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Colombia: Supporting the development of local innovation systems – Policy review

The project provided recommendations to the city of Medellin and Antioquia to support the development of the local economy and includes a focus on how the innovative environment can be strengthened to support inclusion, entrepreneurship, SME, and local developmentto and how to better coordinate and integrate its policies with the national level.




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Considerations for Assessing the Risks of Combined Exposure to Multiple Chemicals

This document outlines various approaches and methodologies for the assessment of risks from combined exposures to multiple chemicals. The document draws from approaches and experience in the regulatory context, and presents elements to consider in the assessment.




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Cardboard hospital beds that double as COFFINS are unveiled by Colombian ad company

A advertising company from Bogotá, Colombia, created hospital beds with metal railings that designers say can double as a casket if a patient dies.




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Woman, 88, stranded after Motor Ombudsman failed to rule for 11 months

Despite a claim to the Motor Ombudsman in March 2019, Brandy Thomas was left with no car but still paying insurance and tax until she got in touch with This is Money for help.




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Pak Army major among six killed in roadside bomb attack

At least six security personnel, including an Army major, were killed when a roadside bomb struck a patrol vehicle in southwestern Pakistan's restive Balochistan province, close to the border with Iran. The Army on Friday said in a statement that a vehicle of paramilitary Frontier Corps was targeted through a remote-controlled improvised explosive device (IED) in Kech district's Buleda area, about 14 km from the Iran border. A major and five soldiers were killed while one soldier was injured, according to the Army. Baloch militants on Saturday claimed responsibility for the attack. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) in a statement said the roadside bomb was planted by its operatives and it will continue its struggle until the establishment of an independent homeland and a free society". BLA is a banned entity in Pakistan. It was also declared a terrorist group by the US in 2019. Security sources said the route where the explosion took place was monitored round the clock because of ...




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New antiviral drug combo shows promise against Covid-19: Study




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In India, they soldier on without a combat role

Women at war is part of Indian history, from Jhansi Ki Rani to Rani Durgawati to Razia Sultan. But they weren’t part of modern India's war strategy till very recently. Independent India’s Army restricted women to the medical corps, dental corps and the nursing service.




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A cot mattress that mimics the womb

It's a dream come true for tired-out-moms, a revolutionary new cot mattress which mimics the sensation of the womb to keep babies happy at night.




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YUKTI Portal Launched By MHRD To Combat Coronavirus

Human Resource Development Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has launched a web-portal YUKTI (Young India Combating COVID with Knowledge, Technology and Innovation). This unique portal will deal with the efforts and initiatives of MHRD during these difficult times caused by Novel Coronavirus




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Venezuela says troops seize abandoned Colombian combat boats, weapons

Venezuela's military said it seized three abandoned Colombian light combat vessels that soldiers found on Saturday while patrolling the Orinoco river, several days after the government accused its neighbor of aiding a failed invasion.




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Jawa Forty Two Modified By Bombay Custom Works: An Anywhere, Any Time Motorcycle

Mumbai based auto custom house, Bombay Custom Works, has modified a Jawa Forty Two model, and given it the spirit of adventure. The modified Jawa motorcycle looks like it means business and has an 'anywhere, any weather' kind of attitude.




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Venezuela says troops seize abandoned Colombian combat boats, weapons

Venezuela's military said it seized three abandoned Colombian light combat vessels that soldiers found on Saturday while patrolling the Orinoco river, several days after the government accused its neighbor of aiding a failed invasion.




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Newcomb Carlton, 1869-1953, of Western Union / Charles Penrose ; illustrations by Richard F. Bartlett

Archives, Room Use Only - HE7797.W55 C36 1956




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Modern land and submarine telegraphy: a brief up-to-date treatise on the electric telegraph, including the development of the modern methods and equipment / by George S. Macomber

Archives, Room Use Only - TK5262.M23 1914




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Bentley's complete phrase code: (nearly 1000 million combinations): with at least 2 letters difference between each half-code word / compiled by E.L. Bentley

Archives, Room Use Only - HE7673.B46 1923




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No Rohit Sharma in Alex Carey's combined India-Australia T20I XI




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Combating COVID-19: Virat Kohli, Anushka Sharma donate Rs 5 lakh each for Mumbai police




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Combating COVID-19: Telangana Police set to roll out AI-based system to track those not wearing masks at public places




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Triple antiviral drug combo shows promise for treating COVID-19




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Mike Lombardi won't rule out Cam Newton to Patriots despite Bill Belichick's reluctance

Former Patriots executive Mike Lombardi still won't rule out New England signing Cam Newton at some point despite Bill Belichick indicating he plans to roll with the current QB group he has now.




