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The Paris Agreement demands climate action

The Paris Agreement is a landmark in collective efforts on climate change and is the result of many years’ hard work. It must now be implemented.




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The Dutch labour market: preparing for the future

The well performing labour market has delivered low unemployment and relatively stable wage developments.




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OECD LEED-Cedefop 2nd Green Skills Forum 2014 (Paris, France)

LEED and Cedefop organise the second edition of the Green Skills Forum which will bring together experts in innovation, employability and skills development and lessons from work conducted by the OECD, Cedefop, and other organisations on the implications of the green economy for skills development and training policies.




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The Dutch labour market: preparing for the future

The well performing labour market has delivered low unemployment and relatively stable wage developments.




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Are vocational programmes preparing school leavers for a risky job market? (OECD Education Today Blog)

One of the most dramatic consequences of the economic crisis has been the soaring levels of youth unemployment in several OECD countries; and the hesitant recovery of the past years was insufficient to improve the job prospects of young people.




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Register for a webinar "PISA 2015: Q&A Session Closing the Achievement Gap" with Andreas Schleicher (December 15th, 14h Paris time)

Register for a webinar "PISA 2015: Q&A Session Closing the Achievement Gap" with Andreas Schleicher (December 15th, 14h Paris time)




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Adult Skills in Focus No. 5: Do socio-economic disparities in skills grow between the teenage years and young adulthood?

The striking cross-national variation in socio-economic disparities in skills gaps among 15-year-olds, and the evolution of these gaps between the ages of 15 and 27, raises the question of what policies and institutional arrangements may explain such variability.




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Register for the Q&A Webinar - Tax Incentives to Invest in Education and Skills (Thursday, 13 April, at 17:00 Paris time)

This public session will discuss the financial incentives to invest in education, with a particular focus on how tax systems impact skills development in OECD countries. The webinar will present some of the key findings from the OECD’s new report, Taxation and Skills and their implications for policy makers.




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Register for the webinar - Transitions from Early Childhood Education and Care to Primary Education (Wednesday, 21 June, at 17:00 Paris time)

Join Andreas Schleicher, Director of the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills, and Éric Charbonnier, analyst in the Early Childhood and Schools division, who will present the main findings from Starting Strong V - Transitions from Early Childhood Education and Care to Primary Education.




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Register for the webinar - PISA 2015 Results (Volume V): Collaborative Problem Solving (Tuesday, 21 November,16:00 Paris time)

The assessment examines students’ ability to work with two or more people to try to solve a problem. The report highlights how students’ gender, socio-economic status and immigrant background are related to their performance in the assessment and to their attitudes towards collaboration in general.




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OECD LEED-Cedefop 2nd Green Skills Forum 2014 (Paris, France)

LEED and Cedefop organise the second edition of the Green Skills Forum which will bring together experts in innovation, employability and skills development and lessons from work conducted by the OECD, Cedefop, and other organisations on the implications of the green economy for skills development and training policies.




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Paris Policy Forum - Urban Green Growth in Dynamic Asia: from concept to implementation

The policy forum officially launches the conceptual framework to the public and offers an opportunity for participants to discuss the key issues for emerging Asia: housing, buildings and energy, land use and transport, water and waste management, green goods and services.




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Further improvements needed to manage major flood risk in Paris and Seine basin

Action to prevent the risk of major flooding in Paris and the Ile de France region has improved in recent years – particularly after the Seine burst its banks in May and June 2016 – but urban and territorial planning needs to be better adapted, governance strengthened and long-term funding clarified, according to the OECD.




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OECD Conference on the Environmental Uses of Micro-organisms, 26-27 March 2012, Paris, France

The conference will cover developments and the state-of-the art of environmental microbiology, as it is applied for biotechnological purposes, and the role of genetic engineering of micro-organisms intended for use in the environment, now and in the near future.




