9 Search Results for "Martens, Jean-Pierre"


Document
On the Complexity of Language Membership for Probabilistic Words

Authors: Antoine Amarilli, Mikaël Monet, Paul Raphaël, and Sylvain Salvati

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 364, 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)


Abstract
We study the membership problem to context-free languages L (CFLs) on probabilistic words, that specify for each position a probability distribution on the letters (assuming independence across positions). Our task is to compute, given a probabilistic word, what is the probability that a word drawn according to the distribution belongs to L. This problem generalizes the problem of counting how many words of length n belong to L, or of counting how many completions of a partial word belong to L. We show that this problem is in polynomial time for unambiguous context-free languages (uCFLs), but can be #P-hard already for unions of two linear uCFLs. More generally, we show that the problem is in polynomial time for so-called poly-slicewise-unambiguous languages, where given a length n we can tractably compute an uCFL for the words of length n in the language. This class includes some inherently ambiguous languages, and implies the tractability of bounded CFLs and of languages recognized by unambiguous polynomial-time counter automata; but we show that the problem can be #P-hard for nondeterministic counter automata, even for Parikh automata with a single counter. We then introduce classes of circuits from knowledge compilation which we use for tractable counting, and show that this covers the tractability of poly-slicewise-unambiguous languages and of some CFLs that are not poly-slicewise-unambiguous. Extending these circuits with negation further allows us to show tractability for the language of primitive words, and for the language of concatenations of two palindromes. We finally show the conditional undecidability of the meta-problem that asks, given a CFG, whether the probabilistic membership problem for that CFG is tractable or #P-hard.

Cite as

Antoine Amarilli, Mikaël Monet, Paul Raphaël, and Sylvain Salvati. On the Complexity of Language Membership for Probabilistic Words. In 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 364, pp. 5:1-5:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{amarilli_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2026.5,
  author =	{Amarilli, Antoine and Monet, Mika\"{e}l and Rapha\"{e}l, Paul and Salvati, Sylvain},
  title =	{{On the Complexity of Language Membership for Probabilistic Words}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)},
  pages =	{5:1--5:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-412-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{364},
  editor =	{Mahajan, Meena and Manea, Florin and McIver, Annabelle and Thắng, Nguy\~{ê}n Kim},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.5},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-254943},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.5},
  annote =	{Keywords: Automaton, probabilistic words, context-free grammar, membership problem}
}
Document
Dynamic Membership for Regular Tree Languages

Authors: Antoine Amarilli, Corentin Barloy, Louis Jachiet, and Charles Paperman

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 345, 50th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2025)


Abstract
We study the dynamic membership problem for regular tree languages under relabeling updates: we fix an alphabet Σ and a regular tree language L over Σ (expressed, e.g., as a tree automaton), we are given a tree T with labels in Σ, and we must maintain the information of whether the tree T belongs to L while handling relabeling updates that change the labels of individual nodes in T. Our first contribution is to show that this problem admits an O(log n / log log n) algorithm for any fixed regular tree language, improving over known O(log n) algorithms. This generalizes the known O(log n / log log n) upper bound over words, and it matches the lower bound of Ω(log n / log log n) from dynamic membership to some word languages and from the existential marked ancestor problem. Our second contribution is to introduce a class of regular languages, dubbed almost-commutative tree languages, and show that dynamic membership to such languages under relabeling updates can be decided in constant time per update. Almost-commutative languages generalize both commutative languages and finite languages: they are the analogue for trees of the ZG languages enjoying constant-time dynamic membership over words. Our main technical contribution is to show that this class is conditionally optimal when we assume that the alphabet features a neutral letter, i.e., a letter that has no effect on membership to the language. More precisely, we show that any regular tree language with a neutral letter which is not almost-commutative cannot be maintained in constant time under the assumption that the prefix-U1 problem from [Antoine Amarilli et al., 2021] also does not admit a constant-time algorithm.

