Information Presentation in Spoken Dialogue Systems

To tackle the problem of presenting a large number of options in spoken dialogue systems, we identify compelling options based on a model of user preferences, and present tradeoffs between alternative options explicitly. Multiple attractive options are structured such that the user can gradually refine her request to find the optimal tradeoff. We show that our approach presents complex tradeoffs understandably, increases overall user satisfaction, and significantly improves the user's overview of the available options. Moreover, our results suggest that presenting users with a brief summary of the irrelevant options increases users' confidence in having heard about all relevant options

Order-by-order Analytic Solution to the BFKL Equation

We propose a regularization of the BFKL equation which allows for its solution in each order of perturbation theory by means of a sum over multiple poles. This sum can be presented in a rather simple formula for the Fourier transform in the azimuthal angle of the gluon Green function. In order to test our method, we have compared a few orders in the expansion to previous results by Del Duca, Dixon, Duhr and Pennington, finding agreement. Our formalism is general and can be applied to other, more complicated, kernels.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figur

What would you do? An investigation of stated-response data

When analysing choices or policy impacts, economists generally rely on what people actually do, rather than what they say they would do. The "stated response" approach is treated with scepticism due, for example, to concerns regarding the effect of strategic or social considerations on what people say, and a belief that people may not adequately consider such a hypothetical question. This paper evaluates an example of this approach; the direct questioning of parents as to whether they would withdraw their children from school if the Familias en Accion education subsidies were withdrawn. Our results suggest that these concerns are not entirely invalid but that the stated responses do provide important information and correlate in the expected manner with child and household characteristics. We conclude by emphasising the importance of good question design, which may allow researchers to use the "stated response" method as a complement to more typical quantitative methodologies

Two aspects of the Regge limit in QCD: Double Logs in Exclusive observables and Infrared Effects in Cross Sections

Two relevant points related to the application of the BFKL formalism to phenomenology are discussed. First, we have presented a set of observables characterizing multi-jet configurations event by event (average transverse momentum, average azimuthal angle, average ratio of jet rapidities) which can be used to find distinct signals of BFKL dynamics at the LHC. A numerical analysis has been shown using the Monte Carlo event generator BFKLex, modified to include higher-order collinear corrections in addition to the transverse-momentum implementation of the NLO kernel. We require to have two tagged forward/backward jets in the final state. Second, the structure of the BFKL equation changes if infrared boundary conditions are imposed when considering the running of the coupling. The cut in the complex angular momentum plane becomes an infinite series of Regge poles. Integrating along a contour off the real axis we find a strong dependence of the intercepts and collinear regions on the choice of the boundary conditions. The mean transverse scales dominant in the gluon ladder increase. This could have interesting phenomenological consequences.Comment: 6 pages, presented by A. Sabio Vera at the 25th International Workshop on Deep Inelastic Scattering and Related Topics, 3-7 April 2017, Birmingham, U

Random l-colourable structures with a pregeometry

We study finite $l$-colourable structures with an underlying pregeometry. The probability measure that is used corresponds to a process of generating such structures (with a given underlying pregeometry) by which colours are first randomly assigned to all 1-dimensional subspaces and then relationships are assigned in such a way that the colouring conditions are satisfied but apart from this in a random way. We can then ask what the probability is that the resulting structure, where we now forget the specific colouring of the generating process, has a given property. With this measure we get the following results: 1. A zero-one law. 2. The set of sentences with asymptotic probability 1 has an explicit axiomatisation which is presented. 3. There is a formula $\xi(x,y)$ (not directly speaking about colours) such that, with asymptotic probability 1, the relation "there is an $l$-colouring which assigns the same colour to $x$ and $y$" is defined by $\xi(x,y)$. 4. With asymptotic probability 1, an $l$-colourable structure has a unique $l$-colouring (up to permutation of the colours).Comment: 35 page

Gluon Regge trajectory at two loops from Lipatov's high energy effective action

We present the derivation of the two-loop gluon Regge trajectory using Lipatov's high energy effective action and a direct evaluation of Feynman diagrams. Using a gauge invariant regularization of high energy divergences by deforming the light-cone vectors of the effective action, we determine the two-loop self-energy of the reggeized gluon, after computing the master integrals involved using the Mellin-Barnes representations technique. The self-energy is further matched to QCD through a recently proposed subtraction prescription. The Regge trajectory of the gluon is then defined through renormalization of the reggeized gluon propagator with respect to high energy divergences. Our result is in agreement with previous computations in the literature, providing a non-trivial test of the effective action and the proposed subtraction and renormalization framework.Comment: 22 page