Information Retrieval List Digest 007 (January 1990) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/irld/irld-007 IRLIST Digest [January] 1990 Volume VII Number 1 Issue 7 *************************************************************** Continued from Volume VII Number 1, Issue 6 *************************************************************** I. NOTICES: Meeting announcements/Calls for papers (Last minute urgent additions) A.9. COIS '90, April 25-27, 1990 A.10. CAIS '90, May 24-26, 1990 A.11. The Third International Conference on Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Machine Translation of Natural Languages, June 11-13, 1990 A.12. BACM/SIGIR International Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval, September 5-7, 1990 IV. PROJECTS: Initiatives and proposals / Bibliographies Abstracts / Miscellaneous C.3. Dissertation Abstracts D.1. New and Revised Technical Notes D.2. Hypermedia Journal D.3. Hypermedia Journal *************************************************************** I. NOTICES I.A.9. Fr: rba@flash.bellcore.com (Robert B. Allen) Re: COIS '90 CALL FOR PAPERS COIS90 - CONFERENCE ON OFFICE INFORMATION SYSTEMS Sponsors: ACM-SIGOIS & IEEE Computer Society TC-OA In Cooperation with IFIP 8.4 MIT - CAMBRIDGE, MA - APRIL 25-27, 1990 The coordination and support of cooperating computer users is a multi-faceted challenge. Indeed, the issues cover many of the most active areas of computer science. For instance, organizations of intelligent agents may be designed to interact in ways that complement human organizations. New information technologies, intelligent interfaces, AI/knowledge tools, and data models may be combined to provide a wide range of applications such as hypertext, planning systems, multimedia services, and electronic publishing. In addition, these technologies impact individuals, groups, and organizations, and their adoption may depend on user and social design principles. This fifth COIS meeting continues a tradition of multi-disciplinary research. Coordination Technology/Social Impact Cooperative Work Electronic Publishing Hypertext/Multimedia Information Retrieval User Interfaces Object-Oriented Systems/Databases PROGRAM COMMITTEE Fred Lochovsky, Chair, U. Toronto, Canada Stephen Ades, PA Technology, United Kingdom Agustin A. Araya, FMC Corporation, USA Walter Bender, MIT Media Lab, USA Elisa Bertino, IEI-CNR, Italy Andrew Clement, York U., Canada Panos Constantopoulos, U. Crete, Greece Christsos Faloutsos, U. Maryland, USA Steve Feiner, Columbia U., USA Les Gasser, USC, USA Sidney E. Harris, Claremont Graduate School, USA Mathias Jarke, U. Passau, West Germany Robin Jeffries, Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, USA Won Kim, MCC, USA Winfried Lamersdorf, IBM European Networking Center, West Germany Larry Lefkowitz, U. Massachusetts, USA Marilyn Mantei, U. Toronto, Canada Najah Naffah, Bull S.A., France Oscar Nierstasz, U. Geneva, Switzerland Robert W. Root, Bellcore, USA Walt Scacchi, USC, USA Frank Tompa, U. Waterloo, Canada C.J. van Rijsbergen, U. Glasgow, United Kingdom Toyohide Watanabe, Nagoya U., Japan Carson C. Woo, UBC, Canada Polle Zellweger, Xerox PARC, USA CONFERENCE COMMITTEE Bob Allen, General Chair, Bellcore, USA Skip Ellis, MCC, USASA Carl Hewitt, MIT-AI Lab, USA Fred Lochovsky, U. Toronto, Canada Vince Lum, NPS, USA Tom Malone, MIT-Sloan, USA Margi Olson, NYU, USA Barbara Pernici, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Dennis Tsichritzis, U. Geneva, Switzerland Alex Verrijn-Stuart, U. Leiden, The Netherlands INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS COIS90 - CONFERENCE ON OFFICE INFORMATION SYSTEMS MIT - CAMBRIDGE, MA - APRIL 25-27, 1990 Submit five copies of a double-spaced paper (5000 words maximum), or electronic submission of equivalent length to: Dr. Fred Lochovsky Computer Systems Research Institute University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A4 phone: (416) 978-7441 Canada email: fred@csri.toronto.edu Submission deadline: November 3, 1989 Notification of Authors: December 30, 1989 Camera-ready copy: February 8, 1990 VIDEOS: Tapes for video presentation relevant to themes of the conference are invited. They should be in 3/4 inch U-matic or VHS format and 5-15 minutes long. Submission deadline: March 1, 1990 ********** I.A.10. Fr: rgc@cucis.queensu.ca Re: CAIS '90 CALL FOR PAPERS Canadian Association for Information Science Annual Conference Information Science into the '90s and Beyond May 24-26, 1990 Queen's University Campus Kingston, Ontario, CANADA The theme of this year's conference is designed to bring together information researchers, practitioners, and users who will contribute in three categories: --Information historians who can look back on nearly three decades of Information Science to draw conclusions about the field. --Information users who can interpret the field by offering original work ideas. --Information thinkers who will forecast where the cutting edges of informatin science theory and practice will be in the 90s and how that may change business and society. Proposals from all areas of Information Science are invited to provide a balance in each of the broad topic areas. Full papers are not required before the conference. Two copies of proposals of no more than three pages should be sent by January 31, 1990 to the Program Chairman. All papers can be submitted for referee review to the editor of the Canadian