FOXEA@VTVAX3.BITNET (02/29/88)
IRList Digest Sunday, 28 February 1988 Volume 4 : Issue 10
Today's Topics:
Query - Engineering data modelling information
- Word frequency comparisons
Reply - AI in chemistry: references
Announcement - IR for Expert Systems in Government Conference
- Hyperties
CSLI - Higher-Order Logic in Computational Linguistics
News addresses are
Internet or CSNET: fox@vtopus.cs.vt.edu
BITNET: foxea@vtvax3.bitnet
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Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1988 23:57:25 EST
From: Deeptendu Majumder <MEIBMDM@GITVM2>
Subject: Engineering Data Modelling Info
I am working in the area of Engineering Databases, here at Georgia
Tech, and looking for information on Enginnering Data Modeling.
Can anybody provide me with a list of good references in this area.
Information on software packages for data modeling and names and
address of people actively involved in this area will be also very
helpful. The stress is on Engineering Data. I would really
appreciate any help.
Thanx in advance
Deeptendu Majumder
MEIBMDM@GITVM2
Box 30963
Georgia Tech
Atlanta, GA 30332
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Date: Fri, 29 Jan 88 14:30 EDT
From: LEWIS@UMass
Subject: query for IRLIST : word frequency in technical prose
Does anyone know of refs to analyses comparing word frequencies in
scientific and engineering text with frequencies in other sorts of text?
Thanks,
David D. Lewis CSNET: lewis@cs.umass.edu
COINS Dept. BITNET: lewis@umass
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Amherst, MA 01003
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Date: Tue, 26 Jan 88 09:22:22 EST
From: "David K. Johnson, Exxon Research & Engineering Co." <DKJOHNS@ERENJ>
Subject: AI in Chemistry
"Artificial Intelligence Applications in Chemisty" American Chemical
Society Symposium Series #306; ISBN 0-8412-0966-9; 190th ACS Meeting,
Chicago, 1985; Editors: T. H. Pierce, B. A. Hohne; American Chemical
Society, Washington, D.C. 1986.
I would also suggest that you check the ACS Abstracts of Papers for
the twice-a-year ACS meetings. There have been a number of papers and
symposia on AI and Expert Systems in Chemistry--particularly
in the Divisions of Chemical Information and Computers in Chemistry.
The ACS journal Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Science
may also be useful.
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Date: Sat, 27 Feb 88 17:19:01 est
From: fox (Ed Fox)
Subject: ESIG involvement
Reminder! The 4th Annual Expert Systems in Government Conference will
be held Oct 1988 in Washington, with theme
Intelligent Systems - Realizing the Payoff for Today & Tomorrow
I am the technical proponent for information retrieval for that conference
and so am urging that people contribute 3 copies of a paper by April 4
to ESIG '88, MS W418, The Mitre Corporation, 7525 Colshire Dr., McLean
VA 22102
The 1st page should contain the author's name, affiliation, address, electronic
address if available, phone number, and 100 word abstract. Accepted papers
will be allocated up to 6 manuscript pages, approximately 4800 words in
the proceedings. Acceptance/rejection notice will be by 1 July and camera
ready copy is needed by August 1.
Topics of interest include
knowledge representations
knowledge acquisiton
reasoning under uncertainty
natural language and intelligent interfaces
expert system development environments
I encourage some IR papers - each year there has been at least one session
on IR work. Hope some of you can contribute and will come to the conference
as well. - Ed
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Date: Mon, 25 Jan 88 21:17:35 EST
From: Ben Shneiderman <ben@mimsy.umd.edu>
Subject: Hyperties
Hi...we are having great fun with Hyperties (below is a brief description).
The stuff on the SUN is very exciting and there are many intriguing concepts of
multiple window browsing that were are exploring. The current issue of
IEEE Computer has an article and the proceedings of the Hypertext87 workshop
has another. The commercial version is beginning to get exciting too.
In addition we will be putting two machines in the Smithsonian with an
archaeology exhibit March 22.
You can order Hyperties from Cognetics for $249, please do and let us know how
it turns out.
Greg Kearsley an I are writing a Hyperbook called HYPERTEXT HANDS-ON that
will be published as a disk (with a paper version too) by Addison Wesley
by May or June...it will use Hyperties, of course!
-- Ben
_____________________________
Hyperties:
Hypertext based on The Interactive Encyclopedia System
Ben Shneiderman
Department of Computer Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742
Introduction
Hyperties (Hypertext based on The Interactive Encyclopedia System) enables
users to easily traverse a database of articles and pictures by merely point-
ing at highlighted words in context. This embedded menus approach and the
simple user interface enables users to tap the substantial power of hypertext
systems for browsing and information search tasks.
Applications
Hyperties can be used to scan organizational policy manuals, a tool for diag-
nostic problem solving, an environment for novels or mysteries, an online help
strategy, a browser for computer program text and documentation, an addition
to a museum exhibit, cookbooks or self-help manuals, or a way to explore cross
referenced materials such as legal documents or an annotated Bible.
