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Molecular dynamics study of the frictional properties of multilayer MoS2

RSC Adv., 2020, 10,17418-17426
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA00995D, Paper
Open Access
Chengzhi Hu, Changli Yi, Minli Bai, Jizu Lv, Dawei Tang
Deformation of MoS2 layers directly leads to decrease in potential and ultimately leads to decrease in friction coefficient.
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First-principles calculations of electronic structure and optical and elastic properties of the novel ABX3-type LaWN3 perovskite structure

RSC Adv., 2020, 10,17317-17326
DOI: 10.1039/C9RA10735E, Paper
Open Access
Xing Liu, Jia Fu, Guangming Chen
Using first-principles calculation, the stable R3c LaWN3 as a new ABX3-type advanced perovskite structure is designed in the plan of the material genome initiative (MGI), which helps to widen the nowadays nitride perovskite material's application.
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Borohydride catalyzed redistribution reaction of hydrosilane and chlorosilane: a potential system for facile preparation of hydrochlorosilanes

RSC Adv., 2020, 10,17404-17407
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA03536J, Paper
Open Access
Yi Chen, Liqing Ai, Yongming Li, Caihong Xu
A borohydride catalyzed Si–H/Si–Cl redistribution system was established to prepare hydrochlorosilanes facilely and efficiently.
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Synthesis and gas permeation properties of thermally rearranged poly(ether-benzoxazole)s with low rearrangement temperatures

RSC Adv., 2020, 10,17461-17472
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA00145G, Paper
Open Access
Yunhua Lu, Jianhua Zhang, Guoyong Xiao, Lin Li, Mengjie Hou, Junyi Hu, Tonghua Wang
A series of poly(ether-benzoxazole)(PEBO) for gas separation were prepared from 9,9-bis[4-(4-amino-3-hydroxylphenoxy)phenyl]fluorene based hydroxyl-containing poly(ether-imide)s (HPEIs) with low rearrangement temperatures.
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Development of novel N-(6-methanesulfonyl-benzothiazol-2-yl)-3-(4-substituted-piperazin-1-yl)-propionamides with cholinesterase inhibition, anti-β-amyloid aggregation, neuroprotection and cognition enhancing properties for the therapy of Alzheimer's d

RSC Adv., 2020, 10,17602-17619
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA00663G, Paper
Open Access
Chandra Bhushan Mishra, Shruti Shalini, Siddharth Gusain, Amresh Prakash, Jyoti Kumari, Shikha Kumari, Anita Kumari Yadav, Andrew M. Lynn, Manisha Tiwari
A novel series of benzothiazole–piperazine hybrids were rationally designed, synthesized, and evaluated as multifunctional ligands against Alzheimer's disease (AD).
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Enhanced thermal stability, hydrophobicity, UV radiation resistance, and antibacterial properties of wool fabric treated with p-aminobenzenesulphonic acid

RSC Adv., 2020, 10,17515-17523
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA02267E, Paper
Open Access
Mohammad Mahbubul Hassan
The treatment with para-aminobenzenesulphonic acid produced a multifunctional wool fabric with enhanced hydrophobicity, thermal stability, UV resistance, and antibacterial properties.
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Cobalt–carbon/silica nanocomposites prepared by pyrolysis of a cobalt 2,2'-bipyridine terephthalate complex for remediation of cationic dyes

RSC Adv., 2020, 10,17660-17672
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA02752A, Paper
Open Access
Nusaybah Alotaibi, Hassan H. Hammud, Ranjith Kumar Karnati, Syed Ghazanfar Hussain, Javed Mazher, Thirumurugan Prakasam
A cobalt–carbon@silica nanocomposite was synthesized from a cobalt 2,2'-bipyridine terephthalate complex and its adsorption behavior towards crystal violet dye was tested using batch and column techniques.
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A facile method for preparing Yb3+-doped perovskite nanocrystals with ultra-stable near-infrared light emission

RSC Adv., 2020, 10,17635-17641
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA01897J, Paper
Open Access
Chunqian Zhang, Aidi Zhang, Taoran Liu, Lin Zhou, Jun Zheng, Yuhua Zuo, Yongqi He, Juhao Li
A facile method for fabricating CsPbBr3:Yb3+@SiO2 NCs which guarantees high PLQY and excellent stability at the same time.
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Novel lightweight open-cell polypropylene foams for filtering hazardous materials

RSC Adv., 2020, 10,17694-17701
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA01499K, Paper
Open Access
Fei Wu, Pengke Huang, Haibin Luo, Jin Wang, Bin Shen, Qian Ren, Pei He, Hao Zheng, Liyang Zhang, Wenge Zheng
Lightweight polypropylene foams with similar geometries but different porous structures were prepared as filters for potentially hazardous materials via supercritical CO2 extrusion foaming without the use of harmful reagents and the problems of floating micro-nano fibers.
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Correction: Synthesis of α,β-unsaturated esters of perfluoropolyalkylethers (PFPAEs) based on hexafluoropropylene oxide units for photopolymerization

RSC Adv., 2020, 10,17416-17417
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA90036B, Correction
Open Access
  This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence.
Céline Bonneaud, Mélanie Decostanzi, Julia Burgess, Giuseppe Trusiano, Trevor Burgess, Roberta Bongiovanni, Christine Joly-Duhamel, Chadron M. Friesen
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Position-locking of volatile reaction products by atmosphere and capping layers slows down photodecomposition of methylammonium lead triiodide perovskite

