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The stable isotope technique provides the possibility to trace ancient textiles because the technique is associated with advantages such as trace indication, fast detection, and accurate results. Since different cocooning conditions may impact cocoons even under identical habitats, it is important to investigate the effects of different cocooning temperatures and humidity on the isotope incorporation values in the cocoons. In this study, silk fibers were reeled under different conditions of temperature and humidity, followed by analysis of the secondary structure of cocoon proteins and isotope incorporation patterns. We found that the deviations in carbon isotope values of silk under different cocooning conditions could reach up to 0.76‰, while the deviation in carbon isotope values at different locations of a single silk was 2.75‰. Further, during the cocooning process, depletion of the 13C-isotope at different locations of the silk fibers was observed, reducing the δ13C values. We proposed that the changes in carbon isotopes in silk were related to the content of sericin and silk fibroin in silk. Finally, we did not observe a significant difference in isotope ratios in degummed cocoons. In summary, the 13C isotope was enriched in sericin, whereas 15N was enriched in fibroin, and these findings provide basic information for tracing the provenance of silks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yingpan, Xinjiang, was an important site on the Silk Road of China. A large number of precious objects with exquisite patterns have been excavated from this site, and they provide valuable physical evidence for the study of the cultural exchanges between China and the rest of the world. The conservation methods applied to a pair of cloud pattern-painted boots excavated in Yingpan, Xinjiang, are introduced in this paper, and the various factors influencing the repair process are explained. The results show that an oil-in-water emulsifier with contaminant removal and antibacterial functions effectively softened the hardened and deformed ancient leather. The use of near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) to evaluate the dosage of the softening agent can prevent excessive use of softening agents on historical leathers. A silk crepeline method was used to influence the physical reinforcement of the boots without affecting their appearance. It improved the fiber strength of the ancient textiles. This article is a good reference for conservators seeking to repair ancient leather products with textiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: Pomelo peel; extraction; cellulose nanofibrils; lemon juice hydrolysis; ; ; ; ; EN Pomelo peel extraction cellulose nanofibrils lemon juice hydrolysis ZH 8415 8428 14 11/21/22 20221220 NES 221220 Introduction The large-scale production of the agricultural products in the recent decades has brought significant economic benefits to the humanity; however, the negative impact of the agricultural residues on the environment cannot be ignored (Ullah, Kumar Sharma, and Dhingra et al. [45]). It was observed that with the gradual processing stages, the impurities such as hemicellulose and lignin were removed, and the relatively pure cellulose material with the chemical structure of natural cellulose was obtained. However, in this study, these peaks are observed to be separated after ball milling, which shows that the high-energy ball milling is able to effectively peel off hemicellulose and lignin around cellulose to further purify the extracted cellulose. This is owing to the effective removal of ash, grease, and non-cellulose entities on the surface of cellulose during the extraction process, thus, exposing the cellulose material inside the raw sample. [Extracted from the article]

A large number of Southern Song dynasty costumes were unearthed from Huangsheng tomb in Fuzhou city, Fujian province. The unlined clothing was among the funeral objects, and made of the most common leno fabric, which was light and transparent, and the clothing was in extremely poor condition. To protect the unlined clothing, scientific evaluation and protection were carried out. Three‐dimensional microscopy was used to analyse the weave structure and X‐ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) and indirect enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (iELISA) were used to analyse scientifically the printed gold and colour paint components of the unlined clothing. The results showed that the structure of the unlined clothing was a two‐warp twisted leno, the printed gold contained Au, Cu, Fe and other elements, the coloured paint contained Pb and Hg elements, and the binding material component of the coloured paint was type I collagen. Based on the results of the analysis, the silk fibroin consolidation method was used to improve resistance to the stress and strain caused by the needle–thread repair method, and the needle–thread repair method was then used to restore the original clothing shape. This study provides a new approach