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

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




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Bombay high court lets teen rape survivor abort 24-week fetus | Mumbai News - Times of India

Bombay high court lets teen rape survivor abort 24-week fetus | Mumbai News - Times of India




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Combating COVID-19: Punjab closes malls, local Kisan Mandis, museums till March 31




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Combating COVID-19: Punjab CM urges religious organisations to restrict gathering under 50




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Punjab seeks package to combat COVID-19 crisis




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Combatting COVID-19: SAD to donate one month's salary to Punjab CM Relief Fund




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Punjab Vigilance Bureau ties up with District Administration to combat COVID-19




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Combating COVID-19: Punjab Police scale up system




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Combating COVID-19: Punjab doubles testing capacity




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Combating COVID-19: Punjab sets up four committees




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Combating COVID-19: Punjab building large stocks of life-saving equipment




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Punjab's Ropar police combats Covid-19 by involving locals




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Unique campaign by Punjab Police to make people 'stay at home' to combat COVID-19




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To combat COVID-19, Amritsar administration installs disinfection tunnel in wholesale market




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Combating COVID-19: Punjab decides to screen one million people




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Combating COVID-19: Punjab CM announces to extend curfew for two more weeks




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Minerva Academy staff donate blood to help Chandigarh combat crisis




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Combating Covid-19: Chenchu tribe taps nature to make masks

At a time when governments are struggling to reach out to some tribal hamlets located deep inside the forest, like the Chenchus of Nallamalla forest, have made personal protective equipment such as face masks from leaves of teak and sal trees. They are also not stepping out from their hamlets, except to collect forest produce once or twice a week.




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Progress in HAXPES performance combining full-field k-imaging with time-of-flight recording

An alternative approach to hard-X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES) has been established. The instrumental key feature is an increase of the dimensionality of the recording scheme from 2D to 3D. A high-energy momentum microscope detects electrons with initial kinetic energies up to 8 keV with a k-resolution of 0.025 Å−1, equivalent to an angular resolution of 0.034°. A special objective lens with k-space acceptance up to 25 Å−1 allows for simultaneous full-field imaging of many Brillouin zones. Combined with time-of-flight (ToF) parallel energy recording this yields maximum parallelization. Thanks to the high brilliance (1013 hν s−1 in a spot of <20 µm diameter) of beamline P22 at PETRA III (Hamburg, Germany), the microscope set a benchmark in HAXPES recording speed, i.e. several million counts per second for core-level signals and one million for d-bands of transition metals. The concept of tomographic k-space mapping established using soft X-rays works equally well in the hard X-ray range. Sharp valence band k-patterns of Re, collected at an excitation energy of 6 keV, correspond to direct transitions to the 28th repeated Brillouin zone. Measured total energy resolutions (photon bandwidth plus ToF-resolution) are 62 meV and 180 meV FWHM at 5.977 keV for monochromator crystals Si(333) and Si(311) and 450 meV at 4.0 keV for Si(111). Hard X-ray photoelectron diffraction (hXPD) patterns with rich fine structure are recorded within minutes. The short photoelectron wavelength (10% of the interatomic distance) `amplifies' phase differences, making full-field hXPD a sensitive structural tool.