Journal of Information Science leading up to or following the conference. General information about CAIS or the Journal can be obtained from the Conference Chairman. Conference Chairman Bryan Getchell Bell Information Systems Floor 3, 100 Dundas Street London, Ontario Canada N6A 4L6 Telephone: 519-663-6865 FAX: 519-679-0374 Envoy e-mail: BD.Getchell Program Chairman Dr. R.G. Crawford Dept. of Computing and Information Science Queen's University Kingson, Ontario Canada K7L 3N6 Telephone: 613-545-2469 FAX: 613-545-6602 e-mail: NetNorth: rgc@qucis.bitnet Internet: rgc@qucis.queensu.ca KEY DATES: January 31, 1990: Proposals due February 28, 1990: Acceptance notification ********** I.A.11. Fr: Re: The Third International Conference on Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Machine Translation of Natural Languages, June 11-13, 1990 C A L L F O R P A P E R S The Third International Conference on Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Machine Translation of Natural Languages Linguistics Research Center The University of Texas at Austin 11-13 June 1990 Submit Papers to: Winfield S. Bennett Chair, Program Committee LRC P.O. Box 7247 Austin, Texas 78713-7247 USA e-mail: Bennett@IV1.CC.UTEXAS.EDU telephone: 512-471-4166 As the title of the conference indicates, the emphasis is on theoretical and methodological issues, rather than on descriptions of particular systems. This does not mean that descriptions of systems will not be considered, particularly if the systems are new, unique and/or innovative. Topics related to natural language processing in machine translation will also be considered. We would like single copies of papers to be submitted in their full form by 1 January 1990 (an extension of the previous deadline). You may submit the paper in any way convenient, as long as we do not have to reformat the paper. Papers should be roughly 20 minutes in length. All but invited papers will be refereed by two members of the program committee. You will be notified of our decision by 1 April 1990. ********** I.A.12. Fr: frakes@software.org (Bill Frakes) Re: BACM/SIGIR International Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval, September 5-7, 1990 ND ce fBTRAVEL STIPEND ANNOUNCEMENTfP sp ce 2 fBACM/SIGIR International Conference on Research and Development in Information RetrievalfP sp ce fBBrussels, Belgium September 5-7, 1990 sp 2 LP This annual conference is the leading conference on research and development in information retrieval, convering both classical and modern facets, and featuring both theoretical and implementation issues. Key areas include artificial intelligence and knowledge-based systems; natural language processing and user interfaces; information retrieval theory, models, and evaluation; hypertext and multimedia, office information systems, software re-use, and case-based retrieval; and implementation, file organization, parallel processing, text search hardware, and storage devices. LP Authors in the Americas and Asia should send four copies of their papers by January 31, 1990 to Professor Gerard Salton, Department of Computer Science, 4130 Upson Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-7501, USA (607) 255-7316 (255-4428 for fax), gs@cs.cornelll.edu. Those in Europe, Africa, and Australia should send their papers to Professor Leo Egghe, Limburgs Universitair Centrum, Universitaire Campus, B-3610 Diepenbeek, BELGIUM, (32) 11/22.99.62 (22.32.84 for fax). Those interested in organizing panels or tutorials should contact Professor Jean-Luc Vidick, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Avenue F.D Roosevelt 50, C.P. 142, 1050 Brussels, BELGIUM. LP For American citiizens and U.S. residents, there are some travel stipends available from the National Science Foundation to help defer the cost of travel to the conference. Anyone interested should contact Professor Donald H. Kraft, Department of Computer Science, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803-4020, USA (504) 388-1495, kraft@csvax.csc.lsu.edu. Please do so before May 15, 1990. *************************************************************** IV. PROJECTS IV.C.3. Fr: Susanne M Humphrey Re: new batch of dissertation abstracts AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG88-23212. AU NEHMER, ROBERT ALAN. IN University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Ph.D. 1988, 169 pages. TI ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS AS ALGEBRAS AND FIRST ORDER AXIOMATIC MODELS. SO DAI V49(09), SecA, pp2717. DE Business Administration, Accounting. Information Science. Mathematics. AB The dissertation addresses accounting information systems in two interrelated forms: as algebraic systems and as systems of first order formulas. After a survey of the relevant literature and the introduction of some initial terminology, the double-entry accounting system of a firm is defined in a vector algebra system. This is accomplished by first defining transactions as vectors operating within a space of vectors. The generation of reports is then operationalized by specifying homomorphisms which can be applied to the vectors in a balance space to combine sets of account balances in a general way. These homomorphisms are then shown to possess the properties of a lattice for any particular double-entry accounting system. After defining the algebraic structure and some concepts of first order logics and finite state grammars, the