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Parisian bookseller on edge as reopening looms

After weeks of lockdown, starting again will bring its own challenges for small retailers




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French resistance heroine who helped liberate Paris from the Nazis has died aged 101

Cecile Rol Tanguy (pictured) died yesterday at her home in Monteaux, central France, as Europe commemorated the 75th anniversary of the surrender of Nazi Germany to Allied forces.




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Ratnagiri Nagar Parishad vs Gangaram Narayan Ambekar on 6 May, 2020

1. Leave granted.

2. This appeal emanates from the judgment and order dated 29.8.2016 passed by the High Court of Judicature at Bombay 1 in Second Appeal No. 771/2015, whereby the judgment and decree dated 11.2.2015 passed by the District Judge, Ratnagiri 2 in Regular Civil Appeal No. 34/2011 came to be affirmed, as a result of which the suit filed by the respondent Nos. 1 to 19 (original plaintiffs) in the Court of Civil Judge, Senior Division, Signature Not Verified Digitally signed by DEEPAK SINGH Date: 2020.05.06 16:03:13 IST Reason:

1 For short, “the High Court” 2 For short, “the first appellate Court” 2 Ratnagiri3 being RCS No. 25/2005 for permanent injunction against the appellant and respondent No. 20 (State of Maharashtra), restraining them from starting the Solid Waste Disposal Project4 at the suit property, has been decreed. In other words, the trial Court had dismissed the suit, but the first appellate Court allowed (decreed) the same, which decision has been upheld by the High Court in the Second Appeal.




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Erin Molan shuts down anti-vaxxer NRL WAG for comparing herself to Holocaust victim Anne Frank

Shanelle Cartwright, the wife of Gold Coast Titans forward Bryce Cartwright, posted the image of the teenage Holocaust victim to her Instagram story on Friday.




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Pep Guardiola tells Raheem Sterling 'not to listen' to comparisons with Ronaldo and Messi

Sterling has enjoyed a blistering start to the season, scoring eight goals in seven games for Manchester City and England, earning him comparisions with some of the game's greats.




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John Ibrahim says cops seized and never returned a lesbian sex book Paris Hilton signed and sent him

John Ibrahim reckons a copy of Lesbian Sex Secrets For Men that Paris Hilton sent him after he missed out on a threesome with the model was seized by police to embarrass him.




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PSG 'preparing to ask Inter Milan to extend Icardi's loan or lower asking price from £62m to £44m'

Paris Saint-Germain are preparing to ask Inter Milan to either extend Mauro Icardi's season-long loan for another campaign or reduce the sum of the option-to-buy clause in his contract.




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Coronavirus UK: Steve Parish jokes how Premier League table should be decided

Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has posted a tongue-in-cheek comment about how the Premier League season should be decided. The Premier League confirmed all games will be suspended.




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Coronavirus UK: Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish offers staff financial assurances

The Palace chairman has said employees who are affected by coronavirus will still receive full pay, while insisting matchday staff who have lost work due to the league's suspension will not be out of pocket.




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Manchester United 'slap astonishing £35m price tag on Paris Saint-Germain target Diogo Dalot'

The 21-year-old right-back joined the club from Porto in 2018 for around £18m.but he has had few opportunities this season due to sensational form of Aaron Wan-Bissaka.




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Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish calls for football's return to show country the 'new normal'

Steve Parish has defended attempts to get the season back up and running amid the coronavirus pandemic, stressing not doing so would be a major financial blow to taxpayers and the football community.




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Crystal Palace chief Steve Parish warns Premier League clubs will be like 'airlines'

Premier League clubs could be hit with a financial crisis similar to those faced by airlines across the world if football doesn't return by August, Crystal Palace chief Steve Parish has claimed.




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Disparities in Inequality


Economic prosperity isn't always a sign of social progress. A new study of gender biases around the country finds the wealthier states have much to answer for.




