Monthly Archives: August 2022

Like John Cale before him, guitarist and composer Chris Forsyth has evolved along a multifaceted trajectory, expanding his toolkit with each new record. Where his earlier albums relied on intricate, almost hallucinatory, instrumental explorations, 2019s All Time Present redirected his electric improvisations into a more structured song-based format. All Time Present encapsulated Forsyths love for straightforward rocknroll, the logical continuation of his career-long journey from the noise folk of Peeesseye, through the technical art rock of his Solar Motel band, toward a new solo sound that felt equally at home in the studio or on stage.

On his latest album, Evolution Here We Come, Forsyth dials in his unique fusion of tightly constructed instrumental rock and the avant-garde. If All Time Present leaned on the swirling sounds of late 1960s and early 70s psychedelia, Evolution Here We Come embraces the solid state distortion and lightly phased effects of the early 80s. For these seven sharp, efficient tracks, Forsyth enlisted a band equipped to complement his vision: Tortoises Doug McCombs introduces the record with a pillowy, thumping bassline thats quickly recontextualized by drummer Ryan Jewell. Sun Ra disciple and Philadelphia experimental music veteran Marshall Allen also appears, floating over the fray with electronic fragments reminiscent of his mentors Minimoog improvisations.

Co-produced by Darksides Dave Harrington, the album embraces an immersive, underwater sound that stands out in Forsyths catalog. His belief in the endless possibilities of his primary instrument remains consistent, and here, he collaborates with several guitarists who help expand his repertoire. Alongside Garcia Peoples Tom Malach, Bill Nace contributes a sizzling and buzzing accompaniment (listed in the credits as Metal Machine Tashigoto) on Experimental & Professional, while Nick Millevoi plays lap steel on a standout cover of Richard Thompsons Youre Going to Need Somebody. Both guest performances feel like abstractions of Forsyths style on guitar, respectively tapping into the instruments noisier potential and its quieter, pastoral ambience.

The most daring appearance on the record, however, is Forsyths own turn as a frontman. On Youre Going to Need Somebody, he stands squarely and proudly in front of the microphone. Accompanied by husband-and-wife vocalists Steve Wynn and Linda Pitmon, he summons ghosts of early 80s Lou Reed or Tom Verlaine, artists whose work he has always been better at conjuring through his instrumental performances. Swapping their detached sneers for a warm, heartfelt tone, he gives his strongest vocal performance to date. As Forsyth ventures into new territory, hes found a way to bring his influences along for the ride.

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Chris Forsyth: Evolution Here We Come Album Review - Pitchfork

Evolution has a reputation for being unpredictable, yet orderly. With mutations and the environment playing huge roles, it seems that predicting which species will evolve which traits is much like guessing the roll of a single die with millions of faces.

However, in some cases, researchers have found that the die rolls the same way again and again. A combination of separate organisms natural development and the environmental pressures placed on them can create very similar forms, or ecomorphs. Researchers call this phenomenon replicated radiation. (Sometimes, the term adaptive radiation is used synonymously.)

A fictional example might help clarify. Suppose five different groups of SpongeBobs are suddenly separated, spreading geographically into five other regions in the ocean, with no chance of interacting again. Speciation then occurs over millions of years in each of the five areas. But instead of producing novel forms in each of the five regions, the new species of SpongeBob all differ from the original group in a similar way.

For example, if the original SpongeBob species is yellow and square, perhaps all five new species each evolving independently have become orange and round. Being orange and round, it turns out, helps the new species adapt to similar environmental conditions that are present in all these regions. This means that the combination of natural organismal development and some environmental pressure produced a similar form five times. The dice were rolled in each area, and they always gave the same number.

In a new paper published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, an international group of researchers demonstrated that a plant lineage living in 11 geographically isolated regions independently evolved new species with similar leaf forms. This marks the first example of replicated radiation in plants, and the groundbreaking research gives us more insight into the possible future workings of evolution.

Oreinotinus is a member of Viburnum, a group of shrubs or trees that you have probably seen planted around North American towns. Viburnum species have branches adorned with lime-green leaves and topped with small, white flowers that give off a pleasant, nutty aroma. The group, which lives in mountainous regions, spread south from Mexico into Central and South America around 10 million years ago.

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Different species of Oreinotinus have different types of leaves. Simply put, some have a large, hair-covered leaf, and others have a smaller, smooth leaf. Originally, experts postulated that both leaf forms evolved early in the groups history and then dispersed separately through various mountain ranges, carried perhaps by birds. But the distribution pattern of the species, combined with the striking differences in leaf traits, gave researchers an ideal system to explore the possibility that these leaf forms evolved independently across different regions. In other words, they could explore whether this was a case of replicated radiation.

