for ranking according to the "ranking start/end dates" (see above).
For flexibility,
this time period can be different from the ranking start/end dates.

3. When you create a ranking (using "Create/load ranking from Babase"
on the welcome
menu), the members will always listed in alphabetical order. The ranker doesn't
check whether a ranking for the specified ranking start/end dates already exists
in the babase Ranks table---if there is one, it is almost certainly
different from
the alphabetical order. This is what you observed at
<https://papio.biology.duke.edu/babasewiki/RankerDiffs#preview>.

4. However, after you've created a ranking, you can always select
"Load/incorporate
ranking from Babase" from the menu bar above the interaction matrix. The ranker
will try to locate the an existing ranking in the babase Ranks table
for the specified
ranking start/end dates (and if none exists, the latest one before the
ranking start
state). The ranker will then attempt to reorder your current ranking
according to
the existing ranking, and ask you for confirmation. This is how you
load an existing
ranking.  In the example you gave, if you select "load/incorporate,"
the ranker will
prompt you to change the current ranking to the existing one.

Perhaps a better interface would be to directly load the existing
ranking (if any) when
"Create/load ranking from Babase" (in 3), but currently you can
accomplished that by an
extra, explicit step (4).

Back to your example of NET. I think NET should shown as a column header even
though he didn't participate in any interaction, because the order of
column headers
is what determines the current ranking. If we omit NET from the
headers, we wouldn't
have any way to specify how NET is ranked relative to the others.

As for the the window title of the main interface showing the
interaction matrix, I
can update it to show both ranking month and interaction matrix start/end dates
to avoid confusion.

--- Jun Y.


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