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New research suggests that neurons which track our movements are also involved in imaginary navigation

Brain cells involved in spatial navigation and mapping the environment also fire when we merely imagine moving through familiar surroundings, according to a new study by researchers at University College London. The research, published today in the journal Current Biology, shows that memory and imagination are intimately linked in the brain at the cellular level, and could help to explain some of the changes that occur in the early stages of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Related: The fly's neural compass works just like a mammal's

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A new imaging technique may give researchers fresh insights into brain development, function, and disease

The human brain is often said to be the most complex object in the known universe, and there’s good reason to believe that it is. That lump of jelly inside your head contains at least 80 billion nerve cells, or neurons, and even more of the non-neuronal cells called glia. Between them, they form hundreds of trillions of precise synaptic connections; but they all have moveable parts, and these connections can change. Neurons can extend and retract their delicate fibres; some types of glial cells can crawl through the brain; and neurons and glia routinely work together to create new connections and eliminate old ones.

These processes begin before we are born, and occur until we die, making the brain a highly dynamic organ that undergoes continuous change throughout life. At any given moment, many millions of them are being modified in one way or another, to reshape the brain’s circuitry in response to our daily experiences. Researchers at Yale University have now developed an imaging technique that enables them to visualise the density of synapses in the living human brain, and offers a promising new way of studying how the organ develops and functions, and also how it deteriorates in various neurological and psychiatric conditions.

Related: Brain’s immune cells hyperactive in schizophrenia

Related: 3D model of a nerve terminal in atomic detail | Mo Costandi

Two lifelong friends from the US bring a message of hope, friendship and a future to marginalised locals during OM Zambia’s first-ever wheelchair camp.

Images show man lunging toward an officer who had tried to calm him down.

The centre will launch an "image correction" exercise to counter what is seen as not doing enough to help stranded and hungry migrant workers amid the lockdown necessitated by the coronavirus...

The two upcoming Benellis - Imperiale 530 retro cruiser and the 600N naked streetfighter have been revealed in a couple of patent images. Here is what to expect!

Royal Enfield Meteor 350 Fireball is expected to come with multiple optional accessories. Very recently, images that appear to be the screenshots of the official configurator have leaked on the web revealing some juicy details.

Looks like Honda's Multistrada V4 challenger will come with a breathtaking design! Find all details here.

How many of us remember Royal Enfield Taurus? Popular in the 1980s and 90s, the Taurus or Royal Enfield Bullet Diesel is the only Diesel-powered motorcycle that has ever been mass-produced in India.

On May 3, the governments would have got 40 days time to do those things; the question is, do governments need more time?

The West’s perceptions of China hold up a mirror to its own preoccupations. More nuanced analysis is much-needed

The post The Chinese chameleon reimagined in the age of Covid-19 appeared first on The Mail & Guardian.

In 1994, Marcus Robinson, who is black, was convicted of murder and sentenced to death for the 1991 killing of Erik Tornblom, a white teenager, in Cumberland County, North Carolina. He spent nearly 20 years on death row, but in 2012 his sentence was changed to life without a chance of parole. He was one of four death row inmates whose sentences were commuted by a judge who found that racial discrimination had played a role in their trials.

The reason their cases were reviewed at all was because of a 2009 North Carolina law known as the Racial Justice Act, which allowed judges to reduce death sentences to life in prison without parole when defendants were able to prove racial bias in their charge, jury selection, or sentence.

"The Racial Justice Act ensures that when North Carolina hands down our state's harshest punishment to our most heinous criminals," former Gov. Bev Perdue said when she signed the bill into law, "the decision is based on the facts and the law, not racial prejudice."

At 21, Robinson was the youngest person sentenced to death in North Carolina. When he was three, he was hospitalized with severe seizures after being physically abused by his father and was diagnosed with permanent brain dysfunction. However, those weren't the only troubling aspects of his case.

Racial discrimination in jury selection has been prohibited since it was banned by the Supreme Court in its 1986 Supreme Court decision Batson v. Kentucky, but Robinson's trial was infected with it. The prosecutor in the case, John Dickson, disproportionately refused eligible black potential jurors. For example, he struck one black potential juror because the man had been once charged with public drunkenness. However, he accepted two "nonblack" people with DWI convictions. Of the eligible members of the pool, he struck half the black people and only 14 percent of the nonblack members. In the end, Robinson was tried by a 12-person jury that included only three people of color—one Native American individual and two black people.

Racial discrimination in jury selection was not uncommon in the North Carolina criminal justice system. A comprehensive Michigan State University study looked at more than 7,400 potential jurors in 173 cases from 1990 to 2010. Researchers found that statewide prosecutors struck 52.6 percent of eligible potential black jurors and only 25.7 percent of all other potential jurors. This bias was reflected on death row. Of the 147 people on North Carolina's death row, 35 inmates were sentenced by all-white juries; 38 by juries with just one black member.

