Information Retrieval List Digest 161 (May 4, 1993) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/irld/irld-161 IRLIST Digest ISSN 1064-6965 May 4, 1993 Volume X, Number 17 Issue 161 ********************************************************** I. NOTICES A. Meeting Announcements/Calls for Papers 1. Conference on Understanding Images 2. ACM/SIGIR '93 II. QUERIES B. Requests for Information 1. Need help about database CES-ISIS III. JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS 1. Continuum Productions Corporation: Software Dev. Mgr. IV. PROJECT WORK C. Abstracts 1. IR-Related Dissertation Abstracts ********************************************************** I. NOTICES I.A.4. Fr: Dr. Francis T. Marchese Re: Final Program for Conference on Understanding Images Final Program Announcement for the Conference on Understanding Images Sponsored by the ACM/NYC SIGGRAPH and Pace University's School of Computer Science and Information Systems Friday & Saturday, May 21-22, 1993 The Pace Downtown Theater, 1 Pace Plaza, New York, NY 10038 In Hypermdia, multimedia and virtual reality systems vast amounts of information confront the observer or participant. Yet, image construction, transmission, reception, decipherment, and ultimate understanding are complex tasks strongly influenced by physiology, education, and culture. The purpose of this conference is to bring together a breadth of dispciplines, including physical, biological, computational sciences, technology, art, psychology, philosophy, and education, to define and discuss the issues essential to image understanding within the computer graphics context. PROGRAM SCHEDULE: 8:00am-8:30am Registration 8:30am-9:00am Continental breakfast 9:00am-9:15am Opening Address - Dr. Susan M. Merritt, dean, School of Computer Science and Information Systems, Pace Univ. 9:15am-10:00am "Designing Technology: A Challenge for All Designers" 10:00am-10:30am "Photographic Interpretation" Tom Hubbard, School of Journalism, Ohio State Univ. 10:30am-11:00am *Break* 11:00am-11:45am "Composing and Understanding Spatial Images" Les M. Sztandera, Electrical Engineering Dept., Univ. of Toledo 11:45am-12:30pm "Some Speculations about Graphic Communication" Barbara Tversky, Psychology Dept., Stanford Univ. 12:30pm-2:00pm *Lunch Buffet* 2:00pm-2:45pm "Automating Procedures for Generating Chinese Characters John Loustau and Jong-Ding Wang, Math and Stat Dept. Hunter College 2:45pm-3:30pm "Implementation of Collaborative Multimedia Technologies in Urban Planning Situations" Michael J. Shiffer, Computer Resource Laboratories, MIT 3:30pm-4:00pm *Break* 4:00pm-4:45pm "Gesture Translation: Using Conventional Musical Instruments in Unconventional Ways" Robert Williams, Computer Science Dept., Pace Univ. 4:45pm-5:30pm "The Ruling Effect of Contours, Surface Markings and Background in Perception of Shape from Shading" Xiaoping Hu and Narenda Ahuja, Beckmann Institute and Dept. of ECE, Univ. of Illinois Saturday, May 22, 1993 8:30am-9:00am Contintental Breakfast 9:00am-9:45am "Visualization for the Document Space" Xia Lin, Law Library, Pace Univ. 9:45am-10:30am "Visual Language" Judson Rosebush, Judson Rosebush Company, NYC 10:30am-11:00am *Break* 11:00am-11:45am "Neuromusic" Matthew Witten and Robert Wyatt, Univ. of Texas and Center for High Performance Computing 11:45am-12:30pm "Masaccio's Bag of Tricks" Marc de Mey, Univ. of Ghent 12:30pm-2:00pm *Lunch Buffet* 2:00pm-2:45pm "Is Alligator Skin More Wrinkled Than Tree Bark? The Role of Texture in Object Description" A. Ravishankar Rao, IBM Watson Research Center and Nalini Bhushan, Philosophy dept., Smith College 2:45pm-3:30pm "Universality and Variability in Human Visual Information Processing" Beverely J. Jones, School of Architecture and Applied Arts, Univ. of Oregon 3:30pm-4:00pm *Break* 4:00pm-4:45pm "Aesthetics and Nature: The Manufacturing of an Authoritative Voice in Scientific Visualization" Mark Bajuk, NCSA, Univ. of Illinois 4:45pm-5:30pm "The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality" 5:30pm-6:15pm "Sonic Issues" Rory Stuart, NYNEX FOR COMPLETE INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Francis T. Marchese Computer Science Dept. NYC/ACM SIGGRAPH Conference 1 Pace Plaza Room T-1704 New York, NY 10038 Voice: 212-346-1803 FAX: 212-346-1933 Email: marchesf@pacevm.bitnet ********** I.A.3. From: emr@lis.pitt.edu (fac edie rasmussen) Subject: SIGIR program ACM SIGIR '93 16th International Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval Pittsburgh, PA, USA June 27-July 1, 1993 In co-operation with ACM: AICA-GLIR (Italy) BCS-IRSG (UK) DD (Denmark) GI (Germany) INRIA (France) PRELIMINARY PROGRAM AND REGISTRATION INFORMATION The annual ACM SIGIR conference is the primary international meeting for the presentation of research and development in information retrieval (IR). The conference will be valuable to those interested in the theory of information retrieval as well as those responsible for system design, testing and evaluation. Topics include association methods, query processing, data and file structures, DBMS integration, structured text, inference networks, interface issues,and natural language processing. This year the conference will be held in Pittsburgh, PA, USA, within easy reach of major east coast