I 'N THE PAPER I wrote twenty years ago on the origins of British breeds of sheep, I .attempted to integrate new evidence from archaeology with older documentary evidence.' Medieval archaeology was in its infancy, and the bone remains from sheep gave little information. Illustrations in illuminated manuscripts and later paintings gave better evidence than records. But the most striking new and ...

Jute textile is made from natural fibres and is known for its strength and durability. To determine if jute could be used as a substrate for microstrip antennas, its electromagnetic characteristics (permittivity and loss tangent) are measured in the band of 1 GHz to 5 GHz. The obtained data are used to compare the performances of a simple rectangular patch antenna resonating at 2.45 GHz on jute...

Many natural fibres, including wool, cashmere and silk, are protein-based materials; the dry weight of wool is almost entirely derived from proteins (Maclaren & Milligan 1981). As such, they possess an inherent structural and chemical heterogeneity not found in synthetic polymers. Although typically less heterogeneous than biological fibres, the rapidly emerging range of commercially available ...

Cellulose fibres are the most important materials in textile finishing. Reactivity and adsorption properties of the fibres are critical for the success of the treatment. Of major interest are the properties of fibres swollen in polar liquids. Under this circumstances the less ordered regions determine the fibre properties and therefore the void size and accessible amorphous regions are supposed...

This study evaluates the potential of using ultrasound to enhance the bleaching efficiency of laccase enzyme on cotton fabrics. Ultrasound of low intensity (7W) and relatively short reaction time (30 min) seems to act in a synergistic way with the enzyme in the oxidation/removal of the natural colouring matter of cotton. The increased bleaching effect could be attributed to improved diffusion o...

Solar thermal collectors used at present consist of rigid and heavy materials, which are the reasons for their immobility. Based on the solar function of polar bear fur and skin, new collector systems are in development, which are flexible and mobile. The developed transparent heat insulation material consists of a spacer textile based on translucent polymer fibres coated with transparent silic...

Anatase TiO2, a wide bandgap semiconductor, likely the most worldwide studied inorganic material for many practical applications, offers unequal characteristics for applications in photocatalysis and sun energy conversion. However, the lack of controllable, cost-effective methods for scalable fabrication of homogeneous thin films of anatase TiO2 at low temperatures (ie. < 100 °C) renders up-to-...