ANSWERING REFERENCE QUESTIONS USING DIALOG
Note: The
questions in this assignment serve well for learning to use Dialog. However, I just want to make clear that
outside of this assignment, I would not have used Dialog, especially for the
first three single fact questions. It
would have been much more efficient to turn to an Almanac. If an Almanac did not answer all three of the
questions, I’m sure an encyclopedia would have.
In the case of the last question, I would have used a subscription
database rather than pay to search at Dialog.
Because we were to use Dialog, my overall strategy was to keep costs
down. My intent was to find the most
likely databases for each question and search only one at a time until the
answer was found. I also searched format
6, title only, or format 8, title and keywords first, because the information
indicated that in most cases these formats could be typed at no charge. A final strategy in the case of the single
fact questions was to use the kwic (key word in
context) format to see if the answer would actually be within that small part
of the text.
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Question #1: When was the first night game played at Wrigley
Field?
Strategy: The
questioner needs an historical fact here, not comprehensive data. It is important to form a query that will
zero in on the exact information we are looking for. The query has three concepts. The first is [Wrigley Field]. The terms need to occur adjacently in exactly
that order, so the proper connecter at Dialog is (w). The second concept is
[first night game]. Other forms like
“the first game played at night” or “the first time a game was played at night”
or “the first time a game was played at Wrigley Field at night”, or “The game
was played at night. It was a first.”
would be just as acceptable. To find
instances of the terms in fairly close proximity and in various orders the
appropriate connecter at Dialog is (n) with a number indicating how many terms
can be between. Although 5 intervening
terms does not cover all possibilities, that is what I chose to search. Note that using just the two concepts would
return results about the “first night game” of the current, or other, season. To avoid sorting through at least some of
them, I decide to add a term to indicate that I am looking for an historical
date. The word [date] will not
necessarily appear in the text. Some
form of [history] would not necessarily be in a successful result either, but
this concept may successfully retrieve only information that, at least in part,
concentrates on historical data. At
Dialog truncating this manner, [histor?], is equivalent to searching [historic
or historical or history or historian] plus a few other terms with that root
which will not negatively skew the results.
I chose to connect the concepts with “and”, knowing that if too many
results were found I could change it to (s) which finds the terms in the same
paragraph. Full search phrase:
S Wrigley(w)Field and
histor? and first(n5)night(n5)game(n5)
Databases: I
used DialIndex at DialogWeb
to zero in on an appropriate database.
It appeared that Reference would be the appropriate super-catagory, and within that, People, Places, and Events would
probably be the appropriate subcategory.
Because I am new to Dialog I searched [s Wrigley(w)Field
and histor?] over the entire Reference category to make sure that I would find
some results. Thirteen databases were
suggested, the top one containing 180 results.
Then I searched the exact phrase across the entire Reference
category. Six databases are indicated.
·
Reader’s Guide Abstracts Full Text - 5
·
Periodical Abstracts PlusText™ - 4
·
Gale Group Trade & Industry Database™ - 4
·
Gale Group Magazine Database – 4
·
Gale Group Business A.R.T.S.(SM) – 2
·
LC MARC – Books - 1
The last database seemed unlikely to contain the
needed date, but any of the other periodical databases seemed appropriate. The mention of full text in the title is
particularly attractive, but a search of the database descriptions indicated
that all of these indexes actually contain some full text. In a decision based on practicing economy, I
choose to search Reader’s Guide, leaving the others as backups.
Results:
I searched the constructed phrase, pulling the 5 indicated results. First typing format 8, title and keywords, I rejected the first two results as unlikely. The answer may indeed be in the full text of result #3 which is available in the database, and in that of result #4 which is not available, but it is unnecessary to search further because the answer to the question is within the abstract of result #5. Although abstract #4 does not include the exact date, it does provide some confirmation that the date in #5 is probably the correct one.
Answer: The first night game at
Wrigley Field was played on August 8, 1988 after the city council
voted in February of that year to allow the installation of lights. The scheduled date of the game is stated in
the following New York Times Magazine article:
Weber, Bruce (1988) Power
struggle.
New York Times Magazine, July 24, 1988, p. 54.
That the game took place is confirmed by the
following Sports Illustrated article:
Fimrite, Ron (1988) Lights on! Sports
Illustrated, v. 69, August 15, 1988, p. 18-21.
--------------------------------------------
Question #2: Who
is credited with having invented Rock and Roll?
Strategy: My first
thought was that two concepts would be adequate to find the answer to this
question. The first is [Rock and Roll].
Dialog instructions indicate that one could include the stop word “and”
by searching [Rock(w)and(w)Roll], but I actually did
not get any results until I changed it to [Rock(w2)Roll], meaning the words
should appear in exactly that order with up to two terms between them. The second concept is [invent]. Multiple forms of this word might be used in
a successful result, i.e. invent, inventor, invented, invention. [invent?] will search all of them. “Inventive” will also be searched
and that could bring many irrelevant results, as in “inventive lyrics”. Requiring both concepts to be in close
proximity will increase our chances of pulling the information we need. The connecter (s) at Dialog requires the
terms to be in the same paragraph. That
is the connector I chose to use. Using DialIndex to search the People, Places, Events subcategory
with the phrase: Rock(w2)Roll(s)invent?
still created quite extensive results lists,
however. Nine databases contained from
2-181 results each, and the lowest number of results in a periodical index was
89. I therefore decided to try [origin?
and invent], looking for phrases like “the original inventor”, “originally
invented” “originating Rock and Roll…invented.”
S Rock(w2)Roll(s)(origin?
and invent?)
Databases: Again
the People, Places, and Events seemed the appropriate subcategory of
databases. The refined phrase produced
only 7 suggested databases. The result
sets were still as large as 148 for one database, but at least one likely database
had a more reasonably searched result set of 43.
·
Periodical Abstracts PlusTest ™ - 148
·
Gale Group Magazine Database – 132
·
Gale Group Business A.R.T.S.(SM) - 126
·
Gale Group Trade & Industry Database™ - 79
·
Reader’s Guide Abstracts Full Text – 43
·
McGill’s Survey of Cinema - 4
·
TV & Radio Transcripts Daily – 2
The first 5 databases, periodical indexes seemed
most likely. Of those, I thought
Reader’s Guide with its popular orientation might prove helpful again. In addition it had the smallest number of
results to scan. I used the kwic format to zero in on any appropriate articles.
Results: The
constructed phrase still produced more irrelevant results than relevant
ones. Individual artists were featured
in numerous articles that more often than not discussed the invention of a
particular instrumental technique rather than invention of the more inclusive
music style. However, there were two
articles that focused on the contributions of black artists that provide some
answers to the question.
Answer: The answer
to the question, “who invented Rock and Roll?” will depend on whom you ask. Many perhaps credit Elvis Presley, because
his work widely popularized the style.
However, many musicians, including Presley, acknowledge the influences
of earlier black artists. The following
article names numerous artists that originated songs that were later
popularized by white artists, and seems to take the position that no one of
them should be credited as the single source.
Chappell, Kevin (2001) How
blacks invented rock and roll. Ebony, v. 56, no. 9, July 2001, p. 145-6.
Another article specifically names Chuck Berry. It says “Chuck Berry is widely regarded as the originator of rock 'n' roll. A performer and songwriter, his compositions--which fused blues and gospel with the high-pitched wail of electric guitar--revolutionized popular music of the 1950s and '60s.”
25 who changed American music (1999) Ebony, v. 54, no. 8, p 124-6+.
Both the above articles credit a radio disk jockey in Cleveland named Alan Freed with coining the term itself.
---------------------------------------
Question #3: Where does San Andreas Fault run out to the sea?
Strategy: In this question we are looking for a geographical location. [San(w)Andreas(w)Fault] is a necessary concept. As a second concept we are looking for the place where it runs into the sea, which could also be referred to as ocean or coast or coastline or perhaps even water, [sea or ocean or coast or coastline or Pacific]. Searching just these two terms yields so many databases in the Science and Technology super-category it is difficult to know where to look. Reviewing the Reader’s Guide results after searching the two terms in the Reference category yields no answer. Adding the third term [map] is also not successful. Finally coming up with the idea of a [point of intersection] I get at least some answers. Search phrase:
S SAN(W)ANDREAS(W)FAULT AND
(POINT(N5)INTERSECT?) AND (OCEAN OR SEA OR COAST OR COASTLINE OR PACIFIC)
Databases: When I finally produced this search phrase, only 4 databases with one result each were uncovered in the Science and Technology super-category. A search of the Reference super-category merely produces what was no doubt a subset of 3 of them.
