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Ludhiana DM allows restaurants, eateries to open up for home delivery from 7 am to 7 pm




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Restaurants, eateries open for home delivery in Ludhiana




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Special camp at prison to lodge foreign Tablighi delegates

Communication gap hindering their bail application process




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Coronavirus | Special train takes migrants to Odisha

First Shramik Special from Chennai Central will reach destination on Monday




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Seeman booked for defamatory speech

The Kuniyamuthur police here have registered a case against Naam Tamilar Katchi coordinator Seeman for allegedly speaking against the Central Governme




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Coronavirus lockdown | Weary migrant workers lug crashed hopes en route their homes

Most entering Madhya Pradesh from Maharashtra are headed to Uttar Pradesh.




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Stranded people can travel on ST buses free of cost in Maharashtra

Bus services for intra-State migrants to begin on Monday; non-stop journeys envisaged




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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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‘Release Tablighis who served quarantine period’

567 foreigners to be handed over to police




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Reply to plea seeking supply of food to people without ration cards: HC to State

Migrants, tribals have no money to buy food due to lockdown: PIL




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Morning Digest: Migrant workers lug crashed hopes en route their homes; ICMR to test for community transmission in 75 districts, and more

A select list of stories to read before you start your day




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Erode administration clarifies on list of shops that can be opened

With confusion prevailing over opening of shops, the district administration has issued clarification and released list of shops that can be opened an




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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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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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Chhattisgarh: Baloda Bazaar-Bhatapara to use lockdown fine for buying PPE kits

Baloda Bazaar-Bhatapara district has come up with a great idea to contribute in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The amount of financial penalties recovered from the lockdown violators will be used for procuring safety kits for the doctors and health workers.




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Covid-19 lockdown: Titan reopens its Tamil Nadu plant with 30% workforce

However, the company says it does not have the urgency to begin production in the factory, but bring back the rhythm of the manufacturing unit.




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Covid-19 woes: Phone majors ring in post-lockdown drill as plants reopen

On Saturday, Samsung India Electronics, counted among the largest in the space, ushered in over 1,000 workers at its facility in Sector 81, Noida





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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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K7 Computing bags performance awards for security solution

The city-based K7 Computing Pvt Ltd, provider of cyber security solutions, has topped the winners list for the Advanced+ Performance Award from AV-Com




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Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilisers records 35 per cent hike in sale of ‘Suphala’ fertilisers

A PIB press statement said that Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilisers Ltd (RCF) has registered a hike of 35.47 per cent in the sale of fertilisers und




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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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Taiwan Dragons vs Taiwan Daredevils, Dream11 Prediction: Best picks for TDG vs TDR today in Taipei T10 League

TDG vs TDR Dream11 Team - Check My Dream11 Team, Best players list of today's match, Taiwan Dragons vs Taiwan Daredevils Dream11 Team Player List, TDG Dream11 Team Player List, TDR Dream11 Team Player List, Dream11 Guru Tips, Online Cricket Tips, Taiwan Dragons vs Taiwan Daredevils Head to Head.




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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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Hsinchu Titans vs Taiwan Daredevils, Dream11 Prediction: Best picks for HST vs TDR today in Taipei T10 League

HST vs TDR Dream11 Team - Check My Dream11 Team, Best players list of today's match, Hsinchu Titans vs Taiwan Daredevils Dream11 Team Player List, TDG Dream11 Team Player List, HST Dream11 Team Player List, Dream11 Guru Tips, Online Cricket Tips, Hsinchu Titans vs Taiwan Daredevils Head to Head.




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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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Mumbai: Several trapped after building collapses in Kandivali West; rescue operation underway

Further details are awaited.




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DNA Exclusive: Sophie Choudry reveals how she would celebrate Mothers' Day with 'super mom'

The coronavirus lockdown has separated many of us from our families, including our mothers. However, Sophie Choudhry is one lucky celeb who is able to spend her quarantine and Mothers' Day with her supermom. In fact, she told us all about her plans for the day.




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Bundesliga restart gives hope; Barca's Umtiti injured

The resumption of the German Bundesliga next weekend amid the COVID-19 crisis will give hope to other European leagues that they can also successfully return, according to Schalke 04 coach David Wagner.




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How reigning F1 champ Hamilton is spending downtime

'I'm excited to get back in, I really do miss it. This has been almost a blessing on one side because it gives you more appreciation for the things that you love and do.'




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COVID-19 testing capacity scaled to 95k per day: Govt

A total of 15,25,631 tests have been conducted so far across 332 government and 121 private laboratories.




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NDMA issues guidelines to safely open industries

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.





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SRK announces competition for budding filmmakers to make scary indoor movie




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Haryana: 25 people, including man with defected leg, on long march to UP’s Mirzapur




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Inside Track: Kishor’s expertise




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Kerala continues to deal competently with the Covid-19 pandemic as well




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Happy Mother’s Day 2020: Wishes, images, quotes, status, messages, cards, wallpapers, and photos




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




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Crossing final hurdle in World Cups down to experience and preparation: Anjum Chopra




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Banned Umar Akmal refuses to divulge details of two meetings with suspected bookies: PCB sources




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Scientific instrument Femtosecond X-ray Experiments (FXE): instrumentation and baseline experimental capabilities

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.




