Category Archives: Evolution

When supplies of oxygen at hospitals in Manaus, Brazil, recently ran out, the airforce was called in for emergency evacuations while healthcare workers frantically tried to save lives with manual ventilation. For those that could not be saved, there was only morphine and a final hand-squeeze.

As calamitous as the situation is for those affected, the devastating surge in COVID cases in Manaus over the last few weeks has set alarm bells ringing ever more loudly for governments and agencies around the world struggling to manage the pandemic. Cases continue to surge in the UK and South Africa and, as in Manaus, they appear to be mainly due to the emergence of new variants of the coronavirus.

The naming of these variants of concern as scientists refer to them is somewhat muddled. For simplicity, they are referred to here as the Brazilian, South African and UK variant. All have emerged recently, and all have picked up several mutations that mark a distinct shift in the evolution of the virus. Similar variants are almost certainly out there spreading under the radar. More are likely to evolve.

Despite arising independently on three different continents, the three variants share striking similarities. Each has picked up several mutations over a short time, with many in the gene providing the instructions to make the viruss spike protein.

The spike protein is where the key battles between human and virus are being waged, including the vaccines. It is the key to how the virus interacts with the human body, both regarding the immune response and in binding to and entering human airway cells.

Not only have several mutations affected this protein, but identical mutations have cropped up independently both in the variants of concern and in other viral lineages. In effect, the virus has repeatedly stumbled across the same evolutionary solutions to specific challenges. This phenomenon is known as evolutionary convergence (consider the independent evolution of wings in bats, birds and insects).

Understanding how these mutations might affect the coronaviruss behaviour at the molecular level is difficult. Work to bridge the gap between each variants genotype (the mutations) and its phenotype (how quickly it spreads) is being ramped up in the UK and elsewhere, but will require a sustained multidisciplinary effort.

The task is made more difficult because several mutations have accumulated in these variants (so-called constellations). The UK variant, for example, has 23 separate mutations, representing a remarkable evolutionary jump with no known intermediate variants (like there are missing links in the evolutionary chain).

Although not all the mutations are thought to be important, the effect of any individual mutation might be changed by the presence of other mutations (an effect called epistasis). This greatly complicates the problem of figuring out precisely what these mutations are doing and of assessing the risk of newly emerging variants from the sequence data alone.

Despite these complexities, a combination of computational analysis and laboratory experiments have yielded valuable evidence of the effect of these mutations. For example, one mutation found in all three variants is N501Y. The name refers to an alteration in the spike protein, where the type of amino-acid molecule located in position 501 has changed from asparagine (N) to tyrosine (Y).

Position 501 is on the receptor-binding domain part of the spike protein that attaches to a particular receptor (ACE2) on cells in the human body and this change appears to strengthen the binding between the virus and human cells. Yet for reasons that remain unclear, the effect of N501Y is greatly amplified when combined with other mutations.

Other mutations in the spike protein offer the virus some protection from the immune response. Examples include E484K (found in the Brazilian and South African variants, but not the UK variant), and a mutation in the UK variant in which two amino acids are deleted (del69-70) and which is repeatedly found in combination with mutations in the receptor-binding domain.

Specific evolutionary challenges and selection pressures that favour the survival of some variants of the virus over others may be driving the emergence of the variants of concern. This would help to explain why they acquire several mutations so quickly, or why these variants are starting to emerge now.

A plausible explanation for the emergence of the UK variant is that it arose in a single chronically infected person with a weakened immune system who was being treated with convalescent plasma (antibodies from a recovered patient). This would have given a strong advantage to any variant that could resist the therapeutic antibodies. But it remains a theory.

A second possibility relates to the emergence of the Brazilian variant. The current wave of infection in Manaus is only the latest COVID disaster to hit this city. Previous waves may have led to 76% of the population being infected. The resulting high level of immunity in the population may have given an advantage to mutations in the spike protein.

Although these variants are causing concern, we should remain confident that the vaccines will ultimately prove successful in ending the pandemic and allow a return to normality. There is currently no evidence that the vaccines are less effective against the new variants. While it remains impossible to be certain whether, or how, the virus will make further evolutionary jumps when confronted by the vaccines, modifications to vaccine design should ensure that we stay one step ahead.

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Coronavirus variants: how did they evolve and what do they mean? - The Conversation UK

DUBLIN, Jan. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Orthopaedic Devices Global Market - Forecast To 2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The orthopaedic devices global market is expected to reach $53,607.2 million by 2027 growing at a high single digit CAGR.

Over the decade, due to the technological advancements with emerging and innovative technologies used under minimally invasive conditions has led to the rapid development of orthopaedic device. As a result of rapid advances, there is great expansion in the potential therapeutic application for musculoskeletal injuries, deformities and diseases.

The market is primarily driven by the increase in incidence and prevalence of musculoskeletal diseases such as osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, spinal degenerative diseases, spondylitis, lower back pain, herniated spinal discs, and injuries due to trauma and sports activities, increase in the aging population, technological advancement, acquisitions and factors such as product recall, complications associated with implanted devices, lack of skilled and trained professionals to carry out minimally invasive surgery, high cost of the implant, surgery and also stringent regulatory policies for the product approval due to classification of the orthopaedic devices as class II and III devices are hindering the growth of the market.

Among products, the spine segment accounted the largest share in 2020 due to technological advancements in the implants, surgery type and increase in the aged population coupled with rise in number of trauma and sports injuries. The extremities segment anticipated as the fastest growing segment and expected to grow at a CAGR of high single digit CAGR from 2020 to 2027 due to increase in the road accident coupled with sports injuries and rise in the geriatric population.

The extremities by product type are segmented into upper and lower extremities. Among extremities, the upper extremities accounted for the highest revenue in 2020 and the lower extremities segment is the fastest growing segment and is projected to grow at a high single digit CAGR from 2020 to 2027 as the lower extremities consisting of foot, limb, and ankle are more susceptible to injury and fractures in as a result of trauma and sports activities.

