Search

Profiting from the sustained clinical improvement and prolonged patient survival, immune checkpoint blockade of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)/programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) axis has emerged as a revolutionary cancer therapy approach. However, the anti-PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies only achieve a clinical response rate of approximately 20%. Herein, we identified a novel combination strategy that Chinese medicine ginseng-derived ginsenoside Rh2 (Rh2) markedly improved the anti-cancer efficacy of anti-PD-L1 antibody in mice bearing MC38 tumor. Rh2 combined with anti-PD-L1 antibody (combo treatment) further triggered the infiltration, proliferation and activation of CD8+ T cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME). Depletion of CD8+ T cells by mouse CD8 blocking antibody abolished the anti-cancer effect of combo treatment totally. Mechanistically, combo treatment further increased the expression of CXCL10 through activating TBK1-IRF3 signaling pathway, explaining the increased infiltration of T cells. Employing anti- CXC chemokine receptor 3 (CXCR3) blocking antibody prevented the T cells infiltration and abolished the anti-cancer effect of combo treatment. Meanwhile, combo treatment increased the percentage of M1-like macrophages and raised the ratio of M1/M2 macrophages in TME. By comparing the anti-cancer effect of combo treatment among MC38, CT26 and 4T1 tumors, resident T cells were considered as a prerequisite for the effectiveness of combo treatment. These findings demonstrated that Rh2 potentiated the anti-cancer effect of PD-L1 blockade via promoting the T cells infiltration and activation, which shed a new light on the combination strategy to enhance anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy by using natural product Rh2.

Mobile edge computing has been an important computing paradigm for providing delay-sensitive and computation-intensive services to mobile users. In this paper, we study the problem of the joint optimization of task assignment and energy management in a mobile-server-assisted edge computing network, where mobile servers can provide assisted task offloading services on behalf of the fixed servers at the network edge. The design objective is to minimize the system delay. As far as we know, our paper presents the first work that improves the quality of service of the whole system from a long-term aspect by prolonging the operational time of assisted mobile servers. We formulate the system delay minimization problem as a mixed-integer programming (MIP) problem. Due to the NP-hardness of this problem, we propose a dynamic energy criticality avoidance-based delay minimization ant colony algorithm (EACO), which strives for a balance between delay minimization for offloaded tasks and operational time maximization for mobile servers. We present a detailed algorithm design and deduce its computational complexity. We conduct extensive simulations, and the results demonstrate the high performance of the proposed algorithm compared to the benchmark algorithms.

Paclitaxel (PTX) has been used for cancer treatment for decades and has become one of the most successful chemotherapeutics in the clinic and financially. However, serious problems with its use still exist, owing to its poor solubility and non-selective toxicity. With respect to these issues, recent advances have addressed the water solubility and tumor specificity related to PTX application. Many measures have been proposed to remedy these limitations by enhancing tumor recognition via ligand-receptor-mediated targeting as well as other associated strategies. In this review, we investigated various kinds of ligands that have emerged as PTX tumor-targeting tools. In particular, this article highlights small molecule-, protein-, and aptamer-functionalized conjugates and nanoparticles (NPs), providing a promising approach for PTX-based individualized treatment prospects.

Maximizing the utility under energy constraint is critical in an Internet of Things (IoT) sensing service, in which each sensor harvests energy from the ambient environment and uses it for sensing and transmitting the measurements to an application server. Such a sensor is required to maximize its utility under the harvested energy constraint, i.e., perform sensing and transmission at the highest rate allowed by the harvested energy constraint. Most existing works assumed a sophisticated model for harvested energy, but neglected the fact that the harvested energy is random in reality. Considering the randomness of the harvested energy, we focus on the transmission scheduling issue and present a robust transmission scheduling optimization approach that is able to provide robustness against randomness. We firstly formulate the transmission scheduling optimization problem subject to energy constraints with random harvested energy. We then introduce a flexible model to profile the harvested energy so that the constraints with random harvested energy are transformed into linear constraints. Finally, the transmission scheduling optimization problem can be solved traditionally. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach is capable of providing a good trade-off between service flexibility and robustness.

