Several kinds of techniques for excellent multi-user interference (MUI) cancellation have been proposed for direct-detection synchronous optical code division multiple access (OCDMA) systems. All these techniques utilize modified prime sequence codes (MPSCs) as signature codes and can remove MUI errors efficiently. In this paper, the features of three typical MUI cancellers are studied and compared in detail. The authors defined the parameter “decision distance” to show the feature of MUI cancellers. The bit error rate performance of each canceller is investigated by computer simulation and compared with that of the basic on-off keying (OOK) scheme without cancellation. Then, we investigate the relationship between the decision distance and the bit error rate performance. It is shown that every canceller has a better bit error rate performance than the basic OOK scheme. Especially, the equal weight orthogonal (EWO) scheme, whose decision distance is the largest, has the best error resistance property of the three MUI cancellers. The results show that the decision distance is a useful index to evaluate the error resistance property of MUI cancellation schemes.

S-shaped nonlinearity is found in the electrical resistance-length relationship in an electroactive supercoiled polymer artificial muscle. The modulation of the electrical resistance is mainly caused by the change in the contact condition of coils in the artificial muscle upon deformation. A mathematical model based on logistic function fairly reproduces the experimental data of electrical resistance-length relationship.