Language Shift Effect on Memory Generalization of Chinese-English Bilinguals

Language shift occurs when people learn information in one language but recall it in another language. This mismatch between encoding and retrieval language is found to impair memory accuracy when memory is tested immediately after learning. However, does the observed language shift effect still exist after a certain period of delay? Would it influence other aspects of memory, especially memory generalization? To address these two questions, we performed a memory experiment among unbalanced Chinese-English bilinguals. In the experiment, participants were required to read two stories (one in English, one in Chinese) and to retell the stories in Chinese from their memories afterward. Delay interval was manipulated in the experiment where participants either took memory recall tests immediately after story-reading or after 24 hours' delay. To analyze memory generalization, we coded the generalized words participants used to retell the stories. The results suggest that language shift (encoding in English and retrieving in Chinese) leads to a more generalized description in a memory recall task. However, the observed language shift effect disappears after 24 hours' delay. It can be concluded that language shift impacts bilingual learners' memory generalization in immediate recall tests, but such effect disappears after 24 hours' delay, which indicates the key role of delay interval in modulating language shift effect.

Analysis of ISO/TS 21526 Towards the Extension of a Standardized Query API

Metadata is often used for different tasks in the field of medical informatics: semantic description of data, quality validation, data integration, or information retrieval. Metadata definitions are captured and curated in time-consuming tasks and stored in metadata repositories that manage and preserve the metadata. Due to technical and legal restrictions, metadata is rarely as easily accessible and interoperable as it is necessary for modern information systems. In a previous study, a uniform interface based on the widely used ISO/IEC 11179 and the Facebook data retrieval language GraphQL was introduced as a solution to these technical obstacles. In the meantime, the ISO standard 21526 has been published, a recent version designed with a strong focus on health informatics. While it is conceptually oriented on the metamodel in ISO 11179, a number of extensions but also restructurings have been introduced. In this study, the authors investigated the difference between ISO 11179 and ISO 21526 and extended the unified metadata query interface to be future-proof and in particular, to support the semantic extensions of ISO 21526.

Terms–Aspectual Synonyms in the Cognitive Space of Language

The article deals with the Ukrainian linguistic terms – aspectual synonyms. They are considered as a kind of conceptual synonyms that have common or different features of the same concept. Groups of homogeneous aspectual synonyms which form facets in the cognitive space of contemporary Ukrainian linguistic terminological system are determined as well as groups of heterogeneous aspectual synonyms, which are organized into clusters. The operational function of such synonyms for the forming of classes of equivalents of one- and multi-lingual terms in the informational-retrieval language of the keywords of the Base of the World Slavic Linguistics iSybislaw is emphasized. Determination of certain feature in the cognitive structure of multilingual terms creates the base for revealing the degree of their content closeness and the validity for the inclusion of terms-keywords to the certain classes of equivalence in the information-retrieval language of iSybislaw. The determination of common cognitive features for terms in different languages enables the structuring of their classes of equivalents in the iSybislaw system and, therefore, to organize searching of information within certain facets of aspectual synonyms within such classes; to search equivalents to foreign linguistic terms with the same features of the nomination concept common for them in certain national linguistic traditions. The analysis of aspectual synonyms in the contemporary Ukrainian linguistic terminological system will provide a solid basis for studying the state and perspectives of understanding the linguistic concepts which today are in the focus of attention and active work of specialists, as well as to find their links with the nominations of the same concepts in other languages and the forming of classes of equivalents for the language of the keywords of the iSybislaw system. Such structuring of the classes of equivalents on the basis of the commonality of the features of multi-lingual coreferential terms will help to optimize the searching of information in the database of system iSybislaw, as well as to create on its basis a new thesaurus of Slavic linguistic terminology as a hypertext system.

Users’ search in OPAC: Findings of search statistics analysis at RAS SB State Public Scientific and Technological Library

OPAC user search behavior study was conducted at RAS SB State Public Scientific and Technological Library based on OPAC log files information in statistical database for 2016. The frequency of information retrieval languages, the keyword language in the first place, and the information retrieval language of subject headings in the second place, was assessed. User search behavior in OPAC using keywords is characterized. Different search request structures in this language are discussed. Individual search stories are analyzed. Typical search strategies, formulations, update methods are defined. The author concludes on the urgency of problems OPAC users face and suggests how to improve the situation.

Kurdish stemmer pre-processing steps for improving information retrieval

The rapid increase in the quantity of Kurdish documents over the last several years has created a need for improving information accuracy and precision in text classification and retrieval. Language stemming is an imperative pre-processing step for increasing the possibility of matching terms in a document in text classification tasks. Stemming helps reduce the total number of searchable terms within a document or query. This article proposes an active approach for stemming Kurdish Sorani texts to reduce variations of words to single terms or stems. The outcomes of the process, described in this article, demonstrate that decreasing the dimensionality of feature vectors in documents will increase the effectiveness of retrieval when the stemming process is used. This process applied for Kurdish Sorani can be adapted and applied in Kurdish Kurmanji as well for greater efficiency and effectiveness in digital text classification and applications.

Thesaurofacet - the information retrieval language of the 21st century

The term of “thesaurofest” is scrutinized; the characteristics of the system, the technologies of efficient information retrieval are analyzed. Prospects for retrieval systems modernization are discussed.

Efficient Semantics-Based Compliance Checking Using LTL Formulae and Unfolding

Business process models are required to be in line with frequently changing regulations, policies, and environments. In the field of intelligent modeling, organisations concern automated business process compliance checking as the manual verification is a time-consuming and inefficient work. There exist two key issues for business process compliance checking. One is the definition of a business process retrieval language that can be employed to capture the compliance rules, the other concerns efficient evaluation of these rules. Traditional syntax-based retrieval approaches cannot deal with various important requirements of compliance checking in practice. Although a retrieval language that is based on semantics can overcome the drawback of syntax-based ones, it suffers from the well-known state space explosion. In this paper, we define a semantics-based process model query language through simplifying a property specification pattern system without affecting its expressiveness. We use this language to capture semantics-based compliance rules and constraints. We also propose a feasible approach in such a way that the compliance checking will not suffer from the state space explosion as much as possible. A tool is implemented to evaluate the efficiency. An experiment conducted on three model collections illustrates that our technology is very efficient.

Investigating Language Skills and Field of Knowledge on Multilingual Information Access in Digital Libraries

Digital libraries remove physical barriers to accessing information, but the language barrier still remains due to multilingual collections and the linguistic diversity of users. This study aims at understanding the effect of users’ language skills and field of knowledge on their language preferences when searching for information online and to provide new insights on the access to multilingual digital libraries. Both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered using a questionnaire and results show that the language skills and the field of knowledge have an impact on the language choice for searching online. These factors also determine the interest in cross-language information retrieval: language-related fields constitute the best potential group of users, followed by the Arts and Humanities and the Social Sciences.