Using a symmetry-based approach, we have designed polarization-independent waveguides in a 3D photonic crystal. A comprehensive series of numerical experiments, involving the propagation of pulsed signals through long straight waveguide sections and sharp bends, quantitatively evaluates the bend-transmission coefficient over the entire bandwidth of the corresponding guided modes. High (approxim...

We present a novel method to fabricate low bend loss femtosecond-laser written waveguides that exploits the differential thermal stabilities of laser induced refractive index modifications. The technique consists of a two-step process; the first involves fabricating large multimode waveguides, while the second step consists of a thermal post-annealing process, which erases the outer ring of the...

A probabilistic model was used to predict decompression sickness (DCS) outcome in pig (70 and 20 kg), hamster (100 g), rat (220 g) and mouse (20 g) following air saturation dives. The data set included 179 pig, 200 hamster, 360 rat, and 224 mouse exposures to saturation pressures ranging from 1.9-15.2 ATA and with varying decompression rates (0.9-156 ATA • min-1). Single exponential kinetics de...

Mitchell SJ, Doolette DJ. Selective vulnerability of the inner ear to decompression sickness in divers with right-to-left shunt: the role of tissue gas supersaturation. J Appl Physiol 106: 298–301, 2009. First published September 18, 2008; doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.90915.2008.— Inner ear decompression sickness has been strongly associated with the presence of right-to-left shunts. The implied in...

Diving accidents related to barotrauma constitute a unique subset of ischemic insults to the CNS. Victims may demonstrate components of arterial gas embolism, which has a propensity for cerebral involvement, and/or decompression sickness, with primarily spinal cord involvement. Fourteen patients with diving-related barotrauma were studied with MR imaging of the brain and spinal cord and with CT...

AEWCRACT. An analogue is described in which the conduction of heat simulates the diffusion of inert gas in the cellular material of the tissue type responsible for marginal symptoms of decompression sickness. It forms the basis of an instrument designed to optimize the deployment of decompression time according t o the principle of phase equilibration. Allowance is made for the metabolizable ga...

Diving with an underwater breathing apparatus has been the subject of research in several scientific areas for a long time. Decompression and recompression are complex and involve knowledge of physics and physiology. The purpose of this article was to review the basic physics of autonomous diving and to describe phenomena not so obvious to scientists working in other fields. Special emphasis wa...