76% of teachers are now going online to teach their students, says survey

Minister for Medical and Health Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas on Saturday said that five more private hospitals were designated as COVID-19 hospitals in

Tiruchi The Higher Education Department in Tamil Nadu has chosen Moodle platform for online teaching-learning in government arts and science colleges.

Asks govt. to examine possibility of earmarking exclusive funds for them

Heart harvested from a brain-dead woman transplanted into 49-year-old in Kochi

Buyer orders one Pixel 4 online, Google delivers 10 units by mistake

Yashaswini, Rudrankksh claim top positions in 3rd International Online Shooting Championship

Saluting front-line warrior moms on Mother’s Day

Trial run of software will be conducted

Stranded people can submit enquiries to tour/transport operator through Kerala Tourism

The Regional Science Centre & Planetarium, Kozhikode, is organising “Online Summer Hobby Camp 2020” for students of Classes 7 to 10 from May 18. T

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

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.

In a communication to all states and union territories, the NDMA said due to several weeks of lockdown and the closure of industrial units, it is possible that some of the operators might not have followed the established standard operating procedures.

The European X-ray Free-Electron Laser (EuXFEL) delivers extremely intense (>1012 photons pulse−1 and up to 27000 pulses s−1), ultrashort (<100 fs) and transversely coherent X-ray radiation, at a repetition rate of up to 4.5 MHz. Its unique X-ray beam parameters enable novel and groundbreaking experiments in ultrafast photochemistry and material sciences at the Femtosecond X-ray Experiments (FXE) scientific instrument. This paper provides an overview of the currently implemented experimental baseline instrumentation and its performance during the commissioning phase, and a preview of planned improvements. FXE's versatile instrumentation combines the simultaneous application of forward X-ray scattering and X-ray spectroscopy techniques with femtosecond time resolution. These methods will eventually permit exploitation of wide-angle X-ray scattering studies and X-ray emission spectroscopy, along with X-ray absorption spectroscopy, including resonant inelastic X-ray scattering and X-ray Raman scattering. A suite of ultrafast optical lasers throughout the UV–visible and near-IR ranges (extending up to mid-IR in the near future) with pulse length down to 15 fs, synchronized to the X-ray source, serve to initiate dynamic changes in the sample. Time-delayed hard X-ray pulses in the 5–20 keV range are used to probe the ensuing dynamic processes using the suite of X-ray probe tools. FXE is equipped with a primary monochromator, a primary and secondary single-shot spectrometer, and a timing tool to correct the residual timing jitter between laser and X-ray pulses.

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.

A fabrication method comprising near-field holography (NFH) with an electron beam lithography (EBL)-written phase mask was developed to fabricate soft X-ray varied-line-spacing gratings (VLSGs). An EBL-written phase mask with an area of 52 mm × 30 mm and a central line density greater than 3000 lines mm−1 was used. The introduction of the EBL-written phase mask substantially simplified the NFH optics for pattern transfer. The characterization of the groove density distribution and diffraction efficiency of the fabricated VLSGs indicates that the EBL–NFH method is feasible and promising for achieving high-accuracy groove density distributions with corresponding image properties. Vertical stray light is suppressed in the soft X-ray spectral range.

Nanoparticles are essential electrocatalysts in chemical production, water treatment and energy conversion, but engineering efficient and specific catalysts requires understanding complex structure–reactivity relations. Recent experiments have shown that Bragg coherent diffraction imaging might be a powerful tool in this regard. The technique provides three-dimensional lattice strain fields from which surface reactivity maps can be inferred. However, all experiments published so far have investigated particles an order of magnitude larger than those used in practical applications. Studying smaller particles quickly becomes demanding as the diffracted intensity falls. Here, in situ nanodiffraction data from 60 nm Au nanoparticles under electrochemical control collected at the hard X-ray nanoprobe beamline of MAX IV, NanoMAX, are presented. Two-dimensional image reconstructions of these particles are produced, and it is estimated that NanoMAX, which is now open for general users, has the requisites for three-dimensional imaging of particles of a size relevant for catalytic applications. This represents the first demonstration of coherent X-ray diffraction experiments performed at a diffraction-limited storage ring, and illustrates the importance of these new sources for experiments where coherence properties become crucial.

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.

The design and performance of the high-resolution wavelength-dispersive multi-crystal von Hamos-type spectrometer at PETRA III beamline P64 are described. Extended analyzer crystal collection available at the beamline allows coverage of a broad energy range from 5 keV to 20 keV with an energy resolution of 0.35–1 eV. Particular attention was paid to enabling two-color measurements by a combination of two types of analyzer crystals and two two-dimensional detectors. The performance of the spectrometer is demonstrated by elastic-line and emission-line measurements on various compounds.

