Search

Construction of disaster-resilient cities has attracted considerable attention. However, traditional methods of studying urban disaster resilience through experimental approaches are often constrained by various limitations, such as testing sites, costs and ethical considerations. To address these constraints, this paper proposes incorporating digital twin concepts into urban disaster resilience research. By establishing a connection between the physical realm of the city and its virtual counterpart, this approach utilizes digital simulations to overcome the limitations of experimental methods and enables dynamic deduction and control of the disaster process. This paper delves into three key aspects encompassing the acquisition of data from reality to the virtual space, disaster simulation within the virtual space, and translation of virtual insights into effective disaster prevention strategies in reality. It provides a comprehensive summary of relevant research endeavors from the authors’ research group and showcases the effectiveness and potential of the proposed techniques. These findings serve as references for pre-disaster planning, real-time emergency assessments, post-disaster rescue operations, and accident investigations for buildings and cities.

As a sustainable, environmentally friendly, and economically viable way to produce 1,3-butadiene, the ethanol-to-butadiene (ETB) process has received increasing attention recently. This ETB process normally requires catalysts with suitable acidity and basicity, namely an acid–base balance. However, the origin of acid–base balance has not yet been elucidated. Herein, we demonstrate that by finely coordinating the interaction of ZnO and ZrO2, a butadiene productivity of 0.33 gBDgcat−1h−1at low WHSV and 1.39 gBDgcat−1h−1at high WHSV can be achieved. In contrast, pure ZnO prefers ethanol dehydrogenation to acetaldehyde and pure ZrO2favors ethanol dehydration to ethylene and diethyl ether. Through a variety of characterization techniques, we found that the interaction of ZnO and ZrO2alters the acidity and basicity of catalysts, resulting in volcanic shapes of ethanol conversion, butadiene selectivity, and butadiene yield in the ETB process. These findings provide in-depth insights into the understanding of the ETB process and may also apply to other reaction systems using ZnO–ZrO2as catalytically active components.

Replacing sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) by hydrazine oxidation reaction (HzOR) is a promising way to produce hydrogen and suppress unfavorable chlorine evolution reaction (ClER) in long-term seawater splitting. However, few catalysts can meet the demand to process outstanding hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and HzOR simultaneously to achieve relatively low cell voltage in a two-electrode system. Herein, we report bimetallic Ni4Mo/Ni4W nanoalloys as bifunctional catalysts with remarkable catalytic activity towards both HER (−7 mV at 10 mA cm−2) and HzOR (−16 mV at 10 mA cm−2). Surprisingly, low cell voltages of 34, 295 and 548 mV are required to achieve 10, 100 and 200 mA cm−2in a two-electrode system with ideal stability in 1.0 mol L−1KOH/2.0 mol L−1NaCl/0.1 mol L−1N2H4electrolyte. Density functional theory calculations disclose that the Ni−Mo/W coupling can not only reduce the free energy of water dissociation as well as hydrogen adsorption/desorption, but also optimize the dehydrogenation kinetics of adsorbed intermediates.

Ion conductive membranes (ICMs) with highly conductive proton selectivity are of significant importance and greatly desired for energy storage devices. However, it is extremely challenging to construct fast proton-selective transport channels in ICMs. Herein, a membrane with highly conductive proton selectivity was fabricated by incorporating porous carbon sieving nanospheres with a hollow structure (HCSNs) in a polymer matrix. Due to the precise ion sieving ability of the microporous carbon shells and the fast proton transport through their accessible internal cavities, this advanced membrane presented a proton conductivity (0.084 S·cm−1) superior to those of a commercial Nafion 212 (N212) membrane (0.033 S·cm−1) and a pure polymer membrane (0.049 S·cm−1). The corresponding proton selectivity of the membrane (6.68 × 105 S·min·cm−3) was found to be enhanced by about 5.9-fold and 4.3-fold, respectively, compared with those of the N212 membrane (1.13 × 105 S·min·cm−3) and the pure membrane (1.56 × 105 S·min·cm−3). Low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) clearly revealed the fast proton-selective transport channels enabled by the HCSNs in the polymeric membrane. The proposed membrane exhibited an outstanding energy efficiency (EE) of 84% and long-term stability over 1400 cycles with a 0.065% capacity decay per cycle at 120 mA·cm−2in a typical vanadium flow battery (VFB) system.

