Volcano: Mitigating Multimodal Hallucination through Self-Feedback Guided Revision

Large multimodal models (LMMs) suffer from multimodal hallucination, where they provide incorrect responses misaligned with the given visual information. Recent works have conjectured that one of the reasons behind multimodal hallucination might be due to the vision encoder failing to ground on the image properly. To mitigate this issue, we propose a novel approach that leverages self-feedback as visual cues. Building on this approach, we introduce Volcano, a multimodal self-feedback guided revision model. Volcano generates natural language feedback to its initial response based on the provided visual information and utilizes this feedback to self-revise its initial response. Volcano effectively reduces multimodal hallucination and achieves state-of-the-art on MMHal-Bench, POPE, and GAVIE. It also improves on general multimodal abilities and outperforms previous models on MM-Vet and MMBench. Through a qualitative analysis, we show that Volcano's feedback is properly grounded on the image than the initial response. This indicates that Volcano can provide itself with richer visual information, helping alleviate multimodal hallucination. We publicly release Volcano models of 7B and 13B sizes along with the data and code at https://github.com/kaistAI/Volcano

Age of first experience of gender incongruence among transgender and non-binary individuals

Objective Gender incongruence (GI) is a condition in which an individual’s gender identity, role, and expression differ from their assigned sex. This study aimed to evaluate when GI first arises in transgender and non-binary individuals seeking hormone therapy and their years living untreated in South Korea. Methods This retrospective study analyzed GI patients seeking gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) or surgery between 2015 and 2021. The recorded data included gender identity, legal transition status, age of onset of GI, age at the initiation of therapy, and total therapy duration. Results In total, 337 patients were enrolled, including 149 (44.2%) transgender men, 153 (45.4%) transgender women, and 35 (10.4%) non-binary individuals. The mean age of onset of GI was 10.6 years (standard deviation, 5.1). Of the total patients, 29% had an onset of GI before age 6 years (preschool), 61% before age 12 (elementary-school), and 87% before age 15 (middle-school). Patients lived with GI for almost 14 years before GAHT initiation at a median age of 23.0 years. 90% of transgender men, 82.3% of transgender women, and 85% of non-binary patients disclosed their gender identities to their families. Regarding social transition, 31.5% of transgender men, 16.3% of transgender women, and none of the non-binary patients (P<0.005) changed their legal gender markers. Conclusion Many transgender and non-binary individuals experience GI early in life. These findings emphasized the need for early evaluation, timely gender-affirming care, and more accessible legal processes for gender marker changes in South Korea, aiming to enhance the safety and well-being of these individuals

LIQUID: A Framework for List Question Answering Dataset Generation

Question answering (QA) models often rely on large-scale training datasets, which necessitates the development of a data generation framework to reduce the cost of manual annotations. Although several recent studies have aimed to generate synthetic questions with single-span answers, no study has been conducted on the creation of list questions with multiple, non-contiguous spans as answers. To address this gap, we propose LIQUID, an automated framework for generating list QA datasets from unlabeled corpora. We first convert a passage from Wikipedia or PubMed into a summary and extract named entities from the summarized text as candidate answers. This allows us to select answers that are semantically correlated in context and is, therefore, suitable for constructing list questions. We then create questions using an off-the-shelf question generator with the extracted entities and original passage. Finally, iterative filtering and answer expansion are performed to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the answers. Using our synthetic data, we significantly improve the performance of the previous best list QA models by exact-match F1 scores of 5.0 on MultiSpanQA, 1.9 on Quoref, and 2.8 averaged across three BioASQ benchmarks

Use of Underwater-Image Color to Determine Suspended-Sediment Concentrations Transported to Coastal Regions

The amount of suspended sediment transported from rivers to the ocean fluctuates over time, with a substantial increase occurring during storm events. This surge in sediment poses numerous challenges to coastal areas, highlighting the importance of accurately assessing the sediment load to address these issues. In this study, we developed and experimentally verified a novel method for suspended-sediment-discharge quantification in estuaries and coasts using underwater imaging. Specifically, red clay samples with different particle sizes were introduced into separate tanks containing clean water. After adequate mixing, the concentration, particle size, turbidity, and water quality were measured and analyzed using LISST-200x and EXO2 Multiparameter Sonde sensors. To maintain constant lighting conditions, a camera box was created for filming. Based on the experimental results, a turbidity–concentration relationship formula was derived. The proposed regression equation revealed that the relationship between the turbidity and estimated suspended-sediment concentration was significantly affected by the particle size, and the prediction results were underestimated under high-concentration conditions. Using blue, green, and gray band values, a multiple regression model for estimating suspended-sediment concentrations was developed; its predictions were better than those obtained from the turbidity–concentration relationship. Following efficiency improvements through additional approaches considering underwater-image filming conditions and characteristics of actual streams, estuaries, and coasts, this method could be developed into an easily usable technique for sediment-discharge estimation, helping address sediment-related issues in estuaries and coastal regions

Interturn Short Fault Diagnosis Using Magnitude and Phase of Currents in Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines

With the increased demand for permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) in various industrial fields, interturn short fault (ITSF) diagnosis of PMSMs is under the limelight. In particular, to prevent accidents caused by PMSM malfunctions, it is difficult and greatly necessary to diagnose slight ITSF, which is a stage before the ITSF becomes severe. In this paper, we propose a novel fault indicator based on the magnitude and phase of the current. The proposed fault indicator was developed using analysis of positive-sequence current (PSC) and negative-sequence current (NSC), which means the degree of the asymmetry of the three-phase currents by ITSF. According to the analysis, as ITSF increases, the phase difference between PSC and NSC decreases and the magnitude of NSC increases. Therefore, the novel fault indicator is suggested as a product of the cosine value of the phase indicator and the magnitude indicator. The magnitude indicator is the magnitude of NSC, and the phase indicator means the phase difference between the PSC and the NSC. The suggested fault indicator diagnoses the degree of ITSF as well as slight ITSFs under various conditions by only measured three-phase currents. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method under various torque and speeds.11Ysciescopu

Detection of Inter-turn Short Circuit Faults in Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors with Multistrands Windings

In Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSMs) with multistrands windings, inter-turn short circuit (ITSC) faults occur in two types. One is that the ITSC fault occurs between two spots of a single strand and the other is that the ITSC fault occurs between two different strands. We proposed a fault indicator to detect two types of inter-turn short circuit faults in PMSMs that have multistrands windings. The fault indicator is calculated from stationary dq currents and their Hilbert transforms. The fault indicator converges to zero in healthy state but increases proportionally to the severity of the fault in faulty state. We validated the fault indicator with finite element method (FEM) simulation data. The proposed fault indicator only uses current data, so the indicator is simple and efficient tool to detect ITSC faults in PMSMs with multistrands windings.1

Severity Estimation for Interturn Short-Circuit and Demagnetization Faults through Self-Attention Network

This study presents a novel interturn short-circuit fault (ISCF) and demagnetization fault (DF) diagnosis strategy based on a self-attention-based severity estimation network (SASEN). We analyze the effects of the ISCF and DF in a permanent-magnet synchronous machine and select appropriate inputs for estimating the fault severities, i.e., a positive-sequence voltage and current and negative-sequence voltage and current. The chosen inputs are fed into the SASEN to estimate fault indicators for quantifying the fault severities of the ISCF and DF. The SASEN comprises an encoder and decoder based on a self-attention module. The self-attention mechanism enhances the high-dimensional feature extraction and regression ability of the network by concentrating on specific sequence representations, thereby supporting the estimation of the fault severities. The proposed strategy can diagnose a hybrid fault in which the ISCF and DF occur simultaneously and does not require the exact model and parameters essential for the existing method for estimating the fault severity. The effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed fault diagnosis strategy are demonstrated through experimental results based on various fault cases and load torque conditions. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.11Ysciescopu

iTurboGraph: Scaling and Automating Incremental Graph Analytics

With the rise of streaming data for dynamic graphs, large-scale graph analytics meets a new requirement of Incremental Computation because the larger the graph, the higher the cost for updating the analytics results by re-execution. A dynamic graph consists of an initial graph G and graph mutation updates ∆G of edge insertions or deletions. Given a query Q, its results Q(G), and updates for ∆G to G, incremental graph analytics computes updates ∆Q such that Q(G ∪ ∆G) = Q(G) ∪ ∆Q where ∪ is a union operator. In this paper, we consider the problem of large-scale incremental neighbor-centric graph analytics (NGA). We solve the limitations of previous systems: lack of usability due to the difficulties in programming incremental algorithms for NGA and limited scalability and efficiency due to the overheads in maintaining intermediate results for graph traversals in NGA. First, we propose a domainspecific language, LN GA, and develop its compiler for intuitive programming of NGA, automatic query incrementalization, and query optimizations. Second, we define Graph Streaming Algebra as a theoretical foundation for scalable processing of incremental NGA. We introduce a concept of Nested Graph Windows and model graph traversals as the generation of walk streams. Lastly, we present a system iTurboGraph, which efficiently processes incremental NGA for large graphs. Comprehensive experiments show that it effectively avoids costly re-executions and efficiently updates the analytics results with reduced IO and computations.1

Asymmetric-Partition Replication for Highly Scalable Distributed Transaction Processing in Practice

Database replication is widely known and used for high availability or load balancing in many practical database systems. In this paper, we show how a replication engine can be used for three important practical cases that have not previously been studied very well. The three practical use cases include: 1) scaling out OLTP/OLAP-mixed workloads with partitioned replicas, 2) efficiently maintaining a distributed secondary index for a partitioned table, and 3) efficiently implementing an online re-partitioning operation. All three use cases are crucial for enabling a high performance shared-nothing distributed database system. To support the three use cases more efficiently, we propose the concept of asymmetric-partition replication, so that replicas of a table can be independently partitioned regardless of whether or how its primary copy is partitioned. In addition, we propose the optimistic synchronous commit protocol which avoids the expensive two-phase commit without sacrificing transactional consistency. The proposed asymmetric-partition replication and its optimized commit protocol are incorporated in the production versions of the SAP HANA in-memory database system. Through extensive experiments, we demonstrate the significant benefits that the proposed replication engine brings to the three use cases.1

