Special Issue:Questions&Data for Better Science and Innovation Call for submissions

Editors Yang Wang,Xi'an Jiaotong University Dongbo Shi,Shanghai Jiaotong University Ye Sun,University College London Zhesi Shen,National Science Library,CAS Topic of the Special Issue What are the top questions towards better science and innovation and the required data to answer these questions?

Structure of the Quarks and a New Model of Protons and Neutrons: Answer to Some Open Questions

The described structural model tries to answer some open questions such as: Why do quarks not exist in the open state? Where are the antiparticles from the Big Bang?

MKEAH:Multimodal knowledge extraction and accumulation based on hyperplane embedding for knowledge-based visual question answering

Background External knowledge representations play an essential role in knowledge-based visual question and answering to better understand complex scenarios in the open world.Recent entity-relationship embedding approaches are deficient in representing some complex relations,resulting in a lack of topic-related knowledge and redundancy in topic-irrelevant information.Methods To this end,we propose MKEAH:Multimodal Knowledge Extraction and Accumulation on Hyperplanes.To ensure that the lengths of the feature vectors projected onto the hyperplane compare equally and to filter out sufficient topic-irrelevant information,two losses are proposed to learn the triplet representations from the complementary views:range loss and orthogonal loss.To interpret the capability of extracting topic-related knowledge,we present the Topic Similarity(TS)between topic and entity-relations.Results Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of hyperplane embedding for knowledge representation in knowledge-based visual question answering.Our model outperformed state-of-the-art methods by 2.12%and 3.24%on two challenging knowledge-request datasets:OK-VQA and KRVQA,respectively.Conclusions The obvious advantages of our model in TS show that using hyperplane embedding to represent multimodal knowledge can improve its ability to extract topic-related knowledge.

PAL-BERT:An Improved Question Answering Model

In the field of natural language processing(NLP),there have been various pre-training language models in recent years,with question answering systems gaining significant attention.However,as algorithms,data,and computing power advance,the issue of increasingly larger models and a growing number of parameters has surfaced.Consequently,model training has become more costly and less efficient.To enhance the efficiency and accuracy of the training process while reducing themodel volume,this paper proposes a first-order pruningmodel PAL-BERT based on the ALBERT model according to the characteristics of question-answering(QA)system and language model.Firstly,a first-order network pruning method based on the ALBERT model is designed,and the PAL-BERT model is formed.Then,the parameter optimization strategy of the PAL-BERT model is formulated,and the Mish function was used as an activation function instead of ReLU to improve the performance.Finally,after comparison experiments with traditional deep learning models TextCNN and BiLSTM,it is confirmed that PALBERT is a pruning model compression method that can significantly reduce training time and optimize training efficiency.Compared with traditional models,PAL-BERT significantly improves the NLP task’s performance.

Operational requirements analysis method based on question answering of WEKG

The weapon and equipment operational requirement analysis(WEORA) is a necessary condition to win a future war,among which the acquisition of knowledge about weapons and equipment is a great challenge. The main challenge is that the existing weapons and equipment data fails to carry out structured knowledge representation, and knowledge navigation based on natural language cannot efficiently support the WEORA. To solve above problem, this research proposes a method based on question answering(QA) of weapons and equipment knowledge graph(WEKG) to construct and navigate the knowledge related to weapons and equipment in the WEORA. This method firstly constructs the WEKG, and builds a neutral network-based QA system over the WEKG by means of semantic parsing for knowledge navigation. Finally, the method is evaluated and a chatbot on the QA system is developed for the WEORA. Our proposed method has good performance in the accuracy and efficiency of searching target knowledge, and can well assist the WEORA.

DPAL-BERT:A Faster and Lighter Question Answering Model

Recent advancements in natural language processing have given rise to numerous pre-training language models in question-answering systems.However,with the constant evolution of algorithms,data,and computing power,the increasing size and complexity of these models have led to increased training costs and reduced efficiency.This study aims to minimize the inference time of such models while maintaining computational performance.It also proposes a novel Distillation model for PAL-BERT(DPAL-BERT),specifically,employs knowledge distillation,using the PAL-BERT model as the teacher model to train two student models:DPAL-BERT-Bi and DPAL-BERTC.This research enhances the dataset through techniques such as masking,replacement,and n-gram sampling to optimize knowledge transfer.The experimental results showed that the distilled models greatly outperform models trained from scratch.In addition,although the distilled models exhibit a slight decrease in performance compared to PAL-BERT,they significantly reduce inference time to just 0.25%of the original.This demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach in balancing model performance and efficiency.

