The revised versions of lectures given at the Summer Convention on Information Extraction, SCIE 2002, held in Frascati, Italy in July 2002. The following lectures by leading authorities in the field of information extraction are included: - acquisition of domain knowledge - terminology mining - finite-state approaches to Web IE - measuring term representatives - agent-based ontological mediation in IE systems - information retrieval and IE in question answering systems - natural language communication with virtual actors

This new resource provides a coherent, intuitive, and theoretical foundation for the fusion and exploitation of traditional sensor data as well as text-based information. In addition to presenting a detailed discussion of base-level data fusion requirements, a variety of higher level exploitation algorithms are presented that perform fully automated relationship discovery, rank interest level of entities, and support context-sensitive behavior understanding (both static and dynamic context). This book identifies eight canonical fusion forms as well as twenty foundational fusion services to enable formal mapping between models and services. Normalization and representation processes for (hard) sensor data and (soft) semantic data are described as well as methods for combining hard and soft data. Included is a prototype fusion system developed to implement virtually all the presented applications in order to demonstrate the robustness and utility of the design principles presented in this resource. The prototype system presented supports a variety of user workflows and all the applications are fully integrated. There is extensive fusion system output for unclassified scenarios to permit the reader to fully understand all presented design principles. This book also presents context-sensitive fuzzy semantic spatial and temporal reasoning.

Over the last two decades, earth modeling has become a major investigative tool for evaluating the potential of hydrocarbon reservoirs. Earth modelling must now face new challenges since petroleum exploration no longer consists in only investigating newly identified resources, but also in re-evaluating the potential of previously investigated reservoirs in the light of new prospecting data and of revised interpretations. Earth models incorporate a variety of different interpretations made on various types of data at successive steps of the modeling process. However, current modeling procedures provide no way to link a range of data and interpretations with a final earth model. For this reason, sharing and exchanging information about the model building process is at present a major difficulty. Recently, the term “Shared Earth Modeling” has been used for expressing the idea that earth models should be built in such a way that experts and end users can have access, at any time, to all the information incorporated into the model. This information does not only concern the data, but also the knowledge that geoscientists produce by interpreting these data. Accordingly, practical solutions must be studied for operating a knowledge-driven approach of Shared Earth Modeling. This is the goal of this book. This study of earth subsurface modeling is intended for several categories of readers. It concerns in the first place geologists, engineers and managers involved in the study and evaluation of subsurface reservoirs and hydrocarbon exploration. Relying on recent progress in various fields of computer sciences, the authors present innovative solutions for solving the critical issue of knowledge exchange at key steps of the modeling process. This book will also be of interest to researchers in computer science and, more generally, to engineers, researchers and students who wish to apply advanced knowledge-based techniques to complex engineering problems. Contents : Part I. Earth Models. 1. Earth models as subsurface representations. 2. Earth models for underground resource exploration and estimation. 3. Earth models used in petroleum industry: current practice and future challenges. Part II. Knowledge oriented solutions. 4. Knowledge based approach of a data intensive problem: seismic interpretation. 5. Individual surface representations and optimization. 6. Geological surface assemblage. 7. 3D Meshes for structural, stratigraphy and reservoir frameworks. 8. The data extension issue: geological constraints applied in geostatistical processes. Part III. Knowledge formalization. 9. Ontologies and their use for geological knowledge formalization. 10. Ontologies for Interpreting geochronological relationships. 11. Building ontologies for analyzing data expressed in natural language. 12. Ontology-based rock description and interpretation. Part IV. Knowledge management & applications. 13. Ontology integration and management within data intensive engineering systems. 14. Earth modeling using web services. 15. Full scale example of a knowledge-based method for building and managing an earth model. Part V. Conclusion. Appendix. Glossary.

In the spirit of Alvin Toffler’s acclaimed works peering into the future of the technological society, Communication Shock is a concise history of communication technologies and an exploration of the possible social and human impacts of nanotechnology on the ecology of human communication. As we become increasingly more networked with communication technologies, we must come to understand and confront the social impact of these changes. More importantly, we must wisely choose in embracing or rejecting these technologies and exploring how we might do both by striking an appropriate balance. Grounded in communication theory and praxis, Communication Shock brings some objectivity to the discussion of technology, maps its development, and encourages a rational conversation about its potential problems and promise. It challenges readers to reach their own conclusions – about the future, imagined and unimaginable, about the fundamental values in conflict, and how one might choose to embrace or contest them to maintain individual autonomy in the face of increasingly ubiquitous marketing and technological change. Present and emerging communications technologies hold the promise for a bold new future, but they also have their inherent risks and drawbacks. Communication shock is the human response, conscious or unconscious, wherein the individual chooses to resist the growing pervasiveness of technology in his or her life by seeking ways to reduce or redirect new technologies or to reject the addition of such technologies altogether. Here is a framework for understanding the potential of the evolving technologies, determining which are essential and which are distractions from the life that one believes to be meaningful, and making informed choices for the life one wishes to live.

As software systems become more and more ubiquitous, the issues of dependability become more and more critical. Given that solutions to these issues must be planned at the beginning of the design process, it is appropriate that these issues be addressed at the architectural level. This book is inspired by the ICSE 2002 Workshop on Architecting Dependable Systems; it is devoted to current topics relevant for improving the state of the art for architecting dependability. Some of the 13 peer-reviewed papers presented were initially presented at the workshop, others were invited in order to achieve competent and complete coverage of all relevant aspects. The papers are organized in topical sections on - architectures for dependability - fault tolerance in software architectures - dependability analysis in software architectures - industrial experience.

The first edition of ELL (1993, Ron Asher, Editor) was hailed as "the field's standard reference work for a generation". Now the all-new second edition matches ELL's comprehensiveness and high quality, expanded for a new generation, while being the first encyclopedia to really exploit the multimedia potential of linguistics. * The most authoritative, up-to-date, comprehensive, and international reference source in its field * An entirely new work, with new editors, new authors, new topics and newly commissioned articles with a handful of classic articles * The first Encyclopedia to exploit the multimedia potential of linguistics through the online edition * Ground-breaking and International in scope and approach * Alphabetically arranged with extensive cross-referencing * Available in print and online, priced separately. The online version will include updates as subjects develop ELL2 includes: * c. 7,500,000 words * c. 11,000 pages * c. 3,000 articles * c. 1,500 figures: 130 halftones and 150 colour * Supplementary audio, video and text files online * c. 3,500 glossary definitions * c. 39,000 references * Extensive list of commonly used abbreviations * List of languages of the world (including information on no. of speakers, language family, etc.) * Approximately 700 biographical entries (now includes contemporary linguists) * 200 language maps in print and online Also available online via ScienceDirect – featuring extensive browsing, searching, and internal cross-referencing between articles in the work, plus dynamic linking to journal articles and abstract databases, making navigation flexible and easy. For more information, pricing options and availability visit www.info.sciencedirect.com. The first Encyclopedia to exploit the multimedia potential of linguistics Ground-breaking in scope - wider than any predecessor An invaluable resource for researchers, academics, students and professionals in the fields of: linguistics, anthropology, education, psychology, language acquisition, language pathology, cognitive science, sociology, the law, the media, medicine & computer science. The most authoritative, up-to-date, comprehensive, and international reference source in its field