Nasal turbinate enlargement due to cartilage and bone proliferation: a normal developmental finding in young ferrets.

Toxicity studies of intranasally administered, live attenuated influenza virus vaccine candidates conducted in male and female ferrets led to the microscopic observation of individual differences in the size of nasal turbinates, especially in the dorsal aspect of the nasal cavity. The association of these enlarged turbinates with acute to subacute inflammation, which is sometimes common in ferrets given live attenuated influenza virus vaccine candidates, led to this detailed microscopic evaluation of turbinate enlargement (cartilaginous and osseous thickening, or COT) in control animals dosed intranasally with saline. Results of this evaluation led to the conclusion that COT is a normal developmental feature of growing ferrets, irrespective of inflammation in nasal tissues or inflammatory exudate in the nasal cavity.

A Wide-angle Multi-Octave Broadband Waveplate Based on Field Transformation Approach.

Transformation optics (TO) offers a geometrical approach in designing optical components of any shapes. Although it has been proven to be a versatile and robust mathematical tool, TO has, however, limited control over electromagnetic (EM) field polarization in the process of coordinate transformation. Such a technique can be extended to a so-called "Field transformation (FT)" which provides direct control over the impedance and polarization signature of an arbitrary object. In this work, we demonstrate a FT application by designing and manufacturing a novel waveplate, which defies the fundamental limit of bandwidth and incident angles and has the ability of converting between TE (transverse electric) and TM (transverse magnetic) as well as LCP (left-handed circular polarization) and RCP (right-handed circular polarization). Such a waveplate can also be applied to different operating modes for both transmitted and reflected waves by adjusting its thickness and adding an optional metallic ground plane. The proposed design approach presents a remarkable degree of advance for designing future devices with arbitrary polarization controls, artificial waveguides or antenna substrates and polarization-enabled resonators with angle-insensitive functionalities. Our approach has far reaching implications applicable from radio to optical frequencies.

Transformation optics for antennas: why limit the bandwidth with metamaterials?

In the last decade, a technique termed transformation optics has been developed for the design of novel electromagnetic devices. This method defines the exact modification of magnetic and dielectric constants required, so that the electromagnetic behaviour remains invariant after a transformation to a new coordinate system. Despite the apparently infinite possibilities that this mathematical tool introduces, one restriction has repeatedly recurred since its conception: limited frequency bands of operation. Here we circumvent this problem with the proposal of a full dielectric implementation of a transformed planar hyperbolic lens which retains the same focusing properties of an original curved lens. The redesigned lens demonstrates operation with high directivity and low side lobe levels for an ultra-wide band of frequencies, spanning over three octaves. The methodology proposed in this paper can be applied to revolutionise the design of many electromagnetic devices overcoming bandwidth limitations.