Integrating deep and shallow natural language processing components : representations and hybrid architectures

We describe basic concepts and software architectures for the integration of shallow and deep (linguistics-based, semantics-oriented) natural language processing (NLP) components. The main goal of this novel, hybrid integration paradigm is improving robustness of deep processing. After an introduction to constraint-based natural language parsing, we give an overview of typical shallow processing tasks. We introduce XML standoff markup as an additional abstraction layer that eases integration of NLP components, and propose the use of XSLT as a standardized and efficient transformation language for online NLP integration. In the main part of the thesis, we describe our contributions to three hybrid architecture frameworks that make use of these fundamentals. SProUT is a shallow system that uses elements of deep constraint-based processing, namely type hierarchy and typed feature structures. WHITEBOARD is the first hybrid architecture to integrate not only part-of-speech tagging, but also named entity recognition and topological parsing, with deep parsing. Finally, we present Heart of Gold, a middleware architecture that generalizes WHITEBOARD into various dimensions such as configurability, multilinguality and flexible processing strategies. We describe various applications that have been implemented using the hybrid frameworks such as structured named entity recognition, information extraction, creative document authoring support, deep question analysis, as well as evaluations. In WHITEBOARD, e.g., it could be shown that shallow pre-processing increases both coverage and efficiency of deep parsing by a factor of more than two. Heart of Gold not only forms the basis for applications that utilize semanticsoriented natural language analysis, but also constitutes a complex research instrument for experimenting with novel processing strategies combining deep and shallow methods, and eases replication and comparability of results.Diese Arbeit beschreibt Grundlagen und Software-Architekturen für die Integration von flachen mit tiefen (linguistikbasierten und semantikorientierten) Verarbeitungskomponenten für natürliche Sprache. Das Hauptziel dieses neuartigen, hybriden Integrationparadigmas ist die Verbesserung der Robustheit der tiefen Verarbeitung. Nach einer Einführung in constraintbasierte Analyse natürlicher Sprache geben wir einen Überblick über typische Aufgaben flacher Sprachverarbeitungskomponenten. Wir führen XML Standoff-Markup als zusätzliche Abstraktionsebene ein, mit deren Hilfe sich Sprachverarbeitungskomponenten einfacher integrieren lassen. Ferner schlagen wir XSLT als standardisierte und effiziente Transformationssprache für die Online-Integration vor. Im Hauptteil der Arbeit stellen wir unsere Beiträge zu drei hybriden Architekturen vor, welche auf den beschriebenen Grundlagen aufbauen. SProUT ist ein flaches System, das Elemente tiefer Verarbeitung wie Typhierarchie und getypte Merkmalsstrukturen nutzt. WHITEBOARD ist das erste System, welches nicht nur Part-of-speech-Tagging, sondern auch Eigennamenerkennung und flaches topologisches Parsing mit tiefer Verarbeitung kombiniert. Schließlich wird Heart of Gold vorgestellt, eine Middleware-Architektur, welche WHITEBOARD hinsichtlich verschiedener Dimensionen wie Konfigurierbarkeit, Mehrsprachigkeit und Unterstützung flexibler Verarbeitungsstrategien generalisiert. Wir beschreiben verschiedene, mit Hilfe der hybriden Architekturen implementierte Anwendungen wie strukturierte Eigennamenerkennung, Informationsextraktion, Kreativitätsunterstützung bei der Dokumenterstellung, tiefe Frageanalyse, sowie Evaluationen. So konnte z.B. in WHITEBOARD gezeigt werden, dass durch flache Vorverarbeitung sowohl Abdeckung als auch Effizienz des tiefen Parsers mehr als verdoppelt werden. Heart of Gold bildet nicht nur Grundlage für semantikorientierte Sprachanwendungen, sondern stellt auch eine wissenschaftliche Experimentierplattform für weitere, neuartige Kombinationsstrategien dar, welche zudem die Replizierbarkeit und Vergleichbarkeit von Ergebnissen erleichtert

Geometric proportional model of the church of the Ljubostinja monastery

The use of proportions is one of the oldest theoretical issues in architecture. However, sometimes geometry, with its specific shapes and constraints between them, can fully describe the logic of architectural design. This paper presents geometric proportional schemas of the Serbian medieval church of the monastery Ljubostinja (built around 1387), the representative of so-called Morava architectural style. The research is partly based on Ivo Štambuk’s proportional canon, which he applied on several churches, in wider Mediterranean region during prolonged period of time (4th to 15th c.). Štambuk’s proportional canon is based on two circles and one equilateral triangle constrained to each other and set relative to characteristic points of the church plan and cross-section, above all the location of the altar and the center of the church dome. By adding principles of triangulation and dynamic rectangles, this paper demonstrates more precise proportional model of the church plan and the cross-section through the dome. Results show that the proportions of the Ljubostinja’s church can be interpreted by dynamic rectangles (their diagonals are square roots of full numbers) with ratios 1:√2, 1:√3, 1:√5 and, in addition, by specific scheme of equilateral triangles which are constrained to the characteristic points of the church space: center point of the apse and the dome

ASYMMETRY INFORMATION: INVESTORS TRUST REFLECTION TOWARD QUALITY OF EARNINGS

This article aims to describe the investors' trust toward quality of earnings reflection proxied by earnings response coeffisient (ERC). The study was conducted on 296 manufacturing companies that meet the criteria of observations in 2011 to 2015. The variables used in this research is the board of directors, audit comitee, the independent board as exogenous variables, information asymmetry as an intervening variable and earnings response coeffisient (ERC) as an endogenous variable by means of persistency as control variables. The board of directors and the independent board in this article as a proxy of corporate governance show the effect on the information gap represented by information asymmetry, while the audit comitee Showed the opposite effect. Information gaps provide explanatory power on the reflection of investor confidence in the quality of earnings that are Reported company