Joseph S. Fulda

Estimating semantic content: an a priori approach

We present our research into the use of the logical structure of natural language discourse to generate estimates of the quantity of semantic content contained within a passage. These estimates of the degree of meaningfulness are recovered from the logical form of the passage, without actually recovering its meaning or necessitating real understanding. We first consider analysis of statements in the propositional calculus, then consider analysis of the logical structure within propositions, as formalized by the predicate calculus. Along the way, we consider several questions related to logic and meaning and introduce several interesting results. the theory and methodology we develop has potential application to a natural language preprocessor for a priori skimming and the production of abstracts, although for now the input should be specified in logical form, rather than in a natural language.

Verbal skills in computer science education

It is a commonplace that compute r science, which we take to be the study o f algorithms, their implementations, an d their applications is best shied away fro m by students without substantia l mathematical aptitude, but is easil y undertaken by students without much verba l facility. It is the purpose of this shor t paper to argue the charge : verbal skill s are at least as important as mathematica l skills in computer science. This is no t to say that mathematical skills are no t necessary : they are ; it is to say rathe r that they are not sufficient. It is als o to say that even where not crucial, verba l facility is enhancing, for it affords th e student a fuller appreciation of th e richness of our discipline and it s relation to other disciplines. We will not argue here that what i s true of all the sciences and engineerin g disciplines is true also of compute r science, namely that the student must b e able to read and interpret technica l material and explain his work clearly i n memos, documentation, project reports, an d the like. (Or as a computer scientis t would put it : the CS student must hav e front-end and back-end natural languag e capabilities .) We will rather argue tha t computer science is rather distinctiv e among the technical majors in the degre e of verbal proficiency it requires. Since this is a paper on compute r science education, we leave aside th e three areas of computer science , computational linguistics, formal languag e theory, and compiler design an d construction, which are themselves relate d to language and in regard to which mos t readers would already grant our thesis. We will concentrate instead o n programming, data structures, an d algorithmic design-three subjects, bot h central and typical, not commonly suppose d to involve much besides logic in it s broadest sense. But then this is to giv e away our position from the start, for th e nexus between the two, language and logic , has been very well explored in compute r science research as diverse as natura l language processing projects, logic-base d formalisms (such as relational productio n systems) for representing real-worl d systems, and one particularly outstandin g work of synthesis, Hofstadters …

The logic of expert judging systems and the rights of the accused

Bjerknes, Gro and Tone Bratteteig (1984). The Application Perspective another way of conceiving system development and edp-based systems, in Sti~iksj/irvi (ed.) Report of the Seventh Scandinavian Research Seminar on Systemeering. Helsinki. Bjerknes, Gro and Tone Bratteteig (1987). Florence in Wonderland: System Development with Nurses, in Bjerknes, G. et al, (eds) Computers and Democracy: A Scandinavian Challenge. Avebury, Aldershot. Cockburn, Cynthia (1983). Brothers: Male Dominance and Technical Change. Pluto Press, London. Ehn, Petle and Morten Kyng (1987). The Collective Resource Approach to Systems Design, in Bjerknes, G. et al, (eds) Computers and Democracy: A Scandinavian Challenge. Avebmy, Aldershot. The Florence Project (1987). t[ implementere en id~ ~ samarbeid og konstruksjon i Florenceprosjektet (Norwegian text: To implement an idea cooperation and construction in the Florence project). Florence Report No 3, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo. Floyd, Christiane (1987). Outline of a Paradigm Change in Software Engineering, in Bjerknes, G. et al, (eds) Computers and Democracy: A Scandinavian Challenge. Avebury, Aldershot. Floyd, Christiane et al. (I987), Scanorama x, Mensch und Technik (German text), Werkstattbericht Nr 30, Ministerium fiir Arbeit, Gesundheit und Soziales des Landes, Nordrhein-Westfalen. Foged, Brita and Randi Markussen (1984). Det flexible ken (Danish text: The flexible sex). Tiderne Skifter, Copenhagen. Freidson, Eliot (1970). Profession of Medicine. Harper and Row, New York. Martinsen, Kari and Kari W~erness (1979). Pleie uten omsorg? (Norwegian text: Nursing without care?). Pax Forlag, Oslo. (1982). Websters New World Dictionary. Simon and Schuster, New York. Wynn, Eleanor H. (1979). Office Conversation as an Information Medium. PhD Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.

The logistic equation and double jeopardy

Abstract This short communication explores the relationship between intraspecific and inter-specific parameters in interspecific models based on the logistic equation.

A note on physical implementations of logical entities

dents also seem satisfied with the grading results ; their questions about our grading dropped significantly . We found, not surprisingly, that specifyin g what we expect from the students as they design and write their programs, as well as what we expect from ourselves when we grade those programs, has had a distinctly positive effect . The students can see and incorporate the concept s that improve their skills (and their grades), an d graders can uniformly assess how well they di d it .

Ratings and confirmation

We present a formalism which makes explicit and precise the confirming effect of multiple observers and repeated trials on composite ratings, considering the relevant subjective inputs.

An expert system for an idiosyncratic domain: love, intimacy, and friendship

Expert systems conceived and developed thus far have dealt with problems, such as medical diagnosis, circuit design, and mineral exploration, which have objective solutions. Humans, however, are also experts in reasoning about domains where the key concepts are not objectively fixed. We do form subjective, but sound, judgments about idiosyncratic--i.e., person-specific-- domains. One such domain is that of love, intimacy, and friendship. Despite the fact that our notions of love, intimacy, and friendship vary greatly and that these relationships have been the subject of poets, novelists, biographers, psychologists, and other students of human nature for centuries, there is enough of a common consensus to make communication and, very frequently, common judgments about this domain possible.

A case study in computational science

The purpose of this paper is to present the close relationship between mathematical modeling and computer simulation as a paradigm of computational science, by reviewing a case study in mathematical biology.