September 22, 2015

Coffee and running are addictive in their own unique ways. Each provides a buzz that keeps people coming back for more. In kind, Runkeeper and Starbucks don’t just help people feed their addictions; these apps are as habit-forming as the behaviors they supplement.

Due to its goal-based reward system, Runkeeper’s users don’t feel like their run “counts” unless it’s tracked within the app. And due to Starbucks’ loyalty-based reward system, customers feel compelled to purchase with the app because they don’t want to miss out on the rewards and VIP status that come with being a regular customer.

When apps aren’t addictive, users open them one time, explore for a few minutes, and promptly delete them from their devices. Depending on your industry,...read more
By Bobby Emamian

September 29, 2015

Paying roadway tolls is a taxing experience by its very nature. And while the frustration of waiting in line to throw a handful of coins into a basket has been mitigated by the implementation of RFID transponders that let people pay fees without stopping, replenishing funds on online can start to feel purgatorial in its own right.

As reader Ben Mackie points out: "The North Carolina toll website is maddening. They give you five different dollar amounts and they don't store your CC/preferred payment method"

This is already confusing

...read more
By Josh Tyson | UX Magazine

No-touch systems, infrastructure to work from home are some of the changes

Bombay HC adjourns PIL against enquiry into IPS officer over letter he wrote

ED attaches part of AJL's Rs 160cr Mumbai building - Times of India

Ahmedabad youth offers model for quicker detection

Corpns ramp up steps to tackle mosquitoes

Doctor suicide: AAP legislator held in Delhi

The Madras High Court has refused to grant bail to one of the accused in the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) recruitment scam pertaining

More private hospitals in the city are trying to acquire the advanced GeneXpert point-of-care testing system that can detect coronavirus in 45 minutes or less. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had earlier approved the use of this US-grown rapid molecular diagnostic technology to detect Covid-19.

For Ujjawal Panchal, a 21-year-old undergraduate who is in his final year at a college in Chennai, getting stuck in his hometown of Ahmedabad due to the lockdown seems to have opened new doors.

This case study is part of a design challenge in which I was asked to explore live streaming as a media format.

This will reduce crowding at the market at Mattuthavani

The study, however, concluded that HCQ had no potential harm either.

Further details are awaited.

In a communication to all states and union territories, the NDMA said due to several weeks of lockdown and the closure of industrial units, it is possible that some of the operators might not have followed the established standard operating procedures.

Porous, high-surface-area electrode architectures are described that allow structural characterization of interfacial amorphous thin films with high spatial resolution under device-relevant functional electrochemical conditions using high-energy X-ray (>50 keV) scattering and pair distribution function (PDF) analysis. Porous electrodes were fabricated from glass-capillary array membranes coated with conformal transparent conductive oxide layers, consisting of either a 40 nm–50 nm crystalline indium tin oxide or a 100 nm–150 nm-thick amorphous indium zinc oxide deposited by atomic layer deposition. These porous electrodes solve the problem of insufficient interaction volumes for catalyst thin films in two-dimensional working electrode designs and provide sufficiently low scattering backgrounds to enable high-resolution signal collection from interfacial thin-film catalysts. For example, PDF measurements were readily obtained with 0.2 Å spatial resolution for amorphous cobalt oxide films with thicknesses down to 60 nm when deposited on a porous electrode with 40 µm-diameter pores. This level of resolution resolves the cobaltate domain size and structure, the presence of defect sites assigned to the domain edges, and the changes in fine structure upon redox state change that are relevant to quantitative structure–function modeling. The results suggest the opportunity to leverage the porous, electrode architectures for PDF analysis of nanometre-scale surface-supported molecular catalysts. In addition, a compact 3D-printed electrochemical cell in a three-electrode configuration is described which is designed to allow for simultaneous X-ray transmission and electrolyte flow through the porous working electrode.

An expectation maximization algorithm is implemented to resolve the indexing ambiguity which arises when merging data from many crystals in protein crystallography, especially in cases where partial reflections are recorded in serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) at XFELs.

Dramatic Fossil Shows a Squid-Like Creature Crushing a Fish in Its Jaws  Gizmodo UK

Fossil believed to show squid-like creature attacking fish 200 million years ago  Aberdeen Evening Express

This article presents an overview of the development of two basic software libraries for image manipulation and data visualization in cryo-EM: emcore and emvis.

Death-associated protein kinase 1 (DAPK1) was found to form a complex with purpurin and the crystal structure of the complex was determined. Purpurin may be a good lead compound for for the discovery of inhibitors of DAPK1.

