Digital Commons Network^™

Simulation-Free Hierarchical Latent Policy Planning For Proactive Dialogues, Tao He, Lizi Liao, Yixin Cao, Yuanxing Liu, Yiheng Sun, Zerui Chen, Ming Liu, Bing Qin

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Recent advancements in proactive dialogues have garnered significant attention, particularly for more complex objectives (e.g. emotion support and persuasion). Unlike traditional task-oriented dialogues, proactive dialogues demand advanced policy planning and adaptability, requiring rich scenarios and comprehensive policy repositories to develop such systems. However, existing approaches tend to rely on Large Language Models (LLMs) for user simulation and online learning, leading to biases that diverge from realistic scenarios and result in suboptimal efficiency. Moreover, these methods depend on manually defined, context-independent, coarse-grained policies, which not only incur high expert costs but also raise concerns regarding their completeness. In our work, we …

Unlocking The Potential Of Black-Box Pre-Trained Gnns For Graph Few-Shot Learning, Qiannan Zhang, Shichao Pei, Yuan Fang, Xiangliang Zhang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Few-shot learning has emerged as an important problem on graphs to combat label scarcity, which can be approached by current trends in pre-trained graph neural networks (GNNs) and meta-learning. Recent efforts integrate both paradigms in a white-box setting, leaving the more realistic black-box setting largely underexplored, where the parameters and gradients in the pre-trained GNNs are inaccessible. In this paper, we study the critical problem: Leveraging black-box pre-trained GNNs for graph few-shot learning. Despite its appeal, two key issues hinder the unlocking of its potential: the inherent task gap between pre-training and downstream stages, which can introduce irrelevant knowledge and …

Enhancing Item‑Level Bundle Representation For Bundle Recommendation, Xiaoyu Du, Kun Qian, Yunshan Ma, Xinguang Xiang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Bundle recommendation approaches offer users a set of related items on a particular topic. The current state-of-the-art (SOTA) method utilizes contrastive learning to learn representations at both the bundle and item levels. However, due to the inherent difference between the bundle-level and item-level preferences, the item-level representations may not receive sufficient information from the bundle affiliations to make accurate predictions. In this article, we propose a novel approach, Enhanced Bundle Recommendation (EBRec), which incorporates two enhanced modules to explore inherent item-level bundle representations. First, we propose to incorporate the bundle-user-item (B-U-I) high-order correlations to explore more collaborative information, thus to …

Understanding The Oss Communities Of Deep Learning Frameworks: A Comparative Case Study Of Pytorch And Tensorflow, Yunqi Chen, Zhiyuan Wan, Yifei Zhuang, Ning Liu, David Lo, Xiaohu Yang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Over the past two decades, deep learning has received tremendous success in developing software systems across various domains. Deep learning frameworks have been proposed to facilitate the development of such software systems, among which, PyTorch and TensorFlow stand out as notable examples. Considerable attention focuses on exploring software engineering practices and addressing diverse technical aspects in developing and deploying deep learning frameworks and software systems. Despite these efforts, little is known about the open source software communities involved in the development of deep learning frameworks. In this article, we perform a comparative investigation into the open source software communities of …

Artificial Intelligence In Surgical Coding: Evaluating Large Language Models For Current Procedural Terminology Accuracy In Hand Surgery, Emily Isch, Jamie Lee, D. Mitchell Self, Abhijeet Sambangi, Theodore E. Habarth-Morales, John R. Vaile, E. J. Caterson

Department of Surgery Faculty Papers

PURPOSE: The advent of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT has introduced notable advancements in various surgical disciplines. These developments have led to an increased interest in the use of LLMs for Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) coding in surgery. With CPT coding being a complex and time-consuming process, often exacerbated by the scarcity of professional coders, there is a pressing need for innovative solutions to enhance coding efficiency and accuracy.

