DQ-LoRe: Dual Queries with Low Rank Approximation Re-ranking for In-Context Learning

Recent advances in natural language processing, primarily propelled by Large Language Models (LLMs), have showcased their remarkable capabilities grounded in in-context learning. A promising avenue for guiding LLMs in intricate reasoning tasks involves the utilization of intermediate reasoning steps within the Chain-of-Thought (CoT) paradigm. Nevertheless, the central challenge lies in the effective selection of exemplars for facilitating in-context learning. In this study, we introduce a framework that leverages Dual Queries and Low-rank approximation Re-ranking (DQ-LoRe) to automatically select exemplars for in-context learning. Dual Queries first query LLM to obtain LLM-generated knowledge such as CoT, then query the retriever to obtain the final exemplars via both question and the knowledge. Moreover, for the second query, LoRe employs dimensionality reduction techniques to refine exemplar selection, ensuring close alignment with the input question's knowledge. Through extensive experiments, we demonstrate that DQ-LoRe significantly outperforms prior state-of-the-art methods in the automatic selection of exemplars for GPT-4, enhancing performance from 92.5% to 94.2%. Our comprehensive analysis further reveals that DQ-LoRe consistently outperforms retrieval-based approaches in terms of both performance and adaptability, especially in scenarios characterized by distribution shifts. DQ-LoRe pushes the boundary of in-context learning and opens up new avenues for addressing complex reasoning challenges. Our code is released at https://github.com/AI4fun/DQ-LoRe}{https://github.com/AI4fun/DQ-LoRe.Comment: Accepted in ICLR 202

Prediction of Metabolic Syndrome for the Survival of Patients With Digestive Tract Cancer: A Meta-Analysis

Background and Objectives: Growing evidence indicates that metabolic syndrome confers a differential risk for the development and progression of many types of cancer, especially in the digestive tract system. We here synthesized the results of published cohort studies to test whether baseline metabolic syndrome and its components can predict survival in patients with esophageal, gastric, or colorectal cancer.Methods: Literature retrieval, publication selection and data extraction were performed independently by two authors. Analyses were done using STATA software (version 14.1).Results: A total of 15 publications involving 54,656 patients were meta-analyzed. In overall analyses, the presence of metabolic syndrome was associated with a non-significant 19% increased mortality risk for digestive tract cancer (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.19; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.45 to 2.520.95 to 1.49, P = 0.130; I2: 94.8%). In stratified analyses, the association between metabolic syndrome and digestive tract cancer survival was statistically significant in prospective studies (HR: 1.64, 95% CI: 1.18 to 2.28), in studies involving postsurgical patients (HR: 1.42, 95% CI: 1.06 to 1.92), and in studies assessing cancer-specific survival (HR: 1.91, 95% CI: 1.45 to 2.52). Further meta-regression analyses indicated that age and smoking were potential sources of between-study heterogeneity (both P < 0.001). The shape of the Begg's funnel plot seemed symmetrical (Begg's test P = 0.945 and Egger's test P = 0.305).Conclusions: Our findings indicate that metabolic syndrome is associated with an increased risk of postsurgical digestive tract cancer-specific mortality. Continued investigations are needed to uncover the precise molecule mechanism linking metabolic syndrome and digestive tract cancer

Prognostic Value of an Inflammation-Related Index in 6,865 Chinese Patients With Postoperative Digestive Tract Cancers: The FIESTA Study

Objectives: We sought to determine the optimal cutting points for two inflammatory biomarkers, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), to assess their prognostic value in patients with postoperative digestive tract cancers overall and by cancer sites, and further to construct an inflammation-related index based on the two biomarkers and assess its predictive performance.Methods: Total 6,865 assessable patients with digestive tract cancers who underwent tumor resection were consecutively enrolled from Fujian Cancer Hospital between January 2000 and December 2010, including 2535/3012/1318 patients with esophageal/gastric/colorectal cancer. The latest follow-up (median: 44.9 months) ended in December 2015. Optimal cutting points were determined using survival tree analysis overall and by cancer sites.Results: Among all study patients, the optimal cutting points were 2.07 and 168.50 to define high and low NLR and PLR, respectively. High NLR (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.48, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.37–1.61) and high PLR (HR: 1.41, 95% CI: 1.29–1.53) were associated with a significantly increased risk for the mortality of digestive tract cancers as a whole. By cancer sites, effect-size estimates were comparable and statistically significant. Elevation over the selected optimal cutting points for both NLR and PLR was associated with 1.69-fold increased risk of cancer-specific mortality compared to patients with simultaneously low NLR and PLR among all study patients, and this association persisted by cancer sites, especially for gastric cancer.Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that the preoperative integrated NLR and PLR, as an inflammation-related index, is a significant independent predictor for postoperative mortality in Chinese patients with digestive tract cancers both overall and by cancer sites

Interaction Between Prediabetes and the ABO Blood Types in Predicting Postsurgical Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma-Specific Mortality: The FIESTA Study

Background: We aimed to investigate the interaction between prediabetes and the ABO blood types in predicting esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC)-specific mortality by analysing data from the FIESTA study on normal/prediabetic patients with ESCC.Methods: Total 1,857 normal/prediabetic patients with ESCC who underwent three-field lymphadenectomy between January 2000 and December 2010 and survived hospitalization were analyzable, with follow-up beginning in 2000 and ending in 2015.Results: At the end of the follow-up, there were 1,161 survivors and 696 non-survivors. The follow-up time ranged from 0.5 to 180 months. The cumulative survival rates in normal patients were obviously better than in prediabetic patients. The cumulative survival rates were significantly higher in normal patients than in prediabetic patients for the blood types O and A (Log-rank test P < 0.05), while no significance was detected for the blood types B and AB. Adjusted risk estimates for ESCC-specific mortality for prediabetic patients relative to normal patients were statistically significant in the blood type B− group (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.71; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.33–2.20; P < 0.001), but not in the blood type B+ group (HR: 1.12; 95% CI: 0.77–1.64; P = 0.5544).Conclusions: Our findings indicate that prediabetes can predict the significant risk of ESCC-specific mortality in Chinese Han patients with the blood types O and A

Publisher Correction: The long non-coding RNA HOXB-AS3 regulates ribosomal RNA transcription in NPM1-mutated acute myeloid leukemia.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper