Report on the Glasgow IR group (glair4) submission

This year's submission from the Glasgow IR group (glair4) is to the category B automatic ad hoc section. Due to pressures of time and unexpected complications, our intended application of a technique known as generalised imaging [Crestani 95] was not completed in time for the TREC deadline. Therefore, the submission is the output of an IR system running a simplistic retrieval strategy, similar to last year's submission though with some intended improvements. It would appear from comparison with other category B submissions that this strategy is relatively successful. The following sections of this report contain a description of the retrieval strategy used, a analysis of the results, and finally, a discussion of our intentions for TREC 6

The troubles with using a logical model of IR on a large collection of documents

This is a paper of two halves. First, a description of a logical model of IR known as imaging will be presented. Unfortunately due to constraints of time and computing resource this model was not implemented in time for this round of TREC. Therefore this paper's second half describes the more conventional IR model and system used to generate the Glasgow IR result set (glair1)

Luminescence dating of wind-blown sands from the Broo Peninsula, Shetland

This report provides a temporal framework to support University of Stirling geo-archaeological investigations near Huesbreck, Broo Pennisula (Shetland), examining how the early modern population there, adapted to harsh climate conditions in the 18-19th centuries, when enhanced aeolian activity led to an influx of sand to the area, leading to adaption’s in farming practices, and abandonment of several sites. Five sediment samples were submitted to the luminescence laboratories at SUERC for dating. All samples were subjected to laboratory preparation of sand-sized quartz, and purity checked using scanning electron microscopy. Dose rates for the bulk sediment were evaluated using analyses of the uranium, thorium and potassium concentrations obtained by high resolution gamma spectrometry coupled with beta dose rate measurement using thick source beta counting, and in situ field gamma spectroscopy. Equivalent doses were determined by OSL from 32 aliquots of quartz per sample using the quartz single-aliquot-regenerative (SAR) procedure. The material exhibited good OSL sensitivity and produced acceptable SAR internal quality control performance. Radial plotting methods revealed good internal homogeneity in the dose distributions obtained for each sample. The chronology established for the sampled sands on the site spans from the mid 16th century (AD 1540 ± 40; SUTL2441) through to the early 19th century (AD 1810 ± 25), with the dates falling within three clusters - the waning stages of the Little Ice Age, the mid 18th century (AD 1730 ± 25 to 1760 ± 25) and the early 19th century (AD 1810 ± 25). In the wider region, periods of sand movement and deposition in the mid 18th century, and early to late 18th century, are documented in sediment statigraphies sectioned at the Old Scatness Broch, Scatness

The troubles with using a logical model of IR on a large collection of documents

This is a paper of two halves. First, a description of a logical model of IR known as imaging will be presented. Unfortunately due to constraints of time and computing resource this model was not implemented in time for this round of TREC. Therefore this paper’s second half describes the more conventional IR model and system used to generate the Glasgow IR result set (glair1)

Teaching in groups in grade III.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University N.B.:Pages 28, 144 and 145 are missing from original thesis

Cross-lingual document retrieval categorisation and navigation based on distributed services

The widespread use of the Internet across countries has increased the need for access to document collections that are often written in languages different from a user’s native language. In this paper we describe Clarity, a Cross Language Information Retrieval (CLIR) system for English, Finnish, Swedish, Latvian and Lithuanian. Clarity is a fully-fledged retrieval system that supports the user during the whole process of query formulation, text retrieval and document browsing. We address four of the major aspects of Clarity: (i) the user-driven methodology that formed the basis for the iterative design cycle and framework in the project, (ii) the system architecture that was developed to support the interaction and coordination of Clarity’s distributed services, (iii) the data resources and methods for query translation, and (iv) the support for Baltic languages. Clarity is an example of a distributed CLIR system built with minimal translation resources and, to our knowledge, the only such system that currently supports Baltic languages