Automating Metadata Extraction: Genre Classification

A problem that frequently arises in the management and integration of scientific data is the lack of context and semantics that would link data encoded in disparate ways. To bridge the discrepancy, it often helps to mine scientific texts to aid the understanding of the database. Mining relevant text can be significantly aided by the availability of descriptive and semantic metadata. The Digital Curation Centre (DCC) has undertaken research to automate the extraction of metadata from documents in PDF([22]). Documents may include scientific journal papers, lab notes or even emails. We suggest genre classification as a first step toward automating metadata extraction. The classification method will be built on looking at the documents from five directions; as an object of specific visual format, a layout of strings with characteristic grammar, an object with stylo-metric signatures, an object with meaning and purpose, and an object linked to previously classified objects and external sources. Some results of experiments in relation to the first two directions are described here; they are meant to be indicative of the promise underlying this multi-faceted approach.

Metaphorical Concepts and Their Cognitive Functions in Medical Discourse: Research Papers vs. Press Articles

The aim of this paper is to disclose linguistic evidence of the use and function of metaphors in medical discourse, by comparing their incidence in two genres, namely research papers and press articles. For that purpose, a sample of texts in both genres is analysed. Four types of conceptual metaphorical projections are identified according to Conceptual Metaphor Theory (i.e. structural, image, ontological, and orientational). Subsequently, the relation of these mappings with cognitive functions – categorization and conceptualization – is described. The purpose is to explore the role these functions play in knowledge construction and their implications for communicative aspects of metaphor usage. The results suggest a characterization of metaphorical concepts in the two medical genres. The conclusions show divergent tendencies in the use of metaphor and its cognitive and communicative functions in the genres analysed

Constructing English in New Zealand: A report on a decade of reform

In 1991, the newly elected National Government of New Zealand set in train a major reform of the New Zealand national curriculum and, a little later, a major reform of the New Zealand qualifications system. These reforms have had a major impact on the construction of English as a subject in New Zealand secondary schools, and the work and professional identity of teachers. This article uses as a basis for analysis a framework which posits four paradigms for subject English and proceeds to examine the current national English curriculum in New Zealand for its underlying discourses. In specific terms, it explores questions of partition and progression, and terminology. In respect of progression, it argues that the current curriculum has imposed a flawed model on teachers and students, in part because of its commitment to the assignment of decontextualised outcomes statements (‘achievement objects’) to staged levels of student development (levels). It also argues that much of the terminology used by the document has had a negative impact on metalinguistic classroom practice. Finally, while it views the national English curriculum as a discursively mixed bag, it notes an absence of critical discourses and a tendency, in recent qualifications reforms, to construct English teachers as technicians and the subject as skills-based

Children’s information retrieval: beyond examining search strategies and interfaces

The study of children’s information retrieval is still for the greater part untouched territory. Meanwhile, children can become lost in the digital information world, because they are confronted with search interfaces, both designed by and for adults. Most current research on children’s information retrieval focuses on examining children’s search performance on existing search interfaces to determine what kind of interfaces are suitable for children’s search behaviour. However, to discover the true nature of children’s search behaviour, we state that research has to go beyond examining search strategies used with existing search interfaces by examining children’s cognitive processes during information-seeking. A paradigm of children’s information retrieval should provide an overview of all the components beyond search interfaces and search strategies that are part of children’s information retrieval process. Better understanding of the nature of children’s search behaviour can help adults design interfaces and information retrieval systems that both support children’s natural search strategies and help them find their way in the digital information world

Preview Cues: Enhancing Access to Multimedia Content

We describe preview cues, a lightweight mechanism to assist exploration of multimedia content. A preview cue provides a preview of the kind of content/information associated with an area (as opposed to an instance) of a domain. Preview cues associate media files and their meta data with the label of a topic in a domain. A lightweight gesture such as brushing a cursor over a label initiates playback of the preview cue file associated with that label. With these cues, users can preview the type of content associated with an area of a domain in order to decide whether or not that area is of interest for further exploration before having to select it. In this paper we describe the preview cues mechanism. We look at one case study of an implementation of preview cues in the audio domain, and we present the results of a user study of preview cue deployment. We conclude with a discussion of issues for future research