Enhanced Meta-Learning for Cross-lingual Named Entity Recognition with Minimal Resources

For languages with no annotated resources, transferring knowledge from rich-resource languages is an effective solution for named entity recognition (NER). While all existing methods directly transfer from source-learned model to a target language, in this paper, we propose to fine-tune the learned model with a few similar examples given a test case, which could benefit the prediction by leveraging the structural and semantic information conveyed in such similar examples. To this end, we present a meta-learning algorithm to find a good model parameter initialization that could fast adapt to the given test case and propose to construct multiple pseudo-NER tasks for meta-training by computing sentence similarities. To further improve the model's generalization ability across different languages, we introduce a masking scheme and augment the loss function with an additional maximum term during meta-training. We conduct extensive experiments on cross-lingual named entity recognition with minimal resources over five target languages. The results show that our approach significantly outperforms existing state-of-the-art methods across the board.Comment: This paper is accepted by AAAI2020. Code is available at https://github.com/microsoft/vert-papers/tree/master/papers/Meta-Cros

Challenges and perspectives in computational deconvolution in genomics data

Deciphering cell type heterogeneity is crucial for systematically understanding tissue homeostasis and its dysregulation in diseases. Computational deconvolution is an efficient approach to estimate cell type abundances from a variety of omics data. Despite significant methodological progress in computational deconvolution in recent years, challenges are still outstanding. Here we enlist four significant challenges from availability of the reference data, generation of simulation data, limitations of computational methodologies, and benchmarking design and implementation. Finally, we make recommendations on reference data generation, new directions of computational methodologies and strategies to promote rigorous benchmarking

Micropore Structure Characteristics and Recoverability Evaluation of Typical Shale Oil Reservoirs

In view of the weak research on the availability of typical shale oil reservoirs from the perspective of development, this study introduced a two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) evaluation method on the basis of the previous one-dimensional NMR combined with centrifugal physical simulation experiments. Not only the production characteristics of typical shale oil reservoirs were studied but also the microscopic production laws of different occurrence states were studied. The results show that the pore distribution of Jilin shale is more concentrated than that of Qinghai shale. The oil of the two blocks mainly occurs in 0.01–10 ms pores, and the occurrence ratio of Jilin shale in the pores is higher, which is more than 90%. The oil production of the two blocks is mainly dominated by 0.01–10 ms pores, and the utilization efficiency contribution of these pores in Jilin shale is higher, accounting for about 80%. The utilization efficiency (UE) increases logarithmically with centrifugal force, and the growth rate of Jilin shale is greater than that of Qinghai shale. The proportion of free oil in Jilin block is less than that in Qinghai block. The shale oil in the two blocks is both at 15% final UE, and the UE of free oil in Jilin shale is about 9% and that of Qinghai shale is about 12%. The recoverability of Jilin shale is lower than that of Qinghai shale

Tuning surface properties of amino-functionalized silica for metal nanoparticle loading: The vital role of an annealing process

Metal nanoparticles (NPs) loaded on oxides have been widely used as multifunctional nanomaterials in various fields such as optical imaging, sensors, and heterogeneous catalysis. However, the deposition of metal NPs on oxide supports with high efficiency and homogeneous dispersion still remains elusive, especially when silica is used as the support. Amino-functionalization of silica can improve loading efficiency, but metal NPs often aggregate on the surface. Herein, we report that a facial annealing of amino-functionalized silica can significantly improve the dispersion and enhance the loading efficiency of various metal NPs, such as Pt, Rh, and Ru, on the silica surface. A series of characterization techniques, such as diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS), Zeta potential analysis, UV–Vis spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis coupled with infrared analysis (TGA–IR), and nitrogen physisorption, were employed to study the changes of surface properties of the amino-functionalized silica before and after annealing. We found that the annealed amino-functionalized silica surface has more cross-linked silanol groups and relatively lesser amount of amino groups, and less positively charges, which could be the key to the uniform deposition of metal NPs during the loading process. These results could contribute to the preparation of metal/oxide hybrid NPs for the applications that require uniform dispersion

