Presents four computational interpretations of the Gricean conversational maxims in the generation of referring expressions: (1) full brevity interpretation; (2) greedy heuristic interpretation; (3) local brevity interpretation; and (4) incremental interpretation. Examines problems involved in generating definite noun phrases that are appropriate…

Describes research that investigated a method of automatically generating concept association maps that could be useful to abstractors. The use of word stems as concept surrogates, cooccurrence to define concept links, and a general-purpose graph-drawing algorithm is described; and results of evaluation of two link selection methods are reported.…

Describes a modified frequency-sensitive self-organization (FSO) algorithm for image data compression and the associated VLSI architecture. Topics discussed include vector quantization; VLSI neural processor architecture; detailed circuit implementation; and a neural network vector quantization prototype chip. Examples of images using the FSO…

A recursive equation is proposed for computing higher order derivatives of elementary symmetric functions in the Rasch model. A simulation study indicates a small loss in accuracy for the proposed formula compared to Gustafsson's sum algorithm (1980) for computing higher order derivatives when tests contain 60 items or less. (SLD)

Discussion of information retrieval focuses on an Interaction Information Retrieval model in which documents are interconnected; queries and documents are treated in the same way; and retrieval is the result of the interconnection between query and documents. A theoretical mathematical formulation of this type of retrieval is given. (Contains 31…

Extends Iachan's congruence index (1984) to cover situations when ties occur in three-letter codes (as used in Holland's vocational theory) and when only two top letters are recorded and/or used. Suggests methodologies for breaking ties and for measuring agreement between two-letter codes and includes computer algorithm for computing the index.…

Presents a faster method for determining hierarchical relationships in information retrieval by using trie structures instead of a linear storage of a concept code. Highlights include case structures, a knowledge representation for natural-language understanding with semantic constraints; a compression algorithm of tries; and evaluation.…

Presents a variation of a "greedy" algorithm that can be used in test-assembly problems. The algorithm, the normalized weighted absolute-deviation heuristic, selects items to have a locally optimal fit to a moving set of average criterion values. Demonstrates application of the model. (SLD)

Presents an approach to a Genetic Information Retrieval Agent Filter (GIRAF) that filters and ranks documents retrieved from the Internet according to users' preferences by using a Genetic Algorithm and fuzzy set theory to handle the imprecision of users' preferences and users' evaluation of the retrieved documents. (Author/LRW)

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…

Nonlinear latent variable models are specified that include quadratic forms and interactions of latent regressor variable as special cases. To estimate the parameters, the models are put in a Bayesian framework with conjugate priors for the parameters. The proposed estimation methods are illustrated by two simulation studies. (SLD)

Describes an interactive procedure for multiobjective asymmetric unidimensional seriation problems that uses a dynamic-programming algorithm to generate partially the efficient set of sequences for small to medium-sized problems and a multioperational heuristic to estimate the efficient set for larger problems. Applies the procedure to an…

Joint correspondence analysis is a technique for constructing reduced-dimensional representations of pairwise relationships among categorical variables. An alternating least-squares algorithm for conducting joint correspondence analysis is presented that requires fewer iterations than the algorithm previously proposed by M. J. Greenacre. (SLD)

Discussion of automatic recognition of hand and machine-written cursive text using the Arabic alphabet focuses on an algorithm for word recognition. Describes results of testing words for recognition without segmentation and considers the algorithms' use for words of different fonts and for processing whole sentences. (Author/LRW)

Proposes a new approach for classifying text documents into two disjoint classes. Highlights include a brief overview of document clustering; a data mining approach called the One Clause at a Time (OCAT) algorithm which is based on mathematical logic; vector space model (VSM); and comparing the OCAT to the VSM. (Author/LRW)