The Ergonomic Solutions Group, the designer and manufacturer of technology mounting solutions, has launched the SpacePole Kiosk – described as a multifunctional platform with maximum flexibility for a wide range of self-service applications including self-check-in/check-out, self-ordering, endless aisle, product display & advertising, ticketing, click & collect and many more.

Dr. Neil Johnson, a physics professor at George Washington University, explores unconventional areas within physics, focusing on complex, "taboo" problems not traditionally tackled by physicists, like online hate networks.

[Politics] :
K-pop boy band SEVENTEEN has received a certificate of appreciation from Los Angeles for their contribution to music and youth empowerment.  Joshua, the LA-native of the 13-member group, accepted the honor on behalf of SEVENTEEN at the invitation of the LA City Council on Friday, local time. The ...

[more...]

[Politics] :
Labor and civic groups held massive anti-government rallies in Seoul on Saturday afternoon. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), one of the nation's two umbrella groups, staged a rally along with civic groups starting at 4 p.m. near Deoksu Palace and some of the protesters clashed with ...

[more...]

Halloween is around the corner, and it’s time to brainstorm the best group costume ideas for you and your friends. Whether you’re going to a Halloween party, trick-or-treating or entering a costume contest, the key to success is creativity, coordination and a dash of humor.

Animations, videos and 3D models have been designed to visualize the effects of symmetry operators on selected cases of crystal structures, pointing out the relationship with the diagrams published in International Tables for Crystallography, Vol. A.

The symmetry groups of the weave patterns of the baskets, trays and mats of the Batak, an indigenous community in the Philippines, are discussed in this paper. The two-way twofold weaving technique is used by the Batak, and this study points to a total of 15 layer groups found in the Batak weaves out of the 80 layer groups known in crystallography.

A series of animations, videos and 3D models that were developed, filmed or built to teach the symmetry properties of crystals are described. At first, these resources were designed for graduate students taking a basic crystallography course, coming from different careers, at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. However, the COVID-19 pandemic had the effect of accelerating the generation of didactic material. Besides our experience with postgraduate students, we have noted that 3D models attract the attention of children, and therefore we believe that these models are particularly useful for teaching children about the assembled arrangements of crystal structures.

A series of organotin heterocycles of general formula [{Me2C(C6H3CH2)2O}SnR2] [R = methyl (Me, 4), n-butyl (n-Bu, 5), benzyl (Bn, 6) and phenyl (Ph, 7)] was easily synthesized by a Barbier-type reaction assisted by the sonochemical activation of metallic magnesium. The 119Sn{1H} NMR data for all four com­pounds confirm the presence of a central Sn atom in a four-coordinated environment in solution. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies for 17,17-dimethyl-7,7-di­phenyl-15-oxa-7-stanna­tetra­cyclo­[11.3.1.05,16.09,14]hepta­deca-1,3,5(16),9(14),10,12-hexa­­ene, [Sn(C6H5)2(C17H16O)], 7, at 100 and 295 K con­firmed the formation of a mono­nuclear eight-membered heterocycle, with a conformation depicted as boat–chair, resulting in a weak Sn⋯O inter­action. The Sn and O atoms are surrounded by hydro­phobic C—H bonds. A Hirshfeld surface analysis of 7 showed that the eight-membered heterocycles are linked by weak C—H⋯π, π–π and H⋯H noncovalent inter­actions. The pairwise inter­action energies showed that the cohesion between the heterocycles are mainly due to dispersion forces.

The crystal structures of 16 boron sub­phthalo­cy­an­ines (BsubPcs) with structurally diverse axial groups were analyzed and com­pared to elucidate the impact of the axial group on the inter­molecular π–π inter­actions, axial-group inter­actions, axial bond length and BsubPc bowl depth. π–π inter­actions between the iso­indole units of adjacent BsubPc mol­ecules most often involve concave–concave packing, whereas axial-group inter­actions with adjacent BsubPc mol­ecules tend to favour the convex side of the BsubPc bowl. Furthermore, axial groups that contain O and/or F atoms tend to have significant hy­dro­gen-bonding inter­actions, while axial groups containing arene site(s) can participate in π–π inter­actions with the BsubPc bowl, both of which can strongly influence the crystal packing. Bulky axial groups did tend to disrupt the π–π inter­actions and/or axial-group inter­actions, preventing some of the close packing that is seen in BsubPcs with less bulky axial groups. The atomic radius of the heteroatom bonded to boron directly influences the axial bond length, whereas the axial group has minimal impact on the BsubPc bowl depth. Finally, the crystal growth method did not generally appear to have a significant impact on the solid-state arrangement, with the exception of water occasionally being incorporated into crystal structures when hygroscopic solvents were used. These insights can help with the design and fine-tuning of the solid-state structures of BsubPcs as they continue to be developed as functional materials in organic electronics.

In recent decades, sustained theoretical and software developments have clearly established that representation analysis and magnetic symmetry groups are complementary concepts that should be used together in the investigation and description of magnetic structures. Historically, they were considered alternative approaches, but currently, magnetic space groups and magnetic superspace groups can be routinely used together with representation analysis, aided by state-of-the-art software tools. After exploring the historical antagonism between these two approaches, we emphasize the significant advancements made in understanding and formally describing magnetic structures by embracing their combined use.

The embedded call to a special version of the web-based Bilbao Crystallographic Server tool k-SUBGROUPSMAG from within GSAS-II to form a list of all possible commensurate magnetic subgroups of a parent magnetic grey group is described. It facilitates the selection and refinement of the best commensurate magnetic structure model by having all the analysis tools including Rietveld refinement in one place as part of GSAS-II. It also provides the chosen magnetic space group as one of the 1421 possible standard Belov–Neronova–Smirnova forms or equivalent non-standard versions.

The compounds 2',3',4',6'-tetra-O-acetyl-β-d-gluco­pyranosyl N'-cyano-N-phenyl­carbamimido­thio­ate (C22H25N3O9S, 5a), 2',3',4',6'-tetra-O-acetyl-β-d-galacto­pyranosyl N'-cyano-N-phenyl­carbamimido­thio­ate, (C22H25N3O9S, 5b), 2',3',4',6'-tetra-O-acetyl-β-d-galacto­pyranosyl N'-cyano-N-methyl­carbamimido­thio­ate (C17H23N3O9S, 5c), and 2',3',4',6'-tetra-O-acetyl-β-d-galacto­pyranosyl N'-cyano-N-p-tolyl­carbamimido­thio­ate (C23H27N3O9S, 5d) all crystallize in P212121 with Z = 4. For all four structures, the configuration across the central (formal) C=N(CN) double bond of the carbamimido­thio­ate group is Z. The torsion angles C5—O1—C1—S (standard sugar numbering) are all close to 180°, confirming the β position of the substituent. Compound 5b involves an intra­molecular hydrogen bond N—H⋯O1; in 5c this contact is the weaker branch of a three-centre inter­action, whereas in 5a and 5d the H⋯O distances are much longer and do not represent significant inter­actions. The C—N bond lengths at the central carbon atom of the carbamimido­thio­ate group are almost equal. All C—O—C=O torsion angles of the acetyl groups correspond to a synperiplanar geometry, but otherwise all four mol­ecules display a high degree of conformational flexibility, with many widely differing torsion angles for equivalent groups. In the crystal packing, 5a, 5c and 5d form layer structures involving the classical hydrogen bond N—H⋯Ncyano and a variety of ‘weak’ hydrogen bonds C—H⋯O or C—H⋯S. The packing of 5b is almost featureless and involves a large number of borderline ‘weak’ hydrogen bonds. In an appendix, a potted history of wavelength preferences for structure determination is presented and it is recommended that, even for small organic crystals in non-centrosymmetric space groups, the use of Mo radiation should be considered.

Understanding the symmetries described by subperiodic groups – frieze, rod and layer groups – has been instrumental in predicting various properties (band structures, optical absorption, Raman spectra, diffraction patterns, topological properties etc.) of `low-dimensional' crystals. This knowledge is crucial in the tailored design of materials for specific applications across electronics, photonics and materials engineering. However, there are materials that have the property of being periodic only in one direction and whose symmetry cannot be described by the subperiodic rod groups. Describing the symmetry of these materials necessitates the application of line group theory. This paper gives an overview of subperiodic groups while briefly introducing line groups in order to acquaint the crystallographic community with these symmetries and direct them to pertinent literature. Since line groups are generally not sub­periodic, they have thus far remained outside the realm of symmetries traditionally considered in crystallography, although there are numerous `one-dimensional' crystals (i.e. monoperiodic structures) possessing line group symmetry.

Predicting crystal symmetry simply from chemical composition has remained challenging. Several machine-learning approaches can be employed, but the predictive value of popular crystallographic databases is relatively modest due to the paucity of data and uneven distribution across the 230 space groups. In this work, virtually all crystallographic information available to science has been compiled and used to train and test multiple machine-learning models. Composition-driven random-forest classification relying on a large set of descriptors showed the best performance. The predictive models for crystal system, Bravais lattice, point group and space group of inorganic compounds are made publicly available as easy-to-use software downloadable from https://gitlab.com/vishsoft/cosy.

SUBGROUPS is a free online program at the Bilbao Crystallographic Server (https://www.cryst.ehu.es/). It permits the exploration of all possible symmetries resulting from the distortion of a higher-symmetry parent structure, provided that the relation between the lattices of the distorted and parent structures is known. The program calculates all the subgroups of the parent space group which comply with this relation. The required minimal input is the space-group information of the parent structure and the relation of the unit cell of the distorted or pseudo-symmetric structure with that of the parent structure. Alternatively, the wavevector(s) observed in the diffraction data characterizing the distortion can be introduced. Additional conditions can be added, including filters related to space-group representations. The program provides very detailed information on all the subgroups, including group–subgroup hierarchy graphs. If a Crystallographic Information Framework (CIF) file of the parent high-symmetry structure is uploaded, the program generates CIF files of the parent structure described under each of the chosen lower symmetries. These CIF files may then be used as starting points for the refinement of the distorted structure under these possible symmetries. They can also be used for density functional theory calculations or for any other type of analysis. The power and efficiency of the program are illustrated with a few examples.

