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The fiber of paper mulberry, which is mostly grown in the East Asian region, varies in both length and width—even if from the same species—depending on the country, soil, and climate where it is grown. This accounts for differences in the quality of handmade paper between domestic and imported products. Once handmade paper is manufactured as sheets, its origin cannot be determined from a morphological perspective, regardless of macroscopic and microscopic observations. Therefore, this study attempted to determine the origin of Korean and imported products using mulberry bast fiber and handmade paper from a chemometrics perspective. The inorganic components of wood are absorbed from the soil and exist in the bark of trees; thus, metal and rare-earth elements in the bast fibers and handmade papers were quantitatively analyzed using inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy/mass spectrometry (ICP-AES/MS). Following this, a prediction model of their origin was constructed by applying multivariate statistical analysis, i.e., a partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) loading plot was constructed, which helped in identifying the discrimination factors resulting from their origin. According to the ICP-AES results, Pb was only detected in the Gyeongbuk Mungyeong dak sample of the Korean bast fibers. The Chinese bast fiber sample had high contents of Ca, and B and Zn were detected only in the Chinese bast fiber samples. Bast fiber samples from China, Japan, and Thailand showed relatively high contents of Al, Ca, and Na. Meanwhile, Cu and Zn were detected in the handmade paper manufactured from the imported materials. According to the ICP-MS results, among the Korean handmade papers, the products from Gyeongbuk Mungyeong, Andong, and Chungbuk Goesan exhibited a high U content and that from Gapyeong had high Sc, Rb, Sr, and Ba contents. Thus, the elemental analysis employed in this study effectively identified the origin of the papers. The origin prediction by PLS-DA for the domestic and imported products revealed an accuracy of 86.4% and 72.7% for ICP-AES and ICP-MS methods, respectively, which is deemed acceptable to assess the origin. We believe this method significantly contributes to determining the origin of paper mulberry bast fiber and handmade paper manufactured in East Asia.

In China, Xuan paper has been the paper of choice as artwork support and for conservation, for several centuries. However, little is known about its material properties, especially given the many grades of sized and unsized Xuan paper. In addition, there is a lack of information on its degradation. In this research, a selection of contemporary unsized Xuan papers was investigated, representing diverse raw materials. Seven out of twelve contemporary unsized Xuan papers were determined to be approximately neutral and contain > 2% alkaline reserve, indicating good durability. Viscometry was used to determine the degree of polymerisation (DP) as none of the samples gave significant reactions to the phloroglucinol spot test. The average DP of ten contemporary unsized Xuan papers is ~ 1700, excluding two papers that have presumably been sun-bleached, and that exhibit significantly lower DP. Using X-ray fluorescence, it can be demonstrated that Ca and Si are the dominant elements and interestingly, Ca content is directly correlated with ash content and with alkaline reserve. Accelerated degradation was performed at two sets of environmental conditions, i.e. 90 °C, 30% RH and 60 °C, 70% RH, and the established degradation rates agreed with the Collections Demography model of paper degradation meaning that degradation of Xuan papers proceeds in the same way as other types of paper. This research gives fundamental insights into contemporary unsized Xuan papers, which exhibit good stability during accelerated degradation despite the low starting DP in the context of the samples used in this study. Our findings may inform methods of Xuan paper production, selection of Xuan paper for conservation purposes, as well as preventive conservation of Xuan paper-based artefacts.

This study evaluates the efficacy of using textile waste blended with paper waste to form biodegradable seedling pots. A bio-composite blend of cotton (20% cotton, 40% newspaper, and 40% corrugated cardboard) and polycotton (20% polycotton, 40% newspaper, and 40% corrugated cardboard) with an optimum strength was formed into seedling pots. The appreciated seedling pots (untreated blends of cotton and polycotton) were compared with the commercial pots (cardboard seed starter pot and Jiffy pot) in terms of mechanical properties (tensile strength and compressive strength), biodegradability (soil burial test and anaerobic digestion), and seed germination. The untreated blends of cotton and polycotton pots demonstrated a comparable optimum strength, while the Jiffy pot and cardboard seed starter pot obtained the least tensile and compressive strengths, respectively. The anaerobic biodegradability assay suggests that the cotton blend pot, polycotton blend pot, and cardboard seed starter pot can degrade anaerobically because of high biogas and methane generation potential. A 100% seed germination was observed from the four seedling pots tested. Thus, the results demonstrate the efficacy of utilizing textile waste and paper waste to develop seedling pots with desirable strength and biodegradability compared to the commercial pots.

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.

