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Addition of CuOxto defective ZnOy(0.92, The authors thank the Royal Society for support of Y.W., the Paul Instrument Fund of the Royal Society for support for V.A.S., EPSRC for support for M.A.M.L. and CRLL for permitting the thin films to be prepared.

We implement the Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) equation in real-space using the screened Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker (KKR) method. This allows us to solve, self-consistently, the superconducting state for 3D crystals including substitutional impurities with a full normal-state DFT band structure. We apply the theoretical framework to bulk Nb with impurities. Without impurities, Nb has an anisotropic gap structure with two distinct peaks around the Fermi level. In the presence of nonmagnetic impurities, those peaks are broadened due to the scattering between the two bulk superconducting gaps, however the peaks remain separated. As a second example of self-consistent real-space solutions of the BdG equations, we examine superconducting clusters embedded within a nonsuperconducting bulk metallic host. This allows us to estimate the coherence length of the superconductor and we show that, within our framework, the coherence length of the superconductor is related to the inverse of the gap size, just as in bulk BCS theory., This work was financially supported by the Centre for Doctoral Training in Condensed Matter Physics, funded by EPSRC, Grant No. EP/L015544/1. B.U. was supported by the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office under Contract No. OTKA K131938. The research reported in this paper and carried out at BME has been supported by the NRDI Fund (TKP2020 IES, Grant No. BME-IE-NAT) based on the charter of bolster issued by the NRDI Office under the auspices of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology. G.C. gratefully acknowledges support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 754510. This work was supported by Spanish MINECO (the Severo Ochoa Centers of Excellence Program under Grant No. SEV-2017-0706), Spanish MICIU, AEI and EU FEDER (Grant No. PGC2018-096955-B-C43), and Generalitat de Catalunya (Grant No. 2017SGR1506 and the CERCA Program). The work was also supported by the European Union MaX Center of Excellence (EU-H2020 Grant No. 824143).

Cells are able to adjust their growth and size to external inputs to comply with specific fates and developmental programs. Molecular pathways controlling growth also have an enormous impact in cell size, and bacteria, yeast, or epithelial cells modify their size as a function of growth rate. This universal feature suggests that growth (mass) and proliferation (cell number) rates are subject to general coordinating mechanisms. However, the underlying molecular connections are still a matter of debate. Here we review the current ideas on growth and cell size control, and focus on the possible mechanisms that could link the biosynthetic machinery to the Start network in budding yeast. In particular, we discuss the role of molecular chaperones in a competition framework to explain cell size control by growth at the individual cell level., Our work has been supported by grants from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain (BFU2016- 80234-R, BFU2013-47710, and Consolider-Ingenio 2010 CSD2007-15) and EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to Non-Equilibrium Systems (CANES, EP/L015854/1)

Membrane distillation (MD) is a useful method for the purification of difficult feedwaters but it cannot be applied in a range of industries due to pore wetting. In this work, graphene oxide (GO) laminate coatings are explored to overcome the pore wetting issues. Air gap MD (AGMD) configuration was considered, using a 35 g L−1 NaCl solution with 150 mg L−1 (150 ppm) of Triton X-100 surfactant as feed material. The GO is deposited as a laminate membrane on top of a commercial porous polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) support and good adhesion is achieved through the use of polydopamine (PDA) to form a hydrophilic tri-layer membrane. The small pore size achieved with the laminate GO led to increased pore wetting resistance for at least 90 h compared to 20 min with pristine commercial PVDF. Additionally, the extra layers of GO and PDA did not affect the membrane flux. Overall, a tri-layer immobilized GO membrane is synthesized with superior performance when compared to current commercial membranes, meaning that MD can be used for a new range of wastewater applications., The authors acknowledge the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) grant EP/S032258/1 for supporting this work. Clara Skuse would like to acknowledge the EPSRC for funding this work through the NOWNANO CDT. Patricia Gorgojo is grateful to the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and the European Social Fund for her Ramón y Cajal Fellowship (RYC2019-027060-I/AEI/10.13039/501100011033).

