Using the Annotated Bibliography as a Resource for Indicative Summarization

We report on a language resource consisting of 2000 annotated bibliography entries, which is being analyzed as part of our research on indicative document summarization. We show how annotated bibliographies cover certain aspects of summarization that have not been well-covered by other summary corpora, and motivate why they constitute an important form to study for information retrieval. We detail our methodology for collecting the corpus, and overview our document feature markup that we introduced to facilitate summary analysis. We present the characteristics of the corpus, methods of collection, and show its use in finding the distribution of types of information included in indicative summaries and their relative ordering within the summaries.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

Resources for Evaluation of Summarization Techniques

We report on two corpora to be used in the evaluation of component systems for the tasks of (1) linear segmentation of text and (2) summary-directed sentence extraction. We present characteristics of the corpora, methods used in the collection of user judgments, and an overview of the application of the corpora to evaluating the component system. Finally, we discuss the problems and issues with construction of the test set which apply broadly to the construction of evaluation resources for language technologies.Comment: LaTeX source, 5 pages, US Letter, uses lrec98.st

Using librarian techniques in automatic text summarization for information retrieval

A current application of automatic text summarization is to provide an overview of relevant documents coming from an information retrieval (IR) system. This paper examines how Centrifuser, one such summarization system, was designed with respect to methods used in the library community. We have reviewed these librarian expert techniques to assist information seekers and codified them into eight distinct strategies. We detail how we have operationalized six of these strategies in Centrifuser by computing an informative extract, indicative differences between documents, as well as navigational links to narrow or broaden a user's query. We conclude the paper with results from a preliminary evaluation

Role of verbs in document analysis

We present results of two methods for assessing the event profile of news articles as a function of verb type. The unique contribution of this research is the focus on the role of verbs, rather than nouns. Two algorithms are presented and evaluated, one of which is shown to accurately discriminate documents by type and semantic properties, i.e. the event profile. The initial method, using WordNet (Miller et al. 1990), produced multiple cross-classification of articles, primarily due to the bushy nature of the verb tree coupled with the sense disambiguation problem. Our second approach using English Verb Classes and Alternations (EVCA) Levin (1993) showed that monosemous categorization of the frequent verbs in WSJ made it possible to usefully discriminate documents. For example, our results show that articles in which communication verbs predominate tend to be opinion pieces, whereas articles with a high percentage of agreement verbs tend to be about mergers or legal cases. An evaluation is performed on the results using Kendall's τ. We present convincing evidence for using verb semantic classes as a discriminant in document classification

Applying natural language generation to indicative summarization

The task of creating indicative summaries that help a searcher decide whether to read a particular document is a difficult task. This paper examines the indicative summarization task from a generation perspective, by first analyzing its required content via published guidelines and corpus analysis. We show how these summaries can be factored into a set of document features, and how an implemented content planner uses the topicality document feature to create indicative multidocument query-based summaries

Evaluating the Content and Usability of an Experimental Text Summarization System and Three Web-Based Search Engines

This paper describes the evaluation of a new automated text summarization system, Centrifuser. This system provides information to patients and families relevant to their specific health questions. Centrifuser accepts queries about health conditions, and produces a summary of information from articles retrieved by a standard search engine that is tailored to the user's question. The evaluation involved audio- and video-recording of all subject interactions with the interfaces in situ at a hospital. Subjects, consisting of friends or family of hospitalized patients, were asked to “think aloud” as they interacted with Centrifuser and three commonly used search engines: Google, Yahoo, and About.com. Results of the evaluation show that subjects found Centrifuser's summarization capability useful and easy to understand. In comparing Centrifuser to the three search engines, subjects' ratings varied; however, specific interface features were deemed useful across interfaces. We conclude with a discussion of the implications for engineering Web-based retrieval systems

Usability evaluation of an experimental text summarization system and three search engines: Implications for the reengineering of health care interfaces

