The FINITE STRING Newsletter Announcements

Announcements The Program Committe consists of: James Allen, Norm Badler, Mike Bauer, Wayne Davis, Mark Fox, Bill Havens, Hector Levesque, Charles Morgan, John NELS Meeting and Workshop Mylopoulos, Zenon Pylyshyn, Reid Smith, and Doug The Twelfth Annual Meeting of the North-Eastern Skuce. The Proceedings Editor is Brian Funt. Linguistic Society will be held November 6-8, 1981, at Correspondence should be addressed to: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Plans are Gordon McCalla, General Chairman also being made to hold a workshop immediately be- CSCSI/SCEIO Conference fore the Meeting on the topic "Free Word-Order and Department of Computational Science Syntactic Configuration". Questions to be addressed University of Saskatchewan at the workshop include: what are the functions of Saskatoon, Sask. CANADA S7N 0W0 word-order in syntax and semantics? what degrees of freedom are there of word-order? how should the Nick Cercone, Program Chairman different functions and degrees of word-order be ex- CSCSI/SCEIO Conference pressed within a theory of universal grammar? Computing Science Department Simon Fraser University For further information contact: Burnaby, B.C. CANADA V5A 1S6 NELS Committee Department of Linguistics and Philosophy M.I.T., 20C-128 ECAI-82: Call for Papers Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 The 1982 European Conference on Artificial Intel- ligence will be held July 12-14, 1982, in Orsay, France CSCSI/SCEIO: Call for Papers (just after COLING-82). The conference is sponsored by the Society for the Study of The Fourth National Conference of the Canadian and the Simulation of Behavior (AISB), and succeeds Society for Computational Studies of Intelligence/ to the AISB meetings on Artificial Intelligence held at Soci6t6 Canadienne pour Etudes d'intelligence par Brighton (1974), Edinburgh (1976), Hamburg (1978), Ordinateur will be held at the University of Saskatche- and Amsterdam (1980). It is concerned with all as- wan in Saskatoon, Canada, May 17-19, 1982, in con- pects of Artificial Intelligence and its applications. junction with the 1982 National Conference of the Invited speakers include H. Berliner (Carnegie-Mellon Canadian Information Processing Society. Papers are University, Pittsburgh), H. Gallaire (CGE Marcoussis), solicited in all areas of Artificial Intelligence, including G. Huet (INRIA, Paris), R. Kowalski (Imperial Col- expert systems, natural language understanding, lege, London), R. Schank (Yale University, New Haven). knowledge representation, heuristic problem solving, automatic programming, computer perception and Both regular and short papers will be considered, vision, image analysis and understanding, robotics, but a paper should be submitted to the Program Chair- programming systems for AI, psychological aspects of man for one category only. The conference language AI, automatic theorem proving, learning, social impli- is English. Regular papers must not exceed 15 type- cations of AI, and advanced applications. written pages (A4 format). Short papers must not exceed 5 typewritten pages (A4 format). Papers in Four copies of an extended abstract of 1500-2000 both categories should include name(s) and words (6-10 double-spaced pages) must be submitted address(es) of the author(s), a 100-word abstract, and before December 7, 1981. All submissions will be a list of descriptive keywords. All papers will be re- read by several members of the program committee fereed. Office and/or home telephone number(s) and evaluated on the basis of significance, originality, should be included in an accompanying letter when and overall quality. The abstract must summarize the submitting a paper. Final papers must be typed novel ideas, contain enough information about the camera-ready on special forms for inclusion in the scope of work, and include comparisons to the rele- Conference Proceedings. The submission deadline is vant literature. November 30, 1981; notification of acceptance will be Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejection made by February 15, 1982; and camera-ready copy by January 31, 1982. The accepted papers, typed on will be due March 15, 1982. Conference Proceedings special forms, will be due March 21, 1982. Each ac- will be ready for distribution at the conference. cepted paper will be allotted 25 minutes (presentation The members of the Program Committe are: L. plus brief question period). Bolc (Warsaw), A. Bundy (Edinburgh), G. Guiho Information concerning local arrangements will be (Paris), I. Havel (Prague), L. Henschen (Evanston), Y. available from the general chairman. Proceedings will Kodratoff (Paris), J. Mayhew (Sheffield), D. Michie be distributed at the conference, and will be subse- (Edinburgh), R. de Mori (Turin), L.M. Pereira (Lisbon), quently available for purchase from CIPS. R. Poppelstone (Edinburgh), P. Raulefs (Bonn), D.

