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Expeditions to a remote area of Yukon, Canada, have uncovered a 120-million-year-long geological record of a time when land plants and complex animals first evolved and ocean oxygen levels began to approach those in the modern world.

Hundreds of millions of years ago, in the middle of what would eventually become Canadas Yukon Territory, an ocean swirled with armored trilobites, clam-like brachiopods and soft, squishy creatures akin to slugs and squid.

Along the banks of the Peel River a few hundred miles south of the Arctics Beaufort Sea, scientists have unearthed a trove of fossils and rock layers formed on that ancient ocean floor.

The team hacked through brush with machetes beside Class VI rapids to collect hundreds of fist-sized samples of rock.

The discovery reveals oxygen changes at the seafloor across nearly 120 million years of the early Paleozoic era, a time that fostered the most rapid development and diversification of complex, multi-cellular life in Earths history.

Its unheard of to have that much of Earths history in one place, says Stanford University geological scientist Erik Sperling, lead author of a paper on the findings in Science Advances. Most rock formations from the Paleozoic Era have been broken up by tectonic forces or eroded over time. Theres nowhere else in the world that I know of where you can study that long a record of Earth history, where theres basically no change in things like water depth or basin type.

Oxygen was scarce in the deep water of this and other oceans at the dawn of the Paleozoic, roughly 541 million years ago. It stayed scarce until the Devonian, roughly 405 million years ago, when, in a geological blinkno more than a few million yearsoxygen likely rocketed to levels close to those in modern oceans and the diversity of life on Earth exploded. Big, predatory fish appeared. Primitive ferns and conifers marched across continents previously ruled by bacteria and algae. Dragonflies took flight. And all of this after nearly four billion years of Earths landscapes being virtually barren.

Scientists have long debated what might have caused the dramatic shift from a low oxygen world to a more oxygenated one that could support a diverse web of animal life. But until now, it has been difficult to pin down the timing of global oxygenation or the long-term, background state of the worlds oceans and atmosphere during the era that witnessed both the so-called Cambrian explosion of life and the first of Earths Big Five mass extinctions, about 445 million years ago at the end of the Ordovician.

In order to make comparisons throughout these huge swaths of our history and understand long-term trends, you need a continuous record, says Sperling, an assistant professor of geological sciences at Stanfords School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences.

With permission from the Na Cho Nyak Dun and Tetlit Gwitchin communities in Yukon, Sperlings team, which included researchers from Dartmouth College and the Yukon Geological Survey, spent three summers at the Peel River site. Arriving by helicopter, the research team hacked through brush with machetes beside Class VI rapids to collect hundreds of fist-sized samples of rock from more than a mile of interbedded layers of shale, chert, and lime mudstone.

Back at Sperlings lab, a small army of summer undergraduates and graduate students worked over five summers to help analyze the fossils and chemicals entombed in the rocks. We spent a lot of time splitting open rocks and looking at graptolite fossils, Sperling says. Because graptolites evolved a vast array of recognizable body shapes relatively quickly, the pencil-like markings left by the fossils of these colony-dwelling sea creatures give geologists a way to date the rocks in which theyre found.

Once the researchers had finished identifying and dating graptolite fossils, they ground the rocks in a mill, then measured iron, carbon, phosphorous, and other elements in the resulting powder to assess the ocean conditions at the time and place where the layers formed. They analyzed 837 new samples from the Peel River site, as well as 106 new samples from other parts of Canada, and 178 samples from around the world for comparison.

The data show low oxygen levels, or anoxia, likely persisted in the worlds oceans for millions of years longer than previously thoughtwell into the Phanerozoic, when land plants and early animals began to diversify. The early animals were still living in a low oxygen world, Sperling says. Contrary to long-held assumptions, the scientists found Paleozoic oceans were also surprisingly free of hydrogen sulfide, a respiratory toxin often found in the anoxic regions of modern oceans.

When oxygen eventually did tick upward in marine environments, it came about just as larger, more complex plant life took off. Theres a ton of debate about how plants impacted the Earth system, Sperling says. Our results are consistent with a hypothesis that as plants evolved and covered the Earth, they increased nutrients to the ocean, driving oxygenation. In this hypothesis, the influx of nutrients to the sea would have given a boost to primary productivity, a measure of how quickly plants and algae take carbon dioxide and sunlight, turn them into new biomassand release oxygen in the process.

The change probably killed off graptolites. Although more oxygen is really good for a lot of organisms, graptolites lost the low oxygen habitat that was their refuge, Sperling says. Any environmental change is going to have winners and losers. Graptolites might have been the losers.

Additional coauthors of the study are from Stanford; St. Francis Xavier University; Yukon Geological Survey; Trinity College, Dublin; Georgia Institute of Technology; Virginia Polytechnic University and State University; Western University Canada; the University of Portsmouth; Dartmouth College; the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagez; Vanderbilt University; and Yale University.

Support for this work came from an Ocean Sciences Research Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the affiliates of the Stanford Program on Deep-water Depositional Systems, the McGee-Levorsen fund at Stanford, the National Science Foundation, the Agouron Institute, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (Canada).

