PreWoMe: Exploiting Presuppositions as Working Memory for Long Form Question Answering

Information-seeking questions in long-form question answering (LFQA) often prove misleading due to ambiguity or false presupposition in the question. While many existing approaches handle misleading questions, they are tailored to limited questions, which are insufficient in a real-world setting with unpredictable input characteristics. In this work, we propose PreWoMe, a unified approach capable of handling any type of information-seeking question. The key idea of PreWoMe involves extracting presuppositions in the question and exploiting them as working memory to generate feedback and action about the question. Our experiment shows that PreWoMe is effective not only in tackling misleading questions but also in handling normal ones, thereby demonstrating the effectiveness of leveraging presuppositions, feedback, and action for real-world QA settings.Comment: 11 pages 3 figures, Accepted to EMNLP 2023 (short

Promoting Thermal Conductivity of Alumina-Based Composite Materials by Systematically Incorporating Modified Graphene Oxide

Small amounts of thermally conductive graphene oxide (GO) and modified GO are systematically introduced as a second filler to thermal interface materials (TIMs) consisting of alumina (Al2O3) particles and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The surface of GO is covalently linked with an organic moiety, octadecylamine (ODA), to significantly improve the miscibility and dispersity of GO across the TIM matrix. Subsequently, two series of PDMS-Al2O3 composite TIMs are manufactured as a function of GO and ODA-GO content (0.25 wt%–2.5 wt%) to understand the effect of these second additives. The incorporation of GO into the Al2O3-PDMS composite materials generally increases the thermal conductivity (TC), ranging from 18% to 29%. Conversely, the use of ODA-GO further enhances the overall performance of TIMs (22–54%) by facilitating the dispersion degree of GO across the composite matrix. The great improvement in TC is presumably related to the formation of conductive pathways by uniformly integrating 2D-type GO flakes across spherical Al2O3 particle networks. The ability to simply regulate the polarity of the thermally conductive second filler can provide an idea for designing cost-effective and practical TIM-2-type pads that can be commercially applicable in between an integrated heat spreader and a heat sink

Vacancy driven surface disorder catalyzes anisotropic evaporation of ZnO (0001) polar surface

The evaporation and crystal growth rates of ZnO are highly anisotropic and are fastest on the Zn-terminated ZnO (0001) polar surface. Herein, we study this behavior by direct atomic-scale observations and simulations of the dynamic processes of the ZnO (0001) polar surface during evaporation. The evaporation of the (0001) polar surface is accelerated dramatically at around 300 °C with the spontaneous formation of a few nanometer-thick quasi-liquid layer. This structurally disordered and chemically Zn-deficient quasi-liquid is derived from the formation and inward diffusion of Zn vacancies that stabilize the (0001) polar surface. The quasi-liquid controls the dissociative evaporation of ZnO with establishing steady state reactions with Zn and O$_{2}$ vapors and the underlying ZnO crystal; while the quasi-liquid catalyzes the disordering of ZnO lattice by injecting Zn vacancies, it facilitates the desorption of O$_{2}$ molecules. This study reveals that the polarity-driven surface disorder is the key structural feature driving the fast anisotropic evaporation and crystal growth of ZnO nanostructures along the [0001] direction

In Situ NMR Study on the Interaction between LiBH_4–Ca(BH_4)_2 and Mesoporous Scaffolds

We discuss the use of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to investigate the physical state of the eutectic composition of LiBH_(4)–Ca(BH_4)_2 (LC) infiltrated into mesoporous scaffolds and the interface effect of various scaffolds. Eutectic melting and the melt infiltration of mixed borohydrides were observed through in situ NMR. In situ and ex situ NMR results for LC mixed with mesoporous scaffolds indicate that LiBH_4 and Ca(BH_4)_2 exist as an amorphous mixture inside of the pores after infiltration. Surprisingly, the confinement of the eutectic LC mixture within the mesopores is initiated below the melting temperature, which indicates a certain interaction between the borohydrides and the mesoporous scaffolds. The confined borohydrides remain inside of the pores after cooling. These phenomena were not observed in microporous or nonporous materials, and this observation highlights the importance of the pore structure of the scaffolds. Such surface interactions may be associated with a faster dehydrogenation of the nanoconfined borohydrides

Vacancy driven surface disorder catalyzes anisotropic evaporation of ZnO (0001) polar surface

