Harris Tweed: A glocal case study

Fast and effectively disposable fashion has seen clothing reduced to transient items, worn for a short period of time then discarded. This has pushed down prices, moving textile and clothing production to low-cost labour countries and decimating the traditional Scottish textile economy. Fast fashion drives consumer demand for newness and uses finite resources that are damaging to the environment. In 2019, the pressure to move towards a more sustainable fashion and textile industry is intense. Traditional textile manufacture using natural, renewable sources that are inherently long-lasting offers a slow fashion alternative, epitomized by the Harris Tweed handweaver community in Scotland. Fashion has embraced digital, with growing online sales and increasing focus on digital content. This presents an opportunity to redress the balance by using technology to shape a sustainable future for traditional textiles. Utilizing an interpretive paradigm and inductive approach, an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded networking grant is presented as a qualitative case study, investigating how immersive technologies can be used to safeguard the future of traditional textile products, to educate contemporary, global audiences on the provenance and human hand behind manufacturing processes and to encourage consumption of products with longevity. This explanatory case study finds that fashion brands are using immersive technologies for virtual changing rooms or creative customer experiences but are not exploiting the possibilities of immersive technologies in engendering a sense of place or people behind the product. Findings also reveal that the Harris Tweed Authority and Harris Tweed Hebrides brand successfully use landscape to convey a sense of place, but are under-utilizing the handwoven value and sustainable, slow fashion credentials of Harris Tweed. China is identified as a potential place for Harris Tweed to gain valuable market share, with increasingly wealthy Chinese Generation Z consumers seeking individual exclusivity and sustainability in their clothing purchases, criteria that embody Harris Tweed.

Correlations and Multivariate Analysis Across Non- Segregation and Segregation Generations in Two Cotton Crosses

Background: The cotton crop is one of the most important natural fibers crops for textile manufacture in the world. The present research uses Pearson’s correlation coefficient and multivariate analysis to assess the interrelationships, similarities and dissimilarities among non- segregation (P1, P2 and F1) and segregation (F2, BC1 and BC2) generations for seed cotton yield and yield components in the two crosses Giza 92 x Pima S6 and Giza 93 x C.B. 58.Results: The analysis of variance exhibited highly significant genetic variability among six generations for all studied traits in the two crosses. The F1 performance was higher than the other generations for all the studied traits in the two crosses. The results had positive and high significant correlations between seed cotton yield/plant, lint cotton yield/plant and No. of bolls/plant traits across all six generations in the two crosses. A number of positive correlations were observed among the six generations for all studied traits in the two crosses. The UPGMA hierarchical clustering showed higher level of similarity coefficients among the six generations and among the studied traits. Similarity coefficients ranged from 0.96 to 0.99 and from 0.65 to 0.96, respectively. In the principal component analysis (PCA), the PCA1 extracted had Eigenvalue >1 across six generations for all studied traits in the two crosses. The PCA displayed total variation of 91.84% among the six generations contributed by PCA1 (79.47%) and PCA2 (12.38%) and had mainly distinguished the generations in different groups. The PCA1 and PCA2 were dominated by F1 and segregation generations in the two crosses, respectively, showing high correlations with the first two PCAs. All studied traits as well as boll weight and lint percentage traits contributed positive significant component loadings for the PCA1 and PCA2, respectively. The biplot analysis of the relationship between the six generations revealed that the most appropriate generations for selecting yield traits were F1 in the two crosses and BC1 and BC2 in the cross Giza 93 x C.B. 58. Conclusion: From the obtained results, we recommend considering backcrossing may be done for 2–5 cycles (BC2 – BC5) at C.B. 58 parent for improving Egyptian cotton yield in the future.

Physicochemical Characterization of Broken Rice and Analysis of Its Volatile Compounds

The term “broken rice” refers to fragments of rice grains broken during the milling process. Broken rice is generally classified into 3 sizes: large, medium, and small. Broken rice can be widely used for the pet food industry, livestock feeding, aquaculture, laundry starch, cosmetics, and textile manufacture. The purpose of this study was to determine certain properties of raw large broken rice (LBR) and small broken rice (SBR) of 4 commercially important varieties: Khao Dawk Mali105 (KDML105), Pathumtani1 (PTT1), Chainat1 (CN1), and Kor-khor6 (RD6). The properties analyzed were pasting properties, alkali spreading value, gel consistency, chemical composition, and amylose content. Volatile components of the LBR and SBR samples were also identified. Results revealed that each rice variety had different rheological characteristics. SBR of KDML105, PTT1, and CN1 had alkaline spreading value (ASV) in the range of 3 - 7. The rice flour gel of the glutinous rice variety RD6 showed the highest flow distance in both LBR and SBR forms. CN1 had the highest amylose content in both LBR and SBR forms, while RD6 had the lowest. Among all the samples, the 6 most abundant volatile components detected were alcohols, aldehydes, furans, ketones, sulfur, and terpenes. The 3 volatile compounds with the highest odor active values (OAV) in both LBR and SBR forms were hexanal, heptanal, and 3-methylbutanal.

