Most of us have used a self-service, multi-user kiosk at some point in our lives, to purchase train tickets, to select our burger at a fast food restaurant, to pay for parking in a multi-story car park, to check-in at a hospital or airport to name just a few.

The question is, will COVID-19, or possibly some future virus strain make people reluctant about using these now necessary machines

Wirral-headquartered Evoke Creative, a design-led manufacturer of interactive digital solutions, has developed a series of innovative new products which address the challenges faced by its blue-chip client base as they re-open for customers and employees.

Advantech, provider of AIoT platforms and services, has launched ARK-3533, a compact fanless edge computer tailored for kiosk and robotics applications.

Business technology solutions provider Brother UK has launched a compact range of mono laser printers for businesses, helping resellers to support customers with downsized offices and decentralised workforces.

This issue features a Special Technology Report looking in depth at the latest developments in the world of Printing and Labelling solutions.

Also included is a ‘Cover Story’: Gartner explains that by 2026, 30% of enterprises will automate more than half of their network activities, an increase from under 10% in mid-2023.

The head of the Sudzha district of the Kursk region of Russia, Alexander Bogachev, was dismissed from his post. The official was fired on November 12 at a meeting of the regional leadership with the local population. According to Mash Telegram channel, the reason for the decision was Bogachev's unwillingness to communicate with displaced residents. Since August 6, the head of the municipality has not communicated with those who had to leave their homes in Sudzha after the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked the area. Residents of the district gathered on Red Square in Kursk last weekend demanding officials answer their questions about social support measures, since many were left without housing and means of subsistence. The head of the Sudzha district of the Kursk region, Alexander Bogachev, was fired as a result of the meeting. The people met the news about his dismissal with applause.

A new study from Juniper Research, the expert in fintech and payment markets, has found the volume of global transactions via A2A (Account-to-Account) payments will rise from 60 billion in 2024 to 186 billion by 2029; an increase of 209%.

Jisp, the retail technology company, has marked the three-year anniversary of its Scan & Save app achieving high performance figures. Jisp reports that, since its launch in 2021, Scan & Save has earned retailers almost £6million while shoppers have saved over £2.2million in that time.

A new study finds that seniors who tend to mirror other people's feelings are more likely to show signs of being anxious or depressed themselves.

A research team has conducted a comprehensive study on the effects of various sterilization methods on the quality of Aronia melanocarpa juice (AMJ).

People with conditions or habits such as high blood pressure, an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation, or smoking, not only have a higher risk of stroke, they may also have more severe strokes than people without these risk factors, according to a study published in the November 13, 2024, online issue of Neurology(r), the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

As student absenteeism reaches record highs in schools across the United States, new research finds that student absences are linked to lower teacher job satisfaction, raising concerns that this may exacerbate growing teacher shortages.

A new study finds that seniors who tend to mirror other people's feelings are more likely to show signs of being anxious or depressed themselves.

Education is only becoming a bigger issue for both political parties. Questions and discussions surrounding the role of parents and their children's education as well as funding and the use of school vouchers remain top of mind as we prepare for a new administration. President-elect Donald Trump could make significant changes to the U.S. Department of Education, as questions loom about the future of the department under Trump. Josh Cowen is a professor of education policy in Michigan State University's College of Education. He has worked across the country on policy issues related to school choice, teacher quality and education reform. Cowen is the author of the new book The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers (Harvard Education Press). Here, he answers questions on what changes could come to education and what vouchers could mean for the U.S.

Education is only becoming a bigger issue for both political parties. Questions and discussions surrounding the role of parents and their children's education as well as funding and the use of school vouchers remain top of mind as we prepare for a new administration. President-elect Donald Trump could make significant changes to the U.S. Department of Education, as questions loom about the future of the department under Trump. Josh Cowen is a professor of education policy in Michigan State University's College of Education. He has worked across the country on policy issues related to school choice, teacher quality and education reform. Cowen is the author of the new book The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers (Harvard Education Press). Here, he answers questions on what changes could come to education and what vouchers could mean for the U.S.

A research team has conducted a comprehensive study on the effects of various sterilization methods on the quality of Aronia melanocarpa juice (AMJ).