Credit: Annelisa Leinbach / Big Think

The researchers identified 11 mountainous areas, each of them containing a unique, endemic species of Oreinotinus. All the areas are separated by lowland barriers that block plant dispersal barriers such as the Isthmus of Panama, the Caribbean Sea, or the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The researchers studied 40 Oreinotinus species, and only four of them are present in more than one of the 11 areas. To trace the evolutionary history of the leaf forms, the researchers examined the species relationships to one another (phylogeny), their geographic distribution, and the leaves themselves.

If replicated radiation is occurring, the researchers would expect two key results. First, species in the same area should be more closely related to each other than to species in different regions. Second, similar leaf traits should be present in most areas, but they should evolve independently of one another.

As Oreinotinus diversified, four major leaf types evolved independently from an ancestral leaf form. The four forms varied in size, shape, margin that is, whether the edge of the leaf is smooth or toothed and the presence of leaf hairs. The study grouped the leaves into four types. The researchers also backed up their assessments with a statistical analysis based on these characteristics.

Nine of the 11 areas harbor at least two leaf forms; four areas include three forms; and one, Oaxaca, is home to four. Based on simulations and models, the authors rejected the simple evolutionary model in which the leaf forms evolved before the species dispersed. They also found that chance alone does not likely explain why nine areas of endemism host two or more leaf forms. Based on these lines of evidence, the team concluded that leaf forms evolved separately within multiple regions. The leaf morphs did not originate early in Oreinotinus evolution. Rather, as different lineages diversified within different areas, each lineage traversed the same regions of leaf morpho-space.

Leaves do not change randomly different leaf forms have differing functions. We know that a leafs size and shape influence light capture, thermoregulation, and the efficiency of photosynthesis. Leaf hairs help regulate the leafs temperature, influence photosynthesis, and protect leaves from herbivores.

So what is this clade telling us when it evolves different leaf forms? As it turns out, different leaves provide different advantages that suit particular climate niches. For example, the smaller leaves would allow more precise thermoregulation the leaf wont get too hot or too cold as the weather changes. On the other hand, large leaves would be better for lower-light, frequently cloudy environments, because they improve light capture and make photosynthesis more efficient. So the different leaf ecomorphs are adapted to specific sets of subtly different but often adjacent environmental niches.

Essentially, the researchers propose that as Oreinotinus spread southwards, geographic separation yielded different species with very similar ecological functions and traits. Later, speciation occurred within the different regions to produce repeated adaptive shifts in leaf form.

Researchers can now add Oreinotinus to an exclusive list of other groups of organisms known to have undergone replicated radiation, such as Anolis lizards in the Caribbean, cichlid fishes in African rift lakes, and spiders in Hawaii.

With a plant on the list, evolutionary biologists know this is not a trend exclusive to animals isolated on islands, where most of the other examples come from. Like island archipelagos, the cloud forest environments of Oreinotinus are separate from one another. A plant example will help evolutionary biologists pinpoint the broad circumstances under which we can make solid predictions about evolution.

Credit: Annelisa Leinbach / Big Think

Studies of replicated radiation are not the first efforts to tease out the mechanisms behind evolution. Some researchers, though, look to the future rather than the past. In a notable 2013 study, researchers bred the bacteria E. coli for six months equivalent to 1,200 generations for the fast-growing organisms. Soon, most bacteria began to specialize in one of the two food sources available acetate (vinegar) or glucose (sugar). They restarted the cycle twice and found that the proportions of acetate specialists and glucose specialists were the same in all three iterations. Notably, these similarities were mirrored in the genetics of the bacteria. In all three experiments, mutations in the bacterial metabolic pathway led bacteria to develop either a sweet or a sour tooth.

Whether its Darwins finches, Oreinotinus, or a group of sugar-hungry E. coli, we are all subject to the mysterious workings of evolution. But perhaps, as a diverse set of research groups work to tackle the problem, the mystery will fade. As Michael Donoghue, a co-corresponding author of the Oreinotinus study, said in a statement, Maybe evolutionary biology can become much more of a predictive science than we ever imagined in the past.

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Can we predict evolution? - Big Think

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The Long-Term Evolution Experiment began back when a dozen eggs cost 65 cents, the film Rain Man topped the box office and George Michael's song "Faith" ruled the pop charts. The bacteria central to this long-running experimentdescendants of E. coli that were plucked from the wild and have spent some 75,000 generations in captivitynow live on the University of Texas at Austin campus.