The upper extremity products are further segmented into shoulder and other upper extremities. Under upper extremities, the shoulder division accounted for the largest revenue share of the global upper extremities devices revenue in 2020 and is expected to grow at a double digit CAGR of from 2020 to 2027 owing to increased incidence of shoulder dislocation and pain associated as a result of rise in incidence of musculoskeletal diseases, occupational, sports and trauma injuries.

The spine segment by product type is segmented into fusion and non-fusion devices. Among the spine device market, the fusion device contributed for the largest revenue share of in 2020 and the non-fusion device division is expected to grow at a double digit CAGR from 2020 to 2027. As a result of rising awareness and better efficiency of spinal stabilization and retention of spinal movements by non-fusion devices as compared to the fusion-devices.

Further the fusion device market is categorized into cervical devices, thoracolumbar devices and interbody devices. Among the fusion devices, thoracolumbar devices accounted for the largest revenue in 2020 and the interbody devices are expected to grow at a high single digit CAGR from 2020 to 2027 owing to rapid acceptance of spinal interbody arthrodesis and higher efficiency of reconstruction stability.

The non-fusion segment is further classified into artificial disc, dynamic stabilization devices, and annulus repair devices. Among non-fusion devices, the dynamic stabilization device accounted for the largest revenue in 2020 and the artificial discs segment is expected to grow at a double digit CAGR from 2020 to 2027 as the artificial discs aid in the replacement of degenerated discs, movement retention and is the most preferred implant to overcome herniated disc and lower back pain.

The orthobiologics segment is further divided into synthetic graft, demineralized bone matrix, machined bone allograft, and others. Among orthobiologics, the machined bone allografts contributed for the highest revenue in 2020 and the demineralized bone matrix is expected to grow at a mid single digit CAGR from 2020 to 2027 owing to improved osteoconductive and osteoinductivity properties as compared to other grafts.

The global orthopaedic market by surgery type is segmented into open, minimally invasive and robotic-assisted surgery. Among surgery type, the open surgeries accounted for the highest revenue in 2020 and the robotic assisted surgery is anticipated to grow at a high teen CAGR from 2020 to 2027 due to technological advancements in robotics assisted surgery, favourable reimbursement scenarios for robotic-assisted surgeries and precise and accurate placing of implants with minimal damage to the other tissues and bones.

Key Topics Covered:

1 Executive Summary

2 Introduction

3 Market Analysis 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Market Segmentation 3.3 Factors Influencing Market 3.3.1 Drivers and Opportunities 3.3.1.1 High Prevalence and Incidence of Orthopaedic Disorders and An Increase in the Aging Population 3.3.1.2 Increase in Accidents and Sports Injuries 3.3.1.3 Increasing Demand for Minimally Invasive Surgeries 3.3.1.4 Technological Advancements 3.3.1.5 Acquisition and Collaborations as a Part of the Growth Strategy 3.3.2 Restraints and Threats 3.3.2.1 Product Recalls Due to Manufacturing Errors 3.3.2.2 Lack of Skilled Orthopaedic Surgeon 3.3.2.3 Adverse Events and Complications With the Implantations of Orthopaedic Devices 3.3.2.4 High Cost of Orthopaedic Implants and Surgery 3.3.2.5 Stringent Regulatory Policies 3.4 Regulatory Affairs 3.4.1 International Organization for Standardization 3.4.1.1 Iso 9001: 2015 Quality Management System 3.4.1.2 Iso 13485 Medical Devices 3.4.1.3 Iso /Ts 16782: 2016 Clinical Laboratory Testing 3.4.1.4 Iso 10993 Biological Evaluation of Medical Devices 3.4.2 The U.S. 3.4.3 Canada 3.4.4 Europe 3.4.5 Japan 3.4.6 China 3.4.7 India 3.5 Technological Advancements 3.5.1 Introduction 3.5.2 3D Printing and Development of Patient-Specific Implants 3.5.3 Implant Materials and Coatings 3.5.4 Smart Implants 3.5.5 Evolution in the Robotic-Assisted Surgery With Smaller Incision and Post-Operative Care Reduction 3.6 Implant Materials and Coatings 3.6.1 Metals 3.6.2 Ceramics and Bioglass 3.6.3 Polymer 3.7 Porter's Five Force Analysis 3.8 Supply Chain Analysis 3.9 Reimbursement Scenario 3.10 Patent Scenario 3.11 Funding Scenario 3.12 Market Share Analysis by Major Players 3.13 Orthopaedic Devices Number of Procedures by Region 3.14 Orthopaedic Devices Company Comparison Table by Revenue, Product, Material, and Application

4 Orthopaedic Devices Global Market, by Product 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Knee 4.3 Hip 4.4 Extremities 4.4.1 Upper Extremities 4.4.1.1 Shoulder 4.4.1.2 Other Upper Extremities 4.4.2 Lower Extremities 4.5 Spine 4.5.1 Fusion Devices 4.5.1.1 Cervical Devices 4.5.1.2 Thoracolumbar Devices 4.5.1.3 Interbody Devices 4.5.2 Non-Fusion 4.5.2.1 Artificial Discs 4.5.2.2 Dynamic Stabilization Devices 4.5.2.3 Annulus Repair Devices 4.6 Craniomaxillofacial 4.7 Trauma 4.8 Sports Medicine 4.9 Orthobiologics 4.9.1 Synthetics 4.9.2 Demineralized Bone Matrix 4.9.3 Machined Bone Allograft 4.9.4 Other Orthobiologics

5 Orthopaedic Global Market, by Surgery Type 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Open Surgery 5.3 Minimally Invasive Surgery 5.4 Robotic Assisted Surgery

6 Orthopaedic Devices Global Market, by End-Users 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Hospitals 6.3 Ambulatory Surgical Centers 6.4 Orthopaedic Clinics

7 Regional Analysis 7.1 Introduction

8 Competitive Landscape 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Product Launch 8.3 Product Approval 8.4 Acquisition 8.5 Agreements 8.6 Other Developments

9 Major Companies 9.1 Arthrex Inc 9.1.1 Overview 9.1.2 Financials 9.1.3 Product Portfolio 9.1.4 Key Developments 9.1.5 Business Strategy 9.1.6 SWOT Analysis 9.2 B. Braun Melsungen AG 9.3 Colfax Corporation (Djo, LLC) 9.4 Globus Medical, Inc. 9.5 Johnson & Johnson (Depuy Synthes) 9.6 Medtronic Public Limited Company 9.7 Nuvasive Inc. 9.8 Smith & Nephew plc 9.9 Stryker Corporation 9.10 Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/aa7f6

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Global Orthopaedic Devices Markets, 2020-2027: Evolution in the Robotic-Assisted Surgery With Smaller Incision and Post-Operative Care Reduction -...

