BINA

The results of numerical simulation of the near-field distribution inside and in the vicinity of two types of gold nanoparticles (nanospheres and nanorods) intended for producing complexes of gold nanoparticles linked with proteins and exciting photosensitizers in the wavelength range of 532–770 nm are presented. Quantitative estimates of the field localisation (enhancement) are obtained depending on the type of gold nanoparticles and dimensional factors. The tendency of the red shift of the wavelength at which the maximum local field enhancement is achieved relative to the positions of the maxima of the absorption and scattering cross sections of nanoparticles and complexes is described.

Wastewater reclamation is becoming a top global interest as population growth and rapid industrialization pose a major challenge that requires development of sustainable cost-effective technologies and strategies for wastewater treatment. Carbon nanomembranes (CNMs)—synthetic 2D carbon sheets—can be tailored chemically with specific surface functions and/or physically with nanopores of well-defined size as a strategy for multifunctional membrane design. Here, we explore a bifunctional design for combined secondary wastewater effluent treatment with dual action of membrane separation and advanced oxidation processes (AOP), exploiting dissolved oxygen. The bifunctional membrane consists of a CNM layer on top of a commercial ultrafiltration membrane (Microlon™) and a spray-coated reduced graphene oxide (rGO) thin film as the bottom layer. The CNM/support/rGO membrane was characterized …

Interferometry with Bose-Einstein Condensates in Microgravity H. Müntinga, H. Ahlers, M. Krutzik, A. Wenzlawski, S. Arnold, D. Becker, K. Bongs, H. Dittus, H. Duncker, N. Gaaloul, C. Gherasim, E. Giese, C. Grzeschik, TW Hänsch, O. Hellmig, W. Herr, S. Herrmann, E. Kajari,10, S. Kleinert, C. Lämmerzahl, W. Lewoczko-Adamczyk, J. Malcolm, N. Meyer, R. Nolte, A. Peters, M. Popp, J. Reichel, A. Roura, J. Rudolph, M. Schiemangk, M. Schneider, ST Seidel, K. Sengstock, V. Tamma, T. Valenzuela, A. Vogel, R. Walser, T. Wendrich, P. Windpassinger, W. Zeller, T. van Zoest, W. Ertmer, WP Schleich, and EM Rasel Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 093602 (2013) … Tripartite nonlocality and continuous-variable entanglement in thermal states of trapped ions J. Li, T. Fogarty, C. Cormick, J. Goold, Th. Busch, and M. Paternostro Phys. Rev. A 84, 022321 (2011) … Frühere Veröffentlichungen der Gruppenmitglieder …

BackgroundTranslation of nanomedical developments into clinical application is receiving an increasing interest. However, its use for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) diagnosis remains limited. We present an advanced nanophotonic method for oral cancer detection, based on diffusion reflection (DR) measurements of gold-nanorods bio-conjugated to anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (C-GNRs) specifically attached to OSCC cells.ObjectiveTo investigate in a rat model of oral carcinogenesis the targeting potential of C-GNRs to OSCC by using the DR optical method.Materials and MethodsOSCC was induced by the carcinogen 4-nitroquinoline-N-oxide (4NQO). C-GNRs were introduced locally and systemically and DR measurements were recorded from the surface of the rat tongue following illumination with red laser beam. Rats were divided into experimental and control groups. The results were …

Post-traumatic-stress-disorder (PTSD) is a stress-related condition that may develop after exposure to a severe trauma-event. One of the core brain areas that is considered to be a key regulatory region of PTSD is the amygdala. Specifically, the central amygdala (CeA) is involved in emotion processing and associative fear learning memory, two main circuits involved in PTSD. Long term dysregulation of trauma-related emotional processing may be caused by neuroadaptations that affect gene expression. The adenosine-(A) to-inosine (I) RNA editing machinery is a post-transcriptional process that converts a genomic encoded A to I and is critical for normal brain function and development. Such editing has the potential to increase the transcriptome diversity, and disruption of this process has been linked to various central nervous system disorders. Here, we employed a unique animal model to examine the possibility …