Jeff Barrick, director of the Long-Term Evolution Experiment, examines a dish of E.coli bacteria from the LTEE. Credit: Nolan Zunk/University of Texas at Austin.

Having featured in major news stories from around the world, these are some famous bacteriaand one can understand why. Compare the 1980s version of these microbes with those in the lab of associate professor of molecular biosciences Jeff Barrick in Austin today, and it's like juxtaposing our hairy human ancestors from 1.5 million years ago, just as they're learning to control fire, with a person living today. That's how far evolution has carried them apart.

Richard Lenski, at the time an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Irvine and later a mentor to Barrick, started the experiment when he took a single E. coli bacterium, let it divide a few times into identical clones and then inoculated 12 flasks filled with a sugary growth medium and placed them in an incubator set to human body temperature.

By the next morning, the bacteria in each flask had gorged themselves on glucose and doubled about seven times. He then began a routine that has been carried out nearly every day for the past 34 years: he (or a researcher in his lab) diluted the bacteria by transferring small samples into 12 new flasks with fresh glucose to munch on.

After 34 years and 75,000 generations of bacterial evolution, the Long-Term Evolution Experiment moved to the University of Texas at Austin in summer 2022. Credit: Nolan Zunk/University of Texas at Austin.

On June 21, 2022, Barrick revived a dozen samples of bacteria that had been frozen in cryoprotectant and shipped on dry ice to his lab at UT Austin. With a TV news crew capturing the historic moment, Barrick carefully pipetted a portion of each bacterial population into sterile flasks filled with their familiar growth medium and put them in an incubator. There was a palpable sense of excitement in the lab about this once-a-(human)-generation hand-off in an experiment that has become so much larger than one scientist or one research question.

"Time is really important for seeing evolution in action," said Barrick, associate professor of molecular biosciences at UT Austin and now director of the Long-Term Evolution Experiment (LTEE). "The longer the experiment, the more interesting things you can see develop. I compare it to astronomy. The bigger the telescope, the farther back in time and space you can see."

Evolution on a Human Schedule

When Lenski started the LTEE in 1988, he wanted to know how repeatable evolution was.

"Each of those populations has evolved independently from each other since the beginning of the experiment," said Barrick. "So they've all explored different trajectories of evolution. You can ask what happens the same when you replay this tape versus what happens differently only in one of the twelve flasks."

At first, despite being isolated from each other, bacteria in each of the flasks mostly evolved in similar ways. But more than 15 years into the experiment, or about 30,000 generations in, something peculiar happened. The scientists were surprised to find that bacteria in one of the 12 flasks had evolved the ability to consume not just the main food source that all the others were eating (glucose), but another component in the media, citrate. That was a capability nearly all E. coli lack, including the ones used to start the experiment. To this day, no other E. coli in any of the other 11 flasks in the experiment has evolved to tap into this unused resource.

The experiment has also proven to be a great tool for making evolutionary theory tangible. As the bacterial generations rolled by, new genetic mutations arose that allowed some bacteria to consume the sugary growth medium more rapidly and divide faster than their wild cousins. Over time, the bacteria with mutations that made them fitter outcompeted their slow-eating neighbors and eventually dominated. And it happened not just once, but frequently. It's still happening today.

"It's one of the most direct demonstrations of Darwinian adaptation by natural selection you can imagine," Lenski, now a professor at Michigan State University, told Veritasium.

It was initially predicted that the bacteria would eventually hit some natural limit on how much fitter they could become over time.

"But that seems to be untrue," said Barrick. "The rate is ever diminishing, but still improving in terms of the competitive ability of the microbes."

Every morning, a scientist dilutes 12 populations of bacteria and transfers small samples of them into 12 new flasks with fresh glucose to munch on. On June 21, the first day of the restarted experiment, the honor went to Jeff Barrick, director of the LTEE. Credit: Nolan Zunk/University of Texas at Austin.

Passing the Torch

Barrick was a postdoctoral researcher in Lenski's lab from 2006 to 2010 and knew the experiment well. Using genome sequencing tools that had recently become available in his early scientific career, Barrick was able to track how mutations were spreading over time in the LTEE. Now, as a tenured professor, he runs a robust, multidisciplinary lab with the students and other resources needed to maintain such an experiment.

"I'm a big proponent of open science," Barrick told Nature. "This is a great resource that I want to support and share and continue. It's become kind of a common touchstone for a lot of stories about bacterial evolution. And something that people can take in so many directions. I'm excited about supporting the community."