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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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BioStruct-Africa: empowering Africa-based scientists through structural biology knowledge transfer and mentoring – recent advances and future perspectives

Being able to visualize biology at the molecular level is essential for our understanding of the world. A structural biology approach reveals the molecular basis of disease processes and can guide the design of new drugs as well as aid in the optimization of existing medicines. However, due to the lack of a synchrotron light source, adequate infrastructure, skilled persons and incentives for scientists in addition to limited financial support, the majority of countries across the African continent do not conduct structural biology research. Nevertheless, with technological advances such as robotic protein crystallization and remote data collection capabilities offered by many synchrotron light sources, X-ray crystallography is now potentially accessible to Africa-based scientists. This leap in technology led to the establishment in 2017 of BioStruct-Africa, a non-profit organization (Swedish corporate ID: 802509-6689) whose core aim is capacity building for African students and researchers in the field of structural biology with a focus on prevalent diseases in the African continent. The team is mainly composed of, but not limited to, a group of structural biologists from the African diaspora. The members of BioStruct-Africa have taken up the mantle to serve as a catalyst in order to facilitate the information and technology transfer to those with the greatest desire and need within Africa. BioStruct-Africa achieves this by organizing workshops onsite at our partner universities and institutions based in Africa, followed by post-hoc online mentoring of participants to ensure sustainable capacity building. The workshops provide a theoretical background on protein crystallography, hands-on practical experience in protein crystallization, crystal harvesting and cryo-cooling, live remote data collection on a synchrotron beamline, but most importantly the links to drive further collaboration through research. Capacity building for Africa-based researchers in structural biology is crucial to win the fight against the neglected tropical diseases, e.g. ascariasis, hookworm, trichuriasis, lymphatic filariasis, active trachoma, loiasis, yellow fever, leprosy, rabies, sleeping sickness, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, etc., that constitute significant health, social and economic burdens to the continent. BioStruct-Africa aims to build local and national expertise that will have direct benefits for healthcare within the continent.




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Performance of nearly fixed offset asymmetric channel-cut crystals for X-ray monochromators

X-ray double-crystal monochromators face a shift of the exit beam when the Bragg angle and thus the transmitted photon energy changes. This can be compensated for by moving one or both crystals accordingly. In the case of monolithic channel-cut crystals, which exhibit utmost stability, the shift of the monochromated beam is inevitable. Here we report performance tests of novel, asymmetrically cut, channel-cut crystals which reduce the beam movements by more than a factor of 20 relative to the symmetric case over the typical energy range of an EXAFS spectrum at the Cu K-edge. In addition, the presented formulas for the beam offset including the asymmetry angle directly indicate the importance of this value, which has been commonly neglected so far in the operation of double-crystal monochromators.




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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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Coherence properties of the high-energy fourth-generation X-ray synchrotron sources

An analysis of the coherence properties of the fourth-generation high-energy storage rings with emittance values of 10 pm rad is performed. It is presently expected that a storage ring with these low emittance values will reach diffraction limit at hard X-rays. Simulations of coherence properties were performed with the XRT software and an analytical approach for different photon energies from 500 eV to 50 keV. It was demonstrated that a minimum photon emittance (diffraction limit) reached at such storage rings is λ/2π. Using mode decomposition it is shown that, for the parameters of the storage ring considered in this work, the diffraction limit will be reached for soft X-ray energies of 500 eV. About ten modes will contribute to the radiation field at 12 keV photon energy and even more modes give a contribution at higher photon energies. Energy spread effects of the electron beam in a low-emittance storage ring were analysed in detail. Simulations were performed at different relative energy spread values from zero to 2 × 10−3. A decrease of the degree of coherence with an increase of the relative energy spread value was observed. This analysis shows that, to reach the diffraction limit for high photon energies, electron beam emittance should go down to 1 pm rad and below.




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A von Hamos-type hard X-ray spectrometer at the PETRA III beamline P64

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.




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X-ray fluorescence analysis of metal distributions in cryogenic biological samples using large-acceptance-angle SDD detection and continuous scanning at the Hard X-ray Micro/Nano-Probe beamline P06 at PETRA III

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.




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XUV-driven plasma switch for THz: new spatio-temporal overlap tool for XUV–THz pump–probe experiments at FELs

A simple and robust tool for spatio-temporal overlap of THz and XUV pulses in in-vacuum pump–probe experiments is presented. The technique exploits ultrafast changes of the optical properties in semiconductors (i.e. silicon) driven by ultrashort XUV pulses that are probed by THz pulses. This work demonstrates that this tool can be used for a large range of XUV fluences that are significantly lower than when probing by visible and near-infrared pulses. This tool is mainly targeted at emerging X-ray free-electron laser facilities, but can be utilized also at table-top high-harmonics sources.