Aqueous salt batteries with high concentrations of salt or water in salt aqueous systems have received considerable attention with focus on improving working voltage range and energy density. Here, the effect of NaClO4 salt concentration on the electrochemical performance and stability of tunnel-type Na0. 44MnO2 (NMO) cathodes and organic polyimide (PI) derivative anodes was studied. High capacity retention and 100% coulombic efficiency were shown for NMO/PI full cell in saturated NaClO4 electrolyte. A high, stable capacity of 115 mAh/g was achieved for the PI anode material, and the full cell showed a stable capacity of 41 mAh/g at 2C rate for 430 cycles (calculated for the weight of NMO cathode). Even at a fast 5C rate, a discharge capacity of 33 mAh/g was maintained for 2,400 prolonged cycles with nearly 100% efficiency. The full cell device can achieve an average voltage of 1 V with energy density of …

Although liquid mercury (Hg) has been known since antiquity, the formation of stable solid nano forms of Hg at room temperature has not been reported so far. Here, for the first time, we report a simple sonochemical route to obtain solid mercury nanoparticles, stabilized by reduced graphene oxide at ambient conditions. The as-formed solid Hg nanoparticles were found to exhibit remarkable rhombohedral morphology and crystallinity at room temperature. Extensive characterization using various physicochemical techniques revealed the unique properties of the solid nanoparticles of Hg compared to its bulk liquid metal phase. Furthermore, the solid nature of the Hg nanoparticles was studied electrochemically, revealing distinctive properties. We believe that solid Hg nanoparticles have the potential for important applications in the fields of electroanalytical chemistry and electrocatalysis.

The current work presents the fabrication of micrometer‐thick single‐side‐coated surface‐engineered polypropylene (PP) film for versatile flexible electronics applications. Herein, the authors report, for the first time, photopolymerized thin coating of graphene nanofibers (GNFs) and iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) onto non‐polar plastic via surface chemistry. The fabrication is achieved by adopting three consecutive steps; initially corona treated PP films are treated with silane for thin layer silica coating. Then, the silylated PP films are brushed up by pyrrole/GNFs/IONPs mixture, followed by UV exposure. The coated films show surface conductivity in the range of ≈20 S cm−1 at room temperature. Moreover, ≈15 microns of the coated film is tested against electromagnetic waves in the X‐band region (8.2–12.4 GHz) and its shielding behavior (≈24 dB) is confirmed. To demonstrate its wide range of versatility, the …

A fundamental understanding of the hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) mechanism requires the synthesis of model catalysts with designed surfaces, and advanced characterization techniques of the active sites. Although HOR are fast under acidic conditions, HOR kinetics are sluggish under alkaline conditions, even on platinum group metals (PGMs). Herein, we propose the use of an effective high-surface-area carbon supported Pd/γ-NiOOH HOR electrocatalyst, made from organometallic precursors. The enhanced activity, provided by nickel oxy-hydroxide (γ-NiOOH) 2 nm nanocubes, was confirmed experimentally in an alkaline exchange membrane fuel cell. Contrary to previous reports, the phase and crystallographic orientation of the γ-NiOOH nanocubes (<2 nm in size) were fully ascribed through high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy revealed a redox …

A detailed investigation is presented for the solvent-free mechanochemical synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles from ε-Zn (OH) 2 crystals by high-energy ball milling. Only a few works have ever explored the dry synthetic route from ε-Zn (OH) 2 to ZnO. The milling process of ε-Zn (OH) 2 was done in ambient conditions with a 1: 100 powder/ball mass ratio, and it produced uniform ZnO nanoparticles with sizes of 10–30 nm, based on the milling duration. The process was carefully monitored and the effect of the milling duration on the powder composition, nanoparticle size and strain, optical properties, aggregate size, and material activity was examined using XRD, TEM, DLS, UV-Vis, and FTIR. The mechanism for the transformation of ε-Zn (OH) 2 to ZnO was studied by TGA and XPS analysis. The study gave proof for a reaction mechanism starting with a phase transition of crystalline ε-Zn (OH) 2 to amorphous Zn (OH …

Hydrogen bromine redox flow batteries (RFB) are considered to be one of the most promising storage alternatives, as this technology offers both high energy and high-power density. In this work a printed circuit board type of segmented current collector for the measurement of locally resolved current density was developed. This analytical tool was inserted as hydrogen anode current collector in a hydrogen-bromine test cell. Charging and discharging operation was monitored under different stoichiometric flow conditions and the impact on current distribution is presented. This technique offers the possibility to prove cell limiting conditions with spatial resolution, improving our understanding and determining optimal operating conditions for a given design.

