LIONS: An AWGR-Based Low-Latency Optical Switch for High-Performance Computing and Data Centers

This paper discusses the architecture of an arrayed waveguide grating router (AWGR)-based low-latency interconnect optical network switch called LIONS, and its different loopback buffering schemes. A proof of concept is demonstrated with a 4 x 4 experimental testbed. A simulator was developed to model the LIONS architecture and was validated by comparing experimentally obtained statistics such as average end-to-end latency with the results produced by the simulator. Considering the complexity and cost in implementing loopback buffers in LIONS, we propose an all-optical negative acknowledgement (AO-NACK) architecture in order to remove the need for loopback buffers. Simulation results for LIONS with AO-NACK architecture and distributed loopback buffer architecture are compared with the performance of the flattened butterfly electrical switching network

The effect of cigarette price increase on the cigarette consumption in Taiwan: evidence from the National Health Interview Surveys on cigarette consumption

BACKGROUND: This study uses cigarette price elasticity to evaluate the effect of a new excise tax increase on cigarette consumption and to investigate responses from various types of smokers. METHODS: Our sample consisted of current smokers between 17 and 69 years old interviewed during an annual face-to-face survey conducted by Taiwan National Health Research Institutes between 2000 to 2003. We used Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) procedure to estimate double logarithmic function of cigarette demand and cigarette price elasticity. RESULTS: In 2002, after Taiwan had enacted the new tax scheme, cigarette price elasticity in Taiwan was found to be -0.5274. The new tax scheme brought about an average annual 13.27 packs/person (10.5%) reduction in cigarette consumption. Using the cigarette price elasticity estimate from -0.309 in 2003, we calculated that if the Health and Welfare Tax were increased by another NT$ 3 per pack and cigarette producers shifted this increase to the consumers, cigarette consumption would be reduced by 2.47 packs/person (2.2%). The value of the estimated cigarette price elasticity is smaller than one, meaning that the tax will not only reduce cigarette consumption but it will also generate additional tax revenues. Male smokers who had no income or who smoked light cigarettes were found to be more responsive to changes in cigarette price. CONCLUSIONS: An additional tax added to the cost of cigarettes would bring about a reduction in cigarette consumption and increased tax revenues. It would also help reduce incidents smoking-related illnesses. The additional tax revenues generated by the tax increase could be used to offset the current financial deficiency of Taiwan's National Health Insurance program and provide better public services

A hybrid algorithm for a vehicle routing problem with realistic constraints

Proliferation of multi-national corporations and extremely competitive business environments have led to an unprecedented demand for third-party logistics services. However, recent studies on the vehicle routing problem (VRP) have considered only simple constraints. They also do not scale well to real-world problems that are encountered in the logistics industry. In this paper, we introduce a novel vehicle routing problem with time window and pallet loading constraints; this problem accounts for the actual needs of businesses in the logistics industry such as the delivery of consumer goods and agricultural products. To solve this new VRP, we propose a hybrid approach by combining Tabu search and the artificial bee colony algorithm. A new benchmark data set is generated to verify the performance of the proposed algorithm because the proposed VRP has never been reported in the literature. Experiments are performed for a data set of Solomon's 56 vehicle routing problem with time windows. Our approach is superior to a number of other heuristic algorithms in a comparison on Solomon's VRPTW instances. © 2017 Elsevier Inc

Experimental Test of a Newly Proposed Empirical Relationship between the Centroid and Width of the Giant Quadrupole-Resonance and the Neutron Binding-Energy of the Nucleus

Journals published by the American Physical Society can be found at http://publish.aps.org

Counter-current chromatography for the separation of terpenoids: A comprehensive review with respect to the solvent systems employed

