Daily Archives: March 31, 2021

Harvard Universitys program for evolutionary dynamics is to close after an inquiry into ties between its director, Martin Nowak, and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

According to the university, the mathematics and biology professor violated several university policies through his contacts with Epstein, including giving the disgraced wealthy financier an office on campus which he visited more than 40 times between 2010 and 2018.

Epstein, 66, was charged with sex trafficking in 2019, shortly before he was found dead in his cell in the Metropolitan correctional center in New York. Epstein had faced an indictment accusing him of running a sex-trafficking ring of underage girls, some as young as 14.

Nowak will be barred from starting new research or advising students for at least two years, according to the university. The sanctions come almost a year after Novak was suspended following a university review that found he had extensive, previously unreported contact with Epstein.

The review of Nowaks connections to Epstein found that the professor had facilitated Epsteins efforts to use ties to the prestigious university Harvard as a tool to rehabilitate his image.

The review also found that Nowak devoted a page to Epstein on the centers website that included links to the financiers websites. The university received $9.1m in gifts from Epstein, including a donation of $6.5m to the evolutionary dynamics faculty in 2006.

In an email on Thursday, Harvards faculty of arts and sciences dean Claudine Gay wrote that Nowaks behavior toward Epstein was inappropriate.

In instances where his actions did not constitute policy violations per se, those actions still demonstrated a pattern of blameworthy negligence and unprofessional behavior in his responsibilities, Gay wrote.

The program for evolutionary dynamics, Gay said, would be shut down as soon as it is feasible.

Harvard had launched an investigation into the universitys ties to Epstein in the months after his suicide. Lawrence Bacow, Harvards president, said at the time he profoundly regrets Harvards past association with him.

Jeffrey Epsteins crimes were repulsive and reprehensible, he said then. Conduct such as his has no place in our society.

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Harvard closes evolution center after finding connections to Jeffrey Epstein - The Guardian

Title: Disentangled Representation Learning for Astronomical Chemical Tagging

Authors: Damien de Mijolla, Melissa Ness, Serena Viti, Adam Wheeler

First Authors Institution: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London

Status: Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal

The question of galaxy formation and evolution is a big one in astronomy, and the Milky Way is a convenient test bed for studying this question. The Milky Way is composed largely of stars, gas, dust, and dark matter, and all of these components can be studied individually and collectively to inform our understanding of how galaxies form and evolve. Galactic archaeology is a subfield of astronomy that treats individual stars as fossils, using them as tools to study the evolution of our Galaxy. The kinematic and chemical properties of a star hint at its ancestry. A stars position in and motion through our Galaxy, for example, can tell us in what portion of the Galaxy it was born (e.g. thick disk, thin disk, halo, or bulge), whether it is a member of a certain cluster of stars, or whether it was part of a stellar population that was accreted by the Milky Way. The chemical composition of a star also contains a plethora of information about its history, and the use of stellar chemistry to infer a stars origins is called chemical tagging. Todays authors develop a new way to practice chemical tagging using a neural network that disentangles stellar spectra to bypass the precision issues often faced by chemical taggers. But first, lets start with some background!

Figure 1: A diagram depicting chemical tagging, the practice of using the chemical compositions of stars, which can be derived from their spectra, to trace their origins. The above diagram depicts the strongest form of chemical tagging, where stars are traced back to their specific birth cloud via their chemical profile. Weaker forms exist as well and involve tagging stars to general, large-scale Milky Way substructure, like the thin disk, thick disk, bulge, and halo.

Most Milky Way star formation occurs in collapsing molecular clouds, and groups of stars born in the same cloud are called birth clusters. Some birth clusters are massive enough to remain gravitationally bound for several millions to billions of years, and these are the open clusters we observe today throughout the Milky Way disk. However, most stars are born in weakly-bound associations that are quickly dispersed by the Milky Way potential.