Source: Stanford University

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CalAmp iOn Honored for Exceptional Innovation for Delivering Actionable Intelligence to Fleet Operators

IRVINE, Calif., July 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CalAmp (Nasdaq: CAMP), a connected intelligence company helping businesses and people track, monitor and recover vital assets with real-time visibility and insights, today announced its CalAmp iOn fleet and asset management solution has won the 2021 IoT Evolution Product of the Year Award by IoT Evolution World. The award recognizes the best and most innovative products and solutions powering the Internet of Things.

CalAmp iOn is a flexible and data-enriched solution for fleet and asset management that delivers timely and critical insights to commercial, government and construction organizations. The software solution leverages a close integration between vehicle telematics, AI and data analytics to deliver contextual insights to fleet managers about vehicles, drivers and assets to improve fleet efficiency, reduce costs and increase safety.

CalAmp iOn's intuitive new user interface, dashboards and reporting empower users with actionable data to help fleet operators make smarter business decisions. Managers can get real-time alerts on harsh driving events, maximize vehicle uptime with the maintenance manager, and identify engine idling to help reduce fuel costs, among many other mission-critical data insights. This award follows CalAmp iOn's inclusion in Equipment Today's 2020 Contractors' Top 50 New Products.

"We are thrilled and honored to receive this award. It validates our extensive customer research to identify key pain points and diligent work on the user interface to streamline workflows that allow users to easily dive into the business-critical data they need to increase fleet efficiency, cost-savings and safety," said Jeff Clark, senior vice president of product management for CalAmp. "All fleet operations' stakeholders now have access to a user-friendly tracking module that empowers fleet managers to make smarter business decisions in real-time."

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"Congratulations to recipients of the 2021 IoT Product of the Year Awards," said Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC. "It is one of the most rewarding parts of our jobs at IoT Evolution World to recognize the latest innovative products and solutions in the exploding IoT market. With our partners at Crossfire Media, we all look forward to seeing their future successes!"

About CalAmpCalAmp (Nasdaq: CAMP) is a connected intelligence company that helps people and businesses work smarter. We partner with transportation and logistics, industrial equipment, government and automotive industries to deliver insights that enable businesses to make the right decisions. Our applications, platforms and smart devices allow them to track, monitor and recover their vital assets with real-time visibility that reduces costs, maximizes productivity and improves safety. Headquartered in Irvine, California, CalAmp has been publicly traded since 1983. We have 22 million products installed and over 1.3 million software and services subscribers worldwide. For more information, visit calamp.com, or LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or CalAmp Blog.

CalAmp, LoJack, TRACKER, Here Comes The Bus, Bus Guardian, iOn Vision, CrashBoxx and associated logos are among the trademarks of CalAmp and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. Spireon acquired the LoJack U.S. Stolen Vehicle Recovery (SVR) business from CalAmp and holds an exclusive license to the LoJack mark in the United States and Canada. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

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WASHINGTON, July 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Best-selling author and award-winning voiceover artist Cayman Kelly proudly announced he had renewed his contract to serve as the promo voice for the nation's fastest-growing network designed for African American audiences. Nationally syndicated with a wide variety of stations, Cayman Kelly has already secured his reputation as a leading broad-ranging radio voiceover expert, but finds his work with Bounce to be of especial importance. Kelly has a long history of working with Bounce, whose founders include Martin Luther King III and Ambassador Andrew Young.

Cayman Kelly renews contract as promo voice for groundbreaking African-American network, Bounce TV

Breaking new ground for African American actors, voiceover artists, and other professionals has been a Bounce TV specialty since its inception. An absolute foundational Black business in the United States, Bounce TV has been an important entertainment resource and inspiration for generations of Black families. Sitting down to explain why this renewed promo-voice contract means so much to him, Cayman Kelly said:

"I've been with Bounce from the very beginning and I'm absolutely thrilled to see how much they've grown and expanded over the years. Watching their evolution being a part of it has been a blessing in so many ways. They are the first African American 'over-the-air' broadcast network. They started with movies and syndicated programs. Now Bounce is doing original programming, including dramas, sitcoms, news, and the like. Basically, this means they've been doing the hard work over the long haul, for a number of years now. They've carved their space. And I can't stress how important this is to the Black community because visibility and representation absolutely matters. To be a part of that kind of American history is just humbling and gratifying to me."

Kelly's signature sound can be heard on Bounce TV right now. For up-to-the-minute news on Kelly's future voice appearances, ESPN show announcements, and other projects, go online. Or follow Cayman Kelly on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

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About Bounce TV

Bounce is the first African American broadcast network. It airs on the broadcast signals of local television stations and corresponding cable carriage and features a programming mix of original series, theatrical motion pictures, specials, off-network series and more. Among the founders of Bounce are iconic American figures Ambassador Andrew Young and Martin Luther King, III. Learn more at: http://www.BounceTV.com.

About Cayman Kelly: The National Voice of ESPN and Monday Night Football

Cayman Kelly is a multimedia professional, host, actor, author, radio personality and leading voice-over artist known for his smooth and contemporary prime-time sound. Kelly began his promising career as a voice-over artist for the BET, and has since created a wide variety of materials for television promos, including TV Land, TV One, Cartoon Network, Bounce and others. His catalog of hosted events and voice-overs is long and distinguished, including multiple major music festivals like Essence, Capital Jazz, St. Kitts, Bermuda, and U Street; a voice performance for "Grand Theft Auto V"; album-release parties for India Aria, Jennifer Hudson, Bobby Brown, Patti Labelle and Alicia Keys; and interviews with Jamie Foxx, Mo'Nique, Janet Jackson, and Mary J. Blige.

