Tapestries revealed : novel methods of characterisation, conservation and presentation

The digital conservation of cultural heritage has received significant attention in recent years. This active area of research endeavors to digitally conserve culturally significant items. The digital archives produced serve as an important resource for conservators. These records allow the accurate tracking of the degradation of the materials used in the construction of these artefacts.This project outlines the digital conservation and subsequent presentation of a historically significant tapestry held by the Royal Collection at Hampton Court Palace. The tapestry is one of The Story of Abraham set constructed by Willem de Kempeneer in Brussels in the 1540s. These tapestries were commissioned by King Henry VIII and were displayed as a reflection of his wealth and power. The materials used in their construction included wool, silk, silver and gold threads. The objectives of the Thesis are as follows:1) To digitally conserve the tapestry, the Oath and Departure of Eliezer.2) To produce a colorimetrically accurate projection system. This system will be used to project an accurate representation of the original tapestry colours onto the current photofaded version.3) To investigate the photo-fading properties of the natural dyes used to produce the Oath and Departure of Eliezer and their interactions with the metallic threads woven within the tapestry.The work presented in this Thesis contributed to a visitor exhibition called "Henry VIII's Tapestries Revealed" held at Hampton Court Palace between April 2009-October 2010 as part of Historic Royal Palaces' celebrations of the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII's accession to the throne.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Fine-Scale Structure in Cometary Dust Tails I::Analysis of Striae in Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught) through Temporal Mapping

Striated features, or striae, form in cometary dust tails due to an as-yet unconstrained process or processes. For the first time we directly display the formation of striae, at C/2006 P1 McNaught, using data from the SOHO LASCO C3 coronagraph. The nature of this formation suggests both fragmentation and shadowing effects are important in the formation process. Using the SOHO data with STEREO-A and B data from the HI-1 and HI-2 instruments, we display the evolution of these striae for two weeks, with a temporal resolution of two hours or better. This includes a period of morphological change on 2007 January 13–14 that we attribute to Lorentz forces caused by the comet’s dust tail crossing the heliospheric current sheet. The nature of this interaction also implies a mixing of different sized dust along the striae, implying that fragmentation must be continuous or cascading. To enable this analysis, we have developed a new technique – temporal mapping – that displays cometary dust tails directly in the radiation beta (ratio of radiation pressure to gravity) and dust ejection time phase space. This allows for the combination of various data sets and the removal of transient motion and scaling effects

Textile Waste Fiber Regeneration via a Green Chemistry Approach: A Molecular Strategy for Sustainable Fashion

From Wiley via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: received 2021-07-06, rev-recd 2021-08-15, pub-electronic 2021-09-24, pub-print 2021-12-02Article version: VoRPublication status: PublishedFunder: EPSRC; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000266; Grant(s): EP/R00661X/1, EP/P025021/1, EP/P025498/1Abstract: Fast fashion, as a continuously growing part of the textile industry, is widely criticized for its excessive resource use and high generation of textiles. To reduce its environmental impacts, numerous efforts are focused on finding sustainable and eco‐friendly approaches to textile recycling. However, waste textiles and fibers are still mainly disposed of in landfills or by incineration after their service life and thereby pollute the natural environment, as there is still no effective strategy to separate natural fibers from chemical fibers. Herein, a green chemistry strategy is developed for the separation and regeneration of waste textiles at the molecular level. Cellulose/wool keratin composite fibers and multicomponent fibers are regenerated from waste textiles via a green chemical process. The strategy attempts to reduce the large amount of waste textiles generated by the fast‐developing fashion industry and provide a new source of fibers, which can also address the fossil fuel reserve shortages caused by chemical fiber industries and global food shortages caused by natural fiber production

Facile control of silica nanoparticles using a novel solvent varying method for the fabrication of artificial opal photonic crystals

In this work, the Stöber process was applied to produce uniform silica nanoparticles (SNPs) in the meso-scale size range. The novel aspect of this work was to control the produced silica particle size by only varying the volume of the solvent ethanol used, whilst fixing the other reaction conditions. Using this one-step Stöber-based solvent varying (SV) method, seven batches of SNPs with target diameters ranging from 70 to 400 nm were repeatedly reproduced, and the size distribution in terms of the polydispersity index (PDI) was well maintained (within 0.1). An exponential equation was used to fit the relationship between the particle diameter and ethanol volume. This equation allows the prediction of the amount of ethanol required in order to produce particles of any target diameter within this size range. In addition, it was found that the reaction was completed in approximately 2 h for all batches regardless of the volume of ethanol. Structurally coloured artificial opal photonic crystals (PCs) were fabricated from the prepared SNPs by self-assembly under gravity sedimentation

Basic science232. Certolizumab pegol prevents pro-inflammatory alterations in endothelial cell function

Background: Cardiovascular disease is a major comorbidity of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and a leading cause of death. Chronic systemic inflammation involving tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF) could contribute to endothelial activation and atherogenesis. A number of anti-TNF therapies are in current use for the treatment of RA, including certolizumab pegol (CZP), (Cimzia ®; UCB, Belgium). Anti-TNF therapy has been associated with reduced clinical cardiovascular disease risk and ameliorated vascular function in RA patients. However, the specific effects of TNF inhibitors on endothelial cell function are largely unknown. Our aim was to investigate the mechanisms underpinning CZP effects on TNF-activated human endothelial cells. Methods: Human aortic endothelial cells (HAoECs) were cultured in vitro and exposed to a) TNF alone, b) TNF plus CZP, or c) neither agent. Microarray analysis was used to examine the transcriptional profile of cells treated for 6 hrs and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysed gene expression at 1, 3, 6 and 24 hrs. NF-κB localization and IκB degradation were investigated using immunocytochemistry, high content analysis and western blotting. Flow cytometry was conducted to detect microparticle release from HAoECs. Results: Transcriptional profiling revealed that while TNF alone had strong effects on endothelial gene expression, TNF and CZP in combination produced a global gene expression pattern similar to untreated control. The two most highly up-regulated genes in response to TNF treatment were adhesion molecules E-selectin and VCAM-1 (q 0.2 compared to control; p > 0.05 compared to TNF alone). The NF-κB pathway was confirmed as a downstream target of TNF-induced HAoEC activation, via nuclear translocation of NF-κB and degradation of IκB, effects which were abolished by treatment with CZP. In addition, flow cytometry detected an increased production of endothelial microparticles in TNF-activated HAoECs, which was prevented by treatment with CZP. Conclusions: We have found at a cellular level that a clinically available TNF inhibitor, CZP reduces the expression of adhesion molecule expression, and prevents TNF-induced activation of the NF-κB pathway. Furthermore, CZP prevents the production of microparticles by activated endothelial cells. This could be central to the prevention of inflammatory environments underlying these conditions and measurement of microparticles has potential as a novel prognostic marker for future cardiovascular events in this patient group. Disclosure statement: Y.A. received a research grant from UCB. I.B. received a research grant from UCB. S.H. received a research grant from UCB. All other authors have declared no conflicts of interes

Colour and spatiochromatic processing in the human visual system

Digitised version available at EThOS: British Library Electronic Theses Online Servic