Information Retrieval List Digest 156 (March 30, 1993) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/irld/irld-156 IRLIST Digest ISSN 1064-6965 March 30, 1993 Volume X, Number 12 Issue 156 ********************************************************** I. NOTICES A. Meeting Announcements/Calls for Papers 1. CIKM-93 2. 5th UNB AI Symposium: Are We Moving Ahead? II. QUERIES B. Requests for Information 1. Cost Distribution in Online Retrieval 2. Lisa Collection III. JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS 1. West Publishing Co. 2. Apple Computer, Inc. IV. PROJECT WORK C. Abstracts 1. IR-Related Dissertation Abstracts ********************************************************** I. NOTICES I.A.1. Fr: Tim.Finin@cs.umbc.edu (Timothy Finin) Re: CFP: 2nd Int'l. Conf. on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM-93) ** CIKM-93 Call for Papers -- April 1, 1993 deadline ** CIKM-93, the Second International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management will be held November 1-5, 1993 at the Double Tree Hotel in Washington D.C., USA. CIKM-93 is sponsored by ACM through SIGART and SIGIR (pending) and ISCA and held in cooperation with AAAI and the Univ. of Maryland. Like the successful CIKM-92, it will provide an international forum for presentation and discussion of research on information and knowledge management, as well as recent advances on data and knowledge bases. Authors are invited to submit papers, proposals for tutorials and exhibits concerned with theory or practice or both. Papers should be sent to the Program Chair, Dr. Bharat Bhargava, by April 1, 1993. ** Send email to CIKM-INFO@CS.UMBC.EDU to receive an automatic reply ** ** with a full copy of the Call for Papers. ** ********** I.A.6. Fr: POCHEC%unb.ca@UNBMVS1.csd.unb.ca Re: 5th UNB AI Symposium: Are We Moving Ahead? Final Call for Participation The 5th UNB AI Symposium * ARE WE MOVING AHEAD? * August 11-14, 1993 Sheraton Inn, Fredericton New Brunswick, Canada We invite researchers from the various areas of Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science and Pattern Recognition, including Vision, Learning, Knowledge Representation and Foundations, to submit articles which assess or review the progress made so far in their respective areas, as well as the relevance of that progress to the whole enterprise of AI. Other papers which do not address the theme are also invited. FEATURE: Four 70 minute invited talks and five panel discussions are devoted to the chosen topic: "Are we moving ahead: Lessons from Computer Vision." The speakers include (in alphabetical order) * Lev Goldfarb * Stephen Grossberg * Robert Haralick * Tomaso Poggio. Such a concentrated analysis of the area will be undertaken for the first time. We feel that the "Lessons from Computer Vision" are of relevance to the entire AI community. INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS NOW: Fill out the form below and email it. NOW (MARCH 30): Four copies of an extended abstract (maximum of 4 pages including references) should be sent to the conference chair. MAY 15, 1993: Notification of acceptance will be mailed. JULY 1, 1993: Camera-ready copy of paper is due. Conference Chair: Lev Goldfarb Faculty of Computer Science University of New Brunswick P. O. Box 4400 Fredericton, New Brunswick Canada E3B 5A3 Phone: (506) 453-4566 FAX: (506) 453-3566 Email: goldfarb@unb.ca IMMEDIATE REPLY FORM (please email to goldfarb@unb.ca) I would like to submit a paper. Title: I would like to organize a session. Title: Name: Department: University/Company: Address: Prov/State: Country: Telephone: Email: Fax: ********************************************************** II. QUERIES II.B.2. Fr: Fernando Garcia-Maura Re: cost distribution in online retrieval I would like to learn about communications software for PCs that allows to monitor online costs, i.e., to be able to use just one password for searching for multiple customers and distribute the online cost accordingly. Has any of you had some experience with this kind of product? Please reply to fgarciam@esrin.bitnet and I'll summarize for the list. Fernando Garcia-Maura European Space Agency Frascati (Rome), Italy ********** II.B.3. Fr: Mounia Lalmas Re: Lisa Collection I am building an IR system to evaluate my model. I intend to use the Lisa collection because it is constituted of small documents (abstract I think). I would like to know if you have used this test collection. If so, could you let me know your results/conclusions, so that I can compare them to mine (when I will get them). Thanks a lot for your help, Mounia Lalmas ********** ********************************************************** III. JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS III.1. From: Howard Turtle Re: West Publishing: Research Staff West Publishing, a leading publisher and provider of information retrieval services to the legal community seeks qualified applicants to expand its research staff. Applicants should have a Ph. D. in Computer Science or a closely related field or have a Masters and several years of relevant experience. West's primary research interests include information retrieval, natural language processing, representation of uncertainty in information systems, integration of database and text retrieval systems, data compression, and performance evaluation. West offers excellent growth opportunities, a competitive salary, and comprehensive benefits. Send resume to: Cliff Juhlke, Computer Services Recruiting Coordinator West Publishing Company, D2-66B 610 Opperman Drive P.O. Box 64526 St. Paul, MN 55164-0526 Equal Opportunity Employer. ********** III.2 Fr: Dan Rose Re: Jobs at Apple The Information Technology project in Apple's Advanced Technology Group is now hiring for one permanent position and two summer internships. Note: E-mail submissions are STRONGLY preferred. ASCII files only, please. (More time unbinhexing, latexing, etc. means less time for us to read your resume!) Apple Computer has a corporate commitment to the principle of diversity. In that spirit, we welcome applications from all individuals. Women, minorities, veterans and disabled individuals are encouraged to apply. PERMANENT POSITION: ENGINEER/SCIENTIST Job description: Join a team conducting research on new approaches to finding, sharing, organizing, and manipulating information for content-aware systems. Emphasis on implementation of experimental information and communication systems. Requires: MS in Computer Science or BS with equivalent experience with strong programming skills. Experience in information retrieval, hypertext, interface design, or related field. Preferred: Knowledge of Macintosh Toolbox, dynamic languages (LISP, Smalltalk, etc.), GUI programming. Familiarity with common text-indexing methods. E-mail resumes to infotech-recruit@apple.com, or send to InfoTech Recruiting c/o Nancy Massung Apple Computer, Inc. MS 301-4A One Infinite Loop Cupertino, CA 95014 SUMMER POSITIONS: ENGINEER/SCIENTIST Intern (summer) #1 Job description: Work with senior researchers on the application of numerical methods to information retrieval (IR) systems. Assist on the design, implementation, user testing and performance evaluation of such systems. Requires: Graduate or upper division undergraduate student in computer science, cognitive science, information retrieval or other relevant program. Macintosh programming experience, the candidate should be able to write an application program. MPW C. Basic knowledge on numerical linear algebra. Preferred: Background on numerical methods and/or statistics. Smalltalk programming, familiarity with common text-indexing techniques. Some exposure to human-computer interaction issues. Knowledge on the following topics would be ideal: the vector model in IR, singular value decomposition and factor analysis. ENGINEER/SCIENTIST Intern (summer) #2 Job Description: Work with senior researchers to experiment with the use of neural network and other learning methods for information retrieval and organization. Requires: Graduate or upper division undergraduate student with experience in neural networks. Lisp programming with CLOS or other object system. Interest in information retrieval, hypertext, corpus linguistics, or related field. Preferred: Macintosh programming experience. Some exposure to human-computer interaction issues. Use of mapping techniques such as vector quantization or multidimensional scaling. Familiarity with common text-indexing methods. E-mail resumes to infotech-intern-recruit@apple.com, or send to InfoTech Internships c/o Nancy Massung Apple Computer, Inc. MS 301-4A One Infinite Loop Cupertino, CA 95014 Please indicate the position in which you are interested. ********************************************************** IV. PROJECT WORK IV.C.1. Fr: Susanne M. Humphrey Re: Selected 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 ADG92-21702. AU ROTTMAN, ROBERT JERRY. TI SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES REQUIRED TO EVALUATE DOCUMENT IMAGE PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY. IN United States International University D.B.A. 1992, 185 pages. SO DAI V53(03), SecA, pp882. DE Business Administration, Management. Computer Science. AB The problem. Document image processing is a method of converting paper documents to electronic signals which can be routed, stored and managed under computer control. The purpose of this study was to define the activities which should be undertaken by an organization to evaluate the effectiveness of its use of document image processing technology. Method. A Delphi study using researcher-developed questionnaires was administered to users and vendors of the technology. Ninety-nine first-round participants were asked to evaluate the importance, timing, and their organizations' success in accomplishing the 21 activities developed from literature review and to add any additional activities. Thirty-eight respondents participated, adding nine activities. Twenty-eight respondents to the second round evaluated the added activities and reconsidered their importance ranking in light of the overall panel's mean response. No additional activities were