1,533 research outputs found
Time-of-flight imaging of invisibility cloaks
As invisibility cloaking has recently become experimental reality, it is
interesting to explore ways to reveal remaining imperfections. In essence, the
idea of most invisibility cloaks is to recover the optical path lengths without
an object (to be made invisible) by a suitable arrangement around that object.
Optical path length is proportional to the time of flight of a light ray or to
the optical phase accumulated by a light wave. Thus, time-of-flight images
provide a direct and intuitive tool for probing imperfections. Indeed, recent
phase-sensitive experiments on the carpet cloak have already made early steps
in this direction. In the macroscopic world, time-of-flight images could be
measured directly by light detection and ranging (LIDAR). Here, we show
calculated time-of-flight images of the conformal Gaussian carpet cloak, the
conformal grating cloak, the cylindrical free-space cloak, and of the invisible
sphere. All results are obtained by using a ray-velocity equation of motion
derived from Fermat's principle.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, journal pape
Effect of fruit and vegetable concentrates on endothelial function in metabolic syndrome: A randomized controlled trial
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background and Objective</p> <p>Dehydrated fruit and vegetable concentrates provide an accessible form of phytonutrient supplementation that may offer cardioprotective effects. This study assessed the effects of two blends of encapsulated juice powder concentrates (with and without added berry powders) on endothelial function in persons with metabolic syndrome, a risk factor for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Randomized, double blind, placebo controlled crossover clinical trial with three treatment arms. 64 adults with metabolic syndrome were enrolled and received 8-week sequences of each blend of the concentrates and placebo. The primary outcome measure was change in endothelial function (assessed as flow-mediated dilatation of the brachial artery) 2 hr after consuming a 75 g glucose load, after 8-weeks of daily consumption (sustained) or 2 hr after consumption of a single dose (acute). Secondary outcome measures included plasma glucose, serum insulin, serum lipids, and body weight.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>No significant between-group differences in endothelial function with daily treatment for 8 weeks were seen. No other significant treatment effects were discerned in glucose, insulin, lipids, and weight.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Encapsulated fruit and vegetable juice powder concentrates did not alter insulin or glucose measures in this sample of adults with metabolic syndrome.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>clinicaltrials.gov <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01224743">NCT01224743</a></p
Luneburg lens in silicon photonics
The Luneburg lens is an aberration-free lens that focuses light from all directions equally well. We fabricated and tested a Luneburg lens in silicon photonics. Such fully-integrated lenses may become the building blocks of compact Fourier optics on chips. Furthermore, our fabrication technique is sufficiently versatile for making perfect imaging devices on silicon platforms. (C) 2011 Optical Society of AmericaPublisher PDFPeer reviewe
Design method for quasi-isotropic transformation materials based on inverse Laplace's equation with sliding boundaries
The deformation method of transformation optics has been demonstrated to be a
useful tool, especially in designing arbitrary and nonsingular transformation
materials. Recently, there are emerging demands for isotropic material
parameters, arising from the broadband requirement of the designed devices. In
this work, the deformation method is further developed to design
quasi-isotropic/isotropic transformation materials. The variational functional
of the inverse Laplace's equation is investigated and found to involve the
smooth and quasi-conformal nature of coordinate transformation. Together with
the sliding boundary conditions, the inverse Laplace's equation can be utilized
to give transformations which are conformal or quasi-conformal, depending on
functionalities of interest. Examples of designing an arbitrary carpet cloak
and a waveguide with arbitrary cross sections are given to validate the
proposed idea. Compared with other quasi-conformal methods based on grid
generation tools, the proposed method unifies the design and validation of
transformation devices, and thus is much convenient.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
Homogeneous optical cloak constructed with uniform layered structures
The prospect of rendering objects invisible has intrigued researchers for
centuries. Transformation optics based invisibility cloak design is now
bringing this goal from science fictions to reality and has already been
demonstrated experimentally in microwave and optical frequencies. However, the
majority of the invisibility cloaks reported so far have a spatially varying
refractive index which requires complicated design processes. Besides, the size
of the hidden object is usually small relative to that of the cloak device.