for the protection of fragile silk fabrics in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precious organic cultural relics are easily affected by temperature, humidity, and harmful gases in the environment, resulting in embrittlement, fading, mildew, moth damage and other aging forms. An energy-saving and environmentally friendly material is needed to stabilize humidity and adsorb harmful gases in the environment. In this paper, with an intelligent adjustment function, functional paper containing sepiolite and tourmaline natural minerals was successfully prepared. The component of 80 % of wingceltis and 20 % of straw in dry pulp as main raw material was conducive to the desorption of water molecules. As favorable structure inside functional paper, the adsorption point and the adsorption contact area increased by the rough surface of fiber bundles, the addition of sepiolite and the ordered molecular chains of copolymers destroyed. So, the relative humidity could be adjusted to 55 % ± 3 within 2 hours and was stable with functional paper. At the same time, 1.11 ppm sulfur dioxide and 2.98 ppm ammonia could be effectively adsorbed in 10 and 12 h, respectively, by 1 g of paper in a 5 L container. The pH of the paper was adjusted to neutral with tourmaline, even if the pH was changed by acidic or alkaline gas absorption. Therefore, for long-term organic cultural relic preservation, preparing a constant-humidity and clean environment is of great significance. This is possible through this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characterization of ancient silk provides significant historical information and contribute to the identification of the origin of the material. At present, there are many ways to characterize silk. However, on-site identification of ancient silk remains a crucial challenge. In this study, a paper chromatography system consisting of a colloidal gold immunochromatographic strip (GICS) and a time-resolved fluorescence immunochromatographic strip (TICS) is proposed to meet this challenge. On the basis of the original paper chromatography technique, a monoclonal antibody against silk fibroin (SF) was prepared and applied in this new paper chromatography system. Both the GICS and the TICS showed good sensitivity, specificity and reliability, with the limit of detection for silk fibroin being 30 μg/mL and 49.20 ng/mL, respectively. Moreover, there was no cross reaction with possible interferents. Furthermore, the GICS had acceptable thermal stability. The recovery of the TICS assay was in the range from 98.12% to 103%, and the variation coefficient was from 5.34% to 6.93%. This work significantly improves access to scientific information at archaeological sites, providing new scientific evidence for exploring the origin and transmission roadmap of ancient silk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Highlights • 4α,5α-oxidoeudesm-11-en-3-one newly isolated from natural resources. • 4α,5α-oxidoeudesm-11-en-3-one exhibited potent estrogenic activity. • 4α,5α-oxidoeudesm-11-en-3-one showed higher binding affinity to ER-β than ER-α. • 4α,5α-oxidoeudesm-11-en-3-one showed both estrogenic and antiestrogenic effects depending on the E 2 concentration. Abstract Estrogenic activity-oriented fractionation and purification of methanol extract from the rhizome of Cyperus rotundus , a well-known traditional herbal medicine, led to the isolation of six sesquiterpenes. 4α,5α-Oxidoeudesm-11-en-3-one (2) and cyper-11-ene-3,4-dione (3) together with four known sesquiterpenes, cyperotundone (1), caryophyllene α-oxide (4), α-cyperone (5), and isocyperol (6) were obtained from the hexane and dichloromethane fractions. Compounds 2 and 3 were newly isolated from natural resources in particular. To identify the possible use of isolated compounds as an alternative to hormone replacement therapy (HRT), estrogenic activity was evaluated by E-screen assay on MCF-7 BUS cells. Among the all isolated compounds from the rhizome of Cyperus rotundus , newly isolated from natural resource, 2 exhibited the most potent estrogenic activity. In an estrogen sensitive reporter gene assay, 2 significantly increased transcriptional activities. As a phytoestrogen, 2 was assessed by investigating dual action on ER-α and ER-β in competitive binding assay. It was found that 2 exerted higher binding affinity to ER-β than ER-α and it also showed both estrogenic and antiestrogenic effects depending on the E 2 concentration. Our results indicate that newly isolated from Cyperus rotundus , 2 has biphasic activities on estrogen receptors which could be useful as an alternative HRT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The identification of ancient wool is of great importance in archaeology. Despite lots of meaningful information can be achieved by conventional detection methods, that is, light and electron microscopy, spectroscopy, and chromatography, the efficacy is likely to be limited in the detection of ancient samples with contamination or severe degradation. In this work, an immunoassay was proposed and performed for the