The premise behind chemical tagging rests on the notion that the chemical composition of low- and intermediate-mass stars is largely constant throughout their evolution and generally reflects the chemical composition of their birth cloud. This means that, even when stars are dispersed from their birth sites, they retain their chemical composition and carry it with them for much of their life like a fingerprint. The new frontier of chemical tagging seeks to take advantage of this fact by using the chemical fingerprints of dispersed stars to tag them back to their birth cluster (see Figure 1).

The ability to tag stars back to their birth cluster relies on two assumptions: 1) that all stars born together possess the same chemical composition, and 2) that birth clusters have unique chemical profiles. Under these two assumptions, if one finds a group of chemically identical stars in the field, they were likely born together in the same molecular cloud. The validity of these two assumptions is still actively being studied, but studies have shown that many open clusters are extremely chemically homogeneous, supporting assumption #1.

We are at a ripe time in astronomy to practice chemical tagging. Thanks to massive spectral surveys like APOGEE, LAMOST, GALAH, RAVE, and Gaia-ESO, we have millions of spectra of Milky Way stars. Therefore, finding chemically similar stars in these data sets, and thus subsequently reconstructing dispersed birth clusters, is of great interest to those seeking to untangle the Galaxys evolution.

We can estimate the chemical compositions of stars by studying the light they emit. Though some studies have estimated certain chemical parameters, like iron content, from photometry alone, the best way to get precise chemical information for a star is through its spectrum. Stellar spectra can be generalized as black bodies, smooth curves that peak at a wavelength that corresponds with their surface temperatures. If we zoom into a stellar spectrum, however, we can find thousands of bumps and dips caused by specific ions in the atmosphere of the star absorbing and emitting the stars light. Generally, we can look at the strength of each bump and dip (called a spectral line) to estimate how much of a certain element is contained in the atmosphere of the star.

The amount of a certain element in a stars atmosphere is called an abundance. Classically, backing out abundances from a stellar spectrum is not a simple task: it requires one to model a stellar atmosphere, generate what the resulting spectrum would look like, and compare it to the observed spectrum in question. Most spectral surveys derive and report chemical abundances for their stellar targets. However, with each reported abundance comes an associated uncertainty, and in many cases, the abundance uncertainties are much larger than the spread in abundances of a group of stars born together. This means that it is difficult to group chemically similar stars when the reported abundances have really large uncertainties.

To get around abundance uncertainties, many people restrict their chemical tagging to solar twins, stars that have identical atmospheric parameters to the Sun. Stellar spectra are affected by not only the precise elements in the atmosphere of a star (which, again, create bumps and dips in the spectrum) but also the surface temperature (Teff), surface gravity (log g), rotation (vsini), and microturbulence (vmic) of the star, among other physical factors. Thus, two chemically identical stars may still have different looking spectra if their atmospheric and physical parameters are different. By restricting chemical tagging to solar twins, however, people can compare apples to apples: any differences between the spectra of solar twins are entirely due to differences in the chemical composition of the stars. This kind of abundance work is called differential abundance analysisit doesnt require one to derive chemical abundances of each star to get a chemical similarity. One only needs the spectra of the two stars, and any differences in the strengths of each spectral line between both spectra indicate differences in abundance. This method entirely bypasses abundance uncertainties and allows one to achieve incredibly high precisions that are lower than the abundance differences between stars born in the same cluster.

The downside to typical differential abundance analysis is that one can only apply chemical tagging to stars with identical stellar parameters, which restricts the pool of stars dramatically. However, todays authors find a way to achieve all the benefits of differential abundance analysis but without having to restrict it to solar twins. The authors call this method abundance-free chemical tagging, and it is ideal for chemically tagging large, diverse groups of stars to extremely high precision.

