Global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels reached a record high in 2024 at 37.4 billion tonnes, up 0.8% from 2023, according to the Global Carbon Project. Despite progress in renewables and climate efforts, fossil fuel use has not yet peaked, raising concerns about reaching global warming limits. With 41.6 billion tonnes of CO2 projected overall, scientists stress immediate and deep emission cuts to meet climate targets and prevent further warming. Key regions show mixed trends, with India’s emissions up 4.6% and the EU’s emissions down 3.8%.

India accounts for per cent of the global total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and it is expected to increase by 4.6 per cent in 2024, according to a new report released on Wednesday, ahead of the UN climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Sun, R; Shen, J; Grasby, S E; Zhang, J; Chen, J; Chuang, Y; Yin, R. Precambrian Research vol. 383, 106891, 2022 p. 1-9, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.precamres.2022.106891
<a href="https://geoscan.nrcan.gc.ca/images/geoscan/20220487.jpg"><img src="https://geoscan.nrcan.gc.ca/images/geoscan/20220487.jpg" title="Precambrian Research vol. 383, 106891, 2022 p. 1-9, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.precamres.2022.106891" height="150" border="1" /></a>

Cargo bikes save an average of 95 percent and 82 percent more carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per kilometre than diesel vans and electric vans respectively, according to findings from UK cargo bike delivery network Zedify.

While existing travel websites primarily display the cheapest or fastest travel option, the new BookSmart24 app also finds the most CO2- and emission-efficient variant for the chosen route. The platform enables users to make smart and responsible booking decisions and to realize that traveling in an environmentally conscious manner does not necessarily have to be more expensive.

Wie können die CO2-Emissionen weltweit sinken? Darüber diskutiert gerade die UN-Klimakonferenz. Doch aktuelle Zahlen von Wissenschaftlern zeigen: Eine Trendwende bei den fossilen Emissionen ist gar nicht in Sicht. Von Simon Plentinger.

Venue announces it will be back open for business from mid April!

While our official birthday is August 4th (pretty much a random date that I chose between the various steps of starting that we went through!), this week we’re going to be celebrating our 5 year anniversary with a bunch of events!

The entire WSO2 family has traveled (or are still traveling) to Sri Lanka – Paul is on his way from Emsworth, UK; Paul’s mom from Glasgow (Paul’s late father was of course one of our seed investors and we’re honored to have his mom be with us for this occasion!); Jonathan from Auburn, CA; Mahesh from Sydney, AU; Rebecca Hurst (our PR person, President of KineticPR) from San Francisco, CA; Pradeep Tagare (Intel Capital) from Mumbai, India and last (but never least!) James Clark from Bangkok, Thailand. We’ll miss one 3rd board member Alok Mohan who unfortunately couldn’t make it!

First up is to announce that we’re just about to cross the 100 employee mark! We have a bunch of new folks starting today .. um, yeah, 25 to be exact :). Yes, that’s a HUGE number of and we’re going to be working hard to get everyone properly integrated and settled in!

Actually when you add the 20 or so people on study leave from us working towards their PhD’s in Computer Science, we’re really about 125 employees .. but with the new group we’ll cross the 100 active members count. That’s a major milestone and its great to have it happen in sync with our 5 year anniversary as the new people get to experience our culture right out of the box.

To accommodate all the new people we’ve been doing some major office refurbishment / redesign in Colombo and have also signed up a 2nd location. That is just down the street from where we are at and we will be ceremonially opening that up later today as well! Its been a marathon effort by Udeshika and her team to get all the changes implemented and while its definitely coming down to the wire it looks like it’ll all be ready :). Awesome power of teamwork!

We’ll post some pictures of our offices soon!

Tomorrow (Tuesday 14th) and Wednesday are of course the dates of our first ever WSO2Con Conference!

We have prepared an excellent program for this and have nearly 300 people signed up to attend! We also ran a promo on WSO2 OxygenTank to give a free trip to attend WSO2Con and I’m thrilled to announce that Adam Firestone from SAIC, USA and Jagannath Nori from Inland Revenue, New Zealand were selected! I think Adam landed a few hours ago and Jagannath should be here soon as well. I look forward to meeting them in person soon!

