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.     

Error tolerant document structure analysis

Successful applications of digital libraries require structured access to sources of information. This paper presents an approach to extract the logical structure of text documents. The extracted structure is explicated by means of SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language). Consequently, the extraction is achieved on the basis of grammars that extend SGML with recognition rules. From these grammars parsing automata are generated. These automata are used to partition a flat text document into its elements, to discard formatting information, and to insert SGML markups. Complex document structures and fallback rules needed for error tolerant parsing make such automata highly ambiguous. A novel parsing strategy has been developed that ranks and prunes ambiguous parsing paths.     

Is visual content in textual search interfaces beneficial to dyslexic users?

Dyslexia is a learning disability characterised by problems with accurate or fluent word recognition, poor decoding, and poor spelling abilities. Although several studies have addressed dyslexia and Web accessibility, less is known about how dyslexia affects information search. This study investigated whether the inclusion of icons in search user interfaces enhances performance among dyslexics. A total of 21 dyslexics and 21 controls completed 52 search tasks in 4 conditions: icons only, words only, and both icons and words in a grid layout and a list layout, while eye movements were recorded. Dyslexics took significantly longer than controls to locate targets in tasks containing text, but not in the icon-only condition. Dyslexics had longer fixation durations than controls in both icon and text based search arrays, suggesting higher mental load associated with search tasks generally. The addition of words to icon arrays led to faster search times within controls, but not dyslexics. Dyslexics also exhibited more fixations on dual-modality tasks, and longer scanpaths than controls in list layout. Both groups were fastest searching the list layout, with icons and words listed in columns. Results are discussed in terms of the design of accessible search interfaces for dyslexic users, taking into account mental load of dual-modality information display, and the arrangement of search items. Empirical data is provided for the design of accessible search results interfaces for dyslexics.     

SEL: A unified algorithm for salient entity linking

The entity linking task consists in automatically identifying and linking the entities mentioned in a text to their uniform resource identifiers in a given knowledge base. This task is very challenging due to its natural language ambiguity. However, not all the entities mentioned in the document have the same utility in understanding the topics being discussed. Thus, the related problem of identifying the most relevant entities present in the document, also known as salient entities (SE), is attracting increasing interest. In this paper, we propose salient entity linking, a novel supervised 2‐step algorithm comprehensively addressing both entity linking and saliency detection. The first step is aimed at identifying a set of candidate entities that are likely to be mentioned in the document. The second step, besides detecting linked entities, also scores them according to their saliency. Experiments conducted on 2 different data sets show that the proposed algorithm outperforms state‐of‐the‐art competitors and is able to detect SE with high accuracy. Furthermore, we used salient entity linking for extractive text summarization. We found that entity saliency can be incorporated into text summarizers to extract salient sentences from text. The resulting summarizers outperform well‐known summarization systems, proving the importance of using the SE information.     

A Model Transformation Approach for Automatic Composition of COTS User Interfaces in Web-Based Information Systems

Globalization of the information and the Knowledge Society requires the modernization of Web-based Information Systems (WIS) into evolutive and adaptable user interfaces. Today, WIS user interfaces are built following traditional development paradigms. This article is inspired on a Model-Driven Development (MDD) perspective to produce runtime automatic composition of user interfaces from model and metamodel representations of widgets-type COTS interface components architectures and model transformation.     

On entropy-based term weighting schemes for text categorization

In text categorization, Vector Space Model (VSM) has been widely used for representing documents, in which a document is represented by a vector of terms. Since different terms contribute to a document’s semantics in various degrees, a number of term weighting schemes have been proposed for VSM to improve text categorization performance. Much evidence shows that the performance of a term weighting scheme often varies across different text categorization tasks, while the mechanism underlying variability in a scheme’s performance remains unclear. Moreover, existing schemes often weight a term with respect to a category locally, without considering the global distribution of a term’s occurrences across all categories in a corpus. In this paper, we first systematically examine pros and cons of existing term weighting schemes in text categorization and explore the reasons why some schemes with sound theoretical bases, such as chi-square test and information gain, perform poorly in empirical evaluations. By measuring the concentration that a term distributes across all categories in a corpus, we then propose a series of entropy-based term weighting schemes to measure the distinguishing power of a term in text categorization. Through extensive experiments on five different datasets, the proposed term weighting schemes consistently outperform the state-of-the-art schemes. Moreover, our findings shed new light on how to choose and develop an effective term weighting scheme for a specific text categorization task.

