In this paper, we describe RavenClaw, a plan-based, task-independent dialog management framework. RavenClaw isolates the domain-specific aspects of the dialog control logic from domain-independent ...conversational skills, and in the process facilitates rapid development of mixed-initiative systems operating in complex, task-oriented domains. System developers can focus exclusively on describing the dialog task control logic, while a large number of domain-independent conversational skills such as error handling, timing and turn-taking are transparently supported and enforced by the RavenClaw dialog engine. To date, RavenClaw has been used to construct and deploy a large number of systems, spanning different domains and interaction styles, such as information access, guidance through procedures, command-and-control, medical diagnosis, etc. The framework has easily adapted to all of these domains, indicating a high degree of versatility and scalability.
The widespread development of conversational agents (chatbots) has enabled us to communicate and collaborate with different forms and functions of robots using natural language, thus facilitating a ...closer relationship between humans and technology. Given that chatbot services infused with domain knowledge are of great interest to not only global businesses but also academics, chatbots have in recent years become a popular research topic in the field of natural language processing. We therefore aim at improving current chatbots with the addition of natural emotions. In contrast to previous work, we intend to distinguish fine-grained emotion differences between words in order to better understand emotion expressions in sentences. Our approach infuses fine-grained emotion content into the response generation process to make the dialog more emotionally resonant. The experimental results demonstrate that this method can classify emotions more effectively. In addition, the proposed hybrid model, which consists of recurrent and convolutional neural networks with additional emotion-specific valence-arousal features, can correctly identify five emotions with a 67.89% overall F1-score. We further evaluate the subjective quality of the responses and discover that the infusion of fine-grained emotion information substantially improves the quality and fluency of automatically generated empathetic conversation. We conclude that the proposed model can greatly improve the efficiency and usability of a conversational chatbot system.
•We propose an integrated framework to improve current chatbots with natural emotions. Unlike previous work, we intend to distinguish fine emotion difference between words in order to better understand the sentential emotion.•Our proposed approach avoids the intense work of human annotation and infuse the fine emotions into response generation process automatically.•The proposed novel approach that contains a sequence-to-sequence structure with an encoder and a decoder to produce responses to a piece of text, and an emotion detection model to distill the most suitable sentence as the final response.•Experimental results show that the emotion detection module can achieve state-of-the-art outcomes when predicting valence and arousal values, and encoding finer emotion information into generation module is proven to assist in the ability to create fluent and logical sentence with appropriate emotion content.•This study provides some observations regarding human preferences in emotional responses. These results can serve as guidelines for future research on the design of a more natural dialog system.
In this study, we delve into the perceived quality of recommendations provided by AI-based virtual service assistants (VSAs). Specifically, the role of the social presence of VSAs in influencing ...recommendation perceptions is investigated. We also explore how the social presence of a VSA is formed and how perceived anthropomorphism plays a vital role in shaping social presence and eventually instilling trust in VSAs among consumers. These relationships are examined in the context of online government services. The results indicate that consumer interaction with VSAs - manifesting via perceived anthropomorphism, social presence, dialog length, and attitudes - improves recommendation quality perceptions, which further instills trust in VSA-based recommendations. Perceived anthropomorphism was found to strongly influence the formation of social presence, whereas trust and recommendation quality - the outcomes of social presence - were found to be partially conditional on the dialog length and the degree of positive attitudes toward VSAs. The findings additionally suggest that a VSA can be considered a social actor that possesses the capability to bring a “human touch” to online services, therefore improving the overall online service experience.
•VSA as a social actor improves the overall online service experience.•Social presence increases recommendation quality and trust in the VSA.•Perceived anthropomorphism influences the formation of social presence.•Attitudes toward VSAs moderate the effects of social presence.•Dialog length moderates the social presence-trust relationship.
A collection of articles dealing with a question of Jewish involvement in the interfaith and intercultural dialogue in the postwar Europe, Israel and the United States. The leitmotif of the volume is ...the Jewish attitude towards otherness and its relation to the responsibility for the other. The contributions pertain to the status of the non-Jewish residents of Israel, the social involvement into peace dialogues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Jewish engagement in the anti-racist movement in postwar France, memory work in Poland and the engagement of the second generation of the holocaust survivors in the intercultural dialogue in the United States.
