Image Captioning with Context-Aware Auxiliary Guidance

Image captioning is a challenging computer vision task, which aims to generate a natural language description of an image. Most recent researches follow the encoder-decoder framework which depends heavily on the previous generated words for the current prediction. Such methods can not effectively take advantage of the future predicted information to learn complete semantics. In this paper, we propose Context-Aware Auxiliary Guidance (CAAG) mechanism that can guide the captioning model to perceive global contexts. Upon the captioning model, CAAG performs semantic attention that selectively concentrates on useful information of the global predictions to reproduce the current generation. To validate the adaptability of the method, we apply CAAG to three popular captioners and our proposal achieves competitive performance on the challenging Microsoft COCO image captioning benchmark, e.g. 132.2 CIDEr-D score on Karpathy split and 130.7 CIDEr-D (c40) score on official online evaluation server

Optimised phase disposition pulse-width modulation strategy for hybrid-clamped multilevel inverters using switching state sequences

This study describes an optimised modulation strategy based on switching state sequences for the hybrid-clamped multilevel converter. Two key control variables defined as 'phase shift angle' and 'switching state change' for a five-level hybrid-clamped inverter are proposed to improve all switches' operation, and by changing their values, different control methods can be obtained for modulation optimisation purposes. Two example methods can solve the voltage imbalance problem of the dc-link capacitors and furthermore avoid two switches' simultaneous switching transitions and improve the inverter's performance as compared with the traditional phase disposition pulse-width modulation strategy. A 6 kW prototype inverter is developed and a range of simulation and experiments are carried out for validation. It is found that simulation and experimental results are in a good agreement and the proposed modulation strategy is verified in terms of low-order harmonic reduction

Magnetic-field-induced electronic instability of Weyl-like fermions in compressed black phosphorus

Revealing the role of Coulomb interaction in topological semimetals with Dirac/Weyl-like band dispersion shapes a new frontier in condensed matter physics. Topological node-line semimetals (TNLSMs), anticipated as a fertile ground for exploring electronic correlation effects due to the anisotropy associated with their node-line structure, have recently attracted considerable attention. In this study, we report an experimental observation for correlation effects in TNLSMs realized by black phosphorus (BP) under hydrostatic pressure. By performing a combination of nuclear magnetic resonance measurements and band calculations on compressed BP, a magnetic-field-induced electronic instability of Weyl-like fermions is identified under an external magnetic field parallel to the so-called nodal ring in the reciprocal space. Anomalous spin fluctuations serving as the fingerprint of electronic instability are observed at low temperatures, and they are observed to maximize at approximately 1.0 GPa. This study presents compressed BP as a realistic material platform for exploring the rich physics in strongly coupled Weyl-like fermions.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Design Safety Considerations for Water Cooled Small Modular Reactors Incorporating Lessons Learned from the Fukushima Daiichi Accident

The global future deployment of advanced nuclear reactors for electricity generation depends primarily on the ability of nuclear industries, utilities and regulatory authorities to further enhance their reliability and economic competitiveness while satisfying stringent safety requirements. The IAEA has a project to help coordinate Member State efforts in the development and deployment of small and medium sized or small modular reactor (SMR) technology. This project aims simultaneously to facilitate SMR technology developers and potential SMR users, particularly States embarking on a nuclear power programme, in identifying key enabling technologies and enhancing capacity building by resolving issues relevant to deployment, including nuclear reactor safety. The objective of this publication is to explore common practices for Member States, which will be an essential resource for future development and deployment of SMR technology. The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was caused by an unprecedented combination of natural events: a strong earthquake, beyond th e design basis, followed by a series of tsunamis of heights exceeding the design basis tsunami considered in the flood analysis for the site. Consequently, all the operating nuclear power plants and advanced reactors under development, including SMRs, have been incorporating lessons learned from the accident to assure and enhance the performance of the engineered safety features in coping with such external events. In response to the Fukushima Daiichi accident, the IAEA established an Action Plan on Nuclear Safety. The preparation of this publication was carried out within the framework of the IAEA Action Plan on effectively utilizing research and development. The main objective of this publication is to present technology developers and user s with common considerations, approaches and measures for enhancing the defence in depth and operability of water cooled SMR design concepts to cope with extreme natural hazards. Indicative requirements to prevent such an accident from recurring are also provided for States planning to adopt water cooled SMR designs and technologies. The IAEA gratefully acknowledges the information on technology and safety aspects provided by SMR design organizations and information regarding technical requirements provided by several Member States. The IAEA officers responsible for this publication were M.H. Subki of the Division of Nuclear Power and M. Kim of the Division of Nuclear Installation Safety

