Agency closed for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Fire Marshal Discussion Series

West African innovator and technology-telecommunications company owner Alain Capo has been announced the winner of the World Literacy Award for his outstanding contribution in the individual category.

Canalys's latest research reveals that the worldwide smartphone market fell by 10% to 258.2 million units in Q2 2023, showing a slowdown in decline.

According to the latest Canalys data, worldwide tablet shipments reached 33 million in Q3 2023, marking a 7% annual decline. But this represents an 8% sequential increase, reflecting a revival of the tablet market ahead of the crucial holiday season and the strong performance of new entrants in the space.

Canalys' recent global wearable band market analysis forecasts a 2% rise in 2023, totaling to 186 million units. This growth is primarily driven by a significant 22% surge in basic watch shipments in emerging markets, notably India.

By Josh Harvey, freelance writer.

In the last 15 years or so, since the first iPhone debuted all the way back in 2007, it’s not hyperbolic to suggest that smartphones have changed the very fabric of our society. The average teenager probably spends more time on their phone than off it and we all rely on them for business and pleasure, par-ticularly during those long and stressful commutes.

Think Tank, the UK bespoke packaging design agency, is launching new SMART packaging formats designed to help brands elevate their packaging design and boost their commercial reach.

Many foreign companies, including oil and gas enterprises, are leaving the Russian market due to high risks associated with the sanctions war between Russia and the West. In addition, it will be too difficult for them to withdraw their income from Russia abroad, economist Marcel Salikhov believes. At the same time, oilfield service companies that used to work in Russia back during the days of the USSR, will stay in the country, he added, lenta.ru reports. It is up to company administrations to decide whether they want to leave the Russian market or not. The sanctions that were imposed on Russia following the military operation in Ukraine do not limit their participation in the Russian economy. Russia's response to Western sanctions may in one way or another affect the position of foreign companies in the country, especially with regard to strategic sectors of the economy. In addition, Putin banned foreign companies from withdrawing their funds abroad to parent companies. All this combined has tarnished the assets.

By Aviram Ganor, General Manager EMEA, Riskified.

Retailers have plenty to keep them awake at night, whether it’s enticing consumers to shop,  utdoing their competition or – most worrying of all – how to ensure their long-term survival in a rocky economy. Yet the latest insight from the British Retail Consortium offers some hope.

Reckitt Benckiser, a British company that produces, among other things, Durex condoms, decided not to leave the Russian market, Baza Telegram channel said with a reference to an anonymous source. The UK-based company does not intend to either wrap up its business or transfer it to anyone. Former CEO Laxman Narasimhan, who left the company in September 2022, earlier spoke about Reckitt Benckiser's pullout from the Russian against the background of the crisis in Ukraine. Reckitt Benckiser manufactures and distributes a variety of products in more than 200 countries of the world. It is widely known for such brands as Vanish and Cilit Bang cleaning products, Nurofen pain reliever, Strepsils cough drops and Durex condoms.

BRICS+ Fashion Summit, the International Forum, came to an end in Moscow. It took place from 28 November to 2 December. This event powered by Fund of Fashion and supported by the Moscow Government, was attended by delegations from 60 countries. On the last day of the Forum, all the key events took place in the underground exhibition space of Zaryadye Park. 120+ brands from Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Burundi, Egypt, India, Indonesia, China, Libya, Nigeria, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey, and other countries took part in the B2B-showroom on the final day of the event. Designers and buyers once again met for business matchmaking there. Speakers from Russia, India, Columbia, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka participated in the fashion intensive course. During the lectures and seminars included the speakers talked about collaborations, brand philosophy, zero waste production, and inclusivity.

IKEA extended the right to its trademark in Russia until August 2033. The IKEA trademark package included: the yellow-blue logo, a full list of company services and the right to officially sell its products in Russia. The headquarters of the corporation in the Netherlands submitted an application to Rospatent on August 1, 2023. The application was approved on February 2.

The premium quality barcode and RFID solutions provider inotec is currently producing 40 million RFID identification cards for a market-leading international discount supermarket chain. The exceptionally large RFID card order was placed after the discount supermarket’s strategic decision to install new crate track and trace systems. 

