JTEC panel report on machine translation in Japan

The goal of this report is to provide an overview of the state of the art of machine translation (MT) in Japan and to provide a comparison between Japanese and Western technology in this area. The term 'machine translation' as used here, includes both the science and technology required for automating the translation of text from one human language to another. Machine translation is viewed in Japan as an important strategic technology that is expected to play a key role in Japan's increasing participation in the world economy. MT is seen in Japan as important both for assimilating information into Japanese as well as for disseminating Japanese information throughout the world. Most of the MT systems now available in Japan are transfer-based systems. The majority of them exploit a case-frame representation of the source text as the basis of the transfer process. There is a gradual movement toward the use of deeper semantic representations, and some groups are beginning to look at interlingua-based systems

An investigation into the use of linguistic context in cursive script recognition by computer

The automatic recognition of hand-written text has been a goal for over thirty five years. The highly ambiguous nature of cursive writing (with high variability between not only different writers, but even between different samples from the same writer), means that systems based only on visual information are prone to errors. It is suggested that the application of linguistic knowledge to the recognition task may improve recognition accuracy. If a low-level (pattern recognition based) recogniser produces a candidate lattice (i.e. a directed graph giving a number of alternatives at each word position in a sentence), then linguistic knowledge can be used to find the 'best' path through the lattice. There are many forms of linguistic knowledge that may be used to this end. This thesis looks specifically at the use of collocation as a source of linguistic knowledge. Collocation describes the statistical tendency of certain words to co-occur in a language, within a defined range. It is suggested that this tendency may be exploited to aid automatic text recognition. The construction and use of a post-processing system incorporating collocational knowledge is described, as are a number of experiments designed to test the effectiveness of collocation as an aid to text recognition. The results of these experiments suggest that collocational statistics may be a useful form of knowledge for this application and that further research may produce a system of real practical use

Effective Knowledge Transfer: A Terminological Perspective - Dismantling The Jargon Barrier To Knowledge About Computer Security

The research is concerned with the terminological problems that computer users experience when they try to formulate their knowledge needs and attempt to access information contained in computer manuals or online help systems while building up their knowledge. This is the recognized but unresolved problem of communication between the specialist and the layman. The initial hypothesis was that computer users, through their knowledge of language, have some prior knowledge of the subdomain of computing they are trying to come to terms with, and that language can be a facilitating mechanism, or an obstacle, in the development of that knowledge. Related to this is the supposition that users have a conceptual apparatus based on both theoretical knowledge and experience of the world, and of several domains of special reference related to the environment in which they operate. The theoretical argument was developed by exploring the relationship between knowledge and language, and considering the efficacy of terms as agents of special subject knowledge representation. Having charted in a systematic way the territory of knowledge sources and types, we were able to establish that there are many aspects of knowledge which cannot be represented by terms. This submission is important, as it leads to the realization that significant elements of knowledge are being disregarded in retrieval systems because they are normally expressed by language elements which do not enjoy the status of terms. Furthermore, we introduced the notion of `linguistic ease of retrieval' as a challenge to more conventional thinking which focuses on retrieval results

What is 'digital literacy'? A Pragmatic investigation.

Digital literacy has been an increasingly-debated and discussed topic since the publication of Paul Gilster’s seminal Digital Literacy in 1997. It is, however, a complex term predicated on previous work in new literacies such as information literacy and computer literacy. To make sense of this complexity and uncertainty I come up with a ‘continuum of ambiguity’ and employ a Pragmatic methodology. This thesis makes three main contributions to the research area. First, I argue that considering a plurality of digital literacies helps avoid some of the problems of endlessly-redefining ‘digital literacy’. Second, I abstract eight essential elements of digital literacies from the research literature which can lead to positive action. Finally, I argue that co-constructing a definition of digital literacies (using the eight essential elements as a guide) is at least as important as the outcome

Effective knowledge transfer: a terminological perspective - Dismantling the jargon barrier to knowledge about computer security