identification of ancient wool. First, a specific antibody, which has the benefits of low cost, easy operation, and extensive applicability, was developed directly through immunizing rabbits with complete antigen (keratin). Then, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and a colloidal gold-labelled immunochromatographic strip (ICS) were developed to qualitatively identify the corresponding protein in ancient wool samples unearthed from Kazakhstan and China. The anti-keratin antibody exhibited high sensitivity and specificity for the identification of modern and ancient wool. The limit of detection (LOD) of the ELISA method was 10 ng/mL, and no cross-reactions with other interfering antigens have been noted. It is concluded that the immunoassays are reliable methods for the identification of ancient wool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study applies the improved cloud-free moderate resolution imaging spectral radiometer daily snow cover product (MODMYD_MC) to investigate the snow cover variations from snow hydrologic year (HY) HY2000 to HY2013 in the Amur River basin (ARB), Northeast Asia. The fractions of forest cover were 38%, 63%, and 47% in 2009 in China (the southern ARB), Russia (the northern ARB), and ARB, respectively. Validation results show that MODMYD_MC has a snow agreement of 88% against in situ snow depth (SD) observations (SD ≥ 4 cm). The agreement is about 10% lower at the forested stations than at the nonforested stations. Snow cover durations (SCDs) from MODMYD_MC are 20 days shorter than ground observations (SD ≥ 1 cm) at the forested stations, whereas they are just 8 days shorter than ground observations (SD ≥ 1 cm) at the nonforested stations. Annual mean SCDs from MODMYD_MC in the forested areas are 21 days shorter than those in the nearby farmland in the Sanjiang Plain. This indicates forest has a complex influence on the snow accumulation and melting processes and even on optical satellite snow cover mapping. Meanwhile, SCD and mean snow cover are negatively correlated with air temperature in ARB, especially in the snow melting season, when mean air temperature in March and April can explain 86% and 74% of the mean snow cover variations in China ARB and Russia ARB, respectively. From 1961 to 2015, the annual mean air temperature presented an increased trend by 0.33 °C/decade in both China ARB and Russia ARB, whereas it had a decrease trend from HY2000 to HY2013. The decrease of air temperature led to an increase of snow cover, which is different from the global decrease trend of snow cover variations. SCD and snow cover had larger increase rates in China ARB than in Russia ARB, and they were larger in the forested areas than in the nearby farmland in the Sanjiang Plain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To conduct research into the long-term preservation of fragile wool textile relics unearthed at archeological sites, it is essential to simulate the aging process and evaluate the factors affecting the degradation of wool fabrics. An accelerated aging method is therefore proposed to simulate the degradation process using either CaCl2 or NaCl in conjunction with hydrothermal treatment. The accelerated aging of wool fabrics was investigated by color measurement, scanning electron microscopy, cross-sectional observation, attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and amino acid analysis. Wool fabrics subjected to NaCl-hydrothermal or CaCl2-hydrothermal treatment exhibit an apparent yellowing with increasing treatment time. Fluctuations of cysteic acid and cystine dioxide content are shown to be the most prominent, and a distinct conversion of α-helices into β-sheets is observed with increasing treatment time. These results indicate that the effect of Ca2+ was greater than Na+ in promoting the degradation of disulfide groups in the hydrothermal degradation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Recent non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) technologies are based on next-generation sequencing (NGS). NGS allows rapid and effective clinical diagnoses to be determined with two common sequencing systems: Illumina and Ion Torrent platforms. The majority of NIPT technology is associated with Illumina platform. We investigated whether fetal trisomy 18 and 21 were sensitively and specifically detectable by semiconductor sequencer: Ion Proton. Methods: From March 2012 to October 2013, we enrolled 155 pregnant women with fetuses who were diagnosed as high risk of fetal defects at Xiamen Maternal & Child Health Care Hospital (Xiamen, Fujian, China). Adapter-ligated DNA libraries were analyzed by the Ion Proton™ System (Life Technologies, Grand Island, NY, USA) with an average 0.3× sequencing coverage per nucleotide. Average total raw reads per sample was 6.5 million and mean rate of uniquely mapped reads was 59.0%. The results of this study were derived from BWA mapping. Z-score was used for fetal trisomy 18 and 21 detection. Results: Interactive dot diagrams showed the minimal z-score values to discriminate negative versus positive cases of