2022 was the second highest year of activity in the global self-checkout market, according to a brand-new report from RBR Data Services, a division of Datos Insights. Global EPOS and Self-Checkout 2023 shows that with an ever-wider range of retailers embracing the technology, competition in the market remains fierce.

There were more than two million programmable EPOS units delivered worldwide last year, according to Global EPOS and Self-Checkout 2023, a brand-new study from strategic research and consulting firm RBR Data Services, a division of Datos Insights.

Leibinger introduced what it describes as the world’s first intelligent coding & marking system – the IQJET – on May 3 in Düsseldorf, the day before the opening of the interpack trade show.

According to a report from Adroit Market Research, 3D printing powder market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 26.6% between 2021 and 2031.

Lexmark has introduced the 9-Series printers and MFPs, built with versatility, sustainability and ease of use in mind. They are also reliable, durable, affordable and Secure by Design. Built by evolving Lexmark’s renowned A4 technology, the 9-Series is squarely focused on delivering versatility, simplicity and sustainability.

Ivalua, a global leader in spend management solutions provider, has been named a Market Leader in the Ardent Partners "2024 Strategic Sourcing Technology Advisor." The report evaluated the 8 vendors Ardent identified as solution and market leaders in the strategic sourcing space, placing Ivalua in the Market Leaders Quadrant based on its solution and provider strength.

The UK's largest eCommerce and marketing event, eCommerce Expo & Technology for Marketing, will take place on 18-19 September 2024, at ExCeL, London. 

KEENON Robotics presented its latest smart service solutions with embodied intelligence at the 2024 World Robot Conference, held at the Beijing Etrong International Exhibition and Convention Center, from 21-25 August 2024.

A Ukrainian truck driver was killed in Germany because of his words about Russian President Vladimir Putin, Bild wrote. "During a fight on a parking lot in front of a sawmill in Oberroth [in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg], three truck drivers apparently killed a colleague of theirs on Saturday evening at around 8:15 p.m. They were arguing about Russia's role in the conflict in Ukraine,” the newspaper said. The Ukrainian citizen was 34 years old. The men were drinking alcoholic beverages at the time when the incident occurred. The police detained three of his colleagues, each of whom is suspected of the murder. One of them is a citizen of Uzbekistan, two others are from Eastern European countries.

Added April 13, 2006:

“In an age when your digital privacy can be invaded by several types of software unconsciously, it turns into a vital skill to learn how to protect your PC and your private conversations,” said Thibeau Maerevoet, ProxyScrape CEO.

Join Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Prof. Jean-Marie Lehn, for an inspiring talk on Supramolecular and Adaptive Chemistry! This is a unique chance to hear directly from one of the world's most distinguished chemists as he explores how Constitutional Dynamic Chemistry (CDC) leads to adaptive, evolving systems of increasing complexity.

Dallas Martin, a first-generation senior nursing major from Helena, Arkansas, really does it all. This wife and mom of two is a full-time student at UA Little Rock, set to graduate in December with her bachelor's degree in nursing, while also working full-time as a physician's registered nurse in oncology and hematology at Carti Cancer Center in Little Rock.

[Domestic] :
More than 50 percent of South Koreans in their 30s were unmarried as of last year’s census. According to the census results released by Statistics Korea on Wednesday, as of November 1, 2023, the proportion of unmarried people among all people in their 30s stood at 51-point-three percent. Of the ...

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[Domestic] :
Ahead of the College Scholastic Ability Test(CSAT), several companies have been caught illegally distributing medications to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD) and posting misleading advertisements for the pills.  According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on Monday, an intensive ...

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[Politics] :
President Yoon Suk Yeol pledged efforts to overcome polarization in South Korean society, as he passes the halfway point of his five-year presidency. According to presidential spokesperson Jeong Hye-jeon on Monday, Yoon, during a meeting with his aides, called for forward-looking efforts to resolve ...

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[Sports] :
South Korea’s professional baseball league has passed the ten million mark in attendance for the first time ever.  According to the Korea Baseball Organization(KBO), cumulative attendance for the 2024 season came to ten million, 20-thousand-758 as of Sunday, with over 77-thousand tickets sold for four ...

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[Sports] :
FIFA has slapped a ten-match ban on Italian footballer Marco Curto for making racist comments to Wolverhampton Wanderers forward Hwang Hee-chan during a pre-season friendly against Como 1907 back in July.  British sports media outlet, Sky Sports, quoted a spokesperson for the international football ...

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[Science] :
This past September set records both for tropical nights and unusually hot daytime weather throughout the country.   According to the Korea Meteorological Administration(KMA) on Tuesday, locations across the nation experienced heat-wave-level temperatures of 33 degrees Celsius or higher over an average ...

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Facebook Marketplace has become a popular platform for buying and selling goods, from used cars to gaming systems. However, as with any online marketplace, it has also become a breeding ground for scams.

The world’s biggest companies don't just shape the global economy in an abstract sense; they provide the products and services that make modern life more convenient and connected than ever before. They set trends, drive innovation and set the course for smaller companies in every sector from technology to healthcare to finance.

[International] :
The price of Bitcoin surpassed the 80-thousand-dollar mark for the first time just days after Donald Trump’s reelection to the U.S. presidency.    According to the U.S. cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency was worth 81-thousand-110 U.S. dollars at 1:25 a.m. ...

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[International] :
Media outlets in Japan have reported that talks are underway for a summit between Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and President Yoon Suk Yeol on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation(APEC) Summit in Peru. Japan’s Kyodo News said the two sides are discussing details of the potential ...

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[Culture] :
The 31 Korean Cultural Centers in 28 countries around the world will hold various events promoting the value and beauty of Hangeul as South Korea will mark the 578th Hangeul Day on Wednesday.  The center in France will provide the first performance of a song created by South Korean composer Kim Dae-seong ...

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[Culture] :
BLACKPINK member Rosé's latest collab with American pop star Bruno Mars, "APT.," has reached number two on the United Kingdom's Official Singles Chart, the highest ranking on the chart by a female K-pop artist. After debuting at number four on October 25, "APT." jumped two spots to number two in the ...

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The expression "the cherry on top" refers to a very good thing. You may think differently once you learn how maraschino cherries are actually made.

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You love your Chrome browser bookmarks but your computer is on the verge of dying. Is there any way you can save them so they appear on your new computer?

[Economy] :
One out of ten couples who tied the knot last year were from different cultures, as the number of multicultural marriages returned to pre-pandemic levels. According to Statistics Korea on Thursday, there were 20-thousand-431 multicultural couples in 2023, up 17-point-two percent from a year ...

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[Economy] :
South Koreans appear to hold more favorable views of marriage and childrearing than they did two years ago. According to Statistics Korea on Tuesday, 52-point-five percent of some 36-thousand people aged 13 and older polled in May said people should get married, up two-point-five percentage points from ...

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Sea floor: marine geoscience  British Geological Survey

Pseudoalteromonas fuliginea sp. PS47 is a recently identified marine bacterium that has extensive enzymatic machinery to metabolize polysaccharides, including a locus that targets pectin-like substrates. This locus contains a gene (locus tag EU509_03255) that encodes a pectin-degrading lyase, called PfPL1, that belongs to polysaccharide lyase family 1 (PL1). The 2.2 Å resolution X-ray crystal structure of PfPL1 reveals the compact parallel β-helix fold of the PL1 family. The back side of the core parallel β-helix opposite to the active site is a meandering set of five α-helices joined by lengthy loops. A comparison of the active site with those of other PL1 enzymes suggests a catalytic mechanism that is independent of metal ions, such as Ca2+, but that substrate recognition may require metal ions. Overall, this work provides the first structural insight into a pectinase of marine origin and the first structure of a PL1 enzyme in subfamily 2.

X-ray and electron diffraction methods independently identify the S-enanti­omer of Berkecoumarin [systematic name: (S)-8-hy­droxy-3-(2-hy­droxy­prop­yl)-6-meth­oxy-2H-chromen-2-one]. Isolated from Berkeley Pit Lake Penicillium sp., Berkecoumarin is a natural product with a light-atom com­position (C13H14O5) that challenges in-house absolute structure determination by anomalous scattering. This study further demonstrates the utility of dynamical refinement of electron-diffraction data for absolute structure determination.

