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Beamforming combined with massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna arrays are expected to be the most important aspects of 5G and beyond wireless networks. In this paper, an 8 × 8 massive MIMO array with beamforming is proposed for 5G and beyond wireless applications. To develop this design, the substrate of polyimide material is used having a 3.5 dielectric constant and a thickness of 0.03 mm. The proposed massive MIMO antenna array resonates at two distinct frequencies i.e. 0.8195 and 1.4675 THz with a return loss of less than − 10 dB. Performance parameters like return loss, antenna gain, directivity, bandwidth, radiation pattern and VSWR are observed. With its greater directional gain of 25.6 dB and better directivity of 25.617 dB, the proposed 8 × 8 massive MIMO has a wider bandwidth of 66.7 GHz. In addition, the proposed array's radiation efficiency is 96%, its diversity gain is 9.9999 dB, its ECC is almost zero, its CCL is less than 25 bps/Hz, its TARC is less than − 10 dB, and its CC < 0.4 bps/Hz. The results gathered demonstrate that the proposed massive MIMO antenna array can be employed successfully for a wide range of terahertz applications due to its enhanced characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ranging from optical fiber communication to optical wireless communication regimes, twisted light has drawn the prodigious contemplation of researchers. Thus far, the tricolor visible light laser diodes (TVL-LDs) have not been scrutinized for optical angular momentum (OAM), which, however, could pioneer fortuitousness towards a new paradigm of indoor wireless communication. Here, we proposed an OAM superposition of three different Laguerre Gaussian modes such as l = 0, m = 0; l = 14, m = 0; and l = 40, m = 0, and realised by utilising red, green and blue (R/G/B) LDs as independent channels and binary data streams are encoded incorporating non return to zero linecoding, exhibiting a total capacity of 45 Gbps (3 wavelengths (λ) × 3 OAM beams × 5 Gbps). The performance of R/G/B LDs is compared in a visible light communication (VLC) model at different input parameters such as link length between the irradiating source (Lambertian) and receiver detection region, transmitter half angle, incidence half angle, and optical concentrator area. We successfully performed the transmission of 45 Gbps data over a 1.4 m line of sight VLC link and 2.3 m in a non-LoS link employing TVL-LDs, while the red LDs offered excellent performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psoriasis is a widely prevalent chronic immunoinflammatory dermatological disease resulting from a complex and dynamic interplay of genetic, environmental, and immunological aetiologies. It manifests as characteristic erythematous psoriatic plaques visible to the naked eye, but prognostic biomarkers for disease monitoring and therapeutic effectiveness are still absent. Saliva is a biological fluid that, besides being critical to maintaining oral homeostasis, harbors various salivary microbiota and inflammatory markers. It can be easily collected, stored, and analyzed. Oral fluids offer an excellent advantage for biomarker study as they are non-invasive and fast techniques. Studies showed that the saliva of healthy individuals and those with psoriasis had differences in the levels of inflammatory cytokines, immunoglobulin A, and anti-oxidant biomarkers. In GCF, individuals with psoriasis showed higher levels of S100A8, IL-18, and sE-selectin than healthy individuals, independent of periodontal status. Oxidative stress(OS) is one of the pathogenetic factors of psoriasis. Thus levels of ROS and anti-oxidants can also become important factors in diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the 50 Gbps next generation passive optical network stage 2 (50G- NGPON2) architecture is proposed via converging millimeter wave (MMWave) over fiber technology to meet the requirements of fifth generation (5G) fronthaul network such as enormous demand of high transmission rate and huge bandwidth. It uses the non-return to zero (NRZ) line code to generate pulse for 50 Gbps of data per channel, 28 GHz MMWave spectrum band over 60 km of bi-directional fiber span under the ITU-T G.9804 standardization. Two ideal erbium dopped fiber amplifiers (EDFA) with the gain of 10 dB and 5 dB respectively are used to amplify the signal on the transmitter side before transmission and receiver side after transmission. Outcomes of the proposed system demonstrate the network structure performance efficiency via Q-Factor (> 6), error rate, spectrums, and eye diagram. The variations of the Q-Factor for all optical network units (ONUs) during downstream and channels during upstream can be seen at the different fiber spans. Considering the scope of the future, in the area of digital processing, a single channel 50G-PON using 16-QAM is presented to improve the modulation and demodulation of MMWave spectrum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel support vector machine (SVM) learning approach has been used to predict the silt erosion of coatings sprayed by the high-velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) process. The silt erosion resistance of HVOF-coated Co- and Ni-alloys is studied using an erosion tester. Both of these spraying powders were deposited on the 18Cr-12Ni-2Mo austenitic steel substrate. For the erosion experiments, the fixtures were developed to test the erosion characteristics at different impingement conditions (i.e. 30∘, 45∘, and 60∘). The image processing technique enables an understanding of the erosion mechanisms of coatings. The support vector regression is more effective than the traditional regression models. The proposed model employs support vector regression with parameter tuning. The ideal parameters are selected with the help of the grid search method. The model is trained by supplying 70% data and validated with 15% data. Afterward, the remaining 15% is given to the prepared model as testing data. The dataset obtained is employed for building an effective support vector regression model. The predicted results are compared against the original experimental values. The developed model is also compared with other state-of-the-art machine learning techniques for showing the preciseness of the proposed model. The Ni-based HVOF coating showed superior performance (∼17%) better than the Co-based HVOF coating under similar experimental conditions. An SVM model was successfully developed to predict the erosion of coated and uncoated 18Cr-12Ni-2Mo austenitic steel. The precision performance of the SVM model was calculated in terms of R2, RMSE, R, and MAE as 0.99, 1.12×10−6, 0.99, and 9.13×10−7, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In future generation networks, data protection is a crucial necessity particularly when information is sent on a system. Network protection has three objectives known as discretion, reliability and accessibility. The most common procedure exploited to attain this ambition is encryption. The Generalized Multi Protocol Label Switched (GMPLS) optical networks are designed to survive Internet Protocol's (IPʹs) unreliable delivery. In this paper, GMPLS network is proposed with random users and then the data protection algorithms have been analyzed on proposed GMPLS optical network. The various algorithms involve Rivest Shamir Adleman (RSA) algorithm and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm. The considered algorithms are very popular but have not been implemented on GMPLS optical networks in the literature which shows the novelty of the presented work. The network performance is compared for these algorithms in terms of various parameters like blocking probability and latency. The results reveal that RSA reduces the blocking probability < 0.005 and latency < 0.007 ms. This shows that RSA gives better performance than AES algorithm and enhance the quality of service considering blocking probability, latency and overheads in GMPLS optical networks leading to enhanced data protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work demonstrates the significance of the synthesis routes, namely microwave and hydrothermal methods, of green-emitting carbon dots prepared from the same precursors in the selective detection of Hg2+ ions. Aside from providing the advantage of a shorter time scale for the synthesis of C-dots (5 min) compared to the hydrothermal route (8 h) at a synthesis temperature of 180°C, the C-dots prepared via the microwave synthesis route exhibit higher absolute quantum yield (1.8 times) while retaining similar pH and concentration-dependent emission properties. Due to the difference in surface nitrogen content, the microwave synthesized C-dot fluorescence emission exhibit a linear behavior from 8 nM to 64 nM of Hg2+ ions and provides a limit of detection of 3.09 nM whereas hydrothermally synthesized particles exhibit linear variation from 0.5 µM to 4 µM with a detection limit of 0.22 µM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Optical transport has emerged as a candidate solution to cope with the rising data transmission challenges of enormously evolving data. In the bufferless environment, only the ingress node beholds the buffering to speed up the data transfer in the form of data bursts. However, such networks are prone to data contention issues that degrade the overall performance and eventually result in burst loss. The paper proposes a machine learning (ML) inspired deflection routing (DR) algorithm to overcome contention issues in optical burst switching (OBS) network. The contending burst is first evaluated and assigned the priority order as per the available bits. Based on the burst traffic analysis, support vector machine (SVM) kernels are trained to select an alternate route and redirected the bursts to a new output node. It has been observed that for 65% of cases, radial basis function (RBF) kernel demonstrated the best results among the three kernel functions. The work further shows that ML offers a wiser decision to avoid and overcome contention in the deflection of the route of the contenting bursts. Moreover, the proposed DR scheme has achieved the highest throughput and packet delivery ratio (PDR) with an average delay of 9.66 s using an OBS network deployed with 10 groups of nodes. When compared against the contention scenario and the existing work, the proposed DR outperformed the existing technique with a 4% to 11% margin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Security enhancement and bandwidth increase are requirements of ultrafast future optical code division networks that also minimise the latency at nodes without distressing the traffic performance. In OCDMA systems, eavesdropper tries to breach the optical code, and encoded/encrypted data in order to get correct code word of legitimate user. For security enhancement, an ultra high speed 4 × 100 Gbps two dimensional Diagonal identity matrix (2D-DIM) code and four input single output (FISO) all optical logic gate with private key encryption is proposed and its performance in terms of security is analyzed. Expressions for synchronous and asynchronous transmissions are derived for proposed work and it is perceived that asynchronous transmission has better security. Further performance/security analysis is carried out for different scenarios such as with/without FISO, with 1D-DIM/2D-DIM codes, using 4 × 1 AND gate/NOR gate in terms of correct code detection rate (CCDR), max. eye amplitude, Received Q factor, Signal to noise ratio at different launched power levels for legitimate user and eavesdropper. Eavesdropper attacked the proposed system but due to FISO layering, private key encryption, and 2D-DIM codes, cannot get acceptable level of CCDR. To the best of author's knowledge, proposed system is ultra high speed with enhanced security and no reported studies have investigated security enhancement at this much ultra high speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The paper introduces a new passive collector design for the purpose of light collection for daylighting. • Maintain uniform lighting levels for the most part of the day under clear sky sun. • The average illuminance of around 400 lx was observed on the floor of the experimental room for the most part of the day. • The performance of proposed designed collectors leads under the low-altitude sun when compared to conventional designs. A tubular skylight (TS) is an effective system for transporting natural sunlight into the building interiors. However, the passive nature of the system may not account for the changing orientation of the sun and the conventional daylight collector designs like transparent dome are less effective under low altitude sun. This paper focuses on the performance evaluation of specifically designed TS having rectilinear parabolic-profile reflectors integrated with plane surface reflectors and wedge-shaped prism for daylight collection. The designed configuration redirects the low altitude incident rays efficiently into a vertical mirror light pipe having a rectangular cross-section and aims at giving desired levels of lighting throughout the sunny day. Numerical analysis of the same was carried out for various sky conditions. Experimental results for the proposed TS design show improved lighting levels during the low-altitude sun and reduced but consistent lighting during the mid-day. Average illuminance of ~ 400 lx was observed on the floor of the experiment room for the most part of the day. Along with capturing beam sunlight a significant amount of diffuse daylight capturing ability under clear sky conditions is observed using the proposed TS. The average illuminance value obtained on the work plane during winter solstice through the most optimized configured TS was more than twice the lighting value achieved by a conventional daylight-collecting transparent dome and almost twice the lighting value achieved by a TS with a prismatic dome collector. Under overcast sky conditions, the performance of the proposed configuration of TS is at par. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A passive light collection device is designed and fabricated. • Mathematical model is used for design parameters and weight optimisation. • A new method for making laser cut panels is introduced. • Experimentally validated simulations compared and real dimension space simulated. • Up to 4.3 times the illuminance of flat plate in the model room on 21 December. The work in this paper focuses on the development of a daylighting device which can increase the light output for longer lengths of hollow mirrored light pipe. The device proposed is passive, easy to build, and inexpensive. It uses the concept of total internal reflection in acrylic laser cut panels (LCPs) and extends the idea into a complete collector based on mathematical modelling. The novel method of fabricating laser cut panels with steep cutting angles and partial depth cuts has been discussed in this paper. This method has been combined with weight optimisation to make a lightweight yet efficient collector with no laser cuts exposed to the atmosphere. The simulation results of this collector have been compared with a flat acrylic plate coupled to a light pipe and experimental validation of simulation has been performed using a prototype. The simulation results for collector coupled to 80% reflective light pipe have shown up to 4.3 times the illuminance on model room floor as compared to light pipe with a flat plate on 21 December- the low solar altitude season for which the collector was primarily designed. Another simulation of a real dimension office space with multiple collectors shows that at least 175 lx of average illuminance is available on the work surface with 227 cm2 cross-section light pipes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, Ferrites (Fe 3 O 4 , MnFe 2 O 4 , ZnFe 2 O 4) and different stoichiometric ratios of Zn x Mn 1−x Fe 2 O 4 (x = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8) nanoparticles (<15 nm) were synthesized by microwave-assisted method and optimised for hyperthermia studies. The selection of the optimised variant of ferrite i.e. Zn 0.4 Mn 0.6 Fe 2 O 4 was found to be the best variant based on VSM (38.14 emu g−1) hyperthermia-based temperature rise (maximum ΔT of 38 °C), SAR and ILP values. Trastuzumab, which is known to bind with HER2 receptors of breast cancer was chemically tethered onto Zn 0.4 Mn 0.6 Fe 2 O 4 nanoparticles through EDC/NHS coupling with a loading efficiency of 80%. The attached Trastuzumab aided during the pre-treatment step by aiding in the internalisation of Zn 0.4 Mn 0.6 Fe 2 O 4 nanoparticles, with cellular uptake of 11% in SK-BR-3 (cancerous HER2+) cells compared to ∼5% for MDA-MB-231 (cancerous HER2-) and RPE-1 (non-cancerous) cells. In the presence of a hyperthermia trigger for 15 mins, Zn x Mn 1−x Fe 2 O 4 -Trastuzumab formulation had a maximum therapeutic effect by reducing the SK-BR-3 cell viability to 14% without adversely affecting the RPE-1 cells. The mechanism of Zn x Mn 1−x Fe 2 O 4 -Trastuzumab combination was examined using an internalisation study, MTT-based viability, proliferation study, and ROS generation assay. By utilizing both Trastuzumab and hyperthermia, we achieve their synergistic anticancer properties while minimizing the drug requirement and reducing any effect on non-cancerous cells. [Display omitted] • Zn 0.4 Mn 0.6 Fe 2 O 4 – Trastuzumab nanoparticles for treating HER2+ cells. • Trastuzumab loading of 0.032 µg per µg of nanoparticle was achieved through EDC/NHS coupling. • Pretreatment of cells with nanoparticles showed a cellular uptake of 11%. • Maximum therapeutic effect on SK-BR-3 cells using a Hyperthermia trigger for 15 mins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this work is to consolidate a review of accomplished research in the field of optical code division multiple accesses (OCDMA), to outline the state-of-the-art comparison, and to recognize the prominent trends as well as limitations. Code division multiple access (CDMA) has prospered as a vital solution for numerous applications such as cellular mobile communication-based wireless network technology and wired/wireless local area networks that include areas of unlicensed industry, medicine, and science. Due to the commercial utilization of the various advantages of CDMA, it has raised the matter of whether optical technology reliant communications provide the noteworthy advantages to optical networks as well as what are the technologies that facilitate optical chip-based (code division) networks. Aforementioned matter has been addressed in the context of the incorporation of OCDMA in the systems through several experiments of laboratory-based test-bed investigations, field trials, and simulation analysis of multiple users in the recent research works. The performance of OCDMA has an edge over wavelength division multiplexing and offers an unmatched capacity that is seen through simulations. To cater the explosive expansions in internet application, different spectral amplitude codes have been proposed till now. We present a review of the different spectral amplitude codes based on the reported works in spectral amplitude code OCDMA systems. For the purpose of state-of-the-art comparison, parameters considered are data speeds, advanced modulation formats, bit error rate, extinction ratio, decision algorithms, photonic efficiencies of photodetectors, frequency bands, signal-to-noise ratio, forward error correction, photodetector noises, etc., and simulations are carried out in similar input environments. We explore the advantages/limitations of the spectral amplitude codes, recent progress in the technology, practical works on spectral amplitude coding (SAC) throughout the world, encryption–decryption techniques, all-optical methods, literature comparison, future scope, and applications of the SAC-OCDMA codes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) based nano-dispersed polymer gel electrolytes containing lithium tetrafluoroborate (LiBF 4 ), non-volatile solvents: propylene carbonate (PC) as single solvent, binary solvent mixtures with N,N -dimethylformamide (PC:DMF) in different volume ratios and nano-sized silica have been prepared and characterized. Ionic conductivity of gel as well as liquid electrolytes depends mainly upon the donor number and viscosity of the solvents used. Maximum ionic conductivity of 9.4 × 10 −3  S/cm at 25 °C has been obtained for nano-dispersed silica based polymer gel electrolyte having (PC:DMF = 1:1) volume ratio. Small content of PMMA in gel electrolyte improves the ionic conductivity, whereas small content of nano-sized silica not only enhances the ionic conductivity, but also improves the mechanical strength of the electrolyte. Two conductivity maxima observed at very low content of nano-sized silica in PMMA based gel electrolytes for binary solvent mixture having 2:1 and 1:1 volume ratios have been e xplained by double percolation threshold model. Moreover nano-dispersed silica based polymer gel electrolytes show good thermal properties, which have been confirmed by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) & Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and mechanical properties have been studied by Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) studies. Also, the ionic conductivity of nano-dispersed silica based polymer gel electrolytes show typical curvature behavior as compared to polymer gel electrolyte over the temperature range of 10 °C–70 °C indicating their high amorphous nature. Also, the comparative results have been observed via activation energies for polymer gel electrolytes with and without silica, which have been calculated from logσ vs. 1000/T plot. The behavior of the plot does not show much change at all temperature regions (change is only by a factor), which compile acute in distinct electrochemical devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guar gum (Galactomannan) is extracted from Guar (Cluster bean), which is extensively used in petroleum, food and pharmaceutical industry. Root rot of guaris caused by Fusarium solani EGY1 under Punjab, having sub-tropical climatic conditions. This study was undertaken to evaluate different culture media, grain substrates (sorghum, maize, cowpea, guar and pearl millet), temperatures (20, 25, 30, 35oC), pH levels (5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0),light and darkness for the identification of optimum conditions for the growth and sporulation of the fungus. Czapek’s dox mediawas found to be best for growth (84.65 mm) and sporulation (1.8 x 104microconidia and 3.0 x 104 macro conidia) of fungus. For mass multiplication of the fungus, sorghum grains proved to be the best substrate. The fungus showed maximum radial growth at temperature of 25oC (84.36 mm) and pH of 6.0 (84.43 mm) whereas sporulation was highest at 30oC(2.0 x 104 microconidia and 3.2 x 104 macroconidia) and pH of 8.0 (1.8 x 104 microconidia and3.1 x 104macroconidia) respectively. Continuous light favoured radial growth (84.62 mm) whereas sporulation (1.8 x 104microconidia and 3.1 x 104macroconidia) was favoured by darkness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel design of an integrated multi-arm power splitter based on photonic crystal waveguides. A 1 × 5 power splitter is proposed by introducing line defects to form a one input waveguide arm and five output waveguide arms. The plane wave expansion method (PWE) is used to investigate the dispersion characteristics of the light coupling between the guided modes in the photonic band gap (PBG) from 0.037 ω/2πc to 0.095 ω/2πc frequency range. Using Finite-Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method, we calculated the power splitting across each output arm; 52.2% in arm C, 16.9% in arm D, 14.6% in arm E, 12.1% in arm A and 3.4% in arm B. The total observed transmission efficiency of the splitter is 99.2%. Further, the time response of electric field along the Y direction (Ey) which is perpendicular to the X-Z plane is studied. The output arms C, E, D and B show beam shaped envelope response while the remaining output arm A exhibit negligible variation with time. The compact and low cost proposed design contributes to the state of art progress in the field of photonics integrated circuits (PICs) technology where the power splitter plays a prominent role of splitting optical power between all the optical elements integrated in the chip. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaborative Robots need to read the surfaces they are walking on to keep their dynamic equilibrium, regardless of whether the ground is flat or uneven. Although accelerometers are frequently employed for this task, previous efforts have centered on retrofitting the quadruped robots with new sensors. The second technique is to collect lots of samples for machine learning algorithms, which are not widely implemented. Learning-based approaches altered the traditional way of data analytics. The advanced deep learning algorithms provide better accuracy and prove more efficient when the data size is large. This paper introduced a novel architecture of Convolutional Neural Network, a deep learning-based approach for efficiently classifying the surface on which the robots are walking. The dataset contains reading captured by Inertia Measurement Unit sensors. The proposed model achieved an overall classification accuracy of 88%. The proposed architecture is compared with the existing deep and machine learning techniques to show its effectiveness. The proposed model can be installed on collaborative robots' onboard processors to identify the surfaces effectively. • Cobots must read the surfaces they are walking on to maintain dynamic balance. • The paper presents a novel CNN architecture for efficient surface detection. • Current machine/deep learning architectures are compared against the proposed model. • The proposed model achieved overall classification accuracy of 88%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a novel design of Johnson counter using D flip-flops. The performance of D flip-flop is carried out by exploiting the cross-gain modulation effect in semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA), purging the use of components like polarisation controllers, switches and so on. Performance is evaluated in terms of various variants like operational speed, cost effectiveness of design, rise time/fall time, quality of signal received and the system is found to give better results in terms of extinction ratio even without any feedback path. The Johnson counter or twisted ring counter is implemented using three alloptical D flip-flops producing six states. The D flip-flop incorporates travelling wave SOA and all-optical NOT gate. The proposed counter is reasonably valuable as it desires half of the flip-flops in association to other ring counters which directly reduce the cost of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a spectrally coded optical code division multiple access (OCDMA) system using a hybrid modulation scheme has been investigated. The idea is to propose an effective approach for simultaneous improvement of the system capacity and security. Data formats, NRZ (non-return to zero), DQPSK (differential quadrature phase shift keying), and PoISk (polarisation shift keying) are used to get the orthogonal modulated signal. It is observed that the proposed hybrid modulation provides efficient utilisation of bandwidth, increases the data capacity and enhances the data confidentiality over existing OCDMA systems. Further, the proposed system performance is compared with the current state-of-the-art OCDMA schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The machine learning (ML) can replace the classical experimental and simulation techniques to produce results more precisely. • ML can be effective for development of new glasses by improving the various properties like edge strength, shear strength, tensile strength, delamination, etc. • ML made possible to predict the glass properties at lower cost in lesser time. • ML can be used in various inspection methods to minimise the human error. The glass science and technology is a rapidly developing field which is focused on development of new glasses with excellent properties. Glasses are the non-crystalline materials with inherent stoichiometry i.e. non-disordered structure of atoms and molecules, thus inherently