METHODS: This observational study evaluated the effectiveness of five publicly available large language models-Perplexity.AI, Bard, BingAI, ChatGPT 3.5, and ChatGPT 4.0-in accurately identifying CPT codes for hand surgery procedures. A …

Generative Ai And Llms For Critical Infrastructure Protection: Evaluation Benchmarks, Agentic Ai, Challenges, And Opportunities, Yagmur Yigit, Mohamed Amine Ferrag, Mohamed C. Ghanem, Iqbal H. Sarker, Leandros A. Maglaras, Christos Chrysoulas, Naghmeh Moradpoor, Norbert Tihanyi, Helge Janicke

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Critical National Infrastructures (CNIs)—including energy grids, water systems, transportation networks, and communication frameworks—are essential to modern society yet face escalating cybersecurity threats. This review paper comprehensively analyzes AI-driven approaches for Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP). We begin by examining the reliability of CNIs and introduce established benchmarks for evaluating Large Language Models (LLMs) within cybersecurity contexts. Next, we explore core cybersecurity issues, focusing on trust, privacy, resilience, and securability in these vital systems. Building on this foundation, we assess the role of Generative AI and LLMs in enhancing CIP and present insights on applying Agentic AI for proactive defense mechanisms. Finally, …

Patient Consent And The Right To Notice And Explanation Of Ai Systems Used In Health Care, Meghan E Hurley, Benjamin H Lang, Kristin Marie Kostick-Quenet, Jared N Smith, Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Given the need for enforceable guardrails for artificial intelligence (AI) that protect the public and allow for innovation, the U.S. Government recently issued a Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights which outlines five principles of safe AI design, use, and implementation. One in particular, the right to notice and explanation, requires accurately informing the public about the use of AI that impacts them in ways that are easy to understand. Yet, in the healthcare setting, it is unclear what goal the right to notice and explanation serves, and the moral importance of patient-level disclosure. We propose three normative functions …

What's The Art In Artificial Intelligence?, Emily Verla Bovino

Open Educational Resources

This workbook learns from Black and Indigenous artists working with Artificial Intelligence to confront issues of ethics and aesthetics in its technologies. It features guided learning activities with links to publicly available video lectures and online articles, and includes options for experiential learning through both a tutorial in Midjourney and a visit to the public art collection at York College in Jamaica, Queens. Featured artists include: American Artist, Rizvana Bradley, Beth Coleman, Denise Ferreira da Silva, Suzanne Kite, Sondra Perry, Mimi Onuoha and Alisha B. Wormsley. Works by Martin Puryear and Maren Hassinger are explored in the Midjourney exercise.

About …

Human-Ai Collaboration In Writing: A Multidimensional Framework For Creative And Intellectual Authorship, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

The integration of AI technologies into the writing process has significantly altered traditional notions of authorship, creativity, and intellectual labor. Historically, writing was seen as a human-driven cognitive and creative exercise, but with the rise of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude, the line between human and AI contributions has become increasingly ambiguous. This paper addresses the limitations of the current sliding scale model, which views AI involvement as ranging from “none” to “complete”. In its place, we propose a new multidimensional framework that more accurately reflects the complexity of human-AI collaboration in writing. The model includes axes …

Using Ai To Make Accessible Accessible Content, Melinda Turner

Faculty Other Scholarly Works

This professional development session will explore how to leverage AI tools, specifically Google’s NotebookLM, to create accessible learning materials for college students. Participants will learn how to use NotebookLM to transform existing content into more accessible formats. The session will cover practical strategies for implementing AI to improve readability and comprehension for all learners including students with disabilities, non-native English speakers, and students with varying learning preferences. We will discuss how to create transcripts for audio/video files and ensure content is well-organized and easy to navigate. This session will also highlight the importance of evidence-based practices in content creation and …

A Review Of Racial Differences And Disparities In Ecg, Jianwei Zheng, Chizobam Ani, Islam Abudayyeh, Yunfan Zheng, Cyril Rakovski, Ehsan Yaghmaei, Omolola Ogunyemi