Evaporation and crystal growth occur at different rates on different surfaces. Here authors show dissociative evaporation from ZnO (0001) polar surfaces is accelerated by the formation of a Zn-deficient quasi-liquid layer derived from the formation and inward diffusion of Zn vacancies that stabilize the polar surface. The evaporation and crystal growth rates of ZnO are highly anisotropic and are fastest on the Zn-terminated ZnO (0001) polar surface. Herein, we study this behavior by direct atomic-scale observations and simulations of the dynamic processes of the ZnO (0001) polar surface during evaporation. The evaporation of the (0001) polar surface is accelerated dramatically at around 300 degrees C with the spontaneous formation of a few nanometer-thick quasi-liquid layer. This structurally disordered and chemically Zn-deficient quasi-liquid is derived from the formation and inward diffusion of Zn vacancies that stabilize the (0001) polar surface. The quasi-liquid controls the dissociative evaporation of ZnO with establishing steady state reactions with Zn and O-2 vapors and the underlying ZnO crystal; while the quasi-liquid catalyzes the disordering of ZnO lattice by injecting Zn vacancies, it facilitates the desorption of O-2 molecules. This study reveals that the polarity-driven surface disorder is the key structural feature driving the fast anisotropic evaporation and crystal growth of ZnO nanostructures along the [0001] direction

N-benzyl-N-methyldecan-1-amine and its derivative mitigate 2,4- dinitrobenzenesulfonic acid-induced colitis and collagen-induced rheumatoid arthritis

As our previous study revealed that N-benzyl-N-methyldecan-1-amine (BMDA), a new molecule originated from Allium sativum, exhibits anti-neoplastic activities, we herein explored other functions of the compound and its derivative [decyl-(4-methoxy-benzyl)-methyl-amine; DMMA] including anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative activities. Pretreatment of THP-1 cells with BMDA or DMMA inhibited tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin (IL)-1β production, and blocked c-jun terminal kinase (JNK), p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), MAPKAP kinase (MK)2 and NF-κΒ inflammatory signaling during LPS stimulation. Rectal treatment with BMDA or DMMA reduced the severity of colitis in 2,4-dinitrobenzenesulfonic acid (DNBS)-treated rat. Consistently, administration of the compounds decreased myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity (representing neutrophil infiltration in colonic mucosa), production of inflammatory mediators such as cytokine-induced neutrophil chemoattractant (CINC)-3 and TNF-α, and activation of JNK and p38 MAPK in the colon tissues. In addition, oral administration of these compounds ameliorated collagen-induced rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in mice. The treatment diminished the levels of inflammatory cytokine transcripts, and protected connective tissues through the expression of anti-oxidation proteins such as nuclear factor erythroid-related factor (Nrf)2 and heme oxygenase (HO)1. Additionally, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels did not differ between the BMDA- or DMMA-treated and control animals, indicating that the compounds do not possess liver toxicity. Taken together, these findings propose that BMDA and DMMA could be used as new drugs for curing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and RA