unpredictable. The ineffective trial-and-error methods are typical to glasses design. The classical computational methods such as ab initio and classical molecular dynamics simulation techniques are costly, time consuming and provide limited data of results. To overcome from such problems, the machine learning (ML) replaces the classical experimental and simulation techniques to produce results more precisely. In the recent years, a lot of studies are carried out on AI to develop new compositions of glasses based on the different types of input parameters. Researchers developed new glasses by improving the various properties of glass like edge strength, shear strength, tensile strength, delamination, etc. In this paper, an effort has been made to explore recent developments in glass manufacturing and technology by the implementation of ML techniques. In this paper, the development of glass of new composition, prediction of glass properties, and various inspection methods are discussed on the basis of application of ML techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid optical amplifiers (HOAs) are crucially important for broadband band amplification, and are widely deployed in high-capacity dense wavelength division multiplexed systems. We summarize the present state-of-the-art in this rapidly growing field. In addition, theoretical background and various inline configurations of optical amplifiers have been presented. Various issues such as gain flatness, gain bandwidth, transient effect, and crosstalk were presented in HOAs. Results show that the HOAs provide better gain flatness without using any expensive gain flattening techniques, and an acceptable range of gain, noise figure, bit error rate, and transience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hardware Trojan (HT) is a severe security threat during the development of an integrated circuit that can deviate the IC from its normal function and/or leak sensitive information during in-field operations. Trojans are often inserted during the fabrication phase, and to have Trojan-free ICs; it is highly desirable to detect them during post-silicon testing. Different test pattern generation-based HT detection techniques are reported in the literature to detect the Trojan during post-silicon testing. The existing methods provide low coverage and require a large number of test patterns. This paper proposes a new test pattern generation-based HT detection technique that provides high coverage while requiring less number of patterns. The proposed technique generates the optimal number of test patterns that activate the rare events by framing the problem as multi-objective optimization and solving it through a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II). The Trojans are mostly inserted using rare-triggered nodes (highly vulnerable, low controllable, and low observable). Thus, our technique applies the generated patterns during post-silicon testing to activate Trojans. Further, we also present the use of checker (detection) logic along with a proposed approach to effectively detect the Trojan during testing. The experimental evaluation on ISCAS benchmarks shows that the proposed technique provides 12 times higher trigger coverage with 1/3 fewer test patterns than the best-known existing genetic algorithm-based technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research paper, a new highly efficient compact size, dual-band 28/38GHz, 2 × 2 printed circuit board (PCB) based multi-input multi-output (MIMO) antenna array loaded with complementary Split Ring Resonator (CSRR) structure is simulated and fabricated for fifth-generation (5G) millimeter wave-based wireless devices. The Rogers RT/Duroid 6002 material within heigh 1.52 mm is being used as the substrate for the MIMO antenna array design. The CSRR metamaterial unit cells are positioned on the top and ground surface to improve the antenna's outcomes in terms of gain and directivity. The highly efficient CST microwave studio 2020 is used to design the MIMO antenna. It is noted from the results that the proposed single patch antenna is resonating on 28.06 GHz and 38.04 GHz with effective 15.81% and 14.58% impedance bandwidth at respective resonating bands. Then finally, the 2 × 2 MIMO antenna array having size (30 × 30 × 1.52) mm3 is developed from the proposed optimized antenna. The presented MIMO antenna array is tested by using the vector network analyzer (VNA). The measured results are compared with the simulated one and found that the optimized proposed MIMO antenna array is resonating at 28.29 GHz and 38.78 GHz with an effective reflection coefficient of −20.54 dB and − 35.81 dB respectively. It has a bandwidth of 15.30% and 13.97% and isolation of −24 dB and − 38.71 dB within respective resonating bands. It has achieved a realized gain of 8.65dBi and 8.24 dBi at 28 GHz and 38 GHz respectively. The ECC is <0.0041 between the MIMO antenna element. The developed MIMO antenna can be a good candidate for 5G millimeter wave-based wireless portable devices [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the first time, a novel net gain analytical model of EDFA–Raman hybrid optical amplifier (HOA) is designed and optimized the various parameters using genetic algorithm. Our method has shown to be robust in the simultaneous analysis of multiple parameters, such as Raman length, EDFA length and its pump powers, to obtained highest possible gain. The optimized HOA is further investigated and characterized on system level in the scenario of 100×10 Gbps dense wavelength division multiplexed (DWDM) system with 25 GHz interval. With an optimized HOA, a flat gain of >18 dB is obtained from frequency region 187 to 189.5 THz with a gain variation of less than 1.35 dB without using any gain flattened technique. The obtained noise figure is also the lowest value (<2 dB/channel) ever reported for proposed hybrid optical amplifier at reduced channel spacing with acceptable bit error rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, security of the spectrally encoded-optical code division multiplexed access (OCDMA) system is enhanced by using 2-D (orthogonal) modulation technique. This is an effective approach for simultaneous improvement of the system capacity and security. Also, the results show that the hybrid modulation technique proved to be a better option to enhance the data confidentiality at higher data rates using minimum utilization of bandwidth in a multiuser environment. Further, the proposed system performance is compared with the current state-of-the-art OCDMA schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We proposed a bandwidth efficient wavelength division multiplexed-passive optical network (WDM-PON) to simultaneously transmit 60 Gb/s unicast and 10 Gb/s multicast services with 10 Gb/s upstream. The differential phase shift keying (DPSK) multicast signal is superimposed onto multiplexed non-return to zero/polarization shift keying (NRZ/PolSK) orthogonal modulated data signals. Upstream amplitude shift keying (ASK) signals formed without use of any additional light source and superimposed onto received unicast NRZ/PolSK signal before being transmitted back to optical line terminal (OLT). We also investigated the proposed WDM-PON system for variable optical input power, transmission distance of single mode fiber in multicast enable and disable mode. The measured Quality factor for all unicast and multicast signal is in acceptable range (>6). The original contribution of this paper is to propose a bandwidth efficient WDM-PON system that could be projected even in high speed scenario at reduced channel spacing and expected to be more technical viable due to use of optical orthogonal modulation formats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A module of an all-optical 2-bit comparator is analyzed and implemented using semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs). By employing SOA-based cross phase modulation, the optical XNOR logic is used to get an A = B output signal, where as AB and AB; logics operations are used to realize A > B and A < B output signals, respectively. All input output bit operations results along with the wide open eye diagrams are obtained. It is suggested that the proposed system would be promising in all-optical high speed networks and computing systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we have investigated wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) hybrid (ring-tree-star) topology. Eight optical add/drop multiplexers (OADMs) are used to make ring structure. The single mode fiber and dispersion compensating fiber and semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) are employed between each OADM to achieve a maximum. To increase the number of users each OADM node of ring network is connected to star and tree network topology which can accommodate more than 2048 users. Various system parameters (for different channel spacing, different input power signal, different data rates and the fiber length) are varied to investigate the system performance in the term of BER and Q factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the performance of bi-directional passive optical network (BPON) has been evaluated and compared at different bit rates in the scenario of triple play service. The triple-play service is realized as a combination of data, voice and video signals. This architecture is investigated for symmetrical data traffic for uplink and downlink transmission and its performance is also evaluated in terms of Q -factor and eye height at different transmission distance. The Q -factor results show the acceptable performance at 10 Gbps data rate for downstream and upstream transmission, as it accommodates 128 optical network units (ONUs). Further the proposed system's performance is compared with the current state-of-the-art PON architectures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the cost effective bi-directional passive optical network architecture with wavelength remodulated scheme is investigated. To realize the cost-effective PON, remodulation scheme is used, in which the downstream optical signal is reused as a carrier for the upstream transmission as it eliminates the need for an extra laser source at optical network units. The performance of proposed passive optical network is analyzed and compared for various modulation formats such as Non Return to Zero (NRZ), Return to Zero (RZ) and On–Off Keying (OOK) with 64 optical networks units (ONUs) at different traffic speed for downlink and uplink, respectively. It has been observed that the most suitable data format for proposed PON network is NRZ. Further the proposed system performance is compared with the current state-of-the-art PON architectures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple genetic algorithm is implemented to perform multi parameter optimization of Raman Fiber Amplifier for 100 channel S band dense wavelength division multiplexed system at 25 GHz interval. A cost effective system using single Raman pump is investigated aiming at maximum average gain. The single counter propagating pump is optimized to frequency of 211.528 THz and 652.93 mW power level with optimum Raman fiber length of 44.064 Km. There is evidence to show that the optimum solution presents a small gain variation (less than 3 dB) over an effective bandwidth covering 197–199.475 THz. The optimized configuration enabled an adequate system performance in terms of acceptable Q -factor (19.52 dB) and BER (1.46 × 10 −21 ). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study hybrid optical amplifiers (HOAs) for dense wavelength division multiplexed (DWDM) systems at reduced channel spacing (<0.2 nm). The Raman erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) (R-E) and EDFA-semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) (E-S) hybrid optical amplifiers (HOAs) are investigated for the first time at 0.05 and 0.1 nm of the channel spacing. We show that the R-E HOA provides better gain (23.9 dB) and induces lesser crosstalk (-14.1 dB) with minimum utilization of the bandwidth. We report that 70 km is the optimum span distance at which the R-E HOA achieves a 2450 km transmission distance with acceptable performance. The theoretical results are found to be in accordance with numerical simulations in terms of the amplifier gain and induced crosstalk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a new optical data format based on simultaneously modulating nonreturn-to-zero and polarization-shift-keying for high-speed applications by means of efficient utilization of bandwidth. To the best of our knowledge, this article reports on the first investigation of a Raman erbium-doped fiber amplifier hybrid optical amplifier using a hybrid/orthogonal modulation technique in the scenario of 8- and 20-channel dense wavelength division multiplexed systems with high-data rates at 0.2 and 0.8 nm channel spacing, respectively. The results show that the proposed modulation format offers significant advantages in offering high-spectral efficiency values with acceptable quality factors and bit error rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a simple genetic algorithm implemented to perform multiparameter optimization of a Raman fiber amplifier for a 100-channel L-band dense wavelength division multiplexed system at a 25-GHz interval. The system is investigated for various cases with fixed pump frequency leading to 202.2-THz pump as the best choice with average gain above 19.5 dB. There is evidence to show that a single counterpropagating pump optimized to 588.2-mW power level and optimum Raman fiber length of 38.8 km presents a small gain variation (<2 dB) over an effective bandwidth covering 187 to 189.475 THz. The optimized configuration enabled an adequate system performance in terms of acceptable Q-factor (17 dB) and bit error rate (5.60 x 10-13). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] The influence of crosstalk induced by hybrid optical amplifiers has been examined. [•] It is observed that as the input power increases the crosstalk will also increase. [•] It is recommended that R–E is the best combination as compared to other HOA. [•] The investigation of crosstalk has also been done in 16 channel DWDM system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, four modulation formats including nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ), nonreturn-to-zero raised cosine (NRZ-RC), return-to-zero (RZ), return-to-zero raised cosine (RZ-RC) DWDM system with different hybrid optical amplifiers are introduced. We show that NRZ-DPSK and RZ-DPSK degrade the performance when Raman amplifier is considered. The obtained results reported that RZ and RZ-RC DWDM system with Raman-EDFA provide better results and cover 1512 and 1260km of transmission distance, respectively, with acceptable quality factor (>15dB) and bit error rate (<10−9). Further, it is also confirmed that using the hybrid optical amplifiers is a best alternative to increase the span distance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate pre-, post-, symmetrical dispersion and power compensation in parallel for 96 channels×10Gbps non-return to zero DWDM system using pumped dispersion compensating fiber (PDCF) and pumped single mode fiber (PSMF). The results of three compensation methods have been compared in the term of bit error rate, eye closure penalty and Quality factor and it is found that both post-, and symmetrical compensation methods are provide better results for short haul communication but for long haul communication post-compensation method is the best alternative among other. The impact of bit error rate and eye closure penalty is also observed for large transmission distances and cover 420km using post-compensation method with acceptable bit error rate (2.3×10−10) and eye closure (1.73dB). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: Alterations in serum lipids have long been associated with cancer as lipids play an important role in maintenance of cell integrity. Aims: To evaluate alterations in plasma lipid profile in oral cancer patients, to compare and correlate the serum lipid profile in different grades of carcinoma and to evaluate the correlation of serum lipid profile between the tobacco habituates and non-habituates. Materials and Methods: Among 75 study subjects, 50 individuals were oral carcinoma patients and 25 individuals were healthy controls. The parameters assessed included total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDLC), low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, very low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol and triglycerides (TGL). These groups were subdivided into subjects with no habit of tobacco (NHT) and subjects with habit of tobacco (WHT). Stastical Analysis Used: Evaluation of results and statistical analysis was carried out using Student's t-test and one-way Analysis of Variance. Results: There was a significant decrease in TC, HDLC and TGL in the oral cancer group as compared with the control group. The lipid profile levels between histological grading of the oral cancer and between WHT and NHT had no statistical significance. Conclusions: There was an inverse relationship between serum lipid profile and oral cancer. The lower serum lipid status may be considered a useful indicator for initial changes occurring in the neoplastic cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper 10Gbps WDM systems at 16, 32 and 64 channels have been investigated with EDFA, RAMAN and SOA amplifiers individually and the performance has been compared on the basis of transmission distance and dispersion with and without nonlinearities. It is demonstrated that when the dispersion is 2ps/nm/km and the number of channels are less, then SOA provide better results because as we increases the number of channels, the gain saturation problem arises due to cross gain modulation, the cross phase modulation and four wave mixing. When dispersion is increased from 2 to 10ps/nm/km, EDFA provides better results than SOA in the term of BER and output power, but it shows non-uniform gain spectrum. We also observed that RAMAN amplifier provides better results for L band amplification and gain flatting issue because it can substantially reduce the impact of fiber nonlinearity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, we investigated the performance of multi terabits DWDM system consisting of hybrid optical amplifier RAMAN-EDFA for different data format such as non-return to zero (NRZ), return to zero (RZ) and differential phase shift keying (DPSK). We find that in 64×10 and 96×10Gbps, RZ is more adversely affected by nonlinearities, where as NRZ and DPSK is more affected by dispersion. We further show that RZ provide good quality factor (13.88dB and 15.93dB for 64 and 96 channels), less eye closure (2.609dB and 3.191dB for 64 and 96 channels) and acceptable bit error rate (3.89×108 and 1.24×109 for 64 and 96 channels) at the respective distance as compare to other existing modulation format. We further investigated the maximum single span distance covered by using existing data formats. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Fractional domain optimum combining (OC) using fractional Fourier transform has been considered in this article. It has already been established that in an interference-dominated environment, OC is the best among all the diversity techniques used for single-input multiple-output systems. This technique is based on the principle of maximising the signal-to-interference plus noise ratio at the output of the combiner. In this article, a new combiner, which calculates the weights in fractional domain, has been proposed to further enhance the performance of OC in terms of bit error rate (BER). Fractional domain combining gives better signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the output of the combiner as compared to time- or frequency-domain combiner due to complete removal of noise. For two receive antennas, the proposed combiner gives an SNR improvement of 7.2 and 2.4 dB as compared to time- and frequency-domain combiners, at a BER of 10−2. It has been concluded that the proposed technique clearly outperforms the existing technique. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: In this paper, we investigated the post-, pre- and symmetrical power compensation methods for a different position of hybrid optical amplifier RAMAN–EDFA in fiber link. The effect of increase in signal input power for three power compensation methods is compared in terms of bit error rate, eye closure penalty and output received power. It is found that the post power compensation method is superior to pre- and symmetrical power compensation methods. Further, the effect of variation in length of the standard single mode fiber and dispersion-compensated fiber for three power compensation configurations has also been observed. We observed that RAMAN–EDFA as post power compensation method provides least bit error rate (10−40) and high output power (12dBm) at −15dBm signal input power at fiber link. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article proposes various combinations of optical amplifiers for a dense wavelength division multiplexed system and investigates the impact of reduced channel spacing at high bit rates in terms of quality factor, bit error rate, eye closure, and output power. It is reported that the hybrid optical amplifier (Raman–erbium-doped fiber amplifier [EDFA]) provides better results with a maximum covered single span distance (220 km) at channel spacing of 6.25 GHz. The maximum acceptable bit rate for the 12.5-GHz channel spacing dense wavelength division multiplexed system is also investigated, and the recommendation is provided that for the Raman–EDFA, Raman–EDFA–Raman, EDFA–Raman–EDFA, and EDFA–semiconductor optical amplifier–EDFA, the operating bit rate should not be greater than 20, 16, 19, and 20 Gbps, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Internal surface of slurry pipeline underwent to erosion-corrosion. • Thickness of pipeline reduces due to the action of erosion-corrosion. • Lower semicircle of pipeline exhibit higher wear than upper semicircle. • Sand properties like size, shape and static settled concentration also causes wear. The present investigation was carried out to study the erosion-corrosion analysis in the hydropower pipeline of a Francis turbine. Testing was performed on a mild steel pipe having a diameter of 6 in.. An extensive set of experiments was carried out to test the properties of the erodent and the worn-out pipeline. Experiments were carried out using the sand-water suspension of concentration, ranging from 5000 to 20,000 ppm. The physical properties such as size and morphology of the sand particles as well as settling concentration of sand-water suspension were examined by the various bench-scale tests. The SEM-EDS techniques were used to study the morphological and chemical composition of the pipeline. Visual inspections depicted that the major deterioration occurred at the bottom half of the pipeline. Also, the lower surface of the pipeline seems underwent to high erosion and corrosion as compared to the upper surface of the pipeline. Results show that the erosion-corrosion process causes the wall thickness reduction of the horizontal pipeline. However, the properties of sand namely size, shape and static settled concentration of particles play a key role in the erosion wear of the pipeline. The solid particles of the sand eroded the pipeline material, which results in pits, craters, and cutting wear mechanisms on the pipeline surface. It can be said that the use of pipelines having an uneven hardness and lack of established inspection norms results in unexpected failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the effective rate (ER) analysis of a multiple input single output (MISO) system over the Beaulieu-Xie (BX) fading. The closed-form expressions were derived for the exact and asymptotic cases (for high and low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)). The BX fading channel is extremely useful for characterizing small cell networks, hyper-dense networks, and femtocells, etc. It can also be used for modeling the fading channels for high-speed trains. Numerical results were presented using the derived closed-form expressions and compared with the results obtained from Monte Carlo simulations. Our findings illustrated that the analytical results have a close match with simulation results. In addition, the numerical findings also provide the important insights into the impact of delay constraint and fading parameters on the ER of considered wireless scenario. It is found that the performance of system improves as dominant specular power and/or number of transmitter antennas increases or the delay constraint parameter decreases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study is to develop a neural network model for the prediction of slurry erosion (SE) of heavy-duty pump impeller steels and casing material. The heavy-duty pump impeller has a wide range of applications like slurry transportation system and coal conveying system of thermal power stations, and various other industries like mining, chemical and marine industry. In the present study, the slurry erosion performance of three different pump impeller steels namely 18Cr-8Ni, 16Cr-10Ni-2Mo and super duplex 24Cr-6Ni-3Mo-N, and one pump casing material namely Grey cast iron was tested. The SE experiments were carried out on a laboratory scale pot tester using the sand as an erodent. A data set was produced to develop a prediction-based neural network (NN) model and 70% of this data set was used as input to NN model. The learning of NN model was based on an artificial neural network (ANN) and used to build a prediction model that can predict the results while the input data was supplied to it. Firstly, the data were divided into training, validation, and testing. The NN model was trained on 70% of the original dataset and validated by another 15% data. A total of 30 training epochs were performed for training, testing, and validation of the model. The validation of the model indicates that the build NN model was the best fit and comprises no over-fitting and under-fitting issues. In the end, the prepared NN model was given the remaining 15% data for testing. It outputs the corresponding values for each input. These predicted values are then compared with the actual ground truth to check the robustness of the designed model. The various measures used for evaluating the model were R2 (coefficient of determination), Root mean square error, etc. Results show that 18Cr-8Ni steel exhibits the best SE performance followed by 16Cr-10Ni-2Mo, 24Cr-6Ni-3Mo-N, and Grey cast iron. • The 18Cr-8Ni steel showed the best performance followed by 16Cr-10Ni-2Mo, 24Cr-6Ni-3Mo-N, and Grey cast iron. • Maximum slurry erosion in for steels occurs at impact angle of 30° and 60° for grey cast iron. • The grey cast iron shows a pure brittle erosion behavior whereas stainless steels showed the semi-brittle behavior. • The error percentage lies between 0 and 6%, which establishes the efficiency of the ANN model. • MAE and RMSE readings show that the ANN model prediction error was the least compared to MLR, PLSR and PCR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we have investigated the wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) system using ring network topology. This network is used to increase the capacity with eight optical add/drop multiplexers (OADMs) by using dispersion compensating fiber and semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) to achieve a distance up to 1600 km. It is observed that network shows the acceptable results at 15 Gbps data rate with 100 GHz channel spacing. The OADM nodes are also varied to investigate the network performance in the term of BER and Q -factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance of DWDM ring network topology is investigated with 13 × 15 Gbps channels without using dispersion compensating fiber among the 3 channels are added and droped using OADM, respectively. Each OADM node having 70 km distance between each other. This ring network topology is evaluated by considering the signal quality factor and BER for different input power at all nodes. Further, this ring network topology is also investigated for different data rate at all nodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]