פרסומים

Photocatalytic hydrogen generation offers a sustainable method for generating solar fuels. Indium phosphide (InP) nanocrystal quantum dots (QDs), with their adjustable band gaps and versatile surface properties, present an eco-friendly alternative to heavy-metal-based semiconductor NCs as photocatalysts. We report the synthesis of wurtzite InP (w-InP) QDs and their performance as photocatalysts for hydrogen generation from water by using the red part of the solar spectrum. Size-controlled w-InP QDs with absorption edges extending to 750 nm were synthesized via a cation exchange route. Stabilized in water with sulfides, these QDs demonstrated higher hydrogen generation efficiencies compared with other narrow-band-gap QDs. The overall hydrogen generation efficiency sharply decreases with the size. A mixed-size approach combining the high efficiency of small QDs with the broad absorption range of large QDs enhances the solar-to-hydrogen conversion by a more effective utilization of the solar spectrum. Such an approach shows promise for effective solar fuel generation.

In Yehuda Amichai’s writings, recurrent instances of visiting ruins
serve to confront individuals with history. This motif appears to
engage with the romantic tradition prevalent in literature and art,
which typically glorifies the ancient majesty of ruins. However, Amichai’s
treatment of ruins diverges from this tradition; Rather than
employing ruins to impart a collective–historical lesson, he employs
them to underscore the ephemeral nature of human existence.
The first sections of this article explore these instances of visiting
ruins, while the subsequent sections focus on a specific subset:
ruined synagogues. Through depictions of synagogues in the Galilee
(in the northern part of Israel) and in Würzburg, both in his poetry
and prose, emerges the unique, humanistic ethics of Amichai’s
oeuvre.

Vertical farming has emerged as a sustainable, efficient, and climate-resilient food production method, which can improve food security. In most commercial vertical farms, harvesting is carried out manually, which are labor-intensive and costly. Numerous robotic grippers solutions have been developed for harvesting. However, they have limitations like restricted adaptivity, excessive mechanical stress on target, and poor accessibility, hindering their adoption for harvesting. Here, we present a tendon-driven gripper equipped with a capacitance-based contact sensor array. The proposed gripper can grow and twine around the target vegetable and adjust the tightness of its grip based on number of contacts. The proposed gripper can generate 4 to 10 N pulling force on bok choy and can also grip various gourds, leafy and podded vegetables. This work paves the way for harvesting automation in vertical farms. Apart from agriculture field, the smart gripper can also be used to grasp objects with various size, shape and weight in warehouse, and food & beverage industry.

This special issue on spatial macroeconomics aims to bridge the divide between spatial and macroeconomics. Defined in the introduction, spatial macroeconomics explores the interactions between economic activity and geographical space. The issue comprises eleven papers authored by a total of 32 researchers. These papers were selected through a combination of solicited submissions and an open call for contributions. Four papers within this special issue delve into spatial macroeconomic theory. They cover topics such as agglomeration economies for innovation, a neoclassical spatial general equilibrium growth model, the spatial sorting of heterogeneous workers and the impact of national industrial policies in strategic industries on trade. Additionally, seven papers offer empirical studies that encompass
a wide range of methodologies. These include general equilibrium models, input-output-based analyses and econometric models. The empirical research addresses various topics, such as the impact of trade on productivity, the trade-off between efficiency and equity, fiscal assistance, local and nationwide fiscal
multipliers, forced human displacement during wars and the spatial diffusion effects of renewable energy resource deployment.

Decision-making in animals often involves choosing actions while navigating the environment, a process markedly different from static decision paradigms commonly studied in laboratory settings. Even in decision-making assays in which animals can freely locomote, decision outcomes are often interpreted as happening at single points in space and single moments in time, a simplification that potentially glosses over important spatiotemporal dynamics. We investigated locomotor decision-making in Drosophila melanogaster in Y-shaped mazes, measuring the extent to which their future choices could be predicted through space and time. We demonstrate that turn-decisions can be reliably predicted from flies’ locomotor dynamics, with distinct predictability phases emerging as flies progress through maze regions. We show that these predictability dynamics are not merely the result of maze geometry or wall-following tendencies, but instead reflect the capacity of flies to move in ways that depend on sustained locomotor signatures, suggesting an active, working memory-like process. Additionally, we demonstrate that fly mutants known to have sensory and information-processing deficits exhibit altered spatial predictability patterns, highlighting the role of visual, mechanosensory, and dopaminergic signaling in locomotor decision-making. Finally, highlighting the broad applicability of our analyses, we generalize our findings to other species and tasks. We show that human participants in a virtual Y-maze exhibited similar decision predictability dynamics as flies. This study advances our understanding of decision-making processes, emphasizing the importance of spatial and temporal dynamics of locomotor behavior in the lead-up to discrete choice outcomes.

