Search

Petroleum-based plastic coatings are used to create moisture barriers and heat-sealable layers on paperboard. Despite their good convertibility and barrier properties, the use of sustainable biobased polymer coatings as alternatives has attracted interest due to environmental concerns. In this study, the convertibility and water resistance of bio-based multilayered coating composed of biowax and polylactic acid (PLA) were investigated. Convertibility of the coatings was studied through heat-sealing experiments and by evaluating their durability when they were subjected to high stresses during creasing and folding. Surface imaging was performed to evaluate film formation and coating integrity. The wettability and water absorption properties of the coatings were also investigated. Different coating compositions resulted in different film formation processes, surface appearances, and water absorption. The presence of wax in a coating increased its hydrophobicity and reduced its water absorption already with the smallest addition in the coating. However, a high wax content in the coating caused defects in the coating layer, whereas the addition of PLA increased the convertibility of the coated material. This indicates that water resistance, heat sealability, and convertibility can be simultaneously achieved by optimizing the composition of wax and PLA coatings.

The disposable cup market has long relied on paperboard with a fossil-based polymer coating as a replacement for 100% plastic cups. Paperboards with biobased or biodegradable polymer coatings are aimed at reducing the fossil resource consumption of the packaging sector. However, as their properties are inherently different from traditional, fossil-based materials, they can face runnability issues. In order to establish a connection between certain material properties and runnability issues, four coated paperboard materials with differing surface and strength properties were converted into 250 mL/8 oz disposable drinking cups. The materials included two single-side extrusion-coated paperboards and two two-sided dispersion-coated paperboards. The cups were manufactured in two separate runs with minor machine adjustments to affect the resulting cup geometry. A comparison of the manufactured cups and material properties revealed the materials’ coefficient of friction to be the major cause of runnability issues or defects. Other suspected properties affecting the performance of cup materials included bending stiffness and compression strength.

Abstract Renewable materials and material circularity are key priorities for the coming decades. While paper is the most utilized material in the packaging sector, its applications in food packaging are limited due to low barrier properties. Coating it with petroleum-based polymer barrier coatings renders it unrecyclable both mechanically and biologically. Bio-coated paper packaging, made from agricultural waste or by-products, presents environmentally favorable solutions that can benefit the biological cycle of the circular economy. The main objective of this study is to assess the applicability of grain and beer production by-products in wood pulp food packaging materials. It examines the effects of different grain by-products (industrial wheat grain processing residues and wheat bran) particles and concentrations (15 wt% and 40 wt%), as well as the impact of brewer’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) at a concentration of 10 wt%, on the physical–mechanical and barrier properties of Northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) and chemithermomechanical (CTMP) pulps. Material composites were fabricated using a standard sheet forming method. Physical–mechanical properties were analyzed through tensile strength, strain at break, tear resistance, and bending stiffness tests. Barrier-related properties were analyzed through roughness, air permeance, and water contact angle tests. Results revealed that the vast majority of physical–mechanical properties decreased with the increase of both types of grain production fillers. Industrial wheat grain processing residues had a lower impact on physical–mechanical properties than wheat bran filler. A higher percentage of property decrease was absorbed in NBSK pulp than in CTMP. Roughness of CTMP can be improved by adding both industrial wheat grain processing residues and wheat bran. Wheat bran particles can increase hydrophobicity. CTMP pulp strength properties can be increased with the addition of yeast; however, the yeast additive’s effect on air permeance demonstrated a negative impact. In the case of NBSK pulp, which has higher primary strength properties, the addition of yeast does not make any significant changes. The conducted experiments demonstrated that, overall, the addition of these fillers resulted in a decline in physical–mechanical properties such as tensile strength, strain at break, tear resistance, and bending stiffness. This decline was more pronounced with higher concentrations of fillers. In the case of CTMP pulp, both types of fillers exhibited similar trends in affecting properties, whereas for NBSK pulp, wheat bran had a more significant impact compared to wheat grain processing residues. The addition of yeast generally led to a reduction in physical–mechanical properties, particularly in tensile strength and tear resistance. However, samples containing yeast displayed increased flexibility compared to controls. The influence on barrier properties varied: while yeast increased air permeability, it also enhanced surface hydrophobicity, thereby reducing the paper’s receptivity to liquids.

The quest to reduce global plastic consumption has led to the emergence of biodegradable fiber-based composites as a promising sustainable replacement to conventional plastics in the food packaging industry. As the packaging sector is shifting more towards fiber-centric materials, thermoforming techniques for the 3D forming of the fiber-based materials, especially using complex mold designs, should be thoroughly researched to replace the conventional plastics in the industry. Finite element analysis of the deformation behavior of the paperboard during the thermoforming process and the factors that trigger the fracture of the composite layers were studied in the present work. The results show that 90° fiber orientation, 0.3 mm sheet thicknesses, and specific mold geometries can result in better forming results, thereby maximizing the potential of fiber-based materials in thermoforming.

To investigate the influence of blank moisture on the forming of paperboard, press forming experiments were performed with fixed blank setup and sliding blank setup to produce paperboard trays. The trays were rated by their forming height. Different moisturisation procedures were established to achieve one or double-sided surface moisturisation or homogenous moisture distributions in the blanks. Additionally, basic influences of moisture to paper-to-metal friction and tensile properties of the paperboard were measured. Surface moisturisation increased the paper-to metal friction and therefore limited the achievable forming heights in sliding blank press forming. The elongation at break of paperboard increased with increased sample moisture content. In the fixed blank press forming test this increase was not apparent in the data.

Selective attention-related top-down modulation plays a significant role in separating relevant speech from irrelevant background speech when vocal attributes separating concurrent speakers are small and continuously evolving. Electrophysiological studies have shown that such top-down modulation enhances neural tracking of attended speech. Yet, the specific cortical regions involved remain unclear due to the limited spatial resolution of most electrophysiological techniques. To overcome such limitations, we collected both electroencephalography (EEG) (high temporal resolution) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) (high spatial resolution), while human participants selectively attended to speakers in audiovisual scenes containing overlapping cocktail party speech. To utilise the advantages of the respective techniques, we analysed neural tracking of speech using the EEG data and performed representational dissimilarity-based EEG-fMRI fusion. We observed that attention enhanced neural tracking and modulated EEG correlates throughout the latencies studied. Further, attention-related enhancement of neural tracking fluctuated in predictable temporal profiles. We discuss how such temporal dynamics could arise from a combination of interactions between attention and prediction as well as plastic properties of the auditory cortex. EEG-fMRI fusion revealed attention-related iterative feedforward-feedback loops between hierarchically organised nodes of the ventral auditory object related processing stream. Our findings support models where attention facilitates dynamic neural changes in the auditory cortex, ultimately aiding discrimination of relevant sounds from irrelevant ones while conserving neural resources.

Considerable research is ongoing, examining opportunities for substituting plastic packaging with more sustainable alternatives, and some encouraging results have been achieved. Coated paper and paperboard demonstrate promising performance; however, several serious drawbacks still need to be overcome. Recent research in this area is reviewed in the current work, including mechanical and machinery aspects of paperboard converting, as well as barrier properties of coated materials before and after processing. The main objective of the study was to establish how coated paperboard behaves during converting operations and investigate what changes in its properties occur, considering not only the convertibility of the material as a whole but also effects on substrates and coatings. The results of the literature review show that creasing, folding, and the presence of forming stresses severely damage barrier and pigment coatings even if the paperboard-based product is reported as having good oxygen and water vapour barrier or oil resistance after production. Thus far, most materials cannot fully match the performance of plastic packaging materials due to a noticeable reduction in barrier properties after converting. The work presents factors linking the convertibility of coated materials and their subsequent barrier properties as valuable knowledge to support future development of sustainable materials.

Wood–plastic composites (WPCs) have emerged as sought-after substitutes for plastic. However, their use is restricted primarily to linear profiles owing to the lack of techniques for their three-dimensional (3D) forming. Thermoforming is a potential method for the 3D formation of WPCs. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to evaluate the thermoforming behaviour of extruded wood flour–high-density polyethylene composites with two different wood flour compositions (34 % and 54 %) under vacuum forming. This study examined the thermal behaviour of each structure during the forming process and the shape conformability, shape consistency, and surface quality of the formed samples. The findings suggest that increasing the quantity of plastic in composites can improve the obtained shape dimensions. Nevertheless, this improvement is accompanied by an increased level of inconsistency in the acquired profiles due to the distinct stretching rates of plastic and wood. Furthermore, the results reinforced the reliability of thermal analysis as a credible means of evaluating quality.