Multiscale engineering of efficient catalysts to optimize the adsorption energy of intermediates (atomic level) and achieve rapid mass transfer (three-dimensional (3D) bulk level) is crucial for boosting overall water splitting. In this work, we first create oxygen vacancies in nickel-iron hydroxide and then transform the hydroxide into NiFe-Vo-P having a nanoarray morphology viaphosphorization. During the oxygen evolution reaction, Ni(Fe)OOH and phosphate anions can be in situformed on the NiFe-Vo-P surface and optimize the adsorption strength of the intermediates. Consequently, NiFe-Vo-P could achieve a high current density of 1.5 A cm−2at an overpotential of 289 mV. Moreover, the superhydrophilic/superaerophobic nanoarray morphology of NiFe phosphide effectively facilitates the mass transfer, and NiFe-Vo-P achieves current densities of 580 mA cm−2and 1.0 A cm−2at a cell voltage of ∼2.0 V at 25 and 70°C, respectively, over twice those of its counterpart without the superaerophobic morphology.

AbstractAchieving controlled nanoparticle dispersion through melt processing has been challenging as processing-structure rules for polymer nanocomposites are still not well-defined. This work focuses on developing a quantitative understanding of the filler–matrix compatibility and melt mixing parameters on the dispersion of nanoparticles. Filler-matrix compatibility was varied by surface modification of silica nanoparticles. A twin screw extruder was used to prepare the nanocomposites and TEM imaging and image analysis were used to quantitively characterize the microstructure. It was found that matrix–filler compatibility strongly affected the method of agglomerate breakdown and dispersion. Under similar conditions, compatible systems tended to disperse via rupture of agglomerates while incompatible systems were found to disperse via erosion. A map was created to predict the dispersion mechanism as a function of processing conditions and system compatibility and systems from this study and literature were found to be in good agreement with the map.

Abstract

In this paper, we use finite element analysis (FEA) to study the linear viscoelastic response of polyurea, a type of hard–soft block copolymer. A Niblack’s algorithm-based technique employed on atomic force microscopy images provides geometry inputs for the FEA model, while the viscoelastic master curves of the soft matrix are obtained via a combination of dynamic mechanical analysis data and molecular dynamic (MD) estimations. In this microstructural image-based FEA framework, we introduce an interphase area of altered properties between the hard and soft domains. Both spatial and property distributions of this interphase area affect the viscoelastic response of the copolymer system. To quantitatively investigate the impact of structural and property features of the interphase on the energy storage and dissipation of a system during linear perturbation, we develop a statistical descriptor representation of the interphase region related to physical parameters. Utilizing decision-tree and random forest concepts from machine learning, we apply a ranking algorithm to identify the most significant features for four different mechanical response descriptors. Results show that the total interphase volume fraction and shifting factor distributions in the interphase area dominate the magnitude of the tan δ peak, whereas the magnitudes of the shifting factors primarily affect the tan δ peak location in frequency space. This method allows us to readily identify the dominant features impacting individual properties and paves the way for material design of hard–soft block copolymer systems.

Vanadium flow battery (VFB) shows great potential in balancing the volatility of renewable energy. In this work, we investigated, for the first time, the various properties of crystalline ZSM-5 membranes prepared through the organic template-free gel strategy in VFB. The subnano windows (∼0.55 nm) of ZSM-5 zeolite provided selective transport paths for protons (∼0.27 nm) and blocked the vanadium (>0.6 nm) migration through pore repulsion effect. The zeolite membranes exhibited a very low vanadium penetration rate (0.05 mmol L–1h–1), achieving a Coulombic efficiency (CE) of 96.1%, a voltage efficiency of 78.3%, and an energy efficiency of 75.3% at the current density of 40 mA cm–2. Notably, ZSM-5 prepared using the template-free strategy eliminates the need for a high-temperature calcination step, and the membrane has a lower defect density and exhibits a higher CE. The self-discharge time of the ZSM-5 zeolite membrane increased up to 78 h. Furthermore, the charge–discharge performance kept stable more than 300 cycles at 60 mA cm–2.

