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Mitigation of global warming, energy security and industrial competitiveness urge the energy-intensive pulp and paper industry (PPI) to transform energy use practices. This study investigates how the PPI has responded to the need for the energy transition in the 2000s. Finland and Sweden as forerunners of energy-efficient operation and decarbonization of the PPI are used as target countries. Understanding of changes in energy consumption is complemented using decomposition analysis (Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index Method) and the energy efficiency index approach. Analysis of companies’ investments in energy technologies is used for explaining changes in energy production. Evidence of significant development towards the more sustainable operation of the PPI was found. Energy consumption per produced unit has decreased, i.e., energy efficiency has improved. Fossil fuels have been partially replaced with bio-based alternatives. Thus, the CO2 intensity has decreased substantially. The generation of renewable electricity has increased in both countries. Examples of Finland and Sweden indicate that the PPI has great potential to contribute to CO2 emission reduction worldwide in the future as energy efficiency can be further improved, and the share of fossil fuels can be decreased increasing the use of biofuels and self-generated green electricity at least in kraft pulp mills.

A wide variety of biomass is available all around the world. Most of the biomass exists as a by-product from manufacturing industries. Pulp and paper mills contribute to a higher amount of these biomasses mostly discarded in the landfills creating an environmental burden. Biomasses from other sources have been used to produce different kinds and grades of biomaterials such as those used in industrial and medical applications. The present review aims to investigate the availability of biomass from pulp and paper mills and show sustainable routes for the production of high value-added biomaterials. The study reveals that using conventional and integrated biorefinery technology the ample variety and quantity of waste generated from pulp and paper mills can be converted into wealth. As per the findings of the current review, it is shown that high-performance carbon fiber and bioplastic can be manufactured from black liquor of pulping waste; the cellulosic waste from sawdust and sludge can be utilized for the synthesis of CNC and regenerated fibers such as viscose rayon and acetate; the mineral-based pulping wastes and fly ash can be used for manufacturing of different kinds of biocomposites. The different biomaterials obtained from the pulp and paper mill biomass can be used for versatile applications including conventional, high performance, and smart materials. Through customization and optimization of the conversion techniques and product manufacturing schemes, a variety of engineering materials can be obtained from pulp and paper mill wastes realizing the current global waste to wealth developmental approach.

In this paper, we present a system for automatic evaluation of the quality of a question paper. Question paper plays a major role in educational assessment. The quality of a question paper is crucial to fulfilling the purpose of the assessment. In many education sectors, question papers are prepared manually. A prior analysis of a question paper might help in finding the errors in the question paper, and better achieving the goals of the assessment. In this experiment, we focus on higher education in the technical domain. First, we conducted a student survey to identify the key factors that affect the quality of a question paper. The top factors we identified are question relevance, question difficulty, and time requirement. We explored the strategies to handle these factors and implemented them. We employ various concepts and techniques for the implementation. The system finally assigns a numerical quality score against these factors. The system is evaluated using a set of question papers collected from various sources. The experimental results show that the proposed system is quite promising.

In society, there is widespread and growing acceptance of the value of cooperation between industry and universities being collaborative Research and Development (R&D) domain and industrial policy the fuel of knowledge-based economies. In this paper, different domains of cooperation between the University and Industry as well as their generated benefits for each partner are identified. These benefits have been assigned to each domain of cooperation, showing a large number of benefits associated to collaborative R&D. Leading us to make a statement - collaborative R&D is the key cooperation domain for sustainable long-term university-industry partnerships. Suggestions are given about how to continue this research study.

Background The implementation of an electronic health record (EHR) with structured and standardized recording of patient data can improve data quality and reusability. Whether and how users perceive these advantages may depend on the preimplementation situation. Objective To determine whether the influence of implementing a structured and standardized EHR on perceived EHR use, data quality, and data reuse differed for users working with paper-based records versus a legacy EHR before implementation. Methods We used an electronic questionnaire to measure users' perception before implementation (2014), expected change, and perceived change after implementation (2016) on three themes. We included all health care professionals in two university hospitals in the Netherlands. Before jointly implementing the same structured and standardized EHR, one hospital used paper-based records and the other a legacy EHR. We compared perceptions before and after implementation for both centers. Additionally, we compared expected benefit with perceived benefit. Results We received 7,611 responses (4,537 before and 3,074 after implementation) of which 5,707 (75%) were from professionals reading and recording patient data. A total of 975 (13%) professionals responded to both before and after implementation questionnaires. In the formerly paper-based center staff perceived improvement in all themes after implementation. The legacy EHR center experienced deterioration of perceived EHR use and data reuse, and only one improvement in EHR use. In both centers, for half of the aspects at least 45% of responders experienced results worse than expected preimplementation. Conclusion Our results indicate that the preimplementation recording practice impacts the perceived effect of the implementation of a structured and standardized EHR. For almost half of the respondents the new EHR did not meet their expectations. Especially legacy EHR centers need to investigate the expectations as these might be different and less clear cut than those in paper-based centers. These expectations need to be addressed appropriately to achieve a successful implementation.

Objective: To compare the effectiveness of mobile video-guided home exercise program and standard paper-based home exercise program. Methods: Eligible participants were randomly assigned to either experimental group with mobile video-guided home exercise program or control group with home exercise program in a standard pamphlet for three months. The primary outcome was exercise adherence. The secondary outcomes were self-efficacy for exercise by Self-Efficacy for Exercise (SEE) Scale; and functional outcomes including mobility level by Modified Functional Ambulatory Category (MFAC) and basic activities of daily living (ADL) by Modified Barthel Index (MBI). All outcomes were captured by phone interviews at 1 day, 1 month and 3 months after the participants were discharged from the hospitals. Results: A total of 56 participants were allocated to the experimental group [Formula: see text] and control group [Formula: see text]. There were a significant between-group differences in 3-months exercise adherence (experimental group: 75.6%; control group: 55.2%); significant between-group differences in 1-month SEE (experimental group: 58.4; control group: 43.3) and 3-month SEE (experimental group: 62.2; control group: 45.6). For functional outcomes, there were significant between-group differences in 3-month MFAC gain (experimental group: 1.7; control group: 1.0). There were no between-group differences in MBI gain. Conclusion: The use of mobile video-guided home exercise program was superior to standard paper-based home exercise program in exercise adherence, SEE and mobility gain but not basic ADL gain for patients recovering from stroke.

