In the absence of prior knowledge, ordinal embedding methods obtain new representation for items in a low-dimensional Euclidean space via a set of quadruple-wise comparisons. These ordinal comparisons often come from human annotators, and sufficient comparisons induce the success of classical approaches. However, collecting a large number of labeled data is known as a hard task, and most of the existing work pay little attention to the generalization ability with insufficient samples. Meanwhile, recent progress in large margin theory discloses that rather than just maximizing the minimum margin, both the margin mean and variance, which characterize the margin distribution, are more crucial to the overall generalization performance. To address the issue of insufficient training samples, we propose a margin distribution learning paradigm for ordinal embedding, entitled Distributional Margin based Ordinal Embedding (\textit{DMOE}). Precisely, we first define the margin for ordinal embedding problem. Secondly, we formulate a concise objective function which avoids maximizing margin mean and minimizing margin variance directly but exhibits the similar effect. Moreover, an Augmented Lagrange Multiplier based algorithm is customized to seek the optimal solution of \textit{DMOE} effectively. Experimental studies on both simulated and real-world datasets are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Decision support is a probabilistic and quantitative method designed for modeling problems in situations with ambiguity. Computer technology can be employed to provide clinical decision support and treatment recommendations. The problem of natural language applications is that they lack formality and the interpretation is not consistent. Conversely, ontologies can capture the intended meaning and specify modeling primitives. Disease Ontology (DO) that pertains to cancer's clinical stages and their corresponding information components is utilized to improve the reasoning ability of a decision support system (DSS). The proposed DSS uses Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) to consider disease manifestations and provides physicians with treatment solutions from similar previous cases for reference. The proposed DSS supports natural language processing (NLP) queries. The DSS obtained 84.63% accuracy in disease classification with the help of the ontology.

The task of entity relation extraction discovers new relation facts and enables broader applications of knowledge graph. Distant supervision is widely adopted for relation extraction, which requires large amounts of texts containing entity pairs as training data. However, in some specific domains such as medicalrelated applications,entity pairs that have certain relations might not appear together, thus it is difficult to meet the requirement for distantly supervised relation extraction. In the light of this challenge, we propose a novel path-based model to discover new entity relation facts. Instead of finding texts for relation extraction, the proposed method extracts path-only information for entity pairs from the current knowledgegraph. For each pair of entities, multiple paths can be extracted, and some of them are more useful for relation extraction than others. In order to capture this observation, we employ attention mechanism to assign different weights for different paths, which highlights the useful paths for entity relation extraction. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, we conduct various experiments on a large-scale medical knowledge graph. Compared with the state-of-the-art relation extraction methods using the structure of knowledge graph, the proposed method significantly improves the accuracy of extracted relation factsand achieves the best performance.

We propose a new class of data-independent locality-sensitive hashing (LSH) algorithms based on the fruit fly olfactory circuit. The fundamental difference of this approach is that, instead of assigning hashes as dense points in a low dimensional space, hashes are assigned in a high dimensional space, which enhances their separability. We show theoretically and empirically that this new family of hash functions is locality-sensitive and preserves rank similarity for inputs in any `p space. We then analyze different variations on this strategy and show empirically that they outperform existing LSH methods for nearest-neighbors search on six benchmark datasets. Finally, we propose a multi-probe version of our algorithm that achieves higher performance for the same query time, or conversely, that maintains performance of prior approaches while taking significantly less indexing time and memory. Overall, our approach leverages the advantages of separability provided by high-dimensional spaces, while still remaining computationally efficient

Apple might not make a 5G iPhone until 2020, leaving its customers without the latest, fastest internet technology. The new report from Bloomberg comes despite the fact that networks – and most other major manufacturers – are preparing to update for the technology over the next year. It will mean that Apple will be far from the first to the market with the fast new internet technology. Rivals like Samsung are expected to launch their own 5G phones soon, which will theoretically benefit from vastly improved connectivity. Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona.

Tumblr's attempt to ban pornography from its platform has led to it trying to ban a whole host of other things, too. The company announced this week that it would no longer allow adult and explicit posts by users, as part of a major reversal of its policy. "Adult content will no longer be allowed here," it wrote in a post. "While we do not judge anyone for their desire to post, engage with, or view this stuff, it is time for us to change our relationship with it." Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona.

Sony Corp. has launched a trial project using its Aibo robot dog to improve the mental health of children hospitalized at the National Center for Child Health and Development in Tokyo. In the joint experiment that will run until the end of March 2021 and cover some 100 children, Sony will measure whether patients experience relief from their stress and anxiety after interacting with Aibo. The company will announce the findings. Several Aibo robots have already been brought into the center. "I'm happy as I feel like Aibo is actually listening to what I'm saying," said 10-year-old patient Chisako Matsuura.

Lawyers representing South Korean plaintiffs in a World War II labor court case against Japan's Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. have set a Dec. 24 deadline for the firm to show willingness to discuss a court verdict on compensation. If the firm fails to respond, the lawyers, who spoke after being denied a meeting with company officials for a second time on Tuesday, said they would start procedures to seize its South Korean assets. Tuesday's incident stemmed from a ruling by South Korea's Supreme Court late in October that Nippon Steel must pay 100 million won ($90,500) to each of four South Koreans for forced labor during the war. The Japanese government has denounced the verdict, saying all wartime reparations were dealt with in a 1965 treaty that normalized ties between the two nations. At the time of the ruling, Nippon Steel called it "extremely regrettable," but added that it would review the decision carefully in considering further steps.

Robot brothels could soon be accepted by society after research revealed people think that sex with machines is morally acceptable - as long as you're single. The University of Helsinki found that respondents to a survey are less okay with those in committed relationships having sex with robots. It comes as manufacturers in China are using artificial intelligence to create'smart' sex dolls capable of holding basic conversation using an embedded chatbot. Academic Mika Koverol surveyed hundreds of people on their moral code when it comes to sex and relationships and will present his findings at the International Congress on Love and Sex with Robots in Montana. Research has found that people think it's morally acceptable to have sex with robots as scientists develop'smart' sex dolls in China He asked respondents in two separate studies to judge the moral character and actions of characters in a science fiction scenario, New Scientist reports.

Self-flying drones could be used to rescue people from fires in tower blocks by unfolding into safety nets mid-air. Net Guard drones would use GPS to pinpoint the location of the fire once a distress signal has been received then head to the necessary building, avoiding traffic below. Once close enough to the building, the drone would then unfold into four propeller-powered parts, a safety net pulled tight in the centre. This net would be made from a quadruple layer of polyurethane, the designers said, and would be strong enough to then carry the weight of a regular adult. The drone would also keep track of the evacuee using sensors, allowing it to be positioned correctly were person in need of jumping. It was designed by six students from the Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, Schools of Electronic Engineering and Art, China, and was recently awarded the Golden Pin Concept Design Award.