Kelly is also the imaging voice for multiple radio stations, including POWER 105.1 in New York, hosting the "The Breakfast Club," and a popular national show on SiriusXM's Heart & Soul. Recently, Kelly was chosen as the new voice for ESPN and NFL Monday Night Football the first African American to achieve that position. Learn more about his life and work at: http://www.CaymanKelly.com.

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Robin Steinfeld, Buchwald Talent Agent1.212.634.8373Ltorres@buchwald.com

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The furnishing sector has evolved since its inception and has become one of the major contributing industries to the country's economy. That said, the commercial real estate industry has also come to the wider picture.

The commercial real estate market includes offices, retails, industrial, hospitality, multi-family and logistics. The cities that are highly impacted by this particular markets growth and influence are Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi (NCR), Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Pune. This ever-growing market is further boosted by various government initiatives.

However, it is when the furniture industry was hugely gaining prominence in the commercial real estate space that the COVID-19-induced lockdown caused an initial setback in multiplying business avenues. But, the industry has made numerous efforts in transforming itself to continue doing business at a break-neck speed.

Over the years, major initiatives like "Make in India" and Vocal for Local saw the government aiming to increase the country's stake in the manufacturing sector.

Many big players in the industry have shifted their manufacturing units to the country, hence emphasising the golden attribute of Aatmanirbhar in the industry.

These initiatives have helped create a climate of innovation while helping boost the economy.

The furniture industry is a progressive sector. It had already witnessed numerous changes that kept taking place from time to time, and unfailingly catered to requirements arising from virtual classes for children or work from home for professionals.

Alongside government policies, the pandemic caused a total paradigm shift in the way people perceive things around them.

The pandemic-induced lockdown has also initiated e-meetings/ dependence on online platforms within the system to keep projects rolling.

Industry players are now looking for creative collaborations across space for delivering the best of the best. Stakeholders in any project can be easily accessible via e-meetings that in return will help in making progress in decision making faster and on effective grounds.

The sector began conducting smooth operations with the help of innovation around safety guidelines, adapting to the changes post-COVID scenario. And it is hopeful that new avenues are going to open up for both, the commercial real estate and furniture market.

It is clear that to sustain through the current pandemic crisis into a post-pandemic economy, brands need to focus heavily on current furniture trends and functionality of a furniture piece over its presentability. Customer choices and preferability are subjected to alterations based on timely needs. And this is time for furniture that is multifunctional, durable, economical, and space saving.

Furniture - the basic requirement for every space - will always have an impact on the customer base and contribute to the growth of the industry.

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)

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How the evolution of the furniture industry amidst the pandemic will lead to growth - YourStory

From olive wreaths to recycled metals sourced from old cell phones and electronics, the reward for winning at the Olympics, the most sought-after achievement in an athletes life, has come a long way, much like the Games itself.

Made of recycled electronic devices and pebble-like in appearance, the medals in the upcoming Tokyo Games will measure 8.5 centimeters in diameter, featuring the flying image of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory.

But, unlike previous years, these will be produced from gold, silver and bronze (in this case, copper and zinc) that has been stripped from over 79,000 tons of used cell phones and other small electronic devices donated by the Japanese population.

During the ancient Olympic Games, athletes who emerged victorious were awarded Kotinos or olive wreaths, which were considered a sacred prize in Greece, representing the highest honour.

In 1896, the long-lost tradition of ancient Greece, the Olympic Games was reborn in Athens.

With the rebirth, new practices made way for older ones and thus the custom of awarding medals began silver for the winners while the runners-up received a copper or bronze medal.

On the front of the medal was Zeus, father of the gods and in whose honour the Games were held, holding Nike, while the reverse side showed the Acropolis.

It wasnt until eight years later in the 1904 St. Louis Games, where the now standard gold, silver, and bronze medals, were first used.

The metals represent the first three ages of man in Greek mythology: the Golden Age when men lived among the gods, the Silver Age where youth lasted a hundred years, and the Bronze Age, or the age of heroes.

Over the next century, the coveted awards would vary in shape, size, weight, composition, and in the image they carried.

In 1923, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) launched a competition for sculptors to design the medals for the Summer Games.

The Italian artist Giuseppe Cassiolis design was chosen as the winner in 1928.

The obverse of the medal was embossed with Nike holding a palm in her left hand and the crown for the winner in the right, with a depiction of the Colosseum in the background and the reverse featured a crowd of people carrying a triumphant athlete.

This design continued for a considerable time.

While host cities were allowed to rework the reverse of the medal starting from the 1972 Munich Games, the obverse only changed during the 2004 Athens Olympics.

A new depiction of Nike, flying into the 1896 Panathenaic Stadium to bestow victory on the strongest, highest and fastest, replaced the older one.

Until 1960, winners had medals pinned to them but the Rome Olympics had the necklace-like design allowing the athletes to wear the prized possession around their necks thanks to a chain.

Four years later, the chain made way for coloured ribbons.

Interestingly, the gold medals are not made of the yellow metal entirely. The 1912 Stockholm Games was the last time an Olympic medal was made entirely out of the metal. Now, they are just plated with it.

