פרסומים

2023
Israel Alshanski, Toraskar, Suraj , Shitrit, Ariel , Gordon-Levitan, Daniel , jain , Prashant , Kikkeri, Raghavendra , Hurevich, Mattan , ו Yitzchaik, Shlomo . 2023. “Biocatalysis Versus Molecular Recognition In Sialoside-Selective Neuraminidase Biosensing”. Acs Chemical Biology, 18, 3, Pp. 605-614. תקציר
Sialic acid recognition and hydrolysis are essential parts of cellular function and pathogen infectivity. Neuraminidases are enzymes that detach sialic acid from sialosides, and their inhibition is a prime target for viral infection treatment. The connectivity and type of sialic acid influence the recognition and hydrolysis activity of the many different neuraminidases. The common strategies to evaluate neuraminidase activity, recognition, and inhibition rely on extensive labeling and require a large amount of sialylated glycans. The above limitations make the effort of finding viral inhibitors extremely difficult. We used synthetic sialylated glycans and developed a label-free electrochemical method to show that sialoside structural features lead to selective neuraminidase biosensing. We compared Neu5Ac to Neu5Gc sialosides to evaluate the organism-dependent neuraminidase selectivity–sensitivity relationship. We demonstrated that the type of surface and the glycan monolayer density direct the response to either binding or enzymatic activity. We proved that while the hydrophobic glassy carbon surface increases the interaction with the enzyme hydrophobic interface, the negatively charged interface of the lipoic acid monolayer on gold repels the protein and enables biocatalysis. We showed that the sialoside monolayers can serve as tools to evaluate the inhibition of neuraminidases both by biocatalysis and molecular recognition.
Sara Genut ו Ben-David Kolikant, Yifat . 2023. “Bioinformatics As A Means To Attract Women To Computer Science”. Informatics In Education.
Tanya Zion-Waldoks. 2023. “Birth Of A Movement: Narratives Of The Haredi Feminist Emergence In Israel.”. Israel Studies, 28, 1, Pp. 70–89.
Dheeraj R Pasham, Lucchini, Matteo , Laskar, Tanmoy , Gompertz, Benjamin P, Srivastav, Shubham , Nicholl, Matt , Smartt, Stephen J, Miller-Jones, James CA, Alexander, Kate D, Fender, Rob , Smith, Graham P, Fulton, M. , Dewangan, Gulab , Gendreau, Keith , Coughlin, Eric R, Rhodes, Lauren , Horesh, Assaf , van Velzen, Sjoert , Sfaradi, Itai , Guolo, Muryel , Segura, Noel Castro, Aamer, Aysha , Anderson, Joseph P, Arcavi, Iair , Brennan, Seán J, Chambers, Kenneth , Charalampopoulos, Panos , Chen, Ting-Wan , Clocchiatti, A. , de Boer, Thomas , Dennefeld, Michel , Ferrara, Elizabeth , Galbany, Lluís , Gao, Hua , Gillanders, James H, Goodwin, Adelle , Gromadzki, Mariusz , Huber, M. , Jonker, Peter G, Joshi, Manasvita , Kara, Erin , Killestein, Thomas L, Kosec, Peter , Kocevski, Daniel , Leloudas, Giorgos , Lin, Chien-Cheng , Margutti, Raffaella , Mattila, Seppo , Moore, Thomas , Müller-Bravo, Tomás , Ngeow, Chow-Choong , Oates, Samantha , Onori, Francesca , Pan, Yen-Chen , Perez-Torres, Miguel , Rani, Priyanka , Remillard, Ronald , Ridley, Evan J, Schulze, Steve , Sheng, Xinyue , Shingles, Luke , Smith, Ken W, Steiner, James F, Wainscoat, Richard , Wevers, Thomas , ו Yang, Sheng . 2023. “The Birth Of A Relativistic Jet Following The Disruption Of A Star By A Cosmological Black Hole”. Nature Astronomy, 7, Pp. 88-104. doi:10.1038/s41550-022-01820-x.
Eitan Margulis, Lang, Tatjana , Tromelin, Anne , Ziaikin, Evgenii , Behrens, Maik , ו Niv, Masha Y.. 2023. “Bitter Odorants And Odorous Bitters: Toxicity And Human Tas2R Targets”. Journal Of Agricultural And Food Chemistryjournal Of Agricultural And Food Chemistry. . Publisher's Version תקציר