dissertation proceeds to present an axiomitization for the algebraic structure. This is carried out by concentrating on the semantic component of the algebraic system rather than on the syntactic intricacies of the first order language. The algebraic system is first converted into a rational system which allows both vectors of varying degree and individual integers to be treated as objects in the semantical system which is defined from the relational system. The semantical system derived from the relational system is defined to have all of the qualities of the algebraic structure. An interpretation function is defined as a mapping from the symbols of a first order language to the strings of the semantical system. This is done in such a way as to preserve the truth value of the first order language and to ensure the consistency and completeness of the system. In fact, this establishes a model of the first order language and, consequently, effectively axiomitizes the first order system. Having obtained a model of the system, the dissertation concludes by demonstrating a technique for the comparison of accounting information systems using model theory. This technique leads to a rejection of the statistical procedure commonly used in comparisons of information systems and to an interesting parallelism with organizational communication theory. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADGD--83282. AU PULLINGER, D. J. IN Loughborough University of Technology (United Kingdom) Ph.D. 1987, 461 pages. TI THE FEASIBILITY OF ELECTRONIC JOURNALS: SOME STUDIES IN HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION. SO DAI V49(09), SecB, pp3861. DE Computer Science. Mass Communications. AB Available from UMI in association with The British Library. Requires signed TDF. Computer-based tools for communication are a recent technological development. They promise to provide new routes by which to communicate with others and to transform some communications that have hitherto been dependent on media such as paper. One example is the possibility of supporting scholarly communication by the use of electronic systems, which also promises a method by which the information explosion might be handled. The research is an examination of whether or not the support of scholarly communication in this way is feasible. To investigate communication systems requires a large scale study over a long period. Accordingly the research rests on a study programme on 'electronic journals', BLEND, which ran from 1980 to 1984, funded by the British Library Research and Development Department. The feasibility of electronic journals is investigated by exploring the usability, utility, likeability and cost-effectiveness of the communications system. An analysis of the frequency and distribution of the use of the computer-based communications system showed that many things seemed to get in the way of accessing it. Several techniques were used to examine this: transaction recording, interviews, telephone surveys, questionnaires and analysis of requests for help. Once the system was accessed, a comparison of users' aims with actual use shows that different forms of the journal should be explored in the future. Two reasons for the access rate and type of use made of the system was the degree to which researchers were able to accommodate the use of a new communications system into existing patterns of work and the level of usability of the system. One area of usability that is explored in detail is the way that text can be read easily on a screen. The cost-effectiveness of the system is examined by projecting from actual costs and patterns of use. The final chapters bring together the studies in a 'Barrier' framework for understanding the use of a communications system and look forward to the future of electronic journals. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG88-25793. AU KAWANO, TAKUJI. IN The University of Utah Ph.D. 1988, 85 pages. TI JOURNALS IN SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY: RELATIONSHIP WITH RELATED JOURNALS AND EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL QUALITY INDICES. SO DAI V49(09), SecA, pp2589. DE Education, Psychology. Information Science. AB This study explored journal publications (Journal of School Psychology, Psychology In the Schools, and School Psychology Review) in school psychology and used the data for analyses during the 1981-1985 period to determine characteristics of journals and editorial board influence on publications. Citations among journals were used to identify the journal network of school psychology. The underlying dimensions of network citations were identified by multidimensional scaling procedures. Statistical analyses employed in these journals were coded, and the power analyses for t, r, X$\sp2$ and F tests were conducted in order to quantify an internal index of quality measures of study--statistical conclusion validity. In reference to the journals included for this study, the following conclusions appear justified: (a) The traditional psychometric role of school psychologists is still the primary area of publication in school psychology journals; however, the order of emphasis in the published articles is changing. (b) The editorial board members, though few compared with the total number of contributors, have a greater influence on the publication of articles that they authored or