Multimedia transmission in fiber-optic LANs using optical CDMA

In this paper, we address the problem of multimedia transmission in fiber-optic networks. We apply the code-division multiple-access (CDMA) technique for such a network. The necessary conditions for successful operation of the network are given. It is shown that for successful operation, new families of optical orthogonal codes (OOCs) are needed which will have not only good correlation properties within one code family, but also between families of different code lengths. Some possible constructions of multimedia OOCs and the corresponding basic structure of the receiver for the multimedia network are given. Specific examples of OOCs for the case of users with two different data rates are given, and the probability of error (using the Gaussian approximation) as a function of the number of low and high rate users is calculated     

Low Replicative Stress Triggers Cell-Type Specific Inheritable Advanced Replication Timing

DNA replication timing (RT), reflecting the temporal order of origin activation, is known as a robust and conserved cell-type specific process. Upon low replication stress, the slowing of replication forks induces well-documented RT delays associated to genetic instability, but it can also generate RT advances that are still uncharacterized. In order to characterize these advanced initiation events, we monitored the whole genome RT from six independent human cell lines treated with low doses of aphidicolin. We report that RT advances are cell-type-specific and involve large heterochromatin domains. Importantly, we found that some major late to early RT advances can be inherited by the unstressed next-cellular generation, which is a unique process that correlates with enhanced chromatin accessibility, as well as modified replication origin landscape and gene expression in daughter cells. Collectively, this work highlights how low replication stress may impact cellular identity by RT advances events at a subset of chromosomal domains.     

Hierarchically porous polymeric materials from ternary polymer blends

Hierarchically porous polymers with controllable pore size were generated through a novel polymer blending strategy in an A/B/C–B–C ternary blend system. Polylactide/high-density polyethylene/poly(styrene-ethylene/butylene-styrene) triblock copolymer (PLA/HDPE/SEBS) was used as a model system to demonstrate this technique. During melt blending, the SEBS was driven into the HDPE phase owing to the presence of the PE block in the copolymer. With proper volume fractions of PLA/HDPE/SEBS (e.g., 50/25/25), a bi-modal, dual co-continuous morphology was obtained and hierarchically porous polymeric materials were further generated by selectively removing the PLA and SEBS phases. Annealing and compositional variation were further employed to control the pore size and it is shown that the length scales of the two co-continuous morphologies can be controlled independently.