Lenski wrote on the experiment's website about the decision to hand it off:

"I was thrilled when Jeff Barrick accepted my invitation to lead the LTEE into the future! Jeff is an outstanding scientist with expertise in many relevant areas including evolution, microbiology, genomics, bioinformatics, biochemistry, molecular biology, and synthetic biology. Moreover, Jeff leads a team of talented students, postdocs, and techniciansa team that not only will sustain the never-ending daily transfers of the LTEE lines, but who will also ask new questions, propose new analyses, and form new collaborations to answer their questions."

These 12 flasks contain bacteria that have evolved isolated from each other and their wild cousins for 75,000 generations, roughly equivalent to 1.5 million years of human evolution. Credit: Nolan Zunk/University of Texas at Austin.

One of those questions is why haven't the bacteria in the experiment lost more genes? Evolutionary theory and surveys of bacterial diversity in nature suggest that over time, organisms that are well adapted to their environment will lose genes that are no longer beneficial. So far, the scientists haven't seen much reduction in genome size for the LTEE bacteria. Maybe it's just a very slow process. It's one of many reasons Barrick and Lenski said it's important to keep the experiment going for as long as possible.

One thing that makes the LTEE experiment especially powerful is that every 500 generations, a sample of the latest version of each population is frozen. This has resulted in a kind of fossil record of past stages of each flask's evolution. This archive serves as a resource for researchers around the world. As new technologies become available or young scientists dream up new questions to ask, they can go back to this archive, revive the bacteria, and do new research.

In addition to hosting the most current generations of bacteria, UT Austin is now also home to this primary archive. Surprisingly, even with 75,000 generations, this archive still occupies only about half of a standard table-sized chest freezer. The compact size and rapid reproduction of bacteria make studying their evolution much easier than that of fruit flies, corn or mice.

Barrick is looking forward to the ways that new technologies can open up new research directions. He said DNA barcoding, a way of tagging individual bacteria, could enable researchers to get a more detailed view of the dynamics of competing mutations and accurately measure how individual mutations impact fitness. There are also questions about whether the continually evolving bacteria in the experiment will reach a stage where they have accumulated so many genetic differences from their ancestors that they become essentially a new species.

"You can put it back out in nature, mix it with other microbes, and see whether pieces of this genome combine with another bacterium's genome," said Barrick. "That's one of the things that keeps a group of bacteria together as a species. Researchers are testing this idea right now, looking to see if barriers to genetic recombination are rising."

A frozen archive of past stages of each flasks evolution represents a kind of fossil record enabling researchers to go back and explore new questions. Credit: Nolan Zunk/University of Texas at Austin.

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New Era at UT Austin Begins for Famous Long-Term Evolution Experiment - The University of Texas at Austin

Recent genetic research has shed new light on the long-running debate about the evolutionary origins of some of New Zealands quirkiest plants.

More than one in ten native trees and shrubs have small leaves spaced far apart on wiry interlaced branches, often growing in a zig-zag pattern. Once the preserve of botanists, some of these plants have recently gained popularity as ornamentals.

Nowhere else on Earth has this divaricate growth form arisen independently in so many plant families.

It is a spectacular case of convergent evolution in response to environmental pressures. But what environmental pressures? The answer might help us decide how to manage New Zealand ecosystems.

The 19th-century German botanist Ludwig Diels noted that small-leaved shrubs are typical of dry climates. He thought the divaricate form might have arisen in response to cold, dry conditions during the Ice Ages.

In the 1970s, the competing moa browsing hypothesis emerged, arguing the divaricate form is a now-anachronistic defence against browsing by the large flightless birds that went extinct shortly after Polynesian settlement.

Read more: How did ancient moa survive the ice age and what can they teach us about modern climate change?

Experiments have since lent support to the browsing hypothesis. Yet the concentration of divaricate plants in frosty and droughty districts suggests climate is also somehow involved.

So does evidence that the small leaves of divaricates are less vulnerable to chilling than large leaves. But climate does not seem to explain the unusual toughness of the branchlets of divaricate plants.

Molecular dating shows most divaricate plant species arose within the last five million years. But fossils and genetic evidence show moa have been here much longer than that. This means moa browsing alone does not explain the evolution of divaricate forms in so many plant families.

The evidence seems more consistent with a newer synthetic hypothesis that moa browsing had more impact when plants were exposed to a new combination of circumstances: worldwide cooling, the development of frosty, droughty climates in the lee of the recently uplifted Southern Alps, and fertile new soils derived from glacial outwash.

