Weili Wu^*, Fengyu Chen

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.8, No.8, pp. 905-913, 2020, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2020.010558

Abstract Corn stalk cellulose (CS)/used rubber powder (RP) composites were prepared by mixing, the silane coupling agent 3-Mercaptopropyl trimethoxysilane (KH590), r-Aminopropyltrieth oxysilane (KH550), isopropyl dioleic (dioctylphosphate) titanate (HY101) and bis-(γ-triethoxysilylpropyl)- tetrasulfide (Si69) were used to modify the interface of composites. The effects of the CS and coupling agents on the mechanical properties, thermal properties, interfacial morphology and structure of the composites were investigated, respectively. The results showed that the addition of CS could effectively improve the mechanical properties of the composites. Compared with the untreated composites, the interfacial bonding between CS and RP was significantly improved by the coupling modifi- cation… More >

Plínio B. Mundim¹, Rondinele A. R. Ferreira¹, Leila A. C. Motta¹, Mariana A. Henrique², Daniel Pasquini^2,*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.8, No.8, pp. 891-903, 2020, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2020.010655

Abstract The objective of this work was to evaluate different superficial treatments of sisal fibres employing lignin, and their use as a reinforcement agent in cementitious composites. The treatments consisted of superficially impregnating sisal fibres (S) with organosolv lignin (LO), organosolv lignin and glutaraldehyde (LOG), Kraft lignin (LK) and Kraft lignin and glutaraldehyde (LKG). The fibre modifications were verified by FTIR-ATR and SEM analyzes, and the presence of lignin on the surface of the fibres was evidenced, confirming the effectiveness of the treatments. The mechanical, thermal (by TGA) and water absorption properties of the fibres before and after the modifications were… More >

Rohit S. Loomba¹, Saul Flores²

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.14, No.6, pp. 1176-1184, 2019, DOI:10.1111/chd.12837

Abstract Objective: The main goal of this study is to examine the variation in vasoactive agent prescription patterns across a large cohort of patients. In addition, we sought to determine the association between the number of vasoactive agents used during admissions and characteristics of admissions utilizing varying numbers of vasoactive agents.
Methods: This was a multi-institutional, cross-sectional study of the pediatric health information system database of patients who underwent congenital heart surgery and received vasoactive agents from 2004 to 2015. The international classification of disease-9 (ICD-9) codes were used to select admissions to those only pertaining to cardiac patients. The vasoactive… More >

Yifei Wei^{1, *}, Yinxiang Qu¹, Min Zhao¹, Lianping Zhang², F. Richard Yu³

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.63, No.3, pp. 1515-1532, 2020, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2020.09130

Abstract Device-to-Device (D2D) communication is a promising technology that can reduce the burden on cellular networks while increasing network capacity. In this paper, we focus on the channel resource allocation and power control to improve the system resource utilization and network throughput. Firstly, we treat each D2D pair as an independent agent. Each agent makes decisions based on the local channel states information observed by itself. The multi-agent Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithm is proposed for our multi-user system. We assume that the D2D pair do not possess any information on the availability and quality of the resource block to be selected,… More >

Yueqi Hou¹, Xiaolong Liang^{1, 2}, Lyulong He¹, Jiaqiang Zhang^{1, *}, Jie Zhu³, Baoxiang Ren³

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.62, No.3, pp. 1335-1349, 2020, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2020.06869

Abstract Consensus control of multi-agent systems has attracted compelling attentions from various scientific communities for its promising applications. This paper presents a discrete-time consensus protocol for a class of multi-agent systems with switching topologies and input constraints based on distributed predictive control scheme. The consensus protocol is not only distributed but also depends on the errors of states between agent and its neighbors. We focus mainly on dealing with the input constraints and a distributed model predictive control scheme is developed to achieve stable consensus under the condition that both velocity and acceleration constraints are included simultaneously. The acceleration constraint is… More >

