실제세계에서 데이터 수집의 비용과 한계를 고려할 때, 시뮬레이션 생성 환경은 데이터 생성 과 다양한 시도에 있어 효율적인 대안이다. 이 연구에서는 Unity ML Agent를 로그라이크 장 르에 적합한 강화학습 모델로 구현하였다. 간단한 게임에Agent를 이식하고, 이 Agent가 적을 인식하고 대응하는 과정을 코드로 작성하였다. 초기 모델은 조준사격의 한계를 보였으나 RayPerceptionSensor-Component2D를 통해 Agent의 센서 정보를 직접 제공함으로써, Agent가 적을 감지하고 조준 사격을 하는 능력을 관찰할 수 있었다. 결과적으로, 개선된 모델 은 평균3.81배 향상된 성능을 보여주었으며, 이는 Unity ML Agent가 로그라이크 장르에서 강화학습을 통한 데이터 수집이 가능함을 입증한다.

Nanoparticles are commonly used to avoid the opaque white color of TiO2 based sunscreen. However, a dispersing agent is typically required because of the tendency of the nanoparticles (NPs) to agglomerate. Stearic acid is one kind of dispersing agent often used for sunscreen products. However, according to the MSDS data sheet on stearic acid, stearic acid is highly hazardous to aquatic life and causes irritation on human skin. To avoid this problem, in this study a safer organic dispersing agent extracted from Korean seaweed has been studied to disperse TiO2 nanoparticles, and further use as an active agent in sunscreen products. The presence of phytochemicals in seaweed extract, especially alginate, can disperse TiO2 nanoparticles and improve TiO2 dispersion properties. Results show that seaweed extract can improve the dispersion properties of TiO2 nanoparticles and sunscreen products. Reducing the agglomeration of TiO2 nanoparticles improves sunscreen properties, by making it less opaque white in color, and increasing UV protection value. It was also confirmed that adding seaweed extract into sunscreen products had no irritating effects on the human skin, making it more desirable for cosmetics application.

PURPOSES : Sprinkler facilities play a crucial role in extinguishing fires in the early stages of a building blaze. Data indicate that more than 96% of fires are suppressed by sprinklers before growing out of control. However, corrosion and pitting of the sprinkler piping can reduce system performance as facilities age. The purpose of this study is to develop an eco-friendly water-soluble corrosion inhibitor to improve the reliability and longevity of sprinkler piping. METHODS : This study compared and analyzed silicate-based sprinkler piping shrinkage agents as corrosion inhibitor against existing commercial options. Tests were conducted to evaluate reactivity with fire extinguishing water, including electrolyzed reduced water and normal water. The anticorrosive performance of the silicate-based corrosion inhibitor was evaluated under various conditions to establish suitability before potential development or commercialization. RESULTS : The new corrosion inhibitor demonstrated eco-friendly performance. In testing, none of the primary four hazardous substances that pose the most risk of harm to the human body (specifically, arsenic (As), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), and mercury (Hg)) were detected. The inhibitor effectively reduced corrosion of carbon steel (SPP), with weight loss rates averaging 0.12% and not exceeding 0.27%. For copper (CDA 110) weight loss rates were up to 0.03%. Testing under constant temperature and humidity conditions show that the inhibitor kept weight loss was below 0.002 g, with no significant numerical value for the weight loss rate. Overall, the results indicate the potential for an environmentally-safe corrosion inhibitor. CONCLUSIONS : The optimal silicate-based sprinkler system can provide real-time sensor information such as oxygen saturation, pH concentration, and total dissolved solids (TDS). These metrics are closely related to the aging process. By linking this system with an aging monitoring solution, maintenance costs and safety could be improved over the lifespan of the sprinkler system. The sensors and monitoring capabilities are expected to enhance maintenance efficiency and equipment reliability.

Liquid phase exfoliation of natural graphite is an industrially effective solution for graphene preparation. However, many countries have identified natural graphite as a strategic resource and restricted its mining. In this report, we used abundant and readily available needle coke (NC) as a graphene exfoliation precursor and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) as a dispersant to prepare a sandwich structured conductive graphitized NC nanosheets (GNCNs) by liquid phase exfoliation, freeze-drying and high-temperature graphitization, in which a graphene layer is sandwiched between two thin CMC layers. CMC could increase the liquid absorption and retention ability of the conductive agent and improve the migration rate of lithium ions. The highly ordered graphene layer could accelerate the transmission of electrons. The GNCNs with 0.4 wt% CMC addition showed good rate performance (144.6 mAh g− 1 at 5 C) and high cycle stability (96.2% after 200 cycles at 1 C) for LiFePO4 (LFP) battery. The traditional Super-P (SP) conductive agent exhibited low-rate performance (113.9 mAh g− 1 at 5 C) and cycle performance (89.9% after 200 cycles at 1 C). This study offers a novel approach to selecting graphene precursors and has promising applications for conductive additives in high-performance LFP batteries.

다중 에이전트 강화학습의 발전과 함께 게임 분야에서 강화학습을 레벨 디자인에 적용하려는 연구가 계속되 고 있다. 플랫폼의 형태가 레벨 디자인의 중요한 요소임에도 불구하고 지금까지의 연구들은 플레이어의 스킬 수준이나, 스킬 구성 등 플레이어의 매트릭에 초첨을 맞춰 강화학습을 활용하였다. 따라서 본 논문에서는 레 벨 디자인에 플랫폼의 형태가 사용될 수 있도록 시각 센서의 가시성과 구조물의 복잡성을 고려하여 플랫폼 이 플레이 경험에 미치는 영향을 연구한다. 이를 위해Unity ML-Agents Toolkit과MA-POCA 알고리즘, Self-play 방식을 기반으로2vs2 대전 슈팅 게임 환경을 개발하였으며 다양한 플랫폼의 형태를 구성하였다. 분석을 통해 플랫폼의 형태에 따른 가시성과 복잡성의 차이가 승률 밸런스에는 크게 영향을 미치지 않으나 전체 에피소 드 수, 무승부 비율, Elo의 증가폭에 유의미한 영향을 미치는 것을 확인했다.

Li1.5Al0.5Ti1.5(PO4)3 (LATP) is considered to be one of the promising solid-state electrolytes owing to its excellent chemical and thermal stability, wide potential range (~5.0 V), and high ionic conductivity (~10-4 S/cm). LATP powders are typically prepared via the sol-gel method by adding and mixing nitrate or alkoxide precursors with chelating agents. Here, the thermal properties, crystallinity, density, particle size, and distribution of LATP powders based on chelating agents (citric acid, acetylacetone, EDTA) are compared to find the optimal conditions for densely sintered LATP with high purity. In addition, the three types of LATP powders are utilized to prepare sintered solid electrolytes and observe the microstructure changes during the sintering process. The pyrolysis onset temperature and crystallization temperature of the powder samples are in the order AC-LATP > CA-LATP > ED-LATP, and the LATP powder utilizing citric acid exhibits the highest purity, as no secondary phase other than LiTi2PO4 phase is observed. LATP with citric acid and acetylacetone has a value close to the theoretical density (2.8 g/cm3) after sintering. In comparison, LATP with EDTA has a low sintered density (2.2 g/cm3) because of the generation of many pores after sintering.

Bacillus velezensis TJS119 was isolated from the freshwater, and antagonistic activity against of pathogenic fungi. Strain TJS119 showed a broad spectrum of antagonistic activities many fungal pathogens, including the green muscardine fungus Metarhizium anisopliae. The whole-genome sequence of B. velzensis TJS119 was analyzed using the illumina platform. The genome comprises a 3,809,913 bp chromosome with a G + C content of 46.43%, 3,834 total genes, 10 rRNA and 73 tRNA genes. The genome contained a total of 8 candidate gene clusters (difficidin, fengycin, bacillaene, macrolactin, bacillibactin, bacilysin, surfactin and butirosin) to synthesize secondary metabolite biosynthesis. Overall, our data will aid future studies of the biocontrol mechanisms of B. velezensis TJS119 and promote its application in insect disease control.

PURPOSES : The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of a titanium dioxide (TiO2) asphalt surface treatment agent for reducing NOx on the roadside at laboratory and full scales. METHODS : To verify the NOx reduction performance of TiO2 and silicon-based resin-applied surface treatment agents at the lab scale, a bed flow photo reactor test (ISO standard) and a mixed tank photo reactor test designed to apply real-scale construction materials were conducted. Subsequently, the full-scale NOx reduction performance was verified using a full-scale demonstration facility, and the field construction capability of the TiO2 asphalt surface treatment agent was verified through actual road site application. RESULTS : The bed flow photoreactor and mixed tank photoreactor methods showed the same trend in the NOx removal performance. Evaluation of the NOx removal performance of the TiO2 surface treatment agent revealed that the NO removal rate was approximately 13% at the laboratory scale and 15% at full scale. CONCLUSIONS : Through this study, it was determined that the asphalt surface treatment agent applied with TiO2 will have a sufficient NOx reduction effect in an actual road site. In the future, it will be necessary to analyze the continuity of the effect according to traffic volume through continuous monitoring in the field.

As environmental pollution and natural resource depletion are seriously threatening human beings’ well-being, consumers’ concern about environmental issues has substantially increased. Accordingly, increasing consumers consider themselves to be environmentalists and support environmental protection by consuming green products. In response, more and more firms follow the popular trend by conducting green marketing practices. As a result, green markets are demonstrating greater growth compared to conventional markets these days. On the other hand, advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are transforming the way of consumer-firm interactions in various industries including the green industry. More and more industries and firms adopt AI agents to replace or assist human employees. Deposit the pervasive and rapid nature of the transformation, however, we have limited knowledge of how the transformation of consumer-firm interaction influences green product marketing practices. Accordingly, the current research aims to investigate how the adoption of AI agents in green marketing strategies impacts consumers’ responses and further explore which mechanism underlying the process. To examine our hypotheses, we conducted a series of studies, and we collected the data through an online survey platform. Our findings demonstrated that consumers’ reaction was sufficiently different when they interact with AI agent compared to human agent in a green consumption context. Our findings contribute to enriching prior literature on green and AI by integrating each other and also provide practical implications for marketers in the related industries.

Reinforcement learning (RL) is widely applied to various engineering fields. Especially, RL has shown successful performance for control problems, such as vehicles, robotics, and active structural control system. However, little research on application of RL to optimal structural design has conducted to date. In this study, the possibility of application of RL to structural design of reinforced concrete (RC) beam was investigated. The example of RC beam structural design problem introduced in previous study was used for comparative study. Deep q-network (DQN) is a famous RL algorithm presenting good performance in the discrete action space and thus it was used in this study. The action of DQN agent is required to represent design variables of RC beam. However, the number of design variables of RC beam is too many to represent by the action of conventional DQN. To solve this problem, multi-agent DQN was used in this study. For more effective reinforcement learning process, DDQN (Double Q-Learning) that is an advanced version of a conventional DQN was employed. The multi-agent of DDQN was trained for optimal structural design of RC beam to satisfy American Concrete Institute (318) without any hand-labeled dataset. Five agents of DDQN provides actions for beam with, beam depth, main rebar size, number of main rebar, and shear stirrup size, respectively. Five agents of DDQN were trained for 10,000 episodes and the performance of the multi-agent of DDQN was evaluated with 100 test design cases. This study shows that the multi-agent DDQN algorithm can provide successfully structural design results of RC beam.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of a coating agent on pork storage. Pork was coated with a coating agent containing sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and mandarin peel powder (M). The treatments were divided into control, a 0.1% CMC treatment, and a 0.1% CMC +5% M treatment, and pH, color, 2-thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), volatile basic nitrogen (VBN), and the number of viable cell counts were measured. In the case of redness (a), it was found that the reduction over the storage period was less in the 0.1% CMC + 5% M treatment than in the control and the 1% CMC treatment. When stored at 4oC and 25oC, TBARS of pork tended to increase during the storage period, followed by control, 0.1% CMC treatment, and 0.1% CMC + 5% M treatment, indicating that lipid oxidation was most suppressed in pork coated with mandarin peel powder. As a result of measuring the VBN of pork stored at 4oC and 25oC, the 0.1% CMC + 5% M treatment showed lower values than the control and 0.1% CMC treatment. When the film-coated pork was stored at 4oC, the number of viable cell counts in the 0.1% CMC +5% M treatment area was 7.13±0.96 log CFU/g on the 12th day of storage, delaying the growth of viable cell counts for approximately 3 d more than other treatments. Therefore, coating pork with a film containing CMC and mandarin peel powder has been confirmed to delay the increase in the number of viable cell counts while reducing the quality change during pork storage, which is an effective alternative to improving the storage of fresh food as an edible film.

The inclusion of conductive carbon materials into lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is essential for constructing an electrical network of electrodes. Considering the demand for cells in electric vehicles (e.g., higher energy density and lower cell cost), the replacement of the currently used carbon black with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) seems inevitable. This review discusses how CNTs can contribute to the development of advanced LIBs for EVs. First, the reason for choosing CNTs as a conducting agent for the cathode is discussed in terms of energy density. Second, the reinforcing effect of CNTs on the anode is described with respect to the choice of silicon as the active material. Third, the development of water-based cathode fabrication as well as dry electrode fabrication with aid of CNTs is discussed. Fourth, three technical hurdles, that is, the price, dispersion issue, and entrapped metal impurities, for widespread use of CNTs in LIBs are discussed.

