This award is to acquire a low-energy, small-object X-ray computed tomographic scanner, an instrument also referred to as a ?desktop? or micro-CT scanner. This instrument will extend the capabilities of a multidisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Texas High-Resolution X-ray Computed Tomography Facility (UTCT), and help better accommodate the diverse external research community now served by the facility. The new instrument will speed and improve analysis of the most popular class of samples moving through our facility, which are small and require our high-resolution scanning capabilities. With a relatively small investment in capital equipment, this additional instrument will nearly double the productivity of the facility and will help to further reduce the per-sample costs of CT scanning. The new instrument will enhance the ability to measure local and dispersed volume properties in geological and engineering samples, such as tiny vesicles, micro-fracture patterns, and porosity and connectivity in fine grained sediments. It will also empower an ability for quantitative characterization of three-dimensional fabrics and textures at fine scales of resolution. With this instrument, the team can generate many new computational datasets for our digital library Digital Morphology (www.DigiMorph.org). The datasets generated by the new instrument will provide the raw materials to extend the current tool suite of CT data manipulation and quantification software, to exploit fully the scientific potential of micro-CT datasets. The team will refine algorithms and procedures that have been developed over UTCT''''s decade of service to the scientific community, to improve analyses of the new class of datasets generated by these new scanners. They will also contribute solutions to the challenges of archiving and distributing these large datasets, while refining the design and role of communal repositories. In the process, they will train students in instrument operation and software application, in the context of focused scientific questions that span problems in geology, biology, engineering, and informatics.
