The present monograph intends to establish a solid link among three fields: fuzzy set theory, information retrieval, and cluster analysis. Fuzzy set theory supplies new concepts and methods for the other two fields, and provides a common frame work within which they can be reorganized. Four principal groups of readers are assumed: researchers or students who are interested in (a) application of fuzzy sets, (b) theory of information retrieval or bibliographic databases, (c) hierarchical clustering, and (d) application of methods in systems science. Readers in group (a) may notice that the fuzzy set theory used here is very simple, since only finite sets are dealt with. This simplification enables the max min algebra to deal with fuzzy relations and matrices as equivalent entities. Fuzzy graphs are also used for describing theoretical properties of fuzzy relations. This assumption of finite sets is sufficient for applying fuzzy sets to information retrieval and cluster analysis. This means that little theory, beyond the basic theory of fuzzy sets, is required. Although readers in group (b) with little background in the theory of fuzzy sets may have difficulty with a few sections, they will also find enough in this monograph to support an intuitive grasp of this new concept of fuzzy information retrieval. Chapter 4 provides fuzzy retrieval without the use of mathematical symbols. Also, fuzzy graphs will serve as an aid to the intuitive understanding of fuzzy relations.

Information retrieval used to mean looking through thousands of strings of texts to find words or symbols that matched a user's query. Today, there are many models that help index and search more effectively so retrieval takes a lot less time. Information retrieval (IR) is often seen as a subfield of computer science and shares some modeling, applications, storage applications and techniques, as do other disciplines like artificial intelligence, database management, and parallel computing. This book introduces the topic of IR and how it differs from other computer science disciplines. A discussion of the history of modern IR is briefly presented, and the notation of IR as used in this book is defined. The complex notation of relevance is discussed. Some applications of IR is noted as well since IR has many practical uses today. Using information retrieval with fuzzy logic to search for software terms can help find software components and ultimately help increase the reuse of software. This is just one practical application of IR that is covered in this book. Some of the classical models of IR is presented as a contrast to extending the Boolean model. This includes a brief mention of the source of weights for the various models. In a typical retrieval environment, answers are either yes or no, i.e., on or off. On the other hand, fuzzy logic can bring in a "degree of" match, vs. a crisp, i.e., strict match. This, too, is looked at and explored in much detail, showing how it can be applied to information retrieval. Fuzzy logic is often times considered a soft computing application and this book explores how IR with fuzzy logic and its membership functions as weights can help indexing, querying, and matching. Since fuzzy set theory and logic is explored in IR systems, the explanation of where the fuzz is ensues. The concept of relevance feedback, including pseudorelevance feedback is explored for the various models of IR. For the extended Boolean model, the use of genetic algorithms for relevance feedback is delved into. The concept of query expansion is explored using rough set theory. Various term relationships is modeled and presented, and the model extended for fuzzy retrieval. An example using the UMLS terms is also presented. The model is also extended for term relationships beyond synonyms. Finally, this book looks at clustering, both crisp and fuzzy, to see how that can improve retrieval performance. An example is presented to illustrate the concepts.

Fuzzy logic allows computer programmers to interpret ambiguous commands that ordinary, rigid programs are unable to decipher. For instance, computers can work with words like "tall" and "expensive" rather than 6'5" or $669.95. This book covers the use of fuzzy logic in the information science and information engineering fields.

Class-tested and coherent, this textbook teaches classical and web information retrieval, including web search and the related areas of text classification and text clustering from basic concepts. It gives an up-to-date treatment of all aspects of the design and implementation of systems for gathering, indexing, and searching documents; methods for evaluating systems; and an introduction to the use of machine learning methods on text collections. All the important ideas are explained using examples and figures, making it perfect for introductory courses in information retrieval for advanced undergraduates and graduate students in computer science. Based on feedback from extensive classroom experience, the book has been carefully structured in order to make teaching more natural and effective. Slides and additional exercises (with solutions for lecturers) are also available through the book's supporting website to help course instructors prepare their lectures.