Yali Wang¹, Youqian Feng¹, Zhonghai Yin¹, Cheng Zhou^{1, *}

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.62, No.2, pp. 877-891, 2020, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2020.06423

Abstract This paper researches some problems in complex formation for multi-agents, in which two matrices are proposed to record the formation. The pattern matrix is used to describe the pattern of the formation; meanwhile, the location matrix is used to record the location of each agent. Thus, all desired positions of each agent will be obtained by geometrical relationship on the basis of two matrices above. In addition a self-adaptation flocking algorithm is proposed to control all agents to form a desired formation and avoid obstacles. The main idea is as follows: agents will form a desired formation through the method… More >

Weijin Jiang^{1, 2, 3}, Yang Wang^1,*, Yirong Jiang^4,*, Yuhui Xu¹, Jiahui Chen¹, Lina Tan¹, Guo Liang⁵

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.62, No.1, pp. 123-136, 2020, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2020.05933

Abstract In mobile cloud computing, trust is a very important parameter in mobile cloud computing security because data storage and data processing are performed remotely in the cloud. Aiming at the security and trust management of mobile agent system in mobile cloud computing environment, the Human Trust Mechanism (HTM) is used to study the subjective trust formation, trust propagation and trust evolution law, and the subjective trust dynamic management algorithm (MASTM) is proposed. Based on the interaction experience between the mobile agent and the execution host and the third-party recommendation information to collect the basic trust data, the public trust host… More >

Michael R. Snowdon^1,2, Amar K. Mohanty^1,2, Manjusri Misra^1,2*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.5, Suppl.1, pp. 94-105, 2017, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2017.634134

Abstract This article assesses the performance of a biobased carbon as a nucleator using common techniques to stimulate poly(lactic acid) crystallization and enhance the thermal stability of PLA during injection molding. The combination of a biodegradable plasticizer, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), along with biobased carbon-rich pyrolyzed biomass char residue and an industrially available microcrystalline talc, were tested for nucleating agent capabilities at additions of 10 wt%. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) data demonstrated that the inclusion of the plasticizer could increase the PLA crystalline content with further improvements when nucleating agent was present. With a higher mold temperature, the PLA crystallinity surpassed 40%… More >

Jie Xu^1,3, Jiayao Yang¹, Peng Lin², Xiaohuan Liu^1,*, Jinjie Zhang¹, Shenyuan Fu^1,*, Yuxun Tang^2,*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.7, No.12, pp. 1333-1346, 2019, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2019.07905

Abstract It is essential to design economic and efficient tougheners to prepare high-performance epoxy resin; however, this has remained a huge challenge. Herein, an eco-friendly, low-cost, and facile-fabricated bio-based hyperbranched toughener, carboxylic acid-functionalized tannic acid (CATA), was successfully prepared and applicated to the preparation of solvent-free epoxy resins. The mechanical performance, morphology, structural characterization, and thermal characterization of toughened epoxy resin system were studied. The toughened epoxy resin system with only 1.0wt% CATA reached the highest impact strength, 111% higher than the neat epoxy resin system. Notably, the tensile strength and elongation at break of toughened epoxy resin systems increased moderately… More >

Robles-Hernández L, J Hernández-Huerta, AC González-Franco, OA Hernández-Rodríguez, A Núñez-Barrios, R Pérez-Leal

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.84, No.2, pp. 253-261, 2015, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2015.84.253

Abstract Chili pepper is one of the main crops of economic importance in Mexico, and Fusarium wilting is a disease that limits its production. In addition, the inappropriate use of agrochemicals in farming activities generate environmental and health problems. Therefore, in this study the effectiveness of Streptomyces sp PRIO41 was evaluated as a (1) biocontrol agent of Fusarium spp and (2) plant growth promoter bacteria. Assays of pathogenicity and virulence of Fusarium spp. in jalapeño pepper seeds, and interactions of these pathogens with Streptomyces PRIO41 were evaluated under two nutritional conditions. In the greenhouse, the effectiveness of Streptomyces sp. PRIO41 was… More >