Emergent functionality among intelligent systems: Cooperation within and without minds

In this paper, the current AI view that emergent functionalities apply only to the study of subcognitive agents is questioned; a hypercognitive view of autonomous agents as proposed in some AI subareas is also rejected. As an alternative view, a unified theory of social interaction is proposed which allows for the consideration of both cognitive and extracognitive social relations. A notion of functional effect is proposed, and the application of a formal model of cooperation is illustrated. Functional cooperation shows the role of extracognitive phenomena in the interaction of intelligent agents, thus representing a typical example of emergent functionality.     

Integrating dynamic spectrum access and device‐to‐device via cloud radio access networks and cognitive radio

Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) can be integrated with Device‐to‐Device (D2D) communications to enable the exploitation of unused spectrum portions and to address the spectrum scarcity problem. Spectrum management mechanisms integrated into DSA and D2D allow low‐power communications between User Equipments without interfering with licensed primary users. However, these mechanisms tend to be energy and processing intensive, being unfeasible to implement in User Equipments with strict battery and processing limitations. On the other hand, Cloud Radio Access Networks already leverage the virtually unlimited computing capacity of clouds for baseband processing functions. Thus, in this article, we propose the Cognitive Radio Device‐to‐Device (CRD2D) approach aiming to offload spectrum management functionality to the cloud taking advantage of Cloud Radio Access Networks architecture to support the integration of DSA and D2D.     

Liquid Exfoliation of Icosahedral Quasicrystals

The realization of quasicrystals has attracted a considerable attention due to their unusual structures and properties. The concept of quasicrystals in the atomically thin materials is even more appealing due to the in‐plane covalent bonds and weak interlayer interactions. Here, it is demonstrated that 2D quasicrystals can be created/isolated from bulk phases because of long‐range interlayer ordered aperiodic arrangements. An ultrasonication‐assisted exfoliation of polygrained icosahedral Al–Pd–Mn quasicrystals at room temperature shows the formation of a large area of mono‐ and few layers in threefold quasicrystalline plane. The formation of these layers from random grain orientation consistently indicates that the threefold plane is most stable in comparison to the twofold and fivefold planes in icosahedral clusters. The above experimental observations are further supported with help of theoretical simulations. The mono‐ and few‐layered aperiodic planes render plentiful active sites for the catalysis of hydrogen evolution reaction. The threefold 2D quasicrystalline plane exhibits a hydrogen evolution reaction overpotential of ≈100 mV (160 times less than bulk counterpart) and long‐term durability. These systems constitute the first demonstration of quasicrystalline monolayer ordering in a free‐standing thin layer without requiring the support of periodic or aperiodic substrate.     

Enhanced thermal conductivity and mechanical properties of hybrid MoS2/h‐BN polyurethane nanocomposites

Nanocomposites based on molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂), hexagonal boron nitride (h‐BN) and hybrid MoS₂/h‐BN nanofillers with different wt % in elastomeric polyurethane (PU) were studied with respect to their microstructure, thermal and mechanical properties. Tensile tests showed increases up to 80% in Young`s modulus for both h‐BN and hybrid MoS₂/h‐BN composites. These results agree with dynamic mechanical analysis tests, which confirm an increase of up to 106% in storage modulus for hybrid MoS₂/h‐BN with 0.5 wt % content. When the hybrid MoS₂/h‐BN nanofillers were incorporated into the polymeric matrix, increases up to 102% in crosslink density were observed, indicating that strong interactions between the hybrid nanofillers and PU were established. However, the most important synergistic effect between the mixture of MoS₂ and h‐BN nanoadditives was the increase of up to 752% in thermal conductivity with respect to neat polymer. Therefore, hybrid composites based in two‐dimensional MoS₂/h‐BN nanofillers with multifunctional attributes can be applied in advanced polymeric materials that require high mechanical and thermal performance. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135, 46560.     

