Valuing flexibility in the migration to flexible-grid networks

Increasing network demand is expected to put pressure on the available capacity in core networks. Flexible optical networking can now be installed to increase network capacity in light of future traffic demands. However, this technology is still in its infancy and might lack the full functionality that may appear within a few years. When replacing core network equipment, it is therefore important to make the right investment decision between upgrading toward flexible-grid or fixed-grid equipment. This paper researches various installation options using a techno-economic analysis, extended with real option insights, showing the impact of uncertainty and flexibility on the investment decision. By valuing the different options, a correct investment decision can be made

Learning from Partially Annotated Data: Example-aware Creation of Gap-filling Exercises for Language Learning

Since performing exercises (including, e.g., practice tests) forms a crucial component of learning, and creating such exercises requires non-trivial effort from the teacher. There is a great value in automatic exercise generation in digital tools in education. In this paper, we particularly focus on automatic creation of gapfilling exercises for language learning, specifically grammar exercises. Since providing any annotation in this domain requires human expert effort, we aim to avoid it entirely and explore the task of converting existing texts into new gap-filling exercises, purely based on an example exercise, without explicit instruction or detailed annotation of the intended grammar topics. We contribute (i) a novel neural network architecture specifically designed for aforementioned gap-filling exercise generation task, and (ii) a real-world benchmark dataset for French grammar. We show that our model for this French grammar gap-filling exercise generation outperforms a competitive baseline classifier by 8% in F1 percentage points, achieving an average F1 score of 82%. Our model implementation and the dataset are made publicly available to foster future research, thus offering a standardized evaluation and baseline solution of the proposed partially annotated data prediction task in grammar exercise creation.Comment: 12 pages, Accepted in the 18th Workshop on Innovative Use of NLP for Building Educational Application

Benchmarking and viability assessment of optical packet switching for metro networks

Optical packet switching (OPS) has been proposed as a strong candidate for future metro networks. This paper assesses the viability of an OPS-based ring architecture as proposed within the research project DAVID (Data And Voice Integration on DWDM), funded by the European Commission through the Information Society Technologies (IST) framework. Its feasibility is discussed from a physical-layer point of view, and its limitations in size are explored. Through dimensioning studies, we show that the proposed OPS architecture is competitive with respect to alternative metropolitan area network (MAN) approaches, including synchronous digital hierarchy, resilient packet rings (RPR), and star-based Ethernet. Finally, the proposed OPS architectures are discussed from a logical performance point of view, and a high-quality scheduling algorithm to control the packet-switching operations in the rings is explained

Moral Distress and Associated Factors Among Baccalaureate Nursing Students: A Multisite Descriptive Study

Moral distress and its associated negative consequences among postlicensure nurses have been extensively discussed in the literature. Moral distress is defined as knowing the ethically correct action one should take but feeling constrained from acting on one’s convictions because of internal and external constraints (Epstein & Delgado, 2010; Hamric, 2014; Jameton, 1984; McCarthy & Gastmans, 2015; Musto, Rodney, & Vanderheide, 2015). The focus in much of the reviewed literature is on measuring and describing moral distress, moral residue (lingering feelings associated with moral distress), and subsequent deleterious consequences (frustration, apathy, compassio

Phased-array wavelength demultiplexer with flattened wavelength response

A four-channel phased-array wavelength demultiplexer with a flattened wavelength response has been realised for the first time in InP/InGaAsP at 1.54 mu m by employing multimode output waveguides. The device has 2 nm channel spacing and a flat response (within 1 dB) of 17 n