Copyright @ 2014 The Authors.This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.Natural products extracts are commonly highly complex mixtures of active compounds and consequently their purification becomes a particularly challenging task. The development of a purification protocol to extract a single active component from the many hundreds that are often present in the mixture is something that can take months or even years to achieve, thus it is important for the natural product chemist to have, at their disposal, a broad range of diverse purification techniques. Counter-current chromatography (CCC) is one such separation technique utilising two immiscible phases, one as the stationary phase (retained in a spinning coil by centrifugal forces) and the second as the mobile phase. The method benefits from a number of advantages when compared with the more traditional liquid-solid separation methods, such as no irreversible adsorption, total recovery of the injected sample, minimal tailing of peaks, low risk of sample denaturation, the ability to accept particulates, and a low solvent consumption. The selection of an appropriate two-phase solvent system is critical to the running of CCC since this is both the mobile and the stationary phase of the system. However, this is also by far the most time consuming aspect of the technique and the one that most inhibits its general take-up. In recent years, numerous natural product purifications have been published using CCC from almost every country across the globe. Many of these papers are devoted to terpenoids-one of the most diverse groups. Naturally occurring terpenoids provide opportunities to discover new drugs but many of them are available at very low levels in nature and a huge number of them still remain unexplored. The collective knowledge on performing successful CCC separations of terpenoids has been gathered and reviewed by the authors, in order to create a comprehensive document that will be of great assistance in performing future purifications. © 2014 The Author(s)

Synthesis of Tapered CdS Nanobelts and CdSe Nanowires with Good Optical Property by Hydrogen-Assisted Thermal Evaporation

The tapered CdS nanobelts and CdSe nanowires were prepared by hydrogen-assisted thermal evaporation method. Different supersaturation leads to two different kinds of 1D nanostructures. The PL measurements recorded from the as-prepared tapered CdS nanobelts and CdSe nanowires show only a bandgap emission with relatively narrow full-width half maximum, which means that they possess good optical property. The as-synthesized high-quality tapered CdS nanobelts and CdSe nanowires may be excellent building blocks for photonic devices

Observation of a ppb mass threshoud enhancement in \psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p}) decay

The decay channel $\psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p})$ is studied using a sample of $1.06\times 10^8$ $\psi^\prime$ events collected by the BESIII experiment at BEPCII. A strong enhancement at threshold is observed in the $p\bar{p}$ invariant mass spectrum. The enhancement can be fit with an $S$-wave Breit-Wigner resonance function with a resulting peak mass of $M=1861^{+6}_{-13} {\rm (stat)}^{+7}_{-26} {\rm (syst)} {\rm MeV/}c^2$ and a narrow width that is $\Gamma<38 {\rm MeV/}c^2$ at the 90% confidence level. These results are consistent with published BESII results. These mass and width values do not match with those of any known meson resonance.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Chinese Physics

A Myb Transcription Factor of Phytophthora sojae, Regulated by MAP Kinase PsSAK1, Is Required for Zoospore Development

PsSAK1, a mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase from Phytophthora sojae, plays an important role in host infection and zoospore viability. However, the downstream mechanism of PsSAK1 remains unclear. In this study, the 3'-tag digital gene expression (DGE) profiling method was applied to sequence the global transcriptional sequence of PsSAK1-silenced mutants during the cysts stage and 1.5 h after inoculation onto susceptible soybean leaf tissues. Compared with the gene expression levels of the recipient P. sojae strain, several candidates of Myb family were differentially expressed (up or down) in response to the loss of PsSAK1, including of a R2R3-type Myb transcription factor, PsMYB1. qRT-PCR indicated that the transcriptional level of PsMYB1 decreased due to PsSAK1 silencing. The transcriptional level of PsMYB1 increased during sporulating hyphae, in germinated cysts, and early infection. Silencing of PsMYB1 results in three phenotypes: a) no cleavage of the cytoplasm into uninucleate zoospores or release of normal zoospores, b) direct germination of sporangia, and c) afunction in zoospore-mediated plant infection. Our data indicate that the PsMYB1 transcription factor functions downstream of MAP kinase PsSAK1 and is required for zoospore development of P. sojae