73 research outputs found
POLIS: a probabilistic summarisation logic for structured documents
No full textPhDAs the availability of structured documents, formatted in markup languages such as SGML, RDF,
or XML, increases, retrieval systems increasingly focus on the retrieval of document-elements,
rather than entire documents. Additionally, abstraction layers in the form of formalised retrieval
logics have allowed developers to include search facilities into numerous applications, without
the need of having detailed knowledge of retrieval models.
Although automatic document summarisation has been recognised as a useful tool for reducing
the workload of information system users, very few such abstraction layers have been developed
for the task of automatic document summarisation. This thesis describes the development
of an abstraction logic for summarisation, called POLIS, which provides users (such as developers
or knowledge engineers) with a high-level access to summarisation facilities. Furthermore,
POLIS allows users to exploit the hierarchical information provided by structured documents.
The development of POLIS is carried out in a step-by-step way. We start by defining a series
of probabilistic summarisation models, which provide weights to document-elements at a user
selected level. These summarisation models are those accessible through POLIS. The formal
definition of POLIS is performed in three steps. We start by providing a syntax for POLIS,
through which users/knowledge engineers interact with the logic. This is followed by a definition
of the logics semantics. Finally, we provide details of an implementation of POLIS.
The final chapters of this dissertation are concerned with the evaluation of POLIS, which is
conducted in two stages. Firstly, we evaluate the performance of the summarisation models by
applying POLIS to two test collections, the DUC AQUAINT corpus, and the INEX IEEE corpus.
This is followed by application scenarios for POLIS, in which we discuss how POLIS can be used in specific IR tasks
How users assess web pages for information-seeking
No full textIn this paper, we investigate the criteria used by online searchers when assessing the relevance of web pages for information-seeking tasks. Twenty four participants were given three tasks each, and indicated the features of web pages which they employed when deciding about the usefulness of the pages in relation to the tasks. These tasks were presented within the context of a simulated work-task situation. We investigated the relative utility of features identified by participants (web page content,structure and quality), and how the importance of these features is affected by the type of information-seeking task performed and the stage of the search. The results of this study provide a set of criteria used by searchers to decide about the utility of web pages for different types of tasks. Such criteria can have implications for the design of systems that use or recommend web pages
The effectiveness of query based hierarchic clustering of documents for information retrieval
No full textAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DXN055256 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo
INEX 2002 - 2006: Understanding XML Retrieval Evaluation
No full textEvaluating the effectiveness of XML retrieval requires building test collections where the evaluation paradigms are provided according to criteria that take into account structural aspects. The INitiative for the Evaluation of XML retrieval (INEX) was set up in 2002, and aimed to establish an infrastructure and to provide means, in the form of large test collections and appropriate scoring methods, for evaluating the effectiveness of content-oriented XML retrieval. This paper describes the evaluation methodology developed in INEX from 2002 up to 2006. The paper focuses on the ad-hoc retrieval track of INEX
How collaborators make sense of tasks together: A comparative analysis of collaborative sensemaking behavior in collaborative information‐seeking tasks
No full textFactors affecting web page similarity
No full textAbstract. Tools that allow effective information organisation, access and navigation are becoming increasingly important on the Web. Sim-ilarity between web pages is a concept that is central to such tools. In this paper, we examine the effect that content and layout-related as-pects of web pages have on web page similarity. We consider the textual content contained within common HTML tags, the structural layout of pages, and the query terms contained within pages. Our study shows that combinations of factors can yield more promising results than individual factors, and that different aspects of web pages affect similarities between pages in a different manner. We found a number of factors that, when taken into account, can result in effective measures of similarity between web pages. Query information in particular, proved to be important for the effective organisation of web pages.
Advantages of Query Biased Summaries in Information Retrieval
No full text1 This paper presents an investigation into the utility of document summarisation in the context of information retrieval, more specifically in the application of so called query biased (or user directed) summaries: summaries customised to reflect the information need expressed in a query. Employed in the retrieved document list displayed after a retrieval took place, the summaries' utility was evaluated in a task-based environment by measuring users' speed and accuracy in identifying relevant documents. This was compared to the performance achieved when users were presented with the more typical output of an IR system: a static predefined summary composed of the title and first few sentences of retrieved documents. The results from the evaluation indicate that the use of query biased summaries significantly improves both the accuracy and speed of user relevance judgements. 1 Introduction In a typical interaction with an information retrieval (IR) system, the user enters a specific ..
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