Machine learning of syntactic parse trees for search and classification of text

We build an open-source toolkit which implements deterministic learning to support search and text classification tasks. We extend the mechanism of logical generalization towards syntactic parse trees and attempt to detect weak semantic signals from them. Generalization of syntactic parse tree as a syntactic similarity measure is defined as the set of maximum common sub-trees and performed at a level of paragraphs, sentences, phrases and individual words. We analyze semantic features of such similarity measure and compare it with semantics of traditional anti-unification of terms. Nearest-neighbor machine learning is then applied to relate a sentence to a semantic class. Using syntactic parse tree-based similarity measure instead of bag-of-words and keyword frequency approach, we expect to detect a weak semantic signal otherwise unobservable. The proposed approach is evaluated in a four distinct domains where a lack of semantic information makes classification of sentences rather difficult. We describe a toolkit which is a part of Apache Software Foun-dation project OpenNLP, designed to aid search engineers in tasks requiring text relevance assessment.     

Latent semantic factorization for multimedia representation learning

Due to the rapid development of multimedia applications, cross-media semantics learning is becoming increasingly important nowadays. One of the most challenging issues for cross-media semantics understanding is how to mine semantic correlation between different modalities. Most traditional multimedia semantics analysis approaches are based on unimodal data cases and neglect the semantic consistency between different modalities. In this paper, we propose a novel multimedia representation learning framework via latent semantic factorization (LSF). First, the posterior probability under the learned classifiers is served as the latent semantic representation for different modalities. Moreover, we explore the semantic representation for a multimedia document, which consists of image and text, by latent semantic factorization. Besides, two projection matrices are learned to project images and text into a same semantic space which is more similar with the multimedia document. Experiments conducted on three real-world datasets for cross-media retrieval, demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach, compared with state-of-the-art methods.

     

Learning Based Neural Similarity Metrics for Multimedia Data Mining

Multimedia data mining refers to pattern discovery, rule extraction and knowledge acquisition from multimedia database. Two typical tasks in multimedia data mining are of visual data classification and clustering in terms of semantics. Usually performance of such classification or clustering systems may not be favorable due to the use of low-level features for image representation, and also some improper similarity metrics for measuring the closeness between multimedia objects as well. This paper considers a problem of modeling similarity for semantic image clustering. A collection of semantic images and feed-forward neural networks are used to approximate a characteristic function of equivalence classes, which is termed as a learning pseudo metric (LPM). Empirical criteria on evaluating the goodness of the LPM are established. A LPM based k-Mean rule is then employed for the semantic image clustering practice, where two impurity indices, classification performance and robustness are used for performance evaluation. An artificial image database with 11 semantics is employed for our simulation studies. Results demonstrate the merits and usefulness of our proposed techniques for multimedia data mining.     

A cross-media distance metric learning framework based on multi-view correlation mining and matching

With the explosion of multimedia data, it is usual that different multimedia data often coexist in web repositories. Accordingly, it is more and more important to explore underlying intricate cross-media correlation instead of single-modality distance measure so as to improve multimedia semantics understanding. Cross-media distance metric learning focuses on correlation measure between multimedia data of different modalities. However, the existence of content heterogeneity and semantic gap makes it very challenging to measure cross-media distance. In this paper, we propose a novel cross-media distance metric learning framework based on sparse feature selection and multi-view matching. First, we employ sparse feature selection to select a subset of relevant features and remove redundant features for high-dimensional image features and audio features. Secondly, we maximize the canonical coefficient during image-audio feature dimension reduction for cross-media correlation mining. Thirdly, we further construct a Multi-modal Semantic Graph to find embedded manifold cross-media correlation. Moreover, we fuse the canonical correlation and the manifold information into multi-view matching which harmonizes different correlations with an iteration process and build Cross-media Semantic Space for cross-media distance measure. The experiments are conducted on image-audio dataset for cross-media retrieval. Experiment results are encouraging and show that the performance of our approach is effective.     

