Photo-activated pheophorbide a inhibits the growth of prostate cancer cells

Pheophorbide a (PhA) was identified as a photosensitizer to exert cytotoxicity on tumor cells. However, the efficacy of this compound on the treatment of prostate cancer remains unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate the photodynamic effect of PhA on prostate cancer cells. Cellular uptake of PhA and cell viability after photo-activation was studied in LNCaP prostate cancer cells. The corresponding production of reactive oxygen species within cells was determined after photodynamic therapy (PDT). Our results showed that the uptake of PhA into LNCaP cells was in a time-dependent manner and the cytotoxicity of PhA-PDT was photosensitizer dose- and light dose-dependent. The intracellular reactive oxygen species was remarkably induced after PDT treatment, which was responsible for the inhibition effect on prostate cancer cells. This is the first report to evaluate the photodynamic effect of PhA on prostate cancer. Our findings demonstrate that PhA-PDT may be a potentially promising treatment for localized prostate cancer, which can be a therapeutic option after the failures of radiotherapy and hormone therapy.     

A cost-effective WDM-PON architecture simultaneously supporting wired, wireless and optical VPN services

It is believed that next-generation passive optical networks (PONs) are required to provide flexible and various services to users in a cost-effective way. To address this issue, for the first time, this paper proposes and demonstrates a novel wavelength-division-multiplexed PON (WDM-PON) architecture to simultaneously support three types of services: 1) wireless access traffic, 2) optical virtual passive network (VPN) communications, and 3) conventional wired services. In the optical line terminal (OLT), we use two cascaded Mach-Zehnder modulators (MZMs) on each wavelength channel to generate an optical carrier, and produce the wireless and the downstream traffic using the orthogonal modulation technique. In each optical network unit (ONU), the obtained optical carrier is modulated by a single MZM to provide the VPN and upstream communications. Consequently, the light sources in the ONUs are saved and the system cost is reduced. The feasibility of our proposal is experimentally and numerically verified.     

Microstructure, optical and static recording properties of AgOx film, and near-field simulation of sub-wavelength aperture based on the AgOx marks’ formation

Structures, spectra and surface topographies of as-deposited and annealed AgO_x films have been investigated by an X-ray diffractometer, a spectrophotometer and an atomic force microscopy (AFM). X-ray diffraction and spectrum results show that the as-deposited AgO_x films with high oxygen ratios (x≥0.5) are in amorphous states and Ag crystalline particles will separate out after annealed. AFM results show that the film surface will become much rougher and film thickness will increase greatly after annealed due to the decomposition of AgO_x with release of oxygen. Static recording results show that two microstructures of the recording marks can be produced: one is the bubble mark at a low recording power and the other is the rupture bubble with an ablated aperture (hole) in the center at a high recording power. Based on the formation of rupture bubble marks, the near-field optical distribution of a focused Gaussian laser beam through a sub-wavelength aperture (200 nm in diameter) has been simulated using finite-difference-time-domain (FDTD) method. Results show that the spot size can be greatly squeezed with still highly transmitted intensity, which may lead to the super-resolution readout.     

弱光紫外星模拟器的研制

为了解决月基紫外深空观测相机地面定标的难题,研制了一种动态范围大、星等模拟精度高的紫外星模拟器。该模拟器采用5 m离轴光管作为准直光学系统,用双积分球系统作为均匀光源,可模拟3～16等星的弱目标,其星等最小分辨率为0.2等星,星等不确定度为5.48%。通过试验证明,该星模拟器完全满足月基紫外弱光星等深空观测相机地面定标的试验要求,不仅可以在实验室内标定紫外观测相机的探测能力和灵敏度,还可用于测试观测相机的其它参数指标,为发展深空高轨探测相机提供了地面定标基础。     

New application of human eye model in the verification of spot diagram with refractive diopter

