80 Gb/s optimised pulse source using a gain-switched laser diode in conjunction with a nonlinearly chirped grating

The authors demonstrate the generation of transforms limited short optical pulses, which display excellent spectral and temporal qualities by employing a novel technology, based on an externally injected gain-switched laser in conjunction with a non-linearly chirped grating. Using this technique, 3.5 ps optical pulses, exhibiting a time bandwidth product of 0.45, are generated, which are suitable for use in high-speed 80 Gb/s OTDM communications systems

Discrimination of prostate cancer cells and non-malignant cells using secondary ion mass spectrometry

This communication utilises Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) combined with multivariate analysis to obtain spectra from the surfaces of three closely related cell lines allowing their discrimination based upon mass spectral ions

System-performance analysis of optimized gain-switched pulse source employed in 40-and 80-Gb/s OTDM systems

The development of ultrashort optical pulse sources, exhibiting excellent temporal and spectral profiles, will play a crucial role in the performance of future optical time division multiplexed (OTDM) systems. In this paper, we demonstrate the difference in performance in 40- and 80-Gb/s OTDM systems between optical pulse sources based on a gain-switched laser whose pulses are compressed by a nonlinearly and linearly chirped fiber Bragg grating. The results achieved show that nonlinear chirp in the wings of the pulse leads to temporal pedestals formed on either side of the pulse when using the linearly chirped grating, whereas with the nonlinearly chirped grating, pedestals are essentially eliminated. In an OTDM system, these pedestals cause coherent interaction between neighboring channels, resulting in intensity fluctuations that lead to a power penalty of 1.5 dB (40 Gb/s) and 3.5 dB (80 Gb/s) in comparison to the case where the nonlinearly chirped grating is used. Simulations carried out with the aid of Virtual Photonics Inc. verify the results achieved

Effects of a Pyrrole-Based, Microtubule-Depolymerizing Compound on RAW 264.7 Macrophages

RAW 264.7 murine macrophages were exposed to the pyrrole-based compound 3,5-Dibromo-4-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)-1H-pyrrole-2-carboxylic acid ethyl ester (JG-03-14), which is a known microtubule depolymerizing agent with antitumor activity [1,2,3]. In this study exposure to JG-03-14 reduced the production of pro-inflammatory molecules by macrophages activated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Treatment with the pyrrole-based compound decreased the concentration of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and nitric oxide (NO) released from the macrophages. Exposure to JG-03-14 also decreased TNF-α mRNA expression levels and the protein expression levels of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), the enzyme responsible for NO production in the activated macrophages. Furthermore, JG-03-14 treatment significantly changed the degradation profile of IκB-β, an inhibitor of the NF-κB transcription factor, which suggests that JG-03–14 may attenuate the activation of the LPS-induced NF-κB signaling pathway needed to produce the pro-inflammatory mediators. We conclude that JG-03-14 possesses anti-inflammatory properties

"Do your eyes play tricks on you?” Asking older people about visual hallucinations in a general eye clinic

Visual hallucinations are well recognized in individuals with low vision and intact cognition (Charles Bonnet syndrome) (Teunisse et al., 1996). Visual hallucinations also occur in those with early manifestations of dementia with Lewy bodies (McKeith et al., 2005) and Parkinson's disease dementia (Williams and Lees, 2005). Typically, visual hallucinations in these conditions are complex recurrent hallucinations of people and animals and frequently reported as being unpleasant (Mosimann et al., 2006). Individuals with visual hallucinations are often reluctant to disclose details of their symptoms (Menon, 2005), but may instead report non-specific visual difficulties to their family physician or optometrist, resulting in referral to an eye clinic. Failure to elicit the presence of visual hallucinations may lead to inappropriate treatment of age-related ocular comorbidity, such as early catarac

Flux Qubits and Readout Device with Two Independent Flux Lines

We report measurements on two superconducting flux qubits coupled to a readout Superconducting QUantum Interference Device (SQUID). Two on-chip flux bias lines allow independent flux control of any two of the three elements, as illustrated by a two-dimensional qubit flux map. The application of microwaves yields a frequency-flux dispersion curve for 1- and 2-photon driving of the single-qubit excited state, and coherent manipulation of the single-qubit state results in Rabi oscillations and Ramsey fringes. This architecture should be scalable to many qubits and SQUIDs on a single chip.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, higher quality figures available upon request. Submitted to PR

Pulse source for 80 Gb/s systems using a gain-wwitched laser diode followed by a nonlinearly chirped grating

This work presents the generation of 3.5 ps pulses at a repetition rate of 10 GHz and the optimization of the pulse spectrum. The output pulses are near transform limited and have pulse pedestals that are virtually eliminated to 35 dB down from the peak of the pulse, thus providing a source suitable for use in 80 Gb/s OTDM systems

FROG characterisation of SOA-based wavelength conversion using XPM in conjunction with shifted filtering up to line rates of 80 GHz

The work we present here builds on recent work where we obtained 80 Gb/s error free performance using cross phase modulation (XPM) in an SOA in conjunction with a blue shifted bandpass filter. Here we present a detailed characterisation of this wavelength conversion scheme using a Frequency Resolved Optical Gating (FROG) measurement scheme for both red and blue shifted filtering. This type of characterisation has not been provided before to the best of our knowledge and is an important analysis firstly to achieve a full understanding of the gain and phase dynamics exploited by the wavelength conversion scheme presented and secondly to design a filter so that an optimum performance can be obtaine

Electron transport properties of sub-3-nm diameter copper nanowires

Density functional theory and density functional tight-binding are applied to model electron transport in copper nanowires of approximately 1 nm and 3 nm diameters with varying crystal orientation and surface termination. The copper nanowires studied are found to be metallic irrespective of diameter, crystal orientation and/or surface termination. Electron transmission is highly dependent on crystal orientation and surface termination. Nanowires oriented along the [110] crystallographic axis consistently exhibit the highest electron transmission while surface oxidized nanowires show significantly reduced electron transmission compared to unterminated nanowires. Transmission per unit area is calculated in each case, for a given crystal orientation we find that this value decreases with diameter for unterminated nanowires but is largely unaffected by diameter in surface oxidized nanowires for the size regime considered. Transmission pathway plots show that transmission is larger at the surface of unterminated nanowires than inside the nanowire and that transmission at the nanowire surface is significantly reduced by surface oxidation. Finally, we present a simple model which explains the transport per unit area dependence on diameter based on transmission pathways results