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The electrocardiogram (ECG) is a widely used, non-invasive tool for diagnosing a range of cardiovascular conditions, including arrhythmia and heart disease-related structural changes. Despite its critical role in clinical care, racial and ethnic differences in ECG readings are often underexplored or inadequately addressed in research. Variations in key ECG parameters, such as PR interval, QRS duration, QT interval, and T-wave morphology, have been noted across different racial groups. However, the limited research in this area has hindered the development of diagnostic criteria that account for these differences, potentially contributing to healthcare disparities, as ECG interpretation algorithms largely developed from major …

A Comprehensive Survey Of Data-Driven Solutions For Lorawan: Challenges And Future Directions, Poonam Maurya, Abhishek Hazra, Preti Kumari, Troels Bundgaard Sørensen, Sajal K. Das

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Long-range Wide-area Network (LoRaWAN) is an innovative and prominent communication protocol in the domain of Low-power Wide-area Networks (LPWAN), known for its ability to provide long-range communication with low energy consumption. However, the practical implementation of the LoRaWAN protocol, operating at the Medium Access Control layer and specially built to work upon the LoRa physical layer, presents numerous research challenges, including network congestion, interference, optimal resource allocation, collisions, scalability, and security. To mitigate these challenges effectively, the adoption of cutting-edge data-driven technologies such as Deep Learning (DL) and Machine Learning (ML) emerges as a promising approach. Interestingly, very few existing …

Clinician Experiences With Ambient Scribe Technology To Assist With Documentation Burden And Efficiency, Matthew J. Duggan, Julietta Gervase, Anna Schoenbaum, William Hanson, John T. Howell, Michael Sheinberg, Kevin B. Johnson

SKMC Student Presentations and Publications

IMPORTANCE: Timely evaluation of ambient scribing technology is warranted to assess whether this technology can lessen the burden of clinical documentation on clinicians.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association of ambient scribing technology with efficiency, quality, and perceived burden of clinical documentation in the outpatient setting.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This prospective, single-group pre-post quality improvement study was conducted between April and June 2024 in the outpatient setting of an academic health system in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Participants included physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. Data were analyzed from July to August 2024.

EXPOSURE: Access to an artificial intelligence-driven ambient scribing tool …

Self Supervised Artificial Intelligence Predicts Poor Outcome From Primary Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma At Diagnosis, Nicolas Coudray, Michelle C. Juarez, Maressa C. Criscito, Adalberto Claudio Quiros, Reason Wilken, Stephanie R. Jackson Cullison, Mary L. Stevenson, Nicole A. Doudican, Ke Yuan, Jamie D. Aquino, Daniel M. Klufas, Jeffrey P. North, Siegrid S. Yu, Fadi Murad, Emily Ruiz, Chrysalyne D. Schmults, Cristian D. Cardona Machado, Javier Cañueto, Anirudh Choudhary, Alysia N. Hughes, Alyssa Stockard, Zachary Leibovit-Reiben, Aaron R. Mangold, Aristotelis Tsirigos, John A. Carucci

Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology Faculty Papers

Primary cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) is responsible for ~10,000 deaths annually in the United States. Stratification of risk of poor outcome at initial biopsy would significantly impact clinical decision-making during the initial post operative period where intervention has been shown to be most effective. Using whole-slide images (WSI) from 163 patients from 3 institutions, we developed a self supervised deep-learning model to predict poor outcomes in cSCC patients from histopathological features at initial diagnosis, and validated it using WSI from 563 patients, collected from two other academic institutions. For disease-free survival prediction, the model attained a concordance index of …

Few-Shot Transfer Learning For Individualized Braking Intent Detection On Neuromorphic Hardware, Nathan A. Lutes, V. Sriram Siddhardth Nedendla, K. Krishnamurthy

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This work explores use of a few-shot transfer learning method to train and implement a convolutional spiking neural network (CSNN) on a Brain Chip Akida AKD1000 neuromorphic system-on-chip for developing individual-level, instead of traditionally used group-level, models using electroencephalographic data. The efficacy of the method is studied on an advanced driver assist system related task of predicting braking intention. Approach. Data are collected from participants operating an NVIDIA JetBot on a testbed simulating urban streets for three different scenarios. Participants receive a braking indicator in the form of: (1) an audio countdown in a nominal baseline, stress-free environment; (2) an …

