Knowledge maps for e-learning

Maps such as concept maps and knowledge maps are often used as learning materials. These maps have nodes and links, nodes as key concepts and links as relationships between key concepts. From a map, the user can recognize the important concepts and the relationships between them. To build concept or knowledge maps, domain experts are needed. Therefore, since these experts are hard to obtain, the cost of map creation is high. In this study, an attempt was made to automatically build a domain knowledge map for e-learning using text mining techniques. From a set of documents about a specific topic, keywords are extracted using the TF/IDF algorithm. A domain knowledge map (K-map) is based on ranking pairs of keywords according to the number of appearances in a sentence and the number of words in a sentence. The experiments analyzed the number of relations required to identify the important ideas in the text. In addition, the experiments compared K-map learning to document learning and found that K-map identifies the more important ideas.     

基于主题图的本体信息检索模型研究

针对本体在定义领域概念时具有规范性、明确性和可共享性等特点,结合主题图对文档资源组织方式具有语义可导航性,提出了一种基于主题图的本体信息检索模型,并给出了模型的形式化定义。选择旅游领域作为研究对象,定义了旅游本体和旅游文档资源主题图,分析了在信息检索模型中利用本体来规范用户自然语言查询输入,识别用户检索意图和扩展查询语义方面的作用,并展示了主题图在语义导航和用户相关度排序方面的价值。最后通过实验表明基于主题图的本体信息检索模型较传统的检索系统有较好的性能。     

Navigational facilities for relational data base

Charles Bachman's great idea of navigation in a data base is applied to the relational data model. This idea, understood as a way of user thinking, is formulated in such a manner, that no physical concepts are introduced to the user's awareness. Thus the demanded level of data independence is not reduced.A concept of “navigational statement” is defined. The navigational statements may be used to improve other relational languages, for example SEQUEL. It is shown that navigational statements simplify the grammar structure of language expressions and make them shorter and more readable. Elliptic (incomplete) navigational statements are also defined. Such statements may be regarded as a good tool for the casual user.This paper may be viewed as a (not necessarily complete) review of possibilities related to the idea of navigation in a relational data base.     

A Latent Semantic Indexing-based approach to multilingual document clustering

The creation and deployment of knowledge repositories for managing, sharing, and reusing tacit knowledge within an organization has emerged as a prevalent approach in current knowledge management practices. A knowledge repository typically contains vast amounts of formal knowledge elements, which generally are available as documents. To facilitate users' navigation of documents within a knowledge repository, knowledge maps, often created by document clustering techniques, represent an appealing and promising approach. Various document clustering techniques have been proposed in the literature, but most deal with monolingual documents (i.e., written in the same language). However, as a result of increased globalization and advances in Internet technology, an organization often maintains documents in different languages in its knowledge repositories, which necessitates multilingual document clustering (MLDC) to create organizational knowledge maps. Motivated by the significance of this demand, this study designs a Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI)-based MLDC technique capable of generating knowledge maps (i.e., document clusters) from multilingual documents. The empirical evaluation results show that the proposed LSI-based MLDC technique achieves satisfactory clustering effectiveness, measured by both cluster recall and cluster precision, and is capable of maintaining a good balance between monolingual and cross-lingual clustering effectiveness when clustering a multilingual document corpus.     

Intelligent non-visual navigation of complex HTML structures

This paper provides an overview of a project aimed at using knowledge-based technology to improve accessibility of the Web for visually impaired users. The focus is on the multi-dimensional components of Web pages (tables and frames); our cognitive studies demonstrate that spatial information is essential in comprehending tabular data, and this aspect has been largely overlooked in the existing literature. Our approach addresses these issues by using explicit representations of the navigational semantics of the documents and using a domain-specific language to query the semantic representation and derive navigation strategies. Navigational knowledge is explicitly generated and associated to the tabular and multi-dimensional HTML structures of documents. This semantic representation provides to the blind user an abstract representation of the layout of the document; the user is then allowed to issue commands from the domain-specific language to access and traverse the document according to its abstract layout. Published online: 6 November 2002     

Novel Autonomous Navigation Algorithms in Dynamic and Unknown Environments

Because the range of mobile robot sensors is limited and navigation maps are not always accurate, autonomous navigation in dynamic and unknown environments is a big challenge. In this article, we propose two novel autonomous navigation algorithms, which are based on the analysis of three conditions for unobserved and uncertain environments during navigation.

The algorithm for a dynamic environment uses the “known space” and “free space” conditions. It corrects false obstacles in the map when the conventional path is stuck. The navigation algorithm for unknown environments uses the “unknown space” and “free space” conditions. We use the Monte Carlo method to evaluate the performance of our algorithms and the other methods. Experimental results show that our autonomous navigation algorithms are better than the others.     

An Optimization Approach to Improving Collections of Shape Maps

Finding an informative, structure‐preserving map between two shapes has been a long‐standing problem in geometry processing, involving a variety of solution approaches and applications. However, in many cases, we are given not only two related shapes, but a collection of them, and considering each pairwise map independently does not take full advantage of all existing information. For example, a notorious problem with computing shape maps is the ambiguity introduced by the symmetry problem — for two similar shapes which have reflectional symmetry there exist two maps which are equally favorable, and no intrinsic mapping algorithm can distinguish between them based on these two shapes alone. Another prominent issue with shape mapping algorithms is their relative sensitivity to how “similar” two shapes are — good maps are much easier to obtain when shapes are very similar. Given the context of additional shape maps connecting our collection, we propose to add the constraint of global map consistency, requiring that any composition of maps between two shapes should be independent of the path chosen in the network. This requirement can help us choose among the equally good symmetric alternatives, or help us replace a “bad” pairwise map with the composition of a few “good” maps between shapes that in some sense interpolate the original ones. We show how, given a collection of pairwise shape maps, to define an optimization problem whose output is a set of alternative maps, compositions of those given, which are consistent, and individually at times much better than the original. Our method is general, and can work on any collection of shapes, as long as a seed set of good pairwise maps is provided. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method for improving maps generated by state‐of‐the‐art mapping methods on various shape databases.     

EDITORIAL

The process undertaken by an information seeker, in order to form relevance decisions regarding documents, is defined as “Document Triage.” To better facilitate users’ needs in their triage activities, interactive interfaces have begun to evolve within on-line academic repositories. In order to complement current work on interface design and interaction, and produce custom guidelines to inform the creation of triage interfaces, we examine how interfaces that alter the document presentation and structure affect information seekers’ visual and navigational attention. We present a set of heuristics for both creating and evaluating such interfaces.     

Mining e-Learning domain concept map from academic articles

Recent researches have demonstrated the importance of concept map and its versatile applications especially in e-Learning. For example, while designing adaptive learning materials, designers need to refer to the concept map of a subject domain. Moreover, concept maps can show the whole picture and core knowledge about a subject domain. Research from literature also suggests that graphical representation of domain knowledge can reduce the problems of information overload and learning disorientation for learners. However, construction of concept maps typically relied upon domain experts in the past; it is a time consuming and high cost task. Concept maps creation for emerging new domains such as e-Learning is even more challenging due to its ongoing development nature. The aim of this paper is to construct e-Learning domain concept maps from academic articles. We adopt some relevant journal articles and conference papers in e-Learning domain as data sources, and apply text-mining techniques to automatically construct concept maps for e-Learning domain. The constructed concept maps can provide a useful reference for researchers, who are new to the e-Leaning field, to study related issues, for teachers to design adaptive learning materials, and for learners to understand the whole picture of e-Learning domain knowledge.     

The cognitive approach to a document and the document sphere

This paper considers the problems of using the cognitive approach to uncovering the essence of a document and the field of the existence of documents. The need for the “document sphere” concept is substantiated and different interpretations of this concept are proposed. The article is written at the interface of information science, document science, and library science.     