This paper presents a broadband, simple, re-useable and low-cost approach for noninvasive sweat monitoring using a passive microwave circuit and a cellulose filter paper as a superstrate. The proposed sensor is composed of filter paper with the ability to absorb the sample liquid under test (LUT) placed on top of a coplanar waveguide (CPW) transmission line. Various samples of sodium chloride (NaCl) solutions with concentrations in the range of 0.01-2 mol/L and models of artificial sweat are used to test the proposed sensor. The difference in transmission coefficient (S21) between dry and wet states is used to determine the concentrations of tested solutions in the band of 1-6 GHz. The sensor detects concentrations as low as 0.01 mol/L (0.58 g/L) and quantities as low as 137 μL with a maximum sensitivity of 46.7 dB/g/L. The proposed sensor presents a simple approach to sample and characterize liquids with enhanced sensitivity and consistent performance using microwave signals.

Waste-to-energy or value-added products have been increasingly considered in many pulp and paper mills (PPMs) worldwide. However, developing appropriate conversion technologies is a major challenge in transforming PPMs wastes into biofuels or value-added biomaterials. In the present study, a long-term (320 d) anaerobic digestion of primary sludge of a thermomechanical pulp mill (TMP) was carried out for the first time in a thermophilic anaerobic membrane bioreactor (ThAnMBR). Effect of organic loading rate (OLR) in the range of 2.5–6.8 kg-COD/m3 d and hydraulic retention times (HRT) of 3–8 d on the process performance was investigated. Under various OLRs, stable biogas productions were obtained, and the best results were achieved with lower OLR (2.5 kg-COD/m3 d) and higher HRT (8 d), at biogas yields of 189 L biogas/kg MLSS fed. However, it was found that biogas production and sludge biomass degradation decrease when the organic loading rate increases. The proportion of sludge reduction ranged from 28.9 to 46.7% depending on the applied OLRs. Despite varying OLRs, stable membrane performance was obtained, where the required membrane flux was easily maintained during the reactor operation. In this study, also the properties of digestate and membrane permeates were studied under different operating conditions, and they fluctuated to some extent with OLR. ThAnMBR is a promising new technology for pulp and paper mill primary sludge treatment.

Unprinting of paper can reduce multiple life-cycle stages in the recycling of paper to yield significant environmental impact. Laser-unprinting has been demonstrated for uncoated paper but causes significant damage to coated paper. This work explores a scalable optical (non-laser) process for unprinting coated paper. Printed coated paper is exposed to pulsed broad-spectrum Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) from a xenon lamp and the toner is then removed by dabbing gently with an ethanol wipe. While black toner is easily unprinted, unprinting of colored prints (red, blue, green) is best realized by incorporating an initial overprint of black toner. An unprinting throughput on the order of mm2/s is achieved. Three distinct regimes of unprinting are identified based on the extent of toner removal and damage of the paper. The optical properties of the unprinted paper, characterized via UV–Visible spectrophotometry, are correlated to these regimes to understand the potential for in-situ optical process monitoring. Scanning Electron Micrography and Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy are performed to understand the underlying mechanisms that govern the occurrence of the different unprinting regimes. Further, the potential impact of the developed approach on recycling of paper is discussed in the context of the capabilities of current optical unprinting approaches and the potential elimination of life-cycle stages in conventional paper recycling.

The recycling of waste paper has been an effective way to achieve the environmental-friendly growth of papermaking industry. Focusing on the mixed-pulping process which has been generally employed, to ensure the required properties of the deinking pulp (DIP) and minimize the purchase cost of waste paper, an intelligent model scheduling the mixing ratio of waste paper was developed in the study. Primarily, driven by the field data of mixing ratio of waste paper and DIP properties, the prediction models of DIP properties were developed by SVM, GA-SVM, and BP-NN algorithms. Subsequently, based on the best prediction model, the scheduling model for the mixing ratio of waste paper was set up by NSGAII algorithm. The experimental results showed that, based on the obtained best BP-NN prediction model of DIP properties, the developed NSGAII scheduling model for the ratio of waste paper could achieve excellent scheduling results under the rigorous constraints and multi-objective. Compared with the previous study, the developed prediction and scheduling models in this study reduced the purchase cost of waste paper by 2.16%, and improved the acceptable proportion of DIP property from 56.07% to 100%.

Background: Although some have noted that combining technical and marketing content is precarious, technical communication professionals are increasingly involved in content marketing, which includes the creation of white papers. Literature review: The little existing literature on white papers provides conflicting guidance about managing the combination of technical and marketing content. Both soft-sell and hard-sell marketing approaches have been recommended. One source of such inconsistent guidance may be the lack of agreement about definitions. Research on print advertisements has described hard and soft selling as multidimensional rather than binary aspects of persuasive appeals. Research question: Which dimensions of hard- and soft-sell appeals are predominant in white papers? Research methodology: To complete our descriptive study, we collected a corpus of documents labeled as white papers in TechRepublic, and then selected and trained three raters to complete a series of judgments about dimensions of persuasive appeals in the corpus. We aggregated those ratings, calculating the mean and standard deviation for the dimensions to describe their distribution across the corpus. Results/discussion: Overall, hard-sell dimensions were more prevalent than soft-sell dimensions. However, the soft-sell category of “implicitness” was also dominant. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate the value of treating hard and soft selling as multidimensional, complementary, and combinatory marketing appeals that allow, for example, a single white paper to be both “subjective” (soft sell), and “precise” (hard sell), or both “creative” (soft sell) and “informative” (hard sell).

International audience; This paper focuses on the problem of the hierarchical multi‐label classification of research papers, which is the task of assigning the set of relevant labels for a paper from a hierarchy, using reduced amounts of labelled training data. Specifically, we study leveraging unlabelled data, which are usually plentiful and easy to collect, in addition to the few available labelled ones in a semi‐supervised learning framework for achieving better performance results. Thus, in this paper, we propose a semi‐supervised approach for the hierarchical multi‐label classification task of research papers based on the well‐known Co‐training algorithm, which exploit content and bibliographic coupling information as two distinct papers' views. In our approach, two hierarchical multi‐label classifiers, are learnt on different views of the labelled data, and iteratively select their most confident unlabelled samples, which are further added to the labelled set. The success of our suggested Co‐training‐based approach lies in two main components. The first is the use of two suggested selection criteria (i.e., Maximum Agreement and Labels Cardinality Consistency) that enforce selecting confident unlabelled samples. The second is the appliance of an oversampling method that rebalances the labels distribution of the initial labelled set, which reduces the reinforcement of the label imbalance issue during the Co‐training learning. The proposed approach is evaluated using a collection of scientific papers extracted from the ACM digital library. Performed experiments show the effectiveness of our approach with regards to several baseline methods.

With the increasing advance of computer and information technologies, numerous research papers have been published online as well as offline, and as new research fields have been continuingly created, users have a lot of trouble in finding and categorizing their interesting research papers. In order to overcome the limitations, this paper proposes a research paper classification system that can cluster research papers into the meaningful class in which papers are very likely to have similar subjects. The proposed system extracts representative keywords from the abstracts of each paper and topics by Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) scheme. Then, the K-means clustering algorithm is applied to classify the whole papers into research papers with similar subjects, based on the Term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) values of each paper.

There is a lot of investment in research on displaying texture through a stylus pen. However, little is known about the effect of a stylus pen that can provide the texture of pen and paper on user experience. This study investigated whether there is a change in user experience when using a stylus pen that can provide pen-and-paper texture compared with a typical stylus pen. Experiments involving writing and drawing tasks using three tools (a stylus pen that can provide pen-and-paper texture, a typical stylus pen, and analogue pen and paper) were conducted, and user experiences were compared. After a literature review that examined the factors affecting the experience of using a pen, the experiments were conducted to measure usability and emotions. We found little difference between the typical stylus pen and the stylus pen in providing texture in respect of completion time and amount of error. However, the stylus pen that can provide texture showed results closer to those of the analogue pen and paper, and better results than those of the typical stylus pen in respect of familiarity and overall satisfaction of the usability and emotional variables. Therefore, this study confirmed that user experience is improved when using a stylus pen that can provide the texture of pen and paper. Daar is al baie belê en nagevors in die nabootsing van die pen-op-papier gevoel van 'n elektroniese stilus. Daar is egter weinige inligting beskikbaar oor die effek wat tekstuur op gebruikers-ervaring het. Hierdie studie ondersoek of daar n verandering in gebruikerservaring is wanneer n stilus met pen-op-papier terugvoer gebruik word teenoor n tipiese stilus wat nie terugvoer aan die gebruiker lewer nie. Eksperimente wat skryf en teken-take insluit is met drie gereedskapstukke (n stilus met pen-op-papier terugvoer, n tipiese stilus, en n konvensionele pen op papier) uitgevoer. Na n literatuurstudie van stapel gestuur is, is die eksperimente uitgevoer om die bruikbaarheid en subjektiewe terugvoer van die gebruiker te bepaal. Die resultate toon min verskil tussen n tipiese stilus en een met die pen-op-papier gevoel, beide in terme van die tyd om die take te voltooi en die aantal foute begaan. Die stilus met pen-op-papier terugvoer se vertoning was nader aan die van n tradisionele pen, asook beter subjektiewe terugvoer van die gebruiker in terme van vertroudheid en algehele bevrediging. Die gevolgtrekking is dus dat n stilus met pen-op-papier terugvoer gebruikerservaring verbeter.

Microbial fuel cell is a promising technology to harvest energy from wastewater, and effective anode catalysts are essential for its applications. In this study, zero-dimension nitrogen-doped carbon dots, as biocompatible efficient modifiers, were synthesized and decorated onto the carbon paper surface to prepare microbial fuel cell anode. The as-fabricated nitrogen-doped carbon dots decorated carbon paper anode was able to enhance electricity generation and efficient wastewater treatment. It was found that the as-fabricated electrode had a high hydrophilicity, which was favorable for the microbial immobilization. Compared with the carbon paper anode, the biofilm on the as-prepared anode was almost twice of thickness. After introducing nitrogen-doped carbon dots, the extracellular electron transfer process from the microorganisms to the anode was enhanced. The microbial fuel cell with the as-developed anode generated a remarkable power output of 0.32 mW, 1.1 times higher than that of the raw carbon paper anode with same measurement area. Moreover, 16 sRNA pyrosequencing analysis shows that the quantity of Pseudomonas on the electrode increased by ∼40%, which also promoted the electron transfer rate by excreting mediators like phenazines or phenazine derivatives. This work developed a new approach to design microbial fuel cell anode material and fabricate a high-efficiency and environmentally friendly anode for electricity generation from wastewater.

This study estimates efficiency in energy utilization at firm level and feasible energy saving target of the pulp and paper industry in India. For this analysis, data is extracted from prowess database for a panel of 67 major pulp and paper producing firms over the period of 2003–04 to 2013–14. We employed radial and non-radial variants of data envelopment analysis to assess the feasible energy saving target with the current level of output. Particularly, we employed slack-based method with variable returns to scale as a flexible and pragmatic approach to performance analysis. Results reveal no significant improvement in the energy efficiency level of the firms over the study period and show vast energy saving potential. Results of slack-based measure of energy efficiency show the feasible energy saving potential of 40%. Further, size of the firm, age and financial performance are important factors that influence energy efficiency. Therefore, this study recommends special attention to the paper industry while implementing energy efficiency programme. We also reviewed four major policies for industrial energy efficiency improvement initiated by Bureau of Energy Efficiency, India.

In recent years, the use of microalgae as feedstock for many marketable products, such as animal/aqua feeds, bioplastics and fertilizers, has gained renewed interest due to their fast growth potential coupled with relatively high lipid, carbohydrate and nutrient content. An algal biorefinery at an industrial site has the potential to sustainably and profitably convert carbon dioxide emissions into microalgal biomass and concomitantly reduce nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewaters. Industrial wastewaters are a potential alternative to traditional media used for large-scale microalgal cultivation. Pulp and paper mills are major consumers of water resources and discharge a huge amount of water to nearby lakes or rivers. This study investigated whether pulp and paper mill waste water is suitable for microalgal cultivation with the aim of achieving significant biomass production. Six different process waters from one Canadian pulp and paper mill were tested with two freshwater green microalgae. All of these waters were unable to support growth of microalgae due to inadequate nutrient concentrations, colour, turbidity and possible toxicity issues. HIGHLIGHTS Two freshwater microalgae strains were screened for potential growth on pulp and paper effluents.; Pulp and paper wastewater effluents were unable to support growth of the microalgae.; Chemical residues from the pulping process, such as peroxide and tannin, may inhibit algal growth.

BACKGROUND Breast cancer remains the most common neoplasm diagnosed among women in China and globally. Health-related questionnaire assessments in research and clinical oncology settings have gained prominence. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network–Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy–Breast Cancer Symptom Index (NFBSI-16) is a rapid and powerful tool to help evaluate disease- or treatment-related symptoms, both physical and emotional, in patients with breast cancer for clinical and research purposes. Prevalence of individual smartphones provides a potential web-based approach to administrating the questionnaire; however, the reliability of the NFBSI-16 in electronic format has not been assessed. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to assess the reliability of a web-based NFBSI-16 questionnaire in breast cancer patients undergoing systematic treatment with a prospective open-label randomized crossover study design. METHODS We recruited random patients with breast cancer under systematic treatment from the central hospital registry to complete both paper- and web-based versions of the questionnaires. Both versions of the questionnaires were self-assessed. Patients were randomly assigned to group A (paper-based first and web-based second) or group B (web-based first and paper-based second). A total of 354 patients were included in the analysis (group A: n=177, group B: n=177). Descriptive sociodemographic characteristics, reliability and agreement rates for single items, subscales, and total score were analyzed using the Wilcoxon test. The Lin concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) and Spearman and Kendall τ rank correlations were used to assess test-retest reliability. RESULTS Test-retest reliability measured with CCCs was 0.94 for the total NFBSI-16 score. Significant correlations (Spearman ρ) were documented for all 4 subscales—Disease-Related Symptoms Subscale–Physical (ρ=0.93), Disease-Related Symptoms Subscale–Emotional (ρ=0.85), Treatment Side Effects Subscale (ρ=0.95), and Function and Well-Being Subscale (ρ=0.91)—and total NFBSI-16 score (ρ=0.94). Mean differences of the test and retest were all close to zero (≤0.06). The parallel test-retest reliability of subscales with the Wilcoxon test comparing individual items found GP3 (item 5) to be significantly different (P=.02). A majority of the participants in this study (255/354, 72.0%) preferred the web-based over the paper-based version. CONCLUSIONS The web-based version of the NFBSI-16 questionnaire is an excellent tool for monitoring individual breast cancer patients under treatment, with the majority of participants preferring it over the paper-based version.

The textile industry is resource-intensive, which has a significant impact on global emissions and waste pollution. To meet the demand of textiles over a third of fibres used in manufacturing are sourced from fossil fuels. As the global demand for textiles continues to grow, manufacturers are having to seek innovative approaches to providing sustainable and regenerative cellulose fibres. However, the latest climate change pressures on the textile industry have uncovered grave environmental issues associated with traditional regenerative cellulose production, such as the viscose manufacturing process. The viscose process requires intensive use of hazardous chemicals which leads to water pollution and ecotoxicity. In addition, if forestry products are unsustainably sourced for this process, this can lead to resource scarcity and deforestation. To provide a holistic solution for mitigating these challenges this study uses the by-products of paper manufacturing dissolved in an ionic liquid to produce regenerated cellulose filaments. Paper mill sludge (PMS) is a cellulosic by-product typically used on animal bedding and land spreading. The material has been dissolved in an ionic liquid - 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium diethyl phosphate - with the aid of a co-solvent dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) - and spun into continuous filaments for textile production. The mechanical properties of paper sludge filaments are found to be competitive with commercial viscose, which is promising for their drop-in replacement. It is also demonstrated that by increasing the concentration of the PMS from 9% to 12.4%, an improvement of the filament properties can be achieved; an increase in modulus from ∼19 GPa to ∼26 GPa and strength from ∼223 MPa to ∼282 MPa. These values are shown to be competitive with other commercial, less sustainable, regenerated cellulose fibres.

Continuous production of an integrated pulp and paper mill depends on the availability of paper machines. Reliability and maintainability are essential for accomplishing the availability of paper machines. This study investigates the reliability, availability and maintainability (RAM) characteristics of a 120 tonnes per day paper machine from a paper mill in southern region of India. The paper machine is divided into five subsystems for failure analysis. The data was analyzed for trend and serial correlation tests for validating the inference of independent and identical distribution of failure and repair information before each sub system is best fitted to the theoretical probability distributions. Reliability and maintainability of the paper machine has been evaluated at various times which are useful for establishing the preventive maintenance schedules for improving availability of the paper machine. Wire part is found to be more critical subsystem from all points of view and require improvement by 4% and 1.5% in maintainability and availability point of view. The results of the analysis are presented to maintenance department for their active consideration.Keywords: Paper machine, reliability, maintainability, availability, mean time between failures (MTBF), mean time to repair(MTTR), independent and identically distributed(IID)

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.

Ample interest for more efficient utilization of bio-based residues has emerged in the Nordic pulp and paper (P&P) industry, which uses virgin wood as feedstock. Although different bioenergy retrofit technologies for production of liquid, solid, and gaseous bioenergy products have been applied in the existing P&P mills, the number of installations remains small. The lack of profound knowledge of existing bioenergy retrofits hinders the replication and market uptake of potential technologies. This review synthesises the existing knowledge of European installations and identifies the key drivers and barriers for implementation to foster the market uptake of potential technologies. The bioenergy retrofits were reviewed in terms of technical maturity, drivers, barriers and market potential. Based on this evaluation, common drivers and barriers towards wider market uptake were outlined from political, economic, social, technical, environmental, and legal perspective. Technologies already commercially applied include anaerobic fermentation of sludge, bark gasification, tall oil diesel and bioethanol production, whereas lignin extraction, biomethanol production, hydrothermal liquefaction and hydrothermal carbonization are being demonstrated or first applications are under construction. The findings of this review show that a stable flow of residues at P&P mills creates a solid base for retrofitting. New innovative bio-based products would allow widening the companies' product portfolios and creating new businesses. Also, European Union's (EU) legislation drives towards advanced biofuels production. Wider uptake of the retrofitting technologies requires overcoming the barriers related to uncertainty of economic feasibility and unestablished markets for new products rather than technical immaturity.

© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE part of Springer Nature.The present paper reports the pyrolysis behavior, kinetic, and thermodynamic parameters of paper mill sludge (PMS), which is a paper manufacturing residue and cannot be re-evaluated, at three heating rates (5, 10, and 20 °C min−1) under non-isothermal conditions. Ultimate and proximate analyses of the paper mill sludge were carried out. Kinetic and thermodynamic parameters were calculated using four model-free methods; Flynn-Wall Ozawa (FWO), Friedman, Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS), and distributed activation energy model (DAEM). High R2 values revealed that all models are compatible with TGA data. The activation energy calculated (101.01 kJ mol−1) from FWO was higher than the other three methods. Pre-exponential factor values ranged from 0.56 × 103 and 14.55 × 103 s−1 for all methods. Kinetic and thermodynamic findings will be beneficial in terms of the process design of PMS pyrolysis. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]

We have studied the surface structure of tamper-proof paper with positive and negative watermarks at different scales ‒ from a micrometer to a nanometer level, by using the methods of contact profilometry and atomic force microscopy. Experimental research has confirmed that the structural parameters of the tamper-proof paper's surface differ at regions with and without watermarks. The results of measurements by a contact profilometer have made it possible to trace a correlation between values of the profile's mean arithmetic deviation and the presence of watermarks. It was determined that the value for the profile's largest height does not depend on a measurement region, which could be related to the chaotic arrangement of fibers and particles of the filler in the paper bulk that protrude above the profile's line. By analyzing the value of the profile's mean arithmetic deviation obtained by using a method of atomic-force microscopy, it was found that for regions with negative watermarks it is larger than that for regions with positive watermarks. The dependence of the profile's largest height on measurement region is not clearly observed. This may be due to that the size of the examined region (3,000×3,000 nm) covers only part of the pulp fibers. Thus, the results of our analysis allow us to argue that both methods are suitable for estimating the characteristics of paper's surface, and determine the character of interaction between a given type of paper and printing inks during printing process. In particular, it has been established that the method of profilometry makes it possible to determine parameters of the paper's surface profile, formed in a certain way, while the atomic force microscopy method allows analysis of the morphology of its components, located at the surface (fibers, filler's particles, etc.). The availability of information on the structural properties of paper makes it possible to predict the quality of printing reproduction, specifically clearness of reproduction of thin guilloche lines on watermarks, which is relevant because it prevents flaws in printing products for special purposes.

Pulp and paper industry is one of the high priority sectors that generates large amount of solid (sludge) and liquid (paper mill effluent) wastes. Making use of this huge quantity of paper mill sludge (PMS) in an environment friendly manner is challenging and cost involving. Similarly the present wastewater treatment strategies based on physical and chemical methods encounter certain serious setbacks including secondary pollution generation with expensive mode of abatement processes. The present study aims at a “waste treats waste” strategy for the bioremediation of paper mill effluent in fluidized bed reactor (FBR) using another waste of the same industry, PMS as immobilizing matrix for Planococcus sp. TRC1, a wastewater bacterial isolate. This study simultaneously explores this isolate for the yellowish orange pigment it produces (2.3 ± 0.2 mg/gm of dry bacterial biomass) and characterizes it as a member of the pharmacologically important carotenoid pigment family via UV-Vis spectrophotometry, TLC, FT-IR and 13C NMR. The antioxidant potential of this pigment was studied by DPPH assay (IC50 = 33 ± 0.4 μg/ml) and H2O2 assay (IC50 = 147.4 ± 2.2 μg/ml). In FBR, the PMS immobilized bacteria showed removal of phenol, lignin, colour and COD from the effluent by 96%, 74%, 81% and 85% respectively after 60hr of treatment. The experimental data on immobilization fitted well with pseudo second-order (R2 = 0.955) and Freundlich adsorption isotherm (R2 = 0.996) models. The alterations in PMS before and after bacterial immobilization, as revealed by SEM and FT-IR, depicted the success of PMS as immobilization matrix. Phytotoxicity (90% seed germination) and mutagenicity studies confirmed that the treated effluent was substantially less toxic than its raw state. This study highlights a novel utilization possibility of PMS in an eco-friendly and economic way as immobilization matrix for Planococcus sp.TRC1 for paper pulp mill effluent treatment along with production of carotenoid pigment from this potential bacterial isolate as value added product.

The pulp and paper (P&P) sector is a dynamic manufacturing industry and plays an essential role in the Austrian economy. However, the sector, which consumes about 20 TWh of final energy, is responsible for 7% of Austria’s industrial CO2 emissions. This study, intending to assess the potential for improving energy efficiency and reducing emissions in the Austrian context in the P&P sector, uses a bottom-up approach model. The model is applied to analyze the energy consumption (heat and electricity) and CO2 emissions in the main processes, related to the P&P production from virgin or recycled fibers. Afterward, technological options to reduce energy consumption and fossil CO2 emissions for P&P production are investigated, and various low-carbon technologies are applied to the model. For each of the selected technologies, the potential of emission reduction and energy savings up to 2050 is estimated. Finally, a series of low-carbon technology-based scenarios are developed and evaluated. These scenarios’ content is based on the improvement potential associated with the various processes of different paper grades. The results reveal that the investigated technologies applied in the production process (chemical pulping and paper drying) have a minor impact on CO2 emission reduction (maximum 10% due to applying an impulse dryer). In contrast, steam supply electrification, by replacing fossil fuel boilers with direct heat supply (such as commercial electric boilers or heat pumps), enables reducing emissions by up to 75%. This means that the goal of 100% CO2 emission reduction by 2050 cannot be reached with one method alone. Consequently, a combination of technologies, particularly with the electrification of the steam supply, along with the use of carbon-free electricity generated by renewable energy, appears to be essential.

A new process for the production of bioethanol from paper mill sludge (PMS) is described in this work. PMS biomass feedstock was processed via the simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) with and without accelerants. The enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation were first evaluated, and the energy demand was 2.2 MJ/L of produced ethanol. When the enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation were combined, the energy demand was reduced to 1.0 MJ/L ethanol, the sugars production increased, and the overall capital cost of the process decreased. The sugar yield was improved by adding accelerant and selecting the optimal fiber recovery method. The accelerant improved the enzymatic hydrolysis via a pathing/bridging mechanism. The SSF with the chemical fiber recovery method coupled with accelerant addition would be the best process configuration. Upon this combination, the glucose profile was enhanced from 9.8 g/L to 17.0 g/L. The sludge fiber conversion by SSF was improved by selecting an efficient fiber recovery method combined with the accelerant addition. SSF in chemical fiber recovery with accelerant addition was the best process by a 10% improvement of ethanol yield. The proposed process configuration offers a lower cost and sustainable process and contributes to the circular economy of zero waste discharges.

The main aim of the study was to assess the environmental performance, through the application of the life cycle assessment, of a recycled paper production process focusing on the energy aspect. The production process occurred in a paper mill that produces packaging paper using paper and cardboard from source separation of municipal solid waste as raw materials. Two scenarios (S1 and S2) were defined by their energy supply sources. A cogeneration (CHP) system using natural gas for the combined production of thermal and electric energy was the source in S1. The Italian electricity grid (using the Italian country mix) and a natural gas boiler were the separate sources for electric and thermal energy, respectively, in S2. Finally, in order to evaluate the environmental effects on the results of the study about the variation in the natural gas supply source, four alternative Italian import mixes (M1, M2, M3, and M4) were defined by varying the contribution of the supplier countries. The environmental impacts were evaluated with ReCiPe 2016 (H) using both midpoint and endpoint approaches. The results showed that for both the scenarios, the energy consumption was the main cause of impacts mainly because of the natural gas contribution. The presence of the cogeneration (CHP) system generated significant environmental benefits compared with the use of energy provided by more conventional sources. The production and use of chemicals as well as the disposal of waste produced during the paper production were other environmental hotspots. The variation in the composition of the Italian import mix of natural gas, in terms of the supplier country’s contribution, had a significant influence on the results. The import of natural gas from Russia was the most impactful option. Since Russia is the country that contributes to the Italian import mix the most, in the next years, the use of natural gas in Italy could become increasingly impactful. Therefore, the replacement of natural gas with renewable sources is an urgent priority.

