BINA

UV-absorbing surfaces have received much attention and focus due to their relevance in a variety of research applications and industrial fields. However, these surfaces currently suffer from drawbacks such as instability due to leakage of the entrapped UV-absorbing compounds, complicated non-green synthetic processes, and/or lack of good optical properties. We propose a modified Stöber method where UV absorbing silane monomers containing the group2-hydroxy-4-(3-triethoxysilylpropoxy) diphenylketone (SiUV) in presence of the mesoporous producing surfactant cetyltrimethyl ammonium chloride (CTAC) was polymerized in an ethanol/water continuous phase under basic conditions. UV absorbing thin coatings onto polyethylene (PE) films were then spread with the former dispersion on corona-treated PE, followed by a thermal drying process. These films were highly UV absorbent and durable with …

Quantized vortices are topological defects found in different two-dimensional geometries, from liquid crystals to ferromagnets, famously involved in spontaneous symmetry breaking and phase transitions. Their optical counterparts appear in planar geometries as a universal wave phenomenon, possessing topologically protected orbital angular momentum (OAM). So far, the spatio-temporal dynamics of optical vortices, including vortex-pair creation and annihilation, was observed only in Bose-Einstein condensates. Here we observe optical vortices in 2D materials and measure their dynamics, including events of pair-creation and annihilation. The vortices conserve their combined OAM during pair creation/annihilation events and determine the surrounding field profile throughout their motion between these events. The vortices are made of phonon polaritons in hexagonal boron nitride, which we directly probe using free electrons in an ultrafast transmission electron microscope. Our findings promote future investigations of vortex phenomena in 2D material platforms, toward their use for chiral plasmonics, quantum simulators, and control over selection rules in light-matter interactions.

The growth of ultrathin 1D inorganic nanomaterials with controlled diameters remains challenging by current synthetic approaches. A polymer chain templated method is developed to synthesize ultrathin Bi2O2CO3 nanotubes. This formation of nanotubes is a consequence of registry between the electrostatic absorption of functional groups on polymer template and the growth habit of Bi2O2CO3. The bulk bismuth precursor is broken into nanoparticles and anchored onto the polymer chain periodically. These nanoparticles react with the functional groups and gradually evolve into Bi2O2CO3 nanotubes along the chain. 5.0 and 3.0 nm tubes with narrow diameter deviation are synthesized by using branched polyethyleneimine and polyvinylpyrrolidone as the templates, respectively. Such Bi2O2CO3 nanotubes show a decent lithium‐ion storage capacity of around 600 mA h g−1 at 0.1 A g−1 after 500 cycles, higher …

Anionic redox provides an effective way to overcome the capacity bottleneck of sodium‐ion batteries. A dominant role is played by the arrangement of alkali A and transition metal M in the NaxAyM1‐yO2 superstructure. Here, in situ X‐ray diffraction and ex situ 7Li nuclear magnetic resonance of P2 type Na0.6Li0.2Mn0.8O2 with ribbon‐ordered superstructure illustrate structural changes and explain the evolution of the electrochemical behavior of electrodes comprising this active mass, during cycling. Upon substitution of a small amount of manganese by iron, Na0.67Li0.2Mn0.73Fe0.07O2 is formed with a honeycomb‐ordered superstructure. Experimental characterizations and theoretical calculations elucidate the effect of iron on oxygen redox activity. The iron‐doped material considerably outperforms the undoped Na0.6Li0.2Mn0.8O2 as a cathode material for rechargeable Na‐ion batteries. This research reveals …

Background: Glioblastoma is the most lethal primary brain malignancy in adults. Standard of care treatment, consisting of temozolomide (TMZ) and adjuvant radiotherapy (RT), mostly does not prevent local recurrence. The inability of drugs to enter the brain, in particular antibody-based drugs and radiosensitizers, is a crucial limitation to effective glioblastoma therapy. Methods: Here, we developed a combined strategy using radiosensitizer gold nanoparticles coated with insulin to cross the blood–brain barrier and shuttle tumor-targeting antibodies (cetuximab) into the brain. Results: Following intravenous injection to an orthotopic glioblastoma mouse model, the nanoparticles specifically accumulated within the tumor. Combining targeted nanoparticle injection with TMZ and RT standard of care significantly inhibited tumor growth and extended survival, as compared to standard of care alone. Histological analysis of tumors showed that the combined treatment eradicated tumor cells, and decreased tumor vascularization, proliferation, and repair. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate radiosensitizer nanoparticles that effectively deliver antibodies into the brain, target the tumor, and effectively improve standard of care treatment outcome in glioblastoma.

