Russia plans to block some virtual private networks (VPNs) it deems to pose a threat, Reuters reported, citing the Russian Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Communications.
Interest in VPN services has increased since Moscow banned access to Western social networks in connection with the military actions in Ukraine.
In 2017, Russian authorities required some virtual private networks companies to assist them in blocking certain content.
Many Russians continue to use virtual private networks to access websites and social networks banned by the state. This has sparked a debate among Russian lawmakers to what extent the ban on VPN services should be extended.
News agency RIA Novosti today published an inquiry by Anton Tkachev, who expresses his concerns about the plans to stop access to all such networks. He noted that, on the one hand, this ban is in line with national legislation, but on the other, “actually supports the sanctions pressure on the Russians”, since the networks in question are sometimes necessary for the continuous operation of household electrical appliances, including equipment manufactured in China.
“Based on the decision of the expert committee… filtering of specific VPN services and VPN protocols in the mobile communication network for foreign traffic that are identified as a threat may be done,” the digital ministry’s response said. development.
Scientists use inorganic zinc-based compounds to vastly improve the capacity of sodium- and potassium-ion batteries.
Charging a car battery – illustrative photo. Image credit: JUICE via Unsplash, free license
Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are, by far, the most widely used type of rechargeable batteries, spanning numerous applications. These include consumer electronics, electric vehicles (e.g., Tesla cars), renewable energy systems, and spacecraft.
Although LIBs deliver the best performance in many aspects when compared to other rechargeable batteries, they have their fair share of disadvantages. Lithium is a rather scarce resource, and its price will rise quickly with its availability decreasing.
Moreover, lithium extraction and improperly discarded LIBs pose huge environmental challenges as the liquid electrolytes commonly used are toxic and flammable.
The shortcomings of LIBs have motivated researchers worldwide to look for alternative energy storage technologies. Sodium (Na)-ion batteries (NIBs) and potassium-ion batteries (KIBs) are two rapidly emerging options that are cost-efficient as well as sustainable. Both NIBs and KIBs are projected to be billion-dollar industries by the end of the decade.
Governments across the world, including that of the US, Austria, Hong Kong, Germany, and Australia, are promoting research and innovation in this field. Moreover, companies such as Faradion Limited, TIAMAT SAS, and HiNa Battery Technology Co. Ltd., are investing heavily in this technology. Both Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited and Build Your Dreams are expected to introduce electric vehicle battery packs with NIBs soon.
Unfortunately, however, the capacity of the electrode materials used in NIBs and KIBs still lags behind that of LIBs. Against this backdrop, a research team led by Professor Shinichi Komaba from Tokyo University Science (TUS), Japan, has been working to develop groundbreaking high-capacity electrode materials for NIBs and KIBs.
In their latest study, published in Advanced Energy Materials on November 9, 2023, they report a new synthesis strategy for nanostructured “hard carbon” (HC) electrodes that deliver unprecedented performance. The study was co-authored by Mr. Daisuke Igarashi, Ms. Yoko Tanaka, and Junior Associate Professor Ryoichi Tatara from TUS, and Dr. Kei Kubota from the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan.
But what is HC and why is it useful for NIBs and KIBs? Unlike other forms of carbon, such as graphene or diamond, HC is amorphous; it lacks a well-defined crystalline structure. Additionally, it is strong and resistant. In an earlier 2021 study, Prof. Komaba and his colleagues had found a way to use magnesium oxide (MgO) as a template during the synthesis of HC electrodes for NIBs, altering their final nanostructure.
The process had led to the formation of nanopores within the electrodes upon MgO removal, which, in turn, had vastly increased their capacity to store Na+ ions.
Motivated by their previous findings, the researchers explored whether compounds made from zinc (Zn) and calcium (Ca) could also be useful as nano-templates for HC electrodes. To this end, they systematically investigated different HC samples made using zinc oxide (ZnO) and calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and compared their performance with the ones synthesized using magnesium oxide (MgO).
Preliminary experiments showed that ZnO was particularly promising for the negative electrode of NIBs. Accordingly, the researchers optimized the concentration of ZnO embedded in the HC matrix during synthesis, demonstrating a reversible capacity of 464 mAh g–1 (corresponding to NaC4.8) with a high initial Coulombic efficiency of 91.7% and a low average potential of 0.18 V vs. Na+/Na.
The team achieved remarkable results by incorporating this powerful electrode material into an actual battery. “The NIB fabricated using the optimized ZnO-templated HC as the negative electrode exhibited an energy density of 312 Wh kg–1,” highlights Prof. Komaba.