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Optimization of crystallization of biological macromolecules using dialysis combined with temperature control

A rational way to find the appropriate conditions to grow crystal samples for bio-crystallography is to determine the crystallization phase diagram, which allows precise control of the parameters affecting the crystal growth process. First, the nucleation is induced at supersaturated conditions close to the solubility boundary between the nucleation and metastable regions. Then, crystal growth is further achieved in the metastable zone – which is the optimal location for slow and ordered crystal expansion – by modulation of specific physical parameters. Recently, a prototype of an integrated apparatus for the rational optimization of crystal growth by mapping and manipulating temperature–precipitant–concentration phase diagrams has been constructed. Here, it is demonstrated that a thorough knowledge of the phase diagram is vital in any crystallization experiment. The relevance of the selection of the starting position and the kinetic pathway undertaken in controlling most of the final properties of the synthesized crystals is shown. The rational crystallization optimization strategies developed and presented here allow tailoring of crystal size and diffraction quality, significantly reducing the time, effort and amount of expensive protein material required for structure determination.




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Automated serial rotation electron diffraction combined with cluster analysis: an efficient multi-crystal workflow for structure determination

Serial rotation electron diffraction (SerialRED) has been developed as a fully automated technique for three-dimensional electron diffraction data collection that can run autonomously without human intervention. It builds on the previously established serial electron diffraction technique, in which submicrometre-sized crystals are detected using image processing algorithms. Continuous rotation electron diffraction (cRED) data are collected on each crystal while dynamically tracking the movement of the crystal during rotation using defocused diffraction patterns and applying a set of deflector changes. A typical data collection screens up to 500 crystals per hour, and cRED data are collected from suitable crystals. A data processing pipeline is developed to process the SerialRED data sets. Hierarchical cluster analysis is implemented to group and identify the different phases present in the sample and to find the best matching data sets to be merged for subsequent structure analysis. This method has been successfully applied to a series of zeolites and a beam-sensitive metal–organic framework sample to study its capability for structure determination and refinement. Two multi-phase samples were tested to show that the individual crystal phases can be identified and their structures determined. The results show that refined structures obtained using automatically collected SerialRED data are indistinguishable from those collected manually using the cRED technique. At the same time, SerialRED has lower requirements of expertise in transmission electron microscopy and is less labor intensive, making it a promising high-throughput crystal screening and structure analysis tool.




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A decagonal quasicrystal with rhombic and hexagonal tiles decorated with icosahedral structural units

The structure of a decagonal quasicrystal in the Zn58Mg40Y2 (at.%) alloy was studied using electron diffraction and atomic resolution Z-contrast imaging techniques. This stable Frank–Kasper Zn–Mg–Y decagonal quasicrystal has an atomic structure which can be modeled with a rhombic/hexagonal tiling decorated with icosahedral units at each vertex. No perfect decagonal clusters were observed in the Zn–Mg–Y decagonal quasicrystal, which differs from the Zn–Mg–Dy decagonal crystal with the same space group P10/mmm. Y atoms occupy the center of `dented decagon' motifs consisting of three fat rhombic and two flattened hexagonal tiles. About 75% of fat rhombic tiles are arranged in groups of five forming star motifs, while the others connect with each other in a `zigzag' configuration. This decagonal quasicrystal has a composition of Zn68.3Mg29.1Y2.6 (at.%) with a valence electron concentration (e/a) of about 2.03, which is in accord with the Hume–Rothery criterion for the formation of the Zn-based quasicrystal phase (e/a = 2.0–2.15).




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Combining random microseed matrix screening and the magic triangle for the efficient structure solution of a potential lysin from bacteriophage P68

Two commonly encountered bottlenecks in the structure determination of a protein by X-ray crystallography are screening for conditions that give high-quality crystals and, in the case of novel structures, finding derivatization conditions for experimental phasing. In this study, the phasing molecule 5-amino-2,4,6-triiodoisophthalic acid (I3C) was added to a random microseed matrix screen to generate high-quality crystals derivatized with I3C in a single optimization experiment. I3C, often referred to as the magic triangle, contains an aromatic ring scaffold with three bound I atoms. This approach was applied to efficiently phase the structures of hen egg-white lysozyme and the N-terminal domain of the Orf11 protein from Staphylococcus phage P68 (Orf11 NTD) using SAD phasing. The structure of Orf11 NTD suggests that it may play a role as a virion-associated lysin or endolysin.




