Feb 2023 • Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English)
Ori Licht, Dario Barreiro-Lage, Patrick Rousseau, Alexandre Giuliani, Aleksandar Milosavljevic, Avinoam Isaak, Yitzhak Mastai, Amnon Albeck, Raj Singh, Vy Nguyen, Laurent Nahon, Lara Martinez, Sergio Díaz-Tendero, Yoni Toker
Possible routes for intra-cluster bond formation (ICBF) in protonated serine dimers have been studied. We found no evidence of ICBF following low energy collision induced dissociation (in correspondence with previous works), however, we do observe clear evidence for ICBF following photon absorption in the eV range. Moreover, the comparison of photon induced dissociation measurements of the protonated serine dimer to those of a protonated serine dipeptide provides evidence that ICBF, in this case, involves peptide bond formation (PBF). The experimental results are supported by {\it ab initio} molecular dynamics and exploration of several excited state potential energy surfaces, unravelling a pathway for PBF following photon absorption. The combination of experiments and theory provides insight into the PBF mechanisms in clusters of amino acids, and reveals the importance of electronic excited states reached upon UV/VUV light excitation.
Show moreFeb 2023 • Results in Surfaces and Interfaces
Naftali Kanovsky, Taly Iline-Vul, Shlomo Margel
Superhydrophobic surfaces are receiving increasing attention due to their real-world applications. However, these surfaces suffer from a lack of durability and complicated synthetic processes. This research uses a combination of a simple in-situ coating process between oxygen-activated polypropylene films and unreacted silane monomers. The in-situ process uses a modified Stöber method with the addition of the surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) which aggregates silica (SiO 2) particles in a basic aqueous solution. This resulted in a layer of covalently bonded hierarchical coating of individual and aggregated SiO 2 “flakes” and particles. These coatings were found to have at least double the surface roughness than samples prepared without CTAB with superhydrophilic properties due to their high surface roughness and hydrophilic surface chemical groups. A second layer of fluorocarbon silane …
Show moreFeb 2023 • arXiv preprint arXiv:2202.03640
Quancheng Liu, David A Kessler, Eli Barkai
We design monitored quantum walks with the aim of optimizing state transfer and target search. We show how to construct walks with the property that all the eigenvalues of the non-Hermitian survival operator, describing the mixed effect of unitary dynamics and the back-action of measurement, coalesce to zero, corresponding to an exceptional point whose degree is the size of the Hilbert space. Generally, this search is guaranteed to succeed in a bounded time for any initial condition. It also performs better than the classical random walk search or quantum search on typical graphs. For example, a crawler can be designed such that, starting on a node of the graph, the walker is detected on any of the nodes with probability one at predetermined times. It also allows perfect quantum state transfer from one node of the system to any other, with or without monitoring. Interestingly, this crawler is described as a massless Dirac quasi-particle.
Show moreFeb 2023 • Batteries 9 (2), 110, 2023
Ravindra Kumar Bhardwaj, David Zitoun
Background:This is an early access version, the complete PDF, HTML, and XML versions will be available soon.
Show moreFeb 2023 • IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity
A Roitman, A Shaulov, Y Yeshurun
Coplanar microwave resonators made of NbN and YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7-δ show similar behavior under the influence of magnetic field. In particular, the two resonators exhibit marked difference between zero-field-cooled (ZFC) and field-cooled (FC) measurements, which is attributed to the presence of screening currents in ZFC but not in FC measurements.
Show moreFeb 2023 • Pharmaceutics 15 (2), 686, 2023
Sayan Ganguly, Shlomo Margel
Novel nanomaterials are of interest in biology, medicine, and imaging applications. Multimodal fluorescent-magnetic nanoparticles demand special attention because they have the potential to be employed as diagnostic and medication-delivery tools, which, in turn, might make it easier to diagnose and treat cancer, as well as a wide variety of other disorders. The most recent advancements in the development of magneto-fluorescent nanocomposites and their applications in the biomedical field are the primary focus of this review. We describe the most current developments in synthetic methodologies and methods for the fabrication of magneto-fluorescent nanocomposites. The primary applications of multimodal magneto-fluorescent nanoparticles in biomedicine, including biological imaging, cancer treatment, and drug administration, are covered in this article, and an overview of the future possibilities for these technologies is provided.
