Jonathan Coddington, Curator of Spiders at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History describes how photography has transformed the study of arachnids.

The post How photography has transformed the study of spiders and their webs appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

This work presents a technique for extracting the detailed shape of peaks with extended, overlapping tails in an X-ray powder diffraction pattern. The application discussed here concerns crystallite size broadening, though the technique can be applied to spectra of any origin and without regard to how the profiles are to be subsequently analyzed. Historically, the extraction of profile shapes has been difficult due to the complexity of determining the background under the peak, resulting in an offset of the low-frequency components of the Fourier transform of the peak known as the `hook' problem. The use of a carefully considered statistical weighting function in a non-linear least-squares fit, followed by summing the residuals from such a fit with the fit itself, allows one to extract the full shape of an isolated peak, without contributions from either the background or adjacent peaks. The extracted shape, consisting of the fit function recombined with the residuals, is not dependent on any specific shape model. The application of this to analysis of microstructure is performed independently of global parametric models, which would reduce the number of refined parameters; therefore the technique requires high-quality data to produce results of interest. The effectiveness of the technique is demonstrated by extraction of Fourier transforms of peaks from two sets of size-broadened materials with two differing pieces of equipment.

A new polymorph (form II) is reported for the 1:1 dimethyl sulfoxide solvate of 2,3,5,6-tetra­fluoro-1,4-di­iodo­benzene (TFDIB·DMSO or C6F4I2·C2H6SO). The structure is similar to that of a previously reported polymorph (form I) [Britton (2003). Acta Cryst. E59, o1332–o1333], containing layers of TFDIB mol­ecules with DMSO mol­ecules between, accepting I⋯O halogen bonds from two TFDIB mol­ecules. Re-examination of form I over the temperature range 300–120 K shows that it undergoes a phase transformation around 220 K, where the DMSO mol­ecules undergo re-orientation and become ordered. The unit cell expands by ca 0.5 Å along the c axis and contracts by ca 1.0 Å along the a axis, and the space-group symmetry is reduced from Pnma to P212121. Refinement of form I against data collected at 220 K captures the (average) structure of the crystal prior to the phase transformation, with the DMSO mol­ecules showing four distinct disorder com­ponents, corresponding to an overlay of the 297 and 120 K structures. Assessment of the inter­molecular inter­action energies using the PIXEL method indicates that the various orientations of the DMSO mol­ecules have very similar total inter­action energies with the molecules of the TFDIB framework. The phase transformation is driven by inter­actions between DMSO mol­ecules, whereby re-orientation at lower temperature yields significantly closer and more stabilizing inter­actions between neighbouring DMSO mol­ecules, which lock in an ordered arrangement along the shortened a axis.

Nurses roles, responsibilities, and education should change significantly to meet the increased demand for care that will be created by health care reform and to advance improvements in Americas increasingly complex health system, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine.

Every year, approximately 100 million* adult Americans experience chronic pain, a condition that costs the nation between $560 billion and $635 billion annually, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine.

Americas health care system has become too complex and costly to continue business as usual, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine

Chemical separations — which are used to divide chemical mixtures into their distinct elements — are critical in providing many of the foods and services needed to maintain our quality of life.

You can find a nurse navigating city streets, on her way to a home visit. Or, maybe he is recording educational videos on preventing ear infections. She might even be running for city council.

For her role in transforming a safety net hospital into a national model for high-quality, cost-efficient health care, the National Academy of Medicine today announced Patricia Gabow is the recipient of the 2019 Gustav O. Lienhard Award for Advancement of Health Care.

Henry E. Huntington in 1907.; Credit: Theo C. Marceau, New York City. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

One of the most prized treasures of LA County is 100 years old this year.

The Huntington Library is beloved for its lush botanical gardens and fine art.

As KPCC's Brianna Flores reports, you can trace its origins to a pivotal moment in Southern California history.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

The National Science Foundation: Creating knowledge to transform our future

The National Science Foundation: Creating knowledge to transform our future

The pandemic has highlighted the need for businesses to act with alacrity and prepare for the long haul – and to do so with cybersecurity in mind

The post Digital transformation could be accelerated by COVID‑19 appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

Genpact sees over 100 clients closing their financial quarter digitally while others are doubling the pace of adoption of digital transformation.