Experimental study on the interrelation of multiple mechanical parameters in overburden rock caving process during coal mining in longwall panel

Abstract In order to comprehend the dynamic disaster mechanism induced by overburden rock caving during the advancement of a coal mining face, a physical simulation model is constructed basing on the geological condition of the 21221 mining face at Qianqiu coal mine in Henan Province, China. This study established, a comprehensive monitoring system to investigate the interrelations and evolutionary characteristics among multiple mechanical parameters, including mining-induced stress, displacement, temperature, and acoustic emission events during overburden rock caving. It is suggested that, despite the uniformity of the overburden rock caving interval, the main characteristic of overburden rock lies in its uneven caving strength. The mining-induced stress exhibits a reasonable interrelation with the displacement, temperature, and acoustic emission events of the rock strata. With the advancement of the coal seam, the mining-induced stress undergoes four successive stages: gentle stability, gradual accumulation, high-level mutation, and a return to stability. The variations in other mechanical parameters does not synchronize with the significant changes in mining-induced stress. Before the collapse of overburden rock occurs, rock strata temperature increment decreases and the acoustic emission ringing counts surges with the increase of rock strata displacement and mining-induced stress. Therefore, the collaborative characteristics of mining-induced stress, displacement, temperature, and acoustic emission ringing counts can be identified as the precursor information or overburden rock caving. These results are in good consistent with on-site situation in the coal mine

Numerical Investigation of Relationship between Bursting Proneness and Mechanical Parameters of Coal

As one of the most catastrophic dynamic hazards in underground coal mines, coal bursts have been a major safety concern around the world for many years. Although the coal bursts can occur in all cases of hard to soft coal if the right stress environment is created, the occurrence of coal bursts is closely related to the intrinsic mechanical properties of coal, such as the bursting proneness. In this study, a total of 27 coal specimens are selected in the open literature studies to obtain a group of fundament data, such as the mechanical parameters, four bursting proneness indices, stress-strain curves, and their geological conditions where the specimens were taken. The relationship between bursting proneness indices and the cohesion of the coal specimens is established by numerically fitting the stress-strain curves and theoretically deduction. By taking into account the coal heterogeneity, eight probability distribution functions are employed to assignment nonuniform cohesion to the numerical model and to study the influence of heterogeneity on bursting proneness. The results reveal that the coal cohesion, which combines the common advantages of the four proneness indices, can be used as bursting proneness index. In the research of heterogeneity, the coal bursting proneness will decrease with the increasing of cohesion scatter degree. The larger the cohesion scatter degree increase is, the lower the bursting proneness will be. The failure of coal specimen is more and more severe with the decrease of cohesion scatter degree. In addition, this paper provides two methods for assigning heterogeneous parameters to the numerical model. The contours of shear strain rate and plastic state between homogeneous and heterogeneous coal specimens are compared to study the failure types of coal specimens and to reveal the mechanism of violent failure in coal bursts

Ag85a-S2 Activates cGAS-STING Signaling Pathway in Intestinal Mucosal Cells

Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease caused by Gram-negative bacteria. Most of the brucellosis vaccines in the application are whole-bacteria vaccines. Live-attenuated vaccines are widely used for brucellosis prevention in sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle. Thus, there is also a need for an adjuvanted vaccine for human brucellosis, because the attenuated Brucella vaccines now utilized in animals cause human illness. Here, we developed a live-attenuated Brucella suis strain 2 vaccine (S2) adjuvanted with Ag85a (Ag85a-S2). We found that Ag85a-S2 activated cGAS-STING pathways both in intestinal mucosal cells in vivo and in the BMDM and U937 cell line in vitro. We demonstrated that the cGAS knockout significantly downregulated the abundance of interferon and other cytokines induced by Ag85a-S2. Moreover, Ag85a-S2 triggered a stronger cellular immune response compared to S2 alone. In sum, Ag85a-S2-mediated enhancement of immune responses was at least partially dependent on the cGAS-STING pathway. Our results provide a new candidate for preventing Brucella pathogens from livestock, which might reduce the dosage and potential toxicity compared to S2