Single PON network design with unconstrained splitting stages

A Passive Optical Network (PON) is a network technology for deploying access networks based on passive optical components. In a single PON access network, the client terminals are connected to a Central Office through optical splitters and interconnecting fibers where each splitter splits in equal parts the input optical signal coming from the Central Office over its different output fibers. In this paper, we consider PON topology solutions where the splitting ratio and the number of splitting stages are not constrained to a given target design but, instead, are decided based on the cost of the solutions. We present different Integer Linear Programming formulations to model this problem and provide computational results showing that the optimal solutions can be computed for realistic problem instances. In addition, we describe how the formulations can be adapted for the traditional PON topology approaches and present computational results showing that significant cost gains are obtained with the unconstrained splitting stage approach.     

NADH Electrocatalytic Oxidation on Gold Nanoparticle‐Modified PVC/TTF‐TCNQ Composite Electrode. Application as Amperometric Sensor

We herein report on the electrocatalytic activity towards the oxidation of NADH of a PVC/TTF‐TCNQ composite electrode modified with gold nanoparticles. This electrocatalytic property allows proposing this system as a new alternative for amperometric determination of NADH, without need to add another mediator. The sensor shows a linear response to NADH over a concentration range from 5.0×10^?6 M up to 5.0×10^?4 M, with a sensitivity of 11.22±0.5 mA M^?1 and a detection limit (S/N=3) of 4.0×10^?6 M for measurements in batch and similar data in FIA.     

Pionic deuterium

The strong-interaction shift ε _1s ^πD and broadening Γ _1s ^πD in pionic deuterium have been determined in a high statistics study of the πD(3p-1s) X-ray transition using a high-resolution crystal spectrometer. The pionic deuterium shift will provide constraints for the pion-nucleon isospin scattering lengths extracted from measurements of shift and broadening in pionic hydrogen. The hadronic broadening is related to pion absorption and production at threshold. The results are ε _1s ^πD = (?2356 ± 31) meV (repulsive) and Γ _1s ^πD meV yielding for the complex πD scattering length a _πD = [?(24.99±0.33)+i(6.22 _?0.26 ^+0.12 )] × 10^?3 m _π ^?1 . From the imaginary part, the threshold parameter for pion production is obtained to be α = (251 _?11 ⁺⁵ ) μb. This allows, in addition, and by using results from pion absorption in ³He at threshold, the determination of the effective couplings g ₀ and g ₁ for s-wave pion absorption on isoscalar and isovector NN pairs.     

Synthesis and characterization of silica-coated nanoparticles of magnetite

Magnetic nanoparticles coated with silica have been subjected of extensive, and, in many aspects, also intensive investigations because of their potential application in different technological fields, particularly in biomedicine. This work was conceived and is being carried out in two main parts: (1) synthesis of the ferrimagnetic nanoparticles, specifically magnetite, and (2) coating these particles with tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS). The nanosized magnetite sample was prepared by the reduction–precipitation and the nanomagnetite particles were coated by the sol-gel method, based on the hydrolysis of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS). The so obtained materials were characterized with powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), FTIR spectroscopy, saturation magnetization measurements, and ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy at room temperature.