Tunable Fiber Bragg Grating Ring Lasers using Macro Fiber Composite Actuators

The research reported herein includes the fabrication of a tunable optical fiber Bragg grating (FBG) fiber ring laser (FRL)1 from commercially available components as a high-speed alternative tunable laser source for NASA Langley s optical frequency domain reflectometer (OFDR) interrogator, which reads low reflectivity FBG sensors. A Macro-Fiber Composite (MFC) actuator invented at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) was selected to tune the laser. MFC actuators use a piezoelectric sheet cut into uniaxially aligned rectangular piezo-fibers surrounded by a polymer matrix and incorporate interdigitated electrodes to deliver electric fields along the length of the piezo-fibers. This configuration enables MFC actuators to produce displacements larger than the original uncut piezoelectric sheet. The FBG filter was sandwiched between two MFC actuators, and when strained, produced approximately 3.62 nm of wavelength shift in the FRL when biasing the MFC actuators from 500 V to 2000 V. This tunability range is comparable to that of other tunable lasers and is adequate for interrogating FBG sensors using OFDR technology. Three different FRL configurations were studied. Configuration A examined the importance of erbium-doped fiber length and output coupling. Configuration B demonstrated the importance of the FBG filter. Configuration C added an output coupler to increase the output power and to isolate the filter. Only configuration C was tuned because it offered the best optical power output of the three configurations. Use of Plastic Optical Fiber (POF) FBG s holds promise for enhanced tunability in future research

The synthesis of quinolone natural products from pseudonocardia sp.

Abstract The synthesis of four quinolone natural products from the actinomycete Pseudonocardia sp. is reported. The key step involved a sp2–sp3 Suzuki–Miyaura reaction between a common boronic ester lateral chain and various functionalised quinolone cores. The quinolones slowed growth of E. coli and S. aureus by inducing extended lag phases.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Reserach Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) ERC grant agreement no [279337/DOS]. Research in the DRS lab is also supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Biotechnology and BiologicalSciences Research Council, Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK, and the Wellcome Trust. Work in the MW lab is supported by the BBSRC and MRC. JTH was supported by Trinity College Cambridge. Data accessibility: all data supporting this study are provided as Supplementary Information accompanying this paper.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ejoc.20150140

In Search of Consensus: New Zealand’s Electoral Act 1956 and its Constitutional Legacy.

New Zealand’s Electoral Act 1956, and in particular the entrenched (or “reserved”) provisions it introduced into the country’s legal framework, has long represented something of a constitutional oddity. In reserving certain key aspects of our electoral process, the 1956 Act purported to stop future Parliaments from altering these except by following a particular, and more demanding, process of enactment

Funding New Zealand’s Election Campaigns: recent stress points and potential responses

The nexus between money and politics creates particular problems for liberal democracies like New Zealand. Events during the last parliamentary term put our present system of regulating this issue under some stress. With two cases relating to political fundraising now before the courts and other matters still under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office, this is the right time to consider whether reform of the law is needed and what such reform ought to look like

Democratic Visions and Third-Party Independent Expenditures: A Comparative View

Questions about the proper role that money should play in a country’s democratic process bedevil all democracies. One of the most difficult issues to be faced is the way in which spending by “third party” participants—those individuals or groups not directly contesting the election but whom nevertheless want to affect its outcome—should be regulated. To what extent should these third parties be allowed to make independent expenditures designed to influence the voters into casting their ballots one way or the other?In this Article, the author develops two contrasting “visions” of the electoral process that may be used to illuminate the arguments in this area of law. He then applies these visions to analyze the regulatory frameworks in place in three particular countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Within the rules adopted by each of these countries can be seen a constant tension between each of the two visions—a tension that renders the law unstable and uncertain. While acknowledging this instability, the author concludes with some words on which of the models of regulation he considers best serves a properly functioning democratic process

Physician decision making in selection of second-line treatments in immune thrombocytopenia in children.

Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an acquired autoimmune bleeding disorder which presents with isolated thrombocytopenia and risk of hemorrhage. While most children with ITP promptly recover with or without drug therapy, ITP is persistent or chronic in others. When needed, how to select second-line therapies is not clear. ICON1, conducted within the Pediatric ITP Consortium of North America (ICON), is a prospective, observational, longitudinal cohort study of 120 children from 21 centers starting second-line treatments for ITP which examined treatment decisions. Treating physicians reported reasons for selecting therapies, ranking the top three. In a propensity weighted model, the most important factors were patient/parental preference (53%) and treatment-related factors: side effect profile (58%), long-term toxicity (54%), ease of administration (46%), possibility of remission (45%), and perceived efficacy (30%). Physician, health system, and clinical factors rarely influenced decision-making. Patient/parent preferences were selected as reasons more often in chronic ITP (85.7%) than in newly diagnosed (0%) or persistent ITP (14.3%, P = .003). Splenectomy and rituximab were chosen for the possibility of inducing long-term remission (P < .001). Oral agents, such as eltrombopag and immunosuppressants, were chosen for ease of administration and expected adherence (P < .001). Physicians chose rituximab in patients with lower expected adherence (P = .017). Treatment choice showed some physician and treatment center bias. This study illustrates the complexity and many factors involved in decision-making in selecting second-line ITP treatments, given the absence of comparative trials. It highlights shared decision-making and the need for well-conducted, comparative effectiveness studies to allow for informed discussion between patients and clinicians

The Impact of Coal and Biomass Co-Firing on the Economy of Power Plant Carbon Capture

A detailed economic evaluation was carried out to determine the impact of biomass and coal co-firing on power plant carbon capture by methods of plants equipment designing factors and performance, and the sum up of the associated breakdowns of CAPEX and OPEX. Based on the assumptions of the CO2 neutrality of biomass and likely governmental incentives to reduce CO2 emissions, the study results show that biomass and coal co-firing would result in both lower cost of carbon avoided (carbon capture) and lower incremental cost of electricity generation when MEA solvent carbon capture is applied. Two scenarios for co-firing with carbon capture, 30% biomass blending and 90% or 60% CO2 capture from stack, indicate different preference depending on lower or higher incentives