Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Agricultural Economics / Hikaru H. Peterson / The U.S. wool demand has declined since 1950s due to the increasing demand for synthetic fibers. This research aims to study U.S. consumers' preferences for wool attributes to help the wool industry developing marketing strategies targeting certain groups of consumers. This research can be divided into two parts: 1) examining consumers' willingness-to-pay for wool attributes including country-of-origin, organic, animal-friendly, environment-friendly, and 2) investigating whether or not the consumer segments can be identified from consumers' demographic and psychographic characteristics on product purchasing behavior with respect to the wool attributes. In order to achieve the purpose of this research, the choice experiment was applied to examine consumers' preferences for wool attributes. Both mail and on-line surveys were conducted. The mail survey included three versions: basic version, version with definitions of attributes, and version with both definitions and information about wool attributes, with ## responses received (a 29 percent response rate). The on-line survey contained the basic version and the version with both definitions and information about wool attributes, with 514 responses received. Conditional logit and multinomial logit models were used to examine willingness-to-pay for wool attributes and consumer segments, respectively. Results indicated that a certain portion of U.S. consumers preferred wool over acrylic products. Findings also suggested that it is likely beneficial for wool producers to differentiate their products by promoting products' attributes, such as organic, animal-friendly, and environment-friendly. Further, brief information on product attributes provided with labels could increase consumers' WTPs. Results here revealed that to increase wool producers' revenues effectively, it is necessary to advertise their value-added wool products to different consumer segments.

This thesis analyses the commercial relations between Scotland and the geo-political area known as the Iberian world in the early modern period. Despite being geographically one of the largest areas of Europe, as well as arguably the politically most weighty, there has, until this thesis, been no scholarly research on Scottish trade relations with this area. Though the archives suggest regular and sustained contact, very little is known about Scottish-Iberian connections beyond the overtly political. When compared to northern Europe the region of Iberia and its dominions differed significantly, not only due to a different branch of Christianity being practised there but also due to the influence of the Habsburg empire and the power it was perceived to give the Spanish Habsburgs. Looking predominantly at Scottish commercial contacts with Spain, the Spanish Netherlands and Portugal, this project considers a number of angles such as England's impact on Scottish commercial relations with Iberia. For example, very little would be known about Scottish commercial relations with Iberia in the late-sixteenth century if it were not for the Anglo-Spanish war of that period. The central role of conflict in Scottish-Iberian relations continues into the seventeenth century, with the Cromwellian/Stuart struggles with the Dutch Republic and later disputes between the new state of Great Britain and Habsburg Spain all affecting trade. This thesis demonstrates the important role of triangular and entrepôt trade, which was popular with Scottish merchants who wished to obtain Iberian goods without the risks of sailing into North African corsair territory. Scots did not merely pick up Iberian goods from the entrepôt markets of London and the Dutch Republic they also organised trade to Iberia and its dominions via other Scots, providing evidence of a complex trade network. Further, this thesis has sought to ascertain that, despite the lack of a large Scottish community such as those seen in Poland-Lithuania and Scandinavia, Scottish commercial relations with Iberia were valuable both to the Scottish economy and its merchants. This thesis which continues the work of the Scotland and the Wider World Project, addresses a lack of scholarly work regarding Scottish commercial connections with this key geo-political area.

No description available.

