BINA

Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a model eukaryotic organism with a rich history in research and industry, has become a pivotal tool for studying Adenosine Deaminase Acting on RNA (ADAR) enzymes despite lacking these enzymes endogenously. This chapter reviews the diverse methodologies harnessed using yeast to elucidate ADAR structure and function, emphasizing its role in advancing our understanding of RNA editing. Initially, Saccharomyces cerevisiae was instrumental in the high-yield purification of ADARs, addressing challenges associated with enzyme stability and activity in other systems. The chapter highlights the successful application of yeast in high-throughput screening platforms that identify key structural motifs and substrate preferences of ADARs, showcasing its utility in revealing complex enzyme mechanics. Furthermore, we discuss the development of yeast-based systems to optimize guide …

Incorporation of redox-active centers in metal–organic coordination polymers has gained significant interest due to their tunable electronic properties. To this end, we have electropolymerized a thin film of manganese ions coordinated with a dimercapto thiadiazole metallo-organic polymer (poly-MnDMcT) containing Mn3+/4+ and S–2/–1 redox couples. The poly-MnDMcT demonstrated a mixed charge storage mechanism with capacitive and diffusion-controlled contributions coexisting. This metallopolymer symmetric cell setup yielded a specific capacitance of 92.8 F g–1 at 1 A g–1 and enhanced cycling stability with retention of 78% over 10,000 cycles @ 4 A g–1. Correspondingly, the symmetric supercapacitor device produced an energy density of 4 Wh kg–1 at a power density of 6670 W kg–1 within a 1.4 V vs Ag/AgCl voltage window. The redox reversibility of manganese ions and ligand disulfide-thiolate units …

X ray matter interactions are intrinsically weak, and the high energy and momentum of X rays pose significant challenges to applying strong light matter coupling techniques that are highly effective at longer wavelengths for controlling and manipulating radiation. Techniques such as enhanced coupling between light and electrons at a metal dielectric interface or within nanostructures, as well as the Purcell effect where spontaneous emission is amplified near a metallic surface are not applicable to X rays due to their fundamentally different energy and momentum scales. Here we present a novel approach for coupling X rays to surface plasmon polaritons by entangling X ray photons with SPPs in the ultraviolet range through X ray to UV spontaneous parametric down conversion in aluminum. The distinct characteristics of the SPPs are imprinted onto the angular and energy dependence of the detected X ray photons, as demonstrated in this work. Our results highlight the potential to control X rays using SPPs, unlocking exciting opportunities to enhance X ray matter interactions and explore plasmonic phenomena with atomic scale resolution a capability uniquely enabled by X rays.

Suspended (“free-standing”) graphene samples were irradiated with noble gas ions at varying energies, while maintaining a constant ion velocity. The resulting defect formation was analyzed using Raman spectroscopy. This process is attributed to the combined effects of nuclear and electronic mechanisms. While the efficiency coefficient (yield) is determined based on calculations for the nuclear mechanism, experimental results reveal that the defect concentration remains consistent for ions of different masses but identical velocities. This observation is interpreted as evidence of the electronic mechanism's contribution to defect formation, where the energy transferred to the graphene lattice primarily depends on the ion's velocity through the lattice rather than its mass.The results of the study show that increasing ion velocity leads to larger defect structures, providing a controllable approach for tuning defect size in …

We introduce a time-energy uncertainty relation within the context of restarts in monitored quantum dynamics. Previous studies have established that the mean recurrence time, which represents the time taken to return to the initial state, is quantized as an integer multiple of the sampling time, displaying pointwise discontinuous transitions at resonances. Our findings demonstrate that the natural utilization of the restart mechanism in laboratory experiments, driven by finite data collection time spans, leads to a broadening effect on the transitions of the mean recurrence time. Our proposed uncertainty relation captures the underlying essence of these phenomena, by connecting the broadening of the mean hitting time near resonances, to the intrinsic energies of the quantum system and to the fluctuations of recurrence time. Our uncertainty relation has also been validated through remote experiments conducted on an …

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) are considered as the most promising complementary energy storage system for large-scale application due to the high abundance of sodium. However, the irreversible phase transition and slow diffusion kinetics in O3-type layered transition metals oxides cathodes impede the development of advanced SIBs. Here we address this issue by introducing high-entropy doping regulation strategies, a series of NaNi0.4Mn0.3-xFe0.1Ti0.1SnxLi0.05Sb0.05O2 cathodes exhibit an excellent rate performance (>60 mAh g−1 at 6 A g−1) and prolonged cycle performance (capacity retention >80 % after 300 cycles, at 120 mA g−1). The correlations between the chemical compositions and the electrochemical properties in the designed high-entropy transition metal oxides cathodes were elucidated using a combination of analytical tools including all kinds of electrochemical techniques including …

The chemistry of the electrolyte solutions that enable reversible Mg deposition is not trivial. Such solutions are currently limited to ethereal solvents and most of them contain chlorides complexes. These ionic complexes have important role in the performance. However, the presence of chlorides in these solutions complicates the cathode side because such solutions are not compatible with the commonly used metallic current collectors for cathodes. Consequently, it is questionable whether it is possible to synthesize fully functional Cl-free electrolyte solutions suitable commercial Mg-ion batteries. Noked et al. reported that by adding DME to the precursor electrolyte [Mg2Cl3*6THF]+ [Ph3AlCl]- in THF, it was possible to create a new electroactive complex Mg salt, namely, [Mg-3.DME]2+ 2[AlPh3Cl]-, which solution performs better than the precursor’s solution. This solution introduces a new case of chlorides free …

Researchers have been investigating the physical and morphological properties of biodegradable polymer and copolymer films, blending them with other chemicals to solve challenges in medical, industrial, and eco-environmental fields. The present study introduces a novel, straightforward method for preparing biodegradable hydrogels based on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) for medical applications. The resulting PVA/PVP-based hydrogel uniquely combines the water absorbency, biocompatibility, and biodegradability of the polymer composite. For hygiene products and medical uses, such as wound healing, hydrogen peroxide (HP) was encapsulated in the PVA/PVP hydrogels for controlled release application. Incorporating PVP into PVA significantly enhances the hydrogel water absorbency and improves the mechanical properties. However, to mitigate the disadvantage of high water absorbency which could result in undesired early dissolution, efforts were made to increase the water resistance and the mechanical characteristics of these hydrogels using freeze–thaw (F/T) cycles and chemical crosslinking PVA chains with trisodium trimetaphosphate (STMP). The resulting hydrogels serve as environmentally friendly bio-based polymer blends, broadening their applications in medical and industrial products. The structural and morphological properties of the hydrogel were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), environmental scanning electron microscope analysis (E-SEM), and water-swelling tests. The HP controlled release rate was evaluated through kinetic release experiments using …

If disorder-induced Anderson localized states have been observed experimentally in optics, their study remains challenging leaving a number of open questions unsolved. Among them, the impact on Anderson localization of non-Hermiticity, optical gain and loss, and more generally, nonlinearities has been the subject of numerous theoretical debates, without yet any conclusive experimental demonstration. Indeed, in systems where localized modes have reasonable spatial extension to be observed and investigated, their mutual interaction and coupling to the sample boundaries make it extremely difficult to isolate them spectrally and investigate them alone. Recently, we successfully exhibited localized lasing modes individually in an active disordered medium, using pump-shaping optimization technique. However, a one-to-one identification of the lasing modes with the eigenmodes of the passive system was not possible, as the impact of non-Hermiticity and nonlinear gain on these localized states was unknown. Here, we apply the pump-shaping method to fully control the non-Hermiticity of an active scattering medium. Direct imaging of the light distribution within the random laser allows us to demonstrate unequivocally that the localized lasing modes are indeed the modes of the passive system. This opens the way to investigate the robustness of localized states in the presence of nonlinear gain and nonlinear modal interactions. We show that, surprisingly, gain saturation and mode competition for gain does not affect the spatial distribution of the modes.

We use an array of nine elliptical Planar Hall Effect (PHE) sensors and machine learning algorithms to map the magnetic signal generated by a magnetic source. Based on the obtained mapping, the location and nature of the magnetic source can be determined. The sensors are positioned at the vertices of a symmetrical and evenly spaced 3 × 3 grid. The main electronic card orchestrates their measurement by supplying the required driving current and amplifying and sampling their output in a synchronized manner. A two-dimensional interpolation of the data collected from the nine sensors fails to yield a satisfactory mapping. To address this, we employed the Levenberg–Marquardt Algorithm (LMA) as a deterministic optimization method to estimate the magnetic source’s position and parameters, as well as machine earning (ML) algorithms, which consist of a Fully Connected Neural Network (FCNN). While LMA provided reasonable results, its reliance on a sparse sensor network and initial guesses for variables limited its accuracy. We show that the mapping is significantly improved if the data are processed with an FCNN that undergoes training and testing. Using simulations, we demonstrate that achieving similar improvement without ML would require increasing the number of sensors to more than 50.

A-to-I RNA editing is the most common non-transient epitranscriptome modification. It plays several roles in human physiology and has been linked to several disorders. Large-scale deep transcriptome sequencing has fostered the characterization of A-to-I editing at the single nucleotide level and the development of dedicated computational resources. REDIportal is a unique and specialized database collecting ∼16 million of putative A-to-I editing sites designed to face the current challenges of epitranscriptomics. Its running version has been enriched with sites from the TCGA project (using data from 31 studies). REDIportal provides an accurate, sustainable and accessible tool enriched with interconnections with widespread ELIXIR core resources such as Ensembl, RNAcentral, UniProt and PRIDE. Additionally, REDIportal now includes information regarding RNA editing in putative double-stranded RNAs …

Recognizing the need for innovative therapeutic approaches in the management of autoimmune diseases , our current investigation explores the potential of autologous extracellular vesicles (EVs), derived from blood of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, to serve as therapeutic vectors to improve drug delivery. We found that circulating EVs derived from arthritic mice (Collagen-induced arthritis model) express the joint/synovia homing receptor, αVβ3 integrin. Importantly, both autologous labelled EVs, derived from blood of arthritic mice (Collagen antibody-induced arthritis model) and healthy mice-derived EVs, exhibit targeted migration toward inflamed synovia without infiltrating healthy joints, as demonstrated by an in-vivo imaging system. Furthermore, EVs derived from plasma of RA patients show an overexpression of αV integrin and are effectively taken up by LPS/TNFα-induced activated human synovial cell …

Identifying inexpensive, efficient, and highly stable alternative electrocatalysts for the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is important. Here, Pt/WC anchored carbon nanotubes (Pt/WC@C) composites were prepared by single-step Reaction under Autogenic Pressure at Elevated Temperature (RAPET) technique at 800 °C, 900 °C, 1000 °C, and 1100 °C to realize the importance of MOR and HER activity. Among these, Pt/WC@C-900 demonstrates superior HER performance through the Volmer-Tafel mechanism with a low overpotential of 79 mV, a Tafel slope of 30 mV/dec, and better stability due to nanostructured Pt and WC particles as confirmed by High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) analysis and the structural defects in the carbon nanotube as confirmed by Raman spectra. Conversely, Pt/WC@C-1000 exhibits outstanding MOR activity …

Palladium diselenide (PdSe) -- a layered van der Waals material -- is attracting significant attention for optoelectronics due to the wide tunability of its band gap from the infrared through the visible range as a function of the number of layers. However, there continues to be disagreement over the precise nature and value of the optical band gap of bulk PdSe, owing to the rather small value of this gap that complicates experimental measurements and their interpretation. Here, we design and employ a Wannier-localized optimally-tuned screened range-separated hybrid (WOT-SRSH) functional to investigate the electronic bandstructures and optical absorption spectra of bulk and monolayer PdSe. In particular, we account carefully for the finite exciton center-of-mass momentum within a time-dependent WOT-SRSH framework to calculate the \emph{indirect} optical gap and absorption onset accurately. Our results agree well with the best available photoconductivity measurements, as well as with state-of-the-art many-body perturbation theory calculations, confirming that bulk PdSe has an optical gap in the mid-infrared (upper-bound of 0.44 eV). More generally, this work further bolsters the utility of the WOT-SRSH approach for predictive modeling of layered semiconductors.

Researchers have been investigating the physical and morphological properties of biodegradable polymer and copolymer films, blending them with other chemicals to solve challenges in medical, industrial, and eco-environmental fields. The present study introduces a novel, straightforward method for preparing biodegradable hydrogels based on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) for medical applications. The resulting PVA/PVP-based hydrogel uniquely combines the water absorbency, biocompatibility, and biodegradability of the polymer composite. For hygiene products and medical uses, such as wound healing, hydrogen peroxide (HP) was encapsulated in the PVA/PVP hydrogels for controlled release application. Incorporating PVP into PVA significantly enhances the hydrogel water absorbency and improves the mechanical properties. However, to mitigate the disadvantage of high water absorbency which could result in undesired early dissolution, efforts were made to increase the water resistance and the mechanical characteristics of these hydrogels using freeze–thaw (F/T) cycles and chemical crosslinking PVA chains with trisodium trimetaphosphate (STMP). The resulting hydrogels serve as environmentally friendly bio-based polymer blends, broadening their applications in medical and industrial products. The structural and morphological properties of the hydrogel were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), environmental scanning electron microscope analysis (E-SEM), and water-swelling tests. The HP controlled release rate was evaluated through kinetic release experiments using …

