Inconsistent Matters: A Knowledge-guided Dual-consistency Network for Multi-modal Rumor Detection

Rumor spreaders are increasingly utilizing multimedia content to attract the attention and trust of news consumers. Though quite a few rumor detection models have exploited the multi-modal data, they seldom consider the inconsistent semantics between images and texts, and rarely spot the inconsistency among the post contents and background knowledge. In addition, they commonly assume the completeness of multiple modalities and thus are incapable of handling handle missing modalities in real-life scenarios. Motivated by the intuition that rumors in social media are more likely to have inconsistent semantics, a novel Knowledge-guided Dual-consistency Network is proposed to detect rumors with multimedia contents. It uses two consistency detection subnetworks to capture the inconsistency at the cross-modal level and the content-knowledge level simultaneously. It also enables robust multi-modal representation learning under different missing visual modality conditions, using a special token to discriminate between posts with visual modality and posts without visual modality. Extensive experiments on three public real-world multimedia datasets demonstrate that our framework can outperform the state-of-the-art baselines under both complete and incomplete modality conditions. Our codes are available at https://github.com/MengzSun/KDCN

Desulfurization using limestone during sludge incineration in a fluidized bed furnace: Increased risk of particulate matter and heavy metal emissions

Incineration of sludge can be an effective method to minimise waste whilst producing useful heat. However, incineration can cause secondary pollution issues due to the emission of SO2, therefore a set of experiments of sludge incineration in a bubble bed furnace were conducted with limestone addition to study desulfurization of sludge incineration flue gas. As expected, over 93% emission of SO2 was reduced with limestone addition, and that of CO and NOx were increased and decreased respectively when the fuel feeding rate raised. The distribution of fly ash was also increased by raising the fuel feeding rate due to increasing fragmentation of the ash. However, distributions of PM2.5 and heavy metals in submicron particles have dramatically increased with limestone desulfurization. The mechanism was revealed by SEM and EDS statistical analysis, indicating that the reaction between aluminosilicate and calcium made particles agglomerate and eutectic mixtures form, these larger ash particles were found to divide between collection as cyclone ash and fragmentation into finer particles that bypassed the cyclone. Those fine particles provided more surface area for heavy metal condensation. Furthermore, it was found that the reaction mechanism for semi-volatile metals involved them being released from the sludge and forming PM1 particles due to the vaporization-condensation mechanism, leading to higher emission of PM1 and distribution of heavy metals in PM1. Thus, it should be considered that there may actually be higher emission risks of PM and heavy metal emissions when aiming to desulfurize a flue gas using Ca-based minerals in certain circumstance

Green production of a novel sorbent from kaolin for capturing gaseous PbCl2 in a furnace

The pollution of semi-volatile heavy metals is one of the key environmental risks for municipal solid waste incineration, and in-situ adsorption of metals within the furnace by mineral sorbents such as kaolin has been demonstrated as a promising emission control method. To lessen the consumption of sorbent, a novel material of amorphous silicate was produced from kaolin through pressurised hydrothermal treatment. Its performance of gaseous PbCl2 capture was tested in a fixed bed furnace and compared with unmodified kaolin and metakaolin. With increasing temperature, the adsorption rates for all sorbents declined due to higher saturated vapour pressure, while the partitions of residual form lead increased which indicated higher stability of heavy metals in the sorbent because of melting effect. The new sorbent with a larger surface area and reformed structure presented 26% more adsorption efficiency than raw kaolin at 900 °C, and increasing the modification pressure improved these properties. Additionally, the production of this high-temperature sorbent was relatively inexpensive, required little thermal energy and no chemicals to produce and no waste effluent was generated, thus being much cleaner than other modification methods

Draft genome sequence of the mulberry tree Morus notabilis

Human utilization of the mulberry–silkworm interaction started at least 5,000 years ago and greatly influenced world history through the Silk Road. Complementing the silkworm genome sequence, here we describe the genome of a mulberry species Morus notabilis. In the 330-Mb genome assembly, we identify 128 Mb of repetitive sequences and 29,338 genes, 60.8% of which are supported by transcriptome sequencing. Mulberry gene sequences appear to evolve ~3 times faster than other Rosales, perhaps facilitating the species’ spread worldwide. The mulberry tree is among a few eudicots but several Rosales that have not preserved genome duplications in more than 100 million years; however, a neopolyploid series found in the mulberry tree and several others suggest that new duplications may confer benefits. Five predicted mulberry miRNAs are found in the haemolymph and silk glands of the silkworm, suggesting interactions at molecular levels in the plant–herbivore relationship. The identification and analyses of mulberry genes involved in diversifying selection, resistance and protease inhibitor expressed in the laticifers will accelerate the improvement of mulberry plants

