Disentangled Variational Auto-encoder Enhanced by Counterfactual Data for Debiasing Recommendation

Recommender system always suffers from various recommendation biases, seriously hindering its development. In this light, a series of debias methods have been proposed in the recommender system, especially for two most common biases, i.e., popularity bias and amplified subjective bias. However, exsisting debias methods usually concentrate on correcting a single bias. Such single-functionality debiases neglect the bias-coupling issue in which the recommended items are collectively attributed to multiple biases. Besides, previous work cannot tackle the lacking supervised signals brought by sparse data, yet which has become a commonplace in the recommender system. In this work, we introduce a disentangled debias variational auto-encoder framework(DB-VAE) to address the single-functionality issue as well as a counterfactual data enhancement method to mitigate the adverse effect due to the data sparsity. In specific, DB-VAE first extracts two types of extreme items only affected by a single bias based on the collier theory, which are respectively employed to learn the latent representation of corresponding biases, thereby realizing the bias decoupling. In this way, the exact unbiased user representation can be learned by these decoupled bias representations. Furthermore, the data generation module employs Pearl's framework to produce massive counterfactual data, making up the lacking supervised signals due to the sparse data. Extensive experiments on three real-world datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed model. Besides, the counterfactual data can further improve DB-VAE, especially on the dataset with low sparsity

Applying a Chemical Structure Teaching Method in the Pharmaceutical Analysis Curriculum to Improve Student Engagement and Learning

Pharmaceutical analysis, as the core curriculum of chemistry, chemical engineering and pharmaceutical engineering, contains broad and in-depth knowledge that leads to massive learning & teaching loads. There are more than 100 analytical methods of medicines in this course. As such, this subject is a big challenge for both students and lecturers. A novel chemical structure teaching (CST) method was developed based on our long-term teaching experience to cope with these challenges. It has been shown in practice that this CST method can significantly unload the stress of students and lecturers simultaneously. The survey about the improvement of students' interests was carried out and listed in the form of questionnaire. The outcome of CST also indicates that it can help them to form abilities of critical and logical thinking as independent learners, motivate them to discuss with their peers and lecturers, and eventually improve average grades. Furthermore, CST can be beneficial for lecturers who instruct other relevant curriculum in chemical or pharmaceutical engineering to improve the teaching outcome, such as organic chemistry, spectrum analysis, pharmaceutical synthesis and medicinal chemistry. This CST model can also help students cultivate lifelong learning ability as active learners and habit from the cognitive perspective view

Extract of Perilla frutescens inhibits tumor proliferation of HCC via PI3K/AKT signal pathway

In this study, isoegomaketone(IK) was isolated from Perilla frutescens(L.), a Chinese herbal. The effects of IK were examined by cell viability assay, colony formation assay, xenograft tumor assay and western blotting in HCC cells. Wefound that IK inhibited cell viability, and its administration decreased tumor volume and weight profoundly. The presence of IK(10nmol/l) produced a dramatic decrease of pAkt, while total Akt level was not affected. The data suggested that IK from perilla suppressed HCC tumor growth via blocking PI3K/Akt signaling pathway

Photocatalytic degradation of AZO dyes by supported TiO2+UV in aqueous solution

The photocatalytic degradation performance of photocatalysts TiO2 supported on 13-X, Na-Y, 4A zeolites with different loading content was evaluated using the photocatalytic oxidation of dyes direct fast scarlet 4BS and acid red 3B in aqueous medium. The results showed that the best reaction dosage of TiO2-zeolite catalysts is about 2 g/l and the photocatalytic kinetics follows first order for all supported catalysts. The photocatalytic activity order of the three series catalysts is 13X type >Y type >4A type. The physical state of titanium dioxide on the supports is evaluated by X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), BET, and FTIR. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

The role of silver in the radiophotoluminescent properties in silver-activated phosphate glass and sodium chloride crystal

