A Banking Platform to Leverage Data Driven Marketing with Machine Learning

Payment data is one of the most valuable assets that retail banks can leverage as the major competitive advantage with respect to new entrants such as Fintech companies or giant internet companies. In marketing, the value behind data relates to the power of encoding customer preferences: the better you know your customer, the better your marketing strategy. In this paper, we present a B2B2C lead generation application based on payment transaction data within the online banking system. In this approach, the bank is an intermediary between its private customers and merchants. The bank uses its competence in Machine Learning driven marketing to build a lead generation application that helps merchants run data driven campaigns through the banking channels to reach retail customers. The bank’s retail customers trade the utility hidden in its payment transaction data for special offers and discounts offered by merchants. During the entire process banks protects the privacy of the retail customer.     

Probing Ag nanoparticle surface oxidation in contact with (in)organics: an X‐ray scattering and fluorescence yield approach

Characterizing interfacial reactions is a crucial part of understanding the behavior of nanoparticles in nature and for unlocking their functional potential. Here, an advanced nanostructure characterization approach to study the corrosion processes of silver nanoparticles (Ag‐Nps), currently the most highly produced nanoparticle for nanotechnology, is presented. Corrosion of Ag‐Nps under aqueous conditions, in particular in the presence of organic matter and halide species common to many natural environments, is of particular importance because the release of toxic Ag⁺ from oxidation/dissolution of Ag‐Nps may strongly impact ecosystems. In this context, Ag‐Nps capped with polyvinolpyrrolidone (PVP) in contact with a simple proxy of organic matter in natural waters [polyacrylic acid (PAA) and Cl^? in solution] has been investigated. A combination of synchrotron‐based X‐ray standing‐wave fluorescence yield‐ and X‐ray diffraction‐based experiments on a sample consisting of an approximately single‐particle layer of Ag‐Nps deposited on a silicon substrate and coated by a thin film of PAA containing Cl revealed the formation of a stable AgCl corrosion product despite the presence of potential surface stabilizers (PVP and PAA). Diffusion and precipitation processes at the Ag‐Nps–PAA interface were characterized with a high spatial resolution using this new approach.     

Structure of optimal transport networks subject to a global constraint

The structure of pipe networks minimizing the total energy dissipation rate is studied analytically. Among all the possible pipe networks that can be built with a given total pipe volume (or pipe lateral surface area), the network which minimizes the dissipation rate is shown to be loopless. Furthermore, such an optimal network is shown to contain at most N-2 nodes in addition to the N sources plus sinks that it connects. These results are valid whether the possible locations for the additional nodes are chosen freely or from a set of nodes (such as points of a grid). Applications of these results to various physical situations and to the efficient computation of optimal pipe networks are also discussed.     

Nanoscopic Porous Iridium/Iridium Dioxide Superstructures (15 nm): Synthesis and Thermal Conversion by In Situ Transmission Electron Microscopy

Porous particle superstructures of about 15 nm diameter, consisting of ultrasmall nanoparticles of iridium and iridium dioxide, are prepared through the reduction of sodium hexachloridoiridate(+IV) with sodium citrate/sodium borohydride in water. The water-dispersible porous particles contain about 20 wt % poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP), which was added for colloidal stabilization. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy confirms the presence of both iridium and iridium dioxide primary particles (1–2 nm) in each porous superstructure. The internal porosity (≈58 vol%) is demonstrated by electron tomography. In situ transmission electron microscopy up to 1000 °C under oxygen, nitrogen, argon/hydrogen (all at 1 bar), and vacuum shows that the porous particles undergo sintering and subsequent compaction upon heating, a process that starts at around 250 °C and is completed at around 800 °C. Finally, well-crystalline iridium dioxide is obtained under all four environments. The catalytic activity of the as-prepared porous superstructures in electrochemical water splitting (oxygen evolution reaction; OER) is reduced considerably upon heating owing to sintering of the pores and loss of internal surface area.     

