No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This dissertation descibes the development and the application of a planar acoustic microscope lens. The prototype lens consists of a pair of concentric circular metal electrodes plated on the interface between a piezoelectric solid and a liquid medium. These two circular electrodes excite Rayleigh waves of velocity V(,R) which are converging towards the common centre but which are phase matched to the compressional waves of the velocity V(,c) in the liquid in a very narrow range of zenith angle about a value given by (phi)(,m) = sin('-1)V(,c)/V(,R). The waves radiated into the liquid are thus in the form of a hollow cone converging onto a common focal spot on the lens axis at a distance determined by this zenith angle and the radius of the electrodes. This planar acoustic microscope lens is called the Rayleigh-to-Compressional Conversion (RCC) lens. / Since the lens behavior is determined by the geometry of the electrodes and because of the simplicity of the photolithographic fabrication process of the RCC lens, more complicated configurations can be made as easily as the prototype; for example, semicircular lenses have been produced and analyzed. / A mathematical analysis based on a spatial impulse of stress applied on the solid/liquid boundary has been used to calculate the focussing characteristics of the RCC lens. For isotropic solid not only the particle displacements of the compressional wave in the liquid have been computed, but also that of the waves radiated into the solid. For anisotropic solids only the radiation pattern of the compressional wave in the liquid, which is the one of most interesting, has been investigated using an isotropic equivalent model. In the model the circular shape of the electrodes has been considered to consist of many line segments and it has been used to analyze the focal properties of partial circles and anisotropic substrate. / This planar acoustic microscope lens has been employed in standard transmission and reflection imaging experiments to demonstrate the structure of its focal spot and in particular the lack of spherical aberration when traversing a metal surface. Because of the hollow conical nature of the beam away from the focal region the RCC lens is inherently adapted to dark field microscopy. Some properties of semicircular lens are also given as examples in linear and nonlinear operation. . . . (Author's abstract exceeds stipulated maximum length. Discontinued here with permission of author.) UMI

There is considerable evidence to indicate that most gas permeable contact lenses do not transmit sufficient oxygen to supply all the corneal oxygen requirement. This problem is further exacerbated by non-valid methods of characterizing the oxygen performance of such lenses. The current methods of using oxygen permeability (Dk) and oxygen transmissibility (Dk/L) as indices of oxygen performance of contact lenses is completely erroneous. Dk and Dk/L pertain to contact lens materials in flat sheet form having uniform thickness and equal diffusion path at all points on the surface. Finished contact lenses, of necessity, are curved surfaces and of varying thickness. Consequently the concept of Dk and Dk/L cannot be applied to contact lenses. To date there are no studies to determine the absolute oxygen tension under gas permeable contact lenses on the human eye. All attempts to quantify the oxygen tension under a lens have been by indirect methods or by predicting the p02 from Dk values, using mathematical equations. These results do not match the clinical findings. This study was done to show that oxygen flux through a contact lens, measured in vitro, is a better determinant of the in vivo oxygen performance of gas permeable contact lenses. A special cell was designed to measure the oxygen flux, in vitro under standardised conditions. Contact lens microelectrodes were designed to measure the oxygen tension in vivo. The data obtainedwas used to develop a model for the oxygen performance of rigid gas permeable lenses on the human eye. / Thesis (M.Optom.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1989.

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate age related variations in anterior ocular characteristics and their effect on the response to short-term (one-hour) open eye orthokeratology (OK) lens wear and overnight hydrogel lens wear. Sixty-three volunteer subjects were divided into three groups comprising children (Group I), young adults (Group II) and older adults (Group III). Anterior ocular characteristics that were measured included corneal topography with the Medmont corneal topographer, total, stromal and epithelial thickness with the Holden-Payor optical pachometer, microscopic cell characteristics with the confocal microscope, corneal aesthesiometry, corneal modulus of elasticity, and tear film, palpebral and eyelid characteristics. The older cornea was found to be more spherical in shape (asphericity Q = -0.24 ?? 0.07 in group III compared to -0.34 ?? 0.09 and -0.32 ?? 0.17 in groups I and II respectively) and showed a tendency from with-the-rule to against-the-rule astigmatism. Older subjects also had a decreased endothelial cell density (2596 ?? 111 cells/mm2 in group III compared to 2793 ?? 138 cells/mm2 in group II) and reduced eyelid tension compared to the younger groups. Children were found to have lower blink rates than adults. It was concluded that these changes might have a significant impact on contact lens wear. The responses to two contact lens based techniques, orthokeratology (OK) and hydrogel overnight wear (ON), were studied. Sixty subjects (20 per group) wore reverse-geometry lenses (BE, Ultravison Aust Pty Ltd) of Boston XO material in one eye under open eye conditions for one hour in one eye only. Changes in unaided visual acuity, corneal curvature, corneal thickness and confocal microscopic variables were measured after OK lens wear. All subject groups showed statistically significant improvements (p &lt 0.05) in unaided visual acuity, a trend for more positive (less prolate) corneal asphericity, increase in apical corneal radius and decrease in central total corneal thickness, after OK lens wear. When the groups were stratified, statistical significance was obtained between the older group and the other two younger groups for change in apical corneal radius (0.23 ?? 0.01 mm in group I, 0.15 ?? 0.01 mm for group II, 0.06 ?? 0.33 for group III). The change in asphericity also showed significant differences between the older age group (0.10 ?? 0.08 mm) and the young adult group (0.21 ?? 0.13). Central corneal thinning obtained after one hour of OK lens wear revealed significant differences between the older adult group (-1.9 ?? 3.2 ??m) and the other two groups (-5.0 ?? 5.9 ??m in group I, -5.0 ?? 2.0 ??m for group II). Sixty subjects wore hydrogel lenses (One-Day Acuvue, Johnson and Johnson Visioncare Pty Ltd) made of etafilcon A in one eye only overnight during sleep at their home. Changes in unaided visual acuity, corneal curvature, corneal thickness, confocal microscopic variables and slitlamp variables were measured after ON lens wear. All subjects showed significant thickening (p &lt 0.05) of the cornea with ON wear, more in the lens-wearing eye. This study reported that the edema response induced by Acuvue contact lenses is stromal in origin. The edema response of the older group (33.9 ?? 11.5 ??m) was lower than the other two groups as demonstrated by the difference in the change in central stromal thickness (49.3 ?? 20.3 ??m for group I and 51.0 ?? 20.0 ??m for group II). However, a statistically significant difference in the change in thickness was not reached either for the central total corneal thickness or for other topographic locations. Corneal and visual changes found in this study confirm previous reports of the effects of short term OK and hydrogel ON lens wear. Older lens wearers showed a reduced or delayed response to short-term lens wear. Studies investigating the effects of age with long lens-wearing durations are warranted to quantify these effects further.

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1994. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-59). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (MEng--Engineering) -- Auckland University of Technology, 2005. / Also held in print (xix, 157 leaves, col. ill., 30 cm.) in Wellesley Theses Collection. (T 668.4239 ABB)