Other Computer Engineering Commons^™

Answer Credibility: A Language Modeling Approach To Answer Validation, Protima Banerjee, Hyoil Han

Hyoil Han

Answer Validation is a topic of significant interest within the Question Answering community. In this paper, we propose the use of language modeling methodologies for Answer Validation, using corpus-based methods that do not require the use of external sources. Specifically, we propose a model for Answer Credibility which quantifies the reliability of a source document that contains a candidate answer and the Question’s Context Model.

Survey Of Word Sense Disambiguation Approaches, Xiaohua Zhou, Hyoil Han

Hyoil Han

Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD) is an important but challenging technique in the area of natural language processing (NLP). Hundreds of WSD algorithms and systems are available, but less work has been done in regard to choosing the optimal WSD algorithms. This paper summarizes the various knowledge sources used for WSD and classifies existing WSD algorithms according to their techniques. The rationale, tasks, performance, knowledge sources used, computational complexity, assumptions, and suitable applications for each class of WSD algorithms are also discussed. This paper will provide users with general knowledge for choosing WSD algorithms for their specific applications or for further …

A Map Estimator For Simultaneous Superresolution And Detector Nonunifomity Correct, Russell Hardie, Douglas Droege

Russell C. Hardie

During digital video acquisition, imagery may be degraded by a number of phenomena including undersampling, blur, and noise. Many systems, particularly those containing infrared focal plane array (FPA) sensors, are also subject to detector nonuniformity. Nonuniformity, or fixed pattern noise, results from nonuniform responsivity of the photodetectors that make up the FPA. Here we propose a maximuma posteriori (MAP) estimation framework for simultaneously addressing undersampling, linear blur, additive noise, and bias nonuniformity. In particular, we jointly estimate a superresolution (SR) image and detector bias nonuniformity parameters from a sequence of observed frames. This algorithm can be applied to video in …

Coming Down To Earth: Helping Teachers Use 3d Virtual Worlds In Across-Spaces Learning Situations, Juan Muñoz Cristóbal, Luis Prieto, Juan Asensio Pérez, Alejandra Martínez Monés, Ivan Jorrín Abellán, Yannis Dimitriadis

Ivan M. Jorrín Abellán

Different approaches have explored how to provide seamless learning across multiple ICT-enabled physical and virtual spaces, including three-dimensional virtual worlds (3DVW). However, these approaches present limitations that may reduce their acceptance in authentic educational practice: The difficulties of authoring and sharing teacher-created designs across different 3DVW platforms, or the lack of integration of 3DVWs with existing technologies in the classroom ecosystem (e.g., widespread web-based learning platforms such as Moodle, or mobile augmented reality applications). Focusing on a specific kind of 3DVW (virtual globes, such as Google Earth, used like 3DVWs), we propose a system that enables teachers to deploy across-spaces …

Activity-Aware Mental Stress Detection Using Physiological Sensors, Feng-Tso Sun, Cynthia Kuo, Heng-Tze Cheng, Senaka Buthpitiya, Patricia Collins, Martin Griss

Martin L Griss

"Continuous stress monitoring may help users better understand their stress patterns and provide physicians with more reliable data for interventions. Previously, studies on mental stress detection were limited to a laboratory environment where participants generally rested in a sedentary position. However, it is impractical to exclude the effects of physical activity while developing a pervasive stress monitoring application for everyday use. The physiological responses caused by mental stress can be masked by variations due to physical activity. We present an activity-aware mental stress detection scheme. Electrocardiogram (ECG), galvanic skin response (GSR), and accelerometer data were gathered from 20 participants across …

Smart Manufacturing - Interoperability Lessons From Manufacturing's Turn, Steven Ray

Steven R Ray

No abstract provided.

Chapter 7: The Evaluation Of Ontologies, Leo Obrst, Benjamin Ashpole, Werner Ceusters, Inderjeet Mani, Steven Ray, Barry Smith

Steven R Ray

Recent years have seen rapid progress in the development of ontologies as semantic models intended to capture and represent aspects of the real world. There is, however, great variation in the quality of ontologies. If ontologies are to become progressively better in the future, more rigorously developed, and more appropriately compared, then a systematic discipline of ontology evaluation must be created to ensure quality of content and methodology. Systematic methods for ontology evaluation will take into account representation of individual ontologies, performance and accuracy on tasks for which the ontology is designed and used, degree of alignment with other ontologies …

Prospects And Possibilities For Ontology Evaluation: The View From Ncor, Leo Obrst, Todd Hughes, Steven Ray

Steven R Ray

In this position paper, we briefly describe the perspective of the US National Center for Ontological Research (NCOR, http://ncor.us) on ontology evaluation. NCOR’s inauguration was recently held (October 2005), and at that time goals were identified and committees formed to pursue those goals, including the Ontology Evaluation Committee. This committee is charged with developing a plan for the evaluation of ontologies that is designed to transform ontological engineering into a true scientific and engineering discipline. This paper discusses some issues on ontology evaluation, including the relevant questions to ask, and suggests some approaches.