Seawater electrolysis for hydrogen production faces inherent challenges, including side reactions, corrosion, and scaling, stemming from the intricate composition of seawater. In response, researchers have turned to continuous water splitting using forward osmosis (FO)-driven seawater desalination. However, the necessity of a neutral electrolyte hampers this strategy due to the limited current density and scarcity of precious metals. Herein, this study applies alkali-durable FO membranes to enable self-sustaining seawater splitting, which can selective withdraw water molecules, from seawater, via concentration gradient. The membranes demonstrated outstanding perm-selectivity of water/ions (∼5830 mol mol−1) during month-long alkaline resistance tests, preventing electrolyte leaching (>97% OH−retention) while maintaining ∼95% water balance (VFO= Velectrolysis) via preserved concentration gradient for consistent forward-osmosis influx of water molecules. With the consistent electrolyte environment protected by the polyamide FO membranes, the NiFe-Ar-P catalyst exhibits promising performance: a sustain current density of 360 mA cm−2maintained at the cell voltage of 2.10 V and 2.15 V for 360 h in the offshore seawater, preventing Cl/Br corrosion (98% rejection) and Mg/Ca passivation (99.6% rejection). This research marks a significant advancement towards efficient and durable seawater-based hydrogen production.

Developing an active and stable nonprecious-metal-based oxygen evolution catalyst is crucial for boosting green hydrogen industry via direct seawater splitting. However, it has been a significant challenge due to electrode deactivation caused by chloride corrosion. Herein, a nickel-cobalt oxyhydroxide layer is grown on Ni foam via a reconstruction-complete coating strategy. The dense and superhydrophilic oxyhydroxide layer could facilitate the adsorption of abundant OH−ions, which could repel the Cl−ions via electrostatic repulsive force. Consequently, the electrode shows exponentially enhanced stability and superior activity for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in the electrolyte of 1.0 M KOH + 2.0 M NaCl. It requires a low overpotential of 330 mV to achieve a current density of 100 mA cm−2and operates stably over 70 h at a large current density of 500 mA cm−2. This work presents a facile strategy for preparing high-performance seawater-splitting catalyst.

In the composite materials of wind turbine rotor blades, residual stresses form during manufacturing due to the different thermo-chemo-mechanical behaviors of the fibers and the matrix. These residual stresses decrease the ultimate and fatigue strength of the blade because the failure stress and cycles to failure are reached at lower levels of external loading. It is thus of utmost importance to consider residual stresses in the design stage to obtain reliable blade designs.

It is important to obtain accurate predictions of wind damage to building clusters for reducing wind-induced economic losses. To this end, a city information model-powered physics-based method for assessing the wind damage to building clusters considering trees was proposed. The influence of trees on wind damage was investigated based on two virtual standard building clusters, revealing that trees can play a shielding role to reduce the risk level of buildings. The reliability and feasibility of the method were demonstrated based on a case study of a manufacturing factory. Moreover, the applicability of the method in city-scale applications was illustrated based on a large urban area covering 619 buildings and 19,740 trees. Based on meteorological forecasting data, the proposed method can help city managers identify and reinforce the building with a high damage risk before strong wind events, thus promoting a safer city.

We examine the initial hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of guaiacol on bimetallic NiFe(111) and PtFe(111) using the density functional theory. Our results show that on NiFe(111), direct Caryl–O bond breaking and dehydrogenation are preferred over hydrogenation, while on PtFe(111), hydrogenation and dehydrogenation are preferred over Caryl–O bond breaking. Catechol is the major product of guaiacol HDO on both Fe-alloyed surfaces viadehydrogenation of methoxy (OCH3) followed by O–CH2bond scission being promoted by oxophilic Fe alloying. In comparison, the removal of the oxo functional group of guaiacol (i.e., Caryl(α)–OH, Caryl(β)–OCH3and Caryl(β)O–CH3bond breaking) on both Fe-alloyed surfaces is more facile energetically than those on monometallic Ni(111) and Pt(111) owing to oxophilic Fe active surface sites. It is confirmed that the C–O bond length of adsorbed intermediates can serve as a good descriptor for predicting the C–O bond scission reactivity of the lignin-derived phenolic compounds on metal surfaces depending on C–O bond scission types.