MONTRAL, Jan. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -Kairos announces the acquisition of Comprod, a leader in the field of radio telecommunications with a well-established and recognized reputation in North America and internationally.

This transaction will enable Comprod to accelerate its growth and further distinguish itself in a fast-paced industry while supporting the growing needs of a clientele which includes front-line essential services.

Investing more in R&D

"We look forward to supporting Comprod's management team in its next phase of growth. " says Marc Desmarais, managing partner at Kairos. "Comprod has distinguished itself from its competition through its ability to innovate and adapt its product offering to the needs of its customers, and we see great potential for growth. Therefore, we will continue to invest significantly in research and development to offer cutting-edge products and solutions.

"We have experienced significant growth over the past few years across all our product lines. "adds Gilles Racine, founder of Comprod "Our new partners share a common vision, which is to continue investing in our technologies and our people to offer a tailored product and service to our customers. We are very excited to be working with the Kairos team and to pursue our growth initiatives.

About Comprod Inc.

Comprod, a proud Quebec company, is a market leader in design, manufacturing and supply of fixed and mobile antennas, RF filters and in-building DAS solutions. Solidly established in Canada and the United States for 45 years, the company serves the public safety, public and government services, defense, telecommunications and transportation sectors.www.comprodcom.com

About Kairos Capital Management LLP

Kairos is a Montreal-based private equity fund distinguished by its deep expertise in operations and strategic planning. The fund was established in 2020 and aims to invest and support management teams of medium-sized companies to accelerate their growth and contribute to the success of Canadian companies in various business sectors.

SOURCE Comprod

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Comprod Inc. announces a milestone in their evolution as a result of the acquisition by Kairos Capital Management - PRNewswire

WILMINGTON, Del. Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. has navigated a half-century in American politics by relentlessly positioning himself at the core of the Democratic Party.

Wherever that power center shifted, there Biden has been, whether as the young senator who opposed court-ordered busing in school integration cases or the soon-to-be 46th president pitching an agenda on par with Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal and Lyndon B. Johnsons Great Society.

The common thread through that evolution is Biden always pitching himself as an institutionalist a mainstream liberal but also a pragmatist who still insists that governing well depends on compromise and consensus.

Now Bidens central political identity faces the ultimate trial.

On Wednesday, the 78-year-old president-elect will inherit stewardship of a nation wrenched by pandemic, seismic cultural fissures and an opposition partys base that considers him illegitimate, even to the point of President Donald Trumps supporters violently attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as Congress convened to certify Bidens victory.

Bidens answer follows two tracks: defending the fabric of society and institutions of government that Trumps tenure has stressed and calling for sweeping legislative action. His agenda includes an initial $1.9 trillion pandemic response, along with proposed overhauls for health care, taxation, infrastructure, education, criminal justice, the energy grid and climate policy.

A message of unity. A message of getting things done, Ron Klain, his incoming White House chief of staff, explained Sunday on CNNs State of the Union.

The first approach, rooted in Bidens campaign pledge to restore the soul of the nation, netted a record 81 million votes in the election. In his Nov. 7 victory speech, Biden called that coalition the broadest and most diverse in history and framed it as evidence Americans are ready to lower the temperature and heal.

Bidens second, policy-based approach, however, still must confront a hyperpartisan age and a closely divided Congress.

The outcome will determine the reach of Bidens presidency and further test the lifetime politicians ability to evolve and meet events.

We cant have a claim to want to heal the nation if what people mean is just having the right tone and being able to pat one another on the back, said the Rev. William Barber, a leading social justice advocate who has personally pushed Biden to prioritize the marginalized and poor of all races.

Real healing of the nation, Barber said, must be dealing with the sickness in the body of the nation caused by policy, by racism, by polity.

Activists such as Barber represent just one of many flanks surrounding Biden.

Republicans are clear they wont passively ratify Bidens responses to the pandemic or deep-seated problems that came before it: institutional racism, widening wealth gaps, the climate crisis. The Democratic Party isnt marching in lockstep, either, as progressives, liberals and moderates dicker over details.

I wouldnt expect big, sweeping change, said Michael Steel, once a top aide to former House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Democrats will control a 50-50 Senate with Vice President-elect Kamala Harriss tiebreaking vote as presiding officer. But the chambers 60-vote filibuster threshold for major legislation remains. Bidens longtime friend, California Rep. Nancy Pelosi, is the House speaker, but presides over a diminished Democratic majority and slim margin for error.

Harris framed the stakes Sunday, telling CBS Sunday Morning that the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6 was an exposure of the vulnerability of our democracy.

John Anzalone, Bidens campaign pollster, noted in a recent interview that Biden won with a message spanning ideology. Some voters may not believe in his politics. But they believe in him, Anzalone said. They believe in his compassion and they believe in, quite frankly, his leadership skills.

Anzalone loosely compared Bidens appeal to Ronald Reagans. Reagan was a hero of movement conservatives yet drew support from a wide swath of Reagan Democrats to win the presidency in 1980 amid economic and international instability. By extension, Reagan could count on support or at least good faith from many Democrats on Capitol Hill, most notably then-Speaker Tip ONeill, D-Mass.

The analogy sort of fails when you ask who are the Tip ONeills for Republicans at this point? Anzalone acknowledged. But, he said, Biden is not averse to big fights.

Biden projects confidence regardless, in part, those close to him say, because of his long tenure in Washington buttressed now with the presidential megaphone.

Part of the presidents job is making the case to the American people and persuading them what the right way forward is, said Stef Feldman, policy director for Bidens campaign.