跨媒体相关性推理与检索研究

针对不同模态的多媒体数据之间难以度量跨媒体相关性的问题,提出了一种基于相关性推理的跨媒体检索方法,首先从相同模态内部(intra-media)的相似性和不同模态之间(cross-media)的相关性两个方面进行分析和量化,然后构造跨媒体关联图将相似性和相关性学习结果进行统一表达,以跨媒体关联图的最短路径为基础进行跨媒体检索,并提出相关反馈算法将用户交互中的先验知识融入到跨媒体关联图中,有效提高了跨媒体检索效率.该方法可以应用于针对用户提交查询样例的不同模态交叉检索系统.     

Developing Knowledge-Based Intelligent Multimedia Tutoring Systems Using Semantic Content-Based Modelling

The complex nature of semantic video and audio content has made multimedia difficult to use within the traditional architecture of a knowledge-based intelligent tutoring system (ITS). This paper investigates how multimedia syntax and semantics may be integrated into the confines of the knowledge-based ITS architecture so as to develop a knowledge-based intelligent multimedia tutoring system (IMTS). The paper contributes a semantic content-based model that can be used for this purpose. Multimedia frames (m-frames) are used as the framework by which the syntactic and semantic information is represented within the model. The paper discusses how IMTSs may be developed using the model, and then demonstrates the use of our approach in the development of ARISTOTLE, an IMTS for teaching young children basic zoology.     

基于Transformer编码器的语义相似度算法研究

语义相似度计算旨在计算文本之间在语义层面的相似程度,是自然语言处理中一项重要的任务。针对现有的计算方法不能充分表示句子的语义特征的问题,提出基于Transformer编码器的语义特征抽取的模型TEAM,利用Transformer模型的上下文语义编码能力充分提取句子内的语义信息,对句子进行深层语义编码。此外,通过引入交互注意力机制,在编码两个句子时利用交互注意力机制提取两个句子之间关联的相似特征,使模型更擅长捕捉句子内部重要的语义信息,提高了模型对语义的理解和泛化能力。实验结果表明,该模型在英文和中文的语义相似度计算任务上能够提高结果的准确性,较已有方法表现出更好的效果。     

Harmonizing Hierarchical Manifolds for Multimedia Document Semantics Understanding and Cross-Media Retrieval

In this paper, we consider the problem of multimedia document (MMD) semantics understanding and content-based cross-media retrieval. An MMD is a set of media objects of different modalities but carrying the same semantics and the content-based cross-media retrieval is a new kind of retrieval method by which the query examples and search results can be of different modalities. Two levels of manifolds are learned to explore the relationships among all the data in the level of MMD and in the level of media object respectively. We first construct a Laplacian media object space for media object representation of each modality and an MMD semantic graph to learn the MMD semantic correlations. The characteristics of media objects propagate along the MMD semantic graph and an MMD semantic space is constructed to perform cross-media retrieval. Different methods are proposed to utilize relevance feedback and experiment shows that the proposed approaches are effective.     

A probabilistic framework for semantic video indexing, filtering,and retrieval

Semantic filtering and retrieval of multimedia content is crucial for efficient use of the multimedia data repositories. Video query by semantic keywords is one of the most difficult problems in multimedia data retrieval. The difficulty lies in the mapping between low-level video representation and high-level semantics. We therefore formulate the multimedia content access problem as a multimedia pattern recognition problem. We propose a probabilistic framework for semantic video indexing, which call support filtering and retrieval and facilitate efficient content-based access. To map low-level features to high-level semantics we propose probabilistic multimedia objects (multijects). Examples of multijects in movies include explosion, mountain, beach, outdoor, music etc. Semantic concepts in videos interact and to model this interaction explicitly, we propose a network of multijects (multinet). Using probabilistic models for six site multijects, rocks, sky, snow, water-body forestry/greenery and outdoor and using a Bayesian belief network as the multinet we demonstrate the application of this framework to semantic indexing. We demonstrate how detection performance can be significantly improved using the multinet to take interconceptual relationships into account. We also show how the multinet can fuse heterogeneous features to support detection based on inference and reasoning     

