Some articles have revealed that the electrodeposition of calcium phosphate (CaP) coatings entails a precursor phase, similarly to biomineralization in vivo. The chemical composition of the initial layer and its thickness are, however, still arguable, to the best of our knowledge. Moreover, while CaP and electrodeposition of metal coatings have been studied utilizing atom-probe tomography (APT), the electrodeposition of CaP ceramics has not been heretofore studied. Herein, we present an investigation of the CaP deposition on a gold substrate. Using APT and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) it is found that a mixture of phases, which could serve as transient precursor phases to hydroxyapatite (HAp), can be detected. The thickness of these phases is tens of nanometers, and they consist of amorphous CaP (ACP), dibasic calcium phosphate dihydrate (DCPD), and octacalcium phosphate (OCP). This demonstrates the value of using atomic-resolved characterization techniques for identifying the precursor phases. It also indicates that the kinetics of their transformation into the more stable HAp is not too fast to enable their observation. The coating gradually displays higher Ca/P atomic ratios, a porous nature, and concomitantly a change in its density.
Background and objectives Attention bias modification treatment (ABMT) and cognitive bias modification of interpretation (CBM-I) both have demonstrated efficacy in alleviating social anxiety, but how they compare with each other, their combination, and with a combined control condition has not been studied. We examined their relative and combined efficacy compared to control conditions in a randomized controlled trial (RCT).
Small scale rainfall variability is a key factor driving runoff response in fast responding systems, such as mountainous, urban and arid catchments. In this paper, the spatial–temporal autocorrelation structure of convective rainfall is derived with extremely high resolutions (60 m, 1 min) using estimates from an X-Band weather radar recently installed in a semiarid-arid area. The 2-dimensional spatial autocorrelation of convective rainfall fields and the temporal autocorrelation of point-wise and distributed rainfall fields are examined. The autocorrelation structures are characterized by spatial anisotropy, correlation distances \~ 1.5–2.8 km and rarely exceeding 5 km, and time-correlation distances \~ 1.8–6.4 min and rarely exceeding 10 min. The observed spatial variability is expected to negatively affect estimates from rain gauges and microwave links rather than satellite and C-/S-Band radars; conversely, the temporal variability is expected to negatively affect remote sensing estimates rather than rain gauges. The presented results provide quantitative information for stochastic weather generators, cloud-resolving models, dryland hydrologic and agricultural models, and multi-sensor merging techniques.
חורבת מדרס, הממוקמת כ־ 15 ק"מ דרומית־מערבית לבית שמש, היא אתר מפתח לשחזור ההיסטוריה של היישוב הכפרי בשפלת יהודה במהלך התקופה הרומית. אף שהאתר מעולם לא נחפר באינטנסיביות, סקר של המתקנים התת־קרקעיים, כמה תגליות בעקבות שוד עתיקות וחפירות בקנה מידה מצומצם הראו שהיישוב העתיק בחורבת מדרס גדול ועשיר יותר מכל אתר כפרי אחר בשפלת יהודה בשלהי ימי הבית השני, וכי הייתה בו התיישבות אינטנסיבית גם בתקופה הביזנטית. עובדה זו עולה בקנה אחד עם ההצעה שהעלו כמה חוקרים, שהאתר נוסד מחדש בידי המלך הורדוס, שמשפחתו מוצאה באזור זה )אדומיאה(. עובדות אלו הובילו אותנו להעמיד את חורבת מדרס במוקד של פרויקט מחקרי העוסק בהמשכיות ושינוי במרחב הכפרי של יהודה מהתקופה ההלניסטית ועד התקופה הביזנטית. בסתיו 2015 ובסתיו 2016 ערכנו סקר ארכיאולוגי בחורבת מדרס מטעם המכון לארכיאולוגיה באוניברסיטה העברית בירושלים ובשיתוף פרופ' בועז זיסו מאוניברסיטת בר־אילן. שבוע סקר נוסף בסיועם של מיקה אולמן ובועז לנגפורד מטעם המלח"ם התקיים במקביל לעונת החפירה הראשונה בספטמבר 2016 . הסקר כלל איסוף דקדקני של כלי חרס מפני השטח, מיפוי נקודות ציון של שרידי בנייה וחציבה ומיפוי מפורט של מערות חשובות. ניתוח מרחבי של השתרעות הממצא הקרמי שנאסף בסקר ותוארך מהתקופה ההלניסטית ועד התקופה העות'מאנית, ואופיים האדריכלי של השרידים הגלויים על פני השטח או החצובים בסלע, מאפשרים להעריך את השתרעותו של האתר בתקופות היישוב השונות. ניתוח זה גם אפשר במידה לא מבוטלת זיהוי אזורים פונקציונליים של היישוב בתקופות ההתיישבות העיקריות שלו – אזורי מגורים, מבני ציבור, הנקרופוליס ואזורי חקלאות, וכן זיהוי יעדים פוטנציאליים לחפירה ארכיאולוגית. במאמר יפורטו תוצאות הסקר שהעלו ממצאים השופכים אור חדש על האתר.