Synthetic biology uses living cells as the substrate for performing human-defined computations. Many current implementations of cellular computing are based on the “genetic circuit” metaphor, an approximation of the operation of silicon-based computers. Although this conceptual mapping has been relatively successful, we argue that it fundamentally limits the types of computation that may be engineered inside the cell, and fails to exploit the rich and diverse functionality available in natural living systems. We propose the notion of “cellular supremacy” to focus attention on domains in which biocomputing might offer superior performance over traditional computers. We consider potential pathways toward cellular supremacy, and suggest application areas in which it may be found., Synthetic biology uses cells as its computing substrate, often based on the genetic circuit concept. In this Perspective, the authors argue that existing synthetic biology approaches based on classical models of computation limit the potential of biocomputing, and propose that living organisms have under-exploited capabilities.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.-- et al., Maleimides remain the reagents of choice for the preparation of therapeutic and imaging protein conjugates despite the known instability of the resulting products that undergo thiol-exchange reactions in vivo. Here we present the rational design of carbonylacrylic reagents for chemoselective cysteine bioconjugation. These reagents undergo rapid thiol Michael-addition under biocompatible conditions in stoichiometric amounts. When using carbonylacrylic reagents equipped with PEG or fluorophore moieties, this method enables access to protein and antibody conjugates precisely modified at pre-determined sites. Importantly, the conjugates formed are resistant to degradation in plasma and are biologically functional, as demonstrated by the selective imaging and detection of apoptotic and HER2+ cells, respectively. The straightforward preparation, stoichiometric use and exquisite cysteine selectivity of the carbonylacrylic reagents combined with the stability of the products and the availability of biologically relevant cysteine-tagged proteins make this method suitable for the routine preparation of chemically defined conjugates for in vivo applications., We thank FAPESP (2012/22274-2; BEPE 2015/07509-1 to B.B., and 2013/25504-1 for A.C.B.B.), Xunta de Galicia (M.J.M.), FCT Portugal (FCT Investigator to G.J.L.B.; SFRH/BPD/103172/2014 Postdoctoral fellowship to P.M.S.D.C.; SFRH/BD/111556/2015 PhD Studentship to I.S.A.), the EU (Marie-Sklodowska Curie ITN Protein Conjugates), the EPSRC, MECD (‘Salvador Madariaga’ mobility grant PRX15/00638 to F.C.) and MINECO (CTQ2015-70524-R and RYC-2013-14706 to G.J.-O.) for funding. . G.J.L.B. is a Royal Society University Research Fellow and the recipient of an European Research Council Starting Grant (TagIt).

In mammalian females, germ cells remain arrested as primordial follicles. Resumption of meiosis is heralded by germinal vesicle breakdown, condensation of chromosomes, and their eventual alignment on metaphase plates. At the first meiotic division, anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome associated with Cdc20 (APC/C) activates separase and thereby destroys cohesion along chromosome arms. Because cohesion around centromeres is protected by shugoshin-2, sister chromatids remain attached through centromeric/pericentromeric cohesin. We show here that, by promoting proteolysis of cyclins and Cdc25B at the germinal vesicle (GV) stage, APC/C associated with the Cdh1 protein (APC/C) delays the increase in Cdk1 activity, leading to germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD). More surprisingly, by moderating the rate at which Cdk1 is activated following GVBD, APC/C creates conditions necessary for the removal of shugoshin-2 from chromosome arms by the Aurora B/C kinase, an event crucial for the efficient resolution of chiasmata., A.R., R.B.M., and M. Hopkins were supported by PhD fellowships from the Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds, Barbour Foundation, and EPSRC (EP/G03706X/1), respectively. A.M.P. is supported by Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO) (grant number: BFU-2014-59307); M. Herbert is funded by the Medical Research Council (MR/J003603/1), Wellcome Trust (096919), and European Community’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement 634113 (GermAge); and B.N. is supported by a BBSRC Strategic LoLa grant (BB/M00354X/1). The European Community’s Seventh Framework MitoSys (241548), Medical Research Council (84673), and Wellcome Trust (019859/Z/10/Z) funded this project. Open Access funded by Wellcome Trust.

Magneto-optical techniques are key tools for the characterization of magnetic effects at the nanoscale. Here, we present the dark-field magneto-optical Kerr effect (DFMOKE), a technique we have recently developed for the characterization of three-dimensional magnetic nanostructures. We introduce the principles of DFMOKE, based on the separation of an incident beam into multiple reflected beams when focusing on a 3D nano-geometry. We show the key modifications needed in a standard focused MOKE magnetometer to perform these measurements. Finally, we showcase the power of this method by detecting the magnetic switching of a single tilted 3D nanowire, independently from the switching of a magnetic thin film that surrounds it. We obtain independent and simultaneous switching detection of the nanowire and the film for all nanowire dimensions investigated, allowing us to estimate a magnetic sensitivity of 7 × 10-15 A m2 for DFMOKE in the setup used. We conclude the article by providing perspectives of future avenues where DFMOKE can be a very powerful characterization tool in future investigations of 3D magnetic nanostructures., DSH and AFP are grateful to the University of Cambridge, where part of this research was performed. DSH acknowledges funding from ANR/CNRS under the French Plan Relance de l’Etat for the preservation of R&D. This work was supported by the European Community under the Horizon 2020 Program, Contract No. 101001290 (3DNANOMAG), the MCIN with funding from European Union NextGenerationEU (PRTR-C17.I1), and the Aragon Government through the Project Q-MAD. L.S. acknowledges support from the EPSRC Cambridge NanoDTC EP/L015978/1