Frosty and droughty climates posed direct physiological challenges to plants, but they also left them more exposed to browsing by preventing them from growing quickly out of reach of moa. Climatic restrictions on growth thus probably made anti-browsing defences more important for plant survival.

Read more: Dead as the moa: oral traditions show that early Mori recognised extinction

Support for this hypothesis comes from a recent experiment, which found climate influenced the impact of deer browsing on competition between divaricate plants and their broad-leaved relatives growing in treefall gaps.

Furthermore, the fertile new soils created by outwash from glaciers would have enhanced the nutrient content of plant tissues, probably resulting in increased browsing pressure. Studies of African savannas show that thorns and divaricate-like growth forms are typical of fertile soils with abundant browsing mammals.

For several centuries after the extinction of the moa, there were no large browsers in New Zealand, until European settlers introduced deer and other hoofed animals. Although valued as game animals and a food source, deer are also considered pests because of their impact on native vegetation.

Feeding experiments have shown both avian and hoofed herbivores are unenthusiastic about eating divaricate plants if alternatives with large soft leaves are available. The spacing of small leaves far apart along wiry branchlets reduces bite size and makes it difficult for browsers to meet their nutritional needs.

Scientists have studied ancient moa diets by identifying pollen grains in fossilised poo (coprolites). Data interpretation is hampered by our inability to identify pollen to species level in plant groups that include both divaricate and broad-leaved species. But it would seem likely that divaricate plants presented similar nutritional challenges to moa.

Analysis of moa coprolites suggests forest understories a millennium ago were more diverse than those we see today, after more than 150 years of browsing by deer. This suggests moa had less impact on vegetation than deer do today.

Unlike deer in contemporary New Zealand, moa faced a deadly predator throughout the entire country: the now-extinct Haasts eagle. Although moa could safely browse under forest canopies, they would have been at risk at watering sites and in open areas.

In contrast, although deer face strong hunting pressure in some areas, recreational hunting has little impact in remote and rugged areas like the Kaweka ranges, where uncontrolled populations of sika deer threaten regeneration of even relatively unpalatable trees like mountain beech.

Fast-growing palatable shrubs and small trees like karam, pat and mhoe probably got their best chance to escape moa browsing when treefalls let in enough light to enable them to grow quickly out of reach, at least in warmer districts where such plants can grow more than a metre in one growing season.

Treefall gaps must have offered two other advantages for palatable plants. The remains of fallen trees can hamper access by large herbivores, and canopy openings would have exposed moa to attack by Haasts eagle.

Moa were probably less able to exploit vegetation on steep slopes than deer and goats are today. The impact of moa across New Zealand landscapes would therefore probably have been less pervasive than the current impact of hoofed browsers.

Lastly, moa probably had a more sluggish metabolism than mammalian browsers of comparable size, implying lower energy requirements and hence lower feeding rates. Close living relatives of moa (kiwis and emus) burn less energy than herbivorous mammals of similar body weight or large flighted birds like swans and geese.

Deer could act as imperfect surrogates for moa, but only if subject to effective control throughout the country.

Aerial 1080 drops to control rats, stoats and possums also usually kill deer, though the mortality rate varies widely. That is one way deer populations could be kept to acceptable levels in remote and rugged areas, where recreational hunting pressure is insignificant. Aerial culling by shooting has also shown potential.

Commercial hunting cannot be relied on to control deer, because of the vagaries of the market. When the price of venison falls, there is little incentive to hunt deer. Aerial 1080 or aerial culling therefore currently seem the only realistic ways to curb the impact of deer in remote and rugged areas.

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How the Ice Ages spurred the evolution of New Zealands weird and wiry native plants - The Conversation

Celebrating its 10th Anniversary, Tintri Introduces 10 Unique Features Delivering AI-Driven Autonomous Data Services and Ease-of-Use in Hybrid Cloud Ecosystems

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- (VMWare Explore Booth #1604) --Tintri, a DDN subsidiaryand the leading provider of auto adaptive, workload intelligent platforms, is celebrating its 10th anniversary of product availability with the "neXt" evolution of Tintri's VMstore series. Expanding on its purpose-built, auto adaptive VMstore platform, Tintri's new Virtual Series incorporates 10 unique features that comprise the company's Platform as a Service (PaaS) approach. The Virtual Series offers autonomous QOS, predictive analytics, distributed data services, and ease-of-use in a robust and efficient virtual data workload management platform for hybrid cloud ecosystems.

