Presents a mathematical theory that can be used to define concentration places of objects within unordered classes. The application to research on the evolution of journals and subject areas is illustrated, and an online method of calculating concentration evolution is described. (1 references) (CLB)

Describes the simulation of a nearest neighbor searching algorithm for document retrieval using a pool of microprocessors. Three techniques are described which allow parallel searching of a binary search tree as well as a PASCAL-based system, PASSIM, which can simulate these techniques. Fifty-six references are provided. (Author/LRW)

Describes the two basic approaches to the calculation of term discrimination values for automatic indexing. The results of an experiment that investigated the differences between algorithms of these two approaches in terms of their impact on the discrimination value model are reported and discussed. (13 references) (Author/CLB)

Discusses various strategies for assessing importance of journals for acquisition; describes a discipline-specific selection algorithm which uses journal citation data to identify journals that contribute to a discipline's research foundation as well as those used for professional practice; and reports on two studies which demonstrated the…

Demonstrates efficiency of preparation of query description using semantic analyser method based on analysis of semantic structure of documents in field of automatic indexing. Results obtained are compared with automatic indexing results performed by traditional methods and results of indexing done by human indexers. Sample terms and codes are…

Describes and discusses the findings of an experiment that tested the precision of full-text retrieval enhanced by 29 document term weighting algorithms at the lowest, middle, and highest levels of recall, and compared with the precision of full-text retrieval without algorithms and with paragraph retrieval. (29 references) (Author/CLB)

The Hepatitis Knowledge Base (text of prototype information system) was used for modifying and testing "A Navigator of Natural Language Organized (Textual) Data" (ANNOD), a retrieval system which combines probabilistic, linguistic, and empirical means to rank individual paragraphs of full text for similarity to natural language queries…

This project examines anaphora (the linguistic device of abbreviated subsequent reference to a concept) in information retrieval (IR) systems in order to develop procedures to recognize anaphors in text and distinguish between anaphoric and non-anaphoric uses of a given term, estimate the number of anaphors appearing in bibliographic records, and…

Considers classifications produced by application of single linkage, complete linkage, group average, and word clustering methods to Keen and Cranfield document test collections, and studies structure of hierarchies produced, extent to which methods distort input similarity matrices during classification generation, and retrieval effectiveness…

Results from the 1979 Minnesota Computer Literacy Assessment show that eighth- and eleventh-grade females perform better than males in some specific areas of programing, i.e., those that involve problem analysis and algorithmic application where the problems are expressed verbally rather than mathematically. (Author/LRW)

Investigates techniques for automatic classification of book material focusing on: computer-based surrogation of monographic material, book surrogate clustering on basis of content association, evaluation of resultant classifications. Test collection (250 books) is described with surrogation by means of back-of-the-book index, table of contents,…

Zipfian laws for frequency distributions of word pairs and longer phrases are derived from text sample analysis. From crossing of Zipfian curves, it is deduced that number of multi-word phrases that occur frequently in text is surprisingly small, of same order of magnitude as number of individual word-types. (8 references) (EJS)

Proposes approach to integrating Boolean and statistical systems where Boolean queries are interpreted as a means of specifying term dependencies in relevant set of documents. Highlights include series of retrieval experiments designed to test retrieval strategy based on term dependence model and relation of results to other work. (18 references)…

Describes the indexing concept of entry terms, and evaluates existing terms in the Medical Subject Headings by comparing them to the results of an automatic indexer. The results of experimental testing of a strategy for creating entry terms using the algorithms of the automatic indexer are presented. (31 references) (CLB)

Evaluates and compares two recently proposed automatic methods for relevance feedback of Boolean queries (Dillon method, which uses probabilistic approach as basis, and disjunctive normal form method). Conclusions are drawn concerning the use of effective feedback methods in a Boolean query environment. Nineteen references are included. (EJS)