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AIList Digest Volume 2 Issue 139
AIList Digest Wednesday, 17 Oct 1984 Volume 2 : Issue 139
Today's Topics:
Seminars - Monotonic Processes in Language Processing
& Qualitative Analysis of MOS Circuits
& Knowledge Retrieval as Specialized Inference
& Juno Graphics Constraint Language
& PECAN Program Development System
& Aesthetic Experience,
Symposium - Complexity of Approximately Solved Problems,
Course - Form and Meaning of English Intonation
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 84 16:09:03 pdt
From: chertok%ucbkim@Berkeley (Paula Chertok)
Subject: Seminar - Monotonic Processes in Language Processing
BERKELEY COGNITIVE SCIENCE PROGRAM
Fall 1984
Cognitive Science Seminar -- IDS 237A
TIME: Tuesday, October 16, 11 - 12:30
PLACE: 240 Bechtel Engineering Center
DISCUSSION: 12:30 - 2 in 200 Building T-4
SPEAKER: Martin Kay, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center;
Center for the Study of Language and Infor-
mation, Stanford University
TITLE: Monotonic Processes in Language Processing
ABSTRACT: Computation proceeds by manipulating the
associations between (variable) names and
values in accordance with a program of
rules. If an association, once established,
is never changed, then the process as a
whole is monotonic. More intuitively, mono-
tonic processes can add arbitrary amounts of
detail to an existing picture so long as
they never change what is already there.
Monotonic processes underlie several recent
proposals in linguistic theory (e.g. GPSG,
LFG and autosegmental phonology) and in
artificial intelligence (logic programming).
I shall argue for seeking monotonic solu-
tions to linguistic problems wherever possi-
ble while rejecting some arguments fre-
quently made for the policy.
------------------------------
Date: 15 Oct 1984 11:17 EDT (Mon)
From: "Daniel S. Weld" <WELD%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA>
Subject: Seminar - Qualitative Analysis of MOS Circuits
[Forwarded from the MIT bboard by SASW@MIT-MC.]
Wednesday October 17, 1984 4:00pm 8th floor playroom
Brian C. Williams
Qualitative Analysis of MOS Circuits
With the push towards sub-micron technology, transistor models have
become increasingly complex. The number of components in
integrated circuits has forced designers' efforts and skills towards
higher levels of design. This has created a gap between design
expertise and the performance demands increasingly imposed by the
technology. To alleviate this problem, software tools must be developed
that provide the designer with expert advice on circuit performance and
design. This requires a theory that links the intuitions of an expert
circuit analyst with the corresponding principles of formal theory (i.e.,
algebra, calculus, feedback analysis, network theory, and
electrodynamics), and that makes each underlying assumption explicit.
Temporal Qualitative Analysis is a technique for analyzing the
qualitative large signal behavior of MOS circuits that straddle the line
between the digital and analog domains.
Temporal Qualitative Analysis is based on the
following four components: First, a qualitative representation is
composed of a set of open regions separated by boundaries. These
boundaries are chosen at the appropriate level of detail for the
analysis. This concept is used in modeling time, space, circuit state
variables, and device operating regions. Second, constraints between
circuit state variables are established by circuit theory. At a finer
time scale, the designer's intuition of electrodynamics is used to
impose a causal relationship among these constraints. Third, large
signal behavior is modeled by Transition Analysis, using continuity and
theorems of calculus to determine how quantities pass between
regions over time. Finally, Feedback Analysis uses
knowledge about the structure of equations and the properties of
structure classes to resolve ambiguities.
------------------------------
Date: 1 Oct 1984 13:27-EDT
From: Brad Goodman <BGOODMAN at BBNG>
Subject: Seminar - Knowledge Retrieval as Specialized Inference
[Forwarded from the MIT bboard by SASW@MIT-MC.]
On Thursday, October 11th, at 10:30 a.m., Alan Frisch, from the
Cognitive Studies Programme, University of Sussex, Brighton, England
and from the Department of Computer Science, University of Rochester,
Rochester, New York, will speak at the 3rd floor large conference room
at BBN, 10 Moulton Street in Cambridge.
Knowledge Retrieval as Specialized Inference
Artificial intelligence reasoning systems commonly employ a
knowledge base module that stores a set of facts expressed
in a representation language and provides facilities to
retrieve these facts. Though there has been a growing
concern for formalization in the study of knowledge
representation, little has been done to formalize the
retrieval process. This research remedies the situation in
its study of retrieval from abstract specification to
implementation.
Viewing retrieval as a highly specialized inference process
that attempts to derive a queried fact from the set of facts
in the knowledge base enables techniques of formal logic to
be used in abstract specifications. This talk develops
alternative specifications for an idealized version of the
retriever incorporated in the ARGOT natural language system,
shows how the specifications capture certain intuitions
about retrieval, and uses the specifications to prove that
the retriever has certain properties. A discussion of
implementation issues considers an inference method useful
in both retrieval and logic programming.
------------------------------
Date: 15 October 1984 1240-EDT
From: Staci Quackenbush at CMU-CS-A
Subject: Seminar - Juno Graphics Constraint Language
[Forwarded from the CMU bboard by Laws@SRI-AI.]
Name: Greg Nelson
Date: October 22, 1984
Time: 3:30 - 4:30 p.m.
Place: WeH 5409
Title: "An Overview of Juno"
Connect a computer to a marking engine, and you have a drawing instrument
of unprecedented precision and versatility. Already some graphics
artists have given up their T-squares and pens for the new world of raster
displays, pointing devices, and laser printers. But they face a serious
difficulty: to exploit the power and generality of the computer requires
programming. We can't remove this difficulty, but we can smooth it by
programming in the language of the geometry of images rather than in the
low-level language of some particular representation for images.
These considerations led to the design of Juno, an interactive and
programmable graphics system. The first basic principle of Juno's design
is that geometric constraints be the mechanism for specifying locations.
For example, a Juno program might specify that points A, B, and C be
collinear and that the distance from A to B equal the distance from
B to C; the interpreter will solve these constraints by numerical methods.
The second principle of the design is that the text of a Juno program be
responsive to the interactive editing of the image that the program produces.
For example, to create a program to draw an equilateral triangle, you don't
type a word: you draw a triangle on the display, constrain it to be
equilateral, and command Juno to extract the underlying program.
------------------------------
Date: Tue 16 Oct 84 09:46:34-PDT
From: Susan Gere <M.SUSAN@SU-SIERRA.ARPA>
Subject: Seminar - PECAN Program Development System
EE380/CS310 Computer Systems Laboratory Seminar
Time: Wednesday, October 17, 4:15 p.m.
Place: Terman Auditorium
Title: PECAN: Program Development Systems that Support Multiple Views
Speaker: Prof. Steven Reiss, C.S.D. Brown University
This talk describes the PECAN family of program development systems.
PECAN is a generator that is based on simple description of the
underlying language and its semantics. Program development systems
generated by PECAN support multiple views of the user's program. The
views can be representations of the program, its semantics and its
execution. The current program views include a syntax-directed
editor, a Nassi-Schneiderman flow graph, and a declaration editor.
The current semantic views include expression trees, data type
diagrams, flow graphs, and the symbol table. Execution views include
the interpreter control and a stack and data view. PECAN is designed
to make effective use of powerful personal machines with
high-resolution graphics displays, and is currently implemented on
APOLLO workstations.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 84 16:56:22 pdt
From: chertok@ucbcogsci (Paula Chertok)
Subject: Seminar - Aesthetic Experience
BERKELEY COGNITIVE SCIENCE PROGRAM
Fall 1984
Cognitive Science Seminar -- IDS 237A
TIME: Tuesday, October 23, 11 - 12:30
PLACE: 240 Bechtel Engineering Center
DISCUSSION: 12:30 - 2 in 200 Building T-4
SPEAKER: Thomas G. Bever, Psychology Department,
Columbia University
TITLE: The Psychological basis of aesthetic experi-
ence: implications for linguistic nativism
ABSTRACT: We define the notion of Aesthetic Experience
as a formal relation between mental
representations: an aesthetic experience
involves at least two conflicting represen-
tations that are resolved by accessing a
third representation. Accessing the third
representation releases the same kind of
emotional energy as the 'aha' elation asso-
ciated with discovering the solution to a
problem. We show how this definition applies
to various artforms, music, literature,
dance. The fundamental aesthetic relation
is similar to the mental activities of a
child during normal cognitive development.
These considerations explain the function of
aesthetic experience: it elicits in adult-
hood the characteristic mental activity of
normal childhood.
The fundamental activity revealed by consid-
ering the formal nature of aesthetic experi-
ence involves developing and interrelating
mental representations. If we take this
capacity to be innate (which we surely
must), the question then arises whether we
can account for the phenomena that are usu-
ally argued to show the unique innateness of
language as a mental organ. These phenomena
include the emergence of a psychologically
real grammar, a critical period, cerebral
asymmetries. More formal linguistic
properties may be accounted for as partially
uncaused (necessary) and partially caused by
general properties of animal mind. The
aspects of language that may remain unex-
plained (and therefore non-trivially innate)
are the forms of the levels of representa-
tion.
------------------------------
Date: Mon 15 Oct 84 11:32:31-EDT
From: Delores Ng <NG@COLUMBIA-20.ARPA>
Subject: Symposium - Complexity of Approximately Solved Problems
SYMPOSIUM ON THE COMPLEXITY OF APPROXIMATELY SOLVED PROBLEMS
APRIL 17-19, 1985
Computer Science Department
Columbia University
New York, NY 10027
SUPPORT: This symposium is supported by a grant from the System Development
Foundation.
