Supporting process model validation through natural language generation

The design and development of process-aware information systems is often supported by specifying requirements as business process models. Although this approach is generally accepted as an effective strategy, it remains a fundamental challenge to adequately validate these models given the diverging skill set of domain experts and system analysts. As domain experts often do not feel confident in judging the correctness and completeness of process models that system analysts create, the validation often has to regress to a discourse using natural language. In order to support such a discourse appropriately, so-called verbalization techniques have been defined for different types of conceptual models. However, there is currently no sophisticated technique available that is capable of generating natural-looking text from process models. In this paper, we address this research gap and propose a technique for generating natural language texts from business process models. A comparison with manually created process descriptions demonstrates that the generated texts are superior in terms of completeness, structure, and linguistic complexity. An evaluation with users further demonstrates that the texts are very understandable and effectively allow the reader to infer the process model semantics. Hence, the generated texts represent a useful input for process model validation.

Understanding the information literacy experiences of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students

Purpose – This paper outlines research that explores the information literacy experiences of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students. The question explored in this research was: how do EFL students experience information literacy. Design/Methodology/Approach – This study used phenomenography, a relational approach to explore the information literacy experiences of EFL students. Phenomenography studies the qualitatively different ways a phenomenon is experienced in the world around us. Findings – This research revealed that EFL students experienced information literacy in four qualitatively different ways. The four categories revealed through the data were: process, quality, language and knowledge. This research found that language impacted on EFL students’ experiences of information literacy and revealed that EFL students applied various techniques and strategies when they read, understood, organised and translated information. Research limitations/implications – This research was conducted in a specific cultural and educational context, therefore the results might not reflect the experiences of EFL students in other cultural or educational contexts. Practical implications – The findings from this research offer an important contribution to information literacy practice by providing important insights about EFL students’ experiences and perceptions of information and learning that can be used to inform curriculum development in second language learning contexts. Originality/Value - There is currently a lack of research using a relational approach to investigate EFL students’ experiences of information literacy. There is also limited research that explores the impact language has on information literary and learning in English as a foreign or second language contexts.

Refining a teaching pattern: Reflection around artefacts

This book is about understanding the nature and application of reflection in higher education. It provides a theoretical model to guide the implementation of reflective learning and reflective practice across multiple disciplines and international contexts in higher education. The book presents research into the ways in which reflection is both considered and implemented in different ways across different professional disciplines, while maintaining a common purpose to transform and improve learning and/or practice. Chapter 13 'Refining a Teaching Pattern: Reflection Around Artefacts' explores reflective practices of an artefact, in this case fashion design garment samples.

Topic dependent language modelling for spoken term detection

This paper investigates the effect of topic dependent language models (TDLM) on phonetic spoken term detection (STD) using dynamic match lattice spotting (DMLS). Phonetic STD consists of two steps: indexing and search. The accuracy of indexing audio segments into phone sequences using phone recognition methods directly affects the accuracy of the final STD system. If the topic of a document in known, recognizing the spoken words and indexing them to an intermediate representation is an easier task and consequently, detecting a search word in it will be more accurate and robust. In this paper, we propose the use of TDLMs in the indexing stage to improve the accuracy of STD in situations where the topic of the audio document is known in advance. It is shown that using TDLMs instead of the traditional general language model (GLM) improves STD performance according to figure of merit (FOM) criteria.

What is the apparent angle of a Kelvin ship wave pattern?

