Mammootty and Sulfath, one of the most loved star couples of the Malayalam film industry are celebrating their 41st wedding anniversary today. As per the reports, the couple had a simple anniversary celebration this year with their immediate family members. However,

China and the United States both supported a draft United Nations Security Council resolution confronting the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday and it was "shocking and regretful" that Washington changed its mind on Friday, a Chinese diplomat said.

Puneeth Rajkumar, like other actors, is current homebound due to the COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide lockdown. However, on the occasion of his father, megastar Dr. Rajkumar’s birth anniversary (April 24, 2019), Puneeth opened up about him to India Today.   Puneeth

Vijay, the Thalapathy of the Tamil film industry is totally busy in his career with some interesting projects in the pipeline. If the latest reports are to be believed, the Master star is now all set to join hands with the makers

Novel Coronavirus is spreading rapidly across India. The country has so far reported 56,409 COVID-19 positive cases. Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, the government announced a lockdown to curb the spread of the deadly disease. Amidst all, Simbu's fan has recently

Archives, Room Use Only - QC670.C43 1855

Archives, Room Use Only - TK6540.R129 1959

Archives, Room Use Only - HE7676.C53 1919

Followers and politicians did not flock 'Chaitya Bhoomi', the Constitution architect's memorial in central Mumbai.

In this post, we’ll take a closer look at what happens if there’s an unencoded ampersand that’s not part of a character reference in your HTML code. Is it valid? Is it invalid? And what do “ambiguous ampersands” have to do with all this?

The globalThis proposal introduces a unified mechanism to access the so-called “global object” a.k.a. “the global” in any JavaScript environment. It sounds like a simple thing to polyfill, but it turns out it’s pretty hard to get right.

Three people, including two brothers running a narco terrorism network linked to Hizbul Mujahideen commander Naikoo, who was killed by security forces in Kashmir recently, were on Saturday arrested in a joint operation conducted by Haryana Police, National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Punjab Police.

Two in situ `nanoreactors' for high-resolution imaging of catalysts have been designed and applied at the hard X-ray nanoprobe endstation at beamline P06 of the PETRA III synchrotron radiation source. The reactors house samples supported on commercial MEMS chips, and were applied for complementary hard X-ray ptychography (23 nm spatial resolution) and transmission electron microscopy, with additional X-ray fluorescence measurements. The reactors allow pressures of 100 kPa and temperatures of up to 1573 K, offering a wide range of conditions relevant for catalysis. Ptychographic tomography was demonstrated at limited tilting angles of at least ±35° within the reactors and ±65° on the naked sample holders. Two case studies were selected to demonstrate the functionality of the reactors: (i) annealing of hierarchical nanoporous gold up to 923 K under inert He environment and (ii) acquisition of a ptychographic projection series at ±35° of a hierarchically structured macroporous zeolite sample under ambient conditions. The reactors are shown to be a flexible and modular platform for in situ studies in catalysis and materials science which may be adapted for a range of sample and experiment types, opening new characterization pathways in correlative multimodal in situ analysis of functional materials at work. The cells will presently be made available for all interested users of beamline P06 at PETRA III.

This paper presents a deep learning algorithm for tomographic reconstruction (GANrec). The algorithm uses a generative adversarial network (GAN) to solve the inverse of the Radon transform directly. It works for independent sinograms without additional training steps. The GAN has been developed to fit the input sinogram with the model sinogram generated from the predicted reconstruction. Good quality reconstructions can be obtained during the minimization of the fitting errors. The reconstruction is a self-training procedure based on the physics model, instead of on training data. The algorithm showed significant improvements in the reconstruction accuracy, especially for missing-wedge tomography acquired at less than 180° rotational range. It was also validated by reconstructing a missing-wedge X-ray ptychographic tomography (PXCT) data set of a macroporous zeolite particle, for which only 51 projections over 70° could be collected. The GANrec recovered the 3D pore structure with reasonable quality for further analysis. This reconstruction concept can work universally for most of the ill-posed inverse problems if the forward model is well defined, such as phase retrieval of in-line phase-contrast imaging.