As businesses continue to adapt to the massive influx of data and mobile workforces, there is a critical need to implement a more flexible and interconnected IT ecosystem to manage the size and complexity of applications. IT departments must not only manage code updates and new features for these applications, but also the underlying infrastructure which affects workflows while protecting data from being compromised due to ransomware and other impacts. Tintri has seen the movement toward containerization in hybrid IT environments and has adapted its intelligent analytics to enhance locality, security and predictive failure and recovery capabilities.

"We are in close collaboration with our customers and partners and understand the challenges they continue to face as data and application implementation becomes more distributed," said Phil Trickovic, SVP of Revenue, Tintri. "Because of our unique architecture meant specifically for virtual data sets, we are perfectly positioned to meet these new customer challenges and bring tremendous value by rapidly advancing the technology needed to address these new industry dynamics. By decoupling Tintri's AI-powered software from our hardware platform, VMstore customers can now deploy the efficient, transparent and easy-to-use data management platform they're accustomed to with Tintri."

Businesses have consistently turned to Tintri for ease of use, predictable performance and stable service. Customers rely on Tintri to help reduce overhead costs and resources required to manage IT operations, particularly when integrating a cloud strategy. Tintri enables customers to focus on strengthening business operations, leveraging the platform's intelligence to stay ahead of the curve. Tintri VMstore is purpose-built for virtualized workloads and is now taking this same approach to develop the virtual version of VMstore technology, opening the door to new levels of infrastructure efficiency in hybrid cloud ecosystems.

Tintri Virtual Series FeaturesTintri's neXt data management platform will consist of a new Virtual Series solution that enables 10 technology features to lower cost and complexity and gain backup and disaster recovery efficiencies, with the option to deploy and transfer within both on-prem and cloud environments.

"The new Virtual Seriesplatform and the 10 neXt feature additions were designed to address the shift we have seen in the IT market over the last 3-5 years," said Brock Mowry, Tintri's CTO. "Because of VMstore's unique ability to see and manage virtual workloads, these neXt features give users a complete view into their hybrid cloud needs. Both performance and data protection tie back to Tintri's Analytics platform allowing users to design the infrastructure, both cloud and on-prem to best serve the organization's entire application needs."

Tintri Virtual Series Availability & Beta ProgramThe 10 Virtual Series features will roll out over the next 15 months. Tintri Data Security Services and Tanzu Integration are both available today to existing VMstore customers. For more information, contact a Tintri sales representative or visit https://tintri.com/company/talk-to-an-expert/.

Tintri will also launch several beta programs as Tintri rolls out its neXt generation platform. For new and existing customers interested in participating, please email [emailprotected] for more information.

AboutTintriTintri, a wholly owned subsidiary of DataDirect Networks (DDN), delivers purpose-built solutions to store and manage virtual machines in enterprise data centers. Thousands of customers have saved countless administrative hours using Tintri's innovative technologies. Explore the Tintri portfolio of solutions at https://www.tintri.com.

Contact:Walt & Company, on behalf of TintriSharon Sumrit, 408.369.7200 x2981[emailprotected]

2022 All rights reserved. DDN and Tintri are trademarks or registered trademarks owned by DataDirect Networks. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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neXt Evolution of Tintri VMstore Breaks Out of the Data Center and Into the Cloud - PR Newswire

Last March, at Enterprise Connect, three keynotes highlighted a new take on UCaaS Mobility. Thats not particularly newsworthy in itself, as mobility has been a reliable unified communications (UC) and unified communications as a service (UCaaS) feature since the beginning. However, this year the messaging changed from two complementary solutions to a single, all-in-one solution with significant implications.

Theres a common misperception that organizations no longer need an enterprise phone system. Its not uncommon for someone to wave a smartphone at me, declaring this is the only phone they need. However, the market for enterprise UC and UCaaS solutions remains strong because they offer advanced calling features for individuals and departments. As a result, most organizations have two separate comms solutions and strategies, and thats whats changing.

While the mobile app is central to every UC and UCaaS offering, few providers openly admit that those apps dont work particularly well. The problem isnt within the app itself but with the network.

The modern smartphone connects to the world over two different provider services. Native smartphone services, such as voice and SMS, run over a different network than Internet applications. The native services receive a higher quality of service on the providers wireless and wired portions of the service. Internet services are subject to more contention and latency.

Applications such as UC and UCaaS run over-the-top (OTT) of the Internet connection, resulting with a reduced quality of experience compared to the native apps. Thats why low-quality UC/UCaaS conversations on a mobile device can sound better if you reconnect using the native dialer. Most OTT apps (such as email, social, and messaging) arent as sensitive to network performance as voice and video.

