Analyzes the collaborative patterns of the information retrieval research field using co-authored articles retrieved from "Social Science Citation Index" for a period of 11 years, from 1987 to 1997. Results reveal an upward trend of collaborative research with interdisciplinary and intra-disciplinary scholarly communication. (Author/LRW)

Proposes a fuzzy-image database model and a concept of fuzzy space; describes fuzzy-query processing in fuzzy space and fuzzy indexing on complete fuzzy vectors; and uses an example image database, the computer-aided facial-image inference and retrieval system (CAFIIR), for explanation throughout. (Author/LRW)

Discusses thesauri as tools for multilingual information retrieval and cross-cultural communication. Considers the need for multilingual thesauri and the importance of explicit conceptual structures, and introduces a pilot thesaurus, InfoDEFT (Information Deutsch-English-Francais Thesaurus), as a possible model for new online thesauri which are…

Presents a morphological classification of languages from the information retrieval (IR) perspective. Discusses differences in inflection, derivation, and compounding; index of synthesis and index of fusion; cross-language retrieval research; the need for semantic and syntactic typologies; and the effects of morphology and stemming in IR.…

Discussion of research in image indexing and retrieval focuses on a study that analyzed citations and documents relevant to image indexing and retrieval obtained from the SCI (Science Citation Index) and SSCI (Social Science Citation Index). Results confirmed that there exist two distinctive research groups, employing the content-based and…

Describes the goals of the CLEF (Cross-Language Evaluation Forum) series of evaluation campaigns for information retrieval systems operating on European languages. Examines the difficulties of organizing an activity which aims at an objective evaluation of systems running on and over a number of different languages. (Author/LRW)

In addition to the LOM standard and instructional design specifications, as well as domain specific indexing vocabularies, a structured indexing vocabulary for the more elementary learning objects is advisable in order to support retrieval tasks of developers. Furthermore, because semantic indexing is seen as a difficult task, three issues…

ScanGrants (www.scangrants.com) is a free, online listing of grants, scholarships, and other types of funding in the health sciences. It is basically a launch pad for anyone looking for money to fund medical research or community/public health projects, or to finance their education in various healthcare fields. The goal is to enable researchers,…

This article examines how teachers decide which technologies to use in their classrooms and what they expect to gain from adopting technology. Observation, interviews, and document collection were used to collect data as a part of a research project in a Midwestern state. Subjects were 15 to 25 mathematics professionals participating in the…

The restricted time allocated to courses and the immediate need to read literature in English necessitates the teaching of selective reading in many English as a foreign language contexts. This paper reports on one element of an expeditious (quick, effective, efficient and selective) reading course for learners in an English for Academic Purposes…

Gathering and displaying governance documents and photos online can help educate the public, promote transparency, and preserve historical artifacts. Under the leadership of a board chair with lifelong interest in history and respect for the historical record, the Office of the Board of Regents of the University of Texas System has discovered that…

Although the five classic evidence-based medicine steps to make the literature useful in caring for patients sound simple, most clinicians who try this approach do not find it easy. Although the first step--creating an answerable question--is manageable for busy clinicians, tracking down "the best evidence" and critically appraising it for…

This paper focuses on techniques for retrieval used in information sciences and in World Wide Web search engines. The purpose of reference service and information science is to provide useful information in response to a query. The two metrics of recall and precision serve to express information retrieval performance. There are two major…

The growing volume of heterogeneous and distributed information on the World Wide Web has made it increasingly difficult for existing tools to retrieve relevant information. To improve the performance of these tools, this paper suggests how to handle two aspects of the problem. The first aspect concerns a better representation and description of…

A study was conducted of the International Information Service in Physics, Electrotechnology, Computers, and Control (INSPEC) selective dissemination of information (SDI) user profile generation. Five degrees of user involvement in the generation of profiles were investigated ranging from having the user provide only a statement of subject…