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Textile design has been liberated and democratized by digital media. With new technology allowing for more precise manipulation and larger variation of materials and patterns, textile designers have found new ways to create ambitiously, experiment, and be inspired. At the same time, the rise of digital processes has led to a renewed appreciation of traditional craftsmanship and the handmade, and of the tactility and construction of textiles and surfaces. In , Kristi O'Meara and Audrey Victoria Keiffer, cofounders of the Chicago-based design studio and online archive The Patternbase, showcase more than 550 textile, surface, fashion, and print designs from over 150 designers working around the world. Part One is a sourcebook of these designs, organized by type of pattern: Geometric, Floral, Representational, Digital Abstract, Illustrative, and Fabric Swatches. Part Two presents profiles of fifteen artists, constituting the hottest up-and-comers in the field, including Lorenzo Nanni, whose delicate beadwork conjures the natural world's flora and fauna; Anita Hirlekar, whose felt, velvet, and lace work create luscious variations of texture; and Kayla Mattes, mistress of kitsch aesthetics and material experimentations.

Summary Kernel size is an important trait determining cereal yields. In this study, we cloned and characterized TaDA1, a conserved negative regulator of kernel size in wheat (Triticum aestivum). The overexpression of TaDA1 decreased the size and weight of wheat kernels, while its down‐regulation using RNA interference (RNAi) had the opposite effect. Three TaDA1‐A haplotypes were identified in Chinese wheat core collections, and a haplotype association analysis showed that TaDA1‐A‐HapI was significantly correlated with the production of larger kernels and higher kernel weights in modern Chinese cultivars. The haplotype effect resulted from a difference in TaDA1‐A expression levels between genotypes, with TaDA1‐A‐HapI resulting in lower TaDA1‐A expression levels. This favourable haplotype was found having been positively selected during wheat breeding over the last century. Furthermore, we demonstrated that TaDA1‐A physically interacts with TaGW2‐B. The additive effects of TaDA1‐A and TaGW2‐B on kernel weight were confirmed not only by the phenotypic enhancement arising from the simultaneous down‐regulation of TaDA1 and TaGW2 expression, but also by the combinational haplotype effects estimated from multi‐environment field data from 348 wheat cultivars. A comparative proteome analysis of developing transgenic and wild‐type grains indicated that TaDA1 and TaGW2 are involved in partially overlapping but relatively independent protein regulatory networks. Thus, we have identified an important gene controlling kernel size in wheat and determined its interaction with other genes regulating kernel weight, which could have beneficial applications in wheat breeding.

\"Indian textile designs express dazzling inventiveness and creativity, from the woven silks of royalty to the simple block-printed patterns. This authoritative sourcebook overflows with colour and patterns to inspire and inform. The introduction gives an overview of Indian textiles, including methods by which they were made and their intended uses. The book is divided into three chapters defined by pattern style: Florals, Figurative and Geometric. Each comprises an introduction to the style's history, and demonstrates the techniques of structure, surface and embellishment patterning. A wealth of cross-referencing by theme and process makes this a uniquely useful resource. Over 300 breathtaking and hugely varied designs are examined here in detail through close-up shots of the pattern and material alongside a thoughtful examination of the reverse of many fabrics, demonstrating different weaving techniques so that the reader can see precisely how the textile was made.\" -- V&A website.

To assess the impact of climate change on freshwater resources, change in mean annual runoff (MAR) is only a first indicator. In addition, it is necessary to analyze changes of river flow regimes, i.e. changes in the temporal dynamics of river discharge, as these are important for the well-being of humans (e.g. with respect to water supply) and freshwater-dependent biota (e.g. with respect to habitat availability). Therefore, we investigated, in a global-scale hydrological modeling study, the relation between climate-induced changes of MAR and changes of a number of river flow regime indicators, including mean river discharge, statistical low and high flows, and mean seasonal discharge. In addition, we identified, for the first time at the global scale, where flow regime shifts from perennial to intermittent flow regimes (or vice versa) may occur due to climate change. Climate-induced changes of all considered river flow regime indicators (except seasonal river flow changes) broadly follow the spatial pattern of MAR changes. The differences among the computed changes of MAR due to the application of the two climate models are larger than the differences between the change of MAR and the change of the diverse river flow indicators for one climate model. At the sub-basin and grid cell scales, however, there are significant differences between the changes of MAR, mean annual river discharge, and low and high flows. Low flows are projected to be more than halved by the 2050s in almost twice the area as compared to MAR. Similarly, northern hemisphere summer flows decrease more strongly than MAR. Differences between the high emissions scenario A2 (with emissions of 25 Gt C yr−1 in the 2050s) and the low emissions scenario B2 (16 Gt C yr−1) are generally small as compared to the differences due to the two climate models. The benefits of avoided emissions are, however, significant in those areas where flows are projected to be more than halved due to climate change. If emissions were constrained to the B2 scenario, the area with ecologically relevant flow regime shifts would be reduced to 5.4%-6.7% of the global land area as compared to 6.3%-7.0% in A2. In particular, under the B2 scenario, fewer rivers will change from perennial to intermittent (or transitional) river flows.

Helps readers to create their own patterns, based on compositions from across the Islamic world. This book opens up the world of intricate Islamic patterns, allowing artists, designers and doodlers alike to learn about these works of art as they produce their own.

