An unsupervised approach to generating generic summaries of documents

We present an optimization-based unsupervised approach to automatic document summarization. In the proposed approach, text summarization is modeled as a Boolean programming problem. This model generally attempts to optimize three properties, namely, (1) relevance: summary should contain informative textual units that are relevant to the user; (2) redundancy: summaries should not contain multiple textual units that convey the same information; and (3) length: summary is bounded in length. The approach proposed in this paper is applicable to both tasks: single- and multi-document summarization. In both tasks, documents are split into sentences in preprocessing. We select some salient sentences from document(s) to generate a summary. Finally, the summary is generated by threading all the selected sentences in the order that they appear in the original document(s). We implemented our model on multi-document summarization task. When comparing our methods to several existing summarization methods on an open DUC2005 and DUC2007 data sets, we found that our method improves the summarization results significantly. This is because, first, when extracting summary sentences, this method not only focuses on the relevance scores of sentences to the whole sentence collection, but also the topic representative of sentences. Second, when generating a summary, this method also deals with the problem of repetition of information. The methods were evaluated using ROUGE-1, ROUGE-2 and ROUGE-SU4 metrics. In this paper, we also demonstrate that the summarization result depends on the similarity measure. Results of the experiment showed that combination of symmetric and asymmetric similarity measures yields better result than their use separately.     

Empirical comparison of image retrieval color similarity methods with human judgment

It is important to verify assumptions and methods of image retrieval against actual human behavior. A study was conducted to compare similarity methods of color histograms against human assessment of similarity. The similarity methods tested include basic histogram intersection, center histogram matching, locality histogram matching, and size-weighted histogram matching. 161 subjects participated in the empirical study. The findings, based on Spearman correlation analysis, showed that both the basic histogram intersection method and size-weighted histogram are very close to human assessment of similarity (Spearman correlation coefficient of 0.915). The other two are not close to human judgment on similarity. This study illustrates an alternative approach to evaluating matching algorithms. Unlike the usual measures of recall and precision, this approach emphasizes human validation. Fewer images are required with the use of statistical testing.     

Generalized difference control of parallel streams temperatures

A furnace with multiple parallel passes and multiple burners is commonly seen in petroleum refineries. In order to maintain the furnace running in a safe, stable, and high-efficiency state it is necessary to control the outlet temperatures of the multiple passes to be the same. Due to the fact that the process of the oil heating in such furnace is nonlinear, multivariable, time varying, has serious coupling among passes, has frequent dynamic changes and a large time delay, traditional control methods have trouble in controlling these temperatures, and some advanced control methods, including predictive control, adaptive control, and robust control, are usually too complex for convenient use. In this paper, a control technique, called differences control technique (DsCT), is proposed to distribute the stream flowrates such that the stream temperatures are as identical as possible. The principle of the proposed technique is explained and demonstrated, and the results of its application to a real-life petroleum refinery furnace are also reported. The DsCT technique has the following advantages: it does not need complicated design procedures, the controller structure is simple, it is easy to apply, and it can be canonically applied to furnaces with different number of passes.     

Configurational and nonconfigurational interactions between odorants in binary mixtures.

Studies on odor mixture perception suggest that although odor components can often be identified in mixtures, mixtures can also give rise to novel perceptual qualities that are not present in the components. Using an olfactory habituation task, the authors evaluated how the perceptual similarity between components in a mixture affects the perceptual quality of the mixture itself. Rats perceived binary mixtures composed of similar components as different from their 2 components, whereas binary mixtures composed of dissimilar components were perceived as very similar to their components. Results show that for both types of mixtures, pretraining to Component A reduces subsequent learning about Component B in rats trained in the presence of A. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The time course of spoken word learning and recognition: Studies with artificial lexicons.

The time course of spoken word recognition depends largely on the frequencies of a word and its competitors, or neighbors (similar-sounding words). However, variability in natural lexicons makes systematic analysis of frequency and neighbor similarity difficult. Artificial lexicons were used to achieve precise control over word frequency and phonological similarity. Eye tracking provided time course measures of lexical activation and competition (during spoken instructions to perform visually guided tasks) both during and after word learning, as a function of word frequency, neighbor type, and neighbor frequency. Apparent shifts from holistic to incremental competitor effects were observed in adults and neural network simulations, suggesting such shifts reflect general properties of learning rather than changes in the nature of lexical representations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Category Norms as a Function of Culture and Age: Comparisons of Item Responses to 105 Categories by American and Chinese Adults.

Understanding how aging influences cognition across different cultures has been hindered by a lack of standardized, cross-referenced verbal stimuli. This study introduces a database of such item-level stimuli for both younger and older adults, in China and the United States, and makes 3 distinct contributions. First, the authors specify which item categories generalize across age and/or cultural groups, rigorously quantifying differences among them. Second, they introduce novel, powerful methods to measure between-group differences in freely generated ranked data, the rank-ordered logit model and Hellinger Affinity. Finally, a broad archive of tested, cross-linguistic stimuli is now freely available to researchers: data, similarity measures, and all stimulus materials for 105 categories and 4 culture-by-age groups, comprising over 10,000 fully translated unique item responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

建筑制图标准中图形符号适宜性、区分性的研究

应用线段长短、间距大小视觉反应的量化规律，提出设计图形符号大小的原则——既更使其大小满足“长”“短”“大”“小”的心理要求，又要互相之间在大小上有区分性。根据图形组织的相似、接近、连续三原则提出设计图形符号形状的原则——图形符号之间尽量减少相似、接近、连续，以保证较好的区分性。通过分析发现，现行建筑制图标准中的图形符号绝大部分在大小和形状具有适宜性、区分性。     

用差分色谱法消除气测背景气及外源气干扰的可行性探讨

针对气测录井中外源气、二次循环气对油气显示层解释的干扰问题,该文提出了用差分色谱法来消除其影响,并就其概念和实现方法做了介绍;对差分色谱的测量条件及影响因素进行了分析,文章还列举了差分色谱的录井应用实例。在满足差分色谱测量条件的前提下,该方法有利于气测录井解释和油气水层评价,为气测录井半定量或定量解释提供一种方法和途径。     

SIMILARITY LAW OF FLUCTUATING PRESSURE WITHIN HYDRAULIC JUMP AREA

Through a series of model tests of five scales for 2-D free hydraulic jump, the da-ta of fluctuating pressure acting on the floor level within the hydraulic jump were obtained. Dur-ing the experiments, Froude number varied from 2.94 to 8.61, and Reynolds number rangedfrom 2×10~4 to 6×10~5. Experiment results indicate that the amplitude scale of fluctuating pres-sure is the length scale of model, i. e. P'=L, which agrees with gravity similarity law: Thefrequency scale of the fluctuating pressure is a unity i. e., f=1, which does not satisfy thegravity similarity law.     

曲率圆弧段代替切线段的数值计算方法

为了确保安全,核工业和其它一些工业要求某些参数的计算值只能取正的相对误差且不大于5×10-3,这是它们对数值计算的基本要求.例如,反应堆带功率运行时,功率增长总是随时间上升,功率曲线是向下凹的.传统的龙格-库塔法计算值总是小于真实值,并且随着时间的增加,计算值越来越小于真实值.按计算值分析,反应堆是安全的,但实际上反应堆是不安全的.这对反应堆的安全极为不利.为此,本文开拓了一个全新的数值计算方法.与龙格-库塔法相比,该方法计算工作量小,与预测一校正法相比,该方法没有启动问题.更值得指出的是计算值高于真实值,这样,反应堆计算结果总是偏于安全的.