“This value is equivalent to the energy density of certain types of currently commercialized LIBs with LiFePO4 and graphite and is more than 1.6 times the energy density of the first NIBs (192 Wh kg–1), which our laboratory reported back in 2011.” Notably, the ZnO-templated HC also exhibited a significant capacity of 381 mAh g–1 when incorporated into a KIB, further showcasing its potential.
Taken together, the results of this study show that using inorganic nanoparticles as a template to control the pore structure may provide an effective guideline for the development of HC electrodes. “Our findings prove that HCs are promising candidates for negative electrodes as an alternative to graphite,” concludes Prof. Komaba.
Shaping hard carbon to obtain exceptional large-capacity electrodes for sodium-ion batteries: It is possible to incorporate nanopores in hard carbon by using zinc oxide as a template during its synthesis. These pores enable the material to store many more charge carriers, making it a promising electrode candidate for sodium-ion batteries that can reach an energy density comparable to that of LiFePO4-type lithium-ion batteries. Image credit: Shinichi Komaba from TUS Japan
In turn, this could make NIBs viable for practical applications, such as the development of sustainable consumer electronics and electric vehicles as well as low carbon footprint energy storage systems for storing energy from solar and wind farms.
What Guckelsberger and colleagues developed during that year is a way to automatically classify digital microscopy images of the interactions between antibodies and virus antigens in lab-grown cells. A computer essentially learns to detect if the patient has anti-coronavirus antibodies.
Beyond a diagnosis, the method also gives researchers insight into what features in cells indicate a positive result, what kind of antibody responses are present and allows them to make predictions about the likelihood of a COVID-19 antibody-positive sample from the image alone.
The same sample images classified by a computer were also shown to expert virologists, who rated them as positive or negative for coronavirus antibodies. “Our approach can match the classification level of human experts,” says Guckelsberger, “and it’s much faster. Plus, it can tell us when there are ambiguous results that should be given a closer look by an expert eye.”
The results of the project, recently published in Cell Reports Methods, also show that the method is comparable, and in some ways superior, to widely-used assays like ELISA.
“We used cells, rather than purified virus proteins, as the basis for our assay, which is closer to real physiology,” says lead author Vilja Pietiäinen of the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) at the University of Helsinki.
“Because everything is completely automated, we have high throughput, but we also get the digital images that can be shown to a virologist or a pathologist, without them having to go to a microscope. The results can even be checked on a mobile device. And we can count the number of infected cells, so we have the quantitative data as well as the visuals.”
During the early days of the pandemic, the research team was able to form quickly thanks to earlier international and local collaborations on virology, imaging and drug response studies, explains Pietiäinen.
“At that point, we needed a high-throughput assay for antibody testing that would indicate if a person had a SARS-CoV-2 infection. Since then, there has been a lot of improvement on SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis, detection, and antibody response,” such as the widely familiar polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test or the antigen test (such as the nose swab) that directly measures the presence of the virus in the body.
The test developed by Pietiäinen, Guckelsberger and colleagues, by contrast, measures antibodies, which tells us how the immune system recognizes the virus and produces different types of antibodies against it.
Machine-learning-based analysis, automated workflow. Image credit: Minttu Polso/Aalto University
“When you only have a few samples, know very little about a disease or might not have access to a high-level biosafety lab, our pipeline can be really valuable,” says Guckelsberger, adding that it can be used anywhere regardless of location, sample preparation equipment or type of microscope. In fact, the pipeline is versatile to test on any germ.
“We designed the test to be used for any emerging pathogen, increasing our readiness for future pandemics,” says Pietiäinen. “Certain components should be optimized for each new virus, but the beauty of the assay is that it can be used for different purposes. It’s already being used to study zoonotic viruses like the Puumala virus.”
Other automated cell-based assays, followed by AI-guided image analysis methods, are being used in the research group to study the drug responses to SARS-CoV-2 as well as to identify drugs that can kill patient-derived cancer cells ex vivo.
Beyond publishing their work and contributing to a better understanding of the pandemic, Guckelsberger and Pietiäinen share a common insight that this project taught them.
“When big questions come up in the world, we as scientists can’t work alone in silos. Experts from different fields, different universities and countries need to come together with a shared aim—in our case, data scientists, clinicians, computer scientists, biochemists,” says Pietiäinen.
“Working in a big team, which is not something we do often in computer science, was fascinating,” echoes Guckelsberger.
“One big challenge was communicating from different perspectives of expertise, for example making sense of what is happening at both ends of the pipeline from wet lab procedures to parameters to data and images. At the same time, this was a fantastic learning experience, and one that I wish to have more of in the future.”
