Patents Assigned to University College Cork
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Publication number: 20120155881Abstract: The invention provides a system and method, for an optical communication network to compensate impairments in the network, using electronic dispersion compensation, said system comprising optical means comprising two or more optical-to-electrical converters for generating at least two electrical signals, comprising amplitude and instantaneous frequency of a received distorted optical signal, and an electrical circuit adapted to perform a full-field reconstruction of the received distorted optical signal using said electrical signals. The system is characterised by a dispersive transmission line circuit with compensation parameters updated at a selected rate to process said full-field reconstructed signal and compensate for coarse chromatic dispersion; and an adaptive electronic equalization circuit with compensation parameters updated at a rate faster than those in the said dispersive transmission line circuit to provide a fine impairment compensation of said reconstructed signals.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 23, 2010Publication date: June 21, 2012Applicant: UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, CORKInventors: Jian Zhao, Mary McCarthy
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Patent number: 8178862Abstract: A junctionless metal-oxide-semiconductor transistor is described. In one aspect, a transistor device comprises a semiconductor material. The semiconductor material comprises first, second, and third portions. The second portion is located between the first and third portions. The first, second, and third portions are doped with dopants of the same polarity and the same concentration. The transistor device further comprises an electrode connected to the second portion. A current flows between the first and third portions when a voltage is applied to the electrode.Type: GrantFiled: April 2, 2010Date of Patent: May 15, 2012Assignee: University College Cork, National University of Ireland CorkInventor: Jean-Pierre Colinge
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Publication number: 20120114003Abstract: A laser device includes a ridge waveguide having an active layer between upper and lower cladding layers. A ridge formed in the upper cladding layer defines the width of a light guiding region in the active layer, and is formed so that a portion of the light guiding region extends into the ridge. A plurality of reflecting slots extend across and into the ridge to a depth sufficient to extend into the extending portion in order that the reflectivity of each slot is on the order of 2%. The slots intersect more than 20% of the total mode energy in the light guiding region, and this in combination with the gain of the active layer facilitates lasing within the light guiding region independently of the reflectivity of end facets of the waveguide. The laser device is particularly suitable for integrally forming with other optical components on a single semiconductor chip.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 16, 2011Publication date: May 10, 2012Applicants: UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, CORK, UNDIVIDED TRINITY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH, NEAR DUBLINInventors: John F. DONEGAN, Wei-Hua GUO, Qiao-Yin LU, Diarmuid BYRNE, Brian CORBETT, Paul Martin LAMBKIN, Brendan John ROYCROFT, Jan-Peter ENGELSTAEDTER, Frank PETERS
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Publication number: 20110269671Abstract: The present invention relates to a nisin derivative comprising amino acid substitutions in the peptide sequence encoding the hinge region of the protein, wherein the derivative exhibits an increased anti-microbial activity.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 8, 2009Publication date: November 3, 2011Applicant: UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK - NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, CORKInventors: Paul Cotter, Colin Hill, Desmond Field
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Publication number: 20110236986Abstract: A sensor material of the type comprising a long-decay photoluminescent, protonable dye embedded in a suitable polymeric matrix, is used for generating a specific optical response to two different analytes present in a sample, thus allowing selective determination of the two analytes in the sample. Also described is a method for the simultaneous sensing of a first and second analyte in a sample. The method comprises the steps of irradiating a sensor material of the type comprising a long-decay photoluminescent protonable dye embedded in a suitable polymeric matrix with light of one or two wavelengths, determining photoluminescence intensity and lifetime signals originating from the sensor, and correlating the photoluminescence intensity signal with a concentration of the first analyte and the photoluminescence lifetime signal(s) with the concentration of the second analyte.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 29, 2011Publication date: September 29, 2011Applicant: UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, CORKInventor: Dmitri Papkovsky
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Publication number: 20110200569Abstract: The current inventions relates to a strain of Lactobacillus amylovorus designated FST 2.11 as deposited under the accession no DSM 19280 on 13 Apr. 2007 in the DSMZ depository, and strains substantially similar thereto also encoding anti-fungal and bread antistaling properties and applications thereof.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 22, 2009Publication date: August 18, 2011Applicant: UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK-NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND CORKInventors: Elke K. Arendt, Fabio Dal Bello, Liam Ryan
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Publication number: 20110150504Abstract: One aspect of the invention is a homodyne coherent receiver, suitable for high speed phase shift keying (PSK), the receiver comprising a receiver for receiving an incoming signal having a carrier-less modulation format, a signal conditioning sub-system that generates a carrier component from the incoming signal, and an optical injection phase locked loop (OIPLL) that phase locks the generated carrier component of the incoming signal. Embodiments of the invention may enable DSP free detection of optical PSK signals, which may be required in next generation fiber transmission systems and in optical constellation analyzer systems. In addition, embodiments of the invention may provide improved receiver sensitivity performance comparing to prior art systems using direct detection schemes. Also, embodiments of the invention may be advantageous in terms of cost and energy efficiency.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 2, 2010Publication date: June 23, 2011Applicant: University College Cork-National University of IrelandInventors: Andrew Ellis, Selwan K. Ibrahim, Stylianos Sygletos
