No abstract

Data aggregation is a widely adopted method to effectively reduce the data transmission volume and improve the lifetime of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In the data aggregation networks, some parameters directly determine the delay of aggregation. In industrial applications, the data generated by different sensors have different requirements for delay or other QoS performance. In the previous study, a common strategy is that all kinds of data is aggregated into one frame when the condition is satisfied with a QoS requirement, which causes excessive energy consumption and severely impairs the lifetime of network. A Differentiated Data Aggregation Routing (DDAR) scheme is proposed to reduce energy consumption and guarantee that the delay could be controlled within the corresponding QoS requirement constraint. The primary contributions of the DDAR scheme are the following: (a) The DDAR scheme makes data with different QoS requirement route to the sink along the different paths. The parameters of the aggregators in each path, such as aggregation deadline (Tt) and the aggregation threshold (Nt), are configured according to the QoS requirements. Accordingly, energy consumption can be reduced without degrading the performance of data transmission. (b) Based on DDAR scheme, an improved DDAR scheme is proposed to further improve performance through fully utilize the residual energy in the nodes which are far from the sink. The frequency of aggregation of these nodes increases by reducing the value of Tt and Nt so as to further improve the energy efficiency and reduce delay. Simulation results demonstrate that compared with the previous scheme, this scheme reduces the delay by 25.01%, improves the lifetime by 55.45%, and increases energy efficiency by 83.99%. The improved DDAR scheme improves the energy efficiency by 33.97% and service guarantee rate by 10.11%.

The quality of service (QoS) regarding delay, lifetime and reliability is the key to the application of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Data aggregation is a method to effectively reduce the data transmission volume and improve the lifetime of a network. In the previous study, a common strategy required that data wait in the queue. When the length of the queue is greater than or equal to the predetermined aggregation threshold (Nt) or the waiting time is equal to the aggregation timer (Tt), data are forwarded at the expense of an increase in the delay. The primary contributions of the proposed Adaptive Aggregation Routing (AAR) scheme are the following: (a) the senders select the forwarding node dynamically according to the length of the data queue, which effectively reduces the delay. In the AAR scheme, the senders send data to the nodes with a long data queue. The advantages are that first, the nodes with a long data queue need a small amount of data to perform aggregation; therefore, the transmitted data can be fully utilized to make these nodes aggregate. Second, this scheme balances the aggregating and data sending load; thus, the lifetime increases. (b) An improved AAR scheme is proposed to improve the QoS. The aggregation deadline (Tt) and the aggregation threshold (Nt) are dynamically changed in the network. In WSNs, nodes far from the sink have residual energy because these nodes transmit less data than the other nodes. In the improved AAR scheme, the nodes far from the sink have a small value of Tt and Nt to reduce delay, and the nodes near the sink are set to a large value of Tt and Nt to reduce energy consumption. Thus, the end to end delay is reduced, a longer lifetime is achieved, and the residual energy is fully used. Simulation results demonstrate that compared with the previous scheme, the performance of the AAR scheme is improved. This scheme reduces the delay by 14.91%, improves the lifetime by 30.91%, and increases energy efficiency by 76.40%.

The strain modulation on the magnetic and electronic transport properties of the ferromagnetic films is one of the hot topics due to the practical applications in flexible and wearable spintronic devices. However, the large strain-induced saturation magnetization and resistance change is not easy to achieve because most of the ferromagnetic films deposited on flexible substrates are polycrystalline or amorphous. Here, the flexible epitaxial γ′-Fe 4 N/mica films are fabricated by facing-target reactive sputtering. At a tensile strain with a radius of curvature (ROC) of 3 mm, the saturation magnetization (M s ) of the γ′-Fe 4 N/mica film is tailored significantly with a maximal variation of 210%. Meanwhile, the magnetic anisotropy was broadly tunable at different strains, where the out-of-plane M r /M s at a tensile strain of ROC = 2 mm is six times larger than that at the unbent state. Besides, the strain-tailored longitudinal resistance R xx and anomalous Hall resistivity ρ xy appear where the drop of R xx (ρ xy ) reaches 5% (22%) at a tensile strain of ROC = 3 mm. The shift of the nitrogen position in the γ′-Fe 4 N unit cell at different bending strains plays a key role in the strain-tailored magnetic and electronic transport properties. The flexible epitaxial γ′-Fe 4 N films have the potential applications in magneto-and electromechanical wearable spintronic devices.

This paper formulates the Tokamak Magneto-Hydrodynamics (TMHD), initially outlined by X. Li and L. E. Zakharov [Plasma Science and Technology 17(2), 97–104 (2015)] for proper simulations of macroscopic plasma dynamics. The simplest set of magneto-hydrodynamics equations, sufficient for disruption modeling and extendable to more refined physics, is explained in detail. First, the TMHD introduces to 3-D simulations the Reference Magnetic Coordinates (RMC), which are aligned with the magnetic field in the best possible way. The numerical implementation of RMC is adaptive grids. Being consistent with the high anisotropy of the tokamak plasma, RMC allow simulations at realistic, very high plasma electric conductivity. Second, the TMHD splits the equation of motion into an equilibrium equation and the plasma advancing equation. This resolves the 4 decade old problem of Courant limitations of the time step in existing, plasma inertia driven numerical codes. The splitting allows disruption simulations on a relatively slow time scale in comparison with the fast time of ideal MHD instabilities. A new, efficient numerical scheme is proposed for TMHD.