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Preparing to repeat a dammed history


Over 230,000 people in hundreds of villages to be displaced, tens of thousands of acres submerged, wildlife and forest lands inundated - the Polavaram project will repeat the great tragedy of displacement and environmental damage that has marked so many other projects in the country. R Uma Maheshwari reports.




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Preparing for a tsunami of migration


India cannot afford not to take a proactive approach to migration. In particular, adaptation measures in key sectors are needed to improve resilience and reduce the pressure on migration from climate change, writes Sujatha Byravan.




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Hyundai Grand i10 NIOS BS6 Petrol Mileage Figures Revealed: Detailed Comparison To Its Rivals

The Hyundai Grand i10 NIOS BS6 petrol variant mileage figures have been revealed. The company had updated the petrol engine to achieve BS6 compliance earlier this year, and also added a new turbo-engine to the Grand i10 NIOS BS6.




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Congrès international d'électricité, Paris, 18-25 août 1900: rapports et procès-verbaux / publiés par les soins de M.É. Hospitalier ..

Archives, Room Use Only - TK5.I68 1900




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Syntheses, crystal structures, and comparisons of rare-earth oxyapatites Ca2RE8(SiO4)6O2 (RE = La, Nd, Sm, Eu, or Yb) and NaLa9(SiO4)6O2

Six different rare-earth oxyapatites, including Ca2RE8(SiO4)6O2 (RE = La, Nd, Sm, Eu, or Yb) and NaLa9(SiO4)6O2, were synthesized using solution-based processes followed by cold pressing and sinter­ing. The crystal structures of the synthesized oxyapatites were determined from powder X-ray diffraction (P-XRD) and their chemistries verified with electron probe microanalysis (EPMA). All the oxyapatites were isostructural within the hexa­gonal space group P63/m and showed similar unit-cell parameters. The isolated [SiO4]4− tetra­hedra in each crystal are linked by the cations at the 4f and 6h sites occupied by RE3+ and Ca2+ in Ca2RE8(SiO4)6O2 or La3+ and Na+ in NaLa9(SiO4)6O2. The lattice parameters, cell volumes, and densities of the synthesized oxyapatites fit well to the trendlines calculated from literature values.




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Tetra-n-butyl­ammonium orotate monohydrate: knowledge-based comparison of the results of accurate and lower-resolution analyses and a non-routine disorder refinement

The title hydrated mol­ecular salt (systematic name: tetra-n-butyl­ammonium 2,6-dioxo-1,2,3,6-tetra­hydro­pyrimidine-4-carboxyl­ate monohydrate), C16H36N+·C5H3N2O4−·H2O, crystallizes with N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen-bonded double-stranded anti­parallel ribbons consisting of the hydro­philic orotate monoanions and water mol­ecules, separated by the bulky hydro­phobic cations. The hydro­phobic and hydro­philic regions of the structure are joined by weaker non-classical C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. An accurate structure analysis conducted at T = 100 K is compared to a lower-resolution less accurate determination using data measured at T = 295 K. The results of both analyses are evaluated using a knowledge-based approach, and it is found that the less accurate room-temperature structure analysis provides geometric data that are similar to those derived from the accurate low-temperature analysis, with both sets of results consistent with previously analyzed structures. A minor disorder of one methyl group in the cation at low temperature was found to be slightly more complex at room temperature; while still involving a minor fraction of the structure, the disorder at room temperature was found to require a non-routine treatment, which is described in detail.




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Crystal structures and comparisons of huntite aluminum borates REAl3(BO3)4 (RE = Tb, Dy and Ho)

Three huntite-type aluminoborates of stoichiometry REAl3(BO3)4 (RE = Tb, Dy and Ho), namely, terbium/dysprosium/holmium trialuminium tetrakis(borate), were synthesized by slow cooling within a K2Mo3O10 flux with spontaneous crystallization. The crystal structures were determined using single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SC-XRD) data. The synthesized borates are isostructural to the huntite [CaMg3(CO3)4] structure and crystallized within the trigonal R32 space group. The structural parameters were compared to literature data of other huntite REAl3(BO3)4 crystals within the R32 space group. All three borates fit well into the trends calculated from the literature data. The unit-cell parameters and volumes increase linearly with larger RE cations whereas the densities decrease. All of the crystals studied were refined as inversion twins.




