Xiaoli Li¹, Shuailing Zhou¹, Zixu An^2,*, Zhenlong Du¹

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.67, No.3, pp. 3765-3780, 2021, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2021.012422 - 01 March 2021

Abstract Rough set theory has been widely researched for time series prediction problems such as rainfall runoff. Accurate forecasting of rainfall runoff is a long standing but still mostly significant problem for water resource planning and management, reservoir and river regulation. Most research is focused on constructing the better model for improving prediction accuracy. In this paper, a rainfall runoff forecast model based on the variable-precision fuzzy neighborhood rough set (VPFNRS) is constructed to predict Watershed runoff value. Fuzzy neighborhood rough set define the fuzzy decision of a sample by using the concept of fuzzy neighborhood.… More >

Shumaila Azam¹, Nauman Ahmed^1,6, Ali Raza², Muhammad Sajid Iqbal¹, Muhammad Rafiq³, Ilyas Khan^4,*, Kottakkaran Sooppy Nisar⁵, Muhammad Ozair Ahmad¹, Zafar Iqbal^1,6

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.67, No.3, pp. 2933-2953, 2021, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2021.012396 - 01 March 2021

Abstract Recently, the world is facing the terror of the novel corona-virus, termed as COVID-19. Various health institutes and researchers are continuously striving to control this pandemic. In this article, the SEIAR (susceptible, exposed, infected, symptomatically infected, asymptomatically infected and recovered) infection model of COVID-19 with a constant rate of advection is studied for the disease propagation. A simple model of the disease is extended to an advection model by accommodating the advection process and some appropriate parameters in the system. The continuous model is transposed into a discrete numerical model by discretizing the domains, finitely.… More >

Yunpeng Chang¹, Xiaoliang Wang^1,*, Meihua Xue¹, Yuzhen Liu¹, Frank Jiang²

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.67, No.3, pp. 3921-3931, 2021, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2021.012304 - 01 March 2021

Abstract Translation software has become an important tool for communication between different languages. People’s requirements for translation are higher and higher, mainly reflected in people’s desire for barrier free cultural exchange. With a large corpus, the performance of statistical machine translation based on words and phrases is limited due to the small size of modeling units. Previous statistical methods rely primarily on the size of corpus and number of its statistical results to avoid ambiguity in translation, ignoring context. To support the ongoing improvement of translation methods built upon deep learning, we propose a translation algorithm… More >

Xiaojian Chen¹, Wenrui Yao¹, Feifei Gao¹, Dingyuan Zheng¹, Qiong Wang³, Jun Cao^2,*, Haiyan Tan¹, Yanhua Zhang^1,2,*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.9, No.5, pp. 979-992, 2021, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2021.014751 - 20 February 2021

Abstract The morphology and properties of corn starch and cassava starch were compared by SEM, DSC and TGA. The effects of amylose and amylopectin content on starch properties were studied by FT-IR, XRD and XPS. The plywood was pressed with the prepared adhesive and the bonding strength of the plywood was tested to analyze the difference among the adhesives from different plant sources and the difference after blending PAPI prepolymer. FT-IR results showed that the hydroxyl peak of cassava starch was stronger and wider. TGA showed that the residue of cassava starch was lower, but the More >

Mateusz Barczewski^1,*, Jacek Andrzejewski^1,*, Radomir Majchrowski², Kamil Dobrzycki¹, Krzysztof Formela³

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.9, No.5, pp. 841-853, 2021, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2021.014490 - 20 February 2021

Abstract Agricultural waste is a still untapped source of materials that can, in case of proper utilization, significantly improve the sustainability of polymers and their composites. In this work, polymer composites based on isotactic polypropylene were produced incorporating ground sunflower husk in the amount of 10 wt% and 20 wt%. The work’s main objective is to evaluate how preliminary fractioning of this agricultural waste filler affects the thermomechanical properties, microstructure and surface topology of polypropylene-based injection molded composites. The composites were analyzed for mechanical properties (tensile, impact strength and hardness), thermomechanical properties (Vicat softening point VST,… More >

