NPRF: A Neural Pseudo Relevance Feedback Framework for Ad-hoc Information Retrieval

Pseudo-relevance feedback (PRF) is commonly used to boost the performance of traditional information retrieval (IR) models by using top-ranked documents to identify and weight new query terms, thereby reducing the effect of query-document vocabulary mismatches. While neural retrieval models have recently demonstrated strong results for ad-hoc retrieval, combining them with PRF is not straightforward due to incompatibilities between existing PRF approaches and neural architectures. To bridge this gap, we propose an end-to-end neural PRF framework that can be used with existing neural IR models by embedding different neural models as building blocks. Extensive experiments on two standard test collections confirm the effectiveness of the proposed NPRF framework in improving the performance of two state-of-the-art neural IR models.Comment: Full paper in EMNLP 201

Melanoma-associated retinopathy

AbstractA 63-year-old Taiwanese man with a history of cutaneous melanoma presented with a rapid onset of bilateral shimmering light and blurred vision. A fundoscopic examination was normal. However, visual field examination indicated generalized depression in both eyes. Scotopic rod-specific electroretinography (ERG) was undetectable and scotopic maximal combined-cone and rod-specific ERG showed the characteristics of negative ERG (a normal a-wave and a diminished b-wave, with the b-wave smaller than the a-wave), indicating dysfunction of the bipolar cells. Melanoma-associated retinopathy (MAR) was suspected and a systemic work-up gave a diagnosis of metastatic melanoma. This case shows the typical presentation of MAR. Greater awareness of MAR in patients with unexplained visual loss may help to identify an occult focus of metastatic melanoma

Weighted Measurement Fusion White Noise Deconvolution Filter with Correlated Noise for Multisensor Stochastic Systems

For the multisensor linear discrete time-invariant stochastic control systems with different measurement matrices and correlated noises, the centralized measurement fusion white noise estimators are presented by the linear minimum variance criterion under the condition that noise input matrix is full column rank. They have the expensive computing burden due to the high-dimension extended measurement matrix. To reduce the computing burden, the weighted measurement fusion white noise estimators are presented. It is proved that weighted measurement fusion white noise estimators have the same accuracy as the centralized measurement fusion white noise estimators, so it has global optimality. It can be applied to signal processing in oil seismic exploration. A simulation example for Bernoulli-Gaussian white noise deconvolution filter verifies the effectiveness

Generalized Cassie-Baxter equation for wetting of a spherical droplet within a smooth and heterogeneous conical cavity

Introducing the concepts of both Gibbs’s dividing surface and Rusanov’s dividing line, the wettability behaviors of spherical drops inside a smooth and heterogeneous conical cavity are studied. A new generalized Cassie-Baxter equation for contact angles including the influences of the line tension is derived thermodynamically. Additionally, various approximate formulae of this generalized Cassie-Baxter equation are also discussed correspondingly under some assumptions

Prevalence and risk factors of abnormal left ventricular geometrical patterns in untreated hypertensive patients

BACKGROUND: The various prevalence of LVH and abnormal LV geometry have been reported in different populations. So far, only a few reports are available on the prevalence of LV geometric patterns in a large Chinese untreated hypertensive population. METHODS: A total of 9,286 subjects (5167 men and 4119 women) completed the survey and 1641 untreated hypertensive patients (1044 males and 597 females) enrolled in the present study. The LV geometry was classified into four patterns: normal; abnormal,defined as concentric remodeling;concentric or eccentric hypertrophy based on the values of left ventricular mass index (LVMI) and relative wall thickness (RWT). Logistic regression model was applied to determine the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of the risk factors of left ventricular hypertrophy. RESULTS: The prevalence of LVH was 20.2% in untreated hypertensive patients, much higher in women (30.8%) than in men (14.2%) (P < 0.01). The prevalence of LV geometrical patterns was 34.9%, 11.1%, 9.1% for concentric remodeling, concentric and eccentric hypertrophy,respectively. After adjustment by using Logistic regression model, the risk factors for LVH and abnormal LV geometry were age, female, systolic blood pressure, and body mass index. And low high density lipoprotein maybe a positive factor. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of LVH and abnormal LV geometric patterns was higher in women than in men and increased with age. It is crucial to improve the awareness rate of hypertension and control the risk factors of CV complications in untreated hypertensive population