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 - 10 July 2020

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… 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 - 30 April 2020

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… 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 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 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 More >

RAVI KUMAR, VISHWA PRATAP SINGH, MADHUKAR PRAJAPATI, ASHWITH, PRIYANKA SINGH, SATYAJIT SAMANTA, SAIKAT BANERJEE^*

Journal of Polymer Materials, Vol.36, No.4, pp. 323-335, 2019, DOI:10.32381/JPM.2019.36.04.3

Abstract Types of nucleating agents and their dosage level play an important role on the crystallinity of the polymer which controls the final properties like optical clarity, stiffness and reduced cycle time during molding. In this study, the efficiency of two different types of commercially available nucleating agents, phosphate ester and dicarboxylic acid based, have been studied. Both the nucleating agents were compounded with molding grade polypropylene homopolymer having melt flow index (MFI) of 12 g/10min at 2.16 Kg and 230°C, in a co-rotating twin screw extruder at two different dosage level, i.e. 300 ppm and… More >

XIANRONG SHEN^1,*, DENGZHOU XIA¹, YIXIN XIANG¹, JIANGANG GAO¹

Journal of Polymer Materials, Vol.36, No.3, pp. 229-241, 2019, DOI:10.32381/JPM.2019.36.03.3

Abstract ARGET ATRP of methyl acrylate (MA) with low concentration of air stable-CuBr₂ catalyst was successfully carried out in green solvent polyethylene glycol (PEG) without any external reducing agent.The polymerizations of MA proceeded in a well-controlled manner as evidenced by kinetic studies, chain extension results, a linear increase of the molecular weights with the increasing of monomer conversion. and narrow molecular weight distribution (M_w/M_n =1.1). Interestingly, we found that the PEG has the reduction ability to CuBr₂ and could play as supplement reducing agent cooperation with Me₆ TREN to mediate ARGET ATRP. Reduction of Cu(II)Br₂ to Cu(I)Br by different More >

Hai Liu^*, Xuanxuan Wang^*, Aihua Huang^†, Huaping Gao^‡, Yikan Sun^§, Tingting Jiang^*, Liming Shi^*, Xianjie Wu^¶, Qinghua Dong^#, Xiaonan Sun^*

Oncology Research, Vol.27, No.1, pp. 29-38, 2019, DOI:10.3727/096504018X15179694020751

Abstract Artemis is a key protein of NHEJ (nonhomologous end joining), which is the major pathway for the repair of IR-induced DSBs in mammalian cells. However, the expression of Artemis in tumors and the influence of silencing Artemis on tumor sensitivity to radiation have not been investigated fully. In this study, we investigated how the expression levels of Artemis may affect the treatment outcome of radiotherapy and chemotherapy in colorectal cancer cells. First, we found that the expression of Artemis is strong in some human rectal cancer samples, being higher than in adjacent normal tissues using… More >

Yulong Jin^*, Li Xu^*, Xiaodong Wu^†, Juan Feng^*, Mimi Shu^*, Hongtao Gu^*, Guangxun Gao^*, Jinyi Zhang^‡, Baoxia Dong^*, Xiequn Chen^*

Oncology Research, Vol.27, No.6, pp. 729-737, 2019, DOI:10.3727/096504018X15443011011637

Abstract Multiple myeloma (MM) is a hematopoietic malignancy characterized by the clonal proliferation of antibodysecreting plasma cells. Bortezomib (BZM), the first FDA-approved proteasome inhibitor, has significant antimyeloma activity and prolongs the median survival of MM patients. However, MM remains incurable predominantly due to acquired drug resistance and disease relapse. -Catenin, a key effector protein in the canonical Wnt signaling pathway, has been implicated in regulating myeloma cell sensitivity to BZM. Decitabine (DAC) is an epigenetic modulating agent that induces tumor suppressor gene reexpression based on its gene-specific DNA hypomethylation. DAC has been implicated in modulating Wnt/… More >

Wei Zhang¹, Weifeng Shi², Bing Sun³

Intelligent Automation & Soft Computing, Vol.25, No.3, pp. 423-431, 2019, DOI:10.31209/2018.100000045

Abstract An intelligent optimization algorithm for a marine generator excitation controller is proposed to improve dynamic performance of shipboard power systems. This algorithm combines a belief–desire–intention agent with a quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization (QPSO) algorithm to optimize a marine generator excitation controller. The shipboard zonal power system is simulated under disturbance due to load change or severe fault. The results show that the proposed optimization algorithm can improve marine generator stability compared with conventional excitation controllers under various operating conditions. Moreover, the proposed intelligent algorithm is highly robust because its performance is insensitive to the accuracy More >