Double-sided Printing Research Articles

The effectiveness of a green default nudge in achieving resource conservation

Abstract Green nudges are used to promote conservation and pro-environmental behavior. This study examines the lasting effectiveness of a green default nudge in paper conservation, where price incentives are absent. At a private college in New York City, the default print setting was changed from single-sided to double-sided in Spring 2019, accompanied by a salient pop-up window that asked students to print double-sided. Analyzing student-level data over four semesters (Spring 2018 and Fall 2018 as control, Spring 2019 and Fall 2019 as treatment), this research contributes to the literature as it studies the effect of the nudge in the absence of pecuniary incentives. The findings support the hypothesis that this green default nudge was effective in promoting paper conservation and increasing resource efficiency. Results show that double-sided printing increased while single-sided printing decreased, leading to an overall reduction in paper usage. Employing a panel regression model with student fixed effects, this study finds that the nudge had a statistically significant effect in reducing the sheets per page ratio, and it improved the efficient use of paper by 19 percent. This inexpensive behavioral intervention proves successful in promoting environmental behavior and reducing paper consumption, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

4D printed shape memory bismaleimide resin with high storage modulus and low shrinkage rate via second-stage curing

In recent years, the field of shape memory materials with active deformation capabilities has experienced rapid development. However, bismaleimide, as a widely used structural material in the aerospace industry, has been neglected in the field of shape memory. This work designed a UV-crosslinked network with 1-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone monomer, and prepared 4D printed smart structures based on shape memory bismaleimide resin through UV-assisted DIW printing. 4D printed semi-interpenetrating network polymer materials were obtained through a two-stage UV-thermal curing process, resulted in an increase in the material's glass transition temperature to a maximum of 187.4 °C. The storage modulus was improved to 5229 MPa. More important, we achieved a lowest shrinkage rate (0.21 %) of 4D printed polymer. The composite sandwich structure with electrical-driven shape memory performance was printed by double-sided printing of bismaleimide resin on conductive carbon fabric. 4D printed composite structure realizes in-situ self-blocking secondary curing, deformation process after curing. This significant progress provides a promising prospect for remote controllable and precise driving in the aerospace field.

Direct laser printing of 3D optical imaging based on full-spectrum solar-absorption-enhanced perovskite-type oxides

The exploration of the solar light absorption by a material is of great use in photonics and optoelectronics. However, the fully exploiting of the solar spectrum of well-known wide-bandgap perovskite oxides (2.7–5 eV), remains very challenging. We show that the selective occupation of Bi3+ in the octahedrally coordinated Ba2+ is responsible for creating sub-bandgap states (as low as 0.6 eV), nearly 9 times lower than pristine bandgap (5.2 eV). We reveal that the role of the 6s6p excited state of Bi3+ is as a bridge to promote the dipole-allowed band-band transition for strong absorption. Furthermore, we demonstrate the double-sided laser printing of three-dimensional optical imaging based on the photothermal effect, enabling write-once-read-many information storage with ultrahigh stability and good data retention. Our results make Ba3–xGa2O6:xBi3+ a promising candidate for photovoltaics, ferroelectrics, photocatalysis, broadband photodetectors as well as other photonic and optoelectronic applications.

Analysis of Color Measurement Methods for Single-sided and Double-sided Digital Printing with Silk Fabrics

