NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Representation learning for dialogue systems

This thesis presents a series of steps taken towards investigating representation learning (e.g. deep learning) for building dialogue systems and conversational agents. The thesis is split into two general parts. The first part of the thesis investigates representation learning for generative dialogue models. Conditioned on a sequence of turns from a text-based dialogue, these models are tasked with generating the next, appropriate response in the dialogue. This part of the thesis focuses on sequence-to-sequence models, a class of generative deep neural networks. First, we propose the Hierarchical Recurrent Encoder-Decoder model, which is an extension of the vanilla sequence-to sequence model incorporating the turn-taking structure of dialogues. Second, we propose the Multiresolution Recurrent Neural Network model, which is a stacked sequence-to-sequence model with an intermediate, stochastic representation (a "coarse representation") capturing the abstract semantic content communicated between the dialogue speakers. Third, we propose the Latent Variable Recurrent Encoder-Decoder model, which is a variant of the Hierarchical Recurrent Encoder-Decoder model with latent, stochastic normally-distributed variables. The latent, stochastic variables are intended for modelling the ambiguity and uncertainty occurring naturally in human language communication. The three models are evaluated and compared on two dialogue response generation tasks: a Twitter response generation task and the Ubuntu technical response generation task. The second part of the thesis investigates representation learning for a real-world reinforcement learning dialogue system. Specifically, this part focuses on the Milabot system built by the Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute (Mila) for the Amazon Alexa Prize 2017 competition. Milabot is a system capable of conversing with humans on popular small talk topics through both speech and text. The system consists of an ensemble of natural language retrieval and generation models, including template-based models, bag-of-words models, and variants of the models discussed in the first part of the thesis. This part of the thesis focuses on the response selection task. Given a sequence of turns from a dialogue and a set of candidate responses, the system must select an appropriate response to give the user. A model-based reinforcement learning approach, called the Bottleneck Simulator, is proposed for selecting the appropriate candidate response. The Bottleneck Simulator learns an approximate model of the environment based on observed dialogue trajectories and human crowdsourcing, while utilizing an abstract (bottleneck) state representing high-level discourse semantics. The learned environment model is then employed to learn a reinforcement learning policy through rollout simulations. The learned policy has been evaluated and compared to competing approaches through A/B testing with real-world users, where it was found to yield excellent performance.

Keyphrases: Deep learning, Reinforcement learning, Dialogue systems, Conversational agents, Generative dialogue models
Deep neural networks for natural language processing and its acceleration

This thesis by article consists of four articles which contribute to the field of deep learning, specifically in the acceleration of training through low-precision networks, and the application of deep neural networks on natural language processing.  In the first article, we investigate a neural network training scheme that eliminates most of the floating-point multiplications. This approach consists of binarizing or ternarizing the weights in the forward propagation and quantizing the hidden states in the backward propagation, which converts multiplications to sign changes and binary shifts. Experimental results on datasets from small to medium size show that this approach result in even better performance than standard stochastic gradient descent training, paving the way to fast, hardware-friendly training of neural networks.   In the second article, we proposed a structured self-attentive sentence embedding that extracts interpretable sentence representations in matrix form. We demonstrate improvements on 3 different tasks: author profiling, sentiment classification and textual entailment. Experimental results show that our model yields a significant performance gain compared to other sentence embedding methods in all of the 3 tasks.   In the third article, we propose a hierarchical model with dynamical computation graph for sequential data that learns to construct a tree while reading the sequence. The model learns to create adaptive skip-connections that ease the learning of long-term dependencies through constructing recurrent cells in a recursive manner. The training of the network can either be supervised training by giving golden tree structures, or through reinforcement learning. We provide preliminary experiments in 3 different tasks: a novel Math Expression Evaluation (MEE) task, a well-known propositional logic task, and language modelling tasks. Experimental results show the potential of the proposed approach.  In the fourth article, we propose a novel constituency parsing method with neural networks. The model predicts the parse tree structure by predicting a real valued scalar, named syntactic distance, for each split position in the input sentence. The order of the relative values of these syntactic distances then determine the parse tree structure by specifying the order in which the split points will be selected, recursively partitioning the input, in a top-down fashion. Our proposed approach was demonstrated with competitive performance on Penn Treebank dataset, and the state-of-the-art performance on Chinese Treebank dataset.