Results: The SciSearch result was unhelpful. The Periodical Abstracts PlusText databases (file 484) came up unavailable. The Energy Science and Technology article did speak to the northern point of intersection. The result is below.
1/9/1
DIALOG(R)File 103:Energy SciTec
(c) 2003 Contains copyrighted material. All rts. reserv.
03768288 EDB-95-012056
Title: Reinterpretation of the Northern Terminus of the San Andreas
Transform System: Implications for basin development and hydrocarbon
exploration
Author(s): Foland, S.S. (Amoco Production Co., Denver, CO (United States));
Enzor, K.J. (Amoco Production Co., Houston, TX (United States))
Conference Title: American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
international conference and exhibition
Conference Location: Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) Conference Date: 21-24 Aug
1994
Source: AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists)
(United States) v 78:7. Coden: AABUD2 ISSN: 0149-1423
Publication Date: Jul 1994
p 1142
Report Number(s): CONF-940803--
Document Type: Journal Article; Conference Literature
Language: English
Journal Announcement: EDB9503
Subfile: ETD (Energy Technology Data Exchange). IIA (DOE contractor)
US DOE Project/NonDOE Project: NP
Country of Origin: United States
Country of Publication: United States
Abstract: The northern San Andreas transform system was studied to evaluate
the tectonic history of offshore Point Arena basin, northern
California. The Point Arena basin lies 250 km north of San Francisco
and encompasses 8500 km[sup 2] on the outer continental shelf. It is a
tertiary basin formed during Eocene subduction and overprinted by
Pliocene-Pleistocene strike-slip motion of the San Andreas fault
system. Interpretation of the data yields a new tectonic model for the
northern San Andreas fault system and Point Arena basin. Previous
models curved the fault system east parallel to the coast, intersecting
faults exposed on Point Delgada, and then bending the fault sharply
west to join the Mendocino triple junction. The new model projects the
San Andreas fault system due northwest, straight into the offshore
basin, as a series of parallel faults aligned with the onshore fault
trace to directly intersect the triple junction. The new interpretation
is supported by aeromagnetic data, which indicates the basin is divided
by a major northwest-trending structural boundary and floored by two
distinct basement types (Mesozoic Salinian granies and Jurassic
Franciscan metasediments). The latest seismic data contain enough
information to determine the genesis and orientation of the offshore
fault system and associated folds. Basin modeling indicates hydrocarbon
generation has occurred in the Miocene source beds. The model estimates
the Point Arena basin contains multibillion barrel potential trapped in
large antiforms associated with the through-going San Andreas system.
Integration of all geotechnical data allowed reinterpretation of the
tectonic history, and produced an enhanced understanding of Point Arena
basin.
Major Descriptors: *CALIFORNIA -- OFFSHORE SITES; *FOSSIL FUELS --
EXPLORATION; *SEDIMENTARY BASINS -- GEOLOGIC HISTORY
Descriptors: GEOLOGIC FAULTS; MAGNETIC SURVEYS; REMOTE SENSING; SEISMIC
SURVEYS
Broader Terms: DEVELOPED COUNTRIES; ENERGY SOURCES; FUELS; GEOLOGIC
FRACTURES; GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES; GEOPHYSICAL SURVEYS; NORTH AMERICA;
SURVEYS; USA
Subject Categories: 020200* -- Petroleum -- Reserves, Geology, &
Exploration
030200 -- Natural Gas -- Reserves, Geology, & Exploration
Answer: Using Dialog, I am having some difficulty coming up with a definitive answer to your question.
An article in the American Association of Petroleum Geologists article indicates that scientists views about this kind of information may change over time as new evidence is uncovered. The following excerpt explains a new view of how and where the San Andreas Fault enters the Pacific.
“The Point Arena basin lies 250 km north of San Francisco and encompasses 8500 km[sup 2] on the outer continental shelf. It is a tertiary basin formed during Eocene subduction and overprinted by Pliocene-Pleistocene strike-slip motion of the San Andreas fault system. Interpretation of the data yields a new tectonic model for the northern San Andreas fault system and Point Arena basin. Previous models curved the fault system east parallel to the coast, intersecting faults exposed on Point Delgada, and then bending the fault sharply west to join the Mendocino triple junction. The new model projects the San Andreas fault system due northwest, straight into the offshore basin…”
The citation is:
Foland, S. & Enzor, K. (1994) Reinterpretation of the Northern Terminus of the san Andreas Transform system: Implications for basin development and hydrocarbon exploration. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, 78, p. 7.