RSC Adv., 2020, 10,17534-17542
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA03572F, Paper
Open Access
  This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence.
Fengshuo Zu, Thorsten Schultz, Christian M. Wolff, Dongguen Shin, Lennart Frohloff, Dieter Neher, Patrick Amsalem, Norbert Koch
Gas pressure and capping layers under ultrahigh vacuum prevent methylammonium lead triiodide photo-degradation due to efficient back-reaction of volatile compounds.
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The synergistic influence of polyethyleneimine-grafted graphene oxide and iodide for the protection of steel in acidizing conditions

RSC Adv., 2020, 10,17739-17751
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA00864H, Paper
Open Access
  This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence.
K. R. Ansari, Dheeraj Singh Chauhan, M. A. Quraishi, A. Y. Adesina, Tawfik A. Saleh
Herein, graphene oxide (GO) was chemically functionalized with polyethyleneimine (PEI) in a single step to obtain PEI-GO, which was characterized via FTIR spectroscopy, SEM, and TEM.
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Boosting performances of triboelectric nanogenerators by optimizing dielectric properties and thickness of electrification layer

RSC Adv., 2020, 10,17752-17759
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA02181D, Paper
Open Access
Xiaofang Kang, Chongxiang Pan, Yanghui Chen, Xiong Pu
Enhanced output performances of a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) are achieved by optimizing the high-dielectric-constant filler content in the electrification layer and decreasing its thickness.
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Mechanochemical approach to synthesize citric acid-soluble fertilizer of dittmarite (NH4MgPO4·H2O) from talc/NH4H2PO4 mixture

RSC Adv., 2020, 10,17686-17693
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA00387E, Paper
Open Access
Yonghao Tan, Lin Sha, Nengkui Yu, Zhengshuo Yang, Jun Qu, Zhigao Xu
Dittmarite synthesis by a mechanochemical route for application as a citric acid-soluble fertilizer.
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A novel series of phenolic temozolomide (TMZ) esters with 4 to 5-fold increased potency, compared to TMZ, against glioma cells irrespective of MGMT expression

RSC Adv., 2020, 10,17561-17570
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA02686G, Paper
Open Access
  This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence.
Leroy Shervington, Oliver Ingham, Amal Shervington
The standard of care treatment for patients diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is temozolomide (TMZ).
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Correction: Influence of co-cultures of Streptococcus thermophilus and probiotic lactobacilli on quality and antioxidant capacity parameters of lactose-free fermented dairy beverages containing Syzygium cumini (L.) Skeels pulp

RSC Adv., 2020, 10,16905-16905
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA90046J, Correction
Open Access
  This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence.
Sabrina Laís Alves Garcia, Gabriel Monteiro da Silva, Juliana Maria Svendsen Medeiros, Anna Paula Rocha de Queiroga, Blenda Brito de Queiroz, Daniely Rayane Bezerra de Farias, Joyceana Oliveira Correia, Eliane Rolim Florentino, Flávia Carolina Alonso Buriti
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Preparation of phosphorus-doped porous carbon for high performance supercapacitors by one-step carbonization

RSC Adv., 2020, 10,17768-17776
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA02398A, Paper
Open Access
  This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence.
Guanfeng Lin, Qiong Wang, Xuan Yang, Zhenghan Cai, Yongzhi Xiong, Biao Huang
P-doped porous carbon can be prepared by one-step carbonization using biomass sawdust impregnated with a small amount of phosphoric acid.
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A chitosan-based edible film with clove essential oil and nisin for improving the quality and shelf life of pork patties in cold storage

RSC Adv., 2020, 10,17777-17786
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA02986F, Paper
Open Access
Karthikeyan Venkatachalam, Somwang Lekjing
This study assessed chitosan (CS)-based edible films with clove essential oil (CO) and nisin (NI) singly or in combination, for improving quality and shelf life of pork patties stored in cold conditions.
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Facile synthesis of a direct Z-scheme BiOCl–phosphotungstic acid heterojunction for the improved photodegradation of tetracycline

RSC Adv., 2020, 10,17369-17376
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA02396E, Paper
Open Access
Haijuan Tong, Bingfang Shi, Shulin Zhao
A one-step hydrothermal approach for synthesizing BiOCl–phosphotungstic acid (BiOCl–HPW) heterojunctions is proposed. The prepared BiOCl–HPW heterojunction exhibited good stability and photocatalytic activity.
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Lithium metal deposition/dissolution under uniaxial pressure with high-rigidity layered polyethylene separator

RSC Adv., 2020, 10,17805-17815
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA02788J, Paper
Open Access
  This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence.
Shogo Kanamori, Mitsuhiro Matsumoto, Sou Taminato, Daisuke Mori, Yasuo Takeda, Hoe Jin Hah, Takashi Takeuchi, Nobuyuki Imanishi
The use of a high rigidity separator and application of an appropriate amount of pressure are effective approaches to control lithium metal growth and improve its cycle performance.
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Synthesis of heteroatom-containing pyrrolidine derivatives based on Ti(O-iPr)4 and EtMgBr-catalyzed carbocyclization of allylpropargyl amines with Et2Zn