PAU: PARSING AND UNDERSTANDING WITH UNIFORM SYNTACTIC, SEMANTIC, AND IDIOMATIC REPRESENTATIONS

PAU is an all-paths chart-based unification parser that uses the same uniform representation for regular syntax, irregular syntax such as idioms, and semantics. PAU's representation has very little redundancy, simplifying the task of adding new semantics and syntax fo PAU's knowledge base. PAU uses relations between the syntax and semantics to avoid the proliferation of rules found in semantic grammars. By encoding semantics at the same level of representation as syntax, PAU is able to use semantic constraints early in the parse to eliminate semantically anomalous syntactic interpretations. Examples are given to show how PAU can handle the many eccentricities of different idioms using the same mechanisms as are used to handle regular syntax and semantics. These include the ability of some idioms, but not other idioms of the same syntactic form to undergo passivization, particle movement, action nominalization, indirect object movement, modification by adjectives, gerundive nominalization, prepositional phrase preposing, and topicalization. PAU's representation is bidirectional and is also used by a companion generator. PAU is designed to be efficient, runs in real time on typical workstations, and is being used in a number of natural language systems.     

一种图像局部特征的语义提取方法

本文提出了一种基于期望最大化(EM)算法的局部图像特征的语义提取方法。首先提取图像的局部图像特征,统计特征在视觉词汇本中的出现频率,将图像表示成词袋模型;引入文本分析中的潜在语义分析技术建立从低层图像特征到高层图像语义之间的映射模型;然后利用EM算法拟合概率模型,得到图像局部特征的潜在语义概率分布;最后利用该模型提取出的图像在潜在语义上的分布来进行图像分析和理解。与其他基于语义的图像理解方法相比,本文方法不需要手工标注,以无监督的方式直接从图像低层特征中发掘图像的局部潜在语义,既求得了局部语义信息,又获得了局部语义的空间分布特性,因而能更好地对场景建模。为验证本文算法获取语义的有效性,在15类场景图像上进行了实验,实验结果表明,该方法取得了良好的分类准确率。     

Deconstructing the semantics of big-step modelling languages

With the popularity of model-driven methodologies and the abundance of modelling languages, a major question for a requirements engineer is: which language is suitable for modelling a system under study? We address this question from a semantic point-of-view for big-step modelling languages (BSMLs). BSMLs are a class of popular behavioural modelling languages in which a model can respond to an input by executing multiple transitions, possibly concurrently. We deconstruct the operational semantics of a large class of BSMLs into eight high-level, mostly orthogonal semantic aspects and their common semantic options. We analyse the characteristics of each semantic option. We use feature diagrams to present the design space of BSML semantics that arises from our deconstruction, as well as to taxonomize the syntactic features of BSMLs that exhibit semantic variations. We enumerate the dependencies between syntactic and semantic features. We also discuss the effects of certain combinations of semantic options when used together in a BSML semantics. Our goal is to empower a requirements engineer to compare and choose an appropriate BSML from the plethora of existing BSMLs, or to articulate the semantic features of a new desired BSML when such a BSML does not exist.     

