PURPOSE. Na, K-ATPase activity in lens epithelium is subject to control by Src family tyrosine kinases (SFKs). Previously we showed hyposmotic solution causes an SFK-dependent increase in Na, K-ATPase activity in the epithelium. Here we explored the role of cAMP in the signaling mechanism responsible for the SFK and Na, K-ATPase response. METHODS. Intact porcine lenses were exposed to hyposmotic Krebs solution (200 mOsm) then the epithelium was assayed for cAMP, SFK phosphorylation (activation) or Na, K-ATPase activity. RESULTS. An increase of cAMP was observed in the epithelium of lenses exposed to hyposmotic solution. In lenses exposed to hyposmotic solution SFK phosphorylation in the epithelium approximately doubled as did Na, K-ATPase activity and both responses were prevented by H89, a protein kinase A inhibitor. The magnitude of the SFK response to hyposmotic solution was reduced by a TRPV4 antagonist HC067047 added to prevent TRPV4-mediated calcium entry, and by a cytoplasmic Ca2+ chelator BAPTA-AM. The Na, K-ATPase activity response in the epithelium of lenses exposed to hyposmotic solution was abolished by BAPTA-AM. As a direct test of cAMP-dependent SFK activation, intact lenses were exposed to 8-pCPT-cAMP, a cell-permeable cAMP analog. 8-pCPT-cAMP caused robust SFK activation. Using Western blot, two calcium-activated adenylyl cyclases, ADCY3 and ADCY8, were detected in lens epithelium. CONCLUSIONS. Calcium-activated adenylyl cyclases are expressed in the lens epithelium and SFK activation is linked to a rise of cAMP that occurs upon hyposmotic challenge. The findings point to cAMP as a link between TRPV4 channel-mediated calcium entry, SFK activation, and a subsequent increase of Na, K-ATPase activity.

Invasive species can severely disrupt biological communities through their interactions with native organisms, yet little is known about the response of marine predators to the establishment of a competitive invasive fish. In the western Atlantic, invasive Indo-Pacific lionfishes (Pterois spp.) may represent a novel competitor to several commercially and ecologically important native species. However, there is a scarcity of empirical research documenting comparative resource use of cohabitant lionfish and native fishes, as well the physiological consequences that may result from interspecific interactions with the invasive species. For this thesis, I conducted two studies designed to elucidate the strength of resource use overlap and potential competition among invasive lionfish and an ecologically similar serranid, the Graysby (Cephalopholis cruentata), along a contiguous coral-reef ledge in Biscayne National Park, South Florida. My first study aimed to determine whether lionfish and Graysby could be classified as competitors through comparisons of Graysby population size, diet, and condition across a range of ambient lionfish biomass. Using stable isotope and gut content analyses, I measured a difference in Graysby diet on sites with larger populations of lionfish, specifically a smaller breadth of resource use and lower consumption of teleost fish prey. Despite a shift in diet, Graysby condition did not vary with lionfish biomass, and thus this study did not provide unequivocal evidence of competition between the two species. However, based on a high amount of apparent overlap in interspecific resource use, competitive interactions between lionfish and species such as Graysby remain likely in systems with more limiting prey or shelter. For my second study, I measured stable isotope values of muscle, liver, and eye lens layers in lionfish and Graysby to further compare individual and population-level patterns of diet and habitat use. The use of eye lenses as metabolically stable chronological recorders of stable isotopes has vast potential to provide insight about animal life history, but has not yet been applied to describe trends in resource use among invasive and native species. To aid these analyses I created a rudimentary map of spatial isotopic variation along the reef ledge of Biscayne National Park, which could serve as a frame of reference to study local-scale animal movements. Isotopic differences between liver and muscle samples suggested a broader range of movement in lionfish than Graysby, important for understanding the relative scale of habitat use in these species. In eye lenses, stable isotope values increased logarithmically with lens radius (i.e. fish size), likely reflecting patterns of trophic growth. There was a high amount of variability among the shapes of eye lens isotopic chronologies, particularly those of lionfish, yielding further information about movement and individual resource use specificity in these species. The results of this thesis are the first to compare native predator diet and condition across a range of invasive lionfish biomass, as well as the first to measure size-structured trends in the resource use of individual lionfish. Together, these results enhance our understanding of the potential for competition among lionfish and native mesopredators, an important objective for researchers studying how this highly invasive species interacts with surrounding ecological communities.

The current paradigm in the lens distortion characterization industry is to use simple radial distortion models with only one or two radial terms. Tangential terms and the optimal distortion centre are also seldom determined. Inherent in the models currently used is the assumption that lens distortion is radially symmetrical. The reason for the use of these models is partly due to the perceived instability of more complex lens distortion models. This dissertation shows, in the first of its three hypotheses, that higher order models are indeed beneficial, when their parameters are determined using modern numerical optimization techniques. They are both stable and provide superior characterization. Although it is true that the first two radial terms dominate the distortion characterization, this work proves superior characterization is possible for those applications that may require it. The third hypothesis challenges the assumption of the radial symmetry of lens distortion. Building on the foundation provided by the first hypothesis, a sample of lens distortion models of similar and greater complexity to those found in literature are modified to have a radial gain, allowing the distortion corrections to vary both with polar angle and distance from the distortion centre. Four angular gains are evaluated, and two provide better characterization. The elliptical gain was the only method to both consistently improve the characterization and not ‘skew’ the corrected images. This gain was shown to improve characterization by as much as 50% for simple (single radial term) models and by 7% for even the most complex models. To create an undistorted image from a distorted image captured through a lens which has had its distortion characterized, one needs to find the corresponding distorted pixel for each undistorted pixel in the corrected image. This is either done iteratively or using a simplified model typically based on the Taylor expansion of a simple (one or two radial coefficients) distortion model. The first method is accurate yet slow and the second, the opposite. The second hypothesis of this research successfully combines the advantages of both methods without any of their disadvantages. It was shown that, using the superior characterization of high order radial models (when fitted with modern numerical optimization methods) together with the ‘side-effect’ undistorted image points created in the lens distortion characterization, it is possible to fit a ‘reverse’ model from the undistorted to distorted domains. This reverse characterization is of similar complexity to the simplified models yet provides characterization equivalent to the iterative techniques. Compared to using simplified models the reverse mapping yields an improvement of more than tenfold - from the many tenths of pixels to a few hundredths. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted

Photographic fisheye lenses with fixed focal length for cameras with different sensor formats have been well developed for decades. However, photographic fisheye lenses with variable focal length are rare on the market due in part to the greater design difficulty. This paper presents a large aperture zoom fisheye lens for DSLR cameras that produces both circular and diagonal fisheye imaging for 35-mm sensors and diagonal fisheye imaging for APS-C sensors. The history and optical characteristics of fisheye lenses are briefly reviewed. Then, a 9.2- to 16.1-mm F/2.8 to F/3.5 zoom fisheye lens design is presented, including the design approach and aberration control. Image quality and tolerance performance analysis for this lens are also presented. (C) 2017 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

This thesis uses an exploratory case study design to chronicle the shifts, recognition, and implementation of programs, tools and policies designed for high need federally sentenced women in Canada that were created after 1990, in accordance with or opposed to the gender specific principles outlined in the Creating Choices (1990) report. The body lens is used as an analytic tool to deconstruct eleven of the most pertinent documents regarding policy and strategy for high need women offenders that were implemented by the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) personnel and the Office of the Correctional Investigator (OCI) over the past twenty years. Coding of a wide range of documents reveals that despite appearing to be rhetorically progressive, CSC’s attempt at creating a women-centered mental health strategy uses contradictory disciplinary techniques that control and restrain the bodies of federally sentenced women in hopes of normalizing the behaviours of high need women. The policies imposed by CSC for high need women offenders fail to make any substantial changes in women’s prison reform and resulted in a different form of regulation and control. High need women offenders are imprisoned in their own bodies.

Kawasaki has calculated the integral homology groups of weighted projective space, and his results imply the existence of a homotopy equivalence between weighted projective space and a CW-complex, with a single cell in each even dimension less than or equal to that of weighted projective space. When the weights satisfy certain divisibility conditions then the associated weighted projective space is actually homeomorphic to such an minimal CW-complex and such decompositions are well-known in these cases. Otherwise this minimal CW-complex is not a weighted projective space. Our aim is to give an explicit CW-structure on any weighted projective space, using an invariant decomposition of complex projective space with respect to the action of a product of finite cyclic groups. The result has many cells, in both odd and even dimensions; nevertheless, we identify it with a subdivision of the minimal decomposition whenever the weights are divisive. We then extend the decomposition to stunted weighted projective space, defined as the quotient of one weighted projective space by another. Finally, we compute the integral homology groups of stunted weighted projective space, identify generators in terms of cellular cycles, and describe cup products in the corresponding cohomology ring.

Monocentric lenses provide compact, broadband, high resolution, wide-field imaging. However, they produce a curved image surface and have found limited use. The use of an appropriately machined fiber bundle to relay the curved image plane onto a flat focal plane array (FPA) has recently emerged as a potential solution. Unfortunately the spatial sampling that is intrinsic to the fiber bundle relay can have a negative effect on image resolution, and vignetting has been identified as another potential shortcoming of this solution. This thesis describes a metamaterial lens yielding a high-performance image relay from a curved surface to a flat focal plane. Using quasi-conformal transformation optics, a Maxwell's fish-eye lens is transformed into a concave-plano shape. A design with a narrower range of constitutive parameters is deemed more likely to be manufacturable. Therefore, the way in which the particular shape of the concave-plano reimager influences the range of needed constitutive parameters is explored. Finally, image quality metrics, such as spot size and light efficiency, are quantified.

Additive manufacturing processes of many alloys are known to develop texture during the deposition process due to the rapid reheating and the directionality of the dissipation of heat. Titanium alloys and with respect to this study beta titanium alloys are especially susceptible to these effects. This work examines Ti-20wt%V and Ti-12wt%Mo deposited under normal additive manufacturing process parameters to examine the texture of these beta-stabilized alloys. Both microstructures contained columnar prior beta grains 1-2 mm in length beginning at the substrate with no visible equiaxed grains. This microstructure remained constant in the vanadium system throughout the build. The microstructure of the alloy containing molybdenum changed from a columnar to an equiaxed structure as the build height increased. Eighteen additional samples of the Ti-Mo system were created under different processing parameters to identify what role laser power and travel speed have on the microstructure. There appears to be a correlation in alpha lath size and power density. The two binary alloys were again deposited under the same conditions with the addition of 0.5wt% boron to investigate the effects an insoluble interstitial alloying element would have on the microstructure. The size of the prior beta grains in these two alloys were reduced with the addition of boron by approximately 50 (V) and 100 (Mo) times.

No description available.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第21545号 / 理博第4452号 / 新制||理||1639(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科数学・数理解析専攻 / (主査)教授 大槻 知忠, 教授 向井 茂, 教授 小野 薫 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DGAM