title: Text categorization using compression models

authors: Frank, Eibe

abstract: Summary form only given. Test categorization is the assignment of natural language texts to predefined categories based on their concept. The use of predefined categories implies a "supervised learning" approach to categorization, where already-classified articles which effectively define the categories are used as "training data" to build a model that can be used for classifying new articles that comprise "the data". Typical approaches extract features from articles and use the feature vectors as input to a machine learning scheme that learns how to classify articles. The features are generally words. It has often been observed that compression seems to provide a very promising alternative approach to categorization. The overall compression of an article with respect to different models can be compared to see which one it fits most closely. Such a scheme has several potential advantages: it yields an overall judgement on the document as a whole, rather than discarding information by pre-selecting features it avoids the messy and rather artificial problem of defining word boundaries; it deals uniformly with morphological variants of words; depending on the model (and its order), it can take account of phrasal effects that span word boundaries; it offers a uniform way of dealing with different types of documents for example, arbitrary files in a computer system; it generally minimizes arbitrary decisions that inevitably need to be taken to render any learning scheme practical.

text: Text categorization using compression models Summary form only given. Test categorization is the assignment of natural language texts to predefined categories based on their concept. The use of predefined categories implies a "supervised learning" approach to categorization, where already-classified articles which effectively define the categories are used as "training data" to build a model that can be used for classifying new articles that comprise "the data". Typical approaches extract features from articles and use the feature vectors as input to a machine learning scheme that learns how to classify articles. The features are generally words. It has often been observed that compression seems to provide a very promising alternative approach to categorization. The overall compression of an article with respect to different models can be compared to see which one it fits most closely. Such a scheme has several potential advantages: it yields an overall judgement on the document as a whole, rather than discarding information by pre-selecting features it avoids the messy and rather artificial problem of defining word boundaries; it deals uniformly with morphological variants of words; depending on the model (and its order), it can take account of phrasal effects that span word boundaries; it offers a uniform way of dealing with different types of documents for example, arbitrary files in a computer system; it generally minimizes arbitrary decisions that inevitably need to be taken to render any learning scheme practical.

year: 2000-03

title: The Science of Meditation: From Mysticism to Mainstream Western Psychology

authors: Pevreal, Jennifer Christine

subjects: clinical psychology

abstract: Psychological applications of meditative practice have become the ‘third-wave’ tools in the psychology clinician’s therapeutic tool kit. Meditation techniques for numerous psychological disorders, as well as the psychological impacts of chronic medical conditions, are being used by a growing number of mainstream clinicians in Western healthcare contexts, which were previously the domain of alternative practitioners, and formerly the sometimes secretive and mysterious domain of the orthodox and esoteric spiritual traditions. Many questions arise regarding how this conversion has taken place and why. 

This thesis explores some of the issues surrounding the adoption, reduction, and application of meditation practices from the Eastern and Western origins and transmission to mainstream Western healthcare contexts. By tracing the history of the rise in popularity of meditation in the mainstream Western health sciences, particularly within the mental health sector over the past century or so, it is intended to contribute to an answer to, in part, the question of ‘why’ and, in part, the question of ‘how’. 

A further question of whether sufficient cognizance has been taken of the subjective experiences and understandings of long-term meditation practitioners and what they can contribute to Western psychological understanding of meditation—its application potentials and pitfalls—is explored. Why is this important? At present, being intelligent, and highly trained, as most clinicians have come to believe they are, it has become somewhat taken for granted that reading journal articles or books on meditation, and attending a workshop or two, perhaps even a week-long residential training retreat, qualifies one to begin using meditation processes with clients. However, is clinician training and competency in the use of meditation currently sufficient to ensure its safe and appropriate use, particularly for psychologically impaired clients, given the phenomena reported by long-term meditators and the judicious preparatory processes required by teachers in the wisdom traditions of origin? 

Using qualitative methodology and a social constructionist viewing lens, I elucidate whether Western psychology’s reductive approach may create barriers to the growth of a knowledge-field of the potential of meditation for personal and collective development and wellbeing—which has existed since antiquity, but which current psychological interest indicates is by no means antiquated.

Twenty three semi-guided indepth interviews were conducted with 18 long-term meditators from diverse backgrounds and nationalities, to explore their subjective experiences—the phenomena they encountered and the meanings they ascribed to their meditation practices. What became apparent through the course of this research was the divergence that exists between the positivist Western scientific literature on meditation and the experiences and understandings of this sample of meditators. 