A new Rococo 2 X-ray fluorescence detector was implemented into the cryogenic sample environment at the Hard X-ray Micro/Nano-Probe beamline P06 at PETRA III, DESY, Hamburg, Germany. A four sensor-field cloverleaf design is optimized for the investigation of planar samples and operates in a backscattering geometry resulting in a large solid angle of up to 1.1 steradian. The detector, coupled with the Xspress 3 pulse processor, enables measurements at high count rates of up to 106 counts per second per sensor. The measured energy resolution of ∼129 eV (Mn Kα at 10000 counts s−1) is only minimally impaired at the highest count rates. The resulting high detection sensitivity allows for an accurate determination of trace element distributions such as in thin frozen hydrated biological specimens. First proof-of-principle measurements using continuous-movement 2D scans of frozen hydrated HeLa cells as a model system are reported to demonstrate the potential of the new detection system.

A new setup for picosecond pump–probe X-ray scattering at the Austrian SAXS beamline at Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste is presented. A high-power/high-repetion-rate laser has been installed on-site, delivering UV/VIS/IR femto­second-pulses in-sync with the storage ring. Data acquisition is achieved by gating a multi-panel detector, capable of discriminating the single X-ray pulse in the dark-gap of the Elettra hybrid filling mode. Specific aspects of laser- and detection-synchronization, on-line beam steering as well protocols for spatial and temporal overlap of laser and X-ray beam are also described. The capabilities of the setup are demonstrated by studying transient heat-transfer in an In/Al/GaAs superlattice structure and results are confirmed by theoretical calculations.

Beamline 8A (BL 8A) is an undulator-based soft X-ray beamline at Pohang Accelerator Laboratory. This beamline is aimed at high-resolution ambient-pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (AP-XPS), soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy (soft-XAS) and scanning photoemission microscopy (SPEM) experiments. BL 8A has two branches, 8A1 SPEM and 8A2 AP-XPS, that share a plane undulator, the first mirror (M1) and the monochromator. The photon beam is switched between the two branches by changing the refocusing mirrors after the monochromator. The acceptance angle of M1 is kept glancing at 1.2°, and Pt is coated onto the mirrors to achieve high reflectance, which ensures a wide photon energy range (100–2000 eV) with high resolution at a photon flux of ∼1013 photons s−1. In this article, the main properties and performance of the beamline are reported, together with selected experiments performed on the new beamline and experimental system.

With the introduction of the multi-bend achromats in the new fourth-generation storage rings the emittance has decreased by an order of magnitude resulting in increased brightness. However, the higher brightness comes with smaller beam sizes and narrower radiation cones. As a consequence, the requirements on mechanical stability regarding the beamline components increases. Here an innovative five-axis parallel kinematic mirror unit for use with soft X-ray beamlines using off-axis grazing-incidence optics is presented. Using simulations and measurements from the HIPPIE beamline at the MAX IV Laboratory it is shown that it has no Eigen frequencies below 90 Hz. Its positioning accuracy is better than 25 nm linearly and 17–35 µrad angularly depending on the mirror chamber dimensions.

X-ray absorption linear dichroism of rutile TiO2 at the Ti K-edge provides information about the electronic states involved in the pre-edge transitions. Here, linear dichroism with high energy resolution is analyzed in combination with ab initio finite difference method calculations and spherical tensor analysis. It provides an assignment of the three pre-edge peaks beyond the octahedral crystal field splitting approximation and estimates the spatial extension of the corresponding final states. It is then discussed for the first time the X-ray absorption (XAS) of pentacoordinated titanium atoms due to oxygen vacancies and it is found that, similarly to anatase TiO2, rutile is expected to exhibit a transition on the low-energy side of peak A3. Its apparent absence in the experiment is related to the degree of p–d orbital mixing which is small in rutile due to its centrosymmetric point group. A recent XAS linear dichroism study on anatase TiO2 single crystals has shown that peak A2 has an intrinsic origin and is due to a quadrupolar transition to the 3d energy levels. In rutile, due to its centrosymmetric point group, the corresponding peak A2 has a small dipole moment explaining the weak transition. The results are confronted with recent picosecond X-ray absorption spectroscopy on rutile TiO2 nanoparticles.

Possibilities in auxiliary technique combinations with small- and wide-angle X ray scattering are described, as well as more complicated sample environments used in X-ray and neutron scattering.

