We describe a method for probabilistic document indexing using relevance feedback data that has been collected from a set of queries. Our approach is based on three new concepts: (1) Abstraction from specific terms and documents, which overcomes the restriction of limited relevance information for parameter estimation. (2) Flexibility of the representation, which allows the integration of new text analysis and knowledge-based methods in our approach as well as the consideration of document structures or different types of terms. (3) Probabilistic learning or classification methods for the estimation of the indexing weights making better use of the available relevance information. Our approach can be applied under restrictions that hold for real applications. We give experimental results for five test collections which show improvements over other indexing methods.

A probabilistic learning model for vague queries and missing or imprecise information in databases is described. Instead of retrieving only a set of answers, our approach yields a ranking of objects from the database in response to a query. By using relevance judgements from the user about the objects retrieved, the ranking for the actual query as well as the overall retrieval quality of the system can be further improved. For specifying different kinds of conditions in vague queries, the notion of vague pred-icates is introduced. Based on the underlying probabilistic model, also imprecise or missing attribute values can be treated easily. In addition, the corresponding formulas can be applied in combination with standard predicates (from two-valued logic), thus extending standard database systems for coping with missing or imprecise data.

This paper describes a model for optimum information retrieval over a distributed document collection. The model stems from Robertson's Probability Ranking Principle: Having computed individual document rankings correlated to different subcollections, these local rankings are stepwise merged into a final ranking list where the documents are ordered according to their probability of relevance. Here, a full dissemination of subcollection-wide information is not required. The documents of different subcollections are assumed to be indexed using different indexing vocabularies. Moreover, local rankings may be computed by individual probabilistic retrieval methods. The underlying data volume is arbitrarily scalable. A criterion for effectively limiting the ranking process to a subset of subcollections extends the model. Keywords: Information Retrieval, Probabilistic Model, Distributed Systems 1 Introduction Information retrieval (IR) methods have been developed to support the search for t...

This paper presents a novel probabilistic information retrieval framework in which the retrieval problem is formally treated as a statistical decision problem. In this framework, queries and documents are modeled using statistical language models (i.e., probabilistic models of text), user preferences are modeled through loss functions, and retrieval is cast as a risk minimization problem. We discuss how this framework can unify existing retrieval models and accommodate the systematic development of new retrieval models. As an example of using the framework to model non-traditional retrieval problems, we derive new retrieval models for subtopic retrieval, which is concerned with retrieving documents to cover many different subtopics of a general query topic. These new models differ from traditional retrieval models in that they go beyond independent topical relevance.

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The task of an information retrieval system is to identify documents that will satisfy a user's information need. Effective fulfillment of this task has long been an active area of research, leading to sophisticated retrieval models for representing information content in documents and queries and measuring similarity between the two. The maturity and proven effectiveness of these systems has resulted in demand for increased capacity, performance, scalability, and functionality, especially as information retrieval is integrated into more traditional database management environments. In this dissertation we explore a number of functionality and performance issues in information retrieval. First, we consider creation and modification of the document collection, concentrating on management of the inverted file index. An inverted file architecture based on a persistent object store is described and experimental results are presented for inverted file creation and modification. Our architecture provides performance that scales well with document collection size and the database features supported by the persistent object store provide many solutions to issues that arise during integration of information retrieval into more general database environments. We then turn to query evaluation speed and introduce a new optimization technique for statistical ranking retrieval systems that support structured queries. Experimental results from a variety of query sets show that execution time can be reduced by more than 50% wit...

Text categorization is the classification of documents with respect to a set of predefined categories. In this paper, we propose a new probabilistic model for text categorization, that is based on a Single random Variable with Multiple Values (SVMV). Compared to previous probabilistic models, our model has the following advantages; 1) it considers within-document term frequencies, 2) considers term weighting for target documents, and 3) is less affected by having insufficient training cases. We verify our model's superiority over the others in the task of categorizing news articles from the "Wall Street Journal".

Document retrieval systems have been restricted, by the nature of the task, to techniques that can be used with large numbers of documents and broad domains. The most effective techniques that have been developed are based on the statistics of word occurrences in text. In this paper, we describe an approach to using natural language processing (NLP) techniques for what is essentially a natural language problem - the comparison of a request text with the text of document titles and abstracts. The proposed NLP techniques are used to develop a request model based on "conceptual case frames" and to compare this model with the texts of candidate documents. The request model is also used to provide information to statistical search techniques that identify the candidate documents. As part of a preliminary evaluation of this approach, case frame representations of a set of requests from the CACM collection were constructed. Statistical searches carried out using dependency and relative import...

This thesis describes a probabilistic model for optimum information retrieval in a distributed heterogeneous environment. The model assumes the collection of documents offered by the environment to be hierarchically partitioned into subcollections. Documents as well as subcollections have to be indexed. At this, indexing methods using different indexing vocabularies can be employed. A query provided by a user is answered in terms of a ranked list of documents. The model determines a procedure for ranking the documents that stems from the Probability Ranking Principle: For each subcollection, the subcollection's elements are ranked; the resulting ranked lists are combined into a final ranked list of documents, where the ordering is determined by the documents' probabilities of being relevant with respect to the user's query. Various probabilistic ranking methods may be involved in the distributed ranking process. The underlying data volume is arbitrarily scalable. A criterion for effect...

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