Backpressure based scheduling has revealed remarkable performance in wireless multihop networks as reported in a lot of previous work. However, its lack of consideration on energy use efficiency is still an obstacle for backpressure based algorithms to be deployed in resource-constrained wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In this paper, we focus on studying the design of energy efficient backpressure based algorithm. For this purpose, we propose a gradient-assisted energy-efficient backpressure scheduling algorithm (GRAPE) for WSNs. GRAPE introduces a new link-weight calculation method, based on which gradient information and nodal residual energy are taken into account when making decisions on backpressure based transmission scheduling. According to the decisions made by this new method, packets are encouraged to be forwarded to nodes with more residual energy. We theoretically prove the throughput-optimality of GRAPE. Simulation results demonstrate that GRAPE can achieve significant performance improvements in terms of energy use efficiency, network throughput, and packet delivery ratio as compared with existing work.

In this paper, we study the problem of network utility maximization in a CSMA based multi-hop wireless network. Existing work in this aspect typically adopted continuous time Markov model for performance modelling, which fails to consider the channel conflict impact in actual CSMA networks. To maximize the utility of a CSMA based wireless network with channel conflict, in this paper, we first model its weighted network capacity (i.e., network capacity weighted by link queue length) and then propose a distributed link scheduling algorithm, called CSMA based Maximal-Weight Scheduling (C-MWS), to maximize the weighted network capacity. We derive the upper and lower bounds of network utility based on C-MWS. The derived bounds can help us to tune the C-MWS parameters for C-MWS to work in a distributed wireless network. Simulation results show that the joint optimization based on C-MWS can achieve near-optimal network utility when appropriate algorithm parameters are chosen and also show that the derived utility upper bound is very tight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing efficient routing protocols for a wireless sensor network with mobile sinks (mWSN) is a challenging task since the network topology and data paths change frequently as sink nodes move. In this paper, we design a novel lightweight reactive ring based routing protocol called R3, which removes the need of proactively maintaining data paths to mobile sinks as they move in the network. To achieve high packet delivery ratio and low transmission cost, R3 combines ring based forwarding and trail based forwarding together. To support efficient ring based forwarding, we build a ring based structure for a network in a way such that each node in the network can easily obtain its ring ID and virtual angle information. For this purpose, we artificially create a virtual hole in the central area of the network and accordingly find a shortest cycled path enclosing the hole, which serves as base ring and is used for generating the remaining ring based structure. We accordingly present the detailed design description for R3, which only requires each node to keep very limited routing information. We derive the communication overhead by ring based forwarding. Extensive simulation results show that R3 can achieve high routing performance as compared with existing work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, deploying WiFi access points (APs) for facilitating indoor localization has attracted increasing attention. However, most existing mechanisms in this aspect are typically simulation based and further they did not consider how to jointly utilize pre-existing APs in target environment and newly deployed APs for achieving high localization performance. In this paper, we propose a measurement-based AP deployment mechanism (MAPD) for placing APs in target indoor environment for assisting fingerprint based indoor localization. In the mechanism design, MAPD takes full consideration of pre-existing APs to assist the selection of good candidate positions for deploying new APs. For this purpose, we first choose a number of candidate positions with low location accuracy on a radio map calibrated using the pre-existing APs and then use over-deployment and on-site measurement to determine the actual positions for AP deployment. MAPD uses minimal mean location error and progressive greedy search for actual AP position selection. Experimental results demonstrate that MAPD can largely reduce the localization error as compared with