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With characters of low cost, portability, easy disposal, and high accuracy, as well as bulky reduced laboratory equipment, paper-based sensors are getting increasing attention for reliable indoor/outdoor onsite detection with nonexpert operation. They have become powerful analysis tools in trace detection with ultra-low detection limits and extremely high accuracy, resulting in their great popularity in medical detection, environmental inspection, and other applications. Herein, we summarize and generalize the recently reported paper-based sensors based on their application for mechanics, biomolecules, food safety, and environmental inspection. Based on the biological, physical, and chemical analytes-sensitive electrical or optical signals, extensive detections of a large number of factors such as humidity, pressure, nucleic acid, protein, sugar, biomarkers, metal ions, and organic/inorganic chemical substances have been reported via paper-based sensors. Challenges faced by the current paper-based sensors from the fundamental problems and practical applications are subsequently analyzed; thus, the future directions of paper-based sensors are specified for their rapid handheld testing.

In this study, we describe a monolithic and fully integrated paper-based device for the simultaneous detection of three prognostic biomarkers in saliva. The pattern of the proposed multiplexed device is designed with a central sample deposition zone and three identical arms, each containing a pre-treatment and test zone. Its one-step fabrication is realized by CO2 laser cutting, providing remarkable parallelization and rapidity (ca. 5 s/device). The colorimetric detection is based on the sensitive and selective target-induced reshaping of plasmonic multibranched gold nanoparticles, which exhibit a clear spectral shift (and blue-to-pink color change) in case of non-physiological concentrations of the three salivary biomarkers. A rapid and multiplexed naked-eye or smartphone-based readout of the colorimetric response is achieved within 10 min. A prototype kit for POCT testing is also reported, providing robustness and easy handling of the device.

The development of diagnostic tools for measuring a wide spectrum of target analytes, from biomarkers to other biochemical parameters in biological fluids, has experienced a significant growth in the last decades, with a good number of such tools entering the market. Recently, a clear focus has been put on miniaturized wearable devices, which offer powerful capabilities for real-time and continuous analysis of biofluids, mainly sweat, and can be used in athletics, consumer wellness, military, and healthcare applications. Sweat is an attractive biofluid in which different biomarkers could be noninvasively measured to provide rapid information about the physical state of an individual. Wearable devices reported so far often provide discrete (single) measurements of the target analytes, most of them in the form of a yes/no qualitative response. However, quantitative biomarker analysis over certain periods of time is highly demanded for many applications such as the practice of sports or the precise control of the patient status in hospital settings. For this, a feasible combination of fluidic elements and sensor architectures has been sought. In this regard, this paper shows a concise overview of analytical tools based on the use of capillary-driven fluidics taking place on paper or fabric devices integrated with solid-state sensors fabricated by thick film technologies. The main advantages and limitations of the current technologies are pointed out together with the progress towards the development of functional devices. Those approaches reported in the last decade are examined in detail.

The fabrication of low-cost, flexible, and recyclable electronic devices has been the focus of many research groups, particularly for integration in wearable technology and the Internet of Things (IoT). In this work, porous zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures are incorporated as a UV sensing material into the composition of a sustainable water-based screen-printable ink composed of car-boxymethyl cellulose (CMC). The formulated ink is used to fabricate flexible and foldable UV sensors on ubiquitous office paper. The screen-printed CMC/ZnO UV sensors operate under low voltage (≤2 V) and reveal a stable response over several on/off cycles of UV light exposure. The devices reach a response current of 1.34 ± 0.15 mA and a rise and fall time of 8.2 ± 1.0 and 22.0 ± 2.3 s, respectively. The responsivity of the sensor is 432 ± 48 mA W−1, which is the highest value reported in the literature for ZnO-based UV sensors on paper substrates. The UV-responsive devices display impressive mechanical endurance under folding, showing a decrease in responsivity of only 21% after being folded 1000 times. Their low-voltage operation and extreme folding stability indicate a bright future for low-cost and sustainable flexible electronics, showing potential for low-power wearable applications and smart packaging. publishersversion published

Paper waste in the mockups design with regular, irregular, and amorphous patterns is a critical problem in digital printing presses. Paper waste reduction directly impacts production costs, generating business and environmental benefits. This problem can be mapped to the two-dimensional irregular bin-packing problem. In this paper, an iterated local search algorithm using a novel neighborhood structure to detect overlaps between amorphous shapes is introduced. This algorithm is used to solve the paper waste problem, modeled as one 2D irregular bin-packing problem. The experimental results show that this approach works efficiently and effectively to detect and correct the overlaps between regular, irregular, and amorphous figures.

