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IRList Digest Volume 3 Number 25
IRList Digest Tuesday, 11 August 1987 Volume 3 : Issue 25
Today's Topics:
Reply - re: request for information on library automation
Abstracts - Dissertation abstracts relating to inf. retrieval (pt 2 of 4)
News addresses are ARPANET: fox@vtopus.cs.vt.edu BITNET: foxea@vtvax3.bitnet
CSNET: fox@vt UUCPNET: seismo!vtisr1!irlistrq
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Date: Mon, 10 Aug 87 10:12 PDT
From: IIN4CLB@UCLAMVS
Subject: re: request for information on library automation
While IRlist may not have covered much material on
library automation, a lot exists. Start with the indexes
LIBRARY LITERATURE and LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
ABSTRACTS (LISA). Also several recent texts, includinhg
ones by Rice and by Corbin that aren't bad.
I teach a one-quarter grad course on library automation here at
UCLA and my syllabus includes a fairly extensive bibliography
(10-15 pages). I can mail a copy to anyone who is interested in
it, either electronically or by USMAIL. I can be reached at
Dr. Christine Borgman
Grad School of Lib & Information Science
UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90034
213/825-1379
IIN4CLB@UCLAMVS.BITNET
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Date: Thu, 6 Aug 87 16:45:32 EDT
From: Susanne Humphrey <humphrey@mcs.nlm.nih.gov>
Subject: new edition of abstracts for IRList and SIGIR Forum
Selected IR-Related Dissertation Abstracts (continued - part 2 of 4)
AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG87-08218.
AU BASU, AMIT.
IN The University of Rochester Ph.D. 1986, 180 pages.
TI Imprecise reasoning in intelligent decision support systems.
SO DAI v47(12), SecA, pp4439.
DE Business Administration, Management.
AB In this thesis, a formal methodology to support reasoning with
imprecise knowledge in computer based decision support systems is
developed. Many important decision problems are highly
unstructured, and cannot be solved adequately using preset
algorithms. Much of the complexity of such problems lies in the
reasoning needed to determine how to solve individual problem
instances. Existing decision support systems do not provide much
reasoning support, largely due to the difficulty of representing and
manipulating the fragmented and imprecise knowledge that is
generally available. The methodology developed in this dissertation
provides a basis for the design of Intelligent Decision Support
Systems (IDSS) in which heuristic problem solving methods can be
used to support reasoning as well as data retrieval and numerical
computation.
The dissertation consists of three parts. First, a logic based
framework for reasoning is developed. The basic constructs of First
Order Logic (FOL) are supplemented with constructs and mechanisms
for automatic model manipulation, resulting in a powerful framework
for IDSS development. Next, the need to distinguish between two
different sources of imprecision, namely fuzziness and uncertainty
is established, and methods for formally representing and
mechanically manipulating fuzzy and/or uncertain knowledge within
the logic framework are developed. Finally, the strengths of the
imprecise reasoning methodology are demonstrated by implementing a
prototype IDSS to support imprecise reasoning and examining the
prototype's performance on sample problems.
This research shows how IDSS can be developed for unstructured
problems even when the available knowledge is imprecise, and also
demonstrates the versatility of such a system. For instance, the
imprecision measures provide useful bases for comparing alternative
solutions, even solutions that are "close misses"; evaluation of
solutions is also possible for each subproblem. Information about
imprecision can be used not only to interpret solutions, but also to
control the problem solving process itself. Furthermore, the
generation of useful results is often possible even if some of the
available information is highly imprecise, sometimes even if some
information is missing. Such features can be very useful in
supporting unstructured decision making, yet cannot readily be
supported by a system limited to precise reasoning.
AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG87-10552.
AU CATER, STEVEN C.
IN The Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical Col.
Ph.D. 1986, 93 pages.
TI The topological information retrieval system and the topological
paradigm: a unification of the major models of information retrieval.
SO DAI v48(02), SecB, pp493.
DE Computer Science.
AB There are three topics discussed in this work. The first topic
is an investigation of the topological properties of the p-norm
model of Salton, Fox, and Wu. It is shown that certain properties
of the p-norm model that one would expect to hold, given the
topological origin of the model, do not in fact hold. These
properties include the ability to change the query by changing p,
and the ability to adequately separate documents. Since these
properties do hold in the model as actually constructed, it must be
that the properties do not follow from the topological origin of the
model.
The second topic is a search for a usable model with an adequate
theoretical basis. In order to construct such a model, the
topological paradigm is defined. This paradigm establishes a
minimal set of requirements that any system with a topological
foundation should have. A particular example of the paradigm, the
Topological Information Retrieval System (TIRS), is constructed. It
is shown that all of the desired properties of the p-norm model hold
for the TIRS model. A discussion of the various query systems that
may be used with TIRS is given. These query systems include a
natural language interface and a weighted boolean query system, as
well as two specialized interfaces. The weighted boolean query
system has the property that <attribute, weight> pairs, when treated
as units, have all of the properties of the non-weighted boolean
lattice. The run time of the system is estimated, once for an
inverted file implementation, and once for an implementation using
kd-trees. These run times are much better than for traditional
systems.
The third topic is a reexamination of the standard models of
information retrieval, considered as cases of the topological
paradigm. The paradigm is shown to be a unifying model, in that all
of the standard models, i.e., the boolean, vector space, fuzzy set
theoretic, and probabilistic models, as well as a hierarchical
model, are shown to be instances of the paradigm.
An appendix contains a review of relevant topics from topology
and abstract algebra.
AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG87-11310.
AU CHRISTENSEN, MARGARET H.
IN Temple University Ph.D. 1987, 276 pages.
TI Explanation generation from algebraic specification through
hyperresolution and demodulation: automated heuristic assistance.