coauthored. (c) Being an editorial board member of a school psychology journal has a direct effect on the later publication of his or her articles in the same journal of which they are editorial members. Publishing articles in the school psychology journals has effects on the later editorial board appointment to the same journal. (d) Twenty-three journals were included in the school psychology network. (e) The underlying dimensions of citation frequencies in the school psychology journal network are "educational versus noneducational services" and "direct versus indirect impacts to the client." The citation relationship in the school psychology journal network changed during 1978-1985. (f) Average statistical power of analyses used in the school psychology journal was low when researchers were interested in finding small amd medium effects (.21 and.62, respectively). Most researchers who used analyses with a low statistical power, however, neglected to warn readers when they failed to reject the null hypothesis. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG88-25394. AU GAITONDE, SUNIL SHARADCHANDRA. IN Iowa State University Ph.D. 1988, 125 pages. TI PERFORMANCE INVESTIGATION OF A DOCUMENT RETRIEVAL SYSTEM ON A VOICE-DATA INTEGRATED TOKEN RING LOCAL AREA NETWORK. SO DAI V49(09), SecB, pp3917. DE Engineering, Electronics and Electrical. AB Lately, the interest in integration of voice and data on local computer networks has been on the rise. Subsequently, much research has been devoted to exploring various techniques that are implementable using the existing standards. This research has focused on the design issues in implementing a document retrieval system on a token ring network. The presence of voice and data traffic on the network complicates the protocol design further. The performance requirements of these traffic types are different. Voice creates stream traffic on a network, where as data traffic is bursty. Voice packets need to be delivered within a limited time interval, whereas the data emphasizes on error-free delivery. The necessity and the technological feasibility with off-the-shelf components has prompted this study. A possible solution is discussed in this dissertation. During the course of this research, due to the time consuming nature of simulation experiments, a need for efficient simulation techniques was felt. Thus, as a byproduct of the initial goal of protocol design, an approximate version of the regenerative simulation was developed and is discussed here in detail. Lastly, modeling difficulties encountered in forming an analytical model are listed and a performance analysis of the subsystems of interest is given. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG88-24752. AU KAMEL, MAGDI NESSIM. IN University of Pennsylvania Ph.D. 1988, 168 pages. TI REDUNDANCY: AN APPROACH TO THE EFFICIENT IMPLEMENTATION OF SEMANTIC INTEGRITY ASSERTIONS AND VIEWS. SO DAI V49(09), SecA, pp2432. DE Information Science. AB Frequently executed queries are an important concept of database management systems. They include alerters, triggers, semantic integrity assertions and views. Unfortunately, executing a frequently executed query usually requires evaluating a complex expression that requires accessing several database relations, thus causing severe efficiency problems. In this thesis, we propose a procedure to efficiently implement frequently executed queries in the context of evaluating semantic integrity assertions and views. The method is based on storing redundant data that represent an intermediate stage of evaluating the query. These sets are used to efficiently construct the results of the query, yet they are easy to maintain. The method is a two-step technique. The first step identifies the candidate redundant data using heuristics from query processing research. The second step selects the redundant data based on the users query and update pattern, the profiles of the database relations, the query optimizer of the database management system, and the characteristics of the physical data storage devices used. We also develop an analytical model to compare our approach, called semi-materialization, with other approaches in the context of view processing and to identify conditions when our approach is most attractive. Other approaches include query modification, under which the view is not materialized at all, and full materialization, under which the view is kept materialized at all times. Our model indicates that the results are most sensitive to the frequency of updates (P), the selectivity of the view predicate ($f\sb{v}$), the selectivity of the query predicate ($f\sb{q}$), the number of tuples per update (l), and the size of the relations (N). For select-project-join expressions, and except for high values for P, both full and semi-materialization perform better than query modification. Higher values of P, $f\sb{v}$ or l or lower values of $f\sb{q}$ or N favor semi-materialization over full materialization. For general view definitions, as would be found with complex triggers, alerters and integrity assertions, semi-materialization is superior to both full materialization and query modification for a wide range of parameter settings. Finally, the results of the analytical model are verified through an implementation using the database management system INGRES. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG88-25746. AU LATHROP, ANN. IN University of Oregon Ph.D. 1988, 249 pages. TI ONLINE INFORMATION RETRIEVAL AS A RESEARCH TOOL IN SECONDARY SCHOOL LIBRARIES. SO DAI V49(09), SecA, pp2432. DE Information Science. Library Science. Education Technology. AB The rapid expansion of electronic online information databases makes it appropriate to investigate the use of this new research tool in secondary school libraries. Interviews with leaders in the field and a literature review provided a rationale for the 100-item survey completed in May, 1987, by 73 librarians in 19 states. Eight research questions addressed instructional objectives, student and staff training and applications, database selection, funding, and equipment. Instructional goals for the online information retrieval program were categorized as being at an awareness of level, a skills level, or a research tool level. Critical thinking skills, location and use of materials cited, and curriculum integration received more emphasis at the research tool level. Librarians provided most student instruction, generally four hours or less for 20% or fewer of all students. Teachers received some training at 27 of the 73 schools, but only 16 librarians reported more than 10% faculty involvement. Most librarians conducted online searches while students observed or actively participated. Students, librarians, and teachers perceived the program as being somewhat more effective and successful at the 29 schools where some students conducted independent searches. Content appropriate to the curriculum was the most important database selection criterion. Magazine Index was the most used of 91 databases listed and DIALOG was the primary database vendor. Lack of teacher interest and cooperation was the major difficulty reported in achieving instructional goals. Other difficulties were inadequate library staff time, equipment, and funding. Few schools had written policies and record keeping was minimal. A recommendation was made that librarians, teachers, and administrators cooperatively develop a formal written policy with specific instructional goals and evaluation criteria. Fifty-eight libraries considered the online information retrieval program to be "very useful" or "useful to certain groups of students." Most librarians were enthusiastic and 46 planned to expand the program. Recommendations for further research focused on investigating equal access to online information databases, the impact of CD-ROM technology, and the establishment of criteria to evaluate online information retrieval programs in school libraries. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG13-34329. AU FORD, VICTORIA. IN University of Nevada, Reno M.A. 1988, 135 pages. TI THE INFORMATION NETWORK: LINKING LIBRARIES, JOURNALISTS AND JOURNALISM SCHOOLS. SO MAI V27(01) pp5. DE Journalism. Information Science. AB Freedom of the press in America carries the responsibility for providing the information free citizens need for self-government. Yet, the American media has responded to criticism of its news quality by conducting readership surveys--studying what the public wants rather than how to improve reporters' skills. The purpose of this study was to explore one research method used by journalists. A questionnaire was designed to determine whether Nevada newspaper journalists use libraries for research. The hypothesis was that reporters with the shortest deadlines would use the library the least. The results were the opposite. Nevada print media journalists with the shortest deadlines use the library the most. This study concludes that a combination of time and distance--or convenience--determines whether or not journalists will use libraries for research. The results were used to design a public relations program which would create a first-of-its-kind information network among a university library, a journalism school and a newspaper. AN This item is not available from University Microfilms International ADG05-64115. AU ALLEN, BRYCE LAVERNE. IN The University of Western Ontario (Canada) Ph.D. 1988. TI BIBLIOGRAPHIC AND TEXT-LINGUISTIC SCHEMATA IN THE USER-INTERMEDIARY INTERACTION. SO DAI V49(09), SecA, pp2435. DE Library Science. AB Information systems require input from their users in order to perform information retrieval. In many systems, that input is provided by interaction between users and intermediaries. The way users understand and express their information needs may be affected by the cognitive structures (schemata) by which they have organized their knowledge of the search topic, or by the schemata introduced in the questions which intermediaries ask. The bibliographic and text-linguistic schemata studied in this research are related to two ways of thinking about textual materials. The bibliographic schema leads to an emphasis on elements of bibliographic description: authors, titles, and subject keywords. The text-linguistic schema leads to an emphasis on the structural components of texts: in this case the Purpose, Methodology, Findings and Discussion found in scientific report articles. The first experiment introduced these two schemata at the point of knowledge acquisition, and in the user-intermediary interaction. When presented through intermediary questions, the bibliographic schema led to short responses with small numbers of subject keywords, while the text-linguistic schema led to long responses with large numbers of subject keywords. Open