Rick Compton Diary 9/5/95

        Today's class began with an introduction to the quiz process.  Dr. Fox
took us step by step up to the point of actually receiving the quiz.
        Next with ventured into IF (inverted files) with a review of IS & R
Systems.  Then we regressed into clarifications.  We reviewed what must
actually be turned in to Dr. Fox, were encouraged to join study teams, and told
that Dr. Fox was willing to see us individually to help with any problems.
        Regarding administrative matters, a few pretest forms were passed out,
one last picture was taken, and accounts on vtaix were assigned out.
Thursday's class will be held in the library.  Ms. Gray will meet us in the 2nd
floor classroom.
        Back to IF we discussed IR Models & File Structures, Boolean Set
Processing, Boolean power and problems, Inverted files, Ziff's law, Online
Searching, Boolean Operations, and Extended Boolean Queries & Retrieval
Problems.  Our biggest class discussion centered around the possibility of
making a "perfect" query using Boolean operations.


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Summary of the class in Sept 5,1995 -- Srinivas R. Gaddam

Different file structures for informtion retrieval were discussed like
hashing and lexicographical indices (inverted file type). These inverted
file types can be implemented by B-trees and Tries.
The basic difference between traditional Database Systems and Information
systems was discussed. The difference lies in the structure of the data.
The traditional databases like phone book, dictionaries have a well
defined structure but the documents in an information system do not have any
definite structure and as such are difficult to manage and index. One way
to search such unstructured data is through boolean queries. But these
boolean queries can be cumbersome if a very specific document is to be
searched.
Hashing is also useful in implementing many IR operations. The concept of
synonyms was discussed (i.e., if two elements hash to a same location
then it is a collisions and such elements are said to be synonyms).
Concept oriented Systems involve searching using Disjunctive and Conjunctive
Normal forms.

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Sirirut Vanichayobon 9/5 class
     At the beginning, Dr. Fox talked about vtaix account. Every
students should get it. We started unit IF. Dr. Fox mentioned to
finish netlib exercise, and take the UL_quiz in this week. Next
class -9/7-, he will be out of town, the students will meet at
library with Ms. Gray at 2nd floor class.