Here we report the experimental realization of a homogenous invisibility cloak
with a uniform silicon grating structure. The design strategy eliminates the
need for spatial variation of the material index, and in terms of size it
allows for a very large obstacle/cloak ratio. A broadband invisibility behavior
has been verified at near-infrared frequencies, opening up new oppotunities for
using uniform layered medium to realize invisibility at any frequency ranges,
where high-quality dielectrics are available
Transformation bending device emulated by graded-index waveguide
We demonstrate that a transformation device can be emulated using a
gradient-index waveguide. The effective index of the waveguide is spatially
varied by tailoring a gradient thickness dielectric waveguide. Based on this
technology, we demonstrate a transformation device guiding visible light around
a sharp corner, with low scattering loss and reflection loss. The experimental
results are in good agreement with the numerical results.Comment: This paper is published at Optics Express 20, 13006 (2012
An invisibility cloak using silver nanowires
In this paper, we use the parameter retrieval method together with an
analytical effective medium approach to design a well-performed invisible
cloak, which is based on an empirical revised version of the reduced cloak. The
designed cloak can be implemented by silver nanowires with elliptical
cross-sections embedded in a polymethyl methacrylate host. This cloak is
numerically proved to be robust for both the inner hidden object as well as
incoming detecting waves, and is much simpler thus easier to manufacture when
compared with the earlier proposed one [Nat. Photon. 1, 224 (2007)].Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 2 table
Patient experiences and health system responsiveness in South Africa
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Patients' views are being given more and more importance in policy-making. Understanding populations' perceptions of quality of care is critical to developing measures to increase the utilization of primary health care services. Using the data from the South African <it>World Health Survey </it>(WHS), the current study aims to evaluate the degree of health care service responsiveness (both out-patient and in-patient) and comparing experiences of individuals who used public and private services in South Africa.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A population-based survey of 2352 participants (1116 men and 1236 women) was conducted in South Africa in 2003, the WHS – as part of a World Health Organization (WHO) project focused on health system performance assessment in member countries.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Health care utilization was among those who attended in-patient care 72.2% attended a public and 24.3% a private facility, and of those who attended out-patient care 58.7% attended a public and 35.7% a private facility. Major components identified for out-patient care responsiveness in this survey were highly correlated with health care access, communication and autonomy, secondarily to dignity, confidentiality and quality of basic amenities, and thirdly to health problem solution. The degree of responsiveness with publicly provided care was in this study significantly lower than in private health care. Overall patient non-responsiveness for the public out-patient service was 16.8% and 3.2% for private care. Discrimination was also one of the principal reasons for non-responsiveness in all aspects of provided health care.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Health care access, communication, autonomy, and discriminatory experiences were identified as priority areas for actions to improve responsiveness of health care services in South Africa.</p
Sequential Effects in Judgements of Attractiveness: The Influences of Face Race and Sex
In perceptual decision-making, a person’s response on a given trial is influenced by their response on the immediately preceding trial. This sequential effect was initially demonstrated in psychophysical tasks, but has now been found in more complex, real-world judgements. The similarity of the current and previous stimuli determines the nature of the effect, with more similar items producing assimilation in judgements, while less similarity can cause a contrast effect. Previous research found assimilation in ratings of facial attractiveness, and here, we investigated whether this effect is influenced by the social categories of the faces presented. Over three experiments, participants rated the attractiveness of own- (White) and other-race (Chinese) faces of both sexes that appeared successively. Through blocking trials by race (Experiment 1), sex (Experiment 2), or both dimensions (Experiment 3), we could examine how sequential judgements were altered by the salience of different social categories in face sequences. For sequences that varied in sex alone, own-race faces showed significantly less opposite-sex assimilation (male and female faces perceived as dissimilar), while other-race faces showed equal assimilation for opposite- and same-sex sequences (male and female faces were not differentiated). For sequences that varied in race alone, categorisation by race resulted in no opposite-race assimilation for either sex of face (White and Chinese faces perceived as dissimilar). For sequences that varied in both race and sex, same-category assimilation was significantly greater than opposite-category. Our results suggest that the race of a face represents a superordinate category relative to sex. These findings demonstrate the importance of social categories when considering sequential judgements of faces, and also highlight a novel approach for investigating how multiple social dimensions interact during decision-making
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