Scaling Recurrent Neural Network Language Models

This paper investigates the scaling properties of Recurrent Neural Network Language Models (RNNLMs). We discuss how to train very large RNNs on GPUs and address the questions of how RNNLMs scale with respect to model size, training-set size, computational costs and memory. Our analysis shows that despite being more costly to train, RNNLMs obtain much lower perplexities on standard benchmarks than n-gram models. We train the largest known RNNs and present relative word error rates gains of 18% on an ASR task. We also present the new lowest perplexities on the recently released billion word language modelling benchmark, 1 BLEU point gain on machine translation and a 17% relative hit rate gain in word prediction

Families and work: revisiting barriers to employment

"In recent years, considerable effort has been put into supporting parents to make the transition into work. This study was commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to explore whether these incentives were helping parents to overcome the barriers known to impede their engagement in the formal labour market. The report is based on fieldwork conducted in 2009. However, the concluding chapter considers the significance of the findings in light of proposals for the introduction of the Universal Credit and other reforms of the tax and benefit systems proposed by the Coalition Government." - Page 1

A Motivation Scaffold to Improve the Learning Engagement of Students

Teachers who work with young adolescents know that motivating and maintaining their interest in classroom-based learning is a major challenge. This study seeks to address this issue and is an examination of the use of a motivational scaffold to assist a cohort of Year Nine students to take greater responsibility for their learning through direct and authentic learning experiences outside the classroom

Increasing Life Effectiveness

The iPod, more than any other device, is indicative of the times in which we live. It provides entertainment and information at the click of a wheel, whenever, and wherever we want it. The iPod is tool of choice for many of the current generation of youth who fill their days with electronic devices, computer games, Youtube, Myspace, Facebook and talking to friends on MSN. These youth have been referred to as the iGeneration, or Google Generation; whatever you choose to call them, they are the young people in our schools. Life is not simple for many of these students. They are growing up in a world vastly different to that of their parents. Today’s world features “cultural pluralism, increased anxiety about personal and environmental risks, precarious employment, rampant consumerism, the information deluge, greater individualisation and increased instability in families” (Hughes, 2007). Within this quickly changing world, there is a need for students to develop the capacity to cope with their ever-changing environment. They need to be resilient. Outdoor education activities have been proposed as one way of increasing a person’s resilience through increasing ‘Life Effectiveness’ skills. These skills equip students to handle the demands of life and impact a person’s capacity to adapt, survive, and thrive (Neill, 2008). They will enhance a person’s resilience and their sense of wellbeing

A Review of Evaluation Practices of Gesture Generation in Embodied Conversational Agents

Embodied Conversational Agents (ECA) take on different forms, including virtual avatars or physical agents, such as a humanoid robot. ECAs are often designed to produce nonverbal behaviour to complement or enhance its verbal communication. One form of nonverbal behaviour is co-speech gesturing, which involves movements that the agent makes with its arms and hands that is paired with verbal communication. Co-speech gestures for ECAs can be created using different generation methods, such as rule-based and data-driven processes. However, reports on gesture generation methods use a variety of evaluation measures, which hinders comparison. To address this, we conducted a systematic review on co-speech gesture generation methods for iconic, metaphoric, deictic or beat gestures, including their evaluation methods. We reviewed 22 studies that had an ECA with a human-like upper body that used co-speech gesturing in a social human-agent interaction, including a user study to evaluate its performance. We found most studies used a within-subject design and relied on a form of subjective evaluation, but lacked a systematic approach. Overall, methodological quality was low-to-moderate and few systematic conclusions could be drawn. We argue that the field requires rigorous and uniform tools for the evaluation of co-speech gesture systems. We have proposed recommendations for future empirical evaluation, including standardised phrases and test scenarios to test generative models. We have proposed a research checklist that can be used to report relevant information for the evaluation of generative models as well as to evaluate co-speech gesture use.Comment: 9 page

The Cultures of Student Affairs and Academic Affairs Collaboration: An Examination of Typology in Higher Education Subcultures

This article reviews existing literature on the similarities and differences in personality and learning typologies of student affairs and academic affairs professionals and faculty. It discusses how knowledge of personality and learning typologies can be used to establish successful collaboration between institutional subcultures. Implications for building intercultural collaboration are presented