RSC Adv., 2020, 10,17881-17891
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA02677H, Paper
Open Access
  This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence.
Rita N. Kadikova, Ilfir R. Ramazanov, Azat M. Gabdullin, Oleg S. Mozgovoj, Usein M. Dzhemilev
The Ti(O-iPr)4 and EtMgBr-catalyzed regio and stereoselective carbocyclization of N-allyl-substituted 2-alkynylamines with Et2Zn, followed by deuterolysis or hydrolysis, affords the corresponding methylenepyrrolidine derivatives in high yields.
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Nanoporous materials with predicted zeolite topologies

RSC Adv., 2020, 10,17760-17767
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA01888K, Paper
Open Access
  This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence.
Vladislav A. Blatov, Olga A. Blatova, Frits Daeyaert, Michael W. Deem
Topological exploration of crystal structures demonstrates the presence of known zeolites, inorganics, and MOFs in a database of predicted materials.
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Anatomy of an HTML5 WordPress theme

This site has been written in HTML5 and used to use WordPress to manage the content. I’ll explain why I used HTML5, describe the structure of the theme templates, and show some of the ways I tried to tame WordPress’s tendency to add mess to the source code.

As this is my personal site I wanted to experiment with using HTML5, CSS3, and WAI-ARIA. All these documents are currently working drafts and subject to change. However, the web documents and applications of the future are going to be written in HTML5 and I wanted to see the benefits of using it to markup static documents. Using CSS 2.1, let alone the CSS3 selectors and properties that some browser vendors have implemented, has many advantages for controlling the presentation of semantically coded documents. For this reason I am not going to avoid using basic CSS 2.1 selectors just to faithfully reproducing this site’s design in IE6. However, I have tried to accommodate IE 7 and IE 8 users by using an HTML5 enabling script so that the new HTML5 elements can be styled in those browsers if users have Javascript enabled.

HTML5 templates

I started with a static prototype of this site developed on my local server. WordPress makes it very easy to create your own templates and, therefore, it is no problem to use HTML5. This theme only has 3 main templates: index, single, and archive. There are of course templates for 404s, attachments, comments, etc., but I won’t discuss them as they are all based on the 3 main templates. All the templates include ARIA roles as an accessibility aide.

The single.php template has this rough structure:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <title></title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="default.css">
</head>

<body>
  <header role="banner"></header>
  <nav role="navigation"></nav>
  <article role="main">
    <header>
      <time datetime="YYYY-MM-DD"></time>
      <h1></h1>
    </header>
    <footer></footer>
  </article>
  <nav></nav>
  <aside role="complementary"></aside>
  <footer role="contentinfo">
    <small></small>
  </footer>
</body>
</html>

The first line of the document is the HTML5 DOCTYPE. The new <article> element contains the content of each post. The same structure is used for the index.php template except that there are several articles displayed on each page and the ARIA role value of main is not used. In contrast, the archive.php template houses all the article excerpts in a <section> element with the ARIA role of main because the list of archived posts is itself the main content of the document.

A clean theme

WordPress tends to add classes, elements, and other bits of code in certain places. I haven’t used any of the WordPress functions that add class names to the body and to elements wrapping a post and also wanted to avoid cluttering the source code with any other unnecessary markup. This required a bit of fiddling around with the theme’s functions.php file. I’m not a PHP developer so this might not be pretty!

Removing actions from wp_head()

WordPress has a hook called wp_head that sits in the header.php of most themes. To avoid it inserting unwanted code into the <head> of the document I used the remove_action function to disable the functions that were responsible. The following code was added to the functions.php file of my theme:

// Remove links to the extra feeds (e.g. category feeds)
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'feed_links_extra', 3 );
// Remove links to the general feeds (e.g. posts and comments)
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'feed_links', 2 );
// Remove link to the RSD service endpoint, EditURI link
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'rsd_link' );
// Remove link to the Windows Live Writer manifest file
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'wlwmanifest_link' );
// Remove index link
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'index_rel_link' );
// Remove prev link
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'parent_post_rel_link', 10, 0 );
// Remove start link
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'start_post_rel_link', 10, 0 );
// Display relational links for adjacent posts
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'adjacent_posts_rel_link', 10, 0 );
// Remove XHTML generator showing WP version
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'wp_generator' );

Source: WPEngineer.com: Cleanup WordPress Header

Removing an empty <span>

If you want to create excerpts you can either write them into the excerpt box or use the <--more--> quicktag in the WordPress editor. I just wanted the first paragraph of my posts to be used as the excerpt and so using the in-editor tag was the most practical approach I was aware of. However, when you do this WordPress will insert an empty <span> in the post’s content. This element has an id so that the area following the excerpt can be targeted by “more” or “continue reading” links. I removed both the empty <span> and the jump link by adding the following code to the functions.php file of the theme:

// removes empty span
function remove_empty_read_more_span($content) {
  return eregi_replace("(<p><span id="more-[0-9]{1,}"></span></p>)", "", $content);
}
add_filter('the_content', 'remove_empty_read_more_span');

Source: Ganda Manurung: Remove Empty Span Tag On WordPress

// removes url hash to avoid the jump link
function remove_more_jump_link($link) {
  $offset = strpos($link, '#more-');
  if ($offset) {
    $end = strpos($link, '"',$offset);
  }
  if ($end) {
    $link = substr_replace($link, '', $offset, $end-$offset);
  }
  return $link;
}
add_filter('the_content_more_link', 'remove_more_jump_link');

