A reliable energy-efficient pressure-based routing protocol for underwater wireless sensor network

Recently, Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) has witnessed significant attention from both academia and industries in research and development, due to the growing number of applications for wide range of purposes including commercial, scientific, environmental and military. Some of the major applications include pollution monitoring, tactical surveillance, tsunami warnings and offshore exploration. Efficient communication among sensors in UWSNs is a challenging task due to the harsh environments and peculiar characteristics of UWSNs. Therefore, design of routing protocol for efficient communication among sensors and sink is one of the fundamental research themes in UWSNs. In this context, this paper proposes a location-free Reliable and Energy efficient Pressure-Based Routing (RE-PBR) protocol for UWSNs. RE-PBR considers three parameters including link quality, depth and residual energy for balancing energy consumption and reliable data delivery. Specifically, link quality is estimated using triangle metric method. A light weight information acquisition algorithm is developed for efficient knowledge discovery of the network. Multi-metric data forwarding algorithm is designed based on route cost calculation which utilizes residual energy and link quality. Simulations are carried out in NS-2 with Aqua-Sim package to evaluate the performance of RE-PBR. The performance of the proposed protocol is compared with the stat-of-the-art techniques: DBR and EEDBR. The comprehensive performance evaluation attests the benefit of RE-PBR as compared to the state-of-the-art techniques in terms of network lifetime, energy consumption, end-to-end delay and packet delivery ratio.     

Enhanced fair earliest due date first scheduling strategy for multimedia applications in LTE downlink framework

Guaranteeing a certain delay threshold for delay‐sensitive applications in long term evolution (LTE) cellular communication system is a very challenging mission. By implementing an optimal scheduling strategy, this mission will be achieved. In this article, a novel scheduler is introduced in order to meet a predefined level of service quality by guaranteeing a specific delay threshold for delay‐sensitive applications in LTE cellular systems. The proposed scheduler assigns the available resource blocks (RBs) to active user equipments (UEs) tacking into consideration several attributes. The expiration date of each packet, the channel quality, the average data rate previously achieved by each UE, and the number of dropped packets for each UE compared with the average number of packets totally dropped are all considered in the proposed scheduler working mechanism. Consequently, the proposed scheduling strategy reduces the number of packets dropped for multimedia applications, and at the same time maximizes the overall throughput of the network. Simulation results are provided to study and evaluate the performance of the proposed scheduling strategy. A comparative study is presented between the proposed strategy and the most recent scheduling techniques. The obtained results prove that the proposed scheduling strategy has considerably acceptable and appreciated results compared with the results of the state‐of‐the‐art scheduling techniques.     

Entropy Generation for Flow and Heat Transfer of Sisko-Fluid Over an Exponentially Stretching Surface

In the present study, the effects of the magnetic field on the entropy generation during fluid flow and heat transfer of a Sisko-fluid over an exponentially stretching surface are considered. The similarity transformations are used to transfer the governing partial differential equations into a set of nonlinear-coupled ordinary differential equations. Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg method is used to solve the governing problem. The effects of magnetic field parameter M, local slip parameter λ, generalized Biot number γ, Sisko fluid material parameter A, Eckert number Ec, Prandtl number Pr and Brinkman number Br at two values of power law index on the velocity, temperature, local entropy generation number N_G and Bejan number Be are inspected. Moreover, the tabular forms for local skin friction coefficient and local Nusselt number under the effects of the physical parameters are exhibited. The current results are helpful in checking the entropy generation for Sisko-fluid. It is found that, an extra magnetic field parameter makes higher Lorentz force that suppresses the velocity. For shear thinning fluids (n < 1), the temperature dominates and the velocity rises. Local entropy generation number is more for larger generalized Biot number, magnetic field parameter and Brinkman number. The local skin friction coefficient increases as magnetic field parameter and material parameter are increase and it decreases as local slip parameter increases. The local Nusselt number decreases as magnetic field parameter, local slip parameter and Eckert number are increase, while it increases as material parameter, generalized Biot number and Prandtl number are increase.     

Fucoidan-Based Theranostic Nanogel for Enhancing Imaging and Photodynamic Therapy of Cancer

In this study, a fucoidan-based theranostic nanogel(CFN-gel) consisting of a fucoidan backbone, redox-responsive cleavable linker and photosensitizer is developed to achieve acti-vatable near-infrared fluorescence imaging of tumor sites and an enhanced photodynamic therapy(PDT) to induce the com-plete death of cancer cells. A CFN-gel has nanomolar a nity for P-selectin, which is overexpressed on the surface of tumor neovascular endothelial cells as well as many other cancer cells. Therefore, a CFN-gel can enhance tumor accumulation through P-selectin targeting and the enhanced permeation and retention e ect. Moreover, a CFN-gel is non-fluorescent and non-phototoxic upon its systemic administration due to the aggregation-induced self-quenching in its fluorescence and singlet oxygen generation. After internalization into cancer cells and tumor neovascular endothelial cells, its photoactivity is recovered in response to the intracellular redox potential, thereby enabling selective near-infrared fluorescence imaging and an enhanced PDT of tumors. Since a CFN-gel also shows nanomolar a nity for the vascular endothelial growth factor, it also provides a significant anti-tumor e ect in the absence of light treatment in vivo. Our study indicates that a fucoidan-based theranostic nanogel is a new theranostic material for imaging and treating cancer with high e cacy and specificity.     