After the conference on Wednesday night, we have organized an invitation-only Gala Dinner for business leaders, senior government officials, senior academics, and the diplomatic community in Sri Lanka to introduce WSO2 to them. I’m amazed at the strong response we’ve had from the top business leaders in Sri Lanka to our invitation! I look forward to presenting a very different kind of company to them :). We have engaged the best musical talent in Sri Lanka to help set the right environment for this event- Ananda Dabare, the lead-violinist of the Colombo Symphony Orchestra and Bhatia & Santush, the best of the best musical group in Sri Lanka!

After the conference and gala dinner we have invited partners and select others attending WSO2Con to participate in a 2-day technical workshop to give them a deep understanding of our entire platform. We have about 25 people participating in that and will have our new team join as well so they will also get a “bootcamp” session!

Finally, on Friday night comes the real celebration :). We have organized a full scale party for the entire WSO2 team, their friends and family, ex-employees etc. to get together and have fun! That’s going to be a (long) night of good food, drink and great live music and lots of dance!

Of course this celebration is nothing but a simple yet important milestone in our journey! WSO2 is really just begun .. and to use Shakira’s Waka Waka words:

You're on the frontline
Everyone's watching
You know it's serious
We're getting closer
This isn’t over

And to the WSO2 team, my message is:

The pressure is on
You feel it
But you've got it all
Believe it

Looking forward to an amazing, memorable week; followed by the next amazing 5 years!

I wrote a blog on the WSO2 Corporate Blog on growing WSO2. Check it out!

The App

Putting it together

Yesterday we announced something I believe is a game-changer: WSO2 Stratos. What is Stratos?

WSO2 Stratos is a complete SOA and developer platform offered as a self-service, multi-tenant, elastic runtime for private and public cloud infrastructures.

1. I'm already talking to {vmWare, Eucalyptus, Ubuntu, Savvis, Joyent} about private cloud - what does WSO2 add that they don't have?
2. What is the difference between Stratos and the Cloud Images that WSO2 already ships?
3. Why would I choose WSO2 over the other vendors offering Platform-as-a-Service?

• Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS): this is where Amazon, Eucalyptus, vmWare, Saavis and Joyent play
• Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS): Google App Engine, vmForce, Tibco Silver and now WSO2 Stratos play in this space.
• Software-as-a-Service (SaaS): Google Apps, Google Mail, Microsoft Office Live, Salesforce, SugarOnDemand - these and many more make up the SaaS category.

• No code lock-in: we use standards-based coding (WAR, JAX-WS, POJO) and Stratos is 100% Apache License Open Source.
• No model lock-in: we use standards-based services: 
• Identity is based on OpenID, OAuth, XACML, WS-Trust
• Registry is based on AtomPub and REST
• Business Process is based on BPEL, etc
• No hosting lock-in: you can take you apps and data from our public PaaS and re-deploy internally or on your own virtual private cloud anytime you like.

BGS updates national CO2 storage database  Agg-Net

How can CO2 be stored? | CCS  British Geological Survey

In this work, Ce-doped yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) and pure YSZ phases were subjected to irradiation with 14 MeV Au ions. Irradiation studies were performed to simulate long-term structural and microstructural damage due to self-irradiation in YSZ phases hosting alpha-active radioactive species. It was found that both the Ce-doped YSZ and the YSZ phases had a reasonable tolerance to irradiation at high ion fluences and the bulk crystallinity was well preserved. Nevertheless, local microstrain increased in all compounds under study after irradiation, with the Ce-doped phases being less affected than pure YSZ. Doping with cerium ions increased the microstructural stability of YSZ phases through a possible reduction in the mobility of oxygen atoms, which limits the formation of structural defects. Doping of YSZ with tetravalent actinide elements is expected to have a similar effect. Thus, YSZ phases are promising for the safe long-term storage of radioactive elements. Using synchrotron radiation diffraction, measurements of the thin irradiated layers of the Ce-YSZ and YSZ samples were performed in grazing incidence (GI) mode. A corresponding module for measurements in GI mode was developed at the Rossendorf Beamline and relevant technical details for sample alignment and data collection are also presented.

Transition-metal nitro­gen-doped carbons (TM-N-C) are emerging as a highly promising catalyst class for several important electrocatalytic processes, including the electrocatalytic CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR). The unique local environment around the singly dispersed metal site in TM-N-C catalysts is likely to be responsible for their catalytic properties, which differ significantly from those of bulk or nanostructured catalysts. However, the identification of the actual working structure of the main active units in TM-N-C remains a challenging task due to the fluctional, dynamic nature of these catalysts, and scarcity of experimental techniques that could probe the structure of these materials under realistic working conditions. This issue is addressed in this work and the local atomistic and electronic structure of the metal site in a Co–N–C catalyst for CO2RR is investigated by employing time-resolved operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) combined with advanced data analysis techniques. This multi-step approach, based on principal component analysis, spectral decomposition and supervised machine learning methods, allows the contributions of several co-existing species in the working Co–N–C catalysts to be decoupled, and their XAS spectra deciphered, paving the way for understanding the CO2RR mechanisms in the Co–N–C catalysts, and further optimization of this class of electrocatalytic systems.

In situ and operando investigation of photocatalysts plays a fundamental role in understanding the processes of active phase formation and the mechanisms of catalytic reactions, which is crucial for the rational design of more efficient materials. Using a custom-made operando photocatalytic cell, an in situ procedure to follow the formation steps of Pd/TiO2 photocatalyst by synchrotron-based X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) is proposed. The procedure resulted in the formation of ∼1 nm Pd particles with a much narrower size distribution and homogeneous spreading over TiO2 support compared with the samples generated in a conventional batch reactor. The combination of in situ XAS spectroscopy with high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy demonstrated the formation of single-atom Pd(0) sites on TiO2 as the initial step of the photodeposition process. Palladium hydride particles were observed for all investigated samples upon exposure to formic acid solutions.

Advances in structural biology have relied heavily on synchrotron cryo-crystallography and cryogenic electron microscopy to elucidate biological processes and for drug discovery. However, disparities between cryogenic and room-temperature (RT) crystal structures pose challenges. Here, Cryo2RT, a high-throughput RT data-collection method from cryo-cooled crystals that leverages the cryo-crystallography workflow, is introduced. Tested on endothiapepsin crystals with four soaked fragments, thaumatin and SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro, Cryo2RT reveals unique ligand-binding poses, offers a comparable throughput to cryo-crystallography and eases the exploration of structural dynamics at various temperatures.

The re-investigation of [Bi2O2(OH)](NO3), dioxidodibismuth(III) hydroxide nitrate, on the basis of single-crystal X-ray diffraction data revealed an apparent structural phase transition of a crystal structure determined previously (space group Cmc21 at 173 K) to a crystal structure with lower symmetry (space group Pna21 at 100 K). The Cmc21 → Pna21 group–subgroup relationship between the two crystal structures is klassengleiche with index 2. In contrast to the crystal structure in Cmc21 with orientational disorder of the nitrate anion, disorder does not occur in the Pna21 structure. Apart from the disorder of the nitrate anion, the general structural set-up in the two crystal structures is very similar: [Bi2O2]2+ layers extend parallel to (001) and alternate with layers of (OH)− anions above and (NO3)− anions below the cationic layer. Whereas the (OH)− anion shows strong bonds to the BiIII cations, the (NO3)− anion weakly binds to the BiIII cations of the cationic layer. A rather weak O—H⋯O hydrogen-bonding inter­action between the (OH)− anion and the (NO3)− anion links adjacent sheets along [001].