Cite as

Antoine Amarilli, Corentin Barloy, Louis Jachiet, and Charles Paperman. Dynamic Membership for Regular Tree Languages. In 50th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 345, pp. 8:1-8:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{amarilli_et_al:LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.8,
  author =	{Amarilli, Antoine and Barloy, Corentin and Jachiet, Louis and Paperman, Charles},
  title =	{{Dynamic Membership for Regular Tree Languages}},
  booktitle =	{50th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2025)},
  pages =	{8:1--8:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-388-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{345},
  editor =	{Gawrychowski, Pawe{\l} and Mazowiecki, Filip and Skrzypczak, Micha{\l}},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.8},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-241155},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2025.8},
  annote =	{Keywords: automaton, dynamic membership, incremental maintenance, forest algebra}
}
Document
Differentiable Programming of Indexed Chemical Reaction Networks and Reaction-Diffusion Systems

Authors: Inhoo Lee, Salvador Buse, and Erik Winfree

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 347, 31st International Conference on DNA Computing and Molecular Programming (DNA 31) (2025)


Abstract
Many molecular systems are best understood in terms of prototypical species and reactions. The central dogma and related biochemistry are rife with examples: gene i is transcribed into RNA i, which is translated into protein i; kinase n phosphorylates substrate m; protein p dimerizes with protein q. Engineered nucleic acid systems also often have this form: oligonucleotide i hybridizes to complementary oligonucleotide j; signal strand n displaces the output of seesaw gate m; hairpin p triggers the opening of target q. When there are many variants of a small number of prototypes, it can be conceptually cleaner and computationally more efficient to represent the full system in terms of indexed species (e.g. for dimerization, M_p, D_pq) and indexed reactions (M_p + M_q → D_pq). Here, we formalize the Indexed Chemical Reaction Network (ICRN) model and describe a Python software package designed to simulate such systems in the well-mixed and reaction-diffusion settings, using a differentiable programming framework originally developed for large-scale neural network models, taking advantage of GPU acceleration when available. Notably, this framework makes it straightforward to train the models’ initial conditions and rate constants to optimize a target behavior, such as matching experimental data, performing a computation, or exhibiting spatial pattern formation. The natural map of indexed chemical reaction networks onto neural network formalisms provides a tangible yet general perspective for translating concepts and techniques from the theory and practice of neural computation into the design of biomolecular systems.

Cite as

Inhoo Lee, Salvador Buse, and Erik Winfree. Differentiable Programming of Indexed Chemical Reaction Networks and Reaction-Diffusion Systems. In 31st International Conference on DNA Computing and Molecular Programming (DNA 31). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 347, pp. 4:1-4:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{lee_et_al:LIPIcs.DNA.31.4,
  author =	{Lee, Inhoo and Buse, Salvador and Winfree, Erik},
  title =	{{Differentiable Programming of Indexed Chemical Reaction Networks and Reaction-Diffusion Systems}},
  booktitle =	{31st International Conference on DNA Computing and Molecular Programming (DNA 31)},
  pages =	{4:1--4:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-399-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{347},
  editor =	{Schaeffer, Josie and Zhang, Fei},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.DNA.31.4},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-238534},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.DNA.31.4},
  annote =	{Keywords: Differentiable Programming, Chemical Reaction Networks, Reaction-Diffusion Systems}
}
Document
Reducing Quantum Circuit Synthesis to #SAT

Authors: Dekel Zak, Jingyi Mei, Jean-Marie Lagniez, and Alfons Laarman

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 340, 31st International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP 2025)


Abstract
Quantum circuit synthesis is the task of decomposing a given quantum operator into a sequence of elementary quantum gates. Since the finite target gate set cannot exactly implement any given operator, approximation is often necessary. Model counting, or #SAT, has recently been demonstrated as a promising new approach for tackling core problems in quantum circuit analysis. In this work, we show for the first time that the universal quantum circuit synthesis problem can be reduced to maximum model counting. We formulate a #SAT encoding for exact and approximate depth-optimal quantum circuit synthesis into the Clifford+T gate set. We evaluate our method with an open-source implementation that uses the maximum model counter d4Max as a backend. For this purpose, we extended d4Max with support for complex and negative weights to represent amplitudes. Experimental results show that existing classical tools have potential for the quantum circuit synthesis problem.

