Graph Neural Network with Two Uplift Estimators for Label-Scarcity Individual Uplift Modeling

Uplift modeling aims to measure the incremental effect, which we call uplift, of a strategy or action on the users from randomized experiments or observational data. Most existing uplift methods only use individual data, which are usually not informative enough to capture the unobserved and complex hidden factors regarding the uplift. Furthermore, uplift modeling scenario usually has scarce labeled data, especially for the treatment group, which also poses a great challenge for model training. Considering that the neighbors' features and the social relationships are very informative to characterize a user's uplift, we propose a graph neural network-based framework with two uplift estimators, called GNUM, to learn from the social graph for uplift estimation. Specifically, we design the first estimator based on a class-transformed target. The estimator is general for all types of outcomes, and is able to comprehensively model the treatment and control group data together to approach the uplift. When the outcome is discrete, we further design the other uplift estimator based on our defined partial labels, which is able to utilize more labeled data from both the treatment and control groups, to further alleviate the label scarcity problem. Comprehensive experiments on a public dataset and two industrial datasets show a superior performance of our proposed framework over state-of-the-art methods under various evaluation metrics. The proposed algorithms have been deployed online to serve real-world uplift estimation scenarios

Fabrication and characterization of microelectronic devices, circuits and systems V

This report discussed the fabrication and characterization of microelectronic devices, circuits and systems.RGM 18/0

Selective frequency mixing in a cascaded self-Raman laser with a critical phase-matched LBO crystal

Selective frequency mixing in a cascaded Nd:YVO4 self-Raman laser was investigated for wavelength-switchable visible light output. Phase-matching with temperature tuning of both critical and non-critical phase-matched LBO crystals was analyzed. The critical phase-matched LBO crystal with θ = 86.0° and φ = 0° generated five discrete visible wavelengths by frequency mixing among the fundamental, first, and second Stokes waves, without sub-zero °C cooling. While laser performance examination was experimentally limited to frequency conversion of the first and second Stokes fields, average output power across three visible wavelengths was high, at 2.2, 1.31, and 1.58 W for 588, 620, and 657 nm, respectively, for the incident power of 15.5 W. This is promising for practical laser sources with multi-wavelength tunability across the visible spectrum. Such lasers can replace numerous single-line sources for various applications.This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 62075167 and 61905180, Zhejiang Provincial Nat-ural Science Foundation, China under Grant LY19F050012, and the Public welfare projects of Wenzhou city under Grant G2020013

Fabrication and comprehensive structural and spectroscopic properties of Er:Y₂O₃ transparent ceramics

Transparent Er:Y2O3 ceramics with sub-micron grain size (<1 μm) were fabricated by using one-step vacuum sintering followed by hot isostatic pressing (HIPing) technique. The transmission of the undoped Y2O3 reaches 83%. The structural characteristics including the phonon energy were investigated through X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) measurement. The overall spectroscopic properties of transmission, fluorescence emission up to 3000 nm, lifetime, up-conversion luminescence, and refractive index were systematically studied for both 0.25 at% and 7.0 at% Er:Y2O3 ceramics with different thicknesses. The comparison of the spectra of the fluorescence emission and up-conversion luminescence under both 976 and 808 nm laser excitation was performed. The multiple high-energy-state transitional processes after the excited state absorption (ESA) processes involved in the up-conversion are discriminated between the multi-phonon non-radiative transitions and the radiative transitions according to the measured maximum phonon vibrational energy. The calculation was performed based on the Judd–Ofelt theory

Learning to Dislike Chocolate: Conditioning Negative Attitudes toward Chocolate and Its Effect on Chocolate Consumption

Evaluative conditioning (EC) procedures can be used to form and change attitudes toward a wide variety of objects. The current study examined the effects of a negative EC procedure on attitudes toward chocolate, and whether it influenced chocolate evaluation and consumption. Participants were randomly assigned to the experimental condition in which chocolate images were paired with negative stimuli, or the control condition in which chocolate images were randomly paired with positive stimuli (50%) and negative stimuli (50%). Explicit and implicit attitudes toward chocolate images were collected. During an ostensible taste test, chocolate evaluation and consumption were assessed. Results revealed that compared to participants in the control condition, participants in the experimental condition showed more negative explicit and implicit attitudes toward chocolate images and evaluated chocolate more negatively during the taste test. However, chocolate consumption did not differ between experimental and control conditions. These findings suggest that pairing chocolate with negative stimuli can influence attitudes toward chocolate, though behavioral effects are absent. Intervention applications of EC provide avenues for future research and practices

Yb:LuAG laser ceramics : a promising high power laser gain medium

Yb:LuAG laser ceramics with different Yb3+ doping concentrations were successfully fabricated by using a solid-state reactive sintering method. SEM graphs demonstrate that the samples have a dense and pore-free microstructure. Based on the spectroscopic studies the ceramics have a large emission cross-section of 2.7 × 10−20 cm2 at 1030 nm emission peak. CW laser operation of the samples has given 7.2 W output power with 65% slope efficiency.Published versio

Mid-infrared tunable intracavity singly resonant optical parametric oscillator based on Mgo : PPLN

In this paper, we demonstrated a continuous-wave intracavity singly resonant optical parametric oscillator based on periodically poled MgO:LiNbO3 (MgO:PPLN) pumped by a diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 laser at 1064 nm. The singly resonant optical parametric oscillator only outputs the idler light as its cavity high reflectivity was coated at the signal light. When the temperature was controlled at 120°C and the grating period set at 30.5 μm for the MgO:PPLN, a maximum idler output power of 1.27 W and central wavelength at 3251 nm were obtained under an incident diode pump power of 12.4 W, corresponding to the conversion efficiency of 10.2%. By changing the temperature and the grating period of MgO:PPLN crystal, widely tunable mid-infrared spectra from 2.95 to 4.16 μm were achieved.Published versio

Dietary Catalase Supplementation Alleviates Deoxynivalenol-Induced Oxidative Stress and Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis in Broiler Chickens

Catalase (CAT) can eliminate oxygen radicals, but it is unclear whether exogenous CAT can protect chickens against deoxynivalenol (DON)-induced oxidative stress. This study aimed to investigate the effects of supplemental CAT on antioxidant property and gut microbiota in DON-exposed broilers. A total of 144 one-day-old Lingnan yellow-feathered male broilers were randomly divided into three groups (six replicates/group): control, DON group, and DON + CAT (DONC) group. The control and DON group received a diet without and with DON contamination, respectively, while the DONC group received a DON-contaminated diet with 200 U/kg CAT added. Parameter analysis was performed on d 21. The results showed that DON-induced liver enlargement (p &lt; 0.05) was blocked by CAT addition, which also normalized the increases (p &lt; 0.05) in hepatic oxidative metabolites contents and caspase-9 expression. Additionally, CAT addition increased (p &lt; 0.05) the jejunal CAT and GSH-Px activities coupled with T-AOC in DON-exposed broilers, as well as the normalized DON-induced reductions (p &lt; 0.05) of jejunal villus height (VH) and its ratio for crypt depth. There was a difference (p &lt; 0.05) in gut microbiota among groups. The DON group was enriched (p &lt; 0.05) with some harmful bacteria (e.g., Proteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, Enterobacteriales, Enterobacteriaceae, and Escherichia/Shigella) that elicited negative correlations (p &lt; 0.05) with jejunal CAT activity, and VH. DONC group was differentially enriched (p &lt; 0.05) with certain beneficial bacteria (e.g., Acidobacteriota, Anaerofustis, and Anaerotruncus) that could benefit intestinal antioxidation and morphology. In conclusion, supplemental CAT alleviates DON-induced oxidative stress and intestinal damage in broilers, which can be associated with its ability to improve gut microbiota, aside from its direct oxygen radical-scavenging activity

Variations of Secondary PM_2.5 in an Urban Area over Central China during 2015–2020 of Air Pollutant Mitigation

The lack of long-term observational data on secondary PM2.5 (SPM) has limited our comprehensive understanding of atmospheric environment change. This study develops an SPM estimation method, named Single-Tracer Approximate Envelope Algorithm (STAEA), to assess the long-term changes of SPM under different PM2.5 levels and in all seasons in Wuhan, Central China, over the period of anthropogenic pollutant mitigation in 2015–2020. The results show that: (1) the average proportions of SPM in ambient PM2.5 is 59.61% in a clean air environment, rising significantly to 71.60%, 73.73%, and 75.55%, respectively, in light, moderate, and heavy PM2.5 pollution, indicating the dominant role of SPM in air quality deterioration; (2) there are increasing trends of interannual changes of SPM at the light and moderate pollution levels of 1.95 and 3.11 μg·m−3·a−1 with extending SPM proportions in PM2.5 pollution, raising a challenge for further improvement in ambient air quality with mitigating light and moderate PM2.5 pollution; (3) the high SPM contributions ranging from 55.63% to 68.65% on a seasonal average and the large amplitude of seasonal SPM changes could dominate the seasonality of air quality; (4) the wintertime SPM contribution present a consistent increasing trend compared with the declining trends in spring, summer, and autumn, suggesting underlying mechanisms of SPM change for further deciphering the evolution of the atmospheric environment. Our results highlight the effects of air pollutant mitigation on long-term variations in SPM and its contributions with implications for atmospheric environment change

Proteomic Studies of the Mechanism of Cytotoxicity, Induced by Palytoxin on HaCaT Cells

Palytoxin (PLTX) is a polyether marine toxin isolated from sea anemones. It is one of the most toxic nonprotein substances, causing many people to be poisoned every year and to die in severe cases. Despite its known impact on Na+,K+-ATPase, much still remains unclear about PLTX’s mechanism of action. Here, we tested different concentrations of PLTX on HaCaT cells and studied its distributions in cells, its impact on gene expression, and the associated pathways via proteomics combined with bioinformatics tools. We found that PLTX could cause ferroptosis in HaCaT cells, a new type of programmed cell death, by up-regulating the expression of VDAC3, ACSL4 and NCOA4, which lead to the occurrence of ferroptosis. PLTX also acts on the MAPK pathway, which is related to cell apoptosis, proliferation, division and differentiation. Different from its effect on ferroptosis, PLTX down-regulates the expression of ERK, and, as a result, the expressions of MAPK1, MAP2K1 and MAP2K2 are also lower, affecting cell proliferation. The genes from these two mechanisms showed interactions, but we did not find overlap genes between the two. Both ferroptosis and MAPK pathways can be used as anticancer targets, so PLTX may become an anticancer drug with appropriate modification