Plan recognition deals with reasoning about the goals and execution process of an actor, given observations of its actions. It is one of the fundamental problems of AI, applicable to many domains, from user interfaces to cyber-security. Despite the prevalence of these approaches, they lack a standard representation, and have not been compared using a common testbed. This paper provides a first step towards bridging this gap by providing a standard plan library representation that can be used by hierarchical, discrete-space plan recognition and evaluation criteria to consider when comparing plan recognition algorithms. This representation is comprehensive enough to describe a variety of known plan recognition problems and can be easily used by existing algorithms in this class. We use this common representation to thoroughly compare two known approaches, represented by two algorithms, SBR and …

For many years, significant research efforts have been spent on investigating methodologies, tools, models and technologies for engineering autonomous agents software. Research into agent architectures and their structure, programming languages specialized for building agents, formal models and their implementation, development methodologies, middleware software, have been discussed in the literature, encompassing multiple communities of researchers, with at least partial overlaps in interests and approaches. The fundamental assumption underlying these research efforts is that such specialization is needed, because autonomous agent software poses engineering requirements that may not be easily met by more general (and more familiar) software engineering and programming paradigms. Specialized tools, models, programming languages, code architectures and abstractions make sense, if the software engineering problem is specialized. A broad overview of the literature reveals that for the most part, the truth of this assumption has been supported by qualitative arguments and anecdotal evidence. Agent-oriented programming [1] is by now a familiar and accepted programming paradigm, and countless discussions of its merits and its distinctiveness with respect to other programming paradigms (eg, object-oriented programming, aspect-oriented programming) are commonly found on the internet. Agent architectures are commercially available as development platforms and are incorporated into products. Indeed, agent-oriented software development methodologies are taught and utilized in and out of academic circles [2–5].

Prophages are bacteriophages in the lysogenic state, where the viral genome is inserted within the bacterial chromosome. They contribute to strain genetic variability and can influence bacterial phenotypes. Prophages are highly abundant among the strains of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa and were shown to confer specific traits that can promote strain pathogenicity. The main difficulty of studying those regions is the lack of a simple prophage-curing method for P. aeruginosa strains. In this study, we developed a novel, targeted-curing approach for prophages in P. aeruginosa. In the first step, we tagged the prophage for curing with an ampicillin resistance cassette (ampR) and further used this strain for the sacB counter-selection marker's temporal insertion into the prophage region. The sucrose counter-selection resulted in different variants when the prophage-cured mutant is the sole variant that lost the ampR cassette. Next, we validated the targeted-curing with local PCR amplification and Whole Genome Sequencing. The application of the strategy resulted in high efficiency both for curing the Pf4 prophage of the laboratory wildtype (WT) strain PAO1 and for PR2 prophage from the clinical, hard to genetically manipulate, 39016 strain. We believe this method can support the research and growing interest in prophage biology in P. aeruginosa as well as additional Gram-negative bacteria.

Pt-Ni nanoparticles (NPs) are used as electrocatalysts toward the oxygen reduction reaction due to their high mass activity. However, degradation processes at the high potential in the acidic conditions of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell delay its massive implementation. The model presented here facilitates understanding the corrosion by clearing variables related to the electrochemical measurement (non-equilibrium condition and complex system) and focusing on the gradual etching of Ni via two-phase Ni(II) transfer treatment promoted by chelating agents (CAs). We synthesized Pt-Ni/C octahedral NPs and then used six chemically different CAs as corrosion agents for Ni. The corrosion yielded concave octahedral and hexapod NPs. Amine-rich CAs treatment results in particle detachment from the carbon substrates, while carboxylic rich preserve the carbon-particle interface. We correlate the detachment …

A detailed investigation is presented for the solvent-free mechanochemical synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles from ε-Zn (OH) 2 crystals by high-energy ball milling. Only a few works have ever explored the dry synthetic route from ε-Zn (OH) 2 to ZnO. The milling process of ε-Zn (OH) 2 was done in ambient conditions with a 1: 100 powder/ball mass ratio, and it produced uniform ZnO nanoparticles with sizes of 10–30 nm, based on the milling duration. The process was carefully monitored and the effect of the milling duration on the powder composition, nanoparticle size and strain, optical properties, aggregate size, and material activity was examined using XRD, TEM, DLS, UV-Vis, and FTIR. The mechanism for the transformation of ε-Zn (OH) 2 to ZnO was studied by TGA and XPS analysis. The study gave proof for a reaction mechanism starting with a phase transition of crystalline ε-Zn (OH) 2 to amorphous Zn (OH …