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CrystalCMP: automatic comparison of molecular structures

This article describes new developments in the CrystalCMP software. In particular, an automatic procedure for comparison of molecular packing is presented. The key components are an automated procedure for fragment selection and the replacement of the angle calculation by root-mean-square deviation of atomic positions. The procedure was tested on a large data set taken from the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) and the results of all the comparisons were saved as an HTML page, which is freely available on the web. The analysis of the results allowed estimation of the threshold for identification of identical packing and allowed duplicates and entries with potentially incorrect space groups to be found in the CSD.




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Energetics of interactions in the solid state of 2-hydroxy-8-X-quinoline derivatives (X = Cl, Br, I, S-Ph): comparison of Hirshfeld atom, X-ray wavefunction and multipole refinements

In this work, two methods of high-resolution X-ray data refinement: multipole refinement (MM) and Hirshfeld atom refinement (HAR) – together with X-ray wavefunction refinement (XWR) – are applied to investigate the refinement of positions and anisotropic thermal motion of hydrogen atoms, experiment-based reconstruction of electron density, refinement of anharmonic thermal vibrations, as well as the effects of excluding the weakest reflections in the refinement. The study is based on X-ray data sets of varying quality collected for the crystals of four quinoline derivatives with Cl, Br, I atoms and the -S-Ph group as substituents. Energetic investigations are performed, comprising the calculation of the energy of intermolecular interactions, cohesive and geometrical relaxation energy. The results obtained for experimentally derived structures are verified against the values calculated for structures optimized using dispersion-corrected periodic density functional theory. For the high-quality data sets (the Cl and -S-Ph compounds), both MM and XWR could be successfully used to refine the atomic displacement parameters and the positions of hydrogen atoms; however, the bond lengths obtained with XWR were more precise and closer to the theoretical values. In the application to the more challenging data sets (the Br and I compounds), only XWR enabled free refinement of hydrogen atom geometrical parameters, nevertheless, the results clearly showed poor data quality. For both refinement methods, the energy values (intermolecular interactions, cohesive and relaxation) calculated for the experimental structures were in similar agreement with the values associated with the optimized structures – the most significant divergences were observed when experimental geometries were biased by poor data quality. XWR was found to be more robust in avoiding incorrect distortions of the reconstructed electron density as a result of data quality issues. Based on the problem of anharmonic thermal motion refinement, this study reveals that for the most correct interpretation of the obtained results, it is necessary to use the complete data set, including the weak reflections in order to draw conclusions.




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Comparing serial X-ray crystallography and microcrystal electron diffraction (MicroED) as methods for routine structure determination from small macromolecular crystals

Innovative new crystallographic methods are facilitating structural studies from ever smaller crystals of biological macromolecules. In particular, serial X-ray crystallography and microcrystal electron diffraction (MicroED) have emerged as useful methods for obtaining structural information from crystals on the nanometre to micrometre scale. Despite the utility of these methods, their implementation can often be difficult, as they present many challenges that are not encountered in traditional macromolecular crystallography experiments. Here, XFEL serial crystallography experiments and MicroED experiments using batch-grown microcrystals of the enzyme cyclophilin A are described. The results provide a roadmap for researchers hoping to design macromolecular microcrystallography experiments, and they highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the two methods. Specifically, we focus on how the different physical conditions imposed by the sample-preparation and delivery methods required for each type of experiment affect the crystal structure of the enzyme.




