Portable light transmission measuring system for preserved corneas

Abstract Background The authors have developed a small portable device for the objective measurement of the transparency of corneas stored in preservative medium, for use by eye banks in evaluation prior to transplantation. Methods The optical system consists of a white light, lenses, and pinholes that collimate the white light beams and illuminate the cornea in its preservative medium, and an optical filter (400–700 nm) that selects the range of the wavelength of interest. A sensor detects the light that passes through the cornea, and the average corneal transparency is displayed. In order to obtain only the tissue transparency, an electronic circuit was built to detect a baseline input of the preservative medium prior to the measurement of corneal transparency. The operation of the system involves three steps: adjusting the "0 %" transmittance of the instrument, determining the "100 %" transmittance of the system, and finally measuring the transparency of the preserved cornea inside the storage medium. Results Fifty selected corneas were evaluated. Each cornea was submitted to three evaluation methods: subjective classification of transparency through a slit lamp, quantification of the transmittance of light using a corneal spectrophotometer previously developed, and measurement of transparency with the portable device. Conclusion By comparing the three methods and using the expertise of eye bank trained personnel, a table for quantifying corneal transparency with the new device has been developed. The correlation factor between the corneal spectrophotometer and the new device is 0,99813, leading to a system that is able to standardize transparency measurements of preserved corneas, which is currently done subjectively.

Transmission of Mycobacterium chimaera from Heater-Cooler Units during Cardiac Surgery despite an Ultraclean Air Ventilation System.

Heater-cooler units (HCUs) were recently identified as a source of Mycobacterium chimaera causing surgical site infections. We investigated transmission of this bacterium from HCUs to the surgical field by using a thermic anemometer and particle counter, videotape of an operating room equipped with an ultraclean laminar airflow ventilation system, and bacterial culture sedimentation plates in a nonventilated room. Smoke from the HCU reached the surgical field in 23 s by merging with ultraclean air. The HCU produced on average 5.2, 139, and 14.8 particles/min in the surgical field at positions Off, On/oriented toward, and On/oriented away, respectively. Culture plates were positive for M. chimaera <5 m from the HCU in the test room. These experiments confirm airborne transmission of M. chimaera aerosols from a contaminated HCU to an open surgical field despite ultraclean air ventilation. Efforts to mitigate infectious risks during surgery should consider contamination from water sources and airflow-generating devices.

Feasibility analysis of the transmission for a flywheel/heat engine hybrid propulsion system /

"MTI-71TR75."

Investigations into an optimal transmission scheme for a MIMO system operating in a ricain fading environment

This paper describes investigations into an optimal transmission scheme for a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) system operating in a Rician fading environment. The considerations are reduced to determining a covariance matrix of transmitted signals which maximizes the MIMO capacity under the condition that the receiver has perfect knowledge of the channel while the transmitter has the information about selected statistical quantities which are measured at the receiver. An optimal covariance matrix, which requires information of the Rice factor and the signal to noise ratio, is determined. The transmission scheme relying on the choice of the proposed covariance matrix outperforms the other transmission schemes which were reported earlier in the literature. The proposed scheme realizes an upper bound limit for the MIMO capacity under arbitrary Rician fading conditions. ©2005 IEEE

Soliton transmission through a disordered system

An exact formula for the transmission time in a disordered nonlinear soliton-bearing classical one-dimensional system is obtained.

Soliton propagation through a disordered system:statistics of the transmission delay

We have studied the soliton propagation through a segment containing random pointlike scatterers. In the limit of small concentration of scatterers when the mean distance between the scatterers is larger than the soliton width, a method has been developed for obtaining the statistical characteristics of the soliton transmission through the segment. The method is applicable for any classical particle traversing through a disordered segment with the given velocity transformation after each act of scattering. In the case of weak scattering and relatively short disordered segment the transmission time delay of a fast soliton is mostly determined by the shifts of the soliton center after each act of scattering. For sufficiently long segments the main contribution to the delay is due to the shifts of the amplitude and velocity of a fast soliton after each scatterer. Corresponding crossover lengths for both cases of light and heavy solitons have been obtained. We have also calculated the exact probability density function of the soliton transmission time delay for a sufficiently long segment. In the case of weak identical scatterers the latter is a universal function which depends on a sole parameter—the mean number of scatterers in a segment.