Despite the potential in fabrication of microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (μPADs) for point-of-care testing (POCT) kits, the development of simple, accurate, and rapid devices with higher sensitivity remains challenging. Here, we report a novel method for 3D-μPAD fabrication with enclosed channels using vat photopolymerization to avoid fluid evaporation. In detail, height of the enclosed channels was adjusted from 0.3 to 0.17 mm by varying the UV exposure time from 1 to 4 s for the top barrier, whereas the exposure time for the bottom and side barriers was fixed. As a result, sample flow in the enclosed channels of 3D-μPADs showed lesser wicking speed with very scant evaporation compared to that in the hemi channels in the 3D-μPADs. The stoppage of evaporation in the enclosed channels significantly improved the gray intensity and uniformity in the detection zone of the 3D-μPADs, resulting in as low as 0.3 mM glucose detection. Thus 3D-μPADs with enclosed channels showed enhanced sensitivity compared to the 3D-μPADs with hemi channels when dealing with a small volume sample. Our work provides a new insight into 3D-μPAD design with enclosed channels, which redefines the methodology in 3D printing.

This review summarizes the state of the art of paper-based biosensors (PBBs) for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) detection. Three categories of PBB are currently being been used for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) diagnostics, namely for viral gene, viral antigen and antibody detection. The characteristics, the analytical performance, the advantages and drawbacks of each type of biosensor are highlighted and compared with traditional methods. It is hoped that this review will be useful for scientists for the development of novel PBB platforms with enhanced performance for helping to contain the COVID-19 outbreak, by allowing early diagnosis at the point of care (POC).

Paper-based analytical devices (PADs) and Electrospun Fiber-Based Biosensors (EFBs) have aroused the interest of the academy and industry due to their affordability, sensitivity, ease of use, robustness, being equipment-free, and deliverability to end-users. These features make them suitable to face the need for point-of-care (POC) diagnostics, monitoring, environmental, and quality food control applications. Our work introduces new and experienced researchers in the field to a practical guide for fibrous-based biosensors fabrication with insight into the chemical and physical interaction of fibrous materials with a wide variety of materials for functionalization and biofunctionalization purposes. This research also allows readers to compare classical and novel materials, fabrication techniques, immobilization methods, signal transduction, and readout. Moreover, the examined classical and alternative mathematical models provide a powerful tool for bioanalytical device designing for the multiple steps required in biosensing platforms. Finally, we aimed this research to comprise the current state of PADs and EFBs research and their future direction to offer the reader a full insight on this topic.

The disruptive force of the COVID-19 pandemic is lessening in power and plans are being made for the postcrisis period, among which increasing the sustainability of higher education is of significant importance. The study aims at establishing students’ existing environment-related routines during their home confinement, as a basis for applying green measures to campus living once academic life is resumed with the physical presence of students. The collected data rely on self-reported information provided by 816 students from Politehnica University of Timisoara (Romania), collected via an online, anonymous survey. The novelty of the approach is that household environment-related routines are investigated during a crisis period, with the possibility to build upon the results to implement tailored measures to encourage or diminish environmentally relevant consumption by young, highly skilled individuals. The students display a moderate awareness of environmental issues and indicate consumption routines that may be steered towards an increased sustainability-conscious campus life, through the combined intervention of the university, city administration, and stakeholder involvement. The findings are used to explore the possible directions for action towards increasing or contributing to the territorial sustainability in the socio-ecological context of Timisoara, the largest university city in the western part of Romania via educational, managerial and policy interventions.

An origami three-dimensional design of a paper-based potentiometric sensor is described. In its simplest form, this electrochemical paper-based analytical device (ePAD) is made from three small parts of the paper. Paper layers are folded on each other for the integration of a solid contact ion selective electrode (here a carbon-paste composite electrode) and a solid-state pseudo-reference electrode (here writing pencil 6B on the paper), which are in contact with a hydrophilic channel fabricated on the middle part (third part) of the paper. In this case, the pseudo-reference and working electrodes are connected to the two sides of the hydrophilic channel and hence the distance between them is as low as the width of paper. The unmodified carbon paste electrode (UCPE) and modification with the crown ether benzo15-crown-5 (B15C5) represented a very high sensitivity to Cu (II) and Cd2+ ions, respectively. The sensor responded to H2O2 using MnO2-doped carbon paste electrode (CPE). Furthermore, a biosensor was achieved by the addition of glucose oxidase to the MnO2-doped CPE and hence made it selective to glucose with ultra-sensitivity. In addition to very high sensitivity, our device benefits from consuming a very low volume of sample (10.0 µL) and automatic sampling without need for sampling devices.

Paper-based microfluidic devices are an attractive platform for developing low-cost, point-of-care diagnostic tools. As paper-based devices&rsquo, detection chemistries become more complex, more complicated devices are required, often entailing the sequential delivery of different liquids or reagents to reaction zones. Most research into flow control has been focused on introducing delays. However, delaying the flow can be problematic due to increased evaporation leading to sample loss. We report the use of a CO2 laser to uniformly etch the surface of the paper to modify wicking speeds in paper-based microfluidic devices. This technique can produce both wicking speed increases of up to 1.1&times, faster and decreases of up to 0.9&times, slower. Wicking speeds can be further enhanced by etching both sides of the paper, resulting in wicking 1.3&times, faster than unetched channels. Channels with lengthwise laser-etched grooves were also compared to uniformly etched channels, with the most heavily grooved channels wicking 1.9&times, faster than the fastest double-sided etched channels. Furthermore, sealing both sides of the channel in packing tape results in the most heavily etched channels, single-sided, double-sided, and grooved, wicking over 13&times, faster than unetched channels. By selectively etching individual channels, different combinations of sequential fluid delivery can be obtained without altering any channel geometry. Laser etching is a simple process that can be integrated into the patterning of the device and requires no additional materials or chemicals, enabling greater flow control for paper-based microfluidic devices.

