CorefPrompt: Prompt-based Event Coreference Resolution by Measuring Event Type and Argument Compatibilities

Event coreference resolution (ECR) aims to group event mentions referring to the same real-world event into clusters. Most previous studies adopt the "encoding first, then scoring" framework, making the coreference judgment rely on event encoding. Furthermore, current methods struggle to leverage human-summarized ECR rules, e.g., coreferential events should have the same event type, to guide the model. To address these two issues, we propose a prompt-based approach, CorefPrompt, to transform ECR into a cloze-style MLM (masked language model) task. This allows for simultaneous event modeling and coreference discrimination within a single template, with a fully shared context. In addition, we introduce two auxiliary prompt tasks, event-type compatibility and argument compatibility, to explicitly demonstrate the reasoning process of ECR, which helps the model make final predictions. Experimental results show that our method CorefPrompt performs well in a state-of-the-art (SOTA) benchmark.Comment: Accepted by EMNLP202

Advancing Topic Segmentation and Outline Generation in Chinese Texts: The Paragraph-level Topic Representation, Corpus, and Benchmark

Topic segmentation and outline generation strive to divide a document into coherent topic sections and generate corresponding subheadings. Such a process unveils the discourse topic structure of a document that benefits quickly grasping and understanding the overall context of the document from a higher level. However, research and applications in this field have been restrained due to the lack of proper paragraph-level topic representations and large-scale, high-quality corpora in Chinese compared to the success achieved in English. Addressing these issues, we introduce a hierarchical paragraph-level topic structure representation with title, subheading, and paragraph that comprehensively models the document discourse topic structure. In addition, we ensure a more holistic representation of topic distribution within the document by using sentences instead of keywords to represent sub-topics. Following this representation, we construct the largest Chinese Paragraph-level Topic Structure corpus (CPTS), four times larger than the previously largest one. We also employ a two-stage man-machine collaborative annotation method to ensure the high quality of the corpus both in form and semantics. Finally, we validate the computability of CPTS on two fundamental tasks (topic segmentation and outline generation) by several strong baselines, and its efficacy has been preliminarily confirmed on the downstream task: discourse parsing. The representation, corpus, and benchmark we established will provide a solid foundation for future studies

Highly parallel and efficient single cell mRNA sequencing with paired picoliter chambers

单细胞转录组测序技术在单个细胞水平上对转录组进行高通量测序分析，从而揭示单个细胞内所有基因的表达情况，揭示细胞间的异质性，在发育生物学、免疫学、微生物学、神经科学、临床医学等领域有重要的应用前景。单细胞转录组测序的挑战在于如何高效地操控单个细胞，如何对大量的低拷贝数mRNA进行无偏倚扩增，如何避免背景游离mRNA的污染，以及如何同时对大量的单细胞进行并行测序以降低成本。化学化工学院杨朝勇教授课题组在高通量单细胞转录组测序新器件新方法研究方面取得重要进展.该工作由厦门大学、上海交通大学、美国斯坦福大学等多团队联合攻关完成。化学生物学系博士研究生张明霞、邹远和2011协同创新中心博士研究生许醒为论文的共同第一作者。ScRNA-seq has the ability to reveal accurate and precise cell types and states. Existing scRNA-seq platforms utilize bead-based technologies uniquely barcoding individual cells, facing practical challenges for precious samples with limited cell number. Here, we present a scRNA-seq platform, named Paired-seq, with high cells/beads utilization efficiency, cell-free RNAs removal capability, high gene detection ability and low cost. We utilize the differential flow resistance principle to achieve single cell/barcoded bead pairing with high cell utilization efficiency (95%). The integration of valves and pumps enables the complete removal of cell-free RNAs, efficient cell lysis and mRNA capture, achieving highest mRNA detection accuracy (R = 0.955) and comparable sensitivity. Lower reaction volume and higher mRNA capture and barcoding efficiency significantly reduce the cost of reagents and sequencing. The single-cell expression profile of mES and drug treated cells reveal cell heterogeneity, demonstrating the enormous potential of Paired-seq for cell biology, developmental biology and precision medicine.The authors thank the National Science Foundation of China (21927806, 21735004, 21521004, 21325522), the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFC1602900), Innovative research team of high-level local universities in Shanghai, and the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (IRT13036) for their financial support.该研究工作得到国家重大科研仪器研制项目、国家基金委重点项目、创新研究群体项目等支持

Expression and Prognostic Characteristics of m6A RNA Methylation Regulators in Colon Cancer

Colon cancer is a common and leading cause of death and malignancy worldwide. N6-methylation of adenosine (m6A) is the most common reversible mRNA modification in eukaryotes, and it plays a crucial role in various biological functions in vivo. Dysregulated expression and genetic changes of m6A regulators have been correlated with tumorigenesis, cancer cell proliferation, tumor microenvironment, and prognosis in cancers. This study used RNA-seq and colon cancer clinical data to explore the relationship between N6-methylation and colon cancer. Based on the seven m6A regulators related to prognosis, three molecular subgroups of colon cancer were identified. Surprisingly, we found that each subgroup had unique survival characteristics. We then identified three subtypes of tumors based on 299 m6A phenotype-related genes, and one subtype was characterized as an immunosuppressive tumor and patients in this subtype may be more suitable for immunotherapy than other subtypes. Finally, using m6A-related genes and clinical information from The Cancer Genome Atlas cohort, we constructed a prognosis model, and this model could be used to predict the prognosis of patients in clinics

Evolution Characteristics of Separated Vortices and Near-Wall Flow in a Centrifugal Impeller in an Off-Designed Condition

Flow separation is undesirable and lowers the efficiency of centrifugal impellers. In this study, the evolution characteristics of separated vortices in a centrifugal impeller are studied under the off-designed flow rate condition. Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) with standard k-ε turbulent model is applied to simulate the alternating stall in the six-blade centrifugal impeller. We present and analyze the distributions of pressure gradient (either adverse or favorable) and skin friction coefficients on both sides of the blade for the stalled and unstalled passages to study the relationship between pressure gradient and separation of boundary layer flow. The evolution of skin friction coefficient is also presented at various axial cross sections. Numerical results reveal that, for the stalled passage, the increase in adverse pressure gradient on the pressure surface near the middle of the blade (S/S0 = 0.4) is much larger than that of the suction surface during a vortex formation cycle. The skin friction coefficient on the pressure surface also increases in magnitude sharply and the variation shows a peak-valley trend, while the coefficient on the suction surface increases slowly. Comparing the distribution of skin friction coefficient on the pressure surface of the same blade at different axial cross sections, it is found that the skin friction coefficient notably increases at S/S0 = 0.6 on the middle axial cross section (Z/b2 = 0.5). For the unstalled passage, both the pressure and suction surfaces produce favorable pressure gradients. The skin friction coefficient on the pressure surface shows an increasing trend around S/S0 = 0.5, and a large vortex can be seen at the exit of the impeller. The variation of skin friction coefficient on the suction surface is relatively mild; thus, the flow is relatively stable. It is clarified that the effect of adverse pressure gradient and wall shear stress jointly cause separation of the boundary layer; thus, the separated vortices are generated in the rotating impeller and deteriorate the performance of the impeller

Which Subsidy Mode Improves the Financial Performance of Renewable Energy Firms? A Panel Data Analysis of Wind and Solar Energy Companies between 2009 and 2014

The effectiveness of subsidies in improving the performance of renewable energy firms has aroused significant research attention in recent years. As subsidy modes may affect corporate financial performance,we have chosen companies specializing in wind and solar energy in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets as samples.The relationships between the subsidy modes and financial performance of these two types of companies are investigated with a panel data model. Results of the total sample indicate that both indirect and non-innovative subsidy have significant effects on the financial performance of renewable energy companies. The regressive coefficient of the former,however, is a negative value, which illustrates that taxation, bonus, and other market-based mechanisms impair corporate profitability. Moreover, the influence of innovative subsidy is weak, which means that the subsidy used for research and development, technical demonstration, and other innovations of renewable energy enterprises have failed to effectively enhance corporate financial performance. In terms of sub-industries, the direct subsidy for wind energy companies has achieved a significant effect. Incomparison, the indirect subsidy and innovative subsidy acquired by solar energy companies have notably reduced corporate profitability. Thissuggests an urgent reform of subsidy policy for this industry is needed. The government should consider differences in the effects subsidies have for wind and solar energy companies when improving subsidy policy. In addition, market-based subsidy mechanisms should be perfected, and the structure of innovative subsidies should be ameliorated

Simulation of Motion of Long Flexible Fibers with Different Linear Densities in Jet Flow

Air-jet loom is a textile machine designed to drive the long fiber using a combination flow of high-pressure air from a main nozzle and a series of assistant nozzles. To make the suggestion of how to make the fiber fly with high efficiency and stability in the jet flow, in which vortices also have great influence on fiber movement, the large eddy simulation method was employed to obtain the transient flow field of turbulent jet, and a bead-rod chain fiber model was used to predict long flexible fiber motion. The fluctuation and velocity of fibers with different linear densities in jet flow were studied numerically. The results show that the fluctuation amplitude of a fiber with a linear density of 0.5 × 10−5 kg·m−1 is two times larger than that of a fiber with a linear density of 2.0 × 10−5 kg·m−1. The distance of the first assistant nozzle from the main nozzle should be less than 120 mm to avoid collision between the fiber and the loom. The efficient length of the main nozzle to carry the fiber flying steadily forward is about 100–110 mm. For fibers with a linear density of 0.5 × 10−5 kg·m−1, it is suggested that the distance of the first assistant nozzle from the main nozzle is about 110 mm. With the increase of fiber linear density, the distance could be appropriately increased to 140 mm. The simulation results provide an optimization option for the air-jet loom to improve the energy efficiency by reasonably arranging the first assistant nozzle

Analytical Model of a Dual Rotor Radial Flux Wind Generator Using Ferrite Magnets

This paper presents a comprehensive analytical model for dual rotor radial flux wind generators based on the equivalent magnetic circuit method. This model is developed to predict the flux densities of the inner and outer air gaps, flux densities of the rotor and stator yokes, back electromotive force (EMF), electromagnetic torque, cogging torque, and some other characteristics important for generator design. The 2D finite element method (FEM) is employed to verify the presented analytical model, fine-tune it, and validate the prediction precision. The results show that the errors between the proposed analytical model and the FEM results are less than 5% and even less than 1% for certain parameters, that is, the results obtained from the proposed analytical model match well the ones obtained from FEM analysis. Meanwhile, the working points at different temperatures are confirmed to exceed the knee point of the BH curve, which means that irreversible demagnetization does not occur. Finally, the optimization by FEM with the objective of fully using the inner space of the generator, decreasing the cogging torque, and reducing the total harmonic distortion (THD) of back EMF is performed