A review on automatic image annotation techniques

Nowadays, more and more images are available. However, to find a required image for an ordinary user is a challenging task. Large amount of researches on image retrieval have been carried out in the past two decades. Traditionally, research in this area focuses on content based image retrieval. However, recent research shows that there is a semantic gap between content based image retrieval and image semantics understandable by humans. As a result, research in this area has shifted to bridge the semantic gap between low level image features and high level semantics. The typical method of bridging the semantic gap is through the automatic image annotation (AIA) which extracts semantic features using machine learning techniques. In this paper, we focus on this latest development in image retrieval and provide a comprehensive survey on automatic image annotation. We analyse key aspects of the various AIA methods, including both feature extraction and semantic learning methods. Major methods are discussed and illustrated in details. We report our findings and provide future research directions in the AIA area in the conclusions     

基于语义相关性与拓扑关系的跨媒体检索算法

针对如何挖掘不同模态中具有相同语义的特征数据之间的内在相关性的问题,提出了一种基于语义相关性与拓扑关系（SCTR）的跨媒体检索算法。一方面,利用具有相同语义的多媒体数据之间的潜在相关性去构造多媒体语义相关超图;另一方面,挖掘多媒体数据的拓扑关系来构建多媒体近邻关系超图。通过结合多媒体数据语义相关性与拓扑关系去为每种媒体类型学习一个最优的投影矩阵,然后将多媒体数据的特征向量投影到一个共同空间,从而实现跨媒体检索。该算法在XMedia数据集上,对多项跨媒体检索任务的平均查准率为51.73%,与联合图正则化的异构度量学习（JGRHML）、跨模态相关传播（CMCP）、近邻的异构相似性度量（HSNN）、共同的表示学习（JRL）算法相比,分别提高了22.73、15.23、11.7、9.11个百分点。实验结果从多方面证明了该算法有效提高了跨媒体检索的平均查准率。     

The joint student response analysis and recognizing textual entailment challenge: making sense of student responses in educational applications

We present the results of the joint student response analysis (SRA) and 8th recognizing textual entailment challenge. The goal of this challenge was to bring together researchers from the educational natural language processing and computational semantics communities. The goal of the SRA task is to assess student responses to questions in the science domain, focusing on correctness and completeness of the response content. Nine teams took part in the challenge, submitting a total of 18 runs using methods and features adapted from previous research on automated short answer grading, recognizing textual entailment and semantic textual similarity. We provide an extended analysis of the results focusing on the impact of evaluation metrics, application scenarios and the methods and features used by the participants. We conclude that additional research is required to be able to leverage syntactic dependency features and external semantic resources for this task, possibly due to limited coverage of scientific domains in existing resources. However, each of three approaches to using features and models adjusted to application scenarios achieved better system performance, meriting further investigation by the research community.     

Building a user-centered semantic hierarchy in image databases

Recent development in the field of digital media technology has resulted in the generation of a huge number of images. Consequently, content-based image retrieval has emerged as an important area in multimedia computing. Research in human perception of image content suggests that the semantic cues play an important role in image retrieval. In this paper, we present a new paradigm to establish the semantics in image databases based on multi-user relevance feedback. Relevance feedback mechanism is one way to incorporate the users’ perception during image retrieval. By treating each feedback as a weak classifier and combining them together, we are able to capture the categories in the users’ mind and build a user-centered semantic hierarchy in the database to support semantic browsing and searching. We present an image retrieval system based on a city-landscape image database comprising of 3,009 images. We also compare our approach with other typical methods to organize an image database. Superior results have been achieved by the proposed framework.     

基于语义与情感的句子相似度计算方法

针对汉语语句表意灵活复杂多变的特点,提出一种基于语义与情感的句子相似度计算方法,从表意层面计算句子相似度。该方法使用哈工大LTP平台对句子进行预处理,提取词语、词性、句法依存标记与语义角色标记,将语义角色标注结果作为句中语义独立成分赋予相似度权重系数,综合句法依存关系与词法关系计算两句相同标签语义独立成分相似度得到部分相似度,加权计算部分相似度得到句子整体相似度。另外,考虑到情感与句式因子,在整体相似度的基础上对满足条件的两句计算情感减益与句式减益。实验结果表明,该方法能有效提取出句子语义独立成分,从语义层面上计算句子相似度,解决了信息遗漏与句子组成成分不一致的问题,提高了句子相似度计算的准确率与鲁棒性。