Design of Questions in the Teaching of English Reading

Questions which were conventionally designed to check reading comprehension can also be used to enhance understanding. Different types of questions can be designed to achieve different purposes in reading. While designing questions, teachers should take into consideration such points as the language used, manner of presentation and types of questions etc. Moreover, once questions have been designed, it’s essential for teachers to think about the techniques for the use of these questions. If appro- priately used, questions contribute greatly to students’ understanding of what they’ re reading by helping to explore the meaning that language conveys, in addition to developing proper reading skills. Therefore, teachers should be able to teach reading with well-designed questions so that the ultimate goal of understanding the text is likely to be achieved.

Gender Differences In Using Questions——An Investigation of the Questions Used by Mr. Rochester and Jane in Jane Eyre

In literature,differences in the description of female and male characters have been noticeable for a long time.In this study,the novel Jane Eyre is uses as a material to investigate whether there are in fact any significant differences in the questions Mr.Rochester and Jane use and how the questions function to portray these two main characters.

Questions to Be Asked in the Fast Reading Classroom and Principles

In the fast reading classroom the main work for the teacher isto ask questionsfor the sake of checking students'comprehension of the text in question. Questions could be classified according to different criteria. This paper classifies the questions according to the teaching procedures,and suggests a few principles to ask questions.

Chinese Culture in ELT Classroom—The Influence of Chinese Culture on Students' Answering Questions

Based on personal observation and students’ self-reports, this article studies the characteristics presented by students in answering questions. It is found that Chinese culture plays an important part in explaining their specific behaviors. Hence, in order to lessen the negative effect of it, the author offers her own suggestions.

The most important questions in cancer research and clinical oncology Question 2-5.Obesity-related cancers:more questions than answers

Obesity is recognized as the second highest risk factor for cancer. The pathogenic mechanisms underlying tobaccorelated cancers are well characterized and efective programs have led to a decline in smoking and related cancers, but there is a global epidemic of obesity without a clear understanding of how obesity causes cancer. Obesity is heterogeneous, and approximately 25% of obese individuals remain healthy(metabolically healthy obese, MHO), so which fat deposition(subcutaneous versus visceral, adipose versus ectopic) is "malignant"? What is the mechanism of carcinogenesis? Is it by metabolic dysregulation or chronic inflammation? Through which chemokines/genes/signaling pathways does adipose tissue influence carcinogenesis? Can selective inhibition of these pathways uncouple obesity from cancers? Do all obesity related cancers(ORCs) share a molecular signature? Are there common(overlapping) genetic loci that make individuals susceptible to obesity, metabolic syndrome, and cancers? Can we identify precursor lesions of ORCs and will early intervention of high risk individuals alter the natural history? It appears unlikely that the obesity epidemic will be controlled anytime soon; answers to these questions will help to reduce the adverse efect of obesity on human condition.

Generating Questions Based on Semi-Automated and End-to-End Neural Network

With the emergence of large-scale knowledge base,how to use triple information to generate natural questions is a key technology in question answering systems.The traditional way of generating questions require a lot of manual intervention and produce lots of noise.To solve these problems,we propose a joint model based on semi-automated model and End-to-End neural network to automatically generate questions.The semi-automated model can generate question templates and real questions combining the knowledge base and center graph.The End-to-End neural network directly sends the knowledge base and real questions to BiLSTM network.Meanwhile,the attention mechanism is utilized in the decoding layer,which makes the triples and generated questions more relevant.Finally,the experimental results on SimpleQuestions demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

A New Definitionand Classification of Echo Questions

The frequent occurrence of echo questions in people's daily conversation has not arouse enough interest in linguists yet; meanwhile, different scholars hold different views when it comes to such questions as how far the boundary of echo questions should extend, how they should be classified, etc. The following paper gives the echo question a new definition and classification. It hopes to provide a more persuasive reference of future researchers.

Fatigue sensation following peripheral viral infection is triggered by neuroinflammation: who will answer these questions?

