Amino-acids, peptides, and protein hydrolysates, together with their coordinating compounds, have various applications as fertilizers, nutritional supplements, additives, fillers, or active principles to produce hydrogels with therapeutic properties. Hydrogel-based patches can be adapted for drug, protein, or peptide delivery, and tissue healing and regeneration. These materials have the advantage of copying the contour of the wound surface, ensuring oxygenation, hydration, and at the same time protecting the surface from bacterial invasion. The aim of this paper is to describe the production of a new type of hydrogel based on whey protein isolates (WPI), whey protein hydrolysates (WPH), and gelatin. The hydrogels were obtained by utilizing a microwave-assisted method using gelatin, glycerol, WPI or WPH, copper sulfate, and water. WPH was obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis of whey protein isolates in the presence of bromelain. The hydrogel films obtained have been characterized by FT-IR and UV-VIS spectroscopy. The swelling degree and swelling kinetics have also been determined.

A virtual model enables the study of reality in a virtual environment using a theoretical model, which is a digital image of a real model. The complexity of the virtual model must correspond to the reality of the evaluated system, becoming as complex as necessary and nevertheless as simple as possible, allowing for computer simulation results to be validated by experimental measurements. The virtual model of the autonomous vehicle was created using the CarMaker software package version 12.0, which was developed by the IPG Automotive company and is extensively used in both the international academic community and the automotive industry. The virtual model simulates the real-time operation of a vehicle’s elementary systems at the system level and provides an open platform for the development of virtual test scenarios in the application areas of autonomous vehicles, ADAS, Powertrain, and vehicle dynamics. This model included the following virtual sensors: slip angle sensor, inertial sensor, object sensor, free space sensor, traffic sign sensor, line sensor, road sensor, object-by-line sensor, camera sensor, global navigation sensor, radar sensor, lidar sensor, and ultrasonic sensor. Virtual sensors can be classified based on how they generate responses: sensors that operate on parameters derived from measurement characteristics, sensors that operate on developed modeling methods, and sensors that operate on applications.

In this paper there were presented researches related to preparation and characterization of physicochemical properties of diesel-ethanol blends stabilized with tetrahydrofuran as surfactant, in order to be used as fuels in compression ignition engines. The main spray characteristics and engine performances of these blends were evaluated by using AVL Fire software. In the first stage of the studies, commercial diesel was mixed with ethanol, in different concentrations (between 2% and 15% v/v), followed by the addition of tetrahydrofuran (THF) until the blends were miscible, i.e. the blends were stabilized. The experiments were done at room temperature (22 0 C). The obtained blends were characterized in order to determine the chemical composition and physicochemical properties, i.e. density, kinematic viscosity, surface tension. UV-Vis spectroscopy was utilized in order to determine a semi-quantitative evaluation regarding the chemical composition of the prepared blends and chemical interaction between diesel, ethanol and THF. Based on the determined properties, the fuel spray characteristics, engine performances and emission characteristics were evaluated by simulation using the AVL Fire software. The obtained results regarding physicochemical properties of blends were compared with diesel. Some improvements were observed when operating with the prepared blends compared to diesel with respect to engine performances and emission characteristics. Based on physicochemical evaluation and computer simulation, it was demonstrated that diesel-ethanol-tetrahydrofuran blends can be used as alternative fuel in compression ignition engines.