Use of syntactic trace as an access strategy for large files containing arbitrary languages for which thesaurus-based and multiple attribute search techniques are unsuitable. (LS)

Formal proofs are given of the effectiveness under well-defined conditions of the thesaurus method in information retrieval. It is shown, in particular, that when certain semantically related terms are added to the information queries originally submitted by the user population, a superior retrieval system is obtained in the sense that for every…

Examines through a series of mathematical models (theorems, descriptions, and examples), properties and operations on inverted files, which are used in an information retrieval system based on thesaurus with weighted descriptors. (CWM)

Analyzes the use of weights to denote a query representation and/or the indexing of a document as a generalization of a Boolean retrieval system. Criteria are given for the functions used to evaluate the relevance of the records to a specific query and a new evaluation approach is suggested. (CWM)

Presents a new method of document retrieval based on the fundamental operations of fuzzy set theory. Basic notions are introduced. Then the syntax and semantics of the proposed language for document retrieval is given, and an algorithm allocating documents to particular queries is described and its properties are discussed. (Author/CWM)

The transfer of information through space and time in communication systems is often accompanied by significant delays which give rise to meaningful storage problems. Mathematical models have been developed for the study of these kinds of problems which are applicable to the design of manual, library-type, or mechanized information storage and…

A review is given of doubly-chained trees for information retrieval. It is shown that the chaining steps may be of different cost depending upon whether the step is vertical or horizontal. The problem of constructing an optimal retrieval tree is formulated mathematically and a solution procedure given. (5 references) (Author/KE)

False drops occur in a system of random superimposed coding for edge-notched, punched, and feature cards. Formulae for the false dropping fraction are derived, and figures and tables are given for the calculated values in the most popular scheme. (Author/LS)

Proposes a new conceptual basis for visualizing the organization of information, or knowledge, which differentiates between the concept "vectors" for a field of knowledge represented in a multidimensional space, and the state "vectors" for a person based on his understanding of these concepts, and the representational…

A new method for concentrating keywords of a thesaurus, based on a mathematical study of the distribution of characters in a defined natural language. (Author/KP)

Least cost decision rules for transferring documents from primary to secondary storage are developed from a dynamic programing model of an information system. The program is constrained to provide for a minimum acceptable level of user benefits. Knowledge of the physical size of the primary storage area and the fraction of documents returned from…

This report explains the following mathematical techniques which may be used for relating search requests to documents contained in a library: (1) Boolean Algebraic Retrieval, (2) Linear Statistical Retrieval, (3) Statistical Association Techniques for expanding a query and/or for expanding the set of retrieval documents, (4) Vector Space…

Rooted binary trees with weighted nodes are structures encountered in many areas, such as coding theory, searching and sorting, information storage and retrieval. The path length is a meaningful quantity which gives indications about the expected time of a search or the length of a code, for example. In this paper, two sharp bounds for the total…

Describes the differences between English and Chinese information retrieval and the problems with Chinese character entry and encoding. It is argued that regular expression searching facilitates Chinese character entry and retrieval. Mathematical models are developed for controlling noisy characters retrieved by regular expressions containing…

The search for an optimal decision strategy can be treated as a mathematical programming problem with linear objective function to be maximized over the convex set of certain functional space, provided one is willing to accept some ergodicity assumptions of the Markovian environment. (10 references) (Author)