In the complex cation of title compound, [Fe(C56H52N4)(C5H8N2)2]ClO4·1.5C6H5Cl, the ironIII atom is coordinated in a distorted octa­hedral manner by four pyrrole N atoms of the porphyrin ring system in the equatorial plane, and by two N atoms of the 1-ethyl­imidazole ligands in the axial sites. A disordered perchlorate anion and one and a half chloro­benzene solvent mol­ecules are also present. The cationic complex exhibits a highly ruffled porphyrin core. The average Fe—Np (Np is a porphyrin N atom) bond length is 1.988 (5), and the axial Fe—NIm (NIm is an imidazole N atom) bond lengths are 1.962 (3) and 1.976 (3) Å. The two 1-ethyl­imidazole ligands are inclined to each other by a dihedral angle of 68.62 (16)°. The dihedral angles between the 1-ethyl­imidazole planes and the planes of the closest Fe—Np vector are 28.52 (18) and 43.57 (13)°. Inter­molecular C—H⋯Cl inter­actions are observed.

The title tetra­nuclear stannoxane, [Sn4(C6H5)8(C6H4NO3)4O2]·1.5CHCl3·solvent, crystallized with two independent complex mol­ecules, A and B, in the asymmetric unit together with 1.5 mol­ecules of chloro­form. There is also a region of disordered electron density, which was corrected for using the SQUEEZE routine [Spek (2015). Acta Cryst. C71, 9–18]. The oxo-tin core of each complex is in a planar `ladder' arrangement and each Sn atom is fivefold SnO3C2 coordinated, with one tin centre having an almost perfect square-pyramidal coordination geometry, while the other three Sn centres have distorted shapes. In the crystal, the complex mol­ecules are arranged in layers, composed of A or B complexes, lying parallel to the bc plane. The complex mol­ecules are linked by a number of C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds within the layers and between the layers, forming a supra­molecular three-dimensional structure.

The title compound, (C9H8N)2[MnBr4], consists of two quinolinium cations and a [MnBr4]2− anion. The manganese(II) atom, which lies on a twofold rotation axis, is coordinated by four bromide ligands and exhibits a tetra­hedral coordination geometry. The [MnBr4]2− anion and the quinolinium cations are linked by N—H⋯Br hydrogen bonds. π–π stacking inter­actions are observed between the quinolinium cations.

The solid-state structural analysis of the title compound [systematic name: 5,11-disulfanylidene-4,6,10,12-tetrakis(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)-4,6,10,12-tetraazatricyclo[7.3.0.03,7]dodeca-1(9),3(7)-diene-2,8-dione], C44H44N4O2S2 [+solvent], reveals that the mol­ecule crystallizes in a highly symmetric cubic space group so that one quarter of the mol­ecule is crystallographically unique, the mol­ecule lying on special positions (two mirror planes, two twofold axes and a center of inversion). The crystal structure exhibits large cavities of 193 Å3 accounting for 7.3% of the total unit-cell volume. These cavities contain residual density peaks but it was not possible to unambiguously identify the solvent therein. The contribution of the disordered solvent mol­ecules to the scattering was removed using a solvent mask and is not included in the reported mol­ecular weight. No classical hydrogen bonds are observed between the main mol­ecules.

The molecular salt, C23H26N2O2+·Cl−, was obtained from 1-isobutyl-8,9-dimeth­oxy-3-phenyl-5,6-di­hydro­imidazo[5,1-a]iso­quinoline, which was synthesized by cyclo­condensation of α-benzoyl­amino-γ-methyl-N-[2-(3,4-di­meth­oxy­phen­yl)eth­yl]valeramide in the presence of phosphoryl chloride. The tetra­hydro­pyridine ring adopts a twist–boat conformation. In the crystal structure, centrosymmetric dimers are formed by N—H⋯Cl and C—H⋯Cl hydrogen bonds.

The title hemihydrate, C12H9N5·0.5H2O, was isolated from the condensation reaction of quinoline-2-carbaldehyde with 4-amino-4H-1,2,4-triazole. The Schiff base mol­ecule adopts an E configuration about the C=N bond and is approximately planar, with a dihedral angle between the quinoline ring system and the 1,2,4-triazole ring of 12.2 (1)°. In the crystal, one water mol­ecule bridges two Schiff base mol­ecules via O—H⋯N hydrogen bonds. The Schiff base mol­ecules are inter­connected by π–π stacking inter­actions [centroid-centroid distances of 3.7486 (7) and 3.9003 (7) Å] into columns along [1overline{1}0].

The title compound, C16H9N3O2S2, was synthesized via a condensation reaction in refluxing acetic acid. The dihedral angles between the mean plane of the quinoxaline unit and the thienyl rings are 35.16 (5)° and 24.94 (3)°.

The title compound, C16H9N3O2S2, was synthesized via a condensation reaction in refluxing acetic acid. One thienyl ring is nearly coplanar with the quinoxaline unit [dihedral angle = 3.29 (9)°], the other makes an angle of 83.96 (4)°.

A quinazolinthione, C17H14N2OS, was synthesized by the condensation reaction of 6,7,8,9-tetra­hydro-11H-pyrido[2,1-b]quinazolin-11-thione with furfural. The mol­ecule crystallizes in the monoclinic system (Cc space group) and has an E configuration with respect to the exocyclic C=C bond. In the crystal, mol­ecules are linked through C—H⋯π(furan) inter­actions, forming zigzag chains propagating along the [001] direction.