In response to the rapid advancement of auto-refractor technology, most optometry shops provide refraction services. Despite their speed and convenience, the measurement values provided by auto-refractors include a significant degree of error due to psychological and physical factors. Therefore, there is a need for repetitive testing to obtain a smaller mean error value. However, even repetitive testing itself might not be sufficient to ensure accurate measurements. Therefore, research on a method of measurement that can complement auto-refractor measurements and provide confirmation of refraction results needs to be conducted. The customized optometry model described herein can satisfy the above requirements. From the existing optical technologies, using human eye measurement devices to obtain individual relevant optical feature parameters is no longer difficult. These parameters allow us to construct an optometry model for individual eyeballs. They also allow us to compute spot diagrams produced from the optometry model using the CODE V macro programming language before recognizing the geometrical spot diagram with the back-propagation neural network algorithm to obtain the accurate refractive diopter. Results show that the accuracy achieved was above 98% and that this application could significantly enhance the service quality of refraction.     

A maximum-efficiency-first multi-path route selection strategy for optical burst switching networks

In this paper, the impact of a path selection on other existing paths in optical burst switching (OBS) networks is studied by analyzing the contention among different traffic streams and the interaction between the route selection and traffic load balance. The results show that there exists a mutual reinforcement interaction among the traffic load of a path, the path burst loss ratio and the contention ability of the path when burst loss ratio based multi-path selection strategies are adopted, which may increase the unbalance of traffic and lead to severe congestion further. A maximum-efficiency-first multi-path selection strategy, which considers the performance of the burst flows and the impact of a path selection on existing OBS paths at the same time by a combined metric of route efficiency, is proposed to maximize the utility of the burst flows and minimize the increment of lost throughput on the path. The performance of the proposed multi-path selection strategy is evaluated through simulation. The results show that the presented strategy obviously outperforms the least burst loss ratio strategy and shortest path first strategy in terms of the burst loss ratio in the practical unbalanced background traffic, especially when the network is heavily loaded.     

Virtual topology design scheme with energy efficiency for IP over elastic optical networks

The rapid growth of the Internet raises the importance of resource planning of Internet protocol（IP） over elastic optical networks（EONs）, which is a challenging task due to more complex and obscure physical constraints of it. Compared with network cost, the power consumption may eventually become the barrier to the expansion of the Internet. We present an energy-efficient virtual topology design（VTD） scheme for IP over EON. We explicitly explain and analyze the mixed integer linear programming model and the heuristic algorithm for this scheme. Numerical results show that the proposed VTD scheme can significantly save power consumption.     

Na_2Ge_2Se_5电子结构和光学性质的第一性原理研究

Na_2Ge_2Se_5是一种优异的红外非线性晶体材料.采用基于第一性原理的密度泛函理论赝势平面波方法对Na_2Ge_2Se_5进行结构优化,并以此为基础计算研究了Na_2Ge_2Se_5的电子结构和光学性质.结果表明:Na2Ge2Se5是宽禁带间接带隙半导体,价带至导带的电子跃迁主要来自于Ge和Se的48,4p态;Na对光学性质的贡献较小,Ge和Se之间的相互耦合作用决定了Na_2Ge_2Se_5的光学性质;该晶体在紫外区有强烈的反射和吸收,静态折射率为2.133,双折射率值适中,为0.145.理论计算结果表明,Na_2Ge_2Se_5是一种性能优良的红外非线性光学晶体材料.     

Functional organic single crystals for solid‐state laser applications

Because of long‐range order and high chemical purity, organic crystals have exhibit unique properties and attracted a lot of interest for application in solid‐state lasers. As optical gain materials, they exhibit high stimulated emission cross section and broad tunable wavelength emission as similar to their amorphous counterpart; moreover, high purity and high order give them superior properties such as low scattering trap densities, high thermal stability, as well as highly polarized emission. As electronic materials, they are potentially able to support high current densities, thus making it possible to realize current driven lasers. This paper mainly describes recent research progress in organic semiconductor laser crystals. The building molecules, crystal growth methods, as well as their stimulated emission characteristics related with crystal structures are introduced; in addition, the current state‐of‐the‐art in the field of crystal laser devices is reviewed. Furthermore, recent advances of crystal lasers at the nanoscale and single crystal light‐emitting transistors (LETs) are presented. Finally, an outlook and personal view is provided on the further developments of laser crystals and their applications.