A power-splitting relaying protocol for wireless energy harvesting and information processing in NOMA systems

Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) along with cooperative communications have been recognized as promising candidates for the fifth generation (5G) wireless networks and have attracted many researchers. Every networked device however has its own limited power supply. To this extent, this paper investigates a power-splitting relaying (PSR) protocol for wireless energy harvesting and information processing in the NOMA systems to prolong the lifetime of the energy-constrained relay nodes in wireless networks so as to avail the ambient radio-frequency (RF) signal as well as to simultaneously harvest the energy and process the information. Decode-and-forward relaying is employed at the relay node where the energy from the received RF signal is harvested and exploited to forward the information to the destination. Specifically, the outage probability and ergodic rate of the PSR protocol are derived to realize the impacts of energy harvesting time, energy harvesting efficiency, power splitting ratio, source data rate, and the distance between nodes. It is also shown that an increased energy harvesting efficiency results in an enhanced performance and an outperformance in terms of the energy efficiency is achieved with the employment of the NOMA when compared to the conventional orthogonal multiple access. Numerical results are provided to verify the findings

Engineering nanomedicines for immunogenic eradication of cancer cells: Recent trends and synergistic approaches

Resistance to cancer immunotherapy is mainly attributed to poor tumor immunogenicity as well as the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) leading to failure of immune response. Numerous therapeutic strategies including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, photodynamic, photothermal, magnetic, chemodynamic, sonodynamic and oncolytic therapy, have been developed to induce immunogenic cell death (ICD) of cancer cells and thereby elicit immunogenicity and boost the antitumor immune response. However, many challenges hamper the clinical application of ICD inducers resulting in modest immunogenic response. Here, we outline the current state of using nanomedicines for boosting ICD of cancer cells. Moreover, synergistic approaches used in combination with ICD inducing nanomedicines for remodeling the TME via targeting immune checkpoints, phagocytosis, macrophage polarization, tumor hypoxia, autophagy and stromal modulation to enhance immunogenicity of dying cancer cells were analyzed. We further highlight the emerging trends of using nanomaterials for triggering amplified ICD-mediated antitumor immune responses. Endoplasmic reticulum localized ICD, focused ultrasound hyperthermia, cell membrane camouflaged nanomedicines, amplified reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, metallo-immunotherapy, ion modulators and engineered bacteria are among the most innovative approaches. Various challenges, merits and demerits of ICD inducer nanomedicines were also discussed with shedding light on the future role of this technology in improving the outcomes of cancer immunotherapy