Natural language processing

Beginning with the basic issues of NLP, this chapter aims to chart the major research activities in this area since the last ARIST Chapter in 1996 (Haas, 1996), including: (i) natural language text processing systems - text summarization, information extraction, information retrieval, etc., including domain-specific applications; (ii) natural language interfaces; (iii) NLP in the context of www and digital libraries ; and (iv) evaluation of NLP systems

Evaluation of a Collaborative Model Using A Case Study Analysis of Watershed Planning in the Intermountain West

Planning methods that involve collaboration are gaining popularity and currently being applied in a variety of resource management issues . Based on current planning theory, researchers have proposed a conceptual collaborative model for environmental planning and management . This thesis evaluates the usefulness of the model to describe the range of factors important for the establishment and operation of collaboration in environmental planning. This iterative model suggests that collaboration emerges from a series of antecedents and then proceeds sequentially through problem setting, direction setting, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation phases. The evaluation was based on three case studies of watershed-based planning efforts in the lntermountain West. Watershed planning efforts were selected because watersheds have been identified as a suitable framework for addressing many environmental issues . In addition, watersheds frequently cross many political boundaries and therefore planning efforts in a watershed context often require collaboration between the various entities. Based on the case study analysis, the model seems to realistically describe fundamental collaborative elements in environmental planning . Factors that proved to be particularly important include the involvement of stakeholders in data collection and analysis and the establishment of measurable objectives . Informal face to face dialogue and watershed field tours were critical for identifying issues and establishing trust among stakeholders. Group organizational structure also plays a key role in facilitating collaboration . From this analysis, suggestions for refining the model are proposed. In addition , key elements that planners should consider when embarking on a collaborative effort are highlighted

Haec fortis sequitur illam indocti possident: A linguistic analysis of demonstratives in genres of early Latin fragments

This study examines the claim that demonstratives are used more frequently in Latin comedies than in other genres (Karakasis, 2014; Palmer, 1975), as well as additional hypotheses regarding the use of demonstratives within this language. To examine these claims, I created a corpus composed of fragments of Early Latin authors of comedic, tragic, and non-dramatic works. I examined demonstratives within this corpus for frequency, form, syntactic role, affective force, co-occurrence with personal pronouns, and use in multimembral demonstrative sets. This study provides the first quantitative evaluation of demonstrative use for often neglected authors of Early Latin. It also identifies those theories regarding demonstrative use that have more support within this time and suggests why these theories might hold true and how they might impact the overall demonstrative count for comedy, tragedy, non-dramatic works, or Latin as a whole

Investigating climate information services through a gendered lens

This paper explores access to climate change-related information through a gendered lens. Climate change is rapidly affecting the lives of farmers throughout the world, producing a need for adaptive agricultural livelihoods strategies. A central mechanism in the development of adaptive strategies to climate change is the strengthening and effective utilization of information channels. The more relevant and useful the information is to the user, the better the user may be able to adapt to changes in climate. Despite this critical need for accessing climate-related information, many of the people who are most vulnerable to climate change and environmental shocks are often on the periphery of receiving practical information. In this paper, we show that women farmers are overwhelmingly left out of many forms of communication channels. Thus, the purpose of this study is to identify instances in which methods of communication are missing women and how to overcome these gaps. What we propose is a context-dependent hybridization of traditional methods of communication, which are familiar to communities, and modern technologies, which can be expedient in sharing new scientific climate knowledge with farmers

The integration of WHO classifications and reference terminologies to improve information exchange and quality of electronic health records: the SNOMED\u2013CT ICF harmonization within the ICD-11 revision process

Introduction The Family of International Classifications (WHO-FIC) is a suite of integrated classification products of the World Health Organization (WHO) that can be used to provide information on different aspects of health and the health-care system. These tools and their national modifications allow, together with the related classifications of health interventions, full representation of the volumes of health services provided in the various countries that adopt case mix systems. The use of standardized terminologies in classifications, for the definition of the descriptive characteristics of the disease, is a necessary step to allow full integration between different information systems, making available information about the diagnosed diseases, the performed health procedures and the level of functioning of the person, for very different uses such as, for example, public health, safety of care and quality control. Materials and methods Within the WHO and International Health Terminology Standards Development Organization (IHTSDO) collaboration agreement, a work of independent review was carried out on all the Activities and Participation categories (A&P) of the WHO International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), in order to identify equivalence and gaps to the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine-Clinical Terms (SNOMED-CT) concepts in terms of lexical, semantic (content) and hierarchical matching, to harmonize WHO classifications and SNOMED CT. Results and conclusions The performed mapping suggests that the ICF A&P categories are semantically and hierarchically different from the terms of SNOMED CT thus confirming the high value of the WHO-IHTSDO synergy aiming to frame together, in a joint effort, their respective unique contribution. Recommendations were formulated to WHO and IHTSDO in order to better frame together, in a joint effort, their respective unique contribution ensuring that SNOMED CT and ICF can interoperate in electronic health records

Problematizing fit and survival: transforming the law of requisite variety through complexity misalignment

The law of requisite variety is widely employed in management theorizing and is linked with core strategy themes such as contingency and fit. We reflect upon requisite variety as an archetypal borrowed concept. We contrast its premises with insights from the institutional literature and commitment literature, draw propositions that set boundaries to its applicability, and review the ramifications of what we call “complexity misalignment.” In this way we contradict foundational assumptions of the law, problematize adaptation- and survival-centric views of strategizing, and theorize the role of human agency in variously complex regimes

Survey of the State of the Art in Natural Language Generation: Core tasks, applications and evaluation

This paper surveys the current state of the art in Natural Language Generation (NLG), defined as the task of generating text or speech from non-linguistic input. A survey of NLG is timely in view of the changes that the field has undergone over the past decade or so, especially in relation to new (usually data-driven) methods, as well as new applications of NLG technology. This survey therefore aims to (a) give an up-to-date synthesis of research on the core tasks in NLG and the architectures adopted in which such tasks are organised; (b) highlight a number of relatively recent research topics that have arisen partly as a result of growing synergies between NLG and other areas of artificial intelligence; (c) draw attention to the challenges in NLG evaluation, relating them to similar challenges faced in other areas of Natural Language Processing, with an emphasis on different evaluation methods and the relationships between them.Comment: Published in Journal of AI Research (JAIR), volume 61, pp 75-170. 118 pages, 8 figures, 1 tabl

A Study of Accomodation of Prosodic and Temporal Features in Spoken Dialogues in View of Speech Technology Applications

Inter-speaker accommodation is a well-known property of human speech and human interaction in general. Broadly it refers to the behavioural patterns of two (or more) interactants and the effect of the (verbal and non-verbal) behaviour of each to that of the other(s). Implementation of thisbehavior in spoken dialogue systems is desirable as an improvement on the naturalness of humanmachine interaction. However, traditional qualitative descriptions of accommodation phenomena do not provide sufficient information for such an implementation. Therefore, a quantitativedescription of inter-speaker accommodation is required. This thesis proposes a methodology of monitoring accommodation during a human or humancomputer dialogue, which utilizes a moving average filter over sequential frames for each speaker. These frames are time-aligned across the speakers, hence the name Time Aligned Moving Average (TAMA). Analysis of spontaneous human dialogue recordings by means of the TAMA methodology reveals ubiquitous accommodation of prosodic features (pitch, intensity and speech rate) across interlocutors, and allows for statistical (time series) modeling of the behaviour, in a way which is meaningful for implementation in spoken dialogue system (SDS) environments.In addition, a novel dialogue representation is proposed that provides an additional point of view to that of TAMA in monitoring accommodation of temporal features (inter-speaker pause length and overlap frequency). This representation is a percentage turn distribution of individual speakercontributions in a dialogue frame which circumvents strict attribution of speaker-turns, by considering both interlocutors as synchronously active. Both TAMA and turn distribution metrics indicate that correlation of average pause length and overlap frequency between speakers can be attributed to accommodation (a debated issue), and point to possible improvements in SDS “turntaking” behaviour. Although the findings of the prosodic and temporal analyses can directly inform SDS implementations, further work is required in order to describe inter-speaker accommodation sufficiently, as well as to develop an adequate testing platform for evaluating the magnitude ofperceived improvement in human-machine interaction. Therefore, this thesis constitutes a first step towards a convincingly useful implementation of accommodation in spoken dialogue systems