Bill Variation of Captive and Wild Chukar Partridge Populations: Shape or Size

Traditionally, morphological characters are widely used to distinguish between interspecies and intraspecies. In addition to the size of morphological characters, shape has also been used as an indicator in the last decades. We evaluated the geometric morphometry and morphometric of the bill of Chukar Partridge, Alectoris chukar from captive and wild populations to determine the bill variation and population relationships. Although there was a size difference between the sexes, no shape difference was found. However, captive populations differed from wild populations in both size and shape. Although there was no difference in shape among wild populations, some differences were found in size. Moreover, bill sizes of captive populations were statistically longer than western, centre, and eastern wild populations. It was also shown that the western populations had the most significant variation among the wild populations. The results revealed that using the size and shape together was more effective in comparing populations.

How Exactly Did the Nose Get That Long? A Critical Rethinking of the Pinocchio Effect and How Shape Changes Relate to Landmarks

The Pinocchio effect has long been discussed in the literature on geometric morphometrics. It denotes the observation that Procrustes superimposition tends to distribute shape changes over many landmarks, even though a different superimposition may exist for the same landmark configurations that concentrates changes in just one or a few landmarks. This is widely seen as a flaw of Procrustes methods. Visualizations illustrating the Pinocchio effect use a comparison of the same pair of shapes superimposed in two different ways: in a resistant-fit superimposition that concentrates the shape difference in just one or a few landmarks, and in Procrustes superimposition, which distributes differences over most or all landmarks. Because these superimpositions differ only in the non-shape aspects of size, position and orientation, they are equivalent from the perspective of shape analysis. Simulation studies of the Pinocchio effect usually generate data, either single pairs or larger samples of landmark configurations, in a particular superimposition so that differences occur mostly or exclusively at just one or a few landmarks, but no steps are taken to remove variation from size, position and orientation. When these configurations are then compared with Procrustes-superimposed data, differences appear and are attributed to the Pinocchio effect. Overall, it is ironic that all manifestations of the Pinocchio effect in one way or another rely on differences in the non-shape properties of position and orientation. Rigorous thinking about shape variation and careful choice of visualization methods can prevent confusion over this issue.

Parametric Blending of Hole Patches Based on Shape Difference

A triangular mesh obtained by scanning 3D models typically contains holes. We present an effective technique for filling a hole in a triangular mesh in geometric modeling. Simple triangulation of a hole is refined and remeshed iteratively to generate an initial patch. The generated patch is then enhanced to become a target patch by minimizing the variation of principal curvatures. In discrete approximation, this produces a third-order Laplacian system of sparse symmetric positive definite matrix, and the symmetry can efficiently be used to find the robust solutions to the given Laplacian system. Laplacian smoothing of the target patch is defined as a source patch. The shape difference between two corresponding vertices of the source and the target patches is measured in terms of Euclidean distance and curvature variation. On the basis of the shape difference and a user-specified control parameter, different blending weights are determined for each vertex, and the final patch is generated by blending two patches. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our technique by discussing several examples. The experimental results show that our technique can effectively restore salient geometric features of the original shape.

Theoretical description of drawing body shape in an inclined seam with longwall top coal caving mining

Understanding the characteristics of drawing body shape is essential for optimization of drawing parameters in longwall top coal caving mining. In this study, both physical experiments and theoretical analysis are employed to investigate these characteristics and derive a theoretical equation for the drawing body shape along the working face in an inclined seam. By analyzing the initial positions of drawn marked particles, the characteristics of the drawing body shape for different seam dip angles are obtained. It is shown that the drawing body of the top coal exhibits a shape-difference and volume-symmetry characteristic, on taking a vertical line through the center of support opening as the axis of symmetry, the shapes of the drawing body on the two sides of this axis are clearly different, but their volumes are equal. By establishing theoretical models of the drawing body in the initial drawing stage and the normal drawing stage, a theoretical equation for the drawing body in an inclined seam is proposed, which can accurately describe the characteristics of the drawing body shape. The shape characteristics and volume symmetry of the drawing body are further analyzed by comparing the results of theoretical calculations and numerical simulations. It is shown that one side of the drawing body is divided into two parts by an inflection point, with the lower part being a variation development area. This variation development area increases gradually with increasing seam dip angle, resulting in an asymmetry of the drawing body shape. However, the volume symmetry coefficient fluctuates around 1 for all values of the seam dip angle variation, and the volumes of the drawing body on the two sides are more or less equal as the variation development volume is more or less equal to the cut volume. Both theoretical calculations and numerical simulations confirm that the drawing body of the top coal exhibits the shape-difference and volume-symmetry characteristic.

Appearance and development of the brazier-shaped pottery (걚形土器) excavated from ancient tomb in the Jinhan and Byeonhan Region

The brazier-shaped pottery(盧形土器) was mainly excavated from the wooden chamber tomb as one of the major types of the latter soft grayish pottery(後期瓦質土器) in Jin Byeon Han(弁辰韓) area. According to the latter soft grayish pottery study, the shape of brazier-shaped pottery in the Byeon Jin Han area, had changed with time. But the‘ Byeon Jin Han’is a collective expression of a group of small units, the latter period of the Byeon Jin Han was during when the integration between the groups began to actively proceed. It is also meaningful to look at the aspects between unit sites rather than all Yeongnam province as an entire analysis unit. In this article, it’s focused on examining the differences in patterns of brazier-shaped pottery between unit sites. As a result of the analysis of the pottery, the common attributes shared across the Byeon Jin Han area and the characteristic properties of the unit sites were derived. The common attributes are the size and height of the top part, the maximum circumferential position(胴最大部) and shape, the percentage of foot in total size of the pottery etc.. The common attribute had changed in the forward direction, it’s interpreted it as shared the recognition of brazier-shaped pottery in all the Byeon Jin Han area. Meanwhile, the detailed type differences by units, is interpreted it as the result of selecting specific attributes in the region. Therefore it seems the shape of brazier-shaped pottery in the Byeon Jin Han area that common and optional attributes are combined. It’s examined the process of selective combination of attributes through comparison between regions. Considering the common attributes of the brazier-shaped pottery and the a temporal and spatial change of unit site’s property, there were various types of the pottery from the beginning, it develops in the direction of increasing the quantity with the formation according to the flow of time. As the shape difference between unit ruins decreases in the same time, it became flat in the Gyeongju region, the top part of pottery were developed in the upright direction in the Busan·Gimhae region. It’s changed to be hardened, transformed pottery stand(器臺) with the difference between Gyeongju and Busan·Gimhae region.