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A technique to enhance the response of Brillouin distributed sensors is proposed and experimentally validated. The method consists in creating a multi-frequency pump pulse interacting with a multi-frequency continuous-wave probe. The power of each pulse at a distinct frequency is lower than the threshold for nonlinear effects, while the sensor response remains given by the total power of all pulses. Distinct frequency pulses are delayed to avoid temporal overlapping and cross-interaction; this requires to smartly reconstruct the traces before photo-detection. The method is validated in a 50 km-long sensor using 3 frequencies, demonstrating a signal-to-noise ratio enhancement of 4.8 dB.

Sensitive optical hydrophone is a key component for the design of compact fully optical acoustic arrays and one major issue about this kind of sensors is their sensitivity to hydrostatic pressure and temperature. We present in this paper a compact hydrophone which is optimized for reduced temperature sensitivity and high static pressure capability. High acoustic sensitivity is obtained through wideband mechanical amplification design. Two mock-ups have been realized and the measurements show good agreements with finite-element model. We present acoustic measurements as well as measurements in environmental conditions (temperature and pressure) obtained with a low noise opto-electronic interrogation system.

For underwater surveillance applications, an all-optical acoustic array technology allows enhanced capabilities compared to conventional piezoelectric antenna in terms of compactness, robustness and large distance remote interrogation through small diameter optical cable. This paper presents the results obtained on a first full optical antenna panel based on an innovative wideband pressure and temperature compensated fiber laser hydrophone. The presented mock-up includes 12 fiber-laser optical hydrophones interrogated through a 4 km lead optical cable.

Several L-enantiomers of nucleoside analogues were stereospecifically synthesized by a multi-step reaction from L-xylose and their antiviral properties were examined in vitro. Two of them, namely β-L-2′,3,′-dideoxycytidine (β-L-ddC) and its 5-fluoro derivative (β-L-FddC) were found to have potent anti-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and significant anti-hepatitis B virus (HBV) activities in cell cultures.

A series of adenine nucleoside derivatives, most of them prepared for the first time, have been evaluated as substrates or inhibitors of adenosine deaminase. The best inhibitory results were obtained with the 3′, 5′-di-O-benzoyl esters of 9-β-D-pentofuranosyladenines.

Starting from D-ribose, the title compound 8 was prepared by a multistep approach in 6.6% overall yield. In none of the biological assays in which it was evaluated did α-guanosine demonstrate appreciable activity.

In TDMA communications systems using all feedforward synchronization techniques, the quality of data decoding strictly depends on the estimation accuracy of the synchronization parameters (timing, carrier phase/frequency and preamble detection) extracted from the received signal. The frequency offset estimation is the most critical point. Indeed, an inaccurate frequency estimation can cause cycle slips and then errors during decoding. In this paper, we propose an new frequency estimator, analytically derived from the maximum likelihood principle and optimized thanks to variance simulations. Its performance is compared to the Cramer Rao bound.

In burst transmission, carrier recovery is a critical point for synchronization systems. With a feedforward carrier phase recovery algorithm, a small frequency offset can significantly increase the cycle slip rate and then the phase error variance. Therefore, in order to obtain an accurate carrier phase estimation, a precise frequency correction is required. For M-states phase shift keying (M-PSK) modulated signals an unbiased feedforward reduced complexity frequency estimator (RCFE), operating in the non-data aided mode (NDA) is derived from the maximum likelihood (ML) principle. A compromise is realized between noise filtering and estimation slip probability by minimizing the estimator variance. It is optimized to operate at a low signal-to-noise ratio and short bursts. Its performance is compared to that of the ML estimator. The estimator is applied to an all-feedforward synchronization structure with QPSK modulated signals. Global performance of the modem synchronization structure is supplied.

In burst transmission, carrier recovery is a crucial point for synchronization systems. Indeed, an imprecise frequency estimation can cause cycle slips. An unbiased feedforward frequency estimator, for M-PSK modulated signals, in the non data aided mode (NDA) is derived from the maximum likelihood (ML) principle. A compromise is realized between noise filtering and estimation slip probability by minimizing the estimator variance. It is optimized to operate at low signal to noise ratio and short bursts. Its performance is compared to the ML estimator one. The estimator is applied in to a practical case (QPSK modulation in an all feedforward modem synchronization architecture in TDMA mode) with several burst lengths in order to exhibit the improvement due to estimation tracking with an integrating filter. The global performance of the modem synchronization unit is presented.

The L enantiomer of 2',3'-dideoxycytidine (DDC) was recently shown to inhibit selectively human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) in vitro. In the current study, the potent anti-HIV activity of L-DDC was confirmed and extended to several HIV-1 and HIV-2 strains in various cell culture systems, including primary human lymphocytes and macrophages. Furthermore, its 5-fluoro congener, beta-L-2',3'-dideoxy-5-fluorocytidine (L-FDDC), was found to have more potent anti-HIV activity and a higher therapeutic index in acutely infected human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. These compounds had no marked activity against HIV-1 isolates resistant to the oxathiolane pyrimidine nucleosides (-)-beta-L-2',3'-dideoxy-5-fluoro-3'-thiacytidine [(-)-FTC] and (-)-beta-L-2',3'-dideoxy-3'-thiacytidine, but 3'-azido-3'-deoxythymidine (AZT)-resistant viruses were susceptible to L-DDC and L-FDDC. Cytotoxicity studies with human myeloid progenitor cells indicated that L-DDC and L-FDDC had median inhibitory concentrations comparable to those of AZT, DDC, and FDDC, but L-DDC and L-FDDC were significantly less toxic than AZT, DDC, and FDDC when erythroid progenitor cells were used. L-FDDC had the highest selectivity indices (6,000 and 9,000 for erythroid and myeloid progenitor cells, respectively) of all the compounds evaluated. Further preclinical development of L-FDDC is warranted in order to determine its potential usefulness in the treatment of HIV infections.

2',3'-dideoxy-beta-L-cytidine (beta-L-DDC) and its 5-fluoro derivative (beta-L-5-F-DDC) have been stereospecifically synthesized by a multi-step reaction sequence from L-xylose and their anti-HIV properties examined. Among these two L-enantiomers, the hitherto unknown beta-L-5-F-DDC emerged as a potent anti-HIV-1 and HIV-2 compound in different cell culture systems, with selectivity indices similar or superior to those of the currently licensed drug DDC which has the natural beta-D configuration.

The hitherto unknown title compounds were stereospecifically synthesized by glycosylation of pyrimidine and purine aglycons with a suitably peracylated 3′-deoxy-β-L-erythro-pentofuranose, followed by removal of the protecting groups. All the prepared compounds were tested for their ability to inhibit the replication of a variety of DNA and RNA viruses (including HIV), but they did not show significant antiviral activity.

A new example of the resuction phenomenon often observed in fast-atom bombardment mass spectrometry is described, involving the substitution of a nitro function by a hydrogen atom. This reaction, clearly visible with glycerol as metrix, takes place to only a very limited extent with m-nitrobenzylalcohol.

Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography using a C18 column was applied to the analysis of reconstituted mixtures of previously synthesized alpha, beta D-xylo- and D-lyxofuranonucleosides as well as a number of commercially available D-ribo- and D-arabinofuranonucleosides. From a detailed study of various parameters (size of support particles, nature and pH of the mobile phase, temperature), optimized conditions were established. Correlations between the retention times and structures of the bases, the orientations of the secondary hydroxyl groups of the sugar moiety and the anomeric configurations of the nucleosides are also reported.

The α-and β-D-Xylofuranosyl and -lyxofuranosyl analogues of the five naturally occurring nucleic acid bases have been the subject of a systematic synthesis and examination of some of their biological properties, i.e. antiviral, antimetabolic and cytostatic activities.

Treatment of selectively 3′,5′-protected β-D-xylofuranosyl nucleosides (4) with phenyl chlorothionocarbonate and DMAP followed by hydrogenolysis of the resulting (2′-O-phenoxythiocarbonyl) phenyl thionocarbonate esters (6) with tributylstannane/AIBN, and deprotection, gave 2′-deoxy-β-D-threo-pentofuranosyl nucleosides (7). Formation of a by-product bis(nucleosid-2′-yl)thionocarbonate dimer (8) was detected in the uracil nucleoside reaction sequence. Its subsequent reduction provides one explanation for "reversion to starting alcohol" in Barton-type deoxygenation reactions. Only the guanine 2′-deoxynucleoside analogue (7b) had (weak) antiviral activity (against herpes simplex virus type 1).

Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography using a C18 column was applied to the analysis of reconstituted mixtures of previously synthesized alpha, beta D-xylo- and D-lyxofuranonucleosides as well as a number of commercially available D-ribo- and D-arabinofuranonucleosides. From a detailed study of various parameters (size of support particles, nature and pH of the mobile phase, temperature), optimized conditions were established. Correlations between the retention times and structures of the bases, the orientations of the secondary hydroxyl groups of the sugar moiety and the anomeric configurations of the nucleosides are also reported.

Rationalization of the intrinsic structural factors which can influence retention times of anomeric D-xylo- and lyxofuranonucleoside analogues in reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has been established.