Using Text Segmentation to Enhance the Cluster Hypothesis

An alternative way to tackle Information Retrieval, called Passage Retrieval, considers text fragments independently rather than assessing global relevance of documents. In such a context, the fact that relevant information is surrounded by parts of text deviating from the interesting topic does not penalize the document. In this paper, we propose to study the impact of the consideration of these text fragments on a document clustering process. The use of clustering in the field of Information Retrieval is mainly supported by the cluster hypothesis which states that relevant documents tend to be more similar one to each other than to non-relevant documents and hence a clustering process is likely to gather them. Previous experiments have shown that clustering the first retrieved documents as response to a user’s query allows the Information Retrieval systems to improve their effectiveness. In the clustering process used in these studies, documents have been considered globally. Nevertheless, the assumption stating that a document can refer to more than one topic/concept may have also impacts on the document clustering process. Considering passages of the retrieved documents separately may allow to create more representative clusters of the addressed topics. Different approaches have been assessed and results show that using text fragments in the clustering process may turn out to be actually relevant

Traveling Among Clusters: A Way to Reconsider the Benefits of the Cluster Hypothesis

Relying on the Cluster Hypothesis which states that relevant documents tend to be more similar one to each other than to non-relevant documents, most of information retrieval systems organizing search results as a set of clusters seek to gather all relevant documents in the same cluster. We propose here to reconsider the benefits of the entailed concentration of the relevant information. Contrary to what is commonly admitted, we believe that systems which aim to distribute the relevant documents in different clusters, since being more likely to highlight different aspects of the subject, may be at least as useful for the user as systems gathering all relevant documents in a single group. Since existing evaluation measures tend to greatly favor the latter systems, we first investigate ways to more fairly assess the ability to reach the relevant information from the list of cluster descriptions. At last, we show that systems distributing the relevant information in different clusters may actually provide a better information access than classical systems

Segmentation Thématique : Unité du Texte vs Indépendance des Segments

Date du colloque : 01/2008National audienc

Toward a More Global and Coherent Segmentation of Texts

The automatic text segmentation task consists of identifying the most important thematic breaks in a document in order to cut it into homogeneous passages. Text segmentation has motivated a large amount of research. We focus here on the statistical approaches that rely on an analysis of the distribution of the words in the text. Usually, the segmentation of texts is realized sequentially on the basis of very local clues. However, such an approach prevents the consideration of the text in a global way, particularly concerning the granularity degree adopted for the expression of the different topics it addresses. We thus propose here two new segmentation algorithms—ClassStruggle and SegGen—which use criteria rendering global views of texts. ClassStruggle is based on an initial clustering of the sentences of the text, thus allowing the consideration of similarities within a group rather than individually. It relies on the distribution of the occurrences of the members of each class 1 to segment the texts. SegGen proposes to evaluate potential segmentations of the whole text thanks to a genetic algorithm. It attempts to find a solution of segmentation optimizing two criteria, the maximization of the internal cohesion of the segments and the minimization of the similarity between adjacent ones. According to experimental results, both approaches appear to be very competitive compared to existing methods

Thematic Segment Retrieval Revisited

Documents, especially long ones, may contain very diverse passages related to different topics. Passages Retrieval approaches have shown that, in most cases, there is a great potential benefit in considering these passages independently when computing the similarity of a document with a user’s query. Experiments have been realized in order to identify the kinds of passage which are the best suited for such a process. Contrarily to what could have been expected, working with thematic segments, which are likely to represent only one topic each, has led to greatly lower effectiveness results than the use of arbitrary sequences of words. In this paper, we show that this paradoxical observation is mainly due to biases induced by the great length diversity of the thematic passages. Therefore, we propose here to cope with these biases by using a more powerful text length normalization technique. Experiments show that, when length biases are laid aside, the use of thematic passages is better suited than arbitrary sequences of words to retrieve relevant informations as response to a user’s query

An Interactive Approach Based on Alternative Achievement Scale and Alternative Comprehensive Scale for Multiple Attribute Decision Making under Linguistic Environment

