Abstract
With the advent of personalized medicine, there is a movement to develop "smaller" and "smarter" microdevices that are able to distinguish similar cancer subtypes. Tumor cells display major differences when compared to their natural counterparts, due to alterations in fundamental cellular processes such as glycosylation. Glycans are involved in tumor cell biology and they have been considered to be suitable cancer biomarkers. Thus, more selective cancer screening assays can be developed through the detection of specific altered glycans on the surface of circulating cancer cells. Currently, this is only possible through time-consuming assays. In this work, we propose the "intelligent" Lab on Fiber (iLoF) device, that has a high-resolution, and which is a fast and portable method for tumor single-cell type identification and isolation. We apply an Artificial Intelligence approach to the back-scattered signal arising from a trapped cell by a micro-lensed optical fiber. As a proof of concept, we show that iLoF is able to discriminate two human cancer cell models sharing the same genetic background but displaying a different surface glycosylation profile with an accuracy above 90% and a speed rate of 2.3 seconds. We envision the incorporation of the iLoF in an easy-to-operate microchip for cancer identification, which would allow further biological characterization of the captured circulating live cells.

Abstract
First order off-axis fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) were fabricated in a standard single mode fiber (SMF-28e) through femtosecond laser direct writing. A minimum offset distance between the grating and core center of 2.5 µm was found to create a multimode section, which supports two separate fiber modes (LP0,1 and LP1,1), each split into two degenerate polarization modes. The resulting structure breaks the cylindrical symmetry of the fiber, introducing birefringence (˜10-4) resulting in a polarization dependent Bragg wavelength for each mode. Based on the modal and birefringence behavior, three off-axis FBGs were fabricated with 3.0, 4.5 and 6.0 µm offsets from the core center, and then characterized in strain, temperature, and curvature. The tested off-axis FBGs exhibited a similar strain sensitivity of ~1.14 pm/µ? and a temperature sensitivity of ~12 pm/C. The curvature and orientation angle were simultaneously monitored by analyzing the intensity fluctuation and the wavelength shift of the LP1,1 Bragg resonance. A maximum curvature sensitivity of 0.53 dB/m-1 was obtained for the off-axis FBG with a 3.0 µm offset. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Abstract

Abstract

Abstract
Long period fiber gratings (LPFGs) were fabricated in a standard single mode fiber (SMF-28e) through femtosecond (fs) laser direct writing. LPFGs with longer and shorter periods were fabricated, which allows coupling from the fundamental core mode to lower and higher order asymmetric cladding modes (LP1,6 and LP1,12, respectively). For the grating periods of 182.7 and 192.5 µm, it was verified that the LP1,12 mode exhibits a TAP at approximately 1380 and 1448 nm in air and water, respectively. Characterization of the LPFGs subjected to high-temperature thermal treatment was accomplished. Fine-tuning of the resonance band’s position and thermal stability up to 600 °C was shown. The temperature sensitivity was characterized for the gratings with different periods and for different temperature ranges. A maximum sensitivity of -180.73, and 179.29 pm/°C was obtained for the two resonances of the 182.7 µm TAP LPFG, in the range between 250 and 600 °C.

Abstract
Biogenic amines, such as putrescine are potential indicators of food storage condition and deterioration. The real time measurement of their concentration in food may become an important method of food control. It was found that putrescine diffuses through a thin layer made from a solution of Poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) (PEVA) and maleic anhydride. Poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) is a common non-chlorinated vinyl capable to adsorb specific analytes as putrescine which upon diffusion, reversibly binds to the maleic anhydride causing the polymer swelling resulting in spectral changes from the optical point of view. Long Period Fiber Gratings coated with 30 nm titanium dioxide, a high refractive index material used to increase the intrinsic sensitivity to the external refractive index, were overcoated with a thin layer of maleic anhydride doped Poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate). When exposed to solutions containing small concentrations of putrescine the resonant band corresponding to the LP1,6 cladding mode was found to move to shorter wavelengths. The observed blue shift corresponds to the increasing concentration of putrescine in the fiber sensor structure. Further work is being carried out to improve the sensitivity and the limit of detection of the sensing system as well as to increase range of operation, which is presently limited to 0.3 to 0.5 M. © COPYRIGHT SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.