PurposeThis position paper urges a drive towards clarity in the key definitions, terminologies and habits of speech associated with digital engineering and building information modelling (BIM). The ultimate goal of the paper is to facilitate the move towards arriving at an ideal definition for both concepts.Design/methodology/approachThis paper takes the “explanation building” review approach in providing prescriptive guidelines to researchers and industry practitioners. The aim of the review is to draw upon existing studies to identify, describe and find application of principles in a real-world context.FindingsThe paper highlights the definitional challenges surrounding digital engineering and BIM in Australia, to evoke a debate on BIM and digital engineering boundaries, how and why these two concepts may be linked, and how they relate to emerging concepts.Originality/valueThis is the first scholarly attempt to clarify the definition of digital engineering and address the confusion between the concepts of BIM and digital engineering.

To evaluate the effect of brown-rot fungi Oligoporus placenta and earthworm Eisenia fetida on decomposition of paper mill sludge, the paper mill sludge was mixed with cow dung in 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100% proportions and changes in physicochemical quality of waste mixtures was carried out for 28 days. All waste mixtures were treated with: Setup-I (E. fetida), Setup-II (O. placenta) and, Setup-III (E. fetida + O. placenta). A decrease in total organic carbon, C/N ratio and cellulose but an increase in total kjeldhal nitrogen, total phosphorus, total potassium and pH was recorded. The paper mill sludge in 50–75% proportion in feedstock showed the better results and rate of mineralisation were in order: Setup-III > Setup-I > Setup-II. The proportion of CD has direct role in waste mineralisation. The microbial population (bacterial, fungal and actinomycetes) and earthworm biomass were also high in Setup-III, suggesting the influence of brown-rot fungi on paper mill sludge humification. Results indicate that fungal inoculate in vermicomposting was effective in decomposing cellulose-rich industrial sludge.

In remote areas, such as India, Africa and Southeast Asia, typically not connected to the natural gas distribution network, tissue paper production is currently carried out using a Yankee cylinder and two hot air hoods heated with saturated steam produced in conventional boilers. In this way the drying air is heated at medium temperature, around 160-180 °C, with consequent low levels of dried paper production. In this context, the present study intends to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of using a wood biomass fixed bed downdraft gasification plant for the production of syngas to be used as fuel in gas hoods, in order to reach high drying temperatures (around 500 °C), comparable with those of the current modern hoods powered with natural gas. Using previously developed calculation codes, an evaluation of energy performance of the paper drying system and of the gasification plant has been performed. The present study also evaluates the possibility of applying a CHP plant, powered by biomass, for the production of steam and electric, this last obtained adopting a steam turbine, thus covering all the electrical and thermal needs of the paper mill. Results show that, for a paper mill with a production of about 80 t/day of paper, two gasification reactors with a thermal output of about 1.95 MWt, and a consumption of dry biomass of 0.86 t/h, are required. For the steam system, the net electric power needed to meet the needs of the paper mill is about 3100 kW with a consumption of 4.72 t/h of moist biomass and a net efficiency of 23.9 %.

This study develops a framework of internal and external factors that influence the adoption of eco-innovation. We studied 80 adoption processes in the Dutch brewing industry and the Dutch paper industry and analysed the relative importance of different factors. We find that internal factors were more important than external factors. The analysis also shows differences between the industries. The financial advantage was important for both industries, but especially for the paper industry. For the brewing industry, ethical responsibility and stakeholders played a more important role in the adoption. The analysis also revealed differences for small and large firms. Ethical responsibility and stakeholders are relatively more often mentioned by small firms, whereas clear objectives and regulations were mentioned more by large firms. Our study highlights that the adoption of eco-innovation is a complex process and the position in the supply chain as well as the size of a firm influence what is important in the adoption of eco-innovation.

Activating flux is made up of inorganic material mixed with a volatile medium. The objective of this study is to identify and review the literature in activating flux, and different type of welding techniques. For that purpose, a structured review method is adopted and the Scopus database is used as a primary source for the selection of papers. The papers were identified using the string term of “Activating flux” OR “Activated flux” in the title of papers. And a total of 238 papers were identified for the study. Besides the above few other papers were also reviewed and the materials used, the type of flux used, and the findings of different combinations were highlighted in the form of tables. The findings of the study provide a comprehensive understanding of the different type of welding techniques focusing on TIG welding, and the different combination of flux used and their impact was summarized.

A 3D modeling system with all-inclusive functionality is too demanding for a casual 3D modeler to learn. There has been a shift towards more approachable systems, with easy-to-learn, intuitive interfaces. However, most modeling systems still employ mouse and keyboard interfaces, despite the ubiquity of tablet devices and the benefits of multi-touch interfaces. We introduce an alternative 3D modeling and fabrication paradigm using developable surfaces, inspired by traditional papercrafting, and we implement it as a complete system designed for a multi-touch tablet, allowing a user to fabricate 3D scenes. We demonstrate the modeling and fabrication process of assembling complex 3D scenes from a collection of simpler models, in turn shaped through operations applied to virtual paper. Our fabrication method facilitates the assembly of the scene with real paper by automatically converting scenes into a series of cutouts with appropriately added fiducial markers and supporting structures. Our system assists users in creating occluded supporting structures to help maintain the spatial and rigid properties of a scene without compromising its aesthetic qualities. We demonstrate several 3D scenes modeled and fabricated in our system, and evaluate the faithfulness of our fabrications relative to their virtual counterparts and 3D-printed fabrications.

Small companies encounter difficulties to adapt to new markets with a sustainable perspective. The subject of this article is a paper transformation company which has been eager to develop the organic farming market by developing a new plant support. Alternatives made from plant fibres or plastics exist, such as jute and polypropylene. The main difficulty of this project was to ecodesign a paper product with a multicriteria approach. The factors considered have been divided into two categories. Firstly, the environmental impacts calculated according to the Life Cycle Assessment methodology (on raw material extraction, manufacturing and end-of-life) are summarised. Secondly, the characteristics of the product are discussed in regards to these results and sustainability questions as part of the interpretation phase. Finally, ways of improvement of the LCA methodology to improve the study in terms of geographical representativeness and societal considerations are discussed.

