Matching meaning for cross-language information retrieval

This article describes a framework for cross-language information retrieval that efficiently leverages statistical estimation of translation probabilities. The framework provides a unified perspective into which some earlier work on techniques for cross-language information retrieval based on translation probabilities can be cast. Modeling synonymy and filtering translation probabilities using bidirectional evidence are shown to yield a balance between retrieval effectiveness and query-time (or indexing-time) efficiency that seems well suited large-scale applications. Evaluations with six test collections show consistent improvements over strong baselines.     

Relevance feedback and cross-language information retrieval

This paper presents a study of relevance feedback in a cross-language information retrieval environment. We have performed an experiment in which Portuguese speakers are asked to judge the relevance of English documents; documents hand-translated to Portuguese and documents automatically translated to Portuguese. The goals of the experiment were to answer two questions (i) how well can native Portuguese searchers recognise relevant documents written in English, compared to documents that are hand translated and automatically translated to Portuguese; and (ii) what is the impact of misjudged documents on the performance improvement that can be achieved by relevance feedback. Surprisingly, the results show that machine translation is as effective as hand translation in aiding users to assess relevance in the experiment. In addition, the impact of misjudged documents on the performance of RF is overall just moderate, and varies greatly for different query topics.     

The Dilution/Concentration conditions for cross-language information retrieval models

Experimental results of cross-language information retrieval (CLIR) do not indicate why a model fails or how a model could be improved. One basic research question is thus whether it is possible to provide conditions by which one can evaluate any existing or new CLIR strategy analytically and one can improve the design of CLIR models. Inspired by the heuristics in monolingual IR, we introduce in this paper Dilution/Concentration (D/C) conditions to characterize good CLIR models based on direct intuitions under artificial settings. The conditions, derived from first principles in CLIR, generalize the idea of query structuring approach. Empirical results with state-of-the-art CLIR models show that when a condition is not satisfied, it often indicates non-optimality of the method. In general, we find that the empirical performance of a retrieval formula is tightly related to how well it satisfies the conditions. Lastly, we propose, by following the D/C conditions, several novel CLIR models based on the information-based models, which again shows that the D/C conditions are efficient to feature good CLIR models.     

Advanced learning algorithms for cross-language patent retrieval and classification

We study several machine learning algorithms for cross-language patent retrieval and classification. In comparison with most of other studies involving machine learning for cross-language information retrieval, which basically used learning techniques for monolingual sub-tasks, our learning algorithms exploit the bilingual training documents and learn a semantic representation from them. We study Japanese–English cross-language patent retrieval using Kernel Canonical Correlation Analysis (KCCA), a method of correlating linear relationships between two variables in kernel defined feature spaces. The results are quite encouraging and are significantly better than those obtained by other state of the art methods. We also investigate learning algorithms for cross-language document classification. The learning algorithm are based on KCCA and Support Vector Machines (SVM). In particular, we study two ways of combining the KCCA and SVM and found that one particular combination called SVM_2k achieved better results than other learning algorithms for either bilingual or monolingual test documents.     

Term disambiguation techniques based on target document collection for cross-language information retrieval: An empirical comparison of performance between techniques

Dictionary-based query translation for cross-language information retrieval often yields various translation candidates having different meanings for a source term in the query. This paper examines methods for solving the ambiguity of translations based on only the target document collections. First, we discuss two kinds of disambiguation technique: (1) one is a method using term co-occurrence statistics in the collection, and (2) a technique based on pseudo-relevance feedback. Next, these techniques are empirically compared using the CLEF 2003 test collection for German to Italian bilingual searches, which are executed by using English language as a pivot. The experiments showed that a variation of term co-occurrence based techniques, in which the best sequence algorithm for selecting translations is used with the Cosine coefficient, is dominant, and that the PRF method shows comparable high search performance, although statistical tests did not sufficiently support these conclusions. Furthermore, we repeat the same experiments for the case of French to Italian (pivot) and English to Italian (non-pivot) searches on the same CLEF 2003 test collection in order to verity our findings. Again, similar results were observed except that the Dice coefficient outperforms slightly the Cosine coefficient in the case of disambiguation based on term co-occurrence for English to Italian searches.     

Parsimonious translation models for information retrieval

In the KL divergence framework, the extended language modeling approach has a critical problem of estimating a query model, which is the probabilistic model that encodes the user’s information need. For query expansion in initial retrieval, the translation model had been proposed to involve term co-occurrence statistics. However, the translation model was difficult to apply, because the term co-occurrence statistics must be constructed in the offline time. Especially in a large collection, constructing such a large matrix of term co-occurrences statistics prohibitively increases time and space complexity. In addition, reliable retrieval performance cannot be guaranteed because the translation model may comprise noisy non-topical terms in documents. To resolve these problems, this paper investigates an effective method to construct co-occurrence statistics and eliminate noisy terms by employing a parsimonious translation model. The parsimonious translation model is a compact version of a translation model that can reduce the number of terms containing non-zero probabilities by eliminating non-topical terms in documents. Through experimentation on seven different test collections, we show that the query model estimated from the parsimonious translation model significantly outperforms not only the baseline language modeling, but also the non-parsimonious models.     