Flavor is perceived through the olfactory, taste, and trigeminal systems, mediated by designated GPCRs and channels. Signal integration occurs mainly in the brain, but some cross-reactivities occur at the receptor level. Here, we predict potential bitterness and taste receptors targets for thousands of odorants. BitterPredict and BitterIntense classifiers suggest that 3–9% of flavor and food odorants have bitter taste, but almost none are intensely bitter. About 14% of bitter molecules are expected to have an odor. Bitterness is more common for unpleasant smells such as fishy, amine, and ammoniacal, while non-bitter odorants often have pleasant smells. Experimental toxicity values suggest that fishy ammoniac smells are more toxic than pleasant smells, regardless of bitterness. TAS2R14 is predicted as the main bitter receptor for odorants, confirmed by in vitro profiling of 10 odorants. The activity of bitter odorants may have implications for physiology due to ectopic expression of taste and smell receptors.Flavor is perceived through the olfactory, taste, and trigeminal systems, mediated by designated GPCRs and channels. Signal integration occurs mainly in the brain, but some cross-reactivities occur at the receptor level. Here, we predict potential bitterness and taste receptors targets for thousands of odorants. BitterPredict and BitterIntense classifiers suggest that 3–9% of flavor and food odorants have bitter taste, but almost none are intensely bitter. About 14% of bitter molecules are expected to have an odor. Bitterness is more common for unpleasant smells such as fishy, amine, and ammoniacal, while non-bitter odorants often have pleasant smells. Experimental toxicity values suggest that fishy ammoniac smells are more toxic than pleasant smells, regardless of bitterness. TAS2R14 is predicted as the main bitter receptor for odorants, confirmed by in vitro profiling of 10 odorants. The activity of bitter odorants may have implications for physiology due to ectopic expression of taste and smell receptors.
Yair Amitai ו Sulitzeanu-Kenan, Raanan . 2023. “Blame Avoidance And Polarization: Challenges And Research Agenda”. בתוך The Politics And Governance Of Blame. Oxford University Press. תקציר
How do blame generation and avoidance function in affectively polarized societies? The concept of blame rests on two implicit assumptions. First, the existence of a cohesive electorate that shares a set of common values and a general agreement over factual realities. Second, this electorate holds politicians accountable for their policies and actions. This chapter contends that affective polarization erodes these assumptions. In affectively polarized societies, the electorate is sharply divided within two adversary political camps, which detrimentally reduces the scope of consensus in the society. This turns the electoral competition into a struggle between identities rather than policies and outcomes. Under these conditions, blame could operate significantly different from what the current blame avoidance literature predicts. We conclude by presenting a research agenda that offers a theoretical and empirical framework for future studies on the implications of affective polarization on blame generation and avoidance.
Amiad Harran-Diman ו Miodownik, Dan . 2023. “Bloody Pasts And Current Politics: The Political Legacies Of Violent Resettlement”. Comparative Political Studies. . Publisher's Version תקציר
 How does living on property taken from others affect voting behavior? Recent studies argued that benefiting from historical violence leads to support for the far right. We extend this literature with new theoretical insights and data from Israel, using case-specific variation in the nature of displacement to uncover heterogeneous treatment effects. Exploiting the coercion during the settlement of Jewish migrants on rural lands following the 1948 war, we show that living on lands taken from Palestinians consistently led to hawkish right-wing voting in the following 70 years. We also show that exposure to the ruins of the displaced villages increased right-wing voting and that the impact of intergroup contact is divergent: it decreased intolerant voting in most villages but increased it among Jewish communities that reside on violently taken land. Our results are robust when matching is used to account for several controls and spatiotemporal dependencies. 
Liliane Steiner. 6/6/2023. “The Bo/Ald Woman In Auschwitz: From Abjection To Writing”. Partial Answers, 21, 2, Pp. 303-320. . Publisher's Version
Life Writing Holocaust Literature Women Writers
תקציר

In their memoirs female Holocaust survivors recount the systematic misogynic attack of the female body in Auschwitz. The various literary figures that render, or rather testify to, a scene that is in every way repugnant to humanity in its violence, and the emphasis on the brutal physical aggression inflicted on women in Auschwitz underscore the resulting epistemological malaise.

