A fast low-power optical memory based on coupled micro-ring lasers

The increasing speed of fibre-optic-based telecommunications has focused attention on high-speed optical processing of digital information. Complex optical processing requires a high-density, high-speed, low-power optical memory that can be integrated with planar semiconductor technology for buffering of decisions and telecommunication data. Recently, ring lasers with extremely small size and low operating power have been made, and we demonstrate here a memory element constructed by interconnecting these microscopic lasers. Our device occupies an area of 18 x 40 microm2 on an InP/InGaAsP photonic integrated circuit, and switches within 20 ps with 5.5 fJ optical switching energy. Simulations show that the element has the potential for much smaller dimensions and switching times. Large numbers of such memory elements can be densely integrated and interconnected on a photonic integrated circuit: fast digital optical information processing systems employing large-scale integration should now be viable.     

印刷体藏文识别技术

藏文字符识别是中国的多文种信息处理系统的重要组成部分,本文论述了印刷体藏文识别系统的原理和预处理、识别、后处理过程,分析了文字识别的常用方法及其优缺点和印刷体藏文识别技术,着重分析了印刷体藏文识别中特征提取和分类器设计这两个关键技术,并对藏文识别研究领域今后的研究方向和发展前景提出了自己的看法.     

Retrograde axonal transport of target tissue-derived macromolecules

Neurones depend on contact with their target tissues for survival and subsequent development. The protein, nerve growth factor (NGF), can be selectively taken up by sympathetic nerve terminals and reaches the neuronal perikaryon by a process of retrograde intra-axonal transport, suggesting that its role in vivo is to act as a target tissue-derived trophic factor. The development of the neurones of the chick ciliary ganglion requires the presence of structures derived from the optic cup. Several studies in vitro have shown that media conditioned by non-neuronal cells contain factors that result in the survival of neurones from ciliary ganglia. In particular, chick embryo iris, ciliary body and choroid contained large amounts of these factors indicating the presence of a target tissue-derived trophic factor for the cholinergic ciliary ganglion. This study demonstrates that neurones of the ciliary ganglion accumulate, by retrograde intra-axonal transport, proteins synthesized and released by optic tissues in culture.     

An unexpectedly rapid decline in the X-ray afterglow emission of long gamma-ray bursts

'Long' gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are commonly accepted to originate in the explosion of particularly massive stars, which give rise to highly relativistic jets. Inhomogeneities in the expanding flow result in internal shock waves that are believed to produce the gamma-rays we see. As the jet travels further outward into the surrounding circumstellar medium, 'external' shocks create the afterglow emission seen in the X-ray, optical and radio bands. Here we report observations of the early phases of the X-ray emission of five GRBs. Their X-ray light curves are characterised by a surprisingly rapid fall-off for the first few hundred seconds, followed by a less rapid decline lasting several hours. This steep decline, together with detailed spectral properties of two particular bursts, shows that violent shock interactions take place in the early jet outflows.     

Determining the ages of comets from the fraction of crystalline dust

The timescale for the accretion of bodies in the disk surrounding a young star depends upon a number of assumptions, but there are few observational constraints. In our own Solar System, measurements of meteoritic components can provide information about the inner regions of the nebula, but not the outer parts. Observations of the evolution of more massive protostellar systems (Herbig Ae/Be stars) imply that significant changes occur in the physical properties of their dust with time. The simplest explanation is that thermal annealing of the original, amorphous grains in the hot inner nebula slowly increases the fractional abundance of crystalline material over time. Crystalline dust is then transported outward, where it is incorporated into comets that serve as a long-term reservoir for dust disks, such as that surrounding Beta Pictoris. Here we show that when applied to our own Solar System, this process can explain observed variations in both the volatile and dusty components of comets, while also providing a natural indicator of a comet's mean formation age. Studies of comets with different dust contents can therefore be used to investigate the timescales of the early Solar System.     

Common west African HLA antigens are associated with protection from severe malaria

A large case-control study of malaria in West African children shows that a human leucocyte class I antigen (HLA-Bw53) and an HLA class II haplotype (DRB1*1302-DQB1*0501), common in West Africans but rare in other racial groups, are independently associated with protection from severe malaria. In this population they account for as great a reduction in disease incidence as the sickle-cell haemoglobin variant. These data support the hypothesis that the extraordinary polymorphism of major histocompatibility complex genes has evolved primarily through natural selection by infectious pathogens.