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Showing papers on "Class (philosophy) published in 1999"


Proceedings ArticleDOI
22 Jun 1999
TL;DR: Cross document event tracking technology that extends earlier efforts in cross document person coreference takes class of events, like "resignations" and clusters documents that mention resignations into equivalence classes and evaluates events including "elections" and "espionage" events.
Abstract: We have developed cross document event tracking technology that extends our earlier efforts in cross document person coreference. The software takes class of events, like "resignations" and clusters documents that mention resignations into equivalence classes. Documents belong to the same equivalence class if they mention the same "resignation" event, i.e. resignations involving the same person, time, and organization. Other events evaluated include "elections" and "espionage" events. Results range from 45--90% F-measure scores and we present a brief interannotator study for the "elections" data set.

67 citations


Patent
12 Apr 1999
TL;DR: In this paper, a method for extracting reference relationships among objects corresponding to a running program includes the step of designating a starting set of objects and partitioning the starting set into subsets of objects grouped by class.
Abstract: Methods are provided for extracting reference patterns in JAVA and depicting the same. The extracted and depicted reference patterns may be used to interactively and selectively explore data structures, and to identify and solve memory leaks. A method for extracting reference relationships among objects corresponding to a running program includes the step of designating a starting set of objects. The starting set of objects is partitioned into subsets of objects grouped by class. A recursive operation is applied to each of the starting subsets. The recursive operation includes the step of, given a subset of objects, identifying a second set of objects. The second set includes all objects that refer to at least one object in the subset when a direction of reference terminates at the starting set. Alternatively, the second set includes all objects that are referred to by at least one object in the subset when the direction of reference originates from the starting set. The recursive operation also includes the step of partitioning the second set into new subsets of objects grouped by class. The recursive operation is applied to each of the new subsets until a predefined depth is reached.

46 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a broad class of higher-order functional programs can be transformed into semantically equivalent multidimensional intensional programs that contain only nullary variables, and they demonstrate that such programs can also be transformed to semantically meaningful intensional functional programs.
Abstract: In this paper we demonstrate that a broad class of higher-order functional programs can be transformed into semantically equivalent multidimensional intensional programs that contain only nullary v...

14 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
01 Apr 1999
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that description is not an intrinsic part of the process of art criticism and that description does not use emotive or expressive language, but, rather, "neutral" language.
Abstract: What do critics do when they describe a work of art? There is an urgent need to answer this question because description figures prominently in educational prescriptions for art criticism. As these become increasingly used as guides for instruction, it is important that educators understand the kind of activity they are prescribing. There is a view of description that has come to be widely accepted in the art education literature. This view can be summed up in four propositions: 1. Description is an intrinsic part of the process of art criticism. 2. Description is concerned with listing or inventorying the objective features (data) of a work of art. 3. Description does not use emotive or expressive but, rather, "neutral" language. 4. Descriptions are either true or false. Contrary to this commonly accepted view of description, in this article I shall argue that, 1. Description is not an intrinsic part of the process of art criticism. 2. Description is not concerned with listing or inventorying the objective features (data) of a work of art. 3. Description can involve the use of emotive or expressive language. 4. Descriptions are never true or false. If this common view of description is so wide of the mark, how did it come to be embodied in the art education literature? If it is wrong, what then is description? And what implications does all of this have for art criticism instruction? In this article I shall address each of these questions in turn. Two Conceptions of Description The commonly accepted view of description which I have outlined above does not reflect the ordinary meaning of "description" in terms of what people actually do when they describe a work of art. It reflects, instead, an uncritical adoption of a technical use of the term "description" in aesthetics and philosophy. To understand how this technical sense of "description" became embodied in the educational literature requires that one give an historical account of the genesis of the term "description" in philosophy and how educators relied upon philosophical accounts of art criticism when formulating models of art criticism for the classroom. The Technical Use of the Term "Description" The technical use of "description" emerged during the early decades of the century as part of a program of philosophical investigation into the nature of language. Toulmin and Baier (1952) describe the aim of this program as the elucidation of controversial types of utterances, such as those found in ethical and aesthetic discourse. This was done by drawing a single sharp distinction between different kinds of utterances. To mark the distinction, philosophers appropriated the word "description," a word with a standard use in ordinary language. But they used this word in a quite different way: to refer to a class of words or sentences that stood in contrast to other, less well understood utterances, such as prescriptive utterances, normative utterances, value sentences, emotive utterances, etc. Although they point out that the distinction between descriptive and other utterances was actually drawn along different lines by various philosophers, by mid-century the conviction that two separate classes of utterances could be distinguished from one another had become firmly embedded within the philosophical literature. According to this doctrine: There are two large classes into which sentences and the words which figure into them can be divided. On the one hand there are those sentences [descriptive sentences] to be dignified by the title of 'statements', which express propositions; which are the concern of the sciences, and of those everyday activities which are like the sciences in having to do with facts and the stating of facts; which express beliefs; which are properly couched in the indicative mood; and whose meaning consists in the cognitive or rational effect which their utterance has on a suitably-conditioned hearer's beliefs. …

10 citations


Dissertation
01 Jan 1999
TL;DR: This paper argued that the audience's grasp of the properties which definite concepts express is the result of inferential processes which take the linguistic meaning of a definite expression as input, constrained by pragmatic principles.
Abstract: This thesis argues that there is a theoretically interesting connection between members of the intuitive category of context-dependent expressions, including "we", "tall", "local", "every man", "the woman", "it", "those donkeys" and so on. A treatment of the linguistic meaning of these expressions will be proposed based on the idea that their use raises issues for the audience about the proper understanding of the utterances in which they occur. The proposal will be developed in terms of a semantics for questions, which draws on the idea that to know the meaning of a question is to know what would count as an answer. It can be summarised along similar lines: to know the meaning of a context-dependent expression is to know what properties or relations (of the appropriate type) it could be used to express. The framework in which this idea will be developed can account for why the expressions that are given this issue-based treatment can also be given dependent, bound readings. The class of definite expressions, including descriptions and pronouns, is analysed in detail. A quantificational approach, where the determiner is existential, is assumed for all forms of definiteness. In all cases, the restrictor is interpreted by an atomic definite concept. The audience's grasp of the properties which definite concepts express is the result of inferential processes which take the linguistic meaning of a definite expression as input. These processes are constrained by pragmatic principles. The analysis of context-dependent expressions is extended to account for dependent interpretations. A treatment of donkey sentences that accounts for their variable quantificational force is shown to follow naturally from the analysis. A pragmatic account of infelicitous uses of definites is provided and shown to compare favourably with that provided by dynamic semantic theories. Also, a novel treatment of plural definites is provided which accounts for their variable quantificational force.

10 citations


Book ChapterDOI
06 Jul 1999
TL;DR: Extensional Set (XS) library is an extension of ECLiPSe which solves set-theoretical constraints over extensional sets containing variables with numeric domains and a domain representation and an approximate unification algorithm are proposed.
Abstract: Extensional Set (XS) library is an extension of ECLiPSe which solves set-theoretical constraints over extensional sets containing variables with numeric domains. To efficiently process such a class of set domains, XS library employs a constraint programming method called Subdefinite Computations. Within that framework, a domain representation and an approximate unification algorithm are proposed. The abilities of the library are illustrated by a geometric application.

9 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
G. Pasi, Ronald R. Yager1
01 Nov 1999
TL;DR: A method to compute default values for unknown objects' attributes is proposed, based on the association of typical values with the attributes in the intensional definition of a class and on the application of a prioritized aggregation operator to combine typical values appearing in an inheritance structure.
Abstract: The problem of dealing with incomplete information in object-oriented data models (OODMs) is addressed. A method to compute default values for unknown objects' attributes is proposed, based both on the association of typical values with the attributes in the intensional definition of a class and on the application of a prioritized aggregation operator to combine typical values appearing in an inheritance structure. This method can also be applied to refine vague attribute values expressed by means of fuzzy sets interpreted as possibility distributions. A new interpretation of partial inheritance in this context is proposed, introducing the concept of "partial overriding" of typical values.