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Comparing the backfilling of mesoporous titania thin films with hole conductors of different sizes sharing the same mass density

Efficient infiltration of a mesoporous titania matrix with conducting organic polymers or small molecules is one key challenge to overcome for hybrid photovoltaic devices. A quantitative analysis of the backfilling efficiency with time-of-flight grazing incidence small-angle neutron scattering (ToF-GISANS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) measurements is presented. Differences in the morphology due to the backfilling of mesoporous titania thin films are compared for the macromolecule poly[4,8-bis­(5-(2-ethyl­hexyl)­thio­phen-2-yl)benzo[1,2-b;4,5-b']di­thio­phene-2,6-diyl-alt-(4-(2-ethyl­hexyl)-3-fluoro­thieno[3,4-b]thio­phene-)-2-carboxyl­ate-2-6-diyl)] (PTB7-Th) and the heavy-element containing small molecule 2-pinacol­boronate-3-phenyl­phen­anthro[9,10-b]telluro­phene (PhenTe-BPinPh). Hence, a 1.7 times higher backfilling efficiency of almost 70% is achieved for the small molecule PhenTe-BPinPh compared with the polymer PTB7-Th despite sharing the same volumetric mass density. The precise characterization of structural changes due to backfilling reveals that the volumetric density of backfilled materials plays a minor role in obtaining good backfilling efficiencies and interfaces with large surface contact.




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Probing the structural pathway of conformational polymorph nucleation by comparing a series of α,ω-alkanedicarboxylic acids

Herein the nucleation pathway of conformational polymorphs was revealed by studying the relationships and distinctions among a series of α,ω-alkanedicarboxylic acids [HOOC–(CH2)n−2–COOH, named DAn, where n = 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15] in the solid state and in solution. Their polymorphic outcomes, with the exception of DA5, show solvent dependence: form I with conformation I crystallizes from solvents with hydrogen-bond donating (HBD) ability, whereas form II with conformation II crystallizes preferentially from solvents with no HBD ability. In contrast, form II of DA5 does not crystallize in any of the solvents used. Quantum mechanical computation showed that there is no direct conformational link between the solvents and the resultant polymorphic outcomes. Surprisingly, solute aggregates were found in no-HBD solvents by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and only monomers could be detected in HBD solvents, suggesting stronger solvation. Furthermore, it was found that all six compounds including DA5 followed the same pattern in solution. Moreover, crystal-packing efficiency calculations and stability tests stated that dimorphs of DA5 bear a greater stability difference than others. These suggest that the rearrangement from conformation II to I could not be limited by hard desolvation in HBD solvents, where form I was also obtained. In other systems, metastable II was produced in the same solvents, probably as a result of the rearrangement being limited by hard desolvation. In this work, a comparative study uncovers the proposed nucleation pathway: difficulty in desolvation has a remarkable effect on the result of rearrangement and nucleation outcome.




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Structural comparison of protiated, H/D-exchanged and deuterated human carbonic anhydrase IX

Human carbonic anhydrase IX (CA IX) expression is upregulated in hypoxic solid tumours, promoting cell survival and metastasis. This observation has made CA IX a target for the development of CA isoform-selective inhibitors. To enable structural studies of CA IX–inhibitor complexes using X-ray and neutron crystallography, a CA IX surface variant (CA IXSV; the catalytic domain with six surface amino-acid substitutions) has been developed that can be routinely crystallized. Here, the preparation of protiated (H/H), H/D-exchanged (H/D) and deuterated (D/D) CA IXSV for crystallographic studies and their structural comparison are described. Four CA IXSV X-ray crystal structures are compared: two H/H crystal forms, an H/D crystal form and a D/D crystal form. The overall active-site organization in each version is essentially the same, with only minor positional changes in active-site solvent, which may be owing to deuteration and/or resolution differences. Analysis of the crystal unit-cell packing reveals different crystallographic and noncrystallographic dimers of CA IXSV compared with previous reports. To our knowledge, this is the first report comparing three different deuterium-labelled crystal structures of the same protein, marking an important step in validating the active-site structure of CA IXSV for neutron protein crystallography.