---------------------------------------
Question #4: How do anabolic steroids affect athletic performance?
Strategy: To answer this question I should probably locate several articles in one or more databases. Full text will definitely be helpful. The first concept is [anabolic steroids]. A singular form of the word might be appropriate so I use [anabolic(w)steroid?]. The second concept is [athletic perfomance]. It will probably improve precision to have the terms occur adjacently, but [athlete performs or athletes perform] would be just as good so I choose [athlet?(w)perform?]. It will also help if the two concepts occur close together so I will use the (s) connecter. Search phrase:
S anabolic(w)steroid?(s)athlet?(w)perform?
Databases: Searching the phrase over the Reference super-category yields 16 databases with results sets ranging from 1 to 33. The SPORTSDiscus database looks promising, but from the description it does not seem to include fulltext. Searching across the Science and Technology super-category yields 49 different databases with result sets of 1 to 49. The SPORTSDiscus database appears here as well. The databases with the most results are listed below.
· Gale Group Health & Wellness Database – 49
· EMBASE(1974-present) – 34
· MEDLINE – 33
· SPORTSDiscus – 33
· Periodical Abstracts PlusText™ - 26
· Gale Group Magazine Database – 22
There are several more 5 more databases that have between 15 and 20, but I would be inclined to check some of the above ones first. The EMBASE and SPORTSDiscus descriptions do not look promising as far as providing full text.
Results: The results at the first database searched, Gale Group Health & Wellness Database, seem very relevant, although from the titles and keywords a few are obviously reports of animal studies that probably would not interest most questioners. Other articles are obviously fairly biased toward negative side effects. I examine 8 articles more fully in the #9 format, zeroing in on two in particular that sound like they might be extensive and even-handed.
Answer: Using the
Gale Group Health & Wellness database I found quite a few articles, many of
which are available in full text. Here
is an excerpt of an article in American Family Physician.
“Anabolic Steroids
Action. Anabolic steroids are testosterone derivatives with three mechanisms of action. First, anticatabolic effects reverse the actions of glucocorticoids and help metabolize ingested proteins, converting a negative nitrogen balance into a positive one. Second, anabolic effects directly induce skeletal muscle synthesis. Third, there is a "steroid rush"--a state of euphoria and decreased fatigue that allows the athlete to train harder and longer.
Research. Many early studies used physiologic doses, or doses only two to three times these amounts, and provided mixed results. More recent reviews,(5) controlling for various measurement methods, have concluded that anabolic steroids do indeed cause increased strength and muscle mass. A randomized, double-blind, 10-week study(6) of 40 men examined the effect
of supraphysiologic testosterone doses. The participants were divided into four groups: those given a placebo with or without weight training, and those given 600-mg testosterone enanthate with or without weight training. Diet and training times were controlled. Fat-free mass, muscle size and strength increased more than placebo in both groups taking testosterone than in the groups taking placebo. The subjects in the exercise plus testosterone group had a 9 percent increase in mass and 23 percent increase in bench-press strength, compared with 3 percent and 9 percent, respectively, in the subjects in the exercise plus placebo group.(6) These doses were comparable with the doses that many athletes who use steroids take.
Adverse Effects. Anabolic steroids have many adverse effects, most related to the unwanted androgenic effects. Some of the adverse effects are potentially serious and irreversible (Table 2).
Legality. Anabolic steroids such as testosterone and its derivatives are prescription medications with clearly defined indications. Procuring and using them without a prescription is illegal. Most sports organizations have rules that ban the use of anabolic steroids for any reason.”
The citation is as follows:
Ahrendt, Dale (2001) Ergogenic aids: Counseling the athlete. American Family
Physician, v. 63, no. 5, p. 913.
There is another extensive and even-handed article in
an earlier issue of the same publication.
Hugh, David O. (2003)
Anabolic steroids and ergogenic aids. American Family
Physician, v. 41, no. 4, p. 1156 (8 pages).
Both have bibliographies of other articles on the
subject if you are interested in even more information on the subject.
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