The Strategy of Hospital Wastewater Treatment to Reduce the Risk of Virus Transmission and Environmental Pollution under COVID-19 based on Big Data

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is sweeping the world starting in 2019. According to the analysis based on big data technology, the wastewater generated by hospitals hosting SARS-CoV-2 infected patients is complex in origin and composition, and contains a large number of pathogenic microorganisms and drugs, etc. Without effective treatment, it will become an important pathway for the spread of the epidemic and a source of environmental pollution, so wastewater treatment processes more effective for degrading organic matter and inactivating viruses are required. This paper investigates the improvement measures adopted for hospital wastewater treatment systems in response to COVID-19. For instance, reinforced septic tanks and fine grilles with smaller grids were used for wastewater treatment. Besides, the Moving-bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR) process and the flocculation slant plate process were widely used for biochemical treatment and sedimentation processes. It is critical to increase the dosage of disinfectant since coronaviruses can be transmitted through water bodies and pose a threat to the environment and human health. Finally, a high-temperature anaerobic digestion and incineration disposal scheme can effectively inactivate sludge pathogenic bacteria and viruses for sludge generated from hospital wastewater treatment. In addition, we propose recommendations for the shortcomings and risks in this treatment system, which are important for improving the efficiency of medical wastewater containing the SARS-CoV-2 virus and stopping further virus transmission

The protective effects of electroacupuncture on intestinal barrier lesions in IBS and UC model

Abstract Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are two intestinal diseases with different pathological changes. Electroacupuncture (EA) at Zusanli (ST36) on both IBS and UC is widely used in clinic practice. But it is unclear whether acupuncture at one acupoint can treat two different intestinal diseases at different layers of intestinal barrier. To address this question, we explored three intestinal barrier lesions in IBS and UC mice with the aid of transcriptome data analysis and studied the efficacy of EA at ST36 on them. The transcriptome data analysis showed that both UC and IBS had disrupted intestinal barrier in various layers. And both UC and IBS had epithelial barrier lesions with reduction of ZO-1, Occludin and Claudin-1, while UC rather than IBS had the destruction of the mucus barrier with less MUC2 expression. As to the vascular barrier, UC showed a higher CD31 level and mesenteric blood flow reduction, while IBS showed a lower PV-1 level. EA at ST36 can significantly improve the above lesions of intestinal barrier of IBS and UC. Our results gave more details about the comprehensive protective effect of EA for UC and IBS. We guess the effect of acupuncture may be a kind of homeostasis regulation

Tuning surface properties of amino-functionalized silica for metal nanoparticle loading: The vital role of an annealing process

Metal nanoparticles (NPs) loaded on oxides have been widely used as multifunctional nanomaterials in various fields such as optical imaging, sensors, and heterogeneous catalysis. However, the deposition of metal NPs on oxide supports with high efficiency and homogeneous dispersion still remains elusive, especially when silica is used as the support. Amino-functionalization of silica can improve loading efficiency, but metal NPs often aggregate on the surface. Herein, we report that a facial annealing of amino-functionalized silica can significantly improve the dispersion and enhance the loading efficiency of various metal NPs, such as Pt, Rh, and Ru, on the silica surface. A series of characterization techniques, such as diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS), Zeta potential analysis, UV–Vis spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis coupled with infrared analysis (TGA–IR), and nitrogen physisorption, were employed to study the changes of surface properties of the amino-functionalized silica before and after annealing. We found that the annealed amino-functionalized silica surface has more cross-linked silanol groups and relatively lesser amount of amino groups, and less positively charges, which could be the key to the uniform deposition of metal NPs during the loading process. These results could contribute to the preparation of metal/oxide hybrid NPs for the applications that require uniform dispersion.This is a manuscript of an article published as Pei, Yuchen, Chaoxian Xiao, Tian-Wei Goh, Qianhui Zhang, Shannon Goes, Weijun Sun, and Wenyu Huang. "Tuning surface properties of amino-functionalized silica for metal nanoparticle loading: The vital role of an annealing process." Surface Science 648 (2016): 299-306. doi: 10.1016/j.susc.2015.10.019. Posted with permission.</p