Aim of study: It was aimed to rank financial performance of companies in the paper industrytraded at BIST.Material and methods: The financial performances of sevencompanies in the paper industry which are tradedon the Borsa İstanbul (BIST) were determinedby using financial data in 2016. For this purpose, ten financial ratios were obtainedfrom the financial data of companies, each of which had its own superiority. The datawere conducted by the TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity toIdeal Solution) method which is the "Multi Criteria Decision Making"(MCDM) method to interpret.Main results: The results indicated that the companies were rankedfollows; ALKA, KARTN, VKING, BAKAB, TIRE, OLMIP and KAPLM based on thefinancial performance scores.Research highlights: In Turkey, production in paper industry meets nearly half of the consumption and paper demand are met by imports.The high prices of energy and initial investment costs encourage imports ofpaper products and they prevent newinvestments. From this perspective, growth, development and high performance ofpaper companies will keep this industry alive., BİST’deişlem gören kağıt sektöründeki firmaların TOPSIS yöntemiyle finansalperformanslarının değerlendirilmesiÖzetÇalışmanın amacı: BİST’de işlem gören kağıtsektöründeki firmaların finansal performanslarına göre sıralanmasıamaçlanmıştır.Materyal ve yöntem: Borsa İstanbul’da (BIST) işlemgören kağıt sektöründeki 7 firmanın 2016 yılına ait verileri kullanılarakfinansal performansları belirlenmeye çalışılmıştır. Bu amaçla, şirketlere aitfinansal verilerden 10 finansal oran elde edilmiştir ve bu finansal oranlarınher biri diğerlerine göre üstünlüğe sahiptir. Bütünleşik bir değerlendirmeyapılması amacıyla, veriler “Çok Kriterli Karar Verme” (ÇKKV) yöntemlerindenolan TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution)yöntemi ile değerlendirilmiştir.Sonuçlar: Şirketler finansal performanslarına göreALKA, KARTN, VKING, BAKAB, TIRE, OLMIP ve KAPLM olarak sıralanmıştır..Araştırma vurguları: Ülkemiz kağıt sektöründegerçekleştirilen üretim ile tüketimin yarısı karşılanabilmekte ve kağıtihtiyacı ithalatla karşılanmaktadır. Enerji fiyatlarının ve ilk yatırımmaliyetlerinin yüksek olması yeni yatırımları engellerken ithalata teşviketmektedir. Bu bakımdan sektörde var olan firmaların gelişmesi, büyümesi veperformanslarının yüksek olması sektörü canlı tutacaktır.

Wood is used as the major raw material in paper production around the world and this has resulted in severe deforestations having direct negative impact on our environment. This has led to the need of finding alternative raw materials for paper production. Mauritius has around 300 ha of land under pineapple cultivation resulting in agro-waste materials of the leaves. This paper aims at determining the feasibility of using pineapple leaf fibres for paper production. Samples of pineapple leaf fibre were mixed with cane-bagasse in different ratios namely, 20:80, 40:60, 60:40, 80:20,100:0. Pineapple leaf fibres were also mixed with wastepaper in the same ratios. Pulping of pineapple leaf was achieved through soda pulping at a concentration of 15%w/v for 90 min at 90 °C. The papers obtained were tested for their physical and mechanical properties. The average thickness of all the papers produced, ranged from 0.232 mm to 0.304 mm showing an increase in paper thickness with increasing grammage from 58.19 g/m2 to 63.3 g/m2. The most absorbent paper(1.19 s) was found to be the 100% pineapple which also demonstrated the highest Tensile Index and Burst Index (6.5 Nm/g and 0.84 kPa m2/g respectively). The bagasse and pineapple composite of ratio 40:60 was found to be the most abrasion resistant paper with 21 turns and a weight loss of 0.86% with the use of emery paper of grade zero as abradant and 200 g load cells. The most crease resistant paper was the wastepaper and pineapple composite of ratio 80:20 with a crease recovery angle of 59.8°.

The widespread availability of banana pseudo stems which do not have considerable commercial value in the country presents a potential source of non-wood raw material for paper production. This investigation determined the suitability of using banana fiber for wrapping paper production. Banana fiber was used with sugarcane bagasse and wastepaper to produce paper in 20:80, 40:60, 60:40 and 80:20 ratios. Banana and sugarcane bagasse were chemically pulped using 12% NaOH and 4% Na2S for 1.5 h. The mean thickness of the papers were 0.263 ± 0.04 mm. 100% banana paper and 100% bagasse paper showed nearly similar water absorbency (2.15 s and 2.17 s) and were 2.25 times more than paper from 100% wastepaper. Highest tensile index was evidenced by banana paper with 20% wastepaper (29.4 Nm/g). For banana-bagasse mix-ratios, 20% bagasse demonstrated highest tensile index (16.04 Nm/g). 100% banana paper produced a tensile index of 18.97 Nm/g. Highest bursting index was from banana paper with 20% wastepaper mix (2.00 kPa m2/g). For banana-bagasse mix-ratios, 20% bagasse addition showed the greatest bursting index (0.88 kPa m2/g). 100% banana paper produced a burst index of 1.05 kPa m2/g. Highest abrasion resistance was 180 turns which was demonstrated by 100% banana paper. 20% mix bagasse and 20% mix wastepaper demonstrated the greatest abrasion resistance with 136 turns and 120 turns respectively. 20 40% of wastepaper (5.4 5.8% weight loss) and 10 30% bagasse (10.0 15.5% weight loss) were categorised as optimal mix percentages in the pulp mix for their minimal weight losses.

The current paper aims to present a comparison between soil-water characteristic curves based on the filter paper method and on a volume-mass estimation. Additionally, this research consists in comparing grain size distributions by sieving/hydrometer and by sieving/Cilas (particle-size analyser model 1092), when it comes to determining the soil-water characteristic curves by a volume-mass prediction on the Soil Vision software. As materials, were used two sets of colluvial soils sampled at the Campus Quinta do Paraiso -Centro Universitário Serra dos Órgãos (UNIFESO), Teresópolis – Brazil. The results showed that the soil-water characteristic curves related to the filter paper method or grain size distribution estimation are different. However, the tests performed by sieving/Cilas are more efficient than the results based on sieving/hydrometer, concerning its uses as input data for soil-water characteristic curves estimations. In conclusion, even considering the estimation method was not able to depict the same results such as obtained by the filter paper method, the use of Cilas is a procedure that can improve the quality of the predicted soil-water characteristic curve.

Purpose This paper aims to measure the state-level energy efficiency in Indian paper industry and simultaneously explain inter-state variation in efficiency by inefficiency effect model. Three variables, labor productivity, capital intensity and structure of paper industry, are included in inefficiency effect model to assess the likely impact on energy efficiency. Design/methodology/approach Sub-vector input distance function is derived through neo-classical production function which provides measures to estimate energy efficiency. Assuming a translog production function specification, energy efficiency is estimated by using Battese and Coelli (1995) stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). The authors also estimated four other SFA models, and energy efficiency from all the models is compared for robustness checking. Findings The results show the existence of a vast potential to improve energy efficiency. Inefficiency effect model reported a positive impact of structure of the industry and capital intensity on energy efficiency performance, while labor productivity does not have any significant impact on energy efficiency. There exists considerable energy efficiency variation among states. Uttarakhand, Punjab and Orissa are the best performing states while Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Goa have worst energy efficiency performance based on average efficiency. The ranks assigned to states according to inefficiency effects model are found contrary to the simple measure of energy efficiency, i.e. energy intensity. Thus, energy intensity may not always be a good proxy for underlying energy efficiency and need to be compared with a comprehensive possible measure. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study which measures energy efficiency of Indian paper industry through stochastic frontier model using region-level data. Instead of relying on traditional energy efficiency indicators (energy-output ratio), total-factor energy efficiency approach is used to conduct the empirical exercise. Deviations from the frontier because of factors beyond the scope of producers are also incorporated into analysis to portray the magnitude of random factors in influencing the efficiency performance.

Rewinding machines are used in the paper converting industrial sector to unroll paper veils from large source reels and wind them around smaller rolls, for the production of paper logs to be used in household activities. Many different types of rewinding machine exist, and they are mostly based on stapling devices which automatically unroll a large coil of paper, roll it up around a new log, stop the veil allowing it to be torn off, unload the completed paper log, and reload a new paper core to be rolled up. Winding units generally include a primary and a secondary roller, supplying the desired rotational speed for winding, and a pressure unit consisting of a pressure roller in contact with the paper log being rolled up, which assures adequate containment and avoids the paper log to escape. All known systems have some mechanical limitations, mainly due to the contact of the pressure roller with the paper log, causing instabilities and vibrations, particularly when working with soft paper veils. This limits the maximum possible winding speed. The aim of this paper is it to present a detailed kinematic analysis of a novel pressure unit which overcomes the aforementioned limitation.

Necessary optimality conditions for a bilevel optimization problem are given in the paper by Kohli (J Optim Theory Appl 152: 632–651, 2012). Recently, the same author corrected his results in the note (J Optim Theory Appl 181:706–707, 2019). In this work, we have pointed out that some of the new modifications are wrong. We correct the flaws and present an alternative proof for the main result.

A lack of quality control tools limits the enforcement of fortification policies. In alignment with the World Health Organization&rsquo, s ASSURED criteria (affordable, sensitive, specific, user-friendly, rapid and robust, equipment-free, and deliverable), a paper-based assay that interfaces with a smartphone application for the quantification of iron fortificants is presented. The assay is based on the Ferrozine colorimetric method. The reaction started after deposition of the 5 &micro, L aqueous sample and drying. After developing color, pixel intensity values were obtained using a smartphone camera and image processing software or a mobile application, Nu3px. From these values, the actual iron concentration from ferrous sulfate and ferrous fumarate was calculated. The limits of detection, quantification, linearity, range, and errors (systematic and random) were ascertained. The paper-based values from real samples (wheat flour, nixtamalized corn flour, and infant formula) were compared against atomic emission spectroscopy. The comparison of several concentrations of atomic iron between the spectrophotometric and paper-based assays showed a strong positive linear correlation (y = 47.01x + 126.18, R2 = 0.9932). The dynamic range (5.0&ndash, 100 &micro, g/mL) and limit of detection (3.691 &micro, g/mL) of the paper-based assay are relevant for fortified food matrices. Random and systematic errors were 15.9% and + 8.65 &micro, g/g food, respectively. The concept can be applied to limited-resource settings to measure iron in fortified foods.

The present contribution evaluates the methods of degradation and stabilization of alum-containing paper with a focus on the alkaline environment achieved by deacidification procedures. In terms of reviewed subjects, the contribution focuses on alum-rosin sized paper, which is still used as a carrier of knowledge and information; however, it also mentions cellulose itself and other brands of paper. The contribution summarizes the results on the homogeneity of the distribution of alum and rosin in the paper mass and on the paper surface. It provides the knowledge gained in the field of alkaline hydrolysis and oxidation with special regard to transition metal species. It shows the values of alkaline reserves achieved in the main mass-deacidification processes. On the basis of the acquired knowledge, the contribution emphasizes the procedures of paper stabilization. Criteria of “increased mechanical permanence and lifetime prolongation” adopted to evaluate and compare the efficacy of individual mass-deacidification processes were applied and corresponding data are introduced. The contribution also draws attention to the existence of open issues in the area of paper degradation and stabilization.

Paper as a material needs a lot of input energy. Many measures have been suggested to recycle paper, but still a huge amount of it ends in landfills. Hereby, one possibility for recycling paper - making paper plaster and putting it into service in indoor environment - is introduced. The study focuses on the moisture buffering properties of paper plaster. Two questions are under consideration in this article. Firstly, how paper type and production method influence the properties (dry density, drying shrinkage) of paper plaster, and secondly, what the material moisture buffering properties of paper plaster are. The plasters for testing were made from four types of paper (printer paper, glossy paper, newsprint and book paper). The production methods used were rumpling, grinding with a shredder or special crusher (prepared for the study) and soaking the paper after that. The dry density of groups varied from approx. 240 kg/m3 to 400 kg/m3. The shrinkage properties were from 3% to 10% in diameter. To evaluate the moisture buffering ability of paper plaster, the methodology introduced in the Nordtest protocol was used. Paper plaster is an outstanding water vapour buffering material [MBV=2.23-3.91 g/(m2·%RH)] belonging to the moisture buffering class "excellent" defined by Rode [15]. From the production methods rumpling gave the best value while printer paper showed the best values from the chosen materials. The tests with glossy paper resulted in modest values. To conclude, all the paper materials and preparation methods introduced in this study can be used to make paper plaster

We correct some mistakes in the paper “A mass formula for negacyclic codes of length 2k and some good negacyclic codes over $\mathbb {Z}_{4}+u\mathbb {Z}_{4}$ ” (Bandi et al. Cryptogr. Commun. 9, 241–272, 2017).

The used methods in our papers [1–13] named new modified and extended auxiliary equation methods. The calculations of our article were correct. All solutions satisfied the partial differential equations in our papers.

In this paper, we study how to fold a specified origami crease pattern in order to minimize the impact of paper thickness. Specifically, origami designs are often expressed by a mountain-valley pattern (plane graph of creases with relative fold orientations), but in general this specification is consistent with exponentially many possible folded states. We analyze the complexity of finding the best consistent folded state according to twometrics:minimizing the total number of layers in the folded state (so that a “flat folding” is indeed close toflat), andminimizing the total amount of paper required to execute the folding (where “thicker” creases consume more paper). We prove both problems strongly NP-complete even for 1D folding. On the other hand, we prove the first problem fixed-parameter tractable in 1D with respect to the number of layers., National Science Foundation (U.S.). Origami Design for Integration of Self-assembling Systems for Engineering Innovation (grant EFRI- 124038), National Science Foundation (U.S.). Expedition grant (CCF-1138967), United States. Department of Defense. National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship (32 CFR 168a)

To facilitate better interpretation of dielectric response measurements—thereby directing numerical evidence for condition assessments of oil-paper-insulated equipment in high-voltage alternating current (HVAC) transmission systems—a novel approach is presented to estimate the parameters in the extended Debye model (EDM) using wideband frequency domain spectroscopy (FDS). A syncretic algorithm that integrates a genetic algorithm (GA) and the Levenberg-Marquardt (L-M) algorithm is introduced in the present study to parameterize EDM using the FDS measurements of a real-life 126 kV oil-impregnated paper (OIP) bushing under different controlled temperatures. As for the uncertainty of the EDM structure due to variable branch quantity, Akaike’s information criterion (AIC) is employed to determine the model orders. For verification, comparative analysis of FDS reconstruction and results of FDS transformation to polarization–depolarization current (PDC)/return voltage measurement (RVM) are presented. The comparison demonstrates good agreement between the measured and reconstructed spectroscopies of complex capacitance and tan δ over the full tested frequency band (10−4 Hz–103 Hz) with goodness of fit over 0.99. Deviations between the tested and modelled PDC/RVM from FDS are then discussed. Compared with the previous studies to parameterize the model using time domain dielectric responses, the proposed method solves the problematic matching between EDM and FDS especially in a wide frequency band, and therefore assures a basis for quantitative insulation condition assessment of OIP-insulated apparatus in energy systems.

International audience; An analytical approach based on the multivariate analysis of on-line pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) data is proposed for the identification of traditional East Asian handmade papers from different fiber material origins. This approach utilized several biomarkers detected during Py-GC/MS analysis of the paper samples. At first, the total ion chromatogram (TIC) was taken as the response and then the extracted ion chromatograms (EICs) were considered to improve the discrimination of papers. The influence of different data pretreatment (raw responses vs normalized values) including different weighting of the variables (weighting as 1 vs weight as 1/STD, where STD stands for standard deviation) for principal component analysis was also investigated. The results showed that compared to the commonly used microscopy techniques, the Py-GC/MS technique proved to be able to discriminate against handmade paper materials that have similar microscopic morphologies such as Morus species vs. Broussonetia species. The data pretreatment influenced the PCA modeling: the analysis based on normalized values showed more interpretable PCA group features for Moraceae species. PCA without weighting resulted unsurprisingly in discrimination through the presence of high intensity response biomarkers, while when applying weight as 1/STD, PCA loading plot was shown to provide a group of compounds, most of them being present at low levels, to be discriminating. Additionally, the characteristic EICs can provide data matrix for statistical analysis avoiding the interference from co-eluting compound and background compared to the data matrix obtained from the TIC. As a result, a quick Py-GC/MS based handmade paper identification procedure using PCA modeling of characteristic EICs was for the first time proposed in the identification of traditional East Asian handmade papers. This procedure could be very beneficial in cultural heritage applications.

The aerodynamic performance of a deployable and low-cost unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is investigated and improved in present work. The parameters of configuration, such as airfoil and winglet, are determined via an optimising process based on a discrete adjoint method. The optimised target is locked on an increasing lift-to-drag ratio with a limited variation of pitching moments. The separation that will lead to a stall is delayed after optimisation. Up to 128 design variables are used by the optimised solver to give enough flexibility of the geometrical transformation. As much as 20% enhancement of lift-to-drag ratio is gained at the cruise angle-of-attack, that is, a significant improvement in the lift-to-drag ratio adhering to the preferred configuration is obtained with increasing lift and decreasing drag coefficients, essentially entailing an improved aerodynamic performance.

The dating of documents is one of the pending issues to be resolved in many fields. Although there are a variety of analytical methodologies focused on the inks of documents to estimate the dating of documents, the analysis of documents itself attracted little attention. A non-destructive method based on Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR) was proposed in this research to estimate the dating of documents. First, FTIR spectra of journals dated from 1940 to 1980, naturally aged and conserved in the China Agriculture University library were collected. Second, the least squares support vector machines (LS-SVM) was applied to distinguish documents of different dating, and the accuracy was 99.26%. In order to find interested wavenumber that influence the dating process of documents, sparse partial least squares (sPLS) was applied to select informative variables. The average of selected variables was 483 after 100 runs, and the selected variables were focused on the absorption peaks of inorganic components and cellulose. Splicing sPLS with LS-SVM (sPLS–LS-SVM) built model to see the effective of selected variables. Average accuracy of sPLS–LS-SVM model was 99.34%, even the best result could reach 100.00% after 100 circle times. The present work indicates that the possibility of FTIR combined with chemometrics can estimate the dating of documents accurately. Additionally, the wavenumber which influence the dating of documents are mostly focused on cellulose and inorganic components.

Very recently Bordelles, Dai, Heyman, Pan and Shparlinski studied asymptotic behaviour of the quantity $$\begin{aligned} S_f(x) := \sum _{n\leqslant x} f\left( \left[ \frac{x}{n}\right] \right) , \end{aligned}$$and established some asymptotic formulas for $$S_f(x)$$ under three different types of assumptions on f. In this short note we improve some of their results.

Paper is non-uniform; thus, it is difficult to ascertain whether the slight differences in near-infrared absorption spectra are caused by the difference in paper type or the paper’s non-uniformity. We used near-infrared hyperspectral imaging to measure the spectra of many different points quickly for eight different paper samples. Next, we analysed the data using machine learning and constructed a model to ascertain whether the differences in the spectra are due to the difference in paper type or the paper’s non-uniformity. Even papers with very similar spectral shapes were distinguished with high accuracy with this method. As the number of spectra used to construct the classification model increased, the accuracy of the classification model increased. With 6840 spectra per sample, the accuracy exceeded 85%, and with 68,400 spectra per sample, the accuracy for identification was 87.8%.

N-benzylphenethylamines derivatives, such as NBOMe and NBOH series, are potent hallucinogen drugs that are usually sold in the illicit market as blotter papers containing “legal” LSD alternatives. The identification of these drugs is mainly performed by liquid or gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, but there is a lack of a rapid screening methods to identify samples containing or not drugs of these series. For this purpose, this work offers a fast and non-destructive method applying a handheld NIR spectrometer for discrimination of drugs absorbed in blotter papers using PLS-DA and SIMCA. The method was developed in a two-stage approach: Model A for identification of samples containing or not drugs and model B for identification of samples containing NBOMe or NBOH drugs. PLS-DA models have provided efficiency rates higher 97% in both training and validation phases. Robustness of model B was evaluated with a random permutation of samples among training and validation phases, given mean efficiency rates higher than 89%. SIMCA models presented equivalent efficiency for model A, but lower efficiency for model B comparing to PLS-DA results. However, SIMCA showed a higher efficiency to deal with samples containing drugs not included in the training phase. Results support use of this method for in loco forensic analysis and as a screening method prior the chromatographic and mass spectrometry analysis.

The design and testing of a novel vermicomposting system, acronymed FLUVTS ─ FLippable Units Vermireactor Train System ─ is presented. It enables rapid vermicomposting of paper waste without the need of pre-composting and requires animal manure supplementation to the extent of only 10:1 paper: manure mass ratio in contrast to reported systems which must have 50% or more of the feed mass as animal manure. Moreover, the system enables the vermicomposting to be accomplished at a high rate, achieving near-total convertion of feed to vermicast at solid retention times of just 30 days in comparison to conventional systems which take 90–120 days for the same process. Uninterrupted vermireactor operation for 6 months, during which the feed was put in and its vermicompost harvested once in 30 days, demonstrates the robustness and the consistency of the system. The suitability of the paper-waste vermicompost as an organic fertilizer was then tested in terms of it's effect on seed germination and early growth of four food plants chilly (Capsicum annuum), ladies finger, (Abelmoschus esculentus), cucumber (Cucumis sativus), and tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum). In general, the paper waste vermicompost when applied at levels

In this work, some counterexamples are given to refute some results reported in the paper by Guo and Li [8] (J Optim Theory Appl 162,(2014), 821-844). We correct the faulty in some of their theorems and we present alternative proofs. Moreover, we extend the definition of approximately pseudo-dissipative in the setting of metrizable topological vector spaces.

The analysis of dielectric response function obtained from the power transformer is a well-accepted technique in insulation diagnosis. A convenient way of analysing time-domain dielectric response φ(t) is the formulation of simple resistance−capacitance-based circuits like the conventional Debye model (CDM) or the modified Debye model (MDM) that are capable of modelling φ(t). However, available techniques do not guarantee unique branch parameters of such circuits for a given φ(t). In fact, the branch parameters are known to depend on the curve-fitting procedure opted during model formulation. This makes accuracy of CDM and MDM parameter-based diagnosis techniques less reliable. Furthermore, it seems logical to analyse the time-domain dielectric response of oil-paper insulation using a model containing time-varying parameters. In this study, a methodology is proposed using which such an insulation model (containing time-varying parameters) is formulated using time-domain insulation response. Related analysis presented suggests that the proposed model is immune to problems associated with available insulation models (containing time-invariant parameters). The performance of the proposed model in indicating insulation condition is tested on data obtained from several real-life power transformers.

We give an overview of our critiques of "proofs" of security and a guide to our papers on the subject that have appeared over the past decade and a half. We also provide numerous additional examples and a few updates and errata.

In this paper, we consider precoder designs for multiuser multiple-input-single-output (MISO) broadcasting channels. Instead of using a traditional linear zero-forcing (ZF) precoder, we propose a generalized ZF (GZF) precoder in conjunction with successive dirty-paper coding (DPC) for data-transmissions, namely, the GZF-DP precoder, where the suffix \lq{}DP\rq{} stands for \lq{}dirty-paper\rq{}. The GZF-DP precoder is designed to generate a band-shaped and lower-triangular effective channel $\vec{F}$ such that only the entries along the main diagonal and the $\nu$ first lower-diagonals can take non-zero values. Utilizing the successive DPC, the known non-causal inter-user interferences from the other (up to) $\nu$ users are canceled through successive encoding. We analyze optimal GZF-DP precoder designs both for sum-rate and minimum user-rate maximizations. Utilizing Lagrange multipliers, the optimal precoders for both cases are solved in closed-forms in relation to optimal power allocations. For the sum-rate maximization, the optimal power allocation can be found through water-filling, but with modified water-levels depending on the parameter $\nu$. While for the minimum user-rate maximization that measures the quality of the service (QoS), the optimal power allocation is directly solved in closed-form which also depends on $\nu$. Moreover, we propose two low-complexity user-ordering algorithms for the GZF-DP precoder designs for both maximizations, respectively. We show through numerical results that, the proposed GZF-DP precoder with a small $\nu$ ($\leq\!3$) renders significant rate increments compared to the previous precoder designs such as the linear ZF and user-grouping based DPC (UG-DP) precoders., Comment: 31 pages, 13 figures, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications in Aug. 2016

A colorimetric point-of-care paper-based analytical device (PAD) is developed for detecting adulterated beverages using whiskey falsified with caramel color as a model. Combining principal component analysis and calibration curves facilitated identification of adulteration in samples seized by the Brazilian Federal Police, at only ∼$0.02 per sample.

Consider a two-user MIMO Gaussian Broadcast Channel with two antennas at the transmitter and two single-antenna receivers. While Dirty Paper Coding (DPC) achieves capacity, its practical adoption needs a precise comparison with the popular method of Zero Forcing Beam Forming (ZFBF). In this work, we obtain a simplified expression for the exact difference in sum rate between DPC and ZFBF at all SNRs. Using this expression, we obtain the distribution of the difference under block fading, and show a significant improvement in rate in wideband OFDM transmission by using DPC for only a small fraction of subcarriers.

Oil paper insulation is the main insulation form of large transformers. Partial discharge(PD) in oil paper insulation will not only damage the insulation performance, but also is the precursor and manifestation of insulation deterioration. Weibull distribution parameter is an important characteristic parameter of PD. In this paper a method is proposed to extract the characteristic parameter of PD based on the three-parameter Weibull model, then gray wolf optimization algorithm and particle swarm optimization algorithm are used to calculate the parameters of the model. The result shows that the two algorithms can get the parameters quickly and accurately, and the model can effectively reflect the characteristics of the $H_{n}(q)$ spectrum of PD times.

This paper deals with the observer design of nonlinear tubular chemical reactor models. The analysis is performed on a linearized version of the model around a steady-state profile, in which some coefficients are a function of the spatial variable. The study starts from a general model of chemical tubular reactors that will serve as a benchmark model for the formulation in the infinite dimensional Hilbert state space. The optimal output injection operator associated to the proposed observer is computed via the solution of the infinite-dimensional Riccati equation in the space variable. The performance of the observer is illustrated through numerical experiments of an industrial pulp bleaching tubular reactor model.