SCOPE: This multidisciplinary symposium focuses on problems which are
approximately solved and for which optimal algorithms or complexity results
are available. Of particular interest are distributed systems, where
limitations on information flow can cause uncertainty in the solution
of problems. The following is a partial list of topics: distributed
computation, approximate solution of hard problems, applied mathematics,
signal processing, numerical analysis, computer vision, remote sensing,
fusion of information, prediction, estimation, control, decision theory,
mathematical economics, optimal recovery, seismology, information theory,
design of experiments, stochastic scheduling.
INVITED SPEAKERS: The following is a list of invited speakers.
L. BLUM, Mills College C.H. PAPADIMITRIOU, Stanford University
J. HALPERN, IBM J. PEARL, UCLA
L. HURWICZ, University of Minnesota M. RABIN, Harvard University and
Hebrew University
D. JOHNSON, AT&T - Bell Laboratories S. REITER, Northwestern University
J. KADANE, Carnegie-Mellon University A. SCHONHAGE, University of Tubingen
R. KARP, Berkeley K. SIKORSKI, Columbia University
S. KIRKPATRICK, IBM S. SMALE, Berkeley
K. KO, University of Houston J.F. TRAUB, Columbia University
H.T. KUNG, Carnegie-Mellon University G. WASILKOWSKI, Columbia University and
University of Warsaw
D. LEE, Columbia University A.G. WERSCHULZ, Fordham University
M. MILANESE, Politecnico di Torino H. WOZNIAKOWSKI, Columbia University
and University of Warsaw
CONTRIBUTED PAPERS: All appropriate papers for which abstracts are contributed
will be scheduled. To contribute a paper send title, author, affiliation, and
abstract on one side of a single 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper.
TITLES AND ABSTRACTS MUST BE RECEIVED BY JANUARY 15, 1985
PUBLICATION: All invited papers will appear in a new journal, JOURNAL OF
COMPLEXITY, published by Academic Press, in fall 1985.
REGISTRATION: The symposium will be held in the Kellogg Conference Center on
the Fifteenth Floor of the International Affairs Building, 118th Street and
Amsterdam Avenue. The conference schedule and paper abstracts will be
available at the registration desk. Registration will start at 9:00 a.m.
There is no registration charge.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: The program schedule for invited and contributed
papers will be mailed by about March 15 only to those responding to this
account with the information requested below. If you have any questions,
contact the Computer Science Department, Columbia University, or call
(212) 280-2736.
To help us plan for the symposium please reply to this account with the
following information.
Name: Affiliation:
Address:
( ) I will attend the Complexity Symposium.
( ) I may contribute a paper.
( ) I may not attend, but please send program.
------------------------------
Date: Mon 15 Oct 84 22:43:20-PDT
From: Bill Poser <POSER@SU-CSLI.ARPA>
Subject: Course - Form and Meaning of English Intonation
COURSE ANNOUNCEMENT
Mark Liberman and Janet Pierrehumbert of AT&T Bell Laboratories
will give a course sponsored by the Linguistics Department and the Center
for the Study of Language and Information entitled:
FORM AND MEANING OF ENGLISH INTONATION
Place: Seminar Room, CSLI, Stanford University
Dates: Monday 5 November - Saturday 17 November
Hours: MWF 16:30-18:00
TTh 16:30-18:00 & 19:30-21:30
Sat 10:00-12:30 & 14:00-17:00
A brief description follows:
(1) What
Participants will learn to describe and interpret the stress, tune and
phrasing of English utterances, using a set of systematically arranged
examples, given in the form of transcripts, tapes and pitch contours.
The class will also make use of an interactive real-time pitch detection
and display device.
We will provide a theory of English intonation patterns and their
phonetic interpretation, in the form of an algorithm for generating
synthetic F0 contours from underlying phonological representations.
We will investigate the relation of these patterns to the form, meaning
and use of the spoken sentences that bear them, paying special attention to
intonational focus and intonational phrasing.
Problem sets will develop or polish participants' skills in the exploration
of experimental results and the design of experiments.
(2) Who
No particular background knowledge will be presupposed, although
participants will have to acquire (if they do not already have) at least
a passive grasp of many technical terms and concepts. Thus, it will
be helpful to have had experience (for instance) with at least some of
the terms "hertz" (not the car company), "fricative," "copula," "lambda
abstraction," "gradient vector." Several kinds of people, from engineers
through linguists and psychologists to philosophers, should find the course's
contents interesting. However, we will angle the course towards participants
who want to study the meaning and use of intonation patterns, and we hope
that a significant fraction of the course will turn into a workshop on this
topic.
(3) Registration
Pre-registration is not mandatory, but if you expect to attend
it would be helpful if you would let Bill Poser (poser@su-csli) know.
Stanford students wishing to take the course for credit may enroll
for a directed reading with Paul Kiparsky or Bill Poser.
------------------------------
End of AIList Digest
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