Generative Entity-to-Entity Stance Detection with Knowledge Graph Augmentation

Stance detection is typically framed as predicting the sentiment in a given text towards a target entity. However, this setup overlooks the importance of the source entity, i.e., who is expressing the opinion. In this paper, we emphasize the need for studying interactions among entities when inferring stances. We first introduce a new task, entity-to-entity (E2E) stance detection, which primes models to identify entities in their canonical names and discern stances jointly. To support this study, we curate a new dataset with 10,619 annotations labeled at the sentence-level from news articles of different ideological leanings. We present a novel generative framework to allow the generation of canonical names for entities as well as stances among them. We further enhance the model with a graph encoder to summarize entity activities and external knowledge surrounding the entities. Experiments show that our model outperforms strong comparisons by large margins. Further analyses demonstrate the usefulness of E2E stance detection for understanding media quotation and stance landscape, as well as inferring entity ideology.Comment: EMNLP'22 Main Conferenc

Does anger expression help or harm leader effectiveness? The role of competence-based versus integrity-based violations and abusive supervision

The question of how leaders’ expressions of anger influence their effectiveness has long intrigued researchers and practitioners. Drawing on emotions as social information theory, we suggest the effects of leaders’ expressions of anger depend on both the type of violation about which anger is expressed and the type of leader who expresses it. We test this in a series of studies using experimental and field methods. Study 1 shows that a leader’s anger expression in response to followers’ integrity-based violations enhances observers’ perceptions of leader effectiveness, whereas anger in response to followers’ competence-based violations diminishes observers’ perceptions of leader effectiveness. Study 2 shows that these divergent effects occur because anger in response to integrity-based violations elicits beneficial inferential reactions among followers who observed the anger, whereas anger in response to competence-based violations provokes harmful affective reactions. Study 3 demonstrates that the negative effects of anger expressed toward competence-based violations are exacerbated, and positive effects of anger expressed toward integrity-based violations weakened, when a leader is perceived as abusive. These findings help reconcile divergent perspectives on the effects of leader anger expression, suggesting that anger can enhance perceived leader effectiveness when expressed in the right situation and by the right person

Crossing the Aisle: Unveiling Partisan and Counter-Partisan Events in News Reporting

News media is expected to uphold unbiased reporting. Yet they may still affect public opinion by selectively including or omitting events that support or contradict their ideological positions. Prior work in NLP has only studied media bias via linguistic style and word usage. In this paper, we study to which degree media balances news reporting and affects consumers through event inclusion or omission. We first introduce the task of detecting both partisan and counter-partisan events: events that support or oppose the author's political ideology. To conduct our study, we annotate a high-quality dataset, PAC, containing 8,511 (counter-)partisan event annotations in 304 news articles from ideologically diverse media outlets. We benchmark PAC to highlight the challenges of this task. Our findings highlight both the ways in which the news subtly shapes opinion and the need for large language models that better understand events within a broader context. Our dataset can be found at https://github.com/launchnlp/Partisan-Event-Dataset.Comment: EMNLP'23 Finding

Integral and Rxte/Asm Observations on Igr J17098-3628

To probe further the possible nature of the unidentified source IGR J17098-3628, we have carried out a detailed analysis of its long-term time variability as monitored by RXTE/ASM, and of its hard X-ray properties as observed by INTEGRAL. INTEGRAL has monitored this sky region over years and significantly detected IGR J17098-3628 only when the source was in this dubbed active state. In particular, at $\ge$ 20 keV, IBIS/ISGRI caught an outburst in March 2005, lasting for $\sim$5 days with detection significance of 73$\sigma$ (20-40 keV) and with the emission at $<$200 keV. The ASM observations reveal that the soft X-ray lightcurve shows a similar outburst to that detected by INTEGRAL, however the peak of the soft X-ray lightcurve either lags, or is preceded by, the hard X-ray ($>$20 keV) outburst by $\sim$2 days. This resembles the behavior of X-ray novae like XN 1124-683, hence it further suggests a LMXB nature for IGR J17098-3628. While the quality of the ASM data prevents us from drawing any definite conclusions, these discoveries are important clues that, coupled with future observations, will help to resolve the as yet unknown nature of IGR J17098-3628.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure, accepted in PAS

All Things Considered: Detecting Partisan Events from News Media with Cross-Article Comparison

