Considers flexible querying of relational databases. Highlights include SQL languages and basic aggregate operators; Sugeno's fuzzy integral; evaluation examples; and how and under what conditions other aggregate functions could be applied to fuzzy sets in a flexible query. (Author/LRW)

Considers how ideas from document clustering can be used to improve retrieval accuracy of ranked lists in interactive systems and how to evaluate system effectiveness. Describes a TREC (Text Retrieval Conference) study that constructed and evaluated systems that present the user with ranked lists and a visualization of inter-document similarities.…

Discussion of knowledge management, information retrieval, information filtering, and information evaluation focuses on knowledge evaluation and proposes some evaluation methods based on L-grammars which are fuzzy grammars. Applies these methods to the evaluation of documents in SGML and to the evaluation of pages in HTML in the World Wide Web.…

Presents a faster method for determining hierarchical relationships in information retrieval by using trie structures instead of a linear storage of a concept code. Highlights include case structures, a knowledge representation for natural-language understanding with semantic constraints; a compression algorithm of tries; and evaluation.…

Presents a multilevel model of the information filtering process that permits document classification. Evaluates a document classification approach based on a supervised learning algorithm, measures the accuracy of the algorithm in a neural network that was trained to classify medical documents on cell biology, and discusses filtering…

Describes use of the Okapi system, an experimental text retrieval system at City University, London, on TREC (Text Retrieval Conference) test collections to investigate probabilistic models and weighting functions; automatic ad hoc experiments; and routing and filtering for query optimization. Discusses interactive system evaluation. (LRW)

Proposes local similarity pattern (LSP) as a new method for computing digital image similarity. Topics include optimizing similarity computation based on genetic algorithm; relevance feedback; and an evaluation of LSP on five databases that showed an increase in retrieval precision over other methods for computing image similarity. (Author/LRW)

Discussion of intelligent information retrieval focuses on the use of Constrained Spreading Activation (CSA) techniques to search on the World Wide Web. Highlights include associative and ostensive information retrieval; hypertext links; query formulation; a prototype system that used CSA to search the Web; and results of an evaluation. (LRW)

Presents a fuzzy evaluation method of SGML documents based on computing with words. Topics include filtering the amount of information available on the Web to assist users in their search processes; document type definitions; linguistic modeling; user-system interaction; and use with XML and other markup languages. (Author/LRW)

Describes an International Development Research Centre project that tested suitable approaches for assessing the benefits derived from information activities in developing countries. Reviews many research questions related to concepts of information and development, impact of information, and the methodological and practical constraints in its…

Discusses efforts at National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to construct an information discovery tool through the fusion of hypertext and information retrieval that works by parsing a contiguous document base into smaller documents and inserting semantic links between them. Also presents a case study that evaluated user reactions.…

Discussion of information retrieval focuses on a general method for the construction of measures of similarity taking into account the rank of presentation of the document, called ordered similarity measures. Presents an experimental evaluation used to quantify the filtering impact of a system and discusses recall and precision. (Author/LRW)

Addresses the measurement of bias in search engines on the Web, defining bias as the balance and representation of items in a collection retrieved from a database for a set of queries. Assesses bias by measuring the deviation from the ideal of the distribution produced by a particular search engine. (Author/LRW)

Discusses imprecision in multimedia data on the Web and proposes a formal framework in which to formulate powerful queries and presentations of the answers. Introduces a fuzzy-based algebra which allows user preferences, in the form of weights, to alter query expression, and presents algorithms for the evaluation of similarity-based queries.…

Discusses similarities between newspapers and hypertext databases; describes VOIR (Visualization of Information Retrieval), a software prototype used as an electronic newspaper workbench; presents results of empirical evaluation; and suggests implications for hypertext and information retrieval. (Author/LRW)