Novel spectral imaging instrumentation for environmental sensing in extreme environments

Spectral imaging techniques provide a valuable means of improving our understanding of the world around us. Environmental monitoring approaches that utilise these techniques are, therefore, essential to our understanding of the effects of climate change. Hyperspectral imaging applications are of particular benefit to a broad range of environmental monitoring scenarios, providing rich datasets that combine both spectral and spatial information, enabling intricate features and variations to be visualised. However, to date, most commercially available hyperspectral instrumentation remains bulky and expensive, significantly limiting their user-base and accessibility. These factors substantially limit the use of these instruments resulting in much of our information coming from a few well-resourced research teams across a limited number of more easily accessed field locations. These limitations, have a compounded effect on the quality and robustness of hyperspectral data outputs, particularly within more extreme settings, as the comparatively small sample of more accessible locations is not necessarily representative of the much larger whole. This thesis presents on the development and testing of three novel low-cost hyperspectral imaging instruments designed specifically for environmental monitoring applications, providing valuable, low-cost alternatives to currently available commercial systems. Specifically, the three instruments presented within this thesis are: a low-cost laboratory-based hyperspectral imager, a semi-portable instrument capable of accurate data capture within a laboratory setting; the Hyperspectral Smartphone, an ultra-low-cost smartphone-based fully portable hyperspectral imager; and a low-cost high-resolution hyperspectral imager capable of resolving mm-scale spatial targets. All instruments were rigorously tested to analyse and evaluate their performances. Each instrument was shown to perform well across a range of environmental monitoring applications demonstrating that expensive commercial instrumentation is not required to achieve accurate and robust hyperspectral imaging. These low-cost instruments could promote the widespread dissemination of accessible hyperspectral imaging equipment, facilitating the democratisation of hyperspectral measurement modalities across environmental monitoring applications and beyond

Genetic and biochemical analysis of materials from a medieval population from Ynys Mon North Wales

The archaeological excavation of the early medieval site at Towyn-Y-Capel on the island of Anglesey (Ynys Môn) in North Wales, UK, provided the opportunity to study a large population (122 skeletons) at a site that was in use over a period of up to 550 years (650 -1200 AD). Samples of skeletal materials for this study were taken directly from the site itself .The osteological condition of skeletal material was variable across the site. In general, the upper burials in particular were in the poorest condition, and were mainly fragmented and dispersed due to the ongoing site erosion and diagenetic processes. Conversely, lower “cist” burials were in far better condition. The assessment of skeletal sample condition was used to select materials chosen for genetic analysis, and 44% (54) of the skeletal population were selected for analysis of appropriate samples of tooth and bone. The gross morphology of samples was assessed and 87% of bones and teeth were considered to be in good or fair condition, according to the gross preservation index (GPI) used, while only 2% of bones and no teeth were considered to be in excellent condition. In addition to GPI, a novel technique called Qualitative Light Fluoresence (QLF), based on autofluoresence, was used to ascertain the surface condition of the teeth. Compared to the fluorescence of modern enamel, there was a net loss of 21.8% fluorescence, although the degree of fluorescence from one sample to another varied (with a standard deviation from the mean of 24.973). Histological sections taken from non-human bone finds from the site generally varied less than that indicated by the gross morphology, showing good to excellent histological preservation. Further to gross and histological morphology, ten skeletal samples were selected for detailed investigations, and were analysed for amino acid racemisation and amino acid composition. All samples tested had D/L enatomer Aspartic acid ratio less than 0.1, although 50% of the samples had D/L enatiomer Aspartic acid ratio over 0.08, which indicated that the recovery of aDNA from these skeletal samples was feasible, although the biological condition of the teeth was fairly degraded. The inorganic element profile of the same ten samples showed no discernable anomalies, either due to diet or diagenesis. To consolidate genographic research, strontium isotope analysis was performed and, from the small population subset, three anomalous ratios were found. Two of these were high (Skeletons 33 and 60), indicating that these individuals had spent their childhoods in areas with high strontium ratios, representative of precambrian rock types, possibly older than those of the Holyhead Rock group, such as in Northern Scotland or Norway. The skeletal samples yielding the lowest strontium ratio (Skeleton 52) are of compelling interest, since the ratio is indicative of upbringing in only one place in the North Atlantic, namely Iceland. In this study, DNA recovery was performed on teeth and bones from the site, after extensive decalcification of samples, and also extraction and optimisation trials. Amplification of DNA extracted from teeth samples was generally more successful than for bone samples. A random amplification based polymorphic (RAPD) DNA technique was utilised to “fingerprint” human and animal samples with limited success. Contamination and template variation are likely causes for the lack of success. Amplification using several primers specific for human HV1 & 2 mtDNA targets was also met with limited success. The results show that 14.8% of the skeletal teeth samples were amplified, and these were not commonly reproducible. DNA spiking trials demonstrated that some of the samples were affected by inhibition. Independent confirmation of 9 of 10 successful samples was attained by sequencing, and although sequences were highly degraded, an attempt was made at determining the haplogroups from the sequenced HV1 haplotypes based on likelihood. Generally, the site showed a high predominance of Haplotype K (5) followed by H (2) and U (2) haplogroup profiles

Progressive changes in the properties of bone during soft tissue decomposition

Changes in bone characteristics during soft tissue putrefaction were investigated over 140 days, equating to between 638 and 1450 cumulative cooling degree days (CCDD) depending on ambient temperature using a porcine experimental model in surface and burial depositions. The hypothesis that changes observed in bone characteristics during soft tissue putrefaction could be utilised for possible forensic applications was proved. Human bones were tested for comparison. The techniques used were colorimetric analysis of staining, measurement of micro-crack lengths (in the order of 0.1 to 1.0 mm) on fractured bone surfaces under scanning electron microscopy, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy elemental profiling, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), zoological mass spectrometry profiling non-collagenous peptide content, and Vickers hardness testing. The findings pertaining to the experimental porcine bone samples were as follows. Stain colour did not equalise between periosteal and fractured cortical bone surfaces. The fracture is widely considered perimortem if said surfaces are homogeneous in colour and postmortem if different. Observed inconsistences in colour change limit the potential of this technique as a potential forensic test of postmortem interval (PMI). After 28 CCDD, shorter intersecting micro-cracks changed to longer linear micro-cracks tracking lamellae. A longitudinal to tangential Vickers hardness (HV) ratio of 1.5 to 1 associated with minimal decomposition indicated 250 CCDD or less elapsed. The same ratio associated with marked decomposition indicated 1450 CCDD or more elapsed. A ratio of less than 1:1 indicated 250 to 1450 CCDD. Decreases in iron, sodium and potassium concentrations associated with tissue fluids can determine if bone is in the early stages of decomposition. TGA correlation of water loss between 22 and 100˚C with observed changes in micro-crack lengths, HV, and elemental profiles suggested progressive dehydration as the underlying common factor. These techniques demonstrated some potential to be developed as forensic tests of PMI. As no correlation with PMI was evident with proteomic profiling of non-collagenous peptides, no such potential was demonstrated

The Impact of Air Pollution on Health, Economy, Environment and Agricultural Sources

This book aims to strengthen the knowledge base dealing with Air Pollution. The book consists of 21 chapters dealing with Air Pollution and its effects in the fields of Health, Environment, Economy and Agricultural Sources. It is divided into four sections. The first one deals with effect of air pollution on health and human body organs. The second section includes the Impact of air pollution on plants and agricultural sources and methods of resistance. The third section includes environmental changes, geographic and climatic conditions due to air pollution. The fourth section includes case studies concerning of the impact of air pollution in the economy and development goals, such as, indoor air pollution in México, indoor air pollution and millennium development goals in Bangladesh, epidemiologic and economic impact of natural gas on indoor air pollution in Colombia and economic growth and air pollution in Iran during development programs. In this book the authors explain the definition of air pollution, the most important pollutants and their different sources and effects on humans and various fields of life. The authors offer different solutions to the problems resulting from air pollution

Photodiodes

Photodiodes or photodetectors are in one boat with our human race. Efforts of people in related fields are contained in this book. This book would be valuable to those who want to obtain knowledge and inspiration in the related area

Medical-Data-Models.org:A collection of freely available forms (September 2016)

MDM-Portal (Medical Data-Models) is a meta-data repository for creating, analysing, sharing and reusing medical forms, developed by the Institute of Medical Informatics, University of Muenster in Germany. Electronic forms for documentation of patient data are an integral part within the workflow of physicians. A huge amount of data is collected either through routine documentation forms (EHRs) for electronic health records or as case report forms (CRFs) for clinical trials. This raises major scientific challenges for health care, since different health information systems are not necessarily compatible with each other and thus information exchange of structured data is hampered. Software vendors provide a variety of individual documentation forms according to their standard contracts, which function as isolated applications. Furthermore, free availability of those forms is rarely the case. Currently less than 5 % of medical forms are freely accessible. Based on this lack of transparency harmonization of data models in health care is extremely cumbersome, thus work and know-how of completed clinical trials and routine documentation in hospitals are hard to be re-used. The MDM-Portal serves as an infrastructure for academic (non-commercial) medical research to contribute a solution to this problem. It already contains more than 4,000 system-independent forms (CDISC ODM Format, www.cdisc.org, Operational Data Model) with more than 380,000 dataelements. This enables researchers to view, discuss, download and export forms in most common technical formats such as PDF, CSV, Excel, SQL, SPSS, R, etc. A growing user community will lead to a growing database of medical forms. In this matter, we would like to encourage all medical researchers to register and add forms and discuss existing forms