Building and Adaptive Learning Mechanism to Assist eLearning Students

Intelligent Tutoring System has been developed to provide an individualized learning environment in order to prompt learning interests and learning efficiency for online education. In this paper, based on the concept of intelligent tutoring system and educational product function, we establish a distance learning environment where students receive learning contents that best suit their needs. In this environment, we adopt clustering theory by utilizing SOM algorithm in the system and analyze the relationship between students’ personal background, interests and learning result. The workload of instructors is relieved and student’s learning ability and interests are considered in providing adequate learning contents which lead to more effective teaching effect and learning result. The proposed system is applied to the construction of an online 3D virtual museum

Transferability-Guided Cross-Domain Cross-Task Transfer Learning

We propose two novel transferability metrics F-OTCE (Fast Optimal Transport based Conditional Entropy) and JC-OTCE (Joint Correspondence OTCE) to evaluate how much the source model (task) can benefit the learning of the target task and to learn more transferable representations for cross-domain cross-task transfer learning. Unlike the existing metric that requires evaluating the empirical transferability on auxiliary tasks, our metrics are auxiliary-free such that they can be computed much more efficiently. Specifically, F-OTCE estimates transferability by first solving an Optimal Transport (OT) problem between source and target distributions, and then uses the optimal coupling to compute the Negative Conditional Entropy between source and target labels. It can also serve as a loss function to maximize the transferability of the source model before finetuning on the target task. Meanwhile, JC-OTCE improves the transferability robustness of F-OTCE by including label distances in the OT problem, though it may incur additional computation cost. Extensive experiments demonstrate that F-OTCE and JC-OTCE outperform state-of-the-art auxiliary-free metrics by 18.85% and 28.88%, respectively in correlation coefficient with the ground-truth transfer accuracy. By eliminating the training cost of auxiliary tasks, the two metrics reduces the total computation time of the previous method from 43 minutes to 9.32s and 10.78s, respectively, for a pair of tasks. When used as a loss function, F-OTCE shows consistent improvements on the transfer accuracy of the source model in few-shot classification experiments, with up to 4.41% accuracy gain.Comment: This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessibl

The First and Second Order Asymptotics of Covert Communication over AWGN Channels

This paper investigates the asymptotics of the maximal throughput of communication over AWGN channels by $n$ channel uses under a covert constraint in terms of an upper bound $\delta$ of Kullback-Leibler divergence (KL divergence). It is shown that the first and second order asymptotics of the maximal throughput are $\sqrt{n\delta \log e}$ and $(2)^{1/2}(n\delta)^{1/4}(\log e)^{3/4}\cdot Q^{-1}(\epsilon)$, respectively. The technique we use in the achievability is quasi-$\varepsilon$-neighborhood notion from information geometry. We prove that if the generating distribution of the codebook is close to Dirac measure in the weak sense, then the corresponding output distribution at the adversary satisfies covert constraint in terms of most common divergences. This helps link the local differential geometry of the distribution of noise with covert constraint. For the converse, the optimality of Gaussian distribution for minimizing KL divergence under second order moment constraint is extended from dimension $1$ to dimension $n$. It helps to establish the upper bound on the average power of the code to satisfy the covert constraint, which further leads to the direct converse bound in terms of covert metric

Study of qqqqˉQqqq\bar{q}Q pentaquark system in the Chiral Quark Model

With the discovery of some hidden-charm pentaquark resonances by the LHCb Collaboration, investigations of pentaquark states containing heavy quarks have aroused the interest of theorists. We study herein $qqq\bar{q}Q$ ($q = u$ or $d$, $Q=c$ or $b$) pentaquark system, in the framework of the chiral quark model. In consequence, some charmed and bottomed pentaquarks are considered to exist by five-body dynamical calculations. In the charm sector, $\Sigma_c\pi(IJ^P=0\frac{1}{2}^-)$ and $\Sigma_c^*\pi(IJ^P=0\frac{3}{2}^-)$ are possible candidates of $\Lambda_c(2595)$ and $\Lambda_c(2625)$, respectively. Besides, two high-spin states, $\Sigma_c^*\rho(IJ^P=0\frac{5}{2}^-)$ and $\Delta D^*(IJ^P=1\frac{5}{2}^-)$, are also found in the energy region of $3.2 \sim 3.3$ GeV. In the bottom sector, $\Sigma_b\pi(IJ^P=0\frac{1}{2}^-)$, $\Sigma_b^*\pi(IJ^P=0\frac{3}{2}^-)$ could be candidates of $\Lambda_b(5912)$ and $\Lambda_b(5920)$, respectively. And $\Sigma_b^*\rho(IJ^P=0\frac{5}{2}^-)$ and $\Delta B^*(IJ^P=1\frac{5}{2}^-)$ are found in the energy region of $6.5 \sim 6.6$ GeV. $\Sigma_c^{(*)}\pi$ and $\Sigma_b^{(*)}\pi$ are expected as compact states, while $\Sigma_c^*\rho$, $\Sigma_b^*\rho$, $\Delta D^*$ and $\Delta B^*$ are expected as molecular states.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur

DDI-CPI, a server that predicts drug–drug interactions through implementing the chemical–protein interactome

Drug–drug interactions (DDIs) may cause serious side-effects that draw great attention from both academia and industry. Since some DDIs are mediated by unexpected drug–human protein interactions, it is reasonable to analyze the chemical–protein interactome (CPI) profiles of the drugs to predict their DDIs. Here we introduce the DDI-CPI server, which can make real-time DDI predictions based only on molecular structure. When the user submits a molecule, the server will dock user's molecule across 611 human proteins, generating a CPI profile that can be used as a feature vector for the pre-constructed prediction model. It can suggest potential DDIs between the user's molecule and our library of 2515 drug molecules. In cross-validation and independent validation, the server achieved an AUC greater than 0.85. Additionally, by investigating the CPI profiles of predicted DDI, users can explore the PK/PD proteins that might be involved in a particular DDI. A 3D visualization of the drug-protein interaction will be provided as well. The DDI-CPI is freely accessible at http://cpi.bio-x.cn/ddi/