8 citations


01 Jan 1999
Abstract: This research study investigated how undergraduate college biology students’ level of understanding o f the role of the seed plant root system relates to their level of understanding of photosynthesis. This research was conducted with 65 undergraduate non-majors biology who had completed 1 year of biology at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond. A root probe instrument was developed from some scientifically acceptable propositional statements about the root system, the process of photosynthesis, as well as the holistic nature of the tree. These were derived from research reviews of the science education and the arboriculture literature. This was administered to 65 students selected randomly from class lists of the two institutions. Most of the root probe’s items were based on the Live Oak tree. An in-depth, clinical interview-based analysis was conducted with 12 of those tested students. A team of root experts participated by designing, validating and answering the same questions that the students were asked. A "systems” lens as defined by a team of college instructors, root experts (Shigo, 1991), and this researcher was used to interpret the results. A correlational coefficient determining students’ level of understanding of the root system and their level of understanding o f the process of photosynthesis was established by means of Pearson's r correlation (r = 0.328) using the SAS statistical analysis (SAS, 1987). From this a coefficient o f determination ( r2 =0.104) was determined. Students’ level of understanding of the Live Oak root system (mean score 5.94) was not statistically different from their level o f understanding of the process of photosynthesis (mean score

6 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
22 Sep 1999
TL;DR: The relative frequencies of objects in the ISA hierarchy can produce a useful Boolean algebra of probabilities which can be used by traditional information-theoretic classification methodologies to obtain optimal ways of classifyingObjects in the database.
Abstract: Class algebra provides a natural framework for sharing ISA hierarchies between users who may be unaware of each other's definitions. This permits data from relational databases, object-oriented databases, and tagged XML documents to be joined into one distributed ontology sharable by all users without the need for prior negotiation or the development of a "standard" ontology for each field. Moreover class algebra produces a functional correspondence between a class's class algebraic definition (i.e. its "intent") and the set of all instances which satisfy the expression (i.e. its "extent"). The framework thus provides assistance in quickly locating examples and counterexamples of various definitions. This kind of information is very valuable when developing models of the real world, and serves as an invaluable tool assisting in the proof of theorems concerning these class algebra expressions. Finally, the relative frequencies of objects in the ISA hierarchy can produce a useful Boolean algebra of probabilities. The probabilities can be used by traditional information-theoretic classification methodologies to obtain optimal ways of classifying objects in the database.

6 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Our social and political science's class-based theoretical and methodological paradigm has been based on the premise that political actors are classes, people, and parties as mentioned in this paper, and the category of "interests" was considered abstract.
Abstract: Our social and political science's class-based theoretical and methodological paradigm has been based on the premise that political actors are classes, people, and parties. Such concepts as "middle class," "ruling class," "elite," "marginal groups," "interest groups," "branch clan," and so on never fitted comfortably into official scholarship. The category of "interests" was considered abstract.

2 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The conceptual clustering model (CCM) is defined is an extension to current object-oriented models, which facilitates the modeling of dynamic, evolving, and/or ad hoc object clusters through a well-devised clustering mechanism that incorporates "roles".
Abstract: Conventional object-oriented database (OODB) systems follow a class-based approach to model real world entities and their relationships, which imposes several difficulties when more advanced "dynamic functions" are needed by the applications. One of such dynamic functions is conceptual clustering — the ability to dynamically group a set of existing objects together as a higher-level abstract object (called a "cluster"). The conceptual clustering model (CCM) that we have defined is an extension to current object-oriented models, which facilitates the modeling of dynamic, evolving, and/or ad hoc object clusters through a well-devised clustering mechanism that incorporates "roles". This paper presents the advanced features of CCM, along with its associated query language facilities devised for supporting general definition and access of clusters (and roles). An experimental prototype of the CCM has been constructed on top of a persistent object storage manager, running on a Sun4 workstation.