Cite as

Dekel Zak, Jingyi Mei, Jean-Marie Lagniez, and Alfons Laarman. Reducing Quantum Circuit Synthesis to #SAT. In 31st International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 340, pp. 38:1-38:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{zak_et_al:LIPIcs.CP.2025.38,
  author =	{Zak, Dekel and Mei, Jingyi and Lagniez, Jean-Marie and Laarman, Alfons},
  title =	{{Reducing Quantum Circuit Synthesis to #SAT}},
  booktitle =	{31st International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP 2025)},
  pages =	{38:1--38:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-380-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{340},
  editor =	{de la Banda, Maria Garcia},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CP.2025.38},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-238997},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CP.2025.38},
  annote =	{Keywords: Maximum weighted model counting, quantum circuit synthesis}
}
Document
A Framework for Extraction and Transformation of Documents

Authors: Cristian Riveros, Markus L. Schmid, and Nicole Schweikardt

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 328, 28th International Conference on Database Theory (ICDT 2025)


Abstract
We present a theoretical framework for the extraction and transformation of text documents as a two-phase process: The first phase uses document spanners to extract information from the input document. The second phase transforms the extracted information into a suitable output. To support several reasonable extract-transform scenarios, we propose for the first phase an extension of document spanners from span-tuples to so-called multispan-tuples, where variables are mapped to sets of spans instead of only single spans. We focus on multispanners described by regex formulas, and we prove that these have the same desirable properties as standard regular spanners. To formalize the second phase, we consider transformations that map every pair document-tuple, where each tuple comes from the (multi)span-relation extracted in the first phase, into a new output document. The specification of the two phases is what we call an extract-transform (ET) program, which covers practically relevant extract-transform tasks. In this paper, our main technical goal is to identify a broad class of ET programs that can be evaluated efficiently. We specifically focus on the scenario of regular ET programs: the extraction phase is given by a regex multispanner and the transformation phase is given by a regular string-to-string function. We show that for any regular ET program, given an input document, we can enumerate all final output documents with output-linear delay after linear preprocessing. As a side effect, we characterize the expressive power of regular ET programs and also show that they have desirable properties, like being closed under composition.

Cite as

Cristian Riveros, Markus L. Schmid, and Nicole Schweikardt. A Framework for Extraction and Transformation of Documents. In 28th International Conference on Database Theory (ICDT 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 328, pp. 18:1-18:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{riveros_et_al:LIPIcs.ICDT.2025.18,
  author =	{Riveros, Cristian and Schmid, Markus L. and Schweikardt, Nicole},
  title =	{{A Framework for Extraction and Transformation of Documents}},
  booktitle =	{28th International Conference on Database Theory (ICDT 2025)},
  pages =	{18:1--18:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-364-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{328},
  editor =	{Roy, Sudeepa and Kara, Ahmet},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICDT.2025.18},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-229593},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICDT.2025.18},
  annote =	{Keywords: Information extraction, Document spanners, Transducers, Query evaluation}
}
Document
The Complexity of Deciding Characteristic Formulae in Van Glabbeek’s Branching-Time Spectrum

Authors: Luca Aceto, Antonis Achilleos, Aggeliki Chalki, and Anna Ingólfsdóttir

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 326, 33rd EACSL Annual Conference on Computer Science Logic (CSL 2025)


Abstract
Characteristic formulae give a complete logical description of the behaviour of processes modulo some chosen notion of behavioural semantics. They allow one to reduce equivalence or preorder checking to model checking, and are exactly the formulae in the modal logics characterizing classic behavioural equivalences and preorders for which model checking can be reduced to equivalence or preorder checking. This paper studies the complexity of determining whether a formula is characteristic for some process in each of the logics providing modal characterizations of the simulation-based semantics in van Glabbeek’s branching-time spectrum. Since characteristic formulae in each of those logics are exactly the satisfiable and prime ones, this article presents complexity results for the satisfiability and primality problems, and investigates the boundary between modal logics for which those problems can be solved in polynomial time and those for which they become computationally hard. Amongst other contributions, this article also studies the complexity of constructing characteristic formulae in the modal logics characterizing simulation-based semantics, both when such formulae are presented in explicit form and via systems of equations.

Cite as

Luca Aceto, Antonis Achilleos, Aggeliki Chalki, and Anna Ingólfsdóttir. The Complexity of Deciding Characteristic Formulae in Van Glabbeek’s Branching-Time Spectrum. In 33rd EACSL Annual Conference on Computer Science Logic (CSL 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 326, pp. 26:1-26:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{aceto_et_al:LIPIcs.CSL.2025.26,
  author =	{Aceto, Luca and Achilleos, Antonis and Chalki, Aggeliki and Ing\'{o}lfsd\'{o}ttir, Anna},
  title =	{{The Complexity of Deciding Characteristic Formulae in Van Glabbeek’s Branching-Time Spectrum}},
  booktitle =	{33rd EACSL Annual Conference on Computer Science Logic (CSL 2025)},
  pages =	{26:1--26:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-362-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{326},
  editor =	{Endrullis, J\"{o}rg and Schmitz, Sylvain},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CSL.2025.26},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-227836},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CSL.2025.26},
  annote =	{Keywords: Characteristic formulae, prime formulae, bisimulation, simulation relations, modal logics, complexity theory, satisfiability}
}
Document
Survey
How Does Knowledge Evolve in Open Knowledge Graphs?