For simplicity, Ive grouped the evolution of UC/UCaaS and mobility into three stages. The first stage was largely accomplished with creative call forwarding. This worked best on incoming calls and was known as Find Me/Follow Me, Simultaneous Ring, and other names. Incoming calls would forward sequentially or simultaneously to multiple devices (and/or locations). Outbound solutions usually involved calling an intermediary station that could place a call with a modified outbound caller-ID.

The second -- and current -- generation of UC/UCaaS mobility relies on smartphone apps. The smartphone, like a PC, runs a softphone client that connects to the UC/UCaaS servers over a wireless Internet connection. It works well when the location and connection receive a strong signal, but thats not a safe assumption in mobile use cases. Also, the UC/UCaaS app isnt as intuitive to many users as the native dialer. Smartphones are phones, and UC/UCaaS apps provide inherent secondary and overlapping services.

UCaaS mobile apps are popular, but not necessarily for calling. The apps provide access to organizational content such as messaging and a directory. They can allow a user to make and receive calls from their work number, but its not uncommon for users to prefer to reveal their direct number for better service.

In the preceding generation and the current one, the UC/UCaaS solution works together with the separate mobility service. In this upcoming next generation, the UC/UCaaS solution will combine with the mobility service into one solution. It is not a single vendor solution, the UCaaS providers and cellular providers are integrating their services. Today, Cisco and RingCentral (via AT&T) offer users the ability to create a UCaaS implementation with any mixture of desktop phones, desktop softphones, and cellular extensions. A single service for calling, messaging, meetings, and mobility.

The services can be combined with dual SIM phones which means that a single wireless endpoint can be used for personal and business calling both with high quality, native wireless services. Neither requires an app to be installed on the smartphone, but the app completes the UCaaS experience with a full suite of services including calling, messaging, meetings, and directory.

This isnt a technical breakthrough. For example, Verizon and BroadSoft (now Cisco) introduced Verizon OneTalk in 2016 with a similar capability. Whats new is the maturation of the concept into the mainstream. Verizon OneTalk was never particularly popular. Suddenly we have Cisco and RingCentral, two industry UCaaS leaders, working with a AT&T, a top-tier wireless provider in North America. Microsoft is working with Verizon to launch a similar capability. T-Mobile remains on the bench, but it has a strong go-to-market partnership (and equity stake) in Dialpad.

Cisco, Microsoft, and RingCentral shared a similar vision but are taking different routes to get there. Microsofts approach, as described, is built around Teams. Carrier services are obtained, managed, and assigned through the Teams administrative portal. It requires each carrier to become certified and approved to integrate with Teams.

Ciscos approach is channel agnostic in that you can obtain Webex Go from value-added resellers and providers. However, Webex essentially becomes the carrier itself. Cisco is aggregating wired and wireless services under the Webex brand. This approach allows, for example, Cisco to become a multinational organizations global communications provider for calling, meetings, messaging, and mobility.

This next generation of UCaaS and mobility will be compelling. For the cellular providers, it represents a significant expansion of their total available market. For the UCaaS providers, it delivers a seamless, mobile, work-from-anywhere experience. Organizations can receive a highly flexible, single solution for all enterprise communications.

Were heading toward a single, consolidated communications service. Thats a single service for calling, messaging, meetings, and mobility. The disruptive aspects of this convergence arent insignificant. There will be disruptive impacts providers and channels.

Ive been using the Cisco Webex solution for the past several months. My phone is configured with two SIMs, so it prompts me to select the preferred provider when placing a call. I can initiate calls from either the native dialer or the Webex app. Ive used it in the U.S. and Europe with no discernible difference in quality. My only complaint is that phone service is bound to one device, so I have to manually designate the preferred device for calling.

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The Convergence and Evolution of Enterprise Calling - No Jitter

In the first year and with only one electric car, the city of Boulder, Colo., saved $250 a month in electric charges thanks to a bidirectional car charger.

The pilot project was an attempt to explore the concept of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) car charging, which generally follows the idea of using the EVs battery to charge when energy is less expensive and then discharge that energy either directly onto the electric grid, or into the building the charger is connected to, as a way to reduce the building's electric needs from the grid.

V2X often interchanged with vehicle to grid (V2G) is being explored as another value proposition for EV owners, who are always interested in the long-term cost savings that come with electric cars, as well as a mechanism for designing resiliency and management into the electric grid.

The idea of using EVs as battery storage for other outside uses may sound simple, but its a concept still in its infancy and is one that will require the coordination of car makers, technology providers, utilities and regulators to work together to make bidirectional charging and discharging a common feature of owning and operating EVs.