Source: WordPress Codex: Customizing the Read More

Displaying images in the excerpt

For posts that display nothing but a photograph (yes, they will be shit but I’m hoping it gets me using my camera a bit more often) I wanted the image to show up in the archives. Equally, if the first paragraph of a post contained a link I wanted that to be preserved. The default the_excerpt() template tag doesn’t allow for this so it needed some modifying. I added a new function, which is just a modified version of the core excerpt function, to the functions.php file and then made sure that the template tag executed this function rather than the one contained in the core WordPress files.

function improved_trim_excerpt($text) {
   if ( '' == $text ) {
      $text = get_the_content('');
      $text = strip_shortcodes( $text );
      $text = apply_filters('the_content', $text);
      $text = str_replace(']]>', ']]&amp;gt;', $text);
      $text = strip_tags($text, '<p><img><a>');
      $excerpt_length = apply_filters('excerpt_length', 55);
      $words = explode(' ', $text, $excerpt_length + 1);
      if (count($words) > $excerpt_length) {
         array_pop($words);
         array_push($words, '[...]');
         $text = implode(' ', $words);
         $text = force_balance_tags($text);
      }
   }
   return $text;
}
remove_filter('get_the_excerpt', 'wp_trim_excerpt');
add_filter('get_the_excerpt', 'improved_trim_excerpt');

Source: Aaron Russell: Improving WordPress’ the_excerpt() template tag

I prefer not to have empty elements in the markup and so I needed a way to conditionally insert the “Older entries”, “Newer Entries”, etc., links into templates. The solution I’m using here, which isn’t perfect, is to add this to functions.php:

function show_posts_nav() {
  global $wp_query;
  return ($wp_query->max_num_pages > 1);
}

Source: Eric Martin: Conditional navigation links in WordPress

And then to wrap the navigation markup in the templates with the following:

<?php if (show_posts_nav()) : ?>
<nav>
   <ul>
      <li><?php next_posts_link('&#171; Older Entries') ?></li>
      <li><?php previous_posts_link('Newer Entries &#187;') ?></li>
   </ul>
</nav>
<?php endif; ?>

Summary

It’s fairly easy to create a simple site with HTML5 and to use WordPress to deliver it. At the moment there are issues with Internet Explorer because you cannot style HTML5 elements unless you use Javascript. However, HTML5 redefines the meaning of certain elements (such as <dl>, which has become a more versatile “description list”) and allows block elements to be wrapped in a link. Therefore, there is still benefit in using the HTML5 DOCTYPE even if you do not make use of the new elements.

Further reading

  1. HTML5 working draft
  2. HTML5 differences from HTML4
  3. Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.0




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Using HTML5 elements in WordPress post content

Here are two ways to include HTML5 elements in your WordPress post content without WordPress’ wpautop function wrapping them in p tags or littering your code with line breaks.

HTML5 has several new elements that you may want to use in your post content to markup document sections, headers, footers, pullquotes, figures, or groups of headings. One way to safely include these elements in your posts is simple; the other way is a bit more complicated. Both ways rely on hand-coding the HTML5 markup in the WordPress editor’s HTML view.

If you are adding HTML5 elements to your post content then you should use an HTML5 doctype.

Disable wpautop for your theme

This is the simple way. Disable the wpautop function so that WordPress makes no attempt to correct your markup and leaves you to hand-code every line of your posts. If you want total control over every line of your HTML then this is the option for you.

To disable wpautop entirely add these lines to your theme’s functions.php:

remove_filter('the_excerpt', 'wpautop');
remove_filter('the_content', 'wpautop');

However, wpautop is generally quite useful if most of your posts are simple text content and you only occasionally want to include HTML5 elements. Therefore, modifying wpautop to recognise HTML5 elements might be more practical.

Modify wpautop to recognise HTML5 elements

WordPress’ wpautop is part of the core functions and can be found in this file within your WordPress installation: wp-includes/formatting.php. It controls how and where paragraphs and line breaks are inserted in excerpts and post content.

In order to create a modified version of WordPress’ core wpautop function I started off by duplicating it in my theme’s functions.php file.

What I’ve experimented with is disabling wpautop and adding a modified copy of it – which includes HTML5 elements in its arrayss – to my theme’s functions.php file.

Add the following to your theme’s functions.php file and you’ll be able to use section, article, aside, header, footer, hgroup, figure, details, figcaption, and summary in your post content. (Probably best to try this in a testing environment first!)

/* -----------------------------
MODIFIED WPAUTOP - Allow HTML5 block elements in wordpress posts
----------------------------- */

function html5autop($pee, $br = 1) {
   if ( trim($pee) === '' )
      return '';
   $pee = $pee . "
"; // just to make things a little easier, pad the end
   $pee = preg_replace('|<br />s*<br />|', "

", $pee);
   // Space things out a little
    // *insertion* of section|article|aside|header|footer|hgroup|figure|details|figcaption|summary
   $allblocks = '(?:table|thead|tfoot|caption|col|colgroup|tbody|tr|td|th|div|dl|dd|dt|ul|ol|li|pre|select|form|map|area|blockquote|address|math|style|input|p|h[1-6]|hr|fieldset|legend|section|article|aside|header|footer|hgroup|figure|details|figcaption|summary)';
   $pee = preg_replace('!(<' . $allblocks . '[^>]*>)!', "
$1", $pee);
   $pee = preg_replace('!(</' . $allblocks . '>)!', "$1

", $pee);
   $pee = str_replace(array("
", "
"), "
", $pee); // cross-platform newlines
   if ( strpos($pee, '<object') !== false ) {
      $pee = preg_replace('|s*<param([^>]*)>s*|', "<param$1>", $pee); // no pee inside object/embed
      $pee = preg_replace('|s*</embed>s*|', '</embed>', $pee);
   }
   $pee = preg_replace("/