The way the authors achieve this is by training a neural network (specifically, a conditional autoencoder) to learn the mapping between Teff and log g for a variety of different synthetic spectra with varying chemical abundances. This neural network is composed of two parts: a conditional encoder and a conditional decoder. The conditional encoder takes as input a batch of spectra with associated, preknown Teff and log g values. The conditional encoder then learns the mapping between Teff, log g, and the resulting spectra. It then reduces (disentangles) the input spectra into a lower-dimension vectors representing only chemical composition information, free of the effects of input Teff and log g. The conditional decoder takes the lower-dimension vectors, and the learned mapping scheme from the conditional encoder, to reconstruct (re-tangle) the input spectra. The neural network is fully trained when it is able to a) disentangle input spectra as fully as possible, and b) re-tangle the lower-dimension vectors into the original input spectra with minimal difference. Once the neural network is fully trained, one can feed it observed spectra with preknown Teff and log g and then get out spectra that all share a common (arbitrary) Teff and log g and only vary by their intrinsic differences in chemical abundance.

Figure 2: An example of the efficacy of the authors method of disentangling temperature and surface gravity effects from stellar spectra. The top panel shows the artificial spectra of two stars with identical chemical compositions but differing effective temperatures and log g. Note that even though these two spectra belong to chemically identical stars, they vary dramatically due to effects caused by surface temperature and gravity differences between the stars. The center panel shows the effect of disentangling surface temperature and gravity effects from the spectra using the neural network created by the authors, leaving two spectra that look remarkably similar. The bottom panel shows the residuals of the two spectra, highlighting areas where the two disentangled spectra differ. Figure 5 in the paper.

In short, with this method, the authors are able to disentangle the parameters they dont care about in a spectrum from the parameters they do care about. In this case, they only want spectra that directly reflect the chemical composition of the star, without the distracting effects of surface temperature, surface gravity, and so on, which alter the shapes of lines significantly. After disentangling the spectra using the neural network, the authors are able to directly compare the spectra of different stars, and any visible differences in the two spectra are purely due to chemical differences in the stars (see Figure 2).

As with differential abundance analysis of solar twins, this method is able to bypass large abundance uncertainties common in classical abundance analysis. However, one is no longer restricted to solar twins: with this method, one can chemically tag the wide array of stars sampled by these massive spectroscopic surveys and use the full data sets to ones advantage. In addition to allowing us to better probe large spectral surveys for chemically similar stars across a wide range of masses and physical characteristics, this method will also aid in the study of the chemical homogeneity of open clusters, globular clusters, stellar streams, and other cohesive groups of stars whose chemical abundance spread is of interest.

The authors note that their neural network was tested on artificial APOGEE data and was able to successfully retrieve 85% of the chemical pairs infused into their artificial data. The next step is to apply it to real survey data and see whether this method is effective at dealing with the dynamical range and unconstrained physical and systematic effects found in real spectral survey data. The authors finally conclude that their neural network architecture, called FactorDis, may be useful to fields outside of astronomy.

Astrobites edited by Graham Doskoch.

Featured image credit: de Mijolla et al. 2021

About Catherine ManeaCatherine is a 2nd year PhD student at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research is in Galactic Archaeology, the practice of using the kinematic and chemical information of individual stars to study the evolution of our Milky Way. She is particularly interested in pushing chemical tagging, the practice of tracing stars back to their birth sites, to new limits.

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Disentangling Milky Way Evolution with Disentangled Representation Learning, a New Tool for Chemical Tagging - Astrobites

(Reuters) - The octopus is an extraordinary creature - and not only because of its eight limbs, three hearts, blue blood, ink squirting, camouflage capacity and the tragic fact that it dies after mating.

An octopus in seen in its "active sleep" state during a laboratory study at the Brain Institute of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in Natal, Brazil, in this undated handout photograph. Sylvia Medeiros/Handout via REUTERS

A study by researchers in Brazil published on Thursday shows that this animal, already considered perhaps the smartest invertebrate, experiences two major alternating sleep states eerily similar to those in humans - and it even might dream.

The findings, the researchers said, provide fresh evidence that the octopus possesses a complex and sophisticated neurobiology that underlies an equally sophisticated behavioral repertoire, while also offering broader insight into the evolution of sleep, a crucial biological function.

Octopuses previously were known to experience sleep and change colors while slumbering. In the new study, the researchers observed a species called Octopus insularis in a laboratory setting. They found that these color changes are associated with two distinct sleep states: quiet sleep and active sleep.

