An Effective Thermal Splicing Method to Join Fluoride and Silica Fibers for a High Power Regime

A repeatable and simple thermal splicing method for low loss splice between fluoride and silica fibers is presented. The minimum splicing loss of 0.58 dB is achieved experimentally with this approach, Meanwhile, the power capacity of this splicing joint is also tested with a high power fiber laser. The maximum input power is up to 15 W, only limited by the available power of the laser source. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on thermal splicing between fluoride and silica fibers operating in a high power regime without any complicated ion-assisted deposition process.

Comparison of Hypolipidemic Effect of Refined Konjac Meal With Several Common Dietary Fibers and Their Mechanisms of Action

The effects of RKM in comparison with pectin, algin and agar on lipid levels in serum and liver and on liver histopathology in rats were studied. In addition, the effects of all the tested materials on the composition and output of fecal bile acid were observed. All four kinds of dietary fiber were given at a level of 5% of diet to young male rats of Wistar strain fed on a lipid-rich diet contalning 5 % lard, 1% cholesteral and 0. 25 % cholate. All the dietary fibers tested have similar effects on serum lipid composition. In all groups, these substances prevent ed increases in total cholesterol in fasting serum, but the level of triglyceride was tmchangd.The concentrations of totaI cholesterol and triglyceride in the liver were lower in the RKM group than in the control group and the other three groups. Hepatic histopathological exami nation also showed the most significant lipotropic effect in the RKM group. The daily output of fecal bile acids (CDCA+GDCA) was significantly increased in the four experimental groups than in the normal group and the control group. The increase of CDCA was more significant than GDCA, suggesting that the increase of fecal bile acids, especially CDCA, may be one of the mechanisms by which RKM and the other three dietary fibers exerts a hypocholesterolemic effect

Time-Lag Effect of Dietary Fiber and Fat Intake Ratio on Japanese Colon Cancer Mortality

The daily intake of total dietary fiber (TDF) was evaluated from data of the National Nutrition Survey (NNS) in Japan for 41 years since 1947. An interrelationship between the nutrient intake, including TDF, and the mortality from colon cancer in Japanese people was calculated by a simple correlation coefficient and time-series correlation coeffcient.TDF intake per capita decreased rapidly from 27.4 g in 1947 to 15.8 g in 1963, and subsequently decreased by a lesser rate to 15.3 g in 1987. Fat intake increased rapidly from 18.0 g in 1950 to 56.6 g in 1987.The age-adjusted mortality from colon cancer shows a significant positive correlation with both the intakes of animal protein and of total fat, and the fat energy ratio. A time-series analysis indicates that the mortality from colon cancer was negatively correlated with TDF with a 15-27 year delay, the maximum correlation existing with a 23-year lag (r = -0.947). The TDF intake was less than 17.9 g in 1965. At the same time, the mortality from colon cancer increased rapidly. A fat/TDF ratio above 3.0 resulted in a rapid increase in colon cancer mortality.The non-adjusted mortality from colon cancer has much the same interrelationship with TDF and fat intake as the adjusted figures. It is suggested that the cause of the increased mortality from colon cancer in Japan is positively related to the increased intake of fat and protein. In addition, the decrease in TDF intake has accelerated the mortality of colon cancer after a delay of 23-24 years. The importance of fat/TDF as a nutritional criterion for the incidence of colon cancer needs to be better recognized

Formation Technologies of Fiber Bragg Gratings

The principle of fiber Bragg gratings(FBG) is briefly described. The formation technologies of FBG are systematically given and analyzed. In addition, the experiment is described in detail, e.g.,the phase mask method is used to write directly the period Bragg gratings into the Ge-doped single mode fiber with KrF excimer UV laser. The results of experiment are also presented and analyzed.

Effects of multiple intravitreal anti-VEGF injections on retinal nerve fiber layer and intraocular pressure: a comparative clinical study

Dear Sir,Ifound the article by Sobac1etal[1]very interesting.The authors concluded that repeated intravitreal injection(IVI)of ranibizumab or bevacizumab didn’t seem have adverse effects on retinal nerve fiber layer(RNFL)thickness in wet age-related macular degeneration(AMD)patients.

