Intent-based Deep Reinforcement Learning for Multi-agent Informative Path Planning

In multi-agent informative path planning (MAIPP), agents must collectively construct a global belief map of an underlying distribution of interest (e.g., gas concentration, light intensity, or pollution levels) over a given domain, based on measurements taken along their trajectory. They must frequently replan their path to balance the exploration of new areas with the exploitation of known high-interest areas, to maximize information gain within a predefined budget. Traditional approaches rely on reactive path planning conditioned on other agents' predicted future actions. However, as the belief is continuously updated, the predicted actions may not match the executed actions, introducing noise and reducing performance. We propose a decentralized, deep reinforcement learning (DRL) approach using an attention-based neural network, where agents optimize long-term individual and cooperative objectives by sharing their intent, represented as a distribution of medium-/long-term future positions obtained from their own policy. Intent sharing enables agents to learn to claim or avoid broader areas, while the use of attention mechanisms allows them to identify useful portions of imperfect predictions, maximizing cooperation even based on imperfect information. Our experiments compare the performance of our approach, its variants, and high-quality baselines across various MAIPP scenarios. We finally demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach under limited communication ranges, towards deployments under realistic communication constraints.Comment: \c{opyright} 20XX IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other work

Badania nad poprawą wyników małych i mikroprzedsiębiorstw poprzez stosowanie zielonych innowacji

It is an important goal of China’s 2025 Strategy to build an environmental governance system with the government as the leading role, enterprises as the main body, and social organizations and the public all participate actively. In this context, whether and how small and micro enterprises, as a force of rejuvenating the country through science and technology, participate in the construction of environmental governance system is discussed in this paper. This study uses the 12th China small and micro enterprise survey database to deeply analyze the direct and indirect effects between green innovation and small and micro enterprise performance, and finds that: in the direct effect analysis, the direct promotion effect of green innovation on the financial performance of small and micro enterprises is related to the development stage of small and micro enterprises, which is significant in the initial stage and mature stage, but not significant in the growth stage; in the indirect effect analysis, green innovation can indirectly improve the overall performance of small and micro enterprises by improving their environmental and social responsibility performance. At the same time, green innovation can amplify the role of other factors in promoting the overall performance. This study not only enriches the research scope of green innovation theory from the subdivision dimension, provides a new perspective for the integration of green innovation and social responsibility theory, it also provides theoretical reference and guidance for the green innovation practice of small and micro enterprises.Ważnym celem chińskiej Strategii 2025 jest zbudowanie systemu zarządzania środowiskowego, z rządem odgrywającym wiodącą rolę, przedsiębiorstwami jako głównym organem  i aktywnie uczestniczącymi organizacjami społecznymi i społeczeństwem. W niniejszym artykule omówiono, czy i w jaki sposób małe i mikroprzedsiębiorstwa, uczestniczą w budowie systemu zarządzania środowiskiem. W badaniu wykorzystano 12. bazę danych ankietowych małych i mikroprzedsiębiorstw w Chinach, aby dogłębnie przeanalizować bezpośrednie i pośrednie zależności między zielonymi innowacjami a wynikami małych i mikroprzedsiębiorstw. Stwierdzono, że: w analizie skutków bezpośrednich bezpośredni wpływ promocji zielonych innowacji na finanse wyniki małych i mikroprzedsiębiorstw jest związany z fazą rozwoju małych i mikroprzedsiębiorstw, jest ona istotna w fazie początkowej i dojrzałej, ale nieistotna w fazie wzrostu; w analizie skutków pośrednich zielone innowacje mogą pośrednio poprawić ogólne wyniki małych i mikroprzedsiębiorstw poprzez poprawę ich wyników w zakresie odpowiedzialności środowiskowej i społecznej. Jednocześnie ekologiczne innowacje mogą wzmocnić rolę innych czynników w promowaniu ogólnej wydajności. Niniejszy artykuł nie tylko wzbogaca zakres badawczy teorii zielonych innowacji z wymiaru podpodziałowego, zapewnia nową perspektywę integracji zielonych innowacji i teorii odpowiedzialności społecznej, ale także dostarcza teoretycznego odniesienia i wskazówek dla praktyki zielonych innowacji małych i mikroprzedsiębiorstw

Badanie wskaźnika zielonej konkurencyjności przemysłu wytwórczego w aglomeracji miejskiej delty rzeki Jangcy