questions, which presented no specific schema, produced responses which were longer than responses to bibliographic questions but shorter than responses to text-linguistic questions. There was no evidence that the schema introduced at the time of knowledge acquisition had an effect on statements of information need. The second experiment introduced the text-linguistic schema through questions posed on supplementary online search forms in a working information retrieval environment. Responses replicated the findings from the first experiment in terms of overall length of responses. In the case of one searcher, searches based on the information supplied in response to text-linguistic questions used significantly more words in the search expression, and achieved lower precision. Questions posed by intermediaries introduce cognitive stuctures which affect the details contained in statements of information need presented by users of information systems. A schema based on text-linguistic categories can be useful in eliciting more details from users, but these additional details do not necessarily result in better information retrieval. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG13-33478. AU HILL, HELEN KATHERINE. IN Texas Woman's University M.A. 1987, 103 pages. TI METHODS OF ANALYSIS OF INFORMATION NEEDS. SO MAI V27(01) pp6. DE Library Science. Information Science. AB Librarians hold diverse opinions about the appropriate methods to use in the analysis of information needs. This thesis defines nine types of methods used: "ought-to-need" statements, potential need statements, demand studies, goal-oriented analyses, demographic studies, user studies, lifestyle investigations, required output studies, and effectiveness studies. "Ought-to-need" statements, demand studies, and goal-oriented analyses are analyzed in detail to answer the following questions: What is the justification for its use? What applications does it have? What are its strengths and weaknesses? When is it appropriately used? Finally, this paper provides a comparison of the appropriate application of these methods. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADGDX-83250. AU IBRAHIM, FARID MOHAMMED SELIM. IN Loughborough University of Technology (United Kingdom) Ph.D. 1988, 439 pages. TI A SYNTACTICALLY-BASED PREPROCESSOR FOR A LIMITED EXPERIMENTAL ARABIC DOCUMENT RETRIEVAL SYSTEM. SO DAI V49(09), SecA, pp2435. DE Library Science. Language, Linguistics. Information Science. AB Available from UMI in association with The British Library. The research reported in this thesis is about the description and discussion of an experimental document retrieval system for Arabic texts, using linguistic methods of analysis. Specifically, Arabic presents difficulties for the efficient retrieval of information because it is an agglutinative language, thus rendering the stop list method (as commonly used for English texts) near to useless. The system has two stages: the creation of the retrieval lexicon and the search program. The latter is done using a limited on-line searching which allows for partial matching. The former has four stages. Texts in the form of abstracts are processed by morphological analysis, syntactic analysis, term extraction and term manipulation modules. Each stage produces a new representation of the source text. The morphological analyser attempts to recognise any prefixes and/or suffixes attached to the words in the corpus being processed. It also assigns grammatical labels specifying the part of speech using a contextual analysis of individual words (assuming that the inflectional features of a word are indicative of its syntactic role). An augmented transition network grammar and parser have been built for this purpose. The same parser has been developed and used in the second stage which is syntactic analysis. It takes as its input the representation of the text created by the morphological analysis, and uses a separate grammar file defined as a recursive transition network. The aim of syntactic analysis is the definition of the relations of the different constituents in the individual sentences being processed. The formation added by the morphological and syntactic analysers is used in the term extraction module. This module uses a traversal algorithm to negotiate the structure built by syntax, utilising a set of rules, kept on a file, specifying the type of constructs needing to be selected. The manipulative module generates new entries for each term selected by rotating its elements. The system has been implemented using the Hull V-mode Pascal compiler available on the L.U.T. Prime System. It has been tested using 40 abstracts selected from a conference proceedings in the field of computer applications. (Abstract shortened by UMI.). ********** IV.D.1. Fr: The Moderators Re: New and revised tech notes I have put the new set of tech notes in the tn directory here at sumex-aim. The new or revised notes are the following: tn034.hqx tn068.hqx tn086.hqx tn108.hqx tn120.hqx tn129.hqx tn184.hqx tn200.hqx tn202.hqx tn205.hqx tn207.hqx tn208.hqx tn211.hqx tn217.hqx tn218.hqx tn219.hqx tn220.hqx tn221.hqx Enjoy. Bill Lipa Info-Mac ********** IV.D.2. Fr: F Gibb - Information Science Re: Journal Dear Prof. Fox, Sorry for the delay in replying to your letter of 16/1/89. We are currently in the process of setting up E-mail facilities. The following two journals may be of interests