• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.37-43
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• 2010

The wild silkworm, Antheraea mylitta Drury (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) is a polyphagous silk producing insect that feeds on Terminalia arjuna, T. tomentosa and Shorea robusta and is distributed in the forest belts in different states of India. Phenotypically distinct populations of the A. mylitta are called "eco-race" or "ecotypes". Genetic improvement of this wild silkworm has not progressed much due to lack of adequate information on the factors that control the expression of most of the economically important traits. Considering the amazing technological advances taking place in molecular biology, it is envisaged that it is now possible to take greater control on these intractable traits if a combination of genetic, molecular and bioinformatics tools are used. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) mapping is one such approach that has extensively been used in both animal and plant system to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for a number of economically important traits. LD mapping has a number of advantages over conventional biparental linkage mapping. Therefore, LD mapping is considered more efficient for gene discovery to meet the challenge of connecting sequence diversity with heritable phenotypic differences. However, care must be taken to avoid detection of spurious associations which may occur due to population structure and variety interrelationships. In this review, we discuss how LD mapping is suitable for the dissection of complex traits in wild silkworms (Antheraea mylitta).

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.4
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• pp.63-68
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• 1965

This treatise was carried out to study the hereditary phenomenon of silk lousiness and the interaction of genes related with silk lousiness. It was also studied how to improve the silk lousiness of general raw silk by refining process because the selective process was found as unsatisfactory method. The conclusions reached were as follows. A. Conclusions related with genetic problem. 1. The decreased effects of the lousiness were 11 % in the F$_1$ hybrids. 2. Lousiness was considered to inherit as the incomplete dominance. 3. The effects of the lousiness gene were additive, and the lousiness of raw silk might be influenced by more than two genes. 4. The quantitative characters of cocoons were not genetically correlated with the occurrence of lousiness. 5. Lousiness could not be said to occur more in the heavy-cocoon strains. 6. The microscopic lousiness test of this paper showed the same result of the international exforiation test. B. Conclusions related with lousiness improvement. 1. Raw silk was able to be refined by the employment of 0.2% cationic softener solution for 30 minutes at 95$^{\circ}C$, supressing the occurrence of lousiness. 2. Anionic chemical softener was not available for silk refining process. 3. The above cationic softener refining prosess did not cause any physical defect for the silk fiber. 4. Soap refining process caused silk lousiness easily.

• Composites Research
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.196-200
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• 2014

A novel, simple and totally recyclable method has been developed for the synthesis of nontoxic, biocompatible and biodegradable bio-composite films from soy protein and silk protein. Bio films are defined as flexible films prepared from biological materials such as protein. These materials have potential application in medical and food as a packaging material. Their use depends on various parameters such as mechanical (strength and modulus), thermal, among others. In this study, prepare and characterization of bio films made from Soy Protein Isolate (SPI) (matrix) and Silk Fiber (SF) (reinforcement) through solution casting method by the addition of plasticizer and crosslinking agent. The obtained SPI and SPI/SF composites were subsequently subjected to evaluate their mechanical and thermal properties by using Universal Testing Machine and Thermal Gravimetric Analyzer respectively. The tensile testing showed significant improvements in strength with increasing amount of SF content and the % elongation at break of the composites of the SPI/SF was lower than that of the matrix. Though the interfacial bonding was moderate, the improvement in tensile strength and modulus was attributed to the higher tensile properties of the silk fiber.

• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.117-124
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• 1993

The Silk fabric was dyed with various acid dyes, and than treated with copper sulfate or copper sulfate/thiourea. Munsell color system, dye exhaustion and light fastness were investigated for the treated fabrics. The results obtaind are as follows: 1) The color variation of the silk-dyed fabric by aftertreatment with copper sulfate was shown redish, but original color with copper sulfate/thiourea. 2) Copper sulfate/thiourea was much more effective than copper sulfate only to increase the light fastness. 3) The crease recovery was increased by aftertreatment with copper sulfate/thiourea. 4) Dye exhaustion and tensile strength of the silk-dyed fabric by aftertreatment with copper sulfate was decreased about 8-15% more than those of untreated.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.95-102
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• 2000

