A Reduced Complexity of Vahedi's Tag Estimation Method for DFSA

In order to calculate the number of tags in a radio frequency identification (RFID) system, several tag estimation methods have been investigated in literature and most of the available estimation methods need the overall knowledge of idle, success and collision slots of the previous frame to carry out the tag estimation process. In this article, we present three techniques to reduce the complexity of Vahedi’s tag estimation for tag collision resolution in RFID systems using dynamic frame slotted ALOHA. Our modified and useful approach considers the information about only the number of empty, successful or colliding slots in the previous frame for the tag estimation. Three decision rules were obtained by maximizing the likelihood of success, idle and collision which helps in the reduction of complexity substantially. However, the accuracy of estimation decreases for success-only and idle-only methods while the collision-only method gives a consistent and lower estimate error when the frame sizes and the number of tags increase

Harvesting and summarizing user-generated content for advanced speech-based human-computer interaction

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-164).There have been many assistant applications on mobile devices, which could help people obtain rich Web content such as user-generated data (e.g., reviews, posts, blogs, and tweets). However, online communities and social networks are expanding rapidly and it is impossible for people to browse and digest all the information via simple search interface. To help users obtain information more efficiently, both the interface for data access and the information representation need to be improved. An intuitive and personalized interface, such as a dialogue system, could be an ideal assistant, which engages a user in a continuous dialogue to garner the user's interest and capture the user's intent, and assists the user via speech-navigated interactions. In addition, there is a great need for a type of application that can harvest data from the Web, summarize the information in a concise manner, and present it in an aggregated yet natural way such as direct human dialogue. This thesis, therefore, aims to conduct research on a universal framework for developing speech-based interface that can aggregate user-generated Web content and present the summarized information via speech-based human-computer interaction. To accomplish this goal, several challenges must be met. Firstly, how to interpret users' intention from their spoken input correctly? Secondly, how to interpret the semantics and sentiment of user-generated data and aggregate them into structured yet concise summaries? Lastly, how to develop a dialogue modeling mechanism to handle discourse and present the highlighted information via natural language? This thesis explores plausible approaches to tackle these challenges. We will explore a lexicon modeling approach for semantic tagging to improve spoken language understanding and query interpretation. We will investigate a parse-and-paraphrase paradigm and a sentiment scoring mechanism for information extraction from unstructured user-generated data. We will also explore sentiment-involved dialogue modeling and corpus-based language generation approaches for dialogue and discourse. Multilingual prototype systems in multiple domains have been implemented for demonstration.by Jingjing Liu.Ph.D

CIRA annual report FY 2015/2016

Reporting period April 1, 2015-March 31, 2016

A heuristic information retrieval study : an investigation of methods for enhanced searching of distributed data objects exploiting bidirectional relevance feedback

A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of LutonThe primary aim of this research is to investigate methods of improving the effectiveness of current information retrieval systems. This aim can be achieved by accomplishing numerous supporting objectives. A foundational objective is to introduce a novel bidirectional, symmetrical fuzzy logic theory which may prove valuable to information retrieval, including internet searches of distributed data objects. A further objective is to design, implement and apply the novel theory to an experimental information retrieval system called ANACALYPSE, which automatically computes the relevance of a large number of unseen documents from expert relevance feedback on a small number of documents read. A further objective is to define a methodology used in this work as an experimental information retrieval framework consisting of multiple tables including various formulae which anow a plethora of syntheses of similarity functions, ternl weights, relative term frequencies, document weights, bidirectional relevance feedback and history adjusted term weights. The evaluation of bidirectional relevance feedback reveals a better correspondence between system ranking of documents and users' preferences than feedback free system ranking. The assessment of similarity functions reveals that the Cosine and Jaccard functions perform significantly better than the DotProduct and Overlap functions. The evaluation of history tracking of the documents visited from a root page reveals better system ranking of documents than tracking free information retrieval. The assessment of stemming reveals that system information retrieval performance remains unaffected, while stop word removal does not appear to be beneficial and can sometimes be harmful. The overall evaluation of the experimental information retrieval system in comparison to a leading edge commercial information retrieval system and also in comparison to the expert's golden standard of judged relevance according to established statistical correlation methods reveal enhanced system information retrieval effectiveness