to you: HYPERMEDIA Editor: Patricia Baird, Dept. Information Science, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. Hypermedia is a new international journal designed to provide a focus for research and a source of information on the practical and theoretical developments in hypermedia, hypertext and related technologies. These highly innovative systems allow the integration of images, sound, text and data to form powerful tools for information retrieval. Developers can extend the hypertext programming languages to control also external devices such as video-disk players, online information services, CD-ROM drives, CD-audio, etc., thereby creating systems which link and integrate multi-media with mass storage, and which provide users with a more diverse and richly textured information environment. As such, they will be a central feature of future information services. The journal Hypermedia will cover the following key themes: the conceptual basis of hypertext systems; cognitive aspects; design strategies; knowledge representation; link dynamics; authoring; navigation and browsing; testing and evaluation; user interfaces; tools for hypermedia; hypertext and expert systems; applications in education and training, information management, publishing, business, commerce, the professions and public administration. Subscription Information: Hypermedia will be published three times a year, in Spring, Summer and Winter. The first issue will appear in Spring, 1989. Subscription rate for volume 1, 1989: #45.00/US$85.00(post free). An inspection copy is available on request. Orders should be sent to: Taylor Graham Publishing, 500 Chesham House, 150 Regent Street, London, W1R 5FA, United Kingdom. EXPERT SYSTEMS for INFORMATION MANAGEMENT Editor: Forbes Gibb, Dept. Information Science, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. The aim of Expert Systems for Information Management - the first journal exclusively concerned with this new approach to information management - is to provide a forum for the exchange of information relating to the theory and application of expert system technologies to information processing and provision in the fields of information science, business, the social sciences and the arts and humanities. The Editorial Board is drawn from researchers in both academe and commerce, and from across a wide range of disciplines. Expert Systems for Information Management is intended to cover the application of expert systems in areas such as: intelligent front ends; text analysis and summary systems; referral systems; expertise directories; credit sanctioning; auditing; patent surveillance; resource allocation; stock control; natural language interfaces; records management; information retrieval; office automation; portfolio management; business intelligence; legal and regulatory advisory systems; network management. Subscription Information: Expert Systems for Information Management is published three times a year, the first issue appeared in Spring 1988. Subscription price for one volume is #40.00/US$75.00. A sample copy is available on request. Orders should be sent to: Taylor Graham Publishing. ********* IV.D.3. Fr: unido!infbs!hofmann@uunet.UU.NET (Martin Hofmann) Re: New hypertext journal Some Remarks on a New Journal Called HYPERMEDIA by Martin Hofmann Institut fuer Betriebsysteme TU Braunschweig Bueltenweg 74-75 D-3300 Braunschweig Fed. Rep. Germany Tel.: [++49] (0)531 -- 391 3249 UUCP: mcvax!unido!infbs!hofmann BITNET: hofmann@dbsinf6.BITNET Just in front of me lies the first edition of a new scientific journal on hypertext and related topics. As many of the regularly appearing journals, it consists of longer articles (three inside the actual edition), and reviews. It is edited by Patricia Baird, Univ. of Strathclyde (Scotland), and will appear three times a year. The journal is published by Taylor Graham Publishing, 500 Chesham House, 150 Regent Street, London W1R 5FA, UK. It will cost 85$ a year. The first volume had 91 A5-pages. The editorial board includes some "big names" of the hypertext society, as Nicole Yankelovich, Robert Akcsyn, Jakob Nielsen, Ted Nelson, and Randy Trigg. Most of the other persons of the editorial board come from the UK, especially from Scottish Universities. So this journal seems to connect a local community having a heavy hypertext interest with some already well known experts; not a bad starting point for a journal to be successful. In its first volume, besides an introduction by the editor, you will get a "hyperwelcome" by Ted Nelson, who coined the term Hypertext. In his remarks, he critisizes the incompatibility of the hypertext worlds created by actual research and development. Also, he warns you about a world not controlled by mankind but by machines; this is leading him to a sharp remark on AI. Nelson is a kind of guru inside the hypertext community, and as many gurus, he has to suffer being called a charlatan by some people. After his welcome words, you will find a honest scientific journal for an area, which is developing rather rapidly for the last 18 months. To begin with the end of the journal, there are four reviews. Jaquetta Megarry reviews Sueann Ambron's and Kristina Hooper's (eds.) "Interactive Multimedia", a compilation of various articles of an Apple invitation conference in 1986, published in 1988. David Riddle reviews Ed Barrett's (ed.) "Text, ConText, and HyperText". Also, this