Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Linguistic Study on Relevance Modeling in Information Retrieval

Relevance plays a central role in information retrieval (IR), which has received extensive studies starting from the 20th century. The definition and the modeling of relevance has always been critical challenges in both information science and computer science research areas. Along with the debate and exploration on relevance, IR has already become a core task in many real-world applications, such as Web search engines, question answering systems, conversational bots, and so on. While relevance acts as a unified concept in all these retrieval tasks, the inherent definitions are quite different due to the heterogeneity of these tasks. This raises a question to us: Do these different forms of relevance really lead to different modeling focuses? To answer this question, in this work, we conduct an empirical study on relevance modeling in three representative IR tasks, i.e., document retrieval, answer retrieval, and response retrieval. Specifically, we attempt to study the following two questions: 1) Does relevance modeling in these tasks really show differences in terms of natural language understanding (NLU)? We employ 16 linguistic tasks to probe a unified retrieval model over these three retrieval tasks to answer this question. 2) If there do exist differences, how can we leverage the findings to enhance the relevance modeling? We proposed three intervention methods to investigate how to leverage different modeling focuses of relevance to improve these IR tasks. We believe the way we study the problem as well as our findings would be beneficial to the IR community.
Propensity Score Weighting Analysis of Survival Outcomes Using Pseudo-Observations

Survival outcomes are common in comparative effectiveness studies and require unique handling because they are usually incompletely observed due to right-censoring. A ``once for all'' approach for causal inference with survival outcomes constructs pseudo-observations and allows standard methods such as propensity score weighting to proceed as if the outcomes are completely observed. For a general class of model-free causal estimands with survival outcomes on user-specified target populations, we develop corresponding propensity score weighting estimators based on the pseudo-observations and establish their asymptotic properties. In particular, utilizing the functional delta-method and the von Mises expansion, we derive a new closed-form variance of the weighting estimator that takes into account the uncertainty due to both pseudo-observation calculation and propensity score estimation. This allows valid and computationally efficient inference without resampling. We also prove the optimal efficiency property of the overlap weights within the class of balancing weights for survival outcomes. The proposed methods are applicable to both binary and multiple treatments. Extensive simulations are conducted to explore the operating characteristics of the proposed method versus other commonly used alternatives. We apply the proposed method to compare the causal effects of three popular treatment approaches for prostate cancer patients.
OMNet: Learning Overlapping Mask for Partial-to-Partial Point Cloud Registration

Point cloud registration is a key task in many computational fields. Previous correspondence matching based methods require the inputs to have distinctive geometric structures to fit a 3D rigid transformation according to point-wise sparse feature matches. However, the accuracy of transformation heavily relies on the quality of extracted features, which are prone to errors with respect to partiality and noise. In addition, they can not utilize the geometric knowledge of all the overlapping regions. On the other hand, previous global feature based approaches can utilize the entire point cloud for the registration, however they ignore the negative effect of non-overlapping points when aggregating global features. In this paper, we present OM-Net, a global feature based iterative network for partial-to-partial point cloud registration. We learn overlapping masks to reject non-overlapping regions, which converts the partial-to-partial registration to the registration of the same shape. Moreover, the previously used data is sampled only once from the CAD models for each object, resulting in the same point clouds for the source and reference. We propose a more practical manner of data generation where a CAD model is sampled twice for the source and reference, avoiding the previously prevalent over-fitting issue. Experimental results show that our method achieves state-of-the-art performance compared to traditional and deep learning based methods. Code is available at https://github.com/megvii-research/OMNet.
Fair and Efficient Allocations with Limited Demands

We study the fair division problem of allocating multiple resources among a set of agents with Leontief preferences that are each required to complete a finite amount of work, which we term "limited demands". We examine the behavior of the classic Dominant Resource Fairness (DRF) mechanism in this setting and show it is fair but only weakly Pareto optimal and inefficient in many natural examples. We propose as an alternative the Least Cost Product (LCP) mechanism, a natural adaptation of Maximum Nash Welfare to this setting. We characterize the structure of allocation of the LCP mechanism in this setting, show that it is Pareto efficient, and that it satisfies the relatively weak fairness property of sharing incentives. While we prove that it satisfies the stronger fairness property of (expected) envy freeness in some special cases, we provide a counterexample showing it does not do so in general, a striking contrast to the "unreasonable fairness" of Maximum Nash Welfare in other settings. Simulations suggest, however, that these violations of envy freeness are rare in randomly generated examples.
SocNavBench: A Grounded Simulation Testing Framework for Evaluating Social Navigation

The human-robot interaction community has developed many methods for robots to navigate safely and socially alongside humans. However, experimental procedures to evaluate these works are usually constructed on a per-method basis. Such disparate evaluations make it difficult to compare the performance of such methods across the literature. To bridge this gap, we introduce SocNavBench, a simulation framework for evaluating social navigation algorithms. SocNavBench comprises a simulator with photo-realistic capabilities and curated social navigation scenarios grounded in real-world pedestrian data. We also provide an implementation of a suite of metrics to quantify the performance of navigation algorithms on these scenarios. Altogether, SocNavBench provides a test framework for evaluating disparate social navigation methods in a consistent and interpretable manner. To illustrate its use, we demonstrate testing three existing social navigation methods and a baseline method on SocNavBench, showing how the suite of metrics helps infer their performance trade-offs. Our code is open-source, allowing the addition of new scenarios and metrics by the community to help evolve SocNavBench to reflect advancements in our understanding of social navigation.
A semismooth Newton method for implicitly constituted non-Newtonian fluids and its application to the numerical approximation of Bingham flow

We propose a semismooth Newton method for non-Newtonian models of incompressible flow where the constitutive relation between the shear stress and the symmetric velocity gradient is given implicitly; this class of constitutive relations captures for instance the models of Bingham and Herschel–Bulkley. The proposed method avoids the use of variational inequalities and is based on a particularly simple regularisation for which the (weak) convergence of the approximate stresses is known to hold. The system is analysed at the function space level and results in mesh-independent behaviour of the nonlinear iterations.
A Kinematic Bottleneck Approach for Pose Regression of Flexible Surgical Instruments Directly From Images

3-D pose estimation of instruments is a crucial step towards automatic scene understanding in robotic minimally invasive surgery. Although robotic systems can potentially directly provide joint values, this information is not commonly exploited inside the operating room, due to its possible unreliability, limited access and the time-consuming calibration required, especially for continuum robots. For this reason, standard approaches for 3-D pose estimation involve the use of external tracking systems. Recently, image-based methods have emerged as promising, non-invasive alternatives. While many image-based approaches in the literature have shown accurate results, they generally require either a complex iterative optimization for each processed image, making them unsuitable for real-time applications, or a large number of manually-annotated images for efficient learning. In this letter, we propose a self-supervised image-based method, exploiting, at training time only, the imprecise kinematic information provided by the robot. In order to avoid introducing time-consuming manual annotations, the problem is formulated as an auto-encoder, smartly bottlenecked by the presence of a physical model of the robotic instruments and surgical camera, forcing a separation between image background and kinematic content. Validation of the method was performed on semi-synthetic, phantom and in-vivo datasets, obtained using a flexible robotized endoscope, showing promising results for real-time image-based 3-D pose estimation of surgical instruments.
Casual and Hardcore Player Traits and Gratifications of Pok\'emon GO, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, Ingress

Location-based games (LBG) impose virtual spaces on top of physical locations. Studies have explored LBG from various perspectives. However, a comprehensive study of who these players are, their traits, their gratifications, and the links between them is conspicuously absent from the literature. In this paper, we aim to address this lacuna through a series of surveys with 2390 active LBG players utilizing Tondello's Player Traits Model and Scale of Game playing Preferences, and Hamari's scale of LBG gratifications. Our findings (1) illustrate an association between player satisfaction and social aspects of the studied games, (2) explicate how the core-loops of the studied games impact the expressed gratifications and the affine traits of players, and (3) indicate a strong distinction between hardcore and casual players based on both traits and gratifications. Overall our findings shed light into the players of LBG, their traits, and gratifications they derive from playing LBGs.
Millimeter Wave and Sub-THz Indoor Radio Propagation Channel Measurements, Models, and Comparisons in an Office Environment

This letter provides a comparison of indoor radio propagation measurements and corresponding channel statistics at 28, 73, and 140 GHz, based on extensive measurements from 2014–2020 in an indoor office environment. Side-by-side comparisons of propagation characteristics (e.g., large-scale path loss and multipath time dispersion) across a wide range of frequencies from the low millimeter wave band of 28 GHz to the sub-THz band of 140 GHz illustrate the key similarities and differences in indoor wireless channels. The measurements and models show remarkably similar path loss exponents over frequencies in both line-of-sight (LOS) and non-LOS (NLOS) scenarios, when using a one meter free space reference distance, while the multipath time dispersion becomes smaller at higher frequencies. The 3GPP indoor channel model overestimates the large-scale path loss and has unrealistic large numbers of clusters and multipath components per cluster compared to the measured channel statistics in this letter.
PRINCIPAL RADICAL SYSTEMS, LEFSCHETZ PROPERTIES, AND PERFECTION OF SPECHT IDEALS OF TWO-ROWED PARTITIONS

Abstract We show that the Specht ideal of a two-rowed partition is perfect over an arbitrary field, provided that the characteristic is either zero or bounded below by the size of the second row of the partition, and we show this lower bound is tight. We also establish perfection and other properties of certain variants of Specht ideals, and find a surprising connection to the weak Lefschetz property. Our results, in particular, give a self-contained proof of Cohen–Macaulayness of certain h-equals sets, a result previously obtained by Etingof–Gorsky–Losev over the complex numbers using rational Cherednik algebras.
Cross sections of inclusive 
ψ(2S)
 and 
X(3872)
 production from 
b
-hadron decays in 
pp
 collisions and comparison with ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb data

B. A. Kniehl , G. Kramer, I. Schienbein, and H. Spiesberger 3 II. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, D-22761 Hamburg, Germany Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie, Université Joseph Fourier Grenoble 1, CNRS/IN2P3, Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble, 53 avenue des Martyrs, F-38026 Grenoble, France PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence, Institut für Physik, Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität, Staudinger Weg 7, D-55099 Mainz, Germany
Sputtering of compound semiconductor surfaces. II: Compositional changes and radiation-induced topography and damage

Abstract Ion bombardment often leads to compositional changes in the surface layers of multicomponent targets. Such changes due to noble gas ion sputtering are discussed for InP and GaAs. The analyses show that the compositional change in InP (i.e., indium enrichment) is mainly due to preferential sputtering. In the case of GaAs. the changes are due to radiation-induced diffusion and segregation effects. Brief mention is made of compositional changes in a few other systems. The discussion on sputter-induced topography development deals mainly with InP because ion bombardment leads to dramatic topographical effects in this material. Ripple development on GaAs is also briefly discussed. Radiation damage has been well researched, and its mechanism and effects usually differ substantially when going from one semiconductor group to another. Bombardment-induced damage is briefly discussed for InP, GaAs, SiC, some II-VI semiconductors, and HgCdTe.
New applications for laser ablation high resolution ICPMS (LA-HR-ICP-MS): Quantitative measurements of gallium diffusion across human root dentin

