Information Retrieval List Digest 095 (December 10, 1991) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/irld/irld-095 IRLIST Digest December 10, 1991 Volume VIII, Number 52 Issue 95 ********************************************************** I. NOTICES A. Meeting Announcements/Calls for Papers 1. Hypertext '91 IV. PROJECT WORK C. Abstracts 1. IR-Related Dissertation Abstracts ********************************************************** I. NOTICES I.A.1. Fr: Nicole Yankelovich Re: Hypertext '91 Reminder H Y P E R T E X T '9 1 15 - 18 December 1991 San Antonio, Texas R E G I S T R A T I O N R E M I N D E R Welcome to San Antonio and the third ACM conference on Hypertext! The conference and program committees have been hard at work over the last year and a half to bring you this outstanding conference. The technical program has been expanded to allow more participation and interaction by all attendees and La Fiesta de las Luminarias (Festival of Lights) provides a magical atmosphere along the Paseo del Rio (River walk) in San Antonio. We have arranged the conference schedule to allow ample time for attendees to enjoy this historic city on the banks of the San Antonio River. Hypertext '91 provides a blend of traditional and innovative programs. Papers and Panels will explore recent advances in hypertext technologies. Courses allow leading practitioners to share their knowledge with the hypertext community. Posters provide attendees an opportunity to talk one-on-one with researchers about recent results and on-going work, and Demonstrations are a forum for first-hand experience with new systems. The Hypertext '91 Video program will be a compilation of refereed videos which will be shown continuously throughout the conference. For 1991, this traditional core is augmented by Technical Briefings which will provide in-depth presentations on interesting hypertext systems. WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Hypertext '91 is an international research conference on hypertext. The ACM Hypertext Conference occurs in the United States every second year in alternation with ECHT, the European Conference on Hypertext. Hypertext systems provide computer support for locating, gathering, annotating and organizing information. Hypertext systems are being designed for information collections of diverse material in heterogeneous media, hence the alternate name, hypermedia. Hypertext is by nature multi-disciplinary, involving researchers in many fields, including computer science, cognitive science, rhetoric and education, as well as many application domains. This conference will interest a broad spectrum of professionals in these fields ranging from theoreticians through behavioral researchers to systems researchers and applications developers. The conference will offer technical events in a variety of formats as well as guest speakers and opportunities for informal special interest groups. HYPERTEXT '91 OVERVIEW Courses: Hypertext '91 courses are intended to enhance the skills and broaden the perspective of their attendees. This year, the conference offers a selection of intensive half-day and full-day courses taught by a range of hypertext experts. To help attendees select instruction that matches their level of interest and expertise, courses are categorized in three levels: Introductory, Intermediate, and Advanced. Papers: The Hypertext Conference is the preeminent international forum for scholarly papers on hypertext, hypermedia, and related technologies. Papers for Hypertext '91 were selected from 117 submissions and represent an intriguing array of reports on recent theoretical, empirical, and system developments in the field. Papers are presented concurrently with Panel sessions and Technical Briefings. Panels: Panels provide an interactive forum for involving both panelists and audience in lively discussions of issues in the subject area of the panel. Panels for Hypertext '91 will not take the traditional symposium form in which the speakers present a short talk on their own research. Rather, Hypertext '91 panels will address fundamental issues, methods, questions, and approaches in all areas of hypertext research and products in a round-table discussion format. Technical Briefings: With Technical Briefings, Hypertext '91 introduces a new forum for presenting details about a concrete design rather than empirical or theoretical results. A Briefing consists of a 30-minute, in-depth presentation of the interesting contributions made by the system, accompanied by live interaction with the system. Technical Briefings will allow designers to communicate valuable insights and experience to other implementors and designers. Posters: Hypertext '91 Poster presentations will enable researchers to present late-breaking results, significant work in progress, or work that is best