213 research outputs found
Doxorubicin@Bcl-2 siRNA core@shell nanoparticles for synergistic anticancer chemotherapy
Acquired drug resistance in malignant
tumors seriously hinders
effective chemotherapy against cancer. The main mechanisms of drug
resistance include decreased drug influx, increased drug efflux, as
well as antiapoptotic defense behavior in cancerous cells. To overcome
these issues, we
have designed a nanomedicine composed of pure doxorubicin (DOX) as
the core and B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) siRNA as the shell for synergistic
cancer treatment. Between the core and shell, polyethylene glycol
(PEG) and polyethylenimine (PEI) are employed to increase the stability
of the core DOX NPs and facilitate siRNA coating, respectively. In
this design, the siRNA is able to inhibit the expression of Bcl-2
protein which has a role of protecting cancer cells from apoptosis.
DOX not only is for anticancer therapy but also acts as a nanocarrier
for Bcl-2 siRNA delivery. Our studies show that Bcl-2 siRNA and DOX
are efficiently delivered into tumor cells and tumor tissues, and
such a codelivery nanosystem possesses synergistic effects on tumor
inhibition, enabling
significantly enhanced antitumor outcome. This work demonstrates that
the codelivery of tumor-suppressive Bcl-2 siRNA and chemotherapeutic
agents without
using an excipient material as a drug carrier represents a promising
therapy for enhanced cancer therapy
Spatial Crowdsourcing Task Allocation Scheme for Massive Data with Spatial Heterogeneity
Spatial crowdsourcing (SC) engages large worker pools for location-based
tasks, attracting growing research interest. However, prior SC task allocation
approaches exhibit limitations in computational efficiency, balanced matching,
and participation incentives. To address these challenges, we propose a
graph-based allocation framework optimized for massive heterogeneous spatial
data. The framework first clusters similar tasks and workers separately to
reduce allocation scale. Next, it constructs novel non-crossing graph
structures to model balanced adjacencies between unevenly distributed tasks and
workers. Based on the graphs, a bidirectional worker-task matching scheme is
designed to produce allocations optimized for mutual interests. Extensive
experiments on real-world datasets analyze the performance under various
parameter settings
pH and redox dual responsive carrier-free anticancer drug nanoparticles for targeted delivery and synergistic therapy
Exploratory Study on the Methodology of Fast Imaging of Unilateral Stroke Lesions by Electrical Impedance Asymmetry in Human Heads
Stroke has a high mortality and disability rate and should be rapidly diagnosed to improve prognosis. Diagnosing stroke is not a problem for hospitals with CT, MRI, and other imaging devices but is difficult for community hospitals without these devices. Based on the mechanism that the electrical impedance of the two hemispheres of a normal human head is basically symmetrical and a stroke can alter this symmetry, a fast electrical impedance imaging method called symmetrical electrical impedance tomography (SEIT) is proposed. In this technique, electrical impedance tomography (EIT) data measured from the undamaged craniocerebral hemisphere (CCH) is regarded as reference data for the remaining EIT data measured from the other CCH for difference imaging to identify the differences in resistivity distribution between the two CCHs. The results of SEIT imaging based on simulation data from the 2D human head finite element model and that from the physical phantom of human head verified this method in detection of unilateral stroke
SoK: Privacy-Preserving Smart Contract
The privacy concern in smart contract applications continues to grow, leading to the proposal of various schemes aimed at developing comprehensive and universally applicable privacy-preserving smart contract (PPSC) schemes. However, the existing research in this area is fragmented and lacks a comprehensive system overview. This paper aims to bridge the existing research gap on PPSC schemes by systematizing previous studies in this field. The primary focus is on two categories: PPSC schemes based on cryptographic tools like zero-knowledge proofs, as well as schemes based on trusted execution environments. In doing so, we aim to provide a condensed summary of the different approaches taken in constructing PPSC schemes. Additionally, we also offer a comparative analysis of these approaches, highlighting the similarities and differences between them. Furthermore, we shed light on the challenges that developers face when designing and implementing PPSC schemes. Finally, we delve into potential future directions for improving and advancing these schemes, discussing possible avenues for further research and development
Blockchain and Federated Edge Learning for Privacy-Preserving Mobile Crowdsensing
Mobile crowdsensing (MCS) counting on the mobility of massive workers helps the requestor accomplish various sensing tasks with more flexibility and lower cost. However, for the conventional MCS, the large consumption of communication resources for raw data transmission and high requirements on data storage and computing capability hinder potential requestors with limited resources from using MCS. To facilitate the widespread application of MCS, we propose a novel MCS learning framework leveraging on blockchain technology and the new concept of edge intelligence based on federated learning (FL), which involves four major entities, including requestors, blockchain, edge servers and mobile devices as workers. Even though there exist several studies on blockchain-based MCS and blockchain-based FL, they cannot solve the essential challenges of MCS with respect to accommodating resource-constrained requestors or deal with the privacy concerns brought by the involvement of requestors and workers in the learning process. To fill the gaps, four main procedures, i.e., task publication, data sensing and submission, learning to return final results, and payment settlement and allocation, are designed to address major challenges brought by both internal and external threats, such as malicious edge servers and dishonest requestors. Specifically, a mechanism design based data submission rule is proposed to guarantee the data privacy of mobile devices being truthfully preserved at edge servers; consortium blockchain based FL is elaborated to secure the distributed learning process; and a cooperation-enforcing control strategy is devised to elicit full payment from the requestor. Extensive simulations are carried out to evaluate the performance of our designed schemes
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