Bar Ilan University

Broad area laser diodes are attractive for the high optical power they can produce. Unfortunately, this high power normally comes at the cost of severely reduced spatial coherence since the wide area of the diode wave-guide is inherently spatially multi-mode along the slow axis. We demonstrate a method to significantly improve the spatial coherence of a high-power broad-area diode by placing it in an external cavity that is mode selective. We design the cavity, such that the diode aperture acts as its own spatial filter, obviating the need for an intra-cavity slit-filter, and optimally utilizing the entire gain medium. We demonstrate this soft filtering method using wide diodes of 200μm and 300μm widths and compare its power-efficiency to the standard approach of hard-filtering with a slit. We obtain high-gain operation in a pure single-mode, demonstrating up to 1.5W CW power at 1064nm with excellent beam quality ( M <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> = 1.3 at 90% power).

Polite theory combination is a method for obtaining a solver for a combination of two (or more) theories using the solvers of each individual theory as black boxes. Unlike the earlier Nelson–Oppen method, which is usable only when both theories are stably infinite, only one of the theories needs to be strongly polite in order to use the polite combination method. In its original presentation, politeness was required from one of the theories rather than strong politeness, which was later proven to be insufficient. The first contribution of this paper is a proof that indeed these two notions are different, obtained by presenting a polite theory that is not strongly polite. We also study several variants of this question. The cost of the generality afforded by the polite combination method, compared to the Nelson–Oppen method, is a larger space of arrangements to consider, involving variables that are not necessarily shared between the purified parts of the input formula. The second contribution of this paper is a hybrid method (building on both polite and Nelson–Oppen combination), which aims to reduce the number of considered variables when a theory is stably infinite with respect to some of its sorts but not all of them. The time required to reason about arrangements is exponential in the worst case, so reducing the number of variables considered has the potential to improve performance significantly. We show preliminary evidence for this by demonstrating significant speed-up on a smart contract verification benchmark.

The current political landscape in Israel, with countrywide demonstrations occurring weekly, and citizens calling for democracy in the face of initiatives introduced by the coalition, may be regarded as transformative events with potential constitutional implications. This article explores the question of whether Israel is experiencing a ‘constitutional moment’ and what such a moment entails, taking into account the intricate social, legal and political reality of the country. I argue that the current events should be examined and analysed within a broader context of processes that have been occurring in the Israeli society and legal system over the past two decades. These processes may hinder or create challenges for the realisation of a constitutional moment, rather than facilitating progress towards that goal. Correspondingly, the article lays the basic foundations for the occurrence of an Israeli constitutional moment, which I refer to as ‘constitutionalising Israel's constitutional system’.

The introduction of the water‐in‐salt (WIS) concept, using highly concentrated electrolyte solutions to prevent water splitting and widen the electrochemical stability window, has greatly influenced modern aqueous batteries. The successful implementation of these electrolyte solutions in many electrochemical systems shifts the focus from diluted to WIS electrolyte solutions. Considering the high costs and the tendency of these nearly saturated solutions to crystallize, this trend can be carefully re‐evaluated. Herein we show that the stability of organic electrodes comprising the active material perylene‐3,4,9,10‐tetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA), is strongly influenced by the solvation character of the anions rather than the concentration of the electrolyte solution. Even though the charging process of PTCDA involves solely insertion of cations (i.e., principal counter‐ions), surprisingly, the dominant factor influencing its electrochemical performance, including long‐term electrode stability, is the type of the co‐ions (i.e., electrolytic anions). Using systematic electrochemical analysis combined with theoretical simulations, we show that the selection of kosmotropic anions results in fast fading of the PTCDA anodes, while a selection of chaotropic anions leads to excellent stability, even at electrolytes concentrations as low as 0.2M. These findings provide a new conceptual approach for designing advanced electrolyte solutions for aqueous batteries.

