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The fabrication of underwater devices is necessary for the exploration of water environments and interactions in the Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) field. However, there are fewer approaches to support prototyping used in water environments. The existing prototype methods lack systematic waterproof treatments and provide insufficient software for balance and buoyancy analysis. To address these limitations, we present ElectroPaper, a new approach for the design and fabrication of prototypes used in water environments (surface or beneath) with paper-based electronic interfaces with a crease layer, hardware distribution layer, and hollow-out layer to support physical properties, such as waterproofing, foldability, and conformability. The approach includes a computational design tool for assisting in balance analysis, three-dimensional (3D) model unfolding, and circuit drawing. We describe the design and fabrication process and provide several example applications to illustrate the feasibility and utility of our approach. ElectroPaper provides an inexpensive and effective medium for the fabrication of customized digital prototypes for water environment use.

The economy of the paper industry largely depends on the quality of the paper manufactured and the quality depends on the precise operation of Headbox, which is the key element of the paper machine and is highly responsible for the quality of the paper manufactured. Being a nonlinear multivariable system, a headbox needs to be controlled efficiently to have the desired response which in turn reflects in the quality of the paper. The headbox is subjected to various disturbances and thus it is required not only to suppress the effect of disturbances but also to ensure the smooth start of the headbox and fast response to the set-point changes. A control technique is proposed in this paper for a paper machine headbox based on the determination of ultimate gain and frequency using the fractional-order integrator (FOI). The PID tuning technique proposed has been applied on paper machine headbox and the responses are compared with the existing techniques.

A Non-Orthogonal Unicast and Multicast (NOUM) transmission system allows a multicast stream intended to all receivers to be jointly transmitted with unicast streams in the same time-frequency resource blocks. While the capacity of the two-user multi-antenna NOUM with perfect Channel State Information at the Transmitter (CSIT) is known and achieved by Dirty Paper Coding (DPC)-assisted NOUM with Superposition Coding (SC), the capacity and the capacity-achieving strategy of the multi-antenna NOUM with partial CSIT remain unknown. In this work, we focus on the partial CSIT setting and make two major contributions. First, we show that linearly precoded Rate-Splitting (RS), relying on splitting unicast messages into common and private parts, encoding the common parts together with the multicast message and linearly precoding at the transmitter, can achieve larger rate regions than DPC-assisted NOUM with partial CSIT. Second, we study Dirty Paper Coded Rate-Splitting (DPCRS), that marries RS and DPC. We show that the rate region of DPCRS-assisted NOUM is enlarged beyond that of conventional DPC-assisted NOUM and that of linearly precoded RS-assisted NOUM with partial CSIT., 6 pages, 3 figures, accepted by 54th Annual Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers

Point of care (POC) devices enable immediate diagnosis and treatment in settings where equipped facilities, trained expertise and organized transportation are lacking. Epidemics require rapid treatment to deter the spread of diseases. Thus, POC devices can be used to rapidly diagnose the disease, without the need for trained personnel or expensive equipment. Paper is an excellent option for POC applications, mainly due to its physical and chemical properties and cost. Paper has been used in various forms to detect proteins and nucleic acids from pathogens, as they are the most commonly targeted biomolecules for the detection of infectious diseases. Due to their specificity, a diverse range of biomolecules could be detected using methods such as ELISA, gold nanoparticles and electrochemistry. In spite of the aforementioned advantages, instability and cross-reactivity in protein detection and the complexity of nucleic acid detection deter the rapid replacement of conventional diagnostic methods. Thus, in this chapter, we present key technical progress in paper-based POC devices, identify major functional components and provide insight into important challenges faced to produce optimal diagnostic devices.

Paper has been used in analytical applications ranging from diagnostics to environmental monitoring. In 2007, Martinez et al. introduced the first microfluidics paper-based analytical device (μPAD). They patterned the paper with a hydrophobic reagent to form hydrophilic channels for transporting liquid samples from an inlet to a specific reaction area for diagnosis. To achieve an automatic sequential multistep assay on the μPAD, the control of the speed of wicking fluid in a paper is very important. In this chapter, we focus on new fabrication techniques and novel materials for paper-based devices with controllable wicking speeds.

Using a new opinion dynamics using the polarity analysis of measured data of Twitter about "toilet paper" and "COVID-19", we analyzed the chain of fear that people feel for the rumor of lack of toilet paper and COVID-19 itself. We use opinion dynamics for the analysis of the fears, and we obtain the opinion distribution of the fear calculated using the opinion dynamics and the observed distribution. By comparing the two distribution, we found that the opinion distribution for the fear is consisted with the mixture of trust and distrust.

The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between testing mode (taking a test on computer versus paper) and two other factors: (1) cognitive load and (2) scratch paper use in an undergraduate general chemistry class setting. Cognitive load was measured with two self-report questions (perceived mental effort and level of difficulty) and scratch paper use was analyzed manually. All 221 students completed three assessments administered either on computer or paper. The assessments included a variety of chemistry topics with an equal number of three question types (algorithmic, conceptual, and definition). There was no significant difference in the cognitive load imposed by computer or paper-based tests at the overall test level or by question type. Students utilized scratch paper more on paper-based than online tests, especially when the questions were conceptual, and they used scratch paper the most for algorithmic questions. Altogether, these results provide further support that online testing can be implemented in educational settings without imposing additional cognitive load on students.

Tissue paper is defined by its physical and mechanical properties, namely: high softness, low grammage, high bulk and high liquid absorption capacity. It is expected that the production of tissue paper will continue to grow, which increases the importance of better understanding the processes involved in its production as well as its optimization [1] . The experimental data presented in this article, are the physical-mechanical characterization of a group of 13 industrial base tissue papers, which were collected at the end of the tissue paper machine on Portuguese factories. These samples vary in grammage, composition and creping [2] , enabling a later evaluation of the crepe type [3] and its relationship with the final properties of the tissue paper.

For in-situ disease markers detection, point-of-care (POC) diagnosis has great advantages in speed and cost compared with traditional techniques. The rapid diagnosis, prognosis, and surveillance of diseases can significantly reduce disease-related mortality and trauma. Therefore, increasing attention has been paid to the POC diagnosis devices due to their excellent diagnosis speed and portability. Over the past ten years, paper-based microfluidic aptasensors have emerged as a class of critical POC diagnosis devices and various aptasensors have been proposed to detect various disease markers. However, most aptasensors need further improvement before they can actually enter the market and be widely used. There is thus an urgent need to sort out the key points of preparing the aptasensors and the direction that needs to be invested in. This review summarizes the representative articles in the development of paper-based microfluidic aptasensors. These works can be divided into paper-based optical aptasensors and paper-based electrochemical aptasensors according to their output signals. Significant focus is applied to these works according to the following three parts: (1) The ingenious design of device structure; (2) Application and synthesis of nanomaterial; (3) The detection principle of the proposed aptasensor. This is a detailed and comprehensive review of paper-based microfluidic aptasensors. The accomplishments and shortcomings of the current aptasensors are outlined, the development direction and the future prospective are given. It is hoped that the research in this review can provide a reference for further development of more advanced, more effective paper-based microfluidic aptasensors for POC disease markers diagnosis.

Fibrinogen (FIB) plays a key role in blood coagulation and thrombosis and its concentration in blood can directly reflect health conditions, thus efficient detection of FIB would benefit the treatments of certain diseases such as liver and heart diseases. However, there is a lack of sensitive, simple, rapid and cheap FIB detection device currently, in lieu of expensive and sophisticated approaches in laboratories. Here, we propose a novel plasma separation and FIB detection platform based on a microfluidic paper-based analytical device (μPAD). It is the first time that dielectrophoretic (DEP) force is combined with capillary force on paper for plasma separation, and the separation efficiency of plasma reaches about 95%, ensuring reliable downstream FIB detection, for which we also propose a new method called the resistance-fibrinogen detection (RFD) method. It not only avoids the use of large-scale instruments for detection, but also possesses high precision and simplicity. The method is found to be reliable in FIB detection for various concentrations ranging from 127.0 to 508.0 mg dL-1. Moreover, the results obtained from the proposed μPAD show an excellent agreement (R2 = 0.9985) with those obtained from an automatic coagulation analyzer with natural human blood samples. Overall, the proposed platform provides a low-cost and reliable approach for FIB detection, especially for clinical use in resource-limited areas.

In any big institution, especially educational institutions like schools or colleges, generation of large quantity of waste papers is quite apparent. And effective use of recycled paper is also possible (craft papers, registers etc). So, instead of disposing off the waste papers into trash, recycling them makes sense. This not only helps the institute in cost saving but will also ensure its contribution towards the protection of the environment. Designing manually operated small-scaled paper recycling plant, which can be used in schools and colleges, ensures that a cheap and non-complex method of production of paper product is guaranteed. Accordingly design of the machine unit has been prepared with all necessary component specifications.

Given their photoluminescent character, portable quantum dot readers are often sophisticated and relatively expensive. In response, we engineered a “do it yourself” fluorescence reader employing paper materials and a mid-range smartphone camera. Black paperboard facilitated a versatile, lightweight and foldable case; whereas cellophane paper was observed to behave as a simple, yet effective, optical bandpass filter leading to an advantageous device for the quantitative interrogation of quantum dot nanocrystals concentrations (from 2.5 to 20 nM), which are suitable for optical point-of-care biosensing. The streptavidin-coated nanocrystals employed are commercially available and the developed reader was benchmarked with a standard portable quantum dot reader, thereby demonstrating advantages in terms of cost and linear analytical range.

Background Roadside observational studies play a fundamental role in designing evidence-informed strategies to address the pressing global health problem of road traffic injuries. Paper-based data collection has been the standard method for such studies, although digital methods are gaining popularity in all types of primary data collection. Objective This study aims to understand the reliability, productivity, and efficiency of paper vs digital data collection based on three different road user behaviors: helmet use, seatbelt use, and speeding. It also aims to understand the cost and time efficiency of each method and to evaluate potential trade-offs among reliability, productivity, and efficiency. Methods A total of 150 observational sessions were conducted simultaneously for each risk factor in Mumbai, India, across two rounds of data collection. We matched the simultaneous digital and paper observation periods by date, time, and location, and compared the reliability by subgroups and the productivity using Pearson correlations (r). We also conducted logistic regressions separately by method to understand how similar results of inferential analyses would be. The time to complete an observation and the time to obtain a complete dataset were also compared, as were the total costs in US dollars for fieldwork, data entry, management, and cleaning. Results Productivity was higher in paper than digital methods in each round for each risk factor. However, the sample sizes across both methods provided a precision of 0.7 percentage points or smaller. The gap between digital and paper data collection productivity narrowed across rounds, with correlations improving from r=0.27-0.49 to 0.89-0.96. Reliability in risk factor proportions was between 0.61 and 0.99, improving between the two rounds for each risk factor. The results of the logistic regressions were also largely comparable between the two methods. Differences in regression results were largely attributable to small sample sizes in some variable levels or random error in variables where the prevalence of the outcome was similar among variable levels. Although data collectors were able to complete an observation using paper more quickly, the digital dataset was available approximately 9 days sooner. Although fixed costs were higher for digital data collection, variable costs were much lower, resulting in a 7.73% (US $3011/38,947) lower overall cost. Conclusions Our study did not face trade-offs among time efficiency, cost efficiency, statistical reliability, and descriptive comparability when deciding between digital and paper, as digital data collection proved equivalent or superior on these domains in the context of our project. As trade-offs among cost, timeliness, and comparability—and the relative importance of each—could be unique to every data collection project, researchers should carefully consider the questionnaire complexity, target sample size, implementation plan, cost and logistical constraints, and geographical contexts when making the decision between digital and paper.

This paper proposes an efficient decision support tool for the optimal production scheduling of a variety of paper grades in a paper machine. The tool is based on a continuous-time scheduling model and generalized disjunctive programming. As the full-space scheduling model corresponds to a large-scale mixed integer linear programming model, we apply data analytics techniques to reduce the size of the decision space, which has a profound impact on the computational efficiency of the model and enables us to support the solution of large-scale problems. The data-driven model is based on an automated method of identifying the forbidden and recommended paper grade sequences, as well as the changeover durations between two paper grades. The results from a real industrial case study show that the data-driven model leads to good results in terms of both solution quality and CPU time in comparison to the full-space model.

Applications of electrochemical detection methods in microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (μPADs) has revolutionized the area of point-of-care (POC) testing towards highly sensitive and selective quantification of various (bio)chemical analytes in a miniaturized, low-coat, rapid, and user-friendly manner. Shortly after the initiation, these relatively new modulations of μPADs, named as electrochemical paper-based analytical devices (ePADs), gained widespread popularity within the POC research community thanks to the inherent advantages of both electrochemical sensing and usage of paper as a suitable substrate for POC testing platforms. Even though general aspects of ePADs such as applications and fabrication techniques, have already been reviewed multiple times in the literature, herein, we intend to provide a critical engineering insight into the area of ePADs by focusing particularly on the practical strategies utilized to enhance their analytical performance (i.e. sensitivity), while maintaining the desired simplicity and efficiency intact. Basically, the discussed strategies are driven by considering the parameters potentially affecting the generated electrochemical signal in the ePADs. Some of these parameters include the type of filter paper, electrode fabrication methods, electrode materials, fluid flow patterns, etc. Besides, the limitations and challenges associated with the development of ePADs are discussed, and further insights and directions for future research in this field are proposed.

Escherichia coli O157:H7 is a severe foodborne pathogen that causes lots of life-threatening diseases. In the search for a rapid, sensitive, portable and low-cost method to detect this pathogen, we developed a wax-printed paper-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (P-ELISA) based on microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (μPADs), with the whole operation time being less than 3 h and only needing 5 μl samples for detection. The limit of detection (LOD) of E. coli O157:H7 reached 104 CFU ml-1, which is an order of magnitude higher than that of conventional ELISA (C-ELISA). The LOD in artificially contaminated beef samples is 1 CFU per 25 g after enriching the culture for 8 h. This method is superior to the molecular biology method in detection sensitivity and superior to C-ELISA and the national standard method in detection time and cost. Thus, the established P-ELISA method has good sensitivity, specificity and repeatability. It can be suitable for point-of-care testing without expensive and bulky instruments and can also provide a platform for detecting other pathogens, especially in areas that lack advanced clinical equipment.

Although the established ELISA-based sensing platforms have many benefits, the importance of cytokine and cancer biomarkers detection for point-of-care diagnostics has propelled the search for more specific, sensitive, simple, accessible, yet economical sensor. Paper-based biosensor holds promise for future in-situ applications and can provide rapid analysis and data without the need to conduct in a laboratory. Electrochemical detection plays a vital role in interpreting results obtained from qualitative assessment to quantitative determination. In this review, various factors affecting the design of an electrochemical paper-based biosensor are highlighted and discussed in depth. Different detection methods, along with the latest development in utilizing them in cytokine and cancer biomarkers detection, are reviewed. Lastly, the fabrication of portable electrochemical paper-based biosensor is ideal in deliberating positive societal implications in developing countries with limited resources and accessibility to healthcare services. Ministry of Education (MOE) Published version The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support for this work funded by Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund Tier 1 (MOE-2018-T1-001-004).

