CACTI: A Framework for Scalable Multi-Task Multi-Scene Visual Imitation Learning

Large-scale training have propelled significant progress in various sub-fields of AI such as computer vision and natural language processing. However, building robot learning systems at a comparable scale remains challenging. To develop robots that can perform a wide range of skills and adapt to new scenarios, efficient methods for collecting vast and diverse amounts of data on physical robot systems are required, as well as the capability to train high-capacity policies using such datasets. In this work, we propose a framework for scaling robot learning, with specific focus on multi-task and multi-scene manipulation in kitchen environments, both in simulation and in the real world. Our proposed framework, CACTI, comprises four stages that separately handle: data collection, data augmentation, visual representation learning, and imitation policy training, to enable scalability in robot learning . We make use of state-of-the-art generative models as part of the data augmentation stage, and use pre-trained out-of-domain visual representations to improve training efficiency. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach. On a real robot setup, CACTI enables efficient training of a single policy that can perform 10 manipulation tasks involving kitchen objects, and is robust to varying layouts of distractors. In a simulated kitchen environment, CACTI trains a single policy to perform 18 semantic tasks across 100 layout variations for each individual task. We will release the simulation task benchmark and augmented datasets in both real and simulated environments to facilitate future research

Identification and Validation of METTL3-Related Molecules for Predicting Prognosis and Efficacy of Immunotherapy in Gastric Cancer Based on m6A Methylome and Transcriptome Sequencing Analysis

Abnormal N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification levels caused by METTL3 have been identified to be a critical regulator in human cancers, and its roles in the immune microenvironment and the relationship between targeted therapy and immunotherapy sensitivity in gastric cancer (GC) remain poorly understood. In this study, we assessed the transcriptome-wide m6A methylation profile after METTL3 overexpression by m6A sequencing and RNA sequencing in BGC-823 cells. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses were performed to analyze the function of core targets of METTL3. Eighteen methylation core molecules were identified in GC patients by combining transcriptome and methylome sequencing. GC patients can be separated into two subtypes based on the expression of 18 methylation core molecules. Furthermore, subgroup analysis showed that patients with different subtypes had a different OS, PFS, stage, grade, and TMB. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) showed that immune-related pathways were enriched among subtype A. The ESTIMATE analysis suggested that the extent of infiltration of immune cells was different in two subtypes of GC patients. Tumor Immune Dysfunction and Exclusion (TIDE) and The Cancer Immunome Atlas (TCIA) database also showed that there were significant differences in the efficacy of immunotherapy among different types of GC patients. Altogether, our results reveal that METTL3-mediated m6A methylation modification is associated with the immune microenvironment and the effects of immunotherapy in GC patients. Our findings provide novel insights for clinicians in the diagnosis and optimal treatment of GC patients

Aridity-driven shift in biodiversity–soil multifunctionality relationships

From Springer Nature via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: received 2021-01-07, accepted 2021-08-12, registration 2021-08-25, pub-electronic 2021-09-09, online 2021-09-09, collection 2021-12Publication status: PublishedFunder: National Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001809; Grant(s): 31770430Abstract: Relationships between biodiversity and multiple ecosystem functions (that is, ecosystem multifunctionality) are context-dependent. Both plant and soil microbial diversity have been reported to regulate ecosystem multifunctionality, but how their relative importance varies along environmental gradients remains poorly understood. Here, we relate plant and microbial diversity to soil multifunctionality across 130 dryland sites along a 4,000 km aridity gradient in northern China. Our results show a strong positive association between plant species richness and soil multifunctionality in less arid regions, whereas microbial diversity, in particular of fungi, is positively associated with multifunctionality in more arid regions. This shift in the relationships between plant or microbial diversity and soil multifunctionality occur at an aridity level of ∼0.8, the boundary between semiarid and arid climates, which is predicted to advance geographically ∼28% by the end of the current century. Our study highlights that biodiversity loss of plants and soil microorganisms may have especially strong consequences under low and high aridity conditions, respectively, which calls for climate-specific biodiversity conservation strategies to mitigate the effects of aridification

