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Feb 2022 • International Journal of Molecular Sciences

An Engineered Nanocomplex with Photodynamic and Photothermal Synergistic Properties for Cancer Treatment

Eli Varon, Gaddi Blumrosen, Moshe Sinvani, Elina Haimov, Shlomi Polani, Michal Natan, Irit Shoval, Avi Jacob, Ayelet Atkins, David Zitoun, Orit Shefi

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT) are promising therapeutic methods for cancer treatment; however, as single modality therapies, either PDT or PTT is still limited in its success rate. A dual application of both PDT and PTT, in a combined protocol, has gained immense interest. In this study, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were conjugated with a PDT agent, meso-tetrahydroxyphenylchlorin (mTHPC) photosensitizer, designed as nanotherapeutic agents that can activate a dual photodynamic/photothermal therapy in SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells. The AuNP-mTHPC complex is biocompatible, soluble, and photostable. PDT efficiency is high because of immediate reactive oxygen species (ROS) production upon mTHPC activation by the 650-nm laser, which decreased mitochondrial membrane potential (∆ψm). Likewise, the AuNP-mTHPC complex is used as a photoabsorbing (PTA) agent for PTT, due to efficient plasmon absorption and excellent photothermal conversion characteristics of AuNPs under laser irradiation at 532 nm. Under the laser irradiation of a PDT/PTT combination, a twofold phototoxicity outcome follows, compared to PDT-only or PTT-only treatment. This indicates that PDT and PTT have synergistic effects together as a combined therapeutic method. Our study aimed at applying the AuNP-mTHPC approach as a potential treatment of cancer in the biomedical field.

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Feb 2022 • Physical Review Applied

Protection of quantum information in a chain of Josephson junctions

Paul Brookes, Tikai Chang, Marzena Szymanska, Eytan Grosfeld, Eran Ginossar, Michael Stern

Symmetry considerations are key to our understanding of the fundamental laws of nature. The presence of a symmetry implies that a physical system is invariant under specific transformations, and this invariance may have deep consequences. For instance, symmetry arguments state that a system will remain in its initial state if incentives to actions are equally balanced. Here, we apply this principle to a chain of qubits and show that it is possible to engineer the symmetries of its Hamiltonian in order to keep quantum information intrinsically protected from both relaxation and decoherence. We show that the coherence properties of this system are strongly enhanced relative to those of its individual components. Such a qubit chain can be realized using a simple architecture consisting of a relatively small number of superconducting Josephson junctions.

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Feb 2022 • Advanced Quantum Technologies 5 (2), 2100121, 2022

Geometric phases and the Sagnac effect: Foundational aspects and sensing applications

Ismael L Paiva, Rain Lenny, Eliahu Cohen

Geometric phase is a key player in many areas of quantum science and technology. In this review article, several foundational aspects of quantum geometric phases and their relations to classical geometric phases are outlined. How the Aharonov–Bohm and Sagnac effects fit into this context is then discussed. Moreover, a concise overview of technological applications of the latter, with special emphasis on gravitational sensing, like in gyroscopes and gravitational wave detectors is presented.

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Feb 2022 • Advanced Materials Interfaces

Site‐Engineered Tetragonal ZrO2 Nanoparticles: A Promising Oxygen Reduction Catalyst with High Activity and Chemical Stability in Alkaline Medium

Vineesh Thazhe Veettil, Meera Mohankumar, David Zitoun

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 …

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Feb 2022 • Physical Review A

Coherence properties of a spin in a squeezed resonator

Inbar Shani, Emanuele G Dalla Torre, Michael Stern

A promising venue for hybrid quantum computation involves the strong coupling between impurity spins and superconducting circuits. This coupling can be controlled and enhanced by preparing superconducting resonators in nonclassical states, such as squeezed states. In this work, we theoretically study the effects of these states on the coherence properties of the spin. We develop an analytic approach based on the Schrieffer-Wolff transformation that allows us to quantitatively predict the dynamics of the spin, and we numerically confirm its validity. We find that squeezing can enhance the coupling between the resonator and the spin. However, at the same time, it amplifies the photon noise and enhances the spin decoherence. Our work demonstrates a major impediment in using squeezing to reach the strong-coupling limit.

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Feb 2022 • Macromol 2 (1), 78-99, 2022

Antimicrobial activities of conducting polymers and their composites

Moorthy Maruthapandi, Arumugam Saravanan, Akanksha Gupta, John HT Luong, Aharon Gedanken

Conducting polymers, mainly polyaniline (PANI) and polypyrrole (PPY) with positive charges bind to the negatively charged bacterial membrane to interfere with bacterial activities. After this initial electrostatic adherence, the conducting polymers might partially penetrate the bacterial membrane and interact with other intracellular biomolecules. Conducting polymers can form polymer composites with metal, metal oxides, and nanoscale carbon materials as a new class of antimicrobial agents with enhanced antimicrobial properties. The accumulation of elevated oxygen reactive species (ROS) from composites of polymers-metal nanoparticles has harmful effects and induces cell death. Among such ROS, the hydroxyl radical with one unpaired electron in the structure is most effective as it can oxidize any bacterial biomolecules, leading to cell death. Future endeavors should focus on the combination of conducting polymers and their composites with antibiotics, small peptides, and natural molecules with antimicrobial properties. Such arsenals with low cytotoxicity are expected to eradicate the ESKAPE pathogens: Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter spp.

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Feb 2022 • Analytical Chemistry

Identification of Enantiomers Using Low-Frequency Raman Spectroscopy

Vinayaka Harshothama Damle, Hagit Aviv, Yaakov R Tischler

Distinguishing between d and l enantiomers is of important scientific interest, especially for the pharmaceutical industry. Enantiomeric differentiation in the solid form is repeatedly presented as a challenge in the research community. Raman spectroscopy is a nondestructive tool, widely used for the characterization of different materials by probing their vibrational modes. The low-frequency region of the Raman spectrum reveals lattice-level interactions and global fluctuations in the molecule. Lower frequencies correspond to vibrations arising from weaker bonds and long-range interactions and hence are very susceptible to polarization changes. This work presents low-frequency Raman (LFR) spectroscopy as a facile technique to identify enantiomers. The optical setup of conventional Raman spectroscopy is engineered such that the excitation and collection geometries use an asymmetrical focal cone. In addition, a …

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Feb 2022 • Optics Express

Analysis of thin layers using surface acoustic wave-photonic devices in silicon-on-insulator

Mirit Hen, Leroy Dokhanian, Etai Grunwald, Matan Slook, Moshe Katzman, Maayan Priel, Olga Girshevitz, Avi Zadok

The analysis of thin layers deposited on various substrates is widely employed in thickness monitoring, materials research and development and quality control. Measurements are often performed based on changes to acoustic resonance frequencies of quartz micro-balance devices. The technique is extremely sensitive, but it is restricted to hundreds of MHz frequencies and requires electrical connectivity. In this work we propose and demonstrate the analysis of elastic properties of thin layers deposited on surface acoustic wave-photonic devices in standard silicon-on-insulator. The devices operate at 2.4 GHz frequency, and their interfaces are fiber-optic. The radio-frequency transfer functions of the devices are modified by sub-percent level changes to the group velocity of surface acoustic waves following deposition of layers. Layers of aluminum oxide and germanium sulfide of thickness between 10-80 nm are characterized. The analysis provides estimates for Young’s modulus of the layers.

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Feb 2022 • arXiv preprint arXiv:2202.00274

Infinite ergodic theory for three heterogeneous stochastic models with application to subrecoil laser cooling

Takuma Akimoto, Eli Barkai, Günter Radons

We compare ergodic properties of the kinetic energy for three stochastic models of subrecoil-laser-cooled gases. One model is based on a heterogeneous random walk (HRW), another is an HRW with long-range jumps (the exponential model), and the other is a mean-field-like approximation of the exponential model (the deterministic model). All the models show an accumulation of the momentum at zero in the long-time limit, and a formal steady state cannot be normalized, i.e., there exists an infinite invariant density. We obtain the exact form of the infinite invariant density and the scaling function for the exponential and deterministic models and devise a useful approximation for the momentum distribution in the HRW model. While the models are kinetically non-identical, it is natural to wonder whether their ergodic properties share common traits, given that they are all described by an infinite invariant density. We show that the answer to this question depends on the type of observable under study. If the observable is integrable, the ergodic properties such as the statistical behavior of the time averages are universal as they are described by the Darling-Kac theorem. In contrast, for non-integrable observables, the models in general exhibit non-identical statistical laws. This implies that focusing on non-integrable observables, we discover non-universal features of the cooling process, that hopefully can lead to a better understanding of the particular model most suitable for a statistical description of the process. This result is expected to hold true for many other systems, beyond laser cooling.

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Feb 2022 • Optics Express

Classification of fluorescent anisotropy decay based on the distance approach in the frequency domain

Gilad Yahav, Yitzchak Weber, Hamootal Duadi, Shweta Pawar, Dror Fixler

Frequency-domain (FD) fluorometry is a widely utilized tool to probe unique features of complex biological structures, which may serve medical diagnostic purposes. The conventional data analysis approaches used today to extract the fluorescence intensity or fluorescence anisotropy (FA) decay data suffer from several drawbacks and are inherently limited by the characteristics and complexity of the decay models. This paper presents the squared distance (D^2) technique, which categorized samples based on the direct frequency response data (FRD) of the FA decay. As such, it improves the classification ability of the FD measurements of the FA decay as it avoids any distortion that results from the challenged translation into time domain data. This paper discusses the potential use of the D^2 approach to classify biological systems. Mathematical formulation of D^2 technique adjusted to the FRD of the FA decay is …

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Feb 2022 • Measurement

Diamond protection for reusable ZnO coated fiber-optic measurement head in optoelectrochemical investigation of bisphenol A

Małgorzata Szczerska, Monika Kosowska, Paulina Listewnik, Michał Rycewicz, Mikhael Bechelany, Yafit Fleger, Dror Fixler, Paweł Jakóbczyk

Due to the global problem with plastic contaminating the environment, with bisphenol A (BPA) being one of the highest demand, effective monitoring and purification of the pollutants are required. The electrochemical methods constitute a good solution but, due to polymerization of electrochemical oxidation bisphenol A products and their adsorption to the surfaces, measurement head elements are clogged by the formed film. In this research, we propose a nanocrystalline diamond sheet protection for securing elements in direct contact with bisphenol A during electrochemical processes. The solution was presented on the example of a zinc oxide (ZnO) coating deposited on a fiber-optic end-face by Atomic Layer Deposition. Series of optical and electrochemical measurements were performed in a dedicated hybrid setup. The results show that ZnO can be modified during the electrochemistry leading to the drastic …

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Feb 2022 • Molecular Cell

Gene architecture directs splicing outcome in separate nuclear spatial regions

Luna Tammer, Ofir Hameiri, Ifat Keydar, Vanessa Rachel Roy, Asaf Ashkenazy-Titelman, Noélia Custódio, Itay Sason, Ronna Shayevitch, Victoria Rodríguez-Vaello, José Rino, Galit Lev Maor, Yodfat Leader, Doha Khair, Erez Lieberman Aiden, Ran Elkon, Manuel Irimia, Roded Sharan, Yaron Shav-Tal, Maria Carmo-Fonseca, Gil Ast

How the splicing machinery defines exons or introns as the spliced unit has remained a puzzle for 30 years. Here, we demonstrate that peripheral and central regions of the nucleus harbor genes with two distinct exon-intron GC content architectures that differ in the splicing outcome. Genes with low GC content exons, flanked by long introns with lower GC content, are localized in the periphery, and the exons are defined as the spliced unit. Alternative splicing of these genes results in exon skipping. In contrast, the nuclear center contains genes with a high GC content in the exons and short flanking introns. Most splicing of these genes occurs via intron definition, and aberrant splicing leads to intron retention. We demonstrate that the nuclear periphery and center generate different environments for the regulation of alternative splicing and that two sets of splicing factors form discrete regulatory subnetworks for the two …

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Feb 2022 • Journal of Magnetic Resonance

Shimon Vega in the eyes of his students and postdocs

A Goldbourt, G Goobes, Y Hovav, I Kaminker, V Ladizhansky, M Leskes, PK Madhu, F Mentnik-Vigier, S Pizzanelli, I Sack, D Shimon, J Sunderasan, E Vinogradov

Professor Shimon Vega (1943–2021) of the Weizmann Institute of Science passed away on the 16 th of November. Shimon Vega established theoretical frameworks to develop and explain solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) techniques and methodologies. His departure left a profound mark on his many students, postdocs, and colleagues. Shortly after his passing, we all assembled spontaneously for an international online meeting to share our reflections and memories of our experiences in Shimon’s lab and how they affected us deeply during that period of time and throughout our scientific careers. These thoughts and feelings were put here into writing.

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Feb 2022 • Physical Review A

Coherence properties of a spin in a squeezed resonator

Inbar Shani, Emanuele G Dalla Torre, Michael Stern

A promising venue for hybrid quantum computation involves the strong coupling between impurity spins and superconducting circuits. This coupling can be controlled and enhanced by preparing superconducting resonators in nonclassical states, such as squeezed states. In this work, we theoretically study the effects of these states on the coherence properties of the spin. We develop an analytic approach based on the Schrieffer-Wolff transformation that allows us to quantitatively predict the dynamics of the spin, and we numerically confirm its validity. We find that squeezing can enhance the coupling between the resonator and the spin. However, at the same time, it amplifies the photon noise and enhances the spin decoherence. Our work demonstrates a major impediment in using squeezing to reach the strong-coupling limit.

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Feb 2022 • Journal of The Electrochemical Society

A study of composite solid electrolytes: the effect of inorganic additives on the polyethylene oxide-sodium metal interface

Shaul Bublil, Gayathri Peta, Hadas Alon-Yehezkel, Yuval Elias, Diana Golodnitsky, Miryam Fayena-Greenstein, Doron Aurbach

High electrolyte-electrode interface stability is essential for solid state batteries to avoid side reactions that form interphases and voids, leading to loss of contact and increased impedance. Such detrimental situations increase overvoltage, reduce cycling efficiency, and shorten battery cycle life. While composite solid electrolytes were studied extensively, the effect of inorganic additives in the polymer matrix on the electrolyte-anode interface remains unclear. Here, solid electrolyte was studied for batteries with sodium metal anode based on polyethylene oxide (PEO) polymeric matrix containing ceramic additive. Extensive electrochemical analyses under both AC and DC conditions were performed, and chemical reactions between sodium metal and the PEO matrix, which produce interphases at the electrode-electrolyte interface, were investigated. Addition of sodium beta aluminate in the matrix appears to mitigate …

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Feb 2022 • Advanced Quantum Technologies 5 (2), 2100121, 2022

Geometric phases and the Sagnac effect: Foundational aspects and sensing applications

Ismael L Paiva, Rain Lenny, Eliahu Cohen

Geometric phase is a key player in many areas of quantum science and technology. In this review article, several foundational aspects of quantum geometric phases and their relations to classical geometric phases are outlined. How the Aharonov–Bohm and Sagnac effects fit into this context is then discussed. Moreover, a concise overview of technological applications of the latter, with special emphasis on gravitational sensing, like in gyroscopes and gravitational wave detectors is presented.

