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While feathers are still commonly regarded in many places as waste, in many developed countries it has been considered a valuable by-product of the poultry industry. The poultry industry of Vietnam has achieved encouraging achievements in the past 10 years. The total flock of poultry from 100 million to now has reached nearly 467 million. Though light as a feather, with the vast quantities of chickens produced annually, the number of feathers produced is considerable. Research has shown that the feathers have hydrophobic properties and can therefore be used to make products that absorb oil. However, the use of large amounts of toxic detergents to clean chicken feathers in reported studies has reduced the environmental significance of agricultural waste reuse. In this study, we evaluated the possibility of replacing toxic cleaning agents with eco-friendly natural cleaners in the handling of chicken feathers. Water-based extracts of soapnuts and bo-ket fruits have been selected for our study due to their high saponin content - an effective cleaning agent, and have been used as a dishwashing liquid or shampoo for a long-time by local housewives. Our study showed that natural detergents derived from soapnuts have been shown the ability to remove lards on the plastic surface, and to clean chicken feathers, thereby increasing their capacity to absorb various oils including cooking oil, used cooking oil, and lubricant oil. We have also created an oil-absorbing pillow containing soapnut extract-treated chicken feathers with a maximum efficiency of 16.8 g/g in absorbing lubricant oil. Our research opens new avenues for the use and treatment of poultry feathers, contributing to the reduction of solid waste from the poultry industry by methods which is friendlier to the environment. The greenness of the created absorber is guaranteed.

In this work, nano ZnO was synthesized by a simple method using a polymeric substance as a dispersing agent. Characterization of the synthesized ZnO by XRD and SEM confirmed the ZnO was nanometric in size and had a wurtzite structure. The synthesized nano ZnO was used as an activator for natural rubber vulcanization. Different amount of ZnO, 1, 2 and 3 phr, was investigated in the rubber formulation and compared to convention ZnO at a typical amount (6 phr). The sample with 3 phr nano ZnO showed the lowest curing induction time with the highest (ML-MH) at all studied temperatures. Furthermore, the rubber sample with 3 phr ZnO achieved the best properties, i.e., crosslink density, rebound resilience, and hardness compared to the rubber sample with 6 phr conventional ZnO. Interestingly, the properties of rubber sample with 2 phr nano ZnO were probably equivalent and comparable to that of 6 phr conventional ZnO. Thus, it suggested that the synthesized nano ZnO could replace the convention ZnO as an activator for rubber vulcanization even at a lower amount.

In this study, we demonstrated the feasibility of using a handheld optical coherence tomography (OCT) for in vivo visualizations of the microstructural and microvascular features of various oral mucosal types. To scan arbitrary locations of the oral mucosa, a scanning probe was developed, composed of a probe body fabricated by a 3D printer, miniaturized two-axis galvanometer, relay lenses, and reflective prism. With a 3D printing technique, the probe weight and the system volume were greatly reduced, enabling the effective improvement of imaging artifacts from unconscious motion and system complexity. Additionally, in our design, the distal end of the probe can be switched to fit various oral conditions, and the optical parameters of the probe, such as the transverse resolution, working distance, and probe length can be easily varied. The results showed that the epithelium and lamina propria layers, as well as the fungiform papilla and salivary gland, were differentiated. Moreover, various microcirculation features at different mucosal sites were identified that are potentially effective indicators for the diagnosis of premalignant lesions. The demonstrated results indicate that the developed OCT system is a promising tool for noninvasive imaging of oral mucosae.

International audience; We report, for the first time, a transmission experiment over standard fiber at 1.55 _m using an electroabsorption modulated laser (EML) integrated with a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). We show clearly that negative pre-chirped signals can be obtained by adjusting both modulator and amplifier driving parameters. Negative chirp operation is evaluated through small-signal chirp measurement as well as through time-resolved dynamic chirp measurement. Signal chirp control at emission enhances transmission and increases optical reach. Thanks to the SOA gain and chirp compensation for modulator loss and chirp, dispersion-penalty-free over 125 km of optical fiber at 10.3 Gb/s is achieved. This novel fully integrated EML-SOA is very promising as a high-performance, compact and low-cost optical transmitter for the future access-metropolitan network convergence.

International audience

session orale 8 : « Systèmes et réseaux de Télécommunication »; National audience; Dans ce papier, nous présentons une technique de traitement tout-optique à base d'absorbant saturable limitant les fluctuations d'intensité d'un signal RZ DPSK à 42,7 Gbit/s tout en préservant sa phase. Des mesures de taux d'erreur binaire et de facteur de qualité démontrent le potentiel du dispositif pour le traitement tout-optique d'un signal DPSK dans un régime où le bruit de phase non-linéaire est dominant.

Topic: Optical information and image processing; International audience; This paper reports on the regenerative properties and efficiency of an all-optical 2R regenerator based on a tandem of saturable absorber (SA) chips. A new SA structure allowing mark level equalization, which is a complement to the function of extinction ratio enhancement of the classical SA structure, is described. The experimental results at 42.6 Gbit/s show that amplitude fluctuations on both low and high power levels are significantly reduced with the SA tandem regenerator, and the system margin improvements in terms of receiver sensitivity and Q factor are obtained.