We discuss the behavior of air lenses in lens design. The structural aberration coefficients of a thin air lens are derived and compared with their glass thin lens counterpart. Examples are provided for a telephoto lens and the Monochromatic Quartet where air lenses or aspheric surfaces are used.

Master of Science / Department of Biochemistry / Dolores J. Takemoto / The vertebrate lens relies on gap junction-mediated intercellular communication to maintain cellular homeostasis and lenticular transparency. Differentiation of cuboidal lens epithelial cells into cortical fiber cells involves the degradation of endogenous gap junction protein, connexin 43 (Cx43) and the up-regulation of connexin 46 (Cx46). Cx46 may also be involved in the hypoxia response in other tissues; a function that can possibly be attributed to unique phosphorylation sites at the cytoplasmic C-terminus. In this study, we have developed a mammalian (rabbit) lens epithelial cell (RLEC) culture model that overexpresses Cx46 to ascertain the role of Cx46 in differentiation and oxidative stress response. The cell line N/N1003A was stably transfected with a GFPCx46 plasmid construct, and analyzed for differentiation markers including endogenous gap junction protein isoforms (Cx43 and Cx50). Western blot analysis and visual observation determined that the stable overexpression of Cx46 (sCx46OE) induced the degradation of Cx43 and elicited morphological changes indicative of fiber cell elongation. Total RNA from RLEC culture was isolated and analyzed for mRNA levels using RT-PCR. Comparable levels of Cx43 transcript were present in wild type, transient Cx46OE (tCx46OE), and sCx46OE which suggests a post-transcriptional regulation of Cx43 degradation. Treatment of sCx46OE with proteasome inhibitors restored Cx43 protein levels, and scanning confocal microscopy supported our hypothesis that Cx43 is degraded in differentiating lens cells by way of a ubiquitinmediated proteasomal pathway. It is our conclusion that Cx46 has application in hypoxic conditioning and differentiation in addition to its conventional role as a gap junction protein.

This thesis proposes and tests an individually customizable model of the human crystalline lens. This model will be crucial in developing both research on the human eye and driving diagnostic tools to help plan and treat optical issues, such as those requiring refractive surgery. This thesis attempts to meet two goals: first, it will determine whether this new lens model can reproduce the major aberrations of real human eyes using a computational framework. Second, it will use clinical information to measure how well this model is able to predict post-operation results in refractive surgery, attempting to meet clinical standards of error. The model of the crystalline lens proposed within this thesis is shown to be valid, as it is able to both reproduce individual patient's optical information, and correctly predicts the optical results of a refractive surgery of an individual human eye within clinical standards of error.

Astronomical instruments dedicated to the study of Cosmic Microwave Background polarization are in need of optics with very low systematic effects such as beam shape and cross-polarization in an optical configuration. With the demand for millimetre wave larger focal planes comprising thousands of pixels, these systematic effects have to be minimal across the whole focal surface. In order to reach the instrument requirements such as resolution, cross-polarization and beam ellipticity, new optical configurations with well-understood components have to be studied. Refractive configurations are of great importance amongst the potential candidates. The aim is to bring the required technology to the same level of maturity that has been achieved with well-understood existing ones. This thesis is focused on the study of such optical components for the W-band spectral domain. Using optical modelling with various software packages, combined with the manufacture and accurate experimental characterization of some prototype components, a better understanding of their performance has been reached. To do so, several test set-ups have been developed. Thanks to these new results, full Radio-Frequency refractive systems can be more reliably conceived.