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1999
TL;DR: Information logics are modal formalisms for representation of and reasoning about concepts derived from data that describe an application domain that understand a pair (OB, AT) where OB is a non-empty set of objects and AT is aNon- empty set of attributes.
Abstract: Information logics are modal formalisms for representation of and reasoning about concepts derived from data that describe an application domain. Traditionally, concepts are determined by defining their extension or denotation and intension or connotation. The extension of a concept consists of the objects that are instances of this concept and the intension of a concept consists of the properties that are characteristic for the objects to which this concept applies. For example, to define the concept ‘organism’ we should list the earmarks of organism and the typical species of organisms [Bunge, 1967] . Let a set OB of objects be given, and suppose that properties of those objects are articulated in terms of attributes from a set AT and values of these attributes. For example, property of ‘being green’ is represented as a pair (colour, green), where ‘colour’ is an attribute, and ‘green’ is one of its values. Nondeterministic information about an object is of the form (attribute, a subset of values). For instance, if the age of a person is known approximately, say between 20 and 25, then this information is represented as a pair (age, {20,..., 25}). By an information system S we understand a pair (OB, AT) where OB is a non-empty set of objects and AT is a non-empty set of attributes. Each attribute a is a mapping a: OB → Ρ(Val a )\{0}. For each a ∈ AT, the non-empty set Val a is the set of values of the attribute a [Pawlak, 1983; Orlowska and Pawlak, 1984] . We write ΙS to denote the class of information systems. An information system S′ = (OB′, AT′) is said to be a subsystem of the information system S = (OB, AT) iff OB′ ⊆ OB and {a OB′ : a ∈ AT} = AT′ where a OB′ denotes the restriction of a to OB′.

01 Jan 1999
TL;DR: In this article, it was shown that the many-valued interpretation of the belief-operators within the scope of the classical logic system is purely formal and their characteristic matrices are Boolean.
Abstract: o (1948) formalization of intensional functions was made for the purpose of many-valued interpretation of the belief-operators within the scope of the classical logic system. The first aim of the paper is to present and discuss this rather unknown many-valued construction and its properties. The fact that the manyvaluedness of o systems is purely formal - their characteristic matrices are Boolean - calls for further consideration. Departing from intristic similarities of the tables for the epistemic operators to the information functions we show that o structures may be rewritten as special knowledge representation systems. These systems use 0 and 1 as the only values and are called “epistemic”. Their role for the theory of knowledge information systems may be compared to that of the functionally complete matrices in the class of all logical matrices for a given propositional language. 1. Belief functions and many-valuedness Intensional propositional functions, in contrast to extensional functions, are those functions of propositional arguments whose logical value (its truth or falsity) does not depend solely on the logical values of the arguments. Therefore, the intensionality is identified with nontruth-functionality and many-valued logics may be considered as possible semantic base for their formalization. o in [1] focuses on the belief operators of the kind “John believes that p” or, more accurately, “John asserts that p”, p being a proposition. He urged that the complete propositions of this form may be evaluated within the classical logic and, thus, under some reasonable assumptions, they may be formalized similarly as known modal connectives. All propositions “John asserts that p” are clearly substitutions of the schema “x asserts that p”, whose formal counterpart is a function Lxp of two arguments x and p, assigning a logical value to each couple

Proceedings ArticleDOI
22 Sep 1999
TL;DR: This paper presents the definition of a class restructuring operator which allows one to obtain generic classes from non-generic classes, named “parameterize” and presents the operator definition for an environment that supports the reuse of Eiffel classes.
Abstract: Generic classes allow one, through type parameter instantiation, to obtain new classes that are adapted to different contexts. Therefore, genericity is an important support for class reuse. When the possibility of reusing a class to deal with elements of different domains arises, it is desirable to have the appropriated generic class. Nevertheless, the construction of generic classes is a task that must be planned in advance. Hence, the possibility of reusing a class in other domain can appear, but maybe the class is not prepared for this. In this paper, we present the definition of a class restructuring operator which allows one to obtain generic classes from non-generic classes. The operator is named “parameterize”. In particular, we present the operator definition for an environment that supports the reuse of Eiffel classes. First, we present briefly the operator and then we focus on those aspects concerned with how to obtain a restriction class to constrain generic parameters. All these aspects are introduced by using examples.