Digital printing is a new technology that combines innovative design with cutting-edge technology, and it represents a breakthrough in the field of dyeing and finishing. Silk is the most widely used medium among double-sided digital printing industry. Owing to the gaps caused by different weaving methods, silk products are generally translucent and loose in structure, therefore, the color measurement of textile fabrics also has the same problem as that of translucent materials. The final color visualization is the result of combining the fabric yarn color with the voids in the area, which make it difficult to directly measure the colors of the printed fabrics with traditional spectrophotometer. The color measurement method of double-sided digital printing was always vague, and the difficulty of measuring the color of double-sided digital printing is increased for silk, a translucent material. In this paper, sixty colors of different hues, chroma and lightness are printed on four different types of silk fabrics in order to solve this industry problem. The L∗ (Lightness), a∗ (Red/Green) and b∗ (Blue/Yellow)values of each color layer were measured after stacking the four types of fabrics from one to multiple layers respectively and placing them on top of a standard white board and a standard black board as a backing, respectively, to calculate the color difference between the actual color and the design color of the silk fabric, as well as the color difference before and after stacking. The fabric properties and color properties that influence fabric color measurement are then investigated. The results show that thickness is the most important factor influencing fabric color measurement, and during measuring thin fabrics, multiple layers need to be overlaid. The effect of gloss on the number of layers in fabric color measurement is inversely proportional. The b∗ value is not significantly correlated with color measurement, whereas L∗ and a∗ are positively correlated with the number of layers when measuring color. Moreover, based on the fabric thickness, gloss, L∗, a∗ and b∗ value, the regression model was proposed, and a color measurement method suitable for silk fabrics with different fabric properties and color properties is proposed.

Exploring the law of color presentation of double-sided heterochromatic digital printing for textile

With the upgrading of production technology and design aesthetic of textile products, the development and application of double-sided digital printing technology have been gradually proposed in recent years. The production of double-sided heterochromatic digital printing requires high accuracy for color management, as in the production process, different input devices, display devices, and output devices each have varying color processing capabilities and color performance characteristics, which leads to the transfer of color between different devices and not being accurately reproduced. However, there is little research involved in the color formation laws in the design and production of double-sided heterochromatic digital printing. The purpose of this paper is to explore the prediction model of color presentation in double-sided heterochromatic digital printing. Due to the influence of the fabric thickness, the gap between the textile structure, and the infiltration rate of the printing pigments, the color of each side in double-sided, heterochromatic printing results often differs from the designed color. In this paper, taking chiffon fabric, which is one of the thinnest and has the strongest permeability in silk fabric, as an example fabric base, 24 colors from six hue angles and four chromas were selected as experimental colors. According to the color gamut of the digital printing machine, 15 out of 24 colors were selected as experimental colors. These 15 colors were printed on two sides in pairs to generate 225 color pairs as double-sided experimental samples. For these experimental samples, this paper conducts experiments from both subjective and objective aspects through the combination of subjective evaluation of psychophysics experiments and objective instrument measurement. Through the analysis of experimental data, the color difference prediction under the subjective model (R2 = 0.74) and objective model (R2 = 0.85) are given, respectively. The dominant color prediction model (R2 = 0.75) during double-sided heterochromatic digital printing has also been built. The combination of the three models can predict the color regularity of double-sided heterochromatic digital printing on silk, which may have a certain significance for the design and development of silk double-sided heterochromatic digital printing products.

Surface and optical properties of calcium carbonate paper

The article investigates the surface and optical properties of calcium carbonate paper obtained at the UzbekChinese enterprise Fergana stone paper company (Uzbekistan), in order to identify the possibility of their use at printing enterprises for printing multicolor products using traditional printing methods. According to the results of a quantitative assessment of the surface quality by the indirect Beck method, we can say that paper sample 1 has a smoothness like coated paper (750–1500 s), paper samples 2 and 3 – like calendered paper, so that these paper samples can be recommended for prints with increased quality requirements. Smaller values of roughness Ra and small depressions, expressed by darkening in the topographic AFM images, characterized sufficient homogeneity and density of the structure. It was also revealed that the surface of the paper samples has a high ability to specularly reflect the incident light, since the percentage of surface reflection is similar to that of coated papers. Samples of paper have a whiteness of about 90 % and do not have a tint, since the difference between the maximum and minimum values of the reflection coefficients on a white stack is not more than 10 %. The tested paper samples can be recommended without restrictions for double-sided printing, since the opacity index is more than 92 %.