     

The use of icons and labels in an end user application program: An empirical study of learning and retention

This research compared the learning of an application program whose interface was implemented using buttons with text labels, icons, or a fully redundant combination of icons and text labels. The objective was to: 1) evaluate the success of novice computer users in initially learning to use the application and in later use in a delayed session and 2) measure users' attitudes toward the application. Each session was divided into four blocks, and performance in the blocks was measured in terms of correctness of the tasks performed, time to perform tasks, and number of times the help facility was accessed. In addition, at the end of each session the participants' perceptions of the ease of use and usefulness of the software were measured. The results showed that in the first session performance was best on the label-only and icon-label interfaces. Performance on the icon-only interface was much poorer in session 1, particularly in terms of time and help references, but improved in session 2 to the point where it approached the performance on the other interfaces. Retention of skill between the initial and the delayed session was worse for the icon-only interface, but the effect was short-lived. Perceptions of ease of use were consistently better for the icon-label interface than for the other two interfaces. Perceptions of usefulness were higher for the icon-only and icon-label interfaces than for the label-only interface in the first session. Perceptions of usefulness became more positive for the icon-only group in the delayed session, but did not change for the other groups.     

Assessing the usability of icons in user interfaces

Abstract

This paper presents a methodology and results of an experiment to assess the usability of menu items constructed of text, icons, and text-and-icons. Attributes of menu items are used to form a matrix which can be used to classify menu items for use in certain applications, tasks, or with users of particular experience levels. An experiment was conducted to validate a portion of the attribute matrix. Performance measures were accuracy of selection and time to make a selection. Results suggest that menus constructed of a mixed format (text and icons) result in the fewest number of incorrect selections by users. No significant differences in the time to make a selection were found.     

The choices people make: the types of buddy icons people select for self-presentation online

People are adapting their self-presentation strategies to utilize both online and offline communication in their interactions with strangers, co-workers, family, and friends. One way people communicate online is through the use of instant messaging, which includes the use of graphical representations of people called buddy icons. This project presents the results of a survey of the buddy icons 93 participants were currently using in their instant messaging interactions. It examines the extent to which self-presentation theory (Goffman 1959) can explain the choices people are making about how to self-present elements of their identity online. The icons were categorized and users were asked why they choose them as well as when and whether they change them with different interaction partners. Results show that male users select different categories of buddy icons than females but that most users select buddy icons that are human like, low on photorealism, and consistent with their biological sex. Users also reported that they rarely change their icons and that they selected human buddy icons when they want to increase social presence.     

Systems of representation: a pedagogical model for design education in the information age

Abstract

The course SDR: Sistemas de Representación(Systems of Representation), is the last stage of a line of work which has the objective of integrating information technologies in the education of architecture in a meaningful way. A distinctive mark of this pedagogic approach has been to look upon computer technology as an opportunity to rethink the methods, contents and goals of architecturaleducation,in thelight of contemporary culture.

The course is structured in six themes, each one standing for a ‘system of representation’: ‘text’, ‘figure’, ‘object’, ‘image’, ‘space’ and ‘light’. Within every system, a variety of issues dealing with the concept of ‘representation’ are addressed in an interdisciplinary manner. It is a compulsory course lasting three semesters, in the second and third year of a five-year architectural program. It has been offered since the academic year 1999/2000.     

A document comparison scheme for secure duplicate detection

The ever-growing volumes of textual information from various sources have fostered the development of digital libraries, making digital content readily accessible but also easy for malicious users to plagiarize, thus giving rise to security problems. In this paper, we introduce a duplicate detection scheme that is able to determine, with a particularly high accuracy, the degree to which one document is similar to another. Our pairwise document comparison scheme detects the resemblance between the content of documents by considering document chunks, representing contexts of words selected from the text. The resulting duplicate detection technique presents a good level of security in the protection of intellectual property while improving the availability of the data stored in the digital library and the correctness of the search results. Finally, the paper addresses efficiency and scalability issues by introducing new data reduction techniques.     