The Lufthansa Group has teamed up with

Payment orchestration platform FinMont has partnered with...

Canada-based financial institution TD Bank Group (TD) has...

Singapore-based TransferTo has partnered with the Pan-African Ecobank Group in order to expand financial access and cross-border payments across the region of Africa.

Catawba County has been ranked #1 nationally in its population group in the 2013 Digital Counties Survey by Gov Tech Magazine.

On average, Americans die sooner and experience higher rates of disease and injury than people in other high-income countries, says a new report from the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine.

Learning experiences in computing that are designed with attention to K-12 students’ interests, identities, and backgrounds may attract underrepresented groups to computing better than learning experiences that mimic current professional computing practices and culture do, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The COVID-19 pandemic and more frequent wildfires have highlighted the need for respiratory protection for the public and all types of workers, including essential and gig economy workers. A new report recommends frameworks to ensure both groups receive timely access to appropriate respiratory protective devices and guidance on their effective use.

With a $3 million donation from the Breakthrough Prize Foundation, a high-level, international coordinating group of scientific organizations has been established to take concrete steps to support Ukraine’s scientists and research community with the aim of rebuilding a successful global science and innovation system in Ukraine.

“The trial, which took place in Sofia, saw the companies successfully perform an end-to-end 5G data call (Layer 3 call) utilising Nokia’s Cloud RAN solution as well as its AirFrame servers,” Nokia said in a statement.

“To ensure the sustainability of the CoE, robust collaboration with the Industry, and the creation of commercially viable outputs, the MeitY will not own any IP generated by the CoE. The IP generated can be retained by the idea generator or by the CoE.”

Singapore-based data centre operator Princeton Digital Group (PDG) on Thursday announced to invest $1 billion in India and expand capacity to a total of 230 MW in the country.

An infrastructure offering high levels of quality and flexibility was required as a platform for a new system. Buying or renting new servers – and connecting and configuring them in short timescales – would be an expensive and challenging task. The IMV technical team turned to BT and asked whether it would be possible to set up the system in a virtual environment .

New series provides single-machine in-line inspection and quality control through a broad array of combinable technologies.

Consolidated Packaging Group (CPG) has introduced their new flat-bottom, stand-up pouches, which complement their extensive product line

In celebration of World Macadamia Nut Day on September 4, 2021, the Australian and South African Marquis Group donated macadamia trees for planting at local schools in the world’s biggest macadamia producing regions.

The purchase is intended to expand the ingredients company’s reach in Southeast Asia.

Available both as a singular solution for salted crisps and as part of more complex snack seasoning formulations, Tastesense Salt is supported by strong fundamental science that links taste receptors with proprietary product chemistry and more.

Freeze quality is essential when manufacturing well more than a million baked and prepared food items a day for shipment nationwide.

UK intellectual property investment group Tekcapital PLC has announced a major expansion of its MicroSalt brand.

The food safety specialist has added the 20-year food industry veteran to its staff.

The latest generation of the MATADOR STORE Colour Edition instore baking oven will be presented at the iba with the new control system generation WP NAVIGO 3.

The newly developed thermal-oil-heated tunnel oven combines the constant radiant heat typical for thermal oils with true vertical turbulence for convective heat transfer, and can also work with different baked goods carriers even without conveyor belts.

Every so often, the primary aspects of a life fall together so perfectly that it appears that the proverbial fates are smiling upon destiny.

Middleby Bakery Group hosted the grand opening of its $2.3 million Bakery Innovation Center in Plano, TX in April. 

MAMMOETH, the first fully servo-controlled dough divider is the result of the Blue Innovation Centre, an open innovation model in which WP Haton engineers develop machines together with customers and suppliers.

The advanced MULTIMATIC dough divider and moulding machine is now suitable for an even more versatile range of applications.

EnWave Corp. announced that it has signed an Equipment Purchase Agreement with Dole Worldwide Food & Beverage Group to supply a 120kW Radiant Energy Vacuum dehydration processing line that will materially increase Dole’s vacuum-microwave processing capabilities.

An expert from the company discusses how the rare sugar compares to other sweeteners on the market.

John Van Duin will head up Florigo Industry’s processing division in Asia Pacific.

WP Bakery Technology’s tried and tested control system will be launched on the market in the third generation at the iba 2018.

The partnership connects XOi’s technology with Powerhouse’s training and insights, ensuring field service professionals are equipped with the resources they need for the jobsite.

The deadline to apply is Oct. 22.

IEC, a subsidiary of Climate Control Group, celebrated its 75th anniversary in October.