This feature article reviews the control and understanding of nanoparticle shape from their crystallography and growth. Particular emphasis is placed on systems relevant for plasmonics and catalysis.

A novel monoclinic phase of human insulin co-crystallized with m-cresol was structurally characterized by means of powder and single-crystal X-ray diffraction.

The paper reports the structure of a Δ1-pyrroline-2-carboxylate reductase from the archaeon Thermococcus litoralis, a key enzyme involved in the second step of trans-4-Hydroxy-L-proline metabolism, conserved in archaea, bacteria and humans.

Crystallization from a 20-year-old commercial source of 3-ethyl-4-methyl-3-pyrrolin-2-one afforded 1:1 co-crystals of this compound (C7H11NO) with its oxidized derivative, 3-ethyl-4-methyl-3-pyrroline-2,5-dione (C7H9NO2). The compound crystallizes in the space group Poverline{1}, with two mol­ecules of each species in the asymmetric unit. These four mol­ecules form a hydrogen-bonded tetra­mer with a dimer of 3-ethyl-4-methyl-3-pyrrolin-2-one as the core flanked by one mol­ecule of the dione on each side.

In the title compound, [Cu2(C7HF4O2)4(C12H8N2)2(CH3OH)], the mol­ecule lies on a twofold rotation axis in space group C2/c. The Cu2+ ion exhibits a distorted octa­hedral sphere with two N atoms from the phenanthroline ligand, three O atoms from the 2,3,4,5-tetra­fluoro­benzoate ligands and one O atom from a methanol mol­ecule. The distortion from an octa­hedral shape is a consequence of the Jahn–Teller effect of CuII and the small bite angle for the bidentate fluoro­benzoate ligand [54.50 (11)°]. The methanol mol­ecule bridges two symmetry-related CuII atoms to form the complete mol­ecule. In the bidentate fluoro­benzoate ligand, one F atom is disordered over two positions of equal occupancy. In the crystal structure, only weak inter­molecular inter­actions are observed.

The title compound, C16H24N2O2, previously obtained as a yellow oil, exhibits a rather low melting point close to room temperature 297–298 K). In the mol­ecule, the isoindoline ring system is approximately planar and coplanar to the nitro group, forming a dihedral angle of 5.63 (15)°. In the crystal, only weak N—H⋯O and C—H⋯π inter­actions are observed, linking mol­ecules into chains parallel to the [101] direction.

The title compound, C16H9N3O2S2, was synthesized via a condensation reaction in refluxing acetic acid. The dihedral angles between the mean plane of the quinoxaline unit and the thienyl rings are 35.16 (5)° and 24.94 (3)°.

The title compound, C16H9N3O2S2, was synthesized via a condensation reaction in refluxing acetic acid. One thienyl ring is nearly coplanar with the quinoxaline unit [dihedral angle = 3.29 (9)°], the other makes an angle of 83.96 (4)°.

A quinazolinthione, C17H14N2OS, was synthesized by the condensation reaction of 6,7,8,9-tetra­hydro-11H-pyrido[2,1-b]quinazolin-11-thione with furfural. The mol­ecule crystallizes in the monoclinic system (Cc space group) and has an E configuration with respect to the exocyclic C=C bond. In the crystal, mol­ecules are linked through C—H⋯π(furan) inter­actions, forming zigzag chains propagating along the [001] direction.

The title compound, C16H16N2, was synthesized by dispersing 3,4-hexa­nedione in a methanol–water solution containing the acid catalyst NH4HF2, then adding 1,2-di­aminona­phthalene. The fused-ring system of the title compound is close to planar (r.m.s. deviation = 0.028 Å); one of the pendant methyl C atoms lies close to the ring plane [deviation = 0.071 (2) Å; N—C—C—C = −0.27 (18)°] whereas the other is significantly displaced [–1.7136 (18) Å; 91.64 (16)°]. The mol­ecules pack in space group Ioverline{4} in a distinctive criss-cross motif supported by numerous aromatic π–π stacking inter­actions [shortest centroid–centroid separation = 3.5805 (6) Å].

The title compound, C52H40N2, is disposed about a centre of inversion and the conformation about the imine bond [1.268 (3) Å] is E. The terminal benzene ring is approximately perpendicular to the central 1,4-di­aza­butadiene mean plane, forming a dihedral angle of 81.2 (3)°. Weak C—H⋯π and π–π [inter-centroid distance = 4.021 (5) Å] inter­actions help to consolidate the packing.