In this study, the effects of the mixing conditions of waste paper sludge ash (WPSA) on the strength and bearing capacity of controlled low-strength material (CLSM) were evaluated, and the optimal mixing conditions were used to evaluate the strength characteristics of CLSM with recyclable WPSA. The strength and bearing capacity of CLSM with WPSA were evaluated using unconfined compressive strength tests and plate bearing tests, respectively. The unconfined compressive strength test results show that the optimal mixing conditions for securing 0.8&ndash, 1.2 MPa of target strength under 5% of cement content conditions can be obtained when both WPSA and fly ash are used. This is because WPSA and fly ash, which act as binders, have a significant impact on overall strength when the cement content is low. The bearing capacity of weathered soil increased from 550 to 575 kPa over time, and CLSM with WPSA increased significantly, from 560 to 730 kPa. This means that the bearing capacity of CLSM with WPSA was 2.0% higher than that of weathered soil immediately after construction, furthermore, it was 27% higher at 60 days of age. In addition, the allowable bearing capacity of CLSM corresponding to the optimal mixing conditions was evaluated, and it was found that this value increased by 30.4% until 60 days of age. This increase rate was 6.7 times larger than that of weathered soil (4.5%). Therefore, based on the allowable bearing capacity calculation results, CLSM with WPSA was applied as a sewage pipe backfill material. It was found that CLSM with WPSA performed better as backfill and was more stable than soil immediately after construction. The results of this study confirm that CLSM with WPSA can be utilized as sewage pipe backfill material.

In the age of Evidence-Based Medicine, Clinical Guidelines (CGs) are recognized to be an indispensable tool to support physicians in their daily clinical practice. Medical Informatics is expected to play a relevant role in facilitating diffusion and adoption of CGs. However, the past pioneering approaches, often fragmented in many disciplines, did not lead to solutions that are actually exploited in hospitals. Process Mining for Healthcare (PM4HC) is an emerging discipline gaining the interest of healthcare experts, and seems able to deal with many important issues in representing CGs. In this position paper, we briefly describe the story and the state-of-the-art of CGs, and the efforts and results of the past approaches of medical informatics. Then, we describe PM4HC, and we answer questions like how can PM4HC cope with this challenge? Which role does PM4HC play and which rules should be employed for the PM4HC scientific community? This research received no external funding

Introduction: Translational science has gained prominence in medicine, but there is still much work to be done before scientific results are used optimally and incorporated into everyday health practice. As the main focus is still on generating new scientific data with financial resources primarily available for that purpose, other activities that are necessary in the transition from research to community benefit are considered less needy. The European Statistical Office of the European Commission has recently reported that 1.7 million people under 75 years of age died in Europe in 2016, with around 1.2 million of those deaths being avoidable through effective primary prevention and public health intervention. Therefore, Academia Europaea, one of the five Pan-European networks that form SAPEA (Science Advice for Policy by European Academies), a key element of the European Commission&rsquo, s Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM), has launched a project to develop a model to facilitate and accelerate the utilisation of scientific knowledge for public and community benefit. Methods: During the process, leaders in the field, including prominent basic and clinical researchers, editors-in-chief of high-impact journals publishing translational research articles, translational medicine (TM) centre leaders, media representatives, academics and university leaders, developed the TM cycle, a new model that we believe could significantly advance the development of TM. Results: This model focuses equally on the acquisition of new scientific results healthcare, understandable and digestible summation of results, and their communication to all participants. We have also renewed the definition in TM, identified challenges and recommended solutions. Conclusion: The authors, including senior officers of Academia Europaea, produced this document to serve as a basis for revising thinking on TM with the end result of enabling more efficient and cost-effective healthcare.

Each year the pulp and paper industries generate enormous amounts of effluent treatment sludge. The sludge is made up of various fractions including primary, secondary, deinked, fiber rejects sludge, etc. The goal of this study was to evaluate the fuel properties of the hydrochars produced from various types of paper mill sludges (PMS) at 180 °C, 220 °C, and 260 °C. The hydrochars, as well as the raw feedstocks, were characterized by means of ultimate analysis, proximate analysis, moisture, ash, lignin, sugar, and higher heating value (HHVdaf) measurements. Finally, combustion indices of selected hydrochars were evaluated and compared with bituminous coal. The results showed that HHVdaf of hydrochar produced at 260 °C varied between 11.4 MJ/kg and 31.5 MJ/kg depending on the feedstock. This implies that the fuel application of hydrochar produced from PMS depends on the quality of feedstocks rather than the hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) temperature. The combustion indices also showed that when hydrochars are co-combusted with coal, they have similar combustion indices to that of coal alone. However, based on the energy and ash contents in the produced hydrochars, Primary and Secondary Sludge (PPS2) could be a viable option for co-combustion with coal in an existing coal-fired power plant.