182 American Journal of Computational Linguistics, Volume 7, Number 3, July-September 1981 The FINITE STRING Newsletter Announcements

Sleeman (Leeds), N.S. Sridharan (New Brunswick), W. FID/CR Secretariat Wahster (Hamburg), Y. Wilks (Colchester). Woogstr. 36a General inquiries about the conference should be D-6000 Frankfurt 50, WEST GERMANY addressed to: Yves Kodratoff, General Chairman Cognition and Brain Theory: Call for Papers Institut de programmation Cognition and Brain Theory is a new multidiscipli- 4, Place Jussieu nary journal devoted to issues in mind, brain, and F-75230 Paris Cedex 05, France language. The Editors are planning a special issue on 33-1-329 12 21, ext. 53-90 the topic of methodological principles for any one of For further information on details of submission con- the following disciplines: philosophy, psychology, -tact: linguistics, artificial intelligence, or brain theory. The Peter Raulefs, Program Chairman paper should delineate the key principles for framing Institut fur Informatik III and investigating problems as well as the criteria for Universitat Bonn evaluating solutions. The paper should also include a Postfach 2220 discussion of the ways in which the method of the D-5300 Bonn 1, WEST GERMANY discipline considered may relate -- or fail to relate 49-228-738721 to other methods in the cognitive sciences. One paper will be selected for each of the five disciplines men- tioned above. Optimum size is 20-30 typewritten Classification Research: Call for Papers pages. The 4th International Study Conference on Classi- For further information contact: fication Research will take place in Augsburg, near Dr. Martin Ringle, Editor Munich, from June 28 to July 2, 1982, together with Cognition and Brain Theory the 6th Annual Conference of the German Society for LEA, Inc. Classification. The conference is sponsored by the 365 Broadway F6d6ration Internationale de Documentation (FID) Hillsdale, New Jersey 07642 and is being hosted by the German Society for Docu- mentation in connection with the German Institution for Standardization. at Buffalo The theme of the conference is Universal Classifi- The State University of New York at Buffalo has cation: Subject Analysis and Ordering Systems. Un- formed a Graduate Group in Cognitive Science to der this topic universal classification systems are dealt promote cognitive science research within the universi- with, and it is suggested that classification should be ty. The Graduate Group was founded by faculty and approached from a universal point of view, even when graduate students from the Departments of Communi- using special classification systems and thesauri. cation Sciences and Disorders, , There will be plenary meetings and workshops with Education, Law, Linguistics, Philosophy, and Psychol- presentations and discussions of contributions from all ogy; members of other departments are being encour- aged to join this interdisciplinary endeavor. The chief those active and interested. Three major areas have concerns of the Graduate Group are in the areas of been identified for contributions: (1) general princi- language and knowledge representation. The first ples and policies, (2) structure and logics of classifica- Director of the Graduate Group is Stuart C. Shapiro tion systems, and (3) practical use and empirical inves- of the Department of Computer Science. tigation. Additional sessions organized by the Special Interest Group on Numerical Taxonomy of the Society During the 1980-81 academic year, discussions for Classification will be devoted to numerical me- were held on such topics as intentionality, metaphor, thods in classification. semantic representation, syntax and cognition, commu- nicative competence (and its development) and theo- Theoreticians and practitioners in the field of or- ries of reference. In addition to continuing these tri- ganization of knowledge (classification) are invited to weekly discussions, a series of colloquia in cognitive send abstracts of possible papers between 500 and science will be presented during the 1981-82 academic 1000 words in length by December 1, 1981. A jury year. In addition, several interdisciplinary graduate will then select the papers for presentation and authors courses in cognitive science are currently being plan- will be notified. Papers presented will be published in ned. The Graduate Group intends to expand their a proceedings volume. Papers will be due by May 1, activities to developing a pre- and post-doctoral pro- 1982. gram in cognitive science, along with the facilities Abstracts should be sent to: necessary to support the program.