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Publication number: 20110136898Abstract: The use of a compound of general formula (I): or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, in the manufacture of a medicament for the treatment or prevention of a disease or condition characterised by apoptosis or degeneration of mammalian cells, wherein: R1 is a alkoxy, alkyl, ether or ester group; R2 is H or has the formula wherein Y is linear or branched, saturated or unsaturated, aliphatic group with from 2 to 23 carbon atoms, or a cyclic group, and which can contain substituents selected from the group consisting of hydroxyl, alkoxy, amino, carboxyl, cyano, nitro, alkylsuphonyl or halogen atoms, X is O or S; and R3 is any substituent.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 5, 2009Publication date: June 9, 2011Applicants: UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, CORK, CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICASInventors: Thomas Cotter, Francesca Doonan, Nuria Sanvicens Diez, Carolyn O' Driscoll, Angel Ramon Messeguer Peypoch
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Publication number: 20110136163Abstract: A method of assessing toxicity of a candidate agent to a sample of cells comprises the steps of providing a sample of cells, exposing the cells to the candidate agent for a suitable period of time, assaying the cells to measure data for at least one parameter of cellular function; and correlating the measured data of the at least one parameter of cellular function with toxicity, wherein the step of exposing the cells to the candidate agent is carried out in the presence of a reagent capable of facilitating transport of the candidate agent into the cell. The transport reagent may be an endocytosis, pinocytosis inducing agent, a peptide, or a liposome. The at least one parameter of cellular function may be selected from the group consisting of: cell viability; proliferation rate; membrane integrity; and a metabolic parameter.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 25, 2008Publication date: June 9, 2011Applicant: UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, CORKInventors: Dmitri Papkovsky, Grzegorz Jasionek, Alexander Zhdanov
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Publication number: 20110124103Abstract: The present invention is directed to a macrocyclic derivative which is formed by modification of a macrocycle. The invention further relates to assemblies formed by the self-assembly of such macrocyclic derivatives in aqueous solvent, and includes bilayer vesicles, micelles, monolayers, nanoparticles, colloidal assemblies and surface-coated assemblies.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 6, 2009Publication date: May 26, 2011Applicants: UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRInventors: Raphael Darcy, Caitriona O'driscoll
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Publication number: 20110110853Abstract: Described herein are isolated mammalian cells (progenitor cell biomarkers), referred to as primitive vascular progenitor cells (PVPC), which are present in and isolated from blood (e.g., peripheral blood) and useful as biomarkers of vascular remodeling in mammals (e.g., humans, rodents).Type: ApplicationFiled: June 30, 2009Publication date: May 12, 2011Applicant: UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, CORKInventor: Noel Caplice
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OPTICAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SECURE DATA COMMUNICATION USING QUANTUM KEY DISTRIBUTION
Publication number: 20110019823Abstract: The invention provides time-synchronised transmission of data on the (polarisation or phase-modulated) QKD channel and the (on-off modulated) conventional channel such that a QKD bit is only transmitted when a zero, or sequence of zeros, is transmitted on the conventional channel. Also, there is co-directional propagation of the QKD and conventional channel. Further, there is dispersion management through wavelength selection or control of fibre properties or other means such that the “walk-off in time of the QKD pulses and the Raman pulses generated by the ones on the conventional channel is less than or of the order of one bit period. The latter can be achieved, for example, by placing the conventional and QKD channel wavelengths close to the point where the group velocity-induced time delay for optical pulses propagating in the fibre reaches a minimum. This dispersion minimum occurs at a wavelength of 1.3 microns in standard fibre. The invention discloses a receiver embodiment to implement the invention.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 13, 2009Publication date: January 27, 2011Applicant: UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, CORKInventor: Paul Townsend -
Publication number: 20110014303Abstract: The invention is based on the surprising finding that treatment with a chemotherapeutic agent such as 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and an autophagy inducer effectively inhibit the continued growth of, and prevent the recovery following drug withdrawal, of cancer cells. In vivo, drug resistance from a failure to adequately engage in apoptotic programmed cell death leads to a recurrence of cancer and tumours can remain dormant for periods of time before re-emerging as drug resistant metastases. It has been hypothesised that autophagy (Type II cell death) may help cancer cells survive in response to growth limiting conditions, such as nutrient depletion, hypoxia, absence of growth factor, or presence of cytotoxic drug. LiCl is a known autophagy inducer and accelerates cell survival to autophagic programmed cell death.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 15, 2010Publication date: January 20, 2011Applicant: UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, CORKInventors: Sharon McKenna, Gerald C. O'Sullivan, Tracey O'Donovan
