Synergetic roles of concrete ingredients in strength development

Concrete is basically a heterogeneous material made up of ingredients with distinct physical and mechanical properties. As a result, the presence of interphases is inevitable. In the processing of concrete, fresh and hardened states are the two distinct stages. In the fresh state, the presence of inert constituents in the cement mortar matrix only dilutes the overall potential of concrete to flow. In the hardened state the synergetics play a dominant role in strength development. When the strength of coarse aggregate is far higher than the strength levels for which the matrix or concrete is processed, interphase bonding plays a dominant role on the strength. When the matrix strength is comparable to that of the aggregate strength, in contrast, the concrete strength is affected by the aggregate strength. Besides these aspects, the effects of the size and the surface texture of coarse aggregates have also been analysed. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.

The Role of Strain Rate Response on Tribological Behavior of Metals

In an effort to study the role of strain rate response on the tribological behavior of metals, room temperature experiments were conducted by sliding commercially pure titanium and a-iron pins against an H-11 die steel flats of various surface textures. The steel flat surface textures were specifically prepared to allow for imposing varying amounts of strain rates at the contacting interface during sliding motion. In the experiments, it was observed that titanium (a harder material than iron) formed a transfer layer on H-11 steel surface textures that produced higher strain rates. In contrast, the titanium pins abraded the steel surfaces that produced lower strain rates. The iron pins were found to abrade the H-11 steel surface regardless of the surface texture characteristics. This unique tribological behavior of titanium is likely due to the fact that titanium undergoes adiabatic shear banding at high strain rates, which creates pathways for lower resistance shear planes. These shear planes lead to fracture and transfer layer formation on the surface of the steel flat, which ultimately promotes a higher strain rate of deformation at the asperity level. Iron does not undergo adiabatic shear banding and thus more naturally abrades the surfaces. Overall, the results clear indicated that a materials strain rate response can be an important factor in controlling the tribological behavior of a plastically deforming material at the asperity level. DOI: 10.1115/1.4007675]

Contaminants removal by bentonite amended slow sand filter

Earlier studies have indicated that variability in size, surface texture and charge greatly influence the contaminant removal process in granular media. Based on surface characteristics of montmorillonite, it is anticipated that small addition of this clay would increase adhesion sites for bacterial growth and extracellular polymer production in the slow sand filter and thereby enhance its contaminant removal ability. Experiments were performed by permeating groundwater contaminated with pathogens (total coliform and E. Coli) and inorganic contaminants through the bentonite amended slow sand filter (BASSF). Surprisingly, the BASSF retained inorganic contaminants besides pathogens. Water-leach tests (pH of water leachate ranged from 2 to 9) with spent BASSF specimen indicated that the inorganic contaminants are irreversibly adsorbed to a large extent. It is considered that the combined effects of enhanced-organic matter mediated adhesion sites and increased hydraulic retention time enables the BASSF specimen to retain inorganic contaminants. It is envisaged that BASSF filters could find use in treating contaminated groundwater for potable needs at household and community level.

Transition from Cassie to impaled state during drop impact on groove-textured solid surfaces

Liquid drops impacted on textured surfaces undergo a transition from the Cassie state characterized by the presence of air pockets inside the roughness valleys below the drop to an impaled state with at least one of the roughness valleys filled with drop liquid. This occurs when the drop impact velocity exceeds a particular value referred to as the critical impact velocity. The present study investigates such a transition process during water drop impact on surfaces textured with unidirectional parallel grooves referred to as groove-textured surfaces. The process of liquid impalement into a groove in the vicinity of drop impact through de-pinning of the three-phase contact line (TPCL) beneath the drop as well as the critical impact velocity were identified experimentally from high speed video recordings of water drop impact on six different groove-textured surfaces made from intrinsically hydrophilic (stainless steel) as well as intrinsically hydrophobic (PDMS and rough aluminum) materials. The surface energy of various 2-D configurations of liquid-vapor interface beneath the drop near the drop impact point was theoretically investigated to identify the locally stable configurations and establish a pathway for the liquid impalement process. A force balance analysis performed on the liquid-vapor interface configuration just prior to TPCL de-pinning provided an expression for the critical drop impact velocity, U-o,U-cr, beyond which the drop state transitions from the Cassie to an impaled state. The theoretical model predicts that Uo, cr increases with the increase in pillar side angle, a, and intrinsic hydrophobicity whereas it decreases with the increase in groove top width, w, of the groove-textured surface. The quantitative predictions of the theoretical model were found to show good agreement with the experimental measurements of U-o,U-cr plotted against the surface texture geometry factor in our model, {tan(alpha/2)/w}(0.5).

Aspects of the washout of salmonid eggs. 1. Observations on the physical characteristics of real and artificial eggs, their rate of fall in a water column and their pattern of settlement in an experimental channel

When salmonid redds are disrupted by spates, the displaced eggs will drift downstream. The mean distance of travel, the types of locations in which the eggs resettle and the depth of reburial of displaced eggs are not known. Investigation of these topics under field conditions presents considerable practical problems, though the use of artificial eggs might help to overcome some of them. Attempts to assess the similarities and/or differences in performance between real and artificial eggs are essential before artificial eggs can validly be used to simulate real eggs. The present report first compares the two types of egg in terms of their measurable physical characteristics (e.g. dimensions and density). The rate at which eggs fall in still water will relate to the rate at which they are likely to resettle in flowing water in the field. As the rate of fall will be influenced by a number of additional factors (e.g. shape and surface texture) which are not easily measured directly, the rates of fall of the two types of egg have been compared directly under controlled conditions. Finally, comparisons of the pattern of settlement of the two types of egg in flowing water in an experimental channel have been made. Although the work was primarily aimed at testing the value of artificial eggs as a simulation of real eggs, several side issues more directly concerned with the properties of real eggs and the likely distance of drift in natural streams have also been explored. This is the first of three reports made on this topic by the author in 1984.

Fabrication, densification, and replica molding of 3D carbon nanotube microstructures

The introduction of new materials and processes to microfabrication has, in large part, enabled many important advances in microsystems, labon- a-chip devices, and their applications. In particular, capabilities for cost-effective fabrication of polymer microstructures were transformed by the advent of soft lithography and other micromolding techniques 1,2, and this led a revolution in applications of microfabrication to biomedical engineering and biology. Nevertheless, it remains challenging to fabricate microstructures with well-defined nanoscale surface textures, and to fabricate arbitrary 3D shapes at the micro-scale. Robustness of master molds and maintenance of shape integrity is especially important to achieve high fidelity replication of complex structures and preserving their nanoscale surface texture. The combination of hierarchical textures, and heterogeneous shapes, is a profound challenge to existing microfabrication methods that largely rely upon top-down etching using fixed mask templates. On the other hand, the bottom-up synthesis of nanostructures such as nanotubes and nanowires can offer new capabilities to microfabrication, in particular by taking advantage of the collective self-organization of nanostructures, and local control of their growth behavior with respect to microfabricated patterns. Our goal is to introduce vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs), which we refer to as CNT "forests", as a new microfabrication material. We present details of a suite of related methods recently developed by our group: fabrication of CNT forest microstructures by thermal CVD from lithographically patterned catalyst thin films; self-directed elastocapillary densification of CNT microstructures; and replica molding of polymer microstructures using CNT composite master molds. In particular, our work shows that self-directed capillary densification ("capillary forming"), which is performed by condensation of a solvent onto the substrate with CNT microstructures, significantly increases the packing density of CNTs. This process enables directed transformation of vertical CNT microstructures into straight, inclined, and twisted shapes, which have robust mechanical properties exceeding those of typical microfabrication polymers. This in turn enables formation of nanocomposite CNT master molds by capillary-driven infiltration of polymers. The replica structures exhibit the anisotropic nanoscale texture of the aligned CNTs, and can have walls with sub-micron thickness and aspect ratios exceeding 50:1. Integration of CNT microstructures in fabrication offers further opportunity to exploit the electrical and thermal properties of CNTs, and diverse capabilities for chemical and biochemical functionalization 3. © 2012 Journal of Visualized Experiments.

Effective recombination velocity of textured surfaces

Surface texturization is an effective way to enhance the absorption of light for optoelectronic devices but it also aggravates the surface recombination by enlarging the surface area. In order to evaluate the influence of texture structures on the surface recombination, an effective surface recombination velocity is defined which is assumed to have an equivalent recombination effect on a flat surface. Based on numerical and analytical calculation, the dependences of effective surface recombination on the pattern geometry, the surface recombination velocity, and the diffusion length are analyzed.

Fabrication, characterization and conductivity of organic-inorganic hybrid Langmuir-Blodgett films based on polyquinoline and rare earth-substituted heteropolymolybdate

The organic/inorganic hybrid Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films were obtained by the compact organization of poly(1,2-dihydro-2,2,4-trimethyl)quinoline (PQ), octadecylamine (ODA) and rare earth-substituted heteropolymolybdates. They were characterized by surface pressure-area (pi-A) isotherms, absorption spectra, fluorescence spectra, atomic force microscope (AFM) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The atomic force microscope revealed a granular surface texture of nanosized rare earth-substituted heteropolymolybdate. The scanning tunneling microscopy indicated that the hybrid LB films containing rare earth-substituted heteropolymolybdates had the better electrical conductivity than LB film of PQ/ODA.

贵州碳酸盐岩风化壳次生石英表面结构、裂变径迹测年及其指示意义

我国西南地区分布有广阔的亚热带潮湿区岩溶，以贵州为中心，总面积达50万km2，是世界上连片分布面积最大的岩溶区。贵州高原地处青藏高原东南缘,云贵高原的东翼，是中国大陆“西高东低”地貌格局中重要的过渡区段，对其新生代地质、地貌演化进行研究无疑具有重要的意义，不仅是对贵州薄弱的新生代地质、地貌研究的补充，而且可以直接通过夷平面展开与青藏高原的对比，探讨青藏高原隆升对贵州高原的直接影响。风化壳作为夷平面的组成部分，在过去没有引起足够的重视，但随着成功实例的不断出现，人们逐渐开始认识到风化壳是夷平面识别和重建的重要依据，也是夷平面环境信息的重要载体。贵州作为碳酸盐岩集中分布区，碳酸盐岩风化壳剖面广泛存在，尤其在黔中、黔北等地区各级夷平面上均发育有红色风化壳，利用碳酸盐岩红色风化壳能为夷平面的识别和形成时代的确立提供可靠的证据，特别是风化壳形成年龄的确定对夷平面时标的建立更具有积极意义。有关贵州地区红色风化壳形成时代的确定，多年来已有一些学者对此展开了研究，但贵州红色风化壳形成时代的确定存在着很大争论。虽然存在其它原因的可能性，但造成这种争论的根本原因在于贵州红色风化壳形成时代是依据其它资料(如夷平面、气候事件等)推断出来的，而不是根据直接测年数据界定的。因此，风化壳直接测年才是解决问题的关键。 本文在前人工作研究的基础之上，利用扫描电镜手段对贵州碳酸盐岩地区上覆风化壳土层中的石英颗粒进行观察、统计、分析，为风化壳成土的物质来源寻找新的证据；同时，经地球化学分析、测试等手段，判断风化壳土层中的晶体石英颗粒为风化壳形成初期的新生矿物——次生石英颗粒，并利用裂变径迹测年法对这种次生石英颗粒进行测年，最终探讨贵州碳酸盐岩地区上覆风化壳土层的形成年代。主要取得了以下几点认识： 一、石英颗粒蚀刻条件的优选 由于石英颗粒裂变径迹的长度和数量与晶格、铀含量、年龄等因素有关，所以不同地区的石英颗粒样品的裂变径迹蚀刻条件也存在差别；目前国际上有关石英颗粒的裂变径迹测年应用的实例较少，还没有统一的有关石英颗粒蚀刻条件的国际标准；现有的石英颗粒蚀刻条件有多种，但是缺乏对这些方法的优缺点进行对比评价。因此，我们要进行反复的条件实验，对比不同石英蚀刻剂的蚀刻效率，找寻适合石英颗粒的最佳蚀刻剂。实验结果表明，40%的HF溶液为最佳蚀刻剂，最佳蚀刻时间：温度在4℃左右（冬季）时为40min；温度在29℃左右（夏季）时为30min。 二、石英的外形、表面机械作用特征及其指示意义 我们利用扫描电镜对石英颗粒外形特征进行观察、统计、分析，结果表明本次研究的石英颗粒形态类型主要有两种：棱状-次棱状石英颗粒以及圆状、次圆状石英颗粒，其中棱状-次棱状石英颗粒包含了一部分晶体形态较为完整的石英颗粒。 根据石英颗粒表面机械作用特征分析结果，结合剖面区域地质特征，可初步判断剖面中的石英颗粒有三种物质来源：碳酸盐岩中的原生碎屑石英，有长时间长距离搬运特征；燧石团块石英，有短距离搬运或原位沉积特征；晶形较完整的次生石英，无搬运特征。三种石英均具有原位特征，前两种类型的石英是直接对基岩的继承，第三种类型的石英是风化壳剖面的次生矿物。 三、石英颗粒表面的化学作用特征及其风化强度指示意义 我们通过对石英颗粒表面化学作用形态的观察，发现大兴剖面、新蒲剖面和官坝剖面的石英颗粒表面化学溶解作用和化学沉淀作用都非常强烈，这表明三个剖面均处于湿、热环境中，均处于强烈的化学风化阶段。而且大兴剖面中石英颗粒表面的化学作用最强烈，气候较其他两个剖面更湿热，剖面的风化强度也最大，即各剖面的风化强度由强到弱排序为：大兴、新蒲、官坝。这一结果与矿物组成分析、化学风化强度、硅铝、铝铁硅风化系数比以及相对风化强度等的地球化学分析指标相一致，这也再次证明了我们采用石英颗粒表面形态特征分析手段的可行性和可靠性。 四、石英颗粒的裂变径迹年龄 三种类型石英颗粒的裂变径迹测年数据表明：a、同一样点石英颗粒裂变径年龄呈现一定的规律：F.T.AGE圆状、次圆状＞F.T.AGE不规则状（棱状、次棱状）＞F.T.AGE标准晶形（次生石英）。b、不同剖面的不规则状石英颗粒形成于同一个时期；不同剖面的圆状、次圆状石英颗粒形成于同一个时期。这两种石英颗粒不适于贵州碳酸盐岩风化壳的测年研究。c、不同剖面的标准晶形石英颗粒形成于不同时期，形成于碳酸盐岩酸不溶物原地堆积过程中，即与风化壳剖面同期形成，可用于贵州碳酸盐岩风化壳的测年研究。这一测量结果与我们对石英颗粒表面形态特征的观察、统计、分析结果相一致。 五、风化壳物源的新证据 贵州碳酸盐岩风化壳中的石英颗粒表面形态的分析结果表明，贵州碳酸盐岩风化壳的物质来源于碳酸盐岩中酸不溶物原地风化残积的产物，与其下伏基岩有着明显的继承性。这一分析结果与王世杰等人的碳酸盐岩酸不溶物的提取实验、地球化学、矿物学、粒度特征及区域地质背景等多方面的分析结果相一致，为贵州碳酸盐岩风化壳的物质来源及成因提供新的、更细致的证据。 六、贵州晚新生代地质-环境研究历史轮廓初建 由于目前对贵州及周边地区的风化-气候研究相对缺乏，数据资料较稀少，还没有形成完整的系统，我们本次研究也是建立在对风化壳中次生英颗粒年代学研究的基础上，研究还不是很透彻，因此只能对地质-环境研究历史轮廓进行初建。本文根据本次研究剖面土层中晶体次生石英颗粒的裂变径迹年龄分布情况，结合前人已有资料，对贵州25Ma以来的地质-环境演化历史的轮廓进行初建。从次生石英裂变径迹年龄值来看，中新世以来贵州主要经历了如下构造-风化期：25-19Ma、16-13Ma、10-6.5Ma、5-2Ma、1.7-1Ma。

Comparison of Composite Placement Techniques by Recently Qualified Dental Practitioners.

Objectives: To evaluate the placement of composite materials by new graduates using three alternative placement techniques.Methods: A cohort of 34 recently qualified graduates were asked to restore class II interproximal cavities in plastic teeth using three different techniques.

(i) A conventional incremental filling technique (Herculite XRV) using increments no larger than 2-mm with an initial layer on the cervical floor of the box of 1-mm.
(ii) Flowable bulk fill technique (Dentsply SDR) bulk fill placement in a 3-mm layer followed by an incremental fill of a microhybrid resin
(iii) Bulk fill (Kerr Sonicfill) which involved restorations placed in a 5-mm layer.

The operators were instructed in each technique, didactically and with a hands-on demonstration, prior to restoration placement.
All restorations were cured according to manufacturer’s recommendations. Each participant restored 3 teeth, 1 tooth per treatment technique.
The restorations were evaluated using modified USPHS criteria to assess both the marginal adaptation and the surface texture of the restorations. Blind evaluations were carried out independently by two examiners with the aid of magnification (loupes X2.5). Examiners were standardized prior to evaluation.
Results: Gaps between the tooth margins and the restoration or between the layers of the restoration were found in 13 of Group (i), 3 of Group (ii), and 4 of Group (iii)
Statistical analysis revealed a significant difference between the incrementally filled group (i) and the flowable bulk-fill group (ii) (p=0.0043) and between the incrementally filled (i) and the bulk fill groups (iii) (p=0.012) and no statistical difference (p=0.69) between the bulk filled groups Conclusions: Bulk fill techniques may result in a more satisfactory seal of the cavity margins when restoring with composite.

Génération et édition de textures géométriques représentées par des ensembles de points

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Perception de la vitesse : les bases psychophysiques et neuronales

David Katz a fait l’observation que le mouvement entre la peau et l’objet est aussi important pour le sens du toucher que la lumière l’est pour la vision. Un stimulus tactile déplacé sur la peau active toutes les afférences cutanées. Les signaux résultants sont très complexes, covariant avec différents facteurs dont la vitesse, mais aussi la texture, la forme et la force. Cette thèse explore la capacité des humains à estimer la vitesse et la rugosité de surfaces en mouvements. Les bases neuronales de la vitesse tactile sont aussi étudiées en effectuant des enregistrements unitaires dans le cortex somatosensoriel primaire (S1) du singe éveillé. Dans la première expérience, nous avons montré que les sujets peuvent estimer la vitesse tactile (gamme de vitesses, 30 à 105 mm/s) de surfaces déplacées sous le doigt, et ceci sans indice de durée. Mais la structure des surfaces était essentielle (difficulté à estimer la vitesse d’une surface lisse). Les caractéristiques physiques des surfaces avaient une influence sur l’intensité subjective de la vitesse. La surface plus rugueuse (8 mm d’espacement entre les points en relief) semblait se déplacer 15% plus lentement que les surfaces moins rugueuses (de 2 et 3 mm d’espacement), pour les surfaces périodiques et non périodiques (rangées de points vs disposition aléatoire). L’effet de la texture sur la vitesse peut être réduit en un continuum monotonique quand les estimés sont normalisés avec l’espacement et présentés en fonction de la fréquence temporelle (vitesse/espacement). L'absence de changement des estimés de vitesse entre les surfaces périodiques et non périodiques suggère que les estimés de rugosité devraient aussi être indépendants de la disposition des points. Dans la deuxième expérience, et tel que prévu, une équivalence perceptuelle entre les deux séries de surfaces est obtenue quand les estimés de la rugosité sont exprimés en fonction de l'espacement moyen entre les points en relief, dans le sens de l'exploration. La troisième expérience consistait à rechercher des neurones du S1 qui pourraient expliquer l’intensité subjective de la vitesse tactile. L’hypothèse est que les neurones impliqués devraient être sensibles à la vitesse tactile (40 à 105 mm/s) et à l’espacement des points (2 à 8 mm) mais être indépendants de leur disposition (périodique vs non périodique). De plus, il est attendu que la fonction neurométrique (fréquence de décharge/espacement en fonction de la fréquence temporelle) montre une augmentation monotonique. Une grande proportion des cellules était sensible à la vitesse (76/119), et 82% d’entres elles étaient aussi sensibles à la texture. La sensibilité à la vitesse a été observée dans les trois aires du S1 (3b, 1 et 2). La grande majorité de cellules sensibles à la vitesse, 94%, avait une relation monotonique entre leur décharge et la fréquence temporelle, tel qu’attendu, et ce surtout dans les aires 1 et 2. Ces neurones pourraient donc expliquer la capacité des sujets à estimer la vitesse tactile de surfaces texture��es.

Permutation Entropy Based Analysis of Complex Signals for Characterising Change in System Dynamics

Timely detection of sudden change in dynamics that adversely affect the performance of systems and quality of products has great scientific relevance. This work focuses on effective detection of dynamical changes of real time signals from mechanical as well as biological systems using a fast and robust technique of permutation entropy (PE). The results are used in detecting chatter onset in machine turning and identifying vocal disorders from speech signal.Permutation Entropy is a nonlinear complexity measure which can efficiently distinguish regular and complex nature of any signal and extract information about the change in dynamics of the process by indicating sudden change in its value. Here we propose the use of permutation entropy (PE), to detect the dynamical changes in two non linear processes, turning under mechanical system and speech under biological system.Effectiveness of PE in detecting the change in dynamics in turning process from the time series generated with samples of audio and current signals is studied. Experiments are carried out on a lathe machine for sudden increase in depth of cut and continuous increase in depth of cut on mild steel work pieces keeping the speed and feed rate constant. The results are applied to detect chatter onset in machining. These results are verified using frequency spectra of the signals and the non linear measure, normalized coarse-grained information rate (NCIR).PE analysis is carried out to investigate the variation in surface texture caused by chatter on the machined work piece. Statistical parameter from the optical grey level intensity histogram of laser speckle pattern recorded using a charge coupled device (CCD) camera is used to generate the time series required for PE analysis. Standard optical roughness parameter is used to confirm the results.Application of PE in identifying the vocal disorders is studied from speech signal recorded using microphone. Here analysis is carried out using speech signals of subjects with different pathological conditions and normal subjects, and the results are used for identifying vocal disorders. Standard linear technique of FFT is used to substantiate thc results.The results of PE analysis in all three cases clearly indicate that this complexity measure is sensitive to change in regularity of a signal and hence can suitably be used for detection of dynamical changes in real world systems. This work establishes the application of the simple, inexpensive and fast algorithm of PE for the benefit of advanced manufacturing process as well as clinical diagnosis in vocal disorders.

Sedimentology and Geochemistry of core sediments from the Ashtamudi estuary and the adjoining coastal plain,central Kerala,India

The evolution of coast through geological time scale is dependent on the transgression-regression event subsequent to the rise or fall of sea level. This event is accounted by investigation of the vertical sediment deposition patterns and their interrelationship for paleo-enviornmental reconstruction. Different methods like sedimentological (grain size and micro-morphological) and geochemical (elemental relationship) analyses as well as radiocarbon dating are generally used to decipher the sea level changes and paleoclimatic conditions of the Quaternary sediment sequence. For the Indian coast with a coastline length of about 7500 km, studies on geological and geomorphological signatures of sea level changes during the Quaternary were reported in general by researchers during the last two decades. However, for the southwest coast of India particularily Kerala which is famous for its coastal landforms comprising of estuaries, lagoons, backwaters, coastal plains, cliffs and barrier beaches, studies pertaining to the marine transgression-regression events in the southern region are limited. The Neendakara-Kayamkulam coastal stretch in central Kerala where the coast is manifested with shore parallel Kayamkulam Lagoon on one side and shore perpendicular Ashtamudi Estuary on the other side indicating existence of an uplifted prograded coastal margin followed by barrier beaches, backwater channels, ridge and runnel topography is an ideal site for studying such events. Hence the present study has been taken up in this context to address the gap area. The location for collection of core samples representing coastal plain, estuarylagoon and offshore regions have been identified based on published literature and available sedimentary records. The objectives of the research work are:  To study the lithological variations and depositional environments of sediment cores along the coastal plain, estuary-lagoon and offshore regions between Kollam and Kayamkulam in the central Kerala coast  To study the transportation and diagenetic history of sediments in the area  To investigate the geochemical characterization of sediments and to elucidate the source-sink relationship  To understand the marine transgression-regression events and to propose a conceptual model for the region The thesis comprises of 8 chapters. The first chapter embodies the preamble for the selection and significance of this research work. The study area is introduced with details on its physiographical, geological, geomorphological, rainfall and climate information. A review of literature, compiling the research on different aspects such as physico-chemical, geomorphological, tectonics, transgression-regression events are presented in the second chapter and they are broadly classified into three viz:- International, National and Kerala. The field data collection and laboratory analyses adopted in the research work are discussed in the third chapter. For collection of sediment core samples from the coastal plains, rotary drilling method was employed whereas for the estuary-lagoon and offshore locations the gravity/piston corer method was adopted. The collected subsurficial samples were analysed for texture, surface micro-texture, elemental analysis, XRD and radiocarbon dating techniques for age determination. The fourth chapter deals with the textural analysis of the core samples collected from various predefined locations of the study area. The result reveals that the Ashtamudi Estuary is composed of silty clay to clayey type of sediments whereas offshore cores are carpeted with silty clay to relict sand. Investigation of the source of sediments deposited in the coastal plain located on either side of the estuary indicates the dominance of terrigenous to marine origin in the southern region whereas it is predominantly of marine origin towards the north. Further the hydrodynamic conditions as well as the depositional enviornment of the sediment cores are elucidated based on statistical parameters that decipher the deposition pattern at various locations viz., coastal plain (open to closed basin), Ashtamudi Estuary (partially open to restricted estuary to closed basin) and offshore (open channel). The intensity of clay minerals is also discussed. From the results of radiocarbon dating the sediment depositional environments were deciphered.The results of the microtextural study of sediment samples (quartz grains) using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) are presented in the fifth chapter. These results throw light on the processes of transport and diagenetic history of the detrital sediments. Based on the lithological variations, selected quartz grains of different environments were also analysed. The study indicates that the southern coastal plain sediments were transported and deposited mechanically under fluvial environment followed by diagenesis under prolonged marine incursion. But in the case of the northern coastal plain, the sediments were transported and deposited under littoral environment indicating the dominance of marine incursion through mechanical as well as chemical processes. The quartz grains of the Ashtamudi Estuary indicate fluvial origin. The surface texture features of the offshore sediments suggest that the quartz grains are of littoral origin and represent the relict beach deposits. The geochemical characterisation of sediment cores based on geochemical classification, sediment maturity, palaeo-weathering and provenance in different environments are discussed in the sixth chapter. In the seventh chapter the integration of multiproxies data along with radiocarbon dates are presented and finally evolution and depositional history based on transgression–regression events is deciphered. The eighth chapter summarizes the major findings and conclusions of the study with recommendation for future work.

Classification of textures seen from different distances and under varying illumination direction

Changes in the angle of illumination incident upon a 3D surface texture can significantly alter its appearance, implying variations in the image texture. These texture variations produce displacements of class members in the feature space, increasing the failure rates of texture classifiers. To avoid this problem, a model-based texture recognition system which classifies textures seen from different distances and under different illumination directions is presented in this paper. The system works on the basis of a surface model obtained by means of 4-source colour photometric stereo, used to generate 2D image textures under different illumination directions. The recognition system combines coocurrence matrices for feature extraction with a Nearest Neighbour classifier. Moreover, the recognition allows one to guess the approximate direction of the illumination used to capture the test image