Through that lens, it becomes less surprising to see the politician who joined Republicans in the mid-1990s to clamor for a balanced budget now declares emergency spending measured by the trillions more urgent than ever, even including deficit spending.

It was a similar course for Biden as he aged from a young senator in a chamber still stocked with old-guard segregationists into the trusted lieutenant for the nations first Black president. The Senate Judiciary Chairman who in 1991 led an all-male panel in Supreme Court confirmation hearings involving sexual harassment claims turned the widely panned experience into invitations for the committee to seat its first Democratic female members.

The Catholic politician who for decades acknowledged his struggle over abortion policy flouted church teachings as vice president by announcing his support for same-sex marriage before most other elected Democrats, including the ostensibly more socially progressive Obama. And during the 2020 campaign, even as Biden started to the left of Obama and 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton, he inched further leftward on health care, college tuition aid and climate policy.

While Biden aides argue his shifts dont involve changes in principle or fundamental values, some other observers say the point is moot. The question, said Maurice Mitchell, who leads the progressive Working Families Party, is simply whether Biden will continue to evolve and leverage his political capital into both post-Trump stability and big policy wins.

We cant control peoples convictions but we can shift the politics of the possible, Mitchell said, noting that Johnson signed seminal civil rights laws less than a decade after quashing such measures as Senate majority leader.

Barber, the minister, pointed to other historical figures whom Biden sometimes mentioned while campaigning: Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. Both, Barber noted, were savvy, even ruthless politicians who reached for their biggest achievements only after winning the nations highest office and they did so against vicious opposition and during times of existential national threats.

Theres good record in our history that there are moments in this country can and has taken great steps forward, Barber said. And many times, it was right on the heels of great pain. The movement and the moment can cause leaders presidents, senators, congresspeople to be much greater than they even intended or imagined.

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Joe Bidens long political evolution leads to his biggest test - The Denver Post

If you saw the first episode of David Attenboroughs new BBC series Perfect Planet, you will have seen the astounding bloodsucking behaviour of the vampire finches. These small birds exist only on two remote islands in the Galapagos and have evolved to drink the blood of much larger seabirds.

You will also have seen the curious behaviour of the booby, the seabird that the finch was gulping blood from it didnt seem bothered, and it didnt try to get rid of the finch. So how might this bloodsucking and relative lack of resistance have evolved?

It likely began with a process called mutualism, where both individuals gain from a relationship. Cleaner fish such as the cleaner wrasse, for example, set up a cleaning station, typically in coral reefs. Larger fish, octopus or turtles visit the cleaning station to get the smaller fish to remove any dead skin, infected tissue or external parasites.

The relationship between a cleaner wrasse and their client is beneficial to the client as it gets cleaned, helping it to stay healthy. But the cleaner wrasse also benefits as they can eat the parasites and wont themselves be eaten by the client a winning situation all round.

Nevertheless, the evolutionary relationship can turn sour. What if the cleaner wrasse wasnt so careful, and accidentally bit the client? Suddenly, the cleaner benefits from a meal of nutritious flesh. This individual will have acquired more nutrients than usual, giving it an advantage (no matter how small) over all other cleaner wrasse.

The advantage allows it to survive long enough to reproduce and pass on its genes to the next generation. If this clumsy cleaning is heritable, rather than the more careful behaviour, the offspring will also possess the clumsy gene that results in flesh-eating. Over time, all individuals of the species will eat flesh, as it is more beneficial than leaving it the process of evolution via natural selection.

Perhaps something like this happened with the bluestriped fangblenny, a mimic that looks identical to juvenile bluestreak cleaner wrasse. The larger client fish assumes that the blenny provides a cleaning service, so waits patiently to be cleaned, allowing the blenny to avoid predation. But the blenny doesnt ever clean the client instead it bites a chunk out of the larger fish.

The blenny has even evolved an opioid-based venom that numbs the pain of the client long enough for it to escape. As you can see, this is hardly a mutualistic relationship the blenny is the clear winner at the cleaning station as it has gained a nutritious meal, while the client now has an injury as well as its parasites.

There are many parasitic species in the natural world, from animals such as cuckoos that deceive other species into raising their young, to bee orchids that deceive insects into pollinating them. However, what we might be seeing is the result of a longstanding co-evolutionary arms race, where species evolve in response to another.

In the broad example of terrestrial predators and prey, imagine a scenario thousands of years ago where all species ran at the same speed there would be no advantage to either predators or prey. Yet, if the prey gradually evolved hooves, their feet would create less friction with the ground, enabling the prey to run faster than the predators.

The predators would be losing the battle until they evolved a response perhaps having non-retractable claws to maximise traction, as the cheetah does, allowing them to be in the lead in the evolutionary race. These co-evolutionary relationships can continue, and can even change tack, so instead of evolving to achieve an even faster speed, the prey could evolve to jump like springbok antelopes to confuse the predators with evasive manoeuvres.

In fact, the Red Queen hypothesis states that species need to evolve constantly, not to win, but merely to stay alive. The hypothesis comes from Lewis Carrolls Through the Looking Glass, where the Red Queen explains looking-glass land to Alice:

Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!

Interestingly, oxpecker birds found in African savannahs feed in a similar way to the vampire finches. They remove parasites from large mammals such as giraffe or rhino, but they also feed on ear wax and blood, preventing wounds from healing by pecking at scabs. This seems like a standard parasitic relationship, where the oxpeckers have the advantage.

But, like the vampire finches, the oxpeckers arent actively removed by the mammals. In fact, they provide an additional benefit they act as lookouts for predators. If the oxpeckers see a predator approaching, they warn their mammal host who can respond accordingly.

The relationship between the vampire finch and booby may well have been a mutualistic relationship that has evolved into a parasitic one. Is this the start of an evolutionary battle between the two species? Or perhaps, like the oxpecker, there is more to this relationship that we have yet to discover.

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Parasites: what causes some species to evolve to exploit others - The Conversation UK

Are supercomputers computers? No, not really. The essence of supercomputers is that they are not computers at all.They are scientific instruments of discovery- or strategic business facilities - they justhappen to be made from computer technology. Lots of it.

