Editorial: Special issue on multiagent-based system modeling and control practices

Dealing with a large-scaled system as multi-agent system is not a new methodology in system control field. The root of multi-agent system is longer than half century, however, it is recently spotlighted again due to the needs of theoretical tools for dealing with large-scale system such as smart city, global behavior of traffic system, networked systems, and machine learning. Common characteristic of this kind of systems is that the whole system consists of a larger number of autonomous agents which are coupled and connected each other, and the individual agent is under local control but it accomplishes a task as the whole system. This collection of research papers is from the submissions to the special issue with title ``multiagent-based system modeling and control practices''. The aim of the special issue is to provide a stage for both of theorists and practitioners in this field to exchange challenging results in new issues, especially biological, bio-inspired systems, mean-field game, and connected network systems. The collection is divided as three groups: The survey paper by K. Hou et al. presented an overview on recent advances in control and communication of multi-robot swarms. A biomolecular control scheme is proposed in the paper by P. Rong and T. Nakakuki which demonstrated how the dynamic DNA nanotechnology can be used in system control field. The last brief paper of this group is from S. Azuma which discussed the network structure for Boolean network systems. The second group includes three case studies from the view of creating new theoretical tools. The paper by T. Wang et al. proposed an online iterative algorithm for solving multi-agent dynamic graphical games which showd the possibility of online solution of Bellman equation. Y. Du et al. presented in their paper a distributed scheme for ensemble learning under a diffusion strategy which aimed to the classification problem on big data. The paper by Z. Lu et al. addressed a mixed-triggered finite-time non-fragile filtering problem for interval type-2 T-S fuzzy network control systems. The last group of this collection includes three papers with practical background. The paper by J. Zhang and F. Xu investigated the problem of minimizing energy consumption for connected hybrid electric vehicles, and the paper from Q. Fu et al. presented a challenge of applying mean-field game theory to achieve speed consensus for the vehicle driving in a large-scale traffic flow. Targeted on the alternative transportation devices, high-speed train with connected real-time traffic information is addressed in the paper by D. He et al. with energy-efficient receding horizon trajectory planning method.     

Diffusion logistic regression algorithms over multiagent networks

In this paper, a distributed scheme is proposed for ensemble learning method of bagging, which aims to address the classification problems for large dataset by developing a group of cooperative logistic regression learners in a connected network. Moveover, each weak learner/agent can share the local weight vector with its immediate neighbors through diffusion strategy in a fully distributed manner. Our diffusion logistic regression algorithms can effectively avoid overfitting and obtain high classification accuracy compared to the non-cooperation mode. Furthermore, simulations with a real dataset are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods in comparison with the centralized one.     

PURIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ENDOPROTEASES FROM FRUIT BODY OF 'SHIMEJI'MUSHROOM, Lyophyllum aggregatum

Two proteolytic enzymes, L.a. protease I and II, were purified from the fruit body of 'shimeji'mushroom, Lyophyllum aggregatum, by ammonium sulfate precipitation, gel filtration, hydrophobic chromatography and ion-exchange chromatography. The enzymes were assayed using t-butyloxycarbonyl-Ala-Ala-Pro-Phe p-nitroanilide as a substrate. Each of the final enzyme preparations was homogeneous on polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The molecular weights of the enzymes were estimated as 44,000 and 46,000 by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The enzymes had the same optimal pH range of 7–8. Protease I preferentially hydrolyzed peptide bonds of the carboxyl-terminal sides of phenylalanine and leucine, and slowly hydrolyzed the peptide bonds of alanine, threonine and asparagine. On the other hand, protease II showed broader substrate specificity. Both enzymes were almost completely inactivated by diisopropyl phosphofluoridate, and partially inhibited by chymostatin. Protease I was also inhibited weakly by o-phenanthroline. These unusual proteases may have potential for specific food treatment applications.