Biofilms are aggregates of microbial cells that form on surfaces and at interfaces and are encased in an extracellular matrix. In biofilms made by the soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis, the protein TapA mediates the assembly of the functional amyloid protein TasA into extracellular fibers and it also anchors these fibers to the cell surface. Here we used circular dichroism and NMR to show that, unlike the structured TasA, TapA is disordered. In addition, TapA is composed of two weakly interacting domains, a disordered C‐terminal domain and a more structured N‐terminal domain. These two domains also exhibited different structural changes in response to changes in external conditions, such as increased temperatures and the presence of lipid vesicles. While the two TapA domains weakly interacted in solution, their cooperative interaction with lipid vesicles prevented the vesicles' disruption, that was otherwise observed in the presence of the C‐terminal domain alone. Our findings therefore suggest that the two‐domain composition of TapA is important for its interaction with a single or with multiple partners in the extracellular matrix in biofilms.
Biofilms are aggregates of cells that form surface-associated communities. The cells in biofilms are interconnected with an extracellular matrix, a network that is made mostly of polysaccharides, proteins, and sometimes nucleic acids. Some extracellular matrix proteins form fibers, termed functional amyloid or amyloid-like, to differentiate their constructive function from disease-related amyloid fibers. Recent functional amyloid assembly studies have neglected their interaction with membranes, despite their native formation in a cellular environment. Here, we use TasA, a major matrix protein in biofilms of the soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis, as a model functional amyloid protein and ask whether the bacterial functional amyloid interacts with membranes. Using biochemical, spectroscopic, and microscopic tools, we show that TasA interacts distinctively with bacterial model membranes and that this interaction mutually influences the morphology and structure of the protein and the membranes. At the protein level, fibers of similar structure and morphology are formed in the absence of membranes and in the presence of eukaryotic model membranes. However, in the presence of bacterial model membranes, TasA forms disordered aggregates with a different β sheet signature. At the membrane level, fluorescence microscopy and anisotropy measurements indicate that bacterial membranes deform more considerably than eukaryotic membranes upon interaction with TasA. Our findings suggest that TasA penetrates bacterial more than eukaryotic model membranes and that this leads to membrane disruption and to reshaping the TasA fiber formation pathway. Considering the important role of TasA in providing integrity to biofilms, our study may direct the design of antibiofilm drugs to the protein–membrane interface.
How does the European Union integrate new values into the text of its treaties? A growing body of literature indicates that, in the past three decades, new norms and values have entered the EU's discourse, resulting in what is usually termed ‘normative power Europe’. Yet the research and knowledge to-date about the EU's discursive assimilation of new values and norms is surprisingly poor. As any institutional change, such integration has the potential to undermine the coherence of the EU's identity and thus also its objective to ‘speak with one voice’. This article explores the EU's discursive management of the continuity-versus-change imperative by analysing the integration of new values into the text of its treaties. This issue is addressed based on a quantitative content analysis on the full texts of European founding treaties between the 1950s and 2009. Findings show that the distribution of the EU's values in the text is not uniform: while the language of market economy and democracy is pervasive, the values of peace, European identity, rights and social justice are mentioned less frequently and in restricted linguistic environments. To account for the differences in the integration of values into the EU's treaty discourse, the article develops the notion of a discursive mechanism of differentiated value integration (MDVI). This rationale echoes the logic of differentiation in policy implementation employed by the EU. It is claimed here that, applied in the European discursive arena, MDVI allows radically different readings of the same text. This helps the EU to maintain a coherent value identity while at the same time enabling change.
3D printed electronics is an emerging field of high importance in both academic research and industrial manufg. It enables fabrication of 3D devices with embedded or conformal electronic circuits, which are relevant to a variety of applications, such as Internet of things, soft robotics, and medical devices. Patterning of elec. conductors with cond. higher than 50% bulk copper is challenging and usually involves electroless or electrolytic deposition processes that require the use of very costly catalyst, mainly palladium, as a seed material. Here, the use of a binuclear copper complex as a very efficient replacement for the conventional catalysts, which can be directly inkjet printed onto 3D plastic objects, is described. After printing, the copper complex is converted into pure copper upon short exposure to low-temp. plasma. By combining the binuclear complex with electroless plating, resistivity as low as 2.38 μΩ cm, which corresponds to a 72% cond. of bulk copper, is obtained. The applicability of the complex ink and the process is demonstrated in the fabrication of a near-field communication antenna on a 3D printed plastic object. [on SciFinder(R)]
Biomineralization is a mineral precipitation process occurring in the presence of organic molecules and used by various organisms to serve a structural and/or a functional role. Many biomineralization processes occur in the presence of extracellular matrices that are composed of proteins and polysaccharides. Recently, there is growing evidence that bacterial biofilms induce CaCO3 mineralization and that this process may be related with their extracellular matrix (ECM). In this study we explore, in vitro, the effect of two bacterial ECM proteins, TasA and TapA, and an exopolysaccharide, EPS, on calcium carbonate crystallization. We have found that all the three biopolymers induce the formation of complex CaCO3 structures. The crystals formed in the presence of the EPS are very diverse in morphology and they are either calcite or vaterite in structure. However, more uniformly sized calcite crystals are formed in the presence of the proteins; these crystals are composed of single crystalline domains that assemble together into spherulites (in the presence of TapA) or dumbbell-like shapes (in the presence of TasA). Our results suggest the EPS affects the nucleation of calcium carbonate when it induces the formation of vaterite crystals and that unlike EPS, the proteins stabilize preformed calcite nuclei and induce their aggregation into complex calcite structures. Biomineralization processes induced by bacterial ECM macromolecules make biofilms more robust and difficult to remove when they form, for example, on pipes and filters in water desalination systems or on ship hulls. Understanding the formation conditions and mechanism of formation of calcium carbonate in the presence of bacterial biopolymers may lead to the design of suitable mineralization inhibitors.