Show moreFeb 2023 • ImmunoInformatics
William D Lees, Scott Christley, Ayelet Peres, Justin T Kos, Brian Corrie, Duncan Ralph, Felix Breden, Lindsay G Cowell, Gur Yaari, Martin Corcoran, Gunilla B Karlsson Hedestam, Mats Ohlin, Andrew M Collins, Corey T Watson, Christian E Busse, The AIRR Community
Analysis of an individual's immunoglobulin or T cell receptor gene repertoire can provide important insights into immune function. High-quality analysis of adaptive immune receptor repertoire sequencing data depends upon accurate and relatively complete germline sets, but current sets are known to be incomplete. Established processes for the review and systematic naming of receptor germline genes and alleles require specific evidence and data types, but the discovery landscape is rapidly changing. To exploit the potential of emerging data, and to provide the field with improved state-of-the-art germline sets, an intermediate approach is needed that will allow the rapid publication of consolidated sets derived from these emerging sources. These sets must use a consistent naming scheme and allow refinement and consolidation into genes as new information emerges. Name changes should be minimised, but …
Show moreFeb 2023 • Nanophotonics
Adamantia Logotheti, Adi Levi, Doron Naveh, Leonidas Tsetseris, Ioanna Zergioti
Due to their atomic-scale thickness, handling and processing of two-dimensional (2D) materials often require multistep techniques whose complexity hampers their large-scale integration in modern device applications. Here we demonstrate that the laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT) method can achieve the one-step, nondestructive printing of the prototypical 2D material MoS2. By selecting the optimal LIFT experimental conditions, we were able to transfer arrays of MoS2 pixels from a metal donor substrate to a dielectric receiver substrate. A combination of various characterization techniques has confirmed that the transfer of intact MoS2 monolayers is not only feasible, but it can also happen without incurring significant defect damage during the process. The successful transfer of MoS2 shows the broad potential the LIFT technique has in the emerging field of printed electronics, including printed devices based …
Show moreFeb 2023 • Cold Spring Harbor Protocols
Anne C von Philipsborn, Galit Shohat-Ophir, Carolina Rezaval
During reproduction, male and female flies use wing vibration to generate different acoustic signals. Males produce a courtship song before copulation that is easily recognized by unilateral wing vibration. In copula, females produce a distinct sound pattern (copulation song) with both wings. Sexual rejection of immature virgins and aggressive encounters between males are also accompanied by sound pulses generated by wing flicks. Fly song has frequency ranges audible to the human ear and can be directly listened to after appropriate amplification. When displayed in an oscillogram, audio recordings can be mapped on wing-movement patterns and thus provide a fast and precise method to sample and quantify motor behaviors with high temporal resolution. After recording different fly sounds, their effect on behavior can be tested in playback experiments.
Show moreFeb 2023 • Cold Spring Harbor Protocols
Anne C von Philipsborn, Galit Shohat-Ophir, Carolina Rezaval
Courtship behaviors in Drosophila melanogaster are innate and contain highly stereotyped but also experience-and state-dependent elements. They have been the subject of intense study for more than 100 years. The power of Drosophila as a genetic experimental system has allowed the dissection of reproductive behaviors at a molecular, cellular, and physiological level. As a result, we know a great deal about how flies perceive sensory cues from potential mates, how this information is integrated in higher brain centers to execute reproductive decisions, and how state and social contexts modulate these responses. The simplicity of the assay has allowed for its broad application. Here, we introduce methods for studying male and female innate reproductive behaviors as well as their plastic responses.
Show moreFeb 2023 • Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery
R Blessy Pricilla, Moorthy Maruthapandi, Arulappan Durairaj, Ivo Kuritka, John HT Luong, Aharon Gedanken
Carbon dots (CDs) with an average diameter of 6.3 nm were synthesized from the medicinal seed extract of Syzygium cumini L. using one-pot hydrothermal synthesis. The prepared CDs exhibited excitation-dependent emission characteristics with photoluminescence (PL) emission maxima at an excitation of 340 nm. The CDs at 500 µg/mL displayed antimicrobial activities against four common pathogens. Both Staphylococcus aureus and S. epidermidis were completely eradicated by CDs within 12 h, compared to 24 h for Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumonia. The release of various oxygen species (ROS) was postulated to play a critical role in bacterial eradication. The CDs decorated on cotton fabric by ultrasonication also displayed good antibacterial activities against the above bacteria. The finding opens a plausible use of CDs in biomedical textiles with potent antimicrobial properties against both Gram …
Show moreFeb 2023 • Pharmaceutics 15 (2), 686, 2023
Sayan Ganguly, Shlomo Margel
Novel nanomaterials are of interest in biology, medicine, and imaging applications. Multimodal fluorescent-magnetic nanoparticles demand special attention because they have the potential to be employed as diagnostic and medication-delivery tools, which, in turn, might make it easier to diagnose and treat cancer, as well as a wide variety of other disorders. The most recent advancements in the development of magneto-fluorescent nanocomposites and their applications in the biomedical field are the primary focus of this review. We describe the most current developments in synthetic methodologies and methods for the fabrication of magneto-fluorescent nanocomposites. The primary applications of multimodal magneto-fluorescent nanoparticles in biomedicine, including biological imaging, cancer treatment, and drug administration, are covered in this article, and an overview of the future possibilities for these technologies is provided.
Show moreFeb 2023 • International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Yaron Trink, Achia Urbach, Benjamin Dekel, Peter Hohenstein, Jacob Goldberger, Tomer Kalisky
Wilms’ tumors are pediatric malignancies that are thought to arise from faulty kidney development. They contain a wide range of poorly differentiated cell states resembling various distorted developmental stages of the fetal kidney, and as a result, differ between patients in a continuous manner that is not well understood. Here, we used three computational approaches to characterize this continuous heterogeneity in high-risk blastemal-type Wilms’ tumors. Using Pareto task inference, we show that the tumors form a triangle-shaped continuum in latent space that is bounded by three tumor archetypes with “stromal”, “blastemal”, and “epithelial” characteristics, which resemble the un-induced mesenchyme, the cap mesenchyme, and early epithelial structures of the fetal kidney. By fitting a generative probabilistic “grade of membership” model, we show that each tumor can be represented as a unique mixture of three hidden “topics” with blastemal, stromal, and epithelial characteristics. Likewise, cellular deconvolution allows us to represent each tumor in the continuum as a unique combination of fetal kidney-like cell states. These results highlight the relationship between Wilms’ tumors and kidney development, and we anticipate that they will pave the way for more quantitative strategies for tumor stratification and classification.
Show moreFeb 2023
Daniel Allen, Orli Knop, Bryan Itkowitz, Ortal Iancu, Katia Beider, Yu Nee Lee, Arnon Nagler, Raz Somech, Ayal Hendel
RAG2-SCID is a primary immunodeficiency caused by mutations in Recombination-activating gene 2 (RAG2), a gene intimately involved in the process of lymphocyte maturation and function. ex-vivo manipulation of a patient’s own hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) using CRISPR-Cas9/rAAV6 gene editing could provide a therapeutic alternative to the only current treatment, allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Here we show a first-of-its-kind RAG2 correction strategy that replaces the entire endogenous coding sequence (CDS) to preserve the critical endogenous spatiotemporal gene regulation and locus architecture. Expression of the corrective transgene led to successful development into CD3+ TCRαβ+ and CD3+ TCRγδ+ T cells and promoted the establishment of highly diverse TRB and TRG repertoires in an in-vitro T-cell differentiation platform. We believe that a CDS replacement technique to correct tightly regulated genes, like RAG2, while maintaining critical regulatory elements and conserving the locus structure could bring safer gene therapy techniques closer to the clinic.
Show moreFeb 2023 • Advanced Materials Technologies
Yuxiang Zhu, Tina Kwok, Joel C Haug, Shenghan Guo, Xiangfan Chen, Weiheng Xu, Dharneedar Ravichandran, Yourka D Tchoukalova, Jeffrey L Cornella, Johnny Yi, Orit Shefi, Brent L Vernon, David G Lott, Jessica N Lancaster, Kenan Song
Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) is a dysfunction that affects a large proportion of women. Current support scaffolds’ lack of biocompatibility, biodegradability, and mechanical compliance are associated with surgical complications including erosion and pain, indicating the urgent need for new tissue scaffolds with customizable functions. A new material that uses polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as the main ingredient and is chemically tuned to possess suitable mechanical properties and degradation rates for the surgical treatment of POP is developed. Specifically, the thiol‐norbornene “click” chemistry enables the sol‐gel transition of the biomaterial under UV‐light without side‐products. Meanwhile, NaOH treatment further toughens the hydrogel with a higher crosslink density. The PVA‐based biocompatible ink can be printed with UV‐facilitated direct ink writing due to the rapidly UV‐initiated chemical crosslink; in situ image …
Show moreFeb 2023 • Physical Review E
Lucianno Defaveri, Eli Barkai, David A Kessler
We study the motion of an overdamped particle connected to a thermal heat bath in the presence of an external periodic potential in one dimension. When we coarse-grain, ie, bin the particle positions using bin sizes that are larger than the periodicity of the potential, the packet of spreading particles, all starting from a common origin, converges to a normal distribution centered at the origin with a mean-squared displacement that grows as 2 D* t, with an effective diffusion constant that is smaller than that of a freely diffusing particle. We examine the interplay between this coarse-grained description and the fine structure of the density, which is given by the Boltzmann-Gibbs (BG) factor e− V (x)/k B T, the latter being nonnormalizable. We explain this result and construct a theory of observables using the Fokker-Planck equation. These observables are classified as those that are related to the BG fine structure, like the …
Show moreFeb 2023 • arXiv preprint arXiv:2302.00705
Rafael Wagner, Zohar Schwartzman-Nowik, Ismael L Paiva, Amit Te'eni, Antonio Ruiz-Molero, Rui Soares Barbosa, Eliahu Cohen, Ernesto F Galvão
Weak values and Kirkwood--Dirac (KD) quasiprobability distributions have been independently associated with both foundational issues in quantum theory and advantages in quantum metrology. We propose simple quantum circuits to measure weak values, KD distributions, and density matrix spectra without the need for post-selection. This is achieved by measuring unitary-invariant, relational properties of quantum states, as functions of Bargmann invariants. Our circuits also enable direct experimental implementation of various applications of KD distributions, such as out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOCs) and the quantum Fisher information in post-selected parameter estimation, among others. This results in a unified view of nonclassicality in all those tasks. In particular, we discuss how negativity and imaginarity of Bargmann invariants relate to set coherence.
