The Innovation最新文献

Seasonal human mobility plays a crucial role in economic growth, labor market dynamics, and public health management. Traditional mobility models often rely on geographic distance, which fails to capture the influence of destination popularity, such as family gatherings or economic opportunities. To address this, we introduce the effective intervening opportunity (EIO) model, which replaces geographic distance with a more accurate "effective distance" that integrates both destination appeal and proximity. We use mobility flow data from 400 million mobile users over 6 years to simulate China's chunyun-the world's largest annual human migration during the spring festival. The EIO model outperforms traditional models, accurately predicting mobility patterns not only during chunyun but also for other holidays, such as Labour Day and National Day. Our findings demonstrate that incorporating destination popularity into mobility models enhances their predictive power, offering a more accurate representation of seasonal human mobility dynamics.

Valorization of lignin is essential for establishing a profitable biorefining industry, yet its efficiency is critically constrained by lignin condensation. Understanding lignin condensation mechanisms and developing effective strategies to inhibit condensation have emerged as a global research imperative. Despite several successful practices in stabilizing the α carbon position of lignin under mild temperatures, a mechanistic understanding of lignin condensation under high temperatures and the corresponding strategy for preventing such condensation remain lacking. Herein, using monophenol as a probe molecule to capture reactive lignin fragments produced under high-temperature treatments, we unveil a novel condensation pathway involving the C_γ-position, which arises from the nucleophilic reaction of the C_γ-position and aromatic rings of lignin. We further demonstrated that phenol, serving as both a radical scavenger and a competitive nucleophilic reactant (vs. lignin aromatic rings), could suppress C_γ-condensation reactions among lignin fragments and, meanwhile, enable the production of novel lignin-derived bisphenols (1,3-diaryl propanes) with a molar yield of 35.2% (mass yield of 45.9 wt %) from eucalyptus feedstock. The mechanistic finding represents a significant advance in lignin chemistry and enables the manipulation of lignin condensation pathways in a wider temperature range for the production of valuable bisphenols (1,1-diaryl propane, 1,2-diaryl propane, and 1,3-diaryl propane), which can serve as precursors for synthesizing biobased polymers and sustainable aviation fuels.

Lignin, a natural and renewable aromatic polymer, serves as a plentiful source of aromatic building blocks for biomanufacturing. However, despite its potential, the bioconversion efficiency of lignin remains limited due to its inherently complex structure and the constraints of traditional metabolic engineering approaches. Synthetic biology-guided metabolic regulation offers a solution by coordinating intracellular resource allocation in ligninolytic strains, endowing their adaptation for industrial applications and promoting the sustainability of lignin-based bioeconomy. This review provides a comprehensive overview of multiscale metabolic regulation, including critical enzymes involved in biotransformation, metabolic pathway networks, genome-phenotype, and learning prediction. It highlights the significant roles and potential benefits of emerging cutting-edge technologies in advancing lignin valorization. Overall, synthetic biology-guided metabolic regulation has demonstrated its power in balancing the metabolic fluxes of ligninolytic strains, ensuring the continued vitality in future development.

Topological magnets have shown great potential for transverse thermoelectric (TE) conversion with structural advantages, utilizing the anomalous Nernst effect. To facilitate such applications, the development of exceptional topological magnet-based Nernst devices is a crucial step that requires both high-performance topological magnets and the design of low-resistance interfaces in the devices. Here, we report that the anomalous Nernst effect in topological magnets can be ubiquitously enhanced by synergistically tuning the entropy-density-weighted Berry curvature and the Fermi surface, as evidenced by a giant anomalous Nernst power factor of 47.8 μW m^-1 K^-2 at room temperature in electron-doped Co₂MnGa. In addition, we achieved an ultralow interfacial resistivity in the Nernst device by designing reactive wetting interfacial layers, enabling an ultrahigh power output of 69.7 μW at a temperature difference of 16.1 K, the highest value yet reported to date. We have also experimentally corroborated the structural advantages of transverse TE technology by developing Nernst devices with different length-to-thickness ratios. Our work demonstrates a paradigm for designing exceptional topological magnet-based Nernst generators for transverse TE conversion.