From the perspective of the complex multi-factors that affect manufacturing green competitiveness, this study constructs a green competitiveness index measurement indicator system of manufacturing industry in Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration, which includes five dimensions: economic creativity, technological innovation, energy and environmental protection, industrial structure optimization, and social service capabilities. The manufacturing green competitiveness index in Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration in 2014-2018 is measured and analyzed by using the comprehensive evaluation model of gray correlation projection method based on the combined weights of FAHP and maximum deviation. The results show that manufacturing green competitiveness of Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration generally shows a relatively stable and continuous improvement trend, but the regional differences are large: regional cities and general node cities have significantly lower manufacturing green competitiveness than the leading cities and hub cities, and the pace of industrial structure transformation and upgrading in the whole region also needs to be accelerated. Based on these results, this paper puts forward some policy recommendations for comprehensive development of Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration manufacturing industry: focus on improving the effective guidance of the positive incentive effect of technological innovation on manufacturing green competitiveness level, and solving the problem of insufficient technological innovation achievement transformation benefits; replan regional space, strengthen the integration of all industrial resources, reducing homogeneous competition; strengthen the ecological co-construction of regional manufacturing and improve social service security level.Z perspektywy złożonych czynników, które wpływają na konkurencyjność ekologiczną produkcji, w niniejszym artykule opracowano system pomiaru wskaźnika konkurencyjności ekologicznej dla przemysłu wytwórczego w aglomeracji miejskiej w delcie rzeki Jangcy. Obejmuje on pięć wymiarów: kreatywność ekonomiczną, innowacje technologiczne, energię i ochronę środowiska, optymalizację struktury przemysłowej i zakres usług społecznych. Wskaźnik konkurencyjności ekologicznej produkcji w aglomeracji miejskiej delty rzeki Jangcy w latach 2014-2018 jest mierzony i analizowany za pomocą kompleksowego modelu oceny metodą projekcji szarej korelacji opartej na połączonych wagach FAHP i maksymalnym odchyleniu. Wyniki pokazują, że konkurencyjność produkcji ekologicznej w aglomeracji miejskiej delty rzeki Jangcy na ogół wykazuje względnie stabilną i ciągłą tendencję do poprawy, ale różnice regionalne są duże: miasta regionalne i główne miasta węzłowe mają znacznie niższą konkurencyjność ekologiczną w zakresie produkcji niż miasta wiodące i miasta centralne, a tempo transformacji i modernizacji struktury przemysłowej w całym regionie również wymaga przyspieszenia. W oparciu o te wyniki, w niniejszym artykule przedstawiono pewne zalecenia polityczne dotyczące wszechstronnego rozwoju przemysłu wytwórczego w aglomeracji miejskiej delty rzeki Jangcy: skupiono się na sformułowaniu skutecznych wskazówek dotyczących pozytywnego efektu zachęty ze strony innowacji technologicznych na poziom konkurencyjności produkcji ekologicznej oraz na rozwiązaniu problemu niewystarczającej korzyści z transformacji osiągnięć innowacji technologicznych; należy przebudować przestrzeń regionalną, wzmocnić integrację wszystkich zasobów przemysłowych, zmniejszając jednorodną konkurencję; wzmocnić ekologiczne współtworzenie regionalnej produkcji i poprawić poziom zabezpieczenia społecznego

Reduction of Hox Gene Expression by Histone H1 Depletion

The evolutionarily conserved homeotic (Hox) genes are organized in clusters and expressed collinearly to specify body patterning during embryonic development. Chromatin reorganization and decompaction are intimately connected with Hox gene activation. Linker histone H1 plays a key role in facilitating folding of higher order chromatin structure. Previous studies have shown that deletion of three somatic H1 subtypes together leads to embryonic lethality and that H1c/H1d/H1e triple knockout (TKO) embryonic stem cells (ESCs) display bulk chromatin decompaction. To investigate the potential role of H1 and higher order chromatin folding in the regulation of Hox gene expression, we systematically analyzed the expression of all 39 Hox genes in triple H1 null mouse embryos and ESCs by quantitative RT-PCR. Surprisingly, we find that H1 depletion causes significant reduction in the expression of a broad range of Hox genes in embryos and ESCs. To examine if any of the three H1 subtypes (H1c, H1d and H1e) is responsible for decreased expression of Hox gene in triple-H1 null ESCs, we derived and characterized H1c−/−, H1d−/−, and H1e−/− single-H1 null ESCs. We show that deletion of individual H1 subtypes results in down-regulation of specific Hox genes in ESCs. Finally we demonstrate that, in triple-H1- and single-H1- null ESCs, the levels of H3K4 trimethylation (H3K4me3) and H3K27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) were affected at specific Hox genes with decreased expression. Our data demonstrate that marked reduction in total H1 levels causes significant reduction in both expression and the level of active histone mark H3K4me3 at many Hox genes and that individual H1 subtypes may also contribute to the regulation of specific Hox gene expression. We suggest possible mechanisms for such an unexpected role of histone H1 in Hox gene regulation

A semi-analytical method for the dynamic analysis of cylindrical shells with arbitrary boundaries

The dynamic behavior of cylindrical shells with arbitrary boundaries is studied in this paper. Love's shell theory and Hamilton's principle are employed to derive the motion equations for cylindrical shells. A semi-analytical methodology, which incorporates Durbin's inverse Laplace transform, differential quadrature method and Fourier series expansion technique, is proposed to investigate this phenomenon. The use of the differential quadrature method provides a solution in terms of the axial direction whereas the use of Durbin's numerical inversion method generates a solution in the time domain. Comparison of calculated frequency parameters to that derived from the literature illustrates the effectiveness of the method. Specifically, convergence tests indicate that the present approach has a rapid convergence, the time-history response and the Navier's solution are in great agreement. Comparisons between time-history responses derived by two shell theories show that the results fit well with each other when the thickness-radius ratios are small enough. An analysis of the influences of boundaries on the time-history response of cylindrical shells indicates that the peak displacement is closely related to the degrees of freedom of boundaries. The influences of the length-radius ratios and the thickness-radius ratios on the peak displacement are further investigated

