Design aspects of MOS-controlled thyristor elements: technology,simulation, and experimental results

2.5-kV thyristor devices have been fabricated with integrated MOS controlled n⁺-emitter shorts and a bipolar turn-on gate using a p-channel DMOS technology. Square-cell geometries with pitch variations ranging from 15 to 30 μm were implemented in one- and two-dimensional arrays with up to 20000 units. The impact of the cell pitch on the turn-off performance and the on-state voltage was studied for arrays with constant cathode area as well as for single-cell structures. By realizing MOS components with submicrometer channel lengths, scaled single cells are shown to turn off with current densities of several kiloamperes per square centimeter at a gate bias of 5 V. In the case of multi-cell ensembles, turn-off performance is limited due to inhomogeneous current distribution. Critical process parameters as well as the device behavior were optimized through multidimensional numerical simulation     

Hybrid numerical scheme for time-evolving wave fields

Many problems in geophysics, acoustics, elasticity theory, cancer treatment, food process control and electrodynamics involve study of wave field synthesis (WFS) in some form or another. In the present work, modelling of wave propagation phenomena is studied as a static problem, using finite element method and treating time as an additional spatial dimension. In particular, WFS problems are analysed using discrete methods. It is shown that a fully finite element-based scheme is very natural and effective method for the solution of such problems. Distributed WFS in the context of two-dimensional problems is outlined and incorporation of any geometric or material non-linearities is shown to be straightforward. This has significant implications for problems in geophysics or biological media, where material inhomogeneities are quite prevalent. Numerical results are presented for several problems referring to media with material inhomogeneities and predefined absorption profiles. The method can be extended to three-dimensional problems involving anisotropic media properties in a relatively straightforward manner. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

AKT Inhibitors: The Road Ahead to Computational Modeling-Guided Discovery

AKT, is a serine/threonine protein kinase comprising three isoforms—namely: AKT1, AKT2 and AKT3, whose inhibitors have been recognized as promising therapeutic targets for various human disorders, especially cancer. In this work, we report a systematic evaluation of multi-target Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (mt-QSAR) models to probe AKT’ inhibitory activity, based on different feature selection algorithms and machine learning tools. The best predictive linear and non-linear mt-QSAR models were found by the genetic algorithm-based linear discriminant analysis (GA-LDA) and gradient boosting (Xgboost) techniques, respectively, using a dataset containing 5523 inhibitors of the AKT isoforms assayed under various experimental conditions. The linear model highlighted the key structural attributes responsible for higher inhibitory activity whereas the non-linear model displayed an overall accuracy higher than 90%. Both these predictive models, generated through internal and external validation methods, were then used for screening the Asinex kinase inhibitor library to identify the most potential virtual hits as pan-AKT inhibitors. The virtual hits identified were then filtered by stepwise analyses based on reverse pharmacophore-mapping based prediction. Finally, results of molecular dynamics simulations were used to estimate the theoretical binding affinity of the selected virtual hits towards the three isoforms of enzyme AKT. Our computational findings thus provide important guidelines to facilitate the discovery of novel AKT inhibitors.     

Attrition of spherical electrode carbon particles during batch fluidized combustion

Spherical electrode carbon particles prepared from carbon rods of dry cell batteries have been used to study the attrition behaviour in a bubbling fluidized bed combustor. Experiments have been conducted in a 40 mm I.D. and 1 m high fluidized bed combustor operated at 1 m/s superficial velocity. The bed was operated with nitrogen and with two different oxygen concentrations at 850°C to study the effect of combustion on attrition of these particles. The experimental technique used allowed the time resolution of attrited fines generation, providing detailed curves of attrition rates as a function of time. Attrition rate constants have been evaluated. Results show an enhancement of attrition due to combustion even for spherical, homogeneous and smooth particles.     

Combustion of single char particles in a turbulent fluidized bed

The combustion of single bituminous char particles (4-12 mm diameter) was studied in a turbulent fluidized bed operated at 1098 K using air as the fluidising medium. Results indicated that particles burn with constant density following a shrinking sphere model. Burning rates are much higher than those observed in a bubbling fluidized bed. The rate of transfer of oxygen to the particle surface is also higher than that observed in bubbling beds. A model is proposed to calculate the Sherwood numbers of the burning carbon particles. Experimental values of the Sherwood numbers agree well with those predicted from the model.     

Strain and electric field-modulated indirect-to-direct band transition of monolayer GaInS2

Journal of Computational Electronics - The strain- and electric field-dependent electronic and optical properties of monolayer GaInS2 have been calculated using density functional...     

Energy Efficient Hardware Loop Based Optimization for CGRAs

Journal of Signal Processing Systems - Research interest and industry investment in edge computing solutions have increased dramatically in recent years. Consequent quest for balanced performance,...     

Efficient itinerary recommendation via personalized POI selection and pruning

Knowledge and Information Systems - Personalized itinerary recommendation has garnered wide research interests for their ubiquitous applications. Recommending personalized itineraries is complex...     

Modulatory Effects of Biosynthesized Gold Nanoparticles Conjugated with Curcumin and Paclitaxel on Tumorigenesis and Metastatic Pathways—In Vitro and In Vivo Studies

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women globally, and diagnosing it early and finding potential drug candidates against multi-drug resistant metastatic breast cancers provide the possibilities of better treatment and extending life. Methods: The current study aimed to evaluate the synergistic anti-metastatic activity of Curcumin (Cur) and Paclitaxel (Pacli) individually, the combination of Curcumin–Paclitaxel (CP), and also in conjugation with gold nanoparticles (AuNP–Curcumin (Au-C), AuNP–Paclitaxel (Au-P), and AuNP–Curcumin–Paclitaxel (Au-CP)) in various in vitro and in vivo models. Results: The results from combination treatments of CP and Au-CP demonstrated excellent synergistic cytotoxic effects in triple-negative breast cancer cell lines (MDA MB 231 and 4T1) in in vitro and in vivo mouse models. Detailed mechanistic studies were performed that reveal that the anti-cancer effects were associated with the downregulation of the expression of VEGF, CYCLIN-D1, and STAT-3 genes and upregulation of the apoptotic Caspase-9 gene. The group of mice that received CP combination therapy (with and without gold nanoparticles) showed a significant reduction in the size of tumor when compared to the Pacli alone treatment and control groups. Conclusions: Together, the results suggest that the delivery of gold conjugated Au-CP formulations may help in modulating the outcomes of chemotherapy. The present study is well supported with observations from cell-based assays, molecular and histopathological analyses.