American Thyroid Association (ATA) leadership asked the ATA Thyroid Nodules and Differentiated Thyroid Cancer Guidelines Task Force to review, comment on, and make recommendations related to the ...suggested new classification of encapsulated follicular variant papillary thyroid carcinoma (eFVPTC) without capsular or vascular invasion to noninvasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear features (NIFTP). The task force consists of members from the 2015 guidelines task force with the recusal of three members who were authors on the paper under review. Four pathologists and one endocrinologist were added for this specific review. The manuscript proposing the new classification and related literature were assessed. It is recommended that the histopathologic nomenclature for eFVPTC without invasion be reclassified as a NIFTP, given the excellent prognosis of this neoplastic variant. This is a weak recommendation based on moderate-quality evidence. It is also noted that prospective studies are needed to validate the observed patient outcomes (and test performance in predicting thyroid cancer outcomes), as well as implications on patients' psychosocial health and economics.
The article updates a long-term discussion about the genre of the early baroque Prosphonema of 1591 (the first known literary work that came out of the Lviv Dormition Brotherhood) and a number of ...other texts from the end of the 16th to the first half of the 17th century. The gradual formation of scientific understanding of the genre polysemantics of early Baroque works, along with their belonging to the literary and proto-theatrical spheres is traced. At the same time, the article highlights the direct relationship between the panegyric declamation constructions of the Prosphonema to the actual history of the judicial confrontation between the Lviv Dormition Brotherhood and the episcopate in 1590–1591. Such historical contribution may aspire to a separate methodological status in the study of declamatory and panegyric literary forms.
Through a reading of key concepts in The Craftsman by the American sociologist Richard Sennett, this article investigates if there are any clear connections between craft and Bildung in Sennett' ...work. Based on stories from The Craftman, this article analyzes three concepts (repetition, resistance and dialog) of craft as understandings of Bildung. The three concepts show an inherent educational potential, and that these potentials can be regarded as pedagogical possibilities, in technical vocational educations. Finally, the article discusses how the three concepts on craft as Bildung, could fit into the current educational practice of technical vocational educations in Denmark.
In a spoken dialog system, determining which action a machine should take in a given situation is a difficult problem because automatic speech recognition is unreliable and hence the state of the ...conversation can never be known with certainty. Much of the research in spoken dialog systems centres on mitigating this uncertainty and recent work has focussed on three largely disparate techniques: parallel dialog state hypotheses, local use of confidence scores, and automated planning. While in isolation each of these approaches can improve action selection, taken together they currently lack a unified statistical framework that admits global optimization. In this paper we cast a spoken dialog system as a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP). We show how this formulation unifies and extends existing techniques to form a single principled framework. A number of illustrations are used to show qualitatively the potential benefits of POMDPs compared to existing techniques, and empirical results from dialog simulations are presented which demonstrate significant quantitative gains. Finally, some of the key challenges to advancing this method – in particular scalability – are briefly outlined.
Learning by arguing Iordanou, Kalypso; Kuhn, Deanna; Matos, Flora ...
Learning and instruction,
October 2019, 2019-10-00, Letnik:
63
Journal Article
Recenzirano
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Can argumentation practice simultaneously promote knowledge acquisition while advancing skill in the practice itself? We examine the effectiveness of a dialog-based argument curriculum in fostering ...middle-school students' knowledge acquisition as well as dialogic and written argumentation skill with respect to a content-rich, socially significant topic. Results of two studies, one involving a physical science topic and the other a social topic, showed a single intervention could meet both objectives, Study 1 following a previously used model of extended intervention (nine sessions over five weeks) and Study 2 experimenting with a dense model of six intervention hours completed over two days. Both were found effective. A novel question-and-answer method was found superior to a traditional one in promoting acquisition of factual knowledge sufficient to support argumentation. With respect to skill gains, a prompt to consider incongruent evidence showed the greatest effect in furthering mastery of a critical argument skill – to acknowledge and address, rather than ignore, evidence that counters one's favored position.
•An argument curriculum can be effective in fostering both knowledge and skill goals.•Rather than a traditional text, information was acquired via a Q&A method.•The Q&A condition yielded better use of evidence to support claims in final essay.•Dense engagement (six hours completed over two days) proved effective.•A prompt to consider incongruent evidence enhanced attention to it.
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