+/", "

", $pee); // take care of duplicates
// make paragraphs, including one at the end
   $pees = preg_split('/
s*
/', $pee, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);
   $pee = '';
   foreach ( $pees as $tinkle )
      $pee .= '<p>' . trim($tinkle, "
") . "</p>
";
   $pee = preg_replace('|<p>s*</p>|', '', $pee); // under certain strange conditions it could create a P of entirely whitespace
// *insertion* of section|article|aside
   $pee = preg_replace('!<p>([^<]+)</(div|address|form|section|article|aside)>!', "<p>$1</p></$2>", $pee);
   $pee = preg_replace('!<p>s*(</?' . $allblocks . '[^>]*>)s*</p>!', "$1", $pee); // don't pee all over a tag
   $pee = preg_replace("|<p>(<li.+?)</p>|", "$1", $pee); // problem with nested lists
   $pee = preg_replace('|<p><blockquote([^>]*)>|i', "<blockquote$1><p>", $pee);
   $pee = str_replace('</blockquote></p>', '</p></blockquote>', $pee);
   $pee = preg_replace('!<p>s*(</?' . $allblocks . '[^>]*>)!', "$1", $pee);
   $pee = preg_replace('!(</?' . $allblocks . '[^>]*>)s*</p>!', "$1", $pee);
   if ($br) {
      $pee = preg_replace_callback('/<(script|style).*?</\1>/s', create_function('$matches', 'return str_replace("
", "<WPPreserveNewline />", $matches[0]);'), $pee);
      $pee = preg_replace('|(?<!<br />)s*
|', "<br />
", $pee); // optionally make line breaks
      $pee = str_replace('<WPPreserveNewline />', "
", $pee);
   }
   $pee = preg_replace('!(</?' . $allblocks . '[^>]*>)s*<br />!', "$1", $pee);
// *insertion* of img|figcaption|summary
   $pee = preg_replace('!<br />(s*</?(?:p|li|div|dl|dd|dt|th|pre|td|ul|ol|img|figcaption|summary)[^>]*>)!', '$1', $pee);
   if (strpos($pee, '<pre') !== false)
      $pee = preg_replace_callback('!(<pre[^>]*>)(.*?)</pre>!is', 'clean_pre', $pee );
   $pee = preg_replace( "|
</p>$|", '</p>', $pee );

   return $pee;
}

// remove the original wpautop function
remove_filter('the_excerpt', 'wpautop');
remove_filter('the_content', 'wpautop');

// add our new html5autop function
add_filter('the_excerpt', 'html5autop');
add_filter('the_content', 'html5autop');

The results are not absolutely perfect but then neither is the original wpautop function. Certain ways of formatting the code will result in unwanted trailing </p> tags or a missing opening <p> tags.

For example, to insert a figure with caption into a post you should avoid adding the figcaption on a new line because an image or link appearing before the figcaption will end up with a trailing </p>.

<!-- this turns out ok -->
<figure>
  <a href="#"><img src="image.jpg" alt="" /></a><figcaption>A figure caption for your reading pleasure</figcaption>
</figure>

<!-- this turns out not so ok -->
<figure>
  <a href="#"><img src="image.jpg" alt="" /></a>
  <figcaption>A figure caption for your reading pleasure</figcaption>
</figure>

Another example would be when beginning the contents of an aside with a paragraph. You’ll have to leave a blank line between the opening aside tag and the first paragraph.

<aside>

This content could be a pullquote or information that is tangentially related to the surrounding content. But to get it wrapped in a paragraph you have to leave those blank lines either side of it before the tags.

</aside>

Room for improvement

Obviously there are still a few issues with this because if you format your post content in certain ways then you can end up with invalid HTML, even if it doesn’t actually affect the rendering of the page. But it seems to be pretty close!

Leave a comment or email me if you are using this function and find there that are instances where it breaks down. I ran numerous tests and formatting variations to try and iron out as many problems as possible but it’s unlikely that I tried or spotted everything.

Hopefully someone with more PHP and WordPress experience will be able to improve upon what I’ve been experimenting with, or find a simpler and more elegant solution that retains the useful wpautop functionality while allowing for the use of HTML5 elements in posts. Please share anything you find!




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Custom Tweet Button for WordPress

How to create a custom Tweet Button for WordPress using the bit.ly and Twitter APIs. The HTML and CSS is completely customisable and there is no need for JavaScript. PHP is used to automatically shorten and cache the URL of a post, fetch and cache the number of retweets, and populate the query string parameters in the link to Twitter.

The custom Tweet Button at the bottom of this post was created using this method. All the files are available on Github and released under MIT license. The PHP code was heavily influenced by the BackType Tweetcount plugin.

How to use

You’ll need your own bit.ly account and to be comfortable editing your theme’s functions.php, style.css, and template files. Be sure to make backups before you start making changes.

Step 1: Download the Custom Tweet Button for WordPress files from Github.

Step 2: Include the custom-tweet-button.php file in your theme’s functions.php file.

Step 3: Replace the bit.ly username, bit.ly API key, and Twitter username placeholders in the tweet_button function with your own. Your bit.ly credentials can be found on the “settings” page of your account.

Step 4: Add the custom Tweet Button CSS to your theme’s style.css file. Add the tweet.png image in your theme’s image folder. Make sure the image is correctly referenced in the CSS file.