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Refinement of protein structures using a combination of quantum-mechanical calculations with neutron and X-ray crystallographic data. Corrigendum

Corrections are published for the article by Caldararu et al. [(2019), Acta Cryst. D75, 368–380].




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ALIXE: a phase-combination tool for fragment-based molecular replacement

Fragment-based molecular replacement exploits the use of very accurate yet incomplete search models. In the case of the ARCIMBOLDO programs, consistent phase sets produced from the placement and refinement of fragments with Phaser can be combined in order to increase their signal before proceeding to the step of density modification and autotracing with SHELXE. The program ALIXE compares multiple phase sets, evaluating mean phase differences to determine their common origin, and subsequently produces sets of combined phases that group consistent solutions. In this work, its use on different scenarios of very partial molecular-replacement solutions and its performance after the development of a much-optimized set of algorithms are described. The program is available both standalone and integrated within the ARCIMBOLDO programs. ALIXE has been analysed to identify its rate-limiting steps while exploring the best parameterization to improve its performance and make this software efficient enough to work on modest hardware. The algorithm has been parallelized and redesigned to meet the typical landscape of solutions. Analysis of pairwise correlation between the phase sets has also been explored to test whether this would provide additional insight. ALIXE can be used to exhaustively analyse all partial solutions produced or to complement those already selected for expansion, and also to reduce the number of redundant solutions, which is particularly relevant to the case of coiled coils, or to combine partial solutions from different programs. In each case parallelization and optimization to provide speedup makes its use amenable to typical hardware found in crystallography. ARCIMBOLDO_BORGES and ARCIMBOLDO_SHREDDER now call on ALIXE by default.




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Combined X-ray and neutron single-crystal diffraction in diamond anvil cells

It is shown that it is possible to perform combined X-ray and neutron single-crystal studies in the same diamond anvil cell (DAC). A modified Merrill–Bassett DAC equipped with an inflatable membrane filled with He gas has been developed. It can be used on laboratory X-ray and synchrotron diffractometers as well as on neutron instruments. The data processing procedures and a joint structural refinement of the high-pressure synchrotron and neutron single-crystal data are presented and discussed for the first time.




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New attempt to combine scanning electron microscopy and small-angle scattering in reciprocal space

An attempt has been made to combine small-angle scattering of X-rays or neutrons with scanning electron microscopy in reciprocal space, in order to establish a structural analysis method covering a wide range of sizes from micro- to macro-scales.




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Optimization of crystallization of biological macromolecules using dialysis combined with temperature control

This article describes rational strategies for the optimization of crystal growth using precise in situ control of the temperature and chemical composition of the crystallization solution through dialysis, to generate crystals of the specific sizes required for different downstream structure determination approaches.




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Crystal structure of the Schizosaccharomyces pombe U7BR E2-binding region in complex with Ubc7

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-associated degradation (ERAD) is a protein quality-control pathway in eukaryotes in which misfolded ER proteins are polyubiquitylated, extracted and ultimately degraded by the proteasome. This process involves ER membrane-embedded ubiquitin E2 and E3 enzymes, as well as a soluble E2 enzyme (Ubc7 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and UBE2G2 in mammals). E2-binding regions (E2BRs) that recruit these soluble ERAD E2s to the ER have been identified in humans and S. cerevisiae, and structures of E2–E2BR complexes from both species have been determined. In addition to sequence and structural differences between the human and S. cerevisiae E2BRs, the binding of E2BRs also elicits different biochemical outcomes with respect to E2 charging by E1 and E2 discharge. Here, the Schizosaccharomyces pombe E2BR was identified and purified with Ubc7 to resolve a 1.7 Å resolution co-crystal structure of the E2BR in complex with Ubc7. The S. pombe E2BR binds to the back side of the E2 as an α-helix and, while differences exist, it exhibits greater similarity to the human E2BR. Structure-based sequence alignments reveal differences and conserved elements among these species. Structural comparisons and biochemistry reveal that the S. pombe E2BR presents a steric impediment to E1 binding and inhibits E1-mediated charging, respectively.