In light of the changing climate that jeopardizes future food security, genomic selection is emerging as a valuable tool for breeders to enhance genetic gains and introduce high-yielding varieties. However, predicting grain yield is challenging due to the genetic and physiological complexities involved and the effect of genetic-by-environment interactions on prediction accuracy. We utilized a chained model approach to address these challenges, breaking down the complex prediction task into simpler steps. A diversity panel with a narrow phenological range was phenotyped across three Mediterranean environments for various morpho-physiological and yield-related traits. The results indicated that a multi-environment model outperformed a single-environment model in prediction accuracy for most traits. However, prediction accuracy for grain yield was not improved. Thus, in an attempt to ameliorate the grain yield prediction accuracy, we integrated a spectral estimation of spike number, being a major wheat yield component, with genomic data. A machine learning approach was used for spike number estimation from canopy hyperspectral reflectance captured by an unmanned aerial vehicle. The spectral-based estimated spike number was utilized as a secondary trait in a multi-trait genomic selection, significantly improving grain yield prediction accuracy. Moreover, the ability to predict the spike number based on data from previous seasons implies that it could be applied to new trials at various scales, even in small plot sizes. Overall, we demonstrate here that incorporating a novel spectral-genomic chain-model workflow, which utilizes spectral-based phenotypes as a secondary trait, improves the predictive accuracy of wheat grain yield.

Book review

Fluorinated self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) have been utilized in a variety of applications such as transistors and optoelectronic devices. However, in most SAMs the fluorinated groups could not be positioned in high proximity to the surface due to steric effects. This limitation hinders the direct analysis of the impact of the fluorination level on surface properties. Herein, fluorinated aromatic N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs), with 1–5 fluorine atoms, were self-assembled on a gold substrate. These NHCs enabled the positioning of fluorinated groups in high proximity to the metal surface to identify the influence of the fluorination level on surface properties. Experimental measurements and theoretical calculations identified that all fluorinated NHCs formed SAMs and adopted a flat-lying adsorption configuration while anchored to the metal surface via Au adatom. A higher fluorination level induced a stronger interaction of the fluorinated side groups with the Au surface. The stronger interaction and surface proximity of the fluorinated side groups deteriorated the overall binding energy of the NHC due to the less-optimized adsorption geometry of the carbene carbon. Ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy measurements revealed that fluorinated NHC monolayers lowered the surface work function by up to 1 eV and induced an increase of 15–20° in the water contact angle. The impact on surface properties did not vary according to the fluorination level of NHCs, and similar values were measured for NHC with 1–5 fluorine atoms. It is therefore identified that dominant adsorbate–substrate interactions between the fluorinated side groups and the Au surface quenched the distinct impact of the fluorination level on surface functionality.

Struggling for Time examines how time is used as a mechanism of control by the Israeli state and a site of mundane resistance among Palestinian agriculture professionals. Natalia Gutkowski unpacks power structures to show how a settler society lays moral claim on indigenous time through agrarian environmental policies, science, technologies, landscapes, and bureaucracy. Shifting the analysis of Israel/Palestine from land and space to time, she offers new insight into the operation of power in agrarian environments and develops a contemporary framework to understand land and resource grabs under temporal justifications.

Traveling across both policymaking arenas and Palestinian citizens' agrarian fields, Gutkowski follows the multiple ways that state officials, agronomists, planners, environmentalists, and agriculturalists use time as a tool of collective agency. Through investigations of wetland drainage in Galilee, transformations in olive agriculture, sustainable agrarian development, and regulation of the shmita biblical commandment, the "year of release" for agricultural fields, this work highlights how Palestinian citizens' agriculture has become a site for the state to settle and mediate time conflicts to justify its existence. As Struggling for Time demonstrates, time politics will take on ever greater urgency as societies and governments plan for an uncertain future in our era of climate change.