Direct Intracellular Delivery of Cell Impermeable Probes of Protein Glycosylation Using Nanostraws

Bioorthogonal chemistry is an effective tool for elucidating metabolic pathways and measuring cellular activity, yet its use is currently limited by the difficulty of getting probes past the cell membrane and into the cytoplasm, especially if more complex probes are desired. Here we present a simple and minimally perturbative technique to deliver functional probes of glycosylation into cells by using a nanostructured “nanostraw” delivery system. Nanostraws provide direct intracellular access to cells through fluid conduits that remain small enough to minimize cell perturbation. First, we demonstrate that our platform can deliver an unmodified azidosugar, N-azidoacetylmannosamine, into cells with similar effectiveness to a chemical modification strategy (peracetylation). We then show that the nanostraw platform enables direct delivery of an azidosugar modified with a charged uridine diphosphate group (UDP) that prevents intracellular penetration, thereby bypassing multiple enzymatic processing steps. By effectively removing the requirement for cell permeability from the probe, the nanostraws expand the toolbox of bioorthogonal probes that can be used to study biological processes on a single, easy-to-use platform

Sequential method for rapid early diagnosis of white spot syndrome virus in crayfish

We developed a practical method to rapidly detect and diagnose latent white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) in infected crayfish that were non-symptomatic for WSSV. This method included a simplified extraction of DNA template, optimized loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), and final visualization of the product by means of staining with SYBR green I. Using this method, WSSV was detected in crayfish that had been artificially infected in two ways: at 5 h after injection, and 24 h after feeding with tissue from WSSV-infected crayfish (at a stage when such infected crayfish were non-symptomatic), and a thousand times or more dilution can omit fluorescent background when SYBR green I was used. Results indicate that this was a rapid, convenient, and highly sensitive method for the early diagnosis and detection of WSSV. The whole detection procedure took less than one hour to complete.Key words: White spot syndrome virus, loop-mediated isothermal amplification, SYBR green I, Procambarus clarkii, early diagnosis

Intelligent Control Method of Hoisting Prefabricated Components Based on Internet-of-Things.

Prefabricated buildings are widely used because of their green environmental protection and high degree of industrialization. However, in construction process, there are some defects such as small wireless network coverage, high-energy consumption, inaccurate control, and backward blind hoisting methods in the hoisting process of prefabricated components (PC). Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology can be used to collect and transmit data to strengthen the management of construction sites. The purpose of this study was to establish an intelligent control method in the construction and hoisting process of PC by using IoT technology. Long Range Radio (LoRa) technology was used to conduct data terminal acquisition and wireless transmission in the construction site. The Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), Global Positioning System (GPS), and other multi-sensor fusion was used to collect information during the hoisting process of PC, and multi-sensor information was fused by fusion location algorithm for location control. Finally, the feasibility of this method was verified by a project as a case. The results showed that the IoT technology can strengthen the management ability of PC in the hoisting process, and improve the visualization level of the hoisting process of PC. Analysis of the existing outdated PC hoisting management methods, LoRa, IMU, GPS and other sensors were used for data acquisition and transmission, the PC hoisting multi-level management and intelligent control

Inhibition of DNA methyltransferases and histone deacetylases induces astrocytic differentiation of neural progenitors

AbstractUnderstanding how to specify rapid differentiation of human neural progenitor towards enriched non-transformed human astrocyte progenitors will provide a critical cell source to further our understanding of how astrocytes play a pivotal role in neural function and development. Human neural progenitors derived from pluripotent embryonic stem cells and propagated in adherent serum-free cultures provide a fate restricted renewable source for quick production of neural cells; however, such cells are highly refractive to astrocytogenesis and show a strong neurogenic bias, similar to neural progenitors from the early embryonic central nervous system (CNS). We found that several astrocytic genes are hypermethylated in such progenitors potentially preventing generation of astrocytes and leading to the proneuronal fate of these progenitors. However, epigenetic modification by Azacytidine (Aza-C) and Trichostatin A (TSA), with concomitant signaling from BMP2 and LIF in neural progenitor cultures shifts this bias, leading to expression of astrocytic markers as early as 5days of differentiation, with near complete suppression of neuronal differentiation. The resultant cells express major astrocytic markers, are amenable to co-culture with neurons, can be propagated as astrocyte progenitors and are cryopreservable. Although previous reports have generated astrocytes from pluripotent cells, the differentiation required extensive culture or selection based on cell surface antigens. The development of a label free and rapid differentiation process will expedite future derivation of astrocytes from various sources pluripotent cells including, but not limited to, human astrocytes associated with various neurological diseases