3Desque: interface elements for a 3D graphical user interface

This paper explores some design possibilities and constraints for 3D enhancements of graphical user interfaces (GUIs). This is done with the aim of conveying more information in less screen space, while avoiding visual clutter. Design elements include the use of ‘slapped‐back’ windows obtained by projecting windows and icons into three dimensions; ‘trays’, an alternative to folders or piles; the use of transparent ‘beams’ for indicating hierarchy; and the use of ‘periphs’ for a form of fisheye projection on window borders. In addition we employ shading and shadows to enhance the interface, and automatic placement algorithms to prevent visually confusing occlusion. By considering these approaches together, rather than in isolation, the interactions between the different modifications are made explicit. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Text Mining in the SOMLib Digital Library System: The Representation of Topics and Genres

With the increasing amount of textual information available in electronic form, more powerful methods for exploring, searching, and organizing the available mass of information are needed to cope with this situation. This paper presents the SOMLIb digital library system, built on neural networks to provide text mining capabilities. At its foundation we use the Self-Organizing Map to provide content-based clustering of documents. By using an extended model, i.e. the Growing Hierarchical Self-Organizing Map, we can further detect subject hierarchies in a document collection, with the neural network adapting its size and structure automatically during its unsupervised training process to reflect the topical hierarchy. By mining the weight vector structure of the trained maps our system is able to select keywords describing the various topical clusters. Text mining has to incorporate more than the mere analysis of content. Structural and genre information are key in organizing and locating information. Using color-coding techniques we can integrate a structural analysis of documents based on Self-Organizing Maps into the subject-based clustering relying on metaphor graphics for intuitive visualization. We demonstrate the capabilities of the SOMLib system using collections of articles from various newspapers and magazines.     

Influence mechanism of icon semantics on visual search performance: Evidence from an eye-tracking study

Explicit icon semantics can reduce the difficulty of understanding complex visual information. Optimizing the icon semantics and text semantics of icons can effectively improve the cognitive performance of digital interfaces. This paper adopts visual search tasks to study the effects of different combinations of icon semantic familiarity and the presence or absence of text on icon search performance under horizontal and vertical layouts. The behavioral experiment results show that under two layouts: 1. The main effect of icon semantics is significant, and the search performance increases with the increase of semantic familiarity. 2. The main effect of text is significant, and the search performance is negatively correlated with the addition of text. The eye movement experiment found that the semantic familiarity of icons had a significant impact on average fixation time. Furthermore, the number of fixation points changed significantly after the text variable was added. Therefore, there was no significant difference in the number of fixation points in the horizontal layout, and icon semantics was the main influencing factor in visual search. In the vertical layout, there was no significant difference in average fixation time, and text was the main influencing factor of visual search. The results show that the semantic familiarity of icons and different combinations with or without text significantly affect visual search performance in horizontal and vertical layouts. This paper provides a theoretical reference for the combination of icons and text in interface design.     

Hidden messages: evaluating the efficiency of code elision in program navigation

Text elision is a user interface technique that aims to improve the efficiency of navigating through information by allowing regions of text to be ‘folded’ into and out of the display. Several researchers have argued that elision interfaces are particularly suited to source code editing because they allow programmers to focus on relevant code regions while suppressing the display of irrelevant information. Elision features are now appearing in commercial systems for software development. There is, however, a lack of empirical evidence of the technique's efficiency. This paper presents an empirical evaluation of source code elision using a Java program editor. The evaluation compared a normal ‘flat text’ editor with two versions that diminished elided text to levels that were ‘just legible’ and ‘illegible’. Performance was recorded in four tasks involving navigation through programs. Results show that programmers were able to complete their tasks more rapidly when using the elision interfaces, particularly in larger program files. Although several participants indicated a preference for the just legible elision interface, performance was best with illegible elision.     