(Volumes I and II).
SO DAI v48(02), SecB, pp493.
DE Computer Science.
AB AHA delivers semantic help to users of interactive systems. It
possesses the following six capabilities: (1) It can report the
user's current state. (2) It can list all of the commands which are
legal in the user's current state. (3) It can explain the meaning
of a given command. (4) It can explain how the user got to the
current state. (5) It can explain the consequences of the issuance
of hypothetical commands from the current state. (6) It can tell
the user how to get to a goal state, and if requested, explain why
this will do the job. Knowledge about the software is represented
through algebraic specification and question answering is handled by
a resolution-based theorem prover with demodulation for the
treatment of equality. A demonstration version is implemented for a
subset of DEC command language.
AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG87-11440.
AU FRAME, MICHAEL CHARLES.
IN The George Washington University D.Sc. 1987, 183 pages.
TI Automatic translation of query language in heterogeneous database
management systems.
SO DAI v48(02), SecB, pp494.
DE Computer Science.
AB A heterogeneous database management system (HDBMS) is a set of
dissimilar, but cooperating, "local" database management systems
(LDBMSs). The LDBMSs may reside on separate computer systems. The
HDBMS provides uniform access to the data in all of these databases
available to users of all of the computer systems. Users have the
impression of interfacing with a single database.
One of the problems that exists in providing such a capability
is interacting with the various query languages that the LDBMSs
provide. A user should be able to access all data with a single
query language. In addition, it should be possible to add a new
LDBMS to the HDBMS without the necessity of writing a translator to
that LDMSs query language. Both of these problems are solved here.
The design of an HDBMS is presented that includes a table driven
translator based upon attribute grammars. Attribute grammars define
the syntax (form) and the semantics (meaning) of a language. A new
LDBMS may be added simply by defining an attribute grammar for its
query language. The HDBMS includes algorithms for: translating the
common query language to an internal form; decomposing the internal
form based upon the participating LDBMSs; and translating the
decomposed parts each to the appropriate query language.
In addition, the HDBMS contains a database "machine" based upon
relational algebra. This machine provides the capability of a high
degree of parallelism by using a dataflow technique to evaluate
relational algebra expressions.
Relational algebra is the internal form used in the attribute
grammar of the common query language. In addition to its
operational use, it also provides a formalism for defining the
precise meaning of query languages. This is an improvement over the
informal techniques that are now in use.
AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG87-08227.
AU FRISCH, ALAN MARK.
IN The University of Rochester Ph.D. 1986, 127 pages.
TI Knowledge retrieval as specialized inference.
SO DAI v47(12), SecB, pp4957.
DE Computer Science.
AB Artificial Intelligence reasoning systems commonly contain a
large corpus of declarative knowledge, called a knowledge base (KB),
and provide facilities with which the system's components can
retrieve this knowledge. This thesis sets out to study the very
nature of retrieval. Formal specifications that capture certain
informal intuitions about retrieval are developed, studied, and
implemented by retrieval algorithms.
Consistent with the necessity for fast retrieval is the guiding
intuition that a retriever is, at least in simple cases, a pattern
matcher, though in more complex cases it may perform selected
inferences such as property inheritance.
Seemingly at odds with this intuition, this thesis views the
entire process of retrieval as a form of inference and hence the KB
as a representation, not merely a data structure. A retriever makes
a limited attempt to prove that a queried sentence is a logical
consequence of the KB. When constrained by the no-chaining
restriction, inference becomes indistinguishable from
pattern-matching. Imagining the KB divided into quanta, a retriever
that respects this restriction cannot combine two quanta in order to
derive a third.
The techniques of model theory are adapted to build
non-procedural specifications of retrievability relations, which
determine what sentences are retrievable from the KB's.
Model-theoretic specifications are presented for four retrievers,
each extending the capabilities of the previous one. Each is
accompanied by a rigorous investigation into its properties, and a
presentation of an efficient, terminating algorithm that probably
meets the specification.
The first retriever, which operates on a propositional language,
handles only yes/no queries, the second also handles wh-queries, and
the third allows quantifiers in the KB and the query. Each is shown
to be, in some sense, the strongest retriever that meets the
no-chaining restriction.
The third retriever forms an excellent basis for integrating a
specialized set of inferences that chain in a controllable manner.
This is achieved by incorporating taxonomic inference, such as
inheritance, to form the fourth retriever, an idealized version of
the retriever incorporated in the ARGOT natural language dialogue
system. It is characterized by its ability to infer all
consequences of its taxonomic knowledge without otherwise chaining.
AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG87-08663.
AU KAZEMIAN, FEREYDOUN.
IN Kansas State University Ph.D. 1987, 95 pages.
TI A formal specification for a user interface for office automation.
SO DAI v47(12), SecB, pp4959.
DE Computer Science.
AB This work describes a formal method for specifying the user
interface of an Office Automation (OA) system. Since there are no
standard office environments to base the formal specifications on,
some components of an OA system which model the workings of many
offices are considered. A model for the interface to the OA system
is developed. Based upon this model the requirements of a
hypothetical user is described. From these requirements components
of an OA system satisfying them are identified. Formal
specification techniques are described. The algebraic specification
technique is used for specifying the user interface. Completeness
and consistency of the algebraic specification are discussed and the
notion of sufficient completeness is presented. An algorithm for
testing the sufficient completeness of an algebraic specification of
an abstract data type under certain constraints is discussed.
Calculus of Communicating Systems is used as a formal specification
technique for describing user interaction and communication aspects
of the OA system. Finally a framework for the design of a user
interface is considered.
[Note: rest will be spread over next 2 issues - Ed]
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END OF IRList Digest
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