Empowering Active Learning to Jointly Optimize System and User Demands

Existing approaches to active learning maximize the system performance by sampling unlabeled instances for annotation that yield the most efficient training. However, when active learning is integrated with an end-user application, this can lead to frustration for participating users, as they spend time labeling instances that they would not otherwise be interested in reading. In this paper, we propose a new active learning approach that jointly optimizes the seemingly counteracting objectives of the active learning system (training efficiently) and the user (receiving useful instances). We study our approach in an educational application, which particularly benefits from this technique as the system needs to rapidly learn to predict the appropriateness of an exercise to a particular user, while the users should receive only exercises that match their skills. We evaluate multiple learning strategies and user types with data from real users and find that our joint approach better satisfies both objectives when alternative methods lead to many unsuitable exercises for end users.Comment: To appear as a long paper in Proceedings of the 58th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL 2020). Download our code and simulated user models at github: https://github.com/UKPLab/acl2020-empowering-active-learnin

Role of electrostatics in the texture of islands in free standing ferroelectric liquid crystal films

Curved textures of ferroelectric smectic C* liquid crystals produce space charge when they involve divergence of the spontaneous polarization field. Impurity ions can partially screen this space charge, reducing long range interactions to local ones. Through studies of the textures of islands on very thin free-standing smectic films, we see evidence of this effect, in which materials with a large spontaneous polarization have static structures described by a large effective bend elastic constant. To address this issue, we calculated the electrostatic free energy of a free standing film of ferroelectric liquid crystal, showing how the screened coulomb interaction contributes a term to the effective bend elastic constant, in the static long wavelength limit. We report experiments which support the main features of this model

UNDERSTANDING THE MARKET FOR HOLSTEIN STEERS

A semi-structured interview process was combined with an econometric analysis to document the newly changed structure of the Holstein sector, to evaluate existing quality perceptions, and to assess the impact that recent changes in production practices have had on prices of Holstein steers. Results suggest that finished Holstein steer prices are driven by many of the same market factors as native steers, overturning some common quality misconceptions. The shift towards the calf-fed production model appears to have greatly affected the market for backgrounded Holstein steers, but had little impact on the prices for light Holstein feeder steers.Livestock Production/Industries, Marketing,

Understanding the Market for Holstein Steers

A semi-structured interview process was combined with an econometric analysis to document the newly changed structure of the Holstein sector, to evaluate existing quality perceptions, and to assess the impact that recent changes in production practices have had on prices of Holstein steers. Results suggest that finished Holstein steer prices are driven by many of the same market factors as native steers, overturning some common quality misconceptions. The shift towards the calf-fed production model appears to have greatly affected the market for backgrounded Holstein steers, but had little impact on the prices for light Holstein feeder steers.Marketing,

Market Potential for Locally Produced Meat Products

The goal of this research was to guide livestock producers in marketing, product design and pricing decisions. Tools included a focus group, a consumer taste-testing and willingness-to-pay survey, and a restaurant survey. Experience attributes of locally produced ground beef were especially competitive, and demand for credence attributes packaged under the "local" label appears consistent with a niche market that could justify verification programs. Restaurants are a potentially receptive outlet for local meats, allowing producers to avoid the barriers to entry in mainstream grocery outlets.Agribusiness,

Quantum entanglement, indistinguishability, and the absent-minded driver's problem

The absent-minded driver's problem illustrates that probabilistic strategies can give higher pay-offs than deterministic ones. We show that there are strategies using quantum entangled states that give even higher pay-offs, both for the original problem and for the generalized version with an arbitrary number of intersections and any possible set of pay-offs.Comment: LaTeX, 12 pages, 3 figure

Phenotypic and genetic evaluation of stillbirths in United States Holsteins

Stillbirths, death of a calf within 48 h of parturition, create great economic losses to the dairy industry. The objectives of this research project were to determine: 1) if there have been changes in the rate of stillbirths in United States Holsteins, 2) the genetic and environmental factors that influence the occurrence of stillbirths, and 3) whether stillbirths are the same trait in primaparous and multiparous cows. Chi-squared Automated Interaction Detection algorithm was used to determine the most significant factors that affect the rate of stillbirths. Parity of the dam was the most significant factor; 11.0% in primaparous and 5.7% in multiparous cows. The second most significant factor was dystocia. As dystocia increased from 1 (= no assistance) to 3 (= needed assistance), so did the incidence of stillbirths, 6.1, 14.3, and 27.7% in primaparous cows; 3.9, 12.6, and 26.5% in multiparous cows. Inadequate maternal preparation for parturition was suggested as the cause of the continued increase in stillbirths.A mixed logistic regression analysis identified a significant increasing trend in the odds of a stillborn calf from 1985 to 1996; 4.1% per yr in primaparous cows, and 2.4% per yr in multiparous cows. The estimate of heritability for sire of the calf was 1.1% using data for primaparous cows and 1.5% for data for multiparous cows. Maternal grandsire heritability estimates were 2.2% for primaparous cows; 0.8% for multiparous cows. Despite the low genetic variance for stillbirths, there was a large range in PTA. Sire evaluation for survival can identify particular sires with low survival among their progeny. Herd-year variances were larger for all data sets than sire and maternal grandsire variances. Genetic change in the mean PTA for stillbirths was quite variable from year to year. There was no evidence of a genetic trend. Stillbirth rate should be monitored on an annual basis in Holsteins

A study on trading scams in massively multiplayer online role-playing games and risk mitigation techniques

Scamming in massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) has become a significant issue in gameplay today. With the multitude of MMORPG games to choose from and the millions of users playing these games, there are significant opportunities for scammers to take advantage of unsuspecting users. The research first creates a taxonomy of online trading scams for aiding developers to prevent scamming in games. This taxonomy focuses on the targets, objectives, and strategies scammers use in MMORPGs. Secondly, it introduces a scam mitigation method to reduce opportunities for scams within the MMORPG trading environment. The mitigation method implements three services: Barter, Market, and Contract. Using the services can provide a trustworthy venue for trading, prevent common scams, and provide better overall gameplay for current and future users