Superconductivity and ferromagnetism are antagonistic forms of order, and rarely coexist. Many interesting new phenomena occur, however, in hybrid superconducting/ferromagnetic systems. For example, a Josephson junction containing a ferromagnetic material can exhibit an intrinsic phase shift of π in its ground state for certain thicknesses of the material. Such ‘π-junctions’ were first realized experimentally in 2001 (refs ,), and have been proposed as circuit elements for both high-speed classical superconducting computing and for quantum computing. Here we demonstrate experimentally that the phase state of a Josephson junction containing two ferromagnetic layers can be toggled between 0 and π by changing the relative orientation of the two magnetizations. These controllable 0–π junctions have immediate applications in cryogenic memory, where they serve as a necessary component to an ultralow power superconducting computer. Such a fully superconducting computer is estimated to be orders of magnitude more energy-efficient than current semiconductor-based supercomputers. Phase-controllable junctions also open up new possibilities for superconducting circuit elements such as superconducting ‘programmable logic’, where they could function in superconducting analogues to field-programmable gate arrays.

Recent metabonomic studies have identified an important role of bile acids in patients with liver cirrhosis. Serum bile acids, such as glycocholate (GCA), glycochenodeoxycholate (GCDCA), taurocholate (TCA), and taurochenodeoxycholate (TCDCA), increased significantly in liver cirrhosis patients. Our recently published urinary metabonomic study showed that glycocholate 3-glucuronide, taurohyocholate, TCA, glycolithocholate 3-sulfate, and glycoursodeoxycholate (GUDCA) were markedly increased in hepatitis B-induced cirrhotic patients (n= 63) compared with healthy controls (n= 31). The urinary levels of GUDCA were able to differentiate among three stages of cirrhotic patients with Child-Pugh (CP) score A, B, and C. In this study, we recruited two new cohorts of patients with hepatitis-B-induced cirrhosis and healthy control subjects and quantitatively profiled their serum bile acids using ultra-performance liquid chromatography triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. Serum bile acid profile and corresponding differential bile acids were characterized, in addition to the blood routine, liver, and renal function tests. The alterations of bile acids contributing to the intergroup variation between healthy controls and cirrhotic patients and among pathological stages of CP grade A, B and C were also investigated. Five bile acids, GCA, GCDCA, TCA, TCDCA, and GUDCA, were significantly altered among different stages of liver cirrhosis (n= 85), which was validated with an independent cohort of cirrhotic patients (n= 53). Our results show that dynamic alteration of serum bile acids is indicative of an exacerbated liver function, highlighting their potential as biomarkers for staging the liver cirrhosis and monitoring its progression.

Bile acids (BAs) are a group of important physiological agents for cholesterol metabolism, intestinal nutrient absorption, and biliary secretion of lipids, toxic metabolites, and xenobiotics. Extensive research in the last two decades has unveiled new functions of BAs as signaling molecules and metabolic regulators that modulate hepatic lipid, glucose, and energy homeostasis through the activation of nuclear receptors and G-protein-coupled receptor signaling in gut-liver metabolic axis involving host-gut microbial co-metabolism. Therefore, investigation of serum BA profiles, in healthy human male and female subjects with a wide range of age and body mass index (BMI), will provide important baseline information on the BA physiology as well as metabolic homeostasis among human subjects that are regulated by two sets of genome, host genome, and symbiotic microbiome. Previous reports on age- or gender-related changes on BA profiles in animals and human showed inconsistent results, and the information acquired from various studies was highly fragmentary. Here we profiled the serum BAs in a large population of healthy participants (n= 502) and examined the impact of age, gender, and BMI on serum BA concentrations and compositions using a targeted metabonomics approach with ultraperformance liquid chromatography triple–quadrupole mass spectrometry. We found that the BA profiles were dependent on gender, age, and BMI among study subjects. The total BAs were significantly higher in males than in females (p< 0.05) and higher in obese females than in lean females (p< 0.05). The difference in BA profiles between male and female subjects was decreased at age of 50–70 years, while the difference in BA profiles between lean and obese increased for subjects aged 50–70 years. The study provides a comprehensive understanding of the BA profiles in healthy subjects and highlights the need to take into account age, gender, and BMI differences when investigating pathophysiological changes of BAs resulting from gastrointestinal diseases.