UK government's fracking 'ban' has a convenient loophole  The Conversation UK

Fracking in the UK was doomed a decade ago – Tories have wasted precious time on a fossil fuel fantasy  The Conversation UK

Each central platinum(II) atom in the crystal structures of chlorido­[dihy­droxybis­(1-imino­eth­oxy)arsanido-κ3N,As,N']platinum(II), [Pt(C4H10AsN2O4)Cl] (1), and of chlorido­[dihy­droxybis­(1-imino­prop­oxy)arsanido-κ3N,As,N']platinum(II), [Pt(C6H14AsN2O4)Cl] (2), is coordinated by two nitro­gen donor atoms, a chlorido ligand and to arsenic, which, in turn, is coordinated by two oxygen donor ligands, two hydroxyl ligands and the platinum(II) atom. The square-planar and trigonal–bipyramidal coordination environments around platinum and arsenic, respectively, are significantly distorted with the largest outliers being 173.90 (13) and 106.98 (14)° for platinum and arsenic in (1), and 173.20 (14)° and 94.20 (9)° for (2), respectively. One intra­molecular and four classical inter­molecular hydrogen-bonding inter­actions are observed in the crystal structure of (1), which give rise to an infinite three-dimensional network. A similar situation (one intra­molecular and four classical inter­molecular hydrogen-bonding inter­actions) is observed in the crystal structure of (2). Various π-inter­actions are present in (1) between the platinum(II) atom and the centroid of one of the five-membered rings formed by Pt, As, C, N, O with a distance of 3.7225 (7) Å, and between the centroids of five-membered (Pt, As, C, N, O) rings of neighbouring mol­ecules with distances of 3.7456 (4) and 3.7960 (6) Å. Likewise, weak π-inter­actions are observed in (2) between the platinum(II) atom and the centroid of one of the five-membered rings formed by Pt, As, C, N, O with a distance of 3.8213 (2) Å, as well as between the Cl atom and the centroid of a symmetry-related five-membered ring with a distance of 3.8252 (12) Å. Differences between (2) and the reported polymorph [Miodragović et al. (2013). Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 52, 10749–10752] are discussed.

A versatile, compact heater designed at National Synchrotron Light Source-II for in situ X-ray nano-imaging in a full-field transmission X-ray microscope is presented. Heater design for nano-imaging is challenging, combining tight spatial constraints with stringent design requirements for the temperature range and stability. Finite-element modeling and analytical calculations were used to determine the heater design parameters. Performance tests demonstrated reliable and stable performance, including maintaining the exterior casing close to room temperature while the heater is operating at above 1100°C, a homogenous heating zone and small temperature fluctuations. Two scientific experiments are presented to demonstrate the heater capabilities: (i) in situ 3D nano-tomography including a study of metal dealloying in a liquid molten salt extreme environment, and (ii) a study of pore formation in icosahedral quasicrystals. The progression of structural changes in both studies were clearly resolved in 3D, showing that the new heater enables powerful capabilities to directly visualize and quantify 3D morphological evolution of materials under real conditions by X-ray nano-imaging at elevated temperature during synthesis, fabrication and operation processes. This heater design concept can be applied to other applications where a precise, compact heater design is required.

Over the past decade, ptychography has been proven to be a robust tool for non-destructive high-resolution quantitative electron, X-ray and optical microscopy. It allows for quantitative reconstruction of the specimen's transmissivity, as well as recovery of the illuminating wavefront. Additionally, various algorithms have been developed to account for systematic errors and improved convergence. With fast ptychographic microscopes and more advanced algorithms, both the complexity of the reconstruction task and the data volume increase significantly. PtychoShelves is a software package which combines high-level modularity for easy and fast changes to the data-processing pipeline, and high-performance computing on CPUs and GPUs.

The remora's sucker disc is "one of the most remarkable and most highly modified skeletal structures among vertebrates."

The post New study proves the remora’s sucker disc is in fact a highly modified dorsal fin / Q&A with taxonomist David Johnson appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Fifteen years ago, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched into space aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. Since its deployment on July 23, 1999, Chandra has […]

The post Chandra X-ray Observatory Celebrates 15th Anniversary appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History recently acquired four remarkable gemstones and jewelry pieces for the Smithsonian’s National Gem Collection in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the museum.

