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Over 4,000 released from Italian hospitals

Another 1,083 people tested positive, half of them in hard-hit Lombardy, bringing Italy’s confirmed number of cases to 218,268.




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Five special trains leave city in a day

Nearly 6,000 migrant workers from various parts of Mumbai left the city in five Shramik Specials on Saturday, making it the highest number of trains t




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Elon Musk threatens to exit California over virus restrictions

He wrote that whether the company keeps any manufacturing in Fremont depends on how Tesla is treated in the future.




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1st batch of 326 Indians stranded in U.K. arrives in Mumbai

The first batch of 326 Indian nationals stranded in the U.K. due to the coronavirus-linked global travel restrictions arrived in Mumbai from London ea




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Coronavirus India lockdown Day 47 updates | Death toll crosses 2,100

Globally, as of 9 May 2020, there have been 3,862,676 confirmed cases, including 265,961 deaths, reported to WHO.




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Indian naval ship arrives in Kochi with evacuees from the Maldives

Most of the 698 Indians, of whom 440 are from Kerala, were stranded in the island country after they lost their jobs




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India, China troops face off at Naku La in Sikkim, several injured

Troops disengaged after dialogue and interaction at local level, Army sources said




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Watch | Liquor shops reopen in several Indian States

A video on the opening of liquor shops after the easing of the COVID-19 lockdown in India




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How India can make its economic recovery clean, sustainable post Covid-19

The renewable sector holds the key to not only offsetting the job losses due to the pandemic, but also making the recovery sustainable




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Covid-19 crisis: Airlines say flights between green zones unviable

Want services to resume only after at least three major airports in the country become functional




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The competition between dehydrogenation and dehydration reactions for primary and secondary alcohols over gallia: unravelling the effects of molecular and electronic structure via a two-pronged theoretical/experimental approach

Catal. Sci. Technol., 2020, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C9CY02603G, Paper
Lorella Izzo, Tommaso Tabanelli, Fabrizio Cavani, Paola Blair Vàsquez, Carlo Lucarelli, Massimo Mella
The relative dehydrogenation/dehydration reactivity imparted by nanostructured gallium(III) oxide on alcohols was investigated via electronic structure calculations, reactivity tests and DRIFT-IR spectroscopy.
To cite this article before page numbers are assigned, use the DOI form of citation above.
The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry




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India’s fuel consumption dips 46 per cent in April; expected to rebound in May

Petrol sales were down 60.43 per cent to 9,73,000 tonnes in April




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India plans over 100 flights during second phase of evacuation abroad

To link countries where no Indian carrier presently flies




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Naval ship arrives in Kochi with 698 repatriated Indians from Maldives

Passengers showing Covid-19 symptoms are being disembarked first, followed by others in small groups, district-wise, says a Cochin Port Trust official




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Covid-19 in India: Death toll rises to 2,109; cases climb to 62,939

Maharashtra tops the tally with 779 deaths




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Cochin Port Trust helps during ‘Operation Samudra Sethu’ for Maldives expatriates

This is the Indian Navy’s first massive evacuation exercise during the Covid-19 lockdown




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'Thank you for creating mommy': Sara Ali Khan makes mother Amrita Singh & grandmother Rukhsana Sultana feel special

Sara Ali Khan shared a beautiful picture of Amrita Singh and Rukhsana Sultana holding her newborn self




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Super Moms! After Sushmita Sen's Miss India episode, Debina Bonnerjee's mom turns TV actor to Kajol from 'Baazigar'

Sushmita Sen won Miss India with a dress selected by a mother, and similarly, Debina played an important role resembling Kajol from Baazigar thanks to her mom




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'Vande Bharat': First evacuation flight from London lands in Mumbai; 1,373 Indians return home from worldwide

In total, around 1,373 Indians returned to their native places from foreign countries on May 10 as eight 'Vande Bharat' flights from Dubai, Kuwait, Muscat, Sharjah, Kuala Lumpur, and Dhaka landed in India.




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Coronavirus Outbreak: COVID-19 tally in India nears 63,000-mark; death toll tops 2,000-mark

Maharashtra has the highest number of cases with around 20,228 positive cases of infection and 779 deaths.




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Sania Mirza cuddles with her son in bed

Picture shows Sania and her son, wearing nightsuits all cuddled up in bed. Izhaan has a sweet smile on his face that can brighten anyone's day.




