Question Answering: CNLP at the TREC-2002 Question Answering Track

This paper describes the retrieval experiments for the main task and list task of the TREC-2002 question-answering track. The question answering system described automatically finds answers to questions in a large document collection. The system uses a two-stage retrieval approach to answer finding based on matching of named entities, linguistic patterns, keywords, and the use of a new inference module. In answering a question, the system carries out a detailed query analysis that produces a logical query representation, an indication of the question focus, and answer clue words

Question Answering: CNLP at the TREC-10 Question Answering Track

This paper describes the retrieval experiments for the main task and list task of the TREC-10 question answering track. The question answering system described automatically finds answers to questions in a large document collection. The system uses a two-stage retrieval approach to answer finding based on matching of named entities, linguistic patterns, and keywords. In answering a question, the system carries out a detailed query analysis that produces a logical query representation, an indication of the question focus, and answer clue words

Transformation Based Learning for Specialization of Generic Event Extractions

As part of our Evidence Extraction and Link Discovery (EELD) project, we proposed to use Transformation Based Learning (TBL) to learn domain-specific specializations for generic event extractions. The primary goal of our learning task was to reduce the amount of human effort required for specializing generic event extractions to domains that are new and specific. Three initial annotation cycles and one annotation review and correction cycle involving a total of 70 documents were completed, with slightly over 32 hours required for the entire annotation effort; where possible, the annotation cycles started with bootstrapped files resulting from the application of TBL rules learned after the prior annotation cycle. A five-fold evaluation was completed using the annotated files as the gold standard for evaluation purposes. When our analysis was limited to specialized event types with 10 or more examples available for training, we achieved 67.93% Coverage, 88.93% Accuracy, and an F-score of 77.02%. Several conclusions can be drawn from our study: (1) the use of TBL to learn specializations of generic extractions to specific domains is possible, (2) the use of TBL leads to a significant reduction in the human effort involved in specializing to a new domain, (3) sparsity of training data has a large impact on the results of learning, and (4) with more training instances, coverage and accuracy would improve. Motivation: In the early days of Information Extraction (IE), IE systems extracted a limited amount of information in order to fill in the blanks in a predefined domain-specific template. Today's IE systems increasingly rely on a much broader model of generic event, entity and relation extraction in order to capture a wide variety of useful information in various domains...

E.D.Liddy, “Question Answering: CNLP at the TREC-2002 Question Answering Track”, http://www.cnlp.org

www.cnlp.or

"American business can assist [African] hands”: the Kennedy administration, US corporations, and the Cold War struggle for Africa

While there has been significant historical interest in President Kennedy’s approach to Africa, historians have not considered in-depth how American economic aid to Africa became tied to the expansion of US business involvement on the subcontinent. A close examination of these issues reveals that the Kennedy administration saw the US Agency for International Development (USAID)’s economic aid programs as a critical mechanism for the resolution of America’s balance of export payments problems, and that Kennedy administration officials worked assiduously to bring American corporate interests to bear on questions of African economic development. This essay argues that the Kennedy administration promoted and fostered an environment that encouraged increased American business investment in Africa. This contention emerges from an analysis of the evolution of Kennedy’s views on Africa, including his support for African nationalist aspirations and for economic development and education, and their impact on administration policy. We examine sources from the Kennedy administration and from the papers of G. Mennen Williams, Kennedy’s Undersecretary of State for Africa and in so doing, we argue that the Kennedy administration fostered an approach to Sub-Saharan African economic development that forged a robust relationship between government aid and American business investment. The Kennedy administration’s embrace of the principles of free enterprise heralded a major shift in US relations with Africa. This point is further underscored by our examination of the significant growth of US-headquartered multinational corporations’ investments in Africa during and immediately following Kennedy’s presidency