The research is concerned with the terminological problems that computer users experience when they try to formulate their knowledge needs and attempt to access information contained in computer manuals or online help systems while building up their knowledge. This is the recognised but unresolved problem of communication between the specialist and the layman. The initial hypothesis was that computer users, through their knowledge of language, have some prior knowledge of the subdomain of computing they are trying to come to terms with, and that language can be a facilitating mechanism, or an obstacle, in the development of that knowledge. Related to this is the supposition that users have a conceptual apparatus based on both theoretical knowledge and experience of the world, and of several domains of special reference related to the environment in which they operate. The theoretical argument was developed by exploring the relationship between knowledge and language, and considering the efficacy of terms as agents of special subject knowledge representation. Having charted in a systematic way the territory of knowledge sources and types, we were able to establish that there are many aspects of knowledge which cannot be represented by terms. This submission is important, as it leads to the realisation that significant elements of knowledge are being disregarded in retrieval systems because they are normally expressed by language elements which do not enjoy the status of terms. Furthermore, we introduced the notion of `linguistic ease of retrieval' as a challenge to more conventional thinking which focuses on retrieval results

Framework for feminist technology intervention

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (p. 58-60).This thesis describes a feminist framework for technological interventions. I first define the problem by contrasting studies from psychology with research from other social sciences to determine that the primary reason for the gender imbalance in technological spaces is based in hostile work environments and not in the fact that women are disinterested as recent psychological research claims. This lack of diversity affects how technology products are shaped and how consumers interact with these artefacts. I outline a techno-feminist approach to intervention by looking at legislative and technological interventions into tech workspaces. Because this thesis is concerned with creating a framework for interventions rather than an individual technology, I describe different collaboration and production models typical to contemporary technology. These models are Web 2.0, open source software production, and collaborative platforms for distributing physical technology objects. In order to find out how to build a technological framework for making technology spaces more equitable for women, I created two projects. The first one is a Web 2.0 platform that provides data about gender and the technology workspace as well as instructions for visualizing it. The second one is a collaboration on a feminist technology for the workplace. The conclusion of the thesis is a description of future work based on these two projects.by Annina Rüst.S.M

Kashmiri to English Machine Translation: A Study of Morpho-Syntactic Divergence Patterns

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Thesaurus-Based Methodologies and Tools for Maintaining Persistent Application Systems

The research presented in this thesis establishes thesauri as a viable foundation for models, methodologies and tools for change management. Most of the research has been undertaken in a persistent programming environment. Persistent language technology has enabled the construction of sophisticated and well-integrated change management tools; tools and applications reside in the same store. At the same time, the research has enhanced persistent programming environments with models, methodologies and tools that are crucial to the exploitation of persistent programming in construction and maintenance of long-lived, data-intensive application systems

The gendered symbolism of office computers across three generations

The computer has changed in form and function over the last 50 years. Once a sprawling mainframe, revered and fed data encoded in punched cards, it is now a multi function hand-held device used to share personal information with an anonymous audience. It is omnipresent in UK workplaces, fundamental to the majority of businesses and critical to administrative processes. But the computer is just a machine - or is it? This is a qualitative research study within a symbolic interactionist phenomenology using narrative to explore the meaning of the computer held by participants from three generational cohorts. The research concludes that the computer is more than just the sum of its component parts. The computer is a symbol of community, providing access to online social groups, enhancing female solidarity and supporting the development of international alliances. It means freedom and independence, is a lever for professional development and key to a fathomless vat of knowledge. It is also a symbol of oppression, a stifling force, invading private space, encroaching on the sanctity of the family home and seeping into leisure time. It represents the fragmentation of social groups and isolation of individuals as it disrupts social bonds and usurps physical connection. There are whiffs of male symbolism and, being a technological artefact, the computer parades as a thing that men do. However, the study finds technology is what happens behind the scenes, and it is the application of the computer that is engendered. Symbolic interactionism theorises that we act and react with things according to the meaning we attach to them, and that meaning comes from how we see other people act/react. Thus it would follow that how we relate to the computer as a symbol is impacting on how we relate to each other