Advantages of graphene technologies in the design of antenna systems for the Internet of Things in the decimeter range of cellular operators (LTE, GSM, 5G)

The characteristics and resistance to external influences of flexible graphene antennas are considered. In particular, the analysis of the influence of single and cyclic bends at different cycle times is carried out. Resistance to water of such antennas is analysed. The results of characteristics comparison of the literature data with the results obtained by the authors are presented. The design of a flexible graphene eco-friendly two-layer antenna on a paper substrate operating in the LTE frequency range has been proposed. The technology discussed in this report will help fill the gap in the literature in eco-friendly double-sided graphene printing technologies. The literature review shows that the development of graphene inks for printing on flexible substrates has made a breakthrough in the development of flexible electronics due to their unique advantages. The influence of edge effects on the change in the graphene surface resistance at the edges of the manufactured sample is estimated.

New thickener based on s-triazine di-sulfanilic xanthan for reactive printing of silk fabric with double-sided patterns

In order to achieve good double-sided printing patterns on silk fabric, a new thickener s-triazine di-sulfanilic xanthan (TDG) was prepared by chemical modification of xanthan gum (XG) using alkali and monochlorotriazine di-sulfanilic acid (TS) as modifiers. The structure of TDG was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometry. Rheological behaviors were investigated by steady-shear, dynamic strain sweep and step-shear tests. The results indicated that TDG showed better flowability and smaller structural viscosity than XG. TDG always exhibited the viscous effects under external forces while XG experienced the transition from elasticity to viscosity. Used as a thickener in reactive printing of silk fabric in screen printing, TDG obtained much higher screenability, color yield, penetration and outline sharpness than XG. The double-sided printing qualities of TDG even surpassed those of sodium alginate, implying great potentiality of TDG as a good thickener for double-sided patterns.

Double-sided 3D printing on paper towards mass production of three-dimensional paper-based microfluidic analytical devices (3D-μPADs).

Recently, much effort has been focused on developing three-dimensional, paper-based microfluidic analytical devices (3D-μPADs) targeting in vitro diagnostics. However, 3D-μPAD fabrication typically requires tedious assembly that hinders mass production. Here, we report on a fabrication method for 3D-μPADs made of plastics without the need for additional assembly. Both sides of the paper were printed via liquid resin photopolymerization using a digital light processing (DLP) printer. The sample reservoir and detection zones are located on the top of the 3D-μPADs, and three microchannels are located on the bottom. The detection limits for glucose, cholesterol, and triglyceride (TG) in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) were 0.3 mM, 0.2 mM, and 0.3 mM, respectively. The detectable ranges of glucose, cholesterol, and TG in human serum were 5-11 mM, 2.6-6.7 mM, and 1-2.3 mM. These results suggest that our fabrication method is suitable to mass produce 3D-μPADs with relative ease using simple fabrication processes.

A metasurface-based slit-loaded wideband circularly polarized crossed dipole antenna

A metasurface-based low-profile crossed dipole antenna with wide circularly polarized bandwidth for 2.45 GHz ISM band wireless communications is proposed and fabricated in this article. Consisting of four slit-loaded rectangular patches, the double-sided printing crossed dipoles are fed by a pair of vacant-quarter printed rings which circularly polarized (CP) radiation could be generated. With slits loaded, by properly combining the fundamental mode of the two inverted L-shaped dipole, the slot mode and extra resonance generated by the AMC surface, a wideband circularly polarized operation can be obtained. After optimization, the final design with an overall size of 0.44λ0 × 0.44λ0 × 0.1448λ0 at 2.4 GHz had measured a 31.6% (2–2.75 GHz) impedance bandwidth and 3 dB axial ratio bandwidths of measured were 23.2% (2.1–2.65 GHz), respectively. In addition, the antenna performed a small gain variation (7.0–7.5 dBic) and a front-to-back ratio (FBR) of over 25 dB across the whole CP region.

