Influence of the intrinsic layer characteristics on a-Si:H p–i–n solar cell performance analysed by means of a computer simulation

In this paper a set of one-dimensional simulations of a-Si:H p–i–n junctions under different illumination conditions and with different intrinsic layer are presented. The simulation program ASCA permits the analysis of the internal electrical behaviour of the cell allowing a comparison among the different internal configurations determined by a change in the input set. Results about the internal electric configuration will be presented and discussed outlining their influence on the current tension characteristic curve. Considerations about the drift–diffusion and the generation–recombination balance distributions, outlined by the simulation, can be used to explain the correlation between the basic device output, the i-layer characteristics (thickness and DOS), the incident radiation intensity and photon energy.     

Hybrid integrator backstepping control of robotic manipulators driven by brushless DC motors

In this paper, a hybrid integrator backstepping controller is proposed for robotic manipulators actuated with brushless DC motors in the presence of arbitrary uncertain inertia parameters of the manipulator and the electrical parameters of the actuators. The main features are: 1) the design, requiring at most the joint velocities and stator currents feedback; 2) the semiglobal asymptotic stability of the controller being established in the Lyapunov sense; and 3) suitability of the scheme for multijoint robots. Simulation results are included to demonstrate the tracking performance.     

Effect of gravity on InGaSb crystal growth

The effect of gravity on dissolution of GaSb in InSb melt and growth of InGaSb was experimentally investigated. Experiments were carried out in a GaSb(seed)/InSb/GaSb(feed) sandwich system under an imposed temperature gradient. In the experiments, the GaSb feed crystal dissolved into the InSb melt to supply the required GaSb component for the growth of In_0.1Ga_0.9Sb crystal. Two parameters were considered: (1) the inclination angle (θ) of the sample for gravity as 0° and 53°, and (2) the sample diameter (D) as 9 mm and 5mm. When θ was 0°, the interface was almost flat, indicating that convection was axisymmetric and stable. Whereas the interface was distorted towards gravitational direction when θ was 53°, indicating that solutal convection was dominant. The decrease of growth temperature and sample diameter reduced the distortion of interface and the dissolution amount of GaSb feed. The homogeneous crystals were grown at the initial growth stage by supplying the GaSb component during growth.     

Buckypapers of polyvinyl chloride/poly(styrene-co-maleic anhydride) blend intercalated graphene oxide-carbon nanotube nanobifiller: Physical property exploration

Novel buckypaper of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and poly(styrene-co-maleic anhydride) (PSMA) intercalated with carbon nanotube (CNT) and graphene oxide-CNT (GO-CNT) nanobifiller was prepared using resin infiltration technique. Two series of buckypaper were prepared with varying CNT and GO-CNT contents. According to field emission scanning electron microscopy, PVC/SMA/CNT 0.1 showed porous morphology while PVC/PSMA/GO-CNT 0.1 revealed unique sort of island-nodule morphology. T_max of PVC/PSMA/GO-CNT 0.1 was 561°C while PVC/PSMA/CNT 0.1 depicted relatively lower value (552°C). T_g of PVC/PSMA/GO-CNT 0.1 was also increased to 294°C. Peak heat release rate of poly(methyl methacrylate-co-methacrylic acid)/polyamide 6/montmorillonite-modified GO was decreased from 322 to 209 kW/m² (65%) with 0.03–0.3 g GO-CNT loading.     

A modelling study for moisture diffusivities and moisture transfer coefficients in drying of solid objects

This article presents an effective analytical model for determining the moisture diffusivities and moisture transfer coefficients for solid objects (namely, infinite slab, infinite cylinder, sphere; and also for irregularly shaped objects, by using a shape factor) subject to drying applications in a medium. The unsteady-state moisture diffusion analysis is used on the basis of two important criteria: 0·1 <Bi < 100 and Bi > 100. The drying coefficients and lag factors were employed. The analytical models are then verified using available experimental data taken from the literature. The results show that the method presented here can be used to determine the moisture diffusion coefficients and moisture transfer coefficients for such solid objects in a simple and accurate manner for a variety of drying applications.     

Scalable total BETI based solver for 3D multibody frictionless contact problems in mechanical engineering

A total BETI (TBETI) based domain decomposition algorithm with the preconditioning by a natural coarse grid of the rigid body motions is adapted for the solution of multibody frictionless contact problems of linear elastostatics and proved to be scalable, i.e., the cost of the solution is asymptotically proportional to the number of variables. The analysis admits floating bodies. The proofs combine the original results by Langer and Steinbach on the scalability of BETI for linear problems and our development of optimal quadratic programming algorithms for bound and equality constrained problems. The theoretical results are verified by numerical experiments. The power of the method is demonstrated on the analysis of ball bearings.     

Subcellular pharmacokinetics and its potential for library focusing

Subcellular pharmacokinetics (SP) optimizes biology-related factors in the design of libraries for high throughput screening by defining comparatively narrow ranges of properties (lipophilicity, amphiphilicity, acidity, reactivity, 3D-structural features) of the included compounds. The focusing ensures appropriate absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADMET) in those test biosystems, which are more complex than isolated receptors, and in humans. The SP deploys conceptual models that include transport and accumulation in a series of membranes, protein binding, hydrolysis, and other reactions with cell constituents. The kinetics of drug disposition is described as a non-linear disposition function of drug structure and properties. The SP capabilities are illustrated here using a model-based quantitative structure-activity relationship of toxicity of phenolic compounds against Tetrahymena pyriformis as dependent on lipophilicity and acidity. The resulting SP models clearly outperform empirical models in predictive ability outside the parameter space, as revealed by the leave-extremes-out cross-validation technique with omission of compounds beyond pre-defined lipophilicity and acidity ranges. The SP models do not change substantially if the parameters space is shrunk within some limits. In contrast, the shapes of empirical models vary widely depending upon the fraction of the data set used for their optimization. Once calibrated for a given biosystem, the SP models provide a detailed recipe for tailoring the drug properties to ensure optimum ADMET. The focusing is more accurate than with traditional empirical QSAR studies, assessment of drug-likeness, or the rules for identification of compounds with permeability problems.     

Antitumor action of bovine seminal ribonuclease

Unlike the bovine pancreatic ribonuclease (RNaseA), bovine seminal ribonuclease (BS RNase) displays various biological activities, including antitumor activity, immunosuppressivity, spermatogenicity and embryotoxicity. To learn more about its antitumor effect we tested BS RNase on the growth of 16 cell lines derived from patients with various hematological malignancies. The cells of lymphoid origin were generally more susceptible to BS RNase, administered in the range of concentrations from 2 to 100 micrograms/ml, than the myeloid ones. RNaseA used at the same concentrations did not exert any inhibitory effect. The inhibitory effect of BS RNase persisted in cultured cells after three times wash in complete medium and cell recultivation in fresh medium free of BS RNase. Four cell lines were very little sensitive (KG-1 and U-937) or resistant (JOK and NAMALWA) to BS RNase regardless of their origin. The in vivo antitumor effect of BS RNase was tested on human prostate carcinoma transplanted to athymic nude mice. The daily dose of BS RNase (0.25 mg/20 g) was administered for three weeks except weekends (15 doses) by three different ways (intraperitoneally-i.p., subcutaneously-s.c. and intratumorally-i.t.). Whereas i.p. administration was ineffective, s.c. administration significantly reduced size of the tumors and i.t. administration abolished half of the tumors in treated mice. The average weight of treated mice decreased during the experiment by 10-15%.