This project is about understanding development of the skin , growth of wool fibres and formation of a fleece. It is entirely sheep oriented.
The subdirectory crimpformation contains a theoretical study of crimp formation in Merino sheep. It rejects all former theories of crimp formation. It recognizes two types of crimp which are found in Australian Merinos, called stretched helix and unfolded helix and details how these form and the consequences for the relatioship of fibre length to staple length.
The subdirectory _stapleformation contains a work in progress which investigates the extent to which we can predict the type of staple structure which will form given certain skin traits and fibre growth parameters.
The subdirectory fibrecurvature contains a study of whether intrinsic fibre curvature can be predicted from follicle curvature score
The subdirectory cortexstructure contains a theoretical study of how ortho/para cortex structure of a wool fibre affects intrinsic fibre curvature. It is based on the Timoshenko equation which describes the change in curvature of a bimetal strip when heated.
The subdirectory skinspace contains an exploration of the idea that secondary follicle development at 100 days is responsible for the excessive expansion of the area of the dermal layer of skin tissue which is one of the prerequisites for wrinkle or fold formation.
The subdirectory collagen contains a link to a study of the role of soft and hard collagen in the dermis in wrinkle formation, follicle development and fibre growth.
The subdirectory pre-papilla-cells contains R software and an investigative writeup of numerical aspects of the pre-papilla cell theory of follicle development.
The subdirectory diamlen contains a discussion document intended as a medium for setting research directions on the topic of what controls variation in fibre diameter between individual fibres within a fleece.
The subdirectory folliclecurvature contains an investigation of the two curvatures hypothesis which proposes that there are two causal factors for follicle curvature, one diameter related and one collagen related
The subdirectory ppcellwithd contains investigations of prediction of fibre diameter from numbers of pre-papilla cells per follicle.
An understanding of how a sheep grows a fleece, of how various visually different fleece types occur, and whether one can infer backwards from fleece appearance to skin traits and fibre growth characteristics. This understanding is important in visual assessment of sheep, where measurement is neither practical nor economic.