Exponential, and not Gaussian, decay of probability density functions was studied by Laplace in the context of his analysis of errors. Such Laplace propagators for the diffusive motion of single particles in disordered media were recently observed in numerous experimental systems. What will happen to this universality when an external driving force is applied? Using the ubiquitous continuous time random walk with bias, and the Crooks relation in conjunction with large deviations theory, we derive two properties of the positional probability density function that hold for a wide spectrum of random walk models: (I) Universal asymmetric exponential decay of for large , and (II) Existence of a time transformation that for large allows to express in terms of the propagator of the unbiased process (measured at a shorter time). These findings allow us to establish how the symmetric exponential-like tails, measured in many unbiased processes, will transform into asymmetric Laplace tails when an external force is applied.

Results: First, we confirmed that A to G alteration in the RNAseq-data are indeed RNA editing and not mismatch mutations. Next, we found that the global blood cytoplasmic editing was higher in leukemic CTCL patients compared to healthy controls (p= 0.006). The expression of ADAR1 and ADAR2 enzymes was not altered, but the expression of the most abundant putative ADAR inhibitor-DDX6, found in the healthy cohort, was reduced in leukemic CTCL patients (p= 8× 10-8). Using Random Forest algorithm with machine learning, we managed to discriminate in all between patients and healthy individuals, based on editing level and regulators. Specific edited genes and ncRNAs are now under evaluation as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for leukemic CTCL and their relevancy for T cell exhaustion as was shown in Park et al. Conclusions: We propose that RNA editing is involved in the pathomechanism of …

The surface adsorption of ionic surfactants is fundamental for many widespread phenomena in life sciences and for a wide range of technological applications. However, direct atomic-resolution structural experimental studies of noncrystalline surface-adsorbed films are scarce. Thus, even the most central physical aspects of these films, such as their charge density, remain uncertain. Consequently, theoretical models based on contradicting assumptions as for the surface films’ ionization are widely used for the description and prediction of surface thermodynamics. We employ X-ray reflectivity to obtain the Ångström-scale surface-normal structure of surface-adsorbed films of the cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) in aqueous solutions at several different temperatures and concentrations. In conjunction with published neutron reflectivity data, we determine the surface-normal charge …

Human body is a complex system composed of various chemicals, and thus inserting any foreign chemicals can lead to long-lasting damage. One such process is tattooing, which is widely common among all sections of human society. Nevertheless, there is a huge demand for safe tattoo removal, intending to target only the ink particles and protect the skin components. This work discusses the development of a non-invasive technique to assess tattoo ink location in the deep tissue layers. Tattoo ink was injected systematically from 1-6 mm depth, parallel to the surface of an ex vivo porcine skin. The adopted methodology of the crossover point-based diffuse reflectance (DR) technique could effectively and precisely detect the tattoo ink location in the depths. A good quantitative agreement between the detected ink location and injected ink depth on cross-section tattooed skins were observed. The DR technique thus …

Here, three types of surface coatings based on adsorption of organic aromatic acids or their Li salts are applied as functional coating substrates to engineer the surface properties of high voltage LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 (LNMO) spinel cathodes. The materials used as coating include 1,3,5‐benzene‐tricarboxylic acid (trimesic acid [TMA]), its Li‐salt, and 1,4‐benzene‐dicarboxylic acid (terephthalic acid). The surface coating involves simple ethanol liquid‐phase mixing and low‐temperature heat treatment under nitrogen flow. In typical comparative studies, TMA‐coated (3–5%) LNMO cathodes deliver >90% capacity retention after 400 cycles with significantly improved rate performance in Li‐coin cells at 30 °C compared to uncoated material with capacity retention of ≈40%. The cathode coating also prevents the rapid drop in the electrochemical activity of high voltage Li cells at 55 °C. Studies of high voltage full cells …

