This paper addresses the task of predicting the correct French translations of third-person sub-ject pronouns in English discourse, a problem that is relevant as a prerequisite for machine translation and that requires anaphora resolu-tion. We present an approach based on neu-ral networks

and phonological representations that capture better the relevant structure among the written and spoken forms of words. In a number of simulation experiments, networks using the new representations learn to read both regular and exception words, including low-frequency exception words, and yet are still able

Evolutionary computation is becoming common in the solution of difficult, realworld problems in industry, medicine, and defense. This paper reviews some of the practical advantages to using evolutionary algorithms as compared with classic methods of optimization or artificial intelligence. Specific advantages include the flexibility of the procedures, as well as the ability to self-adapt the search for optimum solutions on the fly. As desktop computers increase in speed, the application of evolutionary algorithms will become routine. 1 Introduction Darwinian evolution is intrinsically a robust search and optimization mechanism. Evolved biota demonstrate optimized complex behavior at every level: the cell, the organ, the individual, and the population. The problems that biological species have solved are typified by chaos, chance, temporality, and nonlinear interactivities. These are also characteristics of problems that have proved to be especially intractable to classic methods of o...

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This dissertation is a defense of the hypothesis that the noun phrase is headed by afunctional element (i.e., \non-lexical " category) D, identi ed with the determiner. In this way, the structure of the noun phrase parallels that of the sentence, which is headed by In (ection), under assumptions now standard within the Government-Binding (GB) framework. The central empirical problem addressed is the question of the proper analysis of the so-called \Poss-ing " gerund in English. This construction possesses simultaneously many properties of sentences, and many properties of noun phrases. The problem of capturing this dual aspect of the Possing construction is heightened by current restrictive views of X-bar theory, which, in particular, rule out the obvious structure for Poss-ing, [NP NP VPing], by virtue of its exocentricity. Consideration of languages in which nouns, even the most basic concrete nouns, show agreement (AGR) with their possessors, points to an analysis

Planning under uncertainty is a central problem in the study of automated sequential decision making, and has been addressed by researchers in many different fields, including AI planning, decision analysis, operations research, control theory and economics. While the assumptions and perspectives adopted in these areas often differ in substantial ways, many planning problems of interest to researchers in these fields can be modeled as Markov decision processes (MDPs) and analyzed using the techniques of decision theory. This paper presents an overview and synthesis of MDP-related methods, showing how they provide a unifying framework for modeling many classes of planning problems studied in AI. It also describes structural properties of MDPs that, when exhibited by particular classes of problems, can be exploited in the construction of optimal or approximately optimal policies or plans. Planning problems commonly possess structure in the reward and value functions used to de...

El Salvador, Guatemala is a, study in black and white. On the left is a collection of extreme Marxist-Leninist groups led by what one diplomat calls “a pretty faceless bunch of people.’ ’ On the right is an entrenched elite that has dominated Central America’s most populous country since a CIA-backed coup deposed the reformist government of Col. Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán in 1954. Moderates of the political center. embattled but alive in E1 Salvador, have virtually disappeared in Guatemala-joining more than 30.000 victims of terror over the last tifteen vears. “The situation in Guatemala is much more serious than in EI Salvador, ” declares one Latin American diplomat. “The oligarchy is that much more reactionary. and the choices are far fewer. “ ‘Zero’: The Guatemalan oligarchs hated Jimmy Carter for cutting off U.S. military aid in 1977 to protest human-rights abuses-and the right-wingers hired marimba bands and set off firecrackers on the night Ronald Reagan was elected. They considered Reagan an ideological kinsman and believed they had a special

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This book presents a unified treatment of many different kinds of planning algorithms. The subject lies at the crossroads between robotics, control theory, artificial intelligence, algorithms, and computer graphics. The particular subjects covered include motion planning, discrete planning, planning under uncertainty, sensor-based planning, visibility, decision-theoretic planning, game theory, information spaces, reinforcement learning, nonlinear systems, trajectory planning, nonholonomic planning, and kinodynamic planning.