As per the IOC guidelines, a gold medal must contain a minimum of 6 grams of gold. In reality, silver forms the bulk of the medal.

China, which hosted the 2008 Beijing Olympics, for the first time, introduced medals made of a material other than metal jade.

Representing honour and virtue in traditional Chinese culture, the coveted gemstone was inlaid into the back of each medal.

At a time when environmental consciousness was on the rise, the 2016 Rio Games scripted history by becoming the most sustainable edition in Olympic history.

The organisers opted for more usage of recycled material.

Not only were the medals made of 30 per cent recycled material but the ribbons they were attached to were made of 50 per cent recycled plastic bottles while the gold was mercury-free.

Following in Rios footsteps, the Tokyo Games organisers have opted for medals made of recycled electronic devices, including discarded laptops and smartphones phone, a proposal that won the Everyones Medal campaign launched by the Tokyo 2020 organising committee in 2017.

I never dreamed that the design I submitted, only as a memorial to this lifetime event, would be actually selected, winner of the design, Junichi Kawanishi, had told media when the medals were launched.

With their shining rings, I hope the medals will be seen as paying tribute to the athletes efforts, reflecting their glory and symbolising friendship.

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Of Olympic medals and their evolution - The Indian Express

Retail evolution will be reshaped in the years ahead by how stores assess the changing needs and desires of customers, but it will also be a byproduct of the environment in which stores are located. How cities evolve, and the action planners and officials takeor dont taketo encourage vibrant communities and discourage crime will play an integral role in where stores are, what they look like, what risks they face, and how successful they are. The futures of cities and stores are intertwined.

Retail was hit hard by the pandemic. Longtime businesses closed and were not able to reopenbut theyre also opening in more innovative ways, said Brooks Rainwater, director of the National League of Cities (NLC) Center for City Solutions, during the release in June of a new NLC report, The Future of CitiesReenvisioning Retail. The report examines how city planners can support businesses in the retail sector and facilitate the meaningful evolution of retail.

The NLC project acknowledges that the fates of cities and retailers are connected. Retail forms the foundation for local economies, workforces, and community main streets. As goes retail, so goes our nations citiesand vice versa.

For retailers, the report is a call to engage more cooperatively with communities and city planners. As they transition out of pandemic, cities are starting to confront choices and make decisions that will have significant impact on retail operations both near and long term.

In the wake of the pandemic, city leaders have an unprecedented opportunity to help shape the retail landscape in ways that benefit the communities they serve. We are again at a critical inflection point in the way retail takes shape in our cities, the report notes.

Much in the reports findings and analysis will please retailers, including the fact that flexible land use codes will likely persist post-pandemic. Analysts noted that cities were compelled during the pandemic to decrease regulatory hurdlesto allow curbside dining, for exampleand that its a genie that will be hard to put back in the bottle.

Once retailers can do innovative things, it gets harder to tell them, No, said Erin Simmons, senior director at the American Institute of Architects Communities by Design. During the pandemic, cities allowed restaurant table and retail stalls to displace cars, she noted. Suddenly, this thing that cities focused onparkingdidnt matter. And people loved it, and now they have a taste for what their cities can be.

Simmons thinks cities are prime to embrace a more why not attitude for city spaces, and hopes they recognize the need to drive people to public spaces with events, fire pits, play areas, reconfigured parking areas, and other investments to support the retail evolution to regain a foothold in commercial districts.

Given greater rein, experiments in retail could transform entire towns, said analysts. More experiential retailing, out-of-the-box experiences, and themed retail could be winnersand there is no shortage of businesses willing to give it a try. People are thinking retail is a good area to start a business in, said Michael Mandel, chief economic strategist at the Progressive Policy Institute.

The NLCs message to city planners is to not stand in the way. Retailers need the flexibility to meet the needs of customersboth online and physicaland cities must support them. A hair salon needs reliable high-speed Internet to facilitate online scheduling, for example. Leading cities will enshrine outdoor dining, retail, and people-friendly streets into their visions for the long-term success of their communities, according to the NLC report.

City investments in technology could have important benefits for the retail evolution. For example, cities adopting parking space sensors and digital signage conveying parking availability to retail customers provides a benefit to surrounding business owners. Additionally, many cities are investing in smart city programs that greatly increase the amount of data cities receive from their communities, and cities have opportunities to make better use of that information and provide actionable insights to support their retail sector, according to NLCs recommendations.

For example, technology-enabled cities can provide data on counts of pedestrians or vehicles that pass a storefront each hour, which can help business owners better understand customer flow and adjust store hours accordingly. Cities can amplify the benefit of [technology] investments through increased data sharing with businesses that could make use of this operational insight.

City planners should also be more responsive to communities as they attempt to support a vibrant retail environment, says the NLC. Most communities know what they want and what they need, they can reel off what their community doesnt have, said Simmons. The people that live there have ideas, and youre starting to see peoples minds expand with what can go into an old big-box store, for example.

More than 12,200 major retail chain store locations permanently closed in 2020, translating to 159 million square feet of emptied retail space. Now it is up to city leaders to make sure these spaces will continue to meet community needs, the report concludes.

