End-to-End Quantum-like Language Models with Application to Question Answering

Language Modeling (LM) is a fundamental research topic ina range of areas. Recently, inspired by quantum theory, a novel Quantum Language Model (QLM) has been proposed for Information Retrieval (IR). In this paper, we aim to broaden the theoretical and practical basis of QLM. We develop a Neural Network based Quantum-like Language Model (NNQLM) and apply it to Question Answering. Specifically, based on word embeddings, we design a new density matrix, which represents a sentence (e.g., a question or an answer) and encodes a mixture of semantic subspaces. Such a density matrix, together with a joint representation of the question and the answer, can be integrated into neural network architectures (e.g., 2-dimensional convolutional neural networks). Experiments on the TREC-QA and WIKIQA datasets have verified the effectiveness of our proposed models

A Multiobjective Computation Offloading Algorithm for Mobile Edge Computing

In mobile edge computing (MEC), smart mobile devices (SMDs) with limited computation resources and battery lifetime can offload their computing-intensive tasks to MEC servers, thus to enhance the computing capability and reduce the energy consumption of SMDs. Nevertheless, offloading tasks to the edge incurs additional transmission time and thus higher execution delay. This paper studies the trade-off between the completion time of applications and the energy consumption of SMDs in MEC networks. The problem is formulated as a multiobjective computation offloading problem (MCOP), where the task precedence, i.e. ordering of tasks in SMD applications, is introduced as a new constraint in the MCOP. An improved multiobjective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition (MOEA/D) with two performance enhancing schemes is proposed.1) The problem-specific population initialization scheme uses a latency-based execution location initialization method to initialize the execution location (i.e. either local SMD or MEC server) for each task. 2) The dynamic voltage and frequency scaling based energy conservation scheme helps to decrease the energy consumption without increasing the completion time of applications. The simulation results clearly demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms a number of state-of-the-art heuristics and meta-heuristics in terms of the convergence and diversity of the obtained nondominated solutions

ConFiguRe: Exploring Discourse-level Chinese Figures of Speech

Figures of speech, such as metaphor and irony, are ubiquitous in literature works and colloquial conversations. This poses great challenge for natural language understanding since figures of speech usually deviate from their ostensible meanings to express deeper semantic implications. Previous research lays emphasis on the literary aspect of figures and seldom provide a comprehensive exploration from a view of computational linguistics. In this paper, we first propose the concept of figurative unit, which is the carrier of a figure. Then we select 12 types of figures commonly used in Chinese, and build a Chinese corpus for Contextualized Figure Recognition (ConFiguRe). Different from previous token-level or sentence-level counterparts, ConFiguRe aims at extracting a figurative unit from discourse-level context, and classifying the figurative unit into the right figure type. On ConFiguRe, three tasks, i.e., figure extraction, figure type classification and figure recognition, are designed and the state-of-the-art techniques are utilized to implement the benchmarks. We conduct thorough experiments and show that all three tasks are challenging for existing models, thus requiring further research. Our dataset and code are publicly available at https://github.com/pku-tangent/ConFiguRe.Comment: Accepted to Coling 202

Accelerating-particle-deposition Method for Quickly Evaluating Long-term Performance of Fin-and-tube Heat Exchangers

Fin-and-tube heat exchanger is the most commonly used heat exchanger type in air-conditioning systems. In the actual operation of air-conditioning systems, the dust particles involved in the air may partly deposit and form particulate fouling on fins and tubes when the dusty air flows through the heat exchangers. The deposited particles may gradually block the passageway of air flow and occupy the heat transfer area, which results in the continuous increase of air side thermal resistance and the significant deterioration of the heat transfer capacity of heat exchangers during the long-term operation. In order to quickly evaluate the long-term performance of fin-and-tube heat exchangers, an accelerating-particle-deposition method, which is capable of implementing the particle deposition process on the long-running heat exchangers in a short time, is proposed in this study. The idea of the accelerating-particle-deposition method is to employ high concentration dusty air flow through heat exchangers in the accelerated test, and to quickly form the particulate fouling with the same weight as that on long-running heat exchangers under the actual operating environment with low particle concentration. The accelerating factor, which is defined as the ratio of the actual running time to the accelerated testing time, is calculated based on the deposition weight of dust particles. The deposition weight is calculated by the relationship of the impact frequency and deposition probability of dust particles with the particle concentration of dusty air. An experimental apparatus for accelerating the particle deposition process and testing the heat transfer capacity of fin-and-tube heat exchangers is designed. The predicted long-term performances of heat exchangers based on the proposed accelerating-particle-deposition method are compared with the actual performance data of heat exchangers after 5-8 years’ operation published by China Quality Certification Center. The comparison results show that, the predicted results agree well with the actual operation data, and the mean deviation of the heat transfer capacity is within 10%

Virulence of H5N1 virus in mice attenuates after in vitro serial passages

The virulence of A/Vietnam/1194/2004 (VN1194) in mice attenuated after serial passages in MDCK cells and chicken embryos, because the enriched large-plaque variants of the virus had significantly reduced virulence. In contrast, the small-plaque variants of the virus and the variants isolated from the brain of mice that were infected with the parental virus VN1194 had much higher virulence in mice. The virulence attenuation of serially propagated virus may be caused by the reduced neurotropism in mice. Our whole genome sequence analysis revealed substitutions of a total of two amino acids in PB1, three in PB2, two in PA common for virulence attenuated variants, all or part of which may be correlated with the virulence attenuation and reduced neurotropism of the serially propagated VN1194 in mice. Our study indicates that serial passages of VN1194 in vitro lead to adaptation and selection of variants that have markedly decreased virulence and neurotropism, which emphasizes the importance of direct analysis of original or less propagated virus samples

Biodistribution in sarcoma 180-bearing mice of N-succinyl-chitosan nanoparticles for tumor targeting

In the present study, we sought to systemically evaluate the biodistribution and the tumor-accumulation of N-succinyl-chitosan nanoparticles (Suc-Chi-NPs, 200 nm in diameter) in model tumor-bearing mice and also the binding of Suc-Chi-NPs to k562 cells was evaluated by flow cytometry. In vitro studies showed that all Suc-Chi-NPs displayed high affinity to k562 cells. After intravenous injection of Suc- Chi-NPs via the tail vein, a small amount of Suc-Chi-NPs was found in liver and spleen for 4 days, whereas a negligible quantity was detected in heart and lung. The distributed amount of Suc-Chi-NPs in blood was as a high level throughout the 4 days. The distributed amount of Suc-Chi-NPs (> 15 % of dose) was accumulated at 1 day and gradually increased in tumor, as blood circulation time increased. This result suggests that Suc-Chi-NPs accumulate passively in the tumor tissue due to the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect, following intravenous administration. These findings revealed the promising potential of Suc-Chi-NPs on the basis of Suc-Chi as a carrier for cancer therapy.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire