On the Generation of Medical Question-Answer Pairs

Question answering (QA) has achieved promising progress recently. However, answering a question in real-world scenarios like the medical domain is still challenging, due to the requirement of external knowledge and the insufficient quantity of high-quality training data. In the light of these challenges, we study the task of generating medical QA pairs in this paper. With the insight that each medical question can be considered as a sample from the latent distribution of questions given answers, we propose an automated medical QA pair generation framework, consisting of an unsupervised key phrase detector that explores unstructured material for validity, and a generator that involves a multi-pass decoder to integrate structural knowledge for diversity. A series of experiments have been conducted on a real-world dataset collected from the National Medical Licensing Examination of China. Both automatic evaluation and human annotation demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Further investigation shows that, by incorporating the generated QA pairs for training, significant improvement in terms of accuracy can be achieved for the examination QA system.Comment: AAAI 202

Antibacterial Properties of TMA against Escherichia coli and Effect of Temperature and Storage Duration on TMA Content, Lysozyme Activity and Content in Eggs

Studies on trimethylamine (TMA) in egg yolk have focused on how it impacts the flavor of eggs, but there has been little focus on its other functions. We designed an in vitro antibacterial test of TMA according to TMA concentrations that covered the TMA contents typically found in egg yolk. The change in TMA content in yolk was analyzed at different storage temperatures and for different storage durations. The known antibacterial components of eggs, including the cuticle quality of the eggshell and the lysozyme activity and content in egg white, were also assessed. The total bacterial count (TBC) of different parts of eggs were detected. The results showed that the inhibitory effect of TMA on Escherichia coli (E. coli) growth increased with increasing TMA concentration, and the yolk TMA content significantly increased with storage duration (p < 0.05). The cuticle quality and lysozyme content and activity significantly decreased with storage time and increasing temperature, accompanied by a significant increase in the TBC on the eggshell surface and in the egg white (p < 0.05). This work reveals a new role for trace TMA in yolks because it reduces the risk of bacterial colonization, especially when the antibacterial function of eggs is gradually weakened during storage

<i>GmFT4,</i> a Homolog of <i>FLOWERING LOCUS T</i>, Is Positively Regulated by <i>E1</i> and Functions as a Flowering Repressor in Soybean

<div><p>The major maturity gene <i>E1</i> has the most prominent effect on flowering time and photoperiod sensitivity of soybean, but the pathway mediated by <i>E1</i> is largely unknown. Here, we found the expression of <i>GmFT4</i>, a homolog of <i>Flowering Locus T,</i> was strongly up-regulated in transgenic soybean overexpressing <i>E1</i>, whereas expression of flowering activators, <i>GmFT2a</i> and <i>GmFT5a</i>, was suppressed. <i>GmFT4</i> expression was strongly up-regulated by long days exhibiting a diurnal rhythm, but down-regulated by short days. Notably, the basal expression level of <i>GmFT4</i> was elevated when transferred to continous light, whereas repressed when transferred to continuous dark. <i>GmFT4</i> was primarily expressed in fully expanded leaves. Transcript abundance of <i>GmFT4</i> was significantly correlated with that of functional <i>E1,</i> as well as flowering time phenotype in different cultivars. Overexpression of <i>GmFT4</i> delayed the flowering time in transgenic <i>Arabidopsis</i>. Taken together, we propose that <i>GmFT4</i> acts downstream of <i>E1</i> and functions as a flowering repressor, and the balance of two antagonistic factors (<i>GmFT4</i> vs <i>GmFT2a</i>/<i>5a</i>) determines the flowering time of soybean.</p></div

Expression analysis of <i>FT</i>-like genes in transgenic soybean overexpressing <i>E1</i> and WT plants under LDs.

<p>Fully expanded trifoliolate leaves were sampled 4-quantitative RT-PCR. SOV#L1, SOV#L2 and SOV#L3 were T₂ transgenic plants from transgenic T₀ line TG4, that has three copy exogenous <i>E1</i> insertions. SOV#L4 was T₂ transgenic plant from transgenic T₀ line TG2, that has 7–8 copy exogenous <i>E1</i> insertions <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0089030#pone.0089030-Xia1" target="_blank">[37]</a>. SVC, transformation vector only (i.e., vector control); WT, Kariyutaka. The <i>TUA5</i> gene was used as a control.</p

Expression analysis of <i>GmFT4</i> in different soybean cultivars under SDs and LDs by real-time RT-PCR.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Number of days to flowering. (<b>B</b>) Evaluation of <i>GmFT4</i> transcript levels in fully expanded trifoliolate leaves by real-time RT-PCR. Transcript levels relative to <i>TUA5</i> were represented in each treatment; Soybean cultivar Kariyutaka under SDs was used as control. Values represent means of three biological replicates; error bars indicate standard deviation.(<b>C and D</b>) Correlation analysis between <i>GmFT4</i> mRNA and flowering time of different soybean cultivars under LDs and SDs. Results showed that <i>GmFT4</i> mRNA expression was significantly correlated with flowering time of different soybean cultivars under both SDs and LDs. (<b>E and F</b>) Correlation analysis between <i>GmFT4</i> mRNA expression and <i>E1</i> mRNA expression in cultivars carrying <i>E1</i> allele and cultivars carrying <i>e1-as</i> allele. <i>GmFT4</i> expression is significantly correlated with the <i>E1</i> expression in cultivars carrying both <i>E1</i> allele and cultivars carrying <i>e1</i>-as allele.</p

<i>GmFT4</i> expression is associated with flowering time, <i>E1</i> genotype and <i>E1</i> expression.

<p>Plants were grown in a climate chamber under either SDs (12 h:12 h light/dark) or LDs (16∶8 h light/dark). Fully expanded trifoliolate leaves were sampled 4 h after beginning of light phase from three individual plants. Relative expression level of <i>GmFT4</i> and <i>E1</i> were analyzed by real-time RT-PCR. Transcript levels relative to <i>TUA5</i> are represented in each treatment, s.d. represents standard deviation. Soybean cultivar Kariyutaka under SDs was used as control whose expression level was set to 1 for all genes analyzed. Values represent means of three biological replicates. Genotype <i>E1</i> is considered as functional WT allele, the <i>e1-as</i> allele represents a partially functional allele and the <i>e1-fs</i> alleles are nonfunctional allele.</p

Tissue-organ expression analysis of <i>GmFT4</i> in different soybean cultivars.

<p>All tissues were sampled 2-time RT-PCR analysis. Transcript levels relative to <i>TUA5</i> are represented in each treatment. Values represent means of three biological replicates; error bars indicate standard deviation. (<b>A</b>) Tissue-specific organ expression analysis of <i>GmFT4</i> in soybean cultivars Kariyutaka, Harosoy-<i>E1</i>, Harosoy-<i>e1</i> and HX3. (<b>B</b>) Tissue-organ expression analysis of <i>E1</i> in <i>E1</i> overexpressing transgenic soybean and WT (Kariyutaka). (<b>C</b>) Tissue-organ expression analysis of <i>GmFT4</i> in <i>E1</i> overexpressing transgenic soybean and WT (Kariyutaka).</p

Sequence comparison of FT/TFL1 family members from flowering plants.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Alignment of sequences of FT/TFL1 family members from flowering plants. The Tyr85/His88 residue, that lies at the entrance to the ligand-binding pocket, distinguishing all FT from TFL1 members is boxed in red. Segment B is boxed in black: the Asp144/Gln140 residue distinguishing all FT from TFL1 members is indicated by red arrow. The predicted key residue, which may play an important role in functional diversification is indicated by green arrow. (<b>B</b>) Phylogenetic tree of GmFT4 and other FT/TFL1 family members, most of which have been functionally characterized.</p