Large port count high-speed optical switch fabric for use within datacenters [Invited]

This paper reviews advances in the technology of integrated semiconductor optical amplifier based photonic switch fabrics, with particular emphasis on their suitability for high performance network switches for use within a datacenter. The key requirements for large port count optical switch fabrics are addressed noting the need for switches with substantial port counts. The design options for a 16×16 port photonic switch fabric architecture are discussed and the choice of a Clos-tree design is described. The control strategy, based on arbitration and scheduling, for an integrated switch fabric is explained. The detailed design and fabrication of the switch is followed by experimental characterization, showing net optical gain and operation at 10 Gb/s with bit error rates lower than 10-9. Finally improvements to the switch are suggested, which should result in 100 Gb/s per port operation at energy efficiencies of 3 pJ/bit. © 2011 Optical Society of America.

Liver genomic responses to ciguatoxin: evidence for activation of Phase I and Phase II detoxification pathways following an acute hypothermic response in mice

Ciguatoxins (CTX) are polyether neurotoxins that target voltage-gated sodium channels and are responsible for ciguatera, the most common fish-borne food poisoning in humans. This study characterizes the global transcriptional response of mouse liver to a symptomatic dose (0.26 ng/g) of the highly potent Pacific ciguatoxin-1 (P-CTX-1). At 1 h post-exposure 2.4% of features on a 44K whole genome array were differentially expressed (p ≤ 0.0001), increasing to 5.2% at 4 h and decreasing to 1.4% by 24 h post-CTX exposure. Data were filtered (|fold change| ≥ 1.5 and p ≤ 0.0001 in at least one time point) and a trend set of 1550 genes were used for further analysis. Early gene expression was likely influenced prominently by an acute 4°C decline in core body temperature by 1 h, which resolved by 8 h following exposure. An initial downregulation of 32 different solute carriers, many involved in sodium transport, was observed. Differential gene expression in pathways involving eicosanoid biosynthesis and cholesterol homeostasis was also noted. Cytochrome P450s (Cyps) were of particular interest due to their role in xenobiotic metabolism. Twenty-seven genes, mostly members of Cyp2 and Cyp4 families, showed significant changes in expression. Many Cyps underwent an initial downregulation at 1 h but were quickly and strongly upregulated at 4 and 24 h post-exposure. In addition to Cyps, increases in several glutathione S-transferases were observed, an indication that both phase I and phase II metabolic reactions are involved in the hepatic response to CTX in mice.