While the half-angle which encloses a Kelvin ship wave pattern is commonly accepted to be 19.47 degrees, recent observations and calculations for sufficiently fast-moving ships suggest that the apparent wake angle decreases with ship speed. One explanation for this decrease in angle relies on the assumption that a ship cannot generate wavelengths much greater than its hull length. An alternative interpretation is that the wave pattern that is observed in practice is defined by the location of the highest peaks; for wakes created by sufficiently fast-moving objects, these highest peaks no longer lie on the outermost divergent waves, resulting in a smaller apparent angle. In this paper, we focus on the problems of free surface flow past a single submerged point source and past a submerged source doublet. In the linear version of these problems, we measure the apparent wake angle formed by the highest peaks, and observe the following three regimes: a small Froude number pattern, in which the divergent waves are not visible; standard wave patterns for which the maximum peaks occur on the outermost divergent waves; and a third regime in which the highest peaks form a V-shape with an angle much less than the Kelvin angle. For nonlinear flows, we demonstrate that nonlinearity has the effect of increasing the apparent wake angle so that some highly nonlinear solutions have apparent wake angles that are greater than Kelvin's angle. For large Froude numbers, the effect on apparent wake angle can be more dramatic, with the possibility of strong nonlinearity shifting the wave pattern from the third regime to the second. We expect our nonlinear results will translate to other more complicated flow configurations, such as flow due to a steadily moving closed body such as a submarine.

Multiliteracies pedagogy : creating claymations with adolescent, post-beginner English language learners

In addressing literacy in high school education, it is important to foreground the particular issues faced by growing numbers of English Language Learners (ELLs). In our increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms, this is a matter for all literacy teachers, as well as ELL specialists. In Australia, teachers of ELLs are experimenting with Multiliteracies pedagogy which provides rich opportunities to explore language learning experiences and outcomes that stretch beyond exercises in reproduction in written and oral modes only. This paper documents the practice of a high school teacher who uses a claymation project, producing a movie by stop-motion filming of clay figures, with a class of low-level English literacy learners. Drawing on observations of three particular students, the paper outlines a number of possibilities of this approach for English language learners. These include increased individual agency; enhanced engagement through collaboration; and the opportunity to explore various elements of multimodal text design.

Paired back

Paired Back (2013) investigated the interpretation of text as a dance score. Specific words were used to trigger movement sequences. The performers, Avril Huddy and Jenny Roche, responded to spoken words with individual movement responses which were captured on video, reviewed and assembled as a duet. The musician Nicholas Ng, playing traditional Chinese instruments was also woven into the dancers’ choreography. This was achieved through choreographing a floor pattern that enabled him to weave through the space and ‘seemingly’ interact with the dancers’ actions. Projections using motion capture were also explored and sequenced with the actions of the dance. Retrospectively, I recognised my ‘intuitive’ use of text which I have mapped from its beginnings during the first rehearsal through to the performance at the Judith Wright Centre and demonstrated in DVD documentation. Consequently traces of this original ‘score’ used during the creative process are visible in final performance outcome. This has enabled me to reflect on the impact of language and instructions within my creative process.

Triphasic pattern in the ex vivo response of human proliferative phase endometrium to oestrogens

The aim of this study was to evaluate the ex vivo oestrogen responsiveness of human proliferative phase endometrium using short-term explant cultures. The effects of oestrogen (17beta-E2) on proliferation and the expression of oestrogen-responsive genes known to be involved in regulating endometrial function were evaluated. Three distinct response patterns could be distinguished: (1) the menstrual (M) phase pattern (cycle days 2-5), which is characterised by a complete lack in the proliferative response to 17beta-E2, while an increased expression of AR (2.6-fold, P<0.01), PR (2.7-fold, P<0.01) and COX-2 (3.5-fold, P<0.01) at the mRNA level was observed and a similar upregulation was also found for AR, PR and COX-2 at the protein level; (2) the early proliferative (EP) phase pattern (cycle days 6-10) with 17beta-E2 enhanced proliferation in the stroma (1.7-fold, P<0.05), whereas the expression of AR, PR and COX-2 were not affected at the mRNA and protein levels and ER-a mRNA and protein levels were significantly reduced by 17beta-E2; (3) the late proliferative (LP) phase pattern (cycle days 11-14), which is characterised by a moderate stimulation of proliferation (1.4-fold, P<0.05) and PR mRNA expression (1.7-fold, P<0.01) by 17beta-E2. In conclusion, three distinct response patterns to 17beta-E2 could be identified with respect to proliferation and the expression of known oestrogen-responsive genes in human proliferative phase endometrium explant cultures.

