2,970 research outputs found
A survey of chemical information systems
A survey of the features, functions, and characteristics of a fairly wide variety of chemical information storage and retrieval systems currently in operation is given. The types of systems (together with an identification of the specific systems) addressed within this survey are as follows: patents and bibliographies (Derwent's Patent System; IFI Comprehensive Database; PULSAR); pharmacology and toxicology (Chemfile; PAGODE; CBF; HEEDA; NAPRALERT; MAACS); the chemical information system (CAS Chemical Registry System; SANSS; MSSS; CSEARCH; GINA; NMRLIT; CRYST; XTAL; PDSM; CAISF; RTECS Search System; AQUATOX; WDROP; OHMTADS; MLAB; Chemlab); spectra (OCETH; ASTM); crystals (CRYSRC); and physical properties (DETHERM). Summary characteristics and current trends in chemical information systems development are also examined
Retrieve: An Engineering Tool for Searching Remote Sensing and Environmental Engineering Databases
The design and development of a semi-automatic information retrieval system which features manual indexing, and an inverted file structure is presented. The system requires manual indexing done by an expert in the subject field to ensure high-precision searching. High-recall is achieved through the implementation of the inverted file. The system provides an interactive environment, a thesaurus for normalization of the indexing language, ranking of retrieved documents, and flexible output specifications. The purpose of this thesis is to present the design and development of in-house search-aid software for small document collections intended for Remote Sensing and Environmental Engineering users
Machine aided indexing from natural language text
The NASA Lexical Dictionary (NLD) Machine Aided Indexing (MAI) system was designed to (1) reuse the indexing of the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC); (2) reuse the indexing of the Department of Energy (DOE); and (3) reduce the time required for original indexing. This was done by automatically generating appropriate NASA thesaurus terms from either the other agency's index terms, or, for original indexing, from document titles and abstracts. The NASA STI Program staff devised two different ways to generate thesaurus terms from text. The first group of programs identified noun phrases by a parsing method that allowed for conjunctions and certain prepositions, on the assumption that indexable concepts are found in such phrases. Results were not always satisfactory, and it was noted that indexable concepts often occurred outside of noun phrases. The first method also proved to be too slow for the ultimate goal of interactive (online) MAI. The second group of programs used the knowledge base (KB), word proximity, and frequency of word and phrase occurrence to identify indexable concepts. Both methods are described and illustrated. Online MAI has been achieved, as well as several spinoff benefits, which are also described
The NASA Astrophysics Data System: Architecture
The powerful discovery capabilities available in the ADS bibliographic
services are possible thanks to the design of a flexible search and retrieval
system based on a relational database model. Bibliographic records are stored
as a corpus of structured documents containing fielded data and metadata, while
discipline-specific knowledge is segregated in a set of files independent of
the bibliographic data itself.
The creation and management of links to both internal and external resources
associated with each bibliography in the database is made possible by
representing them as a set of document properties and their attributes.
To improve global access to the ADS data holdings, a number of mirror sites
have been created by cloning the database contents and software on a variety of
hardware and software platforms.
The procedures used to create and manage the database and its mirrors have
been written as a set of scripts that can be run in either an interactive or
unsupervised fashion.