The aim of this article is to present the major ethical turn in Israeli documentary cinema during the past decade (2004-2016). This corpus, which shifts between the Holocaust and the Nakba, between Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Occupation, manifests an ethical transformation in the representation of self-other relations. Unraveling the social-cultural mechanism by which the occupier automatically becomes the victim, even when s/he has committed an injustice, is the indisputable contribution of Israeli documentary cinema to triggering cinematic and public nonconsensual discourse, laying the groundwork for what I term ‘Blood Relations’ films. These films – such as Nissim Mosek’s Citizen Nawi (2007), Shlomi Eldar’s Precious Life (2010), Naomi Lev’s Ameer Got His Gun (2011), Erez Laufer’s One Day after the Peace (2012), Noa Ben Hagay’s Blood Relation (2010), Nurit Kedar and Yaron Shany’s Life Sentences (2013), Anat Zuria’s The Lesson (2013), and Nadav Schirman’s The Green Prince (2014) – lead to an inter-ethnic reconciliation that subverts ethnic binarism and calls for fluidity in self-other subject positions. Intifada documentary cinema and especially the Blood Relations films constitute, thus, a new epistemology, one that stands in radical opposition to the continued failure of Israeli society (and fiction films) towards the Other and Otherness. To characterize the Blood Relations' agonistic reconciliation, I suggest connecting the discourse of ethics in the context of democracy and human rights (e.g., Alain Badiou, Chantal Mouffe) with the discourse of care ethics in the context of national, global, and militaristic processes (e.g., Joan Tronto, Fiona Robinson). Blood Relations films show to what extent the self and the Other, and mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion, are reliant on one another and bound to each other. In so doing, they strive for an ethical paradigm that promotes the similarity between the self and the Other and a sense of shared humanity.
An underlying assumption in computational approaches in cognitive and brain sciences is that the nervous system is an input–output model of the world: Its input–output functions mirror certain relations in the target domains. I argue that the input–output modelling assumption plays distinct methodological and explanatory roles. Methodologically, input–output modelling serves to discover the computed function from environmental cues. Explanatorily, input–output modelling serves to account for the appropriateness of the computed function to the explanandum information-processing task. I compare very briefly the modelling explanation to mechanistic and optimality explanations, noting that in both cases the explanations can be seen as complementary rather than contrastive or competing.
Sharon Gilad and Nissim Cohen. 2018. “Bureaucratic Politics in Israel.” In The Oxford Handbook of Israeli Politics and Society. Oxford University Press.
Floods comprise a dominant hydroclimatic phenomenon in aridlands with significant implications for humans, infrastructure, and landscape evolution worldwide. The study of short-term hydroclimatic variability, such as floods, and its forecasting for episodes of changing climate therefore poses a dominant challenge for the scientific community, and predominantly relies on modeling. Testing the capabilities of climate models to properly describe past and forecast future short-term hydroclimatic phenomena such as floods requires verification against suitable geological archives. However, determining flood frequency during changing climate is rarely achieved, because modern and paleoflood records, especially in arid regions, are often too short or discontinuous. Thus, coeval independent climate reconstructions and paleoflood records are required to further understand the impact of climate change on flood generation. Dead Sea lake levels reflect the mean centennial-millennial hydrological budget in the eastern Mediterranean. In contrast, floods in the large watersheds draining directly into the Dead Sea, are linked to short-term synoptic circulation patterns reflecting hydroclimatic variability. These two very different records are combined in this study to resolve flood frequency during opposing mean climates. Two 700-year-long, seasonally-resolved flood time series constructed from late Pleistocene Dead Sea varved sediments, coeval with significant Dead Sea lake level variations are reported. These series demonstrate that episodes of rising lake levels are characterized by higher frequency of floods, shorter intervals between years of multiple floods, and asignificantly larger number of years that experienced multiple floods. In addition, floods cluster into intervals of intense flooding, characterized by 75% and 20% increased frequency above their respective background frequencies during rising and falling lake-levels, respectively. Mean centennial precipitation in the eastern Mediterranean is therefore coupled with drastic changes in flood frequencies. These drastic changes in flood frequencies are linked to changes in the track, depth, and frequency of mid-latitude eastern Mediterranean cyclones, determining mean climatology resulting in wetter and drier regional climatic episodes.