Keyphrases: Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Deep Learning, Neural Networks, Syntactic Parser, Constituency Parsing, Recursive Networks, Recurrent Networks, Dynamic Computational Graph, Sentiment Analysis, Natural Language Inference, Self-Attention, Sentence Embedding, Binary Connect, Ternary Connect, Quantized Neural Networks, Réseaux Récurrents
Résister au débarquement : tourisme de croisière et dynamiques d’appropriation territoriale dans la Caraïbe

Cruise tourism is distinct from land-based tourism because of its mobile, derogatory and extraterritorial nature. These factors allow the industry to dominate in the power struggle that plays out when the operating conditions for a new destination are being negotiated. The purpose of this research project is to highlight the socio-spatial dynamics inherent to the power relations between stakeholders in cruise tourism in the space of the Caribbean. We use the case study of the creation of a cruise enclave at Harvest Caye in South Belize to explore the territorialization processes that result when a new destination is established. To do this, we have developed a conceptual framework that is based, first of all, on the idea of the production of a cruise tourism space considering the neoliberal mechanisms of space production when a new enclave is established. The framework then focuses on the processes of territorialization that have transformed South Belize as a consequence of the territorial deployment of this kind of tourism in the lived space of the receiving communities. Our results are based on content analysis, participant observation and 42 semi-structured interviews, and show that the power relations that initially favor the cruise tourism industry can be countered, allowing lived space actors to take charge of territorialization processes in the context of the imposition of a cruise tourism space. The processes of territorialization that emerged when the cruise tourism space and the lived space met are evidence of strategic actions the different stakeholders have taken simultaneously—those related to the industry’s attempt at territorial appropriation and those associated with local stakeholders’ various resistance strategies, especially those evolving in the ecotourism industry. Nevertheless, we have witnessed, directly or indirectly, adaptation and cooperation on both sides that have eroded the conflictual vision of the territorial dynamics that often characterize the implementation of cruise tourism. Finally, we suggest that there is a phase of territorialization that runs parallel to cruise tourism and that is linked to the dynamics of territorial appropriation brought about by the real estate industry that has been exacerbated as the enclave island was established.

Keyphrases: Belize, Tourism, Cruise, Power, Appropriation, Territorialization, Development, Destination, Caribbean
L’éducation chrétienne des jeunes au pluralisme religieux en milieu scolaire catholique : enjeux et perspectives théologiques.
Analyse praxéologique de la prise en compte de la diversité religieuse dans deux collèges catholiques : Saint-Viateur de Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) et Bourget de Rigaud (Québec).

Catholic schools are ordained to the Christian education of young Christians or non-Christians entrusted to them. By welcoming students of all faiths or religious traditions, they are at the same time open to cultural and religious diversity. By taking this into account in their educational offer, they enhance its value. This enhancement means the acceptance of religious pluralism within it. How is this fact considered in the Christian education of young people given by the Colleges of Bourget of Rigaud and Saint-Viator of Ouagadougou? What are the challenges and the theological perspectives of such a consideration? Since these two establishments belong to the Congregation of the Clerics of St. Viator, they also have missions assigned to every school: to evangelize, that is, to proclaim Jesus Christ and his Gospel, to humanize and give meaning to human existence, to bring new Christians into being and to foster with them a community where faith is lived, deepened and celebrated. But, in a context of religious pluralism, how can we evangelize without damaging the faith of others? What educational approach should be adopted to educate young people considering religious pluralism? How to educate young people of different religious and non-religious traditions in a Christian way? What theological approach is preferred in such an undertaking? At the end of this inductive research, carried out following the approach of pastoral praxeology, we provide answers to these questions while proposing as a new way of evangelizing in such a context an educational approach called the education of young people to religious pluralism.

Keyphrases: Catholic school, Christian education, Religious diversity, Religious pluralism, New evangelization, Interreligious dialogue, ecumenism, Otherness, Communion-in-difference, educational project, integrative ministry
Penser la «pervertibilité» : incidences et réitérations de la question du pervertible dans l’œuvre de Jacques Derrida

Although Jacques Derrida never addressed it head-on, the problem of pervertibility is often conceptualized in his work by way of paradoxes and questions, such as those of hospitality and the promise. This doctoral thesis explores the limits and scope of the protean notion of pervertibility, its stakes and its manifestations, as well as its relationship with language and meaning. Multidisciplinary in nature, it simultaneously focuses on philosophical concepts and on the textual and literary devices that bespeak this pervertibility, operative throughout Derrida’s entire body of work.

