We consider the problem of searching for a goal in an unknown environment, which may be a graph or a polygonal environment. The search ratio is the worst-case ratio before the goal is found while moving along some search path, over the shortest path from the start point to the goal, minimized over all search paths. We investigate the problem of finding good approximations to the optimal search ...

(CSULA) and studies the effects of implementing a Web-based OPAC along with interface changes. The authors find that user success in subject searching remains problematic. A major increase in the frequency of searches that would have been more successful in resources other than the library catalog is noted over the time period 2000–2002. The authors attribute this increase to the prevalence of ...

The purpose of this study is two-fold: to explore the differences in online medical information searching behaviors, including evaluative standards and search strategies, of the general public (general group) and those of hospital patients and their relatives (hospital group); and to compare the predictive relationship between the evaluative standards and search strategies of the two groups. A ...

We propose an indexing technique for approximate text searching, which is practical and powerful, and especially optimized for natural language text. Unlike other indices of this kind, it is able to retrieve any string that approximately matches the search pattern, not only words. Every text substring of a xed length q is stored in the index, together with pointers to all the text positions whe...

Whilst the tasks users perform online are often complex and wideranging, the tools currently available may not adequately support them. Attempts to classify user behaviors online have tended to focus on the medium of the web, where searching and browsing are seen as the primary modes of interaction. This paper introduces a comprehensive user-oriented classification of online tasks that emphasiz...

The timed pattern matching problem is an actively studied topic because of its relevance in monitoring of real-time systems. There one is given a log w and a specificationA (given by a timed word and a timed automaton in this paper), and one wishes to return the set of intervals for which the log w, when restricted to the interval, satisfies the specificationA. In our previous work we presented...

We present an on-line linear time and space algorithm to check if an integer array f is the border array of at least one string w built on a bounded or unbounded size alphabet Σ. First of all, we show a bijection between the border array of a string w and the skeleton of the DFA recognizing Σ∗w, called a string matching automaton (SMA). Different strings can have the same border array but the o...

We introduce a new automaton on a word p, sequence of letters taken in an alphabet , that we call factor oracle. This automaton is acyclic, recognizes at least the factors of p, has m + 1 states and a linear number of transitions. We give an on-line construction algorithm of the factor oracle. The tight links between this structure and the suux automaton allows us to introduce a second structur...