Data-efficient methods for dialogue systems

Conversational User Interface (CUI) has become ubiquitous in everyday life, in consumer-focused products like Siri and Alexa or more business-oriented customer support automation solutions. Deep learning underlies many recent breakthroughs in dialogue systems but requires very large amounts of training data, often annotated by experts — and this dramatically increases the cost of deploying such systems in production setups and reduces their flexibility as software products. Trained with smaller data, these methods end up severely lacking robustness to various phenomena of spoken language (e.g. disfluencies), out-of-domain input, and often just have too little generalisation power to other tasks and domains. In this thesis, we address the above issues by introducing a series of methods for bootstrapping robust dialogue systems from minimal data. Firstly, we study two orthogonal approaches to dialogue: a linguistically informed model (DyLan) and a machine learning-based one (MemN2N) — from the data efficiency perspective, i.e. their potential to generalise from minimal data and robustness to natural spontaneous input. We outline the steps to obtain data-efficient solutions with either approach and proceed with the neural models for the rest of the thesis. We then introduce the core contributions of this thesis, two data-efficient models for dialogue response generation: the Dialogue Knowledge Transfer Network (DiKTNet) based on transferable latent dialogue representations, and the Generative-Retrieval Transformer (GRTr) combining response generation logic with a retrieval mechanism as the fallback. GRTr ranked first at the Dialog System Technology Challenge 8 Fast Domain Adaptation task. Next, we the problem of training robust neural models from minimal data. As such, we look at robustness to disfluencies and propose a multitask LSTM-based model for domain-general disfluency detection. We then go on to explore robustness to anomalous, or out-of-domain (OOD) input. We address this problem by (1) presenting Turn Dropout, a data-augmentation technique facilitating training for anomalous input only using in-domain data, and (2) introducing VHCN and AE-HCN, autoencoder-augmented models for efficient training with turn dropout based on the Hybrid Code Networks (HCN) model family. With all the above work addressing goal-oriented dialogue, our final contribution in this thesis focuses on social dialogue where the main objective is maintaining natural, coherent, and engaging conversation for as long as possible. We introduce a neural model for response ranking in social conversation used in Alana, the 3rd place winner in the Amazon Alexa Prize 2017 and 2018. For our model, we employ a novel technique of predicting the dialogue length as the main objective for ranking. We show that this approach matches the performance of its counterpart based on the conventional, human rating-based objective — and surpasses it given more raw dialogue transcripts, thus reducing the dependence on costly and cumbersome dialogue annotations.EPSRC project BABBLE (grant EP/M01553X/1)

Provoking Consciousness: Towards a Bioregional Understanding of Local Character: Urbanisation of the Fringe at Willunga Basin, South Australia

In 2010, a team of local government stakeholders set out to prepare a bid for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) World Heritage Site recognition and conservation of the distinctive settler-colonial agrarian landscape of the Mount Lofty Ranges, which bound the urban hinterland of Adelaide, South Australia. In the context of that ongoing bid process and global concern over loss of precious foodgrowing regions to urban development, this thesis focuses on the rural–urban development contest in the Willunga Basin, a key subregion of the proposed World Heritage Site. With particular reference to the question of ‘local character’ at the urban fringe, the study investigates the mechanisms at play in the Basin in maintaining a resilient dialogue between urban and rural development priorities. Exploring the proposition that distinctive cultural landscapes such as the Willunga Basin could be described, alternatively, as exemplary ‘bioregions’, the study applies crucial principles of bioregional planning as a theoretical framework through which local knowledge of the land together with the intangible goals of ‘living-in-place’, ‘land ethics’ and ‘place attachment’ may be engaged as analytical approaches to understand the nature and significance of ‘local character’ in the built environment. The Willunga Basin community is eager to protect and enhance this putative ‘bioregion’ and to protect the qualities that are central to the UNESCO bid—a working agrarian landscape, a distinctive cultural landscape, and a site of natural beauty with high value placed on local character and compatible urban development and architectural projects. However, this has not been an easy process. Development policies established in the 1960s highlighted the ‘local character’ of the region while seeking to protect townships within the Willunga Basin from urban sprawl. However, these policies also precipitated the urban expansion of the coastal township of nearby Aldinga, dividing the Basin into two regions and ultimately bringing the rural– urban conflict to a head at the boundaries of that division. By closely studying the elements of this conflict, this research identifies a gap between the aims and principles of such planning policies and development approval processes in practice. Taking a multidisciplinary approach—grounded in architectural and urban planning research, but drawing on the tools of ethnological and social inquiry, as well as historical and correlational research—the primary research consists of in-depth case studies of recent development proposals and the controversies raised. The six cases examined encompass a range of different development situations, types and outcomes—from housing layouts and streetscapes to retail outlets and a multi-storeyed building proposal—to explore the various policy issues and community voices raised in the public consultation process. The findings reveal multiple points of failure in practice, including lack of effective reference points of what contributes to local character; the production of sub-standard everyday architecture, resulting from a mismatch between development policy and the practice of development approvals; ineffectual and often tokenistic community consultation; and poor engagement between the local community and mostly passive developers with little contextual knowledge. The study indicates how a bioregional understanding of a cultural landscape, and the potential for sustainable development within it, underscores the particular significance of ‘local character’ in such contexts, and of a ‘conscious community’ prepared to engage in the challenge of interpreting it. By improving the process of identifying and retaining local character through meaningful dialogues between all stakeholders—local communities, developers and approving authorities—the study concludes that a sustainable balance between urban and rural/regional development is possible.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, 202