Bio Efficacy Assay of Laccase isolated and Characterized from Trichoderma viride in Biodegradation of Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) and Textile Industrial Effluent Dyes

This study is based on the biosynthesis of laccase enzyme from fungi Trichoderma viride and its exploitation in biodegradation of polyethylene using Laccase mediator system (LMS -Laccase + 1-HBT) in Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) and in biodegradation of textile industrial effluent dyes. In different parts of our lifespan we have seen the numerous types of plastics are getting degraded by various methods, still the average time to completely degrade a plastic bottle is at least 450 years.Similarly industry produces over 3.6 thousand individual textile dyes today and utilizes more than 8000 toxic chemicals in numerous methods for textile manufacture comprising dyeing and printing. As polyethylene and textile industrial effluent dyes are causing severe hazardous effect on environment and health issues in all kind of living organisms, it is necessary to degrade plastics and textile industrial effluent dyes in rapid way. Recently researchers have come up with an idea of degrading plastic and textile industrial effluent dyes with the help of microorganisms and enzymes much faster than normal rate. The Laccase enzyme extracted was tested for its optimum temperature and pH. Lowry’s method is used for protein estimation. A control and sample LDPE was subjected to LMS. The tensile strength and elongation of the sample was less than that of the control after 5 days of treatment. This study showed that laccase together with 1-HBT helps to biodegrade polyethylene. The purified laccase enzyme was used for the pretreatment assay and post treatment assay. The Laccase degrades certain reactive dyes like Congo red, Acid Red, Methylene Blue, Brilliant Blue, Metallic Blue and Black. Thus recommends the application of laccase in textile dye colour removal (bioremediation).

Core-Shell Fiber-Based 2D Woven Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Effective Motion Energy Harvesting

Personal electronic devices have a general development trend of miniaturization, functionality, and wearability. Their wireless, sustainable, and independent operation is critically important, which requests new power technologies that can harvest the ambient environmental energy. Here, we report a new kind of 2D woven wearable triboelectric nanogenerator (2DW-WTNG) composed of core-shell fibers via the twisting process and weaving process in the textile manufacture. The 2DW-WTNG can convert the body motion energy into electricity with an output current of 575 nA and an output voltage of 6.35 V. At an external load of 50 MΩ, it generated a maximum power density of 2.33 mW/m2. Electricity can be produced from the 2DW-WTNG driven in arbitrary in-plane directions. A tiny displacement of 0.4 mm can drive the 2DW-WTNG, which verified its capability to harvest energy from small human movement. The robust 2DW-WTNG can work continuously for 12 h without obvious performance degradation.

Double decoupling effectiveness of water consumption and wastewater discharge in China’s textile industry based on water footprint theory

As a traditional pillar industry in China, the textile industry has been intensifying the pressure of the water resource load and its reduction of water environment emissions over the years. Decoupling water resource consumption and wastewater discharge require decoupling from economic growth to realise the sustainable development of the textile industry. On the basis of water footprint and decoupling theories, this paper analysed the water consumption decoupling, wastewater discharge decoupling, as well as the double decoupling of water consumption and wastewater discharge of China’s textile industry and its three sub-industries (Manufacture of Textile, Manufacture of Textile Wearing and Apparel, Manufacture of Chemistry) from 2001 to 2015. In those years, the sum of the decoupling index in the double-decoupling years is 249, lower than that in high-decoupling years of water consumption (250) and wastewater discharge (325). Compared with the decoupling of water consumption and of wastewater discharge, the double decoupling is lower, which proves that the conditions for realizing double decoupling are stricter. The double decoupling analysis of water consumption and wastewater discharge, namely, the overall consideration of water resource consumption and water environment pollution, could be used to more effectively promote the realisation of water decoupling in the textile industry.

Beyond Textiles: Alternative Uses of Twisted Fibres and Evidence from Akrotiri, Thera

Fibre crafts are among the oldest technological practices of mankind. Although commonly associated with textile manufacture, twisted fibres in the form of threads have always had a wider range of use in everyday life. Strings and ropes constitute a humble but essential category of fibre products deriving from the same technology and organic matter as threads. Due to their organic nature, however, they are rarely preserved in the archaeological record, unless special environmental conditions occur. This paper explores the research potential of the imprints of threads and strings in a study focusing on the alternative uses of fibre-spun artefacts. The focus is on the Bronze Age Aegean imprints of threads and strings preserved on objects made of clay and on wall paintings recovered at Akrotiri on Thera. The technical properties of the original threads and strings are evaluated through observation of their imprints, and the fibre technology used for their production is assessed. The methodologies of spindle whorl metrology and experimental spinning are also integrated in the discussion. Ultimately, the use of threads and strings for a variety of purposes, including but not limited to textile production, is discussed.