The aim of this paper is to develop an interactive approach for multiple attribute decision making with incomplete weight information under linguistic environment. Some of the concepts are defined, such as the distance between two 2-tuple linguistic variables, the expectation level of alternative, the achievement scale, the alternative comprehensive scale under linguistic environment. Based on these concepts, we establish some linear programming models, through which the decision maker interacts with the analyst. Furthermore, we establish a practical interactive approach for selecting the most desirable alternative(s). The interactive process can be realized by giving and revising the achievement scale and comprehensive scale of alternatives till the achievement scale and the comprehensive scale are achieved to the decision maker’s request. Finally, an illustrative example is also given.The author is very grateful to the associated editor and two anonymous referees for their insightful and constructive comments and suggestions that have led to an improved version of this paper. This work was partly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 90924027, No. 71101043), National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, No. 2010C B951104), Key Program of National Social Science Foundation of China (No. 10AJY005), College Philosophy and Social Science Research Project of Jiangsu Province under Grant 2011SJD630007.Xu, Y.; Wang, H.; Palacios Marqués, D. (2013). An Interactive Approach Based on Alternative Achievement Scale and Alternative Comprehensive Scale for Multiple Attribute Decision Making under Linguistic Environment. International Journal of Computational Intelligence Systems. 6(1):87-95. https://doi.org/10.1080/18756891.2013.756226S87956

Disorder Effects on Exciton-Polariton Condensates

The impact of a random disorder potential on the dynamical properties of Bose Einstein condensates is a very wide research field. In microcavities, these studies are even more crucial than in the condensates of cold atoms, since random disorder is naturally present in the semiconductor structures. In this chapter, we consider a stable condensate, defined by a chemical potential, propagating in a random disorder potential, like a liquid flowing through a capillary. We analyze the interplay between the kinetic energy, the localization energy, and the interaction between particles in 1D and 2D polariton condensates. The finite life time of polaritons is taken into account as well. In the first part, we remind the results of [G. Malpuech et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 206402 (2007).] where we considered the case of a static condensate. In that case, the condensate forms either a glassy insulating phase at low polariton density (strong localization), or a superfluid phase above the percolation threshold. We also show the calculation of the first order spatial coherence of the condensate versus the condensate density. In the second part, we consider the case of a propagating non-interacting condensate which is always localized because of Anderson localization. The localization length is calculated in the Born approximation. The impact of the finite polariton life time is taken into account as well. In the last section we consider the case of a propagating interacting condensate where the three regimes of strong localization, Anderson localization, and superfluid behavior are accessible. The localization length is calculated versus the system parameters. The localization length is strongly modified with respect to the non-interacting case. It is infinite in the superfluid regime whereas it is strongly reduced if the fluid flows with a supersonic velocity.Comment: chapter for a book "Exciton Polaritons in Microcavities: New Frontiers" by Springer (2012), the original publication is available at http://www.springerlink.co

Building a multisystemic understanding of societal resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic

The current global systemic crisis reveals how globalised societies are unprepared to face a pandemic. Beyond the dramatic loss of human life, the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered widespread disturbances in health, social, economic, environmental and governance systems in many countries across the world. Resilience describes the capacities of natural and human systems to prevent, react to and recover from shocks. Societal resilience to the current COVID-19 pandemic relates to the ability of societies in maintaining their core functions while minimising the impact of the pandemic and other societal effects. Drawing on the emerging evidence about resilience in health, social, economic, environmental and governance systems, this paper delineates a multisystemic understanding of societal resilience to COVID-19. Such an understanding provides the foundation for an integrated approach to build societal resilience to current and future pandemics

The Development of Cephalic Armor in The Tokay Gecko (Squamata: Gekkonidae: \u3cem\u3eGekko gecko\u3c/em\u3e)

Armored skin resulting from the presence of bony dermal structures, osteoderms, is an exceptional phenotype in gekkotans (geckos and flap-footed lizards) only known to occur in three genera: Geckolepis, Gekko, and Tarentola. The Tokay gecko (Gekko gecko LINNAEUS 1758) is among the best-studied geckos due to its large size and wide range of occurrence, and although cranial dermal bone development has previously been investigated, details of osteoderm development along a size gradient remain less well-known. Likewise, a comparative survey of additional species within the broader Gekko clade to determine the uniqueness of this trait has not yet been completed. Here, we studied a large sample of gekkotans (38 spp.), including 18 specimens of G. gecko, using X-rays and high-resolution computed tomography for visualizing and quantifying the dermal armor in situ. Results from this survey confirm the presence of osteoderms in a second species within this genus, Gekko reevesii GRAY 1831, which exhibits discordance in timing and pattern of osteoderm development when compared with its sister taxon, G. gecko. We discuss the developmental sequence of osteoderms in these two species and explore in detail the formation and functionality of these enigmatic dermal ossifications. Finally, we conducted a comparative analysis of endolymphatic sacs in a wide array of gekkotans to explore previous ideas regarding the role of osteoderms as calcium reservoirs. We found that G. gecko and other gecko species with osteoderms have highly enlarged endolymphatic sacs relative to their body size, when compared to species without osteoderms, which implies that these membranous structures might fulfill a major role of calcium storage even in species with osteoderms