Addressing the problem of protecting confidential information and data stored in computer databases from access by unauthorized parties, this paper details coding schemes which present such astronomical work factors to potential code breakers that security breaches are hopeless in any practical sense. Two procedures which can be used to encode for…

This paper is concerned with providing automatically generated online explanations to the user of a user interface or "tool" about what the interface can and cannot do, and what parameters or options are available or required with a given command. The COUSIN interface system, developed at Carnegie-Mellon, supplies a cooperative…

Through joint planning with a number of school districts and the Region X Title I Technical Assistance Center, and with the help of a Title I Refinement grant, Alaska has developed a system of data storage and retrieval using microcomputers that assists small school districts in the evaluation and reporting of their Title I programs. Although this…

Modeled on public databases such as Lockheed and SDC, the information system described in this report was utilized in the creation of in-house databases in the Mobay Chemical Corporation's special library in Pittsburgh. Using IBM's Storage and Information Retrieval System (STAIRS), Mobay created two databases: one to hold product information, the…

The University of Pittsburgh has developed software that stresses the teaching of systems rather than databases and replicates the language, formats, and search capabilities of the DIALOG, ORBIT, and BRS systems. Using a DEC 11/780 computer and samples of more than 60 databases, the University has successfully emulated the parent systems. A…

FRED (a Front End for Databases) was conceived to alleviate data access difficulties posed by the heterogeneous nature of online databases. A hardware/software layer interposed between users and databases, it consists of three subsystems: user-interface, database-interface, and knowledge base. Architectural alternatives for this database machine…

These papers describe efforts toward the systematic improvement of a software environment called SOLO (Eisenstadt, 1978), which has been used with cognitive psychology students at the Open University in Great Britain and is geared towards the manipulation of assertional databases. The first paper, by Eisenstadt, Laubsch, and Kahney, provides an…

In examining microcomputer uses in education, consideration must be given to hardware, software, and most importantly, the people who will use them. The educational software market is being affected by hardware manufacturers, educational publishers, independent software houses, user groups, and classroom teachers. Each of these groups has clearly…

Student data banks for ongoing research and evaluation have been implemented by a number of professional schools. Institutions selecting software designs for the establishment of such systems are often faced with making their choice before all the possible uses of the system are determined. Making software design decisions involves "rational"…

A novel text analysis and characterization method involves the generation from text samples of sets of variable-length character strings. These sets are intermediate in number between the character set and the total number of words in a data base; their distribution is less disparate than those of either characters or words. The size of the sets…

This paper examines the use of the computer as a mediating device and explores its influence on the social studies curriculum. A variety of software uses are analyzed, including drill and practice, tutorials, computerized databases, and simulations. The possible effects these uses can have are examined in terms of two views of social studies…

Use of existing computer software within the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), offering the mechanism for an automatic management information system, is described. A historical database on students, staff, and costs was developed for eight Australian colleges. The system compiles and tabulates a wide range of reports. (MSE)

The London Stage Information Bank (LSIB) is a machine-readable text of "The London Stage, 1660-1800," an 11-volume publication that contains information on plays, entertainments and afterpieces, casts, box-receipts, and contemporary comment compiled from playbills, newspapers, and theatrical diaries of the period. The LSIB can be…

The Carolina Population Institute off-line system which searches a data base drawn from its library holdings and POPINFORM--an on-line system containing a number of data bases from both university and government organizations--are described. The development of these automated information retrieval systems from a disjoint manual system among a…

Presents abstracts of selected papers on computer topics. These include: computers and mathematics education; microcomputers in school science; model for developing elementary school computer science curriculum; computer-oriented pre/inservice training for science and mathematics teachers; using databases to locate information on software;…