Insights from the NeurIPS 2021 NetHack Challenge

In this report, we summarize the takeaways from the first NeurIPS 2021 NetHack Challenge. Participants were tasked with developing a program or agent that can win (i.e., ‘ascend’ in) the popular dungeon-crawler game of NetHack by interacting with the NetHack Learning Environment (NLE), a scalable, procedurally generated, and challenging Gym environment for reinforcement learning (RL). The challenge showcased community-driven progress in AI with many diverse approaches significantly beating the previously best results on NetHack. Furthermore, it served as a direct comparison between neural (e.g., deep RL) and symbolic AI, as well as hybrid systems, demonstrating that on NetHack symbolic bots currently outperform deep RL by a large margin. Lastly, no agent got close to winning the game, illustrating NetHack’s suitability as a long-term benchmark for AI research

New Solutions for Developing Cooperative Activity

Recently, the development of cooperatives has been slow in all countries. One of the reasons for the slow development of cooperatives – the traditional cooperative theory is inadequate with the ongoing changes in the global economy, which requires for a new scientific approach to the cooperative activity principles. The aim of the research – to analyze the activities of contemporary cooperatives, to offer new solutions for their development. In order to solve this goal, an experts (cooperative leaders and members) survey was conducted, scientific literature and legal documents were summarized. Considering to globalization process, proposals for the development of cooperatives were offered

Possibilities For Reduction of Food Loss and Waste: the Case Study of Lithuania‘S Producer Cooperatives

The aim of this study is to propose organisational system providing a possibility to various size sea buckthorn producer farms to work together by merging into cooperatives and producer groups in order to improve production and logistics management and reduce food loss and waste along the entire supply chain. A semi-structured interview method was applied with respect to Lithuania‘s cooperatives and producer groups from neighbouring countries. Inductive reasoning method has been applied for the data analysis. The Research revealed that establishment of producer groups is directly related to the development of cooperatives with a better production and logistics management with a consequently reduction of food loss and waste and an increase of farmer profitability. The scale measuring the dependent variable contained self-reported items and such self-reports may be biased estimates of true behaviour

SERVITIZATION OF LITHUANIAN AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES

To survive and be competitive in the changing economic environment, agricultural cooperatives are innovating and creating more sophisticated, added-value products and broadening the range of provided services. Lithuanian cooperatives, facing the same challenges, are less flexible and adaptable to changes due to short operational history and sparse membership. Therefore, the following scientific problem is addressed: do Lithuanian agricultural cooperatives still represent a shift to servitizing? The aim of this paper is to investigate the current state of servitization among Lithuanian agricultural cooperatives, and to frame directions for further research in this novel research field. The research relies on structured interviews conducted with Lithuanian agricultural cooperatives. The results of statistical data analysis indicate a slow shift of agricultural cooperatives towards servitization, particularly related to the provision of knowledge-based and adding-value services. Identification of general and personal causes of slow servitization among cooperatives is suggested for further researches.Siekdami išlikti ir būti konkurencingi besikeičiant pasaulinėms ekonominėms sąlygoms, žemės ūkio kooperatyvai kuria sudėtingesnę, didesnę pridėtinę vertę turinčią produkciją bei plečia teikiamų paslaugų asortimentą. Lietuvos kooperatyvai susiduria su tais pačiais iššūkiais, tačiau dėl trumpos veiklos patirties ir mažo narių skaičiaus yra riboto lankstumo ir sunkiau prisitaiko prie pokyčių. Todėl straipsnyje formuluojama mokslinė problema: ar Lietuvos žemės ūkio kooperatyvai pereina prie veiklos servitizacijos? Tyrimo tikslas – ištirti kooperatyvų servitizacijos situaciją ir pasiūlyti tolimesnių tyrimų, susijusių su šia žemės ūkiui nauja tema, kryptis. Tyrimas remiasi struktūruotais interviu, atliktais su Lietuvos žemės ūkio kooperatyvais. Statistinės duomenų analizės metu gauti rezultatai rodo labai lėtą kooperatyvų servitizaciją, ypač kalbant apie žiniomis grįstų ir pridėtinę vertę kuriančių paslaugų teikimą. Ateityje siūloma nustatyti bendrąsias ir asmenines lėtos kooperatyvų servitizacijos priežastis

Techninių paslaugų žemės ūkyje plėtra : rekomendacijos

Vytauto Didžiojo universitetasŽemės ūkio akademij

Modeling, monitoring and control strategies for high temperature short time pasteurization systems - 2. Lethality-based control

A lethality-based control system was designed to provide accurate control of a high temperature shout time (HTST) pasteurizer and to process milk products with a lethality equivalent of 161 degrees F (71.67 degrees C) or above for 15 s. This control system provides significant flexibility in operating the process and optimizing functional properties of the food components. Multivariable control of an HTST pasteurizer is implemented by using product total lethality to determine the controller set-points. The equation that relates the temperature and flow rate combinations to the product total lethality, 161 degrees F (71.67 degrees C), 15 s, was modified to permit overprocessing levels specified by plant personnel. By using this equation and the set-point value selected for the other variable, set-point values for the temperature or the flow rate controller were computed. The flow and temperature controllers are integrated into a real-time monitoring and control system. The monitoring and control system includes the multivariable controller, the lethality rate calculation module, statistical monitoring of the total lethality, product flow rate, hot wafer outlet temperature, and holding tube exit temperature measurements, and the display screens for visual inspection of the monitoring tools. This study attempted to achieve compliance of the HTST process operation with the recommended Pasteurized Milk Ordinance by providing a margin between the alarm limits of the monitoring chart and the safety limits.Endnote format citatio

Automated control and monitoring of thermal processing using high temperature, short time pasteurization

High temperature, short time pasteurization was used to evaluate a computer-based system for controlling the pasteurization process, acquiring data, and monitoring records. Software was used for the control of hot water temperature, flow rate through the centrifugal timing pump, and diversion of under-processed product. Three types of control strategies were conducted: single loop, cascade, and multivariable. The single loop control strategy showed the most rapid responses to temperature changes, but the temperature response curve was slowest to return to its set point. The cascade control strategy showed slower recoveries to temperature changes, but the temperature response curve was smoother. The multivariable control strategy responded slightly faster than the cascade control strategy, and the temperature response curve was slightly smoother than the cascade control strategy. The multivariable control strategy was able to control the flow diversion valve by the use of a lethality controller. The data acquisition system, used to monitor the data obtained from the high temperature, short-time pasteurization system, was within +/- 0.1 degrees C of the temperature recorded by the safety thermal limit recorder. Reliability was determined by examining the changes in the position of the flow diversion valve to identify process deviations and by comparing the changes to the event marker on circular charts. The data acquisition system was an effective alternative for monitoring the completeness of data.Endnote format citatio