Graphene at full stretch High-performance, transparent and stretchable electrodes are in high demand for the development of flexible electronic and optoelectronic applications. Graphene, with excellent optical, electrical and mechanical properties on the microscale, is a promising candidate as the basis material. It has proved difficult to synthesize large-scale graphene films that retain these desirable properties, but Kim et al . now describe a technique for growing centimetre-scale graphene films with electrical conductance and optical transparency as high as those of microscale films. The graphene is deposited from chemical vapour onto thin layers of nickel, and then transferred onto arbitrary substrates — such as silicon dioxide — as a patterned film that can be used to construct stretchable transparent electrodes with excellent mechanical and electric stability. High-performance, transparent and stretchable electrodes are in demand for the development of flexible electronic and optoelectronic applications. Graphene is a candidate as the basis material, because of its excellent optical, electrical and mechanical properties. This paper describes a technique to grow centimetre-scale films using chemical vapour deposition on nickel films and a method to pattern and transfer the films to arbitrary substrates. The electrical conductance and optical transparency are as high as those for microscale graphene films. Problems associated with large-scale pattern growth of graphene constitute one of the main obstacles to using this material in device applications 1 . Recently, macroscopic-scale graphene films were prepared by two-dimensional assembly of graphene sheets chemically derived from graphite crystals and graphene oxides 2 , 3 . However, the sheet resistance of these films was found to be much larger than theoretically expected values. Here we report the direct synthesis of large-scale graphene films using chemical vapour deposition on thin nickel layers, and present two different methods of patterning the films and transferring them to arbitrary substrates. The transferred graphene films show very low sheet resistance of ∼280 Ω per square, with ∼80 per cent optical transparency. At low temperatures, the monolayers transferred to silicon dioxide substrates show electron mobility greater than 3,700 cm 2  V -1  s -1 and exhibit the half-integer quantum Hall effect 4 , 5 , implying that the quality of graphene grown by chemical vapour deposition is as high as mechanically cleaved graphene 6 . Employing the outstanding mechanical properties of graphene 7 , we also demonstrate the macroscopic use of these highly conducting and transparent electrodes in flexible, stretchable, foldable electronics 8 , 9 .

A new contactless method for online control tension of a radio-reflective mesh surface of a large-sized folding mirror antenna is presented. The method is based on revealing the correlation between Moire patterns and net-shaped curtain uniformity and tension. The advantages of the method are presented. Its main advantage lies in the fact that it is possible to set the net-shaped curtain on the folding skeleton of an antenna reflector in the online mode. The presented method is universal and can be used not only to manufacture antenna reflectors with the working surface in the form of a net-shaped curtain but also in any other structures in which the checked element is a net, regardless of the material of which it is made. A way to apply the method is presented.

Self-assembling materials spontaneously form structures at length scales of interest in nanotechnology. In the particular case of block copolymers, the thermodynamic driving forces for self-assembly are small, and low-energy defects can get easily trapped. We directed the assembly of defect-free arrays of isolated block copolymer domains at densities up to 1 terabit per square inch on chemically patterned surfaces. In comparing the assembled structures to the chemical pattern, the density is increased by a factor of four, the size is reduced by a factor of two, and the dimensional uniformity is vastly improved.

Chemical reactions that convert sp2 to sp3 hybridization have been demonstrated to be a fascinating yet challenging route to functionalize graphene. So far it has not been possible to precisely control the reaction sites nor their lateral order at the atomic/molecular scale. The application prospects have been limited for reactions that require long soaking, heating, electric pulses or probe-tip press. Here we demonstrate a spatially selective photocycloaddition reaction of a two-dimensional molecular network with defect-free basal plane of single-layer graphene. Directly visualized at the submolecular level, the cycloaddition is triggered by ultraviolet irradiation in ultrahigh vacuum, requiring no aid of the graphene Moiré pattern. The reaction involves both [2+2] and [2+4] cycloadditions, with the reaction sites aligned into a two-dimensional extended and well-ordered array, inducing a bandgap for the reacted graphene layer. This work provides a solid base for designing and engineering graphene-based optoelectronic and microelectronic devices.The controllable functionalization of graphene at the molecular level may prove useful for graphene-based electronics, but is difficult to do in a precise fashion. Now it has been shown that a photocycloaddition reaction between a hydrogen-bonded network of maleimide-derived molecules and single-layer graphene can produce a functionalized array with long-range order.

The demand for agricultural products continues to grow rapidly, but further agricultural expansion entails substantial environmental costs, making recultivating currently unused farmland an interesting alternative. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to widespread abandonment of agricultural lands, but the extent and spatial patterns of abandonment are unclear. We quantified the extent of abandoned farmland, both croplands and pastures, across the region using MODIS NDVI satellite image time series from 2004 to 2006 and support vector machine classifications. Abandoned farmland was widespread, totaling 52.5 Mha, particularly in temperate European Russia (32 Mha), northern and western Ukraine, and Belarus. Differences in abandonment rates among countries were striking, suggesting that institutional and socio-economic factors were more important in determining the amount of abandonment than biophysical conditions. Indeed, much abandoned farmland occurred in areas without major constraints for agriculture. Our map provides a basis for assessing the potential of Central and Eastern Europe’s abandoned agricultural lands to contribute to food or bioenergy production, or carbon storage, as well as the environmental trade-offs and social constraints of recultivation.