Due to the health and environment impacts of fossil fuels utilization, biofuels have been investigated as a potential alternative renewable source of energy. Bioethanol is currently the most produced biofuel, mainly of first generation, resulting in food-fuel competition. Second generation bioethanol is produced from lignocellulosic biomass, but a costly and difficult pretreatment is required. The pulp and paper industry has the biggest income of biomass for non-food-chain production, and, simultaneously generates a high amount of residues. According to the circular economy model, these residues, rich in monosaccharides, or even in polysaccharides besides lignin, can be utilized as a proper feedstock for second generation bioethanol production. Biorefineries can be integrated in the existing pulp and paper industrial plants by exploiting the high level of technology and also the infrastructures and logistics that are required to fractionate and handle woody biomass. This would contribute to the diversification of products and the increase of profitability of pulp and paper industry with additional environmental benefits. This work reviews the literature supporting the feasibility of producing ethanol from Kraft pulp, spent sulfite liquor, and pulp and paper sludge, presenting and discussing the practical attempt of biorefineries implementation in pulp and paper mills for bioethanol production.

Humidity sensors are indispensable for various electronic systems and instrumentations. To develop a new humidity sensing mechanism is the key for the next generation of sensor technology. In this work, a novel flexible paper-based current humidity sensor is proposed. The developed alternating current electroluminescent devices (ACEL) consist of the electroless plating Ni on filter paper and silver nanowires (AgNWs) as the bottom and upper electrodes, and ZnS:Cu as the phosphor layer, respectively. The proposed humidity sensor is based on ACEL with the paper substrate and the ZnS:Cu phosphor layer as the humidity sensing element. The moisture effect on the optical properties of ACELs has been studied firstly. Then, the processing parameters of the paper-based ACELs such as electroless plated bottom electrode and spin-coated phosphor layer as a function of the humidity-sensitive characteristics are investigated. The sensing mechanism of the proposed sensor has been elucidated based on the Q ~ V analysis. The sensor exhibits an excellent linearity ( R 2 = 0.99965 ) within the humidity range from 20% to 90% relative humidity (RH) and shows excellent flexibility. We also demonstrate its potential application in postharvest preservation where the EL light is used for preservation and the humidity can be monitored simultaneously through the current.

This work describes the use of a paper substrate for electro-optical detection of toxic hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas. For electrical detection, a chemiresistive type of gas sensor was developed. Ultrathin gold film electrodes (UTGFE) were produced by physical vapor deposition of gold on nanostructured latex-coated paper substrate. The gas-sensing film was deposited on the electrodes by inkjet printing. The sensing films were characterized by atomic force microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and conductometry. The sensing films showed more than seven orders of magnitude change in resistance when exposed to as low as 1 part per million (ppm) H2S gas at room temperature. Besides resistive response, the change in color of the sensing films was studied on a paper substrate, both as a function of print density of the sensing material and H2S concentration. For quantification of the analyte the red, green and blue color deconvolution was performed on the pictures of the paper strip indicator using an open source software. A clear response was obtained from the blue channel. The inexpensive disposable color strips produced on the paper substrate can be used for qualitative and quantitative detection (as low as 1.5 ppm) of H2S gas. Electro-Optical Gas Sensor Consisting of Nanostructured Paper Coating and an Ultrathin Sensing Element

Food safety and access to systematic approaches for ensuring detection of food hazards is an important issue in most developing countries. With the arrival of paper-based analytical devices (&micro, PADs) as a promising, rapid, easy-to-use, and low-cost analytical tool, we demonstrated a simple microfluidic-based titration study for the analysis of packaged fruit juices. Similar, to the titration experiments using traditional glassware in chemistry laboratories, in this study the titration experiments were developed using paper microfluidics for the analysis of several analytes such as pH, vitamin C, sugars, and preservatives present in the packaged fruit juices. The allergen found commonly in dairy based mixtures and the non-pathogenic biochemical component responsible for food spoilage in cider based fruit juices were also determined. The results obtained using paper microfluidics were compared with those obtained using a conventional spectrophotometric technique. Finally, a paper microfluidics based multiplexed sensor was developed for the analysis of common nutritional ingredients, an allergen, and a non-pathogenic byproduct present in packaged fruit juices on a single platform. Overall, the results presented in this study reveal that the proposed paper microfluidic assisted colorimetric multiplexed sensor offers a quick and reliable tool for on-spot routine analysis for food safety applications.

