About the Book
This volume constitutes the proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Flexible Query Answering Systems, FQAS'2000, held in Warsaw, Poland on October 25 - 28, 2000. The FQAS conference has been the premier conference focusing on one of key issues that the information society faces, namely that of providing easy, flexible, intuitive access to information for everybody. In targeting this issue, the conference draws on several research areas, such as databases, querying, information retrieval, knowledge representation, soft computing, cyberspace, multimedia systems, human-computer interaction, etc. FQAS'2000 has been preceded by the extremely successful FQAS'94, FQAS'96 and FQAS'98 conferences all held in Roskilde, Denmark. The present conference provides a unique opportunity for researchers, developers and practitioners to explore new ideas and approaches in a multidisciplinary forum. As a metaphor for flexible query answering we may consider a human intermediary who has expertise in the topic of the query, and is experienced in identifying the user's information needs and answering the needs from the available information resources.
The use of knowledge on relevant contexts, available information resources, etc. , enables the expert to respond rather precisely to the needs, though the query, per se, may be imprecise, incomplete, etc. Thus, a key issue for flexible query answering system is to obtain, maintain, represent, and utilize such knowledge. This comprises domain knowledge and metaknowledge, its representation and organization in ontologies, terminologies, etc.
Table of Contents:
Flexibility in Database Management and Querying: J. Albrecht, W. Hummer, W. Lehner, L. Schlesinger: Using Semantics for Query Derivability in Data Warehouse Applications.- T. Andreasen, J.F. Nilsson, H.E. Thomsen: Ontology-Based Quering.- M. Arenas, L. Bertossi, J. Chomicki: Specifying and Querying Database Repairs Using Logic Programs with Exceptions.- A. Bidault, C. Froideveaux, B. Safar: Finding Successful Queries in a Mediator Context.- I.J. Blanco, N. Marin, O. Pons, M.A. Vila: An Extension of Data Description Language (DDL) for Fuzzy Data Handling.- P. Bosc, L. Lietard, O. Pivert: About Ill-Known Data and Equi-Join Operations.- M. Koyuncu, A. Yazici, R. George: Flexible Querying in an Intelligent Object-Oriented Database.- U. Leser, F. Naumann: Query Planning with Information Quality Bounds.- P. Marcincak, M. Matula: Metadata and Object-Oriented Approach to Flexible Querying.- A. Morris, P. Jankowski: Combining Fuzzy Sets and Databases in Multiple Criteria Spatial Decision Making.- Z.W. Ras: Query Answering in DAKS Based on Reducts.- A. Seriai, C. Oussalah: A Reuse Based Object-Oriented Framework Towards Flexible Formulation of Complex Queries. Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: S. Abdennadher, H. Christiansen: An Experimental CLP Platform for Integrity Constraints and Abduction.- K.T. Atanassov: Temporal Intuitionistic Fuzzy Relations.- P. Chountas, I. Petrounias: Representing Temporal and Factual Uncertainty.- R. Demolombe: Abstract Objects to Represent Large Answers to Queries in a Concise Form.- L. Mota-Herranz, M. Celma-Gimenez, H. Decker: Transaction Trees for Knowledge Revision.- N.G. Nikolov: Situations Endowed with Lattice Structure.- Z.A. Sosnowski: Activation of Fuzzy Rules in RETE Network.- Z. Stojanovic: New Methods for Qualitative spatial Reasoning Based on Matrix Calculus.- P. Vojtas, Z. Fabian: Aggregating Similar Witnesses for Flexible Query Answering.- S. Zbroja, A. Ligeza: Case-Based Reasoning within Tabular Systems. ExtendedStructural Data Representation and Partial Matching. Natural Language and Multimedia Processing: A. Ballim, V. Pallotta: Weighted Semantic Parsing: A Robust Approach to Interpretation of Natural Language Queries.- F. Crestani: Word Recognition Errors and Relevance Feedback in Spoken Query Processing.- M. Detyniecki: Browsing a Video with Simple Constrained Queries over Fuzzy Annotations.- C. Enguehard: Flexible-Equality of Terms: Definition and Evaluation.- M. Lalmas, T. Rolleke, F. Turra, N. Fuhr: Concepts for a Graphical User Interface for Hypermedia Retrieval.- M.T.P. Santos, M.T.P. Vieira, S.R. Borges, J.M. Figueiredo, F. Fornazaria, M. Biajiz: Semantic Information Search Facilities for MHEG-5 and SMIL Applications.- K. Saaeed, A. Dardzinska: Cursive Letters Language Processing: Muqla Model and Toeplitz Matrices Approach. Information Retrieval and Semistructured Data: P. Baranyi, L.T. Koczy: Saving Calculation in Information Retrieval.- G. Bordogna, G. Pasi: Flexible Querying of Structured Documents.- P. Buche, O. Haemmerle: Towards Category-Based Fuzzy Querying of Both Structured and Semi-Structured Imprecise Data.- M.-S. Hacid, F. Toumani: Declarative Constrained Language for Semistructured Data.- D.H. Kraft, J. Chen: Integrating and Extending Fuzzy Clustering and Inferencing to Improve Text Retrieval Performance.- M.J. Martin-Bautista, D. Sanchez, M.-A. Vila, H.L. Larsen: Measuring Effectiveness in Fuzzy Information Retrieval. Acquisition of Data and Knowledge: H. Aladjov: Intuitionistic Fuzzy Generalized Net Model Describing the Process of Training of Intuitionistic Fuzzy Generalized Net Models.- P. Alcamo, F. Domenichini, F. Turini: An XML Based Environment in Support of the Overall KDD Process.- J.-F. Boulicaut, A. Bykowski, B. Jeudy: Towards the Tractable Discovery of Association Rules with Negations.- F. Gianotti, G. Manco: Declarative Knowledge Extraction with Iterative User-Defined Aggregates.- A. Dvorak, V. Novak: On the Extraction of Linguistic
