Page composer to translate binary electrical data to optical form

Composer converts binary data to optical form for storage as hologram. Device consists of an array of deformable metal membranes controlled by MOSFET's. Device is fast, produces high contrast ratios, does not degrade with extended use, and can be addressed from diverse angles

Exchangeable Random Networks

We introduce and study a class of exchangeable random graph ensembles. They can be used as statistical null models for empirical networks, and as a tool for theoretical investigations. We provide general theorems that carachterize the degree distribution of the ensemble graphs, together with some features that are important for applications, such as subgraph distributions and kernel of the adjacency matrix. These results are used to compare to other models of simple and complex networks. A particular case of directed networks with power-law out--degree is studied in more detail, as an example of the flexibility of the model in applications.Comment: to appear on "Internet Mathematics

Preliminary evaluation of probiotic properties of Lactobacillus strains isolated from Sardinian dairy products

Twenty-three Lactobacillus strains of dairy origin were evaluated for some functional properties relevant to their use as probiotics. A preliminary subtractive screening based on the abilities to inhibit the growth of microbial pathogens and hydrolyze conjugated bile salts was applied, and six strains were selected for further characterization including survival under gastrointestinal environmental conditions, adhesion to gut epithelial tissue, enzymatic activity, and some safety properties. All selected strains maintained elevated cell numbers under conditions simulating passage through the human gastrointestinal tract, well comparable to the values obtained for the probiotic strain Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, and were able to adhere to Caco-2 cells to various extents (from 3 to 20%). All strains exhibited high aminopeptidase, and absent or very low proteolytic and strong β-galactosidase activities; none was found to be haemolytic or to produce biogenic amines and all were susceptible to tetracycline, chloramphenicol, erythromycin, ampicillin, and amoxicillin/clavulanic acid. Our results indicate that the Lactobacillus strains analyzed could be considered appropriate probiotic candidates, due to resistance to GIT simulated conditions, antimicrobial activity, adhesion to Caco-2 cell-line, and absence of undesirable properties. They could be used as adjunct cultures for contributing to the quality and health related functional properties of dairy products

11th European Headache Federation Congress jointly with 31st Congress of the Italian Society for the Study of Headaches : Rome, Italy. 01-03 December 2017

. Aims of the study were explore the relationship between peripheral chromatic and central visual dysfunction evaluating also the presence of functional receptor impairment in patients with migraine, with and without aura examined interictally

Influence of interface potential on the effective mass in Ge nanostructures

The role of the interface potential on the effective mass of charge carriers is elucidated in this work. We develop a new theoretical formalism using a spatially dependent effective mass that is related to the magnitude of the interface potential. Using this formalism we studied Ge quantum dots (QDs) formed by plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) and co-sputtering (sputter). These samples allowed us to isolate important consequences arising from differences in the interface potential. We found that for a higher interface potential, as in the case of PECVD QDs, there is a larger reduction in the effective mass, which increases the confinement energy with respect to the sputter sample. We further understood the action of O interface states by comparing our results with Ge QDs grown by molecular beam epitaxy. It is found that the O states can suppress the influence of the interface potential. From our theoretical formalism we determine the length scale over which the interface potential influences the effective mass

A new coupling solution for G3-PLC employment in MV smart grids

This paper proposes a new coupling solution for transmitting narrowband multicarrier power line communication (PLC) signals over medium voltage (MV) power lines. The proposed system is based on an innovative PLC coupling principle, patented by the authors, which exploits the capacitive divider embedded in voltage detecting systems (VDS) already installed inside the MV switchboard. Thus, no dedicated couplers have to be installed and no switchboard modifications or energy interruptions are needed. This allows a significant cost reduction of MV PLC implementation. A first prototype of the proposed coupling system was presented in previous papers: it had a 15 kHz bandwidth useful to couple single carrier PSK modulated PLC signals with a center frequency from 50–200 kHz. In this paper, a new prototype is developed with a larger bandwidth, up to 164 kHz, thus allowing to couple multicarrier G3-PLC signals using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) digital modulation. This modulation ensures a more robust communication even in harsh power line channels. In the paper, the new coupling system design is described in detail. A new procedure is presented for tuning the coupling system parameters at first installation in a generic MV switchboard. Finally, laboratory and in-field experimental test results are reported and discussed. The coupling performances are evaluated measuring the throughput and success rate in the case of both 18 and 36 subcarriers, in one of the different tone masks standardized for the FCC-above CENELEC band (that is, from 154.6875–487.5 kHz). The experimental results show an efficient behavior of the proposed coupler allowing a two-way communication of G3-PLC OFDM signals on MV networks

Joint scaling laws in functional and evolutionary categories in prokaryotic genomes

We propose and study a class-expansion/innovation/loss model of genome evolution taking into account biological roles of genes and their constituent domains. In our model numbers of genes in different functional categories are coupled to each other. For example, an increase in the number of metabolic enzymes in a genome is usually accompanied by addition of new transcription factors regulating these enzymes. Such coupling can be thought of as a proportional "recipe" for genome composition of the type "a spoonful of sugar for each egg yolk". The model jointly reproduces two known empirical laws: the distribution of family sizes and the nonlinear scaling of the number of genes in certain functional categories (e.g. transcription factors) with genome size. In addition, it allows us to derive a novel relation between the exponents characterising these two scaling laws, establishing a direct quantitative connection between evolutionary and functional categories. It predicts that functional categories that grow faster-than-linearly with genome size to be characterised by flatter-than-average family size distributions. This relation is confirmed by our bioinformatics analysis of prokaryotic genomes. This proves that the joint quantitative trends of functional and evolutionary classes can be understood in terms of evolutionary growth with proportional recipes.Comment: 39 pages, 21 figure