Discusses the use of chaos, or nonlinear dynamics, for investigating computer-mediated communication. A comparison between real, human-generated data from a computer network and similarly constructed random-generated data is made, and mathematical procedures for determining chaos are described. (seven references) (LRW)

Presents new methods for compressing bit matrices in large information retrieval systems which exploit possible correlations between rows of words and columns of documents. Three encoding methods are tested and compared--Shannon-Fano, arithmetic, and Huffman--and an appendix discusses binomial coefficients. (20 references) (LRW)

Proposes a scenario to describe the formation of a planetary nebula, a cloud of gas surrounding a very hot compact star. Describes the nature of a planetary nebula, the number observed to date in the Milky Way Galaxy, and the results of research on a specific nebula. (MDH)

College investment policy concerning the mix of stocks and bonds in the endowment portfolio has been made far too complicated. Except for unusual circumstances, the equity (common stocks) percentage should be very high. Total investment in equities will generate enormous differences in endowment fund value over a long period of time. (MSE)

Describes methods and goals for several activities to be used in ropes courses. Details calculation of loads for suspended ropes used in the exercises, and selection of rope based on type of activity and number of people on the rope. Contains several diagrams and photographs. (KS)

Discusses models for the distribution of words in text and proposes a new model based on clustering that can be used to estimate the probability that a document contains a particular word as well as the number of distinct words in a document. Zipf's law and the Poisson approximation are also discussed. (18 references) (LRW)

Proposes a plotting position formula for the Pearson type III distribution in the analysis of historical flood information. Presents results of a numerical example using actual flood data to confirm the appropriateness of the plotting formula. (24 references) (MDH)

This article presents a model for the motion of a long-cane executing the touch technique and presents formulas for the projected length of a cane adequate to protect an individual with blindness against wall-type and pole-type hazards. The paper concludes that the long-cane should reach from the floor to the user's armpit. (JDD)

Community planners in Illinois use computer software to conduct retail trade market analyses based on Reilly's Law. Market boundaries are determined using the population of the town and neighboring town, and the distance between the two towns. The simple indices implied by Reilly's Law do not offer reliable guidance to planners. (KS)

Examines the applicability of Lotka's Law, negative binomial distribution, and lognormal distribution for institutional productivity in the same way as it is to authors and their productivity. Results indicate that none of the distributions are applicable for institutional productivity in engineering sciences. (Author/LRW)

Discussion of natural language processing focuses on term weighting in information retrieval. Presents a new weighting method that depends on low frequency terms, called negative weighted inverse verb frequency, and discusses case frames, word similarity, similarity measurement, and recall and precision improvement. (LRW)

Introduces a new iteration model for the calculation of co-word maps. Co-word analysis is an objective quantitative method for analyzing and integrating survey information about research trends and structures that avoids problems using statistical methods to produce mappings of reduced information. (PEN)

Studies the relation between journal median citation age and the number of articles in the journal. Discusses statistical explanations, including graphs of clouds of points and the Central Limit Theorem; and considers explanations of regularities in informetrics, based on statistical, probabilistic, or informetric results. (Author/LRW)

Discussion of information and information retrieval focuses on the connection between a calculus defined on channels and information retrieval, and proposes a model of an information retrieval system based on this calculus. Topics include conditionality, situation theory, the flow of information, channel theory, and four principles for an…

Discussion of office document search procedures focuses on variable bit-block compression (VBC) signature files and extends VBC signatures for document ranking. Topics include weighted VBC and aggregate VBC; word size, in bits, of term frequencies; storage and retrieval; logarithmic scaling and linear scaling; and ranking performance. (LRW)