559 research outputs found
A Digital Library Approach to the Reconstruction of Ancient Sunken Ships
Throughout the ages, countless shipwrecks have left behind a rich historical and
technological legacy. In this context, nautical archaeologists study the remains of these
boats and ships and the cultures that created and used them. Ship reconstruction can be
seen as an incomplete jigsaw reconstruction problem. Therefore, I hypothesize that a
computational approach based on digital libraries can enhance the reconstruction of a
composite object (ship) from fragmented, incomplete, and damaged pieces (timbers and
ship remains).
This dissertation describes a framework for enabling the integration of textual
and visual information pertaining to wooden vessels from sources in multiple languages.
Linking related pieces of information relies on query expansion and improving
relevance. This is accomplished with the implementation of an algorithm that derives
relationships from terms in a specialized glossary, combining them with properties and
concepts expressed in an ontology.
The main archaeological sources used in this dissertation are data generated from
a 17th-century Portuguese ship, the Pepper Wreck, complemented with information
obtained from other documented and studied shipwrecks. Shipbuilding treatises
spanning from the late 16th- to the 19th-centuries provide textual sources along with
various illustrations. Additional visual materials come from a repository of photographs
and drawings documenting numerous underwater excavations and surveys.
The ontology is based on a rich database of archaeological information compiled
by Mr. Richard Steffy. The original database was analyzed and transformed into an
ontological representation in RDF-OWL. Its creation followed an iterative methodology
which included numerous revisions by nautical archaeologists. Although this ontology
does not pretend to be a final version, it provides a robust conceptualization.
The proposed approach is evaluated by measuring the usefulness of the glossary
and the ontology. Evaluation results show improvements in query expansion across
languages based on Blind Relevance Feedback using the glossary as query expansion
collection. Similarly, contextualization was also improved by using the ontology for
categorizing query results. These results suggest that related external sources can be
exploited to better contextualize information in a particular domain. Given the
characteristics of the materials in nautical archaeology, the framework proposed in this
dissertation can be adapted and extended to other domains
Text Extraction and Web Searching in a Non-Latin Language
Recent studies of queries submitted to Internet Search Engines have shown that
non-English queries and unclassifiable queries have nearly tripled during the
last decade. Most search engines were originally engineered for English. They
do not take full account of inflectional semantics nor, for example, diacritics or
the use of capitals which is a common feature in languages other than English.
The literature concludes that searching using non-English and non-Latin based
queries results in lower success and requires additional user effort to achieve
acceptable precision.
The primary aim of this research study is to develop an evaluation methodology
for identifying the shortcomings and measuring the effectiveness of
search engines with non-English queries. It also proposes a number of solutions
for the existing situation. A Greek query log is analyzed considering the morphological
features of the Greek language. Also a text extraction experiment
revealed some problems related to the encoding and the morphological and
grammatical differences among semantically equivalent Greek terms. A first
stopword list for Greek based on a domain independent collection has been
produced and its application in Web searching has been studied. The effect of
lemmatization of query terms and the factors influencing text based image retrieval
in Greek are also studied. Finally, an instructional strategy is presented
for teaching non-English students how to effectively utilize search engines.
The evaluation of the capabilities of the search engines showed that international
and nationwide search engines ignore most of the linguistic idiosyncrasies
of Greek and other complex European languages. There is a lack of
freely available non-English resources to work with (test corpus, linguistic resources,
etc). The research showed that the application of standard IR techniques,
such as stopword removal, stemming, lemmatization and query expansion,
in Greek Web searching increases precision.