communicated in conversation. Poster sessions allow conference attendees to exchange ideas one-on-one with authors, and let authors discuss their work in detail with those attendees most deeply interested in the same topic. Demonstrations: The Demonstrations program at Hypertext '91 will provide attendees an opportunity for first-hand and hands-on experience with hypertext systems and databases. Here, conference attendees can interact directly with the developers of systems that embody unique or interesting ideas. Videos: The Hypertext '91 Video program will be a compilation of refereed videos which will be shown continuously throughout the conference. Videos will present demonstrations that would be difficult to show live, illustrate concepts that are hard to describe verbally, or present prototypes or work in progress. In addition to refereed submissions, the Video program will include a compendium of classic hypertext system demonstrations. Plenary Sessions: Hypertext '91 will feature two plenary sessions. The Opening Plenary Sunday evening will feature a keynote address by Patricia Wright. Hypertext '91 will conclude with a Closing Plenary featuring a keynote address by Frank Halasz. Social Events: To assure ample opportunity for informal interchange with your hypertext friends and colleagues, Hypertext '91 offers a schedule of evening relaxation and entertainment along with the extra ingredients that only San Antonio can provide. To begin, a Mexican Fiesta Dinner (complete with strolling mariachis!) will precede Sunday night's Opening Plenary. In addition, evening receptions are scheduled Monday and Tuesday and informal (on your own) "afterglows" occur each night of the conference. Lunches and other dinners throughout Hypertext '91 will provide attendees an opportunity to experience San Antonio's fine restaurants and shops along El Paseo del Rio. GENERAL INFORMATION Dates to Remember: Advance registraton deadline: Received by 6 December Refund deadline: Postmarked by 6 December (Cancellation fee: $50.00) Discounts: MEMBERS: To qualify for member discounts, you must be a current ACM, SIGIR, SIGOIS, SIGCHI, or SIGLINK member. Your membership number must appear on the registration form. STUDENTS: To qualify for student discounts, you must attach either a copy of your current ACM student membership card or a copy of your student identification card to the registration form. On-Site Registration: On-site registration for Hypertext '91 will take place at the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel during the following times: Saturday, 14 December 6:00 pm - 11:00 pm Sunday, 15 December 7:30 am - 11:00 pm Monday, 16 December 7:30 am - 11:00 pm Tuesday, 17 December 7:30 am - 5:00 pm Wednesday, 18 December 7:30 am - 1:00 pm Travel Arrangements: The Travel Company in College Station, Texas, USA, is the travel coordinator for Hypertext '91. The Travel Co. has negotiated special discounted round-trip airfares with Continental Airlines, the official carrier for Hypertext '91. In order to guarantee air arrangements at negotiated rates, contact The Travel Co.'s Hypertext '91 Reservation Department or Continental Airlines' toll-free number directly: The Travel Company: 800-733-4484 or 409-696-9774 Continental Airlines: 800-468-7022 (Refer to: EZ12P58) FOR COMPLETE INFORMATION, SEND EMAIL TO: HT91@BUSH.TAMU.EDU or contact: John J. Leggett, General Chair Hypertext '91 Conference Hypertext Research Lab Department of Computer Science Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843 USA voice: 409 845-0298 fax: 409 847-8578 email: leggett@bush.tamu.edu ********************************************************** IV. PROJECT WORK IV.C.1. Fr: Susanne M. Humphrey Re: IR-Related Dissertation Abstracts The following are citations selected by title and abstract as being related to Information Retrieval (IR), resulting from a computer search, using BRS Information Technologies, of the Dissertation Abstracts Online database produced by University Microfilms International (UMI). Included are UMI order number, title, author, degree, year, institution; number of pages, one or more Dissertation Abstracts International (DAI) subject descriptors chosen by the author, and abstract. Unless otherwise specified, paper or microform copies of dissertations may be ordered from University Microfilms International, Dissertation Copies, Post Office Box 1764, Ann Arbor, MI 48106; telephone for U.S. (except Michigan, Hawaii, Alaska): 1-800-521-3042, for Canada: 1-800-268-6090. Price lists and other ordering and shipping information are in the introduction to the published DAI. An alternate source for copies is sometimes provided. Dissertation titles and abstracts contained here are published with permission of University Microfilms International, publishers of Dissertation Abstracts International (copyright by University Microfilms International), and may not be reproduced without their prior permission. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG91-11746. AU LENG, CHUN-WU ROGER. TI DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF SIGNATURE FILES FOR TEXT RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS. IN The Ohio State University Ph.D. 1990, 144 pages. SO DAI V51(12), SecA, pp3937. DE Information Science. Library Science. Business Administration, Management. Artificial Intelligence. AB Signature files can be used to support information retrieval in library systems, artificial intelligence, and office automation systems. However, signature file techniques require exhaustively searching the signature files themselves. In addition, data may be retrieved by mistake because of the information loss during signature extraction. The aim of this study was to construct an efficient structure of signature file, called partitioned signature file, so that a large number of unqualified signatures were eliminated from searching. Also, an optimal weighting strategy was proposed to hash each term to its corresponding signature with a specific weight to minimize the false drop probability. The partitioned signature file was able to reduce the number of signatures searched by 10% to 80% which highly depended on parameter values. The false drop rate of the new weighting strategy was only 30% to 50% of the uniform weighting strategy. All these new designs can be used together to enhance the performance. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADGDX-91907. AU OJO, SUNDAY OLUSEGUN. TI INFORMATION MANAGEMENT: A UNIFORM CONCEPTUAL MODEL AND ITS USER INTERFACE. IN University of Glasgow (United Kingdom) Ph.D. 1985, 272 pages. SO DAI V51(12), SecA, pp3937. DE Information Science. AB Available from UMI in association with The British Library. In the work reported in this thesis we review some existing approaches to conceptual data modelling. Further, we develop a conceptual modelling framework which is based on the idea of conceptual semantics in linguistics theory. This consists of a Conceptual Schema model, the syntactic embodiment of which is a Conceptual Schema specification language. This approach adopts the principle of Scheme unification which enables the orthogonal treatment of various aspects of information management. This principle was used as a means to achieving the goals of Schema reliability, evolvability, usability and relisability. The modelling framework enables the user to perceive an application environment as consisting of Subjects. Knowledge about Subjects is expressed as Linguistic Predictions. By a semantic analysis (the predication analysis proposed by George Leech) of such Knowledge Predication, the Subjects involved can be shown to be in a form of relationship which can be characterised as either "has-Associate relation" or "has-Qualifier relation". While the former provides the basis for capturing the"structures", the latter provides the basis for capturing the "constraints". Using our modelling concepts of Subject Category abstraction and Subject Instance signification mechanisms, we are able to unify modelling of Structures, Constraints and Operations. The Language has some in-built characteristics which are aimed at ensuring the correctness of user specifications, as this was made a design goal and so influenced the design and construction of user specifications; it not only supports ease of evolution of user application but also ease of extension of its own modelling capability. The application of the linguistic theory of conceptual semantics to conceptual modelling as done in this work has brought into focus an area of linguistics theory from which computing science can benefit, in addition to the Chomoskian theory of formal language hierarchy. In concluding this thesis we put forward some suggestions for future work among which is further investigation of the relevance of linguistic semantics theory to the problem of conceptual modelling in databases. (Abstract shortened by UMI.). ********************************************************** IRLIST Digest is distributed from the University of California, Division of Library Automation, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, CA. 94612-3550. Send subscription requests to: LISTSERV@UCCVMA.BITNET Send submissions to IRLIST to: IR-L@UCCVMA.BITNET Editorial Staff: Clifford Lynch lynch@postgres.berkeley.edu or calur@uccmvsa.bitnet Nancy Gusack ncgur@uccmvsa.bitnet Mary Engle engle@cmsa.berkeley.edu or meeur@uccmvsa.bitnet The IRLIST Archives will be set up for anonymous FTP, and the address will be announced in future issues. To access back issues presently, send the message INDEX IR-L to LISTSERV@UCCVMA.BITNET. 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