During quiet sleep, the octopus remains still, with pale skin and eye pupils contracted to a slit. During active sleep, it dynamically changes its skin color and texture and moves both eyes while contracting its suckers and body, with muscular twitches.

A repeating cycle was observed during sleep. Quiet sleep typically lasted roughly seven minutes. The subsequent active sleep typically lasted less than a minute.

This cycle appears analogous, the researchers said, to the alternating rapid eye movement, or REM, and non-rapid eye movement, or non-REM, sleep states experienced by people, as well as other mammals, birds and reptiles.

Vivid dreaming occurs during REM sleep, as a persons eyes move rapidly, breathing becomes irregular, the heart rate increases and the muscles become paralyzed to not act out the dreams. Non-REM sleep features more deep sleep and less dreaming.

Study lead author Sylvia Medeiros said the findings suggest octopuses may be dreaming, or experiencing something similar.

If octopuses indeed dream, it is unlikely that they experience complex symbolic plots like we do, said Medeiros, a doctoral student in neuroscience at the Brain Institute of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte.

Active sleep in the octopus has a very short duration, typically from a few seconds to one minute. If during this state there is any dreaming going on, it should be more like small video clips, or even GIFs, Medeiros added.

Scientists are seeking a greater understanding of the origins and evolution of sleep.

Because the last common ancestor of vertebrates, including humans, and cephalopods, including octopuses, lived more than half a billion years ago, it seems unlikely their similar sleep patterns were established before their evolutionary divergence, the researchers said.

That would mean, they added, that this similar sleep pattern arose independently in the two groups, a phenomenon called convergent evolution.

The investigation of sleep and dreaming in the octopus gives us a vantage point for the psychological and neurobiological comparison with vertebrates, since the octopus possesses several sophisticated cognitive features that are only seen in some vertebrate species but with a very different brain architecture, said study co-author Sidarta Ribeiro, founder of the Brain Institute.

Ribeiro noted that previous studies showed that octopuses, with the most centralized nervous system of any invertebrate, possess exceptional learning abilities, including spatial and social learning, as well as problem-solving capabilities.

The understanding of how organisms as different as humans and octopuses can share fundamental traits such as the sleep cycle opens new avenues for the investigation of animal cognition and for the understanding of the general principles that shaped brain design in these groups of highly intelligent animals, Medeiros said.

Reporting by Will Dunham in Washington, Editing by Rosalba OBrien

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Octopus research yields insight into the evolution of sleep - Reuters

When faced with another long, cold, dark winter this year, many American brewers turned to smoky flavors to amplify new seasonal releases. Pulling inspiration from places and flavors around the globe, these creations ventured far beyond the traditional beechwood-smoked malts of Bamberg, where German rauchbier gets its bacon-like character. Instead, brewers from Boston to Bend, Ore., are expanding the spectrum of smoked beer flavors by using a variety of techniques and histories.

One of the more widespread smoked winter specialty beer releases this year came from a collaboration between Harpoon Brewery and Big Spruce Brewing, a Belgian-style ale brewed with oak and cherrywood smoked malts. It first premiered in December 2020 and is still going strong throughout the tri-state area. (On Untappd, its checked in regularly in Massachusetts and New York.)

Its a smoked abbey ale that we brewed with spruce tips and aged in Glen Breton [Canadian] whisky barrels, says Al Marzi, chief brewing officer of Mass Bay Brewing, parent company of Harpoon Brewery. Named From Nova Scotia with Love, the inspiration for the Belgian-style ale is the close relationship between the city of Boston and the people of Nova Scotia: For more than a century, Nova Scotia has sent a spruce tree to be decorated and lit in Boston Common each winter as a display of gratitude for the aid Bostonians provided them after the Halifax Harbor explosion in 1917. Just like this heartwarming tidbit from history, Marzi says, this special release will definitely warm you up on a cold night.