Authors: Axel Polleres, Romana Pernisch, Angela Bonifati, Daniele Dell'Aglio, Daniil Dobriy, Stefania Dumbrava, Lorena Etcheverry, Nicolas Ferranti, Katja Hose, Ernesto Jiménez-Ruiz, Matteo Lissandrini, Ansgar Scherp, Riccardo Tommasini, and Johannes Wachs

Published in: TGDK, Volume 1, Issue 1 (2023): Special Issue on Trends in Graph Data and Knowledge. Transactions on Graph Data and Knowledge, Volume 1, Issue 1


Abstract
Openly available, collaboratively edited Knowledge Graphs (KGs) are key platforms for the collective management of evolving knowledge. The present work aims t o provide an analysis of the obstacles related to investigating and processing specifically this central aspect of evolution in KGs. To this end, we discuss (i) the dimensions of evolution in KGs, (ii) the observability of evolution in existing, open, collaboratively constructed Knowledge Graphs over time, and (iii) possible metrics to analyse this evolution. We provide an overview of relevant state-of-the-art research, ranging from metrics developed for Knowledge Graphs specifically to potential methods from related fields such as network science. Additionally, we discuss technical approaches - and their current limitations - related to storing, analysing and processing large and evolving KGs in terms of handling typical KG downstream tasks.

Cite as

Axel Polleres, Romana Pernisch, Angela Bonifati, Daniele Dell'Aglio, Daniil Dobriy, Stefania Dumbrava, Lorena Etcheverry, Nicolas Ferranti, Katja Hose, Ernesto Jiménez-Ruiz, Matteo Lissandrini, Ansgar Scherp, Riccardo Tommasini, and Johannes Wachs. How Does Knowledge Evolve in Open Knowledge Graphs?. In Special Issue on Trends in Graph Data and Knowledge. Transactions on Graph Data and Knowledge (TGDK), Volume 1, Issue 1, pp. 11:1-11:59, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)


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@Article{polleres_et_al:TGDK.1.1.11,
  author =	{Polleres, Axel and Pernisch, Romana and Bonifati, Angela and Dell'Aglio, Daniele and Dobriy, Daniil and Dumbrava, Stefania and Etcheverry, Lorena and Ferranti, Nicolas and Hose, Katja and Jim\'{e}nez-Ruiz, Ernesto and Lissandrini, Matteo and Scherp, Ansgar and Tommasini, Riccardo and Wachs, Johannes},
  title =	{{How Does Knowledge Evolve in Open Knowledge Graphs?}},
  journal =	{Transactions on Graph Data and Knowledge},
  pages =	{11:1--11:59},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{1},
  number =	{1},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/TGDK.1.1.11},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-194855},
  doi =		{10.4230/TGDK.1.1.11},
  annote =	{Keywords: KG evolution, temporal KG, versioned KG, dynamic KG}
}
Document
Position
Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: Opportunities and Challenges

Authors: Jeff Z. Pan, Simon Razniewski, Jan-Christoph Kalo, Sneha Singhania, Jiaoyan Chen, Stefan Dietze, Hajira Jabeen, Janna Omeliyanenko, Wen Zhang, Matteo Lissandrini, Russa Biswas, Gerard de Melo, Angela Bonifati, Edlira Vakaj, Mauro Dragoni, and Damien Graux

Published in: TGDK, Volume 1, Issue 1 (2023): Special Issue on Trends in Graph Data and Knowledge. Transactions on Graph Data and Knowledge, Volume 1, Issue 1


Abstract
Large Language Models (LLMs) have taken Knowledge Representation - and the world - by storm. This inflection point marks a shift from explicit knowledge representation to a renewed focus on the hybrid representation of both explicit knowledge and parametric knowledge. In this position paper, we will discuss some of the common debate points within the community on LLMs (parametric knowledge) and Knowledge Graphs (explicit knowledge) and speculate on opportunities and visions that the renewed focus brings, as well as related research topics and challenges.