A Systematic Approach to Design of Distance Graduate Management Programmes

This study describes the systematic creation, application and evaluation of acomprehensive framework for the design of distance graduate programmes, the goal of which is to inform decision-making for sustainable curricula that suit the growing demand for flexible learning options. A wide range of challenges face educators, and existing models appear to be insufficient to guide such endeavours. Successful distance learning is rooted in the values of the institution and requires a significant amount of organizational support, needs assessment of stakeholders, strategic planning, implementation and evaluation. This first international study of distance masters degree programmes in Tourism and Hospitality Management (T&HM) employs an exploratory mixed method research design in a comprehensive investigation of the interrelated elements that contextualize and are part of the distance graduate curriculum. Director interviews and online surveys of alumni contribute insights into the graduate distance learning experience. A short case study within an Irish higher education institution pilots the draft framework; triangulating data by adding the perspective of traditionalinstructors transitioning into a blended learning format. This study provides a robust curriculum model linking new findings and rich eclectic sources that can assist distance programme planners in the selection of technologyenhancedapproaches to meet the unique needs and interests of learners whilebalancing change. Extending the academic plan of Stark and Lattuca (1997, 2009), this timely study offers a design framework to formatively stimulate quality interaction, foster high-level thinking and motivate both learners and instructors in a student-centred paradigm. Holistic design, not technology alone, opens the way to enhancing flexibility and programme competitiveness and resilience in a borderless academic community

Abstracts on Radio Direction Finding (1899 - 1995)

The files on this record represent the various databases that originally composed the CD-ROM issue of "Abstracts on Radio Direction Finding" database, which is now part of the Dudley Knox Library's Abstracts and Selected Full Text Documents on Radio Direction Finding (1899 - 1995) Collection. (See Calhoun record https://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10945/57364 for further information on this collection and the bibliography). Due to issues of technological obsolescence preventing current and future audiences from accessing the bibliography, DKL exported and converted into the three files on this record the various databases contained in the CD-ROM. The contents of these files are: 1) RDFA_CompleteBibliography_xls.zip [RDFA_CompleteBibliography.xls: Metadata for the complete bibliography, in Excel 97-2003 Workbook format; RDFA_Glossary.xls: Glossary of terms, in Excel 97-2003 Workbookformat; RDFA_Biographies.xls: Biographies of leading figures, in Excel 97-2003 Workbook format]; 2) RDFA_CompleteBibliography_csv.zip [RDFA_CompleteBibliography.TXT: Metadata for the complete bibliography, in CSV format; RDFA_Glossary.TXT: Glossary of terms, in CSV format; RDFA_Biographies.TXT: Biographies of leading figures, in CSV format]; 3) RDFA_CompleteBibliography.pdf: A human readable display of the bibliographic data, as a means of double-checking any possible deviations due to conversion

Proceedings of the WABER 2017 Conference

The scientific information published in peer-reviewed outlets carries special status, and confers unique responsibilities on editors and authors. We must protect the integrity of the scientific process by publishing only manuscripts that have been properly peer-reviewed by scientific reviewers and confirmed by editors to be of sufficient quality. I confirm that all papers in the WABER 2017 Conference Proceedings have been through a peer review process involving initial screening of abstracts, review of full papers by at least two referees, reporting of comments to authors, revision of papers by authors, and reevaluation of re-submitted papers to ensure quality of content. It is the policy of the West Africa Built Environment Research (WABER) Conference that all papers must go through a systematic peer review process involving examination by at least two referees who are knowledgeable on the subject. A paper is only accepted for publication in the conference proceedings based on the recommendation of the reviewers and decision of the editors. The names and affiliation of members of the Scientific Committee & Review Panel for WABER 2017 Conference are published in the Conference Proceedings and on our website www.waberconference.com Papers in the WABER Conference Proceedings are published open access on the conference website www.waberconference.com to facilitate public access to the research papers and wider dissemination of the scientific knowledge

2013, UMaine News Press Releases

This is a catalog of press releases put out by the University of Maine Division of Marketing and Communications between January 2, 2013 and December 31, 2013