Objective: To study if interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs) are associated with language performance or pre-/perinatal factors in children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Methods: We recorded routine EEG in wake and sleep in 205 children aged 2.9–7.1 years with DLD, without neurologic diseases or intellectual disability. We examined the language performance of the children and collected data on pre-/perinatal factors. Results: Interictal epileptiform discharges were not associated with lower language performance. Children with so-called “rolandic”, i.e. centrotemporoparietal, IEDs had better language skills, but age explained this association. Most pre-/perinatal factors evaluated did not increase the risk of rolandic IEDs, except for maternal smoking (OR 4.4, 95% CI 1.4–14). We did not find electrical status epilepticus during slow-wave sleep (ESES)/spike-and-wave activation in sleep (SWAS) in any children. Conclusions: Interictal epileptiform discharges are not associated with lower language performance, and ESES/SWAS is not common in children with DLD. Significance: Routine EEGs do not bring additional information about language performance in children with DLD who do not have any neurologic diseases, seizures, intellectual disability, or regression of language development.

Laboratory sheets were prepared from repulped liquid packaging board (LPB) for press-forming experiments and tensile tests to study convertibility and mechanical properties of molded pulp material developed from the repulped LPB. Maximum forming depth was utilized as a convertibility indicator, and defect formation in press-formed molded pulp samples was observed with a visual analysis. Female mold temperature and pressing force were altered among press-forming parameters. The results showed that the laboratory sheets had a limited convertibility. The fragile structure of the laboratory sheets was connected to negative effects from the presence of plastic particles in the material. Increased heat input and decreased pressing force improved the convertibility, and the defect formation during the press-forming was aggravated by flattening of the material in flange and bottom regions of the samples. The use of repulped LPB as the raw material in the manufacturing of molded pulp by press-forming was found viable, and the presented solution offers an ecological alternative to conventional recycling of LPB.

Abstract Selective listening to cocktail-party speech involves a network of auditory and inferior frontal cortical regions. However, cognitive and motor cortical regions are differentially activated depending on whether the task emphasizes semantic or phonological aspects of speech. Here we tested whether processing of cocktail-party speech differs when participants perform a shadowing (immediate speech repetition) task compared to an attentive listening task in the presence of irrelevant speech. Participants viewed audiovisual dialogues with concurrent distracting speech during functional imaging. Participants either attentively listened to the dialogue, overtly repeated (i.e., shadowed) attended speech, or performed visual or speech motor control tasks where they did not attend to speech and responses were not related to the speech input. Dialogues were presented with good or poor auditory and visual quality. As a novel result, we show that attentive processing of speech activated the same network of sensory and frontal regions during listening and shadowing. However, in the superior temporal gyrus (STG), peak activations during shadowing were posterior to those during listening, suggesting that an anterior–posterior distinction is present for motor vs. perceptual processing of speech already at the level of the auditory cortex. We also found that activations along the dorsal auditory processing stream were specifically associated with the shadowing task. These activations are likely to be due to complex interactions between perceptual, attention dependent speech processing and motor speech generation that matches the heard speech. Our results suggest that interactions between perceptual and motor processing of speech relies on a distributed network of temporal and motor regions rather than any specific anatomical landmark as suggested by some previous studies.

Measurement(s) Picture naming norms • Picture familiarity ratings Technology Type(s) Online experiment

Crowdfunding has emerged in recent years as an important alternative means for technology entrepreneurs to raise funds for their products and business ideas. While the success rate of crowdfunding projects is somewhat low, scholarly understanding of what distinguishes projects that reach their fundraising goals from those that fail remains incomplete. Further, studies on crowdfunding success often examine a number of variables that make predicting success a challenge for entrepreneurs wiling to use crowdfunding. This study uses topic modelling on a data set of over 21,000 technology projects from Kickstarter to investigate if short-text project summaries can reveal predictors of fundraising success on crowdfunding platforms. The results indicate that compared to those that fail in fundraising, project summaries of successfully funded technology projects put forward more trendy topics, use wording that reflects novelty, and focus on solving a social problem. Our results contribute to theory and practice by suggesting the importance of summarizing project content for crowdfunding success.

