To improve the treatments for low back pain, new designs of total disk replacement have been proposed. The question is how well these designs can act as a functional replacement of the intervertebral disk. Four finite element models were made, for four different design concepts, to determine how well they can mimic the physiological intervertebral disk mechanical function. The four designs were...

The vast majority of commercial polyolefins are semi-crystalline materials. Depending on the chemical composition and tacticity, their melting temperatures range from ambient to temperatures exceeding 160 C. Polyolefins form various crystalline structures that can be investigated with microscopic, spectroscopic and scattering techniques. When a semi-crystalline polyolefin is dissolved in a solv...

A recent design of deformable lens mimics the human eye, adjusting its focal length in response to muscle-like actuation. The artificial muscle is a membrane of a dielectric elastomer subject to a voltage. Here, we calculate the coupled and inhomogeneous deformation of the lens and the dielectric elastomer actuator by formulating a nonlinear boundary-value problem. We characterize the strain-st...

Retention and associated fish mortality of visible implant alphanumeric (VIA) and fluorescent elastomer tags was assessed in 2 Australian intertidal rockpool fishes, Girella elevata (Girellidae) and Bathygobius cocosensis (Gobiidae). Mean retention of VIA and elastomer tags after 90 d was 32 ± 20% and 77 ± 19%, respectively. After 90 d the fish mean mortality from VIA tags (20 ± 5%) was signifi...

This paper studies the collapse of a void in an elastomer caused by osmosis. The void is filled with liquid water, while the elastomer is surrounded by unsaturated air. The difference in humidity motivates water molecules to permeate through the elastomer, from inside the void to outside the elastomer, leaving the liquid water inside the void in tension. When the tension is low, the void reduce...

Dielectric elastomer is one of the new types electronic materials that have both drive ability and electric generating capacity. In this research, fundamental tests were performed to evaluate abilities of dielectric elastomer. As the result, it was found that dielectric elastomer had very efficient drive ability and electric generating capacity, and that it was applicable to both slow and high ...

Inspired by mammalian skins, soft hybrids integrating the merits of elastomers and hydrogels have potential applications in diverse areas including stretchable and bio-integrated electronics, microfluidics, tissue engineering, soft robotics and biomedical devices. However, existing hydrogel-elastomer hybrids have limitations such as weak interfacial bonding, low robustness and difficulties in p...

High N fertilizer and irrigation amounts applied to potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) on coarse-textured soils often result in nitrate (NO3) leaching and low recovery of applied fertilizer N. This 3-yr study compared the effects of two rates (140 and 280 kg N ha(-1)) of a single polyolefin-coated urea (PCU) application versus split applications of urea on 'Russet Burbank' potato yield and on NO3 le...

One of the most efficient and versatile ways to synthesize polyolefin nanocomposites is the in-situ polymerization of olefins in the presence of nano particles by metallocene catalysts. Metallocene/methylaluminoxane (MAO) catalysts are soluble in hydrocarbons and therefore they can be absorbed perfectly in solution onto the surface of particles or fibers and after addition of ethene or propene ...