Experiments related to the field of sericulture started in the years 1900, in Korea. The sericultural experimental station in Korea was first organized among agricultural fields in Korea, indicating that sericulture in Korea was regarded as an important field of agriculture. Sericulture has been devoted to a great deal for the improvement of Korean economy during the past 100 years even under the coarse social circumstances caused particularly by the Korean War, However, the traditional Korean sericulture, aimed to produce silk yarn, was weakened, because of several reasons such as diminishment in silk consumption, increased labor charge in Korea, and so on. After this difficulty time, the Korean sericulture was revolutionized by shifting into functional sericulture from 1995, and the Korean sericulture now plays an important role for the improvement of human health. Mulberry tree, silkworm, and silk have a boundless potential to be developed as resources. We expect the know-how obtained through silkworm research would expand to the other insect research too. Thus, an area of entomological industry is hoped to prosper owing to insect research as well as sericulture. Mulberry tree is known to possess many bio-active substances, so it can be utilized as a resource for substitute medicine and a raw material for the functional food. In addition, an invention of genetically engineered mulberry variety, which will produce more bioactive substances, is expected. Silkworm is one of the most extensively studied insect organisms on the genome so far, Thus, silkworm is expected to be an "insect bio-factory", enabling mass-production of useful proteins by transformation, in which useful foreign genes are assimilated into silkworm. Silk can be transformed into several phases, because it possesses useful functional groups, which are sensitive to chemical reaction. Also, because silk fibrin itself is protein, it has a superior applicability as tissue membrane. Due to this usefulness, many researchers are now working on the silk as food, cosmetic, medical resource, and bioengineering resource, and even an expanded application is expected using silk in the future. Until now, the researches on insects were largely focused on the prevention of the damage caused by pest, instead of a beneficial aspect. However, insects are thought to be the fourth natural resource in the world, possessing unlimited potential as world resources in the near future. Therefore, our entomological research effort should be focused on the subject with potential for industrialization. Such subject includes selecting the insect species useful for environmental evaluation, construction of environment-friendly agricultural ecosystem, pollen mediation, pet, and advanced bio-resources.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Dyers and Finishers Conference
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• 2010.03a
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• pp.194-194
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• 2010

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.496-501
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• 2009

In this study, a kiwifruit-produced protease was used to improve the quality of the wool and silk fabrics. The wool and silk were treated with the actinidin from kiwifruit. Following this protease treatment, changes in the surface of a single yarn of the fabrics were observed via both an optical microscope and a scanning electron microscope (SEM). In order to determine the amount of dye uptake in the fabric, changes in the K/S value of the wool and silk were measured by spectrophotometric analysis. Also, we performed a tensile strength examination to determine variation in their mechanical properties. By increasing the protease treatment time to 48h, the dyeing properties of fabrics were enhanced, and the surfaces of the single yarns of the fabrics became smoother, because of the removal of soil and scale in them. However, no mechanical changes were detected in the fabrics. Thereby, we suggest that the kiwifruit-produced actinidin treatment can improve the quality of the fabrics.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.7
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• pp.65-74
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• 1967

This work has been carried out to find the fundamental reasons of raw silk size nonuniformity by studying with the physical nature and its bave formation through the worm spinnerate with anatomical device. Mean time, the uniformity improving method is also attached to this paper after throughfall theoretical study. 1. According to the anatomical study of the silkworm spinnerate, the physical form decides the fiber cross section and also spinns more finner size as the spinning is continued collaborating with the muscle pressure and decrease of liquid silk in the silk gland. 2. The bave size deviation of the Korean cocoons have shown a little difference among the varieties, but, they are conclued as 0.58 denier in average which caused some size deviation of the raw silk inevitably. 3. The raw silk nonuniformity increases when the cocoon have size is not suitable with the proposed raw silk size. 4. The nonuniformity is also increased very much during the filature process in case of poor technical work, but even if we do our best, the best result is found as 30 percent improvement which is still worser than the natural cocoon size deviation. 5. It is required to be careful for the selection of silkworm variety in order to improve the nonuniformity of raw silk so that the bave size be suitable for the proposed silk. 6. The definite size silk reeling method could made better uniform silk, 20 percent at least, than the definite cocoon number silk reeling method. 7. A newly developed denier(21d) gauge was applied for the multiends type silk reeling machine which is widely used in Korea, and the result of the method showed 1.30 denier size deviation, but, in case of no use of it was 1.57 denier size deviation, that is, it could improve two grades more than the normal reeling method.

• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.14-19
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• 1990

The setting behavior of disulfide-enriched wool and disulfide-crosslinked silk obtained by treatment with a disulfide-containing crosslinking agent, bis $(\beta-isocyanatoethyl)$ dissulfide was compared with that of untreated wool and silk under the absence and the presence of a reducing agent. Rearrangment of secondary bonds facilitated by cleavage of crosslinks as well as rearrangement of crosslinks itself seems to play an important role in the set stability.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.17-22
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• 2017

Cooked mature silkworms have received increasing attention as a new source of income for sericultural farms. Quality improvement of these worms as the end-product requires prevention of the following: inclusion of unfertilized silkworm eggs, mixing with impurities, producing undercooked or overcooked mature larvae, and mixing spewed silk substance. Preventing unfertilized eggs and impurities and reducing undercooked or overcooked mature larvae can be achieved by sericultural farms. However, the prevention of spewed silk substance requires the development of new techniques. This study developed new techniques for optimum cold storage temperature, soaking, and hydro-thermal treatment to minimize the spewing of mature larvae prior to steaming: when larvae mature after 7 days on the $5^{th}$ instar, they should be soaked in water at room temperature of $25^{\circ}C$ immediately upon collection and stored at $8^{\circ}C$ for less than 3 days. They should be soaked in boiling water for approximately 10 s immediately before steaming to kill the larvae and cooked with steam. This method allows for the production of high-quality mature larvae without spewed silk substance. These new techniques will considerably improve the production of well-cooked quality mature larvae by minimizing silk substance spewed out from the larvae.