Transmission of non-uniform OTDM channels in nonlinearly-guided dispersion-managed fibre system

The effects of channel inequality on nonlinear signal switching in a nonlinear optical fiber loop mirror (NOLM) were investigated. It was found that the channel-to-channel amplitude differences in optical time division multiplexing (OTDM) have strong impact on swiching behavior of individual channels in a 2R regenerator. The optical pulses in different channels face either suppression of the amplitude noise or increase in noise, depending on the inter-channel amplitude difference. It was stated that appropriate control of the channel uniformity in the OTDM transmitters is required to support stable long-haul transmission in 2R regenerated systems.

Experimental full duplex simultaneous transmission of LTE over a DWDM directly modulated RoF system

In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate the seamless integration of full duplex system frequency division duplex (FDD) long-term evolution (LTE) technology with radio over fiber (RoF) for eNodeB (eNB) coverage extension. LTE is composed of quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK), 16-quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM) and 64-QAM, modulated onto orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and single-carrier-frequency division multiplexing for downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) transmissions, respectively. The RoF system is composed of dedicated directly modulated lasers for DL and UL with dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) for instantaneous connections and for Rayleigh backscattering and nonlinear interference mitigation. DL and UL signals have varying carrier frequencies and are categorized as broad frequency spacing (BFS), intermediate frequency spacing (IFS), and narrow frequency spacing (NFS). The adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR) for DL and UL with 64-QAM are similar for all frequency spacings while cross talk is observed for NFS. For the best case scenario for DL and UL transmissions we achieve error vector magnitude (EVM) values of ~2.30%, ~2.33%, and ~2.39% for QPSK, 16-QAM, and 64-QAM, respectively, while for the worst case scenario with a NFS EVM is increased by 0.40% for all schemes. © 2009-2012 OSA.

Offshore Wind Energy System with DC Transmission Discrete Mass: Modeling and Simulation

This paper presents an integrated model for an offshore wind energy system taking into consideration a contribution for the marine wave and wind speed with perturbations influences on the power quality of current injected into the electric grid. The paper deals with the simulation of one floating offshore wind turbine equipped with a PMSG and a two-level converter connected to an onshore electric grid. The use of discrete mass modeling is accessed in order to reveal by computing the THD on how the perturbations of the captured energy are attenuated at the electric grid injection point. Two torque actions are considered for the three-mass modeling, the aerodynamic on the flexible part and on the rigid part of the blades. Also, a torque due to the influence of marine waves in deep water is considered. PI fractional-order control supports the control strategy. A comparison between the drive train models is presented.

HVDC Power Transmission Simulation for Offshore Wind System with Three-Level Converter

An integrated mathematical model for the simulation of an offshore wind system performance is presented in this paper. The mathematical model considers an offshore variable-speed turbine in deep water equipped with a permanent magnet synchronous generator using multiple point full-power clamped three-level converter, converting the energy of a variable frequency source in injected energy into the electric network with constant frequency, through a HVDC transmission submarine cable. The mathematical model for the drive train is a concentrate two mass model which incorporates the dynamic for the blades of the wind turbine, tower and generator due to the need to emulate the effects of the wind and the floating motion. Controller strategy considered is a proportional integral one. Also, pulse width modulation using space vector modulation supplemented with sliding mode is used for trigger the transistors of the converter. Finally, a case study is presented to access the system performance.

On the interference of clinical outcome on rabies transmission an perpetuation

Rabies is a viral zoonotic infectious disease that affects mammals and is caused by genotypes/species of the Lyssavirus genus (Rhabdoviridae, Mononegavirales), with the genotype 1 (classic rabies virus - RABV) being the most prevalent. Despite continuous efforts, rabies is still an incurable disease that causes thousands of deaths amongst humans worldwide. Due to a wide range of hosts and the different evolutionary paths of RABV in each host, several host-specific variants have arisen in an ongoing process. The result of RABV replication in nervous tissues may lead to two opposite clinical outcomes, i.e., paralytic/dumb form and encephalitic/furious one. The paralytic form creates dead-end hosts mainly amongst herbivores, while the furious form of the disease allows for augmented transmission when manifested in gregarious carnivores, as their natural aggressive behavior is accentuated by the disease itself. The aim of this article is to propose a theoretical model intended to explore how the rabies virus intrinsically modulates the immune system of different host classes, the pathological changes that the virus causes in these animals and how these elements favor its own perpetuation in nature, thus providing a basis for better prediction of the patterns this disease may present.