From the memoirs of Eva Edith Eger (The Choice), Livia Bitton-Jackson (I Have Lived a Thousand Years), Rena Kornreich Gellisen (Rena's Promise), and Erna Rubinstein (The Survivor in Us All), there emerges a collective portrait of the subversive Jewish woman who resists the heavy weight of the Nazi power. Through a close reading of female Holocaust survivors’ memoirs, this essay shows how the brutal assault on gender gave birth – against all odds – to a new Jewish woman who not only overcomes the shock of being despoiled of her basic cultural and gender assets but uses this deprivation to rise above her condition and eventually to write her own self through what Helene Cixous calls “a language of revolution.”

 

March 2023: Steiner Liliane, Ph.D. Summa cum laude from Bar-Ilan University, is Senior Lecturer in Hemdat Hadarom College of Education. She specializes in comparative literature, gender studies, Holocaust studies, children's literature, philosophy, languages. She is the author of The Interaction between the Sexes, the Post-abjection of the Archaic Mother (Resling, 2014) and Between Breastfeeding and Exams (Mofet, 2019), both in Hebrew. Also in Hebrew she has published three children’s books: Hila's Choice (Sefer Lakol, 1995), Bittersweet Chocolate (Contento, 2014), and The Two Overseers of the Synagogue (Gefen, 2017).

Betty Rojtman. 6/11/2023. “The Book Of Esther: Notes For A Traditional Reading”. Partial Answers, 21, 2, Pp. 209-214. . Publisher's Version
The Biblical Literary
תקציר

The paper offers a comment, from the platform of traditional Jewish exegesis, on some of the issues that Magdalen Ki’s article deals with from a more presentist perspective. It highlights the subtlety of the rabbinical approach as well as its modernity and the complexity of the issues that it raises — social (the condition of women and of minorities), philosophical (the absence of God) and symbolic (intertextual reminiscences).

In particular, it is difficult to understand the armed struggle with which this story ends without placing it back into its precise historical context. This episode, which tells of the first organized genocidal project directed against the Jewish people, will serve as a paradigm for the whole history of antisemitism.

March 2023: 

Betty Rojtman is Professor Emerita at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has been the Katherine Cornell Professor of Comparative Literature. As the chair of the Department of French studies, she has founded the Desmarais Center for French Culture at the Hebrew University, and headed it for many years. Her current research deals with Transcendence and Negativity in traditional Jewish sources (Midrash, Hassidism, Kabbalah) and (post)modern texts (literature, philosophy).

Professor Rojtman is the author of several books, including Feu noir sur Feu Blanc: Essai sur l'herméneutique juive (Verdier, 1986); English translation, by Steven Rendall, Black Fire on White Fire: An Essay on Jewish Hermeneutics, from Midrash to Kabbalah, Prefaced by Moshe Idel, 1998), Une grave distraction. Preface by Paul Ricoeur (Balland, 1991), Une Rencontre improbable: Equivoques de la destinée (Gallimard, 2002).

In parallel to her academic work, she writes meditative and poetical essays (Le Pardon à la lune: Essai sur le tragique biblique, Gallimard, 2001. trans. Hebrew by Nir Ratzkovski, Seli’hat halevana, Al hatragiut hatana’hit, Jerusalem, Carmel, 2008), Moïse, prophète des nostalgies (Gallimard, 2007).

Her most recent essay (Une faim d’abîme. La fascination de la mort dans l’écriture contemporaine, Desclée de Brouwer, 2019), has come out in English as Longing for the Abyss: The fascination for death in Contemporary French Thought, trans. Bartholomew Begley (New York: Palgrave-MacMillan, 2020) and in Hebrew as Kemiha Latehom. Kessem Hamavet bahagut hatzarfatit shel hameah haesserim, trans. Itay Blumenzweig (Tel-Aviv: Resling, 2020).