The flavor profile of Jlabkafld from Deschutes Brewery was also guided by northern inspiration. Assistant brewer Kyle Matthias set out to capture the essence of an Icelandic celebration in a beer.

Jlabkafld translates roughly to yule book flood, the tradition of giving books as gifts and spending Christmas Eve reading with your family. To achieve a flavor reminiscent of that holiday scene, he used a blend of Special B malt, a dark and fruity Belgian malt; Victory malt, which brings toasty and nutty flavors; and oak-smoked wheat for just a touch of smoke to mirror the experience of reading by a fire while being cozy and warm.

A version of the beer has been made for the past several winters and is growing in popularity at Deschutes Portland and Bend taprooms. Matthias isnt sure about Jlabkaflds future as a wider release, but says it will continue to be brewed for the taproom annually.

Although released annually as a winter warmer, the beer is dosed with fresh spruce tips in place of dry hops, a step that provides aromas of citrus and melon. Because of the melding of flavors from all of these special ingredients, the beer benefits from smoked notes without tasting like a smoked beer.

The smoked wheat definitely provides a layer of complexity and nuance to the overall beer, says Matthias. He also notes that the flavor intensity of smoked wheat is much more subtle than the smokiness of beechwood or cherrywood smoked malt.

He says Jola as the brewers call it, is still a great beer well after the holiday season because of the nuanced smoke flavors. When it gets too cold outside for campfires, you can bring the smoke in with you and get a similar sensation to cozying up around a fire, he says.

It was an idea closer to home that pushed Seedstock Brewing Company head brewer Jason Abbott to brew a smoked porter this January.

It is inspired by my grandpas pipe. He was in Europe during World War II. He didnt talk about the war much, but he did talk about the smokey beers [from wartime], Abbott says. He also brought back a number of tobacco pipes that have been passed down through generations.

Abbott says the beer lands somewhere lighter than a porter but darker than a traditional rauchbier. It isnt Abbotts first time working with smoked malt and hes comfortable balancing powerful flavors from the rustic malt. Seedstock has released a Gratzer, a traditional Polish style known for low gravity and clean smoked flavors, brewed with 100 percent smoked wheat malt, and also uses smoked malts as a twist in its Wee Heavy, a malt-forward Scottish style.

Because smoke can impart everything from meaty to roasted and even spicy flavors in beer, Abbott reminds his customers, Smoked beers vary greatly, and just because you dont like one smoked beer doesnt mean you wont like another.

Our Mutual Friend Brewing Company may have made the most unique smoked malt profile of the specialty beers by using a single type of smoked malt for the entire grist.

The phrase traditional smoked beer often conjures visions of German brewing heritage and the rauchbiers of Bamberg, but Jan Chodkowski, Our Mutual Friends head brewer, was chasing a different historical style: the Stjrdalsl of Norway.

Classic Stjrdalsl is made with 100 percent alder wood smoked malt. To achieve this particular grist, Chodkowski teamed up with Colorado Malting Company to grow and malt its own barley and smoke it over alder wood. The result is a dark 9 percent ABV ale with wonderful smoke character as well as toffee and dark fruit attributes, Chodkowski says. Handcrafted malt is the star of the show here, so there are no additional flavors from other ingredients.

Smoked beers are perfect for winter and cold weather because they can provide perceived body and warmth without added alcohol or sweetness, says Chodkowski.

As the weather warms and customers look for brews made to enjoy in the springtime, Our Mutual Friend releases One Sunday Morning, a light smoked wheat beer with only 3.2 percent ABV proving that smoke can bounce between cozy and refreshing.

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The Subtle Evolution of American Smoked Beer - VinePair

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When Britney Spears got her first big break in the late '90s, she was a fashion and beauty ~icon~ to tweens and teens (and adults, let's be real) everywhere. And I, for one, was always impressed by how much she mixed it up. Bangs! Pigtails! Extensions! Fedoras! If there's a style or accessory that exists on this sweet earth, Brit has tried it. Don't worry, of course I've done the photo research to prove it. Please enjoy Britney's hair evolution throughout her career, from the early days of ...Baby One More Time to her Vegas residency. Some styles you'll def remember and love, while others are, um, better left in the past (looking at you, cheesy prom curls).