实时更新的全局一致三维栅格建图

在未知的三维环境中,移动机器人自主导航通常需要实时构建与环境全局一致的栅格地图,而现有大部分系统缺少地图更新策略,构建的栅格地图与实际环境不一致.文中将同步定位与建图模块获得的环境信息以点云形式提供给栅格建图模块处理,同时提出基于关键帧的高效数据结构和地图实时更新策略,实时构建可用于移动机器人自主导航的全局一致的地图.室内动态的实验数据测试表明,文中方法可以有效实时更新地图,生成与环境一致的三维栅格地图,支持其后续的自主导航操作.     

: a visualization system for exploring document databases for technology forecasting

Database Information Visualization and Analysis system ( ) is a computer program that helps perform bibliometric analysis of collections of scientific literature and patents for technology forecasting. Documents, drawn from the technological field of interest, are visualized as clusters on a two dimensional map, permitting exploration of the relationships among the documents and document clusters and also permitting derivation of summary data about each document cluster. Such information, when provided to subject matter experts performing a technology forecast, can yield insight into trends in the technological field of interest. This paper discusses the document visualization and analysis process: acquisition of documents, mapping documents, clustering, exploration of relationships, and generation of summary and trend information. Detailed discussion of exploration functions is presented and followed by an example of visualization and analysis of a set of documents about chemical sensors.     

: a visualization system for exploring document databases for technology forecasting

Database Information Visualization and Analysis system ( ) is a computer program that helps perform bibliometric analysis of collections of scientific literature and patents for technology forecasting. Documents, drawn from the technological field of interest, are visualized as clusters on a two dimensional map, permitting exploration of the relationships among the documents and document clusters and also permitting derivation of summary data about each document cluster. Such information, when provided to subject matter experts performing a technology forecast, can yield insight into trends in the technological field of interest. This paper discusses the document visualization and analysis process: acquisition of documents, mapping documents, clustering, exploration of relationships, and generation of summary and trend information. Detailed discussion of exploration functions is presented and followed by an example of visualization and analysis of a set of documents about chemical sensors.     

Graphical Information Portals—The Application of Smart Maps in G≻eoN≻et 4D

This paper presents a new brand of portals that elevates the concepts of information portals to a new level of interaction and navigation means. The graphical information portal is built upon the concept of smart maps for information visualization and exploration. Smart maps serve as navigational hub by indicating the existence of information carrying relevance for a specific location, by relating distributed multimedia information to a location on a map of interest, and by categorizing information for easier orientation in subjects. Main advantage of a map-based information portal lies in the intuitive information presentation, navigation, search and retrieval. Representative usage scenarios include facility management, information kiosks, and environmental information systems. Groupware functions for collaborative visualization and interactive editing on maps are added on top in order to migrate the concept of graphical information portals to further domains, such as concurrent engineering, risk management, and the like. An implementation of a geographical information portal has been designed and implemented in project GeoNet 4D, focussing on facility management for portuary zones.     

The epistemology of documents (A methodological essay)

Documents are the products of the deliberate social and cultural activities of people and are included in the subject matter of many scientific disciplines. The formation of the concept of a “document” as interdisciplinary category is one of the problems that the epistemology of documents deals with. The historical method of epistemology applies to the evolution of document communication. To represent stages of document communication development, the concept of an episteme is used. Common interpretations of documents are considered, which have interdisciplinary significance and favor the understanding of document as category of science as a whole. It is shown that development of the general definition of document can’t be considered the problem of any particular documentation theory. It is the problem of unifying theory (metatheory), which is called documentology in contemporary investigations.     

Rethinking the Mini-Map: A Navigational Aid to Support Spatial Learning in Urban Game Environments

Players in computer games continue to rely on assistance for navigation in the game environment, even after hours of gameplay. This behavior is in contrast to the real world where spatial knowledge of an unfamiliar environment develops with experience and reliance on navigational assistance declines. The slow development of spatial knowledge in virtual environments can be attributed to the use of turn-by-turn navigational aids. In the context of computer games, the most common form of these aids is a “mini-map.” The use of such aids in computer games is necessitated by the demands of immersion and entertainment and, hence, they cannot be entirely discarded. The need, then, is to design navigational aids that support, rather than inhibit, the development of spatial knowledge. The authors propose landmark-based verbal directions as an alternative to mini-maps and report the results of a randomized comparative study conducted to examine the impact of mini-maps and their proposed aid on the development of spatial knowledge in a virtual urban environment. The results confirm the superiority of their verbal aid in terms of spatial knowledge, while mini-maps perform better with respect to navigational efficiency. The authors hope that this study provides a first step toward defining design parameters that govern the tradeoff between navigational efficiency and spatial learning.     

