BINA

Particle hopping is a common feature in heterogeneous media. We explore such motion by using the widely applicable formalism of the continuous time random walk and focus on the statistics of rare events. Numerous experiments have shown that the decay of the positional probability density function P (X, t), describing the statistics of rare events, exhibits universal exponential decay. We show that such universality ceases to exist once the threshold of exponential distribution of particle hops is crossed. While the mean hop is not diverging and can attain a finite value; the transition itself is critical. The exponential universality of rare events arises due to the contribution of all the different states occupied during the process. Once the reported threshold is crossed, a single large event determines the statistics. In this realm, the big jump principle replaces the large deviation principle, and the spatial part of the decay is unaffected by the temporal properties of rare events.

Biosensors are analytical devices with a wide range of uses in various fields such as food, military, environmental monitoring, and clinical diagnostics. Similarly, polymers and their composites have sparked a lot of interest in biosensing because of their properties, including compatibility with biological molecules, efficient electron transfer during biochemical reactions, bioreagent loading, and biomolecule immobilization. Different nanoparticles such as carbon nanotubes, graphenes, gold nanoparticles, etc., have been efficiently integrated into the polymer matrix to improve performance features such as rapid response, high selectivity, improved sensitivity, long-term stability, and lower detection limit. Polymers in combination with nanomaterials provide a three-dimensional matrix that preserves biomolecule activity and provides an excellent platform for immobilization due to their good durability, porosity, selectivity …

During embryonic development, mutually antagonistic signaling cascades determine gonadal fate toward a testicular or ovarian identity. Errors in this process result in disorders of sex development (DSDs), characterized by discordance between chromosomal, gonadal, and anatomical sex. The absence of an appropriate, accessible in vitro system is a major obstacle in understanding mechanisms of sex-determination/DSDs. Here, we describe protocols for differentiation of mouse and human pluripotent cells toward gonadal progenitors. Transcriptomic analysis reveals that the in vitro–derived murine gonadal cells are equivalent to embryonic day 11.5 in vivo progenitors. Using similar conditions, Sertoli-like cells derived from 46,XY human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) exhibit sustained expression of testis-specific genes, secrete anti-Müllerian hormone, migrate, and form tubular structures. Cells derived …

Metal transcription factors regulate metal concentrations in eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells. Copper is a metal ion that is being tightly regulated, owing to its dual nature. Whereas copper is an essential nutrient for bacteria, it is also toxic at high concentrations. CopY is a metal-sensitive transcription factor belonging to the copper-responsive repressor family found in Gram-positive bacteria. CopY represses transcription in the presence of Zn(II) ions and initiates transcription in the presence of Cu(I) ions. The complete crystal structure of CopY has not been reported yet, therefore most of the structural information on this protein is based on its similarity to the well-studied MecI protein. In this study, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy was used to characterize structural and local dynamical changes in Streptococcus pneumoniae CopY as a function of Zn(II), Cu(I), and DNA binding. We detected different …

At both conceptual and applied levels, quantum physics provides new opportunities as well as fundamental limitations. We hypothetically ask whether quantum games inspired by population dynamics can benefit from unique features of quantum mechanics such as entanglement and nonlocality. For doing so, we extend quantum game theory and demonstrate that in certain models inspired by ecological systems where several predators feed on the same prey, the strength of quantum entanglement between the various species has a profound effect on the asymptotic behavior of the system. For example, if there are sufficiently many predator species who are all equally correlated with their prey, they are all driven to extinction. Our results are derived in two ways: by analyzing the asymptotic dynamics of the system, and also by modeling the system as a quantum correlation network. The latter approach enables us to apply various tools from classical network theory in the above quantum scenarios. Several generalizations and applications are discussed.

