Information Retrieval List Digest 194 (January 6, 1994) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/irld/irld-194 IRLIST Digest ISSN 1064-6965 January 6, 1994 Volume XI, Number 1 Issue 194 ********************************************************** I. NOTICES A. Meeting Announcements/Calls for Papers 1. ANLP '94 B. Publications 1. HOTT off the Tree C. Miscellaneous 1. Information Server on IR at U of Dortmund, Germany II. QUERIES B. Requests for Information 1. IR Packages? IV. PROJECT WORK C. Abstracts 1. IR-Related Dissertation Abstracts ********************************************************** I. NOTICES I.A.2. Fr: American Society for Information Science Re: ASIS '94 Annual Call for Papers ASIS '94: Call for Participation The Economics of Information Alexandria, VA October 17 - 20, 1994 Economics play an important role in determining the ebb and flow of information. In fact, economics are often the determining factor in making information available, in funding research, in bringing a product to market, in supporting the free flow of information for democracy, in distributing information to developing countries and on and on. Today industry speaks of the "information in a product", governments speak of the need for an informed, educated workforce, the information sector continues to flourish and find new products, many of the industrial sectors complain of the cost of developing new products, CEOs seek better ways to better information for decision support. The current economic climate demands greater efficiency and effectiveness in the use of information and of access to information. The 1994 ASIS Annual Meeting will explore the relationships between information and economics. Topics discussed will include: * The economics of research: how do "information" products/projects receive funding? what are the economic criteria for developing new products? what is the role of information in determining whether an idea is worth pursuing? * The economics of access: what new methods--hardware and/or software--improve the economics of access to increase the cost-effectiveness of the search for information? what tools aid in the evaluation of information? how has the economic recession worldwide effected the equity of distribution of information and what are the potential effects? how has research in information science added to (or detracted from) the economics of the resulting application? * The economics of education: how does access to and distribution of information affect access to and distribution of education? how does the workforce maintain the level of information to maintain performance? what continuing education mechanisms efficiently distribute information to professionals? to skilled workers? * The economics of the information industry: what are the trends in the information industry in this economic climate? What decisions are being made as a result of the economic climate for expansion, product development? * The economics of information: how is information valued? how are people/the workforce valued as a result of access to and use of information? * The economics of regulation: how have the developments in cable regulation affected the direction of the information industry and the alliances? what do the developments in intellectual property law mean for the equitable distribution of information? for the protection of the information industry? how do intellectual property protections affect international trade in the information industry? * The information of economics: what information about economic conditions is needed for decision making? what statistics are relevant to the information industry? what evaluative tools give meaning to the information of economics so it is useful? how do people act or react based on economic information or lack of it. Contributions are requested which may further our understanding of these issues. The technical program will include several types of sessions in which individuals or groups who wish to participate may do so through the presentation of research, applications, or other contributions devoted to the conference theme. Contributed Paper Sessions report the results of completed research or research in progress. These papers should be scholarly in nature and will be refereed. Those accepted will be published in full (1500-3000 words) in the conference _Proceedings_, and accordingly should not have been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. Authors of accepted papers are expected to attend the Annual Meeting and will be given 15-25 minutes to present their work in one of the Contributed Paper sessions. To submit a contributed paper, send its title and a short (250 word) abstract by 12/15/93. Acceptance of topic areas will be made by 1/4/94. Three copies of the complete paper will then be due on 2/15/94. Notification of final acceptance will be made no later than 3/28/94 and camera ready copy for the Proceedings will be due June 1, 1994. SIG Sessions are developed by ASIS Special Interest Groups either individually or in collaboration with other SIGs or outside organizations. Individuals seeking to contribute to a SIG Session or organize an entire session should send their ideas (including a 250 word description of the entire session, the identification of the appropriate SIG or SIGs to sponsor the session, and the names and addresses of proposed speakers along with the title/topic of their presentations) no later than 12/15/93. Notification of acceptance will be sent by 1/30/94. Final statement of the program (including speakers, titles, abstracts, etc.) is due no later than 3/15/94, and camera ready copy of abstracts for the Proceedings are due June 1, 1994. SIG contributors may have their papers printed in full (instead of only the abstract) if they