Step 5: Call the function tweet_button in your template files (e.g. single.php) at the position(s) in the HTML you’d like the Tweet Button to appear:

if (function_exists('tweet_button')) {
   tweet_button(get_permalink());
}

Why make your own Tweet Button?

Making your own custom Tweet Button for WordPress has several additional advantages over using Twitter’s own offerings.

  • Full control over the HTML and CSS.
    Having full control over the HTML and CSS means that you can choose how to present your Tweet Button. I decided to reproduce the horizontal and vertical styles of Twitter’s own button. But any appearance is possible.

  • All click, traffic, and referrer data is stored in your bit.ly account.
    The URL for any published post is automatically shortened using the bit.ly service. The short URL is then passed to Twitter to ensure you can monitor the click and traffic data in your bit.ly account. The permalink is passed to Twitter in the counturl query string parameter to ensure that it counts the URL that your short URL resolves to.

  • No need for JavaScript or embedded iframes.
    The Tweet Button works without JavaScript. You have full control over any custom JavaScript enhancements you may wish to include. If you’d prefer Twitter’s share page to open in a pop-up window you can write your own JavaScript handler.

  • Faster page load.
    No external JavaScript or image files are loaded; both the short URL and retweet counts are cached.

  • Use the short URL and retweet count for other purposes.
    The short URLs and retweet counts are stored as post meta-data. This makes it easy to display this data anywhere else in a post. The retweet count data could be used for conditional template logic. For example, you could order posts based on the number of retweets, apply custom styles to your most retweeted posts, or display your most tweeted posts in a widget.

  • Easy to add Google Analytics campaign and event tracking.
    The Tweet Button is simple HTML and you have control over all the information that is sent to Twitter. Therefore, it is possible to use Google Analytics to help answer questions like: are people sharing your posts from the homepage or the post itself? If the Tweet Button is displayed above and below your posts, which gets the most clicks? How long do people take to click the Tweet Button? How many people are visiting my site thanks to links posted on Twitter using the Tweet Button?

  • Approximate the number of retweets for old posts.
    Before the release of the official Tweet Button, Twitter did not collect data on the number of times a URL was tweeted. This means your older posts may display far fewer retweets than actually occurred. However, there is a workaround. Use a service like Topsy, Backtype, or Tweetmeme to get the number of times your old post was retweeted. The difference between this and the number from Twitter’s APIs is the approximate number of retweets Twitter missed. To correct the retweet count for old posts add the number of missed retweets to a Custom Field called retweet_count_start.

How the custom Tweet Button works

Once a post is published its permalink URL is shortened using the bit.ly API.

The returned URL is permanently cached in the bitly_short_url Custom Field. The short URL is now part of the post’s general meta-data and can be used in contexts other than the Tweet Button.

The Twitter API is used to get the number of retweets for the post’s permalink URL. This number, along with the time at which it was requested, is cached in the retweet_cache Custom Field. When the cache interval has passed, an API call is made and the returned number of retweets is checked against the value stored in retweet_cache. If the returned number is greater, the value of retweet_cache is updated.

The content of the tweet is automatically created by setting several properties for the http://twitter.com/share URL. The post title makes up the message; the short URL is passed to Twitter as the URL to be displayed in the tweet; the permalink URL is passed to Twitter as the URL to be counted; and your username is declared.

$twitter_params =
'?text=' . urlencode($title) .
'&amp;url=' . urlencode($short_url) .
'&amp;counturl=' .urlencode($url).
'&amp;via=' . $twitter_via;

The default HTML output is very simple and can be fully customised. To display the count number vertically, add the class vcount.

<div class="twitter-share vcount>
   <a class="twitter-button"
      rel="external nofollow"
      title="Share this on Twitter"
      href="http://twitter.com/share?query-string-params"
      target="_blank">Tweet</a>
   <a class="twitter-count" href="http://twitter.com/search?q=url>259</a>
</div>

Further enhancements

Please apply any improvements or enhancements for the script against the source repository.




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Better float containment in IE using CSS expressions

Research into improving the cross-browser consistency of both the “clearfix” and “overflow:hidden” methods of containing floats. The aim is to work around several bugs in IE6 and IE7.

This article introduces a new hack (with caveats) that can benefit the “clearfix” methods and the new block formatting context (NBFC) methods (e.g. using overflow:hidden) of containing floats. It’s one outcome of a collaboration between Nicolas Gallagher (that’s me) and Jonathan Neal.

If you are not familiar with the history and underlying principles behind methods of containing floats, I recommend that you have a read of Easy clearing (2004), Everything you know about clearfix is wrong (2010), and Clearfix reloaded and overflow:hidden demystified (2010).

Consistent float containment methods

The code is show below and documented in this GitHub gist. Found an improvement or flaw? Please fork the gist or leave a comment.

Micro clearfix hack: Firefox 3.5+, Safari 4+, Chrome, Opera 9+, IE 6+

.cf {
  /* for IE 6/7 */
  *zoom: expression(this.runtimeStyle.zoom="1", this.appendChild(document.createElement("br")).style.cssText="clear:both;font:0/0 serif");
  /* non-JS fallback */
  *zoom: 1;
}

.cf:before,
.cf:after {
  content: "";
  display: table;
}

.cf:after {
  clear: both;
}

Overflow hack (NBFC): Firefox 2+, Safari 2+, Chrome, Opera 9+, IE 6+

.nbfc {
  overflow: hidden;
  /* for IE 6/7 */
  *zoom: expression(this.runtimeStyle.zoom="1", this.appendChild(document.createElement("br")).style.cssText="clear:both;font:0/0 serif");
  /* non-JS fallback */
  *zoom: 1;
}

The GitHub gist also contains another variant of the clearfix method for modern browsers (based on Thierry Koblentz’s work). It provides greater visual consistency (avoiding edge-case bugs) for even older versions of Firefox.