Augmenting text and voice conversations with dynamic, interactive abstractions using P2P networking

This paper discusses an extension of MUSLI, a visual language based on a movie metaphor, for augmenting text and voice messages. We begin by describing the MUSLI framework, object structure, and possible language structures. The language supports the animation of symbols and icons, together with interactive access to databases of multimedia objects that are alternative representations of the symbols. The structure of the elements and the language relations between them serve as a semantic foundation for an augmented voice communication system. We shall discuss the inherent advantages of this approach, such as suitability for mobile technology, and give several examples of possible MUSLI ‘conversations’.     

基于生成式-判别式混合模型的可解释性文档分类

现有可解释性文档分类常忽略对文本信息的深度挖掘,未考虑单词与单词上下文、句子与句子上下文之间的语义关系.为此,文中提出基于生成式-判别式混合模型的可解释性文档分类方法,在文档编码器中引入分层注意力机制,获得富含上下文语义信息的文档表示,生成精确的分类结果及解释性信息,解决现有模型对文本信息挖掘不够充分的问题.在PCMag、Skytrax评论数据集上的实验表明,文中方法在文档分类上性能较优,生成较准确的解释性信息,提升方法的整体性能.     

Using an experimental study to develop group awareness support for real-time distributed collaborative writing

Supporting group awareness is vital for the success of real-time, distributed, collaborative writing systems. Many awareness mechanisms have been introduced, but highly effective solutions are few. The research presented in this paper focuses on the development of awareness mechanisms using an experimental study of synchronous distributed collaborative writing. Our study has made two major contributions to research on group awareness.First, the study compares the importance of different awareness elements in supporting group awareness for collaborative writing. The results of our Wilcoxon test on awareness elements identify the five most important elements, including “Being able to comment on what other users have done,” “Knowing what actions other users are currently taking,” “Providing a communication tool when audio is not available,” “Knowing other user's working areas in the document,” and “Knowing other user's tasks.”Second, the research proposes mechanisms corresponding to the above-mentioned five awareness elements. The mechanisms include Dynamic Task List (DTL), Modification Director (MD), Advanced Chat (AC) and Split Window View (SWV). These mechanisms provide support for various aspects of group awareness, and add many enhanced features to existing awareness mechanisms. For example, DTL presents high-level information about authors' responsibilities and the correlation between their work allocations. MD notifies users instantaneously whenever their work is modified by other authors. AC enhances communication between users by allowing them to attach document objects such as text and diagrams to a conversation message. And, SWV provides the views of other authors' working areas and viewing areas simultaneously.     

Towards a theory of tables

Tables appearing in natural language documents provide a compact method for presenting relational information in an immediate and intuitive manner, while simultaneously organizing and indexing that information. Despite their ubiquity and obvious utility, tables have not received the same level of formal characterization enjoyed by sentential text. Rather, they are modeled in terms of geometry, simple hierarchies of strings and database-like relational structures. Tables have been the focus of a large volume of research in the document image analysis field and lately, have received particular attention from researchers interested in extracting information from non-trivial elements of web pages. This paper provides a framework for representing tables at both the semantic and structural levels. It presents a representation of the indexing structures present in tables and the relationship between these structures and the underlying categories. Matthew Hurst graduated from Edinburgh University in 1992 and completed an MPhil at Cambridge in Computer Speech and Language Processing. He then worked at The University of Edinburgh on a number of projects involving text and document analysis before enroling in the PhD programme. While studying for his PhD, he completed a European Science and Technology Fellowship in Japan. After working for IBM Research, Tokyo he moved tothe United States of America to work for a number of companies with unique applications utilizing applied natural language processing and document analysis. He is currently the Director of Science and Innovation at Nielsen BuzzMetrics.     

书籍版式中图形与文字的空间构成

版式设计中的两个基本构成要素是文字和图形,怎样将它们完美结合,用恰如其分的编排设计将信息传达给人们是关键的一步。一方面,文字和图形出现在版面中的目的就是为了传递信息,另一方面,处于信息时代快节奏生活中的人们对文字、图形的要求不仅仅停留在其基本功用上,他们希望当今的版式设计能够把图形、文字及其他要素艺术的结合,使作品同时具有"阅读性"和"观赏性"。