Creating An Android-Based Calisthenics Application To Assist Students In Improving Their Physical Fitness, Restyandito, Narendra Poetra Wisnoewardhana, Danny Sebastian

Journal of Informatics and Web Engineering

College students, particularly those heavily involved in coursework, frequently do not prioritize physical fitness. Regular exercise is essential for preserving physical fitness and facilitating demanding academic tasks. Although there are other fitness programs available, such as GYM, jogging, CrossFit, and Yoga, users sometimes fail to make full use of them because the content is confined to exercise videos and descriptions. This matter highlights the progress of the Android application Kali Tech, which specifically concentrates on organizing and documenting calisthenics workouts. This program employs the concept of gamification by utilizing student achievement levels to encourage students to be diligent in doing …

Yinyang-Align: Benchmarking Contradictory Objectives And Proposing Multi-Objective Optimization Based Dpo For Text-To-Image Alignment, Amitava Das, Yaswanth Narsupalli, Gurpreet Singh, Vinija Jain, Vasu Sharma, Suranjana Trivedi, Aman Chadha, Amit Sheth

Publications

As Text-to-Image (T2I) models become more advanced, they face a fundamental challenge—balancing conflicting alignment goals such as faithfulness vs. artistic freedom, realism vs. stylization, and verifiability vs. creativity. Existing alignment methods often optimize for one objective at the cost of another, leading to inconsistencies in AI-generated images.
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/="/">In our latest work, YinYang-Align, we introduce a benchmarking framework to systematically evaluate these trade-offs and propose Contradictory Alignment Optimization (CAO)—a multi-objective extension of Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) that enables models to navigate competing alignment goals more effectively.

Comparing In-Person, Standard Telehealth, And Remote Musculoskeletal Examination With A Novel Augmented Reality Exercise Game System: Pilot Cross-Sectional Comparison Study, Richard Wu, Keerthana Chakka, Sara Belko, Ninad Khargonkar, Kevin Desai, Balakrishnan Prabhakaran, Thiru Annaswamy

SKMC Student Presentations and Publications

BACKGROUND: Current telemedicine technologies are not fully optimized for conducting physical examinations. The Virtual Remote Tele-Physical Examination (VIRTEPEX) system, a novel proprietary technology platform using a Microsoft Kinect-based augmented reality game system to track motion and estimate force, has the potential to assist with conducting asynchronous, remote musculoskeletal examinations.

OBJECTIVE: This pilot study evaluated the feasibility of the VIRTEPEX system as a supplement to telehealth musculoskeletal strength assessments.

METHODS: In this cross-sectional pilot study, 12 study participants with upper extremity pain and/or weakness underwent strength evaluations for four upper extremity movements using in-person, telehealth, VIRTEPEX, and composite (telehealth plus VIRTEPEX) …

Zombie-Auras: Genai And Hybrid Text Production, Joshua Nieubuurt

English Faculty Publications

This paper explores the iterative evolutions of textual production and their impact on the “aura” of texts, as conceptualized by Walter Benjamin. The study identifies three key phases of textual production: the natural, the mechanized, and the digitized, each progressively displacing the “cult value” of texts. This cult value is lost through increased ease of creation, reproduction, dissemination, and dislocation of creators and audiences in time and space. The advent of Generative AI (GenAI) marks the latest evolution, transforming the “aura” into a memetic “zombie” form—familiar yet opaque, evoking both the sublime and fear. By examining Benjamin’s notion of “aura” …