Nanoparticle-based drug delivery allows effective and sustained delivery of therapeutic agents to solid tumors and has completely changed how cancer is treated. As a new technology for medical applications, cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) shows a great potential in selective cancer treatment. The aim of this work is to develop a new dual cancer treatment approach by integrating CAP with novel paclitaxel (PTX)-loaded nanoparticles for targeting A549 cells. For this purpose, PTX-loaded core−shell magnetic nanoparticles were prepared through coaxial electrospraying, and various characteristics were investigated. Biodegradable poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) was selected as the polymer shell to encapsulate the anticancer therapeutics. Results demonstrated a uniform size distribution and high drug encapsulation efficiency of the electrosprayed nanoparticles, which had sustained release characteristics and a variety of excellent properties. An in vitro study showed that PTX-loaded nanoparticles and CAP synergistically inhibited the growth of A549 cells more effectively than when each was used individually. We also found that CAP could induce the PTX-loaded nanoparticles in tumor cells to increase the effective drug concentration to a level that might be conducive to reduce drug resistance. Therefore, the integration of PTX-encapsulated nanoparticles and CAP provides a promising tool for the development of a new non-small cell lung cancer treatment strategy.

Abstract. Duplication in the chromosome 8q24 region is a frequent occurrence in carcinomas. The PVT1 oncogene (PVT1), a long non-coding RNA, is found in this locus. PVT1 amplification is a frequent event in cancers, such as in lymphomas, serous ovarian, colorectal and breast cancers. Ectopic PVT1 expression is related with reduced survival duration in cancer patients. in the present study, we proved that PVT1 is markedly augmented in breast cancer tissues compared with adjacent non-tumorous tissues. Thus, PVT1 is an independent prognostic factor for the survival duration of breast cancer patients. Furthermore, PVT1 is pivotal in regulating p21 expression. in addition, we detected PVT1 DNA in serum and found that circulating PVT1 DNA significantly increased in the serum of breast cancer patients. Compared with PVT1 RNA, DNA is the main form of the PVT1-derived segment. These relevant findings collectively demonstrate that PVT1 plays a pivotal role in breast cancer and is a possible target for novel breast cancer therapies. The detection of circulating PVT1 DNA fragments may be a convenient means to predict the prognosis of breast cancer patients.

Dynamical manipulation of oxygen ion (O 2− ) at metal/oxide heterointerfaces is widely demonstrated to tailor numerous physical and chemical properties and facilitate creating novel functionalities significantly. The traditional works mainly focus on electric control of O 2− dynamical behavior and related interface characteristics. Here, an alternative strategy is reported to modulate O 2− transport and interfacial magnetism via a significant strain induced by shape memory effect, which is different from the conventional magnetoelastic coupling mechanism. By driving the martensite to austenite transition in TiNi(Nb) shape memory alloy substrates, a significant and tunable strain is exerted on Pt/Co/MgO heterostructure, which promotes interfacial O 2− migration in a nonvolatile manner. The O 2− migration induces an orbital reconstruction of Co to tune the orbital magnetism noticeably, which strengthens the interfacial magnetic anisotropy energy by two times to a striking value of 0.95 erg cm −2 . Besides, the overall magnetic anisotropy is broadly tunable from in-plane to perpendicular direction by an elaborate strain engineering with changing Co thickness. This work develops a nonelectrical oxygen manipulation for tailoring ion-controlled interfacial properties universally and also clarifies the magnetoionic coupling origin for enriching the oxygen-related orbital physics and functional device applications. and interfacial performance can advance the metal/oxide bilayer applications to functional devices. Of particular recent interest in the information storage and sensing fields are the ferromagnetic metal (FM)/metal-oxide (MO) bilayers with a strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA), such as CoFeB/MgO and Co/AlO x , which are the core elements of low energyconsumption spintronic devices, such as magnetic tunneling junction, magnetic random access memories, and racetrack memorizers. [19][20][21][22][23] The PMA of FM/MO bilayers mainly derives from the interfacial FM 3d-O 2p orbital hybridization that is sensitive to the interfacial oxygen environment. [1][2][3][4][5][6] Therefore, extensive works were carried out to tailor the interfacial magnetism by controlling O 2− transport especially using an electric field. [5,7,[24][25][26][27][28] The electric field can drive O 2migration to change oxidation state of FM layer, which can regulate the magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE), [7,[24][25][26][27] which paves a feasible way for markedly reducing the switching energy in solid-state spintronic devices. However, to apply an effective electric field, a thick MO layer of tens of nanometers is required to ensure its good insulativity, which may restrict the application on devices with thin MO layers. Moreover, besides the dynamical O 2− migration, the electric field also causes a static charge accumulation to affect the MAE of FM layer concurrently, [29][30][31][32][33] which makes the in-depth magnetoionic coupling origin still ambiguous. Thus, developing a Interfacial Magnetic Anisotropy