Plan4MC: Skill Reinforcement Learning and Planning for Open-World Minecraft Tasks

We study building a multi-task agent in Minecraft. Without human demonstrations, solving long-horizon tasks in this open-ended environment with reinforcement learning (RL) is extremely sample inefficient. To tackle the challenge, we decompose solving Minecraft tasks into learning basic skills and planning over the skills. We propose three types of fine-grained basic skills in Minecraft, and use RL with intrinsic rewards to accomplish basic skills with high success rates. For skill planning, we use Large Language Models to find the relationships between skills and build a skill graph in advance. When the agent is solving a task, our skill search algorithm walks on the skill graph and generates the proper skill plans for the agent. In experiments, our method accomplishes 24 diverse Minecraft tasks, where many tasks require sequentially executing for more than 10 skills. Our method outperforms baselines in most tasks by a large margin. The project's website and code can be found at https://sites.google.com/view/plan4mc.Comment: 19 page

A retrospective comparative study on the diagnostic efficacy and the complications: between CassiII rotational core biopsy and core needle biopsy

Accurate pathologic diagnosis and molecular classification of breast mass biopsy tissue is important for determining individualized therapy for (neo)adjuvant systemic therapies for invasive breast cancer. The CassiII rotational core biopsy system is a novel biopsy technique with a guide needle and a “stick-freeze” technology. The comprehensive assessments including the concordance rates of diagnosis and biomarker status between CassiII and core needle biopsy were evaluated in this study. Estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PgR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), and Ki67 were analyzed through immunohistochemistry. In total, 655 patients with breast cancer who underwent surgery after biopsy at Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital between January 2019 to December 2021 were evaluated. The concordance rates (CRs) of malignant surgical specimens with CassiII needle biopsy was significantly high compared with core needle biopsy. Moreover, CassiII needle biopsy had about 20% improvement in sensitivity and about 5% improvement in positive predictive value compared to Core needle biopsy. The characteristics including age and tumor size were identified the risk factors for pathological inconsistencies with core needle biopsies. However, CassiII needle biopsy was associated with tumor diameter only. The CRs of ER, PgR, HER2, and Ki67 using Cassi needle were 98.08% (kappa, 0.941; p<.001), 90.77% (kappa, 0.812; p<.001), 69.62% (kappa, 0.482; p<.001), and 86.92% (kappa, 0.552; p<.001), respectively. Post-biopsy complications with CassiII needle biopsy were also collected. The complications of CassiII needle biopsy including chest stuffiness, pain and subcutaneous ecchymosis are not rare. The underlying mechanism of subcutaneous congestion or hematoma after CassiII needle biopsy might be the larger needle diameter and the effect of temperature on coagulation function. In summary, CassiII needle biopsy is age-independent and has a better accuracy than CNB for distinguishing carcinoma in situ and invasive carcinoma

The Effect of the Antimicrobial Peptide Plectasin on the Growth Performance, Intestinal Health, and Immune Function of Yellow-Feathered Chickens

The goal of the study was to test the effects of an antibiotic substitute, plectasin, on the growth performance, immune function, intestinal morphology and structure, intestinal microflora, ileal mucosal layer construction and tight junctions, ileal immune-related cytokines, and blood biochemical indices of yellow-feathered chickens. A total of 1,500 one-day-old yellow-feathered chicks were randomly divided into four dietary treatment groups with five replicates in each group and 75 yellow-feathered chicks in each replication, as follows: basal diet (group A); basal diet supplemented with 10 mg enramycin/kg of diet (group B), basal diet supplemented with 100 mg plectasin/kg of diet (group C), and basal diet supplemented with 200 mg plectasin/kg of diet (group D). It was found that the dietary antimicrobial peptide plectasin could improve the ADG and had better F/G for the overall period of 1–63 days. Dietary plectasin can enhance H9N2 avian influenza virus (AIV) and Newcastle disease virus (NDV) antibody levels of yellow-feathered chickens at 21, and 35 days of age. Dietary plectasin can enhance the intestine structure, inhibit Escherichia coli and proinflammatory cytokines in the ileum, and ameliorate the blood biochemical indices of yellow-feathered chickens at 21 days of age. This study indicates that the antimicrobial peptide plectasin has beneficial effects on the growth performance, intestinal health and immune function of yellow-feathered chickens

Biocrust reduces the soil erodibility of coral calcareous sand by regulating microbial community and extracellular polymeric substances on tropical coral island, South China Sea

Tropical coral islands assume a pivotal role in the conservation of oceanic ecosystem biodiversity. However, their distinctive environmental attributes and limited vegetation render them highly susceptible to soil erosion. The biological soil crust (biocrust), owing to its significant ecological role in soil stabilization and erosion prevention, is deemed an effective means of mitigating soil erosion on coral island. However, existing research on the mechanisms through which biocrusts resist soil erosion has predominantly concentrated on arid and semi-arid regions. Consequently, this study will specifically delve into elucidating the erosion-resistant mechanisms of biocrusts in tropical coral island environments, South China Sea. Specifically, we collected 16 samples of biocrusts and bare soil from Meiji Island. High-throughput amplicon sequencing was executed to analyze the microbial community, including bacteria, fungi, and archaea. Additionally, quantitative PCR was utilized to assess the abundance of the bacterial 16S rRNA, fungal ITS, archaeal 16S rRNA, and cyanobacterial 16S rRNA genes within these samples. Physicochemical measurements and assessments of extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs) were conducted to characterize the soil properties. The study reported a significantly decreased soil erodibility factor after biocrust formation. Compared to bare soil, soil erodibility factor decreased from 0.280 to 0.190 t h MJ−1 mm−1 in the biocrusts. Mechanistically, we measured the microbial EPS contents and revealed a negative correlation between EPS and soil erodibility factor. Consistent with increased EPS, the abundance of bacteria, fungi, archaea, and cyanobacteria were also detected significantly increased with biocrust formation. Correlation analysis detected Cyanobacteria, Chloroflexi, Deinococcota, and Crenarchaeota as potential microbials promoting EPSs and reducing soil erosion. Together, our study presents the evidence that biocrust from tropical coral island in the South China Sea promotes resistance to soil erosion, pinpointing key EPSs-producing microbials against soil erosion. The findings would provide insights for island soil restoration