No one can go it alone; not the utility, not the technology provider and not the customer, said Jeni Reynolds, director for clean transportation at San Diego Gas and Electric (SDGE) in some of her comments on the Veloz panel. SDGE is involved in a pilot project to use electric school buses to discharge power when they are not in use.

And thats when they can provide, back to the grid, that power, she added. Really finding the vehicles that have that operational cycle is helpful.

Another project in New York City will use EVs operated by Revel a ride-share company. The project will use vehicle-to-everything technology from Fermata Energy and clean energy developer NineDot to deploy a bidirectional charging system that moves energy from vehicles back to the grid.

They have a bunch of vehicles, and they realized they could make money off of their vehicles, David Slutzky, founder of Fermata Energy, told Government Technology.

Fleet vehicles, said Slutzky, are an obvious use case for bidirectional charging arrangements.

I fully expect this project will scale pretty quickly, said Slutzky.

We take a commercial fleet, and we can help them manage their electric bill discharging the vehicle onto the building load when the building load peaks, he explained. The building is not really involved. Its just that they have fewer electrons passing through their meter, and so they have a lower bill.

Yes, fleet customers are a key market application for bidirectional charging, said Slutzky. But I want to be clear, so are a bunch of others.

Industry watchers expect more EVs to support bidirectional charging in the coming model years. Today, the Nissan Leaf is perhaps most widely available. However, a key marketing message around the new Ford F-150 Lightning is its ability to serve as an emergency home power source.

When the power is not available from the grid, were able to provide that from the vehicle, through an inverter, a transfer switch, said Jacob Mathews, manager for EV standards at Ford, in some of his comments on the Veloz panel, adding Ford sees vehicle to grid as a critical element of getting the value that EVs can bring.

Skip Descant writes about smart cities, the Internet of Things, transportation and other areas. He spent more than 12 years reporting for daily newspapers in Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and California. He lives in downtown Yreka, Calif.

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Bidirectional Charging Could Be the Next Evolution of EVs - Government Technology

As early as in 2014, strategic thinker Anthony H Cordesman stressed the need to understand rival views of grand strategy and military developments or, to quote a British military expert, the other side of the hill. Cordesman was writing in the immediate aftermath of Russias annexation of Crimea as he observed a range of Russian and Belorussian military and civil experts present a very different view of global security and the forces behind it from that of the Wests at the Russian Ministry of Defences Third Moscow Conference on International Security in May 2014. The standout point of his published paper was the laser sharp focus he brought to bear on the role of what Russian analysts termed the Colour Revolution in the evolving security situation.

The Kremlin saw a clear link between the Rose Revolution in Georgia (2003), Orange Revolution in Ukraine (2004), and the Tulip Revolution that took place in Kyrgyzstan (2005). The regime changes that followed these protest movements in the erstwhile Soviet republics caused considerable consternation, and even alarm, in Moscow. Russia tied the term Colour Revolution to what it saw as a new American-European approach to warfare that focused on creating destabilising revolutions in other nation-states as a means of serving their security interests at low cost and with minimal casualties. It was seen as posing a potential threat to Russia (in its near abroad), to China, and to Asian states not aligned with the USA. Understanding this context is key to making sense of President Vladimir Putins decision to invade Ukraine in February this year.

Russia-watcher Timothy Fryes recently released book, Weak Strongman: The Limits of Power in Putins Russia, examines the roots of Mr Putins power and its implications for the countrys foreign policy. He underlines that Moscows more assertive foreign policy and the trade-offs being made ~ and largely being accepted by the Russian people ~ between security and economic growth seem here to stay. Scholar Andrew Monaghan iterates in his review of the book that the Russian leaderships longstanding concerns about a Colour Revolution have not only been a dominant feature of the security debate in Moscow but also relate to the direction of its personalist autocracy.

The Kremlins understanding of the evolving international affairs landscape ~ how it envisages a post-West world including a Pacific 21st century, its prioritisation of the Arctic, its worries about growing competition over the global commons, and the geoeconomic competition that Moscow sees as intensifying and driving conflict over the coming decade ~ will dictate not just the Wests relationship with Russia but also impact how the new cold war thesis plays out globally. As Monaghan writes, a discussion on Russias calculus behind its measures of war is now unavoidable. An honest engagement with the issue, however, could throw up uncomfortable questions for the West.

A version of this story appears in the print edition of the August 29, 2022, issue.

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Russian evolution - The Statesman