The implications that arise from a paradigm clash between the fundamental premises of a positivist approach to a Western science of meditation for the healthcare sector and those of the wisdom traditions of origin are discussed. Finally, potential paths of resolution to enable contributions to the development of a knowledge-field of meditation for Western healthcare contexts from the understandings and technologies of both ways of knowing are mooted.

text: The Science of Meditation: From Mysticism to Mainstream Western Psychology Psychological applications of meditative practice have become the ‘third-wave’ tools in the psychology clinician’s therapeutic tool kit. Meditation techniques for numerous psychological disorders, as well as the psychological impacts of chronic medical conditions, are being used by a growing number of mainstream clinicians in Western healthcare contexts, which were previously the domain of alternative practitioners, and formerly the sometimes secretive and mysterious domain of the orthodox and esoteric spiritual traditions. Many questions arise regarding how this conversion has taken place and why. 

This thesis explores some of the issues surrounding the adoption, reduction, and application of meditation practices from the Eastern and Western origins and transmission to mainstream Western healthcare contexts. By tracing the history of the rise in popularity of meditation in the mainstream Western health sciences, particularly within the mental health sector over the past century or so, it is intended to contribute to an answer to, in part, the question of ‘why’ and, in part, the question of ‘how’. 

A further question of whether sufficient cognizance has been taken of the subjective experiences and understandings of long-term meditation practitioners and what they can contribute to Western psychological understanding of meditation—its application potentials and pitfalls—is explored. Why is this important? At present, being intelligent, and highly trained, as most clinicians have come to believe they are, it has become somewhat taken for granted that reading journal articles or books on meditation, and attending a workshop or two, perhaps even a week-long residential training retreat, qualifies one to begin using meditation processes with clients. However, is clinician training and competency in the use of meditation currently sufficient to ensure its safe and appropriate use, particularly for psychologically impaired clients, given the phenomena reported by long-term meditators and the judicious preparatory processes required by teachers in the wisdom traditions of origin? 

Using qualitative methodology and a social constructionist viewing lens, I elucidate whether Western psychology’s reductive approach may create barriers to the growth of a knowledge-field of the potential of meditation for personal and collective development and wellbeing—which has existed since antiquity, but which current psychological interest indicates is by no means antiquated.

Twenty three semi-guided indepth interviews were conducted with 18 long-term meditators from diverse backgrounds and nationalities, to explore their subjective experiences—the phenomena they encountered and the meanings they ascribed to their meditation practices. What became apparent through the course of this research was the divergence that exists between the positivist Western scientific literature on meditation and the experiences and understandings of this sample of meditators. 

The implications that arise from a paradigm clash between the fundamental premises of a positivist approach to a Western science of meditation for the healthcare sector and those of the wisdom traditions of origin are discussed. Finally, potential paths of resolution to enable contributions to the development of a knowledge-field of meditation for Western healthcare contexts from the understandings and technologies of both ways of knowing are mooted.

year: 2012

title: Māori men, relationships, and everyday practices: towards broadening domestic violence research

authors: King, Pita

subjects: Māori

abstract: Relationships are central to the health and wellbeing of Māori (indigenous people of New Zealand). Through processes of colonisation, cultural ways of relatedness embedded within Māori social structures experienced disruption and were reshaped over decades of assimilation. Māori knowledge and everyday practices that assisted in protecting Māori from societal problems, such as domestic violence, began to dwindle. In contemporary New Zealand, Māori are over-represented in domestic violence statistics. Utilising an auto-ethnographic approach and case studies, our research focuses on five Māori men’s experiences within intimate relationships and whānau (extended family) life. A significant feature of this research is that it provides insights into the ways Māori men draw on their cultural ways-of-being to enhance intimate relationships and maintain bonds within whānau and community life to forge new ways-of-being. Such insights have the potential to inform preventative measures against domestic violence within Māori communities.

text: Māori men, relationships, and everyday practices: towards broadening domestic violence research Relationships are central to the health and wellbeing of Māori (indigenous people of New Zealand). Through processes of colonisation, cultural ways of relatedness embedded within Māori social structures experienced disruption and were reshaped over decades of assimilation. Māori knowledge and everyday practices that assisted in protecting Māori from societal problems, such as domestic violence, began to dwindle. In contemporary New Zealand, Māori are over-represented in domestic violence statistics. Utilising an auto-ethnographic approach and case studies, our research focuses on five Māori men’s experiences within intimate relationships and whānau (extended family) life. A significant feature of this research is that it provides insights into the ways Māori men draw on their cultural ways-of-being to enhance intimate relationships and maintain bonds within whānau and community life to forge new ways-of-being. Such insights have the potential to inform preventative measures against domestic violence within Māori communities.

year: 2017