The introduction of the water‐in‐salt (WIS) concept, using highly concentrated electrolyte solutions to prevent water splitting and widen the electrochemical stability window, has greatly influenced modern aqueous batteries. The successful implementation of these electrolyte solutions in many electrochemical systems shifts the focus from diluted to WIS electrolyte solutions. Considering the high costs and the tendency of these nearly saturated solutions to crystallize, this trend can be carefully re‐evaluated. Herein we show that the stability of organic electrodes comprising the active material perylene‐3,4,9,10‐tetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA), is strongly influenced by the solvation character of the anions rather than the concentration of the electrolyte solution. Even though the charging process of PTCDA involves solely insertion of cations (i.e., principal counter‐ions), surprisingly, the dominant factor influencing its electrochemical performance, including long‐term electrode stability, is the type of the co‐ions (i.e., electrolytic anions). Using systematic electrochemical analysis combined with theoretical simulations, we show that the selection of kosmotropic anions results in fast fading of the PTCDA anodes, while a selection of chaotropic anions leads to excellent stability, even at electrolytes concentrations as low as 0.2M. These findings provide a new conceptual approach for designing advanced electrolyte solutions for aqueous batteries.

We study the variance of the number of zeroes of a stationary Gaussian process on a long interval. We give a simple asymptotic description under mild mixing conditions. This allows us to characterise minimal and maximal growth. We show that a small (symmetrised) atom in the spectral measure at a special frequency does not affect the asymptotic growth of the variance, while an atom at any other frequency results in maximal growth.

Aims: The transition to parenthood is considered one of the most important milestones in a person’s life, bringing with it various changes and challenges. One possible outcome of such a life-altering and stressful event is the experience of personal growth (PG). This study examines the contribution of a mother’s personal resources (emotion regulation strategies, resilience) and environmental resources (sense of community) to her PG following the transition to motherhood, taking into account the role played by ethnicity. Methods: Data was collected from 402 Israeli Arab, Israeli Jewish, and Turkish first-time mothers of babies up to twenty-four months old. Results: It was found that Israeli Arab mothers reported significantly higher expressive suppression and PG than the other two groups. In addition, Israeli Arab mothers scored significantly higher on resilience, and Israeli Jewish mothers scored significantly higher on sense of community, than Turkish mothers. After controlling for mother and baby background variables, cognitive reappraisal and sense of community were found to predict PG. Two interactions emerged: higher sense of community was related to greater PG only among Israeli Arab mothers; and a positive association between resilience and growth was found only among Israeli Jewish mothers. The results are discussed in relation to the literature. Conclusion: Personal and environmental resources contribute differently to growth of first-time mothers in different cultures. Thus, rather than implementing the same type of intervention in all cultures, appropriate interventions should be tailored for each culture in accordance with its unique characteristics.

In two pre-registered experiments with German samples, we tested the role of endorsement of the Madonna-whore-dichotomy and the relationship context (sex in a committed relationship vs. casual sex) in the devaluation of women’s sexual pleasure. Using the context of dating apps in Study 1, men who reported higher endorsement of the Madonna-whore-dichotomy believed that other men would be less interested in fulfilling a woman’s sexual desires, show her less respect, and be less likely to wear a condom independent of relationship context (i.e., casual hookup dating app vs. a dating app for a serious relationship). In Study 2, men who reported higher endorsement of the Madonna-whore-dichotomy rated their partner as less entitled to sexual pleasure than men lower on Madonna-whore dichotomy endorsement. In addition, women who reported higher endorsement of the Madonna-whore dichotomy devalued their own pleasure by rating their partner as more entitled to sexual pleasure than themselves, compared to those lower on the Madonna-whore dichotomy. Although relationship context and Madonna-whore dichotomy endorsement did not interact, they were both found to negatively predict women’s sexual pleasure. These results provide further support for the potential costs of enacting traditional, patriarchal gender roles for women’s experiences of sexual pleasure and safety.