Mixture from carboxymethyl tamarind gum and carboxymethyl starch on double-sided printing of georgette fabric

The rheology and printability of the mixture from carboxymethyl tamarind gum (CTG) and carboxymethyl starch (CMS) with different mixture ratios were studied to explore the availability on double-sided printing of georgette fabric. The rheological properties of the mixture from CTG and CMS (TS) were investigated by steady-shear, dynamic oscillatory and transient tests. The printing performances of the printed georgette fabric using TS as thickener were evaluated by quality-determining parameters. The results showed that with the increasing proportion of CMS, the flowability and elasticity of TS gradually increased and the weak gel structure appeared little by little in company with more deviation from the Cox–Merz rule. The flow models and mechanical models were used to fit the rheological data. In comparison with CTG and CMS, TS had better double-sided printing performances on georgette fabric, including better colour yield, penetrability, levelness, handle, colour fastness and outline sharpness. Especially TS with a mixture ratio CTG:CMS = 4:6 exhibited the highest colour yield and penetration, and possessed the great potential as thickener on double-sided printing of georgette fabric.

A paper-based touch sensor with an embedded micro-probe array fabricated by double-sided laser printing.

Touch sensor is one of the key components for human interfacing devices. However, although various touch sensors have been demonstrated, their sophisticated fabrication processes and complicated structures make them expensive and delicate, and thus they are not considered to be practical for wide application in daily life. Herein, we present a low-cost and scalable paper-based touch sensor suitable for practical applications. The sensor is based on the novel structure of embedded silver nanowire micro-probe arrays in a paper substrate, which exhibits high sensitivity to multiple touch inputs and compact structure with a total thickness of ca. 100 μm. Silver nanowire electrodes on two sides are manufactured at the same time via an original double-sided laser printing technique. Since this technique is mask-free, solvent-free and highly efficient, it is very suitable for paper substrates that cannot endure solvent processing. The sensing properties of the sensor in various extreme situations are examined and the spatial distributions of touch pressure are detected by arranging the sensing units in arrays. Demonstration examples of the touch sensor and pressure mapping are presented, and finally, the successful application of the sensor array in an electronic lock system is shown to further illustrate its applicability.

A Low-Profile Wideband Circularly Polarized Crossed-Dipole Antenna

A low-profile crossed dipole antenna with wide bandwidth is investigated in this letter. The double-sided printing crossed dipoles consisting of four-stepped rectangular patches are fed by a pair of vacant-quarter printed rings, generating circularly polarized radiation. Two adjacent axial-ratio (AR) passbands with AR < 3 dB are generated due to the stepped rectangular patches, and they are merged together by adding an additional dielectric slab above the ground plane, resulting in a very wide AR bandwidth. Also, an irregular ground plane is used for the antenna, which can desirably enhance the boresight gain without involving high-profile cavity. To verify the feasibility of the proposed design, a prototype operating at C-band has been fabricated and measured. Reasonable agreement between the simulated and measured results is obtained. The prototype has a low profile of 0.13 λ0 (in terms of the center frequency of passband), a 10-dB impedance bandwidth of 66.9%, a 3-dB AR bandwidth of 55.1%, and an average gain of approximately 10.4 dBic within passband.

Can indifference make the world greener?

We conducted a natural field experiment to evaluate two resource conservation programs. One intervention consisted of a moral appeal message asking university employees to cut back on printing in general, and to use double-sided printing whenever possible. The other intervention tested whether people׳s tendency to stick with pre-set alternatives is applicable to resource use: at random points in time we changed the default setting on the university printers, from single-sided to double-sided printing. Whereas the moral appeal had no impact, the default change cut paper use by 15 percent. Further analysis adds two important insights. First, we show that defaults influence behavior also in the longer run. Second, we present results indicating that resource efficient defaults have the advantage of avoiding unintended behavioral responses. Overall, our findings send a clear message to anyone concerned about resource conservation: there are potentially large gains to be made from small interventions.

Heterogeneity in the preferences and pro-environmental behavior of college students: the effects of years on campus, demographics, and external factors

Models from several social science fields have identified factors that lead to pro-environmental behavior. This research builds on those models by analyzing a survey completed by over 500 undergraduates at a US liberal arts university to examine the characteristics of students that are associated with more environmentally friendly behavior and quantify the desirability of different environmental initiatives. There is evidence that the probability of pro-environmental behavior substantially increases with each additional year that a student spends on campus. The magnitude of the effect is between 4 and 10 percentage points per year, depending on the specific behavior and empirical model. This contribution suggests that higher education impacts pro-environmental behavior and supports the notion that higher education institutions can play an important role in making societies more sustainable. Further, evidence is presented to suggest that this increase in pro-environmental behavior over one's college career is due to factors outside of the formal curriculum. This study also finds that females and ethnic/racial minorities engage in significantly higher levels of green behavior including recycling and double-sided printing. On average, students prefer sustainability initiatives related to energy conservation and recycling to other environmental programs but there is a great deal of heterogeneity in these preferences.

Effects of printing and ninhydrin treatment on forensic analysis of paper

Paper is ubiquitous in human activities and can be found as evidence in the commission of many crimes such as threatening letters, deceptive advertisements and counterfeiting banknotes. To link the paper evidence to a source is a comparative process that is hampered when a blank paper is compared to a paper that has been submitted to printing or other treatments such as ninhydrin for the detection of fingermarks. During a forensic investigation, printed paper is analyzed with various instruments after fingerprint examination. In this study, the effects of printing and ninhydrin treatment on forensic paper examination of grammage, thickness, fillers, and pulp composition were studied. Grammage and thickness were increased by full-page double-sided printing, and grammage depended on the type of printer. The effects of printing on the analytical data about fillers and pulp composition were negligible, and ninhydrin treatment affected only paper thickness. These minor effects notwithstanding, the results indicate that conventional analytical methods used in forensic science for examining papers can be applied.

Toward instrument-free digital measurements: a three-dimensional microfluidic device fabricated in a single sheet of paper by double-sided printing and lamination.

This study demonstrates a simple approach for fabricating a 3D-μPAD from a single sheet of paper by double-sided printing and lamination. First, a wax printer prints vertically symmetrical and asymmetrical wax patterns onto a double-sided paper surface. Then, a laminator melts the printed wax patterns to form microfluidic channels in the paper sheet. The vertically symmetrical wax patterns form vertical channels when the melted wax patterns make contact with each other. The asymmetrical wax patterns form lateral and vertical channels at the cross section of the paper when the printed wax patterns are melted to a lower height than the thickness of the single sheet of paper. Finally, the two types of wax patterns form a 3D microfluidic network to move fluid laterally and vertically in the single sheet of paper. This method eliminates major technical hurdles related to the complicated and tedious alignment, assembly, bonding, and punching process. This 3D-μPAD can be used in a multiplex digital assay to measure the concentration of a target analyte in a sample solution simply by counting the number of colored bars at a fixed time. It does not require any external instruments to perform digital measurements. Therefore, we expect that this approach could be an instrument-free assay format for use in developing countries.

Fabrication of three-dimensional microfluidic channels in a single layer of cellulose paper

Three-dimensional microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (3D-μPADs) represent a promising platform technology that permits complex fluid manipulation, parallel sample distribution, high throughput, and multiplexed analytical tests. Conventional fabrication techniques of 3D-μPADs always involve stacking and assembling layers of patterned paper using adhesives, which are tedious and time-consuming. This paper reports a novel technique for fabricating 3D microfluidic channels in a single layer of cellulose paper, which greatly simplifies the fabrication process of 3D-μPADs. This technique, evolved from the popular wax-printing technique for paper channel patterning, is capable of controlling the penetration depth of melted wax, printed on both sides of a paper substrate, and thus forming multilayers of patterned channels in the substrate. We control two fabrication parameters, the density of printed wax (i.e., grayscale level of printing) and the heating time, to adjust the penetration depth of wax upon heating. Through double-sided printing of patterns at different grayscale levels and proper selection of the heating time, we construct up to four layers of channels in a 315.4-μm-thick sheet of paper. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, we fabricate a 3D-μPAD with three layers of channels from a paper substrate and demonstrate multiplexed enzymatic detection of three biomarkers (glucose, lactate, and uric acid). This technique is also compatible with the conventional fabrication techniques of 3D-μPADs, and can decrease the number of paper layers required for forming a 3D-μPAD and therefore make the device quality control easier. This technique holds a great potential to further popularize the use of 3D-μPADs and enhance the mass-production quality of these devices.

Gigsaw – physical simulation of next generation sequencing for education and outreach

Modern sequencing methodologies produce more data in one run than a human being can read in a lifetime. Understanding how such vast quantities of information can be marshalled, assembled and interpreted is a challenging task for students and experienced researchers; it is even more challenging to have to explain this to lay audiences. Abstract representations, such as graphs or algorithms, or practical exercises with ‘black-box’ software, are limited in cultivating understanding. Gigsaw provides a physical model of next-generation sequencing data that can be readily manipulated, and different algorithms/experiments investigated at benchtop level . It is flexible in application and inexpensive to produce for public-understanding-of-science exercises or undergraduate/postgraduate training. Availability: a Web server implementation of the Gigsaw software is freely available at http://www.compbio.dundee.ac.uk/gigsaw/ and provides the Gigsaw output as PDF aligned for double-sided printing. Source code is available upon request under an open-source license.

Now Serving Customer 7,528,413

This is the second reflective essay that Lorraine J. Pellack has contributed to Reference & User Services Quarterly (RUSQ). She created a buzz with her guest editorial, First Impressions and Rethinking Reference Questions (see RUSQ 49, no. 1 [Fall 2009]: 4, 6). She continues the discussion on the importance of service excellence in this provocative piece.--Editor Libraries ... are dedicated to serving their customers. Their mission statements attest to this goal, and even relatively junior staff members have been told again and again that service is a top priority. At the same time, customer service takes time away from real work and is widely viewed as a frill. It even seems that while more lip service is paid to it, the quantity and quality of customer service may actually have declined in the past twenty years. (1) Reading this statement for the first time positively chilled me to the bone. Woodward is very direct at describing workplace climates where staff are increasingly unhappy working with the general public, stretched with multitasking, and have continually evolving job descriptions. She hints that the decline of quantity is probably due to budget cuts with fewer staff being stretched thin but spends most of this chapter talking about possible causes in quality decline, which whittle down to motivation, job satisfaction, and adapting to change. Both quantity and quality of services are seriously important concerns and can be observed at a department or organization level as well as at an individual level. WHO ARE YOU, AS A LIBRARY, SERVING? Libraries, by their very nature, are public service organizations--even corporate and special libraries. Serving the needs of patrons is paramount to fulfilling the library mission. Yet, when making decisions about new services, cutting services, or finding solutions to problems, the patron point of view is often not considered, is considered only lightly, or is overridden by higher budgetary priorities. When budgets are examined for places to cut, services that are considered tangential are targeted, especially services that do not have readily-visible benefits. Checkout rates, door counts, and shelving statistics are all easily quantifiable and enable circulation departments to readily justify numbers of staff needed to maintain basic circulation services. On the down side, many other library services are not so readily quantifiable: * finding a misshelved book for a researcher faster than they could have received it via ILL * helping a graduate student find a key reference for their dissertation * troubleshooting access problems for a patron trying to access a journal article * providing stapler, hole-punch and/or pencil sharpeners in convenient locations * equipping printers with both single and double-sided printing * ensuring computer workstations are functioning properly or repaired quickly * relieving angst of a patron who cannot find sufficient articles for their term paper A colleague of mine once said, Cutting services (for whatever reason) is like amputating your feet because the price of shoes is increasing. Yes, we could try going barefoot--and in some climates that might be doable--however, that is missing the point. It's time we stop worrying about the price of the shoes and focus instead on the impact shoes might have on someone's life. So, how does one show impact of a service on someone's life? At what level should increasing enrollments in distance education programs justify shipping library books to remote students in spite of library budget cuts? Does replacing a human being with an automated phone system make sense in a service-oriented environment? When does it become acceptable to provide a service for the greater good even if it flies in the face of budgetary frugality? Staying financially afloat is important but at what cost to our future customer loyalty and perceived usefulness? …