Techniques are described which allow mutated populations of Candida cloacae to be enriched efficiently (up to 167-fold in one round of enrichment) for mutants deficient in the alkane degradation pathway (Alk-). Such mutants, as well as being of scientific importance in studies of the degradation pathway, are also of commercial interest because several of the degradative intermediates are of val...

Polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) are multifunctional molecules that can be employed as building blocks to develop nanocomposite materials whose mechanical properties often improve upon those of traditional polymeric materials. We report here molecular simulation results for the effective potential of mean force between octamethyl POSS monomers and between POSS monomers in which one ...

Designing a reliable plant growth system for crop production in space requires the understanding of pore fluid distribution in porous media under microgravity. The objective of this experimental investigation, which was conducted aboard NASA KC-135 reduced gravity flight, is to study possible particle separation and the distribution of discontinuous wetting fluid in porous media under micrograv...

An investigation of the process by which bubbles form in superheated liquid-liquid emulsions is reported. A theoretical model for the rate of bubble nucleation is developed that is valid for any binary liquid system. Because of the interesting "microexplosion" phenomenon postulated to occur during combustion of fuel/water emulsions, special attention is focused on hydrocarbon/ water/surfactant ...

The adhesion of early settlers of dental plaque to the tooth surface has a role in the initiation of the development of dental plaque. The hydrophobic surface properties of the bacteria cell wall are indirectly responsible for the adhesion of the bacteria cell to the acquired pellicle on the tooth surfaces. In this study, the effect of aqueous extract of two plants (Psidium guajava and Piper be...

While many data are available on genes encoding proteins for degradation of hydrocarbons in bacteria, the impact of alkane on transporter protein expression is unclear. Pseudomonas aeruginosa SJTD-1 is a strain that can consume medium- and long-chain n-alkanes. In order to study the proteins involved in n-octadecane uptake, we use iTRAQ and label free comparative proteomics analysis to identify...

Experimental determination, theoretical modeling, and molecular simulation have been combined to describe the bulk phase equilibria (i.e., pressure, liquid, vapor saturated mass densities) interfacial properties concentration, adsorption, tension) for methane + n-decane, n-dodecane, n-tetradecane n-hexadecane binary mixtures at 344.15 K in a pressure range between 0.1 30 MPa. determinations are...

In this study we provide a multi-physical and multi-scale characterization of an organic Phase Change Material (PCM), i.e. hexadecane, for both its liquid solid phase during the transition. Macroscopic thermal physical properties provided are density viscosity in conductivity heat capacity each phase. Further macroscopic measurements were done by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), which w...