With a surplus of commercial and retail space, it is a prime opportunity for cites to pursue mixed-use development, meet demands for affordable housing, and make urban centers more walkable, according to Laurie-Anne Sayles, a councilmember in Gaithersburg, Maryland. This is a prime opportunity for local governments to attract retailers that are going to re-purpose empty city spaces in a new way to engage with residents.

There are indications countrywide of the trend toward mixed-use projects. In Miami-Dade County, Florida, commissioners just approved a $1.17 billion lease for a 43-acre mixed-use project of 1,700-plus homes, retail space, a hotel, and a school. The former Niagara Falls retail shopping center is getting new life as a mixed-use development with retail and tourist attractions.

Where retailers will locate in cities is unclear, according to Mandel. Little clusters of shops could increasingly dominate but downtown malls may also experience a surge in popularity. Retail will respond to consumer demand, but Its not yet entirely clear what people want, he said. And is it work-from-home? Is it going back to the office?

For some retailers it could be a time of complicated transition, depending on where jobs come back. Some retailers might find that they are not in the right place, he said. But overall, there is more demand for retail than people probably think.

While questions remain, it seems clear that the pandemic has caused the division between work, life, shopping, and home to erode. Communities are likely to evolve to promote a more seamless blend of all these experiencesand thats a good thing, according to the NLC report. The colocation of retail, public, and residential space benefits all, it concludes.

Its crucial to meet customers where they are, added Rainwater. Whether that is online from their homes, or in brick-and-mortar storefronts in their neighborhoods, or in city centers. The flexibility of shopping from the location most convenient for the customer will remain a primary driver of sales.

Retail evolution is expected to respond to shifting demands, with localization of retail emerging as a trend. Retail will continue to expand beyond storefronts in business districts and into other parts of the community, according to the report. The success of buy local movements during the pandemic and an emphasis on hiring local workers will persist as many retailers look to participate more fully in their cities and build strong business communities.

Decentralized retail and the formation of neighborhood community hubs needs to be prioritized, according to the NLC. The 15-minute city, in which most residents can meet their needs within a short walk or bike ride from their home, has been gaining traction again.

There is a gap post-pandemic between what communities need, what consumers want, and how retail is delivered. Aligning those interests requires cities to support retail evolution and to be proactive, according to the NLC.

With continuing changes in the demand for commercial space and the desire for decentralized retail, cities will have to take the lead in developing solutions, it concludes. For some cities, that will require addressing underutilized office and retail spaces, especially in core business areas.

Given that business travel to many cities remains sluggish to the detriment of related retail services like hotels, restaurants, and car rentals, these cities must be active in repurposing spaces to serve community needs, the report reads. This could mean transitioning commercial office spaces to residential and encouraging residents to move back downtown. In contrast, other cities will have to adapt to assist retail moving into their communities.

As cities begin to support the filling of empty storefronts or encourage distributed retail areas across the community, they should consider whether zoning is too restrictive for potential low impact uses of space, the NLC believes. For example, it thinks that small-scale or artisan manufacturing can be a good companion to retail evolution, citing the positive experience of Nashville, Tennessee, after it added artisan manufacturing as a permitted land use to its code. Such businesses draw in customers interested in seeing the production process and are quiet, clean neighbors to traditional retail establishments, according to the NLC. Cities that have made it easier to establish pop-up businesses in empty spaces have also seen positive impacts, the group says.

Cities also need to look at diversifying, to help claw back from the pandemic-fueled recession and to create more resilient business development and job growth. A diverse local retail economy will prove crucial, the report insists.

Crime is a complicating factor in cities relationship with retail. Specifically, lax enforcement can work at cross purposes with efforts to build a vibrant retail environment. The situation in San Francisco underscores the risk of crime hijacking a citys retail landscape, with shoplifting currently running retailers out of town and altering store hours.

At a May board of supervisors hearing in San Francisco, representatives of Walgreens said thefts at its stores there were four times the chains national average and had gotten so bad that it closed 17 stores because business had become untenable. In July, Target announced that it was cutting store hours because of store theftboth opening later and closing at 6:00 pm instead of 10:00. With the safety of our guests, team members, and communities as our top priority, weve temporarily reduced our operating hours in six San Francisco stores, a Target spokesperson said.

Such moves run counter to city efforts to attract shoppers and build a strong retail core, but are often a consequence of other policies, such as treating the crime of shoplifting more leniently. In a piece in The New York Times, a San Francisco-based reporter said that people brazenly walking out of stores with merchandise is such a common sight that he once asked a Safeway clerk if paying for things had become optional in the city. San Francisco is especially bad, but there are four other cities in the nation where retail theft is worse, data show.

Responding to the move by Target, Rachel Michelin, president of the California Retailers Association, said she wasnt surprised, noting that the problem has been developing over several years. There comes a pointwith what we have shared with the elected leaders of the citywhere these types of decisions have to be made, said Michelin. The bottom line is when these employees dont feel safe coming to work. Thats when they have to take these drastic measures.

As cities look to revitalize in the wake of the pandemic, they need to account for the pandemics impact on crime, suggested a session at the NRF Converge conference in June, The Quest to Rein in ORC. While some of fallout was unavoidable, such as the economic hardship it caused, cities are also making unforced errors by allowing the risk-reward ratio to become skewed.