We determined whether COVID-19 vaccination was associated with Quality of Life (QoL) changes among individuals previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 in Israel. Using a validated questionnaire, we collected information about socio-demographics, SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19 vaccination and QoL (using the EQ-5D-5L tool) 3–18 months post-infection among adults tested for SARS-CoV-2 by polymerase chain reaction in Northern Israel between March 2020–June 2022. We compared post-COVID QoL between those vaccinated against COVID-19 at the time of infection and those not, using an adjusted linear regression model, stratified by time elapsed since infection. Of 951 participants, mean EQ-5D Utility Index (EQ-5D UI) was 0.82 (SD = 0.26) and 0.83 (SD = 0.25) among the 227 double and 250 triple vaccinated respectively, compared to 0.76 (SD = 0.33) among those who received 0 dose (n = 243). The size of the effect of vaccination was small (Cohen’s d = 0.2). In the adjusted model, previously infected individuals vaccinated with two or more doses reported a QoL score post- infection 0.05 points higher (CI = 0.01–0.10, p = 0.02) compared with those unvaccinated when infected. No association between vaccination and QoL was detected beyond 12 months post-infection. Vaccination with two or more doses of COVID19 vaccine, or at least the BNT162b2 vaccine, may modestly mitigate QoL losses associated with post-acute COVID-19 symptoms, at least in the first 12 months post-infection.

Introduction Negative pressure pulmonary edema (NPPE) is a potentially life‐threatening complication that develops rapidly following acute upper airway obstruction. The condition is rare, dramatic but resolves quickly. Prompt recognition and appropriate supportive treatment may prevent unnecessary investigations and iatrogenic complications. Methods We describe a spectrum of etiologies and clinical manifestation of pediatric NPPE in our center and review of previous publications. Conclusion The etiology for the development of NPPE in children has shifted over the years. Although dramatic in presentation, this type of pulmonary edema often resolves quickly with minimal support.

Moving toward a full suite of proof-producing automated reasoning tools with SMT solvers that can produce full, independently checkable proofs for real-world problems.

New media platforms offer diverse modes of mediation of every day and tourist places and communities. Spatial social media now augment older forms of mediation, partly by enabling contributions from ‘ordinary’ users, who create and share spatial discourses. This study examines the discursive construction of peripheral places, produced through user-generated content. Employing qualitative methodology, we sample and analyze 1,053 texts, shared on Google Maps in southern regions of Israel. The key conclusions suggest that compared to traditional media discourses depicting peripheral spaces in Israel, the findings demonstrate a shift from homogeneous depictions to more diverse and multilayered ones. Digital affordances result in more actors and stakeholders partaking in discursive construction, including private and institutional local players, visitors and tourists. Theoretical contributions are offered to the field of digital placemaking, by considering the subjective, evaluative and ideological layers that augment geographical data digital maps provide (‘bottom-up’ perspective), and to the fields of study of marginalized peripheral and rural communities and tourism crisis in peripheral (post-Coronavirus) locations.

To what extent do minority grievances contribute to intrastate conflict? Against the backdrop of rising discrimination against religious minorities worldwide, Religious Minorities at Risk offers new insights into classic debates on the influences of discrimination, deprivation, and inequality (DDI) on minority grievances and conflict behavior. It does so by utilizing original data on 771 religious minorities in 183 countries between 2000 and 2014. The book demonstrates that DDI is a significant cause of minority grievances which, in turn, deeply influence their conflict behaviors. It also shows the different effects of governmental and societal religious discrimination versus political and economic marginalization. Religious, political, and economic grievances each escalate conflict intensity by aggrieved minorities in different ways. Ultimately, the book shows that collective grievances remain a powerful explanation for minorities’ conflict behaviors; although influenced by DDI, they are not reducible to them. While religious factors, including religious discrimination and grievances, uniquely contribute to minority conflict behavior, the overall patterns observed for religious minorities closely mirror those typically theorized for other minority groups. Minority conflict intensity reflects the difficulties states encounter in accommodating them. Whereas religious grievances are relatively easily accommodated and therefore rarely escalate beyond rioting, political grievances influence a wider range, from nonviolent protest to organized violence against civilians. Economic grievances, which demand costly systemic reforms, more often escalate to rebellion. An essential work on the causes of intercommunal and intrastate conflict, this will assist academics and policymakers dealing with these issues.