Transformer insulation paper is a key indicator for transformer remaining operational life. Paper decomposition is evaluated using the degree of polymerization (DP) which calls for samples of insulation paper from operating transformers. Since collecting such paper samples is extremely difficult, other indicators have been used to indirectly reveal the DP value of insulation paper. This includes dissolved gases in transformer oil such as carbon oxides and hydrocarbon gases, furan compounds, methanol, ethanol, and moisture along with some oil characteristics such as interfacial tension. However, for the same oil sample, these individual parameters lead to different DP values. This is attributed to the lack of accuracy of the established mathematical and artificial intelligence models correlating DP with each of the above mentioned individual parameters. This paper presents a self-learning method to estimate the DP value of transformer insulation paper based on multiple transformer oil aging parameters. The proposed method comprises data processing, fuzzy c-means and linear regression. Results reveal that estimating the DP value based on multiple aging parameters is more accurate than estimating it using one single parameter as per the current practice. The proposed method not only helps to understand the correlation between multiple oil aging parameters and the DP value of paper insulation, but also promotes the establishment of more accurate life assessment models for power transformers based on these oil aging parameters.

This short paper presents an architectural overview of an agent-based framework called iv4XR for automated testing that is currently under development by an H2020 project with the same name. The framework's intended main use case of is testing the family of Extended Reality (XR) based systems (e.g. 3D games, VR sytems, AR systems), though the approach can indeed be adapted to target other types of interactive systems. The framework is unique in that it is an agent-based system. Agents are inherently reactive, and therefore are arguably a natural match to deal with interactive systems. Moreover, it is also a natural vessel for mounting and combining different AI capabilities, e.g. reasoning, navigation, and learning.

This white paper argues that formal methods need to be better rooted in higher education curricula for computer science and software engineering programmes of study. To this end, it advocates

Using waste paper as fuel for domestic heating is a beneficial recycling option for small island developing states where there are lacks of resources for energy and waste treatment. However, there are concerns about the impact of air pollutants emitted from the burning of the self-made paper briquettes as household air pollution is recognised as the greatest environmental risk for human. In this study, combustion tests were carried out for paper briquettes made in one Pacific island and three commercial fuels in Australia including wood briquettes, kindling firewood and coal briquettes in order to: 1) characterise the emissions of three criteria air pollutants including particulate matters, CO and NOx including their emission factors (EF) from the tested fuels; and 2) compare the EFs among the tested fuels and with others reported in the literature. The results showed that waste paper briquettes burned quickly and generated high temperature but the heat value is relatively low. Paper briquettes and coal briquettes produced higher CO concentration than the others while paper briquettes generated the highest NOx level. Only PM2.5 concentration emitted from paper briquettes was similar to kindling firewood and lower than wood briquettes. Burning of paper briquettes and wood briquettes produced particulate matter with large average count median diameter (72 and 68 nm) than coal briquette and kindling firewood (45 and 51 nm). The EFs for CO, NOx and PM2.5 of paper briquettes were within the range of EFs reported in this study as well as in the literature. Overall, the results suggested that using paper briquettes as fuel for domestic heating will not likely to generate higher level of three major air pollutants compared to other traditional fuels.

This White Paper presents the foundational domains with examples of key aspects of competencies (knowledge, skills, and attitudes) that are intended for curriculum development and accreditation quality assessment for graduate (master’s level) education in applied health informatics. Through a deliberative process, the AMIA Accreditation Committee refined the work of a task force of the Health Informatics Accreditation Council, establishing 10 foundational domains with accompanying example statements of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are components of competencies by which graduates from applied health informatics programs can be assessed for competence at the time of graduation. The AMIA Accreditation Committee developed the domains for application across all the subdisciplines represented by AMIA, ranging from translational bioinformatics to clinical and public health informatics, spanning the spectrum from molecular to population levels of health and biomedicine. This document will be periodically updated, as part of the responsibility of the AMIA Accreditation Committee, through continued study, education, and surveys of market trends.

Anaerobic treatment of sedimented fibers collected from bottom of a bay that had been receiving pulp and paper mill wastewater for about 70 years were studied for the first time in semi-continuously fed continuously stirred tank reactors (CSTR). Anaerobic treatment of the fiber sediment was shown to be feasible, without dilution and with nitrogen and buffer supplement, at organic loading rates (OLR) up to 2.5 kg VS/m3d and hydraulic retention times (HRT) of 60 d resulting in methane yields of 201 ± 18 L CH4/kg VS. Co-digestion of sedimented fiber with sewage sludge at an OLR of 1.5 kg VS/m3d and HRT of 20 d resulted in a methane production of 246 ± 10 L CH4/kg VS. The techno-economic feasibility of mono and co-digestion process together with several case dependent factors such as maximum operable OLR, digestate utilization needs to be evaluated before making further conclusions for larger scale remediation applications. acceptedVersion

With the surging energy price and environmental concerns, measures to improve energy efficiency have attracted increasing concerns of the manufacture sector, especially energy-intensive manufacturing industries such as tissue paper mills. Energy-efficiency scheduling, as a novel energy-efficient method, has attracted the attention of an increasing number of researchers in recent years. Drying process is the most energy-intensive production process in tissue paper mills, which has a great energy-saving potential. This paper aims to reduce the energy costs for the tissue paper mill, consisting of processing energy cost and set-up energy cost, through integrating drying process optimization with energy-efficient scheduling. First, the energy cost model and the scheduling model were built. Then, the energy cost of the drying process of every job in a given scheduling problem was optimized using particle swarm optimization (PSO). Afterwards, the energy cost was further optimized using energy-efficiency scheduling. In addition, a hybrid non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) was utilized to solve the energy-efficiency scheduling problem. Finally, several real scheduling problems from a real tissue paper mill were addressed using the proposed approach to demonstrate its effectiveness in energy saving. The experiment result showed that there is a great energy-saving potential in the drying process, accounting for up to 12.53% of the total energy consumption. Moreover, the maximum energy saving ratio of the proposed approach could reach 9.03%. On the whole, the proposed approach can provide a new energy-saving method for tissue paper mills or other manufacturing industries.

The paper and cellulose manufacturing industry generates significant quantities of waste, including an extremely humid sludge, which is considered to be an effluent with high environmental liability for the manufacturer. Studies have shown that this waste sludge may be utilized in construction material, such as mortar for fixing blocks, as well as for ceiling and wall coatings that use ceramic masonry as a sealant. The recycling of pulp and paper industry waste sludge has important environmental benefits, by preventing soil and water pollution caused by inadequate disposal and by reducing the depletion of natural resources, such as lime, used in cementitious materials. This study analyzed the sustainability of incorporating such waste into cement-based mortars. Tests were conducted replacing lime, one of the most expensive mortar components with high environmental impact, with waste sludge in contents of 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%. Analysis was then performed on the samples to assess the primary technical characteristics of these incorporated mortars, such as the consistency index, heat of hydration, content of incorporated air, water retention, mechanical strength and the capillarity coefficient. The results were compared with the results of the characterization tests that were performed on the waste material. The results showed that for use in wall and ceiling mortar coatings, the level of incorporation should not exceed 10%, because higher levels yield lower values of mechanical strength resistance, incompatible with market requirements. This result is probably due to the low heat of hydration of the waste material which generates slower reactions. On the other hand, higher levels of waste material content, above 10%, are appropriate convenient for mortar used to fill small repairs in masonry that do not require control of properties.