Single-crystalline δ-Ni2Si nanowires with excellent physical properties

[[abstract]]In this article, we report the synthesis of single-crystalline nickel silicide nanowires (NWs) via chemical vapor deposition method using NiCl2·6H2O as a single-source precursor. Various morphologies of δ-Ni2Si NWs were successfully acquired by controlling the growth conditions. The growth mechanism of the δ-Ni2Si NWs was thoroughly discussed and identified with microscopy studies. Field emission measurements show a low turn-on field (4.12 V/μm), and magnetic property measurements show a classic ferromagnetic characteristic, which demonstrates promising potential applications for field emitters, magnetic storage, and biological cell separation.[[notice]]補正完畢[[incitationindex]]SCI[[booktype]]電子版[[booktype]]紙

Targeting F-Box Protein Fbxo3 Attenuates Lung Injury Induced by Ischemia-Reperfusion in Rats

Background: Increasing evidence suggests that Fbxo3 signaling has an important impact on the pathophysiology of the inflammatory process. Fbxo3 protein inhibition has reduced cytokine-driven inflammation and improved disease severity in animal model of Pseudomonas-induced lung injury. However, it remains unclear whether inhibition of Fbxo3 protein provides protection in acute lung injury induced by ischemia-reperfusion (I/R). In this study, we investigated the protective effects of BC-1215 administration, a Fbxo3 inhibitor, on acute lung injury induced by I/R in rats.Methods: Lung I/R injury was induced by ischemia (40 min) followed by reperfusion (60 min). The rats were randomly assigned into one of six experimental groups (n = 6 rats/group): the control group, control + BC-1215 (Fbxo3 inhibitor, 0.5 mg/kg) group, I/R group, or I/R + BC-1215 (0.1, 0.25, 0.5 mg/kg) groups. The effects of BC-1215 on human alveolar epithelial cells subjected to hypoxia-reoxygenation (H/R) were also examined.Results: BC-1215 significantly attenuated I/R-induced lung edema, indicated by a reduced vascular filtration coefficient, wet/dry weight ratio, lung injury scores, and protein levels in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF). Oxidative stress and the level of inflammatory cytokines in BALF were also significantly reduced following administration of BC-1215. Additionally, BC-1215 mitigated I/R-stimulated apoptosis, NF-κB, and mitogen-activated protein kinase activation in the injured lung tissue. BC-1215 increased Fbxl2 protein expression and suppressed Fbxo3 and TNFR associated factor (TRAF)1–6 protein expression. BC-1215 also inhibited IL-8 production and NF-κB activation in vitro in experiments with alveolar epithelial cells exposed to H/R.Conclusions: Our findings demonstrated that Fbxo3 inhibition may represent a novel therapeutic approach for I/R-induced lung injury, with beneficial effects due to destabilizing TRAF proteins

Guanylate-binding Protein 1 (GBP1) contributes to the immunity of human mesenchymal stromal cells against toxoplasma gondii

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) have recently been shown to play important roles in mammalian host defenses against intracellular pathogens, but the molecular mechanism still needs to be clarified. We confirmed that human MSCs (hMSCs) pre-stimulated with IFN-γ showed a significant and dose-dependent ability to inhibit the growth of two types of Toxoplasma gondii (type I strain RH/GFP or type II strain PLK/RED). However, in contrast to previous reports, the anti-T. gondii activity of hMSCs was not mediated by indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO). Genome-wide RNA-seq analysis revealed that IFN-γ increased the expression of the p65 family of guanylate-binding proteins (hGBPs) in hMSCs, especially hGBP1. To analyze the functional role of hGBPs, stable knockdowns of hGBP1, -2, -5 in hMSCs were established using a lentiviral transfection system. hGBP1 knockdown in hMSCs resulted in a significant loss of the anti-T. gondii host defense property, compared with hMSCs infected with non-targetted control sequences. hGBP2 and -5 knockdowns had no effect. Moreover, the hGBP1 accumulation on the parasitophorous vacuole (PV) membranes of IFN-γ-stimulated hMSCs might protect against T. gondii infection. Taken together, our results suggest that hGBP1 plays a pivotal role in anti-T. gondii protection of hMSCs and may shed new light on clarifying the mechanism of host defense properties of hMSCs

Single nucleotide polymorphisms of the APC gene and colorectal cancer risk: a case-control study in Taiwan

BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer (CRC), which has become especially prevalent in developed countries, is currently the third highest cause of cancer mortality in Taiwan. Mutation of the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene, a tumour suppressor, is thought to be an early event in colorectal tumourigenesis. To date, however, no large-scale screening for APC gene variants in Chinese subjects has been performed. The present study was undertaken to identify APC gene variants that are significantly associated with the occurrence of CRC in Taiwanese subjects. METHODS: In order to compare the genotype distribution of variant sites, the full-length APC genes of 74 healthy individuals and 80 CRC patients were sequenced. RESULTS: Among the 154 Taiwanese subjects examined in this study, three new mutations, but no previously reported mutations, were found. One deletion at codon 460 leading to a frameshift and two missense mutations resulting in p.V1125A and p.S1126R substitutions were identified. Additionally, three high risk genotypes associated with three single nucleotide polymorphisms and one low risk genotype at codon 1822 were identified. CONCLUSION: The findings of this case-control study are consistent with the proposal that Taiwanese subjects differ from other subjects with respect to phenotypic presentation of APC and CRC risk