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Online Chess: India suffers twin defeats, finishes 5th

With Viswanathan Anand resting, the Indian team managed to hold their own against the favourites before Yu Yangyi subdued B Adhiban with black pieces to secure another victory in the tournament.




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Naval ship arrives in Kochi with Indians from Maldives

This is the Indian Navy's first massive evacuation exercise from foreign soil during the COVID-19 lockdown.




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Indian, Chinese troops clash in Sikkim sector

Many of them sustained minor injuries in the clash near Naku La in the Sikkim sector along the Sino-Indo border on Saturday




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'The main challenge is social distancing in slums'

'When we talk about social distancing, it almost impossible to maintain this in slums.' 'So we had to talk to the people about cleanliness.' 'It was a task because everybody uses public toilets. So our volunteers targeted those spots to spread awareness.'





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Punjab: Balbir Singh Senior admitted to a private hospital due to pneumonia




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Ayurveda medicine trial to begin on asymptomatic Covid-19 patients in Chandigarh




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The Centre will need to nurse the Constitution and India back to good health




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If the lockdown is not lifted, there may be defiance on a larger scale than at present




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Is your mother getting her essential nutrients? Check here




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On Mother’s Day, relive nostalgia with these 3 recipes for dips




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Indian women’s archery team to get final chance at Olympic quota in June next year




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Irfan Pathan, Suresh Raina rally for allowing Indian players in foreign T20 leagues




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Mother’s Day 2020: Vicky Kaushal, Kiara Advani, Mahesh Babu and others share adorable photos




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A versatile nanoreactor for complementary in situ X-ray and electron microscopy studies in catalysis and materials science

Two in situ `nanoreactors' for high-resolution imaging of catalysts have been designed and applied at the hard X-ray nanoprobe endstation at beamline P06 of the PETRA III synchrotron radiation source. The reactors house samples supported on commercial MEMS chips, and were applied for complementary hard X-ray ptychography (23 nm spatial resolution) and transmission electron microscopy, with additional X-ray fluorescence measurements. The reactors allow pressures of 100 kPa and temperatures of up to 1573 K, offering a wide range of conditions relevant for catalysis. Ptychographic tomography was demonstrated at limited tilting angles of at least ±35° within the reactors and ±65° on the naked sample holders. Two case studies were selected to demonstrate the functionality of the reactors: (i) annealing of hierarchical nanoporous gold up to 923 K under inert He environment and (ii) acquisition of a ptychographic projection series at ±35° of a hierarchically structured macroporous zeolite sample under ambient conditions. The reactors are shown to be a flexible and modular platform for in situ studies in catalysis and materials science which may be adapted for a range of sample and experiment types, opening new characterization pathways in correlative multimodal in situ analysis of functional materials at work. The cells will presently be made available for all interested users of beamline P06 at PETRA III.




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Fast identification of mineral inclusions in diamond at GSECARS using synchrotron X-ray microtomography, radiography and diffraction

Mineral inclusions in natural diamond are widely studied for the insight that they provide into the geochemistry and dynamics of the Earth's interior. A major challenge in achieving thorough yet high rates of analysis of mineral inclusions in diamond derives from the micrometre-scale of most inclusions, often requiring synchrotron radiation sources for diffraction. Centering microinclusions for diffraction with a highly focused synchrotron beam cannot be achieved optically because of the very high index of refraction of diamond. A fast, high-throughput method for identification of micromineral inclusions in diamond has been developed at the GeoSoilEnviro Center for Advanced Radiation Sources (GSECARS), Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, USA. Diamonds and their inclusions are imaged using synchrotron 3D computed X-ray microtomography on beamline 13-BM-D of GSECARS. The location of every inclusion is then pinpointed onto the coordinate system of the six-circle goniometer of the single-crystal diffractometer on beamline 13-BM-C. Because the bending magnet branch 13-BM is divided and delivered into 13-BM-C and 13-BM-D stations simultaneously, numerous diamonds can be examined during coordinated runs. The fast, high-throughput capability of the methodology is demonstrated by collecting 3D diffraction data on 53 diamond inclusions from Juína, Brazil, within a total of about 72 h of beam time.