Packaging plastics are being substituted by more sustainable materials to satisfy modern‐life requirements. For example, utilisation of biocoated paperboards for packaging is one of the options; however, certain challenges exist in maintaining the integrity of the coated surface. In this study, the barrier formation and convertibility properties of a novel suberin dispersion coating were examined and compared with those of six commercial coatings by measuring their oil and grease resistance and using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) before and after creasing. Even before creasing, SEM revealed deep cavities on the coated surfaces, with the potential to impair the material barrier properties. Furthermore, finite element modelling provided evidence that creasing stresses emerged under the rules and in nearby areas. These outer stresses with internal fibre structure realignment caused the formation of surface defects such as grazes, microcracks and coating ruptures. The deepest defects, which critically reduce the barrier properties, were oriented parallel to the machine direction of the materials. In contrast, the cross‐machine direction‐oriented defects were bridged by the substrate fibres and did not penetrate that deeply into the coating thickness. The amount and severity of the surface damage revealed by SEM were correlated with the actual oil resistance measured for each material. The results indicate that the suberin dispersion exhibits promising barrier performance as a paperboard coating but requires further development to enhance its resistance to the conversion stresses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Petroleum-based plastic coatings are used to create moisture barriers and heat-sealable layers on paperboard. Despite their good convertibility and barrier properties, the use of sustainable biobased polymer coatings as alternatives has attracted interest due to environmental concerns. In this study, the convertibility and water resistance of bio-based multilayered coating composed of biowax and polylactic acid (PLA) were investigated. Convertibility of the coatings was studied through heat-sealing experiments and by evaluating their durability when they were subjected to high stresses during creasing and folding. Surface imaging was performed to evaluate film formation and coating integrity. The wettability and water absorption properties of the coatings were also investigated. Different coating compositions resulted in different film formation processes, surface appearances, and water absorption. The presence of wax in a coating increased its hydrophobicity and reduced its water absorption already with the smallest addition in the coating. However, a high wax content in the coating caused defects in the coating layer, whereas the addition of PLA increased the convertibility of the coated material. This indicates that water resistance, heat sealability, and convertibility can be simultaneously achieved by optimizing the composition of wax and PLA coatings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The disposable cup market has long relied on paperboard with a fossilbased polymer coating as a replacement for 100% plastic cups. Paperboards with biobased or biodegradable polymer coatings are aimed at reducing the fossil resource consumption of the packaging sector. However, as their properties are inherently different from traditional, fossilbased materials, they can face runnability issues. In order to establish a connection between certain material properties and runnability issues, four coated paperboard materials with differing surface and strength properties were converted into 250 mL/8 oz disposable drinking cups. The materials included two single-side extrusion-coated paperboards and two two-sided dispersion-coated paperboards. The cups were manufactured in two separate runs with minor machine adjustments to affect the resulting cup geometry. A comparison of the manufactured cups and material properties revealed the materials' coefficient of friction to be the major cause of runnability issues or defects. Other suspected properties affecting the performance of cup materials included bending stiffness and compression strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundObservational studies suggest greater height is associated with increased ovarian cancer risk, but cannot exclude bias and/or confounding as explanations for this. Mendelian randomisation (MR) can provide evidence which may be less prone to bias.MethodsWe pooled data from 39 Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium studies (16,395 cases; 23,003 controls). We applied two-stage predictor-substitution MR, using a weighted genetic risk score combining 609 single-nucleotide polymorphisms. Study-specific odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association between genetically predicted height and risk were pooled using random-effects meta-analysis.ResultsGreater genetically predicted height was associated with increased ovarian cancer risk overall (pooled-OR (pOR) = 1.06; 95% CI: 1.01-1.11 per 5 cm increase in height), and separately for invasive (pOR = 1.06; 95% CI: 1.01-1.11) and borderline (pOR = 1.15; 95% CI: 1.02-1.29) tumours.ConclusionsWomen with a genetic propensity to being taller have increased risk of ovarian cancer. This suggests genes influencing height are involved in pathways promoting ovarian carcinogenesis.