Keyphrases: Jacques Derrida, Psychanalyse, Philosophy (Deconstruction), Perversion-Perversity-Pervertibility, Contemporary French Thought, Modern and Contemporary Literature, Psychoanalysis
Deterritorialized male subjectivity : liminality, in-betweenness, and becoming  in migrant literary and cultural contexts

This dissertation stems from the search for a subject without reference to the webs of relations that hold it. Through rhizomatic movements, it breaks territorialities of narrative and moves beyond the subject’s thresholds by following literary and cultural lines of escape away from imprisoning forces of subjugation. The investigation flows along marginalized sites of transformation and displacement and through sites of resistance and decolonization. In my readings of migrant and Indigenous literatures, deterritorialization and decolonization intertwine at three major sites: liminality, in-betweenness, and becoming.  These sites are not only innovative aesthetic forms that cross the threshold of identity in our contemporary culture; they also participate in the project of reinventing and rearranging the relation of self and other toward new beginnings. The new perspectives that are offered engage ethically, avoid judgment, and foresee the possibilities for revolutionary political, social, and economic transformation.    The movements of deterritorialization that emerge within the writings and artistic production of Richard Mosse, Chris Abani, Leslie Marmon Silko, Thomas King and Rawi Hage provide possibilities for reflection at the thresholds of different male subjects in crisis. This project first addresses the underlying Thing that moves in between territories and confounds the desire to capture its essence; instead, following Deleuze and Guattari, it moves along with the male subjects’ nomadic movements as they become desubjectified simulacra in various sites of unlearning. In Richard Mosse’s Incoming and The Castle, for example, such a site of unlearning separates the materiality of the displaced from its image and informs discourse about the ways in which representation endangers, limits and violates existence. Through Abani’s GraceLand, this project further investigates modes of liminality and initiation ceremonies and acknowledges the lived experiences of male subjects in different cultural structures. In Rawi Hage’s novels, I explore the ways masculinity arranges or rearranges itself creatively in acts of performance. The dissertation also again turns to liminality by way of Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, and Thomas King’s post-apocalyptic narrative of identity. In this way, the harmonious conjunction of Indigenous voices and Indigenous and migrant literatures attempts to locate where these lines of escape might come together, refuse to cross, or crumble back upon themselves in flows of violence.

Keyphrases: Migrant Literature, Decolonization, Deterritorialization, Masculinity, male subjectivity, Rhizome, ceremony, liminality, becoming, in-betweenness
Trajectoire d'une initiatve de valorisation de la diversité ethnoculturelle : appropriation et ventriloquie

The main purpose of this thesis is to explore how, in the context of implementing a new initiative to promote ethnocultural diversity, members of an organization come to appropriate (or not) principles, ideas and values that guide and structure the implementation of such initiatives. In this context, appropriation shall mean any action aimed to adapt something to oneself. Therefore, appropriation can be seen as a form of adaptation that gives particular meaning to this new situation in which organizational members find themselves in. Throughout this thesis, we mobilized a ventriloquial approach to communication in order to reveal the figures (principles, values or ideas) that facilitate or on the contrary hinder the appropriation of the program by organizational actors.  From a methodological point of view, this thesis is based on a longitudinal case study conducted over a one-year period with a large pan-Quebec company. The particularly innovative nature of this research lies in its methodological approach, which consisted in monitoring an ethnocultural diversity initiative, from its launch to its completion.  Through the recording of pre- and post-initiative meetings and interviews, we were able to identify and analyze the multiple forms of appropriation that led to the appreciation or, sometimes, on the contrary, the misappropriation of such initiatives. The link between appropriation of diversity initiatives by change actors and organizational communication has so far been little explored. This thesis is therefore intended as an empirical illustration, through the analysis of the different forms of appropriation, to fill certain gaps in the literature on diversity work and organizational communication.