Internet of Things (IoT) devices are increasingly being found in civilian and military contexts, ranging from smart cities and smart grids to Internet-of-Medical-Things, Internet-of-Vehicles, Internet-of-Military-Things, Internet-of-Battlefield-Things, etc. In this paper, we survey articles presenting IoT security solutions published in English since January 2016. We make a number of observations, including the lack of publicly available IoT datasets that can be used by the research and practitioner communities. Given the potentially sensitive nature of IoT datasets, there is a need to develop a standard for sharing IoT datasets among the research and practitioner communities and other relevant stakeholders. Thus, we posit the potential for blockchain technology in facilitating secure sharing of IoT datasets (e.g., using blockchain to ensure the integrity of shared datasets) and securing IoT systems, before presenting two conceptual blockchain-based approaches. We then conclude this paper with nine potential research questions. Keywords: Blockchain, Blockchain security, Collaborative security, Internet-of-military things, IoT dataset, IoT self-healing, IoT security, Intrusion-prevention system, Predictive IoT security, Predictive security

Color removal from pulp and paper mill wastewater by using fly ash was one of the effective and low-cost methodologies to improve the quality of the wastewater. The fly ash had the capability to remove various organic pollutants, such as Lignin, Tannins, Humic, and Fulvic, from wastewater. These organic pollutants contribute to the color intensity of industrial effluent. The research examined the removal capability of fly ash including Bagasse fly ash, Rice husk ash and Lignite fly ash. The samplings were analyzed in the laboratory for color removal capability. The test was divided into 3 steps as follows: Step 1 the comparison of color removal efficiency by using 3 types of fly ashes; Bagasse fly ash, Lignite fly ash and Rice Husk ash. Step 2: Analyzing the functional group of fly ashes before and after color removal by using the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) to determine the adsorption mechanism and other influencing factors. Step 3: Color removal efficiency by sand filter experiment. The results showed that; Step 1: Bagasse fly ash, Rice husk ash and Lignite fly ash were effective in color removal of 94.2, 74.8 and 71.8 percent at 30 minutes, 24 hours and 4 days, respectively. The pH of the effluent using Bagasse fly ash was constant to 7.5 - 8 and tend to be constant although the ash amount increased, while the pH of Lignite fly ash was in the range of 8 - 9 and tend to increase when amount increased. Step 2: Analyzing the functional group of Bagasse fly ash using the FT-IR found that after using Bagasse fly ash for color removal in the effluent, the graph tends to decrease. Step 3: The result showed that the efficiency of color removal of the sand filter by soil mixed with Bagasse fly ash at ratio 1: 0 - 1:10 (Soil : Bagasse fly ash), which the efficiency of color removal tends to increase with the maximum of 93 % and the minimum of 16% at ratio 1:7 and 1:0, respectively.

The increasing pressure on natural resources and the climate has been noted by businesses and governments worldwide, who now face the difficult task of integrating paths of environmental sustainability and economic growth. One promising approach to sustainable development, reducing the pressure on natural resources and solving waste problems is circular economy. From different ways of implementing circular economy, this study focuses on the productization of industrial side streams, which carry a great deal of underutilized potential. In this article, the productization of pulp and paper industry side stream, fiber sludge, for commercial use as a dust-binding agent is studied via a descriptive, in-depth case study. Apart from inconsistent quality, fluctuating supply, cost of storage and logistics, what makes industrial side stream utilization challenging is the lack of knowledge that stakeholders have about side streams and their utilization and the lack of new value chain development for their commercial use. Therefore, it is essential for all parties involved to have a clearer vision of what is being sold for what purposes, through productization. This study found that the productization of side streams follows the same steps as the productization of any other traditional product, and the productized side streams can be added to the company&rsquo, s product portfolio as by-products.

Success management can bring valuable contributions to improve project results and stakeholders’ relationships. However, the success management process must be explicitly integrated into project management approaches, guides and methodologies (such as PMBOK, PRINCE2 or PM2), which is not currently happening. The purpose of this position paper is to discuss the need and importance for this integration and to present a first proposal on how this can be operationalized. To support the position, the methodology of the European Union PM2 was used. The result of the integration demonstrates that it is possible to advance management and raise the level of project success.

Background In Software Engineering (SE), conference publications have high importance both in effective communication and in academic careers. Researchers actively discuss how a paper should be organized to be accepted in mainstream conferences. Aiming This work tackles the problem of generalizing and characterizing the type of papers accepted at SE conferences. Method The paper offers a new perspective in the analysis of SE literature: a categorization scheme for SE papers is obtained by merging, extending and revising related proposals from a few existing studies. The categorization scheme is used to classify the papers accepted at three top-tier SE conferences during five years (2012–2016). Results While a broader experience is certainly needed for validation and fine-tuning, preliminary outcomes can be observed relative to what problems and topics are addressed, what types of contributions are presented and how they are validated. Conclusions The results provide insights to paper writers, paper reviewers and conference organizers in focusing their future efforts, without any intent to provide judgments or authoritative guidelines.

Bacterial remediation of heavy metal polluted soil and effluent from paper mill was investigated using standard analytical methods. The paper mill was visited for 6 months at interval of 30 days to collect soil and effluent samples for the analysis. The pH of soil was slightly alkaline while effluent was acidic. There was a significant increase (P < 0.05) in total organic carbon (TOC) of soil; and turbidity, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and TOC of effluent when compared to control. Bacteria isolated from the samples were grouped into two and used to remediate eight heavy metals. The remediation experiment consists of three treatments; Treatment 1 (treated with proteobacteria), Treatment 2 (treated with non-proteobacteria) and Treatment 3 (without bacteria) (control experiment). Result of the remediation study showed that there was a significant decrease (P < 0.05) in Treatment 1 and Treatment 2 of all the heavy metals in soil and effluent samples from day 30-180 when compared to day 0. The rate of removal of heavy metals in soil was highest in Treatment 1 for chromium (Cr; 0.00846 day-1) and lowest in Treatment 1 for cadmium (Cd; 0.00403 day-1) while the rate of removal in effluent was highest in Treatment 1 for zinc (Zn; 0.01207 day-1) and lowest in Treatment 1 for Cd (0.00391 day-1). It was concluded that bacteria isolated from soil and effluent samples were capable of remediating the concentration of Pb, arsenic (As), Cr, Zn and nickel (Ni) heavy metals.

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