American Journal of Computational Linguistics, Volume 7, Number 3, July-September 1981 183 The FINITE STRING Newsletter Announcements

Correspondence and requests for further informa- Lockheed Missiles & Space Corporation, is the Series tion should be addressed to the Assistant Director of Editor. the Graduate Group: The text of Information Technology and Health Care Steven Greenspan is based on the 1979 National Computer Conference The Graduate Group in Cognitive Science (NCC) Symposium on Issues in Health Care Comput- 4226 Ridge Lea Road ing, and was edited by Dr. Karen Duncan. It contains State University of New York at Buffalo discussions of such issues as the federal role in health Amherst, New York 14226 computing and the possible establishment of a contro- versial state health information database. An adminis- trative analysis of hospital information systems is also ACL Conference Proceedings Available discussed. Orders should be addressed to: Conference Proceedings from the three most recent AFIPS Press ACL meetings are available at nominal cost. Detailed 1815 North Lynn Street information follows: Suite 800 17th Annual Meeting of the Association for Com- Arlington, Virginia 22209 putational Linguistics August 1979; University Attn: Chris Hoelzel of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California; (703) 558-3631 115 pages; $6.00 (U.S.), includes 3rd class/surface mail; add $2.00 for first class Wolfson Elected Chairman of NCC Board mailing in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico; add $4.00 for air printed mailing overseas. Dr. Seymour J. Wolfson has been elected Chairman of the National Computer Conference (NCC) Board. 18th Annual Meeting of the Association for Com- The NCC Board determines policy for the annual Na- putational Linguistics and Parasession on Topics tional Computer Conference, which is the preeminent in Interactive Discourse June 1980; University of and largest conference devoted to the scientific and Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; 167 educational aspects of information processing. Dr. pages; $7.50 (U.S.), includes 3rd class/surface Wolfson previously served on the board as the Associ- mail; add $3.00 for first class mailing in the ation for Computing Machinery (ACM) Representa- U.S., Canada, and Mexico; add $6.00 for air tive, which he will continue to do, in addition to serv- printed mailing overseas. ing in his capacity as Chairman. Dr. Wolfson is cur- 19th Annual Meeting of the Association for Com- rently Associate Professor of Computer Science at putational Linguistics June 1981; Stanford Uni- Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, where he versity, Stanford, California; 172 pages; $10.00 received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees, and where he (U.S.), includes 3rd class/surface mail; add acted as Chairman of the Computer Science Depart- $3.00 for first class mailing in the U.S., Canada, ment from 1969-1978. and Mexico; add $6.00 for air printed mailing overseas. Other Conferences The above volumes may be ordered from: The 1981 ACM Annual Conference will be held at Dr. Donald E. Walker, ACL the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles, California, on Artificial Intelligence Center November 9-11, 1981. [See AJCL 6:3-4, pg. 194.] SRI International For further information contact: Menlo Park, California 94025 Mrs. A.C. Toni Shelter Xerox Corporation, A3-49 701 South Aviation Boulevard AFIPS Press Publishes New Book E1 Segundo, California 90245 in Executive Information Series (213) 679-4511 x1968 Information Technology and Health Care: The Crit- ical Issues (hardcover; 144 pp., $25.00) is now availa- An April Fool's Day Conference on the language of ble from AFIPS Press. This is the first volume in humor and the humor of language, sponsored by the AFIPS' Executive Information Series, a series which is Western Humor and Irony Membership, will be held in designed to inform business and government execu- Tempe, Arizona, on April 1, 1982. For further infor- tives, academicians, and professionals of developments mation contact: in information processing that will affect their profes- Don L.F. Nilsen sional activities. Future volumes will address the use WHIM Conference,English Department of computers in energy, banking, government, manage- Arizona State University ment, and manufacturing. Mr. Jack Sherman, of Tempe, Arizona 85281

