Lead zirconium titanate (PZT)-based gate-all-around negative-capacitance junctionless nanowire FET for distortionless low-power applications

A negative-capacitance (NC)-induced junctionless gate-all-around (GAA) nanowire field-effect transistor (FET) is proposed by deploying the ferroelectric material (FE) lead zirconium titanate (PZT) between the gate electrode and metal, referred to as the NC JLNWFET. The FE material is used as a gate dielectric in addition to a high-K dielectric. The PZT gate stacking develops a negative capacitance owing to the alignment of dipoles with biasing, which is responsible for improving the direct-current (DC) and linearity performance compared with the conventional JLNWFET. The parameters ION, IOFF, ION/IOFF, and Vth are considered for the DC analysis, whereas gm, gm2, gm3, and VIP2 are considered for the linearity analysis. The results show that ION and the ION/IOFF ratio are improved in the NC JLNWFET by a factor of 12.5 and 6.38. The impact of design parameters such as the channel doping, drain voltage, and interface trap charge on the electrical performance and linearity parameters is analyzed in detail. The improvement in the linearity results in a distortionless structure. The high ION/IOFF ratio and low Vth of the proposed structure mitigate the static and dynamic power in digital circuits and make the device suitable for use in low-power applications. Thus, the proposed NC JLNWFET can be used in distortionless and low-power applications

Multiple Spectral Peak Tracking for Heart Rate Monitoring from Photoplethysmography Signal During Intensive Physical Exercise

We propose a multiple initialization based spectral peak tracking (MISPT) technique for heart rate monitoring from photoplethysmography (PPG) signal. MISPT is applied on the PPG signal after removing the motion artifact using an adaptive noise cancellation filter. MISPT yields several estimates of the heart rate trajectory from the spectrogram of the denoised PPG signal which are finally combined using a novel measure called trajectory strength. Multiple initializations help in correcting erroneous heart rate trajectories unlike the typical SPT which uses only single initialization. Experiments on the PPG data from 12 subjects recorded during intensive physical exercise show that the MISPT based heart rate monitoring indeed yields a better heart rate estimate compared to the SPT with single initialization. On the 12 datasets MISPT results in an average absolute error of 1.11 BPM which is lower than 1.28 BPM obtained by the state-of-the-art online heart rate monitoring algorithm

Computational Analysis Reveals Monomethylated Triazolopyrimidine as a Novel Inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase (RdRp)

The human population is still facing appalling conditions due to several outbreaks of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus. The absence of specific drugs, appropriate vaccines for mutants, and knowledge of potential therapeutic agents makes this situation more difficult. Several 1, 2, 4-triazolo [1, 5-a] pyrimidine (TP)-derivative compounds were comprehensively studied for antiviral activities against RNA polymerase of HIV, HCV, and influenza viruses, and showed immense pharmacological interest. Therefore, TP-derivative compounds can be repurposed against the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) protein of SARS-CoV-2. In this study, a meta-analysis was performed to ensure the genomic variability and stability of the SARS-CoV-2 RdRp protein. The molecular docking of natural and synthetic TP compounds to RdRp and molecular dynamic (MD) simulations were performed to analyse the dynamic behaviour of TP compounds at the active site of the RdRp protein. TP compounds were also docked against other non-structural proteins (NSP1, NSP2, NSP3, NSP5, NSP8, NSP13, and NSP15) of SARS-CoV-2. Furthermore, the inhibition potential of TP compounds was compared with Remdesivir and Favipi-ravir drugs as a positive control. Additionally, TP compounds were analysed for inhibitory activity against SARS-CoV RdRp protein. This study demonstrates that TP analogues (monomethylated triazolopyrimidine and essramycin) represent potential lead molecules for designing an effective inhibitor to control viral replication. Furthermore, in vitro and in vivo studies will strengthen the use of these inhibitors as suitable drug candidates against SARS-CoV-2

Comparative Analysis of Soil Quality Assessment and Its Perception by Rice Farmers

The present study was conducted in three villages of district Budgam in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, to find out how farmers differentiate the quality of soils and to determine the level of concurrence between farmers perception and scientific assessment of soil quality. Five fields in each village were selected and ranked on the basis of soil quality indices computed from the minimum data set of indicators, including plant available nutrients N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, OC, BD, WHC (water holding capacity), CEC (cation exchange capacity) as well as microbial count. The respondents ranked the same 5 selected fields on the bases of their experience and perceptions of soil quality. The study reveals that 58% of farmers ranked the best soils correctly whereas, the percentage of farmers who ranked 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th soils correctly was 40, 30, 40, and 45%, respectively. The study found that a greater number of farmers from the remotest village Dalwash were able to judge the soils properly, thereby indicating more profound knowledge and better cognitive abilities to understand soils in the local context. The results divulged by the current study highlight the remarkable local soil knowledge of the farmers and therefore, linking this knowledge system with scientific concepts would prove valuable for sustained land-use management