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Jeff Z. Pan, Simon Razniewski, Jan-Christoph Kalo, Sneha Singhania, Jiaoyan Chen, Stefan Dietze, Hajira Jabeen, Janna Omeliyanenko, Wen Zhang, Matteo Lissandrini, Russa Biswas, Gerard de Melo, Angela Bonifati, Edlira Vakaj, Mauro Dragoni, and Damien Graux. Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: Opportunities and Challenges. In Special Issue on Trends in Graph Data and Knowledge. Transactions on Graph Data and Knowledge (TGDK), Volume 1, Issue 1, pp. 2:1-2:38, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)


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@Article{pan_et_al:TGDK.1.1.2,
  author =	{Pan, Jeff Z. and Razniewski, Simon and Kalo, Jan-Christoph and Singhania, Sneha and Chen, Jiaoyan and Dietze, Stefan and Jabeen, Hajira and Omeliyanenko, Janna and Zhang, Wen and Lissandrini, Matteo and Biswas, Russa and de Melo, Gerard and Bonifati, Angela and Vakaj, Edlira and Dragoni, Mauro and Graux, Damien},
  title =	{{Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: Opportunities and Challenges}},
  journal =	{Transactions on Graph Data and Knowledge},
  pages =	{2:1--2:38},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{1},
  number =	{1},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/TGDK.1.1.2},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-194766},
  doi =		{10.4230/TGDK.1.1.2},
  annote =	{Keywords: Large Language Models, Pre-trained Language Models, Knowledge Graphs, Ontology, Retrieval Augmented Language Models}
}
Document
A User-Oriented Approach to Music Information Retrieval

Authors: Micheline Lesaffre, Marc Leman, and Jean-Pierre Martens

Published in: Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Volume 6171, Content-Based Retrieval (2006)


Abstract
Search and retrieval of specific musical content (e.g. emotion, melody) has become an important aspect of system development but only little research is user-oriented. The success of music information retrieval technology primarily depends on both assessing and meeting the needs of its users. Potential users of music information retrieval systems, however, draw upon various ways of expressing themselves. But, who are the potential users of MIR systems and how would they describe music qualities? High-level concepts contribute to the definition of meaning in music. How can we measure meaning and emotion in music? How can we define the higher-order understanding of features of music that the average users share? Information on listener’s perception of qualities of music is needed to make automated access to music content attractive to system users. The emphasis of our investigation is on a user-oriented approach to the semantic description of music. We report the results of an experiment that explores how users perceive affects in music, and what structural descriptions of music best characterize their understanding of music expression. 79 potential users of music information retrieval systems rated different sets of adjectives, while they were listening to 160 pieces of real music. The subject group (79) was recruited amongst 774 participants in a large survey on the music background, habits and interests, preferred genres, taste and favourite titles of people who are willing to use interactive music systems. Moreover, the stimuli used reflected the musical taste of the average participant in the large survey (774). The study reveals that perceived qualities of music are affected by the profile of the user. Significant subject dependencies are found for age, music expertise, musicianship, broadness of taste and familiarity with classical music. Furthermore, interesting relationships are discovered between expressive and structural features. Analyses show that the targeted population most unanimously agrees on loudness and tempo, whilst less unanimity was found for timbre and articulation. Finally, our findings are tested and validated by means of a demo of a semantic music recommender system prototype that supports the querying of a music database by semantic descriptors for affect, structure and motion. The system, that recommends music from a relational database containing the quality ratings provided by the participants, illustrates the potential of a user-dependent and emotion-based retrieval of music.

Cite as

Micheline Lesaffre, Marc Leman, and Jean-Pierre Martens. A User-Oriented Approach to Music Information Retrieval. In Content-Based Retrieval. Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Volume 6171, pp. 1-11, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2006)


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@InProceedings{lesaffre_et_al:DagSemProc.06171.3,
  author =	{Lesaffre, Micheline and Leman, Marc and Martens, Jean-Pierre},
  title =	{{A User-Oriented Approach to Music Information Retrieval}},
  booktitle =	{Content-Based Retrieval},
  pages =	{1--11},
  series =	{Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings (DagSemProc)},
  ISSN =	{1862-4405},
  year =	{2006},
  volume =	{6171},
  editor =	{Tim Crawford and Remco C. Veltkamp},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DagSemProc.06171.3},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-6509},
  doi =		{10.4230/DagSemProc.06171.3},
  annote =	{Keywords: Semantic description, user studies, music information retrieval}
}
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