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Feb 2022 • arXiv preprint arXiv:2202.10358

Efimov resonance position near a narrow Feshbach resonance in a mixture

Ang Li, Yaakov Yudkin, Paul S Julienne, Lev Khaykovich

In the vicinity of a narrow Feshbach resonances Efimov features are expected to be characterized by the resonance's properties rather than the van der Waals length of the interatomic potential. Although this theoretical prediction is well-established by now, it still lacks experimental confirmation. Here, we apply our recently developed three-channel model [Yudkin and Khaykovich, Phys. Rev. A 103, 063303 (2021)] to the experimental result obtained in a mass-imbalanced Li-Cs mixture in the vicinity of the narrowest resonance explored to date [Johansen at. al. Nat. Phys. 13, 731 (2017)]. We confirm that the observed position of the Efimov resonance is dictated mainly by the resonance physics while the influence of the van der Waals tail of the interatomic potential is minor. We show that the resonance position is strongly influenced by the presence of another Feshbach resonance which significantly alters the effective background scattering length at the narrow resonance position.

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Feb 2022 • Physical Review Applied

Visualizing Current in Superconducting Networks

X Wang, M Laav, I Volotsenko, A Frydman, B Kalisky

We present an experimental study of local magnetic imaging in order to visualize the current flow in superconducting networks. We track the evolution of the spatial distribution of the current flow as the network is driven from fully superconducting to fully normal phases. Our results highlight the factors that contribute to the disordered flow in superconducting networks during their collapse, and demonstrate that the current is never uniformly distributed in the network. These results can assist the design and development of circuits based on superconductors and Josephson junctions.

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Feb 2022 • Optics Express

Classification of fluorescent anisotropy decay based on the distance approach in the frequency domain

Gilad Yahav, Yitzchak Weber, Hamootal Duadi, Shweta Pawar, Dror Fixler

Frequency domain Analysis of FI and FA decays and S2. Mathematical formulation of FI and FA decays

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Feb 2022 • Photonics

Signal-to-Noise Ratio Improvement for Multiple-Pinhole Imaging Using Supervised Encoder–Decoder Convolutional Neural Network Architecture

Eliezer Danan, Nadav Shabairou, Yossef Danan, Zeev Zalevsky

Digital image devices have been widely applied in many fields, such as individual recognition and remote sensing. The captured image is a degraded image from the latent observation, where the degradation processing is affected by some factors, such as lighting and noise corruption. Specifically, noise is generated in the processing of transmission and compression from the unknown latent observation. Thus, it is essential to use image denoising techniques to remove noise and recover the latent observation from the given degraded image. In this research, a supervised encoder–decoder convolution neural network was used to fix image distortion stemming from the limited accuracy of inverse filter methods (Wiener filter, Lucy–Richardson deconvolution, etc.). Particularly, we will correct image degradation that mainly stems from duplications arising from multiple-pinhole array imaging.

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Feb 2022 • Applied Surface Science

Energy hot spots distribution on groove surface, elucidated by hybrid optical model in illuminated SOI photo-polarized-activated modulator

David Glukhov, Avihu Zechariah Levi, Zeev Zalevsky, Avi Karsenty

A polarizer transistor sharing a groove filtering aperture was developed. In the device, entitled Silicon-On-Insulator Photo-Polarized Activated Modulator (SOIP2AM), one could think that the larger the V-groove, the higher is the absorbed illumination, and consequently the higher is the amount of new generated pairs of electrons-holes inside the device. In fact, the higher the illumination, the higher the destructive interference points inside the V-groove. Establishing a strong correlation between electrical and optical phenomena, two physical assumptions are presented. The first one is that observed “hot spots” (i.e. intense electrical field areas), are in fact the mirror of optical constructive interferences near the walls of the V-groove. The second assumption is that the closer the hot spots near the wall, the higher the generation of pairs of electrons-holes, since more absorbed photons. A new method, based on analytical …

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