An all-optical format conversion (AOFC) scheme for star-octal quadrature amplitude modulation (star-8QAM) signals is proposed and numerically simulated based on nonlinear effects in the high nonlinear fiber (HNLF). In the first stage AOFC processing, the input 30 Gbit/s star-8QAM signal is firstly de-aggregated into one 20 Gbit/s quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) signal and one 10 Gbit/s typical on-off keying (OOK) signal by deploying the self-phase modulation (SPM), cross-phase modulation (XPM) and parametric amplification (PA) effects. In the second stage AOFC processing, the 20 Gbit/s QPSK signal and the 10 Gbit/s typical OOK signal are aggregated into one 30 Gbit/s star-8QAM signal again by utilizing the XPM and PA effects. Moreover, the amplitude ratio (AR) between the outer ring and inner rings of the aggregated star-8QAM signal can be adjusted flexibly by changing the QPSK and OOK signals power. Other octal modulation formats can also be generated through changing the QPSK and OOK signals power, including the rectangular 8QAM signals, $\pi$ /4-8QAM signals and 8-ary phase shift keying (8PSK) signals. Error vector magnitude (EVM) and bit error ratio (BER) for star-8QAM signals before and after AOFC are measured to analyse the scheme performance. The AOFC scheme provides the flexibility to adopt the appreciate modulation formats at the optical nodes to connect different optical networks.

An all-optical format conversion scheme of 2-dimensional multiple-quadrature amplitude modulation (MQAM) to multiple-phase shift keying (MPSK) signals is proposed and numerically simulated by using the nonlinear Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) configuration with wavelength preservation. The input octal-quadrature amplitude modulation (8QAM) signal is generated through the phase modulator (PM) and amplitude modulator (AM) and injected into the nonlinear MZI configuration. The designed nonlinear MZI configuration includes two 3 dB optical couplers (OCs), a piece of high nonlinear fiber (HNLF) and a variable optical attenuator (VOA) in the upper interfering arm and a piece of standard single mode fiber (SSMF) or tunable optical delay line (TODL) and a variable phase shifter (VPS) in the lower interfering arm. The converted octal-phase shift keying (8PSK) signal can be obtained from the nonlinear MZI configuration through vector superposition between the input optical signal and itself with some nonlinear phase shift. The needed asymmetric nonlinear phase shift is mainly induced by the big nonlinear index difference between HNLF and SSMF. The error vector magnitude (EVM) and bit error rate (BER) performance of the scheme are calculated before and after format conversion with the different input and receiver optical-signal-noise-ratios (OSNRs). The scheme can be used in the intermediate node to connect the different networks which adopt 8QAM and 8PSK signals, respectively.

An all-optical format conversion and regeneration scheme about 4-ary amplitude and phase shift keying (4APSK) signals is proposed and numerically simulated based on nonlinear effects in the high nonlinear fiber (HNLF). The input 4APSK signal is firstly converted into a regular quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) signal by the nonlinear Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) based on the self-phase modulation (SPM). Secondly, a degenerate phase-sensitive amplification (PSA) based on the four-wave mixing (FWM) is utilized to convert the regular-QPSK into two binary phase shift keying (BPSK) signals. The nonlinear MZI configuration is also used to compress the amplitude noise of BPSK. Thirdly, one phase shifter and one variable optical attenuator (VOA) are used to adjust the relative phase and power relationships of the two amplitude-regenerated BPSK signals. The regenerated 4APSK and converted QPSK signals can be generated in one 3-dB optical coupler through coherent addition of the two regenerated BPSK signals. The error-vector-magnitude (EVM) and the bit-error-rate (BER) are calculated and compared to evaluate the scheme performance. The proposed scheme can be applied as an optical regenerator or format convertor at the network gateway to increase the transmission distance or connect optical networks with different modulation formats.

Cognitive impairment is common but often overlooked in patients with inflammatory demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder. The conventional assessments may fail to detect subtle deficits and require substantial time and expertise. We collected neuropsychological scores and real-time handwriting data across nine drawing tasks and tasks from the Symbol Digit Modalities Test in 93 patients. Temporal, pressure, and kinematic features were extracted, and machine learning classifiers were trained using five-fold cross-validation with bootstrap confidence intervals. The response timing and pen pressure metrics correlated significantly with global cognitive scores (|r| = 0.30–0.37, p < 0.01). A support vector machine using eight selected features achieved an area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.910, and a streamlined five-feature variant maintained an equivalent performance (AUC = 0.921) while reducing the assessment time by 35%. These results indicate that digital handwriting metrics can complement the standard screening by capturing fine motor and temporal characteristics overlooked in conventional testing. Validation in larger, disease-balanced, and longitudinal cohorts is needed to confirm their clinical utility.

A pump-free and reconfigurable all-optical modulation format conversion (MFC) scheme for multiple quadrature amplitude modulation (MQAM) signals by the designed parallel nonlinear Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) is proposed and theory simulated for the first time. In this scheme, the input 30 Gbit/s 8-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (8QAM) signal is divided into two branches by the first 3-dB optical coupler (OC) to get the upper and lower branches 8QAM signals. For the input upper branch 8QAM signal, when it is injected into the designed nonlinear MZI configuration, the first converted quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK1) signal can be obtained. Compared to the input upper branch 8QAM signal, the input lower branch 8QAM signal is firstly sent into an extra piece of highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF) to obtain the pre-perturbed 8QAM signal. When the pre-perturbed 8QAM signal is also injected into the designed nonlinear MZI configuration, the second converted QPSK signal (QPSK2) can be extracted. After adjusting the power ratio (PR) and the relative phase shift (RPS) between QPSK1 and QPSK2, several output optical signals including the aggregated 8QAM (agg-8QAM) signal, the 8-ary phase shift keying (8PSK) signal, the square 8QAM (squ-8QAM) signal, the 8-ary amplitude and phase shift keying (8APSK) signal and the atypical on-off keying (OOK) signal can be obtained from the bar port of the last 3-dB OC. The proposed MFC scheme can also be extended to the other advanced modulation formats including the 40 Gbit/s star 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (star-16QAM) signal. The error vector magnitude (EVM) and bit error rate (BER) performance of the input and output optical signals before and after MFC are calculated to analysis the scheme performance. The proposed MFC scheme doesn't need any extra pump which is phase-locked to the input signal. It can also be applied at the intermediate network nodes (INNs) to dynamically select modulation formats suitable for applied between different types of optical networks.