The only difference from existing float-containment methods is the inclusion of a CSS expression that inserts a clearing line-break in IE 6 and IE 7. Jonathan and I found that it helps to resolve some of the visual rendering differences that exist between these browsers and more modern ones. First I’ll explain what some of those differences are and when they occur.

Containing floats in IE 6/7

In IE 6 and IE 7, the most common and robust method of containing floats within an element is to give it “layout” (find out more: On having Layout). Triggering “layout” on an element in IE 6/7 creates a new block formatting context (NBFC). However, certain IE bugs mean that previous float containment methods don’t result in cross-browser consistency. Specifically, this is what to expect in IE 6/7 when creating a NBFC:

  1. The top- and bottom-margins of non-floated child elements are contained within the ancestor element that has been given “layout”. (Also expected in other browsers when creating a NBFC)
  2. The bottom-margins of any right-floated descendants are contained within the ancestor. (Also expected in other browsers when creating a NBFC)
  3. The bottom-margins of any left-floated children are not contained within the ancestor. The margin has no effect on the height of the ancestor and is truncated, having no affect outside of the ancestor either. (IE 6/7 bug)
  4. In IE 6, if the right edge of the margin-box of a left-floated child is within 2px of the left edge of the content-box of its NBFC ancestor, the float’s bottom margin reappears and is contained within the parent. (IE 6 bug)
  5. Unwanted white-space can appear at the bottom of a float-container. (IE 6/7 bug)

There is a lack of consistency between IE 6/7 and other browsers, and between IE 6 and IE 7. Thanks to Matthew Lein for his comment that directed me to this IE 6/7 behaviour. It was also recently mentioned by “Suzy” in a comment on Perishable Press.

IE 6/7’s truncation of the bottom-margin of left-floats is not exposed in many of the test-cases used to demonstrate CSS float containment techniques. Using an IE-only CSS expression helps to correct this bug.

The CSS expression

Including the much maligned <br style="clear:both"> at the bottom of the float-container, as well as creating a NBFC, resolved all these inconsistencies in IE 6/7. Doing so prevents those browsers from collapsing (or truncating) top- and bottom-margins of descendant elements.

Jonathan suggested inserting the clearing line-break in IE 6/7 only, using CSS expressions applied to fictional CSS properties. The CSS expression is the result of many iterations, tests, and suggestions. It runs only once, the first time an element receives the associated classname.

*zoom: expression(this.runtimeStyle.zoom="1", this.appendChild(document.createElement("br")).style.cssText="clear:both;font:0/0 serif");

It is applied to zoom, which is already being used to help contain floats in IE 6/7, and the use of the runtimeStyle object ensures that the expression is replaced once it has been run. The addition of font:0/0 serif prevents the occasional appearance of white-space at the bottom of a float-container. And the * hack ensures that only IE 6 and IE 7 parse the rule.

It’s worth noting that IE 6 and IE 7 parse almost any string used as CSS property. An earlier iteration used the entirely fictitious properties “-ms-inject” or “-ie-x” property to exploit this IE behaviour.

*-ie-x: expression(this.x||(this.innerHTML+='&lt;br style="clear:both;font:0/0">',this.x=1));

However, this expression is evaluated over and over again. Using runtimeStyle instead avoids this. Sergey Chikuyonok also pointed out that using innerHTML destroys existing HTML elements that may event handlers attached to them. By using document.createElement and appendChild you can insert the new element without removing all the events attached to other descendant elements.

Containing floats in more modern browsers

There are two popular methods to contain floats in modern browsers. Creating a new block formatting context (as is done in IE 6/7 when hasLayout is triggered) or using a variant of the “clearfix” hack.

Creating a NBFC results in an element containing any floated children, and will prevent top- and bottom-margin collapse of non-floated children. When combined with the enhanced IE 6/7 containment method, it results in consistent cross-browser float containment.

The other method, known as “clearfix”, traditionally used a single :after pseudo-element to clear floats in a similar fashion to a structural, clearing HTML line-break. However, to prevent the top-margins of non-floats from collapsing into the margins of their float-containing ancestor, you also need to use the :before pseudo-element. This is the approach taken in Thierry Koblentz’s “clearfix reloaded”. In contemporary browsers, the micro clearfix hack is also suitable.

The method presented in this article should help improve the results of cross-browser float containment, whether you predominantly use “clearfix” or the NBFC method. The specific limitations of both the “clearfix” and various NBFC methods (as outlined in Thierry’s articles) remain.

Problems

Using a CSS expression to change the DOM in IE 6/7 creates problems of its own. Obviously, the DOM in IE 6/7 is now different to the DOM in other browsers. This affects any JavaScript DOM manipulation that may depend on :last-child or appending new children.

This is still an experimental work-in-progress that is primarily research-driven rather than seeking to become a practical snippet of production code. Any feedback, further testing, and further experimentation from others would be much appreciated.

Thanks to these people for contributing improvements: Jonathan Neal, Mathias Bynens, Sergey Chikuyonok, and Thierry Koblentz.