The 2006 Upper Ontology Summit Communique, Leo Obrst, Patrick Cassidy, Steven Ray, Barry Smith, Dagobert Soergel, Matthew West, Peter Yim

Steven R Ray

On March 14-15 in Gaithersburg, MD, at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Upper Ontology Summit (UOS) took place. The Upper Ontology Summit was a convening of custodians of several prominent upper ontologies, key ontology technology participants, and interested other parties, with the purpose of finding a means to relate the different ontologies to each other. The result is reflected in a joint communiqué, directed to the larger ontology community and the general public, and expressing a joint intent to build bridges among the existing upper ontologies in ways designed to increase and rationalize their utilization …

Manufacturing Interoperability, Steven Ray, Al Jones

Steven R Ray

As manufacturing and commerce become ever more global, companies are dependent increasingly upon the efficient and effective sharing of information with their partners, wherever they may be. Leading manufacturers perform this sharing with computers, which must therefore have the required software to encode and decode the associated electronic transmissions. Because no single company can dictate that all its partners use the same software, standards for how the information is represented become critical for error-free transmission and translation. The terms interoperability and integration are frequently used to refer to this error-free transmission and translation. This paper summarizes two projects underway at …

Manufacturing Interoperability, Steven Ray, Al Jones

Steven R Ray

As manufacturing and commerce become ever more global in nature, companies are increasingly dependent upon the efficient and effective exchange of information with their partners, wherever they may be. Leading manufacturers rely upon computers to perform this information exchange, which must therefore be encoded for electronic transmission. Because no single company can dictate that all its partners use the same software, standards for how the information is represented become critical for cost-effective, errorfree transmission of data. This paper discusses some interoperability issues related to current standards, and describes two projects underway at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in …

Interoperability Standards In The Semantic Web, Steven Ray

Steven R Ray

The growth in the use of the Internet brings with it an increase in the number of interconnections among information systems supporting the manufacturing supply chain as well as other businesses. Each of these interconnections must be carefully prescribed to ensure interoperability. However, the sheer number of interconnections and the resulting complexity threaten to overwhelm the ability of the standards community or industry to provide the necessary specifications—a way out of this impasse must be found. This paper outlines the elements of an approach and the technology to move toward self-integrating systems, wherein the systems negotiate meaningful interfaces as needed …

An Analysis Of Requirements For Specifying Manufacturing Engineering And Business Processes, Steven Ray, Amy Knutilla, Craig Schlenoff

Steven R Ray

A wide range of manufacturing software applications deal with the manipulation and expression of collections of activities. Examples include manufacturing process planning, production scheduling, simulation, project management, workflow, business process reengineering, and product realization process modeling. While each of these applications serves a specific audience and need and focuses on particular aspects of a process, much could be gained by sharing process information among applications. One of the primary obstacles to such integration is the lack of any common representation of what is really the underlying concept of process. The objective of the work described here is to investigate the …

Process Specification Language: An Analysis Of Existing Representations, Amy Knutilla, Stephen Polyak, Craig Schlenoff, Shu Cheah, Steven Ray, Richard Anderson

Steven R Ray

The goal of the NIST Process Specification Language (PSL) project is to investigate and arrive at a neutral, unifying representation of process information to enable sharing of process data among manufacturing engineering and business applications. This paper focuses on the second phase of the project, the analysis of existing process representations to determine how well existing process representation methodologies support the requirements for specifying processes found in Phase One. This analysis will provide an objective basis from which to develop a comprehensive language and will promote the leveraging of existing work.

Development Of A Message Model To Support Integrated Design And Manufacturing, Venkat Allada, Steven Ray

Steven R Ray

Mere sharing of information between engineering design systems and manufacturing systems does not represent an ideal integrated system. While information sharing represents an important aspect of an integrated design and manufacturing environment, an equally critical aspect is the "interaction" capability of the two systems. This interaction could be in the form of feedback and request messages between the design and manufacturing systems. The goal of this study is to investigate the issues involved in the development of a conceptual message model that will facilitate an "upstream" and a "downstream" communication between the design activities and process planning activities. The development …

Using Process Requirements As The Basis For The Creation And Evaluation Of Process Ontologies For Enterprise Modeling, Michael Gruninger, Craig Schlenoff, Amy Knutilla, Steven Ray

Steven R Ray

No abstract provided.

Proceedings Of The First Process Specification Language (Psl) Roundtable, Craig Schlenoff, Amy Knutilla, Steven Ray

Steven R Ray

In April, 1997, the Process Specification Language (PSL) Project held a Roundtable discussion at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The goals of the Roundtable was to assemble key champions and stakeholders of various approaches towards process representation in order to discuss the relative merits to reach consensus on a language architecture and to establish a technical approach for proceeding. It was agreed that the language architecture should be based upon a formal semantic foundation, upon which would be layered a number of syntactic mappings, each with one or more presentations.

In discussions about principal concepts of any …

Unified Process Specification Language: Requirements For Modeling Process, Craig Schlenoff, Amy Knutilla, Steven Ray

Steven R Ray

A wide range of applications deal with the manipulation and expression of collections of activities. Examples include project management, workflow management, business process reengineering, product realization process modeling, manufacturing process planning, production scheduling, simulation, and Computer Aided Software Engineering, each of which is supported by some combination of graphical programming and control languages, Petri nets, PERT charts or other representation methodology. Each of these applications serves a specific audience and need, and focuses on particular aspects of a process. Nevertheless, much could be gained by sharing information among applications. One of the primary obstacles to such integration is the lack …

An Architecture Of Component - Based Capp Systems For Agile Manufacturing, Chun Zhang, Shaw Feng, Steven Ray

Steven R Ray

The current manufacturing planning software systems (such as computer aided process planning (CAPP) systems) are general and in a closed form, i.e., it is very difficult to modify these systems to respond to a user's dynamically changing needs. These systems are no longer suitable for agile manufacturing. This research work aims at developing an architecture for rapid development of CAPP systems. The architecture supports the construction of CAPP systems from prepackaged, plug-compatible software components. The specifications of the architecture and its building blocks are defined. A prototype system is under development to prove the concept.

Reference Architecture For Machine Control Systems Integration: Interim Report, M Senehi, Thomas Kramer, John Michaloski, Richard Quintero, Steven Ray, William Rippey, Sarah Wallace

Steven R Ray

No abstract provided.