existing work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Backpressure based scheduling has been considered as a promising technique for improving the throughput of a wide range of communication networks. However, this scheduling technique has not been well studied for heterogeneous wireless networks. In this paper, we propose a virtual-queue based backpressure scheduling (VQB) algorithm for heterogeneous multi-hop wireless networks. The VQB algorithm introduces a simple virtual queue for each flow at a node for backpressure scheduling, whose length depends on the cache size of the node. When calculating flow weights and making scheduling decisions, the length of a virtual queue is used instead of the length of a real queue. We theoretically prove that VQB is throughput-optimal. Simulation results show that the VQB algorithm significantly outperforms a classical backpressure scheduling algorithm in heterogeneous multi-hop wireless networks in terms of the packet delivery ratio, packet delivery time, and average sum of the queue lengths of all nodes per timeslot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), a mobile sink can help eliminate the hotspot effect in the vicinity of the sink, which can balance the traffic load in the network and thus improve the network performance. Location-based routing is an effective routing paradigm for supporting sink mobility in WSNs with mobile sinks (mWSNs). To support efficient location-based routing, scalable location service must be provided to advertise the location information of mobile sinks in an mWSN. In this paper, we propose a new hierarchical location service for supporting location-based routing in mWSNs. The proposed location service divides an mWSN into a grid structure and exploits the characteristics of static sensors and mobile sinks in selecting location servers. It can build, maintain, and update the grid-spaced network structure via a simple hashing function. To reduce the location update cost, a hierarchy structure is built by choosing a subset of location servers in the network to store the location information of mobile sinks. The simulation results show that the proposed location service can significantly reduce the communication overhead caused by sink mobility while maintaining high routing performance, and scales well in terms of network size and sink number. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Opportunistic routing has recently attracted much attention as it is considered a promising direction for improving the performance of wireless ad hoc and sensor networks. With opportunistic routing, intermediate nodes collaborate on packet forwarding in a localized and consistent manner. Opportunistic routing greatly increases transmission reliability and network throughput by taking advantage of the broadcast nature of the wireless medium. In this article we first illustrate the basic idea behind opportunistic routing, and then categorize current research work based on different criteria. We illustrate how different protocols work, and discuss their merits and drawbacks. Finally, we point out potential issues and future directions in opportunistic routing for wireless ad hoc and sensor networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we design a localized power-aware alternate routing (LPAR) protocol for dynamic wireless ad hoc networks. The design objective is to prolong the lifetime of wireless ad hoc networks wherein nodes can adaptively adjust their transmission power based on communication ranges. LPAR achieves this goal via two phases. In the first phase, energy draining balancing is achieved by identifying end-to-end paths with high residual energy. The second phase is designed to effectively reduce the power consumed for packet forwarding. This is achieved by iteratively performing adaptive localized power-aware alternate rerouting to bypass each (potentially) high-power link along the end-to-end path identified in the first phase. Further, the design of LPAR enables nodes to collect their neighborhood information ‘on-demand’, which can effectively reduce the overhead for gathering such information. LPAR is suitable for both homogeneous and non-homogeneous networks. Simulation results demonstrate that LPAR achieves improved performance in reducing protocol overhead and also in prolonging network lifetime as compared with existing work. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Junning Liu, Dennis Goeckel and Don Towsley on bounds on the throughput gain of network coding in unicast and multicast wireless networks and another by Hang Su and Xi Zhang on network throughput gains of two types of network coding (NC) schemes.