본 연구에서는 소나무재선충의 매개충인 솔수염하늘소와 북방수염하늘소에 대하여 무인항공기 (무인헬리콥터)를 이용하여 스피네토람의 약효 및 약해를 조사하였다. 하늘소를 대상으로 등록된 펜토에이트 유제, 비펜트린 액상수화제, 하늘소를 제외한 딱정벌레가 대상인 에토펜프록 스 유제, 디플루벤주론 수화제와 나방류에 방제 약제로 등록된 인독사카브 수화제, 스피네토람 액상수화제 6종을 ULV기로 살포하여 솔수염하 늘소에 대한 섭식독과 접촉독을 확인한 후 선발하였다. ULV 시험 결과, 펜토에이트, 비펜트린, 인독사카브, 스피네토람의 33배, 55배 희석배수 액은 처리후 3일차에 접촉독과 섭식독에서 100% 살충율을 보였으나, 에토펜프록스는 7일차 접촉독 살충율 88.9%(33배), 88.9%(50배), 섭식독 살충율 93.4%(33배, 50배), 디플루벤주론은 7일차 접촉독 살충율 83.3%(33배), 섭식독 80.3%, 53.9%(50배)로 조금 낮은 살충률을 보였다. ULV 시험에서 선발된 가장 적합한 스피네토람의 33배액을 무인항공기로 살포하여 솔수염하늘소와 북방수염하늘소에 대한 감수성을 평가한 결 과, 98.6% - 100%의 살충율을 보였다. 그러나, 해당 약제의 매개충 방제에 적용하기 전에 항공 살포에 의한 꿀벌에 대한 위해성 평가가 필요할 것 으로 판단되었다.

The mass-rearing system for Neodryinus typhlocybae as a biological control agent of Metcalfa pruinosa was established. Depending on the density of host nymphs and plants, the average number of cocoons produced by the parasitoids was 5-8 and 70-150 cocoons per leaf and sapling of mulberry, respectively. There is a significant difference in cocoon length between females (6.10-6.46 mm) and males (4.20-4.62 mm). Sex determination of cocoons before emergence will be helpful for efficiently releasing this parasitoid in fields. The parasitic rate of N. typhlocybae at the semi-field condition was on average 13-17%. The release number of this parasitoid did not affect parasitism. Nevertheless, the population growth rate of M. pruinosa was reduced by increasing the release number of N. typhlocybae. The parasitoid offspring’s sex and bivoltine were influenced by the host age. On young host nymphs, the bivoltine portion of parasitoid increased. When parasitized on 4th or 5th nymphs, the offspring’s female ratio of N. typhlocybae increased. This result may be useful for potentially controlling mass rearing production of parasitoid.

This study collected powder extinguishers with 6-10 years of elapsed life from January 2012 to January 2017 in market, factory, and apartment areas to experiment with changes in fineness and to examine the characteristics of extinguishing power. First, in the case of ABC powder, 98.3 wt% of the 8-year market area and 98.6 wt% of the 10-year apartment complex were found to be inappropriate in the first, second, and third arithmetic average analysis of the powder extinguisher from 6 to 10 years. That is, the fine distribution and size of the powder extinguishing agent particles should be managed within an appropriate range. It is analyzed that the powder fire extinguisher may experience a change in the fineness of the powder depending on the external environment exposure, placement, management status, and age of use, resulting in a decrease in digestive power or inability to radiate. Second, the fire extinguisher cannot be used in the initial fire suppression depending on the place of deployment, the environment of deployment, the progress of the number of years of use, and maintenance, so it is necessary to strengthen the device that enables fire extinguisher maintenance and inspection. Third, in the manufacturing process, the charging method should also be reviewed in consideration of the conditions of the workplace, the humid season, and the rainy environment.

The present trial verified the effects of spraying microbial agents on odor reduction in commercial pig farms of different operating sizes and barn types. Farms without microbial agent spraying and those sprayed with microbial agents at two different intervals were compared. The treatments included spraying of water alone every day or a mixture of water plus microbial agent at 24 and 72 h intervals. The experimental farms were divided according to size into 1,000-, 3,000-, and 5,000-head farms and according to barn type into gestation, farrowing, nursery, and grower-finisher farms. To compare odor concentration within each housing barn, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide gas levels were measured. The average concentrations of ammonia (p<0.01) and hydrogen sulfide (p<0.05) gas were the lowest in all types of farms sprayed with the microbial agent at a 24 h interval. In farms sprayed with the microbial agent at a 24 h interval, the decrease in ammonia concentration according to barn type was in the following order: farrowing (p<0.01) (11.0 to 1.8 ppm), nursery (p<0.05) (17.0 to 9.2 ppm), grower-finisher (15.3 to 8.8 ppm), and gestation (9.7 to 6.4 ppm) farms. Moreover, spraying the microbial agent at a 24 h interval significantly (p<0.01) decreased ammonia concentration from 19.9 to 10.4 ppm, from 11.1 to 4.1 ppm, and from 8.8 to 5.1 ppm in 5,000-, 3,000-, and 1,000-head farms, respectively. Overall, spraying microbial agents every day may be the most effective method to reduce odor in commercial pig farms.