Bipolar queries in textual information retrieval: A new perspective

A new concept of a bipolar query against collections of textual documents, i.e. in the context of information retrieval (IR), is introduced using recent developments in bipolar information modeling and bipolar database queries. Specifically, a particular approach to bipolar queries with an explicit “and possibly” type of an aggregation operator is used. An effective and efficient processing of such bipolar queries using standard IR data structures is briefly discussed. The bipolar queries proposed combine a flexibility provided by fuzzy logic with a more sophisticated representation of user preferences and intentions. This combination can make the search of vast resources of textual document, notably those available via the Internet, more intelligent.     

An empirical study of query expansion and cluster-based retrieval in language modeling approach

The term mismatch problem in information retrieval is a critical problem, and several techniques have been developed, such as query expansion, cluster-based retrieval and dimensionality reduction to resolve this issue. Of these techniques, this paper performs an empirical study on query expansion and cluster-based retrieval. We examine the effect of using parsimony in query expansion and the effect of clustering algorithms in cluster-based retrieval. In addition, query expansion and cluster-based retrieval are compared, and their combinations are evaluated in terms of retrieval performance by performing experimentations on seven test collections of NTCIR and TREC.     

CLAIRE: A combinatorial visual analytics system for information retrieval evaluation

Information Retrieval (IR) develops complex systems, constituted of several components, which aim at returning and optimally ranking the most relevant documents in response to user queries. In this context, experimental evaluation plays a central role, since it allows for measuring IR systems effectiveness, increasing the understanding of their functioning, and better directing the efforts for improving them. Current evaluation methodologies are limited by two major factors: (i) IR systems are evaluated as “black boxes”, since it is not possible to decompose the contributions of the different components, e.g., stop lists, stemmers, and IR models; (ii) given that it is not possible to predict the effectiveness of an IR system, both academia and industry need to explore huge numbers of systems, originated by large combinatorial compositions of their components, to understand how they perform and how these components interact together.We propose a Combinatorial visuaL Analytics system for Information Retrieval Evaluation (CLAIRE) which allows for exploring and making sense of the performances of a large amount of IR systems, in order to quickly and intuitively grasp which system configurations are preferred, what are the contributions of the different components and how these components interact together.The CLAIRE system is then validated against use cases based on several test collections using a wide set of systems, generated by a combinatorial composition of several off-the-shelf components, representing the most common denominator almost always present in English IR systems. In particular, we validate the findings enabled by CLAIRE with respect to consolidated deep statistical analyses and we show that the CLAIRE system allows the generation of new insights, which were not detectable with traditional approaches.     

An implicit feedback approach for interactive information retrieval

Searchers can face problems finding the information they seek. One reason for this is that they may have difficulty devising queries to express their information needs. In this article, we describe an approach that uses unobtrusive monitoring of interaction to proactively support searchers. The approach chooses terms to better represent information needs by monitoring searcher interaction with different representations of top-ranked documents. Information needs are dynamic and can change as a searcher views information. The approach we propose gathers evidence on potential changes in these needs and uses this evidence to choose new retrieval strategies. We present an evaluation of how well our technique estimates information needs, how well it estimates changes in these needs and the appropriateness of the interface support it offers. The results are presented and the avenues for future research identified.     

Specifics of information retrieval for young users: A survey

In this paper, we present the state of the art in the field of information retrieval that is relevant for understanding how to design information retrieval systems for children. We describe basic theories of human development to explain the specifics of young users, i.e., their cognitive skills, fine motor skills, knowledge, memory and emotional states in so far as they differ from those of adults. We derive the implications these differences have on the design of information retrieval systems for children. Furthermore, we summarize the main findings about children’s search behavior from multiple user studies. These findings are important to understand children’s information needs, their search strategies and usage of information retrieval systems. We also identify several weaknesses of previous user studies about children’s information-seeking behavior. Guided by the findings of these user studies, we describe challenges for the design of information retrieval systems for young users. We give an overview of algorithms and user interface concepts. We also describe existing information retrieval systems for children, in specific web search engines and digital libraries. We conclude with a discussion of open issues and directions for further research. The survey provided in this paper is important both for designers of information retrieval systems for young users as well as for researchers who start working in this field.     

Word sense discrimination in information retrieval: A spectral clustering-based approach

Word sense ambiguity has been identified as a cause of poor precision in information retrieval (IR) systems. Word sense disambiguation and discrimination methods have been defined to help systems choose which documents should be retrieved in relation to an ambiguous query. However, the only approaches that show a genuine benefit for word sense discrimination or disambiguation in IR are generally supervised ones. In this paper we propose a new unsupervised method that uses word sense discrimination in IR. The method we develop is based on spectral clustering and reorders an initially retrieved document list by boosting documents that are semantically similar to the target query. For several TREC ad hoc collections we show that our method is useful in the case of queries which contain ambiguous terms. We are interested in improving the level of precision after 5, 10 and 30 retrieved documents (P@5, P@10, P@30) respectively. We show that precision can be improved by 8% above current state-of-the-art baselines. We also focus on poor performing queries.     