Laser-ablation high-resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-HR-ICP-MS) has been used for in situ determination of gallium concentration in treated human teeth. Gallium salts have an inhibitory effect on osteoclastic activity. Established as a therapeutic agent in regulating serum calcium and bone resorption, gallium has recently been proposed as a treatment for external root resorption. This study examines the diffusion of gallium introduced as the nitrate, through root dentin from the prepared root canal toward the root surface. Root canals from extracted human teeth were biomechanically prepared, sealed apically, and closed off coronally with polyethylene tubing. A 1.0 M solution of gallium nitrate, chelated by 1.0 M citrate buffer (pH 7.4), was introduced into canals, and roots were then suspended in test tubes of distilled water. The gallium-treated teeth were analyzed for 43Ca, 69Ga, and 71Ga isotopes. Elemental data were obtained by ablation with Nd∶YAG laser operating in the UV region (266 nm) by Merchantek and isotopic analysis with a Sector Field ICP-MS by Finnigan MAT. A 50 ppm glass standard (NIST-612) was also analyzed for the same isotopes. Quantification was performed by assuming a uniform nominal calcium concentration value of 27 g per 100 g of dry dentin across the root and using the 43Ca signal for internal calibration. The precision (RSD%) of measurements for 43Ca for the NIST-612 glass standard was found to be within 3.2% to 4.6% and for the tooth samples within 15.4% to 19.1%. The precision of determination for 69Ga for the NIST-612 glass standard was between 3.1% and 5.7%. The analysis revealed a significant uptake of gallium by the root dentin, ranging from ≈20000 ppm for the upper portion of the root to ≈8000 ppm for the areas in the lower sections. The analysis also revealed that a significant concentration gradient was established for gallium nitrate across the root dentin. The results from this study suggest that, in an effort to inhibit root resorption, therapeutic concentrations of gallium can be achieved throughout the root dentin when the prepared root canal is treated with 1.0 M gallium nitrate.
Systemic Immunotherapy with Micellar Resiquimod–Polymer Conjugates Triggers a Robust Antitumor Response in a Breast Cancer Model

Resiquimod is an immunopotent toll‐like receptor 7/8 agonist with antitumor activity. Despite being potent against skin cancers, it is poorly tolerated systemically due to toxicity. Integrating resiquimod into nanoparticles presents an avenue to circumvent the toxicity problem. Herein, the preparation of degradable nanoparticles with covalently bound resiquimod and their systemic application in cancer immunotherapy is reported. Dispersion in water of amphiphilic constructs integrating resiquimod covalently bound via degradable amide or ester linkages yields immune‐activating nanoparticles. The degradable agonist–nanoparticle bonds allow the release of resiquimod from the carrier nanoparticles. In vitro assays with antigen presenting cells demonstrate that the nanoparticles retain the immunostimulatory activity of resiquimod. Systemic administration of the nanoparticles and checkpoint blockade (aPD‐1) to a breast cancer mouse model with multiple established tumors triggers antitumor activity evidenced by suppressed tumor growth and enhanced CD8+ T‐cell infiltration. Nanoparticles with ester links, which hydrolyze more readily, yield a stronger immune response with 75% of tumors eliminated when combined with aPD‐1. The reduced tumor growth and the presence of activated CD8+ T‐cells across multiple tumors suggest the potential for treating metastatic cancer.
A Genetic Variant of the BTLA Gene is Related to Increased Risk and Clinical Manifestations of Breast Cancer in Chinese Women.

BACKGROUND B and T lymphocyte attenuator (BTLA), an immunoinhibitory receptor, is shown to suppress the lymphocyte activation. Several studies addressed the relationship between the BTLA rs1982809 polymorphism and the risk of cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS To identify the effects of this polymorphism on the risk of breast cancer (BC), this study examined Chinese women from China, Jiangsu Province. This study involved 324 patients with BC and 412 controls. RESULTS We observed that the BTLA rs1982809 polymorphism elevated the risk of BC. A similar finding was also shown in the subgroups of premenopausal women and those aged < 55 years old. In addition, this polymorphism was correlated with the estrogen receptor status, C-erbB-2 status, Ki-67 status, TNM stage, and tumor size of patients with BC. CONCLUSIONS Collectively, the BTLA rs1982809 polymorphism shows a significant association with elevated risk and clinical features of BC in Chinese women. Further studies involving other races are urgently needed to replicate these findings.
Nanophthalmos-Associated MYRF Gene Mutation Causes Ciliary Zonule Defects in Mice

