The very neutron-rich oxygen isotopes ${}^{25}$O and ${}^{26}$O are investigated experimentally and theoretically. The unbound states are populated in an experiment performed at the R3B-LAND setup at GSI via proton-knockout reactions from ${}^{26}$F and ${}^{27}$F at relativistic energies around 442 and 414 MeV/nucleon, respectively. From the kinematically complete measurement of the decay into ${}^{24}$O plus one or two neutrons, the ${}^{25}$O ground-state energy and width are determined, and upper limits for the ${}^{26}$O ground-state energy and lifetime are extracted. In addition, the results provide indications for an excited state in ${}^{26}$O at around 4 MeV. The experimental findings are compared to theoretical shell-model calculations based on chiral two- and three-nucleon ($3N$) forces, including for the first time residual $3N$ forces, which are shown to be amplified as valence neutrons are added.

A fast automated biometric solution has been proposed to satisfy the future border control needs of airports resulting from the rapid growth in the number of passengers worldwide. Automated border control (ABC) systems handle the problems caused by this growth, such as congestion at electronic gates (e-gates) or delays in the planned arrival schedules. Different modalities, such as face, fingerprint, or iris recognition, will be used in most of the ABC systems located at airports in the European/Schengen areas. Because facial recognition is the modality that travelers consider most acceptable, it was decided to include this modality in all second generation passports. Face recognition systems, installed in small kiosks inside the e-gates, require high quality facial images to allow high performance and efficiency. Accurate face recognition algorithms, which should be invariant to non-idealities, such as changes in pose and expression, occlusions, and changes in lighting, are also required for these systems. In this paper, a review of the most important face recognition algorithms described in the literature that are invariant to these non-idealities and that can be used in ABC e-gates is presented. A comparative analysis of the most common ABC e-gates located at the different airports is provided. In addition, the results of an experimental evaluation of a face recognition system when halogen, white LEDs, near infra-red, or fluorescence illumination was used, which was conducted in order to determine which type of illumination is optimal for use in ABC e-gates, are presented. To conclude, improvements that could be implemented in the near future in ABC face recognition systems are described

In the last two decades, we have witnessed a remarkable progress in the development of biosensor devices and their application in areas such as environmental monitoring, biotechnology, medical diagnostics, drug screening, food safety, and security, among others. The technology of optical biosensors has reached a high degree of maturity and several commercial products are on the market. But problems of stability, sensitivity, and size have prevented the general use of optical biosensors for real field applications. Integrated photonic biosensors based on silicon technology could solve such drawbacks, offering early diagnostic tools with better sensitivity, specificity, and reliability, which could improve the effectiveness of in‐vivo and in‐vitro diagnostics. Our last developments in silicon photonic biosensors will be showed, mainly related to the development of portable and highly sensitive integrated photonic sensing platforms.

Early-stage fire-warning systems (EFWSs) have attracted significant attention owing to their superiority in detecting fire situations occurring in the pre-combustion process. Substantial progress on EFWSs has been achieved recently, and they have presented a considerable possibility for more evacuation time to control constant unintentional fire hazards in our daily life. This review mainly makes a comprehensive summary of the current EFWSs, including the working mechanisms and their performance. According to the different working mechanisms, fire alarms can be classified into graphene oxide-based fire alarms, semiconductor-based fire alarms, thermoelectric-based fire alarms, and fire alarms on other working mechanisms. Finally, the challenge and prospect for EFWSs are briefly provided by comparing the art of state of fire alarms. This work can propose a more comprehensive understanding of EFWSs and a guideline for the cutting-edge development direction of EFWSs for readers.