Impact Tracing: Identifying The Culprit Of Misinformation In Encrypted Messaging Systems, Zhongming Wang, Tao Xiang, Xiaoguo Li, Biwen Chen, Guomin Yang, Chuan Ma, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Encrypted messaging systems obstruct content moderation, although they provide end-to-end security. As a result, misinformation proliferates in these systems, thereby exacerbating online hate and harassment. The paradigm of “Reporting-then-Tracing” shows great potential in mitigating the spread of misinformation. For instance, message traceback (CCS’19) traces all the dissemination paths of a message, while source tracing (CCS’21) traces its originator. However, message traceback lacks privacy preservation for non-influential users (e.g., users who only receive the message once), while source tracing maintains privacy but only provides limited traceability. In this paper, we initiate the study of impact tracing. Intuitively, impact tracing traces influential …

Bridging Expert Knowledge With Deep Learning Techniques For Just-In-Time Defect Prediction, Xin Zhou, Donggyun Han, David Lo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Just-In-Time (JIT) defect prediction aims to automatically predict whether a commit is defective or not, and has been widely studied in recent years. In general, most studies can be classified into two categories: 1) simple models using traditional machine learning classifiers with hand-crafted features, and 2) complex models using deep learning techniques to automatically extract features from commit contents. Hand-crafted features used by simple models are based on expert knowledge but may not fully represent the semantic meaning of the commits. On the other hand, deep learning-based features used by complex models represent the semantic meaning of commits but may …

Proactive Conversational Ai: A Comprehensive Survey Of Advancements And Opportunities, Yang Deng, Lizi Liao, Wenqiang Lei, Grace Hui Yang, Wai Lam, Tat-Seng Chua

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Dialogue systems are designed to offer human users social support or functional services through natural language interactions. Traditional conversation research has put significant emphasis on a system's response-ability, including its capacity to understand dialogue context and generate appropriate responses. However, the key element of proactive behavior-a crucial aspect of intelligent conversations-is often overlooked in these studies. Proactivity empowers conversational agents to lead conversations towards achieving pre-defined targets or fulfilling specific goals on the system side. Proactive dialogue systems are equipped with advanced techniques to handle complex tasks, requiring strategic and motivational interactions, thus representing a significant step towards artificial general …

Loco: Low-Bit Communication Adaptor For Large-Scale Model Training, Xingyu Xie, Zhijie Lin, Kim-Chuan Toh, Pan Zhou

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

To efficiently train large-scale models, low-bit gradient communication compresses full-precision gradients on local GPU nodes into low-precision ones for higher gradient synchronization efficiency among GPU nodes. However, it often degrades training quality due to compression information loss. To address this, we propose the Low-bit Communication Adaptor (LoCo), which compensates gradients on local GPU nodes before compression, ensuring efficient synchronization without compromising training quality. Specifically, LoCo designs a moving average of historical compensation errors to stably estimate concurrent compression error and then adopts it to compensate for the concurrent gradient compression, yielding a less lossless compression. This mechanism allows it to …

Siniel: Distributed Privacy-Preserving Zksnark, Yunbo Yang, Yuejia Cheng, Kailun Wang, Xiaoguo Li, Jianfei Sun, Jiachen Shen, Xiaolei Dong, Zhenfu Cao, Guomin Yang, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Zero-knowledge Succinct Non-interactive Argument of Knowledge (zkSNARK) is a powerful cryptographic primitive, in which a prover convinces a verifier that a given statement is true without leaking any additional information. However, existing zkSNARKs suffer from high computation overhead in the proof generation. This limits the applications of zkSNARKs, such as private payments, private smart contracts, and anonymous credentials. Private delegation has become a prominent way to accelerate proof generation. In this work, we propose Siniel, an efficient private delegation framework for zkSNARKs constructed from polynomial interactive oracle proof (PIOP) and polynomial commitment scheme (PCS). Our protocol allows a computationally limited …

Human‑Ai And Human‑Robot Collaboration In The Age Of Generative Ai, Agentic Ai, And Artificial General Intelligence: Opportunities And Challenges, Keng Siau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been exponential, especially in the past few years. Most, if not all, of the AI systems we encounter and are exposed to at this point are Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI). ANI specializes in one area and solves problems in one area. Generative AI (GenAI) and Agentic AI (i.e., independent AI agent), at the current stage of development, are regarded as ANI. The race is currently on to develop Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). AGI refers to AI systems as smart as humans across a wide range of cognitive tasks. Recently, OpenAI’s o3 system received …