centers. The city centre conference site overlooks the three rivers, providing access to parks, restaurants and shopping, cultural amenities and sporting events. Pre-conference tutorials will cover both beginning and advanced topics. The main program consists of contributed papers as well as panel sessions and demonstrations. There will be two post-conference research workshops, User Interfaces for Online Public Access Catalogs, and Information Access and the Networks. Conference highlights include: Sunday * Tutorials * Reception Monday * Keynote address: Bruce Buchanan * Text REtrieval Conference (TREC) overview Tuesday * Panel session: NLP for Information Management * Cruise and Banquet on Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Wednesday * Demonstrations * Reception Thursday * Post-conference research workshops: User Interfaces for Online Public Access Catalogs Information Access and the Networks * Tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater * Tour and Open House at Carnegie Mellon University SIGIR '93 PROGRAM Tutorials Sunday, June 27, 1993 AM: Introduction to Information Retrieval PM: Natural Language Processing for Information Retrieval Technical Sessions MONDAY, June 28, 1993 Session 1: Keynote Address, From Data to Information: Where is the Knowledge? Bruce Buchanan, University of Pittsburgh Session 2: Inference Networks Session 3: Donna Harman, Overview of the First Text Retrieval Conference (TREC) Session 4: Full Text Analysis Session 5: Compression & Signature Files TUESDAY, June 29, 1993 Session 6: Association Methods Session 7: Query Expansion Session 8: Linguistic Analysis Session 9: Structured Text Session 10: Panel on Natural Language Processing for Information Management Session 11: Processing for Japanese Text WEDNESDAY, June 30, 1993 Session 12: Interface Issues Session 13: Mathematical Models Session 14: DBMS/IR integration Session 15: Query Processing and Evaluation Demonstrations (concurrent with sessions) Coordinator: Philip J. Smith THURSDAY, July 1, 1993 Post-conference research workshops: User Interfaces for Online Public Access Catalogs Information Access and the Networks FOR FURTHER PROGRAM AND REGISTRATION INFORMATION CONTACT: SIGIR '93 Conference Secretariat School of Library and Information Science University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA tel: (412) 624-9459; fax: (412) 648-7001 email: sigir@lis.pitt.edu II. QUERIES II.B.1. Fr: Silvia Rosendahl Re: Need help about database CDS-ISIS Hello, I'm a student at the University of Saarbruecken and I'll become a translator. I want to write my degree examination about the data base system "CDS-ISIS", which is distributed by UNESCO. I write to you because I need information about the system, in what fields it is used, and whether it is being used as a terminology data base. I need feedback from its users and information about advantages and disadvantages of the system. I hope that you can help me, and I thank you in advance. PLEASE send your responses by E-Mail, because of I cannot browse the News continously. PLEASE use the following address for your responses: Wladimir Minenko Project KIK-TEAMKOM DFKI GmbH ===> German Research Center for Stuhlsatzenhausweg 3 Artificial Intelligence Inc. 6600 Saarbruecken 11 Germany Tel. +49-681-302-5294 Fax. +49-681-302-5297 e-mail: minenko@dfki.uni-sb.de Regards Silvia Rosendahl ********************************************************** III. JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS III.1. Fr: Bob Powell (Continuum) Re: Continuum Productions Corporation: Software Development Manager Continuum Productions Corporation seeks a hands-on software development manager for the Advanced Information Retrieval (AIR) project to manage and lead development of the core IR technology for a major new commercial multimedia information service. AIR is a retrieval subsystem combining the exact semantic retrieval characteristics of a relational database with the best modern linguistic pre-processing and probabilistic co-occurrence IR methods. It is an integration with commercial finesse of the best available commercial and experimental technologies - a practical application of, not a pursuit of new basic technology. This position requires successful software product development management experience, expert proficiency in C or C++ on UNIX, Mac or MS Windows platforms, and experience with database, knowledge representation and information retrieval applications. Continuum Productions Corporation was founded in 1989 as Interactive Home Systems Inc. and is privately owned and funded by William H. Gates III, co-founder of Microsoft. Continuum Productions is developing high-quality visual information products for emerging markets in the converging "continuum" of computers, communications and entertainment. Continuum's products will be used at home, work, school, and at public institutions. Please respond with resume and cover letter to bobp@continuum.com or mail to Robert Powell, Director of Research, Continuum Productions Corp., 15395 SE 30 Pl. #300, Bellevue, WA 98007. Email or hardcopy only, please. Continuum Productions is an equal-opportunity employer. ********************************************************** 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 