The ADS can be accessed at http://adswww.harvard.eduComment: 25 pages, 8 figures, 3 table
An Innovative, Multidisciplinary Educational Program in Interactive Information Storage and Retrieval
There exists a large number of large-scale bibliographic Information Storage and Retrieval Systems containing large amounts of valuable data of interest in a wide variety of research applications. These systems are not used to capacity because the end users, i.e., the researchers, have not been trained in the techniques of accessing such systems. This thesis describes the development of a transportable, university-level course in methods of querying on-line interactive Information Storage and Retrieval systems as a solution to this problem. This course was designed to instruct upper division science and engineering students to enable these end users to directly access such systems. The course is designed to be taught by instructors who are not specialists in either computer science or research skills. It is independent of any particular IS and R system or computer hardware. The project is sponsored by NASA and conducted by the University of Southwestern Louisiana and Southern University
Adaptive content mapping for internet navigation
The Internet as the biggest human library ever assembled keeps on growing. Although all kinds of information carriers (e.g. audio/video/hybrid file formats) are available, text based documents dominate. It is estimated that about 80% of all information worldwide stored electronically exists in (or can be converted into) text form. More and more, all kinds of documents are generated by means of a text processing system and are therefore available electronically. Nowadays, many printed journals are also published online and may even discontinue to appear in print form tomorrow. This development has many convincing advantages: the documents are both available faster (cf. prepress services) and cheaper, they can be searched more easily, the physical storage only needs a fraction of the space previously necessary and the medium will not age. For most people, fast and easy access is the most interesting feature of the new age; computer-aided search for specific documents or Web pages becomes the basic tool for information-oriented work. But this tool has problems. The current keyword based search machines available on the Internet are not really appropriate for such a task; either there are (way) too many documents matching the specified keywords are presented or none at all. The problem lies in the fact that it is often very difficult to choose appropriate terms describing the desired topic in the first place. This contribution discusses the current state-of-the-art techniques in content-based searching (along with common visualization/browsing approaches) and proposes a particular adaptive solution for intuitive Internet document navigation, which not only enables the user to provide full texts instead of manually selected keywords (if available), but also allows him/her to explore the whole database
General specifications for the development of a PC-based simulator of the NASA RECON system
The general specifications for the design and implementation of an IBM PC/XT-based simulator of the NASA RECON system, including record designs, file structure designs, command language analysis, program design issues, error recovery considerations, and usage monitoring facilities are discussed. Once implemented, such a simulator will be utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of simulated information system access in addition to actual system usage as part of the total educational programs being developed within the NASA contract
Man-machine interface analysis of the flight design system
The objective of the current effort was to perform a broad analysis of the human factors issues involved in the design of the Flight Design System (FDS). The analysis was intended to include characteristics of the system itself, such as: (1) basic structure and functional capabilities of FDS; (2) user backgrounds, capabilities, and possible modes of use; (3) FDS interactive dialogue, problem solving aids; (4) system data management capabilities; and to include, as well, such system related matters as: (1) flight design team structure; (2) roles of technicians; (3) user training; and (4) methods of evaluating system performance. Wherever possible, specific recommendations are made. In other cases, the issues which seem most important are identified. In some cases, additional analyses or experiments which might provide resolution are suggested
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An investigation to study the feasibility of on-line bibliographic information retrieval system using an APP
This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University.This thesis reports an investigation on the feasibility study of a
searching mechanism using an APP suitable for an on-line bibliographic
retrieval, operation, especially for retrospective searches.
From the study of the searching methods used in the conventional
systems it is seen that elaborate file- and data- structures are
introduced to improve the response time of the system. These
consequently lead to software and hardware redundancies. To mask
these complexities of the system an expensive computer with higher
capabilities and more powerful instruction set is commonly used.
Thus the service of the systen becomes cost-ineffective.
On the other hand the primitive operations of a searching mechanism,
such as, association, domain selection, intersection and unions, are
the intrinsic features of an associative parallel processor. Therefore
it is important to establish the feasibility of an APP as a cost-effective
searching mechanise.
In this thesis a searching mechanism using an 'ON-THE-FLY' searching
technique has been proposed. The parallel search unit uses a Byte-oriented
VRL-APP for efficient character string processing.
At the time of undertaking this work the specification for neither the
retrieval systems nor the BO-VRL APP's were well established; hence a
two-phase investigation was originated. In the Phase I of the work a
bottom up approach was adopted to derive a formal and precise
specification for the BO-VRL-APP. During the Phase II of the work
a top-down approach was opted for the implementation of the searching
mechanism.
An experimental research vehicle has been developed to establish
the feasibility of an APP as a cost-effective searching mechanism.
Although rigorous proof of the feasibility has not been obtained,
the thesis establishes that the APP is well suited for on-line
bibligraphic information retrieval operations where substring searches
including boolean selection and threshold weights are efficiently
supported
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