Deep Dialog Act Recognition using Multiple Token, Segment, and Context Information Representations

Dialog act (DA) recognition is a task that has been widely explored over the years. Recently, most approaches to the task explored different DNN architectures to combine the representations of the words in a segment and generate a segment representation that provides cues for intention. In this study, we explore means to generate more informative segment representations, not only by exploring different network architectures, but also by considering different token representations, not only at the word level, but also at the character and functional levels. At the word level, in addition to the commonly used uncontextualized embeddings, we explore the use of contextualized representations, which provide information concerning word sense and segment structure. Character-level tokenization is important to capture intention-related morphological aspects that cannot be captured at the word level. Finally, the functional level provides an abstraction from words, which shifts the focus to the structure of the segment. We also explore approaches to enrich the segment representation with context information from the history of the dialog, both in terms of the classifications of the surrounding segments and the turn-taking history. This kind of information has already been proved important for the disambiguation of DAs in previous studies. Nevertheless, we are able to capture additional information by considering a summary of the dialog history and a wider turn-taking context. By combining the best approaches at each step, we achieve results that surpass the previous state-of-the-art on generic DA recognition on both SwDA and MRDA, two of the most widely explored corpora for the task. Furthermore, by considering both past and future context, simulating annotation scenario, our approach achieves a performance similar to that of a human annotator on SwDA and surpasses it on MRDA.Comment: 38 pages, 7 figures, 9 tables, submitted to JAI

On the verge of a new relationship between man and artificial learning machines?

We are now living an exciting time in which astonishing results coming from the A.I. field trigger the usualexpectations and fears about intelligent man-machinerelationship. Some believe that the basic ingredientsfor the artificial general intelligence are already hereand, in their opinion, it is just a matter of putting it alltogether. It seems that we do not have to programcomputers anymore; they will program themselves.Should this statement frighten us?Our position is both of recognizing the big potentialities of new A.I. developments and, simultaneously,to warn against yet another overselling and possiblydamaging stage in the A.I. field.We advocate that, intelligent systems, relying inevolving machine learning algorithms, fully autonomoussoftware agents or robots, should always follow the"human in the loop" principle, ensuring that theresponsibility for all future intelligent entity activitiescan be traced back to some recognized and accountableindividuals or organizations

Foreword

[Excerpt] Predicting air pollution dispersion in a region is a paramount topic usually integrated in Air Pollution Control Engineering courses. As a former professor of a similar course at the University of Minho, I have shared this interest with the author of this book. Romualdo Salcedo, Professor at the University of Porto, has preceded me as an invited teacher of the Biological Engineering undergraduate programme at UMinho and enthusiastically introduced me to several aspects of Air Pollution Control Engineering (and optimization) with the emphasis on Air Pollution Modeling (APM). The teaching of air dispersion modelling has changed significantly in recent years, in large part due to new regulations and the availability of dedicated software tools. This book intends to serve as a reference to follow-up on a better comprehension of air pollution modeling with the aid of hands-on user-friendly software, highlighting the main advantages (but also disadvantages) of using Gaussian dispersion as the main drive to teach this subject. Throughout the book, author Romualdo Salcedo guides readers with an interactive multisource dispersion estimation tool, helping them understand how air dispersion models work. [...]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Women as victims and perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Maputo City, Mozambique : occurence, nature and effects

Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) against women is a widespread bad behavior, and its effects on women’s lives encompass injuries, mental ill-health, decreased intimacy, and a financial burden. Growing evidence indicates that women also abuse their intimate male partners. The role of controlling behaviors in IPV remains controversial, but data, mainly from Western countries, indicate that both women and men use them. The situation (e.g., health condition) of women who have been victims or perpetrators of IPV indicates that they may fare poorly in various areas (e.g., have poorer mental health). The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate women’s experiences of IPV as both victims and perpetrators, the associated risk and protective factors, and the effects (including poor mental health). Methods: Data were collected between April 1, 2007 and March 31, 2008. They consist in consecutive cases of 1,442 women aged 15-49 years-old visiting Forensic Services at the Maputo Central Hospital (Maputo City, Mozambique) after IPV abuse. Interviews were conducted by trained female interviewers, and the data collected included demographic and life style factors, and previously validated in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTC2) scores, Controlling Behavior Scale Revised (CBS-R) scores, and Symptoms Check List (SCL-90-R) scores. Further, Schedule for Social Interaction scores which had not been validated in SSA . Statistical analyses included chi-square tests, and applications of bivariate and multivariate techniques. Results: Study I: Overall experienced IPV during the past 12 months was 70.2% and chronicity was 85.8 times; 55.3% were severe acts of violence. Co-occurring victimization across all types was 26.8%. Having a middle/high educational level, divorce/separation, children at home, controlling behaviors, being a perpetrator oneself with co-occurring victimization, and childhood abuse were important factors in explaining sustained IPV. Study II: Overall inflicted IPV during the past 12 months was 69.4% and chronicity was 44.8 times; 48.9% were severe acts of violence. Co-occurring perpetration of IPV across all types was 14.5%. Having a middle/high educational level and a liberal profession/own business, divorce/separation, children at home, and high BMI, smoking, controlling behaviors (in particular, over one’s partner), co-occurring perpetration, being a victim oneself, and abuse as a child were important factors in explaining the inflicting of IPV. Study III: During the 12 past months, the numbers of women and men who had directed any kind of physical assault at their partner were similar, but there was divergence concerning the use of an act of sexual coercion. The most common type of relationship was non-violent, followed by situational couple violence (SCV). Childhood abuse was associated with mutual violent control (MVC).Study IV: Victims and perpetrators of IPV by type (psychological aggression, physical assault, sexual coercion, and physical assault with injury) scored higher on symptoms of depression, anxiety and somatization than their unaffected counterparts during the previous 12 months. Controlling behaviors, mental health comorbidity, childhood abuse, social support, smoking, sleep difficulties, age and lack of education were important factors in explaining mental health problems in women who were both victims and perpetrators of IPV across all types. Victimization and perpetration were not associated with poor mental health across all types of IPV. Conclusions: The thesis demonstrates that women seeking help for IPV abuse are widely victimized, but they also use violence against their male partners. In both cases, the rate of severe IPV and the chronicity level are high. The most violent relationship involves situational couple violence, but mutual coercive violence and intimate terrorism are fairly common. Victims and perpetrators report greater symptoms of mental health. The factors related to the different dimensions of symptoms of mental health are in general similar. Overall, the situation of help-seeking women is a source of great concern for many groups, e.g., care providers, since their suffering is extensive and deep, ranging from complex IPV experiences as victims and perpetrators to greater symptoms of mental health. This thesis may have important implications for the development of interventions to decrease sustained and inflicted IPV in Mozambique and to prevent its associated outcomes, e.g., mental ill-health

Application of image analysis techniques in environmental biotechnology

IV Curso Internacional de Biotecnologia Industrial Tópicos de Biotecnologia Ambientalinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio