In the early modern Dutch Republic, plaster casts offered artists a way to overcome limitations of space and time, to reach places distant and ancient, and to present themselves anew. This dissertation constitutes the first comprehensive account of the impact plaster casts had on the artistic practice, intellectual endeavors, and social status of seventeenth-century Dutch artists. Though plaster casts appear in archival documents, in theoretical texts, and most of all in paintings across genres, they have been marginalized in the history of Dutch art, too often explained away as mere studio props or didactic tools. I inquire, instead, into the consequences of Dutch painters’ conscious choice to depict plaster casts after ancient and modern sculpture, at the same time they staked their claims as practitioners of a noble art. Plaster casts linked Dutch painters to antiquity, to the Renaissance, to discerning contemporary collectors, and to one another. These modest objects, full of semantic potential, were incorporated into myriad compositions in which they became signifiers of an artist’s ambitions, humanistic aspirations, and technical virtuosity. Through novel interpretations of paintings in which plaster casts have been taken for granted, I argue that plaster casts lie at the heart of the self-awareness and artistic self-promotion manifested in the seemingly quotidian paintings of the new seventeenth-century genres. This dissertation also sets out to recognize the variety of laborers involved in the production and circulation of the actual plaster casts, though their specific identities remain largely obscured or lost in the historical record. Their absence from the corpus of images of trades and professions emerges in stark contrast to the privileged self-fashioning of Dutch painters, for whom plaster casts functioned as a means to distinguish themselves from other artisans. I take the pictorialized encounter between plaster casts and artists as an opportunity to discern the particularities of that interaction and to explore the liveliness that plaster casts introduced into both the experience of studying casts and the compositions artists populated with them. With an invigorated focus on plaster itself as a material with a protean character and multi-purpose applications, this dissertation contributes to the discourse on Dutch painters’ naer het leven practice through an overdue analysis of the sculptural copies and other bodies in plaster that kept them company.

Introduction: Dento-alveolar anomalies associated with Orofacial clefts (OFCs) can present with a wide range of variation. This vast diversity makes it difficult to pinpoint their specific etiology. For instance, differentiating anomalies that arise as a consequence of the physical effects of the cleft itself or from the same biological processes that result on clefting, from those that likely occur as a sequela from the surgical repair is a challenge. One approach that can aid this differentiation is to study if first degree relatives of children with clefts whom themselves do not have an overt cleft but may carry genetic cleft risk, are more likely to present some of these anomalies. If so, the elevated risk on these seemingly unaffected relatives will indicate that the particular anomaly arises as a consequence of the molecular pathways that give rise to cleft risk rather than from the physical consequences of the cleft or the surgical repairs. Understanding the different etiological factors underlying dental anomalies within the cleft phenotypic spectrum is a fundamental step for prevention and better management of such anomalies. Amongst the most common dento-alveolar anomalies seen in children born with OFC are tooth size-arch length discrepancies and dento-alveolar shape irregularities, mostly studied in the maxillary arches. Such arch irregularities lead to moderate or severe malocclusions. It is not well known if unaffected family members (UFM) of children with clefts are also susceptible to such dento-alveolar shape irregularities and thus their etiology is not well understood. This study aims to characterize 3D variation in dento-alveolar shape as part of the cleft phenotypic spectrum in UFMs of individuals with OFCs compared to controls with no history of OFC. Methods: A total of 760 maxillary and 760 mandibular casts were digitally scanned using a NextEngine Laser scanner and digitized by two raters with 92 landmarks for maxilla and 94 landmarks for mandible, covering gingival margins and occlusal surfaces via Landmark Editor Software. A reliability of 88.15% was obtained for an interrater agreement error of less than 1mm for all landmarks obtained. 3D coordinates were extracted and registered using a Procrustes fit procedure. Procrustes residuals were analyzed via canonical variate analyses to capture differences in 3D shape between cases and controls. Of the 760 maxillary individuals attempted, 535 (Cases N=133, Controls=402) had all 92 landmarks and 688 (Cases=192, Controls496) had at least 40 landmarks in the canine to canine region. Of the 760 mandibular individuals attempted, 434 (Cases N=99, Controls=335) had all 94 landmarks and 611 (Cases=180, Controls=431) had at least 40landmarks in the canine to canine region. Thus analyses were done separately for each subsample. Results: Case-control differences were not significant (P=0.11) for overall maxillary dental arch shape. However, for the maxillary canine to canine dataset, significant differences were found (P=0.02 for raw Procrustes distance, P<0.0001 for Mahalanobis distance). Case-control differences were significant (P=0.02) for overall mandibular dental arch shape. Significant shape differences were also found for the mandibular canine to canine dataset (P=0.01 for raw Procrustes distance, P<0.0001 for Mahalanobis distance). In other words, there is better separation between cases and controls for the mandibular dataset compared to the maxillary dataset (P=0.11 for the maxillary full arch). Cases had maxillary and mandibular anterior dentitions that were overall retrusive, with anterior teeth that significantly tapered towards the incisal third with larger interproximal incisal embrasures and height to width rations that deviate from ideal ratios (i.e. width is ~70% of the height) due to an overall decrease in crown height. Also, incisal edges seem to flare outwards from the arch line when compared to controls. Moreover, case arch forms trend towards a “v” shape, resembling a Bonwill-Hawley arch shape compared to a “u” shape in the controls. Conclusions: Upper anterior, lower anterior and overall arch shape significantly differ between UFM of individuals with OFC and controls. The most significant differences were located in the maxillary and mandibular anterior dentitions, where cases were more retrusive overall with incisal edges that were tapered and flared, displaying large embrasures and tapered and flared, displayed large embrasures when compared to controls. The phenotypic differences identified in this study contribute to the understanding of the cleft phenotypic spectrum aiding future studies of cleft etiology and cleft risk prediction.

Understanding unconventional petroleum reservoirs and HALO plays, areas outside existing production zones which are made up of thin-bedded or heterolithic intervals, has gained in importance in recent years with the continual demand for energy and the increased development of such prospects. Heterolithic units within deltaic successions host vast quantities of oil and gas that often go unexploited due to a lack of understanding of the sandstone shape, morphology and continuity within such reservoirs. The purpose of this work is to examine the thin-bedded units within the Late Cretaceous prodelta successions of the Gallup Sandstone in the Shiprock area of New Mexico in order to quantify the fundamental processes responsible for the deposition of these sands and to perform a correlation for such heterolithic deposits. Rock Ridge and Sanostee show heterolithic deposits, within parasequences 5a and 7a of the Gallup sandstone, and were analyzed, using measured sections and photomosaics, near the Shiprock area in order to compare the heterolithics in different stratigraphic settings. Five measured sections were collected at the centimeter scale in order to observe every facies change at a high resolution. Facies associations, such as tempestites, turbidites, and hyperpycnites, were used to identify dominant processes of deposition. Corresponding net-to-gross calculations yielded the sandstone percentage of each section with the result that storm-dominated beds present at Sanostee yielded the highest percentage of sand content. Two high resolution gigapan photomosaics of each heterolithic exposure were collected in order to perform a correlation of all the sandstones observed within the measured sections, across the entire exposure. Results show that dominant process of deposition varies along strike. Towards Sanostee, in the south, storm-waves are dominant while farther north rivers exert greater influence. However, the presence of large scale storm-deposited gutter casts at Sanostee has significant implications for lateral and vertical continuity of sandstones in comparison to the more tabular sandstone facies found at Rock Ridge. These guttered facies have a major impact on net-to-gross and vertical conductivity due to their high degree of amalgamation and therefore may signify important areas for prospecting in such heterolithic reservoirs. Furthermore, the presence of large scale gutters beneath a sharp-based shoreface is indicative of a Falling Stage Systems Tract, leading to the conclusion that Parasequence 7a-6d were affected by forced regression. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Thesis (Doctoral)--Universität Göttigen, 1931.

Thesis (Doctoral)--Universität Göttigen, 1931.

A vascular corrosion cast of an entire mouse kidney was scanned with a modular multiresolution X-ray nanotomography system. Using an isotropic voxel pitch of 0.5 μm, capillary systems such as the vasa recta, peritubular capillaries and glomeruli were clearly resolved. This represents a considerable improvement over corrosion casts scanned with microcomputed tomography systems. The resolving power of this system was clearly demonstrated by the unique observation of a dense, subcapsular mat of capillaries enveloping the entire outer surface of the cortical region. Resolution of glomerular capillaries was comparable to similar models derived from laser scanning confocal microscopy. The high-resolution, large field of view and the three-dimensional nature of the resulting data opens new possibilities for the use of corrosion casting in research.

O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a região palatina em modelos de revestimento, após duplicação do modelo de gesso para a confecção da estrutura metálica da prótese parcial removível, em função dos materiais duplicadores, revestimentos e da profundidade da abóbada palatina. Foram utilizados 12 modelos mestres de gesso com duas diferentes profundidades da abóbada palatina, sendo seis de palato raso e seis de palato profundo. Os métodos de uplicação utilizados foram: A) Hidrocolóide reversível com revestimento aglutinado por sílica (GEL_SIL); B) Hidrocolóide reversível com revestimento aglutinado por fosfato (GEL_FOS) e C) Silicone de adição com revestimento aglutinado por fosfato (ADI_FOS). Assim, a partir de cada modelo mestre foi obtido um modelo de revestimento para cada um dos métodos descritos acima, sendo os 48 modelos resultantes aferidos com o aparelho de medição tridimensional de coordenadas e os dados analisados estatisticamente pelo método split-plot. Avaliando-se os resultados obtidos concluiu-se que: 1) Todos os métodos de duplicação produziram algum grau de imprecisão nos locais avaliados; 2) O método GEL_FOS apresentou mínimas diferenças médias em relação ao modelo mestre; 3) O método GEL_SIL apresentou diferenças médias positivas em relação ao modelo mestre, não estatisticamente significativas em relação ao método GEL_FOS; 4) O método ADI_FOS apresentou diferenças médias negativas em relação ao modelo mestre, estatisticamente significativas em relação aos métodos GEL_FOS e GEL_SIL e 5) A profundidade da abóbada palatina não influenciou significativamente os resultados obtidos. / The aim of this study was to evaluate the palatal area in investment casts after the duplication of stone casts in relation to the duplicating materials, investments and the depth of the palatal vault. Twelve master stone casts were used with two different palatal vault depths, six with a shallow palatal vault and six with a deep palatal vault. The duplicating methods used were: A) Reversible hydrocolloid with silica bonded investment (GEL_SIL); B) Reversible hydrocolloid with phosphate bonded investment (GEL_FOS), and C) Addition silicone with phosphate bonded investment (ADI_FOS). Thus, one investment cast was obtained from each master cast for each of the methods described above. The 48 resulting models were measured with a three-dimensional coordinate measurement machine, and the data were analyzed by the split-plot method. After evaluating the results we concluded that: 1) All investment casts showed some degree of distortion in the areas measured; 2) The GEL_FOS method showed the smallest average differences in relation to the master cast; 3)The GEL_SIL method showed positive, not statistically significant average differences in relation to the GEL_FOS method; 4) The ADI_FOS method showed negative, and statistically significant differences in relation to the GEL_FOS and GEL_SIL methods, and 5) The depth of the palatal vault did not influence the results significantly.

Slight revision of Thesis (doctoral), Bonn, 1977. / Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Memoire (M.A.)-- Universite du Quebec a Chicoutimi, 1993. / Ce travail de recherche a été réalisé à l'UQAC dans le cadre du programme de maîtrise en arts plastiques extensionné de l'UQAM à l'UQAC. CaQCU Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

Habilitationsschrift--Hamburg. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [111]-116).