Current Adaptive Immune Receptor Repertoire Sequencing (AIRR-seq) strategies resolve expressed antibody (Ab) transcripts with limited resolution of the constant region. Here we present a novel near full-length AIRR-seq (FLAIRR-Seq) method that utilizes targeted amplification by 5’ rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE), combined with single molecule, real-time sequencing to generate highly accurate (>Q40, 99.99%) IG heavy chain transcripts. FLAIRR-seq was benchmarked by comparing IG heavy chain variable (IGHV), diversity (IGHD), and joining (IGHJ) gene usage, complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3) length, and somatic hypermutation to matched datasets generated with standard 5’ RACE AIRR-seq and full-length isoform sequencing. Together these data demonstrate robust, unbiased FLAIRR-seq performance using RNA samples derived from peripheral blood mononuclear cells, purified B cells, and whole blood, which recapitulated results generated by commonly used methods, while additionally resolving novel IG heavy chain constant (IGHC) gene features. FLAIRR-seq data provides, for the first time, simultaneous, single-molecule characterization of IGHV, IGHD, IGHJ, and IGHC region genes and alleles, allele-resolved subisotype definition, and high-resolution identification of class-switch recombination within a clonal lineage. In conjunction with genomic sequencing and genotyping of IGHC genes, FLAIRR-seq of the IgM and IgG repertoires from 10 individuals resulted in the identification of 32 unique IGHC alleles, 28 (87%) of which were previously uncharacterized. Together, these data demonstrate the …

The surface adsorption of ionic surfactants is fundamental for many widespread phenomena in life sciences and for a wide range of technological applications. However, direct atomic-resolution structural experimental studies of noncrystalline surface-adsorbed films are scarce. Thus, even the most central physical aspects of these films, such as their charge density, remain uncertain. Consequently, theoretical models based on contradicting assumptions as for the surface films’ ionization are widely used for the description and prediction of surface thermodynamics. We employ X-ray reflectivity to obtain the Ångström-scale surface-normal structure of surface-adsorbed films of the cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) in aqueous solutions at several different temperatures and concentrations. In conjunction with published neutron reflectivity data, we determine the surface-normal charge …

We explore the extreme value (EV) statistics of correlated random variables modeled via Langevin equations. Starting with an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, we find that when the trajectory is sampled discretely, long measurement times make the EV distribution converge to that originating from independent and identically distributed variables drawn from the process' equilibrium measure. A transition occurs when the sampling interval vanishes, for which case the EV statistics corresponds to that of the continuous process. We expand these findings to general potential fields, revealing that processes with a force that diminishes for large distances exhibit an opposite trend. Hence, we unveil a second transition, this time with respect to the potential's behavior at large displacements.

Background: Glioblastoma is the most lethal primary brain malignancy in adults. Standard of care treatment, consisting of temozolomide (TMZ) and adjuvant radiotherapy (RT), mostly does not prevent local recurrence. The inability of drugs to enter the brain, in particular antibody-based drugs and radiosensitizers, is a crucial limitation to effective glioblastoma therapy. Methods: Here, we developed a combined strategy using radiosensitizer gold nanoparticles coated with insulin to cross the blood–brain barrier and shuttle tumor-targeting antibodies (cetuximab) into the brain. Results: Following intravenous injection to an orthotopic glioblastoma mouse model, the nanoparticles specifically accumulated within the tumor. Combining targeted nanoparticle injection with TMZ and RT standard of care significantly inhibited tumor growth and extended survival, as compared to standard of care alone. Histological analysis of tumors showed that the combined treatment eradicated tumor cells, and decreased tumor vascularization, proliferation, and repair. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate radiosensitizer nanoparticles that effectively deliver antibodies into the brain, target the tumor, and effectively improve standard of care treatment outcome in glioblastoma.

Alkaline electrolyte membrane electrolyzers are a promising technology to efficiently produce clean hydrogen without the use of critical raw materials. At the heart of these electrolyzers are the electrocatalysts, which facilitate the cathodic and anodic reactions, with the latter oxygen evolution reaction (OER) being the most sluggish. In recent years, aerogels have become a very well-studied class of materials due to their unique properties, including very high surface area. Until now, aerogels have not been used to catalyze the OER by themselves but were mainly considered catalyst supports. Here, mixed-metal nickel–iron oxide aerogels were synthesized with a modified epoxide route synthesis and tested as OER catalysts. Depending on the Ni/Fe ratio, they show very high catalytic activity and low overpotential to reach 10 mA cm–2 (at η = 380 mV). This activity is beyond that of the existing state-of-the-art platinum …

The surface adsorption of ionic surfactants is fundamental for many widespread phenomena in life sciences and for a wide range of technological applications. However, direct atomic-resolution structural experimental studies of noncrystalline surface-adsorbed films are scarce. Thus, even the most central physical aspects of these films, such as their charge density, remain uncertain. Consequently, theoretical models based on contradicting assumptions as for the surface films’ ionization are widely used for the description and prediction of surface thermodynamics. We employ X-ray reflectivity to obtain the Ångström-scale surface-normal structure of surface-adsorbed films of the cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) in aqueous solutions at several different temperatures and concentrations. In conjunction with published neutron reflectivity data, we determine the surface-normal charge …

In the last 20 years, the use of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) has made a pronounced and lasting impact in the field of structural biology. The advantage of EPR spectroscopy over other structural techniques is its ability to target even minor conformational changes in any biomolecule or macromolecular complex, independent of its size or complexity, or whether it is in solution or in the cell during a biological or chemical reaction. Here, we focus on the use of EPR spectroscopy to study transmembrane transport and transcription mechanisms. We discuss experimental and analytical concerns when referring to studies of two biological reaction mechanisms, namely, transfer of copper ions by the human copper transporter hCtr1 and the mechanism of action of the Escherichia coli copper-dependent transcription factor CueR. Last, we elaborate on future avenues in the field of EPR structural biology.

Brillouin optical time domain analysis of coupling to cladding modes of standard, coated fiber is demonstrated. Uncertainty in local changes of effective indices is below 10-6 RIU. Local effect of acetone on coating is identified.

Two-photon interactions of entangled-photon pairs with metallic nanoparticles (NPs) can be enhanced by localized surface-plasmon resonance. Recently, we have described how the properties of this quantum light-matter interaction can be deduced from classical second-harmonic generation measurements performed using a reference-free hyper-Rayleigh scattering method. Herein, we report the results of such classical-light characterization measurements. We obtain a large hyperpolarizability for the NPs, present the dependence of the hyperpolarizability on the NPs' spectral features, and show a dipolar emission pattern for the second-harmonic signal. Our results can be used to optimize entangled-photon pair interactions with metallic NPs to enable first ever detection of this process. Moreover, these results suggest that NPs may be used as source for ultra-broadband entangled-photon pairs through nonphase …

Considering the global spread of bacterial infections, the development of anti-biofilm surfaces with high antimicrobial activities is highly desired. This work unraveled a simple, sonochemical method for coating Cu2O nanoparticles (NPs) on three different flexible substrates: polyester (PE), nylon 2 (N2), and polyethylene (PEL). The introduction of Cu2O NPs on these substrates enhanced their surface hydrophobicity, induced ROS generation, and completely inhibited the growth of sensitive (Escherichia coli and Staphyloccocus aureus) and drug-resistant (MDR E. coli and MRSA) planktonic and biofilm. The experimental results confirmed that Cu2O-PE exhibited complete biofilm mass reduction ability for all four strains, whereas Cu2O-N2 showed more than 99% biomass inhibition against both drug-resistant and sensitive pathogens in 6 h. Moreover, Cu2O-PEL also indicated a 99.95, 97.73, 98.00, and 99.20 …