Cisco unified communications (UC) give your teams the freedom to be productive from anywhere, on any device. Available as one of our Cisco cloud services using Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) or as an on-premises solution, Cisco UC lets you access presence, instant messaging, voice, video, voice messaging, desktop sharing, and conferencing.

We have already crossed the AI Rubicon, and the future lies in the symbiosis of machine and human intelligence.

Digital marketing is a particularly strong capability for Indian companies, according to the new global study by Infosys Knowledge Institute.

India has tried its hands out in 4.0 technologies to pace up with the rapidly changing retail landscape. The use of AI, ML and data analytics has increased which are being used in functions like BOPIS, Click & Collect and Self-Kiosk.

Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance’s Chief Information & Digital Officer, Goutam Datta leveraged technology for enabling all business functions and meeting the digital demands of its employees, partners and customers amid lockdown and enabled new services to prevent any impact on business.

Silver nanoparticles present in the effluent from waste-water treatment plants could have toxic effects on aquatic organisms, new research suggests. The lab-based study tested the effects of nanoparticle-containing effluent on several crustacean and algae species. The researchers observed that epibenthic crustaceans (those living in or on sediments at the bottom of water bodies) were the most sensitive; notably, a 20–45% higher death rate was observed compared with those exposed to nanoparticle-free effluent.

I like to think of geometric transformations of images (stretching, shrinking, rotating, etc.) by starting with the geometric transformations of points. You could think of a geometric point transformation as just moving a point from one location to another, like this:... read more >>

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​Scientists from NTU have transformed pollen, known as the diamond of the plant kingdom for its toughness, into a soft, flexible material that could serve as a 'building block' for a new category of eco-friendly materials....

California's congested freeways could be a boon for large-scale piezoelectric power generation.

Artist Hunter Franks' idea to transform a defunct Akron highway into a leafy urban retreat is a winner in the 2017 Knight Cities Challenge.

Tsepdro is a sacred art form in Tibet. It's traditionally made during Losar, the Tibetan New Year.

A new study finds the area around the former Fukushima power plant teeming with life.

Scientists, engineers and telecommunications officials are in the early planning stages for a seafloor fiber-optic cable that would span the Pacific Ocean, and

Basketball, mini-golf, a Ferris wheel, an underground lake and a spa are just some of the attractions found in this majestic 13th-century Romanian salt mine.

Who said old houses can't learn new energy-saving tricks?

The breakthrough works like a rechargeable battery that is charged by sunlight.

Santa Monica's iconic amusement pier is the site of this year's Land Art Generator Initiative. The Pipe is an offshore desalination concept that's making waves.

This 12-year program in Finland inspires troubled kids to reach for their dreams.

Student filmmakers win Environment Agency film competition by casting Coolio as a water-wasting polar bear.

What if we could turn our fuel emissions back into fuel?

This Instagram sensation knows how to rock palm fronds and coat hangers!

More than 40% of the world's insect species are threatened with extinction, and their loss could upend nature as we know it.

Contaminated sites being used to house wind farms, solar arrays and geothermal power plants.

Health systems in emerging markets have not realized the benefits of data visibility to global health supply-chain operations. To do so, health-system leaders will need to take four critical actions.

The disruption ahead extends well beyond healthcare. Are you prepared?

The moon is surprisingly rich in water, nuclear fuel and rare metals, which is why humans are interested in mining it.

Kerosene lanterns are dangerous, polluting and unhealthy. That's why one charity aims to eliminate them by the end of the decade.

Osprey Falls at Yellowstone National Park is starting to freeze as this video shows.

Freezing winds from Lake Erie turned houses into ice after two days of gale-force winds.

Finally, a clever use for marine algae that appeals to both Danish mer-folk and lovers of Scandinavian design.

Birds, bees, bats and bees in one London park just got swank new digs courtesy of upcycled Ikea furniture.

Officials in New South Wales are confident that transforming the ghost tunnels could have 'global potential.'

See how the machines are making work safer at one Georgia-Pacific plant in Crossett, Ark.

Kickboxing clients in Sandy UT participate in iLoveKickboxing.com's National 45 Day Transformation Contest and achieve a better mindset towards fitness and personal growth as they transform their mind and body.

Clients of iLoveKickboxing-Sandy get ready to start the 2nd annual 45 day transformation contest this week.