Leishmaniasis is a neglected parasitic tropical disease with numerous clinical manifestations. One of the causative agents of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is Leishmania tropica (L. tropica) known for causing ulcerative lesions on the skin. The adverse effects of the recommended available drugs, such as amphotericin B and pentavalent antimonial, and the emergence of drug resistance in parasites, mean the search for new safe and effective anti-leishmanial agents is crucial. Miltefosine (MIL) was the first recommended oral medication, but its use is now limited because of the rapid emergence of resistance. Pharmaceutical cocrystallization is an effective method to improve the physicochemical and biological properties of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Herein, we describe the cocrystallization of coumarin-3-carb­oxy­lic acid (CU, 1a; 2-oxobenzo­pyrane-3-carb­oxy­lic acid, C10H6O4) with five coformers [2-amino-3-bromo­pyridine (1b), 2-amino-5-(tri­fluoro­methyl)-pyridine (1c), 2-amino-6-methyl­pyridine (1d), p-amino­benzoic acid (1e) and amitrole (1f)] in a 1:1 stoichiometric ratio via the neat grinding method. The cocrystals 2–6 obtained were characterized via single-crystal X-ray diffraction, powder X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis, as well as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Non-covalent interactions, such as van der Waals, hydrogen bonding, C—H⋯π and π⋯π interactions contribute significantly towards the packing of a crystal structure and alter the physicochemical and biological activity of CU. In this research, newly synthesized cocrystals were evaluated for their anti-leishmanial activity against the MIL-resistant L. tropica and cytotoxicity against the 3T3 (normal fibroblast) cell line. Among the non-cytotoxic cocrystals synthesized (2–6), CU:1b (2, IC50 = 61.83 ± 0.59 µM), CU:1c (3, 125.7 ± 1.15 µM) and CU:1d (4, 48.71 ± 0.75 µM) appeared to be potent anti-leishmanial agents and showed several-fold more anti-leishmanial potential than the tested standard drug (MIL, IC50 = 169.55 ± 0.078 µM). The results indicate that cocrystals 2–4 are promising anti-leishmanial agents which require further exploration.

Stimulated by informal conversations at the XVII International Small Angle Scattering (SAS) conference (Traverse City, 2017), an international team of experts undertook a round-robin exercise to produce a large dataset from proteins under standard solution conditions. These data were used to generate consensus SAS profiles for xylose isomerase, urate oxidase, xylanase, lysozyme and ribonuclease A. Here, we apply a new protocol using maximum likelihood with a larger number of the contributed datasets to generate improved consensus profiles. We investigate the fits of these profiles to predicted profiles from atomic coordinates that incorporate different models to account for the contribution to the scattering of water molecules of hydration surrounding proteins in solution. Programs using an implicit, shell-type hydration layer generally optimize fits to experimental data with the aid of two parameters that adjust the volume of the bulk solvent excluded by the protein and the contrast of the hydration layer. For these models, we found the error-weighted residual differences between the model and the experiment generally reflected the subsidiary maxima and minima in the consensus profiles that are determined by the size of the protein plus the hydration layer. By comparison, all-atom solute and solvent molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are without the benefit of adjustable parameters and, nonetheless, they yielded at least equally good fits with residual differences that are less reflective of the structure in the consensus profile. Further, where MD simulations accounted for the precise solvent composition of the experiment, specifically the inclusion of ions, the modelled radius of gyration values were significantly closer to the experiment. The power of adjustable parameters to mask real differences between a model and the structure present in solution is demonstrated by the results for the conformationally dynamic ribonuclease A and calculations with pseudo-experimental data. This study shows that, while methods invoking an implicit hydration layer have the unequivocal advantage of speed, care is needed to understand the influence of the adjustable parameters. All-atom solute and solvent MD simulations are slower but are less susceptible to false positives, and can account for thermal fluctuations in atomic positions, and more accurately represent the water molecules of hydration that contribute to the scattering profile.