Show moreFeb 2023 • Nanomaterials 13 (3), 598, 2023
Shweta Pawar, Hamootal Duadi, Dror Fixler
The term “carbon-based spintronics” mostly refers to the spin applications in carbon materials such as graphene, fullerene, carbon nitride, and carbon nanotubes. Carbon-based spintronics and their devices have undergone extraordinary development recently. The causes of spin relaxation and the characteristics of spin transport in carbon materials, namely for graphene and carbon nanotubes, have been the subject of several theoretical and experimental studies. This article gives a summary of the present state of research and technological advancements for spintronic applications in carbon-based materials. We discuss the benefits and challenges of several spin-enabled, carbon-based applications. The advantages include the fact that they are significantly less volatile than charge-based electronics. The challenge is in being able to scale up to mass production.
Show moreFeb 2023 • Cold Spring Harbor Protocols
Anne C von Philipsborn, Galit Shohat-Ophir, Carolina Rezaval
Upon copulation, females undergo a switch-like change in their behavior and physiology, known as “postmating responses.” These strong behavioral and physiological changes are triggered by the transfer of male seminal proteins during copulation. Postmating response is associated with strong reduction in receptivity, indicated by the females kicking their legs toward the suitor and curving their abdomen downward to hide their genitalia from them and extruding their ovipositor at the tip of the abdomen, which physically prevents copulation. The transfer of male-specific pheromones, such as 11-cis-vaccenyl-acetate, during copulation further reduces female attractiveness. In addition, mated females exhibit increased ovulation, egg-laying behavior, enhanced feeding behavior, and changes in food preference. However, females increase their rate of remating when they are in social groups or in the presence of food …
Show moreFeb 2023 • Biosensors 13 (3), 304, 2023
Nataliia Dudchenko, Shweta Pawar, Ilana Perelshtein, Dror Fixler
In the last few decades, point-of-care (POC) sensors have become increasingly important in the detection of various targets for the early diagnostics and treatment of diseases. Diverse nanomaterials are used as building blocks for the development of smart biosensors and magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs) are among them. The intrinsic properties of MNPs, such as their large surface area, chemical stability, ease of functionalization, high saturation magnetization, and more, mean they have great potential for use in biosensors. Moreover, the unique characteristics of MNPs, such as their response to external magnetic fields, allow them to be easily manipulated (concentrated and redispersed) in fluidic media. As they are functionalized with biomolecules, MNPs bear high sensitivity and selectivity towards the detection of target biomolecules, which means they are advantageous in biosensor development and lead to a more sensitive, rapid, and accurate identification and quantification of target analytes. Due to the abovementioned properties of functionalized MNPs and their unique magnetic characteristics, they could be employed in the creation of new POC devices, molecular logic gates, and new biomolecular-based biocomputing interfaces, which would build on new ideas and principles. The current review outlines the synthesis, surface coverage, and functionalization of MNPs, as well as recent advancements in magnetite-based biosensors for POC diagnostics and some perspectives in molecular logic, and it also contains some of our own results regarding the topic, which include synthetic MNPs, their application for sample preparation, and the …
Show moreFeb 2023 • Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
Irina Matlahov, Alex Kulpanovich, Taly Iline-Vul, Merav Nadav-Tsubery, Gil Goobes
Bone construction has been under intensive scrutiny for many years using numerous techniques. Solid-state NMR spectroscopy helped unravel key characteristics of the mineral structure in bone owing to its capability of analyzing crystalline and disordered phases at high-resolution. This has invoked new questions regarding the roles of persistent disordered phases in structural integrity and mechanical function of mature bone as well as regarding regulation of early events in formation of apatite by bone proteins which interact intimately with the different mineral phases to exert biological control.Here, spectral editing tethered to standard NMR techniques is employed to analyze bone-like apatite minerals prepared synthetically in the presence and absence of two non-collagenous bone proteins, osteocalcin and osteonectin. A 1H spectral editing block allows excitation of species from the crystalline and disordered …
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