Recent Community Property Decisions

Covers cases on the character of federal savings bonds purchased with community funds and property acquired under installment purchase contracts

Integrated silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) frequency shifter

We demonstrate a waveguide-based frequency shifter on the silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) platform, enabling frequency shifts up to 10 GHz. Spurious side-modes are suppressed by more than 23 dB using temporal shaping of the drive signal

Integrated optical frequency shifter in silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) technology

We demonstrate for the first time a waveguide-based frequency shifter on the silicon photonic platform using single-sideband modulation. The device is based on silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) electro-optic modulators, which combine conventional silicon-on-insulator waveguides with highly efficient electro-optic cladding materials. Using small-signal modulation, we demonstrate frequency shifts of up to 10 GHz. We further show large-signal modulation with optimized waveforms, enabling a conversion efficiency of -5.8 dB while suppressing spurious side-modes by more than 23dB. In contrast to conventional acousto-optic frequency shifters, our devices lend themselves to large-scale integration on silicon substrates, while enabling frequency shifts that are several orders of magnitude larger than those demonstrated with all-silicon serrodyne devices

Integrated optical frequency shifter in silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) technology

We demonstrate for the first time a waveguide-based frequency shifter on the silicon photonic platform using single-sideband modulation. The device is based on silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) electro-optic modulators, which combine conventional silicon-on-insulator waveguides with highly efficient electro-optic cladding materials. Using small-signal modulation, we demonstrate frequency shifts of up to 10 GHz. We further show large-signal modulation with optimized waveforms, enabling a conversion efficiency of -5.8 dB while suppressing spurious side-modes by more than 23dB. In contrast to conventional acousto-optic frequency shifters, our devices lend themselves to large-scale integration on silicon substrates, while enabling frequency shifts that are several orders of magnitude larger than those demonstrated with all-silicon serrodyne devices

Developing a health and human rights training program for french speaking Africa: lessons learned, from needs assessment to a pilot program

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The importance of human rights education has widely been recognized as one of the strategies for their protection and promotion of health. Yet training programs have not always taken into account neither local needs, nor public health relevance, nor pedagogical efficacy.</p> <p>The objectives of our study were to assess, in a participative way, educational needs in the field of health and human rights among potential trainees in six French-speaking African countries and to test the feasibility of a training program through a pilot test. Ultimately the project aims to implement <it>a health and human rights training program most appropriate to the African context</it>.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p><it>Needs assessment </it>was done according to four approaches: Revue of available data on health and human rights in the targeted countries; Country visits by one of the authors meeting key institutions; Focus group discussions with key-informants in each country; A questionnaire-based study targeting health professionals and human rights activists.</p> <p><it>Pilot training program</it>: an interactive e-learning pilot program was developed integrating training needs expressed by partner institutions and potential trainees.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Needs assessment showed high public health and human rights challenges that the target countries have to face. It also showed precise demands of partner institutions in regard to a health and human rights training program. It further allowed defining training objectives and core competencies useful to potential employers and future students as well as specific training contents.</p> <p>A pilot program allowed testing the motivation of students, the feasibility of an interactive educational approach and identifying potential difficulties.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In combining various approaches our study was able to show that training needs concentrate around tools allowing the identification of basic human rights violations in the health system, the analysis of their causes and coordinated responses through specific intervention projects.</p

Kontaktloser interferometrischer Dehnungssensor

In diesem Beitrag wird ein interferometrischer Sensor vorgestellt, der eine mechanische Dehnung mit Hilfe einer differentiellen Laser-Doppler-Messung auf einer technischen Oberfläche kontaktlos misst und für die Betriebsfestigkeitsprüfung entworfen wurde. Der Sensor erfasst die Auslenkungen an zwei nebeneinanderliegenden Messpunkten in der Ebene senkrecht zu der durch eine Empfangslinse definierten optischen Achse (in-Plane). Die mittlere Dehnung zwischen beiden Messpunkten wird durch die Diffe-renzauslenkung bezogen auf den Abstand der beiden Messstellen angegeben. Ein ma-thematisches Modell wurde für den Entwurf eines optimalen optischen Aufbaus und für die Ermittlung der theoretischen physikalischen Auflösungsgrenze des Sensors erarbei-tet. Wir stellen in diesem Beitrag unser Modell, ein optimiertes Sensordesign und das Messsignal bzw. das Trägersignal vor

White-Etching-Cracks-Detektion an Wälzlagern mit Laser-Doppler-Vibrometer

Failure modes, White Etching Cracks (WECs) and White Etching Areas (WEAs), ap-pear prevalently in rolling contact bearings. There is still a lack of efficient methods to identify such failure modes as early as possible before the visible crack appears on the bearing surface. In this article, a comparison was done between the measured opera-tional deflection shapes (ODS) from a rolling contact bearing with and without WECs and WEAs. The measurement was obtained by using a self-designed vibrometer robot system. A modal shaker was used to excite the bearing. The comparison was done by using the Cross Signature Assurance Criterion (CSAC), which checks the correlation between two ODS’s. The results show that the ODS’s from the bearing with and with-out WECs and WEAs are not correlated in the frequency spectrum. Therefore monitor-ing the ODS’s of the bearing by using the CSAC criterion seems to be feasible to de-tect the existence of WECs and WEAs in bearings. In order to check the applicability of the CSAC method, a further test was performed on a small-scaled bearing test bench by using a multipoint vibrometer. The results show that the CSAC method is applicable to detect changing of vibration behavior of the system even with influence from the drive unit of the test bench