A Flexible Shallow Approach to Text Generation

In order to support the efficient development of NL generation systems, two orthogonal methods are currently pursued with emphasis: (1) reusable, general, and linguistically motivated surface realization components, and (2) simple, task-oriented template-based techniques. In this paper we argue that, from an application-oriented perspective, the benefits of both are still limited. In order to improve this situation, we suggest and evaluate shallow generation methods associated with increased flexibility. We advise a close connection between domain-motivated and linguistic ontologies that supports the quick adaptation to new tasks and domains, rather than the reuse of general resources. Our method is especially designed for generating reports with limited linguistic variations.Comment: LaTeX, 10 page

Generating natural language specifications from UML class diagrams

Early phases of software development are known to be problematic, difficult to manage and errors occurring during these phases are expensive to correct. Many systems have been developed to aid the transition from informal Natural Language requirements to semistructured or formal specifications. Furthermore, consistency checking is seen by many software engineers as the solution to reduce the number of errors occurring during the software development life cycle and allow early verification and validation of software systems. However, this is confined to the models developed during analysis and design and fails to include the early Natural Language requirements. This excludes proper user involvement and creates a gap between the original requirements and the updated and modified models and implementations of the system. To improve this process, we propose a system that generates Natural Language specifications from UML class diagrams. We first investigate the variation of the input language used in naming the components of a class diagram based on the study of a large number of examples from the literature and then develop rules for removing ambiguities in the subset of Natural Language used within UML. We use WordNet,a linguistic ontology, to disambiguate the lexical structures of the UML string names and generate semantically sound sentences. Our system is developed in Java and is tested on an independent though academic case study

Federal Funding for Integrated Service Delivery: A Toolkit

Outlines the integrated approach to career advancement, income enhancements and work supports, and financial and asset-building services of Casey's Center for Working Families. Examines federal funding streams available, eligibility, and potential issues

Automatic design of multimodal presentations

We describe our attempt to integrate multiple AI components such as planning, knowledge representation, natural language generation, and graphics generation into a functioning prototype called WIP that plans and coordinates multimodal presentations in which all material is generated by the system. WIP allows the generation of alternate presentations of the same content taking into account various contextual factors such as the user\u27s degree of expertise and preferences for a particular output medium or mode. The current prototype of WIP generates multimodal explanations and instructions for assembling, using, maintaining or repairing physical devices. This paper introduces the task, the functionality and the architecture of the WIP system. We show that in WIP the design of a multimodal document is viewed as a non-monotonic process that includes various revisions of preliminary results, massive replanning and plan repairs, and many negotiations between design and realization components in order to achieve an optimal division of work between text and graphics. We describe how the plan-based approach to presentation design can be exploited so that graphics generation influences the production of text and vice versa. Finally, we discuss the generation of cross-modal expressions that establish referential relationships between text and graphics elements

Strategic Philanthropy Integrating Investments In Asset Building: A Framework for Impact

Despite philanthropy's commitments to improve family economic security, stability, and growth, a lack of cross-sector collaboration limits the impacts including constrained public resources and siloed programmatic services. A new approach to address these challenges is the development of a framework that can more effectively tie together and shape the disparate policies, investment structures, practices, and stakeholders to leverage resources and impacts. The strategic framework of asset development helps to create an effective, integrated, and sustainable system, enabling families to move through safety nets into financial security and opportunity. Asset building integration shifts investment goals from remedying deficiencies to building on strengths by increasing capability, access, and opportunity. It enables foundations to integrate and expand the scope, scale, and long-term impact of their work, shifting the focus from families' vulnerabilities to their opportunities for success. This paper provides compelling evidence about how funders are applying this strategic approach to effect greater social and economic impact

Sources of Flexibility in Dynamic Hypertext Generation

Dynamic hypertext' is hypertext which is automatically generated at the point of need. A number of NLG systems have now been developed to operate within a hypertext environment; and now that these systems are becoming widely available on the World Wide }Veb, it is useful to take stock of how well-equipped NLG technology is to work in this new domain. A generation system in a hypertext environment faces a specific set of requirements; here, we discuss those requirements, and the resources that can be provided to help meet them. Examples are drawn from a number of systems, including our own prototype, ILEX0. We conclude by indicating that the major benefit of such systems could be in the way that they combine flexibility with the illusion of user control