 

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Fyodor Malchik, Maldybayev, Kairgali , Kan, Tatyana , Kokhmetova, Saule , Chae, Munseok S, Kurbatov, Andrey , Galeyeva, Alina , Kaupbay, Olzhas , Nimkar, Amey , Bergman, Gil , Levi, Noam , Zhang, Hui , Jin, Qianqian , Lin, Zifeng , Shpigel, Netanel , ו Mandler, Daniel . 2023. “Boosting The Capacity Of Mxene Electrodes In Neutral Aqueous Electrolytes”. Cell Reports Physical Science, 4, Pp. 101507. doi:10.1016/j.xcrp.2023.101507.
Fyodor Malchik, Maldybayev, Kairgali , Kan, Tatyana , Kokhmetova, Saule , Chae, Munseok S, Kurbatov, Andrey , Galeyeva, Alina , Kaupbay, Olzhas , Nimkar, Amey , Bergman, Gil , Levi, Noam , Zhang, Hui , Jin, Qianqian , Lin, Zifeng , Shpigel, Netanel , ו Mandler, Daniel . 2023. “Boosting The Capacity Of Mxene Electrodes In Neutral Aqueous Electrolytes”. Cell Reports Physical Science, 4. doi:10.1016/j.xcrp.2023.101507.
Lea Mauas ו Rotman, Diego . 2023. “Born In Translation And Iteration: On The Poetics Of JoÃO Delgado”. Arts, 12, Pp. 95. doi:10.3390/arts12030095. Publisher's Version תקציר
João Delgado’s poetry first appeared as an anthology of translated poetry in He’arat Shulaym Issue 1, published in November 2001 in Jerusalem by the artist collective Sala-Manca. The entire issue was devoted to João Delgado. Delgado was a Portuguese-Argentinean poet, born in Lisbon circa 1920 (or not), who left Portugal as a political refugee for Buenos Aires. He disappeared in 1976 during the military dictatorship in Argentina (1976–1983). Since 1976, there has been no trace of his fate, although new fragments of his work are constantly being discovered, translated, and published by the Sala-Manca group. There is no evidence of any originals of his work. Literary critics in Israel praised Delgado’s poetry and art and even identified previously unknown relationships to poets and artists from the European avantgarde. In Sala-Manca’s artistic work, dating back two decades, João Delgado and his heteronyms would have a central role and focus, blurring the boundaries of the group, blurring the fictional with the “real”, and proposing a subjectivity that embraces multiplicity and dispersion. Translating his poetry into Hebrew, a foreign language (to Delgado), and bringing it into print for the first time in neither its original language nor the cultural context in which it was created may be seen as a kind of de-contextualization of the poet’s poetry, since Delgado always kept himself and his oeuvre connected to the immediate surroundings where it was produced. On the other hand, perhaps it is actually this possibility—to “become only in translation”—that is one of the outstanding characteristics of Delgado’s poetry, emblematic of its linguistic and conceptual elasticity. This paper examines João Delgado’s poetic work in relation to Sala-Manca’s artistic work and the way in which both Sala-Manca and Delgado create a “system of life” by being heteronyms of one another, allowing for a multiplicity of identities, and stressing the relation to Others.
Simon Chamberland, Nebet, Erica R, Valero, Manuel , Hanani, Monica , Egger, Robert , Larsen, Samantha B, Eyring, Katherine W, Buzsáki, György , ו Tsien, Richard W. 2023. “Brief Synaptic Inhibition Persistently Interrupts Firing Of Fast-Spiking Interneurons”. Neuron, 111, 8, Pp. 1264-1281.e5. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2023.01.017. תקציר

Neurons perform input-output operations that integrate synaptic inputs with intrinsic electrical properties; these operations are generally constrained by the brevity of synaptic events. Here, we report that sustained firing of CA1 hippocampal fast-spiking parvalbumin-expressing interneurons (PV-INs) can be persistently interrupted for several hundred milliseconds following brief GABAR-mediated inhibition in vitro and in vivo. A single presynaptic neuron could interrupt PV-IN firing, occasionally with a single action potential (AP), and reliably with AP bursts. Experiments and computational modeling reveal that the persistent interruption of firing maintains neurons in a depolarized, quiescent state through a cell-autonomous mechanism. Interrupted PV-INs are strikingly responsive to Schaffer collateral inputs. The persistent interruption of firing provides a disinhibitory circuit mechanism favoring spike generation in CA1 pyramidal cells. Overall, our results demonstrate that neuronal silencing can far outlast brief synaptic inhibition owing to the well-tuned interplay between neurotransmitter release and postsynaptic membrane dynamics, a phenomenon impacting microcircuit function.