You Shu^1,2, Qionglin Luo², Hongwei Lin^2,*, Yuejun Ouyang², Xiaomin Zhang^1,2, Liping Sheng¹, Shengpei Su^1,2,*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.9, No.5, pp. 909-921, 2021, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2021.014216 - 20 February 2021

Abstract Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) has been widely used in the fields of medical, food and packaging due to its excellent biocompatibility, good fiber-forming and film-forming properties. However, the high flammability of PVA has greatly limited its wider applications. The flame-retardant PVA was prepared by melt blending of a bio-based flame retardant (prepared from lignin, phosphoric acid and carbamide) with thermoplastic PVA (TPVA). The chemical structure, morphology, thermal properties, mechanical properties, fire property and fluidity of this flame retardant PVA were investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectrometer(FTIR), field emission scanning electron microscope(SEM), thermogravimetric analyzer(TGA), impact tester, universal… More >

Hui Zhan^1,2, Zhaohui Niu¹, Lixia Yu¹, Maobiao Li¹, Changming Wang¹, Shuguang Wang^1,*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.9, No.5, pp. 1031-1043, 2021, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2021.014109 - 20 February 2021

Abstract The durability of bamboo based on its chemical and mechanical properties is a crucial consideration for the wood-based industry due to its vulnerability to insects and microorganisms. We investigated the dynamic changes of chemical and mechanical properties of Phyllostachys edulis under air-dry and water storage conditions for 3, 6 and 12 months respectively. The chemical properties of P. edulis bamboo culms varied with culm age but insignificantly with culm height. The mechanical properties of P. edulis culms showed an increasing trend with culm age. Water storage condition decreased the ash, SiO₂ and lignin content, but increased the ethanol-benzene extracts. More >

Yan Song^1,2, Zhixin Wang³, Xin Zhang⁴, Rong Zhang¹, Jinchun Li^1,2,*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.9, No.5, pp. 943-957, 2021, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2021.014131 - 20 February 2021

Abstract Lignin is a natural biopolymer with a complex three-dimensional network, commercially obtained from waste liquid of paper pulp and bioethanol production, and could be a candidate for preparation of environment-friendly bio-based polyphenol material. In the present work, the demethylated wheat straw alkali lignin (D-Lig), prepared by demethylation of wheat straw alkali lignin (Lig) using an in-situ generated Lewis acid, was used to synthesize bio-based phenol formaldehyde resin adhesive (D-LPF) applied in plywood. Effects of synthetic process’s factors, including lignin substitution for phenol, NaOH concentration and molar ratio of formaldehyde to phenol, on the bonding strength and… More >

Yuhua Yang^1,2, Ke Xu¹, Bo Zhao¹, Nana Liu¹, Jun Zhou^3,4,*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.9, No.5, pp. 855-865, 2021, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2021.014525 - 20 February 2021

Abstract Traditional carbon layer enwrapping active materials cannot easily realize perfect cladding. Therefore, it still cannot prevent the pulverization of active materials during the course of charging/discharging. In this paper, we utilize natural bacteria to absorb nickel acetate, the active materials Ni₃P nanoparticles are well enwrapped, as a natural organisms surviving for billions of years, their cell walls have a perfect carbon structure, and the cell walls become carbon layer through high annealing temperature. Based on this, the yolk-shell Ni₃P–carbon @ reduced graphene oxides paper is prepared, through a proper annealing temperature, the Ni₃P particles disperse in the… More >

Zhi-Yu Yang, Yi-Ling Chou, Hao-Chun Yang, Chin-Wen Chen^*, Syang-Peng Rwei^*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.9, No.5, pp. 867-880, 2021, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2021.014476 - 20 February 2021

Abstract A series of thermoplastic polyester elastomer (TPEE) and thermoplastic poly(ester amide)s elastomer (TPEaE) copolymers were obtained by depolymerizing PET (polyethylene terephthalate) by which the waste PET can be efficiently recovered and recycled into value-added products from a practical and economical point of view. The structure of TPEE and TPEaE was identified using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) data showed that the melting temperature (T_m) decreased with the amide content increased. The glass transition temperature (T_g) was increased as introducing the amide group, and the formation of amide-ester More >