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Anisotropy in the physical and transport properties of crustal rocks is a key influence on crustal evolution and energy resource management. Data from deep seismic soundings, borehole logging and laboratory measurement all show that the physical properties of the earth are anisotropic. Such anisotropy generally results from the superposition of fabric development during diagenesis and/or petrogenesis, and the application of anisotropic tectonic stresses. This leads to an aligned crack and pore fabric in crustal rocks that, in turn, leads to seismic velocity anisotropy and permeability anisotropy. This thesis describes an experimental study which aims to investigate the relationships between pressure, pore fabric geometry and seismic and permeability anisotropy under hydrostatic pressures from room pressure to ~4km depth equivalence within the Earth's crust. Firstly, pore fabric analyses of three representative crustal rock types is presented. These rock types represent a range of crack and pore fabrics. The average void space shape and orientation is determined 3-D using the methods of anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility and velocity anisotropy. Scanning electron microscopy and fluorescent-dye crack imaging techniques further aid in the void space characterisation. Secondly, the development and application of an apparatus capable of contemporaneously measuring elastic wave velocity, porosity and permeability at effective pressures of up to 100 MPa is described. Results are analysed in terms of applied effective pressure and the rock pore fabric type and orientation. Finally, the laboratory data are used to test models that attempt to predict geophysical parameters such as permeability and elastic wave velocity from microstructural attributes. This multi-facetted analysis allows a number of conclusions to be drawn, expanding the state-of-the-art in how the pore fabric microstructure of crustal rock is represented by the methods of elastic wave velocity and porosity, with reference to the hydrostatic confining pressure and hence the burial conditions of the rock.

The influence of the human facial image was surveyed and the nature of its many interpretations were examined. The role of distinctiveness was considered particularly relevant as it accounted for many of the impressions of character and identity ascribed to individuals. The notion of structural differences with respect to some selective essence of normality is especially important as it allows a wide range of complex facial types to be considered and understood in an objective manner. A software tool was developed which permitted the manipulation of facial images. Quantitative distortions of digital images were examined using perceptual and recognition memory paradigms. Seven experiments investigated the role of distinctiveness in memory for faces using synthesised caricatures. The results showed that caricatures, both photographic and line-drawing, improved recognition speed and accuracy, indicating that both veridical and distinctiveness information are coded for familiar faces in long-term memory. The impact of feature metrics on perceptual estimates of facial age was examined using 'age-caricatured' images and were found to be in relative accordance with the 'intended' computed age. Further modifying the semantics permitted the differences between individual faces to be visualised in terms of facial structure and skin texture patterns. Transformations of identity between two, or more, faces established the necessary matrices which can offer an understanding of facial expression in a categorical manner and the inherent interactions. A procedural extension allowed generation of composite images in which all features are perfectly aligned. Prototypical facial types specified in this manner enabled high-level manipulations to be made of gender and attractiveness; two experiments corroborated previously speculative material and thus gave credence to the prototype model. In summary, psychological assessment of computer-manipulated facial images demonstrated the validity of the objective techniques and highlighted particular parameters which contribute to our perception and recognition of the individual and of underlying facial types.