Biosensors are analytical devices with a wide range of uses in various fields such as food, military, environmental monitoring, and clinical diagnostics. Similarly, polymers and their composites have sparked a lot of interest in biosensing because of their properties, including compatibility with biological molecules, efficient electron transfer during biochemical reactions, bioreagent loading, and biomolecule immobilization. Different nanoparticles such as carbon nanotubes, graphenes, gold nanoparticles, etc., have been efficiently integrated into the polymer matrix to improve performance features such as rapid response, high selectivity, improved sensitivity, long-term stability, and lower detection limit. Polymers in combination with nanomaterials provide a three-dimensional matrix that preserves biomolecule activity and provides an excellent platform for immobilization due to their good durability, porosity, selectivity …

Fermi liquids respond differently to perturbations depending on whether their frequency is larger (collisionless regime) or smaller (hydrodynamic regime) than the inter-particle collision rate. This results in a different phase velocity between the collisionless zero sound and hydrodynamic first sound. We performed terahertz photocurrent nanoscopy measurements on graphene devices, with a metallic gate in close proximity to the sample, to probe the dispersion of propagating acoustic plasmons, the counterpart of sound modes in electronic Fermi liquids. We report the observation of a change in the plasmon phase velocity when the excitation frequency approaches the electron-electron collision rate. This first observation of the first sound mode in an electronic Fermi liquid is of fundamental interest and can enable novel terahertz emitter and detection implementations.

The increasing interest and need to shift to sustainable energy give rise to the utilization of fuel cell technologies in various applications. The challenging task of hydrogen storage and transport led to the development of liquid hydrogen carriers (LHCs) as fuels for direct LHC fuel cells, such as methanol in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). Although simpler to handle, most direct LHC fuel cells suffer from durability and price issues derived from high catalysts’ loadings and byproducts of the oxidation reaction of the fuel. Herein, we report on the development of direct hydroquinone fuel cells (DQFCs) based on anthraquinone-2,7-disulfonic acid (AQDS) as an LHC. We have shown that DQFC can operate with a continuous flow of quinone as a hydrogen carrier, outperforming the incumbent state-of-the-art DMFC by a factor of 3 in peak power density while completely removing the need for any catalyst at the anode. In …

The short time (large energy) behavior of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model (SYK) is one of the main reasons for the growing interest garnered by this model. True chaotic behavior sets in at the Thouless time, which can be extracted from the energy spectrum. In order to do so, it is necessary to unfold the spectrum, ie, to filter out global tendencies. Using a simple ensemble average for unfolding results in a parametically low estimation of the Thouless energy. By examining the behavior of the spectrum as the distribution of the matrix elements is changed into a log-normal distribution, it is shown that the sample-to-sample level spacing variance determines this estimation of the Thouless energy. Using the singular value decomposition method, which filters out these global sample-to-sample fluctuations, the Thouless energy becomes parametrically much larger, essentially of the order of the band width. It is shown that the …

Integration of information over the central nervous system is an important neural process that affects our ability to perceive and react to the environment. The visual system is required to continuously integrate information arriving from two different sources (the eyes) to create a coherent percept with high spatiotemporal precision. Although this neural integration of information is assumed to be critical for visual performance, it can be impaired under some pathological or developmental conditions. Here we took advantage of a unique developmental condition, amblyopia (“lazy eye”), which is characterized by an impaired temporal synchronization between the two eyes, to meticulously study the effect of synchronization on the integration of binocular visual information. We measured the eyes’ asynchrony and compensated for it (with millisecond temporal resolution) by providing time-shifted stimuli to the eyes. We found …

Physical interpretations of the time-symmetric formulation of quantum mechanics, due to Aharonov, Bergmann, and Lebowitz are discussed in terms of weak values. The most direct, yet somewhat naive, interpretation uses the time-symmetric formulation to assign eigenvalues to unmeasured observables of a system, which results in logical paradoxes, and no clear physical picture. A top-down ontological model is introduced that treats the weak values of observables as physically real during the time between pre- and post-selection (PPS), which avoids these paradoxes. The generally delocalized rank-1 projectors of a quantum system describe its fundamental ontological elements, and the highest-rank projectors corresponding to individual localized objects describe an emergent particle model, with unusual particles whose masses and energies may be negative or imaginary. This retrocausal top-down model leads to an intuitive particle-based ontological picture, wherein weak measurements directly probe the properties of these exotic particles, which exist whether or not they are actually measured

