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In order for the meat industry to move towards a carcase payment system that is more consumer-focused, there is a need to identify carcases that have a higher yield of superior eating quality meat. Through a series of experiments, this thesis investigates the relationships between video image analysis (VIA) variables and saleable meat yield (SMY%) of high-value cuts in beef carcases, and also the relationships between visible-near infrared (NIR) spectra and instrumental meat quality parameters in beef, lamb and venison of various breeds and genders. Results showed that VIA could effectively replace the visual classifier for classifying beef carcases according to the EUROP carcase classification system, and that both visual and VIA systems showed some promise for predicting the yield of high-value sirloin yield through the EUROP-grid information. Both VIA and visual systems could only account for approximately 57% of the variation in sirloin SMY%, but the relationship between SMY% and other possible VIA outputs such as lengths, widths and volumes remains largely uncharacterized. Instrumental measures of meat quality (shear force, pH and colour) of M. longissimus thoracis et lumborum (LTL) from 234 beef carcases and 208 Texel lambs showed that gender had a larger effect on meat quality than breed. Data from these two experiments was used to determine the relationship between NIR spectra and instrumental meat quality parameters in beef and lamb LTL. NIR showed promise for identifying beef with high ultimate pH values and lamb with high intramuscular fat percentages, but the prediction of shear force using NIR spectra in both beef and lamb was less accurate. The effects on meat quality of sex, breed, chilled aging and location within venison M. Longissimus lumborum, for samples from 79 farmed deer showed that all factors influenced venison meat quality, with aging time and gender having the largest effects. The relationships between NIR spectra and venison meat quality

The development of vapor deposited diamond for optical, electronic, and protective applications has been hindered by non-diamond carbon contamination, by our present inability to grow a thick, single crystal diamond film, and by our lack of understanding of how the various aspects of chemical vapor deposition interact. Our lack of understanding in this area leaves gaps in our ability to predict how microstructure on this, and many other film surfaces will develop. This dissertation reviews the factors that affect crystal growth rates and the development of microstructure. It also reviews the existing models of microstructure development with an eye toward the development of one that plays a general predictive role in the deposition of covalently bonded solids and in reactive deposition systems. The conclusions drawn point to a model which predicts where boundaries will lie on a morphology map using deposition parameters, such as temperature and pressure, as coordinates. Such a map will depend not only on the material being deposited, but also on the reaction path leading to deposition. Some deposition parameters will always dominate over others. Efforts are made to isolate some of the dominant processes, under a limited set of deposition conditions, for combustion deposited diamond. Previously published data on oriented polycrystalline growth is reconsidered with an eye on the same concerns, particularly around the observed transition between <110> and <100> orientations. Additional experiments in this vein are proposed. The existence of a metastable amorphous state is also proposed and considered. The dependence of amorphicity on bond angle variation makes possible superheated crystals that maintain their crystalline coordination amorphous. However, properties necessary to stabilize this state, high thermal transfer rates and a strongly periodic structure, are opposed to the soft bonding needed to make this state more probable. The state is, effectively, unobservab