6 research outputs found
Improving Zero-shot Reader by Reducing Distractions from Irrelevant Documents in Open-Domain Question Answering
Large language models (LLMs) enable zero-shot approaches in open-domain
question answering (ODQA), yet with limited advancements as the reader is
compared to the retriever. This study aims at the feasibility of a zero-shot
reader that addresses the challenges of computational cost and the need for
labeled data. We find that LLMs are distracted due to irrelevant documents in
the retrieved set and the overconfidence of the generated answers when they are
exploited as zero-shot readers. To tackle these problems, we mitigate the
impact of such documents via Distraction-aware Answer Selection (DAS) with a
negation-based instruction and score adjustment for proper answer selection.
Experimental results show that our approach successfully handles distraction
across diverse scenarios, enhancing the performance of zero-shot readers.
Furthermore, unlike supervised readers struggling with unseen data, zero-shot
readers demonstrate outstanding transferability without any training.Comment: Findings of EMNLP 2023 Camera Read
Real-time Triangulation of Molecular Surfaces
Abstract. Protein consists of a set of atoms. Given a protein, the molecular surface of the protein is defined with respect to a probe approximating a solvent molecule. This paper presents an efficient, as efficient as the realtime, algorithm to triangulate the blending surfaces which is the most critical subset of a molecular surface. For the quick evaluation of points on the surface, the proposed algorithm uses masks which are similar in their concepts to those in subdivision surfaces. More fundamentally, the proposed algorithm takes advantage of the concise representation of topology among atoms stored in the β-shape which is indeed used in the computation of the blending surface itself. Given blending surfaces and the corresponding β-shape, the proposed algorithm triangulates the blending surfaces in O(c · m) time in the worst case, where m is the number of boundary atoms in the protein and c is the number of point evaluations on a patch in the blending surface
Neuronal Migration on Silicon Microcone Arrays with Different Pitches
Neuronal migration is a complicated but fundamental process for proper construction and functioning of neural circuits in the brain. Many in vivo studies have suggested the involvement of environmental physical features of a neuron in its migration, but little effort has been made for the in vitro demonstration of topography-driven neuronal migration. This work investigates migratory behaviors of primary hippocampal neurons on a silicon microcone (SiMC) array that presents 14 different pitch domains (pitch: 2.5-7.3 mu m). Neuronal migration becomes the maximum at the pitch of around 3 mu m, with an upper migration threshold of about 4 mu m. Immunocytochemical studies indicate that the speed and direction of migration, as well as its probability of occurrence, are correlated with the morphology of the neuron, which is dictated by the pitch and shape of underlying SiMC structures. In addition to the effects on neuronal migration, the real-time imaging of migrating neurons on the topographical substrate reveals new in vitro modes of neuronal migration, which have not been observed on the conventional flat culture plate, but been suggested by in vivo studies.11Nsciescopu
An Aqueous Extract of Herbal Medicine ALWPs Enhances Cognitive Performance and Inhibits LPS-Induced Neuroinflammation via FAK/NF-κB Signaling Pathways
Recent studies have shown that Liuwei Dihuang pills (LWPs) can positively affect learning, memory and neurogenesis. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms are not understood. In the present study, we developed ALWPs, a mixture of Antler and LWPs, and investigated whether ALWPs can affect neuroinflammatory responses. We found that ALWPs (500 mg/ml) inhibited lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced proinflammatory cytokine IL-1β mRNA levels in BV2 microglial cells but not primary astrocytes. ALWPs significantly reduced LPS-induced cell-surface levels of TLR4 to alter neuroinflammation. An examination of the molecular mechanisms by which ALWPs regulate the LPS-induced proinflammatory response revealed that ALWPs significantly downregulated LPS-induced levels of FAK phosphorylation, suggesting that ALWPs modulate FAK signaling to alter LPS-induced IL-1β levels. In addition, treatment with ALWPs followed by LPS resulted in decreased levels of the transcription factor NF-κB in the nucleus compared with LPS alone. Moreover, ALWPs significantly suppressed LPS-induced BV2 microglial cell migration. To examine whether ALWPs modulate learning and memory in vivo, wild-type C57BL/6J mice were orally administered ALWPs (200 mg/kg) or PBS daily for 3 days, intraperitoneally injected (i.p.) with LPS (250 μg/kg) or PBS, and assessed in Y maze and NOR tests. We observed that oral administration of ALWPs to LPS-injected wild-type C57BL/6J mice significantly rescued short- and long-term memory. More importantly, oral administration of ALWPs to LPS-injected wild-type C57BL/6J mice significantly reduced microglial activation in the hippocampus and cortex. Taken together, our results suggest that ALWPs can suppress neuroinflammation-associated cognitive deficits and that ALWPs have potential as a drug for neuroinflammation/neurodegeneration-related diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD)