A Generalized Recurrent Neural Architecture for Text Classification with Multi-Task Learning

Multi-task learning leverages potential correlations among related tasks to extract common features and yield performance gains. However, most previous works only consider simple or weak interactions, thereby failing to model complex correlations among three or more tasks. In this paper, we propose a multi-task learning architecture with four types of recurrent neural layers to fuse information across multiple related tasks. The architecture is structurally flexible and considers various interactions among tasks, which can be regarded as a generalized case of many previous works. Extensive experiments on five benchmark datasets for text classification show that our model can significantly improve performances of related tasks with additional information from others

Relative Earnings of Husbands and Wives in Urban China

This paper studies the relative contribution of husbands and wives to the family income in the process of economic transition by using the Chinese Urban Household Survey data from 1988 to 1999. We find that, contrary to the experience of western countries, the share of wives¡¦ labor earnings in urban China tends to decline slightly over time and the share of husbands¡¦ labor earnings is stable. This implies that the role of urban Chinese husbands as the main financial supporters of their families becomes relatively more important during economic transition. We argue that this trend may have reflected the restoration of the functions of household production and labor market in the process of economic transition. This restoration allows households to allocate time, effort and human capital investment for each household member and for each household and market activity in a more efficient way. Our further empirical analysis suggests that at least two factors have accounted for the strengthening of the relative importance of husbands in contributing to family income in urban China: 1) the enlargement of the positive effect of children on husbands and the opposite effect for wives; and 2) the shrinkage of the positive income effect on the leisure of husbands.

Image Based Hair Segmentation Algorithm for the Application of Automatic Facial Caricature Synthesis

Hair is a salient feature in human face region and are one of the important cues for face analysis. Accurate detection and presentation of hair region is one of the key components for automatic synthesis of human facial caricature. In this paper, an automatic hair detection algorithm for the application of automatic synthesis of facial caricature based on a single image is proposed. Firstly, hair regions in training images are labeled manually and then the hair position prior distributions and hair color likelihood distribution function are estimated from these labels efficiently. Secondly, the energy function of the test image is constructed according to the estimated prior distributions of hair location and hair color likelihood. This energy function is further optimized according to graph cuts technique and initial hair region is obtained. Finally, K-means algorithm and image postprocessing techniques are applied to the initial hair region so that the final hair region can be segmented precisely. Experimental results show that the average processing time for each image is about 280 ms and the average hair region detection accuracy is above 90%. The proposed algorithm is applied to a facial caricature synthesis system. Experiments proved that with our proposed hair segmentation algorithm the facial caricatures are vivid and satisfying

Influence of Intergenerational Parenting on Gross Motor Skills Among Children Aged 3-6 Years Old

The stage of 3-6 years old is a critical period for the development of children\u27s gross motor skills, influencing their growth and development. Intergenerational parenting is a common way of family education in China. Studies have shown that the rough intergenerational parenting concept and limited energy of the elderly reduce the quality of life of the children under care (Qimeng Jiang, Nan Zhou, 2020). However, no research focused on the influence of intergenerational parenting on gross motor skills. This study aimed to explore the influence of different intergenerational parenting style on gross motor skills among children aged 3-6 years old. The participants were 62 children (25 boys and 37 girls) aged 3-6 years old from Liaoning Province. All of the participants were under intergenerational parenting. Gross motor skills were assessed using the Test of Gross Motor Development-Third Edition (TGMD-3), which includes locomotor skills and ball skills components. The intergenerational parenting status was divided into parent-dominated intergenerational parenting and grandparent-dominated intergenerational parenting according to a questionnaire (Lu Ye, 2020). The parenting style included authoritative, authoritarian and tolerant styles. The scores of three styles were determined by the grandparents-reported Chinese version of Parental Authority Questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, independent t-test and Pearson correlation were employed and the significant levels were set at 0.05. The results showed that participants had lower mean scores in both locomotor skills (Mboy = 12.58±4.42, Mgirl =13.51 ±3.03) and ball skills (Mboy = 8.46±2.9, Mgirl = 8.04±3.34) compared to the Chinese norm. There was no significant difference between parent-dominated and grandparent-dominated intergenerational parenting (M Parent-dominated =22.90±4.15, M grandparent-dominated = 20.48±4.47; t = 1.269, p = 0.209). Correlation analysis indicated a small association between the score of locomotor skills and authoritative style (r = 0.269, p \u3c 0.05). No significant relationship was found between other parenting styles and the scores of TGMD-3. It is concluded that intergenerational parenting may negatively influence children’s gross motor development. Parent-dominated and grandparent-dominated intergenerational parenting may not have differences in children’s motor development. The authoritative parenting style of intergenerational education has certain impacts on children\u27s gross motor skills, especially on children\u27s locomotor skills

延迟退休年龄会挤出年轻人就业吗?

In the situation of rapid population aging, postponing retirement is a timely and effective measure in relieving pressure of old age support. However, many people think that postponing retirement will crowd out youth employment. Using data in China, this paper shows that this judgment cannot be supported by empirical evidence. Using data from 1990 census, 2000 census and 2005 1% population sample survey, this paper examines the impact of employment of older persons on employment of younger persons. Our OLS estimation results suggest that employment of younger persons is positively instead of negatively correlated with employment of older persons. We further dealt with the potential endogeneity of the OLS estimation by employing two-way fix-effects and TSLS estimation strategies. The results still suggest that increase of employment of older persons will promote rather than depress employment of younger persons. We also found a positive effect of employment of older persons on young workers’ wage. This study suggests that postponing retirement wouldn’t crowd out employment of younger persons