Abstract
The XENON10 experiment at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory uses a 15 kg xenon dual phase time projection chamber to search for dark matter weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). The detector measures simultaneously the scintillation and the ionization produced by radiation in pure liquid xenon to discriminate signal from background down to 4.5 keV nuclear-recoil energy. A blind analysis of 58.6 live days of data, acquired between October 6, 2006, and February 14, 2007, and using a fiducial mass of 5.4 kg, excludes previously unexplored parameter space, setting a new 90% C.L. upper limit for the WIMP-nucleon spin-independent cross section of 8.8x10(-44) cm(2) for a WIMP mass of 100 GeV/c(2), and 4.5x10(-44) cm(2) for a WIMP mass of 30 GeV/c(2). This result further constrains predictions of supersymmetric models.

Abstract
XENON10 is an experiment to directly detect weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), which may comprise the bulk of the nonbaryonic dark matter in our Universe. We report new results for spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon interactions with (129)Xe and (131)Xe from 58.6 live days of operation at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. Based on the nonobservation of a WIMP signal in 5.4 kg of fiducial liquid xenon mass, we exclude previously unexplored regions in the theoretically allowed parameter space for neutralinos. We also exclude a heavy Majorana neutrino with a mass in the range of similar to 10 GeV/c(2) -2 TeV/c(2) as a dark matter candidate under standard assumptions for its density and distribution in the galactic halo.

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Abstract
This work presents a temperature independent strain/load sensor using a highly birefringent photonic crystal fibre loop mirror. The length of the sensing head is 38 centimetres and its corresponding wavelength spacing between two interferometer minima is 8 nm. The obtained strain and transverse load sensitivity were 1.21 pm/mu epsilon and 0.37 nm/Kg/mm, respectively, while is insensitive to temperature (0.3 pm/degrees C).

Abstract
In this work. the LPG-assisted fibre Michelson modal interferometer is studied as a sensing structure to environmental refractive index, temperature and liquid level when coherence addressing and heterodyne interrogation are considered. The effects on measurand sensitivity of the order of the cladding mode excited by the LPG, of the degree c etching of the sensing fibre and of the fibre type used are investigated.