Towards Energy Self-Sufficiency in the Pulp and Paper Industry

The pulp and paper industry is among the most energy intensive in basic industry branches. Rapid price increases for purchased energy and potential risks in its availability during the 1970's have started an intensive and worldwide search for energy saving technology and other means for increasing the energy self-sufficiency in the pulp and paper industry. This paper discusses various possibilities which can and have been successfully used in different countries for the above target. Several new energy saving processes and process equipment are under various stages of development. Increased utilization of process wastes and closing of water and heat systems are other examples of the ways to improve the energy efficiency of the mills. During the 1970's the industry also found ways of saving energy by computer based process control systems. This computerization process will certainly continue and it will be extended to higher levels of hierarchy thus forming an integrated energy management and production coordination system

Management Systems in the Forest Industry

This paper is a survey discussing the present state and future trends of the management systems and other systems analytical tools in the Forest Industry at the corporate and mill level. The technological development has made the hierarchical distributed systems technically possible and economically attractive. The benefits of these kind of hierarchical management systems are discussed. The paper was presented at the IIASA Forest Industry workshop, January 8-11, 1980

Systems Analysis in Forestry and the Forest Industry: An Overview

This paper is a survey discussing the use of systems analytical methods in planning and decision making in the forestry and in the forest industry. The number of papers and studies discussing different applications of systems analysis in this sector is wide and rapidly increasing. However the real uses of these methods in practice is hard to predict. So there is clearly a need for detailed state-of-the-art studies at two levels: in research and in practical uses of these methods in the forest. The paper was presented at the IIASA Forest Industry Workshop, January 8-11, 1980

Microproblems of the Forest Sector

The microproblems in the forest sector deal with problems at the corporate and mill levels, however they can not be studied separately from the macroproblems, i.e., trends and problems at regional, national or global levels, because these macrosystems form that economic, political and sociological environment and climate where the individual companies and mills must be operated. The macrolevel problems can be most suitably studied nationally and/or internationally in suitable organizations or institutes and the results of these analyses must then be projected by the company's own staff to the company and mill levels. The microproblems discussed here can be roughly divided into the following groups: resource management; raw material procurement; technology; strategic planning; operational efficiency; marketing; policies. This report is based on the presentation given at the Nordic Workshop, on Forest Sector Modeling, at Hemavan, 14-18 April, 1980

Integrated Computer Systems in the Pulp and Paper Industry

Today, there is an ongoing rapid development and remarkable change both in management systems and in production related control and information systems in the pulp and paper industry. The new hardware based on recent development in microelectronics has opened totally new technical possibilities and this has lead to the concept of integrated hierarchical company and/or mill-wide information and control systems. In order that these new systems and technical solutions can be effective and useful the experiences, needs and opinions of the existing and potential users of these systems are important. At the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) at Laxenburg, Austria, a project studying long-term development and problematics of forest industry was initiated in 1979. One of the main topics suggested in the project proposal is the development of integrated computer systems. Later, the emphasis of the whole project progresses to other topics, however it was decided that a detailed survey to study the needs and opinions of users was an essential part of the program. A detailed questionnaire was prepared and mailed to over 240 major forest industry companies in 17 countries. This paper reports on the results of this survey in a relatively condensed form. It is the hope of the author that this report will be useful and interesting to people developing and working with these systems in the forest industry and certainly this document is valuable to IIASA for planning further activities in this area

Integrated Computer Systems in the Pulp and Paper Industry

The existing computer based control and management systems in the pulp and paper industry have been studied based on the published results and on the results of an exploratory survey questionnaire where major companies from 17 countries participated. Special attention has been paid to the user's opinions concerning both the experiences from the existing systems and the future direction of these systems. The potential benefits and drawbacks of combining all existing and forthcoming computer based systems in process control area and in management applications at various levels of organizations (mill-level, division-level or corporate-level) have been discussed. It seems very probable, that the mill-wide combination of these systems into a hierarchical structure with distributed hardware and local data network will be the most obvious implementation strategy in most pulp and paper mills during the eighties. The larger hierarchies do not show to have the same potentials inside companies; the future development here depends heavily on the SW development, standardization and experiences on mill-wide systems

Proceedings of the Forest Industry Workshop -- 7-11 January 1980

The original proposal that IIASA should undertake a study in the Forest Industries was first proposed by Finnish representatives in 1978 and it was incorporated into the Research Plan for the Institute for 1979. Preparatory work was carried out during 1979 and on 8-11 January, 1980 an inaugural Workshop on these topics was held at IIASA with 40 participants from 12 countries. The countries represented in the meeting contribute about 70% of the world's total trade of Forestry products. This really was an indication of the interest in the proposed study . This publication includes most of the material presented at this Workshop. One paper (by L. Hultkranz) was not actually presented but the text was distributed to the participants. The Appendix includes a short summary of the Workshop with the agenda, list of participants and some background material for IIASA's Forest Industry project. The workshop supported the proposed project giving useful feedback for the continued planning and work of the project. It was also decided to publish the material of the workshop as an IIASA Collaborative Paper so as to document the work of this international meeting

