Learning analysis by reduction from positive data

Analysis by reduction is a linguistically motivated method for checking correctness of a sentence. It can be modelled by restarting automata. In this paper we propose a method for learning restarting automata which are strictly locally testable (SLT-R-automata). The method is based on the concept of identification in the limit from positive examples only. Also we characterize the class of languages accepted by SLT-R-automata with respect to the Chomsky hierarchy.

Evolving Classifiers - Evolutionary Algorithms in Data Mining

Data mining means to summarize information from large amounts of raw data. It is one of the key technologies in many areas of economy, science, administration and the internet. In this report we introduce an approach for utilizing evolutionary algorithms to breed fuzzy classifier systems. This approach was exercised as part of a structured procedure by the students Achler, Göb and Voigtmann as contribution to the 2006 Data-Mining-Cup contest, yielding encouragingly positive results.

On-line analytical processing with conceptual information systems

A conceptual information system consists of a database together with conceptual hierarchies. The management system TOSCANA visualizes arbitrary combinations of conceptual hierarchies by nested line diagrams and allows an on-line interaction with a database to analyze data conceptually. The paper describes the conception of conceptual information systems and discusses the use of their visualization techniques for on-line analytical processing (OLAP).

Numerical aspects in the data model of conceptual information systems

While most data analysis and decision support tools use numerical aspects of the data, Conceptual Information Systems focus on their conceptual structure. This paper discusses how both approaches can be combined.

CEM - visualization and discovery in Email

This paper presents a lattice-based visual metaphor for knowledge discovery in electronic mail. It allows a user to navigate email using a visual lattice metaphor rather than a tree structure. By using such a conceptual multi-hierarchy, the content and shape of the lattice can be varied to accommodate any number of queries against the email collection. The system provides more flexibility in retrieving stored emails and can be generalised to any electronic documents. The paper presents the underlying mathematical structures, and a number of examples of the lattice and multi-hierarchy working with a prototypical email collection.

Fast computation of concept lattices using data mining techniques

We present a new algorithm called TITANIC for computing concept lattices. It is based on data mining techniques for computing frequent itemsets. The algorithm is experimentally evaluated and compared with B. Ganter's Next-Closure algorithm.

Conceptual knowledge discovery and data analysis

In this paper, we discuss Conceptual Knowledge Discovery in Databases (CKDD) in its connection with Data Analysis. Our approach is based on Formal Concept Analysis, a mathematical theory which has been developed and proven useful during the last 20 years. Formal Concept Analysis has led to a theory of conceptual information systems which has been applied by using the management system TOSCANA in a wide range of domains. In this paper, we use such an application in database marketing to demonstrate how methods and procedures of CKDD can be applied in Data Analysis. In particular, we show the interplay and integration of data mining and data analysis techniques based on Formal Concept Analysis. The main concern of this paper is to explain how the transition from data to knowledge can be supported by a TOSCANA system. To clarify the transition steps we discuss their correspondence to the five levels of knowledge representation established by R. Brachman and to the steps of empirically grounded theory building proposed by A. Strauss and J. Corbin.

Efficient data mining based on formal concept analysis

Formal Concept Analysis is an unsupervised learning technique for conceptual clustering. We introduce the notion of iceberg concept lattices and show their use in Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD). Iceberg lattices are designed for analyzing very large databases. In particular they serve as a condensed representation of frequent patterns as known from association rule mining. In order to show the interplay between Formal Concept Analysis and association rule mining, we discuss the algorithm TITANIC. We show that iceberg concept lattices are a starting point for computing condensed sets of association rules without loss of information, and are a visualization method for the resulting rules.

Conceptual knowledge processing with formal concept analysis and ontologies

Among many other knowledge representations formalisms, Ontologies and Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) aim at modeling ‘concepts’. We discuss how these two formalisms may complement another from an application point of view. In particular, we will see how FCA can be used to support Ontology Engineering, and how ontologies can be exploited in FCA applications. The interplay of FCA and ontologies is studied along the life cycle of an ontology: (i) FCA can support the building of the ontology as a learning technique. (ii) The established ontology can be analyzed and navigated by using techniques of FCA. (iii) Last but not least, the ontology may be used to improve an FCA application.

A finite state model for on-line analytical processing in triadic contexts

About ten years ago, triadic contexts were presented by Lehmann and Wille as an extension of Formal Concept Analysis. However, they have rarely been used up to now, which may be due to the rather complex structure of the resulting diagrams. In this paper, we go one step back and discuss how traditional line diagrams of standard (dyadic) concept lattices can be used for exploring and navigating triadic data. Our approach is inspired by the slice & dice paradigm of On-Line-Analytical Processing (OLAP). We recall the basic ideas of OLAP, and show how they may be transferred to triadic contexts. For modeling the navigation patterns a user might follow, we use the formalisms of finite state machines. In order to present the benefits of our model, we show how it can be used for navigating the IT Baseline Protection Manual of the German Federal Office for Information Security.

Der „elektronische Personalausweis“ in Deutschland: Gesetzgebungsverfahren, Einflussfaktoren und Pfade

Zum 1. November 2010 wird in Deutschland der neue Personalausweis starten, der gegenüber dem bisherigen Dokument drei neue Funktionen enthält: Die Speicherung biometrischer Daten, die optionale Signaturfunktion und den elektronischen Identitätsnachweis, also eine technische Funktion zur elektronischen Authentisierung. Die Rechtsgrundlagen wurden mit der Verabschiedung des neuen Gesetzes über Personalausweise und den elektronischen Identitätsnachweis sowie zur Änderung weiterer Vorschriften am 18. Dezember 2008 im Bundestag gelegt. Wie bei anderen Gesetzgebungsverfahren sind diesem formalen Verfahren wissenschaftliche und politische, in diesem Fall auch technische, Diskussionen vorangegangen, die darüber hinaus während des Gesetzgebungsverfahrens fortgesetzt wurden. Die Studie beschreibt in einem ersten Schritt die Eckdaten und wesentlichen Inhalte der Diskussion und des Gesetzgebungsverfahrens. Im Anschluss erfolgt eine Darlegung einzelner Einflussfaktoren und „Pfade“ der rechtlichen, technischen und politischen Entwicklung, die Einfluss auf bestimmte Innovationsentscheidungen hatten. Daran schließt sich eine Betrachtung der einzelnen Akteure an, bevor der Gesamtprozess bewertet wird.

A Framework for TEI-Based Scholarly Text Editions

In this paper, we describe an interdisciplinary project in which visualization techniques were developed for and applied to scholarly work from literary studies. The aim was to bring Christof Schöch's electronic edition of Bérardier de Bataut's Essai sur le récit (1776) to the web. This edition is based on the Text Encoding Initiative's XML-based encoding scheme (TEI P5, subset TEI-Lite). This now de facto standard applies to machine-readable texts used chiefly in the humanities and social sciences. The intention of this edition is to make the edited text freely available on the web, to allow for alternative text views (here original and modern/corrected text), to ensure reader-friendly annotation and navigation, to permit on-line collaboration in encoding and annotation as well as user comments, all in an open source, generically usable, lightweight package. These aims were attained by relying on a GPL-based, public domain CMS (Drupal) and combining it with XSL-Stylesheets and Java Script.