Capturing the dynamic 3D atomic-scale structure of a macromolecular machine while it performs its biological function remains an outstanding goal of biology. Here we provide an update on our project to combine (prior) information from multiple existing static structures of stable states with dynamic datasets of inter-atomic distances obtained by high-throughput non-equilibrium single-molecule FRET (smFRET) measurements in a microfluidic mixer using novel time-resolved multi-pixel single-photon avalanche diode detector. These measurements, performed on libraries of molecular constructs, will sample multiple inter-atomic distances as function of reaction time. The measured distance distributions, together with additional information provided by cross-linking experiments analyzed by mass spectrometry, will then serve as multiple intra-and inter-domain distance constraints which, together with prior information from available structures, will enable large-scale computational energy optimization-based refinement of time-resolved ‘snap shots’ of complex structures with improved accuracy. These time-resolved computational structures, together with intermediary molecular dynamics simulations, will allow solving the 3D atomic-level structure of the macromolecule for each sampled reaction time point, eventually producing a 3D structural dynamic movie of the macromolecule in action. To demonstrate the utility of the proposed method, we study on one hand the dynamic structure of RNA polymerase during transcription initiation (promoter binding, bubble opening, abortive initiation, promoter clearance) and, on the other hand, a pair of intrinsically …

One of the greatest challenges toward rechargeable magnesium batteries is the development of noncorrosive electrolyte solutions with high anodic stability that can support reversible Mg deposition/dissolution. In the last few years, magnesium electrolyte solutions based on Cl-free fluorinated alkoxyborates were investigated for Mg batteries due to their high anodic stability and ionic conductivity and the possibility of reversible deposition/dissolution in ethereal solvents. Here, the electrochemical performance of Mg[B(hexafluoroisopropanol)₄]₂/dimethoxyethane (Mg[B(HFIP)₄]₂/DME) solutions was examined. These electrolyte solutions require a special “conditioning” pretreatment that removes undesirable active moieties. Such a process was developed and explored, and basic scientific issues related to the mechanism by which it affects Mg deposition/dissolution were addressed. The chemical changes that occur during the conditioning process were examined. Mg[B(HFIP)₄]₂/DME solutions were found to enable reversible Mg deposition, albeit with a relatively low Coulombic efficiency of 95% during the first cycles. Prolonged deposition/dissolution cycling tests demonstrate a stable behavior of magnesium electrodes. Overall, this system presents a reasonable electrolyte solution and can serve as a basis for future efforts to develop chlorine-free alternatives for secondary magnesium batteries. It is clear that such a conditioning process is mandatory, as it removes reactive contaminants that lead to unavoidable passivation and deactivation of Mg electrodes from the solution.

Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is a cancer-related herpesvirus. Like other herpesviruses, the KSHV icosahedral capsid includes a portal vertex, composed of 12 protein subunits encoded by open reading frame (ORF) 43, which enables packaging and release of the viral genome into the nucleus through the nuclear pore complex (NPC). Capsid vertex-specific component (CVSC) tegument proteins, which directly mediate docking at the NPCs, are organized on the capsid vertices and are enriched on the portal vertex. Whether and how the portal vertex is selected for docking at the NPC is unknown. Here, we investigated the docking of incoming ORF43-null KSHV capsids at the NPCs, and describe a significantly lower fraction of capsids attached to the nuclear envelope compared to wild-type (WT) capsids. Like WT capsids, nuclear envelope-associated ORF43-null capsids co-localized with different nucleoporins (Nups) and did not detach upon salt treatment. Inhibition of nuclear export did not alter WT capsid docking. As ORF43-null capsids exhibit lower extent of association with the NPCs, we conclude that although not essential, the portal has a role in mediating the interaction of the CVSC proteins with Nups, and suggest a model whereby WT capsids can dock at the nuclear envelope through a non-portal penton vertex, resulting in an infection ‘dead end’.