Potential of Core-Collapse Supernova Neutrino Detection at JUNO

JUNO is an underground neutrino observatory under construction in Jiangmen, China. It uses 20kton liquid scintillator as target, which enables it to detect supernova burst neutrinos of a large statistics for the next galactic core-collapse supernova (CCSN) and also pre-supernova neutrinos from the nearby CCSN progenitors. All flavors of supernova burst neutrinos can be detected by JUNO via several interaction channels, including inverse beta decay, elastic scattering on electron and proton, interactions on C12 nuclei, etc. This retains the possibility for JUNO to reconstruct the energy spectra of supernova burst neutrinos of all flavors. The real time monitoring systems based on FPGA and DAQ are under development in JUNO, which allow prompt alert and trigger-less data acquisition of CCSN events. The alert performances of both monitoring systems have been thoroughly studied using simulations. Moreover, once a CCSN is tagged, the system can give fast characterizations, such as directionality and light curve

Detection of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background with JUNO

As an underground multi-purpose neutrino detector with 20 kton liquid scintillator, Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is competitive with and complementary to the water-Cherenkov detectors on the search for the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB). Typical supernova models predict 2-4 events per year within the optimal observation window in the JUNO detector. The dominant background is from the neutral-current (NC) interaction of atmospheric neutrinos with 12C nuclei, which surpasses the DSNB by more than one order of magnitude. We evaluated the systematic uncertainty of NC background from the spread of a variety of data-driven models and further developed a method to determine NC background within 15\% with {\it{in}} {\it{situ}} measurements after ten years of running. Besides, the NC-like backgrounds can be effectively suppressed by the intrinsic pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) capabilities of liquid scintillators. In this talk, I will present in detail the improvements on NC background uncertainty evaluation, PSD discriminator development, and finally, the potential of DSNB sensitivity in JUNO

Real-time Monitoring for the Next Core-Collapse Supernova in JUNO

Core-collapse supernova (CCSN) is one of the most energetic astrophysical events in the Universe. The early and prompt detection of neutrinos before (pre-SN) and during the SN burst is a unique opportunity to realize the multi-messenger observation of the CCSN events. In this work, we describe the monitoring concept and present the sensitivity of the system to the pre-SN and SN neutrinos at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), which is a 20 kton liquid scintillator detector under construction in South China. The real-time monitoring system is designed with both the prompt monitors on the electronic board and online monitors at the data acquisition stage, in order to ensure both the alert speed and alert coverage of progenitor stars. By assuming a false alert rate of 1 per year, this monitoring system can be sensitive to the pre-SN neutrinos up to the distance of about 1.6 (0.9) kpc and SN neutrinos up to about 370 (360) kpc for a progenitor mass of 30$M_{\odot}$ for the case of normal (inverted) mass ordering. The pointing ability of the CCSN is evaluated by using the accumulated event anisotropy of the inverse beta decay interactions from pre-SN or SN neutrinos, which, along with the early alert, can play important roles for the followup multi-messenger observations of the next Galactic or nearby extragalactic CCSN.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

Increasing Quantum Correlations Based on Measurement-Induced Disturbance via a Swapping Procedure with Two-Qubit Mixed States

In this paper, quantum correlation (QC) swapping for certain separable two-qubit mixed states is treated. A QC quantifier, measurement-induced disturbance (MID) (Luo in Phys Rev A 77:022301, 2008), is employed to characterize and quantify QCs in the relevant states. Properties of all QCs in the swapping process are revealed. Particularly, it is found that MID can be increased through QC swapping for certain separable two-qubit mixed states

Rare taxa and dark microbial matter: novel bioactive actinobacteria abound in Atacama Desert soils

An “in house” taxonomic approach to drug discovery led to the isolation of diverse actinobacteria from hyper-arid, extreme hyper-arid and very high altitude Atacama Desert soils. A high proportion of the isolates were assigned to novel taxa, with many showing activity in standard antimicrobial plug assays. The application of more advanced taxonomic and screening strategies showed that strains classified as novel species of Lentzea and Streptomyces synthesised new specialised metabolites thereby underpinning the premise that the extreme abiotic conditions in the Atacama Desert favour the development of a unique actinobacterial diversity which is the basis of novel chemistry. Complementary metagenomic analyses showed that the soils encompassed an astonishing degree of actinobacterial ‘dark matter’, while rank-abundance analyses showed them to be highly diverse habitats mainly composed of rare taxa that have not been recovered using culture-dependent methods. The implications of these pioneering studies on future bioprospecting campaigns are discussed