Specificity within the ubiquitin–proteasome system is primarily achieved through E3 ubiquitin ligases, but for many E3s their substrates—and in particular the molecular features (degrons) that they recognize—remain largely unknown. Current approaches for assigning E3s to their cognate substrates are tedious and low throughput. Here we developed a multiplex CRISPR screening platform to assign E3 ligases to their cognate substrates at scale. A proof-of-principle multiplex screen successfully performed ~100 CRISPR screens in a single experiment, refining known C-degron pathways and identifying an additional pathway through which Cul2FEM1B targets C-terminal proline. Further, by identifying substrates for Cul1FBXO38, Cul2APPBP2, Cul3GAN, Cul3KLHL8, Cul3KLHL9/13 and Cul3KLHL15, we demonstrate that the approach is compatible with pools of full-length protein substrates of varying stabilities and, when combined with site-saturation mutagenesis, can assign E3 ligases to their cognate degron motifs. Thus, multiplex CRISPR screening will accelerate our understanding of how specificity is achieved within the ubiquitin–proteasome system.

A suffix tree is a fundamental data structure for string processing and information retrieval, however, its structure is still not well understood. The suffix trees reverse engineering problem, which its research aims at reducing this gap, is the following. Given an ordered rooted tree T with unlabeled edges, determine whether there exists a string w such that the unlabeled-edges suffix tree of w is isomorphic to T. Previous studies on this problem consider the relaxation of having the suffix links as well as assume a binary alphabet. This paper is the first to consider the suffix tree detection problem, in which the relaxation of having suffix links as input is removed. We study suffix tree detection on two scenarios that are interesting per se. We provide a suffix tree detection algorithm for general alphabet periodic strings. Given an ordered tree T with n leaves, our detection algorithm takes \(O(n+|\varSigma |^p)\)-time, where p is the unknown in advance length of a period that repeats at least 3 times in a string S having a suffix tree structure identical to T, if such S exists. Therefore, it is a polynomial time algorithm if p is a constant and a linear time algorithm if, in addition, the alphabet has a sub-linear size. We also show some necessary (but insufficient) conditions for binary alphabet general strings suffix tree detection. By this we take another step towards understanding suffix trees structure.

Hoarding behavior is prevalent in children and adolescents, yet clinicians do not routinely inquire about it and youth may not spontaneously report it due to stigma. It is unknown whether hoarding behavior, over and above obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS), is associated with major clinical factors in a general youth population. This observational study included N = 7054 youth who were not seeking help for mental health problems (ages 11–21, 54% female) and completed a structured interview that included evaluation of hoarding behavior and OCS, as a part of the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort between November 2009 and December 2011. We employed regression models with hoarding behavior and OCS (any/none) as independent variables, and continuous (linear regression) or binary (logistic regression) mental health measures as dependent variables. All models covaried for age, sex, race, and socioeconomic status. A total of 374 participants endorsed HB (5.3%), most of which reported additional OCS (n = 317). When accounting for OCS presence, hoarding behavior was associated with greater dimensional psychopathology burden (i.e., higher P-factor) (β = 0.19, p < .001), and with poorer functioning (i.e., lower score on the child global assessment scale) (β = − 0.07, p < .001). The results were consistent when modeling psychopathology using binary variables. The results remained significant in sensitivity analyses accounting for count of endorsed OCS and excluding participants who met criteria for obsessive-compulsive disorder (n = 210). These results suggest that hoarding behavior among youth is associated with poorer mental health and functioning, independent of OCS. Brief hoarding-behavior assessments in clinical settings may prove useful given hoarding behavior’s stigma and detrimental health associations.