While they employed well-established machine learning for each component of the pipeline, Guckelsberger says making the connection between biologists and computer scientists was one of the real advances. Using technology to resolve biological questions was a big takeaway for Pietiäinen, too.
“Combining microscopy with machine learning, not just for SARS-CoV-2, but to see personalized responses to drugs or to see the cellular phenotypes of rare genetic diseases, is powerful. A picture is worth a thousand words, that is also the case here.”
Mechelen, a charming city located in Belgium, is known for its rich history and lively atmosphere. Every year, the city holds various festivals and events that attract locals and tourists. Here are some of the festivals and events not to be missed in Mechelen.
One of the most popular events in Mechelen is the “Maanrock” festival. Every year, in August, the city center is transformed into a giant stage to welcome renowned local and international artists. The festival offers a varied program with live music concerts in different genres such as rock, pop, reggae and jazz. The streets are filled with food and drink stalls, creating a festive atmosphere for visitors of all ages.
Another event not to be missed is the “Mechelen Bierfestival” beer festival. This event usually takes place in the spring and allows beer lovers to discover a wide variety of craft Belgian beers. Local and international breweries present their products and offer tastings. It’s the perfect opportunity for beer lovers to discover new flavors and chat with experts in the field.
For art lovers, the “Contour” festival is an unmissable event. Held every two years, this contemporary art festival offers exhibitions, performances and film screenings in different locations across the city. Local and international artists exhibit their works, offering visitors a unique and immersive artistic experience.
Classical music lovers will not be disappointed in Mechelen. Every year, the city organizes the “Ars Musica” music festival. This event highlights high-quality classical music concerts at historic venues such as St. Rumbold’s Cathedral and the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Brabant. Renowned orchestras and virtuoso soloists perform at this festival, attracting music lovers from all over.
In addition to annual festivals, Mechelen also offers regular cultural events throughout the year. For example, the Sunday morning market is a popular meeting place for locals and visitors. The stalls offer a variety of fresh produce such as vegetables, fruits, cheeses and flowers. This is a great opportunity to taste local products and meet the producers.
The Christmas market is another event not to be missed in Mechelen. During the festive period, the town transforms into a real Christmas village with decorated chalets, food and hot drink stalls, and attractions for children. Visitors can purchase unique handcrafted gifts and enjoy the festive atmosphere.
In conclusion, Mechelen is a city that is full of interesting festivals and events throughout the year. Whether you’re a music lover, art lover, beer lover or just looking for a party atmosphere, Mechelen has something to offer everyone. Don’t miss these events and discover everything this charming city has to offer.
A large part of the Orthodox parishes of the ROC in Moldova left this jurisdiction and joined the Romanian Orthodox Church, which also has its own jurisdiction in the country.
During the past week, the founder and rector of the Chisinau Seminary and Theological Academy, Father Vyacheslav Kazak, moved to the Romanian Church, together with the local parish. Thirteen more priests followed his example. Among them is Father Andrei Oistrich, dean of the Faculty of Pastoral Theology and clergyman of the seminary. In the immediate future, another fifty parishes are expected to leave the Moscow Patriarchate and join the Romanian Church.
Father Andrei Oistrich motivated his decision by stating that the Russian Church is the “stepmother” of the Orthodox in Moldova, and that more and more of his parishioners have a problem of conscience because of the Russian Church’s active support for the war in Ukraine. At the end of October, he left his post at the academy.
The mass exodus to the Romanian jurisdiction came about after last month the leadership of the Metropolitanate of Moldova (Moscow Patriarchate) deposed six priests because they had transferred to the Bessarabian Metropolitanate of the Romanian Church. The Bessarabian Metropolis defined this decision as canonically void, as it was not based on canonical and theological arguments, and called on all clerics and monks who feel repressed by the Russian dioceses “to have courage and abandon this slavery and return to tradition and the community of the Romanian Orthodox Church”.
From the beginning of the Russian war in Ukraine to this moment, over sixty parishes have passed from the ROC to the Romanian Orthodox Church. The new wave of change of jurisdiction comes after an alarming letter of the head of the Metropolitanate of Moldova (MP) Metropolitan Vladimir to the Russian Patriarch Kirill from September of this year, which received publicity. In it, Metropolitan Vladimir complains that the Russian Church in Moldova is losing ground in the country because of the war in Ukraine, and more and more priests and laymen are moving to the Romanian Patriarchate, attracted by the high state salaries and other social benefits offered by the Romanian state. He says that after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Metropolitanate of Moldova, as part of the Russian Orthodox Church, is perceived as a “front post of the Kremlin” and a “supporter” of the war, which threatens its existence: “For the Orthodox Church of Moldova, this association is equivalent to our disappearance from the religious and social scene of the country, because of the categorical rejection by our fellow citizens of the aggressive interference of Russia both in the affairs of our neighboring and friendly country Ukraine, and in our internal affairs”.