184 American Journal of Computational Linguistics, Volume 7, Number 3, July-September 1981 The FINITE STRING Newsletter Abstracts of Current Literature

The Sixth European Meeting on Cybernetics and Abstracts of Current Literature Systems Research , organized by the Austrian Society for Cybernetic Studies, will be held April 13-16, 1982, at the University of Vienna, Austria. [See AJCL 7:2, KNET Extensions pg. 123.] For a Preliminary Program contact the Michael W. Freeman Chairman: ADO/FSSG Professor Robert Trappl Burroughs Corporation Department of Medical Cybernetics P.O. Box 517 University of Vienna Paoli, Pennsylvania 19301 Freyung 6/2 Henry H. Leitner A-1010 Vienna, AUSTRIA Center for Research in Computing Technology A Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, sponsored Aiken Computation Laboratory by the Austrian Society for Artificial Intelligence and Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 the Austrian Society for Cybernetic Studies, will be held at the Sixth European Meeting on Cybernetics Manuscript, March 1980. and Systems Research, April 13-16, 1982, in Vienna. This paper describes a number of extensions to [See AJCL 7:2, pg. 123.] Extended abstracts must be Brachman's Structured Inheritance Network (SI-Net) submitted by December 1, 1981, to: formalism, with a view to creating an interactive sys- Organizing Committee of the 6th EMCSR 82 tem which will enable domain experts to develop and Austrian Society for Cybernetic Studies enhance knowledge networks (KNETs) representative Schottengasse 3 of their particular application domains. The three A-1010 Vienna, AUSTRIA principal extensions introduced are the QUA and VIZ The 1982 National Computer Conference (NCC), links, and augmented event transition networks. The sponsored by AFIPS, will be held June 7-10, 1982, in former permit us to partition the attribute space of the Houston Astroarena. [See AJCL 7:2, pg. 122.] conceptual entities in accordance with the defining Papers must be submitted by October 31, 1981, to: roles played by these entities in certain kinds of socio- Dr. Howard L. Morgan legal interactions. We use an event transition network NCC'82 Technical Program Chairman to represent the value-class of so-called "dynamic Department of Decision Sciences attributes" in order to define all (and only all) the The Wharton School/CC possible event sequences which the associated entity University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104 can participate in relative to the given attribute and still remain itself. The basic concept of simple succes- The Fifth European Conference on Electrotechnics sion of events in the transition network is then aug- will take place in Copenhagen at The Technical Uni- mented by conditions on dependency relations which versity of Denmark, on June 14-18, 1982. [See AJCL may exist across events among various roles (including 7:2, pg. 122.] Further details may be obtained from: bounds on the amount of time that can elapse between DIEU, Danish Engineers' Post Graduate Inst. successive events). Since such event transition nets The Technical Univ. of Denmark, Bldg. 208 are themselves concepts within the KNET formalism, DK-2800 Lyngby, DENMARK they can be placed along a specialization/generaliza- The Ninth International Conference on Computation- tion hierarchy. We show how these KNET extensions al Linguistics (COLING 82) will be held July 5-10, provide an extremely flexible basis for maintaining 1982, in Prague, Czechoslovakia. It will be sponsored data base integrity and consistency, determining roll- by the International Committee on Computational back dependencies during error recovery or historical Linguistics, in association with the Linguistic Institute perspectives, signalling possible irregularities in the of L. StQr, Slovak Academy of Science, Bratislava, and attempted recording of new events which violate the the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles Uni- versity, Prague. [See AJCL 7:2, pg. 122.] Four cop- legal event sequences defined by the net, as well as for ies of a 3-4 page, double-spaced summary must be generating derivative sets and mutually non-exclusive submitted by December 1, 1981, to: stative attribute values and associated interpretations COLING 82 for the wide range of ways this opens up for referenc- MFF UK, Linguistics ing such concepts in natural language. Malostranske n. 25 118 00 Prague 1, CZECHOSLOVAKIA

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