Publication - Retrieval and Reasoning in Distributed Case Bases

Authors: Nagendra, M., Lesser, Victor, Lander, Susan
Title: Retrieval and Reasoning in Distributed Case Bases
Abstract: Recent explosion in networked information resources has been attracting much attention to the problem of automated methods for gathering information in response to a query from a user. However, most of this literature deals with locating, gathering and selecting the best response to a query from among a multitude of responses from different sources. In this paper, we deal with a different model of response to a query. No single source of information may contain the complete response to a query and hence may necessitate piecing together mutually related partial responses from disparate and possibly heterogeneous sources. We present a system for cooperative retrieval and composition of a case in which sub-cases are distributed across different agents in a multi-agent system. From a Gestalt perspective, a good overall case may not be the one derived from the summation of best subcases. Each agent’s partial view may result in local cases that are best matches based on the local view. However, these local cases when assembled may not result in the best overall case in terms of global measures. We propose a negotiation-driven case retrieval algorithm as an approach to dynamically resolving inconsistencies between different case pieces during the retrieval process.
Publication: UMass Computer Sciences Technical Report 95-27
Location: CIIR technical Report IC-5
Publisher: University of Massachusetts
Date: January 1995
Sources: PS: ftp://ftp.cs.umass.edu/pub/lesser/dcbr-95-27.ps
PDF: /Documents/lesser/dcbr-95-27.pdf
Reference: Nagendra, M., Lesser, Victor, Lander, Susan. Retrieval and Reasoning in Distributed Case Bases. UMass Computer Sciences Technical Report 95-27, University of Massachusetts. January 1995.
bibtex: 
@article{Nagendra-160,
  author    = "M. Nagendra and Victor Lesser and Susan Lander",
  title     = "{Retrieval and Reasoning in Distributed Case Bases}",
  journal   = "UMass Computer Sciences Technical Report 95-27",
  publisher = "University of Massachusetts",
  month     = "January",
  year      = "1995",
  address   = "CIIR technical Report IC-5",
  url       = "http://mas.cs.umass.edu/paper/160",
}