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Technological advances for low power consumption and flexible electronics have spurred research on energy harvesting. In this paper, an innovative methodology is proposed to power an ultra-low power wireless sensor node (milliwatt level) autonomously by using a piezoceramic patch which is bonded to a low-frequency vibrating beam. An LTC3588 based energy harvesting module was developed to transfer and collect the energy efficiently. Through a switching interface between the energy harvesting module and the wireless sensor, a 0.33F supercapacitor was charged for 12 h by the harvested vibrational energy to allow the wireless sensor node to join the network and transmit data packets. It was experimentally demonstrated that this applied switching interface could effectively provide on-off control to the power of the wireless sensor node. In order to allow this function, the supercapacitor worked alternatively in the charging mode and the discharging mode. When the supercapacitor stored enough harvested energy, the wireless sensor node initiated the effort to join the wireless network automatically and then sent data packets to the network manager which was connected to a monitoring computer. In addition, wireless sensors which were powered by the energy harvesting system could also send or receive data packets in the network. The developed piezoceramic based energy harvesting method has the potential to be used in structural health monitoring systems by harvesting the ambient mechanical energy.

An optical low-coherence interferometry technique has been used to simultaneously resolve the mode profile and to measure the intermodal dispersion of guided modes of a few-mode fiber. Measurements are performed using short samples of fiber (about 50 cm). There is no need for a complex mode-conversion technique to reach a high interference visibility. Four LP mode groups of the few-mode fiber are resolved. Experimental results and numerical simulations show that the ellipticity of the fiber core leads to a distinct splitting of the degenerate high-order modes in group index. For the first time, to the best of our knowledge, it has been demonstrated that degenerate LP11 modes are much more sensitive to core shape variations than the fundamental modes and that intermodal dispersion of high-

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of cantharidins, a traditional Chinese medicine, in chemotherapy for the treatment of hepatoma. From August 2011 to December 2012, 96 patients with hepatoma, who were eligible for transcatheter hepatic arterial chemoembolization and received cantharidins, were selected for comparison with the control group of 95 patients without cantharidins. The treatment effect, clinical symptoms and adverse effects were analyzed. The results of the study showed that the cantharidins group had a higher overall efficient rate than the control group (p < 0.001). The improvement rate of the Karnofsky score in the cantharidins group was significantly higher than that of the control group (p = 0.014). In the cantharidins group, there was a decrease in white blood cell (WBC) count and gastrointestinal response rates were lower than those of the control group (p < 0.05). Therefore, the traditional Chinese medicine cantharidins showed effects of easing the progress of liver cancer, relieving side effects of chemotherapy and improving the quality of life in the treatment of hepatoma.

Different from terrestrial wireless networks that use radio channel, underwater networks utilize acoustic channel, which poses great research challenges in medium access control (MAC) protocol design due to its low available bandwidth and high propagation delay characteristics. In addition, the high bit-error, high transmission energy cost, and complex multi-path effects in underwater environment make it even harder. In this paper, a suitable MAC protocol, named C-MAC (cellular MAC) for underwater acoustic sensor networks (UWANs) is proposed. C-MAC is a TDMAbased MAC protocol, which divides networks into many cells. Each cell is distributeda time slot; nodes in a cell, can only transmit packets in the cell's time slot. Experiments show the protocol can avoid collision, minimize the energy consumption, and increase the throughput efficiency.

In this paper, a novel TiO(2) nanoparticle thin film coated optical fiber Fabry-Perot (F-P) sensor had been developed for refractive index (RI) sensing by monitoring the shifts of the fringe contrast in the reflectance spectra. Using in situ liquid phase deposition approach, the TiO(2) nanoparticle thin film could be formed on the fiber surface in a controlled fashion. The optical properties of as-prepared F-P sensors were investigated both theoretically and experimentally. The results indicated that the RI sensitivity of F-P sensors could be effectively improved after the deposition of nanoparticle thin-films. It was about 69.38 dB/RIU, which was 2.6 times higher than that of uncoated one. The linear RI measurement range was also extended from 1.333~1.457 to 1.333~1.8423. More importantly, its optical properties exhibited the unique temperature-independent performance. Therefore, owing to these special optical properties, the TiO(2) nanoparticle thin film coated F-P sensors have great potentials in medical diagnostics, food quality testing, environmental monitoring, biohazard detection and homeland security, even at elevated temperature.

Glyphosate, the active ingredient of the most widely used commercial herbicide formulation, is extensively used and produced in China. Previous studies have reported sublethal effects of glyphosate on honeybees. However, the effects of commercially formulated glyphosate (CFG) at the recommended concentration (RC) on the chronic toxicity of honeybees, especially on their behaviours, remain unknown. In this study, a series of behavioural experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of CFG on honeybees. The results showed that there was a significant decline in water responsiveness at 1/2 × , 1 × and 2 × the RC after 3 h of exposure to CFG for 11 days. The CFG significantly reduced sucrose responsiveness at 1/2 × and 1 × the RC. In addition, CFG significantly affected olfactory learning ability at 1/2 × , 1 × , and 2 × the RC and negatively affected memory ability at 1/2 × and 1 × the RC. The climbing ability of honeybees also significantly decreased at 1/2 × , 1 × and 2 × the RC. Our findings indicated that, after they were chronically exposed to CFG at the RC, honeybees exhibited behavioural changes. These results provide a theoretical basis for regulating field applications of CFG, which is necessary for establishing an early warning and notification system and for protecting honeybees.

In this paper, a new bilevel model with multiple decision-makers is proposed for a project scheduling problem (PSP) which considers the interests of both the project owner and contractor. In this model, the project owner is considered to be the leader and the contractor, the follower. The project owner has two objectives: 1) to maximize profit and 2) minimize makespan, while the contractor's objective is to minimize cost only. A fuzzy random simulation-based bilevel global-local-neighbor particle swarm optimization technique is proposed to solve the multiple decision-maker PSP (MDPSP). A case study based on the Wanjiakouzi Hydropower Station is used to demonstrate an application of the developed model and illustrate the scope of the MDPSP.Index Terms-Bilevel programming (BP), fuzzy random variables, multiple decision-makers, particle swarm optimization (PSO), project scheduling. NOMENCLATURE Notations for the Mathematical ModelTo facilitate the mathematical description, the following notations are introduced.