A Unified Model for Video Understanding and Knowledge Embedding with Heterogeneous Knowledge Graph Dataset

Video understanding is an important task in short video business platforms and it has a wide application in video recommendation and classification. Most of the existing video understanding works only focus on the information that appeared within the video content, including the video frames, audio and text. However, introducing common sense knowledge from the external Knowledge Graph (KG) dataset is essential for video understanding when referring to the content which is less relevant to the video. Owing to the lack of video knowledge graph dataset, the work which integrates video understanding and KG is rare. In this paper, we propose a heterogeneous dataset that contains the multi-modal video entity and fruitful common sense relations. This dataset also provides multiple novel video inference tasks like the Video-Relation-Tag (VRT) and Video-Relation-Video (VRV) tasks. Furthermore, based on this dataset, we propose an end-to-end model that jointly optimizes the video understanding objective with knowledge graph embedding, which can not only better inject factual knowledge into video understanding but also generate effective multi-modal entity embedding for KG. Comprehensive experiments indicate that combining video understanding embedding with factual knowledge benefits the content-based video retrieval performance. Moreover, it also helps the model generate better knowledge graph embedding which outperforms traditional KGE-based methods on VRT and VRV tasks with at least 42.36% and 17.73% improvement in HITS@10

BMP signaling is required to form the anterior neural plate border in ascidian embryos

Cranial neurogenic placodes have been considered vertebrate innovations. However, anterior neural plate border (ANB) cells of ascidian embryos share many properties with vertebrate neurogenic placodes; therefore, it is now believed that the last common ancestor of vertebrates and ascidians had embryonic structures similar to neurogenic placodes of vertebrate embryos. Because BMP signaling is important for specifying the placode region in vertebrate embryos, we examined whether BMP signaling is also involved in gene expression in the ANB region of ascidian embryos. Our data indicated that Admp, a divergent BMP family member, is mainly responsible for BMP signaling in the ANB region, and that two BMP-antagonists, Noggin and Chordin, restrict the domain, in which BMP signaling is activated, to the ANB region, and prevent it from expanding to the neural plate. BMP signaling is required for expression of Foxg and Six1/2 at the late gastrula stage, and also for expression of Zf220, which encodes a zinc finger transcription factor in late neurula embryos. Because Zf220 negatively regulates Foxg, when we downregulated Zf220 by inhibiting BMP signaling, Foxg was upregulated, resulting in one large palp instead of three palps (adhesive organs derived from ANB cells). Functions of BMP signaling in specification of the ANB region give further support to the hypothesis that ascidian ANB cells share an evolutionary origin with vertebrate cranial placodes

Supply Chain Resilience: Three practical solutions

Supply chain (SC) disruptions have become a fundamental business risk to companies in any sector, with three in four organisations likely to experience a disruption each year. Interestingly, some firms face smaller impacts on the business and recover quicker than others in the same sector. This is because firms with a high level of supply chain resilience (SCR) can prepare for, respond to and recover from disruptions more effectively. [...]</p

Understanding the current state of supply chain resilience practices: learning from Brexit and Covid-19

There is no doubt that Brexit and Covid-19 pandemic has given significant challenges to supply chains. New custom requirements, a large volume of new paperwork, labour shortages, and multiple national lockdowns are some of the issues that have posed significant global supply chain disruptions, especially to the UK firms. Understanding how UK manufacturers manage supply chain disruptions will help businesses to be alert, respond and recover from major disturbances. As such, this study examines the current state of supply chain resilience practices among UK manufacturers using a survey questionnaire. The investigation is focused on recent Brexit and Covid-19 disruptions and compared them with the normal situation. Subsequently, results show that supply chain planning is more effective in Brexit and Covid-19 than in the normal situation. Supply chain planning is necessary for firms to have greater visibility around their supply chains.</p

Microstructure and mechanical properties of longitudinal weld in 6005A aluminum alloy profile extruded by a porthole die

Porthole die extrusion experiments were carried out on 6005A aluminum alloy under the billet heating temperatures of 420–570 °C and ram speeds of 1–120 mm/min. The effects of extrusion parameters on the microstructure and mechanical properties in the longitudinal weld of profiles were investigated. It was found that the crystal orientation of longitudinal weld region showed the characteristics of gradient arrangement with different oriented grains wrapped in layers and symmetric along the welding line. The Copper{112} grains are formed at the welding line under the combined effect of shear and compression, and the Goss{110} grains are formed on their both sides due to dynamic recrystallization. A shear band is formed when part of metals flow through the 45° inclination angle of port bridge due to a sudden change in velocity, causing the Goss{110} texture in local region to rotate to Brass{110} texture. The 6005A aluminum alloy profiles mainly contain β (Mg2Si) phase, Q (Al3Mg9Si7Cu2) phase, AlCrMnSi phase and AlFeMnCrSi phase. Appropriately increasing billet heating temperature and ram speed can promote dynamic recrystallization and the dissolution of β-phase and Q-phase, thus improving the strength and hardness of the profile. However, when the billet heating temperature is too high, the strength and hardness are reduced instead due to grain coarsening. The profile extruded at billet heating temperature of 510 °C and ram speed of 120 mm/min has the best mechanical properties, with the tensile strength in 0° direction and hardness at the welding line of 179.93 MPa and 52.2 HV, respectively

Consolidation of Fragile Oracle Bones Using Nano Calcium Sulfate Hemihydrate as a Protectant

Herein, a nano calcium sulfate hemihydrate suspension in an alcohol solvent was prepared and explored as a novel protectant for fragile oracle bones. The consolidation method involved first introducing the suspension and then adding water into the bones. Through this method, cohesive calcium sulfate dihydrate formed in the bones and can act as a reinforcing material. The protective effect was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), hardness, porosity, and color difference determination. The results showed that such consolidation increased the strength of the bone samples significantly, and only slightly changed the appearance and porosity of the bone samples, indicating a good prospect for applying nano calcium sulfate hemihydrate in the conservation of indoor fragile bone relics