Direct silver bonding – an alternative for substrates in power semiconductor packaging

Bonding between silver and ceramics like Al₂O₃, ZrO₂, MgO, AlN, sapphire or quartz glass is obtained by a liquid phase bonding process based on the pseudo-binary eutectic between Ag and CuO (at 1 mol %). It melts 15 K below the melting point of pure Ag in air. Excellent wetting between the eutectic liquid and the ceramic surfaces gives mechanically strong, reliable bonds. The bonding mechanism is similar to the well known direct copper bonding (DCB)-process. Our new process is simple and works at 1219±2 K in plain air. It therefore has the potential of massive cost reductions compared to the more complicated DCB-process.     

Construction of a 3D model of oligopeptidase B, a potential processing enzyme in prokaryotes

A three dimensional structural model of oligopeptidase B (OpB) was constructed by homology modeling. High resolution X-ray structure of prolyl oligopeptidase (PEP), the only protein with sequential and functional homology was used as a template. Initial models of OpB were built by the MODELLER and were analysed by the PROCHECK programs. The best quality model was chosen for further refinement by two different techniques--either constrained molecular dynamics simulations or simulated annealing calculations starting from 500 K. The overall quality of each of the refined models was evaluated and the simulated annealing procedure found to be more effective. The refined model was analysed by different protein analysis programs including PROCHECK for the evaluation of the Ramachandran plot quality, PROSA for testing interaction energies and WHATIF for the calculation of packing quality. This structure was found to be satisfactory and also stable at room temperature as demonstrated by a 300 ps long unconstrained molecular dynamics simulation. Calculation of molecular electrostatic potentials revealed that the binding site of OpB is more negative than that of PEP, in accordance with the experimentally observed selectivity of OpB towards proteolysis at dibasic sites. A recently developed Monte Carlo docking method was used provide a structural rationale for the affinity differences measured between Z-Arg and Z-Arg-Arg substrates.     

On the conformation of tiazofurin analogues

Tiazofurin, an important inhibitor of inosine 5'-monophosphate dehydrogenase, has been argued to possess a restricted glycosylic bond due to an energetically favorable intramolecular (1-4) electrostatic interaction between the partial positive sulfur and the negative oxygen of the ribose. This rigidity has been appointed as a plausible cause that leads to activity in the sulfur containing compounds as opposed to the inactive oxazofurin-like analogues (i.e. S is replaced by an oxygen) that lack this favorable interaction. We reinvestigated this notion by using computational methods to report that although the above interaction (or its lack) is likely to contribute to the low-energy conformation of these classes of molecules, the flexibility of the glycosylic bond is ultimately determined by steric interaction of the heteroatoms with the C2'-H and O4' of the ribose. Application of this theory in the design of new analogues is presented as well.     

Zusammenhänge zwischen Eigenschaften,Rohstoffkomponenten und dem Dichteprofil von Spanplatten

European Journal of Wood and Wood Products - Das Spektrum der Anforderungen an die Eigenschaften von Spanplatten hat sich im Laufe des letzten Jahrzehntes erweitert. Neben den ursprünglich im...     

新型超高速分丝辊

在合成纤维长丝进行热处理和机械处理的各种复杂的且需求不断增长的设备中,新型ABSR空气轴承分丝辊由瑞士Retech公司研SU（图1）。     

DUckCov: a Dynamic Undocking-Based Virtual Screening Protocol for Covalent Binders

Thanks to recent guidelines, the design of safe and effective covalent drugs has gained significant interest. Other than targeting non-conserved nucleophilic residues, optimizing the noncovalent binding framework is important to improve potency and selectivity of covalent binders toward the desired target. Significant efforts have been made in extending the computational toolkits to include a covalent mechanism of protein targeting, like in the development of covalent docking methods for binding mode prediction. To highlight the value of the noncovalent complex in the covalent binding process, here we describe a new protocol using tethered and constrained docking in combination with Dynamic Undocking (DUck) as a tool to privilege strong protein binders for the identification of novel covalent inhibitors. At the end of the protocol, dedicated covalent docking methods were used to rank and select the virtual hits based on the predicted binding mode. By validating the method on JAK3 and KRas, we demonstrate how this fast iterative protocol can be applied to explore a wide chemical space and identify potent targeted covalent inhibitors.     

Synthesis and characterization of lithium calcium phosphate ceramics

The crystal structure, thermal, dielectrical, alternating current conductivity and microstructure properties of lithium calcium phosphate ceramics synthesized by the sol–gel method were investigated. The average crystallite size, crystallinity, activation energy and enthalpy of crystallization of Ca₁₀Li(PO₄)₇ ceramics were determined. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results indicated that the apatitic structure belonging to HAp was transformed fully to Ca₁₀Li(PO₄)₇ phase with the addition of Li. The Avrami exponents of the samples suggest that the crystallization mechanism is based on the surface nucleation and one-dimensional growth. It was found that the alternating current conductivity mechanism of the ceramics is controlled by the hopping motion involving a translational motion with a sudden hopping. The dielectric constant of the samples shows a small increase with increasing amount of Li.     

Assessment of Tractable Cysteines for Covalent Targeting by Screening Covalent Fragments

Targeted covalent inhibition and the use of irreversible chemical probes are important strategies in chemical biology and drug discovery. To date, the availability and reactivity of cysteine residues amenable for covalent targeting have been evaluated by proteomic and computational tools. Herein, we present a toolbox of fragments containing a 3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl core that was equipped with chemically diverse electrophilic warheads showing a range of reactivities. We characterized the library members for their reactivity, aqueous stability and specificity for nucleophilic amino acids. By screening this library against a set of enzymes amenable for covalent inhibition, we showed that this approach experimentally characterized the accessibility and reactivity of targeted cysteines. Interesting covalent fragment hits were obtained for all investigated cysteine-containing enzymes.     

Structural and Dielectrical Properties of Ag- and Ba-Substituted Hydroxyapatites

Ag- and Ba-doped hydroxyapatite (HAp) samples were synthesized by sol–gel method. The crystallite sizes for all the samples were found to vary from 26 to 39 nm. Neither Ag nor Ba did result in dramatic changes in the morphology of all the samples, and the Ca/P molar ratio was varied. The dielectric parameters of the samples were changed with the dopant content. The maximum and minimum values of the dielectric constant were observed for 2.0 %Ba-HAp and 0.5 %Ba-HAp samples. The alternating current conductivity indicates that all the samples exhibit the insulator behavior. The results of the biological tests revealed that Ag-containing samples have an antimicrobial activity, while no antimicrobial activity was detected for both HAp and Ba-doped HAp samples.