Vaxbot-Hpv: A Gpt-Based Chatbot For Answering Hpv Vaccine-Related Questions, Yiming Li, Jianfu Li, Manqi Li, Evan Yu, Danniel Rhee, Muhammad Amith, Lu Tang, Lara S Savas, Licong Cui, Cui Tao

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is an effective measure to prevent and control the diseases caused by HPV. However, widespread misinformation and vaccine hesitancy remain significant barriers to its uptake. This study focuses on the development of VaxBot-HPV, a chatbot aimed at improving health literacy and promoting vaccination uptake by providing information and answering questions about the HPV vaccine.

METHODS: We constructed the knowledge base (KB) for VaxBot-HPV, which consists of 451 documents from biomedical literature and web sources on the HPV vaccine. We extracted 202 question-answer pairs from the KB and 39 questions generated by GPT-4 for training and …

Qultsf: Long-Term Time Series Forecasting With Quantum Machine Learning, Hari Hara Suthan Chittoor, Paul Robert Griffin, Ariel Neufeld, Jayne Thompson, Mile Gu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Long-term time series forecasting (LTSF) involves predicting a large number of future values of a time series based on the past values. This is an essential task in a wide range of domains including weather forecasting, stock market analysis and disease outbreak prediction. Over the decades LTSF algorithms have transitioned from statistical models to deep learning models like transformer models. Despite the complex architecture of transformer based LTSF models ‘Are Transformers Effective for Time Series Forecasting? (Zeng et al., 2023)’ showed that simple linear models can outperform the state-of-the-art transformer based LTSF models. Recently, quantum machine learning (QML) is evolving …

Why Are Fairness Concerns So Important? Lessons From A Last-Mile Transportation System, Yiwei Chen, Hai Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The Last-Mile Problem refers to the provision of travel service for passengers from the nearest public transportation node to the final destination. The Last-Mile Transportation System (LMTS), which has recently emerged, provides on-demand last-mile transportation service for passengers. We consider an LMTS that consists of two types of passengers, regular-type passengers and special-type passengers (e.g., seniors, disabled people). The valuation of the last-mile service for special-type passengers is statistically higher than the one for regular-type passengers. Passengers incur disutility from waiting for the last-mile service. In this paper, we explore two fairness constraints on special-type passengers: (1) the fare for …

Ptm4tag+: Tag Recommendation Of Stack Overflow Posts With Pre-Trained Models, Junda He, Bowen Xu, Zhou Yang, Donggyun Han, Chengran Yang, Jiakun Liu, Zhipeng Zhao, David Lo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Stack Overflow is one of the most influential Software Question & Answer (SQA) websites, hosting millions of programming-related questions and answers. Tags play a critical role in efficiently organizing the contents on Stack Overflow and are vital to support various site operations, such as querying relevant content. Poorly chosen tags often lead to issues such as tag ambiguity and tag explosion. Therefore, a precise and accurate automated tag recommendation technique is needed. Inspired by the recent success of pre-trained models (PTMs) in natural language processing (NLP), we present PTM4Tag+, a tag recommendation framework for Stack Overflow posts that utilize PTMs …

Exploring & Exploiting High-Order Graph Structure For Sparse Knowledge Graph Completion, Tao He, Ming Liu, Yixin Cao, Zekun Wang, Zihao Zheng, Bing Qin

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Sparse Knowledge Graph (KG) scenarios pose a challenge for previous Knowledge Graph Completion (KGC) methods, that is, the completion performance decreases rapidly with the increase of graph sparsity. This problem is also exacerbated because of the widespread existence of sparse KGs in practical applications. To alleviate this challenge, we present a novel framework, LR-GCN, that is able to automatically capture valuable long-range dependency among entities to supplement insufficient structure features and distill logical reasoning knowledge for sparse KGC. The proposed approach comprises two main components: a GNN-based predictor and a reasoning path distiller. The reasoning path distiller explores high-order graph …