Impact of Neurolens Use on the Quality of Life in Individuals With Headaches: A Randomized Double-Masked, Cross-Over Clinical Trial.

Purpose: Vision-related disorders, such as refractive errors and binocular vision issues, can cause headaches. The current study evaluates the impact of Neurolens (NL) on individuals with headaches, assessed using the Headache Impact Test (HIT) questionnaire. Methods: Subjects (18-60 years) with good stereoacuity and a HIT score of ≥56 points were enrolled. Each subject wore both control lens and NL for 30 ± 10 days each. The primary outcome of the study was to assess the difference in the HIT score between the two treatments. Results: Of the subjects randomized, 88% (170/195) completed the study. Overall, subjects reported a greater improvement in HIT score improvement with NL compared with control (mean difference, -1.53 points; 95% confidence interval, -2.8 to -0.26; P = 0.01). In the subgroup with reduced NPC, subjects reported a larger improvement in HIT score improvement with NL but was not statistically significant (mean difference, -1.89 points; 95% confidence interval, -4.27 to -0.47; P = 0.11). Conclusions: NL produced a statistically significant decrease in the impact of headaches on individuals' quality of life compared with placebo. Although the overall magnitude of the decrease was not clinically significant, a clinically meaningful improvement with NL cannot be ruled out with high certainty in the current study. Translational Relevance: Headache is one of the most experienced symptoms by individuals worldwide with vision-related disorders being a primary reason. It is, therefore, critical to screen these disorders before providing a pharmacological intervention, which may have side effects. NL provides an objective way to diagnose and treat digital eyestrain-related headaches.

Simulating whole-body vibration for neonatal patients on a tire-coupled road simulator.

Exposure to excessive whole-body vibration is linked to health issues and may result in increased rates of mortality and morbidity in infants. Newborn infants requiring specialized treatment at neonatal intensive care units often require transportation by road ambulance to specialized care centers, exposing the infants to potentially harmful vibration and noise. A standardized Neonatal Patient Transport System (NPTS) has been deployed in Ontario, Canada, that provides life saving equipment to patients and safe operation for the clinical care staff. However, there is evidence that suggests patients may experience a higher amplitude of vibration at certain frequencies when compared with the vehicle vibration. In a multi-year collaborative project, we seek to create a standardized test procedure to evaluate the levels of vibration and the effectiveness of mitigation strategies. Previous studies have looked at laboratory vibration testing of a transport system or transport incubator and were limited to single degree of freedom excitation, neglecting the combined effects of rotational motion. This study considers laboratory testing of a full vehicle and patient transport system on an MTS Model 320 Tire-Coupled Road Simulator. The simulation of road profiles and discrete events on a tire-coupled road simulator allows for the evaluation of the vibration levels of the transport system and the exploration of mitigation strategies in a controlled setting. The tire-coupled simulator can excite six degrees-of-freedom motion of the transport system for vibration evaluation in three orthogonal directions including the contributions of the three rotational degrees of freedom. The vibration data measured on the transport system during the tire-coupled testing are compared to corresponding road test data to assess the accuracy of the vibration environment replication. Three runs of the same drive file were conducted during the laboratory testing, allowing the identification of anomalies and evaluation of the repeatability. The tire-coupled full vehicle testing revealed a high level of accuracy in re-creating the road sections and synthesized random profiles. The simulation of high amplitude discrete events, such as speed hump traverses, were highly repeatable, yet yielded less accurate results with respect to the peak amplitudes at the patient. The resulting accelerations collected at the input to the manikin (sensor located under the mattress) matched well between the real-world and road simulator. The sensors used during testing included series 3741B uni-axial and series 356A01 tri-axial accelerometers by PCB Piezotronics. These results indicate a tire-coupled road simulator can be used to accurately evaluate vibration levels and assess the benefits of future mitigation strategies in a controlled setting with a high level of repeatability.

Modeling and experiments of O-band transmission over G.654.C optical fiber.

We address the potential application of G.654.C optical fiber for O-band transmission in the wavelength range of 1270 nm to 1330 nm. Fiber samples at the extreme upper end of the cable cutoff manufacturing distribution are chosen for modeling and experimentation. Modeling of multipath interference (MPI) generation in bend conditions representative of cable deployment suggests minimal to negligible penalty and transmission experiments at 100 Gb/s and 400 Gb/s with commercial IMDD transceivers demonstrate longer transmission with increased power margin compared to standard G.652 fiber due to lower O-band attenuation and no adverse impacts from MPI.

High data rate few-mode transmission over graded-index single-mode fiber using 850 nm single-mode VCSEL.

A few-mode transmission system is proposed using 850 nm single-mode VCSEL based transceivers over graded-index single-mode fibers for high data rate data center applications. A graded-index single-mode fiber that supports two mode groups at 850 nm window with a high modal bandwidth of 48.3 GHz·km is realized for the first time. 25 Gb/s transmission experiments using a 850 nm single-mode VCSEL over such fiber demonstrate that the system can support a link distance up to 1.5 km. Additionally, link model analysis provides more insights on how fiber and single-mode VCSEL parameters impact the system performance.

Transmission of wireless signals using space division multiplexing in few mode fibers.

Evolution of next generation wireless networks brings challenges to efficiently transmit a large amount of data from a base station to a remote antenna unit. We investigate a space division multiplexing technique that employs few mode fibers (FMFs) to transmit 3 × 3 MIMO wireless signals, aiming to employ a common digital signal processing (DSP) unit to equalize both the fiber and wireless channel. We optimize system parameters and obtain above 28 dB and 23 dB signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SINR) for 3 meters wireless systems with 500 m and 2 km FMF, which correspond to the transmission capacity of 578 Mb/s and 468 Mb/s using a 20 MHz bandwidth, respectively. Moreover, we analyze that the nonlinear spectrum distortion due to the combined effect of nonlinearity in the directly modulated laser and the differential mode delay in multimode fibers and validate it by simulations.

Measurements and modeling of multipath interference at wavelengths below cable cut-off in a G.654 optical fiber span.

Transmission below the cable cut-off wavelength may be a concern in some systems, especially for an optical supervisory channel (OSC) operating below the signal transmission band in systems built with G.654 fiber. In this work, we constructed a cabled span of G.654-compliant fiber and measured the multipath interference (MPI) generated during propagation through the span at a range of wavelengths below the cable cut-offs of the constituent fibers. Measurements were made under a range of conditions including different splice losses and the presence or absence of higher order mode filters placed around the splices. MPI levels were found to be sufficiently low at wavelengths far below the average cable cut-off such that OSC transmission was penalty-free. We compare the experimental results to modeling predictions and find very good agreement.

Design of universal fiber with demonstration of full system reaches over 100G SR4, 40G sWDM, and 100G CWDM4 transceivers.

Universal fiber has an LP01 mode field diameter approximately matched to that of standard single mode fiber, while being a multimode fiber. We analyzed the dependence of the mode field diameter on the core diameter for different core delta values. Guided by the analysis, a universal fiber having a delta of 1.2% was fabricated, showing significantly reduced coupling loss of ~2.3 dB with conventional multimode fiber. We demonstrated that the fiber can transmit with full system reach in both single mode and VCSEL-based multimode transmissions, including 100G SR4, 40G sWDM, and 100G CWDM4 for the first time.

Long-haul quasi-single-mode transmissions using few-mode fiber in presence of multi-path interference.

We study long-haul Quasi-Single-mode (QSM) systems in which signals are transmitted in the fundamental modes of a few-mode fiber (FMF) while keeping other system components such as amplifiers and receivers are kept single-moded. The large-effective-area nature of the FMF fundamental modes improves system nonlinear tolerance in the expense of mode coupling along FMF transmissions which induces multi-path interference (MPI) and needs to be compensated. We analytically investigate 6-spatial-polarization mode QSM transmission systems in presence of MPI and show that in the weak coupling regime, the QSM channel is a Gaussian random process in frequency. MPI compensation filters are derived and performance penalties due to MPI and signal loss from higher-order modes are characterized. We also experimentally demonstrate 256 Gb/s polarization multiplexed (PM)-16-QAM QSM transmissions over a record distance of 2600 km with 100-km span using decision directed least mean square (DD-LMS) algorithm for MPI compensation.

Unrepeatered 256 Gb/s PM-16QAM transmission over up to 304 km with simple system configurations.

We study unrepeatered transmission of 40x256 Gb/s systems with polarization-multiplexed 16-quadrature amplitude modulation (PM-16QAM) channels using simple coherent optical system configurations. Three systems are investigated with either a homogeneous fiber span, or simple two-segment hybrid fiber designs. Each system relies primarily on ultra-low loss, very large effective area fiber, while making use of only first-order backward pumped Raman amplification and no remote optically pumped amplifier (ROPA). For the longest span studied, we demonstrate unrepeatered 256 Gb/s transmission over 304 km with the additional aid of nonlinear compensation using digital backpropagation. We find an average performance improvement in terms of the Q-factor of 0.45 dB by using digital backpropagation compared to the case of using chromatic dispersion compensation alone for an unrepeatered span system.

25 Gb/s transmission over 820 m of MMF using a multimode launch from an integrated silicon photonics transceiver.

A new high bandwidth bend-insensitive MMF optimized for 1310 nm is designed and characterized. 25 Gb/s transmission over a record 820 m length using a multimode launch from an integrated SiPh transceiver at 1310 nm through the new fiber is demonstrated with a power penalty of 3.4 dB at 10(-12) BER. Detailed characteristics of the fiber and transceiver are presented along with BER measurements.

Study of EDFA and Raman system transmission reach with 256 Gb/s PM-16QAM signals over three optical fibers with 100 km spans.

We compare the transmission performance of three different optical fibers in separate 256 Gb/s PM-16QAM systems amplified with erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) and distributed Raman amplification. The span length in each system is 100 km. The fibers studied include standard single-mode fiber, single-mode fiber with ultra-low loss, and ultra-low loss fiber with large effective area. We find that the single-mode fiber with ultra-low loss and the large effective area fiber with ultra-low loss afford reach advantages of up to about 31% and 80%, respectively, over standard fiber measured at distances with 3 dB margin over the forward error correction (FEC) threshold. The Raman amplified systems provide about 50% reach length enhancement over the EDFA systems for all three fibers in the experimental set-up. For the best performing fiber with large effective area and ultra-low loss, the absolute reach lengths with 3 dB margin are greater than 1140 km and 1700 km for the for EDFA and Raman systems, respectively.

300m transmission over multimode fiber at 25Gb/s using a multimode launch at 1310nm.

We demonstrate the transmission of 25Gb/s multimode optical signals over a record length of 300m multimode fiber designed for high modal bandwidth at 1310nm. The power penalty is 1.8 dB at 10(-12) bit error rate level.

Ultra-long-haul 112 Gb/s PM-QPSK transmission systems using longer spans and Raman amplification.

Ultra-long-haul transmission at distances greater than 10,000 km is investigated for 112 Gb/s PM-QPSK signals using span lengths of 75 km and 100 km and all-Raman amplification. Two different ultra-low loss and large effective area optical fibers are studied. We demonstrate a reach length of 10,200 km for a 40 channel system using a fiber with effective area 112 µm(2) with 100 km spans, and a reach length of 13,288 km for a system with 75 km spans using a fiber with effective area of 134 µm(2).

Bandwidth measurement of multimode fibers using system level bit error rate testing.

We propose and demonstrate a novel bandwidth measurement method for multimode fibers through measuring the bit error rate and power penalty associated with the testing system. The relationship between system performance and bandwidth limitation is established through the use of well characterized electric filters. With the calibration information, bandwidths of actual fibers were measured. The results were compared with those from other methods. The benefit of the BER based bandwidth measurement method is discussed.

Transmission of 112 Gb/s PM-QPSK signals over up to 635 km of multimode optical fiber.

We investigate transmission of 112 Gb/s PM-QPSK signals over 50 µm core diameter OM3 multimode fiber using the center launch approach. We demonstrate successful transmission of 16 DWDM channels over a distance of 635 km for a capacity-distance product of 1016 Tb/s-km. The limiting impairment appears due to mode coupling and multipath interference effects.

Pulse shaping for 112 Gbit/s polarization multiplexed 16-QAM signals using a 21 GSa/s DAC.

The implications of increasing the symbol rate for a given digital-to-analog converter (DAC) sampling rate are investigated by considering the generation of 112 Gbit/s PM 16-QAM signals (14 Gsym/s) using a 21 GSa/s DAC with 6-bit resolution.

112 Gb/s PM-QPSK transmission up to 6000 km with 200 km amplifier spacing and a hybrid fiber span configuration.

We demonstrate transmission of 112 Gb/s PM-QPSK signals over a system with 200 km span lengths. Amplification is provided by hybrid backward-pumped Raman/EDFA amplifiers and reach lengths up to 6000 km for an 8 channel system and 5400 km for a 32 channel system are shown. As a means of maximizing OSNR, a simple hybrid fiber span configuration is used that combines two ultra-low loss fibers, one having very large effective area.

XPM and SBS nonlinear effects on MLSE with varying uncompensated dispersion.

We investigate the performance of a maximum likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE) receiver at 10.7 Gb/s in the presence of two optical nonlinear impairments, cross-phase modulation (XPM) and stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS). We find that the tolerance to both nonlinearities decreases with larger levels of uncompensated dispersion. Our results also suggest that the MSLE receiver loses its linear regime advantage in comparison to a standard receiver at some dispersion levels in the presence of the nonlinear effects. We demonstrate that long uncompensated links up to 160 km may show better tolerance to the nonlinear effects with a lower dispersion fiber when using an MLSE receiver.

Ultra-low-loss optical fiber enabling purely passive 10 Gb/s PON systems with 100 km length.

We demonstrate time division multiplexing (TDM) and wavelength division multiplexing/TDM (WDM/TDM) long reach 10 Gb/s passive optical network (PON) architectures of 100 km reach with no infield amplification or dispersion compensation. The purely passive nature of the 100 km systems is enabled by the use of ultra-low-loss optical fiber with average attenuation of 0.17 dB/km and downstream transmission with a 10 Gb/s signal modulated with the duobinary format. The high tolerance of duobinary to dispersion, stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS), and self-phase modulation (SPM) are all key factors to achieving good system performance at this distance, as is the significantly reduced loss from the ultra-low-loss fiber. We show that this combination of fiber and downstream signal format allow split ratios up to 1:128 for both system architectures. The achievable split ratio is reduced for standard single-mode fiber and/or use of an NRZ modulated downstream signal. Standard strength forward error correction (FEC) is used for the WDM/TDM system but is not required for the TDM system.

10.7 Gb/s uncompensated transmission over a 470 km hybrid fiber link with in-line SOAs using MLSE and duobinary signals.

We experimentally demonstrate uncompensated 8-channel wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and single channel transmission at 10.7 Gb/s over a 470 km hybrid fiber link with in-line semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs). Two different forms of the duobinary modulation format are investigated and compared. Maximum Likelihood Sequence Estimation (MLSE) receiver technology is found to significantly mitigate nonlinear effects from the SOAs and to enable the long transmission, especially for optical duobinary signals derived from differential phase shift keying (DPSK) signals directly detected after narrowband optical filter demodulation. The MLSE also helps to compensate for a non-optimal Fabry-Perot optical filter demodulator.