Electrochemical and Scalable Dehydrogenative C(sp3)−H Amination via Remote Hydrogen Atom Transfer in Batch and Continuous Flow

A hydrogen atom transfer-directed electrochemical intramolecular C−H amination has been developed in which the N-radical species are generated at the anode, and the base required for the reaction is generated at the cathode. A broad range of valuable pyrrolidines were prepared in good yields and with high chemoselectivity. The reaction was easily scaled up in both batch and continuous flow systems.     

Biomimetic Approach for Highly Selective Artificial Water Channels Based on Tubular Pillar[5]arene Dimers

Artificial water channels mimicking natural aquaporins (AQPs) can be used for selective and fast transport of water. Here, we quantify the transport performances of peralkyl-carboxylate-pillar[5]arenes dimers in bilayer membranes. They can transport ≈10⁷ water molecules/channel/second, within one order of magnitude of the transport rates of AQPs, rejecting Na⁺ and K⁺ cations. The dimers have a tubular structure, superposing pillar[5]arene pores of 5 Å diameter with twisted carboxy-phenyl pores of 2.8 Å diameter. This biomimetic platform, with variable pore dimensions within the same structure, offers size restriction reminiscent of natural proteins. It allows water molecules to selectively transit and prevents bigger hydrated cations from passing through the 2.8 Å pore. Molecular simulations prove that dimeric or multimeric honeycomb aggregates are stable in the membrane and form water pathways through the bilayer. Over time, a significant shift of the upper vs. lower layer occurs initiating new unexpected water permeation events through toroidal pores.     

Multi-scale simulation reveals that an amino acid substitution increases photosensitizing reaction inputs in Rhodopsins

Evaluating the availability of molecular oxygen (O₂) and energy of excited states in the retinal binding site of rhodopsin is a crucial challenging first step to understand photosensitizing reactions in wild-type (WT) and mutant rhodopsins by absorbing visible light. In the present work, energies of the ground and excited states related to 11-cis-retinal and the O₂ accessibility to the β-ionone ring are evaluated inside WT and human M207R mutant rhodopsins. Putative O₂ pathways within rhodopsins are identified by using molecular dynamics simulations, Voronoi-diagram analysis, and implicit ligand sampling while retinal energetic properties are investigated through density functional theory, and quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical methods. Here, the predictions reveal that an amino acid substitution can lead to enough energy and O₂ accessibility in the core hosting retinal of mutant rhodopsins to favor the photosensitized singlet oxygen generation, which can be useful in understanding retinal degeneration mechanisms and in designing blue-lighting-absorbing proteic photosensitizers.     

There is no (95, 40, 12, 20) strongly regular graph

We show that there is no (95, 40, 12, 20) strongly regular graph and, consequently, there is no (96, 45, 24, 18) strongly regular graph, no nontrivial regular two‐graph on 96 vertices, and no partial geometry pg(4, 9, 2). The main idea of the result is based on the star complement technique and requires a moderate amount of computation.     

The maximum size of short character sums

The Ramanujan Journal - In the present note, we prove new lower bounds on large values of character sums $$varDelta (x,q):=max _{chi ne chi _0} big vert sum _{nle x} chi (n)big vert $$...     

An Activatable Lanthanide Luminescent Probe for Time‐Gated Detection of Nitroreductase in Live Bacteria

Herein we report the development of a turn‐on lanthanide luminescent probe for time‐gated detection of nitroreductases (NTRs) in live bacteria. The probe is activated through NTR‐induced formation of the sensitizing carbostyril antenna and resulting energy transfer to the lanthanide center. This novel NTR‐responsive trigger is virtually non‐fluorescent in its inactivated form and features a large signal increase upon activation. We show that the probe is capable of selectively sensing NTR in lysates as well as in live bacteria of the ESKAPE family which are clinically highly relevant multiresistant pathogens responsible for the majority of hospital infections. The results suggest that our probe could be used to develop diagnostic tools for bacterial infections.