Fabrication of Worm-Like Mesoporous Silica Monoliths as an Efficient Sorbent for Thorium Ions from Nitrate Media

Radiochemistry - Mesostructured silica monoliths were synthesized using a simple reproducible strategy of an instant direct templating with nonionic Brij-35 copolymer surfactant and C12 alkane...     

Gauss Gradient and SURF Features for Landmine Detection from GPR Images

Recently, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) has been extended as a well-known area to investigate the subsurface objects. However, its output has a low resolution, and it needs more processing for more interpretation. This paper presents two algorithms for landmine detection from GPR images. The first algorithm depends on a multi-scale technique. A Gaussian kernel with a particular scale is convolved with the image, and after that, two gradients are estimated; horizontal and vertical gradients. Then, histogram and cumulative histogram are estimated for the overall gradient image. The bin values on the cumulative histogram are used for discrimination between images with and without landmines. Moreover, a neural classifier is used to classify images with cumulative histograms as feature vectors. The second algorithm is based on scale-space analysis with the number of speeded-up robust feature (SURF) points as the key parameter for classification. In addition, this paper presents a framework for size reduction of GPR images based on decimation for efficient storage. The further classification steps can be performed on images after interpolation. The sensitivity of classification accuracy to the interpolation process is studied in detail.     

Quality control for a detected an appropriate queue from K-independent M/M/C/N queueing models

In this paper, we consider a system of K-independent Markovian queues such that each one of them has a Poisson arrival process and exponential service time. We assume that every server has some characteristics such as the speed of the service performance or the service cost. To find an appropriate queue, which meets customer needs for the service performance, we present a new approach that gives a suitable decision to choose an appropriate queue from our system. This allows the customer to deal with minimum cost and faster server under steady state. We solve an interesting discrete stochastic optimization problem where the paid cost by the customer is bounded by a Gaussian distribution. Using these hypotheses, we perform a simulation study by generating the paid cost random values and choosing the minimum value between them. This minimum cost gives the highest service rate, which is used to obtain the optimum values of the system effectiveness measures.     

Ferroelectric-to-non-ergodic relaxor phase transition of (Bi0.5Na0.3K0.2) TiO3– (Ba0.8Ca0.2) TiO3 lead-free ceramics by SrTiO3 effect

In this work, a series compositions of [(0.95?x)(Bi_0.5Na_0.3K_0.2)TiO₃–xSrTiO₃–0.05(Ba_0.8Ca_0.2) TiO₃] Pb-free ceramics (0.0?≤?x?≤?0.2) abbreviation (BKNT–ST–BCT) were synthesized by conventional sintering method. Effect of ST addition on the crystal structure, domain structure, dielectric and ferroelectric properties were investigated. The crystal structure was monitored by XRD and the patterns shown phase crossover from tetragonal to pseudo-cubic caused by lower crystal symmetry of lattice effect at high content of ST. Morphology of sintered ceramics were characterized by SEM, while the domain structure of ST?=?0.0 at different temperatures was examined by In situ TEM. Diffused phase transition corresponding to ferroelectric to ergodic relaxor at lower T has been observed at depolarization temperature (T_d) at (ST < 0.15), while the permittivity peak which detected at ST?=?0.2 in whole range of temperature denote non-ergodic relaxor to paraelectric phase transition. All compositions show normal ferroelectric (P–E) loop at room temperature even ST?=?0.2 with low coercive field (E_c?~?15 kV/cm), while slim relaxor (P–E) loop was observed at (T?=?200 °C). Present normal ferroelectric properties of ST?=?0.2 are attributed to the domain growth and domain wall displacement above the domain switching electric field. All samples belonging to (x?≤?0.1) shown current peak corresponding to ferroelectric phase transition at domain switching field. Samples belonging to (x?≥?0.15) shown two nominal peaks where the second peak is corresponding to ferroelectric-to-another ferroelectric phase transition with different crystal symmetry.

     

Fundamentals,antibacterial, and photocatalysis properties of Ag@Se@PVDF nanocomposite membrane synthesized via laser ablation technique

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - Several ratios of silver/selenium (Ag/Se) nanoparticles generated via laser ablation were used to create nanocomposite scaffolds based on...