go through the peer review process and follow the schedule described for Contributed Papers. Special Sessions are possible for those topics, events, or speakers which do not easily fit within the standard sessions described above. All questions, submissions, and correspondence regarding Contributed Papers, Panel and Special sessions should be addressed to: Mickie Voges Chicago-Kent College of Law Illinois Institute of Technolgy 565 West Adams Street Chicago, Illinois 60661-3691 (312) 906=5000 FAX: (312) 906-5685 Internet: mvoges@mail.kentlaw.edu ********** I.B.1. Fr: David Scott Lewis Re: FREE E-Newsletter on Adv Computing HOTT -- Hot Off The Tree -- is a FREE monthly electronic newsletter featuring the latest advances in computer, communications, and electronics technologies. Each issue provides article summaries on new & emerging technologies, including VR (virtual reality), neural networks, PDAs (personal digital assistants), GUIs (graphical user interfaces), intelligent agents, ubiquitous computing, genetic & evolutionary programming, wireless networks, smart cards, video phones, set-top boxes, nanotechnology, and massively parallel processing. SUMMARIES are provided from the following sources: Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News, Boston Globe, Financial Times (London), Daily Telegraph (the largest circulation daily in the U.K.) ... Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report ... Business Week, Forbes, Fortune, The Economist (London), Nikkei Weekly (Tokyo), Asian Wall Street Journal (Hong Kong) ... OVER 50 TRADE MAGAZINES, including Computerworld, InfoWorld, Datamation, PC Week, Dr. Dobb's Journal, LAN Times, Communications Week, Electronic Engineering Times, New Media, VAR Business, Midrange Systems, Byte ... OVER 50 RESEARCH JOURNALS, including ALL publications of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies, plus technical journals published by AT&T, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Fujitsu, Sharp, NTT, Siemens, Philips, GEC ... OVER 100 INTERNET mailing lists & USENET discussion groups ... PLUS ... listings of forthcoming & recently published technical books and forthcoming trade shows & technical conferences BONUS: Exclusive interviews with technology pioneers ... the next issue features an interview with Mark Weiser, head of Xerox PARC's Computer Science Lab Send subscription requests to: listserv@ucsd.edu Leave the "Subject" line blank In the body of message input: SUBSCRIBE HOTT-LIST Do not include first or last names following "SUBSCRIBE HOTT-LIST" The next issue of the revived HOTT e-newsletter is scheduled for transmission in late January/early February. David Scott Lewis Editor-in-Chief and Book & Video Review Editor IEEE Engineering Management Review (the world's largest circulation "high tech" management journal) Internet address: d.s.lewis@ieee.org Tel: +1 714 662 7037 USPS mailing address: POB 18438 / IRVINE CA 92713-8438 USA ********** I.C.1. Fr: Prof. Norbert Fuhr Re: Information Server on IR at University of Dortmund, Germany Our group is setting up a server providing miscellaneous information about information retrieval and related subfields from the database area. Currently, the following data is available: - a database on IR and database literature - contents of current IR and DB journals and a database with the TOCs of older issues - conference announcements - links to servers of IR, database and computer societies - lecture notes of an IR course - information about our research group, i.e. staff members, projects and publications. The best way for accessing the server is via World Wide Web. The URL http://ls6-www.informatik.uni-dortmund.de/ addresses our home page, which contains links to all other information. Subsets of the data also can be reached via anonymous ftp: ls6-www.informatik.uni-dortmund.de [129.217.20.172] The literature database also can be accessed directly via WAIS: ls6-www.informatik.uni-dortmund.de:210 Comments and suggestions for further improvement as well as pointers to other servers relevant to the field are welcome. Norbert Fuhr, University of Dortmund, Germany. E-Mail: fuhr@ls6.informatik.uni-dortmund.de ********************************************************** II. QUERIES II.B.1. Fr: Robert Shain Re: Lets get something going here Does anyone have a list of info retrieval packages. I'm familiar with only Verity TOPIC. Does anyone know about access standards. SQL3 exists, but are there plans by the text vendors to use it. Does anyone have a matrix of features of text retrieval packages?? Robert B. Shain EMAIL: RSHAIN @MITRE.ORG The MITRE Corporation Voice: (703)883-5592 Center for Intellignence & Special Programs FAX: (703)883-6991 Mailstop W955 7525 COLSHIRE DRIVE "MY OTHER MACHINE IS A CAR" McLean, VA. 22102 "My other car is a bike" "My other sport is ping pong" ********************************************************** 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 ADG92-29893. AU CHUN, JONGHOON. TI EFFICIENT MANIPULATION OF KNOWLEDGE-BASE SYSTEMS CONTAINING RULES WITH ARBITRARY BODIES. IN Northwestern University Ph.D. 1992, 117 pages. SO DAI V53(06), SecB, pp2977. DE Computer Science. Artificial Intelligence. AB There have been vigorous researches in the field of Expert Systems and Database Systems focused on integrating the two systems. The resulting hybrid of the two systems is an approach to deductive retrieval feasible for databases with large set of specific facts and relatively small set of general facts (IDB rules). Most researchers have investigated rules which have simple form, thus excluding the use of existential quantifiers especially in combination with negative information. The use of negative information and the unrestricted use of quantifiers in a rule, however, clearly enhances