Under the Racial Justice Act, death row inmates had one year from when the bill became law to file a motion. Nearly all the state's 145 death row inmates filed claims, but only Robison and three others—Quintel Augustine, Tilmon Golphin, and Christina Walters—obtained hearings. In 2012, Robinson's was the first. At the Superior Court of Cumberland County, Judge Gregory Weeks ruled that race had played a significant role in the trial and Robinson was resentenced to life without parole. North Carolina appealed the decision to the state's Supreme Court.

An immediate outcry followed the decision. The North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys issued a statement saying, "Capital cases reflect the most brutal and heinous offenders in our society. Whether the death penalty is an appropriate sentence for murderers should be addressed by our lawmakers in the General Assembly, not masked as claims (of) racism in our courts."  

The ruling attracted lots of publicity from across the country and North Carolina lawmakers were outraged. "There are definitely signs in the legislative record that there were some [lawmakers] that really wanted to see executions move forward," Cassandra Stubbs, the director of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project who also represents Robinson, says. Legislative staffers circulated talking points for lawmakers with arguments that the RJA turns "district attorneys into racists and convicted murderers into victims," describing the law as "an end-run around the death penalty and an indefinite moratorium on capital punishment."

The day Judge Weeks resentenced Robinson, the Senate president pro tempore for the state Legislature, Phillip Berger, expressed concern that Robinson could be eligible for parole. He suggested Robinson—who had just turned 18 when he committed the crime and would not have been considered a juvenile—would be ineligible for life in prison without a chance of parole, citing a US Supreme Court ruling that prohibited juveniles from receiving life sentences without parole. "We cannot allow cold-blooded killers to be released into our community, and I expect the state to appeal this decision," he said. "Regardless of the outcome, we continue to believe the Racial Justice Act is an ill-conceived law that has very little to do with race and absolutely nothing to do with justice."

The state Legislature took on the challenge and voted to repeal the Racial Justice Act in 2013. This made it impossible for those on death row to even attempt to have their sentences reviewed for racial bias, but it left the fates of the four who had been moved to life imprisonment unclear. "The state's district attorneys are nearly unanimous in their bipartisan conclusion that the Racial Justice Act created a judicial loophole to avoid the death penalty and not a path to justice," Gov. Pat McCrory said in a statement at the time.

Even though the law was still in effect when the four inmates' sentences were reduced, they weren't safe from death row just yet. Robinson's sentenced had been legally reduced, but the legal battle was just beginning.

In 2015, after nearly two years from the initial hearing, the North Carolina Supreme Court ordered the Superior Court to reconsider the reduced sentences for Robinson, Augustine, Golphin, and Walters, saying the judge failed to give the state enough time to prepare for the "complex" proceedings.

This past January, Superior Court Judge Erwin Spainhour ruled that because the RJA had been repealed, the four defendants could no longer use the law to reduce their sentences. "North Carolina vowed to undertake an unprecedented look at the role of racial bias in capital sentencing," says Stubbs. But now, "the state Legislature explicitly turned from its commitment and repealed the law."

Robinson is back on death row at Central Prison in the state's capital of Raleigh. In the petition to the state Supreme Court, Robinson's lawyers point out that the Double Jeopardy Clause—the law that prevents someone from being tried twice for the same crime—bars North Carolina from trying to reimpose the death penalty because the 2012 RJA hearing acquitted him of capital punishment.

"He's never been resentenced to death," Stubbs says. "They have no basis to hold him on death row."

The experienced midfielder believes they can clinch the title right under the noses of favourites Amakhosi and Masandawana

The internet is a scary enough place as it is, and now with the added misinformation and panic surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, it's even scarier. Thanks to the United Nations and dozens of artists, however, the internet just got a little more beautiful.

There’s an image hidden in these black-and-white blotches. Once you spot the figure, that’s it: The shape will emerge, and then, try as you might, you’ll never unsee it.

Learn how to take simple x/y coordinates, and create map polygons shaped like holiday images, that can be plotted using SAS/Graph's PROC GMAP.

There's something so universal about the feeling of disgust people get when they see a bowl of ketchup covered banana slices or a milky bowl of thumbtacks. Here's some cursed food and a few other basically uncomfortable things to keep it spicy. Cursed images just make you feel weird, man.

The museums of Europe have begun reopening their doors to art lovers desperate to see old favourites and new works

I am cursing my bad luck not to be stuck in lockdown in the Prado. A friend wishes she had stowed away in a closet before they bolted the doors of the National Gallery. Others would give anything for a week in the Rijksmuseum, a day in the Uffizi, an hour with Rembrandt or Vermeer, even just a few minutes with a Samuel Palmer moonscape in the Ashmolean or a Turner sunrise at Tate Britain. Museums are places of the heart.