A major population of mucosal memory CD4⁺ T cells, coexpressing IL-18Rα and DR3, display innate lymphocyte functionality

Mucosal tissues contain large numbers of memory CD4(+) T cells that, through T-cell receptor-dependent interactions with antigen-presenting cells, are believed to have a key role in barrier defense and maintenance of tissue integrity. Here we identify a major subset of memory CD4(+) T cells at barrier surfaces that coexpress interleukin-18 receptor alpha (IL-18Rα) and death receptor-3 (DR3), and display innate lymphocyte functionality. The cytokines IL-15 or the DR3 ligand tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-like cytokine 1A (TL1a) induced memory IL-18Rα(+)DR3(+)CD4(+) T cells to produce interferon-γ, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-5, IL-13, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and IL-22 in the presence of IL-12/IL-18. TL1a synergized with IL-15 to enhance this response, while suppressing IL-15-induced IL-10 production. TL1a- and IL-15-mediated cytokine induction required the presence of IL-18, whereas induction of IL-5, IL-13, GM-CSF, and IL-22 was IL-12 independent. IL-18Rα(+)DR3(+)CD4(+) T cells with similar functionality were present in human skin, nasal polyps, and, in particular, the intestine, where in chronic inflammation they localized with IL-18-producing cells in lymphoid aggregates. Collectively, these results suggest that human memory IL-18Rα(+)DR3(+) CD4(+) T cells may contribute to antigen-independent innate responses at barrier surfaces.Mucosal Immunology advance online publication, 1 October 2014; doi:10.1038/mi.2014.87

Intracellular expression of toll-like receptor 4 in neuroblastoma cells and their unresponsiveness to lipopolysaccharide

BACKGROUND: Recently it has been reported that, toll-like receptors (TLRs) are expressed on a series of tumor cells, such as colon cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, melanoma and lung cancer. Although some cancer cells like melanoma cells are known to respond to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) via TLR4, not all cancer cells are positive for TLR4. There is little information on the expression and function of TLR4 in neuroblastoma cells. In this study, we investigated the expression of TLR4 in human neuroblastoma NB-1 cell line. METHODS: Expression and localization of TLR4 were detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and flow cytometric analysis, respectively. Activation of nuclear factor (NF)-κB by LPS was detected by degradation of IκB-α and NF-κB luciferase assay. Activation and expression of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase and interferon regulatory factor (IRF)-3 was detected by immunoblot analysis. RESULTS: Human NB-1 neuroblastoma cells expressed intracellular form of TLR4, but not the cell surface form. Further, NB-1 cells express CD14, MD2 and MyD88, which are required for LPS response. However, LPS did not significantly induce NF-κB activation in NB-1 cells although it slightly degraded IκB-α. NB-1 cells expressed no IRF-3, which plays a pivotal role on the MyD88-independent pathway of LPS signaling. Collectively, NB-1 cells are capable to avoid their response to LPS. CONCLUSION: Although human NB-1 neuroblastoma cells possessed all the molecules required for LPS response, they did not respond to LPS. It might be responsible for intracellular expression of TLR4 or lack of IRF-3

Allelopathic interactions of linoleic acid and nitric oxide increase the competitive ability of Microcystis aeruginosa

The frequency and intensity of cyanobacterial blooms are increasing worldwide with major societal and economic costs. Interactions between toxic cyanobacteria and eukaryotic algal competitors can affect toxic bloom formation, but the exact mechanisms of interspecies interactions remain unknown. Using metabolomic and proteomic profiling of co-cultures of the toxic cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa with a green alga as well as of microorganisms collected in a Microcystis spp. bloom in Lake Taihu (China), we disentangle novel interspecies allelopathic interactions. We describe an interspecies molecular network in which M. aeruginosa inhibits growth of Chlorella vulgaris, a model green algal competitor, via the release of linoleic acid. In addition, we demonstrate how M. aeruginosa takes advantage of the cell signaling compound nitric oxide produced by C. vulgaris, which stimulates a positive feedback mechanism of linoleic acid release by M. aeruginosa and its toxicity. Our high-throughput system-biology approach highlights the importance of previously unrecognized allelopathic interactions between a broadly distributed toxic cyanobacterial bloom former and one of its algal competitors