The Yilgarn Craton western Australia: A tectonic synthesis

The Yilgarn Craton in Western Australia is one of the larger contiguous preserved Archaean crustal fragments, with an area of about 650,000 square kilometres. Of this, by area, about 70% is granitoid and 30% greenstone. The Craton is defined by the Darling Fault on its western margin, by Proterozoic deformation belts on its southern and northwestern margins, and by unconformable younger sediments on its eastern and northeastern margins. A regional geotectonic synthesis at a scale of 1:500,000 is being prepared. This is based largely upon the 1:250,000 scale mapping of the Geological Survey of Western Australia together with interpretation using geophysical data, mainly airborne magnetic surveys. On a regional basis the granitoids are classied as pre-, syn- and post-tectonic with respect to greenstone belt deformation. The post-tectonic granitoids yield Rb-Sr isochrons of about 2.6 b.y., close to Rb-Sr ages for the greenstones themselves which are up to about 2.8 b.y. old, although data for the latter is sparse. Contacts between earlier granitoids and greenstones which are not obscured by the post-tectonic granitoids are most commonly tectonic contacts, intensely deformed and with mylonitic fabrics. The general concensus however is that there is a pre-tectonic, pre-greenhouse sialic gneiss preserved in places. A discussion follows

Pyroelectric detector arrays

A pyroelectric detector array and the method for using it are described. A series of holes formed through a silicon dioxide layer on the surface of a silicon substrate forms the mounting fixture for the pyroelectric detector array. A series of nontouching strips of indium are formed around the holes to make contact with the backside electrodes and form the output terminals for individual detectors. A pyroelectric detector strip with front and back electrodes, respectively, is mounted over the strips. Biasing resistors are formed on the surface of the silicon dioxide layer and connected to the strips. A metallized pad formed on the surface of layer is connected to each of the biasing resistors and to the film to provide the ground for the pyroelectric detector array

Micromagnetic Simulations of High-Speed Magnonic Devices

An emerging field of research in recent years has been magnonics, the manipulation of coherent spin excitations, spin-waves, in magnetically ordered materials. Recent advances in experimental techniques for high-frequency magnetisation dynamics and the advent of micromagnetic simulations has led to the propositions of functional magnetic devices based upon the control of spin-waves. This thesis presents work for characterisation and future development of high-speed magnonic devices derived from micromagnetic simulations, and numerical techniques for the solution of the Landau-Lifshitz equation for micromagnetic simulations in the finite-difference time-domain approach. In chapter 3, spin-waves were controlled in the propagation along a thin film magnonic waveguide via resonant scattering from a mesoscale chiral magnetic resonator, in the backwards volume, forwards volume and Damon-Eshbach geometries. The scattering interaction demonstrated non-reciprocity associated with devices acting as spin-wave diodes. Additionally, such devices demonstrated the possibility of phase-shifting. The results obtained were numerically fit and interpreted in terms of a phenomenological model of resonant chiral scattering. The origin of the chiral coupling was discussed in terms of the stray field. In chapter 4, the phenomenon of spin-wave confinement, wavelength conversion and Möbius mode formation was demonstrated in the backwards volume configuration of thin-film magnetic waveguides. The presence of magnetic field gradients or thickness gradients modified the position of the Γ-point of the dispersion relation for Backwards Volume Dipolar-Exchange Spin-Waves (BVDESW), such that back-scattering and wavelength conversion occurred from the field/thickness gradients due to the “valleys” of the spin-wave dispersion. This work highlights a basis for not only experimental observation of such phenomena, but the potential for devices based upon valleytronics, an exploitation of the valley degree-of-freedom due to the spin-wave dispersion. In chapter 5, motivated by numerical error encountered in previous work in the thesis, the validity of implicit methods formulated for the numerical solution of the Landau-Lifshitz equation for finite-difference time-domain micromagnetic simulations were demonstrated. The implicit methods were tested for single spin precession in an external field, the μMAG standard problems and additional test cases. A source of numerical instability in explicit integration methods, numerical stiffness in systems of differential equations, was demonstrated to occur in existing explicit numerical methods, applied to the Landau-Lifshitz equation, common to popular micromagnetic software. The stability of implicit methods was demonstrated to be advantageous over explicit methods in micromagnetic scenarios where numerical stiffness could occur. Additionally, it was demonstrated that the quality of the numerical results was improved compared to explicit methods when the implicit method possessed L-stability, a damping of stiff, high wave number spin waves in the simulation.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC

Reusable thermal cycling clamp

A reusable metal clamp for retaining a fused quartz ampoule during temperature cycling in the range of 20 deg C to 1000 deg C is described. A compressible graphite foil having a high radial coefficient of thermal expansion is interposed between the fused quartz ampoule and metal clamp to maintain a snug fit between these components at all temperature levels in the cycle

AEShareNET

A hallmark of human language is that we combine lexical building blocks retrieved from memory in endless new ways. This combinatorial aspect of language is referred to as unification. Here we focus on the neurobiological infrastructure for syntactic and semantic unification. Unification is characterized by a high-speed temporal profile including both prediction and integration of retrieved lexical elements. A meta-analysis of a large number of neuroimaging studies reveals a clear dorsal/ventral gradient in both left inferior frontal cortex and left posterior temporal cortex, with dorsal foci for syntactic processing and ventral foci for semantic processing. Next to core areas for unification, additional networks need to be recruited to realize language-driven communication to its full extent. One example is the Theory-of-Mind network, which enables inferences of the intended message (speaker meaning) from the coded meaning of the linguistic utterance. This indicates that sensori-motor simulation cannot handle all of language processing. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Neuroscience Volume 37 is July 8, 2014. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/catalog/pubdates.aspx for revised estimates

3D Scanning System for Automatic High-Resolution Plant Phenotyping

Thin leaves, fine stems, self-occlusion, non-rigid and slowly changing structures make plants difficult for three-dimensional (3D) scanning and reconstruction -- two critical steps in automated visual phenotyping. Many current solutions such as laser scanning, structured light, and multiview stereo can struggle to acquire usable 3D models because of limitations in scanning resolution and calibration accuracy. In response, we have developed a fast, low-cost, 3D scanning platform to image plants on a rotating stage with two tilting DSLR cameras centred on the plant. This uses new methods of camera calibration and background removal to achieve high-accuracy 3D reconstruction. We assessed the system's accuracy using a 3D visual hull reconstruction algorithm applied on 2 plastic models of dicotyledonous plants, 2 sorghum plants and 2 wheat plants across different sets of tilt angles. Scan times ranged from 3 minutes (to capture 72 images using 2 tilt angles), to 30 minutes (to capture 360 images using 10 tilt angles). The leaf lengths, widths, areas and perimeters of the plastic models were measured manually and compared to measurements from the scanning system: results were within 3-4% of each other. The 3D reconstructions obtained with the scanning system show excellent geometric agreement with all six plant specimens, even plants with thin leaves and fine stems.Comment: 8 papes, DICTA 201

The effect of grain boundaries on the resistivity of polycrystalline silicon

The electrical resistivity of polycrystalline silicon films was investigated. The films were grown by the chemical vapor decomposition of silane on oxidized silicon wafers. The resistivity was found to be independent of dopant atom concentration in the lightly doped regions but was a strong function of dopant levels in the more heavily doped regions. A model, based on high dopant atom segregation in the grain boundaries, is proposed to explain the results

Schistosomiasis and malignancy

It is generally accepted that schistosomiasis, if not causative, is at least associated with malignancy. In this review, the epidemiology of schistosomiasis and bladder carcinoma, as well as the role of chronic bladder infection, are discussed togetherwith known carcinogenic factors, possible abnormal vitamin metabolism and/or deficiencies and factors that influence conjugated carcinogens. Experimental evidence is briefly examined and recent work from the Far East on schistosomiasis and colon carcinoma reviewed