book contains various articles related to hypermedia topics. Mark Percival writes about a guiding book on HyperCard, "Hands-on HyperCard" by Mimi Jones and Dave Myers. The last review is about a science fiction book related to a hypermedia game world, William Gibson's "Neuromancer". While the last review perhaps seems a little bit unusual for a scientific journal, on the better part it shows the open-mindness of the actual hypertext community. So I would not complain. On the worse part, you can guess, whether there was a lack on reviews or not. To speak about lacks, I missed scheduled dates for conferences on hypertext- related topics. Maybe there are not that many, maybe the journal is too new and unknown to get a notice for an already scheduled conference; but I think, it should be a necessary part of later editions. After the reviews, the journal closes with a commented bibliography on hypertext by Jakob Nielsen. There are not so many citations as in the bibliography of N.Yankelovich (IRIS-project), but rather excellent comments. Also, it contains an overview of other places, where hypertext literature has been published (journals, conferences, workshops). After writing about the beginning and the end of the new edition, I have to tell you something about the meat in between. First thing I noticed (after being enjoyed about the styled cover): all three authors of the articles are females (my girlfriend noticed this immediately, too). Also in the editorial board, there are more women than average in science and technics. Surely it is sad, that you notice such a thing as "not average or normal" even nowadays; certainly, if it was not by chance, it has been a quite good idea of the editors. While the first article's issues concern philosophical and basic questions, the second one is about a tool, using hypertext as a base for constructing this tool. The third article describes an application of hypertext, and evaluates the usability of this application. The first article is written by Virginia Doland and titled "Hypermedia as an interpretive act". The article points out, that creating a hypertext always is a way to interpret some issues. Neutrality is impossible. Technical or organizational decisions influence meaning. She shows the dangers of subjectivity in the main areas of future hypertext applications: education and research. Besides its content, the article shows, that hypertext is not only a topic for computer scientists; we read an human scientist's view. To me, the article seemed really concise. The second article describes "Structuring knowledge bases for designers of learning materials" and has been written by E.B.Duncan. Designers of learning materials should have the choice, which medium to use (e.g. video, computer etc.). Also, they could use various media as sources for their information. Duncan describes a tool, which allows representation of the implicit structures of expert knowledge. The tool is based on the Xerox' NoteCards system. Nodes (Cards) may be created to represent various concepts, links represent relationships between the concepts. Some standard link types are offered to the expert to express some common concepts. This is necessary, because the final designer of the learning materials usually is another person than the expert. Also some standard card types are used. The third article, "Evaluating the usability of the Glasgow Online hypertext" by Lynda Hardman, describes an application of Apple's HyperCard. A tourist information system was built using HyperCard and a black&white MacIntosh. The usability of the system (respective its disadvantages) was tested in artificially created situations; evaluation was by interview. So the observations were not carried out to gather statistically significant results, but they gave hints on the usefulness of some structures, especially some kind of links. Every designer of a hypertext should read this article; if he/she follows the rules of Hardman (and perhaps the rhetorical rules of Landow [IRIS-project]), it should improve the design of the web. Some final remarks: To me, it was astonishing to find really exact directions to authors somewhere in this journal, while one author of the first edition (Duncan) does not satisfy these directions. I found the article of V.Doland very interesting and worth to think about. I did not quite get the point, why E.Duncan's article was chosen for a first edition (anyway, she is also from Scotland). Perhaps the article was just too short; if it had concentrated more on the hypertext application and less on the methods of knowledge elicitation, it would have fit more to the topics of the journal. The article of L.Hardman was the most interesting one to me, for it described an user interface of a typical application, and gave hints for styling hypertexts. I found the reviews instructive, and as I already have written, the bibliography by J.Nielsen excellent. All in all, I like to see more of that stuff. Martin Hofmann, hofmann@dbsinf6.BITNET, ..mcvax!unido!infbs!hofmann *************************************************************** Continued in Volume VII Number 3, Issue 8 *************************************************************** IRLIST Digest is distributed from the University of California, Division of Library Automation, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, CA. 94612-3550. 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