1,213 research outputs found
Politeness and Alignment in Dialogues with a Virtual Guide
Language alignment is something that happens automatically in dialogues between human speakers. The ability to align is expected to increase the believability of virtual dialogue agents. In this paper we extend the notion of alignment to affective language use, describing a model for dynamically adapting the linguistic style of a virtual agent to the level of politeness and formality detected in the user’s utterances. The model has been implemented in the Virtual Guide, an embodied conversational agent giving directions in a virtual environment. Evaluation shows that our formality model needs improvement, but that the politeness tactics used by the Guide are mostly interpreted as intended, and that the alignment to the user’s language is noticeable
Gap theory of rectification in ballistic three-terminal conductors
We introduce a model for rectification in three-terminal ballistic
conductors, where the central connecting node is modeled as a chaotic cavity.
For bias voltages comparable to the Fermi energy, a strong nonlinearity is
created by the opening of a gap in the transport window. Both noninteracting
cavity electrons at arbitrary temperature as well as the hot electron regime
are considered. Charging effects are treated within the transmission formalism
using a self-consistent analysis. The conductance of the third lead in a
voltage probe configuration is varied to also model inelastic effects. We find
that the basic transport features are insensitive to all of these changes,
indicating that the nonlinearity is robust and well suited to applications such
as current rectification in ballistic systems. Our findings are in broad
agreement with several recent experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure
Planning for PARADISEC
PARADISEC is a collaborative digital research resource set up by the University of Sydney, the University of Melbourne and the Australian National University in 2003, with funding from the Australia Research Council's Linkage Infrastructure Equipment and Facilities scheme. Conceived and created in cyberspace, the project locates its digitisation equipment at the University of Sydney, its website at ANU, and metadata database at the University of Melbourne, with researcher contributions from all three Universities. Current planning issues concern provision of appropriate levels of digital rights management and access for the many stakeholder communities located throughout the Asia-Pacific region. This presentation outlines the principles that have guided us in planning and implementation of PARADISEC.Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts Australian Research Counci
Quantification of Facial Traits
Measuring facial traits by quantitative means is a prerequisite to investigate epidemiological, clinical, and forensic questions. This measurement process has received intense attention in recent years. We divided this process into the registration of the face, landmarking, morphometric quantification, and dimension reduction. Face registration is the process of standardizing pose and landmarking annotates positions in the face with anatomic description or mathematically defined properties (pseudolandmarks). Morphometric quantification computes pre-specified transformations such as distances. Landmarking: We review face registration methods which are required by some landmarking methods. Although similar, face registration and landmarking are distinct problems. The registration phase can be seen as a pre-processing step and can be combined independently with a landmarking solution. Existing approaches for landmarking differ in their data requirements, modeling approach, and training complexity. In this review, we focus on 3D surface data as captured by commercial surface scanners but also cover methods for 2D facial pictures, when methodology overlaps. We discuss the broad categories of active shape models, template based approaches, recent deep-learning algorithms, and variations thereof such as hybrid algorithms. The type of algorithm chosen depends on the availability of pre-trained models for the data at hand, availability of an appropriate landmark set, accuracy characteristics, and training complexity. Quantification: Landmarking of anatomical landmarks is usually augmented by pseudo-landmarks, i.e., indirectly defined landmarks that densely cover the scan surface. Such a rich data set is not amenable to direct analysis but is reduced in dimensionality for downstream analysis. We review classic dimension reduction techniques used for facial data and face specific measures, such as geometric measurements and manifold learning. Finally, we review symmetry registration and discuss reliability
A minute of your time: The impact of survey recruitment method and interview location on the value of travel time
Web-based stated preference (SP) surveys are widely used to estimate values of travel time (VTT) for cost–benefit analysis, often with internet panels as the source of recruitment. The recruitment method could potentially bias the results because (1) those who frequently participate in surveys may have a lower opportunity cost of time and (2) people who answer the survey at home or in the office may answer differently because the choice situation is less salient to them. In this paper, we investigate both mechanisms using data from a VTT choice experiment study where respondents were recruited from an internet panel, an alternative email register or on-board/on the station. Within all three groups, some complete the survey while making an actual trip. We find that respondents who were recruited from the internet panel or report being members of a panel have a significantly lower VTT, suggesting that internet panels are less representative in this respect compared to other recruitment methods. We also find that those who answer while traveling have a higher VTT, possibly because the benefits of saving travel time are more salient to them than to those who answer while not traveling.A minute of your time: The impact of survey recruitment method and interview location on the value of travel timepublishedVersio
Charge fluctuations in a quantum point contact attached to a superconducting lead
We show how to calculate the charge noise spectrum in a normal mesoscopic
conductor, which is capacitively coupled to a macroscopic gate, when this
conductor is attached to L normal leads and M superconducting leads, the only
restriction being that the superconducting leads must be at the same chemical
potential. We then proceed to examine results for a quantum point contact (QPC)
in a normal lead connecting to a superconductor. Of interest is the fluctuating
current in a gate capacitively coupled to a QPC. The results are compared with
the case when all leads are normal. We find a doubling of the equilibrium
charge fluctuations and a large enhancement (>2) in the current noise spectrum
to first order in |eV|, when a channel in the QPC is opening.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Doping dependence of the chemical potential and surface electronic structure in YBa2Cu3O6+x and La2-xSrxCuO4 using hard x-ray photoemission spectroscopy
The electronic structure of YBa2Cu3O6+x and La2-xSrxCuO4 for various values
of x has been investigated using hard x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. The
experimental results establish that the cleaving of YBa2Cu3O6+x compounds
occurs predominantly in the BaCuO3 complex leading to charged surfaces at
higher x and to uncharged surfaces at lower x values. The bulk component of the
core level spectra exhibits a shift in binding energy as a function of x, from
which a shift of the chemical potential as a function of hole concentration in
the CuO2 layers could be derived. The doping dependence of the chemical
potential across the transition from a Mott-Hubbard insulator to a
Fermi-liquid-like metal is very different in these two series of compounds. In
agreement with previous studies in the literature the chemical potential shift
in La2-xSrxCuO4 is close to zero for small hole concentrations. In YBa2Cu3O6+x,
similar to all other doped cuprates studied so far, a strong shift of the
chemical potential at low hole doping is detected. However, the results for the
inverse charge susceptibility at small x shows a large variation between
different doped cuprates. The results are discussed in view of various
theoretical models. None of these models turns out to be satisfactory.Comment: 18 pages, 15 figure
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