People with conditions or habits such as high blood pressure, an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation, or smoking, not only have a higher risk of stroke, they may also have more severe strokes than people without these risk factors, according to a study published in the November 13, 2024, online issue of Neurology(r), the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

[Sports] :
Prosecutors are seeking a four-year prison term for football forward Hwang Ui-jo, who has admitted to filming sexual encounters without his partners’ consent. The 32-year-old footballer, who plays for the Turkish Süper Lig club Alanyaspor, entered the guilty plea Wednesday at the Seoul Central District ...

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[Politics] :
South Korea’s benchmark stock index, the KOSPI, continued its sharp decline for the fourth consecutive day on Wednesday, in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election last week.  On Wednesday, the KOSPI fell by 65-point-49 points, or two-point-64 percent, closing at ...

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[Culture] :
Veteran South Korean actress Kim Soo-mi, best known for playing the character “Il-yong’s mom” on the decadeslong television drama series “Country Diaries,” has died at the age of 75. According to the Seoul Seocho Police Station on Friday, Kim was transported to Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital in the ...

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"Watch it wiggle, see it jiggle" Remember that jingle? We're talking about Jell-O, or gelatin. But just how does how does it do that? And what is this stuff made of?

You probably don't need to change your ceiling fan direction if you only use it to cool the room, but you can switch the direction for a wintertime hack.

Actor Yoo Teo has been included in the 2024 version of Gold House's 'The A100' list.The list, announced every May, nominates 100 of the world's most impactful Asian Pacific leaders in American culture...

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[Economy] :
The number of economically inactive South Koreans increased by 245-thousand on-year in August. According to Statistics Korea on Wednesday, nearly two-point-57 million people were neither working nor looking for work. Those in their 60s made up 36-point-three percent of the total, while people in their ...

[more...]

[Economy] :
Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok said Thursday that he expects Donald Trump’s reelection to have a “considerable” impact on the South Korean economy.  The minister made the remarks Wednesday in Seoul during a meeting of ministers concerned with the economy, the morning after Donald Trump won the U.S. ...

[more...]

[Economy] :
A large delegation representing Czech power authorities will make a two-week visit to South Korea for working-level negotiations ahead of the conclusion of a final contract for the Czech nuclear power plant project.  Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power(KHNP), which was selected in July as the preferred bidder ...

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Extracting formation temperatures from stalagmites  British Geological Survey

Responsible extraction in South America’s Lithium Triangle  British Geological Survey

(Time-resolved) macromolecular crystallography at the new ESRF-ID29 beamline is described.

The structure of Ni3V2O8 was studied using X-ray diffraction at temperatures of 299 and 1323 K. No phase transition at high temperature is observed. The variation in V—O bond length is small as compared with the Ni—O bond due to its high rigidity.

Five multicomponent solid forms of an antifungal drug flucytosine are reported with a hygroscopic stability study. A detailed CSD search on the cocrystal/salts of flucytosine is evaluated and correlated the structures based on bond angles and bond distances.

This study presents the first theoretical predictions of the phase transitions, elastic properties, and thermal behavior of AuMTe2 (M = Ga, In) chalcopyrite compounds. Using density functional theory and the quasi-harmonic Debye model, key mechanical and thermodynamic properties are analyzed, offering insights valuable for future experimental validation.

Nickel orthovanadate is a promising material with potential applications in energy storage and photocatalytic devices. The crystal structure of Ni3V2O8 at 299 (3) K and 1323 (8) K was studied using X-ray powder diffraction. The sample was a single-phase orthorhombic kagome-staircase-Ni3(VO4)2-type structure (space group Cmca) at both temperatures. The phase purity and morphology was studied using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The refined unit-cell parameters at 299 (3) K are a = 5.93384 (4) Å, b = 11.38318 (7) Å and c = 8.23818 (5) Å, and at 1323 (8) K are a = 6.02077 (7) Å, b = 11.48838 (7) Å and c = 8.32611 (9) Å. The obtained results indicate thermal expansion anisotropy, with a largest expansivity along a. Variations in Ni—O and V—O bonds with temperature are observed. The variation in the Ni—O bond is about one order higher in magnitude than that of the V—O bond, signifying the high rigidity of V—O bonds. The unit-cell size variations with rising effective ionic volume of the divalent A ion in the A3B2O8 family [A = Ni, Mg, Zn, Co, Mn (experimental data) and also A = Cu, Cd (theoretical data), B = V or As] are analyzed. Based on experimental and theoretical data, trends within the family are observed and the unit-cell size for reported solid solution of nickel (87%) and copper (13%) mixture in (Ni1–xCux)3V2O8 are predicted. Predictions are also provided for some hypothetical A3B2O8 ternary compound and solid solutions.