The rapid dispersion of new psychoactive substances (NPS) presents challenges to customs services and analytical laboratories, which are involved in their detection and characterization. When the seized material is limited in quantity or of a complex nature, or when the target substance is present in very small amounts, the need to use advanced analytical techniques, efficient workflows and chemo-informatics tools is essential for the complete identification and elucidation of these substances. The current work describes the application of such a workflow in the analysis of a single blotter paper, seized by Swedish customs, that led to the identification of a lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) derivative, 1-butyl-lysergic acid diethylamide (1B-LSD). Such blotter paper generally contains an amount in the range of 30&ndash, 100 ug. This substance, which is closely related to 1-propionyl-lysergic acid diethylamide (1P-LSD), seems to have only recently reached the drug street market. Its identification was made possible by comprehensively combining gas chromatography with mass spectrometry detection (GC&ndash, MS), liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution tandem MS (LC&ndash, HR-MS/MS), Orbitrap-MS and both 1D and 2D nuclear-magnetic-resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. All the obtained data have been managed, assessed, processed and evaluated using a chemo-informatics platform to produce the effective chemical and structural identification of 1B-LSD in the seized material.

In human history, the paper has long been used as a platform to record and preserve information. However, over the decades, paper has found its application in Biomedical Sciences, too. Both paper-based microfluidic devices (μPADs) and paper-based cultures and scaffolds have shown immense potential to be used as a sensor as well as a supporting material for in vitro tissue engineering. μPADs can be used to perform low-cost and fast biomolecular assays at Point-Of-Care (POC). They are being used to detect various biomarkers like viral proteins, metabolites, oncogenes, and antigens; and conditions like Venous Thromboembolism (VTE). On the other hand, the paper has also been used to develop paper-based 3D cultures and scaffolds to test drugs, and monitor cytotoxic effects in vitro cell microenvironments and also as implantable tissues. In this review, we intend to enumerate the development in the field of μPADs, paper-based cell cultures, and paper-based scaffolds and their plethora of applications over the last decade.

Non-invasive diagnosis on biological liquid samples, such as urine, sweat, saliva, and tears, may allow patients to evaluate their health by themselves. To obtain accurate diagnostic results, target liquid must be precisely sampled. Conventionally, urine sampling using filter paper can be given as an example sampling, but differences in the paper structure can cause variations in sampling volume. This paper describes precise liquid sampling using synthetic microfluidic papers, which are composed of obliquely combined micropillars. Sampling volume accuracy was investigated using different designs and collection methods to determine the optimal design and sample collecting method. The optimized protocol was followed to accurately measure potassium concentration using synthetic microfluidic paper and a commercially available densitometer, which verified the usefulness of the synthetic microfluidic papers for precision sampling.

Because of the rapid evolution of wearable devices, great effort has been devoted to widely developing flexible strain sensors, as one of the most important components. However, realizing the low-c...

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This work reports on fully integrated “sample‐in‐signal‐out” microfluidic paper‐based analytical devices (μPADs) relying on bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) switches for analyte recognition and colorimetric signal generation. The devices use BRET‐based antibody sensing proteins integrated into vertically assembled layers of functionalized paper, and their design enables sample volume‐independent and fully reagent‐free operation, including on‐device blood plasma separation. User operation is limited to the application of a single drop (20–30 μL) of sample (serum, whole blood) and the acquisition of a photograph 20 min after sample introduction, with no requirement for precise pipetting, liquid handling, or analytical equipment except for a camera. Simultaneous detection of three different antibodies (anti‐HIV1, anti‐HA, and anti‐DEN1) in whole blood was achieved. Given its simplicity, this type of device is ideally suited for user‐friendly point‐of‐care testing in low‐resource environments.

This work aims at developing sustainable processes for pulp and paper industry by integration of the biorefinery concept to an existing pulp and paper process. A systematic methodology employing a superstructure-based process synthesis approach is employed with support from computer-aided tools to determine potential pathways for a long-term sustainable growth objective. A superstructure of the multi-product biorefinery process network for the pulp and paper industry is developed. It is divided into three sub-networks, a chemical pulping section, a biochemical production section and a black liquor utilization section. Superstructure optimization is performed with the objective to maximize profit to determine optimal integrated networks for three scenarios. The obtained results provide useful insights for further development of the optimal networks as sustainable integrated biorefinery combined with pulp and paper mills.