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Publication number: 20100302933Abstract: A wireless network (1) comprises a base station (2) and sensor nodes (3). The base station (2) comprises a network interface (10), an application interface (11), topology control functions (12) a timer (13), and a buffer (14). Each sensor node (3) comprises a network interface (20), route control functions (21), processing functions (22), sensors (23), flood mechanism programs (24), tree mechanism programs (25), and data forwarding programs (26). The network operates by establishing a conventional routing tree from the sink node that is used when the network is stable. But when a sending node detects a node or link failure it dynamically switches to sending its data packets using a flooding mechanism, rather than waiting for the routing tree to be reestablished. This reduces the latency for data delivery. Also, when flooding the data packets, it allows the packets to be flooded to nodes that are an equal number of hops from the sink node as the send node is from the sink node.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 22, 2008Publication date: December 2, 2010Applicant: University College Cork-National University of Ireland, CorkInventors: Cormac J. Sreenan, Jonathan Benson, Utz Roedig
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Publication number: 20100290495Abstract: A laser device (1) comprises a ridge waveguide (2) comprising an upper cladding layer (5) and a lower cladding layer (6), between which is located an active layer (7). A ridge (8) formed in the upper cladding layer (5) defines the lateral width of a light guiding region (9) in the active layer (7). The ridge (8) is formed so that a portion (13) of the light guiding region (9) extends above the active layer (7) into the ridge (8). A plurality of lateral reflecting slots (15) extend laterally across the ridge (8) and extend into the ridge (8) to a depth sufficient to extend into the portion (13) of the light guiding region (9) which extends into the ridge (8) in order that the reflectivity of each lateral slot (15) is in the order of 2%.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 20, 2007Publication date: November 18, 2010Applicants: THE PROVOST, FELLOWS AND SCHOLARS OF THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY AND UNDIVEDED TRINITY, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, CORKInventors: John F. Donegan, Wei-Hua Guo, Qiao-Yin Lu, Diarmuid Byrne, Brian Corbett, Paul Martin Lambkin, Brendan John Roycroft, Jan-Peter Engelstaedter, Frank Peters
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Publication number: 20100284979Abstract: The current invention provides use of a CLA-producing bacterium for the in vivo conversion in the gut of polyunsaturated fatty acids to CLA. The CLA-producing bacterium is selected from one or more of the group consisting of propionibacteria, lactobacilli, lactococci and streptococci, and bifidobacteria.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 30, 2008Publication date: November 11, 2010Applicants: UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, CORK, TEAGASC, The Agriculture and Food Development Authority, ALIMENTARY HEALTH LTD.Inventors: Liam O'Mahony, Fergus Shanahan, Eamonn Quigley, Paul Ross, Catherine Stanton
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Publication number: 20100276662Abstract: A junctionless metal-oxide-semiconductor transistor is described. In one aspect, a transistor device comprises a semiconductor material. The semiconductor material comprises first, second, and third portions. The second portion is located between the first and third portions. The first, second, and third portions are doped with dopants of the same polarity and the same concentration. The transistor device further comprises an electrode connected to the second portion. A current flows between the first and third portions when a voltage is applied to the electrode.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 2, 2010Publication date: November 4, 2010Applicant: University College Cork, National University of IrelandInventor: Jean-Pierre Colinge
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Patent number: 7798102Abstract: The invention provides for an apparatus (1) for growing aquatic animals comprising at least two securing members (3, 6) adapted to be removably fixed together such that a feed substrate (7) can be reversibly sandwiched between the securing members. The invention also provides for modular assemblies of the apparatus, and further provides methods of culturing aquatic animals and methods of increasing roe content of aquatic animals.Type: GrantFiled: May 12, 2005Date of Patent: September 21, 2010Assignee: University College CorkInventors: Gerasimos C. Mouzakitis, Eimear Helen McCarron, Gavin Burnell
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Publication number: 20100135346Abstract: The present invention provides a system and method for creating a coherent optical comb comprising a plurality of lasers, each laser providing an optical output channel; means for combining each optical channel output; a modulator for modulating the combined optical channel outputs, to provide a modulated signal; means for feeding back said modulated signal to said plurality of lasers, such that each laser output channel is phase and/or frequency locked with respect to at least one other of said plurality of lasers. A discrete optical comb is obtained without the need for excessively high power laser outputs and only employs a single (optional) wavelength locker for all channels.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 6, 2009Publication date: June 3, 2010Applicant: University College CorkInventors: Frank Peters, Andrew Ellis
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Publication number: 20100111543Abstract: An optical transmitter is of the reflective modulation type and has a means of generating reflection, a mixer for mixing a data stream and a sub-carrier, and an optical modulator for modulating an optical carrier with the output from the mixer in order to avoid optical beat-interference noise arising from, for example, Rayleigh backscattering. The modulator is in one embodiment of the interferometric type such as a Mach-Zehnder Modulator (MZM) operated to suppress the optical carrier at the transmitter output in order to reduce optical beat interference noise. The modulator preferably implements CSS-AMPSK modulation, which suppresses optical beat noise and achieves strong dispersion tolerance, enabling, for example, 10 Gb/s data transmission over 100 km distance without dispersion compensation. The transmitter may have a duobinary encoder, which encodes the data prior to mixing with the sub-carrier.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 13, 2008Publication date: May 6, 2010Applicant: UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK-NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IREInventors: Chi Wai Chow, Giuseppe Talli, Andrew Ellis, Paul Townsend