raft pulp i s manufactured in the United States from nearly all commercially availK ble wood species. About 55 million tons per year are manufactured, 30 million of which are bleached and used mostly for printing and office papers and tissue products. Some kraft pulp is exported, and significant quantities are imported, mostly from Canada and South America. Pulps manufactldred by sulfite, mecha...

This paper describes the KRAFT architecture which supports the fusion of knowledge from multiple, distributed, heterogeneous sources. The architecture uses constraints as a common knowledge interchange format, expressed against a common ontology. Knowledge held in local sources can be tranformed into the common constraint language, and fused with knowledge from other sources. The fused knowledg...

Standard building practices commonly use gypsum-based drywall panels on the interior wall and ceiling applications as a partition to protect components of assembly from moisture fire uphold code ensure safety standards. Unfortunately, have poor resistance water are susceptible mold growth in humid climates. Furthermore, accumulation landfills can result toxic leachate impacting surrounding envi...

Agent-based architectures are an effective method for constructing open, dynamic, distributed information systems. The KRAFT system exploits such an architecture, focusing on the exchange of information -in the form of constraints and data -among participating agents. The KRAFT approach is particularly wellsuited to solving design and configuration problems, in which constraints and data are re...

There is a general interest among paper and board makers to produce lighter and bulkier paper and board products. The aim of the present study was to characterize chemically crosslinked hardwood kraft fibers regarding their potential in making bulky paper and board. Crosslinking agents are molecules that contain two or more reactive ends that form inter-chain covalent bonds with cellulosic hydr...

Kraft lignin, a by-product of the pulp and paper industry, was explored as an adsorbent for six dietary oils and was compared to chitosan, which is widely used in the pharmaceutical market. The dissolution and adsorption efficiency of kraft lignin were tested at an acidic pH corresponding to the stomach, as well as at a basic pH corresponding to the intestine. Results showed that kraft lignin i...

Biodegradable chitosan can be applied as a coating on the surface of kraft paper in order to improve its barrier properties against water vapor and air. The food packaging industry can benefit from the addition of chitosan to its current packaging, and in turn reduce pollution from plastic packaging plants. This paper discusses the film formation of chitosan, the permeability of paper coated wi...