Hyperties allows users to explore information resources in an easy and appeal-
ing manner. They merely touch (or use arrow keys to move a light bar onto)
topics that interest them and a brief definition appears at the bottom of the
screen. The users may continue reading or ask for details about the selected
topic. An article about a topic may be one or more screens long and contain
several pictures. As users traverse articles, Hyperties keeps the path and
allows easy reversal, building confidence and a sense of control. Users can
also select articles and pictures from an index.
Authoring tool
Hyperties authoring software guides the author in writing a title, brief
definition (5-35 words), text (50-1000 words, typically), and synonyms for
each article title. Authors mark references in the text by surrounding them
with a pair of tildes. Hyperties collects all references, prompts the user
for synonym relationships, maintains lists of articles and pictures, and
allows editing, addition, and deletion of articles and pictures. The author
tool displays TO/FROM citations for each article and allows authors to keep
notes on each article. A simple word processor is embedded in the authoring
software, but users can create articles on their own word processor, if they
wish. Command menus reduce memorization, eliminate typing errors, and speed
work. Authors create pictures with editors such as PC Paint and then can
specify links from the articles to the pictures.
Hardware requirements
Hyperties runs on a standard PC (256K, monochrome or color, color required if
pictures are used) and on PCs, XTs, or ATs.
History
Hyperties has been under development since 1983 in the Human-Computer Interac-
tion Laboratory. It was first written in APL and has been rewritten in the C
programming language twice. Dan Ostroff, a graduate student in computer sci-
ence, did the implementation and a major portion of the user interface design.
Dr. Janis Morariu of the Center for Instructional Development and Evaluation
and Charles Kreitzberg of Cognetics Corporation contributed substantially to
the user interface design. Jacob Lifshitz, Susan Flynn, Richard Potter, Bill
Weiland, and Catherine Plaisant-Schwenn have maintained and improved the sys-
tem.
Manual
A 120 page users manual is available to describe the authoring process. It
shows extensive browser and author sessions.
Availability
The University of Maryland has made a contract for commercial distribution and
development with Cognetics Corporation (Charles Kreitzberg, President), 55
Princeton-Hightstown Road, Princeton Junction, NJ 08550, Phone (609) 799-5005.
Continuing development
Current development efforts focus on improved touchscreens, touchable graph-
ics, inclusion of videodisk access, and alternate indexing strategies. runs
on the SUN 3/50 workstation. An exploratory advanced browser with multiple
windows and touchable graphics is being implemented on the PCs.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 88 17:08:31 PST
From: Emma Pease <emma%alan.stanford.edu@RELAY.CS.NET>
Subject: CSLI Calendar, January 28, 3:15 [Extract - Ed]
Reading: "Some Uses of Higher-Order Logic
in Computational Linguistics"
by Dale A. Miller and Gopalan Nadathur
from "24th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational
Linguistics: Proceedings of the Conference" (1986)
Discussion led by Douglas Edwards
(edwards@warbucks.ai.sri.com)
4 February 1988
Miller and Nadathur present a system of higher-order logic (typed
lambda-calculus) as a suitable formalism for the representation of
syntactic and semantic information in computational linguistics. They
argue that such a formalism is clearer and more natural than available
alternatives. They also reply point by point to certain standard
criticisms of the computational use of higher-order logic. In
particular, they argue that:
(1) Theoretical linguistics is often heavily committed to higher-order
logic anyway (Montague Semantics, for example) and it will be
easier to design working systems to fit a theory if the
computational formalism mirrors the ontology of the theory.
(2) Even if a first-order formalism is used to represent the semantics
of sentences, *reasoning* about semantics is an inherently
higher-order process and cannot be represented with full
naturalness in the same formalism. This fact leads to the use of
ad hoc procedures for semantics and to the development of separate
semantic and syntactic formalisms. The use of higher-order logic
allows easier integration of semantic and syntactic processing.
(3) The formalization of semantic processing in first-order formalisms
like Prolog is bedevilled by the need to consider explicitly the
intricate processes of substitution and variable binding. A logic
programming language for higher-order logic, like Miller and
Nadathur's LambdaProlog, obviates this need through the use of
beta-conversion in the language itself.
(4) The difficulty of theorem-proving in higher-order logic is evaded
by confining attention to a restricted set of formulas (analogous
to Horn clauses in first-order logic) and lowering sights from
full theorem-proving to logic programming, using a highly
restricted proof procedure. If more is needed, restricted
theorem-provers can easily be designed *within* LambdaProlog.
It would also appear that much ordinary reasoning even outside of
linguistic semantics is higher-order. Are Miller and Nadathur right
in thinking that their formalism can help to bridge the gap between
linguistic theory and computational practice?
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END OF IRList Digest
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