A university degree has always been considered as key to a good job and higher wages. But as the share of tertiary-educated adults across OECD countries has almost doubled over the last two decades, can the labour market absorb this growing supply of skills?

This report compares urbanisation trends on the basis of a common methodology which helps cross-country comparison of the socio-economic and environmental performance of metropolitan areas in 28 OECD countries.

Secretary-General Angel Gurría addresses the Lord Mayor of Copenhagen and others to discuss highlights of the forthcoming OECD report on local green growth, as part of our efforts to develop more effective tools for measuring cities’ progress and monitoring the impact of green policies.

Chile's OECD membership presents challenges both in the context of changing patterns of production and consumption, and in the framework of a more sustainable economy. Specifically, green growth emphasizes improving growth rates, particularly through greening existing industries, as well as through new eco-businesses.

This report presents, for the first time a local ‘green growth’ indicator framework. This indicator framework was developed from the OECD ‘green growth’ strategy at the national level, but modified to highlight issues of transition that are most relevant for local areas.

This workshop is to discuss the policy relevance of inequalities in the access to services in regions and cities, including the institutional and territorial organization for service delivery.

This LEED project aims to to define key indicators of area-based transition to a low-carbon economy. The objective is to define measurable indicators at regional/local level that can inform over time of transition to low-carbon economic and industrial activities.

Statistics Working Paper N. 58 - 2014/3 - This paper presents a set of indicators of income inequality and poverty across and within regions for 28 OECD countries. These indicators were produced through a new household-level data collection based on internationally harmonized income definitions undertaken as part of the OECD project on “Measuring regional and local well-being for policymaking”.

This document provides guidance on pesticide residue studies and describes differences in OECD countries in livestock feeding practices and diet composition. The data obtained from these studies allow quantifying the transfer of residues from feedstuff to animal and establishing maximum limits which ensure that these residues do not pose unacceptable risks for consumers.

The New Economy involves phasing out all aspects of the old, including personnel

Joseph Stiglitz’s proposals to curb the wealth of the top 1 per cent go too far for Samuel Brittan

The second evacuation plane landed in Darwin, Northern Territory, on Sunday with 266 'clinically well' passengers on board after a day-long stopover in Hong Kong.

About 200 Australians will be evacuated from the Diamond Princess ship on a Qantas flight from Tokyo's Haneda Airport to Darwin Airport on Wednesday night.

An aviation insider fears the demise of Virgin Australia would give Qantas a licence to charge $1,000 for a Sydney to Melbourne airfare. Velocity Frequent Flyer points are also at risk.

Host Ant McPartlin was forced to wipe away a tear after watching the audition featuring Amanda Leask and her dog Miracle, who was rescued from the illegal meat trade.

According to new research by Accident Advice Helpline, millions of licence holders have forgotten some of the basics and can't recall the meaning behind common road signs.

Only two brands, Mercedes and Tesla, told the consumer association that they had issued a fix across their entire range of new and existing cars.

Host Ant McPartlin was forced to wipe away a tear after watching the audition featuring Amanda Leask and her dog Miracle, who was rescued from the illegal meat trade.

The Bundesliga is restarting on May 16 and players will be isolated in hotels before matches. Among the rules for the Bundesligas return are detailed instructions for coaches.

A retired diplomat in Bhubaneswar wants more old age homes in India, but why? Rakhi Ghosh narrates the stories of a few elderly people in the city, as she tries to fathom their needs and expectations.

Though there is no avian flu outbreak in Tamil Nadu, poultry farmers across the state have taken precautionary measures.

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The horses on Chennai's Marina beach were slowly starving to death because of the lockdown until Shiranee Pereira decided to take a hand.

Apparently inspired by how Kerala used umbrellas to ensure physical distancing, a residents welfare association at Sai Nagar in Thoraipakkam has reque

Mother's Day Quotes: 15 meaningful quotes by famous authors to melt your mother's heart

The horses on Chennai's Marina beach were slowly starving to death because of the lockdown until Shiranee Pereira decided to take a hand.

The transmission of the optical components of the Bernina branch of the Aramis beamline at SwissFEL has been measured with an X-ray gas monitor from DESY and compared with a PSI gas detector upstream of the optical components. The transmission efficiencies of the Mo, Si and SiC mirror coatings of the Aramis beamline and the various other in-beam components were evaluated and compared with theoretical calculations, showing an agreement of 6% or better in all cases. The experiment has also shown the efficacy of the high-harmonic rejection mirrors at the Bernina branch of the Aramis beamline at SwissFEL, and characterized the transmission efficiency of the on-line spectrometer in the Aramis beamline. The theoretical transmission of the mirror coatings match the experimental data to within 7%. The accuracy of these measurements was checked against a radiative bolometer from a Japanese collaboration and found to agree to a level of 4% or better. Further comparisons with a diamond detector from a US-based inter-institute collaboration demonstrated a good agreement for the attenuator settings of the beamline.

