arXiv subjects

Uroš Šmajdek

Publications and source records attributed to Uroš Šmajdek.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

EntityWeaver: Visual Exploration and Curation of Named-Entity Relationships in Document Collections

We present an interactive visualization system for exploring named entities and their relationships across document collections, with a strong focus on handling uncertainty and supporting both distant and close reading. The system is built around a graph that links documents, entity mentions, and entities. Uncertainty from mention-to-entity linking is included directly in this graph, so users can see where connections are strong, weak, or ambiguous. A transfer-function control, inspired by approaches in scientific visualization, allows users to adjust how this uncertainty is displayed, making it easy to tune the visualization for different datasets and research questions. The system also provides direct access to the full source texts in a coordinated view, enabling quick context checks, resolving ambiguous cases, and correcting digitization errors. Exploration is further supported through a multi-stage filter query builder, mini-map navigation for large graphs, and export options for downstream analysis. By combining uncertainty-aware graph visualization with direct interaction in the source texts, the system provides a unified workflow that supports both large-scale pattern discovery and curation of named-entity-based document collections. The design choices were supported by the domain experts, who were also involved in the initial system evaluation.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

Approaches to Analysing Historical Newspapers Using LLMs

This study presents a computational analysis of the Slovene historical newspapers \textit{Slovenec} and \textit{Slovenski narod} from the sPeriodika corpus, combining topic modelling, large language model (LLM)-based aspect-level sentiment analysis, entity-graph visualisation, and qualitative discourse analysis to examine how collective identities, political orientations, and national belonging were represented in public discourse at the turn of the twentieth century. Using BERTopic, we identify major thematic patterns and show both shared concerns and clear ideological differences between the two newspapers, reflecting their conservative-Catholic and liberal-progressive orientations. We further evaluate four instruction-following LLMs for targeted sentiment classification in OCR-degraded historical Slovene and select the Slovene-adapted GaMS3-12B-Instruct model as the most suitable for large-scale application, while also documenting important limitations, particularly its stronger performance on neutral sentiment than on positive or negative sentiment. Applied at dataset scale, the model reveals meaningful variation in the portrayal of collective identities, with some groups appearing predominantly in neutral descriptive contexts and others more often in evaluative or conflict-related discourse. We then create NER graphs to explore the relationships between collective identities and places. We apply a mixed methods approach to analyse the named entity graphs, combining quantitative network analysis with critical discourse analysis. The investigation focuses on the emergence and development of intertwined historical political and socionomic identities. Overall, the study demonstrates the value of combining scalable computational methods with critical interpretation to support digital humanities research on noisy historical newspaper data.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2025

NERVIS: An Interactive System for Graph-Based Exploration and Editing of Named Entities

We present an interactive visualization system for exploring named entities and their relationships across document collections. The system is designed around a graph-based representation that integrates three types of nodes: documents, entity mentions, and entities. Connections capture two key relationship types: (i) identical entities across contexts, and (ii) co-locations of mentions within documents. Multiple coordinated views enable users to examine entity occurrences, discover clusters of related mentions, and explore higher-level entity group relationships. To support flexible and iterative exploration, the interface offers fuzzy views with approximate connections, as well as tools for interactively editing the graph by adding or removing links, entities, and mentions, as well as editing entity terms. Additional interaction features include filtering, mini-map navigation, and export options to JSON or image formats for downstream analysis and reporting. This approach contributes to human-centered exploration of entity-rich text data by combining graph visualization, interactive refinement, and adaptable perspectives on relationships.

cs.HC↗