Formally the domain of scientific research and defense, supercomputers are finding relevance in commercial operations.

Here are some examples: seismic processing in the oil industry is an application where High Performance Computing (HPC) prevails since most of the computation is of an explicit nature and done on structured grids. Similarly, both electro-magnetics applications using methods of moments algorithms, and signal processing applications account for the use of HPC in the aerospace community - for example, making the 787 lighter.

But broader applications can be found in engineering, product design, complex supply chain optimization (actually, almost any kind of optimization), Bitcoin mining (which you could do on a PC, but has gotten very complex). World's largest glass company, AGC, runs a constant stream of simulations that rely on simulation-driven product development, For the City of Chicago: "The Array of Things Project," 5000 sensors on lampposts can't get the data to the data center for real-time modeling, so they built sensors that do computation and act as a distributed supercomputer. Expect to see many more implementations like these of "Things." Via the supercomputer atLawrence Livermore Laboratory, researchers found that trucks should wear skirts. At Trek Bicycle, bicycles are streamlined from every angle, in draft situations using time-shared HPC.

In a gradual move from supercomputers locked away doing math, the newest ones have theflexibility to handle AI, Analytics, and other general HPC workloads for Big Data, Data Science, Convergence. Innovation. Visualization, Simulation, and Modeling.

HPE announced a program recently called GreenLake, which I'll cover in a future article. I'm intrigued by their use of the term HPC. HPE, since its acquisition of Cray, Inc., in 2019, became the top dog in the highest end of supercomputing, code-named exascale. Exascale means the ability to produce one or multiples of a quintillion double-precision floating-point calculations per second (an exaFLOP). These machines, Aurora (1 exaFLOP, 2021), Frontier (1.5 exaFLOP, 2021), and El Capitan (2 exaFLOP, 2023), are being assembled now.

Keep in mind that the monsters' price tag is >$500 million, and that doesn't include the cost of the facilities to house them, the massive cooling systems, and the 30-40MW power supply (and bill). This is one reason why you can't install one just anywhere. They need a trunk line with enough power to run a small city. Expect next-generation supercomputers to drastically reduce the energy and cooling requirements over the next ten years.

An quote so often repeated that can't be attributed is: "An exaFLOP is one quintillion (1018) double-precision floating-point operations per second or 1,000 petaFLOP. To match what a one exaFLOP computer system can do in just one second, you'd have to perform one calculation every second for 31,688,765,000 years."

They were all slated to replace the two current speedsters; the IBM machines Summit (200petaFLOP, 2018) and Sierra (125 petaFLOP, 2018). So until the HPE/Cray machines come online, Summit and Sierra are still tops. Or so we thought.

Fujitsu surprised everyone in 2020 with the Fugaku machine, operating at a surprising ~475 petaFLOP to take the #1 spot. But rumors are that's just the beginning for Fugaku because they designed everything from the ground up - chips, interconnect, and even software. Then HPE/Cray announced they would bring a 500 petaFLOP computer to Finland in 2021. That will theoretically place it at #1 unless Aurora or Frontier become operational first.

The TOP500lists the fastest 500 supercomputers in the world. Five hundred. Not a typo. My alma mater, for supercomputing, Sandia National Labs, actually has the 486th slowest one (they have others), but just to make a list, it has to perform >2 petaFLOPS. Just to put that in perspective, the 486th slowest supercomputer in the world can do in one second, what you'd have to perform one calculation every second for a mere 63,377,530 years! When I worked on ASCI Red's design in 1997, we brought the first teraFLOP computer up. That would make it one million times slower than the exascale computers coming up.

It's amazing that one man invented the supercomputer. Seymour Cray formed Cray Research in 1972 and produced the Cray-1 supercomputer. It was the world's fastest supercomputer from 1976 to 1982. It measured 8 feet wide by 6 feet high and contained 60 miles of wires. It was pretty, too. By comparison, today's exascale monsters take up the space of two football fields and run a few billion times faster.

The first customer was the Los Alamos National Lab. In 1993, Cray produced its first massively parallel computing supercomputer, the T3D. Supercomputers took off when they switched to, effectively, large arrays of identical servers spurred on by multi-core chips.

So, in a way, all computers are supercomputers now.

Sadly, Cray died in an automobile accident in 1996, and the company was sold to Silicon Graphics, which later merged with Tera Computer Company in 2000. That same year, Tera re-named itself Cray, Inc. In a brilliant move (in my opinion, though not the analysts at the time), HPE acquired Cay, Inc. HPE incorporated Cray technology to release the HPE Cray EX Shasta supercomputer built for the exascale era workloads, a smooth merger of technologies. It can support converged workloads, eliminates the distinction between supercomputers and clusters, combining HPC and AI workloads.

Central to its design is the Slingshot interconnect backbone. The U.S.'s first three exascale supercomputers are all Shasta systems. At the moment, the HPE/Cray is on track to provide three (or more) of the four fastest supercomputers in the world (Actually, Frontier was a Cray project before HPE acquired Cray, but they have blended their technology smoothly). Next time, I'll detail GreenLake and how HPE is offering HPC capabilities to all organizations' sizes.

One question is: do they process data differently than a commercial MPP arrangement?

The one enduring constant is that using an HPC machine requires the programmer to think very differently about how their problem should be attacked. Today's supercomputers are, at a certain level, the same as MPP clusters that commercial databases like Oracle, Teradata, Vertica, IBM, etc., consist of. Both employ an MPP "shared nothing" setup, where each server is independent except for a networking system. Each server is composed of its own processors, memory, and, sometimes, storage, as well as a copy of the operating system. Where they differ is that the supercomputers in production today are dramatically larger. IBM's Sierra: combines commercial CPUs and Nvidia GPU's in 4,320 nodes, with total cores pf 190,080 and 256Gb/CPU memory + 64GB memory per GPU. Commercial database installations are a fraction of its size.

Commercial MPP can't process 2.56 quadrillion double-precision floating-point calculations per second on a Dell chassis with at most 3000 cores. But the real difference is in what they do. An MPP database may handle hundreds or thousands of queries per minute and do optimization, load balancing, and workload management. The queries posed are themselves simple compared to modeling climate change. A supercomputer cannot handle that kind of concurrency when each program may involve billions of calculations.

Currently, programming supercomputers is mostly done in Fortran, C, or C++. As opposed to operational, transactional, and analytical programs, these "codes," as they call them, simple in comparison, but the configuration is the tricky part.

Except for "air-gapped" installations, where the entire arrangement is disconnected from the outside world, most supercomputers are "shared" but not at all like cloud sharing. Hundreds of users around the world may use a supercomputer, but they're not interactive. Programs are run as jobs and are submitted to a queue as part of a specific grant funded by research organizations. Grants are in the order of thousands or millions of CPU hours. They are not open to the public. You are charged per CPU hour, times the queue cost (determined by queue specs and priority). If you have an 11 CPU program running 1 hour, you consume eleven service units multiplied by the queue cost).

Cloud providers support many architectures, so it is conceivable that cloud providers can provide HPC and actual supercomputer time. Advantages of the cloud are pay-by-the-sip, distributed, and multi-tenant. I'll be looking for clarification from HPE for the next article. For now, as I understand it, petascale and exascale supercomputing is not part of GreenLake at the moment and the program is broader than just HPC.

See the rest here:

How supercomputers found their industry mojo - the evolution of high performance computing - Diginomica

Heineken, the proudly Netherlands-based international beer brand, has been brewed for over 150 years. But despite the brands longstanding popularity it is continuously cited as one of the most popular beers in the world Heineken has made sure to keep things fresh in the brewhouse and on the bottle, often changing its logo to keep up with the times.

Like many legacy beer brands, Heinekens logo has gone through a few different phases. The brand kept its signature oval-shaped design for over 100 years starting in 1884, until it simplified to its more minimalistic, modern typography-only look in 1991. Green has been the primary color of all of Heinekens logos except for a brief stint in the 1930s through 1950s, when the brand introduced a red and white logo.

In addition, all of Heinekens logos before 1991 include the brands hometown of Rotterdam, Holland though many fans still mistakenly believe that the brand is based in Germany.

See Heinekens logo evolution over time in VinePairs infographic below.

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The Logo Evolution of Heineken Over Time [Infographic] - VinePair

A winter tree battered by the the winds.

About 95% of insect species worldwide can fly. The question of what environmental pressures determine whether or not an insect species evolves to have wings has long fascinated scientists. The first scientist known to be intrigued was the twenty-two-year-old Charles Darwin when, in January of 1831, he visited the Portuguese-held island of Madeira off the coast of Morocco.

View from Madeira's third highest volcanic peak.

The island of Madeira is part of a volcanic archipelago. On its dramatically rocky shoreline, northeast trade winds bring in huge ocean swells. Temperatures at sea level in Madeira average in the 50s and 60s (F) in the winter, and are only a little warmer in the summer. In the windswept mountains it can snow. Because of its microclimates and isolation, Madeira is home to a wide array of endemic species like the Madeiran long-toed pigeon with its six-note cooing and the endangered Zinos Petrel, a seabird that lives exclusively at sea and only returns to the island to breed in the mountains. Madeira also has twenty-four species of endemic land mollusks, and it has lots and lots of beetles. Darwin was a beetle afficionado. On Madeira, he collected them, and noticed that they were wingless.

Steel engraving of naturalist Charles Darwin.

Twenty-five years after his trip to Madeira, Darwin mentioned the wingless beetles to his best friend Joseph Hooker, a geographical botanist and an adventurer who, like Darwin, had voyaged to Madeira in his younger years. To Hooker, Darwin hazarded a guess about how the apterous (un-winged) beetles had evolved. Roughly, what he suggested was that Madeira is a small island with strong winds. Any flying insects would probably have gotten blown out to sea, leaving the flightless ones to dominate the gene pool. Hooker responded that he thought Darwins idea to be very pretty. At the same time, he pointed out that he had found wingless beetles in the Sahara Desert, which is nowhere near water.

Joseph Dalton Hooker

And so a friendly argument began. Darwin and Hooker never resolved it, and it has persisted among scientists from 1855, the year of the two scientists discussion, to 2020. Publishing this December in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, researchers from Australias Monash University have finally settled matters. Drawing on a comprehensive database of insect species that was compiled over the last three decades by other researchers, they have demonstrated that Darwin was right at least in identifying wind as the cause of the evolutionary change.

The data used by the Monash University team had been culled by researchers working in Antarctica but also on twenty-eight Southern Ocean Islands, which are in the expanse of ocean surrounding Antarctica and were the focus of the Monash University study. According to study co-author Rachel I. Leihy, the group of islands is impressive for its geographic and geological diversity. They are in the Southern Pacific, Southern Indian, and Southern Atlantic oceans, and in some cases they are isolated by thousands of kilometers of ocean. Some are relatively new, volcanic formations. Others are fragments of continents.

To varying degrees, they are windy. According to the U. S. National Ocean Service, during the Age of Sail (the 15th to 19th centuries) the winds in the seas surrounding Antarctica propelled tall ships across the ocean at breakneck speed. Amazed sailors named the winds after the latitude lines near the southern tip of the world, and told tales of wild rides courtesy of the roaring forties, furious fifties, and screaming sixties.

To the insect databases collected over three decades by other researchers, Leihy and collaborator Steven L. Chown added data about flight for each species. They also applied to each species every credible hypothesis since Darwins time about the evolution of flightlessness. These theories included:

Dunes formed by wind in the Sahara Desert, Ouargla. Algeria.

Wind, freezing temperatures, or low air pressure might independently increase the energy required to fly, depriving insects of the energetic resources necessary to create or sustain fecundity. Only insects that opt not to fly in difficult environments might retain the ability to reproduce well.

Habitat fragmentation might deprive insects of the motivation to fly.

The disappearance of either predators or competitors from certain environments might make flying unnecessary.

Wind might blow flying insects off the island (Darwins idea).

And a few more.