En 2010, une nouvelle méthode de production de verres de chalcogénure transparents dans l'infrarouge a été brevetée, alliant la mécanosynthèse au frittage Spark Plasma Sintering. Ce travail de thèse intègre le transfert de technologie vers la société Diafir dans le cadre d'un projet RAPID, financé par la DGA. Il a pour but un travail d'optimisation des procédés de synthèse et de mise en forme a été mené afin de permettre d'adapter cette technologie innovante à un volume industriel. Les verres de composition Ge28Sb12Se60, 80GeSe2-20Ga2Se3, Te20As30Se50, As2Se3 et As2S3 ont été synthétisés par fusion-trempe, broyés finement puis frittés par SPS. Des disques avec des transmissions comparables au verre obtenu par voie classique ont été obtenus. Des traitements antireflets ont été déposés avec succès à leur surface. Le développement de moules spécifiques au SPS a conduit à la production de lentilles sphériques adaptables à des dispositifs optiques. Ces compositions vitreuses ont ensuite été synthétisées par mécanosynthèse puis frittées par SPS. Les disques obtenus présentant des phénomènes de diffusion récurrents. Les principales causes de diffusion ont été analysées afin d'optimiser le procédé de synthèse par voie mécanique. / In 2010, a new method of production of chalcogenide glasses, transparent in the infrared, has been patented. It combines mechanosynthesis to Spark Plasma Sintering. In this thesis work, there is the technology transfer to the Diafir society included in the RAPID project, founded by the DGA. The aim is to optimize the processes of synthesis and forming in order to adapt this innovating technology to an industrial scale. The glasses of composition Ge28Sb12Se60, 80GeSe2-20Ga2Se3, Te20As30Se50, As2Se3 and As2S3 have been synthetized by melt-quench method then crushedfinely before to be sintered by SPS.

The medium format photographs created in conjunction with my senior thesis exhibit, Everyday Decay, use texture, line, intimate framing, warm color palettes, and layering to explore an aspect of the everyday landscape that we interact with often but generally ignore. The choice of medium and subject of decay creates a sense of the past, aided by the warm tones that imply affinity and nostalgia.

Today, commercial industry spends huge amount of resources in advertisement campaigns, new marketing strategies, and promotional deals to introduce their product to public and attract a large number of customers. These massive investments by a company are worthwhile because marketing tactics greatly influence the consumer behavior. Alternatively, these advertising campaigns have a discernible impact on recommendation systems which tend to promote popular items by ranking them at the top, resulting in biased and unfair decision making and loss of customers’ trust. The biasing impact of popularity of items on recommendations, however, is not fixed, and varies with time. Therefore, it is important to build a bias-aware recommendation system that can rank or predict items based on their true merit at given time frame. This thesis proposes a framework that can model the temporal bias of individual items defined by their characteristic contents, and provides a simple process for bias correction. Bias correction is done either by cleaning the bias from historical training data that is used for building predictive model, or by ignoring the estimated bias from the predictions of a standard predictor. Evaluated on two real world datasets, NetFlix and MovieLens, our framework is shown to be able to estimate and remove the bias as a result of adopted marketing techniques from the predicted popularity of items at a given time.

This design covers the design of an integrated circuit (IC) in support of the active contact lens project at Cal Poly. The project aims to monitor intraocular eye pressure (IOP) to help diagnose and treat glaucoma, which is expected affect 6.3 million Americans by 2050. The IC is designed using IBM’s 130 nm 8RF process, is powered by an on-lens thin film 3.8 V rechargeable battery, and will be fabricated at no cost through MOSIS. The IC features a low-power linear regulator that powers a current-starved voltage-controlled oscillator (CSVCO) used for establishing a backscatter communication link. Additional circuitry is included to regulate power to and from the battery. An undervoltage lockout circuit protects the battery from deep discharge damage. When recharging, a rectifier and a voltage regulator provides overvoltage protection. These circuit blocks are biased primarily using a 696 mV subthreshold voltage reference that consumes 110.5 nA.

This thesis deals with the theoretical analysis of rays passing through lenses. Emphasis on optical defects, particularly focusing on spherical aberration lenses. It also includes the preparation of a workplace and the measurement of spherical aberration and evaluate the quality of different lenses. Furthermore, a program for simulation of spherical aberration lens.

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