Discussion of electronic news available on the World Wide Web focuses on a methodology of associating news documents using similarity measures and a name-phrase algorithm to create news representations that can be compared and ranked to find related news items. Considers precision over recall and interactivity with the users. (Author/LRW)

Discusses genetic algorithms in information retrieval, especially for relevance feedback, and evaluates the efficacy of a genetic algorithm with various order-based fitness functions for relevance feedback in a test database. Compares results with the Ide dec-hi method, one of the best traditional methods. (Contains 56 references.) (Author/LRW)

Explains the use of genetic algorithms to combine results from multiple query evaluations to improve relevance in information retrieval. Discusses niching techniques, relevance feedback techniques, and evolution heuristics, and compares retrieval results obtained by both genetic multiple query evaluation and classical single query evaluation…

Discussion of information retrieval, query optimization techniques, and relevance feedback focuses on genetic algorithms, which are derived from artificial intelligence techniques. Describes an evaluation of different genetic algorithms using a residual collection method and compares results with the Ide dec-hi method (Salton and Buckley, 1990…

Investigates document ranking methods in thesaurus-based Boolean information retrieval systems and proposes a new thesaurus-based ranking algorithm called the Extended Relevance algorithm. Performance comparisons are made between the Extended Relevance algorithm and previous thesaurus-based ranking algorithms. (Contains 20 references.) (LRW)

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)

Discussion of user queries in information retrieval highlights the experimental evaluation of an adaptive linear model that constructs improved query vectors from user preference judgments on a sample set of documents. The performance of this method is compared with that of standard relevance feedback techniques. (28 references) (LRW)

Describes a new effectiveness measure as an alternative to the traditional evaluation measures of recall and precision in information retrieval systems. The statistical approach--which compares two retrieval algorithms--is explained, the information needs of the user are considered, and an experiment with a test collection of abstracts is…

Discusses the design of multiversion information retrieval systems and provides a theoretical justification for the necessity of creating such systems to perform an optimal search for the user's information needs. Topics discussed include comparing query formulations; feedback algorithms; an experiment with a test collection; and the mechanism of…

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…

Reports on the use of stemming for Slovene language documents and queries in free-text retrieval systems and demonstrates that an appropriate stemming algorithm results in an increase in retrieval effectiveness when compared with nonstemming processing. A comparison is made with stemming of English versions of the same documents and queries. (24…

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…

Describes the PADOK-II project in Germany, which was designed to give information on the effects of linguistic algorithms on retrieval in a full-text database, the German Patent Information System (GPI). Relevance assessments are discussed, statistical evaluations are described, and searches are compared for the full-text section versus the…

Describes preliminary investigation of the use of International Computers Limited's Distributed Array Processor (DAP) for parallel searching of large serial files of documents. DAP hardware and software, test collections, measurement of DAP performance, search algorithms, experimental results, and DAP suitability for interactive searching are…

Discussion of relevancy in information retrieval systems focuses on an analysis of the efficiency of various cluster-based retrieval (CBR) strategies. A method for combining CBR and inverted index search is proposed that is cost effective in terms of time efficiency; and results of experiments are reported. (Contains 32 references.) (LRW)