A novel strategy for fabricating the paper-based valves on microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (μPADs) was described to control fluid in a user-friendly way. Initial prototypes of 3D μPADs manipulate the spatial distribution of fluid within the device. The movable paper channel in a different layer could be achieved using the channel's connection or disconnection to realize the valve function using plastic comb binding spines (PCBS). The entire valve manipulation process was similar to a desk calendar that can be flipped over and turned back. It is notable that this kind of PCBS valve can control a fluid in a simple and easy way without the timing setting or any trigger, and this advantage makes it user-friendly for untrained users to carry out the complex and high throughput operations. The reusable plastic comb binding spines greatly reduce the cost of fabricating paper-based valves. To evaluate the performance, the actual samples of Fe (II) and nitrite were successfully analyzed. We hope this method will introduce a new approach to fabrication of paper-based valves on μPADs in the future.

In vitro diagnostics (IVD) are essential in healthcare systems for detection of diseases, conditions, or infections. Affordable and sensitive methods remain a challenge in the development of IVD. In this article, we give an overview of paper-based fluorogenic devices, an emerging cost-effective analytical method for IVD applications. The paper-based devices are inexpensive, sensitive, selective, user-friendly and equipment-free. Furthermore, the fluorescent detection on paper-based devices has recently attracted enormous attentions due to its high sensitivity and selectivity. We summarize and compare various fluorescent materials that are used in the paper-based fluorogenic devices, including fluorescent dyes, quantum dots, metal nanoclusters, upconversion nanoparticles, and carbon dots. We review a wide range of IVD applications of the paper-based fluorogenic devices, e.g., detection of nucleic acids, proteins, cells, and so on. It may open an avenue to improve the global healthcare systems in the developing countries at point of care settings and in emergency situations.

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.

At present, the tissue paper manufacturing is mostly based on the dry crepe technology. During the last decade, the manufacturers have introduced new tissue machines concepts that increase the softness, bulk, and absorption capacity. Such machines produce a strong regular three-dimensional (3D) structure to the sheet before the Yankee cylinder. At present, the quality of the 3D structure is not evaluated, or it is evaluated only subjectively at the mill. This is mostly because of the difficulties to separate reliably the regular 3D pattern from other variations. This paper introduces a frequency analysis based method which separates the surface profile variances in tissue paper to the creping, to the regular 3D pattern and to the residual variation. The 3D surface profiles and their variances were determined online with the photometric stereo method. We show that the introduced analysis method evaluates the variance portions reliably and the results are consistent with the visual perception of the 3D surfaces. In one particular product, the regular 3D pattern explains 74 % of total surface variance; the creping explains 10 % and residual variations 16 %. Furthermore, the creping and residual variances are quite stable over time whereas the variance of the regular 3D pattern fluctuates significantly.

There has been a recent resurgence in the use of paper as a substrate for developing point-of-care medical diagnostic tests, possibly triggered by expiring patents published in the 1990s. A hallmark of this resurgence has been the development of advanced shapes and structures made from paper to conduct multi-step fluidic operations using the wicking action of porous materials. Such devices indicate a distinct improvement over lateral flow immunoassays, which are restricted to conducting one-step operations. New developments in paper-based diagnostic devices have triggered interest in the development of paper-based point-of-care nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs). NAATs can identify extremely low levels of specific nucleic acid sequences from clinical samples and are the most sensitive of all available tests for infectious disease diagnosis. Because traditional PCR-based NAATs require expensive instruments, the development of portable paper-based NAAT's has become an exciting field of research. This article aims to review and analyse the current state of development of paper-based NAATs. We project paper-based NAATs as miniaturized chemical processes and shed light on various schemes of operation used for converting the multiple steps of the chemical processes into paper microfluidic devices. We conclude by elaborating on the challenges that must be overcome in the near future so that progress can be made towards the development of fully functional and commercial paper-based NAATs.