In the Republic of Moldova, there are two Orthodox churches, subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate and the Romanian Orthodox Church, respectively, which have been disputing their canonical status since 2007, when three dioceses of the Bessarabian Metropolitanate of the Romanian Orthodox Church, restored after the collapse of the USSR, were registered in the country. A curious detail is that in the same year, representatives of the Russian Church and the Romanian Church had a meeting in the Troyan Monastery in Bulgaria, in an attempt to overcome the tension caused by the opening of the Romanian dioceses in Moldova.
The change of jurisdiction in Moldova is regulated by law. All parishes that have changed their jurisdiction receive registration and documents from the Public Service Agency.
Meanwhile, today it became clear that the chairman of the church “St. Dimitar” in Chisinau, Father Pavel Borsevski has sent a letter to the Primate of the Moldovan Archdiocese, Metropolitan Vladimir, to initiate the transfer of the entire church in Moldova to the jurisdiction of the Romanian Patriarchate. The open letter claims he has the support of the majority of priests in the capital.
There are many sights in Europe that attract millions of tourists from all over the world every year.
A great example is the Trevi Fountain in Rome. On an annual basis, the capital of Italy is visited by about 2.78 million tourists, and we can draw our own conclusions as to how many of them stop by the fountain.
And also how many of them observe the established tradition of making a wish and then throwing a coin into the fountain. Because of all this, the responsible authorities have organized the cleaning of Di Trevi twice a week – on Mondays and Fridays.
Thus, in a few hours, the fountain is emptied, and workers collect the thousands of coins found at the bottom. Videos can be seen on social media showing workers raking the coins with shovels and pouring them into special sacks.
According to delicious.com.au, €1.5 million worth of coins are collected from the Trevi Fountain each year and donated to charities.
Photo by Henry Acevedo: https://www.pexels.com/photo/fountain-di-trevi-in-rome-19009237/
Inflatable boats, motors and vests, which can be used to transport illegal migrants, were detained at the Kapitan Andreevo border checkpoint on the Bulgarian-Turkish border. This became clear today at the point where Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov welcomed a British delegation led by State Minister for Immigration Robert Jenkir. He thanked our country for its efforts. The detained boats and engines for them had to pass through Bulgaria in transit.
It has become clear that the two countries have been working together for months in the fight against illegal goods. We have made significant progress in terms of cargo in transit, inspection procedures and the corresponding seizure of illegally transported boats, engines and accessories for them that do not meet European standards. This proves the ongoing efforts of our country to fight against illegal migration, the interior minister stressed. Great Britain is the country that gives us serious and extremely active support. Minister Stoyanov thanked the British minister for the announced package of support, which will also help Bulgaria’s quest to join Schengen. I believe today’s signing is the right time because we are in the final stages and look forward to our acceptance in December. As a result of your initiative, we realize a serious opportunity for the prevention of illegal migration, added the Bulgarian interior minister.
The British were shown the seized boats and other goods found some time ago. The British delegation was given a demonstration of how tracking dogs are used to check vehicles. A “Statement on enhanced cooperation” was also signed.
An exhibition organized by the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations in Marseille, France, offers a new look at history, reported AFP, quoted by BTA.
The aim is to introduce visitors to the point of view of African, Asian, American and other peoples.
It is important to understand that Europeans managed to place themselves at the center of the world, but other nations and empires did it too, explained the organizers of the exhibition.
“Europe does not have a monopoly on historiography either in terms of the narrative or the perspective on the past,” said historian Pierre Sengaravelou, who is among the exhibition’s curators.
The exhibition is a journey through space and time thanks to more than 150 exhibits – geographical maps, manuscripts, archaeological finds, paintings, textiles. Many of them are on public display for the first time.
With nearly 45,000 sqm spreaded over three sites, the Mucem is a must-see in Marseille.
It is located at the entrance to the port, on the J4 harbor mole and in Fort Saint-Jean: two places highly symbolic of the city’s current development and its age.
A government project supported by the Ministry of Culture and Communication, the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations, the first major national museum dedicated to the civilizations of the Mediterranean for the 21st century and directed by Bruno Suzzarelli, opened its doors in Marseille on the 7th of June 2013. It has quickly become one of the most visited museums in Marseille. The museum’s collections are preserved at the ‘Belle de Mai’ in the Conservation and Resource Center.