Simple procedures to estimate Hansen solubility parameter (HSP) components from structural formulas are investigated. The best results are obtained using a simple relationship with molar volume and refractivity for the dispersion component, and using additivity models based on tailored fragments specifically designed for the polar and hydrogen bonding components. Despite large errors for some classes of chemicals, including small inorganic molecules, ionic liquids, and high halogen compounds, these models yield average absolute deviations from reference on par with state-of-the-art models and lower than reported using molecular dynamics simulations or nonlinear quantitative structure-property relationship models based on a limited set of quantum chemical descriptors. In contrast to group contribution methods that are either more restricted in scope or heavily parameterized, they are thoroughly validated and very easy to apply. Furthermore, the errors observed are easy to rationalize and may usually be anticipated. This work sheds light on some limitations inherent to pure additivity approaches for HSP prediction and provides a first step toward better models. A Python script implementing the procedure and the fully detailed results are provided as the Supporting Information.

In the above article, a second-order convergence in the maximum norm of the two-dimensional regularized long-wave equation is proved. However, due to a wrong inequality in Lemma 3.3 used in X. Wang et al.[1], there are some fundamental errors in this paper, in particular the proof of Theorem 3.3 and the convergence Theorem are no longer correct. The present brief paper contains clarifying comments.

We introduce our efforts within the project ‘The science of deep specification’ to work out the key formal underpinnings of industrial-scale formal specifications of software and hardware components, anticipating a world where large verified systems are routinely built out of smaller verified components that are also used by many other projects. We identify an important class of specification that has already been used in a few experiments that connect strong component-correctness theorems across the work of different teams. To help popularize the unique advantages of that style, we dub itdeep specification, and we say that it encompasses specifications that arerich,two-sided,formalandlive(terms that we define in the article). Our core team is developing a proof-of-concept system (based on the Coq proof assistant) whose specification and verification work is divided across largely decoupled subteams at our four institutions, encompassing hardware microarchitecture, compilers, operating systems and applications, along with cross-cutting principles and tools for effective specification. We also aim to catalyse interest in the approach, not just by basic researchers but also by users in industry.This article is part of the themed issue ‘Verified trustworthy software systems’.

The stabilization potentials of NWPA and the CBR optimization were investigated on the treated olokoro lateritic soil. The soil was classified as an A-2-7 soil according to AASHTO classification method. From the stabilization procedure, it has been found that the admixture improved the strength characteristics of the stabilized lateritic soil for use as base material in pavement construction. With the laboratory results, a nonlinear regression relationship was formulated through the multiple regression algorithms for the California bearing ratio (R) as a dependent variable with optimum water content (w), maximum dry density (D), and percentage by weight additive of NWPA (SA) as the independent variables. The nonlinear relationship was linearized to enable the optimization operation with Simplex Linear Programming (Optimization) to be conducted. This iteration procedure was conducted and the results showed that the CBR (R) was optimized at Rmax=219.16% with x1= 48.103, x2=4.833, x3=13.45, and x4= 0.948 in the stabilization of lateritic soils with NWPA as an admixture applied in the percentages of 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15%.

International audience; This article studies the kinetic dynamics of the rock-paper-scissors binary game. We first prove existence and uniqueness of the solution of the kinetic equation and subsequently we prove the rigorous derivation of the quasi-invariant limit for two meaningful choices of the domain of definition of the independent variables. We notice that the domain of definition of the problem plays a crucial role and heavily influences the behavior of the solution. The rigorous proof of the relaxation limit does not need the use of entropy estimates for ensuring compactness.

A modified version of Costa's dirty paper channel is studied, in which both the input signal and the state experience stationary and ergodic time-varying fading. The fading coefficients are assumed to be known exclusively at the receiver. An inner bound of the achievable rates using lattice codes is derived and compared to an outer bound of the capacity. For a wide range of fading distributions, the gap to capacity is within a constant value that does not depend on either the power of the input signal or the state. The results presented in this paper are applied to a class of ergodic fading broadcast channels with receive channel state information, where the achievable rate region is shown to be close to capacity under certain configurations.

This Forum Note concerns the question of necessary optimality conditions in optimal control problems subject to state constraints. Some critical remarks about a recently published paper are made.

Based on symbolic and numeric manipulations, a model simplification technique is proposed in this paper for the linear fractional representation (LFR) and for the differential algebraic representation introduced by Trofino and Dezuo (2013). This representation is needed for computational Lyapunov stability analysis of uncertain rational nonlinear systems. The structure of the parameterized rational Lyapunov function is generated from the linear fractional representation (LFR) of the system model. The developed method is briefly compared to the n-D order reduction technique known from the literature. The proposed model transformations does not affect the structure of Lyapunov function candidate, preserves the well-posedness of the LFR and guarantees that the resulting uncertainty block is at most the same dimensional as the initial one. The applicability of the proposed method is illustrated on two examples.

The comment concentrate on the solutions of mapping method that included in the above two papers. We prove by simple calculation and also by using computer software (Maple program V. 16) that this technique for solving nonlinear partial differential equation (PDE) is wrong.

We congratulate the authors Bertsimas, Pauphilet and van Parys (hereafter BPvP) and Hastie, Tibshirani and Tibshirani (hereafter HTT) for providing fresh and insightful views on the problem of variable selection and prediction in linear models. Their contributions at the fundamental level provide guidance for more complex models and procedures.

