The purpose of this communication is to suggest that in the situation where documents are retrieved independently the desired parameters may be estimated more accurately by sampling and averaging techniques over homogeneous subparts of the data base. (4 references) (Author)

Farradane's relational indexing appeared applicable to the scientific area of the properties of metals and gave good results with a greater depth of indexing. (Author/PF)

Reports on the experimental use of MEDLINE at Oakland University in January-April 1974. (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)

A test was carried out to investigate the assumption that there is a significant level of redundancy between documents. The conclusions were that notional overlap exists, but there appear to be very few cases of extreme redundancy, and at the document level, there is little possibility of practical application. (Author)

An investigation was made into the relative performance of the four major Chemical Abstracts Service magnetic tape data-bases. The overall retrieval efficiency of profiles searched against data-bases containing titles only, titles-plus-keywords, and titles-plus-digests, was calculated and these results are presented. (5 references) (Author/NH)

Reports the results of experiments using colon classification for the analysis, representation, and retrieval of primary information from the full text of documents. Recall, precision, and search length measures indicate colon classification did not perform significantly better than Boolean or simple word occurrence systems. Thirteen references…

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)

Compares standard global information retrieval searching with more localized techniques to address the database selection problem that users often have when searching for the most relevant database, based on experiences with the Westlaw Directory. Findings indicate that a browse plus search approach in a hierarchical environment produces the most…

Describes a computerized information retrieval system that uses three agglomerative hierarchic clustering algorithms--single link, complete link, and group average link--and explains their implementations. It is noted that these implementations have been used to cluster a collection of 12,000 documents. (LRW)

Describes a natural language searching strategy for retrieving current material which has bearing on George Orwell's "1984," and identifies four main themes (technology, authoritarianism, press and psychological/linguistic implications of surveillance, political oppression) which have emerged from cross-database searches of the "Big…

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)

Discusses relevance in search engines for the World Wide Web. Highlights include types of searches submitted; database scope; how organizations position their Web sites; link analysis; spelling errors; offering alternatives to queries; and the single-answer approach. (LRW)

A relational document retrieval system is developed that is primarily concerned with hierarchic tree structures and lateral links. The lateral linkages are relationships that cannot be represented within the tree structure representation. A number of annotated examples are given along with a detailed description of the relational data structure…