Rajarshi Mondal, Agbaria, Mohamed , Cohen, Orit , ו Nairoukh, Zackaria . 2023. “Brook Rearrangement As Trigger For Dearomatization Reaction: Synthesis Of Non-Aromatic N-Heterocycles.”. Chem. Eur. J. . Publisher's Version תקציר

The [1,2]-Brook rearrangement stands as a potent technique for constructing complex molecules. In this study, we showcase its power in the dearomatization of aromatic N-heterocycles. Through a concise four-step process that integrates lithiation, nucleophilic addition, Brook rearrangement and dearomatization reaction, we demonstrate a versatile strategy for generating diverse non-aromatic N-heterocycles with functional capabilities. Various acyl silanes, halo-pyridines, and quinolines have been explored within this context.

Ozlem Gonulkirmaz-Cancalar, Shertzer, Oded , ו Bloch, Guy . 2023. “Bumble Bees (Bombus Terrestris) Use Time-Memory To Associate Reward With Color And Time Of Day”. Insects, 14. doi:10.3390/insects14080707. Publisher's Version תקציר
Circadian clocks regulate ecologically important complex behaviors in honey bees, but it is not clear whether similar capacities exist in other species of bees. One key behavior influenced by circadian clocks is time-memory, which enables foraging bees to precisely time flower visitation to periods of maximal pollen or nectar availability and reduces the costs of visiting a non-rewarding flower patch. Bumble bees live in smaller societies and typically forage over shorter distances than honey bees, and it is therefore not clear whether they can similarly associate reward with time of day. We trained individually marked bumble bee (Bombus terrestris) workers to forage for sugar syrup in a flight cage with yellow or blue feeders rewarding either during the morning or evening. After training for over two weeks, we recorded all visitations to colored feeders filled with only water. We performed two experiments, each with a different colony. We found that bees tended to show higher foraging activity during the morning and evening training sessions compared to other times during the day. During the test day, the trained bees were more likely to visit the rewarding rather than the non-rewarding colored feeders at the same time of day during the test sessions, indicating that they associated time of day and color with the sugar syrup reward. These observations lend credence to the hypothesis that bumble bees have efficient time-memory, indicating that this complex behavior is not limited to honey bees that evolved sophisticated social foraging behaviors over large distances.
Michal Zuckerman Farkash, Birenboim, Amit , Fleischer, Aliza , ו Ben-Nun Bloom, Pazit . 2023. “Can Local Tours Disperse Tourists From City Centres?”. Current Issues In Tourism, Pp. 1–6.
Can resource windfalls reduce corruption? We find that, in democratic regimes with unlimited reelection, the answer is in the affirmative, contrasting a widely held view. The reason is that resource windfalls increase future graft prospects, motivating opportunistic incumbents to postpone their planned embezzlement, which in turn requires them to seek reelection and behave well in order to increase the reelection chances. Term limits mitigate, and may even reverse, this effect by inducing opportunistic incumbents that otherwise would seek reelection to step down. We test the model’s predictions using a panel of U.S. states over the period 1976–2007. Our identification strategy rests on constitutionally-entrenched differences in gubernatorial term limits, and geographically-based cross-state differences in natural resource endowments. Our baseline estimates point at a sizeable impact. We find that a one standard deviation increase in resource windfalls decreases the average corruption level in states with no term limits by 20%, but increases average corruption in states with term limits by 10%. These results suggest that the nature of political institutions is important for understanding the nexus between resource windfalls and corruption.
Can sociality facilitate learning of complex tasks? Lessons from bees and flowers
Tamar Keasar, Pourtallier, Odile , ו Wajnberg, Eric . 2023. “Can Sociality Facilitate Learning Of Complex Tasks? Lessons From Bees And Flowers”. Philosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B, 378, 1872, Pp. 20210402. . Publisher's Version
Sciences
Danielle Hen-Shoval, Moshe, Lital , Indig-Naimer, Talia , Mechoulam, Raphael , Shoval, Gal , Zalsman, Gil , Kogan, Natalya M, ו Weller, Aron . 2023. “Cannabinoid Receptor 2 Blockade Prevents Anti-Depressive-Like Effect Of Cannabidiol Acid Methyl Ester In Female Wky Rats”. Int J Mol Sci, 24, 4. doi:10.3390/ijms24043828. תקציר