高温胁迫诱导光系统Ⅱ及其异质性的变化

近年来有证据证明，光系统II(PS II)反应中心在结构与功能上存在着异质性，它与光舍原初过程、激发能的分配和调节、胁迫因子导致的光合单位的损伤与修复等密切相关。本论文主要研究了高温胁迫诱导PS II及其异质性的变化，以及人工电子受体与PS II还原侧异质性电子传递的关系．根据研究需要，建立了精确测定无活性PS II中心相时含量的软件和方法，圆满完成了本研究任务。此外，也参加了新的非调制式动力学荧光计的研制及其软件的编写． 以下是本论文的主要结果： 1．用N80-BASIC语言结合汇编语言重新编写了本室快速（ms级）叶绿素动力学荧光计的测控程序，使快速荧光上升曲线的采样速度提高了一个数量级（达到100μS/点），可对Fo、Fi等关键荧光参数进行精确测定，为无活性PS II中心相对含量的准确测定奠定了基础．新研制的荧光计的软件用C语言编写，可在IBM PC兼容机上运行，采样速度最快可达25μs/点，对Fo和Fi等参数的测定更加可靠和精确．新荧光计从软、硬件两方面进行了彻底地更新，具有高信噪比、高响应、高精度、低功耗等优点，其性能己达到国际同类产品的先进水平． 2．高温胁迫诱导小麦类囊体膜吸收光谱的变化，结果显示40℃-50℃20分钟以内的高温胁迫导致681nm的吸收峰下降，同时引起663nm的吸收峰增加，表明高温胁迫引起部分叶绿素蛋白复合体的破坏和游离的叶绿素分子的增多．在更严重的高温胁迫下（55℃5分钟以上），体内游离的叶绿素分子(△A663)本身也遭到进一步的降解． 3．小麦类囊体膜低温( 77K)荧光光谱的分析。结果证实温和的高温胁迫(40℃20分钟以内)可导致激发能更多地从PS II向光系统IcPsi)分配，而更严重的高温胁迫（45℃- 55℃20分钟以内）对PS II和PS I的叶绿素蛋白复合体（F684和F736）均有破坏作用． 4．高温胁迫诱导小麦叶片荧光诱导动力学、荧光猝灭及其荧光参数的变化的研究．结果表明，高温胁迫首先导致有效量子产量(E．Y．)的下降，胁迫作用进一步加强导致最适量子产量(0．Y．)下降，而对光化学猝灭qP的影响较晚．这说明和PS II电子受体侧的电子传递和与二氧化碳固定有关的酶系统对高温胁迫极为敏感．其次，PS II放氧系统的损伤也早于PS II原初反应中心的失活．同时，在自然界条件下，存在着高温和高光强对植物的加强协同的光抑制和破坏作用． 5．在研究高温胁迫诱导荧光动力学及其参数变化的基础上，提出测定和计算高温胁迫的植物样品中无活性PS II中心相对含量的合理方法．认为在高温胁迫导致可变荧光( Fv)猝灭的情况下，应以Fvi(Fvi=Fi-Fo)对室温对照的可变荧光(FVCK)的比值作为计算无活性PS II中心相对含量的指标(Fvi/FVCK)．我们在弱激发光下测得正常的小麦和菠菜的无活性PS II中心的相对含量分别为0.155±0.011和0.094士0.010． 6．高温胁迫诱导有活性和无活性PS II中心异质性的相互转化的研究。结果发现50℃以下小于10分钟的处理，对PS II有活性和无活性中心的比值无明显影响：而经过50℃和55℃高温处理5-10分钟，有活性PS II中心才明显向无活性中心转化并发现这一转化过程发生在Fo己明显增加和Fv明显猝灭之后，也就是说它迟于高温胁迫对PS II天线色素蛋白复合体( LHCII)与PS II反应中心结合的破坏以及对放氧侧的损伤． 7．高温胁迫后的室温恢复期中有活性和无活性PS II中心相互转化的研究．发现在高温胁迫不太严重时（如50℃1分钟），无活性PS II中心的含量降至对照的70%，在随后室温60分钟恢复过程中继续降为50%。而Psn氧化侧的活性在此过程中可以得到部分恢复。高温胁迫进一步加强（如55℃5分钟和55℃10分钟）后，无活性PS II中心数目在随后的60分钟室温恢复期中，从恢复开始时为对照的130%和150%继续增加到240%和290%，且有加速转化的趋势。这说明高温胁迫诱导PS II还原侧异质性中心的转化除包含一个快速、直接的机制外，还启动了某种间接转化的机制． 8．对DMQ和DCBQ两种人工电子受体对有活性和无活性PS II中心的作用提出了不同见解。Cao和Govindjee(1990)认为DMQ(>20μmoI.L-1)只接受有活性PS II中心的电子，而DCBQ（>15, μmoLL-1）可完全接受有活性和无活性两种PS II中心的电子。但Lavergne等(1993)认为DCBQ不能接受无活性Psn中心的电子．我们用Stern-Volmer猝灭公式对我们的实验结果进行了分析，结果表明DMQ在较高浓度下（如120μmoI.L-1）才可完全接受有活性PS II中心的电子．但DCBQ的浓度在比Cao等几乎高出一个数量级( 120μmoI.L-1)的情况下，也只接受部分无活性PS II中心的电子( 40%)。另外我们发现，DMQ和DCBQ对Fm的猝灭不是随猝灭剂浓度的增加呈线性关系，而是一条近似饱和曲线，说明它至少包括两种以上不同的猝灭机制． 9．Mg2+诱导PS II异质性(Cα/Cβ)的研究。我们小组发现Mg2+诱导的chl a荧光增强动力学曲线包含Cα和Cβ两个指数成分，说明Mg2+在抑制激发能满溢，调节激发能向有利于PS I1分配的过程中存在异质性。其中Cβ比Cα具有更长的迁移寿命、更低的活化能和Mg2+半饱和浓度．这些说明Cβ比Cα更有可能在体内生理条件下发生迁移，从而在两个光系统之间起调节激发能分配的作用． 10.提出了高温胁迫诱导PS II异质性中心相互转换的可能模型．高温胁迫导致PS II异质性的转化包括几个步骤：有活性的α型PS II专荧光猝灭态的PS II专有活性的β型PS II专无活性的β型PS II专破坏了的PSⅡ．前两种转化一般具有可逆性．当高温胁迫进一步加强后，转化失去可逆性，在胁迫去除后，有活性PS II中心可继续向无活性中心转化，后者还有可能进一步受到破坏。

Ultrafast all-optical wavelength conversion using an integrated amplifier/DFB laser

Wavelength conversion in the 1550 nm regime was achieved in an integrated semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)/DFB laser by modulating the output power of the laser with a light beam of a different wavelength externally injected into the SOA section. A 12 dB output extinction ratio was obtained for an average coupled input power of 75 μW with the laser section driven at 65 mA and the amplifier section at 180 mA. The response time achieved was as low as 13 ps with the laser biased at 175 mA even with low extinction ratios. The laser exhibits a similar recovery time allowing potentially very high bit-rate operation.

