Do not let the history haunt you - Mitigating Compounding Errors in Conversational Question Answering

The Conversational Question Answering (CoQA) task involves answering a sequence of inter-related conversational questions about a contextual paragraph. Although existing approaches employ human-written ground-truth answers for answering conversational questions at test time, in a realistic scenario, the CoQA model will not have any access to ground-truth answers for the previous questions, compelling the model to rely upon its own previously predicted answers for answering the subsequent questions. In this paper, we find that compounding errors occur when using previously predicted answers at test time, significantly lowering the performance of CoQA systems. To solve this problem, we propose a sampling strategy that dynamically selects between target answers and model predictions during training, thereby closely simulating the situation at test time. Further, we analyse the severity of this phenomena as a function of the question type, conversation length and domain type

The Gendered Shackles of the Would-Be "Madame President": A Rhetorical Analysis of Hillary Clinton's Campaign Communication during the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary

This study analyzes Hillary Rodham Clinton's key speeches and debate performances during the 2008 Democrat presidential primary. Specifically, a rhetorical criticism of Clinton's discourse, utilizing Bitzer's "rhetorical situation," indicates that Clinton's discourse was highly constrained by her gender, and supports the theory that women candidates experience tangible double binds. Specifically, Clinton's rhetoric was hindered in terms of her audience because of her initial status as the frontrunner, the erosion of her female voting base, her lack of response to sexism, her use of negative campaigning, and her appeals to super delegates. The exigencies identified in Clinton's discourse reflect tangible, gendered double binds as she approached the historic nature of her candidacy, universal health care, the war in Iraq, and her general election strategy. Finally, the analysis indicates her attempts to establish experience, her negative reputation, Obama's key campaign strategies, and Bill Clinton's presence on the trail created constraints

Comm-entary, Spring 2011 - Full Issue

In this issue: Swiss Multilingualism in Online News Sources: Opportunities and Restrictions through Linguistic Variance by Laura Yegge, Alexandra Davis, Meije Gernez, Crista Schmidt Coffee Shop as Drama: Ethnography of a Routine by Dave Day Perceiving Educational Implications in Video Game Design by Kelsey Loveday Sex and the City: Expanding the Feminist Toolbox by Natalija Ulemek Restoration for Former Child Soldiers in Uganda by Laura Yegge The American Beauty: Identification, Globalization, and the Miss America Pageant by Joanie Stolos “It’s Just Our Job”: A Qualitative Analysis of Police Lexicon Surrounding Publicly Salient Issues by Lindsey Comeau, Sara Coppola, Matt D’Arcy, Jamie Gray, Marc Smick A Single Case Analysis: “Woman Goes Berserk” by Lindsey Comeau A Real Man’s Game: Manipulations of Guilt and Rhetorical Displays of Masculinity by the UFC by Dane Miller Mass Message: The Impact of Digital Media on Documentary Film by Kelly Martin Finding Reality in a Virtual World: An Analysis of the Authenticity of Traditional Dating Versus Online Dating by Joanie Stolos Citizen Journalism: Defining Bloggers’ Rights by David Whitney The Internet and Social Networking: Building Virtual Relationships and Harming In-Person Relationships by Amanda Tan What Perez Says: an Analysis of Popular Culture by Lauren Freeman Disappearing Privacy by Angelina Bosson

Voices Count: Employing A Critical Narrative Research Bricolage For Insights Into Dyscalculia

This qualitative study involved interviewing adult participants who were identified, or who self identified as having dyscalculia (also known as a mathematical learning disorder), with the objective of obtaining depth of perspective on how this phenomenon is interpreted, responded to, and managed by these individuals and those around them. This study utilizes a theoretical and methodological framework known as bricolage (Kincheloe, 2005) which involves the synthesis of narrative, auto-ethnographic, critical, feminist, neuroscientific, and psychometric perspectives, to explicate the constitution and experience of dyscalculia. This study also explores epistemological privilege within the discipline of educational psychology, and draws on the work Billington (1996, 2013) who advocates for greater employment of critical approaches within educational psychology; particularly, drawing on the work of Foucault, to explicate how the privileging of certain modes of inquiry contributes to the marginalization of those under study. Findings suggest that cognitive approaches to understanding dyscalculia are neither in agreement, nor above scrutiny, and that social factors, co-morbid conditions and pedagogical approaches to mathematics instruction play a role in the emergence and remediation of dyscalculia. Ultimately, dyscalculia is explicated as a multidimensional phenomenon that raises important questions about how learning differences are approached and understood in educational research and practice

Chinese elements : a bridge of the integration between Chinese -English translation and linguaculture transnational mobility

[Abstract] As the popularity of Chinese elements in the innovation of the translation part in Chinese CET, we realized that Chinese elements have become a bridge between linguaculture transnational mobility and Chinese-English translation.So, Chinese students translation skills should be critically improved; for example, on their understanding about Chinese culture, especially the meaning of Chinese culture. Five important secrets of skillful translation are introduced to improve students’ translation skills

Playing with Matches: Matchmaking as Authorship in the Nineteenth-Century Marriage Plot