Aspect-based opinion extraction from customer reviews

Text is the main method of communicating information in the digital age. Messages, blogs, news articles, reviews, and opinionated information abounds on the Internet. People commonly purchase products online and post their opinions about purchased items. This feedback is displayed publicly to assist others with their purchasing decisions, creating the need for a mechanism with which to extract and summarize useful information for enhancing the decision-making process. Our contribution is to improve the accuracy of extraction by combining different techniques from three major areas, named Data Mining, Natural Language Processing techniques and Ontologies. The proposed framework sequentially mines product’s aspects and users’ opinions, groups representative aspects by similarity, and generates an output summary. This paper focuses on the task of extracting product aspects and users’ opinions by extracting all possible aspects and opinions from reviews using natural language, ontology, and frequent “tag” sets. The proposed framework, when compared with an existing baseline model, yielded promising results.

Critical linguistics in the early years : exploring functions of language through sophisticated picture books and process drama strategies

In this chapter we describe a critical fairytales unit taught to 4.5 to 5.5 year olds in a context of intensifying pressure to raise literacy achievement. The unit was infused with lessons on reinterpreted fairytales followed by process drama activities built around a sophisticated picture book, Beware of the Bears (MacDonald, 2004). The latter entailed a text analytic approach to critical literacy derived from systemic functional linguistics (Halliday, 1978; Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004). This approach provides a way of analysing how words and discourse are used to represent the world in a particular way and shape reader relations with the author in a particular field (Janks, 2010).

The pattern of coupling dynamics between postural motion, isotonic hand movements and physiological tremor

This study was designed to examine differences in the coupling dynamics between upper limb motion, physiological tremor and whole body postural sway in young healthy adults. Acceleration of the hand and fingers, forearm EMG activity and postural sway data were recorded. Estimation of the degree of bilateral and limb motion-postural sway coupling was determined by cross correlation, coherence and Cross-ApEn analyses. The results of the analysis revealed that, under postural tremor conditions, there was no significant coupling between limbs, muscles or sway across all metrics of coupling. In contrast, performing a rapid alternating flexion/extension movement about the wrist joint (with one or both limbs) resulted in stronger coupling between limb motion and postural sway. These results support the view that, for physiological tremor responses, the control of postural sway is maintained independent to tremor in the upper limb. However, increasing the level of movement about a distal segment of one arm (or both) leads to increased coupling throughout the body. The basis for this increased coupling would appear to be related to the enhanced neural drive to task-specific muscles within the upper limb.

Towards a spatial language for mobile robots

We present a framework and first set of simulations for evolving a language for communicating about space. The framework comprises two components: (1) An established mobile robot platform, RatSLAM, which has a "brain" architecture based on rodent hippocampus with the ability to integrate visual and odometric cues to create internal maps of its environment. (2) A language learning system based on a neural network architecture that has been designed and implemented with the ability to evolve generalizable languages which can be learned by naive learners. A study using visual scenes and internal maps streamed from the simulated world of the robots to evolve languages is presented. This study investigated the structure of the evolved languages showing that with these inputs, expressive languages can effectively categorize the world. Ongoing studies are extending these investigations to evolve languages that use the full power of the robots representations in populations of agents.

Language change in socially structured populations

Language contact is a significant external social factor that impacts on the change in natural languages over time. In some circumstances this corresponds to language competition, in which individuals in a population choose one language over another based on their social interactions. We investigated the dynamics of language change in two initially separate populations of agents that were then mixed with levels of influence determined by the social classes of the two populations, with 16 different combinations tested. As expected, the study found that how the communities interact with each other impacts on the communal language developed. However, it was also found that the acquisition of new words was substantial even with limited interaction between populations and low levels of influence, and that comprehension could be well established across language groups even when production of words from the other language group was low.