Climatic Changes After The Eruption of Tambora in 1815

Volcanic activities belongs to the most common natural events on this planet. They are as old as our planet. Some volcanoes have very long life cycle, their interval of eruptions can be up to tens or hundreds of thousands years. In general, the long interval the large eruption. The super-eruptions on VEI 8 are able to destroy the whole human civilization on the world. Fortunately this kind of eruptions is very rare from the human perspective. Other weaker eruptions happen more frequently. Human civilization experienced an eruption of VEI 7 in 1815, which was the biggest eruption during last 10 000 years and led to global cooling and famine. That was the biggest volcanic eruption in human history, eruption of volcano Tambora in 1815. Tambora during its eruption released a tremendous amount of magma and volcanic gases. It has been unsurpassed till now. It had severe consequences, many people were killed by the eruption but even more people died as a result of diseases or starvation related to eruption. In next 2 to 3 years after eruption, Northern Hemisphere was in an unstable condition. A huge amount of volcanic gases and ash released by this eruption was transported into stratosphere that led to global cooling. Just the cooling destroyed many fields and killed lots of people. So that year 1816 get a name as year without summer. In my work I collected information and data of weather during 1815 to 1817 around Northern Hemisphere to compare them and to find out whether the eruption changed the climate after 1815. Many sources recorded an unusual weather in North America, Asia and Europe. In these years, it was always cloudy and persistently rained. The Czech lands were also affected by this eruption. Many Czech sources recorded cold weather in 1815-1817 that related with widespread rise in price of agricultural products. It undoubtedly worsened the already grave situation. Such these eruptions are big threat to human civilization. We cannot avoid them, but we can reduce the consequences to a minimum by monitoring volcanoes and their activities. The aim of this work is describe the climatic changes accompanied with the big volcanic eruption of 1815 and its consequences. I am trying to restoring the details of volcanic eruption. My aim is to draw attention to the danger of volcanic activity and the importance of monitoring volcanoes

New goodness-of-fit tests based on fiducial empirical distribution function

In this paper we derive new tests for goodness of fit based on the fiducial empirical distribution function (EDF) after the probability integral transformation of the sample. Note that the fiducial EDF for a set of given sample observations is a randomized distribution function. By substituting the fiducial EDF for the classical EDF in the Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Cramér-von Mises statistics and so forth, randomized statistics are derived, of which the qth quantile and the expectation are chosen as test statistics. It emerges from Monte Carlo simulations that in most cases there exist some of the new tests having better power properties than the corresponding tests based on the classical EDF and Pyke's modified EDF.

Understanding the Role of Smart Specialization Strategies (S3) within a Regional Innovation System: Evidence from Digital Industries in the Yangtze River Delta, China

In response to Boschma’s concern that the implications of relatedness- and unrelatedness-based diversification strategies lack empirical evidence at disaggregated levels and in the context of the Global South, this study generates a unique dataset at the city level and explores how these smart specialization strategies (S3) may explain digital industry innovations within a specific regional innovation system, i.e., the Yangtze River Delta, China. The findings reveal that both relatedness density and knowledge complexity play a positive role in explaining digital industry innovations. However, the relationship between relatedness and knowledge complexity and its interactive effects on innovation performance are less straightforward. In our study, we found that efficient cooperation between relatedness and complexity can only be achieved if the level of government intervention is moderate. Therefore, the discussion of S3 focuses on more than the dichotomous argument between relatedness and unrelatedness. Many socio-economic factors also impact the effectiveness of these theoretical components within different innovation systems, which are largely overlooked by present studies

How to Promote the Application of Biogas Power Technology: A Perspective of Incentive Policy

To combat climate change, the Chinese government has implemented a package of policies to support the development of the biogas power generation industry. However, the promotion of biogas power generation technology in China is relatively slow. Therefore, it is of practical significance to study the promotion of biogas power generation technology against the background of policy support. In order to study the effect of policy on the promotion of biogas power generation technology, a system dynamics model is constructed in this paper. The results show that under the feed-in tariff subsidy policy, biogas power generation technology can be well promoted because it has good economic and environmental effects. In addition, if the biogas power generation technology is considered to participate in carbon emission trading, the carbon price also has a positive impact on the promotion of biogas power generation technology because it increases the perceived economic value of biogas power generation projects. Finally, this study can also provide reference value for the promotion of biogas power generation technology in other areas

How to Promote the Application of Biogas Power Technology: A Perspective of Incentive Policy

To combat climate change, the Chinese government has implemented a package of policies to support the development of the biogas power generation industry. However, the promotion of biogas power generation technology in China is relatively slow. Therefore, it is of practical significance to study the promotion of biogas power generation technology against the background of policy support. In order to study the effect of policy on the promotion of biogas power generation technology, a system dynamics model is constructed in this paper. The results show that under the feed-in tariff subsidy policy, biogas power generation technology can be well promoted because it has good economic and environmental effects. In addition, if the biogas power generation technology is considered to participate in carbon emission trading, the carbon price also has a positive impact on the promotion of biogas power generation technology because it increases the perceived economic value of biogas power generation projects. Finally, this study can also provide reference value for the promotion of biogas power generation technology in other areas