Tetracycline is widely used as medicine for disease treatments and additives in animal feeding. Unfortunately, the abuse of tetracycline inevitably causes tetracycline residue in animal-origin foods. Though classical methods can detect tetracycline in high sensitivity and precision, they often rely on huge and expensive setups as well as complicated and time-consuming operations, limiting their applications in rapid and on-site detection. Here, we propose a handheld inkjet printing paper chip based smart tetracycline detector: tetracycline can be determined by inkjet printing prepared paper chip based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with the advantages of high sensitivity, excellent specificity and low cost, moreover, a smartphone based paper chip reader and application is designed for automatically determining tetracycline with simple operations, high precision and fast speed. The smart tetracycline detector with a compact size of 154 mm × 80 mm × 50 mm and self-supplied internal power can reach a rather low detection limit of ~0.05 ng/mL, as proved by practical measurements. It is believed the proposed handheld inkjet printing paper chip based smart tetracycline detector is a potential tool in antibiotic sensing for routine uses at home and on-site detection in the field.

Microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (microPADs) have emerged as a promising platform for point-of-care diagnostic devices. While the inherent wicking properties of microPADs allow for fluid flow without supporting equipment, this also presents a major challenge in achieving robust fluid control, which becomes especially important when performing complex multi-step assays. Herein, we describe an ideal method of fluid control mediated by wax-printed fluidic time delays. This method relies on a simple fabrication technique, does not utilize chemicals/reagents that could affect downstream assays, is readily scalable, and has a wide temporal range of tunable fluid control. The delays are wax printed on both the top and bottom of pre-fabricated microPAD channels, without subsequent heating, to create hemi-/fully-enclosed channels. With these wax printed delays, we were able to tune the time it took aqueous solutions to wick across a 25 mm-long channel between 3.6 min and 13.4 min. We then employed these fluid delays in the sequential delivery of four dyes to a test zone. Additionally, we demonstrated the automation of two simple enzymatic assays with this fluid control modality. This method of fluid control may allow future researchers to automate more complex assays, thereby further advancing microPADs toward real-world applications.

In this work we present the development of a low-cost humidity and temperature sensing platform on paper by inkjet printing, using a commercial AgNPs conductive ink. The humidity sensing module was capable of measuring relative humidity in the range of 0⁻90%rH, exhibiting linear response with minimal memory effect when returning to 0%rH baseline signal while the temperature sensor performed linearly as well in the range of 25⁻75°C. Process repeatability has been verified by electrical and optical characterization. Mechanical bending results highlight the platform’s capability to serve as an easy to install, flexible multi-parametric sensing platform.

This editorial deals with the most cited papers published in the years 2018–2019 in the section “Polymer Theory and Simulation” of the journal Polymers. They are mainly regular research articles, but two reviews are also present in this analysis. The main topics appear related to (nano)composites, entangled polymers, ring polymers, nanotubes, polyelectrolytes, brushes and polymers at interfaces. The most used simulation methods are molecular dynamics, Brownian dynamics, and Monte Carlo, with the only exception being a paper dealing with metamaterials. The evolution of the fraction of publications falling into one of these fields over the past 50 years is visualized in Figure 1. Figure 2 shows the same data differently, so that the focus is on the qualitative rather than quantitative evolution within areas of research. In the following, and inline with the spirit of this short editorial we are going to review the most cited works in the order of their number of citations, rather than by discipline. [...]

A flexible pressure sensor with a rudimentary, ultra-low cost, and solvent-free fabrication process is presented in this paper. The sensor has a graphite-on-paper stacked paper structure, which deforms and restores its shape when pressure is applied and released, showing an exceptionally fast response and relaxation time of &asymp, 0.4 ms with a sensitivity of &minus, 5%/Pa. Repeatability of the sensor over 1000 cycles indicates an excellent long-term stability. The sensor demonstrated fast and reliable human touch interface, and successfully integrated into a robot gripper to detect grasping forces, showing high promise for use in robotics, human interface, and touch devices.

Breath analysis is considered to be an effective method for point-of-care diagnosis due to its noninvasiveness, quickness and simplicity. Gas sensors for breath analysis require detection of low-concentration substances. In this paper, we propose that reduction of the background current improves the limit of detection of enzymatic biogas sensors utilizing chromatography paper. After clarifying the cause of the background current, we reduced the background current by improving the fabrication process of the sensors utilizing paper. Finally, we evaluated the limit of detection of the sensor with the sample vapor of ethanol gas. The experiment showed about a 50% reduction of the limit of detection compared to previously-reported sensor. This result presents the possibility of the sensor being applied in diagnosis, such as for diabetes, by further lowering the limit of detection.

I have the honor of writing this editorial note on the top 5 cited papers published in 2018 in the section of Biocatalysis of the Catalyst journal [...]

In the last 20 years, with the liberalization of the economy, and the trend of industrial globalization, people have gradually paid more attention to environmental protection. With the tremendous advances in information technology, enterprises facing such a severe impact on the business operations, business administrative models must be innovative and adaptable in order to survive and flourish. The paper industry is not only a highly polluting industry, but in the case of long-term overcapacity, the price of paper products is often suppressed, which lowers profitability. The purpose of this study, which is based on the production data of a paper company, is to pose a mathematical programming decision model which integrates green manufacturing technologies, activity-based costing (ABC), and the theory of constraint (TOC), this model should assist in preparing the best production plans, and achieve the optimal profitable product mix. In addition, this study also proposes that the most popular related technologies developed by Industry 4.0 be applied to production control in recent years in order to enhance production efficiency and quality. The findings of this study should contribute to the improvement of the competitiveness of the paper industry, and provide insights into the value of an integrated mathematical programming model applied for product-mix decision. At the same time, we have also applied the related technologies developed by Industry 4.0 to machine maintenance and quality control in manufacturing workshops. With its tremendous benefits, we can actively arouse the industry&rsquo, s understanding of, and attention to, Industry 4.0, thereby increasing the interest in industrial 4.0-related technology investments.

