Data-Driven Policy Optimisation for Multi-Domain Task-Oriented Dialogue

Recent developments in machine learning along with a general shift in the public attitude towards digital personal assistants has opened new frontiers for conversational systems. Nevertheless, building data-driven multi-domain conversational agents that act optimally given a dialogue context is an open challenge. The first step towards that goal is developing an efficient way of learning a dialogue policy in new domains. Secondly, it is important to have the ability to collect and utilise human-human conversational data to bootstrap an agent's knowledge. The work presented in this thesis demonstrates how a neural dialogue manager fine-tuned with reinforcement learning presents a viable approach for learning a dialogue policy efficiently and across many domains. The thesis starts by introducing a dialogue management module that learns through interactions to act optimally given a current context of a conversation. The current shift towards neural, parameter-rich systems does not fully address the problem of error noise coming from speech recognition or natural language understanding components. A Bayesian approach is therefore proposed to learn more robust and effective policy management in direct interactions without any prior data. By putting a distribution over model weights, the learning agent is less prone to overfit to particular dialogue realizations and a more efficient exploration policy can be therefore employed. The results show that deep reinforcement learning performs on par with non-parametric models even in a low data regime while significantly reducing the computational complexity compared with the previous state-of-the-art. The deployment of a dialogue manager without any pre-training on human conversations is not a viable option from an industry perspective. However, the progress in building statistical systems, particularly dialogue managers, is hindered by the scale of data available. To address this fundamental obstacle, a novel data-collection pipeline entirely based on crowdsourcing without the need for hiring professional annotators is introduced. The validation of the approach results in the collection of the Multi-Domain Wizard-of-Oz dataset (MultiWOZ), a fully labeled collection of human-human written conversations spanning over multiple domains and topics. The proposed dataset creates a set of new benchmarks (belief tracking, policy optimisation, and response generation) significantly raising the complexity of analysed dialogues. The collected dataset serves as a foundation for a novel reinforcement learning (RL)-based approach for training a multi-domain dialogue manager. A Multi-Action and Slot Dialogue Agent (MASDA) is proposed to combat some limitations: 1) handling complex multi-domain dialogues with multiple concurrent actions present in a single turn; and 2) lack of interpretability, which consequently impedes the use of intermediate signals (e.g., dialogue turn annotations) if such signals are available. MASDA explicitly models system acts and slots using intermediate signals, resulting in an improved task-based end-to-end framework. The model can also select concurrent actions in a single turn, thus enriching the representation of the generated responses. The proposed framework allows for RL training of dialogue task completion metrics when dealing with concurrent actions. The results demonstrate the advantages of both 1) handling concurrent actions and 2) exploiting intermediate signals: MASDA outperforms previous end-to-end frameworks while also offering improved scalability.EPSR

Artistic practice-based/autoethnographic exploration into the issues of belongings, identity, loss, and trauma through photography: the Yugoslav case

This PhD thesis addresses the issues surrounding the Yugoslav Civil war by offering my personal narrative in relation to loss and disappearance resulting from the exposure to war and sanctions in the nineties and the "Merciful Angel" bombing operation of Serbia by NATO in 1999. It thus focuses on the female interpretation of people, ways of life, buildings and human artefacts belonging to the historical period of communist Yugoslavia which once were, yet no longer remain. The research tackles different issues concerning life during Yugoslavia and the subsequent reestablishment of patriarchal values which occurred at the start of Yugoslav Civil war and conflicts that marked it. Photographic practice-based research allows an insight into individual stories which form a deeper understanding of the pre- and post- war Yugoslav society and the political circumstances surrounding it. The usage of photography as a vehicle for meaning making, allows an insight into the lives of people during communism through the lens of my closest family members. The work with archives, especially the photographs which originate from my personal family possession, brings closer these ghosts of the past times to the present moment. Microscope photography, as an element of practice-based research, offers a unique contribution by conveying my emotional response to what Yugoslavia represents in my experience. Furthermore, photography as a visual narrative is a means to investigate the society during and after the period of Yugoslavia. Autoethnography and site writing, as research methods combined with personal narrative, are also employed to allow a deeper understanding of culture and values of Yugoslav society and their subsequent clash. In addition, this research celebrates the importance of female voice and activism in the constant battle against patriarchy by acknowledging responsibility and patriarchal nature of war

Reframing the photograph: confronting the Nazi past through artistic performance strategies since the 1960s

Working in a period when the western modernist focus on the originality of the artist, painterly form and composition had given way to more post Duchampian practices such as reappropriation, performance and the role of the spectator in creating artistic meaning, this paper will focus on works by Gerhard Richter, Anselm Kiefer and Gustav Metzger. This paper will evaluate how these artists perform the photograph in three divergent yet distinctly post-Duchampian ways in order to articulate challenging artistic languages which provoke confrontations with the Nazi past