Parameters in analytical models for X-ray form factors of ions f0(s), based on the inverse Mott–Bethe formula involving a variable number of Gaussians, are determined for a wide range of published data sets {s, f0(s)}. The models reproduce the calculated form-factor values close to what is expected from a uniform statistical distribution with limits determined by their precision. For different ions associated with the same atom, the number of Gaussians in the models decreases with increasing net positive charge.

Three-dimensional electron diffraction (3D-ED) is a powerful technique for crystallographic characterization of nanometre-sized crystals that are too small for X-ray diffraction. For accurate crystal structure refinement, however, it is important that the Bragg diffracted intensities are treated dynamically. Bloch wave simulations are often used in 3D-ED, but can be computationally expensive for large unit cell crystals due to the large number of diffracted beams. Proposed here is an alternative method, the `scattering cluster algorithm' (SCA), that replaces the eigen-decomposition operation in Bloch waves with a simpler matrix multiplication. The underlying principle of SCA is that the intensity of a given Bragg reflection is largely determined by intensity transfer (i.e. `scattering') from a cluster of neighbouring diffracted beams. However, the penalty for using matrix multiplication is that the sample must be divided into a series of thin slices and the diffracted beams calculated iteratively, similar to the multislice approach. Therefore, SCA is more suitable for thin specimens. The accuracy and speed of SCA are demonstrated on tri-iso­propyl silane (TIPS) pentacene and rubrene, two exemplar organic materials with large unit cells.

The strong interaction of high-energy electrons with a crystal results in both dynamical elastic scattering and inelastic events, particularly phonon and plasmon excitation, which have relatively large cross sections. For accurate crystal structure refinement it is therefore important to uncover the impact of inelastic scattering on the Bragg beam intensities. Here a combined Bloch wave–Monte Carlo method is used to simulate phonon and plasmon scattering in crystals. The simulated thermal and plasmon diffuse scattering are consistent with experimental results. The simulations also confirm the empirical observation of a weaker unscattered beam intensity with increasing energy loss in the low-loss regime, while the Bragg-diffracted beam intensities do not change significantly. The beam intensities include the diffuse scattered background and have been normalized to adjust for the inelastic scattering cross section. It is speculated that the random azimuthal scattering angle during inelastic events transfers part of the unscattered beam intensity to the inner Bragg reflections. Inelastic scattering should not significantly influence crystal structure refinement, provided there are no artefacts from any background subtraction, since the relative intensity of the diffracted beams (which includes the diffuse scattering) remains approximately constant in the low energy loss regime.

In electron diffraction, thermal atomic motion produces incoherent scattering over a relatively wide angular range, which appears as a diffuse background that is usually subtracted from measurements of Bragg spot intensities in structure solution methods. The transfer of electron flux from Bragg spots to diffuse scatter is modelled using complex scattering factors f + if' in the Bloch wave methodology. In a two-beam Einstein model the imaginary `absorptive' scattering factor f' can be obtained by the evaluation of an integral containing f over all possible scattering angles. While more sophisticated models of diffuse scatter are widely used in the electron microscopy community, it is argued in this paper that this simple model is appropriate for current structure solution and refinement methods. The two-beam model is a straightforward numerical calculation, but even this simplistic approach can become time consuming for simulations of materials with large numbers of atoms in the unit cell and/or many incident beam orientations. Here, a parameterized form of f' is provided for 103 elements as neutral, spherical atoms that reduces calculation time considerably.

Analytical calculations of absorption corrections for X-ray powder diffraction experiments on non-ideal samples with surface roughness, porosity or absorption contrasts from multiple phases require complex mathematical models to represent their material distribution. In a computational approach to this problem, a practicable ray-tracing algorithm is formulated which is capable of simulating angle-dependent absorption corrections in reflection geometry for any given rasterized sample model. Single or multiphase systems with arbitrary surface roughness, porosity and spatial distribution of the phases in any combination can be modeled on a voxel grid by assigning respective values to each voxel. The absorption corrections are calculated by tracing the attenuation of X-rays along their individual paths via a modified shear-warp algorithm. The algorithm is presented in detail and the results of simulated absorption corrections on samples with various surface modulations are discussed in the context of published experimental results.

Molybdenum- or tungsten-dependent formate dehydrogenases have emerged as significant catalysts for the chemical reduction of CO2 to formate, with biotechnological applications envisaged in climate-change mitigation. The role of Met405 in the active site of Desulfovibrio vulgaris formate dehydrogenase AB (DvFdhAB) has remained elusive. However, its proximity to the metal site and the conformational change that it undergoes between the resting and active forms suggests a functional role. In this work, the M405S variant was engineered, which allowed the active-site geometry in the absence of methionine Sδ interactions with the metal site to be revealed and the role of Met405 in catalysis to be probed. This variant displayed reduced activity in both formate oxidation and CO2 reduction, together with an increased sensitivity to oxygen inactivation.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis can reside and persist in deep tissues; latent tuberculosis can evade immune detection and has a unique mechanism to convert it into active disease through reactivation. M. tuberculosis Rv1421 (MtRv1421) is a hypothetical protein that has been proposed to be involved in nucleotide binding-related metabolism in cell-growth and cell-division processes. However, due to a lack of structural information, the detailed function of MtRv1421 remains unclear. In this study, a truncated N-terminal domain (NTD) of MtRv1421, which contains a Walker A/B-like motif, was purified and crystallized using PEG 400 as a precipitant. The crystal of MtRv1421-NTD diffracted to a resolution of 1.7 Å and was considered to belong to either the C-centered monoclinic space group C2 or the I-centered orthorhombic space group I222, with unit-cell parameters a = 124.01, b = 58.55, c = 84.87 Å, β = 133.12° or a = 58.53, b = 84.86, c = 90.52 Å, respectively. The asymmetric units of the C2 or I222 crystals contained two or one monomers, respectively. In terms of the binding ability of MtRv1421-NTD to various ligands, uridine diphosphate (UDP) and UDP-N-acetylglucosamine significantly increased the melting temperature of MtRv1421-NTD, which indicates structural stabilization through the binding of these ligands. Altogether, the results reveal that a UDP moiety may be required for the interaction of MtRv1421-NTD as a nucleotide-binding protein with its ligand.

Pseudoalteromonas fuliginea sp. PS47 is a recently identified marine bacterium that has extensive enzymatic machinery to metabolize polysaccharides, including a locus that targets pectin-like substrates. This locus contains a gene (locus tag EU509_03255) that encodes a pectin-degrading lyase, called PfPL1, that belongs to polysaccharide lyase family 1 (PL1). The 2.2 Å resolution X-ray crystal structure of PfPL1 reveals the compact parallel β-helix fold of the PL1 family. The back side of the core parallel β-helix opposite to the active site is a meandering set of five α-helices joined by lengthy loops. A comparison of the active site with those of other PL1 enzymes suggests a catalytic mechanism that is independent of metal ions, such as Ca2+, but that substrate recognition may require metal ions. Overall, this work provides the first structural insight into a pectinase of marine origin and the first structure of a PL1 enzyme in subfamily 2.

The third complementary-determining regions of the heavy-chain (CDR3H) variable regions (VH) of some cattle antibodies are highly extended, consisting of 48 or more residues. These `ultralong' CDR3Hs form β-ribbon stalks that protrude from the surface of the antibody with a disulfide cross-linked knob region at their apex that dominates antigen interactions over the other CDR loops. The structure of the Fab fragment of a naturally paired bovine ultralong antibody (D08), identified by single B-cell sequencing, has been determined to 1.6 Å resolution. By swapping the D08 native light chain with that of an unrelated antigen-unknown ultralong antibody, it is shown that interactions between the CDR3s of the variable domains potentially affect the fine positioning of the ultralong CDR3H; however, comparison with other crystallo­graphic structures shows that crystalline packing is also a major contributor. It is concluded that, on balance, the exact positioning of ultralong CDR3H loops is most likely to be due to the constraints of crystal packing.