Swept source optical coherence tomography Gabor fusion splicing technique for microscopy of thick samples using a deformable mirror

We present a swept source optical coherence tomography (OCT) system at 1060 nm equipped with a wavefront sensor at 830 nm and a deformable mirror in a closed-loop adaptive optics (AO) system. Due to the AO correction, the confocal profile of the interface optics becomes narrower than the OCT axial range, restricting the part of the B-scan (cross section) with good contrast. By actuating on the deformable mirror, the depth of the focus is changed and the system is used to demonstrate Gabor filtering in order to produce B-scan OCT images with enhanced sensitivity throughout the axial range from a Drosophila larvae. The focus adjustment is achieved by manipulating the curvature of the deformable mirror between two user-defined limits. Particularities of controlling the focus for Gabor filtering using the deformable mirror are presented. © 2015 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers

Decentralised Coordination of Low-Power Embedded Devices Using the Max-Sum Algorithm

This paper considers the problem of performing decentralised coordination of low-power embedded devices (as is required within many environmental sensing and surveillance applications). Specifically, we address the generic problem of maximising social welfare within a group of interacting agents. We propose a novel representation of the problem, as a cyclic bipartite factor graph, composed of variable and function nodes (representing the agents’ states and utilities respectively). We show that such representation allows us to use an extension of the max-sum algorithm to generate approximate solutions to this global optimisation problem through local decentralised message passing. We empirically evaluate this approach on a canonical coordination problem (graph colouring), and benchmark it against state of the art approximate and complete algorithms (DSA and DPOP). We show that our approach is robust to lossy communication, that it generates solutions closer to those of DPOP than DSA is able to, and that it does so with a communication cost (in terms of total messages size) that scales very well with the number of agents in the system (compared to the exponential increase of DPOP). Finally, we describe a hardware implementation of our algorithm operating on low-power Chipcon CC2431 System-on-Chip sensor nodes

Walking to Work in Sydney: Analysis of Journey-to-work Census Data from 2001 and 2011

Walking is the most popular physical activity in Australia, and it is safe and suitable for a broad range of people. Walking to work is one way to incorporate physical activity into the daily routine, and is therefore likely to be both regular and sustained. These analyses examine the levels of walking to work in Sydney between the 2001, 2006 and 2011 Census. Data on the journey to work were purchased from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the Sydney area were coded as inner Sydney if they were within 10 kilometres of Central Station in Sydney, outer Sydney for the remaining Sydney LGAs and the rest as the Greater Metropolitan Region including the LGAs of Newcastle and Wollongong

Jam! art, science and beyond

An unusual public event took place at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) at Farnham on Wednesday 9 September 2009. Around 100 scientists, science students, artists and interested members of the public attended Jam!. This was a free evening event, with invited speakers, VJs, and opportunities to encounter artists and to socialise in a friendly informal atmosphere. Supported by the University for the Creative Arts, the UCA Art Science & Culture Research Cluster and GaiaNova Productions, Jam! is part of this year's British Science Festival, hosted by the University of Surrey. In a novel multimedia format, Jam! presented a dialogue between guest speakers Bronac Ferran and Tina Gonsalves. The evening was punctuated by 'sandpit' style round table discussions amongst the audience-participants, 'in conversation' events with interdisciplinary artists, ambient visuals and sound from guest VJs Philip Mayer and Pedro Zaz of GaiaNova Productions, and refreshments