Effects of different sources of carbohydrates on intake, digestibility, chewing, and performance of Holstein dairy cows

To investigate the effects of different sources of carbohydrates on intake, digestibility, chewing, and performance, nine lactating Holstein dairy cows （day in milk= 100±21 d; body weight=645.7 ± 26.5 kg） were allotted to a 3 × 3 Latin square design at three 23-d periods. The three treatments included 34.91% （B）, 18.87% （BC）, and 18.86% （BB） barley that in treatment B was partially replaced with only corn or corn plus beet pulp in treatments BC and BB, respectively. The concentration of starch and neutral detergent soluble carbohydrate varied （22.2, 20.2, and 14.5; 13.6, 15.9, and 20.1% of DM in treatments B, BC, and BB, respectively）. Cows in treatment BB showed a higher DMI and improved digestibility of DM, NDF, and EE compared with treatments B or BC Ruminal pH was higher in cows fed on BB （6.83） compared with those that received B or BC treatments （6.62 and 6.73, respectively）. A lower proportion of propionate accompanied the higher pH in the BB group; however, a greater proportion of acetate and acetate： propionate ratio was observed compared with cows fed either on the B or BC diet. Moreover, cows fed on the BB diet showed the lowest ruminal passage rate and longest ruminal and total retention time. Eating time did not differ among treatments, rumination time was greater among cows fed on the BB diet compared with the others, whereas total chewing activity was greater than those fed on BC, but similar to those fed on B. The treatments showed no effect on milk yield. Partially replacing barley with corn or beet pulp resulted in an increase in milk fat and a lower protein concentration. Changing dietary NFC with that of a different degradability thus altered intake, chewing activity, ruminal environment, retention time or passage rate, and lactation performance. The results of this study showed that beet pulp with a higher NDF and a detergent-soluble carbohydrate or pectin established a more consistent ruminal mat than barley and corn, thus resulting in higher mean retention time and chewing activity, whereas no changes in 3.5% ECM and milk fat were observed.

Parameter analysis of a photonic crystal fiber with raised-core index profile based on effective index method

Photonic crystal fibers （PCFs） with a stepped raised-core profile and one layer equally spaced holes in the cladding are analyzed. Using effective index method and considering a raised step refractive index difference between the index of the core and the effective index of the cladding, we improve the characteristic parameters such as numerical aperture and V-parameter, and reduce its bending loss to about one tenth of a conventional PCF. Implementing such a structure in PCFs may be one step forward to achieve low loss PCFs for communication applications.

A novel three-ring-core few-mode fiber with large effective area and low nonlinear coefficient

A novel three-ring-core few-mode fiber with large effective area and low nonlinear coefficient is proposed in this paper. The fiber characteristics based on the full-vector finite element method(FEM) with perfect matched layer boundary conditions show that four supermodes with large effective area, low nonlinear coefficient and low differential mode group delay(DMGD) are achieved. With the increase of input wavelength, the effective areas of three-ring-core few-mode fiber are increased, and the nonlinear coefficients are decreased. The bending losses are increased with the increase of input wavelength, and are decreased with the increase of bending radius. Moreover, the proposed fiber performs a nonlinear coefficient and DMGD flattened profile at a large wavelength range.

Effective generation of optical quadruple frequency millimeter-wave based on fiber laser using injection rational harmonic mode-locked technique

A method to generate the optical quadruple frequency millimeter-wave with high power efficiency is pro- posed and demonstrated based on the combination of the injection 2nd-order rational harmonic mode- locked fiber ring laser technique and the fiber grating notch filter. In this approach, the fiber Bragg grating notch filter is inserted into the laser cavity to prevent the undesired optical carrier, so that the pump power can be converted to 2nd-order harmonic wave more efficiently. In our experiment, the power efficiency of optical quadruple frequency millimeter-wave （40 GHz） generation is ten folds of that of our previous method based only on the rational harmonic mode-locked technique.

Multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber laser using four-wave mixing effect in doped fiber

We demonstrate a multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber laser （EDFL） using erbium gain and four-wave mixing （FWM） effect in a piece of erbium-doped fiber （EDF） with high erbium ion concentration. The EDF has a pump absorption rate of 24.6 dB/m at 979 nm and is bi-directionally pumped by 980-nm laser diodes. FWM effect redistributes the energy of different oscillating lines and causes multi-wavelength operation. The laser generates more than 22 lines of optical comb with a line spacing of approximately 0.10 nm at the 1569-nm region using only 1.5-m-long EDF.

Advanced treatment of wet-spun acrylic fiber manufacturing wastewater using three-dimensional electrochemical oxidation

A three-dimensional electrochemical oxidation （3D-EC） reactor with introduction of activated carbon （AC） as particle micro-electrodes was apphed for the advanced treatment of secondary wastewater effluent of a wet-spun acrylic fiber manufacturing plant. Under the optimized conditions （current density of 500 A/m2, circulation rate of 5 mL/min, AC dosage of 50 g, and chloride concentration of 1.0 g/L）, the average removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand （CODer）, NH3-N, total organic carbon （TOC）, and ultraviolet absorption at 254 nm （UV2s4） of the 3D-EC reactor were 64.5%, 60.8%, 46.4%, and 64.8%, respectively; while the corresponding effluent concentrations of CODcr, NH3-N, TOC, and UV2s4 were 76.6, 20.1, and 42.5 mg/L, and 0.08 Abs/cm, respectively. The effluent concentration of CODer was less than 100 mg/L, which showed that the treated wastewater satisfied the demand of the integrated wastewater discharge standard （GB 8978-1996）. The 3D-EC process remarkably improved the treatment efficiencies with synergistic effects for CODer, NH3-N, TOC, and UV2s4 during the stable stage of 44.5%, 38.8%, 27.2%, and 10.9%, respectively, as compared with the sum of the efficiencies of a two-dimensional electrochemical oxidation （2D-EC） reactor and an AC adsorption process, which was ascribed to the numerous micro-electrodes of AC in the 3D-EC reactor. Gas chromatography mass spectrometry （GC-MS） analysis revealed that electro- chemical treatment did not generate more toxic organics, and it was proved that the increase in acute biotoxicity was caused primarily by the production of free chlorine.

Flame-retardant Wrapped Ramie Fibers towards Suppressing “Candlewick Effect” of Polypropylene/Ramie Fiber Composites

In this work, a flame-retardant polypropylene（PP）/ramie fiber（RF） composite was prepared. The ramie fibers were wrapped chemically by a phosphorus- and nitrogen-containing flame retardant（FR） produced via in situ condensation reaction so as to suppress their candlewick effect. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy（FTIR）, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy（XPS） and scanning electron microscopy（SEM） demonstrated that the ramie fibers wrapped chemically by FR（FR-RF） were obtained successfully. Thermogravimatric test showed that the PP/FR-RF composite had more residue and better thermal stability at high temperatures than the PP/RF composite. Cone calorimeter（CC） results indicated that the peak of heat release rate（PHRR） and total heat release（THR） correspondingly decreased by 23.4% and 12.5% compared with the values of neat PP/RF. The PP/FR-RF composite created a continuous and compact char layer after the combustion. Combining FTIR analysis of char residue after CC test with heat conduction coefficient results, it could be concluded that the charring of FR on RF greatly weakened the candlewick effect of RF, and more char residue in the RF domain facilitated the formation of more continuous and compact char layer in the whole combustion zone, consequently protected PP composites during combustion, resulting in the better flame retardancy of PP/FR-RF composite than that of PP/RF composite.

Effects of the Facet Reflectivity of a Laser Diode on Fiber Bragg Grating Semiconductor Lasers

Effects of facet reflectivity of a laser diode on the performance of fiber Bragg grating semiconductor lasers are studied experimentally. Facet reflectivity of less than 10-4 is necessary to obtain stable oscillation wavelength.

Plasmonic gold nanoshell induced spectral effects and refractive index sensing properties of excessively tilted fiber grating

We demonstrate a fiber refractive index（RI） sensor based on an excessively tilted fiber grating（ExTFG）immobilized by large-size plasmonic gold nanoshells（GNSs）. The GNSs are covalently linked on ExTFG surface.Experimental results demonstrate that both the intensity of the transverse magnetic（TM） and transverse electric（TE） modes of ExTFG are significantly modulated by the localized surface plasmon resonance（LSPR） of GNSs due to the wide-range absorption band. The wavelength RI sensitivities of the TM and TE modes in the low RI range of 1.333–1.379 are improved by ～25% and ～14% after GNSs immobilization, respectively, and the intensity RI sensitivities are ～599%/RIU and ～486%/RIU, respectively.

Recent Issues on Nonlinear Effects in Optical Fibers

This talk will discuss the types of optical signal degradation due to fiber nonlinearity and review recently invented fibers for suppressing the effects. It also introduces efficiency of highly nonlinear fibers and their applications to nonlinear signal processing.

Tunable single-longitudinal-mode SOA-based fiber laser based on the spectral narrowing effect in a dispersion-shifted fiber

A tunable single-longitudinal-mode（SLM） semiconductor optical amplifier（SOA）-based fiber laser based on a dispersion-shifted fiber（DSF） is proposed and successfully demonstrated. SLM operation is obtained due to the spectral narrowing effect resulting from inverse four-wave mixing in a DSF. A tunable optical filter performs wavelength selection function. By inserting a length of DSF in the laser cavity, SLM lasing can possibly be obtained when laser oscillation is stably established after traveling through the DSF many roundtrips. Stable tunable SLM oscillation with a signal-to-noise ratio as high as 65 dB over a wavelength range of about 35 nm is achieved experimentally, and each spectral linewidth is less than 6.5 kHz.

Effect of Scanning Beam Profile to Fabricate Fused Fiber Tapers by CO_2 Laser Irradiation Method

Beam uniformity is a crucial building block of CO2 experiments aimed at fusing and stretching optical fibers in a lossless manner. When the irradiation beam is expanded through a galvanometer mirror, ways to achieve beam uniformity are investigated.

An analysis of As_2S_3 chirped fiber grating formed by two-photon absorption effect

When femtosecond laser pulses interfere with chirped femtosecond laser pulses in As2S3 fiber, a chirped fiber grating is formed. An analytical expression is given to describe the chirped grating, and its Bragg reflectivity is calculated. Because of the high photosensitive effect of As2S3 material, the chirped fiber grating has a wide Bragg reflective spectrum and high reflectivity by choosing proper parameters. This indicates that the chirped fiber grating can be used as a stretcher in the femtosecond chirped pulse amplification (CPA) system.

elliptically birefringent fibers modulation instability ellipticity angle

Previous studies on modulation instabilities（MIs） in birefringent optical fibers focus on the ordinary linearly and circularly ones. This paper reports an analysis of MIs in the general elliptically birefringent fibers with the emphasis on investigating the effects of ellipticity angle（0？ ≤θ≤ 90？）. Both symmetric and antisymmetric CW states are considered. In the anomalous dispersion regime, for the symmetric（antisymmetric） CW states, we show that MI gain increases dramatically（reduces first and then enhances greatly） as the increment of θ. In the normal dispersion regime, for the both CW states, the distinctive feature is that the gain of the MI bands reduces first, vanishes at θ = 45？,reappears across this ellipticity angle, and quickly increases after then.

High gain-bandwidth product Ge/Si tunneling avalanche photodiode with high-frequency tunneling effect

This study presents a theoretical investigation of a novel Ge/Si tunneling avalanche photodiode（TAPD）with an ultra-thin barrier layer between the absorption and p＋ contact layer. A high-frequency tunneling effect is introduced into the structure of the barrier layer to increase the high-frequency response when frequency is larger than 0.1 GHz, and the-3 dB bandwidth of the device increases evidently. The results demonstrate that the avalanche gain and-3 dB bandwidth of the TAPD can be influenced by the thickness and bandgap of the barrier layer.When the barrier thickness is 2 nm and the bandgap is 4.5 eV, the avalanche gain loss is negligible and the gainbandwidth product of the TAPD is 286 GHz, which is 18% higher than that of an avalanche photodiode without a barrier layer. The total noise in the TAPD was an order of magnitude smaller than that in APD without barrier layer.