Multilayer monochromator devices are commonly used at (imaging) beamlines of synchrotron facilities to shape the X-ray beam to relatively small bandwidth and high intensity. However, stripe artefacts are often observed and can deteriorate the image quality. Although the intensity distribution of these artefacts has been described in the literature, their spectral distribution is currently unknown. To assess the spatio-spectral properties of the monochromated X-ray beam, the direct beam has been measured for the first time using a hyperspectral X-ray detector. The results show a large number of spectral features with different spatial distributions for a [Ru, B4C] strip monochromator, associated primarily with the higher-order harmonics of the undulator and monochromator. It is found that their relative contributions are sufficiently low to avoid an influence on the imaging data. The [V, B4C] strip suppresses these high-order harmonics even more than the former, yet at the cost of reduced efficiency.

The X-ray diffraction/X-ray fluorescence instrument CheMin on the Curiosity rover is a shoebox-sized device using transmission geometry and an energy-discriminating CCD detector. The instrument has returned the first X-ray diffraction data for soil and drilled samples from Mars outcrops, revealing a suite of primary basaltic minerals, amorphous components and varied hydrous alteration products including phyllosilicates.

Scottish Highlands hit by earthquake with magnitude measuring 2.3  The Scottish Sun

Key structural biology experiments that have sought to elucidate how potassium ions permeate and pass through the selectivity filter of potassium ion channels are reviewed.

The title pull–push chromophores, 2-[4-(di­methyl­amino)­benzyl­idene]-1H-indene-1,3(2H)-dione, C18H15NO2 (ID[1]) and (E)-2-{3-[4-(di­methyl­amino)­phen­yl]allyl­idene}-1H-indene-1,3(2H)-dione, C20H17NO2 (ID[2]), have donor–π-bridge–acceptor structures. The mol­ecule with the short π-bridge, ID[1], is almost planar while for the mol­ecule with a longer bridge, ID[2], is less planar. The benzene ring is inclined to the mean plane of the 2,3-di­hydro-1H-indene unit by 3.19 (4)° in ID[1] and 13.06 (8)° in ID[2]. The structures of three polymorphs of compound ID[1] have been reported: the α-polymorph [space group P21/c; Magomedova & Zvonkova (1978). Kristallografiya, 23, 281–288], the β-polymorph [space group P21/c; Magomedova & Zvonkova (1980). Kristallografiya, 25 1183–1187] and the γ-polymorph [space group Pna21; Magomedova, Neigauz, Zvonkova & Novakovskaya (1980). Kristallografiya, 25, 400–402]. The mol­ecular packing in ID[1] studied here is centrosymmetric (space group P21/c) and corresponds to the β-polymorph structure. The mol­ecular packing in ID[2] is non-centrosymmetric (space group P21), which suggests potential NLO properties for this crystalline material. In both compounds, there is short intra­molecular C—H⋯O contact present, enclosing an S(7) ring motif. In the crystal of ID[1], mol­ecules are linked by C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds and C—H⋯π inter­actions, forming layers parallel to the bc plane. In the crystal of ID[2], mol­ecules are liked by C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds to form 21 helices propagating along the b-axis direction. The mol­ecules in the helix are linked by offset π–π inter­actions with, for example, a centroid–centroid distance of 3.9664 (13) Å (= b axis) separating the indene rings, and an offset of 1.869 Å. Spectroscopic and electrochemical measurements show the ability of these compounds to easily transfer electrons through the π-conjugated chain.

Authors of a paper that includes a new crystal-structure determination are expected to not only report the structural results of inter­est and their inter­pretation, but are also expected to archive in computer-readable CIF format the experimental data on which the crystal-structure analysis is based. Additionally, an IUCr/checkCIF validation report will be required for the review of a submitted paper. Such a validation report, automatically created from the deposited CIF file, lists as ALERTS not only potential errors or unusual findings, but also suggestions for improvement along with inter­esting information on the structure at hand. Major ALERTS for issues are expected to have been acted on already before the submission for publication or discussed in the associated paper and/or commented on in the CIF file. In addition, referees, readers and users of the data should be able to make their own judgment and inter­pretation of the underlying experimental data or perform their own calculations with the archived data. All the above is consistent with the FAIR (findable, accessible, inter­operable, and reusable) initiative [Helliwell (2019). Struct. Dyn. 6, 05430]. Validation can also be helpful for less experienced authors in pointing to and avoiding of crystal-structure determination and inter­pretation pitfalls. The IUCr web-based checkCIF server provides such a validation report, based on data uploaded in CIF format. Alternatively, a locally installable checkCIF version is available to be used iteratively during the structure-determination process. ALERTS come mostly as short single-line messages. There is also a short explanation of the ALERTS available through the IUCr web server or with the locally installed PLATON/checkCIF version. This paper provides additional background information on the checkCIF procedure and additional details for a number of ALERTS along with options for how to act on them.

