UNK-VQA: A Dataset and A Probe into Multi-modal Large Models' Abstention Ability

Teaching Visual Question Answering (VQA) models to refrain from answering unanswerable questions is necessary for building a trustworthy AI system. Existing studies, though have explored various aspects of VQA but somewhat ignored this particular attribute. This paper aims to bridge the research gap by contributing a comprehensive dataset, called UNK-VQA. The dataset is specifically designed to address the challenge of questions that models do not know. To this end, we first augment the existing data via deliberate perturbations on either the image or question. In specific, we carefully ensure that the question-image semantics remain close to the original unperturbed distribution. By this means, the identification of unanswerable questions becomes challenging, setting our dataset apart from others that involve mere image replacement. We then extensively evaluate the zero- and few-shot performance of several emerging multi-modal large models and discover their significant limitations when applied to our dataset. Additionally, we also propose a straightforward method to tackle these unanswerable questions. This dataset, we believe, will serve as a valuable benchmark for enhancing the abstention capability of VQA models, thereby leading to increased trustworthiness of AI systems. We have made the \href{https://github.com/guoyang9/UNK-VQA}{dataset} available to facilitate further exploration in this area

LION : Empowering Multimodal Large Language Model with Dual-Level Visual Knowledge

Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) have endowed LLMs with the ability to perceive and understand multi-modal signals. However, most of the existing MLLMs mainly adopt vision encoders pretrained on coarsely aligned image-text pairs, leading to insufficient extraction and reasoning of visual knowledge. To address this issue, we devise a dual-Level vIsual knOwledge eNhanced Multimodal Large Language Model (LION), which empowers the MLLM by injecting visual knowledge in two levels. 1) Progressive incorporation of fine-grained spatial-aware visual knowledge. We design a vision aggregator cooperated with region-level vision-language (VL) tasks to incorporate fine-grained spatial-aware visual knowledge into the MLLM. To alleviate the conflict between image-level and region-level VL tasks during incorporation, we devise a dedicated stage-wise instruction-tuning strategy with mixture-of-adapters. This progressive incorporation scheme contributes to the mutual promotion between these two kinds of VL tasks. 2) Soft prompting of high-level semantic visual evidence. We facilitate the MLLM with high-level semantic visual evidence by leveraging diverse image tags. To mitigate the potential influence caused by imperfect predicted tags, we propose a soft prompting method by embedding a learnable token into the tailored text instruction. Comprehensive experiments on several multi-modal benchmarks demonstrate the superiority of our model (e.g., improvement of 5% accuracy on VSR and 3% CIDEr on TextCaps over InstructBLIP, 5% accuracy on RefCOCOg over Kosmos-2).Comment: Technical Report. Project page: https://rshaojimmy.github.io/Projects/JiuTian-LION Code: https://github.com/rshaojimmy/JiuTia

Minimization of the environmental impact in the chrome tanning process by a closed-loop recycling technology

Content: It is acknowledged that conventional chrome tanning in leather processing discharges significant amounts of chromium, dissolved solids and chlorides. The recycling technology is one of the effective solutions to reduce the environmental impact of chrome tanning waste water at source. In this work, a novel closed recycling technology of chrome tanning wastewater was applied in the tanning process of the goat skins at a pilot scale level. The properties of chrome tanning liquors obtained by the recycling technology and the resultant crust were analyzed. The results show that this close recycling process works well. The contents of Cr2O3, total organic carbon, ammonia nitrogen and chloride ion in the waste water tend to accumulate with the increase of recycling times, and finally reach a balance after 5 times of recycling. The obtained leather sample is full, soft and having a shrinkage temperature comparable to that of conventional chrome tanned leather. SEM images indicate that the resulting leather samples by this recycling technology show fine and clean grain and well-dispersed fibrils. TG and DSC results show that the thermal stability of wet blue leathers tanned by the circular process are similar to those tanned by conventional chrome tanning process. Compared with conventional chrome tanning technology, water, salt and chrome tanning agent are saved in this process, and the zero emission of chrome tanning wastewater is realized. The cleaner production technology exhibits promising application prospect for its economic and environmental benefits. Take-Away: 1. A novel closed recycling technology of chrome tanning wastewater was applied in the tanning process of the goat skins at a pilot scale level. 2. The chrome tanning liquors obtained by the recycling technology and the resultant crust were analyzed. 3. Water, Sodium chloride and chrome tanning agent are saved by the closed recycling technology, and the zero emission of chrome tanning wastewater is realized

Fluoxetine treatment for major depression decreases the plasma levels of cytokines