Vitamin D Signaling in Gastro-Rheumatology: From Immuno-Modulation to Potential Clinical Applications

In the last decades, the comprehension of the pathophysiology of bone metabolism and its interconnections with multiple homeostatic processes has been consistently expanded. The branch of osteoimmunology specifically investigating the link between bone and immune system has been developed. Among molecular mediators potentially relevant in this field, vitamin D has been recently pointed out, and abnormalities of the vitamin D axis have been described in both in vitro and in vivo models of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and arthritis. Furthermore, vitamin D deficiency has been reported in patients affected by IBD and chronic inflammatory arthritis, thus suggesting the intriguing possibility of impacting the disease activity by the administration vitamin D supplements. In the present review, the complex interwoven link between vitamin D signaling, gut barrier integrity, microbiota composition, and the immune system was examined. Potential clinical application exploiting vitamin D pathway in the context of IBD and arthritis is presented and critically discussed. A more detailed comprehension of the vitamin D effects and interactions at molecular level would allow one to achieve a novel therapeutic approach in gastro-rheumatologic inflammatory diseases through the design of specific trials and the optimization of treatment protocols.     

A 0.18 μm CMOS TIA Plus Limiting Amplifier with a 5.3 GHz Overall Bandwidth for Fiber Optic Communications

A shunt series feedback transimpedance amplifier (TIA), based on a current amplifier using a zero–pole cancellation, followed by a 6 stages limiting amplifier (LA), proves to be suitable as receiver front-end for a 8 Gb/s communications over fiber optic. The front-end is realized with a 0.18 μm CMOS technology, and shows the following performances: the TIA has a 50 dBΩ transimpedance gain and 5.5 GHz bandwidth, the LA has a 46 dB gain and 7.9 GHz bandwidth. The differential voltage swing at the output is 300 mV. The total power consumption is 112 mW.     

Stabilizing nonlinear Markov jump systems with orthogonality between control and nonlinear terms

This article presents conditions to assure the second‐moment stability for a class of nonlinear Markov jump systems. The main assumption requires that the control and nonlinear terms form orthogonal vectors, a novel condition in the context of Markov jump systems. The second‐moment stability is verified through linear matrix inequalities—the conditions account the case in which the Markovian mode is either accessible or inaccessible to the controller. A real‐time automotive application illustrates the potential benefits of our approach.     

A global robust iterative learning position control for current-fed permanent magnet step motors

The tracking control problem via state feedback for uncertain current-fed permanent magnet step motors with non-sinusoidal flux distribution and uncertain position-dependent load torque is addressed: a periodic reference signal (of known period) for the rotor position is required to be tracked. A robust iterative learning control algorithm is designed which, for any motor initial condition and without requiring any resetting procedure, guarantees, despite system uncertainties: exponential convergence of the rotor position tracking error to a residual ball (centered at the origin) whose radius can be made arbitrarily small by properly setting the learning gain; asymptotic convergence of the rotor position tracking error to zero. A sufficient condition for the asymptotic estimation of the uncertain reference input achieving, for compatible initial conditions, perfect tracking is derived. Robustness with respect to a finite memory implementation of the control algorithm based on the piecewise linear approximation theory is shown to be guaranteed; satisfactory performances of a discrete-time implementation of the control algorithm are obtained in realistic simulations for the full-order voltage-fed motor.     

Comparison of Response Surface Methodology and Artificial Neural Network for Modeling Xylose‐to‐Xylitol Bioconversion

Previous experimental data of xylose‐to‐xylitol bioconversion by Debaryomyces hansenii carried out according to a 3³ full factorial design were used to model this process by two different artificial neural network (ANN) training methods. Models obtained for four responses were compared with those of response surface methodology (RSM). ANN models were shown to be superior to RSM in the predictive capacity, whereas the latter showed better performance in the generalization capability step. RSM with optimization using a genetic algorithm was revealed as a whole to be the best modeling option, which suggests that the comparative performances of RSM and ANN may be a highly problem‐specific issue.