INTRODUCTION Ritual is intimately connected with the mask, either in the wearing that hides the true face, or in the adoption of a public face. The mask makes the disengagement from ordinary time and the connection to the ancient and repetitive, which is the heart of ritual, psychologically acceptable. Together, ritual and mask facilitate the apprehension of identity and its connections with pa...

PURPOSE The purpose of the study was to implement a new eye tracking mask which could be used to guide the laser beam in automated non-mechanical excimer laser assisted penetrating keratoplasty. MATERIALS AND METHODS A new trephination mask design with an elevated surface geometry has been proposed with a step formation between conical and flat interfaces. Two recipient masks of 7.5/8.0 mm ha...

We present yet another new family of masks for high-contrast imaging as required for the to-be-built terrestrial planet finder space telescope. The “best” design involves a square entrance pupil having a 4-vane spider, a square image-plane mask containing a plus-sign shaped occulter to block the starlight inside 0.6λ/D, and a Lyot-plane mask consisting of a rectangular array of rectangular open...

We propose a novel method for the fast synthesis of low complexity model-based optical proximity correction (OPC) and phase shift masks (PSM) to improve the resolution and pattern fidelity of optical microlithography. We use the pixel-based mask representation, a continuous function formulation, and gradient based iterative optimization techniques to solve the above inverse problem. The continu...

We solve blind deconvolution problems where one signal is modulated by multiple random masks using nuclear norm minimization. Theoretical analysis shows the number of masks for successful recovery scales as poly-logarithm of the problem dimension. OCIS codes: 100.1455, 100.3190.

background: despite the widespread use of respiratory protection equipment in different jobs, the effects of these devices on people’s physiological responses are not well recognized as yet. therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of the air purifying respiratory protection equipment on the heart rate. methods: this experimental study was performed in a climate chamber under ...

OBJECTIVE To assess the relationship of bacterial and fungal contamination on used surgical masks worn by the hospital personnel and microbial air quality in their working wards. METHODS This is a cross-sectional study of 230 used surgical masks collected from 214 hospital personnel, and 215 indoor air samples collected from their working wards to culture for bacterial and fungal counts. This...

The visual performance of divers was compared utilizing five commercial facemasks. Measurements were made of visual fields, visual acuity, stereoacuity, hand-eye coordination, accuracy of distance estimates, and accuracy of size estimates at both near and far distances. In addition, the optical properties of the masks were measured and the susceptibility of each mask to fogging was tested. Ther...