TeacherLM: Teaching to Fish Rather Than Giving the Fish, Language Modeling Likewise

Large Language Models (LLMs) exhibit impressive reasoning and data augmentation capabilities in various NLP tasks. However, what about small models? In this work, we propose TeacherLM-7.1B, capable of annotating relevant fundamentals, chain of thought, and common mistakes for most NLP samples, which makes annotation more than just an answer, thus allowing other models to learn "why" instead of just "what". The TeacherLM-7.1B model achieved a zero-shot score of 52.3 on MMLU, surpassing most models with over 100B parameters. Even more remarkable is its data augmentation ability. Based on TeacherLM-7.1B, we augmented 58 NLP datasets and taught various student models with different parameters from OPT and BLOOM series in a multi-task setting. The experimental results indicate that the data augmentation provided by TeacherLM has brought significant benefits. We will release the TeacherLM series of models and augmented datasets as open-source.Comment: 5 figures, 15 page

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

DNA binding and cleavage modes of shishijimicin A

Although shishijimicin A and its extreme potencies against an array of cancer cell lines have been known for more than a decade, its assumed DNA-cleaving mechanism has not been substantiated as yet. Herein we report studies that reveal binding and scission of double-stranded DNA by shishijimicin A. The results of these studies support the proposed hypothesis that DNA strand scissions are caused by 1,4-benzenoid diradicals formed by Bergman cycloaromatization of the enediyne core of shishijimicin A upon activation by thiols. In addition, double-stranded supercoiled DNA-cleavage experiments with shishijimicin A in competition with known minor groove binders, UV spectroscopic studies, and electrophoretic analysis were utilized to clarify the binding mode of the molecule to DNA. These investigations indicate that shishijimicin A binds to the minor groove of double-stranded DNA and that its β-carboline moiety plays a role in the binding through intercalation. In addition, due to the fact that naked linker regions of DNA in the interphase and metaphase of eukaryotic cells are unprotected by histone proteins during entire cell cycles and because these unprotected regions of DNA are vulnerable to attack by DNA binders, it was concluded that the observed double-strand DNA cleavage and very low sequence selectivity by shishijimicin A may account for its extraordinary cytotoxicity.Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)T.L., H.Z, and S.B. acknowledge support by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore (SERC A1883c0007). K.C.N., E.N.P., R.L., and Z.L. acknowledge support by the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), The Welch Foundation (grant C-1819), AbbVie Stemcentrx, and Rice University

Adsorption of Myricetrin, Puerarin, Naringin, Rutin, and Neohesperidin Dihydrochalcone Flavonoids on Macroporous Resins

The adsorption properties (equilibrium, kinetics, and column breakthrough) of five model flavonoids (myricetrin, puerarin, naringin, rutin and neohesperidin dihydrochalcone) on selected macroporous resins were investigated in order to identify a suitable resin adsorbent for effective separation and purification of flavonoids from the extracts of herbal plants. It was observed that the resins with a low polarity and a high specific surface area have high adsorption capacities for all five flavonoids. Both the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm equations correlate well the adsorption equilibrium data of the five flavonoids on four selected resins, and adsorption enthalpy, entropy, and free energy of the five flavonoids on HPD300 resin were calculated from the adsorption isotherms by the Freundlich equation constants. The pseudo-second-order adsorption rate equation fits the kinetic data on four selected resins better than the pseudo-first-order adsorption rate equation, and the initial adsorption rates were calculated and discussed. The HPD300 resin was selected as the most promising adsorbent for a preliminary separation and purification of flavonoids because of its excellent adsorption/desorption properties including high adsorption rates for all five flavonoids. The adsorption breakthrough experiment with a synthetic flavonoid mixture solution on the HPD300 resin further confirmed that the HPD300 resin can separate the five flavonoids effectively, especially for purifying neohesperidin dihydrochalcone from the flavonoid mixtures

Total Synthesis and Full Structural Assignment of Namenamicin

Namenamicin is a rare natural product possessing potent cytotoxic properties that may prove useful as a lead compound for payloads of antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs). Its scarcity, coupled with the uncertainty of its full absolute configuration, elevates it to an attractive synthetic target. Herein we describe the total synthesis of the two C7′-epimers of namena­micin and assign its complete structure, opening the way for further chemical and biological studies toward the discovery of potent payloads for ADCs directed toward targeted cancer therapies

Total Synthesis of Shishijimicin A

The total synthesis of the rare but extremely potent antitumor agent shishijimicin A has been achieved via a convergent strategy involving carboline disaccharide <b>3</b> and hydroxy enediyne thioacetate <b>4</b>