Dipping PLMs Sauce: Bridging Structure and Text for Effective Knowledge Graph Completion via Conditional Soft Prompting

Knowledge Graph Completion (KGC) often requires both KG structural and textual information to be effective. Pre-trained Language Models (PLMs) have been used to learn the textual information, usually under the fine-tune paradigm for the KGC task. However, the fine-tuned PLMs often overwhelmingly focus on the textual information and overlook structural knowledge. To tackle this issue, this paper proposes CSProm-KG (Conditional Soft Prompts for KGC) which maintains a balance between structural information and textual knowledge. CSProm-KG only tunes the parameters of Conditional Soft Prompts that are generated by the entities and relations representations. We verify the effectiveness of CSProm-KG on three popular static KGC benchmarks WN18RR, FB15K-237 and Wikidata5M, and two temporal KGC benchmarks ICEWS14 and ICEWS05-15. CSProm-KG outperforms competitive baseline models and sets new state-of-the-art on these benchmarks. We conduct further analysis to show (i) the effectiveness of our proposed components, (ii) the efficiency of CSProm-KG, and (iii) the flexibility of CSProm-KG.Comment: Accepted by ACL 2023 Findings, Long Pape

Lactobacillus plantarum-derived postbiotics prevent Salmonella-induced neurological dysfunctions by modulating gut–brain axis in mice

Postbiotics are the inactive bacteria and/or metabolites of beneficial microbes which have been recently found to be as effective as their live probiotic. This study aimed to evaluate the benefits of Lactobacillus plantarum (LP)-derived postbiotics on ameliorating Salmonella-induced neurological dysfunctions. Mice were pretreated with LP postbiotics (heat-killed bacteria or the metabolites) or active bacteria, and then challenged with Salmonella enterica Typhimurium (ST). Results showed that LP postbiotics, particularly the metabolites, effectively prevented ST infection in mice, as evidenced by the inhibited weight loss, bacterial translocation, and tissue damages. The LP postbiotics markedly suppressed brain injuries and neuroinflammation (the decreased interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-6, and the increased IL-4 and IL-10). Behavior tests indicated that LP postbiotics, especially the metabolites, protected mice from ST-induced anxiety and depressive-like behaviors and cognitive impairment. A significant modulation of neuroactive molecules (5-hydroxytryptamine, gamma-aminobutyric acid, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, dopamine, acetylcholine, and neuropeptide Y) was also found by LP postbiotic pretreatment. Microbiome analysis revealed that LP postbiotics optimized the cecal microbial composition by increasing Helicobacter, Lactobacillus and Dubosiella, and decreasing Mucispirillum, norank_f_Oscillospiraceae, and Eubacterium_siraeum_group. Moreover, LP postbiotics inhibited the reduction of short-chain fatty acids caused by ST infection. Pearson's correlation assays further confirmed the strong relationship of LP postbiotics-mediated benefits and gut microbiota. This study highlights the effectiveness of postbiotics and provide a promising strategy for preventing infection-induced brain disorders by targeting gut–brain axis

“Ritual and Magic” in Buddhist Visual Culture from the Bird Totem

Despite numerous research findings related to medieval Chinese Buddhism, the witchcraft role of bird totems in Buddhist history has not received sufficient attention. In order to fill this gap, this paper analyzes how Buddhist monks in medieval China developed a close relationship with bird-totem worship. This relationship has been documented in Buddhist scriptures, rituals, oral traditions, biographies, and mural art. Although bird-totem worship was practiced in many regions of medieval China, this paper specifically examines the visual culture of bird totems in Tibetan and Chinese Buddhism. Furthermore, some details of this culture were recorded in Buddhist texts and images. According to these works, various bird-totem patterns and symbols are believed to be effective ritual arts used by Tibetan and Chinese Buddhist monks to influence nature and the supernatural through ritual and magic

Multidrug Efflux Systems in Microaerobic and Anaerobic Bacteria

Active drug efflux constitutes an important mechanism of antibiotic and multidrug resistance in bacteria. Understanding the distribution, expression, and physiological functions of multidrug efflux pumps, especially under physiologically and clinically relevant conditions of the pathogens, is the key to combat drug resistance. In animal hosts, most wounded, infected and inflamed tissues display low oxygen tensions. In this article, we summarize research development on multidrug efflux pumps in the medicinally relevant microaerobic and anaerobic pathogens and their implications in the effort to combat drug-resistant infections

Meditation and Madness. Ancient and Contemporary Speculation on Chinese Bird Totem Art

By comparing the forms, meanings and connotations of ancient and contemporary bird symbols, I realize that the driving force for writing this article up to now lies in my judgment on the present situation of bird symbol vision field, especially the idea of building a bridge between the conceptual world and the bird image world. I think the problem is not that ideas are dispensable to human beings, but that bird symbols of different forms and rhythms have invaded the structure of the world of ideas crazily. The so-called contemporary bird symbol has completely succumbed to the charm of discourse, which is a very bad situation for bird images. They often become a specific tool to convey a certain language. Therefore, it is an urgent task for today's art to restore the concept of prehistoric bird totem's visual sense and preserve its general inspiration. By integrating the thoughts of Socrates, the founder of Mania, and Foucault, a modernist philosopher, the author tries to deeply grasp the relationship between deep thinking mania and the meaning behind prehistoric bird totem art in the study of bird totem art, hoping that this study will help the audience to understand the relevance between ancient and contemporary bird totem art from a theoretical perspective

Research on the Migration of the Total Manganese during the Process of Water Icing

Our research focused on the migration law of the total manganese (TMn) during the process of water icing. We utilized two experimental methods: (1) natural icing and (2) simulated icing. While using laboratory simulation, we explored the effects of ice thickness, freezing temperature, and initial concentrations on the migration of TMn in the ice-water system. The distribution coefficient “K” (the ratio of the average concentration of TMn in the ice body to the average concentration of TMn in the under-ice water body) was used to characterize it. The results indicated that TMn continuously migrated from ice to under-ice water during the process of water icing. The concentration of TMn in the ice was the upper layer < middle layer < lower layer, and K decreases as the ice thickness, freezing temperature, and initial concentration increased. We explained the migration of TMn during the process of water icing from the perspective of crystallography. Our research can arouse other researcher’s attention towards the change of TMn concentration in lakes in high latitudes during the icebound period

Comparative genome and transcriptome analysis reveals distinctive surface characteristics and unique physiological potentials of Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853

Abstract Background Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853 was isolated from a hospital blood specimen in 1971 and has been widely used as a model strain to survey antibiotics susceptibilities, biofilm development, and metabolic activities of Pseudomonas spp.. Although four draft genomes of P. aeruginosa ATCC 27853 have been sequenced, the complete genome of this strain is still lacking, hindering a comprehensive understanding of its physiology and functional genome. Results Here we sequenced and assembled the complete genome of P. aeruginosa ATCC 27853 using the Pacific Biosciences SMRT (PacBio) technology and Illumina sequencing platform. We found that accessory genes of ATCC 27853 including prophages and genomic islands (GIs) mainly contribute to the difference between P. aeruginosa ATCC 27853 and other P. aeruginosa strains. Seven prophages were identified within the genome of P. aeruginosa ATCC 27853. Of the predicted 25 GIs, three contain genes that encode monoxoygenases, dioxygenases and hydrolases that could be involved in the metabolism of aromatic compounds. Surveying virulence-related genes revealed that a series of genes that encode the B-band O-antigen of LPS are lacking in ATCC 27853. Distinctive SNPs in genes of cellular adhesion proteins such as type IV pili and flagella biosynthesis were also observed in this strain. Colony morphology analysis confirmed an enhanced biofilm formation capability of ATCC 27853 on solid agar surface compared to Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1. We then performed transcriptome analysis of ATCC 27853 and PAO1 using RNA-seq and compared the expression of orthologous genes to understand the functional genome and the genomic details underlying the distinctive colony morphogenesis. These analyses revealed an increased expression of genes involved in cellular adhesion and biofilm maturation such as type IV pili, exopolysaccharide and electron transport chain components in ATCC 27853 compared with PAO1. In addition, distinctive expression profiles of the virulence genes lecA, lasB, quorum sensing regulators LasI/R, and the type I, III and VI secretion systems were observed in the two strains. Conclusions The complete genome sequence of P. aeruginosa ATCC 27853 reveals the comprehensive genetic background of the strain, and provides genetic basis for several interesting findings about the functions of surface associated proteins, prophages, and genomic islands. Comparative transcriptome analysis of P. aeruginosa ATCC 27853 and PAO1 revealed several classes of differentially expressed genes in the two strains, underlying the genetic and molecular details of several known and yet to be explored morphological and physiological potentials of P. aeruginosa ATCC 27853