Promoting Sustainable Food Consumption: An Agent-Based Model About Outcomes of Small Shop Openings

A useful way of promoting sustainable food consumption is to consider the spread of food retail operations focused on food diversification, food specialization, and fresh and local products. These food shops are generally small, which is a great problem for survival against ruthless competition from supermarkets. Our research objective was to construct a simulation with an agent-based model, reproducing the local food consumption market and to investigate how a new, small food retailing shop interacts with this market. As a case study, the model simulates the opening of a small farmers' market. The intent of the model is to reproduce the current status of consumption for food products within a certain territorial context and given time period, and to investigate how consumers' behaviour changes with the opening of the new shop. As a result, we could predict changes in consumers' habits, the economic positioning of new, small shops and its best location. This information is of considerable interest for farmers' markets and also for policymakers

Experimental Demonstration of Flexible Bandwidth Optical Data Center Core Network With All-to-All Interconnectivity

This paper proposes and demonstrates a flexible-bandwidth optical interconnect architecture for data centers exploiting wavelength routing in arrayed waveguide grating routers and fast tunable lasers. The proposed architecture provides hierarchical all-to-all connectivity with low contention and dynamic interconnection reconfiguration for higher bandwidth provisioning between hot spots. An eight-cluster core network experiment testbed with hierarchical all-to-all interconnection shows 1.77x throughput increase and 1.19x network energy efficiency improvement in the case of intercluster hot-spot traffic, while guaranteeing more than 97% throughput for the portion of the traffic with uniform random distribution

Split spectrum: a multi-channel approach to elastic optical networking

This paper introduces Split Spectrum, which enhances elastic optical networking by splitting a bulk traffic demand into multiple channels, when a single-channel transmission is prohibited by distance or spectrum availability. We performed transmission simulations to determine the maximum reach as a function of modulation format (dual polarization BPSK, QPSK, 16QAM), baud-rate (from 5 to 28 GBd), and number of ROADMs, for a Nyquist WDM super-channel with subcarrier spacing equal to 1.2 x baud-rate. Performance evaluation on two representative topologies shows that, compared to the previously proposed elastic optical networking, Split Spectrum doubles the zero-blocking load and achieves 100% higher network spectral efficiency at zero-blocking loads as a result of extended transmission distance and efficient utilization of spectrum fragments. (C) 2012 Optical Society of Americ

System feasibility of using stimulated Brillouin scattering in self coherent detection schemes

We demonstrate the first self-coherent detection of 10 Gbit/s BPSK signals based on narrow-band amplification of the optical carrier by means of Stimulated Brillouin effect in a common fiber. We found that this technique is very effective only if it is combined with proper line coding and high-pass electrical filtering at the receiver. In this case we obtain OSNR-performance close to the ideal coherent receiver. (C) 2010 Optical Society of Americ

On Incentive-Driven VNF Service Chaining in Inter-Datacenter Elastic Optical Networks: A Hierarchical Game-Theoretic Mechanism

In this paper, we propose an incentive-driven virtual network function service chaining (VNF-SC) framework for optimizing the cross-stratum resource provisioning in multi-broker orchestrated inter-datacenter elastic optical networks (IDC-EONs). The proposed framework employs a non-cooperative hierarchical game-theoretic mechanism, where the resource brokers and the VNF-SC users play the leader and the follower games, respectively. In the leader game, the brokers calculate VNF-SC service schemes for users and compete for the provisioning tasks. While in the follower game, the users compete for VNF-SC services for jointly optimizing the resource cost and the received quality-of-service. We first elaborate on the modeling of the follower game, discuss the existence of Nash equilibrium and propose a mixed-strategy gaming approach enabled by an auxiliary graph-based algorithm to facilitate users selecting the most appropriate service schemes. Then, under the assumption that the brokers are aware of the principle of the follower game, we present the model for the leader game and develop a time-efficient heuristic algorithm for brokers to compete for the provisioning tasks. Simulations show that the proposed incentive-driven VNF-SC framework significantly improves the network throughput (i.e., >4.8× blocking reduction) while assisting users and brokers in achieving higher utilities compared with existing solutions

An Abstract Look at Awareness Models and Their Dynamics

This work builds upon a well-established research tradition on modal logics of awareness. One of its aims is to export tools and techniques to other areas within modal logic. To this end, we illustrate a number of significant bridges with abstract argumentation, justification logics, the epistemic logic of knowing-what and deontic logic, where basic notions and definitional concepts can be expressed in terms of the awareness operator combined with the box modality. Furthermore, these conceptual links point to interesting properties of awareness sets beyond those standardly assumed in awareness logics, i.e. positive and negative introspection. We show that the properties we list are characterised by corresponding canonical formulas, so as to obtain a series of off-the-shelf axiomatisations for them. As a second focus, we investigate the general dynamics of this framework by means of event models. Of specific interest in this context is to know under which conditions, given a model that satisfies some property, the update with an event model keeps it within the intended class. This is known as the closure problem in general dynamic epistemic logics. As a main contribution, we prove a number of closure theorems providing sufficient conditions for the preservation of our properties. Again, these results enable us to axiomatize our dynamic logics by means of reduction axioms.Comment: In Proceedings TARK 2023, arXiv:2307.0400

Stacked optical antennas for plasmon propagation in a 5 nm-confined cavity

The sub-wavelength concentration and propagation of electromagnetic energy are two complementary aspects of plasmonics that are not necessarily co-present in a single nanosystem. Here we exploit the strong nanofocusing properties of stacked optical antennas in order to highly concentrate the electromagnetic energy into a 5 nm metal-insulator-metal (MIM) cavity and convert free radiation into guided modes. The proposed nano-architecture combines the concentration properties of optical nanoantennas with the propagation capability of MIM systems, paving the way to highly miniaturized on-chip plasmonic waveguiding

"WDM-DPSK Detection by means of Frequency-Periodic Gaussian Filtering"

A single frequency-periodic narrow filter converts DPSK to intensity modulation in a high number of WDM channels. It also strongly enhances their tolerance to chromatic dispersion and is exploited in a 16x10 Gbit/s transmission over 240 km G.652 fibre with no chromatic dispersion compensation

Microwave broadband characterization of aging of SU-8 polymer as CPW substrate

In this paper we present the methodology and the numerical results related to the analysis of aging of the SU- 8 polymer when used as a primary layer for the realization of Coplanar Waveguide (CPW) structures. As test devices, we used a set of transmission lines with different lengths and T-shaped open stubs shunt resonators; by using these geometries, we are able to acquire the data in a broadband range, in principle between 1 GHz and 40 GHz. We conduct the analysis by comparing two different technology run: the first wafer with a deposited layer by a 12-year-old SU-8 and the second wafer, with the same photolithographed metallic geometries, with a brand-new processed SU-8 photoresist

Blind modulation format identification using nonlinear power transformation

This paper proposes and experimentally demonstrates a blind modulation format identification (MFI) method delivering high accuracy (> 99%) even in a low OSNR regime (< 10 dB). By using nonlinear power transformation and peak detection, the proposed MFI can recognize whether the signal modulation format is BPSK, QPSK, 8-PSK or 16-QAM. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed MFI can achieve a successful identification rate as high as 99% when the incoming signal OSNR is 7 dB. Key parameters, such as FFT length and laser phase noise tolerance of the proposed method, have been characterized