Acknowledgements
- My Supervisor and role model, Chris Taylor, for investing time and
effort to make my project a success.
- My Advisor, Steve Williams, for support, kind words of advice and
perpetual encouragement.
- Katherine Smith, Carole Twining, and Stephen Marsland, who initiated
much of the work which the thesis relates to, as well as builds upon.
- Tim Cootes, who helped me cope with C++ and VXL (among other technicalities).
He has always done so while remaining patient and keeping pressure
(or a sense of demand) at a bare minimum.
- The EPSRC, for funding the project and connecting me with those who
are involved in the MIAS-IRC. This `umbrella' offered valuable feedback,
advice, and a very motivational setting.
- My parents and siblings, as well as my grandfather, Avner Werner Max,
for full financial support from my very first day at the University.
- My grandmother, who is no longer among us (passed away in 2005). She
was a supportive and loving figure in a family which has been volatile
for the past 2 years.
- Dr. David Baxter, whose advice led me to consider research at Manchester
University and, more particularly, the division where I ended up enrolling
for this degree.
- Prof. Tony Hegarty, who urged me to accept an academic route, rather
than be distracted by the wrong career paths.
- David Robinson, who offered valuable advice and encouraging words
towards the end of my Ph.D. He was one of those who urged me to put
in extra time and rigour, gearing up towards completion.
- Other friends at the health club, who inspired and provided comfort
whenever things went amiss or uncertainties loomed over.
- The Open Source community, which enabled this research to be carried
out using versatile, distributable, free (libre) software.
- Mathworks, for enabling me to share code in their Web site and thereby
reach a very wide audience, putting to use some personal programming
ambitions. Many of my endeavours were boosted by knowledge that the
outcome would be shared among the MATLAB users community.
- Roland Selby, Mark O'Leary and several other people at Manchester
Computing, who permitted me to concentrate on my Ph.D. studies while
at work. They were surprisingly understanding, particularly when pressure
was mounting.
- David Kennedy of the Center for Morphometric Analysis at MGH, for
providing the fully-annotated brain images. Additional images from
age-matched normals in a dementia study were generously provided by
Prof. Alan Jackson, University of Manchester.
Roy Schestowitz
2010-04-05