Purpose Patients with nanophthalmos who undergo intraocular surgery often present with abnormal ciliary zonules. In a previous study, we reported mutation in MYRF that is implicated in the pathogenesis of nanophthalmos. The aim of this study was to model the mutation in mice to explore the role of MYRF on zonule structure and its major molecular composition, including FBN1 and FBN2. Methods Human MYRF nanophthalmos frameshift mutation was generated in mouse using the CRISPR-Cas9 system. PCR and Sanger sequencing were used for genotype analysis of the mice model. Anterior chamber depth (ACD) was measured using hematoxylin and eosin–stained histology samples. Morphologic analysis of ciliary zonules was carried out using silver staining and immunofluorescence. Transcript and protein expression levels of MYRF, FBN1, and FBN2 in ciliary bodies were quantified using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and Western blot. Results A nanophthalmos frameshift mutation (c.789delC, p.N264fs) of MYRF in mice showed ocular phenotypes similar to those reported in patients with nanophthalmos. ACD was reduced in MYRF mutant mice (MYRFmut/+) compared with that in littermate control mice (MYRF+/+). In addition, the morphology of ciliary zonules showed reduced zonular fiber density and detectable structural dehiscence of zonular fibers. Furthermore, qRT-PCR analysis and Western blot showed a significant decrease in mRNA expression levels of MYRF, FBN1, and FBN2 in MYRFmut/+ mice. Conclusions Changes in the structure and major molecular composition of ciliary zonules accompanied with shallowing anterior chamber were detected in MYRFmut/+ mice. Therefore, MYRF mutant mice strain is a useful model for exploring pathogenesis of zonulopathy, which is almost elusive for basic researches due to lack of appropriate animal models.
An Analytical Model for Moisture Diffusion in Solid Objects During Drying

ABSTRACT An analytical model is proposed to determine the moisture diffusivities in geometrical solid objects (namely, infinite slab, infinite cylinder, sphere) subjected to drying applications. The analysis for moisture diffusion is carried out on the basis of two imponant criteria: 0.l⁢Bi⁢100 and Bi>100. New correlations for the mots of the characteristic equations corresponding these objects are developed. For a drying application, using the similarity between cooling and drying profiles, drying coefficient and lag factor are obtained. The model is then verified using available data from literature.Results show that the presented model can be used to determine the moisture diffusion coefficients in such solid objects in a simple and accurate manner in a variety of drying applications.
Death of a child, religion, and mental health in later life

Abstract Background and Objectives The death of a child may be one of the most stressful events for parents to experience. This study aims to assess how the death of a child prior to midlife is associated with the mental health of parents in later life, and how this association is contingent upon religious belief in a divine plan. Research Design and Methods Using data from aging parents (aged 65 and older) in the six waves (2006-2016) of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we conducted negative binomial regression analyses to examine the main effects of the death of a child prior to midlife on late-life depressive symptoms, and the buffering effect of religious beliefs on this main effect (N = 8,248). Growth curve modeling was used to analyze the trajectories of depressive symptoms (Obs. = 31,088). Results Experiencing the death of a child prior to midlife is positively associated with depressive symptoms among older adults. Yet, the association is mitigated among respondents who exhibit a high level of belief in a divine plan at baseline. Further, a gradual decline in the number of depressive symptoms over time was observed among the bereaved parents who reported a high level of belief in a divine plan. Discussion and Implications Belief in a divine plan has a protective effect on older adults who cope with the aftermath of child loss. The findings in the study advance our knowledge about the complex interrelationships among stress, religion, and mental health in later life.