Category Archives: Evolution

Title: Disentangled Representation Learning for Astronomical Chemical Tagging

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

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

Status: Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Astrobites edited by Graham Doskoch.

Featured image credit: de Mijolla et al. 2021

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

The rest is here:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read this article:

The Subtle Evolution of American Smoked Beer - VinePair

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reporting by Will Dunham in Washington, Editing by Rosalba OBrien

View post:

Octopus research yields insight into the evolution of sleep - Reuters

Getty Images

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

1 of 50

January 1999

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

2 of 50

January 1999

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

3 of 50

February 1999

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

4 of 50

June 1999

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

5 of 50

July 1999

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

6 of 50

August 1999

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

7 of 50

September 1999

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

8 of 50

December 1999

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

9 of 50

February 2000

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

10 of 50

June 2000

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

11 of 50

September 2000

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

12 of 50

November 2000

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

13 of 50

December 2000

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

14 of 50

January 2001

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

15 of 50

March 2001

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

16 of 50

June 2001

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

17 of 50

July 2001

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

18 of 50

September 2001

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

19 of 50

February 2002

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

20 of 50

August 2002

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

21 of 50

November 2002

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

22 of 50

January 2003

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

23 of 50

February 2003

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

24 of 50

May 2003

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

25 of 50

June 2003

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

26 of 50

September 2003

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

27 of 50

January 2004

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

28 of 50

December 2004

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

29 of 50

March 2005

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

30 of 50

July 2005

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

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io

Read the rest here:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

View original post here:

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

Chase scenes have been a staple in movies for almost as long as movies have existed. And boy have they changed over the years! Car chase scenes from the 1920s look practically comical now, yet were at the pinnacle of on-screen drama back in their day. With Fast & Furious 9 set to hit our screens this year, Insider decided to take a look at how theyve evolved over the last 100 years.

From 1924s Sherlock Junior, through Bullitt, The French Connection, Ronin, Drive and more, through to the latest Fast & Furious movies, it covers a lot of ground in not only how the filming of the scenes has evolved, but how new technological innovation has allowed them to kick things up a notch every so often.

Most of us wont be using tech and equipment anywhere near as advanced or as expensive as the examples illustrated in the video above, and I dont think most of us would be able to convince Lexus or Mercedes to send out a tech to disable the safety features of our vehicles to film a chase scene, but it is quite interesting to see where the technology is at and what it allows filmmakers to do these days.

Its also fantastic to see that even in the latest overplayed Hollywood franchises, the care chase sequences are still mostly shot practically and arent CG. At least, not the driving. A lot of them still use CG to extend the set and make a city look like a completely different city on the other side of the planet.

Whats your favourite movie chase scene?

[via ISO1200]

Read the rest here:

Watch to see the evolution of chase sequences over the last 100 years - DIYphotography

The deal will see Evolution provide its leading portfolio of online casino games, game show-style gaming and first person offering to PlayLive! customers in the state of Pennsylvania from Evolutions live studio in Philadelphia. Go live is planned during the second quarter of 2021.

Joe Billhimer, executive vice president at Cordish Gaming Group, said: Our Live! Casinos and Hotels set a new standard in best-in-class customer experiences with highly acclaimed gaming, hotel, dining and entertainment destinations throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.

"One of our main objectives in the development of the PlayLive! Online casino was to deliver a complementary online offering that is just as entertaining and attractive to our customers.

"We have selected Evolution as our strategic online partner because we are confident that the exceptional quality and breadth of the Evolution offering will enable us to achieve this goal.

Jeff Millar, commercial director, North America at Evolution, commented: We are excited and proud to be working with Cordish Gaming Group and PlayLive! Casino. The extensive Evolution online casino and entertainment portfolio is a great fit for further developing their Live! experience online.

See the original post:

Evolution deal with Cordish Gaming in Pennsylvania - InterGame

The ConversationMar 30, 2021 19:38:05 IST

Madagascar has many mini creatures. These include a recently discovered group of miniaturised frogs as well as the discovery earlier this year of the smallest reptile on earth the Brookesia nana, or nano-chameleon, which is the size of a paperclip. Moina Spooner, from The Conversation Africa, asked Dr Mark D Scherz, an amphibian and reptile specialist who focuses on Madagascar, to explain what causes these animals to miniaturise.

Madagascar is famous for its small animals; the mouse lemurs, the smallest primates on earth, for instance, are widely known. Theres also growing awareness that Madagascar is home to a variety of other uniquely miniaturised animals, especially chameleons and frogs. In those groups, researchers have discovered large numbers of tiny species in recent years.

In 2017, researchers described 26 species of Stumpffia a group of frogs the smallest of which is not even 1cm long at adult body size. It is one of the smallest frogs in the world.

Then, in 2019, my colleagues and I showed that several different groups of cophyline microhylids a group of narrow-mouthed frogs that are only found in Madagascar have become miniaturised independently. One group of these was an entirely new genus. We gave them the fitting name Mini, with the three speciesMini mum,Mini scule, andMini ature.

We have also found some new tiny chameleons. In 2019, we describedBrookesia tedi, a chameleon that reaches a total length of just 32mm. And then in early 2021, we describedBrookesia nana, the smallest chameleon, which has adult males of just 21.6mm total length, and females 28.9mm.

There are probably many different reasons why these animals have evolved to be so small. For instance, it might be possible for them to exploit new resources that werent previously available to them. This may be new food sources, or exploring the space between leaves and tree roots that is inaccessible to larger animals.

It could also be driven by competition with other, similar species. Species may diverge into different size categories to partition their resources and avoid direct competition.

In many cases, there may be no strong or single selective force that is driving the miniaturisation at all, but instead it could simply be a process of random change in the population, which occurs in all organisms over time. This is further driven by population bottlenecks as the smaller and smaller animals get cut off from other populations.

The simple answer is that we just dont know yet in any of the cases, and it is likely that in most it is a combination of factors. We are much better able to say what the correlates of miniaturisation are that is, the suite of features, behaviours, and ecologies that accompany miniaturisation than the causes.

Brookesia nana, described in 2019, is one of the smallest chameleons, and indeed one of the smallest amniote vertebrates, on earth. Image Credit: Frank Glaw/Mark D Scherz

Speaking only of reptiles and amphibians, maybe, but it is hard to say for sure. South-East Asia hasa massive diversity of miniaturised frogs, for instance, but whether the number of major miniaturisation events in that region is greater or less than in Madagascar is difficult to say for sure.

The same goes for Central and South America, where there are plenty of tiny amphibians and reptiles, including salamanders, frogs and lizards.

Ultimately, even though Madagascar may not be the world champion in terms of the number of miniaturised reptiles and amphibians, I think it does stand out as an exceptionally interesting place in which to study their evolution, and we are only just starting to scratch the surface of this.

This is the question I find the most exciting. From miniaturisation we can learn all kinds of interesting things about physiology, evolution and biomechanics how organisms move and function.

For instance, there appears to be a pattern where the evolution of miniaturisation is associated with changes in ecology. Almost all miniaturised frogs in Madagascar are terrestrial, irrespective of whether their ancestors were terrestrial arboreal (living in trees). The only conditions under which miniaturised frogs have remained arboreal throughout miniaturisation has been when they reproduce in the water cavities at the base of certain plants leaves, such as thePandanusplant.

We have also learned that the microhylid frogs of Madagascar have mostly miniaturised by retaining juvenile-like characteristics, known as paedomorphosis. For instance, they all have relatively large heads and eyes for their body sizes.

But one species,Rhombophryne proportionalis, has apparently miniaturised by proportional dwarfism. It has the approximate proportions of a non-miniaturised Rhombophryne. So, although paedomorphosis may be the typical way that Malagasy frogs miniaturise, it is by no means the only way that they can miniaturise.

Another particularly interesting finding is that miniaturisation has apparently evolved again and again in different lineages. This was already evident in frogs at the global scale (there are miniaturised frog lineages throughout the tropics). But one group of frogs in Madagascar has done this five or more times alone. This tells us that the evolution of miniaturisation can occur frequently and may be advantageous under certain circumstances.

From our work on miniaturised chameleons, we have also found that, as these lizards shrink, their genitals increase in relative size. We think that this is because the females are larger than the males. Because the male genitals must couple with those of the females for successful reproduction, and because the female is not as small as the male, the males genitals are constrained to remain proportional to the size of the female, even while his body size evolves to be smaller.

There are hundreds of open questions in the field of tiny vertebrate studies. We are just beginning to understand how widespread and common this trait is, how many species have done it, and how many miniaturised species remain undescribed. There is a whole miniature frontier of interesting research to be had among these tiny vertebrates, and I, for one, am excited to see what we discover next.

Mark D Scherz, Research scientist, Technical University Braunschweig

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read the original post:

What Madagascars tiny chameleons, frogs reveal about evolution of miniaturised animals - Firstpost

Over the years, the Indian retail sector has become one of the most dynamic and fast-growing industries that have progressed through several phases. According to the World Banks Doing Business report, India was ranked 63rd and is the worlds fifth-largest global destination in the retail space in the world. While retail was hit hard by the pandemic, the sectors revival process is well underway.

To elevate business growth and sales, and meet the ever-evolving consumer expectations, retailers are now leveraging cutting-edge technology to gather relevant information from the vast volumes of data available.

As the retail sector is on the cusp of a revolution, technology has been a fundamental element to the massive progress the retail sector has achieved over the years. To gain better insights, lets take a look at how the industry has evolved by leveraging novel technologies.

In India, the origins of retailing can be traced back to the emergence of mom-and-pop stores. Despite bigger franchises coming up later, mom-and-pop stores continue to remain a preferred source of shopping for customers, particularly for urgent requirements. It was only during the 1990s that the Indian retail market began to witness the emergence of large-scale franchises from big corporates.

Today, the retail market has a significant impact on the countrys economy. Over time, Indias retail sector has transcended from technology incorporation being a pipe dream to even Kirana stores leveraging leading-edge technology.

Just like other industries, technology has truly been a game-changer for Indian retail. Retailers today are trying to harness its power through AI, ML, Data Analytics, etc. A burgeoning millennial population, growing per capita incomes, and most importantly, increasing internet penetration are fueling the rise of the retail sector. Today, the entire retail sector, right from Kirana stores to large corporate franchises, has gone digital and is embracing the revolution to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive market.

For instance, in-store services, integrated payment gateways, 24x7 virtual assistance and order placement, same-day or next-day deliveries, real-time order tracking, warehouse automation, and inventory and supply chain optimisation have given a major boost to the industry.

As more and more players gravitate towards online retailing, with technology providing easy access, both the in-store and online shopping experience has transformed. From providing tablets or iPads, viewing products and their specifications to downloadable brochures and other online marketing, retailers are leaving no stone unturned to enhance the customer experience.

Indias retail sector has come a long way from offline, in-store shopping to providing tech-led services to enable a completely digital way of shopping. Even against the backdrop of a global pandemic, retailers have managed to reinvent their strategies and adopt a holistic approach. Amidst the paradigm shift in consumer behaviour and demand, the objective of retail is also evolving.

The aforementioned trends and technologies are expected to gain further traction in the future and Indias retail industry is set to become a dynamic realm as there are parallel growth and evolution of investments in infrastructure, modified approach, and consumer demands.

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

Read more here:

Technological evolution in the retail sector: Past, present, and future - YourStory

The only political office I have ever been elected to was a seat on the Jefferson County Republican Executive Committee. My name was on the ballot and I got the most votes. (Out of the very few cast back then in the Republican primary.) I lived in Birmingham.

But that Republican party was nothing like it is today. The people I met were honestly interested in good government and putting forth candidates of integrity, conviction and who were trustworthy. They were not the wackos we see too much of today. No Ted Cruz, no Ron Johnson, no Marjorie Taylor Greene. They were not trying to divide people and make fear and hate the main message of their campaigns for office.

So what happened? Or did anything really?

In 1948, something called the States Rights Democratic Party came into being. It was most commonly known as the Dixiecrat party. Its followers were Democrats from the deep South who were upset that President Harry Truman ordered integration of the military in 1948 and was seen as friendly to civil rights issues of Black Americans.

This did not sit well with southerners who were staunch segregationists. So the Dixiecrats were born. Their presidential candidate was Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who became a Republican in 1964. As Black people got the right to vote and became politically involved, they flocked to the Democratic party.

White flight was not just about southern whites response to school integration, it was also about the growth of the Republican party throughout Dixie.

Peggy Wallace Kennedy has written a fascinating and courageous book, The Broken Road,about her famous father, George C. Wallace. She makes it clear that she saw little difference in the political stances of her father in the 1960s and those of Donald Trump in 2016.

Listen to her Daddys politics were more than just bombastic style. The establishment and other politicians viewed him as a demagogue. Nobody will buy what he is selling, they declared. Just take a look at him. Take him out of those Alabama backwoods and hell be finished. That was a mistake. And forty-four years later, disaffected voters responded similarly toTrump. They rebelled against the same intellectualism and paternalism that Daddy railed against.

Daddys strategy of articulating and mobilizing the grievances of the dispossessed would become one of the core strategies of the Trump campaign forty-four years later. It was the politics of rage and fear. It was resentment for no particular reason. It was a tent revival in the dead of summer, slapping mosquitoes and singing Amazing Grace while the preacher was fooling around out back.

Strom Thurmond got 78 percent of the vote in the Alabama 1948 general election. Republican Thomas Dewey only 19 percent. In 2020 Donald Trump got 62 percent of the vote compared to Bidens 37 percent.

So the case can certainly be made that the DNA of Alabama voters has not changed much since at least 1948 and the Republican party has morphed into the old Dixiecrat party. Given that the majority of Alabamians are descendants of Scots-Irish, this is understandable. In general, Scots-Irish who came to this country were fierce, violent and independent people. They set their own rules and dared anyone to try and change them.

Their pride overruled common sense and permitted them to cast votes that were hurtful to their own well-being.

Look at Strom Thurmond in 1948. Or better yet, look at Barry Goldwater in 1964. Goldwater was a U.S. Senator from Arizona known for his straight talk and fiery rhetoric. Just the kind of candidate that the Scots-Irish loved. A candidate without a snow balls chance in Hell, but boy he could stir a Southern heart. Just like Donald Trump could do.

Even though Goldwater lost to Lyndon Johnson in the general election by the largest margin in history, he got 69 percent of the Alabama vote. (Second only to Mississippi.) Goldwater only won six states. His Arizona home and Louisiana, Mississippi,

Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. Alabama also elected five Republicans to the national House of Representatives in 1964..

While the Dixiecrat party was then ancient history, Goldwater showed us that the Republican Party was fertile ground for right wing believers. In fact, Goldwaters conservatism, initially rejected as radical, infused the Republican Party.

If you dont think so, then look at what just happened in Georgia where the Republican led legislature has passed new law about how elections should be conduced.. A law that makes it illegal to give someone waiting in line to vote a bottle of water. No doubt Strom Thurmond would be elated. And most of us have now seen the photo with the governor surrounded by six white male legislators as he signed the bill.

And just outside the governors closed door a Black female legislator was arrested and taken to jail for knocking on the door.

You got to give Trump credit for one thing. He figured out that the Dixiecrat/Republicans were a festering wound. All they needed was someone to come along and pull the scab off. He obliged.

Ultimately national Republicans will have to realize that water fountains in downtown Atlanta and Birmingham are no longer labeled, For whites only and support policy that appeals to a much broader spectrum of Americans than they do now. If not, then they are only marking time until the day they end up where the Dixiecrats did. On the outside looking in.

As to Alabama, the Dixiecrat/Republicans will probably be around for a long time, too often listening to the radical voices that tell them a long-ago world still exists and sending people to Washington who may have a votebut no influence.

See original here:

Opinion | From Dixiecrat until today. The evolution of the Republican Party - alreporter.com