Thesis (MSc (Chemistry and Polymer Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / Dyeing has an influence on the characteristic properties of wool fibres. This can result in changes in the final properties of the fibre including fibre elasticity, fibre strength and breaking elongation of the wool fibres, especially in the case of dark colours. Damage that occurs to the fibre surface due to the action of acid, alkali, dyestuff, water, heat, and mechanical stress during the dyeing process can thus have an affect on the fibre breaking elongation and the fibre strength. The aim of this project was to assess the effect of dyeing with different colours (ranging from light to dark) on the surface of wool fibres using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The results indicated that four different types of surface damage can be discerned: scale raising, scale chipping, fluting and pitting. The findings also indicate that the surface damage to the fibres was greater and more noticeable (especially the scale raising) on fibres dyed with dark colours than to fibres dyed with light colours. The same applied to the fibre strength and elongation, where generally the fibre breaking extension and the breaking load was smaller in the case of darker colours. The effect of dyeing with different colour shades on the fibre surface was observed with AFM. Several characteristic scale parameters of a statistical significant number of dyed and undyed fibres were measured in order to determine the surface damage caused by dyeing. The correlation between the surface damage, observed by AFM, and the loss in tensile strength and fibre elongation, determined by tensile tests, were investigated. This was done in order to determine the effect of the cuticle damage on the tensile stress/strain behaviour. The results show that AFM is a viable tool to study the effects of different dyes on the fibre surface and for detecting surface modifications with great accuracy. It was found that dyeing with dark colours caused greater damage to the surface than light colours, and it was possible to distinguish different lightness areas, which could be regarded as light and dark colours.

Formaldehyde is one of the most prevalent and toxic chemicals found indoors, where we spend ~90% of our lives. Chronic exposure to formaldehyde indoors, therefore, is of particular concern, especially for sensitive populations like children and infants. Unfortunately, no effective filtration control strategy exists for its removal. While research has shown that proteins in sheep's wool bind permanently to formaldehyde, the extent of wool's formaldehyde removal efficiency and effective removal capacity when applied in active filtration settings is unknown. In this research, wool capacity experiments were designed using a plug flow reactor and air cleaner unit to explore the capacity of wool to remove formaldehyde given different active filtration designs. Using the measured wool capacity, filter life and annual costs were modeled in a typical 50 m₃ room for a variety of theoretical filter operation lengths, air exchange rates, and source concentrations. For each case, annual filtration costs were compared to the monetary benefits derived from wool resale and from the reduction in cancer rates for different population types using the DALYs human exposure metric. Wool filtration was observed to drop formaldehyde concentrations between 60-80%, although the effective wool removal capacity was highly dependent on the fluid mechanics of the filtration unit. The air cleaner setup yielded approximately six times greater capacity than the small-scale PFR designed to mimic active filtration (670 [mu]g versus 110 [mu]g HCHO removed per g of wool, respectively). The outcomes of these experiments suggest that kinematic variations resulting from different wool packing densities, air flow rates, and degree of mixing in the units influence the filtration efficiency and effective capacity of wool. The results of the cost--benefit analysis show that for the higher wool capacity conditions, cost-effectiveness is achieved by the majority of room cases when sensitive populations like children and infants are present. However, for the average population scenarios, filtration was rarely worthwhile, showing that adults benefit less from reductions in chronic formaldehyde exposure. These results suggest that implementation of active filtration would be the most beneficial and cost-effective in settings like schools, nurseries, and hospitals that have a high percentage of sensitive populations. / text

