Describes a scalable, parallel, relational database-drive information retrieval engine. To support portability across a wide range of execution environments, all algorithms adhere to the SQL-92 standard. By incorporating relevance feedback algorithms, accuracy is enhanced over prior database-driven information retrieval efforts. Presents…

Database Tomography (DT) is a textual database-analysis system consisting of algorithms for extracting multiword phrase frequencies and proximities from a large textual database, to augment interpretative capabilities of the expert human analyst. Describes use of the DT process, supplemented by literature bibliometric analyses, to derive technical…

Describes the creation and development of a biomedical information system that includes a machine-readable data base containing clinical and research data and a publication entitled the Index-Handbook of Ototoxic Agents. (Author)

Introduces a conceptual integration approach to heterogeneous databases or information systems that exploits the similarity in metalevel information and performs metadata mining on database objects to discover a set of concepts that serve as a domain abstraction and provide a conceptual layer above existing legacy systems. Presents results of…

A semantic differential scale, designed to assess users' attitudes toward batch mode retrieval of the ERIC data base, grouped ten concepts and matched them with 16 adjective pairs. Although response was somewhat low, concepts and adjective pairs were clustered. (Author/KP)

Describes the utility and applications of information retrieval thesauri and the development of the thesaurus for the DISCLOSURE data base. (PF)

Briefly surveys the numerous applications of fuzzy set theory on data representation and information retrieval. The importance of fuzzy set theory with respect to information systems is illustrated with a bibliography of 86 papers that describe data systems that are somehow "fuzzy." (Author/EM)

The main purpose of this paper is to seek classes of design implications in data-base oriented languages. Its scope is not limited to library automation, but extends to the problem of scientific and business data-bases. (14 references) (Authors)

An "answer-passage" is a passage which is either answer-providing or "answer indicative." New text searching techniques for the retrieval of answer-passages are discussed. Appendices listing thesauri, glossaries and dictionaries, syntactic joints, and connector words are included. (31 references) (Author/RS)

Describes a bottom-up procedure for discovering multivalued dependencies in observed data without knowing a priori the relationships among the attributes. The proposed algorithm is an application of technique designed for learning conditional independencies in probabilistic reasoning; a prototype system for automated database schema design has…

A statistical model for characterizing the growth patterns of data base utilization and for estimating future utilization levels of demand has been developed for information retrieval organizations. Illustrations of the model applied to a typical information retrieval organization are given and discussed. (5 references) (Author)

The formation of a single, correlated set of data elements, accomplished by merging sixteen commercial and national bibliographic data bases, and subsequent improvements in current awareness and information retrieval activities are described. The correlation is compatible with most existing and proposed data-element standards. (27 references)…

Northwestern University's Remote Information Query System (RIQS), an information storage and retrieval system characterized by a mixture of data structures for the internal record organization, is discussed. On-line and batch mode search capabilities handle both textual and quantitative information. Other system characteristics, capabilities and…

Presents an overview of nonbibliographic computerized databases in business and economics, science and technology, and the social sciences, and discusses some major issues in the field. (FM)