10-Gbit/s transmission over 300-m standard multimode fiber using multilevel coding and 2-channel WDM

A combination of multilevel coding schemes and simple two-channel wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) at 1300 and 1550 nm was used to transmit an aggregate of 10 Gbit/s over 300 m of multimode fiber that is typical of that employed in current Local Area Networks (LANs). It was shown that this technique could be a simple solution for achieving 10 Gigabit ethernet links over installed multimode fiber building backbones.

Effective handling of dialogue state in the hidden information state POMDP-based dialogue manager

Effective dialogue management is critically dependent on the information that is encoded in the dialogue state. In order to deploy reinforcement learning for policy optimization, dialogue must be modeled as a Markov Decision Process. This requires that the dialogue statemust encode all relevent information obtained during the dialogue prior to that state. This can be achieved by combining the user goal, the dialogue history, and the last user action to form the dialogue state. In addition, to gain robustness to input errors, dialogue must be modeled as a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) and hence, a distribution over all possible states must be maintained at every dialogue turn. This poses a potential computational limitation since there can be a very large number of dialogue states. The Hidden Information State model provides a principled way of ensuring tractability in a POMDP-based dialogue model. The key feature of this model is the grouping of user goals into partitions that are dynamically built during the dialogue. In this article, we extend this model further to incorporate the notion of complements. This allows for a more complex user goal to be represented, and it enables an effective pruning technique to be implemented that preserves the overall system performance within a limited computational resource more effectively than existing approaches. © 2011 ACM.

Natural actor and belief critic: Reinforcement algorithm for learning parameters of dialogue systems modelled as POMDPs

This article presents a novel algorithm for learning parameters in statistical dialogue systems which are modeled as Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs). The three main components of a POMDP dialogue manager are a dialogue model representing dialogue state information; a policy that selects the system's responses based on the inferred state; and a reward function that specifies the desired behavior of the system. Ideally both the model parameters and the policy would be designed to maximize the cumulative reward. However, while there are many techniques available for learning the optimal policy, no good ways of learning the optimal model parameters that scale to real-world dialogue systems have been found yet. The presented algorithm, called the Natural Actor and Belief Critic (NABC), is a policy gradient method that offers a solution to this problem. Based on observed rewards, the algorithm estimates the natural gradient of the expected cumulative reward. The resulting gradient is then used to adapt both the prior distribution of the dialogue model parameters and the policy parameters. In addition, the article presents a variant of the NABC algorithm, called the Natural Belief Critic (NBC), which assumes that the policy is fixed and only the model parameters need to be estimated. The algorithms are evaluated on a spoken dialogue system in the tourist information domain. The experiments show that model parameters estimated to maximize the expected cumulative reward result in significantly improved performance compared to the baseline hand-crafted model parameters. The algorithms are also compared to optimization techniques using plain gradients and state-of-the-art random search algorithms. In all cases, the algorithms based on the natural gradient work significantly better. © 2011 ACM.

Plasmonic band gaps and waveguide effects in carbon nanotube arrays based metamaterials.

Highly dense periodic arrays of multiwalled carbon nanotubes behave like low-density plasma of very heavy charged particles, acting as metamaterials. These arrays with nanoscale lattice constants can be designed to display extended plasmonic band gaps within the optical regime, encompassing the crucial optical windows (850 and 1550 nm) simultaneously. We demonstrate an interesting metamaterial waveguide effect displayed by these nanotube arrays containing line defects. The nanotube arrays with lattice constants of 400 nm and radius of 50 nm were studied. Reflection experiments conducted on the nanoscale structures were in agreement with numerical calculations.

中华眼镜蛇蛇毒神经生长因子生物活性和理化性质测定

目的：控制中华眼镜蛇蛇毒神经生长因子产品质量，研究其理化性质及生物学活性的定性和定量。方法：通过离子交换色谱、凝胶过滤及FPLC色谱分高纯化得到中华眼镜蛇蛇毒神经生长因子，按国家新药审批有关要求对其进行了SDS－PAGE电泳，N端蛋白质序列规定，HPLC色谱分析，UV光谱图谱扫描，并利用PC12细胞培养法和鸡胚背根神经节培养法检测其生物活性。结果：电泳为一条带，亚基分子量为13500，N端蛋白质序列测定后确证为神经生长因子（NGF），HPLC为单峰，相对百分含量为95％以上，279．6nm处呈现出蛋白质样特征吸收峰。生物活性测定为，PC12细胞培养法灵敏度可达1ng／ml，鸡胚背根神经节培养法需30ng／ml的浓度梯度才能在神经节上有所反应。结论：此实验样品为具有较高生物活性的高纯度NGF多肽。