Baigiamojo darbo tikslas – ištirti vilnos pluošto paviršiaus hidrofobiškumo įtaką dažiklių sorbcijai vilnos pluošte ir dažinių fizikinėms savybėms. Naujų antrachinoninių dažiklių RB 5-37 Mėlynojo ir RB 4-35 Žaliojo sintezė buvo atlikta Kauno Technologijos universitete, Organinės chemijos katedroje, prof. V. Mickevičiaus grupėje. Siekiant nustatyti, kokį pluoštą ir kokiomis sąlygomis intensyviausiai dažo naujieji dažikliai, atlikti parengiamieji tyrimai su multipluoštiniu audiniu (ISO 105 F10 DW), kurį sudaro vilna, poliakrilatas, poliesteris, poliamidas, medvilnė ir diacetatas. Bandymo metu buvo nustatyta, jog tiriamieji antrachinoniniai dažikliai intensyviausiai dažo vilną ir poliamidą. Tolimesni tyrimai atlikti naudojant standartinį vilnonį audinį (ISO 150/F – 1985 (E)). Siekiant įvertinti hidrofobinio paviršinio barjero įtaką dažiklių difuzijai jame, bandymai atlikti su standartiniu vilnos audiniu ir su audiniu, nuo kurio paviršiaus buvo pašalintas hidrofobinis sluoksnis. Vilnos pluošto ekstrakcija buvo atlikta naudojant metanolio ir chloroformo tirpiklių mišinį, Soksleto aparatu, 10 ciklų. Taip pat buvo atlikti dažymo kinetiniai tyrimai bei dažyto audinio pavienių siūlų mechaninių savybių tyrimai, t. y. vilnonio siūlo trūkimo jėga bei vilnonio siūlo trūkimo ištįsa, naudojantis dinamometru. Atlikus tyrimą su dviem naujai susintetintais dažikliais nustatyta, kad Žaliasis Dažiklis, kuris skyrėsi nuo Mėlynojo nitro funkcine grupe, intensyviau sorbavosi vilnos pluošte... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of the hydrophobicity of wool fibre surface on the sorption of the dyes and on the physical properties of dyed wool fibre. New Anthraquinonic RB 5-37 Blue and Green RB 4-35 dyes synthesis was carried out by Professor V. Mickevičius group at Kaunas University of Technology, Department of Organic Chemistry. The multifiber fabric (ISO 105 F10 DW), composed of wool, polyacrylates, polyester, nylon, cotton and the diacetate was used in order to determine the fiber and the conditions under which the new dyes intensively dye. The dyeing results showed that new dyes wool fibers and polyamide dyed intensively. The standard wool fabric (ISO 150 / F - 1985 (E)) was used for further dyeing experiments. The standard wool fabric without pretreatment and wool fabric extracted with methanol and chloroform solvents mixture were used in order to evaluate hydrophobic wool surface barrier effect on dye diffusion in to wool fabric. It has also been done a kinetic study of dyeing process and dyed wool fiber single thread mechanical properties testing, i.e. breaking force and extension at break using a dynamometer. The investigation of the dyeing kinetic using two newly synthesized dyes showed that the Green dye which differs from the Blue by NO2 functional group, better penetrates into the wool fabric, irrespective of what was the composition of the dyeing solution. The data of equilibrium dye concentration indicates that independently of the... [to full text]

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Tris(hydroxymethyl)phosphine (THP) was prepared by the addition of a stoichiometric amount of base to tetrakis(hydroxymethyl)phosphonium chloride (THPC). Freshly prepared THP was successfully immobilised onto wool through a Mannich-type condensation reaction between a hydroxymethyl group and an amine on the wool surface, forming stable gt;P-CH2-Nlt; coupling links. The immobilisation of THP to wool stabilised the THP, which resulted in the decreased oxidation of THP to tris(hydroxymethyl)phosphine oxide (THPO). The presence of immobilised phosphine groups was determined colorimetrically by reaction with Ni2+ ions, which produced a bright orange nickel-phosphine complex, as well as quantitatively, by measuring nickel uptake using ICP-MS. Immobilised THP-wool showed proportional binding for varying concentrations of metal solution. Decreasing or increasing the concentration of the metal solution resulted in a corresponding proportional response of metal binding. Following immobilisation onto wool, oxidation of the system by 6% H2O2 resulted in a reduced binding of 24% for Cu, 25% for Co, 27% for Ni, and 93% for Cd relative to unoxidised THP immobilised onto wool. Additional modification of the THP-wool systems via reaction with amino acids and other related compounds overall did not appear to enhance the metal binding capacity relative to the unmodified THP-wool system. The only modified THP-wool system that showed either retention or an increase in metal binding capacity for all metals analysed was that of 2-aminopyridine, followed by oxidation with H₂O₂.

"May 2002" Includes bibliographical references (leaves 148-164) Describes a series of novel experiments designed to enhance our understanding of nutrient utilisation for growth of wool and the whole body.

"May 2002" / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 148-164) / xi, 164 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Describes a series of novel experiments designed to enhance our understanding of nutrient utilisation for growth of wool and the whole body. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Animal Science, 2002