Temperature is a ubiquitous environmental variable used to explore materials structure, properties and reactivity. This article reports a new paradigm for variable-temperature measurements that varies the temperature continuously across a sample such that temperature is measured as a function of sample position and not time. The gradient approach offers advantages over conventional variable-temperature studies, in which temperature is scanned during a series measurement, in that it improves the efficiency with which a series of temperatures can be probed and it allows the sample evolution at multiple temperatures to be measured in parallel to resolve kinetic and thermodynamic effects. Applied to treat samples at a continuum of temperatures prior to measurements at ambient temperature, the gradient approach enables parametric studies of recovered systems, eliminating temperature-dependent structural and chemical variations to simplify interpretation of the data. The implementation of spatially resolved variable-temperature measurements presented here is based on a gradient-heater design that uses a 3D-printed ceramic template to guide the variable pitch of the wire in a resistively heated wire-wound heater element. The configuration of the gradient heater was refined on the basis of thermal modelling. Applications of the gradient heater to quantify thermal-expansion behaviour, to map metastable polymorphs recovered to ambient temperature, and to monitor the time- and temperature-dependent phase evolution in a complex solid-state reaction are demonstrated.

Instrumentation for time-resolved small-angle neutron scattering measurements with sub-millisecond time resolution, based on Gähler's TISANE (time-involved small-angle neutron experiments) concept, is in operation at NIST's Center for Neutron Research. This implementation of the technique includes novel electronics for synchronizing the neutron pulses from high-speed counter-rotating choppers with a periodic stimulus applied to a sample. Instrumentation details are described along with measurements demonstrating the utility of the technique for elucidating the reorientation dynamics of anisometric magnetic particles.

With the increasing trend of using microcrystals and intense microbeams at synchrotron X-ray beamlines, radiation damage becomes a more pressing problem. Theoretical calculations show that the photoelectrons that primarily cause damage can escape microcrystals. This effect would become more pronounced with decreasing crystal size as well as at higher energies. To prove this effect, data from cryocooled lysozyme crystals of dimensions 5 × 3 × 3 and 20 × 8 × 8 µm mounted on cryo-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) grids were collected at 13.5 and 20.1 keV using a PILATUS CdTe 2M detector, which has a similar quantum efficiency at both energies. Accurate absorbed doses were calculated through the direct measurement of individual crystal sizes using scanning electron microscopy after the experiment and characterization of the X-ray microbeam. The crystal lifetime was then quantified based on the D1/2 metric. In this first systematic study, a longer crystal lifetime for smaller crystals was observed and crystal lifetime increased at higher X-ray energies, supporting the theoretical predictions of photoelectron escape. The use of detector technologies specifically optimized for data collection at energies above 20 keV allows the theoretically predicted photoelectron escape to be quantified and exploited, guiding future beamline-design choices.

The information gained by making a measurement, termed the Kullback–Leibler divergence, assesses how much more precisely the true quantity is known after the measurement was made (the posterior probability distribution) than before (the prior probability distribution). It provides an upper bound for the contribution that an observation can make to the total likelihood score in likelihood-based crystallographic algorithms. This makes information gain a natural criterion for deciding which data can legitimately be omitted from likelihood calculations. Many existing methods use an approximation for the effects of measurement error that breaks down for very weak and poorly measured data. For such methods a different (higher) information threshold is appropriate compared with methods that account well for even large measurement errors. Concerns are raised about a current trend to deposit data that have been corrected for anisotropy, sharpened and pruned without including the original unaltered measurements. If not checked, this trend will have serious consequences for the reuse of deposited data by those who hope to repeat calculations using improved new methods.

The study of ion channels dates back to the 1950s and the groundbreaking electrophysiology work of Hodgin and Huxley, who used giant squid axons to probe how action potentials in neurons were initiated and propagated. More recently, several experiments using different structural biology techniques and approaches have been conducted to try to understand how potassium ions permeate through the selectivity filter of potassium ion channels. Two mechanisms of permeation have been proposed, and each of the two mechanisms is supported by different experiments. The key structural biology experiments conducted so far to try to understand how ion permeation takes place in potassium ion channels are reviewed and discussed. Protein crystallo­graphy has made, and continues to make, key contributions in this field, often through the use of anomalous scattering. Other structural biology techniques used to study the contents of the selectivity filter include solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance and two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy, both of which make clever use of isotopic labeling techniques, while molecular-dynamics simulations of ion flow through the selectivity filter have been enabled by the growing number of potassium ion channel structures deposited in the Protein Data Bank.

A tandem-double-slit optical system was constructed to evaluate the practical beam emittance of undulator radiation. The optical system was a combination of an upstream slit (S1) and downstream slit (S2) aligned on the optical axis with an appropriate separation. The intensity distribution after the double slits, I(x1, x2), was measured by scanning S1 and S2 in the horizontal direction. Coordinates having 1/sqrt e intensity were extracted from I(x1, x2), whose contour provided the standard deviation ellipse in the x1–x2 space. I(x1, x2) was converted to the corresponding distribution in the phase space, I(x1, x1'). The horizontal beam emittance was evaluated to be 3.1 nm rad, which was larger than the value of 2.4 nm rad estimated by using ray-tracing. It was found that the increase was mainly due to an increase in beam divergence rather than size.