Multigigabit/s demultiplexing in optical domain using coherence properties of pulse trains from multiple, asynchronous mode-locked lasers

It is shown that the unique coherence properties of mode-locked lasers can be exploited to provide new opportunities for high-speed data transmission. Using passive Mach-Zehnder optical delay stages, very high bit rate optical data streams constructed from asynchronously combined transmitters can be demultiplexed directly in the optical domain, without imposing restrictions on the source wavelength. Potential implementation and performance of the technique are discussed.<>     

Spinal abscess of Haemophilus paraphrophilus. A case report

STUDY DESIGN: A case of paraspinal abscess formation from Haemophilus paraphrophilus is presented. OBJECTIVES: To describe a case of paraspinal abscess formation from H. paraphrophilus, a fastidious commensal organism of the mouth and pharynx. A precise bacteriologic identification can be difficult; techniques for such identification are discussed. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Spinal abscess caused by H. paraphrophilus is unusual and can be very difficult to diagnose. METHODS: The etiology, clinical presentation, technical examinations, and treatment are reviewed. RESULTS: Prolonged antibiotic treatment was curative, although surgery was considered. CONCLUSIONS: Bacteriologic diagnoses in these rare infections are difficult. Antibiotic therapy was curative in the patient described.     

Unified modeling technique for high-viscosity,melt-phase,condensation polymer reactors

Mathematical models for chemical reaction and mass transfer occurring in the manufacture of high-viscosity condensation polymers are considered. A preliminary study indicates that several diverse models can be represented using a single formula based upon an effectiveness factor. The effectiveness factor is shown to depend upon a ratio of time scales of mixing and reaction. The formula giving the effectiveness factor in terms of the time scales ratio is shown to depend upon mixing assumptions only. Starting with a mixing-cell model, a new modeling framework is developed and shown to include the previous models as special cases. The framework is free of inherent mixing assumptions and can be applied to a wide variety of situations once the mixing characteristics are specified. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Coherence coding for photonic code-division multiple accessnetworks

We analyze a code-division multiple access technique where information is optically encoded by manipulating the coherence between a pair of transmitted signals. Key features are intrinsic security, operation of the receiver at only the bit rate of a single channel, and reconfiguration without switching optical delays, which are considerable advantages compared to previously proposed CDMA schemes. Experimental results demonstrating the basic operation of the scheme are presented. The performance limitations are calculated and novel implementations are proposed     

To boldly go: an occam-π mission to engineer emergence

Future systems will be too complex to design and implement explicitly. Instead, we will have to learn to engineer complex behaviours indirectly: through the discovery and application of local rules of behaviour, applied to simple process components, from which desired behaviours predictably emerge through dynamic interactions between massive numbers of instances. This paper describes a process-oriented architecture for fine-grained concurrent systems that enables experiments with such indirect engineering. Examples are presented showing the differing complex behaviours that can arise from minor (non-linear) adjustments to low-level parameters, the difficulties in suppressing the emergence of unwanted (bad) behaviour, the unexpected relationships between apparently unrelated physical phenomena (shown up by their separate emergence from the same primordial process swamp) and the ability to explore and engineer completely new physics (such as force fields) by their emergence from low-level process interactions whose mechanisms can only be imagined, but not built, at the current time.     

Materials systems for interleave toughening in polymer composites

We review the literature describing the use of interleaves to increase interlaminar fracture toughness in fibre-reinforced polymer composites and hence to improve damage tolerance. From an analysis of data provided in the literature from the use of microfibre and nanofibre interleaves, we show that the performance of these widely researched systems is clearly differentiated when plotted against the mean coverage of the interleaf. Using a simple analysis, we suggest that this can be attributed to the influence of their porous architectures on the infusion of resin. We show also that the superior toughening performance of microfibre interleaves is only weakly influenced by the choice of fibre. We find also that the inclusion of carbon nanotubes within interleaves to deliver multifunctional composites can be optimised by using a hybrid system with microfibres.

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MR high-resolution imaging of arterial intimal hyperplasia at 1.5 T

Intimal hyperplasia is the earliest microscopic change detectable in the arterial wall in the development of arteriosclerosis and atherosclerosis. To enable high-resolution imaging of this, a standard 1.5-T machine was modified using inserted gradient coils of 30 cm internal diameter and surface radio-frequency coils. Six rabbit aorta specimens with injury-induced intimal hyperplasia and two normal rabbit aorta specimens were imaged using a spin-echo sequence of TE 40. Pixel sizes as small as 20 µ×20 µ could be obtained and the area of intimal hyperplasia could be measured at 80 µ×40 µ. The results were compared with those made by a computer-linked microscope. In the injured aortas, there was a low-signal region on magnetic resonance imaging which corresponded to the media of the vessel wall when compared with the histology.T ₁ andT ₂ constants for the media were determined and compared with those of a normal specimen. TheT ₁ constant was shorter for the media of the injured aorta than in the normal. This could be related to the disruption of the internal elastic lamina and migration of muscle cells to the intima which occurs following injury. The popliteal artery of four normal volunteers was imaged and the area of the wall could be measured at a pixel size of 312 µ×160 µ. This suggests thatin vivo studies of intimal hyperplasia arteriosclerosis and atherosclerosis could be made.     

High-speed,high-sensitivity,gated surface profiling with closed-loop optical coherence topography

We describe and experimentally demonstrate a novel (to our knowledge) surface profiling technique, for which we propose the term closed-loop optical coherence topography. This technique is a scanning beam, servo-locked variation of low-coherence interferometry. It allows for the sub-wavelength-resolution tracking of a weakly scattering macroscopic-scale surface, with the surface profile being directly output by the controlling electronics. The absence of significant real-time computational overhead makes the technique well suited to high-speed tracking. The use of a micrometer-scale coherence gate efficiently suppresses signals arising from structures not associated with the surface. These features make the technique particularly well suited to real-time surface profiling of in vivo, macroscopic biological surfaces.     

Effect of alcohol consumption on adult and aged bone: a histomorphometric study of the rat animal model

The adult and aged skeleton exist in a time when osteoporosis and age-related bone loss is at a maximum, and it is modified by lifestyle factors such as alcohol. To determine the effect of life-long alcohol consumption on the adult and aged rat model, 4-week-old female Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into three diet groups. Alcohol-treated animals were fed a modified Lieber-DeCarli diet ad libitum containing 35% ethanol-derived calories, whereas the pair-fed animals (weight-matched to ethanol rats) received an isocaloric liquid diet in which maltose-dextrin substituted calories supplied by ethanol. Chow animals were fed a standard rat chow ad libitum. Proximal tibiae were removed and prepared for histomorphometric analysis after 3, 6, 9, 12, or 18 months on the diets. Previous studies, with young animals, showed that chronic alcohol consumption during the age of bone development reduced bone volume and trabecular number in cancellous bone. The present study demonstrates that these reductions last throughout life. The rate of bone formation is reduced in alcohol-fed animals, but most bone cell parameters are relative normal, except for wall thickness, indicating a reduced osteoblast activity.