Free Speech for Tourists

In this paper we report on the application of a natural language search interface in the tourism domain for searching for accommodation throughout Austria. We describe the analysis of real-world queries obtained by a field test where our interface has been made publicly available through the largest Austrian web-based tourism platform Tiscover. This analysis shows how users formulate queries when they are not limited by search interfaces with structured forms consisting of check boxes, radio buttons and special-purpose text fields

Acute abdomen—Rare cause in an 80-year-old female patient under immunosuppressive treatment

Eine 80-jährige Frau stellte sich zur Abklärung abdomineller Schmerzen vor. Vorausgegangen war die Diagnosestellung einer Autoimmunhepatitis mit Einleitung einer immunsuppressiven Therapie und Auftritt zweier Pneumonien mit opportunistischen Erregern. Die Bildgebung erbrachte einen „omental cake“ mit Verdacht auf Peritonealkarzinose. Bei Auftritt eines akuten Abdomens erfolgte eine explorative Laparotomie, hierbei zeigten sich intraabdominelle Abszesse. Anhand von Blutkulturen und des intraoperativ gewonnenen Materials wurde eine disseminierte Nocardiose diagnostiziert. Die Patientin verstarb aufgrund einer fulminant verlaufenen Sepsis

Von der Heilkraft des Erinnerns

Von der Heilkraft des Erinnerns : Formensprache u. Erfahrungsgehalt von Gottfried Kellers ,Sinngedicht´. - 1986. - IV, 254 S. - Augsburg, Univ., Diss

A Comparison of Support Vector Machines and Self-Organizing Maps for e-Mail Categorization

Abstract. This paper reports on experiments in multi-class document categorization with support vector machines and self-organizing maps. A data set consisting of personal e-mail messages is used for the experiments. Two distinct document representation formalisms are employed to characterize these messages, namely a standard word-based approach and a character n-gram document representation. Based on these document representations, the categorization performance of both machine learning approaches is assessed and a comparison is given.

Abstract An Adaptive Information Retrieval System based on Associative Networks

In this paper we present a multilingual information retrieval system that provides access to Tourism information by exploiting the intuitiveness of natural language. In particular, we describe the knowledge representation model underlying the information retrieval system. This knowledge representation approach is based on associative networks and allows the definition of semantic relationships between domainintrinsic information items. The network structure is used to define weighted associations between information items and augments the system with a fuzzy search strategy. This particular search strategy is performed by a constrained spreading activation algorithm that implements information retrieval on associative networks. Strictly speaking, we take the relatedness of terms into account and show, how this fuzzy search strategy yields beneficial results and, moreover, determines highly associated matches to users ’ queries. Thus, the combination of the associative network and the constrained spreading activation approach constitutes a search algorithm that evaluates the relatedness of terms and, therefore, provides a means for implicit query expansion

Let’s Get Social in e-Tourism: The “itchy feet ” Way

Abstract. In this paper we outline an e-Tourism environment that takes a community-driven approach to foster a lively society of travellers who exchange travel experiences, recommend tourism destinations or just listen to catch some interesting gossip. Business transactions such as booking a trip or getting assistance from travel advisors or community members are constituent parts of this environment. All this happens in an integrated, game-like e-Business application where each customer is impersonated as an avatar. We present “itchy feet”, a prototype implementing this 3D e-Tourism environment to showcase first visual impressions. This new environment is a perfect research playground for examining heterogeneous societies comprising humans and software agents, and their relationship in e-Tourism.

An Adaptive Information Retrieval System

In this paper we present a multilingual information retrieval system that provides access to Tourism information by exploiting the intuitiveness of natural language. In particular, we describe the knowledge representation model underlying the information retrieval system. This knowledge representation approach is based on associative networks and allows the definition of semantic relationships between domainintrinsic information items. The network structure is used to define weighted associations between information items and augments the system with a fuzzy search strategy. This particular search strategy is performed by a constrained spreading activation algorithm that implements information retrieval on associative networks. Strictly speaking, we take the relatedness of terms into account and show, how this fuzzy search strategy yields beneficial results and, moreover, determines highly associated matches to users' queries. Thus, the combination of the associative network and the constrained spreading activation approach constitutes a search algorithm that evaluates the relatedness of terms and, therefore, provides a means for implicit query expansion