added. Results. A model of 21 activities within the seven phases of the system development methodology was developed. An eighth, variable phase was added to accommodate the nine identified activities occurring at varied project phases depending upon the vendor and/or organization involved. The most important items were understanding the technology, securing management backing, understanding the organization's needs and opportunities, understanding the impact on the employees, and, planning for conversion of existing records. The highest levels of success were in developing the project team, securing management backing, in producing user requirements, in understanding the technology and in defining objectives and goals. Significant problem areas were identified in identifying and planning for the impact on employees, in developing training programs, in defining the workflow specifications, and in integrating the system into the organization's existing software. Respondents with installed systems considered developing the project team less important than those who had only studied the technology. Vendors considered documentation more important and hardware integration less important than users. Vendors were uniformly more positive than users when viewing success in accomplishing the activities. AN This item is not available from University Microfilms International ADGC2-42097. AU EMERSON, LESLIE CHRISTOPHER. TI A STUDY OF INDEXING STRUCTURES FOR DATA IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING. IN Queen's University of Belfast (Northern Ireland) Ph.D. 1990, 332 pages. SO DAI V53(03), SECC, PP554. DE Computer Science. RC THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST, SCIENCE LIBRARY, CHLORINE GARDENS, BELFAST BT9 5AG, NORTHERN IRELAND. AB Data in science and engineering, or technical data are imprecise in nature because they are derived from physical experiments and engineering tests. We have shown that an appropriate way of specifying such data is by using a data range. The searches specified for these data are also imprecise in nature because the exact search requirements of the scientist or engineer will not always be met. When this occurs the data which 'best' fit the search requirements should be given. We have therefore studied indexing structures suitable for indexing range data and answering imprecise searches. We developed a new indexing structure, the Interval Index and a number of variations on the original design, the Revised Interval Indexes, suitable for indexing technical data. We compared data retrieval in these indexes with data retrieval in the B+-tree Index, particularly for answering range and proximity searches. For most searches the Revised Interval Indexes are only slightly less efficient than the B+-tree Index. And, for large range searches which occur often in multi-dimensional searching, the Revised Indexes were found to be more efficient in many cases. Because the B+-tree Index is inappropriate for indexing range data, the Revised Interval Index can be used to efficiently index technical data of all types. Indexing structures suitable for answering multi-dimensional search queries, for data in science and engineering were also discussed. The inverted index approach, based on the Revised Interval Index, and the Grid Index were compared. For the majority of searches specified for science and engineering data, the inverted index approach was found to be more efficient. Only when a high proportion of the indexed attributes were specified in a range search was the grid index more efficient. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADGMM-61518. AU MCCOLLAM, MARY. TI A GRAPHICAL INTERFACE TO A STRUCTURED TEXT ARCHIVE. IN Queen's University at Kingston (Canada) M.Sc. 1990, 218 pages. SO MAI V30(03) pp790. DE Computer Science. Information Science. IS ISBN: 0-315-61518-4. AB Modern information retrieval systems are being developed that incorporate more extensive models of text than the traditional model in which a document is viewed as simply a string of words. One such approach is to base a model of the structure of text on the SGML standard for document description. Query languages can then be developed with the added capability to formulate queries about the structure, as well as the content, of text. But such query languages are likely to be inaccessible to casual users, due to their complexity. User interfaces that offer an alternative to query languages are needed. The user interface described in this thesis provides a graphical method for formulating queries, creating and modifying documents and collections, and browsing, including following hypertext links, within a structured text archive. ********************************************************** 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 calur@uccmvsa.ucop.edu or calur@uccmvsa.bitnet Nancy Gusack ncgur@uccmvsa.bitnet or ncgur@uccmvsa.ucop.edu Mary Engle meeur@uccmvsa.bitnet The IRLIST Archives is now set up for anonymous FTP, as well as via the LISTSERV. 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