By gradually adjusting the proportion of tetraphenylethene (TPE) and phosphine oxide (PO), the series of n-type, ambipolar, and p-type aggregation-induced emission (AIE) luminogens (E,Z)-((1,2-diphenylethene-1,2-diyl)bis(4,1-phenylene))bis(diphenylphosphine oxide) (TPEDPO), diphenyl(4-(1,2,2-triphenylvinyl)phenyl)phosphine oxide (TPEPO), phenylbis(4-(1,2,2-triphenylvinyl)phenyl)phosphine oxide (DTPEPO), and tris(4-(1,2,2-triphenylvinyl)phenyl)phosphine oxide (TTPEPO) were developed for the first time. Their optical and electronic properties and AIE characteristics were investigated carefully. Time-resolved spectra indicate that the transient fluorescence decay lifetimes of aggregation-induced blue luminogens change regularly with the aggregation degree in THF/water solution. Particularly, identical electron and hole mobilities (∼2.3 × 10 –4cm2V–1s–1) can be realized when the TPE/PO ratio is 1:1. In electroluminesent (EL) devices, the sky-blue-doped device based on TPEPO was found to exhibit a low turn-on voltage of 2.8 V, a maximum luminance (Lmax) of 8656 cd m–2, a maximum current efficiency (ηC,max) of 9.32 cd A–1, and a maximum power efficiency (ηP,max) of 10.23 lm W–1.

Molecular genetics has identified dozens of genes that regulate flower development in Arabidopsis. However, the complexity of flower development suggests that many other genes are yet to be uncovered. To identify floral genes that are expressed at low levels in the flower, we have sequenced 1587 cDNA fragments from a subtractive floral cDNA library. A total of 1222 unique genes represented by these ESTs are distributed on all five chromosomes with similar frequencies as all predicted genes in the genome. Among these, 17 genes were shown to be expressed anywhere for the first time because they were not found in previous EST and full-length cDNA datasets. Furthermore, 724 of the genes revealed by this library were not definitively shown to be expressed in the flower by previous floral EST datasets. In addition, 49 transcriptional regulators, 31 protein kinases, 12 zinc-finger proteins and other signaling proteins were found to be present in floral buds. Moreover, the EST sequences likely extended the transcribed regions of 26 previously annotated genes, and may have uncovered several previously unrecognized genes. To obtain additional clues about possible gene function, we hybridized cDNA microarray with probes derived from wild-type Arabidopsisrosette leaves and floral buds. We estimated that over 50% of genes were expressed at levels lower than 1/30 of the highest detectable signal intensity, indicating that many floral genes are expressed at low levels. Furthermore, 97 genes were found to be expressed at a higher level in the flower than the leaf by the Significance Analysis of Microarray (SAM) method with a 1.0% false discovery rate (FDR). Further RT-PCR analyses of selected genes support the microarray results. We suggest that the genes encoding putative regulatory proteins and at least some proteins with currently unknown functions might play important roles during flowering.

The membrane fouling of nanofibrous membranes for separating water-in-oil mixtures and emulsions has attracted considerable attention. Herein, the hydrophobic zeolitic imidazolate framework-71 (ZIF-71) was introduced to modify poly(vinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) nanofibrous membranes via the in situ growth method. After ZIF-71 loading, all the composite membranes showed superlipophilicity and under-oil superhydrophobicity, which were capable of effectively separating a variety of water-in-oil emulsions only under gravity. The M-20 membranes having under-oil superhydrophobicity and high porosity showed the superior separation performance. The water rejection efficiency for surfactant-free water-in-chloroform emulsion was 99.33%, and the oil flux was 3388.55 L m–2h–1, which was twice that of PVDF-HFP membranes. Besides, the membranes exhibited excellent antifouling and long-term cycle stability. Therefore, such novel metal–organic framework/nanofibrous membranes may offer an opportunity in efficient oil/water separation.

The facile preparation of layered double hydroxides (LDHs)/MXene composite at room temperature is still challenging. Herein, we designed and developed a fast and room-temperature synthesis method to fabricate NiCo-LDH/Ti3C2Txcomposites with sandwichlike layered structures via direct NaBH4reduction. DFT calculations show that such layered composites can reduce the hydrogen desorption energy and increase the electrical conductivity, which is advantageous to improving electrochemical performance of supercapacitors. These superior features result in the prominent electrochemical performance of the fabricated NiCo-LDH/5-Ti3C2Txcomposite electrode, including high specific capacitance (721.5 C/g at 1 A/g), outstanding rate capacity (about 85.2% from 1 to 10 A/g), and excellent stability (80.4% of capacitance retention after 5000 cycles at 5 A/g). This study provides a facile way to construct layered LDHs/MXene composites with exceptional electrochemical performance, which is expected to be suitable for various applications.