Photo: MUCEM Musée des Civilisations, de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée /
The studies will help scientists to prevent night waking problems
A new study shows that specific patterns in DNA may determine whether we develop insomnia, reports MailOnline.
Researchers in the Netherlands collected genetic information from 2,500 unborn babies and followed them up to age 15, measuring their sleep patterns.
They found that teenagers with genes known to affect sleep were more likely to wake up during the night than their peers without these DNA configurations.
A genetic predisposition to poor sleep patterns has already been demonstrated in adults. Scientists have identified mutations in genes such as NPSR1 and ADRB1 that can lead to sleepless nights.
However, the latest findings show that the gene for “bad sleep” is active throughout a person’s life, BTA informs
Researchers from Rotterdam University Medical Center and the Netherlands’ Erasmus University Medical Center are using their findings to highlight the importance of identifying poor sleep in early childhood – as early as infancy – to prevent lifelong insomnia.
DNA samples were collected from 2,458 European children born between April 2002 and January 2006, using cord blood and blood from the same children at age six.
In parallel with the DNA analysis, the mothers reported on their children’s sleep patterns at ages one and a half, three and six years, and then at ages 10 to 15. A subset of 975 teenagers wore sleep-tracking devices for about two weeks.
The researchers generated DNA risk markers for each teenager and found more insomnia-related sleep problems, such as night waking and trouble falling asleep during childhood, in those with high genetic predisposition markers. The scientists explained:
“We provide indirect evidence for the persistence of the poor sleep phenotype across the lifespan. This opens the door to further research into the genetically based early detection and prevention of sleep problems.” Their findings were published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
It has been established that solving sleep problems at an early age of the child leads to better conditions for his development and academic success.
Another 2022 study, published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, found that nearly 93 percent of low-achieving students had sleep disorders, compared with 83 percent of average students and 36 percent of high-achieving students.
The importance of sleep should not be overstated, yet a study by the National Sleep Foundation in the US found that over 87 percent of American high school students sleep less than the recommended eight to ten hours a night.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has described the problem of poor sleep quality among teenagers as an “epidemic” driven by “electronic media use, caffeine consumption and early school starts.”
That data helped fuel a movement of parents and sleep experts lobbying state legislatures to introduce later school start times.
California and Florida are the only two states that have adopted later start time rules, requiring classes in public high schools to begin no earlier than 8:30 a.m.
The “Europe Transformation Lab” gathered (between 25th of October 2023 – 2nd of November 2023) 26 participants from different European Countries who agreed with the founding values of the European Union on human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, rule of law, and human rights.
The organisation and facilitation team came from Brazil, Vatican City, Greece, Denmark.
The goal of “Transformation Europe Lab” (Co-funded by the Erasmus + Programme of the European Union) is to provide an overview on how to build communities via community organising and non-violent direct actions (NVDA).
In the modern age with the migration crisis, climate crisis, post-pandemic recovery, international war and extremism on the rise across Europe, and there is the urge of equipping youth workers with skills of community development, which they can transfer to youth.
The hosting organization – Food Reformers are committed to engaging in the activities, taking ownership of their tasks and to collaborate with other members and external stakeholders while always respecting the community, the members and the environment. We encourage clear communication for creating a safe space; with a value system based on three solid pillars; commitment, respect and openness.
The aims of the training:
promoting peace building by introducing past successful non-violent actions, that made real impact
providing participants with skills and tools necessary for transforming social and inter-group conflicts
making participants aware of their role in civic society and promote activism and social responsibility
making participants able to spread the ideas and knowledge on community building and NVDA to young people all across Europe.
Food Reformers respect the personal needs and professional endeavours of each member, and are open to anyone who wants to be a Food Reformers or join the activities regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or background, focusd on the Zero waste philosophy, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Social Responsibility, Up-cycling and circular economy, Participatory Entrepreneurship and Desing Methods among others.
Food Reformers is a food waste organisation that cooks mainly with surplus vegetables and promotes meatless meals. This action is informed by the huge impact that the meat industry has on our planet and how it contributes to climate change. Additionally, they approach meatless meals as a way to provide more inclusive meal solutions while accommodating most people’s dietary restrictions / preferences. To further contribute to food waste management, their aim to cook using surplus vegetables, that the volunteers gather from different sources eg: supermarkets. Surplus food is food that is supposted to be thown out, but is still eatable and fresh.
Participants from eleven partner countries including Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Czech Republic, Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Germany, Spain, Turkey and Bulgaria, joined the Erasmus+ training course in Kolding, Denmark.
They have been selected to participate in the training course because of theit eagerness to receive a vivid and rich intercultural experience and to benefit from the project activity while having a lot of experiences to share and valuable insights to exchange with the rest of the group.
