Abstract
Ethionamide (ETH) is an important second-line antituberculosis drug used for the treatment of patients infected with multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Recently, we reported that the loading of ETH into thermally carbonized-porous silicon (TCPSi) nanoparticles enhanced the solubility and permeability of ETH at different pH-values and also increased its metabolization process. Based on these results, we synthesized carboxylic acid functionalized thermally hydrocarbonized porous silicon nanoparticles (UnTHCPSi NPs) conjugated with ETH and its antimicrobial effect was evaluated against Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain H37Rv. The activity of the conjugate was increased when compared to free-ETH, which suggests that the nature of the synergy between the NPs and ETH is likely due to the weakening of the bacterial cell wall that improves conjugate-penetration. These ETH-conjugated NPs have great potential in reducing dosing frequency of ETH in the treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).

Abstract
Measuring gas and liquid flow rate is paramount in various scientific and industrial applications. This work presents an optical fiber flowmeter based on a graphene oxide (GO) coated Michelson interferometer. The interferometer is fabricated using a long-period fiber grating (LPFG) followed by a GO-coated single-mode fiber (SMF). By radiating the GO coating, it experiences photothermic effect that induces local heating of the film. This results in a variation in the effective refractive index in the cladding modes, which induces a phase shift on the interferometer spectrum. When a gas flow is introduced near the coated fiber, the hot-wire region will experience a reduction in temperature proportional to the flow rate. The flowmeter exhibited a linear wavelength shift to the flow rate with an absolute sensitivity of 17.4 +/- 0.8 pm/(L.min-1) for gas flow rates between 2 and 8 L/ min. Furthermore, the dynamic response of the sensor was studied, attaining a maximum response time of 1.1 +/- 0.4 s

Abstract
This work proposes a sensor that utilizes a transmission scheme for measuring glucose aqueous solutions based on surface plasmon resonance. A comparison between the performance of two sensors with similar lengths and different diameters is performed. The first sensor comprises a multimode optical fiber with a diameter of 400 µm and a 10 mm middle section of the cladding removed. The second sensor is similar, except that the fiber has a diameter of 600 µm. The sensors were evaluated for their performance in measuring glucose concentrations ranging from 0.0001 to 0.5000 g/mL. The 400 µm sensor demonstrated high sensitivity however, the sensor with a diameter of 600 µm attained a slightly higher maximum sensitivity of 322.0 nm/(g/mL).

Abstract
This paper proposes a proof of concept for a reflective fiber optic sensor based on multimode interference, designed to measure glucose concentrations in aqueous solutions that mimic the range of glucose concentrations found in human saliva. The sensor is fabricated by splicing a short section of coreless silica fiber into a standard single-mode fiber. By studying the principles of multimode interference and Self-imaging it was developed a sensing head that has a total length of 29.1 mm, approximately equal to the second self-image cycle. This sensing head allowed us to detect low concentrations of glucose (ranging from 0 to 268 mg/dl).

Abstract
The use of graphene oxide (GO) as a saturable absorber for short pulses generation in an Erbium-doped fiber laser was studied and demonstrated. The saturable absorber consisted of a thin GO film, with a high concentration of monolayer GO flakes, spray-coated on the end face of a ferrule-connected fiber. By including the saturable absorber in the laser cavity and controlling the intra-cavity polarization, the generation of shortpulsed light was achieved under mode-locking and Q-switching operations. Under mode-locking operation, it was observed a pulse train with a fundamental repetition rate of 1.48 MHz, with a working wavelength centered at 1564.4 nm. In the Q-switch operation, a pulse train with a 12.7 kHz repetition rate and a 14.3 µs pulse duration was attained for a 230-mA pump current. Further investigation showed a linear dependence of the repetition rate with the pump power, attaining frequencies between 12.7 and 14.4 kHz.

Abstract
The refractometric analysis of ethanol-water mixtures is hampered because this type of binary solution does not present a linear behavior. In this letter, a multimode graded-index fiber (GIF) tip sensor for the measurement of ethanol in binary liquid solutions of ethanol-water is proposed. The proof is fabricated by the fusion-splicing of a 500 mu m GIF to a single-mode fiber (SMF), and it operates as a refractometric sensor in reflection. To evaluate the prove potential to detected ethanol variations, samples of ethanol-water mixtures were measured at different temperatures (20 degrees C-60 degrees C). The samples have different %(v/v) of ethanol, in a range between 0% and 100%.