fetal trisomy 18 and 21. For fetal trisomy 18, the minimal z-score value of 2.459 showed 100% positive predictive and negative predictive values. The minimal z-score of 2.566 was used to classify negative versus positive cases of fetal trisomy 21. Conclusion: These results provide the evidence that fetal trisomy 18 and 21 detection can be performed with semiconductor sequencer. Our data also suggest that a prospective study should be performed with a larger cohort of clinically diverse obstetrics patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased glucose metabolism through the hexosamine pathway may result in insulin resistance, impaired insulin secretion, and diabetic nephropathy. We hypothesized that variants of GFPT1 encoding glutamine–fructose-6-phosphate amidotransferase, the rate limiting enzyme in this pathway, could increase GFPT1 gene expression and thus susceptibility to diabetes and diabetic nephropathy. To test this hypothesis, we screened for variation in the GFPT1 and flanking regions in Caucasian and African-American individuals. We tested each variant with over 5% allele frequency for an association with type 2 diabetes in Caucasian and African-American populations, and for an association with diabetic nephropathy in African-American subjects. We measured allele specific levels of GFPT1 mRNA and we compared mRNA levels across diagnostic categories for each ethnic group using RNA derived from transformed lymphocytes. None of the 8 variants detected altered the coding sequence or was present in a known regulatory region. We found a marginal association (p=0.044) of 1/6 variants with diabetes in Caucasian subjects, and marginal associations of 2/7 variants with diabetic nephropathy among African-American subjects (p=0.025, p=0.041). Alleles marked by a variant in the 3′ untranslated region were equally expressed, but in a small sample, GFPT1 mRNA levels were increased by 60% in Caucasians with diabetic nephropathy compared to diabetic individuals without nephropathy. Variants in the GFPT1 gene show suggestive evidence of an association with diabetic nephropathy among African-American individuals, and increased GFPT1 gene expression may characterize Caucasian subjects with diabetic nephropathy. Both findings need to be confirmed in other populations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to the origin, transmission and communication of silk. However, this is still an unsolved mystery in archaeology. The identification of silk-producing species, especially silk produced by Bombyx mori (B. mori) and Antheraea pernyi (A. pernyi), is of key significance to address this challenge. In this study, two innovative methods, i.e. immunology and proteomics, were proposed and successfully established for the species identification of silks. ELISAs result demonstrated that the two prepared antibodies exhibited high sensitivity and specificity in distinguishing B. mori and A. pernyi silk. No cross-reactivity with each other was observed. Moreover, biomarkers were obtained for Bombyx and Antheraea through proteomic analysis. It was also confirmed that the biomarkers were suitable for identifying the species that produced a given silk sample. Compared with conventional methods for distinguishing silk species, immunological and proteomics techniques used in tandem can provide intact information and have the potential to provide accurate and reliable information for species identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ultrasensitive detection of fibroin in unearthed silk relics has great significance for investigating the origin and transmission of silk. In this study, an anti-fibroin monoclonal antibody was successfully prepared through animal immunization. Next, a label-free electrochemical immunosensor was fabricated using layer-by-layer self-assembly technology, and an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was proposed. The two methods exhibited excellent sensitivity and specificity in the detection of silk fibroin, while the immunosensor showed a wider quantitative detection range (0.1–100 ng mL−1) and a lower detection limit (0.051 ng mL−1) than ELISA (10–100 ng mL−1 and 8.71 ng mL−1). Furthermore, the performance of the immunosensor was superior in archaeological sample detection. Taking advantage of the well-prepared monoclonal antibody, the two proposed immunological assays demonstrate tremendous potential for the ultrasensitive detection of silk fibroin, which can make great contributions to exploring the origin and transmission routes of ancient silks. • Ultrasensitive detection for ancient silk has great significance to investigate the origin and transmission of silk. • A specific anti-fibroin monoclonal antibody was well designed and prepared. • A novel label-free electrochemical immunosensor and an indirect ELISA were proposed. • The immunosensor exhibited a low detection limit of 0.051 ng mL−1 for silk fibroin detection. • The performance of the immunosensor was excellent in qualitative and quantitative tests of ancient silks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]