Regression Analysis of Multivariate Interval-Censored Failure Time Data under Transformation Model with Informative Censoring

We consider a regression analysis of multivariate interval-censored failure time data where the censoring may be informative. To address this, an approximated maximum likelihood estimation approach is proposed under a general class of semiparametric transformation models, and in the method, the frailty approach is employed to characterize the informative interval censoring. For the implementation of the proposed method, we develop a novel EM algorithm and show that the resulting estimators of the regression parameters are consistent and asymptotically normal. To evaluate the empirical performance of the proposed estimation procedure, we conduct a simulation study, and the results indicate that it performs well for the situations considered. In addition, we apply the proposed approach to a set of real data arising from an AIDS study

Evaluation Model of Autonomous Vehicles’ Speed Suitability Based on Overtaking Frequency

Speed judgment is a vital component of autonomous driving perception systems. Automobile drivers were able to evaluate their speed as a result of their driving experience. However, driverless automobiles cannot autonomously evaluate their speed suitability through external environmental factors such as the surrounding conditions and traffic flows. This study introduced the parameter of overtaking frequency (OTF) based on the state of the traffic flow on both sides of the lane to reflect the difference between the speed of a driverless automobile and its surrounding traffic to solve the above problem. In addition, a speed evaluation algorithm was proposed based on the long short-term memory (LSTM) model. To train the LSTM model, we extracted OTF as the first observation variable, and the characteristic parameters of the vehicle’s longitudinal motion and the comparison parameters with the leading vehicle were used as the second observation variables. The algorithm judged the velocity using a hierarchical method. We conducted a road test by using real vehicles and the algorithms verified the data, which showed the accuracy rate of the model is 93%. As a result, OTF is introduced as one of the observed variables that can support the accuracy of the algorithm used to judge speed

A New Diagnostic Algorithm for Multiple IGBTs Open Circuit Faults by the Phase Currents for Power Inverter in Electric Vehicles

In order to simplify the application and improve diagnostic speed of the diagnostics, a novel method to diagnose multiple open circuit faults in insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) by three-phase currents for power inverter in electric vehicles is presented. The summation of currents with semi-period phase-difference is described in diagnostic variables with exploration of the current information in faulty condition. In contrast with plentiful existing methods which rely on the motor models and control parameters, this algorithm merely requires phase currents. Meanwhile, the normalized way based on the absolute phase currents and variable parameter moving average method are applied to improve the diagnostic speed and independence of load variation, which contributes to the real-time application in the electric vehicles. Experimental results, using a vector-controlled permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) and digital signal processor MC56F8346, are presented to verify the algorithm effectiveness, showing many features, such as applicability for multiple open circuit faults, well-robustness against false alarms, briefness and agility for the diagnosis function

Effects of Metal Salt Catalysts on Fluidized Bed Gasification Characteristics of Source-Collected Combustible Solid Waste

Effects of metal salt catalysts and gasification temperature on the gasification characteristics of combustible solid waste were studied, based on the source-classified waste in a fluidized bed gasifier, to provide guidance for utilizing the source-classified waste effectively. The results showed that the gasification characteristics of combustible solid waste, such as paper and sawdust, improved noticeably after adding NaCl, K2CO3, or sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (LAS). Adding NaCl to sawdust increased the yield of CO and CH4, while the gasification was inhibited gradually with increasing addition. Adding NaCl promoted the generation of H2 in paper gasification. NaCl played a catalytic role only when it exceeded a certain value. Adding K2CO3 increased the yield of H2 noticeably in sawdust and paper gasification. The catalytic effect of K2CO3 on sawdust was better than that on paper. Similar results were obtained for LAS in producing H2 in gasification. The carbon conversion efficiency and the gasification efficiency were increased with additional LAS. Moreover, the catalytic effect of K2CO3 was superior to that of LAS by comparison. As the temperature rises, the activity of the metal salt catalyst is enhanced, but it is inhibited if the temperature is too high