Monoaromatic hydrocarbons such as benzene have been found in sludge created by oil production facilities and industries. Benzene is considered as a carcinogenic substrate and biodegradation, primarily under aerobic conditions, is an important environmental process for water and soil associated benzene remediation. Aerococcus sp. strain BPD-6 isolated from petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated oily...

In the rubber industry, plasticizers for rubber compounds mainly consist of petroleum derivatives. Consequently, the rubber industry is in constant competition with many petroleum consumers. This competition places an economic strain on rubber companies such as HEXPOL RUBBER COMPOUNDING L.L.C. In order to alleviate this strain, natural oil alternatives to petroleum plasticizers are of novel res...

Ab initio molecular dynamics was used to estimate the response constant imposed strain on a short polyethylene (PE) chain and radical with removed hydrogen atom. Two independent types of simulations were run. In first case, chains strained by expanding periodic cell, restraining length but allowing internal degrees freedom reach equilibrium. From these simulations, average force computed, resul...

This study is focused on anomalous strain-rate-dependent behaviour of bacterial cellulose (BC) hydrogel that can be strain-rate insensitive, hardening, softening, or strain-rate insensitive in various ranges of strain rate. BC hydrogel consists of randomly distributed nanofibres and a large content of free water; thanks to its ideal biocompatibility, it is suitable for biomedical applications. ...

This work proposes a novel methodology for estimating the power output of piezoelectric generators. An analytical model that estimates, for the first time, the loss ratio and output power of piezoelectric generators, based on the direct mechanical-to-electrical analogy, electromagnetic theory, and power system theory, is developed and takes into account the dimensions and material properties of...

We report simulation evidence that the structure of the first water layer next to the surface can strongly affect the contact angle of water droplets. Molecular dynamics simulations show that a small uniform strain (± 3%) applied to the lattice constant of a multilayer hydrophilic surface can introduce a marked change in the wetting tendency. In particular, when the lattice constant of a hydrop...