Elevated levels of pro-inflammatory biomarkers have been reported in major depressive disorder (MDD). The aim of this study is to investigate the plasma levels of interleukin-18 (IL-18), macrophageinflammatory protein-1α (MIP-1α), monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1), stromal cell derived factor-1 (SDF-1), and regulated upon activation, normal T cell  expressed and secreted (RANTES) in patients with MDD before and after  eight week treatment of fluoxetine hydrochloride in comparison with normal controls. All subjects were assessed before and after treatment with the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS). Our results showed that the symptoms of forty healthy controls and thirty-four patients with MDD were correlated with their plasma levels of IL-18, MIP-1α, MCP-1, SDF-1α, and RANTES. The levels of all five cytokine of patients with MDD were significantly decreased after treatment.  However, the levels remained significantly higher than those of the healthy controls (p<0.001). In the seven depressed subjects whose HDRS score fell to below seven after antidepressant therapy comparing with those subjects whose HDRS score larger than seven, the mean levels of IL-18 (p=0.01) and SDF-1α(p<0.05) were significantly lower. Conversely, higher levels of cytokines correlated with a persistently increased severity of symptoms, as measured by the HDRS scores. In conclusion, these findings suggest that MDD is associated with activation of the immune system, and the antidepressant effect of fluoxetine may be mediated in part through its anti-inflammatory effects.Key words: Fluoxetine hydrochloride, major depression, cytokine, chemokine, inflammation

Multi-objective Black Widow Algorithm Guided by Competitive Mechanism and Pheromone Mechanism

Black widow optimization algorithm (BWOA) is a swarm intelligence optimization algorithm, which has the advantages of fast convergence and high precision. However, the update strategy adopted by BWOA is too simple, and it is easy to fall into the local optimal solution. Moreover, the search ability in multi-dimensional space is lacking, the population structure is single, and the convergence and diversity of the algorithm need to be improved.  In order to improve the comprehensive performance of BWOA and make it applicable to multi-objective optimization problems, this paper proposes a multi-objective black widow optimization algorithm (MBWOA) guided by a competition mechanism and an improved pheromone mechanism. MBWOA adopts the method of dynamic allocation of populations, which divides the populations into two in the iterative process and uses different competition mechanisms to enhance the diversity of the populations in the iterative process and improve the convergence of the algorithm. At the same time, it uses the improved pheromone mechanism to guide offspring individuals that have gone through the competition mechanism to optimize in the direction of population gap, improve the distribution of population, and enhance the convergence ability of the algorithm. Using MBWOA and four comparison algorithms to conduct comparative experiments on three indicators of IGD, HV and Spread respectively, the results show that MBWOA has better convergence accuracy, convergence speed and diversity. Finally, the effectiveness of the used mechanism is confirmed by the experiments of MBWOA and the comparison algorithms on three indicators

Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Arthritis: A Cross-Sectional Survey among Middle-Aged Adults in Chongqing, China

Background: Arthritis is a common disease in China, but few studies have been conducted to explore the associated health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and its influencing factors in Chongqing, China. This study aimed to explore the association of arthritis and HRQoL and probe factors affecting HRQoL among arthritis patients. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Chongqing, China. A total of 1224 adults were included in the analysis. Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) was used to measure HRQoL. Multiple linear regression models (stepwise) and covariance analysis models were used to examine the association of arthritis with HRQoL and analyze factors associated with HRQoL among arthritis patients. Results: Participants with arthritis had poorer HRQoL than those without. Among arthritis patients, the female was associated with a poorer state of physical functioning (p \u3c 0.05); unemployed patients had a poorer state of role-physical than employed patients (p \u3c 0.05); low average monthly income was associated with a poorer state of physical functioning (p \u3c 0.01); childhood non-breastfeeding history was associated with a poorer state of social functioning (p \u3c 0.01); average or dissatisfied attitude to current living conditions was associated with a poorer state of vitality and mental health (p \u3c 0.05 for all); moreover, poor or general appetite was associated with a poorer state of role-physical, general health, social functioning, bodily pain, and role-emotional (p \u3c 0.01 for all). Conclusions: Arthritis patients have worse HRQoL than those without in the Chinese population. Female, low socioeconomic status, childhood non-breastfeeding history, average or dissatisfied attitude to current living conditions and poor or general appetite were associated with poorer state of HRQoL among Chinese arthritis patients

Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Arthritis: A Cross-Sectional Survey among Middle-Aged Adults in Chongqing, China

Background: Arthritis is a common disease in China, but few studies have been conducted to explore the associated health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and its influencing factors in Chongqing, China. This study aimed to explore the association of arthritis and HRQoL and probe factors affecting HRQoL among arthritis patients. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Chongqing, China. A total of 1224 adults were included in the analysis. Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) was used to measure HRQoL. Multiple linear regression models (stepwise) and covariance analysis models were used to examine the association of arthritis with HRQoL and analyze factors associated with HRQoL among arthritis patients. Results: Participants with arthritis had poorer HRQoL than those without. Among arthritis patients, the female was associated with a poorer state of physical functioning (p \u3c 0.05); unemployed patients had a poorer state of role-physical than employed patients (p \u3c 0.05); low average monthly income was associated with a poorer state of physical functioning (p \u3c 0.01); childhood non-breastfeeding history was associated with a poorer state of social functioning (p \u3c 0.01); average or dissatisfied attitude to current living conditions was associated with a poorer state of vitality and mental health (p \u3c 0.05 for all); moreover, poor or general appetite was associated with a poorer state of role-physical, general health, social functioning, bodily pain, and role-emotional (p \u3c 0.01 for all). Conclusions: Arthritis patients have worse HRQoL than those without in the Chinese population. Female, low socioeconomic status, childhood non-breastfeeding history, average or dissatisfied attitude to current living conditions and poor or general appetite were associated with poorer state of HRQoL among Chinese arthritis patients