Processing Metonymy: a Domain-Model Heuristic Graph Traversal Approach

We address here the treatment of metonymic expressions from a knowledge representation perspective, that is, in the context of a text understanding system which aims to build a conceptual representation from texts according to a domain model expressed in a knowledge representation formalism. We focus in this paper on the part of the semantic analyser which deals with semantic composition. We explain how we use the domain model to handle metonymy dynamically, and more generally, to underlie semantic composition, using the knowledge descriptions attached to each concept of our ontology as a kind of concept-level, multiple-role qualia structure. We rely for this on a heuristic path search algorithm that exploits the graphic aspects of the conceptual graphs formalism. The methods described have been implemented and applied on French texts in the medical domain.Comment: 6 pages, LaTeX, one encapsulated PostScript figure, uses colap.sty (included) and epsf.sty (available from the cmp-lg macro library). To appear in Coling-9

Instrumenter la lecture savante de documents multimédia temporels

L’évolution des technologies de numérisation et de diffusion documentaires confronte le lettré à des contenus et des méthodes de travail qui excèdent le cadre théorique et technique hérité de la tradition de la lettre et de l’imprimé. Prenant acte du caractère matériel et spatial de l’activité critique, où la manipulation des connaissances est conjointe à la manipulation des objets qui les incarnent, cet article propose une réflexion sur la nécessité de prolonger l’action de l’ingénierie documentaire dans le champ des interfaces homme-machine. C’est en effet par l’espace – autant celui de son environnement que celui de l’écriture – que le lecteur se rend maître de la temporalité de ses documents et de son projet interprétatif même. Notre enjeu est alors de comprendre les fondements de l’activité critique pour esquisser des directions structurantes pour son instrumentation informatique. Suite à l’exposition de ces aspects théoriques, nous présenterons quelques outils et instruments articulés dans un environnement de lecture savante multimédia, actuellement en cours de développement et de test

Licensing Digital Content With A Generic Ontology: Escaping From The Rights Expression Language Jungle

International audienceDigital contents distributed over the internet are regulated by law and by technical management systems. The latter include a semantic component that describes licenses, i.e. rights of use which are granted to the user. These elements of Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems are called Rights Expression Languages (REL), they gather terms and relations needed to build licenses. Some are based on an ontology of online licenses, not necessarily related to applicable law and various legal systems, and cannot interoperate. As a consequence, there is a need for a more generic way to express licenses. Here, generic means that rightholders should only need to express the license they need once, and semi-automatic tools should then translate this license so it can be browsed by any specific system. Hence it implies the necessity to be able to model concept semantics in order to translate a license expressed in generic terms into more specific terms that are compliant with the specific standards used by distribution systems. This work comes as part of larger studies on legal ontologies, legal systems and RELs

General practitioners' role in cancer care: a French-Norwegian study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In cancer care, a GP's work is rarely defined clearly. Our aim was to assess GPs' work with cancer patients in France and in Norway, where the roles of the GP and the organization of the system are rather different.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>A questionnaire with 40 closed-ended questions about GP involvement in diagnosis, treatment, follow-up and terminal care was constructed and mailed to samples of GPs. The patients had seen the doctor at least once over the past year. In France 1679 and in Norway 386 individual patient questionnaires were completed. GPs have a major role in the diagnosis of cancer, and this role varies according to cancer type. The GPs participated actively in different phases of follow-up after cancer treatment. Low response rates do not allow direct comparison between countries, but higher PSA screening rates in France seem to increase the percentage of patients diagnosed after screening rather than after a clinical suspicion. Interaction between GPs and specialists during cancer treatment and follow-up was important in both countries.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Both in France and in Norway GPs participate actively in cancer care. Early clinical diagnosis is a challenge. More research is needed about how GPs can improve their early diagnostic work. Organisational issues may influence cancer responsibilities for the GP, and national health systems should be challenged to look at possible new roles for GPs in cancer care. Medical training, both pre- and post-graduate, should prepare doctors for collaboration between primary and secondary care, particularly important in cancer care.</p

Semantic Commitment for Designing Ontologies: A Proposal

bachimont2002aInternational audienceThe French institute INA is interested in ontologies in order to describe the content of audiovisual documents. Methodologies and tools for building such objects exist, but few propose complete guidelines to help the user to organize the key components of ontologies: subsumption hierarchies. This article proposes to use a methodology introducing a clear semantic commitment to normalize the meaning of the concepts. We have implemented this methodology in an editor, DOE, complementary to other existing tools, and used it to develop several ontologies

Eco Global Evaluation: Cross Benefits of Economic and Ecological Evaluation

This paper highlights the complementarities of cost and environmental evaluation in a sustainable approach. Starting with the needs and limits for whole product lifecycle evaluation, this paper begins with the modeling, data capture and performance indicator aspects. In a second step, the information issue, regarding the whole lifecycle of the product is addressed. In order to go further than the economical evaluations/assessment, the value concept (for a product or a service) is discussed. Value could combine functional requirements, cost objectives and environmental impact. Finally, knowledge issues which address the complexity of integrating multi-disciplinary expertise to the whole lifecycle of a product are discussing.EcoSD NetworkEcoSD networ