Background Cancer risk after long‐term exposure to interleukin (IL)‐23 inhibitors (IL‐23i) and IL‐17 inhibitors (IL‐17i) remains to be delineated. Objective To evaluate the risk of malignancies in patients with psoriasis treated with IL‐23i and IL‐17i relative to those prescribed tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi) during the first 5 years following drug initiation. Methods A global population‐based cohort study included two distinct analyses comparing patients with psoriasis under different therapeutic modalities; (i) new users of IL‐17i(n=15,331) versus TNFi(n=15,331) and (ii) new users of IL‐23i(n=5,832) versus TNFi(n=5,832). Results Patients prescribed IL‐17i experienced a decreased risk of non‐Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL; HR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.40‐0.82; P=0.002), colorectal cancer (HR, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.49‐0.95; P=0.024), hepatobiliary cancer (HR, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.58‐0.80; P<0.001), ovary cancer (HR, 0.48; 95% CI, 0.29‐0.81; P=0.005), melanoma (HR, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.37‐0.73; P<0.001), and basal cell carcinoma (BCC; HR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.48‐0.67; P<0.001). IL‐23i was associated with a reduced risk of NHL (HR, 0.39; 95% CI, 0.19‐0.78; P=0.006), hepatobiliary cancer (HR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.31‐0.62; P<0.001) and BCC (HR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.57‐0.99; P=0.046). In a sensitivity analysis comparing patients managed by IL‐17i and IL‐23i with their biologic‐naïve counterparts, these classes were associated with decreased risk of several malignancies. Conclusion IL‐17i and IL‐23i are associated with decreased risk of several malignancies. These findings should be considered prior to the prescription of biologics. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Social workers have had a pivotal role in handling the challenges faced by people dealing with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Supporting clients who have undergone traumatic experiences during a global pandemic may increase the risk of experiencing secondary traumatic stress. This study examined two protective factors that may be key in the association between stress and social workers’ secondary traumatic stress: Psychological capital (internal protective factor) and satisfaction with supervision (external factor). The study sample included 104 Israeli social workers who worked in their profession during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. A regression-based path analysis was conducted to test the moderation model with the PROCESS software. Findings Self-efficacy significantly moderated the association between perceived stress and intrusion; increasing self-efficacy decreases perceived stress's effect on intrusion. Although no significant moderating effect was found for the existence of supervision, the interaction between perceived stress and satisfaction with supervision was significant in predicting secondary trauma. Applications Social workers’ unions must work to improve the quality of supervision and raise awareness of the importance of supervision in general and particularly during times of crisis. Manageable workloads, a reasonable balance between work and home, and verbal and financial encouragement to seek professional psychological assistance would all be to the advantage of social workers at risk for secondary trauma.

The production and consumption of meat and animal products have been associated with an array of ethical, health, and environmental issues. While social scientists have increasingly focused on meat reduction and the promotion of meat alternatives in recent years, and have identified a number of regional, seasonal, and sociodemographic variations in consumption, empirical work is often based on self-reported data. To build a greater understanding of actual dietary habits, we seek to provide analysis based on real food purchase data by aggregating data from different sources. To this end, we explore the consumption of meat and animal products in the Tesco 1.0 dataset, an Open Access dataset representing 420 million food item purchases made by 1.6 million loyalty card users at 411 Tesco stores across Greater London in 2015. The data is aggregated most granularly at the level of monthly purchase of 11 broad food categories in 4833 lower super output areas (LSOA—the smallest geographic area). We represented the consumption of meat and animal products graphically for each month of the year and for each of 33 London boroughs. In general, we found that the spring and summer months had the highest consumption of meat and animal products, including poultry, and this decreased in autumn. We also combined the Tesco 1.0 dataset with datasets from the London Datastore (a free and open data-sharing portal that provides over a thousand datasets to understand the city and develop solutions to its problems), and identified several demographic factors as predictors for the meat consumption. Contrary to our hypothesis, areas with older, lower education, and more conservative populations had a lower proportion of meat consumed. In line with our hypotheses, a lower proportion of meat consumed could be observed in areas with higher population density, better health, and more Hindus. The purpose of this paper is to add to knowledge on regional, seasonal, and sociodemographic variations in animal product consumption, as well as provide a valuable overview of animal product consumption using a novel data source that comprises actual purchase data rather than self-reported consumption.