An investigation has been carried out to explore the lignin-degrading ability of white rot fungi, as B. adusta and P. crysosporium, grown in different media containing (i) glucose and mineral salts; (ii) a dairy residue; (iii) a dairy residue and mineral salts. Both fungi were then used as inoculum to treat synthetic and industrial pulp-and-paper mill wastewater. On synthetic wastewater, up to 97% and 74% of lignin degradation by B. adusta and P. crysosporium, respectively, have been reached. On industrial wastewater, both fungal strains were able to accomplish 100% delignification in 8–10 days, independent from pH control, with a significant reduction of total organic carbon (TOC) of the solution. Results have confirmed the great biotechnological potential of both B. adusta and P. crysosporium for complete lignin removal in industrial wastewater, and can open the way to next industrial applications on large scale.

This is a memorial paper for Prof [...]

Paper-based analytical devices are an emerging class of lightweight and simple-to-use analytical platform. However, challenges such as instrumental requirements and chemical reagents durability, represent a barrier for less-developed countries and markets. Herein, we report an advanced laminated device using red emitting copper nanocluster and RGB digital analysis for signal improvement. Upon RGB system assistance, the device signal-to-background ratio and the calibration sensitivity are highly enhanced under a filter-free setup. In addition, the calibration sensitivity, limit of detection, and coefficient of determination are on par with those determined by instrumental fluorescence analysis. Moreover, the limitation of using oxidation-susceptible fluorescent nanomaterials is overcome by the introduction of protecting tape barriers, antioxidative sheets, and lamination enclosing. The robustness of device is highly advanced, and the durability is prolonged to more than tenfold.

Attention to the environment and its problems has undergone unprecedented growth in recent years [...]

Nowadays, forecasting applications are receiving unprecedent attention thanks to their capability to improve the decision-making processes by providing useful indications [...]

Today, there are many recent developments that focus on improving the electric vehicles and their components, particularly regarding advances in batteries, energy management systems, autonomous features and charging infrastructure. This plays an important role in developing next electric vehicle generations, and encourages more efficient and sustainable eco-system. This paper not only provides insights in the latest knowledge and developments of electric vehicles (EVs), but also the new promising and novel EV technologies based on scientific facts and figures—which could be from a technological point of view feasible by 2030. In this paper, potential design and modelling tools, such as digital twin with connected Internet-of-Things (IoT), are addressed. Furthermore, the potential technological challenges and research gaps in all EV aspects from hard-core battery material sciences, power electronics and powertrain engineering up to environmental assessments and market considerations are addressed. The paper is based on the knowledge of the 140+ FTE counting multidisciplinary research centre MOBI-VUB, that has a 40-year track record in the field of electric vehicles and e-mobility.

Although recycling is considered the core of a circular economy for returning materials to the supply chain, its procedures are poorly understood. Waste recycling is considered a big source of energy saving and a promoter of CO2 recovery. Besides that, it generates jobs and changes markets worldwide. The Brasilian National Policy on Solid Waste (PNRS) recognizes Waste Pickers as the major social agent in the recycling process responsible for putting Brasil among the ten largest paper-recycling countries in the world. This paper presents an analysis of Brasilian recycling chains of paper and plastics and the main challenges for expanding recycling from Municipal solid waste. The research data were obtained from primary and secondary source related to the recycling supply chain of paper and of the following plastics—High Density Polyethylene (HDPE),Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE), Polypropylene(PP), Polyethylene Terephthalate(PET) and Polystyrene(PS). Enterprises of various sizes, including informal ones and WPs associations/cooperatives, were visited, in the five Brasilian geographic regions, during the years of 2013 and 2014. A nomenclature was defined for the various enterprises that operate in the Brasilian recycling chain. Each node of the plastic and paper recycling chain was described. The main bottleneck observed in these chains is the lack of continuous programs of selective collection with an emphasis on environmental education processes in the 5570 Brasilian municipalities. Several possibilities not only to promote waste recycling but also to increase the productivity of the sorting process are discussed.