Semi Insulating GaAs alpha detectors with anode GaAs P+ contact layer were fabricated and characterized. The contact layer growth was carried out by Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) and the detector performances were compared to the performances of a front Schottky contact detector. The front side Schottky contact suffers from electron injection into the GaAs substrate. This injection is eliminated by using a P+ anode blocking layer with an ohmic contact, resulting in a reduction of leakage current at reverse bias values of up to 70 V. For example, at 30 V the leakage currents were 50 nA/cm2 and 150 nA/cm2 for the ohmic and the Schottky anode detectors, respectively. For both detectors, the charge collection efficiency was increased by a factor of ~2 after grinding the substrates from 650 μm to 310 μm thickness, with no leakage current degradation. In addition, rapid thermal process (RTP …

The time-multiplexing super-resolution concept requires post-processing for extracting the super-resolved image. Moreover, to perform the post-processing image restoration, one needs to know the exact high-resolution encoding pattern. Both of these limiting conditions are overcome by the method and experiment reported in this letter.

Dynamic oscillations in the phosphorylation and ubiquitination of key proliferative regulators are defining features of the eukaryotic cell cycle. Resetting the cell cycle at the mitosis-to-G1 transition requires activation of the E3 ubiquitin ligase Anaphase-Promoting Complex/Cyclosome (APC/C), which ensures cell cycle irreversibility by targeting dozens of substrates for degradation, safeguarding genome integrity. However, the overall coupling of substrate phosphorylation with target recognition and degradation by the APC/C remains relatively unexplored. As a paradigm for further defining these rules, we focused on E2F7 and E2F8, atypical E2F-family proteins that coordinate cell cycle gene expression by restraining the pro-proliferative transcriptional activity of E2F1. Leveraging complementary cell and cell-free systems, we demonstrate that flexible domains in the amino-termini of E2F7 and E2F8 contain APC/C recognition motifs adjacent to critical Thr residues, whose phosphorylation by Cdk1 is rate limiting for degradation. The removal of this phosphorylation by PP2A phosphatase serves as a molecular switch, coupling the degradation of E2F7 and E2F8 to the G1 phase, coinciding with the rise of E2F1. Collectively, these findings highlight a critical role for Cdk1-PP2A signaling in controlling the orderly degradation of APC/C substrates, ensuring precisely timed assembly of the transcriptional infrastructure that coordinates cell cycle commitment and progression.

LiCoO2 (LCO) has been the cathode material of choice for three decades for durable, lightweight Li‐ion storage systems. Being charged up to 4.2 V versus Li/Li+, LCO provides excellent cycling stability with a specific capacity of ≈140 mAh g−1. Raising the cut‐off voltage to 4.6 V improves capacity by up to 60% however, it leads to rapid degradation of the cathode structure. Here, a one‐pot dual coating of MgF2 and AlF3 with fluorinated electrolyte additives achieves 190 mAh g−1 at a 0.5 C rate after 400 cycles with a capacity retention of 93%. Various analytical tools are used to follow the structural and morphological changes during cycling. Synergistically, ion transport is improved, and detrimental interfacial side reactions with the electrolyte solutions are fully mitigated. Structural stability is thus improved by using this coating, with only a little loss of the active material. This work provides a brief guideline for …

The design of cathode/electrolyte interfaces in high‐energy density Li‐ion batteries is critical to protect the surface against undesirable oxygen release from the cathodes when batteries are charged to high voltage. However, the involvement of the engineered interface in the cationic and anionic redox reactions associated with (de‐)lithiation is often ignored, mostly due to the difficulty to separate these processes from chemical/catalytic reactions at the cathode/electrolyte interface. Here, a new electron energy band diagrams concept is developed that includes the examination of the electrochemical‐ and ionization‐ potentials evolution upon batteries cycling. The approach enables to forecast the intrinsic stability of the cathodes and discriminate the reaction pathways associated with interfacial electronic charge‐transfer mechanisms. Specifically, light is shed on the evolution of cationic and anionic redox in high …

Redox-Flow Batteries (RFBs) do match the requirement for long duration energy storage (LDES) and bromine catholyte has attracted a lot of attention with its high abundance and low-cost. However, at high state-of-charge, the bromine vapor pressure is a serious safety concern in the catholyte tank and polybromide species corrode metals present in the stack. Until today, soluble bromine complexing agent (BCA) has been proposed to reduce the concentration of free bromine, with a certain success for safety concerns but with a major drop in power density and durability. Herein, we report on the development of a solid BCA added to the catholyte tank of a hydrogen-bromine RFB (HBRFB). Long-term separation between the bromine rich solid phase and flowing liquid phases enables high and stable performance for more than 250 cycles. Effective complexing – dissociating equilibrium in the electrolyte tank …