Investigating song-based language teaching and its effect on lexical learning

The present thesis addresses the following question: Can popular songs as they are currently used in second and foreign language classrooms benefit lexical learning? Lexical learning is defined as the acquisition of new vocabulary as well as the consolidation and further elaboration of familiar words and phrases. To answer this research question, three methodologically distinct studies are reported. In the first study an international questionnaire explored teacher cognitions as well as actual teaching practices involving songs. The responses of 568 informants in 41 countries indicate that a majority of respondents believe in the usefulness of songs for language learning and that many respondents utilize songs in class for clearly defined pedagogical purposes, including vocabulary learning. The questionnaire also elicited information from the respondents about the way they incorporate songs in lessons, including details about how often a song is played and what types of form- and meaning-focused activities are used to engage learners with the lyrics of a song. The second study investigated the lexical characteristics of teacher-selected songs and the vocabulary learning opportunities they afford. For this purpose, a corpus of 635 songs used for ESL/EFL purposes, comprising 177,384 tokens, was compiled and analysed. Results indicate that teacher-selected songs are short, repetitive and relatively undemanding as far as lexis is concerned compared to other authentic text genres. Knowledge of the 4000 most frequent word families of English provides 98% coverage of the running words in this song corpus. Little difference was found in terms of the overall vocabulary demands between songs intended for use with beginners, intermediate and advanced learners. The third study investigates whether participating in a song-based lesson results in higher verbatim text retention compared to a lesson based on a poem or a prose text. For the sake of ecological validity, the procedures and the materials used in the classroom intervention study were informed by the findings of the teacher questionnaire (study one) and the song corpus analysis (study two). Results indicate that a song-based language lesson but also a poem-based lesson result in significantly higher recognition and cued recall of verbatim text than a lesson based on a prose text. In response to the overall question, this thesis provides evidence that songs as they currently tend to be used by language teachers around the world indeed benefit certain aspects of lexical learning, perhaps in particular the entrenchment in memory of already (half-)familiar words in association with their phraseological patterning. It is argued that, while certain structural characteristics of songs (and poems) have the potential of rendering text (and the lexis therein) memorable, it is the way that songs tend to be exploited in the classroom that capitalizes on this mnemonic potential

HUBUNGAN ANTARA SUARA BATIN (INNER VOICE) NEGATIF DAN PENERIMAAN DIRI PADA WARIA DI KOTA MAKASSAR

HUBUNGAN ANTARA SUARA BATIN (INNER VOICE) NEGATIF DAN PENERIMAAN DIRI PADA WARIA DI KOTA MAKASSAR Vitha Melzy Desius ([email protected]) Eva Meizara Puspita Dewi ([email protected]) Farradillah Firdaus ([email protected]) Fakultas Psikologi, Universitas Negeri Makassar Jl. AP Pettarani Makassar, 90222 ABSTRAK Suara batin (inner voice) negatif yang hadir dalam batin seorang waria akan selalu menentang keputusannya dalam mempertahankan keinginan dan naluriah nya sebagai perempuan. penelitian ini bertujuan mengetahui hubungan antara penerimaan diri suara batin (inner voice) waria. Subjek pada penelitian ini berjumlah 50 orang waria yang tinggal di kota Makassar. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah metode kuantitatif dan menggunakan teknik analisis korelasi Spearman-rank. Dari hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa penerimaan diri subjek pada penelitian ini tergolong tinggi sedangkan suara batin (inner voice) negatif tergolong rendah. Nilai korelasi negatif sebesar -0,435 dan nilai signifikansi sebesar 0,01 < 0,05, sehingga uji hipotesis menunjukkan bahwa ada hubungan negatif signifikan antara penerimaan diri dengan suara batin (inner voice) negatif pada waria dikota Makassar. Kata kunci : penerimaan diri, Suara batin (inner voice) negatif

Film policy and the emergence of the cross-cultural: exploring crossover cinema in Flanders (Belgium)

With several films taking on a cross-cultural character, a certain ‘crossover trend’ may be observed within the recent upswing of Flemish cinema (a subdivision of Belgian cinema). This trend is characterized by two major strands: first, migrant and diasporic filmmakers finally seem to be emerging, and second, several filmmakers tend to cross the globe to make their films, hereby minimizing links with Flemish indigenous culture. While paying special attention to the crucial role of film policy in this context, this contribution further investigates the crossover trend by focusing on Turquaze (2010, Kadir Balci) and Altiplano (2009, Peter Brosens & Jessica Woodworth)

Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference Formal Approaches to South Slavic and Balkan languages

Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference Formal Approaches to South Slavic and Balkan Languages publishes 17 papers that were presented at the conference organised in Dubrovnik, Croatia, 4-6 Octobre 2010

An analysis of war trauma and refugee distress among Bosnian Muslim women : exploring social and personal healing in the aftermath

This study is a narrative examination of the healing process in the aftermath of war trauma for nineteen Bosnian Muslim refugee women. Epistemologically informed by Feminist Standpoint Theory, a mixed methods approach of Grounded Theory, Narrative Analysis and Relational Voice Theory was used to show how recovery from multiple war trauma/violence has occurred only partially. By synthesizing theories of place identity, gender roles, and meaning making systems, the difficulties women face to integrate war and refugee experiences into social understanding is examined. Individuals in the study identified themselves as Bosnian women – culturally, nationally, ethnically, and religiously. Not only did war threaten those identifications, in some aspects, it fundamentally altered them. This paper argues that when the women were alienated from place attachments, their history and narratives were disrupted. They were dislocated from a literal space called “home” and they lost a sense of existential belonging and identity. Second, findings explicate how war and forced removals impacted familial and communal relationships. Women experienced relational losses through death and separation; they also lost the anchoring of their social identities. In exile, role expectations and demands radically shifted. Finally, narrative analysis demonstrates how traumatic events created an internal disorientation. Centralizing ethno-religious beliefs were shattered, leaving refugee women to face a crisis of meaning. Taken together, these findings elucidate how the radical discordance between pre/post-war place identification, role continuity, and cultural/religious belief systems is problematic and has made it difficult for Bosnian Muslim refugee women in the study to heal or to fully recover in the aftermath of war