Ultimately, Leihy and Chown found that nearly half (47%) of insect species that evolved on the Southern Ocean Islands are unable to fly, though some do retain small, remnant wings. According to Leihy, 47% is an exceptionally large number, representing nearly ten times the worldwide incidence of flightlessness among insect species.

Comparing multiple variables about environment with their identification of species that are flightless, the researchers found that wind speed, habitat stability, and summer land surface temperatures correlate with 77% of the Southern Ocean Islands species that have lost the ability fly. (The complete variable list also included seasonality, island area, island age, insectivore richness, and island isolation.)

A traditional tall ship with reefed sails sailing through rough seas in the southern pacific ocean.

Ultimately, Leihy and Chown recognized wind speed as the single strongest environmental contributor to the evolution of flightlessness in insects. Indeed, they noted in their paper that the windier the island, the more flightless insect species they identified.

While Darwin appears to have been right in identifying wind as the primary driver of the evolution of flightlessness among insects, Leihy and Chowns study found that he was probably not correct in pinpointing precisely what it was about the wind that steered the evolutionary path. Darwin had suggested to Hooker that the wind tossed insects off of islands, but Leihy and Chown found that the proportion of flightless insects on an island doesnt generally scale with island size. This would mean that insect populations are not decimated and their gene pools fundamentally changed because the bugs that fly get blown out to sea.

The researchers did suggest an alternate way in which wind might drive the evolution of flightlessness. In environments that are very windy (like Madeira, the Sahara Desert, and the islands near the southern tip of the world), the energetic cost of flying may be far too high. Darwin had specified that all organisms are driven by a biological imperative to ensure the survival of their particular genome into subsequent generations. If he was right, insects are better off investing energetically in the machinery of reproduction than they are trying to fly in impossible environments.

Indeed, according to Leihy, Other researchers have looked at insect fecundity. Theyve found that species that are flightless have a higher reproductive output.

Case closed, probably. Score one point (not two) for Darwin.

Go here to see the original:

Wind Creates Evolutionary Changes In Flying Insects, Depriving Them Of Their Wings - Forbes

Spoiler warning: The article contains plot spoilers for Promising Young Woman.

Emerald Fennells directorial feature debut quickly shifted from one of last years most anticipated to one of the most polarizing upon release. The division stems mostly from the shocking third act and the vastly different reads on the film.Promising Young Womancan be viewed as a psychological thriller, a scathing satire, or even a dark drama with thriller elements depending on experiences or perspective. That Fennell weaponizes rom-com tropes in her social analysis further blurs the genre lines.Promising Young Womanis a rape-revenge film that doesnt even depict or use the word rape, and even its implementation of revenge could be questioned. Its another entry in a growing trend of rape-revenge films that venture outside of horror to deliver a provocative critique of modern rape culture.

Promising Young Womanopens to three colleagues blowing off steam at a bustling bar after work hours. They notice a woman sitting alone, too intoxicated to sit upright. One of the men (Adam Brody) decides to approach while his pals whoop and cheer. He asks the woman, Cassie (Carey Mulligan), if she has a means of getting home safely, then gently pushes her into allowing him to help. Once in the rideshare, however, he reroutes the driver to his place and proceeds to ply Cassie with alcohol. He coaxes her into his bed, all while she slurs protests. Cassie drops her drunk faade and catches him off guard. This opening sequence highlights Cassies unusual hobby of systematically dismantling the system one Nice Guy at a time.

Throughout the film, Cassies lingering trauma reveals itself. Once a promising young woman in med school, Cassie dropped out to take care of her life-long best friend, Nina, after a college party resulted in an assault from which she never recovered. Shunned from peers and authority figures that chose to preserve the promising young mans future, Nina eventually ended her life. Cassies lingering survivors guilt and trauma meant shes unable to move past it. Cassie lives at home with her parents, spends her days working a coffee shop, and moonlights as a sort of vigilante. Her method is entirely devoid of violence; she seems content to simply hold a mirror up to her would-be rapists.

Promising Young Woman

Cassies vengeance initially lacks a specific aim. She cant even bring herself to look up Ninas assailant. At least, not until former classmate Ryan Cooper (Bo Burnham) walks into her coffee shop one afternoon. Its a twisted meet-cute that sparks a romance between the two, offering Cassie a glimmer of hope for a normal life. But Ryan still has ties to the med school social circle, and mentioning Ninas attacker spurns an end game plot for revenge thats catalyzed when a shocking video of that fateful night in college surfaces.

Cassie arrives at the fifth, and final stage of her plan with all hope shattered, the make-or-break divisive moment in the film. For the first time, Cassie threatens to resort to violence, and it ends tragically for her. For many, Cassies demise seems to remove all hope for survivors, but it does present an interesting point in the murky and confusing waters of rape culture. Murder is cut and dry, but theres a general cultural confusion about consent, especially in instances like Ninas, with a system that protects the accused. Theres no catharsis for Cassie, and therefore none for the viewer.

Fennell purposefully induces tonal whiplash in her debut, a metaphor for the emotional and psychological cycle of a trauma survivor. Promising Young Womanshifts from comedy to drama to romance to jarring thrills, covering all spectrums of genre unified by a candy-coated pop music aesthetic. Its not fear that gives Cassie purpose but wrath and heartache. Fear isnt the response the film is trying to induce, either.

Rape-revenge films rose to prominence in the 70s thanks to easing censorship restrictions and a more mainstream cultural discussion of sexual politics. LikeI Spit on Your GraveorLast House on the Left, the exploitation films that emerged during the era were attributed to horror and followed a distinct formula. These movies featured a graphic rape, followed by an equally graphic enactment of revenge by either the victim or an agent acting on their behalf. The explicit, violent, and exploitive nature of rape-revenge films became so synonymous with horror that the attribution has been tough to shake since. Movies dont always fit tidily into textbook definitions of genre, especially not with the emerging trend in rape-revenge films. The topic of sexual assault is broad and complex, and adheres less and less to the simplified two-half structure of rape-revenge horror.

