The outbreak of research on "anomalous water," or "polywater," from 1962 to 1974 provides an interesting opportunity for testing the epidemic theory of idea dissemination. (Author)

A model of word occurrences in documents is presented in the context of a model information system. (Author/PF)

A statistical description of a text retrieval system allows the derivation of a unique and measurable performance criterion that, in turn, may be used in discussing various parameters of systems performance. (Author/PF)

Compares and expands upon two approaches to dealing with fuzzy relational databases. The proposed similarity measure is based on a fuzzy Hausdorff distance and estimates the mismatch between two possibility distributions using a reduction process. The consequences of the reduction process on query evaluation are studied. (Author/EM)

Relations on a finite set V are viewed as weighted graphs. Using the language of graph theory, two methods of partitioning V are examined: selecting threshold values and applying them to a maximal weighted spanning forest, and using a parametric linear program to obtain a most adhesive partition. (Author/EM)

Discusses the problem of data redundancy in a fuzzy relational data model and describes three existing frameworks of fuzzy data representation and redundancy treatment. A new treatment based on Zadeh's extension principle is proposed. (18 references) (MES)

Swets' theory of information retrieval allows the threads of document weighting formulae, probabilistic measures of effectiveness, and management theory, to be woven into a coherent pattern. Benefits are: the beginnings of a quantitative description of retrieval languages; destinction between retrieval systems and language; and question generality…

Frequency, rank, and frequency rank distributions are defined. Extensive discussion on several aspects of frequency rank distributions includes the Poisson process as a means of exploring the stability of ranks; the correlation of frequency rank distributions; and the transfer coefficient, a new measure in frequency rank distribution. (MBR)

A Mathematical model for use in studying how to minimize the cost of operating a mechanized retrieval system is developed. Through the use of cost analysis, the model provides a method for comparative evaluation between information retrieval systems. (15 references) (Author/SJ)

A mathematical model is presented which explains the observed exponential growth rates of citations and references in a scientific discipline. The independent variables are the growth rate of the number of articles published and the decay rate of citation of old literature. (13 references) (Author)

Queuing networks, mixed integer programing, and expected utility theory are combined together to model the library building programing problem. Thirty-nine references are cited. (Author/FM)

Confirms previously published research in concluding that specialty words tend to possess frequency distributions which cannot be described by a single Poisson distribution. (Author/PF)

An index of concentration for rank-frequency distributions is proposed which permits comparison of subject and journal concentration in various fields. Applications of the measure to different aspects of bibliometrics are suggested. (Author)

Presents a mathematical model of a decision maker subject to goal uncertainty which shows that a dominant course of action will always emerge. The theory of multivalued functions is used to express goal uncertainty, and a specific example is described to provide insight into how the procedure works in practice. (Author/EM)

Presents notations and definitions necessary to identify the concepts and relationships that are important in modelling information retrieval objects and processes in the context of vector spaces. Earlier work on the use of vector models is evaluated in terms of the concepts introduced and certain problems are identified. (Author/EM)