From Document to Entity Retrieval: Improving Precision and Performance of Focused Text Search

PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Twente, op gezag van de rector magnificus prof. dr. to my grandfather who should have gotten a PhD long before me vi Acknowledgments Writing a thesis that sums up my scientific work of four years was a new experience for me. First of all it asked quite some patience from myself. Instead of looking forward to new scientific challenges, it forced me to re-read, rethink , and rewrite what I had done before. The confrontation with the past brought up old ideas, scientific plans, things I did as well as things I never found the time to do. And, last but not least, it made me think of all the people that accompanied me through that period and made it an exciting, enjoyable time. First, I'd like to thank my supervisor Djoerd for all his detailed reviewing work on this thesis and on my other scientific writing, which improved the presentation " by far ". But also for the nice working atmosphere we had during the whole period of my PhD, and for just being around for all kinds of questions and discussions starting on work issues but not always ending there. There have been many more people though who contributed to this research work. My promoter Peter, who always tried to keep me on track, and without him I would probably not have finished my PhD in time. who did an excellent job in reviewing my scientific work. All those people gave many fruitful input to my own work, and at the same time teached me to defend my own writing. I also want to thank the database group at the UT for the good working environment and the friendly atmosphere; our soup cooperation for providing at least the remembrance of a warm lunch. To pick out a few people: It was Maurice who had the brilliant idea to ask me whether I would like to come to the Netherlands at a time when I was not really thinking of doing a PhD. Developing our own search system PF/Tijah would not have been that vii viii successful and fun without our scientific programmer Jan, who helped me a lot with my code work when he was not climbing mountains at the remotest places of the world. Further, Sandra, Ida, and Suse could hardly have done more to support …