Plan-And-Write: Towards Better Automatic Storytelling

Automatic storytelling is challenging since it requires generating long, coherent natural language to describes a sensible sequence of events. Despite considerable efforts on automatic story generation in the past, prior work either is restricted in plot planning, or can only generate stories in a narrow domain. In this paper, we explore open-domain story generation that writes stories given a title (topic) as input. We propose a plan-and-write hierarchical generation framework that first plans a storyline, and then generates a story based on the storyline. We compare two planning strategies. The dynamic schema interweaves story planning and its surface realization in text, while the static schema plans out the entire storyline before generating stories. Experiments show that with explicit storyline planning, the generated stories are more diverse, coherent, and on topic than those generated without creating a full plan, according to both automatic and human evaluations.Comment: Accepted by AAAI 201

Geodesics in Heat

We introduce the heat method for computing the shortest geodesic distance to a specified subset (e.g., point or curve) of a given domain. The heat method is robust, efficient, and simple to implement since it is based on solving a pair of standard linear elliptic problems. The method represents a significant breakthrough in the practical computation of distance on a wide variety of geometric domains, since the resulting linear systems can be prefactored once and subsequently solved in near-linear time. In practice, distance can be updated via the heat method an order of magnitude faster than with state-of-the-art methods while maintaining a comparable level of accuracy. We provide numerical evidence that the method converges to the exact geodesic distance in the limit of refinement; we also explore smoothed approximations of distance suitable for applications where more regularity is required

Economic Analysis of the Changing Structure of the South Dakota Pork Industry

In 1979, 3,232,000 hogs were slaughtered in South Dakota. Only seven states in the nation exceeded this total. This places South Dakota in a position of prominence in the national pork industry. There is considerable physical potential for further growth of the South Dakota pork industry. With ample supplies of land, labor, and feed grain available, the number of hogs and pigs in the state could expand. For this expansion in production to occur, state swine growers would have to alter production plans. The decision to increase numbers of hogs and pigs is influenced by many factors at both the individual and industry level. If those limiting factors can be overcome, South Dakota can advance to an even higher ranking in the pork industry. The South Dakota pork industry has changed over time with fewer firms, larger inventories per farm, and more enterprise specialization. In 1969, 42 percent of South Dakota farms and ranches (19,366 of 45,729) sold hogs and pigs. By 1978, only 33 percent of South Dakota’s farms and ranches (12,999 of 39,600) sold hogs and pigs. Despite the 33 percent reduction in number of hog farms, total inventories of hogs and pigs remained nearly constant. Average inventory increased from 90.3 hogs and pigs per farm in 1969 to 142.3 hogs and pigs per farm in 1978. The only Census inventory category showing an increase in number of hog farms and number of hogs and pigs was the inventory category of farms with 500 or more hogs and pigs. The average number of feeder pigs sold per farm has increased from 115 feeder pigs in 1969 to 209 feeder pigs in 1978. Feeder pig cooperatives are gaining in importance in the state. The number of these specialized operations has increased to approximately 12 in recent years. These changes in pork production have led to the need for more diverse methods of marketing and a higher level of managerial ability for the individual producer. South Dakota\u27s role in the pork industry could change. This study was conducted, in part, to provide a means of gauging the direction in which the state pork industry is moving. Swine numbers could expand, but this decision lies with the producers and the production plans they advocate. This study begins the accumulation of information on this currently unaddressed issue

Performance measures of net-enabled hypercompetitive industries: the case of tourism

This paper investigates the theory and practise of e-metrics. It examines the tourism sector as one of the most successful sectors on-line and identifies best practice in the industry. Qualitative research with top e-Marketing executives demonstrates the usage and satisfaction levels from current e-metrics deployment, selection of e-metrics for ROI calculation as well as intention of new e-metrics implementation and future trends and developments. This paper concludes that tourism organizations gradually realise the value of e-measurement and are willing to implement e-metrics to enable them evaluate the effectiveness of their planning processes and assess their results against their short and the long term objectives

Swine Marketing in South Dakota: Results of a Producer Survey

South Dakota is one of the top 10 hog production states with about 3 m111ion hogs and pigs marketed and 3.2 million hogs slaughtered in the state each year. This totals 3-4 percent of the nation\u27s hog supply. With ample supplies of available land, labor, and feed grain there is considerable potential for further growth of the South Dakota pork industry if the expansion can be based on profitable production and marketing prospects for producers. In 1980, a pork marketing study was initiated by SDSU to obtain current infonnation on: 1) Organization of hog production and marketing in South Dakota, · 2) The relative importance of specific marketing methods and market channels used by South Dakota pork producers, 3) Market movements and transportation of hogs and pigs in South Dakota. 4} South Dakota pork producers, use of cash markets, forward contracts and futures markets and reasons for using or not using each method. 5} South Dakota pork producers assessments of major factors limiting expansion of hog production on their own farm and in their local area. The major source of data is a marketing survey completed by 587 South Dakota hog and pig producers. This study was aided by the South Dakota Pork Producers Council which printed and included the survey in a March, 1980 newsletter to hog and pig producers

WHOSE HISTORY?: EXPANDING PLACE-BASED INITIATIVES THROUGH OPEN COLLABORATION

This chapter is the case study of a collaboration between the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Teaching & Learning Program and the University Library’s Special Collections. The collaboration, Whose History? uses place-based education (PBE) as the pedagogical underpinning of a multi-stage project of student-developed research, creation, and teaching. While PBE underpins the project, “openness” is the framework around which Whose History? is built. Teaching & Learning undergraduate students, referred to hereafter as teacher-candidates, use special collections resources to conduct research into regional history and culture, and then create open lesson plans from their findings. Select teacher-candidates teach their lesson plans in area classrooms, and exemplary lesson plans are published online as open educational resources, with project facilitators guiding Special Collections and Teaching & Learning student workers through the OER creation process