As notable film critic and scholar Alexandra Heller-Nicholas notes in the introduction of her bookRape-Revenge Films: A Critical Study, Rape-revenge films, then, are fluid and elastic. Despite its common association with the horror film in the United States during the 1970s in particular, it spans genre, times, and national borders. She chronicles cinemas surprising and complicated history with sexual violence in the rape-revenge narrative, and never has the complexity of it been more evident than the present.

Natalia Leites M.F.A.

Much likePromising Young Woman, Natalia Leites M.F.A. follows a traumatized young woman on a quest for revenge while exposing the system that makes it difficult for real justice. Noelle (Francesca Eastwood) is a grad student who eagerly accepts an invite to a party by her college crush. He isolates her there and rapes her. Later, she kills him in a fit of rage, and it sets her down a vigilante path to destroy men like her attacker.M.F.A.is far more firmly rooted in the thriller genre but presents an ambitious peek into the college setting in which these situations can thrive.

Similarly, Coralie FargeatsRevengespends little time on the inciting act. It focuses on an intense, French extremism style action-survival thriller with its leading lady outwitting and outlasting the men who want to snuff out living proof of their heinous crime. Fargeat sought to upend the male gaze and challenge preconceived notions about people similar to her heroine.

Paul VerhoevensEllepresents a morally conflicted cat-and-mouse game between Isabelle Hupperts Michle and her rapist. LikeEllescontemporaries, Michle eschews going to the police due to a bad experience and instead takes matters into her own hands most provocatively and peculiarly. While categorized as a thriller, Verhoeven employs dark humor to detail Michles journey in freeing herself through sex and violence.

Isabelle Huppert in Elle

Recently, ShuddersHuntedrepurposes the Red Riding Hood fairy tale for its rape-revenge adjacent survival thriller, and the upcomingViolation presents a nonlinear take on the rape-revenge formula to convey a raw and aching psychodrama instead. Both are much more rooted in horror yet evoke wrath or tragedy.

The act of sexual violence naturally inspires fear and revulsion, which plays a big part in the rape-revenge films classification. But its because of their increasingly complicated and contradictive approaches that make the rape-revenge films singular attribution to horror not so simple. Its less about the act itself and more about the filmmakers point. Promising Young Woman uses the characteristics of a romantic comedy or sex comedy to shame any viewer that would find humor in the situations Cassie intentionally pursues. Through her avenging angel, Fennell directs rage at those who allow sexual assault to happen just as much as the predators. If not more so. She makes the medicine easier to swallow with a bubblegum pink coating and bursts of levity.

Promising Young Woman is another entry in a growing trend of modern rape-revenge films that have departed horror in favor of weaponizing other genre tropes to support their core themes. While Fennells debut continues to inspire debate over its messaging, it succeeds in demonstrating that a rape-revenge film doesnt have to belong to horror to elicit a lingering, visceral response.

Matilda Lutz in Revenge

Excerpt from:

'Promising Young Woman' and the Evolution of Rape-Revenge Films - Bloody Disgusting

From his tour debut in 1998 to playing at the 2020 Australian Open, Roger Federers single-handed backhand has evolved. It is a shot that has varied with his mental state and physical capabilities. It also impacted how he played the game as a whole.

Here, I explore Federer's various backhands at different stages of his career and how this altered match tactics. In turn, this may give us clues as to how Federer can best approach his game for 2021 as we look forward to the new season.

From 1998 to 2004, Federer hit an aggressive backhand with little topspin. Young and free from inhibition, he had the conviction to take the ball early, driving with a high finish above the head. He pushed against his non-dominant shoulder, spreading both arms behind him, minimally turning his chest towards the court.

The result was a flat and hard shot that was used to finish points quickly. Soon after the rally started, Federer would suddenly hit down the line for a winner or draw an error, as shown in his 2002 Hamburg title run. The conviction on the backhand side offered remarkable shot tolerance and enabled him to make half-volleys from the baseline to stay in the point.

Looking at the 2004 US Open, it is clear that Federer was transitioning to a backhand with greater topspin, rotating his chest towards the court as he hit. Keen to use the backhand more as a rally ball, Federer would wait until he could dictate with the more powerful forehand.

Often he would establish a backhand exchange, only to then move around for a penetrating inside-out forehand. The backhand was still used to actively hit winners but more so when Federer had plenty of space to play with where speed wasnt necessary. Federer would serve out-wide on the deuce side then calmly place a backhand into the open court, as used in the 2007 Australian Open semi-finals against Andy Roddick.

After the 2008 Wimbledon Final loss, Federers topspin backhand relied increasingly on his mental state. Overall, he hit the shot with less conviction, depending heavily on his shoulders' rotation and the hitting arm for power compared with his legs.

In drawn-out rallies, Federer would abandon the groundstroke and default to the backhand slice. While this had always been used for tactical variation, the backhand side now played a slightly less offensive role than before.

The groundstroke still produced winners, and there were patches like the 2014 Shanghai Masters where Federer was mentally prepared to be consistently aggressive with it. But in the main, the backhand had become a smaller force in point-construction.

After a six-month break from surgery, Federer rejoined the tour physically refreshed and mentally free without the weight of expectation. Federer worked with his coach Ivan Lubii on a flatter, hard, and early backhand in the interim. He returned to his initial technique, spreading both arms behind him, rising on his right leg loaded with power.

The neo-backhand is widely credited as having won Federer the 2017 Australian Open as he was able to keep points short, hitting winners off the return of serve and creating sharp angles early in rallies. Most importantly, Federer could neutralise Nadals forehand in the final with such a powerful and flat shot. The backhand helped gain him further titles, including that years Wimbledon and the 2018 Australian Open.

Federer has not used the backhand to attack as much in recent years, opting for a gentler topspin shot instead. In the 2019 Wimbledon final against Novak Djokovic, Federer did use the backhand confidently for winners. But in the last set, perhaps feeling tense, he increasingly went to the more defensive slice.

The neo-backhand did, however, make a brief appearance earlier at the 2019 Miami Open. Certainly, this is the most potent version of Federers backhands, and returning to such a shot would significantly boost his chances for 2021. The prolonged break after surgery last year may well afford him that opportunity.

Read more from the original source:

The Evolution of Roger Federer's Backhand - Perfect Tennis