金沢大学人間社会研究域人間科学系We have systematically investigated the X-ray-induced radiophotoluminescence (RPL) bands in a silver-activated phosphate glass (PG:Ag), and we have ascribed these bands to Ag0, Ag2+ and Ag2+ centres, using optical characterisation such as absorption, excitation, emission and lifetime measurements. The absorption spectrum of PG:Ag irradiated with X-rays was decomposed into six Gaussian bands on the basis of its strong analogy with irradiated silver-activated sodium chloride (NaCl:Ag). We confirmed that blue emission peaking at 450 nm was connected with the 270 and 345 nm bands of the excitation spectrum, while orange emission peaking at 560 nm was associated with the 308 nm excitation band. Each band of the excitation spectrum was in turn attributed to an Ag2+, Ag0 or Ag2+ centre by analogy with the RPL of NaCl:Ag. The excited-state lifetimes for each emissive process were also determined for different X-ray doses. In conclusion, we determined that both blue and orange emissions result from radiation-induced (rather than intrinsic) properties in the range of 1.22-24.5 Gy. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

A boracite metal-organic framework displaying selective gas sorption and guest-dependent spin-crossover behaviour

NNSF of China [21021061, 20923004]; Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education [20110121110012]A metal-organic framework, [{Fe(NCS)(2)}(3)(TPB)(4)]center dot x(guest) [1 center dot x(guest), TPB = 1,3,5-tris(4-pyridyl)benzene], shows selective gas adsorption and guest-dependent spin-crossover behaviour

Two‑Dimensional Copper Coordination Polymer Assembled with Fumarate and 5,5’‑Dimethyl‑2,2’‑bipyridine: Synthesis, Crystal Structure and Magnetic Properties

[[Cu(fum)(dmb)]·H2O]n, exhibiting weak antiferromagnetic interactions, displays a two-dimensional array comprised of rhombic dinuclear units, where the carboxylate moieties of fumarate bridging ligand displays monodentate and oxo-bridging coordination modes connecting two Cu centers.[[Cu(fum)(dmb)]·H2O]n (1) (fum = fumarate; dmb = 5,5’-dimethyl-2,2’-bipyridine) was obtained by a self-assembly solution reaction, at ambient conditions, and characterized by elemental analysis, IR spectroscopy and X-ray single crystal diffraction. Crystallographic studies show that 1 crystallizes in a triclinic system with a P-1 space group, with a = 8.2308(2) Å, b = 9.7563(2) Å, c = 10.3990(2) Å; α = 80.3444(4)°, β = 77.9517(4)°, γ = 82.0440(5)°; V = 800.45(3) Å3. The Cu(II) centers are five-coordinated with a distorted square pyramidal configuration. The formation of a two-dimensional (2D) array in 1 can be explained by the presence of two different coordination modes in the fumarate ligand: μ-η1:η0 and μ2-η2:η0, both in a bridging monodentate manner, the latter generating distinctive rhombic-dinuclear units. The thermal stability of 1 has also been analyzed. Magnetic measurements revealed that this polymer exhibits weak antiferromagnetic ordering.Universidad Autonoma del Estado de México Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Méxic

Targeted plant improvement through genome editing: from laboratory to field

This review illustrates how far we have come since the emergence of GE technologies and how they could be applied to obtain superior and sustainable crop production. The main challenges of today's agriculture are maintaining and raising productivity, reducing its negative impact on the environment, and adapting to climate change. Efficient plant breeding can generate elite varieties that will rapidly replace obsolete ones and address ongoing challenges in an efficient and sustainable manner. Site-specific genome editing in plants is a rapidly evolving field with tangible results. The technology is equipped with a powerful toolbox of molecular scissors to cut DNA at a pre-determined site with different efficiencies for designing an approach that best suits the objectives of each plant breeding strategy. Genome editing (GE) not only revolutionizes plant biology, but provides the means to solve challenges related to plant architecture, food security, nutrient content, adaptation to the environment, resistance to diseases and production of plant-based materials. This review illustrates how far we have come since the emergence of these technologies and how these technologies could be applied to obtain superior, safe and sustainable crop production. Synergies of genome editing with other technological platforms that are gaining significance in plants lead to an exciting new, post-genomic era for plant research and production. In previous months, we have seen what global changes might arise from one new virus, reminding us of what drastic effects such events could have on food production. This demonstrates how important science, technology, and tools are to meet the current time and the future. Plant GE can make a real difference to future sustainable food production to the benefit of both mankind and our environment.European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) CA18111info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio