BINA

High‐Ni‐rich layered oxides [e.g., LiNixCoyMnzO2; x > 0.5, x + y + z = 1] are considered one of the most promising cathodes for high‐energy‐density lithium‐ion batteries (LIB). However, extreme electrode–electrolyte reactions, several interfacial issues, and structural instability restrict their practical applicability. Here, a shortened unconventional atomic surface reduction (ASR) technique is demonstrated on the cathode surface as a derivative of the conventional atomic layer deposition (ALD) process, which brings superior cell performances. The atomic surface reaction (reduction process) between diethyl‐zinc (as a single precursor) and Ni‐rich NMC cathode [LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2; NCM811] material is carried out using the ALD reactor at different temperatures. The temperature dependency of the process through advanced spectroscopy and microscopy studies is demonstrated and it is shown that thin surface …

Atomic and molecular layer deposition (ALD and MLD) are techniques based on surface‐directed self‐limiting reactions that afford deposition of films controlled at the monolayer level and with extreme conformality, even on ultra‐high‐aspect‐ratio and porous substrates. These methodologies are typically used to deposit thin films with desirable physical properties and functionality. Here, the MLD process is harnessed to demonstrate the growth of molecularly thin chiral films that inherit a desirable chemical property directly from the source precursor: using this innovative technique, enantioselective nanosurfaces are managed to be grown. Specifically, the formation of a Zn/Cysteine nanostructure by MLD is demonstrated for both the l‐ and d‐ enantiomers. The reaction and growth mechanism of these chiral hybrid inorganic‐organic nanosurfaces are studied via various experimental procedures; their …

Using hyperspectral measurements, J‐aggregate nanorods of porphyrin molecules embedded in plasmonic Au nanoparticles arrays are studied. Measurements of J‐aggregate nanorods that cross onto a plasmonic array exhibit a shift in their absorption peak, and display weak coupling properties only for the embedded part. Furthermore, a significant thickness‐dependent redshift in the plasmonic resonance for the J‐aggregate clusters is observed. Such redshift is also dependent on the ratio of J‐aggregate in the plasmonic dipole interaction area, reaching values of up to 120 meV for ≈40% coverage. In addition, for large clusters of J‐aggregates, the plasmonic spectrum shows coupling behavior between the systems indicated by a small Rabi splitting. The findings are validated by a quasi‐static model based on the change of the dielectric environment around the embedded nanoparticles. Using the model, the …

In a wide spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases, self-assembly of pathogenic proteins to cytotoxic intermediates is accelerated by the presence of metal ions such as Cu2+. Only low concentrations of these early transient oligomeric inter-mediates are present in a mixture of species during fibril formation, and hence information on the extent of structuring of these oligomers is still largely unknown. Here, we investigate dimers as the first intermediates in the Cu2+-driven aggrega-tion of a cyclic D,L-α-peptide architecture. The unique structural and functional properties of this model system recapitu-late the self-assembling properties of amyloidogenic proteins including β-sheet conformation and cross-interaction with pathogenic amyloids. We show that a histidine-rich cyclic D,L-α-octapeptide binds Cu2+ with high affinity and selectivity to generate amyloid-like cross-β-sheet structures. By taking advantage of …

Sb2Se3 has emerged as an important photoelectrochemical (PEC) and photovoltaic (PV) material due to its rapid rise in photoconversion efficiencies. However, Sb2Se3 has a complex defect chemistry, which reduces the maximum photovoltage. Thus, it is important to understand these defects and develop defect passivation strategies in Sb2Se3. A comprehensive investigation of the charge carrier dynamics of Sb2Se3 and the influence of sulfur treatment on its optoelectronic properties is performed using time‐resolved microwave conductivity (TRMC), photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, and low‐frequency Raman spectroscopy (LFR). The key finding in this work is that upon sulfur treatment of Sb2Se3, the carrier lifetime is increased by the passivation of deep defects in Sb2Se3 in both the surface region and the bulk, which is evidenced by increased charge carrier lifetime of TRMC decay dynamics, increased …

Constant exposure to diverse microorganisms has accompanied human evolution and continues to shape immunological development throughout life. In mucosal tissues, both innate and adaptive arms of the immune system are required to support healthy mutualistic interactions with the resident microbiota, while aggressively fighting pathogenic infections. Technological breakthroughs over the past decade facilitated groundbreaking discoveries that transformed our understanding of intestinal immunology and established the gut microbiota as a critical factor that shapes immunological development and function. Indeed, alterations to microbiota composition (dysbiosis) are associated with a wide array of human diseases, including autoimmune diseases, chronic inflammation, the metabolic syndrome, and cancer. In this chapter, we discuss fundamental concepts that underlie microbiota-immune system crosstalks …

In a wide spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases, self-assembly of pathogenic proteins to cytotoxic intermediates is accelerated by the presence of metal ions such as Cu2+. Only low concentrations of these early transient oligomeric inter-mediates are present in a mixture of species during fibril formation, and hence information on the extent of structuring of these oligomers is still largely unknown. Here, we investigate dimers as the first intermediates in the Cu2+-driven aggrega-tion of a cyclic D,L-α-peptide architecture. The unique structural and functional properties of this model system recapitu-late the self-assembling properties of amyloidogenic proteins including β-sheet conformation and cross-interaction with pathogenic amyloids. We show that a histidine-rich cyclic D,L-α-octapeptide binds Cu2+ with high affinity and selectivity to generate amyloid-like cross-β-sheet structures. By taking advantage of …

Photon-HDF5 is an open-source and open file format for storing photon-counting data from single molecule microscopy experiments, introduced to simplify data exchange and increase the reproducibility of data analysis. Part of the Photon-HDF5 ecosystem, is phconvert, an extensible python library that allows converting proprietary formats into Photon-HDF5 files. However, its use requires some proficiency with command line instructions, the python programming language, and the YAML markup format. This creates a significant barrier for potential users without that expertise, but who want to benefit from the advantages of releasing their files in an open format. In this work, we present a GUI that lowers this barrier, thus simplifying the use of Photon-HDF5. This tool uses the phconvert python library to convert data files originally saved in proprietary data formats to Photon-HDF5 files, without users having to write a …

Practical implementation of anion exchange membrane fuel cells mainly relies on the choice of highly active and stable oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts. Transition metal oxides based on Group 4 and 5 are well known for their chemical stability and corrosion‐resistance and they are earth‐abundant too. Among them, zirconia (ZrO2) has exceptional chemical stability, but its poor conductivity and less active sites hinder the application of zirconia‐based materials toward ORR. In order to bring out the best activity from ZrO2, careful site engineering without losing the phase purity and chemical stability is essential. In this context, nitrogen doping on tetragonal zirconia (t‐ZrO2) as a viable method to obtain a highly active ORR catalyst is adopted. The temperature for the phase pure synthesis of t‐ZrO2 is optimized by crystallographic study. The nitrogen doping in the zirconia lattice is confirmed by various …

In this communication, we present a novel method to measure local optical dichroism (OD) in opaque crystal powder suspensions using photoacoustic (PA) effect. Our method is based upon the novel laser speckle contrast technique, in combination with a simple statistical approach, we were able to measure the OD of chiral crystals suspensions under completely random orientation.

Energy-time entangled photon pairs (EPPs), which are at the heart of numerous quantum light applications, are commonly generated in nonlinear crystals. Some highly sensitive quantum applications require the use of ultra-broadband entangled photons that cannot be generated in nonlinear crystals due to phase-matching requirements. Here, we investigate the possibility of using metallic nanoparticles (MNPs) as a means for generating entangled photons through spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC). MNPs are known for their strong light-matter coupling at their localized surfaceplasmon resonance, and since the propagation length through them is negligible relative to optical wavelengths, we consider them as excellent candidates to serve as non-phase matched sources of ultra-broadband entangled photons.To that end, we report experimental results of classical-light second-harmonic generation …

Forward stimulated Brillouin scattering in standard single‐mode fibers draws increasing interest toward sensing and signal processing applications. The process takes place through two classes of guided acoustic modes: purely radial ones and torsional‐radial modes with twofold azimuthal symmetry. The latter case cannot be described in terms of scalar models alone. In this work, the polarization attributes of forward stimulated Brillouin scattering in single‐mode fibers are investigated in analysis and experiment. Torsional‐radial acoustic modes are stimulated by orthogonally polarized pump tones, a first such report in standard single‐mode fibers. The scattering of optical probe waves by torsional‐radial modes may take up the form of phase modulation, cross‐polarization coupling, or a combination of both, depending on polarization. Lastly, this analysis predicts that circular and orthogonal pump tones may …

MXenes are a large class of 2D materials that consist of few‐atoms‐thick layers of transition metal carbides, nitrides, or carbonitrides. The surface functionalization of MXenes has immense implications for their physical, chemical, and electronic properties. However, solution‐phase surface functionalization often leads to structural degradation of the MXene electrodes. Here, a non‐conventional, single‐step atomic surface reduction (ASR) technique is adopted for the surface functionalization of MXene (Ti3C2Tx) in an atomic layer deposition reactor using trimethyl aluminum as a volatile reducing precursor. The chemical nature of the modified surface is characterized by X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance techniques. The electrochemical properties of the surface‐modified MXene are evaluated in acidic and neutral aqueous electrolyte solutions, as well as in conventional Li‐ion and …

This article has been corrected: The bioinformatics analysis of TCGA data in Figure 4 (panels A, B, C, I) was inadvertently conducted on LINC00116. We have reworked that analysis using the LINC01116 expression values so that it is aligned with the rest of the paper, which discusses LINC01116. The redrawn Figures 4A-C and 4I and edits to the associated paragraph in the text are shown below. Please note that similar trends are shown for LINC00116 and LINC01116 so the primary message of the paper is not affected. The authors declare that these corrections do not change the results or conclusions of this paper.Original article: Oncotarget. 2017; 8: 31785–31801. https://doi. org/10.18632/oncotarget. 15991

Clinically relevant glioma subtypes, such as the glioma-CpG island methylator phenotype (G-CIMP), have been defined by epigenetics. In this study, the role of long non-coding RNAs in association with the poor-prognosis G-CMIP-low phenotype and the good-prognosis G-CMIP-high phenotype was investigated. Functional associations of lncRNAs with mRNAs and miRNAs were examined to hypothesize influencing factors of the aggressive phenotype. RNA-seq data on 250 samples from TCGA’s Pan-Glioma study, quantified for lncRNA and mRNAs (GENCODE v28), were analyzed for differential expression between G-CIMP-low and G-CIMP-high phenotypes. Functional interpretation of the differential lncRNAs was performed by Ingenuity Pathway Analysis. Spearman rank order correlation estimates between lncRNA, miRNA, and mRNA nominated differential lncRNA with a likely miRNA sponge function. We identified 4371 differentially expressed features (mRNA = 3705; lncRNA = 666; FDR ≤ 5%). From these, the protein-coding gene TP53 was identified as an upstream regulator of differential lncRNAs PANDAR and PVT1 (p = 0.0237) and enrichment was detected in the “development of carcinoma” (p = 0.0176). Two lncRNAs (HCG11, PART1) were positively correlated with 342 mRNAs, and their correlation estimates diminish after adjusting for either of the target miRNAs: hsa-miR-490-3p, hsa-miR-129-5p. This suggests a likely sponge function for HCG11 and PART1. These findings identify differential lncRNAs with oncogenic features that are associated with G-CIMP phenotypes. Further investigation with controlled experiments …

Catalyst poisoning is a prominent issue, reducing the lifetime of catalysts and increasing the costs of the processes that rely on them. The electrocatalysts that enable green energy conversion and storage, such as proton exchange membrane fuel cells and hydrogen bromine redox flow batteries, also suffer from this issue, hindering their utilization. Current solutions to protect electrocatalysts from harmful species fall short of effective selectivity without inhibiting the required reactions. This article describes the protection of a standard 50% Pt/C catalyst with a V2O5 coating through atomic layer deposition (ALD). The ALD selectively deposited V2O5 on the Pt, which enhanced hydrogen transport to the Pt surface and resulted in a higher mass activity in alkaline electrolytes. Cyclic voltammetry and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed that the Pt was protected by the coating in the HBr/Br2 electrolyte which dissolved …

We present a fluorescence fluctuation image correlation analysis method that can rapidly and simultaneously measure the diffusion coefficient, photoblinking rates, and fraction of diffusing particles of fluorescent molecules in cells. Unlike other image correlation techniques, we demonstrated that our method could be applied irrespective of a nonuniformly distributed, immobile blinking fluorophore population. This allows us to measure blinking and transport dynamics in complex cell morphologies, a benefit for a range of super-resolution fluorescence imaging approaches that rely on probe emission blinking. Furthermore, we showed that our technique could be applied without directly accounting for photobleaching. We successfully employed our technique on several simulations with realistic EMCCD noise and photobleaching models, as well as on Dronpa-C12-labeled β-actin in living NIH/3T3 and HeLa cells. We …

Applying direct growth and deposition of optical surfaces holds great promise for the advancement of future nanophotonic technologies. Here, we report on a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique for depositing amorphous selenium (a-Se) spheres by desorption of selenium from Bi2Se3 and re-adsorption on the substrate. We utilize this process to grow scalable, large area Se spheres on several substrates and characterize their Mie-resonant response in the mid-infrared (MIR) spectral range. We demonstrate size-tunable Mie resonances spanning the 2-16 um spectral range, for single isolated resonators and large area ensembles, respectively. We further demonstrate strong absorption dips of up to 90% in ensembles of particles in a broad MIR range. Finally, we show that ultra-high-Q resonances arise in the case where Se Mie-resonators are coupled to low-loss epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) substrates. These findings demonstrate the enabling potential of amorphous Selenium as a versatile and tunable nanophotonic material that may open up avenues for on-chip MIR spectroscopy, chemical sensing, spectral imaging and large area metasurface fabrication.

In their seminal paper, Caves and Schumaker presented a new formalism for quantum optics, intended to serve as a building block for describing two-photon processes, in terms of new, generalized qudratures. The important, revolutionary concept in their formalism was that it was fundamentally two-mode, ie the related observables could not be attributed to any single one of the comprising modes, but rather to a generalized complex quadrature that could only be attributed to both of them. Here, we propose a subtle, but fundamentally meaningful modification to their important work. Unlike the above proposal, we deliberately choose a frequency-agnostic definition of the two-mode quadrature, that we motivate on physical grounds. This simple modification has far-reaching implications to the formalism–the real and imaginary parts of the quadratures now coincide with the famous EPR variables, and our two-mode …

These questions led to an increasing number of studies, resulting in evidence for the relevance of the above motivations. 4− 8 At the same time, the results raise new, or leave open, existing issues. Herein, we discuss some of these results that we view as central and issues arising from questions 1− 3 (question 4 is left for another occasion), with further questions presented in italics.

These questions led to an increasing number of studies, resulting in evidence for the relevance of the above motivations. 4− 8 At the same time, the results raise new, or leave open, existing issues. Herein, we discuss some of these results that we view as central and issues arising from questions 1− 3 (question 4 is left for another occasion), with further questions presented in italics.