Affect-LM: A Neural Language Model for Customizable Affective Text Generation

Human verbal communication includes affective messages which are conveyed through use of emotionally colored words. There has been a lot of research in this direction but the problem of integrating state-of-the-art neural language models with affective information remains an area ripe for exploration. In this paper, we propose an extension to an LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory) language model for generating conversational text, conditioned on affect categories. Our proposed model, Affect-LM enables us to customize the degree of emotional content in generated sentences through an additional design parameter. Perception studies conducted using Amazon Mechanical Turk show that Affect-LM generates naturally looking emotional sentences without sacrificing grammatical correctness. Affect-LM also learns affect-discriminative word representations, and perplexity experiments show that additional affective information in conversational text can improve language model prediction

Separating pseudo-telepathy games and two-local theories

We give an $\dfrac{1}{54}$ separation between 5-party pseudo-telepathy games and two-local theories. We define the notion of strategy in a k-local theory for a game, and extend the method of Chao and Reichardt. We also study variation of the game to minimize the classical winning probability

Réception d’un manuel scolaire d’histoire innovant : le cas de « Construire l’Histoire ». Étude de la motivation des enseignants d’histoire en Belgique francophone et au Grand-Duché de Luxembourg

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Comparison between five stochastic global search algorithms for optimizing thermoelectric generator designs

In this study, the best settings of five heuristics are determined for solving a mixed-integer non-linear multi-objective optimization problem. The algorithms treated in the article are: ant colony optimization, genetic algorithm, particle swarm optimization, differential evolution, and teaching-learning basic algorithm. The optimization problem consists in optimizing the design of a thermoelectric device, based on a model available in literature. Results showed that the inner settings can have different effects on the algorithm performance criteria depending on the algorithm. A formulation based on the weighted sum method is introduced for solving the multiobjective optimization problem with optimal settings. It was found that the five heuristic algorithms have comparable performances. Differential evolution generated the highest number of non-dominated solutions in comparison with the other algorithms

Optimization of geothermal power plant design for evolving operating conditions

The main goal of this work is to determine optimal geothermal power plant designs by taking into account the transient evolution of the plant/reservoir system. To do so, a geothermal reservoir model is developed, where the permeability of the ground is represented by a series of parallel pipes inside which the underground water can flow. The reservoir model is coupled to an evolving Organic Ranking Cycle (ORC), where the pressure at the condenser adapts to the conditions in the geothermal reservoir (temperature of the brine and mass flow rate) based on the Stodola equation. The system is then optimized in order to maximize the total energy output of the power plant over its lifetime. A series of parametric analyses was performed for relevant design parameters (e.g., overall conductance of the heat exchanger at the evaporator, turbine sizes, number of years of operation, etc.), while other parameters were optimized, namely the working fluid to geofluid mass flow rate ratio, the pressure at the evaporator, and the geofluid mass flow rate. The optimal values that were found were values that yielded viable cycles over the entire exploitation period of the plant and that did not deplete the thermal reservoir prior to the end of the plant lifetime. ORC cycles that were optimized by considering the time evolution of the system were then compared against cycles optimized under the assumption of constant geothermal reservoir properties. It was also demonstrated that by allowing key design parameters to change over the course of the exploitation of the plant, it was possible to further increase the plant performance

Stability and instability results for standing waves of a quasilinear Schrodinger equations

International audienceWe study a class of quasi-linear Schrödinger equations arising in the theory of superfluid film in plasma physics. Using gauge transforms and a derivation process we solve, under some regularity assumptions, the Cauchy problem. Then, by means of variational methods, we study the existence, the orbital stability and instability of standing waves which minimize some associated energy