The size anomaly in the London Stock Exchange: an empirical investigation

This study tests the size effect in the London Stock Exchange, using data for all nonfinancial listed firms from January 1985 to December 1995. The initial tests indicate that average stock returns are negatively related to firm size and that small firm portfolios earn returns in excess of the market risk. Further, the study tests whether the size effect is a proxy for variables such as the Book-to- Market Value and the Borrowing Ratio, as well as the impact of the dividend and the Bid- Ask spread on the return of the extreme size portfolios. The originality of this study is in the application of the Markov Chain Model to testing the Random Walk and Bubbles hypotheses, and the Vector Autoregression (VAR) framework for testing the relationship of macroeconomic variables with size portfolio returns

Argumentative zoning information extraction from scientific text

Let me tell you, writing a thesis is not always a barrel of laughs—and strange things can happen, too. For example, at the height of my thesis paranoia, I had a re-current dream in which my cat Amy gave me detailed advice on how to restructure the thesis chapters, which was awfully nice of her. But I also had a lot of human help throughout this time, whether things were going fine or beserk. Most of all, I want to thank Marc Moens: I could not have had a better or more knowledgable supervisor. He always took time for me, however busy he might have been, reading chapters thoroughly in two days. He both had the calmness of mind to give me lots of freedom in research, and the right judgement to guide me away, tactfully but determinedly, from the occasional catastrophe or other waiting along the way. He was great fun to work with and also became a good friend. My work has profitted from the interdisciplinary, interactive and enlightened atmosphere at the Human Communication Centre and the Centre for Cognitive Science (which is now called something else). The Language Technology Group was a great place to work in, as my research was grounded in practical applications develope

The 1993 Goddard Conference on Space Applications of Artificial Intelligence

This publication comprises the papers presented at the 1993 Goddard Conference on Space Applications of Artificial Intelligence held at the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD on May 10-13, 1993. The purpose of this annual conference is to provide a forum in which current research and development directed at space applications of artificial intelligence can be presented and discussed

A robust unification-based parser for Chinese natural language processing.

Chan Shuen-ti Roy.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 168-175).Abstracts in English and Chinese.Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.12Chapter 1.1. --- The nature of natural language processing --- p.12Chapter 1.2. --- Applications of natural language processing --- p.14Chapter 1.3. --- Purpose of study --- p.17Chapter 1.4. --- Organization of this thesis --- p.18Chapter 2. --- Organization and methods in natural language processing --- p.20Chapter 2.1. --- Organization of natural language processing system --- p.20Chapter 2.2. --- Methods employed --- p.22Chapter 2.3. --- Unification-based grammar processing --- p.22Chapter 2.3.1. --- Generalized Phase Structure Grammar (GPSG) --- p.27Chapter 2.3.2. --- Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) --- p.31Chapter 2.3.3. --- Common drawbacks of UBGs --- p.33Chapter 2.4. --- Corpus-based processing --- p.34Chapter 2.4.1. --- Drawback of corpus-based processing --- p.35Chapter 3. --- Difficulties in Chinese language processing and its related works --- p.37Chapter 3.1. --- A glance at the history --- p.37Chapter 3.2. --- Difficulties in syntactic analysis of Chinese --- p.37Chapter 3.2.1. --- Writing system of Chinese causes segmentation problem --- p.38Chapter 3.2.2. --- Words serving multiple grammatical functions without inflection --- p.40Chapter 3.2.3. --- Word order of Chinese --- p.42Chapter 3.2.4. --- The Chinese grammatical word --- p.43Chapter 3.3. --- Related works --- p.45Chapter 3.3.1. --- Unification grammar processing approach --- p.45Chapter 3.3.2. --- Corpus-based processing approach --- p.48Chapter 3.4. --- Restatement of goal --- p.50Chapter 4. --- SERUP: Statistical-Enhanced Robust Unification Parser --- p.54Chapter 5. --- Step One: automatic preprocessing --- p.57Chapter 5.1. --- Segmentation of lexical tokens --- p.57Chapter 5.2. --- "Conversion of date, time and numerals" --- p.61Chapter 5.3. --- Identification of new words --- p.62Chapter 5.3.1. --- Proper nouns ´ؤ Chinese names --- p.63Chapter 5.3.2. --- Other proper nouns and multi-syllabic words --- p.67Chapter 5.4. --- Defining smallest parsing unit --- p.82Chapter 5.4.1. --- The Chinese sentence --- p.82Chapter 5.4.2. --- Breaking down the paragraphs --- p.84Chapter 5.4.3. --- Implementation --- p.87Chapter 6. --- Step Two: grammar construction --- p.91Chapter 6.1. --- Criteria in choosing a UBG model --- p.91Chapter 6.2. --- The grammar in details --- p.92Chapter 6.2.1. --- The PHON feature --- p.93Chapter 6.2.2. --- The SYN feature --- p.94Chapter 6.2.3. --- The SEM feature --- p.98Chapter 6.2.4. --- Grammar rules and features principles --- p.99Chapter 6.2.5. --- Verb phrases --- p.101Chapter 6.2.6. --- Noun phrases --- p.104Chapter 6.2.7. --- Prepositional phrases --- p.113Chapter 6.2.8. --- """Ba2"" and ""Bei4"" constructions" --- p.115Chapter 6.2.9. --- The terminal node S --- p.119Chapter 6.2.10. --- Summary of phrasal rules --- p.121Chapter 6.2.11. --- Morphological rules --- p.122Chapter 7. --- Step Three: resolving structural ambiguities --- p.128Chapter 7.1. --- Sources of ambiguities --- p.128Chapter 7.2. --- The traditional practices: an illustration --- p.132Chapter 7.3. --- Deficiency of current practices --- p.134Chapter 7.4. --- A new point of view: Wu (1999) --- p.140Chapter 7.5. --- Improvement over Wu (1999) --- p.142Chapter 7.6. --- Conclusion on semantic features --- p.146Chapter 8. --- "Implementation, performance and evaluation" --- p.148Chapter 8.1. --- Implementation --- p.148Chapter 8.2. --- Performance and evaluation --- p.150Chapter 8.2.1. --- The test set --- p.150Chapter 8.2.2. --- Segmentation of lexical tokens --- p.150Chapter 8.2.3. --- New word identification --- p.152Chapter 8.2.4. --- Parsing unit segmentation --- p.156Chapter 8.2.5. --- The grammar --- p.158Chapter 8.3. --- Overall performance of SERUP --- p.162Chapter 9. --- Conclusion --- p.164Chapter 9.1. --- Summary of this thesis --- p.164Chapter 9.2. --- Contribution of this thesis --- p.165Chapter 9.3. --- Future work --- p.166References --- p.168Appendix I --- p.176Appendix II --- p.181Appendix III --- p.18

Research reports: 1987 NASA/ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship Program

For the 23rd consecutive year, a NASA/ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship Program was conducted at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). The program was conducted by the University of Alabama in Huntsville and MSFC during the period 1 June to 7 August 1987. Operated under the auspices of the American Society for Engineering Education, the MSFC program, as well as those at other NASA Centers, was sponsored by the Office of University Affairs, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. The basic objectives of the program are: (1) to further the professional knowledge of qualified engineering and science faculty members; (2) to stimulate an exchange of ideas between participants and NASA; (3) to enrich and refresh the research and teaching activities of the participant's institutions; and (4) to contribute to the research objectives of the NASA Centers. This document is a compilation of Fellow's reports on their research during the Summer of 1987