Thermoforming of fibre‐based materials faces challenges due to their restrictive three‐dimensional formability and lack of compatibility between material properties and traditional thermoforming methods. Treatment techniques present an intriguing area of research to address the gap between material characteristics and process requirements. Therefore, this study examined the influence of inline steam treatment on the thermoforming of plastic‐coated fibre‐based materials with different product geometries. Three plastic‐coated paperboards were subjected to thermoforming, with and without steaming, and their thermoformability was assessed based on the maximum depth and draft angle of the samples. Following 7 s of steaming, the materials exhibited a moisture content 2–4 percentage points higher than that of the original setup, yielding a greater curling rate in the produced samples across different geometries. The curling rate was influenced by the tensile stiffness of the materials and was correlated with the size of the flat‐edge area in the studied geometries. Furthermore, findings revealed varying rates at which steaming affected different geometries. Steaming substantially enhanced the achieved depth for geometries where the material was incapable of reaching the mould without moisturization, particularly observed for smaller geometrical shapes. This improvement was linked to steaming, which enhanced pliability, facilitated material penetration, and increased the final depth. However, in geometries where the material could reach the mould without moisturization, steaming expanded the contact area but could also result in a greater spring‐back rate and reduced depth, potentially owing to the loss of elastic modulus by moisturization. Nevertheless, the rate of spring‐back did not consistently increase with steaming and could be influenced by various material‐related factors, including the properties, composition, preparation methods, and postforming drying. Despite depth changes, steaming consistently improved the obtained draft angles, indicating that the materials were drawn more efficiently to the sidewalls across all instances studied. Thus, this study underscored the importance of choosing appropriate materials and moulds for hydrothermal moisturization treatments in the thermoforming process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

News media companies and human rights organizations have been increasingly warning about the rise of the surveillance state that builds on distrust and mass surveillance of its citizens. The COVID-19 pandemic is fostering digitalization and state-corporate collaboration, leading to the introduction of contact tracing apps and other digital surveillance technologies that bring about societal benefits, but also increase privacy invasion. This study examines citizens' concerns about their digital identity, the nation-state's intelligence activities, and the security of biodata, addressing their impacts on the trust in and acceptance of governmental use of personal data. Our analysis of survey data from 1,486 Canadians suggest that those concerns have negative impacts on citizens' acceptance of governmental use of personal data, but not necessarily on their trust in the nation-state being respectful of privacy. Government and corporations, it is concluded, should be more transparent about the collection and uses of data, and citizens should be more active in "watching the watchers" in the age of Big Data.

Tarkastelemme artikkelissamme asioimistulkkien työoloja ja analysoimme, kuinka eri etnis-kielellistä taustaa edustavat tulkit kokevat ammattinsa hyvät ja huonot puolet. Vertailemme äidinkieleltään suomen- tai ruotsinkielisiä ja muunkielisiä tulkkeja. Aineistona ovat 125 tulkin kyselyvastaukset, ja metodina olemme käyttäneet ristiintaulukointia. Vaikka tulkit yleisesti ottaen ilmoittavat olevansa tyytyväisiä työoloihinsa, he kertovat kuitenkin kokeneensa kielteistä suhtautumista ja syrjintää. Lisäksi tulkit kertovat joistakin tulkkaukseen liittyvistä erityisistä ongelmista. Kaiken kaikkiaan tulkkien ammatillinen asema on alhainen, ja suurin osa tulkeista työskentelee osa-aikaisesti. Tulkkien asema riippuu osittain heidän kielellisestä taustastaan. Asioimistulkit työskentelevät etnisten vähemmistöjen kanssa, ja moni tulkki edustaa itse jotakin etnis-kielellistä vähemmistöä. Ammatin etnospesifi luonne vaikuttaa heikentävästi tulkkien työoloihin, aiheuttaa ammattitaitoisten tulkkien siirtymistä muihin töihin ja vaikeuttaa maahanmuuttajien tasa-arvoista kohtelua.