Viability of Fat Cells Over Time After Syringe Suction Lipectomy The Effects of Cryopreservation

The purpose of this study was to determine the late decline in viability of fat cells over time for fat tissue stored at -15 degrees C and -70 degrees C after harvest from abdominal liposuction. A total of 16 females were recruited for this study. The viability of fat cell specimens was measured after freezing for 1, 3, 7, 14, 28, and 56 days. A number of viable mature adipocytes were evaluated by fluorescence microscopy after staining with fluorescein diacetate and propidium iodide. The glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase activity was measured in lipoaspirates before digestion and the XTT reduction assay was performed. In addition, the XTT reduction assay was also performed on isolated lipocytes and preadipocytes. The viability of mature adipocytes was very low for both the -15 degrees C and -70 degrees C samples after 1 day of freezing (13.3% +/- 7.4% and 12.6% +/- 6.3%, respectively). There was no statistically significant difference between the samples stored at the 2 temperatures. The GPDH activity of the lipoaspirates frozen, for 1 day, at -15 degrees C and -70 degrees C was 25.1% +/- 10% and 28.7% +/- 11%, respectively. For the XTT test, the fractional enzyme activity of the lipoaspirates frozen, for 1 day, at -15 degrees C and -70 degrees C was 30.0% +/- 10.9% and 36.1% +/- 12.3%, respectively. In addition, the adipocytes had low activity from day one: 15.4% +/- 7.2% at -15 degrees C and 11.5% +/- 5.6% at -70 degrees C. Furthermore, the preadipocytes had a low activity of 8.0% +/- 6.0% at -15 degrees C and 8.6% +/- 3.8% at -70 degrees C. At 8 weeks, there were few viable mature adipocytes and the activity of the cells was very low by XTT and GPDH testing. The results of this study showed that the viability of adipocytes declined rapidly after frozen storage for 1 day at both -15 degrees C and -70 degrees C, and decreased gradually in storage after 8 weeks; at which time only approximately 5% of the fat cells were alive. These findings suggest that the present fat preservation storage techniques using a -15 degrees C freezer or a -70 degrees C deep freezer are both inadequate to maintain the viability of fat cells.Cui XD, 2007, CRYOBIOLOGY, V55, P269, DOI 10.1016/j.cryobiol.2007.08.012Matsumoto D, 2007, PLAST RECONSTR SURG, V120, P1510, DOI 10.1097/01.prs.0000288015.70922.e4Li Y, 2006, CRYOBIOLOGY, V53, P240, DOI 10.1016/j.cryobiol.2006.06.007Tholpady SS, 2006, CLIN PLAST SURG, V33, P55, DOI 10.1016/j.cps.2005.08.004Wolter TP, 2005, ANN PLAS SURG, V55, P408, DOI 10.1097/01.sap.0000181345.56084.7dPu LLQ, 2005, ANN PLAS SURG, V54, P288, DOI 10.1097/01.sap.0000153147.23088.cbLeong DTW, 2005, J DERMATOL SCI, V37, P169, DOI 10.1016/j.jdermsci.2004.11.009MacRae JW, 2004, ANN PLAS SURG, V52, P281, DOI 10.1097/01.sap.0000110559.58945.2cRohrich RJ, 2004, PLAST RECONSTR SURG, V113, P391Ramsay TG, 2003, COMP BIOCHEM PHYS B, V136, P245, DOI 10.1016/S1096-4959(02)00261-0Tchoukalova YD, 2003, J LIPID RES, V44, P1795, DOI 10.1194/jlr.D300001-JLR200Boschert MT, 2002, PLAST RECONSTR SURG, V109, P761Shiffman MA, 2001, DERMATOL SURG, V27, P819Zuk PA, 2001, TISSUE ENG, V7, P211von Heimburg D, 2001, BIOMATERIALS, V22, P429Sommer B, 2000, DERMATOL SURG, V26, P1159Liu J, 2000, BIOL REPROD, V63, P1303SCHULLERPETROVI.S, 1997, FACIAL PLAST SURG, V13, P119Guerrerosantos J, 1996, AESTHET PLAST SURG, V20, P403Pereira LH, 1996, AESTHET PLAST SURG, V20, P409MOORE JH, 1995, AESTHET PLAST SURG, V19, P335HAMBLEY RM, 1992, J DERMATOL SURG ONC, V18, P963MAZUR P, 1990, CELL BIOPHYS, V17, P53SCARBOROUGH DA, 1990, J DERMATOL SURG ONC, V16, P651RAMSAY TG, 1987, J ANIM SCI, V64, P735