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January 1999

When Britney appeared on the scene (well, excluding her Mickey Mouse Club days, duh), she had long layers and baby-esque bangs. Also, pretty sure this is her natural color!

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January 1999

Britney's American Music Awards hair was the definition of on-trend. Crimping? Check. Beaded headband? Check. All that's missing is a butterfly clip...or two. (Or three. I loved those things, don't judge me, pls.)

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February 1999

The singer modified her look ever-so-slightly towards the end of the decade with a shorter cut that is serving serious "The Rachel" vibes.

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June 1999

At the MTV European Music Awards, Britney went short with a textured bob and red lowlights (another classic late '90s/early 2000s trend, what a queen).

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July 1999

Only one month later, thanks to what I can only assume are a few pounds of extensions, Britney was seen in concert with honey brown hair and high pigtails, naturally.

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August 1999

Finally! The golden blonde layered look I know and love her for. Her Teen Choice Awards style soon become her signature.

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September 1999

Who else grew obsessed with super long, sleek hair after seeing Brit rock this look at the MTV Music Video Awards? Same same same.

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December 1999

And then as soon as I committed to growing my hair out, she goes and shows up at the Billboard Music Awards with this blunt bob. Always keeping us on our toes, that Brit.

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February 2000

There is no more iconic Grammys look than this. Straight, sleek, icy side-part = everything.

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June 2000

We're all guilty of trying to replicate this gem of a look from the singer's Oops I Did It Again era. No? Just me???

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September 2000

Warning: Crimping your hair at home never rarely turns out looking like Britney at the MTV Music Video Awards. Doesn't mean you shouldn't try, tho! I believe in you!

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November 2000

There was no bigger fan of pigtails (or hats) than Godney. Here, she wears both at the same time on her European tour in 2000.

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December 2000

See?? Britney LOVES a hat. Even...this Victorian-esque (??) one that she wore to the Billboard Music Awards. (Yes, good eye, it also matches her...lingerie set.)

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January 2001

Britney went more dirty than golden blonde in 2001 for her tousled Super Bowl halftime show look.

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March 2001

I humbly refer to this as her "Crossroads Cut" era. She wore the flipped-out, shoulder-length style while filming said iconic movie.

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June 2001

Britney, is that you? She was almost unrecognizable with long platinum blonde extensions and sunglasses at a radio event.

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July 2001

For her boyfriend-at-the-time Justin Timberlake's (!) album release party in 2001, Brit kept it simple with wavy blonde hair.

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September 2001

When dancing with a snake at the MTV Music Video Awards, always opt for long beach waves.

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February 2002

Was Britney going to the Grammys or prom? Your guess is as good as mine. So. Many. Curls.

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August 2002

Alas, another hat! Britney topped blunt layers and bright blonde hair with a leather Breton hat for the 2002 MTV Music Video Awards.

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November 2002

In case you forgot what decade we were in, I give you an oversized flower hair accessory. The early 2000s loved a hair clipand so did Brit.

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January 2003

Britney was an early adopter of the red lowlight trend. She even mixed in purple-red pieces at the American Music Awards.

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February 2003

What hairstyle pairs best with a sexy shipwrecked look? A texturized and rooted blonde bob, of course.

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May 2003

A chin-grazing bob was totes appropriate for a charity auction. Thankfully, she returned to her golden layers soon after.

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June 2003

Britney's solution to a bad hair day is the same as mine: hide it under a hat. Sure, I usually grab a baseball cap, not a fedora, but we all have our preferences.

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September 2003

I'm pretty sure this is a wig, but it was memorable regardless. She wore it to a Super Bowl partymaybe the colors hinted at which team she was rooting for? #Sports

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January 2004

Just like that, Britney returned to her roots with golden blonde beach waves at the NRJ Music Awards in Cannes, France. S-T-U-N-N-I-N-G, I tell you.