the expressive power of Deductive Database Systems. Our major concern is to identify a class of databases by relaxing the restrictions on conventional deductive databases as well as to propose a system capable of processing queries for such extended databases in a deductive paradigm. We consider an important subclass of domain-independent databases, called allowed databases. Allowed databases are allowed to have stratified negative IDB rules if they restrict their own reference domains in such a way that they can be translated in terms of set complements. We show that for every allowed negative rule and query, there always exists an equivalent relational algebra expression without using the division operation. A class of admissible queries is also introduced by generalizing the class of allowed queries. Further we introduce a more relaxed version of allowed databases, called acceptable databases by accepting occurrences of universal quantifiers for variables occurring in positive literals and existential quantifiers for variables occurring in negative literals in the body of an IDB rule. The compilation technique suitable for compiling acceptable IDB rules based on substitution is addressed and we show the correctness. A rule transformation technique is developed for efficient evaluation of negative acceptable rules without having store the attribute domain set permanently. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG92-32714. AU MERZ, URSULA GISELA. TI DIRECT: A QUERY FACILITY FOR MULTIPLE DATABASES. IN University of Colorado at Boulder Ph.D. 1992, 70 pages. SO DAI V53(06), SecB, pp2989. DE Computer Science. AB The objective of this research project is to define a solution for integrating multiple databases. These databases contain structured data, typical for business applications. Important considerations are: to provide flexibility to adjust to changing data retrieval requirements, to accommodate different data models, and to focus on the user's role in defining the solution. DIRECT is a query facility for heterogeneous databases. The databases and their definitions can differ in their data models, names, types and encoded values. Instead of creating a global schema, descriptions of different databases are allowed to coexist. DIRECT assists the user in specifying a multi-database query and in identifying semantically equivalent data elements interactively. A multi-database query not only retrieves data from multiple databases, but also defines alternative schema representations, specifies semantically equivalent data elements and converts data values. DIRECT has been evaluated for its usability and exercised with operational databases that are part of an automated business system. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG92-31254. AU SHIEH, WEN-GONG. TI QUERY CONTAINMENT THEORY AND ITS RELEVANCE TO SECURE QUERY PROCESSING. IN The University of Texas at Arlington Ph.D. 1992, 114 pages. SO DAI V53(06), SecB, pp2992. DE Computer Science. AB This dissertation provides the theoretical basis of a generalized query modification technique for secure query processing in relational databases. The generalized query modification technique developed in this dissertation accepts a user query that is beyond the user's access privileges, and then generates a finite set of legal queries (called the complete containment set) that will provide all and only legal answers for the user query. In particular, this dissertation presents the theory and construction algorithms of complete containment sets for the class of conjunctive queries including inequalities. Unlike heuristic-based work on query modification, this dissertation emphasizes completeness so that all legal answers are provided to users. A formal problem, called the complete containment set problem, is defined and solved for the class of queries containing monotonic relational operators: equality selection, inequality selection, Cartesian product (e.g. joins), and projection. The formal problem is an abstraction for modeling completeness based on query containment. Under this abstraction, a canonical derivation and theory behind it are derived from known results on query containment. The canonical derivation is then transformed into a construction algorithm for finding the complete containment set for the class of equality conjunctive queries. It is shown that the complete containment set for this class is finite and unique. For the class of conjunctive queries including inequalities, a theorem for testing query containment is developed first. The theorem is then used as a basis for extending the above results on the complete containment set to include inequalities. The major contribution of the complete containment set approach for secure query processing developed in this dissertation is the ability to express query modification completely in a formal problem, relate it to known results on query containment, and present algorithms for substantial subclasses. A significant capability of the approach over other heuristic techniques is the ability to test for inference problems based on the canonical derivation. ********************************************************** IRLIST Digest is distributed from the University of California, Division of Library Automation, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, CA. 94612-3550. Send subscription requests to: NCG@UCCMVSA.UCOP.EDU Send submissions to IRLIST to: NCG@UCCMVSA.UCOP.EDU 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. Using anonymous FTP via the host dla.ucop.edu, the files will be found in the directory pub/irl, stored in subdirectories by year (e.g., /pub/irl/1993). Using LISTSERV, send the message INDEX IR-L to LISTSERV@UCCVMA.BITNET. 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