MindLLM: Pre-training Lightweight Large Language Model from Scratch, Evaluations and Domain Applications

Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable performance across various natural language tasks, marking significant strides towards general artificial intelligence. While general artificial intelligence is leveraged by developing increasingly large-scale models, there could be another branch to develop lightweight custom models that better serve certain domains, taking into account the high cost of training and deploying LLMs and the scarcity of resources. In this paper, we present MindLLM, a novel series of bilingual lightweight large language models, trained from scratch, alleviating such burdens by offering models with 1.3 billion and 3 billion parameters. A thorough account of experiences accrued during large model development is given, covering every step of the process, including data construction, model architecture, evaluation, and applications. Such insights are hopefully valuable for fellow academics and developers. MindLLM consistently matches or surpasses the performance of other open-source larger models on some public benchmarks. We also introduce an innovative instruction tuning framework tailored for smaller models to enhance their capabilities efficiently. Moreover, we explore the application of MindLLM in specific vertical domains such as law and finance, underscoring the agility and adaptability of our lightweight models.Comment: Working in progres

Nicotine Induces Resistance to Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor by α1 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor–Mediated Activation in PC9 Cells

IntroductionNicotine, the major component among the 4000 identified chemicals in cigarette smoke, binds to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) on non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells and regulates cellular proliferation by activating mitogen-activated protein kinases [AQ: MAPK has been expanded to mitogen-activated protein kinases. Please approve.]and PI3K/Akt pathways. In patients with smoking-related lung cancer who continue smoking, the anticancer effect of epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI) is weaker than that in nonsmokers; however, the precise reason for this difference remains unclear. We investigated the role of α1 nAChR subunit in this phenomenon.MethodsWe screened for α1 nAChR mRNA in three NSCLC cell lines and analyzed the protein in resected primary NSCLC tissues. We used Western blot and RNA interference (siRNA) methodology to confirm the results.ResultsWe determined that α1 nAChR plays an essential role in nicotine-induced cell signaling and nicotine-induced resistance to EGFR-TKI. In addition, we showed that silencing of α1 nAChR subunit in NSCLC may suppress the nicotine-induced resistance to EGFR-TKI.ConclusionsThese results further implicate nicotine in lung carcinogenesis, and suggest that α1 nAChR may be a biomarker for EGFR-TKI treatment and also a personalizing target molecule for patients with smoking-related lung cancer

The Magnetic Properties of Closely Spaced Three-Dimensional Nanomagnet Array

With Monte Carlo method, we investigate the magnetic ground state, magnetic specific heat, and magnetic hysteresis loop for three types of closely spaced nanomagnet arrays in three-dimensional (3D) space. It is found that the magnetic ground state of three nanomagnet arrays exhibits the vortex order, caused by the long-range dipolar interactions. Three types of nanomagnet arrays have almost the same magnetic transition temperature even if their array formation in 3D triangular lattice is different. Some slight jump occurs in the hysteresis loop of the face-centered cubic nanomagnet array, while for the simple hexagonal nanomagnet and close-packed hexagonal nanomagnet arrays no jump is found

High-efficiency 100-W Kerr-lens mode-locked Yb:YAG thin-disk oscillator

We demonstrate a Kerr-lens mode-locked femtosecond Yb:YAG thin-disk oscillator and investigate the approach to increase the optical-to-optical efficiency based on the scheme of direct multiple passes of the laser beam through the thin-disk medium. With twelve passes through the thin disk, 266-fs pulses were delivered from the oscillator with an average power of 105.6 W at a repetition rate of 20 MHz. The corresponding optical-to-optical efficiency is 31.1%, which is, to the best of our knowledge, the highest efficiency of any mode-locked thin-disk oscillator with pulse duration below 300 fs. This demonstration paves the way to even more efficient mode-locked femtosecond thin-disk oscillators, and provides an excellent laser source for the applications such as non-linear frequency conversion and high-precision industrial processing

The Relationship between Social Support and Depression in University students: The Meaning in Life as Mediation

This study aims to explore the relationship between social support, meaning in life and depression, and further explore the mediating role of meaning in life between social support and depression. This survey of 287 university students were investigated with the short version of Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D-13), the Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS), and the Chinese Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ). The results showed that: (1)The junior is the most serious period of depressive symptoms(11.33±7.019), and also an important turning point; (2) Non-only-child (10.23±6.713) were significantly higher than the only-child (9.02±6.230) about depressive symptoms (p=0.0368); (3)The depression were significantly negatively correlated with social support (r=-0.35, p<0.01) and the meaning in life(r=0.39, p<0.01), but there was a significant negative correlation between the meaning in life and social support (r=0.28, p<0.01); (4) The meaning in life plays a partial mediating role between social supports and depressive symptoms in university students. This research provides theoretical evidence for the prevention and intervention of university students’ depression from two aspects of social support and meaning in life