The application of metabolomics in translational research suffers from several technological bottlenecks, such as data reproducibility issues and the lack of standardization of sample profiling procedures. Here, we report an automated high-throughput metabolite array technology that can rapidly and quantitatively determine 324 metabolites including fatty acids, amino acids, organic acids, carbohydrates, and bile acids. Metabolite identification and quantification is achieved using the Targeted Metabolome Batch Quantification (TMBQ) software, the first cross-vendor data processing pipeline. A test of this metabolite array was performed by analyzing serum samples from patients with chronic liver disease (N= 1234). With high detection efficiency and sensitivity in serum, urine, feces, cell lysates, and liver tissue samples and suitable for different mass spectrometry systems, this metabolite array technology holds great potential for biomarker discovery and high throughput clinical testing. Additionally, data generated from such standardized procedures can be used to generate a clinical metabolomics database suitable for precision medicine in next-generation healthcare.

A significant increase of bile acid (BA) levels has been recognized as a general metabolic phenotype of diverse liver diseases. Monitoring of BA profiles has been proposed for etiology differentiation on liver injury. Here, we quantitatively profiled serum BAs of healthy controls and 719 patients with chronic liver disease of five etiologies, hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), alcohol-induced liver disease (ALD), and primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), and investigated the generality and specificity of different etiologies. The raw data have been deposited into MetaboLights (ID: MTBLS2459). We found that patients with HBV, HCV, and NASH appeared to be more similar, and ALD and PBC patients clustered together. BA profiles, consisting of a total concentration of the 21 quantified BAs [total BAs (TBAs)], 21 BA proportions, and 24 BA relevant variables, were highly different among the etiologies. Specifically, the total BAs was higher in ALD and PBC patients compared with the other three groups. The proportion of conjugated deoxycholates was the highest in HBV-infected patients. The ratio of 12α-hydroxylated (12α-OH) to non-12α-OH BAs was the highest in NASH patients. The proportion of taurine-conjugated BAs was the highest in ALD patients. For PBC patients, the proportion of ursodeoxycholate species was the highest, and the ratio of primary to secondary BAs was the lowest. Comparatively, the difference of BA profiles among cirrhosis patients was consistent but weaker than that of all patients. The correlations between BA profiles and clinical indices were also quite different in different pathological groups, both in all patients and in patients with cirrhosis. Overall, our findings suggested that BA compositions are distinct among patients with different etiologies of chronic liver disease, and some BA-relevant variables are of clinical potentials for liver injury type differentiation, although further validations on more etiologies and populations are needed.

The formation mechanism and compensation methods of the profile error in focused ion beam (FIB) bitmap milling of three-dimensional (3D) optical microstructure are studied in this paper. The processing parameters such as ion beam currents, dwell times, and beam overlap ratios on the profile error have an optimized parameters combination of 21 nA, 10 μs, and 50%, and the shape accuracy processed under the conditions is 0.44 μm of P–Vand 0.142 μm of RMS, respectively. Inappropriate processing parameters lower either shape accuracy or processing efficiency. By means of an accurate simulation model of the FIB machined 3D profiles, the intrinsic formation mechanism of the profile error can be attributed to ion beam diameters, redeposition effect, and sputter yields, and these factors are inevitable in FIB milling of 3D microstructures. In situ modification and iterative optimization are proposed to compensate the FIB milling error, which both can improve the shape accuracy more than 50%. The in situ modification method needs to load the original bitmap and modified bitmap separately, which is less convenient than the iterative optimization method that only need loading one bitmap file. However, the in situ modification is better than the iterative optimization at decreasing the RMS value of the profile error which indicates the global profiles error of the processed microstructures.

Correction for ‘Hydrodeoxygenation of guaiacol over bimetallic Fe-alloyed (Ni, Pt) surfaces: reaction mechanism, transition-state scaling relations and descriptor for predicting C–O bond scission reactivity’ by Xiaoyang Liu et al., Catal. Sci. Technol., 2018, 8, 2146–2158.

It is not understood how spindles elongate by discrete lengths of approximately 0.7 µm or multiples of 0.7 µm during anaphase B of the cell cycle. Here, we report that GTP-tubulin segments (newly synthesized segments) on microtubules have discrete lengths of approximately 0.35 µm or multiples of 0.35 µm. Because two sets of microtubules, namely anti-parallel interpolar microtubules, contribute to spindle elongation, the total lengths of the GTP-tubulin segments on their plus ends should be 0.7 µm or multiples of 0.7 µm. Microtubule synthesis in such discrete lengths is thus hypothesized to underlie the discrete lengths in spindle elongation.