In this perspective article, some of the latest paper and fiber-based bio-analytical platforms are summarized, along with their fabrication strategies, the processing behind the product development, and the embedded systems in which paper or fiber materials were integrated. The article also reviews bio-recognition applications of paper/fiber-based devices, the detected analytes of interest, applied detection techniques, the related evaluation parameters, the type and duration of the assays, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each technique. Moreover, some of the existing challenges of utilizing paper and/or fiber materials are discussed. These include control over the physical characteristics (porosity, permeability, wettability) and the chemical properties (surface functionality) of paper/fiber materials are discussed. Other aspects of the review focus on shelf life, the multi-functionality of the platforms, readout strategies, and other challenges that have to be addressed in order to obtain reliable detection outcomes. Keywords: paper-based bio-analytical devices; shelf life; equipment-free bio-recognition; flow rate; readout strategies; multi-functional platforms

This paper reflects the technology-induced novelty of translation, which is perceived as a bridge between languages and cultures. We debate the extent to which the translation process maintains its specificity in the light of the new technology-enhanced working methods ensured by a large variety of Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) and Machine Translation (MT) tools that aim to enhance the process, which includes the translation itself, the translator, the translation project manager, the linguist, the terminologist, the reviewer, and the client. This paper also hints at the topic from the perspective of the translation teacher, who needs to provide students with transversal competencies that are suitable for the digital area, supported by the ability to tackle Cloud-based translation tools, in view of Industry 4.0 requirements.

Most power transformers operating in a power system possess oil-paper insulation. A serious defect of this type of insulation, which is associated with long operation time, is an increase in the moisture content. Moisture introduces a number of threats to proper operation of the transformer, e.g., ignition of partial discharges (PDs). Due to the varying temperature of the insulation system during the unit’s normal operation, a dynamic change (migration of water) takes place, precipitating the oil-paper system from a state of hydrodynamic equilibrium. This causes the PDs to be variable in time, and they may intensify or extinguish. Studies on model objects have been conducted to determine the conditions (temperature, humidity, time) that will have an impact on the ignition and intensity of the observed phenomenon of PDs. The conclusions of this study will have a practical application in the evaluation of measurements conducted in the field, especially in relation to the registration of an online PD monitoring system.

Applied Sciences has achieved a major milestone this year: it is the 10th anniversary of the journal [...]

The present Special Issue concerns the papers which have been presented at the fifth edition of the Global Conference on Catalysis, Chemical Engineering & Technology (CAT 2019) that promote linkage of the catalytic science, engineering and technology. The topics of the conference have covered various aspects of catalysis in all of its diversity, as well as the areas of the chemical engineering and technology [...]

Acoustics (ISSN 2624-599X) is an open access peer-reviewed journal published quarterly online by MDPI [...]

An inkjet-printed, fully passive sensor capable of either humidity or gas sensing is presented herein. The sensor is composed of an interdigitated electrode, a customized printable gas sensitive ink and a specialized dipole antenna for wireless sensing. The interdigitated electrode printed on a paper substrate provides the base conductivity that varies during the sensing process. Aided by the porous nature of the substrate, a change in relative humidity from 18% to 88% decreases the electrode resistance from a few Mega-ohms to the kilo-ohm range. For gas sensing, an additional copper acetate-based customized ink is printed on top of the electrode, which, upon reaction with hydrogen sulphide gas (H2S) changes, both the optical and the electrical properties of the electrode. A fast response time of 3 min is achieved at room temperature for a H2S concentration of 10 ppm at a relative humidity (RH) of 45%. The passive wireless sensing is enabled through an antenna in which the inner loop takes care of conductivity changes in the 4–5 GHz band, whereas the outer-dipole arm is used for chipless identification in the 2–3 GHz band.

This study analyses how Spanish universities are communicating their commitment to sustainability to society. That entailed analysing the content of their websites and their scientific papers in sustainability science and technologies and measuring the impact of such research in social media. Results obtained from bibliometric approaches and institutional document analysis attest to intensified interest in sustainability among Spanish universities in recent years. The findings revealed an increase in the number of universities using terms associated with sustainability to designate the governing bodies. The present study also uses an activity index to identify universities that devote high effort to research on sustainability and seven Spanish universities were identified with output greater than 3% of the total. Mentions in social media were observed to have grown significantly in the last 10 years, with 38% of the sustainability papers receiving such attention, compared to 21% in 2010. Publications in open access journals have had a greater impact on social media, especially on Twitter and Facebook. The analysis of university websites showed that only 30% had social media accounts and only 6% blogs specifically designed to disseminate their sustainability activities, This research was funded by the Madrid Regional Government and the European Social Fund, Project “Towards the Consolidation of Inclusive Cities: A Challenge for Madrid” (H2019/HUM-5744)

This paper evaluates an editorial and seven invaluable and interesting review papers for the Journal of Risk and Financial Management (JRFM). The topics covered include the rising complexity of bank regulatory capital requirements from global guidelines to their United States (US) implementation, connections among big data, computational science, economics, finance, marketing, management and psychology, factors, outcome, and the solutions of supply chain finance, with a review and future directions, time-varying price-volume relationship, adaptive market efficiency, and a survey of the empirical literature, improved covariance matrix estimation for portfolio risk measurement, stock investment and excess returns, with a critical review in the light of the efficient market hypothesis, and a cross section analysis of country equity returns, and a review of the empirical literature.