The pathophysiology of major depressive disorder (MDD) is diverse and multi-factorial, yet treatment strategies remain limited. While women are twice as likely to develop the disorder as men, many animal model studies of antidepressant response rely solely on male subjects. The endocannabinoid system has been linked to depression in clinical and pre-clinical studies. Cannabidiolic Acid-Methyl Ester (CBDA-ME, EPM-301) demonstrated anti-depressive-like effects in male rats. Here, we explored acute effects of CBDA-ME and some possible mediating mechanisms, using a depressive-like genetic animal model, the Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rat. In Experiment 1, Female WKY rats underwent the Forced swim test (FST) following acute CBDA-ME oral ingestion (1/5/10 mg/kg). In Experiment 2, Male and female WKY rats underwent the FST after injection of CB1 (AM-251) and CB2 (AM-630) receptor antagonists 30 min before acute CBDA-ME ingestion (1 mg/kg, males; 5 mg/kg, females). Serum levels of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), numerous endocannabinoids and hippocampal Fatty Acid Amide Hydrolase (FAAH) levels were assessed. Results indicate that females required higher doses of CBDA-ME (5 and 10 mg/kg) to induce an anti-depressive-like effect in the FST. AM-630 blocked the antidepressant-like effect in females, but not in males. The effect of CBDA-ME in females was accompanied by elevated serum BDNF and some endocannabinoids and low hippocampal expression of FAAH. This study shows a sexually diverse behavioral anti-depressive response to CBDA-ME and possible underlying mechanisms in females, supporting its potential use for treating MDD and related disorders.

Markus Schleuning, Koelbach, Moritz , Ahmet, Ibbi , Praeg, Raphael , Gottesman, Ronen , Gunder, Rene , Zhang, Mengyuan , Wargulski, Dan Ralf, Abou-Ras, Daniel , Grave, Daniel A, Abdi, Fatwa F, van de Krol, Roel , Schwarzburg, Klaus , Eichberger, Rainer , Friedrich, Dennis , ו Hempel, Hannes . 2023. “Carrier Localization On The Nanometer-Scale Limits Transport In Metal Oxide Photoabsorbers”. Advanced Functional Materials, 33. doi:10.1002/adfm.202300065. Publisher's Version תקציר
Metal oxides are considered as stable and low-cost photoelectrode candidates for hydrogen production by photoelectrochemical solar water splitting. However, their power conversion efficiencies usually suffer from poor transport of photogenerated charge carriers, which has been attributed previously to a variety of effects occurring on different time and length scales. In search for common understanding and for a better photo-conducting metal oxide photoabsorber, CuFeO2, alpha-SnWO4, BaSnO3, FeVO4, CuBi2O4, alpha-Fe2O3, and BiVO4 are compared. Their kinetics of thermalization, trapping, localization, and recombination are monitored continuously 100 fs-100 mu s and mobilities are determined for different probing lengths by combined time-resolved terahertz and microwave spectroscopy. As common issue, we find small mobilities < 3 cm(2)V(-1)s(-1). Partial carrier localization further slows carrier diffusion beyond localization lengths of 1-6 nm and explains the extraordinarily long conductivity tails, which should not be taken as a sign of long diffusion lengths. For CuFeO2, the localization is attributed to electrostatic barriers that enclose the crystallographic domains. The most promising novel material is BaSnO3, which exhibits the highest mobility after reducing carrier localization by annealing in H-2. Such overcoming of carrier localization should be an objective of future efforts to enhance charge transport in metal oxides.