Prediction of protein assemblies, the next frontier: The CASP14-CAPRI experiment

We present the results for CAPRI Round 50, the fourth joint CASP-CAPRI protein assembly prediction challenge. The Round comprised a total of twelve targets, including six dimers, three trimers, and three higher-order oligomers. Four of these were easy targets, for which good structural templates were available either for the full assembly, or for the main interfaces (of the higher-order oligomers). Eight were difficult targets for which only distantly related templates were found for the individual subunits. Twenty-five CAPRI groups including eight automatic servers submitted ~1250 models per target. Twenty groups including six servers participated in the CAPRI scoring challenge submitted ~190 models per target. The accuracy of the predicted models was evaluated using the classical CAPRI criteria. The prediction performance was measured by a weighted scoring scheme that takes into account the number of models of acceptable quality or higher submitted by each group as part of their five top-ranking models. Compared to the previous CASP-CAPRI challenge, top performing groups submitted such models for a larger fraction (70–75%) of the targets in this Round, but fewer of these models were of high accuracy. Scorer groups achieved stronger performance with more groups submitting correct models for 70–80% of the targets or achieving high accuracy predictions. Servers performed less well in general, except for the MDOCKPP and LZERD servers, who performed on par with human groups. In addition to these results, major advances in methodology are discussed, providing an informative overview of where the prediction of protein assemblies currently stands.Cancer Research UK, Grant/Award Number: FC001003; Changzhou Science and Technology Bureau, Grant/Award Number: CE20200503; Department of Energy and Climate Change, Grant/Award Numbers: DE-AR001213, DE-SC0020400, DE-SC0021303; H2020 European Institute of Innovation and Technology, Grant/Award Numbers: 675728, 777536, 823830; Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique (INRIA), Grant/Award Number: Cordi-S; Lietuvos Mokslo Taryba, Grant/Award Numbers: S-MIP-17-60, S-MIP-21-35; Medical Research Council, Grant/Award Number: FC001003; Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI, Grant/Award Number: JP19J00950; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Grant/Award Number: PID2019-110167RB-I00; Narodowe Centrum Nauki, Grant/Award Numbers: UMO-2017/25/B/ST4/01026, UMO-2017/26/M/ST4/00044, UMO-2017/27/B/ST4/00926; National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Grant/Award Numbers: R21GM127952, R35GM118078, RM1135136, T32GM132024; National Institutes of Health, Grant/Award Numbers: R01GM074255, R01GM078221, R01GM093123, R01GM109980, R01GM133840, R01GN123055, R01HL142301, R35GM124952, R35GM136409; National Natural Science Foundation of China, Grant/Award Number: 81603152; National Science Foundation, Grant/Award Numbers: AF1645512, CCF1943008, CMMI1825941, DBI1759277, DBI1759934, DBI1917263, DBI20036350, IIS1763246, MCB1925643; NWO, Grant/Award Number: TOP-PUNT 718.015.001; Wellcome Trust, Grant/Award Number: FC00100

Two Essays on Governments Devolving Fiscal Authority to Lower-Level Actors

Over the past decades, there have been efforts across the globe to break the grip of the centralized power of government and devolve authority to lower-level actors. The devolution of authority in the governance system can take place in various ways: the central government can devolve authority, responsibility, and functions to local governments; or a local government can delegate its authority to make policy decisions to the citizenry, for example, as a form of public participation. In a broad sense, we can group all these government activities to devolve power to lower-level actors and call it “decentralization.” This dissertation attempts to advance our understanding of the devolution of fiscal authority to lower-level actors, focusing on the two fiscal devolution mechanisms—participatory budgeting and fiscal decentralization. This dissertation consists of two essays. Chapter 2 focuses on the topic of participatory budgeting—a mechanism that devolves fiscal authority from local governments to the public. Specifically, this dissertation poses a research question that has not previously received much attention from scholars: does participatory budgeting affect the fiscal outcomes of local governments? By analyzing participatory budgeting data on South Korean local governments over the period 2012–2018, the first essay finds that participation and deliberation of citizens in the participatory budgeting process have positive effects on the fiscal outcomes of local governments. I attribute this positive impact to increased municipal budget transparency and improved budget literacy of citizens that resulted from reduced information asymmetry between citizens and government officials in the participatory budgeting process. Chapter 3 focuses on the fiscal devolution occurring between different tiers of governments—the central government and local governments. This study investigates the effects of fiscal decentralization in South Korea on the composition of local government expenditures. The findings indicate that fiscal decentralization leads to strategic behaviors of local governments by adjusting the composition of expenditures in each functional category. Overall, the findings confirm the earlier argument that local governments strategically make spending decisions to influence the location of households and capital. These strategic spending decisions can ultimately have a positive impact on economic growth but the finding also warns that fiscal decentralization can lead to a systemic distortion of local spending if the local governments make fiscal decisions in isolation without corrective measures applied in the decentralization process

Surface Wind Regionalization Based on Similarity of Time-series Wind Vectors

In the complex terrain where local wind systems are formed, accurate understanding of regional wind variability is required for wind resource assessment. In this paper, cluster analysis based on the similarity of time-series wind vector was applied to classify wind regions with similar wind characteristics and the meteorological validity of regionalization method was evaluated. Wind regions in Jeju Island and Busan were classified using the wind resource map of Korea created by a mesoscale numerical weather prediction modeling. The evaluation was performed by comparing wind speed, wind direction, and wind variability of each wind region. Wind characteristics, such as mean wind speed and prevailing wind direction, in the same wind region were similar and wind characteristics in different wind regions were meteor-statistically distinct. It was able to identify a singular wind region at the top area of Mt. Halla using the inconsistency of wind direction variability. Furthermore, it was found that the regionalization results correspond with the topographic features of Jeju Island and Busan, showing the validity.Y