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December 2004

A new peachy-blonde hue calls for an elegant high pony fitted with face framing bangs.

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March 2005

A few months later, Britney made a big change with a chestnut brown color. The darker hue was a dramatic difference, but she kept her go-to long layers and baby bangs.

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July 2005

Flash forward a few months: Britney is newly-married, expecting, and back to golden blonde, with a new addition of a lil bump-it.

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50 Photos of Britney Spears' Hair Evolution Through the Years - Cosmopolitan

CONROE, TX - Learning CPR can save the life of someone in distress when minutes count. You never know when you will make the difference by learning basic techniques. Belisia Roberts-Brandley founded Save a Life CPR February 11, 2017, coincidentally just prior to Valentines Day as a mobile business providing CPR training customized to the nature of the business.

Save a Life CPR specializes in the convenience of training at business locations often during lunch to eliminate the need for travel. Businesses range in a variety of industries from Childcare to Healthcare and Restaurants. Many industries must stay in compliance with state mandated trainings to maintain licenses and the convenience makes it easier. Individuals are also offered trainings on Tuesday or Thursday evenings and an option for Saturday mornings.

Roberts-Brandley was employed for over 20 years in the dental industry when she was given an opportunity to be the Dental Assistant Adjunct Professor at Sam Houston State University at the end of 2015. She was gradually given additional leadership opportunities from re-writing curriculum to taking on the role of CPR Instructor and working as the office administrator at a dental office. After her first CPR training at a dental office in February 2017 her passion to own her own business through teaching became the spark leading to Save a Life CPR. The next week she quit her job fulltime job as an administrator at the dental office while maintaining the position with SHSU and became her own boss.

There was no looking back. Belisia worked hard to research pricing, methodology, and set up for the business. It had to be right, and she stayed up late nights perfected her business prior to booking any classes.

Deep down inside I always had a dream to own my own business. Over the last couple of years, I have had this passion to start a small business group in the community for African Americans, said Belisia. In December of 2019 there were no community organizations supporting the African American community, so I started a Facebook group called Small Business Jumpstart.

The group informed and educated members on how to start a business. Daily posts included tips on how to apply for their DBA, EIN, and paperwork you will need to open your business bank accounts. After the success of the group in March of 2020 Roberts-Brandley launched her first business POP-UP Shop in Willis. Now there are additional POP-UP Shops events in the community for small business owners to take pride in their businesses with over 30 booths set up to sell products/services.

Once the Save a Life CPR website was complete, she had many interested individuals needing training, but she did not have a location for classes. Belisia saw a Facebook promotion for office space at Office Evolution. After meeting with Tina, the office manager, she knew this was her destination. They truly believe in the Hawaiian term Ohana (everyone is family).

Roger, Phil, and Tina maintain a clean, safe environment. Every tenant has an answering phoneservice, access to the building 24/7, their business mailbox and mail services. And the cost for my office space is well within my budget. Since I have been at this location and have changed my address on goggle my traffic on goggle has increased 38%. This location is great. When my customers visit, they always compliment the dcor of the building.

Confirm your appointment with Belisia Roberts-Brandley by going online to http://www.savealifelearncpr101.com or call the Save a Life CPR office number at (936) 283-4107 Monday through Friday 9:00am-5:00pm. All COVID safety precautions are in place to keep both staff safe as well as customers.

Roberts-Brandley lives by this quote by Bishop Rosie ONeal, Procrastination is the arrogant assumption that God owes you another chance to do tomorrow what he gave you the chance to do today.

Office Evolution is located at 525 Woodland Square Blvd off FM 1488 in the Marcel Town Center. With over 400 parking spaces and six restaurants, tenants leasing office space are never inconvenienced looking for space in a garage or leaving for lunch. For more information about Office Evolution-The Woodlands visitwww.officeevolution.com/locations/woodlands or call 936-270-1150. Follow them on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/Office-Evolution-Woodlands.

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Office Evolution: The Woodlands - Save a Life with CPR - Woodlands Online