We see art in time and place; we cannot see it otherwise. Of course there are other whereabouts of the works we most long to set eyes on again, during this evil pandemic: the cave paintings at Chaumet in France, Fra Angelico’s Annunciation in a Florentine monastery, Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty coiled in the glistening waters of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. These were all chosen in an unofficial and entirely self-selecting Twitter survey (mine), along with Leonardo’s The Last Supper and James Turrell’s Deer Shelter Skyspace, framing the blue heavens above Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

In his remarks to the Business & Climate Summit, the Secretary-General said that business lies at the heart of what we need to achieve on climate action. If Governments produce clear, credible and coherent national policies and clear messages and signals, the full transformative power of business, markets and human ingenuity will be unleashed.

In his remarks to the Business & Climate Summit, the Secretary-General said that business lies at the heart of what we need to achieve on climate action. If Governments produce clear, credible and coherent national policies and clear messages and signals, the full transformative power of business, markets and human ingenuity will be unleashed.

Tertiary qualifications have become the entrance ticket for modern societies. Never before have those with advanced qualifications had the life chances they enjoy today, and never before have those who struggled to acquire a good education paid the price they pay today.

1. Happy Mother’s Day 2020: Wishes, images, Whatsapp messages, status, quotes and photos  The Indian Express
2. Mother’s Day 2020: 5 Easy DIY Gift Ideas to Make Your Mom Smile  News18
3. Happy Mother's Day Greeting Card: Easy ways to make a greeting card at home  Times of India
4. Five ways to make your mother feel special, every day  The Indian Express
5. Mother’s Day 2020: These apps might be the best gifts (you can install) for mom  Hindustan Times
6. View Full coverage on Google News

Environmental health professors from the UK, US and India said images of lung damage caused by air pollution would be a cheap and effective way to encourage people to cut reliance on fossil fuels.

Samantha Armytage has hit out at 'scammers' using her name on bogus adverts. 

A quiet but steady revolution seems to be underway as both government and private individuals and organizations increasingly explore ways to make more data available to the people and in various innovative ways to facilitate application. Shamala Kittane reports.

Former Union minister G K Vasan, who quit the Congress recently, unveiled a tri-colour flag for his yet-to-be named party on Wednesday.

Imagine Oscar Wilde, the famed playwright and poet, in the mold of a Sherlock Holmes or a Hercules Poirot. That’s precisely what author Gyles Brandreth does - make a convincing detective out of Wilde even as he remains faithful in his portrayal of him as an aesthete and a bohemian with his flamboyant style and acerbic wit.

Apple has announced that it will be adding the ability to capture RAW images to iPhones, starting with iOS 10. While the stock iOS camera app doesn’t have the functionality to capture RAW images, iPhone users can use Adobe’s Lightroom app for the same.

The production-spec Royal Enfield Meteor has been spotted testing earlier on the Indian Roads. Recently, more images of the Royal Enfield Meteor have been leaked online and the motorcycle has been codenamed the Meteor 350 Fireball. The motorcycle is also expected to launch by the end of 2020.

Ducati has released a teaser image of their upcoming motorcycle in the Indian market, the Panigale V2. The image has been released on the company's social media platforms, confirming that the motorcycle is scheduled to go on sale in the Indian market soon.

Since striking out on my own, much of my time’s been dedicated to, well, the book. But I’ve also been fortunate enough to collaborate a bit with Filament Group on one of their projects: namely, a large-scale engagement that requires a responsive approach.

Needless to say, I am having the time of my life.

We’re also learning a lot, too. A lot of discussions about approach and execution have come up, largely because processes for a lot of this stuff don’t exist yet. That will, with a bit of hard work and community discussion, change over time. Still, there has been a lot of brilliant stuff created so far.

Here’s just one example:

The goal of this technique is to deliver optimized, contextual image sizes for responsive layouts that utilize dramatically different image sizes at different resolutions. Ideally, this approach will allow developers to start with mobile-optimized images in their HTML and specify a larger size to be used for users with larger screen resolutions — without requesting both image sizes, and without UA sniffing.

Check out the script, download it, and kick the tires a bit—feedback and tweaks are most welcome.

I realize that there are always going to be philosophical differences around responsive web design. But for me, the solutions-driven discussions are always going to be infinitely more interesting to me than the alternative.

It's hard not to get skin tingles when you see these stunning images. They are winning pictures and shortlisted entries from the sixth annual International Landscape Photographer of the Year competition.More than 3,400 photos were entered into the contest from both amateur and professional photographers from around the globe. The shots feature everything from remote beaches to moody mountain ranges.

From the spread of coronavirus to International Women's Day, these 10 images sum up all the big stories from the previous week.

As you are stuck at home owing to the coronavirus outbreak, here are eight images that will bring a smile on your face -- even if it's just for a while!

Behold the breathtaking winning and shortlisted images from one of the world's most prestigious photography contests.The amazing shots are from the open competition of the Sony World Photography Awards 2020, which received 193,000 entries from photographers in over 200 territories.Scroll down and feast your eyes on our pick of the shortlisted and category-winning entries.

Computer-aided image processing technique to protect weavers

Happy Mother's Day 2020: Quotes, Images, Wishes

Happy Mother's Day: Images, quotes, and more

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.