Terbium-doped garnet single crystals as X-ray-sensitive phosphors

The spectra of luminescence induced by synchrotron radiation in the fundamental absorption range were measured at 10 and 300 K for Czochralski-grown bulk Y₃Al₅O₁₂ single crystals doped with Tb³⁺ ions and for (Tb,La,Gd)₃Ga₅O₁₂ single crystal films grown by liquid phase epitaxy from a PbO-B₂O₃ based supercooled solution melt on Gd₃Ga₅O₁₂ substrates.     

Eye tracking — A new interface for visual exploration

Eye-tracking technology offers a natural and immediate way of communicating human intentions to a computer. Eye movements reflect interests and may be analysed to drive computer functionality in games, image and video search, and other visual tasks. This paper examines current eye tracking technologies and their applications. Experiments are described that show that target images can be identified more rapidly by eye tracking than using a mouse interface. Further results show that an eye-tracking technology provides an efficient interface for locating images in a large database. Finally the paper speculates about how the technology may enter the mass market as costs decrease.     

Virtual Fiber Configuration for Dynamic Lightpath Establishment in Large-scaled Optical Networks

Recently, progress has been made in the Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) and Automatic Switched Optical Networks (ASON) standardizations. These technologies realize construction of large-scaled optical networks, interconnections among single-domain Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) networks, and direct communication over multi-domain WDM networks. Meanwhile, it is known that the topology of the Internet exhibits the power-law attribute. Since the topology of the Internet, which is constructed by interconnecting ASs, exhibits the power-law, there is a possibility that large-scale WDM networks, which are constructed by interconnecting WDM networks, will also exhibit the power-law attribute. One of the structural properties of a topology that adheres to the power-law is that most nodes have just a few links, although some have a tremendous number of them. Another property is that the average distance between nodes is smaller than in a mesh-like network. A natural question is how such a structural property performs in WDM networks. In this paper, we first investigate the property of the power-law attribute of physical topologies for WDM networks. We compare the performance of WDM networks with mesh-like and power-law topologies, and show that links connected to high-degree nodes are bottlenecks in power-law topologies. To relax this, we introduce a concept of virtual fiber, which consists of two or more fibers, and propose its configuration method to utilize wavelength resources more effectively. We compare performances of power-law networks with and without our method by computer simulations. The results show that our method reduces the blocking probabilities by more than one order of magnitude.     

Optically Tunable Nonlinearities in Polymers Based on Photoisomerizable Metal‐Based Coordination Complexes

The bottom‐up design of polymer films exhibiting quadratic nonlinear optical properties that can be tuned optically and chemically is described. The polymer matrices are doped with metal‐containing chromophores built around a Zn^II core and photoisomerizable ligands with two different geometries. These molecules possess specifically designed photophysical and nonlinear optical properties to be used towards all‐optical poling, an interference process between one‐ and two‐photon excitations that locally induces macroscopic second‐order effects in polymer films. It is shown that grafting the molecules onto the polymer chains improves the stability of the macroscopic photoinduced nonlinearity in the films.     

Methods and results of tests of a large model of the TUK-84 container

Tests of a prototype model of TUK-84 and the corresponding experimental procedures used at the test center of the All-Russia Research Institute of Technical Physics are described. The results are presented, and it is shown that the prototype withstood the tests. __________ Translated from Atomnaya énergiya, Vol. 100, No. 6, pp. 441–445, June, 2006.     

Interaction between monitorability indicators and operational characteristics of communications equipment

This article considers the influence of changes in monitorability indicators on the operational characteristics of communications equipment. For indicators of monitorability we take the depth of defect search, failure localizability, overhead, and others. Among the operational characteristics, those considered include time to repair, probability of undetected failure, probability of failure-free operation, etc. The results obtained make it possible to estimate, during the design phase, the influence of changes in monitorability factors on the operational characteristics of equipment and to make selections that meet given requirements. Translated from Izmeritel'naya Tekhnika, No. 6, pp. 23–26, June, 1996.     

Antithrombotic effect of recombinant truncated tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI1-161) in experimental venous thrombosis--a comparison with low molecular weight heparin

The aim was to investigate whether a truncated recombinant Tissue Factor Pathway Inhibitor (TFPI1-161), which lacked the third Kunitz-type domain and the basic c-terminal region, had an antithrombotic effect comparable to LMWH in a randomised double-dummy study. The experimental thrombosis was induced in jugular veins, in a total of 40 rabbits by a combination of destruction of the endothelium and restricted blood flow. Group 1: placebo, gr 2: LMWH 60 anti-FXa IU/kg, gr 3-5: 0.1, 1.0 and 10.0 mg/kg TFPI1-161. TFPI1-161 reduced the thrombus weights in all treated groups, significantly in doses of 1.0 and 10.0 mg/kg compared to placebo. The frequency of thrombosis and occlusive thrombosis were also significantly reduced in those doses. The antithrombotic properties of TFPI1-161 (1.0-10.0 mg/kg) measured as thrombus weight, frequency of thrombosis and frequency of occlusive thrombosis was equivalent to the anti-thrombotic properties of LMWH. In the anti-FXa, APTT and PT-assays TFPI1-161 displayed a dose dependent increase of activity. Recombinant-TFPI1-161 did not influence the anti-FIIa-assay. No haemorrhagic side effects were noted.