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Custom CSS preprocessing

Did you know that you can build your own CSS preprocessor with Node.js libraries? They can be used alongside established preprocessors like Sass, and are useful for defining tasks beyond preprocessing.

Libraries like Rework and PostCSS let you create and assemble an arbitrary collection of plugins that can inspect or manipulate CSS.

At the time of writing, Twitter uses Rework to perform various tasks against our CSS source code for twitter.com.

Creating a CSS preprocessor with Rework

At its core, Rework is a module that accepts a string of CSS, produces a CSS abstract syntax tree (AST), and provides an API for manipulating that AST. Plugins are functions that have access to the AST and a Rework instance. Rework lets you chain together different plugins and generate a string of new CSS when you’re done.

The source string is passed into the rework function and each plugin is applied with .use(fn). The plugins transform the data in the AST, and .toString() generates the new string of CSS.

Below is an example of a custom preprocessor script using Rework and Autoprefixer. It’s a simplified version of the transformation step we use for twitter.com’s CSS.

var autoprefixer = require('autoprefixer');
var calc = require('rework-calc');
var rework = require('rework');
var vars = require('rework-vars')();

var css = fs.readFileSync('./css/main.css', 'utf-8');

css = rework(css)
  .use(vars)
  .use(calc)
  .toString();

css = autoprefixer().process(css);

fs.writeFileSync('./build/bundle.css', css)

The script runs rework-vars, rework-calc, and then passes the CSS to Autoprefixer (which uses PostCSS internally) to handle the addition of any necessary vendor prefixes.

rework-vars provides a limited subset of the features described in the W3C-style CSS custom property spec. It’s not a polyfill!

Variables can be declared as custom CSS properties on the :root element, prefixed with --. Variables are referenced with the var() function, taking the name of a variable as the first argument and an optional fallback as the second.

For example, this source:

:root {
  --width-button: 200px;
}

.button {
  width: var(--width-button);
}

yields:

.button {
  width: 200px;
}

There are many different Rework plugins that you can use to create a custom preprocessor. A more complete list is available on npm. In order to limit the chances of long-term divergence between our source code and native CSS, I’ve chosen to stick fairly closely to features that are aligned with future additions to native CSS.

Creating your own Rework plugin

Rework plugins are functions that inspect or mutate the AST they are provided. Below is a plugin that rewrites the value of any font-family property to sans-serif.

module.exports = function plugin(ast, reworkInstance) {
  ast.rules.forEach(function (rule) {
    if (rule.type != 'rule') return;

    rule.declarations.forEach(function (declaration, index) {
      if (declaration.property == 'font-family') {
        declaration.value = 'sans-serif';
      }
    });
  });
};

Rework uses css-parse to create the AST. Unfortunately, both projects are currently lacking comprehensive documentation of the AST, but it’s not difficult to piece it together yourself.

Beyond preprocessing

Since Rework and PostCSS expose an AST and provide a plugin API, they can be used for other CSS tasks, not just preprocessing.

At Twitter, our CSS build pipeline allows you to perform custom tasks at 2 stages of the process: on individual files and on generated bundles. We use Rework at both stages.

Individual files are tested with rework-suit-conformance to ensure that the SUIT-style CSS for a component is properly scoped.

/** @define MyComponent */

:root {
  --property-MyComponent: value;
}

.MyComponent {}

Bundles are preprocessed as previously described, and also tested with rework-ie-limits to ensure that the number of selectors doesn’t exceed IE 8/9’s limit of 4095 selectors per style sheet.

Other tasks you can perform include generating RTL style sheets (e.g., css-flip) and extracting detailed information about the perceived health of your CSS (e.g., the number of different colours used, duplicate selectors, etc.).

Hopefully this has given you a small glimpse into some of the benefits and flexibility of using these tools to work with CSS.




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Coronavirus | Indore remains worst hit in Madhya Pradesh with 3 more deaths

Bhopal, by comparison, has so far reported 679 cases and 24 deaths, with 354 patients, or more than half of those infected, having recovered.




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Coronavirus lockdown | With no work or food, workers brave the long march home from Uttar Pradesh

"We don’t want anything from the government. We just want to be dropped home," says a migrant worker from Chhattisgarh.




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Take back changes in labour laws: Priyanka

‘U.P. government crushing their rights’




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Ganjam sparred community spread as migrants stay put at quarantine centres

All returnees are taken to centres from buses and trains




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Lockdown washes away watermelon prospect




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Strategische personalentwicklung in der praxis [electronic resource] : instrumente, erfolgsmodelle, checklisten, praxisbeispiele. / Christine Wegerich

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Streamlining business requirements [electronic resource] : the XCellR8 approach / Gerrie Caudle

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Stress less. achieve more [electronic resource] : simple ways to turn pressure into a positive force in your life / Aimee Bernstein

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Strukturierte Produkte in der Vermögensverwaltung. English




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Successful project management [electronic resource] : how to complete projects on time, on budget, and on target / Michael S. Dobson

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Supply chain management talent development [electronic resource] : acquire, develop, and advance processes / Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals

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The Tech Professional's Guide to Communicating in a Global Workplace [electronic resource] : Adapting Across Cultural and Gender Boundaries / by April Wells

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Technology entrepreneurship [electronic resource] : taking innovation to the marketplace / Thomas N. Duening, Ph.D, El Pomar Chair of Business and Entrepreneurship, Director, Center for Entrepreneurship, College of Business, University of Colorado at Colo

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