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A comparison of gas stream cooling and plunge cooling of macromolecular crystals

Cryocooling for macromolecular crystallography is usually performed via plunging the crystal into a liquid cryogen or placing the crystal in a cold gas stream. These two approaches are compared here for the case of nitro­gen cooling. The results show that gas stream cooling, which typically cools the crystal more slowly, yields lower mosaicity and, in some cases, a stronger anomalous signal relative to rapid plunge cooling. During plunging, moving the crystal slowly through the cold gas layer above the liquid surface can produce mosaicity similar to gas stream cooling. Annealing plunge cooled crystals by warming and recooling in the gas stream allows the mosaicity and anomalous signal to recover. For tetragonal thermolysin, the observed effects are less pronounced when the cryosolvent has smaller thermal contraction, under which conditions the protein structures from plunge cooled and gas stream cooled crystals are very similar. Finally, this work also demonstrates that the resolution dependence of the reflecting range is correlated with the cooling method, suggesting it may be a useful tool for discerning whether crystals are cooled too rapidly. The results support previous studies suggesting that slower cooling methods are less deleterious to crystal order, as long as ice formation is prevented and dehydration is limited.




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Diffracting-grain identification from electron backscatter diffraction maps during residual stress measurements: a comparison between the sin2ψ and cosα methods

The sin2ψ and cosα methods are compared via diffracting-grain identification from electron backscatter diffraction maps. Artificial textures created by the X-ray diffraction measurements are plotted and X-ray elastic constants of the diffracting-grain sets are computed.




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CrystalCMP: automatic comparison of molecular structures

New developments in the program CrystalCMP are presented, and the program is tested on a large number of crystal structures extracted from the Cambridge Structural Database.




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Comparison of two MnIVMnIV-bis-μ-oxo complexes, {[MnIV{N4(6-Me-DPEN)}]2(μ-O)2}2+ and {[MnIV{N4(6-Me-DPPN)}]2(μ-O)2}2+

The addition of tert-butyl hydro­peroxide (tBuOOH) to two MnII complexes, differing by a small synthetic alteration from an ethyl to a propyl linker in the ligand scaffold, results in the formation of the high-valent bis-oxo complexes, {[MnIV{N4(6-Me-DPEN)}]2(μ-O)2}2+ (1) and {[MnIV{N4(6-Me-DPPN)}]2(μ-O)2}2+ (2).




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Comparison of azimuthal plots for reflection high-energy positron diffraction (RHEPD) and reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) for Si(111) surface

Features of azimuthal plots for RHEED and its new counterpart, RHEPD, are discussed. The plots, for both electrons and positrons, are determined using dynamical diffraction theory.




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Carcinogens and Anticarcinogens in the Human Diet - A Comparison of Naturally Occurring and Synthetic Substances

Cancer-causing chemicals that occur naturally in foods are far more numerous in the human diet than synthetic carcinogens, yet both types are consumed at levels so low that they currently appear to pose little threat to human health, a committee of the National Research Council said in a report released today.




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Opening Remarks from Bruce Darling, Executive Officer, National Academy of Sciences and National Research Council Report Release Event for Preparing for Future Products of Biotechnology

Good morning. Welcome to the release of the report Preparing for Future Products of Biotechnology, from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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New Report Calls for a National System to Measure Equity in Education, Identify Disparities in Outcomes and Opportunity

A centralized, consistently reported system of indicators of educational equity is needed to bring attention to disparities in the U.S. education system, says a new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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Addressing Patients’ Social Needs Within Health Care Delivery Is Key to Improving Health Outcomes and Reducing Health Disparities, New Report Says

Whether a patient has a safe place to live or healthy food to eat has an important influence on their health, but such nonmedical social needs have not traditionally been addressed in routine health care visits.




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Preparing Technicians for the Future of Work

Smarter and more independent robots