Brain CT image database building for computer-aided diagnosis using content-based image retrieval

Content-based image retrieval for medical images is a primary technique for computer-aided diagnosis. While it is a premise for computer-aided diagnosis system to build an efficient medical image database which is paid less attention than that it deserves. In this paper, we provide an efficient approach to develop the archives of large brain CT medical data. Medical images are securely acquired along with relevant diagnosis reports and then cleansed, validated and enhanced. Then some sophisticated image processing algorithms including image normalization and registration are applied to make sure that only corresponding anatomy regions could be compared in image matching. A vector of features is extracted by non-negative tensor factorization and associated with each image, which is essential for the content-based image retrieval. Our experiments prove the efficiency and promising prospect of this database building method for computer-aided diagnosis system. The brain CT image database we built could provide radiologists with a convenient access to retrieve pre-diagnosed, validated and highly relevant examples based on image content and obtain computer-aided diagnosis.     

Local search: A guide for the information retrieval practitioner

There are a number of combinatorial optimisation problems in information retrieval in which the use of local search methods are worthwhile. The purpose of this paper is to show how local search can be used to solve some well known tasks in information retrieval (IR), how previous research in the field is piecemeal, bereft of a structure and methodologically flawed, and to suggest more rigorous ways of applying local search methods to solve IR problems. We provide a query based taxonomy for analysing the use of local search in IR tasks and an overview of issues such as fitness functions, statistical significance and test collections when conducting experiments on combinatorial optimisation problems. The paper gives a guide on the pitfalls and problems for IR practitioners who wish to use local search to solve their research issues, and gives practical advice on the use of such methods. The query based taxonomy is a novel structure which can be used by the IR practitioner in order to examine the use of local search in IR.     

A decision-theoretic approach to the evaluation of information retrieval systems

Evaluation research on information retrieval (IR) systems has thus far been narrowly focused and disjointed. This research attempts to narrow the gap by providing a comprehensive and integrated multiple criteria decision-theoretic approach for the evaluation of IR systems. The approach, which is based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), is illustrated in the context of a domain-specific IR system. The novelty of this approach lies in the focus on the user aspect and the application of decision-making theories in the IR field.     

CIRLab: A groupware framework for collaborative information retrieval research

In this paper we describe the design of a groupware framework, CIRLab, for experimenting with collaborative information retrieval (CIR) techniques in different search scenarios. This framework has been designed applying design patterns and an object-oriented middleware platform to maximize its reusability and adaptability in new contexts with a minimum of programming efforts. Our collaborative search application comprises three main modules: the Core, which supports various modern state-of-the-art CIR techniques that can be reused or extended in a distributed collaborative environment; the Facades Mediator, an event-driven notification service which allows easy integration between the Core and front-end applications; and finally, the Actions Tracker, which allows researchers to perform experiments on the different elements involved in the collaborative search sessions. The applying of this framework is illustrated through the analysis of the collaborative search-driven development case study.     

A reputation-based model for mobile agent migration for information search and retrieval

Mobile agent technology has been used in various applications including e-commerce, information processing, distributed network management, and database access. Information search and retrieval can be conducted by mobile agents in a decentralized system. As compared with the client/server model, the mobile agent approach has an advantage of saving network bandwidth and offering flexibility in information search and retrieval. In this paper, we present a model for mobile agents to select the most reputable information host to search and retrieve information. We use opinion-based belief structure to represent, aggregate and calculate the reputation of an information host. Since reputation is a multi-faced concept, our approach first allows the users to rank each information host's quality of service based on a set of evaluation categories. Then, a comprehensive, final reputation of the host is obtained by aggregating those specific category reputations. To recognize the subjective nature of a reputation, the transferable belief model is used to represent and rank the category reputation. Experiments are conducted using the Aglets technology to illustrate mobile agent migration.     

A lemmatization method for Mongolian and its application to indexing for information retrieval

In Mongolian, two different alphabets are used, Cyrillic and Mongolian. In this paper, we focus solely on the Mongolian language using the Cyrillic alphabet, in which a content word can be inflected when concatenated with one or more suffixes. Identifying the original form of content words is crucial for natural language processing and information retrieval. We propose a lemmatization method for Mongolian. The advantage of our lemmatization method is that it does not rely on noun dictionaries, enabling us to lemmatize out-of-dictionary words. We also apply our method to indexing for information retrieval. We use newspaper articles and technical abstracts in experiments that show the effectiveness of our method. Our research is the first significant exploration of the effectiveness of lemmatization for information retrieval in Mongolian.