VIRTUAL-ME: A Library for Smart Autonomous Agents in Multiple Virtual Environments

Emulating human behaviour is a very desirable characteristic for virtual agents. There is plenty of literature that focuses on a single specific aspect of human behaviour emulation, but it is quite rare to find a collection of implementations encompassing several aspects of the problem. In this work we present VIRTUAL-ME (VIRTUal Agent Library for Multiple Environment), a library that provides programmers with a complete set of classes that assembles various human characteristics and makes it possible to build smart agents. The assessment of the library capabilities to populate a generic virtual environment is also discussed through the analysis of different case studies

Effects of culture conditions and nuclear transfer protocols on blastocyst formation and mRNA expression in pre-implantation porcine embryos

This study investigated the effects of culture conditions and somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) protocols on in vitro development of porcine SCNT embryos and on expression patterns of genes involved in stress (heat shock protein 70.2, HSP70.2), trophoblastic function (integrin beta1, ITGB1), metabolism (phosphoglycerate kinase 1, PGK1), apoptosis (BAX), and imprinted gene (insulin-like growth factor 2 receptor, IGF2R). In Experiment 1, supplementing modified North Carolina State University (mNCSU) medium with 10% FBS at Day 4 of culture increased SCNT blastocyst formation (22.9 vs. 10.7%, P < 0.05), number of inner cell mass cells (13.3 ± 4.3 vs. 7.6 ± 2.2, P < 0.05), and total cells (57.9 ± 19.5 vs. 36.3 ± 8.2, P < 0.05) in cloned blastocysts. In Experiment 2, using culture medium with 10% FBS, 1.0 mM calcium in fusion/activation medium (1.0C), and 7.5 μg/mL cytochalasin B treatment (0.1C&CB) yielded higher rates (P < 0.05) of blastocysts (33.6 and 33.3%, respectively) relative to the control (0.1 mM calcium fusion medium, 0.1C; 18.3%). Total cell numbers of blastocysts were increased (P < 0.05) in 1.0C (77.4 ± 28.9) compared to the control (58.5 ± 22.6). In vitro-derived blastocysts had higher expression levels of BAX and lower levels of HSP70.2, IGF2R compared to their in vivo-derived counterparts. Supplementing culture medium with 10% FBS increased relative abundances of BAX mRNA in SCNT blastocysts relative to in vivo-derived blastocysts. The transcript level of ITGB1 in blastocyst from 0.1C&CB was lower than in vivo blastocysts. In conclusion, different culture conditions or SCNT protocols affected in vitro development of SCNT embryos and altered several important genes (BAX, HSP70.2, IGTB1, and IGF2R) compared to conventional in vivo-derived blastocysts

Field-specific variable rate fertilizer application based on rice growth diagnosis and soil testing for high quality rice production

This study was carried out to verify the applicability of variable rate fertilization (VRF) based on soil testing and diagnosis of rice plant growth for high quality rice production of var. Chucheongbyeo at the farm level. The field trials were conducted at Icheon in Gyeonggi province on a 10 ha farm consisting of 45 experimental fields. For comparative study, 15 field trials were carried out adopting fertilizer management (FPM) practices currently used by farmers. FPM fields were managed by each rice grower using current cultivation methods, but in each VRF field fertilizer application was prescribed using soil test results and the amount of N fertilizer for top-dressing at panicle initiation stage was calculated using rice growth value at that stage. In VRF fields, the total amount of N fertilizer application was less (72 kg ha-1) than that in FPM fields (103 kg ha-1). However, the amount of K2O ertilizer application was more in VRF fields (60 kg ha-1) than that in FPM fields (52 kg ha-1). The amount of P2O5 fertilizer application was similar between the VRF and FPM fields. Plant height was significantly shorter and the number of tillers was significantly more at VRF fields than at the FPM fields. Coefficient of variation (CV) of each growth characteristic measured in VRF was lower than that of FPM fields at panicle initiation stage. There was no difference in culm and panicle length and panicle number between them at the grain filling stage, but CV of panicle numbers per m2 decreased in VRF compared with that of the FPM fields. Rice yield was not different between VRF and FPM fields despite higher brown rice recovery and 1,000-grain weight in VRF fields. Under VRF management, head rice yield increased due to an increase in head rice ratio accompanied by a reduction in brown rice protein content and variation of quality characteristics. These results suggest that VRF application based on soil tests and measurement of rice growth value at panicle initiation stage has the potential for quality control and production of high quality rice through increasing uniformity of growth and reducing the variability in quality among individual fields

Effect of Austenite Stability on Microstructural Evolution and Tensile Properties in Intercritically Annealed Medium-Mn Lightweight Steels

The microstructural evolution with varying intercritical-annealing temperatures of medium-Mn (alpha + gamma) duplex lightweight steels and its effects on tensile properties were investigated in relation to the stability of austenite. The size and volume fraction of austenite grains increased as the annealing temperature increased from 1123 K to 1173 K (850 A degrees C to 900 A degrees C), which corresponded with the thermodynamic calculation data. When the annealing temperature increased further to 1223 K (950 A degrees C), the size and volume fraction were reduced by the formation of athermal alpha&apos;-martensite during the cooling because the thermal stability of austenite deteriorated as a result of the decrease in C and Mn contents. In order to obtain the best combination of strength and ductility by a transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) mechanism, an appropriate mechanical stability of austenite was needed and could be achieved when fine austenite grains (size: 1.4 mu m, volume fraction: 0.26) were homogenously distributed in the ferrite matrix, as in the 1123 K (850 A degrees C)-annealed steel. This best combination was attributed to the requirement of sufficient deformation for TRIP and the formation of many deformation bands at ferrite grains in both austenite and ferrite bands. Since this medium-Mn lightweight steel has excellent tensile properties as well as reduced alloying costs and weight savings, it holds promise for new automotive applications. (C) The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society and ASM International 201611sciescopu