The purpose of this comment paper is to show that the results of the paper (Cui, 2021) are incorrect.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the reliability of the washing system in a paper plant in a more promising way under vague environment by reducing the accumulating phenomenon of fuzziness and accelerating the computation process using the Tω (weakest t-norm) based fuzzy lambda-tau (TBFLT) technique. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents a unified approach for analyzing the fuzzy reliability of the washing system under vague environment. This approach applies the TBFLT technique which uses triangular fuzzy numbers for incorporating data uncertainty, fault tree and lambda-tau method for finding system failure rate and repair time mathematical expressions while simplified Tω-based arithmetic operations are applied for computing various reliability parameters of the system. The effectiveness of the TBFLT technique has been demonstrated by analyzing fuzzy reliability of the system using five different techniques including TBFLT. Moreover, this paper applies extended Tanaka’s (1983) approach to rank the critical components of the system. Findings The TBFLT technique has the advantage of low computation complexity in comparison to other techniques and effectively reduces the accumulating phenomenon of fuzziness. This main finding verifies the conclusion made by Chen (1994). Originality/value The author has suggested a simple and more applicable technique for analyzing the fuzzy reliability of any complex process industrial system under vague environment. The effectiveness of the technique has been demonstrated by computing various reliability parameters of the washing system of a paper plant.

This paper addresses the stability analysis of linear systems subject to a time-varying delay. The contribution of this paper is twofolds. First, we aim at presenting a new matrix inequality, which can be seen as an improved version of the reciprocally convex combination, which provides a more accurate delay-dependent lower bound. When gathering this new inequality with the Wirtinger-based integral inequality, efficient stability conditions expressed in terms of LMI are designed and show a clear reduction of the conservatism with a reasonable associated computational cost. The second original contribution of this paper consists in noting that stability conditions issued from the Wirtinger-based integral inequality depends in an affine manner on the bounds of the delay function and also on its derivative. This allows to refine the definition of allowable delay set and to relax usual convex on the delay function. As a result of this new characterization, the LMI conditions allows obtaining stability regions for slow time-varying delay systems which are very closed to the constant delay case.

Parallel test paper generation is a biobjective distributed resource optimization problem, which aims to generate multiple similarly optimal test papers automatically according to multiple user-specified assessment criteria. Generating high-quality parallel test papers is challenging due to its NP-hardness in both of the collective objective functions. In this paper, we propose a submodular memetic approximation algorithm for solving this problem. The proposed algorithm is an adaptive memetic algorithm (MA), which exploits the submodular property of the collective objective functions to design greedy-based approximation algorithms for enhancing steps of the multiobjective MA. Synergizing the intensification of submodular local search mechanism with the diversification of the population-based submodular crossover operator, our algorithm can jointly optimize the total quality maximization objective and the fairness quality maximization objective. Our MA can achieve provable near-optimal solutions in a huge search space of large datasets in efficient polynomial runtime. Performance results on various datasets have shown that our algorithm has drastically outperformed the current techniques in terms of paper quality and runtime efficiency.

In this research, we characterized and discriminated 24 different kinds of writing/printing papers that may or may not have similar compositions by using Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). All paper samples were obtained from the local market in and around Chandigarh (Northwest India). Large differences were observed in the estimation of the kinetic parameters of cellulose and hemicellulose. The calculated percentage weight loss and activation energy for Reaction I and II was further used to determine the thermal stability of each sample. Although few differences were observed on visual examination of the samples, significant differences were obtained on the basis of their kinetic parameters. Multivariate analysis was further applied to the results and considerable enhancement of the results was observed. The current study provides 99.28% discrimination among all the possible pairs of paper samples. The technique is cost-effective, involves no sample preparation, consumes less time and provides rep...

In this short paper, we look into a conclusion drawn by Alzalg (J Optim Theory Appl 169:32---49, 2016). We think the conclusion drawn in the paper is incorrect by pointing out three things. First, we provide a counterexample that the proposed inner product does not satisfy bilinearity. Secondly, we offer an argument why a pth-order cone cannot be self-dual under any reasonable inner product structure on $$\mathbb {R}^n$$Rn. Thirdly, even under the assumption that all elements operator commute, the inner product becomes an official inner product and the arbitrary-order cone can be shown as a symmetric cone, we think this condition is still unreasonable and very stringent so that the result can only be applied to very few cases.

The aim of this paper is the development of a mathematical model to compute the optimal inventory mix to face stochastic demand at minimum cost in a two-level supply chain. The paper addresses a multi-product dynamic lot-sizing problem under stochastic demand subject to capacity and service level constraints. This model is executed to compare a Make To Order (MTO) strategy to a Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) partnership between the supplier and their customers. Both strategies provide the demand order to be produced. A schedule of production orders is determined over the planning horizon in order to minimize the inventory holding costs of the supply chain, taking into consideration that the supplier is also responsible of initiating the replenishment orders and deliveries of their customers according to the VMI partnership. The simulation model is illustrated empirically using a real case study: a paper manufacturing company that pursues to improve customer service level and supply chain inventory costs through a proper production planning of their paper machines and a suitable VMI order replenishment schedule.