The post National Museum of Natural History acquires gemstones in honor of its 100th anniversary appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Odile Madden knows a lot about plastic. A materials scientist with the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute, she has spent the past eight years studying plastics […]

The post Microplastics in our environment: A conversation with Odile Madden, Smithsonian plastics scientist appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A crystallographic indexing algorithm, pinkIndexer, is presented for the analysis of snapshot diffraction patterns. It can be used in a variety of contexts including measurements made with a monochromatic radiation source, a polychromatic source or with radiation of very short wavelength. As such, the algorithm is particularly suited to automated data processing for two emerging measurement techniques for macromolecular structure determination: serial pink-beam X-ray crystallography and serial electron crystallography, which until now lacked reliable programs for analyzing many individual diffraction patterns from crystals of uncorrelated orientation. The algorithm requires approximate knowledge of the unit-cell parameters of the crystal, but not the wavelengths associated with each Bragg spot. The use of pinkIndexer is demonstrated by obtaining 1005 lattices from a published pink-beam serial crystallography data set that had previously yielded 140 indexed lattices. Additionally, in tests on experimental serial crystallography diffraction data recorded with quasi-monochromatic X-rays and with electrons the algorithm indexed more patterns than other programs tested.

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

The post Join the longest conversation in tropical biology appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Nutmeg-loving toucans wearing GPS transmitters recently helped a team of scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama address an age-old problem in plant ecology: accurately estimating seed dispersal.

The post Toucans wearing GPS backpacks help Smithsonian scientists study seed dispersal appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

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Earth's magnetic field seems steady and true -- reliable enough to navigate by. Yet, largely hidden from daily life, the field drifts, waxes and wanes. The magnetic North Pole is currently shifting toward Siberia, forcing the Global Positioning System that underlies modern navigation to update its software sooner than expected. Every several hundred thousand years, the magnetic field dramatically shifts and reverses its polarity. Magnetic north flips to the geographic South Pole and, eventually, back again. This reversal has happened countless times over Earth's history, but scientists' understanding of why and how the field reverses is limited. The researchers find that the most recent field reversal 770,000 years ago took at least 22,000 years to complete, several times longer than previously thought. The results call into question controversial findings that some reversals could occur within a human lifetime.

Image credit: Brad Singer

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine examines the effects and efficacy of using dispersants in marine oil spill response.

The National Academy of Sciences, in partnership with The Kavli Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, will host a symposium to consider the future of science in the U.S. and how it can best serve society in the 21st century.

The recently formed National Academies Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats, assembled at the request of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, has been providing rapid expert consultations on several topics, such as social distancing and severe illness in young adults.

Death and mourning were largely considered private matters in the 20th century, with the public remembrances common in previous eras replaced by intimate gatherings behind closed doors in funeral parlors and family homes.

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Small sellers on e-commerce platforms said they are faced with a working capital crunch and the delay would force them to pay partial or no salaries for April.

Twitter has introduced an update to its API platform to allow developers and researchers to study crucial public conversations around COVID-19 in real time.

Although knowledge of biodiversity is increasing, it often receives less attention than other, more anthropocentric policy challenges. To ensure research is better used, scientists and policymakers need to interact more effectively. Through a literature review, interviews and a workshop with key stakeholders, this study provides recommendations for achieving a better dialogue.

A recent report calls for an urgent, worldwide ban on the mining and use of asbestos. It argues that there is no safe use of asbestos that can prevent occupational and environmental exposure and urges all countries to use safer alternatives to asbestos in order to protect the health of their citizens.

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill saw the first ever use of chemical dispersants to reduce the impacts of an oil spill at a deepwater level. A new study has investigated the fate of these dispersants in deepwater and concluded that they do not biodegrade well.

Oil spills at sea can be catastrophic events, with oil and discharged toxins, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, threatening marine wildlife and coastlines, damaging healthy ecosystems and harming livelihoods. A recent study found that using dispersants moderately decreased the number of cod eggs and larvae affected by spills off the Norwegian coast.

Grey got through the video submissions, Myke keeps the wheel turning, and they both celebrate a special occasion.

Grey is a live streamer, Myke tries to resist making a clip show, and they both celebrate 50 episodes of Cortex

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Conversations on Twitter tend to take one of only six different trajectories.

A Barcelona design duo work impressive DIY restoration magic on a long-abandoned comital residence-turned-storehouse-turned-apartment.

Researchers in Costa Rica are studying the vocalizations of Alston's singing mice to learn more about human speech.

Two years after a deadly tsunami swept ashore in Japan, killing more than 15,000 people, solemn reminders of the disaster are still washing ashore.