Plastic Optical Fiber Technology for Reliable Home Networking: Overview and Results of the EU Project POF-ALL

The rising performance of broadband connections for residential users, particularly in conjunction with fiber to the home, will present a new challenge for telecom operators in the short and medium terms: how to deliver the high bit rate digital signals with high quality-of-service to all consumer devices scattered inside the building of final users? Among the many different solutions for the home network, we review in this article the use of polymer optical fibers for short-reach and high-capacity optical communications for residential customer premises. POF is an easy-to-install, low-cost, and eye-safe solution for these networks, with the potential of being future-proof. In this article the state of the art in POF technology is presented by summarizing significant results achieved in the European project POF-ALL. Data transmission rates of more than 1 Gb/s over 50+ m and 100 Mb/s over 200+ m of standard step-index POF have been show

Plasma NfL, clinical subtypes and motor progression in Parkinson's disease.

INTRODUCTION: neurofilament light chain (NfL) levels have been proposed as reliable biomarkers of neurodegeneration in Parkinson's disease (PD) but the relationship between plasma NfL, clinical subtypes of PD and motor progression is still debated. METHODS: plasma NfL concentration was measured in 45 healthy controls and consecutive 92 PD patients who underwent an extensive motor and non-motor assessment at baseline and after 2 years of follow-up. PD malignant phenotype was defined as the combination of at least two out of cognitive impairment, orthostatic hypotension and REM sleep behavior disorder. PD patients were divided according to the age-adjusted cut-offs of plasma NfL levels into high and normal NfL (H-NfL and N-NfL, respectively). A multivariable linear regression model was used to assess the value of plasma NfL as predictor of 2-years progression in PD. RESULTS: NfL was higher in PD patients than in controls (p = 0.037). H-NfL (n = 16) group exhibited more severe motor and non-motor symptoms, higher prevalence of malignant phenotype and worse motor progression (MDS-UPDRS-III 11.3 vs 0.7 points, p = 0.003) compared to N-NfL group (n = 76). In linear regression analyses plasma NfL emerged as the best predictor of 2-year motor progression compared to age, sex, disease duration, baseline motor/non-motor variables. CONCLUSION: increased plasma NfL concentration is associated with malignant PD phenotype and faster motor progression. These findings support the role of NfL assessment as a useful measure for stratifying patients with different baseline slopes of decline in future clinical trials of putative disease-modifying treatments

10Gbps POF ribbon transmission for optical interconnects

In this paper, we present a solution for optical interconnects with Polymer Optical Fibers, based on a parallel approach: a ribbon made or 4 fibers is used in conjunction with a VCSEL array and a photodiode array, for transmitting a total data rate of 10Gbps over a distance of 25m

Steroid-Responsive Encephalitis in Coronavirus Disease 2019

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection has the potential for targeting the central nervous system, and several neurological symptoms have been described in patients with severe respiratory distress. Here, we described the case of a 60-year-old patient with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection but only mild respiratory abnormalities who developed an akinetic mutism attributable to encephalitis. Magnetic resonance imaging was negative, whereas electroencephalography showed generalized theta slowing. Cerebrospinal fluid analyses during the acute stage were negative for SARS-CoV-2, positive for pleocytosis and hyperproteinorrachia, and showed increased interleukin-8 and tumor necrosis factor-α concentrations. Other infectious or autoimmune disorders were excluded. A progressive clinical improvement along with a reduction of cerebrospinal fluid parameters was observed after high-dose steroid treatment, thus arguing for an inflammatory-mediated brain involvement related to COVID-19. ANN NEUROL 2020;88:423–427

Latest results from the POF-ALL EU Project: Toward Improved Capacity over Large-Core Plastic Optical Fibers

We present an overview of the EU STREP project POF-ALL, aimed at developing new low-cost high-speed short reach optical transmission systems based on large core (1mm) Plastic Optical Fibers (POF)

Status and recent results from the POF-ALL EU project: large-core plastic fibers for low cost, high-speed short reach applications

We present an overview of the EU STREP project POF-ALL, aimed at developing new low-cost high-speed short reach optical transmission systems based on large-core Plastic Optical Fibers (POF)

Status and Recent Results from the POF-ALL EU Project: Toward Improved Capacity and New Application of Large-Core POF

We present an overview of the EU STREP project POF-ALL, aimed at developing new low-cost high-speed short reach optical transmission systems based on large-core (1 mm) Plastic Optical Fibers (POF). Best results include 100 Mbit/s transmission over 200 m of standard SI-PMMA-POF, and 1 Gbit/s transmission over 50 m of GI-PMMA- POF. It is generally shown that the ultimate POF capacity in terms of reach and/or bit rates is much higher than what it is typically perceived in the POF community. The project consortium proposes advanced modulation techniques applied to optics, such as multilevel PAM, QAM or even OFDM, or advanced digital equalization techniques. There seems to be a rationale for all these techniques in the medium term, due to the steady increase of performance and decrease of cost of digital electronics. Thus, moving a part of the complexity from the 'optical domain' to the 'electronic domain', or at least finding the best compromise between the two domains may become the most effective solutions in the near future. This is a trend that is also seen today in the long-haul GOF sector