More than ever the perception is of low risk, high rewardand recidivism seems to be peeking, said Kevin Stone, organized retail crime manager at Columbia Sportswear Company. There are citations even for habitual offenders, and for those that are forwarded to prosecution, the punishments are minimal if charges arent dropped altogether.

For cities, it seems to be a problem of policies and priorities. While retailers are shortening hours or closing-up shop, Sergeant Jennifer Marino of the San Francisco Police Department said she is too resource strapped to help them. I am one of two people doing [ORC] investigations for San Francisco, where its a huge problem, she said. Some retailers are closing store locations and others are contemplating it. Were working with them, but its a trouble spot with legislation the way it is, and the way cases are adjudicated.

Because of her offices limitations, Marino acknowledged that she needs retailers to work together on cases and to bring ORC investigations to her department fully baked. The gift-wrapping of cases is critical because I am just one of two people, so if I can just walk it to the DA office, it can [move forward]. If I have to take it from ground zero, its not going to happen.

Its a clear mandate for individual retailers to join forces on ORC investigations when they share suspectsand outreach shouldnt stop there. Were involved with the INFORM Consumers Act, explained John Goldyn, senior director for loss prevention at ULTA Beauty, which would require basic information from online sellers that could disrupt illegal sales on online marketplaces. We really want to work together as a group, he said.

More retail friendly legislation on the local level can help those cities and build momentum for crime prevention, suggested Todd Isenhour, LPC, Lowes division director for asset protection, operations, and safety. In North Carolina, we have a great ORC bill here that allows for the aggregation of cases into one charge, he said, noting that local successes can help drive legislation on the state and federal level.

Retailers may also want to counter certain local legislative efforts, such as those that restrict security measures that retailers can employ to protect their associates. In Baltimore, for example, the city council voted in June to approve what would be the most extreme ban by a local jurisdiction on personal and business applications of facial-recognition technology.

To support healthy cities, retailers should support the effort of law enforcement and city planners to rebalance the scales in favor of retail crime prevention and enforcement. One way is to highlight the full impact of crime and to expose it as a quality-of-life issue for communities rather than a loss-of-revenue issue for retailers. I have found it easier [to get people interested] when its sold as a community problem rather than an individual company issue, Isenhour said.

The impact on community has revealed itself in San Francisco, Marino acknowledged. There is suffering in our city. Retail evolution and city transformation must work hand in hand to not only serve local communities better but also reduce crime that is negatively impacting both.

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Retail Evolution and City Transformation in the Post-Pandemic Economy - Loss Prevention Magazine

How does unicellular life transition to multicellular life? The research team of professor Lutz Becks at the Limnological Institute of the University of Konstanz has taken a major step forward in explaining this very complex process. They were able to demonstratein collaboration with a colleague from the Alfred Wegner Institute (AWI)that the unicellular green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, over only 500 generations, develops mutations that provide the first step towards multicellular life. This experimentally confirmed a theory on the origin of multicellular life that says that the evolution of cell groups and the subsequent steps towards multicellularity can only take place when cell groups are both better at reproduction and more likely to survive than single cells. These findings have been published in Nature Communications.

The experiment is based on the theory that multicellular organisms originally evolved from single cells and, in a first step, colonies of identical daughter cells form that do not separate after division. An important but so far experimentally untested condition of this general theory is that, at first, colonies with a higher probability of survival emerge. In a second step, these colonies then develop further to increased reproduction. Only then can the next steps towards specialization in somatic and germ cells follow. Becks, professor of aquatic ecology and evolution, and his team have experimentally tested the conditions that cause the transition from unicellularity to colony formation.

As a condition for the development of colonies with a high probability of survival and simultaneously a high reproduction rate, the team created selection pressure by adding a predator to the sample with the algal cells, in this case a multicellular rotifer. Initially, an individual algal cell is unprotected against the predator. Mutations causing the cells to grow in colonies that stick together after cell division increase the probability of survival because predators can no longer, or at least not as easily, eat the colonies.

The alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtiibelongs to a group of algae in which different stages of evolutionary multicellularity can be found and that all descend from a unicellular ancestor. Consequently, the prerequisites were met for observing the evolution of colonies in the experiment in real time. Ten different cell lines of the alga were isolated and grown in cultures. A predator was added to some, not to others, with all other experimental conditions being the same.

A closer look at the evolved cell properties after 500 generations revealed that colonies grew significantly more often in the media with predators and had a significantly higher reproductive rate than colonies growing without predators. Becks: "The distribution of colony types that survive and those that reproduce quickly fits exactly with the theory we tested. Not only have we shown that they exist, but also that they evolve repeatedly under certain conditions."

This not only confirmed the underlying theory, but also proved that the evolutionary step happened very quickly. It takes about half a year for the required 500 generations to develop. What was surprising for the scientists was that the evolved adaptations of the cells were also reproducible at the genome level. "We had actually expected that the formation of colonies can be achieved by different mechanisms in the algal cells and we would therefore find different mutations. In fact, we have seen a very high level of repeatability. This suggests that the selection pressure has had a very targeted effect," says Becks.

- This press release was originally published on the University of Konstanz website

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Evolution in Real Time - Lab Manager Magazine

World Emoji Day is July 17, so we're exploring how the language of emoji evolves.