Information Retrieval (IR) is concerned with the effective and efficient retrieval of information based on its semantic content. The central problem in IR is the quest to find the set of relevant documents, among a large collection containing the information sought, satisfying a user's information need usually expressed in a natural language query. Documents may be objects or items in any medium: text, image, audio, or indeed a mixture of all three. This book presents 12 revised lectures given at the Third European Summer School in Information Retrieval, ESSIR 2000, held at the Villa Monastero, Varenna, Italy, in September 2000. The first part of the book is devoted to the foundation of IR and related areas; the second part on advanced topics addresses various current issues, from usability aspects to Web searching and browsing.

This book provides a thorough understanding of the integration of computational intelligence with information retrieval including content-based image retrieval using intelligent techniques, hybrid computational intelligence for pattern recognition, intelligent innovative systems, and protecting and analysing big data on cloud platforms. The book aims to investigate how computational intelligence frameworks are going to improve information retrieval systems. The emerging and promising state-of-the-art of human–computer interaction is the motivation behind this book. The book covers a wide range of topics, starting from the tools and languages of artificial intelligence to its philosophical implications, and thus provides a plethora of theoretical as well as experimental research, along with surveys and impact studies. Further, the book aims to showcase the basics of information retrieval and computational intelligence for beginners, as well as their integration, and challenge discussions for existing practitioners, including using hybrid application of augmented reality, computational intelligence techniques for recommendation systems in big data, and a fuzzy-based approach for characterization and identification of sentiments.

This book is the proceedings of the Third International Conference on Fuzzy Information and Engineering (ICFIE 2009) held in the famous mountain city Chongqing in Southwestern China, from September 26-29, 2009. Only high-quality papers are included. The ICFIE 2009, built on the success of previous conferences, the ICFIE 2007 (Guangzhou, China), is a major symposium for scientists, engineers and practitioners in the world to present their updated results, ideas, developments and applications in all areas of fuzzy information and engineering. It aims to strengthen relations between industry research laboratories and universities, and to create a primary symposium for world scientists in fuzzy fields as follows: Fuzzy Information; Fuzzy Sets and Systems; Soft Computing; Fuzzy Engineering; Fuzzy Operation Research and Management; Artificial Intelligence; Fuzzy Mathematics and Systems in Applications, etc.

Approximate reasoning is a key motivation in fuzzy sets and possibility theory. This volume provides a coherent view of this field, and its impact on database research and information retrieval. First, the semantic foundations of approximate reasoning are presented. Special emphasis is given to the representation of fuzzy rules and specialized types of approximate reasoning. Then syntactic aspects of approximate reasoning are surveyed and the algebraic underpinnings of fuzzy consequence relations are presented and explained. The second part of the book is devoted to inductive and neuro-fuzzy methods for learning fuzzy rules. It also contains new material on the application of possibility theory to data fusion. The last part of the book surveys the growing literature on fuzzy information systems. Each chapter contains extensive bibliographical material. Fuzzy Sets in Approximate Reasoning and Information Systems is a major source of information for research scholars and graduate students in computer science and artificial intelligence, interested in human information processing.

With the increased use of technology in modern society, high volumes of multimedia information exists. It is important for businesses, organizations, and individuals to understand how to optimize this data and new methods are emerging for more efficient information management and retrieval. Information Retrieval and Management: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications is an innovative reference source for the latest academic material in the field of information and communication technologies and explores how complex information systems interact with and affect one another. Highlighting a range of topics such as knowledge discovery, semantic web, and information resources management, this multi-volume book is ideally designed for researchers, developers, managers, strategic planners, and advanced-level students.

Information retrieval (IR) is becoming an increasingly important area as scientific, business and government organisations take up the notion of "information superhighways" and make available their full text databases for searching. Containing a selection of 35 papers taken from the 17th Annual SIGIR Conference held in Dublin, Ireland in July 1994, the book addresses basic research and provides an evaluation of information retrieval techniques in applications. Topics covered include text categorisation, indexing, user modelling, IR theory and logic, natural language processing, statistical and probabilistic models of information retrieval systems, routing, passage retrieval, and implementation issues.