Websom for Textual Data Mining

New methods that are user-friendly and efficient are needed for guidanceamong the masses of textual information available in the Internet and theWorld Wide Web. We have developed a method and a tool called the WEBSOMwhich utilizes the self-organizing map algorithm (SOM) for organizing largecollections of text documents onto visual document maps. The approach toprocessing text is statistically oriented, computationally feasible, andscalable – over a million text documents have been ordered on a single map.In the article we consider different kinds of information needs and tasksregarding organizing, visualizing, searching, categorizing and filteringtextual data. Furthermore, we discuss and illustrate with examples howdocument maps can aid in these situations. An example is presented wherea document map is utilized as a tool for visualizing and filtering a stream ofincoming electronic mail messages.     

Integrating fuzzy topological maps and fuzzy geometric maps for behavior‐based robots

In behavior‐based robots, planning is necessary to elaborate abstract plans that resolve complex navigational tasks. Usually maps of the environment are used to plan the robot motion and to resolve the navigational tasks. Two types of maps have been mainly used: metric and topological maps. Both types present advantages and weakness so that several integration approaches have been proposed in literature. However, in many approaches the integration is conducted to build a global representation model, and the planning and navigational techniques have not been fitted to profit from both kinds of information. We propose the integration of topological and metric models into a hybrid deliberative‐reactive architecture through a path planning algorithm based on A^* and a hierarchical map with two levels of abstraction. The hierarchical map contains the required information to take advantage of both kinds of modeling. On one hand, the topological model is based on a fuzzy perceptual model that allows the robot to classify the environment in distinguished places, and on the other hand, the metric map is built using regions of possibility with the shape of fuzzy segments, which are used later to build fuzzy grid‐based maps. The approach allows the robot to decide on the use of the most appropriate model to navigate the world depending on minimum‐cost and safety criteria. Experiments in simulation and in a real office‐like environment are shown for validating the proposed approach integrated into the navigational architecture. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

基于相似度的网页标题抽取方法

目前网页标题的抽取方法大多结合HTML结构和标签特征进行抽取,但是这些方法并没有考虑标题与正文信息之间内容上的联系。该文提出一种基于相似度的网页标题抽取方法,该方法利用网页标题与正文信息之间的关系,通过计算语言“单位”之间的相似度和对应的权值,并引入HITS算法模型对权值进行调整,根据特定的选取方法抽取出真实标题。实验结果表明,该方法不仅对“非标准网页”的抽取达到满意的效果,而且对“标准网页”具有较高的泛化能力。     

Conceptual and content-based annotation of (multimedia) documents

This paper focuses on the techniques used in an NKRL environment (NKRL = Narrative Knowledge Representation Language) to deal with a general problem affecting the so-called “semantic/conceptual annotations” techniques. These last, mainly ontology-based, aim at “annotating” multimedia documents by representing, in some way, the “inner meaning/deep content” of these documents. For documents of sufficient size, the content modeling operations are separately executed on ‘significant fragments’ of the documents, e.g., “sentences” for natural language texts or “segments” (minimal units for story advancement) in a video context. The general problem above concerns then the possibility of collecting all the partial conceptual representations into a global one. This integration operation must, moreover, be carried out in such a way that the meaning of the full document could go beyond the simple addition of the ‘meanings’ conveyed by the single fragments. In this context, NKRL makes use of second order knowledge representation structures, “completive construction” and “binding occurrences”, for collecting within the conceptual annotation of a whole “narrative” the basic building blocks corresponding to the representation of its composing elementary events. These solutions, of a quite general nature, are discussed in some depth in this paper. This last includes also a short “state of the art” in the annotation domain and some comparisons with the different methodologies proposed in the past for solving the above ‘integration’ problem.