Not a day goes by where I dont use a little party popper emoji to add color to a conversation or a joy face to laugh at a joke. Emoji have become major tools of communication over the past decade alongside gifs and memes and so for this years World Emoji Day on July 17, we thought itd be fun to explore how the language of emoji has evolved over the past couple years.

Keith Broni, Deputy Emoji Officer at Emojipedia: "What's happening here is we're having emojis be picked up and utilized to compliment slang terms that have been popularized over the last number of months or even years."

Keith Broni is the deputy emoji officer of Emojipedia,an online dictionarythat explains not only the literal meaning of the symbols, but also their changing designs across different platforms, and their evolving definitions as a result of memes, jargon and internet slang.

Broni: "We've seen the skull face explode in popularity, not just as it usually does around Halloween, to imply a spooky skeleton. But now it's emulating in emoji form the terms 'Oh, I'm dying, I'm dying of laughter' or 'I'm dead. What you've said to me is so incredibly funny.' So, emoji are like any other linguistic tool. They get adopted to reflect the world around us."

The skullis one of several emoji used beyond their literal definition. Its typically people and online communities who craft these new meanings for emoji based on how they communicate in their own worlds. But sometimes, those meanings and designs can be changed directly by tech companies themselves.

Take for example Applespistol emoji originally meant to look like a handgun, and now, a water gun. Thechange was made in 2016,after Apple and other tech companiesopposed the addition of the pistol emojientirely. The decision was applauded by groups like New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, but users were quick to criticize and make fun of the water gun design.

Broni: "It was quite a controversial choice by Apple at the time. But what we saw over years was that the design was changed across pretty much every emoji vendor to no longer display a realistic firearm."

Major events like the national conversations surrounding gun violence can and do influence emoji design. And the pandemic was no different.

Broni: "In response to people using this emoji to discuss vaccination, vendors such as Apple and Google and Twitter have actually removed the blood from the design, the red liquid in there and the drops."

These changes may sound silly, because emoji typically are silly. But theyre also a big part of how we communicate now.

Earlier this spring,Adobe surveyed 7,000 emoji usersaround the world. And a majority agreed that emoji are important for creating unity, respect and understanding of one another. Think about that whenever you raise hands to celebrate good news or give a thumbs up to say okay.

So, what is the most used emoji right now? The sobbing face.

Broni: "No longer being associated, it seems, at all with genuine sadness. But we've seen that rise as an alternative to laughter compared to the crying-laughing face, just like the skull emoji has as well."

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World Emoji Day And The Evolution Of The Online Language - Newsy

Transformations in dining, both inside and outside the home, have been taking place since before the Covid pandemic began in 2020with online ordering, meal kits, pop-up restaurants, and ghost kitchens to name a few.

But, of course, the pandemic accelerated this evolution in a head-spinning way. Though Covid dealt a body blow to the foodservice industry, it also altered the ways we think about purchasing and consuming food.

Consumers are not only relying on food to boost health and immunity, but to reduce stress and provide a flavorful respite from the everyday.

And while industry safety practices may have altered foodservice forever (goodbye salad bars and condiments on tables), these facets have been replaced with a plethora of new experiences.

Dining Away from HomeAmericans love dining out, whether as a social activity or for convenience. According to a recent U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report, since the 1970s, eating meals away from home has risen to about 50 percent of all food spending.

Of course, this all came to a screeching halt practically overnight in March 2020 with the closing of schools, colleges, bars, restaurants, hotels, sports venues, and theme parks.

Foodservice distributors initially experienced a sudden 50-percent drop in business, but fortunately were able to segue to higher retail sales.

This is an excerpt from the cover story of the July/August 2021 issue of Produce Blueprints Magazine. Click here to read the whole issue.

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The Evolution of Dining: New venues, new experiences, and the future of fresh food Produce Blue Book - Produce Blue Book

Clinical Trial Application approved by Spanish Drug Agency

Primary objectives: to assess the effect of vafidemstat to address negative and cognitive symptoms in schizophrenia

Second Phase IIb study of vafidemstat in CNS disorders

MADRID, Spain and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 13, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Oryzon Genomics, S.A. (ISIN Code: ES0167733015, ORY), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company leveraging epigenetics to develop therapies in diseases with strong unmet medical need, announced today that it has received approval from the Spanish Drug Agency (AEMPS) for its Clinical Trial Application (CTA) to conduct a Phase IIb clinical trial with vafidemstat in patients with schizophrenia.

EVOLUTION (EudraCT No.: 2021-000350-26) is a multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, 24-week Phase IIb trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of vafidemstat in adult schizophrenia patients under stable antipsychotic therapy. The trial has two primary independent objectives: to assess the effect of vafidemstat on negative symptoms of schizophrenia, and to assess improvement on cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia. To accommodate this second ambitious primary objective, patients will be treated for 6 months. The trial includes multiple primary and secondary endpoints focusing on negative and positive symptoms, as well as cognition. The trial will be conducted in 6-10 sites in Spain and aims to include 100 patients in total, with 50 patients in each arm. An interim analysis is foreseen to adjust the final number of patients needed to assess efficacy.

Dr. Carlos Buesa, President and CEO of Oryzon, said: The initiation of EVOLUTION is another important milestone for our CNS program following the recent start of the PORTICO Phase IIb trial of vafidemstat in borderline personality disorder. We are planning to further expand our clinical development of vafidemstat in personalized medicine trials in genetically defined subpopulations of certain CNS disorders.

