Mapping Images with the Coherence Length Diagrams

Statistical pattern recognition methods based on the Coherence Length Diagram (CLD) have been proposed for medical image analyses, such as quantitative characterisation of human skin textures, and for polarized light microscopy of liquid crystal textures. Further investigations are made on image maps originated from such diagram and some examples related to irregularity of microstructures are shown

Effects of Instrumentation on Dental Microwear Textures: Reanalysis and Augmentation of an Early Hominin Sample

Dental microwear texture analysis has been refined to a methodology relying upon scanning confocal microscopy for its advantages of repeatability and standardized quantification. A new instrument, the Plu Neox (Sensofar Corp.) confocal profiler recently entered the market, sparking questions among dental anthropologists related to the advantages and efficacy of this new technology, which has better resolution and lighting properties than previously available white-lighted based confocal profilers. This thesis reports on three complementary studies that set out to evaluate the comparability of the Plu Neox to the Plu Standard system and assess its ability to distinguish primates on the basis of their microwear patterning. The first study examines a sample of hominin molars (Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus) for comparison with data previously scanned and analyzed on the University of Arkansas\u27 Plu Standard confocal microscope (Scott et al., 2005). The second study expands the sample of early hominins to determine whether an enlarged sample of A. africanus continues to show significant texture separation from P. robustus. And the third study examines extant primate microwear textures of pitheciids with known dietary differences to determine whether documented food-choice trends are reflected in microwear patterning obtained using the Plu Neox. Examining pitheciine molar facets in the past was not possible because of their small size. The new instrument provides higher resolution (0.11 um with a 150x objective compared to 0.18 um at 100x on the Plu Standard confocal), with a smaller work envelop for a comparable number of sampled points for texture analysis. Results of the first study generally correspond to the original texture analysis of 2005, and the expanded dataset in the second study shows increased variance but the same pattern of differences for A. africanus compared with P. robustus. The third study finds that the Plu Neox is capable of parsing broad diet-related differences in microwear textures among the pitheciids, indicating that the new instrument may become an effective instrument for the quantitative characterization and comparison of dental microwear textures to be utilized in laboratories around the world

Characterization of soft stripe-domain deformations in Sm-C and Sm-C* liquid-crystal elastomers

The neoclassical model of Sm-C (and Sm-C*) elastomers developed by Warner and Adams predicts a class of “soft” (zero energy) deformations. We find and describe the full set of stripe domains—laminate structures in which the laminates alternate between two different deformations—that can form between pairs of these soft deformations. All the stripe domains fall into two classes, one in which the smectic layers are not bent at the interfaces, but for which—in the Sm-C* case—the interfaces are charged, and one in which the smectic layers are bent but the interfaces are never charged. Striped deformations significantly enhance the softness of the macroscopic elastic response

Petrophysical and geochemical characterization of the late-variscan Santa Eulália Plutonic Complex (Ossa-Morena Zone, Portugal)

The Santa Eulália Plutonic Complex (SEPC) is a calc-alkaline granitic body located in the northern part of the Ossa Morena Zone, composed by a medium- to coarse-grained pink granite (G0 group) involving large elongated masses of mafic (gabbroic) to intermediate (granodioritic) rocks, M group, and a central gray monzonitic granite (G1 group) which present dominant medium granular facies. A multidisciplinary study, including petrophysical, AMS and IRM measurements, and geochemical data, elemental and isotopic (Nd and 18O), point out differences in magnetic behaviour, magnetic lineations patterns and geochemical features, reflecting distinct petrogenetic processes at the level of the magmatic sources and evolution, as well as the emplacement mechanisms of M, G0 and G1 facies associated in the SEPC