ADG92-20884. AU CHEUNG, WAIMAN. TI THE MODEL-ASSISTED GLOBAL QUERY SYSTEM. IN Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Ph.D. 1991, 255 pages. SO DAI V53(03), SecB, pp1586. DE Engineering, System Science. Computer Science. AB Today's enterprises typically employ multiple information systems which are independently developed, locally administered and different in logical or physical designs. Therefore, a fundamental challenge in enterprise information management is the integration of such systems across functional boundaries within an organization. Conventional technologies, such as syntax-based query languages and heterogeneous distributed databases (HDDBMS) are not sufficient to solve this problem. This thesis develops a new approach, the model-assisted global query system, that utilizes enterprise metadata to facilitate global query formulation and processing. A definitive model that characterizes the various classes and roles of knowledge in terms of these metadata is presented. The significance of possessing this knowledge (via a metadatabase) for the notion of "on-line intelligence and assistance" is analyzed. Finally, the utilization of this new approach for major, difficult tasks in global query operations is established. Using this on-line knowledge, new methods are developed and verified using a prototype system to provide non-syntax-based global query capabilities to enterprise users. Specifically, these methods include (1) a model traversal method that allows direct articulation in terms of information models for global query formulation, (2) a knowledge processing method that detects and resolves conflicts using a rule processor, and (3) methods for global query optimization, implicit joins determination, and results integration. The model-assisted approach also resolves some interoperability issues (e.g., differences and incompatibilities among local systems) in information sharing. Traditional HDDBMS approaches handle these differences by imposing an integrated schema on the local systems. This approach, instead, shows that the same objective of resolving differences can be accomplished by utilizing the metadatabase containing data semantics, conversion rules, and other knowledge of the system. This way, not only difficult tasks such as schemata integration at both design time and run-time can be largely avoided, but also a higher degree of flexibility of system evolution can be achieved. The latter is an important goal of open system architecture. In sum, the Model-assisted Global Query System approach contributes to the problem of global queries in heterogeneous, distributed environments. The direct method in its own right also supports a high-level user interface (e.g., decision-support query formulation) without requiring technical details. This approach can be further generalized to facilitate other kinds of interoperability tasks in general software environments including distributed computing concurrent application systems, and other paradigms that involve interpretations and translations between the globally formulated structures and their local implementations. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG92-21566. AU PHILBRICK, JOHANNE MARIE. TI JOURNALS IN GERONTOLOGY: THE ART OF A SCIENCE. IN The University of Connecticut Ph.D. 1991, 238 pages. SO DAI V53(03), SecA, pp917. DE Gerontology. History of Science. Literature, General. AB This study investigates the origin and development of publications and activities in aging from the time of their inception in 1946 through the present. Roughly 6000 articles in the leading gerontological journals were examined, classified in subject categories, and developed into a database, which lists and cross-references subject content, authors, titles, publication dates, journals of origin, and volume and page numbers. The database was programmed so that it can be searched for these components as well as other elements such as collaboration by authors, similar titles, or papers published in a particular month or year. The data assembled in this manner, in conjunction with questionnaires, interviews, and historical records, were used to evaluate the impact of journals on the science of aging and interdependent relationships between the literature and academic contributors, referees, publishers, and libraries. Conclusions review past and present problems and offer suggestions to control untoward growth, achieve parity among disciplines, and advance interdisciplinary research. AN This item is not available from University Microfilms International ADGC2-42111. AU HERRERO CUCO, LUIS-A. TT THE SPANISH CONTRIBUTION TO THE PUBLICATIONS THAT WERE CIRCULATED IN THE INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL COMMUNITY FROM 1913 TO 1925. TI LA APORTACION ESPANOLA A LA LITERATURA CIRCULANTE EN LA COMUNIDAD MEDICA INTERNACIONAL DURANTE EL PERIODO 1913-1925. LG Spanish. IN Universitat de Valencia (Spain) Ph.D. 1990, 1299 pages. SO DAI V53(03), SECC, PP422. ********************************************************** IRLIST Digest is distributed from the University of California, Division of Library Automation, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, CA. 94612-3550. 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