Keyphrases: Appropriation, Ventriloquie, Diversity, Ventriloquism, interaction analysis, Constitutivity of communication, Diversity, Ventriloquism, Interaction analysis, Constitutivity of communication
Exploitation des documents audiovisuels numériques d’archives : modèle conceptuel théorique des usages, modalités et moyens d’organisation et de diffusion sur le web

The digital revolution and the development of the internet improved access to audiovisual documents. In the digital environment, it is crucial to take account of the uses of the audiovisual archives in their organisation and dissemination, since their preservation does not rely on the passive conservation of materials kept intact but instead is dependant on their usage. However, there are few studies on usage of digital audiovisual archival documents and there is a theoretical gap in conceptual definitions pertaining to usages of these types of documents.  Our research aims to develop, from an interdisciplinary corpus of archival, information science and sociology of usages literature, a theoretical and conceptual model of digital audiovisual archival documents usage which is subsequently used to suggest possible solutions to adapt to users their organisation and dissemination on the web.  To achieve this goal, we first analyse theoretical concepts and constructs related to usage and digital audiovisual archival documents. Second, a theoretical and conceptual model is developed then transposed into web organisation and dissemination means to explore new potential solutions.  The clarification of concepts and theoretical constructs addresses gaps within user studies and theoretical writings. The model is useful to anticipate possible uses and adapt for this purpose practices, interfaces and web systems. This research aims to enhance access to digital audiovisual archival documents and is a response to the gap between archival practice and theory and actual and future uses and users.

Keyphrases: organisation, access to archives, audiovisual archives, archival science, chain of usage, digital audiovisual archival documents, dissemination, components and strata of documents, theoretical and conceptual model, user
Les dialogues de la possession : ritualité et divinisation des ancêtres chez les Mavilans et les Malavettuvans

What does possession add to rituality? When possession enables one to hear the words of gods or ancestors that have authority, when it gives the possibility of a dialogue between the living and the gods, is it possible that it could participate in the dynamics of transformations and continuity of rituals, thus enabling their adaptation to new contexts? In the north of Kerala, we studied the rituals of Teyyam, a possession ritual of popular Hinduism in which the gods are performed by ritualists from lower castes who will, in some instances have the opportunity to share the message of certain gods criticizing caste discrimination. If this ritual implements a hierarchical reversal, yet also reaffirms, in its staging, caste distinctions, why is this situation accepted? As we will demonstrate, the Teyyam ritual, in addition to being a means to consult the gods, nowadays also constitutes for many, a commemoration that can inspire social struggles.  The Mavilan and the Malavettuvan are related Adivasi communities that practise the rituals of Teyyam in their isolated villages. However, they have included in this ritual the worship of their own ancestors, recently deceased individuals who distinguished themselves during their lifetimes by their positive leadership. During the dialogues that take place in the ritual space, we can hear the ancestors argue about the importance of maintaining solidarity among the members of the family group, at a time when, more and more in society, there is a decline of the extended family as a support group. These ancestors can also, through dialogue, transmit an ethic of leadership and responsibility to the heads of the household, current or emerging. As was the case in the past, one wishes, today, that ancestors continue to do after their death what they were doing during their lifetime: act as a mediator with power and intervene to help members of their community.   The experiences that happen with possession and that we observed, suggest that the performers or the devotees may influence the words spoken by the ancestors and the gods. The inner landscape of the individuals, their experiences, their desires, their understanding of the nature of the gods and ancestors, what they would like to experiment, say or express, whether conscious or not, intentional or not, can influence the words they speak. If, sometimes, the unchanged character of the ritual is used to argue and to establish its authority, possession may allow flexibility in the articulation of the words of the gods and ancestors, and hence adaptability to new social issues. When something new or unusual occurs during a ritual, it must then be validated, interpreted, or contested, but those that assess these changes are, sometimes, these same gods and ancestors who, in the ritual space, are speaking through the possessed.

Keyphrases: possession, transmission, Mavilan, Malavettuvan, anangu, Teyyam, Kerala, Ritual, Ancestors, Hinduism
Réussir dans le crime et réussir à s’en sortir : l’influence de la carrière criminelle sur le processus de désistement

Many roads lead to criminal desistance and the path taken depends on past experiences. Few studies have examined the link between criminal career and its aftermath, how the events that characterized the criminal lifestyle influence the decision to desist and to maintain this abstinence from crime. Based on the life narratives of individuals involved mainly in lucrative crimes (N = 15), this study aims to reconstruct their life trajectory to study the meaning and dynamics behind the process of stopping and maintaining abstinence from crime. The results identified two distinct paths. They also suggest that subjective experiences and past events affecting the criminal career provides access to a deeper understanding of desistance and challenges of reentry. Findings also highlight the relevance of criminal achievement in the study of the desistance process. It is hoped that the project will foster a better understanding of turning points in criminal careers and the processes that affect continuity and desistance.

Keyphrases: Criminal achievement, Criminal career, Desistance, Life course, Rational choice, Social reintegration