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EVOLUTIONs scientific rationale is based on vafidemstats ability to inhibit LSD1, reducing aggression, enhancing sociability and mitigating social withdrawal, as demonstrated in several preclinical models (see Maes et al., PLOS ONE 2020 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0233468). Importantly, EVOLUTION builds on clinical data from the Phase IIa REIMAGINE trial, where vafidemstat reduced agitation-aggression in patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder and borderline personality disorder and showed positive global effects across these psychiatric disorders after 2 months of treatment. Vafidemstat has a favorable safety and tolerability profile in multiple Phase I/II clinical trials, with over 300 subjects treated, some for up to 24 months. Vafidemstat has not been associated with sedation, weight gain or extrapyramidal side effects, which are common in current antipsychotic therapy, nor with any other adverse events.

Oryzons Chief Medical Officer for CNS, Dr. Michael Ropacki, said: We believe that modulation of LSD1 has transformative potential in the treatment of various CNS diseases. There is growing evidence suggesting a connection between LSD1 and schizophrenia. We are excited in vafidemstats potential to treat the negative symptoms of schizophrenia and address cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia, given there are no approved therapies for these symptoms.

Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder characterized by positive symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations, negative symptoms including amotivation and social withdrawal, and cognitive symptoms such as deficits in working memory and cognitive flexibility. While new antipsychotics are available to improve the positive symptoms, no approved medications are available yet for the negative symptoms and cognitive impairment that are the most debilitating aspects of this disease. Prevalence of schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders in the US range between 0.25% and 0.64% of the population.

About OryzonFounded in 2000 in Barcelona, Spain, Oryzon (ISIN Code: ES0167733015) is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company considered as the European champion in Epigenetics. Oryzon has one of the strongest portfolios in the field. Oryzons LSD1 program has rendered two compounds, vafidemstat and iadademstat, in Phase II clinical trials. In addition, Oryzon has ongoing programs for developing inhibitors against other epigenetic targets. Oryzon has a strong technological platform for biomarker identification and performs biomarker and target validation for a variety of malignant and neurological diseases. Oryzon has offices in Spain and the United States. Oryzon is one of the most liquid biotech stocks in Europe with +90 M shares negotiated in 2020 (ORY:SM / ORY.MC / ORYZF US OTC mkt). For more information, visit http://www.oryzon.com

About Vafidemstat Vafidemstat (ORY-2001) is an oral, CNS optimized LSD1 inhibitor. The molecule acts on several levels: it reduces cognitive impairment, including memory loss and neuroinflammation, and at the same time has neuroprotective effects. In animal studies vafidemstat not only restores memory but reduces the exacerbated aggressiveness of SAMP8 mice, a model for accelerated aging and Alzheimers disease (AD), to normal levels and also reduces social avoidance and enhances sociability in murine models. In addition, vafidemstat exhibits fast, strong and durable efficacy in several preclinical models of multiple sclerosis (MS). Oryzon has performed two Phase IIa clinical trials in aggressiveness in patients with different psychiatric disorders (REIMAGINE) and in aggressive/agitated patients with moderate or severe AD (REIMAGINE-AD), with positive preliminary clinical results reported in both. Additional finalized Phase IIa clinical trials with vafidemstat include the ETHERAL trial in patients with Mild to Moderate AD, where a significant reduction of the inflammatory biomarker YKL40 has been observed after 6 months of treatment, and the pilot, small scale SATEEN trial in Relapse-Remitting and Secondary Progressive MS. Two Phase IIb trials in borderline personality disorder (PORTICO) and in schizophrenia patients (EVOLUTION) have been recently authorized. The company is also deploying a CNS precision medicine approach with vafidemstat in genetically-defined patient subpopulations of certain CNS disorders. Vafidemstat is also being explored in a Phase II in severe Covid-19 patients (ESCAPE) assessing the capability of the drug to prevent ARDS, one of the most severe complications of the viral infection.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This communication contains, or may contain, forward-looking information and statements about Oryzon, including financial projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives and expectations with respect to future operations, capital expenditures, synergies, products and services, and statements regarding future performance. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally identified by the words expects, anticipates, believes, intends, estimates and similar expressions. Although Oryzon believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, investors and holders of Oryzon shares are cautioned that forward-looking information and statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of Oryzon that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking information and statements. These risks and uncertainties include those discussed or identified in the documents sent by Oryzon to the Spanish Comisin Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV), which are accessible to the public. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and have not been reviewed by the auditors of Oryzon. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they were made. All subsequent oral or written forward-looking statements attributable to Oryzon or any of its members, directors, officers, employees or any persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statement above. All forward-looking statements included herein are based on information available to Oryzon on the date hereof. Except as required by applicable law, Oryzon does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forwardlooking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. This press release is not an offer of securities for sale in the United States or any other jurisdiction. Oryzons securities may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration. Any public offering of Oryzons securities to be made in the United States will be made by means of a prospectus that may be obtained from Oryzon or the selling security holder, as applicable, that will contain detailed information about Oryzon and management, as well as financial statements.

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ORYZON receives approval to start EVOLUTION Phase IIb trial with vafidemstat in schizophrenia - Yahoo Finance