Information retrieval interfaces

Hasan-Montero, Y., Herrero-Solana, V Improving Tag-Clouds as Visual Information Retrieval Interfaces. In Proceedings of International Conference on Multidisciplinary Information Sciences and Technologies (2006)... 

The API interfaces to SRS provide an object oriented programmers interface into an SRS system. This allows programmers to access the databases in their SRS system from their programs written in C++, Perl, Java or Python. The databases can be queried and information retrieved about the set of entries. The SRS system itself can be interrogated about the databases available and the fields which can be queried within those databases. 

Entrez, to be clear, is not a database itself—it is the interface through which all of its component databases can be accessed and traversed. The Entrez information space includes PubMed records, nucleotide and protein sequence data, three-dimensional structure information, and mapping information. The strength of Entrez lies in the fact that all of this information can be accessed by issuing one and only one query. Entrez is able to offer integrated information retrieval through the use of two types of coimection between database entries neighboring and hard links. 

Figure 11 An example of a modem reaction retrieval interface MDL s RXL Browser (reprinted with permission of MDL information Systems, Inc.)...

A structure or a nomenclature search is generally only a means to an end. The end is often some data associated with the structures found. In order to facilitate retrieval of such information, an Interface between the CIS numeric data bases and the SANSS has been constructed. This allows for a search through the UDB followed by a data search (or retrieval) and permits one to answer such queries as ... 

Standards are necessary to facilitate communication in scientific information retrieval, as in all other areas of human activity. Therefore, a standard interface software package that accommodates users searching public, corporate, and personal files is highly desirable. Setting the standard is a perilous task because of differences that exist among networks, operations and applications software, hardware, the kinds of data that must be retrieved, and the needs and preferences... 

Other types of applications which are dependent on access to a centralized data base (e.g., information retrieval) or requiring the sharing of information between users (e.g., office automation) implicitly require solution of problems such as connectivity and open systems architectures before they can be successfully implemented as applications in distributed systems. In such a system the user should be able to access and process data through a consistent user interface whether the data is stored in a local file, a centralized company file or a publicly available file and be able to move data and queries seamlessly from one application package to another. The ease of transporting data and queries between applications increases if standard exchange formats and standard data representations are available but open architecture becomes a reality only when software producers are compelled to adopt these standards as a result of pressure from their users. 

And last not least, we will have to see further improvements in the graphical user interfaces of software systems and the retrieval systems of databases in order to make software and databases more acceptable to the chemical community at large. Software and databases should speak the language a chemist is used to, with hand-drawn chemical structures and reaction equations, or even imderstand the spoken word - and only provide the desired information selectively, not buried in a phe of unnecessary output. 

The advent of new techniques to collect undisturbed sediment cores, with well preserved sediment - water interface has brought into sharper focus the various deep sea sedimentary processes, their rates and their effects on the preserved records. As mentioned earlier, recent studies have shown that the record contained in sediments is not a direct reflection of the delivery pattern of a substance to the ocean floor as has so far been assumed the record is modified as a result of several complex physical, chemical and biological processes. Therefore, information on the temporal variations in the tracer input to oceans, if sought, has to be deciphered from the sediment-residuum. In the following we consider one specific example of retrieval of information from the sediment pile the application of deep sea sediments to obtain historical records of cosmic ray intensity variations. 

The LIMS computer is located on the site, and several terminals may be provided for entry of data from notebooks and instrument readouts and for the retrieval of information. Bar coding for sample tracking and access codes for laboratory personnel are part of the system. Instruments may be interfaced directly with the LIMS computer to allow direct data entry without help from the analyst. The LIMS may also incorporate statistical methods and procedures, including statistical control and control chart maintenance. See Workplace Scene 6.4. 

Modem electron microscopes with field emission electron sources provide brighter and more coherent electrons. Images with information of crystal stmctures up to 1 A can be achieved. A through-focus exit wave reconstmction method was developed by Coene et al. (1992 1996) to retrieve the complete exit wave function of electrons at the exit surface of the crystal. This method can be applied to thicker crystals which can not be treated as weak-phase object. It is especially useful for stud5dng defects and interfaces (Zandbergen etal, 1999). 

Both the nucleic acid sequences and the protein sequences derived from the biological information are collected in most such databases. Large amounts of data in these databases need to be sorted, stored, retrieved, and analyzed. Selection of subsets of data for particular analysis should also be done. IT providers designed such a data warehouse and developed an interface that provides an important benefit to researchers by making it easy to access the existing information and also to submit new entries (i.e., datamining) (Table 5.6). Middlewares and structured query language (SQL) softwares were developed for this purposes. The former one is used... 

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