The Dynamic Retrieval of XML Elements

Abstract

This paper describes the current state of our system for structured retrieval. The system itself is based on an extension of the vector space model initially proposed by Fox [5]. The basic functions are performed using the Smart experimental retrieval system [10]. The major advance in our system this year is the incorporation of a facility for the dynamic retrieval of elements, which we refer to as flexible retrieval. This approach allows the system to return a rank-ordered list of elements based on a single indexing of the collection at the paragraph level.Lnu term weights [12,13] are generated dynamically along with the elements themselves, thus eliminating the need for propagation. Experimental results using this technique on INEX 2006 data show that it can produce results competitive with those produced by retrieval on an all-element index of the collection (and in fact produces virtually identical results for the new Fetch-and-Browse task). Early relevance feedback results are also reported.