This paper describes the comparative evaluation of an experimental automated text summarization system, Centrifuser and three conventional search engines - Google, Yahoo and About.com. Centrifuser provides information to patients and families relevant to their questions about specific health conditions. It then produces a multidocument summary of articles retrieved by a standard search engine, tailored to the user's question. Subjects, consisting of friends or family of hospitalized patients, were asked to "think aloud" as they interacted with the four systems. The evaluation involved audio- and video recording of subject interactions with the interfaces in situ at a hospital. Results of the evaluation show that subjects found Centrifuser's summarization capability useful and easy to understand. In comparing Centrifuser to the three search engines, subjects' ratings varied; however, specific interface features were deemed useful across interfaces. We conclude with a discussion of the implications for engineering Web-based retrieval systems

The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) and a single screening question as screening tools for depressive disorder in Dutch advanced cancer patients

Item does not contain fulltextPURPOSE: Depression is highly prevalent in advanced cancer patients, but the diagnosis of depressive disorder in patients with advanced cancer is difficult. Screening instruments could facilitate diagnosing depressive disorder in patients with advanced cancer. The aim of this study was to determine the validity of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) and a single screening question as screening tools for depressive disorder in advanced cancer patients. METHODS: Patients with advanced metastatic disease, visiting the outpatient palliative care department, were asked to fill out a self-questionnaire containing the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) and a single screening question "Are you feeling depressed?" The mood section of the PRIME-MD was used as a gold standard. RESULTS: Sixty-one patients with advanced metastatic disease were eligible to be included in the study. Complete data were obtained from 46 patients. The area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristics analysis of the BDI-II was 0.82. The optimal cut-off point of the BDI-II was 16 with a sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 69%. The single screening question showed a sensitivity of 50% and a specificity of 94%. CONCLUSIONS: The BDI-II seems an adequate screening tool for a depressive disorder in advanced cancer patients. The sensitivity of a single screening question is poor.1 februari 201

Suitability Of Nitisinone In Alkaptonuria 1 (SONIA 1): an international, multicentre, randomised, open-label, no-treatment controlled, parallel-group, dose-response study to investigate the effect of once daily nitisinone on 24-h urinary homogentisic acid excretion in patients with alkaptonuria after 4 weeks of treatment.

BACKGROUND: Alkaptonuria (AKU) is a serious genetic disease characterised by premature spondyloarthropathy. Homogentisate-lowering therapy is being investigated for AKU. Nitisinone decreases homogentisic acid (HGA) in AKU but the dose-response relationship has not been previously studied. METHODS: Suitability Of Nitisinone In Alkaptonuria 1 (SONIA 1) was an international, multicentre, randomised, open-label, no-treatment controlled, parallel-group, dose-response study. The primary objective was to investigate the effect of different doses of nitisinone once daily on 24-h urinary HGA excretion (u-HGA24) in patients with AKU after 4 weeks of treatment. Forty patients were randomised into five groups of eight patients each, with groups receiving no treatment or 1 mg, 2 mg, 4 mg and 8 mg of nitisinone. FINDINGS: A clear dose-response relationship was observed between nitisinone and the urinary excretion of HGA. At 4 weeks, the adjusted geometric mean u-HGA24 was 31.53 mmol, 3.26 mmol, 1.44 mmol, 0.57 mmol and 0.15 mmol for the no treatment or 1 mg, 2 mg, 4 mg and 8 mg doses, respectively. For the most efficacious dose, 8 mg daily, this corresponds to a mean reduction of u-HGA24 of 98.8% compared with baseline. An increase in tyrosine levels was seen at all doses but the dose-response relationship was less clear than the effect on HGA. Despite tyrosinaemia, there were no safety concerns and no serious adverse events were reported over the 4 weeks of nitisinone therapy. CONCLUSIONS: In this study in patients with AKU, nitisinone therapy decreased urinary HGA excretion to low levels in a dose-dependent manner and was well tolerated within the studied dose range. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: EudraCT number: 2012-005340-24. Registered at ClinicalTrials.gov: NCTO1828463