A hydrothermal method was conducted to synthesize Ni(1−α)Co(α)MoO4 (α = 0, 0.1, 0.3, and 0.5 M) nanorods, which were proven as excellent electrode materials in a hybrid supercapacitor. Their electrochemical properties were also dependent on the Ni/Co ratio as demonstrated by different electrochemical techniques. Ni0.5Co0.5MoO4 (α = 0.5 M) offered specific capacity (Qg) = 354 Cg–1@1 Ag–1, a remarkable specific capacity with a notable retention capacity of 92% after 8000 repeated cycles at 10 Ag–1. Ni0.5Co0.5MoO4 with a high surface area outperformed the mono-metallic (NiMoO4) and bimetallic (Ni0.9Co0.1MoO4 and Ni0.7Co0.3MoO4) nanostructures. The hybrid supercapacitor (Ni0.5Co0.5MoO4//activated carbon) delivered a maximum Qcell of 53 Cg–1 at 1 Ag–1 with an energy density of 16.2 Wh kg–1 and power density of 725 W kg–1.

Large grid energy storage devices are critical for the success of the clean and sustainable energy revolution. As Li-ion batteries are earmarked for electric vehicles and portable devices such as laptops and cellphones, other electrochemical systems should be developed that enable cost-effective, safe, and durable large-scale energy storage. Due to the low cost and non-flammability of aqueous electrolyte solutions, much effort is being put into the development of ‘beyond-Li’ batteries and super capacitors that can work in these environments. Here, we propose new proton batteries comprising an acetic acid electrolyte solution, NiII [FeIII(CN)6]2/3·4H2O Prussian blue analog cathodes, and Ti3C2Tx MXene anodes. Both electrodes were investigated independently to discover ideal settings for the electrochemical performance and stability. Significant attention was given to the cathodes' protons storage mechanism. In …

The electrocatalytic CO2 reduction in aqueous solution mainly involves bond cleavage and formation between C, H and O, and it is highly desirable to expand the bond formation reaction of C with other atoms to obtain novel and valuable chemicals. The electrochemical synthesis of N-containing organic chemicals in electrocatalytic CO2 reduction via introducing N sources is an effective strategy to expand the product scope, since chemicals containing C–N bonds (e.g. amides and amines) are important reactants/products for medicine, agriculture and industry. This article focuses on the research progress of C–N coupling from CO2 and inorganic nitrogenous species in aqueous solution. Firstly, the reaction pathways related to the reaction intermediates for urea, formamide, acetamide, methylamine and ethylamine are highlighted. Then, the electrocatalytic performance of different catalysts for these several N …

The short time (large energy) behavior of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model (SYK) is one of the main reasons for the growing interest garnered by this model. True chaotic behavior sets in at the Thouless time, which can be extracted from the energy spectrum. In order to do so, it is necessary to unfold the spectrum, ie, to filter out global tendencies. Using a simple ensemble average for unfolding results in a parametically low estimation of the Thouless energy. By examining the behavior of the spectrum as the distribution of the matrix elements is changed into a log-normal distribution, it is shown that the sample-to-sample level spacing variance determines this estimation of the Thouless energy. Using the singular value decomposition method, which filters out these global sample-to-sample fluctuations, the Thouless energy becomes parametrically much larger, essentially of the order of the band width. It is shown that the …

Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic relapsing–remitting inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract that is characterized by altered innate and adaptive immune function. Although massively parallel sequencing studies of the T cell receptor repertoire identified oligoclonal expansion of unique clones, much less is known about the B cell receptor (BCR) repertoire in CD. Here, we present a novel BCR repertoire sequencing data set from ileal biopsies from pediatric patients with CD and controls, and identify CD-specific somatic hypermutation (SHM) patterns, revealed by a machine learning (ML) algorithm trained on BCR repertoire sequences. Moreover, ML classification of a different data set from blood samples of adults with CD versus controls identified that V gene usage, clusters, or mutation frequencies yielded excellent results in classifying the disease (F1 > 90%). In summary, we show that an ML algorithm …

A distinguishing feature of ultracold collisions of bosonic lithium atoms is the presence of two near-degenerate two-body continua. The influence of such a near-degeneracy on the few-body physics in the vicinity of a narrow Feshbach resonance is investigated within the framework of a minimal model with two atomic continua and one closed molecular channel. The model allows analysis of the spin composition of loosely bound dimers and trimers. In the two-body sector the well-established coupled-channels calculations phenomenology of lithium is qualitatively reproduced, and its particularities are emphasized and clarified. In the three-body sector we find that the Efimov trimer energy levels follow a different functional form as compared to a single continuum scenario while the thresholds remain untouched. This three-channel model with two atomic continua complements our earlier developed three-channel model with two molecular channels [Y. Yudkin and L. Khaykovich, Phys. Rev. A 103, 063303 (2021)] and suggests that the experimentally observed exotic behavior of the first excited Efimov energy level [Y. Yudkin, R. Elbaz and L. Khaykovich, arXiv:2004.02723] is most probably caused by the short-range details of the interaction potential.

At both conceptual and applied levels, quantum physics provides new opportunities as well as fundamental limitations. We hypothetically ask whether quantum games inspired by population dynamics can benefit from unique features of quantum mechanics such as entanglement and nonlocality. For doing so, we extend quantum game theory and demonstrate that in certain models inspired by ecological systems where several predators feed on the same prey, the strength of quantum entanglement between the various species has a profound effect on the asymptotic behavior of the system. For example, if there are sufficiently many predator species who are all equally correlated with their prey, they are all driven to extinction. Our results are derived in two ways: by analyzing the asymptotic dynamics of the system, and also by modeling the system as a quantum correlation network. The latter approach enables us to apply various tools from classical network theory in the above quantum scenarios. Several generalizations and applications are discussed.

The increasing interest and need to shift to sustainable energy give rise to the utilization of fuel cell technologies in various applications. The challenging task of hydrogen storage and transport led to the development of liquid hydrogen carriers (LHCs) as fuels for direct LHC fuel cells, such as methanol in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). Although simpler to handle, most direct LHC fuel cells suffer from durability and price issues derived from high catalysts’ loadings and byproducts of the oxidation reaction of the fuel. Herein, we report on the development of direct hydroquinone fuel cells (DQFCs) based on anthraquinone-2,7-disulfonic acid (AQDS) as an LHC. We have shown that DQFC can operate with a continuous flow of quinone as a hydrogen carrier, outperforming the incumbent state-of-the-art DMFC by a factor of 3 in peak power density while completely removing the need for any catalyst at the anode. In …

The electrocatalytic CO2 reduction in aqueous solution mainly involves bond cleavage and formation between C, H and O, and it is highly desirable to expand the bond formation reaction of C with other atoms to obtain novel and valuable chemicals. The electrochemical synthesis of N-containing organic chemicals in electrocatalytic CO2 reduction via introducing N sources is an effective strategy to expand the product scope, since chemicals containing C–N bonds (e.g. amides and amines) are important reactants/products for medicine, agriculture and industry. This article focuses on the research progress of C–N coupling from CO2 and inorganic nitrogenous species in aqueous solution. Firstly, the reaction pathways related to the reaction intermediates for urea, formamide, acetamide, methylamine and ethylamine are highlighted. Then, the electrocatalytic performance of different catalysts for these several N …