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B!SON: A Tool for Open Access Journal Recommendation
Finding a suitable open access journal to publish scientific work is a complex task: Researchers have to navigate a constantly growing number of journals, institutional agreements with publishers, fundersâ conditions and the risk of Predatory Publishers. To help with these challenges, we introduce a web-based journal recommendation system called B!SON. It is developed based on a systematic requirements analysis, built on open data, gives publisher-independent recommendations and works across domains. It suggests open access journals based on title, abstract and references provided by the user. The recommendation quality has been evaluated using a large test set of 10,000 articles. Development by two German scientific libraries ensures the longevity of the project
Computer Vision and Architectural History at Eye Level:Mixed Methods for Linking Research in the Humanities and in Information Technology
Information on the history of architecture is embedded in our daily surroundings, in vernacular and heritage buildings and in physical objects, photographs and plans. Historians study these tangible and intangible artefacts and the communities that built and used them. Thus valuableinsights are gained into the past and the present as they also provide a foundation for designing the future. Given that our understanding of the past is limited by the inadequate availability of data, the article demonstrates that advanced computer tools can help gain more and well-linked data from the past. Computer vision can make a decisive contribution to the identification of image content in historical photographs. This application is particularly interesting for architectural history, where visual sources play an essential role in understanding the built environment of the past, yet lack of reliable metadata often hinders the use of materials. The automated recognition contributes to making a variety of image sources usable forresearch.<br/
Computer Vision and Architectural History at Eye Level:Mixed Methods for Linking Research in the Humanities and in Information Technology
Information on the history of architecture is embedded in our daily surroundings, in vernacular and heritage buildings and in physical objects, photographs and plans. Historians study these tangible and intangible artefacts and the communities that built and used them. Thus valuableinsights are gained into the past and the present as they also provide a foundation for designing the future. Given that our understanding of the past is limited by the inadequate availability of data, the article demonstrates that advanced computer tools can help gain more and well-linked data from the past. Computer vision can make a decisive contribution to the identification of image content in historical photographs. This application is particularly interesting for architectural history, where visual sources play an essential role in understanding the built environment of the past, yet lack of reliable metadata often hinders the use of materials. The automated recognition contributes to making a variety of image sources usable forresearch.<br/
Computer Vision and Architectural History at Eye Level:Mixed Methods for Linking Research in the Humanities and in Information Technology
Information on the history of architecture is embedded in our daily surroundings, in vernacular and heritage buildings and in physical objects, photographs and plans. Historians study these tangible and intangible artefacts and the communities that built and used them. Thus valuableinsights are gained into the past and the present as they also provide a foundation for designing the future. Given that our understanding of the past is limited by the inadequate availability of data, the article demonstrates that advanced computer tools can help gain more and well-linked data from the past. Computer vision can make a decisive contribution to the identification of image content in historical photographs. This application is particularly interesting for architectural history, where visual sources play an essential role in understanding the built environment of the past, yet lack of reliable metadata often hinders the use of materials. The automated recognition contributes to making a variety of image sources usable forresearch.<br/
Computer Vision and Architectural History at Eye Level:Mixed Methods for Linking Research in the Humanities and in Information Technology
Information on the history of architecture is embedded in our daily surroundings, in vernacular and heritage buildings and in physical objects, photographs and plans. Historians study these tangible and intangible artefacts and the communities that built and used them. Thus valuableinsights are gained into the past and the present as they also provide a foundation for designing the future. Given that our understanding of the past is limited by the inadequate availability of data, the article demonstrates that advanced computer tools can help gain more and well-linked data from the past. Computer vision can make a decisive contribution to the identification of image content in historical photographs. This application is particularly interesting for architectural history, where visual sources play an essential role in understanding the built environment of the past, yet lack of reliable metadata often hinders the use of materials. The automated recognition contributes to making a variety of image sources usable forresearch.<br/
Mixing Methods: Practical Insights from the Humanities in the Digital Age
The digital transformation is accompanied by two simultaneous processes: digital humanities challenging the humanities, their theories, methodologies and disciplinary identities, and pushing computer science to get involved in new fields. But how can qualitative and quantitative methods be usefully combined in one research project? What are the theoretical and methodological principles across all disciplinary digital approaches? This volume focusses on driving innovation and conceptualising the humanities in the 21st century. Building on the results of 10 research projects, it serves as a useful tool for designing cutting-edge research that goes beyond conventional strategies
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