Topology control plays an important role in the design of wireless ad hoc and sensor networks and has demonstrated its high capability in constructing networks with desirable characteristics such as sparser connectivity, lower transmission power, and smaller node degree. However, the enforcement of a topology control algorithm in a network may degrade the energy-draining balancing capability of the network and thus reduce the network operational lifetime. For this reason, it is important to take into account energy efficiency in the design of a topology control algorithm in order to achieve prolonged network lifetime. In this paper, we propose a localized energy-efficient topology control algorithm for wireless ad hoc and sensor networks with power control capability in network nodes. To achieve prolonged network lifetime, we introduce a concept called energy criticality avoidance and propose an energy criticality avoidance strategy in topology control and energy-efficient routing. Through theoretical analysis and simulation results, we prove that the proposed topology control algorithm can maintain the global network connectivity with low complexity and can significantly prolong the lifetime of a multi-hop wireless network as compared with existing topology control algorithms with little additional protocol overhead. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study shortest-path routing in wavelength-routed optical networks with an objective to optimize the average-case running time for path computation. Four fast routing algorithms are proposed for dynamically computing the shortest lightpaths or semilightpaths in a network with or without wavelength converters. To reduce the average-case running time for path computation, sequential search, backward routing, and informed search are used in the algorithm design. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms can significantly reduce the average-case computational overhead for path computation as compared with existing algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Scalability is a great concern in the design of multicast routing protocols for the global Internet. Building shortest path trees (SPT) is currently one of the most widely used approaches to supporting multicast routing because of the simplicity and low per-destination cost of such trees. However, the construction of an SPT typically involves high protocol overhead, which leads to the scalability problem as the number of concurrent multicast sessions increases. In this paper, we present a destination-initiated shortest path tree (DSPT) routing protocol. The design objective is to effectively reduce the protocol overhead associated with SPT constructions for providing scalable multicast. To achieve this objective, we introduce destination-initiated joining operations in constructing SPTs. With DSPT, each router receiving a request to join a specific multicast group makes a local decision on selecting its parent node through which it connects to the existing tree. A source-rooted SPT is built as a result of such collaborative operations at nodes. DSPT requires only limited routing information at routers. Analytical results demonstrate that DSPT scales well with respect to computation, storage and communication overhead when the number of concurrent multicast requests is large. Simulation experiments are also conducted to verify the correctness of the theoretically deduced analytical results. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet is expected to support a variety of network services for its vast individual and business users. Advance reservation is a promising network service in which network resources are automatically allocated and reserved in advance of the time the resources are actually needed, which allows service providers to more efficiently manage network resources and thus provide better network services. For the next- generation Internet, the underlying transport infrastructure is evolving towards a network that integrates fiber-optic technology and Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) technology. In this article we present a basic framework for automated provisioning of advance reservation service in the next-generation optical Internet, discuss the major issues involved, and explore possible solutions. It is also our hope to stimulate further studies in order to realize the vision of this promising net- work service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addresses the forwarding state computer network scalability issue. Effect of forwarding state scalability on the multicast deployment in Internet protocol networks; Extension of an existing multicast routing protocol; Introduction of tunnel support; Reduction of the protocol overhead associated with Multicast Extension to OSPF.

We propose to use a super-structured waveplate (called an S-waveplate) for vectorial optical vortex filtering, and experimentally demonstrate the radial Hilbert transform and selective edge enhancement. Based on the Jones calculus of polarization states and Fourier analysis, we calculate and analyze the point spread function of an optical 4-f system including an S-waveplate filter having the vectorial vortex of topological charge 1 (TC = 1). Numerical simulations and optical experiments demonstrate that a vectorial optical vortex filter can be used to implement selective edge enhancement with an analyzer before the output plane. The edge enhancement can be obtained even when the center of the filter is off-axis or the illuminating light is non-monochromatic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to design a nanocarrier ophthalmic delivery system of muscone, a poorly water-soluble drug. The muscone thermoresponsive nanogels were self-assembled by reverse micelle → positive micelle method. Muscone was demonstrated to have uniform narrow particle size distribution in nanogel by the dynamic light scattering test. The developed nanocomposite hydrogel had a high muscone loading, and the rheology results showed that the phase transition temperature was 34.05°C. Thixotropy test indicated that the nanogel was able to resist the blinking of eyes because of the thixotropy recovery time, which is <5 s. Compared with muscone eye drops, muscone nanogels showed longer retention time on the corneal surface using fluorescent labeling technology and produced a 3.4-fold increase in apparent permeability coefficients (Papp). Draize testing showed that the developed nanogel caused no eye irritation. In vivo pharmacokinetic study indicated that the nanogel could significantly increase the bioavailability of muscone after administration compared with eye drops. These results indicate that selfassembled thermoresponsive nanogel prepared by reverse micelle → positive micelle method has potential for the ophthalmic delivery of poorly water-soluble drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]