Controlling the shape and size dispersivity and crystallinity of nanoparticles (NPs) has been a challenge in identifying these parameters' role in the physical and chemical properties of NPs. The need for reliable quantitative tools for analyzing the dispersivity and crystallinity of NPs is a considerable problem in optimizing scalable synthesis routes capable of controlling NP properties. The most common tools are electron microscopy (EM) and X-ray scattering techniques. However, each technique has different susceptibility to these parameters, implying that more than one technique is necessary to characterize NP systems with maximum reliability. Wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) is mandatory to access information on crystallinity. In contrast, EM or small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) is required to access information on whole NP sizes. EM provides average values on relatively small ensembles in contrast to the bulk values accessed by X-ray techniques. Besides the fact that the SAXS and WAXS techniques have different susceptibilities to size distributions, SAXS is easily affected by NP–NP interaction distances. Because of all the variables involved, there have yet to be proposed methodologies for cross-analyzing data from two techniques that can provide reliable quantitative results of dispersivity and crystallinity. In this work, a SAXS/WAXS-based methodology is proposed for simultaneously quantifying size distribution and degree of crystallinity of NPs. The most reliable easy-to-access size result for each technique is demonstrated by computer simulation. Strategies on how to compare these results and how to identify NP–NP interaction effects underneath the SAXS intensity curve are presented. Experimental results are shown for cubic-like CeO2 NPs. WAXS size results from two analytical procedures are compared, line-profile fitting of individual diffraction peaks in opposition to whole pattern fitting. The impact of shape dispersivity is also evaluated. Extension of the proposed methodology for cross-analyzing EM and WAXS data is possible.

Structural modelling of operando pair distribution function (PDF) data of complex functional materials can be highly challenging. To aid the understanding of complex operando PDF data, this article demonstrates a toolbox for PDF analysis. The tools include denoising using principal component analysis together with the structureMining, similarityMapping and nmfMapping apps available through the online service `PDF in the cloud' (PDFitc, https://pdfitc.org/). The toolbox is used for both ex situ and operando PDF data for 3 nm TiO2-bronze nanocrystals, which function as the active electrode material in a Li-ion battery. The tools enable structural modelling of the ex situ and operando PDF data, revealing two pristine TiO2 phases (bronze and anatase) and two lithiated LixTiO2 phases (lithiated versions of bronze and anatase), and the phase evolution during galvanostatic cycling is characterized.

The neutralization of acidic solutions containing U (IV) and Ce (III) at room temperature in glove box atmosphere and in the presence of dithionite results in coprecipitation of these elements as amorphous solid solutions CexU1–xO2±y. The solubilities of the precipitates with different mole fractions (x) of Ce(OH)3 (x = 0.01 or 0.1) were determined in 1 M NaClO4 solutions between pH 2.2 and 12.8 under reducing conditions. The solids were investigated by a variety of methods (chemical analysis, SEM-EDX, XRD, XPS, XAS) to determine the nature of the solid solutions formed, their composition and the valence state of Ce and U. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed the oxidation states of the solids both before and after the equilibration as Ce (III) and U (IV). The amorphous coprecipitates reached equilibrium relatively fast (∼1 week). The release of Ce from the coprecipitates was totally dominated by the release of uranium over the whole pH range. The Ce concentrations decrease slightly with the decrease of Ce content in the solid, suggesting that CexU1–xO2±y solids behave thermodynamically as solid solutions. The concentrations of U in equilibrium with the coprecipitate were in excellent agreement with the solubility of UO2(s) under reducing conditions reported in the literature. The conditional solubility product of Ce(OH)3 from the coprecipitate was several orders of magnitude (∼4 in the near neutral pH range and ∼18 in the acidic range) lower than that of pure Ce(OH)3(s). The activities and activity coefficients of Ce(OH)3(s) in the coprecipitate were also estimated. Activity coefficients are much less than 1, indicating that the mixing of Ce(OH)3 with UO2 is highly favorable.

Study Links Altered Brain Chemistry, Behavioral Impairments in Fish Exposed to Elevated CO2 Research team studied damselfish behavior and physiology under ocean acidification conditions predicted for year 2300

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With the theme “SNAX to the MAX,” SNAXPO23 welcomed thousands of attendees to check out the latest supplier innovations, talk technology, taste interesting flavor innovations, and more. 

Reichel Foods has introduced three new breakfast items to its PRO²snax to the max product line.

The industrial gas safety series will further provide partners and customers with the ability to protect employees and their facilities when working near both toxic and hazardous gases.