This dissertation examines the narrative treatment of matchmakers in British marriage plots across the nineteenth century. In an era of increasing state control over marriage and the rising ideology of romantic marriage, the matchmaker represents the communal courtship practices of the past. As such, she offers both a threat to the emerging status quo and a reminder of the persistence of superseded cultural forms in the modern marriage system. Simultaneously, she constitutes an image of female creativity and authority that speaks to concerns about the professionalization of novel-writing and the place of women writers within that profession. Through this focus on the neglected figure of the matchmaker, this dissertation reveals the essential resonances between these attempts to construct marital philosophies and the professional authorship of the marriage plots that espouse them. In the fiction of Jane Austen, Harriet Martineau, Anthony Trollope, and Henry James, matchmakers point to the competing doctrines of romantic fulfillment, personal liberty, domestic womanhood, and authorial prestige at play in the most prevalent genre of the Victorian era, the marriage plot

Beyond Able-Minded Citizenship: Embracing Intellectual Ability Differences in Democratic Education

Within philosophical literature on democratic education, philosophers of education embrace the existence of cultural, religious, racial, gender, and other social differences as important to a thriving democracy. However, they frequently ignore or marginalize the potential significance of ability differences, especially those associated with intellect and reasoning ability. In fact, prevailing understandings of civic engagement within political philosophy, social and educational policy, and institutional practice conform to norms of development, behavior, and civic contribution that assume the presence of able-bodied and able-minded individuals. There is therefore an unchallenged assumption that those who experience significant difficulties in reasoning are unable to perform the tasks of citizenship. My dissertation investigates and challenges this assumption. I consider how the recognition of existent intellectual ability differences alters our philosophical theorizing about democratic education and suggests the need for alternative frameworks of democratic participation and the education that supports it. I propose that individuals\u27 existent variability in intellectual processing, communicative modes, and behavior should guide our reasoning about what is required for civic participation. My view places demands on educational policy, schooling practices, and teacher education to re-examine curricula, teaching practice, school-community partnerships and, importantly, ideas about how civic knowledge is acquired and put into practice in light of varying abilities. Answering the question of whether individuals with intellectual disabilities are owed an education that prepares them to participate in democratic citizenship not only concerns the extent to which we embrace differences of ability within education in general, but also hinges on whether a just society can be one that does not enable the civic contribution of those with significant disabilities

Accounting for intimacy troubles:: Sociological analysis and vernacular discourse.

Intimate relations are one of the most analysed aspects of human experience, and sociological interest in this topic has been sustained throughout the history of the discipline. This thesis begins with an analysis of existing sociological claims about intimate relations. It is suggested that these theoretical claims have largely coalesced around the issues of (a) the 'essential basis' of intimacy, and / or (b) the social and historical contexts in which such relationships are enacted. In contradistinction to academic psychology, sociological accounts have typically afforded intimacy troubles a supra-personal quality i.e. as arising from either the contradictory or dualistic nature of intimacy itself, or as a consequence of wider structural changes in specific social and historical locations. However, in making these theoretical claims, sociologists have typically muted or transformed vernacular voices. This study has attempted to identify and analyse a series of vernacular accounts of such intimacy troubles by means of a hybrid of ‘normal science' methodology (Lynch; 1993), and discourse analysis (Potter and Wetherell, 1987; Edwards and Potter, 1992). The data for this analysis comprises instances of Internet communications made over a three-year period within one 'on-line community' (www.divorce-online.co.uk). Three overarching, and highly integrated themes pervaded the exchanges on this Internet site: (a) 'reputation work', (b) the construction of ‘heroic' identities, and (c) a concern with 'moral proceduralism'. It is suggested that these findings carry differentiating and therapeutic implications for existing sociologies of intimacy troubles. The thesis concludes by advocating a turn away from the familiar sociological tendency for abstract theorising in favour of the close analysis of lay accounting for these matters

Narrating Political Disability Identity

This dissertation documented the political disability identities of nine disabled adults. It also explored how these disabled adults enacted their political disability identities. I used narrative analysis to analyze the data, which included life history interviews and the authoring of memoirs. From these memoirs, the participants (Narrators) and I selected critical moments in the formation of the political disability identities. The findings show Narrators shifted or shaped their political identities when strangers pushed them beyond their personal limits by spouting ableist norms. Narrators also developed their political disability identities when they had access to political discourse and the relative freedom of postsecondary education. Other Narrators developed their political identities when they experienced significant changes in their lives, which included freedom from abuse and interacting with underserved disabled students. The Narrators enacted their political disability identities in various ways. Some Narrators were advocates for the elimination of ableism and during their struggles with it, showed that they also reinforced ableist norms. Some Narrators had been oppressed for so long that they first developed a new ethic of care for themselves and then worked to help other disabled people implement a similar way of life that was dignified, equitable, and without shame. Finally, Narrators selected careers where they could simultaneously sustain themselves and fight against ableism. This dissertation shows the political disability identity contextualized in the Narrators’ lives, because isolating a component of identity both skews the findings and removes the necessary human aspects, which are unpredictable and complex. This research and additional research of the personal and cultural components of disability identity sheds a new light on our current understanding of the disability identity as a whole