Fatigue is best defined as difficulty in initiating or sustaining voluntary activities, and is thought to be accompanied by deterioration of performance. Fatigue can be caused by many factors such as physical and mental stress, disturbance in the circadian rhythm, and various diseases. For example, following the flu or other types of infections, everyone has experienced a sense of fatigue that can last for days or weeks. The fatigue sensation is thought to be one of the signals for the body to suppress physical activity in order to regain health. The mechanism of induction of the fatigue sensation following viral infection has not been well understood. Although fatigue was once thought to be caused by fever, our recent study with an animal model of viral infection demonstrated that the fatigue sensation is caused not by fever, but rather,

Effect of joints on microwave fracturing of the Bukit Timah granite using an open-ended antenna

Microwave fracturing of rocks before mechanical breakage could improve the performance of mechanical excavators and reduce environmental impacts.Previous research focused on the microwave fracturing of intact rock blocks.By using an open-ended antenna,this paper investigates the effect of pre-existing joints on the microwave fracturing of the Singapore Bukit Timah granite blocks.The results show that the specimens are weakened in the manners of cracking,spalling,melting,or a combination of them.The crack number and the total crack length produced by microwave treatment of jointed rock blocks are slightly smaller than those in the intact rock blocks.The interaction between joints and microwave-induced cracks can be summarized into the following four patterns:(1)microwave-induced cracks become arrested so that the crack propagation is terminated;(2)microwave-induced cracks penetrate the joints and continue to propagate;(3)microwave-induced cracks become deflected along the joints;and(4)microwave-induced cracks propagate forward following the joints.The smaller the approach angle between the microwave-induced crack and the preexisting joint is,the more microwave-induced cracks tend to be arrested at the joint.Increasing the approach angle between the microwave-induced crack and the joint can increase the chance of microwave-induced crack penetrating the joint.The results also show that the smaller the distance is between the microwave radiation point and the joint,the easier it is for microwave-induced cracks to penetrate the joints;otherwise,the microwave-induced crack is more likely to be arrested at the pre-existing joint.

Analysis of community question-answering issues via machine learning and deep learning:State-of-the-art review

Over the last couple of decades,community question-answering sites(CQAs)have been a topic of much academic interest.Scholars have often leveraged traditional machine learning(ML)and deep learning(DL)to explore the ever-growing volume of content that CQAs engender.To clarify the current state of the CQA literature that has used ML and DL,this paper reports a systematic literature review.The goal is to summarise and synthesise the major themes of CQA research related to(i)questions,(ii)answers and(iii)users.The final review included 133 articles.Dominant research themes include question quality,answer quality,and expert identification.In terms of dataset,some of the most widely studied platforms include Yahoo!Answers,Stack Exchange and Stack Overflow.The scope of most articles was confined to just one platform with few cross-platform investigations.Articles with ML outnumber those with DL.Nonetheless,the use of DL in CQA research is on an upward trajectory.A number of research directions are proposed.

Case and Questions Design in Case- based Learning Used in Medical-nursing English Teaching

Case-based learning(CBL) is gradually replacing the traditional lecturing-based learning in nursing English teaching.In the process of CBL, selecting and compiling a good case is key to the success of CBL. In the meantime, designing questions is an important factor for successful CBL. In this article, we discuss how to select and compile cases and how to design questions in CBL used in Medical-nursing English Teaching.

The Relationship Between Teachers' Questions and Classroom Interactions in EFL Classroom

Classroom questioning is one of the most important parts of teaching activities, and also the most frequently used method to carry on classroom interactions between teachers and students. English teaching process is the process of"asking"and"answering"between teachers and students. Teachers should not only pay attention to the artistry of questioning, but also attach great importance to the strategy of asking questions. Appropriate teachers' questions are conducive to cultivate students' divergent thinking, and encourage students to better master knowledge by thinking and discussing, thus contributing to classroom interactions move towards a climax.

A Study on Effect of Teachers' Questions on Classroom Interaction in EFL Classes

This paper aims to observe and analyze the effect of teachers' questions on the classroom interaction by means of IRF pattern.

Design of Text-based Questions from the Study of Typology of Questions

Questions can be classified from different perspectives： grammatical form, communicative value, content orientation and cognitive level. In language pedagogy, text-based questioning as both an attention drawing device and a form of learning tasks serves text instruction. Therefore, language teachers preparing text-based questioning should take into consideration all dimensions of questions, especially cognitive requirement and communicative character. In addition, interaction between learner, text and the world can be achieved by the adoption of both about-the-text and beyond-the-text questions in teachers＇ text-based question construction.