Public opinion is shaped by the information news media provide, and that information in turn may be shaped by the ideological preferences of media outlets. But while much attention has been devoted to media bias via overt ideological language or topic selection, a more unobtrusive way in which the media shape opinion is via the strategic inclusion or omission of partisan events that may support one side or the other. We develop a latent variable-based framework to predict the ideology of news articles by comparing multiple articles on the same story and identifying partisan events whose inclusion or omission reveals ideology. Our experiments first validate the existence of partisan event selection, and then show that article alignment and cross-document comparison detect partisan events and article ideology better than competitive baselines. Our results reveal the high-level form of media bias, which is present even among mainstream media with strong norms of objectivity and nonpartisanship. Our codebase and dataset are available at https://github.com/launchnlp/ATC.Comment: EMNLP'23 Main Conferenc

Tree-based Unidirectional Neural Networks for Low-Power Computer Vision

This article describes the novel Tree-based Unidirectional Neural Network (TRUNK) architecture. This architecture improves computer vision efficiency by using a hierarchy of multiple shallow Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), instead of a single very deep CNN. We demonstrate this architecture’s versatility in performing different computer vision tasks efficiently on embedded devices. Across various computer vision tasks, the TRUNK architecture consumes 65% less energy and requires 50% less memory than representative low-power CNN architectures, e.g., MobileNet v2, when deployed on the NVIDIA Jetson Nano

Vibrotactile Warnings Design for Improving Risks Awareness in Construction Environment

Construction workers have difficulty identifying potential risks in harsh environments because traditional visual and acoustical alerts are inefficient. This study investigated a new communication method with a wearable tactile-based system to improve worker’s hazard perception. Three experiments are reported in relation to this system. The first experiment exploited VR as an experimental tool to compare auditory and vibrotactile warning signals as well as their combination in a simulated construction working environment. Findings demonstrated that the vibrotactile cues induced faster response times and higher affective ratings than auditory alarms, and their combination provided the shortest reaction time. The second experiment compared 7 different vibrotactile patterns varying in intensity, duration, and interval, to identify configurations that led to a higher degree of awareness. The third experiment validated the effectiveness of three selected tactons for delivering information on 3 hazard levels, finding that subjects could identify three-parameter signals with relatively low error. Our findings provide guidelines for designing tactile warning signals, which could help improve hazard recognition and risk perception, especially in construction sites

Continental Crust Rejuvenation Across the Paleo‐Mesoarchean Transition Resulted From Elevated Mantle Geotherms

The increase in initial Hf isotopes identified in early Mesoarchean detrital zircon is commonly interpreted as a reflection of the geodynamic transition from stagnant-lid to mobile-lid tectonics. However, given the lack of petrogenetic context, interpreting detrital zircon may lead to spurious conclusions. In this contribution, we use zircon U-Pb-Hf-O isotopic and bulk rock compositions of newly identified 3.05–2.9 Ga granitoids from the SW Yangtze Block to posit petrogenesis within an isotopically juvenile magmatic system. A statistical analysis of these data with a global igneous zircon Lu-Hf isotopic compilation reveals an increase in average initial radiogenic Hf isotopes during the Paleoarchean to Mesoarchean transition. We posit that the Earth's continental crust underwent a global rejuvenation across the Paleo-Mesoarchean transition. This rejuvenation can be explained by an independently observed increase in mantle temperatures resulting from mantle thermal evolution and does not require a change in tectonic style

XLF-Cernunnos promotes DNA ligase IV–XRCC4 re-adenylation following ligation

XLF-Cernunnos (XLF) is a component of the DNA ligase IV–XRCC4 (LX) complex, which functions during DNA non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). Here, we use biochemical and cellular approaches to probe the impact of XLF on LX activities. We show that XLF stimulates adenylation of LX complexes de-adenylated by pyrophosphate or following LX decharging during ligation. XLF enhances LX ligation activity in an ATP-independent and dependent manner. ATP-independent stimulation can be attributed to enhanced end-bridging. Whilst ATP alone fails to stimulate LX ligation activity, addition of XLF and ATP promotes ligation in a manner consistent with XLF-stimulated readenylation linked to ligation. We show that XLF is a weakly bound partner of the tightly associated LX complex and, unlike XRCC4, is dispensable for LX stability. 2BN cells, which have little, if any, residual XLF activity, show a 3-fold decreased ability to repair DNA double strand breaks covering a range of complexity. These findings strongly suggest that XLF is not essential for NHEJ but promotes LX adenylation and hence ligation. We propose a model in which XLF, by in situ recharging DNA ligase IV after the first ligation event, promotes double stranded ligation by a single LX complex