Material standards design for minimum zone fitting of freeform optics

International audienceIn most cases, ultra-high-precision coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) are used to measure manufactured parts especially in the presence of freeform surfaces. The obtained data should be then processed to determine a quality measure of the surface. The least value of peak-to-valley (PV) is the widely used quality measure since it conforms to the ISO Geometrical and Product Specification (GPS) standards. To determine the minimum value of PV, a number of fitting methods exist but minimum zone fitting is the most suitable since it directly minimizes the PV. In the measurement process, fitting algorithms are essential elements. For this reason, their quality must be assessed as well; this could be achieved using either softgauges or material artefacts. In this paper, a design of a reference thermo-invariant material standard for minimum zone fitting is suggested and manufactured. The artefact was then measured by a number of partners participating to the FreeFORM 15SIB-01 project so as a comparison could be made in the light of gathered measurements

Phase-shifting by means of an electronically tunable lens: quantitative phase imaging of biological specimens with digital holographic microscopy

The use of an electronically tunable lens (ETL) to produce controlled phase shifts in interferometric arrangements is shown. The performance of the ETL as a phase-shifting device is experimentally validated in phase-shifting digital holographic microscopy. Quantitative phase maps of a section of the thorax of a Drosophila melanogaster fly and of human red blood cells have been obtained using our proposal. The experimental results validate the possibility of using the ETL as a reliable phase-shifter device

Hypolipidemic effect of Salicornia herbacea in animal model of type 2 diabetes mellitus

To control blood glucose level as close to normal is a major goal of treatment of diabetes mellitus. Hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia are the major risk factors for cardiovascular complications, the major cause of immature death among the patients with type 2 diabetes. The purpose of this study is to determine the hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects of Salicornia herbacea in animal model of type 2 diabetes and to investigate the possible mechanisms for the beneficial effects of S. herbacea. S. herbacea was extracted with 70% ethanol and desalted with 100% ethanol. Three week-old db/db mice (C57BL/KsJ, n=16) were fed AIN-93G semipurified diet or diet containing 1% desalted ethanol extract of S. herbacea for 6 weeks after 1 week of adaptation. Fasting plasma glucose, triglyceride, and total cholesterol were measured by enzymatic methods and blood glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C) by the chromatographic method. Body weight and food intake of S. herbacea group were not significantly different from those of the control group. Fasting plasma glucose and blood glycated hemoglobin levels tended to be lowered by S. herbacea treatment. Consumption of S. herbacea extract significantly decreased plasma triglyceride and cholesterol levels (p<0.05). The inhibition of S. herbacea extract against yeast α-glucosidase was 31.9% of that of acarbose at the concentration of 0.5 mg/mL in vitro. The inhibitory activity of ethanol extract of S. herbacea against porcine pancreatic lipase was 59.0% of that of orlistat at the concentration of 0.25 mg/mL in vitro. Thus, these results suggest that S. herbacea could be effective in controlling hyperlipidemia by inhibition of pancreatic lipase in animal model of type 2 diabetes

Research with children under three : their rights to participate in planning the curriculum in early years settings in Greece and England

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of PhD in the School of EducationThis thesis poses a number of questions about research and pedagogy with young children under three, with a particular focus on the opportunities for children’s ‘voices’ to be heard and for them to participate in the planning of the curriculum in early years’ settings. The persistent division between education and care has been an issue in many European countries for a long time (OECD, 2006). The thesis reports on the findings of a research project in both England and Greece. The research aims were to consider how the meaning of children’s participation is defined in the settings in the two countries; whether children use the resources provided according to adult expectation and initial planning and how practitioners react to children’s choices by supporting, ignoring or disapproving them. The theoretical underpinning for the thesis is drawn particularly from the work of Rogoff and Corsaro. Research focused on six children in both England and Greece who were observed during their involvement in both adult directed and child initiated activities in the settings. An ethnographic approach together with a range of ‘participatory’ methods were used including data gathered through video recordings made by both children and adults.This study has found that children express their perceptions during an activity in a very complicated way, elaborating and examining all the parameters that could place them in trouble. Additionally, the findings have shown that what the child is doing during an activity is not always what he is thinking, while many times children appeared to have their own agenda, thus ignoring or subverting adult plans. The main finding is that no matter what the differences and similarities in early years’ education and care between the two countries are, there is an urgent need to promote the children’s participatory rights, as adult’s authority and power is generally taken for granted. This thesis argues for ethical tensions in research with young children and for balanced pedagogy where both adults’ and children’s voices influence the curriculum

Land snail fauna of Higashihiroshima-shi, Hiroshima Prefecture

As a result of investigating the Higashihiroshima whole region, the species of observed land snails were 11 Families, 27 Genera, 38 species. These species were about 32% of the whole 118 land snail species of Hiroshima Prefecture. Among these, the species distributed throughout Hiroshima Prefecture was 16. Moreover, the species with many appearance points were Discoconulus sinapidium, Satsuma myomphala, Nakadaella micron, Acusta despecta sieboldiana and Euhadra subnimbosa in Higashihiroshima-shi. The interesting species among the observed species was Badybaena pellucida. Although there were few reports about it in the prefecture, it was distributed widely in Higashihiroshima-shi

Space-Efficient Algorithm for Image Rotation

This paper presents an algorithm for rotating a subimage in place without using any extra working array. Due to this constraint, we have to overwrite pixel values by interpolated values. Key ideas are local reliability test which determines whether interpolation at a pixel is carried out correctly without using interpolated values, and lazy interpolation which stores interpolated values in a region which is never used for output images and then fills in interpolated values after safety is guaranteed. It is shown that linear interpolation is always safely implemented. An extension to cubic interpolation is also discussed