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Linear array detector for online diagnostics of spectral distributions at MHz repetition rates

Free-electron lasers (FELs) based on superconducting accelerator technology and storage ring facilities operate with bunch repetition rates in the MHz range, and the need arises for bunch-by-bunch electron and photon diagnostics. For photon-pulse-resolved measurements of spectral distributions, fast one-dimensional profile monitors are required. The linear array detector KALYPSO (KArlsruhe Linear arraY detector for MHz-rePetition rate SpectrOscopy) has been developed for electron bunch or photon pulse synchronous read-out with frame rates of up to 2.7 MHz. At the FLASH facility at DESY, a current version of KALYPSO with 256 pixels has been installed at a grating spectrometer as online diagnostics to monitor the pulse-resolved spectra of the high-repetition-rate FEL pulses. Application-specific front-end electronics based on MicroTCA standard have been developed for data acquisition and processing. Continuous data read-out with low latency in the microsecond range enables the integration into fast feedback applications. In this paper, pulse-resolved FEL spectra recorded at 1.0 MHz repetition rate for various operation conditions at FLASH are presented, and the first application of an adaptive feedback for accelerator control based on photon beam diagnostics is demonstrated.




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Reducing sample consumption for serial crystallography using acoustic drop ejection

Efficient sample delivery is an essential aspect of serial crystallography at both synchrotrons and X-ray free-electron lasers. Rastering fixed target chips through the X-ray beam is an efficient method for serial delivery from the perspectives of both sample consumption and beam time usage. Here, an approach for loading fixed targets using acoustic drop ejection is presented that does not compromise crystal quality, can reduce sample consumption by more than an order of magnitude and allows serial diffraction to be collected from a larger proportion of the crystals in the slurry.




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X-ray radiation damage to biological samples: recent progress

With the continuing development of beamlines for macromolecular crystallography (MX) over the last few years providing ever higher X-ray flux densities, it has become even more important to be aware of the effects of radiation damage on the resulting structures. Nine papers in this issue cover a range of aspects related to the physics and chemistry of the manifestations of this damage, as observed in both MX and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) on crystals, solutions and tissue samples. The reports include measurements of the heating caused by X-ray irradiation in ruby microcrystals, low-dose experiments examining damage rates as a function of incident X-ray energy up to 30 keV on a metallo-enzyme using a CdTe detector of high quantum efficiency as well as a theoretical analysis of the gains predicted in diffraction efficiency using these detectors, a SAXS examination of low-dose radiation exposure effects on the dissociation of a protein complex related to human health, theoretical calculations describing radiation chemistry pathways which aim to explain the specific structural damage widely observed in proteins, investigation of radiation-induced damage effects in a DNA crystal, a case study on a metallo-enzyme where structural movements thought to be mechanism related might actually be radiation-damage-induced changes, and finally a review describing what X-ray radiation-induced cysteine modifications can teach us about protein dynamics and catalysis. These papers, along with some other relevant literature published since the last Journal of Synchrotron Radiation Radiation Damage special issue in 2017, are briefly summarized below.




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An enlightening procedure to explain the extreme power of synchrotron radiation

A simple approach exploits quantum properties to justify the dependence on γ4 of the total synchrotron emitted power. It also clarifies some apparent puzzles and brings to light the underlying, multiple relativistic phenomena.




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White beam diagnostics using X-ray back-scattering from a CVD diamond vacuum window

Collecting back-scattered X-rays from vacuum windows using a pinhole X-ray camera provides an efficient and reliable method of measuring the beam shape and position of the white synchrotron beam. In this paper, measurements are presented that were conducted at ESRF beamline ID6 which uses an in-vacuum cryogenically cooled permanent-magnet undulator (CPMU18) and a traditional U32 undulator as its radiation sources, allowing tests to be performed at very high power density levels that were adjusted by changing the gap of the undulators. These measurements show that it is possible to record beam shape and beam position using a simple geometry without having to place any further items in the beam path. With this simple test setup it was possible to record the beam position with a root-mean-square noise figure of 150 nm.




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X-ray fluorescence detection for serial macromolecular crystallography using a JUNGFRAU pixel detector

Detection of heavy elements, such as metals, in macromolecular crystallography (MX) samples by X-ray fluorescence is a function traditionally covered at synchrotron MX beamlines by silicon drift detectors, which cannot be used at X-ray free-electron lasers because of the very short duration of the X-ray pulses. Here it is shown that the hybrid pixel charge-integrating detector JUNGFRAU can fulfill this function when operating in a low-flux regime. The feasibility of precise position determination of micrometre-sized metal marks is also demonstrated, to be used as fiducials for offline prelocation in serial crystallography experiments, based on the specific fluorescence signal measured with JUNGFRAU, both at the synchrotron and at SwissFEL. Finally, the measurement of elemental absorption edges at a synchrotron beamline using JUNGFRAU is also demonstrated.




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The HXD95: a modified Bassett-type hydrothermal diamond-anvil cell for in situ XRD experiments up to 5 GPa and 1300 K

A new diamond-anvil cell apparatus for in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction measurements of liquids and glasses, at pressures from ambient to 5 GPa and temperatures from ambient to 1300 K, is reported. This portable setup enables in situ monitoring of the melting of complex compounds and the determination of the structure and properties of melts under moderately high pressure and high temperature conditions relevant to industrial processes and magmatic processes in the Earth's crust and shallow mantle. The device was constructed according to a modified Bassett-type hydro­thermal diamond-anvil cell design with a large angular opening (θ = 95°). This paper reports the successful application of this device to record in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction of liquid Ga and synthetic PbSiO3 glass to 1100 K and 3 GPa.




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IRIXS: a resonant inelastic X-ray scattering instrument dedicated to X-rays in the intermediate energy range

A new resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) instrument has been constructed at beamline P01 of the PETRA III synchrotron. This instrument has been named IRIXS (intermediate X-ray energy RIXS) and is dedicated to X-rays in the tender-energy regime (2.5–3.5 keV). The range covers the L2,3 absorption edges of many of the 4d elements (Mo, Tc, Ru, Rh, Pd and Ag), offering a unique opportunity to study their low-energy magnetic and charge excitations. The IRIXS instrument is currently operating at the Ru L3-edge (2840 eV) but can be extended to the other 4d elements using the existing concept. The incoming photons are monochromated with a four-bounce Si(111) monochromator, while the energy analysis of the outgoing photons is performed by a diced spherical crystal analyzer featuring (102) lattice planes of quartz (SiO2). A total resolution of 100 meV (full width at half-maximum) has been achieved at the Ru L3-edge, a number that is in excellent agreement with ray-tracing simulations.




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The HARE chip for efficient time-resolved serial synchrotron crystallography

Serial synchrotron crystallography (SSX) is an emerging technique for static and time-resolved protein structure determination. Using specifically patterned silicon chips for sample delivery, the `hit-and-return' (HARE) protocol allows for efficient time-resolved data collection. The specific pattern of the crystal wells in the HARE chip provides direct access to many discrete time points. HARE chips allow for optical excitation as well as on-chip mixing for reaction initiation, making a large number of protein systems amenable to time-resolved studies. Loading of protein microcrystals onto the HARE chip is streamlined by a novel vacuum loading platform that allows fine-tuning of suction strength while maintaining a humid environment to prevent crystal dehydration. To enable the widespread use of time-resolved serial synchrotron crystallography (TR-SSX), detailed technical descriptions of a set of accessories that facilitate TR-SSX workflows are provided.




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Tomographic reconstruction with a generative adversarial network

This paper presents a deep learning algorithm for tomographic reconstruction (GANrec). The algorithm uses a generative adversarial network (GAN) to solve the inverse of the Radon transform directly. It works for independent sinograms without additional training steps. The GAN has been developed to fit the input sinogram with the model sinogram generated from the predicted reconstruction. Good quality reconstructions can be obtained during the minimization of the fitting errors. The reconstruction is a self-training procedure based on the physics model, instead of on training data. The algorithm showed significant improvements in the reconstruction accuracy, especially for missing-wedge tomography acquired at less than 180° rotational range. It was also validated by reconstructing a missing-wedge X-ray ptychographic tomography (PXCT) data set of a macroporous zeolite particle, for which only 51 projections over 70° could be collected. The GANrec recovered the 3D pore structure with reasonable quality for further analysis. This reconstruction concept can work universally for most of the ill-posed inverse problems if the forward model is well defined, such as phase retrieval of in-line phase-contrast imaging.




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Foreword to the special virtual issue dedicated to the proceedings of the PhotonDiag2018 workshop on FEL Photon Diagnostics, Instrumentation, and Beamlines Design




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The indexing ambiguity in serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) resolved using an expectation maximization algorithm

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.




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Diffuse scattering and partial disorder in complex structures

This review discusses the state of the field of single-crystal diffuse scattering (SCDS), including detectors, data collection and the modelling techniques. High quality, three-dimensional volumes of SCDS data can now be collected at synchrotron light sources, allowing increasingly detailed and quantitative analyses to be undertaken.