Timely evaluation and reperfusion have improved the myocardial salvage and the subsequent recovery rate of the patients hospitalized with acute myocardial infarction (MI). Long waiting time and time-consuming procedures of in-hospital diagnostic testing severely affect the timeliness. We present a Poincare pattern ensemble-based method with the consideration of multi-correlated non-stationary stochastic system dynamics to localize the infarct-related artery (IRA) in acute MI by fully harnessing information from paper-based Electrocardiogram (ECG). The vectorcardiogram (VCG) diagnostic features extracted from only 2.5-s long paper ECG recordings were used to hierarchically localize the IRA&mdash, not mere localization of the infarcted cardiac tissues&mdash, in acute MI. Paper ECG records and angiograms of 106 acute MI patients collected at the Heart Artery and Vein Center at Fresno California and the 12-lead ECG signals from the Physionet PTB online database were employed to validate the proposed approach. We reported the overall accuracies of 97.41% for healthy control (HC) vs. MI, 89.41 &plusmn, 9.89 for left and right culprit arteries vs. others, 88.2 &plusmn, 11.6 for left main arteries vs. right-coronary-ascending (RCA) and 93.67 &plusmn, 4.89 for left-anterior-descending (LAD) vs. left-circumflex (LCX). The IRA localization from paper ECG can be used to timely triage the patients with acute coronary syndromes to the percutaneous coronary intervention facilities.

This Special Issue on “Selected Papers from IEEE ICASI 2018” includes excellent papers presented at the IEEE ICASI 2018 regarding the “applied system innovation” topic. Mechanical engineering and design innovations are both academic and practical engineering fields, which involve systematic technological materialization through scientific principles and engineering designs. Technological innovations in mechanical engineering include IT-based intelligent mechanical systems, mechanics and design innovations, and applied materials in nanosciences and nanotechnology. The aim is to encourage the attendees at the IEEE ICASI 2018 to publish their experimental and theoretical research relating to applied system innovation.

The comments sent by Stehr, Lundstom and Karlsson with reference to our article “Calmangafodipir reduces sensory alterations and prevents intraepidermal nerve fiber loss in a mouse model of oxaliplatin-induced peripheral neurotoxicity“ are very interesting, since they suggest possible mechanisms of action of the compound, which might contribute to its protective action [...]

Paper-based sensors are a new alternative technology for fabricating simple, low-cost, portable and disposable analytical devices for many application areas including clinical diagnosis, food quality control and environmental monitoring. The unique properties of paper which allow passive liquid transport and compatibility with chemicals/biochemicals are the main advantages of using paper as a sensing platform. Depending on the main goal to be achieved in paper-based sensors, the fabrication methods and the analysis techniques can be tuned to fulfill the needs of the end-user. Current paper-based sensors are focused on microfluidic delivery of solution to the detection site whereas more advanced designs involve complex 3-D geometries based on the same microfluidic principles. Although paper-based sensors are very promising, they still suffer from certain limitations such as accuracy and sensitivity. However, it is anticipated that in the future, with advances in fabrication and analytical techniques, that there will be more new and innovative developments in paper-based sensors. These sensors could better meet the current objectives of a viable low-cost and portable device in addition to offering high sensitivity and selectivity, and multiple analyte discrimination. This paper is a review of recent advances in paper-based sensors and covers the following topics: existing fabrication techniques, analytical methods and application areas. Finally, the present challenges and future outlooks are discussed.

This editorial examines the 10 most cited articles of 2018–2019 published in the “Environmental Catalysis” section of the Catalysts journal. The topics covered two strategies to meet the new standards of regulation and to protect the environment and human health: the primary prevention method, which consists [...]

The number of elderly people as a proportion of the world’s population is growing significantly. Special attention to the accessibility and mobility requirements of this group is needed. The contribution of this paper is a review of travel patterns, mode preferences, infrastructure solutions, accessibility indices, mode choice models and datasets as they relate to elderly mobility. Key findings highlight the role of residential location characteristics in shaping elderly travel patterns, helping to explain why research on elderly travel has largely relied on case studies to date. The review also summarizes a range of indices that have been developed to measure public transport and walking accessibility among the elderly, including distance and time-based methods. Future research should consider the dominance of private transport in facilitating elderly mobility and its implications for cities experiencing an aging population.

A simple method for microfluidic paper-based sample concentration using ion concentration polarization (ICP) with smartphone detection is developed. The concise and low-cost microfluidic paper-based ICP analytical device, which consists of a black backing layer, a nitrocellulose membrane, and two absorbent pads, is fabricated with the simple lamination method which is widely used for lateral flow strips. Sample concentration on the nitrocellulose membrane is monitored in real time by a smartphone whose camera is used to collect the fluorescence images from the ICP device. A custom image processing algorithm running on the smartphone is used to track the concentrated sample and obtain its fluorescence signal intensity for quantitative analysis. Two different methods for Nafion coating are evaluated and their performances are compared. The characteristics of the ICP analytical device especially with intentionally adjusted physical properties are fully evaluated to optimize its performance as well as to extend its potential applications. Experimental results show that significant concentration enhancement with fluorescence dye sample is obtained with the developed ICP device when a fast depletion of fluorescent dye is observed. The platform based on the simply laminated ICP device with smartphone detection is desired for point-of-care testing in settings with poor resources.